Worship & Word Celebration - Part 2

Well, good morning. Let me just, before we turn to the scriptures, say how very much as an ordinary Christian I appreciate the evangelical lines. Roger spoke as a vice president and therefore, as he said, with a vested interest, I live up on the Lancashire-Cumbrian border, away from the hub of power and influence in this country. And I want to say how very much I appreciate the fact that the evangelical alliance exists and functions. I feel all too often that the voice that purportedly speaks on behalf of Christian people in this country isn't always as clear as it ought to be. And we're grateful for the evangelical alliance, for its influence, and I want to add my recommendation that you become part of that 1%. How many filled in the form already? I saw the ushers picking up a few. And if 50,000 are the total number of those who support that work, then the rest of us need to seriously ask whether we should participate as well. And it's great, the information that you receive from the EA, the sense of solidarity, the sense of participation when you pick up a copy of the Independent or the Times and read an article by Clive Calver or see him interviewed on issues that are relevant to the Christian church, on Newsnight or one of these programs, and this is only possible as we join together in this. So, I'm grateful for EA, and I think probably those of us who know little about it actually benefit without realizing it from the tremendous work that's being done. We'll now turn again to Isaiah chapter 49 this morning, and let me remind you that the whole theme of spring harvest this year is encountering God. And our desire and purpose is that this week becomes a meeting with God. This morning most of us have participated in the seminar looking at the attributes of God as they relate to us as human beings in His love and His kindness, His justice, His mercy, one whom we may know with the intimacy of fatherhood. And the purpose of our Bible studies is not that it's something apart from that, but that it's an extension of that. And we're looking at this latter part of Isaiah to learn things primarily about God and how He relates to us and we relate to Him. Now, let me just remind you for its context that in this latter part of Isaiah chapter 40 to 66, 150 years have passed since the first 39 chapters, since Isaiah's own life and ministry in Judah. And during that time the Babylonian nation has risen to dominance throughout the Middle East. And in its imperial campaign of conquest, it has overrun Judah, reduced Jerusalem to rubble, and taken the inhabitants away into exile. Therefore, Isaiah here is writing to a hurting people. Their destiny, their sense of identity, their sense of purpose has all been undermined, in many cases destroyed. And for 70 years they have licked their wounds as captives in a foreign land. Towards the end of that period, the Persian empire has grown and become itself the dominant world power of the region. And Isaiah in these chapters is looking ahead to that period. Cyrus is about to overrun the Babylonian empire. And his word is a word that's positive, it's kind. We saw yesterday in chapter 40, it begins with the word comfort. Comfort my people, says the Lord. Speak tenderly, not harshly, tenderly to Jerusalem. Proclaim that her sin has been paid for, her service is completed. And God is going to bring treasures out of the darkness, as we saw yesterday. He's going to make a straight path in the wilderness. It's going to be a highway for God. Once again, this nation alienated from God is going to be reconciled and restored. That's what we've looked at to some extent. Now in chapter 49, which we're looking at this morning, this passage begins as one of the four servant songs of Isaiah. Between chapter 42 and chapter 53, there are four sections that have been identified as servant songs addressing the servant of the Lord. Here in verse 3, he said to me, you are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor. Now I realize, of course, some of us know far more about these aspects of scripture than maybe others of us here. And I just want to take a moment to comment on these servant songs in chapter 42. I would call that, verses 1 to 9, the servant and the spirit of God, because he says they're the servant. I'll put my spirit on him. He'll bring justice to the nations, clearly fulfilled messianically in the Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter 49, I would call this, from verse 1 to 4, the servant and the splendor of God, because as we read just now in verse 3, Israel, you're my servant, Israel, in whom I'll display my splendor. I'm going to demonstrate myself in you my splendor. In chapter 50, verses 4 to 9, you've got the servant and the service of God. There he says, the Lord has given me an instructed tongue to know the word that sustains the weary. He awakens me morning by morning to listen as one being taught. This is the servant and the service of God. And then in the climax of these servant songs, really beginning in chapter 52, 13 through chapter 53, the servant and the suffering of God, we considered him stricken by God, smitten by God, and afflicted. We're going to talk about that tomorrow, the servant and the suffering of God. But the servant song here in chapter 49 doesn't occupy the whole of the chapter, but it's the servant and the splendor of God. Now the big question, of course, that we need to just comment on is, who is the servant? When you read verse 3 of chapter 49, he says, you're my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor. And you read it in its immediate context, and you say, well, it's self-explanatory, speaking of the nation of Israel. If you turn to Luke 2 sometime, Simeon, that old man, you remember, waited to see the salvation of the Lord, took the baby Jesus in his arms and said, I've seen it. This is the salvation of God. And he quotes from several of the servant songs, if you read that passage, including this one, and says, this is about Christ. Now this introduces us to a common Old Testament phenomena. And that is that there are parts of the Old Testament scriptures that have an immediate sense, an immediate context, an immediate meaning, but when you get to the New Testament, you discover it's a foreshadowing and a picture of Christ. This is true of much of the Old Testament. Now I want to take just a few minutes to comment on this, and to say that we'll never adequately understand the Old Testament until we read it from the New Testament. And if you like, put on some Jesus glasses, and through the Jesus glasses, see His picture on every page. That's one of the wonderful things about studying the Old Testament scriptures, not just a bit of history, a few anecdotes to illustrate New Testament truth, it's a revelation of Christ. The Bible's like a stick of butlin's rock, I saw some. It's not good for your teeth, of course, and we're short of dentists, we discovered. But you buy a stick of butlin's rock, you can break at any point, it'll say butlins. You break the script at any point, it'll say Jesus. If you've learned to crack the codes, and to see His presence right through. I mean, for an example, in Matthew chapter 2, Jesus as a baby was taken into Egypt to escape Herod, you remember? And Matthew says, so was fulfilled what was spoken to the prophet out of Egypt, I called my son. Now you say, what prophet said that? And you find it's Hosea, chapter 11, verse 1, you read it, and he's speaking of Israel, and he says, they went into Egypt, and out of Egypt, I called my son. You say, well, that's nothing to do with Christ. But you get to Matthew 2, and Matthew says, no, with hindsight, this is a foreshadowing of Christ. That's why if you take as a basic hermeneutic that scripture never means more than the author intended, you've got problems with the Old Testament. The authors often had no idea what God meant in some of these areas. And I could give you many other examples. Abraham promised a son, I'll make his name great. All nations of the world will be blessed through him. Well, the son Isaac came. He's not an outstanding character in Old Testament. He didn't do very much except produce some twins, which weren't anything to write home about, either of them. Within a couple of generations, three generations, this supposed nation is in Egypt that's going to bless the world, and for 400 years, they're in a foreign land, they become slaves, they're pushed around, they come out after 400 years, they settle in their land, but they have heaps of trouble, read Judges, and eventually they're taken off into exile. Where's the blessing of the world? You get to the New Testament, the very first word of Matthew is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham. You say, oh, this is the son of Abraham. Is this who God was talking about in Genesis? If you're not sure, read Galatians chapter 3 and verse 16, and I'll just read it to you. Galatians 3 and verse 16 says there, the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, and to seeds, meaning many people, but and to your seed, meaning one person who is Christ. Now, he says the seed of Abraham is Christ, and the blessings and promises made to Abraham found their fulfillment in Christ, and that's why when you read the Old Testament, so much that applies to Israel, which in itself as a nation foreshadows Christ, can be seen to be some revelation of him, and the key to understanding the Old Testament is knowing it's about Christ. Luke 24, on the road to Emmaus, the Lord Jesus drew alongside those two disciples, Cleopas and another one who's unnamed, and he probably had a smile on his face because he said, why aren't you miserable like the rest of us? He said, what's the matter with you? Why are you so sad? Haven't you heard the news? What news? That he, they said, who we had hoped past tense to be the Messiah, was crucified, and it's three days ago now. Now, hopes are shattered, and it says that Jesus, they didn't know it was Jesus, it says from Moses, and all the prophets showed them all the things concerning himself. Suddenly, the eyes of these men were opened. I wish they'd invented tapes at that point. Wouldn't you like to get the cassette tape, Jesus on Jesus in the Old Testament? I'd love to have been there in that conversation. Do you ever read Agatha Christie? I mean, they're fun to read sometimes. In the last chapter, everybody who's lucky enough to still be alive is drawn into the room. Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot announce whodunit, and it's always the person you least expected, and if you did manage to get it right, you never got it right for the right reasons. And as Miss Marple or Poirot begin to explain why this person is responsible, all the little incidental details that meant little at the time suddenly blaze with meaning, and you say, oh, of course, of course, that's why he spilt the salt. Now, of course, if you read the story again, which you probably wouldn't do, all these little incidental details that previously meant little suddenly flood with intelligent meaning, and the book heads for a predictable climax. I don't want to liken the Bible to an Agatha Christie novel, but there is a similarity. All the little incidental details mean nothing at the time. Suddenly, with hindsight, when you get to the last chapter, they blaze with meaning. So, that's good to read the Bible backwards sometimes. Now, I say all this because it's important to our understanding of the servant and important to understanding much of the Old Testament, but this is not just of academic, this is not just of academic interest. This is not like playing a game of Where's Wally? Have you played Where's Wally? If you've got kids, they've probably had a Where's Wally book given them at Christmas time, a page with 10,000 people on it, and Wally's one of them. You've got to find him, and it's a chore, especially when my four-year-old wants me to help him, and he looks at 999,999, and then eventually gets Wally. I mean, just for the fun of it, where's Jesus? Just for the fun of it. No, this is, of course, far more significant than that because the Jesus we discover in the Old Testament is the Jesus who lives in 1995, the Jesus who lives in you, the Jesus who lives in me, the Jesus who is our Savior, the Jesus who is our Lord, the Jesus who is our life, our power, our strength. So, we read through the Old Testament and look for Christ. We're looking for the one who lives within us to discover more of what his purposes are, what his ambitions are, what his likelihood of strategy is as he operates. Now, the servant here has his application to Israel, but supremely it's Christ, and I want to look with you at this chapter in its immediate context because that's, of course, how we must initially study any part of Scripture. I want to extend it to and see Christ. The words of that lovely hymn, beyond the sacred page, we seek the Lord. We want to look for Christ here as well. This chapter, as it extends beyond simply the servant's song, which ends about verse six, essentially contrasts the failure of Israel with the victory of Christ. It's going to come in Christ, and there are many, many details of this failure. I want to look at these five areas of failure, but I want to say first, if you're here this morning with a sense of failure, you're in good company. Discovering our failure is a prerequisite to discovering the sufficiency of Christ and enjoying the fullness of his Spirit. I believe this, that there's never any lasting appreciation of God without a corresponding appreciation of failure. Sometimes we're embarrassed about talking about failure and repentance and the need to turn from what we are as well as from what we do, but there's no lasting appreciation of God. You can have a five-day appreciation of God in spring harvest and go back home within a week, you're back where you were before, unless along with that appreciation of God is the appreciation of your failure, because the tendency is what we learn of God, we tend to go back and try to implement by our own resources, by our own strengths. Failure in the Christian life is always your friend, because to fail is to grow, to fail is to mature. We could discover in Scripture so many of the leading characters of Scripture, who out of failure discover the sufficiency of God. In fact, almost all of them, when we have any details of leading characters in Scripture, there's a time when they're on their face in despair. Then out of their despair, they discover the fullness of God. Well, five areas, and I want to give a title to each of these, and we're just, to be realistic, not going to have time to do justice to this at all. We'll give the broad sweep, the one or two highlights I want to draw out. One of the great things about the book of Isaiah, and for many people it's probably the primary function of Isaiah to them, is it's sort of nuggets that you find all the way through it, little sort of verses you take out and enjoy, often out of their context. But there are lots of nuggets in this chapter, and I don't just want this to be a lecture on Isaiah, I want it to feed our hearts. So, we're going to pull out some of what I consider some of the highlights and the most relevant things for you and me here this morning. The first area of failure in the first five verses, he speaks of moral failure. Some overlap of ideas here with what we said yesterday, so just very briefly. He says, you see, in verse one, listen to me, you islands. Hear this, you distant nations. Before I was born, the Lord called me. From my birth, he made mention of my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword. In the shadow of his hand, he hid me. He made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. He said, you're my servant Israel, in whom I'll display my splendor. So far, it's wonderful. He says, God has created me for a reason. He has made me a missile in his hand. That's what he says there, a polished arrow in his quiver. He's going to display his splendor. The authorize says, in whom I'll be glorified, which is the touchstone of God's work. He'll reveal his glory, his character, as we saw yesterday. This is good, but verse four says, but, and that's the biggest little word in the Bible, says this, but I said I've labored to no purpose. I've spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me in the Lord's hand and my reward is with my God. He says, I've been called by God. I have a purpose that God's given me. He's made me a missile in his hand, but I look over my shoulder and I've labored to no purpose. My strength has been in vain. Is that a picture of somebody here this morning? Maybe you're part of the leadership stream this week. God called you into ministry. You made yourself available to him as a missile in his hand, but you look over your shoulder and say, there's not much to show for it. My strength seems to be spent in vain. What is God's answer? Verse five, no, the Lord says, he who formed me in the womb to be a servant, to bring Jacob back to him and to gather Israel to himself, for I'm honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength. Verse four, he says, I have spent my strength in vain. My strength accomplishes nothing, but now he says in verse five, my God has been my strength, and this is the key to the dilemma of this passage. I've understood God's purpose. I've understood his call on my life. I've been filled with a sense of vision as to what he's going to do with me, and I've tried to implement it. I've run out of steam. I'm against a wall because you see the key to everything to which God calls us is that God himself is to be our strength. Did you ever ask God to give you strength? I used to do that, but it's from a mentality that saw God as someone up there and I was down here. I felt as though God had given me a catalog called the Bible, which told me about all the good things I can get from God if I put in an order, which is called praying, and God had a supermarket with shelves full of spiritual goodies, and as I prayed and put in my order, the Holy Spirit was the errand boy sent with the order. So, I'd say, Lord, give me love, and I imagine the Holy Spirit being sent with a, you know, tube of love, a bit like toothpaste squeezed on my inside, and go, oh, lovely, for a while. I need some joy. Lord, give me some joy. Imagine the Holy Spirit sent with a bottle of joy, a bit like a bubble bath mixture, give it a good shake, pour it on my inside, joyful for a while. I need some power. Lord, give me some power, and I imagine the Holy Spirit being sent with a stick of power like the blue fuse, stand back, and boom, for a while there was power. Then it would all wear out, and every day back again pleading for some more. That was the kind of mentality, and I made a discovery which transformed my life, having been a Christian for some years, and the discovery I made was that God doesn't give me things. God gives me himself. Love is a fruit of the Spirit. Joy is a consequence of the Spirit. Power, you receive power when the Holy Spirit comes. God is my strength. You see, asking God to give us strength is to see strength as some commodity apart from himself. He'll never give you strength. He'll be your strength. If I go to London Airport to fly the Atlantic, as in fact I'll do on Saturday, I won't go to the airline and say, could you give me the ability to fly? I need to go to America. Give me the ability to fly. Now, I go to London Airport for one reason. I know I cannot fly, and I say in effect, will you please be my ability? And I can fly the Atlantic, but never for any moment on that journey will I be able to fly. I've entrusted myself to something that can. You see, it's not God teaching you to fly, teaching you to be strong, teaching you to be effective. Learn the techniques of ministry. Of course, you must learn methods and how God will work through us, but ultimately the strength is God himself, and Israel through its history has failed that, failed to understand that. It's those who wait on the Lord we saw in chapter 40 who renew their strength. The character of God is not produced in you by imitating him, but by letting him be himself in us, and unconsciously to you. It's the folks who meet you who'll see something of Christ. Don't look inside yourself, by the way, to see the character of Christ. Don't try to look into a spiritual mirror and say, am I being Christ like? You'll see an old nature, alive and well, hankering most of the time for a good sin, if you've got an old nature like mine. So, don't be embarrassed. That's you, isn't it? It's me. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. The marvelous thing is, it's the neighbors who notice something. He's our strength. Reliance upon him. That's why failure is your friend. If your strength is in your personality, your strength is in your education, your strength is in your position, your status, it's a strength which will run out very quickly. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, not many of you are wise by human standards. Not many of you are influential. Not many were of noble birth. God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are for this reason that nothing may boast before him. It's because of him you're in Christ Jesus. He has become for us wisdom from God. That is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. Why? Because he's our strength. Jeremiah says, don't let the wise man boast of his wisdom, or the rich man of his riches, or the strong man of his strength. Boast about this. You know God. He's your strength. He's your wisdom. And Israel would be battered around as they were, pushed around by the world, whether it's Egypt on the one hand, or Babylon on the other, or the Philistines giving them trouble, until they discover what Gideon discovered when Gideon, with his back against the wall, said to God, I can't. And God said, go in the strength you have. Beg your pardon, the strength I have? What do you mean? I am with you. That's the strength you have. So, Moses discovered the burning bush. God called him to go back to Egypt. Who am I? God didn't answer his question. I am with you. Who are you? I am who I am. In the present tense, everything you'll ever need. I am your strength. And it was God who performed the miracles that brought the Israelites out of Egypt and opened the Red Sea. Moses was the instrument, but God was the strength. Well, that's the first area. Failure, failure. It's a moral failure. Failure to be what you know God has called you to be. You're in a position of failure this morning? You're in good company. I repeat it. You're on the threshold of the greatest discovery you may make. God is your strength. Rest in Him. Then in verse six to seven, I've called this failure in ministry because in verse six he says, it is, is it too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept? I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. I'll read verse seven as well. This is what the Lord says, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel to him who is despised and abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers, kings will see you and rise up. Princes will see you and bow down because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you. Now what does it mean to be God's servant? Well he says there in the middle of verse six, I'll make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. You're my servant not for your own benefit or self-indulgence. You're my servant says God that through you others are going to be blessed and the Gentiles outside of the covenant God made with Abraham, but the Gentiles are going to see a light and discover salvation. And he speaks of the Holy One in verse seven of Israel who has chosen you. The whole issue of being chosen is a very big one and my personal view is a very misunderstood one. Not associated in scripture so much with privilege as it is with responsibility, not so much with salvation as with service. For the very people chosen here by God which Paul speaks of in Romans 9, he then says having spoken of the benefits of their being chosen, says my prayer for Israel is that they'll be saved, not do with salvation. I'd like to recommend a book stored by Roger Forster and Paul Marston, God's Strategy in Human History. If this is an area of confusion to you, it's allowed to your confusion, but resolve it as it did for me. One of the five most influential books for me personally in my understanding of God and his strategy and his purposes and what the scripture is about. Now he says to these folks I've chosen you, now don't think that makes you elite or that sets you apart. Simply to be a reciprocal into which God pours his blessing but couldn't care less about the world outside. Sometimes there's a great danger in the Christian life that we become self-indulgent with God. We even go into service in order to find personal fulfillment in service. Not because our compassion is for those whom we serve, but we want to be fulfilled. We want the fun of Christian service, if that's the way we see it, or the fulfillment of it. I recently, earlier this year, spent some time ministering to some missionaries working in East Africa. I came together for a conference and my wife and I have been invited to go and minister to them. And we shared with some of these folks what are the needs, the biggest problems you face. And one of the leaders said to me this, he says you know the average career missionary is on the field for eight years, eight years. That's not the short term, they're the one who goes for life or goes as a career. Now this is not to criticize of course people who come back because many come back for very good reasons. And I said what are the reasons? They gave me some good reasons. Then they said and here's the bad reason. It ceases to be exciting after a while. People get fed up. They lose the novelty. They'd be better off elsewhere. I know that temptation in my own life, in my own ministry. What are the easy things? What are the exciting things to do? Instead of saying where can I serve? We heard last night from John 7, 37 to 39, those of you who are here in this room and Floyd McClung spoke. If you're thirsty, said Jesus, don't stay thirsty, come to me and drink. That isn't the end of the story. Out of your heart he said will flow rivers of living water and John adds an editorial comment by this, he meant the spirit. The spirit doesn't just come but he flows. And the work of the Holy Spirit in you, in me is not just to satisfy me though we thank God that we're complete in Christ and the tremendous sense of satisfaction that we have as we rest in him but that out of our hearts that flows a river. And I would say this that if you want your Christian life to be fresh and living there's got to be the outflow otherwise it becomes stale and stagnant. The Holy Spirit doesn't come to stay, he comes to flow. I grew up in Herefordshire and there was an old man at the church and I grew up in a little brethren assembly in the days when they used to be around, a bit more than they seem to be now. And there was an old man, I knew him for about 20 years, he was always in his 80s for the whole of those 20 years. He'd never been to school, I don't know why he'd never been to school but he never had and he dropped all his H's, he would get up on Sunday morning as people did in that meeting and he would sometimes read things like Ole, Ole, Ole, either that's years to year let him year and as a young person I wondered why when he stood everyone went silent and I listened. I learned afterwards of course, I realized that was because he was a man of God, he was a godly man, he used to talk about the cross sometimes and weep, everybody was embarrassed but he was real. I remember one day he prayed and he said, Lord thank you've not called us to be cups, you've called us to be pipes. Now somebody may have said something about that earlier and he picked it up, I'd missed it earlier but when he said it in his prayer I thought what a picture. We like the idea of being cups you see, we want to be full, that's the end of the story. A pipe is something everything you pour in one side flows out to the other. Now you're my servant says God to Israel in order not to be a cup, simply a receiver of the blessing of God but a pipe, a transmitter of it that the Gentiles will see the light and receive salvation. Did you come to Spring Harvest this week saying, Lord please bless me at Spring Harvest, Lord teach me at Spring Harvest, Lord encourage me at Spring Harvest, Lord build me up at Spring Harvest. Did you come saying that, that may be fine but I want to suggest you pray something else. Lord make me a blessing at Spring Harvest, help me to encourage someone at Spring Harvest, help me to teach somebody something at Spring Harvest. Now I'll tell you this, if you're a blessing you'll be blessed, if you teach you'll be taught, if you enrich you'll be enriched. No one has ever poverty stricken in any area because they've given away too much, because the more we give the more God in his wonderful grace pours into our lives. Israel missed the point, you see looking after me has little if nothing to do with the Christian life, looking after me first should I say, has little to do with the Christian life. Of course we have needs and God meets those needs and we're concerned about that, but out of that I become a channel, a blessing and you find this of the true servant, the Lord Jesus Mark 10 45, even the Son of Man he said did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom. Well that's the second area of failure, failure in ministry, become self-indulgent instead of seeing their role as to be a light to the Gentiles and a blessing to them. But then thirdly from verse 8 down to verse 13 he speaks of failure, I've called this failure in movement. The reason I've given that word movement to this section is because he describes everything being against them, they're hemmed in. Let me just read part of it, verse 8, this is what the Lord says in the time of my favor I'll answer you and in the day of salvation I will help you, I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people to restore the land, to reassign its desolate inheritance, to say to the captives come out, to those in darkness be free, they will feed beside the roads and find pasture in every barren hill, they will neither hunger nor thirst nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them, he who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of waters, I'll turn all my mountains into roads and my highways will be raised up. Now read that quickly, he's looking ahead but he's saying this is your present situation, you're in the wrong land, the inheritance is desolate, you're a captive, the hills are barren, you're hungry, you're thirsty, there are mountains that hem you in but then he talks about restoring the land, reassigning its desolate inheritance, giving them food, putting pasture on the barren hills and I want to take just one expression here which I'd never noticed until I was studying this passage in preparation for this morning and I love the way the NIV puts it here in verse 11, verse 11 says, I will turn all my mountains into roads. When I first read that a while ago, it first struck me a while ago, I thought what a, what a wonderful statement. Here the nation in exile, surrounded by mountains, the mountains are obstacles, they're hemmed in, they can't progress, I mean maybe you have mountains like that, do you have mountains like that? Maybe they're things that surround you as you're here this week and you say if only I can get rid of that one thing then I would be free, then I could serve God, all would be fine. It's usually one thing that we'll highlight, one obstacle, get rid of that, one circumstance, if that could change, one sin that I have seemingly impossible to deal with, if only I could deal with that, one barrier, maybe you're a pastor or leader, you say there's just one person who spoils everything in my church, if they could just leave or die or something, you say if that could be removed I'd be so much holier, so much more effective, so much better a Christian, don't you ever feel that? What's God's answer? His answer is this, I'll turn the mountain into a road, well you say what does he mean? Let me give you some examples, do you remember Paul in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, he speaks about a messenger from Satan, he didn't say what it was because we need things to debate about, so he doesn't tell us what it is, but it's from Satan, it's a thorn in the flesh, it torments him and he says three times I pleaded with the Lord, take it away from me, this is satanic in its origin, this is bad for me, take it away, God answered, my grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness, and this is Paul's response, therefore I will boast about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me, the thing at the beginning of that section, 2nd Corinthians 12 verse 7, which he says I've said God take it away, take it out of my life, now he says I boast, why? Because the mountain is a road, in this mountain I've discovered a road, because in my weakness God makes himself strong, Job, we mentioned Job just in passing yesterday, the mountains and hemmed Job in, worst of all his own depression, and his sense that God had forsaken him, but at the end of the book the mountain was a road, I've seen God, I want to challenge you to look at the mountains that may be around your life, and see them as a highway for God, because the very things that we often feel, the things that would destroy us, we discover retrospectively the things that have made us, and matured us, one of Watchman in these books, he writes about a lady who came to ask him one day for patience, or to ask him to pray rather for patience, he said I'm so impatient, it's my greatest need, would you please pray that God would give me patience, and so Watchman he said yes, madam I'll pray with you and for you, and they knelt down together he says, and he said Lord, you know everything about this lady, I don't know her, but I know her need, and I pray that you'll bring into her life hardships, and tribulations, and anxieties, and uncertainties, and difficulties, and as he was praying the lady got from her knees grabbed him and said stop I've got enough of that already, he said you don't understand, tribulation works patience to quote the authorizer of Romans 5, you want patience, listen the mountain is the road, the mountain you feared is the road in which you discover God, in your own sense of helplessness, in the areas of your weakness he makes himself strong, and I love the way it says, I have unlanded in several ways now, I've put a mark under the word all, I will turn all my mountains into roads, no exception, you begin to thank God for the mountains in your life, will you thank him that in his incredible patience, in his wisdom, in his power, the very thing you fear under his sovereignty will become the vehicle, and the tool of his grace in your life, and through you there's no circumstance in life, no obstacle, no loneliness, no trial, no sorrow, which may not be the very road for the richest blessing of God, in Isaiah chapter 40 he had said in verse 4, every valley shall be raised up, every mountain shall be made low, the rough ground become level, the rugged places become a plain, and I think that's seen more in retrospect, you look back over your shoulder and you say, what was a mountain, has been leveled, the valley has been raised, the rugged paths have been smoothed, as I've said, Lord Jesus Christ, I'm not adequate for this, but I want to thank you that you are, you're my strength, I can't fly, I'll go onto the plane, you be my strength, and he does, well our time has gone, I feared that would happen, his failure in momentum, the Lord has forgotten me in the next section, verses 14 to 17, and I just want to say in verse 15 here about this, when they say you've forgotten us, he says in verse 15, can a mother forget the baby at her breast, and have no compassion on the child she is born, though she may forget, I will not forget you, see I've engraved you on the palms of my hand, your walls are ever before me, you see it's a little bit earlier where they said that in verse 14, that Zion said the Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me, there's little worse than feeling that, God has forsaken me, he's forgotten me, I've not heard his voice for a long while, I seem to be on my own, do you feel that way, and he says two things in verse 15 and 16, he says firstly, look at my heart, if you think God's forsaken, look at my heart, can a mother forget the baby at her breast, I don't know whether in your seminar you got as far as looking at this question of the fatherhood and motherhood of God, which comes into the seminar notes, but here's the picture of God as a mother, look at my heart, a mother can never leave, her love can never forsake the child, there's a lady right now in the United States, hoping to bring about a stay of execution for a criminal son tomorrow, British man as you know, about to be executed or put in the electric chair, if you read the story of his crimes, we say well he probably deserves it, but here's a mother, she'll say as she said this morning on the news, we will never give up, why? she's his mother, she's not his judge, God says you feel forgotten, look at my heart first of all, and the second thing he says in verse 16, and look at my hands, I've engraved you on the palms of my hands, John 20 20 says the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood amongst them and he showed them his hands, you afraid, fear forgotten, you feel lonely, look at my heart, says God, and look at my hands, you see your name is engraved in his hands, and we're going to look in Isaiah 53, tomorrow we'll see your name was engraved with nails and is written with blood, your name is on his hands, he knows exactly what he's doing, but you see some of us need to come back in repentance and say Lord Jesus forgive me, I've lived by my own strengths, by my own abilities, been dependent on my own gifts, God gives gifts, but never depend on the gift, depend on the God who gave it, and the exercise of it, Lord I come back to discover you as my strength, my sense of moral failure, my sense of failure in ministry, my sense of failure in momentum, there's another one, what was it, I've forgotten what it was, failure in ministry, there's a last one, failure in morale, because they're disappointed, their morale is broken at the end, but he finishes verse 24 6, I'll make your oppressors eat their own flesh, they will drink, be drunk on their own blood as with wine, then all mankind will know that I am the Lord, I the Lord am your Savior, your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob, finishes on that tremendous climax, your morale is broken, you feel discouraged, we haven't time for the context and details, but he says the day is going to come, the day is going to come you'll know, and all mankind will know, you're on the right side, you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, the day is going to come you see, and however discouraged you feel, however lonely you feel, however misunderstood you feel, the day will come when the Lord Jesus Christ is going to step out of heaven and send a loud enough voice for everybody to hear, ladies and gentlemen, time's up, would you please put everything down and all come this way, and every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess, and we'll be the first to bow, prostrate before him, because we know who he is, that day will come, you feel discouraged, you're on the winning side, but the God who one day we will see face to face and know that all things are under his feet, is the God in the meantime, in whose strength we live, whose power we enjoy, whose life is released within us and through us, and that's the source, my God has been my strength. Let's pray together, Father we thank you so much this morning, when we look into your words, so often we look into a mirror, but it's a very wonderful mirror, because not only reveals what we are, but it superimposes upon what we are, what we are in Christ, his image, his wisdom, his righteousness, his strength. Lord Jesus, deliver us from ever getting over our sense of failure, we want to live ever with a consciousness of our weakness, that like Paul, we rejoice in the mountains, because they become roads, it reminds us of our inability, of our utter dependency on God, the God who enable us to fly like eagles, run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint, make this real for us we pray, we ask it in Jesus name, Amen. Ministry like that, in a week like that, means that for some of us, we need time and space to get away by ourselves, to work some of these things through, many of you are in groups or with friends, but sometimes you value an opportunity just to nail something down with someone who doesn't know you, and or even if they do, and we have a whole prayer support team here, where if you want to spend time with one of those, praying something through, getting some advice and help, they're there to help you, you just call in at chalet bk1, on the main thoroughfare bk1, there'll be people there make an appointment that can help you.