Here Am I Send Me

Introduction

Good morning. Thank you for that excellent song leading and excellent singing. And it is music to our ears, and I trust that it is a sweet smelling aroma to our God. Turn your Bibles, if you will, to Isaiah chapter six. I want to focus on this chapter this morning, but particularly we want to put emphasis on verse eight. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me. And so is that our reaction? Do we say, Here am I, send me? We’re going to talk about that. Make a lot of applications, both of the Lord’s question in that verse, and of Isaiah’s response. But let us first look at the context.

1. The Vision: In the Presence of the Lord

This whole chapter is a vision. And we we really get a picture of the vision, particularly in verses 1 through 7. Verse 1 says, In the year of King Isaiah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with a train of his robe, filling the temple. The word train might be better translated glory. But the idea here is here’s the Lord. He he is on his throne, and this is just a glorious scene. So be Isaiah and just be there and see this vision and the glory that it would have. Verse 2 says, Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory, and the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. So you look up, be Isaiah, and you see these seraphim, these spirit beings that have these wings, and they’re flying above the Lord. And this is a vision. This is a symbolic thing. But then these beings start worshipping God and saying, Holy, holy, holy. And then there is smoke that is filling up in this temple, and the foundations are trembling. So not only is this a glorious and beautiful scene, but it is also a frightening one. And you realize that you are standing in the presence of the Almighty, the Lord of hosts, the King. What would that instantly cause you to feel?

Great humility, great unworthiness, and perhaps even fear. Verse 5. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. So he’s he’s kind of afraid because he’s sinful. And he’s standing in the presence of perfection, holiness. He’s in the presence of the Lord. And then verse 6. Then one of the seraphims flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongues. So see this spirit being, and he has these tongues that he has grabbed a coal with. And he’s taking this coal to do something with it. Verse 7, he touched my mouth with it.

And said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven. Remember, he said, I’m a man of unclean lips. And so this is symbolic of the idea that his sin is being purged, it is being cleansed, it is being forgiven. And that would be a painful thing. Imagine that coal touching your lips. But all this is for a purpose. Now Isaiah is prepared. His sin is removed, and he is prepared for something the Lord is about to say and plan for him to do. Before we are ready to go for God, we’ve got to be cleansed of our iniquity. And then we are going to look next at the question that the Lord asks in verse 8. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send?

2. Whom Shall I Send, and Who Will Go for Us?

And who will go for us? It’s a really beautiful question, isn’t it? And the us part reminds me of Genesis 1, you know, where God said, Let us make man in our image. Who will go for us? Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? The very fact that he says, Whom shall I send, send, it suggests that there wasn’t a whole lot of people to choose from. Who am I going to send? He was looking for an Isaiah. And Isaiah was there. And so this question, though it was asked generally, Isaiah took it personally. And when this question is asked, we need to also take it personally. Whom shall I send? Oh, you’re talking to me. You see? We need to see that God is talking to us.

God was looking for someone to send out to preach. Someone to send out and prophesy. And Isaiah was the man for the job. The Lord asked this same question today. Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? He’s looking for volunteers, is what he’s looking for. And so what will our reaction be? What will our response be to that very question? You know where we all have the responsibility to go. In one sense or another, we all have the responsibility to go. You recall the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, beginning in, I believe, verse 14. We had this man and he has a lot of money, and he has people working for him, and so he’s leaving the country to go away for a while.

So he leaves these talents, which is units of money. One talent was worth 20 years worth of labor. So he gives five to one man, two to one man, and one to another man. And you know what the five-talent man did? He went and he went and he worked with that and he traded and he doubled it so that he had ten. And the two talent man went and traded and doubled it, and there was four. And notice that even when his was doubled, he still didn’t have as much as the first man had to begin with. It doesn’t matter how much you have to begin with, it matters what you do with what you have. It doesn’t matter how much you begin with, it matters what you do with what you have.

Amen? Are we doing something with what we have? Then there’s the one talent man that didn’t do anything with what he had. He was a one talent man. Anything wrong with that? Well, he just didn’t have much. He had a talent. Twenty years worth of labor. And he had the least. Those of us who have the least opportunity and ability and talent still have a lot. Because God has given it to you. And he expects you to do a lot with what he has given you. He’d like to see you double it. But instead, what we might tend to do is we take that talent and we bury it. And we put in the ground our opportunities. We put in the ground our abilities. We put in the ground our talents.

It’s interesting the English word talent, you know, really is uh it reflects the idea of the talent given here, because they were given to each man according to his ability. So we just bury our talents sometimes, and we we don’t go out and we don’t we don’t work to grow. And that’s what we are to be doing. Go. Don’t just bury it. Use whatever ability is that you do have. You know, sometimes what we’ve done is we’ve turned the great commission into the great omission. Jesus said in Mark 16, 15 and 16, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, he who believes and is baptized to be saved. He said in Matthew 28, starting in verse 18, Jesus said, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Notice, go. And what we’ve done is we’ve taken that and we’ve deleted the go part. So that our Christian lives, as Terry Francis said when he was here to the teenagers, and I think you might have heard Greg repeat this, is we’ve often become just pupotatoes. You know, that at home there’s cow’s couch potatoes who just watch TV. And so some people’s religious life is just made up of what they do in this building when they come and they sit and they listen. Well, I come to church. I’m a faithful, I’m a faithful Christian. As if that’s the only thing that matters, and put the check in the box because I come and I sit.

3. We All Have the Responsibility to Go

And that defines me religiously. I’m a good sitter in the pew. Well, brethren, what we’ve got to do is we’ve got to go. We’ve got to go. And we’ve got to bring the gospel to others. You might say, well, Jesus said that to the apostles. Well, yes, he did. He said that to the apostles. But you remember Acts 8 and verse 4. You remember after Stephen was killed and that great persecution began. Look there in Acts 8 and verse 4. Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. Who went about preaching the word? The apostles? Those who are scattered. That means just Christians. And so you don’t have to be a preacher to quote preach. You don’t have to preach a sermon to quote preach.

You can preach in a lot of ways. It’s all of us who have the responsibility to confess Christ before men and to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts and always be ready to give it offense to anyone who asks us a reason for the hope that is in us with meekness of fear. That’s the responsibility of every Christian. So we all have the responsibility to go in one sense or in another.

Not everybody’s an eye, not everybody’s an ear, not everybody’s a foot, not everybody’s a hand. There’s different parts of the body. And at different times of your life, you might have different talents that you’re using. I recall a young man one time who was feeling quite guilty. He had an infant at home. He and his wife had just recently had a baby, and he was feeling guilty because he was not really getting out there and participating in the extra classes that was being offered at church, and he wasn’t doing much evangelism. He just felt kind of useless. And he was expressing this, he was telling me about that. He was expressing this to another preacher, saying, I just feel like I’m not using my talents. And the preacher wisely said to him, Right now, that baby is your talent.

And that’s a role that God has called us to.

And so there are different times in your life you might feel like I’m not doing anything, but wait, look at, see what you are doing. And if it’s something that God has called us to do in his word, then we’re doing what he wants us to do. We’re using our abilities and our talents and our opportunities. So you don’t have to be an apostle. You don’t have to be an Isaiah. You don’t even have to be a preacher to go for the Lord. Sadly, the laborers are few. It’s what Jesus said in Luke chapter 10 and verse 2 when he sent out the 70. He said that the harvest is plentiful, but the labors are few. Beseech the Lord that he send out labors into the harvest.

So the same thing was true in Jesus’ day that was true in Isaiah’s day. The very fact that God had to say, Whom shall I send? Indicates there weren’t many to choose from. And today is it any different? The laborers are few. It’s few who become Christians. But among those who do become Christians, it’s sadly, few of them that actually become real workers. And so I hope that’s not true of this congregation, but it’s typically true just about anywhere. You’ve got a core that really works hard, and a majority who are pupotatous. And that might sound kind of harsh. But it’s kind of the truth a lot of times. And I hope it’s not true here. I hope that here the laborers are not few, but I tell you, there’s a lot of work to be done in Orlando.

4. Isaiah’s Response: Here Am I, Send Me

And may it not be said of this congregation, among us the laborers are few. May we all be laborers to use whatever talent and opportunity we have. Well, now let’s look at the response. When Isaiah said in the second half of verse 8, here am I, send me. This is a response without hesitation. He didn’t have to think about this. In fact, he doesn’t even know what his job description is yet, exactly. He just, the Lord says, go, here I am. And there’s an eagerness about this response. There’s a, there’s a.

That I was going to offer many different things for us to volunteer for. Us here right now. How many hands would go up? If I said, how many people here this week can volunteer to do some hospitality? We need some people that can have some people into their home, and we’ve got some brethren who really need some hospitality. And maybe even some just new people in the community that could use that. How many hands will go up to say, Here am I, send me? Suppose I said, this week we need some people to volunteer to go visit the sick, visit the elderly, and we need some people to go and and uh even visit some foster children and orphans. How many hands will go up and say, Here am I, send me?

You know, the first thing we probably have to say is, wait, I don’t know, I’ve got to look at my schedule book. Sometimes there’s thorns that prevent us from doing anything. And all that happens to our talents is they just stay buried. Because all these thorns around us, these distractions of life that keep us from actively doing anything. If I said, How many in here this week can write letters of encouragement? How many people’s hands would go up and say, Here am I, send me? You know what? I think we’d have a lot of hands go up at all of these things. I’m not I’m not getting on to you. I’m encouraging you. I think we’d have a lot of hands going up. What if I said, we’re going to offer some evangelism classes?

If you’d like to learn how to do evangelism. How many hands will go up and say, Here am I, send me? Not necessarily to start doing it right away, but just to even learn it. Or we’re going to have a door knocking day. How many hands would go up and say, Here am I, send me? I know I’ve been in places where you’d be lucky to have one or two people in the whole church show up. I don’t think that would be the case here. I think we’d have a lot of people say, Here am I, send me. So we have our things we’re comfortable to say it with, but and that’s good, but what we need to do is start saying, Here am I, send me, to things we’ve never said it to before.

5. Bad Responses: Someone Else Should Go

We need to start stepping outside of our comfort zone, and we’ll talk more about that in uh in just a moment. Now, there are a lot of bad responses you could have. Suppose Isaiah had said, Oh, someone else should go. Oh, we could say that. I mean, there’s a lot of talented people. You know, and there’s the paid preachers, and we’ve got elders and deacons, and they they’re supposed to do that kind of work. Let them handle it. Someone else should do it. And hospitality, that’s not my forte. There’s other ladies that are a lot better, better cooks. I mean, I don’t think I’m the one. Let somebody else do this. Let somebody else do that. I’m too shy. I’m not good at going and talking to people.

I don’t think I need to be involved in evangelism. Somebody else should do that. And we end up dismissing all of our duties and responsibilities, and what happens to our talent? It just stays buried in the ground. You might say, Well, who am I? And this might sound like humility, but what it is, is it’s cowardice. Who am I? I mean, me? Little old me? I’m not good enough to do that. No, no. God, you’re asking the wrong person. Who am I? And I’ve had to learn because I’ve had to always battle with the sense of unworthiness. And of course, we need to have a sense of unworthiness. But it can be paralyzing. In coming here, I tell you something, I don’t feel worthy, and I’ve told you that many times.

I honestly really just don’t. I feel like y’all could have had anybody to come here. And why me? But I had to tell myself, I can’t let that stop me. Because if God has something he can use me in, and I need to say, why not me? Why not me? Not in a self-serving way. But if God wants us to do something, then we can do it. And we need to have the confidence to say, you know what? I can do that. And I’m not going to let all my fears and my inner problems stop me from that. I’m going to overcome that. You could say, well, I guess I will if I have to. Would that be a good response? I don’t really want to.

I don’t really want to do all that hospitality. I don’t really want to write letters. I don’t really want to go and visit old people. What a terrible attitude. You know, there’s a there should be a want to aspect to this. We’re going to talk more about that in a moment, too. You know those responses sound a whole lot more like Moses and even Jeremiah than they do Isaiah. Not that Moses and Jeremiah were bad people at all. They were marvelous. But God reprimanded them for the way they responded when God called them. In Exodus chapter 3, when God called Moses to his work of delivering the Israelites. Verse 11, but Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?

Not me. You’re asking the wrong person. Well, I think God knows what he’s doing. In chapter 4 and in verse 10, then Moses said to the Lord, please, Lord, I’ve never been eloquent, neither recently, nor in time past, nor since you’ve spoken to your servant, for I’m slow of speech and slow of tongue. I’m not talented enough. I’m not gifted enough. Oh, how that has stopped so many of us. How that has stopped me. Let me say something just to embarrass Greg for a minute. That young man has more talent in his little finger than most or all of us have in our entire body. He’s got a lot of talent. He’s got a lot of ability. A lot of things might come easier for him than come to a lot of us.

But we can’t look at somebody like that and say, well, I can’t I just can’t do it. Let somebody like him do it. Or whatever preacher. No, you have a talent. Use it. In verse 13. But he said, Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever you will. Just somebody else will do it. Isn’t that the kind of a mentality we have in America? You know, when you see somebody broken down on the side of the road. Why don’t you ever stop? Well, number one, you know, they might be an axe murderer, right? That’s the first thought that always crosses our mind. But secondly, we say, well, look at all these people driving down the street. Somebody will stop. And you know what happens? Nobody stops.

Because everybody thinks that. And if that is our attitude toward the work of the Lord, then you know what we’re going to do with our talent? We’re going to leave it buried in the ground and we’re not going to do anything with it. You look at the response of Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 1. Verse 4. Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. I’ve appointed you a prophet of the nations. Then I said, Alas, Lord God, behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth. I’m too young. I’m not experienced. Young people don’t make that excuse. Yeah, there’s so many excuses we could make.

6. Three Characteristics: Commitment, Eagerness and Courage

I could go on and on with this list of bad responses. But that’s not how Isaiah responded. Any response that was not Isaiah’s response is a bad response. Any response that is not, here am I, send me not a good response. There are three characteristics we need to have if we are going to respond with here am I, send me. At least three. First of all, is commitment. The Lord has got to be our top priority. We’ve got to be committed to Him and to His will above all else. It makes perfect sense that Isaiah said, Here am I, send me, because God was number one in his life above everything. Above his fears, Isaiah’s own fears, Isaiah’s own schedule book and whatever else he might want to do with his life, his own plans.

Regardless of if that’s the thing that I was planning on doing anyway. And when the Lord says go, I’m going to do it. Secondly, is eagerness. You know, as I said earlier, there should be a want to aspect to our serving God. Sometimes our questions always begin with, well, does a Christian have to fill in the blank? Do we have to fill in the blank? You know, you should stop yourself mid sentence and rephrase the whole question and say it this way. Would this give glory to God? Because we’re always focused about just what we have to do. But, brethren, it’s not just about what’s right. It’s about what’s best. And our attitude needs to be I want to do not just what I have to do, I want to do, I want to do everything I can do.

And I want to cause the most benefit for the kingdom that I possibly can to be all things to all men. As Paul said. And there needs to be an eagerness. You know, imagine if you won a free vacation to your favorite place. Ten day or whatever vacation, all expenses paid. Well, would you be committed to going? Would you be eager to go? Absolutely. Well, there’s work and work will get in the way. Well, I’ll work around work. I’ll beg and plead my boss. I’ll work overtime before the vacation, after the vacation, I’ll do anything and everything I have to do. You might even say, if the boss fires me, so be it. I’m going on the trip. Why? You want to. You see, when we want to do a thing, and when it is our top priority, which only the God, only God should be our top priority, then you find ways to do it.

You make excuses to do it. You should hear the excuses I make up to go to karate tournaments when the rest of my family might not necessarily want to go. But I really want to go. I’m going to make a way to make it happen. I’ll find the money to go too. That’s what happens when we are eager about something. And sometimes the work of the Lord is like pulling teeth. All right, we go kicking and screaming, being dragged into it. No, we need to be rejoicing about this. And take it as a privilege, the fact that God has said to us, Whom shall I send? Who will go for me? Who will go for us? See that as a personal question. It’s a privilege that the Lord has asked me of that, and I’m going to gladly accept with honor.

A third characteristic necessary to respond like Isaiah is courage. There’s commitment, there’s eagerness, and there’s courage. I tried to start them all with the same letter, and I just couldn’t do it. But it doesn’t matter. So commitment, eagerness, and courage. I tell you, Isaiah had a lot of courage. We sometimes fear so many things. You would be amazed if you knew the things I’m afraid of. I would probably be amazed if I knew the things you’re afraid of. For example, there are some people that I think are very good with people, and this has happened multiple times throughout my life, and they tell me, I’m terrified of people. And I think, you? You’re scared of people, but you’re wonderful with people. Well, I don’t feel like I’m wonderful with people, but I’ll tell you something, I’m terrified of people.

I don’t like talking. I’m a preacher. Figure that one out. I know there’s a lot of preachers like that, though. That we all have our fears. Whatever fear it might be, a fear of rejection. You know, a fear of embarrassment. A fear, a feel of fear of failure. Whatever your fears are, what we’ve got to do is have the courage to step outside of our comfort zone and start saying, Here am I, send me anyway. And set aside those fears. Isaiah had tremendous courage. As I said earlier, he agreed to this before he even knew what all it would entail. Because after he said, Here am I, send me, verse 9, the Lord said, Go and tell this people. Keep on listening, but do not perceive.

Keep on looking, but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull and their eyes dim. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed. Pause there for a second. In other words, he’s saying, when you go and preach this message of truth to these people, that’s going to harden their hearts. And they’re not going to turn and be saved because they’re not disposed to want to listen to this. So your job is to go preach a message of judgment and harden their hearts. Here am I, send me.

Verse 11, then I said, Lord, how long? How long am I supposed to keep this message of judgment up? And he answered, Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, houses are without people, and the land is utterly desolate, the Lord has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. As a result of the sin, there’s going to be judgment, and the people are going to be wiped out. You’re supposed to keep preaching this message until that happens. Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, and it will again be subject to burning like a tebrance or an oak, whose stump remains when it is failed. The holy seed is at stump. So there’s going to be a remnant.

But there’s going to be destruction. Suppose when I came here to Bumby and met with the elders about the work here, I said, now, what do you want me to preach? Well, we want you to preach messages of judgment that are going to harden everybody’s heart. How long? Until you have cleared this church out and there’s nobody left. Sign me up. And for Isaiah, it was much worse. Because it wasn’t just until everybody leaves, it was everybody’s going to be destroyed. You talk about a hopeless job. But Isaiah 55 and verse 17 says the word of the Lord will not return to me void, God says. And so his word will do what he has planned for it to accomplish, even if people reject the message.

But you talk about courage. We have it so easy. And we complain about, oh, I felt awkward. Oh, I was embarrassed. Somebody slammed the door in my face. And we haven’t experienced near what Isaiah experienced. I think sometimes I’m just kind of wimpy. And sometimes we might kind of be kind of wimpy. You think we sometimes might have that issue? We just need a we need a backbone to go and just say, you know what? I’m going to do it. It’s going to be tough. There’s going to be rejection. It’s going to be hard. I’m not going to enjoy it. But here am I send me. Because this is what God has called me to do. And that needs to be our attitude. I think I have time to briefly mention this in conclusion.

Conclusion

It’s in John chapter 12. Jesus is talking about the fact that he’s going to be lifted up. He’s going to be crucified. In verse 37 it says, But though he performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes, and he hardened their hearts so that they would not see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart and be converted, and I heal them. You recognize that? That’s from Isaiah 6. These things Isaiah said because he saw his glory, and he spoke of him.

Saw whose glory, spoke of whom. Verse 42. Nevertheless, many even of the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees, they were not confessing him for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the approval of men rather than approval of God. The hymn is Jesus.

The King, the Lord of hosts. I think that’s a really amazing thought.

And Jesus is enthroned on high. He is the King of kings. He is the Lord of Lords. He is seated on the right hand of the Father. And let us come to Him, realizing that we’re in His presence and have a sense of unworthiness. And you know what? We need to be cleansed of our iniquity. And let Him prepare us through purging us of our sins to be able to go out and go for Him. And let us always respond, like Isaiah responded. Any opportunity we have to do the work of the Lord, with whatever ability and talents we do have, to say, Here am I. Send me. Would you bow your head with me in prayer? Our Father God, we praise your name. We’re sorry when we do not respond the way that Isaiah responded.

When we have our fears that keep us from doing what we need to do, when we simply lack courage. I’m sorry when I have a lack of courage, Father, forgive me. Forgive all of us. Give us the strength, Father, and the resolve to, without hesitation and without reservation, to respond eagerly and joyfully to your call to go. Help us, Father, to be salt and to be light, so that others will see our works and will glorify you. Thank you for your Son who is our King. And we bow before our King Jesus. It is through him that we pray. Amen. We are now dismissed to Bible classes.