Where Are You Looking

by Steve Mills

Isaiah 6:1-9 - In the year that King Uzziah died I then saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 6:2 Above it stood the seraphs; each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 6:3 And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of Hosts; the whole earth full of His glory. 6:4 And the doorposts moved at the voice of the one who cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 6:5 Then I said, Woe is me! For I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of Hosts. 6:6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, snatched with tongs from the altar. 6:7 And he laid it on my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged. 6:8 And 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! 6:9 And He said, Go, and tell this people, You hear indeed, but do not understand; and seeing you see, but do not know.

With the state of today’s economy and the trying situations around the world people find themselves wondering where to look for help. Many are looking to the new president and his administration to pull us out of hard times. Others are looking to the new age religion being endorsed by popular TV hosts. While still others are lost not knowing where to look. We can get encouragement by the call of Isaiah and where he looked.

Look Toward Heaven – The Upward Look (v 1-4)

We can see from this scripture the first place Isaiah looked was toward heaven. When Isaiah turned his look toward heaven he saw the Lord. Until a person sees God for who He really is they will never be able to see themselves for who they really are. Isaiah was given a glimpse of heaven and he saw the Lord on his throne in all his splendor. This vision allowed Isaiah to see the contrast between the holiness and perfection of God and the ungodliness and sinfulness of man. God is perfectly perfect and is separated from man because of man’s sinful nature. God is the standard by which all moral and spiritual character is measured. By seeing the separateness of God Isaiah was confronted with his own sinfulness and the sinfulness of humanity. When a person truly sees the Lord everything changes.

Look at Yourself – The Inward Look (v 5-7)

Once Isaiah had the Upward look toward heaven he was forced to take the inward look at himself. What he saw inside himself was not very pleasant to look upon. Look at what different translation tell us about Isaiah’s reaction to the inward look.

• Jerusalem Bible: “What a wretched state I am in! I am lost…
• KJV: “Woe is me, I am undone…”
• NASB: “…I am ruined…”
• NLT: “My destruction is sealed…”
• MSG: “"Doom! It's Doomsday! I'm as good as dead!”

Isaiah saw the great difference between the holiness of God and his own failures because of sin. Isaiah also saw that God offers him forgiveness from his sin. What Isaiah experienced is exactly what John promised in 1 John 1:9 - “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” As Isaiah looked inward he saw himself as sinful but because of God’s mercy he was able to see himself as forgiven. There is no greater message of hope than the message that God forgives sin. It is sin, and sin alone that separates us from God, and it is God, and God alone who can forgive us of our sins. Jesus didn’t come to earth to start a new religion, but to remind mankind that God desires to have a relationship with all people, and to give His life on the cross to make that possible.

Look at the Lost – The Outward Look (v8-9)

As Isaiah was having that inward look at himself he heard God call; “Whom should I send…Who will go?” And Isaiah responded immediately, “I’ll go…send me!” That is an OUTWARD look. That is a missionary vision. It was a vision that began by Looking Upward and seeing that God is worthy of our worship. It was made possible by Looking Inward and seeing himself as sinful and that God forgives. Now Isaiah was Looking Outward to the world where he was being sent.

God told him in the verses that follow that he was going to preach and people weren’t going to understand. He was going to try to open their eyes to the greatness of God’s salvation but they were going to refuse to see. He was going to try to open their ears to God’s offer of forgiveness but they were going to refuse to hear. Isaiah asked the LORD quite honestly: “How long will I have to do this?” God’s answer was that it would be a lifetime commitment. Isaiah had the strength to stick it out because he had seen God.

It has been stated “Before you can have out-reach there must first be an up-reach and an in-reach.” Our ministry philosophy should be as follows:

1st You minister to God (Look Upward)
2nd Let God minister to you (Look Inward)
3rd You minister to others from the overflow (Look Outward)

From Bondage to Freedom

Ex 14:9-16

The book of Exodus is the account of the journey of the people of God from Egypt to Canaan. Egypt is a type of bondage and Canaan represents freedom. God is interested in His people moving from bondage to freedom. There are several things we need to understand as we take the journey from bondage to freedom.

Forget the past

• Philippians 3:13-14 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
• One of the main problems the children of Israel had in the wilderness was they were continually remembering the things back in Egypt. They had limited recall of the past as they only remembered the good food they had. For some reason they forgot the abuse, hard labor and slavery that was also back in Egypt.
• It is very difficult to drive a car if we are always looking in the rear-view mirror. We do not drive looking in the mirror but looking out the windshield at the future. Christians who live their lives in the past are normally going nowhere for God. We must always be looking ahead at where God wants us to go and not constantly looking back at where we have been. Yes, from time to time we scan the mirror to make sure everything behind us is ok and there is no danger coming up to cause us harm. However, our focus must always be forward.
• Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
  
• Plato said, "whey you look into a raging river you never see the same river twice.

Believe God for the Impossible

• Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.
• Jeremish 32:27 Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?
  
• There is nothing impossible with God.
• Israel was standing with a flooded Red Sea in front of them and the fast approaching army of Egypt behind them. It was an impossible situation but God said in Exodus 14:15, "Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward." God was simply looking for obedience and trust in Him. He was ready to do the impossible when His people obeyed His command.
• We simply need to look at God's track record to understand He is a god of the impossible. Noah faced an impossible task but God did the impossible. The same was true with Daniel in the lions den, the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, the virgin Mary, Jesus calming the sea and feeding the multitude. When God people obey His voice He is always there to do the impossible.

Go Looking for the Giants

• Jos 14:9-13 And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the LORD my God. And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said. And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance.
• Forty-five years earlier this same Caleb stood before the people and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it." After all those years he still believed the word of God.
• Caleb was not shrinking back from the giants rather he was demanding Joshua give him his inheritance so he could finally go up and possess his land.
• The land has been given to us by God but we must go possess our land.
• Most believers spend their prayer time telling God how big their problems are when they should be telling their problems how big their God is.

God's desire for each of his children is for them to constantly be moving from bondage to freedom. He is with us every step of the journey and is always there to do the impossible.

Go God!