Bible Guys Classics: Isaiah 6:1–8

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, welcome to the Bible Guys. Everybody. Are you excited as I am. We're in a good head. We're in a good new location. We are in a new location. For those of you watching on video, you can tell that because we have wood behind us. We're actually in the green room of Heritage, which is really cool. And we have Kyle today because Jeff is off doing great things around the world with the Timothy Initiative. Yes, and if you don't know what the Timothy Initiative is, go to T t I dot com. I think that's the website dot com. We're just Google of the Timothy Initiative. Yeah, probably just got dot com. Seems like too simple. Okay, that's what it is, all right. Well, and you know anyway, Yeah, so go ahead and do that. And it's actually a great organization around the world that actually plants churches and areas that don't know about Jesus. Yes, it is something to look into. I mean, I know you said t t idek or whatever it is. I know you been on a few TTI Vision trips I have as well. It's an amazing organization and just spreading the name of Jesus around the world. So well, hey, Kyle, before we get into the second week of our Dangerous Prayers series, And by the way, this week is the prayers of Surrender. Oh, we are going to have a brand new segment called topic Drop. How about that topic drop? It says as we jump into the second week of our new series, Dangerous Prayers. This week we're talking about prayers of surrender. So we ask chat GPT some funny questions about surrender. So here they are, all right, you want to pose the first? Sure, all right, so let's hear the first one about surrender. Chat GBG asked, I'll ask you, Chris, what's harder to surrender control? Caffeine or the ox cord during a road trip? Is a harder to surrender control caffeine or the ox cord during a road trip? Well, anybody thirty and under would have a hard time serning the ox cord, yes, But for me that's no problem at all. So I just I've learned, you know, over my life, like just give it to the kids, So that's not a problem. But uh, controllers caf so I would say, my initial reaction is to say caffeine, but I just don't want to acknowledge the fact that it's actually control. Yes, so control within there you go, trying to control the narrative by saying it's not caffeine. It's actually Yeah, for me, it'd be caffeine. I would say, the oxcord does not I'm in agree with you. That does not bother me a ton. But I do have three girls. Remember we do a road trip. It ends up being I mean the girliest music everage where I can only do it for like an hour. I'm like, all right, like what Disney show, No Taylor Swift, It's I mean, it's like, okay, enough is enough, so I'll let it. I'll let it go for a little bit. But eventually I'm like I or They'll be falling asleep in the back seat with a car with the music going, and I'm like, all right, it's time to wrap this up. Right, that's so funny? All right? Number two? If Surrender had a theme song, would it be I Surrender All, which is an old hymn. By the way, I let you know that? Do you know that? Yeah? Yeah, okay? Or let it go. It's a Disney song, by the way, And be honest, which one slaps one slaps harder? I let that GPD asked that which one slaps harder? Uh, yeah, I guess that's that would be chu GPT. She said it was chetchy. I mean, the Christian answer is I surrender all. But let's be real, let it go. There's no way any human can say that I surrender all slaps harder than let it go. Ah, come on, here we go, come on go. No way, dude, Trey, it is not gonna happening. This guy on stage for I Surrender All remix. Yeah, it's it's just let it go to Oh what is it all? To? Jesus? And dude, what the heck? It doesn't slap but let it go of course, you know, like took over the world. Huh. Now we didn't answer the question, though, which which If Surrender had a theme song, what would it be? I would say, I mean, it has to be let it go, just because it does slap harder. I think so too, although the obviously spiritually the lyrics of ice render All or the heart of every dissection, so it's hard to say let it go over that, so. I said, the Christian answer is I surrender all. But it's so funny. It's like it's like, if you think about the words of I Surrender All, it's literally the best ever. It's like it's like, oh my gosh, it's the heart of it where every Christian should strive to arrive. Right, And we're saying, let it goes Disney. Yeah, let's go Disney. All right, we're gonna go Disney. No, you know what, Jeff would be disappointed in me. I'm gonna I'm gonna represent Jeff here. I'm gonna say I surrender all has. To win, Okay, I agree? All right, all right, sounds good, Jeff? All right? Third one, last one? We got uh from CHADGBD. If surrender were a camp activity, would it involved trust falls, glitter or crying in a canoe? What? That's ridiculous? If surrender camp activity? Would it involve trust falls, glitter or crying in a canoe? And I gotta be honest, I don't understand where glitter comes from. Why glitter? Oh, you're just try you're trusting it. I have a theory about glitter. Yeah, I believe glitter is one of the worst things in the pits of hell. That is a theory. Yeah, so I mean like, if you give me, Oh, I shouldn't even say this out loud, but if you give me anything with glitter on it. And by the way, this is not a joke. So if nobody come up to me and give me something with glitter on it, because you don't understand, I would go from a one to a ten. You want to talk about make this Chris glitter, it's glitter, It's funny. Glitter anywhere is the worst invention in the entire world. It doesn't it doesn't help anything, right, It just gets everywhere and it's irritating and it just doesn't go away. So, uh so, I don't know what they have to do with trust. Yeah, I'm'm trying to figure that out one too, but I would say trust falls that seems fitting. Crying in a canoe? Is that maybe just like just I'm just imagining wanting a canoe crying and surrendering over They're like they're just like having a moment out there with God. Maybe I don't know. I was thinking of like taking somebody's oars and taking them in a canoe and they're crying because they have nothing because it's like, hey, trust me to come back. Oh okay, because it kind of which is sort of a trust fall. Yeah right, it's put yourself arms way and trust me. Yeah, and the glitter makes no sense, so I'm gonna go with the trust falls. Well yeah, because it seems to be the only one that is makes any sense at all. Thanks chat GPT for trying to be funny with weirdness. So yeah, so there it is. I think that surrender is a topic to it's hard to make surrender fun and that tried. Yes, do you agree it's hard to make surrender fun, isn't it? It depends what kind of surrender you're talking about, because you know, if we want to slap the hymns, there you go from the eighteen hundreds, there you go from anyway, it's probably the sixteen hundreds. I Surrender All. Don't know Jeff was here. It's twice we're calling on Jeff. What year was the hymn I Surrender All released? I Surrender All was published in eighteen ninety six? Well, I did say eighteen hundreds. It's almost nineteen hundreds, yeah, but zi yeah, four years that? Uh yeah, so how about that? All right, Kyle, Well, listen, that was a that was a difficult segments in some ways, wasn't it. And uh, and it's fitting because today we're talking about a difficult topic. That difficult topic surrender. Okay. In fact, I believe it's all weak. You could have a chance to be like a heavy week a little bit, right, because surrender is like one of the hardest things to do, you know. And yet that's kind of what we're talking about. We're talking about prayers in the Bible that have to do with surrender in some sort of way, right, because when it comes down to it's surrendering says okay, God, i'm us. A matter of fact, we're sort of talking about this week, aren't we trust con We're talking about trust, control, surrender, and they kind of all sit fit the same vein. But it's the idea of like releasing things from ourselves and then saying, Okay, I give it to you whoever it is. So anyway, Yeah, so today we're in Isaiah chapter number there's only eight verses today. Yep, starting in verse one, So Isaiah six one through eight. And I know you guys mentioned this a lotful reading out of the NLT. This is the Chronological Life Application Study Bible, but says this. It was in the year King Uziah died, and I saw the Lord. He was sitting in a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings, they covered their faces. With two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They were calling out to each other, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Heaven's armies. The whole earth is filled with his glory. Their voices shook the temple to its foundations. An entire building was filled with smoke. Then I said, it's all over. I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among people with filthy lips. Yet I've seen the King, the Lord of Heaven's armies. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, see this call has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed and your sins are forgiven. Then I heard the Lord asking whom should I send as a messenger to this people who will go for us? I said, here, am I send me that? That's verse eight right there? Yeah, so, yeah, what a crazy, crazy passage. Yes, I was looking at the notes, you know, in my application study a botblem, and it's interesting. Here it says only only here are the seraphim mentioned in the scripture. Isn't that crazy? I don't think I knew that. Huh. The Hebrew word seraphim means to burn and relates these creatures to the holiness of God. This is why they repeat Holy, Holy, Holy, before the throne of God. Some students think that the seraphim are the living beings described in Revelation chapter four, verses six through nine. But it's interesting, isn't Yeah. Yeah, I did not. I did not realize it as well. Yeah, that's the only reference. So whenever I think of this passage, I am, I can't help but think about in heaven. So this is in heaven before God, right yea. So here we have you know, cherif Seraphim and Cherifim floating around the throne of God, you know, continually crying out holy, Holy, Holy, you know, his glory and everything else. And then they fly over and they give Isaiah. They touch his lips with a burning coal, And I think to myself, like did that hurt? Do you think that at all? Or do you think like, okay, was it more like symbolic? It did stay hot? Right? It said the angel picked it up with tongues, So the angel didn't pick it up with his you know, wings, or with his hands, picked up with tongs and it said he touched his lips with it. So if the Bible describes it as hot and the angel had to use tongues or chose to use tongues, then then was it was it? I mean, it couldn't have been white hot coals that actually burn human flesh like it could be on this earth because he did say here, am I sin me? Yes, he spoke. After he spoke, if you touched me with hot, burning white coals, I would be screaming and I probably wouldn't be able to speak. Right. But I know, I know it's a goofy way to introduce this that this topic, right, but honestly, honestly, goodness, that's all I think of. I honestly think of like, Okay, we obviously know the symbolism, right, So if his sins have been purified. If they've been cleansed, then then that symbolism is it's a foreshadowing of Jesus, right, It's it's washing away our sins. In other words, in this case, you know, burning away our sins or purifying in the same way that like when you hate gold, right, all all the impurities rise to the top of gold and then it gets skimmed away and then the gold becomes pure after that. So there is a way to refine things. And remember in the Old Testament, they would have known about that, they would have they would have been they would have refined metals that way, right, So it's a it's an appropriate it's some you know symbolism. Fact, you know, whe this was seven hundred and fifty years or so before Christ, so it would be a very appropriate, you know word picture. But I just can't help it to think whether or not it was just symbolic or actually it hurt. Yeah, yeah, I think I think it's even there. It says that he had touched my lips with it. Now your cold touch your lips. Now your guilt is removed, your sins are forgiven. So I would hope that I wonder if there was that pain, that initial pain, but then a healing that came with it, and we knew that the forgiveness was not found in the coals. It wasn't the coals that forgave him. It was it was God obviously, who actually gave him the forgiveness. But I know, for me, one of the things that comes to mind, because I would mentioned this to you earlier, A lot of people reference, which I love the verse eight where he says he steps up and says, yes, go and say to it. Oh yeah, no, no, sorry, first aid he said, here am I send me? That's part so many people reference. And then when you backtrack and you look at all the events let up to this, this is this is This is kind of a great story, but it's definitely a little bit obscure and odd. But the thing is is this progression he goes through where he sees how unclean he is and the people he comes from, how unclean. There's this like brokenness he has. I don't know about you, but I guess for me, the reason why I love this is so many people reference this as a moment of like stepping up, stepping up to what God called you to do, and I don't know if you experienced this as well, Chris. I'm sure you have. But I feel like anybody who I've ever met who's really stepped out in faith, whether that's like a pastor, a speaker, a small group leader, a kids worker, a podcast, or whatever it may be, I feel like this is kind of the progression of somebody who's truly following Jesus. They go from that moment of realizing how broken they are and in need of forgiveness, then there's this cleansing that they have to have, and then God forgives them, and then they almost speak out of their like humil to say like hear my send me, and I love that. I think it's an encouragement for anybody who is maybe listening to this right now who doesn't feel adequate, they don't feel like they're enough. I think the closer you get to God, the closer you get to Jesus, you actually realize your brokenness, your humility, you realize how low you actually are. And it's in that moment that you can realize like, all right, God, thank you for saving me. I know it's not because of me, and therefore, like, use me wherever you may have. So Anyways, I just love this because I think it's just a reminder that he wasn't somebody who Isaiah wasn't somebody who necessarily believed in himself, thinking with himself. He's like, I am unclean, I am like he didn't believe in himself, but instead he had the picture of God, and he believed in what God had for him. I love that. Yeah, well, I mean it's an acknowledgment of I remember one time. It reminds it reminds me of the message that I heard long time ago by lou Gigmiel where he says God is the great. I am, and so of God as I am, you know what it makes you I am not I'm not yet right. And so that's really what Isaiah is saying here. And so you know you have no cho when you stand in front of your creator to realize you know, you are not worthy, you are not holy, you are a sinful man, you are undone, you are imperfect when you stand in the presence of God. And so it is a it is a I just remember hearing by the way side note, his message was so great because he talked about the stars in the sky in that message, and he said, you know, it's so interesting. Have you ever seen the movie Contact with Jody Foster. So one of the tags, you know, Matthew McConaughey, one of the taglines in that movie was if there isn't life out on other planets, then that sure is an awful lot of wasted space. Right, And they kept on saying it over and over again. Right, if there's not life another planet planets, and that's an all, that's a that's an awfully big waste of space. And and so I remember in this message where he talked about the great I am and I am not, lou Giglio said, think about all the stars, the galaxies, the universe, which he's fascinated with, by the way, And you know he's like, you know, subscribe to the Hubble telescope, all that kind of stuff, and and and he studies the universe and he says, what if God's creation of the universe was one giant billboard to let him know, let us know how big he is and how small we are. Think about that, yeah, right, because because if that's the purpose of it, then it's still not big enough. Right. But so, no matter how vast the universe is if we're the only life you know, on the in the in the universe, uh, you know, and in the galaxy, universe, whatever. Then you know, how is that possible? Well, it depends if God is displaying his majesty, then it's not even big enough. And so I just remember thinking to myself, man, that is a phenomenal point because God could have demonstrate his greatness and his creation, you know, surrounding us and then uh, and of course then it reminds us that how small we are. And so it's like when you go I mean go up to the up or up north, you look at the stars and you can actually see this sky clearly. It actually is this really weird thing where you see that and actually makes you feel you realize how small you are. Yeah. And the same way you can go to a big city the exact opposite. We surrounded by people in New York City and realize how small you are. It's weird how that can be surrounded by people or surround about nothing but the stars in the sky and realized, wow, this is a this is a big God. There's a big creation. But I love that he yeah, just his his whole mindset there actually Dave Wilson. Remember earlier this year, one of the statements he told me that somebody told him years ago, and he remembers this this statement where he says that, uh, I was just talking about the ideas of like, you know, leading things and the challenges that come with that. He goes, so, yeah, somebody told me years ago this statement says pressure is privilege. And it made me. It made me think, like I thought about that. I've said that to myself many times since. That's just this idea that sometimes the life we live, if we are feeling pressure, that this is a privilege. And here we have Isaiah who is not like somebody again who felt super qualified. He was somebody who was like realizing his need for God, his need for God's holiness in his life. And here he was stepping up and saying, here my send me. And I think sometimes people they probably look at someone like you, Chris or me, and they think, oh, man, you must be so confident all the time, you must totally know God's play, you must always feel ready to give an and like all that, but they probably don't realize that so often there's a lot of like, man, this pressure is a lot this is challenging. I think our mindset sometimes looks a lot more like where Isaiah came from and what he's going through versus what people maybe see on a stage or on a podcast. Yeah, yeah, for sure it is. Hey, So I was looking at these notes and here's the thing. We don't have adequate light above me because it's a new studio. So I want you to read it because you have better eyes than me. I actually believe or not, I think this is worthy of reading. Yeah, it's a note about Isaiah. Sixth the message, and it says for observations about Isaiah. It says, number one, he saw the Lord. Number two he saw himself, and you know verses one through four, five or seven. Verse eighty saw the need and then the nation he could not see nine through thirteen. Just sure to read through that. Yeah, okay, gotcha. I just want to hear it. Yeah. So, first one is he saw the Lord. As you mentioned verses forty. We assumed that Isaiah was in the temple when this marvelous event occurred, but we cannot be sure the temple referred to in verse one as the Heavenly Temple rather than Solomon's Temple. King Ziah died in seven forty BC and was one of Judah's greatest leaders, even though in his latter years he was disciplined for disobeying God. A great king may have left his throne on earth, but the greatest king was still seated on the throne of heaven. According to John twelve forty one, this was the Lord Jesus Christ. So yeah, he saw the Lord. Then he saw himself by the way in that great information, that great, it's great hireat then he saw himself. This is Verses five through seven. The sight of a holy God and the sound of the holy hymns of worship brought great conviction to Isaiah's heart, and he confessed that he was a sinner. Unclean lips are caused by an unclean heart. Isaiah cried out to be cleansed inwardly, and God met his need. If this scene had been on earth, the coles could have been from the bronze altar where sacrificial blood had been shed, or perhaps from the censor of the high priest in the day of Atonement. Isaiah's cleansing came by blood and fire, and it was verified by the word of the Lord. And then the last part here verses eight. As he saw the need the nation needed the Lord, and the Lord wanted a servant to minister to the people. Isaiah volunteered to be that servant. He did not discuss his call with God as haid Moses and Jeremiah, but accepted the appointment and made himself available to his master. Never underestimate what God can do with one willing worker. We have an even greater need for laborers today, and we have tremendous opportunities for sharing the Gospel with a lost world. And then it says this, are you one of God's willing volunteers? That's great? Yeah, pretty good stuff. Yeah, isn't that great? Yeah? And so Isaiah obviously concludes with the statement and says, here am I send me? Or here I am send me? Right? Yeah? And that is the model prayer for any of us. So, you know, whenever God wants us to do anything, you know, when it comes to any one of God's commands, and sometimes God will give us nudges in life. And sometimes the nudges aren't necessarily you know, attached to a black and white command of the Bible, Like if God says, hey, go encourage that friend or Hey, Kyle, I want I want to impress upon your heart to call this person and just encourage them or something. Right, So it's it's it's it's more specific. These nudges that God leads us to do sometimes, to the power of the Holy Spirit, can be just you know, personalized kind of things that God wants us to do to make a difference in this kingdom. So so whenever he gives us a command, whatever he gives us a nudge, whenever he asks us to do something or go somewhere. You know, the whole goal of life is to say, Okay, God, I'll do it here, I am send me right, whatever the need is, whatever you want me to do, whatever, whatever your plan is, How can I be used in this world? You know, just whatever you want me to do. I was meeting with a guy last week and he was saying something about retiring and he said that, you know, he felt pretty unfulfilled playing golf, you know, so many times a week and everything else. And he said, oh, it's fun, don't get me wrong, but it's a little unfulfilling. It's a little not satisfying. But it's that idea of like, Okay, God, what do you want me to do in the season of my life? You know, how are you going to use me for significance? And that's a challenge. It's a challenge to always have that mindset to say, God, whatever it is you want me to do, I surrender not to what I want, but to what do you want? So that's the prayer for the day. That's the kind of a summary. Then, is the dangerous prayer of surrender? Is hear my God, hear my send me. That's great, that's really good. All right, well, hey, that looks about our time. So we are to go ahead and bid you farewell and invite you tomorrow on the Bible, guys,