Worship God!

Sermon Summary:

This powerful exploration of Isaiah 6 takes us on a journey from worship to mission, revealing three transformative movements in our relationship with God. We begin with Isaiah’s vision in the temple—a moment when earthly kingdoms crumble but God remains sovereign, high and lifted up on His throne. The imagery is stunning: seraphim with six wings crying ‘Holy, holy, holy,’ smoke filling the temple, foundations shaking. This isn’t just ancient history; it’s a reminder we desperately need today. When was the last time we truly encountered God’s holiness? When did we last feel that overwhelming sense of His majesty? Too often we approach God as if He exists to serve our needs, forgetting He is the Almighty King. But here’s where it gets personal: seeing God clearly means seeing ourselves accurately. Isaiah’s immediate response wasn’t pride but brokenness—’I am ruined, I am unclean.’ True worship confronts us with reality. Yet the story doesn’t end in despair. A seraph touches Isaiah’s lips with a burning coal, declaring his guilt removed and sin atoned for. This is the gospel pattern: recognition of God’s holiness, acknowledgment of our sinfulness, reception of His grace, and then—beautifully—response to His call. ‘Whom shall I send?’ God asks. And a cleansed Isaiah responds, ‘Here am I. Send me.’ This is intentional discipleship: worship that transforms us from broken sinners into sent servants.

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Sermon Points:

Key Takeaways:

• Worship is the holistic submission of all our nature to God, including conscience, mind, imagination, heart, and will
• Worship can occur in any setting, from elaborate cathedrals to simple home gatherings, as demonstrated by the early church
• Encountering God’s sovereignty and holiness reveals His supreme authority as the One who is “high and lifted up” on His throne
• True worship confronts us with the reality of our sinfulness and brokenness, leading to confession
• Sin is pervasive and desensitizing, warping our perspective and causing us to normalize immoral behavior, as illustrated through historical examples of racism and oppression
• God’s grace cleanses and sanctifies us from our sin, just as the seraph touched Isaiah’s lips with the burning coal
• Worship naturally leads to obedient service and a willingness to respond to God’s call with “Here am I, send me”
• The pattern of discipleship involves acknowledging our limitations, receiving God’s grace, and being empowered to serve faithfully

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Scripture References:

• Isaiah 6:1-8 (primary focus)
• Romans 16 (reference to early church meeting in homes)
• 2 Chronicles (account of King Uzziah’s pride and leprosy)
• Matthew 16-17 (Peter’s confession and Jesus’ transfiguration)

Stories:

• The history of St. John Lateran church in Rome, established in AD 312 after Constantine ended Christian persecution
• Visiting St. Paul Outside the Walls and the catacombs of St. Domitilla, contrasting elaborate church architecture with simple early Christian worship
• King Uzziah’s 52-year reign, his military success, and his prideful downfall when he attempted to offer incense as a priest
• The Jewish ghetto in Rome (1555-1870), where Pope Paul IV forced Jews into squalid conditions, requiring them to wear identifying markers and endure weekly sermons about their “sinfulness”
• The Arch of Titus and its insulting depiction of Roman conquest of Jerusalem, where Jews were forced to declare loyalty to the Pope
• Victor Emmanuel’s liberation of the Roman Jews in 1870
• Lucian’s testimony of transformation through the example of her son
• The annual pilgrimage to Rome with church members (16th tour with nearly 500 participants)

Sermon Transcript:

How about Brock on the dulcimer? Come on, y’. All.

Is there anything that boy can’t do? That’s what we’re trying to figure out, Aaron. Right? He’s had it for three weeks. Okay.

Had it for three weeks. Well, it’s about time. And anyway. Wow. That was awesome.

Well, so, you know, this season of the year, we are learning more and more about what it means to embrace the truth that we’ve been designed to flourish. And, you know, as a church, that we’re engaged in this flourishing study. And we are so grateful for Kate Long and Scott Hare and Byron Johnson at Baylor and Tyler Vanderweel at Harvard, and just how they have helped guide us and help us think through what it really means to flourish. And we continue that journey. And one of the things that we’re committed to is a path of intentional discipleship.

And so what we’re doing during this season of the year here in the winter, we are looking at examples of intentional disciples, people that inspire us folks that we can learn from. And so we’ve been on a journey with them. We’ve already talked about Abraham. Last Sunday, Katie shared a message about an experience out of the life of David. Well, today we’re going to look at the call of Isaiah.

So if you have your copy of the old testament, Isaiah 6 will serve as our text today. Very famous passage. And let’s learn about intentional discipleship from Isaiah. And we are to worship God. That’s a part of the life of a disciple.

And we learn about worshiping God from this experience that Isaiah had centuries ago. So look with me@ Isaiah 6. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne. The train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings.

With two wings they covered their faces. With two, they covered their feet. And with two, they were flying. And they were calling to one another. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.

The whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and threshold shook, and the temple was filled with smoke. Woe to me, I cried. I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.

And my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it, he touched my mouth and said, see, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken Away and your sin atoned for. And then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?

And I said, here am I. Send me. This incredible worship experience has inspired millions and millions and millions of the Lord’s people ever since this ever happened. Well, as you all know, we just returned from this annual pilgrimage to Rome. And one of the things that we do in Rome is that we visit these incredible places of worship, places that have been uniquely designed for the worship of God’s people.

Some of you in this room have been to Rome. This was our, I think, our 16th tour. We’ve taken almost 500 of you to Rome. So I think a handful of you in this room have been there, and others of you have been without me. Not as much fun to go to Rome without me, I’m just going to say.

But it’s okay if you want to. You’re adults. You can do what you want to do. So. But let me just show you.

This first photo is St. John Lateran. Let’s do the outside photo first. Let’s find that one. There we go. This church, we always visit this church.

This is really my favorite church in Rome. And the reason for it is, is because of what it represents. It’s a massive building. I don’t know if you can see the people in front of it, but this church, when Constantine took over Rome in 3:12, he made his way to this hill, this Lateran community. And because that’s where the barracks were of his rival king, who he had just slayed in battle.

And just to make sure everyone knew that he had won, he put the rival king’s head on a pole and brought it into town. That’s one way to show that you’ve won, right? But this is where his soldiers were. So he cleaned out those soldiers, cleaned the barracks out. And he knew that Christianity had been persecuted harshly under Diocletian and also Diocletian successors.

And so he was establishing the fact that that had ended. And so he gave this property to the pastor of the church in Rome. And so this church symbolizes the end of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. So it’s the first real official church in Rome, if you will. And it’s absolutely beautiful.

Let me see if we have a photo of the inside. Let’s go to the next one. Let me see. So this is St John Lateran on the inside, the central nave of the church facing the high altar, and down the side of the naves are these massive statues of the twelve apostles. It is an absolutely glorious piece of architecture.

And this church was established in AD 312. Now, it didn’t look like this in 312. It’s been. They’ve been through several together. We build programs there at that church.

And actually, when you visit Rome, they’re in a forever we build project. We also go to St. Paul outside the walls. There’s another interior shot of that church. Let me show you that one. St. Paul outside the walls is a massive church built on the same plan of Trajan’s Basilica in the Forum.

And it’s a glorious, beautiful church. It has medallions of every pope that’s ever served in Rome. But one of the reasons we go there is a major basilica, but also it’s built over the tomb of the Apostle Paul. And we’ve been to worship in all of these churches. We’ve had opportunities to hear messages preached in Italian, and all that takes place in the Roman Mass.

We’ve experienced that. However, when you think of the original church in Rome, it had very little to do in terms of architecture and place, if you will, with what you see today. It was much smaller, much simpler, because the people in the original church at Rome met in people’s homes. Read Romans 16 if you want to do that today at some point, to just kind of get a glimpse of what it was really like. And so let me show this next photo.

This is really more of what it was like for many of those people. I have a photo, I think, of me and Kurt. Let’s don’t do that one yet. You have one of me. Did I send you?

There you go. Let’s do that one. Me, Kurt. And this is Father Thomas. He is a Catholic priest.

He’s the supervisor of the catacombs of Saint Domitilla. And we have been visiting those catacombs the last couple of years. And he allows us to have a worship service on his property. And it’s in this little small portico. And so we gathered there.

There were about 40 of us, and we spent some time singing. We had Several of our 8, 30 worship leaders in our service. And so that was beautiful. We had six deacons. And so we had the Lord’s Supper, and we served the Lord’s Supper.

And we just gathered in this very small group, and we hearkened back to the days of the original church at Rome. It was much more like that in the beginning. Just a small handful of believers who knew each other really well, who were just trying to find their way in this challenging secular Pagan society was very, very challenging for them. And so we walked through history, but we learned a lot about worship. Worship doesn’t have to be in these elaborate structures that are designed for worship.

That’s glorious and beautiful, but there are many places in the world where that’s not possible. You just heard Bud give this testimony. Bud and his wife have joined our church. They’re missionaries, and Bud is one of the leading experts in getting the gospel to Muslims. And so it’s not that way for everyone.

But wouldn’t you agree you can still worship even if you don’t have that beautifully designed structure. Wouldn’t you? I have. Of course we can. Worship is something God is designed for all of us to experience.

So how would you define worship? You’ve been doing it a long time. And if you had to write out what worship is, how would you describe it or define it? Maybe I’ll give you that homework also this week. And so if you come up with a definition, you, like, send it to me.

I’d like to hear it. Let me give you one of my favorite definitions of worship. It’s written by William Temple. He’s the former Archbishop of Canterbury. Here’s what he says.

Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It’s the quickening of conscience by his holiness, the nourishment of mind with his truth, the purifying of imagination by his beauty, the opening of the heart to his love, the surrender of will to his purpose, and all of this gathered up in adoration. Could we say Amen to that? That’s worship. It’s holistic.

It’s comprehensive. It touches every facet of your being as a human. It’s what God has designed you to experience as his people. He’s created you in his image. And so let’s learn about worship this morning, and let’s use Isaiah as our example.

And I’m grateful for our parents today because we have this Our Children’s Global Program, or Global Kids Program that’s produced by our Engagement Ministry, just helps our kids today learn more about worship. And I hope that we’re on that journey with our children. So with that said, let’s just start with the setting of Isaiah. Isaiah began his ministry at the end of the reign of King Uzziah. That’s what he says in Isaiah 6.

When Uzziah died, Uzziah had become king. In 745 B.C. he was the king of Judah. Judah and Israel at the time were two different nations, if y’ all remember that story. And Isaiah served in the court of the Kings.

And so he knew Uzziah well. And Isaiah is now experiencing something powerful at the death of his king. Uzziah reigned for 52 years as the king of Judah, one of the longest serving Kings in the history of Judah. And he was a very influential king. He was a strong leader.

He was a military genius. He amassed an army of over 300,000 soldiers, the Bible tells us. And the Bible says that he honored God for most of his life. He was revered by the people, he was trusted by the people. Because these were challenging days in the life of Judah and Israel.

There were threats all around. They live in that fertile part of that part of the world. And there were constantly people who wanted to take over that part of the world. And so those were challenging days for God’s people. But Uzziah was a strong leader.

However, if you remember his story that’s shared specifically in second Chronicles, he got to the end of his life and pride did him in.

Pride can do leaders in pride can do you in. It just can. And at some point, Uzziah decided he could also be a priest. And he made his way to offer up altar incense on the altar in the temple. The old priest Azariah told him.

He said, king, you’re a king, but you’re not a priest. You’re not a descendant of Aaron, and you’re not allowed to do this. And Uzziah’s response was, I’m king and I’ll do as I wish. And he kept that fire in his hand, made his way to the altar, and God judged him. And he struck him with something that was very much viewed as the judgment of God in the ancient world.

He made him a leper. Remember that story? And it’s a visible leprosy because he put it on his forehead. And so now this popular king had leprosy for the rest of his life. The people were worried about his son becoming king.

His son was so young. He was only 16 or 17 years old. And so Isaiah watched this play out. And here’s what’s happening to Isaiah theologically and spiritually. He is looking at Uzziah.

And in his view, Uzziah has become a symbol of the people of God. Honored God for a season. And now I’ve chosen to disobey God. And now under the judgment of God, and Uzziah dies. Darkness.

It was a. It was a grim time for the people of God. Isaiah sees that in some ways, to him as something that he believes is about to be played on a grand stage. Because the king of Assyria has begun to make his descent into that part of the world. And he was a powerful king with an unparalleled and unrivaled army.

Isaiah knew the army of Judah would be no match for the army of Assyria. Israel and Judah were not united enough to fend off the Assyrians. And so this was a dark time in the life of the people of God. And Isaiah sees it being played out in miniature, if you will, in the life of one person. But his perspective is, this is what’s about to happen to all of us.

Does that make sense? Are y’ all still with me? Okay, here’s. Here’s what happens, though, in. In the middle of that, in Isaiah Marks.

It’s. When Uzziah died, we all were in mourning. We weren’t sure about his boy. It was a perilous time. God showed up.

And I want you to notice how God reveals himself to Isaiah as a beacon of hope. The sovereignty of God is on display. God is revealed as the sovereign, holy God of Israel. Let’s just look. You still got your Bibles open?

Look back at it. Notice what Isaiah saw. Here he is in this season of mourning, and he has this encounter. And notice he says, I saw the Lord Adonai in Hebrew. Anytime you see capital L, small caps, O, R, D, that’s Adonai in Hebrew.

I saw the sovereign Lord Adonai. And he says, he was high in his very nature. He’s exalted, he’s lifted up. He has assumed this position of authority. And notice he’s on the throne.

He is the sovereign king. In fact, Isaiah even goes on to say, technically, I didn’t really even see him. All I saw was the hem of his garment. And just the hem of his robe filled the whole temple. I couldn’t really even necessarily see him.

I just saw what he was wearing. And he said, the next thing you know, these creatures, these. These created beings, and Isaiah calls them seraphs. You know what the word seraph means? On fire.

He said, I saw these on fire things, these seraphim. They’re so close to the glory of God, they’re just on fire. And he said, I noticed that they had their faces covered because there’s just too much glory. Their ears are opened so they can hear the command of God, but they can’t actually look at him. So their eyes are.

Their feet are covered just to shield them from their own way, only ready to expose their feet to the ways of God. And they can fly at God’s command. And he says, and next thing you know, I’m listening to them and they’re just shouting to each other, holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord. You say that all caps. You see that Lord?

That’s Yahweh. Isaiah is letting you know, this is our God. This is not just some God. This is not just any God that we’ve encountered. This is our God.

This is Yahweh, the God of Israel, and he is God Almighty. And these folks, these seraphs, these on fire ones, are declaring his glory is not just in this temple. It’s all over the world. This is not just any God. This is the God.

And then the temple just starts shaking. And the next thing you know, it’s just filled with smoke. And now Isaiah can’t see anything. But wouldn’t you agree he’s seen enough?

He’s seen enough. It’s transformed him. The presence of God Almighty. Here’s what’s miraculous about it. Isaiah saw it seeing God.

Think about that. Isaiah was given a glimpse of God. When’s the last time you felt like you had a glimpse of God? You know, nobody’s fully seen God, right? You see God, you die.

So you realize this is limited language trying to describe an incredible experience. It’s almost like God knows we can’t take it. So he just. One theologian says he just clothes himself just enough so we can recognize who he is. That’s what happens here.

Isaiah just knew he was in his presence. He saw him. He saw a glimpse of him. That’s really all you can take. You know, Jesus even knew that.

You remember Matthew 16? Jesus says to the disciples, he’s accessory of Philippi. So who does everybody say that I am? Who do you say that I am? This Simon Peter says, well, you’re the Christ.

You’re the son of the living God. Matthew 16, Matthew 17, Jesus shows him. He takes him on the mount of transfiguration. And all of a sudden, Jesus changes. Remember, he’s transfigured.

We’re not even really sure what that word means. All Peter, James and John said was, he just, he just started glowing. He just. I mean, everything about him was just white. We just stood there.

We didn’t know what to do. And the next thing you know, Moses and Elijah showed up and it was an Old Testament and New Testament party and we weren’t sure what to do. It’s almost like Jesus said, just for a second, let me show you who I am. Well, you and I, I’ll just tell you. We need to be reminded occasionally.

Of who our God is. Because I’m here to tell y’ all this morning, he’s our Father. Aren’t you glad he’s our Father? But just remember, he’s God Almighty. He is holy and majestic, and he is undisputably in charge.

Now, come on, you can amen that. Seriously. I’ll say it again. He is indisputably in charge. I’m just.

Whether you and I know it or not, whether anybody acknowledges or not, that doesn’t change the truth. Right now, our God is high and lifted up and on his throne, and he’s our God. When’s the last time you gave it a little credence in your life? Because so often when you and I approach God, he’s just there to do our bidding.

So often he’s just there to do what we need. So often. I’m just saying, y’, all, we need a little. We need a little dose of reality. Here’s what happens when you start to have glimpses of God.

We see ourselves. Isaiah’s experience of God’s presence led him to a realistic understanding of himself. What does the Bible say he did? He saw all this and he just strutted in God’s presence here. No.

You know what he said? I’m ruined.

I’m undone. I won’t recover. I look at him and I look at me. I’m. Well, I’m just unclean.

I can’t be in the presence of such holiness because.

Sinful. Wow. He’s undone. You see, true worship should confront us with the reality of who we are. And so often what that means is we have to acknowledge our sinfulness.

Last Sunday, Katie preached on confession. Great sermon, Katie, by the way, on confession. Encountering sin. You see, the point is, you and I fight an ongoing battle with sin. We just do.

We don’t like to talk about it much. But sin is pervasive. It desensitizes us. It causes us to normalize immoral and inhumane actions. What sin does is it warps our perspective.

It clouds our vision, and it makes us feel better about ourselves. Every year we go to Rome, we always visit this vibrant, full of life Jewish quarter. It’s filled with life, great restaurants, a completely different vibe in Rome. In fact, in 1904, they built this beautiful synagogue. It’s called the Great Synagogue.

I think it’s the largest one in Europe. It’s beautiful and glorious, and like I said, it’s. That community is teeming with life. But one of the reasons we go there is because of its sordid history.

In 1555, the current pope at the time, Pope Paul IV, decided that all the Jews in Rome who had been there before the Christians ever got there, they’d been there longer. There had always been a vibrant Jewish population in Rome since the days of the Diaspora. The Pope decided all the Jews needed to be quarantined, and he had them all moved to that part of Rome. And he captured them in squalid living conditions, constantly flooding from the River Tiber, no fresh water springs, and he built a wall around it with one gate. And the Jews were subjected to his rules.

And so if you were a Jew at that time, you were given the opportunity to work a handful of jobs. There was a list. And if that required you to go outside of that gate, then the gate would be unlocked every morning by a Roman Catholic. You could make your way into the city, but you had to wear a yellow placard letting everybody know that you were Jewish if you were a man. If you were a woman, you had to wear a yellow veil, which was the veil of the prostitutes at that time in Rome.

So if you were a woman, you had to leave. If you left the Jewish ghetto, as it was called, you had to Mark yourself as a prostitute for the rest of Rome. And then on top of that, every Sabbath, after all the worship services were over, the synagogues were torn down, you could only have one place of worship. You had to come and stand at the gate, and a Roman Catholic priest would preach a sermon to you every Sabbath about your sinfulness and your future eternity as a Jew, hopefully to convert you. And then on top of that, you were required every year to go to the Arch of Titus.

And the Arch of Titus stands at the entry of the Roman Forum. It was built in AD 90, and it celebrated the conquering of the Jews by the General Titus. And inside of the Arch of Titus is an architectural frieze, and it depicts the Jews being conquered by the Romans and the Roman plunder of the Jewish Temple. And it shows the Romans bringing the menorah and all the plunder of the Jewish temple back to Rome and the Jews coming as slaves. And so you were forced to go there once a year and stand at the Arch of Titus, the most insulting place in all of Rome, to you as a Jew, and declare your loyalty to the Pope.

Are y’ all still with me?

1555. It was 1870 when Victor Emmanuel made his way into Rome and conquered all of Italy. And he was totally offended by such racism. And he set the Jews free and had the walls torn down and the gates removed so they could live in freedom. You see, sin clouds your judgment.

It’s true of all kinds of sin. Envy, lust. Look at what lust has done. It desensitizes you. You then dehumanize.

Historically, mostly women. You objectify them. Then you can explain away your behavior because you allow the sin to so permeate your perspective. Does that make sense, y’? All?

That’s why racism is so insidious. Because what racism does is it desensitizes you. How could you walk past the squalor, the Jewish ghetto every day as a Christian in that part of Rome at that time? Well, if you were convinced they weren’t quite human, it made a little bit easier our story here in the US don’t you wish it was better?

Don’t you wish. How did Christians justify enslaving black people? Well, if you could somehow convince yourself that they’re less than human, it makes it a little bit easier to engage in certain behaviors. Does that make sense? Racism in any form.

We have to always stand against it because of what it does to us. And it’s more than just things that are said. It’s how many people choose to live. So y’, all, as Christians, lust, envy, sinfulness, licentious behavior, living your life against the instructions of the Scripture, forcing that on others, engaging in racist behavior, all of it. It’s an abomination to God.

And you and I, as Christians, have to learn how to manage our way through it as Christians. And do our best, do our best to live like Jesus would have us to live. We can do that, can’t we? We can. There’s nothing political about it.

Y’ all know me well enough to know there’s not a political thread in me when I stand behind this desk. I’m talking about what the Bible teaches. There’s something Biblical about you and I being honest about our own sinfulness. And occasionally, everybody in this room should say this. I’m ruined.

I’m ruined. I need something. But you know what the good news is, y’, all, is I’m not done. Aren’t you glad? Doesn’t end there.

What if it ended there? And we would call this the ruin of Isaiah. But guess what? He was sanctified by God. Hallelujah.

You see, God can cleanse us of our sin. He can sanctify us for his purposes. There’s Isaiah saying, I’m unclean. Everybody is, but me, most of all. My lips, everything that protrudes out of me at this moment, he’s just saying.

I’m just overwhelmed by it. And it’s almost like God nods at one of the burning ones and he goes and takes that coal from the fire and touches Isaiah and says, by the grace of God, you’ve been forgiven and cleansed. That’s what Jesus has done for you. God has taken that blood from the cross and he’s applied it to you and me. Hallelujah.

Yes, we’re unclean. Of course we are. We’re sinners. Yes, we’re broken. Yes, we’re capable of anything.

Yes, history’s riddled with it. But guess what? We can also be completely redeemed and changed forever. We just heard Newshen’s testimony, didn’t we? Changed forever through the example of a little boy, her own son.

When you meet God, you have to acknowledge the fact that, yeah, we’re limited, but we need to be remembered. Redeemed and cleansed and restored in the image of God. Restored in us and the grace of God. And here’s what God does. He can set you free from the chains of any sinfulness, any cycle of sin that somehow has found its way inside of us.

You can be delivered from it by the grace and the power of God. And then guess what? You move to something else. Which is beautiful. Serving God.

You see, worshiping God leads us to this humble response of obedience. And it’s rooted in love. So when God changes us, we’ve admitted our limitations. We’ve recognized that we are not him. We’ve acknowledged our sinfulness.

We have received his grace. He then will lead us beyond ourselves. You see, before Isaiah could go, he had to be delivered. But once he was delivered, he could go. So you and I, we follow that same pattern.

And it’s not just when we are saved. It’s a whole lifetime of continually being cleansed. We’ve been saved already. We’ve been redeemed from hell. Yes, hallelujah.

But we’re also saved from ourselves as disciples. And as we experience those times of cleansing and deliverance, we receive the power and the grace to. To serve God faithfully. And so when’s the last time you said to God, I’ll go. Send me.

So let me ask you to do something with me this morning. Let’s just take our yes, our yes and put it on the altar and say to God, whatever you ask, here’s our answer. Send me. I’ll go. May it be so.

Pray together. Father, we thank you for this incredible encounter with you recorded by Isaiah so long ago. My goodness. I thank you, Lord. That it continues to speak to us today.

And it’s my prayer that you’ll find us receptive, responsive, obedient as you continue to restore us and redeem us in our day. And so, Lord, we say to you as a church, here we are. Send us and we pray in Jesus name.