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Sep 08, 2019

Estranged No More

Passage: Isaiah 1:1-20

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: Isaiah

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: worship, sin, repentance, glory, gratitude

We have estranged ourselves from our Loving Father and use God and others for our own benefit, yet come to church and put on a religious show in an effort to get the approval of others and genie-like blessings from God. But though we have run from Him with wayward hearts that have lead to “scarlet sins”, he has pursued us from the beginning of time, estranging (“forsaking”) his Son Jesus on the cross in order to convert our “vain offerings” (v. 13) into an “acceptable sacrifice” (Ephesians 5:2), bringing us back into intimate relationship and worship.

Order of Worship

PRELUDE: Rescued

CALL TO WORSHIP: Based on Psalm 91:2, Romans 10:9,13

READING: Micah 6:8

MUSIC: 

  • Be Thou My Vision 
  • Highlands
  • Yet Not I But Christ In Me
  • Goodness Love And Mercy
  • Doxology

PRAYER: Faith and the World (adapted from The Valley of Vision)

ALL:  O Lord, the world is artful to entrap, approaches in fascinating guise.

LEADER:  Let faith escape every bewitching snare in a victory that overcomes all things.

ALL:  In our duties give us devotion to Your cause and courage in Your name.

LEADER: Let faith stride forth in a giant power and love respond with energy in every act.

ALL: Your Word is full of promises, flowers of sweet fragrance when culled by faith.

LEADER: May we be made rich in its riches, strong in its power, delighted in it’s joy. 

ALL: O Lord, increase our faith.   

MESSAGE:  Estranged No More

CENTRAL TEXT:  Isaiah 1:1-20 

IllUSTRATION: Wrong Worship  

CONFESSION: Confession of Sin (The Book of Common Prayer)

Most merciful God. We confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of Your Son Jesus Christ,

Have mercy on us and forgive us; That we may delight in Your will, and walk in Your ways, To the glory of Jesus we pray. Amen. 

BENEDICTION: Jude 24-25

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Jeremiah 2
  • Matthew 23:23-28
  • Matthew 15:7-9
  • Romans 6:1-4
  • Philippians 3:8-9

MEDIA:

9.08.19 Album 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Isaiah begins his book with an aggressive accusation against Israel (God’s chosen people)...that they are 100% corrupt, which is tied to being “estranged” (v 4) from our Father. Does being estranged from God lead to corruption, or does our corruption lead to our divine-estrangement?
  2. What is “worship”? Why do we gather together to worship?
  3. Why did these people keep going to worship services if they were living hateful lives the rest of the week? (why do we?)
  4. The same hands that are lifted up in worship are also “full of blood”. How do we struggle with “worship hypocrisy” where we do the church thing but the rest of the week we are (figuratively) murderers?
  5. God is fed up with “vain offerings”. What makes an offering “vain”?
  6. What is the link between our outside-of-church life with what we do in corporate worship? How is this passage NOT saying that we shouldn’t go to church if we sin too much?
  7. How do we so often make church more about me and what I want (or “need”) than about God? Give examples? Push back on that a little as well...how/why does church also need to meet the personal needs of the congregation?
  8. What would it look like to leave church not critiquing how it pleased (or displeased) me but simply in AWE of God and Jesus’ grace?
  9. To get to this type of grateful worshipful heart, we need to really sit on the grace of v 18 -- Jesus’ love and grace is enough to RESCUE and RENEW our estranged hearts, which draws us into AWE of God. How does Jesus’ estrangement from the Father on the cross give us rescue from ours? How is His perfect offering on the Cross the antidote to our “vain offerings”?
  10. How can this type of worship lead to authentic outward sacrificial acts of love (vs. 16-17)?

QUOTES:

  • “It takes an experience of beauty to knock us out of our self-centeredness.” - Timothy J. Keller
  • “If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.” - John Piper
  • “God’s glory and perfection are inexhaustible. We can’t say enough about how glorious he truly is. The greatest gift he can give us is a revelation of himself.” - Mike Cosper (Rhythms of Grace)
  • “It is religion which leaves iniquity unchallenged and unchanged that the prophet, and, more importantly, God detest.” - John Oswalt 
  • “Western views of justice are primarily focused on how things should be done—laws, rules, and what should happen when laws are broken. In Hebrew thought, justice is focused on what life should be like. Justice in the Hebrew world was concerned not just with laws, but with enhancing all human life, especially the social world. “Doing justice” meant not only “not doing wrong,” but also actively doing right and restoring what is broken” ― Jessica Nicholas (God Loves Justice: A User-Friendly Guide to Biblical Justice and Righteousness)
  • “I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as 'God on the cross.' In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?... Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering. 'The cross of Christ ... is God’s only self-justification in such a world as ours.” - John Stott
  • “All I have is a voice. To undo the folded lie. We must love one another or die.” - W.H. Auden
  • “What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” - Albert Pike

BOOKS / ARTICLES / DOCS 

SHORTER CATECHISM
Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

  1. 2. What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
    A. The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.
  2. 3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?
    A. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
  3. 4. What is God?
    A. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

SERMONS / TALKS: