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Sep 15, 2019

Near and Far

Passage: Isaiah 6:1-8

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: Isaiah

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: worship, holiness, glory, honor, reflect, serve

God is infinitely perfect, pure, holy and beyond, which deeply draws us into awe-filled worship while also revealing how impure we are in heart and actions. But instead of leaving us in shame, God comes to us in the persons of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, purifying us, empowering us to be in community with Him and each other, and sending us out as his Grace-emissaries. 

Order of worship

PRELUDE: Joe v.s. Volcano

CALL TO WORSHIP: Hebrews 10:19-23 ESV

READING: 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

MUSIC:

  • I Stand Amazed
  • How Great Thou Art
  • How Great Is Our God
  • Holy, Holy, Holy

PRAYER: The Lord’s Prayer ESV

MESSAGE: Near and Far

CENTRAL TEXT: Isaiah 6:1-8

ILLUSTRATION: Trailer - Amazing Grace

RESPONSE: 

  • Corporate Confession of Sin:
  • Eternal God, in whom we live and move and have our being, whose face is hidden from us by our sins, and whose mercy we forget in the blindness of our hearts: Cleanse us from all our offenses, and deliver us from proud thoughts and vain desires, that with reverent and humble hearts we may draw near to you, confessing our faults, confiding in your grace, and finding in you our refuge and strength; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen
  • Assurance of Pardon: Romans 5:1-2
  • 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

BENEDICTION: Revelation 5:11-13

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Matthew 28:18 
  • Exodus 3:4-5
  • Matthew 1:23 (quoted from Isaiah 7:14)
  • Matthew 27:51-54

MEDIA:

9.15.19 Album

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Do you think of God as being wholly other and beyond us, or relational and among (with, even in) us?
  2. Talk about God’s absolute transcendence (indescribably pure and beyond). Think about how God was rightfully seen and revered in the Old Testament. Why couldn’t humans even look at his face without dying (Ex 33:20)
  3. Explain Isaiah’s response to being in God’s presence (especially given that he would be very familiar with all the scripture that explains what “should” happen to him). How might this compare with our response to being in God’s perfectly pure presence?
  4. Explain God’s solution to Isaiah’s impurity? What does “atoned” mean?
  5. In light of this, what is the inconceivable significance of God himself, his very real and true self, being fully “immanent” (right here among us) in the person of Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit.
  6. Why do we absolutely require BOTH Transcendence and Immanence? What if we only had one or the other? Or half of each (instead of 100% of each)?
  7. Explain the significance then of, at Jesus’ death, the temple curtain tearing in two (this is the curtain that separated the “Holy of Holies” (God’s place of special presence) from the “Holy Place” (the place for priests to be prepared to enter the Holy of Holies)).
  8. How can we live in heart-shaking AWE of a Holy God...AND confidently be compassionately embraced by our Heavenly Daddy?
  9. After Isaiah and we are atoned, we are THEN sent as his ambassadors...to do what? By what power (given that HIS power is literally living inside of us)

QUOTES:

  • “God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.” - The Shorter Catechism (from 1674)
  • “. . . for the first time in my life I felt myself in the presence of personal sanctity.” - W.H. Auden (of the author, and Inkling, Charles Williams)
  • “As an old monk on Mount Athos once told me, contemplative prayer is the art of seeing reality as it truly is; and, if one has not yet acquired the ability to see God in all things, one should not imagine that one will be able to see God in himself.” - David Bentley Hart (The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss)
  • “It takes an experience of beauty to knock us out of our self-centeredness.” - Timothy J. Keller
  • “In the end, that Face which is the delight or terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either with one expression or with the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised.” - C.S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory)
  •  "Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him… To love a holy God requires grace, grace strong enough to pierce our hardened hearts and awaken our moribund souls." - R.C Sproul 

    BOOKS / ARTICLES

    The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis

    The Best Book on Personal Holiness by Ben Rogers (Gospel Coalition)

    The Holiness of God by R.C Sproul

    SERMONS / TALKS: 

    The Gospel and Your Self by Timothy J. Keller

    Isaiah 6:1-13

    The Prophets Call by Scott Sauls

    Isaiah 6:1-13

    Holiness by The Bible Project