How God Sanctifies our Mouths - Pastor Wadie Marcos

You know, I love a a verse in Genesis, chapter three. I'll just read it with you all. Verse 19, this is the Lord speaking to Adam. He says, in the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it, you were taken for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.

So dust you are. That's the introduction that we should all get. Hey, dust, come and and speak. And I really praise the Lord for, for his goodness that that he is willing to use dust, for his glory. I praise the Lord for pastor Daniel.

You know, I I I think the best title is brother in Christ, and we are as brethren to come and and, and share share his love with one another. Praise the Lord for pastor Daniel, and I thank you guys for willing to sharing him with us as he has come and shared the word with us, and God used him mightily in our midst. Pastor Daniel, is it okay if I, you know, give a test or a quiz to the congregation? That's alright. So the pastor said it, if anyone is upset, you know who to talk to.

I wanna read three portions from scripture. And I I'll make it a easy test. And my question is, what seems to be similar in these parts of scripture? And then we'll, we'll dive into them. The, book of Exodus chapter four verse 10.

Then Moses said to the Lord, oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. So the Lord said to him, who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing of the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.

Isaiah chapter six. I believe you all are studying in the book of Isaiah on Friday night. Verse five. So I said, woe is me, for I am undone because 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, the Lord of hosts.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged. Last reading, the book of Jeremiah chapter one. Jeremiah one verse six.

Then said I, oh, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth. But the lord said to me, do not say I am a youth, for you shall go to all to whom I send you. And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth.

And the Lord said to me, behold, I have put my words in your mouth. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this time. We thank you that you are God almighty. You are God the consuming fire, yet you are with us and you're among us and we're not consumed.

And all of this, we can thank you because of the miracle and because of the work, the sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did on that cross, that because he carried our sin, that he who knew no sin became sin and carried that penalty that if we confess our sin and repent and accept his work that he's done for us on that cross, we may be saved. We thank you for that veil that was parted. As you're on the cross from top to bottom to show that salvation can only come from above. But because of that, we no longer have to fear to enter into the holy of holies. And you have given us access, not just through the high priest once a year, but we can boldly enter into that throne of grace.

But not just boldly enter, but we walk out receiving grace and mercy in time of need. Lord, we pray for anointing. We pray that You would speak to us. Lord, we can care less about any human, any person, any philosophies, but we want your voice, we want your anointing, we want you to come in the picture. Lord, we want to be like the disciples who were in fear, but then you appear to them after the resurrection, it says, and they rejoiced and the source of their joys for they have seen the Lord.

And so we want to see you Lord, we don't want anyone else in the image, in the picture, but we just want you. Pray for strength, pray that you would overlook every weakness, that we come relying on your grace, that you'd speak to our hearts, that you bring fruit from these words. We pray this in Jesus' name. So by the way, I, on Friday night, the first thing I noticed when I walked in here is the pulpit. I don't know who made it or who came up with the idea, but three of the songs today were about the holy of holies, the cross, and the veil.

If you notice from top, it's it's, you know, it's bigger. The the and it's coming this way, so it's torn. It's pretty amazing. And this is really why we entered because of the blood of Jesus. Before I, well, let me ask, what's what's similar?

Any similarities between these three readings? They all have to do with speech? All have to do with speech. Amen. That's actually the core.

Yes. Any other similarities? There was not just a speech, but he dealt with their mouth. Absolutely. Anything else?

Amen. I think that's perfect. So before we talk, I have a question, another quiz. Pastor Daniel, on Friday night, for those who were here Friday night, does anyone remember the three words, the three things that have to do with serving God that he shared? Sacrifice.

Sacrifice. Yes. The first one. Actually, wow. That's even in order.

What's the second one? Peace. Peace. Amen. Wow.

You guys what's the Glory. Amen. And that I would call the ideal. The ideal that we need in order to serve God, in order to to to live for him, in order for for for a church to thrive. And by the way, how many people should do that in the congregation?

All believers. Right? I mean, so sometimes in congregation there's non believers, but all believers should be part of that. Now I wanna talk about today is something similar, but not the ideal. We heard the ideal.

More about what is it that gets in the way? What gets in the way or what are my excuses or what hinders me or what makes me not effective in order to do that? Now, every believer should be speaking. Right? How many people how many believers should be sharing the word?

What do you think? Every single believer should be sharing the word. So I'm not talking to pastors. I'm not talking to people who have a teaching ministry or a preaching ministry. I What's on my heart is to talk about everyone.

And so here there are three people, now just let's name them. So they are Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah. What's common among these three people? What's their job? All of them have the same job.

Right? They're all prophets. Right? All prophets. And they all should be God's voice.

But all of them had complained about their mouth. I can't. I can't share. But each one had a different excuse of why they couldn't share. So the first So let's talk about Jeremiah.

In Jeremiah chapter one, what was his excuse? Why couldn't he share? What was his problem that made him not wanna share the word? He's young. He's young.

I'm youth. I'm young. And what was Isaiah's problem? Unclean lips. Unclean lips.

He says, I'm not I'm actually quite experienced, but I'm not proud of my lips and what they say. How about Moses? What was his? Stuttering heavy, lack of eloquence. And I think there might be more, but we'll we'll leave him for last.

Moses is is complex. I will try to be very focused, as as we share because these these are very, very, deep. So I'm not we're not going deep. We're going from a helicopter view looking and trying to look at what is it that stops me from wanting to share the word of God with others? What is it that makes me as I want to serve, but then this stops me from serving God?

We don't have to have a title. We don't have to have, assigned be assigned a job in the church to serve God effectively. Every one of us can just God expects us to be Him, represent Him, and be His voice. So let's look at the, Jeremiah one. Jeremiah says, then said I, verse six, oh, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.

So look at his response. This is his response. Well, what did the Lord say? Look at verse five. Behold, I formed you before I formed I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

Before you were born, I sanctified you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Did he say, like, did he say anything yet? Like, go speak or anything? I mean, he kind of understood.

Right? Ordained you a prophet to the to the nation. So he's like, okay. I think where you're I see where you're going. I'm a step ahead of you.

Means next is what you want me to speak, but however, you haven't seen my age. Youth. And I like the word, you know, the the the bible is so deep, and having different languages I think helps, and looking at different translations helps to get down to the to the meaning. In Arabic, the word is. You know what means?

Like really young, like a boy. Okay? It's not like you you would use it for just someone really really young. So I would say, you know, probably doesn't apply. The age is probably below everyone in this room.

So he's saying I'm too young, too little to talk. And in verse five, I want us to understand something about how amazing our God is. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. So here, I'm I'm about to form you in the womb. So birth, it's a miracle.

Birth is a miracle. Trust me. I've delivered babies. It's a miracle. But before and how a person comes to be, and if you read in the Psalms, I don't understand how people talk about abortion and want to give it a right, but that is not our topic.

I wish I could talk about it, but we have to I have to I'm gonna have to try to be focused. But here he's saying before I formed you, you didn't just come from two people that came together and then you came to be. No. Actually, I was involved in the whole process. I formed you.

So before I came to form you, I'm now put your name there. I came and I'm about to form you. Okay? You came to you came here. Before I did that, he says I knew you.

Now I tell you, that's I'm already I don't know. You know, have you ever had some people say, you know, you've had me at hello or, you know, speech figure speech like that? When the Lord says that you've had me at I knew you, you, God knows me. Have you ever been like kinda noticed by someone or someone knows who you are and you feel so special? Now especially if that person becomes more magnificent or really like of a lot of worth, now you're like wow.

And especially if they call you by name and they bring you in, you feel really really special. I'll give you an example. In in our company, one of the things that we want to do is we want to bring service, like a personal touch. So we have a tricky way of we don't call out, you know, like, you go in there. I don't know if you ever been to the doctor.

So I was like, You know, you're like, woah. Shh. You know, I don't want anyone to know I'm at the doctor. That's not what they do. They the way they we give a description, and the person comes up to you and very softly says, hey, Wadiya.

And you're like, how did you know? Like, you've never met me before. How do you know that that was me? And people are blown away by that. And here, it is not something and by the way, do you guys know how wanna know how we do it?

We take pictures and then obviously with consent, but if people don't want to take a picture, we say, you know, tall person with blonde hair or, you know, whatever. We describe him where it's where you can kinda say, oh, that's what it is, and the person goes to you and then you feel very special. But no none of that with God. He actually knows us. He knows us and he says, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

Before you were born, so now this is now nine months later. Right? Before you were born, I sanctified you. You're mine. I ordained you a prophet to the nations.

There's gonna be an ordination in a few hours. I ordained you a prophet to the nations. This is crazy. And how old is Jeremiah? He's a boy.

He's a youth. He's a young guy. A really young guy. And here we see something so special and so amazing about our God, is that he says, hey, I want you to know that when you came to be born, I was involved in every part of it. So your height, that's the perfect height for what it is that I have you or I called you for.

Your nose. Okay. People from Arabic descent, we have trouble with a little complex about our nose. It's like that. Because what I have made you for.

K? You're this? No. That's all me. But you see, God is saying, hey, here's here's what I really did.

I said, you know what? I need a prophet for the nations. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna make Jeremiah, and the way I'm gonna make Jeremiah, I'm gonna make him in this way, and I'm gonna be very specific. And I know him, and I've sanctified him, and so time to work.

I got nine months to do this, so he brings him and he forms him. He does all these things. It's not all genetic, you know, mutations. No. It is made by God to make this very special person.

And as he realized that, he said, oh, Lord God, this is I'm blown away. I'm blown away by why? What what do you see in me? I don't see it. Lord, I'm not special.

And as a matter of fact, I'm not even trained. I don't even have the ability. I don't have the skill. I don't even have the knowledge. And I tell you, this is a common thing when a new person comes to Christ.

The first thing that stops us from wanting to share is I don't know enough. I don't know enough. I don't know enough theology. You don't have to know enough theology. Have you ever met a lady in the gospel of John chapter four?

You guys know her name? I don't. Her name is the Samaritan woman. It doesn't mention her name. Because it's not significant.

She's significant. But her name is not mentioned so you could plug your name and I could plug my name there. And you know what she told them? You know how much theology she said to them? None.

She says, oh, but there's a man who told me all the things that I've done. And that was enough to make the whole city come out to meet Jesus, and then it was because of her words. And then after that when they met him, they're like, okay. Your words, you led us to him. And then it says now what we are blown away by him because you led us to him.

Now you know what's amazing is I I I when I play that story in my head and I try to meditate and dig into it, I don't get it. It doesn't make sense to me. A man told me all the things, really? That's what bring people to Christ? Because if I if I'm any of those people, like, well, we could tell you everything you've done.

You know, your reputation is quite known, but I don't think it's that that did it. It's how she said it. They're like, you're different. You've changed. We're blown away by your demeanor.

Something has changed about you. Guys, I pray that we stop having excuses of why we don't share. Now this is not an excuse to not dig into the word and study the word. But as we encounter people, you know what we will find? We'll find there's a lot we don't know.

But you know what that will do? It will bring us on our knees to seek God that we may know and learn. And I pray that none of us are there to debate others. We're not there to win debates. We're there to win souls for Christ.

I pray that we don't complain about how we are and what we are, but that we are thankful that we are precious, unique, special, made by him and for him. Then I then said I, oh, Lord God, verse six, behold I cannot speak for I am a youth. And he says, I object, Lord. I can't. I'm too young.

But the Lord said to me, did the Lord like it? Was the Lord okay with his excuse? He's like, oh, yeah. You know what? You're right.

Sorry. Let's do some training. Did he do that? He did not care for it. He he called him out on it.

He says, do not say I am a youth. I'm not I'm not accepting it. I don't want that from you. I will not take it. Do not say I am a youth, for you shall go to all to whom I send you.

Here's what I want of you and here's what I expect of you. And by the way, before that, you know, I think one of the things that kinda scared him, he says you will not He didn't tell me you're gonna be a prophet to Israel. He says the prophet to what? The nations. I mean couldn't you find someone a little more experienced to do nations?

Global? Really? Me? And here he says, listen. Don't even say that.

He didn't even he didn't he didn't even go into that complex of his. He says, first of all, here's what I need you to do. You are not here to come and pray your will in you pray me into your will. We heard about that on Friday. You are here to to report for duty.

I want you to do this for you shall go to all whom I send you. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to just I want you to be flexible. I tell you go here, that's where you go. Okay?

I don't want you to choose where you go. Not your choice. It's my choice. But not just that, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. So your location should always be in my will and also your words should always be my words.

And I tell you, this is so amazing. I wish there's time, but for the sake of time, I'm not gonna go there. But if you open up act 16, not right now, there's an amazing thing that happened. Paul goes, he picks Timothy, and it's him and Silas. And then afterward, they decide to go to one area.

And as they're heading to that area, the Holy Spirit forbids them, don't go there. And you know what they did? Like Jeremiah, they didn't. And then they went to this other place, and they're like, okay. We're in the right place, but now I wanna speak.

And the Holy Spirit forbade them not to be there, but to speak. So you know what they did? They sipped it. They didn't speak. They obeyed the Holy Spirit just like Jeremiah.

And then Paul is like, wait a minute. I got Everybody's here. Silas is here. Timothy is here. I'm here.

Don't you wanna use me? Then he's waiting and waiting and waiting. And then he had a dream. And in this dream, there was a man. And the man said, come over here and help us.

And then he says he woke up and he says, we headed right over there. And that we knew for sure that the Lord wanted us what? To share the word. He just said, come help us. He says, oh, I'm just now I know the location and now I know that what?

That's where he wants me to share. So they went over there and it's pretty a pretty fascinating story. So they go over there and then they get to that area. So it's Macedonia. Macedonia is a region.

The first part of it is Philippi. By the way, one of the most amazing churches. And if you read Philippians and study Philippians, wow. Amazing. So he goes to Philippi in the first place and then they go and remember, in the dream, who who did he see in a dream?

A Macedonian. Gender? Man. So when he goes over there, he meets no man. It's so crazy.

He goes and he see he he goes by the river and guess who's gathering? Lydia. Lydia. But before Lydia, is it is your name Lydia? So Lydia, you're right.

My sister's name is Lydia. But before Lydia, where was Lydia? It was meeting with whom? Does anyone know? Women.

Women. It was women praying. So they go and like, there's no men here. So you would be like, okay, I'm out of here. No.

He didn't. He stayed there. And so there were women, and then he shared with them in the prayer meeting, and then Lydia, the Holy Spirit opened her eyes and opened her heart, and she received the Lord. Okay. Goes out the next time.

Again what? There's a woman. But this woman has a spirit of divination. Like where's the man? Give me a man, like I need a man.

This He said a man said come help us. Where's the Why am I seeing a bunch of ladies? All All due respect to ladies, but I heard I saw a man. And then he goes And then he casts out that demon, and then from there he goes and becomes imprisoned. And then it turned out that that jailer was the man.

You see, God doesn't when he reveals God is funny. He reveals the location, maybe the man, but then leaves the rest open. Because there's surprises. You know, some places we might not go to. Can you imagine if the Lord says, oh yeah, and that man, by the way, you're gonna get a beating and go to prison.

How many of us would be like, you know Barnabas? You know, the last chapter we kinda like broke off. He started it, you know, so Plus his back's a little tough, you know, he's been lifting weights. He can take a beating, you know, we would have lots of excuse, but God doesn't tell us these things. God protects us.

He says, hey, I'm with you step by step. I'll give you on an as needed basis what you need. Just go where I need you to go and say what I need you to say. Do not say I am a youth for you shall go to all to whom I send you and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces.

My expectation is no fear. Do not be afraid of their faces. I'm gonna have to go really fast now. Now. For I am with you to deliver you says the Lord.

You got me. I'm on your side and I'm going to deliver you. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said to me, your problem is your mouth? Amen. I don't want you to just kinda blur things out.

Say, oh, I was just, you know, I'm young and spontaneous. No. I need you to process it. And so you know what? I'm gonna be with your mouth.

Your mouth needs anointing. Your mouth needs a touch. I'm gonna touch you. Oh, I wish I was there. I want the Lord to touch my mouth.

That's amazing. Touched your mouth, my mouth. And the Lord said to me, behold, I have put my words in your mouth. Can you imagine? You know what that means?

I I just picture it like, the Lord is I want the Lord to feed me. I can't be a baby. I got just please. You know, I I want that touch and I want that feeding. I want the words you to put the words into my mouth.

Lord, protect me from talking too much. Lord, protect me from having my agenda. Lord, protecting me protect me from saying my words, but let it be your hand touching me and your hand feeding me. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms. Wow.

Does this blow you guys away? This little boy, Jeremiah, he is the lord is telling him. Okay. That's pretty authoritative. There's no higher authority that I'm aware of to give that to bestow that.

He says, I have set you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms. What did this just make Jeremiah? The most powerful man on earth in my opinion. Right? Over the nations.

Who's over all the nations? Who? Jeremiah. Right? I have said to you over the nations and over the kingdoms.

How about every kingdom? Who's over all the kingdoms? Jeremiah. So here you have what? Every king reporting to Jeremiah and every nation reporting to Jeremiah.

Well, that's not how it really plays out, but that's really the power that God has given him. He says, listen, you are invincible. You are immortal. And I tell you, this is an absolute truth. Every one of us as believers are immortal until our time comes.

Before that, it's impossible. Impossible. You know, the church the church looks like why is the church alive? Why is there really a church anywhere? It doesn't make any sense.

Logically, it does not. But because Jesus said that the doors of hell, the doors of cannot overtake you. It's protected by the power of Jesus. So you and I are protected by Jesus. No one can touch us.

No one can hurt us unless it's our time. And in that time, guess what he does? He gives strength. He gives grace. So we don't have to be fearful of that.

See, I have set you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, and here's what I need from you. And I want to talk about the ministry. The ministry of all these three people was something that none of us would ever sign up for. But the Lord says, I want you. And he's saying, I want you.

Don't give me excuses. This excuse, I'm young, it's lame. God doesn't want it, doesn't accept it. But here he says, here's what I need from you to do, to root out, to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant. How many things did he talk about?

Six things. How many are positive? Two. How many seem hard and harsh? Four.

Which one started first? The rough. You wanna build brokenness? You can't have this wishy washy, like, oh, please. You know?

If the Lord if you would like and positive and no. No. No. No. You gotta call it out.

First thing he says root out. You know what root out means? If you take something from its roots, when is it coming back? Never. He says there's some things in your life.

There's some things in the congregation that have to be you cannot, you know, let's say, well let's work on it. Let's pray about it. No. You gotta root it out. You gotta get rid of it from its root and this to never ever come back.

And there's some things that you gotta pull down. There's some things that you gotta destroy. You know what you do when you destroy it? It doesn't come back. To destroy and I want you to also throw down.

There it is important. Now I tell you, if a church, all it has is rebuke, I think there's something wrong. That's not a balanced gospel. But if all the church has is encouraging words also, that is not a balanced gospel. So here he says, I want you to go and take care of all these things and I want you to take care of it from every different angle.

By the way, what's he And after that, to build and to plant. What's he talking about? Buildings and fields. You guys remember that scary verse that pastor Daniel shared from first Corinthians chapter three about those who defile the temple? We are the temple.

What's he gonna do? Destroy them and what new the new testament. And here he's talking about that. Right? Root out, that's what?

Plans. Everything else is building. And in that same chapter, first Corinthians chapter three, a little bit before, he talks about that if you mess with the temple of God, he will destroy you. He talks about what? Two things, planting and building.

He says listen, that is ministry. It's like those two things. It's like a field, it's like a building. You can't build a building on ground that you don't dig in there and you clean out stuff. It's it's gonna fall down.

I was an architecture major before I switched, so I know something. So my dad's an architect. Oh, that the Lord would give us boldness. Who's he talking to? A youth, inexperienced.

He says, speak what I tell you. Go where I tell you. Don't be afraid. I got you. I wish I could finish this chapter, but I think for the sake of time, I'll move on to Isaiah.

Jeremiah had a very challenging ministry, but you know what? He believed God and he accepted. When God wouldn't accept his excuse, he says, okay, Lord. I'll report for duty. I'll go where you want me, and I'll say what you want me to say.

And he said some things, and he had things happen to him. But you know what? God's promise to him, if you read all of Jeremiah, it's a long book, you're going to find that no one was able to take away his life. And actually, when they were taken captive, if I if my memory serves me correct, he was the only one given an option, where do you wanna go? Do you wanna come?

Do you wanna stay? Amazing. God's protection. He was thrown and then they tried to kill him. And then there was advocating for him and then he was pulled out and the king is like, hey, I'm a coward.

I'm a coward. I'm afraid. I I I believe you, but I can't. I can't do what you're saying. And you see God's favor and God's protection.

I pray that we don't give that excuse. Now let's go to Isaiah chapter six. And here we see that Isaiah, woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips. What's his excuse? His lips are unclean.

Now I just want you guys to know, his he was already a prophet. He's not inexperienced like Jeremiah. I mean, he was been a prophet for a while. Unclean lips. What do you think of when you think of unclean lips?

I'll tell you what I think of, like profanity, you know, and like off color jokes. I can tell you that is not Isaiah's issue. Okay? His issue is a real issue, and it's an issue that hinders. And it happens sometimes when we start off as a Jeremiah.

And we say, lord, you know what? Okay. I I'm gonna trust in you. I'm gonna walk with you. I'm gonna go on this journey because it's in you and I'm relying on you.

And as we do that, ministry hits, and then we start to get discouraged. Okay? You find they say 10% of the people do 90% of the work in churches. And then sometimes people, like, feel like, oh, you know what? I'm going by my own strength.

And and just people, just you become a little bit jaded. And the flesh comes in, Satan comes in, and it messes with people as they serve God and they start to be kind of like not trusting. Not feeling like God God is never gonna do anything. God can't move anymore. And then we we hit this plateau, and it's a it's a state of the heart.

It's a state of the heart where we get to a place where we become judgmental, but in a bad way. We don't see God's people anymore through God's eyes. We don't see him through him, so we don't see them through grace. And it becomes a huge problem and he says, hey, I realize that I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell among people with unclean lips. Now if you go to Isaiah five, again, I wish I had time.

If you go to Isaiah five, there's at least seven woes. That he says, woe is you and woe is you and woe is you. Then he realized like, wait a minute. Chapter six comes, he sees God. And then he before he says woe is you, he says woe is me.

And it's this issue that is really important. By the way, judging. Are we supposed to judge or not? What do you guys think? Judge rightly.

You guys don't fall for my traps. You judge righteously. Amen. So, you know, sometimes Christians, we have this idea like, don't judge me. Okay?

You know? It's like, psssh, judgy, aren't we? That is not that is not what it means. If you open up I don't we don't have time. If you open up the gospel of Matthew chapter seven, Sermon on the Mount.

He says, judge not, lest you be judged. By the measure that you judge, you will be judged. And then the Lord by the way, the Lord's funny. He gave this really funny example that if you if you draw a cartoon of it, you'd be like, wow, this is hilarious. It's really really funny.

So he talks about, hey, you know, why do you wanna go take out the speck from your brother's eye when you got what? A plank in your own eye. And then he says what? What do you gotta do? What's what's his what's his, advice?

Guys remember? Take out your own plank and then what? Go and take out their then you will be able to see clearly and take out the speck from their eyes. And I tell you, I've taken stuff out of people's eyes. This is a very scary thing.

But can you imagine, okay, you come to me as a doc you're like, are you a doctor? Yeah. Are you really trained yet? Do you have a license? Yeah.

Okay. I got something in my eye. Can you help me? Well, supposedly my degree says I should be able to. And then I come to you and then I'm, are you ready to let me come close to your eye?

Like, I think, you know, no thank you. I'll go to someone else. Or have you done this before? You know, like, let's make sure that there's some experience like Or let's say, you know, I'm coming and I'm like I'm going like that, you know, I'm about to get close to your eye. Like, no thank you.

I'd rather live with the speck than with some kinda like, you you do something really bad to me to hurt me. Why would I do that? And so the lord is saying, hey man, if you got a big old plank, you can't see a thing, but take out that plank. So woe is me first, and then what you can really see really well, what the speck in your brother's eye. And what he's saying is be hard on yourself.

Okay? Sin is sinful. And I want you to go and repent of it. When you deal with it with yourself, stand, don't call it other names. Don't play it down.

Don't water it down. Call it for what it is and repent for real. But when you see your brother doing it, do it Ephesians six verse one style. If your brother has overtaken a trespass, and in in Arabic if you read it, it's like it's it's kinda like he happened to trip. You do it in a very merciful way.

You look at them and you're like and then you who are spiritual, restore. It's not to expose. It's not to kick them out. Not to use it as leverage. Restore.

You want them to come back such a one with a spirit of gentleness. Look into yourself first because you're no better. You could fall into that. Same thing. And then he talks The next verse talks about shoulder.

Let's let's pick it up together. Okay? I'm gonna need I'm gonna fail. None of us are not gonna fall, are not gonna fail, and none of us don't sin. So when you see it, rather than being butch, be gentle.

Come. Give me a shoulder. Don't let me crack down behind my weight. Help me out. But look at it as a speck when when you see someone else.

And so Isaiah needed that in his life. But in order to do that, you know what happens to people when we become like that? It's almost always this thing. You ask the brother whenever he sees a brother being a little rough, say when was the last time you've seen Jesus? Because when we see him, we get perspective.

When we see him, we say, woah. Yeah. You died on that cross. I have entrance into the holy of holies, and, oh, I'm a sinner. And and I still sin and and you haven't given up on me?

By the way, none of these people got fired them. I would have fired them, and when it gets to Moses, I'm a fire him for sure. Fired? But he says, no, we're gonna work on it. I'm gonna use you and you have no way out.

You're getting you're gonna do this. So if you came here, if you're a believer and you're trying to escape, you can't. God wants to use you today, not tomorrow. You know, I wish we, we had finished the Jeremiah thing, Cause then God gave him a visual thing. He says, hey, what did you see?

He says, an almond. He says, I'm ready to do this now, today. Wait. What do you mean? Like, I I need to, like, kinda, like, read a little bit.

No. No. No. Today. Like, right now.

Yeah. Use you right now. And then he's like, okay. Well, how about this message thing? He's like, oh, do you see a boiling pot?

And then he says, it's happening. And and the first message I want you to say is, you guys will be destroyed. Can you imagine that's like your first message to preach to somebody? Like, what kinda? Like, Lord, hello?

No. It's my first, like, my first time in the pulpit, my first time in this place. Why would you wanna do that? Like, come on, like let people accept me. He's like, no.

You're gonna Of course they're gonna wanna kill me and do all these things. Of course you need to protect me. You put me You shut me up. But that's not how it is. Now And it's not the flavor, it's what I want to say now.

If it's four tough things or two easy things, just take it. Don't only take the two, the build and the plant. So here's what happened. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up. For the sake of time, I'm gonna be very, very fast in what I shared.

I think King Uzziah needed to die in order for Isaiah to see this magnificent vision. King Uzziah was an extremely successful extremely successful king, and he has done some things for the nations that you can compare be comparable even to David. Talking about territory and expansion and things that he's accomplished. From talking from a administrative standpoint. He's done some amazing things.

Even spiritually, he's done some great things. Towards the end, he kind of like, woah, his heart was lifted up, and he had the leprosy. And so everybody just looked at him and like, wow. Wow. And he and instead of focusing on God, they started focusing on him.

They focused on him so much, it got to his head that he said, I could be a priest too. King and priest. And for those amazing priests, by the way, that stood against him, that is bold. That is bold. People I I don't know too many people that could do that today.

Stand up and say, no. It is not for you. And they withstood him in day one. They said, get out. And then the lord showed up with leprosy, and he's like, uh-oh.

He says, okay. This is way bigger. These guys are right. So king Uzziah, the hope of people died, and I don't know what it is that's king Uzziah for you, that that you rely more on than god in my life. What is that?

I tell you, that can't be put aside. That can't be put for a rainy day. It's gotta die. No more. No more.

You know, I used to before I came to the Lord, I used to be into rap, but bad rap. Gangster type rap with lots of profanity. I used to my the crowd I hung out with was gangsters and, I used to scare gangsters. I know it doesn't look like it, but I was a pretty scary guy. So when I came to Christ and I gave my life to Christ, I had CDs.

I know you guys may not know what those are and some tapes, and you're like, what? So I put this away in a box in my closet, and I would just spend hours every day with the Lord and want to learn and want to see God, want to serve God, and live for him. And then one day, I opened my closet, and I remember it was a white shoe box. And I felt the Lord tugging on my heart, what's that? I was like, oh, it's just, you know, CDs.

Why are they there? I'm never gonna listen to them. So why are they there? You know what the truth was in my heart? It's what if one day I just decide to, you know, be lukewarm or not wanna live for God or and then I got cornered.

And I felt the Lord saying, well, are you planning to do that? And I was like, this is crazy. So I took the that box and I threw it into the trash. I tell you, I felt like an amazing thing, like like there's no turning back. King Oziah, I don't know what your King Oziah, but back then my King Oziah was those was rap music.

I did some rap songs, Christian ones after for a little bit. They're not very good. But King Uzziah's gotta die. I pray that he dies because until he dies, we can't see this magnificent scene. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up.

Where's the Lord sitting? On a throne. You know, I tell you, sometimes we get so preoccupied. We look at news. We see things that happen in all the world.

Right? Look at Israel and Palestine. Look at the Middle East. Look at ISIS. Look at all these things.

Do people think that the Lord's sitting on the throne? He is. You know why we don't see that? Because we are not seeing what Isaiah is seeing. We are seeing things through Earth's perspective, not through God's perspective.

And the reason we don't see things through God's perspective is because we have not seen God. Because I'm distracted. I'm disrupted by Hosea, by whatever in my life. And he says, hey, I want you to know that he is still on the throne. He is on that throne.

And by the way, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you look at, John 12, you can if you have trouble with any Jehovah's Witness, you say, who is this? They say this is God. So you take it to John 12, it tells you that's Jesus. And then Jehovah's Witness will walk away, hopefully.

And the train of his robe filled the temple. Not only is he sitting on the throne, but it's glorious. His train of that's the symbol of his glory. His glory is everywhere. Fills the temple above it, and we we sang about this in in this exact chapter was the first song.

And above it stood Seraphim. And what are Seraphim? There are some some beings in heaven. This is the only some people believe this is the only time they're mentioned in scripture, some people believe that you see them in revelation in in in over there. But here you have Seraphim, and are they angels?

Maybe. I don't know. People call them angels, but it doesn't tell us. But it's there's it's an it's an it's a heavenly being and it has each one had six wings. So six wings total.

With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. So here we have now they're in the presence of God. The presence of God King and God glorious. And these are serving God and they're going with two they're flying, but the other two they're going this way and the other two they're going that way. And so you have what?

Six. A third is worship or service or work. And the other is reverence before God. And many times when we serve God, the reason we don't see the Lord is what? We spend too much time serving and very little sitting before him and worshiping.

Well, of course, we don't have perspective. We get tired. We do a Martha. Oh, Lord. Look at her.

She's sitting there all pretty and listening to you while I'm working. You worry and are troubled by two men. You don't sit down before me. You don't spend time with me. Well, of course, you're gonna not gonna have perspective.

For the sake of time, I'm gonna have to keep moving. And one cried to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. And here we talk about, man, it's holiness. God is holy. The whole earth is full of his glory.

And I tell you, this is a truth. The whole earth, back in Isaiah's time, was full of his glory. The whole earth today is full of his glory. All these things that are happening, it's part of his plan. He's coming, guys.

Are you ready? Am I ready? The whole earth is full of his glory. So instead of us reacting and seeing tragedy, sit in his presence, see his way, you'll be like, wow. You are magnificent.

And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke. Just an amazing everyone is doing the right thing at the right time in the right way. So I said, woe is me for I am undone because I'm a man of unclean lips. My heart is the posture is in the wrong place. I've become cynical.

I've become judgmental. I've looked down on God's people. I've looked down on your people, Lord. Lord, this is forgive me. I'm I'm done.

I'm undone. I'm I'm gonna die because I my lips are unclean, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. And by the way, he still has perspective. Gods are the other people, the Israelites, are they, like, all holy all of a sudden? No.

They still have unclean lips. But he says, I noticed, mine is really bad too. So I gotta fix mine, take out the plank, and then I can what? Go really look really well and do it well. Right?

Righteously help someone else in a good way. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king, the lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And God agrees. Yeah.

You have unclean lips. Just like he agreed with Jeremiah. You have any experience, so I'm gonna touch you, your mouth, and I'm gonna feed you. Here he says, yeah, we gotta deal with those lips. So but that one is not gonna be a touch or feeding you.

It's a live coal. Live coal. Have you ever drank hot tea a little too hot? Have you ever kissed a live coal? Just the dramatic, okay, this is crazy.

Like, no thank you. I'll repent a lot. I'll spend a lot of time. No, don't touch me. Like and and the the thing that scares me more, it says that he took it with the tongs.

The seraphim took it with tongs. That looks bad. Like, do why don't come here, please? That is not compatible. Okay?

If it's not compatible with you, it's not gonna be compatible with me. Lord, like, have mercy. No. I gotta burn those lips, those motives. Now maybe he had it in his hand, I mean, possibly, right?

It says, when the serpent flew to me having in his hand a live coal from which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. So it's possible that he took it and then put it like that and then But maybe, I think more probable in my mind, but I don't know. I have to study a little more. But maybe he went like that and, you know, and but whatever it is, it's scary. I'm sure they can handle live call a lot better than we can.

And he touched my mouth with it and said the whole mouth, that had to be very painful. But I tell you we have to do that painful thing of repentance even if we've been serving God for a while. Lord, I'm unclean, and lord, I see it even more now Now I'm now that I'm in your presence. I need to be cleansed, and I need you to touch me. Notice all three, by the way.

God is the one that came and dealt with the mouth. Say, Lord, help me with my mouth. Help me with my heart and my motives. Behold, this has touched your lips. Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin, purged.

The issue is the issue of sin and he dealt with it. And then finally, now he hears again. He's already been using him, but he says now let's do this the right way. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and whom who will go for us? He says, lord, really, you still wanna use me?

Even though I've come to this place to not see people through your way, even if I've even though I've come to this place that I see that I don't see you sitting on a throne, I feel things are chaotic, I don't see your glory filling the earth, even with all the cynicalness in me, you're still ready to say, hey, whom, how much shall I send? I still wanna use you? Yeah. Remember, the issue was sin. Crept in.

We dealt with it. Now it's time. Now it's time. Whom shall I send? And I'm not gonna force you, but I hope you'll sign up.

Will you come? Will you come and do this? And so he said to him, here am I. Send me. I stand up, Lord.

Thank you. Please. I'm unworthy. And if you look at his message, it's a very rough message, tough. Just gonna summarize it in one sentence.

Essentially, everyone you're gonna talk to won't listen. They're gonna be like You try to like, okay. The audio didn't work, let's do visual. You can't see. The eyes and the ears.

Until when, Lord? Okay. I can hang in there. Like, how long? Until they're taking the captive.

Like, what? But then there's a remnant. That's like forever. That's like beyond my time. Yeah.

I know. You see, I see guy guys sometimes we measure success by numbers. That is one form of success. Real success, spiritually, but not always. Sometimes, you know, quantity, sometimes quality.

Right? You can have smaller numbers and then the quality is getting bigger and say successful. Amen. That's also another possible true way of measure. But not always, because if we measure it that way, you know who'd be the most unsuccessful person sent by God throughout history?

Noah. Not a person. Only his family, eight people. Seven plus him. Not a person accepted God.

And I'll tell you who would get all the credit, Jonah. The entire city came from, forgive me, but the one of the most lame messages ever. You will die. In forty days, God will overthrow you. And it's a three day journey.

He only went one day. He's like, I can't do this thing. I I mean, after the the big fish and all that, you're still trying to, like, are you out of your mind? We are out of our minds sometimes. But we would measure success that way, guys.

But I'm saying it's also not an excuse to not seek God and want God to do the numbers and the quantity and the quality. But as we're doing it, focus. Make sure it's in his will. Because sometimes, some people, it's like, you know, bricks and walls and hard things, and that's successful. None of us would wanna be part of that.

But if he asked you to called you for that, will you do it? Would you be his voice? Moses, and I'll try to finish in ten minutes. Genesis chapter four. Moses, in essence, god Exodus four, sorry, was trying, god was trying to send him out, and he gave a bunch of excuses.

Excuse number one, you find in chapter three, which we don't have time to go over. Chapter three verse one verse 11. He says, who am I? Like, wrong. I'm I'm a nobody.

And then god responds to that. He says, actually, you my sign to you is you're gonna come and worship me on this Mountain. And then he says, I don't know you. I don't know you like that. I don't know your name.

Who are you? What's your name? I am YM, by the way, was one of the songs I was singing today. And in essence, what he's I was trying to say, like, you wanna know me? It's I show up I'm a variegated god.

I love that word. I come and I show up in the way that is needed at that moment. I'm not I don't I'm not just like a stamp. You come this way, that's it. I am who I am.

And then he comes and says people won't believe me. And then he says unless you deal with three things in your life, people won't believe you. And he talks about, in essence, he talks about the, Satan. He talks about the flesh. He talks about the world.

Unless I conquer those and God gives me victory over those, yeah, people won't believe us. We could talk about faith, but if we don't live it, it doesn't mean anything. And then he comes to this part, verse 10. Then Moses said to the Lord, oh my Lord, I am not eloquent. Okay?

I'm not a very good speaker. Neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant. K? If you go all the way in my past, neither before no. Not a eloquent speaker.

And right now, since you've spoken to to your servant, I'm not and I'll tell you what, I have a I have a speech impediment. But I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. Now if you open up Acts seven verse 22, it says that Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and he was mighty in word and deed. So he's eloquent. But I think here's what happened.

Moses right now do you guys know what how old he was at this time in his life, right, when the Lord met him at this moment? 80. 80. Do you guys know how old he was when he died? One twenty.

And Moses, when he planned it out, he kinda did his science study. And he says, you know, here's the age of a person. Psalm 90 was written by Moses. And he says, you know, by age, here's what I give people. You live to be 70.

But if you kinda like take care of yourself, you know, you work out, you exercise, you eat healthy, you make it to a strength to 80. No. That's it. You're done. So here, he's he's wrapping it up.

He's like, okay, I'm done. We're we're pretty good. We're about to, you know, I'm about to, I'm about to die. And this is when God is, like, trying to show up, like, let's start. Well, here's what happened with Moses.

He started out. The first 40, Moses with all the Egyptians feeding his head, he learned that he was everything. That's the first forty years of his life. The second forty years of his life, God had to undo all of that, so he learned he is nothing. And in the last forty years of his life, he learned that God is everything.

That's in essence, a a a sum up of his life. And here he's at the rock bottom of he is nothing and he's saying, lord, I am uneloquent. I can't do this. And God, you know, he probably had trouble speaking because you know what he did? He tended the flock of his father-in-law.

So all day, he's what? You know, that's all it is. A guy can have nothing to talk to, you know, there's no there's nothing. Finally, your strength is gone. Now Moses, when he was 40, he thought he's like, oh.

This again, act seven. He went. He saw an Egyptian hitting someone. He says, I get it. I get it.

It's me. I'm the savior. I'm gonna save this nation, and God's gonna use me killing one Egyptian at a time. So and he's so powerful. I mean, I can't I don't know how he did that with no one noticing except the Israelis.

Boom. Open. Bury. How do you do that so quickly? But he did it.

That guy is mighty. He's powerful. I don't know what kind of martial arts that was, but it was good. And then the word supposing. Oh, supposing.

What that does to us. Supposing that the Israelites would understand that through him, God will use him. It was the right ministry. Just the wrong time and the wrong method. Because remember the rich man and Lazarus?

They both died. The rich man did all the right things. It was just wrong place, wrong time. He repented. He was so merciful.

It's just wrong place, wrong time. You're in hell, man. I can't take it back. Everyone's gonna repent in hell. And so here sometimes as we serve God, we say, Lord, I can't speak.

And God deals with that and says I'm gonna feed you. I'm gonna touch your mouth and I'm gonna feed you. Then I get to a place where I become cynical. Just I feel like I'm doing this alone. And God says no, no, no.

You gotta see me. Get Repent. Let me let me touch you with some of my hot fire from the altar. Let me cleanse you so you can be fresh again. See me and now you see things and see people through my eyes.

But then sometimes we go and then we fail. We're like, I I am traumatized by my past failure. I tried it, Lord, and now I feel like that's it. There's no more time for me. I am 80.

I should be dead right now. You can't use me right now. So Lord, that's it. Use someone else. I can't speak.

I can't do any of this stuff and I want you to know if you failed. God is calling you today and he's not accepting that excuse either. He says, will you come? Will you let me use you? So as he said that so the lord said to him, who has made man's mouth?

By the way, I'm the creator. Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go. Your problem is your mouth?

No problems. I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say. You failed. Yes. You know why?

Because you went into your own strength. But this time, I want you to go, and I'm with you. I want you to go by my strength, relying on me, realizing you're nothing. And when you think you're done and there's no more hope in you, that's when God is ready to use you. He broke his expectation by another forty years.

80, I'm done, and I'm dead. I tell you, the old card, God doesn't accept it. The I failed card, God doesn't accept it. The I'm young card, God doesn't accept it. The I'm cynical, I'm jaded.

You don't know what happened. I've been through life. God doesn't accept it. God wants to use you. But he said, oh my lord, please send by the hand of whomever else you may send.

His last excuse. Do you guys find this a funny statement? Oh, my lord. Please send by the hand. Oh, my lord.

Send someone else. Like, how how can you say that in the same sentence? Oh, my lord. You know what my lord means? Like, I submit to you and then you're like, send someone else.

Are you crazy? Like, you talk to god like that? Oh, my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else you may send. And you know what happens when the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. Okay?

You don't wanna push God to where he was angry. God was angry. You know what he did with him? Let me give you one minute summary of the rest of this chapter. He says, okay.

Fine. I'm gonna send Aaron with you, his older brother. I'll tell you the worst thing that God can ever do to any of us. K? He still wants to use you and he's not gonna he's not gonna walk away.

He wants to use you. Just let just give up. Give in. But the worst thing that he can do to us is to give us that which we insist upon. Was Aaron so helpful to Moses?

Golden calf. He doesn't know who did that. Aaron. And and you know what Aaron did with how he answered to Moses? He's like, I don't know.

It just kinda happened. Like, the gold was just kinda like what do I do? Really? Yeah, the gold fell and there was fire on it all of a sudden, and then that's as funny as what people say about evolution, by the way. It's like really funny story, but not our topic.

Quite an imagination of the evolutionist, but quite an imagination of what? Aaron. Like like Moses is not dumb. They made me do, oh, wow. That's really a great man of God you are, high priest, the first high priest.

Don't insist. Do it his way. So finally Moses goes, and you know what happens? God comes out to kill him. He's like, god, are you on like, is this the is it in in the most reverent way, like, this sounds unstable a little bit, like, what God comes out to kill him, for real.

He's gonna kill him if you read that chapter. I want to get there in case someone wants to ask after, so this way we could just cover it right now. What? You you pursued him. You went through all his excuses, and you answered them all, and then you're like ready to use him, and then you go kill him when he's like finally like ready to go.

Yeah. Why? His wife goes. She circumcises their second son and touches him with the blood, and then God says okay. He wants to he says, oh, well you're pursuing me God, so I'm gonna do it my way.

He says, no. You're breaking my covenant. Remember the covenant I made with Abraham? I know your wife was traumatized because you guys circumcised your first son, and you didn't wanna be unpopular. You didn't think it was worth it.

You don't wanna deal with her with your second son. I'm not ready to use you. I'll kill you. All the things I said, I I will get rid of you, and I'll find someone else. But I want you.

Will you obey? She got it, and she understood. And God used them. I want us to know God is pursuing us, and his ministry was one of the most difficult ministries, stubborn people, so unstable, up and down, all over the place. But he was one of the most gentle people on the planet.

That's what scripture describes him. God wants to use you. God wants to use me. Whatever excuse we have, he doesn't accept. He wants to use us.

But in using us, he does not compromise his truth. He does not compromise his method, his ways. We have to submit to it, but he wants to use us. Will you come to be used by God? Will you and I respond to him and say, Lord, here am I.

Send me. Lord, deal with my mouth. James talks about the mouth. He says, anyone who speaks perfect, he says, we all stumble, including himself. He says, I struggle with it, so give it to the Lord and let him deal with it.

Let him touch it. Let me be with it. Let him have a live call to it. But bring it to him and let it be used by him and for him. Let's spend a few minutes in prayer.

Open time, if anyone would like to respond out loud in prayer as the worship team comes up.