Pastor Burcham's Sermon

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

You know, I remember as a teenager where I would answer my mother's questions and I would do what she asked me to do and yet, somehow I still got in trouble. I didn't understand it back then. How could I still get in trouble? For instance, she would say, “Have you done your homework?” And I would say something like, “No, Ma, I've decided not to do my homework. I've decided that I want to fail every subject this year. It's been such a memorable year, I would like to repeat it. Yes, I've done my homework.”

“Did you pick up your room?”

“Actually, I tried to pick up my room, but the whole house was connected to it and it was too heavy. So instead, I hung up my clothes and made my bed. Can I go out with my friends?” Now I did everything she asked me to do. I'd answered all of her questions but yet usually what came back was, “You can go out with your friends, but you better watch that attitude, Buster.”

Attitude. Attitude often goes behind the words, behind the actions, although certainly it can be seen in them as well. Scripture talks a lot about attitude and the kind of attitude we should have. In fact, it was so important that St. Paul , in his letter to the Philippines in Chapter 2, distinguished for us exactly the kind of attitude we should have. Philippines 2:5 says, “Your attitude should be the same as that as Christ Jesus.” Our attitude, our mind set, our motivation, the way we approach things should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. As we grow in our relationship with God, as we mature in our faith and our commitment, then our attitude also should grow and change to become more and more like Christ, to take on that servant attitude, to put the needs of others above our own.

So, this morning, let's discover how can we develop that kind of an attitude. How can we develop a Christ-like attitude? How can we develop an attitude in which we put the needs of others above our own? As a roadmap for that, we're going to use the commissioning of Isaiah. There's a change of attitude that happens with Isaiah and then we see the action that follows from that. We can learn that developing that attitude really takes three things.

The thing we begin with is an assessment, an assessment of our current attitude. In other words, we have to ask ourselves what is our attitude right now? Where is it? Is it in line with God's attitude or is it different? Is it a good attitude or a bad attitude? We see that happening with the prophet Isaiah. God is in need of a prophet to speak to His people. Now the message God wants to speak to His people is not going to be a pleasant one. It's not a good time right now for Judah . They have threatening forces on every side and God has a word of judgment to speak to them but also God has some words of direction that, more than likely, the kings aren't going to take. So God is in need of a servant who is willing to put the needs of the people above his own, willing to take a little bit of abuse, if you will, of being God's spokesperson but having such a love for the people and having such a love for God that they're willing to speak to the people and put their needs above his own.

Thus, enters Isaiah. Isaiah, in a dream, in a vision, finds himself in the throne room of God Himself in heaven. From the New Testament, we discover Jesus Himself is the one who's seated on the throne. He's there and his reaction of being in God's presence with the shaking of the whole building in the temple is he cries out this, “Woe to me, I cry, I am ruined. I'm a man of unclean lips.” Unclean lips? What does that mean? Does he need a napkin? I don't understand. Unclean lips. What he's trying to say is that he's in the presence of a holy God but he is a sinful individual. And we get a little bit of an insight of where he identifies his sinfulness because he says, “I'm a man of unclean lips.” Yes, it was an idiom of the time but also it tells us maybe the words Isaiah spoke gave way to a little bit of his uncleanness and words really reveal the attitude a person has. So I think we can infer Isaiah has a little bit of an attitude problem here. I don't know what that was. I don't know if he had a poor attitude towards his people, certainly possible. I don't know whether I'd have a great attitude towards them. Maybe he had a poor attitude towards the king. I don't know. Maybe he had a poor attitude towards God Himself. But whatever it is, Isaiah realizes that unless he changes his attitude he is ruined. He is destroyed. He's not going to survive this because he's a person of unclean lips in the presence of an all-holy God. So he does an attitude check and assessment of what's his attitude.

You and I need to do an attitude check. What is our attitude towards serving others? What is our attitude towards fellow Christians? What is our attitude even towards the church God has given to us? There is a short video clip I'd like you to watch. It's a commercial, so to speak. It's a commercial for a new church. See if this is the kind of church you'd like to belong to.

(Video) “Imagine a church where every member is passionately, wholeheartedly, and recklessly calling the shots.”

“I have a busy workweek and, by the time Sunday rolls around, I'm tired so how about a church service that starts when I get there?”

“Can do. When you arrive, we begin.”

“This guy plays by his own rules. We want to find a church where, as he starts screaming, we're not the bad guys.”

“Say no more. If you're baby's screaming, you stay seated. The others around you can leave.”

“You know, financially, Sherri and I don't give a lot to the church but we'd sure like to know who does.”

“All right, if you join now, you'll know what every person gives in detail.”

“When I'm in the church service, can my car get a buff and a wax?”

“Not just that but an oil change and a tune up.”

“How about tickets to the Super Bowl?”

“That's asking too much.”

“I'm serious. If I'm going to join, I want tickets to the big game.”

“All right. You join now and we'll get you there.”

“I'd like a pony.”

“Look in your backyard.”

“Me church, where it's all about you.”

I can't wait until you see the line for ponies in the budget. The question is this: Are you looking for a church that serves you or are you looking for a place where you can serve God? Are you looking for a church that will cater to all of your whims, all of your wants, all of your needs? Or are you looking for a place where you can grow in your relationship with God, where you can have a deeper commitment to Christ, where you can change and become more and more Christlike and become the servant that Christ wants us to be? What kind of church are you looking for? Are you willing to put the needs of others above your own?

St. Paul is a great example of a man who put the needs of others above his own, a man who took on the same kind of attitude that Jesus has. We read from 1 Corinthians, his first letter to the church there, and he describes himself this way, “To the weak, I became weak, to win the weak. I become all things to all men so that by all means possible I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I might share in its blessings.” He says “I become all things to all men so that by all things possible, I might save some.” If you back up a couple verses from that, St. Paul says, “To the Jews, I become the model Jew. To the Greeks, I become the philosopher and the intelligent one. To the poor, I become poor. To the rich, I become rich.” What St. Paul is saying is no matter what the cost is, he puts the needs of other people above his own. He will become whatever he needs to. He'll do whatever it takes that some might hear the message of the gospel and have their lives changed as well. Where is our attitude towards serving others? Where is our attitude of doing whatever it takes to meet the needs of others so they also can share in the gospel message.

We need to take an honest look at ourselves, but I need to warn you right now that the devil is going to be active in this sanctuary in just a few moments because all of your defenses are going to go up. And what he's going to tempt you to do is to shut me out and to close your ears and not hear the rest of this message and I'm going to ask you to resist that. Because we're going to do an attitude check and that means we need to ask some very difficult and tough questions and I plan to do it in a straight and forthright manner and I want you to know I'm in the boat with you. Because I'm examining my attitude as well as I'm asking you to examine your attitude. So let's ask some hard questions and understand where our attitude is.

For instance, let's start with this. It's been researched and proven that first-time visitors to church will usually arrive just on time or maybe even a minute or two late because they don't like to stand around because they feel uncomfortable. They want to jump right into service when it begins and, as soon as service is over, they want to leave right away. They just want to come in, see what it's all about and leave and not feel uncomfortable. But by arriving at that time, that means most of the parking spaces that are close to the door are gone. Now you can react to that one of two ways. The one way is to say, “I'm going to park in the back 40 so I can leave some spots open for those visitors and also for those people who have a hard time getting around.” Or you can react this way and say, “You know what? If I'm willing enough to get up early enough and I'm willing to arrive early enough, then I have earned the right to park wherever I please and, if that's right next to the door, then I'm going to park right next to the door.” Where are you at with that? It all comes down to the attitude.

Many people have a preference in worship styles. Some people find it very meaningful and it speaks to their heart in a traditional worship service. Some people, it is a contemporary style worship service. And other people are somewhere in between. Wherever you're at is great because God speaks to us in various ways and there are various ways in which we can worship our God and encounter Him and experience God. But are you willing to come to the church service that offers the style that's most meaningful to you or do you go to the one that's more convenient to your schedule only to grumble and complain to anyone who will listen to you as you go on and on about, “There's only one way to worship and this isn't the way.” Where's your attitude on that?

Each time a change is implemented in the church, how do you react? Whether it's a change in the youth group, the junior high group, confirmation, worship, no matter what it is, how do you react to that change? Is your first reaction to ask, “Is this going to further our ministry? Will this make us more effective in reaching people and also building up God's people in the faith?” Or is your first reaction, “How is that going to affect me?”

When things happen at church, do you immediately think the worst of the staff and leadership? You start thinking there must be hidden agendas. There must be things they're not telling us. And sooner or later, they're going to slip something in on us. In fact, how many of you right now are thinking that I chose this message for this morning because it coincided with the Ministry Action Team's presentation? When, in reality, the theme for this Sunday was chosen last July. Now how many of you are thinking I scheduled the presentation to coincide when, in reality, it was chosen because this is a fifth weekend and there's not communion offered at any of the services.

All of us have to take a hard look and check our attitude. Next week, it's going to be interesting around here. We've reserved the sanctuary for the confirmation class and their parents. That means we're going to have three worship services in the Family Life Center . I wonder how many people will not come because either a) it's not in the sanctuary, or b) I don't want to fight the crowds. Where's our attitude. I told you I'm in the boat with you. Where's my attitude? How long I have asked myself, “Did I resist the Saturday night worship service because it would ‘take away my Saturdays and I'd be here all weekend long?'” And yet, look at the blessing it has been for our congregation. Where's our attitude if we're honest?

God is looking for servants who have the attitude of putting the needs of others above their own. The example of that, bar none, is that of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He was there seated on the throne when Isaiah saw Him there and yet, He willingly gave up heaven itself and He came and He lived among us. Though He shouldn't have died, He did die. Though he was sinless, He took on our sin. Though He was innocent, He became guilty on our part. He saw our need, our need for a Savior, our need for forgiveness and He put your needs and my needs above His own. And so He went to that cross and He breathed His last and He won atonement for each and every one of us. Jesus put your needs and my needs above His own. That's the attitude He has. And if we're honest with each other, at one time or another, we have had the wrong attitude and we've had a poor attitude and a bad attitude. And, as we assess our attitude, there comes a point where we need to confess that to God.

In the words of Isaiah, we need to say we are a people of unclean lips. And, at that point, the second stage takes in and that is to accept God's forgiveness. Isaiah comes before his all holy God and he says, “I'm ruined.” You dig a little bit deeper into that, he's saying, “I'm destroyed.” You dig a little bit deeper and literally, the words there say, “I'm cut off.” That means he thinks he's cut off from God. He thinks there's nothing he can do. He's a sinful individual. He's in the presence of the holy God, and a sinful person cannot be in the presence of a holy God and live to tell about it. That's not an Old Testament superstition. That's reality today as much as it was back then. So there's Isaiah laid out, saying, “I'm done for. I'm eternally condemned.” And it's at that moment, the wonderful words of Isaiah 6 come ringing through, “One of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hands, which he had taken from the tongs from the altar and he touched my mouth and said, ‘See? This has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin has been removed.'” Can you imagine? Your guilt has been taken away. Your sin has been removed. It echos of 1 John where he writes for us, “And the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” It means our guilt has been taken away. It means our sins have been atoned for and the blood of Jesus created a new man out of Isaiah. He could stand in the presence of God, not on his own, but because the blood of Jesus had washed Him clean. You and I one day will stand in the presence of our Lord, not because of ourselves, because the blood of Jesus has washed us clean. God has given us a new life and, with that new life, comes a new attitude. A new attitude, a changed attitude.

It's time for us to act accordingly. Because when we've been forgiven, it prompts us to action. It prompted Isaiah to action. As soon as he had been forgiven by God, all of a sudden, there is an immediate change in Isaiah. Did you hear what happened to Isaiah after his guilt had been removed? Scripture says, “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.'” Isaiah goes from cowering in fear saying, “Oh, no, not me,” to saying, “Here am I. Send me, Lord. I want to be your servant, Lord. I'll go out and preach your message. The people won't listen, but I'll preach anyway. They're not going to like what I have to say, but I'll preach anyway because you promise there's a remnant. There are some out there that need to hear it.” Isaiah says, ‘I will put their needs above my needs. Here I am. Send me.” It's time for us to become the servant. It's time for us to have a change of attitude. Let's stop fearing what we will lose because that's nothing in comparison to what we gain. Let's stop worrying about the inconvenience and how it will affect us. Because that's nothing. It's nothing in comparison to being used by God and being used through God.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that your spiritual needs are unimportant, that your spiritual needs do not need to be met. They most certainly do. Each and every one of us needs to continue to grow in our faith and relationship with God. What I am saying, though, is God can meet those needs in new and wonderful ways, new and powerful ways as we take on the attitude of a servant, as we put the needs of others above our own. All of a sudden, we start understanding what our Savior has done for us in a new way. We comprehend it in a deeper way. All of a sudden, we start experiencing God's love and His grace in a more powerful way in our own lives and we grow and mature in our faith and our spiritual needs are met.

Take, for example, those who come back from mission trips. If you look at it objectively, logically, why would you ever go on a mission trip? It doesn't make sense. Talk about being inconvenienced. Let's just talk about our youth who have gone down to Mexico for several years. Why would a group of teenagers give up part of their summer to go down and work long days, 8-10 hours, manual labor, not be able to take a shower for a week, I can't imagine that myself, have a long bus ride, and then a long plane ride? You would think, at that point, they'd say, “Never again. How inconvenient!” How much of that was painful for them. And yet, look at them when they come back. They're changed. They've put the needs of others above themselves and they've experienced God's love and compassion in a new and powerful way, and they can't wait to go back.

The same is true for those who went to Honduras . The same is true for those who went down to Louisiana or those who went to Kentucky . The same is true for you when you've put the needs of others above yourself and you've given that way and taken on that attitude of a servant and you've experienced God's love in a new way. It's time for us as a congregation and for us as individuals to do whatever it takes, as St. Paul says, so some might be saved. But we're not going to be settled for just bringing them in. We want their lives changed as well. In other words, if it would be effective, then I'd say, “Let's start buffing and waxing every first-time visitor's car.” If that's what it takes, let's start buffing and waxing them. But we won't be satisfied with that because we want to bring them in here so they can experience God's love and grace, so they can be changed by the power of the Holy Spirit and, sooner rather than later, they're out buffing and waxing somebody else's car so they can experience the gospel message. That's what I'm talking about, a change of attitude which is infectious, a change of attitude where we serve and we meet the needs of others. Their lives are changed and their attitude changes and, all of a sudden, they serve and meet the needs of others.

It comes down to living out what God has asked us to do. Our attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus so each one of us can say, “Here am I. Send me.” Amen.