Me
and My Big Mouth : Is Your Mouth Saved
Isaiah
6:1-9
INTRO
How many of you went digging into your Bibles in
search of golden promises of God to speak over your life and encourage your
faith?
Can you tell us what you found that encouraged you
and made your faith firm?
Those are wonderful promises indeed. I encourage you to keep looking and keep
speaking aloud the promises of God. In
case you weren’t here last week, we are doing this to put into practice what it
means to learn to speak God’s language. First,
we work to become aware of and censor our own negativity and ungodly talk.
Second, we must begin to speak those things that affirm life, hope, faith and
peace. This two fold process is something
that will likely continue, if you are willing to engage it, for the rest of
your life. But there is good news---
Today we turn our attention to the stories of three
men of God, each called by God for a special mission and ministry and each had a
problem with his mouth. First, let’s
turn our attention to Moses. Moses had a
real problem. He was just out minding
his own business, tending to his father-in-laws sheep one day when God appeared
to him in the form of a burning bush and gave him the job of convincing the
King of Egypt to set the Hebrew people free – t o release them from
slavery. Moses’s problem was his
mouth. Moses’s speech was “slow” and his
tongue was “heavy and awkward”. Moses,
who did not believe himself fit to convince the King of anything, began to
argue with God! We read his story in
Exodus 4:10-12
God says, “I will be with you.” I will give you the
words you need. Incredibly, Moses
continued arguing with him.
God then says, Exodus 4: 13-16a
Then before Moses can come up with any other
arguments, God says “Take this staff.
This is what you will use to work the signs and miracles I have already
told you about.”
Moses’s objections can come across as cowardice,
laziness and lack of faith. Why would
God choose someone like that for such an important mission? Sometimes the Lord chooses the least likely
person to be his messenger so that his grace them may appear all the more
glorious.
When Calls us, whether our name is Moses, Al, Frank,
Tom, Ruth, Robyn, Rhonda or Rita; whatever your disposition or abilities, When
God calls us God equips us, giving us all we need to fulfill our mission for
him. If God speaks to you and you are
afraid or feel unworthy or unable to respond, remember: If he has sent you, He will be with your
mouth and will teach you what to say.
Jeremiah had a similar problem. Jeremiah, called by God to be a prophet about
70 years BEFORE Isaiah, was a young priest from the tribe of Benjamin. Jeremiah felt wholly inadequate for the job. Like Moses, Jeremiah says, “Ah, Lord
God. I do not know how to speak.”
God’s response is both powerful and precious. Jeremiah 1: 7-10
God strengthens Jeremiah for the task he has called
him to. God offers encouragement, for
more than any other prophet, Jeremiah will need that encouragement. He is to speak God’s word not only to the
Jews but to many other nations as well.
God’s message will be a dual message of both judgment and hope. Jeremiah’s life from this point out will not
be easy.
God calls us to higher things than we would have
ever imagined. God challenges us to
speak his language and his word. But God
does not leave us without hope. The Lord
has been at work in your life in some general ways since the day of your
baptism. Now, the Lord wants to fine
tune your life and spirit. Think about
how you fine tune your television. You
pull up the menu and you can make the picture brighter or darker. You can change the color tones and
tints. You can adjust the quality of the
sound. You can make the picture fit your
screen properly. That’s fine
tuning. That is what God wants to do in
your life. Disciplining your mouth is
part of that process.
Do not say, “Lord, I can’t. I’m too young, too old, not educated. I’m afraid.
I don’t know how to talk like a preacher.
God will meet your need, just as he touched
Jeremiah’s mouth and said, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth” what God
calls you to God will equip you for.
The call of Isaiah, which _____________ read for us
this morning, is an excellent example of God needing to cleanse the mouth
before using the man. Isaiah’s story reminds us that when we come into the
presence of God, He is going to deal with us.
Let’s look at it again:
Isaiah was at the temple. The throne of God was believed to be above
the Ark of the Covenant. This area is
sometimes called the Holy of Holies and was not open to the general public.
Here at the temple, Isaiah had a vision of God seated on his throne, and surround
by six heavenly beings called seraphim or literally “fiery ones”. These beings burn with the love and praise of
the Lord and sing his praise continually around his throne. Standing in the glory of the Lord, Isaiah is
overcome with a sense of his own unworthiness and guilt. Mere human lips are unclean to speak on
behalf of God. Isaiah is a sinner. In addition to humbly acknowledging his
personal sin, he confesses that he has participated in the corporate sin of his
community and nation.
But neither personal sin nor corporate sin can stop
the Lord from seeing his will fulfilled.
Here’s what happens: Isaiah 6:6-8a
The burning coal is an instrument of purification
touched to Isaiah’s lips he experiences pardon and freedom from his sin. He is then free to accept God’s call upon
his life, responding confidently “here am I. Send me.”
Isaiah’s heart longed to serve the Lord. God knew this. When your heart belongs to God, God, in Christ,
can always change your behavior.
Your heart belongs to the Lord. But like Moses, Jeremiah and Isaiah, you may
be learning that there are things you still need to change in order to be the
person that God has called you to be.
You have some bad habits you need to break-habits related to the things
you do on your computer, or the way you talk to your spouse and children. Maybe you need to discipline your speech so
you are not negative so much of the time.
Maybe you need to keep working on learning to speak God’s way.
You have a mission. Your first and greatest mission is articulated
in the baptismal vows that were taken for you and later confirmed by you or
which you took yourself. Those vows say
that you:
Reject the spiritual forces of wickedness and evil
powers of the world and repent of your sin
You have taken vows to:
Resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever
form you may discover it
You have vowed to:
Serve Christ as Lord, profess the faith openly and lead
a Christian life.
Yes, you have a mission, a general mission of discipleship
and Christian living that is the mission of all baptized persons. But God has more for you! If
you are to grow into the fullness of God’s will for you – If you are to become
all that he wants you to be, all he created you to be, you must allow him to fine tune your life and
your spirit. Only in this way will you
discover what new challenges, opportunities and missions He has for you. You
don’t need to be afraid of this. What he
calls you to he will equip you for. He
will give you the words, the courage, the hope, the protection… Give yourself wholly to him. Give God your mouth,
as once you gave Him your heart. And you
will be amazed what the two of you can do together. Amen?
What God did for Moses through Aaron; what God did
with a touch and a hot coal for Jeremiah and Isaiah God has done for all
humanity by the blood of Jesus Christ. Our sin is washed away because of
Jesus. Our lives are made pure because
of Jesus cross. We have hope and
encouragement because of Jesus’s empty tomb. Amen?
LUP
Lord Jesus Christ, we love you, but we confess we
have not loved you with our whole heart and life. We have given you bits and pieces of
ourselves. Most of us have not given your
control of our mouths. We have not even
really tried to change the way we speak and use our mouths. Lord, our mouths need to be saved. (Pause-
repeat after me “Lord my mouth needs to be saved.” ) Lord
Jesus, wash away the sin of profane words.
Wash away our habit of taking the Lord’s name in vain. Take away forever our habit of negative
speech. Purge us of the desire to gossip
and lie. Lord Jesus, we give you our
mouths, our tongues, our lips and our minds.
Purify us that all we say might be pleasing to the Father, glorifying
his name in heaven and contribute to the building of his kingdom on earth. Amen.
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