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[0:00] Good morning. Good morning. Whoa.

[0:12] A shovel, rake, and hoe. What a title. What does this have to do with our passage today? Especially if you read ahead, you're looking at it, what is this all about?

[0:26] Well, I'm prayed up. Hopefully I'm covered in prayer. I think I am, because I know so many of you have been praying for me this week and for the message being delivered.

[0:38] And so this passage today is you get to look at inside me.

[0:54] This is for me. So hopefully, don't judge too bad, because you'll be hearing some things that you'll be going, huh.

[1:06] But this is my walk. This is what I've been through. This is what the Lord is bringing me through. I'm vulnerable right now.

[1:20] Okay. I don't enjoy giving messages about myself. But let's see what's going to happen here. We're going to be looking in Isaiah chapter 6, 1 through 8.

[1:37] In the Pew Bible, it's page 571. Let's go ahead and see what it says. If you could, stand with me for the reading of God's word.

[1:49] In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple.

[2:09] Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings. With two, he covered his face. With two, he covered his feet. And with two, he flew. And one called out to the other and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

[2:28] The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined.

[2:45] I'm undone, because I am a man of unclean lips. Had I lived among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

[2:58] Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.

[3:16] Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I sin, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I. Sin be.

[3:29] Father, I just ask that you would just pull me back together, instead of being so undone, that the message would go out today, and it would have an impact on anyone who's hearing it, that they would be touched by your word.

[3:51] I'm a foolish man, and you do things with foolish people to confound the wise. I just love you, and just thank you for your word.

[4:08] In Jesus' name, amen. This is not supposed to happen like this, guys. I'm getting a Kleenex. Oh, this was obviously not planned in the least.

[4:27] So, in the year of King Uzziah's death, who's King Uzziah? King Uzziah was a good king. You can find his story in 2 Chronicles, chapter 26, verses 3 through 23.

[4:43] He was a good king, and what made him a good king is that he listened to the Lord. And because he listened to the Lord, the Lord blessed him in the kingdom.

[4:55] He reigned for 52 years, and during that time, most of the time, he prospered, the nation prospered. At this time, also, just so you know, and I'm not going to get into all this, because it may come out while I'm talking, and I just want you to know what I'm talking about, that at this point in history, Israel's history, they had split in two.

[5:20] They had the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. Uzziah was the king of the southern kingdom, Judah. And so, they were the ones that were at least trying to hold on to God's word and stuff, whereas the northern kingdom have already abandoned, basically, God and everything, the rulers and stuff were not, the kings were not good.

[5:46] So anyway, so that's who Uzziah is. He did right in the sight of the Lord. God, God, you've got to remember this part, God blessed his reign.

[5:57] Okay, it wasn't Uzziah. the kingdom was safe and secure under him. They had, he built up the walls around the city so it was secure.

[6:08] The enemies, that he was able to keep them at bay so they weren't able to attack, and if they did, it had no, nothing, no effect on them. He built up the war machines.

[6:21] He was into agriculture and stuff, so the abundance that came in and everything. It was a good time to live in Judah during this. But you know what?

[6:33] Even though it was a good time, the people still struggled with doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord. So even though the king was doing it and even though the nation was prospering and stuff, the people themselves still struggled.

[6:49] And that's why we introduce Isaiah, the prophet, the namesake of the book here. Isaiah was sent to Judah during this time to bring warnings about coming judgment.

[7:05] He also spoke to the northern kingdom too, but it was to Judah that he's speaking of here. And during this time, the Lord had him in the beginning before we get into chapter 6 here of our reading, that before this, that Isaiah proclaimed some woes unto the people to let them know, hey, this is what's coming and these are the reasons why these woes speak of the reasons why this coming judgment.

[7:39] Because of course, God was not happy. He wanted his people to turn around. It's just an interesting read to read the beginning of Isaiah and the first five chapters and just see also the love song that's in there too about how the Lord took care of the people and how they rejected him still.

[8:00] Even though he's blessing them, they still are rejecting him or not doing what he's asking, not following his commands. So, there are some commentaries that speak of that chapter 6 here when he saw the Lord high and lifted up sitting on his throne that this was the call of Isaiah's ministry, that this was the start of it.

[8:26] And I respectfully disagree because of all the studying that I did and everything because, first of all, why is it in chapter 6 and not at the beginning of chapter 1?

[8:41] And I think it's because Isaiah had been called sooner and God told him, you know, he had visions and stuff of what he was going to say and so, Isaiah in the beginning started to give these woes and let's see if this will make sense here in a little bit.

[8:59] So, let's look at some of the woes. They are in chapter 5. I'm not going to read them out of scripture itself. I'm going to encapsulate them or whatever that word is called, put them together, make them simple because when you read the words, you're going, what in the world does that mean?

[9:18] Because these are, they're pretty, they can be, I don't know, confusing. So, I'm just going to make it simple. So, one of the woes, woe to those who, these are all the woes, woe to those who exploit others.

[9:35] So, there's people that are exploiting others, taking their land, taking their crops and things like that. It's corrupt capitalism is basically what was going on.

[9:48] Another woe is the drunkenness that was going on and it was so severe that drunkenness from morning to night, from the time they woke up to the time they went to bed, they're just drinking and it's like, woe to you, woe.

[10:03] And then another one is, they had sarcastic pride, woe to those with sarcastic pride and sin. They were, they were mocking God and mocking the, oh, better not do this.

[10:17] God says it's not okay. You know, that type of thing and it's very sad. It was tongue-in-cheek worship. And that's what was going, another thing that was going on. Isaiah's saying, woe, woe to that.

[10:29] Because also along with these woes, God says what he's going to do as a judgment for these things. Another woe was, they were confusing moral standards and calling evil good and good evil.

[10:45] And then, woe to the conceited. They're lovers of themselves. They're conceited. It was all about them and not about God.

[10:57] And then the sixth woe is woe to those who pervert justice. They were taking bribes to look the other way of things that had gone on, you know, just evil that was going on and in courts and stuff.

[11:12] They were taking bribes. No, no, no. We didn't see that. Hmm. I say that a lot. I was told, hmm. Part of my character.

[11:23] This sounds very familiar to our world today. You know? And when I hear these words, when I look this stuff up, and when I think about how our world is today, my heart goes to I think of the rapture.

[11:48] I think of the second coming and I want to cry out, come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. I don't want to see this anymore in the world and just all not following you, not following your ways and woe to all those people that are doing this.

[12:10] Again, that's my heart. I can't help it. I try not to, but I judge so quickly people. Whoa. Whoa.

[12:20] When I'm when I'm really saying that I want God's wrath to come when I say Maranatha, come Lord Jesus, come quickly.

[12:32] I'm saying end it all now because I'm not thinking of other people. I'm not thinking of those lost souls. And of course, God's not going to come until the final soul has been brought to his side and believes in our Lord Jesus Christ.

[12:52] So, in reading this, I wonder myself, did Isaiah have any problem declaring these woes or did he struggle with it? I venture to say I think he struggled with it.

[13:09] I think that in a way he was agreeing with God. And he's saying, yeah, come Lord, not that he I don't want to put words in his mouth, but, you know, this, I guess I should put it back on myself.

[13:24] Get them, Lord. Look at these people. They're doing this. They're doing that. Get them. Get them. They deserve it. Yeah. They've had time and time again that they know better.

[13:35] Get them. My heart. Let's pick up our shovel. Okay? Woe. Woes are done. They're not done yet.

[13:46] But, woe, shovel, rake and hoe. We're looking at the shovel next. The shovel, what is that for? That's for digging into God's word. Right? We're going to take our shovel.

[13:57] We're going to dig into God's word and see what it says. See what pleases him. See what he calls sin. Just look at all this stuff and just how can we live our life and everything.

[14:09] I'm going to dig into God's word. Okay. But unfortunately, while I'm digging into God's words, I'm also declaring woes.

[14:20] What do I mean by that? When I come upon a passage that's for a, that describes a certain sin or something that's wrong, my mind immediately goes to, oh, Rob needs to hear this.

[14:35] Susie needs to hear, that'd be a good one for Susie. Yeah, yeah, she needs to hear this. Whoa, Cindy's not doing so good. Whoa, Rob, no. Yeah, do you see what he did?

[14:46] I remember what he did last week. Whoa, I'm digging into God's word though, so it's okay. It's all right. It's all right. I don't ever consider that it's for me.

[14:58] No? Too busy pointing the finger? What do they say when you point the finger you got four more pointing back at you? Hmm, how true that is. See, Isaiah knew God's word.

[15:10] He was a prophet. He dug into God's word and he knew what was deemed as sin and wickedness. He was declaring these woes. Yes, he was told to declare these woes.

[15:22] Okay? So much digging. Digging. Digging into God's word. Whoa, dig, dig, dig. So much digging. What happens? I look around and what have I done?

[15:37] I've dug a grave for somebody. That's all I've done. I've dug a pit for them to fall into. Not good. Not a good place to be.

[15:48] Not a good way to look at things. But, it's all true and in God's word. I dug it out. I dug it. It, I agree with it.

[16:00] Okay? But then something happens. And that's when we get into our scripture today. Chapter 6, verse 1.

[16:14] Going back to that. In the year of King Uzziah's death. Stop there. In the year that King Uzziah died. Remember, who's Uzziah?

[16:25] Is he a good king? Yeah, he's a good king. Did he do what's right in the eyes of the Lord? Yep, you betcha he does. Is the Lord blessing him? You bet.

[16:36] Is the nation prospering? Is it doing well? You bet. Yep. But here's something else that was going on. Is that because the nation was doing so well that the praises of Uzziah was on everyone's lips.

[16:54] they were all saying, they were all saying, oh, Uzziah, he's so good. What a good king he is. Look at these things that he's put in this building project for the wall to be put up so that we could be secure.

[17:07] Oh, look, he's taking care of our military. It's being built up and look, we're so mighty and strong, no other nation is going to try and come against us and if they do, they're going to regret it.

[17:17] Oh, look, the agriculture stuff that he's doing, we've got plenty to eat, we're just taking care of, we've got, oh, Uzziah, he is the king, he the man.

[17:31] That was on every, we're told, it was on everyone's lips so far that it went, I don't know how geography works, but it went way up north and way down south from Egypt to Samaria, I don't know.

[17:49] It went all over the place, okay, so everybody was talking about this. Good King Uzziah, praising Uzziah. Well, why, so it gets us to the point, why did Uzziah need, or why, when Uzziah died, that that was when Isaiah saw the Lord seated on his throne, high and lifted up.

[18:17] Why did it have to take the death of Uzziah? because when we are so focused on something or somebody else that we rely on, it takes the place of God.

[18:40] And so that is on our lips all the time. We're just praising other people, other things, others. And so we can't see God.

[18:50] There's no reason to. So Uzziah had to die. Now I know, you know, you Bible students in here, you know the story that the last few years of Uzziah's life weren't good.

[19:02] he went downhill because of pride. He believed the press, you know, how well, how good he was and everything.

[19:13] He forgot that it came from God. And so he went into the temple itself and he tried to offer incense and that is a job only for priests.

[19:25] And the priest confronted him and said, what are you doing, Uzziah? I'm offering incense. You can't do that. He went ahead and did it anyway. Well, God said, you cannot be a priest and a king at the same time.

[19:40] You can't do it. You're either a priest or a king. That was reserved specifically, specially for Jesus. So, Uzziah didn't care.

[19:51] He did it anyway. And while the priests were still talking to him and stuff, all of a leprosy broke out on his head, on his forehead. He hightailed it out of there. In his last few years of his life, he's in seclusion.

[20:03] His son had to take over and by proxy be king. But still, he was still on everyone's lips. Even with that going on, he was, so Uzziah had to die.

[20:17] What is your Uzziah, is the big question. what do you elevate higher than God? What do you count on, trust in more than God?

[20:36] And I was going to make a list, and I always like making lists, but sometimes they'll get crazy. So, just thinking about it, and I know these may sound like weird things, what do you trust in?

[20:52] Some people trust in their charm. Oh, I'm able to charm my way into things, and charm my way, and people like me for my charm, and they give me things because of my charm, or my good looks.

[21:03] Oh, it's my good looks, and people bend over backwards, oh, they look so pretty or handsome or whatever, so I count on that. That's how I get things done. That's how I get taken care of.

[21:17] If I need something, I just have to turn on the charm, or show my good looks, or wink, or whatever. Some people do it with their intelligence. I'm a smart person. They count on that.

[21:28] They rely on that. I'm an intelligent person. I can find my way out of this. I can think my way. I can figure it out. Okay? Not that. How about money? People rely on their money.

[21:39] money. Yeah, that, there's my mmm again. People rely on their money. You know, in thinking, in trying to bring all this together for what we put above God and what really needs to die, for me, it all comes down to one thing, and that's I'm a lover of myself.

[22:06] I love myself. I build build myself up in my own eyes. That's why I can say woe to everybody else. I don't have to look.

[22:17] No, I'm not that bad. No woes to anybody else. When I dig into God's word, no, it's for everybody else. I need to let myself die.

[22:30] Die to yourself, I say to me. I can't speak for you guys. You can only say what the Lord is working on in me. Mark, you've got to die.

[22:44] You guys know what that means. What happens when we die to ourselves? What happens when Uzziah dies? Well, there it is.

[22:57] Verse 1 still. After Uzziah's death, I saw, I saw, my eyes were opened. At that time, now I can finally see, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne.

[23:13] He's sitting. The work is complete. It's done. He did it at the cross. my sins are forgiven. He's sitting on the throne that's lofty and exalted in his train of his robe filling the temple.

[23:34] I get to see that. I get to see him in all of its glory when I die to myself, when my Uzziah dies. The train of his robe filling the temple.

[23:46] This was an interesting thing that I saw that back then in those days when a king conquered another nation, another king, that he would take part of that king's robes and he would have them sewn on to his own.

[24:04] The more kingdoms you conquered, the larger your train became, the train of your robe. and so here we're told that his robe filling the temple, Jesus conquered everything.

[24:25] He owns it all. Conquered sin and death. Golly! How big must the train of his robe be?

[24:39] He's conquered all my sins. he's conquered all years. Just everything. How much has been added? No wonder why it fills the temple.

[24:50] It overflows the temple. And guess what? Also, we're a temple, aren't we? Temple of the Holy Spirit.

[25:03] How are they? Does the train fill your temple? Or are you holding on? again, I'm not speaking to you guys, I'm speaking to me. Mark, does the train fill your temple?

[25:16] Have you let God defeat all that stuff that's in your life? I want it to so badly. you know, when Peter was confronted with the miracle of the fish, of overflowing the boat and everything, you know, because he'd been fishing all night, the Lord said, hey, toss your nets over here, and he went ahead and did it.

[25:48] And then after it was, and he said, because you said so, master, I'll do it. Just because you said so, I'm going to do it. So, all of a sudden they haul in, you guys know the story, they haul in all the fish, and what does Peter say after that?

[25:59] He says, depart from me, for I am a sinful man. What a weird thing to say, but he recognized this is God, this Jesus that we're following, he's God.

[26:13] He's master over all this stuff, and he got a glimpse of who Jesus was. He didn't fully understand it yet, but just a little bit that he saw, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.

[26:29] Paul, as he's writing about our life here on this earth, and how we're supposed to walk our walk, and he says, oh, wretched man that I am.

[26:44] He recognized, man, I'm no better. And so what happens after he sees the train filled the temple, he sees the Lord sitting, and on the throne exalted, the seraphim stood up above him, each having six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

[27:08] I'm not going to get into the seraphim and everything, but that's an interesting study. They were very exalted beings, angels, type of angel, weird, but this is the neat part right here, and one called out to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.

[27:31] Excuse me. And what were they doing? They were calling out one to another. Could you just imagine that and seeing that? You got one over here saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord, and this one over here, holy, holy is the Lord, and they're saying it back to each other.

[27:50] Excuse me. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. I should have brought some water. I didn't. So, thank you, Rick.

[28:06] When I saw that, I was reminded of a time when I went to Promise Keepers. You guys have heard of Promise Keepers.

[28:18] It's held in sports stadiums around the country. They're just now starting it back up and it's becoming popular again. But this is back in the 90s, late 90s.

[28:29] And I remember I lived in Denver and my brother came up from Tucson. We went to the Promise Keeper conference or whatever you call that thing.

[28:40] and I remember sitting there in the stadium and all of a sudden somebody started and said, you could just hear it just faintly, somebody shouting.

[28:52] And then you'd hear a shout over here. And then pretty soon the shout back over here and it started getting louder and louder and I was able to tell what they were saying. What they were saying is, I love Jesus.

[29:05] Yes, I do. Thank you very much. I love Jesus. How about you? They'd shout it. And then the other, because they were pointing to the other side of the stadium.

[29:15] And then that side of the stadium would, I love Jesus. Yes, I do. I love Jesus. How about you? And it just went back and forth.

[29:27] And the sound is getting louder and louder and more more fervent. And people, you could just tell they were feeling it. They were loving it.

[29:37] It wasn't being caught up in the moment. It was true worship of all these men out there just crying out. And it became so intense.

[29:51] You couldn't help but say it. And you felt it and you believed it. And that's what I see here. And one called out to another and said, holy, holy, holy.

[30:02] The triune God. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Love that. Love that. Just like I love the song we sang earlier.

[30:15] Holy, holy. Oh, again, those weren't mistakes. The Holy Spirit, this wasn't playing the songs and stuff. Just the Lord is good.

[30:26] Anyway, so getting back to, because I got off track, that after he sees all this, hears all this, then I, verse five, then I said, woe is me, for I am ruined.

[30:43] I am undone. When you see the Lord in his glory, instead of yourself, what happens?

[30:57] Instead of when you dig into God's words that you've got woes for everybody else, now it's woe is me. Woe is me.

[31:11] I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm the one who had Uzziah's name on my lips, just like everyone else. I live among a people of unclean lips.

[31:25] Lord, we didn't lift you up. We've forgotten who had given Uzziah any of the ability to do any of this stuff. I forget that it's the Lord who's given me abilities to do anything.

[31:39] I think it's me that does it. Oh, the Lord is so lucky to have me. No. Of course, I'm lucky to have him. But, whoa, so now instead of shoveling, this is where we need the rake.

[31:56] Now we can pull it into ourselves. The word as we dig into it, instead of woe to somebody else, it's woe to me. Not that we beat ourselves up, but we take an honest assessment of ourself, and we say, what, how does this apply to me?

[32:15] Lord, is that me? Am I like that? I don't like to see that as so ugly and stinky and yuck. I like to see it on everybody else.

[32:27] Oh, God. Woe is me. All that digging not only belongs to them, but more importantly, it belongs to me.

[32:38] by doing that, I'm confessing. By Isaiah saying, woe is me. He's simply confessed his sin.

[32:52] What happens when we confess? What happens when we realize that God's word applies to yourself? Well, forgiveness. That's what comes into play next, is forgiveness.

[33:06] Jumping down to verse six. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.

[33:16] He took a burning coal from the altar because he wanted to alter me, alter my sinfulness, my sins, and I was going to be altered by being forgiven.

[33:30] Verse seven. He touched my mouth with it and said, behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.

[33:41] Oh, glorious day. That's what happens when you see the Lord, when you die to yourself and see the Lord that you and proclaim and confess your sin.

[33:56] Woe to me. We get forgiven. It just happened so quickly. me. Servant went and took the coal.

[34:07] He admitted, he said, with specificity, what was wrong? Woe to me, I am a man of unclean lips. I don't speak the praises of the Lord.

[34:23] And that's what I got healed of, or forgiven of. Forgiven and washed clean, made clean. Gosh, that's so neat. so what happens now that I've been washed clean and forgiven?

[34:41] Huh? Let's look at it. Verse 8. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, catch this, whom shall I send, this is the part, and who will go for us?

[34:57] There's a trinity again right there. It's the Godhead speaking. who will I send, Jesus says, and who will go for us?

[35:08] It's just neat how these things are hidden in scripture, and there it is, boom, just right there. What's the response? Now that I have an accurate assessment of myself, guess what?

[35:24] now I can have compassion on other people. Instead of proclaiming woes on them, because I'm right in there with them, I'm one of them, whether I'd like to admit it or not, now I can have compassion.

[35:46] Then I can speak with love, instead of being a noisy gong, a noisy cymbal, I can speak with love. And then they'll be able to see that love, and it will penetrate into their very soul, because they'll know that it's real, and you're coming to them out of love and concern.

[36:10] Who will go and spread the message of forgiveness and love? Who will go to let people know, first of all, that they're a sinner, and they are in need of a savior?

[36:23] here am I, here am I, send me. For so long, and I do not want to make this about myself, even though I know that I started out with that and everything, and I want you guys to remember the scripture, don't remember Mark, but for so long, my walk was always the pointing the finger, not out loud, privately in my heart, pointing the finger at other people, thinking that God was lucky to have me, I had all those thoughts, woe to everybody, I'm not as bad as that person, you know, the Pharisee in the temple, and the sinner is beating his chest and saying, I'm a sinner, and the Pharisee going, man, I'm glad I'm not like him, that was me, that was me, and the Lord is rooting it out of me, he's letting me see himself as I die more and more each day, seeing him as

[37:33] I die to myself more and more each day, that I get to see him more clearly, and I get to see my own sin more clearly, and now he's asking me to go out and talk about him to other people, talk about him to my coworkers, to be brave, to whoever, you know, I ask the Lord, not every day, because I'm not there yet, but Lord, who today, who will you bring across my path that you want me to speak with?

[38:12] And more often than not, it's got to, that it is somebody who I work with, because that's who I have the most influence on, the most encounter with, you can't go up to somebody in the line at the grocery store, I guess you can if you've got that ability or that faith or courage to do it, but, but anyway, so it's starting right at work, it's starting, not starting, it is with my own grandchildren, I don't know about you guys, I failed as a father, I was not a very good father, and that old excuse, I didn't have a playbook, I didn't know what to do, you know, nobody told me, well, that's because I didn't get into God's word, it tells me how to do things, but I can be a good grandfather, I can try and direct my grandchildren in the way that they should go, and in the process, my children get to see that, I get to confess my faults to my own children, say, dad wasn't, no, dad, you were good, you were nothing, it's like, you didn't know what was in my heart, you didn't know all these things and everything, but please forgive me,

[39:31] I can see that you have, I don't know how you do, but you do, and you're so gracious and kind to me, so merciful to me, anyway, so, coworkers, grandchildren, family members, just go to them, love them enough to want to see them brought into the kingdom of God, love them enough to let them know that they are sinners and in need of a savior, just like I am, I have no way, no reason to boast, no, nothing, it's all the Lord, it is him and him alone, so after the result of saying here I am, here am I, I think that's neat also how this is worded in here, at least in my translation, it doesn't say here I am, it says here am

[40:34] I, Isaiah never would have said here I am, I am meant I am, the great I am, no, he said here am I, staying humble like it should be, I like my translation better than some other ones that are out there, I already told you I have the right translation, so I told you that last week and the week before, tongue in cheek on that one guys, you know that, anyway, so after here am I send me, now comes the hoe, and we've talked about it a little bit, you're cultivating God's message of love and forgiveness, what he did on the cross, so woe, a shovel, a rake, and a hoe.

[41:29] John the Baptist was sent, repent for the kingdom of God is near, he went out and did what he was born to do, what were you born to do?

[41:44] That's the end of the message, however, because we have time, we're going to see how long this went, and this is, goes into verse 9 and 10, so we'll just go just a few more verses into this, because I was asking the Lord if this would be important or not, and if time were made for it, we were going to go into it, so apparently time is made.

[42:09] Verse 9, so after he said, back it up, here am I, send me, verse 9, and he said, go and tell this people, keep on listening but do not perceive, keep on looking but do not understand, render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and return and be healed.

[42:40] When you're going out to go, or when you're speaking to other people about the Lord, about their need of a Savior, understand that their eyes are dull, their ears are dull, they can't see, they can't hear, they can't perceive, they can't understand, it's all foolishness to them, understand that, that that's just what happens, but don't be discouraged, here's the important part, don't be discouraged.

[43:19] verse 11, then Isaiah says, and Lord, how long? And he answered them until the cities are devastated without inhabitants, houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate.

[43:30] There's nobody left in it. You do it until the very end, until there is no more, and that's up to God's timing of when it's going to happen. Ours is just simply to be obedient, to go out and go preach it, to go say it to people, to loved ones.

[43:48] How long? Till the last one is brought into the kingdom. We just don't stop. Don't get discouraged, though. That's so important, because we can get discouraged, and oh, nobody's listening, it doesn't do any good, there's this guy at work that I've, which is interesting, he, when he finds out that I'm going to give the sermon, he wants to know what the sermon is.

[44:14] He wants me to go over it with him. And he is a professing atheist. I do not believe in God. Then why do you want to? But he wants to.

[44:25] There's something there that he's intrigued by. Don't stop preaching, Mark. Keep saying, because there are times when I, because after I tell him things and he uses it sometimes against me, oh, you said this, and oh, you said that, and oh, you're not acting like that.

[44:42] You're right. I'm not. I'm just a sinner, but I'm saved by grace. I needed a savior and I have one. That's all.

[44:54] That's the only difference between you and me. I tell you his name and I keep wanting to, but I just shouldn't. In case he's listening, you never know. Hey, you know, if it's you. Anyway, so that's the encouragement.

[45:06] Keep going. and sow in love. Sow the seeds in love with your hope. All right, that's it. Father, again, thank you for your word and I do ask that it just goes out and touches our lives the way that it is meant to.

[45:27] You meet us, each one of us, where we're at in our walk and we are all different, but the main thing is, Father, that I hear anyway, is that I am to die to myself daily, continually, and continually by doing that, I will see you higher and higher lifted up.

[45:51] See more and more clearly of your glory. See more and more of my sinfulness, of my need of you and need forgiveness daily, and that this will move me to compassion, to love others, and to tell them.

[46:20] Thank you for your word, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right.