Hope for the Weak and Wounded

Welcome, my name is Mark, one of the pastors. And I want to welcome you, I want to welcome all the people that are joining us in venue or online, live through Facebook Live and all that kind of stuff. So glad that you are here and I'm so glad to be back. I was just last weekend, my first weekend back after a three-month summer sabbatical. I just want to thank you again Twin Lakes Church for this amazing gift that you gave to us. And if you were here the last weekend before I left, I asked you, in fact I begged you that you would pray for our safety because our previous track record on "Times Away," not real good.

Previous sabbatical, my wife falls off a horse, breaks her hip, breaks her wrist, still got bionic stuff in her wrist because of that. And then on vacations, recent vacations, let's see, Jack broke his wrist, he broke his brother's nose. He impaled his thumb with his splinter about this big. Jack's clearly a problem in all this. And I'm a lousy dad because they keep getting hurt under my watch. But you prayed and it made a huge difference. And it was smooth sailing, I think I stubbed my pinky toe, that was about the worst of it. And we're so grateful for your prayers because God did indeed answer them.

I should have asked for your prayers a long time ago, but a little bit slow. I wish I could return to you with amazing tales of adventure, but I don't really have a lot of them. This was made all the more clear to me when I was talking to another pastor, not at this church, but from a church in the Bay Area. He was also on sabbatical, so he was regaling me with one story after the other, including when he went running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain this year. Yeah. And no doubt you've seen images like this or video. I never see any women in these pictures because clearly you're too smart for this. But the guys, they love it and some of them get trampled, some of them get gored. Occasionally, some of them get killed.

But while this pastor is telling me about his experience with no little amount of enthusiasm, I add, I'm not thinking about the risks. I'm thinking about the adventure. I'm thinking about the adrenaline. I'm thinking about having a story like that. I'm thinking about how much of a loser I am for what I did on my sabbatical. I'm so boring. I mean, he's running with the bulls. I'm organizing my garage, adding ventilation to my attic and taking things to the dump. That's what I do. But it wasn't just projects and dump runs. We had an amazing time. We got to go house boating on Trinity Lake. We went to Lake Tahoe for about a week and a half. That was awesome.

And while we're in Tahoe, by the way, if you're familiar with the area, this is up at Angora Lakes. There's little twin lakes up above the south shore. And on the upper lake, which is a picture here, there's places where you can jump off the rocks. In fact, that rock formation you're seeing across the lake. And that arrow is pointing to Luke and Anna and a bunch of college kids. And I grabbed the phone and trekked around the lake so I could get there just in time to film them. And so here's Anna right here. She is testing your prayers right there. Look at that. But see, she's fine. So it worked. It all was well. That ends well.

But one of the goals that we had for the sabbatical... You know, this is, again, you get to spend great times with friends and family, but also I feel an obligation. We all feel an obligation to come back to you better than we left and to really soak in what God would have for us during that time. And so one of my goals was to hear from voices through reading books and stuff of people outside of our era. I wanted to hear from people, Christians, pastors, theologians, from 500 years ago or 1,000 years ago or 2,000 years ago. So that maybe... You ever think maybe we're caught up in our own stew so much we can't really see outside of it?

And what's trendy and what's stuff that's really persevered and endured over time? What's the cream that just keeps floating to the top regardless of the era that we're in? And God blessed me with a really cool discovery because I discovered one of the most amazing, profound Christian writers that none of us have ever heard of. He's a guy named Richard Sibbes and he's an English pastor who lived... Let's see. He was born in 1577. He died in 1635. And I found this was the first of his books that I read. It's called The Bruised Reed. And through this book and the ones that I've read after, Richard Sibbes became my sabbatical pastor.

It's pretty amazing that a pastor that lived and died 400 years ago could speak into my life in the ways that he did. But a man of tremendous wisdom and compassion and amazing pastor, college professor at Cambridge and all this kind of stuff. But in this book, The Bruised Reed, there's a lot of parallels between what he talks about in this book and what we've been going through over the course of our summer series, "Small Faith, Big God." Because would you agree that sums up where we're at a lot of times in our faith? It was small faith, big God.

This morning, some of us come here, you're hurt. Or you feel useless. Or you feel just kind of tired. Or you're feeling hopeful that maybe you can start anew because you kind of veered off the path for a while, but you're back and you're like, "Lord, I just pray that you will make something of this morning." And even in the series, we've seen the Scriptures are just full of people who have small faith, but they're loved by big God. And so as we wrap up our series today, I'm gonna bring you to the Old Testament book of Isaiah, which is right in line with this very same theme.

And we're gonna be in Isaiah 42, and the first four verses, that's all we're gonna cover, they're right at the top of your notes, and so you could pull those out if you haven't already or look it up on your Bible or your device. But just these four verses have a lot to say to us if we understand the context. You just read them right out of the blue, you'll go, "Who, what is he talking about?" So I need to give you a little bit of the backstory, a little bit of context.

For the first 39 chapters of Isaiah, one of the main concerns is idolatry, the nation of Israel's idolatry. It's always been a part of what's going on in human hearts and minds, but starting with King Solomon, who was an amazing king at first, the Bible says, "Why is this man who ever lived built the temple that his father David designed and enlarged the nation, enriched the nation in amazing ways, but later in his reign, he slips into idolatry?" Where now a king who would profess that the God of Israel is his God is also pursuing the pagan gods of his neighbors, gods of sex, gods of power, gods of prosperity, and the successors, king after king after king, with just a few exceptions, they all do the same thing for 400 years they're doing this.

And it's not like these are just competing philosophies or religions. Some of these pagan deities, they sacrifice humans to them. They do all sorts of really ugly, gross things, and God, he sends prophets to warn them and say, "God will not stomach this forever." And Isaiah is one of those prophets who comes in and says, "You know, this just can't continue." And he says, "Ultimately, God is going to have to put a stop to this." But despite the warnings, no one really listens, at least not for an extended period of time. And in 586 BC, that judgment comes. His prophecy is fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, levels Jerusalem.

I mean, that beautiful temple that Solomon built, he burns it to the ground. I don't know how you burn a temple made out of stone, but they found a way to do it. And they plundered the treasury, and they just mowed the city down. And then whoever was left among the survivors, any of them that were useful to them, they hauled back to Babylon in chains where they would remain for the next 70 years. In fact, this is what prompted the author of Psalm 137 to write, "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion." Zion is another name for Jerusalem. And now it's a memory. It's gone. And from all appearances, so is the relationship between God and His people.

Now let me ask you something. Have you ever been in a place of life where you found yourself outside, or at least you felt like you were outside of God's mercy? Like you just pushed it a bridge too far, and the guilt was so immense, you thought, "There's no way I know in Sunday school they told me that Jesus would forgive me, but I cannot see Him forgiving this." I've had people tell me that over the years, and there's no way God could forgive me now. Or you're so broken, you can't even imagine that you could ever experience joy again, or that you could ever experience hope because you go, "How can I start over when I don't even believe that I can start over?" And what does God say to the weak and the wounded? Does He still offer us hope?

Well, we're going to find out today here in Isaiah 42. And again, the big question behind this, after this history of trusting in other things, is where are you going to put your faith? Where are you going to put your ultimate faith and trust? And in the preceding chapter, God is saying, "How did it work out with the idols? I mean, did they really make a difference in your life? Can they deliver on their promises? Can they actually heal you? Can they actually redeem you?" And before we dismiss these people for being primitives that worship statues out of wooden stone and all this kind of stuff, would you agree we still idolize things that are made out of wood, stone, and shiny materials? We do. We're not so different.

And these things can really take a big place in our life. We can devote a ton of time and energy and resources into pursuing them. We wouldn't call it worship, but that's what it becomes because it becomes the center of our lives. And it gets to the point in, as Isaiah addresses this, he's saying, "Rules are not going to be enough. God's not going to bring more rules. God's not going to send a lot more prophets." There's a few more after Isaiah, but you're going to basically disregard them as you've been doing for all these years. Instead, God is going to send a Messiah. God is going to send a Savior who can do for you what you could never do for yourselves.

And that's the context leading up to these four verses in Isaiah where this Savior is introduced. And it says this, "Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight. I will put my spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice. He will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. And his teaching the islands or the distant nations will put their hope."

Now, again, this is a prophecy about this coming Messiah. In other words, this is a prophecy about Jesus Christ. And I want you to see how he's described right out of the gate in verse 1. It says, "Here is my what? Servant." It's like, here's going to be the next tyrant that rolls into town. Jesus doesn't force anyone to follow him. He doesn't say, "All right, I'm the new sheriff. I just got to knock some heads together, and we'll just kind of clean this place up." No. He comes as a servant. In fact, Jesus would say of himself in Matthew 20:28, he would say this. He would say, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

This is why Isaiah continues, chapter 42, verse 2, that he will not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets because, you know, that's what earthly leaders do, right? That's what politicians do. That's what people do when they want to leverage their notoriety to gain a following, and yet Jesus, he acts exactly in the opposite way. In fact, there's a great story in Matthew 12 where one day Jesus is teaching and a huge crowd gathers around him, and Matthew says that on that day, every single person who needed to be healed, Jesus healed. Now, Jesus didn't heal everyone he could have, but on that day, he heals everyone, and no sooner has he done this than he tells them, he warns them not to tell anyone about what he's just done.

And you have to think, "Well, that had to be a little bit confusing. They're excited. It's like, 'I'm healed. I want to tell people.'" No, don't tell anyone. This is going to be our secret. And if they're stunned, think of the disciples because, you know, like Matthew, they're like going, "Do you know how amazing this is, Jesus? Your poll numbers are going to go through the roof. I mean, you're a superstar now." But then when Matthew writes his gospel later, he realized that what Jesus was doing in that moment was fulfilling the words of Isaiah. And he says, "He will not shout or cry out to promote himself." Now, truth be told, there were times when he did raise his voice, when he did cry out.

For example, right before this, going back to Matthew, in Chapter 11, verses 28 and 29, he raises his voice to say this. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart." The Son of God. I'm gentle. I'm humble in heart. I'm not going to just dazzle you and make it a popularity contest. That's the kind of Savior we have, a Savior who's gentle, a Savior who's humble.

And it reminds me, just three weeks ago, I was pulling out of my driveway, and as I looked down the street to see if there's any oncoming traffic, I see not an approaching vehicle, but a full grown sheep is trotting up the street, just like this, right towards me. And I went, "Well, another day in Corralitus, these things happen." And I, you know, dawned to me, "I should probably do something about this. This beautiful animal," and I backed my truck up and I parked it. And by the time I get out of my truck, now it's on my front lawn munching on the grass and fertilizing it at the same time.

And so I mean, well, this sheep, it's a you, but I'm going to call it a sheep because I don't want to confuse you with what it's doing. And so I just go into the house. I think I got a little bit of time. I grab a carrot out of the fridge, and I think to myself, "I will lure this sheep, and I will take it back to its home," which I think is about three doors down. And I discover when I try to do this that sheep are about as excited over carrots as most humans are. And it's like, "Yeah, not interested." And it doesn't run away, but it won't let me get too close to it.

And then at the same time, this couple, I think they live across the street from the sheep, they come running up. And the guy, he's got a dog leash in his hand. Like he's just going to lasso the thing and call it a day. And nah, that did not work at all. Sheep would have nothing of the leash. And now it's running around my lawn, the road, back out, pretty chaotic. And it's an athlete, I find out. It's fast, and it's jumping, and I'm like, "Good luck with that." Then my next door neighbor, Lisa, comes out. No carrot, no leash. She just starts talking to it. "Hi there. How are you doing? Are you lost?" And she's like a sheep whisperer, it turns out.

Because it's like they're old friends, and she just starts talking to it, and they walk down the street, and she just follows it down all the way down to its property and into its pen. Just like that. Two weeks later, it was auctioned off at the fair. Probably why it broke out, right? It sensed something's coming, feeding me too well. I'm out of here. But Lisa, otherwise it would be free. No, I digress. Here's the thing I was actually thinking. This is what Jesus was talking about when he says in John 10, "My sheep listen to my what? voice. I know them, and they follow me." He's like, "I don't just lure you in the treats, and I don't use the leash. It's just his gentle voice that draws us and compels us, because we see the heart behind it."

And it's that same gentle manner that Isaiah describes in the next verse, in verse 3, when he says this, "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out." I love those two images, a bruised reed and a smoldering wick, because again, some of you came here weak and wounded. I mean, maybe you've been here for a little while, and you've learned the stories of other people or you've met some people. In your eyes, they're like towering oaks of faith. You're so impressed by them. And meanwhile, you look at yourself and you're like, "Yeah, I'm just like a little wimpy spear of asparagus or something compared to these oaks. Here's my people right here." Or you long, you actually want to be like this person of faith where it's just like a bonfire, a blazing fire of faith and passion for God.

But in reality, you're just a little smoldering wick, just struggling along. Because of that, and because that describes so many of us, I want to give you three promises that Isaiah gives in this passage today that come out of this passage. Three promises that frankly, I believe God has you here so that they would be impressed upon your heart today. I really believe that. And the first of those promises is this, that Jesus will bring blessing out of our bruises. Jesus will bring blessings out of our bruises. And notice in verse 3, we're called reeds, not trees. I mean, we want to be oaks, but the reality is we're fragile. And we live in a world that can be very hard.

Now of course, there's times when life is good and life is sweet, but even in those sweet times, there's occasionally the awareness of how fleeting it is, isn't there? How fragile it is, how a moment can change it all. And when those moments come, those unwelcome moments, and we are bruised and wounded deeply as inevitably we will all be in some way. Jesus said, "In this world, you will have trouble." Which means you will be bruised. When that happens, we want to say, "God, why did you allow this to happen?" I mean, we all know we're, you know, times limited on earth, but it seems like when things come, especially suddenly, it's like, "What? It makes no sense?" Or, "God, where are you in my pain?"

And if you've never brought yourself to voice those things, you know what? Jesus Christ voiced them for you, because on the cross, He would cry out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" I mean, that's how much Jesus identifies with us as a human being, that He would say, "Where are you, God, in my pain?" Now, in that story, a lot's been made clear, huh? But in our story, there are answers and things that we won't know until heaven. In fact, God never promises to give us specific answers to the unwelcome events in our lives. Yeah, we live in a broken world, and we do some general things that we expect, but when it happens to us personally, God doesn't say, "Well, here, let me just kind of show you exactly why that happened." And yet God will bring blessings out of our bruisings.

In fact, just this morning, I got texted in... Fox News did some religion section, or they do a religion section, and an article about Dan and Lynn Wagner, members of this church, and many of you know their story, their two daughters, teenage daughters, 16 years ago, were killed in an accident involving a drunk driver side-swiping their van t-boning it. And yet their story over the course of these years is a story of forgiveness. They have forgiven and embraced the person responsible for the death of their only two daughters. A story of God redeeming their pain in such a way as where they touch other people, because does this world need redemptive stories, real life ones? Does this world need to see people who are willing to trust Jesus so much that they will take His words to forgive that seriously? And yet they do.

And their ministry, it's gone beyond this region. I mean, it's gone international, because God is gonna touch untold thousands of lives. People will come to Christ. People have come to Christ. And it wasn't because their bruising was good, it's because God is able to bring good and blessing out of our bruisings. And He's proved it big time with Dan and Lynn. And you might be thinking, "Well, you know, they were victims. They were innocent. My wounds are self-inflicted." And if we're honest, a lot of our wounds are self-inflicted. And yet even in those, God can bring blessing.

Just last Sunday afternoon, down at the beach, you saw the beautiful baptism video. And we've been doing that for almost 20 years. We've been baptizing people for a lot longer than that. But down at Seacliff for the last 20 years, it never gets old. I've been to every single one of them. It never gets old. In fact, this year I got to baptize my daughter, Anna, and so it was just a double blessing. But right before we did the baptisms, we gathered together and we sang "Amazing Grace." And there were no shortage of people, people who were about to be baptized, people who were there to just love and support them, people that were just in their own private headspace, and tears streaming down their cheeks as they sang, "I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see."

There wasn't just bruises. There were personal regrets. There were mistakes. There were things that reminded those folks in that moment that God's love is so deep for us, He was willing to have His Son bruised for those very same things. And I don't know, you know, what was behind most of those tears. I heard some amazing stories in my group. But I know this much. Every single person that was baptized last weekend is a fulfillment of this promise, that He will bring blessings out of our bruisings. And not only that, the second promise is this. Jesus will provide grace in our weakness. He provides grace in our weakness. And you'll note that the second thing Isaiah compares us to is a smoldering wick.

And I love how the King James translation puts this, calls us a smoking flax. Isn't that great? We're all a bunch of smoking flaxes here today. And it's an image of a little oil lamp that they would have. You know, it's not a big torch. It's not a spotlight. It's just a little light. And it's fragile. And it just puts out a lot less than you might hope for. And at the same time, because of this, because there's impurities in the wick and there's impurities in the oil, just like there isn't us when we come to the Lord and even after, it smokes. It belches out, frankly, more smoke than light most of the time. And yet even so, Jesus loves that little smoking flax. He cherishes it. He tends it. And he fans the flame into something else, something bigger, something brighter.

Because after all, he's the one that gave it its spark. It came from him. And you don't have to be, you know, a scholar to see that the Bible is a story of one smoking flax after the other. I mean, even in this series, we saw Moses not too long ago. And when God calls Moses to be the leader of his effort to save Israel and deliver them from their bondage, what does Moses say? "Yeah, okay, here, I'm ready. Let's go." No! He's like, "Hey, you got the wrong guy." I got a pass. You might not know that guy, but I got a pass. I got a rap sheet. And I don't speak so well. And so find somebody else. And he's one excuse after the other. And yet in all of that smoke, there's a little spark that God builds up until it grows into this mighty man of faith, Moses.

Or how about Peter, the rock? Well, he crumbled big time, didn't he? The night of Christ's arrest when Jesus tells the disciples, "Hey, I'm going to be arrested, and I'm going to be abused, and I'm going to be crucified, and you're all going to desert me." And Peter says, "Time out, not me. I will die for you. Even if all these other guys, they may abandon you, but I won't." And then just a little while later, what's he doing? I never knew him. So it turns out all of those assurances of his loyalty, Peter's just blowing a lot of smoke, right? But then just three days after, while Peter's in a tomb of his own, I mean, he said, "Think that little flicker of faith. It's gone. It's over." Mary Magdalene is at the tomb, and when she arrives, it's empty. And the angel says to her and the other women with her, "He is risen. He is not here. So tell his disciples and Peter, especially Peter."

And he thinks that fire is out, but God will take Peter, and Jesus will build up that flame, and then you read about Peter in the book of Acts, and then he's unstoppable. He is on fire. And you've had this experience, you had a fire in your wood stove or down at the beach or something like that, and you go back later and all you see are the ashes. But hidden down under the ashes, there's what? There's embers. Jesus can see the embers in our hearts that we can't even see. Jesus can see the embers in others that we cannot see. Right now, you feel a lot more like a smoking flax than a blazing torch. But Jesus sees you not for just who you are, but who you will be when He finishes His work in you.

And again, it's so hard to believe for some of us here today because, frankly, this week you blew it. You said something, you thought something, you did something that you said you would never do again. And there you are. And you wonder, will I ever change? Or you're like the guy who says to Jesus, "I believe, now help me in my unbelief." And he's happy to answer that prayer. Some of us, it's not so much ourselves we feel a burden for. It's for someone we love. It's for a child or a friend, and they've fallen away and they're struggling in their faith and there's a lot of smoke and it's offensive, but I'm here to remind you, He will not snuff out the smoldering wick.

You know, just being here today, you know what you're doing? You're actually cooperating with what He wants to do in your life because there's a power to our gathering together, what the Bible calls fellowship. There's a power in that. We actually spur each other on. It's like if you have some coals and you want to warm them up, what do you do? You rake them all together, don't you? And the heat of one warms the other. That same thing happens when we gather together. And along these lines, I just want to just for a second, just flip over your notes to something René mentioned last weekend. I just want to remind you of this, where it says, "Five Ways to Grow Your Faith." I just want, this is not a formula. This is not magic. These are just five time-proven ways that God uses to build us up in our faith.

I mean, who doesn't need practical teaching and positive relationships? I do. And we've got stuff for you, not only in the series, but group stuff you can check out afterwards or who doesn't need private time with the Lord through a devotional time where we just soak ourselves in scripture and allow the Lord to speak to us. We're going to serve others in our community because Jesus was a servant and we are, we're going to give ourselves an opportunity to be stretched through our 2020 vision because we grow when we're stretched, when we say, "Lord, we're going to step out in faith." And then when He meets us, it's amazing. And there's really no substitute for those types of times.

The bottom line is this, faith is a shared experience. It's a shared experience. And I know we all like our kind of isolated routines and schedules, but there's avenues of growth you will never experience by yourself. It just won't. So I hope you will be part of what we're going to do because look, we're not just trying to fill the church calendar here. We're actually investing ourselves and with the hope that we will actually enrich the lives of those around us, that we will enrich our very own lives, that we will lift up our community, that we will lift up our world. I mean, these are some big goals that we're inviting God to bring about in our life and in our church.

You might be thinking to yourself, "Well, you know what, Mark? I can't do that." Because the truth is, I'm no good to myself. How in the world could I be any good to anybody else? Well, the good news is this, it's not about you. It's not writing on your back. This is about what Jesus does in us and through us when we just trust Him. We say, "Well, I'm weak, I'm wounded." Well, guess what? He's strong, He's victorious. That's why it says in verse 4, "He will not falter or be discouraged till He establishes justice on earth." You know what this means? This means that someday, here's the promise, Jesus will set all things right. That's what God's justice looks like. It looks like He's setting all things, all things right.

He means that sin doesn't have the last word. Death, despair, do not have the last word. Jesus has the last word. Just two weeks ago in this room, two weeks ago today, we had the memorial service for a dear friend of many of us, Gary Hazleton, just an absolute prince of a man, really a bright torch in our midst. And the suddenness of that loss was a blow to many, and of course his family, chief of all in that. And as we got through the service, and there were so many amazing things to say about Gary's legacy, it closed with Trent singing an old hymn that I'd heard before. It's called "This is My Father's World." And surely, I've sung the song before in church, but I don't know what it was, but it hit me in a way that it never has before, specifically the third verse that goes like this, "This is my Father's world. Let me never forget that though the wrong seems off so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father's world. The battle is not done. Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heaven be one." That's the promise.

That he will not falter, he will not be discouraged until he has set all things right in the world out there and in the world in here. So fellow bruised reeds and smoking flaxes, I hope you find hope in this today, that you are encouraged, that you are strengthened, and that you're reminded, listen, you have not exhausted his mercy nor his patience. To the contrary, you're an object of his love, and in Christ you are the recipient of his grace. That's no small thing. As my friend Richard Sibbes says, "Grace is a powerful work of the Spirit, not only revealing to us our misery and deliverance through Christ, but emptying us of ourselves as being redeemed from ourselves and infusing new life into us and afterwards strengthening and quickening us when we droop and hang the wing, never leaving us till the conquest is perfect." Amen? Amen.

Would you pray with me now? Precious Heavenly Father, we thank you, oh Lord, thank you, that we can come together today and receive what you have for us, to worship, to fellowship, to hear from your word. And Lord, we all come really destitute when it comes to having anything to offer you. We might look shiny and scrubbed up and presentable, but the reality is we're all bruised reeds and smoking flaxes. And so Lord, as people who are completely reliant on your grace, on your mercy, I pray first of all that you would help us to just fall into this. And for the one who thinks they're beyond your grace, that today you would remind them that what you did on the cross, what you allowed your son to do, paid a sufficient price. He paid it all.

And so help us to rest in that reality and be able to receive that into our lives in a fresh and powerful way today. And I also pray, Lord, that as we are completely dependent on your mercy and grace, help us to be willing to extend that to others because you call us to do that, to forgive as we have been forgiven. And then finally, Lord, for the one who feels broken and wounded today, where no words will be adequate, would you just comfort them and lift them and remind them of your presence. Be very near to them and bind up their wounds, Lord. For I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ and all of his people said, Amen.