Transcription

How clearly are you seeing God today? Is He crystal clear, bright? Is He empowering your life every day? Or has God gotten blurred over the last few days and weeks of life? How’s your spiritual, eternal, and Heavenly focus today? I was recently struggling seeing, with my new glasses that were made by the doctor. The best doctor I could find and prepared at the best lab, he told me. It was a special gift from a friend as I was heading out into another ministry trip. As I looked through my glasses, they were fuzzy. So, I went back in and found that my blurred vision was neither the glasses nor my eyes. It was just a nose pad that was bent. Just a tiny correction and the world was all clear again. That’s the great benefit of our lesson today, seeing God on a daily basis. Seeing Him in His glory changes us.

As we open to Isaiah 33, we are going to see the continuing effect that Isaiah’s sight of God, in chapter 6, had upon his life. Perhaps the greatest application of exploring Isaiah to our lives today is understanding this, God offers daily glimpses into Heaven.

Are you seeing into Heaven today? That’s really my question for each one of you. What do I mean by seeing into Heaven? Let’s start by going to Isaiah 33. So, as I’ve encouraged you in every class, I know some of you are actually in East Asia watching this and you’re taking notes, and quizzes, and tests, and doing projects. Others of you, maybe you just joined us. This is actually a Bible study. So, if you have a Bible open it up. Isaiah chapter 33 is where we are going to start. This is the final lesson, 15. We’ve been exploring Isaiah, but this is the most life changing lesson, and that’s what I’m praying. That’s what I know confidently will happen to you, if you’ll listen with your heart. We’re looking at sanctification. The biblical doctrine of sanctification is what God wants me to be doing every day of my life. Sanctification equals usefulness to God. God wants me to be useful to Him every day of my life and He wants you. If you’re a born again Christian, the greatest thing in your life is whether or not you’re useful to God.

Let’s read Isaiah 33 and we’re going to start in verse 14. We’re going to see this daily glimpse into Heaven that Isaiah wrote about, 2,700 years ago. “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has seized the hypocrites.” Now remember the context is, Isaiah is prophesying to a dying nation. That’s one of the earlier lessons. The people were hypocritical. The people were charlatans. They were idol worshipers. But they belong to God. They were His chosen people of promise. So, God was punishing them, and God was calling them to repentance. That’s this first line. “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has seized the hypocrites.”

Isaiah starts talking about how he stayed useful to God, how his life was sanctified. It was all through the daily glimpse into Heaven he had. Verse 14 continues, “who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?” Now what’s that? If you have read the book of Hebrews, I’ve written in my Bible, Hebrews 12:29. Do you know what that verse says? “Our God is a consuming”, what? “Fire.”  What he’s saying is, who’s going to dwell in God’s presence, He’s a consuming devouring fire? “Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” That’s another name for God. God is the everlasting burnings. He is this consuming fire. His holiness, that’s what the fire represents. Here it is, “He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil.” Verse number 16, “he will dwell on high; his place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; bread will be given him, His water will be sure. Your eyes will see the King in His beauty.” Look down at your slides. This lesson, our last class, is God offering to us a daily glimpse into Heaven to see Him.

This is our 15th class. We’ve covered all these classes and you’re on sanctification there, the bottom class.

I want to remind you that my name is John Barnett. That wonderful lady right there next to me in the picture is my wonderful wife, Bonnie, who happens to be running the camera right now. We are serving the Lord, reaching the next generation in Sub-Sahara Africa, and the Middle East, and Central Europe, and East Asia, and everywhere in between. I teach like I am to you, only on-site. We travel about 125,000 miles a year. We’re fully supported faith-based missionaries.

The next slide. I would just invite you, any of you that would like to stay in touch with our ministry. That’s my Facebook page. Now look up from my Facebook page, I encourage you, if you would like to stay connected to us after this class. Many of you students say, I am praying for you, I’m partnering with you. For all of you in the wider YouTube audience we, on that Facebook page and it’s just John Samuel Barnett, we send out our monthly updates so that you can pray for us.

For example, I just was invited to speak to the street evangelists of England, of the United Kingdom. It’s a group that go out door to door, and go to all the fairs, and all of the farmer’s markets all over the UK and share the gospel face to face. They’re evangelists. They said would you in this COVID-19 shut-in time, do a zoom call to encourage all of these evangelists? That’s just what we do. If you’d like to pray for us, befriend me in cyber world. Back to that page. That’s my Facebook page.

Let’s do a little study of salvation. Turn in your Bible to Luke 1. So, the New Testament and this is Luke enlarging on what Isaiah has said. Isaiah talks about the darkness and Christ being the light, and all of that. Look how Luke says it in Luke 1:76-79.  See the slide? Salvation reaches blind sinners in the darkness. Now think with me, what does that mean? Luke 1:76, “And you, child,” that’s the promise of John the Baptist coming, “will be called the profit of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways.” This is Isaiah 40. This is the promised one coming to declare the way of the Lord, “to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of God. With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us.” How does Luke describe the coming Christ? The sunrise, the Dayspring. Why is it so important that the sunrise and the light starts shining?

Look at verse 79. “To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.” Basically, God says everybody in the world is blind. They’re sitting on the edge of a cliff, a precipice, it’s straight down. It goes all the way to the horrible Sheol, grave. Horrible torment. They’re headed to eternal torment and they don’t even know it, they’re blinded. Jesus comes like the blazing sun and shines in their face. He is the light, John says, that lights everyone that comes into the world. It says that Jesus comes and convicts, and bumps, and taps every person that’s ever lived. It says that, actually Paul said in Acts 17, that Jesus comes and makes Himself known to every human being in the darkness that’s blind. He gets close enough to them, that Paul said, He’s an arm’s length away.  He gets up close, taps someone, and waits for them to reach out toward Him to say God, who are you? In the darkness. You’re the creator. You’re the one, my hope. You’re the one that forgives sins. He’s within an arm’s length of everyone. That’s what the promise of Luke 1:77-79 is. That’s, if you look back at your slide, what salvation did to each of us. We were blind sinners in the darkness. Christ came and look what He did.

Acts 26:18. Salvation brings the gift of spiritual sight. Look up, this is one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. Acts 26:18 says, this is Jesus talking to Paul in Acts 26 Jesus said seven things to Paul. “To open their eyes […] to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance, among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” That’s what salvation is all about.

What causes sanctification? That’s this verse right here. Do you see John 17:17? That’s one of those important ones that you should, if you’re a believer, you should be working on memorizing. It says, “sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” So, salvation brings the gift of spiritual sight so that we can read the scriptures and become useful to God. Isn’t that wonderful? The simplicity? Usefulness to God is being sanctified. Sanctified is turning off the digital distractions, turning off the music for a while, turning off the games for longer, turning off all the other pursuits to listen to God, to hear His voice, to let me see myself in the mirror and see the perfections of Christ where I fall short and say, change me. Back down to your slide. Salvation brings us the gift of spiritual sight, that’s Acts 26:18.

How do we learn how to focus on God? That really is the essence of this lesson, learning how to focus on God.

That takes us to Isaiah 33. So, turn back in your Bible to Isaiah 33. In the next slide we’re going to start back in verse 14 and I want to tie it to something in your life. Isaiah 33, and look what it says in verse 14. Who’s going to “dwell with the devouring fire?” Who shall “dwell with the everlasting burnings? He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly.” But what is this consuming fire? What is that supposed to mean and impact my life? Look back at the slide, and there’s a reference there. Isaiah 33:14-17 reminds us of one of the daily desires Jesus has for us.

Matthew 6:9 is what we call the Lord’s prayer. Now, all of you have that memorized. Right there, looking at that slide, let’s start saying it together. You ready? Most of you have cited this in church, or in Sunday School, or around the table, or you just know it. So right there, those of you, especially in the classroom; come on, I want you right now to be unafraid. Just start saying it with me.

“Our Father who art in Heaven,” what? “Hallowed be Thy name.” Look up, think about this. Jesus says in Matthew 6:9, “after this manner pray ye.” The actual construction in the Greek languages, it says He commands, it’s not a suggestion. Jesus commands that we pray without ceasing, but then He tells us what He wants us to pray. Not, repeat this Lord’s prayer. It’s okay to repeat it but that’s not the goal. He wants us to do what it says.

What’s that first phrase we just said? We’re supposed to address our prayers to our Father, who art in Heaven. What should come to our mind? When we think of our Father in Heaven? Let me read to you what God wants to come to your mind, “who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings?” How are we supposed to live in the sight of this consuming, holy, awesome God? Now, you remember at the beginning I told you, when I introduced this lesson a few minutes ago, I told you that Isaiah never recovered from chapter 6. When he was called into ministry, when he saw the Lord high and lifted up, and the long train of His robe filled the temple, and smoke, and all that. Then the fire on the coal that cleansed him, his mouth. Do you remember all that? That’s what the Lord wants. Look back at the slide. We need to see the devouring fire. We need to see the consuming holiness of God. God wants us.

Here, you can look up, seeing the devouring fire reminds us how Isaiah saw the Lord. Isaiah felt His holiness. Isaiah experienced the sanctifying power, and cleansing, and consecration God offers. But it wasn’t a one-time event. It wasn’t just in chapter 6. It led to a lifelong pursuit of this reverence of pausing, like the Lord’s prayer said, and thinking about how am I going to dwell in the sight of this consuming holy God? I know how. Look what it says in your Bible. “He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,” and “despises the gain.” “Who stops his ears from…” It’s choices in my heart, for pleasing God. That’s what makes me useful, sanctification makes me useful. What is sanctification? Allowing God to take over more and more in my life so I’m useful. Surrendering more and more in my life. Look back at your slides. We see the devouring fire.

Next, we get the offer of experiencing God continuously. Now look up and let me read to you Matthew 1. You know that from the Christmas story, but look what Matthew 1 tells us in verse 23. Do you remember in Isaiah 7 it says that a “virgin will conceive and bear Son, and call His name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7, it’s repeated right here in Matthew 1. “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel.” What’s the rest of the verse? “Which is translated, ‘God with us.’ “ Do you see, look back at your slide, this is the offer to experience God with us. To experience God continuously with us. That’s what the Lord wants.

The next slide. There are 6 choices that you can actually find here in Isaiah 33, that preserve healthy, spiritual sight. That’s what I want to go through. So, look in your Bible at Isaiah 33:15 and let’s go through these.

Number one, the first part of verse 15 says, “He who walks,” and that’s the present direction of my life, “righteously.” What does that mean? I choose. Do you want to see God every day? Do you want to be useful to Him? Do you want to please Him? Cultivate a lifestyle of practical purity, that I choose to abstain from things that displease God. Look up for a second. If you love someone and you know they don’t like something, then you avoid it/that as much as possible. Now we’re not perfect and we can’t perfectly avoid everything that offends someone we love, but if we do something that offends them, we say, oh I’m sorry. I always tell people; do you know what the nine most important words of any relationship are? I was wrong. I am sorry. Please forgive me. Nine words. That’s the essence of this, cultivating practical purity. I search the scriptures to see what displeases God and then I say, Lord, I don’t want to do that. I want to avoid abstain, depart from anything that displeases you.

Secondly, look back at your slides, I not only cultivate this lifestyle of practical purity; secondly, look what verse 15 continues to say, “and speaks uprightly.” I make a conscious choice to cultivate a lifestyle of speech under God’s control. Why? Because James says that the tongue is a fire, and I don’t want to set on fire the course of nature. I don’t want to be involved in anything that displeases God. I want my speech under God’s control.

Look at the next one. Verse 15 continues. “He who despises the gain of oppressions.” What’s that? I choose to cultivate a lifestyle of compassion. Look up, do you remember the lesson we did on fasting and praying, and social compassion? What was Jesus’ most frequent emotion? Compassion. How do I put on compassion? Colossians chapter 3. Do you know what it says? “As the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on compassion.” You know what God says compassion is? It’s like my shirt. Did you know that I, before this class this morning, after I got up… by the way, the first thing I did in the morning, I just had this time with the Lord, and I was praying, and I was surrendering and asking for His blessing and then I went in and shaved and took a shower. Then I walked in and there where my shirts that my wonderful wife got. I don’t like to shop, so she picks them out. I don’t like to change my clothes; I wear the same thing every day. So, she takes them away, and washes, and irons, and they’re right back there. So, I grabbed this shirt. Did you know this shirt didn’t just jump on me. It didn’t tackle me in the closet and say, I’m coming on you. I had to take it off the hanger and put it on. Do you know what God says about compassion? Compassion is a choice that we clothed ourselves with. Do you know how we do that? You say Lord Jesus, I’m not compassionate by nature, I was born self-centered. I was born impatient. I was born all the ways of the flesh, but I want you, through your work on the cross to change me. That’s the fruit of the Spirit. What’s the fruit of the Spirit? It’s getting the personality of Jesus Christ transplanted. You’ve heard of liver tramp transplants, right? You’ve heard of heart transplants, right? Do you know what God offers? Personality transplants. I can have the transplanted personality of Jesus Christ, the more I surrender to Him. Back to the slides, that’s choosing to cultivate a lifestyle of compassion.

The next one follows on that. We choose to cultivate a lifestyle of honesty. He “gestures with his hands,” 15 says, “refusing bribes.” Even if everybody else is cheating everyone, if everyone else doesn’t pay the taxes, even if everyone else cheats in school, or tries to get around rules, I’m going to say no. I want honesty. I want to please the Lord, that’s number four.

Here’s the next one, by the way these start getting a little bit challenging. Verse 15 says, “who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed?” God says, choose to cultivate a lifestyle of only listening to things God calls pure. Look up, I had a most amazing email from a woman in London, riding a subway, watching a video. I told you about it in the Proverbs class, where she was coming home from a weekend, huge concert, drugs, alcohol, sex, everything. She just was living the life and she realized that she was in the cycle of just working for several weeks to save up enough money to go to these big concerts, and to just live this raucous party life. Then she said, with her hangover and feeling all dirty inside, she said that she had so many partners at the concert that you don’t even remember who’s who. She said she just sitting there and typed in hope. Google popped up, praise the Lord, one of my messages, a little short one on how to have hope in Christ. She sat there for seven minutes and listened. At the end I said, bow your head. She said, she bowed her head. Then I said, if you want me to pray for you, raise your hand. She said, on the subway I raised my hand and she said, and then I thought, oh people are watching. But then she said she kept listening and actually realized that right there in the subway she could call on the name of the Lord. To make a long story short, she wrote me six months later. Do you know what had happened? She really did connect with Lord. She really got saved. Why she wrote me is, she said, I just finished taking down the last poster and cover of music that I had from all those concerts. She realized all of those things reminded her, look back at this slide, that she was listening to things that God would call impure, and she should only be listening to things God calls pure. So, she took all those and threw them away. She told me about it and was saying, I’m a believer.

Look at number 6. God says in Isaiah 33:15, that we should choose to cultivate a lifestyle of only looking at things that God calls pure. Not just listening, our music and our entertainment, but what we look at. Look what it says in verse 15, “And shuts his eyes from seeing evil.”

Let’s go in our Bibles to Psalm 101. If you don’t get anything else from this class, every person watching and listening to this, you can totally change your life if you choose what Psalm 101 says. What is Psalm 101? Psalm 101, notice what it says, 101st Psalm and if you have the superscript, that means that something written before the first verse, mine says “A Psalm of David.”

So, you might not have that, but it’s identified, that it’s actually part of the Hebrew text. It’s actually part of the Bible. Some Bibles leave it out. You ought to buy a Bible that actually has “A Psalm of David” in there, because there are a lot of them. A lot of them are a lot longer than that. Many people don’t even read them and that’s why they don’t print them. But you need that because it’s part of the identification. So, this is David and if you read it, it’s David as a young person. He says, “I will sing of mercy and justice; to you, O LORD, I will sing praises.” Verse 2, here we get into the challenge. “I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” You know what he said? When I’m all alone, behind the walls of my house, I’m going to have integrity. In other words, I’m going to do the same thing inside that I do outside, when everybody’s watching. Now verse 3, sixth, this six point we’re looking at, “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes.; I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. A perverse heart will depart from me; I will not know wickedness.” Wow, he keeps going. Look at verse 6. “My eyes will be on the faithful of the land.” Look back down at your slides. God wants us to cultivate a lifestyle of only looking at things that God calls pure.

Next, what are the rewards of focusing upon God this way? What does God say, if we will choose to obey Him? Let me just go through these quickly with you.

I call them: Six indescribable joys of seeing God. So, keep going in your Bibles to Isaiah 33:16-17 and this is what it says.

Number one, “He will dwell on high.” What does that mean? The place that God offers, closeness to God, you’ll dwell on high with Me is what He’s talking about.

Number two, Isaiah 33 continues, “His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks.” So, God says, I offer you true security, you can be secure in me. You can be bold, you can be confident, if you will choose to cultivate these choices, I’ve given you already in verses 14 and 15.

Thirdly he said, “bread will be given” to you. What is that? Look up, let me share with you. Do you know what most of us struggle with? We struggle with this hunger for something. The Lord says, I want you to be satisfied by me. I want to be with you. I want you to say I have Christ; I don’t really need anything else. Now many people, now I’m talking to you young people, youth. Most young people struggle with this kind of raging, hormonal driven, sexual desire. You know what most Christians think? If I could only get married, then I wouldn’t have these struggles. That’s not true. Do you know how I know that? The Bible says, the smartest man that ever lived, Solomon; the man who had 300 wives and 700 concubines, he had 1000 women always at his disposal; do you know what he said? The eyes of a man are never satisfied. We humans have this incredible hungering that one woman or a thousand will not satisfy. The same as $1 or a thousand or a billion won’t satisfy. It’s not just for sexual things, it’s for money, it’s for fame, it’s for popularity, it’s for pleasure. We just hunger.

The biblical word for hunger is lust and lust grows bigger every day. Now, what does God say? I want to satisfy you. This verse is the incredible reminder that when we spend time with God, He satisfies us and we never feel empty, we never feel unsatisfied, we feel complete.

Now look back down, Isaiah 33:16-17 says, “He will dwell on high.” Those are the endless delights of being near God. “His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks.” That’s true security. “Bread will be given him.” God says I will satisfy your longings.

Here’s the next one? “His water will be sure.” That’s unending refreshment. Look up for a second. Do you know what the Bible says? The Bible says, before we were saved, we were so thirsty. After we’re saved, look at John 7 with me. Take your Bible and go over to the gospel by John chapter 7. I see this in my mind, in fact my wonderful wife over there knows I have a phonographic mind, in other words I talk about what I see in my mind. I see in pictures and I talk in a picturesque way.

John chapter 7. If you get there, Matthew, Mark, Luke John, in the New Testament, chapter 7. Look at verse 37, “On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out.” Now, the backdrop is this, the whole nation of Israel was supposed to come three times a year to Jerusalem. The city would swell into over a million people at the high point in this festival where normally there were just maybe a hundred thousand, it was 10 times as many people from every part of the country. They would all come for these ceremonies and of course they were very observant, so that everyone was quiet and listening. The high priest would get up on a platform and say things and do things. So, all the mothers were saying to their children and everyone was just taking a breath too. They wanted to hear everything. See what it says in 37, “the last day, the great day.” It’s the climax of the whole gathering of all the people. From Dan to Beersheba were there.

While they were all silently waiting for the high priests to do his thing one of the pilgrims, who had walked down there from Capernaum and had slipped in, named Jesus stands up. Look what He does, “and cried out.” The word cried out means He screamed at the top of His voice. “If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink.” Why did He say that? Because we were all born thirsty, and Jesus is the water of life. Jesus offers to us, verse 38, “He who believes in Me,” Jesus continued, “as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Then John adds a note, “But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given.”

What is Jesus saying? He’s saying when you come to me, you’ll never hunger, John 6. You’ll never thirst, John 7. Look back at your slides. “His water will be sure.” Jesus offers unending refreshment so that we’re not restlessly looking for something to satisfy us, He does.

Verse 17. Now, this is the blessing. “Your eyes will see the King in His beauty.” Notice what I wrote on the slide, this is the greatest attraction we get to see. “The King in His beauty.” And what else?

Number six, “they will see the land that is very far off.” That’s what I call the Heavenward gaze. Now look up, what is this? This is called the Pilgrim mentality. Do you remember what Hebrews 11 says? We are to be pilgrims and strangers on the Earth. We’re to see a land that is far off, we’re supposed to be looking for Heaven. We are supposed to have daily glimpses into Heaven to see our King in His beauty. The One who died for us, the One who loved us, who loosed us from our sins, we’re supposed to look at Him every day. When we look at Him, it satisfies us.

Now, some of you don’t even like to read the Bible. You don’t even understand the Bible when you read it, I’m talking to you. You need to do a little exam. Did you know, what I’m describing right now is normal Christianity. This is not for a monk somewhere. Normal Christians are supposed to be these who turn away their eyes from evil, who shut their ears from listening to evil. They’re the ones who feel secure in Christ, who are letting Him satisfy them, and who see Him in His word. If you don’t, you’re sick or you’re dead. What is dead? Not saved.

I just got a note from a man today. He lived in Maine, the state of Maine in the United States, up in the northeast. He said that he had grown up in a Christian home. He had prayed and asked Jesus to forgive him and save him. Then he went to college and he lived the way that all college students live. Had ruined his life and married someone and lost his wife, she left him and everything. He said he finally got sick of all that.  He said he left his hometown in Maine, moved to a new place, and said God, I am so empty, I feel horrible, will you transform my life now? I don’t know if he got saved right then or if he came back to the Lord but what I read today is that started him, about two years ago on this voracious, hungry pursuit of God. The reason he wrote me today is, he said you know what? I decided I was going to get in the word every day. He said, I just tune into one of the lessons and he said I go straight through the Bible. He said, I want you to know I’m tracking right with you. He said I’m hungering after the Lord.

Look back at your slides. Does His water unendingly refresh you? Do your eyes see the King in His beauty? Every time you opened this book, the Bible, do you see the land that’s far off? Are you starting to think about Heaven? If not, here’s why.

Beware of self-induced, that means you cause it, spiritual blindness. Now, look up and let’s turn to 2 Peter. We already talked about Peter saying we’re living in tents, but now look at 2 Peter. Some of you need to get tabs, Bible tabs, so you can turn between these faster. Some, of you are having to look in the index. But look at 2 Peter 1. It’s better to memorize the books of the Bible so you know right where they are, but here we go. 2 Peter 1:8, Peter says this “For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” What things? What’s in verse 5? “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control…” He’s saying, live out the work of God in you. But if it’s not happening, if you’re not having what Peter’s talking about, knowledge and self control and godliness, if you’re not having what Isaiah’s talking about, if you’re not being sanctified, getting more useful to the Lord… what’s the problem? Peter answers it.

Verse 8. “If these things are yours and abound, you’ll be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The word knowledge by the way is a very special Greek word. The normal word for knowledge in Greek is gnōsis. Gnōsis like that. If you want to emphasize something, so gnōsis means to experientially know. Do you know what Peter adds to it? Epi. Epi means super know. When you put a preposition in front of a word, it was to soup it up. It’s to charge it up. He said, look back at this verse, “you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the [super experiencing] of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Verse 9. “He who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness.” Whoa what’s happened? He’s “forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren,” verse 10, “be even more diligent.” Eager, spoudazō is the Greek word. “To make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you’ll never stumble;” “an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

In other words, you’re going to see the King in His beauty. You’re going to be satisfied. You’re going to feel secure. You’re going to be fed by Him. You’re going to turn away your eyes from all these things Isaiah’s talking about here. The sanctifying work of making us useful to God occurs. Beware of self-induced spiritual blindness.

Next slide, choices that strengthen our focus on God. How can we overcome this self-induced spiritual blindness?

Real quickly, this is what we’ll go through, these slides. By the way, look up for a second. If you could only see my wonderful wife, do you know what she has? These signs, she holds up and she’s telling me classes are 50 minutes and you’re getting close. So, I’m going to go fast.

Look at your slides. Grace prompted believers who focus on God will choose to start godly habits. What’s a godly habit? Romans 13:14, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” Now look up, remember I told you about my shirt. I chose to put it on in the closet this morning. After I shaved and took my shower. After I had my quiet time, I got dressed. Did you know these habits, that I’m going to go through before this class is over, are just as real and vivid as your clothes in your drawer, your closet, or your suitcase, or wherever your clothes are. They’re all conscious choices we have to make.

Here we go, next slide. Here are some simple personal choices to seek God daily.

Number one, make a choice to read God’s word before your social media or any online activities every morning. That choice reflects Christ’s words that say, seek ye first the kingdom of God. Make a choice to read God’s word. So, you’ve got to have a plan. You’ve got to know where you’re going to go. I actually set my Bible on top of my charging computer, so it reminds me what’s first. I read God’s word. I start my day with Lord. I seek first the kingdom of God. Choice number one.

Choice number two. Make a plan to create intentional and an intentional place of solitude, so you can not only read God’s word but avoid any distractions until you can prayerfully apply God’s word, the lesson you found for your own life. Now what’s that? Look up, do you see this? This is my journal I’ve held up all through this class. When I take my time with the Lord, I need to write down what I found. The lessons, the truths, the principles. That’s why you need a little time.  It takes at least five minutes. That’s the minimum to read a passage, to note something, and to pray. Five minutes. Is God worth only five minutes? So, I tell you, you need at least 15 minutes or more. Look back at the slide, avoid any distractions till you can prayerfully apply the lesson you found into your life. Remember I told you about the prayer that you write? This is the most vital part of each day’s devotional time. Jesus called this, in Matthew 4:4, living by every word of God. So number two, make this plan, get your stuff, your Bible, your notebook, and find a place where you can do that.

Number three, decide you’re going to start a new habit and that habit is pray or meditate on a verse instead of listening to music. Some young people, every free moment they’re listening to music.  Try 15 minutes a day while you’re walking, or driving, or riding on public transit, or something, on your bike. Why? This can transform our travel time into an altar of sacrifice to God. Many of us are all alone when we travel, except that someone else is there, often sitting right next to us. God. Remember, God with us. Immanuel. He’s waiting for us to talk to Him. He’s waiting for us to invite Him into our day, and just believe he tags around with everywhere we go. So, prayer meditate on a verse.

In fact, that reminds me of this. Why not take the huge step of fasting from the ultimate distraction medium. How about getting into a habit that you’re going to skip one whole day of going online and of any social media as a fast to prove you’re not controlled by anything. Instead use that time to memorize one verse, to meditate on that which feeds your soul.

In this next picture, this is a picture of my phone. Why not take the ultimate challenge? Grab that most valuable space in your life, the back of your phone, and actually tape a verse on there. Pick one out, any verse, and start memorizing it, and then meditate on it.

Next, number five. I know these are getting a little painful for some of you. Finally ask the Lord, if He’s able to give you enough grace, for you to have a no TV, no video, no gaming, no social media week or month. See if you can study through entire books of the Bible and start to systematically read through some of the great Christian classics with all the hours you gain from that fast. Why? Because God offers daily glimpses into Heaven.

Now look up, it’s time for us to go. This is your like the Oculus or whatever VR thing, if you’ve ever used those. This is a portal to transport us directly in front of God. When we opened this book, we can hear Him talking to us, this is the word of God, when you read the Bible, God speaks to me. Now, before you read it you say Lord, I want you to open my mind to it. So, you invite Him to speak, and He doesn’t speak if you’re not a Christian, you need the Holy Spirit inside. The Holy Spirit is the plug, it’s the power source. But if you’re saved God offers you a glimpse into his word every day.

Now, what happens if we don’t? I have that right here. Sanctification equals usefulness to God. Sanctification is what turns life into gold. Why do we need gold? Because all of our lives are going through the fire. The next event for most of us is coming into the presence of Christ at the rapture. We’re going to be ushered right in front of His throne. He’s going to let us put into a basket all the time we had since we got saved. He’s erased all the sins and all this left, is all the choices we made that were not central. You can read about that in 1 Corinthians 3. It says our life will be tried with fire and the fire will test whether or not our life was gold, silver, and precious stones, that means doesn’t burn. Or wood, hay, and stubble that does burn. That’s social media, gaming, hanging out, just wasting time. What God wants us to do is, make these personal choices to see Him our King every day. To focus on our Father in Heaven who is holy and has redeemed us for a purpose.

 I hope that you’ve tracked through Isaiah. I hope that you’ve gotten a new appreciation for all God’s plan that you can see to the end. You know what’s coming. But most importantly, that you decide you want to be useful to God.

Let’s pray.

Father, I pray that you would use your word in all of our hearts. I pray that some of those who are listening this moment will pick one of these godly habits and start today. I pray that you will transform our lives, sanctify us by the truth. Thy word is truth. In the name of Jesus we pray. And all God’s people said, Amen.

God bless you.