All right, this morning we are continuing in our series Eyes on You, and as a way to honor the word of God and to honor the one who wrote it, please open your Bibles with me this morning to Isaiah chapter 40. And as we read last week, our series title comes from, or our series passage, theme verse, comes from King Jehoshaphat's prayer in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, verse 12. When he prays, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. It's a fantastic prayer of faith. And last week we talked about the context of that prayer and about trusting God when the battle isn't ours to fight, when we feel attacked, when we are in the midst of the battle or of a crisis and we don't know what to do. Often our reaction is like that of a cornered animal. We feel threatened. and we react accordingly instead of setting our eyes on the Lord and trusting Him to fight the battle. God wants to be our fortress. God wants to be our defender in the midst of our battles. This week, we turn our focus to another circumstance in which we don't often know what to do, and that's when we feel weak and powerless. The title of the message this morning is The Power of Powerlessness, Finding Strength in the Everlasting Father. And I did that a little bit because it's Father's Day. So I hope you appreciate that. So let's ground ourselves this morning in the text of Isaiah chapter 40. For the sake of time, we're just gonna be reading the last five verses of that chapter, 27 through 31. Please follow along while I read it this morning. Isaiah 40, 27 through 31. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint. To him who has no might, he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Church, will you pray with me this morning? Father in heaven, we confess this morning our weakness. But we know that you are strong. And so open our eyes to understand that truth and to behold your greatness. Cause our hearts to find its rest in you. This we pray in the strong and powerful name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus. Amen. So Isaiah chapter 40 marks a significant turning point in the book of Isaiah. The prophet has spent a significant portion of the previous 39 chapters uttering oracles of judgment against God's people. He now shifts his message to proclamations of comfort, from condemnation to consolation, from God's holy wrath to his sovereign tenderness toward his own. And what we find in this chapter is one of the most profound treatments of a theme that I think we are desperately in need of talking about in this culture, in this generation, that of feeling weak and helpless and powerless. I read a story this week of a woman who went to Subway. She ordered three sandwiches and was charged over $1,000. She then had to fight corporate to get her money back. Powerlessness. We've all experienced that. We've all known her plights. Becky and I have had to fight our own insurance company over a lack of coverage for our kids. Beloved, how much power do we have in that? How much power do we have in changing the heart of another person? How much power do we have in bringing a wayward child home? How much power do we have in changing a hardened spouse? My sister's trying to adopt, and let's just say it's not going well. How much power does she have? We all know the feelings of powerlessness. And in the moment, we can say things that are helpful or hurtful in the situation, but the change, the getting through, that's beyond us. Some of us, I know, have been searching for jobs, struggling to find jobs, tens, fifties, hundreds of resumes into the great digital beyond without even a response. much less a job offer. Weakness, powerlessness. Some of us have tried to overcome patterns of living in our life, patterns of thinking in our life, but we're just trapped. Powerlessness. Today we're gonna look at how God wants to meet us not in our strength, but in our need. and how our powerlessness is actually the very platform that God wants to display his majesty and his mercy. Culture tells us, man, just believe in yourself. Scripture says what? Lift your eyes up. The world says you are enough. Isaiah says what? It's God who gives power to the faint, to the weary. The world tells us, don't ever show your weakness. But God's truth says, what? Every one of us will grow faint and weary. It's those who wait on the Lord who will renew their strength. Beloved, that's the picture of a good father. You see, whether we realize it or not, we all long for a father. We long for a strength that does not waver. We long for a voice that says, I see you. We long for arms that don't collapse when we fall into them. And that ache exists in our lives because we were created by a father God. He's not some distant deity. Isaiah 40 paints this majestic portrait of, yes, a father's sovereignty, but also of his compassion and his strength, especially to those who are weak and powerless. And I know that some here this morning have had wonderful earthly fathers. And we praise God for that. But I also know that others might carry deep wounding from their earthly fathers because of their absence, or their anger, or their abuse. But no matter what the earthly experience might have been, I want you to hear me this morning, church. Isaiah 40 is an exhortation to lift your eyes, not to find help or strength in the earthly father, but in the heavenly one, whose strength is unmatched and whose heart is entirely for you. And so let's look at our passage this morning. We'll be going through the entire chapter, not verse by verse, but there's three points, three main points this morning. The first one is this. God is a father who comforts his children. God is a father who comforts his children. Look at verse one with me. It says, comfort, comfort my people, says your God. As I mentioned before, Isaiah 40 is a new section. It begins a new section of this book. Many scholars agree that these chapters in Isaiah 40 through 55 were written at the end of Israel's exile to Babylon. Well, what happened to Israel in Babylon? How did they feel in Babylon? See, they were in Babylon because God's people had been defeated. God had allowed them to be taken away from their land. They felt forsaken. They felt abandoned. They felt hopeless. They knew of all people that they were powerless to change their circumstance. This is the heart of the people when God speaks Isaiah 40 to them. They were weary. They were disheartened and they were displaced. But God wants them to know in the midst of that, that that is not going to be the end of their story. See, this opening comfort, comfort my people, says your Lord. That's not cold theology. That's fatherly speech. God's not shouting orders. He's whispering comfort. Look at verse two. It says, speak tenderly to Jerusalem. I love that. The Hebrew there is literally speak to the heart. See where they're at. Know how they feel. All right, speak to their heart. Listen, how a parent engages the heart of a child, especially in the midst of failure, can be one of the most beautiful or one of the most devastating things. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her warfare, her struggle is ended. And then look at this. Tell her that her iniquity has been pardoned. See, the comfort that God offers, it's not just vague sentiment. He's offering the end of a battle. Israel was in Babylon because of their sin, because of their failure. But God is about to tell them, I'm not gonna leave you there. Not only am I going to forgive you, but I'm going to redeem you. The Bible has a word for this, chesed. It's God's covenant love. He is faithful to his covenant of love and mercy toward those who he has chosen. Listen, God brings comfort to us not by removing our difficulties, but by revealing in the midst of it his redemption. A father disciplines his children, yes, but he also restores. It reminds me of the hymn, grace greater than all my sin. Often in Hebrew, we might see a word like we do in verse one repeated twice, comfort, comfort. Often in scripture, I think the most common one is shalom, shalom, or peace, peace. Often when Hebrews greeted one another, they would say that. We say, hello. They would say, shalom, shalom. Well, why are you saying it twice? Well, shalom means peace. And when you say it once, that's what it means. But when you double it, what they're saying is the fullness of peace. Complete peace. I don't just want you to have peace. I want you to have the peaciest peace. I want you to have a peace that fills. Perfect peace. One of my favorite verses in all scriptures, you kept him in shalom, shalom, perfect peace, whose mind has stayed on you because he trusts you. That's it, perfect peace. When God says, naham, naham, comfort, comfort, he's saying, I want this to fully comfort you. I want this comfort to fill you in your inner being, the depths of your soul. What's the comfort? I haven't forgotten you. I will come for you. I will forgive you. Here's the truth, we can never understand how God relates to us in our weakness and in our powerlessness unless we know where we stand before God, our Father. Our sin makes us not only helpless, it makes us enemies of God. Do you know that? But what's the gospel? The gospel, God's good news, says God did not leave us in that place. It begins with God, does it not, the gospel? For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son. that whoever would believe in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Romans 5.8, God shows us his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, while we were still separated, while we were still enemies, Christ died for us. It's the heart of a father. It's the picture of the father coming and carrying his children and not demanding that they carry themselves. This leads us to our second point. God is a father who comforts his children. Number two, God is a father who never fails. See, we don't have to look far to see the effects of not having a father. I was reading some studies this week and it says 85% of youth in prison, 85% of youth in prison come from fatherless homes. Children from father absent homes are four times more likely to experience poverty. Children without a father are far more likely to struggle with issues of anxiety and identity and addiction and despair. Why? Because God has designed the father, the earthly father, to be the visible example or reflection of the Heavenly Father. And where that reflection is broken, what rushes in in its place are things like confusion and weakness and despair. Beloved, the same is true of our own spirits. Christians are not, our identities are broken when we don't understand that yes, God is holy. He does rule and reign in heaven, but God is also Abba. He's Father. He's personal and present and available and faithful. See, Isaiah 40 calls the powerless not to look for answers within culture or even within themselves, but to lift their eyes to the one who is strong. to lift their eyes to their Father in heaven. See, Israel had begun to doubt because of where they were, because of their experiences, they had begun to doubt who God was. They doubted his presence with them. They doubted his power in their life. See, in exile, their experience made it seem like God was distant and disinterested in them. And because of that, Israel had grown uncertain. They began to say, where is God? Has he abandoned his people? Does he care about me and my suffering? Does he see me? Will he help me? Answer, yes. Though a father does sometimes need to make hard decisions that a child doesn't understand. Though a father does discipline those he loves, though a father does allow hard things to happen for the good and the growth of the child, that doesn't mean that he isn't there. And that doesn't mean that he doesn't care. And when it comes to the heavenly father, What Isaiah is doing in chapter 40 is he is deconstructing all of the idols and he's squelching the questions about God's capabilities. Verses 12 through 26 show this picture, this majestic grand picture, the utter incomparability of Yahweh. Listen to these verses, verse 12. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Who else has done that? Who's great like that? Verse 14, whom did he consult? Who taught him? Is there any wiser than he is? Verse 18, to whom would you liken God? Is there anyone his equal? Anyone who comes remotely close? Verse 22, it's he who sits above the circle of heaven. He's on the throne. See, this is theology proper. This is the doctrine of God that Isaiah is painting. It's a reminder to us of God's absolute supremacy. But then Isaiah adds something super profound into that, super beautiful. Verse 26. Speaking of the stars, he says, lift up your eyes on high and see. Who created these? He names the stars, billions of them. And He knows each one of them by name. Not one of them is missing. Why does Isaiah say this? Because the point that he's making is that if he sustains the galaxies, the Heavenly Father can sustain you. And if he knows each star by name, The Heavenly Father also knows you. And so when you are weak, beloved of the King, don't look inward, look upward. The key to understanding powerlessness in our lives, it's not self-esteem, it's God-esteem. Don't ask how strong am I, ask who is my God? He is the father who rules the galaxy and yet holds you and me. He does not grow faint. He doesn't need rest. He's not like an earthly father because he's the everlasting father. To whom will you compare me, verse 25 says. There is no father like him. And because of that, it leads us to number three. God is the father who strengthens the weak. God is the father who can strengthen the weak. Now we come to the crescendo of this chapter. You can almost imagine at this point, after painting that picture of God's majesty and supremacy and his glory, that he comes to this part and he has a glint in his eye. So he says, if this is true, then why do you say, child of God, that your way is hidden from him? Then why would you say, child of God, that he doesn't care about justice in your life? He hears the cry of the weak and the powerless. Do you not know? Have you not heard about Yahweh? Whenever we see that word, Lord, and it's capitalized in our Bibles, that's the word Yahweh. Lowercase is the word Lord, add an I. Master, owner, but capital L-O-R-D, that's his name, Yahweh. And so do you not know about Yahweh? Yahweh was the name that God revealed himself as to Moses, right? Not Elohim, which he was known by before, not creator God, right? Not transcendent God. No, Yahweh, the personal covenant-keeping Father God, right? Do you not know about him? Yahweh is the everlasting God. And he doesn't grow faint or weary. And then this promise, verse 29. He gives power to the faint. And to him who has no might, he increases their strength. Here this, God does not despise us in our weakness. God does not say, clean yourself up, make yourself stronger, and then come to me. No, no, no, no, no. It works entirely opposite. God meets us there. The picture that is being painted here is not Him giving you His power and saying, okay, go run with it, but rather you finding power in Him. As an outlet gives power to a vacuum cleaner. We find power and strength in the everlasting Father as we connect ourselves to Him. It's not about manning up. It's not about overcoming and trying harder. It's about having a relationship with God, our Father. Why is this necessary? Well, he goes on. Because even the strongest of us collapse. It says even youths shall faint and grow weary. Youths are supposed to be the strongest of us. Not like the four-year-old child, that's not what he means. But people in their youth, why do you think football players are somewhere in their 20s? Because that's the pinnacle of their existence. Strong, powerful. Even those shall faint and be weary. J.C. Ryle, love this quote, the best of men are still men at best. You're not meant to carry your life on your shoulders. you're meant to wait on the Lord, like a child trusting his father's hands. Because when you do that, here comes the glorious promise, verse 31. He says, those who do that shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings like eagles. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not faint. Guys, that's not a motivational quote. That's gospel truth. And if you're here today and you feel powerless, I want you to listen carefully. You were never meant to live by your own strength. Your design cries out for fatherly dependence. On the cross, Jesus Christ became powerless so that the power of God might be given to those who believe. In Jesus's ministry, we saw him weep with those who were weak, and touch lepers, and feed the hungry, and welcome little children. We see him carry his people like a shepherd. And through Christ, then, the Father invites us, come to me. all of you who are weary, who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. See, we don't need to clean ourselves up. Church, what we need to do is we need to lay ourselves down at the foot of the cross. We need to repent, we need to believe, and then we need to wait on the Lord. Galatians 4, 4 through 6, God sent forth his son, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Beloved, do you not know? Have you not heard? You are no longer fatherless. You are sons and daughters of the King. I close with this image. Imagine a young child who is trying to cross the street. Cars are whipping by. The child is standing there, feeling helpless, afraid, trembling. And then his father comes up behind him and scoops him up in his arms. What's changed? Not the traffic, not the danger, but now he's being carried. That's Isaiah 40. He will carry them in his bosom, verse 11. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, verse 31. Let our weakness become our worship. Let our powerlessness become the platform for God's divine strength in our life. So that you and I might then say with confidence, when I am weak, that's when I am strong. because our Father is strong enough to carry us all the way home.