Let's take our Bibles tonight and let's go to Isaiah chapter number six. Isaiah chapter six in our Bibles this evening. And we are gonna begin in verse number one of Isaiah chapter six. And if you're able to, I invite you to stand with me as we look into God's word this evening. Isaiah chapter six and verse number one says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me. Father in heaven, as we come into your presence, as we just pray for your Holy Spirit to meet with us tonight. Lord, I pray that you would use me as only you can to preach your word. And I just pray that you would speak to the hearts of your people tonight. Father, I also ask that if there is one here tonight who is unsaved, that tonight would be the night of their salvation. For we pray all of these things in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, you may be seated. When we get to verse eight of this passage, By the end of the passage, Isaiah is able to say to God, in response to his question, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Isaiah is able to say, here am I, send me. You know, God is asking that same question in our time, in our place. Today, in this country and around the world, God is looking for men and women to respond by saying, here am I, send me. The question tonight is, will you say, send me? Because God is asking that question of every single believer here tonight. It's not just the missionaries that God wants to send. It's not just the church planters or the evangelists or the pastors or staff members or deacons, every single Christian, God wants to send. You notice I didn't say he wants to send them halfway around the world, or halfway across the country. God may just want to send you across town, or across the street, or across campus if you're in school, or across the office at work, whatever it might be. But God wants to send every one of us somewhere. So tonight will you respond by saying, As Isaiah said, here am I, send me. What do we need to do in order to respond the same way Isaiah did? Well, first of all, from this passage, we need to see God for who He is. Look at verse one again, through verse number four. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah says, I saw also the Lord. Have you seen the Lord? I ask you that question, have you seen the Lord? I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings, which way he covered his face, and which way he covered his feet, and which way he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, and notice how the Lord is described here, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Isaiah here receives an incredible revelation of the Lord. He receives this amazing vision of God in all of His glory and all of His splendor, all of His holiness, His majesty. Now, this is not a revelation that you and I are going to receive. How are we going to see God for who He is? Where do we learn about who our God is in His Word? That's how God reveals Himself to you and to me, is through His Word. Believers, we need to be in the Word of God daily, Fervently, we need to be in the Bible, reading it, studying it, praying over it, learning from it, obeying it. If you and I are going to see God for who he is, that's gonna be found in God's word. We need to understand who our God is. We need to have a reawakening, an understanding of who the Lord is. We cannot let the world dictate to us our view of God. We cannot let our own sinful flesh dictate to us our view of God. Our view of God must be through the lens of Scripture. Everything that we understand about God, we must get that understanding from the Word of God. That's the only way. Turn very briefly with me, if you will, to 1 Peter 1. And if you, If we want to know about God, we need to let God speak for himself. First Peter chapter number one and verse number 14. The Bible says, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy. God has described himself as holy, so be holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be holy, for I am holy. I hope you understand that we serve a holy God. That's very important. You know, one thing that's missing in our culture today is a reverence for God. There's no reverence for God anymore. How do we rekindle that? Well, we who are saved need to understand more who our God is. And God is holy, because he is holy, he has called us also to be holy. That's one thing that's missing in a lot of churches today, is the push for holiness. to preach and teach holiness, holy living, separated living. We who are saved ought to live like our Savior, not like ourselves, not like our sinful flesh wants us to live. Isaiah 57, 15 says, for thus saith the high and lofty one. You know, God is high and lofty. Too often we have too high a view of ourselves and too low a view of God. And it doesn't match with what scripture says. We need to have the proper view of God. For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabited eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place. Isaiah received that vision from the Lord. God gave him that vision, and that vision changed Isaiah. Turn back to Isaiah chapter number six. Because not only do we need to see God for who He is, we need to see ourselves for who we are. So Isaiah chapter six and verse number five, after Isaiah receives this amazing vision of the Lord, in verse number five, the Bible says, then said I, woe is me. This is important because in chapter number five, Isaiah is preaching and he is saying, woe unto them. There are six woes pronounced upon Israel through the prophet Isaiah. The Bible says, woe unto them, woe unto them, woe unto them. But when Isaiah sees God in all of his splendor and glory and his majesty and his holiness, Isaiah turns on himself and says, woe is me. He recognized himself for who he was. He says, woe is me for I am undone. This vision of God, it undid him. I hope that as you understand more who God is, that it changes the view that you have of yourself and I have of myself. We need to view ourselves through the lens of scripture. Isaiah said, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Why? For mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, lo, this hath touched thy lips, and that iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Isaiah was able to see himself for who he was, and we need to see ourselves for who we are. We as Christians sometimes get too high and lofty a view of ourselves. We really do. We think that because we're saved, that makes us better than other people, that we're somehow better than the unsaved, or God saved us because we were better. That's not true. The only difference between us and the unsaved is that Christ has saved us. That's the only difference. And we're saved by grace through faith. Not that anything that we have done. There's nothing that we did that caused us to be saved. God didn't save us because we were better than them. Remember this, that where you, where they are now, where the unsaved are right now is where you and I once were. That's where we were, lost, without hope. So we need to see ourselves for who we are. We need to work on pride as believers. Every person struggles with pride. Every believer struggles with pride. Because that sinful flesh, why it wants what it wants, does it not? And so often we just feed it and feed it. And when we think, that we are better than we really are. And we don't view ourselves through the lens of scripture. In Isaiah 64, six, the Bible says, but we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses. The Bible does not say our unrighteousness. It says our righteousness, our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. The Bible says that the good stuff we do, in our own flesh to God is nothing more than filthy rags. And these rags that are filthy, it's not the kind of rag that you, it gets dirty and you wash it and use it again. This is a rag that once it's been used, you never use it again. You toss it. That's how disgusting it is. That's what are the good things we do in our own flesh. That's what they are to God. Why? Because they are stained with sin, it has sin all over it. We cannot forget that Isaiah recognized that about himself. He said, woe is me. We need to get back to that and understand that compared to our God, woe is us. Woe is us. We need to remember that the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That means we've fallen short too. We've come short of the glory of God. That's why Jesus died on that cross and shed his blood so that we could be forgiven. Because there is nothing that we can do to pay for our own sins. Isaiah here in chapter six receives cleansing. There's repentance that takes place and he receives cleansing. And Christian, every Christian ought to be cleansed regularly by the Lord. First John 1.9 tells us if we confess our sins, that means that if we agree with God, about our sins. If we view our sins as God does, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God wants to cleanse us. Why? Because God wants to use us. Every believer God wants to use, but He will not use it if we are dirty with sin. God wants to cleanse us. Just as physically, it's very important that we cleanse ourselves physically, that we keep ourselves clean physically. That's how we keep from getting sick is we wash our hands, we wash our bodies, we keep ourselves clean physically. It's very important to do that. And you would think it foolish for a person to go days or weeks without bathing, that's foolish. Why is it that spiritually we sometimes go days, weeks, even months without spiritual cleansing? It's even worse than physical filth, spiritual filth. God cannot use us if we are filthy with sin. Now our sins have been forgiven. They've been washed in the blood of Christ. and will not face eternal punishment for those sins. But those sins will keep us from being used by God. And God wants to use us. We need to see ourselves for who we are. Thirdly is we need to see the lost for who they are. That's very important. Because when we see the lost, certain ideas come into our minds. But we need to see them as God sees them. In Matthew 9.36, the Bible says, but when he, talking about Jesus, saw the multitudes, he was moved. You know, when we see the multitudes of unsaved people, we get moved, right? Some emotions come up, get stirred up. Sometimes we're angry. Sometimes we get bitter, envious. We can even be envious at the unsaved. We can be filled with wrath, frustration, and we can shake our fist at them. But the Bible says that when Jesus saw them, he was moved with compassion on them. Why? Because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. When the Bible talks about multitudes of people, we're talking about thousands and thousands of people. No doubt in a group that size, that many unsaved people, there are some very wicked people. And here's the thing, when we see the lost, and we see what they do, and we think how wicked they are, that's only the surface. We don't know what's going on in their hearts and minds. Jesus knew everything that was going on in their hearts and their minds. So all the other people there saw the outward sin. Jesus saw the inward sin. He knew what they were thinking about him, and he still had compassion on them. That's very important. Could you have compassion on someone that you knew hated you? That you knew was thinking evil thoughts about you? Jesus did. Jesus has compassion on the unsaved. He loves them. The Bible says, but God commended his love toward us. He proved it, He demonstrated it. How? In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He didn't die for us when we got right and we changed our life and turned our life around. He died for us while we were yet sinners. That's very important to remember that. And we need to have compassion on them. When we see the sins of Hollywood and we see what they do and what they're promoting, the lifestyles they're promoting, the sins that they are glamorizing, that they are normalizing. You know, they are normalizing sinful behavior, right? We need to have compassion on them, though. Because I tell you this, I can't prove this, because I don't know anybody in Hollywood, but I, no doubt that many of those people truly are very sad people. You read about these celebrities and some of them are involved in drugs, alcohol, some of them die of a drug overdose or alcohol overdose or suicide, right? We know about some famous person who commits suicide and they've got all the money in the world and all the fame and all the, you know, all of the things that people desire and yet they kill themselves. Why? Because they faint and they are scattered abroad. They're sheep and they have no shepherd. They have no shepherd. We need, as believers, to do all we can to tell them about the shepherd. We need to have compassion on them. We need to pray that someone would reach them. Because maybe we might not be able to, but no doubt there's someone who could reach those people. What about our politicians? Boy, it's hard to have compassion on them, isn't it? because they're doing things that negatively impact us every day, right? We go to the gas pump, we pay for their bad decisions. We go to the grocery store, we either pay too much, if it's even there, or we're trying to do some project and we go to the store and they don't have anything left because supply chain issues and their decisions, their bad decisions impact us directly. Hard to have compassion on them, but God wants us to have compassion on them. Christ died for them too. He died for Joe Biden. He wants to save Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris, and Nancy Pelosi. And by the way, it's not just the Democrats, it's the Republicans too. Did you know this? Most Republicans are not saved. Just because someone's a Republican doesn't mean they're saved. Those two don't equate. You don't get heaven by being a Republican. That doesn't work that way. They need Jesus too. And we need to have compassion on them. Why? Because Jesus does. God loves them and he wants to save them. And maybe we might not be able to reach the people in Sacramento or Washington. Oh, but somebody can. And God wants to send someone to those people. The prophet Jeremiah, of course we know him as what type of prophet? Jeremiah, what kind of prophet was Jeremiah? The weeping prophet. You know, Jeremiah was called to a people that were going to reject his message. And Jeremiah was called to preach to the people of Jerusalem, turn from your wicked ways or you will suffer the consequences. He preached that message. That message went unheeded. And in Lamentations chapter three, if we turn there very briefly, in Lamentations chapter three, Jerusalem is now suffering the consequences for their lack of repentance. Lamentations chapter number three. And in verse 48, Jeremiah has seen the destruction of Jerusalem. And he says, in Lamentations 3.48, he says, mine eye runneth down with rivers of water. He's crying, and he gives the reason for the destruction of the daughter of my people. When God judged Jerusalem, Jeremiah didn't gloat. He didn't say, I told you so. He didn't say, see, proves me right. It says that his eye runneth down with rivers of water. In verse 49, mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth not without any intermission, till the Lord look down and behold from heaven. And look at verse 51. He says, mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. Believer, when was the last time that you let your eye affect your heart? When you see a homeless person and they're there because of their bondage to drugs or alcohol or their mental illness, and they have no one to help them, and you wanna turn away and go the other direction, Does your eye affect your heart? When you see your neighbor and you hear them fighting, your neighbors fighting with each other, yelling, screaming, maybe things being thrown, even violence taking place, and your next door neighbor, and you see a husband and wife just about, their marriage about to fall apart, does your eye affect your heart? When someone tells you their story, a coworker says, I'm struggling, My family's falling apart. My son's doing this, my daughter's doing that. There's no peace in our home. Does your eye affect your heart? When you see suffering, and suffering comes about because of sin. That's why there's suffering in this world. It's because of the sins that we as people commit. That's why they're suffering. Anybody ever ask you, why is there suffering in the world? Well, tell them, it's because of sin. That's what causes suffering. When you see that, does your eye affect your heart? You know, we as Christians, we have to get back to letting our eye affect our heart. It's not enough just to see it. Will we do something about it? You know, I see what's going on in California. You do too. and we can get angry about it, we can get bitter, we can shake our fists, we can murmur, but there's something we can do about it. We're not helpless. What's gonna change California? The gospel. The gospel goes out through the local church, and we need more local churches. It's great to know there's a brother going to Big Bear, another very needful area. Every area in California, I mean, like your pastor said, 1,000 churches, 10,000, there's no, you can never have too many churches in this state. We need to let our eye affect our heart. We need to see the lost for who they are. And remember, God loves them. Christ died for them. Lastly, we need to see the calling for what it is. Let's go back to Isaiah chapter six and look at verse number eight. We need to see the calling for what it is. Again, verse number eight. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me. Isaiah responded to God's calling by offering up himself. And that is the greatest offering that you will ever make. You need to put $10,000 in the offering plate. You give a million dollars for, you know, a bigger building, new building, whatever it is. You know, a Lamborghini for your pastor, whatever it is. You could do all that. but the greatest offering that you could ever make is to offer yourself to God. Not that there's anything great about you, it's just recognizing that God wants to use you. Think about that. And all of your frailty and all of your, the sin nature that you and I have, God still wants to use us. He doesn't have to use us, He chooses to use us. And the Bible says that we have been given the ministry of reconciliation. Not the angels, but we, we have been given that ministry. That's a high calling, that's a high responsibility. By Isaiah was ready. And he offered himself, he said, Lord, here am I, send me. I'm presenting my body a living sacrifice. Amen, as it says in Romans. Present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. That's just the reasonable thing to do. After all that Jesus Christ, excuse me, has done for us and that He offered Himself for us, can we not then offer our weak, measly flesh back to Him and say, Lord, here am I, send me? You know, what God is looking for in the midst of a wicked nation, in the midst of a wicked people, God is looking for someone to stand in the gap. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 22. Ezekiel 22. Just like Isaiah and just like Jeremiah, Ezekiel called to preach to a wicked nation, a nation that had rejected God. As you study these prophets and you read about the nation at that time, think about this nation today. We look here in Ezekiel chapter 22, and I don't have time to expound the whole passage, but in verse number 23, God begins to lay out the sins of the nation. And there are sins on all walks of life, from the rich to the poor, powerful to the powerless. I won't go through the whole passage, but in verse number 26, the Bible says her priests have violated my law. So you had religious sin, sin among the priests were breaking God's law. In verse 27, her princes, so the politicians, the powerful, were corrupt. They were violating the word of the Lord. They had turned their backs on God. They had rejected God. And verse number 28, and her prophets, the preachers had rejected God. They had turned their back on God. There was corruption there. And then verse 29 says, the people. Every walk of life there was corruption. Does that not sound like the United States of America in 2022? You've got sins in the politicians. There's sins in the pulpit, sadly to say. A lot of churches who call themselves churches are not preaching the word of God. There's sins among the people. The people themselves are corrupt. Whether they're poor or rich, young or old, there's corruption. There's corruption in the state house. There's corruption in the school house. There's corruption in the church house. Corruption everywhere. Look at verse number 30. Bible says, and I, the Lord speaking, and I sought for a man among them. In the midst of all this wickedness, God was looking for a man. He says, I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it. We'll stop right there. God looking for a man to step up and to say, Lord, I will reach these people. Spare your judgment, Lord. Withhold your judgment. Let me reach these people. Let me preach to them your word. Are we praying that prayer for our country today? God, withhold your judgment. Lord, give us more time to reach our people. Or are we praying God's judgment to fall? I pray God's judgment does not fall any more than it already has. because we live in a wicked nation. We cannot forget that. We live in a wicked nation, and we export sin all over the world through our media, through Hollywood, and everything. We export corruption all around the world. And we commit genocide in this nation of the unborn. And it was 1973, Roe versus Wade was decided. And since that time, I think roughly a million unborn babies a year have been murdered in this nation. That is now what, almost 50 million unborn babies killed, murdered. That is corruption on a very high level. And what is God looking for? Someone to stand in the gap. someone to intercede on their behalf and say, Lord, give us time to reach these people. Give us time to preach your word to these people, to preach the gospel, to preach, thus sayeth the Lord. At the end of verse 30, the Bible says, God says, but I found none. God could not find a man among these group of people. He found, could not find a man. How many believers, as God calling today, who refuse to respond to the word of the Lord, who get comfortable in their lives, they're comfortable with where they are financially, And so they refuse to allow God to send them. Or they're comfortable where they are in their career. They're comfortable in their home. And they think, not me, Lord, don't send me, send them. And how many people do not get sent because they simply refuse to be sent, to be sent by the Lord. So God could not find a man. And so verse 31, therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. Their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God. You know, I love this country. I love it. I'm thankful for it. God has blessed this nation more than we would ever deserve. But don't think that it's just gonna continue on that way forever. God's just gonna bless us forever because we're America. and something special about us. This is a special nation. This is a unique nation. But this nation is involved in wickedness on a large scale. And every one of us tonight, if you're here tonight and you're saved, you have a responsibility to do your part to reach this nation, to reach this world with the gospel. and every believer, every one of you tonight, if you're saved, God wants to send you somewhere out there. Again, it doesn't mean God's gonna send you to Africa, or to South America, or Asia, or Europe, or somewhere else here in America, or some other part of California. You know, this area, Laverne needs the gospel, and you're the ones who are gonna do it. La Verne, Pomona, San Dimas, all these areas, Glendora, all these areas need the gospel. Everything to the east and the west of you, they all need the gospel. Riverside needs the gospel, Corona, Moreno Valley, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, they all need the gospel. And who's gonna do it? How's it gonna get done? Well, it's gonna be you and me. That's who's going to do it. That's who has to do it. We have to do it. We can't sit around and think someone else is gonna do it. That might have been what was going on in Ezekiel 22. Everyone looking around saying, well, someone's gonna do it, but it's not gonna be me. So everyone says that, guess what? There's not gonna be anybody. If that's the attitude that everyone has, Lord, send them. When's someone gonna say, you know, send me? The reason we don't respond that way often is because we're afraid of where God might send us. We're just afraid. And we as believers, we get so comfortable with where we are, and we build for ourselves these comfortable boxes. where everything kind of makes sense and everything is just steady and like clockwork and we get into a routine and God wants to get us out of that comfort zone. No one ever did anything great for God or had God do something great through them by staying in their comfort zone. They got outside of it and they took a chance. They didn't know the end from the beginning. They didn't know how it was gonna turn out. They didn't know how all their needs were gonna get met. They didn't know how people would respond to their ministry. They didn't know. But they knew that God wanted them to go. That's what they knew. They knew that there was a world that needed to be reached with the gospel. There are over seven billion people on this planet, almost eight billion now. It's gonna take every believer doing their part to reach them. That's how God is going to reach this world, is through us who are saved. So we need to see that calling for what it is, and we need to respond the way Isaiah did, by saying, here am I, send me. That's the only way any of this is gonna be done. is by someone saying, here am I, send me. And I'm totally inadequate for this. But that's okay, we're all inadequate, really. But God delights in using us. Because who gets the glory when something amazing happens to people who are really not qualified? Who gets the glory? God does. God gets the glory. And God delights when a great work is done and he receives the glory for it. So what will you say tonight? Will you say, send me? Again, don't be afraid of where God might send you. And again, chances are for most of the people here tonight, that just simply means somewhere here in this area. You know, knocking doors in your neighborhood, coworkers, classmates, neighbors, whatever it might be. Even if it's just right here, if that's where God wants to send you, go. And if you're here tonight, and you have not responded to God's call for salvation, if you have not responded to that, that's the most important decision you'll ever make, is trusting Christ as your Savior. Let me encourage you tonight, get it settled. You might not have another night. This might be it, because we don't know when that last day is. The Bible says, behold, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. If you're not saved, I implore you. I beg you. From me to you, I'm begging you. Get it settled tonight. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed.