We're going to start reading in Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 1. We'll read the chapter. Our text, of course, will only consist of a verse or two, but I'd like for you to get the flavor of what's going on here. So I'm going to ask those who are willing and able to, if you will stand with me, please, and we'll share together the reading of the Word of God. It says, in the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, and each having six wings. With two He covered His face, with two He covered His feet, and with two He flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy! is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of Him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips. And I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. And one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. And he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me. He said, Go, and tell this people, Keep on listening, but do not perceive. Keep on looking, but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and return and be healed. And then I said, Lord, How long? And he answered, until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, houses are without people, and the land is utterly desolate. The Lord has removed men far away, and forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, And it will again be subject to burning, like the terebinth of the oak, whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump. Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the opportunity to share together this morning. Encourage us for what is to come this year. We know not, nor understand all that is before us, but you do. And you are able to take us and hold us and keep us safe in the storm. You've called us to be faithful to You, just like You called Isaiah to be faithful to You. You gave him the wherewithal to be faithful to You. Now, Father, equip us to be faithful too. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right, so Uzziah king, also known as Azariah, he was king of Judah for some 52 years. Now he began reigning when he was about 16 years old. You say that's quite young, and it is quite young. But he reigned, he co-reigned actually with his father for some 24 years. So the first, you know, 24 years of reign, he had his dad to kind of help him out a little bit and make some decisions as they went along. But he was one of the most prosperous kings of Judah ever. This man set the economy up and he was also a military genius. This was a guy, he invented some catapults to cast huge stones upon the enemies. He made machines that would actually shoot arrows at his enemies. He had so reorganized his army, he had a fierce army. Everybody in that part of the country feared Israel and feared Judah and feared the king Uzziah. We all know that the story has its downfall. Uzziah became so proud that he thought he could do anything. And so one day he decided he would walk into the temple and offer incense there. And of course, when he did, the priest came in and said, you're not supposed to do this. Only the priest is supposed to do this. But Uzziah was so filled with himself that he went ahead and did it. He was immediately struck with leprosy and he spent the rest of his life living in a house by himself, separated from the people. His pride got him. His pride got him in the end. And it not only destroyed him, but ultimately it destroyed the whole nation of Judah as well. And so the nation slid further and further away from God. Judah needed a man to rise to the occasion, to put him back on track. So God taps on the shoulder of Isaiah. It says, you're the man. Okay, you're the man. You're the man. And he equips Isaiah. Isaiah's going to have some hard times. He's going to meet a lot of resistance. He's going to have a lot of blowback, you know, because he's going to take a strong stand for the Lord, and that is never easy to do. Remain faithful to the Lord, that's hard to do. And so God is going to equip Isaiah for what is ahead in his life. You know, we all know that at one time in the United States of America was led by godly men. Our country was led by men of faith. Men who lived their lives according to biblical standards and led our country according to biblical standards. And I know there's a lot of people who say, you know America wasn't established on Christian standards. It was. Okay. There's too much evidence to prove that. Let me just give you some things. When the Washington Monument was dedicated in 1884, an aluminum capstone was put on top of that monument. On the east side of that capstone, it says, Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, on the east side of that capstone. The Lincoln Memorial houses Lincoln's speeches, and on the right side is his second inaugural address. In that second inaugural address, you will find four references to God and two scriptures in his inaugural address. Ironically, the Supreme Court building, the same building in which the justices declared that posting the Ten Commandments in public classrooms was unconstitutional, in that building, There are four places where you find Moses, a picture of Moses, a reference to Moses and the Ten Commandments. On the portico, into the Supreme Court, you find it there in the sculpture over the East Portico. In the actual court there is a picture of the Ten Commandments and Moses over the chair of the Chief Justice and on the bronze doors into the Supreme Court room you will find a picture of Moses and the Ten Commandments. Only a, in my opinion, only a fool would say that America was not established on biblical principles. However, you know as well as I do that we are led by fewer and fewer godly men, men who fear God, men who seek the wisdom of God. 2020 is coming around, it's around the corner. We're going to elect a president Yeah, one way or another, we're going to elect a president. And I'm not saying that a president necessarily is the cornerstone of the United States of America, but I think that the president we pick at least tells us the direction in which our country is going. And you have a responsibility to vote. I hope that you take that responsibility seriously. And that you, if you're not registered, you get registered and you go out and you cast your ballot. Ultimately, I understand that God raises up presidents. Ultimately, I understand that God raises up kings. Ultimately, I understand that God puts in control who he wants to be in control. I understand that. I know that's how it goes. But we still have our responsibilities to fulfill. Our country is unstable, there's no doubt about that. Everywhere you look in our country, there is instability. You know, children don't feel safe going to school anymore. in our public school system, you know. You're not even safe in going to Walmart anymore. You can't be guaranteed safety there. You're not guaranteed safety when you drive down the road anymore. Law enforcement's always been dangerous, there's no doubt about that. But lately, law enforcement has become even more dangerous. Everywhere you look, there is insecurity, there's unsteadiness, there's discontent, there's a lack of assurance in people's hearts, there's a lack of true joy, there's confusion. Everywhere you look, we are in trouble in our country. And I don't see that the future necessarily is going to get much better. Times have changed, no doubt about it. And as I mentioned earlier, your life is not the same as it was a year ago. Your life has changed and it's probably had some big changes in it as well. And you're probably going to have some big changes in the coming year. So how do we deal with all of this? How do we deal with all of this? How do we face the coming year? So what's going on here in Isaiah? What's going on here in Isaiah is that they had a leader who was a great leader. The man died and Isaiah, as well as the nation of Judah, their whole world changed. It wasn't going to be the same. Uzziah was dead. Things were going to change a whole lot because he was dead. And things are gonna change a lot in your life too. So how does God prepare Isaiah for the changes? How's God preparing you for the changes that are gonna take place this year? Number one, he gives Isaiah an accurate view of who God is. He gives Isaiah an accurate view of who God is. He is gonna face some stiff opposition. His life was going to get really hard and God wanted to prepare him for what was to come and God does that by giving him a clear picture of who he is. Now there's a lot of things in this passage that we can look at. We're only going to look at one aspect this morning. That's all we've got to have time to look at. So let's look at verse 1 and let's pick up the scene in verse 1 as it unfolds. In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne. It was lofty and exalted with the train of his robe filling the temple. So the first thing God shows Isaiah is the Lord. And he shows him in a position of authority. He is sitting upon a throne. Do not dismiss that scene. Do not take that scene lightly. Do not take a casual glance at that scene. Everything that is in that first verse is imperative to Isaiah making it through. And it's imperative to you making it through. The Lord is on a stone now. The Hebrew word is Adonai, but if you skip down to verse 3, you see that the word is really the Lord Jehovah Yahweh. That's who he sees on the throne. We understand here that this was a pre-incarnate vision of Jesus Christ, okay? It was a physical, it was a manifestation of God. but in the form of the Son here. And so he's revealing himself to Isaiah in a certain way to present a certain aspect of his being. And the fact that he's sitting upon a throne is undoubtedly a picture of God's authority. And so when we talk about authority, what do we mean? When you think about authority, what is the essence of authority? When you think of authority, what kind of definitions come to your mind? Let me just give you the authority, the definition of authority in its most simplest form. It is the right that someone else has to tell you what to do. It is the right that someone has to tell you what to do. Someone has the right that trumps your rights. Someone has the rights That trump your rights authority is when someone has rights over and above Your rights, that's what we're talking about authority folks. We are talking about rights Often you hear people talk about their rights today, especially in the united states of america Have you ever heard anyone say this? I know my rights You ever heard anybody say that you ever said that yourself I know my rights. And when somebody tells you that, what do they mean? They mean, basically, you don't have the right to tell them what to do. That's basically what they're telling you. They don't want to do what you want to do, what you have told them to do, and they rebel against that, and they say, oh, I'm going to claim my rights. You know, everybody here, there's no doubt that everybody here has inalienable rights. You have inalienable rights. What are those inalienable rights that you have? What are they? They're rights that your government did not give to you. They're rights that you have simply because you are a human being. Inalienable rights don't come from any authority on the face of the earth. They're inalienable. Well, you say, what are they? Well, some of them are the right to life, right? You got the right to live. You got the right to exist. That makes murder wrong Because of that basic fundamental right that you have to live You have the right to self-defense If you have the right to live Then you have the right to self-defense defense by whatever means, okay, by whatever means you need to defend yourself. It goes along with the right, you have the right to private property. You say, well, how do I know I have the right to private property? Has anybody ever taken or stolen anything from you? And what happens to you when somebody steals something from you? You want to get even. You want to get why? Because it is yours. You innately know this belongs to me. It does not belong to me. They have taken something that doesn't belong to them. They have stolen. You have the right to private property. It is a fundamental human right that your government does not give to you. You have that right. You have the right to freely think. Nobody has the right to make you try to think like they want you to think. You can and you do have the right to think freely for yourself. And nobody has the right to impose upon you how they think you ought to think. All right? An alienable right. You have a right to religion or not religion. You have a right to worship a god or not worship at all. And we as Christians, we do not have the right to force our religion on anybody. Nor do non-believers have the right to force us not to worship. It is an innate right freedom that we have. None of these things come from your government. They come, they are inalienable because they come from a higher power than your government. That is exactly why evolution fails. If you were to push evolution to its ultimate limits, because evolution says, oh, you've evolved from something else and you've become a human being, and therefore all human beings are equal. If that's true, if it's true, if it's true that all human beings are equal, then the person who says, well, you know what, I believe that I ought to take what you have, you don't really have necessarily a complete right to tell them no, because your rights are all equal. Evolution, if you follow evolution to its ultimate end, everybody has equal rights. There is no higher standard. There is no morality. If evolution claims any morality whatsoever, it's because they steal from Christian standards. That's where they get it. Inalienable rights only exist if there is a higher power. Only exist. If you have inalienable rights, they come from a higher power and that higher power is God Almighty. It is God who has created us. It is God who has authority over us. It is God who gives us our rights because He is the one who made us and He is the one who owns us. Let's look again at what Isaiah says here. He says, I saw his throne, it was authority. It was lofty and exalted. Isaiah was reminded that there's an ultimate throne, and that ultimate throne is God's throne. Uzziah was even under God's authority. God has the highest authority in our lives. No man, no institution, no job, no boss, no government, and certainly not even Satan himself has ultimate authority over you. So what does that mean in contemporary terms? God has the rights to your life, period. God has the rights to your life. End of discussion. Now the question becomes, do you believe and embrace that reality that God has the ultimate control of your life, that God has ultimate rights to your life? He does, obviously, whether you believe it or not, it doesn't make any difference, doesn't change His position whatsoever. He's still God of gods and King of kings and Lord of lords, and He still has ultimate authority over you. But do you believe that and do you accept that? I'm telling you that if you will believe and if you will embrace that, it will do amazing things to help you emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, if you will accept that, if you will embrace that. Have you ever heard the phrase, oh, just trust God, or let go and let God? Popular Christian phrases today, just trust God and let go and let God. I'm not sure I agree with the terminology there in those phrases. But what do we mean when we say that? How come we have to say that? Ultimately, what it all boils down to is that we are struggling with this thing of yielding our Rights to God and embracing his right. It's not something that's gonna come natural to you It's not something that's gonna come easy to you. It's always going to be a struggle. It's always going to be a fight There's always going to be resistance partly because of Satan partly because of his temptations partly because of demonic activity But largely because of your own flesh And what you want We hear a lot of people claiming the rights. You have the civil rights movement in the past. You've had the women's rights movement. You've had the abortion rights movement. You have the homosexual rights movement. You have the transgender rights movement. You know, everybody's claiming the right to do this or that. As a child of God, We are constantly surrendering our rights to God. And in that vacuum, we are filling it with God's rights to our life. That's the duality of the Christian life. I don't have a clue of what's going to happen this year in your life. Some of you have some ideas of some changes that are going to take place in your family this coming year. The reality is, though, that you are in a daily war. You're in a daily war with Satan, who is the god of this world, and you're in a daily war with your own fleshly desires. I want to give you three things that you need to plan on doing this year. Number one, number one, you need to realize every day that your battle is spiritual. Your battle is spiritual. The Bible says, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and against the powers and against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of weakness in the heavenly places. There are evil authorities at work against you. And sometimes those evil authorities will reveal themselves through your government. Those evil authorities are going to reveal themselves through your culture, the people around you. and the way that they live. Sometimes those forces are going to reveal themselves to your own flesh because of demonic influences. You need to be aware and you need to be consciously thinking that you are in a battle of authority. And who's going to have ultimate authority over your life? That really is the battle in which you are engaged. And as a child of God, we must constantly choose to walk under the power of the Spirit of God. Constantly choose to walk under the power of the Spirit of God and give him total and complete reign over our lives. This is what the scripture says, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Walk by the Spirit, you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Galatians 5.16, that is an authority battle going on there. A battle of authority. Number two, by submitting our rights to God, we agree with His plan for our lives. By submitting to the authority of God, we agree and we embrace His plan for our lives. I'm not saying that we don't make plans, folks. That's not what I'm trying to imply whatsoever. But you need to wake up every day and agree that you're going to embrace His plan for your life for that day. For that day. You don't know what all his plan might entail. We don't understand everything that's going to happen in the world that's coming here. But ultimately, the real matter is whether you're going to accept and welcome God's plan or you're going to reject it. That's what it's going to come down to. I don't know whether God's plan is going to be easy. I don't know whether God's plan is going to be hard. I don't know whether God's plan for your life is going to be health. I don't know whether God's plan for your life is going to be sickness this year. I don't know. I don't know if it's going to be life, and I don't even know if it's going to be death this year. I don't know what God's plan is for your life this year. But whatever it is, you embrace it fully. Job said, naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And then thirdly, I want you to pray that the Holy Spirit will show you where you are being rebellious in God's plan. You pray that God's Spirit will show you where you are at a fellowship with Him, where you're rebelling against His plan, and I promise you if you will do that, you will find the peace and the contentment and the joy that you are looking for this year in spite of everything that happens this year. Because I don't know what's going to happen, and you don't know what's going to happen. But I know that you want contentment, I know that you want joy, I know that you want peace. I know those things are true. And if you will do this, you will find that. And then finally, if you're without Christ this morning, the best way to begin this new year is with a personal relationship with God. Nobody knows God's timetable for your life, and I don't mean that as a threat, and I don't mean that as a scare tactic. You may die tomorrow, you may die this year, you may not die for 20 years. I don't know. But it's not a scare tactic to tell you that you may or may not make it through this year. That's just reality. We don't know. But I am telling you this, that God is giving you an opportunity this morning to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. I am telling you this morning that Jesus Christ died on the cross to cover your sins, to give you the hope of eternal life, if you'll simply repent and put your faith in Him. It is truly that simple. I'm gonna ask Jeff to come forward. We're gonna have a stanza of invitation here. Prepare our hearts for God to work in our hearts here. I just pray this morning, Father, that you will bow your heads before God and you will embrace his authority. You will embrace his plan for your life. That you'll wake up every day saying, God, okay, whatever you want from me today, that's okay. I'm good with it. I'm good with it, God. And I'm gonna bow before you. I'm gonna let you have your way in my life. Let's stand together. Let's pray together, shall we? Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your authority, for Your power, for Your sovereignty over our lives. And we thank You for that because we know, Heavenly Father, that it is Your character and nature to be good. You cannot do anything outside of the boundaries of your own goodness. And when we embrace your authority, I think it's important for us to realize that as well. You never mean evil for us. You never mean harm for us. But Father, your design is for us to be more like Jesus Christ, He said, I do nothing of my own initiative. Everything I do, I do because the Father has led me to do it. And then he complied. Oh, that that would be my, my saying as well. I do nothing of my own initiative, but I submit completely unto your will. Thy will be done. That's really what authority is about. Lord, help us to make that real. And the only way that can happen is through the power of the Holy Spirit. Help us to submit to his leadership today. Maybe there's one here this morning without Christ. Lord, put your spirit of conviction upon them and draw them close to you through the blood of Christ. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Alright, well let's turn to number 516 or you're washed in the blood. 516.