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The Bible Breakdown
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The Bible Breakdown
Isaiah 29: I Am After the Real Thing
Discover what it truly means to crave authenticity in your spiritual journey with our exploration of Isaiah 29. Imagine preferring the rich aroma of real coffee over the blandness of instant—Isaiah uses this vivid metaphor to critique Israel's choice of spiritual substitutes over genuine connection with God. Through heartfelt passion, Isaiah laments the nation's spiritual blindness and invites us to reflect on our own worship practices. Let’s dive into the rich imagery of Isaiah's vision in chapter 6 and explore how insincere worship creates a chasm between our words and hearts, urging us all to reach out for the real essence of divine experience.
Journey with us further as we unlock the power of prayer in nurturing a personal relationship with God, drawing inspiration from Isaiah 12:2. Prayer isn't just a ritual; it's a vital lifeline for perceiving God's presence and guidance every day. We delve into how acknowledging God as our savior and strength transforms our lives, empowering us with trust and fearlessness. Embrace the divine invitation to deepen your connection with God, and uncover how prayer can be a transformative force in your spiritual journey. Join the conversation, and let’s explore how to move beyond superficial practices toward a more genuine relationship with the divine.
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The More You Dig. The More You Find.
Well, everyone, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Isaiah, chapter 29, and today's title is I'm After the Real Thing. I'm After the Real Thing. Have you ever went through a season when you were kind of trying out other stuff and it just made you want the real thing even more? We're going to talk about that today and kind of see how the nation of Israel is just, really just Isaiah's just lamenting that they're settling for less than what God has for them. And we're getting all that in just a moment. But, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you're leaving us a five-star review on the podcast and leaving us like what it is you love about the podcast as well. And then make sure that we're all going to the Bible Breakdown discussion on Facebook, because the more we dig, the more we find. Also, make sure you're going to wwwthebiblebreakdowncom and you can subscribe there and get these chapters every day as an email. And we have a blog that comes out. That is also kind of working with both the podcast and the Facebook post, just trying to give you as much of God as we possibly can, because, as we say, the more we dig, the more we find, and it's just another shovel helping us dig a little further. All right, if you have your Bibles, I want to open it with me to Isaiah, chapter 29.
Speaker 1:Remember, the overall theme of Isaiah is God is our salvation. And Isaiah remember all the way back in Isaiah 6,. He saw God high and lifted up. He had this vision of God and then, when he saw God, he said God, I will go for you, I will go tell these people what you have said. And so, all throughout this, he sees who God is, he sees what God wants to do and he's just, oh, he's just so frustrated and just like why are we doing this? And so that's what he's going to talk about today. Why are we settling for everything other than what God really is? Why are we settling for less than the real thing?
Speaker 1:It reminds me of and it's well-documented that I love my coffee. As a matter of fact, as we are recording this, I have a cup of coffee right outside the camera shot so that in between moments when you're not paying attention, I can take a sip. Right, I love my coffee and I went on this trip one time, and because of just the nature of the trip and what it was, I wasn't able to have regular coffee. I had to have instant coffee. Now, if you love instant coffee, that is your cross to bear. If that is fine, I'm not a fan of instant coffee. Now, if you love instant coffee, that is your cross to bear. If that is fine, I'm not a fan of instant coffee. That's my problem, right? But I just wanted my coffee, what I consider to be the real thing.
Speaker 1:And some people were like hey man, listen, it's going to be just a few days, and the longer you go, the more you're going to get used to it and you may even find you have a new taste for this instant coffee. Can I tell you that was not my story. The more I had to deal with the substitute, the more it made me long for the real thing. That is what Isaiah is going to talk about, but in a much more serious situation of man. We're so blind and stubborn. We're saying one thing to God but doing another man. I'm after the real thing. I want our nation to truly know God and I want you to experience what I've experienced, and he's just so sad that they're not experiencing that, and so we're going to read this together and then talk about that at the end. You ready? Isaiah 29,.
Speaker 1:Verse 1 says this what, by the way? Pause real quick. If you ever watched Little Mermaid and you knew that her name was Ariel, now you realize her name means an altar covered with blood. Try to get that out of your head, all right?
Speaker 1:Moving on Verse three, I will be your enemy, surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls. I will build siege towers and destroy it. Then, deep from the earth, you will speak From low in the dust. Your words will come, your voice will whisper from the ground like a ghost conjuring up from the grave, but suddenly your ruthless enemies will be crushed like the finest of dust and your many attackers will be driven away like chaff before the wind. Suddenly, in an instant, I, the Lord of Heaven's armies, will act for you and will thunder and earthquake and with great noise, with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire. All the nations fighting against Jerusalem will vanish like a dream. Those who are attacking her walls will vanish like a vision. In the night, a hungry person's dreams of eating, but wakes up still hungry. A thirsty person dreams of drinking, but they still faint from thirst when morning comes. So it will be with your enemies, with those who attack Mount Zion.
Speaker 1:Are you amazed and incredulous? Don't you believe it? Then go ahead and be blind. You are stupid, but not from wine. You stagger, but not from liquor, for the Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries. All of the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say we can't read it because it is sealed. When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say we don't know how to read. And so the Lord says these people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me and their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote. Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites with amazing wonders. The wisdom of the wise will pass away and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear, while sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the Lord, who do evil deeds in the dark. The Lord can't see us, they say. He doesn't know what's going on. How foolish can you be? He is the potter and he's certainly greater than you. The clay, should the created thing say to the one who made it why didn't he make me? Does a jar ever say the potter who made me, why didn't he make me? Does a jar ever say the potter who made me is stupid.
Speaker 1:Soon, and not very long, the forest of Lebanon will become a fertile field. The fertile field will yield bountiful crops and in that day the deaf will hear the words read from a book, the blind will see through the gloom and darkness, the humble will be filled with fresh joy from the Lord and the poor will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. The scoffer will be gone and the arrogant will disappear, and those who plot evil will be killed. Those who convict the innocent by their false testimonies will disappear. The similar fate awaits those who use trickery to pervert justice and who tell lies to destroy the innocent. That is why the Lord who redeemed Abraham, says to the people of Israel my people will no longer be ashamed or turn pale with fear, for when they see their many children and all the blessings I have given them, they will recognize the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
Speaker 1:Wow, there's a moment here when God says that they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Do you know that Jesus actually used that passage many times to talk about the people that were alive while Jesus was on the earth? Because he would say all these things and they would then honor him with their lips like, hey, that's great. But then they'd walk away Talking about the Pharisees. He would say you honor me with your lips, you honor God with your lips, but your hearts are so corrupt you are settling for something else other than the real thing.
Speaker 1:And Isaiah is lamenting this. And remember, I know that some of that wording is a little crazy, but remember, this is apocalyptic literature, so it's using analogies and a form of poetry to try to relay the point. And the point is is that Isaiah is saying man, I've seen God, I've seen what God can do, but we're settling for so much less than what we could have. We're settling for instant coffee when we could have gourmet coffee. We're settling for turkey bacon when we could have the real bacon. We're settling for something less. And what he is trying to urge them to is to come back to saying I'm after the real thing, do you know, a lot of times, when it comes to our relationship with God, we can get into that. We can get into those motions of just going to church and going home. You know, we go to life group on occasion. We do something here.
Speaker 1:Every once in a while we'll read a verse out of the Bible and all this stuff and then we say you know, christianity is just not working for me. You know, I'm just not really growing in God. I'll tell you how many times I've talked to someone who have said you know, pastor, I'm just not excited about God, I'm just struggling in my relationship with God. And I say, okay, well, let's talk about it. Then let's see what's going on.
Speaker 1:You know, what does your prayer life look like? Well, I don't really pray, okay. What does it look like when you're reading God's word? Are you just reading to be reading, or are you reading expecting God to speak to you? I don't really read my Bible, okay, well. Are you involved in community? Are you going to life group and confessing this so people can pray with you, and whatnot? No, I don't really go to life group, okay, well, what about church? Are you going to church and you worship? Well, I don't really. You see the pattern. They're not doing any of the things and so they're wondering why these things aren't working. Well, these things by themselves doesn't make you holy.
Speaker 1:Can I tell you that reading the Bible just to read words, that's not how we get close to God. We get close to God because this book is the vehicle for how God reveals himself to us. We don't get close to God by saying words with our eyes closed and call it prayer. It is the vehicle of how we communicate with God. But we have to do these things and not settle for anything less. I can't tell you how many times I have read God's word and I just had to trust the Lord that he was going to lead me through it, because I didn't understand what I was reading. So I just keep going.
Speaker 1:I'm saying God, I am not going to settle for a false relationship with you. I'm not going to settle for anything less. I want to know you. And the great thing is, god's word promises us in James chapter I believe it's four, where it says if you will come close to God, god will come close to you. So I want to challenge you and encourage you at the same time today, and that is this are you settling for something less than a real relationship with God? What I mean by that is is is I'm not talking about an emotion, I'm talking about a settled, confident knowing that God is with you, that you are with him, that you are walking with him every day. That confidence of I know that God's with me, I'm with him, I'm walking with him every day. If not, I would encourage you to take a step today. I don't know what that means for you. Maybe that means it's time to get serious about spending time in God's word so that you can know him more, Carving out, carving hard, cutting something else out, so you can put in time along with God every day when you pray and you talk to him, not so that you can check it off that day, but so you can communicate and fellowship with your heavenly father, to make sure that you don't skip, you know, more than one Sunday in a row, cause I know sometimes you got work and whatever.
Speaker 1:I prefer you to come every single week, because we want to worship God with you, we want to serve you, we want you to serve us, we'll be part of this community. But if you can't do that, be there as often as you can and when you go, don't go to check off a box. Go there. When you go, don't go to check off a box. Go there to say today I'm going to have an encounter with God. I'm going to encounter him by serving somebody else, because you're never closer to the heart of God than when you're serving somebody else. We don't go to church to be consumers. We go to be contributors, we go to be part of something. But then also I'm going to go to church so that I can then receive from God and just decide. I am not going to settle for anything less than everything that God has for me and watch what happens.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much that, no matter how much we want a relationship with you, you want one with us even more. I pray as we seek you. You'll open our eyes to see you more every day. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen. God's word says in Isaiah 12, verse 2, god has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord, god, is my strength and my song. He has given me victory. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Isaiah, chapter 30.
