The Bible Breakdown

Isaiah 58: It’s About Why, Not What

• Brandon Cannon • Episode 636

Share episode
Speaker 1:

Hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today, isaiah, chapter 58. And today's title is it's About why Not what. It's About why Not what and if you were with us yesterday, it was kind of a heavy, heavy podcast. Today's going to be a little bit better than that and hopefully maybe today we'll give some clarity as to why we do some of the things we do, and we're getting to all that in just a moment. But before we do that, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. You will forever and always be my favorites the podcast listeners. Of course you are. You are like dogs. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Youtube are Y'all are also awesome, but I just love my podcast listeners. They're amazing. And make sure you also go to the Bible Breakdown discussion on Facebook groups. The more we dig, the more we find.

Speaker 1:

Well, if you have your Bible and want to open it up with me to Isaiah, chapter 58, I want to ask you a question have you ever wondered why do we read our Bible? Why do we pray? Why do we fast? Have you ever fasted before on purpose? You know what I mean. Why do we do these things? Well, in today's chapter, god's Word is going to talk about the difference between true and false worship. Did you know you can read your Bible and not enjoy it anywhere near as much as you could? Some people were going absolutely, pastor, I can understand that, but I mean like even more so you can pray and feel like you got nothing out of it. So once again, people say amen, right, you can fast and on the other side, enjoy the process. You can go to church and enjoy it, or it can be horrible. It all depends on the why, not the what.

Speaker 1:

Remember the overall goal of Isaiah is that God is our salvation. And I don't know about you, but I've talked to people before as a pastor and they've come to me and said you know, pastor, I took your challenge once upon a time and you told me that if I give my life to God, god would change my life. And you know what it's not working. Can I tell you how challenging that is for a pastor, when I believe this with all my heart and I put my life on the line and they tell me it doesn't work, and that used to bother me until I started to ask them okay, well, tell me about what your relationship with God is like, and you can all of a sudden see them go. Relationship, what do you mean? Relationship? I was, like you know, reading your Bible, praying, fasting, seeking after God. Like, well, I don't do any of that. Well then, here's the problem. Or you know what I have had People say oh, I read my Bible, oh, I pray, okay, well, why? Well, because I'm supposed to. Okay, well, there's the problem. And I wonder if what's going on in the nation of Israel is there are some people who were saying what are you talking about? I'm doing the things, it ain't working. And so what God, through the prophet Isaiah, is going to be like? Well, yeah, it's about the why. And so let's read this together and see what God's word will say and challenge us with today.

Speaker 1:

Ready Isaiah, chapter 58, verse 1, says this shout with the voice of a trumpet, blast, shout aloud, don't be timid. Tell the people of Israel of their sins. Yet they act so pious. They come to the temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the law of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending that they want to be near me.

Speaker 1:

We have fasted before you. They say why aren't you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves and you don't even notice it. I will tell you why. I respond. It's because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers. What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your head like reeds, bending in the wind, and you dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is that what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord? No, this is the kind of fasting that I want. Are you ready? Here it goes.

Speaker 1:

Free those who are wrongly imprisoned. Lighten the burden of those who work hard for you. Let the oppressed go free and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry. Give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them. Do not hide from relatives who need your help. I love that. That's amazing. Don't be hiding from relatives when they need your help. Don't be screening them.

Speaker 1:

Calls All right, verse 8. Then then your salvation will come like the dawn and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then you will call. The Lord will answer yes, here I am. He will quickly reply. Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors. Feed the hungry and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an overflowing spring. Some of you will rebuild the desert ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.

Speaker 1:

Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don't pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the Lord's holy day. Honor the Sabbath and everything you do on that day, and don't follow your own desires or talk idly. Then the Lord will be your delight. I will give you great honor and satisfy you with an inheritance that I promised to your ancestor, jacob, I, the Lord, have spoken. Wow.

Speaker 1:

So what God was saying is that you are doing all the right things, but you're doing them for the wrong reasons. You're fasting because you want to impress yourself. You're not fasting because you gave your food to somebody else. You are coming to my house to say you want to learn about me, but you're not trying to learn about me. You're trying to impress yourself. And you know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of some people I have known in the past. We call them that. They were stuck in something called legalism, and it is amazing to me how we can take anything and try to make rules out of it. Right, and we used to tell ourselves things like I'm going to read through the Bible in one year, and you know, what happened Is, if we actually made it through that whole year, when we got to the end of that whole year couldn't hardly tell you a thing. I read. They couldn't tell you a thing. They read. It was like a race trying to get to the end, and when we got to the end, all we were was just impressed with ourselves. We made it through in a year.

Speaker 1:

I remember one time I was serving at a church and the pastor called all of us to fast for 21 days. We're going to do a Daniel fast and the Daniel fast was supposed to be no meat, no sweets, no bread. You can have anything else you want and know what happened. We got the first few days and we all started suffering, and so you would be amazed at how innovative people were. They had a way of turning a potato and into something that almost looked like meat. They had a way of figuring out how, technically, a chip is not a sweet. It's not a chip that we're not supposed to eat because, technically, there are some potatoes in that. So, technically, a chip is a vegetable and technically, the salsa at the Mexican restaurant it is also vegetables. And so there were people on the Daniel fast going to the Mexican restaurant and having chips and salsa fast, going to the Mexican restaurant and having chips and salsa. It was amazing there were certain things that they weren't sweets, because the cheesecake was made out of cheese and the strawberries on top well, that's a fruit. I mean. It was amazing at the different types of ways we found a way to excuse this, and then, at the end of the 21 days, we were so proud of ourselves, we just everybody patted each other on the back.

Speaker 1:

Can I tell you, god wasn't within a mile of that place. Right, and that's what God's Word is talking about. And can I tell you I've been as guilty as anybody of this. I've went on fasts. I have read through my Bible in a year. I have had a certain amount of time I was going to pray and when I was done, I was so proud of myself and God wasn't within a mile of it, because the why was wrong. But can I tell you the other way around?

Speaker 1:

When you read your word, read God's word every single day, not so you can conquer a chapter, but so that you can submit yourself to the King of the universe and say God, you know more than me. I want to have an encounter with you today. I want to experience you and therefore I'm going to read your word and I'm going to read it because I want you to speak to me today. And when you read God's word like that, god will speak to you. God will make his word come alive.

Speaker 1:

When you go to prayer and instead of spending whatever, let's say you try to spend 30 minutes a day and in that 30 minutes. You are struggling to come up with something to say and instead you say you know what, god? I'm not going to put a timer on it, I may only pray for 10 minutes, but in that 10 minutes I am here to seek after you. Can I tell you it's better. What if you take a day and you fast and instead of eating, you give your food away? You give what you would have eaten and you go and you serve somewhere? Make all the difference in the world, and that's what God's word is saying. It's not about the what. All the things we do, they are vehicles to experience God and to be his hands and feet to bless others. When we try to do all the spiritual disciplines to bless ourselves, that's all we're going to get. But when we read God's word, when we pray, when we serve others, when we fast, when we go to church and we serve other people, when we do those things, when we give of our finances, when we go to church and we serve other people, when we do those things, when we give of our finances, when we do those things as an act of worship, it's amazing. It's amazing what God will do.

Speaker 1:

So I want to give you a challenge this week when you read God's Word. Don't read God's Word to try to conquer it. I'm going to give you another one. If you're listening to this podcast right now and you're behind, I know, don't lie. Don't lie. Just go ahead and put your hand up. That's me, pastor. You are a week behind right now. Maybe you're three weeks behind. You're behind and you're trying to catch up. What if you do this? Don't try to catch up. We're not in a race. You're not behind. Start, you're not behind. Start with today's date and move forward. Whatever today actually is, move forward because it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1:

We're going to read God's Word for the rest of our lives, so we'll catch this next chapter again one day. Instead, when you encounter God's Word or you read God's Word, you're trying to have an encounter with God. So don't be caught up on how many chapters you got in this week. Instead, if I miss a day, okay, great, I don't want to miss two, so I'm going to start back the next day.

Speaker 1:

It comes to prayer. You're not trying to stack them. You know I pray 30 minutes a day. I miss today, so I'm going to pray an hour tomorrow. Don't do that. Instead, have an encounter with God today and when your why is fixed, you'll be amazed what the what will do. Let's pray together, god. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

God. You're interested in relationship and not legalism. And one of the things I have learned in my life, god, is when I do something just to do it, it has little effect. But when I do something to have an encounter with you, I find myself doing more of it because the why is in the right place. I pray you will help us when we read our Bible, when we pray, when we fast, when we serve others, when we give of our finances, all the things that we do, help us to do it for the right reason. And as we do that, I pray you will fill our lives with joy. In Jesus' name, we pray amen, amen, what God's word says in Isaiah, chapter 12, verse two. Say it with me. 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 59.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Brandon Cannon

Host