What Are We living For?

What Are We Living For?
Isaiah 6:1-3, John 12:37-43
Pator David Holdaway, 26/06/2011

How do we make our life worth living?

Isa 6:1: It was the year King Uzziah died. Uzziah was someone who began so well and ended badly. So many Christians are like King Uzziah. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 26 that as Uzziah rose in power, pride got into his heart and he was struck with leprosy and shut out of the temple and his son ruled in his place (2 Chro 26:16-21). Power had gotten into his heart and pride had increased in his heart. As we increased in our lives, in position, status, prestige and power, in our career, in church life, in our office, we have to guard against pride and power. We have to be careful to walk in righteousness & humility.

God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We often say, 'If God is for us, who can be against us'. But let's turn it around and ask, 'If God is against us (opposes us), then, who can be for us?'

The devil is always looking for a foothold in our lives to make a stronghold.

Tragically, there are many Christians who start their race well but don't end well. Many things, rob them of their passions along the way.

In reading Billy Graham's biographies, the thing that people say about this man who had met kings, presidents, rich and poor is his humility. As Billy Graham got bigger in his ministry, his head did not get bigger, but his heart did.

In the year King Uzziah died, the Prophet Isaiah was seeking God.
Jesus told us that we are to Ask, Seek & Knock. Often, we go from Asking to Knocking (to getting the answer). But in between, is the Seeking. All great moves of God involved Seeking God. When we seek God, we are not coercing Him, but He is doing what He always wanted to do in us.

The Prophet Isaiah said he saw the King of Israel (this was Jesus, according to John 12:41), God Almighty, the Seraphs and angels of the Lord. He saw the holy presence of God. Isaiah had an awesome vision & encounter. But Isaiah also had a vision of vision of himself (Isa 6:5), he cried out that he was a sinful man, 'woe to me', 'I'm a person of unclean lips'. The greater the light we come into, the greater the light exposes. The light of God will reveal the blemishes in our lives and what we have to deal with.
One of the dangers of the Christian walk is that as we grow in our walk, we start to compare ourselves with the world and others instead of with Whom God is. The danger is that we fool ourselves that we are doing well compared with others, thinking that we are something that we are not. That's why the Bible says that we are not to be conform to the world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:2). If we don't stand for something, we will fall for anything and allow the world & things around us to influence us.

Floyd McClung worte how he realised he had lost his apostolic passion even though he still had Jesus. He wrote how he was being seduced by Western culture and the American dream which replaced the dream God placed in his heart. He said that he realised that he had an evangelical mind but had developed a Babylonian heart.

We battle with materialism, money & finances. It is not how much we have, but the attitude of our heart towards money. Billy Graham said the 3 greatest battles he has to guard his purity & passion are with money, sex and power.

We can't serve God and money but we can serve God with money. The danger is that money can be demonised and money becomes mammon, a god. How do you know when money becomes mammon to you?
1 When God asks you to give & you will not. Money controls your decisions.
2. When money defines you. How much is he or she worth? But in God's Kingdom, everyone's worth is defined by the value of the blood of Christ.
3. When we are willing to do what is ungodly or unrighteous to keep or get - that's when money has power over us.

In Isa 6:6-7: God took a fiery coal to purge Isaiah of his sins. It was not superficial, it was a deep purging & cleaning.
a Often we pray that God will remove the cobwebs in our lives. What we need is for God to kill the spider making the cobwebs.
b. Experienced warfare with a mosquito? We can apply lotions & creams but the mosquito will continue to bite. We need to kill the mosquito.
Too often we are clearing the cobwebs and applying the lotions in our lives. What we need is to kill the spiers and mosquitos like how God took the burning coal to purge & cleanse Isaiah. It was moment of recommissioning, reconsecration for Isaiah.

Conclusion
What are we living for? Are we so busy living that we have no time in our life for something worth living for? Is what we are living for worth what Christ died for? The life worth living is a life lived for God.

Have we lost the joy, the passion along the way?

Can we say, Lord here I am, cleanse me, purge me, use me, send me.