This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to week four of our Look Through the Book of Isaiah, day one. We're going to be looking today at a chunk of chapters, Isaiah 28 to 34, but before we do that, I want to start each week with sort of where we are on the map of looking through the Book of Isaiah. Remember Isaiah is about God's vision, God's vision for your life. The first half of Isaiah is about God's vision for change, and the second half is about God's vision for comfort. We're going to get to that actually next week as we continue our study through Isaiah. It's a different kind of comfort than you've ever thought about that God wants to work in your life. But right now we're in the middle of what does God want to do with changes in your life? How does he change you? And as we've looked through God's truth about change in the first half of Isaiah, we've looked at some truth about God. In order to change, you have to understand the truth about God, you have to understand his holiness, his judgment. You have to understand his perspective on his vineyard, on you and on your life. In order to change, you also have to understand we've been seeing the truth about you. And through these chapters, we've seen the honest truth that we sometimes choose to rebel, that we choose to be a person of unclean lips. So Isaiah says out of that woe is me. But we've also seen that you can choose to listen, you can choose to experience joy, you can choose to say send me. In Isaiah 28 to 34, we're continuing to look at how change happens in our lives. And in these chapters, we find, well you might say we find God's list of it really bothers me when my children. If you're going to change, you have to know what bothers God, you have to know what grieves the heart of God. And in these verses, in these chapters, we see the things that really hurt the heart of God. The things that he hates to see happening in his children's lives. These are serious things. These are the things that result in great judgment in our lives. In one sense, you might compare it to if you're a parent, your relationship to your children. It's irritating when they don't dress the way that you'd like or when they slouch or when they don't eat what you'd like. But it is heart wrenching to discover that they've taken drugs or that they want to run away or they've begun to hate you. It really bothers God. It's really heart wrenching to God when, and that's what we're going to be looking at today, this list of the things that really grieve the heart of God. But alongside of that list, we also see some hope, some cures for these deep, deep problems that grieve the heart of God. So what is it in his children's lives when God looks at us that he says it really grieves me when this happens? Chapter 1 in chapter 28 is living without discipline, the undisciplined life. In chapter 8, verse 7, "And these also stagger from wine and reel from beer. " Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine. They reel from beer. They stagger when seeing visions. They stumble when rendering decisions. So Isaiah is talking about these who should be spiritual leaders to the people of Israel, but they're living an undisciplined life. And in their drunkenness, they're staggering even when they're trying to share visions from God or render decisions for God. Undisciplined living. It really bothers God. It deeply bothers God when we allow our emotions to make all of our decisions. It bothers him when we seek after pleasure rather than seeking after him. And that's what was happening in Israel in that time. But there's an answer. There's a hope. God says in order to live a disciplined life, you need something in your life. You need a cornerstone. So in verse 16, he says this, "Therefore," this is what the Sovereign Lord says, "Look, I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken. " In order to live with the kind of discipline, the kind of life that God wants us to live, you've got to have a foundation. You have to have a foundation to build on. You have to have a cornerstone. And God says, "I have one. In fact, I'm going to place this cornerstone, this foundation stone into your life. " He says it's a precious stone. It's valuable. It's more valuable than anything. It's a tested stone. It's safe to build on. And he who trusts in this stone will never be dismayed, will never be shaken. Now we know from the New Testament who this cornerstone is. It gives us the answer. Jesus is the cornerstone. He is the cornerstone. And so when you think about being disciplined in your life, the foundation you build on is Jesus. Or you might think about it this way. The answer to your need for discipline is to become a disciple. In order to be disciplined, you have to be a disciple of Jesus. Now remember, a disciple is not someone who just knows the rules. A disciple is someone who's following the Lord. It's a personal relationship with him. Maybe there's a new thought for you here. Your discipline is not so much a matter of what you're doing or not doing. Ultimately, it's going to be determined by who you're following. So don't make your discipline about following the rules. Make sure that it's about following Jesus Christ. God says it bothers me when you live without discipline. I want to give you a gift of discipline, the cornerstone, the foundation of Jesus. Chapter 29, God says, "Here's another thing that bothers me. Worship without meaning. " Verse 13, the Lord says, "These people come near to me with their mouth. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. " Now this chapter, chapter 29, where he talks about worship without meaning. This chapter, four of the verses in this chapter are quoted in the New Testament. These verses we just read, Jesus quoted these exact verses in Matthew 15 as he's talking with the Pharisees. "You get near me with your mouth, but your heart is far away from me. And your worship of me is just made up of man-made rules. " And that deeply bothers the heart of God. When we say we're worshiping, but we're just going through the motions. But there's hope. God has a different way of worship. So in verse 14, here's the hope. "Therefore, once more, I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish. " So I'm going to astound you, God says, with wonder upon wonder. You recapture a sense of wonder, the wonder of who God is in your worship. It's not about the rules. It's not about the when. It's not even about the why. It's about the who. It's about the wonder of who God is. Now again, these verses point to Jesus. Jesus is the one who will confound the wisdom of the wise. He's the one that will cause all of this to happen. The Bible talks about this in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 18 and 19, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. For it's written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. '" And so God wants us to worship with a sense of meaning in our lives. And that meaning comes from understanding the wonder that's in worship, that God would love us in Jesus Christ. Maybe you need to get back to that, just the pure wonder of worship. God has a lot to talk about in these chapters. Here's another thing that bothers the heart of God, that grieves the heart of God, sight without faith, living without discipline, worship without meaning, now sight without faith. I see what's happening in the world, but I don't have any faith about what's happening in the world. And so I think that what I see is the most important thing. No, my faith is the most important thing. So this is in chapter 30 and 31. Chapter 30, verses 1 and 2, "Woe to the obstinate children," declares the Lord, "to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my spirit, heaping sin upon sin, who go down to Egypt without consulting me, who look for help to Pharaoh's protection, to Egypt's shade for refuge. " Now, there's a phrase in these verses that you see repeated a lot in the Old Testament, "Woe to those who go down to Egypt. " Egypt was a powerful country at the time. So it was tempting to think, I'm going to go to the power center of the day and I'm going to find my help there. I see where my answer is. My answer is in Egypt. And so God says, "You come up with plans that aren't mine, with alliances that aren't of my spirit. You rely on Egypt. " And that's a picture of looking to other places than God for the meeting of the pressing needs that are in your life. God says, "I want to give you hope here. I want you to live by faith and not just by sight. " So in verse 15 of chapter 30, this is what the sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says, "In repentance and rest is your salvation. In quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. " And then verse 18, "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. He rises to show you compassion, for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him. " Why do we have sight without faith? Why do we move ahead of God? Our plans instead of God's plans? There's a big clue in that last phrase, "Blessed are all who wait for Him. " We get ahead of God. We want it now. We're worried or we're anxious or we see the opportunity, so we rush ahead of God. God says in these verses that he deeply desires to be at work in our lives. He deeply wants to be involved in your life. It really bothers God. And we act as if it bothers God for us to present our needs to him. "No, God, I've got to go down to Egypt. You don't have time for this. You're not interested in this. I'll find my answer here. " God's interested in every single thing in your life. And so you bring it to him and you make every single decision. You make everything in your life a matter of faith. That's the challenge that's here. And there's one final thing that's talked about in chapter 32 that bothers the heart and that is complacency without dedication, getting to a place of complacency and losing my dedication. In verses 9 and 10 of chapter 32, "You women are so complacent. You need to rise up," he says, "and listen to me. You daughters who feel secure, you need to hear what I have to say. In little more than a year, you who feel secure will tremble, the grape harvest will fail, and the harvest of fruit will not come. " They were complacent because everything was going well. And God says here, "The complacent need to listen to me more than anybody. " If things are going great in your life, that's the most important time to listen to God. The secure need to hear me more than anybody. Sometimes we listen the most to God when we feel the most insecure, when we feel like things are about to fall apart. God says, "When everything is great, listen to me. In little more than a year," he says, "your security is going to fall apart. Your complacency," he's telling them, "is built upon a falsehood, the falsehood of your circumstances. " Don't build upon your circumstances because they're going to go up and down in your life. No, God says, "I've got a hope for you that's beyond your circumstances. Build instead on the power of my Spirit, what God can do within you, that I want to pour on you from on high. " So in chapter 32, verses 15 to 18, "Till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field. " And the fertile field seems like a forest. "Justice will dwell in the desert, and righteousness will live in the fertile field. The fruit of righteousness will be peace. The effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. " So it gives them this picture of true security. The desert's a fertile field, justice in the desert, the fruit of righteousness being peace. The effect of righteousness, I love this, quietness and confidence forever. So complacency is replaced by real growth, real justice, real righteousness. But don't miss this. Don't miss this. The answer to complacency here is commitment. But it is not so much your commitment to God as understanding God's commitment to you. The answer to your complacency is commitment. But it's not so much your commitment to God as understanding God's commitment to you. He pours out His Spirit on you. When you understand all that He's done for you in Jesus Christ, all that He's poured out on you, then your dedication increases to Him. We've talked about a lot today, a lot of chapters, gone over it very, very quickly. God Mary very well in the midst of this said something to you. My prayer is that you listen to God with an open heart. If something that you're doing is bothering the heart of God, then your heart's being bothered right now about the way that you worship, about the kind of dedication that you see in your life or lack of discipline that you see in your life, about a tendency that you might have to be complacent right now in your life, about living by sight and not by faith. If there's a bothering that's going on in your heart right now, give it to God. That's your worship. Just say to Him, Father, if I'm bothered by this, it's because I know it's bothering your heart. I bring it to you. I trust you with it. I want to live the life you've made me to live, not the life that I'm trying to build to live. And so I trust you to live the life you've given me. In Jesus' name, I trust you. Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look together at a picture of genuine joy.