This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back for week eight, day two of our look through the
book of Isaiah. We're going to focus in on Isaiah chapter 61 today. And as we begin
our look at this chapter, let me ask you a question.

What if God advertised on a job site, some kind of advertisement that said,
"Wanted all who will come to receive life's greatest gift "and enjoy life's
greatest challenges, "no previous experience required, "only servants need
apply. " So let's say you apply, you decide to take the job, that this job of
living with faith in a material world, of showing love to a needy world, of
serving God in your everyday world, what's the job description? How do you
describe our job as a Christian?

What are we supposed to do? We could turn a lot of places in the Bible to see
the answers to this, but maybe the clearest description is found right here in
Isaiah chapter 61. And I'm not saying that just because it's a chapter that
we're looking at today.

I've got good reason for saying maybe the clearest description of what we're
supposed to do in our Christian life is here. When Jesus, at the beginning of
his ministry, had to declare what he was sent to do, these are the verses that
he chose, these verses we're going to look at today. And we're followers of Jesus,
we're the body of Christ in the world today.

So what he did while he was on this planet were to do. So here it is in these
verses, it's Christianity, Christian service in a nutshell. Our job description
is a Christian.

We're going to look at two qualifications and six expectations. Now we're going to go
through them pretty quickly and let them build on each other. What are the
qualifications for being a servant, a follower of Jesus Christ?

Well, number one, the qualification is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is upon me.
In Isaiah chapter 61 verse one, the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me
because the Lord has anointed me.

So first, the Spirit is upon me. You can't serve without the Spirit. Trying to
live as a Christian without the empowering of the Holy Spirit is like trying to
fly without wings, you just can't do it.

Now notice it says here, the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me. God's Holy
Spirit, the third person of the Trinity is sometimes called the Spirit of God,
the Spirit of Jesus here, the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord. The sovereignty, God
is in control.

Even when you don't feel in control and often we don't, the Holy Spirit is in
your life and he is in control and you can lean on that, you can rely on that.
That is one of the job description traits, qualifications of any servant. I
gotta be leaning on the Spirit 'cause he's the one in control and he's the one
who has the power.

And then a second qualification is not only has the Spirit entered my life, I've
allowed God's Holy Spirit through trusting in Jesus to enter my life. The second
qualification is the Lord has anointed me. Jesus, as he began his ministry, knew
that God had chosen him for the task.

But we need to know that God has chosen us. Every Christian should know that
they are anointed. Now many Christians, they never have recognized that they're
anointed because it sounds so spiritual.

But actually it's really quite simple. Anointing just means you've recognized
that God has a specific plan for your life in ministry and that you're asking
him for the power to live out that plan. And in doing that, everything we do is
to be anointed.

Sometimes we think the spiritual things, like we think of like church things,
like preaching and singing in church, that has to be anointed. No, everything in
life is to be anointed. The Lord has anointed me.

So we need anointed accountants and anointed actors and anointed architects. We
need to be anointed as we wash dishes and mow lawns. We need to be seeing
anointed moms and anointed dads and anointed kids.

The Lord has anointed me. That's the qualification for living out what it means
to be a servant of God. Now what are the expectations?

What does God expect us to do as his servants? Let me start in verse one again
and read this list of expectations that Jesus turned to as he started his
ministry. The spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has
anointed me too.

Now here come the expectations. Preach good news to the poor. He sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from
darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day
of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who
grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of
gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of
despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the
display of his splendor. So here's seven things in these verses that God has
asked us to do on an everyday basis. Number one, preach the good news to needy
people.

The good news that we preach is clear and simple. In the New Testament, the good
news came to mean one thing. Jesus' death on a cross, burial on a tomb and
resurrection on the third day.

So the impact of the fact that Jesus has died, forgiven you, resurrected, given
you new life, that's the good news. The good news part doesn't hang us up so
much maybe as the preach part, to preach the good news. Most of us think today
of preaching as something that's only done in church.

But no, all of us are to preach the good news. The word means, what does the
word mean? It means to tell the truth in a way that fits the person you're
talking to.

You can do that. I know this word is taken on negative connotation sometimes.
Don't preach at me and it's a negative thing we see is happening.

But in the Bible, the word simply means you tell the truth in a way that fits
the person you're talking to. We're to preach the good news to needy people.
Second thing we're to do is we're to bind up broken hearts because human hearts
are fragile.

They're like frail ships on a stormy sea and they find themselves too often
tossed against rocky shores, broken on the reefs of a shattered relationship or
a failure in a job or just a simple discouragement in everyday living. We're to
bind up broken hearts. What does that mean?

It's like when a bone is broken. You bind up the arm so that you place the bones
in a place where they can heal. That's what we do.

When you bind up a broken heart, you put that heart in a place where it can heal
with the right people, surrounded by God's love, soaked up in God's word,
binding up broken hearts. You can't heal the heart, only God can. But to bind it
up is to put it in a place where it can heal through your encouragement, through
God's word, through teaching sometimes, but many times just through being with
people and letting them know that God's with them no matter what.

Bind up broken hearts. Third job description that we have here is the wonderful
description of proclaiming freedom. God changes our lives through his grace and
freedom.

He doesn't change our lives through our rules and regulations. The servant who
spends all their time talking about life-binding rules rather than life-changing
grace is not following our job description, which is to proclaim freedom. And
then fourth job description, a fourth thing we're to do is to proclaim God's
timetable.

Back in verse two, proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of
vengeance of our God. God's favor, God's vengeance. Why are these two put
together in this one verse?

Because in some ways they're one at the same, one in the same as far as God's
timetable. Depending on your relationship or your lack of relationship with the
Lord, you're going to enjoy the year of the Lord's favor or you're going to experience
the day of vengeance of our God. So proclaim the truth about this deep need we
have for a relationship with God.

We continue to walk through what God says we're to do on an everyday basis as
his followers. Number five, he says, you're to comfort the mourning. Comfort
those who mourn.

Jesus taught us blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. But I
want to remind you that blessed are those who comfort the mourning, but they're
doing God's work. God's in the business of comforting people who are mourning
because we have a lot of loss in our lives.

We need God's comfort. Now the sixth part of the job description plays off of
this where the second thing we're to do with people that are hurting, we're also
to provide for the grieving. Comfort the mourning, provide for the grieving.

When people are grieving, they need comfort, but they also need provision. When
people are grieving, that's a time for giving. Sometimes we think if somebody's
grieving, I just don't know what to say.

I'll make them feel uncomfortable. If you don't know what to say, the best thing
to say is not to say anything. They just need your presence anyway.

But the truth is, it's not only saying things that's needed, we also need to do
things in the lives of people that are grieving. Provide, find a practical way
to help. To find a way to love somebody in the midst of the loss that they've
faced.

I'll never forget many years ago when my wife Shondell's mom died up in Northern
California and we needed to get in the car and take a long car trip up. It was a
sudden death. We didn't know that it was coming.

Renee Yap, one of our friends, knew that we were going and she came over and I
looked out and she was washing the windows of our car. I didn't give her any
things to wash the windows. She just realized they're in a long car trip, they
need this.

She didn't ask for what we needed, she just realized what we needed and she did
it. Sometimes when people are grieving, they don't even know what to ask for. So
you realize what they need and you do it.

That's doing the work of Jesus. Now there's a seventh thing in our job
description here, wonderful thing. Seventh part of your job description is to
bestow.

This is a great, this is an awesome job that we have. We are not the givers, God
is the giver, he's the owner, but we're the bestowers of some tremendous, some
wonderful things in people's lives that God has given. It's like your company
decides to give out these huge bonuses and you get to hand out all the checks
and people look at you and say, thank you so much and you want to say, it wasn't
me, it's the company.

But you get to accept all this gratitude that really is given to God because we
bestow. And he gives this list, we bestow crowns of beauty for ashes, oil of
gladness for mourning, garments of praise for despair. There's this picture of
complete life change, beauty for ashes, gladness for mourning, praise for
despair that begins in this world and that's finished in eternity.

That's what we get to bestow. And there's this picture of crowns and oil and
garments. Crowns were used to honor someone, honor a king, honor a new leader.

Oil was used in healing, used in other ways in the Old and New Testaments, but
much of the time it was used in healing. And garments, in the Old Testament, New
Testament times of Jesus, garments expressed really what was going on the inside
of you. When you were in grief, you would tear your outer clothes, you would
wear sackcloth.

When you were in rejoicing, you'd wear these clothes of celebration. They were a
sign of your hope or lack of hope. So crowns of honor, oil of healing, garments
of hope.

Who do you need to bestow some honor on today? Who do you need to bestow some
healing on today? As you pray for their healing, you're bestowing on them
something that Jesus has given.

Who do you need to bestow some hope on today? Now job descriptions are not just
for reading, they're for following. How would you feel about a worker who like
memorized their job description but never did their job?

So what's one practical thing, maybe as we've gone through these, that God's
reminded you to do in your job, your wonderful privilege of being a servant of
Jesus Christ. Be practical, be specific and then be committed to this most
wonderful job that we have. Jesus, we want in prayer to ask you for the strength
to do what you've given us to do.

We remind ourselves that it's by the power of your spirit and the anointing of
your calling that we do any of this. So help us not to look to our strength but
to your strength and give us practical direction today in what to do to follow
you. We ask this in your name, amen.

Tomorrow we're going to look together at a fresh perspective on what it means to be
saved.