the full chapter read aloud by members of the congregation as the main text for the series
1 For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning lamp.
2 The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you will be called by a new name, which Yahweh‘s mouth will name.
3 You will also be a crown of beauty in Yahweh‘s hand, and a royal diadem in your God‘s hand.
4 You will not be called Forsaken any more; nor will your land be called Desolate any more: but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for Yahweh delights in you, and your land will be married.
5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
6 I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. They will never be silent day nor night. You who call on Yahweh, take no rest,
7 and give him no rest, until he establishes, and until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
8 Yahweh has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, “Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and foreigners will not drink your new wine, for which you have labored;
9 but those who have harvested it will eat it, and praise Yahweh; and those who have gathered it will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.”
10 Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the people! Build up, build up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift up a banner for the peoples.
11 Behold, Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.’”
12 They will call them The holy people, Yahweh’s redeemed. You will be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.
God's rejection of Israel's empty ritual worship, incense and festivals described as disgusting and burdensome
11 “What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.
12 When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts?
13 Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me; new moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can’t stand evil assemblies.
14 My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.
God says the people honor him with their lips but their hearts are far from him, worship reduced to man-made rules learned by rote
13 The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;
Isaiah's vision of the Lord on the throne, the seraphim crying holy, Isaiah's undone response, and his yes to being sent
1 In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.
2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.
3 One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!”
4 The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.
7 He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
8 I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”
the Lord waits to show compassion, the bread of adversity, and the voice behind you saying this is the way walk in it
19 For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.
20 Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won’t be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers;
21 and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.”
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Brian opened Isaiah 62 as the beginning of a multi-week series, but before getting there he set the table with context from across the book of Isaiah. The thread running through the whole service was the idea that God is faithful to his people even when he disciplines them, and that worship, prayer, and Scripture are not passive habits but active weapons.
What was said
The service began with a time of open worship and congregational sharing. A man named Clay gave an update on his prostate cancer diagnosis, describing how people around him, colleagues, clients, and friends, had stepped up with plane tickets, prayer, and practical support. He quoted Romans 10:17 and spoke about immersing himself in Scripture on healing. The room prayed together for his recovery. That moment set the tone: this is a body that does life together, not an audience watching a presentation.
During worship, Brian said he heard the Lord speak the phrase "weaponized worship." He used the image of a modern munition that can fall from the sky and simply make a hole in the ground, or, if armed at the right moment, unleash its full explosive power. He said the same is true of worship, that it can be sincere and moving and still not yet armed, and that if asked, God will weaponize it so that praise offered in Jackson Hole can have a real effect far beyond the room.
That led to an extended time of silent intercession for the 203 hostages taken into Gaza by Hamas. Brian read from Psalm 91, Corey played guitar under the silence, and the room prayed. Brian was direct: this may not be a conversation happening on your team or around your dinner table, but it is the conversation happening around the table of heaven right now, and there is a seat there for anyone willing to pull up a chair.
Brian then introduced Isaiah as background for the series. He described a prophet called to speak to a nation that had not abandoned the outward forms of religion but whose heart had drifted far from God. He read Isaiah 1:11-14, where God says the offerings and festivals disgust him, and Isaiah 29:13, where God says the people honor him with their lips but their hearts are far from him. Brian used the image of flipping a light switch out of muscle memory even after the bulb has burned out: the motion is there, the habit is there, but there is nothing behind it.
He read Isaiah 6 together with the congregation, Isaiah's vision of the Lord on the throne, the seraphim calling holy, the shaking of the temple, Isaiah's collapse into awareness of his own unclean lips, and then the coal from the altar that atones and commissions him. Brian noted that in heaven, weaponized worship shook the building. He also pointed out the order of the transaction: God asks "whom shall I send" before explaining where or for how long. He described God as always putting the signature page on top of the contract, already signed, asking only for a yes before the details are revealed.
Brian then walked through Isaiah's message to Israel, that God would refine the nation in a furnace of suffering not because he had abandoned them but because he loved them too much to let them continue heading in a destructive direction. He compared it to a parent who, after every other attempt, brings the wall a child is racing toward as close and as quickly as possible. He traced the historical arc: the Assyrian siege, Israel's partial turning, the reprieve, and then a hundred years later the Babylonian captivity that Isaiah had predicted and did not live to see. Woven through all of that hardship, Brian said, is chesed, God's consistent, faithful, loving kindness toward Israel, and you cannot appropriate the comfort of Isaiah without also sitting with the hard parts.
He closed with a passage he initially attributed incorrectly to Isaiah 62 verse 11 before the congregation helped locate it in Isaiah 30, starting around verse 18. The passage describes a God who waits for his people to come to him so he can show compassion, who answers the sound of their cries, and who speaks a word behind them saying "this is the way, walk in it." Brian asked the room to consider what each person has been trying to figure out in their own strength, and invited them to turn toward the God who has been waiting.
Touch points
Things you could actually do this week.
Open Psalms 91 this week and pray it aloud over someone you know who is in danger or suffering.
Write down the names of the 203 hostages held in Gaza on something you will see daily, and take one minute to pray for them.
If you have snow boots, snow pants, coats, gloves, or mittens in any size that you can spare, drop them off at the TMC this week for the Riverton trip.
Pick a moment this week to sit quietly and ask the Lord what he is saying to you, rather than scrolling a news or social media feed, treating it as choosing to stand in the counsel of the Lord rather than the counsel of the world.
Read through Isaiah 62 on your own before next Sunday so you are ready to join the conversation when Brian picks up the themes from the chapter.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Brian described Israel going through the motions of worship while their hearts were far from God, and God calling that out plainly. Where do you see that same drift toward habit over heart in your own life?
Brian talked about the Lord putting the signature page on top of the contract, asking Isaiah to say yes before knowing the details. What has God asked you to commit to before you could see where it was going, and how did that go?
El pastor Brian Hunter abrió este servicio reconociendo que la iglesia está comenzando una serie de varias semanas en Isaías 62. Antes de entrar al texto, la congregación tomó casi cuatro minutos de intercesión en silencio por los 203 rehenes secuestrados por Hamas en Gaza. Brian compartió un sueño que tuvo en diciembre de 2022, en el que veía a un judío prisionero detrás de alambre de púas, cantando alabanzas a Dios, y cuyas palabras pasaban sin obstáculo a través del alambre hasta llegar a Dios. A partir de ese sueño, habló sobre la idea de que Dios puede "armar" la adoración de su pueblo para que tenga un efecto real y estratégico en el mundo, de la misma manera que una bomba puede activarse en pleno vuelo.
Para poner en contexto Isaías 62, Brian llevó a la congregación a varios pasajes del libro de Isaías. Explicó que el profeta fue llamado a hablar a una nación de Israel que seguía cumpliendo sus rituales religiosos por costumbre, pero con el corazón lejos de Dios. Usó la imagen cotidiana de encender un interruptor de luz cuando el foco ya está quemado como ejemplo de la "memoria muscular" espiritual, ese hábito religioso que se repite sin verdadero encuentro con Dios. También habló sobre el llamado de Isaías en el capítulo 6, señalando que Dios siempre pone la "página de la firma" al inicio del contrato, invitándonos a decir que sí antes de conocer todos los detalles.
Al final del servicio, un miembro de la congregación llamado Clay compartió públicamente que tiene cáncer de próstata y que ha visto la provisión de Dios de maneras concretas esta semana, desde boletos de avión hasta personas que oran con él en su trabajo. La iglesia oró por su sanidad. Brian cerró animando a todos a volver la semana siguiente, cuando Tribe celebra su séptimo aniversario.
Pasajes bíblicos usados:
Isaías 62 (capítulo completo)
Isaías 1:11-14
Isaías 29:13
Isaías 6:1-8
Isaías 1:25
Isaías 48:10
Isaías 30:19-21
Salmos 91
Read the full transcript9,365 words
Lingered? That's the better word. Yeah.
How high the mountains I could not climb. In
desperation,
I turned to heaven
and spoke your name into the night. Then through the darkness,
your loving kindness
chain.
And just so you know, on the the people go crazy for it.
Okay. I like them....
Build it and they'll... Like, all these tendency will be killed. He's used to me. So you either just give him a locar in it because... Especially on...
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Know what I mean? And then this one too, they're... They'll be like, let's go. Let's go. So if you sense that's Like a horse in the.
Like a horse in the skis. Yeah. So,
yeah. I I I think I think that's good. So, what is that? Just like hanging on the scene? I I apologize.
Yeah. For unpreparedness.
Oh, it's okay.
As far as this one goes but.
On the second. Jesus Christ. So,
if we, okay, if we, if we circle back around, it's just hanging on the scene. Yep. I like it. And then maybe I'll maybe a little after we're done with this like top to the top, just that just that C and F back and forth and then that'll take us into goodness of god if we have time if that's. Yep.
If that feels good. And I'm I'm I'm okay with it. You guys do this plenty?
We do it plenty. Okay. And sometimes I launch it Okay. Should we just touch on the chorus of goodness of god real quick? Sure.
Nate's getting his family an Uber. Good?
Yeah. I'm good. Yeah. I apologize for the...
No. Uh-oh.
Gotta manage your family. He wants us to do something full and loud so he can
Alright.
Then that's also, like, just hanging on the scene at the very end.
Yep. The
go to can be... You're just kinda really around the CNN.
The manhole. Follow you. Beautiful. Admitting my... A buddy of mine, he he...
We would he would practice till, like, five till he would be coming coming through. I'm like, dad's dad's. We don't have it now. We don't have it.
You know, cramping. It is what it is, guys.
And then... But maybe I'll start catering to my personality too. I'd like to have about ten to fifteen minutes of just, you know, thinking. Sure. You know?
So thank you.
It's like a charm. You got it? Yeah. Wanna play a little music right now? Yeah.
Give us a little break. Thank you, all. Nate, you can...
Actually, listen. I will take it.
Good morning. Good morning. I'll rally him in. Ryan. Never mind.
Never mind what's happening there. Come on in. Let's pray before we get started here today. Lord Jesus, we give you today. We just tell you, come and have it.
The praises of your people today. We tell you we love you. We remind ourselves that we're here to meet with you. What a bummer it would be to get up and shower and look all nice and come and check a weird box that we think is pleasing, but it's not at all because we never even met with you, Jesus. So holy spirit, come.
Thank you for who you are. Just take a minute right where you are and just ask him to just help remove the distractions of your mind, what's happened even this morning, yesterday, because those worries, those concerns, they they are gonna be there when we're done here today. So, Lord, we just come before you. Search our hearts today. And as we just press in and we just declare who you are, Lord, let that just begin a...
Just a work in us. That as we worship you in light of who you are, that we would just repent of sin, that we would just... It would just be this beautiful, beautiful flow of just praising you freely. Come have your way in this place. In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, we have a special treat today. Our friend Nate and Jillian are here and their beautiful family. And we've known Nate, gosh, almost now for ye. Oh, 15 And we would do... Have all the young adults over at
our
house when Brian was at ORU as an adult bearded college student, we were in a different phase of life. And Nate would come over with all the college students, and we would lead worship together and sometimes into the wee hours. And I always tell this story, and I don't know if Nate likes this story, if he's heard this story, but he loves it. Okay. One time we were leading worship and people were just praying for one another and I remember Nate was sitting by the fireplace and he had...
I had handed it off and he was leading and singing and I was trying to just slip up the steps without anyone noticing and I heard someone say, and I thought Nate was talking to me and I looked but Nate had his eyes closed and he said, Jesus, I love you. And I just remembered, I was like, it was such a moment for me. Like, he was just in his own thing, just whispering in just the real genuine way of just who he is. No, like, I have to say this to the lord. I just remembered that.
And so we've used that for fifteen years. When we go into prayer, sometimes we'll go, Jesus, I love you. It was such a beautiful moment. So we're gonna worship together. This is Nate.
Welcome him.
We
cherish your presence.
Your holy
Just thank him this Maybe as we're worshiping, the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, maybe personally, and he's doing a work in you, and that's wonderful. And maybe the Holy Spirit is coming and speaking to you, and there's a word from the Lord that maybe the... You would wanna share today, a picture, a word that's from the Lord today. That maybe the... You know, we're...
We have microphones up here, but that we all can hear the voice of the Lord. And he longs to come and speak to us as a family, as a body. Cat has a microphone. If you have something to share it so our livestream family can hear. And just take a minute and just ask the Lord, Lord, is that for is that for this body for this time in this moment, or is this just for me?
And just take a minute and just ask.
I just want to give everybody an update from last week's service. God's prayed over, hands laid on me, and I hope I maintain my composure just because there's so many things that have gone on that god has done this week right up to this day. So, I've I've got prostate cancer. I've had the prostate removed. The prostate cancer has come back.
Supposed to get treatment. I go on Halloween to Salt Lake to get some testing. But I'm believing that god has healed me, that they're not going to find anything about PET scan but just so you know, gosh, how god works in such a mighty way. People have stepped up to the plate, all in plane tickets If I do have to go to to Salt Lake on a regular basis for seven weeks, my investors in the company I work for pray for me. How many people say they work for somebody who prays with you?
I mean, somebody at the top Nancy's work has provided plane tickets. I just can't tell you how overwhelmed that is. The people are stepping up. I had a client today call me this coming in Monday wanting to know how everything was going, how did things start? He said, if you need anything at all, call me.
He said, I'm on the board of the hospital that's fixing and starting doing cancer research. You let me know if you need a second opinion. If you need anything at all, I'm just take it back and this past week at lunch, somebody took me out to lunch and kind of brought up to me and said, how's your faith doing? I was like, faith is good and he quoted scripture to me like Romans ten seventeen, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of god. How's your faith?
Submerging yourself in god's word on a daily basis. You know, when god was but Jesus was tempted in the in the desert, Satan, he quoted scripture. So, I've been looking up scripture on healing. Quoting that scripture on Praise god. Yes.
I'm not gonna be let down. I am so good right now. Thank you,
Lord. But we just can thank you for your goodness, that you long for us to do life as a family. Thank you, Lord, for the provision over Clay and Nancy's life. And we just state right now, we are believing for nothing short of miraculous healing because of who you are in Jesus' name. Amen.
Yeah. I was just... The scripture came to mind as we're singing about the anointing and the fresh wind. In Proverbs, it says that there's abundant food or there's a lot of food in the fallow ground of the poor. What it's saying is there's actually resource where where where the ground hasn't been cultivated yet.
And I just want to encourage us that if we've been born again, we put our faith in Christ. His spirit has become one with our spirit. And there is much treasure in the undeveloped ground of our souls. Everything we need, the abundance of Christ, the anointing, the power of God, the passion, the love, to quicken our... The strength to quicken our mortal bodies.
His spirit is indwelling in our innermost being. And I just feel the holy spirit calling us out of this life, out of relying on the resource of our own intellect, our own soul strength, our own sense of fun and adventure, and to begin to do the hard work of plowing through that hardened old dry dirt to get in fellowship with the anointing of Christ Christ on the inside of us. It's really a time to get serious about interfacing with Jesus because that... As that anointing begins to rise up, it transforms our soul. It transforms our mind, our will, and emotions.
And just the last thing I wanna encourage us as we are singing about that fresh wind. Sometimes that fresh wind is the interaction of the angelic realm in our lives. It's the reinforcements, the hosts of heaven that begin to come upon our life and breathe supernatural situations with fresh strength and vigor and energy and a spirit of revelation on our lives. But you know that heaven isn't attracted to your personality. Heaven isn't attracted to our ideas.
Heaven is attracted to the Alpha, Christ, the beauty of Jesus. And when that anointing begins to flow through the way we think, we feel, we speak, we move, heaven begins to just reinforce our lives in a way we haven't experienced before. So I just wanna pray that. In Jesus' name, Lord, I thank you. I thank you, Lord.
Scripture says to train our senses in godliness. Lord, scripture says to fight as to win. Scripture says to discipline ourselves as though we're gonna compete, as though we're really at war. And so, father, I pray for unction upon this whole body, Lord, that we would begin to learn how to dig up, to break up, to stir up the fallow ground of our souls. And we would begin to interface with what is most precious, Christ, the the one.
Lord, and as that fragrance fills our lives, we begin to see what it's like when heaven gets involved. When you begin to do things we could never do in our own strength, you begin to create scenarios, both great and terrible, Lord, that we that we push through under the unction, the anointing, and the the holy spirit. I pray this for us in Jesus' name. Amen.
Jeremiah twenty three eighteen. It's one of your favorite verses, Steve. It says, for who among them has stood in the counsel of the Lord to see and hear his word? Or who has paid attention to his word and listened? If they had stood in my counsel, they would have proclaimed my words to my people.
In that verse, implied in that verse is an invitation to come and stand in the counsel of the Lord. It costs us... I mean, it's easy to just scroll through different news feeds. It's easy to scroll through social media feeds and stand in the council of the world. It costs something to stand in the council of the Lord, but there is an invitation to come and stand in the council of the Lord.
It separates us. It distinguishes us. Who among us is willing to pay that price? Sure, Brian. I'll pray into that.
Lord, help us. Help us to count the cost and then help us, Lord. Move sovereignly in our hearts that we would say, I'll turn aside. I will pay the price. I will come into and stand under the counsel of the Lord.
Speak to our hearts. Speak to our hearts about our health. Speak to our hearts about our family. Speak to our hearts about this city. Speak to our hearts about how the nations are raging right now.
We ask for your divine counsel and we'll... And we tell you right now in our in our weakness, in our in our our our our our vacillation, our our trembling in our... In the best way we know how we say, we'll pay the price to stand in the council of the Lord. Help us, Jesus.
We praise you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your faithfulness to us. May you're constantly, constantly calling us up to more, calling us deeper. Let us never get complacent. And just like Steve said, now is the time.
Now is the time to draw close to you, to lay aside anything that would hinder us from growing deeper and deeper in intimacy with you. Search our hearts today as we dig into your word. Change us by your word. Change us by your spirit today. We long to leave here more in love with you, with our tell them you love him.
I love you, Jesus. Come have your way in this place. Send a spirit of revelation as we read your word today. Thank you for all that you're doing that we see and that we don't see. You are in control today.
You are on the throne today. We praise you in Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen. Get out your Bible, fill up your coffee, say hello to somebody this morning, introduce yourself, and let's get into God's word together. Amen.
The printer... My printer was possessed by a spirit of non cooperation. I don't know if any of you have ever experienced that, but... So I'm off of my computer. I wanted to...
I'm gonna pull up something here to share with you. Come on.
I
came across this recently. I want to read a dream that I had on 12/06/2022. So let me read this dream that I had and then talk about it for a moment and then invite all of us into a moment together. I know that this dream is specifically directly related to what I'm going to share after the dream, but perhapsibly. 12/06/2022.
I had a dream where I was sitting in like an old professor's study, stone walls with lead glass windows allowing light to stream in, and while sitting at a large table with many books scattered about, the old professor sets an old weathered, leather bound book in front of me. The pages of the book were white in color, but the text was vibrant blue, and the words on the page were less like script of a language and more like pictures communicating a thought. And the pictures swirled around and were in motion. Think like, you know, something like C. S.
Lewis or Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. Here's the picture that I saw. I was looking at the page and I saw a picture of a Jew imprisoned in many layers of barbed wire. Despite being enclosed in barbed wire, the man was singing praise to God. As I was looking at the moving picture on the page, I could see the words coming out of his mouth, easily passing through the barbed wire, unhindered by the enclosure and filling the page and received by God as a pleasing sacrifice.
203 is the number of hostages that are somewhere outside of the care and connection with family and friends that were taken by a jihadist terrorist group called Hamas brought into Gaza and only the Lord knows exactly where each and every one of them are. I don't know if this is a popular conversation in the locker room or on your teams or at school or at work or around the dinner table at your home. But this is the topic of conversation around the dinner table of heaven right now. And we must not allow it to slip from our conscience. And if it's not in your conscience, that's okay.
Stand in the counsel of the Lord. There's a seat for you at his breakfast table. Pull up a chair and listen to the conversation of heaven. You will hear this number two zero three. I thought what we would do is take one second of silence for each two zero three hostages, which comes out to two minutes and thirty eight seconds.
Alright? I'm going to set a timer. Excuse me. Three minutes and thirty eight seconds. Three thirty eight seconds.
I'm gonna set a timer, and we are going to pray and ask the lord and intercede for these. We will intercede. Siri, you can join in too. You will stand before a holy god someday. Man, the frequency of that fridge, if it's not bothering you, it's not bothering me.
Psalms 91. If you don't know as we as we pray, if you don't know what to pray for, you can you can open up Psalms 91 and and pray. As we are still in in silence, I'm gonna invite Corey to to minister to us on his guitar. But Psalms 91 says, those who live in the shelter of the most high will find rest in the shadow of the almighty. This I declare about the lord.
He alone is my refuge and my place of safety. He is my God and I trust in him for he will rescue them from every trap and protect them from every disease. He will cover them with his feathers and he will shelter them with his wings and his faithful promises or their armor and protection. God help them to not be afraid of the terrors at night nor the arrow that flies by day nor the dread, the disease that stalks in darkness nor the disaster that strikes at midday. Though a thousand will fall at your side, 10,000 are dying around you.
These evils will not touch you. Just open your eyes and see how the wicked are punished. If you make the Lord your refuge, you can keep reading. I'm gonna start my timer.
Jesus, we ask you. God, we ask you. Jesus, we ask you. Have mercy. Have mercy.
Jesus. Jesus, we ask you. Have mercy. Find them. Bring them on.
Thank you, Lord.
Feel like the Lord... So during that time of intercession, the Lord said, if you ask me, when you pray, if you ask me, I will weaponize worship. If you ask me, I will weaponize worship. Now I don't know much about munitions, but you can have a bomb and it can fall out of the sky and it can make a hole in the ground just from you know like simple physics. And it can essentially be inert and make a hole in the ground.
But with technology of modern munitions today, as that bomb is falling, it can become weaponized at a certain altitude or on command. It can unleash the full explosive power of the weapon. What if, as wonderful and as touching as our worship has been, what if our worship has not yet been armed? But if we ask the Lord, he will weaponize our worship so that when we get a revelation of and I'm using my words carefully a revelation and encounter. A revelation is something that's always been there but it's as if you're seeing it and comprehending it for the very first time.
Are you kidding me? A revelation. And an encounter, like it says at the end of the book of Job. Job says, Oh, here he is. He's been having a conversation with God.
But at the end of Job, the book of Job, he says, Oh, I thought I knew you. I knew all this stuff about you. And we were talking back and forth. But now that I've had an encounter with you, I sit in the dust and I cover myself with ashes. Holy cow!
Revelation and encounter. When those two things happen and then we worship the Lord, imagine our worship here in Jackson Hole, Wyoming having a tangible, literal, strategic effect in Gaza and around the world that reveals and declares the glory of God.
Let me just think about that.
If you have your bible with you this morning, let's turn to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 62. And as you are turning to Isaiah 62, give you a moment for that page to load. I want to give you just a quick background. I feel like, to the best of my hearing ability, that this is where the Lord would have us go to and camp out for several weeks in Isaiah 62.
And we're gonna be here for for a little while. Maybe three weeks, maybe more. I'm not exactly sure. But if anything, we've developed a context of trusting his leadership in all kinds of aspects of the church. And it was his leadership that put it on our leadership team's heart back in May or June to do the days of for Israel on just we just finished three weeks ago and we talked about it at a staff.
We did a full day staff retreat and that was one of the things that we talked about was when do we wanna do this and how we felt like. Well, I think the lord is saying start on this date, and we've we've gone through that, and now he is leading us to spend some time in Isaiah 62. And if I can be honest with you, I'm just as curious and excited as the rest of you are about what he may do. I hope that's not uninspiring coming from this guy right here, but I can't wait to see what he unfolds just as much as you are. And if you're new to TRIBE, as you saw during worship, that we really want this to be a a team effort.
I want this to be a conversation and a dialogue instead of just a monologue. And so if you have a question or comment or connection, and in fact, I got a text message with a connection, about about a song we can send it to you, but that's really cool, about the lion of the tribe of Judah going to war. So you can text me, but I'm so distracted that, like, I might not see it or I'll see it and I'll forget what I'm saying. But we have a mic here in the room. Kat has the mic.
The reason why we use the mic is not only so that we can hear your voice, and your voice is important here at Tribe even if you're brand new, but not only so that we can hear your voice, but so that all the families that are watching the livestream, they get to be a part of the conversation as well. So that's why we use the mic in the room. So if you have one of those questions, comments, connection, raise your hand, we'll get the mic to you. Isaiah chapter 62. And here's what we're going to do.
We're going to read all of Isaiah chapter 62 together. We'll take turns. You take a couple of verses, hand it off the mic, and then somebody else can read some more. We're going to read all the way through Isaiah 62 this morning. And then what I thought I would do is just give us a little bit of the 5,000 foot view of Isaiah and Isaiah 62 to set the table for subsequent conversations that we're gonna have over the next couple of weeks.
And I I wanna quick check-in with Renee. You're giving me a look as if you might have something to, like, contribute, like, right off the bat. Do you have something? Of course, she does.
Well, this is... Isaiah 62 is one of my favorites. And although I have no tattoos, if I were to get a tattoo, it would be the Hebrew word, Hephzva.
Oh, hepzva and beulah. We'll read about those two words coming up.
And this is one of those... You know, you asked about our our Israel study when we did twenty one days for Israel. And this is one of those scriptures that was like, oh, this is is to me. This is about... You know, it was like all self centered.
But ultimately, you know, the the script got flipped during that study. And it's it's to me only because I'm grafted in.
Yeah.
And so that's just the cool, like, connection, and thank you for the twenty one days. Appreciate it.
Thank you, senior pastor Jesus. Lanesha or miss Lily who is behind you, Lanesha. Miss Lily, could I ask that you start reading for us in Isaiah 62? You don't have to read a bunch but here at Tribe we like to take turns and whenever it's time to read from God's word we pass the mic around and even if it's only one or two or four verses Or not. Mom and dad can decide.
But I would just love to hear your voice and join us in the conversation this morning. And your contribution is great and wonderful and lovely.
I got this.
Okay. Thanks, mom, for bailing me out.
Alright. How far do you want me to read?
Well, we got the whole chapter, so just a few verses and then we'll pass it
off.
Alright. For Zion's sake, I will not hold my... Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns. The Gentiles shall see your righteousness and all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will name.
You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no longer be termed forsaken nor shall your land be anymore be termed desolate. But you shall be called Hephesawah, and your land Beulah, for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.
For us, the young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you. And as the groom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you. Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen on your walls. They will never be silent day or night. There is no rest for you who remind the lord.
Do not give establish it and makes Jerusalem the praise of the earth. The Lord has sworn with his right hand and his strong-arm. I will no longer give your grain to your enemies for food and foragers will not drink the new wine for which you have labored.
But those who garner it shall eat it and praise the Lord. And those who gather it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary. Go through. Go through the gates. Prepare the way for the people.
Build up build up the highway. Clear it of stones. Lift up a signal over the peoples.
Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth, say to the daughter of Zion, lo, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him, and they will call them the holy people, the redeemed of the lord, and you will be called sought out, a city not forsaken.
May the lord bless the reading of his word this morning. As far as we'll go today in our conversation is just to provide a 5,000 foot view. We can discuss this, can talk about the big picture, and then next week we're going to be looking at various themes and things that he wants to highlight. So if you're looking for next week versus one through five and the following week versus five through 10, that's probably not what we're going to do, but we're going to look at themes and scratch around, and we'll we'll jump here, and we'll jump there, but we'll we'll... We're gonna get all of six...
Isaiah 62 covered. With that in mind, we need to understand that there is this man, Isaiah, who somewhere around twenty five hundred years ago wrote these words. He was a prophet called by God, a spokesman, if you will, for the Lord, who was to speak to the nation of Israel. Israel found itself in a place and in a condition of rebellion towards God and his ways. Now, that rebellion might not look how you first think of it in your mind.
They weren't walking through the streets saying, Down with God, down with God, we don't like God, we don't want God to be our God. That's not what was happening. The rebellion was much more insidious and pernicious in the hearts of the people, primarily through a lackadaisical attitude towards the things of God. Many in Israel were still going through the motions of all that God had prescribed for them to do. But look at what God thought about their words and their motions and their actions.
We're look going around at a couple of different places in the book of Isaiah. So now hang a left and let's go to Isaiah chapter one, and then in verse 11 through 14. In may your meaningless gifts, The incense of your offerings disgusts me. As for your celebrations of new moon and the Sabbath and your special days of fasting, they are all sinful and false, and I want no more of your pious meetings. I hate your new moon celebrations and your annual festivals.
They are a burden to me, and I cannot stand them. This is pretty serious. What had happened in the hearts of the people of Israel That they had drifted so far in their hearts that even though as if muscle memory they were going through the actions of getting up and brushing their teeth and putting on their Sunday clothes and coming to church, but God was like bleh. And again he says in Isaiah chapter 29 verse 13, 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. Muscle memory. How many of you this is my favorite example of muscle memory how many of you have ever turned on a light switch in a room, the light comes on, and then the light bulb burns out? And you're like, Ugh, I've to change that light bulb. And you're like, I'll do that in a second.
You walk out of the room, muscle memory, what do you do to the switch? Turn off. Why do you need to turn off a light switch when there's no light in the room anyways? And then you go to the other room, what's the next thing you do? No, you forget to go get the light bulb, right?
And then you go do other stuff. Then you come back into that room, what do you do? And then the thought you have is, The light bulb is burnt out! But just that muscle memory, you're just so trained. I grew up in Texas.
Tell me if your grandmother ever says this, but my grandmother, when she talks to me, she calls me cowboy. Cowboy, go over there and cut that light on. Cut that light off? Anybody's other grandma ever says that? Yeah, okay.
Alright. So how many of you have had that happen before but just out of muscle memory, the light bulb's burned out. You know it, but you still just flip the switch. You cut the light on. How many of you have that ever happened to you?
All of us. All of us. The worship of me is nothing but man made rules learned by rote and repetition. Here is what the Lord is saying: The worship of me is good, right, awesome, and true. It is the heart in which you approach your relationship with me that is central and most important.
And when you approach a relationship with me out of habit but your heart is distant, that's where the rub begins to happen. God sees this, accurately diagnoses the problem, and then he calls this man, Isaiah, to be the voice of the physician to make pronouncement of the problem. And we see Isaiah's call in Isaiah chapter six. And why don't we turn to Isaiah chapter six and would somebody please read verses one through eight. Again, we're kinda just getting the big picture today.
That's as far as we're gonna go. While we're turning to Isaiah chapter six verse one through eight, let me check-in with you. Any thoughts or questions that you have? We're not necessarily looking at observations from Isaiah 62 specifically just yet. Hold on to those.
Start writing those things down. But how about thoughts or questions just as of yet? Okay, Matt.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and exalted, seated on a throne and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were Seraphim, each with six wings. With two wings, they covered their faces. With two, they covered their feet. And with two, they were flying.
And they were calling to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The earth... The whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook, and and the temple was filled with smoke. Woe to me, I cried.
I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. In my eyes have seen the king, the lord almighty. Then one of the Seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it, he touched my mouth and said, see, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And I said, here I am. I... Here am I. Send me.
Isaiah's call. How about the worship in... A quick observation that I see. Worship in heaven when it's accompanied with anointing and power, that worship is weaponized. When the mighty angel said, Holy, now in Hebrew they repeat words to increase the emphasis.
So they might have only said it one time, Holy. But it had such tremendous impact. Literally, the temple of heaven shook. Then Isaiah, who is there in this moment, is suddenly aware of his unclean lips, his unclean lifestyle, and living among a people of unclean lifestyle. And he's like, that's it.
I'm done for. It's game over. And then the angel takes a coal. So maybe what could be an option, you could either get a tattoo next week or maybe be touched with a burning coal. We wanna have options.
Set up stations. See what else the lord might... Like a carnival. Next week is tribe's birthday. So, like, for your birthday, you could get a tattoo or your lips burn with the coolest...
We'll work on... We'll work... We'll workshop that. And then the Lord says, who will go? Notice notice that this is how the kingdom of God works.
And we've talked about this several times, and it's in a book that I read once. But when we go through a real estate deal, or like the Apple iTunes contract, or like any other litigious document, the signature page is always where? On the very bottom. But did you know that's not how God rolls? Where does God put the signature page?
On the top of the stack of all the documents. If he is presenting the contract, the signature page is always on top. He will never slide a contract across to you that he hasn't personally written and revised and perfect for him, and he hasn't pre signed. I mean this is really good preaching for a second for somebody, but the signature page is always on top. What is our tendency?
Read it.
Yeah. Yeah. We want a peek, but he goes, Sign it first, and then you'll get to see what's in the contract. We see an example of this right here. God says, Who will go?
Isaiah is not like, Okay, now where? And what am I gonna be doing? And how long am I gonna be doing this? The signature page is on top. The contract is slid across to Isaiah.
And Isaiah says, Alright. And he puts his yes on the table. My thought is, little did he know what the Lord would have in store for him. It's human nature to want to read through the details of whatever it is that he's inviting us to. But if it's from the Lord and he's already signed it, that means that he has guaranteed it.
He's just looking for us to participate with him, and he's going to work out all of those other details. All the details, all of the twists and turns, the triumphs, disappointments, all of that is all written in the contract. He's thought through of all of that. There are no surprises to him. He's just looking for us to put our yes on the table.
Right? So Isaiah says yes. And then look what God uses through the words of the name of Israel for this purpose. Look at Isaiah chapter one verse 25. Isaiah chapter one verse 25.
And when we were doing a series maybe a year or so ago on called tribulation and triumph, we we we touched on this verse. You can go back and listen to that series. You gotta dig around. It's like back it's back there a ways. Isaiah chapter one verse 25.
I will raise my fist against you. And here's what he says. With love and kindness and full commitment, I will melt you down and skim off your slag, and I will remove all of your impurities Heart face kissy face emoji from the Lord. I will raise my fist against you. He loves Israel too much to allow her to continue in her ways.
He has already signed the contract, and he is faithful. And he will use any measure that he deems necessary to accomplish his purpose in his sovereignty. I heard a great guy say one time, I'm going mess it up but I'll try, that the Lord will use the least severe means to bring the greatest number of people into the deepest level of intimacy with him possible. He will always use the least severe means. But look what he says in Isaiah 25.
I will raise my fist against you. You know, parents that love their children, can see that they are picking up speed heading in a direction that is unhealthy for them, after they have taught them, and loved them, and cared for them, and tried to teach into that, sometimes the most loving thing a parent can do is bring that brick wall that they are heading towards as close as possible, as fast as possible, so that they don't pick up any more speed when they smack into it. Does that make sense? Any parents do that for you earlier? No.
Or the law did that.
The law did that if you pick up too much speed and you've blown past the wall that your parents set up, well, the law is going to be right there to set up a brick wall for you to run right into. It's the parent's job to put up that velvet felt covered brick wall. And moms always want to add like a few extra blankets because that's how wonderful moms are. Dad's like, Hurry, man. Step on that gas, boy, see what happens.
And I would always quote, because the Holy Spirit quotes it to me all the time, I would always quote to this famous line from Ice Cube, don't do the crime if you can't do the time. And so here's what God is saying through the mouth of Isaiah. I will raise my fist against you and I will melt you down and skim off your slag and I will remove all of your impurities. How does he do that? Through Isaiah chapter 48 verse 10.
That's the next one that you can write down. I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you as in the furnace of suffering. Again, we must remember the sovereignty of god. I have refined you but not as silver is refined.
Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering. And Isaiah spoke that to the nation of Israel, the the king of Assyria and the whole Assyrian army came, surrounded Israel, surrounded the king, and then the king's spokesman spoke in Hebrew, not his native language, so that all of the men on the wall could hear, and the spokesman of the king of Assyria was like, hey, this is going to go one of two ways for you guys. You can do this the easy way or the hard way, but the king of Syria will have the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel. The easy way is just give up and lay down your weapons. The hard way is we will lay siege to this city and you don't even want to know what will be on the menu for you to eat after we lay siege to this city.
This is what the king's spokesman is saying. The fires of refinement were starting to burn hot. The king of Israel turns to the Lord. There is a partial turning of attitudes and hearts of the king and the nation of Israel. And the king of Assyria gets called off on some other mission, and country is spared partially, but only for a short amount of time.
Because about a hundred years later, the fires get stoked again and the nation of Israel is carted off into captivity for seventy years in Babylon. Although it takes a hundred years after Isaiah's dead for his words of prophecy to come true. Interwoven throughout Isaiah's message of the fires are only going to get hotter if you don't turn and the attitude of your heart shifts, interwoven beautifully throughout the book of Isaiah is this beautiful message of chesed, God's consistent, faithful, devotional, loving kindness towards Israel. And it's fun to read through the book of Israel and just pick out the... Thank you.
What did I say? The book of Isaiah and pick out the the squishy fluffy parts. That's fun. But you can't read and appropriate for yourself the squishy fluffy parts without also embracing and coming into contact with the challenging message for Israel and for our hearts today. But here's what's so good about God through the prophet Isaiah that we see in the book of Isaiah.
He's consistent, and his promises are true, and he never forgets. And interestingly enough, in Isaiah chapter 62, which we're gonna get more and more into, he invites us to partner with him by not letting him forget. I've appointed watchmen on your walls that cry out day and night that they won't be silent until God fulfills all that he's promised. And we see throughout Isaiah and throughout Isaiah 62 is a message of a coming Messiah bringing salvation to Israel and to the entire world. This is the last verse I'll read, and then I'd I'd love to hear from you, and then we're gonna...
Isaiah 62 verse 11. Here's what he says to the nation of Israel and here's what he says to you today. So the Lord waits for you to come to him so that he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help.
O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will be gracious if you ask for help, and he will surely respond to the sound of your cries. Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you, and you will see your teacher with your own eyes, and your ears will hear him. Right behind you, a voice will say, this is the way you should go, whether to the right or to the left.
What is that verse?
Isaiah... I said Isaiah sixty two eleven. Yeah. But that's not where it is, is
No. Not.
It's somewhere else in Isaiah.
We're
gonna we're gonna do a little exercise where we find it. Who's got it? So the Lord so the lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you. 30... Oh, man.
Oh, way off. Okay. Say that out loud, I'll I'll repeat it. What... What's the address?
It starts in verse 21 of Isaiah chapter 30. Man. I just wrote it down wrong. So where it says, so the lord must wait for you to come to him. Where does that start?
Renee. So go backwards.
You're sure sure he will rise up to show you compassion if for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him. 19. People of Zion who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help.
As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more. And your eyes, with your own eyes, you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it.
What is it that you've been trying to figure out in your own strength that today you would turn to the Lord? Who has been waiting for you to come to him.
Can we declare this? Put our faith in Jesus and nothing else. To me.
God, we ask that you would raise up the voice of Isaiah for our heart. Through the person of the Holy Spirit, speak to us. Confront us. Refine us. Comfort us.
God, I ask that you would raise up the voice of Isaiah again in this day to turn the hearts of the nation of United States and Israel and the world to you. Raise up those men and women who would dare to enter into your courts, who would invite the kiss of the tongues from the seraphim of the coal that would purify their message to speak boldly your truth among the nations. Raise up the voice of Isaiah in this generation. And Lord, we put our yes on the table to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our own life. Just speak to us, Lord.
We worship the Lord today with his word, honoring him through reading of his word. We've worshiped him through worship, through song, and we're gonna worship him just corporately together. There's endless ways to worship the Lord. But while we're here together as a tribe family, we're gonna bring our tithe and our offering to the Lord. Your offering is above and beyond the tithe.
If you're feeling like the Lord's asking you to do that, that's what offering is above and beyond your normal tithe. And this is this is something bringing your tithe that the church over the years has kind of put a bad taste in some people's mouth, like, oh, you just gotta give money. Well, no. Please change your attitude. It's an act of worship to the Lord because money is kind of how the world works and it's a big deal to give some of it up.
Right? And it's not just like this charity mindset, oh, yeah. I'll just throw some money in the bucket. Like, it's an act of worship. So I would encourage you, whether you give on Sundays or you have a different rhythm, always just pray before you give and say, Lord, what would you have me give today?
And that's between you and the Lord, and that's an act of worship, and it's an... He honors your obedience in that. He's so faithful in that. So as we bring our tithe and offering today, we don't pass buckets. If you have cash or check, there's a little box as you head out the doors on your right.
You can just put put it in there. You can give online always at tribejh.com, and then the easiest way is through your smartphone. And you just start a new number, 284321. You type in the amount you wanna give, and it takes you from there. So you can see the instructions on the screen of how to do that.
And let's just take a prayerful moment. Let's let's pray together over this whether you're giving now or another time. Heavenly father, we love you and we we praise you. We worship you. Thank you that there are so many ways to worship you.
You're worthy of it all. We love you so much. Thank you that you honor obedience and that you ask something of us and we do it because we love you and because we trust you and we say it is all yours anyway. You allow us the honor to steward money, to steward relationships, to steward things. Help us to be good stewards.
I pray in Jesus' name. And I pray that the money that comes in today, father, will go to your kingdom work to love on people, to let them know there is a God in heaven who cares. Just our natural... Being your hands and your feet, our natural works, father, I pray will bring you glory and bring more people into this family, the family of God. And we love and thank you for it even before we see the fruit of it.
Trust you in Jesus' name. Amen. Just a few quick announcements. We'll get you out of here today. These little invitations are on your seat.
Please take those with you. There's a few more by the door if you wanna grab them. But next week, as you heard Brian say, is tribe's birthday, our seventh birthday. Can we first just give ourselves a hand?
The year of jubilee. The year of jubilee. All of your debts are forgiven. I guess. Tattoos.
And we might... We may or may not have a tattoo station,
a lit burning coal state... No. That's that's weird. Okay. But take these invitations.
What a great time. You please invite your friends anytime, but celebrating a birthday, you know, if you know us, you know we love to celebrate anything, and so a birthday is huge. Come, invite your friends. These are great little tools to do that with.
Maybe we can whip together for everyone who's new, sort of a one photo of all the different stages of tribe. Perhaps. Have been many stages.
I... I'll keep a hold of myself. Was gonna say. The other thing is this, you know we're going to Riverton this weekend. Riverton in...
Are you coming, Lanisha? It's She so excited. And we're gonna celebrate with them. They're opening up a brand new rec center that they've been working so hard and we've given our time here at Tribe our time, our talent, and our treasure towards that project. So it's near and dear to our heart.
It's gonna bring a lot of people in that area to the Lord and so we're gonna go celebrate with them. If something that they just told us that they are in very much need of is big five. So it can be men, women, from newborn to elderly, Does
anybody everybody know what the big five is? Yeah. If you've
been a student in Teton County, you're well aware of the big five. So if you have snow boots or snow pants or coats or gloves or mittens, gently used is just fine. Brand new, if you feel led to buy it, great. Used is just fine. Obviously, we don't wanna give them trash, so keep that to yourself.
And bring that in... Yeah. Any size. Any size is welcome. And if you have that, just any time this week, you can come drop it off at the TMC.
The door's open. You can just throw it in, and you'll see a lot of stuff that we're that's there to be
able peek in there, too. There's so much stuff that we are getting There's, to bless them with this like, hardly no seats left on the bus for people to ride because we have so much stuff we're bringing down there, which is wonderful. But if you do want a seat on the bus, we're leaving at 7AM on Saturday, back by 6PM.
Thanks again, Nate and Jillian with your family. Love being with y'all. We love y'all so much. Why don't you stand up? I'll pray for you.
And then we can skedaddle. Lord Jesus, we trust your leadership. We're looking forward to the themes that you're gonna highlight in the book of Isaiah in chapter 62. You know, we just ask that the voice of Isaiah through the person of the holy spirit would just speak to us and challenge us and lead us in our week. God, I command a blessing over each and every person here in this room today.
Give us a great week. Fill our freezers full of meat. We love you so much. We pray these things in Jesus' name, the strong son of God. And everybody said Amen.
I love you. I want you to have a great week. And remember, Brie, you got this.
And if you're just burning to serve, there's plenty to do to We'd hate to burn you if you Yeah. Don't
