Sermon: What are you looking for?

Gospel Reading- Isaiah 49: 1-7

I would like to open up with a moment in silence, and in this moment I would like us all to reflect on the only question Jesus asks in todays Gospel reading; What are you looking for?

Author of time and space

We come before you in this time of praise

We ask you for your divine intervention

In each of our lives

I pray that you would make yourself known

In a way that only you are capable of doing

I pray that you would call us to live lives

That are glorifying to your holy name

And I pray that we would trust in your purpose

Enough to live those lives

Amen 

Our reading today from Isaiah opens up with, the Lord called us all while we were in our mothers’ wombs.  I wasn’t available at that time to take the call, but I told God that as soon as I was born I would give him a call right back.  Now when I say born I don’t only mean a physical birth.  I also mean an emotional and spiritual birth.  This second birth usually takes place many years later.  But still, God calls us, before we are even ready to accept that calling.  But even sill, God calls, God knows, in fact God is, the inevitable. 

The themes that I want to introduce today are; purpose, trust and control.  The first bit on purpose.  Our purpose, in life, for life, comes from God, our purpose is God.  I mean why do you think he was calling us in the womb in the first place?  Not to use up some airtime.  He was calling to place in our hearts, as they were growing and developing and being formed and taking shape the purpose that will drive us through our lives.

 God called John.  God gave John a purpose.  And John says himself, he didn’t know, he had no idea.  He knew that God called him to baptize people with water in the name of a man who had yet to make himself known.  Now if God had called me to dunk people under water in the name of a foretold messiah, I might have had to do a double take.  You want me to do what God?

 That’s not what John did.  John said, after me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.  I myself did not know him, but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed.  Talk about trust ey?  Talk about being driven by a purpose, a purpose given from God.

John had no idea but he put his trust in God.  John should be an example to us all, we aren’t doing our own stuff independent from God.  Everything we do is to the glory of God.  Looking back at our reading from Isaiah, it says; you are my servant in whom I will be glorified.  But I said I have labored in vain.  I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause- and I think we can change the word cause to purpose and it would read- yet surely my purpose is with the Lord and my reward is with God. This part of our passage screams trust, the kind of trust that John shows by baptizing people in water because it is what God called him to do. 

Something that im realizing in my own life and working through is that when you are at your core trusting God and the purpose God has set for me, for us all, ultimately we are giving up control.  The two do seem mutually exclusive, you cant trust in the unknown and then at the same time try to control everything around you, try to control your purpose.  

Back to Isaiah again, it says that I have labored in vain.  I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity.  That’s control right there.  That is what our controlling minds will lead us to believe, that even though I try my hardest, I expect to produce the best but I still only can produce nothing and vanity, the fact that we think we are in control over our own labor and efforts and results enough to change our outcome is at the core not trust.  The trust comes in when the passage continues with, yet surely my cause is with the Lord and my reward is with God. 

This is accepting the first statement as is, but then moving beyond to a place of acceptance.  Saying that my cause, my purpose is the Lord and my reward is with God.  And that’s enough and is the ultimate expression of trust in God.

Trust is contagious.  Our gospel reading ends with John standing with two of his disciples and they watched as Jesus walked by.  John says look, here is the Lamb of God.  The two disciples heard John say that, and they started to follow Jesus.  Now, if we can pause here from the story for a second.  Because of John’s trust, in God, in Jesus, in Gods purpose for his life he was able to pass that same trust along to his disciples who immediately began to follow Jesus.  To wherever he was going.  

We opened up today with a moment of silence, we sat upon the only question that Jesus asked in our Gospel reading for today.  What are you looking for?  Jesus turns to these men who out of nowhere begin to follow Him and He asks what are you looking for?  Jesus didn’t ask who are you guys? What do you want? OR the most obvious of questions, why are you following me?  Jesus turns asks them and asks what are you looking for? 

Now what speaks to me just as loudly as the men’s reply is their actions.  They absolutely trust that this man, Jesus, is the Lamb of God.  So they give up control, trust in the unknown and begin to follow.  What is seems to me that the men are looking for and the reason they follow Jesus is because they are looking for purpose.  Jesus asks what are you looking for and their actions scream we are looking for purpose. What they actually said was, where are you staying?  To which Jesus replies come and see.

If I can ask Jesus’ profound question one last time; what are you looking for? I pray that all of our answers if asked that same question would be, we are looking for you.  We are looking for God. I pray that when Jesus asks what we are looking for we would say, my phone, because God’s been trying to call me since before I was born to tell me the purpose he has for me and I need to answer that call.  Amen.