Making a Difference Begins With Saying Yes Lord! | Isaiah 26:8
I Made a Difference
Have you ever known anyone who got to the end of their life and at the end of it all they looked back over the story that was their life and said, “I sure hope I DIDN’T make a difference”?
I would guess, for most people, the exact opposite would be true. Isn’t it your hope, when all is said and done, that you can look back over the story that was your life and know that at least in some small way you made a difference? You left a mark? You helped someone? You pointed people to Jesus?
One day, and that day is coming for all of us, we’re going to have that moment where we look back, and the thought that will warm our hearts, the notion that will give us a sense of satisfaction, won’t be how many shows we binged on Netflix, or how many trophies are on the wall, or even how much fortune we accumulated. When we look back all of us will wonder, “Did we make a difference?”
If you want to be able to say, “YES! I know I made a difference,” if that is what you desire, then here is what I want to suggest:
Your desire to make a difference is connected to what you desire.
Think about money, a house key, a car, a trophy, a work badge, a picture of your kids, or a social media account.
For many of us, these are things that we desire. You could add more things. And some of these things may matter more to you than others, and maybe some, not at all. That’s okay. Here’s what I want to ask you to inventory,
how much of your desire is designated for these things?
What Do You Desire?
When my youngest daughter Emma was about 5 years old, she and her older sister, Gracie, took dance lessons together. This is the same Emma who leads worship from time to time..
Every year, the dance company that Emma and Gracie were a part of would put on a show. There is this beautiful theater called the Majestic. And it is awesome. All the girls, all the different age groups and different dance teams, they would all perform. Then, at the very end, Mrs. Melva, who was in charge of the whole thing, would come out and give trophies. There were a few special trophies for girls who had been in the program a long time, but for the most part, the trophies were for girls who had hit certain benchmarks. All the girls who had been in the program for 2 years, or 5 years, for example, got a trophy.
Well, Gracie got a trophy because she had been in dance for two years at this point. But Emma did not. She hadn’t been dancing as long. And Emma was not happy about this.
What Emma desired in that moment was a trophy!
What do you desire?
Some of us desire trophies, recognition, awards, and accolades. By the way, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, none of these things are bad in and of themselves.
Some of us desire money, cars, houses, fame, fortune. Again, in and of themselves, not necessarily a bad thing.
Some of us desire power, control, we want things our way.
But when any of these things become the center of our attention and devotion, when any of these things which, by the way, every one of these things and so many more, they are all a gift from God, whenever the gifts of God become what we desire more than the Giver of the gifts, that’s when trouble comes.
While many of these things are not necessarily bad things, any of these things can become an idol.
Someone once said that the activity of the human soul is to find something of value and to worship it. – LG
One definition of worship is whatever you desire most, whatever your life revolves around — that is what you worship.
Here’s what I want you to see:
Your desire to make a difference is connected to what you desire.
Isaiah’s Encounter With the Living God
God’s desire for Israel was for them to be a light to the nations. God’s desire for God’s people to be a light was connected to His deepest desire:
His glory and our salvation.
But their desire for God kept fading and their desire for other things kept rising.
They failed to make the kind of difference God desired for them, to be a light to the nations, to bring Him glory, because their desire for Him kept wavering.
So God sent them a prophet. His name was Isaiah. His name literally means “Yahweh Saves.” And that was his mission. To proclaim the salvation of God. That mission was born out of a vision that the prophet Isaiah had of the living God.
You can find this moment in Isaiah 6. Isaiah sees the LORD of Heaven’s armies high and lifted up! In that instant, Isaiah was convicted by his own sin, his own unworthiness to be in the presence of the Holy God, the Great I AM. The LORD sends an angel to purify him and forgive him of his sin. And then, Isaiah hears the LORD ask a question:
“Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”
—Isaiah 6:8, NLT
When Isaiah hears the question, he responds:
Here I am, send me.
– Isaiah 6:8, NLT
Isaiah has a holy encounter with our Holy God, and born out of that encounter, having had a vision of Heaven, seeing the Lord high and lifted up, having his sins forgiven, his guilt removed, his deepest desire becomes saying
YES
to the One whom the angels never stop singing,
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with His glory!
– Isaiah 6:3, NLT
The prophet Isaiah spends his life calling the people of God to return to God. Over and over he warns the people of the coming judgement of God. But he also points them to the salvation of God. And even more, to the coming Messiah of God! Yet their hearts are hardened and they do not have ears to hear! (Isaiah 6:9-10).
Which might make you wonder, did Isaiah really make a difference?
The answer to that question is a resounding YES and here is why I say that.
Isaiah is the most quoted prophet in the NT.
When the writers of the NT spoke of Jesus, they drew on Isaiah more than any other OT prophet to help us understand who Jesus is and why He came. Isaiah prophesied 700 years before Jesus stepped down from Heaven to Earth that
- Immanuel would come (Isaiah 7:14)
- that He would be the Light in the darkness (Isaiah 9:2)
- that He would bring Good News to the poor (Isaiah 11:4; Isaiah 61:1-2)
- that He would open the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind and make the lame walk (Isaiah 35:5-6)
- that He would bring justice to all those who have been wronged (Isaiah 42:1)
- that He would be our suffering servant (Isaiah 52:13)
- that it’s by His stripes that we would be healed (Isaiah 53:5)
- that He is the Lamb led to the slaughter
- that He would bear our sins and forgive our sins (Isaiah 53:6; Isaiah 2:18)
- that He would be our Cornerstone and
- that whoever believes in Him will never be shaken (Isaiah 28:16)
- and that one day His Kingdom would come (Isaiah 16:5)
Isaiah’s deepest desire was to make the glory of God known! And to call the people of God to honor God and to walk in the way of God.
You can see this in more than one place in Isaiah, but let me point you to one verse that I believe sums up Isaiah’s calling for God’s people and the secret to living a life that can make a real difference in this world for Christ.
Isaiah 26-27 contains a song of praise to God. This song of praise is sung because of what happens in Isaiah 24-25, where Isaiah predicts the coming judgement against the enemies of God’s people and God’s salvation of His people!
In the middle of this song of worship, Isaiah says this…
Your Name and Renown Are the Desire of Our Hearts
Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws,
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.
—Isaiah 26:8, NIV
This song is a song of worship, but like many of the songs we find in Scripture, in Isaiah, and in Psalms, we find instruction. This is why what we sing matters. These are words of worship, but also words of instruction. They remind us and teach us what is good, right, and true.
And right here, Isaiah starts this verse with two words that were of primary importance to Isaiah and are of primary importance for every believer:
Yes, LORD!
Acknowledge That the LORD Is God
Isaiah doesn’t use the common word for Lord here. This is not, adoni. This is capital LORD. This is YHWH. The Name of God. This takes us back to the moment Moses stood before the burning bush and God told Moses to return to Egypt, confront Pharaoh, and to tell him,
Let my people go!
Moses, confused and afraid, asked,
Who should I say sent me?
And God responded,
I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.
(Exodus 3:14, NLT).
We begin with acknowledging who God is and who we are not! He is the Great I AM. And we give Him our YES!
YES, LORD!
If this is true, that Your desire to make a difference is connected to what you desire, then let me ask you a simple question: Is the LORD your deepest desire? Is knowing the LORD, loving the LORD, serving the LORD, pleasing the LORD, is this your deepest desire? Does the LORD have your YES?
Or, like Israel, have you given your YES to another?
Isaiah not only gave the LORD his YES, not only did Isaiah say, Here I am LORD, send me, He called the people of God to give Him their YES as well.
Live in Obedience to Him
When we say, YES, LORD!, we acknowledge Who God is. He is the LORD Almighty. He is God and God alone.
Then… we commit our lives to obeying His commands.
Isaiah says, “Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws…”
All throughout the book of Isaiah, you find this emphasis on the LAW of God. He uses this word over forty times. That word law, it can also mean judgements.
It is God’s established standards and way for right living.
Here, Isaiah calls the people to walk in the way, or walk in the path, of God’s laws. So don’t miss this: we begin with ACKNOWLEDGING WHO God is, He is the LORD, YHWH, the Great I AM. And then, we commit ourselves to OBEYING His commands.
We believe God is who God says He is.
We believe the way, or the path, He has for us to walk in is the way we should go.
We acknowledge He is the LORD.
We live in obedience to His way, His law for our lives.
We ACKNOWLEDGE who God is,
OBEY His commands, and then Isaiah says…
we wait for you;
Trust Him and Wait With Expectation
Let’s talk about waiting.
I know. We don’t like to wait. You don’t like to wait. We don’t even like to pray for patience, even though it is a fruit of the Spirit. This word for wait that Isaiah uses here, it means more than being willing to wait in a long line, or being patient when we’re sitting at a red light. The word wait here means TRUST. It can even mean HOPE.
To wait on the LORD is to trust Him. To hope in Him. It is waiting with expectation.
And there is a direct connection between waiting and trusting and obeying.
If we say we trust God, then we don’t rush ahead and take care of things in a way that is contrary to the way and will of God.
If we trust God, then we talk to Him, and then we WAIT.
We walk in His ways, not our own.
We follow His plan, not our own.
We do things His way, not our own.
We refuse to manipulate the outcome because we’ve put our trust in Him to work things out His way, in His time, for His glory.
If we pray about something, then rush to take care of it ourselves, that isn’t trust. That isn’t waiting. That isn’t patience. That isn’t hope. That’s not to say we do not take faithful action, but we want to make sure it is faithful action.
Waiting on God, trusting in Him, obeying Him, is how we live out our Yes, LORD!
And we can do that because…
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.
When we wait on the LORD, who gets the glory? The LORD!
If we refuse to wait on the LORD, take matters into our own hands, and work things out according to our plans, who gets the glory? We do.
Is the Name and renown of the LORD, the Great I AM, the ever increasing desire of your heart?
I ask that question because…
Your desire to make a difference is connected to what you desire.
Making a Difference Through the Love of God
One summer I got to go on the Honduras mission trip with my daughter. I have been involved with an organization called Mission Lazarus for many years. Mission Lazarus does so much good and is making a real difference for the Kingdom. I am blown away by what God is doing through this mission partner.
Mission Lazarus is led by Jarrod Brown. Let me tell you one story about him. I first met Jarrod over 20 years ago. He loves the Lord and he has given his life to making a difference in this world. But this one story probably tells you all you need to know.
During that trip, a Honduran man named Olman who works for Mission Lazarus joined our mission team for our nightly devo and he shared his story. He shared how he met Jarrod, how he loved working for Mission Lazarus, and how God had saved His life. He shared how one night, his mom asked him to go outside their home to check on his dad. His dad was in an argument with someone. Olman went outside, tried to help, tried to intervene. The confrontation got physical. Then the other man drew a gun and fired a shot. Olman was hit in the face by the bullet.
They got him to the public hospital there in town as fast as they could. But the public hospital was not able to provide the help he needed, and he needed life saving help. Olman’s mom called Jarrod in tears and told him what happened. Jarrod told her to get Olman to the private hospital as quickly as possible, don’t worry about the cost, just get him there. They took Olman to the private hospital. They were able to care for him and save his life. Olman was badly wounded and laid up in a hospital bed for many days. Then Olman shared, when he woke up, when he opened his eyes, the person standing over him caring for him, wiping drool from his mouth, was Jarrod.
I’m sure Jarrod had a million things he needed to be doing, a million places he needed to be. But that moment and that act of kindness made a difference for Olman. And he’s never forgotten it. Not only is he fully committed to Mission Lazarus and to helping those in need, he is fully committed to spreading the Gospel and sharing the love of God with as many people as he can.
Your desire to make a difference is connected to what you desire.
Is your deepest desire for the LORD?
Give the LORD Your Yes
When Jesus knelt down and prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, with the cross right around the next corner, do you remember what Jesus prayed? He’s about to willingly sacrifice His life for you and for me on the cross so that in Him, we might have the forgiveness of sin, so that through Him, we might enter into relationship with God, so that because of Him, we might have salvation by grace through faith. But do you remember what He prayed before He faced the cross?
Not my will, but your will be done.
In other words, YES, LORD!
Here is my prayer for you and me. That we will say…
Yes, LORD! Your Name and Your renown are the ever increasing desire of our hearts!
How do you do that?
- Acknowledge that the LORD is God!
- Live in Obedience to Him.
- Trust Him.
The Trophies of This World Will Never Fully Satisfy
By the way, a sweet friend brought our daughter Emma a trophy later that day. But Emma wasn’t satisfied. She still wasn’t happy.
Can I tell you a secret? It’s an open secret, but so few people seem to know it. The trophies of this world will never fully satisfy.
Your desire to make a difference is connected to what you desire.
May we say, Yes, LORD! Your Name and Your renown are the ever increasing desire of our hearts!
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