Isaiah 6:1-9 (NASB)

Sermon Notes: Used By God

• One of the blessings of being a child of God is the gift of eternal life and the promise of heaven.
• But while we wait for heaven what are we supposed to do in the meantime? What is the purpose of our lives? What is the meaning and significance of life right now, today?
• When we trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior, the Bible says we become a new creation. We begin a new life, a spiritual life and with that new life comes all of the spiritual blessings of heaven. But with it also comes a new priority and purpose.
• The apostle Paul wrote that you have been bought with a price: "therefore glorify God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:20). He also wrote, "whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31).
• In a broad sense I would suggest that the meaning of life, why we are, what we are to be doing this side of heaven, is living for the glory of God. What does that mean? 2 Corinthians 5:15 explains, "and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf."
• Today I want us to think about what it means to glorify God in everything we do because if our purpose in life is the glory of God, then we must align our lives with His purpose and His will for our lives.
• Another way of stating it is that living for the glory of God means being used by God.

• Henry Blackaby - "Find out where God is at work and join Him there."
• Hudson Taylor - "I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. I ended up asking Him to do His work through me."
• Ephesians 2:8-10 - "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."
• While we are very familiar with vv. 8-9, verse 10 is a purpose statement, a life purpose statement. You are His workmanship!
• This word is only used twice in the New Testament and we get our English word "poem" from it. It means any work of art - a statue, a song, architecture, a poem or a painting.
• You are God's work of art, His masterpiece, His poem. You are a unique, one of a kind original creation.
• You are God's artwork but you aren't placed on a pedestal or hung on a wall in a gallery just to be viewed; you are a functional masterpiece.
• There are things for us to do, activities in which to engage and ministry and service to perform.
• Good works do not save us but good works are the intended result of being saved.
• It is good works that characterize the life of the believer and the Bible says that God prepared them beforehand so that we would walk in in them.
• What kinds of good works? They are good works in Christ. They are the works that grow out of our relationship with Him, the works that are initiated and energized by the Spirit of God.
• Our service to the Lord must first grow out of our relationship with the Lord. God did not save us to simply be but also to do. And specifically to do what He leads us to do.

• Vance Havner - "God uses broken things. Broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever."
• The significant thing is that it is when we know we are weak that we become candidates for God to use us.
• Steven Lee - "If your résumé is sparse, your intellect feeble, your skills unimpressive, and your wisdom just average, fret not. God can use even you - even me. God wants to use those who look away from their self-sufficiency to his all-sufficiency. God uses all those who humble themselves before the cross, boasting only in him - his strength, his wisdom, his righteousness, his accomplishment."

• Isaiah 6 has been considered one of the premier passages about worship in the Bible.
• Isaiah's response to the presence of God exposes him to the awareness of his own sinfulness and his conviction causes him to cry out, "Woe is me!"
• When we get a glimpse of how holy God is, and see how sinful we are, the response of worship is not thanksgiving and praise but sometimes humbleness and confession which instead of causing us to raise our hands, drives us to our knees.
• Isaiah saw the Lord, confessed his sin, was given forgiveness, and then was willing for God to use him.

• 2 Timothy 2:21 - "...therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work."