Well, as we start this session,
I do want to say how my own heart was greatly challenged by the
message that we just heard from Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, and I
trust that each one of us will give careful thought and even
implementation in our own lives regarding the truth of Revelation
chapter 2. I invite you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 40. And in this session, I've been
asked to address the subject of a puny God. I don't know that
I've ever been assigned a topic that I least want to preach on
more than to preach to you the subject of a puny God. If I had a list of a thousand
topics from which to choose, this would be one thousand on
the bottom of the list. But I am going to try, by God's
grace, to magnify the antithesis of a puny god, which is to hold
forth the greatness and the grandeur and the glory that belongs to
God alone. Isaiah chapter 40, beginning
in verse 12. Who has measured the waters in
the hollow of His hand? and marked off the heavens by
the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
and weighed the mountains in a balance, and the hills in a
pair of scales. It was directed the Spirit of
the Lord, or as His counselor has informed Him. With whom did
He consult, and who gave Him understanding, and who taught
Him in the path of justice and taught him knowledge, and informed
him in the way of understanding. Behold, the nations are like
a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on
the scales. Behold, he lifts up the islands,
or it could be the coastlines, like fine dust." Even Lebanon is not enough to
burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations
are as nothing before Him. They are regarded by Him as less
than nothing and meaningless. To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness will you compare with Him? It was A. W. Tozer who wrote
years ago, the most important thing about you is what comes into your mind
when you think of God. Tell me what you think of God
and I will tell you what is the direction and the trajectory
of your life. A high view of God ultimately
leads to high worship of God and high and holy living. And
low views of God lead to trivial worship and lead to manipulative
evangelism and lead to low base existence. Everything, in one
way or another, hinges upon your understanding of who God is. God is that important. And this
is why the most important issue facing the church in every generation
is its understanding of God. no church, no ministry, no believer,
no seminary, no society, no nation can rise any higher than its
worthy thoughts of God. That is why Calvin began his
Institutes with the knowledge of God, understanding that everything
flows out of our knowledge of God. The topic that has been
assigned to me is a puny God. Those two words just do not even
go together. This has to be the ultimate oxymoron,
a total contradiction in terms. A puny God such simply does not
exist. But tragically, many people have
crafted a puny God in their own minds. Some have a God who does
not see or know the future. Some have a God who does not
govern human history, but merely passively is an observer of the
flow of the occurrences here. Some have a God who does not
overcome man's resistance, a God who approves of every lifestyle,
a God who is without a sovereign free will. Quite frankly, such
a God is not to be praised, but to be pitied. To be sure, believing
in a puny God produces puny worship and puny living. Puny theology
produces puny doxology. That is why we need to revisit
this text again. here in Isaiah 40, and for it
to surge through our spiritual veins, and for it to rejuvenate
our hearts. Here is the total antithesis
of a puny God. Here is the reality of who God
is. And what this is in reality is
an expansion of what we read at the end of verse 9. At the
beginning of verse 9, Isaiah says, get yourself on a high
mountain. In other words, in a place where you can speak and
you can be heard, loud and clear. Get yourself on a high mountain,
O Zion, bearer of good news. Lift up your voice mightily. O Jerusalem, bearer of good news,
lift it up. Do not fear. Say to the cities
of Judah, here is your God. And now beginning in verse 12
and extending through the rest of this chapter, there is the
manifestation and the exaltation and the revelation of the awesomeness
and the greatness of our God. In every generation when the
church stands strong, it is in those hours in which the church
has the highest view of God. And in those hours in which the
church has languished in its impotence and has had so little
effect upon the world around it is when the church has had
the most base and low views of God. And if we are to have a
Reformation, if we are to have a revival in this hour and this
day, it will be a Reformation and a revival that begins in
the knowledge of God, for nothing is more important than the knowledge
of God. There are five truths that I
want you to note from this text beginning in verse 12, and they
all exegete and exposit the greatness
of our God. I want you to note first, beginning
in verse 12, that the greatness of God is found first in His
infinite power. Here in verse 12, he asks a series
of five questions in staccato-like fashion. Who has measured the
waters? And who has marked off the heavens?
And who calculates the dust? And who has weighed the mountains?
And who has weighed the hills in a pair of scales? And this
is an extraordinary picture of God as the sole creator of heaven
and earth, and that He is dwarfing creation. When he spoke everything
into existence out of nothing, it was like mere child play for
this awesome God. He says, who has measured the
waters in the hollow of his hand? And God is seen here so dwarfing
creation that all of the oceans and all of the seas are contained
in the mere palm of his hand. Creation is Lilliputian compared
to this infinite power of God. And he goes on to say, and who
is marked off the heavens by the span? That's the distance
between the outstretched thumb and the little finger. And the
entire expanse of outer space is measured simply by the span. The answers to these rhetorical
questions are so obvious that Isaiah does not even bother to
answer these questions. Have you noticed this? The answer
is so obvious that anyone who has two brain cells that are
touching between the ears know what the answer to this is. No
one except God could have brought about such creation. And he says, and who has calculated
the dust of the earth by the measure? It's as if God has like
a little cup and he puts all of the dust of the earth and
all that there is into this little cup and God just measures it. No one except God. And who has
weighed the mountains and the balance? And it's like a small
pair of scales. Again, like child's play. The
proportions here comparing God to His creation is like comparing
the blazing sun in the sky above to a glow worm. And who has weighed
the hills in a pair of scales? Here is God taking all of the
elevated topography around the earth and placing them on one
side of the scales and then trying to balance it out with other
raised up places on the other side of the scales so that they
would be perfectly in balance so that as the earth rotates
it will not be lopsided and as it circulates it will not be
overweighted on one side, but that as the earth would rotate,
it would have perfect distribution of its weight. That was God as
He spoke with such extraordinary power. The people of God in Isaiah's
day needed to be reminded of the awesomeness of who he is. This was written in a day in
which the Assyrian Empire was threatening the northern kingdom,
and it would be soon when the Babylonian kingdom would come
against the southern kingdom, and they would be carted off
to 70 years of captivity in Babylon. And they needed to recapture
an extraordinary view of God, and by the mercy of God, beginning
here in chapter 40, Isaiah looks to a time in which he will bring
them back from Babylonian captivity, and they will appear to be as
grasshoppers in the sight of the Babylonians. But what God
wants them to see, that though their enemies are so much greater
than they are, God is so much greater than the entire earth. Better to have small faith in
a great God than great faith in a small God. Your faith is
only as good as the object upon which it is cast. G. Campbell Morgan was the predecessor
of Martin Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel, and they served side
by side for a number of years as well. And one Sunday morning,
G. Campbell Morgan preached this
extraordinary message on prayer. And a proper Englishwoman came
to him in the lobby after the service was over. She had on
white gloves. took G. Campbell Morgan's hand
with her white gloves and said, Mr. Morgan, can I pray about
little things or do I only pray about big things to God? G. Campbell Morgan looked at her
and said, dear woman, everything in your life is little to God. There is nothing in your life
that is big. And so it is, that's the way we want it. We want to
have this awesome God, not a puny God. A puny fortress is our God. Puny, puny, puny. Oh, how puny thou art. That hymn
just doesn't work. Now we need an awesome God, a
majestic God, a sovereign God, an all-powerful God. And as we
do, our own hearts are enlarged and we are elevated and we are
lifted up and we live on high places. This is what the people
of God needed to recover. Their view of God had become
dismally small. What they needed to see is that
no prayer was too hard to answer, no circumstance too hard for
God to overturn, no obstacle too hard to remove, no door too
hard to open, no heart too hard for God to humble, no soul too
hard for God to save. This is where this begins with
the immense power of God. And I would say to you and to
myself that whatever is the burden, the stress, the anxiety, the
worry, it is very small compared to the bigness of God. As long
as Peter kept his eyes on the Lord, he could walk on water.
But when he began to look at the waves crashing around him,
he began to drown. let us focus upon the greatness
of our God. But second, not only His infinite
power, but please note in verse 13, His inscrutable wisdom. It's one thing to have power,
but power could be misused and abused. But this is an extraordinary
combination, infinite power with inscrutable wisdom. Notice in
verse 13, who has directed the Spirit of the Lord? What we find
here is going to be now another series of questions. And these
rhetorical questions, the answers again will be so obvious that
he does not even bother to answer them. As he asks these questions,
they are intended to cause us to think, to probe our thinking.
Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord? Paul will quote this
in Romans chapter 11. And the answer is, no one has
directed the Spirit of God in the use of His awesome power. Or as his counselor has informed
him. In other words, God's never learned
anything. God has never looked down the
proverbial tunnel of time to see what anyone would do about
anything, because God already knows everything, and the reason
God knows everything is because God has foreordained all that
shall come to pass. It is already known by God. So
who could bring information outside of the knowledge of God to God
and then be His counselor? And the answer is no one. God
does not go to anyone for counsel. With whom did He consult? And
the reference here is to the time of the creation of the world. And who gave Him understanding? Who explains things to God about
your life? Certainly not you or me in our
prayers or in our thoughts. Who taught Him in the path of
justice? Who taught God what is fair?
No one. Who taught Him knowledge? Who
schooled God? Who discipled God? Who instructed
God? Who brought God up to speed with
what's going on? And who informed him of the way
of understanding? God always knows what is best
in every situation because God has perfect wisdom. He knows
everything perfectly. He discerns everything completely.
He plans everything wisely. God has never made a mistake
in judgment. God never needs a second chance
to get it right after missing on His first option. God oversees
the affairs of providence perfectly. If you and I had a thousand years
to meet together and to collaborate and to try to improve upon the
plan and the will of God, just one iota for any one of our lives,
it could not be improved upon to any extent. God answers every
prayer perfectly. He works out His timing for our
lives perfectly. God sizes up our needs perfectly,
and He charts the right course for our lives perfectly. This inscrutable wisdom of God. This is what the people of God
needed to hear 800 years before the coming of Christ as they
were surrounded by oppressive empires in Syria and Babylon
that were threatening their national security. They needed to look
up to God and to see the absolute power and the infinite wisdom
of God and to put their trust in Him. And then third, in verse
15, His immense glory. And this awesome God is full
of glory that far surpasses and outshines all the splendor of
all of the nations combined. There will be now more rhetorical
questions. Here are two more. Verse 15, The nations are like a drop from
a bucket. Please note, nations plural,
not just Babylon and not just Assyria, but Egypt and the Medes
and the Persians and all of the empires and all of the dynasties
and all of the nations of the world collectively together,
all of their pomp and all of their splendor and all of their
glory are but a tiny little drop of perspiration on the outside
of a bucket that just comes slithering down the outside. The nations
are nothing compared to the immense glory
of God and can do nothing to thwart the eternal decree and
sovereign purposes of God. Behold, the nations are like
a drop from a bucket, verse 15, and are regarded as a speck of
dust on the scales. In other words, All of the nations
that are threatening Israel, all of the nations that are stressing
and causing their worry and anxiety, Isaiah is saying they are so
insignificant compared to God that they are like a speck of
dust on scales. They do not even weigh in. Behold,
he lists up the coastlines or the islands like fine dust. That's even less significant
than dust. Fine dust is a subcategory of
dust. It's just fine dust. It's nothing. There's no weightiness. There's
no gravitas. There's no importance. There's
no significance. compared to God and God carrying
out His plans and His purposes for human history. Verse 16,
even Lebanon, now that was the land with the largest forests
and the largest trees. Even Lebanon is not enough to
burn. In other words, if you gathered
all of the trees and all of the forests of the rich lands of
Lebanon and burn them all in offering to God, it would be
way too insignificant to communicate the majesty and the transcendence
of Almighty God. Nor it's beast enough for a burnt
offering. If all of the animals in the
land were to be gathered to be sacrificed and put on an altar,
it would be too small of a sacrifice to adequately convey and communicate
the greatness of our God. So in verse 17, he comes back
to what he said in verse 15. To reinforce it, he says, all
the nations, all the world empires, all the world dynasties collectively
together, all the nations are as nothing before Him. This does not mean nothing in
importance because they are created in the image of God, but they
are nothing as to their power and their splendor and their
glory. They're nothing compared to this
God and the advance of His kingdom. They are regarded by Him, look
at this, in verse 17, they are regarded by Him as less than
nothing. That's a negative. That's less
than zero. That's in the minus category.
All of the nations of the world are less than nothing in significance
and splendor before Almighty God. Psalm 33, verse 10 says,
the Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations. He frustrates
the plans of the peoples. His plans go forth from one generation
to another. Proverbs 27 verse 1 says, the
heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. Like rivers of water,
he channels it whichever way he will. I had a lamp at home that had
a lion, and it represented the British Empire. And the paw of
the lamp is upon a globe. And it shows the dominance of
the British Empire in the nineteenth century over the entire earth. But in reality, the line of the
tribe of Judah has His paw upon the globe, and He dominates the
world scene by the carrying out of His purposes here upon the
earth. So verse 18, these two rhetorical questions, to whom
then will you liken God? The answer is no one because
God is incomparable. Or what likeness will you compare
with Him? Any comparison and every comparison
that we would make with God falls infinitely short of the reality
of the height and the depth and the breadth and the length of His glory. In verse 19, he talks
about the gods of these nations that are as nothing. And he says,
as for the idol, that would be the false, fake gods that the
other nations worshipped in the days in which Isaiah lived. As for the idol, a craftsman
casts it, a goldsmith plates it with gold, and a silversmith
fashions chains of silver. That's a rich man's idol. Verse
20 is a poor man's idol. He who is too impoverished for
such an offering, in other words, cannot afford the gold and the
silver to hire a goldsmith or a silversmith to make an icon
for him. He who is too impoverished for
such a thing selects a tree that does not rot. He seeks out for
himself a skillful craftsman to prepare an idol that will
not totter. Worshipping false idols and false
deities is the ultimate futility. Dumb idols are nothing. They
know nothing. They have nothing. They say nothing. They offer nothing. They give
nothing. They are nothing. And today, we have idols not
made with hands, but idols made with the mind, in which we have
reconfigured God in our own image, and we have lowered the greatness
of God. A. W. Tozer says, the essence of idolatry
is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of
Him. how we need to have elevated
yet again the escalation of our understanding of the holiness
and the sovereignty and the grace of our God. As He continues to expand this,
behold your God, not only His immense glory and His infinite
power and His inscrutable wisdom, but Beginning in verse 21, his
invincible sovereignty, the true living God exercises undisputed
supreme authority over every world order, over all world rulers,
and over world history itself. Notice beginning in verse 21,
and now here is another rapid fire succession of rhetorical questions,
again, the answers of which are so obvious that anyone here today
who is able to process reality knows the answer to this instinctively. Do you not know? It implies a
positive answer. Yes, you do know this. Have you
not heard? That implies you have heard this. Has it not been declared to you
from the beginning? This has been made known to you
since day one. This is theology 101. This is
theology at kindergarten level. This is entry-level knowledge
of God. Have you not understood from
the foundations of the earth? And here's what it is in verse
22. It is the absolute sovereign
authority of God over all the works of His hands. In verse 22, it is He who sits
above the circle of the earth. Please note, He sits, and that
is to say He is enthroned on high. He is occupying the throne. He is exalted. And as He is seated
upon His throne, He is exercising His regal and royal prerogatives. He is ruling and reigning. When
John, in Revelation chapter 4, verses 1 and 2, when a door is
opened in heaven and he is caught up into heaven, the very first
thing that he sees is not streets of gold or gates of pearl or
who's there or who is not there. The very first thing that he
locks in on, and it has seized his attention, is that there
is a throne standing in heaven. and that everything in the universe
finds its location by its proximity to the throne. And as he goes
through the chapter, everything is either beneath the throne,
beside the throne, above the throne, coming forth from the
throne, or approaching the throne, but everything revolves around
the throne. It is the irresistible sovereignty
of God. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
returns in Revelation chapter 19, that same door is opened
in heaven and there is a white stallion that comes bursting
out of heaven and he who sat upon it has many diadems, just
sovereignty stacked upon sovereignty upon sovereignty, unlimited sovereignty. And He has a name that no one
knows, meaning that His sovereignty far exceeds what any human mind
can even begin to comprehend. However sovereign you perceive
God to be, it falls far short of the reality of who He is and
what He possesses in heaven. Verse 22, it is he who sits above
the circle of the earth. And as he looks down from his
throne, it says, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, like mere insects, unable to resist his right arm
in the day of his power. who stretches out the heavens
like a curtain. The vastness of the universe
is incomparable, immeasurable. We cannot even take in the breadth
of outer space. And as God has spoken everything
into existence, it's like you going back to your hotel room
and just spreading the curtain in your shower and spreads them out like a tent
to dwell in. Verse 23, it is He, He it is
who reduces. rulers to nothing. Those rulers that breathe greatest
terror into the ears of those upon the earth, God reduces them
to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth
meaningless. there of no significance. Verse 24, "'Scarcely have they
been planted.'" In other words, briefly for one fleeting moment,
they have been put into their office and put into their place. Scarcely have they been planted,
and it is God who has planted and placed them there. Scarcely
have they been sown, meaning placed in the land. Scarcely
has their stock taken root in the earth, meaning they have
barely even begun to rule once assuming their power. Scarcely
has their stock taken root in the earth. But He, God, merely blows on
them, like a man snapping a dandelion, just blowing on it. And all of
those small little seeds just go in every direction. He merely
blows on them and they wither. He's got the whole world in His
hand. And He's got the hearts of the rulers of the world in
His hand. And He's got the oceans and the
sea and the hills and the mountains in His hand. And He has inscrutable
wisdom to carry out His sovereign purposes. And even what they
mean for evil, God means for good. And he is so sovereign
that not even a sparrow falls apart from the Lord. And our
very hairs of our head are numbered in the casting of the lot into
the lap. It's every turning up is from the Lord. And the storm carries them away
like stubble. They are political lightweights.
They have no staying power. So verse 23, another question,
intended to cause us to think. The raising of the question forces
us to give the answer at least silently within our own minds
rather than Isaiah speaking it to us. But in this case, the
question is raised by God Himself as God now interrupts and God
calls for the question. To whom then will you liken me? Which world ruler, which empire
will you liken to my kingdom? To whom then will you liken me
that I should be his equal?" And the answer is that if there
is an organizational chart for the universe, God is at the very
top and everyone is so beneath Him. There is no one on his level. There is no one in his league.
There is no one in his class. It is just God and God alone
presiding over all of the affairs of the world. To whom then will you liken me
that I should be his equal, says the Holy One," meaning the One
who is acut above, the One who is transcendent and majestic,
the One who has established His throne in the heavens and His
sovereignty rules over all, the One to whom the angels are crying
out, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. The people of God needed to have
their focus. riveted upon this sovereign God
in heaven. So he says in verse 26, lift
up your eyes on high. Look up into the heights of heaven.
and see who has created these stars. And the answer is, it
is God and God alone who has created these stars. The one
who leads forth their host by number. God providentially governs
and controls these massive celestial bodies. He calls them all by
name. Orion, Pleiades, He has them
all named and numbered. Because of the greatness of His
might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing. Listen, the stars are not controlling
our destiny. The stars are being controlled
by God Himself. There are no maverick molecules.
There are no maverick stars. There are no maverick planets.
There is no maverick anything. God in His infinite sovereignty overseeing and orchestrating
from the greatest to the smallest, from the heavenly bodies to world
rulers and empires, all the way down to mere men who are but
grasshoppers, they all exist to do His bidding. Finally, in verse 27, there's
a fifth truth that I want you to see, not only His irresistible
sovereignty, but finally His inexhaustible grace. This sovereign
God gives all sufficient grace to His people in their trials
and in their afflictions which is not to say that the nations
of the world, as they bring their terror and their devastation
upon the land of God's people. It is not to say that it is without
reality. God will not protect them from
all of this devastation, but God will give them the grace
to persevere through the most difficult and dark hours that
they will face. He gives a greater grace. He
gives strengthening grace that is all-sufficient. Verse 27 begins
with yet another question, "'Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert,
O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due
me escapes the notice of my God?' The reason this question is raised,
because this is exactly what Jacob and exactly what Israel
was thinking. as they will be carted off into
captivity to Babylon and be there for seventy long years. And in
their mind they will be thinking, God has forgotten us and our
way is hidden from God. And this is perhaps unfair. The
punishment far outweighs the crime. And where is the justice
of the Lord? He is too heavy handed with us.
So that is the point of the question in verse 27, and these are questions
that you and I often ask as well. Has God forgotten me? Does God
remember where I am? Has God forgotten me in the midst
of this trial and this dark situation? And here's the answer in verse
28. He answers the question with
a question. Imagine that. In verse 27, he says, why do
you say, and now he answers in verse 28, do you not know? Have
you not heard? And again, the implication is,
yes, you do know this. Yes, you have heard this. If it's new, it's not true. The everlasting God. Let's just
pause there for a moment. God without beginning, God without
end, self-sufficient, self-sustaining, autonomous, independent, the
aseity of God, dependent upon no one, everyone dependent upon
Him, this everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends
of the earth. He gives strength. The God who
has all power gives strength to the weary. Now, we're all
weary, it's just some people fail to recognize it. He gives strength to the weary.
to the one who recognizes their lack of strength. And to him
who lacks might, he increases power. He gives spiritual power,
emotional power, even physical power. Though youths grow weary
and tired. It speaks of those who have the
most human strength. Even they become weary. And vigorous
young men stumble badly. yet those who wait for the Lord."
That's what you and I can do. We can wait for the Lord. We
must wait for the Lord. This means not to take matters
into our own hands, not to assume our own purposes It means to
trust in Him and to look to Him and to rely upon Him and rest
in Him and hope in Him. Those who wait for the Lord will
gain. Do you see the word gain? The
word literally means to exchange one thing for another. It was
used to taking off old clothes and putting on new clothes. Those
who wait for the Lord will exchange their old weariness for new strength
is what this is saying. They will mount up with wings
like eagles. They will soar above the times
in which they live. And though all around them are
in panic and all around them are filled with dread, those
who wait on the Lord will mount up with wings like eagles and
they will fly over the times in which they live. And they
will run and not get tired as they will pursue the will and
the work of God in their generation and in their hour. They will
be given supernatural strength to serve God and to carry out
the purposes of His kingdom. And they will walk in the nitty-gritty
of life, for life is lived. They will walk but not become
weary." How big is your God? And that is the issue before
the church in every generation, and that is the issue before
us today. And the greater we understand
our God, who our God is, the greater we will love Him, the
greater we will preach Him, the greater we will pray to Him and
praise Him and serve Him. We must have an enlarged view
of God. Years ago, the pastor of Tenth
Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Donald Gray Barnhouse, was asked
to come to Princeton Seminary to preach in chapel to the student
body. And as he came that day to Miller
Chapel at Princeton Theological Seminary, as he stood to preach,
there on the front row was the faculty. some of the greatest
minds in the world. And there was one particular
man, Robert Dick Wilson, who was so smart, no one could even
understand how smart he was. He was proficient in so many
different Middle Eastern languages. And as Barnhouse stood to preach
that day, after he had preached for about five minutes and he
was consciously aware of the distinguished faculty on the
front row, Robert Dick Wilson stood to his feet in the middle
of his sermon and walked out. Barnhouse could barely recover.
He could barely complete the message, and as soon as it was
over, after certain nice pleasantries were expressed to him, he made
a beeline to Professor Wilson's office. He walked in. Where have I failed? Where have I fallen short? The
professor said, young man, you have not fallen short. I only
come back to hear my former students preach one time, and all I want
to know is, are they a big godder or a small godder? Do they have
a big God who towers over the affairs of history, or do they
have a puny, tiny, little God?" And Professor Wilson said, you,
sir, have a big God, and I only needed to hear you preach for
five minutes to know that you are faithful to the glory of
God. I want to ask you this afternoon,
are you a big God? Do you have a big God? Do you
not know? Have you not heard? Has it not
been said to you from the beginning? That he who sits in the heavens
sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are
like grasshoppers. To whom then will you compare
me, says the Lord. As we come to grow in our understanding
of the awesomeness of our God, the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ will be strong and rooted and grounded in the midst of
the times in which we live, in which we are surrounded once
again by the threatenings and the terrors of the nations. Look to God. Put your faith in
God. Wait. on the Lord and you will
gain new strength. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, how we
praise you this afternoon that you have given this revelation
of yourself to us as your prophet Isaiah has spoken these words
and they have been recorded for our understanding. We praise
you that you are such a powerful, all-wise, sovereign, glorious
God who gives strength to His people. Father, we confess our
weakness, our weariness. We hear Jesus say, apart from
me, you can do nothing. Yeah, we hear Paul say, I can
do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Lord, may we in this room this
day have an ever-enlarged and ever-expanded understanding of
who you are, and may our own hearts be filled with new wonder
and new power as we serve you. We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.