Unimaginable Purity and Wholeness
Knowing That God Is Pure Is A Game Changer In Our Cultural Conversations.
Ross Sawyers
Feb 19, 2023 43m
When we understand who God is, that He's a Holy God, we can grab hold of it, and it will be a game changer in our cultural conversations. God is pure. Purity means unmixed, and there is nothing evil, wicked, or sinful mixed in with the holiness of God; He is pure in all of who he is. Video recorded at Grapevine, Texas.
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god is pure cultural issues communication community holiness of god purity awe repentance holy graceDaily Devotionals
TranscriptionmessageRegarding Grammar:
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
Ross Sawyers: [00:00:00] Most people are aware by now of what's happening at Asbury University in Kentucky. Yeah, it's awesome. And then several other universities as well, there are things going on that God is doing. And on February 8th, for those who aren't aware. Students gathered, I assume it was their chapel service, I'm not sure, but they gathered. And then they've not left since then, and people have been in and out, so it's not the same people there, but they're in and out. And what's happening is what just happened with us, it's the worship of God, it's his word, it's confession and repentance, and then it's more of that again. And people are driving from all over the country and multiple places outside of the country to come and see what God's doing and to get in on what God is doing among those students at Asbury.
Ross Sawyers: [00:01:01] There would be a number of ways to think about that, and I think all of us have different ways we probably process when we hear something like that, and sometimes it's hard for us to grab hold of there supernatural things that God does, and he moves in ways that are beyond what we can understand. And there are people that have been praying for revival in our land. We constantly pray for that. And then when we see it, we have to be careful not to be skeptical of it. And one of the things that's concerning to me, at least a concern, is that within a day or two, they're immediately calling it revival. My understanding of revivals would be that over a period of time, people are broken over their sin, and their lives start to be transformed by Christ, as that happens, their immediate church starts to change, their community starts to change, their city starts to change, and the state and the nation starts to change. That's what happens when there's a revival in the land. And so to say after a day or two, this is revival, I don't know, I don't know what the definition is. If hearts are being revived through what God's doing in that moment, and that's what revival is, yes, that's awesome. At a minimum, what I would say is God is pouring out his spirit on thousands of people and we want to get in on what God's doing, praying for them, praying for protection over them. It's an interesting day with our social media world because it feels like there could be pressure put on what's going on there for something to maintain and happen, rather than just allowing God to move and do what he's going to do for whatever period of time that he's going to do it. And so we want to be careful to pray for what God's doing there, and the enemy will do everything he can to try to disrupt what God's doing, and we want to pray against the evil and against those who would come in and try to mess up what God is doing and just pray that God will continue that work in the students, faculty, and all those who are participating being affected by it.
Ross Sawyers: [00:03:07] We do not, however, have to go to Hugh's auditorium in Kentucky to be met by God, and our prayer is that he'll meet us right in this space right here and that he'll meet you wherever you are in your bedroom or your living room, online this morning, that guy can meet you in that place. And so we just pray that what's happening there will happen all over the country, and I believe a parable that Jesus told best illustrates our day. We have in our day crazy and chaos, and we have in our day godliness and people following hard after Jesus. And Jesus told a parable about a farmer, and those who worked for him planted the seed, and then an evil one came in the middle of the night and planted the seed of weeds and then that started to come up. When the workers saw it, they came to the farmer and said, hey, it looks like somebody came and planted some other seed here, what do you want us to do? Do you want us to pull it up? And he said, no, wait until the end, it's going to grow up together. It'll be obvious in the end what is the wheat and what are the weeds, and at that point, I'll separate it out.
Ross Sawyers: [00:04:19] And I believe that's exactly what God's doing right now. He is raising godly people up all over the country, all over the world. People are falling hard after Jesus, and at the same time that God is doing an amazing work among his people and drawing people into himself, there's an evil that's going on right with it. So we're just kind of growing it up together, both evil and good. And in the end, God is going to separate out that which is good from that which is bad, and that which is his will be with him for all eternity. That's where I believe we are today. That's where we've been for ages and generations, and in this particular one, that's where we find ourselves.
Ross Sawyers: [00:04:58] What I want us to do this morning. I said a minute ago that we're in a pivot point of this series of lenses. We're going to turn the corner and talk about more specific cultural issues in the framework we've been building to talk about those issues. We've been trying to teach you in a really, in a different way, how to have conversations with people in our culture, within your own family, where God is the center of the conversation. And sometimes we want to make a run for the practical, and I'm just going to suggest today that if we miss the piece we're doing now, we'll miss out on how to do the practical conversation. We're teaching from a way that God is the center of the conversation, and who God is, as the Scripture describes him, which is true and trustworthy, everything flows from who He is. So if I start with this character and I talk about who God is, which by the way, so many people in our culture today would say they believe in God. One of the questions we need to have in a gracious way with people is who is God? How do you define who God is? And that's what we're trying to carefully do, it's about who God is from the Scriptures because the God we're talking about from the scriptures is oftentimes different than the God that someone you're talking to is talking about. So we're talking about God as a sovereign God, God who is in control of all, God as an unchanging God in his design. He hasn't changed his mind about his creation and his design for creation and the way it's to function and what his purposes are, and God is Holy in who He is.
Ross Sawyers: [00:06:42] And I want us to hang out in Isaiah Chapter 6, and fixate, continuing to fixate, on what we've sung already about the Holiness of God. I realize this is not a word that you're sharing in your cubicles at work, or in the hallway of your classrooms, or in the business office of your corporation, wherever it is that you are. And I don't know that that's not a bad thing, although I hope it could become more of a thing. Because when we see who God is, the Holy God, it's worth speaking of, of the holiness of God. I actually believe if we can really grab hold of this, it's the game changer in our whole cultural conversations when we understand who God is, which is a Holy God.
Ross Sawyers: [00:07:31] In Isaiah 6, we'll cover the first five verses, and then I'll quickly cover three after that. But the bulk of our time will be in the first five. Today, no smart TV, no diagrams, and no scripture on the screens, we're going old school, we're going to read our Bibles. If you have a Bible, Isaiah chapter 6. If you're not sure where it is, go to the table of contents, there is no shame in that. Somewhere in the middle of your Bible, if you just want to kind of linger around and try to find it. If you have an app on your device, use your device. If you don't have a device or a Bible, look on with a friend. If your friend doesn't have a Bible, just listen today, I think it'll work well for you. So we'll just let God's Word pour over us.
Ross Sawyers: [00:08:13] But in Isaiah chapter 6, we want to talk about the holiness of God. When we think about the word Holy, it means separate, it means to cut. God is Holy, meaning He is separate from any sin, any evil, and he's whole and he's devoted to his own glory. It's twofold, he's separate from sin, and he's devoted to his own glory. The word means purity, unmixed, there is nothing evil, wicked, or sinful, mixed in with the holiness of God, he is totally and absolutely pure in all of who he is. The Greek word for Holy is a word that means an awe-full thing, full of awe, God is a God who is full of awe. And our prayer is that we would increase in our awe of God, and that we would increase in grieving over our own sins before a Holy God.
Ross Sawyers: [00:09:27] In chapter 6 verse 1, it says, "In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple." Now, sometimes we read phrases like this, and we move past it because we don't know who Uzziah was. But King Uzziah, it's crucial to understanding Isaiah 6, to understand this king. And when we talk about lenses, this is a king who had a God lens for a season of time, but then he shifted and switched to a self-centered lens, as so often people do.
Ross Sawyers: [00:10:04] I mentioned a few weeks ago a book called Godfidence by Jim Akers. It is an excellent book, many of you have gotten it, and you've already read it, and commented on it to me. But he talks in there not about FOMO, fear of missing out, but YOFO, you only finish once. How are we going to finish life? You only finish once. In Scripture, so often we see men and women who start well, but they finish poorly. We want to finish well. King Uzziah did not finish well; he was a king for 52 years of Israel and mostly followed God during that time.
Ross Sawyers: [00:10:48] But the Scripture says in Second Chronicles 26, verses 16 through 21, that Uzziah became proud in his heart, and it corrupted him because of his pride. He was successful as a king, and so often when people are successful, they forget how they arrived there. Oh, at the beginning it was, I need God to help me do this, God is the one who's in this, God's the one that's caused this business to prosper. But somewhere along the way, we get a little full of ourselves and think, look how good I am at what I do. That's why I've risen to the top of my company, that's why I do so well, that's why I receive these awards. Look what I did. And Uzziah got to that place, he forgot where he had come from, and he was proud. And he decided to do something that only the priests were to do, and you'll hear this and you'll think, what's the big deal, he just went into church, and he burned some incense? God is a Holy God, and he designed his tabernacle and everything to be done in it in a way that would be Holy, and separate, and only the priests could go into the tabernacle. But you, Uzziah, the king, he decided he was going into the tabernacle and burned incense at the altar of incense. Now Azariah, who was the chief priest, and then 80 other priests contended with the king. I'm guessing about the first six rows here, maybe are 80 people. So just imagine that the front 80 here, and Azariah are coming towards, and I'm King Uzziah are coming towards me and saying, you can't be in here, this is a Holy place. It's not for the king to do this, the priests have been assigned this role, you're violating the holiness of God. It's not just burning incense; you are violating God's holiness. Uzziah, in his pride, was enraged, the Scripture says. And at the moment that he was enraged, leprosy came on his forehead and then covered his body. You only finish once, and Uzziah finished his life in a separate house, unclean with leprosy, not following after the ways of God. He switched his lens, and he made it about him.
Ross Sawyers: [00:13:47] And it was in the year of King Uzziah's death, that we see Isaiah having a picture of the true king. Now, imagine a time when things are shifting in leadership, for 52 years Uzziah was the king, everybody would be a bit unsettled at this point as to who the new king would be, and what he would do? We know what that's like when election season comes along. So often we get a little bit jittery, we get a little bit nervous, and we're wondering who's going to be elected, who's got God going to remove, and who's God's going to put into place, according to Daniel> But we'll get a little bit unstable in that time, we're wondering how will this new leadership affect us? What will the laws be that are passed? What will the ordinances be that are passed in a city, and how will they affect my taxes?
Ross Sawyers: [00:14:33] We get a little unsettled, and that's what's happening here. They're unsettled, and in the midst of that unsettled transition, Isaiah gets a picture of the king, the true king, "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple." Now, if you're an artist in the room and a number of you are in, a number of you draw out the things we talk about. Whoever is teaching on a given Sunday, I would love to see it if you attempted to draw what we're describing here in the vision that Isaiah had and what he saw. So he sees the Lord, he sees the true king of kings sitting on a throne, the king is on his throne and he's lofty and exalted, and the Scripture says he had the train of his robe, and it was filling the temple.
Ross Sawyers: [00:14:33] Now, one of the persons on my research team researched the trains on wedding dresses. I was at a wedding last night, it was just beautifully done, God was honored and blessed in it the way the person did it that led it. And then I read this about the train of the robe, and I thought, that's kind of interesting, who really studies the trains of wedding gowns? I don't think we look at it this way today, but do you know how the length of the train of a robe was decided? By the amount of wealth that a person had. The more wealth, the longer the train. The train on Jesus's robe, on God's robe in this passage, filled the temple, it just filled it. Imagine whenever you're at a wedding, and you see the bride and she has a big train. I mean, it's like the maid of honor, matron of honor, I mean, it's like game on, how do you keep that thing under control? And it's just kind of all right here, his train filled the temple. Filled it. He's glorious, rich, and wealthy in who he is, is the king. And Isaiah had seen a picture of the Lord sitting on his throne, lofty and exalted, sovereign and unchanging.
Ross Sawyers: [00:16:56] In verse 2, "Seraphim stood above Him." We sang Holy, Holy, Holy a minute ago, and we sang about Seraphim and Cherubim. And if you don't have some kind of a church background, you're wondering, what did I just say? And the word Seraphim is a word for burning ones, for angels. And above the throne, these burning ones with six wings, the Scripture says, "With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew." They were above him, Seraphim, burning ones, we're not told how many, there had to be at least two based on what happens next. Just imagine these burning ones that are above, this is what Isaiah has seen, he's seen the King, lofty and exalted, his train filling the temple and the burning ones above his head. God is so Holy on his throne, they had to cover their eyes. Can you imagine the angel, the Seraphim, and the Cherubim having to cover their eyes when they're near the throne of God? And then some would say the reason they covered their feet is just a modesty before Him, a humility before God the Holy one.
Ross Sawyers: [00:18:20] The Seraphim started calling out to one another in verse 3, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” Holy, Holy, Holy. I was reminded again, as I studied and read, multiple people, note this, this is the only attribute of God, that is repeated three times. Nowhere in Scripture will you read love, love, love is God. Peace, peace, peace, he's the Lord of Hosts. Truth, truth, truth he's the Lord of hosts. But both here, and in Revelation, you do see three times Holy, Holy, Holy. So, Lord God Almighty, the Lord of Hosts, he's the Holy one, separate, unmixed, pure in who he is, absolute moral purity in him. Do you ever notice that when we sing the hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, the room is different? And it's not because it's a hymn, it's because of who God is. He's Holy, Holy, Holy. Something different happens when we sing about the holiness of God, than when we sing other things about God. Holiness permeates every other character and attribute of God, it's a Holy love, it's a Holy truth, it's a Holy peace, it's a set apart love, it's a set apart peace, it's a set apart truth that's in line with who God is, is Holy. The Holiness goes through every one of who he is in his attributes, it's a Holy justice, and every social justice issue out there is not God's social justice issue, it's only the ones that are Holy justice issues. And those would be the things that match up with the character of God and who God is because God is a God of justice and righteousness. But it's a Holy justice, it's set apart, it's his justice from his perspective.
Ross Sawyers: [00:21:10] See, God is a Holy God, it's unimaginable, it's incomparable, it's transcendent, it's majestic. In Exodus 3, Moses ran into this, he was on Mount Horeb, and he was pasturing his flock, and he saw a bush, and this bush was burning, but it was not being consumed by the fire. Now, later, the writer of Hebrews and others would call God a consuming fire, and we sang a song about that fire coming down. God is a consuming fire, but here he is, he's consuming the bush, but he hasn't burnt it up. And as any of us would, Moses goes towards the bush, he's curious about the bush. And as he moves to it, then he's told by a voice to take off his sandals because he's on Holy ground because God's in that place. And then Moses is able to go closer with his sandals off, but he hides his face. What did the Seraphim do? They hide their eyes and cover their feet. What was Moses's reaction? He was told to remove his sandals because he was on Holy ground, and then he hid his face, God's holiness was too much.
Ross Sawyers: [00:22:35] In Leviticus, if you read through your Bible, and you try to read through it in a year, Leviticus is a place we get stumped, it's the place we surrender and give up. But what's the whole of Leviticus about? It's about the Holiness of God, the whole thing is about God's Holiness. In Leviticus 16, he talks about the tabernacle, and we know that the tabernacle is surrounded, it's the very center of Israel's life. And they're always reminded that God is at the center, and in the tabernacle is a tent, and in that tent, there's two rooms, once called the Holy Place, and once called the Holy of Holies. And only once a year could a priest go into the Holy of Holies. And only then, after all of this blood sacrifice happens, and the blood cleanses and atones, so he can even go in there. But part of what happens on that day of atonement is two goats are picked, and one of the goats is slaughtered as a sin offering, and the other goat is chosen to be the scapegoat. And the priest slaughters this goat takes that blood, takes the blood of that goat, and symbolically transfers it onto the other goat and then sends the goat out because now he's transferred the sins of the people onto that goat. And now the goat is sent off into the wilderness, and it's called the scapegoat because it took the penalty for what the people should have received, somebody else took the blame. That's just to be done for one priest to be able to get into the Holy of Holies. God is a Holy God.
Ross Sawyers: [00:24:12] The psalmist declares that he's the Holy One of Israel, and Isaiah says again and again, that he's the Holy One. A.W. Tozer, who many are familiar with, has written quite a bit on the attributes of God. And in talking about holiness, he described Leonardo da Vinci in his painting of the Lord's Supper, and he said about Da Vinci that when he was painting the Lord's Supper, he could paint the disciples, but he could not figure out how to paint one face, Jesus's face. Even just recognizing the holiness of who Jesus is as God, he couldn't figure out how do I pay his face. And he finally just hurriedly did it, because he knew that he'd never get to a place where he could feel good about painting Jesus's face. He's a Holy God.
Ross Sawyers: [00:25:08] In the second part of verse 3, "The whole earth is full of His glory.” Somebody sent me a devotion this week that Max Andrews wrote, and he talked about God's glory. And in it he said, we automatically glorify anything of value if we truly grasp its value. I don't have to tell you to glorify something, because when you see the value of it, you glorify it, you praise it, you express it. If you're an NBA fan and you watch the all-star weekend, some of the things going on, the slam dunk contest last night and a guy, it was pretty stunning, the dunks that he made, and I just watched. And nobody had to tell the crowd to erupt when he dunked the basketball with like 85 spins and behind his head, I mean you just kind of look at it and think, how did that guy do that? It's actually worth watching. But nobody had to tell them that was of value, and they glorified it. When we see the King for who he is, we don't need anybody to tell us that we glorify him, we automatically do that when we grasp the value of the King. C.S. Lewis wrote a sermon called The Weight of Glory, and the word glory means weight. And when I see the weight of who God is in his character, we have nothing left in us but to praise and glorify him, so Isaiah sees that the whole earth is full of his glory. So I don't know where His Glory is, I don't know how I see it.
Ross Sawyers: [00:26:45] And I love what Max Anders said, "The more our perception of God changes, and we understand who he is, then the more we'll see his glory." His glory is everywhere, it is in this room, in the eyes, and in the faces of every person in the room, it is in his creation, it is in his design. When we see God for who he is, we see his glory and that the whole Earth is full of his glory.
Ross Sawyers: [00:27:19] In the temple was such, that in verse 4, "The foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke." So we have the scene, God is on his throne, the Seraphim are above, the burning ones, and they're saying, Holy, Holy, Holy. And the whole threshold is trembling at the voice of him who calls out, the temple is filling with smoke. The [inaudible] is filled it, the smoke is filling it, and then Isaiah has a response. He's looking through a god lens right now, he's seeing reality, he's seeing who God is, and he responds by saying in verse five, "Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” Isaiah sees the holiness of God and he's ruined. That word means unraveled, undone. When we see God, when we see the King clearly, then we see clearly ourselves.
Ross Sawyers: [00:28:49] Isaiah, in chapter 5, had pronounced all these woes on the people. He said, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil." Sound familiar? "Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!", that's Isaiah 5:20. But now he looks, he's not looking at people anymore, he sees the King, and he sees the holiness and purity of the King. And when he sees the King, it's "Woe is me, for I'm ruined." He's not looking and comparing to everybody else; he sees God. And when we see God, we're ruined when we see him for what he is and who he is. A.W. Tozer said this, "If I haven't felt the sense of vileness, by contrast with that sense of unapproachable and indescribable holiness, I wonder if I ever have been hit hard enough to really repent. And if I don't repent, I wonder if I can believe." I don't want you to miss the weight of what he said in that quote. Tozer is saying, "If I haven't seen how vile I am, in light of how Holy God is, then I don't know how I can repent. And if I can't repent, how can I believe? Has the weight of God's glory and purity and holiness so settled on you and me, that I actually see my sin for what it is? We like to say we made a mistake, I'm flawed, don't judge me. But when we come before the King and we see him, it's not a mistake, a flaw, and don't judge me. No, it's, I am vile and wicked and evil before God. You say, whoa, wait a minute, I don't do this, or I don't do that, my sins not...Come on.
Ross Sawyers: [00:31:19] God is Holy, one sin got Adam and Eve extracted from the garden. One sin excluded Moses from going to the Promised Land. One sin and Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead. Somebody said, I thought it's right, we're more shocked when we hear about the judgment of God than we hear about the mercy of God. We ought to be more stunned when we hear about the mercy of God. He is a Holy God, that is who is, and we are vile people before him. Isaiah was really specific; he didn't say forgive my sins right before he went to bed and call it a good day. He said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips." I don't know what it was that he did, I don't know if he cursed a lot, I don't know if he just understood the human heart and understood that any time we sin with our words or something we might say, that comes from the heart. Whatever it was, before the King, he understood it, and he was really specific.
Ross Sawyers: [00:32:48] Peter, in Luke chapter 5, it says that Peter was fishing, he came in with his buddies. Jesus says, hey, I know it's been a long night, but you go back out to deep water, throw your nets. Peter, come on. He goes, too many fish, the nets start to break. What does Peter say when he gets back to Jesus? He said, "Go away from me, I'm a sinful man." He knew that he was in the presence of the Holy God in Christ.
Ross Sawyers: [00:33:32] I'm praying for Sam Smith who wrote the song Unholy. Apparently, the Grammy Awards aren't worth watching, so you try to figure out how sensational you can make something. I thought we were talking about God's holiness, and it makes sense to contrast it to unholiness. So I looked up the song, and then I got the music video to go with it. About 45 seconds in, I did what Paul told Timothy, and I fled immorality, that was the most vile moments coming through my laptop that I've experienced in a long time, and people applauded that. Unfaithfulness to a wife, unholiness. I pray he'll have an Isaiah moment, and see who God is, and say, Woe is me. I'm an unclean man. Isaiah was specific. What about us?
Ross Sawyers: [00:34:49] If you had to fill in the blank in Isaiah 6, and said, "Woe is me, I'm ruined because I'm a man of unclean lips." What would you say? Because I'm a woman of trashy romance novels. Woe is me. I had somebody tell me a few years ago that I'd be stunned by how many women in our church have read 50 Shades of Gray. How many times do women place books, movies, and tv shows, just to be able to have conversations with the other ladies in the community, but trashing their minds with things that are not of God? Woe is me from ruined because I'm a man of pornography, it's possible you watched it last night. God is a Holy God. Woe is me because I'm a man or a woman who's considering adultery right now. Woe is me because I'm a student, a 20-something, and I just assume sex and dating go together. Woe is me, I'm a person that is afraid to offend my neighbor, but I'm not afraid to offend God. What would the blank be for you?
Ross Sawyers: [00:36:43] Now, the good news is that God applies his grace. And one thing I'd like you to do in your life groups this week is, ask the question about confession and repentance. For the last few years, I've been trying to listen to what I don't hear people say, and I just don't hear people speak very much about confession and repentance. I hear pastors say, that's what we're supposed to do. I say it when we do it on this platform, but just among us, do we confess specifically and repent? If we don't, why not? And one thought I have, just for you to consider in your life groups or your families. Isaiah saw the King, then he confessed and repented. If we're too busy to stop and see the King, I don't know that we'll confess and repent.
Ross Sawyers: [00:37:42] The good news is that the Seraphim came with a tong, and brought a burning coal, and put it specifically on the lips of Isaiah and cleansed him. And that's what Jesus did on the cross, in his grace, he came and specifically covered every sin and clothed us with grace and mercy. And Isaiah was declared forgiven when that act of grace was placed on him. Isaiah didn't ask for that, God mercifully gave it to him. We didn't ask for Jesus to be the scapegoat, to bear the judgment and wrath that we deserve, but he did, and he offers that grace and opportunity to us in him.
Ross Sawyers: [00:38:43] The way I'd like to end our time, and I'm just going to beg you to not rush out of here. I'm sorry, I said it before you got up. They're serving, I know why they got up to go, and so do they, they're serving. Anybody else, this is confession time, if you'll share your greatest sin, and then we can go from there. What I'd like for us to do, we're going to darken the room a little bit and just have the cross lit, I think it's a powerful symbol of what Christ did for us. And I just want to invite you, if you would, to think about this as an altar, and to come before the Lord. And let's just be quiet for a little longer than usual, and see what God wants to work in our hearts today if we see the King for who he is, and then repent before him. There may be people in marriages, husbands, and wives, you need to confess and repent today, first before God, and then with your spouse. I don't know what it is. but I wonder if, in light of if we can just see the King for who he is, I wonder what God will do in our hearts to convict, confess, repent, and then we go out forgiven.
Ross Sawyers: [00:40:10] So let's take a little bit of space to do that. And then let me do this, this is probably a bad idea, but I'm going to try. I recognize I've got to be slightly later than we would normally let out. I just want this to be a quiet space, if you want to leave or need to leave, then you feel free to quietly dismiss. If you'd like to stay in your seat or come to the altar, this is how we're going to end our day. And I almost hesitate to do that, but I'm going to just be respectful of the time. And just let you know that this space is here, I'll be here, and I would just love for anybody to join me. Online as well, your home should be a fantastic place for this space. All right.
Ross Sawyers: [00:40:53] So, Father, will you meet us in these moments of quiet? And God, I pray that we would see Your holiness and your purity, that you'd reveal our vileness and our darkness, and that you'd free us today in the grace of Jesus.
Recorded in Grapevine, Texas.
Ross Sawyers: [00:01:01] There would be a number of ways to think about that, and I think all of us have different ways we probably process when we hear something like that, and sometimes it's hard for us to grab hold of there supernatural things that God does, and he moves in ways that are beyond what we can understand. And there are people that have been praying for revival in our land. We constantly pray for that. And then when we see it, we have to be careful not to be skeptical of it. And one of the things that's concerning to me, at least a concern, is that within a day or two, they're immediately calling it revival. My understanding of revivals would be that over a period of time, people are broken over their sin, and their lives start to be transformed by Christ, as that happens, their immediate church starts to change, their community starts to change, their city starts to change, and the state and the nation starts to change. That's what happens when there's a revival in the land. And so to say after a day or two, this is revival, I don't know, I don't know what the definition is. If hearts are being revived through what God's doing in that moment, and that's what revival is, yes, that's awesome. At a minimum, what I would say is God is pouring out his spirit on thousands of people and we want to get in on what God's doing, praying for them, praying for protection over them. It's an interesting day with our social media world because it feels like there could be pressure put on what's going on there for something to maintain and happen, rather than just allowing God to move and do what he's going to do for whatever period of time that he's going to do it. And so we want to be careful to pray for what God's doing there, and the enemy will do everything he can to try to disrupt what God's doing, and we want to pray against the evil and against those who would come in and try to mess up what God is doing and just pray that God will continue that work in the students, faculty, and all those who are participating being affected by it.
Ross Sawyers: [00:03:07] We do not, however, have to go to Hugh's auditorium in Kentucky to be met by God, and our prayer is that he'll meet us right in this space right here and that he'll meet you wherever you are in your bedroom or your living room, online this morning, that guy can meet you in that place. And so we just pray that what's happening there will happen all over the country, and I believe a parable that Jesus told best illustrates our day. We have in our day crazy and chaos, and we have in our day godliness and people following hard after Jesus. And Jesus told a parable about a farmer, and those who worked for him planted the seed, and then an evil one came in the middle of the night and planted the seed of weeds and then that started to come up. When the workers saw it, they came to the farmer and said, hey, it looks like somebody came and planted some other seed here, what do you want us to do? Do you want us to pull it up? And he said, no, wait until the end, it's going to grow up together. It'll be obvious in the end what is the wheat and what are the weeds, and at that point, I'll separate it out.
Ross Sawyers: [00:04:19] And I believe that's exactly what God's doing right now. He is raising godly people up all over the country, all over the world. People are falling hard after Jesus, and at the same time that God is doing an amazing work among his people and drawing people into himself, there's an evil that's going on right with it. So we're just kind of growing it up together, both evil and good. And in the end, God is going to separate out that which is good from that which is bad, and that which is his will be with him for all eternity. That's where I believe we are today. That's where we've been for ages and generations, and in this particular one, that's where we find ourselves.
Ross Sawyers: [00:04:58] What I want us to do this morning. I said a minute ago that we're in a pivot point of this series of lenses. We're going to turn the corner and talk about more specific cultural issues in the framework we've been building to talk about those issues. We've been trying to teach you in a really, in a different way, how to have conversations with people in our culture, within your own family, where God is the center of the conversation. And sometimes we want to make a run for the practical, and I'm just going to suggest today that if we miss the piece we're doing now, we'll miss out on how to do the practical conversation. We're teaching from a way that God is the center of the conversation, and who God is, as the Scripture describes him, which is true and trustworthy, everything flows from who He is. So if I start with this character and I talk about who God is, which by the way, so many people in our culture today would say they believe in God. One of the questions we need to have in a gracious way with people is who is God? How do you define who God is? And that's what we're trying to carefully do, it's about who God is from the Scriptures because the God we're talking about from the scriptures is oftentimes different than the God that someone you're talking to is talking about. So we're talking about God as a sovereign God, God who is in control of all, God as an unchanging God in his design. He hasn't changed his mind about his creation and his design for creation and the way it's to function and what his purposes are, and God is Holy in who He is.
Ross Sawyers: [00:06:42] And I want us to hang out in Isaiah Chapter 6, and fixate, continuing to fixate, on what we've sung already about the Holiness of God. I realize this is not a word that you're sharing in your cubicles at work, or in the hallway of your classrooms, or in the business office of your corporation, wherever it is that you are. And I don't know that that's not a bad thing, although I hope it could become more of a thing. Because when we see who God is, the Holy God, it's worth speaking of, of the holiness of God. I actually believe if we can really grab hold of this, it's the game changer in our whole cultural conversations when we understand who God is, which is a Holy God.
Ross Sawyers: [00:07:31] In Isaiah 6, we'll cover the first five verses, and then I'll quickly cover three after that. But the bulk of our time will be in the first five. Today, no smart TV, no diagrams, and no scripture on the screens, we're going old school, we're going to read our Bibles. If you have a Bible, Isaiah chapter 6. If you're not sure where it is, go to the table of contents, there is no shame in that. Somewhere in the middle of your Bible, if you just want to kind of linger around and try to find it. If you have an app on your device, use your device. If you don't have a device or a Bible, look on with a friend. If your friend doesn't have a Bible, just listen today, I think it'll work well for you. So we'll just let God's Word pour over us.
Ross Sawyers: [00:08:13] But in Isaiah chapter 6, we want to talk about the holiness of God. When we think about the word Holy, it means separate, it means to cut. God is Holy, meaning He is separate from any sin, any evil, and he's whole and he's devoted to his own glory. It's twofold, he's separate from sin, and he's devoted to his own glory. The word means purity, unmixed, there is nothing evil, wicked, or sinful, mixed in with the holiness of God, he is totally and absolutely pure in all of who he is. The Greek word for Holy is a word that means an awe-full thing, full of awe, God is a God who is full of awe. And our prayer is that we would increase in our awe of God, and that we would increase in grieving over our own sins before a Holy God.
Ross Sawyers: [00:09:27] In chapter 6 verse 1, it says, "In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple." Now, sometimes we read phrases like this, and we move past it because we don't know who Uzziah was. But King Uzziah, it's crucial to understanding Isaiah 6, to understand this king. And when we talk about lenses, this is a king who had a God lens for a season of time, but then he shifted and switched to a self-centered lens, as so often people do.
Ross Sawyers: [00:10:04] I mentioned a few weeks ago a book called Godfidence by Jim Akers. It is an excellent book, many of you have gotten it, and you've already read it, and commented on it to me. But he talks in there not about FOMO, fear of missing out, but YOFO, you only finish once. How are we going to finish life? You only finish once. In Scripture, so often we see men and women who start well, but they finish poorly. We want to finish well. King Uzziah did not finish well; he was a king for 52 years of Israel and mostly followed God during that time.
Ross Sawyers: [00:10:48] But the Scripture says in Second Chronicles 26, verses 16 through 21, that Uzziah became proud in his heart, and it corrupted him because of his pride. He was successful as a king, and so often when people are successful, they forget how they arrived there. Oh, at the beginning it was, I need God to help me do this, God is the one who's in this, God's the one that's caused this business to prosper. But somewhere along the way, we get a little full of ourselves and think, look how good I am at what I do. That's why I've risen to the top of my company, that's why I do so well, that's why I receive these awards. Look what I did. And Uzziah got to that place, he forgot where he had come from, and he was proud. And he decided to do something that only the priests were to do, and you'll hear this and you'll think, what's the big deal, he just went into church, and he burned some incense? God is a Holy God, and he designed his tabernacle and everything to be done in it in a way that would be Holy, and separate, and only the priests could go into the tabernacle. But you, Uzziah, the king, he decided he was going into the tabernacle and burned incense at the altar of incense. Now Azariah, who was the chief priest, and then 80 other priests contended with the king. I'm guessing about the first six rows here, maybe are 80 people. So just imagine that the front 80 here, and Azariah are coming towards, and I'm King Uzziah are coming towards me and saying, you can't be in here, this is a Holy place. It's not for the king to do this, the priests have been assigned this role, you're violating the holiness of God. It's not just burning incense; you are violating God's holiness. Uzziah, in his pride, was enraged, the Scripture says. And at the moment that he was enraged, leprosy came on his forehead and then covered his body. You only finish once, and Uzziah finished his life in a separate house, unclean with leprosy, not following after the ways of God. He switched his lens, and he made it about him.
Ross Sawyers: [00:13:47] And it was in the year of King Uzziah's death, that we see Isaiah having a picture of the true king. Now, imagine a time when things are shifting in leadership, for 52 years Uzziah was the king, everybody would be a bit unsettled at this point as to who the new king would be, and what he would do? We know what that's like when election season comes along. So often we get a little bit jittery, we get a little bit nervous, and we're wondering who's going to be elected, who's got God going to remove, and who's God's going to put into place, according to Daniel> But we'll get a little bit unstable in that time, we're wondering how will this new leadership affect us? What will the laws be that are passed? What will the ordinances be that are passed in a city, and how will they affect my taxes?
Ross Sawyers: [00:14:33] We get a little unsettled, and that's what's happening here. They're unsettled, and in the midst of that unsettled transition, Isaiah gets a picture of the king, the true king, "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple." Now, if you're an artist in the room and a number of you are in, a number of you draw out the things we talk about. Whoever is teaching on a given Sunday, I would love to see it if you attempted to draw what we're describing here in the vision that Isaiah had and what he saw. So he sees the Lord, he sees the true king of kings sitting on a throne, the king is on his throne and he's lofty and exalted, and the Scripture says he had the train of his robe, and it was filling the temple.
Ross Sawyers: [00:14:33] Now, one of the persons on my research team researched the trains on wedding dresses. I was at a wedding last night, it was just beautifully done, God was honored and blessed in it the way the person did it that led it. And then I read this about the train of the robe, and I thought, that's kind of interesting, who really studies the trains of wedding gowns? I don't think we look at it this way today, but do you know how the length of the train of a robe was decided? By the amount of wealth that a person had. The more wealth, the longer the train. The train on Jesus's robe, on God's robe in this passage, filled the temple, it just filled it. Imagine whenever you're at a wedding, and you see the bride and she has a big train. I mean, it's like the maid of honor, matron of honor, I mean, it's like game on, how do you keep that thing under control? And it's just kind of all right here, his train filled the temple. Filled it. He's glorious, rich, and wealthy in who he is, is the king. And Isaiah had seen a picture of the Lord sitting on his throne, lofty and exalted, sovereign and unchanging.
Ross Sawyers: [00:16:56] In verse 2, "Seraphim stood above Him." We sang Holy, Holy, Holy a minute ago, and we sang about Seraphim and Cherubim. And if you don't have some kind of a church background, you're wondering, what did I just say? And the word Seraphim is a word for burning ones, for angels. And above the throne, these burning ones with six wings, the Scripture says, "With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew." They were above him, Seraphim, burning ones, we're not told how many, there had to be at least two based on what happens next. Just imagine these burning ones that are above, this is what Isaiah has seen, he's seen the King, lofty and exalted, his train filling the temple and the burning ones above his head. God is so Holy on his throne, they had to cover their eyes. Can you imagine the angel, the Seraphim, and the Cherubim having to cover their eyes when they're near the throne of God? And then some would say the reason they covered their feet is just a modesty before Him, a humility before God the Holy one.
Ross Sawyers: [00:18:20] The Seraphim started calling out to one another in verse 3, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” Holy, Holy, Holy. I was reminded again, as I studied and read, multiple people, note this, this is the only attribute of God, that is repeated three times. Nowhere in Scripture will you read love, love, love is God. Peace, peace, peace, he's the Lord of Hosts. Truth, truth, truth he's the Lord of hosts. But both here, and in Revelation, you do see three times Holy, Holy, Holy. So, Lord God Almighty, the Lord of Hosts, he's the Holy one, separate, unmixed, pure in who he is, absolute moral purity in him. Do you ever notice that when we sing the hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, the room is different? And it's not because it's a hymn, it's because of who God is. He's Holy, Holy, Holy. Something different happens when we sing about the holiness of God, than when we sing other things about God. Holiness permeates every other character and attribute of God, it's a Holy love, it's a Holy truth, it's a Holy peace, it's a set apart love, it's a set apart peace, it's a set apart truth that's in line with who God is, is Holy. The Holiness goes through every one of who he is in his attributes, it's a Holy justice, and every social justice issue out there is not God's social justice issue, it's only the ones that are Holy justice issues. And those would be the things that match up with the character of God and who God is because God is a God of justice and righteousness. But it's a Holy justice, it's set apart, it's his justice from his perspective.
Ross Sawyers: [00:21:10] See, God is a Holy God, it's unimaginable, it's incomparable, it's transcendent, it's majestic. In Exodus 3, Moses ran into this, he was on Mount Horeb, and he was pasturing his flock, and he saw a bush, and this bush was burning, but it was not being consumed by the fire. Now, later, the writer of Hebrews and others would call God a consuming fire, and we sang a song about that fire coming down. God is a consuming fire, but here he is, he's consuming the bush, but he hasn't burnt it up. And as any of us would, Moses goes towards the bush, he's curious about the bush. And as he moves to it, then he's told by a voice to take off his sandals because he's on Holy ground because God's in that place. And then Moses is able to go closer with his sandals off, but he hides his face. What did the Seraphim do? They hide their eyes and cover their feet. What was Moses's reaction? He was told to remove his sandals because he was on Holy ground, and then he hid his face, God's holiness was too much.
Ross Sawyers: [00:22:35] In Leviticus, if you read through your Bible, and you try to read through it in a year, Leviticus is a place we get stumped, it's the place we surrender and give up. But what's the whole of Leviticus about? It's about the Holiness of God, the whole thing is about God's Holiness. In Leviticus 16, he talks about the tabernacle, and we know that the tabernacle is surrounded, it's the very center of Israel's life. And they're always reminded that God is at the center, and in the tabernacle is a tent, and in that tent, there's two rooms, once called the Holy Place, and once called the Holy of Holies. And only once a year could a priest go into the Holy of Holies. And only then, after all of this blood sacrifice happens, and the blood cleanses and atones, so he can even go in there. But part of what happens on that day of atonement is two goats are picked, and one of the goats is slaughtered as a sin offering, and the other goat is chosen to be the scapegoat. And the priest slaughters this goat takes that blood, takes the blood of that goat, and symbolically transfers it onto the other goat and then sends the goat out because now he's transferred the sins of the people onto that goat. And now the goat is sent off into the wilderness, and it's called the scapegoat because it took the penalty for what the people should have received, somebody else took the blame. That's just to be done for one priest to be able to get into the Holy of Holies. God is a Holy God.
Ross Sawyers: [00:24:12] The psalmist declares that he's the Holy One of Israel, and Isaiah says again and again, that he's the Holy One. A.W. Tozer, who many are familiar with, has written quite a bit on the attributes of God. And in talking about holiness, he described Leonardo da Vinci in his painting of the Lord's Supper, and he said about Da Vinci that when he was painting the Lord's Supper, he could paint the disciples, but he could not figure out how to paint one face, Jesus's face. Even just recognizing the holiness of who Jesus is as God, he couldn't figure out how do I pay his face. And he finally just hurriedly did it, because he knew that he'd never get to a place where he could feel good about painting Jesus's face. He's a Holy God.
Ross Sawyers: [00:25:08] In the second part of verse 3, "The whole earth is full of His glory.” Somebody sent me a devotion this week that Max Andrews wrote, and he talked about God's glory. And in it he said, we automatically glorify anything of value if we truly grasp its value. I don't have to tell you to glorify something, because when you see the value of it, you glorify it, you praise it, you express it. If you're an NBA fan and you watch the all-star weekend, some of the things going on, the slam dunk contest last night and a guy, it was pretty stunning, the dunks that he made, and I just watched. And nobody had to tell the crowd to erupt when he dunked the basketball with like 85 spins and behind his head, I mean you just kind of look at it and think, how did that guy do that? It's actually worth watching. But nobody had to tell them that was of value, and they glorified it. When we see the King for who he is, we don't need anybody to tell us that we glorify him, we automatically do that when we grasp the value of the King. C.S. Lewis wrote a sermon called The Weight of Glory, and the word glory means weight. And when I see the weight of who God is in his character, we have nothing left in us but to praise and glorify him, so Isaiah sees that the whole earth is full of his glory. So I don't know where His Glory is, I don't know how I see it.
Ross Sawyers: [00:26:45] And I love what Max Anders said, "The more our perception of God changes, and we understand who he is, then the more we'll see his glory." His glory is everywhere, it is in this room, in the eyes, and in the faces of every person in the room, it is in his creation, it is in his design. When we see God for who he is, we see his glory and that the whole Earth is full of his glory.
Ross Sawyers: [00:27:19] In the temple was such, that in verse 4, "The foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke." So we have the scene, God is on his throne, the Seraphim are above, the burning ones, and they're saying, Holy, Holy, Holy. And the whole threshold is trembling at the voice of him who calls out, the temple is filling with smoke. The [inaudible] is filled it, the smoke is filling it, and then Isaiah has a response. He's looking through a god lens right now, he's seeing reality, he's seeing who God is, and he responds by saying in verse five, "Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” Isaiah sees the holiness of God and he's ruined. That word means unraveled, undone. When we see God, when we see the King clearly, then we see clearly ourselves.
Ross Sawyers: [00:28:49] Isaiah, in chapter 5, had pronounced all these woes on the people. He said, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil." Sound familiar? "Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!", that's Isaiah 5:20. But now he looks, he's not looking at people anymore, he sees the King, and he sees the holiness and purity of the King. And when he sees the King, it's "Woe is me, for I'm ruined." He's not looking and comparing to everybody else; he sees God. And when we see God, we're ruined when we see him for what he is and who he is. A.W. Tozer said this, "If I haven't felt the sense of vileness, by contrast with that sense of unapproachable and indescribable holiness, I wonder if I ever have been hit hard enough to really repent. And if I don't repent, I wonder if I can believe." I don't want you to miss the weight of what he said in that quote. Tozer is saying, "If I haven't seen how vile I am, in light of how Holy God is, then I don't know how I can repent. And if I can't repent, how can I believe? Has the weight of God's glory and purity and holiness so settled on you and me, that I actually see my sin for what it is? We like to say we made a mistake, I'm flawed, don't judge me. But when we come before the King and we see him, it's not a mistake, a flaw, and don't judge me. No, it's, I am vile and wicked and evil before God. You say, whoa, wait a minute, I don't do this, or I don't do that, my sins not...Come on.
Ross Sawyers: [00:31:19] God is Holy, one sin got Adam and Eve extracted from the garden. One sin excluded Moses from going to the Promised Land. One sin and Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead. Somebody said, I thought it's right, we're more shocked when we hear about the judgment of God than we hear about the mercy of God. We ought to be more stunned when we hear about the mercy of God. He is a Holy God, that is who is, and we are vile people before him. Isaiah was really specific; he didn't say forgive my sins right before he went to bed and call it a good day. He said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips." I don't know what it was that he did, I don't know if he cursed a lot, I don't know if he just understood the human heart and understood that any time we sin with our words or something we might say, that comes from the heart. Whatever it was, before the King, he understood it, and he was really specific.
Ross Sawyers: [00:32:48] Peter, in Luke chapter 5, it says that Peter was fishing, he came in with his buddies. Jesus says, hey, I know it's been a long night, but you go back out to deep water, throw your nets. Peter, come on. He goes, too many fish, the nets start to break. What does Peter say when he gets back to Jesus? He said, "Go away from me, I'm a sinful man." He knew that he was in the presence of the Holy God in Christ.
Ross Sawyers: [00:33:32] I'm praying for Sam Smith who wrote the song Unholy. Apparently, the Grammy Awards aren't worth watching, so you try to figure out how sensational you can make something. I thought we were talking about God's holiness, and it makes sense to contrast it to unholiness. So I looked up the song, and then I got the music video to go with it. About 45 seconds in, I did what Paul told Timothy, and I fled immorality, that was the most vile moments coming through my laptop that I've experienced in a long time, and people applauded that. Unfaithfulness to a wife, unholiness. I pray he'll have an Isaiah moment, and see who God is, and say, Woe is me. I'm an unclean man. Isaiah was specific. What about us?
Ross Sawyers: [00:34:49] If you had to fill in the blank in Isaiah 6, and said, "Woe is me, I'm ruined because I'm a man of unclean lips." What would you say? Because I'm a woman of trashy romance novels. Woe is me. I had somebody tell me a few years ago that I'd be stunned by how many women in our church have read 50 Shades of Gray. How many times do women place books, movies, and tv shows, just to be able to have conversations with the other ladies in the community, but trashing their minds with things that are not of God? Woe is me from ruined because I'm a man of pornography, it's possible you watched it last night. God is a Holy God. Woe is me because I'm a man or a woman who's considering adultery right now. Woe is me because I'm a student, a 20-something, and I just assume sex and dating go together. Woe is me, I'm a person that is afraid to offend my neighbor, but I'm not afraid to offend God. What would the blank be for you?
Ross Sawyers: [00:36:43] Now, the good news is that God applies his grace. And one thing I'd like you to do in your life groups this week is, ask the question about confession and repentance. For the last few years, I've been trying to listen to what I don't hear people say, and I just don't hear people speak very much about confession and repentance. I hear pastors say, that's what we're supposed to do. I say it when we do it on this platform, but just among us, do we confess specifically and repent? If we don't, why not? And one thought I have, just for you to consider in your life groups or your families. Isaiah saw the King, then he confessed and repented. If we're too busy to stop and see the King, I don't know that we'll confess and repent.
Ross Sawyers: [00:37:42] The good news is that the Seraphim came with a tong, and brought a burning coal, and put it specifically on the lips of Isaiah and cleansed him. And that's what Jesus did on the cross, in his grace, he came and specifically covered every sin and clothed us with grace and mercy. And Isaiah was declared forgiven when that act of grace was placed on him. Isaiah didn't ask for that, God mercifully gave it to him. We didn't ask for Jesus to be the scapegoat, to bear the judgment and wrath that we deserve, but he did, and he offers that grace and opportunity to us in him.
Ross Sawyers: [00:38:43] The way I'd like to end our time, and I'm just going to beg you to not rush out of here. I'm sorry, I said it before you got up. They're serving, I know why they got up to go, and so do they, they're serving. Anybody else, this is confession time, if you'll share your greatest sin, and then we can go from there. What I'd like for us to do, we're going to darken the room a little bit and just have the cross lit, I think it's a powerful symbol of what Christ did for us. And I just want to invite you, if you would, to think about this as an altar, and to come before the Lord. And let's just be quiet for a little longer than usual, and see what God wants to work in our hearts today if we see the King for who he is, and then repent before him. There may be people in marriages, husbands, and wives, you need to confess and repent today, first before God, and then with your spouse. I don't know what it is. but I wonder if, in light of if we can just see the King for who he is, I wonder what God will do in our hearts to convict, confess, repent, and then we go out forgiven.
Ross Sawyers: [00:40:10] So let's take a little bit of space to do that. And then let me do this, this is probably a bad idea, but I'm going to try. I recognize I've got to be slightly later than we would normally let out. I just want this to be a quiet space, if you want to leave or need to leave, then you feel free to quietly dismiss. If you'd like to stay in your seat or come to the altar, this is how we're going to end our day. And I almost hesitate to do that, but I'm going to just be respectful of the time. And just let you know that this space is here, I'll be here, and I would just love for anybody to join me. Online as well, your home should be a fantastic place for this space. All right.
Ross Sawyers: [00:40:53] So, Father, will you meet us in these moments of quiet? And God, I pray that we would see Your holiness and your purity, that you'd reveal our vileness and our darkness, and that you'd free us today in the grace of Jesus.
Recorded in Grapevine, Texas.
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