Text: Isaiah 6:8
Theme: Send Me, Send Me!
February 1, 2015
Most of you who are as old a I or older, remember the good ole days in elementary
school where you still played simple games like kickball or stealing sticks. Maybe
not stealing sticks unless you were in a country school, but either way, you
remember those games where the captains picked teams. Some would invariably
holler, “Pick me, pick me!” as others quietly thought, “I’d like to be chosen.” As we
observe LHM Sunday, Isaiah provides a response that fits all of us as he says, “Send
me; send me!”
I. By the grace of God, God wants all of His people to say, “Send me; send me!” A.
But truth be told, we are often reluctant to go. 1. We’re reluctant because we
believe we have more important things to do. We need to make a living, to keep up
the house and make the payments on our vehicles, to socialize with our friends, to
keep our sanity. We need to enjoy our recreation and sports because those things
make life enjoyable. Any one of us could easily make a list of important things that
need to be done, things so important that almost nothing else matters to us at the
moment. Yet, as we make our mental lists, we convince ourselves that God should
send someone else.
2. We’re reluctant because we believe it’s someone else’s job. If everyone in our
church only did what they thought was their specific job, how many things would
get done? Would we prepare meals for grieving families or pick up donuts or set up
the coffee? Would we serve on the Council or be active in our Sunday School? We
can insist it’s someone else’s job, but that claim is little more than an excuse. You
can even point out whose job you think it is, but each time we tell ourselves that it’s
someone else’s job, each time we fabricate another excuse to excuse ourselves from
serving, we are saying to our great God, to our Captain, “Don’t pick me; please don’t
pick me!”
II. Regardless of what we create in our minds, God is waiting for each one of us
to say, “Whatever the task, if You want me to do it, send me!” A. We say, “send me,
send me,” because we have been called by God. 1. We were called at our Baptism.
Ponder that thought for a moment. When you were a little baby, before you could
walk or talk, before you could impress God or convince God of anything, God called
you. It wasn’t just a general call to the world that could be easily dismissed. It was
a direct call to you as He said at your Baptism, “John, Mary, today you have become
part of My family and as part of My family, your greatest privilege will be to go where
I send you!”
2. We are called because God created us to go for Him. Let’s get something
straight. God could have done it Himself. He could have snapped His fingers early
one crisp winter morning and said, “All people of the world, you will now and forever
more believe, trust, and rely exclusively on Me,” but He didn’t. Instead, He says, “I
want My people to tell other people. I want them to serve Me in such a way that
they willingly and lovingly say, ‘Here am I, Lord, send me’!” We are included in
God’s plan in a big way. We have big shoes to fill. Some who have gone before us
have filled those shoes remarkably well. Now, God is waiting for us to step into
those shoes and go for Him.
3. We are called because we are qualified. What’s one of our most prominent
excuses for not going? “Lord, this is how it is. Some people can do those things
and others, like me, well, we’re not cut out to go where You send us. I’m sure You
understand and realize that I’m one that fits into the last category, the unqualified.”
Let me ask you something, “If God sets a task, any task before you, a physical task
or a people task, if God sets that task before you, do you have any right to claim you
are unqualified? If you were guaranteed to fail, would God, could God allow that to
happen with a task as important as enabling one more person to arrive in heaven?”
B. Not only are we called, but our LHM theme reminds us that we are loved. 1.
We are loved because God chose to love us. God should have left us lying in the
gutter. He should have left us to die as one of the unlovables. He should have
looked at us and said, “Out of My sight. You are a disgrace to My creation. The
next time I intend to speak to you is at Judgement Day.” That’s what God should
have done, but, as we know, that’s not what our loving Father did. Instead, He
stepped into our world and our lives and He said, “No matter what you have done or
will fail to do in the future, this much is certain. I have never and will never stop
loving you.”
2. We are loved because of the cross. Suppose someone clearly saved your life,
that if they had not acted at that precise moment, you would have been dead. How
indebted would you feel toward them? The Father who loves you and wants you to
say, “send me,” that Father sent His only Son, His most valued possession, to the
cross because of His love for you. When the cross penetrates all our excuses and
arrives at our hearts, we are so grateful, so appreciative, so enthusiastic that our
past have been paid for that we boldly and eagerly stand before our God when He
says, “Whom shall I send?’ and answer with heartfelt honor, “Here I am, washed in
the blood of Jesus. Send me!”
C. As God waits for us to say, “Send me,” He reminds us that we have already
been sent. 1. We have been sent because God needs us to get the message out to
our dying world. How many people die in the US every year? Every day, people die
and the majority of them are dying without the message because we, the collective
body of Christians, have forgotten our mission, our task, our purpose for existence.
We exist, we were created to carry out God’s plan. When we are going it alone and
doing our own thing thinking we don’t need God, we are wasting precious moments.
You and me, we’ve been sent because God has chosen people to be His messengers,
people like you and me.
2. We have been sent because we understand the answer to the question, “Whom
shall I send?” Did you notice that “sent” is past tense? We’re not in thinking mode,
contemplating mode, considering mode. We are past all that because God has
already called us, and sent us. The question we need to ponder today is this, “Since
I have already been sent, what am I doing as His messenger?” Because you are
sent, the world is watching; because you are sent, your friends and neighbors are
looking to see what makes you different; because you are sent, God Himself is
looking at you and His simple question is, “What are you doing, what will you do
today as My sent one?”
3. Maybe you weren’t bold enough to holler, “Pick me, pick me” for the kickball
team in elementary school, but I have good news for you. You’ve already been
called, loved, and sent. When God sets His next task before you, recall what you
know and then, say with conviction, “Here I am. I am ready. Send me; send me!”
Amen.