[1] #318, Choosing the High Road, Pastor Mark Boucher, Sunday 07-06-2008

Text: Isaiah 55:6-9 “Take the High Road”

INTRODUCTION:

1. Friday night, as a family we traveled to Boston.
   1. We stood on the east side of the Charles River.
   2. I imagined the British occupation of Boston in 1775 and pictured Washington and the Continentals in Cambridge.
2. Then I realized, America is still at war …
   1. This is not a war for national independence, or against terrorists.
   2. This great struggle is the war for the mind and soul of America.
3. Isaiah the prophet presented God’s people with truth.
   1. Isaiah witnessed the decline and fall of Israel.
   2. Isaiah saw the thunderclouds coming toward Judah.
   3. *God led the prophets to warn and offer hope.
4. I can’t change America, but I can change myself.
   1. Our change can be a powerful weapon in the hands of God.
   2. *Even the most introverted person influences about 10.000 people in his lifetime.
   3. Change is an inside job … starts with our mind, thoughts.
   4. Forces in America encourage people to ignore God.
   5. You can preoccupy yourself with a host of activities and media saturation and hardly even think of God.
   6. The lack of God always pulls us lower in morals, decency.

QUESTION:
What will it take for us to change from lower to higher … from our thoughts to God’s thoughts?

ANSWER:
We must choose the right road. We must exercise our faith in what God says. How?

1. Believe what God says about Himself.
   1. Do you believe that God is wise enough to reveal Himself?
   2. God proclaims, “I am available” (v.6)
   3. He is high and holy, but has invited us to come up.
   4. “He can be found” (v.6)
   5. Some hold on to thought like: “you can never really know if there is a God.”
   6. Some say, “God has hidden Himself in the universe.” Nature.
   7. He is near.
   8. “Call on Him while He is near.” (v.6b)
   9. “He is not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:27)
   10. God proclaims, “I am merciful.” (v.7b)
   11. He desires to freely pardon (v.7b) (Hebrew “multiply pardon”)
   12. He revealed His mercy in His Son sent from heaven.
   13. “But he was periced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
   14. *Some people say they believe in God’s availability and mercy, but it makes little difference in how they think and live. They live down low.
2. We must believe what God says about ourselves.
   1. God says we must seek Him. (v.6)
   2. As Americans we are searching for spiritual experience.
   3. Seeking God pushes us outside our self-centered, self-deceived thoughts. (I can do it alone.)
   4. God says we must be willing to turn, change. (v.7)
   5. This is true for the non-believer.
   6. *I had to be willing to turn to God and forsake sin.
   7. This is true for the believer. (The message of Isaiah was first to God’s people.)
3. God says, choose the high road. (vv.8-9)
   1. God wants our life filled with beauty, awe.
   2. Being filled with the thoughts of the world only bring you down.

Our culture affects us more than we realize.

Why does God want us to take the high road?

“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.” (Isaiah 26:3)
Choose the high road …