>> I can tell people are falling asleep. Yes. I can tell. If you're really struggling, just go back, get some coffee and come back. But I do want to encourage you, even though we are at a retreat, we want you to spend as much time as possible fellowshipping with other people.

But be mindful that even tomorrow, we have a full day. So if you stay up until 2, 3 in the morning, basically the next day, you're not going to be ready to receive the word of God. So use your common sense. It's not a high school issue, so we're not going to have, you know, perfume, you need to pee it by a certain time.

But use your common sense. We came up here primarily to receive the word of God, but make sure that you're prepared for that. Okay? So last night, Harry did a great job giving introductions to Pastor Aaron. And we were a little bit concerned because on the thing it says 59 slides.

And we thought we had 59 slides, and he called me later on, and he did that on purpose to trick us. I didn't realize that Harry had that side to him. It was just serious. But I wanted to give you a brief introduction because obviously you gave the formal presentation, and I wanted to give you a more of a personal note of Pastor Aaron.

I know there's a good group of us in here that have a personal relationship with him, know him. But our church, I would say more than half of you probably have never interacted with him. So I wanted to give you a brief presentation of Pastor Aaron. And I've shared this with you before.

Outside of my decision to follow Christ, or it wasn't my decision, but meeting Christ, the next best decision that I've ever made was asking my wife out and being married to her. That was probably the second best decision. Where does that start? Do you hear? And I can say confidently that outside of Pastor Aaron and his decision to follow Christ, that his best decision that he made was asking his wife out, Tina.

Tina, they both met at our church, and I was there at the very inception of when Pastor Aaron started poking around to see if Tina would be interested, and we were actually out in China. And Tina, again, she's in the back. You've probably seen her with her children. But Tina was the hope of our sister's ministry when she was younger, and we were very close to her.

In fact, if she would come home from UCLA, many weekends she would spend the time at our home because she didn't have a place to go. And so my wife and I spent a lot of time just talking with her. There was a passion and love for Christ that really stood out.

And so when Pastor Aaron said that he had interest in her, it just made sense. The cream of the crop, all the guys, the cream of the crop and our sisters would get together. And so we were there from the very beginning, like I said. I think Pastor Aaron wouldn't be able to do what he's doing without the support of his godly wife.

So if you haven't seen her, Tina is in the back with her children. Pastor Aaron is somebody that I've known. I met his parents before I met him when I was a youth pastor. He was a third or fourth grade, and I don't even remember his face. I just heard of his name because I was the English education director at the time.

And the Sunday school teacher actually mentioned it to me that there was a rascal in the room that was causing all kinds of trouble, that his name came up. So I knew his name. I didn't know his face. And then I disappeared from the church for about a year.

I was in another church. I came back in 1997. And then our youth pastor at the time told me that Pastor Aaron, who was a student at the time, was actually one of the student leaders. And I remember the name very vaguely. It couldn't be that Aaron that I remember from third grade.

And he said, "Sure enough." He said that Aaron became a student leader, and he was the only student leader in high school. So ever since then, we took notice that he eventually went to college. And I think most of us would say that one of his primary gifts is in leadership.

And we saw that even since he was young, even among his friends. He went to UCSD, and he became the AEM, which is basically the student leader of that group. And I remember very vividly one of the things that he said to me when he graduated college. You may not remember.

But after college, he came to me, and he was obviously finally coming home. And the whole time he was at UCSD, the majority of the time, he actually drove back home just to attend church. And at that time, our church was so small, and we had a lot of collegiates who were so committed to our church.

In fact, a lot of their email names were "Brian Soldier," "Brian Honors," and his email was "Brian Kid." So a lot of people thought that we were cultists because our college students were so committed to our church. And Councilor Aaron was equally committed, or even more committed at that time.

So he would drive back home every weekend. And I remember when he graduated, one of the first things that he said to me, an encouragement, he said, "You know, because he was a leader on campus, he realized just how difficult it was to organize people and to satisfy." And a lot of people pointing out, "You should do this, you should do that." And I never prompted him, but one of the things that I remember, just straight out of college--so he was still very young--he came to me and he said, "I know what it's like to lead and how you're always looking for people." He said, "I'm going to make sure that without you telling me whatever lead there is, I'm going to set it." And I remember hearing that and being so encouraged.

I thought, "This guy is straight out of college, and he's able to recognize that." And he was trying to encourage me. So that's one of the first things that I remember. The other thing that I remember was as an ADM, at the end of the senior year, he had to give a sermon at the end of his fourth year.

And so we were kind of reviewing what he wanted to preach, and he came to me and he said he wanted to preach on the priesthood of Melchizedek in Christ, the king priesthood of Christ. I said, "You sure you want to make that your first sermon that you ever give?" And then he was telling me, he was like, "That's the sermon that he remembered me giving on the Book of Hebrews." And of all the things that I talked about, he said that's the thing that really stuck with him.

And then I told him, "Oh, go prepare your sermon." He came out with a 14-page manuscript, and I remember telling him, "You're not going to be able to preach this." He said, "I'm going to try." And then he went and he preached, and I said, "How did it go?" He said, "Yeah, I couldn't preach it." I forgot how much he went through.

You know, I tell you that story because even when he was young, he really had a heart for the deep things of God. And those are the things that attracted him. And ever since then, that's what he reads, that's what he teaches, and he really dives into these deep things of God, even to this day.

He's been a great encouragement to me personally during periods of the roughest periods of our church early on. And yes or no, how many times I would come home and say, "Man, I thank God that Aaron is serving me because he was my right-hand man." And he went through all the difficult times in our church.

When we were out trying to find facilities to rent, and we were only about 25, 30 people, he was probably the biggest proponent of our church. That's why so many people outside of our church thought it was a cult because they were speaking so highly of our church. And then when they would come and visit, it's like there's only 25 people here.

They made it sound like it was a mega church outside the church. I mean, he was so excited. But again, Pastor Aaron, through those years, like many, many times, I've shared with him as much as I've shared with my wife. Maybe a bit too much. That's how much I leaned on him.

So all the frustrations, anxieties, and struggles that I went through, even things that I would have held from Esther, I would tell him because I didn't want to poison Esther, but him, I thought it would be okay. So I wanted somebody. He told me, he's like, "Don't ever hold back because I want to know exactly what you're going through." Because he was also head of the TORC ministry, so I wanted him to see all the good and the bad, not only in the church but even in me.

And so I shared with him everything. So he was my right-hand man in the earlier part of the church and was a source of huge encouragement to me. He was sent out to BMC about five years ago. They had their anniversary service, a fifth-year anniversary service. He took a small team out there and specifically targeted that area of San Francisco because they were lacking churches.

In fact, our denomination, the Southern Baptists, has recognized San Francisco as one of the least churched areas in the country. So because of that, they're focused on trying to really recruit people to go and plant churches. The reason why that's the case is because they're not receptive. And so a lot of churches that get planted, they fold up in a year or less and they move out.

And so less and less churches are coming into that area. Well, Pastor Aaron, knowing that that's one of the areas that needs to be targeted, and not only in San Francisco, Millbrae, in the middle of nowhere. So for those of you guys who don't know where Millbrae is, it's because of these boobies.

At least even in San Francisco. It's not San Francisco, it's not San Jose. It's right in the middle. And this is not an area that people actually move into. This is an area that people move out from because it's too expensive. Well, that's why they planted a church. It's been five years.

It's growing. Over 200-plus members who are coming into the church, and it's growing every day. And they're going through growing pains because of lack of space. And again, ultimately, God is using him and his wife and his team to be fruitful over there. But I think none of us here who've known him for as long as we have are surprised that he's being fruitful because he was very fruitful here before he left.

And so when our church got to a point where we felt like it was time for us to plant a church, there was absolutely no question in our church who would be the best person to lead this team, and it was Pastor Aaron. So because of his leadership and because he was so fruitful and beloved in our church, it wasn't that hard to recruit people to go with him because he was pastoring and encouraging so many people already.

So with that team, he got planted up there, and they're bearing much fruit. And so every time we turn around, as much as our church is growing, I think they're growing even faster than we are in percentage-wise. And so we're really encouraged to have him here. And like I said, our church, especially the earlier part of the church, for a large part of who we are was because of Pastor Aaron.

Pastor Aaron had a huge impact, and many of you are here as a result of his ministry, those of you who were college students when he was ministering here, and even his peers. And so again, none of these things that I'm saying is exaggerated because everybody who's in this room knows exactly what I'm saying.

And so obviously when he left to plant the church, it left a huge hole in our church. And we left it vacant on purpose because we didn't want to fill that with another pastor. We wanted to make sure that our church was able to fill in that gap. And I'm very encouraged that many of you stepped up, and as a result of the hole that was left with him and the team that left, that many of you are more involved in ministry and doing the work.

But again, it's a testament to his role in our church because he made such a big impact in our church that it left a huge hole. And that's how it should be when somebody is that dedicated and that fruitful in the church that you shouldn't be able to just slip out and nobody notices.

And so I could go on and on, but you're not here to hear me. I wanted to introduce Pastor Aaron because it is his first time, and he's not new to our church, but I know he's new to many of you, and so we want to make sure that you guys know who he is before he comes out.

Okay? Let's welcome Pastor Aaron. All right. Well, it's good to be here. I don't like seeing him at retreats because I find them to be exhausting, but Pastor Peter asked me, and he's the only person I couldn't say no to, so I reluctantly agreed. But I am thankful to be here just to be able to reconnect with so many old friends.

And even in the short time that we've been here so far, we've been able to meet a lot of new faces too, and so we're looking forward to doing that throughout the course of this weekend. Bad news is I'm not Pastor Ray Posse. I think you guys probably noticed that.

You guys are spoiled. Pastor Ray has come here at the retreat the last two summers. He's an excellent preacher. Pastor Ray is a real treat to listen to, I think. He's one of my favorite preachers. And I got texts from all these people, all my friends here at the church, as soon as they started announcing at BCC that I was going to be a retreat speaker, they would send me these little messages like, "Hey, don't disappoint us.

You're falling out today." "You're missing," and all this kind of stuff. Pastor Ray is like, "Who's Chris?" You know, he's a special treat. I'm like, "Hanera." But you won't start, hopefully. And that's going to be our goal for this weekend. So with that, let's go to the hour of our heads and ask for the Lord's blessing.

Our Heavenly Father, we are so grateful to be here in the presence of your people this weekend for this retreat. We're grateful for your grace and your kindness and your love to us in Christ. We're thankful, Lord God, that in your mercy you extended your love out to us by allowing us to have a relationship with you.

Father, as you send us weekend, thinking over what it means to be the church, that you would help us to be guided and directed in the right directions. Father, what we're doing here at Berean would not be an empty exercise, but one, Lord God, that really results in much fruit, much glory to be given.

So with that, Lord, we pray that you would illumine our hearts and our minds this morning as we have the work of the Lord before us. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. In the early months of 1940, not long after World War II began, Nazi soldiers began making their way throughout continental Europe with astonishing and devastating speed, destroying virtually everything and everyone in their path, hit their troops completely over all by Allied forces, pushing them all the way to the brink of France's northern coast.

Thousands upon thousands of British, French, and Belgian soldiers found themselves cornered and trapped along the beaches of a port city called Dunkirk. And there they were stuck. In front of them stood the Nazis who continued their vicious onslaught, and behind them were the frigid waters of the English Channel.

There was simply nowhere else for them to turn. So what would the Allies do next? Well, they elected to do something that might have seemed at first glance counterproductive, especially when you consider the fact that they were trying to win the war. Here's what they did. They decided to retreat.

A full-scale sea evacuation code name, Operation Diamond, was initiated. And over the course of the next nine days, a rat-tag fleet consisting of British naval ships, merchant buses, ferries, paddle steamers, and privately owned fishing boats and yachts slowly began transporting Allied ships back to the English mainland. By the time this retreat was finished, over 300,000 soldiers had safely escaped, and many of those men would later play critical roles in the latter stages of the Second World War as Hitler and Nazi forces were eventually brought down and destroyed.

And that's the reason why Operation Diamond is still widely regarded to this day as one of the most epic and successful retreats to have ever taken place in military history. Well, obviously I'm sharing that story with you guys because I think what happened at Dunkirk nearly 80 years ago serves as a fitting illustration of what we're trying to accomplish here this weekend at this retreat.

This weekend, we have retreated. Retreated from the busyness of our home lives, of life in the office, of life at school, in a way that we might regroup as a church body. It's our hope and our prayer that by our retreating, that we have the opportunity to catch up with our spiritual youth so that we might be able to forge ahead and to do God's work once we return home.

And the theme for this weekend's retreat is "Back to Basics." And I can think of nothing more basic to address with you than the fourfold vision of this church. Now I understand it's been a while since you guys actually reviewed the fourfold vision. In fact, I had a chance to look at your sermon archives online, and I think it's been about three and a half years.

And so hopefully you guys are going to profit from hearing these messages, even if you've been a member at Berean for an extended period of time. The fourfold vision of Berean Community Church reads as follows, including what we have on the screen. Here at Berean, our vision is to glorify God by establishing a church that engages in God-centered worship and not man-centered.

Number two, a church that equips every believer with God's inherent worth. Number three, a church that builds a community through love and accountability. And number four, a church that reaches out to its community globally and globally with the gospel of Jesus Christ. My family and I, we had a chance to go out to Hawaii for a wedding just a week ago.

In fact, there are a handful of people here who are also at the wedding. And as we made our way back on the plane, every single seat was equipped with a television line. And of course, there's always that one channel on every plane that displays a virtual flight plan.

I think you guys know what I'm talking about. It's that channel that displays all the different stats and data about your flight in real time. Altitude, speed, ETA, along with a map showing your city of origin, final destination, how much progress you've made so far on your trip. Well, I want you guys to think of Berea's fourfold vision as a flight plan for us.

These four statements that you see posted on screen provide a summary of the direction and path that all of us are trying to head toward as a church body. They're the foundational truths which undergird and shape the ministry here at Berea. And I think reviewing them can help us to assess what we're doing, where we're going, and what kind of adjustments we need to make in order to reach our final destination of glorifying God.

Reviewing the fourfold vision can also help us to combat our complexity to drift toward auto-life. As you guys know, any time you do something again and again and again, it becomes a matter of routine. And I don't think it's any different with church. You find yourself going to church Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, and before you know it, you will find yourself going through the motions.

Sort of mindlessly and thoughtlessly. So then to counteract this prevailing habit of our hearts to default into cruise control, I'm hoping that reviewing the fourfold vision will be profitable. That it will be beneficial for us. And I wanted to start off this morning by talking about vision number one.

That is to build a church that engages in God-centered worship and not man-centered. Pastor John Carver writes this, quote, "Perhaps the greatest need in all of Christendom is for a clear understanding of the biblical teaching about worship. If the church fails to worship properly, it fails in every other area of the kingdom, and the world is suffering because of its failure." End quote.

What is worship? What is this thing that we call worship? Well, at its most basic core, worship is simply the act of ascribing worth to something. In fact, that's where we get the word worship from. It comes from an old English term, worth-ship. But in addition to this idea of ascribing worth to something, I think the concept of worship has several layers to it.

Worship can be thought of in a number of different ways. For example, I think many of us, when we use the word worship, we simply use it as another way of referring to the physical gathering of the local church. What are you doing this weekend? Oh, I'm going to Sunday worship.

That definition of worship is one that's bound to a specific time and place, 9am or 11, 15am, depending on which worship service you happen to attend. Others of us may have an even more narrow understanding of worship, whereby we limit worship to the specific portion of the Sunday service where music is being played and where songs are being sung.

And indeed, music and singing are important parts of what local worship is all about. But properly speaking, worship is much more broad, much more comprehensive, much more expansive than any of those. Because you see, worship is not merely an activity that we do. Worship is a manner of life.

That is, worship encompasses every single part and facet of who we are as human beings. And it doesn't just happen at church. And it doesn't just take place on Sunday morning. But worship is something that happens all the time and everywhere. At the office, in our homes, and out in the world.

We might even put it this way, all of life is worship. And all people are worshipers. See, worship isn't something that's limited to Christians alone. It's not an activity that's just filled with religions. Rather, worship is a universal thing that all of humanity participates. The American novelist, David Foster Wallace, described it well.

He said this, quote, "Everybody worships. The only choice you get is what to worship." And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god to worship is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they don't let you tap into meaning in life, then you will never have enough.

Worship your own body and beauty and sexual merit, and you will always feel alone. And when time and age are shown, you will die a million deaths. Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid. And you will end up needing more power over others to numb you to your own fear.

Worship your intellect, being seen as smart. And you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. The insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they are evil or sinful. It is that they are unconscious. They are default settings, end quote.

Now that statement is profound. Especially when you consider the fact that David Foster Wallace was not himself a believer. He wasn't a Christian. In fact, only a few years after he wrote those words, Wallace took his own life. But before he tragically committed suicide, I think Wallace understood something very fundamental about the nature of worship.

Namely how it's universal in nature. Again, it's not something that's restricted to Christians alone. Friends, you and I are hardwired to worship. It's embedded into the very fabric of who we are. When we're watching sports on television, and we applaud and cheer for our favorite athlete or team, we're worshiping.

When we hear someone who's getting music to be in, that musician is a rallying performance that prompts us to rise from our seats in standing ovation, we worship. When we see that celebrity walking down the street, and we rush up to him or to her, and we ask for a selfie, we ask for an autograph, we're worshiping.

Worship is the default setting of the human heart. And that is why as Christians, we need to do something distinct in our worship. It's not enough that we're worshiping. We need to make sure that the kind of worship that we are offering up to God is specifically God-focused, that it's God-centric.

So that the starting point for any discussion of worship needs to begin with God. For God is the only one truly worthy of our worship. And so the deeper and greater our appreciation for God is, the more authentic our worship of him will become. So to help us do that, I want to call your attention now to a very long little passage of Scripture, Isaiah chapter 6.

Go ahead and turn your Bibles with me to Isaiah 6. And no doubt as you guys are turning there, I would acknowledge that many of us have probably studied through this passage before. You guys are probably concerned about this passage, read books about this passage. But even despite our familiarity with this passage, I think Isaiah 6 is still absolutely essential to lay out that groundwork, that framework and foundation for the exercise of Christian worship, both in our lives as well as the life of this church.

And while I'm on the subject, nothing I'm going to be saying this weekend is going to be particularly earth-shattering or paradise-shaking. My goal is very simple. I just want to remind you guys of the old truths in hopes of renewing your vision for ministry here at Marina. So with that, let me go ahead and read the passage for us in Isaiah 6, beginning in verse 1.

"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. And the tree of Israel filled its height. Above him stood a seraph, each had six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

And one called to another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of the coasts. The whole earth is full of his glory.' And the foundations and the thresholds shook, and voices in him called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, 'Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amidst a people of unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of the coasts.' Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with palms from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, 'Behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.'" This chapter, as you guys can see, leads off with a chronological note.

That helps us to better understand the historical context behind this passage. Again, verse 1 begins, "In the year that King Uzziah died." Scholars believe that this scene is taking place sometime around 740 B.C., which is when King Uzziah passed away. Now, just a brief history lesson. Throughout its long and oftentimes troubled history, Judah had cycled through a number of evil and wicked kings.

But King Uzziah, the king that's mentioned here, he was different. Uzziah was one of those rare kings that actually proved to be a blessing to God's people. He took the throne at the tender age of 16, and with the help and oversight of the prophet named Zechariah, Uzziah ended up ruling in Judah for a period of 52 years.

And for the most part, Uzziah was a pretty good king. The Bible tells us that Uzziah did what was "right" in the eyes of the Lord, which is a stark contrast to the way that Scripture generally portrayed most of Judah's kings, who unfortunately oftentimes led the people of God into great sin and idolatry.

But again, Uzziah was a difference. For his part, Uzziah did his very best to honor the Lord. And as a result, his reign was marked by great prosperity and economic growth. Among his many achievements, Uzziah reorganized and strengthened Judah's armies. He built a series of walls and defense towers that then fortified and protected the country.

He even devised a brand new water system, which helped the people to more efficiently grow their crops. And so, safe to say, Uzziah was a popular king. But sadly, there was this incident that took place near the end of his life that forever tarnished his reputation and legacy. In an act of pride, in an act of defiance, Uzziah entered the Temple of God to burn incense.

Now that may not seem like a very big deal to you or to me, but the Mosaic Law clearly stipulated that the sacred act of ritual incense burning was to be limited to priests, and to priests alone. And the problem was, Uzziah wasn't a priest. He was a king.

And so, in direct response to this act of transgression, what God did was He judged Uzziah by infecting the king with leprosy. Immediately, he broke out into his sores, and Uzziah was suddenly, ritually unclean. No longer could Uzziah worship at the Temple. No longer could he rule in his palace.

In fact, Uzziah's ceremonial impurity actually forced him to hand off his kingdom to his son, Jonathan, who ruled in his father's place for about ten years before Uzziah had passed away. So this was a really sad end to an otherwise good king. But even though Uzziah's reign ended on this relatively sour note, the people of Judah, the people of his kingdom, would not completely forget all the good that this man had done.

In fact, Judah's neighbors to the north, the kingdom of Israel, they weren't even around at this time. By the time Isaiah, the prophet, began his prophetic ministry, just twenty years before, the Assyrians had come and laid waste to the kingdom of Israel, the northern kingdom. Why? Because the kings of Israel were wicked.

And therefore, the people of Israel were wicked as well. So God judged them for their sins. But while Judah's, but while Israel's kings were bad and led the kingdom into this idolatry, which eventually led them to their captivity, Judah's kings, here in my vision, men like Uzziah Hezekiah, would lead the people to God.

The point being, that despite what had happened to the northern kingdom, the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah, where this scene is taking place, the kingdom of Judah was still alive in the kingdom. And Uzziah was a big part of the reason why. For most of his reign, despite how it ended, for most of his reign, he had chosen to follow the Lord.

And he encouraged the people of his kingdom to do the same. And as a result of his obedience, the nation had received blessing from God. This was the kind of king that Uzziah was. And so when he died, the people of Judah, they went to his morgue. It's much like what happened in our country in the 60s when President John F.

Kennedy got shot and killed. When news of his assassination reached the airwaves, many people didn't know how to react. They were sad and secure that they had lost their charismatic leader. And in the same way that King Uzziah died, the citizens of Judah, they felt like they had lost one of the best and strongest leaders that they had ever known.

And so this was the historical backdrop which serves as a context for Isaiah's encounter with the Lord. The king of great promise, the king of great acclaim, had just passed away. And the people were reeling in their sorrow. But even though the king had just died, the throne was not left unattended.

For Isaiah was soon about to see that there was another king, a far greater king, who was reigning in Uzziah's place. Which brings us to our first point. Worship the God of holiness. According to verse 1, Isaiah had gone to the temple. For one reason, we're not exactly sure.

It may have been because the king had just died and Isaiah was confused and he, like the rest of the nation of Judah, was curious about what was going to happen next. Or maybe Isaiah just went to spend time in private prayer and to commune with the Lord. We're not exactly sure.

But whatever the case might be, nothing would prepare him for what happened next. Again, verse 1 reads, "In the year that King Uzziah died," Isaiah says, "I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up." So here, Isaiah experiences a vision. He's standing inside the temple, but what he sees is not Uzziah on the throne, not Jotun, Uzziah's son, but God.

And even though God is the one who's sitting, Isaiah observes that he is high and lifted up. And so immediately we understand this is not a ordinary king. He's a king above everything. His throne is above everything. For despite the fact that Isaiah, the prophet, is the one standing up and God is the one sitting down, it's the prophet who finds himself tilting his head upwards as he strains to take in the scope and the grandeur and the majesty of this glorious king.

Isaiah then goes on to describe how the train of God's robe fills the temple. Earlier this year, the royal wedding took place between Prince Harry and actress Meghan Markle. I'm sure some of you guys followed it on the news. Well, long before there was a Harry and Meghan, there was Charles and Diana.

Charles, Prince of Wales, was wed to Lady Diana Spencer on July 29, 1981. And the wedding dress that Diana had on that morning had a train that measured 25 feet long. In fact, so long was this train that Diana had trouble getting into the car that had been assigned to transport her to the wedding ceremony.

Well, likewise, in the ancient Near East, the length of a monarch's robe was a measuring stick that indicated how honorable or how much dignity that particular monarch had. As Isaiah sees God seated on his throne, he immediately notices the train of God's robe filling the temple. So again, Isaiah knows, and we know, that this is not your average train because this is not your average king.

Verse 2. "Above him stood a seraphim, each had six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew." The Bible's portrayal of angels is a far cry from what we see generally portrayed in pop culture today. Whether it's in artwork or in movies or on television programs, I think angels are generally depicted as these cute and cuddly creatures, right?

Totally harmless, totally gentle in every way. But this is what we need to unlearn and undo some of the bad theology we've inherited from the world around us. Let me give you guys a little rundown on how scripture describes angelic beings. Throughout the Bible, angels are referred to by such terms as dominions, rulers, powers, and principalities.

They're introduced as judges and righteousness. In 2 Samuel, it's the angels who bring about a plague upon the nation of Israel when God's people sin. In 2 Chronicles, it's the angels who eradicate the leaders of the Assyrian army. In the book of Acts, it's an angel who strikes Herod dead when he refuses to give glory to God.

In the book of Revelation, it's the angels who are assigned to pour out the bowels of God's judges upon the earth. So make no mistake about it, angels are not cute and cuddly. They're oppressive beings. But having said that, the specific kind of angels that we see here in this text, they're even more oppressive, for they're called "seraphim." The word means "burning ones." They exude power and strength.

And virtually anyone who saw a good lightning trembled before their presence. And yet in this passage, no one is cowering before these angels. Rather, it's the angels who are cowering. They are cowering before the presence of Almighty God. Isaiah observes, as he looks upon these seraphim, that they have six wings.

With two, they fly. With two, they cover their face. With two, they cover their feet. They cover their face because they do not dare gaze upon the glory of God on the structure. They cover their feet to demonstrate their humility and unworthiness before Him. So even anatomically, even physiologically, these angels are demonstrating the power and glory of this King.

They're doing everything they can to shield and protect themselves from being consumed by the radiance of this King who sits upon the throne. Church, what we're observing here in this passage is the ultimate worship service. In Isaiah, the prophet, he's giving us a front row seat. In verse 3, he goes on to say that the heavenly court is filled with the voices of these angelic choirs as they shout out in song and exultation of God's name.

Back and forth, they cry, "Holy, holy, holy," is the word of the host. To refer to God as holy was to ascribe Him a uniqueness that was unlike anything else. The root word for holy means to cut or to separate, which is simply to say that God is totally distinct.

He's totally un- he's completely set apart. In short, there's nobody like Him. He's in a class all of His own. As a matter of fact, this is what God says of Himself in Isaiah 40, verse 25. "To whom, then, will you compare Me that I should be like Him?" says the Holy One.

To whom shall we compare Him? Who is like our God? Exodus 15, 11, "Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you?" And the answer, of course, is no one. No one is like our God. And that's precisely what a Bible means when it says that God is whole.

In fact, if you go to the pages of the Old Testament, you will see for yourself that God's holiness is mentioned far more often than any other attribute. So frequent are the references to God's holiness that if we were to take the total number of times that God's holiness is mentioned in the Hebrew Scripture, and we compared that against the total number of times that His other attributes are talked about combined, the references to God's holiness would still exceed them all.

So holy was this God that anything linked or associated with Him was also considered to be holy as well. It didn't matter if it was a person, or if it was an object, or if it was a thing. It could have been something as mundane and ordinary as a bowl.

A bowl could be considered holy if it was linked or associated with the worship of God. And likewise, the Jews were said to be a holy people because they were God's people. And the Temple was said to be a holy temple because it was God's Temple. And Jerusalem was nicknamed the Holy City because it was God's City.

And on and on I could go. But also notice here, the Seraphim, they're not content with a casting reference to God's holiness. No, they repeat the fact that God is holy. Three consecutive times. Nowadays, of course, if you want to make something emphatic, what we do is place it in capital letters, in bold-faced text.

We throw some exclamation points at the end of the sentence. But in ancient Heresies, they didn't do those things. Instead, they simply used repetition as their preferred way of communicating the importance of something. But here's the thing, though. While it was totally conventional at this time to repeat something twice, it was entirely unprecedented to repeat something three consecutive times.

And yet that's exactly what we find the Seraphim doing here. They're crying out, "Hold! Hold! Hold!" As if mentioning God's holiness just one time couldn't possibly do justice to the fullest extent of who this God was. Commentators may refer to the Seraphim's three-fold repetition of God's holiness as a super superlative.

A creative, yet innovative use of Hebrew grammar, expressly designed to communicate the sheer otherness of God's nature and being. That same chorus of "Holy, Holy, Holy" is something that we hear repeated later in God's Word in the book of Revelation. There, John the Apostle, just like Isaiah the prophet before him, receives a vision from the Lord.

And this is what he records seeing in Revelation 4.8. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within. And day and night, they never cease to say, "Holy, Holy, Holy." It's a Word of God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

Those are the lyrics to the worship song we'll be singing for all of eternity. A pronouncement, an exaltation of God's other nature, this wholly set-apart nature. Why does Scripture, both in this text as well as elsewhere, go to such great lengths to emphasize the fact that God is holy?

Well, the reason is this. It's because the greater our understanding of God's holiness is, the greater our worship of Him will be. And that's the reason why we're going at such painstaking lengths to dive into this text. Because we're talking about worship. And I can give you guys little practical points, little tips on how to conjure up a little worshipful attitude in your heart.

But the best way to arrive at a heart of worship is to arrive at an understanding of God's holiness. For again, the greater our understanding of God's holiness is, the greater our worship of Him will be. See, the fact that God is not just a holy God, but that He's the thrice holy God, means that our worship of Him is not a choice.

It is the required response of all those who have truly met the Lord. And the more that we understand about His character, the more that we understand about His nature, the better equipped you and I will be to worship Him right now. And that's why we're looking at this passage.

Because we want to see what Isaiah saw, so that we can worship the God that Isaiah worshipped. And what we've discovered so far in these opening verses is that God is a God of holiness. Our second point, worship the God of glory. In verse 3, the seraphim continue on with their singing.

And they cry out, "The whole earth is full of its glory." Now what's the difference between holiness and glory? We use these words so often in the church to describe God, but what exactly is the difference between those two things? If holiness is God's otherness, the fact that He's set apart, what is glory?

If you think of holiness as something inward, an intrinsic quality central to God's nature, then think of God's glory as something outward, the visible manifestation of how great God is. Back pastor John Piper describes the glory of God as a public display of His holiness. The glory of God is putting the holiness of God on display, on a big screen for the world to see.

And here, the angels are saying that the screen, so to speak, displaying the holiness of God, is all-encompassing. The whole earth is full of His glory. The whole earth expresses the glory and the excellency of this God, how? By worshiping Him. The earth worships, creation worships, Solomon created, praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him, all these shining stars.

Praise Him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures in all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling His Word. Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, beach and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds, let them praise the name of the Lord.

The whole earth is full of the glory of God. Psalm 91 says this, the heavens declare the glory of God. So anytime we step outside, or anytime we visit a national park, and we're beholding the world of Mother Nation, no. Creation is not to be worshipped, for creation is worshiping its Creator.

Literally speaking, that word "Lord," it means "Heaven." It's a translation of the Hebrew term "Kabbalah." You know, today we'll be explaining, we want to try to describe how important a person is. A lot of times we'll use that expression, "They carry a lot of weight." And when we say that, we're not saying that they're heavenset, right?

When we say that a person carries a lot of weight, what we're saying is that they're substantial. In other words, they're not to be dismissed. They're not to be overlooked. They're not to be ignored. And in the same way, God is not to be overlooked, for He is a God of glory.

And I think that's honestly something that our generation in particular has largely failed to understand. We don't appreciate how glorious our God truly is. And I think that's the reason why far too often our worship ends up falling flat. It's impotent. It's powerless. And it's because we don't understand the weightiness, the heaviness of the God that we're worshipping.

Instead, what have we done? We've dumbed God down. We've brought God down to our level. We've made Him more palatable, more presentable, more user-friendly. We've changed and adapted our view of God so that He's just like one of us. Maybe just a slight tad better, but in the end, just like one of us.

And as a result, we're no longer inspired to praise Him. David Wells in his book "God in the Waste Camp" famously wrote this, quote, "The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is that God does too many consequences upon His truth. His truth is too distant. His grace is too ordinary.

His judgment is too benign. His gospel is too easy. And His Christ is too common." And how true that is. When we walk into church, we scroll in. We're scrolling into Starbucks. When we sing these praise songs, we hum them like we're humming to some random song on the radio.

When we pray to this God, this Christ-filled God, the God of whom creation worships, the whole earth is full of this God, the Lord, when we pray to Him, our words are often apathetic, indifferent, maybe even cavalier in their attitude. But friends, we must remember that our God is the God of the Lord.

Even the inanimate objects inside the temple, they understood this truth. Take a look at verse 4. "And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of Him who called, and the house was filled with smoke." So the very foundations of the temple, these lifeless things made up of wood and stone, they worshiped before this holy and glorious God.

They're shaking and trembling. The posts and pillars are literally quaking. The entire roof fills up with smoke. And again, all of it is a response of worship unto the Lord. And so too, you and I must learn to feel the heaviness of God's Lord. We must grow to appreciate how weighty our God is.

Because if our view of God is weak, then our worship of God will be weak. And if our view of God is cold, then our worship of God will be cold. If our view of God is shallow, then our worship of God will be shallow. Because the fact of the matter is, your worship of God will never rise above your understanding of who God is.

So if you feel this morning a distance, an apathy, an indifference, if you feel that it is hard to stir up feelings of emotion, of worship, of desire to worship and praise and exalt Christ, I think one of the most practically beneficial things that you and I can do is to try to pursue a deeper knowledge of who He is.

Read books like "Knowing God" by G.I. Cochran, or "The Holiness of God" by R.C. Sproul. Ask your pastors, "What books will convey to me how great my God truly is?" Do a Bible study on the attributes of God. Do whatever you need to do in order to feel the weight of God's glory in your life.

And by pursuing that deeper understanding, that deeper knowledge of who God is, I guarantee you, your heart will respond in praise. So far in this passage, we've seen how mysterious celestial beings, the Saracens, can worship God. We've heard about the whole earth. That is, the entire created order from sky to sea and everything in between gives worship to God.

We've even witnessed how the foundations of the temple itself give worship to God. But now in verse 5, it's the prophet Isaiah's turn to feel the heaviness of God's glory. And as he does, he responds in a rather interesting way. For he says, "Woe is me." Just a chapter before, in Isaiah chapter 5, God used the prophet to pronounce woes upon sinners.

Sinners in Judah. In fact, six times in Isaiah 5, the prophet pronounces woes upon the complacent, upon idolaters, upon drunkards. But here, just one chapter later, Isaiah the prophet is pronouncing woes upon himself. Remember, Isaiah was the most righteous, most upright, most moral, most ethical man in the entire land of Judah at this time.

Isaiah spent his entire life interacting with kings and with those in authority. He was highly respected and esteemed by his peers. He was a statesman, a diplomat, a man of considerable significance and repute. In other words, Isaiah was a man of great weight. And yet, he feels outweighed by the glory of God.

So he says, "I'm lost." Other translations read, "I'm ruined." "I'm undone." "I'm falling apart." Isaiah has come face to face with the glory of God, and he's absolutely crushed beneath its weight. He feels himself literally unraveling as a whip. And he goes on to say, "For I am a man of unclean lips, and I draw the midst of a people of unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." As he sees God seated on his throne, high and lifted up, the only thing that Isaiah can feel is his own unworthiness. And throughout the course of redemptive history, that has always been the response of those who have truly come face to face with the living God.

When Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden after they fell, they didn't run up to Him to embrace Him. They hit themselves. When Job saw the Lord, what did he say? He said, "I despise myself, and I repent of dust and ashes." When the Apostle Peter was confronted by the risen Christ, he cried out to the part of him, "Go away, for I am a sinful man." When John saw Jesus in His war-cry saved by the nations, it says that He fell at His feet as though dead.

All of those men, from Isaiah to Job to Peter to John, they reacted in the ways that they did, because it was only after they saw God for who He truly was that they were able to see themselves clearly and accurately as well. For despite outward appearances, despite their reputation, they in the end were broken men.

They were sinful men. They were wicked men. And so they cursed themselves in repentance before this Lord's God. See, as we grow in knowledge of God, we grow in knowledge of self. It's not something that the world forgets. The world wants to understand thyself so well, but they do it devoid of God.

But God is the mirror by which we see ourselves rightly. God is the prism through which we see ourselves accurately. When we compare ourselves with others, we grow in pride, because there's always going to be somebody next to you who's more sinful, who's less obedient than you are. But when you measure yourselves against the holiness and the glory of God, that's when you respond as Isaiah did.

What was he like? Brian was. Brian was a man of unclean lips, and they grew up against him a people of unclean lips. These are the words of a broken and contrived man. Isaiah was lamenting his sin. He was confessing his sin because his eyes had seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.

See, the fundamental problem with sin is not that it makes us stop worshiping. The fundamental problem with sin is that it causes us to worship other things. That's what sin does. It doesn't cause worship to cease. It just causes worship to change directions. So instead of worshiping God, maker of heaven and earth, we exchange the glory of God for a religion of false gods.

It might be a person. It might be a relationship. It might be material wealth, comfort, sex, acclaim, power, you name it. But regardless of what it is, every single time we sin, we are exchanging worship of the one true God for a bunch of false, counterfeit gods. And that is why every sinner who stands before the Lord stands condemned.

Not because he or she doesn't worship. It's because he or she worships the wrong thing. For God and I alone is worthy of our prayers. So I want to ask you, church, in self-examination, what have you been worshiping lately? Maybe you don't frame it that way in your mind or in your heart, but let me phrase it this way.

What's been preoccupying your thoughts? What are you distracted by? What are you controlled by? What are the things that dictate your behavior, your emotion, your decision? If it's not the holy, glorious God that we're seeing here in Isaiah 6, then chances are you might be worshiping something else. And if that's the case, that automatically renders you guilty and condemned before you.

But before we close our time together, we have to uncover one final truth about this God that makes him deserving of all of our worship. Third point, worship to God with grace. Isaiah is totally broken over the realization of his own sin. In my mind, I think of Isaiah as a dignified man.

I picture him as he sits or stands out in front of God. I see him covering his face, following the pattern, the example of the seraphim before him. I see him covering his face, trembling in fear. Isaiah expects for judgment to be handed down by the holy, glorious God.

But much to his surprise, instead of receiving judgment, he gets something else instead. He gets a piece of burning wood. Now, the seraphim in Isaiah 6, then what did the seraph include? Having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with Tom from the altar. Now notice again from where the seraph gets this burning coal.

He gets it from the altar, and that's significant. At the Temple in Jerusalem, the altar was the main place from which burnt offerings and sacrifices were made to the pope for sin. The altar represented forgiveness, cleansing, and pardon. So it's significant that it's from the altar that the seraph grabs this coal as it flies toward Isaiah.

And when the seraph reaches him, he places that coal upon the prophet's mouth. And as he does, the angel tells him in verse 7, "Behold, this has clutched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is home." So even though it was the lips of Isaiah which made contact with that burnt piece of coal, it's the entire person of Isaiah that ended up in clemency.

To the Jews, notice this close, symbiotic relationship shared between one's mouth and one's heart. That's why it was our Lord who said, "It is out of the abundance of one's heart that the mouth speaks," because those two things are connected. And so as the seraph reaches out and touches Isaiah's lips with that burning piece of coal, it's Isaiah's inner being which ends up being renewed and cleansed.

So here's what's happening as we take a step back. Isaiah's being confronted by the holiness and glory of this God, this King who sits in front of him. He repents. He pronounces curses upon himself. But rather than handing down the judgment, God responds by showing him grace. He shows him grace by forgiving him and cleansing him of his sin.

What's taking place here, this interaction, this encounter between Isaiah and God, is embodiment of what God later says in this book, in Isaiah 57, verse 15. "For thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, 'I dwell in the high and holy place,' all by myself, no.

'I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of lowliness and to revive the heart of the contrite.'" Friends, the only way that you and I can worship the God who is high and lifted up is by bringing ourselves low before him.

That's the paradox of worship. You want to worship the God who is high and lifted up? You don't try to meet him at his level. You come low. You bow down low. You humble yourself. Do you want to know how you, a sinful person, can approach this holy and glorious God of Isaiah 6?

You must confess and repent of sin. Confession and contrition are what open the door, so to speak, for us to have fellowship with God. Apart from the regular confession of sin, we have no business trying to worship God. Forget vision number one. We can't do that by ourselves, for our sin and our iniquities automatically disqualify us from being worshipers.

But it's through confession and it's through contrition that God has offered us a way of access to his throne of grace. It's a principle that's repeated elsewhere in Scripture in 1 John 1.9. You know the words well. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So then it's the glory of God which makes him highly exalted. And it's the holiness of God that sets him apart. But it's the grace of God which compels him to stoop down so that he might receive our prayers, so that he will not even forgive and cleanse from our sins.

And that's what's so amazing about these passages. So often today, God is portrayed by our culture as a therapist, as a buddy, as our homeboy. We've relegated him to the status of a cosmic genie, a Santa Claus living up in the sky, and his sole purpose in life is to dispense blessings upon his creation, to fulfill the wishes of all of us.

But the God of Isaiah 6 is none other than Christ. He is not a friar. He is not a leader. He is the transcendent God. He is the Lord of all creation, second to none. We cannot worship this God until we begin to see him for who he truly is.

And church, I want to remind you this morning that this God, he knows you and me. And so in grace, he's met that by providing you a means of cleansing which makes it possible for you and I to worship him. Old Testament scholars throughout the history of the church have highlighted the fact that the burning hole that took away Isaiah's guilt that day and which ultimately atoned for Isaiah's sin, that that burning hole foreshadowed the future sacrifice that would well be in need when Jesus Christ, our Lord, was hung upon the cross.

All throughout his earthly life and ministry, Jesus, he was the perfect worshiper. He obeyed his God wholeheartedly. He fulfilled the law without any kind of falsity. He served others unrelentingly. There was no aspect, no feature of his life that could be open to the accusation of sin. Everything that Jesus did was an act of worship unto his heavenly Father.

And yet as we know, it was Christ. It was Christ who was pierced for our transgressions. It was Christ who laid down his life upon the altar of God's holiness. It was Christ who was crushed for our iniquities in order that he might become the sacrifice for our sins.

Why? Also that our guilt could be taken away and our sin could be atoned for. Friends, Isaiah 6 is all about Jesus. I know his name doesn't appear here, but this passage is all about Jesus. Isaiah is standing before the pre-incarnate Christ. And we know this because John chapter 12 verse 41 says that the prophet Isaiah said what he said, and he did what he did because, and I quote, "He saw Jesus glory." And likewise, this morning, the God of holiness, he's made himself known to you as a man, and a person of word, his son, Jesus Christ.

When you begin to see God for who he truly is, and all his holiness, and all his glory, and all his grace, and you see yourself as who you truly are in all your sin, in all your iniquity, in all your guilt, and you would consider the fact that this God would send his son to die for your sin, the only proper and sensible response we can have is one to worship him.

That God would forgive my sin. It's just like the hymn writer says. "My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought, My sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul." Christ has paid it all.

He's taken all your sin, and all your iniquity, and all your guilt, and upon the cross he drank the full cup of God's judgment and wrath against your sin and love, and from that cross he declared, "It is finished." And so this morning we don't have to end up cowering before God, but we can rejoice in worship, because we're forgiven, we're cleansed, for your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for, all thanks to the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

I think it would be so much easier for us to worship if we could see Isaiah, if we could see God as Isaiah saw God that day. We wouldn't have to, again, motivate ourselves, we wouldn't have to pry and remind ourselves to worship God, we would just immediately be in a worship class if we saw God and Isaiah saw God.

So make no mistake. The God that we're worshiping this morning has not changed. He's still the God of forgiveness, he's still the God of remorse, and he's still the God of praise. So let's bring the praise that he deserves. Let's bring the praise that he deserves by establishing a church that is engaged in God-centered worship.

Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we confess before you, That so seldom do we fully appreciate and understand how majestic, glorious, and holy you truly are. Father, we pray that at this moment, you would cause us to focus our eyes upon you. That for a moment, we would stop being preoccupied with that which so often distracts us.

Now, Father, we would see a vision of you the same way that Isaiah saw that vision. Now, we would feel, Lord God, what Isaiah felt. That we would feel your heaviness, your weightiness upon our souls. But Father, as we do, and as we come to a growing realization of our own sin, and our own unworthiness before you, we pray also at the same time, you would remind us of your grace.

How just like you are a God who is unlike any other, that Father, you would remind us that your grace is unlike anything else that we've ever experienced. That Father, in your son, you provided for us a means of cleansing. That if we would just grab hold to him by faith, that if we would trust that his person and his word are enough for us, that we can have a means of access to worship.

So Father, I pray, Lord God, for all of us who are here this morning, who believe in the gospel by faith, that right now, we would respond by singing and worshiping. And we would lift up your name to your glory and your exaltation. To Christ, I will pray.