The everlasting God does not faint. There is none like Him. But we do grieve Him. The crazy circles of life wear us out and we fail. God remains. Wait upon Him. Be still and watch Him work. Mount up with wings. Be renewed. (Isaiah 40:28-31; Isaiah 44:8)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12471
7:00 PM on 3/8/2023

P. Schaller –

Turn in your Bibles please to John 3 just for an introduction tonight. Actually, let’s change that. Isaiah 40. One of the
verses that I love very much is Isaiah 44:8. There’s another change right there! Isaiah 44:8, when God
is speaking about himself to Israel, the context is that they are idol worshippers, and he is
saying I am God. There isn’t anybody like me. I am God. Maybe this is our theme tonight, and I
want you to read Isaiah 44:8. This is a verse that I like very much. vs. 8. I don’t know another God. I
am God. Is there another beside me? I don’t know any. There is no one like me. I am God.
This is maybe at the heart of our meditation tonight.

I watched the movie, “Jesus Revolution” yesterday afternoon and it’s a story about Chuck Smith and Calvary chapel. The Jesus Movement. It’s a story about 1967 through 1972. Those years when many hippies in California
and actually through the country turned to Christ. Cause they had drugs and free love and many
other – LSD and Asian philosophies and so on. And then what happened but a spiritual
awakening and many of them came to Christ.

Chuck Smith was a small church about 30 people. It looks like it was like that. One hippie from
up in San Francisco, Lonnie Frisby, came down and actually as it turned out thousands of
people came to Christ. They found Christ. They did. They found joy. They found liberty. They
found forgiveness. They found purpose. They found definition. They found God. And it spread
through our country.

I cried through the movie a few times, because the story parallels what I experienced in Maine
with Dr. Stevens where a group of young people that were also like in this state of mind and
thought and lifestyle in varying degrees. There’s a wide spectrum I think, but we found a
ministry, a ministry that wasn’t locked in as Chuck Smith’s church some people didn’t like it and
they left. But he ministered to them and led them. The story is beautiful.

Historians say maybe this was – they say this was the greatest spiritual awakening affecting the
most number of people in the history of our nation. Many of us now fifty years later, we can say,
yeah. Why me? Why me? Yeah. But we can say what did we find but this verse is beautiful, Isaiah
44:8.

Thank you, Lord. You called Abraham and Isaac and the sons of Jacob and Joseph. And called
them out of Egypt by the mighty hand. You split the waters of the Red Sea and brought them out
and brought water out of the rock and the Rock did follow them in 1 Corinthians 10. I always find that
interesting. He smote the rock. Water came out and the Rock followed them. That sounds like
there are different rocks and they are all pointing to Christ. Christ followed them out of Egypt.
Christ went before them when they left Egypt.

And we have to say also what we read here. There’s no God like God. There isn’t any other. He
is God. Changing an addiction, calming a heart, stilling a storm, rescuing a sinner, forgiving
sinners, calling us by name, putting his Spirit in us. Leading us. Giving a good pastor like Chuck
Smith and P. Stevens and others. Giving men and women of God in our lives to help us through
difficult times.

Another part of the movie that I liked was the human relationships and the tension and the
disappointments and hyper-spirituality and also the subjectivity and potential confusion that
happens amongst all people everywhere. But God is able to send the Comforter. God is able to
speak and counsel us and help us. So, look at Isaiah 40:28. The thought of God is so big to us. We search the Scripture to find out more about him. We see his gentle messages and gentle manifestations in the stories and how
he cares for a little child.

I remember reading about – you know the story about Naaman who
had the leprosy up in Syria and the little girl that told him there is a prophet in Israel. That little
girl was undoubtedly a slave girl and probably as in the ancient world – I heard this somewhere
– in the ancient world they would be taken captive and probably kill her parents or sell them off.

This little girl could have had bitterness in her heart, and her master has leprosy and she could
say, I curse you in the name of God that you have destroyed my life. I was living in Israel and
now I’m a captive slave girl, but instead love was in her heart. She could say to her master, you
have leprosy. It’s an ugly disease but there is a prophet in Israel. There is a messenger. If you
would go to the man of God; if you would go to the man of God, he will heal you.

That little story when God is in the heart of a little girl and she becomes a messenger and a tool
in the hand of God to tell a man who has leprosy, who is a general with high authority, go to
Israel. You’ll find a prophet. His name is Elijah and he will heal you. And that is what happened.
What am I saying but the Bible is filled with these amazing, gentle stories of like God loving to
use meek and simple and little people. Cause our God is such a great God. He speaks through
children in Psalm 8:2. “Out of the mouth of babes he has perfected strength.” Isaiah 40:28, he uses our
weaknesses. He understands our frame. We are made of dust. He pities us. Have you not heard
that he sent his Son to reach the hippies in the United States?

Another part of the movie that I recognize with all those hippies that were in the story that did
not come to Christ and I wept thinking about it and about me. Why me? Why did that happen?
Why did Jesus give you a humble heart, a hunger. Why did Jesus give you a hunger for God?
Why did God draw you to his Son? Why was there some church some where – I was in upstate,
New York, and I remember I was praying and fasting in the spring of 1972. I wasn’t so much of a
church goer but I was reading my Bible. I just said, Lord, I need a church. I don’t want to be in a
cult. I don’t want to be in a traditional church. I want to be in a living church. I want to be where
God you are. I need you. I need you in my life. I want you, God.

That was awesome and I, and my story is and I said it many times; my mother told me to go to
Maine. That was a weird thing cause mom loved me. But it’s a long story but the point is God
answered my prayer. I stumbled into this church. This one. Praise the Lord! I would just say I
recognize that the pain in people’s lives today. You see it. They don’t know who God is. They
don’t know how great he is. They don’t know what will happen if they wait upon him. That’s a
good part of this text here.

Let’s look at verse – that God is not fainting and not weary. Those that carry the idols get weary.
The idols cannot move around. They cannot get on a train. They cannot fly up in the air. They
cannot talk to you. They cannot burrow in the ground. They cannot move from the land to the
sea or from the sea to the land or to the air. They cannot do anything. Those that carry them are
weary by them. Our God is not weary with your sin, your selfishness, your emptiness. He is not
weary. Of course, one sense, yes. Here’s a good point.

Can you hurt God? Can you hurt God? It’s a question. Is God Almighty is he above and beyond us? We cannot take away from him. We cannot hurt God, but here’s the paradox. We can grieve him. He is sad because of us. He is
grieved by us in our sin. He’s grieved but he’s not hurt. You cannot hurt God. He does not get
tired.

We said a week ago, we have a Sabbath. And God rested on the seventh day, but we also said,
does God need to rest? Here it says he’s not weary. He does not get tired. He does not get tired
of you and I. He does not get tired in the miserable life that people are living though he feels it.
But he is saying come to me. I am God.

Look at the verse, please. vs. 28-30. And we can see that, because of all the sad statistics
about teenagers and about young people. Have you ever heard a young person say we’re not
going to have any children because we can’t afford it. We’re not going to have any children. We
don’t have the energy to raise a family. We’re not going to have a family because and so on and
that kind of thing. How about the people – all of us – we have these complaints and these little
things that we are tired of and weary of in life. Life can be wearisome.

Like Samson when he lost his eyes, he was in the mill and I think of a donkey pushing a
millstone around in a circle to grind flour. Samson was hooked up to that and he was going
round and round and I think of people that go to work in our society and are going around and
around and they are very weary, very tired, very exhausted by the endless activity and programs
of life. And the thing that God is saying I know you are weary. I know you are faint. But I am God
and I am not tired. I am not weary.

And then the last thing there is vs. 31. Have you ever got real quiet in a dark room on your
knees and just stayed there waiting on God? Filtering out everything and just been there or sit in
a chair and just wait. The word “wait” it sounds like time. It’s a time sensitive word, isn’t it? Like
wait here for the bus or wait two days or this kind of word. That’s the way it sounds to me. I’ve
always thought of it that way. I’m not in charge. He is. I can wait on him. Like a butler waiting on
the family. Like a man waiting in regards to a problem. He has a problem but he’s going to, what
is he waiting on? The doctor or a solution or the administration or waiting on a leader. What is
he waiting on? Usually, it’s all of those horizontal things that we are waiting on but this is
different. This is hard for us. But I think love can wait.

Why do you wait? Because he loves me. I love him. I think I can wait here on God. We don’t
have time to wait. We have no option. We have to wait on God. We have to do this or we have
to do that. No, I don’t think so. I don’t know about that. Why don’t we just wait on God, and say
to God, nothing has to change. Just you show up. You be with us. Paul and Silas are in prison
and they are singing, remember? And they’re just there before God. They’re just saying, man,
this evangelical message has gotten us in trouble and we have been chastened. We have been
whipped. We are imprisoned. We are misunderstood but this is what we do. This is, God is with
us.

We’re just here in the prison cell and in our hearts it seems to me they were turning to God and
waiting on him. The doors opened up and they didn’t move out. They stayed cause they had a
mission. The jailor was considering suicide. The other prisoners in the cells. Paul and Silas, and
the doors open up to everybody, by the way. Not just Paul and Silas, but all the doors were
opened up in the prison.

When you and I are relating to God by faith with a living God, the Almighty God and we are
waiting on God, we do not know how many doors will open up for others. Others will go free.
Others will get delivered. Others will change. Baltimore City can be affected. Our family could be
affected. We may never see it. We don’t know what will happen.

But it says here, vs. 40. You feel young again or is the Spirit, is the Spirit anointed you in a fresh
way. Is the Spirit moving in our hearts? I feel that way in our fellowship. We come on a
Wednesday night. I love it because we have a great day Sunday, and then by Wednesday it’s
nice to get together again and get another slice of spiritual food and some instruction and see
each other and love each other and lift our hearts to God and wait upon him. We are renewed in
our strength.

But I want to warn all of us. We’re very busy people. We’re very active. We do a lot of different
things in our family life, in our recreation, in our church life, our everyday life. It’s so easy to do a
lot of this activity that can wear us out. But they that wait upon the Lord. How many days maybe
I have to wait upon God for a while in my heart. Maybe every day before I go to bed I might take
some time and wait upon God in quietness and tell him what’s in my heart. Tell him what’s in my
heart. Bring it out before him and let him search our hearts and wait upon him.

You will find maybe that it’s not like you do A and you get B. Sometimes, you do A and you get
C. Sometimes, you do A and C and maybe you don’t know what happens and when. But
sometimes light comes in the morning. Somehow in a spiritual way, you are renewed in your
strength. You are very built up in your heart. You are a worshipper of God again. You say, Lord,
thank you. It’s again. I’m a child again. I’m built up again because you are the God of our lives.
You really are. You are awesome, God. Get a freshness of that. You are an awesome God.

So great that I think sometimes remember that part in the book of Revelation it says, there was
silence in heaven for thirty minutes? Remember that? Because the angels were going to open
up incredible wrath upon the earth. There was silence in heaven for thirty minutes. I do not know
but it seems there is a lot of praise in heaven. A lot of worship in heaven. You cannot help being
in the presence of God and saying things in your heart and spirit that he’s the Father of spirits.
And being overwhelmed, enraptured with his nature and his character and loving him. Wow.
So, he’s the end here, vs. 31.

I know people have waited three years. They wanted answers. Seven years they were waiting upon God but they were not weary. They were not disappointed. It was fine. They were waiting. Remember the old man that was told he would not die until he saw the Messiah? And he took the baby in his arms and he rejoiced because it happened as
God had told him. How long had he waited on God? He was waiting on God and it happened.
Don’t give up. Bring your burdens to God. God knows your heart. He knows your condition in
life. He knows and he promises. He will renew your strength. vs. 31. Eagles fly high. Eagles fly
far. Eagles are incredible birds.

Sometimes, I’m like the bird in Psalm 84 that just flies from the garage to the telephone wire! And then to the telephone pole and back again. Sometimes, I feel my flight pattern is really low to the ground. My flight pattern is really from one detail to another, one event to another, one situation, one crisis to another resting point and so on. But this is
different. God will take you to high ground here, high altitude. vs. 31.
Really? Yep. Human beings running and not be weary? Walking and not fainting. Yeah, human
beings. Enoch walked with God and he disappeared. He didn’t get weary. He didn’t faint. Not
me. No, you don’t understand me. I know that whole story. Not me. Cause I sat in this chair. I
know what you think. I know how you think as a person. Not me. That’s for P. Scibelli. That
doesn’t work for me. That’s for the saints of God. That’s not working for me. I’m bone tired. I’m
on the edge of quitting. I’m finished. It doesn’t work for me.

We’re saying I know, but if the Holy Spirit could help us kind of zoom out and see him. Get your
eyes on him. Be occupied with him. Be a worshipper of him. Wait upon him. Turn stuff off. Turn it
down. Dial it back. Get the psychic noise down, the level of noise down. Maybe fast. Maybe just
be quiet. Maybe stop doing something. Maybe reduce your life to something. I don’t know. I
don’t want to add stress to you. I just want to say our God is not like other gods. Our God
doesn’t think like us. His thoughts are different and his ways are different. Our God is an
amazing God. We hardly touch it who he is and what it means and who we are and what that
means and how we are worshippers of God.

And how the Holy Spirit will fill you and it will come into your practical, every day life, common every day life. Driving to work and having medical issues and problems and practical things of life.
All of that God knows all that. We glorify him because in it all, people with a stomach and a
nervous system and a memory. Do you know why dogs are so happy? They don’t have a
memory. P. Dan probably says yes they do! Yes, they do. You know why people are so
miserable? They have a memory. They have so much guilt. Imagination, project into the future
the worse case scenario and have fears that wear them out and tire them out. And we’re just
saying may the Lord help us. Would you pray with me now as we just finish this.

Okay. Before we finish, could you put up on the screen Is. 44 and that verse? vs. 8. Could you
put it up on the screen? This is what we can take home with us in our hearts. Is it Bob Moore?
Wow. Great. Good to have you here. It’s amazing. Sometimes when you read a Scripture and it
catches you like this for me, “is there a God beside me?” it’s like, how can God even talk like
that? He comes to us and like a Father, is there a God like me? You know. How could he talk
like that? “Is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God: I know not any.” Wow. Isn’t that
beautiful. Okay. (Prayer).

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