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58:1 “Cry aloud; do not hold back;
lift up your voice like a trumpet;
declare to my people their transgression,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not forsake the judgment of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they delight to draw near to God.
3 ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,1
and oppress all your workers.
4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose,
a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the LORD?
6 “Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed2 go free,
and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
11 And the LORD will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.
(ESV)
Redeemer Community Church is located in the historic Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, AL. Our church family exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
For more information on who we are, what we believe, or how to join us, please visit our website at rccbirmingham.org.
If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Isaiah 58. We've been working our way through the major prophets. We've been in Isaiah for a while. I was recently on a retreat with a bunch of other pastors and we're all telling each other, you know, what series we're currently going through and so I say, you know, we're doing the major prophets and they all look at me and they're like, you would. I mean, yeah, you you would and I said, no, our our people really love it and I'm assuming you guys really love it.
Joel Brooks:I mean, I'm assuming you're enjoying this as much as I am. I I think it has been formidable. It's it's been foundational for us as a church. As you're turning in your Bibles, Isaiah 58, let me explain to you where we are now in Isaiah because it's it's confusing. I mentioned a few weeks ago, if you were not confused as to the timeline in Isaiah, it just means you were not listening Because there are times when Isaiah is talking to his own people, sometimes he's talking to people a hundred and fifty years in front of him, sometimes he's telling them that they need to look another five, six hundred years in front of them.
Joel Brooks:It it's it's just he's all over the place. If Isaiah was a movie, the the plot line would be similar to one of those Marvel movies, you know, where you have the multiverse and he's just going in and out of different places. And so when we approach Isaiah 58, I do not pretend at all to know exactly whom he is talking to and what time and place. What I can tell you is that we've moved into a new section of Isaiah. And I actually think that's probably the best way to think of Isaiah is there's three major sections.
Joel Brooks:You have the first section, Isaiah chapter one through 39 and this is God. He through Isaiah, he is pointing out the people's sins and he is warning them of judgment. Chapters 40 through 55, we have predominantly those are words of comfort and they're about this mysterious servant of the Lord who we know to be Jesus and how he actually atones for our sins. And now we have 56 to the end. I believe that this is the section that is about how we're to live out the grace that we have just received.
Joel Brooks:Now that we are forgiven, what does this actually look like in our lives? I just wanna read the first 12 verses of chapter 58. Cry aloud. Do not hold back. Lift up your voice like a trumpet.
Joel Brooks:Declare to my people their transgression to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily. They delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their god. They ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to god.
Joel Brooks:Why have we fasted and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves and you take no knowledge of it? Behold, in the day of your fast, you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice be heard on high.
Joel Brooks:Is such the fast that I choose a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed and spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast? A day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I choose?
Joel Brooks:To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house? When you see the the naked to cover him and to not hide yourself from your own flesh, then shall your light break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Joel Brooks:Then you shall call and the Lord will answer. And you shall cry and he will say, here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong. And you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
Joel Brooks:And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt, shall rise up the found raise up the foundation of many generations. You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. This is the word of the Lord. We pray with me. Father, thank you for preserving this word for us over the centuries.
Joel Brooks:And we might hear it now. Spirit, I pray that you would cause it to be more than black ink on white pages. You would cause it to come alive and you'd write it on our hearts. Pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. Lord, may your words remain and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Lauren and I, we've been married for twenty nine years. During this time, we have mostly seen eye to eye on everything. But there was one point twenty four years ago that we just could not get on the same page.
Joel Brooks:We were living in a a very small house. You you might call it a shed. And and I loved it because it was cheap. We didn't need any more space. We didn't have a family yet.
Joel Brooks:But but Lauren, she was thinking in the future and she wanted us to go ahead and begin looking for a larger home in the hopes of having a family. And she began looking more and more and more all the time, wanting to go to open houses, things like that. And I was like, we don't need to do this right now. We actually need to save. And and so we we didn't see eye to eye.
Joel Brooks:And so finally, we had a talk and said, Lord, would you please trust me in this? Would you just would you please just follow my lead in this? We we don't need to go looking. She said, okay. So we put a contract on the house two weeks later.
Joel Brooks:She loves to point out it was my idea. And I it was not a new house, it was actually a very old house built in 1911. It's a 115 years old or a 100 actually 14 years old. What is what is it now? 1911.
Joel Brooks:Yeah, a 114 years old now. I'm still repairing it. It was a it was a completely dilapidated old home. Everything had to be fixed in it. Redid the wiring, redid the plumbing, but but the craziest thing that I had to work on was at one point, I jacked up the entire house.
Joel Brooks:I I borrowed from friends every car jack I could find, every hydraulic jack I could find. I put it all through the basement and over the course of almost two months, each day I would go and I would just turn each jack just a little bit and hear the whole house kinda groaning and creaking and finally was able to raise up the whole thing in order to replace some of the foundation. As I did that, I thought of Isaiah 58 a lot. I'm not lying. I actually that that came to many times.
Joel Brooks:Verse 12 says in your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations. The reason I thought about that verse a lot is because I was wondering if that was actually gonna be the opposite. And the house was gonna crash on me and there would be no more future generations. I mean a lot can go wrong when you're doing something like this.
Joel Brooks:I'm a pastor not a contractor. I don't really know what I'm doing. We hear in Isaiah that this is actually the calling of the church. He's called us to take a risk. He's called us to do something we are completely unqualified for.
Joel Brooks:Something that's gonna demand a whole lot of faith, but the rewards are great. We get to raise up a foundation that will last for generations to come. For generations to come, that's actually the the vision that we have set, the vision statement for our new facility that we're hoping, the Lord will move us to over there on Montclair Road. We believe that if we have that facility there, it enables not just us, but the generations after us and then after them to really serve this city well. It's in such a strategic location.
Joel Brooks:Literally, we'll be a city on a hill. Verse 12 goes on to say we're not just gonna raise the foundation for the generations, but we're gonna be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. I love that. I want redeemer to be called the restorer of the streets. In the media context here, I believe Isaiah, he's he's talking to the exiles who are returning to the ruins of Jerusalem and he he knows that they're working to restore this city back to its greatness.
Joel Brooks:If if I wanted to be cheesy or if I wanted to be political, I would say that this was their MIGA movement. It was to make Israel great again. And he's saying, yes, that's what god wants to do here. This is our calling as a church. God, he wants us to look out out at the ancient ruins of our city, of our neighborhoods.
Joel Brooks:He wants us to take some risk. He wants us to take a step of faith and to be a restorer of the streets. So what does this look like? And why is it so important to God? Well, let's just kind of walk through this passage.
Joel Brooks:Verse one, it begins with a bang. Cry aloud. Do not hold back. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.
Joel Brooks:I mean, right at the start, the the the gas is just pedal to the metal. Isaiah, he he's told here, hey, clear your throat, take a deep breath with all the energy you can muster. I want you to cry out against the people's transgressions and you're thinking, oh, okay. What is it? I mean, it's gotta be at least one of the 10 commandments.
Joel Brooks:Maybe they're they're murdering people, maybe it's maybe they're stealing. What is it? Well, we read in verse two. Yet, they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their god. They ask of me righteous judgments.
Joel Brooks:They delight to draw near to god. You read that and you're like, what? These aren't sins. This reads like a church's vision statement actually. I mean, you told me that you found a church where people are seeking the Lord every single day, they're seeking the Lord through prayer, through diligently studying the word, they want to know His ways, and that they absolutely delighted in drawing near to God, I would say that church sounds amazing.
Joel Brooks:You should go there. Can I go there? We realize also on top of this, they're even fasting. That's not like Christianity one zero one. That's your advanced Christianity.
Joel Brooks:That's for the the hardcore strong Christians here. So, what's the problem? Well, it's those two little words in verse two. As if. As if.
Joel Brooks:They were doing these things as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their god. Whether they knew it or not, all of their religious devotion was just a facade. They were not actually righteous. They only had an as if righteousness. The lord goes on to tell them and says, yes, you're fasting but you know, during these fast, you're still doing whatever you want.
Joel Brooks:You're still oppressing workers. You're getting in fist fights. I mean, did you notice that? I read that. Was like, what?
Joel Brooks:Who gets in fist fights during this? And then I remembered the angriest that Lauren has ever been at me in our entire life and it was when I left or I ate some leftover pizza in the fridge and I know you're thinking not a big deal. You would be right normally. It wasn't labeled or anything but my wife was pregnant And I did not know that she had been fantasizing about that slice of pizza all day. And when she came home and realized I ate it, there was a side to her and and I fear for my life like I am now as she is looking at me as I'm sharing this like I fear for my life but that's what happens when you're hangry.
Joel Brooks:These these people when when you've divorced fasting from actually a spiritual devotion, it's merely just an emptying of the stomach, you get really hangry. These people are they're fighting with one another. And God says that's an as if righteousness. In verse six through seven, the Lord tells him the kind of fast he wants. Is not this the fast that I choose to lose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke?
Joel Brooks:Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and to bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? The Lord says, that's true righteousness, not just an as if righteousness. True righteousness looks like serving the poor, serving the oppressed. All of this, you need to see it flows out of Isaiah 55, what we looked at last week. Remember there, we were given a feast.
Joel Brooks:The Lord kept saying, come. Come. Buy. Eat. Enjoy.
Joel Brooks:If you don't have any money, it doesn't matter. I've paid the cost for this. Come if you don't have money. Enjoy all of it. And what's happened is as we enjoy this feast, this really this feast that God has given us that nourishes our soul, that translates now to where now that we have enjoyed this feast, we are now sharing that with others.
Joel Brooks:As our souls have been fed by Christ, we now are physically feeding those who are poor and hungry. Listen, I I wanna be very clear about this. I think it's really important for us as a church to be crystal clear on what God says in his word concerning what we would call some of the hot button issues of our day. We need to be clear about what God says concerning things like gender, sex, marriage, life in the womb. We need to hold fast as a church that god created us male and female.
Joel Brooks:That marriage is for one man and one woman and that's a covenant that's to be kept for life. We are to be crystal clear that sex is god's gift to only be enjoyed within the confines of that covenant. We need to be clear about life begins in the womb and should be protected. Those are things that I mean, we need to say those things. We need to defend those things, but I would say we need to even do more than defend those things.
Joel Brooks:We need to show the beauty of those things. I mean, that's what the world's waiting for, not just to be told they're wrong and all those things, but can we actually show them God's design is beautiful in that, how we live it out. But hear me, even that is not enough. It is not enough for us to actually raise up the foundations or to be a restorer of the streets. We we can't just speak about those things.
Joel Brooks:If we do all of those things, yet we neglect taking care of the poor. We're not righteous. We only have an as if righteousness. Do you know why God judged Sodom? I mean, most of us when we think of Sodom, what do we think of?
Joel Brooks:We we think of sexual sin, sexual immorality, we think of blasphemy, and and they certainly did those horrific actions. But that's not what we read about why God judged them. Ezekiel, he actually says in Ezekiel 16, he says, this is the reason God judged Sodom. This was the guilt of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease.
Joel Brooks:But they did not aid the poor and the needy. Ezekiel says that's the sin. That's why God judged Sodom because in their pride, they comfortably just sat in all of their excess. And yet they didn't actually care for the poor. And he said, keep in mind this too.
Joel Brooks:Those poor and needy people out there, they were not righteous people. Because remember, Abraham had already been praying with God and said, hey God, if there's only 10 righteous people there, you'll spare the city. And he says, I'll spare the city if you could find 10 righteous people. So we know that the poor were not righteous. They were the wicked poor and yet god judges that whole city because they did not take care of the unrighteous poor.
Joel Brooks:So why is this so important to God here? Clear your throat. Like a trumpet, say this. Why is it so important? Well, it's because God did not wait for us.
Joel Brooks:He didn't wait for us to get our act together. He didn't wait for us to pull ourselves up our bootstrap. He didn't wait for us to go clean ourselves up, to make ourselves presentable. We actually read in Romans five that Jesus died while we were still sinners. He died for us while we were still sinners.
Joel Brooks:He died for the ungodly. Verse 10 says, He died while we were still enemies. Jesus gave his life for ungodly, sinful enemies. And what we find here is if we truly believe this, then then that overflows. If we truly believe God saved us when we were poor and wicked, then we will have that grace towards others who are poor and wicked.
Joel Brooks:Verse nine, Isaiah says we have to quit pointing the finger at other people. It's the only time that phrase is used in scripture, the pointing of the finger. If you're wondering what that means, it means exactly what you think it means. People pointed fingers back then for the same reason people point fingers now. It was their way of saying them.
Joel Brooks:It was the same way of it was the way they casted blame. They pointed out faults. They distinguished themselves from them or those people. Think we live in a culture of finger pointers? I mean, I know like, you know, social media, you have, you know, Facebook, Instagram.
Joel Brooks:We have the the thumbs up. We have the thumbs down you could do. Could you imagine if we had the point the finger button we could hit? I mean, that thing would be worn out. I don't know if social media could exist apart from pointing the finger because it's what it's full of.
Joel Brooks:We we want to blame others and and that's exactly what these Israelites were doing. They weren't just pointing out and saying, oh, look at the poor perp, poor, poor person. They're not just pointing out poverty. They're saying, look at those neighborhoods. Look at the crime.
Joel Brooks:Look at the violence. Those people are getting just what they deserve. Those people. And Isaiah here is saying, there is no them in the gospel. It's not that they are sinners, we are sinners.
Joel Brooks:We don't say they need Jesus. We say, we need Jesus. For we were poor, unrighteous people ourselves. And Jesus came to us. It is so hard for me to read this and not think of Luke 18 where Jesus gives that that example of there was this righteous pharisee praying next to this unrighteous tax collector and his prayer is, God, thank you that I'm not like him.
Joel Brooks:Look at me. I pray, I fast twice a week, I give, I'm not like him. That's an as if righteousness. Now, the context here of Isaiah, when god says that we must help the poor, he is talking about those who are literally, physically poor, those who are hungry, those who are homeless. I believe the context here is the exiles just returning home to Jerusalem, which has been devastated.
Joel Brooks:The walls are not just in ruins. The entire infrastructure of the city is in ruins. And as a result, some of the people's most basic provisions that they were not being met. People were literally starving on the streets. In our time and place, that type of hunger, starvation, homelessness, it still exists but it is not nearly as widespread or severe as what Isaiah is looking at in this moment.
Joel Brooks:Where it does exist, let's be crystal clear again. Church, it's our calling to meet those needs. We don't wait for the government. We don't wait for nonprofits. This is our unique calling as a church to serve the poor.
Joel Brooks:It's why we do things like we we partner with Oak Tree Ministries down there in Gate City, down the road. We partner with East Lake Initiative. It provides job training, financial help for those in need. It's why on Tuesday nights, we serve at IHH, which is a family homeless shelter just down the road. It's why we partner with ministries like Not Forgotten in Peru that takes kids, boys off the streets and gives them a home.
Joel Brooks:I mean, it's our calling as a church to do this and every time you give to the church, you're you're helping finance those ministries. Now, I would encourage you to give more than just your money. Give your time. You can volunteer in those places. So, without a doubt, that's our calling.
Joel Brooks:But I also think that our culture has a unique type of poverty, a unique type of homelessness that also needs our care. We might have over 300,000,000 people living in The US, but we're unique in history in that we are the most isolated, lonely people in existence. We live in a time where people are relationally poor. A time where people have very few deep meaningful connections with others. Very few if any deep friendships.
Joel Brooks:And so when I read these words in Isaiah, yes, I hear the Lord calling us to the physical poor, but I also hear the Lord calling us to reach out to those who are relationally poor. And we're to invite them into our homes, our apartments, our dorms. We're to break bread with them, and we're to treat them like family. Right now, what I would love for you all to do is I would like for you to think of a name and write down the name of the first person the Lord's gonna bring to your mind who you would consider poor. Either through lack of food or through lack of relationships.
Joel Brooks:And that name that popped up and you're like, let me quickly think of another note that's the right name. Write that down. If it's a person next to you and you don't want them to see just write it on the backside, of course, they're gonna know that it's them, but do it anyway. And what I want you to do is this week, not next week, this week, I want you to reach out to that person and to figure out how. How can you meet their need?
Joel Brooks:How can you meet their poverty? Treat them like family. Let me tell you what's gonna happen when you do this. Verse eight. You're told not only that your light's gonna break forth like a dawn.
Joel Brooks:I love that. Your light's gonna shine, But that your own healing shall spring up speedily. You will be healed when you do this. Later we found you're gonna be like a watered garden if you do this. When we take care of the poor, those who are both starving physically or those who are starving relationally, it not only brings healing to them, it heals us.
Joel Brooks:Because we've just enlarged our family. I mentioned this a number of years ago, but when I was in college, I lost my dad as a junior in college. And that left that left a pretty big hole, pretty big wake in my life. I had one more year where I was to stay at in the University of Georgia, and I What I decided to do was I would find someone who who was a widow. And I found a older lady, her name was Anne Clark.
Joel Brooks:She had just lost her husband. I had just lost my dad. And I asked if I could rent a bedroom in her house. And I did, $50 a month. And and written in there and I just thought I could help her and her loss and actually she started helping me in my loss.
Joel Brooks:And the more we gave to one another, the more speedily our healing began. We started having Thursday night dinners together. And then she also waived my rent. And then she started buying my groceries. She became like a mom.
Joel Brooks:I was starting to become like a son in some ways. And we were so different. I mean, politically, theologically, I thought she was crazy. Just like you think some of your family members are but but we had these meals together and finally, she's like, hey, every Thursday night, I want you to bring some of your friends and so on Thursday nights, we would fill up her dining room with all of my friends and we'd have this enormous family meal. So, it began as this deep sorrow, this emptiness in it us became this time of joy as we gave to one another.
Joel Brooks:We became family. Do you know why James in his letter, he says that pure and undefiled religion is this. It's visiting widows and orphans and their affliction. Do you know why he points out those two people? The widows and orphans?
Joel Brooks:It's because those are the ones without family. And when you didn't have family, you suffered. Without a family, you were poor. Without a family, you were afflicted. And James is saying, be the family that other people need.
Joel Brooks:Now I realize that as you're listening to this, there's probably more than a few of you that are feeling a little guilty right now. And I I I don't want this. I could use it. Guilt's a really good motivator at times. You know, I could just, I mean, I could hammer in that guilt.
Joel Brooks:It's a good temporary motivator. You know, it'll it'll get you to maybe share a few bucks, but it's not gonna get you to share your life. Just what we're being asked to do here. It's the grace of God when that grips you out of joy. You see like that's what I'm being invited to.
Joel Brooks:I'm in I'm being invited to let the light shine, healing come into my life. I'm invited into a life of joy. But grace has to hit you first. In the book of Matthew, Jesus twice, he talks about judgment day. And two times as he talks about this, he he gives example of people are expecting to get in, but instead Jesus says, depart from me.
Joel Brooks:The first one's at the end of the sermon on the mount in which there are some people who are doing some amazing things. Once again, it's like church vision statement that they are they are doing mighty works for the Lord. They are prophesying. They are casting out demons. And Jesus says, depart from me, I never knew you.
Joel Brooks:But he doesn't really define what is meant by I never knew you. It's just scary. It's like, oh, we gotta know Jesus. Matthew 25, he shares another story and he also says, depart from me and it's this. This time it's it's people are expecting to get in and he says, no, depart from me for when I was hungry, didn't give me anything to eat.
Joel Brooks:When I was thirsty, didn't give me anything to drink. When I was naked, you didn't clothe me. When I was in prison, you didn't visit me. Depart from me. And they say, when?
Joel Brooks:When? When do we like see this? And Jesus said, well, as often as you did not do it, to the least of these, you didn't do it unto me. What Jesus is saying here is I have so identified myself with the poor that if you don't do it to them, you don't do it to me. So how do you know Jesus?
Joel Brooks:You visit him. You visit Him by going to the poor. That's it. That's how he spells it out later. But I told you I wasn't gonna give you guilt.
Joel Brooks:It's not guilt. Here's the deal church. We have actually seen Jesus, not just in the face of the poor, but we have actually seen Jesus thirsty, naked, imprisoned. We've seen him endure all those things on the cross. There Jesus, he was nailed naked there for the whole world to see.
Joel Brooks:There he was thirsty. He cried out, I thirst. There he was not just in prison. He was in something far worse. He was immobilized through nails in his hands and his feet, and he was receiving the very punishment of God.
Joel Brooks:So we do see Jesus clearly there on the cross. And what we're defining is that when we look at that, how can you not be moved? Jesus did that for us when we were sinners, enemies, undeserving. And if when that hits, I mean, when it really, really hits, he did that for me, it completely changes you and you cannot wait to show that same grace to others who are sinners and who are undeserving. That's the overflow.
Joel Brooks:That's the joy that we get when we receive the gospel. Let's pray to him now that he gives us the heart that he has shown to us. Lord, I pray that in this moment, you would give us a heart that is deeply moved by the gospel. Can't believe you did it. Can't believe it when we were so poor.
Joel Brooks:We weren't middle class. We were poor. Nothing to offer. You saved us. Lord, now I pray that out of joy, the joy of receiving your grace, we would be gracious to others.
Joel Brooks:Lord, through your spirit now, would you make that a reality in our lives? We pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.