May 10, 2026 | Trusting God's Presence Over Panic

Isaiah 7:1-8:22, Pastor Jason Lancaster

Transcript

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I have enough in here on these two chapters for three sermons this morning. But rather than lengthening the sermon this morning, I did a lot of cutting. And I'll still be doing a lot of cutting on the fly. But this may be pretty hard to understand at times. I'm going to try to simplify it. And if you're having a difficult time today, just try to latch on to uh something that God wants to tell you to your heart from his word. Let's let's pray to that end. Lord, I just ask that you would speak. That you would speak with power, that you would speak with authority, that you would give us joy in Jesus. And may your word come through clear. And may someone cling to something they need to hear today. May you speak it right to their heart. In Jesus' name, amen. How many of you are good in a crisis? My guess is that most of you function pretty well in a crisis. Let me give you something big and then bring it back to you. You know, there's been a war going on in Ukraine and Russia for since a long time since 2022. And when it was all breaking out in 2022, there was a group of Christians, a group of pastors who were gathering for all night prayer meetings, welcoming people into their homes, giving people food, protecting people. They were being faithful during the crisis. And the question I have to ask is, well, how are they doing now? My guess is many of you once again can do good in a crisis. I mean, I'm really good at crisis. Last night, our bathtub, instead of deciding to drain down the pipe, decided to drain all the way from the second floor, all the way to the first floor everywhere. Like water pouring from the ceiling. And my son said, Dad, why are you not freaking out more? And I wanted to say to him, son, I am trained for crisis. Check back with me in about a week or a month. When I look up at that ceiling, it looks nasty. Not gonna do so well. I suspect a lot of us are good at crisis, but when things start to continue on and on and on, not so much. I mean the the initial diagnosis may hit, you trust the Lord, you pray you're faithful. A crisis in your marriage may hit, you pray you're faithful. But when that stuff starts to drag on, I don't know about you, but the the war of attrition, or the protracted war, or when the battle goes on and on and on, I don't do so well. I'm good with crisis. But when things drag out, I don't do so well. Let's address that right there this morning as we look in the book of Isaiah. We start in chapter seven. We see that the Judah has been under attack. Get this from two kings from the north. This is very could be very confusing, but just keep it simple. We're focusing on Judah today and their king Ahaz. And up north would be these two kingdoms, will be the northern kingdom of Israel. We'll just go ahead and call them Ephraim for this morning, and Syria. And they're trying to get Judah to join them in an alliance so they can get stronger and go against the powerful army of Assyria. But Judah does not want to join. Ahaz does not want to join the alliance. He's rejecting those two kings. They're coming against him, they're attacking his country, and he is pondering, partnering with wicked Assyria, the huge empire. And God's going to clamp down on that. And that's where the story's at today. Try to follow if you can. Isaiah chapter 7, starting in verse 1. Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jot and the son of Uzziah. Remember, Uzziah died in Isaiah 6. Well, this is his grandson Ahaz. That Rezin, the king of Aram, Syria, and Pikah, the son of Ramaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not conquer it. When it was reported to the house of David, saying, The Arameans have camped in Ephraim, his heart, and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind. So here's Ahaz occupying David's seat, but he is no David. He has the pedigree, but this Ahaz, guys, does not have the prayer life. And he's panicking. These two kings are coming against the capital city of Jerusalem. And this is no small thing, because get this. These two kings have already wiped out 120,000 people in Judah. And they've taken 200,000 women and children into captivity. For this is no small thing. So fear seems to be the rightful thing that you would have shaking and afraid, just like wind blowing the trees. But God doesn't leave Ahaz in the dark. Look at verse 3. Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son, Shir Joshab, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the Foolersfield, and say to him, Take care and be calm, have no fear, and do not be faint-hearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Ramaliah. Because Aram with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah has planned evil against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it and make for ourselves a breach in its walls, and set up the son of Tabil as the king in its midst. Two kings come against Judah. They want to set up this puppet king to join their alliance against Assyria. But Ahaz is pondering, partnering with Assyria. So Isaiah meets him at the aquuck at the water, and so here is Ahaz inspecting the water. He's trying to fix the situation they're in, and God wants to check, not the water, but God wants to check his faith. And notice what he says to him in verse 4. Do you see it there? He says, Take care and be calm. Enemies knocking at the door, he says, Take care and be calm. That may be your word today. Rather than scrambling to fix whatever you're in, calm down. Take care. And then we have this punch delivered here. It says, Ahaz, guess what? These are just two kings of two ruling cities. They're not some unstoppable empire. Within 65 years, Ephraim and the northern kingdom will not exist as a people. And did you catch it there in verse 7? It shall not stand, nor shall it come to pass. And then look at verse 9 at the very end. If you will not believe, you shall surely not last. You can underline that. If you will not believe, you shall surely not last. Another way to say that is that if you don't have trust, you will have no traction. For this morning, what I want to say to you, if you don't quit, you win. If you don't quit, you win. That's the reality of following Jesus. Ahaz, you need to function in faith. Quit being a fixer and trust the Lord. And so I'm talking to you this morning, and you're looking at some ancient text here, and you're going, well, what does that mean? I think it means this, all right? If you're to operate in faith rather than try to be this awesome fixer that you are, I think if you're going to operate in faith, this is what it's going to look like. Do the next right thing, even if it's slow. Many times we want to get out from under the pressure because I can't stand it. I want things to be fixed, like Ahaz, but Ahaz is considering partnering with Assyria, which is gonna mortgage his grandchildren's future. And God is telling him, slow down. Sometimes we think that changes will fix our problem. Sometimes we have problems so bad we go, you know what? If I could just move, my problem would be fixed. You ever thought that before? Well, the problem with moving is that you always take yourself with you. And if you had issues, you may have issues where you're going. And I know some of you are having problems with other people right now, and you may think, if I could just cut them out of my life, my life will be so much better. And I want to just tell you this morning, calm down, slow down, do the next right thing. Well, God continues in verse 10. Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, Ask for a sign for yourself from the Lord your God, make it deep as shell or as high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord. Then he said, Listen now, O house of David, is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well. God is inviting Ahaz, hey man, you just pick whatever sign you want. Just name a sign. You want me to make the sun stand still again? You want me to kill the king that's coming against you? Ask for any sign and I'll give it to you. And Ahaz is like, I'm not gonna test God. I'm super spiritual, and you're not supposed to test God. And the reality is, is Ahaz is testing God right now by disobeying him. Let me give you a picture of what Ahaz is doing. Okay, so this past week, this may not make any sense to you, but I've got to tell you this. This past week, something, a video club's been floating around. It's been it's been really cool to watch about a podcaster named Theo Vaughn. And Theo Vaughn is not yet a Christian. I think he will be one day. I really do. I feel like he's so close. He doesn't believe in Jesus yet, but he shares a struggle that he has that he wants to quit. And he says this I go to God in prayer and I say, God, please help me stop doing this. And he says this, but I know at the same time I'm still gonna do it. That is an unbeliever sharing what a lot of us experience and act like in prayer. God, please help me stop doing this, but you know in the back of your head, you're gonna do it anyway. What's happening right here? Ahaz doesn't want a sign from God, he just wants God to leave him alone.

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You ever feel like that? God, just leave me alone. Let me do my own thing, please.

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And Isaiah says, You are wearying God. You're wearing him out. Well, God gives a sign anyway. God is so merciful. Look at verse 14. It's a great Christmas time verse here. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she shall call his name Emmanuel. Very famous Christmas text here, but I think this prophecy operates on two levels. There is going to be a near fulfillment in Ahaz's lifetime, likely a child whose birth and growth would mark the timeline God promised. And then, of course, you know there's a far fulfillment in Jesus Christ being born to rescue his people, God with us, not God maybe, but God with us. That's the sign to tip off Ahaz that he's going to come through. Look at verse 15. He will eat curds and honey at the time he knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken. The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on your father's house such days as never come since the days that Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Assyria. He says, Before this boy grows up, I tell you what, those two kings up north, they're gonna be done for. Assyria is gonna take them out. And by the way, Assyria is gonna attack you too. You want Assyria? I'll give you far more than Assyria that you bargain for. Now we jump. Skip way ahead. Chapter eight. Look at chapter eight. You may wondering, what am I passing over? I'm passing over a lot of judgment. Chapter eight, starting in verse five. Look at verse five. Again, the Lord spoke to me further, saying, Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloh, and rejoice in resin and the son of Ramaliah. Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of Euphrates, even the king of Assyria in all his glory, and it will rise up all over its channels and go over its banks. Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, it will reach even to the neck, and the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Emmanuel. If you have not been paying attention, and if you're checking out, I tell you what, right now is one of the main things you need to get from this passage this morning. You should go home and look at this. I think this is where it hits, right where we're at, okay? So try to track with me. I learned that this week. I love studying this stuff, so I want to share it with you. Okay, you ready? When it says Shiloh, the gentle flowing waters of Shiloh. It's just this small aqueduct that fed from water from the Gihon Spring. Now get this. Shiloh wasn't impressive, it wasn't loud, but it was reliable, and it was God's. But here, by contrast, when it talks about the Euphrates, the Euphrates was this great river of empire. It was wide, it was fast, it was terrifying. And Judah looked, here's what's happening. Judah looked at God's quiet provision of Shiloh and said, That's not enough. Give us a real river. We want some power. We want some solutions. We want some fixes, show us something strong. And I guarantee you, every single one of us can despise God's gentle flowing river and presence in our life in many ways. So many times we can despise our prayer life that is just too ineffective and quiet. Too many times we despise Bible already. God, I read the Bible, but it didn't do anything. We can despise this Sunday morning routine. It's not just accomplishing much at all. Or maybe someone gives us some wise counsel. We're like, ah, I don't want that counsel. That's that's too slow. It's too faithful. I don't want that showing up daily, grinding daily. I don't want the Shiloh of God's presence. Give me some action. Give me something to do. Give me some big leverage play. Give me a shortcut. Shiloh, it looks weak. And Ephraim, the Euphrates, it looks very, very strong. Now I want to hit this with you, okay? How many believe in your heart of hearts, whether you say it or not, that when you became a Christian, you viewed your life to get better and better. Like the Christian life is like this it's all up and to the right. It's gonna keep getting better and better and better. We're gonna keep growing and growing and growing. We're gonna be healthier, we're gonna be happier. All of our kids are gonna follow Jesus. It's gonna be wonderful up and to the right. You thought that for sure is what God is going to do for me up and to the right, except when it's not. And when your life is not up and to the right, what do you do? Do you trust and obey, or do you fear and force? Someone's got to write a new song. So trust and obey, write a song about fear and force. When we get afraid, we try to force fixes. Calm, gentle waters of trust in the Lord, forget that. Give me a big leverage play. Let me do something. God's not coming through. Let me do something. And God's like, trust and obey the gentle flowing waters of Shiloh. No matter how much the Euphrates looks awesome, the Euphrates will swallow you. In your own ways, your own terms, you will get swallowed up. Now let's look at verse 11 of chapter 8. For thus the Lord spoke to me. So here's God talking Isaiah. I want you guys to pay attention here. For thus the Lord spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the ways of this people, saying, Now listen, you were not to say it is a conspiracy in regard to all that this people call a conspiracy. And you're not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the Lord of hosts whom you shall regard as holy, and he shall be your fear, and he shall be your dread. Then he shall become a sanctuary both to the houses of Israel, a stone to strike, and a rock to stumble over, and a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many will stumble over them, then they will fall and be broken, they will even be snared and caught. So here we are, Judah. Here we are, church. He says specifically to Judah, don't join the panic or the conspiracy theories. Hello? Turn off Tucker. Turn off Candace.

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You're like, but those people they're helping me because I'm so afraid. I just need to know what's going on in a row. Just give me any type of conspiracy theory that explains what's going on.

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And what's he saying? This is nothing new. This is nothing new.

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You think you're the first generation to come up with conspiracy theories? You're not.

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And he's specifically saying, don't trust these conspiracies. I know you want an explanation for your fear, but do not trust in them. Trust in the Lord. Now, for those of you who are saying, okay, okay, tell me more. I'm gonna tell you more. Look at verse 19. Isaiah, yeah. When they say to you, consult the mediums. And the spirit is who whisper and mutter, should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law, to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, is it because they have no don? He's specifically saying, Don't consult psychics. You want a verse in the Bible? Here it is. Don't consult dead people on behalf of the living, don't seek out conspiracies, don't seek out horoscopes. Because you want to know, okay, explain my life, explain my future, explain all this fear I have. And instead of doing all that, what are you supposed to do instead? Verse 16. Look at verse 16. It says, bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples, and here it is. And I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will even look eagerly for him. He's saying, instead of looking for conspiracies and trying to have everything explained to me about what's happening to me right now, my future, I am going to wait for the Lord. I am going to trust and obey. Because God tells me, if you don't have faith, you will not stand at all. If you quit, you're done. But if you don't quit, you win. I will trust and obey. I will not fear and try to force things. Last week I shared with you. That I felt like depression was nipping at my heels. And I tell you what, I talked to so many of you about similar struggles, struggles with family members, struggles with your friends. I mean, I heard so many stories, and and it, and you started sharing those with me because I shared up here. Now here's me, here's me. With my struggles, and I'm glad it encourages you, but sometimes I say to God, God, I don't want to be your poster boy to encourage others.

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Just fix the problem. Just heal me. I don't want this plan that surely you don't want me to trust and obey through the struggles.

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Surely you can just fix it. Anybody? And yet, God in his sovereignty has brought things into your life that are unfixable. Maybe you'll never be healed. Maybe the relationship will never get fixed. Maybe you will see no resolution on this earth. But trust me, you will in heaven. If you don't quit, you win. Trust and obey. That's kind of where I'm I'm gonna kind of leave you, leave you hanging this morning. I'm gonna say, okay, you dealt with a crisis. I checked back on some of those Ukrainian pastors. I'm like, well, you know, what are you guys doing? You did great in crisis, but they're still plodding along. The war's still going on, and they're still caring for people, they're still showing up, they're not fleeing the country, they're not joining and arming up with the militias, they are trusting and obeying in the conflict. What about you? The crisis has passed, but the drama and the trauma continues. What are you gonna do? Continue on with trust and obey? Or is your fear gonna look for a solution that you're gonna try to ram through because you're looking for some huge leverage play to fix it all? And God is telling Ahaz, Judah, and all of us here, I got you. I'm in control. I will be your protector. But if you don't stand by faith, you will not stand at all. If we don't quit, he who began a good work in us will finish it in the day of Christ Jesus. And when we feel like nothing is holding us, he's holding us fast. Let's pray. And along with that, prosperity offers us promises to every problem that we have. But you have brought many of us to points in our lives where America and all that it offers and everything at its disposal for us cannot fix. I pray for the person in here who is really lonely right now, that they will not look for a fix in a relationship that's going to be bad for them. I pray for the person who is struggling in here with meaning and emptiness, and they're thinking the solution is getting caught up in whether it's alcohol, maybe some type of weird thing going on on the internet, joining some conspiracy group, whatever can explain what's going on in their lives. But Lord help us as the people of God to consult your word and what your word says. And your word says, if we don't stand by faith, we will not stand at all. And may we run to the gentle flowing waters of Shiloh, reject the quick fixes of the Euphrates that will overtake us and find in you a yoke that does not overwhelm us, a burden that is super light, and walk with you and trust you, because you are God with us. You are the one who took on flesh, that lived this life down here that we could not live. And in Jesus Christ, God with us, Emmanuel, we have salvation, we have hope, and we have a future. And help us to stake our lives on Jesus and Jesus alone. In his name we pray. Amen.