Sermon Cloud

May 25th, 2008

Garfield Community Church

Ready, Aim, Misfire!

Isaiah 54:17

17 “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgement you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me”, says the Lord.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Ready, Aim, Fire!”? Yes, I'm sure we all have. It brings up images of death, destruction, war. As a matter of fact, it doesn't seem to ever be used in a positive context. Have you ever heard the captain of a hose team on a fire truck give this command before deluging a burning building with water? No. Have you ever heard the quarterback of a football team yell this right before the ball is snapped for the next big play? Of course not. Of course, sometimes in fun, when you have large water balloons and a two man slingshot that will launch a large water balloon over a building and across a field 100 yards before completely soaking some unsuspecting teenager at camp, you may use the phrase “Ready, Aim Fire!” and really really enjoy the effect. Other then that though, we do not want to hear “Ready, Aim, Fire!” when we are on the receiving side of whatever is coming our way.

Let's look at our text today.

Isaiah here is prophesying. He is proclaiming the message that the Lord has given him to share with God's people. I believe this prophecy was not only for Israel and Judah. I believe this prophecy is for all of God's people through the ages.

As we have been adopted into the family of God as heirs alongside Jesus the Son, this message from God through Isaiah is every bit as much for us as it was to Israel and Judah thousands of years ago.

So what is God actually telling us in this message through the prophet? Let's breakdown this passage.

First, God is telling us that no weapon formed against us will prosper. How does a weapon prosper? Well, you have to look at it from the perspective of the weapon, or the person with the weapon. If you are on the stock end of a rifle when you are hunting, and you get an elk, you were prosperous, the elk was not. It's a matter of perspective. So when God says the no weapon formed against you will prosper, He is saying that the weapon will not succeed with it's mission. It will not complete the job. That's not to say it won't inflict some pain, cause a little damage, but it will not prosper, it won't win.

What does this mean to us today? Here in America we don't have anywhere near the violence that we here about in places such as Africa or Asia. However we still come under fire. Sometimes with firearms, sometimes the weapon used against us is money. Recently, the news was reporting that Microsoft was attempting to buy Yahoo. When Yahoo's directors declined the sale, Microsoft looked into a hostile takeover. That's using money as a weapon.

The verse goes on to say, “and every tongue which rises against you in judgement, you shall condemn.” What do you think that is? False accusations? Gossip? Rumors? Lies? You know, sometimes words can be more hurtful than any physical weapon. That's why we must choose our words carefully. That's why we need to be careful not to gossip or start and spread rumors. You know, it's been said, “Speculation is just that and should be kept to one's self.” I believe that. I believe one of the biggest hurts that we have to heal are hurts that have been inflicted by words.

Words are an amazing weapon. The colonial free press has been given a lot of credit towards the success the Colonial Army had 230 years ago. Words can cut someone to the core and never leave a physical mark. However, there is a physical toll. We need to be careful about the words we use, about the things we say, about the stories we share. We can even do this when we are meaning well and not even know it.

But, this verse is a victory verse for us. This verse is a verse about us being on the receiving end of these weapons. These weapons of destruction, these weapons of words, these weapons of nature. You see Satan wants to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to take you out. He wants to wipe God's people from the face of the earth. He started with his lies in the garden of Eden and hasn't stopped. He hasn't even changed the message. Yes, he's changed the packaging, but the message is the same. He tries to physically harm us. He wants nothing than to see us renounce Christ and die. That is to die eternally. To spend eternally in Hell with him. That is his only desire. He wants to see you fail and die. He wants to see the cause of Christ and the life saving message of Christ die.

Satan has lots of weapons too. He can say anything. He has people living for him who will do his bidding no matter what. He doesn't care the about the cost. But her's the cool part. No weapon formed against us can prosper. Every tongue which rises against us in judgement, we shall condemn. We don't have to sit idly by and here the devil's accusations. We don't have to sit idly by and accept what he says. We don't have to sit idly by while he fires at us. We can stand stall confident in the knowledge and faith of Jesus Christ. We can command Satan and his demons to back off. We can command his weapons to misfire.

Folks when it comes to spiritual warfare we have been far too passive. We have accepted defeat over and over. We have accepted defeat in our public schools. We have accepted defeat in our government. We have accepted defeat in our free press. We have accepted defeat in our families. We have accepted defeat in our lives. Why?

No weapon formed against you shall prosper! No tongue rising against you in judgement shall go uncondemned! Come on folks, let's start walking in the victory we have in Jesus Christ. There's nothing more sorry than seeing one of God's people walking around down in the mouth, just moping around, walking in defeat. Walk in victory!

Look at how this verse ends. “'This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me', says the Lord.” You see we don't need to be perfect. Everyone one of Satan's lies and accusations is based on some truth. There's just about always something there. However, our righteousness come from God. We are washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ. This is our heritage. This is our reward while here on this fallen world. We are not perfect, but we are made perfect as we continually die to ourselves and give ourselves freely and unconditionally to God through Jesus Christ, accepting His power through the Holy Spirit. That's a heritage!

We've talked about Peter before. Peter was not a perfect man. Peter stepped out of the boat with Jesus and walked on water until he lost his faith. Peter denied Christ three times. Peter again rebuked God after a vision while waiting on a roof top meditating. Peter was not a perfect man. But, look at the power that he had through the Holy Spirit. Look at the amazing things he did for God because he gave his life wholly to God. Peter accepted the heritage of adopted sonship of God the father through Jesus Christ. With that, he stood on a stump in a square in Jerusalem and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. The bible tells us there were thousands saved that day. Do you think Peter went without attack? Do you think Satan wasn't trying to squelch Peter and the others?

Similarly, Satan tries to squelch us day in and day out. The sad thing is he has succeeded so many times. The North American church has been holed up inside their church buildings for almost half a century now. It's safe there. The problem is, Satan has been running wild around the earth because the church got afraid. Stand up! No weapon formed against will prosper! No tongue can say anything about you that you can't and shouldn't rebuke!

Let's teach the devil a new phrase to us at the launch of each one of his attacks. Let's teach him to say, “Ready, Aim, Misfire!”