Episode 1272: Restoration

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,272 of the Inspired Stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Derek Gujardo: I'm Derek Gujardo from Strong Life Coach. I encourage you to find your own journey to building your own strong life, and one way to be inspired to do that is by listening to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott.

[00:00:27] Scott Maderer: The whole world for all people. Not just the people we agree with. Not just the people that look like us. Not just the people that love the way we do, not just the people that sound the way we do, not just the people that we want to, but for all people. Maybe we can recognize. That is what we're truly called to do.

[00:00:49] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your [00:01:00] time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can.

[00:01:14] The world

[00:01:21] in today's spiritual foundation episode about impacting the world. I talk with you about Isaiah chapter two verses one through five. I share with you why restoration is so important, and I also share why gratitude is a big part of restoration. Isaiah chapter two Verses one through five says the word that Isaiah son of AMA saw concerning Judea and Jerusalem In days to come, the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains.

[00:01:52] And shall be raised above the hills. All the nations shall stream to it. Many people shall come and say, [00:02:00] come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in His pass. For out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the Lord From Jerusalem, he shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples, they shall beat their swords into plow share.

[00:02:21] And there's spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore. Oh, house of Jacob. Come let us walk in the light of the Lord. You know this passage from Isaiah is one of those that is an interesting set. Of statements and interesting set of stories about what is coming or what is coming next, I think as we enter this holiday season.

[00:02:57] Here in the US we just got through with [00:03:00] Thanksgiving. Now we're moving into the Christmas season. In my, I joke with people that now you can actually begin to play Christmas music and put up Christmas decorations. Now that Thanksgiving is over, but we often have this kind of sense of gladness at times around this time of the year.

[00:03:19] But there's also often a feeling of sadness. A burden that comes along with it of feeling like there's so much complexity, there's so much chaos. We always believe that life used to be simpler when we were children or the this feeling of simpler times in the past. You hear people say, let's go back to the simpler time.

[00:03:43] Let's go back to a greater time. Let's go back to a time when everything made sense and things were plain and easy to understand. But the truth is such a time. Did it ever really exist? If you think, honestly, [00:04:00] I think there's times that we think we've got things figured out when we think things are easier, and maybe there were times where you feel like it was easier for you, but at the same time, was it easier for everyone?

[00:04:17] Can you think of a time when everyone. Found the world to be simple. They found no anxiety. They found no worry. They found things to happen in a way that they were equal and fair, and treated well. I don't think there's a time where that's been true for everyone. We often have choices and make decisions.

[00:04:45] And ask questions out of the fear of the moment and our hope and our desire to provide well for others. Often I work with folks who have made some [00:05:00] decisions that were not necessarily the best, but I always ask, did you make the best decision you could at the time you made it with the information you had?

[00:05:09] Because what often happens is we learn new information and then we judge the decision we made before. But the truth is our vision is always limited. We don't see that well. We don't see what we need to see. We don't see when God is working in the world. And so we end up just muddling through the best we can and often our best isn't necessarily.

[00:05:39] What we see troubles us. It limits us, it divides us. We see the differences, not the things that are alike. We see the things that we wanna fight about, not the things that should bring us together. We see problems, we see roadblocks, we see things that we want to navigate and get [00:06:00] around and tear down.

[00:06:02] But what if we could see better? What if we could see farther? What if we could. More in Isaiah. It talks about there's a prophecy in there and we often skip right to that. That's the part that we pay attention to, especially in the season of Advent. As we're moving towards the Christmas season, we lean into that prophe.

[00:06:30] We may doubt the reality of the words. We may think this is a naive fantasy that we'll never see an end to war. We'll never see true peace. There's always war conflict, enemies but this still is a Christmas card or a hope for the future. But in verse one, if you back up a little, It introduces us to the prophet who's speaking, Isaiah, son of [00:07:00] Amos.

[00:07:00] He's a family person. He has a family. He works for the Southern Kingdom Judea, and he works in Jerusalem, the capital city, and Jerusalem, by the way, means city of peace, and then Jerusalem, the city of peace. Is one of the most contentious areas on the planet. There are temples built, there are temples torn down.

[00:07:24] There are wars that have been fought and walls that were built around this city, and it's not a new conflict either. This has been happening for hundreds and thousands of years, and yet it says in verse one, the word that Isaiah said of AMA saw concerning Judea and Jerusalem. The word that Isaiah saw, not heard, but saw the, these prophets are a bit goofy, a little [00:08:00] weird, a little strange.

[00:08:02] They live out there on the edge. They say we're out there running for our lives, hiding in caves and calling down moments. And those things did happen to prophets, but they didn't have an easy life. Prophets speak truth to those in power and often power doesn't like that. No one likes to have a mirror held up to 'em that points out their own false and flaws.

[00:08:30] Profits were probably not really invited to the party very often, but here's Isaiah. Not this typical kind of backwoods prophet, but living there in the capital city right down the hall, so to speak, from the king. He's a corporate, a powerful prophet. Now, however, he didn't spout the party line.

[00:08:55] He wasn't a mouthpiece for the. He was able to keep [00:09:00] his job, and yet he spoke to the king and gave him the bad news. He said, here's bad things that are coming. Here's dangerous things that are coming. Here's things you shouldn't do. And yet the king kept him around. The king kept him around. Does that mean nobody listened to him?

[00:09:19] Did they just shake his hand at the end of service and say, nice sermon. And not really listen or were they able to hear the words of what Isaiah was speaking speak truth to power, that's the call of a prophet. And yet Isaiah saw also that there was a world coming with peace.

[00:09:46] There was an end to war. There was an end to Cal. Even when he was speaking to those in power, who seemed to be making things worse, not making things [00:10:00] better, he still saw that there was another way that with God's power, we could still walk in peace. Maybe in this season of Advent, maybe we can recognize that as well.

[00:10:13] Maybe we can recognize that our call is to transform the. The whole world for all people. Not just the people we agree with. Not just the people that look like us, not just the people that love the way we do, not just the people that sound the way we do, not just the people that we want to, but for all people.

[00:10:35] Maybe we can recognize that is what we're truly called to do. Thanks for listening.

[00:10:47] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard [00:11:00] and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired. And like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.

[00:11:30] Until next time, invest your. Your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.