Episode 1619: Call to Action

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,619 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Jay Williams: Hi, I'm Jay Williams. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to have powerful conversations without turning them into confrontations is key.

And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

Scott Maderer: Faith is no longer just a simple set of beliefs. It's also actions in the real world. Faith is worship. It's a response to the call for justice. That is how we glorify God. That is how we reveal [00:01:00] God's glory to the world. That is how we just. Do it. 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 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 impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Isaiah chapter 58 verses one through 12. I talk about why this message is about just do it, yet all too often we don't. And I also talk about how humility isn't about being silent or weak, but it is about being focused on others. [00:02:00] Isaiah chapter 58 verses one through 12 says.

Shout it aloud. Do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people, their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob, their sins for day after day. They seek me out. They seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and is not forsaken. The commands of its God.

They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. Why have we fasted? They say, and you have not seen it. Why have we humbled ourselves? And you have not noticed yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers, your fasting ends and quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fist.

You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen? Only a day for people to humble themselves. Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is this what you call a fast a day acceptable to [00:03:00] the Lord? Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter when you see the naked to close them and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear. Then your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Then you will call and the Lord will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, here I am. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger in the malicious talk, if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noon day.

The Lord will guide you always. He will satisfy your needs in a sun, scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You'll be like a well watered garden like a [00:04:00] spring, whose waters never fo fail. Your people will rebel the ancient ruins and will raise up the age old foundations. You'll be called repair of broken walls, restore of streets with dwellings.

You know, if you think about this passage from. Isaiah, Isaiah's really on a roll. Thi this passage is from what they call third Isaiah, but we'll still call it Isaiah. And this is a message that we need today. And by the way, by today, I mean whatever day you're facing today, whether you're congregation, your community, your friends, yourself, no matter what has gripped that your nation, your world, your community.

Oftentimes we think we don't need the Old Testament. We don't need the Hebrew scriptures anymore. After all, we've got the gospels. We've got Jesus, and that's good enough. But remember these [00:05:00] words from Isaiah are some of the words that Jesus knew, that some of the words that Jesus lived by, these are the words that called Jesus into ministry and that he passed on to us.

These words are there to give us hope and challenge and burden and stir our hearts to action. Think about it. There are breaches that need repairing. There are walls that need building up and others that need tearing down. There are divides that need healing, and there are ruins that are there to be rebuilt.

There are many who have been pushed to the margins of an increasingly heartless society. Many who need to be set fee from poverty, from injustice, from everything that looks at them and says they are less than human, less than a child of God. And maybe that's the fast that has been chosen for [00:06:00] us. This passage could.

It literally lead to a sermon. That would be one of the shortest sermons ever given, if not the shortest sermon ever given. You could simply say, just do it. The Nike theme, just do it. Of course, that would probably raise more questions to ask, like, just do what? Just do it how? Just do it when, where, why.

So what does Isaiah start with? What is his answer to those questions? He starts with worship. What is worship? The prophet asks specifically, he asked about fasting, but remember, fasting is and was and will always be an act of worship. Fasting was not being done for weight loss or health purposes. It was a sacrifice to God setting asides one hunger to devote full attention to the praise and worship of [00:07:00] God.

But Isaiah notes that there's a current problem with this practice at that time, and I would say this is still true today. 'cause rather than fasting being about God who is worshiped, fasting becomes about the worshiper. Fasting no longer focuses on God, but sometimes just focuses on self. Why don't you see me?

Look how humble I am. The prophet cries out. Look, you serve your own interest on your fast days and oppress all your workers is the answer. In other words, your fasting, worship behavior on Sunday doesn't spill out into Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. It's all about you. Surely nobody would sit in worship in a sanctuary and wave his hands and arms saying, look at me.

What's in it for me? And yet the truth is [00:08:00] that attitude is often there. Even when we're not aware of it, we start to think Maybe we should try something else. Maybe we should do something that gets more for us. Maybe we should take more, do more, be more. But Isaiah says there's a different answer to that feeling and it's simply get out of yourself.

Get out of yourself, get out of your own way. And that is a difficult and complicated thing to do in a culture that is focused on the individual. Is this the fast I choose a day to humble oneself? That's the truth. Is Isaiah saying this is the end of humility? Because after all, he began the text with noise.

Shout out. Do not hold back. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. And that doesn't sound like humility, right? That doesn't sound like what we think of [00:09:00] as humility. But here's the interesting thing, this shouldering one's way into the conversation, this demanding of attention. Is different than a fast that withdraws and bows the head, and it does sound like to us that maybe this is a lack of humility.

But the interesting thing is that Isaiah is saying no, that is humility because the posture here is not crying out on behalf of yourself. It's crying out on behalf of the other, the oppressed, the mistreated, the poor, the hungry. The lost humility is not the equivalent of thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.

Pastor Rick Warren is famous for that quote, and it also comes from CS Lewis. He has mere Christianity is about this idea of humility [00:10:00] being less about you and more about your focus on others. And the others in this case are those marginalized, abused. And mistreated. That's the call to action. Our shout, our anger, our noise is not about getting more attention for us, but it's about correcting injustice.

Faith is no longer just a simple set of beliefs. It's also actions In the real world. Faith is worship. It's a response to the call for justice. That is how we glorify God. That is how we reveal God's glory to the world. That is how we just do it. Thanks for listening. I.

Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just [00:11:00] sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship.

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