His own people among the nations

Pastor Devon Ortiz preached from Isaiah 22. In this part of Isaiah, God pronounces burdens on the heathen nations: Babylon in chapter 13, Moab in chapter 15, Damascus in chapter 17, Egypt in chapter 19, and Tyre in chapter 23. But in the middle of that list, in chapter 22, He places an indictment against His very own people. It is no surprise when the world lives like the world, Pastor Ortiz said, any more than someone else's children live by your family's rules. But Jerusalem, God's own, looked and acted like the nations around it, and there was no longer any difference between them. You never leave God by moving out of church, Pastor Ortiz said. You leave God when you stop trusting Him, and that happens long before you leave church.

How Judah got there

He traced the history. In Isaiah 7, God offered King Ahaz a sign and Ahaz refused to ask, in effect saying he could manage by himself. Ahaz stripped the gold and silver from the temple to pay the king of Assyria, called himself that king's servant, and began copying pagan worship. The building stayed, but the worship shifted. Pastor Ortiz said believers do the same when they take the blessings God has given and use them to pay off the world. The northern kingdom then fell to Assyria because the people hardened their necks and would not hear the prophets, and Judah watched it happen and followed the same pattern. Hezekiah came in strong, tore down the idols, and trusted the Lord, but when Sennacherib began taking the walled cities, he too stripped silver from the house of God to pay him off. When we live our lives our own way, Pastor Ortiz said, we will always end up a slave to something else.

The burden of the valley of vision

The "valley of vision" in verse 1 is Jerusalem, a city that actually sat on a mountaintop, so the name would have stung. God had given this city His prophets and His visions. It had more light than anywhere in the world, and it was blind because it chose its own path. Isaiah wept while the city celebrated on its rooftops. Pastor Ortiz drew out five issues from the chapter.

Privilege without perception. Verse 2 calls Jerusalem "a joyous city," yet its men were dying of famine and disease rather than in battle. The streets were full of noise and celebration, and the people could not see who they really were.

Leaving responsibility without repentance. Verse 3 says, "All thy rulers are fled together." They fled by night, and Babylon caught them. They would rather run than stand up and say, "Lord, I am wrong." Every one of us, from pulpit to pew, he said, will at some point need to repent of who we are and what we have been, because we are prone to wander.

Leadership that runs away. Everything rises and falls on leadership. If parents will not take responsibility in the home, or those in ministry and at work will not take responsibility for what is theirs, we should expect it to fall. He said people will say amen to that about politics, but run from the same responsibility in God's house.

Trusting the armory over God. In verses 8 to 10 the people saw the breaches in the wall, so they went to the armory, broke down houses to fortify the wall, and dug ditches. It was smart, he said, but as smart as they were being, they trusted the armory over God.

Busy hands and prayerless hearts. Verse 11 says, "but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof." They dug a ditch to hold water and never looked to the God who had given them water in the wilderness and brought them into that land. Verse 13 shows them feasting and saying, "let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die." Verse 14 answers, "Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die." Iniquity, he said, is the sin we choose.

An audit of prayer

Pastor Ortiz paused to ask what an audit of the congregation's week would show. We can sing about the lovely name of Jesus and say we are persuaded He is able, he said, but how often this week did you talk to the God you say you believe in? Out of seven days of 24 hours each, was it five minutes a day, or ten? The common excuse is that we were busy, and God's house would be strong if His people were busier in prayer than anywhere else. He said everyone who is able ought to work, but many have let their jobs take over their lives and then wonder why the money is leaving faster than it comes in.

Philippians 4:19 promises, "my God shall supply all your need," and he drew out two things. Streaming services, Starbucks, and eating out every night are wants, not needs, and we should look honestly at what needs to be cut. And God will not help with what we never bring to Him. A closed mouth never gets fed, he said. James 4:2 says, "ye have not, because ye ask not." Ahaz was offered what he needed and would not ask. He quoted E. M. Bounds, who wrote that what the church needs is not more machinery or new methods but men whom the Holy Ghost can use, and he added that the Holy Ghost cannot use people who do not stand before Him in prayer. Some feel they have too few skills to be used, he said, but God never asked for your skills. Moses said he could not speak, and God reminded him who had made his mouth. At a men's conference that Friday, he said, prizes were handed out with one rule: if you are not in the building, you do not get the prize. God cannot bless us if we are not standing where we should be.

Recognize who your God is

Pastors all over the country will plead with their people this week to read their Bibles, pray, serve, and give, he said, and people will hear it, understand it, walk out, and do nothing. What if God's people came to church because they wanted to, and fellowshipped with the people God has placed around them to sharpen them? If God has put you in a church, he said, there are people there you need, even if they are not the ones you want, and running from that is running from what God has placed you in. Every church needs people to serve, and when three to five percent do the work, they break their backs and grow bitter while the rest stay home.

He urged everyone to read Isaiah 25 and 26 that week and see God implore His people to recognize who He is. If we saw our God high and lifted up, Pastor Ortiz said, he would not have to beg anyone to come, worship, give, or serve. Those chapters also show what God brings, which is peace. We love to sing "It Is Well with My Soul," he said, but do we recognize that peace comes from the Prince of Peace? When pride says "I will do it my way," we move away from Him, forgetting that we are bought with a price. Someone had asked him that week how he had handled all the stress of the church's situation, and he said he had thought about it all night and could only conclude that God had given him peace. The closer we draw to God, the more peace we have.

He closed without an altar call, asking instead for a genuine decision: I will yield myself to the God I serve, I will not be perfect but I will strive, and when I fall I will repent, be restored, and serve. Hands went up across the room as people asked for prayer. He also invited anyone who did not know where they would spend eternity to let him know, so they could know for sure. We must draw nigh to God, he said, so that we do not become a valley of vision, having it all and missing it all.