Infinite Worth March 15, 2026

Now playing and credits Good morning, fellowship. This is the day that the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it. It is a good thing to see you here this morning. To those of you in the room, to those of you watching online, good morning to you as well. Would you do me a favor? Would you tell someone around you, just tell them for me, tell them I'm glad you're here today. Would you do that for me? Just tell them I'm glad you're here today. Amen. Glad you are here today. It's always important, I believe, that not only do we come to be encouraged, but we come to be an encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Christ. And so whether you know the person next to you or not, you never know who needs to hear those words. And I'm glad you're here today. Well, if I haven't met you, my name is Justin Bilson. I'm one of the four teaching pastors here at Fellowship. We are one church in seven locations around central Arkansas. And our mission is making disciples who live by God's grace and for his glory at home and across the world. And over the past ministry year, we've been teaching through that mission statement. We spent some time in the book of Galatians talking about the grace of God. By far one of my favorite series that we preach second to Romans. And so I love preaching that series across our campuses. And so now we're in this series focusing on the glory of God, a different aspect of our mission statement there. And we're in the book of Isaiah. And so I want to draw your attention to the book of Isaiah. We've been in chapters 40 and 41 last week. And so we're going to pick up this week in chapter 42 and 43. Again, Isaiah chapter 42 and 43 is where we're going to be today. And as you're turning there, a few things I do want to first remind us. And we've talked about this through the series, but maybe this is your first time with us today and you haven't heard this before. But when we say glory, the idea of God's glory is so vast. It is so big.

It is so other than. Walter Brueggemann calls it the sovereign otherness of God. It is so beyond our understanding. And yet to the best of our abilities as a church, we have given a working definition so that when we say glory, what are we talking about? We would say that God's glory is the public display of his infinite worth, which is his holiness. God's glory is the public display of his infinite worth, which is his holiness. Again, that's not a fill in the blank on your bulletin if you have it in front of you. But I just want to make sure that we continue to be reminded of that, what God's glory is. It is the public display of his infinite worth, which is his holiness. And so as we dive into this passage together today, and Isaiah chapter 42 verses 1 through 9 is where we're going to be today. Now, I do know some of you, some of you may be wondering, Justin, how long are you going to preach today? Because the game is at 12. And can we do communion on the go? No, we cannot. Cannot. That doesn't work like that. There's no such thing as to-go communion. But I do want to honor that. And so we're going to move through the text as best we can today. But I do believe that the Lord has something that he wants to share with us. And so I'm excited we get to dive into these passages together. So Isaiah chapter 42, verse 1 through 9, I want to lay the foundation for us today. So listen to what the word says. Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. A bruised wreath he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth.

The coastlands wait for his law. Thus says God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. Verse 6, I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations. to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison, those who sit in darkness. Verse eight, I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I will give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Here we hear this word again, behold, former things have come to pass and new things I now declare. Before they spring forth, I will tell you of them. This word of the Lord to us today, I wanna talk about as we see these words, behold in this text, I wanna talk today about a call to behold, a call to behold. Let's pray over our time in the word together. Father, thank you for the rich joy that is ours to be in this sacred space. Thank you that we understand fully that your presence is not confined to the four walls of the building of Fellowship Bible Church. You know that your presence is all around us,

everywhere we go, we are in your presence, but Lord, we thank you that we get to gather on this day, set aside at this moment to be around brothers and sisters and to worship you, to fellowship with one another, to encourage one another and now to sit at your feet and to open up your word and to hear you speak. Father, I thank you that your word is life and light to us. And so I pray, I ask, let this word come alive. Let it capture our hearts, let it convince us, let it change us, let it convict us in the areas that we need to grow. Thank you that your word transforms us. And Father, as we look around and see all that is going on in our world, we need your word more now than ever. So Father, anchor our feet, anchor our hearts, our anxious hearts and our worried minds, anchor it in your word today. And Lord, we thank you for what you're going to say to us and we await that you would speak through your word in Jesus' name, amen. Church, it is no secret and I believe you would agree with me that spending time in the word of God is essential for our spiritual growth and personal development. It is where we come in the word of God to understand God's heart, God's plan and ultimately God's nature. Most recently in my studies of scriptures, when I'm just sitting with the word, I have been fascinated not only by the words of scripture, but in particular by two words in scripture.

I've been fascinated by this word delight and this word behold. As a matter of fact, I have found myself even as of recent still searching through the scriptures feverishly trying to find every verse that I can that speaks about beholding. It's interesting in sovereignty of God that today I would be able to share with you from Isaiah chapter 42 verse one, where the first word out of the mouth of the prophet through the prophet from God is this word behold. Behold my servant. Now I need you to know that word behold is not just a call, a command to look over here or see something or look at something. It is, as one writer says, an emphatic interjection that calls our attention to understand deeply. Emphatic interjection that calls our attention to understand deeply. If that is true, then that means that this word behold is not in this text by accident. It's a timeless word that causes and calls for the ear of the hearer of the book of Isaiah to lean in and to behold the servant, to behold the son of God, to behold the savior of the sins of the world. To behold him as he is, knowing that when we behold him, we become like him and we are transformed into his image. We're gonna talk more about that in a moment,

but for now, I wanna give a brief overview of the context because there's a lot to think through and process through as we see in these two chapters. I would encourage you if you haven't read them before, maybe sometime today or later this week, read them, there is so much rich, rich theological truths and gems in these two chapters. But here's what I wanna give you, a brief overview, and you can write this down if you're taking notes, but in Isaiah chapter 42, verse one through nine, there at the beginning of the chapter, here's what we see, we see that the covenant keeping God reminds his people that he's not forgotten about them and he will send his servant to accomplish his divine purpose. Let's leave that up there again, if you wanna write it down, the covenant keeping God reminds his people, I've not forgotten about you and I will send my servant to accomplish my divine purpose. God says his servant is coming into the world to reconcile the world to himself, to establish his kingdom in the earth, to faithfully work to bring forth justice. I love that the Bible says that he will not be aggressive or violent or oppressive or demanding. It even says, and I love this, that he will not quit until God's purpose is accomplished. This is the purpose of the coming of this chosen servant,

the savior of the world. That's what we see in Isaiah chapter 42, verse one through nine. But then if you look down at Isaiah chapter 42, verse 10 through 25, here's what we see. The sovereign God is at work in human history. He's at work in human history. Why, Justin? To display his power and his character to those who are spiritually blind and deaf. Sovereign God is at work in human history to display his power and his character to those who are spiritually blind and spiritually deaf. Isn't it interesting that in the text, God pictures Israel and he says that you are a blind servant. You have ears, but you cannot hear. You have eyes, but you cannot see. And because you have ignored the truth, because you have ignored and refused to listen to the truth, this leads now to divine punishment. The Bible says that the people, God's people were plundered through war and they received the anger of the Lord. And instead of repenting, they did not understand. The text even says at the end of chapter 42 that they did not take it to heart. Certainly we could look at the end of chapter 42 and shake our heads and say how sad that is, but no, we gotta go to chapter 43,

which begins with two words and it says, but now. But now. Here's what we see, Isaiah 43, verse one through 28. The redeeming God proves that he alone can save his people from their sins and reconcile the world to himself through his servant. Redeeming God proves that he alone can save his people from their sins and reconcile the world to himself through his servant. This is what he says. And interestingly enough, in verse one, he tells the people, he says, fear not. You have been redeemed. And then toward down verse 10, he tells them that I've called you to be my witnesses in the world. Why? Because I am the Lord. I'm the Holy One, I'm the creator, I'm the king. I am at work and here's the blessing of the text, he says, I am doing a new thing and it's new to you. It's not new to me, but it's new to you. This new thing is going to be accomplished through my son. Because at the end of the day, church, the gospel teaches us that the Father's work of salvation and redemption is accomplished in and through Christ. This is not a fill in the blank, but I just wanted to give that to you. The Father's work of salvation and redemption

is accomplished in and through Christ. So that is what we see, a brief overview of Isaiah, chapter 42 and 43. And so as I was reflecting on the text this week, and anytime I preach or we preach multiple chapters, my mind, the way my mind works, I tend to get flooded immediately of, oh man, we gotta talk about this, I gotta cover this and we gotta think about this. And so in those moments when I get flooded, I have to center my heart and mind and say, Holy Spirit, what do you wanna say to your church? Give me one thing, give me one principle, at least one thing that we can anchor our hearts and lives in, speak to me, let me minister out of the overflow of what you have shown me this week. So I wanna bring you on a journey to see what I saw this week, because as I read Isaiah chapter 42 and 43, here's what I noticed, church. I noticed that God refers to himself or is referred to as Lord, all caps, L-O-R-D, all caps, all capital letters, Lord 17 times. And he uses the first person singular pronoun, I, at least 50 times. Justin, did you actually count that? Yes, I did. Between chapters 42 and 43, more than at least 17 times God is referred to as the Lord. And then at least 50 times he uses the personal pronoun,

why is that important? I'll tell you in just a second, but before I do, I want us to understand why this message, why this word, why this moment in history matters. Because I need you to know that in Isaiah chapter 42, God's people are living under Babylonian exile. This Babylonian exile was foretold by the prophet Isaiah. They heard the prophecies. If you go all the way back, you don't have to turn to it, the chapters will be on the screen, but if you were to go back all the way to Isaiah chapter 3, Isaiah chapter 3, verse eight, you'll see there is a prophecy of judgment against Judah and Jerusalem. The Lord says that I am going to punish and I'm going to bring judgment. Why? Because your speech. "'and your deeds are against me.'" God would bring judgment against his people. This judgment, ultimately, church was designed to lead them to repentance. Because on Isaiah chapter four, Isaiah chapter 10, we see there's a prophecy of this remnant that's going to return and remain after the Lord's judgment. Then we go to Isaiah chapter 14. Isaiah chapter 14, the prophecy again comes that Judah and Israel will be restored and in Isaiah chapter 35, we see in verse 10

that the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing. So the prophecies are clear. There is going to be exile. There's going to be divine judgment and then there's going to be a returning of the remnant and the prophecy was foretold and then when Isaiah goes to King Hezekiah and tells him about the Babylonian exile in chapter 39, the Bible says that the word of the Lord comes to pass. Again, we could end at chapter 39 and shake our heads and say how sad and how pitiful and that is horrible but then when we turn to chapter 40, which we've already covered, but I wanna remind us that in between chapter 39 and chapter 40, there is a shift, a seismic shift in the tone of the text. Because chapter 39, we see this theme of rebuke but in chapter 40, we see this theme of comfort because it is suggested, church, that between chapter 39 and chapter 40 is 150 years of silence. So this is a key moment in the life of God's people. It's a key moment and he reveals his word in chapter 40 and 41 and 42 and 43 through his prophet but I also would argue that he reveals his word to his people through the repetition of his name. Okay, wait a minute, Justin, what do you mean? Remember, I told you that God refers to himself as Lord

nearly 17 times and anytime, and I don't know if you know this, but anytime you see Lord, the Lord, in all uppercase letters in scripture, it's significant because that is signifying the covenant name of God. Yahweh, the covenant name of God. So the fact, and this is what I wrestled with and I said, okay, so why is it that he's repeating his name some 17 times? It's not like he forgot his own name. He knows who he is but that it dawned on me and I realized, oh no, he's not reminding himself of who he is, he's reminding them because at the end of the day in the text, we see that the covenant keeping God is speaking to his covenant people to remind them of his promise and to remind them that I've not forgotten you. I've not forgotten you and please know that the current generation that we're seeing, that's reading, that's hearing this, these were the ones who were living in exile and they heard of the promises and the prophecies of what God could do and yet they wondered, has he forgotten about us? The Bible says that God's own people failed to be his light to the surrounding nations. It says that they were spiritually blind and spiritually deaf and yet in his graciousness,

he sends a word of comfort to remind them through the repetition of his name. He reminds that I'm still your God and you're still my people and then he says these profound words that I wanna read in Isaiah chapter 43, verse one through four. He says, but now, thus says the Lord, he who created you, oh Jacob, he who formed you, oh Israel, fear not for I have redeemed you, I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. Through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you for I am the Lord, your God. Holy one of Israel, your savior, I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you because you are precious in my eyes and honored and I love you. Church, when I read those words and I know we must always be careful to not insert ourselves into the scripture in an unhealthy way to make it all about us but when it came to this passage, I couldn't help but put myself in the text because it felt as if God was talking directly to Justin and I don't know as I was reading that

if you felt the same thing that I felt but to hear your father, to hear your creator say, I've redeemed you, you are mine, I will be with you, I am your God. Your Lord and your Savior, I have given, I've given in this case, Egypt, but we know that Christ has been given as a ransom. And then to hear verse four, you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you. Church, that refreshed my soul this week. I don't know who needs to hear this today, but I believe somebody is here and you need to hear from the scriptures. You need to hear and be reminded of the truth that your Father says, you are precious in my eyes. And I love you. I love you. This is what he calls us to behold. This is the call to behold. And because of that, that's why the central truth, that is when the sermon came alive for me. And I realized, and this is all I want you to remember if you take nothing else from the sermon today. It's a very simple prayer. Holy Spirit, open my eyes. Open my eyes and refocus my vision. So that I can behold the sovereign work of my saving God. Open my eyes, refocus my vision so that I can behold the sovereign work of my saving God. Ladies and gentlemen, this truth applies to all of us

because there are some who are hearing me or watching me. And the truth of your story right now is you're not following Jesus Christ. And so you are spiritually blind. And in and of yourself, you cannot receive the truth of the gospel, but praise God that today by the power of the spirit, the gospel is being preached. And I believe the Holy Spirit is working in your heart even now and opening your eyes to the truth. But then I will also say to those who've been walking with the Lord for a while, don't forget that in our flesh, we are still susceptible to being distracted or getting off focus. And so that is why we need to daily make it our prayer. Lord, help me to keep my eyes fixed on you. Because I love what that Dutch theologian says. He says that the internal work of the Holy Spirit opens blind eyes, not just intellectually, but experientially. So as a person beholds the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the chosen servant, the one that we are to behold is the one who was born to a virgin, the one who was crucified on a cross, the one in just a few days on Easter Sunday, we will celebrate that he was raised from the dead so that through his sacrifice, our lives would be transformed.

Because when we behold him, we are transformed and we become like him. And so we behold the meaning why this text matters and why the repetition of his name is encouraging to those who read and hear because he's reminding them, I've not forgotten about you and I am the God of the covenant. So if he is in fact the God of the covenant, if he's reminding them through this word to behold and to see him as he is, if this is a call to behold, then here's the question I wanna wrestle with church before we leave today. How am I transformed by what I behold? If the reader is called to behold, notice on two times in the text, he says, behold. So if God repeats himself, you ought to listen. So he's saying, behold, this is a call to behold. So if this is the call to behold, how am I transformed when I behold? There's a lot of things I could show you in the text, but there's three in particular that I wanna raise for our consideration before we leave today. The first one is that I believe beholding him gives me the assurance. This is long, but I want you to write it down if you're taking notes or just receive it as I say it. But beholding him gives me the assurance that I do not have to be ruled by fear.

I do not have to be ruled by fear. Isaiah chapter 43 verse one, I read it earlier. He says, fear not, why? For I have redeemed you. That is a glorious reminder, church, that our past sins have been redeemed because we have been covered by the blood of the lamb. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven. We are redeemed. Our past is covered and our future in Christ is secure. That's why I love what Micah chapter seven verse 18 through 19. It's not on the screen, rather, but Micah chapter seven verse 18 through 19, it says that God pardons iniquity. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights, love that word, in steadfast love. He treads our iniquities underfoot and he casts. our sins into the depths of the sea. This is who our God is. And this is the promise that if you and I place our trust in him, that our past is forgiven. Our future is secure, which means we have no reason to fear. Okay, Justin, I get all that, that's wonderful, that's great but here's my problem. My issue is not that I fear the past or the future, my issue is there's so much going on in the present that I am wrestling with. How do I respond?

Because I don't wanna be ruled by my fear. But Justin, if I'm honest, I'm afraid. I'm worried, I'm nervous, I'm concerned. How do I not be ruled by fear? I believe the answer would come to us through a story, a story I've heard a couple years ago and probably have told you before. So if you've heard it, just act like you haven't heard it before. But the story is, it said that a father and son went to the lake and were standing on the dock and they were fishing and the day went by and as the son began to sit, the son said to the father, he said, dad, can we skip rocks on the lake before we leave? Dad said, son, sure, that's fine, we'll skip rocks and they were skipping rocks and it got late into the evening and the moon was in the sky and so the son said, dad, can I skip one more rock? He said, sure, son. And so he skipped it out in the lake and instantly the reflection of the moon in the lake began to ripple. The son was young and he began to cry and the father couldn't understand why. He said, son, what's wrong? He said, dad, look, the moon is gone. He said, son, what are you talking about? He said, the moon is gone. Look in the water, the moon is gone. He kneeled down next to his son and he said, son,

no, it's not. He said, yes, it is. He said, no, it's not. He said, son, look up. The moon is where it's always been. That very simple story reminds me of a truth that I think we need to hear today more now than ever. When we look at the calamity and all that is going on in our world church, we need to be reminded to look up, to look up and to see that God has not abdicated his throne, that he has not gone out to lunch, that he is not taking a nap, that he is where he has always been and will always be. He is seated on his throne. And because he is on the throne and he is in control, I will not be ruled by fear because I have assurance and hope in my father. I'll have to be ruled by fear. Fear, yes, it will come up. It's a natural reality in our human existence, but we're not ruled by it because we know who's in control. Second thing I would say the text shows us is that beholding him moves me, I love this, to rejoice because I know I'm not alone. It moves me to rejoice because I know I'm not alone. Look at the text, I'm not making it up. Isaiah 43, two, he says, when you pass through the waters, I'll be with you. The rivers will not overwhelm you

and you walk through fire, you will not be burned. And again, for clarity sake, to make sure we understand the text in context, God is not saying to them that because you follow my son and because you walk with me and walk in obedience to my word, that life is always going to be easy. He's not saying that your life is going to be absent of hard moments. What he's saying is that when you walk through hard moments, you won't walk alone because I'm with you, I'm with you. And remember, this is the same people. These are the same people who came from ancestors who saw vividly the hand of God, walk them through the Red Sea and they saw God's provision in the wilderness and they saw God's blessing. But I believe every now and then you just need reassurance and you need a reminder. In fact, many of us today probably have been in spaces or maybe you're in a season like that right now where you just need some reassurance and you need a reminder. So would you do me a favor? Would you place your hand on your chest and say what the Lord has said through his word? Just tell yourself, I am not alone. I am not alone. Matter of fact, tell the person next to you, tell them, say, you are not alone.

You're not alone, God is with you. And I don't know who needs to hear this today, but God gives a five word promise in the text. Five word promise to you in this text, I will be with you. I don't know who needs to hear that today because maybe you're here and you're walking through a hard season. You feel like you're walking through flood waters and you feel like you're walking through the fire. One of the privileges as one of the teaching pastors that I have is to be able to go to our campuses each week. And so as teaching pastors, we're teaching at the different campuses each week. And so I love getting to talk to people in the plaza and lobby and get to connect and hear their stories. And as of lately, I don't know. but I've been hearing more and more stories of people walking through really hard seasons. I think about the couples that I've interacted with who are walking through hard seasons of brokenness in their marriage. They're willing to fight for each other and not against each other. I think about the parents who have been graced to foster and adopt, or those who are raising special needs children, or children with learning differences, and they challenge them daily, such that as one parent told me, they keep me on my knees and my toes at the same time.

I think about widows, the widows in our church, the widowers who have, and are having to discover life after loss, and to find a new purpose and a new assignment. I think about the adult children who are having to care for aging parents and seeing those they love decline. I think about parents who have lost children, or parents who are having to grieve the loss of not being able to have children. Listen, I don't know what your hard season is, but if you're here, I remind you again of that five word promise that the Lord gives to all of us, I will be with you. I will be with you. Do not be ruled by your fear. Know that you are not alone. And the last one, I'll give this to you. Number three, this truth ignites, and I would also say in parentheses, it reignites, for some of us, we need to be reignited. It reignites my commitment to be a devoted witness. Reignites my commitment. It ignites, reignites my commitment to be a devoted witness. Isaiah chapter 43, verse 10, I mentioned it earlier, but God says that you are my witnesses. Context behind that is that when God is speaking about the other nations

and saying that you other nations have idols that you worship and you claim that they're powerful, so come be a witness for your idol. And then let me bring my witnesses because they will tell you and their lives are evidence that I am all powerful. Their lives are evidence that I am all powerful. They are my witnesses to the world. Why? Because they were once a bruised reed. Church, don't miss symbolism. Don't miss symbolism. A bruised reed, those reeds, you've probably seen them in pictures. It's a tall, a slender plant. It was flexible and fragile and easily damaged by the winds, probably like the winds we've been experiencing earlier today, but here's the thing. When it was bruised, it was considered to be useless. Can't use it anymore. You can't write with it. You can't use it to measure things and would often be discarded. But look at the compassion of the Savior because it says he will not break the bruised reed. He will not throw it away. And that's why I love what the Puritan author, Richard Sibbes says in his book, The Bruised Reed, he says that all God's children are bruised reeds before their conversion

and oftentimes after. He goes on to say, he says that after conversion, we need bruising so that reeds may know themselves, look at this, to be reeds and not oaks. Even reeds need bruising by reason of the remainder of pride in our nature and to let us see that we live by mercy. Friends, what does that mean? That reminds me that you and I are not oak trees standing tall and strong in our own power and strength. We are reeds who desperately need power of the Spirit and to rely on God because we cannot do and be who we are called to be without him. But Justin, you don't know my story. Justin, you don't know what God has brought me through, Justin, I don't know if I can ever be a witness because I was a broken reed. Here's the good news of the gospel, that makes you the perfect candidate to be a witness. Because at the end of the day, my prayer for us as a church is that the Spirit would continue to ignite and reignite within us a passion to tell others about the Savior who fixes broken reeds and redeems broken people. Because if he can do it for me, he can do it for you. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the joy that is ours today to be reminded of the truth of your word. We have, I'm sure we could probably say a lot of reasons

that we should be afraid, but thank you that we're not ruled by that fear. I hear even Paul speaking to Timothy, telling him that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. The reason why we can have that sound mind is because of what Jesus has done. And because we know that God is in control and we don't know what to do. We don't know what the days ahead hold, but we know who holds the days. So thank you that we don't have to be ruled by our fear. Thank you that we're not alone. Your spirit lives inside of us. Christ goes before us. You brought us into this community of believers to walk alongside us. We are not alone. Thank you for that. Thank you for the needed reminder that we're bruised wreaths. You didn't throw us away. You didn't cast us aside. You didn't quench out the fire of that burning wick, but you welcomed us in. Thank you that we can be your witnesses and tell the world of the transformation and the restoration that comes to those who behold and place their faith in Jesus Christ. So Lord, we thank you today and we praise you. Thanks again for listening to the word of God. We are blessed to reach you throughout the week through whatever platform you're listening on. If you're needing prayer or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus, reach out to us at fellowshipar.com contact. Have a great week.