Infinite Worth March 8, 2026

against each other. Welcome those of you that are with us in the chapel, those of you that are maybe with us online, those of you who are watching us on the Pandora app that are incarcerated, we're glad you're with us as well. And of course, the families that are here today that are our special guests because of the child dedication, we're so grateful that you're with us as well. Well, man, it is really good to be back with you. The last month has been an unusual and crazy month for me, really for our family with a trip to the Superbowl. And then right after that, we had about a two week trip to Egypt that we'd planned a long time ago. This is way before the Superbowl trip. And honestly, it's just been a crazy few weeks and it just feels really good to be back with you today. You feel the same because we've got a lot that we're going to do today. We are continuing in our book, in the book of Isaiah. We're in a series called infinite worth, infinite worth. And so let me go ahead and encourage you today. We're going to be in Isaiah chapter 40, Isaiah chapter 40. So hopefully you have a Bible or a Bible app, however you like to follow along. Let me encourage you to start making your way there. This is maybe one of the most beloved chapters in the whole Bible, certainly in the book of Isaiah chapter 40 is that chapter and we're on it today. And here in Isaiah 40, we come to a real critical part of the book because we're going to make a very unique transition into new territory, into a new part of Isaiah. It's a little bit like this. If you go down to the Arkansas river trail, there's a bridge there called the big damn bridge and you can actually walk across that bridge and that bridge connects two entirely different pieces of land together. And when you walk across that bridge, you're now in new territory.

You're in a new piece of land. And the book of Isaiah is a little bit like that in that the first 37 chapters of Isaiah is like one piece of land. Chapters 38 and 39 act a little bit like a bridge that you walk across. And then chapter 40 is it's all new territory. It's like you're starting a whole new section of the book. And so using that analogy, we are today, we've crossed over the bridge and now we're in chapter 40 and we're kind of looking out through the rest of the book. And so up to this point, Isaiah has primarily been prophesying and dealing with issues in his current day. But starting here in chapter 40, he begins to prophesy and to focus on things that have yet to come. Things that are some 140 years in the future. In particular, the exile of God's people to Babylon. These words that we're going to be encountering together here in chapter 40, Isaiah on behalf of God is writing these words to a people who find themselves exiled to a new place, a new country called Babylon. A people who had rebelled, who were demoralized, exhausted, hopeless, and really on the edge of despair. And I have to believe as they found themselves in exile, they wondered to themselves, has God forgotten about us? Has God turned his back on us? A people that felt like they had no future. And so Isaiah begins this chapter 40 with these beautiful, grace-filled words from the Lord. Look what he says starting in verse 1. He says this, Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry for her. Oh, the people of God, they were tired,

exhausted, discouraged, on the edge of despair. They needed hope, and that's exactly what God gives them. He gives them comfort and blessing. And by the way, He does the same for us. Listen, there are some of you today, many of you, I would argue, who have hurting hearts today. You're discouraged, you're frustrated, maybe you feel like God has forgotten you, and I believe God wants to bring you comfort today. He wants to bring you comfort. We all need God's comfort. Everybody here today needs comfort, and the good news is that God has comfort to give us. God loves to comfort His people. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3 says this, in speaking of the Lord, He says, Our Lord is the God of all comfort. Do you see that? The Lord is the God of all comfort. Who needs some comfort today? Man, God is the God of comfort. I don't know about you, but comfort is an idea that I can get behind. Man, I like comfort. You don't find many people who want to be uncomfortable. I mean, we like comfort, and that's why we pursue comfort. And the way we pursue comfort is we change our circumstances. If something is making us uncomfortable in life,

we seek to change it so that we can pursue comfort. So if you're uncomfortable in your job or maybe with your house or in your marriage, what do you do? You pursue a different job or a different house or even a different spouse. We change our circumstances all the time in order to pursue comfort. My wife, Jenny, and I just did this with our mattress. Man, we had this old mattress, and maybe you can relate. It had gotten so old that it kind of sunk down like this. You with me? Looked like a canoe. And every morning, part of the challenge was kind of crawling out of that bed, rolling out of it, right? Waking up in the morning with our backs hurting, all that kind of stuff. We got tired of it. And finally, she looked at me, and she said, we got to do something. This isn't comfortable. We've got to find some comfort. And so we went and bought a new mattress. Man, we've been sleeping amazing with this new mattress. And that's just a very small area in our lives where we pursue comfort by just changing our circumstances. But as Americans, we do this all the time, don't we? Where we try to pursue comfort by just kind of changing circumstances or things in our life. And that's not necessarily bad, but that kind of comfort

will disappoint us in a couple of ways. For one, that kind of comfort is temporary. What I mean is it doesn't last. This wonderful mattress that I'm sleeping on right now, guess what? Sooner or later, it's going to end up like my old one, isn't it? That job that you get, that new job, as amazing as that may be, as wonderful as it is initially on, sooner or later, it's going to lose its luster. It always does, because things that we pursue through trying to change our circumstances over time, they just don't last. But I think second, and maybe deeper, what I want to present to you is most of what makes us uncomfortable in life, we can't change, right? You can't change cancer. You can't change the death of a loved one. You can't change the heart of a spouse who tells you that they don't love you anymore. more. No matter what you try to do, there are certain circumstances and situations in your life, listen, you're powerless to change. There's nothing that you can do about it. There's no amount of comfort that you can bring to that. There's nothing you can do to change it. And that's exactly where the people of God here in Isaiah find themselves. They are in a situation that they are absolutely powerless to change. And yet God offers them comfort and he offers us comfort. But his comfort is very, very different than our comfort. It's a comfort that is beyond our circumstances. It's not circumstantial. The big thing that I think the Holy Spirit wants to drive home in your heart and in my heart today, really through the words of Isaiah here in chapter 40, is this really big point. And here it is, that true comfort does not come through changing our circumstances. It

comes through seeing and knowing who God is. That's where true and lasting comfort is found. And really that's what chapter 40 is all about, is seeing and knowing who God is. And the more we see him, the more we know about him, the more we discover true and lasting comfort in our life. I don't know about you, but I want some comfort. Look what Isaiah says about this. We see it clearly at the end of verse nine. Look at that with me. Isaiah says this to the people there. He says simply, behold your God. Do you see that? Behold your God. God has a word of comfort for you today. He wants to bring you comfort. You know what that comfort is? God himself. God wants you to see him, to know him, to comprehend who he is, and to discover the real and lasting comfort that can be found in life. And it's in God himself. It's not in your circumstances. It's not in your situation. It's not in trying to change all of that. It's taking your gaze, your eyes off yourself, off your life, off your situations, and looking up and seeing who God is. And that's what Isaiah is going to do for us today. He's going to take our eyes off the circumstances and situations of our life that ultimately, no matter how many things we try to change, will never bring us the comfort that we long for. But there is a comfort out there that's real. It's a comfort that's found in God himself. See, our greatest need that we have in our brokenness and our despair is to set our eyes on God. God is our only hope. He is our comfort. And that's such good news that we can find comfort in God, no matter what we may be going through in our life today. So here's my question. Why is comfort found in God himself? Why does seeing and comprehending God, who he really is, why does that bring us comfort? Well, I think the key to understanding this is that little word that you see there in verse five. It's a word that we've been talking a lot about in this series. It's the word glory. Glory. Look at verse five with me. Isaiah tells us, he says this, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord is spoken. Isaiah is saying that a day is coming when all of creation will behold the glory of God. The question is, will you behold his glory in salvation or will you behold it in judgment? Friend, one way or another, you will behold his glory either in salvation or in judgment. And the word glory here in the Hebrew language is a word that means weighty or heavy. God's glory is the weightiness or the heaviness of his nature in

and His character, and that's what makes Him infinitely worthy. That's why we're calling this series Infinite Worth, because only God has the glory, the weight, the heaviness of His nature and character that He alone is now worthy of our worship and our devotion. Only God has that. Only He is worthy of that. And so I want you to think about your life for a moment. Think about your life almost like a solar system. Everything in your life, all aspects of your life are revolving around something in the middle of your universe. There's something in the middle of your life, the center of your life, that everything else is orbiting around. And God wants to be the center of your life. God wants to be the one that every other aspect of your life is orbiting around. Because God is the only one, listen friend, that has the weight in His nature, in His character, to hold everything, every aspect of your life together. And what happens and what brings so much uncomfortableness to our life is when we put something that's less glorious in the middle of our life. And now we try to march all the aspects of our life around that thing that has less glory, that doesn't have the nature and the character or the right to be at the center of your life and my life. And so many of us experience that discomfort

because when you have something less glorious in your life, it creates chaos. And eventually, it creates a mess in your life. Because only God has the glory, the character, the nature to be at the center of your life and for everything else, your marriage, your money, your life, your character, every part, your job, every part of your life to revolve around that. Only God is what Isaiah is saying. By the way, this is why beholding God, seeing and understanding who He is, is the key to true and lasting comfort. Because when God's at the center of our lives, His glory has the weight to hold everything together. Regardless of whatever we may be going through in our life. Regardless of our circumstances. Which leads us to a question, how do we behold God? Isaiah challenges us, behold your God. How, if seeing and understanding, comprehending God is where true and lasting comfort is found, how do we see and understand who God is? Well, Isaiah talks to us about that. Look at verse three and four. How do we behold Him? Look what Isaiah says, in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven ground shall become level,

and the rough places a plain. Now, do you recognize those words? Those words are, this prophecy right here in Isaiah 40 is actually used to describe someone in the New Testament. Matthew chapter three, do you know who that is? John the Baptist. What was the role of John the Baptist? The role of John the Baptist was to usher in Jesus and His ministry. Jesus, of course, being the one that would represent the glory of God to the world. So that everybody could see what God was like. I love the way one of the other gospel writers describes it, John chapter one, verse 14, and speaking of Jesus, says it this way. The word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and listen to this, and we have seen His glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father. Father, full of grace and truth." So one of the ways that we behold God is by looking and seeing His Son. When you behold God, when you see Jesus, when you look at Him, you can see God through His Son. He is the perfect reflection of God's glory. Jesus is. I love the way Hebrews chapter one says this. Talking about Jesus, he says, "'Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.

And He upholds the universe by the word of His power.'" So think about it, friends. The closer you get to Jesus, the more you know Jesus, the more you experience Jesus, the more you are beholding God Himself. Because Jesus is the radiance of God's glory. When you see the compassion that Jesus has, you see the mercy that Jesus shows people, you see the forgiveness that Jesus gives, ultimately through His death on the cross. When you see the perfect holy character of God, of Jesus, what you're seeing is you're seeing God Himself. You're beholding your God because Jesus is the perfect representation of who God is. Man, you wanna see God, you wanna behold Him? Look no further than Jesus Himself. He is the radiance, the perfect representation of who God is. Another way we behold God is through His word, through His word. Look how Isaiah goes on here in chapter 40, verse six. He says this, a voice says, "'Cry.' And I said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades. When the breath of the Lord blows on it, it surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades."

But listen to this, but the word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah is telling us how to behold God. Yes, we see God through His Son. But we also see God through His word. And how do we grasp who God is? We grasp God through His word. Think about it. That's what we're trying to do in this very moment as we work our way through the words of Isaiah here in chapter 40. We're reflecting on those words. We're trying to understand those words. And these words are painting a picture for us of who God is like. Listen, the point of the Bible, the point of the Bible is to show us who God is so that we can know God. That's the point of the Bible. That's why we have the Bible. It's so that we can know and understand who He is. And so the word of God, it shows us who He is. We can behold Him through His word. The point of the Bible is to help us see and understand and know who God is. You know, the Bible is not like the owner's manual in your car that you just pull out when you don't know how to fix something on your car. That's not how the Bible functions. The Bible is intended to be something

that we read and experience every single day. We read that and we see who God is and we understand who He is. We are discovering the true source of comfort and that's God Himself. You know, as a Christ follower of Jesus, spending time in the Bible was a lifelong process. I wonder how you're doing in that. I mean, as Christ followers, we should know our Bibles, right? I mean, I would argue that we need to know our Bibles at least as much as we expect our mechanic to know about cars. or our doctor to know about medicine, or our accountant to know about taxes. It's that time of year, isn't it? That we would know our Bibles as followers of Christ enough that we can talk to people about who God is and ultimately what he's done for us in Christ. That we can share that and certainly not have all the answers and not know everything, none of us do. But that we could engage in that in a way because we're spending time in the word. So we know who God is. We understand what he's like. And as such, we can share that with the people around us. And that's how we see God. That's how we know what God is like. We see him through his son in that Jesus came to reveal himself to us and we see it through his word.

And so Isaiah is offering us comfort this morning, but I'm gonna tell you, it's a different kind of comfort altogether. It's not circumstantial. It rests in who God is. The perfect, glorious nature and character of God. That's where true and lasting comfort is. And what Isaiah wants to do today is he wants to get our eyes off ourselves and whatever we're going through today and to set our eyes on God. On God. And so what Isaiah does starting in verse nine all the way through 26 is he's going to make all these majestic statements about the greatness of God. And I think he does this because he wants to reassure us of the comfort, the peace, the blessing that we can have in God. That no matter what we're going through in life, that God is great enough and big enough and powerful enough that he can bring us comfort and peace in the midst of whatever we're going through in life. Now let's not lose sight of the situation that's facing Isaiah's original audience as he's writing these words to the original hearers. Remember, they're in exile in Babylon, discouraged. They feel forgotten by God. Jerusalem has been destroyed. They feel that God has turned his back on them. He's been silent, that he's abandoned them.

And listen, some of you may feel that this morning. I mean, you may feel that in your marriage. Like, man, things are falling apart. There's no hope. You feel helpless. You may be facing some kind of physical challenge or sickness in your life and it just seems like every corner you go around, it's just more discouragement, more hurt. You know, you may be single here today and you feel stuck in your singleness, wondering if you're ever gonna find that other person. There's a lot of us here today that feel just like the people of God here in chapter 40. Listen, maybe you've suffered some kind of loss and you're just overwhelmed with grief today. And there's a lot of us that need the comfort that Isaiah is talking about here. We need this comfort. Because we too feel like that God has turned his back on us. And so what Isaiah is gonna do here is he's not gonna give us three ways to be emotionally or physically healthy. No, what he's gonna do is he's gonna tell us and encourage us to set our eyes on God, to the greatness, to the bigness, to the majesty of God, that God's big enough, sovereign enough, powerful enough to bring us the peace and comfort we need no matter what we're going through.

So let's look at some of these majestic statements. We're not gonna look at all of them for time's sake, but I do want you to see how Isaiah turns our gaze upward. Look at verse 13 for a moment. Look what he says. He says, who has measured the spirit of the Lord or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult and who made him understand? Who taught him the. path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding. Isaiah is talking about the reality that in our experience as created beings, anyone you know who's good at something, who has understanding in something has learned that somehow, right? Someone taught them. They had some life experience that made them good at what they do, but not God. Who taught God? No one. Who instructed God? No one. Because he has all the wisdom in himself. God is a continual, self-perpetuating fountain of wisdom. And Isaiah wants us to see that God is wise enough that he can guide us through his counsel no matter what we're going through in life. He's not just wise, but he's sovereign. Look at verse 15. He goes on to say this, behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales. Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him. They are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. So all of the anxiousness that we feel right now about all the global tensions going on in the world right now, like how are we going to deal with Iran? What's going to happen in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia? How are we going to deal with all the world's problems? God has it under control. Listen, friend, he's not up there wringing his hands, wondering what he's going to do next. Isaiah is reminding us that every nation, every leader is ultimately under the control and the power of the almighty God, whether they want to acknowledge it now or later, because Philippians says that a day's coming that what? Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Man, our God is a God that's so big, so great, so mighty, that no matter what we're going through in our life, he is sovereign and powerful and

working all things together for good, even if we can't understand that or see that in our life or even in the world. And look what he says here at the end of verse 18. He says that nothing can compare to God. He says, to whom then will you liken God or what likeness compare with him? Isaiah is saying that God is so glorious that there's no created thing or created being that we can ever compare him to. There's no words that we can even use to describe God. He is so glorious, so wonderful, so big, so powerful, so other than. What Isaiah is doing here is he just wants us to see that God is great. God is big. And in his character and his nature, we can find comfort and know that no matter what circumstance we're going through in our life, God can get us through that. So I would say this, and you can write this down if you want, we can find comfort in that nothing that we face in our life is too big or too great for our God. I think we know that, but Isaiah is just reminding us of that truth. In this section, just showing us, setting our eyes on the greatness and the bigness of God. But God wants to bring us a specific kind of comfort today. I love that he's the God of all comfort, but he wants to bring us a specific kind of comfort today. Look at verse 27. As we wrap this up together, he says, why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord and my right is disregarded by my God. I mean, in this, what we begin to think that God's forgotten about us. God doesn't see us. God doesn't care about us. That God doesn't see what we're going through. Isaiah's answer here is very gentle to God's people. Verse 28, look what he says. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength Even you shall faint and be weary and young men shall fall exhausted See what Isaiah is saying is because God is so glorious so mighty so sovereign so powerful so Beyond comparison in anything else in the universe because of all that he can give strength to the weary He can renew you he can bring you comfort. He can sustain you no matter what you're going through in your life right now. I Would encourage you behold your God the God of all comfort And I love how this chapter ends Is Isaiah gets real specific?

About the kind of comfort that we can experience look at verse 31. It's one of the most famous verses in the Bible It says this But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings like eagles They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint You ever seen that verse? If you haven't you've probably read it before on a coffee mug, right? Or maybe seen it on a plaque in in a Christian bookstore somewhere All throughout this chapter Isaiah has let us know how many mighty how great how glorious God is And now at the end of the chapter He says that God wants to give you some of his strength Do you know there's comfort in God's strength think about that God in all of his power all of his strength Wants to give you some of it Man, that's comforting. I Want you to think about somebody that has a lot of something I think about somebody like Elon Musk Man that dude's got a lot of money. I Would guess that Elon makes more in a day that I'll make in my lifetime What if Elon Musk came up to you and said, you know what? I've got so much money I want to just give you some of it Dude I'd be so excited. How about you? I mean I'd be pumped That's what the Lord is saying I've got all this power I've got all this strength I want to give you some of it I want to share it with you and there is comfort in the strength of the Lord Because in his strength You will not grow weary. You will not be weak. You can get through anything and everything in your life And who does that strength come to? How do we receive that strength check it out there in verse 31? What does it say but they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength see that? Those who wait on the Lord We were Street received strength when we what? Wait on the Lord. How do you wait on the Lord?

Because I think sometimes in the church we think man what that means is I need to kind of go Lock myself in a room somewhere and just kind of sit there and wait Like it's this kind of passive thing and know that the sense of this word is one of active serving Where I'm actively seeking out the Lord actively pursuing him That's what the kind of waiting that's being talked about here And that as I do that my strength is renewed the Lord's given me his strength I think about it like this when you go to a really fancy restaurant, you know, one of those kind of white tablecloth places It's a different kind of experience from the waitstaff, isn't it? The waiter or waitress there it's just different I mean when you get that roll out and there's crumbs that on the table what they do is they come and they kind of scrape Those crumbs off you with me Man, your water comes down a little bit. Oh, man, they're pouring that water in there That salad plate comes out and you get done man. They're picking that up and they're bringing you new silverware You don't have to reuse the old stuff. Do you? Man, you get up to go to the bathroom and you kind of crumple up your napkin and you leave it there on the table When you come back what's happened? If you're a really fancy place, they fold it up and looks all real nice and pretty again What what I mean is they're just attentive. They're just there Everywhere you go. They're there. That's what it means to wait on the Lord You're looking to him. You're seeking him. You're pursuing him. You're giving him your full attention and The promise is is as you're doing that as I'm doing that God gives us the strength that we need and there is comfort in the strength and the power of the Lord Man, who's tired today? Who's frustrated today? Who feels overwhelmed by grief today? Who needs the strength of the Lord today? Who needs some comfort today? I don't know about you, but I do. So let's cry out to the one who can give it to us, God himself, let's pray together. God, thank you that you are the God of all comfort.

And no matter what we're going through in our life, no matter what we may be facing today, no matter how tired and exhausted we may be, many of us feel like we're on the edge of despair, maybe even overwhelmed. Lord, would you renew our strength today? Would you help us to mount up like eagle's wings, to soar, not in our own strength, but in your strength? And what a comfort that is. And would you help us as we set our eyes on you, would you help us to find the true and lasting comfort that ultimately is in you, in your glory, in your power, and in your strength? God, we need you. Oh, how we need you to be the comfort in our life, in our pain, in our hurt, in our struggles, in our despair today. Would you be with us in Jesus' name, amen.