When Kings Die | Pastor Joel Milgate

I want you to feel encouraged. I want you to feel hopeful. I want you to know that God is still working in your story. Our mission here at Victory City is to help every person take a step closer to Jesus. And can I tell you, man, as you're growing in the Lord, you're taking a step. So let's lean in. Let's see what God has for us this week, and I know you'll be blessed for it, and I love you. Come on, let's give it up for Jesus. Man, it's good to be in the house. Would you just stay with me for a moment if that's all right? It's good to be in church together. If we haven't met before, it's nice to meet you all the way from New Zealand, the land of kiwifruit, the Lord of the Rings, and other stuff. Flight of the Concordes, that's a throwback for people. Hey, I've been having an awesome weekend here with my 16-year-old son, which has been traveling together for the last few days. Came to Austin on the perfect weekend. We got to go to F1 practice. We got to go to the Spurs Rockets, and then last night to top it off, we went to the Longhorns. I have to admit, I know I didn't stay to the end of the game because I wanted to be fresh for today, but it was still an experience. But honestly, from my heart, favorite thing in the whole weekend, being here. I don't mean it. Just tritely, I've been in the house of the Lord, been with my home away from home here in Austin, been with God's people, worshipping. It's definitely the highlight of the week. It doesn't even come close. I love this church. I love your pastors. I think we should just honor them for a moment. Thank you, Pastor Natalie, Eric, for all that you've built for leading. Thank you. Why don't we give our hands up for every volunteer who serves in the VC team, making it possible. We appreciate you. Thank you. Look, I just felt, just before we get into the word, I just wanted to come up here and just affirm the above and beyond season. I know just the heart of this church. I get to see all of the inner workings. I get to spend time with the team. And I just, the more time I spend with it, the more I see, the more in love with it. I feel the more trust I have. And I know everyone's at different places in the journey, but I just felt to lift our expectation. I know Pastor Eric's believing for $600,000, and that's amazing. And in Jesus' name, we will be above and beyond that. I want to say it's a unique vision, like to want to give away half of all of that, just straight to missions. Like, that's incredible. That's a unique, special thing.

But I want you to believe for above and beyond this year and the seasons to come. I want you to think even higher than that. I want you to believe as a church that millions will be given. I want to just see the gift of giving unlocked in this church, the gift of generosity. There's some of you here now. You're just starting a business. You're just starting out. You don't have a lot. But be faithful with what you have. Beat Jenner. God's not asking you to be generous with what you don't have. He's not asking for a Sunday. I just, I want somebody here to capture a vision of writing the million dollar check, or the million dollar vinmo. I don't think you're going to do a million dollars on vinmo, but some other way. I want you to get a vision that God calls people to generosity so that the kingdom things can be unlocked. And some of you, the spirit wants to unlock that in you. And I just wonder if we could just take a moment to pray, just to consecrate ourselves to the Lord in the season. Heavenly Father, you've given us so much. We worship you. We adore you. We love you. Lord, we pray that the finance for your kingdom would be unlocked. Lord, I pray that you'd stir generosity in our hearts. Lord, I pray that when people tell the story of Victory City Church in years to come, it would be a story of missions unlocked, of churches planted, of things that happen. Because people caught a vision of resourcing your kingdom. Lord, would you bless businesses beyond measure? Would you bless inheritance beyond measure? That the floodgates of heaven would just be open so there would be provision for your vision. Lord, I pray that you'd stir those hearts for those people to write the ten thousand dollar checks. kingdom that you have would be on earth too, as it is in heaven. And it's for your glory, it's in your name we pray, never unset, amen, amen, amen. Come on, let's raise Jesus. Thank you very much, appreciate you. Are you ready for the word today? You going to be all right with the accent one more time? Yeah, okay, just you know the drill, if you don't know what I'm saying, just make something up that fits what you need from the Lord, okay? Our text today is going to be in Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1, Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.

He was high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings with two, they covered their face, two the feet, and two they flew. And one called to another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with his glory, and the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, woe is mean, for I am lost, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hands a burning coal that he had taken the tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, your sin is atoned for. And then I heard a voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, here I am, send me. This is the word of the Lord. And with this passage today in our teaching time, I want to answer this question. How does God form us? How does he form us? And the title of today's message is this, if you take your notes, when kings die. And this is actually the answer to the question, God forms us when kings die. God doesn't form us by making life easier, sadly, for hence he forms us when the kings in our life die. It's easy to miss, but this whole passage begins with the line in the year King Uzziah died. This serves a historical function. It allows us to date Isaiah's prophetic call in the beginning of his ministry, but I want to propose that it's a theological setup, that it's not just telling us when it happened, that it's creating a juxtaposition, it's creating a contrast between the earthly king, King Uzziah, and the king of kings, the Lord of lords. And the whole passage is then filled and framed with this setup, with this contrast. Who is King Uzziah?

I'm glad you asked. He was a pretty good king in an otherwise, chequered history of kings in Israel. I mean, it wasn't a high bar, you know, it was pretty low. And King Uzziah was a rare high point. He reigned for 52 years, and under his reign, the nation prospered. Under his reign, the nation was economically successful. His borders were secure and expanded. Under his reign, there was peace and stability. Pretty good things were said, for the most part, about King Uzziah. If you grew up at that time in Israel, King Uzziah was probably the only king you'd ever known in your life, given life spans and how things worked. He was the thing that held, he was the constant, but now he is dead. And I want to say it's not just grief that the nation's experiencing, but there's actually a question, there's a fear hanging over the nation, because the geopolitical landscape of this area of the world at this time is on the move. In fact, things that had been stable are increasingly becoming unstable. What's happening is there is a new superpower on the rise, and they are called the Assyrians, and they are taking every nation They are expanding, they are brutal, they are displacing people, they are killing people, and they are on the march westward towards Israel at this time. And the one king who could have stood in the gap, the one king who could have musted the armies, the one king who could protect the nation is dead. The king is dead. The constant's gone, the threat is rising. Where will we put our hope now? In whom will we trust now? Who will hold our nation now?

And these questions hang over our lives. When kings die, will we look to the king of kings? Or we look to more fragile earthly kings to pin our hopes against? We live in an age of dying kings, friends. We live in an age where institutions disappoint us, where leaders fail us, where the economies shift and the things we used to be able to rely on, we can no longer rely on. As we get older, our health weakens and the things that used to feel permanent, all of a sudden, feel fragile. If kings is a metaphor for earthly power structures that we're tempted to look to, to trust and to put some measure of hope in, don't we live in an age of dying kings? Not only that, think, forget the macro kings in your world for a moment, but have kings died in your own life? Kings have died in my life, in my story, when my parents got divorced, it was like a dying king. When my pastor had an affair, it was like a dying king. When my dad passed away long before he should have, he was a dying king. When the image of my family got burst and our son went through the courts and the media and all of this sort of stuff, it was like a dying king. In fact, the reason I know Jesus today is because as a teenager,

the kings of this world seem so hollow and dissatisfied that Jesus met me in that place. Sometimes some of the hardest things we have to go through, we wouldn't choose them, but the how God forms us. God's freeing us from putting our hopes and trust and good things and things we shouldn't, no, a whole mixture of things, but things that could never hold us. So what are your kings? A little honest moment of reflection, a church on a Sunday morning. What are your kings? What are you hoping to hold you right now? Is it your bank balance? What is it if it disappeared? You wouldn't know what to do. Is it your marriage? Is it your health? Is it your youth? Your dreams? Is it your government? God forbid? Is it your job? Your business? Is it your reputation? Your ministry? Your gifts? Your call? Is it the plan you've made for your life? All of these can be good things,

but they were never designed to carry the weight of your soul. They can't hold when everything falls apart. These dying king moments across roads in our life, if you've got kings dying right now, you're in across roads. You're in a knife here, do you know what's not easy? I'm not trying to make light of it, but I just wanna let you know you could go either way. Some people, they live the dying kings of this world, make them bitter. Some people live the dying kings, make them smaller. They just run to try to create a small life that they can control. Some people, they just get numb and they just choose not to try and to hope or to escape, or they can be the making of you. They can be the forming of you. They can be the furnace that God brings about the goal that he always saw was there. Look, the path to maturity in Christ lies on dying kings. Some of the deepest formation you'll ever experience in your life happens in the midst of kings dying. a good feeling. You know, it's really good to be disillusioned because it's the dispelling of an illusion and who wants to believe in an illusion? I want to see the real thing, I want to trust in the real thing, I want to hope in the real thing, I want to build my life on the real thing. That is the call of us as godly people today, it's not to be new kings, it's not to rebuild old kings, but to see and point to the king of kings. Can you see what happens in the year King Uzziah died?

I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, Isaiah said, he was high and lifted up, the train of his robe filled the temple, above him stood the seraphim, they had six wings, they covered their face and their feet and they flew and one call to another, holy, holy, holy is the lord of hosts, the whole earth is filled with this glory and the foundation shook and the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke. Church, this is what we need. Friends, this is what your life needs in an age of dying kings, you need an encounter with the lord, you need an encounter with the king of kings who never dies, you need to see him. This vision answers every question raised by a dying king, where will we put our, where will we put our trust on the holy, holy, holy one? And the language is deliberate, every sense is engaged, he sees, he feels, he smells, he is, it's all going on in this thing and it's an answer to all of the questions, he's high and lifted up, as Bibles speak, what does it mean? It means every empire, every president, every representative, every political power, every personality is where it's beneath them, he's high and lifted up, it's all beneath them, all the things were tempted to trust them, it's beneath them, it's beneath them, he's high and lifted up, his robe fills the temple, this isn't divine fashion detail, he's not telling us man, he had a sweet robe, it's saying like it's Bibles speak for like I saw the lord and he's so dominated the space, he just, I couldn't see anything else when I saw him, he just filled this whole thing, the lord is not off to the side in our lives, he's not off to the side in our politics, he's not off to the side in what's going on in our world, he's front and center stage, in fact he's so front and center stage, there's no room for anything else. And then even these most exalted creatures, the seraphim, like if anyone was going to be cash in his presence, it would be them, but not, not the seraphim, they cry holy, holy, man we can get pretty familiar with that because we've sang it like a million times, right, like every third worship song, what should we put as the bridge, I know, holy, holy, holy, that'll get the people going, you know, that'll get the hands raised, he's in a mess, it's so familiar, but Isaiah writes 66 chapters and he only ever repeats

one word three times, and it's right here, he's using all the literary techniques of his time as if to put an exclamation mark on this moment as the true revelation of who God is, he's not just holy, he's holy, holy, holy, he's not just other, he's other, other, other, he's not just great, he's great, great, great, he was trying to use ever, he had no higher score available, he didn't have any other way to put it into words, except holy, holy, holy, it's the strongest emphasis, and then he declares, you know how you saw him fill the temple and dominate the space, he fills the whole earth like that, he fills the whole earth, he fills every business, every family, every place, every city, he is above it all, church, we live in an age of dying kings, and we don't need a new strategy, and we don't need a bigger screen, and we don't need whatever else we look to, we need a greater vision of Jesus, we need a sieve, like John Sorem and Revelation 4 and he saw the elders around the throne, he had the same vision, he saw the lion and the lamb, he saw them all bow down, When kings die, we need to see. Kings are dying in your life right now. You need to see the one who can hold you. You need to see the one who is holding you. You need to see the one that will always hold you. I'm glad you're here today. You're here to see. We're not just here to sing and to listen, to celebrate people's baptized. We're here to see them so that we might navigate another week of dying kings. Tomorrow morning is why you need to get your Bible open and you need to get praying because you need to see them. You need to go, I need my life is filled with King Uzziahs that are dying but I need to see the Lord. I need to see him and look at how Uzziah responds. Whoa is me. It doesn't say he falls but it sounds like he falls, it sounds like he falls to his knees and whoa is me, I'm a man of unclean lips, I'm from a people of unclean lips.

You know you've truly seen the Lord when you drop to your knees. Like I don't understand self-righteous Christians, have you not seen them? Because when you truly encounter God it doesn't puff you up, it humbles you and you will not be able to stand in the world of dying kings unless you learn to fall to your knees before the king of kings. It's this posture that positions you, it's this posture that readies you, it's this posture that will keep you going through your grief and your struggle. It's this posture whoa is me God, I've seen you God, I'm unworthy God. Look Jesus wants to be your friend, you can get there but start on your knees. Start with reverence, behold him. You'd be amazed at how strong you can get when you spend time on your knees. This is the only appropriate response and so he falls to his knees and then look what God does. He doesn't just see and then fall, God comes to him and as Seraphim gets a call from the altar and brings it from the place where sacrifices are made and he touches his lips and he declares your guilt is taken away and your sin is a turn for. As I dropped to his knees saying what was me here expected the fire of the prison to the Lord to consume him, but you know what it did, it cleansed him. You know when people say I would never step foot in that church, like it would burn up if I did, they were expecting to be consumed rather than be cleansed. We misunderstand God, we understand his goodness, we misunderstand the gospel. The sickos of the sacrifice of four shadows, the work of Jesus on the cross, the lamb who takes away our sin, but the order matters friends, if you want to stand in an age of dying kings, Isaiah doesn't clean himself up and then come to God, God initiates, God does the cleansing, God does the picking up, God does the standing. I was stuck in my pit, the Psalms say, but the Lord came and picked me up. He set my feet upon the rocks, he steadied me as I walked, churches in about come and clean yourself up, it's come and fall on your knees and let the Lord do it. Let Jesus come and change your life. Look many of us live under the banner of if I perform, then I'll be accepted.

That is not the gospel, friends. The gospel as Jesus has performed and so we are accepted, period. Who gets the final word of your life? Isaiah had plenty of opinions about himself, woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips, I'm with unclean people, but the Lord said, your cleansed and your sinners are turned for. When you leave here today, who's going to get the final word over your life? What did you come in here saying about yourself? I can't believe I'm here, if only they knew, they knew I was a fraud, I shouldn't even be here. I can't believe I've been doing that again. What are you hiding from God as if you could hide in God? I said, "You're cleansed and you're sinned as a toned forth. You're cleansed and you're sinned as a toned forth." Yep, I know you're not worthy. That's the whole point. But Jesus died on that cross. He bled for you and I, that He might say, "You're cleansed and you're sinned as a toned forth." You can leave this place with a bit of pep in your step. It's interesting the part that the Lord touches. He touches His lips. He touches the very thing that Isaiah felt most dirty and inadequate in. It will become the very instrument of His ministry as a prophet. I wonder today if you realize that the area you feel most weakened, the area you feel most wounded and the area you feel most inadequate in. I wonder if you realize that might be the very center of your calling and commissioning. I wonder if that's exactly why the battle is there because God loves to show Himself strong in our weakness. That's not the thing that disqualifies you. That's the very thing.

If you bring it to the presence of the Lord that the Lord wants to use, you're not disqualified. Come on. If Moses can break tablets and give Him cool back up the mountain again and get you once, so can you. Come on. If Peter can deny Jesus and become the rock on which the church has built, what can he do with your life? If Gideon can be fearful in a winepress and become a courageous army commander, what could he do with you? It's not because of you, it's because of Jesus. So we've got to things die and we've got to see and then we've got to fall and we've got to let him stand us up with his word and his cleansing over our life. But that's not it, church. We don't just stop there cool. Gideon, Jesus are good, let's go live another week, I'll see you in two weeks time. Just, that's a joke for people who only come to church every two weeks. He gets sent. "Then I heard a voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall our send and who will go with us?' Then I said, 'Here I am, send me.' Can you picture it? Just the Lord and the seraphim and Isaiah in the Lord's like, 'Who shall we send?' I wonder, I wonder who would go for a seraphim and Isaiah's like looking around. I guess it's me. Here I am, send me, man, Isaiah's changed. The last time we heard from him he said, 'What was me?' Now he's saying, 'Send me? What happened? Grace happens. This is what the Lord wants to do with your life.

He doesn't just want to stand and help you stand. He wants to send you. He doesn't just want to save you from something. He wants to save you to something. He's put purpose on your life. He's got a calling on your life. He's filled your life with gifts. He wants to show himself powerful through your story and he's got people for you to reach. He's got people for you to be an example to. He's got people for you to impact. I love it. Isaiah discovered sonship and then they're naturally led to service. Some of you are serving but you need to discover sonship. You've done it the wrong way around. Some of you need to know your identity, not try to build an identity because God's not asking who the strongest is here, who the smartest or the most confident. He just sends people who have seen him and been transformed by his grace. Hear this church. The kingdom's not built by impressive people, just willing people. He only needs a yes. He doesn't need your skill. He doesn't need your gifts. He doesn't need your talents. He just needs your yes. And the only thing that can sustain a yes in your life is having met the one who's asking. Who shall I set? Look, you don't need to know everything this week to be sent. I just need to share what you've seen. your workplace, your family. He's looking through your fears and your inadequacies and he's saying, whom shall I send? Now, if I stopped there, you'd probably be all quite thankful we could go get

some coffee and go about our Sunday. It'd be a tidy sermon, I guess. Pretty good. Maybe a solid six out of ten. Die, see, fall, stand, sin. There's one problem is that the passage doesn't stop there. The passage goes on and he goes, "And then the Lord said, 'Go and say to this people, 'Keep on hearing, but do not understand, keep on seeing and do not perceive. Make the heart of the people dull and their ears heavy, the blind, their eyes, let's say see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.'" This might be one of the most honest parts of the whole Bible. We need to hear it. The commission Isaiah receives, "The here I am, sin, me, sounds so romantic, but it's not one he would have chosen." God tells him, "Go and speak, but people aren't going to listen. Go and preach and watch your words bounce off. In fact, go and be faithful and watch the fruit not come." Come on in and come to church to hear this. Isaiah's assignment wouldn't be easy. He would be faithful without seeing the fruit. He has been sent into soil. He didn't choose, and with results he couldn't control. Does that sound like your life this week? Does that sound like your workplace? Does that sound like your family sometimes? Come on, let's be honest. This cuts against everything in us. We assume we really assume deep down that if we're faithful we'll always be fruitful. If you do the right thing you'll see the results, that if you love well enough, serve well enough, try hard enough. You'll see the results. But let this part free you. Let it liberate you. We often measure faithfulness by outcomes, but God's not asking you to control the outcome. He's just asking for your humble, courageous obedience. He's asking you to let it go and just go love people and just go serve people. Just go pray for people. Just go love your family. Just go be an example. Go and take the opportunities and just let the chips fall where they may. Because we are responsible for the yes. That is it. And God is responsible for everything else. You're called to be faithful church, but you are not promised to be by the world's standards successful. Isaiah didn't pick his soil and neither do you. Where's your soil? Wherever you are. And then Isaiah asked the question we're all asking. He just asks it in a spiritual way. He says, "How long, O Lord?" He's like, "That sounds like it sucks. How long am I going to do that for?" Until cities lie waste, Isaiah. Until the houses are without people, the land is desolate, the Lord removes people far away. The forsaken places are many in the midst of the land, and they will death remain. Yes, it will be burned again. Like a terrible through an oak whose stump remains when it is felt. It's like until the whole hope and dream is over,

but then it finishes with the holy seed as it's stumped. How long does this go on? Well, God doesn't soften the blow. The answer is brutal. This is not a comfortable calling. We're not here for comfort, church. We're not here to play church. It's not about comfort. It's about seeing the Lord. And just when you can't bear it anymore, the holy seed is at stump. The tree gets cut down. Everything's gone. Just the stump is left in the ground. It looks dead. It's finished. But you know what God says in that stump is a seed. Does anybody got any stumps in their life today? Anything that looked dead, any places where kings have died, where it looks like there is no hope? Well, God looks at stumps and says there's seed in it. My favorite theologian says it like this. The book of Isaiah will not let us rush past the stump to get too quickly to the seed. And in the We don't get to rush past Good Friday to get to Sunday. The devastation has to be set with. The grief is real. The stump is really a stump, but there's a seed in it. Hey, King Uzziah's dead, but I saw the Lord. King Uzziah's dead, but I saw the Lord. There's always a seed in the stump, in the desolate places in your life, in the places where kings have died, in the places where things have gotten cut down, in the places where dreams have died, in the places where marriages feel cold, in the place where faith feels like it's drying up, where the places where you've been faithful, but there's been no fruit. There are seed in the stump. There's seed in the stump. God doesn't make us who He wants to make us by protecting us from dying kings. He meets us in the midst of our dying kings.

You don't need to be a king, that's exhausting. There's already a king of kings. See Him, fall before Him. Receive from Him and stand because of Him. Be sent by Him and hope against hope. Don't you ever give up your yes? Don't you ever give up your yes? Could we stand to our feet, Church? We need people whose hearts are not in the kings of this world. We need people who have seen the Lord. We need people who have fallen on their face and acknowledged all their inadequacies. We need people who know themselves not strong because they have strength, but because they'll experience the strengthening of the Lord. Church, we need not passive Christians. We need people who take responsibility for their time and say, "Send me." And we need people who serve with their yes without ever giving up hope, 'cause there's always stump in the seed. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you today, wanting to see you in the midst of our lives, wanting to see you above all else. Would we be people who see, who fall, who stand and are sent and hope against hope? Lord, I pray for all the dead things in our lives. May the seed of your kingdom burst forth.

Because if you're here today and you do not know Jesus, now is your opportunity to put your trust in him, to move from what was me to you, a cleansed and forgiven. Your sin is atoned for. You can leave this place and you creation and you Christian today. Not because of what you have done, but because what Jesus has done. And if you're making that decision today, I want you to join in on this prayer right now. Everyone's gonna repeat after me if you're making that decision with you join on in. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your son, Jesus. I choose him today as my Lord and Savior. Help me to follow you and to trust in you. I'm now forgiven. I've got a fresh start. Fill me with your spirit. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen. Can we just celebrate with everyone I'm making that decision. Thank you, church.