Encounter Sunday | February 1, 2026 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church

and today we kind of move from consecration into commissioning. So I want to kind of talk about what does it look like for us to move out of a intentional

season of consecrating ourselves, of purifying ourselves, of seeking the face of God, to then transitioning into going what God has done in us, we now are asking for him to do it through us. Because we've got to also remember

that we we don't just become monks, and we live, and we circle the wagons, and we become an insular community. No, we consecrate our lives, we purify ourselves so that we're more effective as we move into

this world. And this is kind of the idea that I want to circle us around for a couple minutes before the band leads us again through some more songs, is that if it's consecration that prepares us, it's commissioning

that sends us. And I want to tell you this morning that you are you are being commissioned, that God wants to send you. It's not a question of is God going to commission us, but it's just where is God commissioning us. And so as I was thinking about how do we end these twenty one days together? How do I kind of rally this idea of God sending us? I was thinking about the story that's recorded in Isaiah chapter six. So if you got a bible, can open up to Isaiah chapter six.

It records the commissioning ceremony, the the beginning process of the prophet Isaiah. And again, it it's kind of semantical, but I would argue that Isaiah is probably the most important prophet that we have in the Old Testament. Some of the greatest depictions of the reality of Jesus and who he was going to be,

we get from the prophecies that were given through this man named Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter six, we see the beginning

of his story and there's so many similarities to the beginning of his story to the beginning of ours that I want us to look at this morning. So Isaiah chapter six verse one, here's how the story begins. It says, it was the year that king Uzziah died

that I saw the Lord. I'm telling you, read that verse and it felt like it just jumped off the pages to me. I know it's just it's just one sentence and we'll we'll keep moving, but there's some important context for us to understand for the story to to make the most sense. Isaiah's beginning

starts at a moment of cultural tension, cultural crossroads. He tells us that it was the year that king Uzziah

had died, that he he saw the Lord. He sees his powerful encounter with God at a moment where there was more questions being answered about the future and the uncertainty of the nation of Israel than ever before. So Uzziah was a king that ruled for about fifty years over the province of Judah and he was an amazing king for the bulk of his reign, But the last couple years, he made some catastrophic

mistakes and his his rule and his reign ends with questioning. It ends with distrust, and it ends with this massive question mark over the people of God. Going what what is going to happen to us because there's been so much political unrest. There's so much cultural tension happening in the world today.

How could God be for us in all of this chaos happen around us? I only illustrate the point a little bit. I only elaborate the point a little bit to say, I believe that you and I on 02/01/2026 find ourselves in a very similar moment.

Questions being asked about the future of our nation. Questions being asked about the political unrest and I'm here this morning to remind us that we can't necessarily solve all the political problems out there, but what we can begin to do is to ask God to allow us to see him in new ways again. For God to raise up again a prophetic voice into the world reminding the world that all of this is temporary,

but there's a God that sits outside of time and space that is still ruling and reigning today. I don't think it's a coincidence that Isaiah's beginning starts at a moment of cultural tension and I believe that God wants to raise up another prophetic generation

again. The story continues and says that he was sitting. This is Isaiah's vision that God was sitting on a lofty throne and the train of his robe filled the temple and attending to him were these mighty Seraphim. Seraphim is just an angel. An angel and each of them had six wings.

With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And they were calling out to each other, holy holy holy is the Lord of heaven's armies. The whole earth is filled with his glory. Their voices shook the temple to its foundation and the entire building

was filled with smoke. Now again, we don't know this for sure, but what most theologians agree is that what Isaiah was probably doing is he was probably on a walk of some of some sort near Solomon's temple. K. He was near the temple that we looked at last week where the manifold presence of God existed on the earth, in the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant, that God's presence was there. Isaiah was close to it and all of a sudden this moment of political unrest,

Isaiah has this kind of out of body experience. He has a vision. It's not really happening but it's a prophetic picture

of what was going to come and he sees God seated as a ruling and reigning king on the throne and his temple is so long that it fills the entire or his robe is so long that it fills the entire temple. Now again, the length

of the robe was symbolic of the power of the king that was in the position of ruling and reigning. All this to say that Isaiah is seeing this picture where God is ruling and he's more powerful than any king he's ever seen before and around him are these angels that just keep crying out, holy holy holy are you Lord. Here's the point.

Isaiah is seeing potentially for the first time God clearly. All of us, every single one of us with this idea of going, God, would you use my life? Could you could you use me to make a significant impact with the time that you've given me on this earth? We only have the ability to do that if if we are able to properly see

God, and we begin to realize that God is completely set apart from us. He's holy. He's different than us. He's not he's not a being that we can become one day. No. He is God who is ruling and reigning outside time and space and that God wants to use

your life. He wants to do something significant but it starts with us seeing him

accurately. Notice what happens the moment he begins to see the majesty, the bigness of God. Verse five says, then I said, it's all over. I'm doomed for I'm a sinful man. I have filthy lips and I live among the people with filthy lips.

Yet I've seen the king, the Lord of heaven's armies. What's amazing is this is what will happen every single time that you and I see God accurately. As you and I begin to see God for who he really is, as we see God accurately, what will happen is you'll begin to see yourself honestly.

Isaiah begins to realize that God is holy. God is perfect. God is set apart. He's not like me. He's not sinful. He doesn't make mistakes. God is completely

other than, and there's a great chasm between his perfection and my my sin and my brokenness. And Isaiah just begins to realize, man, there's so much about me that falls short of God's standard of perfection. For him, the shortcoming that he notices is that there's something with the way that he speaks.

There's something with he has this unclean mouth that he says, I don't know if he just, you know, he was like Irish or something and he just cussed a lot or whatever it is, but he's there's something about him that he goes, this is the place of my uncleanness.

And here's what again was really interesting, and I wish I had thirty minutes to kind of unpack all of this with us, but it's at his place of greatest weakness that God will do his deepest work.

Isaiah will go on to be a prophet. Okay? A prophet is somebody who literally would stand up in front of the people of God and speak on behalf of God. It's not lost on me that the thing that Isaiah realizes is his greatest weakness will eventually become his greatest strength.

It tells me that oftentimes the weaknesses that we carry, the things sitting here this morning that you might think disqualifies you from being able to be used by God, it might be the very thing that God wants to redeem

for the purpose that he has in your life. That the brokenness that we've experienced, the loss that you've gone through, the hardship that you are carrying this morning, if you can begin to trust God with it, he can redeem it, he can sanctify, he can purify it and out of your misery

can come some really really powerful and effective ministry if you'll trust God with it.

But we've got to actually see God for who he is and then have some honest moments and just go, man, there's some things about me that I gotta deal with. I don't know about you, but over these last twenty one days, I wish I could tell you that it was all it was all rainbows and butterflies with Jesus. It was nothing but majestic moments.

But the truth is man, the reason we stop eating for a period of time is so that we can begin to realize how dependent we are on the things of this world, how dependent our bodies on food.

Again, I didn't do it to lose weight but I weighed myself last night at the end of the fast, I lost 15 pounds over the last twenty one days of praying. Don't clap for that, I'm not excited about it, right?

I'm like, no, I got to figure out how to put this weight back on, know, like it's a thing. There was also some things in there as I got hungry and tired and I got to the end of myself, I realized man, there's some things in my heart that I still got to deal with. There's still some coping mechanisms that I run through. There's still some frustration that comes out of me, and all of that is not it's not a condemning thing. It's it's a purifying thing. If we begin to see these things that are out of alignment, we bring them back into alignment.

That's how God can begin to do his greatest work, but it requires us to bring those weaknesses before God and ask him to purify us of those things that still we think still disqualify us. Here's how the story continues in verse six. It says, then

then one of the seraphim and one of the angels flew to me with a burning coal that he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs, and he touched my lips with it and he said, see this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed and your sins

are forgiven. Here's what's beautiful in the progression of what we see in the commissioning of arguably the most important prophet in the Old Testament. It is only upon seeing God accurately that he sees himself honestly,

and it's upon seeing the great chasm between his brokenness and God's perfection that he begins to realize, I can't bridge this gap. And he himself finds himself in a posture of going, I don't know what to do. God, I'm imperfect and yet you're perfect. And then what begins to happen is God does what he does. He steps in and he makes a way for Isaiah to be purified and to be made clean. He takes an angel and an angel grabs a coal and he takes a coal and he brings it over and begins to purify the thing that he believes is unclean, the thing that he thinks disqualifies him from being able to be used by God. I have good news for us sitting here this morning that God does not need hot coals to purify us any longer. Right? We're like, we got Domino's pizza, they put it in the oven at 5,000 degrees, we're gonna take a bite, burn our mouths, and that will be purified to the glory of God. Like that would be a terrible invitation,

but what is symbolically happening to Isaiah is the same thing that has to happen to all of us. We have to have the imperfections in us purified

out of us because God is not looking for perfect vessels, but he is looking for holy ones. He is looking for holy ones. He's looking for sanctified ones. He's looking for ones who have gone through the process of being

redeemed and made new. What we've got to see this morning is, yes, I I want you to realize that you are being sent and you are being commissioned, but before mobilization comes a really important step, and it's called purification. God will always purify before he mobilizes.

Yes, God wants to use you. He wants to do something through your life, but more significantly, he wants to do something in your life. And if you will take your brokenness, you will take your weaknesses, you will take your shortcomings

and bring them to God, I'm telling you, he will begin to purify them. How does he do it today? Friends, that is the cross. That is what Jesus did on Calvary two thousand years ago. We don't need an angel to bring a coal to us because we know what Jesus did on the cross. The Bible says that he who knew no sin, he became sin. That he actually became the righteous he became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. That Jesus stepped out of heaven two thousand years ago. He became one of us. He lived the life we couldn't live. He died the death that we deserve. And if we will put our faith in what Jesus did on the cross, the scriptures say that we can be purified

and we can be made right. We have to start by accepting the free gift of grace that's available to us through Jesus and Jesus alone. We've got to go through the process of being purified and made right. It's why next weekend we have baptism weekends happening. It's a symbolic representation

of the the death that we are dying to our old self so that we can be raised to new life in Christ. And I'm here today to invite every single one of us. I think we've got over 75 people already registered next weekend. It's gonna be a powerful service as we celebrate people's death to their old life and being raised to new life in Christ, but I'm here to encourage you

if you have not yet said yes to Jesus through baptism,

I'm telling you, you need to do that. It's the instructions on how to do it are on the screen behind me, but it is the next step of our faith journey after we've said yes to Jesus. It is it is part of the process that God will use to purify us and cleanse us before he begins to begins to mobilize us. Here's the last verse. Here's how the end of Isaiah's story, beginning of his his commissioning,

it ends, and I really do think it's the beginning of what our story potentially is. Verse eight,

he says, then I heard the Lord asking whom should I send as a messenger to his people? Who will go for us? And Isaiah said, here I am. Send me. There's this really powerful vision that Isaiah has and as he sees God correctly, he sees himself honestly,

as he begins to realize there's a great gap between me and God, he realizes that God has made a way for me to be purified, that God wants to cleanse me, God wants to use my life, and after he's cleansed, God

speaks with a universal invitation for all of humanity who said yes to Jesus. He's saying, who is willing to go? And I just felt like God wanted me to ask sitting here today, 02/01/2026, I just wonder who it is that's willing to take a stand for the cause of Christ today.

The invitation is open. God is not looking for perfection. God is not looking for pedigree. God is not looking for the most experience, the most biblical knowledge. What God is looking for is the most availability. I wanna remind you today that I believe that every single one of us is being sent and has been commissioned,

but commissioning begins with availability, not ability. And all the things that you think potentially disqualify you from being able to be used by God, I would say being covered by the blood of Jesus,

those things might potentially actually be the unique qualifiers of why and how and where God will use your life. But you've got to be willing to say, God, if there's nobody else that's willing to go, here's my life. I'll say yes. I'll go where you ask me to go. I'll do what you ask me to do. I'll be who you've asked me to be. I think the question that is being asked of American Christians today is in the middle of political unrest,

in the middle of social tension, who is willing to go? Isaiah met the moment and said, I'm willing to go. I'm willing to be used by you. I just wonder this morning if we will do the same thing. God can do a lot with an available heart. He can do a lot with a person that realizes there's a great chasm between me and God, but God has made a way for me to be redeemed and reconciled back to him. Church,

you've been commissioned. The question is is will you will you actually say yes? I wanna close our time together by by taking communion.

And I know you're sitting there like, I don't have the communion cups in front of me. We're gonna do communion a little bit different this morning. There's just been kind of a personal conviction for me lately in I think sometimes because of our modern liturgy, and I think sometimes just out of convenience,

we pass communion cups on your way into church, and I think we we miss sometimes the reverence and the holiness and the power of what communion experience is supposed to be. Communion is a really big deal. Right? Now we don't go so far that the Catholic church does the things they taught they teach a doctrine called transubstantiation

that when we pray that the literal you know, Styrofoam wafer we're about to eat turns into the physical body of Jesus, and that the juice that we drink turns into the physical blood of Jesus. But I also think sometimes because it's just become ritual, because it's become routine,

that we do forget the power of what communion is. The presence of Jesus that's available to us when we take communion. And I just want to remind us that it it is at the altar it is at the altar of communion that that commissioning really begins.

And if there's things that you're wrestling with or things that you're struggling with, I I invite you this morning to just have a moment of of private surrender before God.

We're gonna have just a a moment. The band is gonna come up in a second and lead us through a song, and the ushers are gonna pass out communion cups. You'll And see as the buckets pass, if you need the gluten free ones, there's a special little plastic container that has the gluten free Styrofoam in there, so make sure you grab one of those if you're gluten intolerant.

But I want to invite you to just have a private moment in an atmosphere of faith in what we kind of call the thin place, where the realities of heaven collide with the realities of earth, where the presence of God is here and moving and speaking,

and I want you to just have a private moment with God. If there's things you need to confess, confess them. There's gonna be a couple questions on the screen that we're gonna kinda process through, and just grab communion. And then as you're ready, just pray. Whether it's privately, whether it's with your family,

just pray, and then you'll take communion right there in your seats. Nobody's gonna come back up on the stage and lead you through it. So when you're ready, just take communion, and the band's gonna continue

to lead us in a couple more songs, and we'll continue to worship Jesus this morning in this place. Amen? Amen. Let me pray for us. Father, God, we thank you. God, we thank you that two thousand years ago, you made a way for us to be reconciled back to you.

Father, we would we never lose sight of the sacrifice that you paid on Calvary. That Jesus, it cost your life for us to be reconciled with you. So father, this morning, as we conclude, as we end our twenty one days of prayer and fasting,

as we literally break our fast, eating together the most important meal we will ever eat, which is your body broken for us, your blood poured out for us, would we never forget what it cost you

for us to be ransomed and reconciled back to the father in heaven that made us. So Jesus, this morning, we choose to worship you because you alone are worthy. It is in Jesus' name all God's people said. Amen and amen.

Man oh man. Hey, can we just man, this team is unbelievable. They're here for four services. They get here early. Can we just give it up for these guys? Unbelievable.

Now again, don't go. We still got one more song, but I just I felt like this was a perfect moment for us to do and kind of close our service with a benediction, and it's more of a old school liturgical thing, but it's kind of this this final charge and push for us to remember that what God does in this room is only as important as significant as it changes us to live as we leave out of this room. And so a benediction was kind of a final charge and a final push, and so church, this is kind of my final benediction for us today. As we get ready to close our services, we move towards the end. Let us remember that we didn't just finish a fast. We have stepped into an entirely new moment as a church. For twenty one days, God has consecrated us, and now he's commissioning us. Some of us walked into this season tired and distracted and unsure,

but today, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are being reminded of something powerful, That earth's thrones are going to move and they're going to shift. But heaven's throne, it is still occupied and God is still alive. The same God that Isaiah,

the same God that Isaiah saw high and lifted up is the same God leading you into your week. You don't leave cleansed to sit still. You leave cleansed to live a life on mission. You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to feel ready. Heck, you don't even have to feel qualified.

God is not looking for ability, but he is looking for availability. So as we go back into our homes and our workplaces, our schools, our relationships, and our neighborhoods, may you go with a simple prayer on your mouth. God, not here is my plan, but here is my life. Send me.

Use me. Church, may the lord bless you and keep you. May keep your heart tender, your spirit responsive. May he give you clarity where there's been confusion, courage where there's been fear, and obedience where there's been hesitation. And may you live this week aware of one simple truth,

that you have been cleansed by grace, that you are called with purpose, and you are now being sent with power on high. Can we just give God a shout of praise in this place?