Happy New Year!

If you have one wish for the new year, what would that be? Here are some sample answers from a recent survey:

• Stay healthy (free from major illness)
• Financially stable
• Experience God in a new way
• Develop a more intimate relationship with your spouse
• See that your children do well in school
• Get along well with your office mates
• Get married

Some people look at horoscope, while others make a visit to fortune tellers. But for Christians, we firmly fix our eyes on Jesus and our ears to the scriptures.

Now if I were to ask you, what is one wish for DCBC in the new year, what would that be?

• Find a 'perfect' senior pastor (this is an inside joke among some elders)
• Find a permanent location
• Make a better Sunday School (for parents of young children and teens)
• Have an intimate fellowship

The list goes on.

I pray that the LORD will speak to you this morning through this passage of Isaiah concerning your own future in 2003 and for the future of DCBC.

Isaiah 54 and 55 are in response to the great achievement of the Servant in Isaiah 53. Atonement is made. Blood has been shed. What ought to be then our response? Isaiah 54 calls for the stretching of our boundary and Isaiah 55 calls for the universal invitation to anyone who is thirsty for salvation. Our passage this morning can be easily divided into the following:

1. Good news to the 'barren woman' (vs. 1)
2. Call to enlarge, and not to be afraid (vv. 2-4)
3. Basis for confidence: the compassion of the LORD (vv. 5-10)

Barren Woman No More
You will notice that this chapter starts off on a very high and positive note. There is a call to sing and to shout aloud for joy for what God has done.

The audience is addressed as a barren woman. In fact, as we stroll down the rest of the chapter 54, we notice that there are three images used to describe Israel:
A barren and desolate woman (1-4)
A rejected wife (5-10)
A desolate city (11-17)

Now let us ask why Israel fell into such a place? Why was Israel likened to a barren woman, a rejected wife and a desolate city?

Jeremiah's sermon at the Temple gate in Jeremiah 7 sums it up the best. The prophet has exposed all the follies of Israel. They were supposed to be a holy nation serving the living God. But everything went wrong. They worshipped Baal; sacrificed their sons in the valley of Ben Hinnom. They provoked the LORD to anger. The nation deserved a total punishment from the LORD. The exile was the only option available to them. So Jeremiah pronounced the judgment of God. Israel was sent to Babylon.
Israel became a barren woman because it had nothing to show for (likened to the bitter vintage in Isaiah 5). They were abandoned by God, temporarily; at least, this is how they felt.

When we sin against God, repeatedly, and live totally out of sync with the will of God, the Spirit in us moans. We grieve the Holy Spirit, as Paul explains to us. God lets us run our empty course of life. The further we drift away from God, the further we feel numb about God, until we come to a point where we are not even sure whether God has any meaningful place in our life or not. Then when we make a major mistake and our religious conscience catches up with us, we then all of sudden feel the sense of abandonment by God. We even feel like God is punishing us.

How was the year 2002? Did you feel God's reprimand in your life? Did things get tangled up a lot spiritually?

So we have these three images in a figurative sense; but wait! Each image is now given a vindication. A barren woman becomes mother of many children, more numerous than the mother who had a husband all along (vs. 1). A rejected wife has a new husband — none other than God! (vs. 5) And the desolate city becomes an invincible fortress, where no weapon forged against it will ever prevail (vs. 17)! We get the picture.

Time to Enlarge the Place of Your Tent (vv. 2-4)
The good news that Israel will no longer be the 'barren woman' is now consolidated with the call to enlarge the place of their tent. All this was possible because of the complete work of the Suffering Servant as prophesied in the previous chapter.

Israel's sin has been paid for. That is how Isaiah opened chapter 40, 'Comfort, comfort my people.' God has taken up by himself the iniquity of His people. Now it is time to respond to what God has done. Isaiah tells them what kind of response God's people ought to give: Sing and burst into song. Shout for joy!

Back to Isaiah 54, what should then be the response of Israel?

• Enlarge the place of your tent
• Stretch your tent curtains wide
• Do not hold back
• Lengthen your cords
• Strengthen your stake

'Enlarge the place of your tent' has a simple and literal meaning behind it: expect growth. You will need a bigger place for your family, for barren women will bear children!

But spiritually, the phrase means more than that. The word 'tent' symbolizes God's dealings with Abraham and the patriarchs. 'Tent' brings forth the image of moving around in wilderness. It was also the lifestyle of Israelites in the wilderness. 'Ten' also reminds Israel of how the LORD met Moses face to face. It symbolizes the presence of God. So 'enlarge the place of your tent' can also mean increase your expectation of God who desires to meet you. Expect great things from God.

No longer should Israel think about despair and defeat. It is time to arise and shine. Their descendants will also grow to be powerful to 'dispossess nations.' It is a Messianic phrase. 'The descendants' or 'the Seed' (as it is understood where the plural is used in a collective sense referring to the Messiah), will 'dispossess' the nations. As King of kings and the LORD of lords, Jesus Christ reign among the nations.

God's people will no longer feel abandoned. The city of God will not be a desolate place any more. It is time to arise and enlarge the place of their tent. That is the good news and a challenge for the true Israel, the Church of Jesus Christ. Christian life is lived out in response to what Jesus Christ has done for us. There is nothing ambiguous about it. Each day is a miracle.

Now individually, think of God's offer to your life. Your place of defeat will become the place of victory in 2003 as you put your faith in Him. Though you sinned and resisted God's will for your life in the past, Christ's victory in your place of defeat means that God is calling you to respond in faith: enlarge the place of your tent, that is, expect to experience God in a deeper way; expect to produce much fruit for God.

The Compassion of the LORD (vv. 5-10)
Some of us might ask, 'why should I be positive?' Is this not just a mental game I am playing, thinking positively and hoping that positive thinking will actually make me feel better and change my attitude to life?

What makes all things happen?

We ought to be convinced that our hope is based on God's unfailing love to us, his compassionate nature. Isaiah uses the word compassion three times in our passage (vs. 7, 8,10).

For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. (vs. 7).

The new year 2003 has dawn upon us. It promises to be a great year. But for it to be a great year, we must have faith in God. God's good news is that he cares for us. He is a compassionate God. He does not reprimand us forever. We are called to take up our eyes of faith and look to him. Do you not hear the voice of God, 'Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back'?

Have you given many spiritual births in 2002? Or would you consider yourself to be 'barren'? It is not God's will that we stay barren for another year.

In my recent trip to Korea, I was so challenged to hear of one local church's attempt to 'enlarge their tent.' It is the story of Sarang Community Church in Seoul. Even though the church was filled to its maximum capacity and it was physically impossible to extend their tent, the senior pastor never lost sight of the church's responsibility to the world. As a result the church kept proclaiming the gospel and it grew!

What makes it different from thousands of other Korean churches? Passion for soul and passion to share God's good news with others. This church has been focused right from the beginning on two things: let the Gospel message deeply penetrate into the members' lives for transformation, and let us enlarge our tent to make a greater impact on people's lives with the Gospel message.

Are you convinced that it is God's will for any church to enlarge their tent and strengthened the stakes? Do you think God wants DCBC to do the same? Do you think God wants you to enlarge the place of your tent?