Walk in the Comfort of Jesus — Sam Caldwell

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah and chapter 32. The book of Isaiah and chapter 32. I want to talk today about walking in the comfort of Jesus. Walking in the comfort of Jesus.

The Lifeblood of the Church and the Centrality of Jesus

We started a new series two weeks ago called The Lifeblood of the Church, Eight Things We Must Focus On. And what I mean by that title is I want us to build up together a foundation of what are we doing as a church, what are we really here for, what is the lifeblood of our church, what are the necessary components that if we don't have them we will not succeed in spreading God's kingdom in this world.

We're talking about the lifeblood of the church. Our first sermon was Cherish This Fellowship, and I was exhorting you all to just get to know each other and love each other. Our second sermon last week was Make Jesus Everything.

I was exhorting us to be a Christ-exalting people, a people who put Jesus Christ above all else. Amen? And today I want to exhort us to walk in the comfort of Jesus. Let's read Isaiah chapter 32, verses 1 through 4, and I pray that this portion of Scripture becomes very precious to you today.

I pray that if you don't know this chapter, if you haven't spent much time here, that you would go home and meditate on it more, that you would love this portion of Scripture. Listen to what God says through Isaiah.

Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment, and a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, and the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken, the heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.

Amen. Let me pray for us. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, you are powerful, and we are weak, but Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so. Lord, we need your love today. We need you, Lord, to comfort our hearts today, and we need you, Lord, to teach us how to be a church that walks in your comfort.

Lord, I cannot teach this. We need you to teach us, Lord. So we call upon your Holy Spirit, Lord, and we beg you to anoint this message. We beg you, Lord, to get Sam out of the way. We beg you, Lord, to come and speak to us powerfully, each one of us in this room, in our hearts, Lord.

Each one of us needs to be changed today. Each one of us, Lord, needs to be challenged today by your word. So we pray that you send your Spirit, and you change us deep in the inner man, so that God gets glory, so that the kingdom is advanced here, Lord, so that we are joyful in you.

We pray in your mighty name, the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen. Amen. Look at verse 2 and the comfort in it. It says, And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind. Do you know who that man is?

Can anyone tell me? Amen. Isn't it so clear? Don't we sing songs that are taken right from this verse right here? This man shall be as a hiding place. Don't we sing, Lord, you are my hiding place from the wind.

And a covert or a shelter from the tempest. Don't we sing, A shelter in the time of storm. As rivers of water in a dry place. As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Oh, does anybody here need that Jesus?

Does anybody here love that Jesus? That's our Jesus. These are direct prophecies about our Jesus right here in front of us. It's my prayer that this verse right here would mark our church. That we would walk in the comfort of Jesus.

The Gospel Must Be Good News to the Anxious

And you might say, Okay, Sam, why are you going there? The first week was about fellowship. Then we talked about Jesus being central. And then comfort. Is that really a central doctrine? Is that really central?

You might say. And I want to tell you it is. It's absolutely central. We need to make sure that as we go on as a church and advance the gospel in Portland, Maine. That the good news we preach is actually good news.

Amen. We need to make sure that we can tell people, Brother, you're anxious? You don't have to be. There's good news for you. What Christ says is true. And I was at that community dinner on Thursday. There were maybe 30, 40 people there.

I don't know. Howard and Marilyn could tell us. 39. Amen. And I just saw ripples of comfort going through that room. There was something so beautiful there. Not everybody in that room knew Jesus. But there were some Jesus lovers positioned throughout that room.

And sharing something that was so beautiful. That as this world gets crazier and wars and rumors of wars come. We need that. Don't we, brothers and sisters? We need a warm, beautiful, comforting community dinner.

We need that to be true of all of our gatherings throughout the week. It's so crucial. And I also want this to mark each and every one of our lives. I don't know if Kiara's in the room. Where is she? But we had a bit of a hard week.

I had some spiritual attacks on Monday, on Tuesday. We had an amazing prayer meeting on Wednesday. We had a wonderful community dinner Thursday. And then Kiara calls me and someone trespassed on our property while I wasn't there.

And it was pretty scary. And, you know, that's a physical attack on one's property, right? But then there are spiritual attacks. And everybody in this room knows if you follow Jesus Christ, you're going to get attacked.

There's going to be spiritual attacks. You know that, don't you? Those who live for Jesus will suffer tribulation in this life. But we, each and every one of us individually, we need to be solid on God's protection, on Christ's comfort.

We need to be a people that says, oh, yeah, this week was shaky. And there were some times where I was shaken. But there was this seed deep down in my soul of comfort. And just knowing Jesus is watching over them.

Jesus is watching over me. Jesus, you see what I'm saying? Everybody with me? Amen? We need this comfort in our lives. Let's dive into these verses here. I want you to just note a few things as we get started.

Isaiah’s Prophecy During the Assyrian Invasion

Isaiah chapters 1 through 39 are about the Assyrian invasion. Isaiah is writing to Israel, to Judah, to all the tribes. And he's writing in a time when the Assyrians were invading that land. Who are the Assyrians?

It's modern-day Iraq. So it's the country to the east and north a little bit of Israel. And they were coming in. Just like you all are watching in the news right now. Gaza has attacked Israel from the south and the west.

Right? Southwest. But right now, Israel is very strong. And they're fighting back, as you all have noticed. Back then in Isaiah's day, the Assyrians come in from the east. And they didn't only attack Israel.

But they took all the Israelites out of that land. They deported all of them. They terrorized them. And they resettled them in Assyria. You see how terrifying that would be? The Assyrian invasion around 730 B .C. in Israel.

What does Isaiah do in the face of all of that? He gives them a comforting prophecy. In chapter 32, verses 1 and 2. And what does he say? Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness. That people of Israel would not have been seeing that king, were they?

They were saying, what are you talking about? We're being dragged out of our house and home. We're being dragged into a foreign land. We're being ravaged here. What king will reign in righteousness? Where is this king?

What does Isaiah do? He prophesies. And he says, look outside of yourself. Look outside of your circumstances. Look way into the future, Israelites. Look 700 years into the future. And a king is coming who will be lowly and riding upon a donkey.

Do you all know that king? He prophesied the Lord Jesus Christ. A king shall reign in righteousness. The only true righteousness that this world needs comes through Jesus Christ and His Gospel of justification by faith.

And then he says, and princes shall rule in judgment. Who are those princes? You're going to be surprised by this. You. You are the princes. And this is not something we should be prideful about and say, I'm a prince.

I'm so strong. No. But princes mean those who are working together with the king. You, believers in Jesus Christ, you are these princes. Did you know that in Revelation 1 and verse 6 it says, He hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father.

We are the kingdom and the priesthood unto God and His Father. We are these princes who work together with the king. Amen? In Ephesians chapter 2 it says that we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places where He reigns and rules.

We're seated there right now. Have you envisioned that? Can you see that spiritually? You say, it doesn't feel like it. But I'm telling you, you've got to see it by the eye of faith. We are seated with Christ right now.

We are ruling and reigning with Him. You say, in what sense are we ruling? Look at verse 1. We're ruling in judgment. Christians, you Christians in this room, you are the ones who know about judgment.

You are the ones who know about true justice. You are the only ones in this world who can actually share the equity and the love of Christ with this world. Amen? We're ruling and reigning in judgment right now.

That's what Isaiah prophesied to these people. And then he speaks in verse 2 of a man. He says, and a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind. Who is that man? You've already answered. The man is the king of verse 1.

And did you know that almost all of our modern Bibles, the ESV, the NASB, the NIV, they all say something different here. They say, each one will be. But I simply want to testify to you that the New King James and the King James Version right here is most accurate.

In the Hebrew, it's literally ish. And I don't know if anyone has heard that word, ish. But back in Genesis, the first few chapters, it says, there's ish, and from ish comes isha. Just like in English, we have man, and from man comes woman, right?

Ish is man, and isha comes from man. The woman comes from the man. The word right here in verse 2 is, and ish, a man. This is a glorious prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I hope you don't want to take that man out of that verse.

We need that man there. That's the man Jesus Christ. That's the mediator between God and man. We need to see Him in this verse. A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind. For the remainder of this sermon, I want us to look at verse 2.

And I want to simply ask you this. Are you walking in the comfort of this verse right here? Are you walking in the comfort of Jesus Christ? Amen? Everyone with me? Let's study this beautiful, beautiful verse.

Put this on the map. Put this on your radar. Come back to this verse. Live in this verse. That's what I'm exhorting us to do today. It says, a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest.

And you know, even right here, before we get into it, some of you might say, this verse, what is it? It's just images, right? It's just a picture and another picture and another picture. And you might say, it's sort of childlike.

I mean, it's not very practical. It doesn't really tell me what I'm supposed to do every day. And I think that's exactly the point. Right here, we must become as little children. We must look at these images and say, Lord, I believe it by faith.

I want to walk in that. I want to be more like that. You all see? These are images that we're supposed to see by the eye of faith. So I call you all today to see this with me. Let's see exactly what Isaiah is prophesying.

Christ as a Hiding Place from the Wind

Four prophecies of Christ. Four prophecies of Christ. And I want to ask you, are you walking in this comfort? Look at verse 2. The first one. A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind. Christ is a hiding place from the wind.

Is that comforting? What is the wind? The wind is all the evil uncertainties of this world. The wind is what Paul talks about in Ephesians 2, verse 2, where the devil is called the prince of the power of the air.

Can you envision him? Satan? He's floating around in the wind. This evil wind. He's the prince of the power of the air. And what is Christ? He's a hiding place. A shield from that wind. How do we hide from that wind?

We hide when we repent and believe. So I ask you, are you finding comfort in that? When you turn to Jesus and you say, Lord, I'm sorry for my sin, and I trust in you as the only answer. That's how we hide.

We hide when we obey the means of grace. When you say, you know, it's worth coming to church this morning. You know, it's worth going to the prayer meeting. It's worth doing that good work to help someone.

Do you know what you're doing? You're hiding in Jesus. You're saying, I want to do these safe things, Lord. I want to be with you as my hiding place. We hide when we obey Jesus. When you know He's told you, Son, don't look at that.

When you know He's told you, don't go there. When you say, Lord, I obey, then what are you doing? You're hiding. You're safe in Him. You're affirming that He's your hiding place. What if you say, no, Lord.

I don't want the hiding place. Take it off. I want to watch that dirty show, Lord. Or, Lord, I want to look at that thing you told me not to look at. Lord, I want to go celebrate Halloween when it's so clear from Scripture.

I absolutely should not. What do we do when we do that? We expose ourselves to the wind. We just lay our soul bare before Satan. And we say, let the wind blow over me. Do you all see that? But when Christ is our hiding place, we say, Lord, I want to be under you.

Christ as a Shelter from the Tempest

I need that safety. He's as a hiding place from the wind. Are you all seeing that? Does that comfort you? Do you live in that comfort? Second thing it says here, and a covert from the tempest. A covert is a cover or a shelter, a covering.

Again, that's where we sing, a shelter in the time of storm. Christ is a shelter in the time of storm. You all have noticed tempests are raging right now. There are wars and rumors of war. There is an intense war happening in the Middle East right now.

And I want to ask you, in this war that's happening over there, who is safe? Is Israel safe? Is Gaza safe? Who is truly safe? Only the Christians. Only those who have this covert from the tempest. Who are covered by Christ.

Do you all imagine that? Everyone else is totally open to the tempest, to all that's happening around them. We need to be sure that we're covered by Christ's blood. And actually this word here for covering is related to the word for atonement.

When you see that word atonement through your Bibles, that literally in the Hebrew is covering. We need blood to cover us so that we are safe. Are you covered? Are you covered by Christ's blood? Be the source of our comfort.

He is a shelter from the tempest. As that war rages more and more, we just need this simple fact. I know, Lord, that you died for me. And we can say, I want all aspects of Jesus like we talked about last week, right?

I want more of Jesus. I want his personality. I want his closeness. I want all of that. But what's the number one thing you need from Christ? His blood to cover you. You need to know you're covered in the day of tempest.

Do you have that? Are you comforted by that? You can say, even on a day when things are super shaky, you can say, but the blood, Lord. The blood covers me. I can't even feel your protection right now, Lord, but I know by faith that your blood covers me.

Amen? Amen? Third, as rivers of water in a dry place. Is that comforting? To think of our Lord Jesus, rivers of water in a dry place. I think this phrase here is talking about blessing in the midst of curse.

You know, the curse has come out into this world. And it makes everyone dry. It makes it so that no one has blessing in their life. And sinners don't even know just how dry they are. But can I tell you that Portland is a dry place?

This Hebrew word here literally means arid. It means dryness. It means when someone is parched or even cracked with heat. Can you all envision that? The floor of a desert where it's getting cracked with heat.

But Christ is rivers of water coming into that dry place. Isn't that beautiful? At the community dinner on Thursday, I was seeing these rivers of water. And seeing souls just be comforted by Jesus. And I asked one woman there, Hi, I'm Sam, what's your name?

She said her name and I said, Oh, are you from that church that's helping? And she said, No, I just wanted to be part of something like this. And I said, I still to this day don't know who she is. We'll have to find her on Thursday.

But she said, can you imagine that? Listen to what she said. She's not part of a church. But she said, I just wanted to be part of something like this. She just wanted some of those rivers of refreshing.

She could sense that there was something different going on there. Something coming from the throne of Christ there. That's what we need to be. We need to walk in that encouragement. Look at this phrase with me one more time.

It's so important. Our Lord Jesus Christ is called rivers of water in a dry place. Let me ask you. Why do you come to church? This is a big struggle for me as a pastor to try to encourage people to come to church, right?

There are some who are just not faithful. And I go to them. And you make many different arguments because the Scripture argues from all different ways why you should come to church. Every single Sunday.

Unless you're on vacation or you're sick. Right? The Scripture pattern is come first day of the week. Gather with the saints. And we can tell people that until we're blue in the face. But they don't always hear.

We can tell them it's your duty. It's your mark of obedience to Christ. You've got to be there. Why would you privilege something else? Sports or a job over coming to church? You can make all these arguments.

But here's one argument that I want you all to make. If we truly believe in the comfort of Jesus, tell people this, these gatherings are where the rivers of water flow. This is where Christ shows up. This is where Christ blesses us.

Amen? A lot of people will say, no, I don't need that. I'll just meet with Christ at home. But I know the minute they say that, you know they're in danger. You know they're lying. You know there's something going on behind the scenes.

You know there's some sin that they're preferring to these rivers of water. But just think about it. This is our Lord's name right here. This is Christ. He is rivers of water in a dry place. Evan Roberts is the man who prayed down the Welsh Revival around 1906.

And he was at a meeting with a man named Seth Joshua. Isn't that a cool name? Seth Joshua. And this man Seth Joshua told young Evan Roberts, I don't know, he was in his early teens. He told him, you come to prayer meeting because the Holy Spirit could drop any week.

That's what Seth Joshua said. And Evan Roberts took it seriously. And he came to every prayer meeting from then on. Every week, just waiting for the Spirit to drop. And it was about 10 years after that that the Spirit came down in mighty power over that whole country of Wales.

And even changed the way that the coal miners speak so that their horses couldn't recognize what they were saying. Because they used to curse so much. They stopped cursing. The horses couldn't follow their directions.

I could go on and on about the Welsh Revival. It was amazing. But it started because this one young man when he was, I don't know, 14, 15 or so, said, I want to show up because the Holy Spirit could come any week.

Amen? We can only understand that if we understand that Christ is rivers of water in a dry place. That's what we're waiting for. That's what we're looking for. That comfort that comes when we gather together.

Christ as the Shadow of a Great Rock

Fourth, look at this final phrase with me. Everybody look at it. He's as rivers of water in a dry place as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. The shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Isn't just that phrase comforting to you?

Don't you just want to sing that? He's the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. This word weary right here. Everybody note this. It means faint or exhausted or burnt over and scorched. Consider that.

Do you know that Maine is a weary land? Do you know that God has come through Maine and He's had incredible revival? And He's saved people? And then people have sinned horribly against Him and God left.

Do you know that God is gracious though and He came back again? But then people sinned against Him and He left. Do you know that there have been patterns of God's blessing over this land? And it makes it, just like verse 2 here, it makes it a weary land.

Our land is weary. Our land is faint, exhausted, burnt over, scorched. But there is hope. And for anyone truly interested in this, I'd ask you to go home and read Psalm 107. Write that down. Psalm 107.

And you'll find in that psalm a description of Israel where the people of God are blessed, they sin, God leaves. But then God comes back in mercy. Then they sin and God leaves. But then God comes back in mercy.

And in that psalm it happens five or six times. Please go home and read Psalm 107. Okay? Why? Because it will give you hope that Christ could still come to this weary land. Christ can still come. Why?

It's in His very character. It says right here, He is as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. He wants to shadow Portland, Maine. He wants to shadow you, dear believers. If you're feeling parched, if you're feeling that you're just part of this weary land of the United States, so confused, so confused, He still wants to shadow you.

And get that image. Okay? Be like children with me for one more moment. What does He say? The shadow of a great rock in a weary land. I grew up visiting my grandparents in Cummington, Massachusetts, which is in Western Massachusetts, up in these hills over there.

And I'd always play with my two cousins. They were the bad cousins, the ill-behaved cousins, we'll say. And we would always play with these fake rifles and, you know, going after each other in the woods and everything.

But I knew the best hiding place. It was this massive rock, probably like up to the ceiling, where it starts right there. And I would go there with my brother, Zach, and we would hide from Eric and Mark, who were the, you know, you had to hide from them.

And we'd get under this huge rock, and there was this little crevice right under there. And we'd hide there, and we'd put all these pieces of wood around us, right? So they couldn't find us. And then we knew we were safe, and we could start hunting for newts and salamanders in the dirt.

It was just the most beautiful place. Do you rest in His shade like that? Do you hide under the rock? It was cool under that rock. It was beautiful under that rock. We knew we were safe from those bad cousins.

Can you see Jesus like that? He wants to shadow you over. A great rock. A mighty rock. The rock of ages, you might call it, in a weary land. You say, well, what do I do with that? Again, be like a child.

See Him covering you. See Him shading you. Amen? I just want to say a few more things to apply this to our hearts, okay? Look at verses 3 and 4. These are the results of this prophecy of Christ. The results are beautiful.

Clear Vision, Hearing, and Speech Through Christ

And these are results that we want in our church, okay? Verse 3, The eyes of them that see shall not be dim. We want everyone here to have clear vision. Amen? Our eyes. They're not dim. I can see. I've got to do that for Jesus.

You know, the more we believe in Christ like this, He might make something very clear. And all of a sudden our eyes are open and we say, okay, we're planting a church in Freeport. I don't know. I just made that up, right?

But, you know, He just opens our eyes and we know the next step. It's beautiful how the Lord does that. Look next. And it says,. And the ears of them that hear shall hearken. Have you heard the voice of the Lord today?

Can you hear Him? Do you hear Him in your prayer closet? Do you hearken? Are your ears alive? You see that? That's a result of this incredible prophecy of Jesus. Then look what it says in verse 4 because we all need this.

The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge. Some of us have hearts that just beat so fast, right? And we're anxious. And this is literally right here, the heart of the hasty ones. We just want to do everything.

We want to get everything done. My heart is rash. It's moving. It's moving. And it says right here, You're going to slow down and you're going to understand knowledge. And you're going to say, I know whom I have believed.

I'm confident. I'm faithful. I'm with Him. Amen. And look at this last phrase. And the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. Isn't that beautiful? I can just testify to you all that I was such a shy kid growing up.

I didn't want to talk to anyone. It was so hard for me to open my mouth. Anyone else have that experience? I still find it very hard to read, very hard to speak and say things properly. And look what it says here.

But the tongue of the stammerers, that's all of us who find it hard. You say, I don't know if I can pray in the prayer meeting because I don't know what to say. What does it say here? That tongue will be ready to speak plainly.

Isn't that amazing how the Lord slows down our tongue and He gives us confidence? No, you can do it. You can do it. I made your tongue, Moses. I made your tongue, Aaron. It's so beautiful. Very quickly, some applications here.

Three Ways the Church Walks in Jesus’ Comfort

How can we be a church that preaches the comfort of Jesus? Please write these down. Please, brothers and sisters, let's be this. Let's do this. Let's live this. Okay? Four things. One, see Christ in this beautiful text before you by the eye of faith.

You have to be like a child if you really want to see this text. You have to just say, Lord, I'm a child and I need You as my hiding place. You know, I'm not going to... Preachers always say they're going to be quick on the last few points.

Okay, just give me a few minutes, okay? Listen, listen. I looked up how many people preach on this verse, okay? I was looking for help this week to see on YouTube and on Sermon Audio and stuff how many people...

Almost no one still preaches on this verse. Do you know why? Because I think there's an obsession in our churches nowadays to be very practical. To say we're going to have a program to make men, men. And a program to make women, women.

Or whatever it is. And you get so practical that sometimes we can forget that at the essence of our faith is just childlike belief. Right? If you go back to Charles Spurgeon's time, the late 1800s, they were preaching on a verse like this all the time.

They were seeing Christ in this verse all the time. And they knew that if the church of God was to be powerful, you have to inflame people's faith. It's all about faith deep down in the soul. It's not just about what you do practically.

You need to be inflamed by that faith. Do you all see what I'm talking about? First, see Christ in this beautiful text by the eye of faith. Second, walk in Christ's comfort and it will be contagious. Please, brothers and sisters, live in this.

Look, we need those in this church who are steady, who are covered, who are assured, who are not anxious, so that you can teach others. Amen? And if you walk like that, it is contagious. We had band rehearsal this morning, and I was worrying about a few of the songs, right?

And Jason was like, the Lord's got it. He said something like that. And I'm like, that's contagious. I said, amen. I want to be more like that. I want to just rest in Him. I want to have that comfort, that assurance.

You see? The more we're like that, the more we can share that with others. Third, care about the souls around you. Care about the souls around you. I just met with Rich Gustafson, who's one of the heads of the Transformation Project in Westbrook.

They're doing amazing things for people in Westbrook. And the first thing Rich said to me when we met is, so, Sam, how's your soul? And I was shocked. I was like, I thought we were getting into business here.

We're going to talk about what's been happening in Westbrook. And he went right for, how's your soul, brother? That's what we need to do, brothers and sisters. Right? Walk in the comfort of Jesus. We need to check in with each other.

How's your soul? How are you actually doing? We need to ask each other that. And I'll end with that. Let's read verse 2 one more time. Look at this glorious, glorious prophecy of our Lord. And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

Prayer for the Church to Walk in Comfort

We praise You, Lord. This is who You are. This is who You are. And we need it, Lord. And we need to see it with the eye of faith. We need to trust You. And we need to be a church that walks in Your comfort.

Lord, please. Please, Lord, banish anxiety from this place. Please, Lord, banish depression from this place. Please, Lord, banish these things that harass our hearts so much, Lord. You give full provision for these things right here.

You say You're a hiding place. You're a shelter. You're rivers of water. You're a shadow of a great rock. Lord, help us believe it. Walk in it. We praise Your holy name. Amen.