Beauty For Ashes. No Matter What You Are Going Through, God Will Bring Beauty Your Way In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Text: Isaiah 61:1-3.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

Worship: https://youtu.be/Nd4_7JtmqNc

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Alagbara, Oluwosan, Almighty, All-able and All-Sufficient God, we adore You, indeed You are worthy of all our praise. We thank You for taking us through the first half and helping us to overcome the challenges. Thank You for the miracle of sleeping and waking up back-to-back, Your mercy and compassion towards us O Lord, we appreciate.

Lord as we dwell on Your promise today, please let us be a beneficiary of these promises and several others in Jesus’ name, Amen.

MESSAGE

Isaiah 61:1-3 our text reflects one of the most comforting portions in the scriptures as it gives us assurances that Jesus; brought and still brings the good news, comforted and still comforts the broken hearted, had set free and is still setting free those in captivity, comforted and is still comforting those that mourned and are mourning and all those other beautiful things. Our focus very briefly this morning is the beauty He gives for ashes. What a great and marvellous substitution.

Ashes represents so many uncomfortable things that we as believers can relate to such as; the loss of someone dear to us, being betrayed and wounded by people we trusted, loss of jobs, contracts and revenue, huge challenges regarding marriage and children and adverse situations in the country. Some examples from the bible which span personal and national humiliation, repentance and affliction are given below;

•           Job 2:8; after losing almost everything, Job sat down in a heap of ashes.

•           1 Samuel 13:19; Tamar after having being raped by her brother, had lost her dignity and a desire to live. She had put ashes on her head.

•           Daniel 9:3; While lamenting the captivity of Israel, Daniel had sprinkled himself with ashes.

Essentially ashes signify worthlessness, insignificance, deep repentance and grief. We see some Christian denominations use ashes to their grief at the commencement of Easter.

Brethren if we look closely at the passage the reference is to those mourn in Zion, in essence believers in today’s context just in case we might think that we are immune from being in some of the adverse situations above.

We typically ask certain questions when going through some of these ashes type situation.

Where are You God?

Remember that; He is the Jehovah Shammar, the ever-present God (Ezekiel 48:35) and his several promises never to leave or forsake us (1 Chronicles 28:20, Deuteronomy 31:6, Deuteronomy 31:8, Genesis 28:15, Hebrews 13:5, Joshua 1:5).

Why are You not doing anything God?

He has promised to make everything work together for good to us that love Him…. (Romans 8:28). He also promised in our text today to give us beauty in the place of ashes, oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

Let us take comfort in the credentials of He who has made the promise to give us beauty for ashes.

•           A Preacher who bring good news that soothe and give hope to the hopeless. Just reflects on the impact of those words; to the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17), Jairus’ daughter (Matthew 9:18-26), Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52).

•           A healer. He is Jehovah Rapha. By his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24)

•           A liberator…see Luke 11:14, Romans 8:2, Gal 5:2. Jesus has indeed set us free from every form of captivity, John 8:36.

•           The Saviour.

What more do You need to see in His resume to make you feel assured that he will readily swap your ashes for beauty?

No matter what you are going through, God will bring beauty your way in Jesus’ name, Amen.

•           Know that God will never leave we His children comfortless (John 14:18).

•           Our number one desire is to seek after and dwell in the house of the Lord…why? so that we behold the beauty of God (Psalm 27:4).

•           The more we behold God’s glorious beauty, the more we become like Him. 2 Corinthians 3:18.

•           For that ashes type situation, God promised double blessings and everlasting joy. David lost the son from his alliance with Bathsheba (2 Sam12:13-25), in return he got a son in the person of Solomon that was the wisest and richest human king ever.

•           A beautiful you (inwardly particularly) is an attractive advertisement of the Glory of God and the Gospel. You will attract several unsaved to the kingdom.

•           Ultimately for we who are his, at the end of our time here, we swap our terrestrial body for a most beautiful celestial body (1 Corinthians 15:40). The gift of salvation is most beautiful gift we can ever get. So, if you are reading this message and you are yet to surrender your life to Jesus, this is an opportunity to receive the most beautiful gift.

WHAT WE HAVE TO DO TO SUBSTITUTE BEAUTY FOR ASHES.

* We have to let go of the ashes before we can receive the beauty. Let us listen to Apostle Paul (Philippians 3:12), we must forget those things which are behind. Prophet Isaiah too in (Isaiah 43:18) reiterated the same message. We need to quit dwelling on the pains, grief, disappointments etc and focus on receiving the new and wonderful things God has in stock for us.

* We have to look ahead. In Proverbs 4:25, we are instructed let our eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.

* Forgive those who might have contributed to the pain or sorrow you are experiencing. Matthew 6:15 is instructive and profitable to direct.

* Praise God. The fearfully and wonderfully made person must reflect the beauty of his/her maker and Psalm 139:4 enjoins us to praise God.

PRAYERS/DECLARATION.

1.         Dear Heavenly Father! We trade the invisible and visible ashes of our lives for the beauty from Your throne room of grace in Jesus’ name. Amen.

2.         We trade our despair for hope and praise in Jesus’ name. Amen!

3.         Father let the season of gloom give way to a new season of Joy full of Glory in Jesus name. Amen.

4.         We are selected for the glorious lifting of the highest and step into our season of divine restoration in Jesus’ name.

5.         We declare; no more mourning, no more shedding of tears and heaviness of the heart in Jesus’ name. Amen.

6.         We are set up for a sudden miracle and the shout of our praise shall be ceaseless in Jesus’ name. Amen.

7.         Father please beautify our lives and use us to advertise Your Glory in Jesus name. Amen.

8.         Anything in us that is repelling our receiving beauty from the Lord, jump out by fire now in Jesus’ name. Amen.

9.         Father please silence any voice that reminds me of my errors, sins, inadequacies and shortcomings in Jesus’ name. Amen.

10.       Personal prayer requests.

Thank You Jesus!

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