Sunday 8th February – A Bigger Life

8-02-2026, A Bigger Life, Epiphany 5A, Isaiah 58:1-9, pastor adrian kitson

‘Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
    Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
²For day after day they seek me out;
    they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
    and seem eager for God to come near them.
³“Why have we fasted,” they say,
    “and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?”

‘Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers.
⁴Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife,
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

⁶‘Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

⁷Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter –
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
⁹Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: here am I.

Big questions seem to come when big things have happened.

Like when you do a big geographical move or get married or have a child or bury a parent, or have opportunity to take on a new role or be hit by a life-threatening accident or health condition etc…..

Not sure if you have any moments and questions at the moment?

Big things had happened for God’s people in Isaiah’ time. They had been through a really big time. Bigger than Covid, bigger than what World War was to Australia.

Their country, city, temple and way of life had been destroyed as they were exiled in a foreign land under foreign rule in Babylon for 70 years.

But now that was over. The Persians defeated the Babylonians and Cyrus, the Persian king allowed Jewish people to return to Jerusalem.

They have questions about how to be, what to do and what God is doing. God has some questions of them too!

From whatever stage of life you find yourself come questions as you wonder what it is all about. In all that happened so far, and all that is happening now:

What kind of person do you want me to be, God?
What kind of things do you want me to do, God?
What does God want my heart and life and directions to be centred on or shaped by the most as I go about it?
How do I know that I am living is God-pleasing, and right and true?

Through Isaiah, the people seem to be under no illusion that this catastrophe is on them, not God. It was their continued and repeated over-reliance on human power, politics, technology, idols of stone and wood and inner resources and under-reliance on the Living God’s promised saving love and hope that brought this to be. They continually plugged their ears and turned a blind eye to God’s promises.

When you keep doing that, you inevitably fall into injustice and corruption and cruelty.

The consequences of this long story of unfaithfulness are now over. The Babylonians were defeated by the next super-power – the Persians. King Cyrus allowed the return of the exiles to rebuilt their city, temple and life.

The people seemed to have figured out that they needed to get serious about religion. They seem to think they were doing just that.

The Lord sees their efforts …

²For day after day they seek me out;

    they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
    and seem eager for God to come near them.

So, we have people engaged in daily prayer, fasting, obedience to the Law and seeking the Lord’s decisions for living and the appearance that they want the Lord to be with them – up close, every day. Sounds good.

If you went church-shopping and came across a bunch of people doing this kind of thing, you might join in!

But those words: “seem”, and “as if”, and “seem”? The Lord ‘smells a rat’. Something is not right, even when the people are observing all the right things.

Isaiah voices the people’s heart-questions of God.

³“Why have we fasted,” they say,
“and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?”

In other words, “God, we are doing all the good things you say and yet it seems to bring no extra good our way!”

“I am doing all the right religious and communal things, but I am not being particularly blessed”. I am being nice and doing everything for everyone and praying and saving my money, and giving to a charity, and being in church and…….Where is the reward? It is still so hard and lonely and unclear, and worrisome…”.

This is the life of faith in the Lord reduced to a series of transactions to get, not to live in relationship with. This is exacting payment for work done, not praise for gifts given…. And it is lethal to the spirit and the spiritual community.

God sees it:

I hear that;

This life with the Lord is not a calling to only religious observance but lived justice.
This is life with the Lord is not a private pursuit of meaning but a public life of giving.
This life with the Lord is a one package life; a total life not a separated life between how I am Sunday and how I live Monday.
This life in the Lord is not founded on doing things I do to get the things I want. It is centred on receiving the things he gives and doing the things he wants, no matter what I may want.
It is an inward and outward, personal and public, feelings and action, thinking and doing life.

Jonathan Edwards, the great preacher put it well:

Christian love disposes a person to be public-spirited. A man of a right spirit is not a man of narrow and private views but is greatly concerned for the good of the community to which he belongs, and particularly of the city where he resides.^[1]

^[1] Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. and R. Kent Hughes, Isaiah: God Saves Sinners, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 388.

Or, as Oz Guiness, the English theologian, author and social critic said;

Christianity must be deeply internal and personal. But if it stops there, it’s just a spare-time hobby.^[1]

^[1] Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. and R. Kent Hughes, Isaiah: God Saves Sinners, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 388.

Has your faith stopped at only being personal and internal. Lord knows, this is what the world wants it to be. Or is your faith that but also public and done?

What kind of person does God want me to be?

A person who praises him for his love and hope and shares that with anyone and everyone.

What kind of things does God want me to do?

Pray, praise, thank, fast, sing, listen, receive from his hand in my hands, then serve, bless, touch others with care and help with my hands.

What does God want my heart and life and directions to be centred on or shaped by the most?

Him! Not just what I can get from Him.

How do I know that I am living is godly, and right and true?

My inner life will not stay inner. It will come out in real words, real actions with real people in real time all the time.

‘Salt and light’, says Jesus. That is life in him. Salt and light IN THE WORLD, FOR THE WORLD.

I am thankful for you today. St Petri is its long story of not just fine worship and music and art and church stuff, but its gritty salty light and love stuff.

This is what Jesus is always doing through us …

loosing the chains of injustice
setting the oppressed free

⁷…. sharing your food with the hungry
providing the poor wanderer with shelter –
seeing the naked, and clothing them,
and not turning away from your own flesh and blood?

Sounds big. Sounds impossible to sustain. How can we sustain this heavy work with such vast needs?

We don’t. He does.

Because;

“It is more blessed to give than it is to receive”.

(Acts 20:35)

As Paul says this to the church leaders in Miletus before heading off never to return, we too hear that we are blessed as we bless, we are prayed for as we pray for, we are given life as we give our life, we are worked for as we work for.

This life we sacrifice is ‘green; not ‘self-sustaining’ but ‘Jesus-sustained’.

So, we can keep attending our ‘own human flesh and blood’ – our own family, church, community and even the stranger.

So, practically,

If you are wanting God to answer your prayers? Be his answer to someone else’s prayers.

If you want God to come in his immediacy and say to you, “Here I am”? Get close to someone who needs you and say, “Here I am.”

Almost nothing in our consumerist culture encourages us to believe that, but it just happens to be the way gospel life works. Why? Because God is a happy Giver, an intense Lover, a relevant Helper, and he wants us to share in his joy.^[1]

Friend, as we give and receive, receive and give all we can in time, talent and treasure for fellow human where we live, we shine and Jesus’ shines.

^[1] Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. and R. Kent Hughes, Isaiah: God Saves Sinners, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 390.

⁸…… your light is breaking forth like the dawn,
and your healing is quickly appearing;
your righteousness is going in front of you,
and the glory of the Lord is your rear guard.

So, keep going today and go ahead and,^{9 …} call to him today, and the Lord will answer;
sing out for help, he is saying: here am I.

Small Group Bible Study – Isaiah 58:1–9

A Bigger Life: Worship That Becomes Justice

Opening Prayer

“Lord Jesus, open our ears to hear your Word, open our eyes to see your call, and open our hearts to love those you place before us. Amen.”

Warm‑Up Questions

When in your life have “big questions” come up after major change or challenge? (Your sermon notes such moments clearly.)
What questions about life, faith, or purpose are on your mind these days?

Read Isaiah 58:1–9 Together

Read directly from the text out loud.
The passage highlights God’s confrontation of a religious people whose outward practices hide inward contradiction and injustice.

Observation (What the Text Says)

What were the people doing “right”?
They were seeking God daily, fasting, praying, and wanting God close.
What was wrong beneath the surface?
Their religious practices masked exploitation, quarrelling, and self‑interest.
What kind of “fast” does God desire?
Loosing injustice, freeing the oppressed, sharing food, shelter, clothing, and caring for their own flesh and blood.

Interpretation (What It Means)
Religion without justice collapses.

Your sermon calls this life “a series of transactions” rather than relationship.

Discussion questions:

How can our own faith become transactional?
Where might our community risk doing “the right things” for the wrong reasons?

Faith is both inward and outward.

Isaiah rejects a split between Sunday devotion and weekday behaviour.

Discussion questions:

Which part comes easier for you—inner devotion or outward action?
Why do you think God insists they must go together?

God’s people are to be “public‑spirited.”

You reference Jonathan Edwards and Oz Guinness to highlight that Christian faith must flow into community life.

Discussion questions:

What does “public‑spirited” faith mean for a local congregation?
What gets in the way of faith becoming publicly lived out?

Application (What We Do)
Personal Reflection

Where do you see opportunities to loose chains, share food, or show up for someone?
(Draw from God’s desired fast.)

Community Reflection

What does it look like for our church to be “salt and light… in the world, for the world”?
What existing ministries already do this? Where might God be nudging us further?

Practicing “Here I Am”

You beautifully wrote:
“If you want God to say, ‘Here I am,’ get close to someone who needs you and say, ‘Here I am.’”

Invite each participant to name one person they can be God’s presence to this week.

Gospel Comfort

Encourage the group with the good news embedded in the text:

God himself sustains this life of giving (“Jesus‑sustained,” not self‑sustaining).
God promises healing, light, guidance, and answering when we call.

Discussion question:
Which of these promises speaks most to you right now?

Closing Prayer

“Lord Jesus, make our fasting more than forms, our worship more than words, and our faith more than feelings. Shape us into people who shine your light by loving our neighbours. And when we call out, say again to us: ‘Here I am.’ Amen.”