THE WEB OF LIFE

ISAIAH 38:1

A. "I HAVE ROLLED UP LIKE A WEAVER MY LIFE; HE WILL CUT ME OFF FROM THE LOOM; FROM DAY EVEN TO NIGHT WILT THOU MAKE AN END OF ME"
  1. The background to our text:
    1. Hezekiah's illness
    2. A message from Isaiah, informing Hezekiah of the end of his life - "Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live" - Is. 38:1
  2. Hezekiah's reaction:
    1. He knew the seriousness of his illness
    2. But he felt that he was not ready to die; there were incompleted duties - plans t be carried out - Luke 12:16-20
    3. He besought the Lord for an extension of his days - and God, in mercy, lengthened his days by adding fifteen years B. THE WEB OF LIFE AS PORTRAYED IN OUR OPENING TEXT
  3. The maker or weaver of life:
    1. God is my Maker - Job 35:10; 4:17; 36:3
    2. He is the great potter of my life - Is. 64:8; 29:16; 45:9
  4. The materials:
    1. The web of our lives is made of contrary threads. In music, discord and harmony are immutable, but the result is melody, sweet and pleasant in the hands of one that plays with skill
    2. Experience shows that life is full of purposes as cross the warp and weft in the weaver's web. Good and evil, light and darkness form the web of our lives - Gen. 47:9
    3. The material used in the web of our lives consists of the thoughts we think and the lives we live. Our talents, our accomplishments are all a part of the material of the web of our lives
  5. The pattern:
    1. The weaver is an artist in his own right and he faithfully follows a pattern
    2. Our maker's pattern for our lives is Jesus Christ our Lord
    3. That is the key to a God-approved life - "For whom He did foreknow, he also did predestine to be conformed to the image of His Son" - Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:17- 18
  6. This is the one great objective of the gospel of Jesus Christ:
    1. To create in our character the image and likeness of the heavenly pattern, the Son of God - Col. 3:10; Phil. 3:21; I John 3:2
    2. Paul was so anxious that the web of his life might reveal the divine pattern, that he counted all else but dung - Phil 3:7-11 C. DEAR FRIENDS - THIS IS ANOTHER OCCASION THAT BRINGS TO OUR MIND THE OPENING WORDS OF OUR TEXT
  7. The web of life:
    1. It causes us to consider, prayerfully the web of our lives
    2. How short and how uncertain
    3. And, yet, how meaningful both to God, the Master weaver - to our fellow men, and to us
  8. Day by day the work of the weaver goes on the great loom of life:
    1. The threads of life cross each other and so become a web. Joys and sorrows, good days and evil days form a part of the web
    2. Then all of a sudden the loom stops and the weaver cuts the web off; his work is finished in my life
  9. Consolation and bitter disillusionment:
    1. Death comes to all of us; there are no exceptions - Rom. 5:12
    2. But there is a difference; to the saints death is a welcome rest; a rest in Jesus - think of the testimony of Simeon - Luke 2:29
    3. Not so to those who are unprepared for the weaver to stop the loom and cut off the web
    4. They have unfinished duties behind them - unsaved lives to think of
    5. They refuse to let God weave the character of the Son of God into the web of their lives
  10. Dear sorrowing ones:
    1. Take comfort in the knowledge that your loved one was closely connected with her Saviour; her life was influenced by the Saviour whom she loved dearly
    2. On that glorious resurrection morning she and you will discover that God hath succeeded gloriously to weave the nature of the Son of God in her life


Design © John Bryant 2011