4/22 at The Gathering
Blake Coffee and Tony Diamond each taught from Isaiah 5 on Sunday, April 22. The videos and listening guides from both those lessons, followed by the scripture, are below.
Core Lesson (Tony Diamond)
Vitis Vinifera
Isaiah 5:1-13; 18-23
Core Listening Guide
A song not to be forgotten
God poetically addresses the people of Judah with a song about a fabulous vineyard that is lovingly prepared. Only to arrive at the conclusion—a vineyard that produces rotten grapes and is ultimately overrun and left in ruin. The Lord is the vinedresser and Judah is the one who bears the bad fruit of bloodshed and distress.
Oy vey!
vv. 8-10: The covetous wealthy hurt God
vv. 11-17: Those who pursue self-indulgence and alcohol hurt God
vv. 18-19: Those who mock me hurt God
v. 20: Twisting truth to cover a person’s sin hurts God
v. 21: People who trust their own authority and wisdom hurt God
vv. 22-23: Those who pervert justice hurt God
John 15
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
If you stood before the Lord today, what fruit will he say you bore?
How might that change in the future?
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Venture Lesson (Blake Coffee)
The Thanks God Gets
Isaiah 5:1-13, 18-23
Venture Listening Guide
Every petition we make is a request for God to invest in us. The question, then, is what kind of return God gets on that investment.
We cannot, at the same time, leave God out of our lives but still expect His protection. He expects us to choose whether we want His investment or not.
When we place our own security and comfort higher in our priorities than our worship and trust in God, we produce bitter fruit.
What begins with neglect of God eventually becomes deception, arrogance and corruption.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
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Scripture
Isaiah 5
1 I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.
3 “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? 5 Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. 6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”
7 The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
Woes and Judgments
8 Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.
9 The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing:
“Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants. 10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine; a homer of seed will yield only an ephah of grain.”
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. 12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets, pipes and timbrels and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands. 13 Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; those of high rank will die of hunger and the common people will be parched with thirst……………..
18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes, 19 to those who say, “Let God hurry; let him hasten his work so we may see it. The plan of the Holy One of Israel—let it approach, let it come into view, so we may know it.”
20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, 23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.
Next week: Isaiah 6
