A Daily Quest That Leads To Eternal Rest

According to a 2017 survey by Pixie, a company that furnishes technology to locate lost items, Americans spend the equivalent of 2.5 days a year looking for misplaced items. What do you suppose the most misplaced item is? No, not phones or keys. It’s the TV remote. Apparently more than 70% of us lose the remote at least once a month. Once a month? That’s it? I lose track of our TV remote at least twice a week! The survey also reports that two-thirds of us spend up to $50 a year replacing lost items, and as a nation, we spend $2.7 billion a year.

From the moment we wake up, we’re looking for things, aren’t we? We search for our glasses, our watch, our shoes. We look through the fridge for something to eat. We look for something to listen to on the radio or for a podcast to download. More seriously we look for someone who will be our friend, and for a job that will pay our bills. Life is one big quest.

In our sermon text today, the prophet Isaiah points to the most important quest each one of us should be undertaking—a daily quest that leads to eternal rest. Listen to the words of our text. (Read text.)

The most important quest we can make is to seek the Lord, says Isaiah. Well, it shouldn’t be so hard to find God, should it? After all, doesn’t the Bible teach us that he is everywhere? He is but I’ve never caught a glimpse of him, have you? That’s actually a good thing because the Bible says that we sinners cannot stand in the presence of a holy God anymore than an ice cube spilled onto the sidewalk can survive the blazing Arizona sun. What’s more, Isaiah told his listeners that they were spiritually blind and deaf (Is. 42:19-20). They couldn’t find God even if they tried. Nor can we.

God must come looking for us, and he’s done just that. When Isaiah urges us to seek the Lord, he’s pointing out that God is right here with us like the pair of sunglasses we may not realize is perched on our head. But God’s loving presence will not always remain with sinners. Isaiah made that clear when he said: “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6) Isaiah also reminds us that seeking the Lord means forsaking our wicked ways and our unrighteous thoughts (Isaiah 55:7a). Someone who never showers or uses deodorant shouldn’t be surprised when he starts to lose friends. It’s not fun hanging out with someone whose armpits and feet stink. Likewise, when we continue to hold a grudge, when we don’t exercise self-control in the amount that we eat and drink, when we remain envious of those who have more than us, when we live with these and any other sinful attitudes without repenting, we stink as far as the holy God is concerned.

While we can’t make ourselves smell any better, spiritually speaking, God promises to take care of that problem. Isaiah wrote: “Let the wicked forsake their ways... Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 8 ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. 9 ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:7-9)

The Apostle Peter once asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who sinned against him. “Up to seven times?” Peter thought he was being more than generous with that figure. But God’s thoughts and his ways are not like our thoughts and ways (Isaiah 55:8). “No, not just seven times,” responded Jesus, “but again and again, and then again!” (Matthew 18) That was also Isaiah’s point when he said that God “freely” pardons (Isaiah 55:7). The word “freely” in Hebrew is the same word used in Psalm 23 where King David says that God makes our cup “overflow.” (Psalm 23:5) God’s love for you and his forgiveness is more than enough to remove the stinkiest sin we’ve ever committed. And it keeps flowing out of God’s heart like water rushing through Oak Creek Canyon even on the hottest driest days.

It’s a good thing that God’s love flows freely and daily because we continue to sin and will do so until God takes us home to heaven. Therefore, when Isaiah urges us to seek the Lord, he doesn’t mean that we do this once in a while. Instead, we are to keep on seeking the Lord’s forgiveness and his will for our lives. The Apostle Paul put it like this. “As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ [Is. 49:8] I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:1-2) One ancient Bible scholar (Gregory of Nyssa) summarized Paul’s point like this: “Do you want to know the opportune time to seek the Lord? The simple answer is: ‘All your life!’”