All Who Are Thirsty

November 7, 2010

Morning Worship

Text: Isaiah 55:1-13

Subject: An Invitation to Come to God

Title: All Who Are Thirsty

It is good to be back at home with God’s people. We enjoyed having Sunday morning off and appreciate Roy’s ministry and everyone who filled in for us. Thank you. While we were gone an amazing thing happened. Our newest granddaughter, Lily, who is now 2 ½ months old wasn’t sleeping well – only about 2 hours at a time. Since we left she has been sleeping 4 hours and then eating and then sleeping another 4 hours. I don’t know if we bored her that much or if our prayers for her while we held her made the difference – well I do know; God answered our prayers. Anyhow, it is good to be back.

I am excited about what the Lord is doing in the church, especially on Sunday nights. Our last three regular evening services have seen the Holy Spirit move in a wonderful way. We expect that to continue but even more we expect it to spill over into our Sunday morning services as well.

Let me ask a question this morning. What is God doing or at least trying to do in your life? I had something interesting happen to me this past week. It was in a dream, or at least in a near sleep state. A scripture passage came to me and for what seemed like hours I meditated on Romans 12:2. The funny thing is that it really wasn’t me meditating as much as it was the Lord taking me through that verse word by word and revealing to me what He intended for me to understand. I mean for those couple of hours I heard the Spirit’s voice inside of me and I sensed Him placing thoughts in my mind of things that I had never thought of before about that one simple verse.

Do you ever have anything like that happen? And then do you wonder why it happens? I think that the Lord was blessing me because of my love for His Word. He was revealing a familiar passage and unfolding it to me in a way that I had never thought of before. He was proving His word to be true, “Those who honor Me I will honor.” Because I love and honor His Word so much He chose to be true to that word and honor me by a night of revelation.

So now you think that we must be going to Romans 12:2 today. Initially I thought that was were we would be heading, but as I sat down to begin to prepare the sermon for this morning it became evident that He wanted me to go in a different direction. You see it wasn’t the passage that He wanted me to focus on, but the spirit through which the revelation came. It was my hunger and thirst for His Word that He was honoring. Turn to Isaiah chapter 55 this morning.

The prophet Amos wrote about a time when the word of God would no longer be a priority in the world. Amos 8:11-12, 11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. 12 People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.

Today I want you to know that the Lord is sending out an invitation to you to come and be filled with the goodness of His word. And if He is inviting you, you can rest assured that He will pour His word out into your heart to satisfy every longing that you might have.

I. AN INVITATION IS EXTENDED (1-7) Isaiah begins this chapter with not only an invitation, but it is also a declaration of God’s heart for humanity. There are three admonitions given here. 1) He wants you to be so desperate for a deeper relationship with Him that He calls out to His creation 1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Who is the invitation given to? It’s not for everybody, but all you who are thirsty… The bible contains stories about people who were thirsty. As Israel wandered about in the desert they often complained about not having enough water to drink. They were physically thirsty. In John chapter 4 we see Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman at the town well. As He asked her for a drink a conversation was begun and He told her in John 4:13-14, “… Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Israel and this woman had one thing in common – they were looking for satisfaction in the natural realm. What God wants to offer is satisfaction in the spiritual realm. Have you ever done that? Have you ever searched for satisfaction or meaning to your life by looking to satisfy the natural longings of the body? Isaiah says you should first come to the spiritual waters that the Father has to offer. It is only when you are spiritually filled that you can find true satisfaction. 2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. 3 Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. 2) Now the purpose of the invitation comes forth. God is going to establish a new covenant with His people. This covenant will be made through the One who will sit on David’s throne forever. That’s referring to Jesus. The only way that you may have “life” that is mentioned in verse 3 is through a relationship with Jesus. The question raised by Isaiah is, “Why are you wasting your money and your energy chasing after something that only brings death when God is offering life?” 4 See, I have made him (Jesus) a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples. 5 Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.” There is a problem that not only exists in the world today, but also in the church. In the world people are trying to “find themselves” in things or experiences. In the church people know that they need Jesus, but the problem is that they want to pay something for what God offers freely through His Son. In John 6:35 – let’s go back to verse 32, 32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. And in John 14:6, Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. People want to earn their way into heaven and they want to enter some other way other than through Jesus – and it’s not going to happen. 3) The third admonition is this. 6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. What does that mean? Where is God going? Well good news – God isn’t going anywhere. But there is a danger of your not calling on Him at the right time – the danger of your hearts becoming so hardened that you won’t call on Him, or becoming so entrenched in sin that you will choose sin over God. Jeremiah 29:11-14, 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD… It may be the hardest thing that some will ever do but seeking the Lord is the best thing anyone could ever do. Acts 2:21, And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved…” 7 Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. An invitation is given to the saved and the unsaved to come to the water.