Jesus Can 2007
Part 6 - Jesus Can Satisfy Me.
Isaiah 55:1-11
Sermon by Rick Crandall - March 11, 2007
*Are you satisfied? Have you found real satisfaction in life?
*Daryl Grimes says.
-I am happy when I go hunting or fishing.
-I am happy when I go see a friend or loved one.
-I am happy when I go to church and experience a good service.
-I am happy when I have fun with my kids.
-None of these things, however, can satisfy my soul!
*Some people are happy while they are high.
-Some people are happy while they are skiing, or snowmobiling.
-Some people are happy while they are partying.
-Some people are happy while they are camping.
-Some people are happy while they are gambling.
-But none of these things can satisfy their soul! (1)
*There is only one ultimate, eternal source of satisfaction, and that is God, Himself. Jesus Christ can satisfy your soul. Let’s look into the Word of God today and see how.
1. First of all, Jesus can satisfy you with His fullness, and that’s what He wants to do! Listen to the great invitation the Lord gives us in vs. 1&2:
“Ho! Everyone. . .” (He’s just trying to get our attention there.)
*We would say, “Hey! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.”
*Have you ever felt thirsty in life? Have you ever felt empty and longing for more? All of us have at one time or another. Scott Ghan reminds us that life can be as dry as the desert. And Scott said:
-“The feeling has been documented by countless contemporary songs. They are more than rock songs; they are anthems because they have struck a cord with the masses.
-It is a sensation that everyone enjoying the affluence of this great nation has encountered. [Forty years ago] the Rolling Stones sang, ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.’ [Twenty years ago] U2 sang, ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.’ [And many more songs have echoed that theme.]
-We are all looking for something, something to satisfy this thirst we feel on a daily basis. It is intensified by grief, by loss, by hard times and sometimes just by sheer boredom (Too much time on our hands).
-Sometimes this thirst is intensified by rejection. Some of us here in this room have been rejected by others so often that we have discounted our value in our own hearts and minds. Deep down, we think, ‘I’m worthless!’
-Many have gone on long sprees of self-loathing. All of this intensifies the thirst that the Bible again and again identifies.” (2)
*But God cries out here, not just to the people of Isaiah’s day, but to all the nations of the world. God cries out here to us! “Hey! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
*Rodney Buchanan calls this God’s feast, which is all of His best. And Rodney said, “The feast is the feast of life. The table is spread with all the delights which God has planned and desired to give to his creation. It is a life of goodness and fulfillment. Nothing is lacking. And the best part is that it is free! Even if we have no money, we can come and be satisfied in the richest of fare.” (3)
*God offers us the ultimate satisfaction for free! That’s because it costs more than we could ever pay. And because Jesus Christ already paid the price when He died on the Cross for us.
*But most people miss God’s great offer here. They don’t understand, so in vs. 2, God asks them, “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?”
*Buchanan asks, “Why do we do this? What is it in the human condition that makes us run from God instead of running to him? What is it that makes us live in rebellion even when it is tearing us apart?”
*And he says, “The only answer I know is that we are afraid of surrendering to God and losing the control of our lives. We are afraid that even though we are sick of the garbage we have been eating, which is not satisfying us, that coming to God will deprive us even more.
-We have greater confidence in our ability to meet our needs than we have in God. We are confident in our own ability to meet our needs, because we know we are determined to do it. We are not so sure that God will meet our needs in the way we want them met, or on the timetable we have for getting them met.
-The bottom line is that we do not trust God’s love for us or his methods. (3)
*But God wants you to know that you can trust Him! Jesus Christ will give you abundant, eternal life, if you will trust in Him. He will satisfy your soul.
*I am finding this out more and more every day, and NEXT TO RECEIVING JESUS CHRIST AS MY LORD AND SAVIOR, THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED IN MY SPIRITUAL LIFE.
*It came in a time of crisis for me. My thinking was totally mixed up. I was not satisfied with any of the wonderful things that God had given me in my life. And one day in desperation, I prayed and told God that He was going to have to be my satisfaction. “Lord, You be my satisfaction!”
*Then, over a period of just a few months my whole outlook changed. I was more satisfied than ever before with the Lord. But it also made a wonderful change in my attitude toward my family and my work, toward everything in my life.
*Now I am not saying that I am where I need to be. I’ve barely scratched the surface. I’ve got a long way to go. And you can never be too satisfied with God. You can never get to the end of His goodness. But don’t wait for a crisis in your life, like I did. Let the Lord be your satisfaction.
2. Jesus Christ can satisfy you with His fullness, and with His fellowship.
*The greatest thing God can give you is Himself! And that’s what He wants to do. God wants to have a close, personal relationship with you. He wants to be your Father and your Best Friend, so in vs. 3, He says to you, “Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you the sure mercies of David.”
*Can you hear God’s call in that verse? He wants you to come to Him. He wants you to know and love and fellowship with Him. But the only way to have this relationship with God is through His Son, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, so in vs. 4, God the Father was talking about the Messiah, when He said, “Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people.” That’s our Savior Jesus Christ!
*Then in vs. 5, God the Father talks to His Son and says, “Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and the Holy One of Israel; For He has glorified you.” That’s our Savior Jesus Christ!
*What will you do with Jesus? God wants you to come to Him and know Him in a personal way. And He is so wonderful, and this is so important that in vs. 5, He says, “nations who do not know you shall RUN to you.” That’s what I want to tell you to do today. RUN TO JESUS!
*And don’t put it off, because life is short. You never know when you will leave this world, so vs. 6 says, “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.”
*God wants you to know Him today in a close and personal way. In Matt 11:28-30, Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
*James 4:8 tells us to “draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” In 1st John, the Apostle John was thinking about Jesus Christ, who He is and all that He has done. And John said, “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; & truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3) God Himself want to have close fellowship with you!
*Pastor Robert Shannon tells about the Christians in Ghana, Africa. And Robert said: “Many people in Ghana are very devout. They express it in the names they give to their business enterprises. You can go to the ‘I Love Jesus Dry Cleaner.’ You can get gas at the ‘God is Great Gas Station.’ And one of the tourist guides Robert heard about was a man named ‘God Knows Setordzi.’ His first name really was ‘God Knows.’” (4)
*That man was so satisfied by his relationship with God that he wanted everyone to know that he knew God in a personal way. God Knows Setordzi, and if you have trusted in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, then God knows you too!
*We are here this morning to worship the Lord. Worship is humbling yourself before God, and exalting Him in your heart. But one of the most wonderful aspects of worship is the joyful, loving fellowship we have with God.
-Liz C. realized this in a brand new way after she got a new Bible Concordance about a month ago. Liz was looking up the word worship, and she found that the number one word for worship in the New Testament has the word picture of a dog kissing or licking his master’s hand. That made Liz think about her dogs and how happy they are to see her.
*And well, take at look at this video clip that Stan Armor made for us today:
(Video Clip of Liz with her dogs explaining the insight they give her about worship.)
*A big part of worship is loving, affectionate fellowship with God. He loves us and takes good care of us. So we love Him too, and we are happy to be with Him! Let the Lord be your satisfaction.
3. Jesus can satisfy you with His fellowship, and with His forgiveness.
*There can be no fellowship without forgiveness. But God wants to forgive us, and He promises to pardon us through His Word. Listen to God’s plea and His promise in vs. 7-11:
7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
8. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’’ says the Lord.
9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
10. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11. So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
*Forgiveness for our sins is found in the Word of God, the Good News about Jesus Christ. And if you will look into the Word of God, you will find the satisfaction of His forgiveness. So in Rom 1:16, Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”
*And speaking to believers, Peter said,
22. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
23. having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
24. because "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away,
25. but the word of the Lord endures forever.’’ Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:22-25)
*In a nutshell, the Gospel or Good News is about God’s solution for our sins. All of us are sinners, so all of us deserve God’s condemnation. And there is nothing we can do by ourselves to escape the judgment we deserve.
*But God loves us so much that He was willing to send His only Son to die in our place! That is what Jesus Christ did when He died on the Cross. He took all of the punishment for all of our sins, but 3 days later, He rose again. And right now the living Lord will forgive all of your sins if you will turn away from your sin and selfishness, if you will turn to Him and receive His pardon, if you will trust in Jesus and receive His gift of everlasting life, if you will open you heart to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.
*Think about how much God must love you to sacrifice His Son for you. Author and evangelist Ravi Zacharias tells the story of an interpreter he met on a trip to Belgium. The interpreter’s name was Wilfred, and he was a very devoted Christian.
*Wilfred told about being away at a conference, when he received an urgent call from home. Wilfred heard the sobbing voice of his wife on the line, telling him that their 9-month old baby had suddenly died in his crib. It was the lowest point in Wilfred’s life. He was flooded with shock and grief as he sat alone on the train home. Across the aisle sat a man reading his Bible.
*Two young people sitting nearby began to tease the man. One of them asked with contempt, “If your God is so loving why does he allow little children to die? What kind of love is that?”
*Those questions pierced Wilfred’s heart, and he found himself wanting to shout, “Yes! Answer them and tell us why he lets children die.”
*But something happened inside him and he found himself saying, “Do you mind if I enter your conversation? I’ll tell you how much God loves you; He gave His only Son to die for you.”
*One of the young people made fun of Wilfred and said it was easy for him to say something like that since he did not know about death. But Wilfred waited and then calmly said, “No. I am not distanced from the real world of pain and death. I am on this train headed for my own son’s funeral. He died just a few hours ago, and it has given the cross a whole new meaning for me. Now I know what kind of a God it is who loves me: A God who willingly gave His Son for me.” (3)
*That’s the kind of God we have: A God who loves you, who gave His Son for you, who wants to save you, who will satisfy you.
Conclusion:
*Let Jesus satisfy your soul. Listen to Him. Come to Him. Seek Him. Follow Him. Turn to Him. Trust in Him.
-Jesus Christ will satisfy you: With God’s fullness, with God’s fellowship, and with God’s forgiveness.
1. Adapted from SermonCentral sermon “True Happiness” by Daryl Grimes - John 14:1-24
2. Adapted from SermonCentral sermon “How Dry I Am” by Scott Ghan - Isa 55:1-3
3. SermonCentral sermon “Living a Life of Purpose” by Rodney Buchanan - Isa 55:1-12
4. Preaching, Nov. / Dec. 2000, p. 63. (Found in christianglobe.com sermon “Teach Us to Pray” by King Duncan - Luke 11:1-13 - July 25, 2004
