May 4, 2014
Morning Worship
Text: Isaiah 55:1-3
Subject: Invitation
Title: He is Waiting for You
Today we begin a new era in the life of the church. Brian and Jennie and kids are gone. I once again have taken the role as youth pastor and also am finishing up the membership class for Sunday School.
Charlotte and I just came back from District Council and were refreshed by the ministry there as we celebrated 50 years as a district. Praise the Lord… While we were away I began thinking about the direction of my preaching… where we should go… what should be my focus… And it seemed that the Lord spoke to my heart about getting back to basics. Isn’t it always good to go back to where you started and be refreshed by your past in order to help you continue on to the future?
There are some basic things in life that we should remember… the things that we have established as the foundation for our faith… the things that have brought us to where we are now. We don’t have to have some kind of elaborate strategy or some kind of master plan to get where God wants us to be. All we have to do is get back to the basics.
Race car driver Bill Vukovich won the famed Indianapolis 500 race in 1953 and 1954, a record of success few other drivers had matched. Asked the secret of his success in Indianapolis, Vukovich replied, "There's no secret. You just press the accelerator to the floor and steer left."
Isaiah 55:1-3,
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.
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 your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
I believe this is God's Word…
I believe it is for me…
I accept it as mine…
I appropriate it to my life today…
God is waiting for you
I. The Invitation. “Come, all you who are thirsty… This is an invitation for everyone. And the reverse implication is that if you are not thirsty, then don’t come. 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 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. 12People 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. So the invitation is to those who are thirsty. Have you ever been working on a hot summer day and the heat has you parched and looking for something to refresh you? 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. John 7:37-39, 37On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Today so many are looking for satisfaction in the things the world has to offer… entertainment, pleasure, money, power… all these things have an allure that many cannot seem to withstand. But for those who are thirsty, you don’t have to look any further than the cross of Calvary. Isaiah 53:1-5, 1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. What are you thirsty for? In the bible many time water is used as a symbol for the Holy Spirit. 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. You see the water of the Holy Spirit isn’t something you can pay for. It comes by grace through your faith. You are saved by grace through faith… you are baptized in the Holy Spirit by grace and it comes through your faith… The closeness that you desire to have with the lord doesn’t come because you have done something to earn it. It comes by grace. If you could do anything to earn it then it is no longer grace.
II. The 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 your soul will delight in the richest of fare. What is this bread that Isaiah prophesies about? Deuteronomy 8:1-3, 1Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. 2Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. You can spend all your time trying to find things to satisfy but there is only one thing that can really satisfy. Jesus, the living word of God, identified himself as “the bread of life” and yet He knew that there was one thing that could bring satisfaction. John 4:32-34, 32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. In his invitation Isaiah says, Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Why not find God’s will for your life and then do it? I have come to the conclusion that if I can know God’s will for my life that I will do it. If it is His will then He has given me everything I need to accomplish it. Why do you spend your money and your efforts trying to get something into your life that isn’t the will of God? People say, “well, if it’s not God’s will then it won’t happen…” Is that true? Do you believe that’s how it works? If that is the case then murder must be God’s will… abortion must be God’s will… rape, homosexuality and any other kind of sexual perversion must be God’s will… no, God’s will doesn’t just happen. It is something that we must seek out and then walk in. Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
III. The Proclamation… 3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. I want you to look at the words “Give ear”. The NIV doesn’t do the meaning justice here. The Greek means more that just to listen or hear. It means to hear intelligently. The KJV says, hearken diligently… The satisfaction that God promises us doesn’t come to those who listen casually. It comes to those who hear intelligently. And those who hear intelligently will come to the Lord… for salvation… for healing… for provision… for deliverance… for power… That is the kind of faith that the Lord wants you to have. That last part of verse 3 is a promise that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Luke 2:1-12, 1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register. 4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. … 3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.
So it all comes down to your faith level. Are you willing to trust God and His word and His will for your life. Do you want to follow Him? Are you prepared to walk according to His word by faith?
The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. Faith is the ability to trust what we cannot see, and with faith we are freed from the flimsy enclosures of life that only fear allows to entrap us. (John Emmons.)
Let’s go back to the beginning, putting our great knowledge aside and trusting the Lord like we did when we were first saved. Simple faith that says that if God's Word says it then it must be true.
