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!’”
I suppose I should assume that since you are in church this morning, you have come here to seek the Lord. You have come to repent again of your sins and be assured of God’s abundant forgiveness. That is great. But what about that family member or friend who has not been seeking the Lord? How can you reach them? God has an answer for that. He went on to say through the prophet Isaiah: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)
The way to reach the wayward is by sharing God’s Word with them. God promises that his word is like rain and snow. When moisture falls to the ground, what effect does it have? Grass turns green. Flowers grow. Crops are abundant. Likewise, God says that his Word will also always have an effect. That doesn’t mean that it will always convert someone to the faith. It often does, but it sometimes causes people to push away from the Lord even farther. We don’t have control over that. What we can do is faithfully and persistently share the Word with such individuals—like the farmer in Jesus’ parable of the sower who liberally, even “carelessly” scattered the seed on all kinds of ground.
For example, when a friend ends up in hospital, instead of just saying “I’m praying for you,” why not add: “I’m confident that Jesus is with you. He promises to never leave us or forsake us.” Get God’s Word out onto the airwaves and unleash the Holy Spirit that he may do his work of turning even the most hardened heart to the Lord.
It’s easy to take God’s Word for granted, but we shouldn’t. Although the President of the United States is not going to share with you the most intimate conversations he has with other world leaders, God freely tells us what’s on his mind and in his heart. And we don’t have to go up into heaven to get God’s Word it anymore than you have to fly a plane into the clouds to collect the rain. As rain falls down to us from the clouds, so God has sent his Word to where we are.
Unfortunately, Satan wants us to shelter ourselves from the Word. He wants us to be like those people who do not like getting wet in the rain because they think it will ruin their hair or shoes. Likewise, Satan wants us to believe that to expose ourselves to the Word of God is to lose freedom and give up any hope of having fun in this world. But just the opposite is true. If we don’t expose ourselves to the Word often, we will be like a plant that receives no water. Our faith, and our hope for an eternal future of happiness and joy will die.
God’s Word is important to us in another way. It not only brings us the rest we receive from knowing that our sins have been forgiven, it also equips us to live the way God wants us to live. In this section from Isaiah, God reminds us that the rain causes plants to grow so that we not only have enough food to eat, but we also have seeds leftover to plant the next year. So God’s Word also satisfies our need for forgiveness, but it also equips us to do that which God has called us to do.
Have you been struggling with a sin? Don’t give up in your fight. Embrace God’s Word—not once in a while, but again and again. God promises that his Word will do that which he designed it for—to empower his people to live like saints. This doesn’t mean that you will be able to get rid of sin and temptation for good, but a daily quest to seek the Lord through his Word will lead to eternal rest. For God’s Word will keep us humble and returning here to confess our sins. It will also assure us that even though we can’t see God or feel his presence, we can be certain that he indeed near us and in fact with us...always.
2.5 days a year. That’s how much time we spend looking for misplaced items, like TV remotes and car keys. 365 days a year. That’s how often we should seek the Lord, says Isaiah. Stay faithful in this daily quest because it is the only quest that leads to eternal rest. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
(pre-service warm up) What item do you misplace the most often?
Why does the prophet Isaiah urge us to seek the Lord when he is already everywhere?
How exactly does one go about seeking the Lord when we can’t see him?
Isaiah says that God will freely pardon. What do you like about that word “freely”?
One ancient Bible scholar (Gregory of Nyssa) asked: “Do you want to know the opportune time to seek the Lord?” What was the answer he gleaned from what the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6?
What was Isaiah’s point when he said that God’s Word is like the rain and snow? List at least two comparisons.
(Finish the sentence.) Just as rain causes crops to grow in such abundance that we not only have enough food to eat but also seed leftover to plant the next crop, so God’s Word not only satisfies our need for forgiveness, it also…
