Sermon – Invitation to the Lord’s Salvation (Hope in The Day of Adversity)
Scripture Lesson: Isaiah 55:1-13 “Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink, even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk, it’s all free! Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food. “Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the unfailing love I promised David.
See how I used him to display my power among the people. I made him a leader among the nations. You also will command nations you do not know, and peoples unknown to you will come running to obey, because I, the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, have made you glorious.”
Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously. “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
“The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up. These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name; they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.”
Introduction – God has created mankind in His image and likeness, to live in His presence in the fulness of Joy. “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”(Psalm 16:11) Being away from God presence, leaves us thirsty. Mankind separated from God is always searching for something that will satisfy his longing.
Isaiah 55 is an “Invitation to the Lord’s Salvation.” An invitation to deliverance and wholeness which offers every spiritual blessing from Christ that the Father has provide. Every thirty soul may come to him speedily, come in repentance. If you do, you will find His grace infinite, His word powerful and life giving, and your joy will be full. The invitation comes from a Father God who made us and knows every detail of our lives. The coronavirus, civil unrest, street violence, debt crisis, national and personal, strained relationships and corruption on every side did not catch God by surprise. The rising tide of fear, anxiety and an increasing sense of vulnerability in the world did not leave God confused. In times like these, God calls us back to himself. So, what are God’s people to do with their dissatisfaction and hunger? God calls us to reflection in times like these.
Consider Ecclesiastes 7:13-14, “Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.”
C.S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” C.S. Lewis
Books of the Bible like Ecclesiastes and Job, shows how God allows our lives to be inject with intentional mystery and confusion to foster our dependency upon Him. So, Isaiah 55 God invites us to come and receive the fulfilment and joy we seek. His Word to call us to reflection, to repentance, and finally to dependence upon Him.
Although the book of Isaiah was written to Israel, it has wonderful implications for believers today because it reveals the character of God and His disposition to His people. God reminds us that people won’t come unless they hear His call and people won’t respond unless they are thirsty. When they come, they will see that they have forsaken God and his way in their quest for something to satisfy your thirst. Everything they found left thing thirsty and unfulfilled again. God’s invitation calls us to return to God in repentance. Going your own way and thinking your own thoughts led to bondage instead of freedom. If men respond to God’s invitation, they can be sure that God will abundantly pardon your waywardness and forgive their wickedness. God delights in mercy, not wrath. God is speaking to a discouraged people in captivity who have lost much, whose future was uncertain and whose life was hard. These verses unfold His path for moving His people from their thirst and longings to fulfillment, peace, and joy. In this moment, how will you respond to God’s invitation? Listen today to what God might be saying to you. Is God calling you to reflect on your life or return to Him in repentance or to rebuild your relationship with Him and His people? Is God calling you to rejoice in your day of prosperity and be a witness for His Glory? Focus on the message of this chapter and its application to your situation. In our noisy, very busy, fast paced lifestyles, there is little times to pause and reflect, yet God calls us to personal reflection.
1.God’s Invitation to Personal Reflection - Isaiah 55:1-2 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”
This is God’s Invitation to personal reflection about what’s going on in our life. Think honestly about the unfulfilled desires, emptiness, and agitation inside your own soul. Think about losses you have sustained, time you have loss, the health you have loss, physical property, job loss, financial loss, relationship loss, personal failures, habits you have picked up, how would you describe the state of your soul in response to those losses? Are you hurting, angry, fearful, ashamed, agitated, bitter, guilty, or in despair? I have experienced all of the above. Many things I had no control over like when my brother Henry died of a massive heart attack at 39, another nephew James of died as 39, and another nephew died at 24 of a massive heart attack, and my niece died at 25 being killed in a convenience store robbery. I had no answers, no reasons and no peace. God was the answer for me, and God has an answer for you today. Moments of Loss and adversity calls us to personal reflection. Ecclesiastes 7:13-14, “Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.”
2. God’s Invitation to Listen To His Voice - Isaiah 55:2-6 “Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.”
Reflection causes us to realize that our only solution is to return to God and listening to Him helps us realize that God has everything we need. God has made a covenant to satisfy our longings, restore what we have loss and provide complete fulfilment through our relationship with Jesus Christ. In fact, His plan is to not only restore us, but also use us to draw others to Himself. True restoration and revitalization begin with reflection, moves to repentance as we seek God as the only solution for our heart’s desire.
Do you need to reflect and return to God today? Do you need to make Bible reading and prayer a part of your daily experience? Have you been too busy for God? If you have, what changes do you need to make in your life? What changes do you need to make in your schedule and activities to seek the Lord? Who have you been listening to and following instead of listening to and following the Lord? May be today is God’s call for you to reflect upon Him and return to Him.
3. God’s Invitation to Change Directions – Isaiah 55:7 “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
Do you need to change directions? Have you forsaken God in your pursuit for something to satisfy your thirst? If so, we must turn from our way to God in repentance. Change directions. Going our own way and thinking our own thoughts only lead to more emptiness and thirst. In Ecclesiastes 1:14, Solomon, the wisest and richest man ever said, “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” It’s like a drunk still wanting alcohol or a person high on drugs, wanting to go higher or a person whose closet is full wanting more clothes. The more you get the more you want. It’s like chasing the wind and never finding satisfaction.
If we change directions, we can be sure that God will abundantly pardon our waywardness and forgive our wickedness. Our God delights in mercy, not judgment. Is this a step you need to take? If so, we must confess our sin and forsake our own way. It means turning from the things you have been chasing and turning to things you have neglected. Proverbs 28:13 says, “The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.” If you have been neglecting daily Bible reading, prayer, and local church attendance, the neglect of these practices must be repented of. God commands us to “seek” Him and to forsake going our own way.
4. God’s Invitation to Rebuild Our Relationship With Him. – Isaiah 55:8-11 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Relationships suffer from neglect. When we experience things we cannot control, we realize that we need God. Then we discover that we have some work to do to rebuild our relationship with God. We realize that our thoughts aren’t anything like God’s. We think differently about everything that happens in our life. Our way back to God maybe different than we would expect, too.
When we start to rebuild our relationship with God, we discover that it begins with prayer, with His word, and with His people. We are reminded that God loves us and has given us His word to comfort and His Spirit to sustain us. God has given us all we need. His word reveals His ways and thoughts to us. His word is true and assures us His Word will accomplish exactly what God intend it to do. If we make God’s thoughts our thoughts and choose God’s paths instead of our own paths, God will do His part and bring salvation, healing and wholeness amid our brokenness.
Invitation to the Lord’s complete Salvation calls us to reflect carefully and honestly. Do you spend time regularly seeking the Lord? Are you learning His thoughts and His ways as revealed in His Word? Are you fellowshipping and interacting with others in discipleship? If so, is God making a difference in how you live? Are you changing? Are you growing? If you are not spending quality time learning about God’s ways and thoughts, are there lifestyle choices and schedule changes you need to make to increase your personal pursuit of God through His Word?
5. God’s Invitation to Rejoice in His Plan for Your Life. Isaiah 55:12-13 - “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
God reveals His desire for every person here, who will dare to believe. Here’s what God has planned for the believer: joy and peace in the here and now and fuller life in the future to come. God will give us satisfaction in our soul instead of thirst, and fulfillment and contentment instead of emptiness. So that when we go out, we can be effective witnesses. The text says it will seem that ‘the hills are alive with the sound of music!’ Old Saints, said it this way, “Up above my head, I hear music in the air, I know there is a God somewhere!” Believers can interpret everything differently because they know God’s thoughts and Ways and walk in them. Instead of seeing the scrubby desert plants in the parched ground, we will see stable plants and fruitful trees. Old folk used to say, “I looked at my hands and they looked new, I looked at my feet and they did too!” What changed? How they saw God changed, how they saw the world changed, how they saw others changed and how they saw themselves changed. You too can experience that same change. Your changed life will be a testimony to God because only God can satisfy our longing, heal broken hearts and give us strength to go on.
Living a godly, fulfilled life will not happen accidentally, we must be intentional. We can have a fulfilled life, walk with God constantly, live victoriously over sin, and have an impact on others for His name’s sake. The only other option is to follow the world. Romans 12:2 warns believers this way, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” We must deliberately resist the pull of the world and intentionally pursue a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. After we accept Jesus Christ as Lord, spend time with God in His Word and in prayer. Then try to assemble regularly with God’s people for instruction, fellowship, and worship. Otherwise, you may misuse the reason you are here today. If you do, then you may go back to handling life on your own, following your own thoughts and doing your own thing. Reflecting upon and heeding Isaiah 55 will lead us to the flourishing life God intends His children to have. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-29, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
Today is another reminder that God is calling each of us. God calls us to personal reflection, listen to His voice, change our directions and rejoice in what God is doing. God calls us to rebuild our relationship with Him and with one another. Finally, God calls us to rejoice in His plan for our future. His plan is that each of us would spend eternity with Him in joy and peace. After hearing Paul’s proclamation of the Gospel, the people wanted to know what they should do to be saved. Listen to Paul’s answer:
Acts 16:31, “And they answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior and entrust yourself to Him and you will be saved, you and your household if they also believe.” Amen.
