Sermons
03
Dec, 2023
Come, Be Satisfied
- Dow Welsh
- Isaiah 55:1-3
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So do you like a good snack? I love a snack, love a snack. And, and I really love snacks at like sporting events, right? I mean, sometimes the snacks at sporting events are, are fantastic. Like at a major league baseball game. There, there's vendors that walk around through the aisles and they yell things like popcorn, hot dogs, cracker Jacks. I mean the snacks just coming right at right in the middle of the game, bringing snacks right to you or imagine you're in a, a marketplace somewhere in North Africa. You, you would hear the vendors and the merchants, they would shout out fresh grapes, fresh figs, fresh olives just shouting out giving their food to you. Hey, here come by this right in the middle of the market. And now imagine that you're in the middle of the road at the gates of eternity. There's a wide gate and there's a narrow gate at the wide gate. There's a lot of merchants, there's a lot of vendors and they're shouting all kinds of things. Hey, here's something that will really make you feel good. Hey, here's something that will really make you feel young. Hey, here's something that'll give you your best life. Now and then at the narrow gate there's just, there's just one merchant, there's just one vendor. And what are they offering? What, what are they holding out today? We begin a new series for the holidays called. You are invited. And what we're going to do is unpack an invitation from God. God is the one at the narrow gate and he is inviting. He's giving an invitation that is designed to not just transform your heart and mind and soul, but to actually energize your heart and mind and soul. It's an invitation that all you really need to engage with it is to be thirsty. So are you thirsty? And, and what does that even mean? About 600 years before Jesus was born? God told Isaiah to write down this invitation. He wanted it written down so that people like me and people like you could hear it and see it to believe it and receive it. So what we'll do in, in this month and end of the first Sunday of January is, is we're going to pray that God would help us to hear it and see it and believe it and receive it. And so let's start today. Our message today is called, come, be satisfied and we're going to begin in Isaiah 55 verse one. God's invitation starts like this. You there, everyone who thirst, come to the waters. You there, stop, look, listen, come, listen to this. God is not waiting for you to wave him down in the stadium. God is not waiting for you just to, to pass by his booth in the marketplace. God's not even waiting for you to wander into a church. The language here is that God is pursuing you own purpose. His design is to pursue you own purpose. His design is to interrupt your life and it's a, it's a great interruption. See, God didn't wait for a bunch of people to show up in Bethlehem and go, hey, I wonder if there's a God. I wonder what he's like. I, I wonder if we can know Him or not. No, God interrupted the night with, with lights of glory and he didn't wait for salvation to randomly be created by someone. No, God interrupted the wi the life of a young woman and he put salvation in her womb to come out of her womb and into this world. Salvation has come. Jesus is known as Emmanuel, which means God with us. God came to us. This is the time of year that we, we hear the song o holy night. God was eager on that holy night to come to us and friend. He is still eager to come to you. God is, is eager for you to listen to Him right now because what He is offering is the first and greatest and utmost importance. It is the most important thing in the universe. This invitation is the invitation of all invitations. But in order to engage with it, the invitation is for the thirsty. It's for the thirsty. It's for the discouraged. It's for the despondent. It's for the frustrated, it's for the worried, the afraid, the desperate, the need. Any of those sound like you're weak this week or your month or, or maybe your year, we're, we're going to hopefully start something that we hope might be annual. Um, but we're just going to have a, a prayer time, uh, on December 20th. So not this coming Wednesday night or the next Wednesday night, but a couple of Wednesday nights away and we're just going to meet here in the sanctuary at 645 and, and this is really for anybody. We're, we're just calling it, uh, hope for the heart and it's birth primarily out of the reality of helping people who's lost. So who has lost someone this this year. So, if you've lost someone this year, we, we invite you to come to that time or, or maybe you're a caregiver, maybe you're, you're trying to, to care for someone and, and, and you just need some encouragement. We, we encourage you to come that night or, or maybe maybe it's the holidays and you just don't feel any hope. We invite you to come on on that Wednesday night at 645. We'll be here in the sanctuary and, and we offer that because I'm going to be there for me. I'm not leading, I'm going to be there for me because that describes me thirsty, desperate, discouraged. I mean, those are some of my emotions in life right now. So it's a bit selfish for me. But you know what, I've just come to realize in the last few weeks, there's a lot of us that need some hope. There's a lot of us that are hurting and need some healing. There's a lot of us that feel really desperate and worn out. So, so you come as we gather to just encourage each other and pray for one another. The invitation is, is for the desperate and the needy. And, and what is the invitation? The invitation is this come to the waters. What does water do? What cleans washes water, refreshes it, it softens and, and water puts fires out too, right? So just take a, a snapshot of your life right now. Are you overwhelmed with the sin in your life? Are you, are you feeling how dirty you are before God come to the waters and be washed and cleaned? Is your heart hard? Are you full of pride and stubbornness? Is it being seen in your relationships with your family and your friends and, and other people then come to the waters and let your heart be softened and be set free. Are you weary? Are you tired? Are you worn out? Are the struggles of life just, just too much right now? Then come to the waters and be refreshed and be rescued. Are you in the middle of, of the fires of conflict or the fires of anger raging in your life right now? Then come to the waters and have those flames extinguished, come to the waters? What does that mean? What kind of water can do any of those things? Well, there was a woman that most of us, many of us have heard her story but it never gets old to me. She was a woman who really needed to come to the water. Her life was full of failed relationships. She had been married multiple times. Five of those marriages had failed. And now she was in a relationship with someone that wasn't even her husband. She was slandered and, and gossiped in the community so much that she couldn't go out when other people were there. She, she kind of had to sneak out when nobody else was there to go get her supplies. She was hurt, she was confused, her heart was broken and then she ran into the stranger at the water. Well, one day and the stranger offered her a strange offering. He said, hey, I've got living water for you. That stranger was Jesus. Listen to this conversation. Jesus said to the woman and John four, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty. But the water that I will give him will become in him. A fountain of water springing up to eternal life. I mean, let's just be honest. That sounds like crazy language. Ok. It's crazy. What, what are you talking about? You know water inside of me that's going to spring up to life. What in the world? But you know what, you know how this desperate woman responded. Listen to what she said. The woman said to him, sir. Give me this water, sir. I I am so broken. I am so tired. I am so weary. I am struggling so much. Please, please sir. Give me this water. I don't understand it. What you're saying makes no sense to me. But if there is water that can get inside of me and bring me life, sir. Give me this water. Please give me this water. Couple of years later, Jesus was standing in front of a huge crowd and he stood up and said this in John chapter seven. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink the one who believes in me as the scripture said from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Listen your soul. My soul is not really thirsty for Black Friday or Cyber, Monday or Purple, Thursday or charts Wednesday or whatever they are these days. Ok? That's not what we're most thirsty for. Listen, we're not even thirsty for Christmas. We think we are, but we're not even thirsty for Christmas. And how do I know that? Because all of those things stop, they end. There's a December 26. Life moves on the decorations come down, the sales are, are off and, and whatever it may be, everything in this life that we try to, to satisfy our thirst with will let us down. Except for Jesus sounds hokey, sounds like a religious fairy tale. But it's true when we come to Jesus and, and the drinking here is believing when we come to Jesus and believe when we come to him and, and drink our soul will thirst no more. No, we will be thirsty. Ok? We, we'll be thirsty. We'll need some spring water. You know, we're, we're going to get parched and our minds are going to be thirsty. Ok? Our hearts are even going to be thirsty like it. It's not like everything's going to be perfect that that's not it. We will still thirst and we will still feel the impact when it's not the most wonderful time of the year. You know, we'll feel the impact when the, when the holidays are gone except by design in our soul. You see believing in and relying on and trusting and, and clinging to Jesus following after Jesus. It does something on the inside of us because no matter what's happening, no matter how fried our brain is, no matter how overwhelmed our heart is, no how, no matter how difficult things are in life, we can't shake the truth of Jesus. The longer I'm a Christian, the more the gospel and the Bible sounds crazy. It just does. It sounds like what, what could this be true? And the world looks at us and go, are you believing that? That is crazy stuff. But you know, when I compare it to every other approach to our existence, it is the only one that makes sense. It is the only one that has any rational thought to it. The rest of it really does sound crazy. But at the end of the day, the one thing I can't shake, even if I don't understand a Bible verse, even if I can't map out all of the theology of the universe, I cannot shake Jesus, can't shake Jesus. There's something about the person of Jesus that changes everything. So when we say living water, this invitation, 600 years before Jesus was born was the prophetic invitation to come to Christ, not just come to any water somewhere, but come to Christ. And so that woman on that day at that, well, she was really full on engaged in the invitation that Isaiah gave the invitation is to come to the water. The invitation is to come to Jesus and friend. When your soul finds Jesus, even the everything tries to shake your soul. It cannot be shaken away from Jesus to be pursued by Jesus, to be found by Jesus, to believe and receive this truth. About Jesus, it cannot be taken away. So it becomes that water in our soul. When everything else is falling apart. The imitation continues in verse one and you who have no money come buy and eat. The invitation is not just for the thirsty. The invitation is for the broke you. You gotta be broke, to receive God's invitation. You have to be broke. Now let me just go ahead and offend. Some of us. Some of us are the kind of people that we wanna pay our own way. If that's you, you can't come to the water. If you're bound and determined to pay your own way, you cannot come to this invitation, you won't come to the invitation. Now, does that mean that the invitation is only for people who don't have any money and the invitation is only for homeless people? No, it's not wrong to have money. That's not the picture. This is all about spiritual attitude. What is the, the spiritual attitude of our hearts and our minds and our souls? When, when John Newton wrote Amazing Grace, he didn't use the word wretch casually. He understood that he was damned to hell. He was a wretch. He was not a good person and he knew he needed to be rescued. So this attitude, it's a spiritual bankruptcy. It's this understanding that we're hungry and poor and needy and we realize I will not be able to take my next breath without God I need him. But again, if you're convinced that you're a pretty good person, if you're convinced that that you aren't as bad as some of those other people that you've seen on the news. You won't respond to the invitation. You just won't, the, the one true sovereign God of the universe is pursuing you with his grace, with his mercy, with his love. But, but you refuse him, you, you push him away because you're more confident, you're more comfortable and you're more content in your sin. That that's just a reality for any of us who are pushing God away. We're more confident in our sin. We're more comfortable in our sin and we're more content in our sin. If if those things are true, then then you won't come to God, you won't receive the invitation. So today, we would say that we graciously hope that, that you will hear and understand that that is the most dangerous place. You could possibly be in the universe to be confident and comfortable and content and sin is one of the most dangerous places you could possibly be in the universe. So we would plead with you, come to the waters, enjoy the beauty of being broke and needy and desperate. There, there's nothing more incredible than being broken like that and being needy for God and again, what's the invitation to the broken and needy? Listen to it again and you who have no money come by and eat. What in the world does that mean? How, how can you come and buy any, if you don't have any money that goes against everything we understand about money. Right. How in the world is it possible for you to buy something when you don't have any money? Well, maybe a kind of a matter of fact, way would be if, if you don't need any money to buy something in Daley, that means it's free, right? It's free. So, so this water, this invitation, it's, it's free, but it's not really free. It, it had to be paid for and it has been paid for on a Friday from nine o'clock AM till three o'clock in the afternoon, Jesus of Nazareth. He, he paid the penalty that was necessary. He paid for this invitation to be a reality. Jesus paid for the penalty of sin, the sin of the entire world, which includes my sin and your sin. The gift of this living water. This invitation is only possible because Jesus paid the price for the invitation. Jesus paid it all. So if you're a prideful, cheerful person who says, hey, I, I've got money, I'm going to believe in myself and I'm going to pay my own way. You can't come. It's only for the desperate, it's only for the needy. It's only for the, the spiritually bankrupt. It's only for the humble Charles Spurgeon was talking one time about the difference between a salesman and, and a preacher selling something and sharing the gospel. And this is what he said. The difficulty is that the price is too low for human pride. Sinners will not come down to it. Whereas every other salesman finds that he cannot get his customers to come up to his price. My difficulty Spurgeon says is that I cannot get my customers to come down to mine. They will still higgle and haggle to do something, be something or promise something. Whereas here are the terms and the only terms upon which Gospel grace is to be had without money and without price. God's got nothing to sell. This church has nothing to sell. God has something to give. Therefore, we have something to give. He he gives. And, and sadly, there are are many people that one day will, will stand before God and they will hear Jesus say as he said, he would the part for me. I never knew you and why? Because they were unwilling to be broke and thirsty and desperate and needy. They, they just kind of thought, well, I'll just add Jesus to my resume and it, it'll make everything ok. The offer the, the invitation is for those who are thirsty and needy. Without Christ, you are lost and without hope in this world. And unless you realize that unless you're able to see that you're lost and without hope in this world, you can't come, you can't drink, you can't buy, you can't eat it. It doesn't work. The offer is for the needy, the thirsty, the spiritually bankrupt. And what are they supposed to do with money that they do not have? Listen to the next part of verse one. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Now this isn't a grocery list. This isn't like, hey, go down to the grocery store and get some, some, you know, some water and some wine and milk. This, this is what you do. Now. These are, these are pictures of what we're offered in Christ. We've already talked about the water, right? The the water, it washes, it cleans, it refreshes and it restores and renews, it puts out fires and, and the wine here is, is designed to be a, be a comfort, is designed to help a heart that is overwhelmed. And the milk, what did God say? God said? He, I'm going to give my people a land flowing with, with milk and honey. So, so this milk here, it's nourishment. So come by and eat, come, be refreshed, come be comforted, come be nourished. Listen, there are a lot of merchants and vendors at the wide gates in this world telling, hey, if you'll come to me, if you'll come to this, you'll be refreshed, you'll be comforted, you'll be nervous. Come on, this is what you need right here. But the reality is, it's at best. All of those things are temporary. The only true lasting refreshment. The only true lasting comfort. The only true lasting nourishment all comes from Jesus. And again, why should we listen to this invitation? Why should we pay attention to this merchant, this vendor at the narrow gate? Listen to verse two. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for? What does not satisfy this invitation from God is not like a, a magic bean that's going to make everything peachy keen. That's, that's not what it is at all. That's, that's not the picture. This is an offer to come and receive what will ultimately satisfy your heart, your mind and your soul today and forever like, like truly satisfy, listen, your spouse, your kids, your favorite team, your favorite politician, your favorite meal, your favorite vacation, your favorite car, your favorite hobby. None of those things are going to satisfy. They're just not that they, they will help you have some fun. They may bring some enjoyment. But when you breathe your last, you need something that will actually satisfy you on the other side of death. Not just here. So how foolish would it be for us to hear this invitation and go? I don't want it to, to, to reject it to say I don't want what God is offering. And when we reject what God is offering, we're rejecting it for what we're rejecting it, for the riches of this world, for the people of this world, for the, the trophies and the achievements of this world. Listen, we can, we can debate it or, or people can deny it. But in our hearts, every human being knows this world is passing away. It's, it's not going to lapse. So let's not put all of our marbles in this world. Let us not put all of our hope in this world. Far too many Christians seem to be functioning as if their ultimate hope is in their retirement portfolio are in the promises of the stock market more than in the promises of God. Far too many churches seem to be putting their, their confidence and their trust in their organized religion or in their building or their sanctuaries or their programs and, and all the things that they have instead of putting their trust ultimately in the promises of God, no matter how hard we try the, the things and people and the places and the achievements of this world will not satisfy us today. So if you're still rejecting Jesus, please note that you may not feel it right now. Today you see, that's, that's the danger. We don't feel it in the moment. We're fine. Oh, I'll get to that tomorrow. Oh, I'll get that next month. I mean, what is your, what is your workshop in your garage and the junk drawer at your house look like? Right. Oh, I'll get to that later. So we have this thing, we'll just get to it later. But, but when it comes to spiritual things, we, we can't really get to it later because we do not know which day will be the last. So if you're still rejecting Jesus, know that one day you will sound just like the woman at the well, you will say the words, please, sir, give me this water. The question is, when will you say that? And will it be too late? Because if you don't say that on this side of the gates of eternity, then you will not be refreshed forever. In fact, the, the Bible's language is it will be torment forever. Not, not a heaven and hell fairy tale, but but an actual design of, of how eternity works. If your heart does not come to the living water today, please know this. The invitation is open today, but one day it will be closed. One day, the the invitation will be no more. So today now come by eat, be satisfied. Imitation continues in verse two. Listen carefully to me and eat. What is good and delight yourself in abundance. Listen, I, I think we live in a world that says, well, if, if I've got to follow Jesus, I'm going to miss out on something. Do you realize that, that the very nature of the gospel is abundant and overflowing with everything that your heart and mind and soul actually want the most? Really? Therefore, when your team loses, it's a thing, but it ain't a thing and when your candidate loses, it's a thing, but it ain't a thing. And when the test results from the doctor don't come back the way you want them to. It's a thing, but it ain't a thing because there has been this abundance, this overflowing reality that has gotten into your soul that this Christmas story is not just a Christmas story. The gospel is designed to be delightful, good, great, grand, glorious, good news of great joy, joy that doesn't last for a day. Joy that lasts forever abundant and overflowing. That's the language that God made sure was put in his invitation. Hey, just want you to know what I'm inviting you to is not Sunday morning for an hour. What I'm inviting you to is is not a life of religious legalism. What I'm inviting you to is not just a prayer that you pray at camp. What I'm inviting you to is a relationship with me that is abundant and overflowing with. What? What is it abundant and overflowing with? Listen to verse three, incline your ear and come to me. Listen that you may live. It is abundant and overflowing with life. This invitation from God is abundant and overflowing with life. That's why it begins you there. Stop, listen here come that you may live that you may live. Listen, we have a lot of voices coming after us. Sports, politics, finances, work, family, friends, holidays, you name it. It's, it's all coming at us nonstop. And so in all of those voices, God is the loudest voice saying you there come, stop, listen and come and live, come and live, come to Jesus and have life come to Jesus and get this good news of great joy. That's not just for Christmas. It's always and it's an invitation to live, to live. What kind of living are we talking about? Look at verse three again and I will make an everlasting covenant with you according to the faithful mercyes shown down to today, God's invitation is an invitation that includes an everlasting covenant. If, if you have ever been to a wedding, you saw someone make a covenant when they say their vows, that's a covenant. And part of the vows is what till death do us part. But, but this covenant from God death, death can't do anything to you. It's an everlasting covenant. It's an everlasting promise. It's a promise that last beyond this life, this, this is not a, a, you know, a cute thing that was made up by Baptist a couple of 100 years ago. So we could build some buildings and, and have some programs and you know, do some things. Now, this everlasting promise this everlasting covenant was created before the foundations of the world and was very specifically delivered to King David by God. This is the promise God made to David second Samuel chapter seven verse 12, when your days are finished. And you lie down with your fathers. Now, let's just take this out of the Bible for just a second. OK. This is God speaking to David. David when you die, you know, we, we use the word pass away. It's not really helpful. It, it softens the blow, we're going to die. It's death. It's not a joke. It's not a funeral, it's death. So God says to David when you die, I, I have a promise for you. Listen to the promise continue in verse 12, I will raise up your descendant after you who will come from you and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. OK? So no way this is one of David's kids. You know, even David's smart enough to get this as God's given him this promise because there is no kingdom that's forever that there's not a kingdom in Washington DC that will be forever. There's not a kingdom in the Middle East that will be forever. There's not a kingdom in, in Europe or Asia. The only kingdom that is forever is the throne of God and Jesus reigning with him. That's the only kingdom that's forever. Let us never be confused when we go to the polls. There's one king and only one king forever and ever and ever let us never be confused when we get so discouraged with all the things that are falling apart in this world, this world for a believer is not our home. So if, if your service at the restaurant is bad today, who cares? You're saved? If the finances don't work out well this week, who cares? You're saved? If you can't get along with your spouse or your kids or, or the test results come back, you're saved. Doesn't mean those things aren't hard, doesn't mean we won't be thirsty. Don't mean we won't lose our mind. Those arguments and those conversations, it doesn't mean we won't be stressed out about money, but in our soul, we're the living water. God, we're OK because Jesus reigns, he'll always reign. Nothing can change that. The promise of the forever kingdom is in Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Mary, the son of God. He has all those names for a reason. He ain't us. He ain't anybody else. He's Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the son of David, the one that God promised and his kingdom and only His kingdom is forever. Now, when you set that down in the Old Testament, you know which again, this, this proclamation from God today was made about 3000 years ago, ok? None of us unless I'm missing somebody's birthday. None of us in this room have been around for 100 years, ok? So 3000 years ago, this promise was made and this promise, oh man, it, it became the national anthem of everybody who followed after God, the king is coming and his kingdom will be forever. Scott Hubbard says this throughout the rest of the Old Testament. This promise shines like the brightest of stars in the sky. They always knew. Wait a minute, there's a kingdom that's coming and it will be forever. And then he says this every other light may darken, every other star may fall. But the light of this promise can never fail. They can't the light of the promise of Jesus Christ. It cannot fail. The son of David has come. The son of David has come and the son of David is coming again. Jesus the Christ. He is still inviting you right now to come to the water. He is inviting you to a promise that cannot and will not fail. It can't, it's been guaranteed through his crucifixion, guaranteed through his resurrection and all the things that he has already done to prove who he is will be seen again when he comes again. So come, bye, eat, be satisfied and live today and forever.