Sermon on Isaiah 55:1-13

This sermon was preached at St. Paul's in Visalia, CA on Sunday, July 13th, 2014.

Isaiah 55:1-13 Sermon Audio

Back in March, my home diocese wanted to meet with me and a few of my fellow seminarians at Trinity School for Ministry. They wanted us come down during our Spring break and meet with them in Thomasville, Georgia. There were four of us making the trip. We all packed up some clothes and piled into my friend's minivan, and drove fifteen hours from Ambridge, Pennsylvania. A local couple from the church in Thomasville offered to room us for the few days we would be in town. When we got in at around nine o'clock in the evening, we were very hungry because we hadn't eaten very much along the way. We decided it would be good to check in with the couple who was housing us before going out to get something quick to eat. When they learned of our plan, the husband pulled out his wallet and gave us his credit card. He told us there was a nice restaurant down the way and that we should eat there. When we got to this restaurant, the owner opened the door and greeted us, saying the man had called ahead and told him we were coming. He had already prepared a table for us before we got there. We went inside and realized this was anything but the fast food restaurant we had planned on going to. The tables were covered in white linens and as soon as we sat down we had nice glasses of iced water set in front of us. Looking through the menu, my friends and I very quickly realized that this was a high-end steakhouse we had been sent to. I ended up getting a ribeye, which was very good. During the dinner, my friends and I were able to relax and be truly satisfied after fifteen hours stuffed in a minivan. While we had originally thought we'd end up spending our own money on some fast food, we were able to enjoy a full, substantial meal without paying a cent.

Our passage in Isaiah opens with the call of the Lord, “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! … Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” My friends and I were prepared to spend our money on that which is not bread. Namely, McDonald's. Over and over, we all spend our labor on that which does not satisfy. We put our efforts into things that won't last. But God wants us to find real satisfaction and wholeness. He says, “Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.”

For me, the main reason I don't typically “eat what is good” is because I just can't afford it. I'm living on a student's income and don't have the money for healthy, substantial eating. And typically, I want to eat something that doesn't take a lot of effort to make. I don't have an hour to set aside just for cooking. But this is exactly the wrong kind of thinking. God says, don't waste your time and money on stuff that won't help you. And in many cases, the things we put money and time in to actually hurt us.

Instead of investing ourselves, our time and money, in empty things that will never satisfy, God invites us to be satisfied by him free of charge. It's like he is offering to give us his spiritual credit card, and pointing us to the right place to go in order to find a real meal. He knows ahead of time that we will be there. And has set aside a place for us. He will give us the living water of his Spirit which springs up to eternal life. He brings us to his Table, where the price was paid 2000 years ago so that we can come and eat and be satisfied. Are we going to keep striving for satisfaction in this world, or will we come to him and receive the eternal hope of salvation by faith?

God's promise isn't a one time offer. Once you receive his gift, it is an eternal gift. Whatever we gain in the world, however hard we work to achieve it, it will be lost. Even if we put all of our efforts into our own gain, it will only take us so far. We can only work so long until our bodies give out. Michael Jordan was considered the best basketball player in the world. Even now, he is considered to have been the greatest player of all time. But if we set up a game between him and and a player in the NBA right now, he'd most likely lose the match. Now, we aren't basketball players, but I think the example still stands. Even as the best to play the game, and working tirelessly his entire life, day and night, to achieve that goal, it came to a very real end.

Instead of relying on our own abilities, we can turn to God's promise and receive what he has to offer, which is far greater than anything we can ever hope to achieve on our own. And unlike the things we gain through our efforts, what God has to offer will never pass away. He doesn't just give us a room for the night and one good meal. His eternal gift includes adoption into his family, to live with him as children of God. In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes, “you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you,” and, “all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” His gift of satisfaction comes by his Spirit. He takes us into his house, to carry his name, and feeds us from his own Table, as his children. We are God's people by promise if only we receive him. And we can't pay him back for this gift. In fact, there is no way we can ever deserve what he gives us.

The grace of God acts contrary to the way things are done in the world. In the world, if I am offered a job, I have to go in and work to earn the my wages. An employer won't walk up to me and just offer me a full salary with benefits before I even show that I can do the job. But this is exactly the way God works. Before you can ever prove your worth, he has already invited you to come into his family. You don't need to prove your worth to God before he gives you the full benefits of being his child. You have been glorified if you receive his Spirit. It has nothing to do with how you meet up to his standard. If you say yes to God in Christ, he will give you the full benefits as an heir to his eternal kingdom.

If he didn't act this way, nobody would be saved. The free grace of God is the only way anyone can enter into salvation. Nobody can earn God's love because we are all broken by sin. But his free grace is the very thing that draws people to himself. Psalm 65 cries to God, “to you that hear prayer shall all flesh come, because of their transgressions. Our sins are stronger than we are, but you will blot them out.” It will always be God's grace that saves us, and only by relying on his free giving of that grace can we be satisfied. “Happy are they whom you choose and draw to your courts to dwell there,” the psalmist writes, “they will be satisfied by the beauty of your house, by the holiness of your temple.” God will satisfy us if we come into his house. He will forgive our sins and give us the strength in his Spirit to overcome our weakness.

Isaiah calls us to “seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him when he is near; let the wicked forsake their ways, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” God is calling us into his adoption. He will care for us and feed us. He will satisfy us with his glory. His Spirit will dwell within us, and lead us, as children of God. By his Spirit, we can cry out to him as our Father in our distress. This is the witness that we are children of God, that the God who hears prayer has heard our cry and has offered this gift of grace and continues to give us his grace. It is a covenant that he has made with us. He is faithful and he will not break the covenant that he has made with his people.

In Isaiah, he elaborates on this covenant. He uses David as an example of the type of covenant he will make with his people. He says, “I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.”

Being made God's own means also joining him in his mission to the world. By his grace, his children are bringers of his grace to the world. “You shall call nations that you do not know,” he says, “and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy one of Israel, for he has glorified you.” God is glorious. By being filled with his Spirit, his glory has come upon his children. We are glorified because we are one with him. His glory draws people to him. By being filled with his glory, we also draw others to him. As children of God by the free gift of grace, we invite others to join us in his grace of adoption. This is his will for those he brings in to his kingdom: that they glorify him. God's glory is shown in his grace, so to glorify God is to share his grace with others.

Back in 2011 there was a news story on CBS about a local business man in Reading, Pennsylvania. This man went out every year around Christmas time, giving people 100 dollar bills from his own pocket. Some years, he gave out more than 100,000 dollars doing this. The CBS reporter mentioned to the man, “you don't know what these people are going to do with this money,” and asked him, “do you care?” The man simply replied, “No, because one of the things that I do is I do not judge.”

When Jesus shares the parable of the sower, he gives the different scenarios that happen when the seeds fall to the ground. One group of seeds lands on rocky soil and sprouts up quickly, then dies from the sun. Another batch lands among weeds and are choked out. But some of the seeds he scatters land in good soil, and they bring forth grain. Sometimes, we can't know what sort of soil the seeds are going to land in. As Paul notes in 1 Corinthians, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” We cannot judge who will or will not receive the grace of God, we can only offer it freely to those we encounter.

The business man in Reading walked up to a man sitting alone on a bench. This man's name was Thomas, and Thomas was a heroine addict who had even sold his young son's toys for drug money. But the night before this incident, Thomas, an atheist, was encouraged by his girlfriend to pray to God for a sign. When he was given the money, Thomas' first reply was “I didn't earn that.” He was very emotional, seeing that somebody would give so much to someone like him who had only ever acted selfishly in feeding his own addiction. Thomas had spent his money and his labor on that which does not satisfy. Only by receiving this free gift, an answer to this atheist's prayer, could he be transformed. He not only checked himself into a rehabilitation center, but came to faith in the God who provides.

This is the power of grace. If God only gave to those who deserved it, nobody would receive his grace. And without his grace, there is no chance for transformation. True, lasting transformation only comes through grace. We know we can trust God if we turn to him because he has already paid the price for salvation. He didn't wait for us to say yes, but because he loves us, he sent Jesus his Son to die for us. Because he loves us, he offers redemption and new life through his completed work in the resurrection. Because he loves us, he offers his Spirit of adoption to be his children, “and if children, then heirs,” as Paul writes, “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” Remember the words Isaiah writes, that “nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.”

Instead of wasting our time and effort on things that do not satisfy, trying to find fulfillment in the world, let's turn together to the one who does satisfy. It has no cost and requires nothing of you to deserve it. It is the transforming grace of God's invitation to eat and be satisfied. Come to the waters of his Spirit and drink and be glorified. Come and gain the eternal reward of life in him, which will never fade away. Be part of God's work in the world because, as the psalmist writes, when you are led by the Spirit, “you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace.”

I invite you now to accept God's invitation. If it is for the first time or the thousandth time, or the thousand-thousandth time, come and be satisfied in his unending love at his Table. He has paid the price for you to be satisfied in him. There is nothing you need to do to deserve this gift, but to come and receive it. Come, and be satisfied.