ISAIAH 55 AN INVITATION FROM GOD2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Isaiah 55 An Invitation From God

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. As we begin looking at Isaiah chapter 55 this morning, I would like to take a moment and just remind you that God loves you more than you will ever love him.

Just take a moment to let that process a little bit in your mind and in your heart. God loves you more than you will ever love him. God loves you more than anybody else will ever love you. God cares more about you than you will ever care about anybody else or that you will ever care about him. That God has us on his heart in a way that we don't even fully understand.

How important we are to him is greater than we really know. And it's more important, we are more important to him than anything is important to us. And it's for that reason that God is always the initiator when it comes to us. That God is always the one who, it's his idea to reach out to us.

His work in our life, it's always his idea. It's always him beginning the work. It's always him who has the desire to do the work. God wants to work in your life far greater than you're even interested in allowing him to work in your life.

God wants to move in your heart more than you're willing to let him move in your heart. It's always God who is reaching out and wanting and desiring to know us, to draw near to us, to have relationship with us. He's always the initiator. And we see that once again in our passage this morning as we have what I've called here in Isaiah chapter 55, an invitation from God.

That's what we see here in this chapter. It's God giving an invitation because of his love for us, because of his care for us, because of his desire for us and his desire to work in our lives. He gives this invitation to anyone who will listen, to everyone who will hear. And he's drawing us, he's initiating once again and saying, hey, you need to pay attention to me.

You need to draw near to me. You need to receive from me because you need me greatly.

And so we need to spend some time considering that this morning and this invitation, this desire of God to work in our hearts and in our lives. And so we're going to work our way through Isaiah chapter 55 and consider this invitation, five points to consider as we work our way through. The first one is found in verses one and two. Here's point number one. It's an invitation to the unsatisfied soul.

As God gives this invitation, it's for a particular type of person. The person who is unsatisfied or thirsty. Looking at verse 1 again, it says, Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

As God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah, he begins with a call to anyone who will listen. He says, ho, everyone who thirsts. Now, that idea, ho, that's like us saying, hey. And so we would say, hey, and then God would say, ho, and then, hey. No, just kidding. No, but it's a listen up. It's a call to attention. Hey, pay attention. God is desiring for you and I to have our hearts stirred, to have our mind tuned to him today,

to hear this invitation. It's an invitation for everyone who thirsts. And God is using this understanding of thirst. You know what it's like to be thirsty. We experience that physical thirst on a daily basis. And we drink fluids in response to the thirst that we have and the feeling that we get in our mouth and in our throat, that parched feeling. We experience that physical thirst and God says, that's a great illustration.

of what spiritual life is like as well. You're thirsty spiritually, God says. And if you're thirsty, here's an invitation for you. Here's an opportunity for you. Come to the waters. I think this is something really important for us to consider this morning. Now, for those who've been around the things of the Lord for a while, you know, you can go through this passage and immediately begin to associate it with that call to salvation.

Hey, if you're thirsty, you know, you must be born again. And there's the need to respond to the gospel message. And certainly there is an application there. That is a part of the invitation that God is giving here. We have the opportunity to be saved. But we also, I would suggest, as we consider these things this morning, as those who have known the Lord and walked with the Lord for some time,

This invitation is still for us. That we don't actually go beyond this thirst. In a similar way to our physical thirst where, you know, if you're thirsty and you have a glass of water, it satisfies that thirst.

for the time being but then you go on a little bit later in the day or perhaps you know later in the evening or the next day and well you're parched again you're thirsty again and you need to refill right and take another drink in a similar way as believers in the lord we we are going to be in a perpetual state of thirst throughout our lives and we need to be able to recognize to learn the symptoms when you are thirsty you feel that parched feeling in your mouth

It's not so much the issue, it's a symptom of dehydration.

And they say that when you feel that thirst, when you recognize that you're thirsty that way, you're already experiencing dehydration in your body. Your body's already, you know, lower in its hydration than it requires. And so it's an indication of, you know, already being dehydrated. And there's other symptoms that go along with dehydration as well that you could pay attention to if you're aware of them and familiar with them. In a similar way, there's

There's some symptoms I think we need to pay attention to and recognize when we are spiritually thirsty. When we are in a condition where we are dehydrated, or perhaps you might consider it as like malnourished, where we're not where we need to be in our relationship with the Lord. And so I want to just kind of throw out a couple ideas, a couple things for you to consider as far as symptoms that would help us to recognize if we are thirsty. Because you might be thirsty and not recognize it.

One symptom I would encourage you to consider is if you're involved in self-destructive behavior. You know, it can be a mystery to us at times as we watch people live their lives and practice and participate and engage in things that hurt themselves.

That sometimes we, as human beings, we get caught up in things that destroy our lives. And the great mystery for us many times is, I know they know that destroys their life. I know that it's harmful and that they don't want to do it. And yet, why do they do that? And we find ourselves in that situation from time to time. I know this isn't good for me. I know this causes damage. I know this hurts me. It hurts my family. It hurts my friends. It hurts people around me. I know it does. And yet...

I can't seem to stop this behavior. I can't seem to stop engaging in this thing that causes such destruction. If we're involved in self-destructive behavior, I would encourage you to recognize that that is a symptom, that is an evidence of a thirst. There's something unsatisfied within. There's an ache. There's an emptiness. There's a lacking, a dehydration spiritually that is prompting, that is manifesting itself in this thing

that you don't want to do. You know it's bad, it's hurtful, and yet you're practicing. That's self-destructive. It's an indication of thirst.

But you know, many times we don't recognize it as that. We try to resolve it in our own strength and with our own resources. We try to resolve it in other ways or be more determined or, you know, practice different things. And here the invitation from the Lord is come. If you're thirsty, recognize that. You're experiencing this. Now come to the waters that God is offering. Another evidence or symptom that you might consider is when you consume yourself with something.

You know, there are times in our lives where we just get so caught up in something, so consumed with something that it's all we're living for. As we wake up, you know, we're focused on it throughout the day, going to bed, we dream about it all night, you know, it's like something that consumes us, that occupies us completely. And sometimes that can be a relationship.

Maybe it's the obtaining of a relationship. Like it's all I think about, you know, morning, noon, and night. It's like, how can I, you know, get this person in my life? Or how can I have this kind of relationship with that person? And that can consume us and occupy our minds and our hearts. It becomes the thing that drives us. It's what we're working for all day long from morning till night that we can't break away from, but we're just focused on this. I need this. I must have this.

I need this spouse. I need this boyfriend, this girlfriend. I need this relationship. I need this in my life. Sometimes we can get consumed with other types of things as well, like a career. And all I really care about, all that's important to me, the main purpose of my life is to accomplish this, is to get to this level, to reach this degree,

If I can only get here and I'm consumed with everything that my life is about is working towards this objective, this goal. Sometimes I can become consumed with lesser things like video games. I know it sounds dumb, but listen, I don't play a lot of video games, not because I don't like video games, but because I know my tendency is to get consumed with video games.

The other day we were walking through the store and Kim's like, hey, you know, there's this new Nintendo Switch out. You think we should get it? And we're like, I don't know. Like, it'd be cool. And then later on I was thinking, you know, it probably wouldn't be good. I have limited time already and I already have my already favorite games that I keep playing. I don't have room for more games to be consumed with. Need to be careful. When I am consumed with something, when it's all I'm about,

Maybe it's, you know, binge watching something or whatever. And it's just, it fills your life. It fills your heart. All the capacity that you have is given over to the pursuit of this relationship or this career or this entertainment or this fun or that whatever it might be. It's a symptom. It's an indication. I would encourage you to take that to the Lord because there's a thirst there. You're unsatisfied and it's why you're giving yourself to that degree in that pursuit. And so self-destructive behavior.

When we consume ourselves with something, you could add on to that sinful behavior, you know, outright, blatant, open, direct engagement in sin. It's an evidence of the thirst that we have within. And again, this is not just something that happens for people before they get to know the Lord, before they are born again, but this is something that we will experience throughout our lives as Christians as well. That there will be seasons where we find ourselves engaged in activity that

You know, you asked me a few months ago, I would have thought, I would have never struggled with that issue ever again. I thought it was conquered, it was dealt with, it's in the past, and I'm good to go. But here I am, you know, with that temptation, with that struggle, with that thing. I never thought I would go back to that kind of living and that kind of pursuit. And yet, here I am. And there is going to be an ongoing thirst that develops within our hearts, within our lives. And so this invitation stands.

And here God says, look, when you experience any of that, you have that unsettled feeling, you're unsatisfied in some way, you're tempted to try to fill that with something else. God says, listen up, come to me. Everyone who thirsts, come to me and drink of the waters that I supply. Going into verse two, God continues on to say, why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? He challenges us to think through.

Okay, you're caught up in this pursuit. You're caught up in this self-destructive behavior and it's not helping you. You're not satisfied as a result. You're consumed with this person. You're consumed with this pursuit. You're consumed with this. And as much as you give yourself to it and expend your resources to try to obtain it, as much as you work down that path as hard and as, you know, valiantly as you can, he says, you're spending money for what is not bread. Right?

It's like eating but not being filled, not being satisfied, still being hungry. In the same way we fill our lives, we fill our time with these pursuits and it leaves us in this place of still being hungry, still being thirsty, still unsatisfied. That was demonstrated recently. We went through the book of Ecclesiastes where Solomon talks about his journey to

trying to find fulfillment and satisfaction in all kinds of different areas of his life. And he came up empty in all of his pursuits because he was trying to quench his thirst with something besides what God provides. I think another good example for us to consider is a man we call the rich young ruler.

The rich young ruler, it's found in the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this encounter of Jesus and this interaction between this young man and Jesus. And he's described in different passages as they're talking about the situation. He's described as young. He's described as a ruler or he has power. And he's also described as wealthy.

Now, you think about, you know, things that you might be striving for and attaining. I mean, these are kind of like top three, right? Wealth, power, and youth. Those are desirable things that people pursue often. But here he is having all of that, and yet he's thirsty. And so he comes to Jesus and he says, what must I do that I may inherit eternal life? I have all this. I'm rich, I'm young, and I'm wealthy. I have power. I have all this. But

but I'm unsettled. I don't know that I have eternal life. So what do I need to do to have that part of my life worked out? I have all this worked out. I have all this taken care of. I'm good. I'm settled here, but I'm unsettled here. What do I need to do for eternal life? And Jesus in his interaction directs his attention to the commandments. He gives a couple examples. And here's the commandments that God has given. And this young man answered and said, you know, I've been doing all of these things since I was young.

I've been working hard to obey the commandments and to be faithful to what God has declared. And so this young, rich ruler, you can kind of add on to his list. He really did have it all. He was young. He was powerful. He was wealthy. And he was religious. And yet he was unsatisfied. He was unfulfilled, unsettled, and uncertain about what eternity held for him. And so then Jesus instructed him. He said, okay, you're lacking one thing.

Go sell whatever you have, give it to the poor, you'll have treasure in heaven, and then come, take up the cross, and follow me. Jesus says, what you need, what you're lacking, is me. You need to come and follow me. In order to follow me, you're going to have to let go of some of those things that you're holding on to so tightly. And it tells us that at this word, he went away sorrowful because he had great possessions.

He had great possessions in that. There were a lot of them, but he also had great possessions in that, oh, this is great. I can't let this go. I can't get rid of this. I can't lose this in my life. No, this is too great. It's too important. And so he walked away sad, still unsatisfied, still thirsty, having some information about how to quench that thirst, but an unwillingness to come to the waters and drink.

And Jesus, in response to this, in Mark chapter 10, verse 23, it says, Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God. It's hard for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God because although they're thirsty, they're not willing to come to the waters.

They would prefer to try to meet that thirst, to quench that thirst with their own resources, with their own wealth. And you could substitute riches for anything else in there. It's hard for us when we have, well, these desires and these pursuits and these goals and objectives. It's hard for us when these other things become such a priority to us. It's hard for us to enter the kingdom of God because we're not willing to let go of

of our ways and what we desire and what we want and to come to God in the way that he calls us to. The Lord here gives this invitation. Everyone who is thirsty, and this will be every one of us, you're going to be thirsty this month. Not just because it's August and it's hot, but because there's going to be within your heart, within your soul, this stirring up of desire, this stirring up of need.

And what we need to learn to do is to come to God with that need and did not try to fill that need with something else, but to come to God first, to let him meet the needs of our soul. He says again in verse one, come to the waters and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Jumping to verse two, listen carefully to me and eat what is good. Let your soul delight itself in abundance.

You see the contrast? There's the soul that's unsatisfied, that's thirsty. But when you come to God, when you come to the waters, well, there's a change that takes place, a transformation. There's a soul now that delights itself in abundance. There's a soul that's satisfied, a soul that is fulfilled. We are frequently thirsty and we need to continue to come to God to satisfy the soul.

You might remember it's our theme verse for the church, right? Jesus stood up and said, if anybody's thirsty, come to me, let them come to me and drink, right? Torrents of living water. This is the same invitation. We need to come to Jesus. You might remember Jesus told the woman at the well in John chapter four, if you drink that water, the physical water, you'll thirst again. But if you drink the water that I give, you'll never thirst again, right?

And we can think of that idea of never thirsting again as, well, I gave my life to God. I accepted the gospel message. I believed in Jesus. And so now I'll never thirst again. And it's not exactly like that. Here's the way that it works. I will never thirst again because I have Jesus to supply my need and meet my needs. So it's not that I never need Jesus again, but it's that as I walk with the Lord, he will continue. As I thirst, I can come to him.

When I'm at home, when I'm thirsty, I can just go to the fridge and I get a drink. And then I get thirsty again a little bit, I go to the fridge. And so at home, I never thirst, right? I get thirsty, but I never thirst because when I'm thirsty, I go to the fridge, I get some more water. In a similar way, we have, well, the resource that we need to minister to our souls, to satisfy us. And it's found in God and God invites us to come. And so we need to come.

And we need to keep on coming, keep on coming back to the Lord. We're frequently thirsty. And so frequently we need to come back to God to let our soul delight in the abundance that he provides. He says, come, even if you don't have any money, he doesn't say come and then, you know, I'm going to put you to work and then you're going to earn that water that I want to provide you. No, it's free for you. It came at a cost. It came at the price of Jesus giving himself for,

to take care of, deal with the issue of sin on our behalf, to receive the penalty for sin on our behalf, but come and buy for free. How do you buy for free? Well, because it's already paid for. It's paid for so you can come and buy and eat and be satisfied and be fulfilled. He talks about what we can come to him to receive is wine, water, and milk. Water, wine, and milk. I think it's interesting. We can kind of

Play with these things. I'm not going to fully kind of chase down these ideas. So you can maybe pursue that a little bit later on and consider what the Lord might speak to you about that. But these could be speaking to some different aspects of our relationship with God and the needs that we have. The water for satisfying that thirst, but the wine for that joy and that fulfillment, that abundance of life and that milk for, well, the growth that we need and the work that God wants to do ongoing in our lives, the development of

of our strength and our walk with him. It's not just a one-time thing. We come to him to drink, but it's that ongoing for all different aspects, for all different parts of our life. Pastor David Guzik puts it this way. He says, it isn't that the entrance into the Christian life is free, and then we must be charged to advance in the Christian life. It's all free. Our growth is just as much a gift of grace as our salvation. It's not just the entrance that's free.

Made me think back in the day when, I don't know, maybe it's still like this. I haven't gone in years. But, you know, back you go to Castle Park and it's free to get in. But then each ride you pay for, right? Can you imagine if Disneyland was like that? Like, it's free to get in. Everybody just come on in. But then each ride you pay for. Maybe you get even more expensive. I maybe shouldn't give them ideas because they'll switch to that model. But it's free to get in and then it's free to ride. That's the way that it works with the Lord. Everything that he has for you in Christ, it's free. Right?

Because Jesus has paid the price and he's covered the cost. And so whether we need water or wine or milk from the Lord, different aspects, different parts of our life and our growth and the things that are needed for us, the invitation from God is come, drink. I have what you need. You're aching, you're empty, you're thirsty, you're unsatisfied, you're unsettled. Come to me. God says, I have what you need. It's an invitation to the unsatisfied soul.

Well, let's continue working our way through the chapter now. Verses 3 through 7 give us point number 2. And here we see that it's an invitation to receive God's mercy. The invitation is to the unsatisfied soul. And God is saying, come to me and receive mercy. There's no need for you to fear and stay away from God. No matter what your condition is, no matter where you've been or what you've been involved with.

Because when you come to God, here's what you find. You find mercy. Verse 3 says, God says, Again, I'll meet your needs. I'll satisfy your soul.

And I'll make an everlasting covenant with you. Here he gives another illustration. It's the illustration of David. Just like I showed mercy to David, just like I promised mercy to David, God says, when you come to me, here's what you'll find. You'll find my promise of mercy. Just like David did. Mercy is something that every one of us needs. We all need God's mercy because we all deserve God's judgment.

We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's every one of us. We deserve penalty. We deserve punishment because of our sinfulness and our sinful behavior, our sinful thoughts, our sinful hearts. And what you would expect in that conditions, right? Here you are deserving judgment. Here is the judge, right?

What you would typically do in that situation is avoid the judge, right? I know I deserve judgment, so I need to stay away from the judge, right? Just like when I owe Jonathan money, I stay away from him. Like, oh, no, no. If I'm around Jonathan, he's going to remind me. He's going to, hey, where's that 20 bucks you owe me? So I stay away. If I know I'm going to get in trouble, oh, I stay away, right? But here's what God says. You're deserving of judgment. I'm the judge. But if you come to me, here's what you'll find. Mercy.

Mercy is the withholding of judgment that is deserved. God says, listen to me, incline your ear, draw near to me, and I will show you mercy just like I showed mercy to David. The sure mercies of David, he says. The same promises of mercy that were extended and given to David are the promises of mercy that God extends and gives to you.

We know David as a man who was the man after God's own heart, right? He was a man who pursued God, who listened to God. And yet at the same time, as we look up to him in that regard, he was a man who was a man and he failed and he fell hard. He sinned horribly and yet he was promised mercy. In verse four, he says, indeed, I have given him, that's David, as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people.

There's a lot to unpack in verses 4 and 5, and I'm not going to get through it all. But here God is talking about the mercies that were promised to David that are fulfilled today.

in the coming of the Messiah and eventually the Messiah's kingdom, when all nations will run to Israel and desire to know God and be there with him in Israel. It's the millennial kingdom and there's a lot of prophecy there that is around that. But it's rooted in this promise to David, the sure mercies that were given to David.

The promise that the Messiah, the Savior, would come through the line of David. That his kingdom would be established. That the Messiah would sit on the throne of David. All of this comes back to God's promises and his mercy to David, who deserved judgment because he failed, because he sinned against God greatly. And yet he came near to God. He inclined his ear to God. He sought the Lord and he found the mercy of God. God says, look, those mercies that I showed to David...

Those are the mercies I will show to you as well. Pastor David Guzik says, God showed his mercy, his great mercy to David, not only by sparing David's life when he was guilty of murder and adultery, but also in blessing and preserving and guiding David every day of his life. If God promises us the same mercy he showed to David, we are blessed indeed. We're blessed. We have the opportunity to come to God even when we don't deserve to.

Even when we deserve to be punished, to be judged, to be dealt with for our sinfulness. And so here's this invitation. It's an invitation to receive God's mercy, to come to God with the sure mercies of David. Verse six, he goes on to say this, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Here we learn that this invitation that is extended to us has a limited timeframe. It has an expiration date.

The time frame is limited by when the Lord may be found. And you can look at this a couple ways. One way is that, well, we have the opportunity to come to God while we have life, while we have breath. And that's an uncertain time frame. We don't know if we will continue to have life later on today. We don't know about tomorrow. That's not guaranteed to us. And so we need to seek the Lord while he may be found. That's

Right now, the time and the opportunity is right now that I still have this opportunity. I still have this chance to call upon him and to draw near to him. It's a limited time invitation in that way. But you can also consider and understand that it's a limited time invitation in that your awareness of your thirst, that's your open opportunity. You're not always aware of your need for God. You're not always aware of the mercies of God. You're not always aware of God's desire to work in your life. And so when you feel that,

When you're aware of that, when you're in that place, when you have that thirst and you know that you can come to God, that's the time to respond. We can kind of put it off and say, you know, I know I need God. I know I'm thirsty. I know this isn't going to satisfy me, but I'm going to continue to do that anyways. And then later on, I'll come back and I'll come to God and get that thirst quenched. It's a foolish move to make.

For one, we don't know that we'll ever have the time and opportunity to come back to God in that way. But the other aspect of it is, as we continue on ignoring that thirst, our senses become dulled. Our heart becomes darkened. Our understanding becomes darkened. And later on, we may not have that understanding. We may not recognize our thirst.

I know we're convinced right now. Oh no, I know I'm thirsty. I know what I need to do. I know what's right. And yet it's amazing the way that sin works in our life and it darkens our hearts so that we're not able to perceive. When you are aware of your need, when you're aware of your thirst, when you recognize that you're unsatisfied and unsettled within, that's your opportunity. That's your time. Seek the Lord now while he may be found.

Going on into verse 7, he says, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Let the wicked forsake his way. Here's what happens as we seek the Lord. Here's what happens as we come to God for mercy. We're coming to God with a willingness to turn away.

Lord, I was pursuing these things trying to fulfill my thirst. I was chasing after this. I was, you know, in that direction. I was unsettled. And so I was trying to fulfill myself. And it's all wickedness. It's wicked ways. And so we need to forsake that way. It's wicked thoughts, unrighteous thoughts. And what our mind has been occupied with has put us in this place of being unsatisfied and unsettled. And we seek the Lord. We call upon him with a willingness.

to lay aside those ways and those thoughts and return to the Lord. And if we will do that, we will find the Lord will have mercy on me. He will have mercy on you. That's the promise. That's the guarantee. You come to God and he will abundantly pardon, the Lord says here in verse 7. Abundantly pardon. He forgives and forgives and forgives. When you come to God, even though

You may deserve great judgment, even though you may have failed horribly, even though you knew better, but did it anyways, even though, and we could go on and on and on about all the reasons why, you know, we should stay away from God. God says, look, if you come, if you'll reach out to me, if you'll seek me out and respond to this invitation, I will have mercy on you. You're not going to get the judgment that you deserve. And I will pardon you even abundantly.

It opens the invitation to anyone. There's nobody excluded by it. Everybody come except for, yeah, I know what you did, right? And yeah, you're too bad. You're too, no, no, the things you've done, you can't come back. No, God doesn't have any of those scenarios. He says, look, if you're thirsty, you're unsatisfied, you're unsettled, come. I have enough mercy. I have enough pardon to cover you, to take care of you.

of your need. Pastor Thomas Constable says, the promise of a compassionate reception and abundant pardon applied even to the wicked in act and unrighteous in thought. In other words, to any sinner. Here's the confidence that we can have. When we come to God, we come to a compassionate reception. We come to a compassionate reception. Sometimes in our minds, we kind of imagine if I come to God right now, he's going to be like, you know, like you dummy.

What's wrong with you? When we come to God, we come to a compassionate reception, an abundant pardon. It's an invitation to all of us. Jesus reiterates this in John chapter 6 verse 37. He says, all that the Father has given me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. By no means. He says, look, if you come to me, I won't cast you out. I will receive you.

If you come to me, if you're thirsty and you're desiring and you need and you ache and you're unsatisfied and you come to me to meet that need, Jesus is saying, you have the sure mercies of David. Just as I promised those things to David and just as you've seen God fulfill those promises throughout David's life and then through the nation of Israel and their history and the future that's still promised, just as sure as that, I will be merciful to you. Come to me. Invite me to forgive.

Give me opportunity to show you mercy. Don't stay away. Don't run away. Don't keep yourself away because you're on timeout because you've been bad. No, come to me, the Lord says. It's an invitation to receive God's mercy. Well, continuing on in verses eight and nine, we get point number three this morning, and that is, it's an invitation to God's infinitely better ways.

When we come to God, it's not just resolving that thirst within, not just resolving that unsatisfied soul that we have, but it's realigning us and pointing us in a direction that is far better than we could ever accomplish or ever go on our own. God's ways are infinitely better than ours. Verse 8, he says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways, says 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. Here, this invitation is to something far better than we could have on our own. We have the saying, it's not necessarily a exactly biblical saying, but people say God works in mysterious ways. God works in mysterious ways, right? It's just declaring and testifying. Look, we don't always understand what God does or why he does it or how he does it. He works, it's mysterious to us.

That's because, well, his ways are higher than our ways. His ways are so much higher than our ways. He says, here's how I need to illustrate this for you. Think about the earth. So here we are a couple hundred feet above sea level, right? We're here on the earth, boom. And then think about the heavens. And how much higher are the heavens above the earth? Now you could try to be technical a little bit and go, okay, well, which part of the heavens are we talking about here? Are we talking about like the atmosphere here?

Are we talking about like 40,000 feet, you know, cruising height for commercial airliners? Or are we talking about half star atmosphere and into outer space? How high are the heavens above the earth? Well, scientists, astronomers, they've been trying real hard to figure that out. How far does the universe go? And they work real hard to look as far as they can. Any point on the earth, you can look up and look as far as you can on into the heavens.

And what God has created exists beyond what we are able to perceive. And we'll get a bigger telescope, and it's still farther than we're able to perceive. And then we'll get a bigger one, and a bigger one, and a bigger one. Pretty soon, you know, like we have satellites in space with telescopes that are, you know, we're just, we're reaching, we're reaching, we're trying to find the end. We can't find the end. God says, that's how much higher my ways are than your ways.

so much better. It's imperceptible to you. You can't even figure out where my ways begin. You can't understand my ways exactly because they're higher. They're way different. God's saying, look, I'm way different than you are. You're created in my image, God says, but you don't behave quite like I do. My ways. God is able to work. God is able to act. God is able to move.

with information about the past, present, and future, exact and understanding, knowing exactly the things that will take place. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. They're much better, much higher, infinitely superior to ours. And so if you're living life according to your way of life, well, you will have limited results. But if you're living life according to God's way of life, you will have infinitely better results.

If you're seeking to parent according to your ways and your thoughts, you'll have limited results. But if you're seeking to parent according to God's ways and thoughts, you'll have infinitely better results. If you're seeking to work according to your ways and thoughts, you'll have limited results. But if you seek to work according to God's ways and thoughts, you'll have infinitely better results. God's ways are better. You're thirsty, you're unsatisfied because you've been trying your ways.

And that's unsatisfying. It leaves us empty, unfulfilled, aching, parched. God says, come to me. You'll receive mercy and you'll learn my ways. Let me show you what to do. Let me show you how to handle these things. And it's going to be far better. Infinitely superior. You can think about traveling by car versus traveling by plane. How would you prefer to get to Arkansas? Walking? Even less superior, right? More inferior.

When I was young, we had family in Arkansas. And so we would drive to Arkansas. We didn't fly to Arkansas. That was expensive. You know, that was for richer families. We were a poor family. So we're going to take our 1987, the name and model is escaping me, even though it was my first car. It was Plymouth Horizon, Plymouth Horizon. Little red car, tiny. But the four of us, we'd pack it in. We'd spend four days on the road getting there.

Maybe three days because my dad would like drive 16-hour days and just like, oh man, insane torture to drive through Texas, right? Just like, man, brother and sister in the back, right? Just annoying each other to death, right? Or get on a plane, you know, four hours later, you're on the other side, you're there, right? Infinitely better, much better. It's a crude example, but listen,

My approach to life, my approach to anything, my ways, my thoughts, they're not nearly as good as God's thoughts and his ways. They're so much better. We don't always see how better they are immediately, but they are better. And that's continued to kind of be illustrated as we move on to verses 10 and 11. Here's point number four. It's an invitation to a God's effective working. Now check out the illustration that God gives here. Verse 10 says,

God says, okay, think about the rain. You're thinking about how high the heavens are. Now think about what comes down from the heavens, the rain and the snow. And what does the rain and the snow do?

Besides, you know, just fall and get everything wet. Well, what it does, God says, is it causes the earth to produce, to bring forth to bud, so that it gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater. Now, it's a little bit of a process, right? I mean, when it rains down, it doesn't rain down loaves of bread. Now, for the children of Israel in the wilderness, it rained down manna, and they got that, right? That was not exactly raining down, but they kind of got bread like that. But that's not typical.

Right? You don't reach out and get a French bread, you know, when you're just driving down the road in the rain and it's like, all right, it's great. It doesn't rain and then here's all the bread. It rains and it waters the earth and you work hard and you plant the seeds and the seeds grow and it produces and then you work hard and you harvest and then you take the grain from the harvest and then you grind it down. Then you, you know, it's a process to get from the rain to the bread. But the rain produces the bread. God says, look at this.

Just as sure as the rain comes down and accomplishes these purposes and produces fruit and accomplishes these things so that the end result is bread for the eater. In the same way, God says, look, my ways, my word, it will accomplish what I set it forth to accomplish. You may not see the immediate results, but it's a guarantee. It will produce that which I called it to produce.

And this is where we come back to this idea of we walk by faith and not by sight. We walk by faith. We believe God at his word, even above what we see in the immediate results. And so here the invitation is not,

come to me and all of your problems will be immediately resolved. You won't have to break a sweat. You won't have to do anything. It won't be hard or hurtful at all. Like just come to me and then everything will be made okay and you'll be rich and wealthy and young and you know, all of that. That's not the invitation. That's not what God is offering. Sometimes we kind of make it sound that way, you know. Sometimes we kind of have that perception. We're disappointed because, well, I prayed about this and then it wasn't immediately resolved. No, no. We need to come to God by faith.

And understand that when we come to him, according to his instruction and his invitation, when we seek him for his ways and his will, when we call upon him for wisdom, when we seek to obey his word, it will accomplish infinitely better results than we could ever accomplish on our own. But we have to trust him and stay the course so that we can see those results fulfilled in our lives. What God offers to you is free faith.

It's satisfying and fulfilling completely, but it's not necessarily immediate. It comes as a promise. And he's promised to accomplish his purposes and to work out his will and to do what is good for you and best for you. God is able to work effectively, powerfully, raining down the water to produce life, to bring forth bread, and so much more. And he can do that in your life. Trust him.

Walk by faith. Don't give up because you're not seeing the results immediately. You're trying to, you know, do what the Lord says and it doesn't like look immediately like that's going to be the most amazing thing you've ever seen in your life. No, stay the course. Don't give up yet. Hold on. I don't feel different. I don't feel changed. I don't, you know, I don't see the immediate results, but no, no, hold on. Trust God. He will fulfill his promises.

So much so that we get now verse 12 and 13 to finish off. Point number five this morning, it's an invitation to everlasting joy and peace. Here's the end result. Verse 12, he says, for you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you. And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree. And instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree. And it shall be...

to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. God says, here's the end result. You will have joy and peace. You come to God because you're thirsty, because you're lacking joy, you're lacking peace. And if you do that, you make the right choice. And you are guaranteed joy and peace. Again, maybe not immediately, but it will be fulfilled. And you're going to have joy and peace to such a degree that

that creation itself around you will join in the celebration of the work that God has done in your life. And the trees in your front yard are going to be clapping. Wow, Lord, yeah. Look what you did in his life. That's amazing. Joy and peace. The mountains will shout. They'll break forth into singing. The work that God desires to do in your life and in my life summons joy.

A song of praise from creation around us. It is that amazing. It is that effective, the work of God. So that where there was thorns, tumbleweeds, you might think, you know, there was that barrenness, there was that dryness, there was that, you were thirsty. But when you come to the Lord, those thorns are replaced by healthy trees, by bountiful forests. The trees of the field shall clap their hands in celebration. This is the work that God promises.

His invitation to you, to those who are thirsty, it's an invitation to everlasting joy and peace. It's a work so great and so complete that it will last for all of eternity. Pastor David Guzik says, when God's people turn to him, listen to him and his word, I'm sorry, and his word does his work in them, joy and peace are always the result. The joy is so great that even the mountains and the hills and the trees of the field join in.

It's a work that all of creation can celebrate because God's work in you is so great. An incredible invitation that we have from the Lord. An invitation he gives because he loves you more than you're ever going to love him. And so he initiates. He reaches out and he says, come, you're thirsty. You're struggling. You're lacking. You're unsatisfied. You're unfulfilled. You're working hard, but not benefiting from it. Come to me.

Hear from me. Listen to me. Learn my ways. And I will work tremendously in your life. You'll receive my mercy. You'll hear my instruction. You'll have my effective working in your life and on your behalf so that the end result will be everlasting joy and peace. We have this invitation before us this morning. Are you thirsty? Will you come to God and ask him to work in your life in these ways? Let's pray.

Lord, as we are considering this invitation this morning, I pray for each one of us, Lord, that you would give us an awareness, Lord, to those areas of thirst, to those areas where we were pursuing things that will not satisfy us. We're chasing after things that will leave us unfulfilled. We're trying hard. We're working tirelessly, but not getting the results that we desire. Help us, Lord, to recognize the pattern, the symptom.

the thirst. Lord, what we're really lacking when we're unfulfilled is you. What we're really lacking when we have that ache and that thirst within is the relationship with you and the pursuit of you and your ways and your work in us. And so help us, God, to come to you with those needs, not to try to resolve them on our own, but to come to you for instruction. How do you want to work in these areas? Lord, what's your plan for this aspect of my life?

How can we fulfill your will in this situation? Lord, I pray that you would draw us near. Give us an awareness of our need for you and help us, God, to not stay away because we deserve judgment, because we deserve punishment, because of our failures. But Lord, help us to come and find mercy, knowing that's your promise, God. Just as sure as you gave your mercies to David, you will extend your mercies to us as we come to you as your people, trusting in you for forgiveness.

And I pray, God, that you would help us to ask you to show us your ways. Lord, would you speak to us about the decisions that we have on our minds, the questions that we have, Lord, the courses that we're taking. Lord, I pray that you would lead us, give us direction, show us the course, the path you want us to take. And Lord, would you show us how to walk that path? Remind us to come to you frequently, Lord, step by step, that we'd be able to walk according to the way that you've called us to do.

to learn to respond to situations the way that would be beneficial, not just for the moment, but Lord, in a way that is far superior to our ways. Lord, would you help us to ask you frequently to work in our lives. Your work is effective and powerful and long-lasting. Lord, would you give us everlasting joy and peace as we come to you. We look forward to these promises, to these great works and great things that you offer to us.

We're unworthy. We'll never deserve it. And yet, Lord, you invite us to come. So here we are. Please work in our lives. Draw us near to you. Help us to lay aside our ways, our thoughts, and our sin and to receive from you what you desire and what you want to say to us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.