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Isaiah 55 vs 1-5

Mar 27, 2024    Pastor Matt Korniotes

Isaiah Chapter 55 Verses 1 – 3

·    “Ho!” This is a call like as unto one from a town crier! Before literacy was widespread and news was distributed on papers and parchments, this is how townspeople would get important information! And that is the idea here.

·    Spurgeon calls this, “The condescension (or stepping down) of God!” Essentially God is becoming a crier in the opening statements of this incredible chapter! Spurgeon writes, “How is it that God would become a beggar to His own creation, and stoop from magnificence of glory to cry, “Listen, Ho,” to foolish and ungrateful men?” WOW! The only motivation possible is love!

·    He says, “Everyone who thirsts.” And the thought isn’t that we should survey our own need and discover for ourselves if we should respond. The thought is one that is like the ground to the clouds. The answer is “duh!” No rain, no crops. No rain, no fruit. It’s not for us to think, “I wonder if I am thirsty, if I am in need…” This is a call to the people of God who know that they DON’T even know how much God is needed!

·    I don’t know if that makes sense… But to the one that knows the Lord and is mature in the Spirit, doesn’t matter how good they have it…, ask them if they need God’s grace. YES! Ask them if they need God’s help. YES! Ask them if they are desperate for Jesus in their lives. YES! But you have everything! You are so successful and you’re the CEO and you have this amazing family, home, job, calling, attitude, health, biceps! HA! YES, and OH HOW I NEED HIM!!!

·    This is a call to creation to wake up, not to respond in need, but to be awake in reality! That without rain, there is no crops…, no fruit, no profit…, and rain never comes from the ground. It always comes from above!! SO, hear this all that thirst…, is that you!?

·    And you who have no money…, what is money? Power, freedom, respect, security…, where do you get that from? From the world system? It will be gone soon… But get your power, freedom, respect, integrity, security from the things of God and His Kingdom…, EVERLASTING!!

·    Listen carefully, incline your ear AND hear, eat up, what is good… One can incline their ear, listen in, pay attention and yet not hear. Hearing means that whatever has been communicated is taken in, considered, makes a difference…, and God gives this amazing promise that if that would become your approach to what He says (described here as “good”), that my soul will delight itself in abundance and shall live…

·    Um, but there’s this issue of this tiny little word, “let.” “Let your soul delight itself in abundance.” Do you know that you can sit at the feast of feasts and starve!? I remember being stubborn and childish at the dinner table when I was a little kid. I didn’t want the food that was given to me. There was nothing wrong with the food! You know how children want only pizza, chicken nuggets and mac n’ cheese? The problem wasn’t the food…, the food was great! The problem was ME!

·    Some folks have the issue of simply receiving the grace of God based on the merit of Jesus Christ. Receiving and enjoying God’s favor, His love…, even though we have it and more in Christ. Some folks have the issue of super-strength flesh…, just stubborn in spirit and unwilling to yield. Or not strong enough to be not enough! Be open and ok with the fact that every second is a learning second in this life. Some people HATE to learn so they never do. Always defending, deflecting, correcting, criticizing and never considering….

·    They miss the blessing of being Christ-like and miss the blessing of being in Christ because of it… Some folks just want their way, they want their mac n’ cheese, and if its anything but, they seep into complaint…, and starve. When God says learn what is good and eat what is good… Whatever it is for you, its ok to let yourself delight in the abundance of God…

·    Everyone who thirsts, come… Are we talking about water? Everyone who has no money… Are we talking about money? Certainly not. So what are we talking about? What’s this whole discussion been about…? Jesus stood up on the last day of the Passover Feast in Jerusalem and we have the scene in John 7:37-39, “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

·    Jesus not only was revealing that He was the “Me” speaking in Isaiah 55, that He was Himself deity, but also that the waters and the money and the wine and the milk are all metaphors for the power of the Holy Spirit leading and over-blessing a life! Jesus called this life-result, “rivers of living water.” But it’s not so much for those that cry out in need, its for those that live a life in the understanding of no rain, no crops… We don’t need Jesus when we are in need…, we need Jesus for any semblance of everlasting life!

·    Who can come? EVERYONE. Who comes? Far too few, especially in the church!!! I mean you’re already here, you’re already committed…, this should be a no-brainer! You’re already at the feast…, and yet so many starve!

Isaiah Chapter 55 Verses 4 – 5

·    Leadership in the heart of a Christian is so important! It cannot be overemphasized. That in Christ, through Christ, because of Christ, in response to Christ and for Christ, we are to be a light in a very dark world, a leader of this human race in terms of the things of God. Why are so many Christians so great at being a leader in the things of the enemy!? Pride, contentions, divisions, hatred, discouragement, room deflater and the negative nobility in the room!?

·    Well, here’s why… They jump right to boss-ship, being something more than others, before beginning at the first stage of true leadership which is simply to be a witness. “Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people.” Who?

·    David! The murderer. The adulterer! The failed father. He looked in the mirror and knew he walked with God, knew he loved God AND he knew that his relationship with God was DEFINITELY based on God’s goodness and not his own. So, he writes in Psalm 42:1 and 5, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. Why are you cast down O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance!”

·    A broken, grace-needing and grace filled terrible sinner…, and yet the greatest king Israel ever has yet known… He began, his first identity within himself was that he was a witness of God. Then comes leadership. See that in verse 4? And that doesn’t mean someone that calls shots or someone that others listen to and accept and embrace and comply with… That’s not leadership…

·    Leadership is doing what is right, what is best for others…, alone. Doesn’t matter who is or is not doing it. You are. That is leadership. The fact that others follow simply reveals the leader… So, there is a foundation of witness, then there is a season of leadership…, then comes what everyone wants, the right and the calling and the ordaining of God to be a commander for the people. Not because you are or want to be a commander. You are a witness of God’s goodness. You are a leader in your own heart and mind…, and now, you are qualified to help, not hurt, help others… That is to be a commander for the Kingdom of God.

·    AND when commanders like this are in command then God’s glory smears on the people, the land, the ways, the group, the family, the everything like a thick jam! Proverbs 29:2 says, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice! But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.” What is a wicked man? A bad commander…, not yet a leader…, not a witness of God but a leader in the ways of the enemy…