Isaiah 55 “An Invitation
Notes
Transcript
An Invitation
An Invitation
Introduction:
We are reading this morning in the Book of Isaiah. We are going to take all of chapter 55 and the title of today’s message is “An Invitation.”This is a relatively short chapter it is only 13 verses….however, in these 13 verses we find where God is offering an invitation.
Illustration:
Have you ever been invited somewhere? Maybe to a birthday party….or to dinner with friends…..or to a church event….whatever event the invitation was too you felt obligated to bring something with you. We live in the south and we don’t go nowhere and bring nothing to the table right? There is not an invitation that we are going to accept that we are not going to bring something even if it ain’t nothing but a 12 pack of cokes we bringing something to the party. We ain’t going nowhere with nothing. The harder you have to work on whatever it is you bring you get more credit for it too don’t you. Now ladies I know some of yall were thinking that very thing. You can go and buy fried chicken and put it on a plate from the house but you get more credit if you fry it yourself (smile). Ya’ll know I’m telling the truth. Why is all of this important. Well because we think that when God calls us we have to bring something to the table besides us. We have to make sure we bring the best version of us to the table right? We have to get cleaned up and dressed up to go to church…or before we get saved we have to clean up a little before we go to God…or before we ask to get baptized.
When God starts calling us we think that there is something we have to bring with us to the party. We can’t just show up and bring nothing but us…..that would be uncultured and rude for a southern gentlemen or lady….well let me tell you something this invitation this morning is a calling from God and He says that you can come as you are.
When you come to church here at Friendship I have purposefully made it my mission to tell you to come as you are. Come broken and in sin…come broken hearted and crying out to God…come in that door drunk as cooter brown if you have to but come to God’s house and seek Him out to be healed. Brothers and sisters you don’t have to come to God cleaned up and fixed up and bearing gifts. The only gift that you have to bring is a broken heart being surrendered to God for a healing and redemption.
(Don’t get loud Steven!) You will change. I promise you will change but not because the Pastor made you…not because I bully ragged you into being better…not because I guilt tripped you into changing you behavior ….you will change because you truly gave your heart to the Lord….or you will not change at all. There is not going to be a day that anyone in my church changes because I did it…..let me be clear I can’t save you…change you….heal you…or out pray you…out anything you because I am not the one that has the power. (Don’t get loud Steven!)
Point #1: I can’t change you or fix you but God can and God says come as you are. Look with me in verse 1 Isaiah 55:1
“Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Isaiah is not talking about a physical thirst here folks. He is saying if you are broken and you need a Savior come to the Lord. If you know that you need God but you don’t think you are worthy come to God. Notice “He who has no money.” How can someone who has no money buy something. It seems like a paradox but what Isaiah is talking about is spiritually bankrupt people who have no faith and have no hope can come to the Lord and find healing and peace.
Notice he starts out with water because you are thirsty but then he says “he who has no money, come buy and eat! come buy wine and mild without money and without price.” This makes no sense if I equate his statement to monetary things. Isaiah is saying you can come and buy but the price is not in dollars it is in the things of this world that you crave. You pay by giving up the world and taking the things of God that provide a fulfillment that money can’t buy. In order to be in a relationship with God you have to give up the world. Your paying just not in dollars.
Notice how the ante gets upped... we move from water to wine and milk with no money and no price. Have you bought a gallon of milk lately…it ain’t free folks….I don’t drink wine but you can spend as much as your check book can handle on that beverage right? The milk is nourishment and wine is for joy. Again Isaiah is not talking about milk and wine when we come to the Lord we are going to be nourished and we are going to find the joy that we seek. This milk and wine are the best but they are free. We are not charged because the price has already been paid. The nourishment and joy have already been paid for by Christ when He went to that cross for us.
In verse 2 he asks why we spend our money on things that don’t last. Why do we spend our time and energy on the things of this world that can never truly satisfy us. The things of this world will only leave us broken and hurting. Again he is not talking about money he is talking about effort and heart that we expend on the things of this world.
Point #2: We have been invited but the choice is ours to accept the invitation.
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
We were invited in the first part of this passage but here in verses 6 and 7 we see where we have to accept the invitation. We should seek the Lord while He may be found. Church there is going to come a time when the clock runs out and there is no more time for us…God is near to us brothers and sisters.... but when the last trumpet sounds God will leave those who have not accepted his invitation to their own devices.
In verse 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Let me ask you all to take a moment here and just look all through this verse and tell me what else besides you that you have to bring to the Lord. Let’s just list out right quick what it is that I need to find and what all I have to do before I repent and ask God to forgive me…..
Funny I can’t find one thing. There is nothing listed here that I have to do except forsake my wicked sinful ways and return to the Lord. “Man I have already been saved but I been living a bad life Brother Steve…I have a past that you would not believe….I have not lived for God since I got saved….you don’t know what I have done…” Praise God I don’t brothers and sisters…but you don’t know what I did after I got saved either. I used to think that I needed to do something before I could return to God. Isaiah says just come back. There is nothing you bring but you and that is all that God is asking for....you all of your heart....sincerely seeking Him and His forgiveness.
Just come back. There is nothing that you can bring to God that God can’t make or do Himself. He don’t need you…He wants to be in a relationship with you but the choice is yours.
Point#3: There is nothing that you can do for God and we can’t understand that concept because we are not God.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God says my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. There is nothing that we can do for God that God cannot do for Himself. God don’t need me to do anything but come to him and give him all of me willingly. God only asks that I come to Him. All that I need to be saved is repentance and faith everything else that needs to be done God has already done for me.
It is not what I do it is what God did that saves me. God is offering and invitation for us to come to him and be made right with him. We can’t understand how we can be forgiven for all the wrong that we have done because we can’t love the way God loves. We can’t forgive the way God forgives. We can’t understand how God could love someone like us because we would not love us.
Church hear me today when I say stop overthinking your relationship with God and just trust Him. Stop trying to get cleaned up before you come to the Lord….stop trying to be a better person before you come to the Lord….stop trying to be God and just accept the offer that is being made.
If you are here this morning and maybe you’re already saved but you are struggling to come home….let me leave you with this little tidbit… I read this the other day…no matter how many steps you have made away from God…no matter how many steps you have taken away from God…you are only one step away from you being back in His grace.
If you are here this morning and you think that you are too bad to be saved…if you think that you have done too much sinning…let me encourage you that you have not done half of what Paul and King David did and they were absolutely saved. Stop making this so hard.
Repent and be saved….return to God and forsake your wicked ways. The invitation is open to you today brothers and sisters…the only thing that God wants is your heart…repent and have faith so that you can be saved today. If you are saved and you have wandered come home.
Invitation…
