Delight! God's Word Propels the Adventure

Introduction

Has anyone noticed gas prices lately? It has been awhile since we’ve seen prices like this. I’m old enough to remember the energy crisis of the 1970s. Long lines for gas. Gas prices soared. And of course about 10 years ago or so, we experienced a bit of an economic collapse and we saw gas prices go as high as we’ve seen them. Those days, we thought through just where we were going, which route we were going, and kept driving to the minimum because every mile was costly. In order to get from point A to point B, you have to have gas. You have to have fuel. Of course, Elon and some others are trying to change the method, but the basic concept is the same… propulsion takes energy. And energy spent requires fuel.

How many of you have run out of gas? Where were you? Do you remember the first time? I remember my first time running a car out of gas. The first time I did it, I was in high school. I hadn’t been driving very long. In the big van we called the Blue Goose. On Indian Ripple Road about 4-5 miles from the house. You’ll never guess what my dad had told me earlier in the day? Don’t let that thing run out of gas. I did. And I was grounded. The last time I did it was a few years ago on I-37 between San Antonio and Corpus. With the entire family in the van. Just so happened we were near an off-ramp. Or that would have been one major problem.

We all know what it means to run out of gas. Sometimes not eating enough or the right diet can leave us totally “gassed” in the late afternoon. It takes fuel to keep going. Point A to point B isn’t magic. It requires propulsion. The Christian life is like that. That’s our subject matter this morning as we continue our series on Delight! The fuel that keeps us going in our Christian walk not only brings God delight, but also involves our delight as well.

God speaks

From the very beginning of time, God has been speaking. The very opening of the Bible has God speaking everything we can see into existence. God speaks to his creatures. In fact, God gives the crowning point of his creatures, humanity, the ability to speak, and then gives humanity the task of speaking names to the animals. God promises. God condemns. God speaks His will. God speaks his love and grace. God is always speaking. God and speech are so intimately tied together, that He reveals himself as The WORD. And that WORD is eventually moving men to write it all down. And this is what we have here with us. The Bible. The Word from the WORD himself.

The Suffering Servant speaks

One of those men who is commissioned to speak on behalf of God and write it all down is a guy by the name of Isaiah. Isaiah is a prophet, and he’s a prophet to a disobedient people. God sends Isaiah to warn his people that judgment is coming. In the wake of that judgment, though, is hope. There is also a Savior coming to bring forgiveness and life to His people. This Suffering Servant will give his life for His people and in doing so, bring them salvation and grace. Because this Savior will come bringing salvation, there is hope for all who receive his salvation in faith. And that’s the beginning of our passage today:

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 55)

Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water; and you without silver, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without cost!

Isaiah is saying, yes, judgment is coming, but after that judgment is a day of salvation through the Suffering Servant. A desolate place will no longer be desolate. The work of this one coming is such that all who come to Him will never be hungry or thirsty. The invitation is to come and drink from the One who always provides, who is always sufficient. Those who come will find forgiveness as plentiful as food to eat and water to drink:

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 55)

Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, so he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will freely forgive.

God freely forgives because of what the Suffering Servant has done for His people. Those who know they are sinners and in need of forgiveness find forgiveness as free as the water and as bountiful as food and as rich as the wine.

The question becomes how does the Suffering Servant accomplish this? Isaiah answers it for us by talking about rain and snow:

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 55)

just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.

He started off this entire passage talking about the day that is coming with the Suffering Servant in which there will be plenty of water and plenty of bread and plenty of wine for those who are thirsty, those who are in need of forgiveness. And he continues with the grand painting of all things good being provided by the Suffering Servant… water, bread, wine, rain and snow. His audience knows all too well what happens when there is no rain or snow in Israel. Part of God’s judgment on them for their idolatry and pursuing other Gods and living life at the expense of others was to dry up the land that used to flow with milk and honey.

By Isaiah’s day, that’s not the Promised Land they know. It’s parched. It’s desert. It’s a wasteland. A lot like it looks today. But when this Suffering Servant comes, there will be plenty of rain and snow to saturate the earth once again. The “earth” of human hearts. This rain and this snow are providing life and grace and forgiveness. This rain and this snow are the Suffering Servant’s Word. The Suffering Servant is going to provide Himself through His Word.

This Word saturates parched hearts and dry emotions. This Word seeps down like rain and melting snow into all the crevices of the soul, providing grace and mercy wherever it reaches. The Word is not to be treated as a manual for life to provide quick fixes or timely wisdom when life gets out of sorts. This Word is alive. It is water, it is bread, it is life sustenance for those who hear its words and receive its promises, allowing it to penetrate the deepest recesses and darkest corners of the heart.

And where it saturates and penetrates, it germinates. It brings to life. The parched brown areas of the heart are turning green with life as the Word germinates and sprouts. And finally, the greenery is producing food. Look at what Isaiah is saying… the Word, like rain and snow, is reaching the parched, lifeless areas and producing a sprout and a seed and finally food. What food? The kind of food Isaiah has already talked about… plentiful bread, where the water and the wine are flowing freely.

This is the work of the Suffering Servant, who became The WORD made flesh. All of this came to pass in the life and work and death and resurrection of Jesus. The Suffering Servant is Jesus, the WORD, the one who came to bring salvation to the thirsty and the hungry, the parched, the withering. It is His Word that is rain and snow on hearts that are dried up deserts.

This garden of Isaiah 55, the place where there is water, and bread, and wine that is bountiful and free, where there is refreshing rain and snow, where there was once desert… this salvation and all of its benefits are produced by the life-giving, life-sustaining Word of God. Food for the soul that is to be eaten and ingested.

How did you start your day? Eating God’s Word (Ezekiel 3, Jeremiah 15)

How did you start your day? We were hammered with the line “start your day” thousands of times during Saturday morning cartoons. Every cereal commanded us to “start your day with a balanced breakfast”, especially Cap’n Crunch and Honeycombs. What did you fuel your body with before coming here today?

That the Word is food is not a foreign concept to the people of Isaiah’s day or even of Jesus’ day. Another prophet who lived about 75 to 100 years later was named Ezekiel. Ezekiel is living through the days that Isaiah said were coming. Judgment had come. Babylon showed up and started dismantling Jerusalem. God tells Ezekiel the prophet to do this:

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 3)

Son of man, eat what you find here. Eat this scroll, then go and speak to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll. “Son of man,” he said to me, “feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving you.” So I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

Another prophet, Jeremiah has a similar experience:

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 15)

Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became a delight to me

What are Ezekiel and Jeremiah getting at? Why does God have his prophets eat His Word? It’s not just that the Word is life-giving when it is heard. The Word is life-giving and life-sustaining when it is believed. When it is ingested. When it is consumed and allowed to permeate the entire body and soul of a person. This Word provides life and vitality when it is eaten, when it is internalized into our beings through belief and trust, when it is assimilated into the way we think and live.

God’s Word accomplishes his delight

The Word is alive and active, because Jesus, the WORD is alive and active. Jesus uses His Word to bring about His purposes in our lives. Did you hear what happens when the Word is allowed to permeate the soul, where it sprouts and produces food?

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 55)

my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please

There it is. There’s that word again. What I please. What I delight. Jesus delights in permeating our souls with His life-giving Word. His Word accomplishes His Delight. Jesus delights in providing the fuel for our adventure. He uses his Word to produce in us good works and motivation to help others. He gets much Delight. His Word will accomplish His purposes through our lives.

But then, that Delight is duplicated in us. Did you see what Jeremiah said about eating God’s Word?

Jeremiah 15:16 Your words became a delight to me.

As God’s Word is ingested and is received by us in faith, when we believe this to be true, when we place our trust in this Word, when we allow this word to shape our thoughts and our actions… when we drink it like the free water it is… His Word becomes a Delight to us. Jesus delights in using His Word in our lives. We Delight in the Word as we believe it and place our trust in Jesus through His Word.

Why do we read Scriptures in church?

We have made this truth part of our church experience. Jesus promises to use His Word to change us, to give us life, to provide forgiveness and grace. The Word delivers Jesus to us. So, we spend time reading Scripture passages every Sunday. The passages we read usually have something to do with our Bible Talk. But along the way, as we hear and ingest these Words, as we Eat these Words together as a body, Jesus is doing something to us. Jesus is present among us in His Word. Jesus is providing life. Jesus is giving us His Word for all of life. Jesus is Delighting in us through His Word. And our response, as we hear the Word read, is to delight in Jesus. This is how Jesus propels us to follow Him. This Word is His fuel for our Christian walk. So we come back to the Word again and again, so that we never run out of fuel… His fuel for our lives.

Let’s pray.

Water. Bread. Wine. You know where Isaiah is headed with this right? The Suffering Servant provides all of this as gifts of His salvation. As the means of forgiveness. Rain. Snow. Permeating the soul. That’s this meal, right here, right now. Come, those who are thirsty. Come, those who are hungry. Come, those of you who are parched. Jesus is here, in His Word providing Himself to you. Jesus is here in the bread and the wine, his body and his blood, for you… for the forgiveness of sins. As we eat this Word this morning, Jesus promises to give us life that produces lots and lots of green where it has been parched. Sustenance for life. This world can be brutal. It can dry us up. It can make us famished. Jesus is here at The Table saying, my Word, my Table, will accomplish in you my purposes to give you life and forgiveness. To bring refreshment and life to your soul.