This morning, I offer you an invitation:

“Hey there! All who are thirsty; come to the water! Are you penniless? Come anyway—buy and eat! Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk. Buy without money—everything’s free! Why do you spend your money on junk food; your hard earned cash on cotton candy? Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best; fill yourself with only the finest. Pay attention, come close now, and listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words. I’m making a lasting covenant commitment with you, the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love. I set him up as a witness to the nations, made him a prince and leader of the nations, and now I’m doing it to you: You’ll summon nations you’ve never heard of,and nations who’ve never heard of you will come running to you Because of me, your God, because The Holy of Israel has honored you.” Seek God while he’s here to be found, pray to him while he’s close at hand. Let the wicked abandon their way of life and the evil their way of thinking. Let them come back to God, who is merciful, come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness. (Isaiah 55:1-8 –The Message)

May I ask you a question? Are you content? Are you satisfied? Or are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Hungry and thirsty for what you ask – hungry and thirsty for the things of God. Isaiah gives this invitation to the seeker and the saint. My desire for each of us is that we are never satisfied with learning more about God; that we are never satisfied with where we are in our relationship with Christ. Christian growth or formation is never complete until we finish the race that God has set before us. There is no such thing as retirement in the Christian life. We must continually work at being more and more like Jesus. Is it tough work? Yes, the apostle Paul said, “We must press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heaven prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” God desires us to seek Him with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our mind. He has created us that way. Look at what David wrote in Psalm 63:

1 O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. 3 Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! 4 I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. 5 You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy. 6 I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night. 7 Because you are my helper, I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings. 8 I cling to you; your strong right hand holds me securely. (NLT)

Not only is David thirsting for physical water, but he is longing for God. His desire is for God. David was a man after God’s own heart. He was hungry for the things of God. He was thirsty for the things of God. Let me ask the question again. What are you hungering for? What are you thirsting for? Are you hungering and thirsting after the things of God? Are you hungering and thirsting after the right things? Isaiah wrote, “Why do you spend your money on junk food; your hard earned cash on cotton candy? Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best; fill yourself with only the finest.” The finest is God and his son, Jesus. Fill yourself, fill your desire with Christ.

We are cautioned against desiring the wrong things. As we discovered last year, the people of Israel desired all the wrong things, instead of the things of God. Listen to what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13:

1 I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters,[about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. 2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3 All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. 13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. (NLT)

Here were God’s chosen people, Israel. Paul says they were all followers of Moses and ate from the same spiritual food and drink. And yet, God was not please with most of them. What? These are God’s chosen people. What did they do? They abused God. They abused God’s grace. They abused the God who had delivered them from Pharaoh. They abused the God that allowed them to escape through the sea. Because of this the were scattered in the wilderness. A whole generation died in the desert because of disobedience. Paul tell us they are a warning to all of us who are in Christ. We are told not to crave evil things and not to worship idols. These two commandments really fall hand in hand. We worship many things today that are not God or Christ. What can be idols today? Money, clothes, sex, food, and family are just a few idols that we bow down to today. In reality anything can become an idol. Anything that we place more value (or worship) on more than God is an idol. The first two of the ten commandments addresses this. “You must not have any other god but me,” and “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord you God, who will not tolerate your affections for any other Gods…I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations who love me and obey my commands.” What is in your life, that is more important to you than God? I want you to prayerfully search your heart.

Paul warns us of sexual immorality. It is a warning that we need to take seriously, especially in our time. If you interact with any amount of the media (television, movies, magazines, internet), you can easily be exposed to it. This constant exposure desensitizes us to it. Things that are shown or said would have made us blush twenty to thirty years ago. This has even crept into the church. I hear things said in the church, that I would have never heard twenty years ago. I say all that knowing that it is a constant battle, we are bombarded with messages from all around us. That’s what makes it so tough, because the culture, just like the culture that surrounded God’s people in Canaan, said it was ok.

Paul gives us one more warning and that is against testing the Lord. It think there is a place for honest questioning of God and testing of God. Didn’t Jesus reply to Satan, “Never put your God to a foolish test.” There is a place for genuine questioning and asking God to show us the way. However, that’s not what the children of Israel were doing. They were testing the Lord’s boundaries on purpose. Do you do that? Do you test the Lord’s boundaries? It cost them their very lives. And then Paul adds one more that makes me say ouch. Paul commands us not to grumble. We usually don’t put that on a list of things to avoid as Christians. I know that God has to deal with me on occasion with this. It is easy to grumble and complain and not do anything about it. This is not the kind of believer that God desires.

Last week, we looked at being spiritual heroes and I mentioned that some of you might feel much like a hero. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Paul warns against those who think they are strong. They old saying goes, “Pride comes before the fall.” If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.

The temptations that Paul mentions above are common in our world. But he also writes that they are no different than what others have experienced. If we are seeking the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, God will be faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. We need to remember that temptation is just that. It is temptation, not sin. And there is always a way out and we need to ask God to show us that way. The things that Paul mentions are hindrances to us living the life that Christ has called us to live. Christ has called to live a life that is completely sold out to Him. Paul tells us not to follow in the example of the children of Israel. Instead as we discovered last week, he calls us to follow after Christ.
As we began this message, I said that Isaiah’s words were an invitation to both the seeker and the saint. Both the seeker and the saint can be content. Both the seeker and the saint can be hungry. And so the question becomes are you hungering and thirsting after the things of God or are you content with where you are?

My desire as your pastor is to see each and every one of you thirst after the things of God. Instead of seeking the wrong things that Paul warned us against. I encourage you to desire the things of God. I encourage you to be used of God. I’ve shared in the past few months of what it feel like when you are exactly where God wants you. When you are desiring Him with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. When you are serving Him and then to be used in a way that makes you feel undeserving of all of it. That is my desire of you as your pastor. That you know that you are in the center of God’s will; that you are desiring God will all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and that you are serving God. When all of these fall in place, it’s amazing to watch God work in our lives. I would love to see us as a church experience some of what I have experienced back in November and December. Come to the water, all of you who are thirsty. Are you thirsty for the things of God? Or are you content right where you are?