This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back for day five of week seven of our look through the
book of Isaiah, Isaiah 55 today. I love this chapter. Isaiah 55, it's so
beautiful.

It's one of the most beautiful chapters in all of scripture. And in Isaiah 55,
we see five things that we must do to receive God's comfort. If you can remember
that, Isaiah 55, we see five things to receive God's comfort in our lives.

If I'm going to receive God's comfort, number one, I must come to him. Isaiah 55,
one, come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no
money, come buy and eat.

Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what
is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and
eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest affair.

The invitation of these words, come all of you who are thirsty, it's echoed in
the last chapter of the book of Revelation, almost at the end of the Bible.
Revelation 22, 17, the spirit and the bride say come. Let anyone who hears this
say come.

Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the
water of life. You can't receive God's comfort if you're going somewhere else to
find comfort.

I must come to him. Somewhere that you can't get comfort because it wasn't
designed to give you comfort, but you're trying to get comfort. You keep going
back there and wonder why you're not getting comfort.

Jesus says come to me. These verses in the middle say, why spend your money on
that which is not bread? Why are you spending your time on that which doesn't
comfort you?

Why are you giving yourself to that which is really taking you down and not
building you up? Why look for comfort in that which cannot comfort you? Why look
for love in that which cannot love you?

Come to Jesus. That's what these verses say. Simply trust him.

Come to Jesus. Jesus echoed these words in his ministry. John 7, 37, on the last
day of a great festival, a great feast, Jesus stood and he shouted to the
crowds, anyone who is thirsty may come to me.

And so when that happens, the comfort of God is expressed here. Your soul is
going to delight in the richest affair. God wants to comfort you.

Some of you might remember that one of the early songs in the Jesus movement was
based on this truth. Remember that song? Come to the water.

Stand by my side. I know you are thirsty. You won't be denied.

I felt every teardrop when in darkness you cried. And I strove to remind you. It
was for those tears that I died.

So come to him. Come to me, Jesus said. All you who are weary and heavy laden, I
will give you rest.

I must come to him. If I'm going to experience God's comfort, the second thing I
have to do is I must hear him. Verse three, give ear and come to me.

Hear me that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you.
My faithful love promised to David.

See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and a commander of the
peoples. Surely you will summon nations that you know not and nations that do
not know you will hasten to you because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of
Israel. For he has endowed you with splendor.

So all the promises given to David, all the promises given through Jesus,
they're ours. But I've got to hear them to know them. Hear me, he says, so that
your soul might live.

It's God's word that brings life to your soul because it's in God's word that
you hear him, hear his promises for your life. Comfort is in what you hear. He's
endowed you with splendor.

He talks about David, but that's also true of your life when you think of what
God has given you in all of his promises. Now, that's not what the world says
about you, that you're endowed with splendor, that you have all these promises,
but it is what God says about you. So how do I begin to experience that comfort
in my life?

Well, verse three begins with these two words, give ear. That literally meant
these words give ear in Hebrew to stretch out or to incline your ear. So the
question is, if you want to receive God's comfort in daily life, which way is
your listening leaning?

Which way are you hearing? What are you listening for? When you lean, you're
listening towards God instead of towards the problems in this world, towards
what other people are saying about you, towards all the news, the bad news
that's happening right now, when you lean, you're listening towards God, he
begins to comfort you.

I must come to him, I must hear him. Number three, I must seek him. Once I've
heard him, I must seek what he is saying.

In verse six, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their way and the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him. And he will freely
pardon. So you begin to seek God.

You don't just listen and say, well, that was a nice thought, God. You begin to
follow after what he said and to look for that truth in your life. When you seek
God, what do you find?

These verses say you find the comfort of his mercy. You find the comfort of his
pardon. Now, how does this work?

This seek the Lord sounds very spiritual. Well, notice in the middle of these
verses, he says you seek the Lord. And when you're going through times of
wickedness, you have to turn to the Lord.

Seeking usually involves turning, turning from my sin to God's forgiveness
because I've been seeking something in my life and it might be something
pridefully. So I gotta turn from my sin to God's forgiveness, turning from my
plans to God's plans, turning from my selfishness to serving others. Now,
sometimes when I turn from my plans to God's plans, he still wants me to do the
same thing.

He just wants me to do it with a different heart, with a seeking heart rather
than a selfish heart, with a humble heart rather than a prideful heart. Seek the
Lord. Turning, the word for that in the New Testament you might know is
repenting.

Repenting brings God's comfort. Repenting simply means I turn from my way to
God's way. It's really a beautiful word.

We made it ugly in a lot of the ways that we use it today, we made it sound like
it's this word that should be shouted at sinners, but the truth of the matter
is, it's a word that needs to be said to anyone who wants to seek God. I've
gotta repent, I've gotta turn from my way to God's way. I've gotta do that many
times most days if I'm going to seek God.

And when I do that, I experience God's comfort in everyday life. There's a
fourth thing that I must do. I must trust him.

I must trust him because verse eight reminds us, God says, "For my thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. " Because God is greater, so much greater than we
are, his ways are higher, so much higher than our ways, your relationship with
God is a relationship of trust.

You can't always logically figure out what God is doing because he's so much
greater. The fact that I don't always understand what God is doing is not
because God's messed up, he's perfect, it's because I don't quite understand. So
I have to trust sometimes.

A parent could say to a child who wants to eat only candy, "My thoughts are not
your thoughts. " Because the thoughts of the parent aren't just for what tastes
good in the moment, but they're for the health, the growth of the child. Well,
God is infinitely greater than us.

Parents aren't infinitely greater than children, but God is infinitely greater
than us. And we're never going to grow to be a God. So I've gotta trust him if I'm
going to grow in my relationship with God.

As you grow in your relationship with God, there's going to be some things that you
begin to understand that you did not. But even more, you're going to find yourself
growing in your trust in what you did not understand. God is trustworthy.

Now, verses 10 to 12 tell us one of the most powerful ways that we trust him.
These verses say, "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not
return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that
it yields a seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes
out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I
desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

" So we trust his word, we trust the scriptures, because God knows more than I
know. He sees the future in ways that I don't see it. We trust that God's word
will accomplish what God desires.

Just as when the rain falls from heaven, you know the ground's going to get wet,
when God's word is spoken, you know that he's working in people's hearts.
Whether I see it or not, feel it or not, I can trust that God is working, 'cause
that's what God's word does. Now, there's a fifth thing that these verses remind
us you and I need to do if we're going to experience God's comfort in our everyday
lives, and that is I must honor him.

Beginning in verse 12 to verse 13, "You will go out in joy and be led forth in
peace. The mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the
trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush will grow
the pine tree, and instead of briars, the myrtle will grow.

This will be for the Lord's renown, for an everlasting sign which will not be
destroyed. " This will be for the Lord's renown. All this good that's going to
happen, all the joy that's going to come, it's for God's renown.

We honor him by recognizing what God is doing in our lives, in our church, and
recognizing that it's not just for us, it's not just for our church, it's for
his glory. One of the greatest ways to receive God's comfort is by recognizing,
as we often say at Saddleback, that it's not about you, it is about the Lord.
What is God doing in your life?

And whatever he's doing, it's to show the world what he's like, show the world
who he is. This is how you receive God's comfort. So in prayer, let's just
remind ourselves and commit ourselves to these things, and just say, "Jesus,
right now, I come to you.

I'm thirsty, so I come to you. I want to hear you, and so I incline my ear to you.
I want to hear from you the way I'm meant to live.

And then I want to seek you. I don't want to just listen and then walk away and not
do it. And so God, if there's a new direction I need to turn, to seek the Lord,
is to turn to the Lord, I want to turn to you.

Lord, I want to trust you. Your ways are greater than my ways. So instead of
trying to logically figure you out, I choose to trust you in my relationship of
love with you.

I choose to trust your word that it's accomplishing what you desire. And Father,
I want to honor you. You are the creator.

You are the one through whom and in whom all praise is to be found. And so I
praise you right now. And I pray that even what you're doing in my life, even as
I struggle, the things that you are doing in my life, that those things would be
for the Lord's renown.

That people would see, it's hard for me to pray this, Jesus, 'cause I can't
believe that it could happen, but by your grace, I know it can, that people
would see Jesus Christ even in me. I ask this in your name, amen. Well, be sure
to join us next week.

We're going to finish our study of the book of Isaiah. And part of the week, we're
going to take a look at the powerful comfort of eternal life.