My ways > your ways

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MY WAYS > your ways

Isaiah 55: 6-9

A Promised Party for God-Seekers
God has been planning a celebration bigger than anything we've ever even imagined. It's something that Isaiah tells us God was already in the midst of planning while Isaiah was writing way back in the 8th C., B.C. And, the celebration is described in terms of a banquet – a banquet far great than anything the Food Channel could ever describe. The Bible gives us a part of the menu in Isaiah 55:1. There's wine in abundance. And milk, of course, for those concerned that God might not be happy about having wine. And as for food, the "Taste of Pasadena", will be nothing to compare to the "Taste of Heaven." And there will be a coronation too, God says. But it won't be of a Rose Bowl Queen. No, in this coronation, Jesus, God's Son born through the line of King David, will be crowned king of the universe.
And people from all over the world will be there. It's going to be a joy-filled celebration. Even nature itself is going to join in. Mountains and hills will burst into song (probably "rock" music). The trees of the fields will be clapping their hands (non clappers will have to get themselves ready for this). Of course this is all picture-language. But what a marvelous picture it is! All the jubilees and carnivals and festivals of thousands of years of human history can't compare with the splendor of the celebration God is planning.
And now the good part: God wants you to be there! Isaiah tells us that every human being can all be a part of it. People from all nations and ethnicities will be invited to the party. That means you and I are invited. The invitations are very personal and they're going out from God to us now. And the condition for getting to go to the celebration couldn't be simpler: See vv.6 7.
There is a big problem here. That problem is in our own souls. I think one of the problems with our world is that, while everyone seems to be looking for something to make life wonderful, they're not really looking for the right thing. The question that people ask is, "What is life about?" The question we ought to be asking is, "Who is life about?" What people ought to be looking for is God. "Seek the Lord," says Isaiah. The mistake most of us make is that we seek for satisfaction in things. Our problem is that our lack is not some thing but some one.
I remember as a child going to a big toy store with my Mom. I was so fascinated by all the toys and displays that I let go of her hand and wandered off. Then, I saw a woman walking out of the store that I thought was my Mom and I went tearing out after her. But it wasn't my Mom. And, I was lost. Suddenly, I realized I was on my own. I began to panic. I looked around feverishly. The issue was that "someone" was no longer with me. Those toys were not what I needed. I needed her! In the same way, we need God. We've walked away from him and all the toys in the world can't compensate for that loss.
So the plight of most human beings is that we have toyed around with material things in the world and lost touch with God. And yet those things can't really meet our deepest need, the thirst of our souls. We all long for something that isn't in the material realm at all, but in the realm of the personal, of the spiritual.
That's why Isaiah tells us to seek the Lord. According to 54:11, he was writing to people in deep distress -- but they were not turning to God. Isaiah says, "God is ready to enter into your life now – and he will begin to enable you to truly live again. But, if you're going to be part of this great celebration in which the whole of creation will find its fulfillment, you must find God before it's too late.
And Isaiah tells us that it's not that difficult. There are several things he tells us in this great text about searching for God. This is a message for those who do not know God at all and it's a message to those of us who claim to know God through faith in Jesus – but find that we seem for some reason to feel we are far away from him. How do we come near to God and find the joy-filled life he promises?

#1. We seek God by calling upon him.
Seek the Lord... call upon him.
If you set yourself to seek the Lord today in church or in the stillness of your room or under the stars, the first thing you will do is call on the Lord. The religious word for this is "pray." But many people feel that they can't pray. They feel that they don't know how to say things just right. Many think that real prayer takes a certain way with words, so you don't sound too coarse or too casual. Or that you have to have a lot of knowledge about God before you can pray. So the word "pray" throws up all kinds of obstacles for many people. Notice that the word "prayer" is not used here. The word Isaiah used is "call"! And that word is part of our everyday language, just like it was back then. We call the waiter. We call a friend on the telephone. We call for help on 911. Listen carefully: It's so simple: The first thing to do to seek the Lord is call to him. You might use words like these: "O God, help me!" Or: "God, if you are really there, show me!" Or: "O God, I need you, come and save me, forgive me, make me new." Or: "Father, I need your guidance, show me the way to go." You don't need a high school diploma to call for help. A child can do it. And that is the first step in what it means to seek the Lord. You say, "Lord, I need you. Come into this situation."

#2. There must be a measure of urgency about it.
"Seek the Lord while he may be found." Notice that phrase and the one parallel to it in the poetry, "While he is near." We mustn't just presume that God will always be calling out to us. Oh, he makes himself available to us. But it's not quite true to say that we can come to God whenever we please. If you've heard someone say, "I'll turn to God when I'm old sometime before I die. There's no real reason to mess up living my own life before then, is there?" To such a person, God says, "Beware!"
Of course, it is possible to find God on your deathbed. I know of few who ever do but I do think of the thief on the cross beside Jesus who was given assurance of heaven even in the last hour of his life. But the other thief is more representative of what I've experienced. In the end, he was hardened against God. And it is a dangerous thing to gamble in this. There is a "too late." We read about a Pharaoh in Egypt who began by hardening his heart against God and ended by discovering his heart was hardened too hard to change.
Let me tell you about my experience with these matters. There are times – quite frequent times, -- when I have a deep sense that God would have me to do something or to say something. Over the years, I've learned to obey that sense. Often, it happens in church. I know there is a decision I need to make – a contact I have to make – even a person I should pray for. Have you ever sensed that? In those times when God seems to be very near, I urge you to act when on what he seems to be putting on your heart and mind.
Hear the clear admonition "Call on him while he is near." There is urgency to it. "Call on him while he may be found."
When you sense that God is near you, that he is calling you to respond to him, that's the time you must act. Please know that you're not always going to feel the way you do now. You will get busy and may not be open to hearing God's call in the way you are now. And note this carefully: Once you've said no to God's call, it's much easier to say no the second time. You become harder. And God knows that and insists there's an urgency about these moments with him. When God calls you to faith, or to action or to turn from some sin, you dare not be half hearted. You must seize the opportunity.
The Greeks used to portray opportunity, named Kairos, as a fleet footed runner with wings on his feet. He had hair on the front of his head and none on the back. Once he'd run past, there was nothing to grab hold of.
I have had people say to me, "Oh, I ignored God a number of times so now he will never speak to me again. I say, "If you are here and hearing his word, he is speaking to you." But, when he speaks, you must respond. And today God gives the opportunity to turn to him. Finding God can sometimes be like that Greek runner. You come to church and look at a text like this one. An opportunity is presented to you...today! But the Bible makes no promises about tomorrow. If you know in your heart that God is calling you to do something to trust him, to obey him where you haven't act on that call. Seek him now. There is urgency if you're ever expecting to find the life God has made you to have.

#3. There must be a radical turning around about your seeking.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts.
If you take seriously the positive side of seeking God, you have to take seriously the negative side of turning from behaviors and thoughts that offend him. You cannot seek God and practice sin or plan sin at the same time.
If you call out to God, "O God, I need you, help me!", one of the very first things that will happen in answer to that prayer is that God will awaken your conscience to something in your life that needs to be forsaken. If God answers your call in that way and you refuse to forsake what your conscience condemns, then you cease to seek God, and your words become empty. As John Piper says, "You can't seek God where he is not found, i.e., in sin."
It would be like a man who leaves his wife, moves into his own apartment, has a regular sexual affair alongside his marriage. Then, he misses his wife and family gets on the phone and "calls" his wife and "seeks" his wife. Then she says, "Have you forsaken that other woman?" And he says, "No, I haven't." Then she will rightly say, "Then you are not seeking me. Your call is empty. You will seek me and find me as your wife when you forsake her and all others for me alone, just like you vowed!"
In all this, God's ways are different from our ways, says the prophet in v.8. They're much higher, much loftier, much holier. If we're going to find him, it's not going to be by us dragging him down to our level but by him lifting us up to his. And, simply put, when you call on God, you should expect him to call you to change. When we call upon God, it almost always means repentance and surrender. Notice how the Bible puts it: New attitudes what God calls "thoughts." New habits what he calls "ways."
Let me help you think through what God might be saying to you today about repentance. I say that you know deep down inside what this means for you right now. All of us do. We all know the things in our lives that are wrong. You don't need the preacher to spell them out specifically. Our consciences do that. We all know the things we're ashamed of. We all know the things that, if we knelt down in honest prayer, we would find it very hard to talk about to God. And we already know his verdict upon them. Those are the things that have to change if we really want to know God and to experience the celebration and joy that he promises.

#4. There must be a trusting acceptance of God's pardon.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God and he will freely pardon.
Here's the shocker: God wants people with wicked ways to come to him. He wants people with unrighteous thoughts to come to him. Jesus did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. If you think that you are too bad to come to God, then your thinking is absolutely wrong. God's thoughts are higher. And one of God's amazing thoughts is he is ready to have mercy on bad people who seek him.
And don't miss the emphasis in that word "abundantly" in verse 7 ("freely," NIV). God wants you to know that pardoning people is what he loves to do most. His heart overflows with a longing to pardon you. Do you know the great message in Micah 7:18? Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the sins of the people who are his? You do not stay angry forever but you delight to show mercy?
Can you believe it? The holy God and creator of the universe delights in in showing you and me mercy by pardoning our sins! He loves to show mercy. Therefore, he does it abundantly, profusely, deeply. Paul says that the love of Christ is so wide, long, high and deep that it surpasses knowledge. What God is willing to do for you if you seek him is beyond your imagination. It is not a pardon that sends you back to the streets of sin. It is an abundant pardon. A pardon with a powerful and loving Parole Officer called the Holy Spirit.
When you seek the Lord, you find pardon for the worst sins you have ever committed and the pardon is so abundant you are given a "Parole Officer" called the Holy Spirit. Believe me, He is not like any parole officer you have ever imagined, because he protects and helps and guides and brings you to the fullest life possible. And on top of that he is the most wonderful person to be with in the world.
Now, do not miss this point: God's pardon has to be accepted by faith. For some reason, many, many people have been strangely reluctant to do receive the mercy God gives so freely. What is the problem? I suppose the problem is that we know we must die to self. When we seek God, when we call him to come into our lives, we must surrender in faith to Jesus Christ. But that surrender brings us into the life that God calls a celebration! What you must do is trustingly accept the pardon God offers to all who turn to him – or turn back to him -- in trust and repentance.
There was an interesting case back in the 1830s of a man named George Wilson. Wilson was put on trial for robbery with violence. At that time, it was a capital offense. He was convicted and sentenced to be hanged. Shortly before the execution, President Andrew Jackson granted him a pardon, but Wilson refused to accept it. So, Wilson's attorney obtained a stay of execution. His argument was that you couldn't execute a man who had been pardoned. The matter was so perplexing that it made it all the way to the Supreme Court. It was Chief Justice John Marshall who recorded the verdict of that court:
"A pardon is a deed to the validity of which delivery is essential. And delivery is not complete without acceptance. It may then be rejected. And if it be rejected, we have discovered no power in a court to enforce it. It may be supposed that no one being condemned to death would reject a pardon but the rule must be the same."
George Wilson maintained his stance of refusal upon which he was executed by his own choice. It's a remarkable incident, isn't it? It shows how, even in legal affairs, it's not enough for forgiveness to be offered. It has to be accepted.
And the same is true of you and me before God. God's invitation is a wonderful invitation to a great eternal celebration. I mean, if you or I were invited to a celebration at the White House or with the A-list at the Oscars, we wouldn't say, "Oh, that's my bowling night." Or, "Oh, that's the night I wash my hair!" No, we would clear the calendars. We'd get out our best clothes or get some new ones.
Well, here's an even more stupendous offer. God invites you to come to him – or to come back to him today. No offer in this world will ever match this invitation. God is inviting you to a celebration for the whole universe, the coronation of his Son.
Can you believe that people would refuse? Is there something in your life today that you know you must bring God into? Is there something today that you know God would have you do?

Let me end by coming back to v. 6: Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.
There is a window of opportunity. And you do not know when it will shut. It is open right now. You know it is because the Word of God is coming to you right now. And the Spirit is here in this place – and he's calling you.
So we are going to close the service by taking very seriously this line: "Call upon him while he is near." I believe everybody in this room needs to call upon the Lord — to seek the Lord right now while he may be found. Some need to call on him for salvation. Some need to call on him for help in overcoming a temptation or an unrighteous thought. And some need to call on him for counsel and guidance...

To His glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor