CHANGING APPETITES FOR THE BEST LIFE
Isa 55:1-9
THE TEXT
55 "Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.
2 "Why do you spend money for what is not bread ,And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance.
3 "Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David.
4 "Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, A leader and commander for the peoples.
5 "Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, And a nation which knows you not will run to you, Because of the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel; For He has glorified you."
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; And let him return to the Lord ,And He will have compassion on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord.
9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts are higher than your thoughts
WHAT YOU WANT OUT OF LIFE
What is it that you seek for your life and how do you plan to get it? I know very few people that want or expect nothing out of life. We all are looking for a better way to live in peace, happiness and joy. The problem is that world changes everyday. What we relied on yesterday may not be what we can rely on today. We are fighting a constant battle to be secure in this world.
There is one who never changes and offers us a way of life that is secure.
His name is Jesus Christ. His plan for wealth and security is not based on this world but the Holy Fathers divine plan for our lives. In order to live and
Prosper in God’s divine plan requires a change in our appetites,
WHAT DO YOU THIRST FOR?
Isa 55:1-3
"Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters;
And you who have no money come, buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without cost.
2 "Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight yourself in abundance.
3 "Incline your ear and come to Me.
The question is what do we thirst for? Is it money, cars, houses, clothes
Position or power? This satisfies our flesh for a time but is not lasting, The thirst here is spiritual. It is a relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Matt 6:33-34
33 But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself.
This is a command and a promise made by our Lord and Savior over 2000 years ago. We cannot understand this concept because it is not taught in school or pushed in our churches because we live in the flesh and not the spirit. We hear the scriptures on Sunday, but we live in the flesh on Monday. We tend to bring God in after we have made a decision.
CHANGING YOUR APPETITE
How do we change our appetites to be in line with God’s plan. Isaiah 55:1 is an open invitation for all who thirst to come. Why should we thirst for the
The spirit? Before we change our appetite to spiritual, I believe we must
Understand the importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives
The Holy Spirit is our divine guide John 14:17
The Holy Spirit teaches us how to love God more
He intercedes for us Roman 8:26
The Holy Spirit helps us to fulfill the will of God
The Holy Spirit is our teacher of God's Word
He empowers us for God’s ministry 1 Cor 12:14
He empowers us to live above sin
The Holy Spirit is our source of wisdom 1Cor 2:10
He enables us to hope for an eternal life Rom 8:10-11
He enables us to have a personal intimate relationship with God.
God is the only one who knows us inside and out and has our best interest.
We are commanded to come to the water. Water symbolizes purification. Jesus is the living water explained in scripture John 4:14. It is his shed blood that purifies us of all sin . we have fellowship with God with wilful sin in our lives. Our best life is fellowship with God.
You don’t need money for purification. Its the free grace of God. You
Can’t Buy it, you can’t earn it. If some come with a boat load of money as
A payment, they will go away empty handed. If some comes with a list of
Good deeds as deserving the life giving water, they will go away disappointed. We must empty ourselves of any pride to receive the life changing water . The drinking of Jesus water satisfies our thirst completely.
The buying is the empty, humble, nondeserving self claiming nothing but a need for grace. God accepts us at our worst to make us His best. The eat is God righteousness through the Word of God. Jesus is the bread of life,
“Come buy wine and milk without money without money and without cost. “
Wine is associated with joy and celebration. Milk symbolizes the spiritual substance of growth. We have an open invitation to celebration of joy and spiritual growth in the Word. The world gives pain and frustrations daily.
INAPPROPRIATE USE OF MONEY
“Why spend money on that which is not bread and your labor on that which does not satisfy”
Isaiah moves quickly to the choices we make. Why put your fleshly desires before God? Why is your focus on the earth rather than heaven? At some point in our lives we have to come to the conclusion that the world and the
Things of this world can never bring lasting satisfaction. This thought goes against everything we live for. We sit in our houses, drive our cars and put
On our clothes and are comfortable until something happens, something breaks down or we see something else we want.
God is not telling us not to buy a house, a car, clothes or food to eat. God is saying don’t put those things before me. He did say if you put me first, those things will be added to you.
The prophet ask, why spend money on that which is not bread. Jesus said
I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE. MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE BUT EVERY WORD OF GOD.
Why spend money on bread that goes in the mouth come out the other end. How do I reconcile my need to satisfy the flesh with God’s desire to feed my soul? It cannot be done. The flesh just houses the soul for a short period of time.
SATISFING THE SOUL
Out of all God’s creation, He only made two who are free; angels and men.
Only one was made in His likeness and image. God gave man the freedom to make decisions. Man has purpose for his decisions. To please God or to please himself.
Eph 5:8 For ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord;
Here is the problem. We were born in darkness, now in the light, we have
Not made the decision to please God. It is true bread of the soul that brings satisfaction. Our work, our time has to be focused on Jesus,’the BREAD OF LIFE that satisfies.
MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE
Isa 55:2 Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of food
To know what to eat we must study, take it seriously and put the Word into practice. This requires a change in attitude. We have to change our appetites. Not only appetites, but first change our focus from the World to the Lord. Our purpose in life must be to please God. God has food that the greatest cooks of the world don’t have a recipe for.
Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing (unto him); for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and (that) he is a rewarder of them that seek after him
Faith is not coming to church, but being the living church. When we study the Word our souls are dining on the richest food. We should invite everyone we know to join in this feast. We must pay attention and apply the Word of God to our lives.
FOOD FOR THE SOUL
God gives us directions and then the reward of following His directions. A wise loving father wants what is best for his children. There is food and there is food for the soul. The food from God brings joy to the soul. God’s food prepares you psychologically and emotionally for the work He has for you. That which you buy from the grocery store feeds the body but does nothing for the soul.
Isa 55:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
God repeats the same direction several times. Listen, hear and come. All
Require a decision on our part. All require the believer to react to God’ directions.
Incline your ear. We all must listen for a word from God. He has something new to reveal to us. We don’t have a problem listening for a new song from our favorite artist which gets old pretty quick and has no real value. A word
From the Lord is new everyday and has lasting value.
In order to hear the Lord we must come close to Him. Stop what you are doing. Pick up your Bible and meditate on the Word. Spend time in prayer not asking but listening.
Listening to the Word is one thing, but hearing with intent on an understanding to act is another thing. It is not good to listen and not act. To act on the Word we must have faith that God is leading us to a place
Of blessing. It is our obedience that precedes blessing. God’s intention for the call is that our souls will live. Not the body, it will go back to dust from which it came.
The promised blessing is the everlasting covenant ratified in the blood of Jesus Christ. Isaish was living under the Law, a covenant ratified with blood of animals. The old covenant came to an end with the death of Jesus on the Cross. No One was saved by the Law, but by obedience to God’s Word
The sure mercies of David continue forever. Mercy is God forgiving the sinner. It is undeserved but given freely to all who come. God is faithful and just to forgive if we come.
THE TIME TO MAKE A DECISION IS NOW
Isa 55:6 Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
The clock is ticking. Time is running out. There will come a time when you
Want be able to call on the Lord. The text is referring to the second coming of Jesus. When he comes all believers will be taken up to heaven. The door will be shut for all nonbelievers
Matt 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.
Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in;
Luke 17:34-35
I say unto you, in that night there shall be two men on one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 There shall be two women grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
Does Luke mean that only 50 percent of the world population will be save?
We certainly don’t know. If we put our uninformed ignorant cap on we say that only another 58 percent of the world population need saving before Jesus comes back.
According to Benjamin Reinke and the Pew Research, 42 percent of the world’s population have not heard the Gospel
Certainly this no proof , but it does say that much work has been done and
Jesus can come back anytime
THE TIME TO COME TO CHRIST IS TODAY
