Series - "Dinner's On Us" - 1

A man crawling through the Sahara desert is approached by another man riding a camel. The crawling man whispers through parched lips, “Water. . .please. . .can you give. ..water?” “I’m sorry,” replies the man on the camel, “I don’t have any water. But I’d be delighted to sell you a necktie.” “Necktie?” whispers the man. “I need water!” “They’re only four dollars apiece.” “I need water.” “OK, OK, two for seven dollars.” “Please! I need water!” the man exclaims. “I don’t have any water, all I have are ties,” replies the salesman, and he heads off into the distance.

By now the man has been crawling through the desert seemingly for days. Finally, nearly dead, with clothes tattered and skin peeling under the relentless sun, he comes to an oasis with a restaurant. Summoning his last bit of strength, he staggers to the door and confronts the headwaiter. “Water. . .can I get. . .water?” he pleads. “I’m sorry, sir… Neckties required.”

Have you ever really been thirsty? Or hungry? When you are thirsty, there is not much else you can think about, like appropriate clothing attire for fine dining. They say that being truly hungry and thirsty is one of the most awful kinds of human suffering.

The people of New Orleans now know what it means to be hungry and thirsty. In most places in North America, basics like food and water just aren’t a problem. We have more food and water than we need. The people hit by Hurricane Katrina are lacking these basic necessities of life. Our hearts, prayers, and actions are going out to them. I mean, imagine all the blessings that we have! We aren’t hungry or thirsty!

Or are we? Well, most North Americans aren’t going through what the hurricane victims are. We eat more food than we need! But we are filled with a different kind of hunger and thirst. One that, if not satisfied, leads to the most painful of all human experiences – separation from God. I am talking about spiritual hunger, a condition that has affected everyone on this planet. Our text from Isaiah 55 deals with this need.

Through Isaiah, God calls out, “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.” Imagine an ancient marketplace where merchants have their tables and awnings set up. They shout to passersby, hawking their products. God is like one of those vendors, but his products are nothing like vegetables, meat, water, milk, or wine. He has spiritual blessings to dispense to everyone, and He has a fervent desire to share them with all. Not only are God’s products different, they’re also FREE! Because of God’s grace.

So friends, are you hungry? Not for hamburgers and hotdogs. Hungry for a deeper relationship with God? Hungry to fill that God-shaped hole in your heart? Hungry for meaning in life? For forgiveness? For love? For Jesus? Then God is saying to you, “Come and Get It!”

Come and get what? Spiritual Food. Come and get his promises He gives us in his Word! Come, hear, listen, bend your ear to the Word of God! God’s undeserved love, his amazing promises given to us in his Word are the spiritual food that you and I so desperately need for life. And you know what? It’s FREE! There is no cost to you! The most important food in the world for you is always free of charge. And it is always available. No famine, no flood, no disaster can deprive you of this food.

It’s a free gift to you. Just like God’s grace. You and I didn’t do anything to make God love us. We couldn’t buy his forgiveness. He freely pardoned us. It was his gift – given us through Jesus. And just to make sure that we get that gift entirely for free, He delivers it right into our hearts through his Word – which is also given to us for free. That’s God for you. Not anything like us, is He? His ways are so much higher than our ways!

So the most important thing you can do for your souls is to listen to God’s Word in personal Bible study, home devotion, group Bible study, and worship, all opportunities to nourish your souls for eternity, and it’s all yours for free! But yet, what do we do? We spend so much of our time, money, and effort on things that cost a lot, and do nothing for our souls! Verse 2: “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?”

In his book Sahara Unveiled, William Langewiesche tells the story of an Algerian named Lag Lag and a companion whose truck broke down while crossing the desert: They nearly died of thirst during the three weeks they waited to be rescued. As their bodies dehydrated, they became willing to drink anything in hopes of quenching their terrible thirst. The sun forced them into the shade under the truck, where they dug a shallow trench. Day after day they lay there. Finally, when all the water was gone, they resorted to drinking rusty radiator water! In order to survive, they were willing to drink poison!

You know, the world is full of things that do not satisfy. Full of poison. Ask the drug addict. Ask the alcoholic. Ask the gambler. Ask the person addicted to sex. Ask the materialist always looking for more. Money, sex and power have never quenched our spiritual thirst. They are dangerous substitutes for the “living water” Jesus promises. And all they do is ultimately kill us. Unless we have Jesus, it is a life of confusion. Because since we have diseased spiritual taste buds, we often make bad choices in order to fill those cravings!

How about you? Are you hungry? Looking for satisfaction? We so often think we have a thousand more important things to do, but God tells us here that we have nothing more important to do in all eternity than to listen! God uses his Word as the tool, the food, which gives us faith and strengthens it. It is through that Word that He will satisfy our deepest needs.

“Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good.” Friends, God’s Word is GOOD for you! It is the most healthy thing you can eat! It tells us of God’s grace. His love for us. When Elizabeth Barrett married Robert Browning, her parents disowned her because they disapproved of the marriage. Their daughter Elizabeth, however, wrote a letter almost every week, telling them that she loved them and longed for a reconciliation. After 10 years, she received a huge box in the mail that contained all the notes she had sent. Not one had been opened! Although these "love letters" have now become a precious part of English literature, it’s really sad to think that they were never read by Elizabeth Barrett’s own parents! Had they looked at just one, the broken relationship with their daughter might have been healed.

All of us are alienated from God because of sin. But God provided a way of reconciliation: giving up his own Son to live and die in our place to make things right again. In the Bible, He tells us about it, and also expresses His earnest desire for fellowship with us. The Bible is God’s love letter to you! Won’t you read it? What could be more important?

Eating this Spiritual Food is not only good for you, it also produces results. The Word is living and active. The Holy Spirit fills it with his presence. And it produces faith in our hearts. Nothing else leads us to know and believe in Jesus as our Savior.

A young Colombian girl received a Bible in her school. She read it until her father caught her reading it…and told her not to read it any more because it was full of lies and fantasy. But the girl kept on reading until one day her father came home unexpectedly, found her with the bible, grabbed it from her hands, and put it in his pocket. The father went off to work where he was a mining engineer. Several hours later sirens went off in the community. There had been a cave-in at the mine. The father was trapped in the mine. It took rescue workers 5 days to finally reach the men, but it was too late. All 31 men died, including the father of this little girl.

Curiously, workers found the man clutching the Bible between his praying hands. When they opened the front cover, they read a note: “To my daughter: Keep reading this. It is true and right, and I will see you one day in heaven.” Then they turned to the back page where the father had written a confession of faith in Jesus and signed it. But that was not the end of the story. Turning the page, they found the signatures of the other 30 workers! God’s Word is powerful. It produces results in our hearts just like rain waters the earth and makes it grow.

If I want my lawn to grow, it needs to be watered. If I want to learn how to play the piano, I need to practice. If I want to be smart, I need to study. If I want to be physically healthy, I need to eat and drink the right things. And if I want to grow closer to God, to be spiritually healthy, I need to feed on his Word. I need to put myself in a place where I will regularly hear and listen to his promises and love for me in his scriptures. Daily. Regularly. Notice that with all of these things, they need to be done regularly. Daily. Again and again.

My mother teaches piano. When you walk into her house, one of the first things you see right next to her baby grand is a sign that says: “You only have to practice on the days you eat.” Friends, the same thing is true about God’s Word! You only have to read it on the days you eat! How much time do we spend eating? Making food? Cleaning up? All of that for our physical health! In comparison, how much time to we spend on our spiritual health? Not as much, is it?

Friends, it’s time to eat! Come and get it! God’s Word, in all its tasty varieties, is the most important nourishment we could have. Cross of Life has put together a “menu” of different ways in which that wonderful Word could be served to you. So here is my challenge to you: Take out the MENU you have with you and look over the opportunities for growing in God’s Word. Think and pray about it. Consider how important it is for you to be growing in your relationship with Jesus. Then choose at least one “menu item” and make it part of your regular spiritual diet. I am challenging you to do this because you NEED to EAT! Come and get it! And we are saying “Dinner’s On Us!” because you don’t have to worry about the cheque. Oh, we didn’t pay anything for it, either. It was free for us and we get to pass it on free for you!

Our souls need to be fed. And we need God’s love to feed our souls. During WWII, an American soldier on Christmas morning completed sentry duty at his post outside London. Since he had no church to go to, he and some of his buddies walked toward the city and they came to an old gray stone building: “Queen Anne’s Orphanage.” They decided to stop and see what Christmas celebration was taking place. A matron let them in and explained that the children were orphaned by the bombing of London. When the children got out of bed, the soldiers gave them Christmas gifts from whatever they happened to have in their pockets: a piece of string, a stick of gum, stubby pencils. The soldier saw a little fellow standing alone in a corner. He went over to the child and asked, “And you, little man, what do you want?” Turning up his little face, he said, “Please, sir, I want to be loved.”

Isn’t that the longing in everyone’s heart? To be loved? And where can we buy love? We can’t. Money won’t do it. Love comes from Christ who loved us in spite of who we were. God has showered the blessings of his love on us for free. That’s even better than free food! If you are in doubt that God loves you, look to Jesus. See Him on the cross dying for you. Above his head, it says: “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Come! Listen! Hear that Word, friends, that says God loves you! That He loves you enough to die for you. Come, all you who are hungry and thirsty! Here’s some eternal soul-food! And it’s free! Come and Get It! Study it. Digest it. And grow from it! Amen.

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