Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Simon Tugwell wrote, In this message from Isaiah 55, Pastor Rich points us to God's invitation to come to Himself, to come to the one our heart was made for. Let's listen in to this last message from the series titled Behold Your God. A copy of the scriptures open with me to Isaiah 55.
The series has been entitled Behold Your God. It is most important that we know God in the way that He has revealed Himself, lest we worship a God of our own making. And that would be idolatry, wouldn't it? We must know God for who He truly is. And the Lord, through the prophet Isaiah, presents Himself and manifests Himself. And today we look to Him as our satisfaction, and that's the way He is revealed. Let's pause for a moment to seek the Lord.
Father, You are good. And we thank You, O God, that You have manifested Yourself to us in such a way that we can know You and walk with You with delight. So, Father, as we are gathered here together this morning as Your people to fellowship with You, to commune with You, to engage Your Word, Father, I pray that You would open our hearts and our minds and draw us to Yourself, Father, that we would indeed find You and You alone to be our satisfaction. We recognize, Father, that what that will entail is for You to rescue us from anything else that we think might satisfy us. So do a work in our hearts this morning, Father, that we indeed will be Your people who look to You in and for our delight. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. The prophet says, the Lord says through the prophet in verse 2, Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for what does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in rich food. The average American watches nearly 30 hours of TV per week. If you were to do the math, that means out of the 12 months you would spend 65 days non-stop.
Kind of changes perspective, doesn't it? By the time you reach 65, you will have watched 2 million commercials. Of course, the common theme of all those commercials is this product will give you happiness and deep satisfaction. That's why you need it. Act now.
Because if you wait, you'll miss out. Based on the worldview of TV commercials, we might be able to rewrite the Beatitudes to sound something like this. Blessed are those who fly to luxury vacation spots on tropical islands where they lie in lounge chairs. Oh, the only two people on an enormous white beach for they shall be satisfied. I have nothing against beaches.
We love going to Oak Island. Blessed are those who drink much beer for they shall be surrounded by carefree football watching buddies and highly attractive socially gifted women in the first half of life anyway. And they shall be satisfied. Blessed are those who have the latest smartphone. Oh, now you're meddling. For they shall gaze on a screen of swirling color and shall get all the information they need just when they need it and they shall be satisfied.
Not. Psychologist Patricia Dalton says, rampant consumerism once confined to the holidays has become a year-round American affliction. She observes unhappy people trying to fill the emptiness of their lives with irresponsible spending and then consulting psychologists like her to figure out what has gone wrong with their lives. Quote, those of us who lived through the 60s seem to have forgotten the warning that everything you buy owns you. End quote. To pay for all their stuff, people now work so hard that they're ruining their marriages, their families, and their health. Heed the grand invitation of Isaiah 55.
Why do you spend money for what is not bred in your wages for what does not satisfy? The grand invitation is verses one to seven of Isaiah 55. Invitation, I believe, to be the overall genre of Scripture. It is a revelation of invitation.
It is a genre of Scripture. It is a revelation of invitation. And he begins this with ho. Just one ho. It's not ho, ho, ho.
Just one. Which is, it's an attention getter. Alas. Kind of like, finally, listen up, let me have your attention. But you know, there's another sense that's nuanced in this and that's the idea of whoa, those of you who are, who have been in whoa.
Whoa, having looked so long to unsatisfying options. Ho, everyone who thirsts come to the waters. American writer and intellectual David Foster Wallace gave a famous commencement address in which he said this to the graduating class. And I quote, in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And pretty much anything you worship will eat you alive. And if you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. Worship power and you will feel weak and afraid and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud always on the verge of being found out and so on. Wallace was at the top of his profession.
He was an award-winning best-selling novelist and he committed suicide in 2008. We are a thirsty people. We need satisfaction. This is the grand invitation of Isaiah chapter 55 where the Lord says through the prophet, don't miss out on what God has for you. The grand invitation, don't miss out on what God has for you. There is a sweeping invitation to every thirsty person and who here is not thirsty? What person that has walked the face of the earth has not thirsted? There is a general invitation that is extended to persons who have no resource to receive freely the things they desperately need.
That's what John Oswald says. Those who have no resource to receive freely the things they desperately need. Malcolm Muggeridge in The End of Christendom says, God has made our fantasies so preposterously unrewarding that we are forced to turn to him for help and for mercy. We seek wealth and find we've accumulated worthless pieces of paper. We seek security and we find we've acquired the means to blow ourselves and our little earth to smithereens.
We seek carnal indulgence only to find ourselves involved in the prevailing erotomania. At age 30, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had already won three Super Bowls, an accomplishment that sets him apart as one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game of football. Despite the fame and the accomplishments, Tom Brady told 60 Minutes journalist Steve Croft that it felt like something was still lacking in his life. And I quote, why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey man, this is what it's all about.
I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think it's got to be more than this. I mean, this isn't, it can't be all it's cracked up to be. You see, we look to our heroes, we look to celebrities to fantasize that if only we could live as they do. Some of those are athletes, some of those are the intellectuals. I've referred to two of them this morning. Sometimes we look to movie stars, the rich and the wealthy. Well, let's listen to what a couple of them have to say. Jim Carrey, I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.
Orlando Bloom, if life isn't about humanity then tell me what it's all about because I'd love to know money and power aren't what life is about. It can't be. It becomes pretty clear, doesn't it? From those who have it all, as we in our humans tend to think, it's not all. It does not satisfy.
F.B. Meyer said, God has said, eternity in our heart and man's infinite capacity cannot be filled or satisfied with things of time and sense. This is why the Lord gives us a grand invitation of Isaiah 55. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
