Restore Joy!

Isaiah 55
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You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12

The desire for joy is universal. One thing that unites everybody here today is that we all want to be happy. Blaise Pascal said it well:

“All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.” [1]

The desire for joy is never more intense than when we experience sorrow. Some of us carry great burdens, absorb great pressures, endure great disappointments, experience great struggles and live with great sorrows.

The champion for your joy

Over time, this fatigues the body and it drains the soul. So when you experience sorrow you need to know that God is for your joy. You may say, “If that’s true you’d better give me a good reason to believe it.”

We saw last week that the cross is your reason to believe it. Christ carried your sorrows, and He did this for the joy set before Him. He did it so that there would be a joy set before you.

If you believe that the Son of God loved you and gave Himself for you, you know that God is totally for you. And if God is totally for you, it must follow that He is for your joy. In fact, God is more for your joy than you are. CS Lewis says this about our desire for joy:

Our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. We are half hearted creatures fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. [2]

Joy in Unlikely Places

Isaiah identifies three scenes of human sorrow:

The barren woman

“Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child” (v1).

To understand this you need to know that in the ancient world the family was the key to survival. Sons and daughters would work your land and bring you food. They would care for you when you were old.

So the key to survival was to have children–lots of them! Without them, you would be destitute. In the ancient world, the barren woman had a bleak future of loneliness and poverty.

The deserted wife

“’You were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit–a wife who married young, only to be rejected,’ says your God” (v6).

There are folks here today who know what this is like. You married young. Some guy told you that he loved you. It seemed that things would work out well, but it wasn’t long before he lost interest in you.

All your dreams of joy were shattered. You were “distressed in spirit.” You lost confidence. You felt that your life was at an end. There will be some folks who are right there today.

The ruined city

“O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted…” (v11).

What a picture that is for us this weekend, when so many have lost their homes, their property, and must begin the long, painful process of rebuilding their lives.

There’s more here than storms of violent weather. One writer translates Isaiah’s words as “a tempest-driven city” [3] not comforted. That’s the world in which many of us live—cut-throat business. It brings relentless pressure, and it drains your soul.

Eyes that see through loss

The choice of these three scenes is very significant. The natural inclination of the human heart is to seek happiness in three places: Children, marriage and money.

Our pride, our joy, our sense of value, our happiness and our security get wrapped up in the children you raise, the person you marry, and the possessions you have. So if your children go off the rails, or your marriage is on the rocks, or your career is in ruins, you will feel that your life is a total loss.

Therefore you would expect that the most unhappy people in the world might be the barren woman, the deserted wife and the people who live in the ruined city.

But Isaiah sees joy in these most unlikely places. The barren woman is singing! The abandoned wife knows she is loved. The ruined city is rebuilt, not with brick and mortar but with rubies, sapphires and precious stones (v11, 12).

God says to the barren woman, the abandoned wife and the people of the ruined city: “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace and mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands… This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign which will not be destroyed” (55:12, 13).

God’s unlikely methods

How can this happen? How can these people, who have known great sorrow, find joy? The barren woman is singing because she is surrounded by a community of people who love her like their own mother. And she finds joy in them as if they were her own children.

“’Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,’ says the Lord” (Isaiah 54:1). The barren woman finds joy in God’s people.

The deserted wife, who has gone through such emotional trauma, has become confident. She has dignity. She is not ashamed, and she knows that she is loved. God says to her: “Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood” (v4).

Isaiah tells us why: “For your Maker is your husband–the Lord Almighty is his name–the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth” (v5). So, this deserted woman finds joy in God’s love.

The ruined city is being rebuilt, but it is infinitely better. “O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will build you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with sapphires. I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones” (v11-13).

John takes up this theme in Revelation 21, and makes it clear that Isaiah is talking about the New Jerusalem, the home of righteousness: “In righteousness you will be established. Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you” (v14).

These folks who have endured such sorrow are finding joy in God’s people, joy in God’s love and joy in God’s city. The fullness of this joy will be ours when Jesus Christ comes in power and glory. But in Christ, the beginning of this joy is yours already.

You don’t have to be a barren woman, a deserted wife, or live in a ruined city to experience this joy. I can think of single people who have this joy and single folks who don’t, married folks who have this joy and married folks who don’t. There are business folks who have this joy and business folks who don’t, and desperately poor people who have this joy and others who are desperately poor and don’t.

Don’t wait for a disaster in your life to pursue this joy. Joy in Jesus Christ frees you to savor all other joys and strengthens you to face all other sorrows.

How Can I Cultivate This Joy?

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!” (55:1).

It begins with a deep thirst. The people who find this joy, the people who will “go out in joy and be led forth in peace” (v12) are people who have discovered a deep thirst in their own souls. They feel they are bankrupt. “No money!” They realize that they do not have what it takes to get what they need.

You can’t ask God to restore your soul until you know that your soul needs restoring. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted… Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:3,4,6).

When you know your soul needs restoring, you will ask God to restore it. This is why sorrow is often the back door to joy. That’s why it is the barren woman, the deserted wife, and the folks in the ruined city who discover joy. The woman with children, the happily married couple, and the successful businessman in the city often do not seek it.

Their lives were so full that they never asked: What are children for? What is marriage for? What is the city for? Is the end for which God created the world that you and your spouse should snuggle up together on your couch? Or is there a higher purpose for your marriage, a greater joy for you and your spouse to pursue together?

Is the end for which God created the world that the kids should play soccer and ride horses? Or is there a higher purpose for your children, a greater joy for your family? Is the purpose of this great city in which we live that thousands of people should make millions of dollars, or is the city for something more than this?

The back door to joy

The default mode of the human heart is to seek our joy in children, in marriage and in money. The Bible has a name for this. It is called idolatry. And idolatry always fails.

The reality of life is that in every continent of the world you will find men and women who are quietly disappointed in marriage. Many have found that their children brought them more grief than joy. Millions live in poverty, carving out an existence in cities devastated by war, or homes destroyed by floods.

But in every generation and in every culture, men and women have found that sorrow is the back door to joy because in your sorrow you become aware of a deep thirst in your own soul. In losing lesser joys they began to thirst after greater joys.

One man who knew about this was John Newton. He had lived a wretched life as a slave trader. He came to a place where he longed for God to restore his soul, and he was marvelously converted.

He wrote the hymn Amazing Grace, that speaks about conversion. But he wrote another hymn about his experience of the Christian life. It’s not nearly as well known as Amazing Grace, but it is profoundly helpful. Here is John Newton’s experience:

I asked the Lord, that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.

I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He’d answer my request,
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yes more, with His own hand He seemed
Intend to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds[4], and laid me low.

‘Lord, why is this?’ I trembling cried,
‘Will you pursue this worm to death?’
‘’Tis in this way,’ the Lord replied,
‘I answer prayer for grace and faith.’

‘These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set you free;
And break your schemes of earthly joy,
That you may seek your all in Me.’ [5]

If you have this deep thirst in your soul, you will want to have greater joy in God’s people, and in God’s love and in God’s city.

Cultivating Your Joy in Jesus Christ

“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.
Seek the Lord while he may be found” (vv. 1, 6).

Notice the four keys words Isaiah uses here: Come. Listen. Seek. Turn. We’ll look at them in pairs:

Come and Seek

700 years later, our Lord Jesus took up these words of Isaiah: “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink’” (John 7:37).

This is something for you to do. You come to Christ. Last week we saw that restoring your soul begins when you believe that God is totally for you in Christ. It begins with believing but it does not end there.

Because you believe, you come. Ask. Seek. Knock. And you will receive. Ask God to give you new joy in His people. Ask him to forgive you for moaning and complaining and fault-finding with His people. Ask Him to forgive you for loving the politics of the church more than the people of the church. Ask Him to give you eyes to see his redeeming work in the lives of other people, and to rejoice in this.

Then ask God to give you new joy in His love. This is how David prayed when he longed for God to restore his soul “Restore to me the joy of your salvation” (Psalm 51:12).

Then ask God to give you new joy in His city. Ask Him to help you to see beyond the disappointments of your life right now. Remember that while there is a future that you don’t know in this city, there is a future that you do know in God’s city. Ask the Lord to give you joy in that city and you will find that your joy grows in this city.

These heart cries for revival are prayers in which we come to God in faith and ask Him to do something. Imagine the impact of 2,000 people coming with faith to Jesus Christ this week and asking Him to ‘Restore Joy!’

Listen and Turn

“Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live…
Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon” (Isaiah 55:2-3, 6-7).

The people who “go out with joy and are led forth with peace” (v12) are folks who develop the habit of hearing God’s Word and receiving it with faith and repentance.

Isaiah has a wonderful promise from God about what His Word will do in your life, if you will listen to what He says to you: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth… 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” (v10,11).

This is one reason why it is so important for you to be in a church where you hear the Word of God applied to your life every week. This is how God speaks into your life. Over time His Word will accomplish His purpose in you.

This is why any ministry that wants to bear lasting fruit must have the Word of God at its center. God accomplishes His purpose through His Word. You might accomplish your purpose without the Word, but you cannot accomplish His purpose without the Word.

The Bible warns us about hearing the Word and not doing what it says: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves” (James 1: 22). Do what it says!

“Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it–he will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:23-25).

Come and seek. Listen and turn. This is a way of life, but it can begin for you today. Will you join me in asking God to restore your soul? Lord, restore faith! Lord, restore joy, that Your people may rejoice in You.

 

[1] Pensees, Blaise Pascal, Section VII.
[2] The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis, pp. 1-2, Eerdman’s, 1965.
[3] Isaiah, Allan Harman, p.372, Christian Focus, 2005.
[4] The gourd was a vine-like plant that gave shade to Jonah. “Blasting the gourds” means taking away comforts.
[5] I Asked the Lord that I Might Grow, John Newton, hymn, 1779.

 

© Colin S. Smith

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WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 –> 00:00:03.520 We’re continuing our series, Restore My Soul. 00:00:03.520 –> 00:00:08.760 Nine heart cries, nine prayers for revival. 00:00:08.760 –> 00:00:14.400 And our aim is that you will experience the gospel more fully in your life and that we 00:00:14.400 –> 00:00:19.020 would narrow the gap between the faith we profess and the life that we experience. 00:00:19.020 –> 00:00:22.780 We began last week by asking God, Oh, restore faith. 00:00:22.780 –> 00:00:28.840 And we saw the reason why we need to begin there, because Isaiah sets out all that Jesus 00:00:28.840 –> 00:00:31.520 Christ has done for us on the cross. 00:00:31.520 –> 00:00:35.900 Pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, punishment that brought us 00:00:35.900 –> 00:00:40.720 peace upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 00:00:40.720 –> 00:00:43.299 And then Isaiah says, but who believes this? 00:00:43.299 –> 00:00:44.680 That’s the question. 00:00:44.680 –> 00:00:49.720 And he’s asking that question of the people of God, who really believes? 00:00:49.720 –> 00:00:52.740 The son of God loved me and gave himself for me. 00:00:52.779 –> 00:01:00.520 And if whatever happens in my life, I know this, God is totally for me in Jesus Christ. 00:01:00.520 –> 00:01:09.019 And we saw the need to tell yourself every day who you are in Christ, what is yours in 00:01:09.019 –> 00:01:13.059 Christ, to preach the gospel to yourself every day. 00:01:13.059 –> 00:01:19.440 I hope you’ve been doing that last week, because the gospel is so great, it is so stupendous, 00:01:19.580 –> 00:01:26.919 that it is a daily struggle for me, for you, to believe it as we should, knowing the gospel 00:01:26.919 –> 00:01:31.120 subconsciously won’t change your life. 00:01:31.120 –> 00:01:37.500 And the person whose soul is restored is the one who first has really come to believe and 00:01:37.500 –> 00:01:42.839 goes on believing, that the son of God loved me and gave himself for me, and God is totally 00:01:42.839 –> 00:01:44.980 for me in Jesus Christ. 00:01:45.000 –> 00:01:50.459 So that first heart cry that we saw last week, Lord, restore faith. 00:01:50.459 –> 00:01:57.139 Help me to be one who not only says I believe these things, but one who believes them. 00:01:57.139 –> 00:02:03.639 Now here’s the second cry today, and it is this cry, Lord restore joy, restore joy. 00:02:03.639 –> 00:02:06.779 The desire for joy is universal. 00:02:06.779 –> 00:02:12.899 One thing that unites every person here, whatever our circumstance in life is we all deeply 00:02:12.899 –> 00:02:16.259 want to be happy. 00:02:16.259 –> 00:02:21.320 Blaise Pascal, the great mathematician and Christian philosopher, put it this way. 00:02:21.320 –> 00:02:24.479 He said, all men seek happiness. 00:02:24.479 –> 00:02:27.740 This is without exception. 00:02:27.740 –> 00:02:32.080 Whatever different means they employ they all tend to this end. 00:02:32.080 –> 00:02:39.919 The cause of some going to war and of others avoiding it is the same desire in both, attended 00:02:39.919 –> 00:02:42.520 by different views. 00:02:42.539 –> 00:02:47.199 The will never takes the least step but to this object. 00:02:47.199 –> 00:02:55.520 This is the motive of every action of every man, even those who hang themselves. 00:02:55.520 –> 00:03:00.320 You see, Blaise Pascal is saying we are driven by this passion for what we most deeply believe 00:03:00.320 –> 00:03:06.279 will make us happy, even the person who takes their life, something you should never do. 00:03:06.320 –> 00:03:12.520 And those who do are driven by a sense of pain being so great that I would be better 00:03:12.520 –> 00:03:15.860 off out of it. 00:03:15.860 –> 00:03:21.919 The passion, the drive for happiness, is universal. 00:03:21.919 –> 00:03:25.839 And therefore it is never more intense than when we experience sorrow. 00:03:25.839 –> 00:03:31.119 So as I’ve tried to meditate and pray about this scripture throughout these last days, 00:03:31.160 –> 00:03:36.740 I’ve just thought about across the congregation situations that I know of, and there are so 00:03:36.740 –> 00:03:44.520 many more that I don’t, but some of you who are carrying heavy burdens and absorbing great 00:03:44.520 –> 00:03:54.000 pressures, and enduring big disappointments, and experiencing great struggles or living 00:03:54.000 –> 00:03:56.660 with great sorrows. 00:03:56.720 –> 00:04:03.759 But you know that over time that fatigues the body, and it drains the soul. 00:04:03.759 –> 00:04:07.699 And when you experience that kind of sorrow, especially over a prolonged period of time, 00:04:07.699 –> 00:04:13.279 you desperately need to know that God is for your joy. 00:04:13.279 –> 00:04:17.459 Your immediate reaction might be to say, well now, if you want me to believe that God is 00:04:17.459 –> 00:04:21.140 for my joy, you need to give me a jolly good reason, when I look at what’s going on in 00:04:21.140 –> 00:04:24.779 my life, well the reason was last week. 00:04:24.799 –> 00:04:30.920 When you look at the cross, you believe that, if you come to that place of faith, you will 00:04:30.920 –> 00:04:35.619 be saying, God is totally for me in Christ. 00:04:35.619 –> 00:04:37.540 The cross demonstrates that. 00:04:37.540 –> 00:04:42.100 And if that is true, and if you deeply believe that, you have to draw the conclusion therefore 00:04:42.100 –> 00:04:44.700 that God is for your joy. 00:04:44.700 –> 00:04:49.339 In fact, C.S. Lewis puts it this way. 00:04:49.339 –> 00:04:53.839 He says, God is more for your joy than you are. 00:04:53.959 –> 00:04:55.600 Here’s what Lewis says. 00:04:55.600 –> 00:05:03.359 he says, our Lord finds our desires for joy not too strong, but too weak. 00:05:03.359 –> 00:05:11.920 We are like half-hearted creatures fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when 00:05:11.920 –> 00:05:14.079 infinite joy is offered to us. 00:05:14.079 –> 00:05:20.679 We’re like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he 00:05:20.679 –> 00:05:25.200 cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the seaside. 00:05:25.200 –> 00:05:30.720 We are, says Lewis, far too easily pleased. 00:05:30.720 –> 00:05:36.000 Here we are trying to find a way to make our lives happier and Lewis says God has a happiness 00:05:36.000 –> 00:05:41.880 and view for you that is so much greater and so much bigger. 00:05:41.880 –> 00:05:49.079 It’s just like a child playing with mud because he’s never imagined what a day at the seaside 00:05:49.079 –> 00:05:50.839 would actually look like. 00:05:50.839 –> 00:05:58.119 Now, I want you to turn with me please to Isaiah chapter 54 and to see there that throughout 00:05:58.119 –> 00:06:05.760 this chapter Isaiah finds joy in the most unlikely places. 00:06:05.760 –> 00:06:10.739 He paints in this chapter three scenes of intense human sorrow. 00:06:10.739 –> 00:06:16.760 Now, immediately there will be some of us in this congregation who identify with one 00:06:16.820 –> 00:06:25.679 or perhaps more of these, and you will say, ah, that is exactly speaking to me. 00:06:25.679 –> 00:06:33.859 The first scene of human sorrow that Isaiah identifies is the barren woman in verse 1, 00:06:33.859 –> 00:06:36.500 the woman who has never had any children. 00:06:36.500 –> 00:06:42.559 Sing, oh, barren woman, you who never bore a child. 00:06:42.739 –> 00:06:48.559 Now, for many women and a number who are in the congregation this morning, this may be 00:06:48.559 –> 00:06:54.040 a source of great pain and of sensitivity. 00:06:54.040 –> 00:06:59.959 It is worth remembering that in the ancient world, the emotions associated with this were 00:06:59.959 –> 00:07:05.440 really intensified by some very practical considerations. 00:07:05.440 –> 00:07:11.600 See, in the ancient world, family was the key to survival. 00:07:11.600 –> 00:07:14.519 In ancient Israel, one thing you had was land. 00:07:14.519 –> 00:07:18.000 Remember in the time of Joshua, they divided the land between the 12 tribes so that each 00:07:18.000 –> 00:07:20.160 family had land. 00:07:20.160 –> 00:07:25.160 So you’re able to support yourself with the land so long as you had someone to work 00:07:25.160 –> 00:07:26.160 it. 00:07:26.160 –> 00:07:28.820 In fact, a team of people to work your land. 00:07:28.820 –> 00:07:32.540 And how are you going to get a team of people to work your land over time? 00:07:32.540 –> 00:07:34.820 The extended family. 00:07:34.820 –> 00:07:40.160 So the key to survival in the long term and especially into old age is, have lots of children. 00:07:40.940 –> 00:07:45.760 Indeed, lots of children, because some of them won’t live for very long in the ancient 00:07:45.760 –> 00:07:47.140 world. 00:07:47.140 –> 00:07:53.519 So, in the ancient world, the barren woman had a very bleak future. 00:07:53.519 –> 00:07:59.399 She would be destitute, she would be hungry, she would be poor. 00:07:59.399 –> 00:08:04.640 So that’s Isaiah’s first picture of intense sorrow. 00:08:04.640 –> 00:08:07.679 The woman who never had any children. 00:08:07.679 –> 00:08:11.920 Here’s the second, and it’s in verse 6, the deserted wife. 00:08:11.920 –> 00:08:16.440 A wife deserted and distressed in spirit. 00:08:16.440 –> 00:08:21.000 A wife who married young only to be rejected. 00:08:21.000 –> 00:08:26.640 Now, again, there are folks in our congregation who know what this is like. 00:08:26.640 –> 00:08:29.399 You married young. 00:08:29.399 –> 00:08:32.760 Some guy told you that he loved you. 00:08:32.760 –> 00:08:37.960 You felt things for him and you married and it seemed that things would work out very 00:08:37.960 –> 00:08:38.960 well. 00:08:38.960 –> 00:08:43.559 But it wasn’t long after you were married before you became aware that he was fast losing 00:08:43.559 –> 00:08:45.840 interest in you. 00:08:45.840 –> 00:08:49.200 And over time, all your dreams of joy seemed shattered. 00:08:49.200 –> 00:08:55.320 You were, to use Isiah’s words, distressed in spirit. 00:08:55.320 –> 00:09:01.840 You lost confidence in yourself, felt humiliated. 00:09:01.919 –> 00:09:06.679 You felt your life was adrift. 00:09:06.679 –> 00:09:14.659 And there are folks, perhaps who are right there in the middle of that, even today. 00:09:14.659 –> 00:09:21.880 Then Isaiah pictures a third scene of intense human sorrow, and it’s in verse 11. 00:09:21.880 –> 00:09:27.659 And it’s extraordinary that this passage should have been the passage chosen for us today. 00:09:27.739 –> 00:09:34.099 Because in verse 11, he talks about the afflicted city, and why is the city afflicted in verse 00:09:34.099 –> 00:09:35.219 11? 00:09:35.219 –> 00:09:39.580 Because it is lashed by storms. 00:09:39.580 –> 00:09:41.619 Extraordinary. 00:09:41.619 –> 00:09:48.059 Isaiah 54 and verse 11, and we think about that today with… 00:09:48.059 –> 00:09:52.340 Some of us have water in our homes, and I don’t want to minimize that, but we think 00:09:52.380 –> 00:09:57.059 of mothers whose homes are just devastated. 00:09:57.059 –> 00:10:09.380 Think of the scale of devastation of Katrina, and now Ike, and the pain and the energy needed 00:10:09.380 –> 00:10:16.820 just for folks to try and rebuild life after, in cases, a total loss. 00:10:16.820 –> 00:10:22.380 And then if we think more widely about some of the scenes of flooding in India and people 00:10:22.380 –> 00:10:30.020 dragging carts and just a few possessions, miles and miles. 00:10:30.020 –> 00:10:32.940 And this is the picture that Isaiah paints for us. 00:10:32.940 –> 00:10:35.880 The city lashed by storms. 00:10:35.880 –> 00:10:37.719 Can you picture that? 00:10:37.719 –> 00:10:41.520 The devastation of ruined homes. 00:10:42.419 –> 00:10:46.760 Torn up buildings. 00:10:46.760 –> 00:10:52.020 I think there’s more here, actually, in what Isaiah is saying than the storms of violent 00:10:52.020 –> 00:10:53.739 weather. 00:10:53.739 –> 00:10:59.760 One writer translates Isaiah’s words as a tempest-driven city. 00:10:59.760 –> 00:11:02.760 Now that’s a helpful picture. 00:11:02.760 –> 00:11:08.780 Think of all of us in the congregation who regularly drive into the city to make a living. 00:11:08.780 –> 00:11:11.340 You take the train into the city. 00:11:11.380 –> 00:11:16.659 That’s what you do every day and you live in what might be described as you think about 00:11:16.659 –> 00:11:18.440 the business world. 00:11:18.440 –> 00:11:22.359 You live in a tempest-driven city. 00:11:22.359 –> 00:11:31.140 You work in a cut-throat business environment and it brings relentless pressure on you and 00:11:31.140 –> 00:11:38.260 it drains the soul because the city with all its excitement is a relentlessly demanding 00:11:38.260 –> 00:11:44.960 place for you to spend your working life. 00:11:44.960 –> 00:11:51.059 And so the choice of these three scenes, I think is very, very significant because the 00:11:51.059 –> 00:11:57.159 natural inclination of the human heart is that we are inclined to seek our happiness 00:11:57.159 –> 00:12:00.039 in three places. 00:12:00.039 –> 00:12:02.700 One is children. 00:12:02.700 –> 00:12:04.780 Another is marriage. 00:12:04.780 –> 00:12:06.500 And a third is money. 00:12:07.500 –> 00:12:11.979 Our pride, our joy, our sense of dignity and worth and value and happiness and security 00:12:11.979 –> 00:12:21.099 and all of that naturally tends to get wrapped up in the children you raise, the person to 00:12:21.099 –> 00:12:27.619 whom you are married, the possessions that you have. 00:12:27.619 –> 00:12:33.299 Which is why when someone’s child goes off the rails, your son or daughter goes off the 00:12:33.539 –> 00:12:39.400 or your marriage is on the rocks or your career suddenly hits the skids and is in ruins, many 00:12:39.400 –> 00:12:43.580 people feel that this now is a total loss. 00:12:43.580 –> 00:12:46.460 My life is not worth anything anymore. 00:12:46.460 –> 00:12:52.760 Therefore, you would expect the most unhappy people in the world to be the barren woman, 00:12:52.760 –> 00:12:57.919 the deserted wife, or the people who live in the ruined city. 00:12:57.919 –> 00:13:08.340 What I want us to grasp from Isaiah 54 is that Isaiah sees joy, joy in these most unlikely 00:13:08.340 –> 00:13:10.260 places. 00:13:10.260 –> 00:13:11.679 Chapter 54 verse 1. 00:13:11.679 –> 00:13:14.299 The barren woman, what is she doing? 00:13:14.299 –> 00:13:17.340 She is singing. 00:13:17.340 –> 00:13:21.239 She is bursting into song. 00:13:21.239 –> 00:13:24.260 She is shouting for joy. 00:13:24.479 –> 00:13:27.619 The abandoned woman in verse 6, what is happening to her? 00:13:27.619 –> 00:13:31.479 She has found security, she knows she is loved. 00:13:31.479 –> 00:13:33.919 What is happening with the ruined city in verse 11 and 12? 00:13:33.919 –> 00:13:34.919 It is being rebuilt. 00:13:34.919 –> 00:13:37.799 Only it is not being rebuilt with bricks and mortar. 00:13:37.799 –> 00:13:44.799 It is being rebuilt with rubies and sapphires and precious stones and if you follow the 00:13:44.799 –> 00:13:50.239 story through because Isaiah 54 and 55 really are kind of a unit together so that is why 00:13:50.239 –> 00:13:52.140 we are looking at them together. 00:13:52.140 –> 00:13:58.780 If you follow it through to chapter 55 and verse 12, you have this marvelous promise 00:13:58.780 –> 00:14:04.679 that is given to the people who have experienced such intense sorrow. 00:14:04.679 –> 00:14:10.859 God says to the barren woman, the deserted wife, and the people of the ruined city, you 00:14:10.859 –> 00:14:16.440 will go out in joy and you will be led forth in peace and the mountains and the hills will 00:14:16.440 –> 00:14:23.020 burst into song before you, and all of the trees will clap their hands. 00:14:23.020 –> 00:14:29.599 Now, you say, how in all the world can that happen? 00:14:29.599 –> 00:14:38.359 How can the people who have known the greatest sorrows end up finding this greatest joy? 00:14:38.359 –> 00:14:45.580 Now, let’s answer that question by looking more closely at what happens in this chapter. 00:14:45.580 –> 00:14:52.659 verse 1, the barren woman is singing, why? 00:14:52.659 –> 00:14:59.619 Because she is surrounded by a community of people who love her like their own mother, 00:14:59.619 –> 00:15:05.260 and she finds joy in them as if they were her own children. 00:15:05.260 –> 00:15:09.359 Single barren woman you who never bore a child burst into song and shout for joy, you who 00:15:09.359 –> 00:15:13.000 never were in labor, why? 00:15:13.799 –> 00:15:19.280 Because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband, says 00:15:19.280 –> 00:15:21.700 the Lord. 00:15:21.700 –> 00:15:28.640 The joy of this woman is that although she has no children of her own, she finds herself 00:15:28.640 –> 00:15:37.400 in the community of God’s redeemed people, who love her as if she were their own mother, 00:15:37.400 –> 00:15:44.059 and she has come to love these people as if they were her own children. 00:15:44.059 –> 00:15:51.820 So the barren woman has found joy in God’s people. 00:15:51.820 –> 00:15:56.820 That’s Isaiah chapter 54 and verse 1, joy in God’s people. 00:15:56.820 –> 00:16:00.140 The deserted wife, what’s happened in her life? 00:16:00.140 –> 00:16:05.320 Well, she has gone through such emotional trauma, but now, she has become a woman of 00:16:05.559 –> 00:16:11.359 She has dignity, she is not ashamed, and she knows that she is loved. 00:16:11.359 –> 00:16:14.979 Verse 4, Do not be afraid, God says to her. 00:16:14.979 –> 00:16:20.700 You will not suffer shame, do not fear disgrace, you will not be humiliated. 00:16:20.700 –> 00:16:24.799 You will forget the shame of your youth, and you will remember no more the reproach of 00:16:24.799 –> 00:16:26.739 your widowhood. 00:16:26.739 –> 00:16:31.820 So this remarkable healing is going to take place in this woman’s life, and now God tells 00:16:31.960 –> 00:16:36.020 us why in verse 5, 4, here is the reason. 00:16:36.020 –> 00:16:38.479 Your maker is your husband. 00:16:38.479 –> 00:16:39.640 Wow! 00:16:39.640 –> 00:16:42.679 The Lord Almighty is his name. 00:16:42.679 –> 00:16:46.059 The holy one of Israel is your redeemer. 00:16:46.059 –> 00:16:50.640 He is called the God of all the earth. 00:16:50.640 –> 00:16:59.280 So just as the barren woman has found joy in God’s people, this deserted wife is finding 00:16:59.280 –> 00:17:02.960 joy in God’s love. 00:17:02.960 –> 00:17:05.579 Your maker is your husband. 00:17:05.579 –> 00:17:09.219 54 in verse 5. 00:17:09.219 –> 00:17:11.020 Let’s look at the ruined city. 00:17:11.020 –> 00:17:15.160 It’s being rebuilt, only it’s being rebuilt infinitely better. 00:17:15.160 –> 00:17:21.500 Guys, in construction you have never seen anything like this building project. 00:17:21.500 –> 00:17:22.500 Look at it with me. 00:17:22.500 –> 00:17:26.939 All afflicted city lashed by storms and not comforted. 00:17:26.939 –> 00:17:32.319 God says I will build you with what? 00:17:32.319 –> 00:17:41.079 With stones of turquoise, your foundations with sapphires, your battlements of rubies, 00:17:41.079 –> 00:17:47.719 your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. 00:17:47.719 –> 00:17:51.300 Where in the world could you see a city built of that stuff? 00:17:52.239 –> 00:17:59.040 Well, John in the New Testament takes up these very words from Isaiah in Revelation chapter 00:17:59.040 –> 00:18:04.180 21, and makes it very clear that what Isaiah is describing here is the New Jerusalem that 00:18:04.180 –> 00:18:09.380 comes down out of heaven that will be the everlasting home filled with joy for all the 00:18:09.380 –> 00:18:11.719 people of God. 00:18:11.719 –> 00:18:19.859 So what Isaiah is speaking about here is that there will be joy for those who have experienced 00:18:19.859 –> 00:18:26.839 such devastation in their city, in the city whose builder and maker is God – to quote 00:18:26.839 –> 00:18:32.839 the book of Hebrews – and they’re finding joy in God’s city. 00:18:32.839 –> 00:18:37.640 Now let’s put these three together because they’re giving us the key to how folks who 00:18:37.640 –> 00:18:44.319 have experienced great sorrow in life may hope to enter into an even greater joy. 00:18:44.380 –> 00:18:50.020 Folks who have experienced this sorrow are finding joy in God’s people, joy in God’s 00:18:50.020 –> 00:18:55.739 love, and joy in God’s city. 00:18:55.739 –> 00:19:00.339 And the fullness of this joy of course awaits the day when our Lord Jesus Christ will come 00:19:00.339 –> 00:19:13.579 back in power and in glory, but in Jesus Christ, the beginning of that joy is ours already 00:19:13.579 –> 00:19:18.500 so that when Jesus Christ comes again, you see, the little nuclear family thing won’t 00:19:18.500 –> 00:19:25.420 be anymore, that’s why there’s no more marriage in heaven, there will be an extension of community 00:19:25.420 –> 00:19:33.939 so that the love of the One who is lonely will be as if this One was my own mother, 00:19:33.939 –> 00:19:36.020 and I was Her son. 00:19:36.020 –> 00:19:42.280 And this experience of love and joy that is shared by all in the presence of God will 00:19:42.300 –> 00:19:43.920 be complete. 00:19:43.920 –> 00:19:50.839 But it is begun even now so that by the redeeming love of the Lord Jesus Christ we are brought 00:19:50.839 –> 00:19:55.500 together into a community where what really matters is not so much we’re married or we’re 00:19:55.500 –> 00:20:01.979 single or we’re rich or we’re poor, but we come to find joy in one another in Jesus Christ 00:20:01.979 –> 00:20:06.000 and to build one another up in the body of Christ. 00:20:06.000 –> 00:20:10.800 That’s what the church is all about, and we, on that day, we will know God’s love as we 00:20:10.800 –> 00:20:16.560 have never known it in this life, yet already we taste the joy of the love of God. 00:20:16.560 –> 00:20:22.040 And although we’ve not yet seen the city that lies ahead of us already, we have come to 00:20:22.040 –> 00:20:26.920 know the one who is building this, and he says to us, I will build my church and the 00:20:26.920 –> 00:20:31.920 gates of hell will not prevail against it. 00:20:31.920 –> 00:20:38.359 Now, I want you to remember that you don’t need to wait until you have an experience 00:20:38.359 –> 00:20:42.199 of disaster before you pursue this joy. 00:20:42.199 –> 00:20:47.880 This joy is not just for the barren woman, the deserted wife and the person who is in 00:20:47.880 –> 00:20:51.579 the afflicted city and has lost their home. 00:20:51.579 –> 00:20:57.800 Joy in Jesus Christ will free you to savor all other joys in your life and will strengthen 00:20:57.800 –> 00:21:02.699 you to face all other sorrows in your life. 00:21:03.199 –> 00:21:10.280 Honestly, I’ve been thinking about folks that I know in relation to this joy and there are 00:21:10.280 –> 00:21:16.979 single people who have this joy and there are single people who don’t, and there are 00:21:16.979 –> 00:21:21.319 married folks who have this joy and there are married folks who don’t, and there are 00:21:21.319 –> 00:21:25.800 business folks with lots of money who have this joy and business folks with lots of money 00:21:25.800 –> 00:21:31.819 who don’t, and I know some folks who are very, very poor who have this joy and I know some 00:21:31.819 –> 00:21:35.500 folks with very poor and they don’t. 00:21:35.500 –> 00:21:43.020 So this cuts across all the artificial kinds of distinctions between us and I hope that 00:21:43.020 –> 00:21:48.939 you will be saying, whatever your circumstances of life right now, whatever your current experience, 00:21:48.939 –> 00:21:56.099 how can I cultivate this kind of joy that will be the joy of all God’s people for eternity. 00:21:57.060 –> 00:22:04.979 in God’s people, joy in God’s love and joy in God’s city. 00:22:04.979 –> 00:22:07.739 That’s what Isaiah 55 is all about. 00:22:07.739 –> 00:22:11.979 It’s about how you cultivate this joy. 00:22:11.979 –> 00:22:18.939 And I want you to notice that it begins with a deep thirst. 00:22:18.939 –> 00:22:25.199 Come all you who are thirsty chapter 55 verse 1, come to the waters. 00:22:25.199 –> 00:22:32.959 Come those of you who have no money, come by and eat. 00:22:32.959 –> 00:22:41.079 The people who find this joy, and in whom it grows, are the folks who have a deep thirst 00:22:41.079 –> 00:22:47.160 within their own lives for it, folks who know their own need of it, and are very well aware 00:22:47.160 –> 00:22:51.719 that they do not have what it takes to get it. 00:22:51.719 –> 00:22:56.880 The real distinction among us in this congregation this morning is not whether we’re married 00:22:56.880 –> 00:23:00.900 single, not whether we’re rich or poor, not whether we have children, grandchildren, 00:23:00.900 –> 00:23:03.619 or whatever it is. 00:23:03.619 –> 00:23:12.119 The real distinction is some of us have a great thirst within our souls for this kind 00:23:12.119 –> 00:23:15.800 of joy, and others really don’t. 00:23:15.800 –> 00:23:17.579 We’re just very contented. 00:23:17.579 –> 00:23:19.079 We’re contented with where we are. 00:23:19.079 –> 00:23:20.079 We’re very happy. 00:23:20.260 –> 00:23:21.619 We’re glad to be here in the church. 00:23:21.619 –> 00:23:28.020 Then we go on and we do something else but there isn’t really a thirst, which is why 00:23:28.020 –> 00:23:33.599 not much ever changes or grows in your Christian life while you don’t really have a sense of 00:23:33.599 –> 00:23:37.380 receiving from God. 00:23:38.439 –> 00:23:45.060 Knowing more of this joy in God’s people, joy in His love, joy in His city, begins with 00:23:45.079 –> 00:23:50.420 a great thirst in your own soul. 00:23:50.420 –> 00:23:56.900 You won’t ask God to restore your soul until you feel that your soul needs restored, and 00:23:56.900 –> 00:24:00.920 God has many different ways of bringing us to that place. 00:24:00.920 –> 00:24:04.520 Remember, Jesus spoke about this in the Beatitudes. 00:24:04.520 –> 00:24:10.780 He said, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 00:24:10.780 –> 00:24:13.859 Now remember, the word blessed means happy, it means joyful. 00:24:13.859 –> 00:24:15.599 So you want to know more of this joy? 00:24:15.599 –> 00:24:19.199 Here’s where it begins, poor in spirit. 00:24:19.199 –> 00:24:21.839 Blessed are those who mourn, said Jesus, for they shall be comforted. 00:24:21.839 –> 00:24:26.900 They are the ones who are going to discover the real joy. 00:24:26.900 –> 00:24:32.839 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, long to be more like Jesus 00:24:32.839 –> 00:24:37.020 Christ, for they’re the ones who are going to be satisfied. 00:24:37.900 –> 00:24:43.979 See, when you know that your soul needs restoring, you feel that. 00:24:43.979 –> 00:24:52.300 You will ask God to restore your soul, and that is why sorrow is often God’s back door 00:24:52.300 –> 00:24:55.219 to joy. 00:24:55.219 –> 00:24:59.619 And that is why, you see, it is the barren woman and the deserted wife and the folks 00:24:59.619 –> 00:25:05.500 in the ruined city who are the first to find it, because others who were very contented 00:25:05.500 –> 00:25:11.900 and just happy and comfortable in their own lives never stopped to seek it. 00:25:11.900 –> 00:25:16.939 Why was it that there were many more prostitutes and tax collectors who came to Jesus, and 00:25:16.939 –> 00:25:21.260 relatively few Pharisees who did? 00:25:21.260 –> 00:25:24.300 Thirst. 00:25:24.300 –> 00:25:26.660 Thirst. 00:25:26.699 –> 00:25:37.300 And sorrow can create a thirst for joy that you didn’t have before. 00:25:37.300 –> 00:25:42.140 I think the truth in our lives, when they’re at their most comfortable, is that it’s 00:25:42.140 –> 00:25:48.699 very easy and even natural for us to just sail on through without ever really asking 00:25:48.699 –> 00:25:51.380 the question, you know, well, what is my marriage for? 00:25:51.380 –> 00:25:52.459 What are my children for? 00:25:52.459 –> 00:25:54.719 What is the city for? 00:25:55.219 –> 00:25:58.400 Here’s the greatest question for a young couple. 00:25:58.400 –> 00:26:04.880 Is the end for which God created the world that you and your wife or your husband should 00:26:04.880 –> 00:26:10.459 snuggle up in your condo together for the next 50 years and just be happy? 00:26:10.459 –> 00:26:15.900 Or is there some greater happiness purpose for your marriage that you should be pursuing 00:26:15.900 –> 00:26:18.560 together? 00:26:18.560 –> 00:26:23.760 And is the purpose for which God gave children into the world that they should play soccer 00:26:23.819 –> 00:26:27.640 and ride horses in the suburbs? 00:26:27.640 –> 00:26:32.880 Or however good and happy that is, is there something more that our family should be pursuing 00:26:32.880 –> 00:26:37.800 together that’s greater? 00:26:37.800 –> 00:26:44.119 Is the purpose of this great city in which we live simply that thousands of people should 00:26:44.119 –> 00:26:49.900 make millions of dollars or is there some greater purpose that God has for this city 00:26:49.900 –> 00:26:52.800 in which we want to be engaged? 00:26:52.800 –> 00:26:58.839 See, the default mode of the human heart is to seek our joy in children, in marriage, 00:26:58.839 –> 00:27:01.640 and in money and the Bible has a name for that. 00:27:01.640 –> 00:27:03.199 It’s called idolatry. 00:27:03.199 –> 00:27:13.760 That’s what it’s called and idolatry always fails which is why there are millions of people 00:27:13.760 –> 00:27:19.640 around the world who are quietly disappointed in marriage. 00:27:19.640 –> 00:27:25.040 Many have found that their children brought them more grief than joy. 00:27:25.040 –> 00:27:35.540 Millions, millions live in poverty, carving out an existence in cities devastated by war 00:27:35.540 –> 00:27:46.979 or by flood but in every generation and in every continent of the world, there are thousands 00:27:46.979 –> 00:27:58.560 who find that sorrow is God’s backdoor to joy because in your sorrow you become aware 00:27:58.560 –> 00:28:03.219 of a thirst you never had before. 00:28:03.219 –> 00:28:09.760 There must be something more than this. 00:28:09.760 –> 00:28:18.040 One man who knew about God creating thirst in his own soul through sorrow. 00:28:18.040 –> 00:28:20.540 A man whose name you know, John Newton. 00:28:20.540 –> 00:28:22.939 You know John Newton’s story. 00:28:22.939 –> 00:28:25.560 He was the master of a slave ship. 00:28:25.560 –> 00:28:31.560 He lived a wretched, wicked life which was perhaps one reason why he could never quite 00:28:31.560 –> 00:28:35.079 get over God’s grace to save him. 00:28:35.099 –> 00:28:40.579 He wrote that hymn that most of us know very well, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, 00:28:40.579 –> 00:28:42.800 that saved a wretch like me. 00:28:42.800 –> 00:28:46.959 That’s John Newton’s great song about conversion. 00:28:46.959 –> 00:28:52.739 But he wrote some other hymns, and there’s one in particular that I want to read to you 00:28:52.739 –> 00:28:57.880 that is not at all well known, but it is profound and very helpful. 00:28:57.920 –> 00:29:05.060 I’ve gone back to this many times at key moments in my own life and walk with the Lord. 00:29:05.060 –> 00:29:11.280 I think you’ll find it helpful, it talks about the reality of Christian experience 00:29:11.280 –> 00:29:15.839 as Newton knew it, and I think many of us here know it. 00:29:15.839 –> 00:29:20.040 Let me just read these words to you, they’ve helped me so much. 00:29:20.040 –> 00:29:21.680 Newton, here’s his experience. 00:29:21.680 –> 00:29:31.020 He said I asked the Lord that I might grow in faith and love and every grace, might more 00:29:31.020 –> 00:29:35.500 of his salvation know and seek more earnestly his face. 00:29:35.500 –> 00:29:40.739 So here’s Newton, he’s a Christian now, and he really wants to grow in Christ and 00:29:40.739 –> 00:29:43.479 he asks the Lord to do it. 00:29:43.479 –> 00:29:50.420 And then he says, I hoped that in some favoured hour at once he would answer my request and 00:29:50.500 –> 00:29:55.660 by his love’s constraining power subdue my sins and give me rest. 00:29:55.660 –> 00:30:00.060 I’d love God to work in my life like that and you would too. 00:30:00.060 –> 00:30:10.219 And then says Newton, instead of this he made me feel the hidden evils of my heart and let 00:30:10.219 –> 00:30:17.300 the angry powers of hell assault my soul in every part. 00:30:17.300 –> 00:30:23.380 Yet more with his own and he seemed intent to aggravate my woe, it seemed like God was 00:30:23.380 –> 00:30:25.239 making it worse. 00:30:25.239 –> 00:30:34.939 He crossed all the fair designs I had schemed, blasted my gourds and laid me low. 00:30:34.939 –> 00:30:41.099 You know what the gourd is, remember the story of Jonah and it was a hot day and a gourd 00:30:41.099 –> 00:30:45.180 grew up, it’s a big plant like a vine and the gourd grew up. 00:30:45.280 –> 00:30:49.099 And remember God sent a worm that ate the gourd and it faded away. 00:30:49.099 –> 00:30:54.319 And so, when the gourd was gone, Jonah was left exposed to the heat of the sun. 00:30:54.319 –> 00:30:58.920 Well, that’s what Newton’s talking about when he says blasted my gourds, he’s saying taking 00:30:58.920 –> 00:30:59.920 away my comforts. 00:30:59.920 –> 00:31:04.599 Like, God took away the comfort from Jonah that was shading him from the sun. 00:31:04.599 –> 00:31:06.599 I love that phrase by the way. 00:31:06.599 –> 00:31:08.280 Blasted my gourds. 00:31:08.280 –> 00:31:11.060 You love that? 00:31:11.060 –> 00:31:13.180 There’s feeling from this in Newton. 00:31:13.180 –> 00:31:15.660 You know I’m wanting to grow as a Christian. 00:31:15.660 –> 00:31:16.900 What’s God doing? 00:31:16.900 –> 00:31:20.859 He’s taken away every comfort in my life. 00:31:20.859 –> 00:31:23.060 Some of you know what that’s like. 00:31:23.060 –> 00:31:26.959 Now, you’ll understand where Newton goes next. 00:31:26.959 –> 00:31:30.859 Lord, why is this, I trembling cried. 00:31:30.859 –> 00:31:35.500 Are you going to pursue this worm to death. 00:31:35.500 –> 00:31:36.780 Here’s what God said. 00:31:36.920 –> 00:31:40.520 Tis in this way, the Lord replied, 00:31:40.520 –> 00:31:45.520 that I answer prayer for grace and faith. 00:31:46.640 –> 00:31:51.640 These inward trials, I employ from self and pride 00:31:53.640 –> 00:31:58.640 to set you free and break your schemes of earthly joy 00:32:00.800 –> 00:32:04.739 that you may seek your all in me. 00:32:05.599 –> 00:32:09.739 You see, Newton discovered in painful places in his life 00:32:10.780 –> 00:32:15.780 that sorrow was God’s back door to much greater joy. 00:32:17.900 –> 00:32:19.459 He found a first within him, 00:32:19.459 –> 00:32:21.699 that you may seek your all in me. 00:32:24.680 –> 00:32:27.420 And if you have this thirst within your own soul 00:32:27.420 –> 00:32:31.579 and you’re wanting to know a greater joy in God’s people, 00:32:31.920 –> 00:32:36.000 a greater joy in God’s love and a greater joy in God’s city, 00:32:36.000 –> 00:32:38.380 you will be saying in your mind right now, 00:32:38.380 –> 00:32:41.040 yeah, now how can I get more of this? 00:32:41.040 –> 00:32:42.719 Because I do thirst for it. 00:32:42.719 –> 00:32:46.140 God’s brought me to the place where I long intensely 00:32:46.140 –> 00:32:47.420 to seek my all in him. 00:32:47.420 –> 00:32:48.739 I really do. 00:32:48.739 –> 00:32:52.540 I’m no longer sitting back comfortably tasting a sermon. 00:32:52.540 –> 00:32:56.459 I need this joy to be restored within my soul. 00:32:56.459 –> 00:32:57.780 How can I know more of it? 00:32:58.500 –> 00:33:01.180 Well, look at what Isaiah says 00:33:01.180 –> 00:33:03.699 in the part of the passage that most of us, 00:33:03.699 –> 00:33:04.880 I think, know well. 00:33:04.880 –> 00:33:07.280 There are just four key words, 00:33:07.280 –> 00:33:11.979 come, listen, seek, and turn. 00:33:11.979 –> 00:33:15.219 I’ll just take them in two pairs, just very briefly. 00:33:15.219 –> 00:33:17.300 Let’s put come and seek together 00:33:17.300 –> 00:33:18.780 because they go naturally together. 00:33:18.780 –> 00:33:21.219 Verse one and verse six of chapter 55, 00:33:21.219 –> 00:33:24.319 here’s how you cultivate the joy that leads to verse 12, 00:33:24.400 –> 00:33:27.760 going out in joy and being led forth with peace. 00:33:27.760 –> 00:33:29.439 Whatever sorrows you’ve known, 00:33:29.439 –> 00:33:31.380 you come, all you who are thirsty, 00:33:31.380 –> 00:33:32.880 you come to the waters, 00:33:32.880 –> 00:33:34.400 you come and buy and eat, 00:33:34.400 –> 00:33:36.839 you come buy wine and milk without money. 00:33:36.839 –> 00:33:37.839 That’s verse one. 00:33:37.839 –> 00:33:42.079 You seek the Lord while He may be found. 00:33:42.079 –> 00:33:44.920 And you remember that our Lord Jesus, 00:33:44.920 –> 00:33:46.959 in John chapter seven verse 37, 00:33:46.959 –> 00:33:50.239 He quotes this very passage from Isaiah and says, 00:33:50.239 –> 00:33:53.199 “‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.’”. 00:33:53.219 –> 00:33:55.439 So this is Jesus speaking. 00:33:55.439 –> 00:33:59.959 We are to come to Him and we are to seek Him. 00:33:59.959 –> 00:34:01.160 Now I just want to emphasize 00:34:01.160 –> 00:34:02.959 this is something for you to do. 00:34:04.079 –> 00:34:05.599 You want your joy to be restored. 00:34:05.599 –> 00:34:07.479 You want your soul to be restored. 00:34:07.479 –> 00:34:09.320 You must come to Him. 00:34:10.520 –> 00:34:12.560 We saw last week that restoring your soul 00:34:12.560 –> 00:34:15.560 begins with believing but it doesn’t end with believing. 00:34:16.860 –> 00:34:20.040 You must come and those who do believe 00:34:20.040 –> 00:34:21.939 will come if there is a great hunger 00:34:22.120 –> 00:34:23.800 and thirst in your soul. 00:34:24.939 –> 00:34:28.459 See, some of us will just listen to a sermon and go home. 00:34:28.459 –> 00:34:31.620 Some of us will listen to nine sermons in this series 00:34:31.620 –> 00:34:33.780 and be utterly unchanged. 00:34:35.260 –> 00:34:39.280 But others of us will embrace these cries 00:34:39.280 –> 00:34:42.580 and you will make it your cry to God 00:34:42.580 –> 00:34:44.419 and you’ll be saying from last week 00:34:44.419 –> 00:34:47.379 make me a person who really believes this 00:34:47.379 –> 00:34:49.780 and not just someone who says I believe it. 00:34:49.820 –> 00:34:51.300 Now, make me someone, God, 00:34:51.300 –> 00:34:53.639 who really has joy in your people. 00:34:53.639 –> 00:34:54.899 Do that for me. 00:34:56.179 –> 00:34:58.100 And if you start praying that this week, 00:34:58.100 –> 00:35:01.120 you come to Jesus Christ and you seek him in this regard, 00:35:01.120 –> 00:35:03.899 you may want to ask him to forgive you 00:35:03.899 –> 00:35:07.659 for moaning and complaining and fault-finding 00:35:07.659 –> 00:35:11.820 and criticizing your brothers and sisters in Christ. 00:35:11.820 –> 00:35:14.580 You may ask him to forgive you 00:35:14.580 –> 00:35:17.020 for loving the politics of church 00:35:17.020 –> 00:35:19.100 more than the people of church. 00:35:19.100 –> 00:35:21.340 You may want to ask him to give you eyes. 00:35:21.340 –> 00:35:23.260 Lord, give me eyes to see 00:35:23.260 –> 00:35:25.540 where you’re doing a redeeming, wonderful work 00:35:25.540 –> 00:35:27.100 in my brothers and sisters 00:35:27.100 –> 00:35:29.780 so that I can have a heart to rejoice in that. 00:35:29.780 –> 00:35:31.939 And then you’ll want to say, Lord Jesus, 00:35:31.939 –> 00:35:34.179 give me new joy in your love. 00:35:34.179 –> 00:35:37.939 Restore to me the joy of your salvation. 00:35:37.939 –> 00:35:40.739 And Lord, give me a clearer grasp 00:35:40.739 –> 00:35:42.919 of the hope that is mine in Jesus Christ, 00:35:42.919 –> 00:35:45.899 the city whose builder and maker is God. 00:35:45.899 –> 00:35:48.459 I don’t know my future in this city, 00:35:48.459 –> 00:35:51.060 but I do know my future in that city. 00:35:51.060 –> 00:35:53.340 And the more joy I have in that city, 00:35:53.340 –> 00:35:55.659 the more joy I will have in this city. 00:35:59.419 –> 00:36:02.820 These are prayers, these heart cries for revival. 00:36:04.500 –> 00:36:08.820 And I want you to imagine the impact and the life change 00:36:10.520 –> 00:36:12.860 of 2,000 people 00:36:12.860 –> 00:36:15.739 in this church, 00:36:17.780 –> 00:36:19.419 hammering the gates of heaven 00:36:19.419 –> 00:36:21.379 because these are passionate prayers, 00:36:23.360 –> 00:36:26.379 and saying, Lord Jesus Christ, restore joy. 00:36:29.239 –> 00:36:31.919 There are too many unhappy Christians, 00:36:33.340 –> 00:36:38.239 and the reason is not circumstances, 00:36:39.199 –> 00:36:42.280 not when you look at Isaiah 54 00:36:43.399 –> 00:36:47.500 and discover who it is that has found this joy. 00:36:49.639 –> 00:36:53.600 And if they can find this joy, why shouldn’t you? 00:36:55.300 –> 00:36:56.260 Why shouldn’t you? 00:36:58.860 –> 00:37:03.860 Come and seek and then listen and turn. 00:37:04.500 –> 00:37:08.280 Verse two and three, listen, listen to me, God says, 00:37:08.280 –> 00:37:10.639 give ear, come to me, hear me. 00:37:10.639 –> 00:37:12.120 And then verse six and seven, 00:37:12.120 –> 00:37:15.620 let the wicked forsake his way and turn to the Lord. 00:37:15.620 –> 00:37:18.800 In other words, the people who go out with joy 00:37:18.800 –> 00:37:21.419 and are led forth with peace in verse 12, 00:37:21.419 –> 00:37:23.159 they’re the folks who have developed 00:37:23.159 –> 00:37:27.820 not only the habit of coming to Christ and seeking him, 00:37:27.820 –> 00:37:29.879 but they have developed the pattern of life 00:37:29.879 –> 00:37:32.280 in which they hear the word 00:37:32.280 –> 00:37:36.439 and they receive it with faith and with repentance. 00:37:36.439 –> 00:37:38.719 And so what Isaiah speaks about 00:37:38.719 –> 00:37:41.159 becomes true of them in verse 10 and 11. 00:37:41.159 –> 00:37:43.239 The purpose for which God sent his word 00:37:43.239 –> 00:37:46.979 into the world is accomplished in their lives. 00:37:47.959 –> 00:37:51.159 The change, the healing, the growth, 00:37:51.159 –> 00:37:54.580 the joy that comes by the spirit of God 00:37:54.580 –> 00:37:57.479 through the word of God is cultivated in their lives 00:37:57.479 –> 00:38:00.520 because they come and seek and because they listen 00:38:01.379 –> 00:38:03.439 and because they turn from what is wrong. 00:38:04.520 –> 00:38:05.520 That’s one reason, by the way, 00:38:05.520 –> 00:38:07.679 why it’s such a wonderful thing to be in a church 00:38:07.679 –> 00:38:10.399 where we receive the word of God into our lives, 00:38:10.399 –> 00:38:12.120 get into a life group so that 00:38:12.120 –> 00:38:14.679 that can happen for you in the week, 00:38:14.679 –> 00:38:17.040 establish a pattern that the word of God 00:38:17.040 –> 00:38:20.820 is keeping coming freshly into your life 00:38:20.820 –> 00:38:23.139 because God says his word will accomplish 00:38:23.139 –> 00:38:25.540 the purpose for which he sends it. 00:38:25.540 –> 00:38:29.360 You can accomplish your purposes without the word of God 00:38:29.379 –> 00:38:32.139 but God’s purposes are always accomplished 00:38:32.139 –> 00:38:33.780 through the word of God, 00:38:33.780 –> 00:38:36.899 which is why we want to build our lives and our ministry 00:38:36.899 –> 00:38:39.820 around the word of God. 00:38:39.820 –> 00:38:41.340 And do not merely listen. 00:38:41.340 –> 00:38:43.500 It’s a wonderful privilege to hear the word of God 00:38:43.500 –> 00:38:44.879 but don’t merely listen. 00:38:44.879 –> 00:38:47.419 James says in the new testament, do what it says. 00:38:47.419 –> 00:38:51.419 That’s why Isaiah here says, turn, listen and turn. 00:38:51.419 –> 00:38:52.739 Because the person who just hears 00:38:52.739 –> 00:38:54.100 is like someone who looks in a mirror 00:38:54.100 –> 00:38:56.860 and then just goes away and nothing’s ever different. 00:38:56.860 –> 00:38:59.080 But says James in the new testament, 00:38:59.120 –> 00:39:01.639 someone who looks into the word of God 00:39:01.639 –> 00:39:03.459 and continues doing this, 00:39:03.459 –> 00:39:06.560 not forgetting what he’s heard but doing it, 00:39:06.560 –> 00:39:08.399 well this person will be blessed. 00:39:08.399 –> 00:39:13.399 That word again, happy, joyful in all that he does. 00:39:13.439 –> 00:39:15.340 So come and seek. 00:39:15.340 –> 00:39:17.399 This is how the joy in God’s people 00:39:17.399 –> 00:39:20.439 and in God’s love and in God’s city grows. 00:39:20.439 –> 00:39:22.919 Listen and turn. 00:39:24.159 –> 00:39:26.260 And you know this is not so much a decision 00:39:26.260 –> 00:39:27.879 to be made at the end of a service, 00:39:27.919 –> 00:39:30.000 it’s a way of life to be followed. 00:39:32.199 –> 00:39:36.399 But it is a way of life that can begin for you today. 00:39:37.800 –> 00:39:40.560 Feeling that thirst, Lord restore faith. 00:39:41.399 –> 00:39:44.979 Lord restore joy. 00:39:44.979 –> 00:39:49.159 Father, make that the heart cry of 00:39:49.159 –> 00:39:51.300 every person in this congregation 00:39:53.040 –> 00:39:56.520 and then we know that in your mercy 00:39:57.520 –> 00:40:00.899 you will respond to this prayer 00:40:02.479 –> 00:40:05.159 and do your great and amazing work 00:40:05.159 –> 00:40:10.159 in our lives in a new way, for Jesus’ sake, amen.

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Colin Smith

Trustee / Founder and Teaching Pastor

Colin Smith is the Senior Pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has authored a number of books, including Heaven, How I Got Here and Heaven, So Near – So Far. Colin is the Founder and Teaching Pastor for Open the Bible. Follow him on X formerly Twitter.

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Sermons on Isaiah What if your heart cried out to God? What if all our hearts cried out for revival? The church and the world would never be the same. In these sermons on Isaiah, you’ll discover nine heart-cries for revival. Each one is an expression of God’s heart for His people. As they become

Colin Smith

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