God's Words Like Rain (Pastor Aaron Trelfa, 05/28/22)

Today we are going to end a sermon series that we took a small hiatus from.

We're going to come back to it.

It does connect to our scripture reading but that's not where the bulk of our discussion

is going to be.

That's the starting point.

So if you would like to turn to Isaiah chapter 55, that's where we will be discussing today.

Isaiah 55 · chapter mention

Before we begin though, let us say one more word of prayer.

Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for the calling you have placed in our lives to take

up the banner, the work that Christ began that your apostles continued that has carried

through the centuries all the way to today.

Lord I pray that we would not languish in our understanding but rather we would continue

the work.

And so today I pray that as we open up your word you would bring it home.

I pray that you would impress it upon us so that we can have a deeper faith in you.

This is my prayer for we pray in Jesus name, amen, and amen.

There are unfortunately lots of well-known lies, myths, or fables that we are aware of.

If we understand that there is a spiritual conflict currently raging, sight unseen but

still present between a loving Heavenly Father and a nasty rascal of a devil whom the Bible

says is a liar and the father of lies, then we would expect to see in a sinful world untruths.

We would expect to hear things like from Big Tobacco a couple of years ago but repeated

even recently that nicotine is no more addictive than a Coca-Cola or a Twinkie.

And yes that is a quote, it's no more addictive than eating a Hostess Twinkie.

We would expect to see lies like read my lips, no new taxes.

Some of us maybe know what that is a reference to.

We would expect to see some things like the scandal of Watergate and what they tried to

cover up and hide and so on.

We would expect to hear I did not have relations with so and so when in reality you didn't.

We would expect to hear even from our little ones did you get into the food coloring or

the cookie jar when they've got crumbs around their mouths or blue dye all over their hands.

We would expect to see fibs and untruths.

In fact this is a time of year when as Americans we kind of think back on some of our American

heritage.

The story goes that a young George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and when his father

asked what happened here he said father I cannot tell a lie.

It was me and so on and his father hugged him and thanked him for his honesty.

Did you know that's probably made up?

I mean this is the world we live in y'all.

It's a made up story about a man being honest.

That just seems to be contradictory.

It seems that a biographer penned that after our first president had already passed away.

At that time it was tough to fact check things quite like we do today.

But our world is full of lies.

You can read nearly any news article printed today nearly any one of them and find something

misleading about it because the writer most the time is not purely objective.

They want you to come to a conclusion.

And so the article regardless of source they're looking to bring you to a conclusion.

So we have manipulation we have lies we have falsehoods and so on.

I don't want to dwell on that I want to talk about a statement a prominent historical figure

that is remembered for something he said that came true and he stuck to it and he carried

it out.

And I think we should focus on the good at times.

There's too much bad.

Let's focus on the good.

U.S. General Douglas MacArthur U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was the son of an American

Civil War hero and he served as the chief U.S. military adviser to the Philippines before

World War Two.

The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed Japan launched its invasion of the Philippines.

After struggling against great odds to save his now adopted home from Japanese conquest

MacArthur was forced to abandon the Philippine fortress of Corregidor under orders from President

Franklin Roosevelt.

This was in March of 1942.

Left behind on that peninsula were 90,000 American and Filipino troops who were lacking

food lacking supplies lacking support and they would soon succumb to the Japanese offensive.

After he left he and his family this is Douglas MacArthur traveled by boat several hundred

miles through rough seas Japanese Navy and so on.

During this journey he was informed that there were fewer allied troops in Australia that

he had hoped for.

He had hoped that some of our allies in nearby Australia would be able to quickly come to

the defense of the Filipino and American troops that he had sadly to leave behind.

But there were fewer allies than first thought.

Relief of his forces trapped in the Philippines would not be forthcoming.

Deeply disappointed he issued a statement to the press at that time in which he promised

his men and the people of the Philippines three simple direct powerful words.

I shall return.

That became Douglas MacArthur's motto from that point moving forward.

He never forgot the men and and the people and the lives that got left behind and he

never forgot that promise.

I shall return.

This was a time when when a man spoke a man of character a man of of stature a man of

importance when he said something he meant it and he would bend his energies to follow

through and Douglas MacArthur was that kind of man.

I shall return.

He repeated and repeated and repeated.

He campaigned for it.

He asked for it he leaned all that he could towards the promise of I shall return.

And in.

I want to make sure I get the year correct.

On October 20 1944.

A few years later a few hours after his troops landed MacArthur waded ashore onto the Philippine

island.

I'll probably say this incorrectly but the Philippine island of late late late that day

he made a radio broadcast in which he declared people of the Philippines.

I have returned.

That's an incredible story.

I was a man faulty though I'm sure he was said something and meant it and did all that

he could in his power to bring it to fruition.

If a man faulty and with obstacles that he had to overcome perhaps red tape that he had

to wade through all of the different campaigning for resources and arranging the troops and

all that goes into warfare all of that lined up in front of him.

He was able to accomplish the one promise.

Imagine then what the God of the universe can do when he says something.

If a man with his faults and his shortcomings can accomplish a promise can be true to his

word imagine what the creator and sustainer of all can do when he speaks a word.

We've read in Genesis one that when God says let there be whatever comes after is we've

read in the Gospels that when the Son of God says so and so rise breath enters back into

the body and the heart starts beating and whomever was named rose.

It has been thought that the reason why Jesus had to be so specific with the naming of the

person is if he kept it too general grades would just start popping all over the place.

People would just start answering the call of their Redeemer and just start rising up

all over the place.

We know that there was a greater resurrection at Christ's resurrection but when the word

of God comes forth something happens.

It doesn't just fall into nothingness or end up like you're talking to an inanimate object

and then nothing occurs.

If God were to talk to an inanimate object you would then be animated.

It would then do something the rocks would cry out and preach the gospel.

The Bible says if people didn't do it themselves the word of God the Bible tells us is powerful.

It's meaningful and when God speaks something happens.

We have been going through first John chapter four and now Isaiah fifty five the Samaritan

woman at the well and then now Isaiah fifty five the connection between them.

I believe is that what Jesus was experiencing and talking about and leading those Samaritan

village through and to is the culmination of what Isaiah is writing about in this section

of scripture.

If you read Isaiah leading up to fifty five you see a progression of God first talking

to Israel and then expanding it into all who would listen that that expanding out to all

the people to anyone who has an ear anyone who thirsts anyone who wants the salvation

I have to offer.

Come to me it might start with them but then it's going to everybody without restriction.

What we see with the lady in Samaria is a non Jew listening to the word of God and being

moved by it coming to repentance looking for Christ's compassion seeing what she was missing

and drinking deeply of that living water that he offers.

As we've gone through Isaiah fifty five we've we've touched on that and then we get down

to verses six and seven and we read seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him

while he is near but the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts let

him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly

pardon.

It is a beautiful call and a beautiful invitation that God extends to you and to me today no

matter what it is no matter how serious it might have been or currently is the invitation

is to return back to him and he will abundantly pardon.

He will abundantly forgive he will cleanse you of your way he will have compassion on

you.

You just need to return to him that invitation is there.

When we move on into verses eight and nine we see the reason why God can offer it and

that's because the disparity between you and God is real and it is necessary.

God is so far above us that we might not understand how a murderer like David and like Saul can

be forgiven and brought back into God's family a man after one's own heart and the 13th apostle

14th apostle the apostle to the Gentiles.

We don't understand how a thief hanging on the cross as guilty as guilty can be.

Christ can say today I promise you you will see me in paradise.

We don't understand how that works.

I don't understand how God's grace can take a drunkard a gossiper a thief a an abuser

I don't understand how the grace of God can take someone's character bent in that fashion

and soften it and remake it after the fashion of Christ.

I don't understand how that works in my shortcomings I look too many times at men and women and

I go seems like they've made their choice.

I think we do that too often but praise God he doesn't do that he is not limited in the

way that we are his thoughts are not our thoughts and then more importantly his ways are not

my ways.

He has the goods to back up the invitation in other words he has the means he has the

ability he has the way of understanding and he has a plan for you and I that we won't

be able to comprehend after studying it for millennia and I praise God for that.

I don't want to put the creator of the universe into a box that I can understand and then

say that's what he is.

He's far above us that's a reason why he can offer the invitation for forgiveness and

pardon and then today's focus verse 10 a secondary reasoning why he can give this invitation

for as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth

making it bring forth and sprout giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall

my word be that goes out from my mouth it shall not return to me empty but it shall

accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

The second reason that God gives for here's the invitation and here's why you can trust

me as he says when I say something it happens.

When we have reason to believe this because the example that is given we can look outside

our windows and observe in nature the cyclical effect of what God has put in place knowing

that it has been and it will continue until Christ returns and every time we see the rainfall

and the steam go up and the clouds form and the rainfall again harvest time comes seeding

and planting season arrives as long as that continues to go on that is sure evidence that

God's word will come true will come to fruition.

The rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth

making it bring forth and sprout giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

When I before I changed careers and started a new answered the call to pastoral ministry

I was a landscaper I think most of you all know this where we lived in Lexington Kentucky

had a very consistent pattern for weather every year just about you could guarantee

ninety nine out of a hundred times it was going to behave in a certain way when you

were there long enough you knew that you would have winters where snow was somewhere between

six and fifteen inches every year some somewhere around there then the spring would come and

from March to April to May you could just have torrents of rain grass would grow so

high you couldn't cut it quick enough and people were calling saying I've got amber

waves of grain out here when will you come by you're staying busy bushes are exploding

flowers are blooming it's a beautiful beautiful time to actually be in the bluegrass region

of Kentucky is in the spring rain comes but also there's this weird meteorological phenomena

where every summer every summer like clockwork starting at about June July August something

happens in that part of the state where you could have a rain system coming in from the

west and it would hit Louisville Kentucky that's the Indiana Kentucky border it would

split part of it would go up into Ohio part of it would come down into Tennessee and it

would get into Eastern Kentucky and it would reform and off it would go very weird saw

it happen more times than I can count so with certainty everything would dry up every single

summer you could go weeks without rain the dirt would crack the leaves on the trees would

wilt there was one year in particular I think we went seven weeks uninterrupted without

rain I mean oak trees were starting to wilt up that's something but the Bible is saying

is that just like the weather patterns that we can see and we can observe and they are

consistent and they carry on life in this world so shall the word of God be so the word

of God like rain falls and comes and is present and comes out of his mouth and extends down

to us and it is there and it carries on but the most important part of this is that there

is a reason to why God speaks in verse 11 we have that because the rain doesn't just

fall just to make things wet snow doesn't just fall because the kids like to sled on

it rain falls our weather patterns happen for a purpose and that's so we can have fresh

water to drink animals can get what they need for nutrients and plants can grow we can have

a harvest we can eat I'm thankful we have the rain so we can eat we need it all so the

rain doesn't just come to make us wet but it has a purpose to it and so the second point

for today is that God's word has a purpose my word so shall my word be that goes out

from my mouth it shall not return to me empty it's not going to just go out and do nothing

like when he created and he said let it be it was like when Christ promised to the thief

we mentioned that is one man I'm sure we will see walking the streets of gold Christ said

it he'll be there I take him at his word but God is saying that his word accomplishes that

which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it in other words God doesn't

just say things just to hear himself make a sound if any of us that have had kids maybe

we can relate to sometimes they just make noise just to make noise at least mine do

maybe mine are the only ones maybe my toddlers or my six-year-old will just kind of be riding

in the car and randomly blurt out a noise because they they think it's too quiet and

they need to interrupt that with some sound God does not operate that way God speaks and

he means it it's got a purpose he desires it to do something

if we were to draw from recent events a parallel this past week we saw a horrendous event occur

in Uvalde Texas most of us are aware of this are we aware of the school shooting in Uvalde

Texas from what I understand it's the second worst school shooting in American history

every time there is one my memory goes back to my own hometown where we had our own school

shooting it happened just before Columbine so it was kind of overshadowed by what happened

at Columbine our hearts do go out for that community because I do remember firsthand

what it is like to have a school in your neighboring community have an event like that lost lives

and it's all over the news and families are immediately torn and then you know out of

the woodworks inside of 30 seconds people are looking for a political end while people

are still just streaming in tears as I've paid attention to what has happened to this

past week while I have my own opinions and a lot of people are quick to offer their own

opinions about what to do I believe that it is wiser to give some time and let things

settle down for a moment before we just start screaming about it it is a community hurting

these are families that in a moment had everything get turned on its head and I cannot comprehend

really what some of those people are going through in those days that have kind of followed

especially after we've learned additional details of what happened at that time far

too many people their hot take was to shout and scream and point fingers and these were

the words you can find them do something do something well nothing was added to the do

something it was just a screaming do something oh what's something oh you often didn't find

a lot of details we've got to do something we've been doing nothing do something do something

do something well I agree that perhaps something needs to be done but shouting do something

doesn't actually accomplish anything it is an empty phrase that means nothing except

to continue to drum up emotions and continue to drum up attacks on people or to to point

fingers and to lay blame and so on and perhaps there's time to wade through what do we do

but to simply shout do something it means nothing it really doesn't and so I would rather

when people I would rather when people suggest something or say something they have thought

out what they're about to say so they have something substantive to add to rather than

to say something to be saying something I believe that's a lesson we can learn from

God in this passage is when he talks there's a purpose to his words when I speak God is

saying it shall accomplish that which I purpose I believe our lesson that we can learn from

God's example is before we speak considers there a purpose behind it or like a toddler

are we just making noise so there's something going on we should be speaking with a purpose

now I am grateful that when God speaks the purpose that he intends you only look back

at the purpose that he intends is to let the wicked forsake his ways the unrighteous man

his thoughts so that the Lord may have compassion on him and so that God will abundantly pardon

that's the purpose of God's word in this passage God's word when he speaks it into your life

he means it and it will accomplish it you are forgiven as not an empty phrase when God

speaks it to you you are my son and daughter is not nothing when God lays that title on

your name when God says you are now a part of my family adopted and grafted into this

righteous stock it means something do we believe him do we believe God when he says you're

forgiven or do we say no God not yet I'm not forgiven yet hold on I need to ask a few more

times I need to do a few more things hold on when God says I can change your heart and

turn you into a new person do we argue with him and say no I'm pretty stuck in my ways

I'm 30 or 50 or 70 or whatever whatever age you may be and you say I've always been this

way this is how I'm going into the grave do we take God at his word when we read scripture

from Genesis to Revelation when we crack open the spine of the Bibles that sadly tend to

gather more dust than creases when we crack open the word of God and we read I will make

you a new creature in Christ's name do we believe it or do we argue against it when

God's word says that I have a plan and a purpose for you to bless you to uplift you to clothe

you in righteousness to install a new heart in you when I have these words for you do

you take me at my word do we believe him or do we find an excuse do we say these words

were penned for a different audience they don't mean it for me in the 21st century do

we say well when Paul wrote what he wrote in the epistles he was only thinking or God

was only inspiring him for first century Christians and not for people in the United States of

America in 2022 we can relegate those to the past or we can re figure them in a way that

matches what I think they know no no do we take God at his word because he has a purpose

for that inspiration he didn't inspire it expecting it to be nothing he inspired it

with a purpose and he intends for that purpose to be accomplished in fact God says that like

when the rain falls plants grow so shall my word be when it goes from my mouth it won't

come back empty I'm saying that I will have a people inevitably that will happen I'm saying

that I will create in you a clean heart will you let me it will happen when I say it I'm

saying all of these things the list could go on we could sit and write out the different

things that God has told us he will do in our lives and each one of those things will

happen God's word comes back not empty but accomplished successful I am grateful for

that I am thankful I praise God that when he speaks things happen because I know I need

it in my life do you do you do you need your reactions to things to be tempered a little

bit more like how Christ responds do we need to look at people the way that God looks at

people well God can do that for you do you need to know deep down without question and

with full assurance that whatever you've done in your past you are forgiven take God at

his word take God at his word it is as sure as the sun coming up in the east and setting

in the west and it is as sure as the rain falling and the sunflowers blooming it happens

and it will be successful the last couple of verses for Isaiah 55 speak of speak of

the blessings when when God's word enters your life and accomplishes that which he purposes

you will go out and joy you will be led forth in peace the mountains and the hills before

you shall break forth into singing all the trees of the field shall clap in their hands

in other words nature is going to rejoice with you and what the creator has done for

you and in you instead of the thorn shall come up the Cyprus instead of the briar shall

come up the myrtle are there issues in your life that are a little thorny and rough would

you like to see something living and beautiful take God at his word that's the end result

it shall make a name for the Lord and an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off I am so grateful

that when God speaks things happen and it comes to fruition because right now I look

for and I ask and I expect victory over sin in my life today today May of 2022 tomorrow

the next day I expect that because God has said I can I can hold him to his word but

additionally just like Douglas MacArthur said I shall return I have the word of my Savior

if I go and prepare a place for you I shall return and take you home to be with me that

is not yet realized but if Douglas MacArthur can do it for the Philippines surely Christ

can do it for you and for me if Douglas MacArthur faulty and imperfect and so on can walk back

onto that beach a couple of years later surely the creator of all will be true to his word

and one day split open that eastern sky to take us home if MacArthur can do it surely

God can do it because remember his ways are as much higher than ours as the heaven from

the earth take God at his word because God's word like rain will accomplish what he sends

it out to do let us pray Heavenly Father we thank you that your word is sure we thank

you that we have evidence all around us of its surety and so I pray that we remember

that in moments when we are tempted to doubt when our faith might be wavering or teetering

or tottering what I pray that we would rather grasp hold again when even if we don't feel

like it even if it doesn't look like it we know for a fact that your word is sure and

strong and will accomplish what you purpose Lord I pray that your purpose be realized

in our lives forgiveness recreation restoration a close walk with you Lord realize that for

us today as we pray in Jesus name Amen.