Leftovers - Isaiah 55

Happy Monday, we're back in with the ERC Leftovers podcast.

I'm Pastor Matt. Pastor Chris.

Yep, Yep, I'm here. Here with your pants problems.

I mean this sometimes, sometimes pants problems, sometimes

holiday pants problems, let's call it that.

Let's call it that. Cause most of the year it's

fine. Most of the year, it's most of

the year, it's fine. Although we were, we were

talking a little bit today and I, I, I created a formula for

myself in my head a long time ago.

I do like this. OK, so created a formula for

myself where I never wanted my waist to be greater around than

the length of my pants. So I can wear reasonably up to

34 inch length on pants. And I always thought to myself,

I don't ever want, yeah, I don't ever want to go over a 34 inch

waist. Well, you know, middle age and

sometimes laziness and all those kinds of things.

I have exceeded my proportional scale that I'd set for myself.

And so the pants problem is kind of like a real thing based on

that individual scale I set for myself.

So, OK, so greater a square like you, you can't be.

You don't want to be. Right.

A rectangle long ways you can be longer than you are right.

I'm more vertical, less horizontal, I think is the is

the main idea. Got it.

OK. And I can't and I cannot tell

you when or why I thought that that was going to be my goal in

terms of, you know, pants problems.

I don't know why I ever thought of that, but it's been years

I've thought that way. And for at least the last three

or four years I've had a pants problem.

Because I am, you know, my my the number on the waist is

bigger than the number on the length.

Yikes. So I don't know, it's just a

thing I have. OK, I mean.

The struggle is real. Yeah, it's it's an interesting

rule. Like I did I?

OK, so I definitely mentioned a pants problem yesterday.

You were like, you were like old man somewhere yesterday.

It was the first thing you say. Is that like my favorite color

is red? Yeah.

Well, you know, And then I don't like presents.

That's what you said. That's what I heard you say.

OK, well, hopefully, hopefully that didn't come.

On I got pants problems. I like red, I don't like

presents and and I got pants problems.

That's those are the three points I got out of the.

Service. Dang it.

OK, well I'll, I'll work on that for this upcoming week.

To not name my favorite color, hate on Christmas presents, or

talk about my pants problems. I will cut all of those from the

sermon list. Oh man.

It was great. Thank you so much for being part

of a great weekend. Christmas carnival happened.

Thank you to all of you who came in and served either in set up

or tear down or making the day happen.

Prizes and games and greeters and all money changers and

every, everything in between. It was a great morning.

Parade was fun, the best weather we've had for the parade in a

few years. It was still cold, but at least

it wasn't raining. That was that was nice.

And yeah, still had snow overnight.

We're trying not to get in the habit of going back to the one

service thing, but winter has been brutal the first two

Sundays in Advent so far. So we just had the 11045 service

yesterday. Hoping to get back into the

swing of split services. 9 and 10:45 this next week, but we'll

we'll see what the snow has in store.

Winter is letting us know that it is not playing this year.

The last couple last several years I think in Iowa they've

been pretty mild. And this year, it's like, you

know what, you guys have had a long enough vacation.

Yep, and there's not like melting temperatures coming up.

It, like the snow, is here to stay for a little bit.

So, but if you're into ice fishing, you're excited because

it's it's staying cold enough and getting really cold

overnight that it's creating some ice.

So if you're into that, you should be excited.

Are you into ice fishing? I've done it once and it was

actually pretty fun. Like you sit on a bucket, you

dress appropriately and it's great.

There's not there's none of the OK.

So with typical fishing, I end up, it's probably 'cause I have

no patience, I end up casting out like every like 40 seconds,

'cause I'm like, well, there's no fish here so I I have to try

and cast somewhere else. And, and with ice fishing, no,

you just drop it down there. No, you just drop it down in the

little hole and, and, and you wait and it's awesome.

I like it a lot. I don't, I don't do much fishing

one way or the other, but it's 'cause I don't have any patience

so. Well, I never have until

recently either, but you know, friends here at church.

Yeah. Yeah, they've just kind of

gotten me into that a little bit.

Sweet well ice fishing season this year.

Well, old man Chris is finding old man.

You mentioned, I didn't even say it.

You said it. I did it to myself again.

Here we go. Well now that's the thing.

Well, since it's the thing now old man Chris is finding new

hobbies like fishing. So there we are.

You've given up on cheering for your favorite football team.

Oh. Just.

You know. We had to bring that up, didn't

we? I did.

We, didn't. We And and I here.

Here's one of my arguments against the Green Bay Packers.

That would help me. Is I just think they have the

worst color combination. I don't love it in all of

sports. I mean I just the the.

All of sports. Wow.

I mean, can you think of? OK, so even as a Packers fan,

which you are, as I can tell from your sweatshirt and your

hat today, it's fine. I'm.

Wearing something different than I was wearing yesterday.

Just so, you know, that's fair. But like, yeah, can you think of

other teams who have just really just color schemes that you you

really don't like? The Vikings.

Oh. Sure.

Which isn't great to say, 'cause it's the same colors as our

Sabres. So that that don't hear me that

it's just, it's just the Vikings really.

It's different, different color scheme than the Sabres.

Yeah, yeah, totally. Different also the dolphins

though, like I feel like that's when you have to love or hate

that like bright teal and orange and white.

I'm just that's not something you like And and and similar to

I hear what you're saying about the Packer, like I can't I I

wouldn't really wear like green and gold out like that's not an

outfit I'm putting together probably right.

Same thing. Dolphins like teal and orange.

Yeah, you're not like wearing that to a party.

I think, I think I can kind of get the dolphin thing a little

bit simply because OK, so let's go back to basic art principles

here, primary, secondary colors for a second.

So every all the three primary colors, they have a

complementary secondary color, right?

And so blue and orange are complementary colors.

Well, if you alter each one slightly, they're still

complementary. But they're, you know, whereas I

think with the Packers, like, OK, you have the primary color

yellow, you have the secondary color green.

They're not complementary, but somehow they've been mashed

together, you know, in these uniforms.

And it's just it's not terribly pleasing to the eye, in my

opinion. So the Oregon Ducks, they have

they've gone crazy because they do all like the experimental

alternate jerseys, but they start like green and gold was

their starting point. NDSU bison.

I believe they're also green and gold.

So like you've you weren't that quote like you're in the state

which. Right.

Well, but I actively cheered against them because they're in

the same conference as my alumni, then Northern Iowa

Panthers. Also.

Purple. I know, right?

Yeah. I think it's the gold things

that throws it cause 'cause I was also thinking about the

golden Gophers like Minnesota maroon and gold like also not

awesome. Not great, not great.

No, no. So all the like purple, gold,

green, gold, maroon, gold. I don't love it.

And that's what Arizona has. Gold, golden, maroon.

Florida State, like Seminoles or USC even.

I don't know that's I'm doing colors, but I prefer the you're

right. Like I don't, I wear the colors

because it's my team. Yeah.

If I was picking A-Team based on colors I'd like to wear like, it

would be the Raiders like. Yeah, Oh yeah, that black and

white or black and. White Sox fan.

Yeah, I'm just. I'm not going to be.

It's really nice. My son recently was like, dad,

the Brooklyn Nets, they have great jerseys because it's just

black and white. It's awesome.

Very simple. Yeah.

So yeah, there we are. OK, super random banter.

We're gonna we have one more thing before we actually get

it's. Biblically.

Based it is biblically based, but we will be jumping into some

more review on Isaiah 55, which was the sermon text for

yesterday. We're working through this

series coming home for Christmas, Christmas in Isaiah,

looking at the prophecies and the the coming home we have in

in this savior Jesus Christ and just some of the some of the

things that Isaiah foretold and why we should find hope in that.

If you're following along with us on the Bible app, we're doing

an Advent devotional as well. We just started Week 2 of

Advent. It's peace this week.

There's a more thought out devotional for the start of that

week. And then there's just some

scripture references to to read along with some daily readings

each day of that. You're welcome to follow along

with us in that. But we were in Isaiah 55 in the

message yesterday. We're going to jump into some

deeper thoughts on that. But first, we were having a

conversation this past week. I don't even know how it got

brought up, but we kind of, I don't remember how it got

brought up it. Yeah, we just kind of ran with

it a little bit and the idea of what would be like the most

annoying character voice to read the Bible.

Like like if you listen to an audio Bible.

And then we we got into some, some good voices, like some

voices we'd like to hear read the Bible as well.

So you're welcome to comment and we're we're going to go through

some of the lists that we have. But if you want to drop comments

below the show or or on the Facebook post there, we'd love

to hear your best or worst of Bible narrators, I guess is what

they'd be. But the first one that came to

mind as like as like a bad one for me would be Elmo.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

And he would have to giggle every once in a while because he

just, he just laughs out of nowhere, which is strange.

But you do a really nice Elmo voice.

Thanks. Yeah, it matches the deepness of

my voice. Yeah, yeah.

Are you going to bust out the Elmo voice on any music?

Definitely not. No, no, no.

And that's funny. Elmo does sing.

Does he? He sings songs on Sesame Street.

Oh. Man, it's been so long.

Man, I. Know.

It's been, I mean, it's like 30 years.

I mean 30 years. Hopefully it's 40 for you, but.

Well, probably not. Yeah, well, I'm not going to get

into my viewing habits with you, Sir.

Thank you. Yeah, to Elmo.

I think that would get that would get really old after a

while real quick. Just couldn't do it.

Who do you have? For, for bad voices, I, I think,

you know, there's this actress, her name is Fran Drescher.

She's not super familiar probably anymore in modern

Hollywood, but her voice is incredibly nasally and she's got

this laugh like, and it's just, it's so bad.

It's, it's really difficult to listen to.

I thought, yeah, right out of the gate.

I was like, I couldn't do it. Shoot, I could not do it, no.

That doesn't that doesn't sound good.

Yeah, I can't. And I, I think anything with

like a, a thick regional accent, like either either a crazy

southern draw or like East Coast, like Boston, Brooklyn,

something, something that was that thick.

And, and there's lots of like there's lots of characters and

actors that we could that we brought Marisa Tomei or yeah,

just some some of those East Coast, I think of Ben Affleck

or. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. If you've seen Goodwill Hunting,

the way they speak during that movie, yeah, the way they speak

during that movie, it would be atrocious to listen to 77 hours

of the Bible that way. That would be bad.

That would be a lot. So Yoda and that's that's like

iconic like Star Wars character, but that would be really hard.

I feel like how would because because he reverses everything,

right? It would.

There would even be some stuff lost in translation like.

Trying to think of a funny verse that would.

So Romans 623 for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of

God and eternal life. So Howard Yoda would say for for

death, the wages of sin, yes. Oh yeah, sure.

But gift from God is eternal. Yeah, it would be.

No, he would do it. But actually, what's kind of

interesting about Yoda is in some of these languages that are

not English, the verb does come. 1st and it is reversed

grammatically. Yeah.

And so I mean, like, actually he would be right on point in some

ways, which is kind of a strange thing to think about.

No, that would be great. So what about?

Would there be good ones? Would there be like?

Well James Earl Jones has read the Bible but he did the King

James Version so but I mean but if James Earl Jones did the

Bible in his Darth Vader voice that would be weird.

With like the breaths in there, like he does just have like

Darth Vader breaths aside, he he has a commanding voice.

I don't know if I can even do any James Earl.

Jones I don't think I could. It's spectacular.

If I could, I would, because it's spectacular.

Let's see what, what else did we talk about?

So we actually, we brought up James Earl Jones too.

We, we imagined in this conversation, we of course, our

brains went like wild and crazy, but we thought who, who would be

like the voice of God, who, whose voice on earth is, is most

like? And James Earl Jones was in that

conversation. I I thought Liam Neeson.

If. You ever watched the Chronicles

of Narnia movies? Liam Neeson is the voice of of

Aslan of course, has done a lot of different things, but I think

both of them. Morgan Freeman.

Oh my God that guy could narrate anything.

Smooth, sultry voice, I think. And he is.

Is it the Bruce Almighty movie? Is he the voice of God in He?

Is he acts as the God character in Bruce Almighty, which I think

he does. Despite the bad theology of the

movie, I think he does a really good job.

I mean, the movie has terrible theology, but it's entertaining,

you know? Other other funny ones that just

yeah would be in jar jar would would be a bad one if you know

Star Wars jar Jar Binks. You, I, you wouldn't make it

through a chapter. There's no way.

Well, in, you know, Speaking of Star Wars characters, you know,

I, I guess Chewbacca, if you were going to translate the

Bible into like his his Chewbacca speak for his people,

but you would I don't know. I can't even do the weird, the

growling, yelling, and. My voice is my voice is dead

today. Maybe if I wasn't fighting a

tickle, but. But Chewbacca would be terrible.

So Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, go to the chopper, go to

the heaven, go to the heaven. Like what?

That would be great. It would be great.

And then he's got the weird, like non verbal noises he makes,

just like, just weird noises that he makes, you know?

So I mean, Arnold Schwarzenegger would be a great hilarious

choice if you were like, you know what, here's how I want to

spend 77 hours of my life listening to Arnold

Schwarzenegger do the Bible. That'd be awesome.

Oh man. I thought of so Steve Carell

voices grew in the Despicable Me movies.

I I think I could actually listen to that, but that like

Transylvania accent that would be.

Well, and every time the word girl or whatever is said in the

Bible, girls, girls, I don't know how.

I don't know how he does it. It's amazing.

It's like the R on like both sides of the letter.

It's like, if you were going to spell it, it'd be how would you?

Love the world, world, world. That's just.

So bad it'd be. It'd be entertaining, though.

It'd be entertaining. I really like then again not a

movie recommendation. I really like the The New age,

the Christopher Nolan Batman movies and Dark Knight Rises.

Tom Hardy plays the character of Bane and I, I thought, I just

like his voice. It's an insane character.

But like his, his, his voice, that's just judgment.

The light has come into the world, and the people love the

darkness rather than the light. That was.

Pretty good listen to that. Pretty good.

I always felt like Bane kind of came off a little Sean Connery,

a little Sean Connery. They both have that like it's,

it's that. Is that Scottish?

Yeah, I think yeah, yeah. Sean Connery reads the Bible.

As James Bond. As James Bond, absolutely sure,

I'll sign up for that. I'll sign up for that.

Yeah, I could. I could see that.

Yeah, that's, I think we brought up just like crazy sitcom Get

Pee Wee Herman and Steve Urkel. Those would be ridiculous

characters. So if anyone has a Herman or an

Urkel impression, yeah. The Urkel one would be tough.

I don't know if I could get through it.

Just iconic voice, but I don't, I don't know that I can mimic

it. Yeah, yeah, I I got nothing on

that one. So anyway, yeah, we just

imagined man in our silliness, characters or or voices that

could narrate the Bible. Let us know if you have other

ideas or impressions that you have, or impressions that you

need Chris to try. Hey, we have already established

on this show multiple times that I am not good at mimicking

accents. Not the accents.

Guys, I'm not, I can't. Gosh, something, something gets

lost in translation for me. Like I just, I can't do it well.

All right. Most of the time I feel like you

just if you have an entry phrase like if if you have a catch

phrase that like get to the choppa.

Yeah, like I can. And then you can just you're in

the Arnold mode then. You can mimic if it's something

highly specific, but to actually like continuously do that on my

own? Not possible for me.

All right? My brain does not work that way.

All right, if you're still hanging out, we are going to

jump into the Bible at this point if you made it through the

silliness, but that's our that's our cold open on the you have a

cold open for the sermon we. I don't know why I just you get

in front of an audience and I'm like, I can't just start the

thing. I don't know why I'm like that.

I'm not I'm I would need like a high level psychologist.

Maybe it's nerves or something, but I just, I have a difficult

time just. Easing into the moment.

Yeah, that's all right. So and it's.

So and everybody got to learn yesterday.

I really love the color red. So there you go, it's.

Become part of your charm. Sure.

That's what it is. Yeah.

That's, that's what we'll call it charm.

Yeah. All right we are in Isaiah 55

verse one reads, Come everyone who thirsts come to the waters.

He who has no money come buy and eat.

Come buy wine and milk without money.

And without price, why do you spend your money for that which

is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me and eat what is good.

Delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me.

Hear that your soul may live. And I will make with you an

everlasting covenant my steadfast, sure love for David.

Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and a

commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation

that you do not know. In a nation that did not know

you shall run to you because of the Lord your God and of the

holy one of Israel, for he has glorified you.

That was the text from yesterday.

The the title of this section is called the compassion of the

Lord. Again, that's not necessarily

Isaiah didn't put that in there. It's just editorial description

of of of what's happening. But I think that's a good

framing. There's a, there's a Greek word

in the new. Obviously this is this Hebrew in

the Old Testament. But in the New Testament, the

Greek word for compassion is aleo, or it's alejo.

It's the little extra syllables in there.

But that's a word for compassion that means mercy for the

afflicted. It's it's compassion that Jesus

had for it's the emotion when when you heal a blind man or

when the the lady touched his cloak like just to receive his

his healing power. Those those things, his heart

was moved with mercy for the afflicted.

And what's interesting to me, even in the the framing of this

passage, I think we often we often talk about who moved

first, right, like for for God so loved the world that he gave

right, like it was his, his action 1st and our response

comes after. So because of that compassion,

that mercy for the afflicted. All of this is this is in place

already the holy one of Israel because of the Lord your God.

And and that's pretty cool. So seek the Lord while he may be

found right? That's what that's.

What he? Landed on and what didn't you

have time for yesterday? What are we jumping into here?

Some extra thoughts from the first part of 55.

South, one of the things for sure is, you know, and again, we

didn't dive deep into this, but you know, when we're talking

about thirst and water and and food and all that kind of stuff,

yeah, there's the physical nature of that.

Because if, again, putting us back in context, what we see is

that we're probably dealing with the time where Israel is

actually on their way out. So scholars will tell us that

like we're, you know, we're getting to the point where

they've been exiled and, and now God is about to call them back

into the land that he has given them and promised them,

especially as they come back to him and, and get that right

relationship with him, he's going to restore them to the

promise that he gave. So like one of the things that

people that scholars do report is that after a certain amount

of time in exile in in Babylon, like they actually got pretty

comfy and there was food and and different drinking and options

and stuff there that they would not have necessarily had in

their native land. And so there's almost this

hesitancy to go back in some ways because well, going like

the Egypt thing, well, in Egypt we had, we had.

Meat. Pots, I shouldn't have brought

up Egypt, that's the worst. I was already there whether you

were going there or not. OK.

Because it is. It's the same.

Why? Why would you drag us out of the

desert to die? We could have.

We were comfortable in captivity, right?

Yeah. And so there is a, you know,

after X number of years, you know, we're we're decades into

this, this, this exile now. So there is the sense that like,

man, maybe they got really comfy and they don't.

They have a government that Lords things over over them.

But at the same time, there's a level of comfort there for them

now. And so God is God is asking them

to choose the better thing. It's more difficult on the

surface, but it is by far and away the better thing for them.

And one of the things too, we get this list, we get water and

milk and wine. And I read 1 commentator who

talked about the fact that water is, is this, it's a source of

life. It's a half to right.

And then we get wine, which is the sort a source of joy, and

then we get milk, which is a source of nutrition.

So even as we look at this list of of 3/3 drinks, right?

And and we can kind of write that off as whatever, like, no,

this is the wholeness, this is the completion that God is going

to give to you without price. He's just asking for your heart.

He's asking for you to come be in a relationship with him.

But we have this total view just with these three drinks that if

you didn't stop and think about, it feels almost kind of like a

throwaway. Yeah, I don't know if you read

David Guzik's study thoughts on this, but the enduring word

commentary, he says waters, wine, milk, it's all free.

It isn't that the entrance into Christian life is free.

And then we must be charged to advance in the Christian life to

get the, the, the richness of the wine and the fat, the

fatness, the fullness of the milk, right?

He, he, he then says it's all free.

Our growth is just as much a gift of grace as our salvation.

That's really good, I. Thought that was really good, he

goes on. That was really good.

He then tacks on a thought from Charles Spurgeon, which is also

really good. You are not permitted to drink

freely of water and then to purchase wine.

You're not invited to come and eat freely that which is good,

and then to spend your labor for that which is fat.

You know the richest dainties of God's house are as free as the

bread he gives to hungry souls. Absolutely, absolutely.

Well said. Good stuff.

Well, said Spurgeon and Guzik, just on point there.

Yeah, so why do you spend money for what is not bred, your wages

for what does not satisfy? God asks his people to ask

themselves, why do I spend money for what can't satisfy?

This is a remarkably relevant question in light of all the

things we can pour our time and money and effort into, things

that will never satisfy the way the Lord can satisfy.

That was you. You spent.

A. Lot of time on that point on

that thrust yesterday. And I don't mean to like beat

up. In no way, shape or form am I

beating up Christmas. And hopefully I said that clear

enough. I'm not trying to beat up gift

giving or Christmas. But there is this greater sense

of like modern consumerism, which clearly goes even back

thousands of years. Like this has always been a

problem for humanity. And you know, gosh, we, we put

forth so much effort, so much time.

You know, I think it's been said like we work really hard to buy

things that impress other people that we don't even like.

And in, in some ways there's, there's some real truth to that.

And and it's a terrible cycle to get on.

If if not the treadmill I could have used a hamster wheel is

maybe another illustration. Like it's just unending.

So. Yeah, I I think something else

that's interesting in the opening of this, you even just

versed one everyone who thirsts come to the waters there.

It's it's it's a little conditional because you've got

to be thirsting, right? You've got to be looking for

more. There's there's maybe some that

are walking in ignorance that just are on the treadmill or the

hamster wheel or what it like and just think that's it that

lost in darkness and blindness, whatever, whatever you want to

call it, everyone who thirsts come to the waters.

Only those who will thirst will actually come.

If we're not thirsty for things above for for the things of God

we're we're going to we're going to kind of miss that that

invitation, which is all comes back to us.

I mean, go and make disciples is almost pointing out a need right

for this is yeah, maybe you have friends or family or Co workers

that are seemingly seeking the things that won't satisfy and

just keep coming to the same dead end.

And it's because they're, they're thirsting for the wrong

things, right? Yeah, you have to admit that

there's a need there. And so like, for example, the

entire book of Ecclesiastes, it's just this coming to grips

with this, gosh, I've tried everything under the sun.

And for King Solomon, who had every resource available to him

and everything that his heart could ever desire on this

planet, he got a piece of it. And it's still at the end of the

day, jeez, everything is in vain.

Everything is meaningless. And so like reading that, if,

you know, maybe maybe that that little writing that he did,

maybe that would maybe snap part of society out of out of this

just ridiculous consumerism of I have to have, I have to have

more and more and more, you know, if you could actually stop

and read that and again, realize that he had everything available

to him in it and it still didn't work out, I think that's that

would be a great a great place to to land too.

Yeah. I mean, I mean, going back to

the Bible and having all that, but we hear so many things

either about lottery winners or even I think I think it's

actually the creator of Minecraft, like, oh wow, had

hundreds of millions of dollars and bought his own private

island and did all these and could literally do anything that

he want to do with any of his money and also reached a place

of Solomon was like, what's what's the point of of all of

this? It's, it's not.

I don't. I don't, Yeah.

What a crazy thing. Like you buy an island somewhere

where the weather is pretty much always perfect and you get there

and after a couple weeks or a couple months, you're like, I'm

bored with this. This is this is just not what I

thought it would be. And I got a you know, the, the

Lamborghini effect, right? The Lamborghini effect is this

is that, you know, you, you finally get the car that

everybody wants supposedly, and you actually find more trouble

with the gift than you find joy because, well, gosh, it's, it's

3 inches off the ground. I can't drive it anywhere and I

can't park it anywhere because I'm always worried about it.

And now I'm paranoid and this and this and this.

And, you know, the Lamborghini effect I think is real.

Sometimes the thing that we want the most ends up being more

trouble than it what it's worth. This is, this is.

I think you're absolutely right. That's, yeah, an excellent

point. Well said.

Psychology. I think I read about the

Lamborghini effect on Psychology Today.

I did want to go a little bit on a side trail.

One of the words that you said the the best car you could want.

What was the word after that? Like the best car that you want,

supposedly. Supposedly, yeah.

Like the thing that everybody chases after supposed.

Oh, Oh my gosh. How do you spell that?

There it is. There's no Nope.

Yep, I don't think. Sorry.

That was that was just one of those.

So we could do a whole segment on that too.

I think there's a bunch of words that people that people say like

spell espresso like or say or like do you say espresso

espresso? Some people do right?

Like it's. That espresso I like so much.

Sorry, you said supposedly and I was like that's.

That's not it. That's not it.

Oh man, here we go. We'll stash that for.

It's fine, I talk for a little. Words that words that people say

in both ways. Sorry, I just thought that was

funny. Bagel.

That's just. Bagel.

Hey, I had a bagel for breakfast.

Oh my goodness. Sorry, I'll stop.

That at least that at least has the same letters in it.

You're just saying them weird. That's like supposedly there's

there's no B in there. I.

Know, I know, Dang it. Sorry, I digress, we are back

into well we read 3 through 5 here the incline your ear and

come to me here and your soul shall live.

Oh boy. OK, OK, that was light bulb.

Well, I, I think The thing is like, you know, when, OK, so

the, the heart of the text, or at least the the jumping off

point of the text for me is, is absolutely verse 2 because it

asks the question and it's the only question in the entire

chapter. But the question forms

everything else around it. And so I would I it's just.

The application. It's shocking to hear the answer

to the question, listen here, you know, like that's the

answer. I, I need to listen better.

The answer to my, my insane sense of having to get more and

more and more and never being satisfied.

The answer is listen. What?

So I found that really remarkable.

But then as you, if you take the time and sit down and think

about it, Yep, that is the right answer.

Big surprise, God was right. Yep, listen, listen to what he

says is good. Listen to his word.

Listen to how he is going to fulfill these things in, in you,

if you if you're just willing. Well, kind of a theme that we've

been working on for a while now, like seek first the Kingdom of

God. Sure.

Seek, seek that first and all these other things will be added

to you. And but it starts with

listening. It starts with having an open

ear and an open heart to what God says.

Well, I think it's even more so modern modern psychology and I

don't know what era, but like there's something to the words

that you feel that words that you speak to yourself, right?

And I'm not, I'm not saying like prosperity gospel sort of like

speaking into existence sort of things, but just literally the

words you encourage yourself with or discourage yourself

with. Honestly, if you, if you keep

telling yourself that whatever you're not good at this thing or

you're never going to be good at this thing or you're never going

to be like this, yeah, yeah, you're probably not.

That's not the way to get that done by telling yourself you

can't do it. Right.

So it would make sense that if, if the goal is seeking first the

Kingdom, if the goal is, is is godliness or in the way that

you're being a disciple of Jesus, if that's what you're

pursuing, well, you should probably be listening to to

instruction that to the word, filling yourself with his words,

right? That's so it makes sense.

Like I it's, it's crazy that we hear the the question, why do

you spend your money for the things that are not bred or the

labor that does not satisfy? What should you be doing

instead? Listen, listen.

Take it in. Follow instruction.

Right. Well, I think there, you know,

actually an illustration that just kind of popped into my head

is you can have a fantastic athlete, but they will be all

the better with the coach that they listen to because the coach

is going to see things from an angle without the emotional

thing of being quote UN quote in the game.

The coach is going to see those things from a clear perspective,

whereas the player is so emotionally entrenched in their

pride or their whatever that they cannot do that well.

So the player who listens to the wise coach is going to be an

infinitely better player than they could have ever been.

You know, I think if I think Michael Jordan isn't Michael

Jordan without Phil Jackson, you know, and you know, and so I

mean. Brady and Belichick.

Yeah, yeah, that's that's a development thing.

And so like if I can pull that illustration and stretch it a

little bit, listening to God, his word, all those things like

it's going to take this raw material that is us and it's

going to make us infinitely better at everything that we're

trying to pursue. But it takes listening and

responding and it, and it takes a willingness to trust because

again, going backwards in that illustration, man, I got, I, if

I'm going to be a good player, I got to trust my coach that he

knows better. He's drawn up the play, he

understands the defense, whatever that is.

Man, I, I have to do the same thing with God.

I have to say, man, he's drawn up the play because he knows he

knows what the other side wants to do to me and he knows how to

beat it. And so let me listen to my

coach. Let me listen to my God.

Let me hear what he has to say and put it into action.

Yeah, I think that's. That that there he's.

If he's the great shepherd, if he's the great, the great

caretaker, the great coach, the great guy, like, yeah, that's

he. Knows where.

We should be listening, right? He does know.

Yeah. Jumping ahead a little bit,

verse 6, seek the Lord while he may be found.

Call upon him while he is near. You brought up some of the

interesting nuances. There's a there's a window,

right? Like there's a there's a too

late potentially, right? Yeah, that's scary in some ways.

Yeah, but real and and you you mostly framed it yesterday like

tomorrow is not tomorrow's not guaranteed.

And that's the yes we we are of the opinion that not even the

opinion just the theology of I mean the thief on the cross on

the last day. Yep, experience salvation in the

the same way that brand new brand new baby baptized children

come to me sort of thing. Like yes, both entered into the

the paradise of the eternal Kingdom of heaven, but that we

should never take that in a way of yeah, I'll just keep on

sinning today. I'll I'll, I can always come

back to Jesus, take the wheel tomorrow like.

I think that's actually pretty the prevalent thing in our

culture. You know, maybe maybe you grew

up in the church, maybe you didn't.

But you know, you get into your late teens, early 20s, and so

you're like, oh, I'm going to go live my life.

I'm going to experience all these things that the world

tells me I have to experience in order to, you know, have a full

life. I'll come back to God later, You

know, he'll he'll be there when I'm 30 and I want to start a

family and I want to settle down.

But until then, like I'm just going to, I'm going to go nuts

here. And and I just don't think

that's helpful. It, it, it gives, do you think

you're bulletproof? Do you think you're death proof?

Well, no, we're not like this. Life is not going to last

forever in its current state. And so, as the Bible would say,

don't quench the Spirit as he, you know, as he calls today,

like let's respond today to what he's doing so.

Call upon him while he is near. Verse 7.

Let 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. That struck me as interesting

the the return. Yeah.

Because did the wicked? Does that imply that the wicked

started with God and strayed and then came back?

Like why? Why return to the Lord?

Oh my. Well, think about this.

Here's a here's a great New Testament example.

Peter, of course, before Jesus is about to die, he, he pleads

with me, says all these might fall away, but I will never fall

away. I will I will die with and for

you. And Jesus says something that's

really biting when you come back, when you return to me, you

know, because Satan, of course, working hard at sifting Peter

out as like what's going to be the the leader of of the New

Testament church. And you know, when you when you

return, when you turn back to me.

And if you read that, you're like, my goodness, he's still

going to take him back. He's still going to take him

back. And so that it does point right

at the fact that you may have failed, you may have messed up

very, very badly there. You might even be living through

the, the normal consequences of that.

But God, God doesn't. He's not mad at you.

He, he's not going, he wants you back.

You know, he, he is the dad who when he sees you on the horizon,

he starts sprinting after you. He wants you back.

And in that light, and that's a great I popped that question on

you. But like that's a great answer.

Awesome response to it and until I know the freshness of

Scripture always washes over pretty much every time we return

to it. But in reading this passage,

verses 8:00 and 9:00 for my thoughts are not your thoughts.

Neither are my ways your ways declares the Lord for as the

heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher

than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I got down this whole lengthy godliness isn't even like.

Being tempted and not sinning, God's not even tempted, right?

Like, like his, his ways are such that that that's not even a

thing. So this idea of, of repentance

and returning, I, I think, I think we beat ourselves up a

little bit too much even in the Oh man, like I, I, I feel like

I've talked, I've talked to people who are like, oh man, I

can't believe like I even thought about doing that.

Well, you're not got like, and, and this isn't an excusing or,

or cheap grace sort of way, but it's a little unfair to compare

ourselves to that right, 'cause, 'cause yes, Jesus was tempted

and I put it in, it says tempted.

He was, but like, really, Was he really close to crumbling and

chattering with the devil in the desert Like.

I mean, he's given opportunities.

And that's what I feel like it more is like he was he was given

a chance to disown and discredit his faith, but was he really

wrestling? I I I doubt it right?

Like I. Well, and why not?

Why not? Is it it?

Here's here's the easy answer. Because he has such a perfect

relationship with the father that it would be impossible for

him to imagine anything better. I mean, you know, if you love

your spouse the way you're supposed to, it will be

impossible for you imagine to for you to imagine having an

affair because you're like, I've already got the best thing ever.

Why would I settle for, you know, 100th best?

I've already got the best thing. There's no way.

And that, and that's the way this passage just hit me

differently. This like God's thoughts are so

it's not even it's not even that comparison game right here.

He already Jesus already had the best thing.

He already understood the best thing.

He's not even our hearts are fleeting.

Our hearts are are tempted. We don't think about things that

we encounter even in the same way that God does.

So that's that was comforting to me in that and just the

realization of man even even as I think about following and and

being a disciple. Well, and these things, it's,

it's, it's not even quite the same, but because my thoughts

are not his thoughts. It's interesting that you use

the words comforting for those verses because I think, I think

in a prideful, egotistical way, I can hear those verses and go,

oh, so I'm just stupid because like, you know, and again,

coming to Christianity in my mid 20s, there's, you know, I, I

feel like I'm almost positive I'd heard these verses before I

was a Christian because these are pretty famous verses.

And so even if you don't read the Bible, like you've, you've

probably heard these. And so like for me from a

secular point of view, I'm like, oh, so I'm just this dumb,

stupid creation that just doesn't get it.

And, and it's like that's, you know, I, I can see how those

verses would either be challenging or downright

offensive almost to a secular person who's like, oh, so I'm

just never going to get it. And, and I don't think that way

now, but I just, it's interesting to hear you say that

they're comforting. And, and I think that is that

that's a perspective that we all ought to have, especially when

dealing with hardship and, and things that there's just no way

we're going to understand him on this side of heaven.

But we can have comfort. We can have that peace kind of

knowing that, OK, if what God said is true, that he's always

seeking out our best, our good, then this is actually a great

thing that He understands things better than I do.

And I think that comfort and peace will finish up the chapter

here. I think the comfort that I can

glean from these verses is informed by these closing 4

verses 10 and 11. For as 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, 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 there.

There's not anything that God does without purpose, right?

And and we can quote the cliche worked everything for the the

Joseph what what my brothers intended for evil God intended

for for good Romans. He he works everything together

for good for those who love him right.

But this is what informs those things.

He doesn't, he's not just up there and we we see it sometimes

in whatever movies that portray God like attributes the the

second guardians of the Galaxy movie where he's just making

random worlds and trying to make the perfect sun.

And when he it's not the sun he wanted, he just casts it aside

and makes a new one, right? Like God isn't up there just

like experimenting with stuff, right?

It's it all has it all has purpose.

And he's certainly not like Zeus, just like fire and

lightning bolts into our lives to to disrupt and make terrible

everything right. So that's that's where I see the

comfort from the if the rain and the snow have purpose, his word

goes out from his mouth, not returning empty, but it shall

accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed.

That's that's all like what's I think it's a verse in Jeremiah

where it says God for oh man, who is like the Lord for he does

what he like. He just does what pleases it,

which if you were God, why would you wouldn't do anything that

upset you, right? Like you would just do what you

wanted to do. So that's that's where I get the

comfort of those things that he has intentionality and purpose.

And more than that, he has success like it's, it's, it's

the way that he wanted it to be and accomplish his purposes

right like that. Am I?

No, I think you're spot on. You know, I, I've heard it said

before and I think maybe we've talked about it briefly, which

is, you know, especially as this is true and it's echoed

throughout all of Scripture, God has already factored our sin

into what he's going to do. So I think another way of

saying. That already factored in your

sin, already factored in your. Stupidity.

Yeah, he knows, Like he, you know, he knows who he tagged

into the game when when he picked you as, as somebody who

would believe and as somebody who would have faith and then go

out and and and have conversations with people like

he knows. He knows all those things ahead

of time. So as we are faithful to the

degree that he's allowed us to be, his word will not return

void. And and we don't always feel

that because we, we tend to turn ourselves into, you know,

Christian salesman and saleswoman.

And we say, Oh my gosh, I had this conversation with this

person and they didn't immediately fall on their knees

and proclaim Jesus as their Lord and their king.

And so I must have failed. Sorry, God.

And it's like, no, like God is so aware of all these things,

and as His word is put out into the world and as it's spoken,

it's going to do exactly what He wants it to do in his timing.

And that's the thing, in His timing, we want it right now.

We're not terribly patient people, but in his timing, it's

going to work out just fine. Verses 12 and 13.

For you shall go out in joy, and be LED forth in peace.

The mountains and the hills, before you shall break forth

into singing. All the trees of the fields

shall clap their hands instead of the thorn shall come up the

Cypress instead of the briar shall come up the Myrtle, and

shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall

not be cut off. Just a continuation of just I

got you. I used the word comfort and you

highlighted that because that's the word I said.

But all all of these things going out enjoy being LED forth

in peace him turning thorn to the Cypress briar to the Myrtle,

turning these images of of of hardship and and oppression into

into things of thriving and beauty.

It's it's graves in the gardens language there like.

That. Yeah, so that that's where I

find the the comfort in this passage.

And of course we have the where we're two weeks into Advent, joy

and joy and peace. And like those are we've hope,

hope and love are the other themes that we focus on

specifically in Advent. But it's, it's all here, even

back to Isaiah, these things, Jesus bringing joy, being joy,

bringing peace, being peace for his people.

Yeah, it's beautiful to see it all woven together, even back to

Isaiah. And the cool thing about these

last couple verses is that if you you can go to the beginning

of the Bible, you can go to the end of the Bible.

And here we're kind of sitting somewhere in the middle.

And even in the middle, the message is clear.

And it is, it is consistent. So we had perfection in Eden.

God had not created thorns and thistles and these painful

things and labor that was unsatisfying.

And, and in the end, he's going to restructure everything.

He's going to make all the wrong right once again on the earth

and otherwise. And so like this again, is, is

it's a nice preview. It's a, it's a nice reminder

that God will complete his purposes.

He will bring everything back the way that he originally

wanted it in the first place. The other thing I thought about

when I thought about these verses, I love the fact that

what we would call nature, nature itself cries out, sings

forth, and Jesus does something really cool as he's ascending up

to Jerusalem before he's about to be crucified.

All these Pharisees, they're all angry at him because everybody's

going wild. Oh, Jesus is coming to town and

all this stuff. And the Pharisees, they're angry

and they're like, tell, well, my language, tell these people to

shut up. And, and Jesus responds with

this really cool thing. And he's like, well, even if

they stopped shouting and rejoicing, the rocks would cry

out. And, and here we see again,

creation, nature itself, God says, crying out.

So like you get this terribly consistent message from, from

God the Father, from, from Jesus, from the Holy Spirit.

And it just, it's throughout the entire Bible.

And I love, I love the consistency with which God

speaks. Very cool.

We did it. That's the end of Isaiah 55.

You're still with us at the end. And you have some some more

ideas of, of characters you either would or would not like

to hear. Read the Bible.

Be sure to drop those in the comments.

Share the show with someone that you think would enjoy it.

And we'll be back on Sunday, week 3.

We have a yeah, a couple weeks left in Advent Christmas Eve

services at 3/30, 5:00 and 11:00 on December 24th.

And yeah, it's kind of like a couple other things.

If sign up for the e-mail if you need to message us if you're

yeah, if you're not connected to all the all the ways.

We've got a movie night and a game night coming up at church

in the month of December and. There's so many fun options.

Caroling night. Oh man, OK.

So many fun options. There's still a lot.

Are you a caroling person? I'm not trying to put you on the

spot, I'm just curious all of a sudden.

So I don't know that I've like actively done that in my adult

life. When I was in high school, I did

the madrigals like a cappella. Singers.

Things and that yeah, December we usually, yeah, we got in the

the velvety robes and went out to nursing homes and schools and

stuff and did the so I've done it, yeah.

That's cool. It brings joy to people.

Yeah. Love it.

Yeah. So all right, thanks for hanging

with us and having more of a conversation about Isaiah 55.

Have a blessed week, Church.