A Message for Those Who Are Thirsty and Broke

I have a message from Isaiah chapter 55 this morning. It's called a message for those who are thirsty and broke. Somebody says, wow, did I pick the right service for me? Message for those who are thirsty and broke.

God Almighty, Lord, I stand before you this morning as a vessel that needs the touch of your hand. I thank you, Lord, that you have never failed me, not one time in my life or forsaken me. I thank you, God, that you are faithful to your people.

As we stand to worship you, as we stand to live for you, as we come to hear your word, as we choose to trust you for our futures, Lord, you will carry us and sustain us. You have said that you will never leave us or forsake us. I thank you for the anointing of your Holy Spirit.

I thank you for the touch of your hand. I thank you for overriding my frailty. For the scripture says, when I am weak, then I am strong.

So Lord, we ask for your strength to be made manifest for every word that you've given me to speak, to find a true lodging place in every heart that's here today. Lord, when you speak, you speak to bring life. You speak to bring freedom and hope in places where there is no hope and circumstances where people have been in a place where their tendency to succumb to confusion and to weakness.

And so, Father, we just thank you for the touch of heaven. God, with all my heart today, I thank you for the anointing of your Spirit in Jesus' name. Isaiah chapter 55, a message for those who are thirsty and broke.

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to me here and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David.

Indeed, I've given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people. Surely you shall call a nation you do not know. And nations who do not know you shall run to you because of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says 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.

For as the rain comes down in the snow from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth and make it to bring forth in bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void.

But it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you and all the trees at the field shall clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree. And that shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. In the gospel of John chapter seven, Jesus Christ, the son of God was attending a feast among the people of God at that time, which had become known as the feast of the tabernacles.

And it was a feast which remembered the time when the people were free from Egypt. They were out of bondage as it was, but not yet having entered into their full inheritance, which was their promised life in the promised land. In other words, they were more or less halfway between their former bondage and their future promise.

Now that identifies with a lot of people. A lot of people might be here this morning and they're feeling exactly the way that these people at that time must have been feeling. It was on the last day, the great day of this feast in John chapter seven, that Jesus stood.

Now it was the last day. It was the last moment. It was at the last hour and Jesus stood up and he cried out and he said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

If you're still thirsty, he'll believes on me. As the scripture said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. He was crying out then as he would be crying out today if he were standing in this pulpit and saying, are you tired of just celebrating the past? Are you tired of coming to church and hearing about somebody else's victory some other time, some other place, some other era, some other people? Are you tired of just living halfway to victory? And that's what a lot of people's celebration is.

This was supposed to be the celebration of something that was past, but it was many people's present reality. They weren't living in victory, but they weren't living in bondage either. They could rightfully point to a former addiction, a former lifestyle, a former something or other.

Everybody who's in Christ can point to a former something, but they still sense that their inheritance. Weren't we supposed to be a people of promise? Aren't we given a new life? Aren't we supposed to be made a praise in the earth? Aren't we supposed to be a people who are wondered at? Isn't that what the scripture calls us? Should people not be running to us, especially now in this generation, saying, would you give me a reason for the hope that is in you? But how can I give them a reason if I'm still dwelling in a booth halfway between my old way of living and what I'm supposed to be in Christ, what the promise of God is for my life? Some would say, well, aren't we supposed to celebrate the past? And aren't there rules to obey and standards to uphold and victories that were described to achieve? But why have all our efforts left us feeling that the feast of the tabernacles is not a celebration of the past actually, but it's our present reality. You know what that feels like, don't you? There's many people here today.

I know you know what that feels like. You're not living in the victory that God prescribed for you. And you're fully well aware of that.

Paul describes it this way in Romans chapter seven. Just let me read it to you. It begins at verse 18.

He says, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good. I don't, I don't know. I can't find it.

Paul says, I know what to do. This is, this is the human condition. It's yours and it's mine.

I know what to do. I know what I should be doing. I know, but I, I can't find the power to do it.

In other words, like the person says, I know I should forgive those that wounded me, but I can't forgive them. I know I should be a person of truth, but I find that, that, that crookedness in my character still keeps coming to the surface and causes me to say things in a way that I shouldn't say them. There's so, so many things that I know to do, but I can't find how to do it.

He says, for the good that I would do, I will do. I do not, but the evil I do not do. I will not do that.

I practice. Now, if I do what I will not to do, it's no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. In other words, Paul saying, I've got this, I've got this, this element of my former bondage is still clinging to me.

It still wants to control me. It still wants to govern my life. I don't know how to get away from this.

I find in a law that evil is present with me. The one who wills to do good for I delight in the law of God, according to the inward man. I, in other words, I, I read this.

I believe it. I know it's right. I know what I should be.

I know as a husband, I should love my wife as Christ loves the church. I know as a wife, I should respect my husband. I know as a child, I should obey my parents.

I know as an employee, I should be giving my all as a sacrifice unto God. I know I should be trusting God for my, my future, for my provision. I know I should be content in the Lord and not always wringing my hands, wondering, will I get married? Won't I get married? I know I should be content in the marriage.

I'm in not wringing my hands, wondering that I married the wrong person. I know what God's word says. And in my heart, I have this interior delight in the fact that it is true, but there's another law inside of me, warring against what I know to be true and wanting to bring me back into bondage, back into the captivity of the law of sin, which is in my members.

And Paul finally cries out and says, Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? How will I ever get free and become the man or in your case, the woman that I'm called to be? I have a high calling of God in Christ Jesus, but I'm not living where I'm supposed to live. I don't speak the way I'm supposed to speak. My eyes don't see the way God's calling me to see.

I feel like I live my life feeling like I'm dwelling in a booth somewhere between bondage and promise. And I'm tired of this. I'm thirsty.

I'm exhausted trying to be all that God wants me to be. You know, there's folks here and I know it because I've traveled this path years ago. I know exactly what you're feeling.

You're doing your best to be holy. You're doing your best to walk right and to speak right and to do right. And it's almost every day you come home with your head down.

Oh, I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have thought that.

And you wonder, God, I feel like in my heart, I want to be a vibrant Christian, but in practice or practicality, there's so much against me from without and from within. I feel surrounded. I know I'm not going to hell.

I know heaven is going to be my home, but for heaven's sake, do I have to live here halfway between bondage and promise all of my life? I'm thirsty. I want more of God, but I'm broke. I have no more resources.

I have nothing more to spend. I've exhausted everything I have and I'm still only living halfway to victory. Is there a place of victory for me? I thirst.

And that's the cry of many people here today. The cry of many people online. You know it, I know it, and God knows it.

You're going to bed at night and that's the end of your day. That's your cry. I thirst God.

You promised. You said if I thirst, if I would come to you, I'd never thirst again. You said, if I believed in you, I'd never hunger.

Well, I'm thirsty Lord. And I'm hungry. I want a deeper victory than what I have known.

I want to be a witness for you in my generation. I don't want an empty basket with nothing in it to show for the life that I've lived on this earth. Nothing of eternal value.

When I get to your throne, I want to bear some fruit for your kingdom sake and for your glory sake. God almighty, I thirst. So what do I need to do? What's left for me? How am I going to make a difference in my generation? I see the people in my streets going to hell in a handbasket.

Society is degenerating before my eyes. Our children are starving to death spiritually in our streets. Families are breaking down.

Evil is becoming good. I'm here. I'm supposed to be a witness, but oh God, how am I ever going to make a difference? I'm so thirsty for something that I can't buy and I can't find, and I don't have enough strength and I'm exhausted trying to be a Christian.

Now the Lord says, oh, everyone who thirsts come to the waters and you who have no money come buy and eat. Yes, come and buy wine and milk. That means joy and provision without money and without price.

Why do you spend money for that which is not bread and wages for that which is not satisfied? In other words, you're putting all your effort into the wrong places. Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance. The Lord's saying, I'm calling you to something of myself.

There's so much of it that you will have leftovers. Like David, you will be able to say, even in the presence of mine enemies, he has set a table before me and my cup overflows. Even though I'm surrounded, my cup overflows.

It's flowing out onto the borders of my life. There's drink for anybody who's thirsty around me because the full provision of God is now released within my heart. Incline your ear, he says, and come to me.

Here and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. Indeed, I've given him as a witness to the people. Now here's what God is saying.

Here's how I read this. Some may have other opinions, but here's how I read it. He's saying, I've shown you through King David what mercy looks like.

Though King David was deeply flawed in some areas of his life, I loved him. I called him a man after my own heart because he desired me. I was faithful to bring him in to his inheritance.

Even in his struggle, I was faithful to keep him there. I gave him a name that you revere still, even to this day. And when you and I think about King David, what do we think about? We think about the sweet psalmist of Israel.

We think about the boy defeating the lion and the bear. By the grace of God, we think about the sweet psalmist. We think about the one who was victorious over Goliath.

We think about the one who could play his instrument and drive the devil away from King Saul. We think about the man who stayed faithful to truth, even though he was pursued by his enemies night and day. We think about the man who danced before the ark of God as the presence of the Lord was being ushered again into Israel.

And we think about the one whom by the spirit at the end of his days was given the pattern of a temple that the glory of God was going to visit one day. Oh God, that's how we remember David. And we can't even remember.

We have to fight to remember the failures and the flaws in his life because God put an honor upon him. God covered him. God let his name be glorified through him because he thirsted for the living God.

As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after thee, oh God. What the Lord requires of you and I is a heart of honest thirst for the kingdom of God. Honest thirst, a heart that recognizes, Lord, I am bankrupt without you.

I have no strength to live the Christian life without you, but you have promised to be an everlasting source of supply. You promised that when I get to the end of myself, that it will be the beginning of you. It will be the beginning of your life.

It will be the beginning of faith and trust. It will be the beginning of victory. When there's nothing left of me, then everything of you comes to the fore.

When my heart is run out of gas, then another source of living water will begin to flow out of it that only comes from God. Praise be to God. That's why Paul came to this understanding at some point in his life.

When I'm weak, then I am strong. When I've run out of myself, all of its good plans, all of its promises it can't keep, all of its grandest designs, all of its loathing of itself, when it fails, when finally self dies, Christ lives. It's only him and it's all him.

He finally gets us to the place where he's wanted us to be all along. If you have no money, if you have no resources, if you have no ability, if you finally recognize that you are bankrupt and you can't be a Christian on your own, come to me now and you'll find the supply of life flowing through you. It will be something of joy that you've never experienced in your entire life.

It will be something that makes you want to dance in the street. It will be something that makes you want to sing because suddenly it's all Jesus and none of me. It's all him.

It's not some kind of pie in the sky Christianity. It's very, very real when you finally... Most of us stumble into it in weakness. Strong men can't find this, strong in themselves because they're still too full of themselves to find it.

It's generally the weak. That's the beauty of it all. Folks, don't you notice that when Jesus traveled in a human body preaching that most of those who were strong in themselves were just sort of standing like this analyzing him while the lame are pressing through, the blind are seeing, the poor are having the treasure of heaven open to them, the captives are being set free.

It's happening all around but those who are strong in themselves can't see it because they're too indoctrinated by their own self-view that somehow that me and God are going to do this. The absurdity of the thought really. We go on in Isaiah chapter 55 and he says, surely you will call a nation you do not know and nations who do not know you shall run to you because of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel for he has glorified you.

He was telling his own people I'll do something so deep in you that others will run to you to find out what is the source of your strength. They'll run to you. I'll do something so deep.

Your families will come home, folks. Do you understand if we will turn to God with all our heart now and let him be God then those who ran from us will turn and start running to us. People in your office, people in your community, people in the circle of influence that you'll have will start running to you.

How do I know that? Because he actually did fulfill it to the people of Israel in the book of Acts chapter 2. They were all Jews in that upper room. Do you understand that? This was a promise to Israel but it applies to the church because Israel, the first church was Jewish in Acts chapter 2 and they went to that upper room and God in their weakness, in their nothingness, in their bankruptcy. I can hear the prayer meeting in that upper room.

God, we thirst. We believe. We hope for this great future that will change not just us but will change nations around us.

But we're here without resource. We're broke. We made promises we couldn't keep.

You can imagine Peter's prayer. Lord, I said I would die with you in Jerusalem and I cursed with an oath and said I don't even know you. John would have said, Lord, I leaned on your chest at the last supper and I declared effusively I loved you but I ran from the garden when you needed me.

There's nobody strong there. There was nobody mighty. There was nobody royal or of noble birth.

Nobody could boast. Nobody had a resume. They all had failed.

They were all thirsty. They were all broken and they knew their testimony was worthless without the power of God and so they tarried in that upper room and God's Holy Spirit came upon them and out of their bellies started flowing rivers of living water. They came out of that upper room.

They weren't speaking about themselves. They weren't talking about how loyal they had been to the Lord but they all knew they were broke and bankrupt. The only thing they had left is that they were thirsty and out of their mouths started flowing these rivers of living water and people who had previously been yelling, crucify him, crucify him, suddenly stopped in their tracks just as he had said to the prophet Isaiah, nations who do not know you shall run to you.

The scripture says people from every nation under heaven were there and heard these 120 Jews speaking and communicating in a manner that indicated the gospel was going to go to every nation in the world. It stopped them in their tracks and exactly as the scripture says they ran to you because of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel for he has glorified you. This is my hope now my brother, my sister for this generation.

This is my hope that a thirsty people are going to go back into the prayer closet one more time. This is my hope that we're going to find again where the source of our strength is. This is my hope that finally the people are going to come to a screeching halt and say God without you we have nothing and in you we have everything.

Seek the Lord while he may be found, verse six, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. The time to turn back to God is now.

I can't overstate that. There's no deeper way I can say it. Turn back to him now.

The hour is late. This world is going to spin out into an unspeakable darkness. The time to turn to God now is now.

The time to be a testimony is now. The time to cry out to him is now. The time to say Lord fill me is now.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways says the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts and your thoughts. Now he goes on to explain this.

Sometimes all we do is quote these two verses but there's an explanation that goes with it. In verse 10 says for as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and do not return there but water the earth and make it bring forth in God that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I said it.

Now here's what he's saying to us. Listen carefully to this. He says the earth doesn't labor to produce its harvest.

It just lets me rain on it and opens itself up and soaks it in. Think about that for a moment. Just he said my ways are higher my thoughts are higher just as the rain comes down from heaven it waters the earth causes it to bud and bring forth fruit and gives provision to everybody.

Then he says so in the same way that's what happens from my word when I speak to you that's what happens that's what happens when you open your heart and let my word touch you when you start to believe the promises of God for you when you stop trying to be a Christian in your own strength and start realizing that I have promised to be the strength that you need to be everything that you're called to be when you open your heart to my promises suddenly life from within you starts to spring forth. Didn't Jesus say on the last day of the feast wherever believes on me out of his heart the original King James says out of his inward parts shall flow rivers of living water. What does it say in Isaiah the rain comes down into the earth causes it to bud and it gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

In other words this is incredible provision that comes from the earth just because the earth lets the rain ascend to it soak into it and do what it's sent to do. May God give us the understanding that we don't make promises to God we live by God's promises to us. This is so simple it's profound it's so simple it's offensive to those that are still strong in themselves they want some credit for being a Christian they want to be able to say because I pray more than somebody else I'm more of a Christian than they are they want to be able to run up a clock they want that's what the religious side of every man wants to do.

Nobody wants to declare themselves to be broke but until you are broke you will never know divine life. There's such a blessing in just being able to say I'm broke and I'm thirsty God. I can't do what I feel I'm called to do I can't speak the way I'm called to speak I can't love the way I'm called to love I can't be what I feel like your word is calling me to be and the Lord finally says good now come to me you who are thirsty and have no money come and freely you'll find milk and wine you'll find joy and provision without money and without price.

Stop laboring for that which doesn't profit praise be to God praise be to God. Now here's the final promise because we are a generation that I believe very well could see the return of Jesus Christ the next great event in the history of the world could be the rapture of the church of Jesus Christ. If you don't know what that is you'll have to look it up in your bible I don't have time to explain it to you right now but here's what he says for you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree and strata the briar shall come up the myrtle tree and so it shall be to the Lord for a name for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

In other words you're not going to go out with sorrow you're not going to go out with sadness about feeling like a failure you're going to go out with joy you're going to be led out with peace you're going to know you're right with God you're going to know you did what God called you to do the mountains and the hills are going to break forth before you every impossible place is going to part everything that told you this is as far as you can go no farther it's going all part for you is going to clap because you understood what walking in the power of God is all about even nature itself is going to rejoice because God has a people that are glorifying him in the earth instead of barrenness is going to come fruitfulness instead of pain is going to come healing and it will all be to the Lord

for a name for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off that he alone is God to him alone belongs mercy his is the kingdom the power and the glory now and forever and forever and forever and forever and forever hallelujah to the lamb of God thank you Lord thank you God thank you Jesus thank you mighty God you shall go out with joy praise be to God now you can sit on your hands in unbelief if you want but I'm not sitting there with you the mountains are going to part in front of me and the trees are going to clap their hands I'm taking everything God has for me it's been an amazing journey so far these 40 years but it's not over yet I fully believe that the best wine is saved for the end of the banquet and the glory of the latter temple is greater than the former I fully believe that

and I'm starting to touch the edge of it now thank God thank God thank God thank God thank God when we get to the place where we recognize that Jesus is everything he's all in all there is nothing nothing apart from him now we're going to come to the communion table you see what we're going to do at communion today is we're going to eat the bread representing his promises to us we're going to drink the juice representing his shed blood that gives us access to the fullness of his redemption and we're going to we're going to kiss the wilderness goodbye now if you want to live in the booth the rest of your life you get what you confess my friend you can live in your grass hut halfway between bondage and promise if you want but if you want to go with God you can go with God there is a life to

be lived in Christ and that life can only be lived by Christ living it inside of us you have to want to go there remember Isaiah 55 he calls out just as he did in John 7 and says hear me whole means hear me everyone who still thirsts and has nothing to buy it with come now come now come now just with a hungry heart that's the only payment that is required is a hungry heart and with it you can buy enough wine and milk it will satisfy you and everyone around you for the rest of your days a hungry heart is all God has ever wanted it's all you've ever needed doesn't want your degrees he doesn't want your efforts doesn't want anything from you because you can't fulfill your promises he's made the promises if you'll open your heart let them soak in watch what God will do now father we thank you

Lord as we prepare to come to the communion table today in this church God Almighty I see something in your word I hear your voice I hear your heart calling now calling to us we are potentially the last generation before your return and I hear you standing up on the last day this great day of the feast saying if anyone is still thirsty come to me and drink whoever believes on me as the scripture says out of his heart will flow rivers of living water Lord I know your word is true and I thirst for this living water I thirst for a strength that is not my own I thirst for a mind that is deeper than my thoughts I thirst for a passion for you and a compassion for the loss that is born of the spirit of God I thirst Lord to have an influence over the loss that they might truly be brought to a

place of considering their eternal destiny I thirst oh God for power and prayer to cast down strongholds in every argument that exalts itself against the knowledge of God I thirst for the power to love my enemies and to fight for those who fight against their own salvation I thirst for the courage to stand up in unpopular times and to face the criticisms of unregenerate men who fight against the knowledge of God I thirst for wisdom God that you gave to your early church that no one could stand against it was profound and they couldn't understand where it had come from I thirst Lord God for everything in your word Lord that is promised to me and to your people Lord Jesus Christ I thirst for a spiritual awakening in this generation in this city in this nation I thirst for your mercy Lord to

flow again like a river in the streets of our cities oh God I thirst Lord to see your name glorified again God in an era where so many are lost and have no knowledge of where they're headed I thirst oh God for mercy Lord Jesus Christ you said come to me and drink and so Lord I will and I don't even have the strength to come to you you have to give that to me as well I am no better than the blind man or the leper the lame Lord those who couldn't get to even in their own strength Lord and when they couldn't get there you stopped and had somebody bring them to you Lord you are so kind to us thank you for your mercy help us to understand that we are on a pathway to freedom as we partake of this communion in Jesus name for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you the Lord

Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread you know when you really consider it the betrayal was you know really by somebody who just was not willing to receive his testimony of himself he had he had been trying to tell them or this some this one person in particular that without my without partaking of me you have no life and that that was an offense that that individual you know because there's something in in in the sin nature of humanity that wants to be as God is that is the essence of the sin nature I want the ability to determine what is good and what is evil and what is right and what is wrong and I believe that I am stronger than I am and that was ultimately the seed that betrayed him but when he had given thanks he broke it and said take eat this is my body

which is broken for you I'm being broken that you might be made whole I'm being the sin of the world's being placed on me so that your sin might be forgiven oh thank God this do in remembrance of me in the same manner he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood this do as oft as a drink in a remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes thank you Lord hallelujah father we thank you we bless you Lord God for your presence we thank you for your victory Lord Jesus Christ I thank you for the testimony that you are raising in this room I thank you God for people that are going to leave a place of wandering a place of weakness a place of living in the wilderness and they're going to find

you they're going to find your strength your power your Holy Spirit God Almighty thank you for what you're doing for our people online who are in their homes or kitchens or living rooms wherever God Almighty thank you for what you're doing for us as your people Lord you're going to raise a voice in this generation it's going to be your voice it's going to be your life it's going to be your power pouring out from your people we yield ourselves to your promises and as the rain waters the earth and it brings forth the harvest Lord we let your promises soak into us we believe them and we trust oh God that you will do in us what needs to be done that your name might be brought to glory again in this generation we thank you God in the mighty and unmatchable name of Jesus Christ the Son of God

hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah