People are looking for something, they have a need, a hunger,
a thirst which they can’t quite meet, it is there in every one of us.
Humanity is hungry and they are need something to satisfy this hunger. We can look out at the world around us and you can see this need being manifested in the lives of many of those around us. They may not even know that it is there, or at least, they cannot put it into words, but it is there in all of us…. It is a need to be satisfied.
We see many people around us looking for an
answer to this hunger and thirst. This hunger and thirst, this need and what to
be satisfied in life, but so often it eludes them.
Yet, it is God himself which has, in his design
and purpose, placed this hunger and thirst, this need, in us all.
“I have seen the burden God has laid on the
human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set
eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from
beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be
happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and
find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God”. Eccl: 3:10-13
An Invitation
The Great God has extended an invitation to
all who will but freely receive it , to have this need satisfied in the only
way that truly can be.
The Prophet Isaiah speaks of this invitation
to all humanity.
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the
waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost .”Isa: 55:1
The Lord God has offered this so freely, yet
so many attempt to secure it through the riches and resources of their own
efforts…They try to accomplish this satisfaction through many ways. They attempt
to satisfy this hunger and thirst within deep within themselves, and all of us
Can Not be Bought
Why spend money on what is not bread, and your
labor on what does not satisfy? (2)
Those things which we attempt to purchase
through our efforts will not, and cannot, in the end, satisfy us.
God tells us what the answer is, and he invites
each and all to come to his table so to speak, to that place of fellowship, of
belonging, that place where life is sustained. Here at the Lord's table the
best and the greatest is laid before us all; and it will exceed any and all of
our expectations.
“Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good
and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; Listen,
that you may live”. (3)
As the Palmist wrote, “taste and see that the Lord is good”
What is David’s, is Ours’
“I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him a
witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples.”(4)
The very covenant that God had made with David,
he makes with us, we share in it. Yet, we are not to keep this to ourselves.
The message about Jesus is to be given to any and to all through our living
proclamation of the Gospel. We Christians all have a part in the participation
of this invitation to the world around us.
Where They Are Wanted
Isaiah writes about the invitation to come to
the Lord’s Table to those around us. this place, in Jesus, where they can find
the fulfillment that all humanity has sought for. This is the place of being
loved wanted and included by the Great God all through his Son Jesus.
“Surely you will summon nations
you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of
the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with
splendor.” (5)
The splendor that the Prophet refers to, is
the Lord Jesus Christ living in and through us, which is; we participating in
who he is, so that the world around us can see it.
Through our lives we can encourage others to
come and find that fulfillment which brings with it a transformation to the lives
of any and all who will but freely. A renewing of the soul, mind and spirit.
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on
him while he is near".
In Christ and through the Holy Spirit our Lord
Jesus is near to us all, and offers and invites humanity to experience the
grace which is freely given to all.
”Let the wicked forsake their
ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will
have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” (7)
The whole of the Gospel message is an
invitation to the Table of the Lord. Some of Jesus' parables involve the act of
coming and sitting together at a banquet and finding the table laden with every
good thing. Revelation, even presents all those through history who have come to
believe and accept Jesus as our Lord gathering together at the Table of Lord
for all eternity and find eternal joy.
Exceeds Any and All Expectations
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts”. (8-9)
St. Paul wrote “who can know the mind of God?”
What God, through Jesus, is including and
inviting us all to, is beyond anything that we can grasp. It exceeds anything
that we can imagine. It is higher, greater, and more fulfilling than any of the
things of this life.
The Holy Spirit
“As the rain and the snow come
down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making
it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the
eater,” (10)
“so is my word that goes out
from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I
desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it”. (11)
When we hear the Gospel about Jesus, that he,
as the living Word of God, came; and when we believe that message, we then
experience this salvation. God through ,the Holy Spirit dwells with us and
refreshes our very souls and fills us with belonging that all truly seek after and satisfies
us and completes us makes us whole in Jesus.
We personally enter what the Apostle St. Peter
in Acts called the “times of Refreshing”
St. Paul again wrote to the Church at Colossi,
“in him you are perfect”, the Greek word means complete,
or whole.
A Joy Fills Us
“You will go out in joy and be
led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush
will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be
for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”(12-13)
When we embrace all that the Lord has invited
us to, we will experience a satisfaction like no other. We will rejoice and
praise him. We will find all that we ever hungered or thirsted for satisfied in
Jesus. It will fill us now and forever more
When we, or any one accepts the invitation extended to us through the Gospel and comes to the Lord's Table we can be forever assured that we will never leave unsatisfied... Your place at the Lord's Table is set if you will but come. Come and be satisfied.....You are invited.
Benediction: May we each and all
come to the Table of the Lord where we will be satisfied and find ever good
thing, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.
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Rev.Todd Crouch, Norman, Oklahoma
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