WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.279 Well, as we dive into Isaiah 41, I just have one question that I want us to think on for 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:11.200 a moment. 00:00:11.200 --> 00:00:12.679 Are you thirsty? 00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:19.199 On a hot day like today, it's not hot by Nashville standards, but I must have acclimated because 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:21.839 it's hot to me. 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:26.920 You know, I can have a lot of connotations and it can be easy to say yes, yes I'm thirsty, 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:33.280 but Isaiah is talking about a different kind of thirst, and we need to ask ourselves, am 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:34.280 I thirsty? 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:39.359 I was in the car with, well not our car, we don't have a car, but I was in someone else's 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:45.719 car with my kids the other day and they put on an audio book for the kids and it was Michael 00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:49.000 Bond's book, a bear called Paddington. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:55.560 We love Paddington Bear and it begins when Mr. and Mrs. Brown discover a bear at Paddington 00:00:55.560 --> 00:01:01.240 Station and Paddington, as the bear comes to be called, was of course a stowaway on 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:07.280 a ship from darkest Peru and now this bear is looking for a home and the Browns have 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:09.040 just decided to take him home with them. 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:14.120 This is just the beginning of the book and Mrs. Brown says, I'm sure you must be thirsty 00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:18.120 after your long journey, so you go along to the buffet with Mr. Brown and he'll buy you 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:20.120 a nice cup of tea. 00:01:20.120 --> 00:01:22.240 Paddington licked his lips. 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:27.199 I'm very thirsty, he said, seawater makes you thirsty. 00:01:27.199 --> 00:01:31.359 It's wisdom from Paddington. 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:35.640 Seawater makes you thirsty. 00:01:35.640 --> 00:01:40.119 Only drinking fresh water, of course, is going to satisfy thirst. 00:01:40.119 --> 00:01:44.280 I mean if you've ever been thirsty and you've seen the sea just sparkling and clear on a 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:50.399 hot day, you'll know that that twinkling sea is full of false promises, isn't it? 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:55.520 It looks delicious, but it's not going to satisfy. 00:01:55.520 --> 00:02:01.080 And I'm sure you would never try drinking seawater if you're really thirsty, so why 00:02:01.080 --> 00:02:08.360 do we go to anyone or anything but God with our soul thirst? 00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:11.240 And we all do. 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:19.960 When you're stressed, when you're overwhelmed, when you're anxious, where do you go for help? 00:02:19.960 --> 00:02:26.960 When you're ill, when you're tempted, when you're lonely, when you're longing for something, 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:29.319 where do you go? 00:02:29.319 --> 00:02:33.280 Have you been drinking seawater? 00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:39.040 The first half of Isaiah 41, 17 says, when the poor and needy seek water and there is 00:02:39.040 --> 00:02:41.879 none and their tongue is parched with thirst. 00:02:41.879 --> 00:02:45.879 So here's who we're talking about, is the poor and needy, they're looking for water, 00:02:45.879 --> 00:02:51.159 they can't find any and they're just parched. 00:02:51.159 --> 00:02:55.799 Now I want to just look at these two words real quick, the poor and needy, and the commentator 00:02:55.799 --> 00:03:00.159 Alec Motir helped me see this that I hadn't seen before. 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:05.599 The word translated to be poor means to be crushed under life's burdens, to have this 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:08.099 weight just pressing down on you. 00:03:08.099 --> 00:03:15.719 It's that feeling of, you know, a constant sense of I've bitten off more and I can chew. 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:17.960 You've been dealt a bad hand. 00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:24.319 You can't get your head above water, you feel like you're just drowning all the time. 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:26.879 That's what it is to be poor. 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:32.280 To be needy, this word has two aspects to it, a negative aspect and a positive aspect. 00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:38.599 So negatively to be needy means to be flimsy or to be pliable. 00:03:38.599 --> 00:03:46.159 Motir says it means to be bending before life's more powerful forces, resourceless. 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:53.000 I wonder if you know that feeling, kind of tossed about by the waves, right? 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:57.159 The things that are happening are too big for you to control and you don't have the 00:03:57.159 --> 00:03:59.159 resources to meet those needs. 00:03:59.159 --> 00:04:01.000 That's the negative aspect of needy. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:08.919 The positive aspect of this particular word also means to be willing, to be willing. 00:04:08.919 --> 00:04:13.560 Needy people don't have the resources to meet their needs and they won't turn their 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:15.560 nose up at help. 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:22.639 That's the needy people that we're talking about in Isaiah 41, because it's really easy 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:28.240 to let our pride keep us from asking for help, isn't it? 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:35.199 God describes this, this poor, needy condition as something like a soul desert, because the 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:41.639 poor and needy are thirsty, radically thirsty, not just slightly dehydrated. 00:04:41.639 --> 00:04:43.600 You get a little headache and you have a glass of water. 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:48.000 They're parched, tongues sticking to the roof of their mouth parched. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:50.720 They're crushed under life's burdens. 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:52.560 They're unable to help themselves. 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:54.759 They know they need help and they're looking. 00:04:54.759 --> 00:04:55.840 They're looking for help. 00:04:55.840 --> 00:04:56.960 They're willing to be helped. 00:04:56.959 --> 00:05:01.159 They're seeking water. 00:05:01.159 --> 00:05:07.719 So I'll ask again, are you thirsty? 00:05:07.719 --> 00:05:13.279 Let me read to you from John chapter 7, verse 37 and 38. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:21.679 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:28.120 let him come to me and drink, whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:35.840 heart will flow rivers of living water. 00:05:35.840 --> 00:05:39.399 Take your thirsts to Jesus. 00:05:39.399 --> 00:05:42.600 That's all I really want you to get out of this sermon. 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:50.040 Take your thirst to Jesus and nowhere else, not Jesus plus, just Jesus. 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:56.680 When Jesus has come to me, when we go to Jesus, we have to leave behind everything else. 00:05:56.680 --> 00:05:59.600 It's an exclusive coming and going, right? 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:09.200 We go to Jesus and we go away from any other seawater full of false promises. 00:06:09.200 --> 00:06:14.400 God is exclusively the source of our life. 00:06:14.400 --> 00:06:18.439 Everything else we turn to with our needs, our anxieties, our loneliness, everything 00:06:18.439 --> 00:06:24.519 else, I promise you, everything else will let you down in the end. 00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:32.399 Idols, which is just really what we turn to for help, for satisfaction, for meaning. 00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:34.439 Idols are full of false promises. 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:37.040 It's all they are. 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:39.720 But Jesus is making you a real promise. 00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:45.560 Go to him and he says, out of your heart will flow rivers of living water. 00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:51.240 In other words, Jesus promises to satisfy you. 00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:59.079 He promises to meet you in the place of your thirst and slake that thirst. 00:06:59.079 --> 00:07:02.040 In our passage in Isaiah 41, he goes above and beyond. 00:07:02.040 --> 00:07:05.160 So he says he makes rivers and springs. 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:10.319 He takes the dry bits and he makes them just flowing with water. 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:14.720 And he even goes above and beyond that and he provides trees for shelter and shade and 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:18.800 beauty. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:22.200 Now some people say, I'm thirsty. 00:07:22.200 --> 00:07:30.040 I have a soul thirst, but they turn down the living water that we have to offer. 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:32.360 Maybe you were like that. 00:07:32.360 --> 00:07:37.720 Maybe you have a friend who you share the gospel with and they say that they're looking spiritually 00:07:37.720 --> 00:07:42.240 for satisfaction and meaning and you share the good news of Jesus with them and they 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:44.560 just don't, it doesn't work. 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:45.560 They don't click with them. 00:07:45.560 --> 00:07:49.480 They don't want it. 00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:52.759 Maybe they're not really poor and needy. 00:07:52.759 --> 00:07:56.680 Maybe they need to get really thirsty first. 00:07:56.680 --> 00:08:04.360 That's a bit of my story really is God had to let me get really, really thirsty before 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:07.840 I would take of that water. 00:08:07.840 --> 00:08:14.319 Some people, and maybe this is you, maybe this is your friend, some people just don't know 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:20.040 how accessible the water really is. 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:24.040 So by way of illustration, this is an old story that I heard from Charles Spurgeon. 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:26.519 Not personally, I read it in the book. 00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:31.959 There's an old story of a ship sailing near the coast of South America and this ship happened 00:08:31.959 --> 00:08:37.759 upon another ship and that second ship, it was clear that the sailors on it were in great 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:40.480 distress waving their arms and shouting. 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:46.279 And so this first ship sailed nearer and they heard the sailors crying, help us, we're dying 00:08:46.279 --> 00:08:49.279 of thirst. 00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:53.200 To which the crew of the first ship said, well dip some up and drink then. 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:59.320 You're in the mouth of the Amazon and that's freshwater. 00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:02.920 Do you know how near Jesus is? 00:09:02.920 --> 00:09:07.519 Do you know how accessible he is? 00:09:07.519 --> 00:09:10.879 Are you like those sailors who thought that they were in the middle of an ocean but were 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:17.639 actually in the mouth of a wide river full of fresh drinkable water? 00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:23.960 Jesus doesn't make you jump through hoops to satisfy those thirsts. 00:09:23.960 --> 00:09:27.079 He just says, you thirsty? 00:09:27.079 --> 00:09:31.679 Just come to me. 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:41.399 All you have to do is go to Jesus, you're in freshwater, just dip some up and drink. 00:09:41.399 --> 00:09:44.919 He promises to satisfy you. 00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:47.279 But how do we know? 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:51.319 I always have a portion of my sermons of like, well how do I really know? 00:09:51.319 --> 00:09:54.599 I think that says something about my own psychology. 00:09:54.599 --> 00:09:59.559 I always want some sort of certainty that this is real, that this is going to happen, that 00:09:59.559 --> 00:10:03.039 I can count on God to be who he says he is. 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:05.439 So how do we know that God will meet us with our need? 00:10:05.439 --> 00:10:09.079 How do we know that if we go to him with our thirst, he won't embarrass us? 00:10:09.079 --> 00:10:12.879 So that's what some of us are afraid of when we ask for help, right? 00:10:12.879 --> 00:10:15.359 When our pride keeps us from asking for help. 00:10:15.359 --> 00:10:22.479 We just don't want to say, I need help and then to be laughed at or to be let down. 00:10:22.479 --> 00:10:27.359 So how do we know Jesus will satisfy our soul thirst? 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:33.519 Well, I could tell you about how he sent his son, Jesus, to how God sent Jesus to die for 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:39.279 your sins so that he could send his Holy Spirit, God himself, the Spirit to live in you and 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:41.960 to comfort you and to make you holy. 00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:47.560 Or I could tell you about how Jesus rose from the grave and defeated death and ascended 00:10:47.560 --> 00:10:51.920 to heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father, ruling and reigning this universe 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:57.759 for your good and his glory, interceding for you every moment to the Father, turning all 00:10:57.759 --> 00:10:59.240 your sorrows into good. 00:10:59.240 --> 00:11:04.039 I could get into all of that and I would if I had more time. 00:11:04.039 --> 00:11:07.120 But in this passage, Isaiah does something different. 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:08.599 He's reasoning with us. 00:11:08.599 --> 00:11:14.360 God is reasoning kindly with us and he's not just telling us what to do. 00:11:14.360 --> 00:11:21.000 He's in fact telling us, showing us that he's committed to two things that we can absolutely 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:22.879 count on. 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:27.919 He's committed to you and to his glory. 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:29.519 And those two things are related. 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:30.919 So first, God is committed to you. 00:11:30.919 --> 00:11:32.320 Look again at verse 17. 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:37.279 When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, their tongue is parched with thirst, 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:39.720 I the Lord will answer them. 00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:47.159 I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. 00:11:47.159 --> 00:11:49.240 Look at what he calls himself. 00:11:49.240 --> 00:11:54.360 He doesn't just say, God, I, God, will not forsake. 00:11:54.360 --> 00:11:59.120 He says the God of Israel. 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:01.560 Israel is his covenant people. 00:12:01.560 --> 00:12:07.600 God belongs to his covenant people and they belong to him. 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:10.360 They're in a, well, it's a covenant. 00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:16.399 The deepest, tightest, most loving, most committed, serious relationship that there is, God has 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:21.159 tethered himself to his people and he doesn't just say, I'm God. 00:12:21.159 --> 00:12:26.000 He says, I'm the God of Israel. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:30.399 And second, see that little word at the end, forsake. 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:36.079 I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. 00:12:36.079 --> 00:12:44.799 For God to not satisfy the thirst of his people is the equivalent of him forsaking them. 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:51.559 In other words, God is deeply committed to you. 00:12:51.559 --> 00:12:54.240 And if you trust in Jesus, you are the Israel of God. 00:12:54.240 --> 00:13:05.399 You are his people and you belong to him and he miraculously belongs to you and he won't 00:13:05.399 --> 00:13:15.360 forsake you by letting you stay thirsty without being satisfied by Christ. 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:16.480 So God's committed to you. 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:18.759 Second God is committed to his glory. 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:24.399 Look with me, verses 18 to 20, and then we'll slow down and look at 20. 00:13:24.399 --> 00:13:28.959 He says, I will open rivers on the bare heights and fountains in the midst of the valleys. 00:13:28.959 --> 00:13:32.919 I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water. 00:13:32.919 --> 00:13:36.879 I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive. 00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:40.279 I'll set in the desert the cypress, the plain, and the pine together. 00:13:40.279 --> 00:13:43.079 That, stop there for a second. 00:13:43.079 --> 00:13:46.279 That's a purpose word, that. 00:13:46.279 --> 00:13:50.479 We're supposed to get to all that and say, why will you do that? 00:13:50.479 --> 00:13:53.079 What's your reason for that, God? 00:13:53.079 --> 00:14:01.799 And then he tells us that they may see and know, may consider and understand together 00:14:01.799 --> 00:14:05.439 that the hand of the Lord has done this. 00:14:05.439 --> 00:14:11.399 The Holy One of Israel has created it. 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:20.599 That's why God promises to make the wilderness into a lush garden for his people, as it were. 00:14:20.599 --> 00:14:30.079 It's for his glory that we'll see and know that God did it. 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:31.960 God has committed to his glory. 00:14:31.960 --> 00:14:37.320 And because you belong to him and he belongs to you, if you're thirst, your soul thirst 00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:45.960 was to go unsatisfied when you go to Christ for a drink, his glory would be diminished. 00:14:45.960 --> 00:14:48.759 That's serious. 00:14:48.759 --> 00:14:51.600 So take your thirst to Jesus. 00:14:51.600 --> 00:14:59.200 He won't leave you unsatisfied because God's glory is at stake. 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:06.360 This is the same sort of thing where in Exodus, I think, 33 or 34, Israel's just being utterly 00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:08.240 obstinate. 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:12.840 And God says to Moses, I'm going to wipe them out and start over with you. 00:15:12.840 --> 00:15:21.960 And Moses pleads with God on the basis of God's glory to bear with Israel and to forgive 00:15:21.960 --> 00:15:23.960 their sins. 00:15:23.960 --> 00:15:27.800 He says, well, if you wipe these people out, what will the nations say? 00:15:27.799 --> 00:15:30.399 They'll say God didn't love his people, obviously. 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:33.759 He just brought them out in the wilderness to kill them. 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:35.559 Your glory is at stake. 00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:41.199 David, prays in the Psalms constantly, for your namesake, deliver me from this evil. 00:15:41.199 --> 00:15:44.919 For your namesake, not mine. 00:15:44.919 --> 00:15:48.279 That's really the basis of prayer, isn't it? 00:15:48.279 --> 00:15:54.319 We go to God and say, not because I deserve it, but because of your glory. 00:15:54.319 --> 00:15:55.559 Would you do this? 00:15:55.559 --> 00:15:58.399 Would you satisfy me? 00:15:58.399 --> 00:16:05.599 And no one has ever gone to God and said, I'm thirsty, only you can satisfy me. 00:16:05.599 --> 00:16:06.959 I give myself to you. 00:16:06.959 --> 00:16:08.079 Will you satisfy me? 00:16:08.079 --> 00:16:10.519 And God says, no. 00:16:10.519 --> 00:16:12.559 That's never happened. 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:18.039 No one has ever gone to Jesus and said, Jesus, I'm such a sinner and you're such a savior. 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:20.359 Will you forgive me? 00:16:20.359 --> 00:16:23.639 And then Jesus withholds his forgiveness. 00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:29.639 That's never happened and that never will happen. 00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:37.480 He's the source of life and it's his glory to impart life to the lifeless, to give water 00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:42.759 to the thirsty. 00:16:42.759 --> 00:16:45.960 So are you thirsty? 00:16:45.960 --> 00:16:50.399 Do you want that? 00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:56.559 If so, then you are mentioned in this passage two times. 00:16:56.559 --> 00:17:00.679 So in verse 17, you the thirsty, we the thirsty, we seek water. 00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:01.919 That's one thing that we do. 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:02.919 We seek water. 00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:06.639 We look for something to satisfy us. 00:17:06.639 --> 00:17:10.759 And then in verse 20, we see and know and consider and understand that God is the one 00:17:10.759 --> 00:17:12.720 who saves and satisfies. 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:14.240 That's all we do. 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:18.480 We're willing and then we see. 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:24.319 And everything that comes in between, verses 17 and 20, has God at the center of the action. 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:26.240 God says, I will answer them. 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:27.480 I will not forsake them. 00:17:27.480 --> 00:17:29.240 I will open rivers on the bare heights. 00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:30.920 I will turn wilderness to waters. 00:17:30.920 --> 00:17:36.000 I will plant trees in the wasteland. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:41.799 In other words, if you're thirsty, you can't satisfy yourself. 00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:45.960 Only God can. 00:17:45.960 --> 00:17:50.480 Now if you need money, you can always invest, right? 00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:51.480 Theoretically. 00:17:51.480 --> 00:17:56.240 The very rough, I'm just going to show how naive I am about investments. 00:17:56.240 --> 00:18:00.279 The rough idea, you take a pound, you give it to someone, they invest it for you and 00:18:00.279 --> 00:18:02.360 hand back to you two pounds, right? 00:18:02.360 --> 00:18:03.759 Wouldn't that be nice? 00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:05.680 Quite a return on investment. 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:10.360 The idea is though with investment, you take a little, you pour it into something and then 00:18:10.360 --> 00:18:11.840 you get a little bit more back. 00:18:11.840 --> 00:18:13.960 But God is no investment broker. 00:18:13.960 --> 00:18:18.680 If we're poor and needy and thirsty, He does not take our resources and start rewarding 00:18:18.680 --> 00:18:21.079 us for what we have. 00:18:21.079 --> 00:18:22.600 It's not investment. 00:18:22.600 --> 00:18:24.640 He takes our nothing. 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:26.120 He takes our need. 00:18:26.120 --> 00:18:34.079 He takes our lack and He creates life from them. 00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:40.360 That's why I think the last word of verse 20 is created it. 00:18:40.360 --> 00:18:41.480 God created it. 00:18:41.480 --> 00:18:44.799 It's an act of creation from nothing. 00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:49.400 This is the Creator God, water from wilderness. 00:18:49.400 --> 00:18:51.559 It's our thirst that He blesses. 00:18:51.559 --> 00:18:57.839 It's the empty hands of faith that He fills. 00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:11.000 He makes lush gardens full of water and shade and shelter and beauty from your wastelands. 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:15.519 It's hard to believe, but it's glorious. 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:25.799 And if that's true, we don't ever have to be afraid to take our need to God, to take 00:19:25.799 --> 00:19:33.839 it to Jesus because it's in the very place of your lack, in the very place of your deepest 00:19:33.839 --> 00:19:34.839 needs. 00:19:34.839 --> 00:19:44.119 It's your thirst that His glory is most beautifully displayed, most clearly displayed. 00:19:44.119 --> 00:19:52.599 So being a Christian isn't do good things, help yourself, and have God bless your efforts. 00:19:52.599 --> 00:19:55.439 Being a Christian is going to Jesus and saying, God, help me. 00:19:55.439 --> 00:19:58.399 I'm thirsty. 00:19:58.399 --> 00:20:03.519 I have no plan B. I have no backup strategy. 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:04.839 Anything else can satisfy me. 00:20:04.839 --> 00:20:12.920 I'm done with drinking seawater. 00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:16.400 That's why we're here tonight. 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:20.839 We're thirsty, and we need Jesus. 00:20:20.839 --> 00:20:27.319 And Jesus is so willing to give Himself for our need. 00:20:27.319 --> 00:20:33.919 So in a moment, I'm going to invite Billy up to lead us in Holy Communion. 00:20:33.919 --> 00:20:38.960 But as we prepare to receive this Lord's Supper tonight, I want us to hear and reflect on 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:46.119 these words together from Isaiah 55, a few chapters later, verses one to two. 00:20:46.119 --> 00:20:57.200 Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy, and eat. 00:20:57.200 --> 00:21:01.640 Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 00:21:01.640 --> 00:21:07.160 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which 00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:10.080 does not satisfy? 00:21:10.080 --> 00:21:20.039 Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 00:21:20.039 --> 00:21:22.480 Amen. 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:28.319 Let's pray together before we take communion. 00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:32.680 Lord Jesus, we're creatures of need. 00:21:32.680 --> 00:21:34.960 We're little bundles of need. 00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:40.440 We can't order our lives the way that we like to pretend that we can. 00:21:40.440 --> 00:21:44.759 We can't order our emotions the way that we wish that we could. 00:21:44.759 --> 00:21:49.640 Our relationships, there's brokenness in everything, and there's such need and such 00:21:49.640 --> 00:21:58.400 thirst in our souls, and we believe that you are the one who can satisfy. 00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:01.360 And would you give us more faith in you? 00:22:01.360 --> 00:22:10.120 Would you help our unbelief and draw us to yourself by your gentleness, by your kindness, 00:22:10.120 --> 00:22:14.480 by your beauty, by your power? 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:23.200 And as we go to communion this evening, would these, this bread, this cup, would we hear 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:32.839 and would we taste and feel the truth of how you gave yourself for us, that we may have 00:22:32.839 --> 00:22:34.680 life with you forever? 00:22:34.680 --> 00:22:38.079 In Jesus' name, amen. 00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:47.559 stretch to���illah. 00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:48.759 Amen. 00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:56.679 breastfeeding.