Sunday Sermon

 

Food from the Lord

Isaiah 55:2

Why spend your money on something that is not real food? Why work for something that doesn’t really satisfy you? Listen closely to me, and you will eat what is good; your soul will enjoy the rich food that satisfies.

On March third two thousand and twenty-one our builder started the construction of our house and that construction finished on July third. There are two ways to look at the amount of time used to build the house. It only took four months to build and install the foundations that house rests on and the electric that if done wrong will burn down the house or the water that we need each day. None of those were simple things and each took time. Or the other way to look at the time it took to build the house we can think about how long it took because four months is a lot of time and there were several instances where very little was done over the course of a week. When I think about the whole process of building our house it really teaches me about my faith and what it means to grow in faith. Just like a house we do not spring full grown in our faith but we have to build our faith over a life time. Knowing that faith is a process and not something that is a once and done kind of thing and actually building a faith in the living God are two different things. Just the part of where we dig down and build foundations can take a lot of time and effort. The work that is needed can be daunting and there will be times when we just want a short cut but to building a strong and powerful faith is like building anything it takes time and effort. When we paint our walls and hang pictures I think about the amount of time and effort it took to hang the drywall and to paint all the walls in the house. It is the same with our faith. To get to the place where we can put up pretty things in our lives we are going to have to do some really dirty work of building the things that will let us display our faith like it should be. Let me also be clear, Jesus says it only takes a little faith in God to be saved from the destruction sin brings but Jesus also speaks to His disciples about their lack of faith. We need to understand that faith in God requires that we are willing to humble ourselves and learn to be the people God calls us to be. My question is do we even know what work God is doing in us and what work God wants us to get moving on that we have not started. To build the faith God wants us to have it will take time and effort and I want us to both grasp that idea and get started in the work God is calling us to do. God calls us to deal with the sin in our lives and that is one of the ways we will learn faith. At other times God is going to ask us to step out and do something that seems hard and will take real strength. Each time God is working in us to build the faith God wants us to have. We have to listen to God and work at knowing who God is and how God operates to get the faith God says we should have. Building faith is a process and one that takes a life time and we have a God who longs to teach us to be the people of faith we should be.

Real faith is all about trusting that God is the Truth and then having the courage to live by that truth. Our faith is not about being religious even through because of the nature of faith religion is part of the practice of faith. There are two parts that make up faith and all other things fall down stream of these two. First is that we trust in God. This sounds simple but often we confuse trusting in God with trusting in what God does. Those are two different things. Trusting in God is hard but can be done because God will help us. To trust in God we believe that God is in control and always present even if we cannot see Him. The opposite is to trust in what God does. If we don’t see God doing something our faith gets weak. Knowing that God is there when things are hard is something amazing if we will let it happen. Great people of faith had hard times trusting in God. Job is a righteous man of faith and is religious but when his world gets broken he questions what is going on and what God is doing. Go read the book of Jeremiah if you want to see the struggle that faith has. Jeremiah is a prophet but he often whines to God about his suffering. Learning to trust God is going to take a life time but even the process is meant to help us be people of faith. The second point about faith is that we come under the authority of God. And I don’t mean we just obey what God says but we learn how to live as God teaches and we obey the commands God gives because they teach us about how the world works and what things really mean. God never hides that His commands are going to ask us to step up and live and think differently but those commands are meant to guide us in our faith. Submitting to the authority of God will take courage and strength and that is what God is getting at. Faith takes work and effort and God calls to us and tells us that if we will trust Him we will find that our lives are filled with hope and joy and peace no matter what is happening around us.

The amount of time money and effort that we spend on food for our house astounds me. Unlike other people who think about food and how to make it and how it tastes I used to think that food was no big deal to me because it was just fuel for my body but I was wrong. We have a chicken run, a chicken coop, a turkey run and a very big garden with the idea that all of that produces food for our family. I do have to say that understanding how important food is to us. We should spend a great deal of time, money and effort on food for our houses. With that said our verse tells that there is an even more important thing then physical food that we need to spend our effort on. Our verse speaks of the need to find food that feeds our souls and this verse makes it plain that this is not some extra activity but it is essential to being fully human and people of faith. The most crucial words in this verse are right in the middle and they are the words, “Listen closely to me” God wants us to know that the next few words are words that should carry a serious weight to them. The idea that God wants to nourish our souls is such a wonderful thing and it tells us about who God is and what God wants for us in our lives. We have a God who knows what is good for us and what will make us strong and will also give us much enjoyment and God wants to feed us those things. When we look at God’s commands or we study the words God speaks about sin we need to know that God is looking our for us and God seeks to fill our lives with that things that will give our lives meaning. Read the last phrase because it speaks to the human condition. Our faith is based in the idea that God offers great food that satisfies our souls in whys that nothing else will do. Let us seek that food with all of our hearts and let us speak to a world of souls dying because they are eating the wrong stuff. We know that this concept of filling our souls is of import because of those words, “Listen closely to me” Everyone is looking for things that will fill our souls and it is God who does it and so many people reject God. Let God nourish our souls and trust that what He gives us is the food we need. Our souls long for God and our souls need God to feed us and so God makes sure we have the food we need and we really want. Let us be the people who trust in the living God that fills our souls.

One of the things I like about God is that He does not always go straight at us about what we are doing. Again in the book of Job we have this. Most of the book of Job is all about Job asking questions and because of that God feels it fair to ask Job some questions. Jesus does that same and in our verse we find God asking questions. What is great is that God ask some very simple but very pointed questions about our lives. When we think about these questions we basically have God speaking to us as people and asking us to think about our lives and the meaning that is in them. The questions that God ask are not rhetorical but real probing and thought provoking questions about our lives and why we are doing what we are doing. These questions clearly make the point that what we are doing is not getting what we want. God wants us think about how we are living and the things that we are producing and if they really are doing what we want in our lives. We need to pay attention to this because when God ask why twice God wants us to grasp a concept He longs for us to know. The idea here is that when we are not seeking God we are missing what really fills our souls and God wants to fill our souls. Why would we reject the real stuff for things that are never going to do what we want them to do. God knows that He is what will fill our souls and satisfy us. This is the God who loves us and wants to nourish our souls. Seek God and let Him be the one who gives us what we really need and what. Real food makes all the difference and when we taste it we will know and want more of it. Look to God to feed us in the way that will be best for us and worship that God.

The last thing that I want us to see is the God does not do things second rate. Look at the words God uses to describe the food He offers. It is “good food” and it is “rich food.” But best of all is it is food that we will enjoy. God does not offer food the will make our lives miserable, uncomfortable or unpleasant but just the opposite. What faith in God offers is all the things that make life worth living. Think about what it would be like to be loved enough for someone to die for you or to have peace in life no matter what is going on. This is the food God gives. It would be enough if God just forgave our sins and left us on our own but that is not the God we have. Our God wants our lives to have meaning and for us to know there is a purpose for our lives. This is the food God offers and it is food we all long for. God offers for free the best food out there and all we have to do is accept the food he offers.