4/12 Life

Come to the Waters, Everyone who Thirsts
(ISAIAH 55:1-5)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
1 “Come, everyone who thirsts,
    come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without price.
2 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,
    and delight yourselves in rich food.

1. [v.1-2] *Biblical principle – COME TO THE WATERS – all who thirst and are without money: We do not thirst because we are already filled. How can we thirst for His waters without price when we are already quenched by the pricey beverages in the world? Through the sufferings of the LORD’s servant (Jesus Christ) in carrying all our sins to death on a cross, there is now peace that God invites us into – a covenant of peace with Him and one another (chapter 54). This covenant is for us and for all our children (54:13) – that establishes us in His righteousness and His protection (54:14-17). But this peace cannot be unleashed until His people desire to have it, like a thirsty person seeking the waters to quench their parched throat. God invites His people to come because He first came in His holy servant, His eternal Son Jesus. He invites us. He longs to quench us with the waters of His Spirit that washes all sins away. He desires to give it all without price to us, but at great price to His Son. He wonders why we spend ourselves on other bread and beverages that do not satisfy. He pleads with us to listen diligently, to come and eat His bread that brings nourishment, delight and abundance. Come thirsty, not full! Come take, not purchase! Come for food that endures to eternal life, not for food that perishes with earthly life! (JOHN 6:27).
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – God first came to us (through Jesus Christ), so now He calls us to come to Him. What is the prerequisite to come to the LORD?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – “Seek first the kingdom God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you,” says Jesus (MATTHEW 6:33). It is vital that we seek and thirst after the primary things, and in doing so also have added to us all the secondary things we worry for in this life. What do you thirst and hunger after primarily – sacrificing even your health, livelihood, and future to obtain? Are you thirsting for those secondary things that only can be earned with a price? Or are you thirsting for what is freely given without price? How can the world never buy nor touch the gifts of God’s peace guarding you, God’s joy in the holy Spirit overflowing you, God’s fruit of His presence with you in Christ Jesus, and the assured hope of God’s face to be seen by you upon entering His Kingdom?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – Hear the LORD asking you directly (verse 2), “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”
   4. *FOCUS QUESTION #4 – We can’t thirst for living bread because we are already filled with earthly snacks. What are we snacking on? What is the junk food that is taking away a thirstful desire for spiritual food? What are the beverages with price that keep us away from drinking God’s living waters without price?

 
3 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.
4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,
    a leader and commander for the peoples.

1. [v.3-4] *Biblical principle – COME TO ME – all who incline their ear to hear me: The water is Jesus (the living water), and we come to drink of Him by hearing His everlasting covenant of love made with His blood, giving life to the soul to lead His people. The only water to drink that is free and that will never leave us thirsty again is the river of living water flowing forth from Jesus Christ. Everyone who drinks plain water will be thirsty again, “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (JOHN 4:13-14). The LORD invites us to come to the waters – to Jesus Himself. Come by inclining your ear to hear. “To hear” carries the meaning to submit, to obey, to become one with, a part of – so by hearing Jesus, we are becoming one with Him in His thoughts, words, and life. What we hear when we listen with the purpose to obey is His everlasting covenant – the unbreakable new promise that the LORD is making to draw us to Himself as His people – not by the blood of bulls, goats, lambs, sheep, etc. but by the blood of His only eternal Son. This gospel of grace revives the dead soul in our sins back to life with His Son and raises godly commanders/leaders for His people, like King David during his days. Come to Jesus. Hear Him. Obey Him. Move to lead like Him.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – Jesus is like water that never leaves us thirsty again. When we drink it, we become a “spring of water welling up to eternal life” (JOHN 4:14). We drink by hearing and obeying what is heard. What ways does the ear need to bend – be inclined – to hear? How has hearing the LORD with an inclined ear brought life to your soul?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – The LORD is heard through His Word (the scriptures). The Word is validated and proven true through our personal experiences and visible through natural creation. But it all begins from the root of His Word. How is the hearing of the Word informing your experience with God? How is the hearing of the Word validating what you see around you in creation?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – Hearing the LORD is not a maze or puzzle or riddle to decipher. God speaks plainly. Have you heard of His everlasting covenant with you, His steadfast love for you as it was thousands of years ago with David? Has your hearing of the LORD made you a testimony for God’s people, a leader and a commander for His body to teach others His ways? How is your hearing linked to your growing in Christ?

 
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,
    and 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.

1. [v.5] *Biblical principle – THEY WILL COME TO YOU – because I have glorified you: If we are coming to Jesus, the nations will also be drawn to come running to us as they hear Jesus calling them through us. This living water welling up to eternal life is not for ours only, nor for one ethnic group only, nor for one geographic region only. How selfish would that be? The rivers of living water without price and for all who thirst for our Lord Jesus are for all the nations. That is how the LORD planned it from the very beginning through His covenant with Abraham – to make His children as numerous as the stars in the sky as His blessing to the whole world (GENESIS 12:1-3; GENESIS 15:5-6; GENESIS 22:16-18; GENESIS 26:2-5). In the shed blood of His promised savior and servant Jesus Christ, the promise of these children born of heaven by the water and the blood was fulfilled. As we call the nations to drink of the waters of the new covenant in Christ, God will continue to glorify His Son in us as the head of His church – His light emanating into the darkness of the world. So, are we ready for the stampede? Will we be ready for the nations to run to Jesus through our calling of the gospel, into our covenant family as His church?
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – “Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (ROMANS 8:30). God’s glory would not depart Israel, for His mission to extend the light of His gospel through His holy suffering servant Jesus would have no end. So also, God’s glory cannot depart you. In saving you, He has glorified you. He brings you into the spotlight of His greatness and glory so that those still unknown to us can come running into His arms. He invites us as inheritors of this glory, to reign with Jesus together as fellow heirs (ROMANS 8:17) over His kingdom as glorified, imperishable, holy servants. How has God glorified you with His gifts, His time, His life, His calling, His resources?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Church, do we believe the nations will run to us when seeing the glory of Jesus within us? Do you believe Jesus will call someone to Himself through you? How has he done so already?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – The late theologian Francis Schaeffer once said, “The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us [nor, I would add today, postmodernism or materialistic consumerism or visceral sensualism or whatever]. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat. The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.” (No Little People, page 66). Perhaps we do not see the reality of the harvest of people around us and the nations that will come rushing and running to us because the problem is with us. “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 PETER 4:17). How are we the problem? How are we not prepared for this work of God? How is the problem within us greater than the unbelieving world around us?

 
The central truth of this word was –
God does not force you. He invites you. He pleads with you in steadfast love – Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and drink without price. Stop laboring for the bread that perishes and does not satisfy. Labor for the bread that endures to eternal life. Come to Jesus, your living water, whose cup will never leave you thirsty again. Come by inclining your ear to listen diligently to His new covenant made in His blood. Fulfill your hearing by obeying, maturing to lead and call forth for His people from every nation to come to Christ. Get ready for the nations to run into this blessed new covenant family – His church – because of His glory.

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 
Apply & Be Doers of the Word
(1) Remove your pricey beverages. They take your thirst away. They cheapen the free gift of His waters. These may be literal beverages you turn to, or what first gets attention to start your day, or what makes your wallet open, or what satisfies momentarily yet sought after repeatedly, again and again. Acknowledge it. Discern it – how it is substituting my thirst? How is it stealing my thirst? Trash it. Practice fasting from it. Grow your hunger and thirst again.
 
(2) Do what God says. If we’ve heard Jesus enough, we need to come to Him now. Move your body. Take the next step. Grow from infancy into adulthood. Learn to be a leader and commander of His Word. Take responsibility for His body – the church – as King David did for Israel. We haven’t matured until we’re able to teach others to follow our example.
 
(3) Prepare the way for the nations to come to Jesus through you. Expect God to call someone to Himself through you.
 
 

Holy Spirit Moment & Group Prayer
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray for one another.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)
 
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. (GALATIANS 6:2-5)
 
For the body does not consist of one member but of many... The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 CORINTHIANS 12:14, 21-27)
 
- Jeong’s (Jake, Amanda)
- Lee’s (Sam, Heidi)
- Aiden Song
- Deborah Ko
- Kristen Lee
- Patrick Liu
- Brian Pak
- Samuel Park
- Trey Reynolds
- Tyler Lee
- Edward Jeon
- Johann Lee
- Eugene Hong
- JR Reynolds
- Brian Joo
- James Han
- Winnie Kim
- Philip Oh
- Hana Lee
- Rachel Ko (preschool assistant)
- Hanna Kang
- Soo Nam (Dallas Police)
- Eunice Kim (UT Austin)
- Jedidiah Lim (Louisiana)
- Jeff Park (California)
- Doug Kang
- Stacy Hong
- David An
- Daniel An
- Alice Jeon
- Ashley Min (UTD)
- Mike Choi (drummer, Jeff’s cousin)
- Eric Lee (UTD)
- Lisa Jeon
- Brian Yoon
- Jennifer Chung (UTA)
- June Kim (TWU)
- Hannah Kim (UT Austin)
- Hogan Lee (TCU)
- Steven Kwon (A&M)
- Benny Son (UT Austin)
- Esther Ko (UT Austin)
- Daniel Lee (UT Austin)
- Aaron Lee (Houston, postgraduate optometry)
- Alex Koh (Houston, postgraduate dentistry)
- Matthew Ahn (UT Austin)
- Yura Ahn (UT Austin)
- Katie Han (New York)
- Emily Han (Austin)
- Jung's (Jae, Mary) - Boston, MA
- Hanbit Kang (Austin)