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July 31, 2005
11th Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 55:1-5
Pastor Ben Berger

Just Take It!

We've all seen this logo before; it's the Nike logo. What's the slogan that goes with the logo? "Just Do It!" Nike comes from a Greek word that means victory. The slogan "Just Do It" implies that if you want victory, you have to do what it takes. YOU have to do it; no one else is going to do it for you. If you want it, just do it. What slogan would match this logo? What slogan does God use to encourage us toward victory and life? He tells us today through the prophet Isaiah, Just Take It! We don't have to DO anything because he's already done it. He has earned the victory and now he offers us the prize of eternal life. He says, Just Take It! 1) Life costs nothing 2) I promise.

At the beginning of our text God invites, Come to me all you who are thirsty (1a). We all thirst for life, don't we? I assume most of you have heard the story of Aron Ralston. He was hiking in the mountains when a boulder fell and pinned his arm to the cliff. When no one found him and he was running out of water, he used a pocketknife to cut off his arm below the elbow. He craved life so badly that he cut off his own arm - and he wasn't even the first person to do so.

It's not just physical life we crave; we also thirst for spiritual life. It's written in the Declaration of Independence. We have the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And pursue we do? We try to find life everywhere we can. Just think of all the prescription drug advertised today: Cialis, Viagra, Paxil, Prozac. We pursue relationships, vacations, education, jobs, friends and family hoping to find life.

We don't always admit it, but we also crave eternal life; we thirst to live forever with God. The psalmist today did a good job describing this thirst, As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Psalm 42:1-2).

As much as we thirst for life, we cannot quench our thirst. We cannot find satisfying life anywhere we look. We're like street junkies looking for our next fix and never getting enough. That's because we're born dead in sin. From our parents we inherit a sinful nature that prevents us from quenching our thirst for life. There's nothing we can do. We can't earn enough money to buy life. We can't make ourselves strong enough to work for life. We can't build up enough value or worth to deserve life. We are worthless, weak and poor sinners without life.

As long as we continue to pursue life on our own, we're wasting ourselves. We're wasting our money and strength and energy. God asks us, Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? (2). It's all a waste, and we know it. We cannot find life on our own; and we don't have to.

God offers us life - physical, spiritual and eternal life - life that costs nothing. Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live (2b-3a). Did you hear how many times God called you to himself? Listen, listen to me…Give ear and come to me; hear me. God has the life you want. He gives you breath and air and being. He provides sunshine, rain, plants and animals. He offers you the necessities of life - bread and water, wine and milk. Listen to him; eat what is good. Then your soul will delight in the richest of fare; then your soul will live.

God provides so much more than life in this world. He provides life for this world. He wants to give you life, liberty and happiness. You don't have to pursue it. He wants to give you forgiveness, release from guilt, peace, comfort, strength, direction and purpose. And he wants to give you life forever.

All this God offers to you free for nothing. With God life costs nothing. Go back to the beginning of the invitation, you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost (1). You don't have to pay for it. You don't have to work for it. You don't have to deserve it. You can't because we're all born in sin. God simply offers it to you. He begs you to listen to him, to come to him, to TAKE from him. He places life in your hands and begs you to Just Take It. It's free; life from God costs nothing.

That's hard, isn't it? It's hard to believe that anything in life, especially life itself, is free. That's not how our minds work. If it's free, we think, it must not be valuable. Not this time. This time God offers exactly what we're looking for without money and without cost - he promises. God promises that this life is free so you can Just Take It.

Here's the promise in the middle of verse three, I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. God promised his love and life to you and this promise has a long history. God first made the promise to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve gave up the free life that God had given them by pursuing their own happiness in a piece of fruit. Because God still loved them and still wanted to give them eternal life, he promised to send an offspring, or child of the woman, that would crush the serpent's head. That child would be Jesus.

God later renewed his promises to others. He promised Abraham that he would make him into a great nation and bless him and that all nations would be blessed through him. Specifically, all nations would be blessed through his offspring Jesus. God repeated the same promise to Isaac and Jacob. Later God sent Moses to deliver his people from Israel. He saved them to preserve the line of the promised Savior. Then God promised David that his descendants would always rule his kingdom. God wasn't referring to just an earthly kingdom, but to the kingdom of heaven. The Son of David who would rule forever is Jesus. Now, through the prophet Isaiah God brings his promise to you today.

In verse five God speaks to Jesus about you. Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you. At first God made the promise of life only to the Jews. Through Jesus he now extends that promise to each of you. Today Jesus is calling you to the promise made to Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the nation of Israel and David. God promises life to you.

Do you still need proof of the promise? God provides that too. Speaking of the fulfillment of his promise, of David's greater Son, Jesus, God said, See I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples (4). Jesus is our witness. What better proof of the promise could we have than Jesus' life?

To prove to us that God loves us and that he gives us life, Jesus spent himself. Jesus left the bosom of his heavenly father to enter the womb of a woman. The creator of the world became flesh and bones, dust and ashes - the very dust he created. The Word that gives all power to kings and presidents and governments subjected himself to human law. The almighty God struggled against the temptations of Satan and this world; he suffered spit, mockery, whips, thorns and a cross. The giver of life gave his life on the cross. All this Jesus did to buy and earn life for us. His blood, his life and his death were the price he paid for us. Then Jesus triumphantly rose from the dead to prove that he had life to give. He descended into hell to proclaim final victory. He ascended into heaven and returned to the right hand of God to rule the world for our benefit.

If you want life, look to Jesus. Look to his cross for forgiveness. Look to almighty power for peace. Look to his promises for comfort. Look to his word for purpose and direction. Jesus is proof of God's promise; he is the faithful witness that gives us reason to believe that free life is ours.

As a witness Jesus also left us his Word. Before he left this earth he trained twelve men to tell others what he had said and done. Those twelve trained others. God added Paul to make sure the word traveled the world. He provided men like Martin Luther to keep the Word pure. He sent pastors and teachers and parents to make sure that you would hear the promise. Then, in the waters of baptism, Jesus sent his Holy Spirit to give you faith in the promise. Believe God's promise. He offers you life for nothing; Just Take It!

The world tells us to Just Do It, but we cannot do it. I admire Lance Armstrong for his battle against cancer and his seven Tour de France wins. Last week I heard one reporter say that Lance is the premier example of the human will. He willed himself to beat cancer; he willed himself to seven wins. He Just Did It! Our human will cannot just find life. We are dead in sin with no ability to find life on our own.

But with faith given to us by the Holy Spirit we can Just Take Life! Here is the sign of eternal life. Every time we hear God's word, we hear again his offer of eternal life. He promised it from the beginning and kept his promise in Jesus. He offers us life for nothing and begs us to Just Take It!