# Invitation to the Thirsty

Category: Peace & Assurance
Key Passage: Isaiah 55:1
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: March 18, 2024

It’s a blessing to be here. I appreciate Pastor Paul Chisgert. Thank you for the opportunity. It’s a blessing to be here. My name is Pastor Jose, last name, Guerrero. I know it’s going to be hard for you to pronounce it, but it’s okay. We’re in East Chicago, Indiana. I’ve been pastoring in that church. It’s called Iglesia Baptista del Calvario, which is Calvary Baptist Church. I’ve been pastoring in that church for going on 11 years now. I pastored one year in a mission that we started in the north side of Chicago. And my older brother, Pastor Samuel, he’s the one that took over that church. And we’ve been serving the Lord. And, you know, like the pastor said, for that time, I don’t know about the great part of it, but I’ve been trying my best, you know, to do as much as I possibly can.

Now, I appreciate the opportunity. I’ve been coming to this church. My brother-in-law invited me. And I’m like, “Okay, I want to come.” You know, and we’re from Indiana, so we don’t—I’m not too familiar around with the area, right? So we always have to be depending on the GPS to make sure we don’t get lost. But it’s beautiful. I mean, it’s very different. Me and my wife love the state of Tennessee. It’s a lot of greenery. It’s very different from Indiana and so many things.

But the reason why we’re over there is because that’s where God wants us to be. I’ve told God, “Lord, if you call me to come preach to Tennessee, I wouldn’t mind.” My wife wouldn’t mind either. But that’s not our decision, right? That is the Lord’s decision. But I appreciate the opportunity. This is going to be my fifth time preaching in English. It’s a Spanish ministry that we have back home. I always preach in Spanish, so this is going to be the fifth time that I preach in English, and the second time that it’s going to be in a church. Or actually, yeah, the second time in a church; all the other ones have been, like, at a home, you know, a certain, like a devotional type of thing. So when the pastor came and asked me if I can preach, I’m like—he never asked me, right? So, as a preacher, you’re supposed to be ready. When he asked me, I’m like, “Lord, forgive him, for he knows not what he’s asking,” right? But I ask you to be patient with me, and I’m going to ask you to rise up, please, if you could please stand, if you would. And open your Bibles in Isaiah chapter 55.

Isaiah chapter 55. And while you’re opening there, my daughter and my son-in-law, they’re here. They found out that I was preaching. I didn’t know I was preaching tonight; I thought I was preaching on Wednesday, and all of a sudden they asked me to do it tonight. The pastor did, and I said, “Okay, no problem.” And, you know, she found out, and he found out, and they came. And I know the pastor introduced my son—well, not my son, my grandson—this morning in the Sunday school class, Judah Michael Fox, and he’s here. I’m so glad to see him. I feel amazing as a grandfather. This is the first time, and I love it already. I’ve always told the brothers of the church, “A lot of people talk about being a grandfather and how it feels and how it tastes.” I don’t know what you’re talking about; I never experienced that. Now that I do, it’s just a huge blessing, and I don’t want to leave. We’re going to have to leave, right? But it’s a blessing to have them come here tonight.

Isaiah chapter 55, verse 1. The Bible says, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Harken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for thy holy one of Israel, for he hath glorified thee.” Verse six says, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near.”

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I give you the glory, the honor, Father God, and I thank you for this tremendous opportunity. It’s always a blessing, Father God, to share your word. I pray that you allow me to be fruitful, for you to allow me to be a blessing to your people. I thank you for Pastor Paul and this wonderful church. I’ve enjoyed every service that I’ve been here, Lord, and I’ve enjoyed listening to him, and now it’s my turn, Father God. In the same way you’ve used him, I pray that your Holy Spirit can use me. Nobody came here to hear me. We’re all here to hear what the Holy Spirit needs to tell us, and he knows exactly what we need. Father God, I pray that you allow me to control my anxiousness, to control my nerves, and for you to take control of me so that I could be a blessing to your people. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. You can be seated, please.

The word necessity or need is a very common word for all of us. It’s a word that we use on a daily basis. I mean, we all use it, from the youngest to the eldest among us. We use the word need to express ourselves all the time. Babies, even though they don’t speak, they feel the need and the necessity of milk, of the bottle, of attention, of mom’s bosom. And since they can’t speak, they express their needs by crying.

Kids, they have needs, according to them, right? They think that they need, and you hear the kids say, “I need that toy,” and “I want that toy.” That kid feels that if he doesn’t get that toy, he’s not going to survive. I mean, I don’t understand sometimes parents when they go shopping and they grab their kids and they put them in the cart. Then, I don’t know, they probably didn’t do a good job with them in the beginning, and they don’t want to be embarrassed, so they grab a toy and give it to the kid while they’re shopping so they can keep the kid under control.

But see, in the kid’s mind, you grab the toy and you give it to him. In his mind, he’s taking that toy home. And then, you know, they’re shopping around, going around the store, and then when it’s time to pay, mom and dad grab the toy, they take it away from him, and they put it back on the shelf, and the kid starts crying because in his mind, it’s like, “Wait a minute, you gave it to me. You’re going to buy it,” and they don’t. But that kid thinks and looks at that toy and feels that he needs that, that he’s not complete until he gets that toy.

The younger boys nowadays, they love video games. Now, I think the new one, if I’m not mistaken, is the PS5. And the younger boys, they feel the need to have a PS5, an Xbox, a PSP, a Nintendo Switch, or whatever video game they can get their hands on. And if they don’t, again, they feel like they’re not complete. The younger girls say, “I need to do my nails.” They feel the need to dye their hair, to put on lipstick. They need the new iPhone, the new tablet, and so on and so forth. And if they feel that if they don’t get it, they’re going to die.

The young men say, “I need a car.” They usually don’t say, “I need a job,” because they don’t want one, right? But they want a car. They want a girlfriend. And they feel that if they don’t get it, they’re not going to survive. The young women say, “I need to learn how to drive.”

And let me tell you, that is one of the scariest things for a dad: teaching their daughter how to drive. My daughter’s here, so I’m going to have to embarrass her. I was teaching her how to drive, and she—I don’t know why—but it took her longer to get it. So every night after church, where we were renting back then, it was about five to seven minutes from the church. And only after nighttime, after the late service, because that’s where there’s less traffic outside, I would let her drive from the church to the house. And it was great. I mean, at first, you know, she was struggling. Her turns were awful, her stopping, and everything. Well, it got to a point that she was getting better. I kept doing it more often and more often. And then the day that she did her best job—I mean, every turn was on point, every stop was great, every pause, everything was great.

When we were coming home, in front of our house—she didn’t have to parallel park; there was no car parked, there was just one, our neighbor, right in front of the house. All she had to do was drive into it, and she was doing great. And when she was ready to park, she forgot, and she confused the gas with the brake. Instead of braking, she hit the gas, and we hit the neighbor’s car. After that, I asked her if she was okay. And after she said yes, I went out, I looked at the car, and my car was cracked. And it was really scary. Thank God nothing bad happened. The neighbor came out—well, he had one of the older cars, the metal bumpers. Nothing happened to his car, but it cracked my fender. And I was like, “That’s scary,” because I told her, “If we were in the street, you can’t make a mistake. I mean, it’s only two pedals: it’s brake and gas. How can you confuse it?”

But younger girls, they want to drive. They feel that if they don’t accomplish that, something is not fulfilled in their lives. But then, from the young girls and then the older girls, now we go to the moms, the ladies—and I hope I don’t get in trouble. They feel the need of a new house. They want a new kitchen. They want a new bedroom. “I need new furniture. A new washer, a new dryer. New clothes, new shoes.” They always need a new purse, preferably Louis Vuitton, if it’s possible, right? And if not, they feel like something’s not complete.

Now the dads, ours is a lot more understandable. We also have needs. And we say, “You know what? We need a better job. We need a better car, more tools,” right? You can never have enough tools. More fishing rods, amen? More guns, more fillet knives. I mean, that stuff is stuff that you really need. That stuff is necessary, you know? And without those, we can’t make it.

And finally, the elderly people, they also have needs. They want more grandchildren, right? Better dentures, better walkers, better of everything. But we all believe and we all say we have a need for something.

When I looked up the word “need” in the dictionary, I found quite a few definitions. The first one said: “A condition or situation in which something must be supplied in order for a certain condition to maintain or desired state to be achieved.” But from all the different definitions, the one that stood out to me the most was this one: “Something that’s required to exist.” Something that’s required to exist.

Now, after understanding what the word “need” really means, we come to the conclusion that the majority of the things that we say or we call needs, they’re really not. They’re more desires—things that we long for and crave, but we really don’t need. We can live without. But in reality, we all do have needs: different kinds of needs. We have physical needs, material, emotional, spiritual needs. Some are more important than others depending on our situation, but we all have them.

Please listen to the following: When our needs are not met, we tend to look for different ways and means to satisfy them. And here’s where we usually get in trouble. Now, what’s imperative in this situation is determining and understanding what is the biggest and most important need we have. If I was to ask everyone in this room if you can give me a list or just shout out a need that you have, I’m pretty sure every one of us will have a list. And more than likely, whatever you say, that is a need for you. Even though all the things we could come up with, we can all justify as needs, I can assure you that they’re not the most important needs that we have right now.

Then what is? Our biggest need is the need of God’s holy presence in our lives. It is a thirst that we all have, and we need to quench. Therefore, I’m going to preach in these few minutes on “Quenching Our Thirst.” I fully understand that thirst is a physical need that we all have, but allow me to use water and thirst as an earthly example to explain a spiritual truth. Water and food are true necessities that our bodies need to survive. But it has been said that we can survive without physical food for up to 40 days, and some of us could even go longer, right? But without water, we can’t survive for more than four to five days. Well, the same way we can’t survive physically without water, we can’t survive spiritually without God’s presence in our lives.

The first group, number one, the unsaved, the non-believers, have a great thirst of being saved. If you would, please don’t lose Isaiah chapter 55, but if you would, can you come with me to John 4, please? John chapter 4, verse 5. John 4, excuse me. Verse five, and I’m just going to read. I’m going to ask you to be patient with me. Just follow me there. John 4, verse 5 says, “Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour.”

Now, that’s interesting because the sixth hour is 12 noon. Now, the women back in Israel, they would always congregate. It was like a congregation; it was like a get-together around 6, 7, or 8 o’clock in the morning. All the women would get together because it wasn’t wise, or you didn’t want to go through the problem of carrying water during the middle of the day when it was the hottest. Now, we all know the story of this woman that we’re about to read, and, you know, she didn’t have a good testimony. And whenever you have non-believer women, a whole bunch of non-believer women, well, what are you going to get? You’re going to get gossip. And she was basically the gossip of the town. So the reason why she went at the sixth hour, which was noon, when it was the hottest of the day, she was trying to avoid gossip.

And verse 7 says, “There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said unto her, ‘Give me to drink,’ for his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.” Then said the woman of Samaria unto him, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” Jesus answered and said unto her, “If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, ‘Give me to drink,’ thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” The woman said unto him, “Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?” Jesus answered and said unto her, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

The woman said unto him, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” This woman had a spiritual thirst and was trying to satisfy it with physical water. She had a spiritual need and was trying to satisfy it with something physical, with something earthly.

Verse 16 says, “Jesus said unto her, ‘Go, call thy husband and come hither.’” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said unto her, “Thou hast well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for thou hast had five husbands, and whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that saidst thou truly.” Verse 19: The woman said unto him, “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said unto her, “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.”

This is exactly—this was exactly her need: the salvation of her soul. There are a lot of people out there that don’t know Jesus Christ. I mean, it doesn’t matter how many churches we plant; there’s still going to be a need. There’s still going to be people out there that are going to be thirsty. They have the thirst they need to quench; their soul needs to feel that they’re saved, and they need salvation. It’s just like that man, that Ethiopian, that was coming from Jerusalem, a religious man. He had religion. He was going to Jerusalem, and he went to go do his ritual. And when he was on his way back, the Holy Spirit sends Philip to speak to him. And he gets close, and Philip asks the Ethiopian, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” And he answers, “How can I, except some man should guide me?”

There are a lot of people out there; they thirst. They want to know. I remember when I was 23 years old, and I would look at the Bible. I came from a Catholic background, and I would see the Bible, and to me, it was like some type of relic or something that was unreachable, and I couldn’t understand it. And just by looking at it—in our house, you know, we used to just grab the Bible. We would never read it, but we would open it on Psalms 23 or Psalms 90, just have it open, and it was more like a good luck thing. But we didn’t know. And even if I tried to read it, I wouldn’t know if I couldn’t understand it. But there was something in us that wanted to know. And there’s a lot of people like that. They have a thirst to be saved. Let me tell you, if you have the thirst, the need to be saved, Jesus Christ can quench your thirst today as well.

But there’s another group of people that also have a need, and that’s the saved—that’s the believers, the children of God. We also have a dear need of God in our lives: the need of a personal relationship with Jesus. This is so important. Look, there’s a huge difference between having a personal encounter with Jesus and having a personal relationship with Jesus. The personal encounter, you have it when you’re saved. When you recognize, you understand your condition as a sinner, you repent, you ask Jesus Christ to save you. But then after that, we’re expected to have a personal relationship with God.

And you’ll find out every time a Christian falls in anything—whether it’s a member of the church, whether it’s a deacon, whether it’s a pastor—when you look at something that happened, because remember, in their fall, it never happens from one day to another. God establishes columns. God establishes foundations for us. And once we lack on one foundation, eventually all the others come crumbling down. And when you find out when somebody fell—that person that we looked up to, that preacher that was an amazing preacher that God used him in the past and he was a blessing, and every time he preached, God touched my heart—and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you find out that he fell into sin. And then you ask, “So what happened?” And when you go into and you speak to them and you find out and you investigate, it always comes down to the same thing: They lost their personal relationship with the Lord.

Because what we’re doing at church, if we’re not careful, we’re going to end up like that Ethiopian going to Jerusalem, doing things in a religious form, losing our love for the Lord, doing things mechanically. We need to be super careful.

Psalms 63, if you would, please. Psalm 63, verse 1. David wrote this Psalm, and he says, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee; my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. Verse two: To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.” King David desired to quench the thirst he had for God’s holy presence in his life. Every true Christian has the need, the need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you haven’t quenched that thirst, maybe it’s been a long time since you quenched it. Jesus can meet your need today if you want.

This is really important. I believe that sometimes we let religion, and sometimes ourselves as men, we come in and we make it even harder than what God makes it. Because we turn things into a way that’s so monotonous that it’s basically all it becomes. It becomes a religion to us. God wants you to seek him. Look, having a personal relationship with God is very similar—and Scripture compares it—to a relationship between a man and a woman. I mean, as pastors, whenever we have to give counsel, one of the major or the common denominators in giving counsel to couples is the lack of communication: getting together, talking, getting to know each other, picking each other’s minds. And nowadays, when people go to a restaurant and you sit down and you look at them, everybody’s on their phone. There’s no conversation anymore.

The whole purpose of having a conversation is getting to know the person, their thoughts, what they want, what they desire in life, who they are. And you know what? It works the same way with God. But in a conversation, there has to be a two-way. You can’t just talk, talk, talk, and the other person just listens, listens. There has to be a time where you’re going to speak, but there has to be a time where you’re going to stay still and listen. And with God, the way it works is he speaks to you through his word. He speaks to you through His Word. When you listen—I mean, when you take the time to grab the Bible and you read it at home in your personal devotion—God speaks to you. But remember, the Bible said that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. So we need to come to church. This is where we hear the Word of God. This is where God is speaking to us. And then after he speaks to us, we go home, and then when we bow our knees and we start praying, that’s when it’s our turn to speak to him, and he’s going to listen. We have to learn, you know, how to walk with God, spend time with God.

We love dogs. I love dogs. I’ve loved dogs all my life. And when I was little, my dad wouldn’t let us have dogs. My dad also used to love dogs, and my mom was the one that was not too fond of animals, but we loved them all the time. And now I have this dog. As a matter of fact, I brought her with me. She’s a Cane Corso. Do you guys know what a Cane Corso is? She’s 120 pounds. She’s at the apartment where we’re staying with my son-in-law. It’s a great dog. One of the things that amazes me about those dogs—see, if you have dogs, you know that there’s two types of dogs. I mean, there’s different breeds and everything, but I’m saying there’s two types of dogs in the sense that they’re independent dogs—dogs that you could just throw them in the backyard, and they’re fine. But then again, you have the other type of dogs that they’re dependent dogs. They depend on you. Dogs that can’t stay too much away from you. Dogs that if you leave for too long, they get separation anxiety.

And this dog—I mean, I’m literally at the house, and I sit down, and if I ignore her, she’ll come and she’ll stand in front of me. I’m watching something, and she’ll stand in front of me. And if I ignore her, she’ll come, and that big black square head, poof, just put it right here on my lap and just look at me, waiting for me to do something. She’s always looking at me for direction. She always wants to be with me. And I’m looking at this animal and I’m like, “Lord, what a great thing would it be for us to have separation anxiety from the Lord?” What a great thing would it be that, you know, just like this animal is looking for direction from me all the time, you know, for command—she’s always there to please me—what a great thing would it be of the church if we were that way? If we looked for a way to please the Lord, to spend time with him.

Like I mentioned earlier in this message, when our needs are not met, we will find other means and other ways of satisfying them. And unfortunately, we tend to look for that satisfaction in the wrong places. Because every Christian has that need to spend time with his Father. Remember when I was little and my dad used to go out? I wanted to be with my dad all the time. He was going to the backyard; I wanted to go to the backyard. He was going to go shopping at the store; I wanted to go with my dad. Every time he went to the junkyard, I used to love it. My dad would get under the cars and start taking the parts off. I wouldn’t do anything. I’d just get in there, just grab some grease, throw it in my face, and come back home and say, “Mom, look, I helped my dad.” I just wanted to be with my dad at all times. I’m playing toys, I’m playing with my toys and everything. I hear the door, and I turn around—my dad’s leaving—and I just drop the toys and just run. I wanted to be constantly with my father. That’s the way a Christian should desire to spend time with his Father as well.

Isaiah chapter 55, please. Isaiah 55, verse 1 says, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.” That sounds really good, especially right now. We need to understand that this calling, verse one, is made only for all those who thirst. God calls, “All everyone that thirsteth, come.” And let me ask you, do you really thirst to spend time with God? Do you really desire? Do you really have that inside you? Or you want to spend time with God? Well, guess what? This is a calling for you. Everyone that thirsteth, the Lord says, “Come,” for all those that in their souls thirsted for God. He says, “Come.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ, in Matthew 11:28, said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And he wasn’t talking about physical rest, because remember, with 15, 20 minutes that we fall asleep, we’ll get that physical rest. But he tells us in verse 29, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” The only one that can give our soul rest, our spirit rest, is Jesus Christ.

It says verse 2, “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not?” This is exactly what Jesus asks us this afternoon: Why do we waste our money and our labor in those things that don’t satisfy us? We’re doing exactly the same thing that the Samaritan woman was doing. We’re doing exactly the same thing that that Ethiopian guy was doing when he was coming back from Jerusalem, trying to quench our spiritual thirst with physical things. We have a huge void in our hearts, and we’re trying to fill it with many different things.

If you were preaching this, you can grab that list and you can fill in the blanks, and we can put in—well, some of us, you know, we’re trying to fill that void with amusements: sports, video games, television, social media, et cetera. And you get more, and there’s always another app. And then you get up and you open that app, and you get into that, and you put all your personal stuff in there, and you’re trying to find out everybody. We spend so much time on social media when in reality we should be spending more time in the Book. We have a huge void, a tremendous void in our hearts, and we’re trying to quench it with money. Every time we get time or the opportunity to work overtime—every time—well, it’s a Wednesday, it’s a Sunday, it’s service, it’s the day of the Lord. Well, you know what? Once a month is not a big deal. And then we use excuses to look for money because we feel that if we get that car, if we buy that house, if I buy this or if I buy that, that’s going to fill the void inside me. Excuse me, but in reality, we’re making a huge mistake.

If I’m not mistaken, the preacher mentioned on Wednesday the statistics of suicides among unwealthy people, un-millionaires. I mean, look at Hollywood for crying out loud. Those people are the most miserable people in the world, and they have more money than anybody. That tells us that money is not going to fill that void that you have.

We have a huge void inside us, and we’re trying to fill it with relationships. Instead of having a personal relationship with Him, we want to have a personal relationship with everybody else. You go on the young man—the young man trying to get a girlfriend, the young women trying to get a boyfriend and girlfriend, and so on and so forth. And trying—I mean, especially in the society that we live right now where people can’t even describe the meaning of the word “woman.” It’s incredible. I mean, I never would have thought that you would have to go to the bathroom and try to figure out which one you’re going to get into. Little boys and little girls are all confused; they don’t even know who they are. But they think that with a relationship, that thirst that they have inside is going to be filled. But it’s not going to work. And then they move on like this American lady. You know, she already had five, and then the sixth one when Jesus found her.

We have a huge void, and some of us have a huge thirst, and some of us are trying to fill it with material things, with hobbies, with tattoos. And I’m not here to judge anybody. But let me tell you, I’ve heard from people that have converted to Christ, and they say, “Pastor, you know, it’s addicting. Once you get one tattoo, you can’t stop. You have to get another,” and then you get another, and then you get another, and then you get another. And then when you see all those people that are—they’re all tatted all over their body, they have tattoos all over the place—when I see somebody like that, I always think the first thing that comes to my mind: That person has a void in their lives, and they’re trying to fill it with ink.

Other people go through alcohol. They look for drugs, with immorality, with everything except with the holy presence of God. We’re dead spiritually; we’re deeply wounded, and we’re trying to put a band-aid on a huge gash. We’re trying to quench our thirst with a drop of water when our God has given us a fountain of spring water to quench our thirst. We need to stop wasting our money and strength on things that will not satisfy us and turn to God. If we don’t, we will keep following the next best thing and will never be fulfilled. Because look, there’s always going to be the next best thing. You grab something to do just to entertain myself for the moment, and once I’ve done it, once I’ve mastered it, I get bored, and then you’re like, “What next?” And then you find something else, and then you find that other thing, and once you do it, you’re entertained for a couple months, but once you’re done and once you’ve mastered it, you leave it, and then you look for another, and you just keep doing that over and over and over again when the only one that can really fill that need, that void, is Jesus Christ.

The worst part is that we look at Scripture like Isaiah 55 and we tend to think it’s for the other person because, “Right now I’m going to church. Right now I’m soul-winning. Right now I’m reading my Bible. Right now I’m praying. Right now I’m tithing.” So right now I feel like I’m okay. This might not be for me; it might be for somebody else. That’s the problem because as Christians, we should thirst for the presence of God. The closer you get to the Lord, the more you want to be with him. The only way to satiate our souls is through Jesus.

Verse 3 says right there in chapter Isaiah chapter 55, verse 3: “Incline your ear and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and a commander to the people.” Verse 5: “Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee.” And then it tells us in verse 6, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near.”

This tells us, church, that God will not always be there. This reminds us that God is not always going to be near. So what we have to do is we have to seek him now. There’s going to be a time where people are going to be seeking the Lord and they’re not going to be able to find him.

Verse 7: “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Look, brother, God doesn’t think like us. His thoughts are very different. And it tells us in verse 9, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

And sometimes we tend to look at this and think of the ground and turn around and we want to look at the clouds. But when it’s talking about the skies, it’s talking about space. And when you really look at it, the distance between earth and space—that’s how different God thinks from you and me. That’s why when we think that something is a need, God says that is not what you need. He knows exactly what we need. His thoughts are very different from ours. Our minds and hearts tell us what we think we need, but God, who knows all, tells us what we truly need, and that is Him, His presence in our lives.

Verse 12: “For ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills should break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field should clap their hands.” When we satisfy the thirst that we have of God’s holy presence in our lives, two very important things happen. Number one, we truly—we will truly be happy. “For ye shall go out,” he says, “with joy and be led forth with peace.” What kind of peace? That peace that surpasses all understanding.

And the second thing is, we will be a living testimony of God’s greatness. I mean, if we really think about it, what is one of the things that this world is always looking for? It’s peace, and they try to get it through many different ways, but they’re never going to find it except through the Prince of Peace. We truly have peace and be happy. And I tell people when they ask me about East Chicago, Indiana, as one of the ugliest places you can go. It’s ugly. Thanks. But when you’re in God’s perfect will, the ugly is beautiful. The bitter is sweet. And I wake up and I start coughing, right, all the factories and everything that’s around. But I thank the Lord that I’m there because that’s where he wants me to be. That’s where his presence is for me. I’m truly happy. We’ll truly be happy when we satisfy that thirst of God’s holy presence in our lives.

And the second thing is that we will be a living testimony of God’s greatness. Look, people out there, they need to see something different, and they need to see it in us. And the way we live, the way we dress, the way we speak, the way we conduct ourselves. That’s huge. I know nowadays that people use that, you know, the liberal way of thinking: “Well, it’s not the outside that counts; it’s the inside.” All liberals use that. That’s not true. You know, if that was the case, then why do we have to protect our testimony? Why do we have to live in a sanctified way like we learned this morning?

Verse 12 says, “The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field should clap their hands.” It is our responsibility to give a good testimony of the greatness of our Lord.

And I’ll finish with this: The Lord is making a calling this afternoon. “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that had no money, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Jesus wants to quench your thirst. He wants to satisfy your need. Leave your pridefulness aside. Stop wasting money. Stop wasting your time and effort on things that do not meet your needs, and come to the Lord Jesus Christ right now.

This is super important because at the end of the day, if I make sure that my walk with Jesus is right, I’m going to be able to be that leader that my family needs me to be. Because my first ministry is my family, and then therefore I’ll be the leader that my church needs. But it depends on my walk with God. It depends on me reading my Bible, praying, serving God, soul-winning, doing what God expects me to do, fighting the fight, staying in the race, staying in the course. Lord Jesus Christ wants to quench your thirst. He wants to satisfy your need.

And remember, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near.” Let me ask you a question: How long has it been since you felt the presence of God in your life? Now, this is a question that I ask you personally. There are men here, there are women, young men, young women. And let me ask you, when was the last time that you literally felt God’s presence when you were in the room? When you were in your office, wherever you were at, and you bowed your knee, and you’re praying, and you’re talking to the Lord, and you literally felt—I’m not talking about charismatic jumping around and throwing a whole bunch of—I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about, look, when you feel God’s presence, one of the first things that comes to you is we tend to cry. Not about emotion, because we feel dirty before the Lord. We understand that we don’t deserve him. We understand that we deserve to go to hell. We deserve for him not to help us. We deserve for him to leave us to the side. But guess what? His love is so great that even us—his grace is so great that even I can reach it. Even I get to have it. So when was the last time you literally felt God’s presence in your life?

King David told God with an honest heart, “My soul thirsteth for thee; my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land.” If you’re honest today like David was with God, why don’t you call? Come and call on the Lord and His presence.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar 51522