GOD IS THE BANQUET AND THE BLESSINGS. It’s not something He gives that satisfies, that gives life, that gives strength, that gives delight. It’s Him. Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.
TEXT: Isaiah 55:1-13
PREACHER: Guest Pastor, Kyle Houlton
BIG IDEA: God invites the worst, offers the best, and guarantees the result.
POINTS:
I. God invites you
II. God invites them
III. God invites with certainty
SERMON EXCERPTS:
All quotes and text emphasis are taken directly from the pastor’s notes.
“Even if you’re familiar with the Bible, Isaiah is a book that you might have tried to read on your own and came away with two thoughts: 1) “this is long” and 2) “I don’t get it”. But this is a book that, rightly understood, should amaze us. Here’s why: It’s a book that paints a picture of a nation undergoing catastrophic collapse. And though, at first glance, it looks like that collapse is happening because of the threats around them, we come to find that it’s occurring because of the compromise within them.”
“The first 39 chapters of Isaiah pronounce God’s just judgment on compromise. But. But. Starting in chapter 40, hope dawns. And in chapters 53-55, we’ve come to the utter climax of the book. 53 introduced us to the suffering servant – God’s redeemer who would uncompromisingly bear the penalty for compromisers. And then 54 opened the curtains on God’s Great Covenant he would make with His people – an uncompromisingly airtight covenant.”
“God has foretold His suffering Servant Redeemer. He has made a sure covenant. But who is invited to receive the benefits of the suffering servant? Who is invited into that covenant?”
“I know you’re all praying for and working toward a new church plant on the Eastside. Church planting is hard work. Slow at times. Grueling at times. Requiring sacrifice in many different forms. Both for the sending church and the church plant team itself. And in the process of church planting, questions begin to crop up: “Is this worth it?”. “Is God in this?”. “Will the outcome justify what it took to get there?” Isaiah 55 answers those questions.”
“Professionally, I work as a fundraising consultant to nonprofits. And I regularly find myself in conversations with nonprofit leaders about their upcoming charity galas. These galas are high-dollar, extravagant banquets. Hosted at the most luxurious resorts in Orange County. The price for an 8-person table can cost many tens of thousands of dollars. And in the planning process, as the invite list is being put together and reviewed, this one phrase is always said by someone: “we need the right people in the room”. Now, what is meant by that? It means, “we need the people who can give the most money”. Who is invited to charity banquets? The people who can spend the most money.”
“The Covenant that God promises IS THE GREATEST banquet. It outstrips any event in human history, because it will last beyond history and is thrown by the richest benefactor of all. In verses 1-3 of chapter 55, the feast is described. In other words, the goodies, the benefits at the banquet. And it’s His very, very best.”
“So, if only the richest are invited to Orange County’s charity banquets, who in the world is invited to God’s banquet!? The … exact … opposite. Not the wealthiest. Not the most prominent. Not the best. Here’s the wonderful, glorious point of Isaiah 55: God invites the worst, offers the best, and guarantees the result.”
“We’re not ‘the right people’. We’re compromisers – who have nothing to offer God but our sin. And so are East Tucsonans. And the hope extends beyond just who’s invited. Listen to that phrase again: God invites the worst, offers the best, and guarantees the result. God guarantees His banquet will be everything it’s cracked up to be.”
“The first word, ‘come!” It’s the invitation. (Lots of commands in this verse). But in this verse, “come” appears four times. Clearly, this is God’s invitation composed by Isaiah on the stationery of Scripture. Two questions: 1) Who’s invited? 2) What is offered?”
“Those who thirst and those without money. The poor and the broke. Who are the poor and the broke? They’re people who have compromised God’s holy standard over and over and have become tired and have become thirsty for something better than this world can offer.”
“Friend. Is that you this morning? Broke and broken? Thirsty and dry? Come, buy the most expensive ticket with … no … money. Consider this: the poor and broke aren’t invited despite their poverty, but because of their poverty. Being poor and broke is the requirement for being on the invite list. If you think you’re spiritually rich; if you think you have any righteousness to offer to God that will get you in, you’re … not … invited!”
“[These are the ones] trying to live their best life and be their best self on their own, looking for satisfaction apart from God. But they’ve found it fleeting. And, at the end of the day, empty. Unfulfilled. So long as you’re self-sufficient and trying to be “the right person” to be in the room, you’ve lost your invitation.”
“Now, on the other hand, this is perplexing. Because the invitation still says, “come and buy”. The fee is not waived. The ticket must still be purchased. But not with your money because you have none. By whose payment, then? By the suffering servant’s of Isaiah 53 (READ 53:4-5). If you’re broke and thirsty, you are invited into God’s covenant because Jesus Christ, God’s suffering servant, paid your entry fee with His death on a cross. So, ‘Come. ’”
“What is offered? First, pardon instead of judgment (READ vv. 6-7). There’s a bit of a sense of risk in showing up to a banquet poor and thirsty, isn’t there? Showing up in your rags, you might be rejected. You might receive judgment instead of admission. But Isaiah assured us, on the basis of the Suffering Servant’s payment, there is no judgement to be found. Only pardon. Only compassion.”
“And then once you’re in… Three things: Water, Milk, and Wine.
- Life (water)
- Strength (milk)
- Delight (wine) – beyond basic necessity. God intends your joy. Jesus paid for that joy.
And it’s good and rich. The picture that’s being painted in front of you is the biblical picture of GRACE!”
“An invitation to those who don’t deserve an invitation, paid for by one who chose to pay your price, and given access to blessings far beyond what you could imagine. Isaiah 55 is one of the Bible’s most compelling pictures of grace.”
“Now, I want you to turn your attention to verse 3. This is remarkable. ‘Incline your ear and come to me.’ Verse 6: ‘Seek the Lord … call upon Him’. Up until now, it’s been ‘come to the covenant. Come to the place where this feast can be found.’ But Isaiah clarifies here. The invitation into the covenant is the invitation to God.”
“‘Come to me’- GOD IS THE BANQUET AND THE BLESSINGS. It’s not something He gives that satisfies, that gives life, that gives strength, that gives delight. It’s Him. Jesus paid the price to be reconciled to God. To be able to come near to God Himself.”
“It’s easy for our ears in 2025 to miss how astounding this is. The original reader would have immediately assumed that invitation of vv. 1-3 was to the thirsty and broke of Judah and Israel. But these verses reveal that when God says, “come” to His great covenant, He’s talking to anyone who’s broke and thirsty.”
“This isn’t just a sudden change of heart for God. The key is in the word ‘David’ in v. 3 and ‘witness’ in verse 4. Because in verse 3, Isaiah is making a reference to God’s covenant with David; a covenant to give him an enduring kingship. But by this point in history, David is dead. The promise of this enduring kingship is to a son of David. And this son of David, according to 55:4 will be a witness to the peoples and become their leader and their commander. In other words, He will extend His reign over the whole earth. And on this side of the cross, we know who that Son of David is. Jesus is that witness making the invitation to the poor and thirsty among all people. Jesus said in John 18:37, ‘For this reason I came into the world – to bear witness to the truth.’ Revelation 1:5 calls Jesus ‘the faithful witness.’”
“The ‘outside world’ is not invited to a soup kitchen or mere charitable handout. – Alec Motyer. They’re invited into everything we are! And don’t miss this. Our role in the inviting is not passive! Jesus makes the invitation, but then calls us to make the invitation as well. ‘You shall call a nation you do not know.’”
“Will we be dissatisfied until He has made a Covenant with East Tucsonans who today don’t know Jesus? Sovereign Grace Church of Tucson was invited to the banquet to invite your neighbors to the banquet. That’s a statement of purpose!”
“Why is it so important that we finish this passage? Because of a question that beats in the heart of every person who knows he or she is a hopeless sinner. If the worst are really the invitees … how can they be sure they’ll really receive all this? Even if God promises … is it really possible? True welcome? Satisfaction? Life? Strength? Delight? Pardon? Really? All of it?”
“In May, I went up to preach at our sister church in Pasadena – Sovereign Grace Pasadena, just about 40 miles north of Santa Ana. I asked the pastors if it would be considered disrespectful for us to drive through the Altadena community that had been burned just four months prior. They said, “No, we want people to see and to remember.” So, we spent an hour slowly weaving through the neighborhoods, heartbroken by the devastation. But at the same time, even in the most fire-blackened stretches, green peeked through … everywhere. Grass and flowers and seedling trees and new life carpet the Altadena community. How had new life so quickly emerged? RAIN. Rain brings forth life. Even in the driest climates. Even after the most devastating destruction. Here’s the point: God’s Word is as sure as rain on thirsty ground.”
“If and when God’s Word falls on a sin-charred heart that’s thirsty for God, it will bring forth fruit. As sure as the rain in Eaton Canyon in Altadena. God’s Word is His sovereign power.”
“If the hope of fruitfulness is proclaiming the Gospel to our neighbors - is in our own words, techniques, and abilities - we will be fearful of our neighbors’ responses. We will doubt they’ll actually turn and believe. But what if we were equipped with God’s Word? And what if God told us THAT word has the power to accomplish EXACTLY what He purposed it to accomplish?”
“As that Eastside community group goes into East Tucson, as you go into your own neighborhoods, as you engage with your unbelieving neighbors … you go with the power of God’s Word. Which will … not … return … void.”
“Friends, let’s go out and ‘call the nation unknown to us’ with confidence. Why? Not because of anything in us, but by the guarantee of the power of His uncompromising, irrefutable, incomparable, unconquerable, unstoppable word. God invites the worst from every nation by His Grace, offers the very best in His Son, and guarantees the result with His own Word.”
QUOTES:
John Piper - “Will we be satisfied that God has made a covenant with us to give us eternal life? Or will be dissatisfied until he has made a covenant of life with disciples from all the nations and peoples of the world?”
Alec Motyer - “It is logical to question whether the simplicity of ‘Come … Listen … Come to me … Seek … call … forsake … turn’ can really and effectively make people right with God? But it is not repentance that is effective, but the word of divine truth.”
APPLICATION:
Poverty and thirst: it’s how you get into the banquet. Those two qualifications continue to be essential qualifications in church planting. When you feel poor and thirsty – like you’re weak, like you have nothing to offer to get this thing off the ground, when your strategies aren’t working like you thought they would … and you come to the place where the only thing you have left to depend on is God’s grace - that’s when He works. If and when He saves East Tucsonans, it’s going to be by no different power than that which He uses to sustain you. And He IS inviting East Tucsonans.
“The nation that you do not know” - Northwest Tucson is “a nation you know”. The people in this church are a nation you know. This is a call to embrace discomfort and risk. And the discomfort and risk will be worth it.
SONGS FROM THIS SUNDAY:
How Great You Are
Rise My Soul The Lord Is Risen
Christ Is Mine Forevermore
When We See Your Face
Come Praise And Glorify
NEXT WEEK’S PASSAGE:
Psalm 3 - Brett Overstreet
THE BOOK OF THE QUARTER: