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The Sermon for Sunday, July 12th, 2026, the Sixth Sunday after Trinity
The Lessons: Psalm 65; Isaiah 55; Matthew 13;1-9, 18-23
The Text: Isaiah 55
INTRODUCTION
When I was a teenager, my father gave me a portable tape recorder for Christmas one year. I think he wanted me to record all sorts of interesting sounds on tape, and I did do a bit of that, but I also went out and bought a tape of Jim Reeves singing some songs, and one of the songs was “Teach Me How to Pray,” written by Kathryn Twitty:
One night a sleepy little boy knelt beside my bed
He smiled and looked into my eyes and this is what he said
Daddy, my daddy, you’ve taught me lots today
So daddy, my daddy, teach me how to pray
You brought me home a brand new kite showed me how to fly
And there ain’t no wonder kid who’s dad can knock a ball so high
I’d like to thank God for you, but I don’t know what to say
So daddy, my daddy, teach me how to pray
I’d had to turn and leave his room, he began to cry
I didn’t want my boy to know but so did I
His best pal forsaken him but what was there to say
For daddy, yes daddy, had forgotten how to pray
This song affected me deeply, as I realized that there must be many fathers who do not teach their children to pray because they themselves do not pray to God or have forgotten how to pray.
GOD’S INVITATION TO ALL PEOPLE
Prayer to God flows from a relationship with God or one prays to God in a time of deep crisis, or it can be the beginning of a relationship with God.
Our First Lesson today is one of the invitations from God that we find in our Bible, invitations to come to him and receive life from him. When speaking of all the signs and wonders in the heavens that God will bring to pass before the Day of the Lord comes, the prophet Joel states, “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered” (Joel 2:32a, KJV).
In our First Lesson God makes his appeal to everyone that is thirsty, to come to the waters and to buy wine and milk without money and without price. This is a call to receive salvation from God through faith, since this water, this wine, this milk, cannot be earned or paid for with earthly money. In St. John’s Gospel, we read that the Lord Jesus Christ on the last and greatest day of the Festival of Tabernacles, calls out to the crowds:
He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
(John 7:38, KJV)
One of the passages of Scripture to which Jesus could have been alluding is Isaiah 55:1. Another could be Isaiah 12:3: “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation” (KJV). This water, St John explained in John 7:39, is the Holy Spirit, whom God gives to everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. The invitation to receive had already been issued through the prophet Isaiah, and later through the prophet Joel. The invitation is even there in the Psalms:
How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
(Psalm 36:7-9, KJV)
Interpreters of Isaiah 55:1-3 have likened the imagery of this invitation to three sources: firstly, the call of Lady Wisdom to passersby to enter her house and eat of her truth (Proverbs 9:1-8; secondly, the call of a water seller in the marketplace; and thirdly, the invitation to a royal banquet. None of these backgrounds, however, explains this invitation, which is offering goods at no price.
In Isaiah 55:2, God asks the question why people spend money for that which is not bread and their labor for that which does not satisfy. This question does not imply that everyone should stop working for an income, but it does question the exclusive pursuit of material wealth to the neglect of spiritual wealth. Instead, God calls everyone to listen carefully to him and eat what is good, letting one’s soul delight in the richness of God. This call amounts not only to a call to come to God for salvation, but a call to a spiritual way of life, a kind of prayer and meditation, in which one waits on God and listens to him.
Isaiah 55:3 makes it even clearer, that people must come to God and listen to him, and hear so that their souls may live. Coming to God means one will enter an everlasting covenant, which is described as the sure mercies of David. This is a prophetic reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, who instituted the New Covenant by his blood shed on the cross.
CONDITIONS FOR ENTERING THIS COVENANT
But there are requirements for this salvation and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Firstly, one must seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him when he is near (Isaiah 55:6). One must not postpone seeking the Lord or calling upon him for salvation, for the day will come when it is too late, as the Lord Jesus himself warns us in Luke 13:24-27, when many will ask the Lord to open the door of his kingdom for them to no avail, since they never turned away from their sinful ways. This leads to the other requirement: one must abandon sin and stop persisting in it:
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.
(Isaiah 55:7, KJV)
God promises to forgive everyone who truly turns back to him! This is one great joy of salvation! We must realize that God is transcendent – his thoughts are the purest thoughts possible, his goodness contrasting so greatly to our sinfulness. Turning back to God calls for a wholly new way of life, and our daily prayer must take these things into account. There can be no pretense in the presence of God. We must worship him sincerely and realize he is wholly divine love, divine purity, divine goodness.
CONCLUSION
Having believed in him, having called upon him, we must now listen to his word, obey his word and follow his will, since the word of God in our lives will not fail to accomplish the purpose for which he sent it (Isaiah 55:11). Fulfilling God’s word, as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in doing so, will bring joy and peace to us and to those around us. And we must persevere in cooperating with the Holy Spirit and waiting on the Lord in prayer, until we are filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19).