Introduction

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19

Have you ever seen a movie or heard a story about someone who was constantly referencing some point in their past? The anecdotal, high school football quarterback who relives his state championship winning touchdown throw every Friday night at the local bar, comes to mind. What is it about the past that keeps our attention - even as time continues marching forward into the future?

And to be fair, haven’t we all talked at some point about wanting things to “go back to how they used to be?” What about the good old days when things were simpler and life didn’t seem so chaotic?

Maybe the past is attractive because it’s safer than the present. There aren’t going to be any painful surprises as we look backwards. Even if your history was horrible, at least you know what happened.

Obviously, the problem with this mindset is, you can’t very well move forward while also living in the past.

So today, we’re going to talk about leaving the past baggage behind us, for better or for worse, and moving confidently into the present reality of God’s provision for us.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!

Main Teaching

Leave the Past in the Past

The former things referred to in our Isaiah passage could very well be the Exodus from Egypt, or some other point in Israel’s history.

Listen to Pharoah’s words to the nation of Israel from Exodus 12:31: “During the night pharoah summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “UP! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go worship the Lord as you have requested.”

At this point in history the Israelites were being granted freedom from over 400 years of slavery to the Egyptians. It’s hard to imagine what people were feeling as they packed up their homes, families, livestock, etc… and started walking off into the wilderness towards the promised land. It’s even harder to imagine they would want to go back to lives of servitude, (but as we now know that’s exactly what they eventually wanted).

Wandering through the wilderness was hard. It was different from what they were used to. And many of them simply wanted to return to the way things used to be.

Sound familiar?

Don’t think for a moment that you and I are any different then our distant Israelite relatives ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium