Are we willing to change, Are we willing to go forward?
Isaiah 43:18-19
Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
As I began to think about this verse, the question came to me, “Are we willing to change, and are we willing to go forward?”
In our scripture text, the writer was speaking about how Israel had been in the wilderness, between the Red Sea and Canaan, and was guided, and supplied with water by Jehovah;
But the "new" deliverance that he prophesied here, shall be attended with manifestations of God's power and love, eclipsing the old.
"I will open a way, not merely in the Red Sea, but in the wilderness of the whole world;
and not merely one river shall gush out of the rock, but many, which shall refresh, not the bodies as formerly, but the souls of the thirsty, so that the prophecy shall be fulfilled:
'With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation”.
God said He would make a way in the wilderness.
The words, "A way" often stands for the true religion (Ac 9:2; 18:26).
The word, "Rivers" express the influences of the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39).
Now, the prophet had referred to the deliverance from Egypt and the passage through the Red Sea;
But here he promises that the same power shall be employed in their redemption and return from the Babylon captivity.
God’s power was wonderful and great with the Red Sea experience, and the deliverance from the Egyptian tyranny of Pharaoh.
But wait until you see what God is going to do for you now!
God said, “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.”
Now I don’t believe God was telling them to completely forget about what God had done for them in the past.
But I believe He was telling them to not hold on to the things of the past.
Don’t sit around reminiscing about the good old days, by having your minds so infatuated and obsessed with the past that you cannot go forward.
God said, “Don’t consider the things of old.”
Or, don’t be concerned too much about the things God did for you in the past.
Be thankful, be grateful, hold it somewhere in your memory to remind you of God’s power and faithfulness, but don’t be concerned too much about it.
Why would God tell them this?
Because He said, “I will do a new thing.”
It wasn’t that the old things were not important, it wasn’t that the old experiences were not of great significance, but God wanted to do a new thing!
He did not want them to hold on to past experiences!
Behold I will do a new thing!
The word “new” was taken from the Hebrew word, khaw-dawsh, and it means fresh, new thing.
God will send a fresh thing!
I do not believe God wants us to hold on to the former things.
Yes, we must always cherish the past experiences this church had in the years gone by.
We must always reverence the former leaders and church members who have blazed the trail before us with their faithfulness and holiness.
But God doesn’t want us to live back there! He doesn’t want us to hold on to the former things.
He wants us to leave those things in the history books to recall from time to time, and move forward in our experience with God.
God did some wonderful things in the former days of our church. And even in our individual lives.
But now, God wants to do a new thing!
And new things require change!
God wants to bring something fresh, and to do that we must get rid of the stale.
Which of these had you rather have,
Stale bread or fresh bread
Stale milk or fresh milk
Stale air or fresh air
Stale oil or fresh oil
I believe God loves fresh things!
And sometimes God likes a fresh start!
At the time of the arrival of Jesus in Bethlehem the church world had become stale and stagnate.
The people became weary of the rituals and cleansings, and washings, and laws and ordinances, and sacrifices, and commandments they felt was impossible to keep.
The book of Malachi bears this out very clearly.
Mal 1:13 Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD.
The church was in dire need of a fresh start!
It had become a dreary, ritualistic, dismal, boring, drab, joyless routine for them.
Its sad when the church falls into routine of church service.
We go through the same routine every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, and every Wednesday night.
Same routine, same habitual procedure, same old way we have always done it!
We sing the same old songs, we say the same old things, we pray the same old prayers, and we even sit in our same old seats.
“What’s wrong with that, Preacher? I like to sit here. I like those old songs.”
We have found ourselves content with the old, holding on to the past, being “content in Zion”, and we feel no need for anything new.
Listen again to what God said:
“I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
First, I will do a new thing!
Too many of us are afraid of anything new.
New things make us feel uncomfortable and uneasy.
We don’t want to get out of our comfort zone.
We don’t want to offend somebody, we don’t want to make any waves, so we keep holding on to our security blanket, which is nothing more or less than the former things.
Now notice, God didn’t say He was going to do a weird thing! There’s too much of that going on in some of our churches!
God didn’t say He was going to do something unscriptural or out of order.
But He said He will do a NEW (Fresh) thing. Or something in contrast to the stale, dry, and dead.
The word stale means, hard, tasteless, sour, insipid, uninteresting, stereotyped, old, common.
This is exactly what so many of our churches have become!
Listen church, I don’t want us to be hard!
I don’t want us to be insipid and uninteresting.
Or stereotyped, old and just common.
But I want God to do a fresh thing!!!!!!
I want a fresh anointing to preach the gospel!!
I want this church to have a fresh experience with God!
We may not need a new building.
We may not need a new preacher.
We may not need a new carpet.
But we do need a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit upon our church.
We need to get out of our normal, our routine, our stereotyped way of worship and ask God to do a new thing!!!
The wording in verse 19, “rivers in the desert” express the influences of the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39).
37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
39 (But this spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive)
In John chapter four Jesus told the woman at the well, “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 Word also says:
I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into waters-springs.
Church, we need a fresh touch from God this morning.
We need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
But are we willing to change?
To change from routine to exciting.
From boring to exciting.
Do we want to go forward?
Are we thirsty for the freshness that God wants to give?
Oh its hard to change! Its uncomfortable to leave the old behind.
Its like a old worn out recliner.
The thing looks bad, it sags, its dirty, but oh, its comfortable.
But there comes a time when it needs to be thrown into the dump, and purchase a new one.
Will it cost something? Yes, but it has served it time and purpose.
Will it cost something to change, to allow God to bring forth a new thing, something fresh.
Oh it sure will!
It will cost us our routine.
It may cost us our comfort zone.
We may have to give up our customary ways.
We may have to quit saying, “We’ve always done it that way.”
How many desires the Holy Spirit to operate in our church and to have His way among us?
Listen, the Holy Spirit is not routine.
The Holy Spirit is not dull and boring.
The Holy Spirit uninteresting.
The Holy Spirit is fresh and inspiring.
The Holy Spirit is joyful and exciting.
Do you want to be a part of what God desires to do? Behold I will do a new thing.
