A New Year, Something New / 1.1.23

 A New Year, Something New
Isaiah 43-16-21  January 1, 2023   

1. Introduction:
   1. Transitioning from one year to the next always seems to bring with it new hopes, new dreams, new commitments (that normally last only a few days to weeks).   
      1. It’s the one day of the year when we seem to hit the reset button on our lives which clears out all the junk that has piled up over the last year and gives us a fresh new start on the year ahead of us.
      2. That is the way it is for me and I suppose that is the way it is for most of us and it is even true as a church.
   2. Few would deny that the last few years has put a lot of clutter in our lives, minds and emotions!
      1. Some people get stuck in that clutter expecting more of the same this coming year.
      2. But God wants his people to look forward not expecting the same old, same old but rather expecting God to do something new, something miraculously new!
   3. That was his encouragement to the people of Judah in the book of Isaiah.  Now we as a church, after the series People of Promise, are equipped to better understand it.

• Turn in your Bible to 

1.  Isaiah 43
   1. The book was written to the southern kingdom, Judah, to confront them with their sin and call them to repentance so God would bless them.
      1.  Because they would not repent God told them of the upcoming captivity in Babylon into which they would go, but he also told them of the blessing they would receive if and when they repent!
   2. In the immediate context we get the setting for the passage we want to look at today
      1. Chapter 42 we see:
         1. A people who are unresponsive to God and his Word.   Read v18-20
         2. Then we see God is going to give them over to his discipline.  Read v24-25a
         3. Finally we see the response of the people even to this discipline that is yet in the future for them.  
            1. Read v25b 
            2. Even when they are under God’s discipline in Babylon they will not recognize nor pay attention to what God is doing.  
      2. In chapter 43 the tone changes:
         1. In v 1-4 – God’s love and presence with them even in difficult times!!   Read
         2. Then in v14-15 – God is basically telling Judah that while he will use Babylon to discipline them, there will be a time when God will judges Babylon and they will be captives.  Read
   3.  Now to today’s passage.  Remember they are not in Babylon yet, but God is speaking to them about when they will be.
      1. God is reminding them of the way he miraculously delivered them in the past out of Egypt by opening a way for them through the Red Sea and then killed the Egyptian army by the same sea as they pursued Israel. Read v16-17
      2. Now here is God’s word for them as to how to think when they are in Babylon and it is God’s word for us on how we should think moving into 2023.  
         1. Read v18-19
         2. Rather than like the last exodus from Egypt with God making a way through the Red Sea, in this future exodus from Babylon he is going to make a way, a roadway through the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give his people water to drink!

• So what does this have to do with us?

1.  Application
   1. The action item for them in this passage is the same action item for us as we look forward to this year. Read v18-19a 
      1. Do not keep thinking about and remembering the things God did in the past for you but rather look for new things God will be doing!
      2. Then watch expectantly for it!  Read v19b.
      3. We have to let go of the old things before we can pick up the new ones, not just outwardly but inwardly.  
         1. It is a transition into something, not just a transition from something 
         2. (Illustrate it with a trapeze performer)
   2. This speaks big to me
      1. You have heard me say over the last few years that I am in the fourth quarter of my ministry.   Well today starts the two minute drill.
         1.  As I told you last year we hope to have a new senior pastor by the end of this year
      2. Now most people retire, to move from what they have to do to provide their livelihood; to do what they love and always wanted to do.  
      3. For me it is just the opposite – I am doing what I always loved and wanted to do with people I love.   
         1. So for me there has been some grieving and hard to let go of this.   
      4. God, through some of his people, has challenged me that I am not retiring but reenlisting into a new way and new focus of serving and living life.  I am not moving into retirement but into “life two”
      5. It has reenergized my faith to believe God for something new, something just as exciting, something just as joyful and something just as fulfilling in “life two” 
      6. I have been intentional to focus upon God’s future goodness and miraculous working rather than on the past I am leaving behind.
   3. How about you?
      1. Maybe for you it is a transition in relationships, work, financial life, your health, inner changes, or season of life or even sovereign acts of God that change the direction of your life 
         1. Like high school girl to a college student to a single woman, to your first job, to being a newly married woman, to being a new mother, a mother of junior high and teen, to empty nester, to grandparent to widow.  
            1. All of these are times of letting go of the old/past and embracing the new/future by faith.
         2. Look at these opportunities as an invitation from God to embrace the changes, trust and watch for him do something new and miraculous in our lives
   4. But in closing I want to challenge you to not set your mind on the golden days of the past and live off the glory and joy of those past blessings from God.  
      1. But rather look to God’s future blessings, to do something new, something just as miraculous, something just as fulfilling something just as, if not more so, glorious and joyful to you!
      2. Take just a moment alone and consider what is one thing from your past that God wants you to let go of with your heart and mind and to grab hold of him and not let him go until he brings a new miraculous blessing into your life
      3. Then talk to him about it!