When God Does Something New

[00:00:00] In preparation for my first message with you, I kept coming back to one word. I kept thinking about this word. And it's this word. Here we go. This word is new. [00:00:11] New. And we kind of put a picture to kind of relate this for me. For us, it's a new church. And of course, you have a new pastor. And this is a new season with new relationships of new opportunities and new challenges. So it's all new. That's right. And I suspect for some of us, personally, personally, for you just at the moment, there are things that are also new for you as well. Maybe new circumstances that you find yourself in. Maybe it's a new chapter that you find yourself, maybe for others, maybe walking through something that you never expected to happen in your life. [00:00:50] And maybe some of you are even thinking that I don't particularly want anything new. I'm quite happy with what I've got. [00:00:58] And I understand that, because new isn't always comfortable. [00:01:03] New can be exciting. But new can also be quite unsettling, can't it? You see, when you buy something new, you either usually like it or you love it. [00:01:15] A new car, new clothes, new running shoes, a new phone, a new house, et cetera, et cetera. When life gives you something new that you didn't necessarily ask for, that's a little different. [00:01:33] A new diagnosis, a new responsibility, a new relationship, a new job, a new challenge, a new season of life where suddenly new doesn't always sound so exciting. [00:01:53] And yet, throughout Scripture, we see a God who is constantly bringing his people into new seasons. And today I want to look at what happens in my title of my message. I press button. Here we go. When God does something new. [00:02:10] When God does something new. I hope you didn't miss those. You didn't blink through those. Couple of. There's only two verses. I got five points over two verses. [00:02:18] See if we could do that. When God does something new, my first point is this. [00:02:24] New doesn't mean God has forgotten the old. [00:02:27] And let's come back to those couple of verses that Stuart brought to us before Isaiah 43, and it's entitled God's Mercy and Israel's Unfaithfulness. Now, it's important to get context because every text has context, right? [00:02:41] So it's important to get context in the context of this particular passage in Isaiah 43. We've got to understand Isaiah 40. [00:02:49] So let's go back and understand that these two verses that we've got here, that God's rebuking Israel, of course, that's the context for their Disobedience. That's the context. [00:03:00] And so chapter two is ending. So 42 is ending with God's judgment. Yet it's coming into chapter 43, where we picked it up here, this dramatic contrast where Isaiah says, on behalf of God, but now, but now, but now. So from judgment we go to grace. [00:03:28] And so the discipline that's happening with God's people in chapter 42 is very, very real. But so is God's covenant love, and it also remains for his people. [00:03:40] So it begins in this verse here. Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. God says, forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. Now, at first glance, at first glance, doesn't it sound. It sounds a little strange here because surely remembering the past is important. [00:04:01] Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. Now, we need to remember, don't we, what God has done. [00:04:08] We need to remember his faithfulness. We need to remember the people who have gone before us. We need to remember the stories, the prayers that have been answered, the miracles, the sacrifices, etcetera, Et cetera. And so when God says, forget the former things, I don't think he's saying, pretend the past has never happened. He's not saying that. [00:04:27] I think he's saying, don't allow what I did yesterday to limit what you believe I can do either today or tomorrow. So that's an important distinction before we move any further. [00:04:40] Because sometimes we can become so attached to what God has done, we struggle to recognize what God is in fact doing or what he is going to do. And before long, yesterday becomes that standard by which we judge everything that God might want to do tomorrow. [00:05:01] And so God says, see, See that second line? See, I am doing a new thing. And so the God who was faithful then is still very faithful now. The God who moved then can still move now. The God who built his church in the past is still building his church today. And so, as we begin this new season together, church, we don't need to be afraid of the future. Why? Because the God who was faithful to this church yesterday will be faithful to this church tomorrow. [00:05:40] You see, there's a history here. Let's acknowledge that history. Let's give thanks for that history. For there are stories here. There are people who have prayed here. There are people who have served here for many years, who have sacrificed, who have preached, who have worshipped here. There are generations of faith represented. And we honour that. We don't erase that. We don't erase the past. We acknowledge, we certainly acknowledge that we are an Unfinished people in an unfinished story that God is unfolding for he is building his church. So new doesn't mean that God has forgotten the old. Not at all. My next point is that new often begins before we can see it. [00:06:26] Think about those couple of verses. [00:06:28] Isaiah says, see, I'm doing a new thing now. If it springs up, here it comes now. If it springs up, do you not perceive it? Do you not perceive it? In other words, I'm already doing something. God is saying, I'm already up to something. [00:06:48] Something that maybe we have not recognized yet or we're starting to recognize. [00:06:56] So the people are looking back and they're lost. And God is telling them to know, to look forward, to look forward at what I am beginning. Think of it like this, as a seed. [00:07:08] Think of it as a seed. When you. We're our gardeners. We got any gardeners in the house this morning? Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I love. [00:07:15] Think of it as a seed for a moment. You see, when you plant a seed, from what I understand, for a while. For a while, nothing happens, does it? Nothing happens. We water it. [00:07:27] We wait, we look at the soil, we stare at the soil. Nothing happens. We water it again. It's still nothing. And we start thinking, well, I've bought a packet of dirt, but under the surface, you and I know that something is being formed. Something is happening. The roots are growing, life is forming. Something is taking place that you can not yet see. And is that not what sometimes God, how he works, you know, let's be honest. You know, sometimes you and I, we look around and say, God, where are you? [00:08:06] What's happening? What's coming next? And God says, I'm already at work. [00:08:13] Hang in there. Hang in there. You'll see the big picture. You don't see that yet. All we can see is that we have to walk by faith. We don't walk by sight, you know, we're people of faith. Not by sight. And of course, faith isn't by believing that God will do something only when we can see the evidence. [00:08:32] Faith is trusting God while we are still waiting for the evidence. Some would call that the liminal space. I think that's what you call it, isn't it? Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews, tells us that faith. Here we go. Now. Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. [00:08:55] It's confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. And perhaps that's particularly important for us at the beginning of this new season. We don't see everything yet that's ahead. [00:09:07] We don't know what God is going to do. [00:09:10] We don't know who will walk through those doors. We don't know whose life is going to be changed. We don't know which prayers are going to be answered. We don't know which challenges we're about to face. [00:09:19] We don't know which opportunities are about to come. But here's what we do know, and that is this, that God is already there. [00:09:27] He's already there. And that means that we don't have to be afraid of tomorrow, because tomorrow belongs to God. [00:09:35] New often begins before we can see it. [00:09:40] Third point is that God's new thing may require a new way of thinking. Let me explain. Hang in there with me for a moment. Because another part of this passage, God says, I'm making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Yes, that's what God says. Now that's very powerful. I'm making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. There it is, right the end there. [00:10:05] Because God isn't just saying that I'm going to make your circumstances easier. What he's saying is, I'm going to make a way where there doesn't seem to be one quite yet. And that's what God does. He makes roads through the wilderness. He brings streams into the dry places. He creates possibilities where we see impossibilities. In effect, he's saying, I'm not finished with you yet. But here's the challenge. Here's the challenge. [00:10:35] When God creates something new, sometimes we have to think and even walk a little differently. Because Israel, they'd experienced God making a way before. You might remember the story that they'd been through the Red Sea. God parted the Red Sea for them. That's their history. They knew that God could make a way through the water. But now God, what he's saying here to his people is, I'm doing something new. I'm doing something new. In other words, don't assume. Don't assume that I'm going to do exactly the same way. Do it the same way that I did it last time. This is a new act of redemption, what God is saying to his people. And God's people can't necessarily see the solution, but God can create one that they don't. That they don't. That in fact doesn't exist. And so God is there to create their future and to bring about that sense of hope. Because the. The Context of Isaiah 43 is this message of Reassurance, It's a message of hope, it's a message of comfort, that God reminds them that they belong to him, even though that they're being disobedient, they belong to him and he will not abandon them, that he will redeem them and restore his people. And it points to God's coming deliverance in his future, their future beyond the Israel's present circumstances. [00:12:02] And so that's something worth remembering in and through all of that, that he's the same today, yesterday and forever. He's unchanging. His character doesn't change, his word doesn't change, his holiness doesn't change, his love doesn't change, his faithfulness doesn't change. But the way that he goes about what he does, his works, his ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and our circumstances. And it can be wonderfully surprising if we're open to that. So we must remain open to His Spirit's leading and his guidance and these new opportunities and new people and open to what God might want to do because he is doing something new all the time. Because sometimes, if we're not careful, the greatest obstacle to do to the new thing that God wants to do isn't opposition. Sometimes it's simply our attachment to the old. [00:12:56] We say, God, well, I want you to do something new. And God says, well, great. But then we say, but please make it look exactly like that old thing. [00:13:04] And God says, well, wait on, hold on, hold on. And sometimes through that newness we feel that stretch and we feel that challenge and that God wants to move us out of that country comfort zone. But let's be honest, let's be honest. Most of us like growth in theory, but we just don't always like what we have to go through to get to get there. We like the idea of becoming, well, let's go for a couple of examples. More patient, to be more patient. [00:13:31] We just don't necessarily like those circumstances that require patience. [00:13:36] We like the idea of becoming more courageous, but we just don't necessarily like the situations that, that require, etc. Etc. [00:13:44] So God is inviting us into something deeper. He's inviting us to trust Him. [00:13:50] Which brings me to the fourth point, and that's this is a new season. Here we go. It's a new season. It's not just about a new minister, it's about continuing Jesus mission. [00:14:03] I want you to know right from where we go that I'm here to serve. We are here to serve. We are here to get our hands and our Hearts dirty and to love, to preach Christ, to help us grow in faith, to encourage us in our outreach and to walk with you through the good times and of course, the difficult ones. And I hope together that we can keep our eyes fixed on the author and the perfecter of our faith and to make Jesus final words our first priority. [00:14:35] Because the church, in fact, whether you believe it or not, does not belong to the pastor. It doesn't even belong to the leadership group. The church doesn't belong to the loudest person in the room. The church belongs to Jesus. He is the head, we are the body, and he is building his church. If he is building his church, that's incredibly freeing. I don't know about you, I feel so much free because I know he is the head and he is the one who is building his church. We don't have to put our confidence in one person. [00:15:09] We can put our confidence in Christ with the ups and downs that come through life and through church, that he is still building his church. [00:15:20] Which brings me to this point. The transformation, yes, is God's work, but participation is our responsibility. Transformation definitely is God's work. [00:15:31] And what I mean by this, that sense of we participating in that, where we can, that there are certainly, of course, you and I know people in our community who don't yet know Him. There are families in our community all around us, just here, who need hope. There are people who are lonely, won't go into that, but that's a message in itself. There are people who are hurting. There are young people who need to know that, that God has a purpose for their lives. There are older people who need encouragement. There are people who have walked away from church who need to discover that Jesus has not walked away from them. [00:16:07] And there are people who don't yet know the grace of God is available to them. And perhaps, perhaps that God is preparing us for some of them. [00:16:18] And so perhaps the new thing, perhaps the new thing isn't simply about what happens inside these walls. [00:16:24] Perhaps the new thing is continuing on. What God has already been doing is what happens through these walls. [00:16:31] Because a new season is not just about a new minister. It's about continuing Jesus mission. Which brings me to the fifth and final point. [00:16:40] God's new thing always has Jesus at the center. [00:16:46] God's new thing always has Jesus at the center. [00:16:50] So ultimately, you think about the Bible, you think about the story of God's living word. The Bible isn't a story, isn't necessarily a story about giving us a getting us better at life. It's the story of God. It's the story of God redeeming his people through Jesus and following in the ways of Jesus. [00:17:12] And when we talk about this idea of new, we can't go much further without talking about the greatest new beginning of all. And that's the resurrection of Jesus. [00:17:23] That's the resurrection. [00:17:26] You know, the tomb was closed. You know, the story looked like it was all finished. It looked like it was very a hopeless situation. It looked like the very end. And then God did something new. What did he do? The stone was rolled away. The tomb was empty. Jesus was alive. [00:17:45] And because Jesus was alive, everything changes. This was game changed. [00:17:53] Paul says to the church in Corinth, he says this. 2nd Corinthians 5:17. If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone. The new. There it is. The new is. Let me say it again. If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone and the new is here. [00:18:19] That is the greatest new beginning you'll ever get. Not the new job or the new house or the new car, even though they're nice kind of things. Not even the new church season. But a new life in Christ, that's the greatest new beginning. Jesus takes broken people, does he not? He takes broken people and makes them new. [00:18:43] He takes guilty people and gives them forgiveness. He takes people who are far from him and brings them in near. He takes people who have lost hope and he gives them hope. He takes our past and he redeems it. He takes our failures and doesn't allow them to have the final word. Amen. He takes people. [00:19:04] He takes people who thought their story had finished and writes another chapter. That that is the gospel. God making all things new. [00:19:19] Let's return to the verse as I close. [00:19:22] Isaiah 43, verse 19:18-19. I want to pick out a word in this particular passage. Second line, See? [00:19:34] Simple as that, really. [00:19:36] My question to you, just answer this in your heart of hearts. What do you see for Summer Hill Baptist Church? [00:19:46] Because God is inviting us to consider the new. [00:19:53] What Summerhill Baptist Church could look like and be for our community and to the nations. [00:20:03] I want you to know. There's that word. See, I am doing a new thing now. It springs up. Do you not perceive it? [00:20:11] See? Pay attention. [00:20:14] Look, open your eyes. Because God may in fact be doing something wrong right now in front of us, right now. Maybe the new thing has already begun. [00:20:26] Maybe it's even happening right now in somebody's life. [00:20:31] Maybe somebody's discovering faith. [00:20:35] Maybe someone's finding Healing. Maybe somebody's being called to serve. Maybe someone's being prompted to forgive. Maybe someone's being challenged to step out in faith. Maybe God is preparing this church for people who haven't even. We haven't even met yet. And maybe there are prayers that have been prayed that God is now beginning to answer. We don't know. We don't know. But here's what we do know. In fact, here's what we can say that God, please help us to see, see, help us not to be so focused on what was that we miss what is and what we are becoming in Him. [00:21:14] Help us not to be so comfortable with yesterday that we resist tomorrow. And also help us, God, help us to remember that you are the same today, yesterday and forever. The same faithful God. The same forgiving God, loving, gracious and all powerful God. The same God who has carried us this far. [00:21:33] And if he has carried us this far, he will carry us into whatever comes next. [00:21:42] This is my Bible. And the Bible teaches me that God does not disappoint us, you know, as we go right to the very end. And I did a funeral the other day. Brother Niall, thank you for being here today. And Margaret's passing. And, you know, we talked about the end and we talked about God is making all things new. This is the old. We're in the old. And God's making new and has made Margaret new. And this ends in renewal. It ends in renewal. It's this breathtaking vision of a new heaven and of a new earth, and it's complete restoration. [00:22:19] And he will carry us into whatever comes next. And so as we finish up, as we begin this new season together, and I'm about to handle, hand back over to the team, I want us to invite us into this simple prayer. And it goes like this. [00:22:35] God, help us to see. [00:22:39] Help us to see what you are doing and then give us courage to join you. [00:22:47] You know, these last 18 months I mentioned, I've been ministering up in Devonport, just traveling back and forth from Launceston, and we had an excellent season up there until we got the call and had conversations, prayerfulness, and also the peace of God reigning in both of our hearts. [00:23:02] Yeah, it was hard to leave. It was hard to leave. But we sense God was doing a work here in this church and that's what we wanted to be a part of. We wanted to be a part of what God is doing. [00:23:16] And we sense that God is doing a great work here. And perhaps, perhaps the most exciting about this new season isn't knowing exactly what is coming, but it's knowing who is coming with us. And his name is Jesus. [00:23:30] And if Jesus is with us, we can face the future with hope. We can step into the unknown with faith. We can embrace the new with courage. And we can honour the past without being trapped by it, as we believe that God is still writing our story because he says, see, I am doing something new. [00:23:50] In Jesus name we pray. [00:23:52] Amen.