LIFE Lessons: Oct. 1st 2023

Sermon Transcript:

So let's go to Isaiah 43. Today, I think it's a great passage and talking about new beginnings and new life that God gives us. Just give you a real quick overview of Isaiah. Isaiah is a prophecy book. It's one of those books that is talked about and referenced around Christmas because a lot of times the hope of a manual the hope of the Savior is in Isaiah. Isaiah is also one of those books in the Old Testament that is referenced a lot for the Second Coming. Whether Jesus, we're talking about Jesus coming in the first time as a baby in the manger, or coming a second time upon the clouds. Isaiah is a book a prophet, that was ministering around 700 BCE. Okay, so if you remember from school 700, before Christ, 70 years before Christ, and he's ministering in one of those times, where he is admitting that a dark cloud is coming in the history of the known world at that time, the Babylonians are going to come and they're going to sack Jerusalem, and they're going to take back captives with them. And that happens approximately 586 BCE. And so one of things you need to realize about the people that Isaiah is speaking to, as he's trying to prepare them, for everything that they know, and have known to be turned upside down, to be toppled, to be trampled on, for them to be removed from a situation in which they're comfortable with, and have known all their life. One of the things that is evident when you read Isaiah and other passages in the Bible is that they are very admitted that it's going to get bad before it gets better, but it is going to get better. Is there a lot of life that way, though, isn't it that we have to go through the darkness to get to the other side? The Gospel itself tells us that we have a problem that the bad news is that we're sinners, that we are in bondage to sin, that we have shackles around us that we are broken people that we are messed up people, but God right, so we have to understand the bad news before we can get to what what we call the good news, the gospel that Jesus Christ came to save us to redeem us to buy us back. So you're gonna see that in this passage, and I would argue in a lot of passages in the Bible, so Isaiah 43, do you have a Bible? That's fine. If not, it'll be up on the screen with us. This is what it says. Isaiah 43, beginning of verse 14, this is what the Lord says your Redeemer. Now that word right there Redeemer, y'all know what redemption is? You've heard of redeem something, it's to buy back. So the idea that God Himself reveals Himself to His people here in Isaiah, as the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, he's separate. He said, apart, He's holy, He is God. Yet he redeems, what does he begin to say? for your sakes? I will send an army against Babylon. So this is coming in the future. They're like, What are you talking about? This is coming in the future that Babylon is going to come and ransacked Jerusalem and take them into a different land. But he says, for your sakes, I will send an army against Babylon, forcing the Babylonians to flee in those ships that they are so proud of. I am the Lord, Your holy one, Israel's creator and King. I am the Lord who opened away now what is he talking about here? First of all, he's talking about the fact that the Babylonians that had great strength in the ancient world, their pride is going to be their undoing. They are your enemies, they are the ones who are hurting you and persecuting you, yet, I'm going to take the very chips that they're proud of, and I'm going to use them to bring you home bring you back into your land, and I in the Lord, I'm going to do it. Because how is that he says, I'm the Lord who opened away through the waters making a dry path through the sea. He's always referencing that what he has done, God is trying to help us to see as people that we can count on him to be faithful in our lives, because he's been faithful before. So if you know the story of Moses and the Exodus of Egypt, and how did they escape, that God made a path when there seemed to be no path when you're staring at rushing waters like the Red Sea, and you're told that God will somehow make a path. It does not make sense to our natural mind. And yet God, he says, I'm the one who opened away through the waters, making a dry path, not a muddy path. It's a real miracle, a dry path through the sea. I called forth the mighty army of Egypt. With all its chariots and horses. I drew them beneath the waves and they drowned. So again, it's just talking about the fact that they may have thought in their pride. I'll go after those Israelites. Pharaoh in his heart and

to heart, he may have decided, yes, no, I'm gonna go and bring them back so that they may be slaves for me once again. Yet what we're seeing here is that God Himself had a purpose and a plan for his enemies. This is great news because a lot of times, we feel like we have to enact vengeance on those who harm us or hurt us. And we're told over and over and over again the scriptures, don't you worry, don't you worry your little head, I'll take care of them. You don't want to be an instrument of vengeance, let God take care of them. That's what he does. He draws them into that area where they think they're gonna be able to crawl safely on the dry land, just like the Israel's before them. But what happened, he drew them beneath the waves, and they drowned their lives snuffed out, like a smoldering candle wick just like that, right? It's going to bring us courage, because God's done it in the past. But Forget all that. Now, he's not saying don't remember it, he wouldn't have recounted that story. He's trying to say I got something even better around the corner. You ever done that before, when you're talking to someone about some great project or some great gift you're about to give them, you remind them of whatever you've done before in terms of project or in terms of gift. And now you're saying but what is again, there's more or forget all that it's nothing compared to what I'm going to do. Here's the point of the passage this morning, for I'm about to do something new. See, I have already begun. Do you not see it, I will make a pathway through the wilderness. Now when you see the word wilderness in your Bible, I want you to always think of chaos. Wilderness is not that sort of beautiful, peaceful, skipping through the park with the birds chirping on a beautiful sunny day. Wilderness is more like those Disney flicks that you see when you go into the danger and there's like, feels like the forest is coming in around you. Or you get lost and turned around. You can't navigate your way out and every every corner that you turn, there's a wolf, there's a snake there's something that is going seeking to devour you or harm you or hurt you, because you're vulnerable in the wilderness. Think about when you have to go way, way, way, way, way out into the desert here in a place like El Paso with no rucksack with no provision with no food, and you are exposed to the elements. That's the wilderness he's talking about in the Scriptures. And he's saying, I will create rivers in the dry wasteland, something that seems impossible God is saying he's going to do for his people. The wild animals in the fields will thank me, the jackals and the owls too, for giving them water in the desert. That's what's so interesting about the scriptures is that when we look to the animals and how they are provided for and Jesus said the same thing, when he talks about the birds of the field, we are to look to them, and they themselves by the very nature that they are being provided for, by God above. We are to see that they are giving praise to God by their very life. Right? And he's saying that just like I provide for them, and that they're praising God for that I will provide for you and you will be able to praise God that even in a desert, we're in a little desert here in El Paso we understand this, that somehow God will make away when there seems to be no way. Yes, I will make rivers in the dry wasteland. Why? So that my chosen people can be refreshed. I have made Israel for myself, and they will someday honor me before the whole world. Now I want to talk about that idea of chosen people. Because sometimes you look at the Old Testament and you're saying No Wait, does that still apply to us? How does this all work? When you look to the scriptures, you really just have the people of God in the Old Testament is very clear that he's dealing with a unique nation,

Israel, but it's very abundantly clear when Jesus comes along that he is here for the whole world. And what is he here to do? He's here to care for us to redeem us to buy us back to center feet on a path just like we talked about, in this beautiful story of this family. He's here to do something new in your life and in mind, not keep us where we're at. Not so we would stay where we're at. But that's so our feet would be on a new path. But why is God doing this? Is he doing this because we're somehow special than everybody else? Because we somehow smarter or figured it out? No, it's in God's nature, to love and to care. So then when it's not something we can brag about or boast about like okay, yeah, I did something so great. That's why I'm the chosen one of God whether you're talking about chosen in Old Testament Israel sense or chosen and a new covenant New Testament believer since it's all God and it's all grace, and it's all God doing it for His glory. That's why he says in the very beginning, I

doing this for my namesake, you can look back on Isaiah 4310. And really the whole chapter from 42 and 43. And you can see that God is all about his glory. He's his name, his fame throughout the whole world. And you say, no, wait a second, I heard in that passage, it's about my good. It's about me receiving these good things from God, these gifts from above, just like the the, the people of old had mana, quail from heaven that I would receive that. And what you and I have to realize as we grow in Christ is that God's glory in our good is not at odds that they come together in the form of the cross, and our redemption. That's what makes this gospel so good news, such good news, that he is our Redeemer, and that he is taking personal responsibility for us. For us. That's what it means to be the people of God. Sure, in the Old Testament, it seems like there was one nation state, but it's so clear when you get to the New Testament that it was really the whole world and everyone will know that there is a God. And what he calls us to do is when he's taken personal responsibility of us, just like people take personal responsibility of their children. He is called and he will release us from every bondage that we suffer in this life, or in the life to come. Now it doesn't feel like that at times does it? Because we've already talked about it. You may have had a tough week, you may have had a tough season, you may have had a tough year, or you may be entering in one of those things. A lot of times it feels like you're being crapped on doesn't it? Just like this doesn't feel very good. It feels like I've been forgotten about. You're talking about a God, whether it's a God in Israel or a god, that's a very present help in time of trouble. Pastor, I don't see it. I don't feel it. I don't know it. When I look around, I have death of loved ones and friends and feelings doesn't seem like good. It doesn't seem like hope right now. Yet God is doing something. And I would argue he's already done something in what he accomplished on the cross, that beautiful cross. That's why we go back to that. And we understand that that something was given to us there some sort of gift was given to us there so that we might live. He's not done with us yet. If you woke up this morning, and you had breath in your lungs, God's not done with you yet. He's not done with me yet. It is not complete. And in fact, it tells us in these verses, he's doing a new thing. Even if we can't see it, he's doing a new thing. He is making all things new. I think about this, this week, I had the privilege of touring some of our public schools, and they're bringing in some of the tech trades back into the public school system. And one of the ones that I found so fascinating was the ones where they were working on vehicles and they would do brake jobs. And they would do different things with cosmetology and all that. It's just beautiful. Some of the some of the advancements we're getting in our city for the opportunities for young people. But one of the ones I've found most fascinating and I've always liked vehicles is when I went to the paint shop, and they would show us these cars that were beat up. And they're they're putting Bondo on it, and they're smoothing them out. And then they're about to show the finished product and the retailing classic vehicles right here in our city, in some of our public schools. But it doesn't look like it yet. It looks like a hunk of metal. It looks like junk. It looks like crap. But what's going to happen we understand that there is going to be a whole process and a whole like new car is going to be rolled out of one of those eventually. You see this not only in this scripture I want to remind us of Isaiah 4319 The main passage today Behold, now that we're behold what do you you and I understand that to mean it's that whole idea of look look up pay attention I'm doing a new thing now it springs forth Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert you and I have to see that's miraculous. I mean when I when I walk out to Fort Bliss and when I walk out to the edge of the desert two blocks past pebble Hills I don't see any water as oh yeah there is we put some water towers up there and we put you know we we saw the engineers who are sloping the the roads in such a way to gather No, no, I'm not talking about feats of engineering. I'm talking about God Himself, making a miraculous way. When it makes no natural sense supernatural work, miraculous work in your life and mind that cannot be explained any other way. But God that's what he's doing in your life and mind will see this and other passages. If you don't want to see it in I say, you can see this in terms of limitations. That wasn't only true in life, but it's true in grief. We've talked about grief here and we're going to give you an opportunity to go to a memorial service right after this service and and grief real grief is a How can anything

good come out of this. How can anything new come out of this? How can anything that has life come out of this?

Jeremiah when he's writing the book of limitations, that very word means to grieve, lament, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Do you see the newness there? Then you say, Well, I didn't feel like that when I woke up out of bed this morning, I still felt the pain that I felt the day before. But God, His mercies are new every morning. He's taking care of the birds. He's taking care of you. He woke you and me up this morning, he is up to something. And it's the little things that he's doing in your life in mind, that will accomplish and lead to something great, not only for this age, but for the age to come not only for your life and my life and this generation, but for generations to come. So he's they're doing something new in life in grief. How about in baptism,

we'll go the next passage there in the book of Romans six, for when you're here for baptisms that we celebrate. And it was such a privilege and honor to talk about this family and how they came to Christ over so many years, one by one, making that personal decision to follow him. But if you listen, I'll always say some version of this, buried with Christ raised to walk in white newness of life. That's what it's talking about here. And I get this from this passage. Why? Because you and I aren't the same when we go through the waters of baptism, because of what God's done in our heart. And it's not only true in life and grief and baptism, it's true in the end. It's true in the end, what we call eschatological. It's just that idea of in time. So if you go to that last passage in the book of Romans, chapter 21, verse five, you may have seen this or heard this, and He who was seated on the throne said, what there's that word again, be hold, behold, pay attention, look up. It's something that we say Behold, right. Like, like, like when these, like you when these ladies come down to, you know, and when they're beautiful dress, they're what they're beholding we take pictures of them. And so it said, I did Behold God himself saying, I am making all things new. This is true, guys, this is true. I've shown it throughout the scriptures. And also he said, Write these things down. They are trustworthy and true. Here's the deal, though, as we live, and as we go forth, we live in the tension of the already but not yet. What does that mean? Well, guys, we live a lot of our life this way, don't we? That tension of the idea that, that our house that we buy, it's ours yet it's not quite ours until the mortgage is paid off. I mean, it's the idea that that when you have a child in the womb, it's yours. You have that child, but it's not already born and all these things that we understand it in the same way when you and I are redeemed. We have an understanding that he is creating something new in our life. Yet there's still squabbles, there's still fight, there's still heartache, there's still pain, there's still things that we're trying to work through. Because we live in the tension that God's already done something yet. It's not fully complete until the end, we live in that tension of the already, but not yet. But it's a trustworthy and true saying this final one, I want us to see one point this morning, and then we'll close that God Himself is making all things new that I am, that's God himself speaking these things. We saw it in Isaiah, we'll see it in Revelation. We'll see it on our lives. We'll see it in other people's lives. The idea that he's not done with us yet, praise God, he's not done with me. I look out at you. He's not done with you. If you're listening online, he's not done with you. And this is trustworthy. This is true. This is reality doesn't seem like it because our reality sometimes is what we can see touch and feel. And God says there's a greater reality. There's something else more going on behind the scenes, and I'm taking care of you and my glory, God's saying, My glory, the great I am making all things new, and you're good, the good things that come to our life what we often call blessings, or just this is good for me. They're not at odds, church, His glory are good, come together, we can see it most clearly in the form of the cross. Once you come, let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank you that you care for us, that you have redeemed us that you have set many people's feet upon a rock in this room. I pray for those who are struggling to believe these truths today.

I pray for the Tapia family that you continue to grow them. Thank you for their life and their testimony. For their I pray for our church as we always have great things to rejoice over about how you're working in our life, yet simultaneously great

Things that we grieve over with loss, loss of family, loss of friends, loss of job, maybe loss of income.

If other help us to live in the tension lean and do you lean into what you have for us not only this day but all the days of our life we ask this in Christ's name, Amen.