GOD IS DOING A NEW THING: I can feel it in my bones - May 7, 2023
INTRODUCTION
Vacation
God was good to us traveling.
Having an adjoining unit with your granddaughter is magical.
Seeing my parents was heart warming.
We took 2 cars but used ours for the last several days in Florida.
We had to come home one day early.
The kids’ car broke down Monday, one day after our return.
God is doing something new in me.
“Most new discoveries are suddenly-seen things that were always there.”
Anonymous
I have a sermon series that I am to preach, but the time is not right. I need to set the stage first. The next few sermons will do that. Hang on this could get bumpy.
There is a passage of Scripture that has gotten ahold of me. I can’t shake it. It is as if God wants me to hear him loudly and clearly.
“This is what the Lord says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: “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. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.”
Isaiah 43:16-21 NIV
I. REMEMBER
Two middle-aged couples were enjoying friendly conversation when one of the men asked the other, "Fred, how was the memory clinic you went to last month?"
"Outstanding," Fred replied. "They taught us all the latest psychological techniques, such as visualization, association and so on. It was great. I haven’t had a problem since."
"Sounds like something I could use. What was the name of the clinic?"
Fred went blank. He thought and thought, but couldn’t remember. Then a smile broke across his face and he asked, "What do you call that flower with the long stem and thorns?"
"You mean a rose?"
"Yes, that’s it!" He turned to his wife, "Hey Rose, what was the name of that memory clinic?"
In Psychology, memory is an organism’s ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences.
In the Bible, the Greek word to remember is aletheia. Aletheia literally means to "not forget." And in the King James Version and many other translations of the Bible, the word aletheia is also translated as “truth.” So truth, in the Bible, literally means to not forget. To know the truth means to remember.
(From a sermon by Paul Zwarich, Tonight We Remember, 4/15/2011)
A. God’s provision
1. He made a way through the sea.
2. He drew out the enemy.
B. God’s protection
1. He defeated the enemy.
a. They lay there
b. Never to rise again
2. He permanently handled the situation.
a. Extinguished
b. Snuffed out like a wick
II. FORGET
A young nun once claimed to have had a vision of Jesus. Her bishop decided to test her truthfulness and ordered that the next time she had a vision she should ask Christ what the bishop’s primary sin had been before he became a bishop.
Some months later the nun returned and the bishop asked if she had asked Christ the question, to which she affirmed that she had. "And what did he say?" the bishop asked, apprehensively.
"Christ said..." and the nun paused a moment... "He said, ‘I don’t remember. ’"
Donald Deffner, Seasonal Illustrations, Resource, 1992, p. 94.
A. Forget the former things
1. Deliverance from Egypt
2. God’s many incredible acts
B. Do not dwell on the past.
1. Do not look back
2. Do not hold the past as sacred
3. Do not yearn for what was
Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was reminded one day of a vicious deed that someone had done to her years before. But she acted as if she had never even heard of the incident.
“Don’t you remember it?” her friend asked.
“No,” came Barton’s reply, “I distinctly remember forgetting it.”
Luis Palau, “Experiencing God’s Forgiveness,” Multnomah Press, 1985.
C. Choose to let go
III. SEE
When the Wright brothers first began experimenting with flying machines, they accepted as fact the data and conclusions that were available in the theory of aviation. As they experimented, however, their own experience provided different conclusions. They began by doubting nothing, yet grew to disbelieve everything about accepted aviation theory. Finally, disregarding all they had learned, they relearned through personal investigation. This led them to build man-carrying gliders in which they spent hundreds of hours over Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. In their Dayton bike shop they built a custom wind tunnel and tested over two hundred different wing surfaces. With minor refinements, their wind tunnel became the prototype of the one used today, and the control system they devised is still used on fixed-wing aircraft.
Hurley, V. (2000, c1995). Speaker’s sourcebook of new illustrations (electronic ed.) (52). Dallas: Word Publishers.
Discover = See
A. A new thing
1. Deliverance from Babylon
2. Something beyond that
3. Our new thing
B. It springs up
1. Pulpit Commentary, “Already it is springing up.”
2. Spring flowers begin before you can see them.
C. “Do you perceive it?”
1. Pulpit Commentary, “Will ye not give heed to it?”
2. Are you looking for God’s mighty hand at work?
"The majority see the obstacles; the few see the objectives; history rewards the successes of the latter, while oblivion is the reward of the former."
Anonymous
D. A way in the wilderness
1. Deliverance from Babylon
2. The Messiah
3. The work of the Messiah
"Everything in this world has two aspects - how it looks at the moment, and how it will look in the time to come. The easy way may look inviting at the moment, and the hard way daunting.
The only way to get our values right is to see, not the beginning, but the end of the way, to see things, not in light of time, but in the light of eternity."
William Barclay
IV. THE CHOSEN
“God chose you express Him, not to impress Him.”
David Ibeleme
A. The people I formed for myself.
1. We are not our own.
2. We are His.
“I have chosen you.” Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God, but that he has got you. Why is God at work in me, bending, breaking, moulding, doing just as he chooses? For one purpose only—that he may be able to say, “This is my man, my woman.”
Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)
B. The people who may proclaim my praise.
1. We are gathered for a reason.
2. We are assembled to proclaim His praise.
3. We are who may _____.
There was a boy who did not have much athletic ability. Every time he and his friends would play some game, he was always the last to be chosen. One day two new fellows came to play with them and were allowed to be team captains because they were older. The first team captain chose the boy who had always been chosen last before. Why? Because they were brothers, and he loved his brother. So it is with God. He chose us not because of our abilities, but because he loves us.
Mark Schaeufele, A Messiah Who Serves (sermon), 5/27/2010
CONCLUSION
His chosen people should remember, forget, and see. To traverse this wilderness we must follow the One who formed us. We must look to the hills.
INVITATION
It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word. You may want to follow Jesus. You may want to proclaim your faith. You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things). Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church. If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now. If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life.
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