Ready To Grow

Introduction

The Lord has already spoken over our congregation last week that this would be a year of release! I believe along with that is coming a time of accelerated growth for those of you that will hear it this morning.

This is a HUGE deal! Some of you have struggled to find your place in God’s family here in this church and community. Yet God will not only show you what to do , but train and equip you for it this year. It is God that gives the increase in all things!

Isaiah 43:18–19

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am 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.

PROPOSITION: To motivate the hearer to seek a new vision and a new interest in the things of God.

INTRODUCTION: Isaiah’s writings to the children of Israel came at a bleak period of their history.

They are in captivity, they have lost everything they thought they would keep forever and they were home sick for the land and the blessing God had promised them.

The 1st step to embracing the new thing that God wants to do in your life is to:

I. CHANGE YOUR FOCUS

A. QUIT LOOKING BEHIND

B. FORGET THE FORMER THINGS

If you are continually looking behind, you cannot see where you are going.

If you are ever going to move on to new things in Christ you must learn that.

1. You Cannot Depend Upon Past Victories To Sustain You

Forget the former things;

Application: The children of Israel had many victories in their past:

~ Leaving Egypt

~ Conquering the Land of Canaan

~ Fighting of prospective conquerors

~Survived a split in their country

But now they are in captivity. All their previous victories were doing nothing to set them free. They needed a new work, a new miracle, a new victory.

The question isn’t what has God done –the question must be:

What is God doing in your life right now?

What is it that you want Him to do in your life right now?

Secondly, in order to move on to new things in Christ you must know that

2. You Cannot Allow Your Past Failures to Possess You

– don’t dwell on the past.

The children of Israel had failed God miserably. Every time He blessed them with good things, they returned to Him evil things:

~ God gave them the Temple – they gave Him idol worship

~God gave them truth – they lived and proclaimed a lie

~ God gave them His commands – they lived like they were suggestions.

~ God gave them wealth – they used it to abuse the poor

~ God gave them Himself – they gave Him nothing except rejection.

The children of Israel did not deserve to receive anything from God. Yet He still loved them and He earnestly wanted to help them change.

Notice God’s Message:

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!

God was not condemning them for their past, they could do nothing to change it.

Instead God was holding out the hand of hope. He is in effect saying: Forget about your past — I am giving you an opportunity to start over.

and some of you are upset because you feel like your having to start over.

you have to change your prospective

and say i may be starting over

but im not starting from scratch.

because what you did not realize was everything

these last couple of years have been

Isaiah 55:7

let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

If you are going to get anywhere in your spiritual life you must understand that you cannot live on yesterday’s Faith

Fact: The children of Israel had experienced great spiritual blessings throughout their history.

From the first Passover, to the crossing of the Red Sea, to the conquering of the Land of Canaan, to the building of the temple, the children of Israel had seen the hand of God at work in and through their lives.

Yet their faith in what God had done was doing nothing to deliver them from their present situation.

Their old faith was not sufficient enough to deliver them from their present problems. They needed new faith, a new vision for what God could do.

They needed a new portion of the faith that had brought to pass all the victories from before.

Psalm 85:6–8

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly.

The 2nd step to embracing the new thing what God wants to do in your life is to

II. CLARIFY YOUR FOCUS — DISCOVER WHAT GOD WANTS FOR YOU

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 desert and streams in the wasteland.

1. What do you see when you view your life?

2. Do you see possibilities or problems?

Notice what God said: “I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

The children of Israel had a choice. They could view their past and the problems of their present, or they could focus upon what God wanted to do in their lives.

Way -vs. – Desert Streams -vs. – Wasteland

In order to discover what God wants for you, you Must First See Yourself as God Sees You

The children of Israel felt as though they were getting just what they deserved because of the way they had lived.

Some even believed that God would never have anything more to do with them. But they were wrong!

You may feel like your past has made your life a wasteland but in God, your life can become a stream of life.

Romans 8:1–2

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Colossians 1:21–22

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

In order to discover what God wants for you, You Must See Your Possibilities as God Sees Them I am making a way in the desert.

God is able to transform the desert areas of your life into fields of blessing and abundance.

God can take a dried up useless life and transform it into a life of purpose and grace:

2 Corinthians 3:17–18

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The greatest step to embracing the new thing what God wants to do in your life is to

III. COMMIT YOURSELF TO GOD’S PLAN

God had already set into motion the events and people who would lead Israel out of captivity and back into the land of blessing.

But it was still up to them to decide if they wanted what God was offering.

A. If they refused God’s plan,

B. If they refused to follow where God was leading,

C. Then they would be doomed to remain in their captivity.

I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

God has already set into motion a new direction and a new purpose for your life — will you follow Him?

Psalm 95:7

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,

Psalm 95:8

do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

Today, if you will hear His voice: Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.

New things will begin to blossom and grow within you. Things you could have never imagined previously!

Only YOU can stop what God wants to do in your life! God is ready when you are, yet He will NEVER force any one of us into submission as some think, or perhaps even want from God.

I want to invite you this morning to come allow the Lord to start the process of making you into EXACTLY who you were created to be in 2023!

HOLY SPIRIT COME!!!