Rivers in the Desert

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Introduction

Honour the cafe ministry & Annee
Do recruitment for them (and increase volunteer %)
Welcome to 2025 - new year! I just know that this is going to be a big year for HFTC. We are not just believing for more growth, a new building - but greater impact for the Kingdom.
We often enter new seasons with excitement and expectation. But the truth is that we have no idea what’s ahead, it could be great, it could be bad - we have no idea of knowing. How should we approach the future if this is the case?
As I was praying about this year I received a Word from God in Isaiah 43:16-19 that I want to share with you guys.
Pray to start

Segment 1: Leave and be Led

Isaiah 43:16–19 “16 Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, 17 who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: 18 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 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.”
It’s true that in the new year people look towards new goals, new resolutions, new things.
But you know what people are also good at doing? Clinging to the past. If the past year or the past season has been a fantastic one then we live in the success, we live in the nostalgia, we wonder how this year will ever be able to live up to it.
We live in the GLORY of the past - and we begin to compare what God may be doing this year with what he has done previously; and if it seems not as good then immediately we judge it as a bad season.
Or If the past year or season has been bad then we think of pain, relive the pain, we almost learn to expect pain.
We live in the FEAR of the past - and we can begin to project that fear and negative expectation into the future. We lose hope, we can view things through a lens of pain.
Regardless of what the past has looked like for us - what’s clear is that we can have an unhealthy relationship with it.
And an unhealthy relationship with the past is one that allows it to affect what God wants to do in our future.
Isaiah 43:16–18 “16 Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, 17 who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: 18 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.”
You’ll recognise the initial part of this passage as a reference to the Exodus - a great moment in time for the Israelites where God led them THROUGH the sea in one of the most sensational miracles of the bible.
This is a weird thing then isn’t it? To ask them to forget about such an epic saga that occured in Israel’s history? Like isn’t that an amazing work of God that was done? Shouldn’t they be grateful, shouldn’t they be thankful?
But God is not saying this so they’ll pretend like it never happened, nor is He saying to learn nothing from it, nor is He saying to be ungrateful.
The point is to not allow our past experiences to stereotype our expectations from God.
God is affirming His might and His faithfulness in the deeds of the past - BUT ALSO asserting the fact that He is a God of the new, He is a God of the fresh, He is a God of infinite creativity.
This passage is a potent reminder to not get so caught up in what God has DONE that we become unaware of what He is DOING.
The former things in our life, the past - presents a danger when it stops us from desiring what God has ahead for us.
We have to LEAVE the old to be LED into the new
Maybe last year was a really tough year for you, maybe it presented challenges that you thought that you’d never face, maybe it was a year of health scares, financial difficulty, relationship breakdown. OR Maybe last year was one of the best years of your life where you celebrated significant milestones, did well in your job, had a great year financially and are more healthy than you’ve ever been!
Regardless of the past, let’s not spend time dwelling on the old that we miss the new work that He is doing right now, today.

Segment 2: The Hebrew Mindset

When it comes to learning how to “treat” our past - a part of the ancient Hebrew mindset that we can really learn from is a principle called the “Bank of Faith”.
Faith in ancient Israel was not just a forward-looking trust but it was also a backward-looking confidence.
The past was viewed as a “Bank of Faith”. A store of testimonies, stories, miracles, works of God that one can draw on for confidence for the future. The past was a constant reminder of God’s faithfulness and provision, and a powerful reason to continue trusting God into the future.
And you’ll see this in the biblical narrative: Psalm 77:11–12 “11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. 12 I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.” Deuteronomy 6:12 “12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
They call for constant remembrance of God’s works in the past - as a source of Faith for what He is going to do in the future.
And this is pretty much exactly what God is re-iterating in the passage from Isaiah. Remember how faithful I was to deliver you in the past, but don’t dwell on the past - don’t let it distract you from what I am doing right now!
Don’t bring the bitterness and the hurt, don’t bring the fear, you can be expectant of God but leave your own expectations of what God SHOULD be doing behind, drop your projections of what YOU think God will do. God is doing a NEW thing - be ready for it.
ILLUSTRATION: FCC -> Depression (OR having bad expectation meeting someone)
2016 was a fantastic year for both Sharon and I. I was a pastor of a very large and very fast growing church, I was beloved by the congregation and within the next 2 years I was expected to take the Senior Pastor role. I was 27 at the time and life probably couldn’t be going any better than it was, it was EXACTLY how I pictured it to be.
If you asked me what my expectation of the next season would be - I would have told you only bigger, only better. God was doing amazing, incredible, fantastic things in my life and I could only imagine what He had in store for the next season.
Many of you know my story - so I won’t go into detail but by the end of 2017 out of absolutely nowhere I was struggling with depression, I had stepped out of my job, our marriage was on the rocks, and I had nearly lost the will to do anything.
And you know, in that valley, I questioned God severely - WHY God? WHY me? Things were going so well, life was on track, I EXPECTED you to do a GREAT thing. What is THIS? Do you know what the reply of the Lord was to me? He said “you know how to be a pastor, now I need you to learn how to be my son.”
Guys - the next 2 years were agony! I had to unlearn so much of my faith and re-learn how to love God without a title. Easily the hardest season I have ever walked through. Old mindsets were demolished, my ego was absolutely shattered, I felt like my life went to waste.
But you know what? I’m standing here now telling you conclusively that God still does amazing, incredible, fantastic things in the valley. I came out of that season knowing that God is all I needed - because God was all I had. I couldn’t put a price on that lesson if I tried. And God knew that was the season I needed to go through to learn that.
Now my point is NOT to expect a tragic season this year - no, you may have 2 amazing seasons in a row - you may have 5, or you may have none. The point is that God is able to achieve His will in every single season you walk through, all the good - and all the bad.
Don’t let your expectations or baggage blind you from the work that He is doing.
We have to learn to watch what God is doing now - without the baggage of the past.

Segment 3: God is always at Work

Do you know why? And this is something we really need to know: Because God is ALWAYS at Work.
Isaiah puts it this way - His work now SPRINGS forth, do you not perceive it?
There is a READINESS implied in this verse, are you READY for what God is going to do, are you READY to get on board, are you WAITING for God’s new work to spring up?
Sometimes when we’re so caught up in the past we’re just oblivious to what God is doing NOW - but the Lord is saying to us, are we READY? Are we ready for what God is trying to do in our midst?
Are we missing what God is doing because we’re still hung up on old opportunities and last season’s regrets? Are we clinging on to last season’s relationships and last season’s burdens? Or are we poised and ready for WHEREVER God is leading us?
Perhaps it seems like God has been silent in your life, maybe you’re seeking Him for an answer, or for direction and you feel like just nothing’s been happening? Let me encourage you by saying this:
Just because God is silent, doesn’t mean that He is absent
Just because God is silent, does not mean that He is idle
I love what Jesus says in John 5, as the Pharisees confront him for healing a man on the Sabbath. They start to persecute Him for working on the Sabbath; He says to them in John 5:17
The New International Version (Chapter 5)
“My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”
God is always doing His thing, He is always doing His work, He is always executing His will in infinitely creative ways. There is NO stopping God from moving, there is no hindering God from moving, there is only being READY for God to move in our lives.
The Pharisees missed the work of God because they were caught up in their own rules and regulations. They were so absorbed in keeping the old that they could not perceive the new thing that God was doing.
It is possible to miss the work of God, it’s possible to be so caught up in what we are doing, whether it’s our own thing, or the past that we cling on to.
And I do want to speak this out over us on a church level - I really believe that God is leading HFTC into a new season, there’s going to be a new building, there’s going to be new levels of growth, there’s going to be new works that we haven’t seen before in our church.
We really need to be ready for it - ready to receive it. We need to be so in tune with where God is leading us as a church.
With a new building - are we stewarding it properly With new people are we welcoming them into the home? Are we prioritising prayer and fasting as a church? Are we giving cheerfully? Are we humble and broken, postured for God to move? Are we preaching and teaching on the things that God is speaking to us?
And yeah sure some of these things are a leadership matter sure - but the church is the entire body of believers. We all have a part to play in the readiness of our church.
ILLUSTRATION: Being called into HFTC
And this point resonates with me - because I’m someone who likes to be prepared but God moves in the most unexpected ways sometimes. You know when Dan called me to come and take this church, it came so out of the blue. I had a million questions, things to ask, due diligence to do.
But if anyone here knows Dan - you’d know that Dan is very much a man of, how do I say this politely? He’s a man of hyper impatience. Dan wanted everything yesterday. He’s the guy that says it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. He’s the act first, think later guy. I’m joking - sorta. I actually really admire him for it, he’s just ready, he’s always watching for what God is doing and wanting to capitalise on ANY opportunity God sends our way.
But I’m not used to that, I’m a planner, I’m a strategist - I like my due diligence and all that other nerdy stuff. So you can just picture what our conversation looked like when he was trying to convince me to take this church:
So wait - when did you want me to start? “What are you doing this arvo?”
ok… but then what will you do? “I dno, we’ll figure it out”
Ok…so can you pay me? “I dno. We’ll figure it out”
But you know what was wild? After Dan propositioning the job to us on a Thursday - we were due to visit HFTC for the FIRST TIME that coming Sunday. Never been before, had no idea what we were in for, had no clue what the church was going to be like.
And on that Saturday, one day before we were due to visit for the first time - God spoke to me in the morning. He said “Take the job”. I said but I haven’t even been to the church yet, I’ve literally never met anyone from this church before, except Char and James - what if it’s just a whole church of Char’s and James’?? jokes. He said - “take the job. What’s waiting for you there doesn’t matter - but your obedience does.”
And so against every reflex in my body - we called Dan and 15 minutes later we accepted a job in a church that we had never been to before, for a pay that was not guaranteed, in a community that we had never met. And you know what? It was one of the best decisions of my life. No regrets - you guys are stuck with us for good.
God knows what He is doing - He is always at work, in the good and even in the rough seasons of life.
The question we need to ask ourselves - are we ready to follow Him wherever He leads us?

Segment 4: Rivers in the Desert

My favourite part of the passage in Isaiah the end of v19
Isaiah 43:19 “I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Such a beautiful and powerful image.
You have to understand that in the past - water was the obstacle, it was the sea that stood between the Israelites and their ultimate freedom. Water was the obstacle. AND NOW God will use water to guide them - He will use rivers in the desert to show them where to go and lead them forward.
What was an obstacle in one season, God is now using to guide in the next. What was a hindrance in the past, is now the answer in the present.
God takes the barriers/brokenness of the past and turns them into our breakthrough
This is a pattern in faith that I have observed time and time again; the valley that you may be walking through right now - will be instrumental in your victory going forward.
There is no such thing as a wasted season with God - everything is redeemable, everything can be used for His purpose. No matter how bad, no matter how evil, no matter how dark - God can and will use it for His will. Beauty from brokenness.
You know it’s a small detail in the passage but I love how God speaks about the past in the present tense: Isaiah 43:16 “16 Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters,
You know why it’s written in the present tense? Because God is STILL the God who makes a way in the sea, he STILL makes a path in the waters.
Just as He did in the past - He will do in the future
It’s true that seasons may change, it’s true the situations and circumstances may change, it’s true that we don’t know what’s next and there is no guarantee whether the next season is going to be rough or easy.
How can we walk with confidence into the next season? How can we be excited about what is to come? How do we know that good things are in store?
It’s simple - our seasons may change, but God does not. We can embrace the uncertain because HE is unchanging.
He is the same ever-present, ever-faithful God that split the sea, that created rivers in the desert, that created both the mountaintop and the valley - that same God will be there. We can walk with confidence into the next season, whatever it may be - because we know He’s there.
And that is more than enough.
ILLUSTRATION: Dog on the other side of the door
You know this year actually had a really rough start for some of us. The Sheikh family lost their beloved Fedor - who was really our church mascot - on the 2nd day of the new year. On the 3rd day of the new year, my uncle in Malaysia was on a run when he suddenly passed away. He had just become a full time minister and was so excited to start his job, he was only 61.
When your new year starts like that - you really do wonder what the next season holds, and while we ALWAYS hope and believe in faith for a great season (I still do). It does make you question, what do you do when the new season you were so excited for turns out to be different, how do you still walk with confidence when things are so uncertain?
In one of his books, A.M. Hunter, the New Testament scholar, tells the story of a dying man who asked him to tell him something comforting about the place to which he was going. As he thought of a reply, he heard a scratching at the door. "Do you hear that?" he asked the man. "It's my dog. I left him downstairs, but he has grown impatient, and has come up and hears my voice. He has no notion what is inside this door, but he knows that I am here. Isn't it the same with you? You don't know what lies beyond the Door, but you know that your Master is there. And that’s enough.”
Whatever is next for us and for our church, let’s walk confidently into the next season knowing that whatever lies beyond the door, our Saviour is there.

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