I Am Doing a New Thing!

New Year

Scripture:

Introduction

Can you believe the year is almost over?

I don’t know about you but I look forward to starting all over next year

We have a clean slate to accomplish great things

It reminds me of the moment we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior

We have a clean slate

We are set free to accomplish all the things that God has in store for us

Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 29:19 NKJV

because they have not heeded My words, says the Lord, which I sent to them by My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; neither would you heed, says the Lord.

Jeremiah 29:19

But the reality is that

Many Christians still live in bondage.

When they first accepted Jesus as their Lord and savior things were going great but then the stumbled and fell

How can people that know the truth stumble and fall?

I would say that the main reason is because they continue living in the past.

When we live in the past we make ourselves slaves to this world.

robing us of the life full of the love and peace that God wants us to lead.

How many would like to lead this type of life?

How many would like to have a life full of joy and peace in our Lord?

Let’s turn to

Isaiah 43:18–19 NKJV

“Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.

- Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19See, 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.

History Review

To have a better understanding of the message that God has for us today, it’s necessary to conduct a brief history review.

Isaiah lived during a time when the people of God were divided in two kingdoms;

Israel was the kingdom of the north, and Judah was the kingdom of the south.

What was happening back then was the kingdom of the north had turned its back on God, and the kingdom of the south was headed in the same direction.

they had turned their backs to God to lead a life full of sin.

It is for this reason that Isaiah warned the people of Judah of the impending judgment of God

in when we read "The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem

Isaiah 1:1–4 NKJV

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me; The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.” Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward.

Because the people would not turn their back on sin, Isaiah told them that they would eventually be defeated.

Because the people would not turn their back on sin, Isaiah told them that they would eventually be defeated.

God would deliver them in the hands of Babylon so that they would once again become captives and slaves.

Look at

Isaiah 39:5–7 NKJV

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord. ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”

"Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD Almighty: 6The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. 7And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."

Why is it important to know these things?

because we must understand that

There are consequences to our actions.

God was calling them to a new beginning;

God was calling them to repent.

there are many within the body of Christ that are captive to the things of this world.

slaves to this evil world.

if you find yourself in this situation this morning, then you must know that God wants to do something new in your life.

God wants to use you to accomplish great things

We are about to begin a new year, and God is calling you to a new beginning.

But How can we achieve this?

Let’s explore these two small verses to find the answer to our question.

The first thing that we find here is

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past".

This is of extreme importance, so tell the person sitting next to you, "forget the former things".

Perhaps some of you may asking yourselves, why is this so important?

because our adversary will use our past and faults to accuse us; he will use our past and faults to keep us slaves of our own conscience.

Our adversary will use our past to keep us from leading the life that God wants us to lead.

God wants us to be happy, full of joy, and always victorious.

But our adversary will use our past to prevent this from happening.

Our adversary will use our past to blind us to all the things that God has done, is doing, and will continue to do for us.

Now, I want to make a brief pause here to clarify something.

I want it to be very clear that I am not saying nor implying that we should forget from where Christ rescued, cleansed, and purified us.

this is something that we should always remember, and we must testify about.

we read "but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

We must testify of these things so that the glory, power, and mercy of God are reflected in our life.

But what we can’t allow to happen is for these things to influence the way that we now live and think,

That life that we once led, that life of sin, that life that led us away from God and straight into hell, cannot influence our present, and has no part in our future.

says "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

Listen if we continue living in the past, then we will never be who God wants us to be.

If we allow the devil to accuse us, if we allow him to keep us concentrated in our errors of the past then we will never reach the place that God wants us to reach.

This exactly is what happened to the people of Israel back then.

The people that God liberated after more than 400 years of slavery in Egypt,

the people that God led to the promised land and gave them victory over their enemies, the had now rebelled against him.

They saw His power, majesty and glory.

but regardless of all of this, they allowed themselves to be led away from God’s will and into back into captivity by sin.

In other words, the enemy stopped their progress

We cannot allow the enemy to stop us;

we cannot allow the enemy to invade our mind.

We must renew the way we think

we must concentrate on what God is doing in our life

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God".

Continuing we read,

"See, I am doing a new thing!"

"See, I am doing a new thing!"

As a Christian, you must understand that God wants to do something new in your life today,

God wants to renew you,

He wants to strengthen you.

Tell the person sitting next to you, God is going to do something new in my life today.

God is searching for people that are willing to trust Him;

He is looking for people that will depend on Him.

As believers, we must begin to depend more on God and less in our own abilities.

Once this happens, then we will begin to experience the fullness of God’s power in our life.

Once this happens we will begin to experience what we find in

"Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7“The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways".

How many of you would like to experience the power of God in your life?

How many of you would like God to do something new in your life today?

God wants to do something new in our life, and the Word tells us "Now it springs up".

This is God’s promise to all of us, and it lets us know that He will work in our life, and that He will glorify himself in us.

But here we also read "do you not perceive it?"

why is this question included here?

This is an extremely important question because what happens quite often is that many do not get to see the blessings of God.

Many never receive the blessings that God has stored for them and the main reason is because they are unwilling to recognize their own faults.

how can anybody think that they will receive the fullness of God’s blessings if they continue leading a life of sin?

God calls us to lead a holy life

"And you shall be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine."

Tell the person sitting next to you, God separated us to be His.

This is something that the people of God ignored back then, and the consequence was that instead of receiving God’s blessings, they were led away into captivity.

And the same is occurring in our country today

We may not be carried away by Babylon but we are living in captivity

The truth of it all is that no one will ever receive the fullness of God’s blessings if they continue on the path that leads away from God.

No one will ever receive the fullness of God’s blessings unless they are willing to recognize their own faults, and genuinely repent.

"He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy."

When we truly confess and repent

then God begins to act.

When there is a genuine repentance in the life of a person, God acts and does something new in that life.

Tell the person sitting next to you, God is going to do something new in my life today.

But We cannot allow the enemy to detour us from the path that God has chosen.

We cannot allow the enemy to depress or discourage us by bringing up the past in our mind;

we have to concentrate on God,

we have to concentrate on what He wants to do with us.

In conclusion.

The people of God at that time were about to be captive and once again be led into slavery by Babylon.

Because of their rebellion and disobedience God would allow them to be captured, but here the prophet was bringing them words of hope.

God told them that He would free them and perform even greater things than those that He had done when He liberated them from Egypt.

Unfortunately, they failed to heed the warnings of the prophet, and the people continued the path of rebellion and sin,

the path that led them into captivity by Babylon.

The sad part of it all is that although there are numerous examples in the bible that let us know the final results of these actions,

many continue to fall

falling into the slavery of sin

God told these people that He would do something new, that He would do even greater things with them,

but in order for this to happen, they had to return back to Him.

God speaks to us today using the same words,

we have to turn back to God and leave far behind the sinful life;

God wants to do something new………..

· in our life

· in our country

· in our communities

He wants to restore and use us

We are about to begin a new year,

I challenge yot to Examine yourself today,

reflect and ask yourself, am I a slave to the things of this world?

Am I about to be led captive do to my rebellion

God tells you today "See, I am doing a new thing!”

God want to do something new in your life today.

He can renew you, and He wants to bless you,

but you must want Him to do so.