Welcome to the Daily Deciple Podcast, where we seek daily to be with and to become like Jesus, our teacher. Welcome everyone to the Daily Deciple Podcast. I hope you're all having a wonderful day today. My name is Calvin.
I get to be your host today. We're going to be in the book of Isaiah, so you can turn in your Bibles and your tablets and the vices there. And the title of the podcast today is New Things. New Things.
And the question that I'm asking everyone today is kind of a rhetorical question, but I'm going to ask you nevertheless. Can you be in two places at once? And I know it seems like a silly question. It's an obvious question.
It sounds more like a physics or quantum mechanics question, to be honest, but the type, and that type of question, or at least be asking some type of engineer or scientist, but you're not asking me, how could I be in two places at once? How ridiculous is that? And I'm not talking about multitasking, but the act of being in two places at once. How would we know?
Because we're our consciousness only in one place at a time. And I guess I have to make a confession because even though my body cannot be in two places at once, I have found myself in my thoughts, one place, but thinking about my past or whatever highlights I'm choosing to focus on in my present or literally thinking about my future, my unknown future, which is more of an unknown or uncharted territory for me. But even though I try, you know, I still try to think of it positively, and I still struggle in moments thinking about Jesus and how he loves me and his love, so to speak, because there's so much things in my life that we're in order are completely out of order now. There's big confusion, a big mess.
So then he started thinking, well, I've obviously done a bunch of things wrong that I need to repent of because my present isn't so great, or I'm thinking too much and I can foresee my future not going according to plan at all either. You know, have you ever felt like Jesus has abandoned you? Like when we separate ourselves and we start thinking outside of the present, it can easily feel like Jesus has abandoned you. Hey, Lord, where are you right now?
My friendship with a longtime friend is falling apart and I need you, or maybe the relationships that I have with my family, with my kids or my child, which used to be so great and so warm and so beneficial is now a bit more complicated. We don't see eye to eye anymore. Or your relationship with your husband or wife has changed and you're remembering the days of your youth when things used to be different between the both of you. What if something tragic happened in your family and because of the tragedy and now there's illness or there's an accident and life has had to make a staggering change?
These things can be very debilitating, very frustrating, or it could be your finances and they've diminished and now you're struggling financially for the first time in your life. There's so many things and so many ways that we can isolate ourselves and begin to write our own narrative and our own story. And when we do that, we begin to leave God out of it because we're not thinking in the present. We're focusing on the bad things that have happened or we're focusing on, we're trying to focus on the things that have not yet happened.
But we're thinking on them nonetheless. And there are so many things and so many ways that we can do this to ourselves. And Jesus, that's not what Jesus is asking or that's not what Jesus is doing in our lives. That's not what he wants to do in our lives.
We think that he's no longer there because we're struggling. He's not interceding on our behalf to the Father and now fear and anger about how things were or how things are now is a very real and tangible thing that you're going through. And in the passage that we're going to be reading today, we get to see people who are just like you and me. We're struggling or confused about things that are happening in their lives.
They are in captivity. Things were good before, but now we're under oppression from all sides. And the prophet Isaiah is trying to remind them, but not about their past. He's trying to remind them of something bigger than themselves.
So let's turn to the book of Isaiah. We're going to be in chapter 43 and it's a familiar verse for some, maybe not for all. But if you've been around the Bible circuit, this may be a familiar verse to you. It's going to be Isaiah 43 chapter 18, Isaiah chapter 43 verses 18 and 19.
Isaiah 43 verses 18 and 19. And it says, 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. Okay.
So let's focus on a few things here in this passage before we have to take off. The first thing that I've noticed that stood out to me is the first word that I saw was see. He wants us to look for not just into the world, but look towards the kingdom of God. And we can only look and see by being in daily meditation with the Father, experiencing Him each day.
Travis has mentioned in a sermon series before giving Jesus your day, every day. Did you give Jesus your day when you awaken? And I've heard another evangelist say when he first wakes up before getting out of bed, soon as you reach that consciousness and you're there and you're present. You take a breath and you say, what do you want me to do for you God?
Or what do you want to do in me today, Lord? But in order to do that, we must be present. Another great word in this passage is perceive. Do you not perceive it?
It says, and perceive means to become aware or conscious of something. You come to realize or understand. You know, Jesus isn't just doing everything in your life or my life out in the open for all of us to see. It's not like Gideon and the things that he had to do.
It's something that you have to wake up. You have to wake up to become conscious to something that's already taking place that you're not aware that you could possibly not be aware of and also can be difficult to distinguish because he's asking you to see. Do you not perceive it? It's something that's happening that may not look at first like it's something that's happening.
What eyes are you using to see God move? Worldly eyes can be looking for big things to happen, big catastrophic, big monumental things to happen, global things, skybreaking open type of things. But I don't think he's asking us to look for those things because while you're looking and waiting for something great and fascinating, some great fascinating event, Jesus desires us not to look broadly, but to squint almost. And you'll see I'm making a way in the wilderness for you.
If you're in the wilderness and Jesus is making a way and we have the idea of the wilderness in a desert setting, he's saying, see, I am making a way for you in the wilderness. So he's carving out a path. He's making a way. It's not clearly seen.
It's not going to have big, green, freeway signs on it, but he's making a way. But we have to be in the wilderness to find that way. How refreshing is that scene in a movie of people struggling in the desert to find water and they are near death, but then there's the oasis. God is always in control and he'll proclaim it.
Sorry, God is always in control and he proclaims earlier in the chapter as well. And I'll read it before we close. It's in verse 11 and we're going to go from verse 11 to 13 in chapter 43. I even I am the Lord.
And apart from me, there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed. I am. I am not some foreign God among you.
You are my witnesses, declares the Lord that I am God. Yes. And from ancient days, I am he. No one can deliver out of my hand.
When I act, who can reverse it? God's promises are undeniable. God's promises are unchangeable. When he acts, when he provides a way for you in the wilderness, when he provides a way for you to perceive, nobody can do anything to alter that.
That is there for you to find brethren. And we seek it out. We find it by seeking him out. You know, God promises and Jesus, all things are made new and the former things fade away.
God provides you with a brand new beginning by forgiving and forgetting about your past. And if your past trips you up, see it the way that God sees your past as no more. It can no longer determine your future. The enemy has no rain in your life when you give it to the one who has made life.
Therefore, your future is full and Jesus makes all things new. Your present and your future. Take care, friends. Have a great day.
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