Youth Day



New in Kind, New in Time

~Isaiah 43:18-21~

In-person service at

Second Baptist Church

2412 Griffith Ave.

Los Angeles

Rev. Matumaini Taylor, Guest Preacher

Sunday, June 23, 2024

¹⁸“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. ¹⁹Behold, 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. ²⁰The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches ,for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, ²¹the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. Isaiah 43:18-21

Introduction

Here in Isaiah Chapter 43, a recounting of Israel’s redemption from bondage is followed by the assurance that God is going to do something Amazing in the future. God is

going to make a way where there seems to be no way.

Right now in the timeline of their journey, Isaiah 43 is addressed to a people stuck between the past and the future, the past was ugly and the future is unknown.

Consider what it means to be stuck between the past and the future,

where the past is ugly and the future is unknown.  

Monday, June 24, 2024

The oppression of Egypt is still fresh and while they are happy they are no longer in Egypt, the Full Exodus account reveals to us they are also not fans of living in the wilderness and the stress of the new situation causes them to long for the old situation. (we love onions and leeks) 

(Get the scene) They are hundreds of miles from home; scholars say the distance was somewhere between 900 -1700 miles away from the resources they had known in Egypt, and as they escaped to this location, let us be mindful they took a God-led short cut through the middle of the desert. They were spirit lead and they did not take the normal course/custom for travel during that time of following a water source stream and so having water is a real concern. So they are having a resource problem. 



Consider what it means to be between where you are on your way

through the present, to a promised future that is better.  

So when the Lord is saying the Lord is going to make a way where there seems to be no way, the Lord literally means it. There was no way to get the basic resource of water they needed to survive. 

The Lord says, “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.

Note: God says, I AM doing a new thing. 

Consider what it means for the Lord to do a new thing to provide resources for you to survive in the midst of lacking the basic resource for life, water. 

The I AM that I AM is I am amazing you. WOW! The Lord will be whatever the Lord chooses to be and the Lord will be, and that means the Lord can be exactly what we need. 

The Lord is the creator and therefore can create and make all things new. 

The Lord is asking them (Israel) to see this (do you not recognize it?) This passage speaks to your journey and promises that God is going to make a way for you by being a resource in a dry land.

Consider what it means that the Lord as the Great I Am can do

amazingly among us, making all things new.  

 As for Israel the people in this text in their defense it may be hard for them to “perceive it” / recognize it, because They are potentially still caught up in the past. This is why in v 18 

¹⁸“Remember not the former things,

    nor consider the things of old.”

Being called, forget the past is not easy.… How many times have you been called to something new and have difficulties letting go of the past?  lingering on the past sometimes even romanticizing the last season of our life. We do this along life's journey sometimes to cope with the discomfort of the unknown. Sometimes, we don’t know how to let go because it’s been a pattern for so long. But God is calling us to see/perceive the Lord has something New coming, something better. It is springing up and we Perceive it…eyes to see it. 

Or they could be confused. I mean God has called them to remember the crossing of the Red Sea and yet forget all at the same time. 

The truth is God is calling them to discern it's time to remember the Lord’s mighty acts to get them out to Egypt and at the same time forget the pain, disappointment, discomfort and scarcity of slavery under the Egyptian government. Holding on to that part is not helpful for where the Lord is taking them.

God called for them to forget the negative part of the past because God wanted them to concentrate on the future.

For someone this passage speaks to your journey and how God wants to take you into the new but you have to let go of the past pain and disappointment. 

Consider what it means to let the past so control you that you cling to

what you should let go so that you can embrace what is about to be,

miraculous though it be.

Here is the Good News for all of us! This is a text about God’s Mercy 

(Fresh new mercy for each new day) New in Kind New in Time!!

¹⁹Behold, 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.

Numbers 20:11 1 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.

(Fresh water) 

(Red Sea) Seawater is known for being quite salty. Salt in the sea or ocean salinity, is mainly caused by rain washing mineral ions from the land into water. Carbon dioxide in the air dissolves into rainwater, making it slightly acidic.

I AM doing a new thing (Jesus came to do away with the old and fulfill the new covenant) because of Jesus I have fresh, new mercy.

Salt water vs Fresh Water.

I AM doing a new thing (Jesus Came to do away with the old and fulfill the new covenant) because of Jesus I have fresh new mercy.

John 4:14: “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life”. (John 7:38): “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water” 

Consider what it means that God constantly does new things in our lives providing a fresh expression of what we need to survive,

living water that is perpetual to supply our needs in all of the changing circumstance of life, past and present, to prepare us for the promised future. 

Each day God is doing a new thing. Have you not perceived it? It ought to make you want to praise the Lord for the fresh washing that comes to prepare you for all a new day has in store.  This is why forgetting the pain of yesterday is key. When God releases God’s Mercy in our life the Lord forgets our sins, so we too must forget the sins of yesterday and move in the fresh water of mercy as it is ready to meet us each new day. 

This points out the importance of receiving fresh, new mercy for the day. (Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…but am I accessing it?) - What is mercy? (Define) 

In the chaos of life, we can never underestimate the power of fresh, new Mercy.

When we receive fresh new mercy we are better able to distribute fresh, new mercy to others. 

Mercy is defined as -compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone when it is within one's power to punish or harm. 

Mercy is the act of withholding deserved punishment, In His mercy, God does not give us the punishment we deserve, God shows mercy by forgetting our sins and focusing on the good in us…because of the new covenant in Christ Jesus.

I AM doing a new thing (Jesus came to do away with the old and fulfill the new covenant) because of Jesus I have fresh, new mercy.

As we sit with God we realize some instances in our lives need mercy. We are also transformed to become more likely to extend loving kindness than punishment to others who have wronged us. I am not like God but when I spend time with God receiving fresh, new mercy each day, I want to be more like Him in extending mercy. 

May you experience a new kind of river of water that only comes from knowing the LORD and God’s loving kindness that is shown through the Lord’s grace and mercy.

May the Lord make all things new so you can go forward from your past, to your present, and on to the future, basking in His mind-blowing grace, mercy and love.

Consider what it means to let the grace, mercy and love of God, as expressed

in Christ, be the fresh new beginning in your life with a perpetual source

of what you need each day.  

Second Baptist Church Los Angeles

2412 Griffith Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90011 

Phone: (213) 748-0318