Isaiah 43:18 – I Am Doing New Things

Isaiah 43, verse 18. “Do not remember the former things, nor bring the things of old to mind. Behold, I am doing new things; soon they will come to light—will you not know it? Once again I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the wasteland.”

I want to ask you a question. Have you gone through any wildernesses in the year 2005? Perhaps times of drought, times of sadness, maybe of loss. We serve a God who has the power to make all things new. To cause springs of water to burst forth in the wilderness, new plants, animals, new life where there was death. And that is what I want to talk about today.

The God who makes all things new. Let us pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, we come before You. Father, thank You that You are the God of life and that You can impart life to us; we receive it from You today. Because You, Jesus, are the resurrection and the life, and in You there is always a new day. We thank You, in Jesus’ name.

Let us turn together to Ezekiel chapter 47. God bless the holy remnant. You are here because you decided that you want to seek God first. To give the firstfruits of the year to the Lord. Ezekiel 47. The prophet describes a vision he had of a river flowing from the temple of God.

Chapter 47, beginning with verse 1, and what I am going to do...... “Then he brought me back to the entrance of the house, and behold, waters were flowing from beneath the threshold of the house toward the east, because the front of the house faced east, and the waters were flowing down from beneath the right side of the house, south of the altar. He brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside, beyond the outer gate, to the way of the gate that faces east; and I saw that the waters were flowing from the right side. And the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, and he measured a thousand cubits and made me pass through the waters, up to my ankles. He measured another thousand and made me pass through the waters, up to my knees. Then he measured another thousand and made me pass through the waters, up to my loins (which I imagine means the waist; I don’t know). He measured another thousand, and it was now a river that I could not cross, because the waters had risen so much that the river could only be crossed by swimming. And he said to me, ‘Have you seen this, son of man?’ Then he led me and brought me back to the bank of the river. And when I returned, I saw that on the bank of the river there were very many trees on both sides. He said to me, ‘These waters flow out toward the eastern region and will go down into the Arabah, and they will enter the sea; and when they enter the sea, the waters will be healed. And every living creature that swims wherever these rivers go will live, and there will be very many fish because these waters have gone there, and the waters will be healed. And everything that enters this river will live, and fishermen will stand beside it; from En-gedi to En-eglaim there will be places for spreading nets, and their fish will be as numerous, according to their kinds, as the fish of the Great Sea. Its swamps and its lagoons will not be healed; they will be left for salt. And beside the river, on its bank, on both sides, every kind of fruit tree will grow. Their leaves will never fall, nor will their fruit fail. It will ripen in its season because their waters flow from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for medicine.’”

What a beautiful vision this is! It is about the temple of God and a river flowing in that temple, and the prophet could see that wherever the river flows, as the song says, there will be life.

God caused trees, plants, fish, and new life to spring up all along the course of that river, and that is a prophecy of what we are experiencing today. We, you and I, are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And God wants a spiritual river to flow from here. And He wants that river to flow through every street, every store, every corner, every apartment, every school, every hospital; and wherever this river flows, there will be new life. Because the river flows from us and with us, and we have to flow with that river and swim in that river, and we must go where there is darkness so that there may be light and life there.

You know, I learned to water-ski a little this summer, and I learned to enjoy being out there in the waves and almost turning over in the water, right? God wants us to play in these waters. God wants us to have a good time this year, with a flow, because the power does not come from us; it comes from God. Some of the countries we have visited have beautiful beaches and beautiful rivers. Picture these rivers, because what is going to flow here in this city is much better, and we are part of that.

God makes all things new. But there is a question. Not everything came to life; the river could not flow everywhere because there were also stagnant places. How many of us know stagnant places like swamps?

God has a question for us on this first day of the year 2006: Do you want to be a spring or a swamp, a lagoon? You know what? If we are honest, we all have stagnant places in our lives. If we are honest, we all have places in our lives that are not flowing, that are not growing, and there is death there and ugly things that stink. God challenges us today to get into the river that flows, that changes, because God makes all things new.

I liked what Gonzalo read today. God’s mercy is new every day. You know what? I don’t know what you had to go through this year, but I know that God’s mercy was with you. That mercy is new. This mercy is here for you today in whatever you are experiencing and going through. God says, “I love you and I am with you, and no matter what happens, I will be there; you can count on that.”

The Israelites lived on bread from heaven when they wandered in the wilderness. Every morning, the people of Israel had to gather new bread and eat new bread. God has new bread for us every day, new love every day. But it is up to us to receive it; it is up to us to enter into the new things God has. Our God makes all things new.

You know, we are going to play a game here, and I am going to invite a little participation. You are going to participate here. I want to ask about people in the Bible whose names God changed. A person whom God—do you know what?—it is almost a hobby of God’s. He plays with that; He likes to come up with a new name for a person. Examples: Abraham—what was his name, and how did it change? Abram, and God says, “You know what, Abraham? Even though you are an old man, it does not matter that you cannot have children; it does not matter that you are an old man. You are going to be the father of nations, Abraham”—a prophetic name, because God saw his future, his possibilities.

Other examples, back there: Saul to Paul, very good..... Okay. Saul to Paul—what was the deal with Saul? What was he like before? He was a bad man...... he went around killing Christians. Look, you ask him, “What is your job?” He writes, “Well, I kill Christians.” A Pharisee, right? And God changed his name to Paul. Because He said, “Saul is dead. Saul no longer lives. I now have new things for you.”

How many of us here were Sauls before we came to know Christ? God says, “I am changing your name. You are Paul now. You are Paul, with a calling to preach to the nations—new things.”

Other examples: someone different who has not spoken. Sarah, okay—what was it before? Okay, and what are the meanings of the names? Who knows the meanings......... I think that .... Princess,..... God gives you a name. You are no longer barren; you are My princess, you are My prince. God changes names.

Other examples: Jacob, back there. Okay..... Israel. And what does Israel mean? What does Israel mean? One who wrestles with God, because Jacob was a scoundrel. Jacob was a scoundrel, a cheat who lied, who did things, wicked things; and then he had to wrestle with God, and God injured his hip so that he limped, and God says, “You are Israel, who have wrestled with God.”

How many of us here were Jacob? How many of us here are wrestling against God? And God says, “I have new things for you. You are going to be Israel, who wrestles with God, and you have overcome in the world.” Let God use this strong character.

Other examples: Okay, and I want someone else to explain it to me. Peter—what was the change? Someone new whom I have not heard. They changed his name from Simon to Peter, and what does Peter mean? Stone, rock. And upon this rock I will build My church. I am going to make you a great leader. God could see the strength in him. God gives us new names.

What is your name? Do you know that God has another name for you? For everyone who believes in Jesus, there is another name, and it is written on a little white stone. But each one of us ..... which God has written on a white stone, and one day, when we reach heaven, we are going to know our new name. And one day, when we reach heaven, we are going to know that new name, and it is a name known only to the heart of God, because God is in the business of doing new things in your life. He gives you a new birth as well.

The Bible says that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away, and now all things have been made new. We are born again. When we receive Jesus, He gives us a new heart. The Bible says that He takes away that heart of stone and puts in a new heart of flesh.

How many of you became weepy when you came to know Christ? Or you may have been people who had never cried in your lives, and then you came to know Christ and suddenly began to cry, especially those who are really tough like that. And then the Spirit begins to enter into that disposition, and it begins to soften as well, and the tears begin to flow, and all the pain begins to pour out like those rivers, because God makes all things new.

The Bible says that He gives us new clothing when we come to know Jesus. The prophet Zechariah had a vision of the high priest dressed in filthy clothes, and Satan was accusing him, saying, “This man is filthy; he is a sinner,” and the angel of the Lord was saying, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan. God, who has chosen this man like a stick from the fire—may God Himself rebuke you.” Then this angel commanded someone to bring an entirely new set of clothing for this high priest.

God has new clothing for you this year. He has a new mantle for you this year. A new spiritual calling with which He is going to cover you, like one of those warriors in the Middle Ages who was given completely new, gleaming armor, like the bride of Jesus dressed in her bridal gown to receive Jesus. New clothing.

God promises to put a new song in your mouth. The psalmist says, “I waited patiently for the Lord, and He drew near to me and brought me out of the miry clay, that swamp in which I was stuck; and He lifted me up, and He lifted me up and set my feet upon the rock, and put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to my Lord, and I am going to sing to Him.” He puts in a new song. Sing it this morning; may it flow from your mouth throughout this year. May God take your hand and pull you out of that mire in which you are and set you in a solid place and bring new things out of your heart. He gives you a new heart of flesh.

The Bible says that the day will come when God will make a new earth and a new heaven; everything will be new.

Let us read from Revelation, chapter 21. It says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, because the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea no longer existed. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with mankind, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people. And God Himself will be with them as their God. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no longer be death, nor will there be any more mourning, crying, or pain, because the former things have passed away.’ And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”

The world in which we live is going to change someday. The trees are going to be a brighter green. I don’t know if the animals will talk, but who knows? The water will be clean and crystal clear like a beach in the Caribbean, only even better, and we will have a new body, and you will shine with the glory of God. And when we see each other up there, we will look at one another and say, “That is you, right?” And we are going to see that there is something familiar in that person’s eyes, in that person’s smile. Perhaps we will recognize one another and say, “I believe it really is you.” But you are shining with the glory of God. That is what God is going to do for us: new garments of glory. And right now God is in the process of beginning that transition at this very moment.

You know, I love it when people come here completely fresh off the street. You know, they have even been mistreated in some way; there is a heaviness in them, and I immediately think, “I cannot wait to see what is going to happen with these people.” From the moment they arrive, if they sing those songs to God, if they allow the Word to enter and mingle with them, if they allow all that pain to come out in tears and accept the Lord, God is going to light a little one in the midst of them and will begin to soften those aspects of them, and they will begin to have these smiles that will shine within them. Now, it does not mean that everything in their lives will be perfect, but there is new hope, there is new power, because God makes all things new. He loves it. That is how God has fun. I can see God dying of laughter, talking with the angels and saying....... what I am going to do with this person is more than you can imagine. And He has fun with that.

The Bible says that the angels desire and long to see these things. The way God transforms a life is incredible. It does not happen with angels; it happens with human beings. We are part of this, and God takes them and says, “Look what I did!” And this person becomes a symbol of His power and His glory to transform a life. And we become part of that river that keeps flowing. People say, “There is something different about this person.” They smell different. They have the fragrance of Christ. There is something unusual; there is something of Jesus in them.

That is where we are going. The key question is: are we willing to change with the change God wants to bring about in our lives? God is always changing things and moving, but we have to move in step with Him and allow that change to take place in us. Many of us do not like change; we want things to be the same as before. Even if we were miserable, we still want to stay in the same place.

Jesus says that we are like old wineskins. You know, in those days they used wineskins that were made of leather, not bottles, and a new wineskin is flexible and can also breathe. And that is important because, as the wine ferments, it tends to expand inside the wineskin. Do you know what happens if you put fermenting wine into a wineskin that does not have that flexibility? I found out.

I have a wonderful sister here in the church who gave me some vegetable carrot juice in a glass bottle, and I put it under my desk upstairs in the office and forgot that I had left it there. Until one day, I opened the door and there was orange all over the walls of my office and glass everywhere in my office. There had been a juice bomb in there because it fermented, and I learned a chemistry lesson there: glass does not breathe, so it explodes.

That vegetable juice was like the wine. It is going to expand; it is going to look for a way to breathe, and we had better breathe too, because otherwise we are going to have carrot juice all over the walls. We need to flow with the changes God wants to make in our lives. Many times we prefer our misery. We are sad, depressed, miserable, and for some reason we do not want to change, because at least it is familiar to us.

As the saying goes, the devil I know is better than the devil I do not know. There is someone—and we are going to go to the book of John, chapter 5—a man in this story with whom I identify. I am going to summarize the first few verses: there was a man who could not walk, and there was a sort of pool, a bathing pool. There was this story that supposedly an angel would come and stir the water, and the first person to get in would be healed of any ailment. But the thing was that you had to get into the water first, or else you would not be healed. This man had been there in that place for about 38 years, so Jesus approaches him, and look at what Jesus asks him in verse 6: “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition for a long time, He said to him”—He asked him this question—“Do you want to be healed?” In other words, do you truly want to change? You have been here for so long that perhaps you have chosen to remain this way all this time. And the man answered Him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am going, someone else goes down ahead of me.” He had excuses: I have no one to help me. I need someone to pick me up and throw me into the water. And many times we are like that.

God says, “I have a different life for you.” And we have a million excuses. On my way to the service, I passed a friend here on the street. He was behind a post there on the sidewalk, doing his own thing. And I said to him, “Hey, I am going to church now. Why don’t you come with me?” And this man, as drunk as he was, began saying to me, “No, I can’t. I have something else to do.” I let it go and gave him a ride back to his house. And I said to him, “But come, come with me,” and he said, “Yes, yes, tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll go there.” We have excuses.

And Jesus asks us, “Do you truly want to get better? Do you truly want to change?” And what Jesus tells him here in this story is, “Hey, pick up your mat, get up, and walk.” You do it. And he is healed, but then the Pharisees suddenly arrive, and because it was the Sabbath day, Saturday, they come and ask him, “Hey, what are you doing carrying your mat now?” The man did not even know that it was Jesus, and he was trying to find Him. When he finds Him, Jesus says to him, “Look, you have been healed, so stop going around sinning before something worse happens to you. You have been healed on the outside; now be healed on the inside.” And the man simply said yes, then went back to the Pharisees, told them who it was, and tried to have Him arrested. He made a decision to remain crippled on the inside.

We have to decide: Yes, Jesus, I am ready for You to change me. I am ready for the new things You have for me. And if we are willing to do that, there is a promise I want us to read in the book of John, chapter 7. John 7:37 says, “...on the last and great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from within him.’” The river will flow from our inner life. Those rivers are going to flow from our lives. This is an incredible promise.

The river that comes out of the temple will flow from you if you truly choose Jesus and drink from Him. If you do that, wherever you go, life will surround you. You will enter dark places, and there will be light. You will meet hurting people, and healing will flow from you because the river is not merely flowing from some other place; it is flowing from within you.

You simply come into contact with places where there is death and darkness, and you have to watch how God will bring new life to that place. This is an incredible promise.

And I would like to finish with a very personal testimony. My wife’s grandfather went home to be with the Lord this past week. He was 98 years old, an immigrant from Japan, an incredible man, and his name was Furuya, which in Japanese means a dry valley. So, one day, while Kenny and he were still dating, he was writing the name Kenny and looking for different meanings. I was writing it in Hebrew because I learned Hebrew in school, and I was looking at the name Furuya and realized that it has a meaning in Hebrew. Furu means “made fruitful.” It is the same as the name Ephraim. Meche preached about this a few weeks ago. Ephraim means “doubly fruitful.” So Furu means “to be fruitful,” and “ya” is a form of the name of God, Yahweh. In other words, in Hebrew this name means “the Lord makes it fruitful.” Jehovah causes it to bear fruit; that is how He makes it fruitful. God brings it back to new life with new fruit.

And I also thought about his grandfather’s life and all the difficult things he had to go through in his life. And there was a time during World War II when all the Japanese immigrants were put in prisons. You might have been born here, but because you were Japanese, they would have put you in prison because the Japanese were the enemy at that time. And this man, his wife, and his son had to go to the camps where these prisons were for several years. It was a very dry valley where they were. But do you know what happened while they were there? They came to know the Lord Jesus in a very personal way, and the Lord caused them to bear much fruit.

What is your dry valley? What is that part of your life that you can see is completely dead and where you do not believe life will ever emerge? We serve a God who looks you in the eyes and says, “My son, My daughter, I make all things new. Let Me flow in you, and rivers of living water will flow from you.” And there will be fruit, because God causes all things to bear fruit.

So let us come into the presence of God; let us stand. We need to say yes to the Lord. Yes, God, I want to be better. I want to grow and change. I am willing to be a flexible wineskin so that I can receive Your new wine, because I know that You are going to pour it out this year. We are in a very special time. Prepare yourselves for a special visitation from God, but we have to let that Spirit flow in us. We have to be willing to change from within. So let us pray.

Father, we come before You today and thank You that You are the living God. You are the God who makes all things new. Thank You because You give us new hope. And we want to say yes to You. If anyone wants to say yes to Jesus in a special way, I want to invite you to come forward for prayer. Come if you want to say yes to the Lord in a specific way; come forward. There is something you have been living with for many years, and you want to let God do His work in you. If you want to receive Jesus, I invite you to come forward here, or if you want to say yes to Him in a specific area of your life, the invitation is open.

Father, we say yes to You. I thank You for Your living water. Thank You for the promises You have made, Lord: that You can transform us, that You can put a new song in our lives, and that sins and problems from years and years ago do not have to continue. We can change. Things that seemed to be dead can come to life now. Holy Spirit of God, we receive You... and on behalf of the entire Lion of Judah Church that we represent, we say yes to You, Lord. Pour out Your new wine today, new wine. You save the best for last. We want Your new wine, Lord. We want that joy that comes from You, that hope that comes from You. We thank You because Your door is open to us, no matter what may happen, no matter what we have done. Your blood cleanses us; it cleanses us completely. We thank You, Jesus.

We are going to take some time to pray here at the altar. If you want to come forward, there is no hurry. We are going to take some time for prayer. Come forward; let us sing to the Lord. Go to the English version