Forgetting What Lies Behind — Isaiah 43

0:00 Good morning. Good morning. There you go. Alright. So so exciting to see the young people leading the singing and doing songs like that.

0:10 Claire and Lance went to MEXA with me, so very excited to hear them singing and serving the Lord. All right. We are going to consider today forgetting the past and reaching forward to what lies ahead. I remember a friend of mine brought me a computer, and he said, Look, take it to your parents. So my parents had a small business, so I take it to their house, And we set it up, and I said, look, instead of having all those files and all those receipts and everything, put everything here in the computer, and it keeps it for you.

0:48 So I worked with them for about three or four hours. And you got it? They said, yeah, yeah, we got it. And I left. When I came back about four days later, they hadn't even turned on the machine.

0:58 Right? So I was like, alright, mom and dad. So here's how you turn it on. And so we went through that whole cycle, turned it on, and we went through the whole thing again. You got it?

1:08 Yeah, I got it. And so I left, came back five days later, they didn't even turned it on. And so I figured, okay, they're happy with where they're at. They don't want to move on to future things. And that's unfortunate the way many people are.

1:26 They are happy with where they're at or where they've been, and they don't want to move forward. There was a marine who after he retired, all he would talk about is how great it was when he was a marine. And that was the only thing, the only subject in his mind. He wouldn't speak about anything else. And so today we're going to talk about forgetting the past and moving forward to what lies ahead.

1:50 We're going to look at three different examples. We're going to start off, first of all, in Isaiah chapter 43, if you turn there, God speaking to Israel. So turn to Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43. And look at verse 16.

2:08 And while you're turning there, I remember myself when people started looking at the Bible in their cell phones. At first, I thought, oh, that's ungodly. There's no way they can't do that. That's not the Bible. And now, I found myself last Wednesday at prayer meeting with my cell phone reading the Bible, you know.

2:27 So it's it's the same words. They're just not on a piece of paper. It... But it's the same words. It's God's word.

2:33 So anyway, it's hard to transition and to move on. So we're gonna look at three examples, and the first one is God speaking to the nation of Israel. So look at what he's saying to them. Chapter 43 and verse 16. Thus says the Lord who makes a way through the sea and a path through the mighty waters, who brings forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the mighty man.

3:02 They will lie down together and not rise again. They have been quenched and extinguished like a wick. Do not caught in mind the former things or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new. Now it will spring forth.

3:21 Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. So let's pray before we continue. Father, we thank you for your holy word, and we ask for help from the Holy Spirit. We pray above all that Jesus will be glorified today.

3:38 In his name, amen. What a blessing to know Christ as savior and to have him in our lives, and to know that we are redeemed and forgiven and we have a future in heaven, that's such a blessing. That same God that saves us is constantly working in our lives. And so what he's doing here is he's speaking to Israel. He's saying, now remember in the past, in the past when when you were in trouble, you had nowhere to go, you were caught between the the Red Sea and the army of the Egyptians, and like, what do we do?

4:13 I did something supernatural. I opened the waters so that you can go through. I was there for you. I I I... You can trust me.

4:23 In the past, I've been faithful. Look what I've done. And so he's talking about when the Egyptians drowned in the water. So remember when I did that? Yeah.

4:34 Well, that's good. That's something I did in the past. And praise God for for what I did. And every one of us can look back and say, yes, in the past God has done great things. He saved me.

4:47 He's changed me. He's working in my life. And I'm glad, but now look what he's saying in verse 18. Do not call to mind the former things or ponder things of the past. Now, wait a minute, he's the one just that just said, look what I did in the past but what he's saying is, don't get stuck in the past.

5:09 That's an experience that you had and praise god for it But now, don't be there just pondering that it's time to move on and notice what he says in the text. He says, verse 19, behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth. Will you not be aware of it? He said, look, in the past, I did great things. You can look back and say, wow, I I I can trust god because in the past, he was there for me but he says, now, don't get stuck there because I am doing something new.

5:40 Listen, god is always at work. He's always working. He's always doing something. And maybe he's not working in our particular area like he used to be working, but he's always working around the world and people are getting saved and transformed by the power of the gospel. Do you know that?

5:58 Do you realize that? In the Latin countries right now, our assemblies are exploding. They're flourishing. People are getting saved on a daily basis. The same is true in in all the Arabic countries.

6:13 People are getting saved tremendously. Right now, our country is in what I would call a post Christian status. However, God is still working. God is still moving, and he's working in our lives and he wants us to look to the future. I am doing something new, which reminds me of the passage in one Corinthians two:nine, Things which I had not seen, neither has not heard, which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him.

6:46 You know that? What what he's saying is, who would have thought that in the future, God was going to bring salvation through Jesus Christ and transformation and start the local church and give the church gifts and do so many great things through the body. Could you ever have planned that out? And so God is saying, yeah, in the past, I did great things, but don't get stuck there. Behold, I do something new.

7:12 I'm always at work. I'm always doing something. I'm always creative, and you can't hold me back. Now look what he says then in verse 19. I will even make roadway in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

7:27 Now, he's not talking about what he did with the Egyptians when he opened up the the water. He's talking about, I'm doing something new, and in the future, I'm gonna open up other rivers through the desert. Now the desert, the last thing you're going see in a desert is a river. The whole point of it being a desert is there's no water. And so what he's saying is, I did a miracle in the past.

7:49 I'm going to do it again. I'm going to keep opening the the the way for you because I have a plan, I'm creative, I'm doing new things, I'm constantly at work. So don't limit what I can do. Amen? All right.

8:07 Living in the past is a problem because it robs you of the opportunity to enjoy the present. Not enjoying the present, if you happy where you are, living in the past won't help. Living in the past allows you to avoid dealing with issues in the present. That's from a lady named Kennedy. I'm quoting her.

8:29 Alright, so he's telling the nation of Israel, in the past I did something for you, great. Don't ponder, don't get stuck there. I'm doing something new. Isn't that exciting? That God is always actively doing other things.

9:08 Forty one and fifty one. Now, as you know, Joseph was raised in a dysfunctional home. Anybody can identify with that? Anybody who was raised in a dysfunctional home? Well, you were whether you acknowledged it or not.

9:25 Yeah, yeah, we've a couple of brave ones up here saying, yeah. Were you pointing at Claire's house? Yeah, yeah. All right. So every home has its issues.

9:36 You can look back and say, oh, man, I have regrets. Things happen. Now Joseph was in a home that had four different mothers, 12 brothers and a sister. Now, you can already you already know that when that happens, there's chaos. There's chaos.

9:57 And so there was, of course, competition, jealousy, inner fighting, and also favoritism going on on the part of the dad with Joseph. And this got the brothers mad. And so the brothers then did them wrong. They they sold them as a slave. Now, do you think that hurt Joseph?

10:18 You think that hurt him? You think that bothered him? Or was that, it's no big deal. I didn't like him anyway. Know, I'm glad I'm I'm going to Egypt to be a slave.

10:28 Yeah, know. It it hurt him and and it was something that was in his heart. It was deep in there. It was a wound from his family. Now, notice Genesis forty one fifty one.

10:41 It it says, the Bible says here that and Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh. Now watch four, he said, God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household. So he's telling you here that all of the trouble that he went through and the other trouble in his home, All the insults, remembering how his brothers wanted to kill him, remembering that they sold him as a slave, remembering that he hadn't seen his dad in over twenty years. All of that was a deep wound in his heart. And it was stuck in there, but this is what he says.

11:20 God has worked in my life in such a way that he has helped me to forget all the pain of the past. Now isn't that what we preach in Christ Jesus? That he sets us free? He sets us free from guilt and the past and the pains and and and I know many of you have suffered tremendously at home. Some of you may have gotten beat.

11:44 Some of you may have been victims of favoritism or or violated, all that kind of stuff that happens. And they cause deep wounds in our hearts and all kinds of trouble that happens in homes. But here's what he can say. And he wasn't saying it just to say it. But he goes, I'm going to name my firstborn son Manasseh because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's house.

12:12 So Manasseh means the one who causes to forget. And you know, God can actually purge that out of your mind to where you can be free from it, and you don't have to be haunted by your past. God has the power to do that. And I'm praying that you would allow him to cause you to forget the past. Then notice verse 42.

12:37 Then forty forty one fifty two, I'm sorry, 52. And he named the second son Ephraim, for he said, God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. So not only Manasseh did God cause me to forget pain and my father's home, all the trouble that was in my life, all that the accusation and everything I suffered, not only did he cause me to forgive, but now he's making me fruitful. Now he's using me. Now I'm serving the living God.

13:13 And so I'm going name my second son Ephraim. And so Manasseh, God called me to forget Ephraim. God has now made me fruitful. Now God is using me. And he's doing something with my life where I thought in the past, nothing's going to come in my life because of all of this mess.

13:33 But now I see that God had a plan. And then notice Genesis 45 and verse five and eight. Notice what it says there. And now, he's talking to his brothers, and now do not be grieved or angry with yourself because you sowed me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

14:04 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. And now therefore, now notice, it was not you who sent me here, but God, but God. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh, in other words, a counselor, and lord of all this house, and ruler over all Egypt. It was not you who caused me to come here but God. See, he was able to see as he matured and grew and grew in his life, and God was healing him from past hurts, from a dysfunctional home, and then he was being fruitful now and being used by God, he was able to see that it was God's plan to...

14:46 That God was allowing all of this in his sovereign will for the blessings of others. Now, have you ever considered that maybe some of that pain that god caused in your life has been so that you can bless others? That's what he's saying. God brought me here. And everything that I went through was that I can be used by God and we can preserve life.

15:12 You know that I've told you before, the way... The reason my whole family was saved because of my sister's cancer. And and and through that sickness, through her suffering because she suffered tremendously, our whole family got saved. And God also used her and our family to bring many to Christ. So what God allows always has a blessing in sight.

15:39 And so Joseph was able to see that. And so he wasn't stuck in the past pain of the trouble of his home and this dysfunctional home. He moved on towards the future. Now go to Philippians three. Go to Philippians three.

16:47 His identity before was his heritage, I'm a Jew. His religion. I'm a Pharisee. His zeal. I have more zeal than anybody else.

16:59 I I am more religious than anybody. And his accomplishments. I studied under Gamaliel. Who did you study under? So he was the one who was most likely to succeed.

17:13 And indeed he did, he accomplished a great status and respect amongst his peers. However, when Christ got ahold of him, everything changed. His identity, his values, his passion, his priorities. See, a lot of people have identity crisis. Most of us, well, many of us get to a certain age and then we start to say and think, well, who am I?

17:40 What have I accomplished? And what difference have I made in this world? Have you gone through that? The ones that are too young, you will, you'll get there pretty soon. Just wait, it'll happen.

17:54 But now, with Paul, Christ was his new passion, new identity, his new vision. His priority now was getting to know Christ. It was an absolute transformation. Now please note in the text that he says that he was getting to not getting to serve Christ, but getting to know Christ. And this was the guy that out served everyone.

18:19 So he says, for the sake of Christ, for the value of knowing Christ, that I may gain Christ, that I may be found in him, that I may know him, his resurrection, his fellowship, to be conformed to his death. And so Paul is saying, man, when Christ got a hold of me, I I left what I was, my my identity, what what I felt made me valuable. All of that changed because now Christ is my identity. Folks, Christ has to be our identity. If you keep looking at yourself, you're going to always be disappointed.

18:53 But Christ never disappoints. And we are in Christ for all eternity. He's our new identity, and that's what Paul is saying. Notice then, here we come back to the same thought. Verse 13.

19:08 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet. That is of growing, of being a man of God. Right? But look what he says. But one thing I do, alright, here's what he does.

19:24 Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. Does that sound like what God told the nation of Israel? I did great things in the past, but now I'm going to do great things in the future. I'm doing new things. I'm creative.

19:40 Don't limit me. I'm doing a lot of things. Then Joseph says, look, I'm leaving the past behind, Manasseh. God is doing... God has helped me to forget all of the things of the past, and now I'm fruitful.

19:56 I'm being used by him. And then Paul says the very same thing. He says, forgetting what lies behind. Paul Paul made a break with everything in his past, both good and bad. You can't allow yourself to get stuck in the past.

20:16 I met with a brother. He used to be an elder in his church in Michigan. You don't know him, so don't try to guess. But I met with him. I said, dude, what's going on?

20:31 Oh, you know, twenty years ago, I sinned. Okay, well, was twenty years ago. Did you confess your sin? Yes. Did you write an apology letter to the dude?

20:42 Yes. Then what's keeping you back? I sinned, I sinned. And I, oh my. So I met with him a year later, and he's still in the same thing.

20:50 He's stuck in the past. What I did, what I did. And he fell right into the very trap of Satan, which is to remind us of our past failures, to bring back to mind all of the hurt of your home, or the dysfunctional home, or whatever happened to you in the past, to paralyze us. And Paul says, I'm not going to be paralyzed. I'm not going to be stuck in the past.

21:40 It was never brought up again. See, Peter moved on, and he started serving Christ and living for him and exhorting the believers, shepherding the people of God. He didn't get stuck. I can't believe I did it. I can't believe I did it.

21:52 He moved on, Leaving the past behind. Things that happened. Mom and dad weren't there for you. Or you lost a job or whatever it was. Or maybe you sinned or there was rebellion in your life in the past.

22:07 Regrets over something done. This lady that we led to Christ in Texas stopped growing spiritually. And so we met with her, like, what's going on? She goes, before I was saved, I committed abortion. Sister, did the Lord pay for your sin?

22:26 Yes or no? Is he bringing that up, or are you bringing it up, or is Satan bringing it up? Did God forgive you? Did he pay for that sin? Yes he did.

22:37 And you know that from that moment on, that lady was set free from her guilt, and she started living for the Lord and serving him. Guilt of the past, shame. This cannot and should not control the present or the future. We cannot live in past victories, nor should we be defeated by past guilt or sins. Let me quote this to you from a from a godly man.

23:06 Churches are full of spiritual cripples, paralyzed by the grudges, bitterness, sins and tragedies of the past. Others try to survive in the present by reliving past successes. They must break with the past if they are to pursue the spiritual prize. Speaking of that, Ecclesiastes seven ten says this, Do not say, why is it the former days were better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

23:40 How many of you have heard that, oh, know, used to be so great and not anymore? Yes or no? Yeah? Have you heard it? I've said it about 20 times, and when I read that verse, go, Lord, I have to stop.

23:52 Right? Yeah, I had some great times in the past, but that's the past. You know, I've to move on. In the past, I did this and I did that, but now, where are you now? We can't get stuck.

24:06 Now, it's okay to reminisce. We're not saying that you can't reminisce. In fact, in first Timothy two fifteen, Paul says, I was a persecutor. And and he often refers to the fact that he was a persecutor and a blasphemer. But I think he's saying it for testimony's sake.

24:23 I don't think he was constantly saying it because he was feeling guilty or constantly repenting of it. Rather, he used that testimony to speak of God's mercy and grace, forgiveness and patience, and the plan of salvation to forgive sinners. Leaving the past behind before and after salvation, not just mistakes, but accomplishments. I was a jealous Pharisee under Gamaliel, a Jew, but that's all in the past. My identity, my acceptance, that which makes me feel important that I counted.

25:01 Now, I find my significance in the Lord Jesus, because it says in Colossians two ten that you are complete in Christ. Are you complete or not? Yes, you are. The Bible says so. And so not not just failures, but victories.

25:40 Why did Christ get a hold of me? God is interested, now listen, in what what believers do now and in the future. Praise God for what you did in the past, but now is what God is interested in. He And wants to work in your life now and use you now for his glory and in the future. Now, circumstances can change.

26:04 Maybe you have to move, maybe your health changed, your job changed, maybe your role changed. That's okay. I just spoke to a dear friend of mine, a preacher of the world from Michigan, and he's now 84, a counselor and a preacher, and he says, you know what my new ministry is now? Now, what is it? Taking care of my wife because she has dementia.

26:30 So my job is to bathe her, to change her clothes, to dress her and to feed her. That's my new ministry. And he accepts it. That's where he's at now. He can't live in the past.

26:41 He's got to face reality where he's at. And now he's serving God that way. No more preaching, no more doing what he used to do. Now bathing and feeding. Praise God, he's serving the Lord.

26:56 You know that I used to help out this man. His name was Mr. Bennett. He got to a certain age and he started losing his eyesight, and he couldn't see. And so you know what this man says?

27:10 I still want to serve God even though I can't see. So he went and he bought literally a row of a pack of stamps this big. It was rolled up. Right? Two of them this big.

27:20 And then he went and he got a list of everybody who lived in the area where we were at. Thousands of sheets of then he bought thousands of envelopes and thousands of tracks. And I would go over there once a week, and we would put an envelope and one by one go down the addresses, put a stamp, the address, and everybody in that whole area, thousands. I don't know how many we did, my hands still hurt from all those stamps and all the writing that that he said. But he goes, you know what?

27:49 I'm blind up, but I could do this for Jesus because I'm not gonna be stuck in what I used to be. I'm moving forward. And this is how I can serve God. So I press on towards the goal. We want to accomplish whatever God has in store for us.

28:07 And wherever God has us, there he will use us. It's where I am right now that I am representing him. Wherever that may be, I am still his ambassador. So until he crosses home, we continue to strive and to grow and to seek and to run the Christian life, to work and to serve and to press on for what lies ahead. So having said that, let me ask a couple of questions, and when this will close out.

29:03 God is interested in what you do now. I'm going to quote this Kennedy lady again because she wrote a big old article on not being stuck in the past. Here's what she said. While some people live in the past because they don't want to deal with the present, others live in the past for fear of what may come in the future. Just like watching that favorite old sitcom you've seen a 100 times, looking back on your life, it doesn't bring any surprises.

29:32 Even if some of the past isn't good, it is at least predictable. The future is fraught with uncertainty. What will happen to us, to our family, to our career? One of the scariest things to contemplate about the future is what if the best days are behind us? End quote.

29:53 Alright, third question. Are you getting to know your God? Christ is our new identity. And the fourth question, are you limiting God's creative power? Behold, I am doing something new.

30:08 I am doing something new. Alright. Father, thank you for your word. Help us not to be stuck in the past, but to look to the future because you're always doing something new. You're so creative and you want to use us for your glory.

30:23 Do so, Lord, use us for your glory. Be glorified through us, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.