Inspiration in Isaiah: A New Thing

Some years ago, Spencer Johnson wrote a little book called Who Moved My Cheese? It’s a cute allegory about the way four different characters respond when someone moves their cheese, in other words, changes things on them. Generally, we fall into one of these broad categories:

There is Sniff, who sniffs out change early on, sees it coming, and is more than ready for it when it happens. This person actually thrives on change.

Scurry may not see it coming, but scurries into action the moment something changes. This one wastes no time analyzing things; he just adapts however he has to in order to find the cheese.

Then there are Hem and Haw. Haw is initially afraid, but learns to laugh at himself when he realizes how his fears paralyze him and prevent him from getting the cheese he loves. He manages to adapt in time when he sees that changing leads to something better.

Hem denies and resists change, because he is afraid it will lead to something worse. He is “hemmed” in by his fears, and never does change.

Can you identify which of these characters you are most like? When it comes to dealing with change that is imposed on you, are you more like Sniff, sniffing out the changes in advance, and eagerly embracing them? Or are you Scurry, ready to go with the new flow at a moment’s notice? Or are you more like one of the other two, perhaps like Haw, who has to see the positive benefits of change before you will think it is a good idea? Or maybe you are like Hem, tending to be hemmed in by your fears, and therefore unwilling to change, or even to consider that change might ever be a good thing?

The book of Isaiah addresses tumultuous changes that were happening to the people of God. The book is divided pretty clearly into two parts. Chapters 1-39 are written to the people of Israel and Judah during a time when they were going off on their own, doing their own thing, straying far from the ways of God. This section is filled with warnings, and threats of dire judgment on them if they do not change their ways, and very specific indications that God was going to use neighboring nations to punish them. They didn’t change, so God did all He said He would, first in 722 B.C. with the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians, and then later in 586 B.C. when the Babylonians destroyed Judah and Jerusalem.

Chapters 40-66 are written sort of into the future. They are addressed to the survivors of Judah, who will be captives and slaves in Babylon. In this section, we have lots of words of comfort, and encouragement, and hope for the future. God wants His people to know, even before it happens, that the destruction of Jerusalem will not mark the end of His commitment to them. He made an everlasting covenant with them, and even though they have been fickle and faithless to Him—and He is going to punish them for that—He will not completely abandon them.

In this last part of the book, God says several times that He is going to do a new thing. Let’s look at those.

In the context of the book of Isaiah, these are encouragements to the people that God has not abandoned them, that they will not remain in Babylon forever, that there is still hope for the future. God is telling them these things far in advance, even before they are carried off into slavery, so that they will not lose hope, and will continue to keep their eyes on Him through that coming difficult time. He says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” He means, when you are there in a foreign country as slaves, do not dwell on that; do not let your circumstances there dictate your perspective on the future.

This is always a good word for us. There is always the temptation to let the present determine the future. If things are hard, we may become discouraged, and begin to think they will always be like that. If we get our eyes off of Jesus, and onto the waves, we inevitably sink. So we have to hear God say to us, “I am doing a new thing. You may not see it yet, but it is already in the works. Trust me. Keep looking forward. Keep looking up. Better times are ahead.” It turned out that the Israelites were in Babylon 70 years, but at the end of that time, God did indeed bring them back to Judah, where they rebuilt the city of Jerusalem, and the Temple, and they once again had the proper worship of God in their homeland.

One of the major themes of the book of Isaiah is that God is sovereign. He is sovereign over the lives of individuals and nations. He sets up rulers and pulls them down. He uses one nation to punish another, and then punishes that first nation for their arrogance in thinking that they were the ones who did it. He is in control of all human history, and particularly over the destiny of His people.

God is so much in control that He can predict in advance what is going to happen. As He says in Isaiah 46:10, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” The proof of His sovereignty is that He predicted the destruction of Israel and Judah, and it happened just as He said. As the people of Judah read these prophecies in Babylon later, they could say, That’s right; it happened to us just like God said it would. So we can have tremendous confidence that the hope He tells us about in these later chapters will also take place. We can trust God.

Ultimately, the new thing that God was promising had to do with the coming Messiah. Look at Isaiah 40:3,

The New Testament tells us this passage was fulfilled in the ministry of John the Baptist. He did indeed live in the desert, and his ministry was all about preparing the people to receive the Messiah, through their repentance. It was their sin that kept them separated from God, so in order to prepare the way for Him to come to them, they had to repent. That’s what John’s ministry was all about.

and all mankind together will see it.” This prophecy was initially fulfilled in the way the Lord miraculously arranged for their release from Babylon, and were allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild it with the king’s blessing and resources. This forecast was more completely fulfilled in the appearance of Jesus Christ on earth.[1] John the apostle described Him this way, John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The writer of the book of Hebrews described Him this way, Hebrews 1:3, “The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being…” So here is a completely new thing that God was doing. He had promised the Messiah hundreds of years before to David, but in Isaiah’s time He says He’s going to do something really new. The incarnation of the Son of God certainly fit that description! Who would have ever thought of that? Only God, the Creative One. And this Messiah will be the physical embodiment of the glory of God.

One of the things that is so encouraging about this for us is that even though it was the people’s sin that brought on the destruction of their country and their enslavement in Babylon, God did not give up on them. He was still their God, and He was still going to act on their behalf. Moreover, He was going to send the Messiah, whose primary ministry would be to save His people from their sins. So not only did God not reject them because of their sin, He took extraordinary steps to save them from their sin.

That’s encouraging for us, as we think about our relationship to Him. We do fail Him, sometimes grievously, but He will not reject us. He has sent His Son to save us. He is still on our side, still working for our good.

I think this is a good word for us to hear today, because A lot of things are changing at Faith Church. Our secretary, Sandi Donovan, has moved to Idaho, and Lorie Trich has taken her place. Monica Kopp, our Children’s Ministry Director, is leaving to spend more time with her family, so we are going to have (by God’s grace) a new person in that position in the near future. And now, today, Jim and Debbie tell us that they are thinking of moving on to be full time missionaries. That’s a lot of change in a short period of time, and this last one is the biggest of all.

From my perspective, this is really scary. Jim and Debbie have been here sixteen years. Prior to them, Duncan Howard was our youth pastor for 8 years. So in the past 24 years, we have only had two youth pastors. That is unheard of! The national average for how long youth pastors stay at one church is under two years. We have been so blessed as a church in having men who stayed in the harness for that long—long enough to reap the benefits of their longevity and ministry. Jim has often said that things really began to take off in the youth ministry when the kids who were seniors had been with him for their whole teen experience—from middle school on. They had caught his vision of how to do ministry, and they were really effective then.

A major factor in Jim’s longevity has been not only his commitment to the teens, but his character. Ministry skills are one thing, but character is another. You can’t teach character; a man either has it or he doesn’t. Jim has been a man of integrity and faithfulness all through his sixteen years here.

Another blessing we have had in Jim is the fact that he was ordained when he came to us and he had the maturity to step in and fulfill the functions of the senior pastor when I was away. Of course, that created a bit of tension between us sometimes, because it seemed like every time I went away for an extended time, an unusual number of people died. One time, I think Jim had to do four or five funerals, and when I got back, he said, “I’m never letting you leave for that long again!” But the truth is, Jim could do that, and not all youth pastors can. So we were blessed in that way, too.

And, of course, with Jim came Debbie. They are very much a team, complementing each other in wonderful ways, and Debbie is very much a minister in her own right. She has not been just a supplement, or a complement, to Jim’s ministry; she has been an integral part of the youth ministry here, even when they had small kids at home.

So you can see why I am nervous. I find it hard to believe that we will find someone(s) as good as they have been to take their place.

I know that many of you share my concern. You who have teens in the youth group now are wondering what it will be like without the Engs. You have seen the way your kids have grown in the Lord, have been trained in ministry, have been given a heart for the world, have been stretched and loved and ministered to, and you are probably thinking, Uh oh—what now? What will happen to the youth group when they go?

It is in that context that we need to hear this word from God through Isaiah. God is doing a new thing He is doing this. He is the one who has built the youth ministry at this church to the place where it is. And He is the one who has put this burden for missions on Jim’s and Debbie’s hearts. He is the one who is moving them on, and we can count on Him not to abandon us, any more than He did the Israelites of Isaiah’s day. His commitment to Faith Church, and to the youth in this church, is as strong as it ever was. God doesn’t want us to be discouraged and fearful about this news; He doesn’t want us to deny or resist the changes He is bringing. He wants us to look forward to the new thing He is doing here.

And He is doing a new thing. We can already see part of what He is doing here. This has been a great year for our church in many ways.

· Building Faith remodeling project. We have made significant improvements to our sound and projection system. We’ve started the remodeling of our sanctuary, and have raised $90,000 for that already, and are almost three-quarters of the way toward Phase 2. (We’re hoping to go over the top tonight at the benefit concert.)

· general fund In spite of large projects like mission trips and the remodeling and the Hall of Faith mortgage which are outside the budget, the general fund of the church has been well supported, and we are in much better shape now than we have been for some time. The general fund giving is up more than 10% over last year.

· God is doing a new thing. Our attendance is up about 8% overall for the year, and the second service is starting to get crowded. The youth groups, which started out this year much smaller, due to kids graduating, have grown amazingly well, and many youth have come to faith in Christ. It’s great to see the choir growing with a number of new singers.

· God is doing a new thing in children’s ministry. We did an extra summer program for elementary kids, the Sports Camp, which went so well we are going to do it again next summer. We are seeing many more kids in the second hour Kids’ Church, and we’re doing a new program in the first hour called Bible Blast which emphasizes Bible study and memorization. The Pre-Teen group has a new format and many more kids this year.

· We held a number of evangelistic programs with comedians and an illusionist which were well attended not only by our people but we invited many guests.

· God is doing a new thing in the prayer ministry. The weekly church prayer meeting has a new feel as we are learning to draw near to God in new ways. It is definitely not your grandfather’s prayer meeting! You should come; I can guarantee you’ll be blessed. I have 75 people on my prayer team praying for me every week. Wow! That’s a new thing for which I am extremely grateful, and I can see the difference it is making in my mental and emotional outlook. Thanks so much to every one of you who pray for me!

· New missionaries. God is doing a new thing in missions. We are sending out four new teams (couples or singles) from our church into full time missions work. It’s a stretch for us financially, but we are delighted to do it, because the needs are so great, and God is so worthy of the glory He will get.

· We have six new pairs of people in mentoring relationships, growing together in Christ, sharpening each other in their walk with the Lord.

This is an exciting time for our church. We can already see many of the new things God is doing, but what is ahead? What other blessings is He preparing for us? I am certainly not a prophet like Isaiah; I cannot see the future like God does. But if I were to guess, I would say that the future God is planning for us will include things like this:

· New (sharp) eyes. I think we are going to start seeing the needs of people around us in new ways. It is all too easy to be caught up in our own issues, and sometimes the circumstances of life just press in on us so that we are blinded to the needs of the people we see every day. The other problem, as I mentioned a week or so ago, is that our money can insulate us from the less fortunate and their needs. I helped a couple who came to the church last week, whose car was leaking power steering fluid, who were out of work, the man had just spent the better part of two weeks in the hospital with heart and diabetes problems—and I thought, wow! They’re in a world of hurt. There are lots of people like that in northern Colorado, but we typically don’t even see them. I think God wants to give us new eyes to see those needs that up ‘til now we have only been dimly aware of—single mothers, unwed mothers, problem pregnancies, meth addiction, alcoholism, suicide (Larimer County has one of the highest suicide rates in the country!), people in prison, people in nursing homes, etc. I don’t know where God will lead us, but I believe He wants to give us new eyes to see the kind of people Jesus spent most of His time with—needy people.

· New (dirty) hands. In conjunction with that, I believe God wants to give us new hands to serve those people in need. One of the most telling criticisms of the church by our secular society is that we live in our little religious bubble, and don’t often get out into the world to get our hands dirty with the poor and needy. By and large, the liberal mainline denominations have been much better at this than we evangelicals, but I think God wants to change that. We are the Body of Christ, and I believe He wants to use our hands to serve in very practical ways the needs of the poor. We did that with our Gulf Coast trips and our mission trips, but there are needs in our own city that God could use us to meet. As Paul said in 1 Cor. 9:19, “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.” Slaves don’t always have an easy life, but if it brings someone to Christ, that service we did for them was worth it. Jesus said that the ultimate judgment between the sheep and the goats will be based on how we served those in need (Matt 25:31ff.).

· New (broken) hearts. Service for people in need is never an end in itself. It always has to be done in conjunction with the good news of the gospel. Part of our problem up til now has been that we are somewhat hard-hearted toward those who do not yet know the joy of a relationship with the Savior. We haven’t cared enough about them to alter our lifestyle and schedule to get close to them. But I believe God wants to give us new hearts, hearts that beat with His love for the lost. Jesus told parables about God’s love in which a shepherd left 99 sheep in the fold and went out looking for the one lost sheep until he found it, and a housewife lost one coin out of ten and turned her house upside down until she found it. Jesus said He had come all the way from His glory in heaven to seek and save the lost, and I am certain that God wants to give us His heart for the lost sheep. When we have His heart, then we won’t need evangelism training courses and books and tapes and all that; we’ll just go out looking for them. And we’ll see them, because we’ll have the new eyes He’s giving us. We’ll see their desperate situation—like sheep without a shepherd, Jesus called them. We’ll see how much they need Christ, and be moved to share the best news in the world with them.

· New programs. We are in the process of discussing some exciting new programs for the future, to see if God is in these ideas. If He is, we might see some of these things in the foreseeable future.

o 17/27 worship. We’re looking at the possibility of a Sunday evening program for young adults roughly 17-27 years old, that would involve some practical hands-on service project, followed by singing and worship.

o We are going to put a major emphasis on marriage in the winter: I’m going to preach on the subject starting in late January; we are going to hold a Love and Respect Seminar for married couples in February. We are also looking at the possibility of doing a Sunday School class or two on the subject of marriage, and dealing with divorce.

o Another Sunday School offering may be Focus on the Family’s The Truth Project, which is all about developing a biblical world view.

o A group of our people are going to Romania on a short term mission trip this next year, to share the love of Christ with children and orphans.

o One of the summer mission trips will be a new joint venture with senior high and Mars Hill.

So—there are lots of changes happening. God is doing a new thing. But because He is the one doing it, we can be confident in the outcome. God says in Jeremiah 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” That’s our confidence for us, and for Jim and Debbie as well.

Let me emphasize again that the Engs are not leaving immediately. They do not have a deadline by which they must be gone at this point (though God may give them one later). They will continue to serve here, leading this ministry as long as God leaves them here. We hope and pray that will be long enough to give us a little overlap with the next person, so they can orient that new leader to what has been done and why.

Pray for the Engs, as they seek God’s direction for a mission agency, and a specific ministry in missions. They are going to Urbana this year, specifically with their antennas out to hear whatever way God may direct them.

Pray for the Search Committee as they begin looking for someone who has really big feet (to fill Jim’s big shoes).

Give us your recommendations. Talk to us about anyone you know who could be a possible candidate. Do not mention people who are out of work, or your cousin who just happens to be a nice guy. We want only top quality candidates. But we think that your personal networks give us the greatest chance to find someone who is of the quality we need here.

It’s an exciting time. God is moving our cheese. He’s doing a new thing. And we know His plans for us are good.

[1] The final fulfillment will be when Jesus returns the second time. At that time, everyone on earth will see Him and know Him for who He is. Cf. Luke 17:23-24, “Men will tell you, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. [24] For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.”