Today I delivered my first ever sermon. It wasn’t really much. It was short. And my audience was rather small. But that didn’t matter. I enjoyed getting up there and talking through a verse and what it means. As for feedback, I didn’t get much, so I don’t know how it went over with the audience, but I felt good about it. I felt that my point got across. Below are my notes that I used to speak off of.
“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.”
–Isaiah 43:19 (ESV)
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.”
–Isaiah 43:19 (ESV)
- Here the prophet Isaiah is referring to the exodus when the Israelites were leaving Egypt. They were going out into the wilderness. The desert. They had no provisions. So God gave them water out of the rocks.
- Exodus 17:5: God says to Moses, “you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.”
- God can do wonders where we don’t see any way out. The people couldn’t see how they would survive the desert. They had no idea. But God is faithful and loves his people. He gave them water when they thought there was none.
- God puts us in places that we don’t want to be. And in places that we never thought that we’d ever be. For example, I didn’t want to be here in the desert. But God always has funny plans. He put me here for a reason. That reason is simply, Christ.
- At the beginning of the verse he says, “Behold, I am doing a new thing” Isaiah probably didn’t realize that this new thing is Christ.
- Christ is a new way, a new path. He is a river of life where there was none before. God sent his one and only son for us so that we could have life. So that we could have a new and better way to be with God.
- “Where there is no clear path forward, God creates one, rivers in the desert. Where there is no natural relief or refreshment, God provides it.” (ESV Study Bible notes)
- Here in death valley we have the spring that feeds the community.
- In Christ we have the eternal quencher of our thirst.
- Is 49:10. “they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.”
- Christ is that new way. the new path.
- God does this, he sends his son to us to redeem us.
- “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Co 5:17.
Radha Vyas 