SPEAKER_01 0:01

Will the Lord be with you? My name is Brian Keepers, and I'm the new executive pastor here uh at Pillar. And before oh wow, thank you. Thank you. Um, but before before the the worship team sits down, I don't know where John is this morning, but like I feel like I'm in charge now. And um I'm some things are gonna be different around here. Um instituting some changes, starting with from now on, there will be a dress code for the worship team. Um we will match on every Sunday. So you can be a part of it, but you just gotta you definitely have to have blue. Um so this just happened in case you're a visitor, like, oh that's a little weird. They're all matching. Um but grateful for can we just show our appreciation for them. So my wife Tammy and I just moved here at the end of June. Um, I officially started in this role July 1st, and thank you for being so kind and warm in your welcome of us. Um, it really does feel like like a homecoming to us, and we are very eager to get to know you better and to spend time with you. And what a gift to be a part of such an amazing staff here at Pillar. So several years ago, I bought an original piece of artwork. My wife and I love love art. We were just talking to somebody who is an art historian, Signe, right? Is an art historian. Or is that what you're studying? Yeah, something like that. Okay, okay. Um, anyway, we love art, and I got an original piece of artwork for my wife Tammy for our wedding anniversary. And I wanted to just bring it to show you this morning. It's it's up there too, but there's there's just something about getting to see the real thing. And this is this is a piece of artwork done by a friend of ours, I think a number of you may know her, Mariah West, who uh she and her husband Travis are now out in California, but a local artist, Travis, still teaches at Western Seminary, Old Testament, and Hebrew. And we love this this painting so much that we actually redecorated our living room in our home in Northwest Iowa in order for us to really let this be featured and so that we could see it constantly, because that's what you do when you encounter beauty, is that you arrange your life around it. And um we love it. I mean, I love the aesthetic. It's a beautiful piece. The hues of yellow and blue, the bold brush strokes, especially when you come up and you can look at it when you see it close, that convey energy and movement. But it's not just the aesthetic that we love about this. This painting is very, very important to us because of what it also testifies to. And maybe you can see the words inscribed in between, but these are words that come from Isaiah chapter 43, which is the um the favorite passage of scripture for Tammy and me. Uh, it has been a source of encouragement and hope for my wife and I through so many different seasons and so many different struggles. When we sat hand in hand in the doctor's office, and the doctor said the word infertility. Behold me, says the Lord. I will be with you. When we packed up our things and left a congregation that we loved, the first church that we served right out of seminary, Bethel Reformed Church in Sheldon, Iowa, and came here to Holland to serve a church on the north side, both excited for the new chapter, but also carrying the grief of leaving a people behind. Behold me, says the Lord, I will be with you. When we stumbled out of the hospital at Zealand with an empty baby carrier, and the heartbreaking news that the adoption that was about to happen had failed. This happened to us twice. Behold me, says the Lord. I will be with you. When we moved from Holland back to Northwest Iowa in 2017, I know there's a pattern here of us bouncing back and forth. I hope we're here to stay. But to take a call to Trinity Reformed Church, where John served before me. Again, leaving a congregation we loved and stepping into something new, these two things of joy and grief that hold hands, the Lord said, Behold me. I'm about to do a new thing. And then on March 2nd, 2020, one of the hardest days of our lives, when we sat with our teenage daughter on the floor of our bathroom, and we held her as she held in her trembling hands a positive pregnancy test. And she cried so hard that her whole body shook. Behold me, says the Lord. And now, here we are in this new season. Getting to be here with you, and we carry with us again both grief and excitement. I mean, isn't that so much of just life, those two things? We're entering into empty nesting, I think. Um, our daughter, our youngest daughter is gonna be a freshman in college. Does that make you an empty nester? Kind of. I'm getting mixed like head nods from people. Behold me, says the Lord. I want to offer you a word this morning from Isaiah 43. I want you to hear it in more of its fuller sense. And I offer it for us all, but I think I'm present the the most this morning to those of you who may find yourself in a season of transition. For those of you who are leaving something or someone behind, or stepping into something new, or finding yourself in a time of loss and struggle. For those of you who are wondering, who am I now in this new season? Maybe things feel a bit overwhelming for you. My prayer is that these words of Isaiah would speak to your heart. So hear the word of the Lord from the book that we love. Isaiah 43. I'm gonna share with you verses 1 through 7, and then we'll jump to verse 18 and go down to verse 21. But now, thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, do not fear. For I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, and you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as a ransom for you, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you, because you are precious in my sight and honored, and I love you. I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east and from the west, I will gather you. I will say to the north, let them go, and to the south, do not withhold. I will bring your sons from far away, and your daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who has been called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. And now, do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. Behold, I am about to do a new thing. Now it springs forth. Can you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Wild animals will honor me, ostriches and jackals. I will bring water in the wilderness and drink in the desert to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I have formed for myself, so that they might declare my praise. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Are those not just some of the most beautiful words that you've ever heard? How about a little context? God's people, Israel, were living under Babylonian rule in exile. They had been taken from the holy city, at least many of them, not all, some stayed back, taken from the holy city, which lied in ruins. The temple itself had been burned to the ground. The holy city, Jerusalem, the temple, these two things that for them were a symbol of God's presence in their lives. Taken off to a foreign land. Now, in large part, this was because of their own disobedience, their hearts hardened towards God, they gave their hearts to idols and started worshiping false gods. This was the consequence of their disobedience. But the question that they're asking in this time of exile is a really important question. Has God abandoned us? Has he given up on us? Has God gone back on his covenant promises? Where is God? Maybe you find yourself asking that question today. And it's then, in that place of for many, despair, when it seemed like all hope had been lost, there was no future for them.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

That the prophet Isaiah crawls to them as they're sitting in the dark, and he whispers these words of comfort and hope, but now, but now.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Thus says the Lord. He who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, do not fear, for I am with you. I have called you by name, and you are still mine. I have not abandoned you. Even though you turned away from me, I have not turned away from you, even though you have not been faithful to me, I remain faithful to you and to my promises. And God speaks to them and goes on to say, Look, I am about to do a new thing. I am about to do a new thing. He's going to bring them home out of exile. And God calls them then to step into this new thing. That's what's going on in Isaiah 43, to step into this new thing that God is doing, this homecoming for them, and to do so with courage and hope. Because here's the thing about it: this homecoming, this journey home, it's not going to be an easy road. It's not going to be free of struggle or hardship. It's kind of like Homer's theodysse, since so many people are talking about that right now. I got my IMAX tickets for Monday night. Can't wait to go. But like the Odyssey with Odysseus, right? This is a story about homecoming and all of the adversity that's part of that journey home. There's something similar here that God is saying to the Israelites, I'm about to do a new thing, I'm bringing you home, but but there's going to be challenges. When you walk through the water, not if, but when you walk through the water, just know that I'm going to be with you. And when you walk through the fire, not if, but when, know that the flames will not consume you. Water and fire in the ancient world were symbols of chaos and destruction, also symbols of purification. But God says to them twice, did you hear it? Do not fear, do not be afraid. For I will be with you. So how do you step into the new thing? Here's my question. How do you step into the new thing that God is doing? Leaving behind the old with courage and with hope. Especially when there's so much that maybe is uncertain about what you're stepping into. I feel like I'm kind of in that again in this season of my life and my vocation. There are three things, three clues. I'm going to call them postures that I think we find in Isaiah 43 that the people of God were invited to practice in this time of transition, of stepping into this new thing. And let me just offer them to you this morning, and maybe they'll be helpful for you, whatever you find yourself going through today. Here's the first. How do you step into the new thing with courage and with hope? God tells his people to look back and to remember his faithfulness in the past. That's the first posture. Look back. Remember me. Remember my promises. Remember how I have been with you. It's one of the most important commands that recurs over and over in the Old Testament, this call to remember. Do not forget the Lord your God. And we see it here in Isaiah. So much of it is in past tense. For I have redeemed you, I have called you by name. God is reminding his people of his character. Several years ago, I came across a blog post by a mentor of mine, a retired pastor. Some of you are going to know this name, Don Poost. And Don wrote about his childhood. He grew up somewhere in the Midwest, and he grew up out in the country, and he went to a country school all the way through fifth grade. And he he had to walk to school a mile and a quarter there and back. I'm sure uphill, say it both ways. But he talked about, you know, having, you know, there was no buses to take him there. His parents couldn't drive him there. And it was especially hard during the winter. I mean, we we know what that's like, right? I especially know what that's like in Northwest Iowa with like the open plains and these brutal winds that can blow through. And he would talk about having to walk to school, especially after a blizzard, a big snow, you couldn't see really the road that you were walking on. And when the wind would just blow against your face, he said it was almost unbearable. And what he learned to do as a boy is that the secret to kind of finding his way was to turn around and to walk backwards. Maybe put up the picture there. By the way, I am so sorry to give you a picture of snow at the end of July. I know, there's probably better illustrations, but this is what I got today. So, but he said what he learned then is that as he walked backwards, not only did it protect him from the brutality of the wind, but he was able to look at where his footprints were in the snow, and based upon where his footprints were, it helped him know how to move forward without steering into the ditch. When he went on to seminary, he went to Western seminary, he said he was amazed when his Hebrew professor shared with him that one of the ways that we learn to read the Bible is that it's an exercise in walking backward into our future. And he said a lot of his classmates were confused. Like, what does that mean? But he knew exactly what his professor was talking about. Here's what he writes in that blog. He says, In these uncertain days, I am trying to live by this philosophy of walking backward into my future. The winds may be howling and cold, and the future may be uncertain. But as long as I know where I've been and who has been walking with me, I can be confident that I will reach the right destination, sight unseen. As long as I can focus on God's track record in my past, I can live with hope for the future. As long as I can focus on God's track record in my past, our God is faithful. Tammy and I have talked so many times about this in this transition when it feels like disorienting for us. We said, remember, remember these other times of transition in our lives? Remember the way that God was faithful. It wasn't easy. But the God who was faithful then is the God who will be faithful now. Here's my question to you this morning: what is God calling you to remember today? From Scripture. Is there a story from your own past of where God has shown his faithfulness to you, and God is saying, remember this and let this shape the way now that you're stepping into this new thing. Look back. That's the first posture. Here's the second posture that God calls us to in Isaiah 43, and that is to look ahead. Not just to look back, but to look ahead and to trust in God's promises for the future. Let me be very clear. When Isaiah calls us to look back, the goal is not to go back to the past. The goal is not to somehow repeat the past. We look back at the past as a way of finding a way forward. Whether it's nostalgia, and I think for some of us, maybe that's it. Like if, man, if I could just get back to you, remember though, remember that time in my life or that season when things just things were so much easier? Or whether it's something more like pain or regrets or any kind of shame from your past, maybe that resonates more with you, that it's something that you continue to carry with you. And the thing about the past, the healthy way of relating to the past is that we honor it and we learn from it, but we must not be bound to it. Amen. And maybe for you, like if you're honest with yourself, you're stuck. You're stuck. And the Holy Spirit's invitation as you look ahead to this new thing that He's inviting you into, is it in the grace of God, God is inviting you today to let it go? Maybe there are some things that you need to lay down and leave behind so that you can step into what God is doing. Look back. Remember. Look ahead. Trust in God's promises. And then lastly, look around and right in front of you. And behold God's presence with you even now. My favorite part of Isaiah 43. Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old, but behold, look, that's that wonderful biblical word. Look intently, pay attention. See. I am about to do a new thing. And then the Lord says this, now. I love that. I'm about to do now. Not not just in the distant future, now. It springs forth. Can you see it? Can you see it? I think probably the hardest season of ministry in life for Tammy and me, and I kind of referenced some of that when I started this morning with this painting, but would have come right on the heels of COVID. And I think that that is true for so many people, especially a lot of pastors that I talked to. And I don't know what it was like for you here in West Michigan, but it was it was really, really hard in Northwest Iowa. And uh, what is what did Jonathan use to talk about the Christ in the city talk this week? Politics without contempt. This was very much politics with contempt. Thick. Never seen anything like it in all my years of ministry, the way in which families were being torn apart, churches were being torn apart, a community was being torn apart. So hard. And I found myself losing heart from ministry, honestly thinking like, what else could I do? But I was a humanities major at Northwestern, and what do you do with a humanities major? Nothing. You go to seminary. And I had the opportunity to have coffee with Jerry Sitzer. Somebody of you may remember that name. Jerry Sitzer, graduate of Hope College, went on to get a PhD, was the chaplain at Northwestern College in Orange City, where I went. But then went on and was a professor at Whitworth out in Spokane, Washington. Has written some remarkable books. Still my favorite book on grief and loss is A Grace Disguised as a pastor, I hand it out all the time. Jerry was on the board of trustees at Northwestern College during this time. And so he would come back in the fall and in the spring for board meetings. He and I developed a friendship and we would meet together whenever he was back. And so I'm sitting with him in the Learning Commons, a little cafeteria area at Northwestern, and I'm just at this place of feeling kind of completely discouraged. And Jerry's a historian, somebody I respect. And so I said to him, I said, Jerry, how are you finding hope right now when it just seems like there's chaos everywhere? Like I've just never seen Christians behaving this way to one another. How do you just not give up? And he thought about it for a moment, and then he said, Brian, here's an image for you. And I've carried this with me. He's in Washington, where at times there will be forest fires, California. I mean, we've experienced some of that with the smoke this last week from Canada. But he said, Brian, here's the thing about forest fires. When a forest fire roars, it can be devastating. And when you look at the impact of a forest fire and you just see the utter devastation, he said, it's it's it's overwhelming. It seems like everything around you has been lost. So, but here's the thing. When you look down at the ground right in front of you, within 24 hours of a forest fire, you'll begin to see these little tender green shoots vibrant, springing up out of the ashes. New life. So beneath the surface of that forest floor, in what we call the understory, there's all kinds of life that's teeming, and nutrients, and there's seeds that went dormant, and the heat of the fire activates those seeds, and what you can't see, because all you can see is the destruction around you. What you can't see is that beneath it all there is life. In the midst of the ashes, that new life begins to spring forward. And I wonder if that is some of what God is saying when he says, Behold, I am about to do a new thing. That doesn't mean we deny the pain or the heartache or the loss. But it's God's invitation to say, no matter how painful or overwhelming it feels right now, look closer. Right in front of you.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

And see that I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Can you see it? In your life right now, can you see it? If I'm honest, I can't always see it. And that's why I need community. That's why I need you. That's why we need each other. Sometimes we can't see it. Maybe right now, today, you can't see it. Let us be your community with you. Every time we come to this table, the gift of it is it all of this is made visible. God invites us to look back at the past and to remember his faithfulness, to look forward and hope. He is coming to make all things new and to look in front of us, around us, not just at the bread and the cup, but in the people gathered with us to behold the face of Christ. And God says to you, right now, I am with you. And I am the one who will bring you through. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.