Embrace the New Thing" 9/13/26

Sep 14, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: When Gates Stay Open, Cows Wander

A gate left unchecked invites chaos. Just as stray cattle disrupt order, unguarded areas of life create vulnerability. Distractions, old habits, or unresolved pain act like open gates, allowing compromise to creep in. God’s call to vigilance isn’t about control but stewardship. Closing gates means actively protecting what matters—relationships, purity, purpose. Spiritual readiness begins by identifying what’s been left unguarded. [07:09]

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”
(Proverbs 4:23, NLT)

Reflection: What “open gate” in your life needs closing this week? How might guarding that space create room for God’s new thing?

Day 2: Winter Comes Whether You Like Boots or Sandals

Seasons shift by divine design, not human preference. Cold winds blow regardless of our readiness. Resisting God’s timing—clinging to summer’s ease during winter’s work—stunts growth. Just as farmers trust seasons to nurture crops, believers must trust God’s rhythms. Every phase has purpose: winter roots deepen, spring buds push through, summer bears fruit. Fighting the forecast wastes energy; embracing it prepares soil for harvest. [09:30]

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.”
(Ecclesiastes 3:1, NLT)

Reflection: Where are you resisting God’s current “season” for you? What fruit might grow if you stopped arguing with the weather?

Day 3: Rearview Mirrors Can’t Show Sunrises

Staring backward blinds us to new glory. Like drivers fixated on the road behind, we crash into God’s fresh mercies when dwelling on past failures or victories. The Israelites nearly missed Exodus miracles while reminiscing about Egyptian onions. Today’s manna goes stale when hoarding yesterday’s bread. God paints dawns in real time—but we must face forward to see them. [22:17]

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”
(Isaiah 43:18-19, NLT)

Reflection: What memory plays on loop in your mind? How might turning your gaze forward alter tomorrow’s perspective?

Day 4: New Wine Demands New Wineskins

Stiff leather cracks under fermenting grace. Clinging to old methods—rigid routines, stale prayers, predictable faith—limits God’s vintage work. Fresh revelation requires flexible hearts. Like wineskins stretching to hold bubbling truth, disciples must stay pliable. The Pharisees preferred empty rituals; Jesus offered living water. Preservation kills. Expansion lives. [48:49]

“No one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”
(Luke 5:37-38, NLT)

Reflection: What rigid habit or belief might God be asking you to stretch? Where does comfort with “old wine” hinder your thirst for the new?

Day 5: God’s Pathways Grow in Wild Places

Deserts birth rivers when God speaks. What looks barren—failed plans, silent prayers, parched dreams—becomes fertile ground for divine engineering. The Red Sea didn’t part until feet touched water. Wilderness roads emerge step by step, not map by map. Trust walks where eyes can’t yet see. [31:03]

“I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland… Yes, I will make rivers in the dry wasteland so my chosen people can be refreshed.”
(Isaiah 43:16,19, NLT)

Reflection: Where do you need to stop demanding a map and start taking one faithful step? How might dryness around you become a riverbed?

Sermon Summary

Isaiah 43 calls God’s people to see that God is already doing a new thing. God controls the seasons, and fall, winter, spring, and summer come with a purpose that nobody can stop. The new season still comes whether people embrace it or fight it, and spiritual seasons work the same way. God invites participation in the new thing, but God does not force anyone to receive its blessing.

The old thing can be past pain, past sin, past shame, old relationships, old church memories, or even good days that were truly good in their season. The past remains the past, whether it was good or bad. God does not call His people to throw away gratitude for what He did before, but God does call His people to quit trying to make an old season carry a new assignment. The old thing has no power, position, or placement in what God is doing now.

God speaks first to the ecclesia, His called-out people, because His purposes are bigger than individual preferences. The church cannot become a buffet where people pick and choose only what feels comfortable. God gives each person an assignment in His kingdom, and a person can hinder that assignment through wrong motives, fear, bitterness, or a refusal to move forward. God can give a missed assignment to somebody else, but grace still says that if a person is breathing, God is not done.

Isaiah remembers the Red Sea because God reminds His people that He has made a way where there was no way. God then says, “Forget all of that,” not because His former deliverance was small, but because what He is about to do cannot be measured by what He did before. God restores what is left, but He does not merely rebuild the old car. God makes something completely new.

The new thing is spiritual before it is material. God is after holiness, sanctification, kingdom work, and fresh revelation, not merely easier circumstances or greater happiness. God deliberately puts new influences, new opportunities, and new growth in front of His people. Spiritual eyes must quit staring into the rearview mirror long enough to behold the sunrise in front of them. God is sending new wine, and those willing to lay down the old wineskins will see the buds and sprouts of His work already breaking through.

Key Takeaways

1. Lay down the old season God does not ask people to deny that former seasons mattered. God asks people to release what no longer belongs in the present assignment. The hands that keep gripping old pain, old glory, or old sin cannot freely receive what God places in front of them. [35:05]
2. Quit feeding the painful memory The past often gains strength through triggers, repeated conversations, familiar places, and old influences. God calls His people to identify what feeds bitterness, addiction, shame, or depression and then walk away from it. The giant grows when it is continually fed, but its voice weakens when it is no longer given attention. [37:33]
3. God’s new thing is spiritual God’s new thing is not mainly about a new car, house, or easier life. God desires holiness, sanctification, deeper trust, and kingdom usefulness. Spiritual renewal requires attention to God’s Word and a willingness to receive correction, instruction, and revelation. [51:13]
4. New assignments require forward-looking faith God places new things ahead, not behind. The rearview mirror can blur the vision needed to see the sunrise, the new relationships, and the new purpose God has already begun. Faith stands back in awe and says that God’s work in this season can be greater than what came before. [46:11]
5. God is not finished yet God’s grace does not pretend missed moments never happened, but God’s grace refuses to make failure the final word. God can still call a breathing person up into a fresh assignment. The question is not whether God has more to do, but whether the heart is willing to stop resisting Him.

## [54:10]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:32] - Cows, Distraction, and God’s Word
[03:45] - God Controls the Seasons
[05:24] - Do You Really Trust God?
[07:09] - Open Gates in Spiritual Life
[10:25] - Embracing the New Season
[11:31] - God’s New Thing for the Ecclesia
[13:40] - Why God’s People Get Stuck
[17:42] - Let Go of What Was
[21:42] - New Things Are Always Ahead
[27:50] - God Makes a Way Through Babylon
[31:03] - Forget the Former Things
[37:33] - Don’t Feed the Memory
[42:34] - God Restores What Is Left
[46:11] - Behold What God Has Begun
[51:13] - The New Thing Is Spiritual

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Isaiah 43:18-19
“But forget all that— it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” [32:49]

Ecclesiastes 3:1
“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” [04:10]

Romans 8:28
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love

Sermon Clips

39s

#MoveBeyondOld

“If you hold on to the good thing of the old season, you'll not understand the good thing of the new season. But the good thing in this season is greater than the thing in the old season because this new thing wasn't even in the old thing. Am I making sense? And so what God's trying to say to you, he said, I'm not saying what you're letting go or you need to let go of was bad, but I'm saying that old thing that you're still holding on to has no power and no position and no place, no placement in the new thing that I'm trying to do. It it won't work.”

61s

#DontMissYourCall

“You don't want it. It starts with that prayer. So it's God's work in us. Do you know God wants to work in you? Every one of you. Every one of you hear me. God's not done with you. Are you done with him? God's not done with you. You think he can't possibly do something new? You think the new thing, were you you think you're being punished? You think you're just put out in a pasture to retire? You think you you're out in a pasture just to die? That's not how God works. you can hinder the new thing, and everybody else will experience it. And he'll give your assignment to somebody else. That would be the saddest thing, that he gave you an opportunity. He called you up, and you missed it. Because you weren't willing to lay down what you think, what you want.”

49s

#HolinessOverHappiness

“This new thing that God wants to do in your life, first of all, the new things are spiritual. Don't forget that. God is interested in your holiness, not your happiness. He's not. God is interesting in developing you spiritually. God is interested in you being holy, sanctified. And if you're not interested in that, you won't be. And if you're not reading his word and paying any attention, you won't get it. That's why the world doesn't understand the word. And if you're refusing the word, if you're not reading the word, if you're even rebuking the word, you'll never experience it. If you're not consistent in spending time with the Lord, you'll miss it.”

60s

#PastIsPast

“See, before God will call you to something new, he's gonna remind you of something old. Because if you hold on to the something old, you'll never embrace the something new. So he's saying to you, no matter if it's bad or good, no matter what the past is, you should write this down. The past is the past. Whether it's a good past, whether it's a bad past. But here's one thing those two things have in common. It's the past. And I'm about to do something new, he says.”

40s

#DontFeedTheGiant

“Now apply that to your spiritual life. Apply that to your problems. Apply that to your pain. If he still warned you over there, you'd be over there. Quit worrying about over there because you're missing what's right here. You're missing whatever God has in front of you. So don't feed it. Don't feed the giant that can raise up in your life and places bitterness in your heart. Quit feeding the giant that causes you to stumble. Quit feeding the giant that causes you to struggle.”

51s

#DontBeTheBlock

“God is a progressive God, and most churches get stuck because the people get stuck. One person can hold a church back. One person can block the move of God. that block can be I'm holding on to the past. And that past could be pain. It could be sorrow. It also could be personal pain. A lot of people never see the new thing that God wants to do in them spiritually because they haven't forgiven or forgotten. They keep going back to the place of depression. They keep going back to the loss. If you're holding on to the loss, you'll never see the gift.”

41s

#NewIsAhead

“You see, every time God calls us to a new thing, to a new place, to a new moment, it's always in front of you, not behind you. New things are never behind. They're always in front. And here's the interesting thing. When we look to God for a new thing, do we when we look to God for new things, are we looking here? No. When we look to God for new things, we're looking here. New things are always up in front of you. Now you could bow your head, but you're still facing forward.”

43s

#RefinedByFire

“That's some of that. The new thing that God wants you to do, he wants to bless you. But listen, what did we hear? You will go through fire of oppression. But he said you won't be burned up. And there's a purpose for the fire. Every one of us needs to go through the fire because the fire refines us spiritually. You will go through deep waters. He wants you to. He's gonna allow you to. So you'll trust him. So you'll see that he'll take care of you. Well, all the things that you think you'll never have, if you walk with him, he'll show you.”

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