Deeper: New Thing

Welcome back ladies!!!

-Merch, Coffee, groups tables

-Questions for groups after to discuss the sermon

-The power on our NLWomen in the Word Group

Over the years I have been in groups with women who have become my dearest friends. I have watched women get baptized, get married, get pregnant, mourn miscarriages, celebrate the birth of their babies.

· Story of Uncle Steve praying for a miracle healing, Sunday service singing CeCe Winens Believe For It

“Move the immovable Break the unbreakable God, we believe God, we believe for it

From the impossible We'll see a miracle God, we believe God, we believe for it”

The highs and lows of life we have gone through together. There are opportunities for you to be a part of something like this in the lobby today. OR

If you are ever interested in leading in an area such as a groups leader please take time today and write that on a connection card and give it to one of the ladies at the group’s table. We want to stewards your God given gifts. You can drop those off at the groups table in the lobby or in the connection boxes.

One of the ways I believe we have access to discovering these God give gifts such as leading people in small group setting or caring for lost people, is by walking in intimacy with Christ, deepening our faith walk.

In the first part of my message I talked about in order for us go deeper in our relationship with Christ is to abide in Christ or in the vine. I gave practical ideas of how to set up a space in your life for daily devotionals

But we know. We live in a world that is 24/7 go go go. And it is easy to get distracted by all the things around us that prohibit us from walking deeper. Now don't over spiritualize what I’m saying not everything is bad when it interrupts our time. Remember, new mom here. Brave is amazing but causes interruptions

Picture this, you are at a lake and your ankle deep, wanting to go deeper but instead you just keep walking along the shore. You’re getting the width in but you really aren’t getting in. You haven’t gotten any depth. The Holy Spirit longs to take us out into the water and go deeper. Going deeper requires us to not look back on the past.

The prophet Isaiah tells us this…

18 “Remember not the former things,

nor consider the things of old.

19 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.

Is 43:18–19.

Often times what holds us back from going deeper is we can’t get over the past. We can’t get over how we once lived. We can’t get past the shame, the bitterness, the lack of forgiveness , maybe it was something that was spoken over us at a young age, and the list goes on. Or a recent relational issue.

Now, when the Lord spoke this through Isaiah…it was to the Israelites not allowing themselves to move on from their disobedience…they didn’t want to accept the forgiveness that the Lord had to offer and the Lord was saying… I forgive you!!! Now accept the redemption I have for you!!! Earlier in the passage the Lord said,

they wanted to go back to Egypt, that was their identity . Egypt was their god.

“43 But now thus says the Lord,

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

2 When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

3 For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

“FEAR NOT, for I have redeemed you and have called you BY NAME”. YOU ARE MINE”

He has called you by name to walk in freedom. We have been given the choice but will we take it? Part of me wonders if the reason we sit in the past so much is that even though those moments were painful, we have found purpose in them. And not a Godly purpose but that season of shame, guilt , comparison gave you purpose and identity. SO we keep reliving it, we keep going back there. And this is exactly what the Israelites did in the Old Testament. Bound to the beast itself.

But God has SO MUCH MORE FOR YOU. We can no longer just be really good at attending church. And really good at volunteering. And really good at attending NL Groups. We must do the hard work. Go deeper. Cut off the branch that is not. Has not. And will not ever bear fruit!

Are we willing to LET GO of the past in order to move forward and go deeper?

Are you willing to LET GO of the pain, the bitterness, the comparison, the consistent relationships that you know aren’t any good but you keep finding yourself in them…. so that you can walk in freedom…with a depth you have yet to experience with the Lord.

Are you willing to spend time in the presence of the Lord until he speaks to you?! I for one have been in that place where I have my cute quiet time and call it good but man we live in a day where WE need his anointing and his presence, and I dont want to leave that moment with him until I sense it.

19 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.

I will make a way when there seems to be no way. I WILL MAKE IT.

Do you believe it? Will you trust him more than just moment. More than this feeling that you are feeling right now. Because you are going to leave this place and I am not going to be in your home. In your apartment. BUT YOU KNOW WHO wants to meet you there, Jesus.

RIVERS IN THE DESSERT. Where it has been dry and barren, he wants to bring life.

I close with this…

This book I am reading called Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools

“One of the biggest mistakes we’ve made in the modern church is to reimagine spiritual maturity as the need to confess less. The unspoken assumption is, “As I ascend in relationship with God, I confess less because I have less to confess.” True spiritual maturity, though, is the opposite. It’s not an ascension; it’s an archaeological dig as we discover layer after layer of what was in us all along. Spiritual maturity means more confession, not less. Maturity is discovering the depths of my personal brand of fallenness and the depths to which God’s grace has really penetrated, even without me knowing it.”-Tyler Staton (Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools)

I was reading this book lately on prayer. And you would think that you read a book on prayer, you’d would pray more. But prayer is a hard thing for me, can I say that as a pastor? I can pray for people but yielding in PRAYER oof. That’s hard. Why? Because it requires me to stop long enough for God to bring things to mind that I know I need to give over to him. Where I have fallen short or areas that I need to prune to let him flourish. It is through these prayer moments. These yielding moments I feel the nearness of the father. There are moments I come to the father in repentance, asking him to forgive me or my lack and ask for him to fill me so I can overflow with his GRACE.

So can I leave you with this as we head into worship. Will you yield long enough for the Lord to reveal some things to you so that you can hand some things over to him? But out of this place of yielding and repenting let me encourage you that he wants to-do something new. Allow the Lord to move you from a place of repentance to a place of redemption . He is calling you deeper but he isn’t going to leave you there alone, he has great plans set before you!

“And he has taught you to let go of the lifestyle of the ancient man, the old self-life, which was corrupted by sinful and deceitful desires that spring from delusions. Now it’s time to be made new by every revelation that’s been given to you. And to be transformed as you embrace the glorious Christ-within as your new life and live in union with him! For God has re-created you all over again in his perfect righteousness, and you now belong to him in the realm of true holiness. So discard every form of dishonesty and lying so that you will be known as one who always speaks the truth, for we all belong to one another. But don’t let the passion of your emotions lead you to sin! Don’t let anger control you or be fuel for revenge, not for even a day. Don’t give the slanderous accuser, the Devil, an opportunity to manipulate you! If any one of you has stolen from someone else, never do it again. Instead, be industrious, earning an honest living, and then you’ll have enough to bless those in need. And never let ugly or hateful words come from your mouth, but instead let your words become beautiful gifts that encourage others; do this by speaking words of grace to help them. The Holy Spirit of God has sealed you in Jesus Christ until you experience your full salvation. So never grieve the Spirit of God or take for granted his holy influence in your life. Lay aside bitter words, temper tantrums, revenge, profanity, and insults. But instead be kind and affectionate toward one another. Has God graciously forgiven you? Then graciously forgive one another in the depths of Christ’s love.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭22‬-‭32‬ ‭TPT‬‬

Pray.

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 2:4–6.