The God of Newness | August 10, 2025

thank you worship team.

And uh, hey, we're super excited about

overcoming at White Rock because uh,

I mean, not only in the epic reality

of Jesus, but this morning we're

gonna celebrate some other overcoming.

I need Josh and Audrey to

come join me right up here.

Corey, you come.

It's kind of a big deal.

Alright.

That's quite the transition.

I know, and we're gonna get to some

important sermon stuff soon, but

we, at the beginning of the summer

celebrated all these teenagers that

had graduated and were getting ready to

step into adult college and career life.

And now as we begin to kick off the

new school year, we get to celebrate

some preteens who are throwing off

the shackles of elementary life

and stepping into middle school.

And they've done a lot of hard work

to get ready for this, so we're gonna

recognize them and honor them as a church.

So Corey, I'll give you this microphone

and I'll step back and I'll take away

from you at some point in time, I promise.

So, oh, can you hear me?

Oh, I always have to hold this so close.

Um, so the preteens this year, they've

been working, especially on this

summer, on spiritual disciplines.

And so you can see with these sashes,

they are badges and those are for

reading your bible, praying, doing

devotionals, that kind of thing.

Um, and so they've learned,

they've earned a lot of different

badges and we wanna honor that.

Um, as well as just the

transition to youth group, which.

My youngest is transitioning and

I just think back of when she

and Carly were in the nursery.

So this is a huge step.

Um, but first, um, I would

like to call trace clay.

So in typical white wow, typical White

Rock fashion, uh, we're gonna do this.

A little low tech.

I think we need to get, uh,

Josiah up here to be part of this,

uh, welcoming the middle school

team right as part of this too.

And, and I think, I think Corey's

gonna need a hand from somebody else.

Uh, awesome.

Derek, come on up since

you're already standing.

Perfect.

So Derek's gonna just help be

your, uh, right hand man there.

Appreciate that Derek.

Great.

Derek never graduated

pre-teens at White Rock.

It's very sad, but he did his best

and we're proud of you for trying.

So here's what we're gonna do.

Uh, Tracy, I need you

to come back here buddy.

One more time.

'cause we missed, we missed

one really important thing.

One really important thing.

All the over here, bro.

Perfect.

Right here.

That's good.

He's like, I'm not going

back to elementary school.

I totally understand.

But here's the deal, uh, because we

don't have the technology to play

this back and forth and back and forth

and back and forth, we're gonna go.

Old school, white Rock.

Some of you'll remember this

and we're gonna go acapella.

All right?

So when Corey calls your name and

brings you up and as you make that

amazing walk over to the youth group.

Yeah.

We're all gonna together as

the church be the soundtrack.

Ready?

Let's try 1, 2, 3, duh.

Horrifying.

Well done.

Here we go.

So one more time, Corey

for Trace Trace Clay.

Woo.

And then Carly Thomas.

Woo.

Livy, right?

And next Gabby Wright

and Lily Williamson.

Where did she go?

There's the.

And Evelyn Burkhart.

Okay.

And Ainsley Hale.

And this is part of the new youth group

and we are so proud of this group of kids.

Hey, real quick, before we uh,

let you guys go, sit down now,

there's no talking in church.

Because you guys are part of the youth

group, you gotta lock in none of this

kid stuff and you have to laugh at

all the jokes when I tell the jokes.

Right.

We got that.

Good.

Hey.

Uh, but our preteens like going way

back from the awesome foundation of

Sandy and Lamar through the years to

some of what's been happening more

recently in the last couple years of

merging some of that cool stuff with

whatever you guys have been doing.

Uh, our pre-teen program is awesome.

And just a quick little plug if

you're interested in plugging

in and helping with pre-teens.

Corey's gonna be stepping into some,

uh, awesome stuff with the high

schooler or the middle school now

obviously chasing her daughter around,

but there's some opportunities to

plug into some other things maybe

that maybe you're not aware of.

But pre-teens is pretty awesome group.

It's been a pretty awesome group for sure.

And we have a really cool group in

the wings this next time around.

So if you're interested, definitely

talk to Corey 'cause she can get

you connected to some cool things.

And a big round applause for

Derrick who happened to go.

That's right.

What's the lesson, Derrick?

Do not use the bathroom at White Rock.

Go before you come.

It's just how it works.

Hey, big round applause

for all these guys.

We're excited.

And, uh, real quick tonight, 'cause

Zach's referenced it, but tonight you're

inviting all the parents to what guys?

We have this big Sunday kickoff when

we're spelling that Sunday with an E

'cause we're gonna have a bunch of ice

cream and you guys are all invited,

all the parents for youth that have

been there and the new youth coming in.

So come hang out with us.

It's gonna be a blast from

6:00 PM until seven 30.

Alright, thank you guys.

You can have a seat.

Great job.

Big round applause.

One more time for our awesome preteens.

Way to go guys.

Way to go.

Hey, listen, if you do something

worthy of recognition at White

Rock, we are gonna recognize you.

And if you do something that's

probably not that worthy, we

might still recognize you, right?

Because we like to have

some fun around here.

And, uh, we just got back from a bunch

of guys going to Minnesota last week

for a really neat and special time.

We had some vacation bible school

a couple weeks before that.

We got schools launching,

all kinds of things going on.

It is a crazy, fun time to just

be part of this family, and I'm

so excited for what God has.

In store.

And really I'm excited because I've been

chewing on this word a lot lately, new.

And guys, I want you to

understand this really cool

thing about the ancient of days.

The God who has always

been and ever will be.

He is the God of doing new stuff.

We so often think that God is stale

or stagnant, or there's this old time

religion that just kinda hangs out in the

background forever, just sort of the same.

And now our God is the same.

He doesn't change.

But what's crazy is the reservoir of who

he is and what he can do in our life.

And what he wants to do is new every

single day, constantly bringing new

challenges, opportunities, growth.

He wants to do new things in your life.

We got students who are stepping into

college in this new chapter coming up.

We got new empty nest life

going on for some families.

We've got new middle school vibe going on.

We got new school years.

We got new jobs I heard recently, right?

We have new relationships,

we got new things happening

all around us all the time.

And our God is active in that newness

and he wants to do new things in you.

Don't, don't make the mistake of thinking

that you serve an old God who's just

sort of outta commission and kind of

hanging on till the end gets here today.

Right now he wants to do new things.

Isaiah 43 19.

Uh, a verse you probably

know well, says this.

See, I am doing a new thing.

A new thing.

Now it springs up.

Do you not perceive it?

I'm making a way in the wilderness,

in streams, in the wasteland,

this Hebrew word, hadash,

hadash, something like that.

Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Credit Creek Or for

the shot, right Hadash.

Ash.

Okay.

Anyway, moving on.

So this word, I'm gonna learn

a new Hebrew word every day.

That's the new thing in my life.

But this word in the Hebrew

has this idea of fresh.

And what I want you to understand is that

God wants to do something fresh in you.

And I think that's hard for us

because sometimes, I mean, if you've

been around the church, you kind

of know all this stuff, right?

I mean, we kind of know all this stuff.

I got all the theological pillars and

principles, and I know a bunch of memory

verses and I kind of get the whole, you

know, salvation thing and eternity thing.

I mean, I, I got it right.

We don't have any comprehension

of the depth of who our God is.

And I don't mean he's gonna go

changing something that's forever

etched in all eternity as truth.

But I mean, he wants to let you see

a little more of who he is and he

wants you to grow a little closer

to him and experience a little

bit more fresh and a alive stuff

in him and in your relationship.

If you've been married, you probably,

if you've done it for a period of

time, like, I don't know, maybe

like three days, you'll learn that.

People are just always

surprising you, right?

In marriage, I've been married 26

years, which is a miracle for Jamie

to have put up with 26 years, right?

And I still am learning things.

I'm still experiencing things.

And unfortunately for

her, she is too, right?

Like, what is wrong with you?

Right?

When I think I got you figured out, right?

But the reality is in a

relationship, there's constant

growth, there's constant newness.

And for some of us, we wanna put God in

this box where we're like, I did my like

10 little checklist things and now I'm a

follower of Jesus and I just do my life.

He wants you to experience fresh

and alive in relationship with him.

He wants you to grow and keep moving

forward in relationship with him.

Stagnant is not our God.

Sitting still and treading

water and not moving.

That's not our God.

Being still right.

He says, be still but what?

Be still and know that I'm God,

be still and learn and grow.

Experience a fresh in me who

I am, what I have for you.

And I think for a lot of us, we treat

our relationship with Jesus as historical

part of our past, our foundation.

But man, he's in the now.

He's right now wanting to do fresh things.

And this Hebrew word is also tied to this

idea of renewing, which is really cool.

Not just new, but renew that which

has gone kind of stale, that which

has kind of started to to fade.

He wants to refresh, renew.

It's also tied to the idea of repair.

I mean, some of us have made messes

and some of us have walked through hard

things and difficult things, and it

just feels like maybe the luster is gone

and all the good stuff was in the past.

And we look back at the glory

days and we stagger ahead.

Man, that's not who our God is.

He wants to do something

new and fresh in you.

And you might be like,

man, way too old for that.

No, you're not.

If there's breath in your lungs, the

creator of the universe wants to do

something new and fresh in your life, you

might be like, I'm too young for that.

I don't know anything.

Well, that's true, but you're gonna learn

some stuff and as you do, God is gonna

do fresh and new things in your life.

The problem is, is the devil wants to do

some new stuff in your life, just FYI.

He wants to do some things that

take you some different directions

for what God has for you.

And he's convinced us that the stuff

God has for us is old and fuddy, duddy

and miserable instead of abundant

life filled with joy and purpose and

meaning that Jesus promises us and the

world sells us a bunch of junk, but

God has good in store for his people.

See, I am doing a new thing now.

It springs up.

Do you not perceive it?

I'm making a way in the wilderness, right?

The lost wandering land of.

Staggering through right

streams in the wasteland.

Maybe your life feels like a

wasteland, like it's a mess.

Like you've destroyed things, man.

This wilderness, this wasteland

is a picture of desolation.

And here's what's cool about our God.

He's not making something fresh and

new in your perfection, in you doing

everything just right and crushing it.

He's right where you're at in

the, in the wandering, in the

lostness, in the struggle, in

the hardship and the difficulty.

And he's not waiting till

you get it figured out.

He's at work now wanting to do

fresh and good things in your life.

If you'll turn and if you'll

fix your focus on him, he

wants to bring new right now.

He's not waiting for you

to figure some stuff out.

He's not waiting for you to

wander back out of the mess.

He's just right there and he's present.

If we'll turn to him, desolate,

mess problems, whatever we've done,

wherever we've been, our God says,

Hey, my mercies are new every morning.

Let's go today.

Let's go take my hand.

Let's go whatever the failures,

whatever the faults, whatever the

scars, man, it doesn't matter right now.

Right now he wants to do new

and fresh and alive in you

playing video games

back there on the piano.

Did you guys hear that?

I think God wants to do something new.

He wants us to play Mario

on the piano over here.

Do you know what that is, Debbie?

I think it's Dax Scapegoat, pastor.

That's what I heard.

Dax Dax.

Put that video game away.

What's wrong with you?

Hey, just in case you're thinking,

yeah, that's cool, but you're talking

about new stuff in the Old Testament.

Let's go to the New Testament.

Second Corinthians five 17 says this.

Therefore, for anyone who's in

Christ, the new creation has come

that we are a new creation in him.

The old has gone and the new is here.

When we look at this new word, this

Kaos in the Kaos, in the Greek,

it means the same thing fresh.

It's the same picture of freshness alive.

Have you ever had like fresh

produce versus produce that's maybe

not as fresh or maybe fresh food?

I had a steak last night at a place

that usually does a great job.

Little family dinner we were doing, and

they brought me out a steak that had

been there since, you know, Wednesday.

And it was not fresh.

And I poked it and I prodded

it, and I never do this.

But I finally talked to the manager.

I was like, Hey man, this

just isn't what you guys do.

And he's like, that is not what we do.

So I got a free really bad

steak, but it was free.

So I'm cool with that, right?

Um, but God doesn't want

to give you leftovers.

He doesn't have some old produce

in the, in your life that he's

waiting to hand out if you're good.

He's got the best stuff man.

And he wants to do something fresh.

He wants to take our old self

with its sin and its mess and it's

struggle, and he wants to just swap

it out for new and alive and fresh.

This, uh, word also means unworn.

Unworn.

And this is an awesome term, right,

because I don't know about you,

but sometimes I feel really worn.

Maybe even worn out.

Like I'm just toast.

I clinging to this life verse that

says, in my weakness, your strength's

made perfect, because I keep finding

myself so drained and so weak, and

yet God so powerful and so present.

Now, my goal is not just to wipe

myself out, but I come from a long

line of people wiping themselves out.

If you've met my father, I

don't know how to not work hard.

It's just maybe stupid sometimes the

amount, and Jamie reminds me of that.

But the point is this, no matter

what condition I find myself in

and exhaustion and in fatigue,

God shows up with this freshness.

This not worn out old.

Here's a little bit of me

for you, Andy, but here's the

fullness of what I've got for you.

And he wants us to be people

who are not just completely worn

out and ragged and hopeless.

Now, let's be honest, sometimes

we're that way because we're

chasing a whole lot of stuff.

We ought not to be chasing and we're

trying to make some crazy marriage of

the materialism and the stuff in this

life with what it means to follow Jesus.

You know, Calvin, you had an awesome thing

you shared this morning about the reality

of this stuff is even precious stuff.

But at the end of the day, it's not

the eternal stuff that matters the

most and what a perspective that is to

recognize that everything we hold in

our hands, man, it turns to ash one day.

That's the truth, right?

That God says to us, but not the

eternal relationship with God

and not the people that we get to

spend eternity with who know Him.

And that's where we're gonna

invest our time and energy.

So don't grow weary and doing

good for the proper time.

You'll reap harvest if you don't give up.

But if you're growing weary, doing bad,

it might be a self-assessment time to stop

and take a look at what you're doing, why

you're doing it, and maybe that'll answer

some of the exhaustion and fatigue, right?

So God wants us to us to be

people who are not warned, right?

We are.

Unworn.

Now, it's an old word, nobody uses it.

But I was looking at it and I kinda liked

this image better, uh, better in addition.

So grant me this, this is not the meaning

of the word per se, but when I saw the

word unworn, I thought about brand new

shoes or a brand new shirt, or brand

new pants, something that I got to

put on that's never been worn before.

And it just feels new and fresh

and it doesn't smell like my other

shirts and it doesn't have the paint

or the tear like my other shirts.

Or it doesn't, uh, have holes in

it like my other shoes, right?

Sometimes we have this idea that we

come to God in our imperfection and

he gives us some leftover, worn out

stuff 'cause that's all we deserve.

But remember the parable.

Of the son who sold every or or

took everything and squandered it.

The prodigal son who comes back to his

father and his father runs out to meet

him and wraps a new unworn robe on him

and new sandals and a new ring because

he loves him and that's who our God is.

It doesn't matter what you've done.

It doesn't matter the

messes that you've made.

All that matters is that you come to

him and he wants to do new creation

stuff in your life, and maybe you

got a real bad track record with

a whole lot of losses in there.

But man, today is a new day

and our God is into new.

He's not into old.

In fact, this old stuff, this history

and past failures and messes, right?

This word here.

In the, uh, Greek for Gone is a cool word.

It means passed away.

Perished.

It means dead, right?

That the things that we have done

Now, this doesn't mean like all

the good things God's ever done.

Don't think about those things.

It doesn't mean all the things in

the past that have special meaning

and we're we're impactful in my

life that those don't matter.

Disregard those.

There's, they're dead and gone.

That's not what he's saying.

But the idea that the failures and

the missing, the marks from last

week, the sin, the struggle, the times

that we just didn't quite get it.

I mean, we just, we've all made messes.

We've all sinned and fallen

short of the glory of God.

All of us.

That stuff, man, it, it's dead.

It's gone.

Yesterday's dead.

What's crazy is you can't

live in the past, right?

Our God is past, present, future.

He's everywhere.

He's eternal.

He is outside of time,

all of those things.

But we can only live in the present.

So if you wanna be with God,

you gotta be in the present.

You can't live in the past and

you can't live in the future.

You can't neglect the

present to be in the future.

You just gotta live right

now, in this moment today.

And so many times we're looking at the

past and we're holding onto the past,

and we're living in the past, or we're

just kind of, I don't even know, treading

water or just sort of just holding

our breath till the future gets here.

We never get to tomorrow.

It's always tomorrow, right?

It's a trick.

It's a ploy we just get today.

That's why I love this visual.

Um, I use this often and I

think it's a cool picture.

Um, not the car.

I don't even know what

kind of car that is.

It's, it's probably got a lot of tariffs

on it, so don't get too attached.

But you ever think about.

The ratio of windshield

to rear view mirror.

You ever think about that?

It's significant, right?

Because when you're in the car and

you're driving, the vast majority of

what you see is what's all around you and

what's on the horizon in front of you.

There's only a tiny little

glimpse of what's behind you.

And I think it's a really good biblical

picture for how we need to live.

'cause a lot of us have rear view mirrors

that take up most of the windshield 'cause

we're staring at the past and we're angry.

And we're bitter, or we're frustrated

or we're ashamed or fill in the blank.

But God has new, fresh,

alive, ready for us right now.

It's all around us.

And maybe we're looking so far around the

band and horizon that we're not paying

attention to what's in front of us.

That could be a real thing.

But man, if we could live with this

principle that we're not supposed to stare

into the back, you know, who wants you

to pay attention to what's behind you?

The enemy does.

Now, is it okay to occasionally

throw a glance in the rear view

mirror when you're driving?

Yes, you should, right?

You need to.

But man, when we do

that, something happens.

We take our eyes off what?

What's right in front of us

and the road ahead of us.

And spiritually, man, when we look

behind us, we have our eyes fixed

on Jesus, and we have our eyes fixed

on circumstances and situations,

history stuff we can't get back to.

We gotta keep our eyes fixed on

him and just keep moving forward.

And that can be really hard to do, to

let go of some of those things, which

brings me to a great bumper sticker.

Since we're in the car vibe,

let go and let God, right.

That's a great, great

little bumper sticker.

We should do a bumper sticker

theology sermon series.

Some of these are great,

some of 'em are pretty weak.

But this is an interesting concept because

I think the only way you can let go is if

you truly understand God's faithfulness.

Do you trust him enough to take your

eyes off the past and look to the future?

Do you trust him enough to let go

of what was, to embrace what is?

'cause you can't go back

and you can't live there.

But we hold onto that stuff desperately

and God says, let go and step into today.

Step into this moment with me.

I want to do something fresh in your life.

I want you to experience joy and

purpose and meaning, but it's

not in the rear view mirror.

It's right here, but you gotta trust me.

It's maybe a good litmus test to

see if we really trust him or not.

Lamentation says the faithful

love of the Lord, never.

Never.

His mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness.

His mercies begin afresh.

They're new scripture says every morning.

Do you know that every morning when you

get up, God anxiously awaits for you to

step into that new day with him, with

fresh new mercies that he has for you,

his faithfulness, he's right there.

And the devil says, what about yesterday?

And what about last week?

And what about this and what about that?

But that's not who our God is.

And some of us have a real hard

time letting go and some of us

have a real hard time trusting

him 'cause we can't control that.

But if we'll live with open hands, as

Roger was saying this morning, open

hands to let him take what he needs to.

To do the business and the work that

he needs to in us and to trust him

out that front windshield instead

of looking in that rear view mirror.

He has so much he wants you

to experience and to do and

don't get caught looking back.

We'll see in Revelation one day when we

stand before the great white throne that,

uh, he who is seated on the throne, he

says this, I am making everything new.

This is trustworthy.

It's true.

Told John to write it down and he

doesn't say, I've made everything new.

This isn't a statement about him at

the end of time saying, it's all done.

I made it.

We're good.

It's him saying, I'm the God who is

in the constant process of making

new at a worn out, stale, miserable.

Wasteland messes, wilderness wandering.

I make new.

I make all things new.

Well, God wants to do

something new in you.

I believe that with all of my heart.

I think he wants to do

something new in me.

And new is scary.

New is challenging, and new is hard to

embrace sometimes, unless the God of

all creation is the one that your hope

and your trust and your faith is in.

Some of you're stepping into new jobs.

Some of you're stepping into middle

school and high school and college.

Some of your parents are

letting kids go out into that

big, crazy wide world, right?

Some of you're figuring

new relationships out.

Some of you're trying to manage

every single day life, and it

feels like just misery, man.

Everything across the board.

We're all in this crazy life thing

together, but our God is the God

who makes new and you can trust him.

And you can fix your eyes on Jesus and

step into each day with his promise that

he wants to do something new in your life.

And here's a little trick.

You have to let him and you have to be

willing 'cause he is and he's ready.

So we gotta take his hand.

And I would challenge you to do this.

Maybe it's a fun week of challenge here.

Every day that you get up after the

coffee, when you actually have a

coherent thought in your head to just

say to the Lord Jesus, what new thing

do you want to do in my life today?

Help me see it.

And keep your eyes open and see

what awesome things that the God

who created everything wants to

do in this little lump of clay.

And maybe make all eternity different

'cause of those moments and those

experiences that he's got ready for you.

Don't miss it by staring into the past,

keep your eyes fixed on him and see

where this crazy adventure leads you.

Father, thank you for being the

God who's not stuck in the past.

Thanks for loving us and

walking with us in all of the

different seasons that we're in.

And you know what?

Everybody's walking through in this room.

You know every anxiety and

worry, every hope, every dream.

And God, I just pray that over the

course of this week, that you would make

yourself known in new and fresh ways

to each of us through the power of Holy

Spirit, that we'd find encouragement

and purpose and hope and joy.

That's a little bit different

than anything we've known

in that rear view mirror.

Show us what it looks like

to walk with you in new life.

Letting go of the sin, confessing it.

Lord, if we need to to say, father,

forgive me for my sin and cleanse

me from all unrighteousness.

And I put my faith and trust in you.

And Lord, if we're struggling in

areas, Lord, let us just walk away

from those and walk forward into the

light that you shine in our path.

Meet with us this week in some cool ways.

Jesus, I pray we love you and

we thank you in Jesus name.

Amen.

Hey guys, before I dismiss you, I just

wanna let you know two cool things

Next week, uh, we have some college

students that are gonna be sharing some

really cool things about some mission

stuff they got to do this summer.

And I'm very excited to have a

chance to talk with them together.

So you're not gonna wanna miss that.

And then two weeks from now,

John, don't miss this man.

This is important 'cause I know

that you're probably a Black

Sabbath fan, but I don't know if

you guys are big into Black Sabbath.

Definitely not me, but something

cool is gonna happen in two weeks.

The original lead guitarist from Black

Sabbath is gonna be here speaking,

and I'm gonna be here to make sure

that we don't all go like, ha ha,

whatever it's that we do, right?

But, um, he's gonna become, he's

gonna come to White Rock and share.

Lemme just tell you a little

backstory on this real quick.

Um, we got an invitation for him to

come and I think Cassie, his phrase

was, most churches don't want me.

And I think Cassie's, like he

fit in great at White Rock.

So I dunno what that means, but

I'm super excited for you to get

to hear his story, what he's been

through, what he's walked through.

And I would just say to you, if you

have a friend who doesn't know Jesus,

who uh, who isn't into this whole silly

church stuff, um, you might just drop

a little Black Sabbath reference and

drag 'em with you in two weeks because

they're gonna hear the gospel and they're

gonna hear some pretty cool stuff.

And it's gonna kick off our classic rock

series that I'm super excited about.

So have a great day in the Lord.

We will see you soon and, uh, watch

out for the cool, new things God

wants to do 'cause they're coming.