Prepare for What's to Come

Hey Church of the Grove, good morning, or maybe good afternoon or evening, whenever you're watching this.

Merry Christmas.

I think it's still appropriate to say on December 26th.

I hope you had the best Christmas ever.

I hope you've had a great time with your family, friends, the people that you have celebrated with.

And I just I hope you ate plenty of food and got to exchange some fun gifts.

What is your favorite gift that you either gave or received over Christmas?

I'm going to share with you mine.

It is the Yodeling pickle.

Listen to this.

See, I got this at a white elephant Christmas party with my community group.

See what you're missing out on if you don't join a community group.

And so props to Hannah and Aubrey for the white elephant gift, the Yodeling Pickle.

So I hope you've had a great holiday.

But let's kind of put that behind us and let's move forward looking to the new year.

So I want to say happy new year to you.

And I want to share a verse out of Isaiah chapter 43 that has been on my heart really for a number of weeks now.

Isaiah 43 · chapter mention

And here's what it says, Isaiah 43, verse 18 and 19.

Isaiah 43:18

It says, Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.

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.

Now this is so uh significant, especially as we look to a fresh new year, as we look maybe to a new beginning, as you think about uh kind of a fresh start moving forward in your life.

And I know people, uh some people love to do resolutions, some people love to try to start new habits, and but it is a fresh start.

Um but Isaiah is saying here, uh, remember not the former things, the things of old.

Um he said, There is something new that I'm about to do.

Do you not perceive it?

And he and he says, I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

What's the context here?

Um He's speaking about God's people while they're in captivity in Babylon.

Um, and if you look back to some of the previous verses, he's referring to their perspective of the Exodus.

Everybody celebrated the Exodus.

They celebrated Passover and they remembered the goodness and the faithfulness of God.

But what Isaiah is saying here, he's saying, I'm about to perform something new, a new Exodus where I will set my people free from captivity in Babylon.

And he says, he said, forget about the former things and look forward to the new thing that I'm about to do.

I'm gonna make a way in the wilderness, and I'm I'm gonna make streams in the desert.

I'm gonna bring pure, fresh water to the desert, and that's symbolic of God's renewal, God's refreshing, and even a sense of revival and awakening that we can look forward to.

See, our worship and our faith is connected to what God has done in the past, his goodness and his faithfulness.

As a matter of fact, as we worship and as we as we step forward in faith, we always do so remembering the past and God's faithfulness.

But here's what Isaiah is trying to make sure we understand here.

We can't base our future on what God has always done in the past.

We've got to look forward to the fresh work that God wants to do in us and through us in the future.

Here's what I've heard over the years is a statement, it's a quip, if you will, that God doesn't have any grandchildren.

God doesn't have grandchildren, he only has children.

And here's the point: God always wants to do something new in the current generation.

And he doesn't want us to depend on what has happened in the past for our relationship with him as we move forward.

Our faith is not just about the past.

God always wants to do a fresh work in this generation and the next generation.

And he's saying our faith can't be based on our parents or grandparents' faith.

It can't be based on what happened in the previous generation.

God has done miracles in the Great Awakenings and through revivals all through church history and even as we look all through scripture.

But he wants to do something fresh and new in our generation and especially as we look forward to 2022.

I'm so excited about this next year.

We've had a couple of difficult years, 2020 and 2021 have been faced with a lot of challenges.

Many of you have faced challenges, and we know what those challenges are.

I'm looking for a fresh new year.

I'm excited about what God is going to do in our lives individually and in our church collectively and corporately.

And so I want you to think about that.

I want you to think about what God wants new for you this new year in your personal life?

And what are the steps that you need to take in faith to see that become a reality?

Is it a new habit to spend time in God's Word on a daily basis?

Is it partnering with our church as we move forward into a season of prayer and fasting as we begin this new year and you personally experience prayer and fasting maybe in a new way that you've never experienced before?

What is it that you need to do to take a step of faith to see God's new, refreshing work in your life, in your very personal life?

Maybe it's to read through scripture in a new and fresh way.

Maybe it's to make a commitment to connect in a community group or to commit to serve or to be a part of our church family in a new way.

Then secondly, I want you to think about how God wants to work through us as a church family.

You know, we always say this that circles are better than rows.

And we believe that community is so important.

And we we we know that we experience community as we meet here corporately on Sunday mornings in our large gatherings, but we also experience community as we join community groups and serve teams and we get connected with other people in smaller settings.

What is it that we can do to see God's fresh new thing, new work that He wants to do as a church family?

We're gonna be sharing some exciting things in the new year about a fresh vision for our church and what we think that God is leading us toward in the next three to five years, and we want you to be a part of it.

Maybe the commitment you need to make is to be a part of our gatherings as we share and cast this new vision.

And we have a season of prayer fasting as we have some nights of prayer on January 9th and 10th and 11th, where both campuses will come together and we'll worship and pray.

Here's the third thing I want to mention.

I mentioned that God wants to do something new in your just personal walk with Jesus.

God wants to do something fresh and new in our family and in our community here at Church of the Grove.

And I believe that God wants to do something fresh and new in our community.

And it's gonna take us being willing to pray and engage and invest and invite the people in our circle of relationships.

And so I want to ask you to start praying.

Praying for people that you work with, that are your neighbors, that you go to school with, that you do life with, and think about inviting them to one of our gatherings as we go into this new year.

It's a perfect time for you to invite somebody.

A brand new year, a fresh new start, uh, and an opportunity to engage the people around you.

I believe that God has something exciting and refreshing and renewing that is going to be great for us individually and great for our church collectively.

And here's what I want you to think.

I want you to think about the fact that God, um, our our our country, our our community needs awakening.

It needs spiritual revival.

And I believe God always starts with believers.

He always starts with renewing and refreshing those that already know Christ.

And so I want to ask you to pray.

Pray for revival and pray for awakening and pray for renewal.

And then show up as we begin the new year on January 2nd and join us in our season of prayer and fasting as we share and cast vision.

Um, I hope you have a great time.

Hope if you have some downtime to get some rest and spend some time with your family as we move into this new year.

And I hope you have a great time over the new year holiday.

I can't wait to get back with you next week, and I look forward to seeing you next Sunday.