Usually there are more people here.
It's good to have you here.
Guys, I think I got to get the record straight because this morning I got a few text messages saying,
is there no in-person meeting because of the World Cup?
Frankly, this has nothing to do with the World Cup.
And I haven't watched it yet, but I will.
With the time left, I want to talk about something that God has been putting on my heart.
I've titled this message, It's a New Day.
It's a New Day.
And what I believe God wants to do with us, with the church,
is He wants to bring something new to our lives.
And He wants us to prepare for it.
He wants us to understand the newness that comes with who He is and what He wants to do.
And when we understand it and say, yeah, I get it, this is what you wanted to do.
This will change our lives.
So I've titled it, It's a New Day, because on a daily basis, when we wake up,
one of the things that May just said, first things first, as a church,
we've been taught to wake up and know first things first.
It's something that I want to get better at on a daily basis.
I want to get better at making sure that my eyes are set on the first things first
before I get going with my day.
When it is first things first, what do you really do with it?
What do you really expect from God?
One of the things I'm hoping will happen today is, over the next little while,
as we listen to what God is saying, I want us to wake up every day
to the new things God is doing in our lives, to the new things.
Because, yes, He is, as I said before, He is the Ancient of Days.
That's Daniel 7.9. Daniel calls God, He is the Ancient of Days.
Yes. But at the same time, my goodness, for us, His children,
we should be revived and revived and revived internally.
Everything inside of us should change and transform,
because there is such newness to who God is.
And it's impossible for God to be stale.
In Ezekiel, you see a river that's flowing from the temple,
and the river is flowing from the temple, and it's flowing from the temple.
It reaches the marshlands, and it says anything that the river touches, it gains life.
But it doesn't talk about the river ending anywhere,
because what God does is when He starts something, and He's a very source of life,
so life from Him flows and flows and flows.
A fresh wind that God sends is not something that He does once every six months for me.
There is a fresh wind that's blowing for me when I open my eyes on a daily basis.
When I open my eyes, I've experienced this a few times,
I want to experience it so many more times.
When I wake up, as soon as I wake up, I'm stuck with something.
In my mind, there is this word, this verse, this picture.
It's a new wind. But I want that to be my reality every day,
because that is my inheritance.
My inheritance is that this is available for me on a daily basis.
So that's what we're going to look at today.
In the Garden of Eden, everything that's said in Genesis chapter 1 was the beginning.
Yes, there was a beginning, and then corruption and sin came,
but it wasn't until Jesus came with His birth, John chapter 1, Jesus, full of truth, full of mercy,
it wasn't until He came that all of creation, there was crying and crying and crying out loud
for salvation to come, for restoration to come.
All of creation that was crying out, they received what new life, the new life that Jesus brought.
So for me then, when I wake up, it's a new day, and I don't want us to limit it with it's a new day.
My goodness, the possibilities of a new day with God, the possibilities of a new day with God,
the opportunities that I have when I recognize that it is a new day with my God, with my Father.
So that's what I want us to take away from today.
And I know that this is something that God wants to do with us, man, for real.
He wants to do this. He wants to change my thinking so that I am so aware of the newness that He wants to bring in my life.
And when I am saying this, I am not telling myself, hey Derek, for the next six months there is a new thing that God is doing.
That's not at all what I am saying.
When I am talking to myself, I am telling myself, Derek, you've actually overlooked the newness that comes with the relationship with Christ on a daily basis.
That I can't stay at the same place the next day. That I don't have to.
That there is such newness to my life that I can have with Christ.
Isaiah 43, it talks about God saying, I am going to do a new thing.
This is in His nature, guys. He does a new thing. He does it.
So I can wake up to this new thing daily.
So my old thinking, my old ways, my old patterns, my old friends, I am not talking about friends, but the voices that I am used to listen to,
they can all be shut down when I understand the newness that comes with a revitalizing, reviving life that I can have with Christ.
So the old stops. And on a daily basis, I get to choose. You get to choose every day when you wake up.
It's not a day when you wake up thing. Even after the day is done and you go into the night, you get to choose daily what you want to inherit.
And what I am telling you is, there is such newness that God wants to give you and me through what He is sharing with us today.
So there is a new beginning and a new life awaiting the child of God every day as he or she wakes up.
There is a new beginning and a new life awaiting the child of God every day as he or she wakes up.
When Jesus met the adulterous woman and He said, go and sin no more, it was a promise and an invitation.
We don't think of it as a promise because He was giving her a new life.
Go and sin no more was on one hand telling her, hey, you can have a new beginning starting tomorrow.
You can have a new beginning starting right now. So when He said, go and sin no more, to her it was a new beginning.
And she recognized it. And then next day when she wakes up, those words rang in her ears.
It rang in her ears to a point where she realized that yes, He is giving me a new, He is doing a new thing.
He is giving me a new life and I can step into this new life that He is giving me.
Same happened with Rahab. When the spy said, you know what, all you've got to do is tie the scarlet cord on your window.
She realized that yes, it was instruction, but it was also a new beginning for her.
So the very next second, Rahab could choose how she was to operate.
She could either give way to the fear and the anxiety that the king is going to come, soldiers are going to come.
They're going to ask me, how do I respond? Or she had the option to say, I have trusted and have heard this God of Israel
who parted the Red Sea. I believe in Him. I'm going to stand in His promise and I'm going to believe that He will do what He said through His people.
So yes, for them it was a promise. It was also an invitation to a new life.
For me, when Jesus said, Derek, I am going to be with you until the very end, it is a promise.
And it's also an invitation for me to step into a new life with Him.
Not once for my life when I become born again, but for every day, every morning, every evening, there is newness that comes with Him.
It's impossible, guys, because the way I thought about this is I look past the possibilities of newness with God when I get used with Him.
And what I'm telling you guys is, let's not look past the possibilities that come with having this relationship with Him.
We aren't settling for once every three days, once every month, once every six months.
No, there is so much more to Him when you open your eyes and say, every day He's inviting me, every day He's inviting me, every day there is a promise given, every day I can walk into a new thing.
Every day is different. Let's read this verse real quick. Psalm 19, 12.
Psalm 19, 12. I went through different versions and I liked this one. Common English Bible Translation.
I don't think I've ever read that one before. But it is Common English Bible Translation.
It puts it nicely. It says, one day gushes the news to the next and one night informs another what needs to be known.
I love it. One day gushes the news to the next and one night informs another what needs to be known.
My father's promises are promises spoken to me every day. One day speaks to the next. One night informs another.
Each day reminding the next day of the promise made and each night informing the next night of the promise.
Let's read 2 Corinthians 5, 17. We're going to read three different verses.
So open your Bibles if you haven't yet.
Chapter 5, verse 17. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17.
It says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here.
The New creation has come. The old has gone completely and the new is here.
Colossians chapter 3, verse 10. We have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
It's a new self that I have. Ephesians chapter 4, 24. Ephesians chapter 4, 24.
And to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
So for me in Christ, my old has gone. And I'm not even talking guys about things that were in my life before I found Christ.
I'm talking about even things as recently as this morning that weren't from him.
That was hybridized because of my ways. I don't need to live with this even the next hour and moving forward.
Because there is such newness that is available when I walk with the Spirit of God, when I walk with Jesus.
It is impossible for my life to remain the same. And if my life when I look at it is remaining the same,
I've got to question what's going on Derek. Because my life cannot look the same when I am with Jesus.
It continually changes. And sometimes we say once every three months, once every six months.
And I'm telling us, no man, let's shoot for more with him because he is the God of the universe.
In him there is no limitation. And I want everything he has to offer.
So I'm going to change my thinking to say, yeah, yeah, I find the space and I learn and hear from him.
And it gives me enough for the next three months. I'm changing that. I want to be new.
What's going on Brandon? Oh, yeah, I've got a boundary here. I can't walk past that.
I was getting my calories burned for the day but Brandon doesn't want it. It's okay.
I tried though. Thank you very much Brandon. Oh, you've got to give me that much space.
I need the newness of Christ. I really need it. Sorry man, it doesn't help. I need the newness of life.
I really need it. And I don't want to give way to anything that I think in my mind
that limits me from accessing the newness I can have in Christ every day.
It's a new day. There is a fresh wind. There is a new beginning. There are new pathways in the Spirit.
New pathways in the Spirit for me. Do you hear that? There are new pathways in the Spirit of God for you daily.
And I don't want to overlook that. I'm not prepared to. So I want to train myself.
Because I know that I can't walk in the fullness of this tomorrow but as he teaches me this,
I want to walk increasingly and increasingly and increasingly in this knowledge and truth that there is such newness I want to inhabit.
So my wife should continually see this in me. That he is changing and changing and changing.
Your spouse should see it. And Paavan, if you're single, your mom can see it too.
So I want to touch on a few things that the Father has waiting for us to engage every day when we wake up.
There are a few things I want to touch on. So the first one
It's the New Covenant. Read Luke chapter 22, verse 20 for me. Luke 22, 20.
It says, This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
This cup, Jesus said, is the New Covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
So this covenant that Jesus wrote in blood, because when Moses wrote, it was written on tablets, on stones.
Jesus wrote it with his blood. And he wrote it on my mind. He wrote it on our minds.
Where does that come from? That is coming from Hebrews chapter 10, 16.
It says, I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds.
It's no longer, the covenant that God has written to me is no longer on a tablet, no longer on a stone. It's on my mind.
But here's the thing guys, this covenant was written way before I was even born.
When I was in my mother's womb, I did not know of this covenant, but he made a covenant with me before I was born.
What does that mean? It means that he already knows everything that I will do.
He already knows what I will talk, what I will do, what I will hear.
He knows all of my days in its entirety. But before even I did any of that, he wrote a covenant in his blood.
And he said, this is who I am to you and I will not change.
Derek, you get the free will to do whatever you want to do, but I will not change in my dealings with you.
I will forever be kind to you. I will forever be good to you. I will forever love you. I will forever be with you.
I will never leave you Derek. I will never forsake you Derek. Days may be longer, days may be shorter.
Seasons will come, seasons will leave. Friends will come, friends will leave.
But I want to tell you Derek that this covenant that I have written, not on a stone tablet, but I have written this covenant in blood.
It is my covenant for you. Even before you were even thought of by your parents, I made this covenant with you.
And that gives me confidence now, even though I have walked in church, lived in church all my life.
When I hear the new covenant, when I understand the new covenant, everything in me should spring up with joy.
Because I know for a fact that he loves me so much so that when I wake up in the morning, there is a new covenant that says, Derek, the field is here.
Come, enjoy it with me. I want to take you here. I want to take you there. I want to take you all of these different places in the spirit, in my relationship with you.
There are these things I want you to inhabit. There are these things I want you to pursue. There are these things that I want you to enjoy because these are from me for you.
So the promises and the benefits of this new covenant does not change when I change.
The promises and the benefits of this new covenant does not diminish because of my failures or lack.
It is not deterred by my weaknesses because the author of this covenant, the one who wrote this covenant, he upholds the entire universe.
He doesn't change. And so I can have so much confidence waking up every day that what he has said of me in his word,
what he has told me through his people, what he has told me personally, those things are true. He sees me as he sees Jesus.
And so when I wake up, because of what happened yesterday, it doesn't change. And it's amazing how we can be believers and we can hear the same message a hundred and fifty times.
But still there is the old coming and pulling our attention away because the old reminds you that maybe you're not at the same place.
The old is what we fight. The old is what we say no to. Because you know what, guys, there is one thing that pulls you or tries to or attempts to pull you away from this new covenant.
It is the religion that we've made. Religion pulls you away from the new covenant.
Religion makes of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, religion makes of them God.
Because it's not personal anymore. Religion makes the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit God.
Religion forces me to walk in fear. There is no freedom.
I want us to think, because some of us have been Christians for long, some of us are Christians recently.
We believed in Jesus and we now understand who he is and how he operates.
But I want us to think, religion stops our progress with God because it tries to tell you how you ought to be, how when you're not as you ought to be, you have fallen back in line.
And the new covenant that Jesus has written is very different.
A couple days ago, I had to repent to God about religion in my life.
Because there was this one thing that I've been talking to him about and he's been talking to me about.
And when I was thinking about it, I realized that somewhere in my thinking, I wanted it to be done this way, this way, this way every day.
And if it changed slightly, in my heart I had a problem with it. In his heart there was no problem.
But I have for me set up a track and I need to be on that track.
If I am a little left or a little right, inside me now there is religion talking and saying, hey that was not perfect, that was not right.
You deviated from that a little bit. That's not God.
That's not God.
Whenever I put, whenever there is a shadow on his face, whenever he looks different from the new covenant that he has given to me, that's religion.
Religion opposes the new covenant and it makes it more about you and less about him.
That's how you know it.
Religion makes it more about you and less about him.
Religion makes you perform for approval and the new covenant makes you rest and delight in sonship.
Hear that again. Religion makes you perform for approval.
But the new covenant allows you to rest in him, delight in him.
And if you find even a shred of religion in your life, go at it with a hammer. Don't give it any room.
And the longer you know Christ and the longer you have known him and been in church, the more prone you are to religion.
And sometimes you have got to do the blind spot check.
Because otherwise it may not even appear on your, yeah.
Religion lies to you about your limitations and what disqualifies you, while the new covenant written by the blood of Jesus Christ speaks a better word.
Religion lies to you about your limitations and what disqualifies you, while the new covenant written with the blood of Jesus Christ speaks a better word.
And I get to choose what I listen to.
This covenant gives me 24x7 access to my father.
And when I open my eyes every morning, in the evenings, wherever I am, any second of the day, any second of the night, I am with him, full access.
Not even a word away. He is there, he is a thought away.
Second, new commandment.
When God made man he first blessed them, he blessed them, he said multiply. Subdue people.
And Eliot is doing that, not in the way of their plan to work for God's sake.
And strive for the victory for God.
When God made man, he first blessed them.
He blessed them.
He said, multiply, subdue, go have dominion.
He first blessed them.
After he blessed man, then he gave the commandment.
He said, this is what you're not supposed to do.
With us, there is one commandment he has given us, and that's John chapter 13, 34 to 35.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
I want to put it this way.
Practically, I have to and you have to desire to love one another.
You have to desire his love for others.
In other words, there isn't anything more important than that.
If you read the Bible, Genesis through Revelation, you have to come out of that reading.
I don't even know who this is now, so maybe not a pastor even.
Someone said this, Lord, stamp eternity on my eyes, on my eyeballs.
What a prayer.
Stamp eternity on my eyeballs.
That anything that I look at, so when I look at this teaching time, I'm not looking at
what's happening right now.
Stamp eternity on my eyeballs, someone said.
I think it's Jonathan Edwards.
Can we have a different prayer?
That's a great prayer.
We should long for it because whenever there is eternity stamped on my eyeballs, I begin
to look at things very differently.
Very differently.
That's a great prayer.
Amazing prayer.
We should pray that.
But I want us to pray another thing.
Lord, it's a simple prayer.
It doesn't sound as fancy as that prayer.
But if you pray this prayer, let me tell you, all of heaven rejoices with you.
Because there is nothing more important than this prayer.
And this prayer is, Lord, give me your love to love others.
You can go through all of the Bible and have 700 different revelations about every scripture
in the Bible.
But there is nothing more important than this.
And it is just this.
Jesus, you said that your commandment to me is that I am to love one another as you have
loved me.
By now, guys, in my life, I've gotten to a point where I know that I can try as much
as I can with my love.
It doesn't get there.
Some days are great.
Some days are amazing.
Let me tell you that.
Just when I feel like I made it, I got it, some days are amazing.
Just when I think it's done and it's dealt with and I've got my love taking care of this,
then something happens.
And then immediately I know, what a fool again.
You thought you did it.
You made it happen again.
You need his love.
That's why I read this, guys.
In new commandment, I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you.
You also are to love one another.
So this new covenant that we started with, it leads us to this new commandment because
life is no longer about us.
Life is about him and his people.
Again, starts first in your home, then your church, then those around you at your work
different places that you go to, that you interact with.
It doesn't end within your home.
It has to be seen outside of your home.
But you can't show it just outside of your home either.
It has to be seen first in your home.
The new covenant does not end with you.
It breaks open your life for the sake of others.
His love has to break open my life for the sake of others.
And there is no commandment that he has given me that he has not empowered me to walk in.
He does not give me a commandment and say, Derek, good luck with that.
That's never going to happen, buddy.
No.
I give him a commandment that he empowers me to walk in.
So if as a church, we begin to live like this, if as a church, we begin to go into places
like this, I can guarantee you this is heaven on earth.
And if it is heaven on earth, things will happen.
Heaven on earth starts like this.
And whenever you need help, know Psalm 20 verse 2, because God, your father dispatches
fresh supplies to you.
So when you're with that difficult person or in the same situation that makes it difficult
for you where you're like, oh, I'm in the same spot again, it's kind of difficult.
There is fresh supplies, man.
It's new.
There is fresh supplies.
See, Jesus on his way to the cross was not thinking of himself.
Jesus on his way to the cross was not thinking about himself.
He's got it.
He's got the world, the sins of the world, everything that the father wants to accomplish,
all of those things that he needs to put his mind on.
And then Peter does the trick.
Peter goes and cuts off this guy's ear.
It's just a year, right?
It's just a year.
He's got to make his way to Calvary.
It's just a year that's got cut out.
But he, his mission, his love doesn't stop with, oh, I've got to accomplish this.
So here I go.
He stops, puts the ear back on, heals the guy, then makes his way.
Again I'll repeat it.
God's love, when I operate in that, it breaks open my life for the sake of others.
There is nothing more important than the cross.
He knew it.
There is nothing more important than the cross.
And on the way, this happens.
Just a year.
It's okay.
He can still hear without that ear.
So ask him for a love, for a life of love.
You will be rich if you ask for it.
You want to be rich?
Rich in spirit, rich in love?
Ask him.
Ask him for this.
Guys, when we, when we are obedient to the commandment of Jesus in simple, practical
ways, it may not be noticed by others.
It should.
But sometimes it may not be noticed right away.
You may not get the applause, the recognition.
This is not for applause or recognition.
This is because your master has asked this of you.
And you give it to him because you love him.
Can we start like this every day, every evening?
Someone prayed that prayer as I said, stamp eternity on my, on my eyeballs.
Can we be a people collectively who say this prayer?
I need your love.
Three.
New wine skins.
Can you read Matthew chapter 9, verse 17?
Matthew chapter 9, verse 17.
Please go there because we'll spend a few minutes there.
This is important.
Matthew 9, 17.
Neither is new wine put into old wine skins.
If it is, Jesus said this, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are
destroyed.
But new wine is put into fresh wine skins.
And so both are preserved.
It's, sometimes there are verses that we know of, but we, for whatever reason, we are drawn
to certain parts of the verse.
So all of us know very well this verse.
But there is a verse that, at least for me, the part of the verse that at least for me
I forget.
What happens to the old wine skin?
What is God born of the old wine skin?
Throw it away?
Destroy it?
Because we are always talking about the new wine and the new wine skin.
What about the old wine skin?
I've almost always thought of this verse as, Derek, you're old thinking.
You're old thinking.
That's the old wine skin.
It's okay.
It's a good way to think.
But I want to first go to what a wine skin is.
What's a wine skin?
Back in the day, a wine skin is something that contained wine, new wine.
And if the wine is really strong, over a period of time it produces gases and the wine skin
will not be able to hold it and so it would burst under pressure because old wine skins
are not flexible.
And you cannot have a wine skin without something dying because these wine skins are made out
of the skins of lambs or goats.
So you cannot have a wine skin without fresh death.
There is no new wine skin without fresh death.
So, if the father is saying, Derek, I want you to prepare for the new wine by having
been redeemed with new wine skins, the father is saying, Derek, I need you to freshly die.
When you freshly die, now you have new wine skin.
And the old wine skin, if you read it, he's not asking you to destroy it because the old
wine skin was good at one point.
But he wants to release something to you.
He wants to give something to you that cannot be contained in the old wine skin anymore.
And because he doesn't want to destroy the old, because he wants to preserve it, he can't
stand in your way, but because he wants you to have something new, you've got to die freshly.
That is what this means.
So for me then, I've got to look at this every day.
Every day.
It's a new day.
Every day I've got this opportunity, this possibility in God to die to something fresh.
Not the death from a week ago.
This is how we become like Christ.
Every day I wake up to live with him as I die to my ways.
It is a lifestyle of new surrender on a daily basis.
Waking up to surrender.
That's why the word living sacrifice makes much sense.
Because it is living, but it is a living sacrifice.
It's not a sacrifice from five minutes ago.
It's not a sacrifice, it's living sacrifice.
It is always on the altar.
It's always on the altar.
And I want to be like that.
We want to be like that.
Continually dying.
And then the wine skin is always new.
Because if my character doesn't change, if my, if how I am walking today is the same
as two years ago, a year ago, six months ago, then I can't handle the new that God will
release to me.
And God wants to release to me.
That's what happened with Samson.
He couldn't contain it.
It was new wine, but he couldn't carry it.
So he doesn't, God, our father doesn't want that to happen with us.
So he wants us to freshly die so that we have the new wine skin that then will allow us
to receive the new wine that he has for us.
So new wine skin is flexible to the ways of God and the movements of the spirit today.
New wine skin is flexible to the ways of God and the movements of the spirit today.
New wine skin is living sacrifice.
It's not rigid in its ways.
Galatians chapter 524, Galatians 524 it says, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
It's not a one time thing.
It's an everyday thing.
So it was okay for David at one point to take stones as he went to battle to fight
Goliath.
Stones were right.
Nothing wrong with stones and he can bring him down, bring Goliath down.
But sometime later when he's going against the army of the Philistines, stones aren't
enough.
You go to that point, be at a place where the fresh current of God, the fresh ray of
God operating, which is, hey David, I want you to stay here until you hear the sound
of an army on the mulberry top, then you march out.
That comes because he's freshly, freshly, freshly receiving.
So the old strategies that I have, the old ways of praying that I have, anytime the person
comes, okay, this is the way I pray.
The old ways of doing things for God, the old ways, and by old, now I mean we have to,
so that's the main thing today.
One month could be old.
A week could be old.
Because we serve God Almighty.
He's new.
He's doing a new thing.
And those of us, if we can say, I am in it for me to receive this newness on a daily
basis, guys, that's when we accelerate with him.
That's when we accelerate with him.
Because he can run as fast as you want him to, trust me.
Can I run with him as fast as he wants me to run?
Because if I can match, now I can go places.
So what is something you surrendered to him but have since then picked up?
Answer that question.
Sometimes we surrender things, but then if sometime later, sometimes we pick it up back
again.
What is that one thing, or things, that you did surrender but you have since picked it
back up?
That's why I like Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1 and 2 maybe.
It's an amazing verse that talks about a cloud of witnesses and us being on this track running.
Nothing pulling us back because we are freshly dying to things.
For new wine.
There's only five.
Just in case you were thinking.
It's a good time to talk about this because I haven't gotten into the Christmas thing
yet.
I still have to.
I don't know if you guys are with me.
Maybe you guys all started feeling Christmassy already.
I haven't.
This is the week when it becomes Christmassy for me.
It's a good time to talk about it too because my goodness, Jesus Christ full of truth and
grace.
John chapter 1, full of truth and full of grace.
Jesus Christ who doesn't hold anything back when he gives, when he pours out.
New wine is in the cluster.
It's in the head and the body.
I don't want to spend too much on new wine today.
But I want us to know that he wants to release new things to us.
Be like Caleb who is not satisfied with a promise that was given.
He wants the land.
It's a very good trait to have.
Because this book is, the Bible is full of promises.
And new wine is a promise that's repeated.
Read Isaiah 55, 1.
Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters.
And you who have no money, come buy and eat.
Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
So I can buy new wine without cost.
Buy by dying.
Joel chapter 2, verse 19.
The Lord answered and said to his people, behold I am sending to you grain, wine and
oil and you will be satisfied and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.
So do you expect an overflow of the spirit for yourself?
Do you expect an overflow of the spirit for yourself?
An overflow.
An overflow of the spirit for yourself.
Why is it that after all this sometimes we look at people and we are okay with, ah man,
these men of God, they walk in such obedience to you.
They are used by you.
They are good.
They listen to you.
They walk well with you.
I used to grow up like this.
I would always look at people and I was like, wow man, so cool.
I was so much like that.
Until you discover for yourself that man, all of this is for all of us.
All of this is for all of us.
So do you expect an overflowing of the spirit in your life?
If not, why not?
Why is it not on the forefront of our thinking?
I know we think about it, but something happens when it is at the forefront of our thinking.
Because what do you think you become?
We have learned that at Acts 29.
What do you think is what you value?
And because that is what you value and you go and ask him, he gives it to you.
The father doesn't limit.
He doesn't say, Derek, today I only intend to give you 5% of this because I want you
to be waiting for more.
Yes, there is Acts chapter 2 where they wait it, but that's so different from who he is,
man.
In that, whenever I go to him and I say I need more, he gives.
He gives.
He wants it.
He gives.
So I should not limit myself from asking for an overflow of the spirit in my life.
I should not be satisfied with anything less.
I have to be asking for an overflow of the spirit.
There are new adventures in the spirit, new possibilities in the spirit, new desires in
the spirit, new desires that you can wake up and all of a sudden there are new desires
that he is giving you.
I love it when sometimes we gather and we break into a different place in God because
We came expectantly and did not know what God was about to do, but when you see it happen
in front of your eyes, you're like, wow, man, on it every day.
Why not?
The last one.
Before I move on to the last one, one thing.
I'll quote someone else.
John Piper said this.
You are most glorified.
God is most glorified in you when you're most satisfied in him.
It's a meaningful line.
I'm not saying anything else.
That's the only line I'm saying.
The line is God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him.
Five.
If we walk in all of the stuff we talked about so far, grabbing all of the benefits
of the new covenant, asking for his love to be able to walk well in his new commandment,
freshly dying so that we always have new wine skins and he doesn't have to wait.
New wine, which is his side of the equation because he always gives.
This is almost guaranteed guys.
You don't have to do much.
He gives.
He's a good father who gives.
He's the source of this.
Now if I walk in it, my goodness, my life will have a new song every day.
There are several verses in the Bible that talks about new songs.
And as a church, we should have new songs.
As a church, we should together have a new song for him.
As individuals, we should have a new song for him.
As a family, you should have a new song for him.
You write songs when your heart cannot contain what is in it and it has to overflow in other
words.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
But let's translate it to out of the abundance of your heart, you write new songs.
You sing new songs.
And it doesn't, I can write songs without singing.
And then I can sing.
I may not be as good as a singer as Jane or Dawn, but I can sing.
I can sing.
He deserves it.
Write new songs guys.
But the thing is, we cannot write new songs just like that because it's one of the things
that Jacob, there's one somehow related to this.
I don't know why I'm talking about this now, but that's okay.
At one point when I wanted to go to Kenya, I remember telling Jacob, hey Jacob, can you
make it like, this was like 2016 or something.
He said, hey, I want you to come to Kenya.
And I was like, can you make it like two weeks later so that I can prepare for the Kenya
trip?
So he said, daddy, you can't prepare for anything in two weeks.
Who you are today is who you are.
In two weeks time, you ain't going to prepare for Kenya.
Because what is in you today is what you will have when you're there two weeks later.
What you don't have in you today, you will not have it two weeks later.
But that's why you've got to grow and learn.
And so new song happens when these things are so active in our lives.
Where I'm so confident of the new covenant that I take advantage of him.
You understand what I'm saying?
I take advantage of him.
I am so aware of the new commandment and I want to honor him.
I want to obey him.
I want to walk in his ways.
My heart is changing.
New wine skins because I'm freshly dying to things.
It's a fresh surrender.
It's not my old flames.
It's not the stuff that I laid down five days ago.
I'm changing.
I'm continually changing.
There is nothing more important than living for him.
He gives the new wine.
And all of these things happen.
Revelation chapter 14, I think.
And before that, Revelation chapter 5, there is a picture of these saints who are, in chapter
14, there are 144,000 people who are in Jerusalem, I think.
And they, on their heads are the names of Yahweh and the lamp.
And they hear something in the heavens.
And they hear harpists and they hear a song.
And this is a new song that's being sung to God.
And on earth, they're able to receive it.
They understand the new song.
God warns us.
And I pray that as a body, I pray that new songs will come out of us.
It's important.
It marks something.
It tells something.
When we write songs, it tells how we adore the one we love.
May we become a people who write songs to him and sings those songs.
And I'm not even talking, guys, about sitting and writing songs.
Out of you will flow out of it.
While you're cooking, I'm doing a little bit of cooking.
No, really I'm not.
Iris doesn't.
Sorry.
While you're cooking, while you're doing laundry, while you're taking the garbage out, while
you're doing things like this, you can sing a new song.
And when we are like that, people around us will notice us.
Not for the sake of making them notice us, but for the sake of them seeing what a life
you can have in Jesus.
So that's everything I wanted to share today.
I want to pray and then we'll wrap up.
So Father, we come to you.
Father, we hesitate to be a people who hear or who talk and do not do.
We want to practice.
We want to live out all of the Sabbath.
So Father, I pray for Acts 29 and for me that when I wake up, I wake up to the benefits
of the new covenant.
That you're so close, so near.
The old has gone and the new is here.
I pray about that.
I'm aware of this new commandment which you've given me for me to walk in, which is really
your heart, your love.
And I want that about more and more.
Don't want to stop because there are so many other interesting things happening.
Don't want to be like that, Father.
I don't want more interesting things.
I want that which captures your heart.
So help me to grow in your love.
May we compete in a good way to walk in more and more of your love.
Father, we want to freshly die to you.
Freshly die.
Our ambitions, our thoughts, our pride.
We want to freshly die to those things, Father.
Thank you that you have promised us new wine.
And that's guaranteed.
But we will, Father, expect an overflowing.
I want to expect an overflowing every day.
New streams in the Spirit.
We want to become a people who sing to you joyously.
And people who come in, they'll see the King who is in our midst.
And that this song is not something that you sit and write for the sake of writing it.
But it's such a natural progression from all of the work that you do in our hearts and
with us as a people.
And I want to pray that you will be able to see that.
And with us as a people, I pray, Father, that we begin to write new songs.
So, us and people in homes and Jacob who is traveling and others who may be traveling,
protect us all.
We come under your covering.
We thank you that you take care of us.
We thank you that now that as we walk into the week, we get an opportunity to live all
of this with you.
We thank you in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Don't go yet.
Tune, you can come up and show them.
I just have one song that I felt to release today, which ironically it ended in new song.
Father, I'm trusting that you're going to help us to hold all the different things we've
been learning and this as well.
But I felt this song is something you want us to use to practice what we've been taught
today.
And the song is something you actually showed me to write in June after I came back from
New York.
There was a conference of all the different house church leaders on the west east coast,
I guess.
And this is not a new phrase to us, Father.
This is something we've been saying again and again, especially during communion.
I am not my own.
I belong to Christ and I belong to you.
And this is something we've been saying over and over again.
And these are the words you wanted me to put to music.
And I really felt today is the day that you want us to release this song and to practice
the idea of today is the day of fresh surrender.
And the things you want us to surrender is ourselves.
Dying to me.
It's not about me.
It doesn't end with me.
It's about the other.
We love one another.
We're here to one another.
This is also not a new thing to us.
We know that very well.
But there's something about fresh surrender that is required of us.
It's actually not even an invitation anymore.
It's like a mandate that he's telling us.
Acts 29.
It's time to one another.
It's time to die to yourselves.
It's time to plug into the body.
Start with one other person in this church.
Start with one other person in this body.
Where you one another intentionally.
Where you surrender yourself to them intentionally.
So that we are viably, life givingly plugged in to the body who is plugged in to the source
which is Jesus Christ.
So this song, these words I think could be sung very seriously.
But I don't think it's a serious mourning thing.
This is a joyful thing.
This is a joyful surrender we get to do.
So let's try and sing it and we'll end with that.
So Father I pray that this is not just a new song we just sing.
This is a song that you birthed.
That you want to birth through us.
That you want to release into the world through us.
That I am not my own.
I belong to Christ and I belong to you.
There is a surrender that you're asking, demanding of us today.
So help us to do that and to start practicing what Derek has been teaching us today.
The dying so that the new can come.
And that we release this song joyfully.
Out of this will come new praises to you Father.
I am not my own.
I belong to Christ and I belong to Robinson
And I belong to you.
I am not my own.
I belong to Christ and I belong to you.
I am not my own.
I belong to Christ and I belong to you.
I belong to you.
I am not my own.
I belong to Christ and I belong to you.
Jesus gave.
Jesus gave himself away.
Now I do the same.
We are his body.
This is communion by his body.
By his body and his blood.
We're wholly set free.
Yet wholly dependent.
We are one in him.
I'm not my own.
I am not my own.
I belong to Christ and I belong to you.
I am not my own.
I belong to Christ and I belong to you.
We're not made.
We're not made to live alone.
But joined together.
The world will see his face in love.
Through you and me.
We're not made.
We're not made to live alone.
But joined together.
The world will see his face in love.
Through you and me.
I am not my own.
I belong to Christ and I belong to you.
I am not my own.
I belong to Christ and I belong to you.
Christ in me...
The hope of glory...
Christ in us, the hope of glory...
Your presence and glory is here within armistice.
Christ in me, the hope of glory...
Christ in us, the hope of glory...
Your presence and glory is here within armistice.
Hallelujah, hallelujah.
We rise up and sing, how great is our God.
Hallelujah, hallelujah.
We rise up and sing, how great is our God.
I am not my own.
I belong to Christ, and I belong to you.
I am not my own.
I belong to Christ, and I belong to you.
Have a great week.