New Roads - New Rivers

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TLC SUNDAY WORSHIP EXPERIENCE NEW ROADS - NEW RIVERS 5-10-20 BIG IDEA: God is doing something new and miraculous. Even in this desert He is carving out new roads and creating refreshing rivers for His people. OPENER: Isaiah 43:15-19 15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator and King. 16 I am the Lord, who opened a way through the waters, making a dry path through the sea. 17 I called forth the mighty army of Egypt with all its chariots and horses. I drew them beneath the waves, and they drowned, their lives snuffed out like a smoldering candlewick. 18 “But

forget all that— it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. 19 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. Explain scripture: God speaks to His people. He starts off by reminding them of some of the greatest things he has done. He brought them out of bondage, He divided the Red Sea. He destroyed Pharaoh and the entire Egyptian army right before their eyes. And then he says, but forget all of that. I am going to do something new. I am going to do something even better than that! And He speaks a promise to them of a path out of their seventy-year captivity in Babylon. He says, “Behold, I am doing something new” Behold actually means to stand in awe and be amazed! GOD WAS CALLING HIS PEOPLE OUT FROM THE OLD INTO THE NEW. I BELIEVE GOD IS SAYING TO US RIGHT NOW. COME OUT FROM THE OLD INTO THE NEW!

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STAND IN AWE AND BE AMAZED! I AM DOING SOMETHING NEW! BETTER DAYS ARE AHEAD! THE BEST IS YET TO COME! ILLUSTRATION:  There is much being said about the “new normal”. We have heard that phrase over and over. And we can all agree, that in many ways, normal as we knew it is no longer. Changes have taken place in our society, our economy, our businesses, our lifestyle, our families and our churches. EVEN AS THE WORLD AROUND US IS CHANGING GOD IS DOING SOMETHING NEW TOO! New defined - different than anything you have experienced before, original, something that hasn’t happened yet

I. IN ORDER TO EMBRACE THE NEW WE MUST EMBRACE CHANGE Gods says… forget the past - Look at what I am going to do! (don’t dwell on it - don’t consider it) ILLUSTATION: The winter has ended and Spring is here. The leaves on the trees are budded, weeds are growing and the world is green again. We can feel the warm winds. We are having one spring thunderstorm after another. The cool crisp days are almost over. As one season ends another comes upon us. It is how God made the world. One season changes to another. It isn’t something to fear because change is a sign of growth. TO ACCEPT CHANGE IS TO ACCEPT GROWTH. CHANGE CAN BE HARD BECAUSE IT CHALLENGES OUR COMFORT. BUT GREAT THINGS NEVER COME FROM COMFORT ZONES. > Maybe your job has ended. > Maybe that business venture fell through.

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> Or that promotion you were counting on looks like it is never going to happen. > Maybe the door was closed to that college scholarship. > Maybe the dream you had or the promise you were standing on seemed to get cut off. > Our every day life as we knew it has ceased to be as it was. 
 > Some doors have shut. > Many things have come to a screeching halt. THE GOOD THING ABOUT BEING AT THE END OF SOMETHING - THE END IS THE PLACE THE NEW BEGINS. YOU CAN CONTINUE TO FOCUS ON THE DOORS THAT HAVE CLOSED AND YOU WILL MISS THE NEW DOORS THAT GOD IS OPENING FOR YOU.

II. GOD IS DOING THE MIRACULOUS RIGHT NOW Vs. 19……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. THERE IS A MIRACULOUS MOVE OF GOD THAT IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW. God says… “See I have already begun! Do you not see it?” DO YOU RECOGNIZE WHAT GOD IS DOING DURING THIS CRISIS RIGHT NOW? CAN YOU SEE IT? GOD IS MAKING ROADS AND RIVERS IN THE WILDERNESS. ILLUSTRATION: Roads and rivers are not usually found in the desert. In fact if you traveled to the desert you would think you were having a mirage if you saw a river running through it. And because of the shifting of the sand, there is no way to make a road in a desert. If you did see a road or a river you would be witnessing a miracle. GOD IS DOING SOMETHING NEW AND MIRACULOUS EVEN IN THIS DESERT.

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HE IS CARVING OUT NEW ROADS AND CREATING REFRESHING NEW RIVERS FOR HIS PEOPLE.

FIRST THING THAT GOD IS DOING…….. 1. GOD IS TAKING US TO A NEW PLACE ILLUSTRATION: Roads are built so that you can travel from one place to another. In fact, if you don’t have a road to travel on you can’t leave the place where you are to go to another place. GOD IS CARVING A NEW ROAD RIGHT IN THIS WILDERNESS. RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS PANDEMIC AND ECONOMIC CRISES. RIGHT NOW IN YOUR STRUGGLE HE IS CLEARING A PATH OF DELIVERANCE FOR YOU TO TRAVEL ON. GOD IS MAKING A WAY WHERE THERE SEEMS TO BE NO WAY. You may be in a difficult situation and there seems to literally be NO way out. Some situations are completely impossible. Jeremiah 32:17Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. GOD IS MAKING A WAY OUT OF YOUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES. HE IS DOING IT RIGHT NOW. BECAUSE NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD! EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN’T SEE IT. HE HAS ALEADY BEGUN TO CARVE OUT A PATH FOR YOU TO WALK OUT OF YOUR PRESENT STRUGGLE INTO VICTORY. GOD IS TAKING HIS PEOPLE TO A NEW PLACE. A PLACE WE HAVE NEVER BEEN BEFORE. A BETTER PLACE. A PLACE OF BLESSING.

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SECOND THING THAT GOD IS DOING 2. GOD IS POURING OUT A NEW REFRESHING OF HIS SPIRIT John 7:38 “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” Explain scripture: Jesus is saying that the spirit/his presence is like refreshing water. That we can drink of the water that he gives and it will fill us and it will be like a gushing river flowing out of us. GOD HAS NEW REFRESHING SPIRITUAL WATER FOR US TO DRINK RIGHT NOW IN THIS DESERT! GOD HAS STRENGTH AND PROVISION FOR YOU! 2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord. The spirit of God takes us from glory to glory. (one glorious place to another glorious place!) ILLUSTRATION: He is Living Water. And just like we drink water to be renewed and rejuvenated and refreshed. We continually must come to Him to drink of His Spirit. We will never reach the end of our experiences in God because we will never reach the end of God. He is so vast, so mighty, so powerful, so big that we can never experience all that we are going to experience in him. We are constantly growing, constantly learning new things about Him and having new experiences in Him. No matter how glorious your experience has been in the past with God. He has a new and greater experience for you! Taste and see that the Lord is good! I BELIEVE GOD IS POURING OUT A NEW RIVER OF HIS SPIRIT UPON HIS PEOPLE IN THIS HOUR!

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A NEW OUTPOURING OF GLORY AND POWER LIKE WE HAVE NEVER KNOWN BEFORE!

III.HOW DO YOU EXPERIENCE THE NEW? LET THE CHANGE START WITH YOU Matthew 9:17. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved. Explain scripture: Jesus is saying that new wine when stored expands and grows and if it is put into old skins, it would burst the skins.This new wine that Jesus is talking about is His Holy Spirit. IN ORDER TO RECEIVE THE NEW - YOU MUST BE RENEWED! GOD WANTS TO CHANGE YOU SO HE CAN FILL YOU WITH NEW. Just like new wine….God’s spirit is placed in you to expand you and grow in you! New wine ages and matures and turns into Better wine. Jesus wants to give us new wine. A new deposit of his Holy Spirit, that he wants you to allow to grow in you and mature you. But you must submit to the change. We must allow him to renew out heart. Just as new skins are pliable and soft and will expand with the expansion of the wine our hearts must be made new. Out of our hardness and rebellion we don’t experience the new. It’s out of our resistance to change that we don’t receive a fresh new outpouring of His Spirit. OFTEN IN TIMES OF CHANGE GOD WANTS TO USE THE CHANGE TO IGNITE CHANGE IN US. Personal Application: In this new place that God is taking us to and the new outpouring of His Holy Spirit that he wants to pour out on us…….resolve to let the past be the past and submit to the change that God is doing in you: > If you are carrying a grudge against someone, it’s time to lay it aside.

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> If someone has hurt you, by holding on to the pain, you allow that wound to continue to gape open. Wouldn’t it feel good if we could allow the Great Physician to take us into his operating room and sew up those injuries that remind us of the pain every day? > If you have made some really bad decisions, let today be the day you choose to begin making good ones. Begin to follow Jesus. >If you have damaged relationships, may you find the strength to mend those. > If you have laid your faith down because of circumstances. Choose to pick it up again and put your trust in Him. CLOSING: Ephesians 3:14-20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.