The Danger of ‘New Things’: When Experience Overrides Scripture

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Jesus said, I will build my church.
[00:00:06] Not just a building, not just a Sunday routine, but a people, alive, united, and on a mission.
[00:00:17] We worship together, lifting our voices and our hearts to God.
[00:00:24] We share life, celebrating, supporting, and encouraging one another.
[00:00:30] We grow.
[00:00:31] Learning to follow Jesus and letting his word transform us.
[00:00:37] We serve, using our gifts to make a difference in the lives around us.
[00:00:44] We go, taking the good news of Jesus beyond these walls.
[00:00:50] We pray, because everything begins with God.
[00:00:57] This is more than a place.
[00:01:01] This is more than a Sunday.
[00:01:07] This is my church.

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Again, it's good to see you again so soon.
[00:01:20] Good morning.
[00:01:20] We are gonna continue today in our My Church series, right?
[00:01:26] Well, not exactly where Pastor Rob is leaving off.
[00:01:28] We're gonna take a slight detour today because God is up to something this morning.
[00:01:34] If you know that, somebody say yes.
[00:01:37] I don't know how you couldn't know that God is doing something.
[00:01:42] If you look at the world around you, you don't have to reach much further than the coat that you pulled out of the closet this morning.
[00:01:48] Something's happening.
[00:01:50] The season is changing.
[00:01:51] The leaves are changing.
[00:01:54] It's my favorite time of year because you can physically look around the world that you live in and say, God, what are you up to?
[00:02:02] Something's happening.
[00:02:03] Something is different.
[00:02:04] Something's changing.
[00:02:06] And so today,
[00:02:08] We want to talk about my church in the sense that God is building His church.
[00:02:13] He's making it my church.
[00:02:15] He's making it into something fresh and something new.
[00:02:17] God is doing something incredible in each and every one of you.
[00:02:21] And He might be doing something incredible in you and you might not even know it yet.
[00:02:27] And so hopefully today you'll remember something.
[00:02:31] Something will happen where God will remind you of what He's doing in your life this morning.
[00:02:34] Amen?
[00:02:36] So while we get ready to get started, I want you to get whatever you take notes on, if it's your phone, your tablet, your Bible, whatever it is that you're using today to keep track of something, I just want you to get ready to listen to some testimonies and to celebrate what God is doing, because He is doing a fresh and a new thing, and I believe that God is already speaking it to you.
[00:02:57] And it's nothing special.
[00:02:59] Just like Pastor Rob says, it's nothing special that we say,
[00:03:03] But God is already speaking and He might remind you of something this morning.
[00:03:07] Amen?
[00:03:08] I wanna read this before we get started and this will frame our conversation a little bit today.
[00:03:12] This is from the book of Isaiah.
[00:03:16] This is Isaiah 16, Isaiah 43, starting at verse 16.
[00:03:23] Listen to this.
[00:03:26] This is what the Lord says.
[00:03:29] This is what God says to me.
[00:03:31] It's what God says to you.
[00:03:32] It's what he says to your family, to all of us.
[00:03:35] This is what the Lord says who makes a way in the sea, a path through raging water, who brings out the chariot and the horse, the army and the mighty one, puts them together, and then they lie down and they do not rise again.
[00:03:54] It's the power of God.
[00:03:56] He's describing the power of the living God
[00:04:01] They are extinguished and put out like a wick, like a candle wick to him.
[00:04:09] Do not remember the past events.
[00:04:15] I might need to say that a couple of times today.
[00:04:18] Do not remember the past events.
[00:04:22] Pay no attention to the things of old.
[00:04:26] Look, I'm about to do something new.
[00:04:30] I'm about to do something new.
[00:04:32] Even now, it's coming.
[00:04:36] Do you not see it?
[00:04:39] Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.
[00:04:45] That either terrifies you or it sets you free.
[00:04:48] When I read this verse, I thought, oh my gosh, the way that this reads, God says, I'm doing a new thing and you can be with it or you can be without it.
[00:05:00] You can come with me.
[00:05:01] Every verse like this, it's prophetic.
[00:05:05] It's the prophet Isaiah.
[00:05:06] It's an invitation to partner with God, to walk with God, to join with him, but he's gonna do it anyway.
[00:05:15] Behold, I'm doing a new thing, a fresh thing.
[00:05:20] And so I want you to keep that in your heart this morning.
[00:05:22] We're gonna talk to some new and some fresh people and things that Lake City Church has going on.
[00:05:29] Would you guys join me in welcoming Pastor Daniel and Will and Abby and Brayden, the interns.
[00:05:37] Guys, give them a hand as they come on out.
[00:05:43] Good morning, guys.
[00:05:44] Amazing to have you guys.
[00:05:46] Amazing.
[00:05:46] Anytime that God starts a new and a fresh thing, He'll bring new and fresh people or a new and a fresh place into your life.
[00:05:55] When I first got to Lake City Church, I was shocked because I would talk to ten people and nine of them would say, oh, I'm not from Mooresville.
[00:06:04] I was like, wait a second, what?
[00:06:06] You're not from here?
[00:06:07] What do you mean?
[00:06:07] Everyone here almost is from somewhere else.
[00:06:12] This church is built on a new and a fresh move of God.
[00:06:18] It's the strangest thing, and yet I know that it's happening right in front of our eyes.
[00:06:22] And so guys, would you introduce yourselves a little bit?
[00:06:26] Tell us about yourselves and what God's going on in your life.
[00:06:30] Why don't you start first, Brayden?
[00:06:31] Tell us about yourself.
[00:06:32] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
My name is Brayden.
[00:06:34] I'm 5'0", that type of stuff.
[00:06:36] Morning, guys.
[00:06:37] My name is Brayden, and I'm an intern here, and it is just incredible to see y'all this morning.

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
About took the words out of my mouth.
[00:06:46] I'm Will and it's just it's been a blessing to be working with all you guys and the people here.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
I'm Abby.
[00:06:53] I'm happy to be here and see y'all.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Are you guys ready to start the party?
[00:06:58] The party has arrived.
[00:07:00] I don't know if you guys even know we have an intern program, but we do.
[00:07:05] These guys are rock stars.
[00:07:06] Months ago, not even five or four months ago, did all these guys know that they were even going to be interns, let alone saved.
[00:07:16] We're going to talk about some really cool things that God is doing within the Young Adults Ministry intern program and what happened Friday night.
[00:07:24] They had the collective.
[00:07:26] It was amazing.
[00:07:28] And they got a lot of stuff.
[00:07:29] Yeah, give God praise.
[00:07:30] They did a lot of cool stuff.
[00:07:31] So they're going to tell you about it.
[00:07:34] Brayden, tell us...
[00:07:36] How you got to Lake City?
[00:07:38] By the way, this church is phenomenal.
[00:07:41] This church is a church that believes in next-generational leadership.
[00:07:45] Y'all invest.
[00:07:46] So the part of why we want you guys to hear from these guys is this is who you're investing into and lives that you're changing and transforming is happening because you're investing into them.
[00:07:55] So Brayden, tell us a little bit about that.

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
yeah absolutely so uh this kind around this time last year i was working at church and i had a lot of hurt from that church and just had a lot going on and as it was going on i it ended i was like you know i'm not i was like god i am not stepping back into a church again i'm done right i'm done and of course like god does is he's like yeah absolutely yeah you're done you're not gonna step foot in a church ever again no uh he's healed me he's
[00:08:24] I need a community.
[00:08:26] I need it to be restored, and he's restored me.
[00:08:28] It's just incredible.
[00:08:30] I've used this kind of analogy every service so far.
[00:08:35] It's like a plate, and if this dirty, messy plate got spaghetti sauce all over it, chipped, all this stuff, and he's just grabbed it and wiped it, and there's a chip here.
[00:08:45] Oh, I didn't even know I needed that, but he says, here you go.
[00:08:47] Let me pat you up here, pat you up here, and then just throws so much more on my plate than I can even imagine.
[00:08:52] And that's just how good of a God we have.
[00:08:54] Amen you know it's it's incredible and that's just just in this past year that's something he's done in my life and i'm just so thankful and it's because of you guys the way y'all pray and the way y'all carry yourselves all the way from pastor rob and it's just incredible
[00:09:09] Yeah, that's awesome.

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Abby came here from halfway across the country, and we haven't even known Abby that long, but we have come to love Abby so much because of what the Lord is doing in her life and the anointing and calling totally placed on your life.
[00:09:26] Abby, can you tell us a little bit, just, it's a total God story, how God spoke to you and that story of how you came to Lake City Church.

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
Yeah, so I'm from New Mexico.
[00:09:37] We moved here.
[00:09:38] I moved here with my family about four or five months ago.
[00:09:41] And a lot of things happened back home in New Mexico that led to me moving here.
[00:09:46] And I think God a lot of the times intervenes in our lives and He allows things to happen so that we would do things that we otherwise wouldn't choose for ourselves.
[00:09:56] I always thought that I'm going to live in New Mexico my whole life.
[00:09:59] I had my whole life planned out.
[00:10:00] and God allowed things to happen in a way that I was like this is what God's calling me to do I don't know why but I'm gonna be obedient and I'm gonna go and my parents started coming here in July my brothers and I were going to another church and just trying to really figure out where God was calling us to be you know I was really craving a community craving relationships with people and and not just surfacy ones that we can go out and do fun things but
[00:10:25] And so my parents they told me like Wednesday night live is coming back you guys should just go and then just try young adults after like you don't have to commit to a church service yet just go on Wednesday so okay and we come and it's kind of towards the end of the night and I'm just worshiping the Lord and I'm like God if this is where you called me to be I pray that I would
[00:10:55] When I go to young adults, that someone would tell me how much this church and young adults has changed their life.
[00:11:02] And 30 minutes later, I go into the overflow and met Will, met Braden, and some of the other people there.
[00:11:09] And the third person I met, this guy walks up to us, me and my brothers, and we're talking.
[00:11:14] And, yeah, I'm trying to figure out where I'm supposed to be.
[00:11:16] I came from this other church.
[00:11:17] We're just, you know, we're trying to figure it out.
[00:11:19] And he goes, this church and this young adults group has absolutely changed my life.
[00:11:24] I'm not the same person that I was before and it's because of these people.
[00:11:27] And it was so powerful because
[00:11:32] You know God could have waited months or days or whatever to answer that but it was like within an hour God was like this is where I've called you to be and and that night you know we met so many other people and even to the point where like we feel like we've known you guys for years like and we just met you and it's been so sweet to see God provide that kind of family and that kind of community and people that I know I'm gonna do life with you know for the rest of my life so.

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
That is good.
[00:11:59] God gives us what we need exactly when we need it.
[00:12:03] Will has been here for a short amount of time as well.
[00:12:07] His parents have been here for a while, though.
[00:12:09] But man, Will has a—you can't write this, but God did.
[00:12:14] God wrote his story, and it is a powerful one.
[00:12:16] Will, can you tell us just, man, what God has done in your life, what he's currently doing?

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Yeah, definitely had an interesting start to my young adult, teenager, young adult life.
[00:12:28] Went to Lake Norman High School about 14.
[00:12:31] You know, I'm involved with sports.
[00:12:33] I'm involved with the school.
[00:12:34] Everything's going well.
[00:12:36] The party culture of the secular world of teenagers is pretty heavy there and you know so you're drinking and then you start getting introduced to some other stuff so by 14 years old on a weekly basis I'm drinking and using drugs and that kind of continued to get worse and worse and worse all throughout high school but you know I'm fine I'm young everybody's doing this.
[00:12:58] So 2021 I move up to Virginia to live on my own to go work and it just progressively got worse because now I have money now I have more freedom and it just got worse and worse and worse and the alcohol started becoming a daily thing and the drugs became harder and I needed them I didn't just want them
[00:13:17] and I was just I was just extremely lost and uh so 2023 I came back home to visit and I came to an Ironman stakeout and accepted Jesus into my heart and and from then on everything's been great which is not true I uh
[00:13:34] I went right back to Virginia and I just fell even harder into everything I was doing.
[00:13:40] And it got to the point where in June of last year I ended up attempting to take my own life.
[00:13:46] Praise God, three days later I walked out of there without a scratch on me.
[00:13:50] Just completely fine.
[00:13:51] You couldn't tell that anything happened.
[00:13:53] And so, you know, got sobered up, got into rehab, everything was good.
[00:13:59] Then, you know, I continued just to praise the Lord and honor Him with my actions, which again is not true.
[00:14:05] I fell right back into it about a month or two later, even harder this time, and what it took was my mom calling me on the phone and, you know,
[00:14:14] Just asking how I was doing and me not being able to hold it in anymore or lie about it.
[00:14:19] So she's on the phone helping me pack my stuff up and my dad drives up to Virginia six hours to pick me up and drug me back to North Carolina.
[00:14:27] And you know that started I linked up with an old friend of mine and he started bringing me to church and bringing me around these people and it was just it was very clear that I was supposed to be here.
[00:14:38] So as I started to explore that God was speaking to me in just unreal ways and in
[00:14:44] and so on and so forth.

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
First of all, there is nothing like a praying mama.
[00:15:07] Like, man, the power in your prayers.
[00:15:11] Seriously, moms in the room, if you have prodigal sons and daughters, just continue to pray.
[00:15:15] This young man's life is a testimony of that.
[00:15:19] And then just seeing what God has done in his life since, I mean, months ago,
[00:15:25] you know in virginia and now here as an intern with a calling to be a pastor is phenomenal in the lives that are being saved and changed so that is a powerful testimony and god is just doing some really cool stuff friday night we had the collective there was a bunch of young adults in here and um these guys talk about just what god is doing just even amongst the young adults and just kind of this how culture's shifting hang on hang on a second i heard a rumor though

[00:15:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
and the Holy Spirit.

[00:16:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
and for me uh selfishly it sounds like but my my best friend uh wound up he he hasn't been in church for four years and and he decides i texted him and it was one of those things you ever if you play basketball you shoot and you just we're just shooting we're gonna see what happens it man it made it because he was like yeah brayden i'll come tonight and he said i'm nervous but anyway he hasn't been in church for four years after his dad passed
[00:16:42] And he came in here and you could see the Lord was working on him.
[00:16:46] He said, man, I've never felt something like that before.
[00:16:49] And just the prayer and all those things, church, I'm just so thankful for that.
[00:16:54] And I'll even go a step further.
[00:16:57] He's been doing restoration.
[00:16:59] That's what the culture shift is, is we've been believing revival and all that, but what he's doing is each and every—I can't even speak right now, I'm sorry, I'm getting worked up—but each person he's changing.
[00:17:11] And he's giving more and he's doing more.
[00:17:13] I'll speak for me personally when I was growing up I had a broken family and he changed my life Friday night and I helped plan the thing I didn't I didn't even think of that and that's just how good of a God we have see I had a broken family going growing up and it got to this point of I just could not handle it and I won't go in detail but I also tried to take my life
[00:17:34] And to think that an 11, 12 year old boy is thinking there's no light in the tunnel and I hear audibly from God's voice saying, son, I'm not done with you yet.
[00:17:48] and to know that my mom did the the prayers you talked about that the prayers and the tears and the effort you put in mom thank you and in everyone else knowing that what he's done he didn't even say i was about to stand up again see he didn't even he didn't even just go with saying um here just go live life he says no you're gonna live a life for me because i have so much for you son
[00:18:11] And each one of you are a son or a daughter of Christ and he has so much for you.
[00:18:16] It is not an age thing.
[00:18:18] It is not an age thing and that's what he's doing at Lake City Church.
[00:18:23] That's what the collective we're at the collective right now we've been at it because he has been in this room he is moving in this room and I want you know that the 20 year old that's yelling at you right now knows that God has such a beautiful plan for you and he has it for so many people it's not just young people it's his people and you are his people

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
Yeah, he couldn't have said that better.
[00:18:51] Leading up to the collective, especially with our young adults on Wednesday nights, we've been very, very intentional about everything that we're doing leading up to the collective, whether it be having a night where everyone's sharing their testimony, whether it be just having a night where all we're doing is praying, or a night where all we're doing is having fellowship.
[00:19:11] We're even just sitting down and speaking about what it means to be intentional with your prayer, about the collective, about what you want in your life, what you want God to show you.
[00:19:20] And as it was coming to fruition Friday night, you just look back and you see young adults from
[00:19:28] people that have been here since before we were here and brand new people that have never stepped foot in a service whether they were looking for truth whether they were looking for friendship whether they didn't know what they were looking for they just kind of showed up because there was free coffee you know it there was so many people from so many different backgrounds and i was having a conversation with a friend of mine and um
[00:19:48] We were you know came to the realization that every single person in that room has a very very unique gifting and we may have some of the same gifts from the spirit but God uses us he made us in a very specific way that is unique only to us and that is not just true of the collective it's not just true of young adults it's true of every single person in this room and we're
[00:20:10] We're trying to push and we're trying to understand and wrap our heads around is that's what's happening in the church.
[00:20:15] That's what's happening in the country.
[00:20:17] It's that revival of, you know, putting everything aside and saying, God, you have given me unique abilities.
[00:20:24] Use me.
[00:20:24] Whatever you need me to do, I'm here and I have it.
[00:20:28] Just use me as a tool for your kingdom.
[00:20:30] And that's what all of this is all about.
[00:20:32] And it's just a beautiful, beautiful thing.

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
One of my favorite things looking back in planning the collective was the vision that God put on each of our hearts individually before we came together corporately to talk about like what we really were believing for God to do Friday and individually God had put this vision on each of our hearts of
[00:21:00] Creating a night where people don't want to leave and creating a place where people can come and receive from the Lord that one thing that they've needed and that one piece that's going to complete them.
[00:21:11] You know, searching in the world for what's going to make them whole and finding that in the Lord.
[00:21:16] And it was so sweet to see that.
[00:21:19] The amount of people that I talked to afterward and they said, I didn't even know that that's what I needed and that's what I got.
[00:21:25] and just the power behind like Will was saying the intentionality and the prayer and seeing God come through and I remember the night that we had the collective we came here early to set up and I walked in and there was nobody else in the auditorium you know the chairs were set up but it was as soon as you walk through those doors the presence of God was already in that place
[00:21:48] and you could feel it and it got me so excited but it's so cool because it made me think of the verses where it talks about like God is the one who goes before you and that's literally what we saw where God was already in that place before everyone else was coming through the doors and he already had
[00:22:06] God is so good.
[00:22:12] That is amazing.

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
There was a young adult girl that I had met Friday night, and she said that Sunday morning was her first time ever.
[00:22:32] This is pretty bold, because she came for the first time on Sunday, invited by a co-worker,
[00:22:39] I saw the announcement that the collective was happening that Friday, and she's like, okay, I'll go.
[00:22:45] And your parents were praying over her, and the Lord, she was just weeping, and the Lord was moving on her.
[00:22:52] And that is the power of our community and God working in us and through us, this body, this church.
[00:23:01] Our church together collectively is just such like they're saying an intentional beautiful vision of how God is using people his people his church to restore and heal others and it is so amazing to see what God is doing and he is starting a revival he's using these young people he's using y'all
[00:23:23] Y'all are a part of that story investing into next-generational leaders who will lead that movement.
[00:23:29] So I couldn't be more proud of these guys and thankful for y'all and what he is doing at this church.
[00:23:35] Amen?

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Yeah.
[00:23:39] Give it up for them.
[00:23:43] Would you guys stand with me this morning?
[00:23:49] Listening to their testimonies, I was thinking all morning about mine.
[00:23:55] And I remember thinking, remember what it felt like when God found you?
[00:24:01] Do you remember what it was like when you were fresh?
[00:24:07] Was it drastic?
[00:24:11] Were you drastically different than you are today?
[00:24:16] Remember how different you were when God found you.
[00:24:21] If your testimony seems a little bit smoothed over now that you've kind of moved along for a little bit, I want you to go back and remember what God did for you.
[00:24:31] And then I want you to expect something new.
[00:24:36] Just like the verse says, and like Brayden shared, this is not an age thing.
[00:24:41] It's not even a young adults thing.
[00:24:43] It's a new thing.
[00:24:45] There's no boundary.
[00:24:47] There's no room for you to say, well, I've been over the hill a couple of times.
[00:24:52] I'm not doing anything new.
[00:24:55] God can do something new with you right now.
[00:24:58] Right now.
[00:25:01] It is not an age thing.
[00:25:03] It's a new thing.
[00:25:04] Amen?
[00:25:06] Pastor Daniel, would you come and lead us in a prayer?
[00:25:10] Would you pray over us that God would take us to a new and a fresh place in our hearts and in our walk and that God would speak to us.

[00:25:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Amen.
[00:25:19] If you guys could close your eyes.
[00:25:26] We're gonna partake in communion.
[00:25:28] If it's your first time here at Lake City Church, up front are the elements.
[00:25:31] And we just remember the sacrifice that the Lord made for us, dying on the cross for our sins.
[00:25:39] but as we partake maybe you're here this morning and you say you know what maybe I have been stagnant or maybe I'm struggling I'm going through something or or the Lord is just speaking to you right now and Isaiah 43 18 and 19 says forget the former do not dwell on the past for see I'm doing a new thing do not perceive it do not see it
[00:26:07] I make springs in a wasteland and ways in the wilderness.
[00:26:12] And maybe right now you feel lost and you say, Jesus, I need you to show me a new way, a new path.
[00:26:18] I need you to do something new in my life.
[00:26:20] I need you to provide.
[00:26:21] We know that he will provide.
[00:26:27] The word in Matthew 6 says, do not worry about what you will wear.
[00:26:32] Does he not dress the flowers?
[00:26:34] Do they not grow in the field?
[00:26:36] Surely even Solomon in all of his splendor did not have what they do.
[00:26:40] The Lord will provide your needs.
[00:26:43] But maybe right now you say, Pastor Daniel, I don't just want it, but I need him to do something new in my life.
[00:26:53] Maybe it's in marriage.
[00:26:55] Maybe it's in your workplace.
[00:26:58] Maybe it's with family, but you say, Pastor Daniel, today I need the Holy Spirit to do something new and fresh in my life and in my family.
[00:27:09] If you say that is me today, I need to pray for that today.
[00:27:12] Just raise your hand so we could pray with you this morning out of faith, yeah.
[00:27:17] Keep those hands up and believe in faith that He is going to do something new in your life, in your heart, in your family, in your situation, and in your circumstance.
[00:27:28] He's a God who sees you, who hears you, and He knows you.
[00:27:32] In fact, He knows what you need before you even do.
[00:27:38] So Holy Spirit, this morning, you see every hand raised, every heart, every faith, that right now, Lord, we ask you to divinely meet us in this moment, into every circumstance, every situation, every marriage, Father, that you would start to restore and heal God in those areas.
[00:28:01] We know that you hear us.
[00:28:03] We know that you love us.
[00:28:05] In your name we pray.
[00:28:07] Amen.
[00:28:07] Let's worship Him today, church.