Hello everyone, excited to share a Word from the Lord this day, and I pray that this day that the Word of the Lord would bring an awakening, a quickening to each one of us. That as we come into this new year, that we realize truly what matters to the Lord, and that we are able to decipher His Word and to decipher and see all that He is calling us to do, and all that He is calling us to be.

Father, we thank You for Your goodness we thank You for Your Word and for Your presence. Go forth in power today, go forth in strength. And may we, as Your people - the church, God - be prepared and equipped for this time and for this season. In Jesus’ name, amen.

I just want to greet you all today, and so thankful to be able to share some of what God has been speaking through His Word. And today, I want to talk about the new creation, and the new year. Right, we’re just beginning the new year: 2021. And as I read different news articles as I hear what different people are speaking about, what is it that many people are saying? ‘We are done with 2020. So long 2020 - goodbye! We are ready for a new year!’ And I can understand why. This past year has been a challenge in innumerable ways. It’s been a challenge for our nation’s economy, it's been a challenge for our nation with COVID-19 and all the restrictions and all the shutdowns and many things that have happened. We can remember many natural disasters not only in America but all throughout the world - 2020 itself has truly been a challenging year and time. And many are awaiting 2021 only hoping for a better year. A year that we can forget all the craziness from the past and maybe come into something new.

”It is a time for the miraculous to occur...”

You see as we come into 2021, God is really bringing us into something new. And what matters to God? Is it that we’re gonna lose some weight this year? Is it that we’ll be a little bit healthier? Is it that we’re gonna make some better decisions with our money or with our lifestyle? I want to say today that the Word of the Lord is saying that the only thing that matters to God is that we become His new creation. All that matters is that we are in Christ, and that we are ready and made new - no longer living in the old, no longer living in the flesh, but now living in the power of the Holy Spirit. Living for God and recognizing the time that is upon us which is a time for the church to arise. It's time for the Christian - those who truly trust in the Lord - to now shine for His glory. We don't know what this year will bring. This year could be a lot more worse than last year - and I'm hoping not - but even if it does, we are on to something bigger. Our eyes are looking to see God's plan unfold. Our bodies and with our lives we are looking to walk in His will - literally - and to walk in the power of God's love and strength. This year, regardless of what happens we are looking to have the mind of Christ...and to think, and to act, and to decide and to walk all according to His Word and truth.

And so my question today is: Are you in the new? Are you a new creation in Christ Jesus?

And so, if you have your Bibles we’re gonna be looking at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We’re gonna start with verse 17, and go a little bit before this verse but first, we look at verse 17. It says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!” And this is what matters to the Lord: What matters is that we are His new creation. That the old would be gone. Along with 2020, that the old fleshy ways - that the old, stinking way of thinking, the corrupted way of thinking and going about our own way would be done, and that the new would be here. What is the new? The new is Christ in me. The new is Christ in you - once again living in the flesh, living in men women and children, and demonstrating the power of God.

What is the power of God? It’s that we are sold out for Him. That our mind is captivated by Him. That our actions are led by His Spirit. That our thinking and everything that consumes us is based in His truth and in His Word. This is a time for signs and wonders. It is a time for the miraculous to occur, which is that men and women would be made new in Christ Jesus.

And so the question is, again: Are you new? And by the time we read these Scriptures, I'm praying that today we would at least be able to examine ourselves - examine our lives, examine our children, examine our spouses, and to look into our households and really be able to decipher: Am I in the new? Is my family in the new? And if not, I'm praying today, we would be charged with the mercy of God - to cry out and to plead, ‘Father do a new thing this year, so that You would be honored, and so that Your Name will be lifted up.’

And so Paul says in 17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ the new creation has come…” Now there's a “therefore” there, and we always learn that if there's a therefore we have to see what it’s there for, right? And Paul, in the verses prior, gives us a clear idea of what the new creation looks like. And so he’s speaking here to the church in Corinth, and he's speaking to them about no longer living in the old. He's giving them a description of the new thought processes, the way to see things, and what it truly means to be compelled by the love of God and to truly walk with Him. There’s something new that comes in Christ Jesus and so he makes it clear. And he says in - verse 12 - he says, “We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than what is in the heart.”

The first thing that happens - that we can really examine in our lives as a new creation - would be that we receive new sight. Paul's first thing is talking about sight. He’s saying, “...so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than what is in the heart.”

You see, as Christians - as those who are new in Christ - we receive a new sight. And so the question is: What sight do you have? What sight do I have? What eyes are we functioning and looking and seeing everything in? See the eyes of those who are new in Christ see past the physical. We see past the things that are obvious that are seemingly right in front and we always see in faith - through eyes of faith believing and knowing what God has called us to, and we stand for it no matter what.

We may look at our nation right now. We may look at the world and see that things don't seem to be too good. The economy kinda being flushed down. We see all sorts of political upheave we see all sorts of things where you can stop for a moment and by the naked eye per se, you’re thinking, ‘Man this is bad. How could God do anything in the midst of this - I mean what are we going to do?’ But see the eyes of faith - the true eyes of those who are in Christ - they are eyes that trust and see what God is doing no matter what's happening. They are eyes that do not take their fix off of the Lord Jesus Christ. When all hell is breaking through when all turmoil is happening regardless of the circumstance, they are still seeing that God is King. They are still seeing that God is always true to His promises. That He will save the Godly. That He will rescue those who trust in Him. That He will carry us through.

What eyes are we looking with today? As we look at the world, as we look at things happening in our lives or maybe in our family, are we quick to just disbelieve God's promises? Are we quick to just give up and throw in the towel and no longer pray as hard or continue to stand regardless of what's happening? Or are we those with the new eyes? Who say, ‘God, I know the Word that You spoke to us. I know the Word You spoke to me. I know the Word You spoke to our church, God - we will continue to pray, we will continue to be strong regardless of circumstance in our lives. Regardless of what's happening around us. Father we will not falter - we will stand because we see past the physical. We see that You are King no matter what, and that Your Word is true’?

”...you receive a new set of eyes that are captured by the Lord Jesus Christ.”

It's time to receive a new set of eyes today - to trust in the Lord to become a new creation, no longer looking at things the way that we did in the past no longer looking at things the way that our own heart would perceive, but looking through the eyes of Christ in truth. In truth that God is King. That God leads us - even in the darkest valley. You see, apart from Christ we are like blind men and women, trying to make it through this world through all the obstacles - and we find that if we are not new in Christ, if we don't have these eyes we will stumble surely. But today God is calling us to sustain to be strong by touching us with His power. By touching us in coming into the new.

The second part about these wonderful new set of eyes - about the new sight that we get being in Christ? Is that our eyes aren’t so easily turned to the left or the right. The world may dabble temptations, or all sorts of things to steer us off the path that the Lord has set. It may look to capture our eyesight. But see, this is the beautiful thing about those in Christ: You've received a new set of eyes that is only for the One that it loves. That these new sets of eyes are now no longer looking at what the world is doing...you receive a new set of eyes that are captured by the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Fix your eyes upon Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of our faith.” That is the song that is the word that runs through these eyes - constantly looking to Him, constantly looking to His will - constantly seeing Him regardless of what we may be seeing physically. This is a hopeful thing for those who are in Christ. What kind of eyes are you watching with today? What is it that you see? Do you see Christ? Do you see Him working through the background - even through our nation? Do you see Him working through your family - do you see in your own lives God's will unfolding because we are seeking Him with the fullness of our sight - keeping our eyes fixed on Him?

I pray today that if we are stopping and examining our lives, thinking, ‘God, I've been blind,’ then today that you would allow the Healer to touch your eyes and to give you new sight - to become new. That today we would come into Christ in a new way, and that we would become the new creation where the old is gone and the new is here. That we receive a sight - a sight that is fixed upon God. A sight that is not fixed upon our jobs, our circumstance, or what is happening in the physical, but a sight that's says, ‘Father, You are King and You are Lord. I believe in You I trust in You - I may not even see You, but God, I see You in the Spirit'. And so the new creation receives a new set of eyes.

Secondly, the new creation comes into a different lifestyle - a new lifestyle. Now what am I speaking about? Let's look at verse 13. “If we are ‘out of our mind,’ as some say, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.”

When I say lifestyle, I’m not just talking about, we come into a new lifestyle of fashion. We change the clothes that we wear, or we pick up a different lifestyle of no longer living on the East Coast and maybe trying the southern lifestyle. I'm talking about a lifestyle of the Kingdom. Where once, you were driven and compelled by flesh. You were driven and compelled by your old way of doing things and by sensuality and by all the things that look to tempt - overcome defeated. But hallelujah - the new creation is no longer compelled by darkness but now compelled as Paul says, by love. He says, “For Christ's love compels us.”

Now, some preach a love that is not the full course and the full truth of what the Word of the Lord says. Some preach a love of God that is just a kinda soft love that coddles us and kinda just brings us through. And listen: Yes God's love is a love that comforts us. And it is a love that surrounds us. But the fullness of God's love - we must understand - is a compelling love.

What does it compel us to? See it is a powerful love that compels the new creation to holiness. It compels us to righteousness. It compels us not to compromise when temptations face us. It compels us to stand in the truth when there's a chance to compromise against the Word of the Lord. It compels us to remain strong, and to always be set upon the kingdom of God. It’s where the young man and young woman who was supposed to be overtaken by lust and by the flesh and by the desire for money and drugs and everything else - is the young man and woman who has been made new in Christ. They’re no longer compelled by what their friends are doing. They’re no longer compelled by what some social media is saying to do or how to look or how to be. They’re no longer compelled by the drug, but they are compelled by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Yes - it is still true today. God is moving in a powerful love that is a love that cannot be stopped. And it is a love that comes into the new creation, a new lifestyle! A lifestyle filled -a Kingdom lifestyle. A Kingdom lifestyle that cannot be reckoned with!

See the love of God as Paul says, is a love birthed when we recognize Christ’s great love that He died that we should no longer live, but now live for Him. He died so that the old would be gone. That old man, that old woman, that old flesh - that old way of doing things and living, that old lifestyle - is to now be buried with Christ, so that we would also rise again. That we would rise in a love that compels with a force that cannot be reckoned with. With a force that is able to take a selfish man and make him unselfish. With a force that is able to take a young teenager, captivated by the world and now cannot get over what they want to do for the Kingdom. Yeah, they might still be in a normal job or in a normal school but do not be fooled- they’re out for the Kingdom of God in everything that they do. Every bit of the lifestyle that they live is only a means to the end of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The new creation receives a new lifestyle. What kind of lifestyle do you live today? Is it dictated by the power of God? Is it compelled? Are you living - am I living in a lifestyle compelled by the love of God - the powerful love that is a driving force to greatness with God, a driving force to follow Him with everything within us?

”The new creation comes into a new lifestyle - a lifestyle of heaven. ”

You see church was never about coming into a lifestyle of religion. Of, ‘Let me just try to do the right thing now. I’m gonna - in my own strength, you know - follow this Jesus I’m gonna do this Word, and kinda make up my mind and somehow someway I’ll survive.’ No. Church, it was about power. The power of God. About a love that compels us into doing something that we could never imagine. Something more than we can ever ask or imagine - a life of Kingdom power. Where once, all you wanted to do is maybe sit around and watch TV, all of a sudden there's an inkling within your body saying, ‘You’ve got to pray you’ve got to seek Me.’ A move and a power of love where you may be driving in the car - yes you may not be even setting foot in the church at the moment, but you are powerfully calling down prayers that are changing nations, prayers that are releasing people from darkness, prayers that are calling people out of sickness and disease and out of sin! That is the love and the lifestyle that God is calling us into. That is the love and the lifestyle that comes into the new creation. No longer living for ourselves, but now living for God.

It's a time for signs and wonders and miracles, but what are those signs and wonders and miracles? I'll tell you what it is - yes. There’s gonna be miraculous healings yes, there may be physical things that we see that are miraculously done - but I believe even the greatest miracle today is that Christ is entering into a young man or a young woman, and causing them to no longer live like the rest of the world, but to have their heart set upon something different. To no longer be compelled by the drug, to no longer be compelled by just their friends living and just surviving, but to thrive and to come into the fullness of the victory of the newness of God.

For 2021, we are looking forward to coming into the new - a new creation in a new year. Are you in the new today? Is your life all about the Kingdom? By what are you compelled? What dictates the direction that you take every day? Are you compelled simply by your own flesh and sensuality - and we must examine these things in our lives. If we be today then I pray that you, even this hour, would call upon the power of God. That you would seek the Lord Jesus, and you would seek His mercy. That today you would come into the new. That this new year will begin differently, that this new year no longer compelled by the old, but now compelled by the new. Compelled by the mighty Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The new creation comes into a new lifestyle - a lifestyle of heaven. We don’t just wait to die and go to heaven, but now we are looking to bring heaven down to earth - a lifestyle not of normal or mediocre, but a lifestyle of joy and power in the Holy Spirit.

I'm thankful to be in a family whose lifestyle is overtaken by the Kingdom. What do I mean by that - yes, people in my family have some normal jobs per se. And yes we live in a home just like everyone else. But do not be fooled. I praise God that every time I step into my sister's house or my mother and father's house, and even as we begin to speak to each other, we speak with joy and excitement because our lifestyle is a lifestyle charged with the power of God. A lifestyle that is not just looking and seeing the things before us, a lifestyle that is not just about surviving and getting through, but a lifestyle looking to bring the fullness of the power of God to earth once again as we live and as we walk with Him together.

What greater joy - what greater call - than to be called into a lifestyle of the Kingdom, and to the ways of God. To no longer live for ourselves. To no longer live just to get by and to make enough money and to just kinda pay the rent and to pay our due, but to live for something greater and bigger - to live for God. What lifestyle have you lived this past year? Maybe it's time to come into the new. I pray that this day, that the new creation will be formed in each one of us today, church. That we would examine. That we would reckon what kind of life we have lived - that we would reckon whether we are still living in the old, or that we are living in the new and that today, God will bring forth something different.

Lastly, the new creation brings about a new mindset. A new way of thinking a new thought process - let's look at verse 16, “And from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

”...the new creation thinks according to the Word and the truth of God.”

And Paul - notice the words that he's using - he’s saying at one point we used to regard people from a worldly point of view, what is a worldly point of view? It's the human point of view, it's man's point of view. What’s wrong with that? We know that the thought process, the thinking, the point of view of man has been so corrupted. It wasn't supposed to be like that - God's intention for man was that we would have the same mind that we would be one with Him in fellowship but we know that because of sin, the destruction of the mind the degrading and the depravity of man's mind has become so bad. And when we think from our own thought process apart from Jesus - when man just decides to think and to make decisions of what he thought what he is thinking is best - the Bible says that our thoughts are futile and we find ourselves far from God. We find ourselves not thinking aligned with His truth, not thinking in alignment with His will, which is detrimental.

Many Christians today are walking around with an old mindset. Still just kinda thinking, ‘This is right,’ or, ‘This is okay,’ - not fully filled with the Word of truth, with the mind of Christ. And the new creation, hallelujah we have been called to receive a new mind, to receive a new way of thinking the mind of Christ. No longer regarding our own lives and evaluating ourselves according to our thought process or our own point of view. No longer looking at each other or our children or our families or even as Paul said, regarding Christ from a human standpoint. Seeing Christ as just a person to kinda religiously follow and just kinda go about our way but we’re still gonna make our own decisions and kinda do our own thing, but disregard, truly, His thoughts and His thoughts toward His Kingdom and what He is desiring. No. We no longer are to think from that point of view, but the new creation thinks according to the Word and the truth of God. We submit our thoughts. We submit our thought process to the power of the Holy Spirit. And everything that we see, everything that we do, everything that we decide is filtered through God's Word and His truth.

And what a powerful way to live. Because when Christ is within us when we have His mind, our mind will be set on how we can come into the Kingdom. Our mind is set on, ‘How can I think, how can I work out expanding the Kingdom in my life? When I look and I evaluate my own children and my household,’ it's thought process is, ‘Kingdom. Kingdom. How could I bring my children closer into the Kingdom? How can I bring my spouse closer - how can the Kingdom of God expand in my own household?’ What a victorious way to live! Not from a mindset of depravity or defeat, but a mindset now made new in Christ.

Furthermore, when we think of the point of view that we are to live from no longer from our own but from God - I'm not talking about a mindset that is just kinda avoiding those things that used to flood our mind. At one time maybe our mind, or even now, our mind has been flooded by things that it shouldn't be, by temptations by wickedness and heaviness in our minds - I want to say today it’s something bigger that He does in our mind. Not only does He rid it of sinfulness, not only does He rid it of darkness, but now our thoughts are captivated. Captivated by Somebody greater - captivated by the Lord Jesus Christ.

”That today people will once again see the signs and wonders and miracles...”

What a miraculous power and work of God! The miracle that the mind that was once depraved - the miracle of the mind that was once overtaken by money, thinking about its own next move, the mind that was overtaken by the world's thought process where everything that the news says the government says is what overtakes it is now a mind that is taken by Christ. A mind that just keeps thinking toward the Lord. A mind that is just constantly fixed upon God and how it's gonna serve Him. A mind that is settled and at peace because it is a mind that is now aligned with the truth and the Word of the Lord. It evaluates everything from God's perspective.

What a victorious way to think. What a victorious mindset - a mindset of God. A mindset that even sees disaster, a mindset that even sees the worst of circumstances yet does not think simply on those things - their mind is not captivated by those things, but their mind is captivated knowing that somehow or some way, God is gonna reveal His will and provide a way through. ‘God is gonna make a way through where there was no way,’ - a thought process that just knows that if you are set on the Kingdom, everything else will be brought in. That if you seek first His Kingdom, everything else will be provided.

And so today, may we examine whether we be in the new, or still yet in the old. For 2021, God is saying, “A new creation for the new year.” May we no longer remain in the old. May we no longer see with the old eyes or think with the old mind or continue in the lifestyle that we continued in, but I'm praying today, that the power of God would fall upon each one of us - upon each one of our houses, church. And that God would truly receive the glory and honor due to Him and to His great work in our lives.

I leave you with this and I really was thinking about this. We know that Jesus - we know He came in the flesh - came in the flesh just like we have flesh today, in the same world. Faced the same temptations. Faced the same craziness that this world has tried to bring - even the world that crucified Him. Yet, hallelujah, the true miracle occurred. He was a Man who loved the Father. A Man whose sight was set upon the Father no matter what - even if it led to the cross. A Man whose lifestyle was about only doing what His Father was doing and saying. A Man whose mind was fixed upon His God and upon His Father in heaven, and He did it! And He did it to demonstrate that yes today once again, He is looking to enter into man, in a new way, to bring about a new creation in Christ Jesus. That Jesus once again will be found walking and living and moving and seeing and thinking in the flesh in the young man, in the young woman, in the man, in the woman. The man who was once captivated by the world and in utter darkness, the young man who was captivated in lust and wickedness, the young woman that was all around and didn't know what to do with themselves - today, the new has come, and that today you would demonstrate the true power of the Word and the power of God. That today people will once again see the signs and wonders and miracles of Jesus living and walking and breathing again, because you have stepped into the new - because God has done something tremendous.

I pray that this Word would settle in our hearts. To those of you who see that the old is still evident, I pray today that the old would be done with and new would enter. For those of you who have already entered the new, I'm praying that your sight would grow bigger in Christ. I’m praying that your mind would expand in the Lord and that the lifestyle you have already begun to live would be blessed, and that God will bless everywhere you step and everywhere that you go.

Thank you all for listening today. May God be glorified in this time and in the season, and may His Name be lifted up. God bless you all, and I bless the Lord in Jesus’ name, amen.