2026 - The Year Of New Things 2 | Pastor John Greiner

In this episode, we explore 2026: The Year of New Things, unpacking what it means to follow God into territory we’ve never walked before. Drawing from Revelation, Joshua, and Israel’s journey, we confront the ways faith can be limited by fear, familiarity, and unbelief—and how God invites us to break through those barriers. This message challenges listeners to release what’s finished, embrace God’s presence, and expect fresh, unprecedented work in every area of life. It’s a call to ask, seek, knock—and move forward without limits.

Chapters

• 0:00 Framing The Year Of New Things
• 4:35 Behold And Speak What God Is Doing
• 9:50 Defining Make, Things, And New
• 16:50 Ask, Seek, Knock With Intensity
• 22:20 Seeking God Leads To Prosperity
• 24:55 Learning From Israel’s Mistakes
• 31:15 Don’t Limit God: Ignorance And Unbelief
• 37:30 Presence Of God Breaks Barriers
• 41:05 The Northern Pike Experiment
• 45:55 Designed To Break Through Limits
• 49:30 Three Ways We Limit God

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad say this together. Say, Heavenly Father, I am glad to be here. Nothing's gonna hinder me from receiving what you have for me. The blood is purchased. So many things I have not yet discovered. And you're doing new things this year. And Lord, I thank you for showing me those new things. In Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Let's look at Revelation 21, please. And also Joshua chapter 3, and we'll read our foundation scriptures. And we're sharing a series entitled 2026, the year of new things. Revelation 21, verse 5. John says, and he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write. For these words are true and faithful. And then in James, oh, excuse me, Joshua chapter 3, in verse 1. And Joshua rose early in the morning, and they removed from Shetem and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. And it came to pass after three days that the officers went through the host, and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall remove from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits, which is about a half a mile, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way heretofore. And so, 2026, the year of new things, Jesus said this these words that I speak to you, I want you to write them down because what? They're true and faithful. They're true and faithful for us to speak. Now I know he's when you read the context of Revelation 21, it's really talking about the new heavens and the new earth, and it's after the devil has been disposed of, and so forth and so on. But you know, this I came across this word in December. I knew God was speaking. So I went through all of this last week. If you weren't here, be sure and get the media. Uh and and get, if you haven't heard the message, listen to it uh again, even if you heard it last week. You ought to really listen to it again. I mean, this is this is God's wanting to draw a line under this for us this year. We're gonna hang our faith, we're gonna place our faith on new things that God wants to do, things that that we're not acquainted with. We've not passed this way heretofore. I go into the history of all these words that God gives me, the beginning of each year. This is not the first year God's given me a specific word. And so I go into all of that. So I can't do it again today. But uh behold, you know, let's let's look at the verses here. Revelation 21, 5, he told John, Behold. And my dad would say, Look here now, in old South Texas. But it means to uh more than just a glance, it means to pay close attention, perceive and understand the one who sits on the throne is talking, and write it down. So God spoke it to John, and John wrote it down, so it was spoken so it could be written. It was written by John so we can speak it. We ought to be speaking it all the time. You know, Lord, I know you're doing new things in my life. You're doing new things. So uh it says God is making all things new. Making. Now, what does it mean? Well, we think we know. It means to do, execute, fulfill, it means to gain, it means to give, it means to perform. We're we're familiar with that, but I I when I look, I thank, thank God for the concordance, thank God for linguistic key to the Greek New Testament. I can look up and study what these words mean. Greek is a very, very complex language, more complex than English, so the English word make, it covers a lot of territory. We think we know what it make means, but it we really it means to lighten the ship too. Throw throw cargo overboard, throw some things overboard that you've been busy about doing that maybe God's not really, it was good for a while. It was what God's plan was for you, but then you you you know you need to examine whether that's something you need to keep doing. And I gave you some examples. I mean, this church started a year and a half later because I'm faithful. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do at Lakewood. I'm opening, closing services, I'm doing weddings and funerals, I'm busy about the work of the Lord. I'm thinking, okay, I'm I'm obedient. Well, no, God had already had something new for me to do, and I didn't catch on. I did catch on, you know, but it was after a lot of trouble. It it you know it costs you to miss an exit, it costs you to be doing something besides what God wants you to do. So, um so perform, lighten the ship, things, undo new things, things. Look up things. We think we know what things. Well, it means the whole thing, it means everything, it means whatsoever and whosoever. It involves actions, it involves uh thoughts, it involves people. Amen. Ministries, businesses, finances, marriages, children. Oh, come on, let's lift our hand right now. He's making things new. New, everybody say new. We think we know what new means, but it's good to look it up. Cainos, the Greek. Yes, it means new. It means fresh. It means uh unworn. It means unused. It means a new kind, it means unprecedented, it means never heard of. Man, now that's putting a whole nother light on things now. That's putting a whole nother meaning on things now when we think we know what he's saying. We've got to delve into. We need to behold, we need to pay close attention, we need to perceive and understand what it is, the magnitude, the length, the depth, and breadth and height of what it is that he wants to do that's new. I mean, we're not listening. You know, I want to stir you up. New fire. We need to get it get fired up about seeking God for this. We've not been this way here before. We've never been this way. I've never been this way. You know, we can think about walking some way, but we can also I've never existed like this before. I've never I've never been like this. I've never been like this before. See, that's different than where you're walking. That's just who you are. That's who you are. And God's doing something new and who you are. Oh, come on now. Glory to God. It's bigger than what we think. And so, um, we went over to Matthew 7 last week, 7 and 8, and I gave you those three things. Ask and you shall receive, seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be open unto you for everyone that asks, receives. To him that seeks, finds. To him that knocks, it shall be open. So all these ask, seek, and knock, all mean pretty much the same thing. It means an intensity of inquiry. It means more than just a casual desire. No, we're gonna we're gonna hone in on something until we know we have the answer. And I'm I made the point about you ladies, if you lost your diamond out of your ring, I mean, you know, and and then what would you do? Well, you're gonna go looking for it, aren't you? I mean, you take a broom and start sweeping where you've been and start looking for where you've been, where did this fall out? Did it fall out while I was in the car? Did it fall out when I was in the mall? Did it fall out in the house? You're gonna start sweeping and sweeping, and of course you sweep up the dust, and if you're looking for a diamond so tiny that you can't tell it from the dust, an opportunity to get uh old honcho there to maybe pony up for something bigger. A little bigger, you know. When Gladys and I got engaged, I was in the college, so I, you know, I went to Houston uh Jewelry and Distributing Company. It was a discount down on Main Street in downtown Houston. I think I got her a quarter of a carat diamond. I mean, you couldn't even see the thing, it just was pretty tiny. And so we we talked about last week, you know, let's ask, seek, and knock. Number one, about things that we that that we need to let go, things that we need to release. They were good things, but now God's finished with that and he's ready for you to move on to something else. What is the else? Well, that's the other thing you need to find out. What do I pick up? What's the new assignment? Have I got new assignments? And then number three, what do I do right now? See, God, right now. Don't let a whole bunch of time pass by where you're still trying to, you know, in your, you know, whenever you think about. No, let's let's let's make a priority of asking, seeking, and knocking about these new things. I came across 2 Chronicles 26, King Uzziah says there in that chapter, that as long as he sought the Lord, God caused him to prosper. As long as he sought the Lord. See, he was asking, seeking, and knocking as a young king. He had the prophet there telling him things, but he had his part. And as long as he sought the Lord, God caused him to prosper, which means, yeah, yeah, it means to increase financially, but it means to go forward. It means to break through, it means to press on through new territories. There's some new territories that we're going to occupy this year. And by the way, all things means not just individually, but collectively. Houston Kids Against Hunger. He's got new things, and we can't just take for granted what we've always done for 30 years and all that, or 10 years, or however long we've been doing this thing. We've got to not take that for granted. Let's find out if there's something new, is there something we need to let go and something we need to pick up? So today, let's look at Israel because Israel is our example. In fact, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 says that all these things about Israel were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the age have come. This these count this countdown of years is aiming toward the end of the church age. Which what does that mean? The end of the church age comes at the rapture of the church, when God snatches his bride and takes her to heaven, and all the dead in Christ rise first. Then we which are alive. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We which are alive and remain shall be caught up to be with the Lord in the air. And what's going to be left? What's going to be left is all those heathen. They're going to be left without the church. The church will no longer be here. The Holy Spirit will no longer be here on the earth. Can you imagine how horrible it is right now where somebody chews the finger off of one of our eyes, uh one of our federal officials? That's how crazy these people are. They're filled with demon powers. That's what we're fighting here. It's not about left wing and Democrat and Republican, it's about the devil. Have y'all been keeping up with stuff? I mean, Mexico wants to take back the southwestern United States. And they are they are they are they have been plotting for years to infiltrate our whole country with misinformation, false uh history, and everything else, making us feel guilty like we stole the land. We didn't steal anything. It's a lot of silence. Y'all are, oh man. But look, we live in that area. Think about what this world's gonna be when we're gone. It's gonna be a lot worse. But we're gonna get a harvest out of it before we're gone. Amen. So everything that happened to Israel happened for our admonition, our warning, our example, so that we don't repeat their dumb mistakes. They made a lot of dumb mistakes. Why? Well, because they're spiritually dead, for one thing. Even though they were God's chosen people, they were really not sons and daughters of God because they hadn't a new birth. They did not, they weren't born again. They were only able to come close to God through and over a bleeding sacrifice. They had to sacrifice millions of animals. Peter would have gone crazy if they'd have been existing back then. I mean, they got it, they, you know, they gotta they gotta kill a multitude of bulls and goats and calves and pigeons and everything else and shed all this blood. Why? Because the blood covered their sin and the incense and the burning of the sacrifice. Uh it it it camouflaged the stinking smell of human flesh that can't that God cannot tolerate. What does it for us? The blood of Jesus did it one time, and we're a wonderful fragrance. Speaking of fragrance, God wants to do something new. Have you ever noticed a new car? Maybe you've never bought a new car, but I've bought a number of new cars, and maybe maybe what I really want when I buy a new car is the new car smell, but it just doesn't last. And I, you know, I went to the car wash, I remember I figured which, I forget which car it was that I bought was brand new. I hadn't had a new car in a long time, and I bought this new car. And uh and you know, the new car smell kind of faded a little faster than I thought it should, so I went to Mr. Car Wash and they had a new car fragrance. That didn't do it. They have not been able to replicate the new car fragrance. God wants to replicate a fragrance that we exude and that we put out. Are y'all with me now? All right, and so you know, we need to learn from uh Israel's mistakes. Let's let's look at Psalm 78, and we'll start reading with verse 12 and see what David wrote about Israel in verse 12. Marvelous things did he, that is, did God in the sight of their fathers. Now, who is he talking about? Well, he's talking about the children of the people that walked in unbelief, the people that made God angry and said, We be not able to go into the promised land. They left their children. So he said, Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt in the field of Zoon. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through. That's another thing that he did. Not only did he do a great wonders in Egypt, but he did it at the Red Sea. And caused them to pass through, and he made the waters to stand as a heap. In the daytime also, there's another thing he did. He led them with a cloud and all the night with a light of fire. He claved the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink out as of great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness, and they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. What's he talking about? Well, they wanted quail. They missed meat. They had manna. They didn't like the manna. They didn't want to, manna was his provision. They can't grow anything there. They're in the wilderness. They can't, you know, they're gonna have to have some kind of food. So God gave them manna. Well, they didn't like it. They say, Oh, we want to go back. Well, can he furnish quail? Can we get some quail? And he rained quail on them, and so many quail that they were hip deep in quail, and the quail died, and they kept eating it, and it spoiled, and they all got sick, and a bunch of them died. Read it for yourself, Book of Numbers. So this is what he's talking about. Yea, they spake against God and said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Can God everybody say, Can God? See, that's doubt. Man, that's that's the spit in his face. What do you want? He's already proven what he can do. He he split the Red Sea. He he con he caused you to conquer Pharaoh. In fact, he killed Pharaoh in the in the same water that that you've crossed over through. I mean, it's amazing how they could say, can God, after water came out of the rock twice. Twice. Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people? Alright, let's skip down. Verse 38. But he being full of compassion, that word compassion is really the word Hesed. And it means covenant kindness. It means God hearkened back to the covenant that he cut with Abraham 400 and some odd years before that. And he looked around and he couldn't swear by anybody else, so he swore by himself, saying, Surely, blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thee. God obligated himself by cutting the covenant with Abraham, so this compassion is not just like poor little babies pat him on the head. It is an obligation that God puts upon himself because he's God. And God cannot not bless them. Because otherwise he's in violation of his covenant with Abraham. See, that's why it's a sin for governments to try to part the land today, right now. I mean, you've got all these enemies of Israel, they're not friends, and they're gonna sign a pact, but it they're not, they don't mean it. They hate Israel and they hate America. I don't care what they put on paper. They lie all the time. And I'm talking about Saudi Arabia cutter, all the rest of them. They're all liars, they don't believe mean a thing. They say they want the money. I love my president, but he's he's really on thin ice here. We're gonna have to keep praying for him. Pray for our president. I mean, he means well, but he's not going according to the book in that area with this whole Gaza thing. That's Israel's land, not anybody else's. And by by the way, the West Bank is theirs too. And a whole lot of other land, all the way up into Lebanon, a lot of Syria is their land, it's not their, it's not the other folks. God gave it to them. God owns all of it, and he can give it to whoever. And that's what you've got to be careful about. So, go back to 38. He's full of compassion. He's thinking back at his covenant, he's bearing long with them. He forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time he turned his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath. You know, God would have been right to kill all of them. In fact, one time he wanted to. He said, Moses, step aside. I'm gonna get rid of all of them and I'll raise up another people. He said, Well, God, just kill me too. I don't want to be around. I don't want to have to hear the rest of the nations accuse you of wrongdoing. They're gonna say, you know, he was too weak to get his people to obey him, so he had to kill them. And they're gonna make fun of you, and I don't want to hear that. Just kill me too. Yeah? What is that intercession? And that's what God was looking for. God was looking for his representative on earth to get between him and the object of his judgment and say, please don't do it. Please hold it, hold our hands. See, that's what we're doing with our president. We're occupying our place of authority, and we're saying, Lord, don't hold him accountable for part in the land. Lord, he did, he doesn't mean that. He's trying to have peace where there isn't any peace. I'm sorry, there's no peace to be had there. You can't have peace with people who hate your guts and who have been drinking the Kool-Aid that it that they're not even a people. The Palestinians have been taught that for a generation, if they're not really. And if you go back to Germany, that's what they've taught their kids. They said, they said in Germany, they at Hitler, they propagated this whole lie that Jewish people were not really human. And that's why they made lamps out of their skins. Sorry, children, if you're in the service. And it's horrific to think about what people have suffered because of lies. Are y'all with me now? So here's Israel, and they they uh God had compassion on them. He forgave their iniquity, destroyed them not, yea, many a time turned his anger away, did not stir up all of his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away and cometh not again. How often, how often did they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert? How often? Yea, they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. They limited God. Israel limited God. And and you know, so what am I saying about I'm I'm talking about us now. I'm gonna move on to our that's written for our admonition. We're wired like they are in our flesh. We got to get out of our flesh, and we've got to get out of our carnal thinking, our thinking, our reason. Feelings are the you know, are the voice of the flesh. Reason is the voice of the mind. But well, we have a witness of the Holy Ghost. We have the greater one living on the inside. He's the one we need to get tuned into. We need to find out from him. You know, when we get in his presence, he's able to show us exactly what it is he's got in mind that's new for us. So don't limit God. Everybody say, I'm not about to limit God this year. Don't limit God. There are no limits with God. I mean, God is the God of the impossible. You know, when little Mary, you know, the little virgin, you know, she the angel appeared to her and told her she's gonna have a baby. His name will be called Jesus, he's gonna be the Savior of the world. And she says, How can this be? I haven't known a man. I there's how can I have a baby? I know enough about birds and the bees to know that I can't have a baby. Give me a break. He said, Well, the power of the most high shall overshadow you. The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, the power of the Most High shall overshadow you, and that holy thing which shall be conceived of you shall be called the Son of God. For with God nothing shall be impossible. Glory to God. Don't live at God. So she didn't. Thank God that little girl. She didn't. She was obedient. She took the word and says, Obey it unto me according to thy word. She just lifted her hand, okay, I'm down for it. All right. In Matthew 19, Jesus said, with men, it's impossible. But with God, all things are possible. Everybody say, with man, impossible. With God, possible. Man, impossible. God, possible. See, so we've got to get the thoughts of God. We can't let carnal thinking govern our decisions. We can't let reason enter into things and say, well, you know, God did this and God did that. I think I'm going to just, well, you know, you could do that. I've done that. I'm going to preach out of what I've done. It hurt. It hurt me. It hurt my family for me to get outside of God's plan. Because he was going to do new things and I couldn't see them. I didn't spend enough time asking, seeking, and knocking for his plan. I recommend you do that right now, the beginning of the year, before you make a bunch of important decisions. Some decisions, you know, you've got to make. They're coming up and they have an expiration date. That means it's just that much more urgent for us to ask, seek, and to knock. So here in Psalm 78, Israel continually limits God. And when I see how they limited him, they limited him through ignorance. Really, it was through ignorance. You know, they didn't have amnesia. They remembered what he did in it. They remembered what he did in Egypt. They remembered what he did at the Red Sea. They remembered. In fact, they went out down the list of what he did. He brought water out of the rock. What more do you want, you idiots? That's what I want to ask them. I mean, how stupid. So they ignored. Why? You see, when you're like that, when you've got a bad attitude, when you've got this attitude that you don't like what God has provided for you, you don't like. Well, I know there are times when we go through things that we don't like where we're at right now, but it's not God's fault at all. He didn't cause it, he didn't send it. The ignorance is forgetting what God has done. You know, you might need to spend a lot of time thinking about all the wonderful things God has done already in your life and quit looking at what you don't have, look at what you've got. Everybody say ignorance. And then the other thing is just plain old unbelief. They just didn't believe his word. He told them he was going to give them a land that flowed with milk and honey. They got to see it, and they got persuaded that they couldn't possess it. Because the giants were there and the wall cities were there, and we be not able. They had unbelief. They didn't believe that God was able to bring them into their promised land or their new thing. That's why we need to speak it. You speak it long enough, you're going to start really believing it. And then when He shows it to you, you won't doubt it. So God wants us to break through the barriers. You know, there was a barrier there. We talked about the barrier, the even getting into the promised land, there was a barrier. The natural barrier was Jordan at flood stage. You know, just God wasn't stupid. He knew exactly what the clock said, the time was when he got them there. Remember, he led them there by the pillar of fire at night and cloud by day. He led them right to the place of crossing at the time when there was no way to cross except without with him. He had to be involved. I recommend you read Psalm 114. And it says, What ailed you, thou sea that you divided? Well, what what ailed it was the presence of God ailed it. What ailed you, you Jordan, that you parted? Well, it was the presence of God that parted it. What ailed you, little hills, that you skip like rams? What's a little hill? A small country. What ailed you, thou mountain, that you skip like rams? See, the nation shook at the presence of God. His presence was in the camp. His presence is right here in us. That's all you need to break into the new things and break through the barriers. There's barriers. I'm telling you, there's barriers. But we're going to break through those barriers. So the natural barriers, and then there's supernatural barriers. There's supernatural barriers the devil puts up. Listen, if we can break through the natural barriers, we can break through the supernatural barriers. We've got his word. So I read about an experiment that scientists ran on the northern pike. That's a game fish that's found in the Great Lakes of America. And they're big fish. And they they, you know, they're 30, 40 pounds, I think the biggest ones are. Maybe bigger, I'm not sure. I've never been there. But they're carnivorous. They eat other fish, you know. You know, like a largemouth bass. The reason it's a largemouth bass is because it eats other fish. You can't have you can't eat other fish with a little mouth like this. You've got to have a big mouth. So they they eat other fish. They're carnivorous, and so that's how they live and get big. And so the scientists had this big uh water tank, and they they divided the tank into two halves, and they they sunk a piece of Lexan clear plastic in the middle and divided it into two. And they put some northern pike in one side of it, and they're hungry. They made sure they were hungry, hadn't eaten, and so they put them in one side, and then they put put their favorite fish to eat on the other side of the plastic. And you can imagine what happened. I mean, the water started boiling, and I mean, those pike they saw their meal over there, and they didn't see the plastic, and they man, they ran, swam right into that plastic. Wham! And and you know, and and I saw I would come across my television guide the other day and I saw a movie, Dazed and Confused. That's that's what happened. That's what happened to those northern pikes. They became dazed and confused. There was something stopping them from getting their meal. They were still hungry, but man, the hurt the pain and the and the shock of hitting that wall. They hit the they hit the wall. They hit the obstacle and they couldn't get through it. They tried to break through it, and they couldn't break through it. And so finally, and of course the fish on the other side, they're afraid. They see they're they know what those people are. They know what they can do, and they're they're running the other side. They're trying to, and so it took a while, but finally both sides of the tank just kind of calm down. And the failure of coming against the break, and the failure to be able to break through the break, the failure to come against that resistance, that obstacle, it made the northern pike just give up even though they're still hungry. You know, there's something in man that God put in us to overcome every obstacle. We're wired like that. I mean, why else would we want to fly when we don't have wings? But we wanted to fly ever since we saw birds. Why can't we fly like that? Why can't I fly right over that over that mountaintop? If I could fly and get over that mountaintop, I could see what's on the other side. I could see my enemies before they ever get here if I could just fly like this bird. And so, you know, men started trying to figure out how to fly. Have you ever seen those old reels of the contraptions that they invite, you know, that they built, you know, the guy that's riding a bicycle has got these wings, he went right off the pier, right into the water, you know. He just fell. He didn't fly, he just fell. And so somehow, someway, that kept on, kept on, kept on. Man wanted to fly until finally the internal combustion engine came out, and that was amazing. And the and the Orville and Wilbur Wright and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they put that with a contraption that they designed, and they designed a contraption that had the shape of a wing. They looked at a bird's wing and they thought, you know, that shape must mean something. The shape of the wing. It's kind of like a teardrop a little bit, and it's got a rounded front corner. You would think it would be sharp on the front. No, it's rounded like this. And then it gets sharp on the trailing edge. That's the opposite of what your brain would think. Your brain would think you want something to cut through the air. No, you want something that will create high pressure under the wing and low pressure on top of the wing, and now you've got what they call lift. That's the beginning of aeronautical engineering. That's what they did by accident, by trial and error. And they flew a hundred feet in 1903. That's all they went, a hundred feet. And by 1954, just a half a century later, Chuck Yeager is breaking the speed record, the sound barrier. And by 1969, we've got men on the moon walking on the moon. See, man is is wired, is designed to break through the barriers and not to limit himself. And we could go on and on. Everybody said God created, made a break through barriers. So I've got three things today to look at here. To take, to be on guard as we're asking, seeking, and knocking. Number one, don't limit God with your mind. Israel just had wrong thinking. They were all thinking we can't overcome. We're not strong enough. We're not big enough. There's giants, there's wall cities, we're not able. They couldn't take any initiative of their own. And uh, and so they, but when God told them what to do, they didn't, they didn't, they didn't believe it. They limited God in their mind. They had wrong thinking, they had wrong attitude. They were mad at God for taking them out of the what they cried out for. They cried out for a hundred years to get delivered from slavery, God did it, and then they're mad at him. But let us go back. We want we miss our cucumbers. We miss our leeks. How would you miss a cucumber? Man, cucumbers don't taste like anything unless you put some vinegar on them and onions on them and tomatoes on them, make a salad, then it's pretty good. But after the before that, or you pickle them, you know, you can pickle them. Cucumbers. I mean, they had a bad they had a bad attitude. Blaming God, mad at God. The best thing you can do is learn to look in the mirror if you don't like things. Look in the mirror, you're the reason why it's not working. Just go ahead and own it. Quit blaming God. Quit thinking God sent it for a purpose. Quit thinking God's teaching me a lesson. That's just that's lazy Bible teaching that a lot of us have been exposed to. It's not scriptural. I said it's not scriptural. No, we're we're designed to overcome every obstacle. And so I remember when Gladys and I moved back to Houston from Corpus Christi, we had a little brief respite in the 80s. The mid-80s, there was a depression in Houston. And I know now, looking, now that we're finding out about all the things that are going on in our federal government, these letter agencies had taken over in the mid-80s in a great degree. And I'm talking about people like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mack, uh government mortgage people. I'm talking about big banks, Wall Street. I'm talking about all of the EPA, the you you name it. These people are not elected and they have the force of law behind them, and they messed up our housing industry. Our housing industry is messed up even worse right now because of all these people. They fouled it up so bad. The average age of a first-time homebuyer now is 40 years old. Isn't that terrible? I don't want that to keep going. That's you know, I it's most mostly we want to get people ready for heaven, but I mean, the rest of this, I mean, this country is the greatest country on the face of the earth, and we've let these we've let these bureaucrats rob us. Anyway, get off on that. But um I had to move, I had to find a job. I my company couldn't support my family. I found a job in Corpus. We we went there for a year, and after a year, I had signed a six-figure contract to run a real estate development company there in the residential section. I developed some property and I sold lots. We were successful, but the the company on the commercial side got a hold of commercial real estate investment that sunk the company. The company went broke owing me about$8,000, and I was out of the job, and I mean, I'm I'm stuck in corpus. I, you know, I missed an opportunity to come back to Houston, and I waited six more months. By the time the six months were up, I mean, I was in bad shape financially. It it costs you to be out of the will of God, it costs you not to know what new thing God's got for you. And so uh I didn't blame God, but I mean, you know, I just have to say that after all of my failure, I mean, I failed in my home building business and I had to move there, and then I failed there, and then I failed again for six months. I got into a business that made me$1,500 in six months. Guess what? You can't live on fifteen hundred dollars in six months. So we came back broke and had to move in with my sister. And my sisters and her husband supplied our food and our shelter. And I'm a failure as a husband, a failure as a father. I'm not providing for my family. I that's my mindset. Well, I've got to fight that. I can't blame God, I've got to look in the mirror. Well, it was so devastating to look in the mirror. I mean, it's hard to it's hard to have a positive attitude when you've failed, when you've been the northern pike and you've beat your face against a impenetrable barrier. Are y'all following me now? I can laugh now. I wasn't laughing then. But I knew that I knew the power of confession, and and and so the best confession I could make. I mean, I just couldn't make myself say I'm blessed. Thank you. People would say, hey, John, how you doing? They didn't care how I was doing, they're just greeting me, okay? They're not really wanting a report. Because if I gave them a report, they'd leave, you know. They wouldn't want to hear to my I knew better than to do that. I didn't tell anybody my problems. So the best I could do is, hey, John, how you doing? Well, I'm I'm uh just plugging along. Or I'd say, Oh, I'm hanging in there. I don't know how many thousand times I must have said, plugging along, hanging in there. How you doing, John? Plugging along. How you doing, John? Hanging in there. So one morning at Lakewood, we got back to Lakewood Church, and I'm I'm in the front, you know, walking up and down, praying, and just kind of, you know, waiting for the service to start. This guy comes up that I don't know very well, and he asks how I'm doing. Hey, Brother John, how are you doing? Well, I'm I'm hanging in there, and and then right as soon as I said it, he turned and walked away. Uh, it wasn't a really a, you know, it wasn't a bad confession. It just was, it was just bleh. It just did, it didn't, you know, and so the I heard this audible voice. I thought the whole sanctuary heard it. I thought it came over the loudspeaker. Yeah, and your fingernails are about to break. And as soon as I heard that, I thought, oh my God, I turned red. I was embarrassed. And uh I knew immediately that I had not been having a good confession. And I chased the guy down. I got him by the shoulder, turned him around, and said, Yeah, you asked me how I'm doing. I'm doing better and better. Oh, yeah? Huh, okay. He thought I was, what's wrong with you? You know. And you ask me now, I I tell everybody I'm doing better and better. Why? Because eternal life is in me. I I I've got faith. I mean, I'm increasing, I'm growing all the time. Things are better than they were. That's what my confession is. I could say I'm blessed to the Lord. Well, I could say that, but I I choose a kind of a non-religious way of saying it so that I can say it to everybody and anybody. When the banker asks me, how are you doing? Better and better, and they always look at me like, well, what economy are you in? I'm in God's economy. That's what economy I'm in. Are y'all getting anything out of this? Don't limit God with your thinking. Number two, don't limit God by your ability or your lack of it. Well, you know, God, I understand that, but I just I didn't go to school for that. I didn't, I didn't do this, I didn't do that, I'm not, I don't have that gift, I don't do this. Listen, his presence is the great difference maker. Let me ask you about Israel. Were they soldiers? Were they warriors? No, they were the children of farmers. Actually, they were the children of slaves, which meant they were slaves. And really, they didn't have any experience in battle. They didn't have any experience even in farming. They're supposed to be farmers. What was going to make the difference? God's anointing was gonna make the difference. His presence is the great difference maker for your life and the new things God wants you to be picking up and taking to heart. Are y'all with me now? Everybody say his presence. Greater is he that's in it than that's in me than he that's in the world. Amen. And his presence is where we receive specific instructions for our life. So that's why you've got to have a prayer life and a word life. You're gonna have to pick it up and stir it up. You're gonna have to have the fire of God on you. I tell you, if you do, you're gonna start finding out from God exactly what it is that God He's got in store for you. And then finally, number three, don't limit God by looking at the clock or the calendar. Faith operates in seed time. Seed time and harvest shall not depart from the earth. As long as the earth remaineth. You know, God told Noah, as long as the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest shall not perish. As long as summer and winter, cold and heat, night and day, same thing. Seed time and harvest. What is seed time? It's the time for a seed to germinate and bring forth fruit. That's our our faith is as a seed. It takes time once we start speaking something for it to go down in our heart and bring forth fruit. And so that's why we can't look at the clock or the calendar. Galatians 6.9 says, in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Everybody say, I'm not fainting. Hebrews 6.12 says, uh, be followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. See, we need to have some patience. You didn't get where you are right now. Maybe all of us, if we really look at it, we'll find some plateaus, we'll find some barriers that we need to break through. I mentioned last week, one of the barriers I want to break through this year is people in this sanctuary. I want more numbers because we need more numbers. We need more laborers. We can't really complete the job that God's given us in our present size. We need to grow. Anything that God has anything to do with, it grows. It doesn't mean we have to be a megachurch and have 10,000 people here, but we could, we've got the capacity to have two to three thousand members. Easy. Without building anything. All we have to do is just put the chairs out here and squeeze them in. Make the air the aisles a little narrower and the space a little tighter, and we can get with this this building seats 1,000. Did you know that? And we we pulled it out because we don't have a thousand people coming. This morning we've got less than normal. Why? Well, because of the weather. That's fine. It's understandable. But I'm talking about I want growth. I want, and I believe God wants growth. So that's one of the new things I'm believing for. And how do we get it? Well, that's the thing that I need to find out. I'm praying about. What adjustments do we need to make as a ministry? I mentioned about our staff. We're making adjustments in our staff to make sure we have everyone tasked in our staff with what their greatest strengths are. We're discovering those strengths and we want to adjust their workload around the strength that they have. And also the people that are next to them that can help them at times. Because we all pitch in and do things from time to time. Well, let's find out where everybody's strengths are so that they'll mold together. So we're doing that, but we're going to do it all on a greater on a greater level. See, God wants to make all things new, and he's talking about who? Whosoever, whatsoever, individually, collectively. He's got new things for all of us to discover in the year of 2026. Praise God. Your fertile ground to receive those new things. Come on, lift your hands right now. Father, why thank you. And Lord, we're willing to make the adjustment. Everybody say, I'm willing to make adjustments. I'm willing to have change in my life. I'm not stuck. I'm free. The blood of Jesus set me free. Hallelujah. Well, come on, let's rejoice this morning. Glory to God. Thank you, Father. Thank you for new things. God's got new things. Amen, amen, amen. Praise God. Praise God.