Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the World Changers Church Gold Coast Podcast. Join us as we listen to today's message.
[00:00:06] Happy New Year.
[00:00:09] There's something really strange happens on New Year's Eve.
[00:00:12] Honestly, there is. It's like nothing changes.
[00:00:18] We wake up in the same house, we still know the same people, we still get the same bank balance. What's actually changed? What's going on?
[00:00:26] There's nothing happens on New Year's Eve. It's bizarre. It blows my mind, really, but it's one of those things because inside of us, something quietly whispers, next year is going to be different.
[00:00:40] How many times have you heard this year already? And we're only on the 4th.
[00:00:45] I'm done with 2025.
[00:00:48] I'm done. Give it away. I don't want it no more. That was a terrible year.
[00:00:52] 2026 is going to be better.
[00:00:55] How many times have you heard it?
[00:00:57] You see it on social media, you see people say it, you hear, you feel people talk about. Last year was terrible. Oh, I'll tell you what, I had a terrible time in 2025.
[00:01:10] Shocking, it was.
[00:01:11] But when you actually get down to the crux of it, they might have had a bad time in there, but actually the majority of it was quite good if they'd look at the good things.
[00:01:18] What are we focused on?
[00:01:19] When I was in the Royal Navy, we used to go to sea for six months at a time and I only remember the good times.
[00:01:26] Why is that?
[00:01:27] I don't come back saying, I tell you what, I don't want to do that again. I was scrubbing decks, I was polishing brass, I was doing all the horrible stuff that you do day in, day out. But out of those 10 days and six months that we went ashore in different countries, I remembered that, let's go do it again.
[00:01:43] We don't do it, do we? We always look at the negative and that's a challenge.
[00:01:48] But right now, the desire for a fresh start isn't cultural, it's spiritual.
[00:01:55] It comes from a God who restores, who renews, who rebuilds, who redeems.
[00:02:03] That's the fresh start. We're looking for the title of this message today when it comes up on There is New Beginnings.
[00:02:11] But every year we spend every January asking the same question with the same self inflicted pressure.
[00:02:21] What am I going to change?
[00:02:24] What am I going to do?
[00:02:28] How can I be better for next year? How can I do this? Not what habits will you improve?
[00:02:34] God's asking something more powerful. He's asking something more meaningful. He's asking on there who are you becoming?
[00:02:43] Not what habits you're changing, not what stuff you're leaving behind, not all the goals you're going to achieve. And out of that, who are you allowing God to create, to make, to make new, to shape you into this pressure about changing stuff, about doing stuff, about these new beginnings, about this January, about these New Year's resolutions.
[00:03:07] By the way, about 67% of people that start their New Year's resolutions, especially when they go to the gym after about the third week, they all feel.
[00:03:16] And about 48% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
[00:03:24] Remember it. Remember it. There's pressure. We put pressure on ourselves to do all this stuff. And this pressure isn't about what we're trying to achieve.
[00:03:35] It's about who we're afraid of becoming.
[00:03:39] I want to change your perspective with that.
[00:03:42] Who are you afraid of becoming?
[00:03:47] When we talk about I, when we talk about me, it's all the plans that I'm making.
[00:03:54] But realistically, it's about what God has created you to do. Who God has created you to be, what he's called you to do.
[00:04:03] What are we scared of?
[00:04:06] What are we scared of becoming?
[00:04:09] Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here.
[00:04:19] And that tells us that new beginnings don't start with calendars.
[00:04:22] Why do we wait till the 1st of January to create this new beginning? That's not what it is about your new creation.
[00:04:30] This moment that you give your life to Jesus. You were a new creation. You were formed, you were reformed.
[00:04:38] The moment that you give your life, that's when stuff changes. Not January 1st.
[00:04:45] When you know who you are in Christ and you accept that, that's when your life changes.
[00:04:50] Who are you in Christ?
[00:04:52] God says in Isaiah 43, 18, 19, forget the former things.
[00:04:58] Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
[00:05:11] See, I am doing a new thing.
[00:05:15] Not I will not, I might.
[00:05:21] I am doing a new thing.
[00:05:25] God is doing a new thing in your life. Always has been, always will be. He's at work already, before your year even began.
[00:05:38] Father. God.
[00:05:40] I just want to thank you, Father, for these people today.
[00:05:43] I want to thank you, Father, for ears to hear your message, your word. This isn't from me, Father. I thank you that you have channeled this through me. I am humbled for it, Father, but I Declare that the Holy Spirit will speak to every single person here today. That ears will hear your word, your truth, your revelation.
[00:06:05] And we thank you, Father, for transformation that only you can bring.
[00:06:09] And we give this over to you in your precious name, Jesus. Amen.
[00:06:14] See, God requires release before renewal.
[00:06:18] Think about that one. Isaiah begins with a command. He said, forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past.
[00:06:24] This isn't the case of right, go lose your memory. We all have trauma. We all have something that has happened in the past before. But God is not asking you to lose your memory. He's asking you to lose the authority that the past holds over you.
[00:06:40] That's what he's asking you to lose.
[00:06:43] The past is there. It's behind you for a reason.
[00:06:47] For those that know my story, I know where I can find violence. I know where I can find all the old me. And it's right back there. But I'm not looking there. I'm not walking there. There. I'm walking forward. I'm walking in the steps. And the path that he has purposed and planned for me. That's where I'm walking, not behind. I have no reason to look that way anymore. I have no. No. I have authority, and I've left all that behind. Paul echoes this in Philippians 3, 13, 14, and he's talking about forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on towards the goal. See, you can't carry yesterday's pain into tomorrow's promise.
[00:07:29] Years ago, I had a prophesy over me and I listened to it and bits and pieces and stuff like that. And a lot of that's starting to come to fruition now, seven, eight years after it came. But one of the things they talked about was having loose hands.
[00:07:44] Loose hands. How many people here have got a tight grip on what they shouldn't have a tight grip on?
[00:07:51] How many people are holding on to stuff that's not theirs to hold onto, that never was in the first place. Stuff that should be left behind, left at the foot of the cross while you keep on walking on that's not yours, have loose hands. When God says go, you go. When God says stay, you stay. When he says preach or teach or go or do whatever, you're able to go because you've got loose hands. You've got nothing holding you back.
[00:08:17] Jesus says in Luke 9:62, no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.
[00:08:27] I can't serve God.
[00:08:29] That's where he wants me to be. If I keep looking back here, I'm not moving forward.
[00:08:35] I'm doing nothing.
[00:08:37] New beginnings always require obedient detachment.
[00:08:45] I've got to be obedient. That when he says, put it down, that I put it down.
[00:08:51] It's not mine anymore.
[00:08:54] We talk about a tithe, we talk about an offer, and we talk about 10%.
[00:08:59] God can do immeasurably more with 10% than what you can with 100%.
[00:09:03] But 100% of what you have is God's anyway.
[00:09:06] Everything that he has gifted you with is His.
[00:09:11] And there'll be a time and a season when he says, set it down, he has something more for you.
[00:09:17] That's where he wants you to be, where he's directed you, not where you've directed yourself.
[00:09:23] Proverbs 16:9 says, in their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
[00:09:33] See, planning isn't the problem.
[00:09:37] Smart goals aren't the problem.
[00:09:40] Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. That's not the problem. When you work in business, you work to specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely goals.
[00:09:50] Plan, do, review. If I'm in business and I'm looking at a year, I want to get the first quarter done and dusted with the plan that I've got. I want to review that plan, and I need to adapt that plan. If something's gone wrong, if it's not gone wrong, carry on doing it. I'm in business.
[00:10:03] That's okay.
[00:10:04] Having a plan is okay.
[00:10:08] What's not okay is the control, the plan, the clinging to everything that is like, this is my plan. I'm not changing it.
[00:10:18] I've got to control it. It's all about me.
[00:10:21] Everything is mine. It's all about me. That's the problem. Instead of praying God, establish my steps, we quietly are praying God, jump in with me in what I want to do.
[00:10:37] That's the problem when we decide what we think we know best for ourselves instead of what God knows and he's there. He's not going to bless the plan, but he's looking to redirect your path.
[00:10:49] So when your path's getting redirected, that's sometimes when we feel confused, disappointed, and out of control.
[00:10:56] But God Sundays in Isaiah 43, he said, I'm making a way in the wilderness.
[00:11:01] In other words, when you lose control, God hasn't left you.
[00:11:04] He's repositioning you. Or he has repositioned you. You just haven't listened yet.
[00:11:12] There's a challenge.
[00:11:13] Are we listening to God?
[00:11:16] Or are we listening to self?
[00:11:18] To I, to me, to you?
[00:11:23] The wilderness isn't where God punishes you. It's where he re establishes us.
[00:11:30] You and him together, combined. You following the path that he has planned and purpose and set in front. Deuteronomy 8:2:3 explains that God led Israel through the wilderness to humble them and to test them so that they would learn that man does not love on bread alone.
[00:11:48] See, the wilderness strips false security.
[00:11:50] The wilderness strips false significance.
[00:11:54] The wilderness strips false identity.
[00:11:59] Until all that's left is truth.
[00:12:03] You don't need success to be secure.
[00:12:06] You need surrender.
[00:12:09] Surrender to Him.
[00:12:12] Pride.
[00:12:14] To lay it down, to set it to the side, to listen to what he's called you to do.
[00:12:18] Because it may not be what you want to do, but his plans and purposes are better than yours.
[00:12:25] But God's new thing is already in motion. He says. Now it springs up. And Jesus said in John 5:17, My father is always at his work to this very day.
[00:12:34] Before you feel it, God is forming it.
[00:12:39] Before you see it, he is shaping it. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, he has made everything beautiful in its time.
[00:12:49] Just because you can't see it yet doesn't mean it isn't already moving.
[00:12:55] People go through a journey. They go through their story. They go through a chapter, and they get halfway and they pull out the camping chair, get the barbecue all set up, sit themselves down, and they're like, God wants me here. No, he doesn't. He doesn't want you in the middle of that chapter. He wants you to carry on. He wants more steps. He wants you to get to the end of that chapter. He wants to learn. He wants you to learn. Sorry, everything that has gone on through that chapter so that you are a new creation day after day. Romans 12:2, renew your mind every day. You're a new creation.
[00:13:28] Walk forth.
[00:13:30] We don't stand stagnant and stand still.
[00:13:34] We walk forth. We walk forward.
[00:13:37] God's not calling you to stand still.
[00:13:40] He's calling you to go out into all the world to preach and to teach the good news.
[00:13:45] Like we've said before, this isn't a church of getting people in, to keep people. This is a church where we allow people to go.
[00:13:51] Because that's what Jesus wants you to do.
[00:13:54] Go.
[00:13:55] The ones that want to stay, thank you very much. Because we need people to serve, we need people to help. We need people to actually minister to. This is great. Thank you very much.
[00:14:02] This is what we love. But this is about going.
[00:14:05] Going to all the nations. Come back, tell your story, share the testimonies, encourage other people to go and do the same. This isn't about growing to thousands. This is about the people here that have got depth and knowledge of Jesus and understand and know the purpose that he has put on their lives to go and do.
[00:14:22] This is what it's about.
[00:14:26] Perception determines participation.
[00:14:32] God doesn't just say, I am doing a new thing.
[00:14:36] He follows it with a question.
[00:14:39] And I enjoy going through this one. Because he says afterwards, do you not perceive it in the NIV and the King James, New King James NLT and stuff? He'll say, do you not see?
[00:14:52] And the word perceive means is far richer than what we think. And when I looked into this, it was fascinating because in the Greek Septuagint, the word used is gnosco, if I even say it properly. Apologies if I don't. And it doesn't mean to notice something casually. It means to know by experience.
[00:15:07] It means to recognize with understanding. It means to enter into something with relationship.
[00:15:15] Do you not perceive?
[00:15:18] God's not asking, can you see the new thing?
[00:15:21] He's asking, are you engaged with it?
[00:15:25] Are you aligned in your heart with it? Are you stepping into relationship with what he's birthing?
[00:15:33] That's what he's asking. It's not an observation. It's an invitation to be part of what he's doing.
[00:15:42] Some people stay stuck in old seasons, not because God isn't moving, but because they never entered into what he was doing.
[00:15:55] I'll say that again.
[00:15:57] Some people stay stuck in old seasons not because God isn't moving, but because they never entered into what he was doing.
[00:16:11] You don't just see new beginnings, you participate in them.
[00:16:15] And you can't carry last year's mindset into God's new thing.
[00:16:20] Loose hands. Let it go. It's not yours. Forget about the past. It's not yours in the first place. Leave it there.
[00:16:29] But God specializes in impossible terrain. And he says, I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
[00:16:37] Isaiah 35, 6, 7 declares that water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. See, God does His best work where strength is exhausted, where resources are absent, and where hope looks irrational.
[00:16:54] Because if we'd done it ourselves, then how can we turn around and glorify God?
[00:16:58] This is all about Him.
[00:17:01] Your environment doesn't define your outcome.
[00:17:04] God defines your outcome.
[00:17:07] But out of everything, out of new beginnings, the resurrection as the ultimate new beginning.
[00:17:15] Every new beginning in Scripture leads us to the resurrection. And Paul says in Romans 6, 4, just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too may live a new life.
[00:17:28] Jesus didn't come to improve behavior.
[00:17:32] We look at the world and we see that.
[00:17:34] Unfortunately, we look at some Christians and we see that the behavior isn't what we'd expect.
[00:17:42] The world isn't what we hoped it would be.
[00:17:45] Revelation tells us a lot more. It's a different preach.
[00:17:49] But Jesus didn't come to improve behavior. He came to replace death with life.
[00:17:58] That's what he came to do, to replace death with life. And your failures, anything that has gone wrong in the past, we're kicking out 2025. We're bringing in 2026. There's terrible stuff that went on there. Your failures don't disqualify you. Your failures position you for grace.
[00:18:20] Your position for grace.
[00:18:22] It's okay to fail.
[00:18:24] It's okay to get it wrong.
[00:18:26] I get it wrong all the time.
[00:18:28] I'm married. My wife tells me when I get it wrong.
[00:18:32] Apparently that's what they do. But, you know, we get it wrong.
[00:18:37] During this preparation for this. I've got things wrong.
[00:18:42] I haven't got it right. My posture has been wrong. My heart's been wrong. The thought process has been wrong. I've had to take it before God.
[00:18:50] I've had to challenge myself.
[00:18:53] Anytime I bring a message up here, I'm bringing a message to me as much as to anybody else. Because I've had to go through this stuff to understand it, to know it, to realize it and to bring it.
[00:19:03] But some people here, you're standing between seasons.
[00:19:11] You feel disorientated. Get me words out. Right. You feel confused, emotionally tired. You feel spiritually unsettled. But it's not confusion there. It's transition.
[00:19:24] What are you being transitioned through?
[00:19:26] Because God's not closing the door. He's opening your vision.
[00:19:32] He's opening your vision to see I am doing a new thing, new beginnings. Don't start with behavior.
[00:19:43] I'm gonna be good. And I'm gonna go to the gym every day.
[00:19:45] Three weeks later, I don't wanna do that anymore.
[00:19:49] I'm gonna eat good, healthy food. Two days later, I don't like that anymore. Give me the chocolate and the fatty stuff. Yeah, it's all about me. I don't like to do that. I don't want to do that. But it's a behavior that can be changed. Behavior can be modified. Behavior can be faked.
[00:20:06] The heart can't.
[00:20:10] You begin and start with identity.
[00:20:13] When God wants to change A life. He never starts by saying, do better.
[00:20:20] I don't know about you, but as a parent, as a dad, I get it so wrong.
[00:20:25] My son comes to me after a rugby game and he's like, dad, what'd you think? I said, mate, you missed a couple of tackles on there. You could have tackled that better. You could have ran that angle a little bit better. If you'd have thought about this, you could have done that better.
[00:20:39] And I reflect on that sometimes and I'm like, what an idiot. I want him to get better. And I'm thinking, this is good as constructive criticism. Yeah, that's what we call. It's constructive criticism.
[00:20:50] Well, you done good there, but, oh, terrible. I didn't have a dad that done that. And all of a sudden I find myself doing it. I'm like, all dads do that.
[00:20:59] Is it just me? Am I the only one? It seems like it at the moment because nobody's putting their hand up. All right, so I'm terrible. I confess now in front of everyone, I'm a terrible dad because I make him. Oh, it's no good. But listen, God wants to change.
[00:21:16] He never starts by saying, do better. He starts by saying, you are mine.
[00:21:23] You are mine.
[00:21:27] Doesn't matter what you've done, doesn't matter if you could have done it better. It doesn't matter if you've done it really poor, you're his.
[00:21:37] Before David was king, he was called chosen.
[00:21:41] Before Peter preached, he was called a rock.
[00:21:44] Before you ever got it right, God called you son, daughter, loved, redeemed, forgiven, before you got it right.
[00:22:01] And when identity is settled, significance is no longer something you chase, it becomes something you carry.
[00:22:12] It's with you, it's yours. And you stop asking, what do I need to achieve so that I can matter?
[00:22:21] And you start declaring, I matter because I belong.
[00:22:35] Because you were called and because Jesus died for you, I expected this preach to last a little bit longer. But it's not. So we're actually going to be finished very early.
[00:22:49] This year isn't about changing habits. This year is about how God can change. How you see yourself through his eyes, how you see yourself through the blood of Christ because of the blood of Christ. That's what this year is about.
[00:23:03] Because when identity is healed, behaviour follows. And when identity is restored, your significance is no longer built, your significance is revealed.
[00:23:16] And that's where we end this. Today.
[00:23:19] I expected it to be longer, but, hey, this is what it is. I've read this so many times, it's taken me so Honestly, I'm looking back. Have I forgotten anything? Have I missed anything? No, that's everything. That's what he said, that's what was downloaded, and that's where we are.
[00:23:36] Thank you for tuning in to today's message. To connect or find out more, you can reach us online at worldchangers Life. Remember to subscribe for more uplifting messages from our pastoral team. And may you continue to walk in faith and transformation until we meet again.
