All Things New Pt.III - Create Church

Pastor Banks Babade

6 minute read

Before I came on staff full time here at Create, I travelled across America to different industries and companies to implement changes that could grow an organization and implemented new systems to make a company produce more with less at a faster rate so they could be profitable.

What I discovered during that time changed everything I understood about people.

Every single company’s greatest challenge was the same:

People don’t want to change.

The people that had been working at the company for a while had mastered the old legacy systems. They usually resisted changes the most because the new systems equaled new challenges. It required them to leave their comfort zone and learn a new way of doing things.

Change is uncomfortable. But it’s necessary.

In order for someone to find success, the first thing that needs to change is their perspective. It does not matter if you put the best processes in place — at some point the company will find a way to go back to the old way of doing things.

It’s the same challenge that God had with the children of Israel. They left Egypt, but Egypt never left them. Egypt is a state of mind and not just a geographical location. What are somethings that are holding our minds back and stopping us from moving towards our land of purpose?

I wonder what some of the changes are that are long overdue that you and I need to make in order for us to have a better year this year or perhaps the best year we’ve ever had.

God wants to give us a new wine, a new anointing, a new power.

For us to be able to contain what He’s getting ready to pour into us we need to change the wineskin and get a new wineskin – a new mindset.

Jesus said in Mark 2:22 NKJV:

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

One constant in life is change. The world is constantly changing and constantly evolving. We can either resist the change, embrace the change completely, or recognize the change and make some adjustments depending on the kind of changes.

I pray for you that all things will work together for your good this year. Notice that I did not say that all things that will happen to you will be good. There will be various challenges that we will face that won’t be pleasant, but despite all of your daunting challenges, God will work out EVERYTHING for our good.

I pray that this year we will rise up and take our dominion over the devil and place him right where he belongs, which is under our feet. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

We’ve been playing it too cool with the devil for so long but not this year. Sometimes we let the devil hang around longer than necessary.

My question for you is this, what is the bobcat that you were accommodating last year that’s stopping you from reaching your fullest potential?

GET RID OF THE EXCESS

In 2023 there are some relationships that you can’t keep around anymore. You are like a space shuttle with rockets and boosters that helps it get to a certain altitude, but because the mission is called to a higher altitude, it needs to drop those rockets and boosters so it can reach its goal. Don’t be surprised if some people and somethings start falling off your life this year. It’s because the Lord is calling you higher.

God is getting ready to pour out new wine into your life, but if you lack a new mindset, He’s going to withhold His hand because He is a great steward of the blessings.

We must have the capacity to contain what He’s ready to commit.

This year let’s take inventory of our life and see the things that we need to get rid of and practically go for it.

INVEST YOUR TIME WISELY

The greatest asset given to man is time. The way we all invest it determines the quality of life that we live. The quality of your relationships with is determined by how much of this investment you put in. All of us are given an equal amount. 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 12 months in a year.

If we need to increase in understanding, you invest time.
If you want to stay in shape, you invest time.
If you want a healthy marriage, you invest time.

If we want a deeper friendship with God, we can spend our currency of time in scripture. We need to study our Bible more this year than ever. This allows us to hear God and discern His voice for purpose. When we study the Bible, what we are doing is studying God because in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

GET A VISION FROM GOD

Everyone here can have a vision from the Lord for this year. Here is why it’s important: Without vision my people perish or cast-off restraint. Without vision from the Lord, we don’t have a sense of direction. We allow everything that comes our way. We have no filtering mechanism for discerning what is of the Lord and what’s from the devil or what is from our flesh and environment.

If you don’t have a vision for this year, it’s not too late. You can get vision from the Lord at any time you are ready for one. The next two weeks can be the time that you will get a vision from the Lord through the spiritual exercise we are on. Let’s make sure we mix this next fourteen days with good extended time of personal worship and prayer!

Here’s a great place to start. Answer these two questions:

What are the visions that you have for yourself or your personal goals for the year?
What is God’s vision and assignment for you that He wants you to accomplish for Him?

Let’s ask the Lord what He wants us to accomplish for Him. Seek ye first His kingdom, His vision, and righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you.

The successful kings in the bible were kings that were busy accomplishing God’s assigned vision. Jesus was about the father’s business, and the disciples were about Jesus’ vision of the kingdom. This year let’s make the Lord’s business priority over our personal vision and then let’s see how this year is going to turn out.

Uncomfortable change this year for some of you looks like becoming involved in a small group. Some of you need to lead a small group. Some of you need to stretch your faith and start giving and tithing, or to be a blessing to others in some way and not just think you and you alone, or it might be for some of you to go on a mission trip. Some of you may be called to sponsor a child or a family, to adoption or foster. Regardless of how it manifests, God’s mission is for you to make a difference in someone’s life.

You might be saying, ‘Banks, I need the resources to do it.’ Get the vision first and be about it. With vision comes provision!

You want all things new this year? You need a new wineskin and a new wine. If you’re interested in finding out how my new year started with adopting a pet bobcat, you can check out this week’s message.