The sermon reflects on the extraordinary developments at Word of Life Fellowship over the past year, recognizing the visible work of God in the lives of individuals and the community. It emphasizes that the “new normal” for the church is not defined by ordinary or mundane expectations but by a daily life filled with the power, presence, and peace of God. The church is encouraged to embrace this new reality where Kingdom principles—righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit—become standard experiences, not rare events. The speaker emphasizes active faith, community involvement, and transformation as evidence of God’s ongoing work. They challenge the congregation to celebrate these victories while remaining open to growth, repentance, and unity. The message concludes by urging the community to continue living out their faith and preparing for God’s unfolding plans.
Full Transcript…
All right, well, we are just wanting to take a few minutes to recognize all that God has been doing. It has been just a remarkable year. When we look back and consider what God has been leading us to do and where we are sitting today, the hand of God is obvious. It would be hard to not see the transformations that have taken place, the things God has been doing, and where we are at today at Word of Life Fellowship, which is a church operating at a new level.
What God put on our hearts today was just to talk about the new normal. I don’t think there’s any other way to consider what is happening right now, what God has been pouring out. What I love about it is that it’s normal for us now. We have talked about and preached about people getting involved in places, people stepping up in new roles. We’ve talked about revival and how that looked in church history. And it’s just a part of our world now; it’s just a part of what God’s doing.
I’m a coach these days, and one of the things that is so important to do after a game is to review the game, to talk about how you did, the things that went really well, and the things that didn’t go so well. Those are some of our thoughts for today—to just recognize that there have been some incredible stories that have unfolded at Word of Life Fellowship. We are getting to celebrate those things now. We believe that the expressions of the Kingdom are now becoming normal occurrences. That’s really what we’re talking about, right?
I don’t actually love the word “normal.” We were talking about that this morning. It’s not my favorite word because “normal” in our culture has this negative connotation. I don’t want to be “normal,” but what we’re talking about here—the new normal—is what is everyday, right? What is every day? What are the things that are routine in our lives, the normal everyday occurrences?
I believe God is bringing us into a new place where He is establishing the expressions of the Kingdom and the power and the demonstration of the Kingdom to be a normal thing in our lives. A completely normal occurrence in our everyday lives—Kingdom actions being put on display normally. Not once in a while, but all the time. That kind of normal living. Kingdom is not average behavior; it’s not. But it must be normal in our lives.
We believe and see that as we come with expectation, God is pouring out His Spirit in a way that is new and exciting. But it’s happening so often, it is not just new and exciting; it’s normal. It’s now. It’s every day. It’s not something that is relegated to a one-time thing or an experience on a Sunday or at a conference, but He wants it to be normal in our lives as we walk humbly with Him.
So when we’re talking about this new normal, it is not a mundane thing, right? It is the supernatural on a regular occurrence now—a regular occurrence like every day I get out of bed, every day I go to work. My normal day is filled with the power, authority, and presence of God. My normal day is filled with the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Holy Spirit because the Kingdom is at work in our lives.
Amen. Micah 6:8 is a scripture that we’re all super familiar with, or many of us are, at least. It says, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” I believe those qualities, those attributes, and those promises of God are in front of us today like they’ve never been before. Last weekend, with the Spirit encounter, I believe it was a demonstration of people whose hearts are hungry for that very thing—to know what the justice of God is, what the righteousness of God is, to walk humbly before Him, and to love His mercy.
That I see in this church and in the hearts of everyone here saying yes to God is such an important part of this next hour. Shelly talked about the Kingdom of God a moment ago, being righteousness, peace, and joy. That is a huge part of what God is doing with His church in this hour. That Kingdom, He says, is by the Holy Spirit. And He says, “For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.” This is how we please God. This is Romans. I just want to actually read that scripture: Romans 14:17-18, “For the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking,” so it’s not just about all the daily activities that we do, “but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.”
This is what God wants. You know, Micah 6:8—if you’re ever wondering what the Lord wants us to do, right? It’s what He says there: “Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly.” Well, if we’re wondering what’s acceptable to God, it’s to walk in the Kingdom of God, to serve Him, to live with righteousness, peace, and joy.
We are a church that is intentionally bringing the principles of the Kingdom into our lives. This isn’t just something we’ve been talking about; this is something this house is living out individually and corporately. We are making efforts more and more to become part of influential places in our community. God is placing people into places of influence in homes, jobs, schools, government, and all these different places.
God is putting people on display as we walk out this intentional life of living the Kingdom of God, not just in a church building, not just in our homes, but in our lives. There has been a lot to celebrate. I hope that we’re having fun right now, recognizing all that God is doing.
When I think about this church and all the people God is stirring up, I think about active faith, active engagement. I see it in all of you. Everyone here is taking God’s Word seriously, and that looks like people loving each other, people following God with business ideas, people taking steps of faith with where they work, people getting engaged at political levels where we can help guide the direction of our schools and our community.
Five years ago, maybe we were praying for those kinds of things to happen, but today it’s a reality. I think four or five schools have people from this church on their school boards. We have people actively engaged in the governing elements of technology county, utility district levels, and supervisory board levels.
There is active faith. That, to me, is something we cannot forget as being important, as being a part of why the Kingdom is impacting our community. It’s those steps. I see family restorations happening. These are strengths. What we are doing well—people are resolving differences, people are making adjustments in their lives so that things get better, so that God’s righteousness, peace, and joy start impacting those circles.
That is what is happening right now. That is a testimony of the things we are doing.
I see people coming out of the shadows, people who would never step up now stepping up, being willing to confront places of fear and intimidation. These are examples of active faith — people saying yes to God. It’s important to celebrate these things because there’s an enemy that wants to dismiss, discredit, and discourage you.
We have to remember that even small steps are huge when it comes to the message of God’s kingdom existing in your life and in the lives of those you’re connecting with. There are increasing numbers of community leaders on our school campuses. We have teachers stepping up, business owners stepping up, partners, CFOs, and controllers. We have CEOs leading nonprofit organizations that are accomplishing important services in our community. These things are happening with the influence of God’s love and power, His grace and peace, simply because we exist there.
Some of the strengths we want to celebrate are that we, as a church, have really embraced what we’ve been preaching about over the last six months in outreach and inviting. We’ve had close to 100 baptisms this year. That is amazing. People are hungry for the Lord, they’re being invited by you, and you’re bringing them in, saying there is more for them. We have added about 30 members to our church this year, and we’re not done. We have more who want to join, and we will have another opportunity to join our church on September 30th. We’re going to have a family service that day, an opportunity to be together with our kids. It’s another great opportunity to invite your friends and their families to come and worship together.
We are so excited about all that God is doing, and not just what God is doing, but that this house is grabbing onto it and running with it. We’ve had an awesome team leading our Samuel Company, which is our children’s ministry. Since January, they have had our kids memorizing Psalm 91. That chapter is not just a great set of scriptures, but it’s a set of scriptures that applies to this next season like never before. As we started this year talking about spiritual authority and the reality of spiritual realms, there are powers and principalities at work. There are enemies of God’s kingdom. There are powers that seek to bring havoc and destruction to your life. We have to stay close to God, and Psalm 91 is an incredible chapter about the promises of God: “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I will trust.”
As you read these scriptures, you will see the promises of God, the protection of God, and the wisdom of God. He will be with us through the dark times, the terror of the night, when the arrows fly by day, when destruction comes at noonday, and when pestilence comes near. These are His promises for those who set their love upon Him. He says He will deliver them and set them on high because they have known His name. This is the reality of our God, and this is what we’re embracing. When we embrace these simple directives, God shows up, and we get to see Him operate as our deliverer. We get to see His angels given charge over us to keep us in all our ways. These promises are being memorized by our kids — that is a testimony of what God is doing to raise up His church.
There are many things we can celebrate about what God is doing, but there are also places where we have opportunities to grow. Like Pastor Jonathan said, as a coach for over 20 years, we always have to be looking at those things. Even on a winning team, there are always places to grow. One of the places the Holy Spirit has highlighted for this next season is to not despise small beginnings. Sometimes we have amazing conferences where the Lord gives us prophetic words, vision, and dreams, and those are incredible things. But sometimes, the day-to-day doesn’t quite line up with that yet.
One of my favorite quotes by Pastor Liz is, “Your classroom will rarely look like your calling.” That means God gives us visions, and some things are happening and unfolding now, but other things will continue to unfold over time. God plants things in us, gives us prophetic words, and gives us vision, but we must not despise the small beginnings. If we fast-forward through the process, we will never be ready for the promise. There’s a lot to unpack here, but one thing God put on my heart many years ago is the scripture that says, “God will not give you more than you can handle.” Often, we interpret this as not having a test that is more than we can handle, which is true. But there’s another side to that scripture: God has callings for you, but He cannot give them to you until you can bear the weight of them.
The process is there to strengthen us to bear the weight of God’s calling. We live in a fast-paced, fast-food, microwave society where if we see it, we want it now, and we want to do it now. If we try, we might be successful to a measure.But we will crash and burn because we cannot handle the weight of it. As we’re coming into this season where God is opening things up, giving vision, and speaking exciting things about what He’s doing — giving individuals vision and prophetic words — be excited about it, but don’t despise the small beginnings. It’s only in the journey that we become capable of doing what God has called us to do, not just be a flash in the pan or burn out, but to sustain a work and a move of God.
Another area where God is going to continue to challenge us is in turning from sin. We have to walk in repentance and make this a necessary part of our life. The more we can recognize areas of our life that can change under His grace — not under condemnation, but under a desire to follow Him — the more we allow Him to reveal those things to us, so we are bringing our hearts to the Lord and asking for transformation. This is part of the journey, and we must remain focused on it.
Unity among believers has been increasing worldwide, and it continues to be a wonderful part of our church. One thing God put on my heart is forgiveness. I shared a small testimony earlier about when I was at Standard Field and interacted with a good friend who called me over to a coach I had brushed off last year. In that moment, I had to acknowledge my error. I felt the kingdom of God released in that moment; the community felt stronger. There was engagement, laughter, and I offered an apology, saying, “I was out of line, and I need to let you know how sorry I am and how much I appreciate you.”
That became a great example of how God is going to expand His kingdom for us in this hour. He’s giving us opportunities to build bridges right now, but we have to avoid the temptation to be right. We need to look for ways to build bridges and focus on love instead of being right. It is not important to be right all the time, but it is important to be loving all the time. This is what will build bridges. Even if something was completely real and wrong, it is not important to be right in that moment if we want to build unity in the Body of Christ. Remember, Jesus said, “They will know you are my disciples by the way you love one another.”
We have to bring love. Lastly, we wanted to touch on having a ready position. What the Lord is leading us into for this next season is all about our Lord Jesus Christ and the overcoming church. I believe God will bring some incredible revelation to us. We have to remember that there’s very little we can do to control our future, so we just have to be ready. We need to position ourselves to see God do what He’s going to do, and be prepared for whatever comes our way, whether good or bad. We will be confident in the delivering power of our God, in the strength of His hand in our lives, and we will know that His love will keep us.
God doesn’t mean anything negative for our lives; everything He wants for us is good. As we embrace these messages and continue to walk out His kingdom, we will see opportunities increase every day. We will see more and more opportunities to live out our faith. This is what we wanted to touch on today — to allow ourselves to recognize where we are living well. We are doing a fantastic job. There is so much to celebrate. We are seeing lives saved, people added to the church, hearts transformed, and people rescued. We are seeing good things take place in our community, people learning to love the lives God has given them in His kingdom.
That’s what we’re excited about, so let’s know we’re on the right track. The next step for us is to increase these things and let the new normal be the awesomeness of God. Liz talked about the raw Christian faith, the raw Christianity where the power of God is at work. I want that to increase in our world. Amen. Let’s go to fellowship
Over the past year, we’ve witnessed remarkable transformations at Word of Life Fellowship. As we reflect on these changes, it becomes clear that God has been leading us into a new season—one defined not by the ordinary, but by an extraordinary new normal. What does this new normal look like? It is marked by a profound shift where Kingdom principles—righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit—are becoming regular, everyday experiences in our lives.
Redefining Normal
The concept of “normal” often carries a connotation of being mundane or average. Yet, as we look at what God is doing, we recognize that “normal” for us is being redefined. It’s not about conforming to the patterns of this world but embracing a new way of living where the Kingdom of God is evident in every moment. This “new normal” is where acts of faith, demonstrations of God’s power, and expressions of His love become our daily reality.
God is calling us to expect that His Spirit will be poured out continuously, not just in isolated moments or during special events, but as a constant in our lives. This means that the supernatural should not be an exception but the rule. It should be our norm to see God’s righteousness, peace, and joy displayed through our actions, decisions, and interactions—whether at home, work, or in our communities.
Living with Intentionality
This new normal is not accidental; it is intentional. It requires us to be conscious of how we engage with the world around us. The Bible tells us in Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” This verse captures the heart of what our new normal should look like: a life marked by justice, mercy, and humility.
We are called to bring these Kingdom principles into every sphere of our lives. Whether in our jobs, schools, homes, or local government, God is positioning us to be His representatives, to influence and impact the places He has planted us. This isn’t just about what happens within the walls of our church; it’s about living the Kingdom out in tangible ways in our everyday environments.
Active Faith and Community Transformation
One of the most encouraging signs of this new normal is the active faith being demonstrated by our church community. Over the past year, we have seen countless examples of people stepping up in faith, taking risks, and engaging in new ways. From school boards to local governments, from businesses to nonprofits, members of our congregation are making a difference. They are living out their faith in practical ways and influencing their environments for the Kingdom.
This is not just about large, visible actions; it’s also about the small, everyday steps of obedience and faithfulness. The Bible encourages us not to despise small beginnings (Zechariah 4:10). Even the smallest acts of faith can lead to significant change over time. We must remember that God often starts with small seeds that grow into great things.
Growing Together: Challenges and Opportunities
While we celebrate the incredible work God is doing among us, we also recognize that there are areas where we can grow. One area of growth highlighted for this season is learning not to rush the process. God gives us visions and dreams, but there is often a journey involved in seeing those visions come to fruition. We must not be discouraged if the day-to-day reality does not immediately match the full picture of what God has shown us. Instead, we should embrace the process, knowing that God is preparing us to handle the fullness of His promises.
Another crucial area of growth is in the realm of repentance and turning away from sin. As we walk more closely with God, He reveals areas in our lives that need transformation. This is not about condemnation, but about embracing the grace that enables us to change and grow. It’s about allowing God to shape us into vessels fit for His purposes.
The Power of Unity and Forgiveness
Unity among believers is another essential aspect of the new normal. The power of unity cannot be underestimated. Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” In this season, God is calling us to build bridges, not walls. We must prioritize love over being right. Even when we are in the right, it is more important to maintain love and unity. This is what will distinguish us as followers of Christ.
Forgiveness plays a key role in maintaining unity. In a recent testimony, one of our members shared how an act of humility and forgiveness at a local event led to a deeper sense of community and connection. When we choose to forgive and build bridges, we allow God’s kingdom to expand in our midst.
Positioned for the Future
Looking forward, it is clear that God is leading us into new opportunities to live out our faith. We are called to remain in a “ready position,” prepared for whatever God brings our way. We may not be able to control the future, but we can control our posture toward it. By staying rooted in God’s love and confident in His power, we will be ready to face any challenge or opportunity with faith.
God’s plans for us are always good. As we embrace this new normal—where Kingdom principles are evident in every aspect of our lives—we will see His glory revealed in greater measure. Let us continue to celebrate the victories, grow through the challenges, and look forward with expectation to all that God will do.
Conclusion
As we stand at this threshold of a new season, let’s remember that we are on the right track. We are living in a time where God’s Kingdom is advancing in unprecedented ways. Let’s keep pressing forward, embracing the new normal of His presence, power, and peace in our everyday lives. Let’s commit to being a church that does not just talk about the Kingdom but lives it out—every single day.
Call to Action
Reflect on how you can make Kingdom principles a normal part of your daily life. Are there areas where God is calling you to step up in faith or grow in unity with others? What small steps can you take today that could lead to significant impact tomorrow? Remember, even the smallest steps of faith, when done in obedience to God, have the power to change the world.
Study Guide
Ice-Breaker Questions:
- What is one thing from this past year that you are most thankful for in your personal life or in the church community?
- How would you define the “new normal” in your spiritual journey?
- Share a recent moment when you felt God’s presence in an unexpected way.
Discussion Questions:
- The sermon talks about the “new normal” as living a life where Kingdom principles are a regular occurrence. What does this look like for you in your daily routine?
- Reflecting on Micah 6:8 (“To do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God”), how can we better live out these values in our interactions with others?
- The speaker mentions active faith and community involvement. What are some practical ways we can step up and engage more deeply in our communities?
- The message encourages not despising small beginnings. Can you share a time when a small beginning led to a significant outcome in your life or faith journey?
- How do you think God is calling you to grow or change in this next season? What steps can you take to respond to this call?
- The sermon emphasizes the importance of unity, forgiveness, and building bridges. What are some practical ways to prioritize these values in our church and community life?
Prayer:
“Dear God, we thank You for all that You are doing in our lives and in our church community. Help us to embrace the ‘new normal’ where Your Kingdom is evident in our everyday lives. Teach us to walk justly, love mercy, and remain humble before You. Strengthen our faith, deepen our involvement in our communities, and help us to grow in unity and love. May we always be ready for Your plans and purposes, and may our lives reflect Your righteousness, peace, and joy. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.”
Would you like me to make any adjustments to this discussion guide or focus on a different aspect?