Look and See, the Fresh Has Come: You Are a New Creation

Sermon outline

In Christ you are a brand new creation, seated above the darkness you came out of, so look at your life with the eyes of a prophet, see the fresh and the new, and speak it into being in the name of Jesus.

1. A ministry and a word of reconciliation

   Reading on from verse 17, he shows that God has given every believer the ministry of reconciliation and has entrusted to us the word of reconciliation, the gospel. That leaves no room for a ministry of division, strife, murmuring or backbiting. You bring people back to God, teach young converts His ways, and build up your church, your home cell and the people you meet at work.

   Illustration: He contrasts people who look for companions to complain with, and those who open up the bread of life and break it to others.

   “You're not a church breaker. No, you're a church builder.”

   • 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

2. Engrafted in Christ: the power of attorney to use His name

   From the Amplified Bible he explains that Christ is not the Lord's surname. It means the Messiah, the Anointed One and His anointing. To pray and command in that name is to use a power of attorney that Jesus Himself gave, on the strength of His promise that if you abide in Him and His words abide in you, you may ask what you will. He adds that the Greek carries the sense that if God does not have it, He will create it for you.

   “You have the power of attorney to use that name.”

   • 2 Corinthians 5:17
   • John 15:7

3. A new creature altogether: translated into the kingdom of light

   The new creation is not the new laid over the old; the old moral and spiritual condition has passed away. You are now a man or woman of love and of the Word, who does not go by what you see. God has translated you out of the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son, so you carry light into every dark situation. Honesty and right living are not a struggle to be good but the release of a new nature.

   Illustration: You walk into an atmosphere that is oppressed and depressed, speak in other tongues and release the anointing, and soon people's faces light up. They cannot understand why they are happy; it is because you have come.

   “You're not trying to be good. There's a new nature on the inside of you. Just release it.”

   • 2 Corinthians 5:17
   • Colossians 1:13

4. Behold: look and see, the fresh has come

   The Amplified Bible renders 'behold' as look and see. He tells the church to look and see in their home, family, finances, workplace and business, with the eyes of a prophet. When the situation in front of you says one thing, you look until you see the result you desire, and you choose whose report you will believe.

   Illustration: People called you small and saw you down there, but you look and see yourself up there. You are handling thousands now, but you see God giving you hundreds of thousands.

   “Look and see, the fresh has come.”

   • 2 Corinthians 5:17

5. Light and darkness are not neighbours: speak with authority

   We once lived under the influence of the one the Bible calls the god of this world, but when we said yes to Christ we were moved to a higher domain. Light and darkness are not on the same level, so when you put the devil in his place you do not address him as an equal. You have power to bind, to loose and to speak things into existence, and wherever you are, rivers of living water flow out of you.

   “You are not on par with the devil. You are his master.”

   • 2 Corinthians 4:4
   • John 7:38

6. Seated with Christ and commissioned to act in His name

   The fresh and the new means you are seated with Christ at the right hand of God and commissioned to act in His name. When you ask in that name the Father sees the blood, the name and the love He has for the Son, and He has the same love towards you. You are more than a churchgoer: you are a son or daughter of God with a blood-bought right to answered prayer, the mind of Christ, and the greater One within.

   “We are not designed to fail. You're wired for success.”

   • Ephesians 2:6
   • 1 John 3:1
   • Ephesians 5:19
   • 1 John 4:4
   • 1 Corinthians 2:16

7. The words of life: you are constructing something in the spirit

   He picks up a remark that the church does not sermonise, because a sermon only sends you home saying 'great message'. The Word is the water that ends your thirst and the bread you live by, so he speaks it and meditates on it from the moment he gets up. While you pray, believe and confess the Word you are building something unseen, calling those things that be not.

   Illustration: It may not look like you have the whole car, but you are constructing it: the first day one tyre, the second day two, the next month four, and soon it is a whole car.

   “It may not look like you have the whole house, but it's been constructed.”

   • John 4:13-14
   • Matthew 4:4
   • Romans 4:17

8. I refuse to have a rainy day

   Some people tuck money away for a rainy day, but he says that is not the believer's portion, and it is why the church does not hoard its money but puts it to work as seed. Money is currency and must flow: it comes to a faithful steward, goes out again, and God sends more. 'Let this mind be in you' is the mind of a conqueror who stands up in the storm and says 'peace, be still'. He urges people to prophesy over their bank accounts and their children, and tells women who want babies to lay hands on themselves and call the womb fruitful.

   Illustration: Holding up a banknote, he shows how currency comes in one hand and goes out the other so that you are ready to receive again. He pictures people cutting a hole in a mattress, hiding money inside and stitching it up.

   “I refuse to have a rainy day. I refuse to be poor.”

   • Philippians 2:5
   • Mark 4:39

9. Be a prophet of your own life: speak it and kick down the door

   Prayer in all its kinds is right, he says, but it must be taken in context. Many people wait for years for God to do something, when Jesus has already done everything and given us His words to read, study, meditate on and speak. Led by the Spirit, you will know which shut doors to leave and which to kick down. Practise your faith on your own needs first, and do not be discouraged when the enemy says your prayers are not working.

   Illustration: When an application is turned down, take the letter into your prayer room, put it on the floor, trample on it, then strike out the word 'no' with a red pen and write a big 'yes'. He tells of a Hindu man whose insurance claim had been refused by phone and in writing. The man promised to become a Christian if God answered; his wife typed a letter, he laid hands on it and faxed it on a Friday, the company asked for the man's bank details on the Monday, and the next Sunday the man's wife and two children gave their hearts to the Lord.

   “If there's a door shut tight that's not opening, don't cry. Kick it down.”

   • 1 Timothy 2:1
   • Jude 20
   • Romans 8:37
   • Philippians 4:13

10. A new species of being: blessed, not cursed

    The new creation is a new species of being that never existed before. Man is not part Satan and part God, so he teaches that the person who is in Christ does not need deliverance and is not cursed: God would not save you and then curse you. The new birth means your spirit is completely reborn. He starts to turn to Romans 12:2 for what the born-again believer must still do, but sees that his time is gone and leaves it for another day.

    “A new species of being that never existed before, that's who you are.”

    • 2 Corinthians 5:17
    • Deuteronomy 28:6
    • Romans 12:2