God is doing a new thing in this house

Pastor Juliet opens by celebrating what God has been doing at Elan and noting that the spiritual pushback the church has faced is itself a sign that God is at work. She recaps the previous weeks: Audrey Carmona's message from Matthew 11:12 on opposition rising when the kingdom advances, two Vision Sundays where Pastor Max laid out the vision to raise up passionate disciples of Jesus who lead a global move of God that shapes generations to come, and Pastor Chris Carmona reminding everyone that your own voice is the loudest voice pastoring you. Vision Sunday was less an announcement than a public commitment, much like baptism, that God has Elan's yes again.

You have a purpose, and your mind must be ready for it

Every person in the room was born for such a time as this, Pastor Juliet says, and there is a reason you were not born fifty years ago. Like an athlete sidelined by injury, an injured mind that is never rehabilitated will short circuit the purpose God has for you. A sound, disciplined mind is what allows us to steward what God has in store. Some healing is immediate, as it was for some at the altar the week before, but for most of us it is an ongoing work, and God is always doing something deeper than the thing we asked for.

One story, and you are in it

Ruth chose to leave her bloodline and follow Naomi with no idea she would end up in the lineage of Jesus. Moses, hiding in the desert for forty years and locked in his insecurities, would never have believed what God would do with his life. The Bible is one story that is not over, and every person in it was making ordinary decisions. Pastor Juliet warns against being so caught up in exams, jobs, marriage, and a 401k that we miss that we are part of a huge purpose. Elan's thirty-year vision is still only a sliver of what God is doing, and it did not come from the Lyons; it is a God vision. "When we say yes to Jesus, we join the story." Maybe your marriage or your children carry eternity inside them.

New wine needs fresh wineskins

From Luke 5:33–39, a passage repeated in Matthew and Mark, Pastor Juliet digs into the words old, new, and good. Old carries the sense of antique and worn out; good here means easy and light to carry. People say the old is good because it is easy and requires nothing new. The Pharisees' disciples and John's disciples were fasting out of empty religion, and Jesus, God incarnate after four hundred years of silence, refused to be fitted into their mindless system. New wine was fermented in fresh animal skins because they could stretch; an already-stretched skin bursts. The analogy is a warning: to receive the new, you must renew your mind and become new again. God will stretch you, and it will not be comfortable, but an unstretchable life spills the wine God is pouring out.

Three ways to steward the miracle

First, snap out of empty religion. God will be teaching us new things until our dying day, so we must not act out of vain ambition or habit like the disciples who were simply doing what they were told. Elan's values of being Holy Spirit led, wise stewards, and authentic mean submitting to the whole of God's Word, Genesis to Revelation, and then obeying its directives rather than forgetting them like the man who looks in a mirror and walks away. Second, constantly renew your mind and teach your children and grandchildren to do the same. Pastor Juliet shows that renewing the mind is physical: science follows Scripture, and as we replace lies with truth over weeks, new networks literally form in the brain. God formed you and knows you can unlearn the lies. Third, embrace the new wine and refuse to be the old dog unwilling to learn new tricks.

Purpose brought you in

Pastor Juliet closes with her own story. She walked into a church not asking to move countries, marry an American, plant a church, or write music. She came in bleeding, asking God to speak what is true because the lies were killing her. God already knew the story He was writing and called her by name. "There is a purpose drawing you in right now. And it's never too late."