God Is Making All Things New: Finding God’s “All Things New” in Community, Not a Place

In this sermon, Pastor Kirt Anderson traces the long, often disappointing journey of God’s people from the Exodus to the promised land, showing how they kept mistaking a place, a king, or a temple for the fullness of God’s promise. Drawing from Revelation 21, he points to a far bigger vision: a “new heaven and a new earth” where God makes His home among His people and wipes away every tear. Pastor Kirt’s core message is that the land flowing with milk and honey was never really about dirt. It’s about people loving, serving, and belonging to one another as the family of God.

Looking for the full service stream? Watch Here

What does “Behold, I am making all things new” mean in Revelation 21?

Pastor Kirt explains that this declaration from Revelation 21 is God’s promise of total transformation, not destruction. As he put it, “You don’t destroy, You transform.” The vision includes a new heaven and new earth where God lives among His people directly, death and sorrow are gone for good, and everything broken is renewed rather than replaced.

Why does the promised land in the Old Testament feel like such a letdown?

According to Pastor Kirt, when the Hebrew people finally crossed the Jordan and settled the land, they found war with Jericho, hard labor, and no milk or honey waiting for them. He explains this was only a partial fulfillment of God’s promise, not the completion of it, and that the people kept swapping one incomplete vision (land, then a king, then a temple) for the next instead of grasping what God actually intended.

Why do I feel a deep longing for something more, even when life is good?

Pastor Kirt shares his own experience hiking to the top of Mount Baldy as a teenager, searching for something he couldn’t find even at the summit. He suggests we can only long for something because it actually exists, and that this longing points toward the reality of the kingdom God has prepared for us. He connects this to C.S. Lewis’s idea of finally arriving somewhere and saying, “I have come home at last. This is my real country.”

Scripture Focus

Anchor Passage: Revelation 21:3-5

“Look, God’s home is now among his people. He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. And the one sitting on the throne said, ‘Look, I am making everything new!'”

Additional References:

• Revelation 21:1-2, 6-7 (the fuller vision of the new heaven and new earth)
• Exodus (the crossing of the sea and wilderness wandering, referenced narratively)
• Joshua (the crossing of the Jordan and the conquest of Jericho, referenced narratively)
• Matthew 25:40 (Jesus on caring for “the least of these”)
• Romans 8:19-21 (Paul on creation waiting to be transformed, referenced narratively)