This guest blog post draws directly from the sermon “Showcase - 9AM Worship Service | 40th Celebration | Pastor Fred Luter, Jr.” so you can keep engaging with the message all week. Read, reflect, and share it with your small group or friends.

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet: Trusting God for What's Still to Come

Meta Description: Dr. Troy Johnson's powerful message from Isaiah 43 reminded us that God's greatest works aren't behind us — they're still ahead. Here's what we learned. URL Slug: you-aint-seen-nothing-yet-isaiah-43-trust-god Featured Image: A wide-angle photo of open road stretching toward a bright horizon, or a close-up of hands holding an open Bible to Isaiah 43 — warm, hopeful lighting that conveys forward movement and expectation.

There's a phrase that stayed with nearly everyone who heard Dr. Troy Johnson preach this past Sunday. He said it early, he said it often, and by the time the service was over, it had settled deep into the heart of the room: "You ain't seen nothing yet."

It wasn't hype. It was theology.

Drawing from Isaiah 43:18-19, Dr. Johnson delivered a message that was both a celebration of faithful history and a bold declaration about what God still has in store. His teaching was timely, energetic, and genuinely moving — the kind of word that doesn't just inspire in the moment but follows you home and keeps speaking.

The Text That Anchors Everything

Dr. Johnson invited us to stand as he read from Isaiah 43:18-19 (NKJV):

"Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."

He set the scene carefully. Isaiah wasn't speaking to a single individual in a quiet moment — he was speaking to an entire people in the middle of upheaval, displacement, and uncertainty. Their familiar world had been disrupted. And into that disruption, God spoke a word of both remembrance and forward motion.

"Their situation had changed," Dr. Johnson reminded us, "but his covenant faithfulness still remains the same."

Honor the Past — But Don't Live There

One of the most striking moves in Dr. Johnson's message was pointing out what he called "the irony of the text." God spends verses 16 and 17 recalling the Exodus — the parting of the Red Sea, the defeat of Pharaoh's army, the miraculous deliverance of his people. And then, almost immediately, he says: Do not remember the former things.

So which is it?

Dr. Johnson helped us see that God wasn't asking his people to erase their history. He was calling them to look past it. "There is a difference," he explained, "between remembering how God worked and deciding that he must always work that way."

The Exodus was real. The Red Sea miracle was real. But God was saying: don't let your greatest memory become the ceiling on your expectation. Your history with God should give you reason to trust him — not a reason to stop expecting him to move.

The illustration landed with humor and honesty: some of us, Dr. Johnson said, are still wearing our "starter jacket from 1984" — trying to live in a past that we've long since outgrown. God has more for us, but we can't receive what's ahead if we've set up permanent residence in what's behind.

Expect God to Do Something New

The second major thread of Dr. Johnson's message was expectation. He pointed to Philippians 3, where Paul writes about "forgetting those things which are behind" and reaching for what lies ahead — and he unpacked the Greek sense of that word: stretching your neck to see.

"I stretch my neck to see what God is doing next," he said, "because I know I'm at the right bus stop. And even if the bus is delayed, it still has to come down this route."

This is the posture God is calling us to. Not passive waiting, but active, neck-craning expectation. Dr. Johnson was direct: many of us have become so familiar with God that we've stopped truly expecting him to move. We tell the stories of what he did, but we've quietly stopped anticipating what he will do.

"God ain't ran out," he reminded us simply. He is not a resource — he is the source.

Pay Attention to What's Emerging

Dr. Johnson's third point carried a gentle but urgent warning: the worst thing in the world is to miss God moving because you're stuck.

He used a gardening illustration that brought the point home. He described a mustard green plant that had stayed three inches tall for months — strong, but not growing. When he investigated, he found the problem wasn't the plant. It was the soil. The environment wasn't conducive to growth.

"If you want it to grow," he said, "you're going to have to shift its environment."

The application was clear. Sometimes what's holding us back isn't a lack of God's activity — it's the environment we've planted ourselves in. New seasons require new soil. And God's new thing may already be springing up; we just need eyes to see it.

Trust God to Make a Way

Dr. Johnson closed with the simplest and most powerful point of all: when you don't know what's next, trust God to make a way.

"I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." God doesn't just promise a destination — he promises to build the road to get you there.

"It ain't on you. It's on God," Dr. Johnson said. "God is about to make a way that you ain't never seen before."

He reminded us that God knows the end from the beginning — that he is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And a God like that can be trusted with whatever chapter comes next, whether that's a new season of ministry, a personal transition, a family change, or a community stepping into something it's never done before.

"You ain't seen nothing yet" — not as a slogan, but as a scriptural promise from the God who parts seas and builds roads in wilderness places.

If you missed Sunday's service, we encourage you to watch the full message online. And if this word spoke to something you're walking through right now, share it with someone who needs the reminder that God's best work isn't behind them — it's still ahead.

Social Media Excerpt (Facebook/Instagram): "God ain't ran out." This Sunday, Dr. Troy Johnson took us to Isaiah 43 with a message we needed to hear: your history with God isn't the ceiling on what he can still do. Honor the past — but don't live there. You ain't seen nothing yet. 🙌 Read the full recap at the link in bio.