Your Ashes for a Crown: Entering 2026 with God

Introduction

On the evening of December 31, 2025, Porte Ouverte Chrétienne de Mulhouse entered the year 2026 with Psalm 100 on its lips and Isaiah 61 in its heart. Samuel Peterschmitt reminded everyone of one simple thing: no matter the state you cross into this new year in, broken heart, exhausted energy, a difficult past year, or simply tired, God has a promise for you. He wants to fill the vessels you bring, turn your ashes into a crown, renew your strength as you walk, and keep you in your going out and your coming in. This article faithfully reproduces what was preached that evening.

Message Outline

1. Bring vessels: God will fill your year

"Bring vessels, and I will fill them. Every vessel you bring into my house, I will fill it." A prophetic word spoken during worship, echoing the story of the widow in 2 Kings 4.
God announces a year of harvest: men and women will come from unlikely places, from unlikely situations, drawn by him himself.
"Breaches will open before you, society will keep fracturing more and more. But these breaches, I am the one opening them so that you may proclaim my word."
The promise for his people: "You will lack nothing. Times are becoming hard, but you will lack nothing."

2. Your ashes for a crown: the promise of Isaiah 61

Before communion, Samuel Peterschmitt read the prophecy of Isaiah that Jesus would take upon himself in Nazareth: "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted."
If you are afflicted, he carries good news for you. If your heart is broken, he heals. If you are held captive, he sets free. If you are a prisoner, he delivers.
In place of ashes: a crown. In place of mourning: the oil of joy. In place of a spirit of heaviness: a garment of praise.
The promise does not stop with you. It propels you forward: "Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, they will raise up the former devastations, they will renew the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. This land needs men and women who rebuild."

3. Renew your strength: stop looking at your thorns

During worship, Samuel Peterschmitt saw a bright path with Jesus calling out to a person wearing a cloak of thorns: "Come to me, stop looking at your thorns. It is through contact with me that your thorns will fall away."
A word for those whose soul is like an unhinged spring: "Those who wait on the LORD renew their strength as they walk. They mount up with wings like eagles, they run and are not weary."
The secret place becomes the workshop of the "divine watchmaker" who re-tensions the spring of your soul, so that you bear fruit that lasts and glorifies God.
One single thing to do this year: "Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus."

4. He will keep your going out and your coming in

The service opened with Psalm 100, and closed with Psalm 121 proclaimed standing by the whole congregation over their own lives.
"I lift up my eyes to the mountains, from where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."
"The LORD will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever."
Write this psalm down, and every day you face a difficulty, take it up again and declare it over your own life.

Key Takeaways

God does not fill imaginary vessels: bring him yours, with all their emptiness, and he will fill them.
The promise of Isaiah 61 is not decorative: Jesus claimed it for himself, and it is for you tonight.
The crown replaces the ashes, but with a purpose: that you rebuild on ancient ruins, at home, around you, in your country.
Renewing your strength does not happen by resting, but by walking and trusting: it is while walking that strength returns.
You cannot change your past year. The only thing you can do is forget what lies behind and run toward what lies ahead.

Personal Application

What are the "vessels" you can bring to God for this year 2026? Your family, your work, your church, a pending project, a wounded friendship?
What concrete ashes are you carrying as you enter this new year, and what do you want God to replace with his crown?
What "ancient ruins" in your life, your family, or your surroundings is God calling you to rebuild this year?
What does the "secret place" where you receive this renewal of strength from the Lord concretely look like for you? Is it already built into your schedule?
What is the thing from the past you must deliberately "forget" in order to move toward what lies ahead in 2026?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I know if the promises of Isaiah 61 are really for me today?

Jesus himself, in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:16-21), read this passage and then declared: "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." In Christ, this prophecy applies to all who come to him. It is not a promise for a distant people in a distant time. It is the very mission of Jesus, present today, for your broken heart, your ashes, your mourning, and your spirit of heaviness.

What does it concretely mean to "bring vessels" to God for the year 2026?

The prophetic word received at Porte Ouverte takes up the biblical image of the vessel that God fills as soon as it is presented to him empty (this pattern is found in the story of the widow, in 2 Kings 4). Bringing vessels means naming before God the empty areas of your life that you are waiting for him to fill: a family, a place of welcome, an ability, a prayer, a place of mission. What you do not bring, he does not fill.

How can I renew my strength if I feel truly exhausted entering 2026?

Samuel Peterschmitt drew on Isaiah 40:31: strength does not return through inactivity, it returns "while walking." The secret place with God re-tensions the spring of the soul, but you cannot change anything about your past year. The only thing to do, according to Philippians 3:13-14, is to deliberately forget what lies behind and run toward what lies ahead. Trust in God, walking, and forgetting the past work together.

All sermons on "Vie intérieure"

to take notes and ask questions.