Our opening song, you may or may not realize the first song that we did was kind of a Christmas
song, but our last song is not because we're kind of transitioning from that that happened
this last week on to something different.
But the second and third verse of Good Christians Now Rejoice, it says, He hath opened the heavenly
door and we are blessed forevermore.
Christ was born for this.
And then the third verse says, calls you one and calls you all to gain his everlasting
hall.
Christ was born to save.
So just some thoughts about how marvelous, how wonderful as our song just just echoed.
Thoughts about our heads for a word of prayer.
Dear God, we thank you for all that you do.
You've done so much.
We've heard reports of blessings this morning that we've heard of still things that are
in need of your miracle of a glory from on high to work in each life.
And Lord, how marvelous and how wonderful it is to know that Christ was born to save.
In your name we pray, amen.
So yes, this is the the time of year between the holidays.
We've experienced Christmas and it's a time now when many people begin to maybe make a
New Year's resolution.
Anybody here make a New Year's resolution?
A few people maybe are afraid to raise their hand for that.
Here's some statistics.
About 45 percent of people make a New Year's resolution.
45 percent.
So that's, you know, half of this group.
Eight percent successfully achieve what they hoped to do with that New Year's resolution.
Only eight percent.
But 49 percent have at least some success, some success in what they're wanting to do.
But the people who make a goal have a higher percentage of at least achieving part of that
goal than those who don't make any goal at all.
And New Year's resolutions tend to fall in a couple different categories.
There's the category of health, whether it's I need to exercise more, I need to lose weight,
I need to stop smoking, whatever it may be.
And then there's a category of relationships.
I need to spend more time with my family.
I need to fall in love.
I need to help other people.
And then there's a category of a kind of self-help.
I need to get more organized.
I need to enjoy life more.
I need to learn a new hobby.
I need to learn something new.
And when we actually make some kind of goal, we are a little bit more likely to achieve,
at least in a partial way, some portion of that goal.
And so our verse of the day is in Romans 13 that Caleb read for us earlier.
Romans chapter 13 is where we're going to start.
Romans chapter 13, and we're going to read verse 11 to begin with.
Romans 13 verse 11, it says, and do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake
out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
It's time to wake up because we can know the time.
And it says our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
We are closer today to Jesus coming back than we were yesterday.
Now we can say that every single day.
Every single day that we're blessed with waking up, we recognize that we are closer to Jesus
coming back.
We can say that every month.
But there's something about that turn of a new year, which perhaps makes it a little
more vivid.
Can you believe this is the last week, the last Sabbath of 2024?
Are you ready for 2025?
Are you ready for the next page?
Are you ready for what's next?
There's something that just ingrains that in our head just a little bit more when we
move from one year to another year.
We're not sure when Jesus is coming, but we know we are one year closer than we were in
December of 2023, one year ago.
Have mercy.
We know the time, our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
As we turn to a new year, we can recognize that.
But notice the next verse, verse 12.
It goes on and says, the night is far spent.
The night is far spent.
Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.
The night is far spent.
We talked about it in Sabbath school a little bit, that our world is often full of some
spiritual darkness, that there's things happening in the world which are more negative.
Even in a time when it's a festive time of year when we have lights and we have gatherings
and we are with family, we are reminded that there is still tragedy in the world.
Whether it's a plane being shot down, whether it's a Christmas market that became a place
of tears as there was a terrorist car that drove through and killed many people.
Even in our local family, our local church, we have accidents, we have tragedies, we have
loss, we have things which cause pain and cause heartache that break our heart, even
as we remember.
And as we come to the end of a year, many times different outlets will come up with
a thing to look back.
They'll look back at those that have passed away, famous actors or sports people that
passed away.
They'll look at the stories of the year.
And one thing that people often come up with is a word of the year.
And they try to break it down into one word that will kind of encapsulate many things
that happened during the year.
And so if you were to look at the Cambridge Dictionary, their people put together a word
and their word of the year was manifest.
That many people think, oh I can just manifest greatness, I can manifest wealth, I can manifest
whatever I want to be.
Dictionary.com came up with a different word.
Their word is demurer.
There was kind of a famous video during the year about being mindful, about being demurer.
And so that was their word that they came up with.
Merriam-Webster, I think they were looking at the election and different things and their
word was polarization, that people like to separate into different camps, into different
categories.
They like to try to separate themselves.
But the one I want to spend a little bit more time with is the word from the Oxford Dictionary.
And their word of the year is brain rot.
Brain rot.
Brain rot is their word of the year.
Now what is that?
This word first was seen way back in the 1800s in a little book called Walden by Henry David
Thoreau.
And if you remember that book from English literature, that was where he moved out of
the big city and moved into the country and wanted to try to live a more simple life because
he was worried about the brain rot that was happening in the greater society.
So if you were to look at a definition of this word, the definition is the supposed
deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of
over consumption of material, particularly online content, that it is considered to be
trivial or unchallenging.
Trivial or unchallenging.
How many times, I'm going to set this down.
How many times have you wanted to look something up on the internet and you find what you're
looking for, but then how much time has passed and you're still looking at something else?
And it's like, what am I even, how did I get to this place?
Why am I watching this video?
What am I looking at now?
And we can find ourselves many times overwhelmed with the ease that we can achieve material,
that we can access material, and how easy it is to be constantly a part of that.
And as much of it is, it's not a blessing for us and many times, many times it can be,
but other times it's just simple time wasting.
It's just simple ways to pass minutes and maybe even hours.
Could it even be days from time to time as we're just absorbing whatever someone else
has decided must be important for us?
And so that word of the year, according to that group, is brain rot.
But we've just said that we know the time.
The night is far spent.
So it said, let us cast off the works of darkness because we are nearer than when we first believed.
And we can look back at the next verse and it says, let us walk properly as in the day,
not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put
on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust.
Put on Jesus Christ.
And I think if we want to put on Jesus, that may mean we have to put something else off.
If we want to make sure that Jesus is in our life, that Jesus is in our heart, that Jesus
is in our brain so it's not rotting, but so that it's growing, we may need to make sure
that our time, that our energy, that our effort is focused on Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith.
The one who was born to live.
So what can that look like?
We're going to look at a couple different things as we move on here.
A couple different ideas that may help us as we move into 2025.
If we know the time, if we're nearer now, if our salvation is nearer than we first believed,
if we want to put on Jesus, what does that mean?
Perhaps that means we need to spend some time in the Bible, spend some time in God's Word.
Does anybody remember what the longest chapter in all of scripture is?
The 119th Psalm.
So let's turn over to Psalm 119.
We're not going to read it all, don't worry.
It's very long.
Psalm 119, we're just going to look at a couple of verses and there's many more verses in
the Bible, many more in Psalm 119 that we could look at, but we're going to start in
verse 9.
Psalm 119 verse 9, it says, how can a young man, and I'll suggest that it also means an
old man, and it also means a young woman, and it also means an old woman, it means each
one of us.
How can we cleanse his way by taking heed according to your word?
With my whole heart I have sought you, oh let me not wander from your commandments.
And then perhaps this is a verse you've memorized at some point.
Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Your word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.
It's talking about spending time in God's word.
Down just a little bit further, in the midst of that chapter, your word, thy word is a
lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
And so something for you to think about, something for you to consider, what are you reading?
I'm talking about the Bible here.
What are you reading?
Or maybe the question is, are you reading the Bible?
Do you have some sort of plan?
Do you have some sort of idea that you are trying to accomplish as you're spending time
in the Bible?
Now some people come up with an idea and they want to read the Bible all the way through
in one year.
If that's your plan, awesome, go for it.
But let me just say, you do not have to read the whole Bible through in one year.
That does not have to be your plan.
If that's what God is asking you to do, read three or four chapters a day and go for it.
But if that's not what God is calling you to do, what is your plan?
Do you have a plan?
Do you have an idea?
Maybe you could just choose a short passage to read every day, to read it through once
or twice, one chapter, 10 or 15 verses.
Or maybe your idea could be to read through a gospel.
We've just finished studying the gospel of John.
Before that we were studying the gospel of, what was it before that at Sabbath school?
Mark.
Well what about Luke?
What about Matthew?
If you want to read a gospel, read it through.
And when you finish, read it through again.
That's okay to read the same book.
Or maybe you have a plan where you want to read one Psalm every single day.
Anybody know how many Psalms there are?
There's 150 Psalms.
It's going to take you almost half the year to read one Psalm a day.
Or what about if you were to read one Proverb a day?
How many Proverbs are there?
31.
If you were to read one Proverb a day, right in January you could read through the book
of Proverbs.
If you have a plan, praise the Lord.
Keep at it.
If you don't have a plan, come up with one.
If you're not able to come up with one, as you leave today, I put together a little Bible
bookmark.
It's a simple little thing.
Some of them didn't print as good as I was hoping, but that's okay.
It's just a little Bible bookmark.
It's paper.
You put it in your Bible, because it's a bookmark.
And it's got 31 lines.
Guess what?
January has 31 days.
And it's got a short little Bible reading for each day of the month.
Some of them are one chapter.
Some of them are five or ten verses.
If you don't have a plan, grab one of these and just put it in your Bible.
And each day you can read through, this one's called Landmarks of Truth, what are some of
the things that are important in Scripture that you can cling to, that you can read,
that you can hide in your heart.
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
So I don't care what your plan is, just come up with one.
And what's that Nike logo that they sometimes talk about?
Just do it.
Whatever your plan is, just do it.
Just start something and make sure that you are able to spend some time in God's Word
each and every day.
I'm going to throw out one more little promo here.
Starting not this week, because this week is still a holiday, January 1, but we're going
to start on January 8 during our Wednesday night prayer meeting time.
Miss Cindy and her sister who lives across the country, they've taken some material and
they've put it into a workbook form.
And so starting on Wednesday night, we're going to take this idea of finding our way
back to the altar, how to live daily as a disciple of Jesus.
And this talks about spending time in the Word, spending time in prayer, having family
worship, family devotions, different things like that.
So there will be a workbook for you, but you have to come to Wednesday night because it's
a lot of work to make these little workbooks.
So if you would like to take part in that, come out on Wednesday starting January 8.
There's a story about a young lady named Mary Jones.
She grew up in Wales over by England.
She was 15 years old and unlike many young ladies of her time, she lived about 1800,
she learned to read.
So that was unique for her.
And guess what she wanted to read?
She wanted to read the Bible.
But in her country, in Wales, in the Welsh language, the closest Bible that she could
get was two miles away.
So if she wanted to read anything from scripture, she would have to walk two miles to the neighbors
and spend a few moments reading the Bible.
And she desired and she really wanted to have her own Bible.
And so she started to save money so that she could buy a Bible.
She began to save her pennies, her pence, I don't know what they call the money there.
And pretty soon over not a month, not six months, but six years, she saved enough money
that she could purchase her own Bible.
And so she found out that there was a place, someone had a Welsh Bible for sale.
It wasn't two miles away.
It was 26 miles away.
And so she walked 26 miles.
That's a marathon, any runners.
And you can see in the picture, the story says that she walked barefooted because everywhere
she went, she was barefoot.
And she walked to the home of Thomas Charles, the bookseller.
And as the shipment came in, she had saved enough to buy a Bible for herself and to buy
two other Bibles for her friends, for her family.
And she was able to buy that Bible in the year 1800.
And Mr. Charles, who sold the Bible, he was so impressed by her commitment, by her desire,
that he was instrumental in starting something called the Welsh Tract Society, which began
to make sure that there were Bibles in that language for that country, that they were
produced and printed and published and distributed for that whole entire region.
Because one person was devoted and dedicated and wanted to spend time in the Bible.
Because we know the time, we know that we are nearer now than when we first believed.
So we want to spend time in the Bible as we go into the new year.
What about spending time in prayer?
I'm going to confess a little bit.
This one's a little more challenging for me, because I love to read, so I can really dig
into the Bible.
But prayer is a little bit more abstract.
We'll just be honest.
It's a little bit harder.
We can say it's talking to God as to a friend, but it's a little bit more challenging than
that because the friend isn't there.
We don't see the friend.
We don't hear an immediate response.
And with me at least so often, there is distraction, it's self-induced distraction.
But for me, prayer is harder.
It's harder to find traction in sustained prayer.
Now I saw this a couple years ago.
This is a wooden floor.
And can you tell what's in there?
Footprints.
There was an old Buddhist monk who would go to the temple and spend time in prayer, spend
hours and hours and hours a day praying his Buddhist prayers, which are not really prayers
to a deity, not prayers to a God, but just prayers kind of to yourself that you can be
better, that you can improve things.
And he spent hours and hours and lifted up thousands and thousands of prayers.
And over the course of about 20 years, the wooden floor became indented, a show of his
dedication to that.
Now I don't agree with that theology, but I certainly long for that kind of commitment.
And perhaps we don't need to wear out a floor in prayer, but at least for me, I know that
I need to spend more time in prayer.
Let's turn over to Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8.
Because sometimes if you're like me, we don't even know what to say.
Romans chapter 8.
It says, likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses, for we do not know what we
should pray for as we ought.
But the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
We may not know what to pray.
We may not even always know how to pray, but we can recognize that the Spirit hears what
we say and makes it something that is beautiful, that is pleasing to the ears of God.
So what are some ideas for prayer as you move into the new year?
I would say the first thing is look for prayers in the Bible.
The Bible is full of prayers.
Some of them are just one line.
You remember Peter when he was walking on the water and he started to sink?
What did he say?
Just one line.
Lord, save me.
That's a prayer.
Sometimes that is the prayer that we need.
Is this on now?
I think it is.
All right, I can step over here.
Sometimes that's the prayer that we need.
Lord, save me.
But you know what?
There's longer prayers in the Bible too, of course.
There's the Lord's Prayer.
What a perfect prayer that is.
When the disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray, He gave them the Lord's Prayer.
It's beautiful to recite.
But could it also be a pattern?
Give me my daily bread.
Give me what other things that I need today.
Lead me not into temptation.
God, this thing is tempting me.
Protect me from that.
Save me from that.
And did you know there are even longer prayers?
For instance, the book of Ephesians, chapter one and chapter three, both of those chapters
have multiverse prayers where Paul says, for this I pray.
And it lists off three or four or five things that Paul is praying for.
What if we could take those prayers and insert our own needs, insert our own situation, our
own context into those prayers?
And what's the book of prayer in Scripture?
We already mentioned that.
The book of Psalms, 150 prayers.
Some of them are prayers of praise.
Some of them are prayers of need, of questioning.
Some of those are prayers of uncertainty.
God, do you even hear me?
Are you there?
Why aren't you answering?
There's prayers of every situation that you can find in the book of Psalms.
Coming up again on January 8, our nationwide church, our worldwide church has something
called the 10 Days of Prayer.
And it's linked to on our church website, wringlesda.com.
And you can find different themes, different ideas as you begin a year in prayer.
You can check that out.
So spend time in the Bible, spend time in prayer.
One more thing that we can consider.
Perhaps this year, 2025, we need to spend time witnessing.
We need to spend time sharing with someone else.
Again, don't answer this, but just think about it in your own heart, in your own life.
Who did you witness to in 2024?
Can you think to a situation, an incident, an individual that you shared your faith with
in 2024?
Were you able to sit down and open up the Bible or have a spiritual discussion with
someone over the past 12 months?
Is there someone in the next 12 months that you could be thinking about, that you could
recognize, that you could have a spiritual conversation with?
Notice still in Romans, Romans chapter 10, starting in verse 14, it says,
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe
in Him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
Now that's not talking about me.
That's talking about each one of us sharing what Jesus has done in your life.
How shall they hear without a preacher, someone sharing their faith?
And how shall they preach unless they are sent?
As it is written, Siri wanted to get in on that.
How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings
of good things.
How beautiful are those who are able to have someone to share with, someone to invite,
someone to talk about their relationship with Jesus.
So what's a plan?
Make a list.
Check it twice.
Is there some one or three or five?
Is there people that you know that you could write down on a list and you could begin to
pray for them?
Not just pray in a general way, but pray, God send your Spirit into their life.
God send me or someone else to have an opportunity to share something about you with them.
And then don't just write those names down.
Don't just pray.
But look, look for ways that you can talk to somebody else, that you can serve them,
that you can invite them to Asian lunch or to whatever else.
Invite someone who wants to learn more about Jesus.
What about inviting a church member that you haven't seen for a long time?
They used to be here, but you haven't seen them.
Call them up.
Invite them to return.
Invite them to be back.
Because as the Bible says, we are nearer now than when we first believed.
There's a few months ago back in about August, there was a family that lived in Israel and
they were going to a museum.
They were spending the day at the museum.
The ancient artifacts, lots of old things.
And as they were going through the museum, suddenly the parents, they heard a crash.
As every parent's first worry is, oh no, was that my child?
Surely that wasn't my child.
But for one family, sure enough, it was their child.
A 3500 year old vase that predated King David, predated that day.
It was set out in a display in the opening in this museum.
They want people to experience things without guardrails, without fences, without chains.
And the little four year old boy had put his hand on this 3500 year old vase, pot clay
vase, and it had shattered.
It had broken.
Parents obviously were, oh no, what now?
What do we do?
Children could easily have said, go and never return.
This was priceless and you broke it.
But they looked at the video camera and they said, this wasn't an act of vandalism.
This was an accident of a small boy.
And so they did not ban the child.
They did not ban the family.
Instead, they invited the child to return and to see the clay vase being repaired, being
restored, and they allowed him to take part in it and to touch the things and to put the
glue in the cracks and to help make sure that everything was in place.
How many times over the last year have we touched something and it seemingly shattered
and God could have said, nope, you're out.
But instead, he invites us to have a part.
He invites us to be a part of something and to restore that which is broken and to invite
others to take part in that.
I want to look at one more verse.
This is way back in the Old Testament in Lamentations.
It's a small little book right after the book of Jeremiah, a book of mourning, Lamentations
chapter three.
But in the heart of this book of mourning and sadness, it says, through the Lord's mercies,
we are not consumed, but his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning.
Great is your faithfulness.
And this year, as we go ahead, as we look for ways that we can put on the Lord Jesus,
as we look at each day, recognizing that we are one day closer to our salvation, to the
return of Jesus, we are one day closer than we were yesterday, let us make sure that each
and every day we are seeing and acknowledging the saving love of Jesus, that we are putting
on his mercies and we are recognizing that his faithfulness is incredible, that his faithfulness
is great in our life.
And God gives us a fresh opportunity, a fresh start each and every day.
Let's look to Jesus as our Savior and let's make sure that we're putting time to know
him better through his word, to know him better through prayer, to invite others to know him
better through our sharing of our faith and through witnessing.
Let us make sure that we're keeping our eyes on Jesus.
Let's bow our heads for a prayer.
Dear God, great is your faithfulness.
You have done so much for us.
And Lord, it's hard to imagine that we are almost to the end of this year.
It's almost time to hang up a new calendar.
But Lord, we're closer.
We're closer to seeing you face to face.
We're closer to hearing that trumpet and seeing you return in those clouds of glory.
And Lord, though we come to this point and we look back and there's been good things
of the last year and God, there's been heartbreaking things, but you've been with us through it
all and your mercies are new every morning.
In your name we pray.
Amen.