Good morning. Last week we celebrated Christmas, a time of year when we look forward to spending time with family, a time of cooking and baking, and a time of presents or gifts. Do you realize that some two thousand years ago, God gave us the ultimate gift? You know, when we stand before God on our Judgment Day, God is going to ask you if you open the gift that he gave you. John three sixteen says that God loves us so much that he sent his only son to us. Jesus's mission was to seek and save that which is lost, to fulfill prophecy and to teach us love. As we look to a new year, a clean slate old man 2025 has passed away and the new baby, 2026 has emerged fresh with an eagerness to learn and experience new things. I watch our granddaughter and I'm amazed at how she likes to touch her taste or how she needs to see everything. It is exciting for me to see the world through her eyes as she experiences new things. That excitement is available to us as well. All we have to do is seek a personal relationship with God. So why not join Baby New Year and experience new things? Second Corinthians five seventeen says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. Old things have passed away. And look, new things have come. Are you in Christ today? Is Christ dwelling in you? Consider these questions before we take communion today. The New Year is a time to start all kinds of new things a new Bible reading plan, for example, to a church. It is a time to fast and pray for the upcoming year to start new programs such as discipling. You'll hear more about that in the very near future. When it comes to discipling, it is not up to the pastor, or an elder, or a deacon or deaconess or me to disciple you. We start discipling. Then ultimately you are studying the Bible and discipling others. There is nothing holding us back from reading the Bible each day. Excuse me. And using what we have learned to help each other. The only thing holding us back is us. Can you imagine what just this church would be like if we were all reading the Bible every day and being in unity with our speech, our thoughts, or the way we treat each other. John tells us in John fourteen, we can do the things Jesus did and even greater. I assure you, verse twelve, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do. I will do it so that the father may be glorified in the son. 14 if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Fifteen if you love me, you will keep my commands, and I will ask the father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever. Verse seventeen, he is the spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn't see him or know him. But you do know him because he remains with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I am coming to you. So, if we love him, Jesus, we will keep his commands. Do we love Jesus or do we love the world? How can we know his commands if we do not read His Word? Why would we love the world if we are promised we can do the same or greater things that Jesus Christ did when he walked the earth. All we must do is believe and have the faith of a mustard seed. In first Peter three verse eight and following, we see this. Now finally, all of you should be like minded and sympathetic, should love believers and be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult, but on the contrary, giving a blessing since you were called for this, so that you can inherit a blessing for the one who wants to love life and to see good days, must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
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