Out With The Old | Sunday, December 29, 2024

Amen. Praise the Lord! Thank you, Anthony. Good morning, Cross Connection. You guys can have a seat. It’s so good to see you here this morning. We're going to throw it back to old school, just Anthony up here with a guitar. It’s a little bit different, but I’m so glad to see you all here.

As you can see, we haven't let the Christmas spirit leave yet. We're going to hang on to it just a little bit longer. I think, as many of you probably already know, I grew up attending this church. It’s actually an interesting thing to me that I feel as though I've spent pretty much all of my life either in this building or in the building right across the way, in the offices there. I have been a part of this church since I was a little kid, growing up within this church and within the larger family of churches that we have been connected with for decades, Calvary Chapel.

It was not abnormal at the end of a year within a Calvary Chapel church to hear a message on prophecy. So here we are at the end of the year. I'm actually not going to do a message on prophecy, but it is going to lead into what I do want to share with you this morning. It was common at the end of the year to hear a pastor, my pastor growing up or someone else within a Calvary Chapel church, say something along the lines of, "We are closer to the return of Christ than ever, and it might be next year." That was something you would hear frequently.

In fact, I know from individuals I’ve spoken with that on December 31, 1979, I was one month old at the time, Pastor Chuck Smith, who was considered to be the father of Calvary Chapel, stood up before the gathered congregation at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa on the last day of the year 1979. He told all of those who were gathered there that he believed the Rapture of the church was going to happen within the next year or two, before 1981. There was a great fervency around the return of the Lord and evangelical fervency within churches in the United States of America during the last part of the 1970s coming into the 1980s. Some of you may have been a part of that; some of you may have gotten saved as a result of that evangelical fervency during that period of time.

The reason that Pastor Chuck and many other pastors like him believed that the return of Christ or the Rapture of the church was going to happen in 1980 or 1981 had to do with a certain interpretation of some of the words.

Jesus and the Gospels, specifically in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, contain a section of scripture called the Olivet Discourse. It is called that because Jesus gave a teaching to a group of His disciples while He was seated on the Mount of Olives, which is the mountain just east of the old city of Jerusalem and just east of the Temple Mount. In this teaching, Jesus talked about His return and what He referred to as the end of the age.

In that passage of scripture, He discussed the budding of the fig tree. For many people who hold what is called a dispensational view of scripture, the fig tree represents the nation of Israel. Jesus said that from the budding forth of the fig tree until the coming of the Messiah, this generation will not pass away until that takes place. This is found in Matthew 24:34, where Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place."

Based on those words, the view of many, including Pastor Chuck Smith, was that a biblical generation was 40 years. They believed that from May 14, 1948, when the modern state of Israel declared its independence and became a nation again, it was a fulfillment of prophecy. The last chapter of the book of Isaiah talks about who has seen such a thing—a nation becoming a nation in one day. The modern state of Israel became a nation again on May 14, 1948. If you add 40 years to that, you arrive at 1988.

Some of you might remember that there was a book in the late 1970s titled "88 Reasons Why Jesus Is Going to Return in 1988," which presented various reasons for why this was going to happen. However, if you back up seven years from that, Pastor Chuck firmly believed that the Rapture of the Church would happen before the end of 1981. He expressed this belief very clearly in a book that was first printed in 1978, with another printing in 1980, titled "End Times."

On page 35 of the book, Pastor Chuck Smith stated, "If I understand scripture correctly, Jesus taught us that the generation which sees the budding of the fig tree, the birth of the nation of Israel, will be the generation that sees the Lord's return. I believe that the generation of 1948 is the last generation, since a generation of judgment is 40 years and the tribulation period lasts seven years. I believe the Lord could come back for His..."

The church will not be taken before the tribulation starts, which would mean any time before 1981. That is what was said. Well, it's been 45 years, and we are still here—75 years, more than 75 years, since the modern state of Israel declared its independence. If you follow the news, the daily news of things happening in the world, it has certainly been a crazy and chaotic time. A lot of things have happened, and you see it in the news constantly. These events fit with the very things that Jesus said in Matthew 24.

There have been wars and rumors of wars, kingdoms rising against kingdoms, and nations against nations. There have been earthquakes in diverse places, famines, and pestilences. I believe what Jesus was saying in Matthew 24 is that these are the kinds of things that happen in a broken and fallen world from the time He ascended into heaven until the time He returns. This is the world we live in—a very chaotic and broken world. Certainly, the world has been that way ever since He ascended into heaven, and it will be that way until He returns and establishes His rule and reign.

We live in a broken, fallen world. It has been a wild ride for sure, but we are still here, and He has not yet returned. There have been a lot of predictions about Jesus's return since Pastor Chuck made those remarks in the early 1980s, and there will continue to be many predictions in the years to come. The problem with predictions is that they are often wrong, and there are many times when they are more wrong than right when you look at all these different predictions.

This morning, I don't necessarily want to talk about prophecy or predictions, but I want to discuss some of the things that you can absolutely count on in 2025. As we are just days away from the end of 2024 and stepping into a new year, there are definite things that we can and ought to count on as we come into the new year.

In 2025, there are going to be a lot of ups and downs, that is for sure. We do live in a broken and fallen world, so the markets will be up and they will be down. Interest rates will be up, and maybe they will be down. Your paycheck might be up, and maybe it will be down. Taxes could be up, and hopefully, they'll be down. There are a lot of different things that could happen in 2025. Your workload might increase.

Stress levels might increase your happiness level. Hopefully, it goes up; maybe it will go down. There are a lot of things that could come against it, but those are not the things that I want to put forward that you can count on as we come into this new year. In the midst of all the ups and downs, and in the midst of all the challenges that you could and probably will face in 2025, one of the things that I want to encourage you to count on is this: the steadfast love of the Lord never changes. His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.

Now, those words come from the Prophet Jeremiah in a book called Lamentations, which I would suggest you don't read if you're in one of those down periods when you're going through a difficult time. Lamentations is not the encouraging book to read. It was written by Jeremiah as he was watching the fulfillment of the prophecies he had made about the destruction of Israel and Jerusalem in the book of Jeremiah. He is observing the fall of his nation, watching as people he knows, even family members, are being carried away as captives to Babylon.

In the midst of the most devastating down that anybody could ever experience, he is given this encouragement in Lamentations Chapter 3: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is His faithfulness." That is an important word, I think. In fact, I'm going to share a number of passages of Scripture this morning with you, and I hope that they are already highlighted in your Bible. If they aren't, maybe today is the day that you underline them or put a star next to them. Perhaps this year, commit them to memory.

This would be one of those passages that would be good to hold on to: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases" (Lamentations 3:22). His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.

Point number one, if you're taking notes today: I can always count on the unchanging nature of God. No matter the circumstances, whether things are up or down, we can always count on the unchanging nature of God. This idea of the unchanging nature of God is what theologians refer to as the immutability of God.

The concept of immutability refers to the unchanging nature of God. God's character, will, promises, and word are all unchanging. Because they are unchanging, they provide us with something to lean upon, trust in, and hope for. The author of the Book of Hebrews highlights this immutability of God, emphasizing that it is this unchanging aspect of God's nature, will, word, and purpose that gives us a sure and steadfast hope.

I discussed this a couple of weeks ago when I talked about the hope we have in Christ Jesus, which serves as an anchor for our souls. This hope helps us remain sure and steadfast, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. When the waves are crashing against us or the rains and floods are coming, what keeps us grounded? It is the knowledge that we have a God who is unchanging. He is immutable in His nature, purpose, will, and word.

In Hebrews chapter 6, the author states in verse 17 that God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath. This was done by two unchanging things in which it is impossible for God to lie, so that we might have strong comfort or consolation. We have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul is both sure and steadfast, entering into the presence behind the veil.

The author of Hebrews is discussing the unchanging nature of God, His sure and steadfast word, promise, and will. These aspects provide us with comfort, even through difficult times, and help us maintain a certain hope—not a wishful thinking or blind faith, but a sure and steadfast hope that gives us a strong footing, even in the midst of adversity.

After 45 years of life, I am certain that there will be ups and downs. Those fluctuations are absolutely certain. This is why Jesus could say the things He did in Matthew 24, that we will hear of wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, pestilence, persecution, and many other challenges.

That is with absolute certainty because in a broken world, you are going to experience ups and downs. We all know that. One of the other things that I've grown more certain of over time is that I can rely upon God in every twist and turn that life takes us through. The saying has become somewhat cliché, but it is nonetheless true: we don't know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. Like I said, it's cliché, but it's a good thing for us to be reminded of—that God is the one who holds the future.

As we are here at the end of 2024 and stepping into 2025, what I want to do with the time I have left this morning is to give five encouragements or exhortations for 2025. I would call this ancient wisdom that has stood the test of time. So, here are five things for us to hold on to as we step into a new year.

The first one is this: trust in the Lord with all of your heart. This comes from a famous passage of Scripture, a well-known passage written 3,000 years ago by King Solomon in Proverbs 3:5-6. If this is not highlighted or underlined in your Bible, or something that you have put into your heart, I would encourage you to memorize these words: "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart; lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths."

We are often encouraged to have faith in the Lord, to trust in the Lord, and to believe in God. We might even remind ourselves of that when we go through some sort of challenge: "I need to trust in the Lord; I need to believe in the Lord." The difficulty with the concept of having faith in God or believing in God is that we tend to think of it as just an intellectual exercise. It's something we do in our brains; we remind ourselves that everything is going to be okay, that we should trust in the Lord. However, there is an aspect of this that can be too passive.

There is more of an active trust in the Lord, and I think the best way to illustrate this active trust is to talk a little bit about my younger brother, Danny. Danny comes here when he's in town; he works in Washington, D.C., but when he's here, he is at church. If he's not at...

Church, and he's in town. He's doing something that I think is one of the most absurdly crazy things you could do. He’s one of those people who likes adrenaline, obviously. For a long time, the way that he did that was as a deep-sea diver and a scuba diving instructor. He was actually my scuba diving instructor, and he took myself, Pastor Mark, Pastor Garrett, and Mark's daughter, Emily, through the whole diving experience.

I remember we were about 60 feet down, and when you're underwater at that depth, you start to realize that this is kind of dangerous. I could die in this situation. Every time I've gone scuba diving, the first 20 minutes into the dive, I feel a little sketchy. I can't quickly go up to the surface, or I'm going to embolize and die. This is not the best thing, and obviously, my wife gets a little concerned when I do that. But Danny loved this stuff.

He moved from scuba diving to skydiving, and not just skydiving; he has recently gotten into base jumping and wingsuit flying. He's insane! He frequently shows me these crazy videos because he always has the GoPro camera. He tells me I should do this. Here’s the thing: intellectually, I believe that parachute will work. I believe in my head that the wingsuit functions; I can see it there. But it takes a different kind of faith, wouldn’t you agree? It takes a different kind of trust to put that equipment on, entrust yourself entirely to it, and jump off a cliff.

He’s one of these crazy people that does the wingsuit thing, and I think he’s insane. He loves to show these videos to my mom for some reason; I don’t know why he does this. There is a totally different kind of faith. There is an intellectual faith where I believe that thing can work, and I believe it works for you, Danny. But it takes a different kind of trust to entrust yourself to that equipment and take the jump. That’s the kind of trust that I believe Solomon is talking about here. It is a daily routine; it is a trust in the Lord with all of your heart, entrusting yourself completely to Him in spite of circumstances, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense or seems illogical. That’s where we read, “Lean not on...”

Your own understanding might lead you to think that it doesn't make sense to trust and entrust yourself to God in certain circumstances. However, I encourage you to do this.

Point number two, if you're taking notes: God directs my path as I entrust everything to Him. This is not something that you did one time in the past or something you might do one time in the future; it needs to become a part of your daily routine. When Solomon says, "In all your ways acknowledge Him," this is where it really becomes a daily aspect of life. In everything you do, when you wake up on a Monday morning, take the time to acknowledge God. Say, "In everything I do today, I want to be trusting in You. Help me to know how to do that and in what way to entrust myself completely to You in all my ways every single day."

So, in 2025, I want to encourage you to entrust yourself to the Lord, and you will see Him direct your path. It is an awesome and wonderful thing to see the Lord direct your path and to open doors before you, as the Scriptures say, open doors that no man can shut. Following Him in that way happens as we entrust everything to Him in faith.

Now, that leads to the second thing I want to encourage you with from the Scriptures for the new year. Not only should you trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path. The second thing is to forget what is behind and press on to lay hold of that which the Lord has set before you in the future.

This comes from a favorite passage of mine in the New Testament, in the book of Philippians. You can turn there if you'd like or note it down. In Philippians 3:12, the Apostle Paul says, "Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me."

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward toward those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. I love this passage of Scripture, and in fact, I've shared many times before that the book of Philippians is my favorite book in the Bible. This section of Scripture is such an important passage.

Those are the ones that you should highlight and maybe commit to memory. Each of us has a plan or a path in our mind for ourselves. Like me, a lot of times on a Sunday afternoon, I'm thinking about the next week. What are the things I need to get done? You kind of chart through the week, considering what you are going to be doing. A lot of times, our plans extend out much further than just a day or a week; they extend out months or maybe years. This is the direction I'm going.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I would say that it's a good thing to think carefully and prayerfully about where you're headed in your life. However, in all of the planning, recognize that not only do you have a plan or path charted for yourself, but acknowledge that God also has a path that He created you for. The Scriptures reveal, in this passage, a plan and a path that He saved you for. God has rescued and redeemed you for a purpose.

What Paul says here is, "I want to lay hold of the very thing that God laid hold of me for." The implication is that God saved Paul for a purpose, and He saved you for a purpose as well. Paul expressed his desire to be able to lay hold of that purpose—the purpose that God has for him.

Now, recognize that before Paul was redeemed, rescued, and saved by Christ, he had a plan and a path that he had charted out for himself. He talks about that in this very passage in Acts chapter 9. The New Testament book of Acts tells us the story of where his name was formerly Saul. Saul met the Lord and instantly had this crossroads experience. He had a plan and a purpose that he was attending to or focusing on, but when he met Christ, he realized that his path actually went against the will and purpose of God.

Now he had a choice: to either follow his own path or to pursue the path to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of him. I think Paul chose wisely, obviously, and I don't think he regretted his choice. Even though the path that he chose to follow as he pursued the Lord was filled with all kinds of trouble—he experienced shipwreck, arrests, persecution, beatings, and ultimately died as a martyr—all those things were on the path that God had designed for him. In his own choosing, he would have stayed away from all those things, like we probably would have, but I am absolutely certain.

He came to realize that the path the Lord had for him was far better than the treasure of the path he was on before. In fact, he refers to the previous path as being rubbish or trash. In this same passage of Scripture in Philippians, just a few verses before the passage I read, he says in verse 7, "The things that were gained to me before I met Christ, I have counted those loss for Christ. Yet indeed, I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Point number three, if you're taking notes: God's end goal is far greater than any end state I might make or imagine. God's goal for me is better than any plan I could come up with for myself. My desire in the coming year, and in the previous years, is that I might lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. He saved me for a purpose, and I want to fulfill whatever that purpose is.

There are a lot of other things that you could pursue. Many people in this world are pursuing a higher net worth, a different or better title or position, or they are trying to achieve a certain level of a retirement account. Whatever it may be, the amazing thing is that there are people who have attained a higher net worth and reached the position or title, yet they come to realize that those things don't ultimately satisfy. The ultimate satisfaction is in doing what God has saved and created you for. The greatest experience of your life will be right in the middle of God's will.

I want to encourage you as we move into 2025. Maybe this is already your pattern of life, but I want to encourage you to continue this as your path: lay aside all of the other things in the past, forget that, and seek to pursue what it is that God has for you. It might be different from what you've been pursuing so far, and that might be a fearful, scary thing. But if you trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not on your own understanding, and in all your ways acknowledge Him, He will direct your paths.

The promise of Scripture is significant as we come into the new year. First, trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Second, forget those things that are in the past and pursue what the Lord has for you in 2025. Third, number your days and apply your heart to wisdom. This comes from Psalm 90, which is believed by many scholars to be a Psalm of Moses. It is some 3,500 years old.

In Psalm 90, Moses says in verse 10, "The days of our lives are 70 years; if by reason of strength, they are 80 years." A couple of verses later, he says, "So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom." It is amazing to think that 3,500 years ago, the average lifespan was basically the same as it is today. Moses states that the average lifespan is 70 to 80 years, and here in the United States of America today, that is still the average lifespan—somewhere in that 70 to 80-year range.

When you are 12, that seems like a long way off, but when you are 45 or even 65, it doesn't seem that far away. You realize that with every passing day, time seems to go faster. It is December 29th, and Costco will have its Christmas stuff for 2025 out next week. Time goes by really quickly, right? At least it seems that way because the days, weeks, and years just go by faster and faster.

As you approach that 70 or 80-year mark, time seems to compress even more. You start to think about things you probably didn't consider when you were 12, doing crazy things like jumping out of a plane with a wingsuit. That was something you were willing to do in your 20s and 30s because it seemed very far away. But as you get closer to that age, you start to think, "Yeah, that's dumb. I'm not going to do that."

You begin to contemplate the reality of the shortness of life, and we don't like to think about that, especially in our culture. Our culture does as much as it possibly can to avoid these thoughts.

To push death as far away from us as we can, we, as a nation, invest tens and hundreds of billions into healthcare. We are also investing billions into life extension technologies. Right now, as a culture, we are witnessing something crazy: Silicon Valley is investing billions in trying to defeat death by digitizing it.

What does that mean? There is a theory among a number of people in Silicon Valley that you are just an organic computer. Your brain functions like an organic computer, and the idea is that maybe we can extract all of that digital information, which is your consciousness and your conscience. We can digitize it and put it into the cloud. How frightening is that? We would take your conscious awareness out of this world and put it into a digital realm, making you digitally immortal. That sounds like the most frightening thing I could imagine. People are already kind of trapped in this digital existence, but imagine being literally trapped in it. As long as you have battery power, you're okay. No thanks.

Now, that may sound completely insane and absurd to you, but it is actually what a number of people are pursuing. Perhaps you've heard the name Yuval Noah Harari. He is an Israeli philosopher who has written a book called "Sapiens" and another called "Homo Deus." The whole idea is that we will digitize you and put you into digital information, making you electronically immortal. People are spending billions to pursue this. One of the chief futurists at Google, Ray Kurzweil, has made it his aim to try to digitize you and make you digitally immortal.

This sounds foolish, absurd, and frightening to me, but that is what people are trying to do. Why? Because we are afraid of death as a culture. Moses talks about the certainty of death. Our average lifespan is 70 or 80 years. The wise person is not the one who spends billions, perhaps trillions, trying to extend life or digitize life to make it immortal. Instead, the wise person is the one who takes account of their days. Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.

Wisdom: how do we do that? How do we number our days? Well, first, we need to recognize that time is a precious commodity. It's the most precious commodity that you have. Even the wealthiest billionaires, of whom there are many, have the same amount of minutes in a day that you do. We need to take account of our days. We all have 1,440 minutes in a day, and we are spending them every single day. There is a limited account of them because, on average, we have 70 to 80 years—that's the end mark. Some may live beyond that; some have very long lives well into their 90s or even beyond that into triple digits. However, there is an end date on all of this.

So, how do we number our days to gain a heart of wisdom? One way to do that is to begin and end each day by considering our time. We should prayerfully and thoughtfully think about the time we are going to have the next day or reflect on how we have used our time at the end of the day. One very easy practice you can develop is journaling. I have been better at this at other times in my life; sometimes I'm really good at it, and sometimes I'm not.

In journaling, you don't have to spend 45 minutes writing ten pages. Even just taking a few minutes to think about what you are planning to do that day can be beneficial. In doing that, acknowledge God in all your ways. When I am journaling well, my entries really look like a prayer—a dialogue with the Lord. I am talking to the Lord in my journal, writing these things out, and acknowledging God in my ways. I also read the Scriptures as I do this. This is why some of these journaling Bibles can be really helpful. You read through the Scriptures and write down some thoughts while prayerfully talking with the Lord.

I believe this is one of the ways we can wisely number our days. As you engage in this practice, I think it helps us fulfill the fourth thing I want to encourage you to do in 2025: redeem the time. This comes from Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians 5:15. He says, "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, for the days are evil." Another translation, the New International Version, replaces the words "redeeming the time" with "making the most of every opportunity."

Opportunity is something we often overlook. Many people don't want to remind themselves that we have a short period of time here on this Earth—70 to 80 years—and it seems to pass more quickly with each passing day. If we take the time to account for that time wisely, it might encourage us to make the most of every opportunity. We need to redeem the time and recognize that we are here to fulfill a purpose that Christ created and saved us for. Lord, I want to lay hold of that for which You have laid hold of me. You saved me for it.

It has been said that time well spent is a life well lived. If we are seeking to redeem the time and make the most of every opportunity, then we are living a good life. Paul instructs us to walk circumspectly. What does that mean? To be circumspect is to walk prudently or carefully, considering the circumstances and the consequences of our actions. Many people do not live like that; they live rather haphazardly, allowing life to take them by surprise or wherever it may lead them. What Paul is calling us to do is to consider the circumstances in which we live—the time and the place—and recognize that the things we do, say, and give ourselves to have consequences.

In what is considered to be the oldest book of the Bible, Job observed in Job 14:5 that man's days are determined and that the number of his months are with the Lord. This idea is echoed by King David in Psalm 139. He says, "In Your book they were written, the days fashioned for me." David recognized in Psalm 139:16 that God has the date and time of my exodus from this world. I don't know what it is, and I am perfectly fine not knowing that day; I leave that with the Lord. However, I recognize that there is a day, and Lord, You want me to walk circumspectly, considering the circumstances in which You have placed me.

God put you and me here in Southern California in 2024, going into 2025, for a purpose and for a reason. Lord, I want to lay hold of that for which You have laid hold of me, for You saved me for this. Help me to know how to navigate this. In all my ways, I want to acknowledge You so that I might...

Redeem the time well. The question is, how do you do that? This leads to my fifth encouragement. I already talked about this a couple of weeks ago, but it's worth returning to. The fifth thing that you can do in 2025 to make sure that you're making the most of every opportunity and wisely keeping a good accounting of your days is to abide in Christ.

To abide in Him means to abide within His body, the Church, but also to abide within His Word and to abide within His love. This comes from a passage we looked at a week or so ago when we were talking about the Advent of Love or the Advent of Joy. It is found in John 15, and I think it's worth reading again.

In John 15:1, Jesus said to His disciples, "I am the True Vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes so that it might bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. Without me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this, my Father is glorified, that you would bear much fruit, and so you will be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, I also love you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love."

Here’s the key: These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full in 2025. Point number five: your joy will increase as you abide in Christ's Word, love, and body. That is what Jesus is clearly saying in that passage of Scripture. Your joy will increase as you abide in Christ's Word, in His love, and in His body. In addition to your joy increasing, you will become more...

When we talk about fruit as Christians, what are we referring to? We are not talking about lemons and oranges; we are talking about the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22 and 23 states that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. There are many other things we could add to that list, but those nine qualities are particularly significant.

In 2025, you can be certain that your peace will be tested, your joy will be challenged, and you will face trials regarding your self-control, kindness, gentleness, and goodness. That is a given; you will be tested. Here’s the thing: in and of yourself, as you are tested, you will come up lacking. You will come up short in your peace and patience. I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but I can sometimes be an impatient person. When my patience is tested, I realize just how impatient I can be. I have really been experiencing this in traffic lately; you can pray for me.

When we are tested, we often fall short of these qualities. However, as we abide in Christ, they are supernaturally produced in us. It is the fruit of the Spirit; it is not something I create. It is something that God, by His presence and by His Spirit, does in me as I abide in Christ. Apart from me, Jesus says, you can do nothing. We keep trying to prove Him wrong, thinking, "Apart from You, I can do a lot of things." But no, you can’t. He keeps showing me over and over again that apart from Him, I can do nothing.

As I abide in Christ, I experience the presence of His Spirit. As I abide in His church, His body, and as I abide in His Word, and His Word abides in me, I cannot give you any greater encouragement for 2025 than to spend more time with God in His Word. Maybe right now, it’s something you already do; consider adding five minutes. If it’s something you don’t do at all, start by adding five minutes. It can be as simple as registering online at the listeningplan.com for our plan that will take you from Matthew to Revelation through the whole New Testament in a year, just by listening to the text of one chapter a day. It can be that simple. As you start to abide in God's Word, you will see the difference it makes.

God's word abides in you, and then you abide in His love, as He said in this passage. By doing the things that His word teaches, enabled by His Spirit, I can guarantee you that your joy will increase as you abide in Christ's word, His love, and His body.

Let me recap and close with five encouragements—ancient wisdom that has stood the test of time.

In 2025, trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.

In 2025, forget those things which are behind and press on to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of you. He has a purpose and a plan that He created you for and redeemed you for. He has placed you here in this place, at this time, for such a time as this—in the family that you're a part of, in the workplace that you're a part of, on the school campus that you're at. Wherever it is, He has put you there for a purpose. May you, as you trust in the Lord, be directed into laying hold of that.

Third, number your days and apply your heart to wisdom. You will gain wisdom as you recognize that time is short, and I want to redeem the time.

That's number four: redeem the time, because we are living in difficult and dark times, in a place that is in desperate need of the light and grace of God. God has set you here to proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

So, trust in the Lord, forget what’s behind, pursue what the Lord has before you in the future, number your days, apply your heart to wisdom, and redeem the time.

Fifth and finally, abide in Christ's word, in His love, and in His body, the church. I am absolutely convinced that if you do these things, you will do well in 2025. Amen.

Let's stand as we close in prayer.

Father God, thank You for Your word. Thank You that You have given us life and desire to give us life more abundantly, to its fullest. A full life is a life that is abiding in You, being filled by Your word and by Your Spirit, and producing fruit. God, in my life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters standing here today, there are unfruitful branches. Father, You are the vine dresser; would You remove those from us?

God, take away from us whatever needs to be removed or pruned from our lives. Maybe it's habits that are not beneficial for us or glorifying to You. Perhaps it's things that are consuming our attention, time, or money that are not ultimately producing fruit. Remove those things from our lives and cut them away so that we might increase in fruit in 2025.

We desire to see produced in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. May these qualities not only be evident to us but also to the people around us. Let them see that we have peace and joy regardless of our circumstances. Let them witness our self-control, kindness, and goodness towards others.

These are not the qualities we normally see in and around us in this world, but God, would You make them a more significant part of our lives as we abide in You? Continue to pour out Your Spirit and grace upon each of us individually and as a church.

Lord, give us wisdom on how we might more effectively be witnesses of You in 2025. Help us reach our neighbors, coworkers, friends, and family members who are far from You and in desperate need of Your grace and mercy. There are so many people in this community who are far from You, feeling the hopelessness and joylessness of that existence, even if they have many things and live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, here in San Diego.

God, grant us wisdom and grace so that we might reach those people with Your love and truth more effectively in 2025 than we have in 2024. Pour out Your Spirit upon Your church. We praise You today in Jesus' name. Amen.