Triumphant in 2025

Triumphant Through Him in 2025

 

Some of you may remember the child’s song written by Bill Gaither. “I am a Promise.” Some of the lyrics are these:

 

You are a promise, You are a possibility, You are a promise with a capital "P" You are a great big bundle of potentiality. And if you listen you'll hear God's voice, and if you're trying he'll help you make the right choices, you're a promise to be anything God wants you to be.

 

You can go anywhere that he wants you to go You can be anything that he wants you to be You can climb the high mountain You can cross the wide sea you're a great big promise You see . . . So keep on listening to hear God's voice And keep on trying he'll help you make the right choices you're a promise to be anything he wants you to be.

 

I remember playing it for our children when they were still in grade school. I mention it now because it makes a point about the point I want to make during this first month of 2025.

 

I debated with myself about the wisdom of referring to this children’s song because of some of the lyrics. For example: You can go anywhere that he wants you to go You can be anything that he wants you to be, You can climb the high mountain, You can cross the wide sea you're a great big promise You see.

 

Let’s face it. A lot of proverbial water has gone under the bridge and there are just some things you – and I – are not going to do anymore in this life. We’re not about to go climb any high mountains. We’re probably not going to cross any wide sea. Too much time has passed, and there’s just not that much more time left for any of us.

 

But, that truth still does not alter the greater truth: You STILL are a promise. You STILL are a possibility. And you can STILL do anything God wants you to do and you can STILL be anything He wants you to be.  Even at the age of 75, or 85, or 95.

 

God almighty Himself promises that to be so. Philippians 1:6 “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. And so, please hear me: Rebuke and reject the devilish lie that God is done with you.

 

Christian, God will not be done with you until you are standing in His glorious presence on the other side of this life.

 

The title of my message today is this: Triumphant Through Him in 2025.

My text for that title comes from 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 – “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life.”

2025 is still eleven and a half months ahead of us. And please, get this! You are still important to God’s work and to God’s kingdom. And you can still be abundantly fruitful for His work – if you WANT to be fruitful for Him.

 

Again, that’s not just me spouting some insipid promises, some feel-good platitudes. I’m reminding you what God Himself promises us. For example, here is 2 Peter 1:5-8 “[G]iving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound [are increasing] you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

Neither you nor I have ANY IDEA what God has ALREADY done through our lives. No idea. We might think we know, but who knows the mind of God or how great and infinitely intricate is His plan for each one of us?

 

Many of you might remember the 1946 Frank Capra classic film, It’s a Wonderful Life. It starred Lionel Barrymore, Donna Reed, and Jimmy Stewart. As you may remember, when George Bailey wishes he’d never been born, the angel Clarence grants his wish – and George gets to see what life would have been like in Bedford Falls if he’d never been born.

Bedford Falls is instead named Pottersville and is home to sleazy nightclubs, pawn shops, and places of ‘adult entertainment.’ The pharmacist was sent to prison for poisoning a child because the then ten-year-old George wasn’t there to intervene in time. George’s brother Harry died when he broke through the ice during childhood because George wasn’t there to save him from drowning. And because Harry didn’t survive, the thousand servicemen on the troop transport during WWII all died because Harry was not there to shoot down those enemy planes.

 

There’s much more to the story, but I share this brief synopsis because, as I said at the beginning, the child’s song and this story about George Bailey make the point that God makes again and again:

 

Like George Bailey, your life has intersected with hundreds, maybe thousands of lives – either directly or indirectly. And it continues to intersect every day with the lives of others – whose own lives themselves ALSO intersect with dozens or scores of others. Yes, even here at Ashwood.  Like an ever-growing snowball cascading down a snowbank, God uses you and me – still uses you and me to influence the lives of others.

 

That is why your life, my life, right up to this very moment on January 26, 2025 is so important to the Kingdom Story. And most of us haven’t a clue – most of us will NEVER in this life get a clue, as to how important your life, my life is to God’s kingdom.  Not until we reach heaven’s shores will we know even as we are known.

 

No wonder Paul wrote these words in Romans 11:33ff “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

 

Most of you are familiar with what Matthew records for us in the last portion of the 25^th chapter of his gospel. We’ve look at this text many times in the past. It’s good to look at again to remind ourselves of an important truth of God:

 

(Matthew 25:34-40) “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

 

I want to draw your attention to something important here. Those standing before God’s judgment seat had NO IDEA that they would eventually receive praise for what they’d done when they fed the poor, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, visited the sick, and so forth. They hadn’t done any of those things for a reward. They did them simply because they saw a need and endeavored to meet that need.

 

And so, they were dumbfounded to hear the words of the Lord at their judgment: ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’

 

What have you done in your life to help the poor and the lonely and the sick and the hungry and the cold? What kind words have you spoken to encourage the discouraged, to give hope to those without hope, to give laughter to those who could only weep?  What do you STILL do while you live here at Ashwood Meadows?

 

Listen, God tells us through Hebrews 6:10-12 “For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

 

In other words, God sees it all. He hears it all. He watches it all. So keep at it in 2025. Don’t lose your confidence that God is STILL using you – even if you cannot see it. DO NOT lose your confidence in our omnipotent God and Father – and thereby become sluggish about continuing to be faithful to His call on your life here at Ashwood Meadows.

 

Yes, it is nice to see or to hear that we are doing something of value for the Kingdom, and God shows that to us from time to time.  But remember those we just looked at from Matthew 25. They didn’t know of the value of their work for the Kingdom until they arrived at the Kingdom.  And I strongly suspect that with us, God uses everything we do – even the mundane day to day work we do – God uses all of it – nothing goes to waste.

 

All He asks us to do is TRUST Him – He wants us to trust that we are important to His work, even living here at Ashwood Meadows.

 

What can you do for the kingdom besides (as important as it is) what you already do – being kind to your neighbors and avoiding gossip?

 

1. Pray for revival – FIRST in your own heart. Make sure you are quick to repent of every personal sin which the Lord reveals to you. And then pray for revival in the lives of those around you. History clearly demonstrates that every mighty move of God through any culture can be traced to people praying for revival.

 

You have a prayer meeting already established here on Thursdays. Attend them. And pray for revival here at Ashwood. And pray out loud for those at the tables around the dining room. Pray also for the Holy Spirit to move on each one of us during our weekly bible studies and Sunday services here. Listen: I need your prayers, and everyone who lives and works here needs your prayers.

 

2. Tell your stories. What is God teaching you?  What HAS He taught you? If you have internet access, I can show you how to share your stories on the internet. If you do not have access, tell ME your stories and I will share them on the internet.

 

3. Ask God what He wants you to do to still be fruitful for His kingdom. I promise you He will show you what you can do. (See Jeremiah 33:3)

 

Let me close this message with this true story of an old missionary couple who’d worked in Africa for years. Because of poor health, they were returning to New York City to retire. They had no pension; their health was broken; they were defeated, discouraged, and afraid. They discovered they were booked on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions.

No one paid much attention to them during the voyage home. But they couldn’t help but notice the fanfare that accompanied the President’s entourage, with passengers trying to catch a glimpse of the great man.

As the ship moved across the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, "Something is wrong. Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for God in Africa all these many years and have no one care a thing about us? Here this man comes back from a hunting trip and everybody makes much over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us."

"Dear, you shouldn’t feel that way," his wife said.

"I can’t help it; it doesn’t seem right."

When the ship docked in New York, a band was waiting to greet the President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were full of the President’s arrival, but no one noticed this missionary couple.

They slipped off the ship and found a cheap flat on the East side, hoping the next day to see what they could do to make a living in the city.

That night, the man’s spirit broke. He said to his wife, "I can’t take this; God is not treating us fairly."

His wife replied, "Why don’t you go into the bedroom and tell that to the Lord?"

A short time later he came out from the bedroom, but now his face was completely different. His wife asked, "Dear, what happened?"

"The Lord settled it with me," he said. "I told him how bitter I was that the President should receive this tremendous homecoming, when no one met us as we returned home. And when I finished, it seemed as though the Lord put his hand on my shoulder and simply said, ‘But you’re not home yet!’"

Ashwood Meadows, Listen! Don’t let the devil break your spirit. 2025 will be a triumphant year for you and for His kingdom IF you want to be triumphant for the Master. Persevere for His glory through every step of your journey through 2025 – and that journey that begins right now. Today.

And God our Father will say to you on that great and glorious day in heaven: Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

Call on Him to guide your every step. You are STILL a promise. You are still a possibility with a capital P. You are still a great big bundle of potentiality.

Turn to Me

Turn to Me

 

My text today comes from the 45^th chapter of the prophet Isaiah. Please listen as I read, or follow along in your handout: (Isaiah 45:20-24)

 

“Gather yourselves and come; Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; They have no knowledge, who carry about their wooden idol and pray to a god who cannot save. “Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me. “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. “I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. “They will say of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’ Men will come to Him, and all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.”

 

God spoke these words to His chosen people in the eighth century BC. But it’s necessary that we understand that by that time, Israel had for generations remained steeped in idolatry, practicing as part of their blasphemous religion the worship of wooden and stone gods, as well as temple prostitution and child sacrifice. And although God warned the nation again and again to turn from their sin, they repeatedly ignored Him.

 

If you know your Old Testament history, it was not long until God sent the Assyrians to ravage the northern Kingdom and bring His chosen people into a desolate exile. Now then, you’d think that the southern kingdom of Judah would have learned the lesson from its northern sister of Israel. But they did not learn the lesson. Listen as the Scripture recounts WHY God brought the Chaldean army across Judah and Jerusalem:

 

(2 Chronicles 36:15-17) “The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy. Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand. 

 

Jeremiah records the aftermath of the Babylonian invasion this way: (Lamentations 1:1-2a) “How lonely sits the city that was full of people! She has become like a widow who was once great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a forced laborer! She weeps bitterly in the night and her tears are on her cheeks; She has none to comfort her.”

 

God's chosen people could have avoided this outcome – if only they had put away their idols and false gods. And, Christian, don’t miss this point –Yes, God is love. But He is also holy. And He is Just. And He will never share His throne, His authority, His majesty with another. That’s why God demands that we worship only Him. Hear the eternal words of Jesus, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” (Matthew 4:10).

 

And do not forget the ominous warning of Hebrews: “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)

 

21st-century Man makes a tragic error to think idolatry and its inevitable judgment from God is a thing of the past. It is not. One does not have to bow before wood or marble statues to be an idolater. The dictionary defines idolatry not only as the worship of man-made idols, but includes “excessive devotion to, or reverence for some person or thing.”  

 

In other words, anything that diverts our full devotion to the one true God is an idol. Anything that dilutes from true worship and obedience to Almighty God is also, by definition, an idol. Listen to St John’s exhortation: (1 John 2:15-17) “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

 

And while we in the West might not bow down to sculpted wood and marble, we often DO bow before non-tangible things such as power, greed and possessions. And how many bow before Science, or Government, or Philosophy – and even religion?

 

Let’s define some of those terms. According to the dictionary, ‘science’ is defined as ‘A systematic discipline that builds and organizes knowledge about the physical world and its phenomena through observation, experimentation, and the formulation of testable hypotheses.”

 

But by its very definition, ‘Science’ cannot explain miracles, for miracles defy testable hypotheses. Miracles are only ‘one time’ events and cannot ever be subject to a laboratory. That is why Science cannot explain God. It cannot, for example, explain the Virgin Birth. Or the feeding of the 5,000 with two fish and five loaves of bread. Or the instantaneous healing of blind, the deaf, the mute, or the crippled. Science has no means to measure the resurrection of Lazarus, or the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. But yet, massive numbers of men and women choose Science over the unambiguous testimonies of Scripture – therefore making Science an idol that inserts itself between God and Mankind.

 

Philosophy is yet another construct that often gives people reason to disobey the clear teaching of God. Philosophy – which originally meant to have a ‘love of wisdom” – is the systematic study of questions related to our existence. Yet God tells us, for example, in Proverbs: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7)

 

St Paul warned the Christians at Corinth: “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe . . . .But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:18-21, 30)

 

Science and Philosophy become idols when their focus on human (and often very flawed) ideas replaces our focus on God and His word. They become intangible idols when they replace full faith in the God of the Bible with man-made traditions. Once again, the Holy Spirit warns us through the apostle: (Colossians 2:8-10a) “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the  elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made  complete.”

 

Lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes, the pride of life – along with an eye on power and possessions, science and philosophies – all can easily interject themselves between us and the Almighty. 

 

There is yet one more potential idol I want to address before moving on: Religion can also come between ourselves and the God of Scripture. The Pharisees and Sadducees of New Testament days were preeminent in their obedience to the Law – but Jesus repeatedly warned them they were missing the whole point of the Law. We don’t have time to review the 23^rd chapter of Matthew’s gospel, but the Lord’s series of ‘Woes’ against the religious leaders jump off the page as we read it with open and humble hearts. Those ‘woes’ are just as applicable to the 21^st century as they were to the first.

 

Somewhat similar to that point in Matthew 23, St Paul addressed idols that masqueraded as personality factions that had developed in the Corinthian church. Listen to what he writes in 1 Corinthians 1:12-13a: “[E]ach one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided?" 

 

And the question remains in 2025: Is Christ STILL divided? When Christians go around saying, “I’m a Baptist,” I’m a Catholic,” “I’m a Methodist,” “I’m a Presbyterian” – are we not boasting of our differences and not of our unity in the Body of Christ comprised of ALL baptized believers who live in obedience to Christ? 

 

Christ calls us to win souls to His kingdom, not to win them to our church, whatever the label.

 

Well, enough talk about various idols. God demands of us a more obedient and devoted life and lifestyle than bowing before the idols of science, or philosophy, or money, or power, and so forth. And that better way circles back to our text for this afternoon. Look with me at verse 22 of our text in that 45^th chapter of Isaiah wherein God tells Israel, and God tells us today: “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.

 

“Turn to ME” says our God. Not to philosophy, not to traditions of men, or the confident pontifications of those who have turned from the God of Scripture. Listen to what He says through Isaiah: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Isaiah 8:20)

 

It is God alone who has the right to demand of humanity obedience to His unchanging rules of life – all of which are found in full within His inerrant, infallible, and totally inspired Scriptures. And you can write this down, so you won’t forget it: “When anyone – author, teacher, psychologist, sociologist, pastor, or priest – when anyone offers advice that contradicts any of God's rules for life – they do so because they have no light.

 

“Turn to ME,” says our Creator. Turn like the prodigal son who finally came to his senses. “Call to Me,” God appeals even to us through Jeremiah, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ (Jeremiah 33:3)

 

“Turn,” God pleads. Turn, you who are traveling the broad way of various idolatries of which I’ve already spoken because that broad way “leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

 

How do you know if you’re going the wrong way? That’s easy. Does your life and lifestyle mirroring to the best of your human frailty the holiness of God as described in Scripture? Is your life framed by obedience to God? Listen now to Jesus (Luke 16:10): “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.”

 

And again a few verses later: “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Or, for that matter, any other idol, whether tangible or intangible as we have seen already in this message).

 

You know as well as I that there are congregations today – even in this town – who hear from their clergy that all religions lead to heaven. Others hear from their pastors that we can have a reasonable hope that hell is empty. Still others hear them deny Biblical morality and sexuality applies to today.

 

How do you know you’re going the wrong way? Does your philosophy of life match the philosophy of Scripture? Remember again God's warning through St Paul: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

 

“Turn to ME,” God says to us because if we bow before today’s idols, we cannot be safe from an eternity in hell and the Lake of Fire.

 

I need to bring this message to a close, so let’s move on in that 22^nd verse of Isaiah 45. “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth.” That last clause comprehensively declares that there is no person on this planet, no people-group, no language, no nationality, no creed, to whom this message of salvation is not offered.

 

Please listen: God does not vindictively say “Turn to me or I’ll throw you into hell.” Rather, our merciful God and Creator says, “You’re already on the broad way to hell. But My mercy and grace plead with you, ‘Turn to Me’ and I will save you from that future.”

 

And now this final word – which is a critically important word in this age of intangible idols such as possessions and power and science and philosophies and religion: We turn to God because – as He proclaims throughout earth and throughout the heavens – “For I am God, and there is no other.

 

I recently learned a Latin phrase, “memento mori.” It means, “Remember that you will die.”  I suspect the person who coined that Latin phrase knew the passage in Hebrews 9:27 – “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment.”

 

Time is short for everyone in this sanctuary. You know how many of your family and friends passed into eternity during the 12 months of 2024. And only the omniscient God knows how many in this very sanctuary and this very building will enter eternity in the next 12 months of 2025.

 

Please, I appeal to you: Don’t let anything or anyone seduce you from your devotion and obedience to Almighty God. Do not let today’s idols turn you from your only hope for eternal life. As Scripture again warns us:

 

“For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2:1-3a)

 

Do you hear God imploring us? “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.”

A Future and a Hope

Today is the first Sunday of 2025. I know I am not the first to say it, but may you have a blessed 2025 – you AND your families.

 

So, I want to start the new year with a message of hope and promise and assurance from God's word. The Lord of Creation, the Lord who is FATHER to all those – and only to those – who belong to Jesus through faith in His atonement for our sins – this same God said to Israel words that apply to you all of His children in 2025: “I know the plans that I have for you, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

 

As many of you know from our earlier Bible studies and sermons, the word translated from both the Hebrew and Greek as ‘hope’ means to have a ‘confident expectation’ for what God has promised.

 

I’ll repeat for emphasis what I just said: The Almighty God, the One who created you, who has the hairs of your head all numbered – He is the one who promises you and me a future in 2025 – and a hope.

 

Now, of course, what that future and that hope will look like for each of us individually, only this new year will tell. And we all should know by now a future and a hope DOES NOT necessarily mean health, wealth, and every answer to every one of our prayers.

 

But we have our FATHER’S assurance – His promise – that it will be a good year FROM HIS PERSPECTIVE. And doesn’t that need to be OUR perspective? Wouldn’t the trials of life be so much easier to cope with if we could see things as they really are and not how they seem to be from our limited point of view? Wouldn’t it be so much easier to cope with life’s trials if we trusted God when He tells us that He always causes ALL THINGS to work together for good to those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose? (see Romans 8:28)

 

So, here we are on the first Sunday of 2025. We’re all a year older than we were this time last year. Some of us are a bit sicker. Some are a bit lonelier. But as we face this year, I have some good news for all of us who seek to know and love the Lord better and better: God is in absolute control of nations, their leaders, and their citizens. For example, here is Proverbs 16:4, “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” And Psalm 115:3, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”

 

And there is yet more, God has full and comprehensive knowledge of all their ways and all their thoughts and all their plans even before they themselves are aware of their thoughts and plans. We find that truth revealed in Psalm 139 and elsewhere.

 

And there is yet more beside: Our Father always exercises utter control over what He will permit any of them to do. Listen a moment to Him speak to humanity – including you and me – through Solomon: (Proverbs 21:1) “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hands of the Lord. He turns it wherever He wishes.” And 2 Chronicles 20:6b “You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.”

And, oh, by the way, let us not ever forget this: Our Father God is also in complete control of your life, your circumstances, your situations – as He is in control of mine.

I love the example of God's limitless power and authority over the lives of even the evilest of national leaders as He speaks to the bloodthirsty Assyrian king, Sennacherib. He and his army were at Jerusalem’s gates, threatening to destroy the city and all who lived within it, and God tells him through the prophet:

(Isaiah 37:26-29) “Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should turn [foreign] fortified cities into ruinous heaps. “Therefore, their inhabitants were short of strength, they were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, as grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up. “But I know your sitting down and your going out and your coming in and your raging against Me. “Because of your raging against Me and because your arrogance has come up to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came.”

If you know your Bible history, that is precisely what happened. God intervened, killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers overnight, and Sennacherib crept home and was shortly thereafter murdered by his own sons.

Listen, my brothers and sisters in Christ – when God tells us He is bringing to us a future and a hope in 2025 – He’s not kidding. And NOTHING is able to stay His hand. Not politicians. Not criminals. Not Satan himself and all his demons.

Now again, I say – that future and hope might not look like a future and hope from OUR very limited perspective. But that’s not how faith works. Remember that text in Hebrews 11? “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  As many of you know, the chapter goes on to list the heroes of faith who simply believed what God had told them – even when they could not SEE those promises or understand how God could fulfill them – men and women like Abraham and Sarah; Like Moses and Rahab; Like Gideon and Barack and David and Samuel and the prophets.

Now, all that I have just said is really the preamble to what is the overarching point of this message on this January 5. So, let’s now move to 2 Corinthians chapters 4 and 5. Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthian Christians 2000 years ago, but because God's word transcends time and culture and race and people-groups – this word to the Corinthians is also a word to the Christians at Ashwood Meadows:

 

(2 Corinthians 4:7-10, 16-18) “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body . . . .Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Paul continues this thought into the next chapter – which, in the original letter Paul penned, was simply the next line:

(2 Corinthians 5:1-9) “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.

Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord,  for we walk by faith, not by sight, we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:1-9)

Let me now quickly parse this somewhat lengthy text: Though afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down – Paul and his companions did not lose heart. Why? He tells us throughout his several letters, such as this one to Timothy: “I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12b)

Did 2024 find you afflicted in body or spirit? Perplexed? Persecuted? But did not the Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God, also comfort you? Did He not bring you through it all? Of course, He did. You would not be here in this church service if He did not. And I would not be preaching this message to you if God had not brought me through what Nancy and I have been through.

And so, by faith, and with His boundless help, we do NOT lose heart – because we know whom we have believed, and we are persuaded, we are convinced that He bring to us a stronger faith who WANT to grow in our faith. We can expect Him to strengthen our trust who WANT to trust Him better. We can expect Him to strengthen our love for Him who WANT to love Him better. We can EXPECT 2025 will bring us a growing maturity through our experiences – ESPECIALLY what we might call bad experiences – as we continue to learn to trust our Father who loves us beyond all we could ever comprehend.

Let me pause a moment here and remind us: No one can ever say He doesn’t love us when we look at Calvary.

But now to move on through this passage in 2 Corinthians. Here is verse 16 of chapter 4: “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Please hear this: It doesn’t take much looking in the mirror to recognize we no longer look as we did when we were 21. And surely many of you know how much longer it takes to get dressed and ready to leave your apartments in the morning. But EVEN THOUGH our outer bodies are decaying, we have great reason for hope and confidence in the future that God has prepared for us in 2025.

OH! Think for a while later today when you have the time to be quiet with your God – think how while we can clearly see our body’s slow decay, think how your inner person, the REAL you is being renewed and strengthened day after day, week after week, and month after month as we seek a closer walk with our Savior.

No one looks forward to tests and hardships that come in life. But God tells us through this text that those tests and hardships are not even worth comparing to the glory that God is building and creating and molding in our spirits through them all.

For many here, 2024 was difficult. It was marked by loss, sadness, loneliness, worsening and chronic pain and so much more. But God would like us to look at 2025 through the lens of His promises, AND to trust Him that 2024 WAS fruitful for our SPIRITUAL growth – even if we cannot see it today.

PLEASE, we MUST remember that we do not walk by sight. We walk by faith. We do not look at things which can be seen, but at things which are unseen. As we saw earlier in Hebrews 11, “Faith is the substance of things not seen and the evidence of things hoped for.” One translation renders it: Faith is being sure about what we hope for, being convinced about things we do not see.” (EHV)

Remember what the Lord Jesus said to His Twelve – and of course, to you and me: “Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am. (John 14:1-3, EHV)

THAT is our inevitable future. THAT is our ultimate hope – our ‘confident expectation. Jesus is preparing a place for us who trust His sacrificial atonement for our sins. That means when my home is completed, He will bring me to it. That might happen in 2025. And when He is done with YOUR home, He will bring you to it as well. And that might happen in 2025.

(But frankly, I am listening for the Trumpet that announces the Rapture – but that’s a different subject and not for today’s message.)

So, back to the text in 2 Corinthians: “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:6-9)

Please, don’t gloss over that last verse: Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

If you were here last week, you heard me talk about the terrible and tragic loss we will inevitably experience if we do not repent of the time, talent, and treasure we’ve squandered in the past – and of what we continue to squander today. And only the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised would guide us into all truth – only the Holy Spirit can soften our hardened and selfish hearts so that we do, as Paul urged, that we have as our AMBITION to be pleasing to God.

Oh, on this first Sunday of 2025 may the Lord of our life change our lives so that we, in 2025, will daily have as our ambition to please Him with the fruitful use of His gifts to us of time, talent, and treasure.

We are on the cusp of a new year; One which will bring us closer to eternity and the home He is preparing for us. And whether 2025 is glorious from our perspective – or fraught with trials – this one thing is SURE: From God's perspective – and you can write this down in your Bibles – God knows the plans that He has for you, plans for your good and not for evil, to give a hope and a future.