Faithful Steps for Whats Ahead (Psalm 37)

Start your new year with hope and purpose! Pastor Chris Teien of Rockwell Church shares a powerful message from Psalm 37 about trusting God, delighting in His presence, and committing your way to Him. He discusses the need to delight in the Lord and commit to spiritual growth, culminating in a call to communion as a renewal for the new year. Reflect on the past year, embrace God's plans, and prepare your heart for 2025 with encouragement and communion. #Psalm37 #NewYearSermon #RockwellChurch218

Outline

Rockwell Church     Dec 29, 2024     Pastor Chris Teien
Faithful Steps for What’s Ahead (Psalm 37 & Hebrews 12)

#1 Trust in the Lord and be SECURE (Psalm 37:1-3)

#2 Delight in the Lord and He will PROVIDE (Psalm 37:4) 

#3 Commit Your Way to the Lord and Trust His TIMING (Psalm 37:5-9)

#4 Remove Every HINDRANCE (Hebrews 12:1) 

#5 Fix Your Eyes on Jesus and Move Forward with ENDURANCE (Hebrews 12:2-3)

Takeaways

• Prayer is essential for supporting missionaries and building the kingdom.
• Life's challenges can lead to new opportunities for growth.
• Trusting God is crucial during uncertain times.
• Delighting in the Lord aligns our desires with His will.
• Commitment to God leads to spiritual rewards and peace.
• Communion serves as a reminder of our commitment to Christ.
• Reflecting on the past year helps us set goals for the future.
• We should prioritize our relationship with God above all else.
• Temporary struggles can lead to eternal rewards.
• Engaging in community and service reflects our faith. 

Keywords: prayer, new year, trust in God, delight in the Lord, communion, faith, challenges, opportunities, spiritual growth, discipleship

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:00

Lord, I pray you'd bless this message. I pray you'd bless us as we uh think about the new year and delighting in you. So we commit this time to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Blessed are you who are downhearted, tired, and weary, and in need of something more. Blessed are you who have had a tough year or season, perhaps filled with ups and downs, sorrow and sadness, misery and mistakes. You are not alone. Blessed are you whose dreams have been interrupted, stomped on, or perhaps just taking too long. There is a new thing right around the corner. Blessed are you who don't know what to believe or why you are here today. But despite that, you keep pushing forward. Blessed are you who are walking through seasons of prosperity and joy. Celebration and hope for you have found something truly worthy of sharing. You see, sometimes life is just hard. But blessed are those who seek the Lord in the midst of that darkness. For there is hope, real tangible hope found in him. So today. Plans to prosper you. And not to harm you. May you walk in truth and light so that no matter where you go, you will have a light unto your path. May you find rest free from anxiety. And may his love, which is never ending, and his grace, which is never failing, follow you wherever you may go. For he has come to make all things new.

Chris T 1:58

I used to carry around a wirebound daytimer with me, and I'd write stuff down, and I'd plan my day, and I'd plan my week, and I'd use my pencil, and it felt pretty good to check those things off. Better than it does with my digital app. I think I use this thing called Tick Tick, but I just I push a little button and it's not the same as crossing it off with a pencil. But what was kind of cool about those daytimer books that I had, those little ones, is that you could look back over the year and look through and remember where you've been and what you did and what you accomplished, or maybe what you didn't accomplish. And I suppose I could run a report off of the app I have. But this, as we come to the end of the year, sometimes if we have a moment like we do today, we can think about what did we accomplish this year? Was it what we had hoped to accomplish? Are we in a better place than we were at the beginning of last year? Um, how's it going for you? And what could you do different? What would you want God to do in your life if you know you were totally in control of your schedule and your resources and you could plan this year? What are some things that you would want to do? What are some things that you would put on your list? Would you maybe read through the Bible in a year or maybe more than that? Maybe you would take some classes and grow in knowledge. There's so many free Bible college and seminary classes online now that you can try out. And you don't even have to take tests or write papers, but you can learn. There's just so many ways to learn. Maybe you want, like me, I should become more physically fit because everybody loves a fit pastor. So they're like, I think he might be around a long time. He's pretty fit. So, but then we keep having potluck, so it's all your fault. So you got a chili potluck. If you didn't bring anything, I think there's plenty for you. But uh potlucks, you know, we're supposed to fellowship, and somehow we determine fellowship means food. But as we go through the steps of our lives, as we look back, we see how there were troubles in time. I'm not sure exactly. I think it was March of 2020 that everything shut down for the churches, and then all of a sudden I our church didn't have a place to meet. And so then there was like over a year of not being able to actually, you know, gather for church in person, and uh that was crazy. And it seems like that was so long ago, but really it wasn't really that long ago. And so we have no idea, you know, what's gonna come in this year. So maybe good, maybe bad. I don't really know. So we have new political leadership, mysterious drones, extreme weather variations, financial challenges, viruses and health issues, like bird flu, I guess, is in the news, wars and rumors of wars, interesting possibilities that I've never never thought of before until I was watching the online news last last night and heard that uh our our president again, Trump, said, Hey, maybe we should buy Canada and turn it into the 51st state. And while we're at it, maybe we should get Greenland and the Panama Canal too. So I don't know. Maybe that's a good idea. You know, a majority of Canadians live on the border anyway. I mean, they all live like down south. So maybe that will be a thing. Maybe we will go from being on the top of the nation to being in the middle of the nation. Who knows? Um, I wonder will we all be affected as we try to get to church by the Highway 53 construction where they tear the entire highway apart and they reroute all the traffic, going for 53 to the hockey museum down the little frontage road, across the other road, uh, down by the cemetery, frontage road out here in front of our church with a temporary stoplight, and all of Highway 53 is gonna be going through that. And I have a feeling there's gonna be a lot of angry people. So, a lot of angry people that did not expect that. Well, they put a double roundabout up here by the car dealership and a J turn by the hockey museum, and as they tear up part of our church property for a frontage road, giving us a sidewalk from the uh Rock Ridge baseball field to our church, in which we're trying to tell, I'm trying to tell the state and the county and the city that you need to give us a document that says we are not responsible for removing the snow from that sidewalk just because you put it on our property. So far it's fallen on deaf ears, but still. And more than that, how will we glorify Jesus in 2025? So, how will we glorify Jesus with our lives in 2025? You know, it's not all 100% totally in your control, but parts of it are, parts of it are in the things that you choose to do, the things you choose not to do, the things that you prioritize, the goals that you set, the motivation for the goals that you set. I get really motivated by goals sometimes. So I go through periods of life where I'm super focused, and other times where I'm coasting. But actually, ministry is like that too. So you get all geared up for the pastor in the church, you know, fall is coming. So you spend the whole summer getting ready for fall, and then the fall program started and everything, and then you get to coast just a little bit, and then Thanksgiving comes, and then it's a press for Christmas and New Year's, then you get to coast for a little bit again, then Easter comes, and then you get to coast for a little bit, and then it's vacation Bible school. And so it's just always this roller coaster. And your life might be like that too, with seasons. So I think in you know, California and places where the weather is the same all the time, everybody just says, you know, every day is the same. It's not a big deal, we can always do it later. And here where we are, sometime around the middle or end of May, everybody's like, oh what? Wait, we can come out of hibernation now? And then everybody goes crazy doing like outdoor summery things and you know, enjoying everything before the end of September rolls around, and then we have to think about going back into hibernation again, and it's just a different flow. But what can you do during the dark season? What can you do during right now? It's actually not very cold, but when it's super cold, what can you do? What can you learn? Who can you get together with? How can you grow in your faith? What is it that you can do to further the kingdom of God? Because in the message, if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He'll give you the desires of our heart. If we delight ourselves in the Lord. So we're gonna be in Psalm 37, and then we're gonna have time for communion. And so we usually have communion on the first Sunday of the month, but being that there's five Sundays here in December and that we're right before the new year, I thought it'd be good to have communion today and not next week. But we'll still have benevolent fun Sunday next week. So that's how that will work. But okay, so in Psalm 37, we have a Psalm of David, and it talks about, you know, being guided, protected, and blessed in the midst of all of the craziness of your enemies, those people who are trying to get you. Do you ever feel like people are out to get you? Yeah, you're just paranoid. No, actually, I think that sometimes being a Christian, being a Christ follower, there actually are people that want to see you fall, that want to mock you, that Satan wants to do everything he can to pull you down. But in Psalm 37, a Psalm of David, if you read through the whole thing, it's more like a proverb than like a psalm. And so it says, Trust, take delight, and then it says, Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait for him to act. And it talks about the wicked and the wicked, and yeah, so he must have been going through some really difficult times. Some Bible scholars think that this was written by David when he was older, and he must have gotten some kind of sickness that kept him from doing his job as judge and king among the city gates. And so this is when his son Absalom maybe tried to take over and become the king of Israel, that maybe David wasn't unable to do it because he had some form of sickness or whatever. And then out of his life experience, he wrote this about trusting in the Lord and putting God first. And David would know in his life experience, he was the man after God's own heart who fell into sin. It took him a while to repent, but then he did, and then he came back to the Lord, serving him fully. But his home, his household, there was never peace in his household after that, which should be a reminder that when we choose to sin, that there might be more consequences for us and everybody around us. Often our private sins affect a lot more people than we realize. So beware of that. But first it says to trust in the Lord and be secure. Everybody wants to be secure, but I don't really know if there is any form of security anymore. Another thing that I had on my list was will Nippon buy U.S. steel? So that would be interesting. So it may be a great thing, it may be a terrible thing. Nobody knows. I worked for a Japanese company for a while years ago, and they were very good to us. But I don't really know what their intent is and how that affects the workers or the community. And so we don't know so many things. You know, we're not necessarily in charge of or in control of what the Chinese decide to do, what the North Koreans decide to do, the Iranians, the Russians. This is crazy. So, but we need to trust and walk daily, knowing that our future is secure in Christ. Our future is secure in Christ. So David starts out this Psalm 37, uh, verse 1 do not fret because of those who are evil, or be envious of those who do wrong. So people are afraid of those who are evil because they're afraid that they're gonna get pushed out of their jobs by these wicked, evil people. They're afraid that they might lose business, lose their livelihood, um, all of these things. Back then, too. David was surrounded by people, even when he was told he would be king, he still had to wait while Saul, who was king at the time, tried to kill him and went through all this hard stuff and envious of those who do wrong. You know, sometimes people who do wrong, they get ahead in life. Sometimes people who do wrong have really nice vehicles and live in big houses and seem like everything in their life is awesome. And the way that they got their resources, their wealth, and the things that they did was not honest, was not right, was evil and wrong, and they made their money that way. Sometimes I think that Satan wants to wants us to sell out and wants to know what our price is so that we too might be able to have a really good, fun, look like I got everything I ever wanted, kind of life, as long as I don't follow after God or do his will or live in his ways and follow after him. You know what happens to these people is they come to the end of their lives and they they had a bunch of good stuff, maybe, but they realize that from an eternal standpoint, if they had it to do over again, they would have made a different choice to make a sacrifice and to serve Jesus. So verse 2 for like the grass, they will soon wither. Like green plants, they will soon die away. So I mean we see that my lawn is brown, yours is probably brown now, too. It doesn't last very long. I went through all of that, you know. I fertilized. I I should aerate, but I haven't gone to that. My wife doesn't like what it does to the yard. It doesn't look good when I if I use the aerator thing that puts up, pulls up the plugs and makes it look like there's goose poop all over the yard. So, but anyway, so I fertilized and I had some good grass growing for a while, and then you know, now it's all brown, and I hope it comes back, and then I'll probably do it all again. But people's lives are temporary, people's riches and enjoyment are temporary. I don't know if you're gonna watch the Vikings and the Packers this afternoon, so I'm glad that the time of their game was bumped, but the big rival game, but those players have a short, most of them, most of them, unless you're like Favre, but most of them have a short career, a short time playing football. Their bodies can only handle it so much. There's always a younger guy that comes along that's bigger, faster, stronger. Everything's temporary. Everything's temporary except for what's eternal. And everybody's eternal. Everybody's gonna live someplace for all eternity, either separated from God or in the presence of the Lord. And I hope that since you're here, that you are looking forward to eternity with the Lord. So you may sacrifice some things today for a reward. And also maybe you'll hear Jesus say, good and uh well done, good and faithful servant. But just to know that hopefully you spend your time on this earth. I mean, you should enjoy creation and you should enjoy the God's God's blessing in your life and sunny days and beautiful snow to go skiing on or snowmobiling. You can enjoy it, it's all good. But your priority is to honor God and to serve God and to be willing to be used by Him, whatever He wants you to do. If He wants you to go talk to somebody about Jesus, if He wants you to serve, if He wants you to give, to provide for someone's need, uh, whatever it is, uh serving in ministry or serving in the community, whatever it is, to put God first to know that your life is temporary and you only get so much time, and that time gets divided by the foolishness of your youth and the feebleness of your really old age. But yet, verse 3 says, Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. So Jesus is the good shepherd, he's the provider, he is the protector and the guide. And so when David wrote this, he was probably remembering how God had promised that in the promised land in Canaan that the Israelites would have all that they needed. And so on the other side of that, we look forward to eternity in the presence of the Lord. We look forward to being with Jesus and Him, Jesus reigning on earth for a thousand years, renewing the land, uh, wherever Jesus is, that's that's heaven, but to know that we will be able to dwell with the land and enjoy safe pasture in a future context, and even today. Even today, the Lord can help us, even in the midst of craziness around us and crime and difficulty, to enjoy safety and to enjoy peace in the midst of difficulty. It doesn't take much to get you rattled and get you bothered by crime around you. Uh my wife is, we were blessed, so she always stayed at home with the kids. So she did some side jobs or, you know, childcare or whatever, but she was always able to stay at home with our kids. And we were living in this condo where there are like eight units in one building. And somehow these young kids moved down into one of the apartments by the mailbox, and they were selling drugs out of there, and it was real suspicious and difficult. And I don't think she wanted to go to the mailbox when those kids were around doing that. So fortunately, it didn't take very long for the police to figure it out. So one time I went to the laundry room area, there's a cop just in the laundry room, and he's like, shh, I'm like, okay, and so he was just waiting for them to, you know, do what they were gonna do so he could catch them. And uh it was taken care of. But just those little things steal your peace, steal your joy, steal your sense of security. And maybe if you're going through something like that, you can pray about it, you know, things you can do, security features, maybe God will give you an opportunity to move, but nonetheless, when we trust in the Lord and do good, we shouldn't have to worry as much about being unsafe, about difficulty. Because we reap what we sow often. Sometimes, again, it's not our fault. And you know, sometimes we need to we need to say something. You know, we all want to be good neighbors and not say anything. Uh, we're Christians, we don't want to bother anybody. But sometimes we need to say things. Sometimes we need to say things to keep ourselves safe or to keep the people safe. Because people do dumb things and and people get hurt. You hear about it in the news all the time. So not so long ago, a guy was target shooting in his yard, and uh he didn't think that his rifle, that the bullet traveled as far as it did. So he shot there was a road. It was quite a ways away, but there was a road and he ended up shooting somebody by accident. And uh when the police were trying to figure out who it was and stuff, he admitted it was him. But somebody should have said, hey, don't shoot in that direction. So you have no idea how full that far that bullet is gonna travel or what it could do to somebody. So if you see something that see something, say something, sometimes that's a good idea because sometimes people people don't have the life experience or the safety training or uh things or think like you do, but trust in the Lord and do good. Do you do good? Would people know you for doing good? Do you do certain things that you don't even know if anybody will realize that you did it? But you know that God saw you, you know that God sees what you do, and that you were trying to do something to make sure that people were safe. Like one time I was going along a road and I noticed this multi-tool in the road. Um, you know, the thing that's got like the knives and the pliers and everything, and so I stopped and I turned around and I picked it up because I was like, huh, if somebody were to hit that with a motorcycle at night or something like that, that might be bad. Uh picked up trash out of the road. So I've done that quite a few times, and sometimes you pay for it. I think I maybe shared before I was behind a dump truck who blew a tire. No, it's a cement truck that blew a tire, and there was just tire all over Highway 169. So I stopped and picked it up and put it in the back of my truck, and the guy thanked me. And so then I told him I was a Christian, and he said, Me too. I'm like, well, I might as well try to lead the dump truck guy, dump truck, dump truck guy to Christ. No, he's cement truck guy to Christ. And anyway, so I took it to the co-op and I'm like, hey, this guy blew a tire and I picked it up. Could you dispose of it for me? And the lady's like, yeah, but you'll have to pay the tire disposal fee. I'm like, wait, it's not my tire. I blew up on the side of the road and I picked it up so that nobody would get hurt. And she's like, as long as you pay the tire disposal fee. So I paid the tire disposal fee. But anyway, but the things that you do, sometimes when you do good, you do good because you're a Christ follower and Jesus sees everything you see and everything that you do, and he knows your heart motivation, and you do it because it's the right thing to do, even if the only person who sees it is the Lord. He'll give you the credit, he'll bless you for it. Number two, delight in the Lord and He will provide. This is one of my favorite verses, and I think that it is um a motivator, a filter. Uh, it's kind of like Matthew 6 33, putting Jesus seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness, and he'll provide everything you need. But it says, take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Take delight in the Lord. Do you delight in the Lord? Philippians 4.4 says, Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again, rejoice. So uh the Hebrew word for delight means to take exquisite delight or pleasure in something. So it suggests an intentional, wholehearted focus on enjoying something or someone. Here, delight indicates a conscious choice to find joy, satisfaction, and purpose in a relationship with God. It involves placing trust in Him and prioritizing Him above all else. So we delight in the Lord. It involves a mindset of gratitude, worship, and aligning one's desires with God's will. The desires of your heart then become the result of that alignment as God fulfills desires rooted in them. So it's not, oh, I should probably read through the Bible in a year. I should probably pray more, and you make yourself a list and you're like, Yeah, I've got to do that. And but it's not, it's not got to, it's get to. It's get to. It's I get to spend time in God's Word, and what will He show me today? You know, the More you read God's Word, the more that you realize the things that you didn't see before, things that you didn't know before. The Word of God is living and active. So if you decide to go through a Bible reading plan, there's actually a New Testament and a Year plan in the back of this How to Find God New Testament. But there's different ways you can do it, and there are so many different reading schedules. So if you use the UVersion, Bible.com Bible app, you can go through many different reading plans and you can actually, if you're using your digit your phone or digital device or whatever, you can actually hear it and read it at the same time. Or sometimes or you take your paper, paper, Bible, and you can read it out loud. What you want to do is you want to try to avoid being distracted or having your mind wander. So I went through the Bible any year last year, and I did it really fast. So I'm not, I think I was done like in April. So I'm gonna do the Bible any year again. I think I'm gonna try a different plan. So that one was just uh a breeze through, but nonetheless, find something as a goal. Choose that goal, prepare yourself with a check sheet or uh sign up for the Bible reading plan or whatever. Tell somebody that you're gonna do this plan, let them hold you accountable, and maybe find a way to reward yourself. Maybe say, okay, if I read through the Bible in a year, then I'm gonna reward myself with maybe you want to pray about it too, but uh maybe that that fishing trip or that whatever the thing is that you want. So I've noticed over the years I've been so motivated for such silly things like the old fitness place where I used to live. If you went, I'm not sure what it was, if you went 12 times or something like that a month, you got $20. So I'd be like doing everything I could to make sure I got there for my 12 times so I could save that 20 bucks, though I was blowing 20 bucks worthlessly on all these other things. So, but for some reason I just had to make sure that I got it done. And then people were cheating, the wicked ones were cheating. I literally saw this car pull up, this little girl gets out with her mother or father's card, runs to the door, scans it, and then runs back in the car. I'm like, that is cheating. So that's so wrong. But nonetheless, to delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. So you trust God in difficult times and you worship him in the time that you you have. Maybe you're in the car, or maybe you're walking along and you're you're thanking God, you're praying about the things that concern you, the things that you would like to see, your hopes and dreams. You're talking about that with the Lord. Prayer is talking to God. Uh, you are showing love for others. You're looking for an opportunity to train people up in the Lord to disciple them. Maybe you're out enjoying creation, enjoying all that. The bike trails that we have along here amazes me that they literally blew out the rock for a bike trail that's over by Bawabik or something like that. I took a picture, but it's like they literally blew out this rock so that this bike trail could go through here. That had to be expensive, but it's just beautiful and it's a really nice trail. But to enjoy God, to worship him. When you come to church, you show God he matters. If the Packers game, the Packers and Vikings game would have been at noon and you came to church, you're showing that you're prioritizing God and probably praying for your team. So maybe taking time out to spend time with the Lord, celebrating all the moments that you get, maybe at Christmas time when the family was gathered around. You looked around the room and you thought about, you know, your life 20, 30 years ago, and now it was just you and your wife, and now you look and you got kids and grandkids and in-law kids, and you know, there's just people everywhere. And it was a result of God blessing you and your family. What a great thing. Delight yourself in the Lord. The desires, the desires of your heart should be in tune with God's desires. As you spend time with the Lord, you will experience that, and that is a good thing. Number three, commit your way to the Lord and trust his timing. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will do this. He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath. Do not fret, it only leads to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. And that is a good thing. Uh the land, again, is for us focusing on being with Jesus for all eternity. Uh, we're going to come to communion now, and I want to share two verses out of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 12. So you remember the Hebrews chapter 12 comes right after Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11 is the catalog of the heroes of the faith. So they were the faithful people that didn't even realize all of their reward and didn't even realize or experience all of the good things that God had for them in their lifetime, but they knew it was coming. And we need to remove every hindrance that keeps us from delighting ourselves in the Lord. Therefore, since we're surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. You know, your race and my race might be a little different, but we're all supposed to be living for and serving Jesus. So God has given me the burden and blessing of being a pastor of a church, and that is awesome. So, but not everybody has that burden and blessing. That's more blessing with you people than burden. Make that clear. But nonetheless, bloom where God has planted you. Look around and see what God has given you and the resources and the skills and the time and the people and what you can do to serve and delight yourself in the Lord. And then if we're running a race, what is it that's slowing us down? Um, you know, what hobbies is it, or what what things are keeping us? And as we do that, we fix our eyes on Jesus and move forward in endurance. We fix our eyes on Jesus. So that is our goal is to have Jesus pleased, and as he's pleased, he'll bless us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people, and then you won't become weary and give up. So we come to communion, and as we think about communion, we don't want to just go, oh, crackers and Jews time, but we want to think about it in a worthy manner, manner. In 1 Corinthians 11, 27 to 29, it says, Whoever, I won't read the whole verse, but whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. So everyone ought to examine themselves. So what's worthy? Worthy is realizing that this is something that Jesus wants us to do, that the Lord's Supper, the communion time, is a holy remembrance of Jesus and what he's done. And we should remember that it's a serious thing. And two, it is for those people who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, those people who have been born again, those people who are saved. Um, so and some say that you may be somewhat unworthy if there's unconfessed sin in your life. But I think that you could just confess that sin right before you took communion. But you know the familiar communion passage I received from the Lord, what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. Lord, I thank you that we are able to come here and to remember you at this communion time at the beginning of 2025. And I pray that you would bring to mind any sin that needs to be confessed. I pray that you would motivate the people here and show them some things that they should focus on in this new year and that they would recommit their lives to you, and then uh praise you and thank you for what you've done in the past and what you're gonna do in the future. Jesus, we thank you. Amen. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna let this song play for like three and a half minutes, and during that time, you can take the bread and the juice, the cup, and so sometime during that time you can take it when you feel ready. But it's a great time in prayer to confess any known sin. It's a great time to recommit your life to Christ. It's a great time to praise him and thank you. So thank him. So we'll let this play. For whenever you eat this bread and you drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. And that's what we're to be doing. We're supposed to be proclaiming Jesus, knowing that someday, anytime, he's gonna return. And then everything's gonna change. And for those Christ followers, it's gonna change for the good. So if you've never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, we're gonna be around for lunch. So come tap me on the shoulder and ask me any questions you have, and let me give you one of those How to Find God New Testaments and show you how it works. But we're gonna start a series next week for four weeks on Chase, what matters most on discipleship and the priorities in our life. The worship team's gonna head up here and we're gonna sing Trust and Obey. But uh I'm excited for the new year. So I'm excited for us to do more, to reach out, to grow deeper, and to make a bigger impact on the range and all those around for God's glory. And I hope that when we come to the end of 2025, we look back and we're just in astonishment and amazement of what God has done in this new year.