WEBVTT 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:03.520 Hi, I'm Patrick Seymars. 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:05.360 I come from Fellowship Church. 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:08.000 I'm an elder at Fellowship Church in Hooksit. 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:11.599 We meet in the uh Town Hall Gymnasium. 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:13.119 Uh we're a church plant. 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:16.640 Pastor Aaron's been around since 2021. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:18.480 We're about three years old. 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.039 And uh it's just been a privilege. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:22.399 I'm a seminary student. 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:31.440 I'm going to Midwestern Seminary, uh, which is an SBC seminary, and uh I get the privilege of coming and sharing the message with you all. 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:33.600 Uh, and I'm grateful to be here. 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:34.719 Thank you. 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:36.000 Yeah. 00:00:36.320 --> 00:00:39.119 So uh I'm originally from Colorado. 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:43.039 My wife, Michelle, in the back, is from Hook Set. 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:49.679 Uh, she actually went to Valley School where we meet now in church, which is a really cool experience for her to be able to come. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:54.159 We meet in the gymnasium where they play dodgeball and foursquare and all those kinds of things. 00:00:54.320 --> 00:00:56.320 Um, we we meet in the upper room sometimes. 00:00:56.479 --> 00:00:58.079 I think that was her art classroom. 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:01.200 So it's cool to come full circle uh all the way back. 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:02.560 But I'm from Colorado. 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:06.959 I didn't know anything about New Hampshire uh before before I met her. 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:10.480 The only thing I did know was the motto, live free or die. 00:01:10.719 --> 00:01:17.920 Uh that's about anything that anybody knows uh when I tell them I'm from or that I live in New Hampshire now is the motto live free or die. 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:23.680 Uh so I did a little research and I learned about where it came from and what it really means. 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:33.120 So I learned that uh live free or die originated in 1809 uh from the Revolutionary War hero General John Stark, who was from New Hampshire. 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:37.280 Uh he sent a letter uh containing the toast, live free or die. 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:39.920 Death is not the worst of all evils. 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:46.400 Stark's words captured the revolutionary conviction that tyranny is worse than death itself. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:49.040 And this wasn't merely rhetoric for him. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:59.280 He had proven his commitment to liberty uh through the throughout the entire war, enduring hardship and leading troops in critical battles for American independence. 00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:09.039 Today, the motto symbolizes New Hampshire's libertarian political mystique, low taxes, minimal regulation, and a fierce independence. 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:15.759 It invokes to uh it invokes an economic freedom, uh minimal government, and personal autonomy. 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:24.000 The motto has transcended its revolutionary origins to become a broader cultural symbol of American individualism. 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:34.000 It uh symbolizes self-reliance and resistance to overreach, whether it's from the government or from corporations or from social pressure. 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:37.680 Personally, I had some reservations about it. 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:44.240 Uh I was viewing, I viewed it as an anti-gospel message of over-reliance on self and a rejection of being told what to do. 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:46.879 Uh, I certainly can relate to that. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:52.879 I certainly know that when I lived by those kinds of mottos, that's when I was living mostly in sin. 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:58.240 So I was a little reserved in coming to a state where that's where uh we live by. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:03.439 Um certainly live free or die is the absolute spirit of the state. 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:09.520 Don't tell me what the what to do is the chorus that rings between the verses of everyday life here. 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:20.560 Uh, from not wearing seat belts in your cars to motorcycles so loud that you need a doctor's appointment after they drive past, you can see that live for your die courses through the veins of New Hampshire. 00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:24.639 And in many echo, and in many respects, it echoes the same mantra of the book of Judges. 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:27.759 Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:35.919 However, once we moved here, and I began, I started to chew on this phrase more and more, I began to see the gospel hidden within it. 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:47.039 That if we truly believe what this phrase is saying and see it through Christ-colored glasses, we could live in a much greater freedom than this phrase originally meant. 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:49.039 Let me show you what I mean. 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:55.199 Today we're going to read through Deuteronomy 30, chapter uh chapter 30, verses 15 through 20. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:04:03.680 So if you if you have a Bible with you, uh, or you've if you've used one of those phone apps, uh turn to Deuteronomy chapter 30. 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:06.560 It's the last five verses of the chapter. 00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:11.439 And if you uh if you are able, please stand as we read the word of God. 00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:17.120 Chap uh verse 15. 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:23.920 See, I've set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity. 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:38.319 And what I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes, and his judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:48.879 But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:53.839 You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter it and possess it. 00:04:54.079 --> 00:05:02.879 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. 00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:23.360 So choose life, in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice, and by holding fast to him, for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, to give them. 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:25.920 Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word. 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:32.879 God, we thank you that you draw us near to you, that you give us the word that we can learn from. 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:37.360 God, let us uh open our eyes and ears to see what you have for us today. 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:41.920 May your words course through my mouth, come through my mouth rather than my own words. 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:47.439 Lord, we call your Holy Spirit to open eyes and ears to receive the lessons for today. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:48.160 We love you. 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:48.639 We thank you. 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:49.600 In your name we pray. 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:50.240 Amen. 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:52.959 Please have a seat. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:57.439 I'm gonna set a little timer here really quick just so I don't go too far. 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:02.560 I have a tendency to get really excited and I don't want to go too long. 00:06:03.920 --> 00:06:06.160 In this passage, we see a crossroad. 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:07.439 We see a choice. 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:13.920 We see life or death, prosperity or adversity, good or evil. 00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:22.319 Earlier in the chapter, Moses foretells of Israel's continued unfaithfulness after they take up residence in the promised land. 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:28.240 If you're familiar, Deuteronomy is the final book of the first books of the Bible called the Pentateuch. 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:30.959 This is Moses' final song. 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:36.720 Uh this is Moses commissioning Joshua to take Israel into the promised land. 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:39.519 Moses himself doesn't get to go to the promised land. 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:45.279 Israel has been wandering around for forty years because of their unfaithfulness and lack of trust in God. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:52.720 He tells them that they will be cast out of the land and scattered because of the disobedience and worship of other gods. 00:06:52.959 --> 00:06:57.839 He also reassures them that God will be faithful to them and restore them back to himself. 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:06.720 While there will be pain caused by their own rebellion, there will be hope in God's faithfulness to keep his covenant and care for his people. 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:14.560 All this came to pass centuries later, when Israel was dispersed by the Assyrians and Judah was captured and lived in Babylonian exile. 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:26.879 And we can see this passage in this passage that Moses is imploring Israel to choose now, this day, to choose life and death, rather than to fall into the traps of Satan and death. 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:34.160 This is Moses saying to the Israelites, live free in the covenant of God or die. 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:46.240 So while Moses is speaking to Israel directly in this passage, we can also apply its principles to ourselves as it applied to us as it is applied to us through Jesus. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:52.000 God, by his good grace, gives us a choice, and we get to exercise our free will. 00:07:52.240 --> 00:08:00.160 No matter what we do, no matter what we do, we are actively choosing God or something else. 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:03.759 There is no neutrality in anything we do. 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:06.480 Even doing nothing is a choice. 00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:09.360 A choice that can either lead to life or death. 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:10.800 It's really that simple. 00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:13.600 There is no middle ground with God. 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:16.160 There is no fence to sit on. 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:19.279 That fence is owned by Satan. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:22.560 Every moment is a moment of decision. 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:26.560 To choose life in Christ or death, every temptation is a choice. 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:34.000 Every unanswered phone call, every hateful word under uttered under our breath, every extended gaze is a choice. 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:39.679 So what is choosing life or death, to live free or die according to God look like? 00:08:40.240 --> 00:08:42.720 Well, let's look at verse 16. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:57.440 I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you. 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:01.919 We all know what it's like to hold a child's hand in the parking lot. 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:05.600 They may not want to hold on, but you know the dangers. 00:09:05.759 --> 00:09:09.039 You know what can happen if they let go and run on their own. 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:11.679 They must obey so that they can keep their life. 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:14.159 We know what's best in this situation. 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:18.080 Well, God knows what's best in all situations. 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:25.519 And he is so gracious of Father that he instructs us and encourages us to follow his instructions. 00:09:25.759 --> 00:09:29.600 He offers the path to life, if only we would follow him. 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:37.600 We can learn to love the path that God sets before us through obedience to the bound to the boundaries that he has set around us. 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:40.799 And it is only through Christ that we are able to do so. 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:46.080 Jesus Himself tells us that we must obey to find life. 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:56.159 In John 15, he says, 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. 00:09:56.399 --> 00:10:00.879 Jesus is equating obedience to abiding in the love of God. 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:04.559 God is love, and God loves you. 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:07.039 Therefore, we do what he tells us. 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:11.840 We do what is good and right in his eyes. 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:15.600 We must take up our crosses and follow Jesus. 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:22.000 He was just as much about obedience for his followers in the New Testament as was required in the Old Testament. 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:24.240 Jesus is our model of obedience. 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:31.440 He died so that we may be removed from the curse of sin, but not from the blessings of obedience. 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:35.279 He did not abolish the law, but he fulfilled it. 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:51.039 While we're no longer under the law as a binding covenant, as we now stand under the covenant of grace, we can now rightly see the law as a guide for godly living and strive to align with that as a gift from God. 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:55.679 This means that we come to Christ when we are falling short. 00:10:56.480 --> 00:11:12.960 Not that it is only through him that we can be free from the frustrating hypocrisy that Paul describes in Romans 7, where he says, For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want to do. 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:16.720 We may want to obey, but we struggle to do so. 00:11:16.799 --> 00:11:20.879 And it's only through him, Christ, that we have any hope. 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:27.679 To be sure, though, this obedience, it's not a transactional obedience. 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:34.000 It's not a transactional obedience of works for our salvation, but rather the fruit of a faith-filled life. 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:40.480 One that is compelled by a heartfelt service of gratitude, and not by a self-serving religious ceremony. 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:52.480 It is by grace alone, through faith alone, and by Christ alone that we are saved, but this salvation must bear some fruit, beyond mere agreement with doctrine and religious makeup. 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:59.519 So I ask, what is your response when you hear and when you think about obedience to God? 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:07.679 Do you see it as a blessing and a hope-filled, holy roadmap to a fruitful life here on earth and lasting forevermore? 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:11.759 Or do you look at it as a checklist or even a burden? 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:21.519 When does our worldly live, free, or die spirit build up a wall and cause us to believe that we are the ones to choose what is good and life-giving? 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:37.360 I remember when Christ saved me about six years ago, after wandering the wilderness of sin in spiritual samplings from Buddhism to New Age nature worship, I lived in Boulder, Colorado, very uh kind of hippie kind of place. 00:12:37.519 --> 00:12:38.639 Uh I went on hikes. 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:43.200 That that was my that was my church Sunday mornings, hikes and yoga. 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:53.200 Uh but what I find and when I finally surrendered to Christ, gave it all to him, I felt a real weight lifted off of my shoulders. 00:12:53.360 --> 00:13:01.679 I felt a new life, a relief that I no longer had to determine my life on my own anymore. 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:05.440 I finally felt like I was on solid ground. 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:16.240 I ask, are we selectively obeying some of what God asks us of us rather than allowing Christ to be Lord of our whole lives? 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:23.440 When are you holding back from God rather than holding rather than holding tightly to Him? 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:31.120 The great Christian paradox is that true freedom is found in complete surrender. 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:51.279 For a Christian to live free means that we live free from that which separates us from God, allowing Jesus to remove the yoke of slavery to sin from our necks, and instead placing upon us his yoke, easy and light, a yoke that leads to life and true freedom. 00:13:51.600 --> 00:14:00.399 The life we are offered is a life of peace with God, a life that aims at holiness, set apart from the chaos and the emptiness of worldly pursuits. 00:14:00.559 --> 00:14:13.279 It's a life given to us as a gift and removes the curse from our hearts, replacing the heart of stone with the heart of flesh, a heart turned toward Him, and not steeped in this world. 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:20.080 As the late Tim Keller tells us, obedience to the law is liberating. 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:24.960 We must freely choose it, and then in turn it frees us. 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:30.000 The ultimate bondage is rebellion against the God who has made us. 00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:42.080 The despotic master is not Caesar, but shameful self-centeredness, an evil and enslaving devotion to created things at the expense of worship of the Creator. 00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:47.519 To live free is to live in submission and obedience to God. 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:50.399 Which leads me to the next point of this passage. 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:52.559 What does it mean to die? 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:56.559 Let's turn to chat to verses 17 and 18. 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:09.679 If your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, you shall surely perish. 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:16.799 Turning from God and worshiping others is not a simple and spontaneous act. 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:26.240 You see the progression, your heart turns, then obedience goes, then you're drawn away, and begin to worship and serve other gods. 00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:29.360 I heard earlier this morning the question well, what are the other gods? 00:15:29.519 --> 00:15:33.840 We know for certain there is only one God in three persons. 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:36.000 We know Father, Son, Holy Spirit. 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:44.799 But the other gods, what God is talking about here, the first commandment, have no other gods before me isn't acknowledging that there are other gods that are worthy of worship. 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:48.320 It's acknowledging that we create gods ourselves. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:51.519 We create gods in our own image a lot of times. 00:15:51.679 --> 00:16:02.639 We do that when we take the words of God and distort them and make them fit our own pet uh affections, the things that we love most dearly. 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:05.279 That's making a God in our own image. 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:08.960 We look at money as a God, as the thing that will save us. 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:12.639 We look at politics as a God, is the thing that will save us. 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:18.960 God is saying here, don't turn your hearts to those things, turn them to me. 00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:27.919 When we begin to worship and serve other gods, this is the path to apostasy, turning away from God. 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:29.840 This is the path to destruction. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.159 We begin to fill our minds with things that are not from God, and the rest follows. 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:38.879 It starts with the mind, the heart and the mind, and it goes through everything else. 00:16:39.039 --> 00:16:41.919 Satan is clever and subtle. 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:51.919 He worms his way into every aspect, doing just enough to knock us off our course, so as not to be able to discern that, uh discern that we've been knocked off our course. 00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:54.240 It's subtle and it's alluring. 00:16:54.480 --> 00:17:00.720 What we think brings us freedom actually adds chains to our hands and feet that we can never remove on our own accord. 00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:04.720 If you've ever overcome addiction, you know what this is like. 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:18.319 Addiction to anything, drugs, alcohol, junk food, pride, work, our phones, whatever it is, it causes us to view the thing that we're hooked on as the thing that brings us life. 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:38.880 It takes everything we have to rewire our brains and our hearts to recognize that we what we see as life-giving is actually bringing us closer to death, that we've become slaves to it, and then turn away from it, and then we must turn away from it and choose true life. 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:42.960 Jesus is who breaks these chains for us. 00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:56.240 He shatters the shackles so that we may be free and enables us by the Holy Spirit to walk out of the graves of our false living and into the pastures along the streams of living water. 00:17:56.559 --> 00:17:57.920 So let's look at ourselves. 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:02.960 What do we turn to that we perceive to gives perceive to give us freedom? 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:08.240 What in our lives do we believe allow us to maintain the greatest sense of ourselves? 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:18.400 What things that the world around us tells us are good and right, but are contrary to God's desires, and that we allow to remain in our hearts? 00:18:20.319 --> 00:18:25.359 What do we allow to take us away from the path of life and draw us into the paths of darkness? 00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:28.480 What are your idols or your other gods in your life? 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:29.839 Is it money? 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:31.519 Is it family? 00:18:31.839 --> 00:18:33.200 Is it your hobbies? 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:34.960 Is it politics? 00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:36.640 Is it the news? 00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:41.440 How much of these things occupy your thoughts and concerns and time? 00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:45.519 I know for me my idols are comfort and distraction. 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:47.519 YouTube and cookies. 00:18:48.079 --> 00:18:52.640 These are my these are my idols. 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:55.839 What are the things that you lust after? 00:18:56.079 --> 00:18:57.440 Is it a bigger home? 00:18:57.680 --> 00:18:59.039 Is it a new car? 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:01.200 Is it your friend's wife? 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:03.759 What causes you to rage? 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:07.359 Where do you feel like you can't back down? 00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:10.640 What can you not let go of? 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:15.200 These are all things that begin to creep in our hearts and draw us away. 00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:22.160 These things that may promise us happiness, but rob us of life, like a bag of Cheetos when we're hungry. 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:29.359 When John Calvin writes that the human uh John Calvin, he writes that the human heart is an idol factory, and he's right. 00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:32.640 Just consider the last 20 minutes sitting here in church. 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:34.880 Where has your mind gone? 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:40.000 I'd venture to guess that wherever your thoughts went, there you'll find your idol. 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:50.880 We may think that our compromises we may think that our compromises are minor and negligible, and we can rest on the grace that we've been given. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:55.200 But the enemy isn't looking for grand sweeping actions to draw us away from God. 00:19:55.359 --> 00:19:56.720 He's too clever for that. 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:17.279 God is calling you to. 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:22.720 So, what do we do about this? 00:20:23.839 --> 00:20:27.039 How do we live free or die in Christ? 00:20:27.839 --> 00:20:29.759 We can look at verse 20. 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:39.519 By loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice, and by holding fast to him, for this is your life and the length of your days. 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:46.240 Moses' bookends this entire passage with love, obedience, and blessing. 00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:54.079 We love God, we obey his voice, and we hold fast to him, for he is our life and length of days. 00:20:54.880 --> 00:20:56.799 Christ offers this to us. 00:20:57.119 --> 00:20:59.920 He is the way, the truth, and the life. 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:01.200 We look to him. 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:10.720 We surrender our whole lives to him, loving him with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:19.519 We must love God fully, completely, and trust him above all else. 00:21:19.759 --> 00:21:22.400 We must pursue him above all else. 00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:26.480 This year, we're we're closing out this year. 00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:30.960 We're just a couple days away from New Year's, and a lot of people make new New Year's resolutions. 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:40.319 I'll say the best New Year's resolution you could do, just read your Bible more daily. 00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:42.799 Resolve to do that. 00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:48.400 Be in fellowship with other believers who are pursuing God often. 00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:50.640 Do that more than just Sundays. 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:55.359 Look for all that God has done in your life. 00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:59.680 Receive his blessings and recognize the blessings he's already bestowed upon you. 00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:05.200 And be on guard for anything that threatens to disrupt your communion with God. 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:11.039 When we do this, the choice is made really easy. 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:13.920 By choosing God, you're choosing life. 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:20.720 By surrendering to him, you're choosing to live free and choosing to die to yourself. 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:23.039 So let us pray. 00:22:29.759 --> 00:22:34.240 God, we thank you that your presence is what brings us life. 00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:44.160 God, that your obedience to your good laws and your good commandments and your uh guidance is what truly brings us life. 00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:51.200 God, we thank you that you love us so much that you came down to live with us. 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:58.480 God, that you came to free us from the shackles of sin. 00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:05.839 God, by your perfect life and your undeserving death and your glorious resurrection. 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:25.839 God, and Jesus, you have made a cosmic separation between the curtains of religiosity that separated us from you and your good graces. 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:36.319 God, we come to you humbly, surrendering ourselves to you, knowing that it is only in you that we can have life and that anything else will bring us death. 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:39.920 Lord, help us truly live free in you. 00:23:43.599 --> 00:23:45.200 God, we thank you. 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:47.119 We surrender to you. 00:23:47.279 --> 00:23:48.480 We lift this all up to you. 00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:49.680 In your name we pray. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:50.640 Amen.