Reflections on the Old; Rejoicing in the New - January 4th, 2026

Happy New Year. We're going to be reading through, we're taking a little bit of a pause in our study through Nahum, and we're going to go through just a couple of topical sermons over the next several weeks. But if you guys can stand again to your feet with me, and I want to read just four verses from Nehemiah 8, although we're going to cover 12 of them. So this is the reading of God's word. The Nehemiah, who was a governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who provided the people with understanding, said to all the people, this day is holy to Yahweh your God. Do not mourn or weep. For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. And then he said to them, Go eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, send portions to him who has nothing prepared.

For this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength. So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, Be still, for the day is holy, do not be grieved. Then all the people went away to drink or to eat to drink to send portions and to celebrate with great gladness, because they understood the words which had been made known to them. Let us pray together. Father, this morning, we gather together to bring you worship. We confess that we are not gathered first and foremost to feel good or to glean for ourselves, but you are the audience. And we know, Lord God, that when your name is lifted up and you are magnified, and you are put in your rightful place in our hearts and in our church, we are showered with joy.

And so I pray that you would fill this room and fill our hearts with gratitude and with joy and with a great zeal and a great hope for your kingdom. So we pray for your help to understand clearly and to apply appropriately all the things that you feed us with this morning. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take your seats. Well, this is the first Sunday of 2026. And I'd like to start the new year by thinking through a couple of questions together. Okay, and you don't have to answer out loud, but was 2025 a good year? And just take a little time to think, huh? Why are I not? So I'm gonna put it in other words. Was 2025 a year of God's favor and grace? Or was it just like any other year?

And what would make 2026 a good year? What would make it a blessed year? These are not unimportant questions, and it's imperative that we think through them, especially if you're older. You've been through many of these happy New Year's, and so you're thinking, eh, we do this every year. But this is not an unimportant question. The Lord gifts us with changes of seasons to mark milestones and to reflect and to celebrate. And as it says in Psalm 90, verse 12, it's a healthy thing and a wise thing to number and to mark our days. So here's a question again. Was 2025 a good year? And what would make 2026 a good year? There's a famous Scottish poem and a song called Old Lang Sign, which I'm sure you're all familiar with.

You may not have sung the lyrics, but I'm pretty sure at some point you've heard the song and you know the melody. And you've heard it played on the radio this week, perhaps. It's usually sung on New Year's Eve, and the lyrics go like this, right? Should old acquaintance be forgotten and never brought to mind. Should old acquaintance be forgot in the days of old Lang sign. The Lang and the last line reads, or sings, we'll drink a cup of kindness yet for the sake of old Lang. Sign sounds familiar, okay. Old A-U-L-D, Lang sign is Scottish for old long since. And it's better understood by us as for old time's sake. And it was originally sung to mark farewells and goodbyes with like a cup of kindness.

It was sung at funerals and graduations. It was a song of transitions that promised to cherish forever the friendships and the memories that were being left behind. It's very romantic, it's idealistic, it's nostalgic. And it's a pledge to look back on the past with fondness. Unfortunately, in many ways, this cherishing of the past is actually incompatible with our Christian faith. It is unwise to look on with any fondness the memories of our past. We are never called to look back to slavery in Egypt or to vice in Sodom and Gomorrah with any longing, nor are we to remember with longing the days when we were spiritual infants, feeding only on milk. So for Christians to look at the past and to remember the past is to look at and remember a time when we were less Christ-like and more worldly and more sinful and more hostile towards the things of God.

So though non-Christians may look back on their past with longings and with nostalgia, the Christian cannot and must not for too long. Okay? So here's a sobering thought. If you feel like you were more Christian at some point in your past, it is likely you were never a Christian. And you may still remain unregenerate. So if a person holds to the thought that they were more Christian in his younger years, he is actually espousing a theological impossibility. A Christian may feel the weight of his sins more acutely as years go by, but he will not and cannot become less Christian. So for the saints of God, the natural result of looking backward into the past usually will evoke a lot of regret, shame, and tons of pain.

There are many things about the past that I'm sure you and I would like to forget, right? So thinking objectively and truthfully about the past will only evoke memories of enslavement, of failure, of mistake, and shame. Personally, I don't like to look back on my high school or even my college memories because many of them are painful. And much of that pain was my own doing. As I mature, I look at all the horrors of my past, and I realize I was not so much the victim. I was very much the transgressor. And much of my shame was a result of my own folly and selfishness. And my past is so full of injurious sin and rebellion, and I was not an upright person as a non-Christian. And so there was nothing honorable or good about my life before Christ.

And even after meeting Christ, much of the residue of the sin of my old self, it still remains in my flesh. And so there are plenty of things that I'd like to forget about my first three years of pastoral ministry. This is year 26. Okay. And I've made plenty of damaging mistakes in my early days of ministry, and thinking through some of the things that I've preached or some of the decisions that I made as a pastor makes me cringe. So for most of us, the past is filled with things that we would like to forget. Amen. There's a lot of stuff that happened or that you've done that you'd like to forget. The Christian reality, in the Christian reality, genuine believers will not want to remember old laying sign.

The biblical call to the Christian is to forget backward and to obsess forward. Repeat after me. Forget backward. Obsess forward. You are called to this. It is supposed to be the mindset of every Christian, no exceptions. Every saint of God will eventually be recalibrated to this upward call to forget backwards and to obsess forward. And Philippians 3 3 to 5 13 to 15 reads, can you click this for me? Brothers, I do not consider myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way.

And if in anything you think differently, God will reveal that to you also. Also reveal that to you. Did you catch that last part? We will all one day land on this same conclusion. The Holy Spirit of God will reveal this upward call to every Christian, even if at the present the Christian struggles with his past. Those who have been perfected in Christ think this way. The culmination of the Christian thought process is to forget backward and to obsess forward.

And in the event we've sinned deeply or injured someone because of our sins, we can't or shouldn't just move on quickly or sweep things under the rug. We're never supposed to tell somebody else, hey, obsess forward, right? Don't especially if you've wronged them. But we are never called to wallow. And the call here through Paul's testimony is that those who have been saved by grace are to press forward and upward, regardless of how haunting the things of the past may be. So the testimony is the old has gone, the new has come, and that's the Christian reality. Right. So goodbye 2025. Forget 20, forget 2025, strive for a blessed and more Christ word 2026. And we're going to be looking at an event in Nehemiah 8 for this morning.

In Nehemiah 8, we find that like the spiritual calendar for the Jewish people had a page flipped. A new chapter had begun for this people. And in Nehemiah 8, it was a set, it was like a setting of a new year celebration of sorts. The old had gone, the new now lay ahead. And the entire community of the Jewish people were gathered there. So here's the setting. Nehemiah 8:1. And all the people gathered as one man at the square, which was in front of the water gate, and they said to Ezra the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses, which Yahweh had commanded to Israel. So the old had gone, the new had come. And this is a very notable time in Jewish history. The Jews had been a very bedraggled people.

They had had an absolutely miserable 250 years. Over that time they had lost all of their wealth. All their soldiers and their mighty men had been slaughtered. Horrible and atrocious things had been done to their women and to their children. They had lost their land.

And it seemed that God had given them over fully to their sins, and they had found themselves yet again in slavery in their history. So the sins of their forefathers, the idolatry of their forefathers had cost them dearly. So the past two and a half centuries had been extremely difficult. And they had no one really to blame but themselves. So the Jewish people were standing here at the Jerusalem Square with many memories they wanted to forget. But not all had been lost. God had not forsaken his people and a new season had come. And in 538 BC, the Persian Empire overthrew Babylon, not only liberating the Jews, but they allowed them to return to Jerusalem. And the Persians even bankrolled and funded the rebuilding of their temple and their holy city.

It had taken about a hundred years from the time of the people left Persia, and now to hear in the setting of Nehemiah 8, but finally everything had been finished. The Jews had rebuilt the temple, they had offered sacrifices in Jerusalem again, and they finally were able to surround Jerusalem with a defensive wall. And that wall around the city of Jerusalem was a finishing touch. And the people were gathered together in Nehemiah 8 for worship and the dedication of the city's walls. So it was a beginning of a new chapter, a new era. So this was a very historic moment. This was a good moment. Happy new era. Okay. And that was the setting for why they were gathered together. So you guys understand the setting.

Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could understand when listening on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it before the square which was in front of the water gate from early morning until midday in the presence of men and women, those who could understand, and all the ears of the people were attentive to the book of the law. A revival is about to start. Okay, Nehemiah 8 is a snapshot of the beginning of this revival. It's a snapshot of gospel truths. It's a snapshot of the spiritual reality for the people of God. So this morning we're going to glean from the experiences of God here, or the God's people here, and it's going to bring us both to the sermon outline and a glimpse into how genuine blessed revival works.

Alright. First, we will see that revival always begins with the proclamation of the word. The word uh always, always, here is very operative. It's a very important word. I put it deliberately there in place. Always. There are no exceptions. And through verses three to eight, we're going to see that revival is brought forth through the proclamation of the law of God. Second, revival is always evidenced by repentance. God pours out his gospel kindness, his gospel kindness leads to repentance. So the repentance of sinful man, it's always the byproduct of God's kindness in someone's life. Romans chapter 2, verse 4. So revival is always evidenced first by repentance, a turning away from sin. And thirdly, revival results in joy-fueled strength.

Nehemiah 8, 10 to 12. A joy-fueled resolve enables the saints of God to persevere from season to season. And sometimes we need to hear encouragement because our hearts are weakened, right? So first, the Jewish revival in Nehemiah, like all revivals before and after it, started with the move of God through the proclamation of his word.

So pay attention and carefully follow along. And you can, and if I butcher a name, you can call me out on it. Alright. He read from it before the square, which was in front of the water gate from early morning until midday in the presence of men and women, those who could understand, and all the ears of the people were attentive to the book of the law. Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden podium, which they had made for this purpose. Beside him stood Matatiah, Shema, Anaya, Uriah, Hilkiah, Masse, Maasea on his right side hand, Pediah, Meshael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbadana, Zachariah, and Meshulom on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was physically above all the people.

And when he opened it, all the people stood up. Okay, so now notice the first, the people were very attentive to the reading of the law. Standing on Ezra's right and to the left are very prominent Levites and priests. Okay, so these guys were all there as witnesses. They were there as support. They were there to assist and explain the meaning. And you're gonna see an additional 13 people standing in the midst of the crowd. They're gonna be mentioned in verse 7. Okay, but Ezra opened the book, and while standing on the elevated platform, and at the reading of God's word, all the people stood up, kind of like what we do at the beginning of every sermon, right? Continuing on in verse six. Then Ezra blessed Yahweh, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, while lifting up their hands.

Then they bowed low and worship Yahweh with their faces to the ground. Also, Joshua, Bani, Shera Bayah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbatai, Hodiah, Ma'assea, Kalitah, Azariah, Josebad, Hanan, Palaya, the Levites, they were all providing an understanding of the law to the people while the people stood in their place. So they read from the book from the law of God, explaining and giving insight, and they provided understanding of the reading. So the word is placed in very high esteem here.

Right? Reverence was shown to the word, and the response was a corporate agreement, and then uncontainable worship. So from these verses, you'll notice that the centrality of the law of God before revival. And you'll notice through the scriptures that every move of God begins with the revelation of the truth of God. So here's an important point to remember. Revival always begins with God. Revival always begins with the proclamation of the truth of God. Man can never initiate or produce or manipulate revival. Make sense. Tears, emotional frenzy, can be manipulated by a dimming of lights, good music, sob story testimonies, emotions can be easily manipulated. Religious moods can be created and artificially manufactured, self-help and self-improvement, positive thinking can be triggered and encouraged.

Tears, the raising of hands, group hugs, temporary unity, all of those things can be manipulated. But if man initiated and man centered, all of those things will prove to be counterfeit. That is not revival.

So whenever man tries to produce a move of God through effort or creativity, man and institutions are esteemed, not God. Preachers are elevated, Christ is used, but not honored. And there are consequences to this sort of counterfeit revival. So it's important to understand true revival always has God at the very center. It is of God and not of man. Make sense. Man cannot make a new year's resolution to be revived and love God more. If you put that as a New Year's resolution, get rid of it. You legalist, you cannot. Our love of God is never an initiative of the human heart. It's always a response. Make sense? So as it says in 1 John chapter 4, you guys should be familiar with this.

You should memorize this right now. All right. We love because he first loved us. We love because God first loved us. We love people because God loves us and the love of God, which he loved us with first, compels us to have compassion on people. God's love is powerful and it transforms. So revival always begins with God. Those who have been revived by God can spark additional revival through God, but this is never something man creates. And God's means of revival has always been through his word.

Hearts are transformed only by his word.

And on, it says, For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him in whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? Verse 17, faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. So true revival and authentic moves of God begin with God's revelations of himself. And when God's word is accurately spoken, it is never met with apathy. Let me repeat this. When God's word is proclaimed, it never is met with apathy. His word either breaks and liberates a person, or it offends and stirs up hatred. So the response to the accurate proclamation of God's word is never neutral.

You will either repent and cleave to God and thank him for his mercy, or you will harden your hearts, play the churchianity game, blaspheme God. And there is gonna, of course, be a very radical response. There cannot but be a radical response. Falsehood comes face to face with truth. Darkness has painfully light shined upon it. The sinful encounters the perfectly holy. So there has to be a visceral response, either towards God or away from God. So a word accurately preached always reeves response. So I pray we never distort any of the scriptures to make it more palatable to the hearer. Amen. Itching ears are many, and those are ears were never supposed to scratch.

Biblical repentance, restoration, revival always begins with the proclamation of truth. That's in the scriptures, that's in church history, and it is the same today. So for the elect, God grants the gift of repentance. Romans 2, 4. His sheep will hear his voice, John chapter 10, verse 27. Revival is evidenced by the repentance of his elect. And we see that the people standing there in the Jerusalem Square, they've been cut deeply to the heart. So each of the next three verses of Nehemiah 8, we're gonna mention the people's weeping and their grief several times over. Alex, can you click the slide? Verse 9. Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and the scribe, and the Levites who provided the people with understanding, said to all the people, this day is holy to Yahweh your God.

Do not mourn or weep. For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. Then Nehemiah, he said to them, go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, send portions to him who has nothing prepared. For this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength. So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, Be still, for the day is holy. Do not be grieved. So do you notice that the people are mourning? They are weeping, they are grieving. They are weeping with remorse over their sins, and they're not weeping just from the consequences of their sin. This is a mourning and a weeping and a grieving that was appropriate because they have violated the law of God.

They had had a very rebellious past few centuries. Their sin had caused them to lose everything and be enslaved. And even those years of post-return to Jerusalem saw a ton of sin. Political sin, material sin, loads of sexual sin. There are entire chapters devoted to all the intermarriage that they wrongfully did, so that the holy seed intermingled with the pagans of the land.

There's nothing new under the sun. All of the stuff that they had once blamed their forefathers for to cause them to lose everything, they quickly discovered that they were the same way.

And it did not take long for the Jewish people who are liberated to start back in their sinful ways. Their fathers were sinners, they were sinners. Even after making plans to do things differently, this new generation of Jews also found themselves to be just as corrupted. They had made new life resolutions that they could not keep, that didn't last. So all of these new promises that they made with excitement, they didn't keep.

So they wept, they mourned, and they grieved. And this is what the Bible calls godly sorrow. And it's a sorrow that grieves not just the consequences of sins, but grieves sin. And godly sorrow, when confronted with the truth of God's word and God's holy standards, is repentance.

Godly sorrow produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation. But the sorrow of the world brings about death.

Meaning, there is no regret to my repentance. I own it, I'm not gonna second guess that I sinned against God. There is regret and remorse, of course, over sin, but there is no wishy washiness to the confession. I have sinned against God. There is no blame shifting. He made me sin. She made me sin. That made me sin. That political party made me feel this way. That guy caused me to do this. That pastor hurt me, so I did this. There's none of that. There's no excuses, there's no pointing of fingers, there's no justifying of sin. There is only repentance, a turning away from sin. There is an ownership of the sin. That's what it means to be without regret. I didn't sin because of my parents. I didn't sin because of my circumstances.

I didn't sin because God, you tempted me. I have sinned because I am a wretch. That's what I do. I have sinned because I'm a sinner. Have mercy on me, oh my God. That's repentance. And that's a move of God that leads man to a place of salvation. So here's a good litmus test for where you are in your faith. If you regularly find yourself blaming other people or difficult circumstances for your unhappiness or for your use to justify all of your wrongdoings and to vilify everyone else, that's a very good indicator of a hardness of heart. It's indication that actually you may not know God. You may not know the shepherd's voice. Those are actually fruits of the flesh, which prove a person is unregenerate.

And this is here's a list. Unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, without gentleness, without love for good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, but having denied its power, the church is supposed to keep away from such as these.

Man, this log is giant in my eyeballs. Oh. And you are convicted by the sin that is still in your heart, and you mourn and you weep. That's the mark of an elect person. If you find yourself grieved by the depravity and sin in your own heart, be encouraged. God is doing a cleansing and a marvelous work in your life. It is evidence that light is shining on you and it's uncomfortable. Your sins are being exposed, and you are dwelling in the light, and it's not fun. It's uncomfortable for the moment. Because the word of God is like a mirror to the heart. It reveals all the blemishes that still remain that still need to be sanctified out of your life. That's what the book of James says. That's what Apostle James says.

He's not an apostle, but he's called an apostle. Anyway, that's what James says, as he exhorts us to allow God's word to sanctify us. Therefore, laying aside all filthiness and all that remains a wickedness and gentleness. Receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. Become doers of the word, not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror with eye buggers, with smears and with crust, and you leave and you forget what kind of a person you were. Verse 25. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.

So revival is evidenced by repentance when confronted with truth. And doing the word, verse 22 of James, by responding appropriately and abiding in that truth, what does it lead to? In the yellow. Two things. Freedom, blessing.

May there be a ton of conviction and brokenness and weightiness and godly sorrow in the coming year, as the word of God does a mighty work in our hearts. We have about 25 of us committed to a plan this year, right? I'm praying that it messes us up. Third, revival results in joy-fueled strength. Rival always results in joy-fueled strength. Verse 10, then he said to them, Go eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, send portions to him who has nothing prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength. So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, Be still, for the day is holy, do not be grieved. Then all the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions, and to celebrate with gladness, because they understood the words which had been made known to them.

This is the gospel. Man's remorse over sin was and is and will always be appropriate. Amen.

Conviction is good. That conviction is holy. The humbling, the breaking, and the carving out are all evidences of the goodness of God. Because if that is not in your life, as it says in Hebrews 12, you're an illegitimate child, and you are actually in your sins. And rather than pay off your sins or backpay the price of your salvation, the gospel says to celebrate. And this is such a strange commandment. The commandment here is not to grieve. Not to wallow, not to remain in the past. And there's a command to share this freedom, this joy with the community. Why? God made the day holy. We can't.

We can't sanctify ourselves, sanctify a day, draw near to God. No, God does it. He makes the day holy.

So the joy that this holy redeeming God brings is to be the strength. The cursed man trusts in his own strength. Jeremiah 17, 5. The cursed man trusts in his own religiosity and his own achievements. But those who are fully aware of their depravity and their sin, they trust in the sufficiency of the grace of God, and they don't want to abuse it. Man, God is so good. How can I become pleasing to him? That's the elect. Ooh, God is good. Let me sin some more is never the posture of someone who knows the heart of God. The blessed man knows that, like Pastor Adrian Rogers, he's a former pastor and president of the Southern Baptist Confession, he once said, Salvements, or his ability to keep any kind of New Year's resolutions or to succeed in a Bible reading plan, or his own success in staying away from sin.

The Christian's joy is based on the truth that God alone is his strength. And the assurance that God who began a good work in you is going to perfect it, like we learned from Pastor Sung last Sunday last Sunday. God's joy fuels our strength to live on in the flesh with perseverance. Here's a quote from the late Martin Lloyd Jones.

When you and I arrive in heaven, my dear friends, we'll realize that we're not there because we held on when others gave up, but because he held on to us.

Yes. If you long for heaven more this year than you did in 2025, it'll be a great year. I mean, you are closer. You know you die every day, right? You're closer to your impending doom. Will 2026 be a blessed year? Yes. If as you are cut deeply and sanctified by your regular intake of his holy word, that you grow to hate your sin and you grow to greatly appreciate the cross of Christ. That's gonna be a great year. The cross is more beautiful now than a year ago. Bingo, you hit blessedness. As we mature in the faith, we will discover that God becomes bigger and holier and more terrifying. So for someone who's disappointed with God, God was better to me last year than this year. That's the confession of a non-Christian who does not know God.

You guys follow this.

So there's a dissatisfaction, it's backward. As we mature in the faith, we'll also discover how desperately corrupt and hopeless we are outside of Christ. We will discover there is truly nothing good in us outside of Jesus. And as we mature in the faith, we will love holiness more, we will hate sin more, and we will find ourselves increasing in compassion. That's the Christian trajectory. That's the upward call. That call to what? Forget, backward, obsess forward. When I take a painful look at my past and think about what I was like in the past, I cringe a little. Actually, I cringe a lot. But I also find myself greatly encouraged by myself. When I see God's progress and handiwork in my life as a Christian and as a pastor.

When I was in my teens, I was lost without Christ full of darkness. In my 20s, after feeling a call to pastoral ministry, I felt like I was God's gift to Christendom. That God needed me to do great work. That's right. I'm gonna be the next fill in the blank. In my 30s, I wanted to preach the word with passion, help the poor.

In my early 40s, I just wanted to love people. Now in my later 40s, you know my ministry want is. You know what I pray for daily? I don't want to be stupid and get disqualified from ministry. That's it. That's your pastor's great ambitions for ministry. Don't be stupid and be disqualified as a pastor. I've become less ambitious just with each passing year. Because I am seeing who I'm not by the grace of God. So I've learned over the years that God doesn't need me to build his church. I've grown in greater understanding that there is nothing good in me outside of Christ. I used to say that in my 20s. I don't think I believed it. Now I believe it a little bit more. Oh, yeah, this is ugly stuff.

Nothing. A greater awareness of my sins has actually slowed me down and given me a lot of compassion for difficult people because I'm a difficult person. I'm more patient with people who stray because I know straying. I know that feeling of guilt and more shame. And when non-Christians slander and mock, even church people, when they slander and then when they mock, I've learned not to be overly offended. Because I've I've slandered, I've mocked. And because I've experienced enough pain and heartache, I've learned how to grieve with those who grieve, and to rejoice with those who rejoice, and to hope with people who want to forget the past and obsess forward. And in the process of all of these years, there have been many moments of despair, many tears shed, many prayers asking God to help me, great lamentation for the sins in my heart.

And in each step of the way, the word given to me is this.

Do not grieve. And I am growing in my ability to do that. I am able to do that. I wanted to go all the way, so I also took it a step further by diligently committing myself to eating of the fat, drinking of the sweet, but don't judge me, all right. The joy of the Lord is my strength. There's nothing to rejoice in over myself or in a new year, or in a commitment to lose weight, to read the Bible more. Like there's no joy in that.

I only look forward. And with each passing year, as I become more acutely aware of my own sin, and as I grow in love for God's word and in awareness of his holiness and his grandeur, I'm encouraged that the following thing is beginning to take place.

Amen.

This is the most offensive verse to any human being that comes out of John the Baptist's mouth. May God be more and I be less.

Amen.

As we're called to reach and strain in a forward direction. As a church, we're gonna devote this year to growing in consistency with the Bible intake. We're gonna strive for growth and maturity through a steady diet of the word. We're gonna keep the word at the center, and we're gonna have good things in store. Good doesn't mean me easy. Amen. Good sometimes means a ton of discomfort. There may be more downs and ups, and there may be some very painful things that God has ordained for some of us in the room, or even for us as a church on the whole. Every year brings with it tragedy. And also, no study of the word of God will leave you feeling good about you. But I'm praying that the Lord will use his word to bring revival.

Amen. May the joy of the Lord be our strength. And I want to close with the reading of the last passage. The Nehemiah who is a governor, as are the priests and the scribe and the Levites, who provided the people with understanding, said to all the people, This day is holy to Yahweh your God. Do not mourn or weep. For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, Go eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, send portions to him who has nothing prepared. For this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength. So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, Be still, for the day is holy. Do not be grieved. So all the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions, to celebrate with great gladness, because they understood the gospel which was made known to them.

Let's pray together. Father, we grow more and more aware of how far we fall short of your glory. And we are so thankful that you are a God who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abundant and loving kindness, and you have removed our sin. As far as the East is from the West through the person of Jesus. Would you be at the very center of this church in the coming year and for years ahead? Lord, would you be held in high esteem? And may you receive the glory that you're due in and through our lives. And we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.