How to Shape Your Life Around God’s Priorities (1 Peter 4:1-11)

 In this New Year message from 1 Peter 4:1-11, Pastor Chris challenges believers to pursue a life shaped by God’s priorities rather than culture’s pursuit of comfort, pleasure, or success. This passage calls Christ followers to endurance, obedience, and faithful ministry so that our lives honor God and make an eternal impact.

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/18422922

Key Points:

#1 Let God Shape Your ATTITUDE for Endurance (1 Peter 4:1)
 Just as Christ endured suffering with purpose, believers are called to arm themselves with the same mindset. Following Jesus will sometimes bring hardship, rejection, or spiritual opposition, yet we continue forward with perseverance and trust in God’s plans.

#2 Let God Shape Your ACTIONS for God’s Will (1 Peter 4:2-4)
 Because we belong to Christ, we leave behind old patterns of sin and self-centered living. Through the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, we choose obedience, holiness, and a lifestyle that reflects God’s values rather than the world’s expectations.

#3 Let God Shape Your MINISTRY for God’s Glory (1 Peter 4:5-11)
 Every believer will one day give an account before God, so we live with urgency, prayerfulness, love, and hospitality. God has given each of us spiritual gifts to serve others, and when we speak or serve, we do so in His strength so that He alone receives the glory.

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris:
 He shares reflections on how resolutions often fade, including a humorous youth-group memory about switching from donuts to fruit for two weeks. He also reflects on trying new ministry approaches, celebrating encouraging moments where God used messages and outreach to touch lives.

Notable Quotes:
 “Success in God’s eyes is shaping your life around His priorities.”
 “When you put God first, He makes enough time for the things that truly matter.”
 “In Christ you are no longer bound to sin. You have a choice to walk in freedom.”

Actionable Takeaways:
 Heart-level reflection: Ask God to reveal where your attitude needs to shift toward endurance and trust.
 Daily-life application: Choose obedience in one area where old habits still compete for your heart.
 Spiritual step or challenge: Identify and begin using your spiritual gift to serve others for God’s glory.
 Practical next step: Prayerfully evaluate what to stop, what to continue, and what to prioritize for God this year.

Scripture References:
 1 Peter 4:1-11
 Romans 6:1-14
 Ephesians 4:22-24
 Titus 2:11-13
 1 Peter 2:9 and 2:23

Keywords:
 Priorities, New Year, endurance, holiness, spiritual gifts, ministry, obedience, discipleship, 1 Peter 4

Challenge:
 Ask the Lord how He wants you to align your attitude, your actions, and your ministry with His priorities, and take one intentional step of obedience this week in response.

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 0:16

Today we are talking about the new years, how to shape your life around God's priorities. So I don't know what kind of year you had, if it was different than other years. So it's interesting for me when I look back on the year of the things that worked really good and the things that blew up in my face and the things that didn't work that I don't plan on continuing, and some surprises of things that I didn't think were gonna be successful but are. And maybe you have the same kind of thoughts. You can come to the new year and you can just flip the calendar and not change a thing. A lot of people make New Year's resolutions. Supposedly, people that just make resolutions without a plan, without a motivation, without accountability, only 20% of them actually see any real change. The rest just kind of fall back into their old ways quickly. I remember when I was a youth pastor of a larger church, we had a pretty big youth group, a lot of high schoolers, and so they always wanted snacks for Sunday school on Sunday morning, and it was like donuts and cookies and everything. But then the first of the year would roll around, and everybody just wanted fruit. So we just want fruit and carrots, and that lasted about two weeks, and then we were back to cookies and donuts and everything else. And I think that is the way it is for a lot of us. But a lot of those New Year's resolutions revolve around things that you know people want. So they want to be more fit, more healthy. They want to have more money, they want to have more security, they want to have maybe more power or esteem or do more in, be more successful at work, or buy that whatever boat, car, RV, go on that vacation, goals like that. And a Christ follower thinks beyond that, thinks, well, those things would be nice. What I really want is I want to honor God, I want to serve God, I want to be blessed by God, I want success in God's eyes, and that's what we're going to talk about today. Success in God's eyes, shaping your life around God's priorities. It's easy for us to get so caught up in what's going on around us that we don't even have time to really think about doing God's will, God's way. But there seems to be this amazing principle that when you put God first in your life, that He makes enough time for the other stuff. He makes enough time for you to get the other stuff done. The prioritization of putting God first, that worship, putting him first, he can help you. The same is true with giving your time, your talents, and your treasure. And so as we come to this message, we're going to be in 1 Peter chapter 4, and this will be the end of the 1 Peter series that I was doing. So I figured this would be the best passage to say for this time. And so I'm excited about it. I'm excited to share about it. And so this is really for the believer in Christ. So if you're visiting and you haven't received Jesus as your Lord and Savior yet, you don't know what that means. Mike mentioned it during the prayer time. But it is so important that you realize that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that he rose again, that he is available to hear your prayers. When we want to turn from our sin and turn to Jesus, when we want to follow after him, when we receive him as our Lord and Savior, we get adopted as children of God. We are assured heaven. We are part of God's kingdom. So many things happen, and we have a book about it called The How to Find God in the New Testament that we'd love to share with you. And I'd love to answer any questions that you have about that. But this is for the persecuted, the believer that is separated from a bigger church, the people that have been dispersed, the people that feel lonely, the people that are sometimes questioning their faith or questioning their service or questioning if God even cares. Peter writes to them. Peter writes to a persecuted church in the days of Rome when things weren't very good. And it's interesting we saw the Sunday school promo video that just that talked about us living in a culture that is suspicious of Christianity, thinks that we're part of the problem, not part of the solution, and how do we minister in the midst of that? And so Peter's day was like that. And so I want to share about more than just self-improvement. I want to share about getting God's values into your heart and mind, and then living in such a way that it transforms your life, transforms your year, makes you a different person. Sometimes when you come into a new year, you set some new goals for yourself and you decide you're going to try something. You're going to do something new. You're going to learn a new skill. All these things you can do. And another thing that people do at this time of the year is they analyze what's working for them and what isn't. Unfortunately, this is the time of year when there's a lot of layoffs and a lot of people get let go because who's ever in charge looks at the financial picture and says, yeah, this isn't working for us. Let's get rid of this division, let's get rid of this section, let's get rid of this guy or girl or whatever. And so maybe you are going to make some decisions to do something more. Maybe you're going to make decisions to stop doing something altogether or to prioritize things. And I think that's the biggest thing is we need to pray. Figure out what it is that we need to prioritize and what it is that really needs to work. And sometimes we get data that tells us that, oh, this isn't working as great as we thought. We should quit doing it. And other times the data is like, okay, it's good to know that it's not working as good as we thought, but it seems like God is still calling us to do it, or we should still keep moving forward and we're going to keep trying to grow this garden or build this business or build this church or whatever it is. And then there's sometimes encouragements that come along the way. Sometimes God sends people into your path that speak into your life in ways that encourage you, give you a strategy, give you a solution, give you an idea or hope, or even a warning. And so to just think about that, how can God shape your life around his priorities, his time priorities? Because on this earth you only get so much time. When you are born again, when you're in Jesus, you have eternal life, but you have a limited time to serve here on this earth and the relationships that you have among the people that you have. Unless Jesus returns soon, all of us eventually are going to wear out and die. But then those who die go to be in the presence of the Lord. So that's good. But just to know that your time is limited. You only get so many opportunities to share Christ with your family, with your worker, with your co-workers, with your neighbors, so many things that are time-bound. And so we need to make a priority to do that. So when the world looks at resolutions, we want to look at readiness. How can we be more prepared? How can we realize that history is moving forward and we're supposed to be a part of it? Let's be eternal, eternally significant world changers while we can in this time that we have here. So I mentioned some things in the last year that were good and some things that didn't. So I tried different things to try to reach more people, and a lot of the younger people that walk in the door said they came in because they saw short videos about church messages or whatever, and so that was good. So we continue to do that. So with the Well Faith Audio Podcast, there's some, there's quite a few listeners from around and lots of listeners from all around. But in the last 90 days, there's been 5,000 listens, and that's pretty good and encouraging. And if we're trying to reach the world, that's really awesome. On the other hand, some other things about technology, websites, or whatever weren't really working, so I won't do that in the coming year. Building church and discipleship and trying to help people find their spiritual gifts and stuff will be a good priority for this year. I don't know. Have you ever taken a spiritual gifts test before? Raise your hand if you've ever taken a spiritual gifts test before. Okay. So two things about that is one, it gives you some ideas of what spiritual gifts are and what you might have. I'm going to talk about that towards the end, spiritual gifts. But if you're new to Christ, then you always end up with the gift of helps or something like that. And then as you continue to serve in the church, you learn or you discover, oh, I'm pretty good at teaching, or I'm pretty good at sharing with faith, or I'm pretty good at leadership or administration and things like that. So to pray about and to focus on, what is your purpose for life? What does God want you to do? And then we'll look at, we'll read through 1 Peter chapter 4 and see if that sparks some ideas in your mind. But number one, let God shape your attitude for endurance. Let God shape your attitude for endurance. So now, if I was looking for a job and I read the job description and I realized that I really needed a job, and the only job available to me was to be a construction laborer, then when I looked at that, I would realize that if I took that job, I was signing up for eight to ten hours a day of constant moving, carrying stuff, scraping, shoveling, hammering, cutting, measuring hard labor for all of those hours. That's what I would be signing up for. And my mindset would be I have a really hard job to do. I'm probably gonna need a lot of sleep afterwards, probably not gonna sign up for that sports team afterwards because I'll be too tired or whatever. And so you have a mindset that says, okay, this is what I have to do, this is how difficult it is. And so I this is what I signed up for. I'm good with it. Same thing with people in military service, people that run races, people that are in marathons, whatever. Starting next weekend for January, we're gonna look at how God prepares people for service in Hebrews 12, but we're also gonna make a parallel, tie it to the Winter Olympics that are coming up in February, and how an athlete trains and how God trains us. But the verse Peter writes says, Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. So therefore, like it says, I said therefore, that Christ Jesus came and he endured the cross and the shame with it, and he knew that he was heading in that direction, and that he went through all that for us. He knew that was part of it. He knew that was the call on his life here on earth at that time. And our life can be difficult too. So we can expect that people will reject us, we can expect that we'll be misunderstood, we can expect that we'll be in a spiritual battle, and Satan will do everything he can to try to trip us up or try to shut us up or try to cause division and all sorts of things. And so just to know that our attitude needs to be one that says, I just need to keep serving, I need to keep moving forward. And when things don't go great, pray it through, see what I can do to change, maybe get some outside help, get read some resources, maybe some Christian biographies, maybe get a spiritual coach. Those types of things are all helpful. Someone, an individual to help disciple you, to help you grow in Christ. But that you're in this, that if you have truly received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, that you're truly giving your life to Him, and that you are going to keep pushing on no matter what, no matter when it gets uncomfortable, no matter when there are sad times and hard times, that you are going to keep pushing on because your attitude is that you are going to endure. And that's what Peter is telling these people here is that things may be tough right now, but you just need to keep pushing on, you need to keep serving, you need to keep living for Jesus. First Peter 2 23, he writes when they hurled their insults at him, Jesus, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. A Christ-shape attitude is one that looks for justice, but also has wisdom, shows grace and care and kindness and love. And we keep moving forward, we keep pushing forward, and it transforms us, it changes our ways. And that's what Peter says next. He said, You've got this attitude of endurance now. Let God shape your actions for God's will. Shape your actions for God's will. It's really easy for us to do the fun thing, do what everybody else is doing, and then suffer the regret and pray for forgiveness, and then go back to the mess again. And that's not how God has called us to live. He wants us to live in a way that honors him, in a way that is gonna make a difference, to be those clean vessels that he can use for different things. But Peter writes, as a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. So think about what some of those evil desires are. It's actually the same thing that sells TV shows and movies as sex and power and wealth and those types of things that people really aspire to, really want. And as they move forward in that, sometimes life is very disappointing for them. It leads to regret. But they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but for the will of God. And we find the will of God in God's word as we read through scripture. We ask the Holy Spirit to show us what in it is for us today that we need to apply to our life that will bring transformation. What is it that I need to do? What is it that I need to stop doing? How can I move forward in usefulness and honor God? And then he writes what some of those are. But let me just focus on this real quick. Ephesians 4 22 says, Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception, and instead let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. That is so key is that when you're saved and you have the Holy Spirit and you're yielded to the Holy Spirit, so the Holy Spirit fills you that the Spirit will renew your thoughts and attitudes, will change your thoughts and attitudes, will change your desires and the reasons that you do things, will change the things that you're interested in, the things that you want to listen to, the things that you want to watch, the things that you want to hear and to share, the people that you want to hang out with. And Titus 2 says, instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So these two, Paul and Ephesians and Titus, have reinforced what Peter is saying here and what Peter is about to say. So he says, Peter says, if you want to live this life, if you want to live a life that matters, if you want to live a life that honors God, if you want to find hope in the midst of persecution, if you want to find hope in the midst of sadness, to live this way, he says you've spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do, living in debouchery, lust, drunkenness, or geez carousing and detestable idolatry. And so if you study that, you figure out the definitions for those words. Otherwise, you could just, with the new living translation that we use for the New Believers New Testament, they translate it. And it's not a paraphrase, it's 70 evangelical scholars that we that are like us translated it to say, you've had enough in the past of evil things that godless people enjoy, their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. So to break that down, immorality, living in sexual sin or shameless behavior that ignores God's moral boundaries. Lust, strong sinful desires and selfish cravings that pull the heart away from God. Feasting, indulgent excessive living focused on pleasure and self-gratification, drunkenness, intoxication that leads to a loss of self-control, including substance abuse. Wild parties, reckless party environments that encourage impurity and sinful behavior, and worship of idols, giving devotion or priority to anything in the place of God, such as pleasure, success, or self. So when we became Christ followers, we were set free from having to sin. Before we were like puppets on a string, and we were in bondage to sin, slaves to sin. But when Jesus died for us on that cross and it was applied to our life, it allowed us to be set free from sin, given new life in Christ. And Paul talks about that in Romans, in Romans chapter 6, a great chapter for you to read. Verse 1 says, Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not. Since we've died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? So it's not that we're forgiven from sin, so therefore we can do whatever we want. Because God doesn't want us to stay there in sin. He wants us to move forward. He wants us to move forward in a new life. A life that is full of, that brings the results in joy, and it's full of purpose, and it blesses other people, and it is a good way to live. Even if the world thinks you're crazy, even if the world thinks you're naive. So then skip to verse 11. Paul writes, So you should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Do not let sin control the way you live, do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Verse 14. Sin no longer, sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God's grace. So you don't have to sin. It's your choice. It's your choice. You have an opportunity when you're tempted. God's not going to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. Sometimes a temptation is a test, and when you do what's right, when you don't give in to the temptation and you do the right thing, it honors God and it gives you victory and it helps you to move forward in life. Now everybody struggles with sin and different types of sin for different people. And I think that if Satan wants to tempt you, he's going to wait for the right time to try to tempt you to do that thing that you're interested in. So some people are tempted to do different types of sins than other people. And so everybody's different. And I can't, I don't think that Satan can read your mind. I don't think that he is like God and he knows what you're thinking, but he's a good judgy character, and I'm pretty sure that he has a general idea of what buttons to push in your life to try to get you to fall. So to know that there's going to be temptation, that there is going to be choices in your life, and when you choose to do the right things, you choose to make the right choices, that it will honor God, you'll be blessed, you'll experience joy, you'll experience confidence, even when the world turns against you, even if you're persecuted, even if you feel lonely, it is always best to know that you're doing the right thing the right way. And your primary motive is to honor God, who sees everything you do and loves you in Christ. So verse 4, back to 1 Peter 4 4. After that, it says they are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. So those people that were doing all of those things, that you were partying with them, that you were having a good time, you used to get drunk with them too. You used to buy most of the booze, and it was your ice house or whatever it was. And I don't know if that's, but I don't think I'm talking about you because I'm not talking about anybody, okay? I'm talking about when I was in high school in Forest Lake, and that's when I learned that people don't really fish in ice houses out there. But nonetheless, when you change and you're not in Christ anymore, and you think to yourself, you're not much fun since I quit drinking. People think you're strange, and sometimes they don't want to have anything to do with you. They're like, oh, you're too good for us, or you became, they used to say, Oh, you became one of those holy rollers or whatever, or Jesus freaks. They used to say those that a long time ago too. But nonetheless, you might, if you're going to be serious about following Jesus, you might have to find yourself a new group of friends. On the other side of that, if you want to be serious about following Jesus, you still need to reach out to those people that aren't your closest best friends to try to lead them to Christ, to try to show them that there's new life in Christ, because we're called to be ambassadors, we're called to be ministers of reconciliation. So 1 Peter 2 9 says you're a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful life. And really, what it comes down to is you would say to those people, I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and He's forgiven me of my sin and given me a new life. I've got principles for living the life that God created me to live through the Bible, which is like 66 books under one. cover and so when it is applied correctly it leads to life transformation and I would love to tell you about that but I still care for you I still want to connect with you I still want to do other things with you I just don't I don't want I don't feel a need to get drunk anymore I don't feel a need to use those things anymore I don't feel a need to do that stuff anymore and so Jesus is changing me I'd love to tell you about it and sometimes when you have a winsome personality and you're not super defensive some of the loudest complainers will turn will turn towards being interested and wanting to hear more of it and eventually they might say you know what I want some of that too and then maybe they will receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior and you can teach them about what it means to have true faith in Christ and that will really make your life exciting to know that your life change is leading lost people to Christ that lost people to Christ are receiving Jesus they're growing in their faith they're making life change choices and you are part of that and the church is part of that. Such a good thing such a great opportunity and such a great place to find victory. Number three let God shape your ministry for God's glory. Let God shape your ministry for God's glory. What what do you mean your ministry isn't just the church a ministry doesn't just a pastor have a ministry no we are all called to God's ministry. We are all called to serve the Lord in ministry somehow so it actually says in Ephesians 411 that the person that serves in the role of a pastor in the church isn't supposed to do all of the ministry he is supposed to equip people for ministry to have resources and to guide the direction some of us pastors like to refer to us ourselves as well we're like the bus driver in the church but we're all serving together. But let God shape your ministry. So 1 Peter 4 5 they will have to give an account to him who is ready to judge the living in the dead so those people that maybe commented on your faith in Jesus or those people that you used to party with or those people who are persecuting you will have to give an account to Jesus who is ready to judge the living and the dead and it says for this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body but live according to God in regard to the Spirit. What Peter is saying here is that the people that heard the gospel message that received Jesus as their Lord and Savior that were saved yet died in the body were judged according to human standards so that went through physical death but they the people that went through physical death the ones who received Jesus the ones who heard the gospel and died physically that they are alive according to God in regard to the Spirit. It's saying to these persecuted believers that there is justice. God sees God cares God knows the people that have died that you cared about that knew Jesus God did not turn his back on them that is a natural thing that happens in this life and they are with God and the people that rejected Christ the ones that persecuted you the ones that made your life difficult there is going to be justice. They are going to have to give an account to God and he will judge them fairly for what they did or didn't do. And then in verse 7 Peter writes the end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind that you may pray so that means that God's timeline God's historical timeline what God is doing is come going to come to an end soon. Eventually Jesus is going to return and make everything right and so the current economy the current life that we live will be transformed when Jesus returns to this earth and to think that think about that to keep that in perspective like my grandpa always used to say like he'd say should we go fishing on Wednesday I'd say should we go fishing on Wednesday and he'd be like if the Lord tarries which to him man if Jesus doesn't return yeah we can go fishing on Wednesday. But Jesus could return at any time so always be aware and to be alert of sober mind that we may pray that we may pray for ourselves that we may pray for situations and resources but more than that that we would pray that we'd be in God's will that we would pray for opportunity that we would pray that God would use us that we would pray for lost people to get saved that we would pray for newly saved people to grow in their faith that we would pray for those people who are grown in their faith to find their ministry and to start serving that we would pray for those people that are ministering and start serving to find a way to pass their skills on to other people so that they too can do that. And together we would grow and the church would grow and the kingdom of God would grow and it would be good. Verse 8 above all else love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins and offer hospitality to one another without grumbling to care for one another to love one another we actually have a church covenant that we read sometimes that talks about from the biblical from the Bible standpoint how we're supposed to care for each other and love one another and then hospitality hospitality is getting involved in other people's lives going out to eat with people spending time with people hospitality is often where good relationships are made sometimes hospitality includes a small group Bible study and maybe you want to host one of those or lead one of those those are good. You learn so much about people in the classes even in the adult Sunday school classes you learn a lot about people during the discussion. And verse 10 each one of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in various forms. So to know that okay sorry I just had an issue there. To know that we are supposed to serve that we are supposed to use our gifts that we are supposed to make a difference in the world. So when you look at Romans 12 1 Corinthians 12 Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4 it lists different types of spiritual gifts it lists different types of offices for serving it lists different types of signed gifts so sign gifts are the ones that reinforce what the apostles were saying they're more likely miracle gifts and things but we'll just look let me just list some of the serving gifts maybe you have one of these gifts a gift to serve others a gift to teach a gift of encouragement a gift to give generously financially a gift of leading diligently a gift of showing kindness and mercy a gift of wisdom a gift of knowledge a gift of faith a gift to speak a gift to serve so those are some of the ones and so there's many different spiritual gift tests. If you'd like to take one let me know and I will direct you towards one it's not free but there's one that actually compares you to Bible character so that one's kind of fun but to figure out what it is that God has the Holy Spirit has given you to serve. And that doesn't mean that you can't do all these things you can do all of these things but sometimes you find out that you are gifted to do one or two of these things and it is a good thing. And then finally 1 Peter 411 says if anyone speaks they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves they should do so with the strength God provides so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and everything when you're faithful to show up and you speak the things of God into people's lives the Holy Spirit helps you to say it the right way to know the right things to say and sometimes when you show up to serve God gives you the energy and the strength to do it well to get it done to accomplish the task to do so in a wise way and to develop relationships along the way it's such a good thing. And so as we come to the new year as we come to the new year we think about what is it that we need to change? What is it we need to do and I hope that you will find some time to commit yourself to praying through some of the things that I mentioned to pray through God why am I here? What do you want me to do? How do you want me to do it? What resources do I have to do it? Where when and where should I when and where should I do this? And I hope that maybe you'll find a through the Bible through the year Bible reading plan. Those are good to get into God's word each day. Last year I did the chronological Bible reading plan and I didn't really like it so I'm not going to do that one again this year. Because you'd end up reading the same like sections of the passages over and over again and it turned out it was really great for Bible study but it wasn't that great for devotional stuff. So I will probably go through the one year Bible reading plan again. They actually sell it as a book too if you want or you can listen to it online or use the U version Bible reading plan. And then as we get together in the future we're going to do a series on the eyes on the prize like I mentioned and then next week is choosing to pursue victory in the race of faith. So I'm going to pray and then I'm going to show you a New Year's video and then the worship team's going to come up here and sing. Lord Jesus I thank you for these people and I thank you for the opportunities that you give us Lord if you choose to give us the breath of life and the energy that we need and the opportunities God I pray that we would be faithful. We would be faithful to live in the right way so that you could use us that we'd be faithful to doing the right thing so that we can unashamedly proclaim your grace and salvation Lord that you would show us the things that we're doing that are worthwhile and maybe the things that we could stop doing so we'd have more time to do the better things. Lord I pray that we would develop a love for your word that we would develop our spiritual gift or gifts and that you would grow us and that you'd grow your church and that 2026 would be the best year that this church and our lives have experienced as we trust you in it.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

So Jesus we thank you amen a new year another turn of the calendar another round of fireworks and resolutions but before we rush into what's next let's pause scripture says teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom not to count the days gone by but to make the days ahead count every sunrise is mercy renewed every breath is great extended and as the clock strikes midnight let's not even have