Church 12/28/2025
Offertory scripture:
Offertory scripture:
“But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”II Corinthians 9:6-8 NKJV
Pre-sermon notes:
Declare: I’m going to receive a blessing today.
Sermon thesis: Choose to seek God.
This year (2026) will be a year I choose to seek God like never before.
We are as close to God as we choose to be.
When we don’t feel close to God, it’s because we drifted. God didn’t abandon us. No shame; just get closer to Him again.
There’s nothing God can’t do.
God can even heal cancer. It has happened many times before. He can heal bodies that have been badly burned. He can heal folks in comas and on life support. (He can even raise the dead. He did that by raising Jairus’s daughter, another woman’s son, Lazarus, and even Himself.)
Point 1: If you seek Him, you will find Him.
“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”Jeremiah 29:13 NKJV
Don’t give up too soon when you have a question for God and you’ve been seeking Him. God is seeking you and your heart even more than you are seeking Him.
The Bible is inspired by God. Every human author is really just a “transcriber” of the words uttered by the breath of God.
““God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”Numbers 23:19 NKJV
Point 2: You must seek Him. He doesn’t fall into your lap. You have to take the initiative.
Read God’s Word; [and for me, spend time reflecting and journaling, to apply His Word to my life, and to apply my life to His Word.]
[Pastor didn’t include the following verse in his sermon, but I will, because I think it’s apropos.]
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”II Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV
Point 3: You must believe that you will find Him.
The devil is the one who tries to steal our faith. The devil tries to convince us to give up on trying to seriously pursue God, lying to us about His character.
So how is it that we must believe?
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”Hebrews 11:6 NKJV
The therapy of seeking God will work; but you have a job to do as well.
Don’t give up.
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”Galatians 6:9 NKJV
Seek God. And: Be a seeker of God.
Point 4: You must seek Him with all your heart.
“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”Jeremiah 29:13 NKJV
You must give it all you’ve got when you seek Him. Don’t leave any stone unturned.
The way you practice is the way you play. This is true for both good and bad. If you practice half-heartedly, you’ll play half-heartedly. But if you practice wholeheartedly, you’ll also play wholeheartedly.
(For me, I gave it my all in church choirs growing up. The task is to seek God the same way, and then some.)
Consider Moses:
“But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?””Exodus 3:11 NKJV
At that time, Moses hadn’t been seeking God, although God certainly had been seeking him!
God’s response to Moses’s doubts:
“So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.””Exodus 3:12 NKJV
From God: “I will be with you.”
“Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.”Exodus 34:29 NKJV
Restated: This was when Moses came down from the mountain, his face was radiant because he had been spending time with God. He didn’t even realize that he had changed, that spending time with God changed him.
When we spend time with God we become aware of who we are in Christ, who God created us to be. Moses now knew he was a leader.
“Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.”Exodus 33:7-11 NKJV
What can we learn from Moses? Answers are below.
Point 5: Choose to meet daily with God.
Agree to pray for people, and not to condemn them.
[Pastor didn’t include the following verse in his sermon, but I will, because I think it’s apropos.]
“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.”I Timothy 2:1-2 NKJV
(Revenge and condemnation doesn’t accomplish what you really want anyway.)
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”James 4:8 NKJV
[The first part of the above verse is the focus.]
“Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp.”Exodus 33:7 NKJV
Decide in 2026 to meet God daily and seeking Him wholeheartedly.
In Moses’s time people had a choice. People had the option to spend time with God. It wasn’t required. but it was available.
Point 6: Choose to remove distractions.
Get off the TV. Get off the computer. Get off the phone. Get off the internet. Get off YouTube. Get off social media.
“Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp.”Exodus 33:7 NKJV
The tent of meeting was a distance from the camp. Not in the camp. Not outside but next door to the camp. Quite a ways outside and away from the camp.
Point 7: Choose on a name for your time with God.
It could be “time with God.” It could be “priority time.” Moses called it the “tent of meeting.” Whatever you call it, give it a name.
Everyone is as close to God as they choose to be.
Note after sharing the sermon: I’ll begin with a confession. This is the first sermon that I’ve taken notes on in a while. I had been taking notes from each message I had heard, ever since I first began attending my current church, until sometime last summer when I stopped. I had my reasons for doing so at the time, but since then I’ve been having meetings roughly once per month with my pastor and another elder I trust, typically for brief check-ins, prayer, and encouragement. The first meeting was a sort of spiritual crisis point. But it also served as an opportunity to set up recurring meetings for the future, which I’ve had three since then. The first of the three was to confess an area of my life that I was long overdue to share with them (I felt God prompt me to do so several years back, but I disobeyed). The next, with my wife in attendance, was to seek support and prayer for the career part of my life. The third and most recent was to share about some awesome things God was doing, and how He was providing a path for me to do so. And He has!
When I had my milestone birthday last year, I felt God give me three commands:
There’s a theme here: the word “commit.” That’s a hard word for me. It’s one thing to commit to a marriage, which I have been doing. (Essentially, spend time with your wife and don’t communicate with other women.*)
When I had my milestone birthday last year, I felt God give me three commands:
- Do not long for the former years.
- Rejoice.
- Eliminate distractions.
- Commit to spending time with Him (as highlighted and emphasized in the above sermon).
- Commit fully to Him by conforming my life to His commands (both from the above sermon as well as to be revealed in the next post).
- Continue committing to removing distractions.
There’s a theme here: the word “commit.” That’s a hard word for me. It’s one thing to commit to a marriage, which I have been doing. (Essentially, spend time with your wife and don’t communicate with other women.*)
[*OK, the way I worded it is a bit black-and-white. I still talk with my mom and mother-in-law kind of regularly and share hugs with them. My wife and I also have several older-generation female friends at our church. And then of course I have women among colleagues and clients. But the point is to not communicate with them beyond the bounds of the function of the relationship. For example, don’t engage in talking about personal stuff with female colleagues (and don’t invite them to do the same). Which I don’t. It’s good sense.
(It used to be “common” sense, but now 3-4 generations into the breakdown of the family unit in the USA and western society in general, we now have a plethora of people who weren’t taught basic life skills including socialization skills, and as a result they don’t know right from wrong (the Bible has not been taught in many places, either) let alone survival skills let alone socialization. It cannot be considered “common” sense if it isn’t actually common anymore. For something to be considered “common” sense, it has to be commonly known and commonly taught; and it hasn’t been for a very long time.)]
OK! Back to topic and off the distraction. We used to be a society that committed. By the time I was coming up through the ranks and then released into the wilderness called the start of adulthood (which happened to coincide with the start of an economic recession) there was nothing to which I could realistically commit. Additionally, because of many key moments in life, I still do not trust a lot of things: most people in general; that people would keep their promises; that people’s words and actions actually line up one with the other; that an honest and open discussion can be truly fair; that family relationships (with the associated obligations included) can actually be non-toxic (one happy exception is my relationship with my dad; we have a great relationship, but even then that relationship is more like that of any of my inner-circle brothers, which I like anyway), that open and honest opinions can exist where attitudes of entitlement don’t automatically pour out (this is why I would sometimes rather be sweet-talked to my face and then stabbed in the back via covert actions, despite the truth that that is actually far worse than being being stabbed in the face with words); that hard work actually pays off; that a little extra sacrifice now will lead to a good reward down the road (and specifically a reward that I would genuinely like).
[Having spent time with both USA liberals and USA conservatives, I’ve been burned by folks on both sides. I hear it said that conservatives handle disagreement far better than liberals, but my personal experiences have not backed that up (and, mind you, this was when I hung out with liberals as one of them, and when I’ve hung out with conservatives as one them as well). I add the parenthetical to illustrate that the conflicts and disagreements weren’t political in nature in those moments, because we were already in agreement on such topics in those moments. I’ve experienced liberals being entitled and manipulative about certain things, and I’ve also experienced conservatives being entitled and manipulative about certain things as well. Something is not adding up.]
And there’s more. But what I have found is that time with God, when I do it, is worth it. Maybe that’s why the truth about God’s promises is so groundbreakingly powerful. There is no limit to His power or His love. He is able to back up anything He says.
“‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’”Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV
And I think that’s the key there. His love and power are limitless. But human love and human ability are limited, because we are indeed finite. Jesus is trustworthy. Sometimes it’s hard because we can’t see Him. But He is able, because He has no limit of power or love. He is also perfect humility, so there’s no spirit of entitlement in him.
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”Philippians 2:5-8 NKJV
Additionally, He doesn’t change. He isn’t generous one day, and stingy the next.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”Hebrews 13:8 NKJV
““God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”Numbers 23:19 NKJV
So Jesus is humble, not entitled; He is steadfast, not wavering. And He rewards those who come to Him, in faith that He exists and is a faithful rewarder, and He has no hidden agenda.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”Hebrews 11:6 NKJV
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”James 1:17 NKJV
I don’t know what 2026 will bring. My prayers remain the same: for healing, for knowledge of my life’s purpose (of which I currently have partial knowledge), and the ability to go after that purpose. Behind that is my prayer to forgive; not to excuse, and not to blindly trust, but to continue to work to get excess thoughts and emotional energy off my plate. The older and more experienced I get, the more I find that the only way to do that is to spend time with God, pray, read His Word, and to journal. (And to rejoice, remove distractions, let go of the past, and to worship Him.)
As for the 2026 watchwords, they don’t cancel the commands that I was given at my milestone birthday last year; if anything, these are cumulative:
“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.”II Peter 1:5-7 NKJV
Roughly 15 years ago, God gave me inspiration to set the above text (a different translation from the above) to choral music. I didn’t really understand the significance of this text very much, but I did grasp a basic understanding of the cumulative nature of the differing qualities of an authentic Christian life. These are, in a sense, a restatement of the fruits of the Spirit, which I will share momentarily to close out today’s post. The key is that there is more than one “fruit of the Spirit” (in fact, there are many). So in other words, these 2026 watchwords do not replace those that I received last year, but rather are added to them. More to come.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV