All That I Have Commanded You

Please, place us with you, with your perspective from heaven to see ourselves, see our word, our world, so we can be also bigger, greater, stronger than all things that we face in Jesus’ name. Amen. We’re blinded, but it’s your time to go. I have fun. There goes three of my grandlings.

Hey, it’s New Year’s Eve coming up. Now, are you going to watch the organ Ohio game on New Year’s day? All right. New Year’s. It’s the time for making resolutions.

Our culture does that. And they keep those resolutions, at least for the first eight days, or in Kevin’s case, the first 12, where do you go? Somewhere. It’s 12 days. And for Kelly’s case, the first one day, because she said she makes a resolution to break hers on the first day, so it gets that over with.

And then she can live on and do it right from there on out. So it’s the time when we look at our circumstances, things we’re facing, either things of our own making or things that would be fallen us. Resolve to face them a little bit differently in the world. But really, every day should be what we do. That should be our practice, right?

To intentionally face each day with the spirit of New Year’s day, a new start, and resolve to intentionally be better, do better, just to do our best for that day, for that one day. And then next, tomorrow we do it again. Because we can keep resolution for one day, at least, right? Every morning, you’ll have that success. So your resolution is to make a resolution for every day that you start.

Anyway, but speaking of resolutions, I want us to embrace one this year. Hopefully, it’s not gonna be a tough one. Because this year marks the beginning of a new presidency. I’m not gonna go and be nasty here. But it’s following very divisive election, and I think we’re gonna be having lots of divisive stuff coming on us for the next few years.

Whether we like it or not. Because we have a system in this country, a media system that foments division for their profit. And so it’s gonna be continually pouring upon us. We have what’s called a political commentary media. It’s gonna continue to portray this division as a fight between right and wrong and light and darkness.

One really, it’s just a matter of political differences. They’re gonna continue their straw man logical fallacies to advance that falsehood because it’s effectively addictive. Generates followers, and it makes them money, okay? And we are there sheep to be sheep. And they’ve done this so successfully that studies are now showing that people who voted in the last election oftentimes did not like the candidate they voted for, but they voted for that candidate simply because it would keep those evil others out of office.

Not because they liked what their candidate would keep the others out. It’s gotten that tribal. It’s led them to somehow viscerally despise and distrust the other side. But here’s the problem that the media has created for us, all of us in this room, is that our congregation has a good number of sincere, dedicated followers of Jesus on both sides. Of that divide.

And that by itself should tell you something about the falsehoods of that media poison. So our resolution should be to keep this divisive poison out of this congregation. Out of our fellowship, out of our discussions, out of our topics. Because anything heard or overheard in here that denigrates the other side, whichever that is, will close hearts and minds on that side to whatever else might be said. And if there are visitors that come and they’re on that other side, what makes us think they’ll come back?

So from my part, I’ll not participate in this conflict with you because I know that first of all, not everyone will agree with the positions I hold and that nothing I say will change anyone’s political leanings because people who study these things have demonstrated that facts, data, and rational arguments do not change minds in these matters, much less any amateur commentary that I might make. Because the political commentary business has contrived successfully to make Republicans and Democrats emotionally demonize, despise, and denigrate the other side. And it has profited them well. And it has poisoned us. Are you as uncomfortable as I am?

Okay. Because we, like most of America, have become tribal as a result. We become emotional, loyal followers of one political side or another. Now I’ve made one political comment from this pulpit and it was a poke actually at both political parties and was just after the election. But I quickly learned that very few of us caught that double-sided nuance.

Was selectively filtered by our brains and interpreted to support one side or the other, which you might have been on, to the court, you know, whatever tribal bias you happen to hold. And as a result, a lot of you approached me and made presumptions about my stance and spoke to me of political things as though I was on the side you held. So I apologize for that. Because I know that I’m as infected with this as most of this in here are, as everybody else. But I’m striving to keep these passions out of our fellowship and thus only a very few of you really know how I lean.

Okay. And I hope that stays the same, stays the way. So now, Christians, like most of their Americans, have been conditioned by our political media to be tribal followers of one political party or another. But as Christians, we have a higher tribe that has a rightful claim on that loyalty and have a leader of that tribe who was worthy of and demands our followership to the forsaking of any other that might so division in his tribe. Okay.

We are his followers. And we are to be inclusively active in making followers of him and not to be tribal in our own differences. So, it’s New Year’s and I want that to be our New Year’s resolution as a church to keep that poison out of our fellowship. Amen? Okay.

Let’s look at the Great Commission. Okay. Because that’s where I want to go. Now, I know that our selection committee for a new pastor and John and I are looking forward to that someday. Not that we don’t like preaching, we do, but it’s fun.

But you know, you got to come up with something to talk about. And I’m a pretty shallow guy, really. And it’s sometimes it’s hard to dig down there and find something. So I got to look out there and find things and Amy often asked me, “Where do you get the topics for your sermons? How do you come up with those things and I stumble around and come up with some goofball answer?”

But anyway, but I have a plan for all the next sermons coming up that’ll make it easy on me and hopefully profitable and enjoyable for you. For the next, who knows how many ever sermons that I’ll get the privilege of sharing with you. And it’s going to be based on the Great Commission because what does Jesus say there? I’ll talk about it in a minute. Matthew 28, 18 to 20.

My notes have made heaven and error in it. Okay. Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given me go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you and behold, I’m with you always to the end of the age.” And I want you to look at that as one task. With two how-tos, okay?

We’re to make disciples of all nations. Notice it didn’t say make disciples in all nations, baptizing them and teaching them Jesus’s commands and teaching them to observe them, okay? Now I learned something startling to me when I was studying this because I like the Bible at the Bible hub, because I can go to all the different translations, I can go to the or Greek in a linear Hebrew, I can then go from there to those words in Greek and Hebrew and get into some bolts and details of that and that’s always fun for me. So I did that on this verse and I looked at the term make disciples. And to my surprise, it’s one verb.

Now it’s not a verb and a noun. Go and make, make us a verb and disciples that’s a noun. Go make disciples. No, that’s not it. The verb is make disciples.

As in the verb is go disciple, disciple being the action, not the result, disciple is the action. The word is a form of the verb methe t-u-o. Is that helpful? No, that’s just you can be impressed that I can say something like that. I don’t know that I did my homework.

Anyway, that’s the reason why you’ll find some translations that say disciple all nations, disciple people in all nations using the word disciple as the verb that it is rather than a noun like most of our English translations say make disciples of all nations. The word is disciple. And that Greek word describes the process of teaching and guiding individuals to become followers of a teacher. It’s a common word in the Greek. It’s not unique to the New Great Commission.

But in the New Testament, it’s used to describe the teaching and guiding of individuals to become followers of Jesus Christ. You know that. It involves not only imparting knowledge, but also shaping the character and the life to align with the teachings of Christ. Page three. Remember Paul Harvey?

Page two. How many of you don’t know Paul Harvey? Really? Okay, George. There we go.

Thank you. Now I went right over your head and that’s just fine. Now the teaching that I received when I was growing up as a Christian was that was a verb followed by a noun. Go make disciples. And it differentiated disciples from other nouns like believers or Christians or followers with perhaps the idea that being a disciple was more or better or greater than being just a Christian or a follower or a believer.

In the circles that I ran in, it was used to motivate me to be more like an apostle, perhaps to more of a commitment to action, perhaps. As if somehow the others were inadequate. I look at that today and I’m thinking, you know, my mother recently passed away. And bless Bonnie, we have inherited lots of stuff from her in our garage. Lots of boxes of things that we have to wade through.

And one thing she kept was all of my letters that I wrote back from college. So I’m reading them, scanning them, throwing them away. I worked on it copies of them, not have to manage paper. And one of the challenges of that is it takes me back to where I was back then. I see the person that I was back then and frankly I didn’t like what I saw.

A lot of things I didn’t like what I saw. And part of it was this, this idea that disciple being a disciple was, like I said, something more than being a follower or a believer of Jesus. I wish that would have been taught that, you know, we’re all followers and believers. That’s great. I want you for this work.

Just distinguish that rather than saying a disciple is more than the rest. Anyway, that’s my problem. But the term disciple really isn’t anything more than just a follower. Because if I looked at where this word was used elsewhere in scriptures, like Matthew 1252, if you want to write that down, or Acts 14, 21, or Matthew 2757, the term disciple is really nothing more than just a follower of Jesus. It’s the same thing.

But in my circles, it was your disciple. You’re going to be out there doing this and this and this and this. And you’ll be doing more than those and those and those. Anyway, the great commission is that we are to go disciple nations and disciple people, make followers of Jesus. And there’s two ways we do that.

Baptism and teaching, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded. So two steps. Disciple in process. Now the baptism stuff, I’m focusing on a lot. Baptism is more in this context than simply dunking somebody under water, getting your hair wet.

It’s more than that. It’s more than simply that simple religious activity. Baptism in the scriptures is a picture of what happens to us. When we’re crucified with Christ, buried with him, resurrected to newness of life. Remember this?

Baptism. Lead people through that transformative process where God regenerates them and changes who they are. That’s the whole idea behind baptism. Jesus said, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. That addition to that, that command implies that there’s some authority behind it, some intended result, something to be changed.

Otherwise that would have been included. But the second half of it is where I want to go. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Now as a hint from my following up sermons here on till whenever, I’m going to go through the commands of Jesus. I’ve gone online and I’ve found multiple lists of the commands that Jesus gave, the teachings that he gave.

And so that’ll be an endless source of sermon material for the future. Amy, that’s your question. So it’ll be fun for me to go through those things. Now, if you’ve tolerated my teaching in the past, you know that I go into the nets and bolts of how to do these things. So when I go into these commands, that is what I want to do.

Not just what Jesus said, but how nitty gritty step, one step, two step, three of obedience to those things, okay? There’s two verbs in that second half of the Great Commission. Teaching, observe, teaching them to observe all that kind of, you know, teaching. It’s not just telling or reminding or brow-biting or coercing. The Greek word is thydasco.

And I got a lot of sentences here about it as if it really is life-changing, but it’s not. It means teaching. So no big deal. The word observe I found was interesting. Notice he says teaching them to observe.

He didn’t say teaching them to obey. And there’s a difference there. That’s a worthy of note. Because observe has the connotation of watching over, protecting, preserving for generations in the future, teaching them to observe, keeping his commandments sure, but also keeping them alive and irrelevant and passing them down. The term would have brought to be resonated with the early church, as a call to diligently preserve the teachings and commandments of Jesus in that culture that was often hostile to their faith.

So it’s far more than simply doing what we’re told. There’s a preserving aspect, a preserving and a passing on aspect to that word observe, okay? A lot of time in Paul’s theology in Romans about our Christian life, that’s kind of been focused on the baptism part, the changing of our character and nature, how to think and see this Christian life. So I’m gonna shift my teachings to Jesus’ commands. Now, they use the word command, which is important.

Because command has with it the expectation of obedience, right? So today, what I wanna focus on in the last 15 minutes here is what obedience is about. Because the word obedience in the Greek carries with it, excuse me, the word command in the Greek has, I was with it the attention of the expectation of obedience to it. The command word in Greek includes the expectation of obedience and following the command. It’s a word that bespeaks authority.

I’m commanding you this. I am a person in authority and I’m saying do this. That’s how Jesus was using that word, okay? So we’re gonna focus on that word obedience, because that’s our core. So pause, change gears here.

Why in the world would we obey Jesus’ commands? Ask yourself that question. Why do you do that? Because we love him. That’s good enough.

It’s what’s best for us. That’s good enough. It’s not like what my mom had said, because I told you so. No, it’s not that. And because he told us so it is good enough, I guess.

That’s right. That’s right. All authority has been given to me. It’d be wise to follow somebody who has all authority, right? Anyway, that’s what we’re up to.

Why? My biggest motivation, personally, is for peace. A lot of what I’ve been teaching in the past and going into is, is so that we could have peace in our Christian life. Peace with ourselves, because if anything like I am, and I know I’m a lot like I am, I don’t have a lot of peace with myself sometimes. I can be just an idiot.

I can fail. And I get down on myself. Anyway, I need that peace. And I get that when I’m committed to following Christ wants me to do, and I’m doing it with him. I get that peace.

Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28 to 29, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Now, you’ve heard the sermons on this before. I don’t reiterate it. We’re supposed to find rest by taking on his yoke.

And the yoke, as you know, is what you put on oxen before you put them to work. Take my yoke. You’re going to work, but you’re going to find rest for your souls. Rest internally. So I like to obey because it gives me peace.

Jesus’ teachings is often for our own good. Yeah, the advancement of his kingdom, for sure. It’s often for our own good. And personal peace, spiritual, mental peace, tops that list, what’s good for us. How does it bring peace?

Let’s dig into that a little bit. How does obedience bring you personal peace? Here’s thoughts that I had. When you obey, first of all, there’s nothing to hide. Nothing to hide.

Nothing to be found out. You don’t have to keep secrets. There’s nothing to fear. Nothing for which you might be reprimanded or disciplined. Now, you’ll be persecuted for following Christ, perhaps not so much in this culture as they were in theirs.

Back then, I know a lot of Christians think they’re being persecuted, but oftentimes they’re being persecuted simply because they’re being morons. Not for following Christ. Anyway, nothing to fear. And by obedience, there’s no consequences to dread. So there’s peace in all of that.

We also obey for our well-being. There are stronger relationships that come about when we’re living in the center of good God wants us to do the way he wants us to do it. There’s joy and there’s purpose. And forgiveness, and that makes our good relationships. Also, for our testimony, our reputation and the respect, the world is watching.

When we live like Christ lived, you kind of stand out in a good way. That’s really what we want, to stand out in a good way. Unlike our politics, his teachings are not divisive. You may be thinking, but Jesus said, if you follow me, it’ll be, anyway, we’ll get to that. It’s not divisive.

I did a lot of thinking on this, and I could be wrong. I’ll say that right up front, but here’s the observations I have so far. I looked at the history of our church, not our church, the church, okay? Way back in from AD 33 till today. A huge number of divisions divides once, and it divides twice, and then each of those divide, and we have all these denominations and differences among people who believe that Christ died for their sins.

If you think about it, lots of them. And as I thought about it, I’m trying to keep my hands away from my mouth, okay? So I thought about it. My conclusion was that churches didn’t, when they looked at why they divided, what they divided over, they weren’t from the teachings of Jesus. They were from the teachings of the apostles that followed.

The doctrines that we developed from the teachings of Jesus. And you can go do some homework on that and educate me more. But I found that interesting, because when I looked at those doctrinal differences, they were found in the epistles, not in the gospels, time and time again. That was interesting to me. Because if you look at all the religions in history, the monotheistic ones I’m referring to here, whether it’s Judaism or Christianity, or Muslim, they all began with somebody bringing a teaching, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad.

And then from those teachings, doctrines developed, and people divided over those doctrines. There’s a message in there somewhere, which reminds me of Jesus’ point when he was berating the scribes and Pharisees who were teaching his doctrine, the precepts of men. So anyway, we’re gonna look at the commands of Jesus, ’cause they’re not divisive. Now, what is divisive about following Jesus? Who am I in my notes anyway?

Okay, here’s what is divisive. Religion is divisive. How we practice, things will emphasize, those can be divisive. Because imposing his commands on others through legal or political means is divisive. Jesus is not commanding us to do that.

He’s commanding us to make followers and teach those followers to obey. Not to impose his commands for obedience on others. You make followers. The followers are to obey. Because imposing those things can be divisive.

It’s probably good that society embraces those. That’s a different story than us imposing them. So we’re talking about personal application here only when we’re talking about obedience. Living out his teachings also can be divisive. Why?

Well, here’s one. In close relationships, it can be divisive because it changes who you are. And close relationships are often built on who you were, perhaps not who you are or becoming. So that can be divisive. Not because you’re being an idiot in your behaviors, but simply because your behaviors are changing and that can be uncomfortable or the differences can be stark.

And that can be divisive. Changing character. That can be divisive. Our challenge in those situations is to embrace that change of character in a loving fashion knowing the kind of impact it’s having on others around you. Simple because you’re being better, getting better in your life doesn’t always translate to your relationship getting better if the other person’s not walking with you.

And that can be divisive. And getting better in a loving fashion. Minimizing the impact that that may have on others. Does that make sense? Okay, all right.

Get your hand away from your mouth. Because somebody out here reads my lips and can’t hear what I’m saying. So if I do this, they can’t see what I’m doing. Anyway, they can’t hear me. Anyway.

Being a light in a dark world can attract opposition. Be that bright light anyway. That’s going to cause division. That’s just the way it’s going to be. And we live with that and we overcome that.

Do it anyway. But be it in a loving fashion. Be gentle and humble in heart as Jesus said he was. So how do we obey? Of the fun stuff.

How do we do it? Well, we’ve covered this in Romans actually quite a bit. Here’s a hint, Romans 6 17. But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You became obedient from the heart.

That’s the key to obedience. Remember that discipline chart that I taught long ago where we had glorified God. We do it by our words and our actions. We only let those only glorify God to the extent that he’s Lord of our life. He’s only Lord of our life if we have a love relationship with him.

We only love somebody if we know them. We only know them if we spend time with them in the word and prayer. Spending time with God changes us. And that’s where our discipline needs to be applied. On there at the bottom in that time with God.

Because that’s what changes us. And then obedience glorifying him words and actions of come from the changed person. That’s what he’s saying here. You became obedient from the heart. When that happens, we’re no longer resisting what Jesus commands.

And our flesh will resist. But our spirit won’t. Because when we change, it becomes the normal thing to do. And that’s the goal in our Christian life is to change, like to become like the master. So that obedience becomes the normal thing in our lives.

The key to this, Romans 6 12 to 13. And do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. But present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your body parts as instruments of righteousness to God. Backing up there, present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead. There’s a key there.

The idea is to present. That’s the key to obedience. We present ourselves to God. Come slaved to the one that we present ourselves to. Paul said in Romans 6 16.

Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience? You are slaves of that same one whom you obey. Either of sin resulting in death or obedience resulting in righteousness. So obedience comes from within, but it starts with the choice and action of presenting yourself. So obedience will always start with a choice and an action on our part of presenting.

So how do we practically make that choice and how do we practically present? So strap in. Here we go. Details. Nuts and bolts.

We’re going to be tested in our lives. So let’s start before the test. How do we prep our hearts and minds to be obedient? First up, be intentional about the sin in your life, the imperfections that you have, your tendencies. Be consciously aware of it.

Don’t sleep it under the rug or push it behind you or try to ignore it. Bring it out in front of you in all of its ugly glory and look at it. Be honest with yourself about it. This is who I am. This is where my weaknesses lie.

Prep yourself here. Identify those weaknesses and acknowledge the power that they have to subtly control your thoughts and desires and then your actions. Know what they are. Realize that they have power. Acknowledge that.

Be honest with yourself about those things. Put them up there in front. It’s kind of freeing when you do that actually because you’re not hiding from something. You’re not ignoring something. You’re not putting something in the back of your brain.

You’re bringing it forward and dealing with it. And that’s a good thing. Be intentional about living a life of surrender. So you consciously present yourself to God. You acknowledge these things to yourself.

And of course of that, you of course acknowledge them to God. He really does appreciate our intense honesty in this area. He wants us to know what these things are. He wants us to see ourselves clearly. So consciously present yourself to God.

Just as you consciously brought those sins forward, consciously bring them before God and yourself before God in prayer each day and you commit to this. It’s a continual communication with God where you’re constantly presenting yourself to Him. God, here is who I am. All the guts and feathers. I’m giving this to you.

You’re confessing sin. You’re seeking His guidance and your strength. You’re simply presenting yourself in your will, in your brain, whatever it takes to Him. And secondly, before the test, you expect the test and you get ready for it because you know it’s coming. You know your weaknesses.

I played water pole in high school and our coach required us to go for swimming if one to go for water pole. I liked water pole. I did not like swimming. I tolerated it. I wasn’t really that good at swimming fast.

Good swimming, not fast. Anyway, we have these races, right? And swimmers get on their starting blocks and the gun goes off and they fire off. I remember one race. I remember this one because our coach was gone and a track coach was there.

And track is also a case where you start off the blocks and you run. And I recall sitting before my race and I was visualizing myself on the blocks. I was visualizing myself bending over. I was visualizing myself grabbing those ends. I was visualizing myself coiling like a spring, tensing with the muscles.

I was visualizing myself, just blasting off as soon as that sound came. So I got up on the blocks and all of that happened just exactly as I visualized it. And the track coach came up layering and said, “I could not believe what I saw.” Because it was so immediate, so fast. Let’s hear this.

To convince you of the power of personal visualization of what you do and who you are. It’s not some focus, focus, a new age, mind-over-matter nonsense. It’s how God made your brain. So use it. Visualize yourself at that point of temptation.

And visualizing yourself there, praying in communion with God at that point of temptation. Visualize yourself resisting, making another choice, walking away, doing something different, whatever. Whether it’s words or actions, overeating, things you say, whatever it happens to be, visualize yourself making another choice, keeping your mouth shut, not doing whatever that thing is. You’ll be amazed at the results. Play it out in your mind.

Intentionally and actively relying on God at that point. Play that through in your mind. Play through a conversation if you have conflicts with people. Always in prayer. But visualize it.

God gave you a brain that works a certain way, so use it in the way he made it to work. For your advantage, who begins to him. At the test. This is all before the test. And the test is coming.

So now the test is here. At the point of testing. What do we do? It’s very simple. Index is very simple.

You choose. And you act. Okay? Choose an act. That’s what we do.

Just as you intentionally and specifically visualize before, intentionally choose and act rightly. This is your will at work. God holds us accountable for what we do and how we apply our will. Okay? Now of course this is not in your own power.

You’ve done this spiritual prep. You’re living in reliance on God moment by moment anyway. The fact that you’re here is not because you’ve sinned you get here, sin may still come. You’re not there yet either. But here you have this tipping point.

But you’ve prepared yourself spiritually. That’s the whole thing. You’ve done the homework. You’re living in reliance on him. Now, at the point of temptation, you don’t necessarily need to stop and engage in some spiritual activity of praying or giving it to God or doing whatever.

I mean, you can if you want. But oftentimes those circumstances don’t allow that. Work to grow and to become so that how we react to these things is reflex, is automatic. Like Daniel 1132, a certain translation of it says, “The people who know their God displays strength and take action.” I like that.

“People who know their God displays strength and take action.” It’s who we are. Just take the right action. Choose and act. First of all, even before that at that point of test, your eyes have to be open to see and know that you’re at that point of test.

Are you in a conversation with somebody? Is it getting heated? Are these the circumstances that bring you to the point where you often screw up? Recognize those things. Am I alone?

Midnight, am I hungry? Am I down at the refrigerator again? These are the points I recognize when these things are happening. Just take the right action. Because here’s God’s promise.

1 Corinthians 10, 13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.” So it’s on you if you succumb. It’s on you.

But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Now the goal here is to make this a lifestyle. It’s going to start out mechanical like everything else. It becomes routine in our life. It starts out mechanical.

But the goal is to make this a lifestyle, to do this consciously. So that we develop an obedience reflex that God will strengthen over time. Make the choice to obey in the little things consistently. Practice this in the little things. Your brain will form patterns and habits of obedience will form.

God made your brain this way. Use it. Start mechanically. It will come naturally. And as we grow, God’s promises will come to bear fruit for us in this.

Philippians 2, 13, “For it’s God who works in you, He’s a working you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. As God works in you, He creates the desire and the automatic reflexes to do what is right. He makes you want that. And He makes you do that naturally over time. He’s at work in you to make that happen.

To both want it and to do it. To will and to work for His good pleasure. Psalm 37.4, “And result, delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Obedience to Him becomes a desire of our heart.” And that’s over.

So why are we obeying so that we can be an effective and attractive light in this divided world? We are a city on the hill. We want to become one that draws people. We want to become one that shines before men that see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5, 16.

Let’s pray. Father, it’s a new year. Please help us to embrace that as the opportunity to be new, to be stronger, to be obedient, followers of you. Help us to make, well, we’re not going to make disciples. Help us to disciple others.

And teach them to observe all that you’ve commanded. Teach us to observe and obey. In Jesus’ name, amen. I have not to stay as you may remember. For I have nothing, I have nothing without you.

Let us sing the songs of mercy I have found.

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 6,011 words.