New Years - Week 1
Question for kids:
What was one of the best things that happened to you this year?
We get to this point in the year and we like to think back on everything that we’ve experienced over the last 12 months. Spotify tells us what songs and artists we’ve listened to the most. Facebook and Instagram’s Year in Review shows us highlights from the year. I even had one of my students share his running milestones over the year from an app that he uses to track it. We love to reminisce.
We can also look back sometimes and feel a sense of regret. Things that we wanted to accomplish but didn’t. Maybe it was resolutions that we set on January 1st that were quickly forgotten. We can look back over the year and beat ourselves up a little bit.
Over the next 2 weeks, we are going to spend some time with one foot in 2024, and one in 2025. We are going to straddle the line between December 31st and January 1st. This morning, we are going to look back over the last year. What I’d love to help you with is an intentional reflection on what God has done in your life. Then, next week, we are going to look ahead. What are the things that we want to see God do in our lives over the next year?
To help us out, I want to take us on a bit of a journey. Back around 2100 BC, a man named Abram was enjoying life in Haran when the Lord showed, and told him to pack everything up and leave. In fact, God made a covenant with Abram, a promise that included descendents, land, and a blessing. Over time, God continually reaffirms the covenant. He reminds Isaac, Abraham’s son, of the promise. He then confirms the covenant through Jacob who becomes Israel. This is Abraham’s grandson. We then see mention of aspects of the covenant in the blessing of Judah, one of Jacob’s sons and Abraham’s great-grandson.
Then, after each generation is reminded of the covenant, something terrible happens. In about 1876 BC, roughly 200 years after God made the promise to Abraham, Israel was enslaved in Egypt. And for the next 430 years, this is where they stayed. 430 years crying out to the Lord with no answer. Moses enters the scene, and in 1446 BC, Israel is freed from Egyptian oppression. They cross the Red Sea into the wilderness. But, the promise is yet to be fulfilled. There was no land, and they were not a blessing to the nations. So, for 40 years they wandered, through the wilderness on their way to the land that the Lord had promised. And finally, they arrive at the Jordan River, at the precipice. Right across the river is the land. God was about to fulfill His promise.
Turn over to Joshua chapter 4. Moses’ time as leader was drawing to an end. The torch had been passed to Joshua, and he would be the one to lead the Israelites into Canaan, into their promised land. This is the moment that God fulfilled His promise to Abraham.
Read Joshua 4:1-9
Out of this passage, I want us to have two main points of application. In fact, it’s kind of a two step process for us this morning to help us think through this last year. The first step is in the form of a question, and the second in the form of tangible, concrete application.
1. What did God do?
In the case of the Israelites, He freed them from slavery, led them across the wilderness, caused the Jordan River to stand still so that nearly 2,000,000 people could cross over, and gave them the gift of land. A promise that was 800 years in the making. This is what God did. So what is it in your life that God did in the last year? We’re going to do something a bit different today. I have some friends that are going to share some personal testimony about what the Lord did for them over the last year.
Interviews:
Charlie Hester
Brian Hoegg
Nolan/Nancy Ku
2. Write it down!
In our passage in Joshua, the Israelites were instructed to set up 12 stones on top of each other. The point was so that when future generations would see the stones, they would be reminded of what God did. Now I’m not sure if you are in the discipline of journaling. I have tried, and I honestly wish I did it more often. But journaling can be a powerful tool in that you can look back on what God has done in your life. Now, what I want us to do this morning is take a few moments to reflect on the year. We’ll have some music playing just so we don’t sit in awkward silence, but I’d love for each of us to spend a few moments to reflect and then write down those things that you’ve seen the Lord do. (Notecards).
