Sunday Morning Service

I pray that each of you had a wonderful Christmas together with family and friends. The Christmas holiday season is my absolute favorite time of the winter months. For a full month, we celebrate with Christmas parties, dinners, and outings. We go to plays and cantatas, attend special school events, Christmas piano recitals, and even a few basketball games. We rejoice in the season with those we love as we remember Christ’s birth, His beginning, of taking on flesh and becoming like us.

Most of us enjoy new beginnings and monumental events in our lives—the perspectives, hopes, and dreams we experience during a new phase, such as a wedding, a birth, a new career, or new opportunities that come our way. All these things are very exciting, even though they may have some inherent challenges.

I find it providential that our calendar celebrates Christ’s birth, followed one week later by New Year's, symbolizing a new beginning and a new year for our lives. I think about what the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13-14: "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."

As we consider a new year, may we be thankful for God’s provision in 2024 and for another year of life. However, may we also press on toward the goal that Christ has called us to attain as individuals and as a church. I rejoice and am thankful for God’s work at FBC in 2024, but we long for Him to do even greater things in our church in 2025.

Over the next few weeks, I will introduce a theme known as “Beyond the Walls,” seeking new opportunities to attain the goal, the prize, the upward call of God in our church. We will explore how we can be more effective in sharing, encouraging, and challenging friends and family with the good news of Jesus Christ.