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Good by 2025! Thanks for joining us this year as we counted down with the advent then counting
down this week with a focus on the Lord and His goodness! Be blessed as the day passes and the New Year shows up!
What will you do?
One Sabbath day Jesus went to eat dinner in the home of a leader of the Pharisees, and the people were watching him closely. There was a man there whose arms and legs were swollen. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in religious law, “Is it permitted in the law to heal people on the Sabbath day, or not?” When they refused to answer, Jesus touched the sick man and healed him and sent him away.
Then he turned to them and said, “Which of you doesn’t work on the Sabbath? If your son[b] or your cow falls into a pit, don’t you rush to get him out?” Again they could not answer. Luke 14:1-6
Jesus was with a gathering of people and yet He was not afraid to heal someone when it was out of order of the way the hosts would have done it.
He was not confined by the way the world thought things should be but instead Jesus stepped up and did the thing that needed being done. He shared some important things about gathering together in this chapter so go back and read the full chapter of Luke 14 on your own. You may get some great ideas for this New Years Eve!
One thing I want you to focus on is not to do things just cause everyone is doing it today.
Make space for Jesus in your celebration or just acknowledgement the calendar numbers are changing from 2025 to 2026. God first! Interject Him if you are at a family or friends gathering that does not already have a Godly focus.
I remember my favorite times on NYE were in Church at what they called a "Watch Night Service". We would gather together in worship, then we would worship in the sanctuary of the church building, then go have some food and fun for a while, then return before the end of the evening, or year. We would hear a word from the Word, a preacher or teacher would enlighten us with God focused sermons and then we would worship in songs for a while. This would end with everyone gathering to the altar and often taking communion and then praying, the praying would go on to the end of the old and beginning of the new and then we would slowly exit as we felt it was time. What an awesome peace we had as we entered the new digits!
What ever you do today, take a moment to insert Jesus into your celebrations. Stop and pray occasionally or at the final moments of the old year as it passes away. Start the new year off in praise of the Lord who has given you space to do so! Even if you are not among believers give it a try to intergect God into the equation of your time You will find your heart rejoicing as you head out the doors!
Heavenly Father, thank you that we can come to you in prayer over our new beginnings. Thank you that we can choose to celebrate a changing of time as we focus on You today and tonight! We ask for safety in our gatherings and those around us, we ask for hope to ensue as we share the Gospel message with others, and worship you in the beauty of your holiness!
In Jesus' name....