Reflecting on Faith and Expecting Transformation in 2025

And so on the same day, again, one of these wonders, the same day that Mary and Joseph would have taken Jesus to the temple for this act of dedication, if you will, Simeon, it says, was led by the Spirit. And so he goes to the temple, and he's led to Mary and Joseph, they're there kind of just doing their thing, minding their own business. And Simeon walks up and asks if he could hold baby Jesus. And in that moment, the Holy Spirit reveals to him, this is the Messiah. [00:41:16] (29 seconds)


you this is the one that you've been waiting for and i want you to notice there's two things that simeon does he has a moment of reflection where he's thinking back like god you promised this to me and now you're fulfilling it you kept your word i can look back and see how you've been faithful and here's a perfect example you gave me this promise and now today you are fulfilling the promise and then he looks with expectation to the future as to what this child is going to be what he's going to accomplish he's bringing the light of the gospel not just to the nation of israel but to us to the gentiles and so in this moment there's both for simeon there's reflection on the goodness of god and faith looking forward to all that god is going to do and so today i want to spend some time doing that i want to spend some a few moments looking back and a few moments looking forward and so the first thing i want you to see is this idea of reflection and it's really just an opportunity for us to stop and to look at this past year, to look at the highs and to look at the lows. [00:41:45] (66 seconds)


Because I believe in both of them, we find that God was with us, right? We see God's hand. We see his blessing. We see his provision. In Psalms 46 and verse 10, it says this. He says, talking about God, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I think for a moment on that phrase, be still and know that I am God. [00:42:50] (28 seconds)


I think so often in our world, our lives are so busy that we just run, run, run, run, run. We go, go, go. We've got all kinds of things going on. And if you're anything like me, you go through your day going, oh God, I need you here. And God, I need help here. And God, I need wisdom for this decision. And God, I need you to show me this. And God, I need help over here. And I just go through my day just kind of praying, God, I need your help. And you know what? He's faithful. [00:43:19] (23 seconds)


Time after time after time, prayer after prayer after prayer, he answers. But I wonder how often do we stop and say, God, I want to thank you. I see what you did here. And I see what you did there. And his encouragement to us here out of this passage in the Psalms is be still. Sometimes you've got to stop running. Sometimes you just got to get a pause for just a little bit. And here's my question for you. When is the last time you stop for just a few moments? To contemplate the goodness of God in your life? [00:43:34] (36 seconds)


And you're gonna be able to celebrate the mountaintops. And you're gonna be able to look at each other. And as you're talking about those valleys, go. But he was right there. Even in the valley. Even in the hard times. Even in the trials of our lives. We can, we can declare that he's never left us. Right. And so I want you to take some time to spend in reflection. Looking back over 2024. But then I also want you to begin to look forward. To have a sense of expectation about what is God gonna do? [00:49:07] (36 seconds)


And we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory. What's this talking about? It's talking about how we've come to know Jesus as children of God, as followers of Jesus Christ, people that have put our faith and our trust in Jesus. We've made him our Savior. We've made him our Lord. And we're contemplating, we're trying to grab a hold of and understand God's glory. It goes on and says, we are being transformed. We are being transformed. [00:51:12] (26 seconds)


Not we were transformed or one day we're gonna be transformed. We are being, we are now in the process, every one of us. You and I, as children of God, we are being, we are in the process right now today of being transformed, okay, into his image with an ever -increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. We're being transformed, we're being changed. And that word transformed, I want you to understand that the word in the Greek is metamorphou. [00:51:33] (33 seconds)


And it's the word that we use to get our word metamorphosis. It's the picture of the caterpillar who goes into cocoon and then after a period of time comes out and it's a butterfly. They're completely transformed. They're completely changed. It doesn't even look the same. And I want you to realize that some of us, all of us actually, as children of God, are in this process. We are being transformed. And there's a change that needs to be happening in our lives. [00:52:28] (29 seconds)


And so I'm going to ask you, a couple of questions with that in mind, this idea that every day you should be changing. Every day you should be growing. Here's a question for you. What are you expecting God to do in your life this year? What are you expecting God to do in, in you, in your life? And I know some of you are like, oh, pastor, you know, it's just, no, that sounds like a, like a new year's resolution kind of thing. I'm, I'm not really into new year's resolutions. Okay. I get it. That's fine. [00:54:25] (32 seconds)


And I want you to think about this. What would happen if our church, from front to back, side to side, both services, our online campuses, both services, if all of us, we're talking 900 to 1 ,000 people, if we'd all come together and start praying, crying out to God, God, touch my church this year. God, do something new, do something fresh. I mean, I'm gonna be praying that, and the staff's gonna be praying that, but what if all of us were praying that? [01:09:27] (30 seconds)