0:00 [music] This is the last Sunday of the year and God has been faithful as we've been singing throughout this year. So many 0:17 times I think where we didn't know what was going to happen in our lives and we prayed and asked the Lord to help us and God helped us through those situations. And it's only God's kindness that he's left led us to see the end of this year. Um, and so 0:36 I was thinking about this. God has new beginnings. Many times in the Old Testament, you see how in Noah's flood, everything of the old was wiped away and everything was made new again. A 0:54 second chance. Then at the very end which we read here in Revelation 21 verse 5. You can turn with me to Revelation 21:5. At the beginning of the Bible we see 1:12 that he makes all things new again. And then at the end of the Bible also it says here in Revelation 21:5, "And he who sits on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new." And he said, "Right, for these words are 1:31 faithful and true. I'm making all things new." And you see that throughout our lives as well. You see that he takes broken people, broken lives and makes something new out of it as well. In each of our lives, there's a testimony we can say what our lives used 1:49 to be like broken what the devil meant to destroy, kill, steal, and destroy. And God took that which was broken and and and take took that and made something new out of it. 2:06 And so as I was thinking about these things, I was thinking about something that Jesus said in John chapter 3. If you turn turn with me to John chapter 3, John uh Jesus was talking to a man named Nicodemus. And Nicodemus knew the scriptures. He 2:27 had gone to the gatherings of those days. And this is something that Jesus said. Verse 9, John 3:9, Nicodem Nicodemus said to him, "How can these be? How can these things be?" Verse 10, Jesus 2:45 answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?" Verse 11, he says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we've seen, and you do not accept our 3:02 testimony." Meaning, Jesus has said that the only person who's gone to heaven and has really seen what heaven is like is me. And I'm going to tell you what heaven is like, what are the things that are important in heaven, what's going to be 3:17 after death, what's going to happen. All of these things I'm going to tell you because I'm the only one who's been there and can tell you that. And so today also God tells us through his word what things in heaven are like. 3:33 What God finds important in life. What after this life is over is going to be like. All of those things God tells us because he's the only one who's seen it. In verse 11, uh, verse 12, it says, "If I told you earthly things and you do not 3:49 believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" If I tell you things that are happening in heaven, how are you going to believe if I tell you simple things and you don't believe it? And I want to ask that question for 4:02 myself as well. Would Jesus look at me, AJ, I told you earthly things and you didn't believe those simple things. How can I tell you heavenly things and you're going to believe it? And one of those things is I see the seriousness of sin. I don't see the 4:21 seriousness of sin because I never been to heaven. I never knew what sin the seriousness of sin is. But Jesus said that sin is serious. And if you see with turn with me to Matthew 5. 4:39 Matthew 5, Jesus spoke about the sin of our tongue and the sin of our eyes. [clears throat] Verse 21, you have heard Matthew 5:21, 4:56 you have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. Verse 22. But I say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the 5:12 court. And whoever says to his brother, "You good for nothing," shall be be guilty before the Supreme Court. And whoever says, "You fool," shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. As I grew up in life, I didn't think 5:33 getting angry was this serious. But I also don't know what heaven is like. I've never been there. The one who's been there and has come down from heaven says that this is what anger is like. It's like murdering 5:49 someone and this is how God takes it. And God would have to ask me a do you believe my words? I'm telling you heavenly things. I'm telling you things from heaven's perspective of what God thinks about anger. And there's an answer. Either I have to 6:05 say yes, I believe it, Lord, or no, Lord, I don't believe what you said. Yes, you said anger is serious, but I don't believe it. And each of us has that choice. And God will ask us, do you believe the words that I'm saying to 6:19 you? If we believed what Jesus said, who's gone to heaven and come down, what would we do with anger? Each one of us, anyone can answer. What would we do with our anger if we really believed Jesus who saw who came down from heaven said that anger was this 6:39 serious that it could take us to hell. I think we would all take it. I would take it very seriously if I really believe that this is how serious anger is. And then Jesus could say, "Yes, you believe heavenly things as well." Verse 6:58 27, if you go down further, it says, "You have heard, it was said, you shall not commit adultery." Verse 28, "But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman to lust with her has already committed adultery with her in his in 7:13 his heart." Verse 29, "If your right eye makes you to sin, tear it out and throw it from you. For it is better for you to lose one eye, one part of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown in hell. Verse 30. If your right hand makes 7:31 you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you. For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. The only one who knows what the seriousness of lust is is Jesus because 7:49 he knows what it is. When he came down from heaven, he said, "This is what it is." I wouldn't have known that lusting with my eyes was this serious unless Jesus told me. And if I take God's word seriously and I 8:07 believe what Jesus said was to be true. The one who the only one who's come down from heaven, then I know in my own life that I would take it seriously. And I remember as a young person when I heard these words about sin. 8:23 I'd go to the meetings, I'd hear the messages, I'd come back home. And the way I knew that I wasn't taking it seriously and I believed the words that I was hearing. Yes, I heard that it was getting angry was wrong and it was sinful. It could 8:39 lead me to hell. I know that lusting with my eyes is wrong. It's sinful. It could lead me to hell. But the way I knew whether I believed it or not truly was once I came home, when I was tempted to get angry and I got angry, what did I do with it? Oh, 8:57 that's okay. Everybody in this world gets angry, so it's just okay. Everybody in this world lusts with their eyes. So it must be okay. And then I pacify my conscience to say it's okay. That means I don't take what God said 9:12 seriously. And what I noticed in my life was I was playing games with God. I'd go I hear the words. I know it's true. But deep down in my heart I was not planning to obey that word that I heard. 9:31 And there came a day in my life I said, "Lord, I'm going to stop playing games with you. I'm going to take the words you've shared with me seriously." Yes, we've sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And I'm thankful that 9:48 there's a way of hope. It's not a message just that we've failed and we've sinned, but there's a message of hope that there's forgiveness in Jesus. No matter how far we've fallen, no matter how this year has been, 2025, 10:02 there is still hope. No far no matter how far we've fallen, there's hope that we could be set free this morning. And so I said one day in my room, I said, "Lord, I'm going to stop playing games with you." I was only a teenager, 10:22 but I knew the seriousness of what God was speaking to me. And I know how I was playing games. I'd go and hear the meeting. I'd hear the words that I heard, but it was not I was not taking it seriously. I would not be even sorry 10:34 and repenting for the things that I knew that was wrong. That's how I knew that I was playing games with God. There was another man in the Old Testament also who used to play games with God. It was Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. 10:52 Moses would go and tell him, "Let the people go." What would he say? "Yes, yes, I'll let the people go." And then after Moses leaves, would he let the people go? No. He was just playing, he thought, "Okay, I can get away with 11:08 it." And then once the punishment started to wean away, the consequences of his disobedience weaned away, then again he would say, "Okay, no, I'm not going to let the people go." And then another punishment or another circumstance would come and Moses would 11:23 say, "Let the people go." Okay, this time I'm truly going to let the people go. Over and over again, playing games with God. Another area, forgiving one another, forgiving others. 11:43 If you turn with me to Matthew 6, Matthew 6 verse 14, for if you forgive others for their sins, your heavenly 12:00 father will also forgive you. Verse 15, but if you do not forgive others, then your father will not forgive you your sins. Jesus said this the one who went to heaven saw what heaven is like what is important in heaven what's not important 12:19 in heaven he came and said forgiveness is very important that you have to forgive everyone how do I know I'm I take his word seriously and I believe it that means I would forgive everyone and it says in verse 11 uh verse 12 12:38 Matthew 6:12 and forgive us our sins as we also have forgiven others who have sinned against us. And how do we forgive others that have sinned against us? Sometimes when someone does something 12:56 harm to us, we say, you know what, I'll forgive you, but I'll never I'll never forget it. I'll never forget it. I'll choose not to forget it. I'll always remember what you did. There's there's a difference between saying that 13:13 I've forgiven someone and I'm trying not to remember it and I accidentally remembered it versus saying, you know what, I'm going to I'm going to forgive you, but I'm not going to forget it. What you did to me was so hurtful. I'm 13:28 not going to ever forget what you've done to me. It says in Hebrews Hebrews chapter 8 when God forgives forgives us it says in 13:50 Hebrews 8:12 for I will be merciful to their sins and I will remember their sins no more. When we look at our sins, we want God to forgive them and we want him not to 14:07 remember them anymore. And when somebody else al comes to us and asks for our forgiveness, how should it be? Lord, to the best of my ability, I want to forgive this person with all my heart. And also, Lord, help me to also 14:26 not remember what they've done. Help me to forget it. We forget many things. We forget our car keys. We forgive so many things in life. Why can't we forget what the other person had did to us? Let that also be something that we forgot. 14:43 And I think about this. Sometimes some person might do something hard, really harmful to us and we have to forgive them. But sometimes it might not be something that bad. If you turn with me to Ephesians chapter Verse 15:16 32, Ephesians 4:32, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has also forgiven you. And in one place, it says, if anyone has a complaint against another, just a complaint. And as you go through 15:36 the people that you know in your life, maybe they didn't do you any harm, but they you just have a complaint. They did this or they didn't do this. You just have a small complaint. You know what we need to do? Forgive. I think it might be found in Colossians. 15:54 If someone knows where it is, you can mention it. But what is it? 3:13. Colossians 3:13. Colossians 3:13, bearing with one another and forgiving 16:16 one each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. It's just a simple complaint. It might not be something big. And each of us I think more than each of us even during a week. 16:36 Somebody does something and we have a small complaint against them. And I think about that Lord this is just a complaint but I want to forgive. I don't want to have anything against anybody. I want to forgive them. And even as I 16:50 forgive them I want to remember how I want you to forgive me. I don't want you to remember anything I've done. I want to make sure that you completely forgiven me. That there's no trace of it. You've cleansed me fully. You're not 17:02 holding anything against me. You're pleased with me. You justified me. That's how I want God to forgive me. And when other people sin against me, Lord, I want to do the same for them as well. And we read of a man, a parable that 17:17 Jesus spoke about forgiveness. As we're ending this year 2025, I'm sure that all the things that we've done in on the especially the our 17:35 failures all through this year, we don't want God to hold those against us. We want to leave those behind in this year. We don't want to take it to the next year. And so I see that this is really something that's important. Verse 17:51 21, Peter came. Matthew 18:21. And Peter came to him and said,"Lord, how often should my brother sin against me and I forgive him up to 70 seven times?" In verse 22, Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 18:09 70* 7." And then he started this parable. Verse 23. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven might be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. There's one day when every single one of us will have to settle 18:27 accounts with God. All our accounts. And one of the accounts that we'll have to settle with God is whether we have forgiven everyone. That's one of the accounts. Verse 24. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed them 10,000 18:46 talents was brought to him. Now, one talent according to what it says in the margin of my Bible, one talent was, do you know how long you had to work to earn? One talent? 19:00 15 years. 15 years was one talent. And so, if any of you who are working, multiply what you earned per year by 15 years. That's how much you had to you you owed. And that's how I read it for a very long 19:20 time till I realized that I read it incorrectly. That's the price for one talent. This man didn't owe one talent. Do you know how much he owed? 10,000 talents. I felt, you know, 15 years is not bad. 19:38 Most of us, some of us may have worked already 15 years. You know, it's somehow you can pay it off. But once it becomes 10,000 talents, it's 150,000 years you have to pay to. And Jesus was telling you, we don't live 150,000 19:58 years, but even if you did, that's how long it would take to pay off this debt. And Jesus was telling each one of us, there's no way you're going to be able to pay off this tech, this debt. Every single one of us is a sinner 20:16 and is need of forgiveness and it's 150,000 years worth of labor to pay off that debt. And it goes on to say that there's another person who came and owed him um [clears throat] 20:38 and he said he said u that God forgave him said you know what that 150,000 years of debt you have towards me I'm going to completely forgive you. You're not going to have to pay even even one 20:55 penny. all forgiven. And he goes on and then he goes to his fellow slave. Verse 28. Verse verse 27, it says, "The Lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt." Verse 28, 21:13 "But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a 100 daenery." That's a 100 days of salary, which is about 3 to four months. and began to choke him, saying, "Pay back what you owe." So this fellow slave 21:29 fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, "Have patience with me, and I will repay you." So when his verse 30, but he was unwilling, and he went and threw him in prison, and until he should pay back what he was owed. 21:46 Verse 31. So when the fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported it to the Lord and said, "What happened?" Verse 32, "Then summoning him, the his lord said to him, you wicked slave, I forgave 22:01 you all that debt, but you pleaded with me." Verse 32, "Should you not have the same mercy on your fellow slave in the same way that I had mercy on you?" Verse 34. And his lord moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he 22:21 should repay all that was owed. Verse 35. My heavenly father will also do the same to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. The one who's been to heaven and has 22:40 come down has said this is what it's like about unforgiveness. If you had forgi if God had forgiven you all this 150,000 years worth of forgiveness and you can't forgive one person, 22:57 all that all all that was forgiven will now be put back to your account and you would be unforgiven. I say, Lord, I want to forgive every single person just the way you've forgiven from my heart. Lord, I want to I want to pray, Lord, that 23:19 it'll go well for the people who've done harm to me and I've forgiven them. I want I want it to go well for them because that's how you've forgiven me. You've forgiven me and you want it to go well for me. And I was thinking about 23:30 this in we find this in Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7. If you turn with me verse 41 23:50 Luke 7:41 a money lender had two debtors. And you can think about the two debtors. We heard about two debtors. One o owed him 500 dinari and the other 50. Verse 42. When they were unable to 24:05 repay, he graciously forgave them both. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. Today also, there's not one person who can repay God for their sins. No one can 24:25 pay back for their sins. We're all in debt to God for our sins. The only hope we all of us have if God does exactly what he says here in verse 42, when they were unable to repay, he 24:42 graciously forgave them both. And I pray for myself and for each one of us that God would graciously forgive us when we're unable to repay. Lord, I can never set matters right for all the things that I've done. Unless you have 24:57 mercy and forgive me all of it, I'm going to be in debt. And 150,000 years of wages is about $9 billion. And if a person has a debt of $9 billion and he's going around, how would he feel? I believe he'll be discouraged. Even if 25:16 you're in debt a millions of dollars, you'll be every day that will be weighing on you, weighing on you. And that's why people in this world are weighed down because this is the weight. They're carrying the weight of the guilt of their sins. 25:35 And for us too, it's going to be that way unless we receive God's forgiveness. Something we cannot earn. have to go and ask the Lord, Lord, please forgive me just like you did for these debtors who could not repay you. Please forgive me. 25:53 Another man uh again Jesus telling about what eternity is like. Jesus said to this parable verse six uh Luke 12:16 and he told them a parable saying a land 26:13 of a rich man was very productive and he began re reasoning to himself saying what shall I do I have no place to store my crops verse 18 then he said to this this is what I will do I will tear down my barns and build larger ones and there 26:29 will there I will store my grains and goods verse 19 and I will Say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come. Take your ease, drink and be merry. Take your ease and be drink and be merry. And when I look at 26:47 the world, most people want this life. They want to earn enough money and then settle down, take their ease. And Jesus said, the one who came from heaven said, he said this parable and he 27:05 said this verse 20, but God said to him, this was God's perspective on this man's life. You fool, this very night your soul will be required of you. And now who will own what you have prepared? So this so is the man who stores up 27:23 treasures for himself and is not rich towards God. And I look at my life and many of our lives might be like this where our lives is all about storing up and living for this world alone. He had not any concern about God. One of the verses that we our 27:43 children said to us, you cannot serve both God and wealth. This man apparently thought we could and many of us may think it's okay. Yeah, we could serve God and wealth. Like see this man, he served God and 28:00 he's serving wealth as well. But Jesus said, you can only love one master and you will hate the other. So if I love money and wealth, that means I hate God. 28:17 If I love money, love wealth, I hate God. That's what it says. and our our children told us. But this man was not ready that day. He was ready to live for many years with his money on this earth. But 28:35 he was not prepared to enter into eternity. He probably thought, okay, there's someday when I can set matters right. But God said, no, you don't have more time. And so while God has given us today, 28:53 it's important if we hear the one who came from heaven to earth who said, "Make sure that you're right with me today. Let's not play games with God." I played games with God until one day came said, "Lord, I'm not going to play games with 29:08 you. I know what you're saying is serious. I want to take your words seriously. And if I truly believe them, there's going to be a difference in my life. I'm going to take your words and I'm going to obey it. Even if I failed, 29:23 I'm going to take your words seriously and ask you, Lord, to forgive me for all my failures. This is a calendar for 2025. I'm not going to need it next year. It was very helpful for 2025, 29:41 but not 2027. 2026. What did I say? 27. And so about 11 a little over 11 years ago, we moved here from California to 30:01 Colorado, Southern California to Colorado. And I remember as we were packing up, we were going into a new place and we we had a truck to get all the big stuff, but we took our van and then we had enough seats for the for us 30:16 and the children and then the rest of it was for all the things we could take from California to Colorado. And we had to decide, okay, what's important to take into Colorado from California? Obviously, the trash can and 30:31 other things we were going to leave behind. And then if there was something important, we'd put in the back seat. Whatever space we were going to use was going to be something that we wanted to take to Colorado. The rest of the things we 30:43 were going to leave behind, give away. And for each one of us, whatever we want, there's probably things failures in 2025, things that we want to leave behind. I definitely don't want to take some of the things in 2025. Some of the things 31:02 that I failed, some of the things that I have regret for, I don't want to take into 2026. I want to leave it behind. I'm thankful God has been merciful for the things that I had done in 2025. But in 2026, I want to take only the 31:21 things that I want to I want to put away all those things from the back. Some of the things might be weights that hold us back. Some of it might be sin. In Hebrews, it says, "Let go of the weights and sin that hold you back." 31:37 Paul was on a ship. And the ship was in un in in troubled waters. And when you're in troubled waters, they usually throw out anything that's not necessary. They want to keep the people and all the things that are most 31:55 essential. And they throw out everything like they threw out the grain of wheat from the ship in Acts 27:38. Do you know why they throw that out? It helps keep I this helps keep the 32:14 center of gravity low and keeps the ship afloat. If you have the lot of weight on the top, it's going to bounce back and forth and in the storm you don't want that. And so they'll take away and throw that out. And I was thinking about that even in 32:29 2025, all the things, our failures, our sins, and things that we have regret over our guilt. How good would it be to take all of that and leave it in 2025? Throw it off. Throw it overboard. There's a beautiful verse in Micah 7 32:47 verse 19. A beautiful promise as we think about throwing things overboard from the ship. Verse 19, he will again, that's God will have again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, he 33:07 will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. And for me, that's one of the things in 2025. There's a lot of things perhaps we have regret over choices we've made, things we can't undo, things 33:25 that God has forgiven us, guilt of the past, all of those things. It's a good place to put it behind us. We don't want to keep remembering those things that are in the past. And for some of us, 2025 might might 33:45 have been a hard year in so many different things, failures, anxieties, fears, all of that. But isn't it good that as we go into the new year, we can have a clean slate, everything washed away, and a start off new. And as I was thinking about Noah, when 34:08 he came out, when he went into the ark, there was sin rampant. All all sorts of things were going on on the earth. If he had some complaint about somebody had a complaint about him, any anything that he was persecuted about, think 34:27 about what would happen when he came out on the other side of the ark. Everything of the old world was going to be all wiped out. Everything was going to be brand new. It didn't matter how it was back in the day before the flood. 34:43 Everything was going to be wiped out clean. It didn't matter anymore what happened before they got in the ark. All the complaints other people had about them didn't matter. Everything was going to be brand new. And for each one of us as well, leaving 35:02 the things of 2025 behind us, pressing on into 2026, thinking about, Lord, you have plans for me, wonderful plans for me. I want to have hope. And that's what I see for every single one of us going into 2026. 35:22 we have the opportunity to put everything behind us and go into 2026. Sometimes I hear about some brothers and from some brothers who say you know what this happened in the past 10 years ago this person did this 35:39 to me or something happened at this church somebody did this to me or you know all these different things from the past. Do you think God wants us to take all those things from the past into 2026? Or does he want us to finally put it to 35:54 rest? What do you think? I think he wants us to put it to rest. When people take baptism, what does he want us to do? He wants to put that old man to rest. Yes, that was the old man. He wants to put it to rest and then wants us to bring us up in the newness 36:14 of life. It says of Lazarus. When it said of Lazarus, it says when he came out of the grave, it said, you know what it said when he came out of the grave in John chapter 11. It's a beautiful promise for each one of 36:38 us to take. John chapter 11. John chapter 11 36:53 verse 43. John 11:43. Lazarus who had died came forth about bound hand and foot with wrappings and his faith was wrapped all around. And Jesus said, "Unbind him or untie him 37:11 and let him go. And I think for each one of us as well, it should be like that. Anything that has bound us, it could be sin that has bound us last year, this entire year 2025, some weights from something from the past, some church experience, 37:33 something someone did to us. All these chains, God doesn't want us to take it into 2026. He wants to leave it back. And I love that word, untie him and let him free for each one of us. Untie us from the past and set us free. 37:52 And later on it says in John chapter 12, and I I pray this testimony for each one of us when God takes our lives and changes it just like he did for Lazarus. He took a dead man and brought him back to life. 38:11 for us also spiritually bringing us to life, new life. Verse 9, John 12:9, the large crowd of Jews then learned that he was there and they came not only not only for Jesus' 38:28 sake, but whose sake, but that they might see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. Verse 10. But the chief priests pro planned to put Lazarus to death also. Jesus just raised him from the dead and they're already planning to put him to 38:45 death again. But listen to this testimony. Verse 11. Because on account of Lazarus, many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus. They saw the life of this man who God raised from the dead. And now they 39:05 started believing in Jesus not only because Jesus had raised him from the dead but because of what they saw God do in Lazarus's life. And what a wonderful testimony for each one of us who God does a work in our life. And 39:20 many believe in Christ because they see what God has done in our life. I heard of testimonies of sometimes God does a work in a child's life and the parents come to faith because they saw what God did in their child's life or 39:35 they see something that God did in their parents' life and then the child comes to faith because of what they saw in their dad's life or mother's life and for us each one of us may God do that do something in our life that others look 39:51 at the what God has transformed our life and they put their faith in Christ because of that. And as I read, as we close, I wanted to share Paul's testimony this morning. As if I had seen Paul before God had 40:10 touched him on the Damascus road, persecuting Christians, probably just like each of you, I don't think I would have had any hope for him. I thought he would have, you know, and that's what even an Ananas said. He's 40:28 persecuted others and he's done much harm and you want me to go and meet him. But it says in first Timothy, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because he 40:47 considered me faithful putting me into service. Verse 13. Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. 41:05 I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And I thought about that. How could you be ignorant when you're persecuting someone? But he did not see the seriousness of what he was doing. He thought he was doing what was right. And in unbelief he 41:24 did. And he found mercy. Says in verse 14, "And the grace of our Lord was more abundant with the faith and love which is found in Christ Jesus." Verse 15. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into 41:43 the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all. Verse 16. Yet for this reason I found mercy. So that in me that people who saw me persecuting the church, doing all these terrible things 42:00 in my previous life and see how God had mercy on me, who did so much that Christ Jesus might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal 42:18 life. And so today there's hope for every single one of us. While we still have breath and we have life, there is hope for every single one of us. Let us not play games with God. The one who came from heaven tells us what heaven is like. What is 42:37 going to be serious on that day? How to be ready for that day. And he gives us hope because we got to see some people didn't get to see this day but we did. God in his mercy gave us 42:55 this opportunity to see the 28th of December 2025. May we put behind us all those things that have held us back on this side of 2025 and go into 2026 with hope. God 43:12 who's planning us our hope. God who forgave both of them when they couldn't repay. Think of it. She has loved much because she was forgiven much. If I was forgiven $9 billion, I'm sure I would love the one who 43:31 forgave. And we've been forgiven much more than $9 billion. So even this morning, let us put those things behind us that have held us back in 2025. Even our failures, even our successes, whatever God has done in 25, put that 43:46 behind us and look forward while we have hope for what God's going to do in each of our lives 2026. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray for each one of us. No matter how 2026 has been, maybe it's been failures, 44:05 loss, spiritually didn't do well this 20 in 2025. No matter how it is, Lord, I pray that we can throw it overboard, bury it, put it to rest once and for all. Put it behind us, knowing that when we can't 44:21 receive the when we couldn't repay, you freely forgive both. I pray that you would forgive each one of us and we also want to forgive those who who've hurt us in any way. We want to forgive them from our heart because we know that you'll forgive us 44:39 just the way we forgive others and we want to forgive everyone. We want to have no complaint against anyone. You've forgiven us much, Lord. in it. I pray Lord we will see how much you've forgiven us so that our love for you in 2026 will be 44:53 even more. I pray that every one of us will have hope in 2026. That the best is yet to come. You save the best for last as you did in the wedding of Canaan. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.
