Walking the Path of the Righteous into the New Year
January 3, 2024 · 1:26:35 · Watch on YouTube ↗
These notes - summary, key points, and highlighted thoughts - were generated by AI from the recording and are not the preacher’s exact words.
Summary
On the first gathering of the New Year, the service opened with thanksgiving and a reading of Psalm 112: in Christ, God has clothed believers in the robe of righteousness, so that even in darkness light rises for the upright. The preacher reminded the church that the righteous need not fear evil rumors, for their hearts are fixed in trust toward the Lord, and their memory endures forever. From John 1 he pointed to Christ as the living Word made flesh, full of grace and truth, and to saints like Simeon, who waited in the Spirit to see the Lord's salvation, and Ruth, who left everything so that Israel's God would become her own.
Echoing Moses' prayer to number our days, he urged the congregation to spend every hour, day, and year wisely, knowing that our whole life is recorded in God's book and will be brought before Him. Through plain, everyday stories - a careless worker exposed by a server log, a girl perfecting her handwriting - he pressed home that only the blood of Christ can cleanse us, that the Lord's work must be done carefully, and that we are to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.
A visiting brother, Alexander, then preached from Matthew 25, where Christ identifies Himself with the hungry, the stranger, and the imprisoned: whatever we do for the least, we do for Him. He gave a moving testimony of the Perlynka children's home in Ukraine during the war - evacuating dozens of children, sheltering hundreds of refugees, and caring for orphans and even elderly people abandoned in their eighties - and called the church to keep showing mercy as unto the Lord.
Key Points
- In Christ we are clothed in His righteousness, so light rises even in our darkness.
- The righteous trust the Lord and do not fear evil rumors; their memory endures forever.
- Christ is the living Word - the way, the truth, and the life - whom we read before we pray.
- Like Simeon, live ready and longing to see the Lord; each year draws that meeting nearer.
- Number your days: our whole life is written in God's book, so live this year carefully.
- True religion keeps itself unspotted and cares for orphans, widows, and the needy.
- Whatever we do for the least of these, we do for Christ Himself.
Devotional
A new year is a fresh, blank page in the book God keeps of our lives, and He invites us to fill it by walking the path of the righteous. We do not earn that path; Christ has clothed us in His own righteousness so that light can rise even in our darkest seasons. Like Simeon, who waited in the Spirit, may we live each day longing to see the Lord, and like the believers who sheltered the orphan and the stranger, may we show His mercy to the least around us. Lord, teach us to number our days, and keep us unspotted as we follow you into the year ahead.
In the darkness, light rises for the upright, because Christ has become our righteousness.
Teach us to number our days; our whole life is written in God's book.
Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for the Lord Himself.
