Each year the New York Times puts out a list of the best advice from 2025. Some are perennial staples of wisdom, while others are simply witty and entertaining. But the deepest ones that I read are also the ones that left me lacking: “don’t think harder, breathe deeper,” “always imagine that everything will work out,” and “stop trying to calm the storm and calm yourself.” Those are great thoughts, but there is no power in them. Each year the YouVersion Bible App puts out, not the year’s best advice, but which verse was clicked on and read the most by Christians in every country around the globe. This year, when all of humanity scattered around the globe turned to the Bible for something, the verse they turned to most was was Isaiah 41:10, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” With all the good advice we have, relief from fear and anxiety is our greatest felt need as human beings. And the difference between God’s Word to his people in Isaiah 41 and advice given by my fellow humans in the New York Times really struck me this year as 2025 comes to a close. The Bible doesn’t give a lot of advice or just aim to increase our resolve It gives promises; it gives imperatives. And then the Holy Spirit who authored the Word gives us the power to live out the wisdom and heart of God as we are more and more conformed to the image of Christ. The Bible is the lamp for our feet and the power to walk on the path that it reveals. Good advice usually still depends on my own power to do it, in my own resolve and my own strength. So when God’s Word tells His children not to be anxious, it always gives us a Why, a How, and a Who.

The New York Times published an article about New Year’s Resolutions a couple of weeks ago. And the idea now in 2025 is that making New Year’s Resolutions is actually unhealthy because it means you aren’t truly accepting yourself; it isn’t loving yourself well to admit that there are areas that you want to change. It seems like our culture has finally become too fragile to make New Years’ Resolutions. In all fairness, it can be defeating to simply build a wall of human resolve that hopes to withstand the storms of daily life. Busyness, unexpected turns, procrastination and bad habits batter our walls of resolution until they break down and we just feel worse. A resolution is basically a wall of our will against the storms of life; a line in the sand against the rising tide of life’s problems. And sand, the Bible says, is exactly the problem. Jesus says that a life that weathers the storms is not determined by the height or the thickness of the walls we build, but by the foundation upon which those walls are built. Resolutions are good, but we need a firm foundation to put those walls upon. Walls that are built on sand just keep sinking lower and lower so we have to constantly work to keep building them higher and higher. And lines in the sand have a tendency to be erased by rising tides of daily life. So what is the foundation? Join us in the gospel of Matthew as we learn that the firm foundation of our lives is hearing and doing the words of Jesus.

It’s the last day of 2023; the dawn of 2024! It has likely been a year full of both the ordinary and the unexpected I imagine; a mixture of unforeseen blessings and trials. How have you grown or changed? We like to think about change and resolve to change on the last day of the year. So what would you like to change this year? Change can make us hopeful if we are in control of what changes we make, or it can make us anxious if we are not in control of what changes come this year. Wouldn’t it be nice if we knew exactly what changes this new year would bring, if we knew the future? We all want to know what the future will bring; what changes will occur and how we should respond. And I want to predict the future for you today to help you avoid some anxiety for the coming year; there are three things that will absolutely happen in 2024. The world around us will change in some way. You and I will change in some way. But God will not change and will remain the same yesterday, today and forever. No matter how you feel about change, you can know for certain that in this coming year, God will not change. And that helps us in two ways: it helps us dwell secure amid all the changes around us and it helps us to truly change all the things about ourselves that we want to. We have an unchanging God even in our ever-changing world. Even amid all the crazy things we saw this past year, even as we face down the uncertainty of 2024, He will not change.

How many of you make New Year’s resolutions? Studies have found now that very few people who make resolutions actually intend to keep them. Instead, we use New Year’s Resolutions simply to signal a new start rather than to be a catalyst for real change in our life. It seems the saying is true: “A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.” But, in all seriousness….what is it about New Year’s Day that makes us feel like we have a fresh start? A line in the sand of change? What is it that makes me feel like on December 31st, I have to be the same person I have always been but on January 1st, real change is finally possible? No matter what our resolve to change looks like, the Bible gives us an important perspective on resolve and change and our behavior. In fact, if we understand the Bible’s perspective on change, it can make changing an act of joy and delight, rather than filled with guilt, shame and pressure.

How many of us make New Year’s Resolutions? Over the last couple of years, an interesting trend has started with New Year’s Resolutions. Studies have found now that FEW people who make resolutions actually intend to keep them, but now they are simply made to signal a new start rather than to be a catalyst for change. So now I just say that I resolve to do something, just to signal that I want to change it. It seems that what they say is true: “A New Year's Resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. But, in all seriousness….what is it about New Year’s Day that makes us feel like we have a fresh start? Another chance? A line in the sand of change? What is it that makes us feel like on January 1st, real change is finally possible, that in our minds everything is new or at least has the possibility of being new? This Sunday we are going to look at what Scripture says about real and lasting change, and offer real and practical advice from the Bible on how we can truly change in ways that matter. In ways that move beyond simply resolving to do better.

Are you ready to live free? Most of the things that we think will bring us freedom end up being our master. Join us as we look at how the Bible says we can have true freedom. (ft. Daniel Nealon, Associate Pastor at Deer Creek Church).

2021 has started out different than anyone could have imagined. A new year brings hope for change. What if there was one goal for change we could pursue this year that would put all other goals in perspective? Join us as we see what the Bible has to say about a goal that changes everything.

There is a lot of hope for 2021! But what if it comes with its own set of challenges? How do we be resilient people no matter what 2021 holds? Join us as we continue our series, "Twenty Twenty What?" (ft. Caleb Knedlik, Pastoral Assistant at Elevate Hope Centennial).

There is a lot of hope for 2021! But what if it comes with its own set of challenges? How do we be resilient people no matter what 2021 holds?