End of the Year 2025 | Digital Service

Hey everyone, we are so excited that you are with us on our digital service today.

Pastor Noah here and Pastor Jeremy.

We're fired up.

We are excited for today.

It's going to be a great service.

The worship team has already done phenomenal things.

They're always great.

They always will bring it.

Even during the Christmas season, digitally.

That's right.

That's right.

And so we're going to share some things from God's Word.

We're going to celebrate all that God has done this year, Pastor Jeremy.

Which has been unbelievable, which has been incredible.

But I do have this, okay?

So I want to start with this.

I have I have a big announcement.

Okay.

What?

Yeah.

I'm ready.

On pens and needles.

I got a big announcement today, and here it is.

Today is Pastor Jeremy's birthday.

Oh my word.

Yes, that is very, very true.

Do you want me to sing to you now?

Do you want me to sing later?

Hey, if you've got the uh the pipes to do it, let's hear it.

That's what I thought.

I'd call you on your blood.

So how old are you today?

89 is what it feels like.

Um, but I'm actually 49 today.

49.

Here's what I how are you 49?

But I'm only 25.

How does that yeah?

Well, um, that's a lie.

As a matter of fact, I think next year you go into your 40s, right?

No, nothing.

I'll still get your 40s.

Oh, I got a couple more years of my 30s.

Uh not many, but yeah, you're such a baby.

So, guys, drop some comments below.

Tell Pastor Jeremy a happy birthday today.

Um, and Pastor Jeremy, we love you.

Well, I appreciate it.

Thank you thank you very much.

Birthday.

Um, Pastor Jeremy, I'll I want to start this morning by just celebrating some wins.

It's been an incredible year of ministry.

Um, you know, in January, we began the year with a theme of crossover.

Yeah.

And I think this year has bore that out in a multitude of ways from beginning to end, that it's been a year of crossover for our church corporately and for our people individually.

And I think you're going to share some of those details.

Yeah, it's been incredible.

Uh, from January to where we are right here at the end of December, all the things that God has done has just been absolutely incredible.

And it really has been.

I mean, you you declared that and prophesied that over us that it was a year of crossover, and it really has been that for the church.

It's been it.

Um, and so I just kind of list some of these things out, uh, some great things that God has done.

150 salvations.

That's unbelievable.

It's been incredible.

150 people committing their life to Christ.

Y'all, we just sometimes you you got to take a moment and just celebrate that.

It's 100%.

I mean, we're talking about uh lives, families, generations, eternity changed when somebody commits their life to Jesus.

And that's and that's what we've had.

And and it's a combination of first-time commitments, and some of that is rededication.

Absolutely.

But we count it all because it all matters with people taking their next step with Jesus.

That's right.

Um, and 54 people took their next step through water baptism.

It's been just incredible to see throughout the year, uh, over and over again, seven, eight, nine, ten, twelve people taking the step of faith to go public with their faith in Jesus and the transformation that their life is undergoing.

And so it's just been incredible.

Water baptism has become one of my favorites throughout the year.

Yeah, so much fun.

There's just something significant about seeing people go under the water one way and then coming up transformed.

Well, I yeah, I mean, I one of the most incredible moments for me this year was during one of our baptisms, I had the opportunity to baptize a whole family.

I love that.

Mom, dad, two sons.

Church, that's why we do it.

We did.

It doesn't get any better.

It doesn't get any better than that.

Um It's an understatement, but God is moving in our next gen department, Pastor Jaber.

Uh yeah.

I mean, with what Pastor Summer is doing with our kids and her team is phenomenal, then Pastor Caleb and Ashley are doing students.

Uh, we've we've reached more kids than we've ever reached.

Uh, we're discipling more kids than we've ever discipled.

And a generation that statistically across the board tells us are coming back to the Lord.

We are witnessing that in our in our next gen ministry right before our eyes.

Yeah.

Um, so many things to celebrate.

Um, at Kids Week, uh this past summer, which is our big uh kind of kids conference VBS, we had 186 kids at Kids Week.

Those that three-day conference is just phenomenal.

What the kids team does.

Um, Kids Camp, they took 61 to Kids Camp.

That's a whole lot of kids, which is 20 more than they took the prior year, which is just absolutely phenomenal, phenomenal.

Um, at Smash this year, which is our student ministry kind of one night um evangelistic event, they had 337.

Sanctuary is packed, absolutely packed, and 50 salvations at that night.

That's right, that's right.

You know, we we pipe and draped part of the sanctuary because we weren't really sure how many we were going to have.

I think the year before we had 185 or 187 or something like that.

And so we went from that number to 337.

And so we're having to pull pipe and drape back to make more room.

Hey, I I love that.

That was kind of the mission of our church.

Let's make room for more.

And uh Smash was that way, and it was just absolutely incredible.

And watching Pastor Caleb and Ashley and their team facilitate it and their leadership was incredible.

Yeah.

Um, so Smash was awesome.

They just um got back not long ago from the weekend, which is their fall retreat.

They took a hundred students up there.

Um, more specifically, I'll just kind of celebrate this.

28 students rededicated their life at the weekend, Pastor Jeremy, which is incredible.

And then I love this one.

There were 60 students, church, that said they experienced freedom in a specific area of their life.

Isn't that awesome?

It's incredible.

And and and I know we're highlighting this, but I want to underscore its significance because from time to time people can say, Why do you do all of these events?

And and these events are are nothing more than creating an environment where people are emotional and have a response.

I would counter to that is the Bible sets a precedent for these kinds of things from Smash to Kids' Week to Kids Camp to Youth Camp to the weekend is that three times a year, God told the children of Israel, stop everything that you're doing and return to me with a significant spiritual focus.

And we find that in in Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.

And really, what these events do is that it reorients, refocuses, re-energizes our relationship with the Lord for the next season that we're walking into.

So we don't ever need to minimize or overlook the significance of these things.

They're vital to the spiritual journey.

Absolutely.

And all of them matter from the student ministry to what we do for men and women.

How about Pastor Jeremy?

Our ladies' night and our men's night.

Incredible.

Absolutely incredible.

Lives were changed at both of those.

The Azlu night was awesome.

The men's night was incredible.

Pastor Jim, a great word.

And hey, how about we ate?

We ate good.

We ate some, we ate some food at men's night.

Um, and uh so so many great events.

And then, Pastor Jeremy, one of the things that is a hallmark at CLC is our missions giving.

Wow.

And church, I just want to celebrate this with you.

Um, we gave more to missions this year than we have ever given, which was$437,979 given to missions, Pastor Jeremy.

To put that into context, that was almost 20% of our income.

That's incredible.

So as a church family, we're not just tithing, we're giving generously above and beyond.

Why?

Because that's the command of the gospel.

That's right.

We're we're called to take the gospel to where we are, which part of our missions is local, but then it's regional and then it's global, and that's what our missions emphasis has done.

And we're doing more there than we've ever done before.

And lives literally change.

I mean, I think it's what, 57 missionaries we support around the world uh on a monthly basis.

That's boots on the ground, reaching people with the gospel message of Jesus and changing lives.

And that's what it is.

And and generosity is not just something we talk about.

It really is a core value of our church.

And this year has played that out.

Well, and I just love the leadership of our church as we're processing these kinds of things uh over and over again.

The comment of our leaders, our boards is you can now give God.

That's right.

And that's just absolutely the truth.

He says, give to me and watch what I do.

That's right.

And we're getting to see that because we're giving.

Absolutely.

And and a piece of that with our outreach and missions is our Angel Tree.

Uh, Pastor Jeremy, we just concluded that and uh sponsored 138 kids through our angel tree.

It's the most we've ever done.

The crazy part is that we have more family members, more church family members coming and saying, Do you have any more kids?

That's right.

We we want to help and we'll we want to serve.

And so we're scurrying and letting everybody know.

If you have anybody that needs anything, let us know.

We've got people that want to meet that need, which is just incredible.

And all the tax taken in two weeks.

Which is just which the mark which has never happened.

And it speaks, church, to your generosity and uh all that God does through you.

And I think we have to pause after celebrating all these wins, Pastor Jeremy, and honor, recognize, and celebrate our dream team that makes ministry happen week in, week out.

We could not do it without sound.

And whatever part you play, it matters and it's significant.

Absolutely.

And you are making an eternal difference.

Your life is significant and you're leaving a significant impact upon our community, but not just our community, uh, the globe, because of our reach and our intentionality to go beyond just our local area to the ends of the earth.

And it you're right, Pastor Noah.

It takes every person playing their part for us to do what we're doing, and we could not do it without that.

And so thank you, church family, for walking alongside us, partnering with us in the Great Commission.

The lives are being changed because of it.

Yeah.

And so thank you so much for just giving and um of your time, your talent, your treasure.

Pastor Jeremy, um, this year, more specifically this fall, we kicked off our building project, something's been playing for uh years.

Yeah, we've been working on it, uh, been praying about it, uh processing it for years.

And so I think November 3rd, they officially broke ground on our uh renovation project that's underway right now, and it's going great.

Hey, how about they can get some work done quick?

They can.

And I never knew I'd be so excited to see dumpsters on our camps.

Out with the old, in with the news, right?

That's right.

That's right.

Um, and so, Church, thank you for just being a part of it, um, getting behind the vision.

And uh, we're excited for not just what God has done in 2025, but all that God's going to do in 2026.

Absolutely.

And I just want to pause here and and give you a principle of what we have just been doing that is so vital to your faith journey.

I believe, and I think it bears out in all of our lives, is that what we celebrate, we replicate.

Yeah.

When you praise your kids for something, what do they do?

They want to do more of that, right?

Absolutely.

When when you praise your coworkers for positive activity, what do they want to do?

They want to do more of that.

Because what you celebrate, you replicate.

And I want to spiritualize that from this standpoint.

When you celebrate God's faithfulness, you replicate faith.

When we take the time to pause and recount and recite the faithfulness of God in our lives, what we don't realize that we're doing is that we're building faith for the present that will propel us into the future.

As a matter of fact, I think, Pastor Noah is that when we forget, our faith tends to falter.

Absolutely.

But when we remember the faithfulness of God, our faith rises to face the obstacle that we're facing.

And so remembering what God has done, recounting it like what we have done thus far today is so vitally important to your faith journey because God always has more.

That's right.

And even as we were kind of prepping through the some processing, some of these ministry wins, Pastor Jeremy, um, I just kind of felt the Lord just take me back to certain moments that were significant this year.

And I felt like it was the Lord kind of setting me up to remember what he has done for what he's going to do in 2026.

Absolutely.

I I I cannot underscore it enough or emphasize it enough.

Remembering what God has done postures you to move forward into the future.

Um I want to go to the book of Luke for just a moment and share just a thought with us here as we end 2025 and move into 2026.

Here in this Christmas season, which is one of our favorite seasons of the year.

Uh, you've spent time with family.

We've celebrated as a church family thus far.

Our theme for this month has been the sound of Christmas.

And I want to kind of play off that theme as we conclude the year today.

In Luke chapter two, starting in verse 17, the Bible records the response of the shepherds after they received the news from the angels about the birth of their savior.

And I want you to listen to what they say.

When they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning the child.

When they saw Jesus, what did they do?

They then made known what had been told them concerning the child, and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds had told them.

When they saw it, you know what they had to do?

They had to go tell it.

They had to go tell it.

Yeah.

We have all seen God's activity.

Yeah.

Uh, we've as a church have done a pretty good job of recording God's activity this past year, and we do this almost every year.

And it's it's important because the Bible tells us in Deuteronomy, this is Moses' farewell address to the children of Israel.

His his parting shot in the first several chapters of the book of Deuteronomy, he says, do whatever you have to do to remember what God has done.

If you've got to write something down, write it down.

If you got to tie something on your wrist, tie it on your wrist.

Do whatever you got to do to remember.

And there's two reasons why.

And we've already talked about one of them, is because our memory of what God has done is always the foundation of our faith in the present.

Yeah.

It's what propels us forward.

Um, I know in my life, and I'm sure in you, your life, when obstacles come, if I'm not real intentional about remembering the faithfulness of God, my faith can begin to shrink a little bit.

Absolutely.

But when I remember, when I take the time to recount the ways that God has been faithful in my life, my faith in the present rises for what God's going to do in the future.

I want I want to challenge you today, maybe with a new Christmas tradition this year.

I want you to circle the family up at some point during the holiday season.

Grab a journal and just start recounting to one another the faithfulness of God in your life over the course of the year.

I think Christmas is a great time to do that.

And I want to encourage you to grab a journal that you can add to year after year after year.

Because you're gonna need the memory of the past to build faith for the future as you encounter new obstacles in your journey of faith.

So how amazing would it to be had to have a journal, to have a book that you could just flip the pages and God did this then, date it.

God did this then.

God, I I I imagine families, Pastor Noah, doing that for a few years and they encounter a new obstacle or a new struggle or a new battle, and all of a sudden they go back to that journal that they've written as a family, and they just start reading out loud what God has done.

And you know what's happening?

There's something in their spirit rising to face the obstacle that they're looking at.

I remember Pastor Jeremy a couple of years ago, you challenging both the staff and the church to do that very thing.

And I always keep a prayer journal and kind of what I'm reading throughout the Bible that year.

Um, but I remember this is probably about four or five years ago, I began to add significant things the Lord did in that year to my prayer journal.

Yeah.

And I would get to this time at the end of the year and look back on all that God did.

And it just built so much faith inside my heart.

Because what happens, Pastor Jeremy, is we get so close to the forest.

We we we miss the trees.

100%.

And you're busy and you're going and life's crazy.

And you can forget the miracles along the way.

You can.

And and we forfeit those when we forget them.

Yeah.

We miss the how they build us up in the present that propels us toward the future.

Yeah.

I I I do this, I've done the same thing.

I've got a prayer journal that I've kept for many, many years.

But it was a few years ago that I really felt the kind of the nudge of the Holy Spirit that you need to stop just writing your request and also start recording my answers.

And so I've started uh started doing that in my in my journal.

When when God has answered a prayer, I go back to that prayer in my journal and say, this is got what God did then.

And I think if a family had a journal like that, what a hair, what an heirloom you could pass on from generation to generation.

And what that does is it propels you into the future.

The other thing that it allows you to do is it doesn't just build your faith.

It gives you the opportunity to share your faith with somebody else and watch their faith get built.

So one of the primary reasons that Moses told the children of Israel is to do this, to do whatever you got to do, write it down, record it so that you can remember it.

Why?

So that you can share it.

That's right.

So that future generations that may not have experienced the miracle, but can still stand as witness to the miracle because you've written it down and you've shared it.

So I'm gonna encourage you not just to write down what God's done, do what the shepherds did.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hey, I I I've got to go tell this amazing, miraculous thing that I've witnessed to the world.

And the Bible says they start telling it, and everybody is in awe of their story.

I want to tell you your story has the power to change somebody else's life.

Don't ever underestimate the power of your testimony.

And Pastor Jamie, I think one of the mistakes that we make is we think that what God is doing in us is just for us.

Right.

And whatever God is doing in us and has done in us and 100% of is for the people around us.

That's right.

It's for our sphere of influence, it's for our family, our friends, our coworkers.

God doesn't just do something in us for us.

That's right.

It's for the people around us.

That's right.

That's right.

And if he does it from one, that's right.

He can do it for another.

Yeah.

And sometimes I need to borrow your experience.

Absolutely.

I need to borrow your faith.

I may not have experienced that particular thing happen.

I've had other things happen, but you've had it happen.

And if he's done it in you, he can do it in me.

And so we need to learn how to share our testimony.

We find that through, and that's what the shepherds are doing.

They're sharing their testimony.

And people are standing in wondering awe.

We find the same thing happen in John chapter four with the woman at the well.

Yeah.

Jesus visits her, changes her world.

She runs to the town and says, Hey, come come meet a man that's told me everything that I've ever done.

And the Bible says she gives her testimony of God's goodness, and many come to believe.

And the Bible is very clear because of her testimony.

Your testimony has the power to change somebody else's life.

So here at the end of 2025, I want to give you a couple challenges as we move into 2026.

Number one, recount and write down the faithfulness of God in your life and in your family over the last year.

Write it in a journal and a binder that you can add to for years to come.

And number two, I want you to get ready to share your testimony in 2026.

There's people who need to hear the hope of the world in you.

So get ready to share what God's done in you and through you for his glory in 2026.

I can't wait.

It's going to be a great year.

It's going to be incredible.

God has done so many amazing things in 2025.

And we know, Pastor Jeremy, 2026 holds incredible miracles and breakthrough and testimonies.

100%.

Absolutely.

Church, I'm going to ask you just to close your eyes right where you are this morning.

And maybe even if you're in your living room, wherever you may be, maybe you just want to raise your hands towards heaven and join us in just a holy moment at the end of this year as we prepare to move into a new year.

I'm going to pray for you and I'm going to bless you and hope you have a great remainder of your holiday season.

And we can't wait to see you the first Sunday of January in 2026.

Lord, I thank you for every person that is joining us this morning.

God, I thank you for your activity in their life and through their life throughout this last year.

And I pray, Lord, this morning that you would help them to remember the multitude of ways that you've been faithful.

Help them to recount them so that they may write them down as a memorial to your faithfulness.

And I believe, God, as they do that, as they celebrate your faithfulness in their lives, faith is being replicated for the future.

I pray, Lord, that it's a holy moment for them.

And I pray, Lord, that you would give them words, not just to write, but words to share to their family, to their friends, as you give them the opportunity to testify of your faithfulness and goodness in their life.

We thank you for 2025.

And we look forward to 2026 about what you're going to do.

We believe you have more.

So it's our heart and it's our desire to make room for that more in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Have a great week.

We'll see you in a couple Sundays.