Year's End: Final Entry

The Question I ask you to consider today and over the next 3 days is this: How will I end 2025? How will I sign-off the last page of this year? Because how you sign-off will determine what you are closing up and leaving in the journal of 2025 of your life, and what you decide to leave in 2025 and what you decide to hold on to from 2025 will determine and influence what you carry into 2026. I believe this is an important question that we all need to take time before God to consider.

I went to Walmart to look through the journals to see if anything caught my eye for beginning anew in January. I am a journal guy. I have several journals–ask Kyle. The other day he came in while I was working in the back and we mentioned journals and he said, “If you can find your journal, it looks like you have 3 of them right here.”

In the journals, many of them ask a question at the end of each day, at the end of each month, and at the end of each year. There is a section at the bottom of each entry that says something to the effect of: End-of-Day (week, month, year) Inventory / End-Of-Day Personal Reflection.

Did you accomplish everything you purposed to accomplish?

What were your WINS? How does this make you feel?

What were your missed opportunities?

What did you learn about yourself and haw will you implement what you learned as a tool for accomplishing tomorrow’s WINS?

This Journaling Concept of Self-Inventory / Self-Evaluation is also quite present through out the Scriptures.

1. The Past: Leave It OR Cleave It -

What to Leave Behind & What to Carry Forward: My dear brother Michael McClard, Pastor Joe and I had dropped by Michael’s house to check on him and pray with him...we wanted to just drop by and be a blessing. And let me tell you, God is so good...I left his house both encouraged and troubled in the best way. After we had prayed with Michael, he said, you know, I have to tell you that the Lord said these 3 - 5 words to me...I need to say them to you the first is ‘Don’t Look Back’ …

Somethings, we are called to Leave in the Past.

Philippians 3:13–14 NASB 2020

Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 43:18–19 ““Do not call to mind the former things, Or consider things of the past. “Behold, I am going to do something new, Now it will spring up; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

ἐπιλανθάνομαι: forget, NEGLECT, OVERLOOK : Indicates, refusing to let the past control present behavior or place limits on spiritual growth. ‘To be aware of the past without being governed by it.’

This, ‘forgetting’ points to the discipline of breaking free from any lingering power or influence the past mighty have, whether it comes from from in personal achievements or from guilt over wrongdoing.

It means that sometimes forgetting the past does not always mean we can or should be able to blot out or erase the memory...sometimes it means that we choose to trust God and believe that it is under the blood, and refuse to let the memory of it to influence us in any way that hinders our pursuit of Jesus Christ.

Somethings, we are called to Remember, not Forget - Carry them into our Future

Deuteronomy 8:11–14 “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His commandments, His ordinances, and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, and you build good houses and live in them, and when your herds and your flocks increase, and your silver and gold increase, and everything that you have increases, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;”

Numbers 15:39–40 “It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, so that you will do them and not follow your own heart and your own eyes, which led you to prostitute yourselves, so that you will remember and do all My commandments and be holy to your God.”

Revelation 2:5 “Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and I will remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”

Isaiah 44-46 God tells Israel to remember that idols are nothing, and that YHWH alone in God.

There is a Thread of Remembrance here; What God WANTS us to Remember. We are to Remember:

The LORD Himself - His Person, His Presence, His Grace

God’s WORKS: In Redemption, in Disciple, In Provision

God’s WORD: His Commands, His Promises, His Warnings

Our own TENDENCY TO SIN and our DEPENDENCE UPON HIS MERCY, so that we stay humble and thankful

There are some things that God wants us to remember, and they are so important that God has even established traditions to help us remember, these things: Communion is the most practiced Reminder and Jesus said that remembering what He has done is so important that we should Remind ourselves (or engage the memory) every time we come together in remembrance of Him.

2. Self-Examination: Inventory, Evaluation

This Journal concept of Self-Examination is another incredible tool for personal growth, that the Scripture places quite a bit of importance on.

In one of our staff meetings, Jessica Maddox shared a brilliant thought on this that really stuck with me. It was concerning our responses to trials, tests, temptations, storms of life that we all experience. Jessica mentioned how it is interesting to see how are responses have changed over time when hit by the same trial or temptation. Where we once got cut off and shot the finger, or yelled or cussed...over time and opportunity to surrender ourselves to God and become a glove, we find ourselves at some point cut off, and concerned for everyone’s safety more than burning with anger.

This Self inventory and Evaluation is a wonderful tool. When you look into what God has continued to do in your life and how He has emptied more and more of you and filled you with more and more of Him, you begin to discover countless testimonies of God’s work in your life, and reason after reason to give Him thanks.

Those ore perfect examples of things you want to hold on to, cleave to, carry with you.

There is another reason that the Scripture encourages us to Examine ourselves.

By examining yourself in truth and honesty you get a real understanding of where you’re at spiritually.

Psalm 26:2 “Examine me, Lord, and put me to the test; Refine my mind and my heart.”

Lamentations 3:40 “Let’s examine and search out our ways, And let’s return to the Lord.”

2 Corinthians 13:5 “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”

Some people discover (as pastor Joe says) that they are right in the will of God and don’t know how they got there.

Some will discover that they are on the right path but not moving forward.

Some will discover they have began to stray from the right path.

Others will find they they have taken a hard turn and wound up on the road to destruction

And then, there are some who came to church, and are not of the Family of God at all. Some know it and others don’t realize it until they are confronted personally with the Gospel or asked to personally examine their fruit. These are those who have entered the front door of the church but have not yet entered the narrow gate that leads to life.

Matthew 7:13–14 NASB 2020

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

How do we conduct an honest examination of ourselves?

We get on our face before God and we ask Him to shows us the truth about ourselves and help us to faithfully and honestly examine ourselves.

What are we examining? What evidence can we find to objectively determine where we are in Christ? Good question, because ‘Self-Examination’ ‘Self-Inspection’ and ‘Objective’ seems to be an oxy-moron. So what do we inspect?

Not your deeds, not your works, not your sacrifices

Not your past achievements or failures

Not your intentions or your future plans

Not your heart, not your feelings, not your emotions

Not your talents, not your abilities

Not your Spiritual gifts:

You Judge and Examine Yourself By Your Fruit:

The fruit you bear can’t lie. The Fruit will tell the tail...

Matthew 7:15–20 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.”

Someone asked “Why This End-of-the-Year, examination...I just ant to forget last year and continue putting my faith in Jesus and moving forward.”

Because, without self-examination you don’t know that you HAVE been putting your faith in Jesus, OR that you have been moving FOWARD towards Christ. And IF you just want to forget last year, that’s pretty good reason to assume you NEED to consider your faithfulness and your need to consider the direction that you’re pressing on towards.

An examination of your fruit will reveal two invaluable things:

Your fruit will firstly reveal the KIND of tree you are.

Then the quality and the frequency of its production will reveal symptoms that are helpful for determining or diagnosing the condition or health of the tree.

So let’s figure out what KIND of Tree you are:

IF YOU ARE of Christ then you have been pulled out of the field of death, you’ve been delivered, grafted into Christ, a branch growing out of Him, producing the Fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22–23 NASB 2020

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:19–21 NASB 2020

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The most important fruit to consider here is the Fruit of the Spirit. IF YOU ARE GRAFTED IN TO CHRIST...the Holy Spirit IS Producing HIS Fruit through you and you cannot stop it. It’s not your fruit. You are the branch. Why is it so important to consider this fruit? Because IF this fruit is not being produced in your life, there is more than enough evidence to assume you are not in Christ, not grafted in to His Body.

So we have looked at what KIND of Tree you are. Now, for most of you, and I hope all of you, sitting here this morning who have put your faith in Jesus, you have been saved, delivered, and are God’s children...and you see the evidence of His Life, His Holy Spirit’s fruit in your life…

Now we move to the second part of the self examination: We’ll look at the Quality of the fruit the Holy Spirit is able to produce through us and the frequency of production.

Next we want to look at the quality of the fruit produced through us?

The Fruit of the Spirit - the fruit of Righteousness, of the Kingdom…is Fruit of Life.

Not just for you, but for everyone who encounters and engages you.

Taste and see that the Lord is Good

Is health: Spiritual, Physical, Emotional, Intellectual Health

Produces in every season - Be ready in Every Season…instant, in and out of season.

Where are your roots planted?

What are feeding and watering yourself with?

And this is such an important question.

This is the point that I have struggled in prayer over. This is the point that I have wrestled most with.

There are only two sources of ideology from which to drink from. There are only two streams of knowledge, information, data that flows, of which our roots grow into, and from which we draw all the substance and material that will form our perception of truth or understanding of reality.

Fountain of Eternal Life, in Christ Jesus the Rock of Our Salvation,

That brings Life

That Brings Light to our Feet & to our Path

That establishes us in TRUTH

That causes us to STAND FIRM when the rains of death, deception, delusion, pour down, and the enemies floods rise against us…He is the Rock Upon Which We Stand, and He is the Standard against the raging Floods

That brings liberty and freedom IN Christ for His Will and Glory

The Flood waters of Death

That Bring delusion

That brings false security

That brings deception

That brings blindness to our eyes and darkness to our minds

That brings slavery and bondage IN Darkness for God’s Judgement and wrath

There are two Books that I have with me this morning.

One that was written by the inspiration of God through men that He chose to use as His writing tools to convey the Word of God, the Heart of God, the Mind of God, by the Holy Spirit of God.

The other was written by the inspiration of the devil though a poor, ignorant, rebellious, deceived lost soul who was used up and discarded as a writing tool to convey the ideology of Self, to be consumed by the masses that are ignorant, undisciplined, rebellious enough to digest its poison, influencing and forming their perception of reality upon the shift sands of self in the bloodlands of delusion.

As You End your Year…and you take the next three days to consider how you will sign-off, this year…As you consider what you will leave in the past, what you will cleave to and carry into the first page of 2026.

Bitter and sweet water cannot come out of the same fountain. Paul said in Corinthians, we cannot drink from both the Cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. There is no fellowship between light and dark.

This is WHY it is so important to draw your sustenance, your ideology, from the Word of the Lord...because many believers are struggling in their walk, and confused as to why they’re stuck, or don’t seem to be living a victorious life in Christ...and some question whether are truly are saved, when the problem is not their salvation the problem is what they are feeding themselves with.

This is why some believers have life in Christ, but they are not experiencing Life More Abundant . Why some believers cannot seem to overcome temptation, fall into sin so easy, or why they appear to look and act more like those who are not saved than an overcoming child of God. Sometimes the problem is NOT that they are a fake Christian, but a spiritually weak, starving, lethargic person who believes in Jesus but has neglected to draw fully from the Life Spring of Word of God, so they don’t know who they are in Christ, what is available to them in the Spirit, How to live as an overcomer, the importance of the fellowship of the Body.

And since they are not pursuing the Truth of the Word of God, they are getting their understand, teaching, ideology from the world...and it is keeping them in bondage, keeping them in shackles to the flesh, keeping them from experiencing the life, liberty, joy, peace, rest and refreshing that is the life one one walking in the Spirit.

They find themselves torn between the ideologies of these two books...

I’m calling this (Bible) The Book of Life: Which is 100% Christ-Centered

I’m calling this one the Book of Death: Which is 100% Self-Centered

BOOK OF LIFE SAYS:

“The Greatest Command is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and the second is ‘Love your neighbors as yourself. There is no commandment greater that these.” - Jesus, Mark 12:30-31

THE BOOK OF DEATH SAYS:

“Say to your own heart “I am my own redeemer” I am my own God.

“Do what you want is the whole of the Law”

BOOK OF LIFE SAYS:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. - No matter how they treat you, let your response be Jesus.

BOOK OF DEATH SAY:

Do unto others AS they do to you. - If they are jerks, be a jerk. If they are hateful, hate them back. If they do you wrong, do them wrong.

“If someone strikes you on the check, smash them”

“If you are in public and someone annoys you, ask them to stop, if they do it again, destroy them.”

“If a guest comes to your house, and they annoy you, treat them cruelly and without mercy.

THE SCRIPTURE SAYS

Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.

BOOK OF DEATH:

Hate your enemy with your whole heart

Show kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrades!

Popular Ideas that are advocated in this book:

“Life is the great indulgence - death the great abstinence. Therefore, make the most of this life here and now!”

“The pursuit of personal happiness is the most noble of all pursuits, seize it at all cost.”

“What good are friends and family if they can’t do you any good? Break away from all conventions that do not lead to your earthly success and happiness.”

“Your feelings, emotions, wants, desires, passions — should influence, guide, and dictate the decisions you make in life.”

“Don’t feel shame, but pride in self-indulgence: it is Self worship; the purest and highest for of self-glorification.”

“You must learn to ‘fight for yourself and your personal authentic truth no matter what it cost or how it effects others. You are your own Savior.”

“You must insist that others consider your feelings when they are making decisions about their life that have the potential of negatively impacting your personal happiness, or offers no benefit to you.”

Popular: Trending Themes from the Book of Death

You only live once: YOLO

Smile Now, Cry Later

I Hope you have the Day you deserve

You’ve Got to Look out for #1

Your Body You Choice

Live Your Best Life Now

Follow Your Heart

I Do What I Want

No One Can Judge Me

I Manifest My Realty

There is no Absolute Truth

Good and Evil are relative: Good is what brings you pleasure, Evil is what you don’t like.

Your personal authentic truth is all that matters

You have a good heart, indulge it.

The Scripture Says:

It is all about Christ Jesus

Jesus calls us to take up our cross, deny ourselves and follow Him.

He must Increase, I must Decrease

To Live IS CHRIST, to die IS GAIN

Reveal the Book: The Satanic Bible

I want to ask you a question, and I want you to be honest with me:

Does it bother you to see this book?

Does it frustrate or even irritation you that I brought this book into this house?

GOOD! And It Should.

1 Corinthians 3:16 NASB 2020

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

1 Corinthians 6:19 NASB 2020

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

2 Corinthians 6:16 NASB 2020

Or what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell among them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

YOU are the House of the Living God

YOU are the Body of Christ

This House is only called a Church because YOU gather here.

And family…the ideologies and teachings of THIS book, have no place IN the HOUSE OF THE LORD.

AND YET: These doctrines of self glorification, self-exaltation, self-trust, self-gratification are taught from some pulpits. There are pastors, evangelists, small group, house churches, young adult leaders, youth pastors, Christian social media influencers who are pushing these ideas and passing them off as ‘helpful personal opinions’.

There are some Christian adults and Christian youth who claim to be Bible-Believing, Scripture -Proclaiming Followers of Jesus, who neglect to get into the Scripture...and though they have never picked this book up, are walking around quoting it, and living it.

Do you see why it is important that we stop and examine our fruit and we get down the bottom of why some things are off? That we examine what we have been feeding our spirit and our mind.

The only way to get rid of THIS...is to get INTO This.

This is what we need to leave behind us...this is what we need to hold on and cleave to. This is what we need to throw at the feet of Jesus, and HE is what we need to cling onto and allow Him to carry us into 2026.

As we come to the Table I want to take a moment, as the Scripture says, to examine ourselves. Maybe the Lord has revealed some things that you have hidden, maybe the Lord has revealed some things that you didn’t even know were there. Take this moment to cast those things at the feet of Jesus, because, our God is a jealous God, He loves you and He wants you for Himself, He will not share with the devil. He is jealous for you and He has purchased for you a seat at this table; He will not share this table with anyone but His Body - you. And as you come to the table this morning and pick us the elements of our Common-Union, let it be a declaration in your heart to God, by FAITH, “God help me, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to sit and make my fellowship with YOU at this table alone.”

Father help us, lead us, guide us…by the Holy Spirit over the next 3 days. Draw closer into you, I ask you to bring us all closer to you, into the Light of your Glory so that anything and everything that may be in us that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, would be exposed, rooted out, and in its place, MORE OF YOU.

Communion Examination

1 Corinthians 11:28 NASB 2020

But a person must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

We are examining ourselves and telling the Lord, “Thank you God that you purchased a place for me at this table with the shedding of your precious blood. And I will not reject this table, I will not neglect this table...but God show me where I’ve shared a seat at the table of the world, the flesh, the table of communion, fellowship with the flesh, at the table of demons...and you flip those tables and revoke my reservations.

I have a seat at the table of the Lord.

You brothers and siters have a seat at the table of the Lord, the table of Life, the table of Hope, the Table of the King of Kings, the table that no one but the redeemed can purchase reservations. Your seat have your name on it and no one can take your seat. He bought it for you and you alone and you specifically.