2025- What Lies Ahead
The New Year is a great opportunity for us to look at what is coming next and to reflect on what the last year held. The same is true for us as Christians. But what is it that we should be looking forward to as Christians?
The start of a new year is a great opportunity for us as Christians to renew our focus on the most important thing that we are called to do. We are called as Christians to go and tell the world about Jesus! Today, I want us to focus on the shortest psalm in the Bible. Psalm 117 has a simple message; it' is a declaration of praise to God and it reminds us that all people will praise the Lord.
Psalm 1117 says, “Praise the Lord, all nations! Glorify him, all peoples! For his faithful love to us is great; the Lord’s faithfulness endures forever. Hallelujah!” In just two verses the idea of praising God is brought up three times. We see this in the words, “Praise, glorify, Hallelujah.” As these words are said, we can also see who should be praising God and why they should praise God.
Verse 1 provides us with these insights. All nations should praise the Lord and all peoples should give God glory. They should do this because God’s faithful love is very real and is great, or immense, and because God is always faithful. We should praise the Lord!
But how will all people around the world praise the Lord? It will only happen when people around the world know God. For people around the world to know God, someone has to tell them about God!
As we approach 2025, I want to challenge us with this. There are people in our family’s, in our neighborhoods, in our offices and even closer that do not know God! First, we need to be faithful to bring the Gospel to them! We need to be faithful to bring the Gospel to the multitude of people around us daily who do not know Jesus!
Then, we need to look larger. Jesus told his disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” If reaching our family, friends, coworkers, campus, and Champaign is our Jerusalem, then we need to also reach Judea and Samaria. We could consider those to be the state of Illinois.
We must work together with believers across the state to reach Illinois with the Gospel. There are areas across Illinois with low Gospel knowledge and with few Christians. We have a wonderful opportunity to support this work both with our time and also financially through our giving to the Cooperative Program through something like 100 for 100.
But the mission does not stop there. If we want to see people from all backgrounds praising God and if we want to obey Jesus’s instructions in Acts 1:8 then we need to go to the world! There are two ways that we can do that.
First, we have the nations in Champaign with us! Collegiate ministry is a great opportunity to reach the nations that are all around us. Every single day our students are in class and around people from all around the world. This is a great opportunity for them to take the Gospel to the nations while they are in Illinois. So, one way for us to reach the nations is to reach our local campus.
Secondly, as we give to the Cooperative Program and to things like the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, we are supporting the work of men, women and their families around the world as they bring the Gospel to the nations. Our support does not end with financial aid. Instead, we are also called to “Hold the Rope” as Baptist missionary William Carey challenged his supporters by praying. We need to be praying for our missionaries and praying that God would move around the world.
As we start 2025, let me encourage us to keep our eyes fixed on this great picture that we see in Psalm 117 no matter how this year goes. Truly, I cannot wait until we are united in heaven and we are worshiping with believers from every tongue and every tribe. On that glorious day, we will see Psalm 117 lived out and we will see all nations and all peoples praising God!
Pastor Daniel