Start at the End

Good morning, church! Welcome to the last day of 2023, and our last gathering of 2023. It’s been an exciting year, and I’m looking forward to seeing all that God is going to do in and through Eastern Hills in 2024! I’m Bill Connors, senior pastor of the Eastern Hills family, and I want to thank you for being here this morning, whether you’re in the room or online, to gather as we worship the Lord Jesus Christ to close out this year.

If you are our guest this morning, we are glad that you are here this morning, and we would really like to have the opportunity to send you a note of thanks and to be in touch to see if there is anything that we can pray for you about, or if there is some ministry and care that you need. But to do that, we’re going to need a way to contact you. There are two ways for you to get us that information: the first is the card in the back of the pew in front of you that says “WELCOME” on it. Please grab that, fill it out, and either drop it in the boxes by the doors at the close of service today, or bring it down to me when service is over, because I have a thank you gift to give to you. If you’re rather fill out an online card, you can text the word WELCOME to 505-339-2004, and you’ll receive a text back with a link to our online communication card. If you choose that path, please still plan to come down and allow me to introduce myself to you after service, so I can give you that gift.

Announcements

LMCO ($21,097.23 of $32,500), thanks church…taking through January.

LMCO Video: Lost in Reality (Justin & Michaela Knippers, VR Ministry)

Opening

Last weekend, as we celebrated on Christmas Eve during both the morning and evening, we finished up our Christmas series, which we called “Rediscover Christmas.” Next week, we will begin our next series, which will take us verse-by-verse through the entire book of Daniel, as we consider together what it means to live a life of faith. This morning, however, we will consider the end of this year, and the beginning of the next one.

To be honest, thinking about new year’s resolutions is kind of low-hanging fruit for preaching on the last Sunday of the year. Many of us make resolutions every January. If I’m going to be honest, my resolution this past year was to get my weight down to 205 from where I started the year (224). I got down to 208 at one point, and then Christmas and COVID got me, and now I’m about 211. I’ll get there, I’m sure… just not in 2023. But new year’s resolutions are actually an ancient tradition. The Babylonians started each year with pledges to pay their debts and return borrowed items. The Romans began each year by promising their two-faced god Janus that they would “behave better” in the year to come.

Generally, a resolution is a goal to make some “positive” change in our lives. We make them, but for the most part, we’re terrible at keeping them. In a recent study of 153 people who vowed to quit smoking that year showed that by the year’s end, only 20 of them had succeeded. That’s 13%. Why do you think we’re so bad at this? I think first it’s because when we resolve to make changes, we are resolving to trust the person who got us into the mess we’re in in the first place—ourselves. And secondly, I wonder if it’s because we don’t truly start at the end. We might think that we do, but the end that we claim to start with (like, “I want to quit smoking”) isn’t the actual end. It’s A goal, but it’s not THE goal… the larger existential goal that connects with our purpose and meaning in life. Think about it. You can take the goal of “quitting smoking” and add a “so that” clause after it. That means that there’s a goal beyond the cessation of inhaling the smoke from burning tobacco leaves.

For the Christian, when we stop and think about it, all that we are and all that we do should have an ultimate goal: The glory of the Lord. And it is with this in mind that we come to our focal passage this morning, Philippians 4:4-9. Let’s stand as we are physically able in honor of the reading of the Word of God as we consider at this passage together:

Philippians 4:4–9 CSB

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things. 9 Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

PRAYER (First Christian Church on Montgomery, VR ministry of Justin & Michaela Knippers)

The reality of our existence is that normally, change—true, lasting, permanent change—takes time and effort. And generally, we as humans are not particularly good at waiting. We want change to happen now, and we want it to happen completely. And not only that, but we aren’t big fans of difficulty, either. We don’t want to deny ourselves. We don’t want to wrestle. We don’t want to struggle. We want to have change happen in our lives without any effort on our parts whatsoever. We pray, “Lord, make me more like You,” and while we probably actually mean that we want to be more like Jesus, we want it to happen completely passively.

And while that can and does happen—where God steps in and radically changes a life—there’s a reason we look at those moments in awe. It’s because they are miraculous. In God’s wisdom, that’s what is necessary for some people and in some situations, but things don’t ordinarily go that way for the vast majority of people. That’s because the change isn’t the end. God is. And it’s the journey that builds the relationship with Him.

A couple of weeks ago, Melanie and I were looking for something (I don’t even remember what), and we opened this storage container that we’ve had hiding under the bed in my home office. Inside that container were some of my old quiet time journals and faith notebooks, going back to even before I came on staff as the youth pastor. I took some time since then to sit down and look through some of them. And I noticed a couple of things: 1) I know more now than I did then; 2) I’m more mature now than I was then; and 3) (and this is the important part) both items 1 and 2 would not have happened without the in large part based upon the time and effort spent then.

As I looked through those journals and notebooks, I read my prayers of submission and desire to walk with God. I saw where I wrote out passages of Scripture as I studied them. I have notebooks that lived in my Bible, and in which I have page after page of sermon notes from the sermons of my predecessor, Pastor Larry Miller. And there are pages and pages of notes about how God was leading me in student ministry once the church called me into the role of youth pastor. There are records of my struggles, my doubts, and my fears, and in other places, records of where God moved and I experienced victory at His hand. There are notes about how awesome God is and how sinful I am. There are desperate cries of fear, begging God for understanding when I was overwhelmed or worried. There are notes from the depths of my meditating on the Word of God, and the growth that came from those deeper dives into who He is.

Please hear me that I’m not holding myself out as the model here, or saying that spiritual growth is based entirely on our effort and investment. I’m just saying that seeing those things helped me to remember all that God had done, and the heart of my relationship with Him during that time. In the early journals, I didn’t have a goal of the pastorate: I had a goal of knowing and loving Jesus more. And looking back now, I can see that I started at the end. And all glory and praise and honor goes to Him who through all of that did an amazing work in my life. No glory should go to me. It’s all about Him. Only He is worthy.

Our focal passage this morning gives us a three piece recipe for what should drive us if we are going to start at the end in our spiritual walks: we must delight in the Lord, trust in the Lord, and focus on the Lord.

1: Delight in the Lord (4-5)

Remember that a couple of weeks ago, during our Christmas series, we considered the relationship between joy and happiness. I’m not going to reiterate that now, other than to say that the two are not in competition, but very closely related. And in the first part of our focal passage this morning, Paul calls the church at Philippi (and by extension, us) to rejoice in the Lord always:

Philippians 4:4–5 CSB

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.

However, one truth that we need to cling to is that everything else that we might delight in in life, literally everything else, pales in comparison with the greatness, the beauty, the wonder, the majesty of the Lord our God. He is worth more than all the money in the world. He is more powerful than all the rulers of the earth. His nature defines love. His character defines goodness.

And since this is the case, He is to be our greatest delight, because He is the only One who was and is and always will be worthy of our delight. Theologian John Piper calls this concept “Christian hedonism,” meaning that the highest good and the proper aim of the life of the Christian is to delight in God Himself through relationship with Jesus Christ through the presence of His Holy Spirit. Basically, that our joy is centered in our relationship with God.

In Psalm 40, David writes eloquently about the centrality of his relationship with God:

Psalm 40:4–10 CSB

4 How happy is anyone who has put his trust in the Lord and has not turned to the proud or to those who run after lies! 5 Lord my God, you have done many things— your wondrous works and your plans for us; none can compare with you. If I were to report and speak of them, they are more than can be told. 6 You do not delight in sacrifice and offering; you open my ears to listen. You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering. 7 Then I said, “See, I have come; in the scroll it is written about me. 8 I delight to do your will, my God, and your instruction is deep within me.” 9 I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; see, I do not keep my mouth closed— as you know, Lord. 10 I did not hide your righteousness in my heart; I spoke about your faithfulness and salvation; I did not conceal your constant love and truth from the great assembly.

Psalm 40:16 CSB

16 Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; let those who love your salvation continually say, “The Lord is great!”

He Himself is to be our greatest delight and treasure. And I get it—we run after a lot of things. I know that I do. And we enjoy a lot of things. And that’s not bad or wrong, but it’s not what we were made for. It’s not what we were meant for. We were made to be the showcases of the glory of God through the sacrifice of Jesus. As we saw throughout our Christmas series, His sacrifice provides hope. His sacrifice is our peace. His sacrifice is the basis of our joy. His sacrifice is the display of true love. And because of our relationship with Jesus, Christians get to experience the very presence of Almighty God through His Spirit living within us. We get to walk with God Himself! “The Lord is near,” as Paul wrote in verse 5 of our focal passage.

Christian, if you want to grow in your faith this year, start at the end—start with the fact that God Himself is our greatest treasure, not anything He can give us, because He has already given us what is best, in that He has given us Himself in Christ.

But it is only those who have believed in Christ who experience this nearness, this presence, because it is only through faith in Jesus that our relationship with God is restored. In the simplest terms, the restoration of our relationship to God is commonly called salvation. The Bible tells us that God created us to be with Him, but that our sins—the ways that we fail to live up to God’s holy standard—our sins separate us from Him. We can’t earn our forgiveness, because the standard is an all-or-nothing standard. We’re either perfect, or we’re not. So Jesus, the Son of God, came and lived a perfect life in our place so that He could pay the penalty that we owe because of our sinfulness—He died the death we deserve. But because of His power, He defeated death and rose to life again. The Bible says that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life—both within us now and forever with God.

John 6:40 CSB

40 For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

John 6:47 CSB

47 “Truly I tell you, anyone who believes has eternal life.

For those of you who have never believed, please understand that it is God’s desire that no one perish, but all come to repentance (a complete change of direction). Jesus died to display the love that God has for you and for me, by providing a salvation that we could never earn or deserve. We simply surrender to His work as Savior and His position as Lord. There are no magic words, no special part of the room or church service when we are “supposed” to surrender. It’s right now, right where you are, and every right now after that. And once we are surrendered, we can truly delight in God because we know Him. Will you surrender to Jesus this morning?

When we have surrendered to the Lord, and thus can delight in Him, then comes the next ingredient in the recipe of starting at the end: we walk with Him in trust.

2: Trust in the Lord (6-7)

So we are meant to hold God as our greatest delight. And while we might delight in God, it doesn’t necessarily track that we would then trust Him. Think about it in terms of our human relationships: What if we take delight in someone who is untrustworthy? Fortunately that’s not a problem with the Lord, because God is absolutely trustworthy, totally perfect in every aspect of His character. And since He is completely trustworthy, we can bring all of our concerns to Him in complete trust, knowing that His plans are best, and that we can rely on Him to complete His purposes. Paul continues:

Philippians 4:6–7 CSB

6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Paul tells us that as we approach God with our petitions and prayers, we can already give thanks because we know He hears us if we are in Christ. Now, I know that we struggle with this a little bit, because at the bottom of it, we have a little bit of fear. It’s not a question of whether or not God will hear our prayers. It’s a question of whether or not God will answer our prayers in the way that we want Him to.

There is nothing wrong with letting God know what we want, and even asking for it. After all, He is the only One who can bring about the outcomes we ask for! If we desire a miracle, the only One who can do the miraculous is God, so He’s the right person to ask. However, when our greatest delight is God Himself, and we trust Him completely because He is completely trustworthy, then when we pray, we can trust that His answer is the BEST answer. This is why David wrote:

Psalm 37:3–6 CSB

3 Trust in the Lord and do what is good; dwell in the land and live securely. 4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. 5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act, 6 making your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the noonday.

The point is that when our delight—our heart’s greatest desire—is God Himself, then when God reveals Himself to us through His plans and purposes in our lives, then we receive what our hearts desire! The pslamist and Solomon both speak to the importance and result of trusting in the Lord:

Psalm 112:1 CSB

1 Hallelujah! Happy is the person who fears the Lord, taking great delight in his commands.

Psalm 112:6–7 CSB

6 He will never be shaken. The righteous one will be remembered forever. 7 He will not fear bad news; his heart is confident, trusting in the Lord.

Proverbs 3:5–6 CSB

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.

And then back in our focal passage, Paul says that God gives us His all-surpassing peace to guard our hearts and minds. When God is our greatest end, and we start with Him, then we will have peace in the midst of our struggles, because we know that God is trustworthy.

The word “guard” is an interesting word here. The term is actually a military term that could be used to refer to a prisoner under protection in the middle of a fortress to prevent his escape, or the act of protecting a fortress from invasion from without by posting watchmen and guardians. I think that either image would be a fine interpretation, but Paul was writing this letter to the church at Philippi from prison. He saw guards all around him. And so he chose to use the imagery of the “guarding” of the heart and the mind to reflect the fact that the peace of God keeps our hearts and minds from running away and escaping into error and sin. He does this by the power of the Holy Spirit within us.

2 Corinthians 1:21–22 CSB

21 Now it is God who strengthens us together with you in Christ, and who has anointed us. 22 He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

Believer, trusting the Lord is vital for our spiritual growth, because it is in trusting Him that we will experience His working, and we we experience His working, we come to know Him more and more. And as we come to know Him more and more, we are more and more able to focus on Him, which is our last point:

3: Focus on the Lord (8-9)

Remember the game “Follow the Leader” from when you were a child? The “leader” would march off in a particular direction in a particular way, and the task of the “followers” was to be as like the leader as they could be. This demanded focus, and likewise, following God demands that we focus on Him and His qualities, concerns, and priorities. Paul explains it to the Philippians like this:

Philippians 4:8 CSB

8 Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.

Now, there are two things for us to keep in mind as we start at the end here. The first is that verse 8 tells us what to think about. These things are right in line with what Paul said to the Colossians:

Colossians 3:1–2 CSB

1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

So when God is our greatest delight, and we trust Him, when we think about Him, we will be thinking about those things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, morally excellent, and praiseworthy. In fact, the Scripture tells us that we are “dwell” on these things. This means that we are to ponder these things, to spend time thinking about them, to meditate on them:

Psalm 104:34 CSB

34 May my meditation be pleasing to him; I will rejoice in the Lord.

Psalm 19:14 CSB

14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

Remember a few weeks ago when I talked about doomscrolling? I admit that sometimes I get so into reading the news, so into following what’s happening in the world politically, economically, socially, militarily, that I start to dwell on those things instead of on the things above. And as I focus on those things, what do you suppose the result is? Do you think that my faith is strengthened, or shaken? Do you think I feel encouraged, or discouraged? Do you suppose that I feel happier, or more frustrated?

Better yet: Are those things true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, morally excellent, or praiseworthy? Almost always the answer is no. Now, it’s not wrong to consider those things sometimes. We’re called to be shrewd as serpents as we travel through the world, but we’re also called to be innocent as doves (Matt 10:16). The primary things that we think about, the things that we “set our minds” on, should be godly things, heavenly things, righteous things. And the best thing to think about, to contemplate, to dwell on, is the Word of God, because it is in the Scriptures that we learn who God is, and who we are, and what Jesus has done for us, and what that means, and what our purpose is, and what will ultimately happen to those who are in Christ, and those who are not, and so much more. We should meditate on the Word of God, reading it, studying it, memorizing it, applying it.

But suppose that you don’t feel that you are mature enough to be able to understand the Scriptures or what it looks like to apply them to your life, to live in a way that accurately reflects Jesus. You don’t think that you can focus on God without a little help, someone else to walk with you and encourage you. Verse 9 tells us the second thing that we need to keep in mind as we seek to focus on God. Paul wrote:

Philippians 4:9 CSB

9 Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Paul tells the church in Philippi that they are to do what they have learned and received and heard and seen in Paul. Paul was to be their example of what it means to follow Jesus. This was not the first time he said something like this.

1 Corinthians 4:16 CSB

16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

1 Corinthians 11:1 CSB

1 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.

It wasn’t even the first time in this letter!

Philippians 3:17 CSB

17 Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.

So if we’re supposed to keep our focus on Jesus, then how can Paul say to imitate him? This last verse, 17, gives us the key of discipleship. If you want to grow in your walk with Jesus, and you aren’t sure how, then find someone in the church family who is walking with Jesus, and has been doing so consistently for a longer period of time than you have—someone who can walk with you and show you what it means to focus on the Lord. Someone that you can imitate, as they imitate Christ.

And if you’re someone who has grown, has some spiritual maturity (with humility), then make yourself available to engage in life with someone who isn’t as mature. That’s going to take a risk: you’re going to have to get to know other people in the body of the church. It will take effort. It will take time. But you will be shocked at how much you will grow if you engage in helping others grow. Find ways to get involved in others’ lives: get plugged into a Bible study class. Participate in men’s or women’s or Cornerstone events. Students: if you haven’t tried it yet, get engaged in the student ministry. Let’s help one another focus on the Lord, so that we would all be more like Jesus. This is why we have been put together as a church, according to Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus:

Ephesians 4:15–16 CSB

15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. 16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.

Closing

So we start at the end. What is our end? To glorify God as believers individually and as a church body. In order to do so, we need to take our greatest delight in the Lord, to trust Him as we walk with Him by faith, and to focus on Him and His Word so that we might be more like Him. It’s not that God isn’t going to be doing work on us in the process, as if it’s all up to us. He will be by His Spirit, and we will be joining Him in that work, moment by moment, step by step. It will take time, and some effort, but the fruit that can be borne in our lives is incredible.

If you’ve never trusted Christ, never believed the Gospel, then today I want to call you to repentance and faith. You cannot save yourself, so Jesus died and rose again so that you could be restored to a right relationship with your God—so that you could be saved. Surrender to Jesus this morning in faith, turning from your sins and trusting in Him to save you, confessing that He is Lord and believing that He defeated death for you. If that’s you, we want to celebrate with you. If you have questions, please come and let one of us know. In a moment, the band is going to come and lead us in a song of invitation, and when they do, feel free to come and share with one of us. If you’re online and you have surrendered to Christ today, or if you have questions about salvation, please reach out by email to bill@ehbc.org.

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Giving

PRAYER

The Ordinance of the Lord’s Supper

I’m going to ask the ordained men who are prepared to serve the congregation to come down at this time to prepare for the Supper.

The Scriptures tell us that the Supper should be a solemn, yet celebratory occasion, where we put into practice what we have just considered from verses 8 and 9 of Philippians 4: that we focus on the things of God. And in so doing, we should examine ourselves as Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 11:28-29:

1 Corinthians 11:28–29 CSB

28 Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

If you are not in Christ, having never believed the Gospel, never trusted in Him for your salvation, then please do not take the Supper this morning. We are glad that you are here to witness the church participating in this ordinance, but as the Supper is a testimony of our faith in Christ, then if you do not have faith, you should not participate, according to Scripture. However, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, feel free to take of the Supper, even if you are not formally a member of Eastern Hills.

Let us take a moment of silent examination of ourselves, as we are commended to by the Scriptures.

Pray for the bread

Distribute the bread

As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:23-24:

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 CSB

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Pray for the cup

Distribute the cup

As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:25

1 Corinthians 11:25 CSB

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Thank the deacons for their service.

Closing Remarks

Bible reading starting tomorrow: (Gen 1:1-2:3, Psalm 1) We’re going to stretch ourselves a little with this. During this reading plan, we will read the entire Bible (almost) straight through in two years, and during that time, we will read the Psalms and Proverbs through four times each. Plan to set aside 10-15 minutes per day to read your Bible. Instructions on using the app (6 screenshots of iPhone):

1: Make sure you have the new app (EHBC logo with purple background). It’s available on the Apple App Store for both iPad and iPhone, and on the Google Play Store for Android devices. Open the app.

It will open to our app launch page. Tap Bible down on the bottom of the screen.

It will open to a really nice Bible app. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the CSB that we use here in the building, but it does have the ESV, NIV, NLT, KJV, and NKJV. I’d recommend the ESV. Tap Plan next to the Bible version.

It will open to your next reading plan. Our entire two year plan has already been entered into our Bible app. Just tap the date of your reading.

It will open to that day’s reading in its entirety (in this case, Genesis 1:1-2:3 and Psalm 1).

When you’ve finished reading for the day, tap the “Complete” button at the bottom. It will track your reading for you.

No Pastor’s Study tonight

Prayer Meeting this Wednesday

Instructions for guests

Benediction

1 Peter 5:6–7 CSB

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.

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