Looking Back on a Year of God’s Faithfulness

to Psalms uh 24, which for many of you it would be page 790. Um, and this is Psalms 24. I'll give you guys a little time to open up there so you guys can follow along what I'm reading. [snorts] Psalm 24, page 790. And it says here, "The earth is the Lord's and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and establish it upon the waters, who may ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who may stand in his holy place. He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the gen generation of those who seek him, who seek your face. Lift up your heads, oh you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in. Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, oh you gates. Lift up you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. Praise God. And we're just going to have Tim come up. God bless. Over here we read once again who is this king of glory and I if if you remember last week we talked about this king of glory. Amen. Yes. Yes. And he is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. That's the king of glory who David in the Old Testament believing by faith not even seeing him like you and me already give him honor and glory knowing that he is the king. He is the king. So, uh, praise God for that. Our service today is going to be a little bit different. Um, we I prepared a little, I would say, slideshow of this past year since New Year's is coming up. Uh we will not be having service on Wednesday, but I wanted to kind of do everything today. So today we're going to watch this little slideshow of God's blessings um this past year. How God was moving, God was working in our lives, how God was working in our ministries, in our church. So, there's going to be a little slideshow on that. If your picture is not there, forgive me because I don't take pictures of all of you. That would be a little weird. Uh, everybody be like, "What's this guy taking pictures of me?" Um, I did ask on our church chat uh for those uh that are on there to send us to send me some pictures. I got some but um I included them in that slideshow and then after the slideshow we will pray and bless all those people who serve and I would like in this prayer for all of us to be a part of that uh ministries as the the kitchen ministry uh the worship ministry the usher ministry all these ministries we're going to um have the people come up and the pastors, the deacons, and all of us are going to pray for those who serve. And also, we're going to pray for each one of us that God blesses us in this new year. I think we all want blessings, right? We all want blessings. And this is not even prosperity gospel how they say this is the word of God. This is the word of God sometimes. Hold on, brother Sean. Uh, sometimes people take a a little too far. That's all they preach. Blessing, blessing, blessing. But in blessing, uh, we're going to read. There's something else. [snorts] Um, is the slideshow ready? If not, let's take these few minutes to Oh, yeah. Sean, sorry. I feel like we need a suggestion here. I feel like we need another Yes. Yes. More time. Amen. More worship time. Amen. So, so uh brother Vlad, he's our worship leader. You have any suggestions? You talk to him. You say, "Hey, don't hurry, brother. Sing, sing, and sing." So, let's take these few minutes to do our greetings and then we'll come back to our seats. Amen. Guys, that's I don't know. What are you doing? You know what? I don't have [music] Jacob, how's everything? Everything good to go, guys. Ready? Everyone ready? Amen. Okay. [music] Jesus have my heart, my will, my soul. Jesus have my words, my dreams, my world. With joy [singing] I lay at them. With joy I cast my crowns. Jesus have it all. To you I bring my praise, my lips, my song. A living [music] sacrifice as one reborn. Your life is now mine. [music] Your will is what I want. Jesus have it all. Oh Jesus [music] have [singing] it all. Jesus have it all. To you [music] belongs the glory, the praise of all the world. Jesus [music] have it all. Jesus have it all. A blessing [music and singing] and all. Majesty and all. Jesus [music and singing] at all. Jesus [music and singing] have your church, your love, your pride, the joy [music] for which you freely gave. Your life radiant [music] in white. Wash them purified. Jesus [music] have us all. [music] Jesus [singing] have your worth, your due, your song, the praise of [music and singing] every nation, tribe and tongue. Let all that has been made glorify your name. Jesus [music] have it all. [music] Oh Jesus [singing] have it all. Jesus have [music] it all. To you belongs the glory, the praise [music and singing] of all the world. Jesus have it all. Jesus [music and singing] have it all. A blessing it all. Oh majesty it [music] all. Oh Jesus [singing] have it all. Jesus have it all. To you [music] belongs the glory, the praise of all the world. Oh Jesus [music] have it all. Jesus [singing] have it all. Blessing [music] and all majesty [singing] and all. [music] Jesus have it all. [singing] Jesus [music] have it [singing] all. Jesus [music] have it all. [singing] Jesus [music] have [singing] it all. I have need to be baptized of thee. That is done to me. Suffer it to be so now. For thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Blessed Jesus is and oh what a foreast of glory. Redeemer, of salvation, purchase [music] of God, born of his blood. This is my story. Glor down to the When I'm [singing] in the river going behindapt [singing] down to The river vision [music] rapture now. Angels descending from echy [music] whispers. This is [music] my story. This is my [music] song. Praising [music] myior all [singing] the day [music] long. In the name of the Father and the Son. Perfect. All is rest and I amior [music] happy and blessed. Just watching looking filled with his goodness and lost in [music] his love. And this is my story. God is my soul. Praising my all the day long. This is my [music] soul. You're praising my 2025 local community outreach. Here we have shoes for little orphans. mothers with kids. And for the kids, we have a bunch of cool stuff, toys and games. Our friends helping us out, organize all this. Morning Star Church 2025 Christmas outreach. I waited with hope. I prayed through the night dreaming of share [singing] in this life. Then you walked in with love in your eyes. A promise unfolding. A holy [music] surprise. A holy surprise. God's perfect time. He brought [music] you to me. Not a second late, not too [music] early. Every tear, every prayer led to this day. In God's perfect time, love found its way. We've journeyed also [music and singing] [music and singing] [singing] [music] is our light. Amen. [applause] God's doing things, right? God's doing things and it's all glory to him. It's all glory to him. Like I tell many people, we're just messengers. We're just his tools. And if you're a tool that wants to be used, he'll use you. Amen to that. If you're a tool that wants to be used, you are not going to be sitting on the toolbox or in the toolbox. Amen. He's going to be using you. And uh God has been using many people this year. And he's been transforming lives and saving lives. And um but like the last Bible verse for 2026 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding." Why is that? Because our understanding is not always the right understanding. But when God's understanding comes into our mind, it's always right. Keeps us out of trouble. uh keeps us focused and keeps us safe and even when people around us try to do harm and evil to us. But when we trust in the Lord, he's the one that will give us the understanding what to do, where to go, what to say, how to act, and how to feel, how to love. Yes. And may we all this new year take this into our heart. 2026 it the past is the past. I'll say that we learn from the past. Do don't take the past with you. Learn what did I do wrong in 2025? What did I do right on 2025? And take the things that you did right and expand on them. Learn to let go. Forgiveness. Yes. Forgiveness. Bitterness. A lot of those things is what actually drags us down. Unforgiveness. Unforgiveness. It takes away our peace. Right? We have no peace when we can't forgive. That that person, that thought is always in us when we wake up, when we go to sleep, it doesn't set us free, but God can set us free from that. So, that was a good one. Forgiveness. But [clears throat] right now, I said we're going to do a little bit different today. We want to bless all those who have been serving the church and serving the community. So we will maybe I'm thinking either they all come up or or just per ministry. What's a better idea? Per ministry. Okay. So the first ministry that I would like to to call up and uh when we're going to pray, we're going to all stand up and we're going to all lift our hands and we're going to bless them is our ushers. Our ushers. Where is Ivan? And is Ivan there? Oh, he's in the gym playing basketball, working out. Yeah. Okay, let's let's maybe move on. Um Oh, and uh Ruben, can you tell the the cooks that that they're going to be up also? So, okay. Well, then let's do this. Worship team. Worship team, please come up. This is one, two, three. This is our worship team. and uh during the week they take time to to practice to prepare so they can come here today and all the songs that we're singing and it's not a last minute thing there's practice that comes into that and we want to bless all of you guys and I'll be reading this a lot but I'm going to read it uh to you that over here in numbers six it says the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace and give you peace. So with that, let's pray. Lord God, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bless the worship team. Lord, we bless the leaders, God. We bless in the name of Jesus Christ. May they serve you with all their heart, Lord Jesus. May they serve you with all their mind and their soul and their spirit and their strength, Lord God. Lord God, may you bless them in their life, Lord Jesus, that they are committed to serving you and serving us, the church, and also the community in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Ushers, Basili, you coming? Or did you already quit? But he can never leave. Okay. Okay. Yes. Yes. And the reasons why ushers are important, they keep all of us in check. And if you're going to be talking, you might see something like or like, "Hey, hey, hey, take it easy now." [laughter] Yeah. But but we want to thank you ushers that that you've been serving and consistently and we're very thankful that you um just like look after the services and also in the gym that everything is safe that everything is good. Oh yeah. And bus drivers. Oh yeah. Blessed bus drivers. Amen to that. We have one missing but uh but it's okay. He'll come later. So, same words to you. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God, in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord, look, we bless the the ushers. Lord God, may your blessing be upon them, Lord Jesus. Lord, you see their dedication, God, that they're here every Sunday, Lord, serving you, God. May you bless them in their life, and may you bless them at church, Lord God, that they, God, serve you with all their heart, soul, mind, strength, and spirit. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. chefs. Morning chefs. James was there, but but he left. Is James coming? Ah, he's in the bathroom. Okay. Okay. Well, yeah. Yeah, we can wait for him. Um, we will have greeters. greeters, please come up. They've been actually doing an awesome job as as you see every time they come in or we come in. Um [clears throat] the greeters are always here and uh they're they're here earlier than all of us. Amen to that. That's some dedication right there. Versavia, well, are you a greeter, too? Oh. Oh, okay. Okay. Sounds good. Uh and and also we we uh have one main greeter that's not here today, but it's okay. We'll uh bless her. Her name is Kayla, and we'll bless her as well. But thank you. Thank you greeters for greeting us every morning. Young, happy people, right? You come in, you see a nice smile on their faces. Right now they're kind of nervous. Ben, smile. [laughter] He's smiling. Yes. Yes. But the same words will go to our greeters. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Let's pray everybody. Lord God, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bless the the greeters, Lord Jesus. May you, God, bless them in their life, God, that they serve you, God. That they take this ministry, God, by heart, Lord, to serve you, God, and to honor you with it, Lord. We bless them in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord God. that they come every morning God knowing that they are doing this to you God look for you Lord Jesus and like a blessing to the church Lord and to the community in Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed. Okay. We can like we can maybe wait for him but um in the meantime we can do a worship song and then we'll continue again. And for our last song, we'll be singing What Child Is This? What child is this [music and singing] who lay to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping? Oh angels [music and singing] weep with ang sleep while shephers watch our keeping. [music] This this [singing] is Christ [music] the King whom shephers guard and angels sing. Haste [music and singing] days to bring him Lord the B the son of Mary. So bring [music and singing] him in gold and birth compass [singing] king [music] to own him. The king [singing] of kings salvation brings. Let loving hearts enthrone him. This this [music] is Christ the king whom shephers guard and [singing] angels [music] sing. may stay to bring him the babe, [singing] the son of Mary. [music] This this is Christ the King [singing] whom shephers guard and angels sing. They [singing] stay [music] to bring him Lord the vape, the son of Mary. So right now we're going to continue in our prayers and our blessings. I would like to call up everybody that's been in the kitchen uh helping out to come up and we'll pray. And Hannah, you're you've been involved. So, we're going to pray for you and bless you, too. Oh, there you go. Greg. Yes, you did. [laughter] Well, yeah. But I'll still just kind of share what our kitchen staff do. So, Saturday, Friday, Saturday, they go, they buy the food. It's all fresh. Uh, every Sunday morning while we're here at church, our kitchen staff is in the kitchen making us all food and coffee, yummy eggs, yummy biscuits, uh, bagels, whatever it is, sausage, bacon. Yes. Yes. And this is this is also a huge ministry that God has blessed us with. Wash the dishes. You see, clean the tables. Anything else? [laughter] Clean tables, pick everything up, and we're going to uh bless them in that as well. I guess when uh Brother James comes, then then we'll uh pray for him. But Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, I'm going to say these words once again. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Let's pray. Lord God, in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord God, we bless our kitchen staff, Lord, our chefs, Lord Jesus. We bless them, Lord God, that they know, Lord, that they're doing this to honor you and to glorify you and to serve you, Lord God. May you bless them. May you strengthen them, Lord God. God, you see their dedication, Lord Jesus. I ask your blessings upon them, Lord. May you God lead them Lord knowing that God they are serving us as well Lord God and serving the community Lord Lord may you bless them in their life in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Oh okay. Okay. Hold on. Okay. Hold on. The boss is here. I'm reading again. That's a double blessing. That's not fair, right? The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Let's pray one more time. Lord God, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bless our uh kitchen staff, our chefs. Lord God, may you bless them. May you see their their service, Lord God. May you see their dedication Lord God. May you strengthen them Lord and may they know God that they are doing this to honor and to glorify you in Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed. [clears throat] And I guess Pastor Henry wants to. So uh right now we want to bless pastor team. There was a time when we actually when we were deciding to start this ministry 9 am service uh and God also plays on teams heart pastor Tim's heart to actually start serving to the needy people to the people that doesn't have homes to some of you and I know he called me and said well that's what God putting in my heart and at that time we did not know is this going to succeed or not. There was a time when they would bring just one or two people then three people and then it started growing. People start uh being baptized and right now we see that go God is blessing this ministry. Let's pray for him that God give him more wisdom and knowledge and understanding how to lead this ministry because I can see that God is blessing this ministry. Let's pray for him. God, we thanking you for [cough] [clears throat] that you start blessing this ministry. We ask in your blessing on pastor team that you give him wisdom, that you give him knowledge and give him vision in the name of Jesus Christ. give him your anointing. You already bless him. But we asking that everyone would see that you love those people like he loves those people like we love those needy people because we have your heart and we ask that you lead him in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's do the second worship song. That was a nice one. The second worship song. Yeah, we'll do one more. Thank you everybody. By the way, I love serving. We're We're all in need of Christ, right? That's right. My tie don't define me. right? Nor does my jacket. It's what's in my heart. And I love serving. I love being with you. I love all of you. Amen. All righty. And once again, we're going to be singing here I am to worship. [music] Light [music and singing] of the world, you step down into darkness. Open my eyes, let me see. Beauty that [music and singing] made this heart adore you. Hope [singing] of a life [music] spent with you. Here [singing and music] I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. [music] Here I am to say that [singing] you're my God. [music] You're all together lovely. Allto together [singing] worthy, allto together wonderful [music] to me. King [music and singing] of all days, oh so highly exalted, glorious [singing] in heaven above. Humbly [singing and music] you came to the earth you created. All for [singing] love's sake became [music] born. Here I [singing] am to worship. Here I am to bow [music] down. Here I [singing] am to say that you're my God. [music] You're all [singing] together lovely, allto together [music] worthy, allto together wonderful [singing] to me. [music] I'll [singing] never know how much [music] it costs to see [singing] my sin upon that cross. I'll [music] never [singing] know how much it costs to see [music and singing] my sin upon that cross. Here I [singing] am to worship. [music] Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say [music and singing] that you're my God. You're all together lovely, allto together [music] [singing] worthy, allto together wonderful to me. [music] Praise the Lord. Well, praise God my dear friends and our service has come to the end. But I want us to to also bring a blessing upon ourselves. And Jacob, can you put up the words? And I want all of us to speak this because the Bible says in numbers what I read the the verses of blessing. It also says so they shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them. And we can replace that that word Israel with us because we are the new the new chosen or the new believers or the new saved. Therefore, when we're going to say these words, um may may we understand that this blessing is fallen upon us. Yeah. Okay. But I guess you can repeat after me. I kind of changed it up because in the Bible it says you, but we're going to say me. The Lord bless me. And keep me and keep me. The Lord make his face shine upon me. And be gracious to me. be gracious to me. The Lord turn his face toward me. The Lord turn his face toward me. And give me peace. And give me peace. Guys, one more time. I'm not feeling it. I'm not feeling it. I know. I know. I know it's on there, but but say with your heart, do you want to be blessed this morning? Do you want to be blessed in this new year? Let's say it again. The Lord bless me. The Lord bless me and keep me and keep me. The Lord make his face shine upon me. The Lord makes his face upon me. And be gracious to me. And the Lord turn his face toward me. The Lord turn his face toward me. And give me peace. And give me peace. Amen. Praise God. Amen. Praise God. And with these words, let's do a prayer. Lord God, Lord God, we are so thankful, Lord, we God, say this upon ourselves, God, we are asking for your blessing upon ourselves, Lord Jesus. Lord God, we bless each one here, Lord Jesus. We bless each one. May you show your grace upon us, Lord. And may you bless us in this new upcoming year 2026. I bless each person in the name of Jesus Christ. I bless each person and may everyone who has I would say needs or questions Lord in this past year may they come to to to be Lord in 2026. May your will be done in everything. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For your kingdom, your power, and glory forever are yours.