Day 2539 – Pressing Forward – A Christ-Contered Perspective on the New Year

Welcome to Day 2539 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom Day 2539 – Pressing Forward - A Christ-Centered Perspective on the New Year   Putnam Church Message – 12/29/2024 A Christ-Centered Perspective on the New Year For our Christmas Eve service, we learned what it means to ‘Live in Christ, Daily’ and were encouraged to bring light into every corner of the world. This week is the final Sunday of 2024, and to extend our previous message, we must be Pressing Forward with a message titled “A Christ-Centered Perspective on the New Year.” Opening Prayer: Heavenly Father, as we gather on this final Sunday of 2024, we pause to reflect on Your faithfulness throughout the year. Thank You for walking with us through every joy and challenge. As we look to Your Word today, open our hearts to hear Your call to press on toward the purpose You have for us. Teach us what it means to live as citizens of heaven, with our eyes fixed on Christ. Inspire us to move forward with renewed faith and hope in the year to come. In Jesus’s name, we pray. Amen. Introduction: A Year’s End and a New Beginning As we gather on this final Sunday of 2024, we find ourselves at the crossroads of time—looking back at the year that was /and looking forward to the coming year. It’s a time of reflection, thanksgiving, and anticipation. Around the world, year-end traditions help people mark this transition: from fireworks in Sydney Harbor/ to the dropping of the ball in Times Square,/ from sharing resolutions/ to symbolic rituals like cleaning houses or eating special foods. These traditions, though varied, share a common theme: leaving the old behind and embracing the new. As Christians, this is also a fitting time to reflect on our spiritual journey. Today, we’ll turn to Philippians 3:12-21 (NLT), where the Apostle Paul uses the image of a race to describe the Christian life—a race that calls us to press forward, forgetting the past and striving toward the future God has for us. Reading: Philippians 3:12-21 (NLT) “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. But we must hold on to the progress we have already made. Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. They are headed for destruction. Their God is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and...