Seeking Him in 2026

January 1st, as has every January 1st for the 2,026 years, commemorates the indisputable historical event when God became flesh and was born in a little town of Bethlehem. It is now 2,026 years since that day. And because of what happened 2,026 years ago, everything in the history of the world is now marked by four letters – BC and AD, meaning ‘Before Christ’ and ‘Anno Domini’, which is Latin for “The Year of our Lord.’

Yes, there are those who make the feeble and clumsily deceptive attempt to deny the undeniable by changing BC to BCE, meaning ‘Before the Common Era,’ and to change AD to CE, meaning “The Common Era.’ Thus, they label 2026 ‘CE’ instead of what it truly is, 2026 ‘AD.’

Nevertheless, on January first of this past week, and for the remaining days of the year, when anyone places the date on any letter or document, they will – whether consciously or unwittingly or grudgingly – acknowledge that the Almighty, Sovereign, and most Merciful Creator entered humanity to REDEEM humanity 2,026 years ago. Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and those of every other religious faith – and yes, even agnostics and atheists of every nation and language – God the Father has compelled the entire globe to acknowledge the birth of His Son in that little town of Bethlehem.

But let me now turn our attention to those who joyfully acknowledge the birth of our Savior: May God remind us – at least from time to time this year – that the calendar has changed because God so love the world that He gave his only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

AND, to those of us who joyfully acknowledge His birth, here is a reminder: We have a lot of people to pray for, that in this new year, many will turn from their spiritual darkness and enter His light.

So, on this first Sunday at the beginning of 2026 I thought it was apropos to talk about beginnings. That’s why I draw us now to the very beginning of the Bible – the Bible which is the very breath of God in printed form. If that sounds suspiciously like a text from the apostle Paul, you’d be right. Listen to what he wrote to Timothy: (2 Timothy 3:16) “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” The Greek word translated as ‘inspired’ means, ‘God-breathed.’

So, ALL the Bible is ‘God-breathed’ – and it tells us: “In the beginning, God created the heavens in the Earth.” The text goes on to tell us: The “earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”   (Genesis 1:1-2)

And then God spoke. And the entire universe and everything in it were suddenly created.

Fast forward to the New Testament where we also read of beginnings. Here is John’s gospel: (John 1:1-5) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend (or, overcome) it.”

 
These texts in Genesis and John’s gospel are absolutely essential to our ability to understand the history of our sin-sick world and even to understand ourselves. Without a biblical understanding our origins, it’s not possible to know the meaning of life, the meaning of death, and what happens to us after we die.

Let’s look for a few minutes at that trio of philosophical questions people have been asking themselves since the Garden of Eden: What is the meaning of life, the meaning of death, and what happens to us after we die?

To answer those questions, we need to look at another ‘beginning,’ this one in Mark’s gospel: (Mark 1:1-3) The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way; The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.’”

Mark then gets to the overarching point of the gospel message when he then reports: “John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

The Holy Spirit placed this text at the beginning of His announcement of His ‘good news’ because it is at “Repentance and forgiveness of sins” where God’s good news begins. Repentance and forgiveness of sins is where we begin to grasp the answers to that trio of philosophical questions of who I am, how I got here, and where I’m going. And without a recognition of the Bible as God’s fully revealed and inerrant truth, no one can ever understand ANY of life’s deepest questions.

Admittedly, not many people like to think of themselves as sinners – which, of course, is why so many scoff at the very idea of repentance. But unless we acknowledge to ourselves AND to God our continuing treasonous rebellion against the King of the universe – then the notion of needing a savior, the idea of needing forgiveness naturally falls flat. Perhaps that’s why Jesus said, (Luke 5:32) “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Speaking of making our paths straight, our sin-nature and our sin-saturated culture – even here at Ashwood – makes making straight paths difficult, doesn’t it? I know from my 10 years of ministry here that that there are many false ideas in this place about God, dismissive ideas about Jesus, the trivializing of what God calls sin, and the rationalizations people make about the growing immorality in our American culture – immorality among young people and not-so-young people.

And in the last ten years I’ve also heard it often enough about the gossip, the backbiting, the unwillingness of some to forgive others – sins occurring even among Christians who have lived and who live here.

And that brings me to the point of this New Year’s message. How are we to keep our paths straight in today’s culture? How are we, at the beginning of 2026 and then throughout the year – how are we to fight the good fight and keep the faith?

Please hear this! It is ONLY those who DO fight the good fight and who DO keep the faith – it is only those who will receive the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to us on that Judgement Day. I suspect many of you recognized my paraphrase of St Paul’s words to Timothy in that last chapter of his second epistle. (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

How do we fight the good fight and keep the faith? That question is the focus of what I am about to say – and yes, it’s nothing you haven’t heard me say before; And I promise I will say it again in the future. Why? Because ‘I’ need frequent reminders of this truth; and so do you. As someone perceptively opined: “We need to hear the gospel every day because we forget the gospel every day.”

Listen to St Paul’s guidance to Timothy, which is entirely applicable to all of us in this sanctuary at the beginning of 2026: (2 Timothy 3:13-17) “But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived . . ..” Does that sound like our culture, from the halls of government, the courts, and realms of finance, and education? I think so. But Paul continued his counsel to Timothy – and to us:

“You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

Christian! How do we fight the good fight and keep the faith of Christ in 2026? CONTINUE following in Christ’s footsteps. CONTINUE listening for His voice as He speaks through His word. I do not think it’s possible to draw near to God if, while we have such easy access to the Bible, we’re too lazy to read it, or listen to it, and study it, and obey its commandments.

Listen now to the apostle John: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1 John 3:2-3)

Paul tells us: 2 Corinthians 7:1 “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

But it’s hard to purify ourselves, it’s hard to cleanse ourselves from defilements of flesh and spirit when we surround ourselves with ungodly talk, books, magazines, movies and television shows. You’ve heard the expression: Garbage in, garbage out. That adage is merely a rephrase of Scripture: (1 Corinthians 15:33) “Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

For many years I’ve followed what I call the 2+2 =1+3 Scripture Reading Method. Many of you have heard me speak of it in the past, and I ask your indulgence as I share it again for those who have not heard of it.

If you read two chapters of the Old Testament every morning and two of the New Testament every evening (or vice versa), by the end of the year you will have read the Old Testament once and the New Testament three times – thus, 2+2=1+3. On average it takes less than 10 minutes to read two chapters of Scripture. In five years, you will have read the Old Testament five times and the New Testament fifteen times. In ten years – well, you can do the math. With so much of God’s word sown year after year in your heart, think how the Holy Spirit will mature you more quickly into the image of Christ.

I have here free copies of the pamphlet I wrote to help anyone read the bible through each year. I know many of you already have one. I will make them available again at the end of today’s service.

Make our paths straight. Fight the fight of faith. And -- Stay alert to yourself and your surroundings. Stay alert to lies and deceptions – including the

spiritual deceptions of false religions such as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses – both of which (among their many serious errors) deny the full deity and simultaneous full humanity of Jesus Christ.

And please do not be ignorant of this: Spiritual deceptions are increasing at what seems to me an exponential rate – deceptions not only related to false religions, but now, and with stunning speed, related to technology.

Let me give you what ought to be frightening examples of a NEW deception filtering through our culture and even through some churches. An August 1, 2025 report about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Chatbots appeared on CNBC.

What is a chatbot? “A chatbot is a downloadable computer program that simulates human conversation through text or voice interactions. These programs can engage in conversations with users, providing responses that mimic human behavior. These programs can maintain fluid conversations between the user and the computer, making the Chatbot appear intelligent and responsive.” (paraphrase from Wikipedia)

Anyway, back to the CNBC report. Chatbots “have proven to be smart, quick-witted, argumentative, helpful and sometimes aggressively romantic.” (Link: Human-AI relationships are no longer just science fiction)

Did you get that? ‘Aggressively romantic.’ Did you know that some marriages have broken apart because one of the partners fell ‘in love’ with their chatbot AI computer ‘soul-mate’?

And there’s more. This is from a November 19, 2025 Psychology Today report: “As AI becomes more deeply woven into daily life, many people turn to digital companions  . . . as sources of emotional intimacy and increasingly, romance. A survey by the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University found that nearly one in five U.S. adults has interacted romantically with an AI . . .[and] more and more users report forming genuine emotional attachments with AI, sometimes engaging in self-disclosure and intimacy that surpasses their human relationships (Wheatley, 2025)” (*In Love with a ChatBot? | Psychology Today)

It gets worse. According to a recent article in the Washington Post, several people have committed suicide after receiving encouragement to do so from their AI ‘companion.’

And even worse, still: According to a report in a November 18, 2025 issue of Scientific America, some mourners engage in what they believe are REAL conversations through a chatbot with their dead loved ones (*https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-ai-griefbots-help-us-heal/)

Has spiritual warfare ever, in all history, been so openly and pervasively demonic? Revelation chapters 12 and 13 seem to be unfolding right before our eyes – and ONLY the biblically alert will see it.

Christian! Make straight the way of the Lord in your life throughout 2026. Be quick to obey God’s commandments. Be quick to repent when you fail. Keep short accounts with God, don’t delay an hour when the Holy Spirit pings you when you offend Him. Pay heed to the psalmist: “If I harbor evil in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” (see Psalm 66:18)

We should not expect God to speak to us if we are consciously living in sin – and that includes being unwilling to forgive others their sins against us.

I close this message with a word from the book of Proverbs – a word we all, me included – need to apply to our lives this year, with and through the aid of the Holy Spirit: (Proverbs 4:23-27) Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you. Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil.”

What is the meaning of life, the meaning of death, and what happens to us after we die? We will ONLY find the answers to those questions when we search for answers in God’s word. We will be able to keep our paths straight and finish the course well ONLY as we seek God’s guidance in His word. We will become aware of spiritual deceptions swirling around us ONLY as we walk by the light of the word of God.

The new year, 2026, is open before us. Only God knows where our days will take us. But WHEREVER our days take us, take the word of God with you.