I almost said good morning. Good evening, church family. Happy New Year, at least early New Year. We're gonna go ahead and start our worship. And it's just glad to see so many of you come out for our service. We're gonna start this first song by Pastor Mark's request. It's an old school song.

So maybe those of you who've grown up in the church will know it. Maybe some of you may not, but it kind of goes right in line with today's message. Let's take a moment to pray together as we open up the service and dedicate this time to the Lord.

Our God, we want to join our hearts in, Lord, lifting up our song to you. God, we want to make sure that we are in consideration of you, God, so that all the things that have happened in this past year, we give thanks to you from our hearts. But also, God, as we think about the year to come, Lord, that we want to bring our first moments desiring God to offer our song and worship to you.

We also pray, God, that in our thoughts of all the things we hope to happen and that we wish to occur, that we want to make sure that it all has to do with you, Lord. God, we want to thank you again, and we lift this time of worship to you, Lord, in Christ's name.

Amen. Church family, let's all stand together. The cross. The cross before me, the world behind. No turning back, raise the banner high. It's not for me, it's all for you. Let the heavens shake and split the sky. Let the people clap their hands and cry. It's not for us, it's all for you.

Singing out, not to us. Not to us, but to your name be the glory. Not to us, but to your name be the glory. Our hearts unfold. Our hearts unfold before your throne. The only place for those who know. It's not for us, it's all for you. Send your holy fire on this offering.

Let our worship burn for the world to see. It's not for us, it's all for you. Yes, Lord. Not to us, but to your name be the glory. Not to us, but to your name be the glory. One more time, the cross before. The cross before me, the world behind.

No turning back, raise the banner high. It's not for me, it's all for you. Yes, let the heaven. Let the heaven shake and split the sky. Let the people clap their hands and cry. It's not for us, it's all for you. Not to us. Not to us, but to your name be the glory.

Not to us, but to your name be the glory. One more time, not to us, but to your name be the glory. Not to us, but to your name be the glory. Amen. In Christ alone my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song. This cornerstone, this solid ground.

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love, what depths of peace. When fears are stilled, when strivings cease. My comforter, my all in all. Here in the love of Christ I'll stand. In Christ, in Christ alone. Who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless bay.

This gift of love and righteousness. Scorned by the ones he came to save. Till on that cross as Jesus died. The wrath of God was satisfied. For every sin on him was laid. Here in the death of Christ I lay. There in the ground his body lay. Light of the world by darkness slain.

Then bursting forth in glorious day. Up from the grave he rose again. And as he stands in victory. Sin's curse has lost its grip on me. For I am his and he is mine. Bought with the precious blood of Christ. No guilt in life, no guilt in life. No fear in death.

This is the power of Christ in me. From life's first cry to final breath. Jesus commands my death. No power of hell, no power of hell. No scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand. Till he returns or calls me home. Here in the power of Christ.

One more time, no power. No power of hell, no scheme of man. Can ever pluck me from his hand. Till he returns or calls me home. Here in the power of Christ. Amen. You may be seated. Good evening, everyone. Apologies for the slow delay in coming up to pray.

I'm sorry we haven't sung that song in a long time. I got lost in the moment kind of thing. As we conclude the year and we think about the next year to come. A time definitely goes really fast and we want to make sure that we are being intentional about every season of our lives.

And so what a sweet time it is for us to come together. Give God worship and focus our mind and hearts. In order to do that, let's take our Bibles and turn to Psalm chapter 27. We are going to be taking a look at an important Psalm. This is a Psalm actually in the Jewish tradition that they read every year at the beginning of the new year.

Some of you may have heard the Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashanah. And that is the head of the year, the beginning of the year in September for the Jewish tradition. And this chapter, actually chapters 26, 27 and 28 are the portions of scripture that are read every year. And rightly so, it has so much to do with our focus and our attention being given unto God.

I'm going to read for us verses 1-4. And the word of God says this, a Psalm of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life, whom shall I dread? When evil doers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.

The host encamp against me, my heart will not fear. The war arise against me, in spite of this, I shall be confident. One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple.

Let's pray. Our God, we do pray, Lord, that as time truly is short and goes by so quickly, that God, as you have afforded time to us, have given to us and allowed us to redeem the times, I really do pray, Father, that we make most of it. That, God, we would fill it with time that is in communion and fellowship with you.

And God, it is time spent desiring, Lord God, to exalt you and to serve you in our life. And I want to, Lord, thank you so much, Lord, that God, you grant to us so much in Christ. And so I pray that every day of our lives would truly be filled and would be fruitful because of our walk with him.

We thank you, God, for this time it's in Christ's name, amen. So as I read that passage, you know, the psalm in its totality, I'm going to walk down with you. There are four sections within this and I'm only going to be able to cover certain segments of it because of the due to time constraints.

But this psalm has so much to do with God's design that his ultimate redemptive desire was to make sure that he's dwelling with his people, right? And in order that he would dwell with his people, he had to prepare them. He had to make sure that they were taught, that they were taught to come and approach him in a right way.

And essentially the people in their dedication and expression and response to God would be to say, as you have called us, here we are. We will approach you and we will seek you. We will seek your face. And so this passage in the scriptures has much to do with the people preparing and dedicating themselves and that's why it's rehearsed.

That's why there's a tradition of reading it each year. And so for us, likewise, we're going to be taking a look so that we would prepare our hearts and our minds as we think about the year to come. Now, the first segment of it, verses 1 through 3, let me read again for us so that we can highlight and draw from it a significant point about how we can prepare our hearts and our minds.

It says, "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life. Whom shall I dread?" Excuse me. "When evil doers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear.

Though war arise against me, in spite of this, I shall be confident." Now, we know that this kind of passage exists in so many different arenas and portions of scripture. But in my mind, I look at this passage, it's not just kind of fluffly talk of Psalms. It's actually very logical, isn't it?

There is a spiritual logic that is being practiced and it is, "If the Lord truly is my light, my salvation, and my defense, then I should be able to ask this question, 'What in the world am I going to be afraid of?' If the Lord truly is my light that dispels all the fear that resides in darkness.

If he's my light who enlightens my eyes so that I could understand, so that I could see, that I'm not just walking around in ignorance. If he truly is my hope of rescue, deliverance from all the things that I'm so afraid of. If he truly is my defense, where he is my strong tower and my refuge." The Hebrew word for defense there literally is strong and then a place to flee.

"He's my security. If he's like that, then who else am I supposed to fear?" And the resounding answer to that rhetorical question should be, "No one. Who else am I going to be in dread of? Nobody. I'm not afraid of anybody." Now the question to you then is, "Are you able to say that in that kind of confidence?" That to me sounds like a kind of confidence where if I were to hear it from anybody just talking to them, like, "I fear nobody." It may even sound like pride.

It may even sound like arrogance, wouldn't it? But the scripture is so clear actually that he is confident in relationship to everything that is both past, present, and future. Take a look. If you look at verse 2, he says, "When evil doers came upon me." That was his past.

He had so many people that tried to get rid of him from the face of the earth. We don't have time to recount all the little elements of his history, but you know King Saul was threatened by David and so wanted to kill him. And every time King David was praised, he was exalted or people recognized him.

King Saul was so jealous he literally, you know, threw spears. He chased him down. All the things of the past, he says, "And whenever these things happen, I still am confident." Verse 3, "Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear. Though a war arise against me, in spite of this, I shall be confident." And so the first point is in a way to prepare for not just one season but every year, we should be thinking, am I predetermined to have confidence in God?

Do I understand what it means where I'm not like wary of sounding all arrogant and prideful by saying I feel like I can go through anything because God is my light, because God is my salvation, and he's my defense. I think a lot of people wrestle with the balance of how to have confidence, right?

I know I do. Because truthfully speaking, when I think to myself, this scripture, King David is saying, "In spite of all this, I will be confident." I don't know if I'm -- am I allowed to say that? And truthfully speaking, when I think, "Oh, Mark, you need to be confident," you know, when you're afraid to speak in public or when you're afraid to do X, Y, and Z, it's very difficult for me to not get this weird thought in my head on this like wrong side where it's like, "That's right, you're the man.

You can do it." It's hard for me to not think that way. But Christian confidence is nothing like that. King David did not put down into words, "And I am the man. I'm the best king in all of history." Christian confidence, biblical confidence is not arrogance. It's not being full of self, and it's not having a kind of gusto.

Christian confidence also is not this naive, what I see in culture, which is, "You know what? It'll all work out." A kind of chance confidence in circumstances that are going to just work in the strange, strange mystical world of spirituality, and whabam, you're going to be okay. You know that's not the case.

What King David is talking about here is this deep, deep trust. The word when he says, "And I shall be confident," in spite of all these things, "I will be confident," is the word batakh, and it is translated 35 times as the word trust. For us, we know that it's not about a man who's just bold, who says what's on his mind, he fears nobody, and he just does it, right?

It's not a guy who has strong muscles, and he happens to be just this weathered man who's been through life. Why? Because biblically speaking, a child can have biblical confidence. My God is so big, he's so strong and so mighty, there's nothing that he cannot do. Bam, bam. And that's it.

And I have to get myself to realize my ideas of confidence perhaps has been very much influenced by the world's idea of machismo kind of thing, but actually, when you are able to place such a confidence on the God who gives you security, and therefore you're able to say, "In God, I am so confident," whether it was people of the past who are trying to devour me, whether it's people now, whether--and then I'm going to walk and highlight a couple passages to you.

Look further on Psalm 27, and--sorry. And take a look at verse 6. He says that there were enemies who were around him. If you take a look at verse 10, he says, "My father and my mother have forsaken me." If you take a look at verse 11, he says, "Teach me your ways because of all of my foes." Take a look at verse 12, "There are adversaries and false witnesses." And I could just go down, but what I'm trying to tell you is there were all sorts of difficulties, trials, and temptations.

But the confidence is--does it really matter what it is? Does it really matter what's happened? Does it really matter what's going to be in the next year? Because when you are predetermined, when you have prepared your heart and your mind to say that, "I'm going to be absolutely confident in my God," then it actually doesn't even matter because you've already answered the question, "Who in the world am I going to fear when I have this God?" Amen?

And so for us, when we think about preparing, we've got to be able to say, "Look, King David, I've been through things, yes, but it's actually not my experience that makes me weathered and prepared. From my experience, I just have greater confidence. God has proven himself in the past.

I know he's going to be true now, and in the future, I shall trust." Amen? And likewise, secondly, not only then do we put our confidence in the Lord, we put our focus in the Lord. Let's take a look at the next section of this passage. Starting from verse 4, we have a longer segment here where he says, "One thing I have asked from the Lord that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of my Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple.

For in the day of trouble, he will conceal me in his tabernacle. In the secret place of his tent, he will hide me, and he will lift me up on a rock. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy.

I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord." Great. So we're going to have this slide up here. I want you to just kind of stare at this verse and all that it's talking about. I want us to think about this idea that in order to prepare your mind for whatever is to come in the next year, there has to be focus.

Anytime you're preparing for a game, an endeavor of a project, teamwork, whatever it may be, we have to make sure that we are goal-oriented, right? Well, what King David says here is, "There is something that I've asked for and that something is singular." There is one thing, what focus.

And what he says is, "I have asked in the past," it was a past perfect, "but I also continually seek," it's an imperfect. And then later on, if you look at your Bibles, in verse 8, he says, "When you said, 'Seek my face,' my heart said to you, 'Your face, Lord, I shall seek.'" I love that.

Why? Because there's such a clear focus. This is what I know exactly that you want. Therefore, my response to you is, "I will seek your face." And so here come some questions for us. For us, when we think about, like, resolve, when you think about being dedicated, right? What you're doing is actually you're focusing and honing your intention so that all the different distractions that are coming your way don't take the place of that thing that is reserved for God.

There is a need for us to have a more singular focus in our lives. And the things that King David says is, "I want to make sure that I dwell in your house all the days of my life. If there is something that I've repeatedly asked you, if something that I'm going to ask you now is going to be that I may behold your beauty, and it's so that I can meditate in your temple," which is to say in your presence.

If you notice up here in this passage, I started highlighting a couple things, and one of the things is in orange, it's so kind of like jumps out at you, which is he's repeatedly talking about God's presence in his temple, in his secret place, in his tent, right, in his tabernacle.

What he's preoccupied by is the presence of God. One of the things I think that has been a trend in modern day -- have you guys used the term like "veg out"? You know, you have a long day of work and you just want to veg out, right? You want to sit on that sofa.

You know what's really interesting is people nowadays long to be distracted. Isn't that weird? They want to have like Facebook and YouTube give them just 20 seconds, just, you know, fun laughs, little pranks and stuff like that. And people just want to kind of let their mind coast and drift.

And the funny thing about it is that actually can just fill you. So you're not even just kind of like tasting some of these things they're throwing at you. Some people can lose themselves within it and be actually preoccupied with the distraction. Strange. It's a strange thing. For us, if we're trying to be intentional, we have to make sure that we are pre-decided.

We are pre-determined to focus on the Lord, to seek the goal of being in his presence, to seek the good of meditating on his beauty, and we want to be engrossed in it. We want to be so engrossed in it that if we're actually losing sight of something, if we're actually trying to forget about other things, if we're trying to actually put our minds away from the stress and away from the hardships and et cetera, et cetera, you want to be so engrossed in God that everything seems to dissipate.

You know, as I think about this, there have been times, and you guys have probably experienced, where you're so engrossed in a movie, you're so engrossed in a game, that whatever anybody else does, you don't really notice, right? And those are some times when we love playing pranks on each other.

There are some times actually when we're sitting in the cafe or whatever, I just like to kind of joke around and I lean over and you guys know I really, really like sweets. I'll try to steal someone's sweets if they have it. If they have a donut, I'll be like, "Look over there," and I grab it.

Or if they have a cookie, I'll say, "Hey, look over there," and then--what's best is if they're already like preoccupied doing something during a meeting and I just kind of slowly like sneak my hand over and grab a cookie. Now, the fun moments about playing pranks like that is when someone's like, "Hey, what is that?" You know, da, da, da, da, da.

You know when it's not fun? If they're so engrossed in the meeting and they don't notice. You know what's not fun? If they're so engrossed in whatever they're doing, they're just kind of like, "Meh, whatever," right? What's the fun in stealing from somebody who doesn't care whether you steal it, right?

What I think is our enemy, the world, they get a kick out of giving you--getting a rise out of you when they can distract you. They get a kick out of when they can bring out, like, whatever it is that you're doing, whatever it is that you're, you know, trying to focus on.

If they can get you so distracted and get a rise out of you, that's so much fun. And then another part of that is, how sad because all Satan has to do is play a little game, play a little prank, get you distracted, and in many ways, he's won.

What I'm trying to focus in on and hone in on here is to say, in order to prepare our minds, we have to make sure that we are already preparing a kind of goal-centered focus that there's going to be one singular thing that I'm pursuing, and it has to be the face of God, right?

And so I want to challenge you and ask you the questions. Have you been following modern trends of trying to distract yourself? Have you been trying to do so many different things, or have you been preoccupying yourself with the things of God that you're engrossed in, amen? Finally, let's move towards another section of the passage, and the point I want to make to you is that not only are you going to be predetermined and preoccupied with the things of God, but we have to be pre-decided.

I think when I think about my tendencies, I do have a lot of fears. Last Sunday sermon when Pastor Nate preached about fears, it hit me heavily. There are a lot of worries and fears, and because I'm regularly worried about making wrong decisions, I always wait to make decisions.

"We'll see when we get there. I'll see after I take a good look at all my options," and then hopefully after waiting and considering and thinking and beating that thing to death, I'll pick the best ones. But Scripture, I believe, actually calls us to make predetermined decisions in our heads.

Predetermined decisions in our minds, "I'm going to always do it God's way," right? I don't have to reinvent and re-go through every process, every single moment with every single decision. Why? Because there are certain things, whatever may come, I've already decided how this is going to play out because I've already decided that I'm going to do things the Lord's way.

Why do I say this? Take a look at this next passage from verse 11 through 13, and what he says is, "Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me in level paths," right? If you're asking God, "Show me what you desire. Show me how you operate. Tell me how you do things," that must mean your heart has already decided, "And I'm going to do it," right?

If you say, "Lead me and show me exactly where to go," but you respond with, "Maybe I'll think about taking it one day," that's not really a question then, is it? But we have to be as predetermined. You know, what makes me think about it is, it makes me think about those moments, let's say you're going to buy a car.

You have to go into that dealership predetermined. I'm not going to fall for your games. I don't need no extended warranty on something that's going to break. I don't need this extra thing deal that you're going to, you know, sell to me about sealants and protective this and coats and why?

Because you know what's coming at you. The world is going to pitch you. The world is going to sell you. There are already things you have to go predetermined going into that dealership, otherwise you're going to get played. Yes? What I'm trying to say here is within this passage, not only are we supposed to be, again, predetermined but preoccupied, but we're going to be pre-decided to do things God's way and to wait on him.

Take a look. He continues and goes on to say, "Because of my foes, do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me and such as breathe out violence. I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord. Be strong. Let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord." You see, we know. We know that there are going to be things that come our way this next year. I don't know, you know, like if you have certain resolutions set, you have high hopes of the things that you want to accomplish.

I'm pretty sure that the next year is going to be a mixed bag. You're going to have things that are incredibly successful, fruitful, and good, and then you'll have things that are incredibly disappointing. But nevertheless, we're going to have a barrage of both good and bad, distractions, fruitful things, and it's going to be all a mix.

And within that, I'm challenging you, our strength is going to be coming from a predetermined, pre-decided heart where the will is strong. I'm going to make sure that rather than in the moment feeling like I need things fixed, done, and manageable now, I'm going to wait on the Lord.

I'm going to pre-decide the way of God is better, better than conventional wisdom, better than my own wisdom, better than everybody else's wisdom. And requesting that God teach me is going to come from a pure hearted request because I have already decided that's exactly what I'm going to do.

You see, the reason why I'm talking about this is because I do feel like as I hear Christian lingo and sometimes people talk about different, I guess, you know, thoughts they have of preparing for the future, et cetera, I have seen a lot of Christians actually say that as the New Year's come around, that they're not going to make New Year's resolutions, that they're not going to make strong resolves.

Why? Because it kind of sets you up for failure. If you're going to say, "Oh, I resolve to do X, Y, and Z," then X, Y, and Z can go all south from there. But actually, the problem is not that we make resolutions and that we need to not set ourselves up for failure or that we're being legalist by doing that, et cetera, et cetera.

What we need actually is to prepare better. What we need actually is to make sure that we're preoccupied, predetermined, and pre-decided that this is what we're going to do, that we're going to fix our sights on God and that our strength is going to come from our trust in him.

Amen? Let's take a moment to pray over this. Heavenly Father, we take a moment to collectively bow our heads and God, render to you the desire of our heart. Lord, the longing of our heart truly is that we would experience the goodness of being close to you every single day.

I pray, Father God, that it would be our great ambition to walk with you in such a way that we feel the intimacy of having a relationship with you. And I pray, Father God, that we would regularly experience also the wonder of knowing you and beholding your greatness. Lord, you know very well that we are a people who will become easily distracted.

You know, Father God, and we know ourselves that we are a people who easily forget. But it is our prayer that truly you would help us to stay on the narrow path. God, that we would be walking according to your way. And Lord, I ask God that though we may have moments of failure, Lord, that our confidence would not come because we had a track record that's so good.

Our confidence would come because you are so mighty. Lord, I pray that our trust would truly be based on you, founded in you. And God, that our hope would be set upon you, Lord. And so I ask God that regardless of how this past year has been, Lord, we would look past in this last year with great thankfulness of all that you have done.

And God, we eagerly also look forward to all the things that you have in store in the next year. God, we thank you it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Okay, at this time as we do think about closing the year, we are thankful for our media team. They have prepared a slide show and video presentation for us.

Reviewing some of the things and the ways that God has worked in our community. So we are going to put up the video for you, please enjoy. And afterwards I will come back up and lead us in a time of brief prayer to conclude this evening out. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ There is an endless song ♪ ♪ Echoes in my soul ♪ ♪ I hear the music ring ♪ ♪ And though the storms may come ♪ ♪ I am holding on ♪ ♪ To the rock I cling ♪ ♪ How can I keep from singing your praise ♪ ♪ How can I ever say enough ♪ ♪ How amazing is your love ♪ ♪ How can I keep from shouting your name ♪ ♪ I know I am loved by the king ♪ ♪ He makes my heart want to sing ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I will lift my eyes ♪ ♪ In the darkest night ♪ ♪ For I know my Savior lives ♪ ♪ And I will walk with you ♪ ♪ Knowing you'll see me through ♪ ♪ And sing the songs you give ♪ ♪ How can I keep from singing your praise ♪ ♪ How can I ever say enough ♪ ♪ How amazing is your love ♪ ♪ How can I keep from shouting your name ♪ ♪ I know I am loved by the king ♪ ♪ And he makes my heart want to sing ♪ ♪ I can sing in the troubled times ♪ ♪ Sing when I win ♪ ♪ I can sing when I lose my step ♪ ♪ And I fall down again ♪ ♪ I can sing 'cause you pick me up ♪ ♪ Sing 'cause you're there ♪ ♪ I can sing 'cause you hear me, Lord ♪ ♪ When I call you in prayer ♪ ♪ I can sing with my last breath ♪ ♪ Sing for I know that I'll sing with the angels ♪ ♪ And the saints around the throne ♪ ♪ How can I keep from singing your praise ♪ ♪ How can I ever say enough ♪ ♪ How amazing is your love ♪ ♪ How can I keep from shouting your name ♪ ♪ I know I am loved by the king ♪ ♪ And he makes my heart ♪ ♪ I am loved by the king ♪ ♪ And he makes my heart ♪ ♪ I am loved by the king ♪ ♪ And he makes my heart want to sing ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ I can sing ♪ ♪ I can sing ♪ ♪ Over the mountains and the sea ♪ ♪ Your river runs with love for me ♪ ♪ And I will open up my heart ♪ ♪ And let the healer set me free ♪ ♪ I'm happy to be in the truth ♪ ♪ And I will daily lift my head ♪ ♪ I will always sing ♪ ♪ When your love came down ♪ ♪ Over the mountains and the sea ♪ ♪ Your river runs with love for me ♪ ♪ And I will open up my heart ♪ ♪ And let the healer set me free ♪ ♪ I'm happy to be in the truth ♪ ♪ And I will daily lift my head ♪ ♪ I will always sing ♪ ♪ When your love came down ♪ ♪ I could sing of your love forever ♪ ♪ I could sing of your love forever ♪ ♪ I could sing ♪ All right, thank you again to the media team for prepping that slideshow.

A lot of things that's happened in our church community. So, we now have about 10 minutes. Our hope and goal is that when midnight hits, we could all count down together in unison from 10. So, what we're going to do between here and then is we're going to come together.

If you've come with your family, please go ahead and pray with your family. Otherwise, please join together with about three to four people and just take time, one, to thank the Lord for everything that's happened. But two, you can share a little bit about how you personally could focus in a greater way on God.

Just share a request, how you're going to focus more on the Lord, and then take time to pray for each other. After about 10 minutes, I'll call us together. We'll count down, say "woo," and then do the hugs, high fives, and then we'll end the evening that way, okay?

So, please at this time, please look around to each other, joining together in groups of three or four to pray. Alright, I know some of you guys may be still praying, but we have about 30 seconds, so if we can do a quick wrap, and we'll maybe have more time afterwards.

I'm going to start us off at 11, and then if you can join me starting from 10 to count it down, and afterwards we'll get up, do the high fives, okay? Whoops, just missed it. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, HAPPY NEW YEAR! If you want to, you guys can get up and high five, say happy new year to each other a little bit, give some hugs, wish each other the very best.

Okay. So I know that countdown happened so fast. I got up thinking I'd have a couple seconds to get us prepped and ready. As you continue to say, you know, Happy New Year to each other. We're going to gather our hearts to sing a final closing song together. So after some more hugs and high fives, please do make your way over to your seat.

And then, after the service is over, you can continue to, if you got cut off in your prayer, pray for each other. Or you can continue to just fellowship and greet each other, okay? So we'll give you just another about 10 seconds or so to greet each other. And then we'll join our hearts together for a concluding song.

Alright, everybody. Let's all rise from our seats. And we'll conclude the service with the final song. And darkness tries to hide And trembles at His voice Trembles at His voice How great, how great is our God Sing with me, how great is our God And all will see how great How great is our God And age to age He stands Time is in His hands Beginning and the end Beginning and the end The Godhead three in one Father, Spirit, Son The Lion and the Lamb The Lion and the Lamb How great is our God How great is our God Sing with me, how great is our God All will see how great How great is our God He's the name above Name above all names Worthy of all praise And my heart will sing How great is our God One more time, name above all names Name above all names Worthy of all praise And my heart will sing How great is our God How great is our God Sing with me, how great is our God All will see how great How great is our God And how great is our God How great is our God How great, how great is our God Sing it out one more time, how great is our God How great is our God Sing with me, how great is our God All will see how great How great is our God Amen.

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we again want to just thank you over and over again. God, to an undeserving people, you have been truly so good and great. Father, we can recount so many times you have been faithful, so many times you have lavished your love. And we pray that we will repeat again, Lord, that you have been so good and we thank you, Lord.

Father, we pray that just like tonight, that the next year 2022 will be filled with regular times of worshipping you and praising you and exalting you. And I pray, Father God, that we will be so overjoyed to be meditating on your goodness, to be lifting up to you our song and rendering to you our heart.

And I pray, Father God, that we would truly be a people that delights to spend every moment with you, Lord. I ask, Father God, that you would guard us and protect us. We know there are so many distractions and things that pull us away. But God, it is our desire to be faithful.

That God, day in and day out, Lord, we are constantly searching for you. That God, we would be seeking you with all of our hearts. Lord, we want to thank you so much again. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right. Well, again, we want to wish you guys a happy new year.

Stay safe on your drive home. Have a good evening, everyone.