New Year's Sermon: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility Series

Happy New Year to your family and you!

We begin a new series for a new year, the 40-Day Challenge. I want to invite each of you to take the 40-Day Challenge with me. As you begin a new year, I challenge you to devote 40 days to grow spiritually. I want you to take a 40-day challenge with me.

40 days of Bible reading.

40 days of prayer

40 days of serving.

40 days of giving.

More details to come in a few moments.

How will you spend your time in 2024? How will you spend the minutes, the seconds, and the hours God gives while here on earth? Let me get serious with you and ask you: what if you knew you had but one year to live? What if you knew that your life on Earth would be done on December 31, 2024, at midnight? What kinds of things would you make sure you did in the next 350-plus days? What kind of words would you say to those around you? How would you spend your money?

If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Luke 12 with me.

Let me share with you how one teenager recently spent 38 minutes. I want you to see Willis Gibson, a 13-year-old teenager from Oklahoma. He recently reached level 157 in the Nintendo classic video game, Tetris. I imagine all of you have played Tetris at least once.

Who doesn’t love a good game of Tetris as each level becomes harder and the tiles come even faster? When he reached level 157, the game crashed and Willis said, “I’m going to pass out, I can’t feel my fingers.” His story made the BBC because no one thought it was possible to play past level 29 in Tetris until just a few years ago. But the Oklahoma teenager went way past level 29. He beat the game which no one thought was possible. Willis broke the world record, and he even crashed the game in the process! And did this all in JUST 38 minutes.1 Sky News Jayne Secker reported on the event in recent days. After showing a YouTube clip of Willis beating the game. After the anchor shared the news story and the clip of the teenager’s stunned reaction, she turned to the camera and said, “As a mother, I would just say step away from the screen. Go outside, get some fresh air. Beating Tetris is not a life goal.” Social media called the news anchor’s comments “old fashioned” and “disappointing.”

Nearly all of us love games at some level in our lives whether it board games, video games, or some other kind. Turn your attention to Jesus with me to how He wants us to use our time.

Today’s Scripture

“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:38-45).