Episode Transcript
[00:00:16] Morning. My name is Matt. I am one of the pastors here at Redemption Hill, and it's just my joy and honor to get to speak, preach, teach the word of God to you this morning. So whether you are new to Redemption Hill, whether you're visiting at the end of the year with family, perhaps it's at the turn of the year and you're considering spirituality, the person of Jesus and, and where the Lord might have you, regardless of, of where you are. We're, we're glad you're here this morning.
[00:00:50] So this is, this is my aim.
[00:00:54] We are in the process of turning the corner into a year. 2026 is right around the corner. And over the past few years, we've been considering discipleship in the context of the church and what that looks like via Bible reading, scripture memorization, through community groups, through seasons like Lent and Advent. And we've been doing these things together. And as we move into 2026 as a church, we're going to be considering the entire life and practice and rhythm of our church through what I'm going to call a liturgical calendar. So we'll talk about that a bit today. And this liturgical calendar is intended to just pull all of these things together, such that as we walk through the year, considering what it means to be the church, as is the name of our act, we do these things together. And so my goal today, my goal today is a couple things.
[00:02:00] First and foremost, one of the things I want to do is get you excited about joining us in this, right, that you would be looking forward to, that you would be excited about, that your affections would be stirred as you consider these things.
[00:02:17] My hope is to energize us around this rallying cry and invite us into a high calling of discipleship and mission in 2026.
[00:02:27] Praying that you leave energized, praying that you leave excited. Looking forward to all that that God has for us.
[00:02:35] And so as we, as we begin, there's two kind of biblical ideas that I want to communicate to set the groundwork for where we're going.
[00:02:48] So we're going to talk about those two biblical ideas.
[00:02:51] And then just as an opportunity here at the end of the year, we're going to take some time and I'm going to just walk us through what the year looks like.
[00:03:01] So there will be a summary calendar that we'll walk through and just give you guys the opportunity to start digesting, start thinking, start praying.
[00:03:10] I think on the way in, you were handed a year summary sheet and an artifact that says week One, and we'll spend some time with those as well. So you can think of this morning as a bit of orientation, if you will, as we get ready to walk through 2026 together and consider what the Lord has for us.
[00:03:33] So, two ideas that I want to set the table with as we consider 2026.
[00:03:43] The first idea is that God's people are forgetful.
[00:03:49] We know this, right? We'll come back to that. Set that aside for a moment. Just have that in your head. God's people are forgetful. And then the second idea, before we get into what the year looks like, is that the church begins with God's work, not ours.
[00:04:05] Okay, so let's talk about these from Scripture.
[00:04:11] One of the recurring themes in all of the Bible is that God's people are forgetful.
[00:04:20] So Israel forgets in the wilderness. If you were with us during Advent, we just walked through much of the Old Testament narrative between creation and the incarnation of Jesus. And what we saw time and time and time again through that story, through that historical reality, is that God's people are forgetful.
[00:04:42] Really, frankly, we don't know what we're doing. God is good in his faithfulness towards us, and we his people forget. This is why Deuteronomy chapter 8, if you read the ESV is titled remember the Lord your God.
[00:05:01] Starting in verse 11, we read, Take care, lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today.
[00:05:14] Lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God.
[00:05:33] This is true for us, right?
[00:05:36] We might not have sheep. Some of us are farmers perhaps, but most of us, Brandon says, no, man, don't give me animals. My wife asks me for chickens every week, and I tell her, no, no chickens in the Allen household. But as the things in our life multiply our bank account or our material wealth, or whatever it is that draws our affections as we see these things grow, perhaps it resonates with you that you are likely to forget God.
[00:06:09] It even says down in verse 18, you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth that you that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers as this day.
[00:06:27] And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.
[00:06:40] And so the warning to the Israelites is with us today.
[00:06:45] Moses says, don't go after other gods.
[00:06:49] Don't forget the Lord your God. Don't forget that it is he that gives you your intellect and your skills and what you are able to do with your hands. Don't forget that it is the Lord, through millions of things, has crafted who you are, when you are, where you are, and given you all of the ability that you have to do anything.
[00:07:09] This is the warning to us.
[00:07:12] Don't look at your bank account, whether high or low, in either despair or find assurance outside of the Lord. Don't forget the Lord your God.
[00:07:23] The Israelites Forget in Deuteronomy 8, as the. As the Old Testament narrative continues, we see the Israelites escape by the Lord's will across the Red Sea from the Egyptians. We see them established in a land that the Lord promised them. We see then God grow his kingdom as the people beg God for a king. And God says, I'm your true king. And the Israelites say, well, we still want one. And so the Lord gives in and gives them his, gives them a king, as they. As they request.
[00:08:01] And all throughout the people are forgetful. The kings are not good kings. The kings are terrible kings that lead the people astray. They forget the Lord, as do you and I.
[00:08:13] And then the kingdom breaks, the nations are exiled.
[00:08:20] Babylonian kings take God's people captive. And there's the story of Daniel during exile.
[00:08:30] And then, by God's grace, the people are restored. Nehemiah and Ezra help rebuild the walls.
[00:08:39] You would think after such a.
[00:08:42] Such a dramatic saving, both on either side of the Red Sea and on the other side of exile, that God's people might be more remembering.
[00:08:53] But they're not. They're not. This is in Isaiah, chapter 49, verse 14 and 16. So this is pointing, where are we? 14 But Zion has said, the Lord has forsaken me.
[00:09:12] My Lord has forgotten me.
[00:09:15] This is God's people speaking to the Lord. We looked at this in Malachi, chapter three, last week. God's people are forgetful. And they speak to him and say, where are you? Where is this Lord of justice?
[00:09:27] You've forgotten me.
[00:09:30] God responds, can a woman forget her nursing child that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
[00:09:39] Even these may forget. Yet I will not forget you.
[00:09:44] Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. We sang this morning.
[00:09:52] Your walls are continually before me.
[00:09:57] God's people, we're forgetful.
[00:10:00] The early disciples Forget between the cross and the resurrection, as the disciples scatter and flee, as Peter, one of the closest to the Lord, renounces Christ three times and the church today forgets again. I don't, I don't want to speak for you. I can only speak out of my, my own experience. I'm forgetful.
[00:10:31] You're forgetful. If you give it thought. It's easy to live our days and our weeks and our months, moving from thing to thing, from practice to practice, from school activity to school activity, from work to work, and get so caught up in the things of life that we forget.
[00:10:55] Maybe not out of rebellion, maybe not out of intent to do so, perhaps out of rhythm, we fall out. We don't shape our practices enough. We don't put enough intentionality into our days and our calendar. And so other things take over.
[00:11:20] Is this you?
[00:11:23] How does this idea of God's forgetfulness apply to you? And so the driving question is this, as we consider 2026, we think about this idea of be the church. This is the driving question. What. What does it mean to be the church, not just attend one?
[00:11:40] What does it mean to be the church, not just walk through doors?
[00:11:45] What does it mean to be the church?
[00:11:49] And so we're. We're entering this year built around a truth that to be the church is to be continually formed by the love, power and presence of God I mentioned, and we'll discuss it here in a moment, just the structure and the intentionality behind which we are intending to lead the church this calendar year. And the readings, the prayers, the practices. It's not a program to complete, but it's a rhythm to receive.
[00:12:25] I. I'm praying that as we study acts in 2026, as we walk through this together as a church, that Acts and the rest of scripture will lead us into a fresh.
[00:12:39] A fresh discovery of what Jesus is, is forming in us.
[00:12:44] So that's idea number one. We're forgetful. The church, historically, is forgetful. God's people are forgetful. We accuse God that he's left us when. When it's us often that through.
[00:12:56] Through rhythm and lack of prioritization turn our eyes from Him.
[00:13:03] The second idea is this.
[00:13:05] The church begins with God's work, not ours.
[00:13:12] So in our text, in Acts 1, which we read as largely a preview for next week, as Pastor Brad begins our week by week exegetical decomposition walking through the Book of Acts in our text, the church waits before it moves, right before the apostles witness they receive the spirit of God before mission begins, God forms His, his church. It is, it is God's work, not ours, that begins, that ties to this idea that we see all throughout Scripture, that our identity precedes our activity, right? Our identity, I'll say it again, precedes our activity.
[00:14:13] Examples of this that we see in the the Scriptures.
[00:14:17] Adam receives breath from the Lord before he works and labors in the garden.
[00:14:25] Israel receives deliverance before the laws established in covenant. Obedience is communicated to them in the Ten Commandments.
[00:14:37] The disciples, again in our text, receive the Holy Spirit before they take a single step in the mission.
[00:14:45] We see this also throughout most of the Pauline letters. If you read Romans, if you read Ephesians, if you read Colossians, so much of the early chapters of those books start simply with the person of Jesus and his work applied to the Christian.
[00:15:04] You are beloved, you are known before the foundation of the world.
[00:15:11] And then from that identity we get activity. We get Colossians 3 that provides us a framework for what it looks like to live as a Christian day to day. So it is from our identity that then we move into activity.
[00:15:31] D.A. carson, a theologian and pastor, he refers to this as grace driven effort.
[00:15:39] So it is effort, it is discipleship, it is our activity that comes because of our identity in Christ. And so this is really, really important. Because if the church begins with our effort, we'll exhaust ourselves, right? We grow tired, we grow weary, we get, we get the order wrong.
[00:16:08] And all of a sudden we are working to try to earn favor.
[00:16:13] That's just not going to work well, whether it's attempting to earn favor of God or of man, when the church begins in our effort, we get exhausted. But if the church begins in God's presence and God's power and God's promise, then everything that follows is participation with the Spirit, not performance is really, really, really important. I can't. I can't stress this enough. I need you to hear and understand this because we're about to walk through a lot of practical applications that we see throughout 2026. And so I can't. I can't stress enough that this is not. It's not a program to check the box.
[00:17:04] It's a invitation to recognize your identity as a son and daughter of God first and worship because of his work.
[00:17:16] So with that foundation, we're ready to see the shape of the year ahead.
[00:17:22] The story of Acts as we'll spend much time this year, it's more than historical narrative. It gives us rhythms by which the Spirit forms Christ in his people. So as we transition, I'm Going to have three questions.
[00:17:37] The first, Patrick, if you'll put on the screen, is simply this. What if 2026 were a year that God continued to form us together towards Christ?
[00:17:49] As I wrote this question, a few key words and phrases that stuck out continued.
[00:17:56] Let me encourage you with this. God is doing much in us and you. I see it in the way that your children tell me the story of the gospel. I see it in the way you serve one another faithfully. I see it in the way that you share the gospel with those who don't know God. God is continuing a work. This is nothing new.
[00:18:21] Form formation is this idea that you and I were never really there, right? We're never really mature enough. We are never all the way to where the Lord would like to bring us by his grace. He matures us. He makes us look more like Jesus.
[00:18:47] We're not there.
[00:18:49] We need formation forms us together.
[00:18:54] He doesn't form us in isolation. He doesn't form us in our individual households or in our individual roles. He does this communally, together as the people of God. He forms us.
[00:19:10] He doesn't just form you, forms us together towards Christ. And this is everything.
[00:19:21] Every single bit of this is about by, for, through Jesus.
[00:19:29] This isn't just doing the right things because right things are good to do.
[00:19:34] This is for the glory of Jesus, that we would be formed into his image. If we lose track of that, we have nothing.
[00:19:43] If you make a program, if you build some to do lists, if you take on lots of Christian things without the power of the Spirit and the person of Jesus here, you're missing says for Jesus towards Christ.
[00:20:00] The next question is this as we consider maybe what and how? What if he taught us rhythms of practice and holiness, scripture intake, memorization, community fasting and Sabbath evangelism, kneeling, prayer, silence and solitude to draw us together, make us like Christ and save our friends.
[00:20:27] What if he did this?
[00:20:29] What if he did this in your homes? What if he used things that stir your affections and reject the priority of the world to the embrace of Christ?
[00:20:43] What if he. What if he did this, saved our friends and our children and made you look more like Jesus along the way?
[00:20:52] That pumps me up.
[00:20:55] I don't know. We could just talk about this. The rest of that. I'm pumped about this. I'm praying he does this in you. I'm praying that you would join me and pray that he does it in us. And the last question when we think of where is what if he taught us to do these things together on Sundays in our community groups and in our homes, whether you are single, a student, you're married, you live by yourself and you're working, you have a family and children regardless of where you are. What if he taught you how to do this in your homes, how to mark the moments of your life not by simple activity, but pursuit of Him? That'd be amazing, wouldn't it?
[00:21:46] You guys aren't as excited as me. That's okay.
[00:21:48] I'm pumped.
[00:21:50] I have like two words on these notes up here. I don't even know what I'm doing. It's great.
[00:21:55] These are the questions.
[00:21:57] What if. What if the God formed us together towards Christ?
[00:22:03] What if he did that through teaching us how to walk with Him?
[00:22:08] What if he did that in every sphere that we lived in our home, our work, Sundays, our community groups.
[00:22:17] So with that in mind, let's look at the next image. This is the year at a glance.
[00:22:25] This is the year at a glance. So the middle column walks through the dates, the far right column walks through the Bible reading plan and some discipline focuses throughout the year and the left just works through a thematic theme that will walk through at various seasons of the year. So just some, some high level things about about this liturgical calendar as a church. The, the plan is to read a vast portion of Scripture.
[00:23:05] We've, we've intentionally Pastor Brad, Pastor Sean and I, we've included reading through Acts four times in 2026. That's intentional. We, we want, we want the story and the words of Acts, the, the things that the Lord has done to be soaked into our bones.
[00:23:27] So we'll read Acts four times, once in the created and called theme, next with Romans in the filled with power theme, next with Isaiah in the formed for mission theme.
[00:23:41] And then lastly we'll read Acts again. As we spend sometimes slowly digesting John 14:17 in November, you'll also notice that some themes, some seasons have a discipline focus called out.
[00:24:02] This is intended to align with the historical liturgical calendar and seasons that Christians have observed for centuries. So fasting and Sabbath 215 through 44 is the season of Lent.
[00:24:17] Up till Easter, silence and solitude formed an expectation 1129 through 1221 that is the season of Advent. As we slow down through Christmas like we, like we just did another liturgical season that I've called the Hours in October where we'll read the Psalms together and as a body, encourage kneeling prayer three times a day.
[00:24:51] I, I don't know about you guys. I have terrible knees.
[00:24:55] So when I do kneeling prayer with our boys in the Morning. I need to get a kneeling prayer pillow.
[00:25:00] Just offering for your consideration. If you need an Amazon order, you know.
[00:25:09] And then through the fall, as we read Acts and Isaiah, encourage the church to take a external lens and consider evangelism.
[00:25:25] So we're going to quickly step through each of these again. Hopefully you have artifacts. You should have two documents. We'll talk about those more in a second.
[00:25:35] That has a lot of this information in it, so I don't feel the need to step through each of these slowly. But, Patrick, let's go to the next slide that starts to outline each of these seasons.
[00:25:51] So created and called.
[00:25:54] Our sermon text during that season will be Acts, Chapter one. Starting at the beginning. Next week through all of Acts 3, our reading plan will be Acts and Genesis. And we'll get. We'll get there in a second. We're going to spend just a couple seconds looking at the. The weekly artifact. But if you, if you have your packet that says week one, this is an example of content that we are going to begin distributing on a weekly basis, printing and handing to you on Sundays.
[00:26:28] You'll see our overall reading plan is Acts and Genesis. If you look in the top section of the week one document, you'll see a primary reading, Acts 1:4, and a secondary reading, Genesis 1:9. So every week when you come, we will distribute these documents that kind of lay out the plan for the week.
[00:26:53] Pastor Sean, Pastor Brad, and myself have selected memory verses that align with these themes.
[00:27:04] So these first six weeks going to encourage the memorization of those two sets of Scripture. And we're even going to begin practicing those on Sundays as part of our Sunday gathering to look for ways to do these things together here as well.
[00:27:24] The next section, Patrick, if we can go to the next, is rooted in repentance. Again, this is our season of Lent. Lent was really sweet this season if you were here for Lent, we focused on this idea of saying no to good things so we could have more of Jesus.
[00:27:45] Saying no to good things so that we could have more of Jesus.
[00:27:49] Whether that was screen time or the news or just getting rid of phones before bed or whatever the Lord might call you to. And when we get to that season, we'll have some more structure that is intended to serve you in this season that we'll walk through together.
[00:28:08] But before Easter, we'll begin this, this thought, thinking about how repentance is good for you and I. The Bible promises that it is the Lord's kindness that leads us to repentance. So we believe that fasting And Sabbath be a discipline focus in that season.
[00:28:28] Patrick, let's go to the next slide filled with power. We'll read Acts and Romans, memorize Romans 8, 2, 6 and Titus 2, 11, 15.
[00:28:44] Here we'll consider through our weekly artifacts that the, the power that began in Acts still lives with the church.
[00:28:55] Right? That's a, that's an amazing, beautiful thing.
[00:28:58] Next, formed in wisdom and love. We'll take 11 weeks through summer to slowly walk through the Book of Proverbs.
[00:29:11] And we'll consider how formation touches speech and work and family and desires and relationships and men and women and parents and families.
[00:29:24] Next through the fall, formed formation.
[00:29:34] In this season, we'll, we'll ask you as we, as we do weekly this, this won't be unique to this season. You'll see in the weekly guides that every week has a, has a missional focus.
[00:29:49] But in, in this season particular, we're praying that the Lord emboldens us to do things that are perhaps outside of our comfort zone.
[00:29:59] If the Gospel of Jesus is as important, is as true, is as foundational as we believe it is, then we should be like Paul, unashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
[00:30:14] And so that is our, that's our push for this season. I'll pause here for a second.
[00:30:21] If, if you're, if you're in the room, if you're visiting, if you're a visitor and you don't, you're not sure what I'm saying.
[00:30:31] It's this, it's that as a church, we believe that foundationally we are broken.
[00:30:41] I've had two children.
[00:30:44] I see it at the smallest of ages.
[00:30:48] Just being a parent will convince you that humanity is broken.
[00:30:56] Not from, you know, their experiences, but they're like Zaid and Bowen are just sinners. Like, I love him so much, but so early, it's like we've done nothing to you. This is a great household. Like, how do you have that much in you?
[00:31:13] So we believe we're broken. We believe that the Bible teaches that God requires perfection.
[00:31:27] Romans says the wages of sin is death. Sin anything that separates us from God. Any act, thought or deed that is against God's design.
[00:31:42] The wages of it is death. But that in his grace, Jesus Christ came to the earth, sent by the Father, lived perfectly when you and I needed to, and then died the death that you and I deserved. And it is in that life and death that God the Father looks on us and calls us righteous.
[00:32:06] This is what 2 Corinthians Theologians refer to as the great exchange that you And I get the righteousness of Jesus and he got our death instead. This is great news because unless you're very unlike me, you cannot be perfect and you don't want to die.
[00:32:28] This is the Gospel.
[00:32:32] Next season formed in worship. We'll take a month in October and we'll ask prayer.
[00:32:40] Pray together with your family, pray with your friends.
[00:32:44] Intentionally consider the moments of your days not just as movements from thing to thing to thing, but all of life informed by the person of Jesus and the work of God.
[00:32:57] After our time kneeling and praying, we'll read John 14:17 and read Acts again.
[00:33:08] Patrick, if we can go to the next slide, abiding in love, we'll memorize John 15, 1:5 and then we'll close the year again with Advent formed an expectation.
[00:33:24] Memorize John 1:9, 14.
[00:33:27] We'll encourage you to consider silence and solitude.
[00:33:34] Flowing, anticipating, waiting to celebrate the incarnation of Jesus as we just did last week during Christmas.
[00:33:45] But this is, this is the year at a glance. And these, these movements, these themes are intended to show that. That God forms His people not. Not only through revelation, which he most certainly does, his word, his people, but also reveals Himself to us through our rhythm, through our practices, through intentionality.
[00:34:16] So that's the, that's the year at a glance.
[00:34:19] These seasons are intended to mark just different rhythms, different themes that, that we walk through as God's people, remembering our identity, who we are in Christ, practicing repentance, turning towards Christ, living by the Spirit, believing that we are empowered to live because the Spirit lives in us, growing in wisdom and in love as we walk through the summer months, joining God's work in the world on mission, dwelling in his presence, considering a season of prayer together, abiding in his love as we read John 14:17 and then waiting for his return.
[00:35:11] So he said at the beginning, to be the church is to live as those continually shaped by love, power and the presence of God.
[00:35:22] And so how does this, how does this work practically? How does this journey come to life from. From week to week? I said we'd, we'd mention this before we close. We'll just spend a couple minutes. If you have your week one artifact and just want to. To look at it with you.
[00:35:43] We talked about the, the heading block that calls out the, the theme of the season.
[00:35:51] The, the weekly theme.
[00:35:54] So within created and called, there will be six different weekly themes that have various devotional reflections tied to the.
[00:36:03] The Bible reading. It has the, the memory verse.
[00:36:07] You can see this, this document says through January 24th. So you're getting this a week early so we can start digesting it and thinking about it together. We'll pass these out again next week on January 4th.
[00:36:19] And the encouragement is to with your family and your community group here on Sundays. Just memorize first Peter 3:1 through 5 by January 24th.
[00:36:34] Every week we'll have a theme, reflection and some devotional content that is based on the reading.
[00:36:43] The second section is just a daily reading rhythm that breaks down the primary and secondary readings into potential targets.
[00:36:54] We designed this such that reading should be two to three chapters Monday through Friday.
[00:37:02] So we wanted to take our time. The McShane plan blessed me and my family and blessed many of us this year.
[00:37:12] That amount of content is also just a lot. And so as Pastor Brad and Pastor Sean and I prayed about 2026 and what it looked like to read the Bible together, our hope and target was a plan that had content that we could read at about two to three chapters a day with some pause and break throughout the week and weekend.
[00:37:39] Sections 3, 4 and 5 are intended to be a weekly practice that that might serve you and your family.
[00:37:50] A doctrinal focus. Some. Some quick teaching. This is Pastor. Is Pastor Sean's.
[00:37:56] This is here because Pastor Sean is a good pastor and he loves you and wants you to learn the deep things of God.
[00:38:03] And then a missional focus. This was an ad from Pastor Brad. As we considered the weekly template, we knew that we wanted this external missional focus to be just drenched throughout the entire year, not just the fall. And so there's a missional focus of each week and then the last page again intending to kind of tie all of the various threads together. But just some community group questions.
[00:38:34] Questions from the Bible reading, questions from the sermon text, questions that might be applicable to you in personal reflection.
[00:38:44] Questions that are aimed at the community group as a whole and have a communal aspect of it. And then questions for your kids, which I'm really excited about.
[00:38:54] Questions that perhaps you can use around the dinner table or in the car.
[00:39:00] I'm already just reading this first week thinking of conversations with Zayden Bowen about God's creation and why he made everything in the world, including them.
[00:39:16] So as we get ready to close, I again, I hope that.
[00:39:23] I hope that you are growing in excitement.
[00:39:27] I hope that you are growing in anticipation. I hope that you remember that 2026 is not a project.
[00:39:36] It's not a checklist. It's not a list of things to do. It's not skills to gain. It's not books to read. It's about Jesus.
[00:39:44] It's about growing together towards Jesus. It's a year to receive more of him. A year to be shaped by the God who delights to form his people. Amen.
[00:39:57] And so, as we. As we close, I want us to think about this.
[00:40:03] Where do you long to be formed?
[00:40:07] Where's the Spirit inviting you to slow down, to return, or to step forward?
[00:40:16] Will you join us?
[00:40:18] Will you do this together with us? Will you invite friends in that they might grow, that they might have more of Christ, that they might grow in the Scriptures, in the person of Jesus?
[00:40:32] Will you pray for Christ to be more formed in you?
[00:40:37] I'm going to pray for us. I'll transition us to our time of reflection.
[00:40:43] We'll consider some of these things together.
[00:41:07] Sa.
