Greetings! Wherever you are tonight, we hope you’re having a pleasant evening.

We have shared this journey in Christ together, many of us, and here we are saying goodbye to another year. United by God’s love and our longing to see Him one day, we can feel something great coming! Knowing we are part of God’s Kingdom . . . it gives us hope.

God set us on a path we could have never imagined. Although this coming year we will still suffer hurts, we’ll struggle, and there will be turns we never saw coming, we will find ways to hold joy in our lives—even when we are tired, sad, or frustrated—because we are determined to overcome and get it right.

We are thankful to have the best spiritual family. This journey would not be what it is and we wouldn’t be where we are without each other.

Share this with a friend who knows God loved us when He didn’t have to. From the depths of our soul, we thank Him. It is wonderful and humbling❤

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2024 Was . . . a Lot of Things (Including Victorious)

As 2024 winds down, we cannot think of a better way to wrap it up than sharing parts of the last service of year.

Brother Nobles gave the congregation an opportunity to give God the glory for what He did for them this past year. Not only so others would know, but also to remind ourselves of what He’s done for us. Sometimes, we forget what happened to our brother or sister, and to ourselves. It’s always good to remember these things.

He also provided instruction for continuing to move forward into 2025.

Go into this next year with a greater determination knowing what God did for us last year was wonderful, but we are expecting more and even greater in the coming year. Let me give you some counsel: Don’t just expect God to do great things. Expect yourself to do greater things for God. It’s good that we expect God to do things, but there should be something inside of us that wants to do more for God. Plant that seed. Don’t say I want to or I desire to, but I am going to do more for you this year than I did last year. That is a good direction for us to start in 2025.

Testimonies and Thankfulness

In our churches, there are phrases that have been around since the early beginnings. They have echoed through our churches and into our hearts for as long as most of us can remember and are deeply woven into the fabric of who we are. Among loving one another, remembering we are winners, and becoming builders . . . is being thankful. Being thankful and keeping that spirit is very near to Brother Nobles’ heart, and it resonates in his messages and all he does.

I learned the hard way. Plant that spirit of thankfulness in your life. I took a lot of things for granted and complained. If you are complaining, you cannot be thankful. Likewise, if you are thankful, you cannot complain.

Be thankful. These simple yet profound words carry a weight, a promise, and a calling. They embody the heartbeat of our church that has become a way of life.

Love. Hope. Grace.

We do not all know the things people go through. When we hear their testimonies, it momentarily takes our attention off ourselves. We’ve got our own problems, but when we hear someone else who has been through something greater than what we are struggling with at the moment and see how God blessed them, we know God will keep us through our condition as well.

Some people mentioned they could feel themselves growing spiritually. You can get frustrated with yourself, as Sister Kathy described going through a time focusing on the negative aspect of things. We talk about how the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but our carnal mind does have carnal weapons, and it uses them. Negativity is a carnal weapon. We can talk ourselves into feeling frustrated and unworthy.

We are all unworthy. Don’t dwell on that part.

Dwell Here Instead:

It’s by the grace of God that I am what I am.

That term, I am what I am, has been misused by people to support something wrong they do. Paul never intended that response.

The Meaning Behind Paul’s Statement:

Paul actively worked against and persecuted the church. He knows what he did. He put people in prison and to death. Even during the stoning of Stephen, he watched over the coats of those who were stoning Stephen, approving of what they were doing.

He knew what he had done, how many people he had caused to be put to death because of his lack of understanding of the truth of God, so when He said, I am what I am by the grace of God, he acknowledged all he had done and his history. However, now being an apostle called by God to build the church in the Gentile nations—I am that—by the grace of God.

Don’t dwell on your shortcomings. Know they are there but pray for strength and understanding to fight them.

Dwell Here Instead:

Lord, it’s by your grace that I am here, able to see how to overcome those things, and it’s your victory that I am holding to. I cannot overcome it by myself, but I know you called me to be able to overcome it. You’ve given me the help and strength, I’m going to fight this fight, and I’m going to win.

You will continue to move forward.

God, Get Ahold of Us

Sometimes it takes a mountain to turn our minds back to Him. Brother Nobles said if Brother Shepard was there, he would have him sing, Sometimes it Takes a Mountain. We need things we go through sometimes to get us refocused on where we need to be in our thinking.

Some testimonies mentioned conditions that people have come through in 2024.

I’m thankful for all of you here, that through all your struggles and battles, you are still here fighting the good fight of faith. You might still have your struggles, but that’s alright. I tell people, it’s not wrong to fight for the right thing, spiritually speaking. You have not lost if you are fighting the battle. You haven’t even lost if you lose the battle. The only time you lose is when you walk away from the war. You are in a war for your life, your soul. You lose if you stop fighting. Hold fast. Continue to fight the good fight of faith. God will continue to bless you (as the testimonies have reflected).

Forgiveness: More Than a Feeling

Forgiveness is part of moving forward in 2025, including forgiving yourself.

What Do You Mean, Forgive Yourself?

Brother Nobles said he had a hard time understanding when the Elder used to talk about learning to forgive yourself.

I did not understand that statement for a lot of years. I wasn’t holding myself accountable that I needed to forgive myself.

What he meant: when I have messed up and asked God to forgive me, I must learn how to leave that there and move forward from it.

The Sound of Breaking Through

Psalm 51 gives us a look into the heart of true repentance.

When you have that break-through moment and connection with God as David did in this Psalm—with a broken and contrite heart—you can leave the sin there. With His forgiveness, you can now move forward from it.

That is forgiving yourself.

Don’t Look Back.

Once you know you have had the true spirit of contrition and a broken heart, do not let your carnal nature start to hold you back and weigh you down.

Look what you did. Look how you acted.

Those are lies of the devil. If God forgave you, it is done as far as He is concerned. Move forward.

Conviction Vs Guilt

Conviction is of the Holy Ghost. It leads you to make things right.

Lord, I sinned. I am sorry. I want to make it right.

Conviction feels the same as guilt. After you make it right with God and you still feel guilty, that is a lie of this nature to hold you back and anchor you down so you cannot move forward. Be thankful for God’s forgiveness, longsuffering, and patience He has for us. There is not one of us that God could not have been justified to say, I’m finished with you. Aren’t you glad he didn’t do that?

Living God’s Amazing Grace and Mercy

Sister Lena made a great statement when she talked about the compassionate heart she had for her daughter and how she wants to have that same heart for the people of God.

I hope and pray through our conditions, we learn these principles and through our own overcoming process and failings, that we get up and make it right. Let’s pray that the same patience, mercy, and longsuffering God has with us—we will extend to our brothers and sisters. We need that. Without it, we become a judgmental people.

We are not the judge. Jesus himself said, I didn’t come to judge. Why do we want to set ourselves up to judge others? We should not be judging one another. Leave that to the Lord.

If you see issues, I encourage you to pray and ask God—help my brother or sister—and let’s continue to move forward.

Hasn’t It Been an Amazing Journey So Far?

Brother Nobles is thankful for where we are and for what God has done for us.

I know in this coming year we will have a lot of victories ahead. We are going into 2025 with a winning attitude. We came out of 2024 victorious. We are going into 2025 knowing we will win!

These are the things that keep us moving forward.

May this message for 2025 lead you to a place of determination to do more for God and encourage a deeper growth in yourself . . . or be a doorway to begin this incredible journey with Him.

Thank you for being here 🙂

Wishing you all the healthiest and happiest New Year!!