New Year's Sermon 2026

Thanks so much for having me. Boyd did steal every one of my jokes, and so I do want to first and foremost honor Pastor Boyd. Thank you so much, man. Love you. You have been a dear friend to me.

When Pastor Boyd was thinking about coming out here, you know, he planted a church in Jacksonville. His heart was there, and he, over the course of a few months and years, really felt his heart here. He wrestled, they wept, we prayed together. We wept on their behalf as well. And God did an amazing thing.

I am a missions pastor at Celebration in Tallahassee, meaning my job is to travel the entire world and to plant churches all around the world and talk to people about going into ministry. I have the greatest job in the world and my heart loves Utah. In the matter of 12 days, I'm going to get on a plane and I'm going to fly to Iraq and talk about planning a church in north Iraq. But in the midst of all of my travels and going to all amazing places, my wife, my family and I love Utah. And one of the reasons why we love Utah is because we love Church of the Valley.

We love what you guys are doing here. We are blown away and humbled. I am humbled to be able to stand behind this pulpit and share God's word with you. You guys are doing an amazing work in Utah and so excited to continue to see the work that God does here. So, Pastor Boyd, thank you so much.

Brittany, thank you so much. You are a joy. Boys, you are great. EK, you're amazing. Just exciting to see the little girl that you are growing into being the woman that you're being.

Yes. Four daughters. And so they are learning the word elope right now. That is on their phrase. Meadow is my youngest.

She's six. That was her first word. We taught her that. Excited. I'm kidding.

It was daddy, not mama. And they do all look like my wife. Praise the Lord in that. And so I have a 15 year old, a 14 year old, a 10 year old, and a 6 year old. And so boy did not get the joy to attend my wedding because I looked at my wife and I was like, hey, listen, I'm in Bible college.

She was in Jacksonville, I was in Bible college. And she's like, I want to be with you. And I was like, I want to be with you as well, but you can't just move over here and move in. I'll get kicked out of school. And so we went and got paperwork and signed paperwork, showed back up to college, looked at my roommate Alex and said, hey, man, you got like, 14 days to move out.

Cause my wife is moving in. And he's like, huh? I was like, yeah, I got married over the weekend. And he's like, dang, that's crazy. And so 19 years in August.

And so humbled and blown away that you would journey with me in Christ. Side note in this, before I dive into God's word, when I met my wife, I was a youth pastor at a church. She was not a believer. She did not grow up in a Christian home. She started to work at the church's daycare because she had a friend who had a friend who had a kid that went there.

And over the course of months, our staff prayed for her by name. I was captivated by her beauty. But pastors can't marry lost people. It's not a good thing. And we prayed for her by name.

And one day, I preached the gospel to a bunch of students on a Wednesday night. And she showed up to that event and she came to the very back of the room and she goes, I need that Jesus you're talking about. I got the wonderful joy of leading my wife to Christ and watching her grow in Jesus. I was like, this is the girl for me. And so I asked her out on a date, and she said no.

I am persistent. So I asked her out another time, she said no. I asked her out a third time, she said no. The fourth time, she finally said yes, and nine months later, we are married. That's what I'm talking about, ladies and gentlemen.

And so let's dive in to God's word today. This is the first Sunday of the new year. And for most of you, this is probably the time that you are starting to think through your New Year's goals, right? This is the year that you're getting in the gym. This is the year that you're losing 20 pounds, right?

This is the year you're gonna read a book a week, and then you fast forward six weeks later and you're still on that first book. You're sitting on your couch, dipping Oreos into whole milk, right? The new year, new you, is no longer. Much like last year, you find yourself trapped in this cycle of endless, unchanging events. And now that's your physical life.

But your spiritual life, it's gonna be different, right? This year, the spiritual life is gonna be different. Your family's going to attend church more. You're gonna actually open up your Bible or your Bible app and read the Bible every day. Maybe you're gonna read through the entire Bible this year, you're gonna tend a small group.

You're gonna start serving. Maybe that's sin that's been holding onto you, that anger, frustration. Maybe it's worry, maybe it's fear. Maybe it's jealousy. Maybe it's lust.

Those are not gonna control you any longer. This is a new year. This is gonna be a new you. Fast forward six weeks later, you're sitting on a couch, dipping Oreos into whole milk and going, what happened? You were honest.

You probably start to ask yourself, why try? Why bother? Why even try to change? I'll never get better. Maybe it's just not for me.

Maybe I'm the type of person to where it just doesn't happen. Other Christians change, but for me, it just doesn't change. But let's be real. Just because it's a new year doesn't. Doesn't mean a new you is magically going to emerge.

But today I want to proposition something to you. I want to allow the Holy Spirit to speak something over your heart. Maybe change the way you're thinking. Or maybe draw a wayward heart back into the gospel. First thing I really want you to get is this.

In Christ, new doesn't start in January. It starts at salvation. This is probably the single hardest thing a Christian can grasp, but the most freeing thing when they actually do. The whole world waits till January to begin changing. But for those who are in Christ, we are already changed.

When dealing with your sin, you must understand not a fair fight. I know you feel conflicted, attacked by the flesh, tripped up by the devil. But church, you must understand this fight isn't fair because those things are dead. Romans 6:11 tells us those those things have no power over you unless you give them power. Your sin has no control over your life unless you give it control.

I like to remind myself time and time again through illustrations and the way I remind myself of my sin as I like to think about my neighbor's car. You may have a neighbor like this. You know that car that he is just planning on fixing up, right? It's in the yard. And it's been in the yard for the last five years.

The grass is growing up over it. I think squirrels have made its nest inside the engine. And every time you talk to him, he's like, no, no, no. This year I'm gonna get that baby running. But the reality is that car, unless you give it power, unless you put gas, put energy, jolt it together, that car is not moving.

It is dead. That's your sin. Look how Paul encourages us. We've Already read it. I'm gonna read it again.

We're gonna go to verses 22 and 24 first, and then jump back. I'm gonna read this from the net so it may sound a little different than what you heard earlier. It says this. You were taught with reference to your former way of life, to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance to deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man who is being created in God's image in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth. The way I read this is Paul is talking about your sin as an old jacket, a jacket that must be put on.

Think about it. You guys live in Utah. Like white things fall from the sky. A man from Florida, we didn't understand that. If I'm being entirely honest, when the snow was falling, I'm like, what is this evil stuff?

And we went out snow skiing and we put on our jackets and all those different things. And my wife's like, hey, before you go, we need like snow boots. And I'm like, honey, I don't need snow boots. She's like, your feet's gonna get wet. I'm like, I'm from Florida.

We got mud, we got water. I'll just put on my regular boots. They're not gonna get wet. What I didn't realize is the wet isn't the problem. The traction is.

And so when my feet go home alone style up in the air four different times I looked at my kids and going, we're not sledding anymore. We're leaving. I'm walking to that road and going to my car. But each and every one of you put on a jacket, it gets cold, you put on the jacket. But if you lay that jacket on the floor, you put that jacket on the side of the couch, that jacket's not moving, that jacket is staying there.

But when you put that jacket on, when you pull the sleeves on, that jacket now moves. That jacket goes. That jacket wanders to places that you wander to. That is how Paul is laying this out. But context is important.

Let's jump back to a few verses and read what Paul is laying out. When he talks about this old jacket, this old self given overview, he says this. Look at verse 17. So lay aside this, and I assist in the Lord that, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in Them due to the hardness of their hearts because they are callous.

They have been given themselves over to the indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. Now, that word that Paul is using there, that word gentile is. It's talking about a people group. But in this context, when he says Gentiles, what he's actually talking about is your old way of life, how you used to live for those who are not in Christ. So Paul lays out in this passage, I see four.

Four kind of characteristics of the old life. Four things that you used to do that you no longer are called to do. Look back at that passage real quick, and I'll just point some of them out. If you jump back, it says this. They were.

So I say this and insist in the Lord that you no longer live as a Gentile. Your old way of life. In the futility of their thinking, there's one. They have darkened in their understanding, being alienated of the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. Number two.

Because they are callous. Number three. And they have given themselves over to the indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. Number four. So when I read this passage, I see Paul is challenging believers to lay aside, to cast off this coat, this old self, this sinful life.

And it leads me. And I kind of live my life in a way of seeing red flags.

I kind of take my life and going, okay, is that a red flag? Maybe I shouldn't wander that way. I'm not the brightest person in the world. And so, like, I need things kind of mapped out for me. And so I put red flags up in my life.

Hey, listen, if I wander, that's a red flag. That's a warning for me. And so when I read this passage, I see four giant red flags that if I'm operating this way, if I'm acting this way, this should be a warning unto my heart, unto my soul, that I'm not living in wholeness, I'm not living united in the spirit. These are the four red flags I see. They are this pointless thinking, oblivious to the truth, embracing this world, and focus on myself.

Pointless thinking. First is this. This is the type of thinking that misses the point of our lives. See, unbelievers don't think about the things of God. They don't have a moral compass for us.

The way we think determines how we act. See, when we take our focus off the things of God, our minds start to wander on temporary things compared to eternal things. We, when we begin to wander and not be focused on Christ, we find ourselves becoming more emotional and not biblically rational. We find ourselves blowing up at our spouses. Can you just not do it that way?

Can you not act this way? Why are you like that? Maybe justifying our anger? Well kids, I would only. I'd stop yelling at you if you listen to me the first time I told you to do it.

Maybe even justifying our anxiety. Well, I have to worry about these things. I have to think about these things. Cause no one else is gonna think about it. And so I have to just internalize it and I have to focus on it.

Or maybe men justifying our lust. Well, I need this. This is my downtime. This is how I just blow off steam. I'm a better person after I do this.

Church. These are major red flags in our lives when the things of God become less important compared to our own wants and desires. Second Corinthians tells us in chapter 10, verse 5 that we are to take captive every thought and make it obedient unto Christ. And I don't know about you, but. But my mind runs wild on me all the time and I find myself in pointless thinking.

Do you find yourself caught in pointless thinking? The second he lays out is what I call oblivious to the truth. This is the hardness of their hearts. They are unresponsive to the word of God. I read a commentary that worded it this way.

Just like how a dead man can't participate in a conversation with the people in the morgue. So the old self can't respond to the things of God. It falls on deaf ears when God calls. When God speaks, do you choose to listen? Do you ignore his calling?

Do you look the other way? Does it fall on deaf ears when he lays out his will? Are you acting in your own self being, being oblivious to the truth that is laid out in God's word? Church, I want to ask you and challenge you. What has God called from you?

Are you willing to take the step of faith when God calls for you to do something outside your comfort zone? A few months ago, a church member was telling me that he was doing his Bible study. He was doing his quiet time before church and he was doing one of those yearly devotions where you read a Bible verse and then you read a story written about it. And this story was about a family taking the step and moving to the Middle east and planting a church and taking the leap of faith. And so Tim was reading his Quiet time.

And he gets to the end of it. And he. He prays something like this. God, I know that you're not calling me to a place like Iraq. I know that you are calling me to be faithful.

And though I will never go to the Middle East, God, I just want to be open. I want to be leading to wherever you lead me. And so, God, take me to wherever you lead. Lead me. He closes his Bible, gets in his car, and drives to church.

That very Sunday, I stand on the pulpit of. Or stand at the pulpit of our church, and I go, hey, guys, we are planning a church in Iraq, and I need three men willing to go with me to Iraq. His mouth hits the floor. His wife looks over to him and goes, well, I guess you're going to Iraq with Pastor Nate. And in 12 days on January 16th, Tim gets on a plane and will fly to Iraq with me to pray over our new church that we are planting there.

I was talking to him afterwards, and he was saying, I don't know what God has for me in this journey. I know God is calling to me this, but I don't know what it is. He says, I work at Publix, and if you don't know what Publix is, you're missing out. It's an amazing grocery store back over in the East Coast. We feel so sorry for y'.

All. And he goes, I work at Publix. I work in the bakery. He's like, I make cupcakes for a living. But for some reason, God is calling me to go to Iraq and serve these people.

All I want to tell you is powerful things happen when we don't turn away from the truth that God is laying out in our lives. The third thing is embracing this world. Some translations would say a loss of sensitivity. The translation I read was callous. Those who are far from God refuse to hear his voice.

But when believers stop listening to the voice of God, that voice becomes fainter and fainter till what was a glaring sin in the past is. Is now your normal, everyday life church. Have you become callous? Was there something that you could sit here and go, six months ago, a year ago, 15 months ago, that I knew that I sit here, listen. I don't wander towards that.

I don't touch that. I don't dabble with that. That right there is destruction. That is a red flag, and you stayed far away from it. But over the course of the past few weeks, over the course of the past few months, you just found yourselves inching closer and closer and Closer to that thing, justifying every step along the way to now.

What was at one point a glaring sin is just a normal, everyday process, your life. I love how Paul, in First Corinthians, chapter nine, he tells. He talks about how he beats up his body, his own body, to submit it to the gospel so that he himself wouldn't be disqualified. Something I'm personally struggling with. I'll give you this with the hopes that it'll motivate you.

Something that I'm personally struggling with, that I feel like God when I was younger pushed me towards that I've kind of wandered away from is my time, especially my time of prayer. I was reading in Matthew, chapter 26, where Jesus is in the garden and he tells his disciples, hey, listen, pray with me. He goes away, and then he comes back and they're asleep. And he goes, you guys, you know Nate's translations. Y' all just couldn't have stayed awake for an hour.

What's going on? And so a few weeks ago, God just tried to lay it out in my heart. And he goes, nate, man, you can pull out this cell phone and you can watch YouTube easily for an hour. You can doom. Scroll through Instagram or TikTok or whatever, easily in an hour has blown by.

But Nate, can you pray for an hour? And so I tried, and it's hard. It was a struggle for me. And so for me in 2026, one of the glaring things that I have kind of grown callous to is what does my prayer life look like? And so I'm one of those people that if the wind blows, I wake up in the middle of the night, my wife can sleep through a train wreck, a nuclear bomb.

She's out the entire time. Me, I wake up all throughout the night. And so what I've been starting to discipline myself to doing is when I find myself awake, not being frustrated, because most of us do that. And I did that. I just need to go back to sleep.

Maybe if I lay. This house was colder and, you know, do all of the different things. I've started to discipline myself. God, lay someone on my heart. Lay someone on my heart.

And so, boy, Brittany, 4:30 this morning, God woke me up, laid both. Now I'm getting emotional. Laid. Laid both of you on my heart. So for about 30 plus minutes, I prayed for you.

I prayed for your marriage, prayed for your kids, prayed for your ministry. I love you too dearly. But that is something that God has laid for me to. And so I'm not telling you that. Hear me in this.

I'm not telling you to do that. I'm not telling you to pray for an hour. I'm not telling you to wake up in the middle knife and crawl off onto the side of the bed and pray on the side of the. I'm not asking you to do that. Here's what I'm asking you to do.

Will you pray for me whenever I cross your mind? Will you pray that I wouldn't find my heart growing calloused? That I would find myself disciplined in the things that God has called me to be disciplined in? And so we all struggle. And so the last red flag is this focused on myself.

I could do a whole sermon on this. Maybe Pastor Boyd will call me back and I'll do a three part sermon series just on this one section alone. But to simplify it, it literally means the all about me mindset. That they love their sin so much that they would hurt someone or do whatever was necessary to impress, embraced the sin regardless of the consequences and regardless of who it hurts. Their hearts were so distant from the things of God that all that seemed right to them was everything they wanted to do.

We have a clearer picture now of what this old self looks like. We have a clearer picture of what this jacket that you and I are to cast off looks like. Are we focused on our wants, not listening to his voice? Are our hearts growing cold to the things of God? Because when I read 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17, it tells me this.

So then if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. What is old has passed away. Look what has new. Look what is new has come. The old is gone.

Those characteristics of the old self doesn't apply to you anymore. They have no power over you. Church much like a broken down car or much like a six year old child. Anyone have kids? I have four daughters.

I've articulated this. And over the course of their lives, all of my children thought they could beat me up. My 6 year old is in that stage right now to where she'll just kick open the door, she'll put her fists up and goes, my name's Meadow, put em up daddy. And she just wants to fight. Look at her grinning from ear to ear.

And she will just start punching at me. And the reality is every one of my children have done that. But the clearest picture is the only way they win is if I let them win. They are at a stage and she is at a stage, as if I wanted to, I could pick her up by her ankles and just Shake her a little bit. But every once in a while, I will let her think she has won, and that then emboldens her to try to fight me a little bit harder.

And so a quick little rib shot just changes all of that.

That's a joke. More of y' all could have laughed. Okay, that is your sin. Because of what Christ has done. Your sin has no power over you.

It is a six year old kicking in the door trying to get you to fight. And all you have to look at it and do is go, bro, you're dead. Get out of here. You have no power over me anymore unless I let you win. So this new year isn't about becoming a new you.

This new year should be about embracing the you God already created you to be. Let me say that again, and let's follow it up with an amen. All right? This new year isn't about becoming a new you. This new year should be about embracing the you God already created you to be.

Understand? And fulfilling the anointing God has placed on your life. I love this quote by Pastor Tim Keller. He said this. God sees us as we are, loves us as we are, and accepts us as we are.

But by his grace, he does not leave us as we are. I truly believe so many of us have a problem with this because we don't truly understand this sentence. We struggle. We love that first part, right? We love that God sees us.

We love that God loves us. We love that God accepts us. But by his grace, we struggle with this last part that he doesn't leave us as we are. And there's two ways we struggle with this. One, you struggle with this because you think your sin is greater than God.

You sit here and go, God, there's no way you can fix me. You don't like, if Pastor Boy knew, he would kick me out of this church. Like, there's no way that God can fix this. And so I, you know, I love that he sees me. I love that he accepts me.

But, like, changing me, you know, conforming me into the image of his son, no, that's not for me. My sin's too great. And I want to tell you, our God is way more powerful than any sin you have in your life. He's already defeated it at the cross. And so quit allowing the devil to lie to you.

I tell my girls this all the time. What lie are you allowing the devil to whisper into your ear right now? When they're emotional, when they're this, when they're that, when they think the World is out to get them. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa. What lie are you allowing the devil to whisper into your ear right now?

And so, Church, I want to ask you, when you think that your sin is too great, what lie are you allowing the devil to whisper into your ear? Or the second part, you don't want to listen to this quote. It's because you like your way of life. You like the fact that God's gonna save you, that God loves you. But, like, God, this is my stuff.

Like, don't. Don't meddle with, like, how I raise my kids. Don't meddle with how I treat my wife. Don't meddle with my little pet peeve. Don't meddle like God.

You can have all of this. Like, I'll show up, I'll. I'll tithe, I'll serve. I'll do all these different things. God, I'll do that.

But this, like, this is mine. What I would tell in both those situations, that you need to repent and you need to turn back to Christ. So I conclude with this. It's New Year. This is the year that you're going to embrace the gospel.

This is the year that you are going to become the person God has already created you to be. Let me challenge you with five questions. First question is this. What is one thing you can do this year to deepen your enjoyment of God? What is one thing you can do this year to deepen your enjoyment of God?

What area can you find satisfaction in him? What area can you stop worrying so much and trusting. Trusting him more? What is one area of your life you can deepen your satisfaction in him or enjoyment in Him? Number two.

What is one step you can take? You can take Men, don't put this on your wives. Wives, don't put this on your husbands. What is one step you can take to help your family grow in Jesus? Teenagers.

This applies to you as well. Maybe, just maybe, the one step you can take, teenagers, to help your family grow in Jesus is clean your room.

Maybe it's nightly prayers. Maybe it's tending church together. Maybe husbands, let me challenge you in this. You want to see your wife light up. You want to see your wife just kind of grow in the Gospel.

If you're not serving right now, at the end of this, when church is over with, as you go out to your first steps, grab her hand and go, in 2026, I want to serve with you. Well, honey, I serve in kids ministry. You don't like children. That's true. But I Like you.

And I would encourage you husbands, find the area that your wife is serving in and say, I want to serve with you. See her light up. How can you strengthen your prayer life this year? And whose salvation will you be praying for? Doesn't have to be an hour.

Like I said, just maybe dedicate a time in your day to pray to God that doesn't involve food. Many of you just went, oh dang, the only time I do pray is over a meal. Maybe this year in 2026, just add another time besides meals that you pray and talk to the Lord and who are you praying for? Question number four is this. Which spiritual discipline do you need most to grow in this year?

Maybe it's reading your Bible, maybe it's prayer, maybe it's attending church, maybe it's fasting, maybe it's serving. Maybe whatever it is, I would encourage you, your elders and your pastor would love to talk to you more about growing in your spiritual discipline. And then lastly, what is one way you can strengthen the body of this church this year that you did not do in 2025? A body part that isn't contributing to the body is hurting the body. Where can you help?

This new year isn't going to be birthed out because you are going to try harder or work more, but because you're going to fully understand who you are in the gospel. And so we're going to take communion in a few moments. This is an opportunity for those who are in Christ to kind of reset, to realign your hearts back to the gospel, see maybe where you have grown callous. And I would encourage you husbands, wives, Christ followers that as you take the bread and as you take the cup, just to ask yourself, God searched me. Is there any part in me that isn't of you?

And God lead me back to you in these next few moments because I truly believe for you guys the best is yet to come. I am excited to come back in a few months. I'm excited to grow deep roots here as much as I can from the wonderful Sunshine State of Florida. But I am excited and I truly believe God has amazing plans. Let me pray for us.

Jesus, thank you for who you are. God, thank you for the good news of the gospel. God, thank you that in the midst of this new year, as we ponder about goals of getting abs and getting a raise or whatever, God, may we search our hearts on areas that we are just putting on our old self, areas that we are just not living as you have called us to live. And God, in these next moments, may we recenter, may we realign. And God, may we truly be the Christ followers you have already, through your death, burial and resurrection, made us to be.

We praise you. We thank you. In Jesus mighty name we pray. Amen. Guys, thank you so much.