This has been a long year and I know many of you have felt it as well. I’m not talking about the election season although I am glad it is past us. I’m talking about here at Cumberland and more specifically this sermon series we are wrapping up next week.

I have never spent an entire year trying to connect every sermon to one overarching theme and that was certainly a challenge some weeks. However, more than that was the theme I picked when I decided for us to evaluate our walk in Christ to see if it was worthy of the calling to which we had been called (Eph. 4:1).

I feel certain at times you had to question whether I felt like we were getting anything right. The truth is God’s Word has certainly challenged me just as it has you. Knowing that one day I will stand before God and offer an account of whether I shared His full council has been a heavy burden to carry. Because of that I felt like I needed to be certain every person here on a regular basis had no way to say their preacher never told them.

With that said, I’m looking forward to 2025. We are going to focus this next year a whole lot on hope and joy. I am going to trust each of you to take what I have shared in 2024 and put it into practice as you believe you are called to do. Please be praying that 2025 will be a great encouragement to all who need it.