Your Best Year Yet

Rank your 2025.

How did it go?

Is there anyone that crushed all your 2025 goals?

On a scale of 1-10 how was your year? Do you have that number? Turn to the person.

[HEALTH]

Let’s start with your health… exercise and nutrition.
Scale from 1-10. How did you do in 2025?

You started running. You started playing pickleball.

You continue lifting weights and hit a personal record.

You drank more water this year than last year

You learned to make healthy crockpot meals from Costco!

Muscle up

[FINANCES]

Let’s go to your finances: Scale from 1-10
Are you pleased with how much money you made?

Do you love your job? Did you start that side hustle?

How is tithing going?

How much are you saving/investing?

[RELATIONSHIPS]

Relationships: On a scale of 1-10

How’s your marriage? Squeeze the hand. You are crushing 2026!

How often do you sit down for a “family dinner”?

What is your relationship like with your parents? Better than the year before? Are you closer? Have you built more trust?

[SPIRITUAL]

Spiritually: Scale of 1-10

Church attendance: Ding ding ding

Prayer life?

Reading your Bible

Some of you are not into resolutions and some of you like me love them!

It feels like when that clock hits 11:59:59..

Could 2026 be your best year yet?

Is every year supposed to be your best year yet?

Could following Jesus make 2026 my best year yet?

I believe that the principle we will look at today will absolutely[1] help us have our best year yet.

Page 775 Bible’s in front of you or under your seat in the front row!
Romans 12:1-2[2] [3] “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Paul is writing this letter to all the churches in Rome. They would have passed this letter around. To clearly explain the Gospel and Unify the church in Rome. And support him on his next mission.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy…

Romans 1–11 tells us what God has done; Salvation, forgiveness, love, & grace.
Romans 12–16 tells us how we now live.”
Now, I want to tell you how to truly live. To live differently.
It matter to the 1st century church and it matters in 2026.

…to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.

This was such a crazy thing to say, [a living sacrifice,] This is an oxymoron.
Gumbo Shrimp. Seriously funny. Ready minnesota: Passive aggressive.
Living sacrifice was dead. Right? Rams, Goats, lambs.

You’re a living sacrifice: daily, intentional, purposeful.

What you do every day adds up to your life.
The choices you make are the choices that make you.

How you use your time, what you do with your body, what you consume physically, mentally, spiritually, how you rest, work, speak, and serve. All of that made up your 2025.

The paradox of Christianity is that we die to live.

Bed and chairs

You and I are a living sacrifice

…holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

God desires our lives to reflect him and his character.

It’s not perfection it’s direction. Are you walking on this path? 2026 might be just that. I’m walking with God this year. I’m on his path.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world,”

The world is constantly shaping us.

Conform means to be pushed and pressed into a mold.

There’s a mold for success, money, relationships, power; there’s a mold for identity and comfort and sex.

Passive Christianity leads to unintentional conformity.

Yo, passive christianity is an oxymoran.
If you don’t choose who will shape you, the world will choose for you.

***This is one of the most important verses in all of the Bible.

“But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

What is transformation?
Listen…don’t just listen…apply this to your life.
Your soul, your purpose, your 2026.

“Paul’s word for ‘transformed’ means an ongoing, Spirit-driven change of our inner nature—not behavior management, but new creation.”

The Greek: meh – tah – mor – FOO – sthay
It’s where we get our English word metamorphosis.

“to be changed in form from the inside out”

“to take on a new nature, not just a new behavior”

Butterfly

…by the renewing of your mind.

Paul isn’t saying:

“Read more Bible verses.”

He is saying:

“Let God’s truth reshape how you think, desire, decide, and discern.”

The Center of Bible Engagement compiled extensive research

In the study, they polled 40,000 people ages 8 to 80. They wanted to see how people were engaging in Scripture. As they compiled the results, they made a profound discovery they were not even looking for when they originally planned the survey.

1. Feeling lonely drops 30%
2. Anger issues drop 32%
3. Bitterness in relationships drops 40%
4. Alcoholism drops 57%
5. Sex outside of marriage drops 68%
6. Feeling spiritually stagnant drops 60%
7. Viewing pornography drops 61%
8. Sharing your faith jumps 200%
9. Discipling others jumps 230%

Put in: The Word, prayer, worship music, community, serving, evangelism

Take out: negative TV, negative movies, negative music, negative talk, negative people. Negative places.

“Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

So many of us want to know, what is God’s will for my life?

That’s the wrong question.

What is God’s will?

Be a living sacrifice & renew your mind!

We get to bring sacrifice and renewal into your wellness plan, we get to bring sacrifice and renewal into our finances, we get to bring sacrifice and renewal into our relationship, and we get to bring sacrifice and renewal into your walk with Jesus.[4] [5] [MOU6] [MOU7]

He’s not asking you to lift a heavier bar in 2026, He’s asking you to step into a different way of thinking. [8] [9]

If 2025 didn’t bear the fruit you hoped for, change is needed.
Because if nothing changes, nothing changes.

***Some of you walked in today thinking about your health, your finances, your relationships, or your plans for 2026.

But the most important question isn’t
“How was your year?”

It’s “Where am I with God?”

The Bible says in Romans 3: all of us have sinned and fallen short.
We’ve tried to live life our own way.
And sin separates us from God.
But God didn’t leave us there.

Jesus lived the life we couldn’t live, died the death we deserved, and rose again so we could be forgiven, made new, and brought back to God.
Salvation isn’t earned. It’s received.

Today, Jesus is inviting you not to clean yourself up, but to surrender your life and be made new from the inside out.

If you’re ready to give your life to Jesus…
If you want forgiveness, a new life, and a fresh start…
In just a moment, I’m going to invite you to meet me right over here on the side of the auditorium.

I, along with our team, would love to pray with you and celebrate that decision.

Right now, let’s have everyone pray this prayer. Repeat after me.

Jesus,
I confess that I need You.
I’ve sinned and I can’t save myself.
Thank You for loving me,
Thank You for dying for me,
And Thank You for rising again.

Today, I turn from my old life
And I surrender my life to You.
Forgive my sins.
Make me new.
I choose to follow You as my Lord and Savior.
From this day forward.
Amen.

If you just prayed that prayer or you know you should have don’t walk out alone.
Meet me right over here on the side of the auditorium.
This is the best decision you’ll ever make, and we want to walk with you.