Well again. Good morning, church. We're happy that you're here. We like to. Here, here at Woodside doing a thing we call five good minutes if you're new. This is definitely something that is unlike what we usually do on a Sunday morning. Or if you've only been come in for a short amount of time. This is different today. It's an opportunity. Where, Where am I at? Here? You guys, down at the end? I'm going to be down at the end where they tell me to go.
Yeah. We just take an opportunity and give, the staff here an opportunity to kind of share with you what God's been doing in their lives. A lot of times we're moving so quick around here. You may hear a name or a see a face as it races by you. On the way, maybe with the screaming child. Or, maybe you see an email coming from somebody and you're like, I wonder who that is.
Well, this is an opportunity for you to get to meet us and for us to get to kind of share with you, what God's doing in our lives. So five good minutes. I've got the timer. You guys. I almost forgot my timer. We're going to set a timer for five minutes. So we're going to suck the gong. So we're going to go five minutes. There's two members of the staff who aren't here today. The first is Miranda Roth. She is our, remote, first in the age of post Covid. She is our remote, staff member in Idaho.
Anything you've ever seen with, media up here? Things for the children's program. Program? Any type of. She is VB and Avi audio visual. She is the visual of it. And she does a fantastic job. She's got a great eye for design. And so all the stuff that you see on a Sunday morning is done by Miranda. So, if you've got an opportunity to send her an email thanking her for everything she does, that information's on the website. And, so Pastor Carl, our senior pastor, is not here today.
They're actually with family down in Southern California enjoying some much needed R&R down there. So should you send him a text, an email, whatever saying you've been praying for him. So thankful for the fact that he decided to plant a church in the Ranchos back in 2004, 2005.
Obedient to God's call on his life, the fact that he's been through, some pretty interesting seasons of ministry here in the ranchos and doing ministry in Guatemala and Cuba and Mexico and most recently, the Ukraine with the Excel Leadership Network. Just so thankful for Pastor Carlos leadership, for, for organizations that that are involved in it. So one of the things about five good minutes is if you connect with one of the stories or many of the stories on a personal level, fantastic.
But ideally, we want you to connect on, or we hope what you take away is this idea of a connection on a transcendent level. Maybe not one year old single female like Ali down there in her last year or frozen state. So, you know, it's like, I don't know how to relate to that, but a lot of times somebody can say something, you're like, man, that makes total sense. God, that is how God works. It's very difficult.
You know, God rarely does two things the same way, but there are patterns to look so in, hearing from somebody other than pastor Carl, hopefully that's kind of what you take away is this idea of, of a transcendent, good God that works, together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Amen. All right. First up, we have a perfect example of how things come full circle. You were involved in Liberty High School graduate?
I am, yes, and involved in flip side youth stuff that graduated. Yeah. Single female. Back then you are very much not. No, no, I was not a single female back then. I was still with that guy. That's true. There. Married to Sean, her husband. You have two wonderful boys, Grayson and William. Yes. And you guys were with us out of Stone Creek when we were doing that. So definitely time in the trenches.
You're a you're a good example of what we talk about around here a lot, where you say yes to God on the front end and then figure out what you said yes to. Yes. Absolutely. So all right, you got five minutes away. Get up. Because I have a feeling I'm going to cry. You forgot the tissues. I'm not. Because, well, I might pass them down because you said your sympathetic crier. So last year, I had talked about how, In joy, in peace. And this year was actually really hard.
But there was so much joy and peace within it. There were so many times that I could have been super upset or super sad knowing that God was so good. Really helped out with that, because there was a relationship that I just had to say, I'm done. I can't do this anymore. It's damaging me. It's damaging my family. And there was a point where I was like, I can't do it anymore. And it's hard when it's a parent.
And so there was a time where I was battling it, like, how much longer do I deal with this? And this year it came to a point where I was like, I'm done. Like, I can't do this for my family. I can't do this for me. And it was so good then that knowing that God was like, it's okay. Like, you can let this relationship go. And so there was that one. And then my grandpa died and my grandma had a stroke.
My other grandma is really struggling with her health, which is hard because she's been my best friend for, but knowing that, like, God is so good and his timing is just, something that I held on to, like, when my grandpa passed, I was like, you know what? It's God's timing for him. He needs him back in heaven. Like, there we could have been. It's so sad about it.
But knowing that he was now at rest and he wasn't hurting anymore, like there was like I said, there was just so much peace in all of my year that I had that I could have just been a hot mess. And so but there were always good, like, I was able to do stuff that I hadn't done. And so, like, Sean and I used to love going to Disneyland, and we got to take our kids for the first time in like six years. And so we were like, yes, like, let's go find some magic in the world with the kids.
And so, it was just so good. And my dad is my. You're good. Oh, good. Okay. And I was like, oh, no. Okay. I'll be quick, so you're fine. You go. I'm like, I'm crying this whole time. It's fine. But I'll end on a good note because I am a very busy person. There's been a lot of changes that have happened. I'm no longer the life like I'm now the, like, secretary. So I'm there helping run still create.
I've been helping out here, which has been an incredible blessing to do the large events and see the kids and be able to share God's Word with them is just an incredible blessing. And then there's just so many other huge blessing. You're like, we got to celebrate birthdays. Sean and I celebrated our ten year anniversary. We got to do just the little miracles in everyday life that God blesses us. It was an opportunity to see how good he is. So now moving into 2025, I pray.
I pray over which word has just like stuck out to him, to me, as I'm trying to kind of lay out this next year. And the word was, oh gosh, I wrote it down. Hold on. Because I knew I was going to freeze on this stage because I'm so used to talking in front of children. Intentional. That's it. Don't do anything for the purpose. So here I am. And so, just being so intentional on what I do, what I commit myself to, and just being intentional with my time, with my relationships.
So. Yes. And very next year after I've had so much peace over so many transitions to now refocus my time and energy, and do things with a purpose and a part of God's plan to see what every day looks like. So I'm done now. Thank you. Kaylee. Kaylee, I so appreciate your willingness to follow God. You're obedient sometimes. You know, like walking into a dark room and just trying to leave with your face.
It can be difficult sometimes, and I think we're all really thankful for your obedience to God's call on your life with the children and otherwise. Thank you for that. Next we have near and dear to my heart. Allie is I have three daughters and Allie is my middle daughter. Allie and Iva are probably the single most important reason the simple family ended up at flip side years ago. Allie was in kindergarten.
Iva was, I think in second grade, and they came home and they said, dad, there's a good news club that means to serve you. And I said, well, what is that? They said, it's a church. I said, hold on. Is that it is the school in the church. It's a church that meets at the school. I said, okay, well, yeah, you can go. Sure. It's God's stuff. So we were still making the drive into town. We had just moved out to the ranches.
We were still making the drive into town, and these two little girls decided to start going to the Good News Club this year. And so we started asking about it. So what's up with this church? Well, they meet at the high school. I said again, is it a school or is it a church? So they're a church that meets at the high school. I said, all right, we got to go check this out. So some time in 2008, 2009, we went to this church called flipside that met at Liberty High School. Every week.
They set it up. They tore it down. It was nuts. If you are part of those, if you were part of that back in the day, you know what? How chaotic that was. It was like what we did, at Christmas Eve, only on steroids and every week. And so Allie and Eve are the reason we started coming. And Allie got plugged in as she moved up the, into her grades. Got involved in the area 56, one of the first iterations of area 56 and then into the junior high program high school.
And now things have come full circle, and she's helping with our youth. I don't she she likes the junior high students. I used to like junior high because we lit stuff on fire and stuff up. Now we like for reasons. It's like these chatty little girls. How do you. So anyway, Allie Stemple, she is a part of our worship and our youth leader. Yes. Okay. Yeah. I feel like I know a lot of you and a lot of you know me, but we've never really talked.
We just look at each other's faces every Sunday when I'm up here. Do super excited to be part of five good minutes. I've come through watching it every year and now like, to speak other is kind of cool. So yeah, I grew up in the youth program. My me and my friends, we were here in junior high every Monday night, high school every Wednesday night. And yeah, I'm just super one. The parents that I have and two, just the relationship and the church family that I have.
And so when I was thinking about let's talk about in like what I learned this year and how this year, what effect it had on me, I was praying about it and two words just kept coming to my mind their growth and opportunity. And so I think that and I was trying to phrase it in my head before I got up here, the chance to grow through the opportunities that God has given me this year. 2024 was just a really good year. Honestly.
Like, obviously there's some ups and downs, which I'll talk about, but beginning of the year I turned 21. Middle of the year, my older sister got married. I got to be her maid of honor. That's just every time I look back on that day, I'm so super thankful for the both of them. And just that whole experience, started in my last year and there's just a lot.
Every time I found myself praying this year, I found myself just like thanking God for all of the opportunities and all the blessings that he's blessed me with. It was my second year living not in my parent's house, in an apartment, by myself. Yeah. Every prayer I would just start out thanking God.
And a lot of the times it was like in disbelief of how good he is and how, like, faithful and how much he's blessed me with, and so a big thing that I was thinking about today was this past summer, I had the privilege of leading the youth program, the junior high and high school, which my dad and Pastor Carl came to me in like March or April this year, and they were like, hey, what do you think about leading the summer youth program? I was like, why not? Let's do it.
I love going through that youth program, and I love summer. So that was a lot of fun. It was a lot of work, and it was a lot of unexpected, things just the whole summer. But it was really good. And I feel really lucky to be able to have done that because, like you said, kids was the main thing that, it was just so good to pour into that and then to see the fruit of that where I would, like, see them out somewhere else, and they say hi to me and then I also want to be a teacher, for that age.
And so I feel like I say a lot of the times that when these junior high, they look at me crazy and are like, why would you ever want to do that? I don't know. I feel like it's a very misunderstood age and they just need some guidance. And. Oh, and so, just in leadership through that portion of their lives. And so thinking about that, like aspect, one verse came to my mind and it was, it was actually a verse we talked about in our flip journals.
If you are in the youth or you've heard of that, we did our flip journals this past year, and it's Matthew 2028, and it says, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and give his life as a ransom for many, like growing up in the church, like serving on a Sunday or on a Wednesday or on a Monday became something that was just like, oh, I'll just do it. Like that's part of my routine. But we're called to serve and we're called to like, get something out of that.
Like it's good for us to pour into God and his people. So I think this year it was really good. It turned back into not because for a while there, which sounds bad, but it kind of felt like a chore for a little bit. But I think this year I was able to renew, like my energy and my motivation in the spirit to serve. And then there was a answered prayer.
This year, I feel like when I started my, time at Fresno State, there was a lot of like uncertainty and loneliness, almost because, I don't know, I'm a very social person, but high school and college are very different. High school, I had a huge group of friends that same since kindergarten get to college and it's not like that at all. But this year I was really blessed to meet two girls that are they're going through the same program as me. Were all three English majors wanting to teach?
And so I was able to get really close to them, and that was really good because they were. I'll finish up, I promise. They were just really good to have in my life. And so, same thing when I was thinking, God, for all the opportunities and all the blessings, I found myself thanking him for all the people that I've been surrounded with. That just had a really good effect on me.
And so going into, 2025, which is the year I'm going to graduate college, hopefully, and start my job, I'm really just ending this year, super thankful. And I feel like this year was a year of building good habits. Like I was able more in the word and have that desire to, like, know the Lord more and know like want to be just walking with him and like lining up my life to where it's supposed to be.
And so I feel like going into 2025, I have a lot of I'm equipped with a lot of good habits, and my community is just really good. So yeah, I feel like that was really like scattered, but just good. That's what I learned this year. Thanks Ali. Never met a microphone she didn't like Ali I'm really thankful. You you you are a good example of how you parents of young kids whose of the littleness it can seem like.
Oh dear Lord, I spent Ali and Eve are 16 months apart and so, I mean diapers at the same time, bottles at the same time. And I thought, we are never going to be out of this. And then to see your kids not just grow up to grow up serving and loving God and the imperfections of what it. Ali, I'm really thankful for you and your sisters. I'm going to ask a favor of you too, because I always do. I remember that at youth group job opportunity. Can you get my Bible?
If I walk in front of this speaker, it's going to feed back. Thank you. While she does that, Tricia Cheshire, you are part of the, transplants that happened during Covid. You and her family showed up one Sunday. I'm assuming during we were we I don't know that we ever completely thank you. And Heather, I don't know that we ever completely closed down for Covid. Don't tell anybody. But, one Sunday, her six foot four, six foot three husband came in and blocked the camera.
Well, he was a lens, guys blocking the camera. And then, the Cheshire's were part of flip side, and you guys never left. So. Tricia, huddle coordinator, take it away. Yeah. This is my third year being a part of. Well, going into this is my third good minute, right? Yeah. Five minutes. And this year, reflecting, I felt like for me, there was a lot of change and growth.
When I was thinking back over the last year, we were driving last weekend to a wedding and asking my family what is something that stuck out? And the kids said, home like. That was my, like, highlight of 2024. Two is going to come like with our youth group last year. And so I pulled out my notes of what we talked about last year, and it was three ways to walk in obedience with Christ. And I started reflecting on that the last week.
I followed through with that, and there was a lot of change where I had to literally tell God, I need a change. Open a door, close the door. I'm listening. And I'm stubborn. So choosing to just fully 100% give my life decisions to God where I knew I was not in control was liberating. And dang, I think it brought out a new side of me that I didn't know. The pastor at Hume, the Bible verse was the number of days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 9012 and in the notes that they talked about was spent time in God's Word, being with God's people and God's mission. And I thought that this is all from January of last year. And I reflected on those three did it the notes I took from him, I reflected on just this last week spend time in God's Word. I've definitely this year I grew in that, just really focusing. I think the, flip journal that we do in youth group has really helped with that.
So spending time in God's Word, God's people, I started to become our flip side huddle coordinator because I really wanted a women's ministry. I really wanted small groups at this church. I had tons of friends, always ask me, we need small groups. And that was on my heart. I really wanted to build community, I wanted friendships, and I did it. We now have a women of a couple different family huddles. We have a men's ministry.
Carl's doing his and it's been so great to be intentional with these huddles and being building relationships with you guys here at church has meant a lot to me, where I'm not just here working and leaving. I'm actually learning names and getting to know you. Brings me joy and fulfills me that I didn't know I needed. And then the third one is God's mission. And the last couple years I've stepped out of my comfort zone, and I'm a youth leader and help out with our youth group.
And that by far is the best joy. We have amazing students here, and I couldn't do without Michael and Jeff and Carl and Heather and watching our youth go through today's world. As a mom, we need more people praying and being alive and being intentional with the youth. That's where I feel like God's calling me for like the good 2025. What? I need something more for that. And I don't know what the word is for me yet. I don't know what it's going to do.
I'm listening to God. I, I'm not gonna take a job. But I but I want to learn more of how to be a better leader for the youth and being more intentional with my Bible time. And, I have my own still being, like, a lot of the youth here, their second mom sometimes that has filled my heart so much. I would say this last year. And that leads me to being just grateful. Gratitude, I think, was my word of how thankful I am here, like our huddles and our youth group and then my church family.
It's made me who I am, the new me, I would say. Yeah, yeah, I think that's it. Thanks, Tricia. Tricia, I'm so thankful for you having. And I started to see it when you started serving in youth and the kids, how you relate to the kids. It's a special gift. And I don't want to, like, put labels up, but it's almost something that can't be taught. You just develop it and you're doing a great job developing it.
Your ability to connect, especially with kids who a lot of times are going through things that not even they understand, not try to fix them, but to just walk with them through it has been fantastic. I'm so thankful for you and your involvement in that program. It's been great. Michael Rondon speaking of which, you are a literal and figurative answer to prayer. Me and Carl, man, we were. You want to talk about running on fumes?
I think I walked into the office and I had, hamburger grease all over me. We had just done a youth group, and I'm like, if this guy doesn't work out, I'm out of here. I'm. This is crazy. Me and Carl tag team in the youth in the summer. Help and Ali and man, we were so thankful for you. We went and had lunch and you get plugged in. Emily is involved and I'm just really thankful for you doing a fantastic job.
If your kid is in the youth program and you have not met Michael, definitely reach out to Michael and get to know him. He's a great guy. So all right, five minutes. All right. I'm I'm in trouble here because I told myself this morning that I that's, so I'm going to very much cut out some things, but, 2024 was a good year. It was a really good year for highs and lows and ups and downs, but, my wife and I celebrated ten years together. Married?
We found a new church community and opportunity to serve and walk alongside, you know, junior high and high. And then we found out having another boy. And so it's been a pretty sweet year. Lots of fun, lots of joy. And as I was reflecting and I was processing and thinking, about 20, 24, three words came to mind. The first one was pace that I like to run at a really fast pace.
I like on the ladder, and I like to click and scratch and scratch like, I want to go and go and go and prove my worth and and just, like, do everything that I possibly can. And I just found myself running at an unsustainable pace. And I can't do that as I'm getting older. And so pace has been something where I want to slow down, not be ahead of God. He it helps. It help me to not be as impulsive, be a little more mature in my decisions. And so pace came to mind.
The second was Thanksgiving or thankfulness that, of course, it's easy to thank God for the big things, but I'm trying to thank God just for the everyday little things. You know that my boys will. That I got to work out today or play soccer or just the silliest of things. But but the things that we just take for granted and we really do care about, but sometimes we forget about. And so I think, pace, I've tried to slow down.
I've tried to be as thankful as possible in the, in the word that has defined 2024 is availability. This summer I finished up teaching my teaching year, and I was praying one night and I said, God, like, I want to serve youth again. How does that look like? How can I do this on my campus? Or is it a is it a local youth group? And 12 hours later, I got an email from Pastor Carl saying, hey, we have a youth opening.
And so it was a really random whirlwind of a experience opportunity, and it was exciting and a little bit scary. But being available is kind of where my heart has been and where I want my heart to be in 2025. And so I want to just read over the scripture that it's been I've been coming back to life, and it's actually what I shared. I met our youth, Heather, in church, actually, the maybe late July at a at a food bank, like a service day for junior high. And then I came back a couple weeks later.
We were at the temples and we had a pool party in of the year. And I was able to lead and I spoke this. It was Matt, it's Mark's, chapter four verses you want. I just want to read it, and just process it for a minute with you. And it says that day when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, let's go over to the other side. Leaving the crowd behind. They took him along just as he was in a boat. So Jesus is on a boat looking at the shore, teaching, right?
And he said, let's go to the other side. The furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, teacher, don't you care if we drown? And he got up. He rebuked the wind and said of the waves, quiet, be still. And then the wind died down, and it was completely calm. He said, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?
Verse 41 says, they were terrified and they asked each other, who is this? That even the winds and the waves obey him? I think there's a lot we can pull from this little text, but the first thing is, obviously we see Jesus's authority, the wind and the waves. We can't see in the waves that always crash. They remember their creator's voice. They had responded to him. I think that that Jesus wanted to show his disciples who he was. He's not just a teacher as they referenced him.
He's the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, and he's the Messiah. He's that. He's the God of the universe. And so it was really cool to process that. But for me, sitting in and what I've been trying to wrap my head around and process is actually, I think, lost in the story. If you just read it quickly and kind of breeze through, Jesus was the one who invited his disciples across to the other side of the lake to find rest and retreat and to kind of recharge.
And then they found themselves in a storm. And I think sometimes we find ourselves for many seasons where, like, God, where are you? I don't see you. I can't fill you. I don't understand what's going on. And in this text, we see that Jesus invited them into the storm. I mean, for a number of reasons. One, he revealed his his glory to them. And I sometimes I think when I find myself in a, in a weird space or a scary space, I don't need to respond to where or on what do you have for me?
Like, what am I supposed to be learning here? Or what am I supposed to be taking away? What what is going on right now? And how can I glorify you through it? And so that's kind of been been my prayer this year. I keep coming back to this story and processing what it means to be available, what it means to God, what it means to respond to God, His Word, and the situations that he's put me in. And I think being available was what happened last summer.
It was got an email from Pastor Carl, and it's like, okay, God, if this is what it means to be available, sure. Let's let's go to flipside and let's serve students there and walk alongside staff and in the congregation. All this I am super grateful. And I hope in 2025 you can have that same prayer of being available and being genuinely, genuinely available so that when God calls you ready to go, thanks. Thank you Michael.
Very thankful for your obedience, your availability, and your obedience to God's call. It's been a real blessing to see how it continues to be fleshed out as you finish up your your first year. Yeah. So Heather bot right man in the trenches. Yeah. For a long time. What you're celebrating how many years? Year 12 in this next year will be 13. Wow. A season that, thank you for not saying old executive administrator, so. Oh, that's such a fancy title. I'm like, wow. All right, you got five minutes.
They said I can pick whatever I wanted. So my name is Heather. Yes, I've been at flip side. Well, we started attending flip side. I brought my friend. She is 19 years old, so we've been around here for a while. But, yeah, I'm on my 12th year here at flip side, and this last year I celebrated my 25th wedding anniversary with my husband, John. He is so patient to everyone, so such a good guy. I am.
And no, I'm not married Pastor Carl or Jeff or Michael because everybody seems to get that confused as well. I'm just that very patient man. But we also celebrated five years in our new home. If you have come to other, five good minutes, I struggle with fear and, being changed completely, like, to the point where I'll just stay in something bad. But we made the big jump to move out here to the ranchos because we were driving from Madeira. Madeira and Madeira.
But we made that jump and just celebrate five years, and it's been such a huge blessing. But as I prepared for today and looked back, I recommend that for everybody as you go at the end of this year, look back and just look at where God's hand has been throughout your life. It's really, really neat to look back because I think we're so focused on looking forward and what's coming next.
Retirement. That sounds great. Or, you know, like all the things that we have coming in, you're looking at, but sometimes just it's good to look back and to get to see, where God has shown up throughout your life. So, as I was doing that, my theme that I came up with was thankfulness. So I'm just super, super thankful this year, for my family, my husband, my daughter Matthew, specifically, my home is, I'm in a season of change. Big change that I have no control over.
But it's good stuff because my daughter should grow up. I would love for her to have stayed about nine years old. That would have been great. Teenage years. I could have done without junior high. I think we both made it out. But, you know, I. I wish that, sometimes things wouldn't have to change, but these are these are good changes. But in the midst of that change, I don't.
I'm struggling with who I am in that change because my one of my love languages is acts of service, which is why I love to run around and put on all my sins for you guys and do all that stuff. But I don't get to I don't get to serve in the same way I don't I don't have to run around to softball games or pick kids up anymore or be less doing things, which I'm thankful for, but also I, I don't what do I do now? So I'm finding new and different ways. And I stepped down from serving in youth.
Not because my goal is not great. My. But I felt like that season had ended for me as well. So I I'm not I'm not doing that anymore. So just trying to find, who I am in the midst of that. And God has been revealing to me through some really, really good friends, that I'm still have a works as a mom. It's just my, I still have a role here at flipside. It's just a little different. And that's all good and. Okay. And I'm not going to cry. I this year is a year of no crying.
Even if I see it in my eyes. My throat is tickling. So, but I find it. I found it very important this year with who I was surrounded with, people who have been through experiences. I'm looking at one up front right now. This Joanne Darcy is so great to me. Every Sunday checks in on me, wants to know how I'm doing, tells me I'm doing a good job, tells me I'm a good mom. And that it's all going to be okay. And she is like, yeah, that is hard.
I know, I mean, there's no resolution, just, you know, camaraderie and being in it. But God has placed those people in my life, but I can get so busy in my life. And like he said, we're typically running around a more flash that goes by. And yes, my hair is usually curly. That was in the beginning, apparently today that threw everybody off that.
But it's it's good to slow down and, to be thankful in the midst of that, I'm so thankful for my friends and, who got has surrounded me with, but by the way, half of my know got deleted when I was sitting up here. I don't know what I did, so our life is different from, like, how much I'm, like, even trying to plan Christmas this year was different. Kids are grown and they have other people and they have jobs and all of that.
It a couple of years ago, if I hadn't been preparing myself to be thankful, would have destroyed me. But now I'm just I'm so thankful that I have jobs and this is what we're supposed to do. This is how it's supposed to go. And so the Bible verse that I've been focusing on this year was, first Thessalonians 516, oh, no, sorry, 16 through 18. It's rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances will for you in Christ.
So, it just my encouragement to everybody as we head into 2025 is to stay in prayer. Stay thankful. There is so much for us to be thankful for. And I think, unfortunately, the world tries to make us believe the opposite, that there's so much division and there's so much going on in the world that there's or we have so much to be thankful for. And so I'm thankful for this place. I'm thankful for this staff. It's an amazing staff and I think we'll be part of it. Thanks, Heather.
Thankful for your obedience for you and John. You guys are a true definition of a power couple. Thankful for you guys and your service for over a long period of time. Through, change of high school to here. Just all the all the things you and you and John have. With all the questions, you and John have stayed and been faithful. So I'm thankful.
One of the things I was thinking about, I'm going to practice what I preach here for five minutes on, I was looking in, one of the things that stuck with me this year is Psalm 32. Verse eight says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you and watch over you. It also says, don't be like a mule or a horse which have no understanding. That must be controlled by bit and bridle, or they will not, that verse about God saying, I'll instruct you, I'll counsel you.
How many of you have ever sat in a class, whether it's been in, elementary school definitely happened in, junior high or high school or even in college. And the teacher says something or some materials presented and and you're you don't you don't get it. You raise your you raise your hand, you raise your hand. How many of you ever had done that? And the teacher goes, put your hand down, have it. Or worse yet, we're not taking any questions right now.
Doesn't it seem like life is like that sometimes? We do have a question now we're moving on. And I kept coming back to this this year, where God says, I'll teach you all, counsel you. There's another verse in the book of Joshua. It says, after three days, the officers went throughout the entire camp giving orders to the people. This is when when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests who are Levites carrying you, move from your positions and follow it.
Then you will know which way to go. Since you have never been this way before. God says there are places you're going to go in 2024 and 2025. You've never been there. Please don't do that alone. Please don't think that you can do that by yourself. God says, I'll give you the instruction. I'll give you the counsel. I think so many times we think, oh, if somebody would just teach me this or, you know, I need to go to counseling or I need to go to therapy or whatever, all those things are good.
But God says I am a source of all those things. Come to me. I will give you that wisdom. I will give you that teaching. I will. I will counsel you. This time last year, my my father in law was in the hospital up at Stanford. He was supposed to go in for open heart surgery and supposed to be out fairly quickly. And it wasn't. He was in for a while. And I remember thinking, wow, we are going to be in the throes of this. This is not looking like a short stint. This is looking like a long haul.
And I remember thinking, what are we going to do? How do you do this? How what what's what's the game plan with step? You know, one step. And as we walked through those months, I found myself pressing more and more into God. I've never been this way before. What are we? What are we supposed to do here? I got a call from my daughter in April saying, dad, we're engaged, and, we're going to get married in July. What do you think? Well, the stem goes when we do stuff. It's like, you know what?
We live by the motto. If you waited for a perfect time to do anything, you'd never get anything done. And so we're like, sure, July 5th wedding, let's do it. And then I thought, wow, I forgot what the San Joaquin Valley is like in the beginning. So we're like, yeah, let's do it. And I found myself pressing and oh, and then they said, and we want you to be the officiant of the wedding. And I thought, all right, what did I get myself into?
And I found myself going back to God with the good, the bad, and the kind of ugly or weird going, God, I've never been this way before. All this is new to this. I am when it comes to music. I've talked to Caleb about this before. I don't mind repetition. The girls always make fun of me. Dad, are we going to play the whole song? You said you just wanted to play the bridge. No, I like let's Do it again for the 50th time. I like things that are. I'm unassailable.
That if I do it and do it and know that that I'm going to, that I'm never going to fail at it, I'll sign up for that every day of the week. Some people hate repetition, I love it, I love it when I was skateboarding, I love trying that trick 75 times. Life. A lot of times it's not like that. It comes at you fast and furious. You've never done it before and I know the end from the beginning. Come to me, ask me. I will counsel you. I will guide you through this.
I will be your teacher. I'll be your coach. I'll be your guide. And so that's what 2024 was all about. And I'd like to say I'm going to try to keep that idea going into 2020. I'm freaking out. You guys can remind me it's always great when somebody preaches a message back to you. So thank you, staff, for sharing. Hopefully you guys have got a glimpse, hopefully something, that was set up here today has connected, maybe at a personal level or, like we said up front, maybe at a transcendent level.
So thankful for flipside. I'm so thankful for all of you. We are all thing for for all of you. If you only knew how much we talk about you guys behind your back. All good stuff. Did you see who's the guy with the the 40 niners and football hat or the baseball hat? And. Oh, that's so he was fantastic. Thank God for him. You got the congregation and we so appreciate you. I'm going to pray for us as I do. I'm going to call the worship team back up.
Do I need to worry about my chair or are you guys good? All right, put aside let's wrap up 2024 in prayer the way it should be. God, thank you so much. God. Thank you so much for, 20. For the good, for the bad, for the, ugly or weird things that maybe we are still dragging into 2025, that we just want to have it figured out. We want it to be done. We want to close the chapter at least, if not the entire book on that. Help us to remember that you call us to be faithful, trust you.
As we go back out into the places you've called us to be. The office, the the ball field, the classroom, wherever it is we land. God, we pray that we will take, what was spoken up here today and your word. And suck it deep into our hearts. Where it's very, very difficult to do what we talked about here today. Help us to just call our minds back to this place right now and and remember that you are good. You can be trusted. You are our counselor. You are our teacher.
And in all of that Jesus, we thank you. And we ask these things in your name.