January 1, 2023 Sunday Worship Service

Call to Worship Isaiah 44:3
Hymn JBC # 21 Worthy of worship
Prayer Time
The Lord’s Prayer
Prayer Time
Offeratory Prayer
Scripture Ephesians 1: 3-14
Prayer
Sermon “God's overflowing Grace”
https://youtu.be/8Snon_ikfM4
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 301 Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction


I am very happy to have the grace to begin the first day of the new year (2023), January 1st, with a worship on the Lord's Day (Sunday).
　In the New Year, we usually greet saying "Happy New Year”.
However, there are so many people in our world who are still unable to lead a peaceful and stable life due to ongoing wars, unstable (or even authoritarian) political systems, or devastating natural disasters.
I believe that there are also people around us and in the church who are facing very difficult situations due to various reasons.

As I may have mentioned several times in the past New Years, our society and the world has been in such situation for a long time that we hesitate to say "Happy New Year”.
However, we can say "Happy New Year" again this year based on a certainty that goes beyond the circumstances around us or our own thoughts and feelings.
It is the "Grace of God" that has been given to us.
Based on God's unchanging Grace, this year too, we want to say "Happy New Year" again.

If we believe that "our Lord God has given us another new year," then we can greet the new year with joy, for it is a gift of God.
In the last Christmas Eve. Service and in the recent church newsletter too, I shared the words of a prayer: "If I am alive today, it is the proof that I have a mission.”
A believer prayed that way in faith. I felt it was a word of thanksgiving to God and at the same time a word of renewed commitment of faith.
We do not live by our own strength. We are kept alive by God who made us and gave us the breath of life.

Therefore, I believe that if I am alive today, it is a sure sign that I have a mission (that God wants me to fulfill).
We can believe that I am alive this year, and that our church continues to stand in this area this year - is evidence of the mission that God has given to each of us and to our church.
And God will give us the strength and everything we need to fulfill the mission God has given us ~ that is our faith. We hope to live our lives in that way, always trusting in God.
Today, at the Sunday service on January 1, 2023, I would like to reflect on "God's Grace" as the basis of our hope for life, guided by the words of the Bible.
For today's sermon, I have chosen Ephesians 1:3-14.
Our church motto for this year (fiscal year 2022) is "Remember the Lord’s grace.”
The scripture is Ephesians 2:8.
In Ephesians 2:8 it is written, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”.

We hoped to carry on this year's church activities with this thought in mind: "In this time of real difficulties for society, the world, and our church, let us especially keep our eyes on God's grace and be thankful for His grace.”
　There are still three months left in this fiscal year, but as we look back today with eyes of faith, we can believe that God's Grace has indeed been with us so far this year.
We were able to continue our sharing of God's Word in Sunday services and other church gatherings (prayer meetings, Sunday school, FFF, etc.). I believe that the fellowship of faith in the church was continued, and God's grace was poured out abundantly to us through such fellowship of faith.

For a long time, it has been difficult to gather together, and even when we do gather, there are still restrictions due to infection control measures, etc., However, we have been able to continue to hold meetings that is guided by the Bible and the Holy Spirit – that is not by our own strength or determination, but by the unchanging grace of God.
It is also God's grace that allows us to believe that "by faith we are bound together”. And one of our missions as believers is to share God's grace with the world.
Therefore, we thank God that we are allowed to have our church gatherings and renew our hope and determination today to share this grace with those around us.
We praise and glorify God in our worship. We give glory back to God. The first part of today's passage (verse 3) says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”
　　Why do we praise God? It is because God has saved us. Because God has raised us up by grace from perdition (doom or destruction) into the path of life.
He has paid for our sins through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we can live in a new life through Him.

If we are thankful for that grace of God, we should not fail to praise Him. If we are truly filled with God's grace, we cannot help but worship Him.
Therefore, "praising God" is a very natural expression of faith for the believers.

But we still have the sin of focusing on our own thoughts and desires. We might still worship (make primary) something else (human beings including ourselves, or something else) that is not God.
Therefore, let us renew our resolve today to remain in God's grace, never leaving God's Word and His Assembly (Church), being aware that we are still sinners, but sinners forgiven by the blood of Christ.
Let us look at what is written in today's passage (especially in verses 4-5). In a nutshell, "God decided to love us even before the creation of the world.”
This is astonishing!
Our world and all that lives in it were created by God. The Old Testament book of ’Genesis’ describes how God created the world.
And the Bible (today's passage) tells us that God decided to love us people before He created the world. He determined to make us God's children through Christ.
The reason God created the world was God's love, and God's love for us was his determination to make us his children through Christ. That is one of the important messages that the Bible reveals to us.

Unfortunately, we have chosen the path of sin, of living a self-centered life apart from God. The path away from God's grace is the path to perdition.
God gave Jesus Christ to our world to save us from that path of perdition.
Let us keep our eyes on that Grace of God. Let us live in the overflowing grace of God poured out on us through Jesus Christ, and let us live a life filled with the power and joy of God.

Finally, I would like to conclude my message by sharing today's verse 10:
10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
We are still living on the way to the fulfillment of the words of verse 10. But we can believe that as long as we acknowledge God's grace and continue to live in His grace, the words of this prophecy will be fulfilled.
To be "united in Christ" means that each of us is truly precious to God and to each other.
It means that we recognize each other as important (precious) existence through Christ. It is only through Christ that this is possible.
We want to be a church where we can truly say, "I am important (precisous), I can be here (church), and I need to be here," being united with Christ.

Jesus said in John 13:34-35
Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
How can we prove that we are Christians, or that we are a Christian church?

I believe it is as Jesus’ words just I’ve mentioned. If we keep our hearts focused on God, loving one another in worship, then through such our worship, the bible’s phrase "all things will be united under Christ" will be fulfilled, even if only gradually.
By abiding in God's grace and abiding in God's love, let us keep the fellowship of faith centered on Jesus Christ, and let us continue to worship God again this year.
Let us walk together this year in a life of faith in Christ, receiving God's overflowing grace and recognizing His overflowing grace in everything in our life.