Sunday Worship Service December 31, 2023

Prelude
Call to Worship Psalm 138:8
Hymn JBC # 618 Living for Jesus
The Lord’s Prayer
Offering
Scripture Galatians 6:1~10
Prayer
Sermon “Carry each other’s burdens”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 554 All the way my Saviour leads me
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction
Postlude


Today is December 31, 2023. It is the last day of the year. As this last day of the year (New Year's Eve) is a Sunday, we are spending the day by offering up a worship service like this.
This year, January 1 (New Year's Day) 2023, was also a Sunday, and we started our new year with a worship service as well.
So, this year has literally begun and ended with worship. My heart is filled with joy to begin the year by worshipping the Lord God and to end the year by worshipping Him.

I believe that in this past year each of us and our church, if we look back and recall one by one, had many things happen.
I am sure you must have gone through many hard times, painful times, happy times, and unexpected times.
If I may share about my personal experience, I think the biggest event was when my eldest son left home in the spring for a job and started his work life.
He is now far away. However, I have not felt as much loneliness or had as great a change in how I feel as I first imagined I would.

　Perhaps one reason I feel this way is that the ability to contact people is now so easy that one does not feel as distant from their loved ones who are physically far away.
However, I still remember and pray from him. The ability to pray gives us security through faith that we can rely on the God of Jesus Christ to protect and guide us wherever we are.
That is such a precious blessing. However, there are countries and regions in our world that are currently in the midst of violent wars, and many precious lives are being lost.

In such a reality, I may be lying if I say that I have no hesitation at all when I talk about “God's love” or “God's grace”, or say words such as “It will be all right because God is with us.”
　But the Lord Jesus Christ has indeed come into our world. Christ was born into this world as a man. Last week we had a Christmas service to celebrate His birth.
Christ came into the world to atone for our sins. The wages of our sins, which we ourselves should have received, He took on our behalf.

　　In 1 Timothy 1:15 we read:
　 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners

We have been saved by Jesus Christ. Therefore, we can still have hope based on the salvation made possible by Jesus through the forgiveness of our sins.
　I thank God from the bottom of my heart that throughout this year too, we have been able to live our church and faith life together, protected by His love.
For the 2023 fiscal year, our church has been living under the motto “Serving with Love.”
The desire to serve God, specifically through service in the church, arose from within the church members themselves and therefore the motto “Serving with Love” was chosen.
The annual scripture is Galatians 5:13 which says, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”

In Galatians 5:1 it also says that “it is Christ who has set us free”. Jesus Christ has set us free from sin.
Christ has also set us free from the idea (and curse) that forgiveness could only be achieved by keeping the law, that is, that it could only be achieved by human effort.
The forgiveness of sins, God's salvation, comes to us free of charge simply through His love and grace. Believing in this makes us truly free.
However, in Galatians the Word tells us that even though we have been given such freedom, if we misuse that freedom, we indulge the flesh and sin.

To “indulge the flesh” means that instead of serving one another, we would be hurting one another, and instead of cooperating and working together to help one another, we would be burdening one another.
What should we do to prevent this from happening? Let us hear about this from today's scriptures.
which the annual scripture was selected.
Today's passage begins with the following:
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.

　　This is especially said for those who belong to the same community of faith and to the same church. It is a duty we owe to our family of faith, to our brothers and sisters of faith.
Even Christians can fall into sin. We can fall into sin without intending to. We can all go down the wrong path.
To such a person (a member of our family of faith), today's passage says, we have a duty to restore him or her to the right path with a meek (gentle) heart.
The right path is the path of faith that puts the Lord God first and walks according to Him, the path of Jesus Christ.
Even though each of us as believers in the way of Christ are still sinners and fallible, the path we must walk is still clear.

Every day we strive to walk on the right path, which is Christ.
But no matter how careful we are, we sin because of our weaknesses, self-centeredness, and arrogance.
At such times, our family of faith can help, encourage, and exhort one another to return to the right path.
The right way (the way of Jesus Christ) is specifically a life of fellowship among believers who worship God together, share the Lord's body (the Lord's Supper), share the Lord's Word, and support one another by faith.

Through worshipping God in that way, as verse 4 says, we can test our actions.
By seriously examining ourselves before God, we are reminded that there is nothing in us that makes us worthy of His love and forgiveness.
No matter how confident we are that our faith is deep and strong, we will never be able to maintain our faith and continue to grow on our own.
For we all stumble and sin. Therefore, I hope that we will continue to encourage each other to return to the right path of life through God’s forgiveness, which is the path of looking to Jesus Christ as Lord, testing ourselves, and repenting.

Verse 2 of today's passage reads as follows:
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
We are commanded here to bear one another's burdens. We are called to encourage one another to return to the right path, and to remember the burdens (perhaps sin or weakness) of others and strive to carry them as our own.
None of us can carry our sins on our own. But if we take it as our mutual burden and bear it together, the burden will be lightened.
And at the root, we know that Jesus Christ, who forgives our sins and sustains us, is always with us.

Peter, who was Jesus’ closest disciple, even said when he was with Jesus, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death” (Luke 22:31- ).
But Jesus knew. He knew that Peter, because of his weakness and sin, would betray Him in the end and run away.

Jesus, anticipating Peter's betrayal, told him:
But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:32）
I am sure that Jesus wanted to say to Peter, “I have already forgiven your sins. I have borne your sins.
I prayed that your faith would not be lost. So now strengthen your brothers.”
Jesus’ words and thoughts that were directed to Peter are also directed to us today.
When we seem to lose faith because of failure or despair, Jesus is praying for us now too. Praying for us, “May your faith not be lost.”
We have nothing to fear because we have Jesus’ words and His prayers. We want to always return to the right path, relying more on Jesus.

The last verse of today's passage reads as follows:

10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

The fact that we belong to the same church and live a life of faith together is truly due to God's mysterious arrangement and plan.
As through God’s guidance we have been made a part of God's family, we are urged here to bear one another's burdens and to do as much good as we can.
Our time together like this is still limited. Our earthly encounters and time do not last forever.
That may mean that there is an optimal time when we can bear each other's burdens, and it may also mean that since we are human, there will eventually come a time when we will part in one way or another.
Therefore, let us not take for granted that we can be together like this, that we can live a life of faith together, but let us cherish the fellowship that God has given us and serve one another in it.
We offer “Serving with Love” with the goal of further growing into such a community where we, united by faith in Jesus Christ, walk with one another, bear one another's burdens, and forgive one another, and we hope that we can continue to move forward in the new year 2024 in this way.