Sunday 28th December 2025

Nollamara Church Of Christ Sermons.

Raw transcript of meeting:

Date Of Sermon: 28^th December 2025

Speaker: Jamie Boland

Sermon Title: The God who carried us

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 1:29-31

 Now, today I just wanna share a, a shorter word. Before we do that, let's commit this time to the Lord. Father, we thank you. We thank you that we can come in freedom as your people, unlike so many of our other brothers and sisters who are not able to meet openly without fear. We thank you for the privilege we have.

Holy Spirit, we ask that you would come now, manifest yourself, speak through. Your word to us, and bless us, we pray in Jesus' precious name. Amen. So what I want to do is just a, a short message today as we reflect on the ways in which God has been with us this year. I'm gonna open by bringing a, a short reading from, uh, Deuteronomy chapter one.

But let me first, uh, put us in the setting so we know the story, God's people. They've been 40 years on this journey through the wilderness. They're now camped on the east side of the Jordan. They've spent 40 years just going round and round in circles. They're about to come to that point of taking possession of the promised land.

But before they do that, Moses delivers a series of speeches. He starts by reminding them that it was unbelief. Say that word. Unbelief. It was unbelief that caused them to miss out all those years ago. Their forefathers, they're mothers and fathers, they missed out on what God had for them all that time ago in the past because of unbelief.

And so Moses starts with that. He says, your, your, your fathers and mothers said these words, the Lord hates us. This is what they said. The Lord hates us. That's why he brought us up out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the amorites to destroy us. Can you imagine thinking that all the miracles they saw and their takeaway from that was that the Lord hates us.

He saved us to destroy us. He hates us. That's what they're thinking. And they said, these people in the land, they're taller than us, they're stronger than us, their cities are large, and the walls go all the way up into the sky. And Moses says to this generation, I don't want you to falter due to unbelief.

So he begins by reminding them of God's faithfulness. It's good to remember. And he says. Do not be terrified. Do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who is going before you will fight for you. He will what? He will fight for you. Our God is a warrior. He will fight for you as he did for you in Egypt before your very eyes and in the wilderness.

There you saw how the Lord your God carried you as a father, carries his son all the way you went until you reached this place. So what we have, God's people are here, they're stood between, you know, this point behind them is the past, in front of them is the future, and they're here in the middle, and they've gotta make a decision as to which way they're gonna go.

Because if they are gonna a mistake of unbelief, it's back into wilderness. It's not into the land. And Moses says, well, God says through Moses, don't be afraid. Believe why? Because God wants his people to move forward into the future he has for them. But in order to do that, they need to remember the ways in which God has been with them in the past, and God would say to them what He'd say to us.

I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Do you believe that? Do you believe God has been with you this past year? Yes. Do you believe moving forward into the new year, he's with you and he will not forsake you? Yes. Yes. And through Moses, God reassures his people and he says, even when it's too much for you, I will carry you.

I will carry you as a father, carries his son. And so here we are, it's the final Sunday of the year and I'm sure that some of us, if I asked us to look back, we're gonna look back to a year that was full of blessing. Some of us can stand here today and say, yes, God has been good in 2026, but maybe some others are here and you're thinking, well, you know, pastor, it's been a year of challenge.

It's been a a year of loss. It's been a year where my faith has been tested. It's been hard. Now, whichever camp you're in, I believe all of us can say that we are here. Not because we are good, but because God is good and that God has carried us. Yes. Do you believe that? Yes. I believe we can all stand here today on the last Sunday of the year and breathe in the grace of God, we can all look back over our shoulder and see the fingerprints of his faithfulness upon our lives.

Yes, yes. It's always good to look backward in order to move forward. So what I wanna do today is just very quickly share three points about the God who has carried us this past year, and I pray God will carry my voice for the rest of this message. My first point, I wanna bring out three simple points.

Verse 30. We read the Lord your God, who is going before you will fight for you. God is going before us and God will fight for us. Now in this wilderness journey that Israel had for 40 years, they faced enemies that they didn't even see coming. They didn't know what was next. Sometimes and often they were outnumbered.

They were out trained, they were out resourced. They were out flanked, and yet God brought them through. And so here they are standing, wanting to take possession of this land, this land that their fathers and mothers were too afraid to enter. And God tells them, you will not fight these battles alone. I will go before you.

He's saying I was with you in the past, and I'll be with you moving forward. There may be a show of hands. Raise your hands if you felt like you were fighting battles this year.

I think quite a few of us felt like we were fighting battles. For some of us, it was battles of the mind. We were fighting anxiety, depression, discouragement, doubts, fears. Maybe some of us here were fighting battles in our relationships. There was conflict in the family. Maybe there was troubles in your marriage that you needed to work through, problems with friends, problems with strangers, or maybe the business.

A few shops down from yours. For some, the battles were battles of provision. Maybe your work situation changed and your, your finances got hit. Maybe you've been struggling through this cost of living crisis. Maybe you had mortgage pressures or rental pressures. It's hard out there and you're wondering, where is God?

Will God provide? For many of us here, we've had health battles. Maybe you got a diagnosis that was far worse than expected. Hospital visits that never seemed to end. Or maybe you went in and, and the doctor did the thing, but the recovery was more painful and took far longer than you expected. And through all of this, you're wondering, is God with me?

I'm sure there are people here that are, have faced battles that no one else knows about. It's something they've carried alone privately, quietly, hoping that no one else would see. Whatever you've been through, whatever you've faced, hear this. The battles that surprised you did not surprise God. The battles that you faced, they surprised you, they blindsided.

Maybe you felt knocked down, you were surprised, but God was not. He went before you. He shielded you. He protected you in ways you weren't even aware. You are not here today because you fought. Well, you are here because God fought for you. Amen. Amen. Amen. If you could see the battles God fought for you this year, I, I think you would praise him with everything that's inside of you.

Yes. Yes. If God was to pull back the curtain and show you every single battle he's fought for you on your behalf, I think we would just fall down and worship him. In fact, let me, let me say this. I honestly believe that one day when we're with God, he's gonna show us all the fights that he took on our behalf.

He's gonna show us the ways in which he protected us, all the ways in which he moved, and we are not even aware. He's just gonna say, Hey Jamie, let me show you the ways I was for you, not against you, the way I delivered you and protect you from things you didn't even know were there. I took that hit, and we are just gonna fall down, flatten our face in worship.

Yes, because our God is a God who fights for his people. Yes.

Even this past year, there's been an unseen hand of God at work in our life taking blows that we didn't even know were coming. I think there's a reality here. God's fighting battles for us that we never see, but in the ones that we do see, he asks us to trust in him.

Whatever 2026 has in store, God would say, I am the Lord your God, who was going before you. I will fight for you. The battle is the Lord's not ours. Amen. Amen. My second point in verse 31, we read in the wilderness, the Lord your God carried you. Israel's wilderness wasn't just a location, it was a season. It was a very long season, 40 years.

It was a season of uncertainty, a season of waiting a season where direction was unclear. A season where the creature comforts were limited, if not non-existent. It was a season where they felt stuck and it was a season they felt, you know, like it did. It's never gonna come to an end. Is there any light at the end of this tunnel?

And maybe that's how 2025 felt for some of you. Wilderness seasons are the years where you pray, but nothing seems to happen. You believe, but the answer is delayed. You take steps, but the progress, you know, it feels so slow sometimes that you feel like you're not going forwards, you're going backwards.

Wilderness years are those times you serve God, but you don't feel as closely to him as you used to. You do all these things you pray. You seek, you cry, and it feels like you're in between what you left and what God promised. It's like you're in this no man's land, this liminal space,

and that's when you remember. The wilderness is not about punishment, it's about preparation. It's about shaping. It's about dependence, training. Amen. Amen. Those times when we don't sense God, but God is there. They're the times when God is calling us deeper, where God is shaping us. He's making us for something to move into.

And I can tell you it's not on the mountaintop where God does. He's most tender works in the wilderness. Yeah. He does the most tender of his loving work in the wilderness and he's, he says to us what he says to Israel. You didn't just walk through the wilderness, you were carried. I am the Lord your God, who carried you.

Think of a parent carrying a child who's just become too weak or too tired to keep walking. You remember this when the kids were younger, they can't keep up. You've got somewhere to go. And so what do you do as a loving parent? You pick them up, you carry them. And the child isn't even conscious of every single step the parent takes.

The child might even be asleep, but the parent keeps walking. The parent keeps holding, the parent keeps supporting, and the child reaches the destination because someone's stronger, never let go. That's what God has been to us this year. Amen. He has supported us, held us every single step of the way. Yes.

When you had no strength, God said, I'll carry you. When your faith felt small and weak, maybe non-existent, God said, I'm gonna carry you. When you cried out in tears and you couldn't even give voice to that prayer in words, God said, I'll carry you. Those times when you felt stuck was God who moved you forward, and that time when you felt lost and God was.

Nowhere near God held you close. Didn't walk through. This year, we were carried through. I was thinking at a point I was limping through this year, but I read this and it's like, no, God carried me. I weren't limping. God was carrying me. He sustained us. He kept our heart soft. He kept our minds from breaking.

He kept our souls from giving up. He kept us. We are here today because God kept us. Amen. Amen. Every breath, every heartbeat. It's a gift from him. The days when the sun is shining, it's easier to praise him than when the clouds are in the sky and it's gray and it's overcast, but God carries us through it.

For many of us, the confession this year is not, you know, I, I, I made it. I somehow survived. The confession is God carried me. He carried me through the wilderness. My third and final point, verse 31, ends with these words. The Lord your God carried you as a father. Carries his son all the way, all the way you went until you reached this place.

Not part of the way, not halfway. He didn't only carry us after we stumbled or after we messed up. He carried us all the way. And the God who carried you through this year, he's gonna carry you through into the next Amen. Amen. The children of Israel, they're hearing these words and they're, they're right on the very edge of the promised land.

They're not yet where God ultimately intends them to be, but they were closer than they'd ever been before. And the same is true of, of us. We may not be where we want to be, spiritually, emotionally, maybe in our relationships, but hear this, you are closer than you've ever been. God has not carried you this far to abandon you.

Do you believe that God has not carried you this far to abandon you? He will begin or he will complete in you what He's began in you. Do you believe that this is where we play a part? He will complete in us that which he began. He wants us to trust in him. He wants us to believe that and to respond to him in faith.

And so as you enter 2026, remember that you go with a God who still goes before you. He still fights for you. He still carries you when you are weak. He still leads you even when you can't see the way, and he is a God who still keeps his promises.

I'm hoping this quiet as you just gently reflecting on this, this to me is Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. God fights for you. He carries you. He keeps his promises. The God who carried you this year will carry you into the next. So if I can exhort you to do three things before you exit this year, firstly, look back and remember God's faithfulness if you wanna move forward first.

Look backward. Look backward. And remember, please don't rush past the grace that you've experienced from God this year. Take time to reflect and remember sayah. Reflect. Remember secondly, release what you can't carry. Let let God carry those burdens you're not meant to hold onto into the next year could be unforgiveness, sins you've committed.

Regret. We can't carry these things into the new year and move forward into what God has for us. And lastly, receive strength for the journey ahead. This is something I'm needing to learn. It's not me. It's not my gifts, it's not my talents. It's God. I've had to learn this the hard way. We need to receive strength from him for the journey ahead.

Trust that the one who's carried you this far is gonna, is gonna carry you forward into the next year. I told you it would be a short word. Let's pray.

Father, we, we only stand here today because you've carried us. You've carried us through battles, through tears, through joys, and through so many unknowns. Father, we thank you for going before us. We thank you for fighting for us. We thank you for holding us when we were weak. And Lord, as we enter this new year, may we surrender to your loving arms and say, carry us again.

Oh Lord. Carry us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're gonna close.