The acceptable year of the Lord

Blessing Sincuba

We greet all the brethren in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank the Lord that He has brought us together on this Sunday, where we can worship Him. We trust and pray that wherever the Gospel is preached today that it might reach hearts and go out in great power.

Choir Sings

Detlef Stegen

I would also like to greet you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Saviour of this world. It is a joy to gather with all the Lord’s children who are present and those who are listening in.

It has been a privilege that we could experience a time of celebration and introspection over these last few weeks. I would like to add my voice to those that have been ministering to us, and with all of you who have accepted God’s word and taken it to heart, and say, Lord, we can only look to You to lead and keep us in this coming year.

Have you fully surrendered your life to the One who came for you and for me, to give us new life? Or is there still an area in your life that you have reserved for yourself?

We don’t know what this year will bring to us. We can only trust in the One who holds the times and seasons in His hand, even holds the very breath of our lives in His hands. We have no idea what trials, hardships and difficulties we will possibly face.

Just yesterday we had a funeral of a widow at whose home a local branch of our Mission is based. It was wonderful to hear the testimonies of different people who shared how the Lord sustained her.

We don’t know what the devil has planned for our personal lives or to harm God’s work. Let us make sure that we are faithful to the Lord and He will be our shield. Decide today not to disappoint the Lord. If you have failed Him in the past, say Lord, by Your grace, work in me that I won’t be a failure in this coming year.

If we remain true to Him, He will be true to us. Don’t you also want to testify at the end of 2025 and say – God was with me. He was with us. God was with our family, and we experienced heavenly things.

Luke 4:16 – 21  So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. ¹⁷ And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
¹⁹ To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

²⁰ Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. ²¹ And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

I would like to speak about the proclamation of the acceptable year of the Lord.

Jesus was in Nazareth where he had been brought up and where everyone knew him as Joseph’s son and one who was uneducated. The inhabitants of Nazareth knew that he hadn’t studied the Scriptures like the Scribes and Pharisees and teachers of the law had. On the Sabbath day Jesus chose this place to stand up and to bring them the message of good tidings.

Has Jesus stood up in your life where you have seen and heard His glorious Gospel? Has this Gospel healed your broken heart and has freedom from bondage and captivity been proclaimed to your poor soul? Has your eyesight been restored which Satan had taken away and made you blind?

Can you say this has been the acceptable year of the Lord for me?

In Luke 2 (verses 28 – 29) we read how Simeon was led by the Holy Spirit to be at the temple and when He saw Mary and Joseph bringing in this Child, he took the Christ Child in his arms and praised God. Have you accepted Jesus into your arms and praised God for Him? Or have you been critical about Hiim or the messengers through whom He comes to you?

Maybe you look up to the one who brings the message, the everlasting Good News of salvation, but you have some reservations – preacher, not so hard, that really goes a bit overboard. Are you able to accept this Christ Child, this salvation offered to us as it is proclaimed? Oh that you may be able to accept this proclamation and say, Lord, now you can take me because I have taken it into my heart.

Do you know the joy of forgiveness? Maybe you don’t know it because you have not forgiven someone. Possibly you are waiting for that person to apologise first because he has stolen so much from you, it’s hard to forgive, he must at least pay back part of the money or return my cattle to me so I can forgive. It is too painful what he has done, I cannot just forgive.

Maybe you were involved in a relationship and because of what he or she did, you cannot forgive. And yet you were the cause of what happened because you despised the way of purity. I was thinking of the woman who was brought to the Lord, who had been caught in adultery. Where was the man? Why wasn’t the man brought to Jesus? But know that you boy, you who are the father of your child, even if you committed the sin of sleeping with a girl when you were still a child, you are guilty, you need forgiveness, otherwise your heart will never be healed.

This is an illustration of what Jesus expects of women, unmarried or married – a life of purity. How often have we not heard, and again we hear, child, girl, boy – live a pure life. How can you expect God to bless your year if you haven’t been washed by the blood of the Lamb and know that you have been healed from your brokenness.

How can you expect blessing if you hold on to that which is cursed?

Without obedience to the Lord, to the Scriptures, you cannot expect your year to be acceptable. My advice to you is, pray and say: Lord, let Your Word be a light on my path.

This work was established through God’s Word, though people who hungered after righteousness, as we heard in John 7, when Jesus stood up and said, if anyone thirsts, let Him come to Me. What are you thirsting for? What are your goals?

God’s Word which stands forever says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. To those the invitation stands: Come, Come, all has been prepared for you. “He who believes in Me as the Scripture has said, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water”. Have you taken God’s Word to heart? Have you believed that it is true for you? Maybe you say, oh it is for others, for the preachers. They must keep God’s Word so that they will be able to direct us and teach us God’s ways. Then don’t expect that God will bless you. This invitation is for everyone, and it says, come! This is the acceptable year of the Lord.

Doesn’t it touch and move your heart? Lord, make me acceptable to You in this coming year. Lord, help me to be obedient to Your Word and to listen to that voice of the Holy Spirit in my heart if He warns me. He sees the danger ahead and knows that which will harm you. He knows that if you go to those friends, they will influence you with their gossip. He knows if you go and look for things on the internet, your eyes will be defiled. Your clear conscience will be spoiled. If you have seen nakedness and debauchery, it damages your soul and the walk of obedience with the Lord.

It is something wonderful to come and bow at the Cross, to weep and say, God I repent of this, cleanse me and renew me. Then you can live in freedom and say, Jesus has forgiven me, I have been cleansed by His blood. Unworthy as I am, I have been made new.

You can fall on your knees tonight with gratitude, Lord thank you! Today was the day when I said goodbye to the world. Tomorrow morning you can wake up with a song in your heart. Lord, I have been delivered from the powers of Satan and hell. At the end of the week, you can say: oh, Jesus how wonderful, you have kept me. The power of sin has been broken! Next Sunday you can say, Lord this has been a wonderful week. The power of Satan has been broken in my life. Your lips will overflow with thankfulness that you have been set free from the sins that made you so miserable.

The following week you will be able to say, Lord how wonderful it is to be free; I haven’t gone back to my sin! And at the end of the month, and then at the end of three months, Lord, You have brought me life, nothing can be compared to being forgiven and devoting my life to You. Your earnest desire will be to will live a life that is acceptable to the Lord. Then you feel you will also experience wonderful fellowship with the children of God who have been saved from their sins.

When this word was opened up to me, my heart wanted to leap for joy and I said, Lord, is it possible that You can bless this year? Not because of what I can or have accomplished, but because of the Spirit of the Lord that works in me. That makes me a blessing to others.

Usually if I am busy, it is a chore and a nuisance to do what my parents ask me to do. I must put down my tools and serve someone else. But if we have Jesus in our hearts, it will be a joy to be sent by our parents. It is a precious gift to have parents and to honour and respect them.

It will be a joy to you to serve others and not think of your own pleasure first. This only happens if you allow the One to whom all power is given to transform your life. You will lay down your stubbornness and own desires for His sake and will not pick them up again.

Allow Jesus to stand up in your life and to speak to you. Don’t drown out His voice by leaving the service and chatting to people till you forget all that which the Lord had tried to establish in your heart during the message. That is a sign that you are unwilling to obey Him.

You make it a habit to read your Bible and pray on your knees in the morning and evening, but you are not willing to surrender to what Jesus tells you. How can you expect Jesus to use you in other ways if you disobey in one aspect?

Each person must make their own decision. It does not help to follow friends or be one of the crowd, not wanting to be the odd one out. With your friends, you should be willing to stand out and have a testimony of your walk with the Lord.

They that hunger and thirst after righteousness love to listen to Jesus’ words for hours and it refreshes them. But if you don’t love and obey these words, where will the blessings come from?

Won’t you see Him today as the Saviour, the One who pronounces liberty and who heals your broken heart. Are there things in your life that have broken your heart? It is wonderful to have a broken heart if God speaks to you and you can acknowledge your failures.

Maybe your heart can be broken because of sin. Today you live in your shell, you don’t want anybody to come near you because you say people have disappointed and hurt you too much. But there is a danger of resorting to hiding in your shell if God’s word and the messengers of God have touched on things in your life, and you are unwilling to bow to God’s nudge.

This touchiness of yours, and this resistance and opposition to the Lord’s bidding can result in that which we find in 1 Timothy 4:1 – 2. Now the Spirit ^]expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, ² speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,

You may claim that you have been hurt too much, that is why you resort to a godless life and teaching of demons. Jesus came to set those oppressed by evil spirits free. It is possible that you are an active member of your church, but you allow an evil power to rule you, yet in your deception you think it is power from God and He is using you.

Luke 4:20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.

After Jesus had spoken this Good News, these tidings of great joy, nobody could contradict His words because God has anointed Him and what He says is true and it will endure till the end of the ages. Even the devil, when he tempted our Saviour Jesus Christ in the wilderness, could not stand up against the words which this anointed one of God spoke. Yes, the devil will rage, he will say all sorts of blasphemies. But woe to you if you side with that blasphemy. Once He has spoken, His word is eternal, it will stand, your words will never stand, even if they are inspired by Satan.

There is a time where He will speak, and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord.

Verse 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

There will be joy in heaven today if the words of Jesus are fulfilled in your life? If you say, Lord I come, I accept your invitation. I am coming to the Cross where you laid down your life so that I can have life.

What is holding you back that you don’t come? Why don’t you confess and say, these are the chains by which Satan has bound me until now. Why try to fight the battle alone? Why don’t you go to the ministers of the Gospel? Say, pray with me, I don’t know why my heart is so unwilling, I don’t know why I don’t want to come.

Verse 22 So all bore witness to Him, and marvelled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

We can all marvel at the gracious words that come from our Lord’s mouth, but the devil can bring questions, and all the gracious words of Jesus get trampled underfoot and are disregarded. And they reasoned within their hearts. Jesus tried to correct them, if you read the portion that follows. And soon afterwards, they took hold of Him and they led Him up the hill to throw Him down a precipice – this One who spoke such gracious words.

May God’s grace abound in our lives, that in this coming year, if you hear gracious words from the mouth of the One who became man to save you and me, allow those words to enter your heart. Be obedient to them so that this can be an acceptable year of our Lord. Don’t reason so much, especially this white nation, we are too clever. We reason Jesus away, like these intellectuals who gathered in the synagogue with Jesus, the anointed one. They literally said: out with Him, away with Him! Let’s cast Him down the mountain.

Don’t you want to be like Simeon? Take the Christ Child, embrace Him and say: this is the One I have been waiting for! These are the words that I have longed for. I am now ready to die. See the Saviour in your life, acknowledge Him, embrace Him, then you will be willing to reject anything that is not acceptable to our Saviour Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Dietmar Joosten

Your year lies before you, it depends on you how it will unfold. Christ has done everything that needed to be done for you, He died for you so you may have the power over sin and satan, accept Him.

Recently I had an experience, and I smile to myself. I said, Lord speak to me, I need a word. He said: Open the Bible, I did that and He opened His word to me.

If only we could understand what the Year of the Lord means. Give yourself to Him, lay yourself in His arms and see what He will do for you.

I’d like to end with this. The Lord is not interested in your offerings and sacrifices, He wants obedience. If you want an acceptable year of the Lord in your life, just be obedient when He speaks to you.

May this year be an acceptable year, a year bringing praise to God, that when we look back at the end of the year we can say – Lord, thank you for what You have done and accomplished, not what we have done, we are useless.

Throughout his life Rev Stegen showed us what God can and wants to do through His children. Let us allow God to work in our hearts, not through our strength, but through His power. We will stand amazed when we see what God can do if we are in right standing with Him.