✝️ A Challenge for January 1, 2026 Theme: The Hymn That Changed the World — And the One That’s Coming Next --- 1. Opening: Setting the Scene Family, let me take you back almost 250 years. It’s January 1st, 1773. A cold English morning. The church in Olney is packed with working-class folk — fishermen, laborers, women with weary faces, children bundled against the frost. They gather not for fireworks, not for resolutions, not for promises they know they’ll break — but for the Word of God. And that morning, their pastor, John Newton, climbs into the pulpit. He opens the Scriptures to 1 Chronicles 17. David’s prayer: “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that You have brought me this far?” Newton preaches about grace. About a God who lifts up the lowly. About a Savior who takes a broken life and turns it into a testimony. And when he’s finished, he doesn’t just close in prayer — he hands them a brand-new song. They sing it together for the very first time: 🎶 Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me… 🎶 No organist, no sound system, no worldwide release on YouTube. Just a small country church. But heaven heard. And the world would never forget. --- 2. The Turn: From Then to Now Friends, I wonder: what if God wants to do it again? What if January 1, 2026 could be another Olney? Not in one parish, but in thousands of churches across the world. What if the first words spoken in pulpits that morning weren’t about weight loss or politics or new goals — but about grace? What if the first songs sung weren’t about nostalgia or tradition — but about the God who still saves wretches like us? --- 3. The Heart of It David looked back and said: “Who am I, Lord, that You’ve brought me this far?” That’s humility. That’s gratitude. That’s worship. And that’s where we need to start our year. Newton looked back at his years as a slave trader, his sins, his rebellion — and he saw a grace that had carried him “safe thus far.” You and I can look back at 2025 with the same honesty. Maybe your year was good. Maybe it was hard. Maybe you felt carried. Maybe you feel scarred. But if you’re here today, it’s because grace has brought you this far. And if grace has carried us here — grace will carry us home. --- 4. The Challenge So here’s the challenge I want to throw out, not just to you, but to pastors, preachers, leaders everywhere: What if we each prepared, with prayer and trembling, one sermon and one hymn for the first day of 2026? What if we gave God the very first word of the year, not our own? What if pulpits across the nations became united on that one morning? What if — out of your little congregation, your little “Olney” — God birthed the next Amazing Grace? Friends, don’t underestimate what a simple sermon and a simple song can do when heaven breathes on it. --- 5. The Vision: What If? What if in Cape Town, and in Cairo, and in Kansas, and in Kathmandu, voices rose on the same day? What if in little churches and big cathedrals, pastors all said: “Who am I, Lord, that You have brought us this far?” What if, on January 1, 2026, a wave of gratitude and worship swept across the earth? And 250 years from now, some preacher will stand up and say, “Do you remember what God did on that day? Do you remember the hymn that changed the world?” --- 6. Closing Call So I ask you, as Newton asked his people that cold January morning: Will you join me? Will you give the first words of the new year back to God? Will you dare to believe that your sermon, your song, your voice, your testimony — could be the spark of revival? Because it’s not about resolutions. It’s about revelation. And it begins with this simple prayer: “Who am I, O Lord God, that You have brought me this far?”