How to Let God Write Your Story This Year
Pastor Keith Roberson has joked before that as he’s gotten older, he feels contractually obligated to get more and more invested in World War II. So over the holidays, with a little travel time on his hands, he went back to a book he’d read before: Band of Brothers.
The author built the book from the journal entries, diaries, and face-to-face interviews of the surviving men of Easy Company, 101st Airborne — weaving their stories into one narrative that runs from training at Camp Toccoa in Georgia, through the invasion of Normandy, all the way to the end of the war at Hitler’s retreat in southern Germany. Keith admitted it might be the nerdiest possible holiday reading, but his imagination was taken with it — the leadership, the sacrifice, the duty of men giving their lives to advance freedom.
And here’s what grabbed him most. As a reader, you follow these men moment by moment, decision by decision — and they can’t see where any of it is going. They don’t have the 30,000-foot view. But you do. You watch a small act of bravery or kindness in one chapter ripple into something enormous chapters down the road. You watch a wound or a resentment do its quiet damage the same way. A story is being unveiled that the people inside it cannot see.
Then the pivot, on the first Sunday of a new year: every one of us has a story that is being written. And 2026 is a brand-new chapter.
What this sermon is about
This message — the opening of the WORDS series — asks one question and refuses to let it go: who gets to write the narrative of your life this year? You don’t have the 30,000-foot view. You’re in the middle of school drop-offs, trash days, and vehicle registration renewals, and it’s easy to forget that in and through all of it, the story of your life is being written. Looking back on 2025, some of what you experienced came from your decisions — and a lot of it you never asked for. Victories and defeats. People who cared for you in ways you didn’t expect, and maybe people who hurt you. So as the next chapter opens: who’s forming the narrative? You? The enemy? Or a Father whose story for you is far beyond what you could write for yourself?
Keith put it this way: we are all stirred by stories. The real problem is failing to believe that you have one — an incredible story meant to be written this year — and sitting on the sidelines, disengaged from what God wants to write about you, over you, to you, and through you.
His answer unfolds in three movements: God defines what is true, God defines who you are, and God defines where you’re going.
God defines what is true
We are living in the noisiest moment in human history — hundreds and thousands of messages, images, ads, and voices speaking at us constantly. Political voices, philosophical voices, all claiming truth. Paul saw it coming when he wrote to his young friend Timothy.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 — “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
Keith said he couldn’t think of a sentence more relevant to the year we just lived through. The danger isn’t that we’ll stop listening — it’s that we’ll curate voices that tell us only what we already want to hear.
So how do we know what’s actually true? A disciple named Thomas asked Jesus essentially that question, and got one of the most famous answers in Scripture. John 14:6 — “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” Truth, it turns out, is not a winning argument. It’s a person. His words get to be defining for how we experience, think, and walk through everything 2026 brings — including all the circumstances we can’t see coming.
“Let me tell you the incredible freedom that comes when you don’t have to call the shots.” — Pastor Keith Roberson
That’s the trade on the table: fear and the exhausting illusion of control, exchanged for rest under the words of a King who actually knows where the story is going.
God defines who you are
Then Keith moved from what is true to who you are — because nobody steps into a new year with real confidence while believing broken things about themselves.
What do you believe about yourself when you look in the mirror? Broken, weak, frail? And does the one who is the way, the truth, and the life get to call the shots on that — or does your job define you, your relationships define you, the words you mutter about yourself define you?
Keith zeroed in on the things we say about ourselves, often as jokes. Ever said “I’m a control freak”? (He told the room not to raise their hands.) We say it in jest, but underneath the joking is a real need to control. And he asked the question that reframes everything: is that what the Father says about you? Not for a second. Confess the fear honestly — Keith admitted he understands control; when his family goes on road trips, he drives — but don’t let the confession become the identity.
“I’m not a control freak. I’m a son or a daughter of the Most High God. This is who I am.” — Pastor Keith Roberson
Same with “I don’t have much discipline” or “I’ll always be this way.” If those words are coming out of your mouth, Keith said, it’s time to stop partnering with the voice of the enemy to keep you bound up. Scripture has a word for the way out: confess — agree that the stuff I’ve been saying is broken and not true — and repent, which simply means come back home and hear what the Father says instead.
And what does he say? Ephesians 2:10 — “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” The word behind “workmanship” is poiema — poetry. You are the poetry of God, created in Christ Jesus to do beautiful things. Keith’s caution: you can’t step into Ephesians 2 until you know who you are. Identity comes first; confidence follows.
One more practical note from Keith: this defining word isn’t a one-time download. You need it today, and you’ll need something fresh tomorrow, and on February 7th — “just picking a random day there,” he grinned. The King has it ready to speak, fullness and life over each one of us, every single morning of the chapter ahead.
God defines where you’re going
For the third movement, Keith took us 550 years before Jesus, to Israel in exile in Babylon — people who were struggling, stuck, and unable to see a way forward. No 30,000-foot view, just the middle of hardship. And God, in his kindness, sent the prophet Isaiah with a word they could not yet see.
Isaiah 43:18-19 — “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
“Behold” means wake up. Is your ear inclined? Is it possible 2026 could be genuinely different — not because circumstances will be perfect, but because the one writing the chapter is good? Keith pressed the question directly: do you believe God can do a new thing this year — in you, through you, with you, to touch the world around you?
He didn’t exempt himself. Even as he preached it, he said, he felt the pull Paul described to Timothy — the itch to hear what sounds good, the tendency to grab for control — and his own need to put it down and ask, “God, what do you want to say over my life?”
Then the service did something unusual. Instead of closing with a final song and a quick send-off, the worship team came up and the room simply made space — twenty minutes or more — to sit, stand, or kneel and ask one question: God, what do you want to say over me this year? Keith was clear about why.
“You don’t need Keith’s voice. You need the voice of Jesus.” — Pastor Keith Roberson
The words of God are powerful and able to move our lives, he reminded us — but not if we never incline our ear. Some of us are sitting under heavy condemnation and need the Father’s voice. Some of us have a mountain in front of us and don’t know how we’ll face it. The invitation is the same: ask him. He has something to say, and it’s better than the narrative you’ve been rehearsing.
What this means for your week in Franklin
- Audit your voices. Take an honest look at what’s filling your ears — the feeds, the takes, the curated teachers of 2 Timothy 4. Ask whether they’re forming the narrative of your life more than the words of the King are.
- Catch the labels mid-sentence. “I’m a control freak.” “I have no discipline.” “I’ll always be this way.” When one slips out this week, stop and replace it out loud: I’m a son — I’m a daughter — of the Most High God.
- Ask the question Keith gave the room. Sometime before Friday, put the phone down for ten quiet minutes and pray it plainly: “God, what do you want to say over my life this year?” Then actually leave space to listen. It might feel a little awkward. Stay anyway.
- Expect a new thing — on garden time. Isaiah 43 doesn’t promise an overnight transformation; Keith was clear that most of what God builds in us grows like planted seeds. Watch for the small green shoots of the new thing instead of demanding the whole harvest in week one.
Watch the full message
The full sermon — “The Narrative of My Life,” the opening message of the WORDS series — is in the video above. We post a new message every Sunday from New River Church in Franklin, TN. Browse our message library for more from the WORDS series and other recent teaching.
Coming Sunday at New River Church in Franklin, TN
If this message resonated and you’d like to experience worship and community in person, we’d love to have you with us. New River Church meets Sundays at 9:00 AM and 10:45 AM at 1153 Lewisburg Pike in Franklin, TN 37064 — just minutes from downtown Franklin and easy to reach from across Williamson County, Brentwood, and Spring Hill.
You don’t need to dress up. You don’t need a good voice. You don’t need to know much about church or the Bible to come. We’re a community of ordinary people walking through ordinary life, trying to do it together with Jesus at the center. Whether you’ve been a Christian for forty years or you’ve never set foot in a church, you are welcome here.
If you’re new to the area or new to faith, our First Time Guest page walks through everything you need to know before your first visit: parking, what to expect on Sunday morning, what your kids will experience in River Kids, and how to find us when you arrive.
If you’re looking for deeper community beyond Sunday morning, our Community Groups meet across Franklin and the surrounding area throughout the week. Groups are where Sunday morning faith becomes Tuesday afternoon real life.
Whatever you’re carrying right now, you don’t have to carry it alone. There’s a place for you at New River Church in Franklin, Tennessee. Come as you are.
Watch more sermons: newriverfranklin.com/messages Plan your visit: newriverfranklin.com/firsttimeguest Find a group: newriverfranklin.com/groups
📍 New River Church | 1153 Lewisburg Pike, Franklin, TN 37064 | Sundays 9:00 AM & 10:45 AM
