Display post/page in sidebar

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Template_Tags/get_posts
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Function_Reference/WP_Query

I’m sorry but I’m not sure how this would work to display a specific post or page. I could see how this would get a list of posts in a category, but I’d like to only show 1 post all the time. What would I need to add to sidebar.php? This is the first time I’ve really messed with anything like this before. Thanks for replying so quick too!
<?php get_posts( $args ); ?>

@esmi, thanks so much for replying, but I’m so confused by this. I’ve read both pages multiple times and I think I learned a little, but what I’ve attempted has not worked. I am placing this in my sidebar.php file and this makes my sidebar disappear.

<?php get_posts( $query = new WP_Query( 'name=todays-specials' ); ?>

You use the same queries and some form of the Loop to display posts whether it’s one post or 100 posts.

Any idea if I’m doing this right and why it’s not working? Seems as though I have the code right, but I’m not sure if that goes in sidebar.php to display in the sidebar or where it should go?

Also tried <?php get_posts( $query = new WP_Query( 'pagename=todays-specials' ); ?> in sidebar.php and the sidebar is still blank. No background color or anything. Please help! Address is here

Either use get_posts or WP_Query – not both!

Ok, so it should be <?php $query = new WP_Query( 'page_id=38' ); ?> or $query = new WP_Query( 'page_id=38' );? I also tried the get_posts to no avail. Can you be more specific? I really appreciate the help. This is all I have in my sidebar:

<div id="sidebar">
<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar('Sidebar-Main') ) { ?>

<?php get_posts( 'pagename=todays-specials' );?>

<?php } ?>
</div>

<?php
$args = array(
	'page_id' => 38,
	'posts_per_page' => 1
);
$my_pages = get_posts( $args );
foreach($my_pages as $post) : setup_postdata($post); ?>
<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
<?php the_content(); ?>
<?php endforeach;
wp_reset_query();?>

OMG, I was not even close to getting this to work… I can’t thank you enough. This is by far the most complicated thing I’ve attempted and I’m still a little unclear as to how it works but I will keep learning and now I have an awesome example to follow. Thanks a ton!

No problem. Once you can understand get_posts, you’ll be able to move onto WP_Query which is even more powerful.

How would I change this to display a page instead of a post? Page ID=41 so I tried to change that and now nothing is displayed.

Change 'page_id' => 38, to 'page_id' => 41,

Right, that’s what I did and nothing was displayed. It isn’t working correctly. I tried various page_id and none work. I thought it was as simple as changing IDs but does something else need to change too?

If you just want another Page, nothing else needs to change.