Monday, January 2, 2017

December 31, 2016 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude “GLORIFY YOUR NAME!”


NEW YEAR’S EVE

December 31, 2016

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude



“GLORIFY YOUR NAME!”

1.     Can a child presume to choose?

2.     Can a Father’s love refuse?

3.     This alone shall be my prayer!



Have you ever had it happen that you get a song just stuck in your head, you keep coming back to it? Maybe you have some Christmas ones there right now. Well for the past year I’ve had the hymn we just sang stuck in my head. We sang it as the opening hymn for New Year’s Eve last year and the words, the meaning, the closing phrase just kept coming back to me. Glorify your name! What an honorable motto for us Christians to have stuck in our heads! Indulge me then as we use the hymn “Father, Let me Dedicate,” as our sermon text today.

Verse two begins, “Can a child presume to choose, where or how to live?” And now every parent here goes, “Bah! Yes, they can and do!”  Oftentimes against the advice and rules of parents children will presume that they know better than their parents. They will do their own thing. Yes a child can presume to choose where and how to live. But they shouldn’t, should we? You see the child alluded to in our hymn is not my child or your child but every child of God. Us!

Can we, have we presumed where and how to live? The sad answer is “Yes.” As we look back at 2016 we can all remember some of the times we presumed how to live. Our normal word for that is sin. We the children, told the Father, we knew best. He said, “Do not covet. Be content.” But we presumed to know better. We were dissatisfied. We let our eyes wander. The Father said, “Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,” but we presumed to know better. We talked how we wanted, perhaps with foul words to fit in, or stinging words to hurt. Father said, “Respect, obey, honor the authorities I put over you,” and again we knew better than Him. We had the right because they were wrong.

So what do you think our chances are for 2017 of fully following the Father? When after Communion we commit in our hearts to following what God says, of turning away from this sin or that one that we continually fight in our weakness, will we really be able to do it? Sometimes the answer is “Yes.” With the help of the Lord we can cut off and out of our lives some sins. Then others pop up. How can we glorify God’s name with our sin? Listen to a portion of God’s word from Joshua 7:19. “Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give him praise. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.”

Some of you may recognize that verse from a portion of the story of the conquest of the Promised Land. When God led the Israelites to the Promised Land, their new home, the first time they refused to go in and conquer it. They did not trust God to keep His promise to fight for them. They presumed where and how to live. Their consequence for that sin was wandering around in the desert for 40 years. Moses died. God put General Joshua is in charge and told them to take the land. He would fight for them. The first test of their trust was the great city of Jericho with insurmountable walls. God made Jericho’s impregnable walls pregnable as they fell at His command. God’s command to the Israelites was that they devote everything in the city to the Lord, take nothing for themselves. But a certain child of God named Achan presumed to choose how to live and took some of the plunder of Jericho for himself. He tried to hide his sin. It did not work. Joshua told Achan how he could glorify God’s name after his sin. Confess it.

That’s what we can do in 2017. Our chances of living a sin free 2017 are exactly 0. We are going to fall into sin sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes out of weakness. Sometimes we’ll go running and screaming toward it like we are taking a polar bear plunge! Glorify God’s name. When He lets you know through your conscience or the voice of the Spirit in His word or through a truly loving friend or parent don’t pull an Achan and try to deny or hide. Give glory to God. Glorify His name and freely admit your sin.

Then what. Our theme hymn goes on to say in verse two, “Can a father’s love refuse all the best to give?” Now some who are children here are saying, “Yes, yes they do!” Some are nodding to that to tease their dad who while he is not perfect tries to do his best. Some sadly have experienced a human father who was not just a poor imitation of our heavenly Father, but no imitation at all. An earthly father’s love is supposed to lead him to provide the best for his children. Earthly fathers can’t always do that.

But the heavenly Father can and does. Listen to a portion of God’s word from John 12:23-24.  Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” Jesus spoke these words during Holy Week. He was going to be glorified. How? By His death. He used an interesting picture. For a kernel of wheat to give life it must die. But then it gives life to many. That’s our Lord Jesus. Can a Father’s love refuse all the best to give? Not when it’s the heavenly Father we are talking about. In His great love for us He gave His best, Jesus. Jesus was glorified as the Savior of the world. By His death He gave us life. Our Father gave us His best and His giving continues.

In Romans 8:32 we read, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” It’s simply heavenly logic. Since God has already given us the best in His own Son Jesus we can count on Him to give us all the rest of the things we need as well. Our hymn writer penned those truths. “Not from sorrow, pain or care, freedom dare I claim.” Sometimes God graciously gives us sorrow, pains and cares because they are good for us. They make or keep us God dependent. They help us let go something we are holding on to too tightly. They make us stronger or purer. Again to our hymn.  ”If in mercy you prolong, joys that now are mine, if on life serene and fair brighter rays may shine, let my glad heart while it sings, you in all proclaim and whate’er the future brings, Glorify your name. If you have for me a cross and its shadow come, turning all my gain to loss, shrouding heart and home, let me think you your dear Son to his glory came and in deepest woe pray on, Glorify your name.” In meaningful words the hymn writer sums up 2017. Our God may pour into our lives all the things that have brought joy so far and many more. He may have a hard road for us to walk just as He let Jesus walk a hard road. No matter what we can glorify God’s name by continuing to trust when things are hard and acknowledging the source when things go well. Glorify your name.

The final phrase that kept running through my head comes from the last part of the first verse. “This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify your name.” Now I don’t know about you but I can say for myself that I did a lot of praying in 2016. I can’t say that my only prayer was “Glorify your name!” There were some “Thank you”s and “I’m sorrys” and a lot of “Helps!” I suspect my prayer life in 2017 will sound similar. And I don’t think the hymn writer meant that “Glorify your name” would be the only prayer prayed but would be the desired year long attitude. What a great resolution to take into our new year. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16) The Apostle Paul reminded us, “So whether you eat, drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) With every decision we make we can glorify the Lord, from what we eat and drink or refuse to, how we dress and won’t. The words we choose to use and refuse to use. All of them are opportunities to glorify God’s name. Look for them in 2017.

That’s why I hope the words of this hymn continue to stick in my head. They serve as a great reminder of why I am still here and so are you, to give glory to God. One added bonus for 2016. I recently learned there is going to be an extra second tonight. To keep up with the slowing of the earth’s rotation the official time keepers have added one second to the last minute of 2016. Any ideas on what to do with it? Glorify God’s name! Amen.

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