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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