Sermon

December 31, 2006
New Year's Eve
Psalms 121:1-2
Pastor Joel Zank

Proceed with Confidence!

(Psalms 121:1-2) I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from? {2} My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

In Christ Jesus who is always the same, yesterday, today and forever, dear fellow Redeemed,

Have you ever driven into some unfamiliar city and gotten lost? It has happened to me. Oh, I would never admit it at the time. Instead, I usually tell my wife that it's just taking me a minute or two to get my bearings. But by the fifth time we've passed the same landmark, there's no convincing her otherwise. "We're lost!" she announces in a very official sounding tone, and of course I know what she's going to say next: "You need to pull over and ask for directions." Oh that hurts. I know she's right, but to have to ask for directions. You see, I pride myself in being able to find my own way. But experience has taught me that pride's a funny thing. You get yourself lost a couple of times, and pretty soon your pride starts running out and your confidence too! Before long, you're not sure of anything anymore. You don't know if you should go to the right or the left, if you should go backwards or forwards.

Maybe you're feeling that way this evening. Here we are cruising down the expressway of life, headed into an unfamiliar place in time. I suppose that's true every night, but there's just something about New Year's Eve, something about crossing over the dateline into a brand new year that leaves you with a feeling of uncertainty. If you're like me, you start wondering about the days ahead and what they will bring. Will 2007 find you traveling the highway of happiness or heartache? You sure wouldn't want to make a wrong turn would you! Maybe we should stop and get some directions before we go any farther. Let's check in with the psalmist who has been down this road. He tells us just what we need to hear: "Proceed with confidence!" he says. And how do we do that? Well, to begin with we will want to look up, not down, and secondly we will want to look back, then ahead.

First, look up, not down. This piece of advice is taken directly from the psalmist's own example: "I lift up my eyes to the hills," he writes. Looking up does not come naturally to us sinners. We tend to look down at our own abilities and what they can do for us. We've been doing that ever since we were little. Just offer to help a four year old tie his shoes and before you can even bend down, he takes a step backwards and pouts, "I can do it myself." Or try offering a piece of advice to a teenager and see how quickly she tells you, "Leave me alone. I know what I'm doing." And it's no different when we get older. When someone suggests a new or better way of doing something, we're quick to tell them: "I don't do it like that. My way works just fine." Of course, that may be true. There isn't anything wrong with being independent, until in our pride, we boast of and rely on abilities that we simply don't have. That's when pride becomes sinful and dangerous.

Maybe you've been guilty of such pride during this past year. Maybe instead of looking up for help, you flirted with some temptation to sin, thinking you'd have the willpower and strength to stop before things got out of hand. But you didn't, and so they did get out of hand. The sin proved too strong, and now you can't get away from its guilt or its power. No wonder you're not looking forward to the New Year, not if it means battling this same old demon for the next twelve months.

Or maybe it wasn't a temptation, maybe it was some trouble in your family, some problem at work, some health or financial worry, some burden or another that you have insisted on carrying all by yourself. You're all worn out. You don't feel like you can last another day, let alone another year, but you'll go right on trying won't you - that's the way it is with sinful pride.

And who should care? If you're willing to cart around the weight of your worries and the shame of your sin, that's your problem, right? It certainly is, but maybe you're not grasping the depth of that problem. You see, when pride keeps us from taking our burdens to God, there's nothing he can do for us, not now, not ever. Sinners who arrive at God's Judgment seat proudly bearing their own guilt, will suffer their own hell forever. That's when the real misery begins. Pride will be their eternal undoing! But friends, there's no need for any of us to come to such a fate.

Look up, this evening, not down. Look up to him who knows and sees all things. Put away your pride; bare your soul to God. Acknowledge your sin before him, the blatant sins that have proven so hurtful to you and others; and not just those sins, confess your secret sins too, the ones you've tried to cover up and hide in your heart. Bring all your sins to God in repentance, knowing that there is nothing else to do with them except to perish in them. Look up and ask with the psalmist, "Where does my help come from?" And then by faith say with him, "My help comes from the LORD!"

The LORD Jehovah is the God of free and faithful love. He built his temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. So when the psalmist lifted his eyes to the hills, that's what he saw, the Holy Place from which God proclaimed his love for sinners and his plan to save them. That temple is, of course, long gone, but the promises God made there are not. They are promises God kept on another hill called Calvary. Sinner, lift your eyes to that hill. Your help comes from the LORD who took your place on the altar of the cross. That shame and guilt you've been carrying around with you, they're no longer yours. Jesus claimed them from you long ago and paid for them all in your place; even your sinful pride became his to pay for in the fires of hell. You want more assurance? Lift your eyes tonight to the bread and wine of our Lord's Holy Supper. See in, with, and under these earthly elements the precious body and blood that set you free from sin's curse. There's no guilt or fear for you to carry into the New Year. The Lord is with you to forgive all your sins. Proceed with confidence! Look up, not down. And while you're at it, look back, then ahead.

"Where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth!" The psalmist looked back, all the way to creation. Why would he do that? Creation is a constant reminder of God's wisdom, power and love. With nothing more than his word, God formed the whole universe, made it all just for you as he had planned to from all eternity. With such tremendous power at the command of his wisdom, and with such love directing all that wisdom and power on your behalf, what is it that you should be afraid of? What could happen in this world, what could come your way that God would fail to know about, take charge of and make into a blessing for you? Do you really suppose he who crushed Satan for you, lacks the power and love to keep you save from that defeated foe?

On the surface, these questions seem like they should be easy to answer. But late at night, when you're alone with your thoughts, it's a different story, isn't it? These are the questions that keep you awake when you're trying to sleep. These are the questions that make it hard to enter a New Year:" What will become of me and my loved ones in the months ahead? You and I have no answer to that question, until we put them into the context of our lives in Christ.

Instead of looking ahead in fear, look back to the year now drawing to a close. Ask yourself, "Were there no enjoyable days in 2006? Were there no moments of meaningful love shared with those dear to you? Were there no accomplishments or successes?" Of course there were? Well, then, where did these come from? All these things and more were gifts from the Lord of your salvation, the one who made heaven and earth for you. In his love, he'll grant more days like these in 2007. Sure he will. "BUT...", we'll be quick to add, "...there were some hard days this last year, awful days, sad days when the load of pain and trouble seemed too heavy to bear." Yes there were days like that. But these days also teach us something about our future. Tell me, those problems we fretted over, where are they now? In all honesty some of them never materialized. How often we worried over nothing at all. Other troubles did come, but now, they're long gone, lifted by the loving hand of an almighty God. And yes, some of the problems are still with us, but these give us reason to say, "Thus far the LORD has helped us" (1 Samuel 7:12). Here we are as living proof. God has been seeing us through the trouble, and more than that, he's been using it to help us grow as his people.

Friends, God never changes. What he's done for us in the past he will continue to do for us in the days and months ahead. Our loving Lord will be with us in every situation of life. I like how the psalmist put it in Psalm 37:25 "I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread." When it comes to God, past blessings really are a guarantee of future security. Proceed, then, with confidence, dear Christians, into 2007. You won't get lost! Look up in faith, not down in pride; look back in gratefulness, and then ahead in anticipation of all the blessings that await you in the year ahead, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

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