On this Eve of a New Year, we are gathered together to meditate on the goodness of our God during the past year and to pray for his grace for the future. As most years of our lives, this past one has likely been a year of joys and a year of sadness. There have been days when all has worked out well and days when it seems nothing could go right. We have laughed at times, cried at times, contemplated at times, and sometimes just sat back in wonder at life. Such is life in this imperfect world.

Yet in the midst of uncertainty we have turned again and again to the Lord our God who does not change. His Word has been our fortress and our Rock of refuge in all times. So as we approach the New Year tonight, we turn again to that Word – to its revelation and its promises. It helps us to know God better. It will direct our prayers. It will fill us with hope. It will remind us of the forgiveness which we have in Jesus for our failures. May the Lord bless our meditation and grant us a blessed New Year – connected with Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Tonight we gather together on the eve of a national election to carry out the Spirit’s words to us in 1 Timothy 2:1-4: I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Prayer before Worship: Heavenly Father, we gather together this evening to call on your name. You establish every earthly authority. You are in control of all things. We ask you to bless our country through the officials who will be elected. We also implore you to bless us with your Spirit as we worship so that we remember that in all things you are the ultimate source of all good things. Amen.

Live a life of Courageous Witness. Jesus repeatedly told His followers that living as His disciples would bring hardship. Living life according to God’s Law is going to make one appear odd in the eyes of the world, perhaps even evil. Sharing a message of mankind’s sin and God’s gracious salvation can cause offense. So why not just stay silent if that makes life easier? Why not keep our faith private? Answer: because we are going to live forever. In gratitude for Christ saving us and giving us eternal life, we share the Gospel with others, hoping that they will believe and be saved too. Since we know we are going to live forever in the perfection of heaven, we don’t worry if being a witness for Christ brings hardship or even death.

Martin Luther wanted to reform the false teaching of the church. He stood firm in the truth of the Gospel, knowing it might cost him his life. But Luther knew that, thanks to Christ, he would live forever. So will we. Therefore, like Luther, let us live a life of courageous witness.

“What’s in it for me?” It’s easy to look at life through the lens of that question, to make decisions based on perceived personal benefit. Perhaps at times we look at Christianity through that lens, wondering what we will gain from following Christ. “What’s in it for me?” Jesus’ first disciples asked that question. They hoped that following Christ would bring prestige and honor. They assumed following Christ would make life easier. But it doesn’t work like that. Followers of Christ are called to sacrifice for the well-being of others.

“What’s in it for me?” Everything! Because of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice, followers of Christ have the peace of His forgiveness. Followers of Christ have the joy of meaningful purpose. Followers of Christ look forward to an eternity of glory in Christ’s heavenly kingdom. In Spirit-wrought gratitude, followers of Christ make selfless sacrifices with joy.

Love can cause harm. Consider the wife whose husband wants little to do with church. She loves him and does not want to upset him. So, when her husband wants her and the children to stay home Sunday morning, she complies without protest. That wife’s love for her husband hurts him, her children, and herself. Or consider the father who loves his child so much that he gives the child everything that child asks for. That father’s love is toxic. It is shaping that child to be a selfish, entitled adult.

In our families, it is not enough that there is love. We need to rightly love, to love in a way that leads to blessings for those we claim to love. This illustrates the need for followership. In Jesus we see perfect, self-sacrificial love. Jesus loves us as we are. He also loved us too much to leave us as we are. So, in love he gave his life up so that we might be holy and blameless. His love for us shapes the way we love our spouse, our children, our parents. Today we see that followers of Christ know how to love their family.

A loving father gives his son and daughter a list of rules and regulations. Chores, curfews, civilities, dress code—the father makes his will clearly known. The son strives to follow the rules for two reasons. 1) He wants to get his allowance. 2) He is afraid that if he breaks the rules, his father will punish him. The daughter strives to follow the rules, also for two reasons. 1) She believes her father established those rules not to control her but for her safety and blessing. 2) She wants to demonstrate how much she loves and trusts her father. Those two children’s actions might look almost identical. Their hearts are very different!

Likewise, following Christ is not simply a matter of outward observance of laws. It is a matter of the heart. The Law was given so we could see God’s heart and demonstrate how his heart has affected our own. The followership Christ seeks flows from hearts that have been radically transformed by God’s law and gospel. Christ wants his followers to be less like the son described above, and more like the daughter. This week we see that followers of Christ obey his law from the heart.

If ministry involves serving others with love and compassion, you would think that people would respond only with glee and gratitude for the help they received. Sometimes, but not always. If you offer to help a family member who is having trouble paying his bills, he might be offended, wondering if you are implying that he is not a good provider. Likewise, if you try and share the gospel with someone, he might resent the message that he is a sinner in need of salvation. You are trying to minister to this man’s greatest need. Your intentions are loving. Yet he responds with rejection and resentment.

When our ministry efforts are met not with glee and gratitude but rejection and resentment, we are in good company. The prophets, apostles, and even Jesus himself all had those who responded negatively to their ministries. When that happens to us, it doesn’t mean our ministry is no longer meaningful. For if others do not appreciate our efforts to serve them, God still appreciates our efforts to serve him.

Most people fear death to some degree. Some fear death because they assume it is the end. Others fear death because they assume it isn’t the end at all, but that there is some sort of reckoning after death which might not go well for them. And have you seen what happens to a dead body? It is far from pretty. So, it is understandable that most people would fear death.

Not so for those to whom God has given a top-down faith. Christianity teaches that for God’s children, death is not discipline but deliverance. The living Lord gives Christians such a radically different view of death that they can have confidence to face death in their effort to give Christ glory. They understand that death does not cut us down, but only raises us up. Finally, the Christian has been given the top-down faith that believes Jesus can wake us from death as easily as we can wake a sleeping child from his nap.

Usually, a kingdom advances and is secured through things like military might or political force or worldly wealth. It can be tempting to believe the same holds true in the kingdom of God. Perhaps we think churches would flourish if we had the right rulers passing and enforcing the right laws. Or we believe that for a church to do good requires a robust budget. Political force. Worldly wealth. This way of thinking is breathtakingly wrong.

We need God to give us the top-down faith that grasps the fact that the kingdom of God advances in ways that are imperceptible. Through something that seems insignificant to most—the gospel—the King of kings establishes his reign in human hearts. Even Jesus himself taught that the gospel seems unimpressive, for He often compared the gospel to a tiny seed. Yet within a seed is hidden life. As the seed of the gospel is planted, the largest of all kingdoms grows.