Sermons

As a new year begins, this passage deals with facing the reality of how quickly time passes and with thinking about how believers should live. It stresses why, rather than being swept along by the currents of the world and repeating our regrets, we must live each day according to the Word. It says that the new year God has given is a blessing for growth rather than regret, and that through it we can experience the wonderful miracle of lives being changed among the people we love.

Recalling the past, when the people of Israel served idols and grumbled in the wilderness, it notes that believers too easily fall into the temptation of grumbling and idolatry when they face problems. But it says that when we do not leave God's side and obey according to the Word, God himself fights for us and protects us. It stresses that, in a spiritual world that cannot be understood by worldly knowledge or human reason, God's perfect law restores the soul and makes us wise.

It asks us to seek not people's recognition or praise, but God's approval alone, in a one-to-one relationship with him. Through those who went before us in faith, like Noah and the apostle Paul, who obeyed God's commands in the face of people's mockery or indifference, it shows that salvation depends not on how people see us but on God's choosing and calling. Just as Abraham left his homeland for an unknown future, it says that a relationship in which believers trust God's promises and obey is the true blessing.

The sermon asks what believers must hold on to so that they are not shaken by how others see them, and become believers approved by God alone.