On The Threshold Of A New Year

On the Threshold of a New Year

December 30, 2007 Morning Service

Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK

Rick Boyne

Message Point: We don’t have to be afraid of the future when we have Jesus leading us.

Focus Passage: Numbers 14:1-10

Supplemental Passage: Jeremiah 29:11 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

Introduction:

Theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it an impossibility--a development which we should waste little time dreaming about. Lee de Forest, 1926, inventor of the cathode ray tube.

I think there is a world market for about five computers. Thomas J. Watson, 1943, Chairman of the Board of IBM.

We don't think the Beatles will do anything in their market. Guitar groups are on their way out.

Recording company expert, 1962.

I. We Can be Frightened by the Future

a. Ten of the 12 reported “facts” that scared the people. They looked at the situation.

b. We are tempted to go back to the fondness of days gone by.

c. (Story about the “Good Ole Days Weren’t So Good”.)

II. We Can Embrace the Future

a. Joshua and Caleb pointed out facts that couldn’t be ignored: They looked at the potential.

i. The land would give them the opportunity to flourish as God’s people.

ii. God would go with them to give them the land.

b. Taking the land was an act of obedience; shrinking from it was disobedience.

c. Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. Corrie Ten Boom.

Invitation: During his 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy often closed his speeches with the story of Colonel Davenport, the Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives.

One day in 1789, the sky of Hartford darkened ominously, and some of the representatives, glancing out the windows, feared the end was at hand. Quelling a clamor for immediate adjournment, Davenport rose and said, "The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore, I wish that candles be brought."

Rather than fearing what is to come, we are to be faithful till Christ returns. Instead of fearing the dark, we're to be lights as we watch and wait.

Perhaps you are afraid of the future because you are looking at the situation instead of the potential. If you are in obedience to God, there is nothing to fear. If you aren’t trusting the Lord, then the future will seem scary. “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge the Lord, and He will make your paths straight.”

Another year is dawning,

Dear Father let it be,

In working or in waiting,

Another year with thee.

Another year of progress,

Another year of praise,

Another year of proving

Thy presence all the days.

Another year of mercies,

Of faithfulness and grace,

Another year of gladness,

The glory of thy face.

Another year of leaning

Upon thy loving breast,

Another year of trusting,

Of quiet, happy rest.

Another year of service,

Of witness for thy love,

Another year of training

For holier work above.

Another year is dawning,

Dear Father, let it be,

On earth, or else in heaven,

Another year for thee.

Frances R. Havergal