Watch Night 2023

How To Start A New Journey

Psalm 37:5 “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” CSB

We we have come to the close of another year, and true to form, this year has impacted us all deeply. We have found ourselves living on both ends of the spectrum and all in between. We have succeeded and we have failed. We have gained and we have lost. We have experienced joy and we have experienced our share of sorrow. Nevertheless, we have all arrived at this point, the threshold of brand new day which in and of itself will give birth to a new year.

Out of all that we have endured this year, I can truly say that “It is good to be here!” I believe all of us should be able to attest that no matter what it looks like, no matter what it may feel like, it is still a blessing to be here. All of us can affirm some things; for one, we are still standing! We got some scares, some bruises, some bumps, some evidence that we’ve gone through some things, and even with all of that, we are still standing! Not just standing, but we are standing victoriously, confidently, standing with a deep since of gratitude in our hearts offering praise unto our God.

Whether you know it or not, this is a God-moment. This is a God-moment because for the last 365 days we have lived between the decisions we made and the circumstances life dealt us. Some things were in our power to control, but most of what happened in life was beyond our control and we simply had to rely on God to bring us out.

That’s why I say this is a God-moment! It is because of the Lord’s mercies that we were not completely overwhelmed, completely distracted, completely destroyed, his compassions were new every morning, Great is Thy Faithfulness! It’s a God-moment, and tonight just for being here, just for making it to this point, I dare you to erupt with praise and thanksgiving! This is an eruption of worship and praise because we are grateful, thankful, because we appreciate the blessings of a new day, a new beginning, a new start, and we magnify the One who brought us through! (Pause for a Praise Moment)

And even with all of that, we will find that as we cross the threshold of a new year, we still carry the residual effects of last year. It is true that we are crossing over into something new, but although we are entering into a level of newness, we carry with us some residue of what we have been through. We must realize that although we got through some things, does not mean we’ve gotten over everything. We may be pushing through, but the weight of that old issue is still weighing heavy upon us. We’ve come through it, but we haven’t gotten over it. Some are dealing with survivors remorse. Some folk who went through the same thing we encountered didn’t fare well, some didn’t make it, some are no longer in the game, but we are still standing, however we are standing with a sense of guilt all because we got through it, but the truth is we have not gotten over it.

You’ve survived the drama, but have not escaped the trauma. You’ve left the situation, but the residue, the scent is still on you. What is important to realize is that somehow you’ve got to work through that stuff, so you can move through this next phase of your life free, liberated, emancipated, focused and consecrated. You need to be as clear-minded and clear in perception as possible so that you won’t miss any opportunities.

No matter what you’ve gone through, one thing the anticipation of a new year does is it gives hope. It births new expectations. People all over begin to make new resolutions, new promises to themselves, and new commitments. They set new goals and objectives for themselves because our core belief system tells us each year we ought to do better, to be better. There is a cosmic principles at work in the universe that is this; each year should yield a level of productivity that exceeds the previous year. Our entire make-up, our psyche’, our rational, our emotions and our volitions, are all in alignment, all in agreement that this new year is going to somehow be better than the last year. I mean, we are here for it, ready for it, anticipating it, preparing for it, praying for it, and believing God for it.

We all clearly understand that we are about to embark upon a New Journey, a road not taken, and a path not yet traveled. And so I stand tonight, praise God, as I have stood for the last 29 years to share a word of hope, a word of inspiration, to give some biblical insight and principles that can guide us into another cycle of life that holds both many blessings and just as many challenging moments. And may I remind you of something? God is in them all!

I was reading the book of Ecclesiastes the other night and Solomon, the author, offers some candid wisdom by saying, enjoy your good days and give God some praise when you do, but remember when the difficult days come, God also made that day. In other words, whenever a new day dawns, God has given us that day be it sunshine or rain. so it’s still God’s day. And so as we embrace this New Journey, we have to do so knowing right away that God is already on board.

However, we need wisdom in order to properly and successfully navigate this new journey we are about to embark on. A lot of things are going to happen next year, just like they did this year. You are going to need some Godly wisdom for your journey to help you process all that has happened.

You see, there are so many here with plans. Plans for businesses, plans for marriage, plans for relocation, plans for career shifts, plans for ministry, plans for personal growth and development…just a lot of plans in this room. And then there are the plethora, myriad of occurrences that we are not planning for that will also happen. Those are the unforeseen, the unpredictables, the unexpected, the didn’t see it coming kind of activities, all of that is going to happen in the next year. Births and deaths, loves and hates, gains and losses, folks walking out of your lives, and new folk walking into your lives, I mean, the full circle of life. Some may fine yourselves in the fight for your lives. Others may find themselves fighting for job security, income security, or housing. Others may find themselves swimming in the overflow of abundance. It could go either way. And in order to handle it properly be it failure or success, good times or bad, we need wisdom.

Now for sure, we need information. We need intel. We need to know what, when, why, where, how and who. We need to know stuff, simply because information is key, plus inquiring minds want to know. We also need inspiration for the journey. We all need to feel inspired, lifted, motivated, towards the new next. We need our quotes, our verbiage, our hashtags and our handles, we need our t-shirts and our slogans, we need our themes to thrust us into the next phase of our lives. However, information and inspiration is not enough because life will deal you some rough blows and we will encounter some things that we are neither informed about or inspired towards. When that happens, we need wisdom in order to prevail.

For us tonight, we will get our wisdom from the reigning #1 world-wide Best Seller of all times, according to the Guinness World Book of Records, the Holy Bible. Not only is the Holy Bible still the reigning champion as the #1 book worldwide, but the bible is also the reigning champion as the most widely read book in the world. Imagine that! With all the foolishness going on in our world, more people turn to the bible for wisdom and instruction than any other book in the world. Now if people in secular society are turning to the bible for wisdom, what do you think people of faith ought be doing?

So let’s look at the bible tonight and see if we can get some directives to guide us as be Begin this New Journey. As we do so, it is the goal of this message that everyone will simply do the three things I’m going to talk about. That is the behavioral aim. In fact, each point is a behavioral aim. So at the end of the day, if you just put all three point together and do them, then you will fulfil the behavioral aim of the message.

So tonight our wisdom comes from the book of Psalm, Psalm 37:5 “Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will act.” Another version says, “Commit your way to God, Trust also in Him and watch Him act.” This is a Psalm of David who was well acquainted with living an unpredictable life. The paths that David walked, the twists and turns in his life, serve as the backdrop for this particular Psalm. It is a Psalm that encourages the reader not to become overwhelmed with worry, anger, frustration and bitterness because of evil doers. Instead, this Psalm strongly admonishes the reader to rely totally upon God for sustainable success. That’s what I want us to do this year, to rely totally on God for sustainable success. I suppose this could server as the behavioral aim for this message.

Three directives tonight to launch us on our New Journey. First, “Commit your way to the Lord.” That’s it! Commit your way to God. I want to start by echoing the word of scripture. All your plans, all your thoughts, all of your hopes and dreams, whatever you are cooking up in your mind, whatever you are scheming and plotting, planning and preparing, your first step is to commit all of that to the Lord.

Now to commit means to place whatever you are thinking about doing into the capable hands of Almighty God. It suggest that you entrust God with your agendas, your ambitions, your goals and objectives, your wish list, your to do lists, your hearts desires, everything that in kind of way will shape how your live out your life in the next year, start out right now by surrendering it to God.

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not lean toward your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will straighten your paths.” In all of your ways, acknowledge God. That happens when you commit your ways to the Lord, you are acknowledging God, you are actually agreeing that God has the last say over your life, God is the one who orders your steps, God knows the plans he has for you, plans to give you a hope, a future, and an expected end. That is why the scriptures teach us that before we get started, before we jump into something we have no control over, commit this thing to God! Old school says, “put it in the hands of the Lord.” Pray about it, fast if you have to, sit before the Lord and wait on God’s timing.

Secondly, after you have committed it all to the Lord, “Trust in God.” These are so simple until we make it difficult. But the second pillar of truth in this text is simply “Trust Him.” You see the basic principle of committing one’s future to the Lord is based upon our willingness and ability to simply trust God. To trust means to place one’s full confidence in the God of our faith. It means to have full assurance that whatever I commit unto the Lord, he is able to keep it and complete. It also means that I believe in the principle that if God begins the good work in me, God is able to complete it.

In full confidence, Paul prayed, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all we can ask or think according to the power that works in us.” (Eph. 3:20) Paul also encourages us by saying, “Faithful is He who call you, he will also do it.” (1 Thess. 5:24) All of this alludes to the fact that once you commit something to God, you have to trust God’s process. Now I will be the first to say that we do not always understand God’s process. We don’t understand what God allows, what God does not allow, how God directs, and how God redirects. God’s ways are not our ways and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and we learn this in the process.

Story is told that this country preacher was walking through the woods admiring nature. He didn’t realize that he was walking close to the edge of a cliff. As he walked he was gazing upward instead of watching where he feet were stepping. Suddenly, he stepped off the cliff and found himself falling. Somehow he managed to catch hold of a branch to which he held on for dear life. While holding on, he was screaming and hollering for help. He was panic and understandably fearing for his life. And then he said to himself, “this is disgraceful. I am a man of God and I shouldn’t be acting like this. I trust God.”

And then he look up and said, “Well, you up there?” to which God replied, “Yes! I’m here.” What you gonna do? the man said. God asked him, “Do you trust me?” “Yes I trust you” the man said. Then God said, “Let go of the branch.” The man said, “Say What?” “Let go of the branch.” The man looked at his hand gripping that branch, looked at the distance he had to fall, looked back up and said, “Is there anybody else up there?”

You see, he didn’t trust the process! And that’s how we are. When God tells us to let go and trust him, we struggle because we don’t like the process. But the process is crucial to your growth and development.

Process involves everything God allows to happen while you are on your journey. It means you have to trust what God allows, even if and when it does not fit into your scheme of things. As we do this, we have to become fully persuaded that God knows our end from the our beginning and everything in between. We have to give way to God’s sovereignty and submit to God’s will. One author reminds us that “achieving excellence is a continuous process and not an accident.”

Joseph was destine to be a ruler, but he had to go through a process. David was anointed to be king, but he had to go through a process. Esther was chosen to become queen and to be in the kingdom for an appointed time, but she too had to go through a process. And as we commit our plans to God and trust him, we too will go through a process. Processes mature us, develop us, purge us, reveals to us, shapes us, seasons us…we’ve got to go through a process and we’ve got to trust God!

So the first thing we must do is commit you way to the Lord, trust God, and lastly, watch God act. David said, commit you way to the Lord, trust God and God will act! You see there are some things in life that will only happen when God acts. Worry won’t cause movement, anger will not get the results you want, networking may not get the results you desire, and that is because some things requires God to act.

When you are faced with impossibilities, God must act. When doors are closing all around you, God must act. When options are few to none, God must act. When you are out of options, God must act! When your output is more than your income, and your upkeep becomes your downfall, God must act. When you hit a turbulent patch in life and it seem as if you are about to crash and burn, God must act!

The scriptures says, God will act, God will move, God will step in, God will turn it around, God will speak, God will declare, God will decree, God will…that’s all we need to know, God will! When Abraham was tested to offer his only son Isaac as a sacrifice unto the Lord, Abraham trusted in the promise of God that his seed or his descendants would outnumber he stars in the sky and the sand on the beach, and with full confidence, he took Isaac up to the place where the sacrifice was to be made. Isaac being keenly aware of how it works said, “I see the wood, and I see the matches for the fire, but I don’t see the sacrifice,” to which Abraham responded, the Lord Will provide himself a sacrifice.

Pauls encouragement to the saints who gave of their time, talent, and treasure to benefit the kingdom, is that when you sow, you will reap for the Lord WILL supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Even our ancestors taught us that when there is no way, the God we serve WILL make away! All I am trying to say is that when you commit your plans to God and trust God in the process, the Great God of the Bible will act; may not act according to our design, but God will act according to God’s will and when that happens, things will work out for our good. And is there anybody here on a New Years eve, that know that you know that you know that God will act? Is there a witness? Have you seen God work? God’s the same, yesterday, today and forever more; and if God did it before, God can do it again!

Tell somebody, “God can do it again!”