Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2006 : December 31, 2006

Theme: The Headline of the Year

Church year occasion: New Year's Eve

2006 is almost in the history books. For some of us, 2006 completely changed our lives; for others, 2006 was kind of a "nothing" year because not much happened. So what was memorable about this year? Sometimes you can just name the year and almost everyone can think of the same thing that happened in that year. If I said 1492, what main thing would come to mind? (Columbus discovers America) How about 1776? (the Declaration of Independence) How about something more modern, like 1945? (end of WW2) How about 1963? (Kennedy's assassination) How about 2001? (World Trade Center disaster) But what made 2006 memorable? If you could choose one headline that summarizes what this year meant to you, what would it be? The War against Terror continued -- Al Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq, was killed and Saddam Hussein himself was just hanged, but the war is increasingly difficult as the insurgency grows. The U.S. Congress changed hands in mid-term elections. The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, is killed by a stingray. Several school shootings, especially one in Amish country. These things will go down in the history books as the main things that happened in 2006.

Did you notice something about the majority of the headlines? Many involved something very negative -- death. Some loved ones that we know entered 2006 but didn't live to see the end of it, at least not in this world. And that can get us pretty depressed, until we see the most important headline for 2006 that should have been on the front page of every newspaper every day of the year, but wasn't. Even if 2006 will be for you the absolute worst year you've ever lived on this planet, this one headline will change all that. The one who tells us that headline is the prophet Jeremiah. You might think it's strange that someone who lived over 2500 years ago could predict the headline of the year for 2006 in the book of Lamentations, but it's right there in the words before us. By the end of the sermon, we'll see if Jeremiah's headline of the year and your headline of the year are the same.

Those who grow wines classify different years or vintages as being poor, good or excellent. We do the same thing with our years. Would you classify 2006 as a good year or as a bad year? Suppose you just had the worst year in your life. You can't even think how any year in the future could get worse. Well, as bad as this past year may have been, Jeremiah talks about really his whole life that saw one tragedy after another. Jeremiah, as some of you may know, is known as the weeping prophet because he faithfully proclaimed God's Word for over 40 years, but had very little "success" because many simply didn't listen to him. One king burned the scroll he wrote; he was thrown into cisterns with mud in the bottom and left to die. He proclaimed a very unpopular message -- the Babylonians were going to destroy the temple, the entire city of Jerusalem and carry off the Jews to Babylon if they didn't repent. Barely anyone listened. He was openly mocked and mistreated. People from his own hometown plotted to kill him. Then he had to witness the siege of Jerusalem that got so bad that, when their children died, mothers would have to revert to cannibalism to survive. And finally he saw Jerusalem destroyed along with the temple, the place where God chose to put his name. Most of that happened in one year, 586 B.C., the year that Jerusalem was destroyed. It was obviously a very terrible year for Jeremiah and all of God's people. With everyone else against him, he sometimes even felt that God was against him. He describes God's actions toward him in the verses before our text: "Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows." (Lamentations 3:10-12) Depression and loneliness and dejection were Jeremiah's closest companions for his past year and his whole life.

But then he comes to our text: "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail." (Lamentations 3:21-22) Even after everything that had gone wrong for Jeremiah in that year of 586 B.C. and during his entire life, he still had hope, because God's compassions never fail.

Have you had a bad year in 2006? Who can we blame for what didn't go right? If a loved one dies, it might feel like someone just ripped your heart out and put despair in its place. Something terrible happened that you had no control over, and now you have to live with it for the rest of your life. Where does the blame belong for all these things that make our lives miserable? Not with God, but with us. It is the result of sin. Death is the wages of sin. Thorns and thistles infested the ground when man sinned. "Ruin and misery mark the sinner's way," say Isaiah and the Apostle Paul. If we had a terrible year, it is because we are sinners, rebels against God by nature, who live in a depraved and sinful world.

But what if you had a pretty good year? Did you do everything the Lord wanted you to do this past year? Did you promise that you would be more faithful and you would attend Bible class this year to grow in faith? Did you promise that you would have home devotions every night? Did all those things happen, so you can stand before God on your own merits and say, "I have done everything God wanted for me to do this past year. I have nothing to hide. And I always gave God credit and thanks and gave to missions in a godly way and helped use my talents at church every way I could so his name could reach more people"? You can probably see my point. No matter if this past year was a good one or a bad one by your standards, you went into it a sinner, and you have come out of it a sinner who deserves nothing from God but punishment for your sins. As much as you may have promised to make 2006 a great year, and even if it did turn out to be a great year, you didn't stand up to God's standard for great years, because then you would have had to be perfect. But you're not perfect; you are a sinner. How many promises have you broken this past year? How many friends did you betray? How many people did you fail to help when they needed it? How many times were you too wrapped up in you to notice how other people needed you -- your spouse, your kids, your friends, your neighbor who doesn't know Jesus? Suddenly 2006 doesn't look too good for good headlines.

But that's when God steps into the picture. Every time you sinned in 2006, every time you were unfaithful to God, God remained faithful -- "his compassions never fail." That is why we can rejoice in God's words to us through Isaiah, "Even though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Jesus, God's Son, did do everything that he planned to do when he came to this earth. He was the one God had promised, and finally God sent him. Jesus promised to live your life for you under God's scrutinizing and judging eye, and he did. Jesus promised that by his wounds, by his suffering and death, you would be healed of all your sins. And that is exactly what Jesus did. "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed." You might think of all those pictures of throwing dead trees and plants into the fire because they aren't producing any fruit. The fire of God's wrath should consume you and me because we are dead in sin by nature. But you are not consumed by God's anger against sin. Jesus was. He suffered hell for you. And Jesus then rose to assure us that his saving work was finished. His compassions never fail. That is why, when Jesus died on the cross, we can say that the greatest headline was written for all to see: FORGIVEN! In all capital letters. That was the greatest headline ever written because God's forgiveness never fails.

But Jeremiah has more to say. Not only do God's compassions never fail, but "they are new every morning." Imagine if you got a newspaper every morning that had the same headline. It would get pretty old pretty quick, right? Notice how tired people are of the president's approval rating or the violence in Iraq. But now think of the good news of the gospel -- your sins are FORGIVEN through faith in Christ. Jeremiah says that wasn't just the main headline in the year Jesus died and rose again, but FORGIVEN! is the main headline today as well -- every day. The message of forgiveness is new every morning. No matter what sin you are struggling to put behind you -- it's already been forgiven in Jesus' blood. That means that even though we know that we have committed a sin, as grievous as it is, God has forgiven that sin in Christ, and every other sin as well. The forgiveness of your sins is just as good today as if Jesus died today to forgive them. You receive assurance of that fact in the Lord's Supper when you receive the very body and blood that Jesus sacrificed on the cross. FORGIVEN!

That headline of the year also gives you hope and gets you through the worst years of suffering in this world, and when you deal with grief that never seems to go away. FORGIVEN! means that your God is with you every step of the way into the new year as he has been in the past. FORGIVEN! means that you will one day be reunited with your loved one who died in the Lord. FORGIVEN! means that one day you will leave this veil of tears and live forever in heaven, where FORGIVEN! will still be the biggest news of the day, each day, throughout eternity.

Jeremiah, even though he was going through a terrible year and a terrible life, could still draw comfort every day from the greatest headline which reads, FORGIVEN! And so do we.

So, were you right? Did your greatest headline of 2006 match Jeremiah's who predicted it long ago? Even if it didn't, can you guess what will be the greatest headline of 2007? The same thing -- FORGIVEN! As we are about to put down the pen in writing the chapter of history that is AD 2006 and are about to pick up the pen and record the events of AD 2007, let the greatest headline of the past year guide you as you live the next year, as you remember that his compassions never fail, and they are brand new every morning. Amen.