Where Faith and Uncertainty Meet in 2024

New Year’s Message 2024

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

Dec. 31, 2024

Where Faith and Uncertainty Meet in 2024

As we stand on the brink of 2024 we stand on the brink of the unknown, and the uncertain. Will the economy improve or will there be a recession? Will companies be hiring or laying off? Will the election be between Trump and Biden or will there be some surprises up ahead?

Personally, none of us can know what 2024 holds for us. There is always uncertainty in life. And for the Christian, there are things we can be certain of. We can be certain God will be faithful. With us. There will be new mercies every morning. Jesus sits on the throne. We can’t see these things with our eyes but we can see them with eyes of faith.

As we stand once again at the intersection of a year going out and a year coming in, I want us to stand at the intersection where what we’re certain of and what we’re not meet. I’ve entitled this message: Where Faith and Uncertainty Meet. I want us to go to Acts 20 to a moment when the Apostle Paul stood at the intersection of the known and the unknown.

¹⁷ Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.¹⁸ And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, ¹⁹ serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; ²⁰ how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, ²¹ testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ²² And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, ²³ except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.Acts 20:17-38 (pray)

Two points about faith and uncertainty that we can glean from this emotional farewell.

1. Embrace the uncertainty of 2024 with faith!

Paul was standing on the brink of uncertainty – he’s going to Jerusalem, not knowing what awaits him there. Paul had his plans and he knew he was being led by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem but he didn’t know what was going to happen once he got there.

That’s how life is - a lot of going not knowing. No matter how what we do, there’s no way to remove uncertainty from our lives. Some people try to remove uncertainty from their lives by planning. Planning is a good thing and the Bible encourages us to plan, but plans don’t remove uncertainty because unexpected things can throw a monkey wrench in our plans. Some try to remove uncertainty by trying to control everything around them, including people. Controlling people are often (not always) motivated by fear. They feel safe when they are in control. The problem is, life can’t be 100% controlled. People can’t be – and shouldn’t be – controlled. Controlling people are often frustrated, fearful, or angry because they’re basing their sense of well-being on an impossibility.

Another way we can try to remove uncertainty is to avoid the new and the unknown. We say no to new opportunities because there’s always a risk in doing new things, meeting new people, or taking new

paths and risk and certainty don’t go together.

God invites us to face the uncertainty with faith. Going not knowing. Oswald Chambers believes that’s a mark of the spiritual life.

Certainty is the mark of the common-sense life: gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness, it should be rather an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. Oswald Chambers

Uncertain of the next step, but certain of God. Faith isn’t trusting the step, it’s trusting God. Paul felt compelled by the Spirit to go into the unknown, but he wasn’t afraid because he knew God had good ministry awaiting him there. And challenges and hardships too, but that wasn’t what he was focused on. His focus was on going where God was leading him.

Uncertainty is the place where faith grows. 2024 holds uncertainty but for those who trust in Christ, we should look at that uncertainty with faith-filled expectancy not fearful dread. What’s God going to do in my life? What opportunities await me in 2024? What challenges will God use to grow my faith and walk with Him. How might God use me to serve others?

Let’s pray boldly and expectantly for God to lead us and use us in 2024.

2. Our faith is built on the certainty of the gospel and God’s promises

Having said all this about the uncertainty of life and specifically 2024, our faith is built on the certainty of the gospel of Christ Jesus and his promises. Paul’s life wasn’t defined by uncertainty, it was defined by God’s sovereignty. Faith is actually certainty in the midst of uncertainty.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.Hebrews 11:1

Here are just two things that Christians can be certain of.

1. We can be certain of Christ’s saving grace

As Paul addresses the elders, he testifies that his message and ministry has been built on the gospel and grace of Jesus Christ and charges them to be faithful to that same message. He says he didn’t shrink from

21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. …24 … to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. …28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood….32And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Acts 20:20-21, 24, 28, 32

What anchors Paul in uncertainty is the certainty of the message of Christ’s saving grace. He lives in it, he declares it to others, and he charges the elders of Ephesus to declare it faithfully too. As an elder here at Grace, I want to be faithful to declare Christ and his saving work for us on the cross. The Bible speaks to all areas of our lives but we never want to lose sight of or move on from the preaching of the cross.

That’s what Paul is referring to when he speaks of the gospel of the grace of God…being obtained by the blood of Christ, build up by the word of grace and receiving an eternal inheritance with all the saints. All this is received as verse 21 says, when we turn in repentance towards God and put our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

We will either live with faith in the finished work of Christ or we will constantly be trying to “finish” his work by adding our performance to it. “Am I obeying enough? Am I doing enough? Am I reading…praying…witnessing…enough? Am I repenting enough and have I stopped sinning enough?”

Our default mindset is performance rather than promise: we trust our accomplishments to put in right relationship with God rather than what Christ accomplished on the cross. That’s why the author Jerry Bridges encouraged every believer to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. He wrote:

If God’s love for us is to be a solid foundation stone of devotion, we must realize that His love is entirely of grace – that it rests completely upon the work of Jesus Christ and flows to us through our union with Him. Because of this basis His love can never change, regardless of what we do. In our daily experience, we have all sorts of spiritual ups and downs – sin, failure, discouragement – all of which tend to make us question God’s love. That is because we keep thinking that God’s love is somehow conditional. We are afraid to believe His love is based entirely upon the finished work of Christ for us.

Deep down in our souls we must get hold of the wonderful truth that our spiritual failures do not affect God’s love for us one iota – that His love for us does not fluctuate according to our experience. We must be gripped by the truth that we are accepted by God and loved by God for the sole reason that we are united to His beloved Son. (The Practice of Godliness, p. 28)

If you want to grow in your walk with God and devotion to God, stop trying to get there by performance and receive His unconditional love. The more we know His love and grace in our lives, the more we will grow in His sanctifying grace. Preach the gospel to yourself every day!

2. We can be certain God has given us our own course to finish (vs 24)

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:24

Paul is committed to finishing what he calls “my course”. Each of us have our own personal course to run. You don’t have to run the Apostle Paul’s course or Billy Graham’s course or the person sitting next to you’s course. Paul said, “my course”. God has a course that has your name on it. No one else can run it, it’s your course.

God has given you your own way to serve people and bring glory to God. He has gifted you in unique ways and give you a unique circle of people that you can share Christ with.When Paul said he didn’t count his life of any value or as precious, he wasn’t hating his life, he was saying the meaning of his life was to finish his course and do what God had called him to do. That was what brought the value and meaning to his life.

Years ago I had a serious conversation over a latte with a friend about our desire to leave a legacy for Christ. We’re talking about finishing our course. I think the New Year gives us an opportunity to ask, what really matters in life? Is that what I’m giving my life to? It gives us the opportunity to pray, “Lord use my life in 2024 for Your glory. Help me testify of the gospel of the grace of God to those in my life.”

As we stand on the brink of 2024, it’s a good time to recommit ourselves to the course Jesus has for us, and to listen to the gentle leading of the Holy Spirit. And the great thing about it is that He won’t lead us all on the same course – God has a course for each of us to run. Some might run through amazing opportunities, others through big challenges, still others through valleys of disappointment and trial. I am sure the new year will hold the unexpected for all of us but that’s the adventure of faith! The Holy Spirit wants to lead us into a life of gospel fruitfulness. Let’s pray for Him to have His way!

England’s Prince Albert, known to his family as Bertie, was not expected to inherit the British throne being the second born son of King George V but when his father died and his older brother Edward abdicated the throne, Bertie was obligated to take the crown. What made matters more challenging was that he had a bad stutter and now would have to make speeches to the nation. God unexpectedly gave him a course he neither expected nor wanted. So when he wrote the closing words of a Christmas letter in 1939, he knew what he was talking about:

"I said to the man at the gate of that year, --'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.' And he replied, 'Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way. “~The end of a letter by King George VI. Christmas 1939.

Let’s put our hand in the hand of God and go confidently into the unknown of 2024!