The old year speeds swiftly to its close, and the prospects and hopes of a new year await us in a few days. As the psalmist and Mr. Browning declared in their poems, our times are in God’s hands. We gather in worship of the God who ultimately created all of us, sustains all of us, and promises to go with all us into the future, as He has been with us through every moment in the past. Therefore let us, with a new year’s confidence, worship God.

The day is coming which brings joy to the hearts of young children, frivolity to teenagers and young adults, and rumination and contemplation to older people. Christmas is upon us, the time when we hear again of God’s inestimable love for us in the birth of a baby who becomes God’s primary messenger. Today we gather in hopes that we will again hear and respond to his message, in order to be renewed and revived in faith. Therefore let us, with Christmas confidence, worship God.

Advent is a time of preparation. We prepare ourselves once again to hail the birth of a baby who shall grow up to become a prophet, priest, and king. When we praise God for sending Jesus Christ into the world, by implication we are re-dedicating ourselves to appropriate the teachings of Jesus into our own lives. Thus Advent and Christmas become a time of renewal for all who call themselves Christians. Therefore let us with confidence worship God!

Religious people often are strongly opposed to the positions and opinions of one another. They quarrel and argue and debate. Thus it was for Jesus with the people with whom he was in constant tension. But he maintained his ideas and his integrity until the end, and the end was his cruel death upon a cross. How devoted are we to following this man whose views were often so radically different from our own? When we gather for worship, we seek God’s guidance to become better disciples. Therefore let us, with Advent confidence, worship God.

Today is the first of the four Sundays of Advent. The word Advent, from Latin, means “Coming.” In this season of the year we prepare once again for the coming into the world of Jesus, whom Christians recognize as the Christ, God’s Messiah. Having survived what retailers and newscasters call Black Friday, we look forward to Christmas, the celebration of the greatest of gifts. As we begin this annual process, may we join together in the worship of the God of Israel, who once again ignites the light of the world.

We who have been caught by God believe that God reaches out to us prior to our reaching out to God. When we worship God, we thank Him for His firm grasp on us, by which we are enabled to move through life with a calm commitment which sustains us, even when life adversely assails us. But we also recognize that not all people see themselves as having been found by God, many of whom believe there is no God. But we believe what we believe, and therefore, let us, with confidence, worship God.

The God who created all of us bids all of us to have faith in Him. He has come to us by means of many people in the past, but we believe He appealed to us most effectively through Jesus of Nazareth, the preacher and prophet of Galilee. Life is not easy for anyone, but with faith in God, life becomes far more fulfilling and enriching. Therefore let us worship the God whose continuous presence with us moves us to worship Him.

Sometimes when we worship, we do so with less than pure motives or righteous thoughts. We look around, and we say, Why is he here, and who let her in? I know him, I am familiar with her, and I know things about them which should keep them from ever darkening these sacred doors. But the same is true about us with respect to them; they know us, and they wonder about us. But all of us are children of God, created in His own image, and God welcomes all of us. Therefore let us, with chastened confidence, worship God.

Time passes, events occur, we all make decisions. Where is God in this entire uncertain process? We gather in praise of a God whom we are convinced can bring good out of anything that happens: a personal decision gone terribly astray, wars or national or international conflicts in which the outcomes are very much in doubt, a political crisis through which most or all political leaders serve their constituents very badly but from which good nonetheless can somehow emerge. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship the God of providential hope.

Living with other people, particularly difficult people, is a challenge. Jesus well understood that, because he was confronted by difficult people every day of his life. Nevertheless, he commanded us to love everyone, however much we might not liked them. Gathering for worship, we are enabled to do that which God and Jesus ask us to do, because we concentrate for an hour on what really matters. Therefore, let us with confidence worship the God who inspires us to worship Him.

We are a people who come and go, who appear and disappear, and never do we have exactly the same group of people on any two Sundays. But God is always here among us, and it is to Him that we turn when we gather to worship and to praise His name. We come far more at His unseen and unfelt bidding than through our own volition, but He receives us whether or not we ever think about that, let alone affirm it. Therefore let us, with the confidence He graciously provides to all of us, worship God.

All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own way. Nonetheless we have a Shepherd, one who never loses sight of us or gives up on us. He becomes the Hound of Heaven, the herder who seeks us and finds us wherever we go and whatever we do. In gratitude to Him for His steadfastness toward us and sorrow for our inconstancy toward Him, we gather to give thanks and praise to the God who created us, sustains us, and redeems us. Therefore let us, with chastened confidence, worship God.

We gather in praise of a God whose faithfulness toward us is without limits. In all the uncertainties and exigencies of life, God is there to support and uphold us, and to serve as a bridge over troubled waters. However, God cannot do these things for us if we refuse or do not know how to avail ourselves of His assistance. To do that, we need to sharpen our vision for the many ways by which and by whom we are given strength. Therefore, let us, with confidence, worship God!

We gather in praise of a God whose faithfulness toward us is without limits. In all the uncertainties and exigencies of life, God is there to support and uphold us, and to serve as a bridge over troubled waters. However, God cannot do these things for us if we refuse or do not know how to avail ourselves of His assistance. To do that, we need to sharpen our vision for the many ways by which and by whom we are given strength. Therefore, let us, with confidence, worship God!

We gather in praise of a God whose love will not let us go. He constantly seeks us, never allowing us to evade or escape His ceaseless compassion for us in all the situations which confront us in life. Through the biblical patriarchs, prophets, and kings He reaches out to us, and then through disciples and apostles in later times. Most of all He seeks us through the prophet and parable teller from Nazareth, whose life and death we especially remember again at this time of year. Let us therefore with confidence worship God.

For Jesus, the road to Jerusalem was a long and arduous road, which eventually and inevitably turned into Holy Week and the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrows. Each Lent we walk along with Jesus, pondering what he faced as he went along, and what we too must face as we go along. We do not go alone, however; God travels with us, and for that we are grateful. Therefore let us, with confidence, worship God.

The tradition declares that a man stood on a mountaintop, and God reached down and inscribed ten commandments into two stone tablets. The law of Moses, the Torah, has influenced believers for the past three thousand years. Do we find God’s law to be a blessing, or a burden? In worship we seek better to understand what God wants of us, and how we can respond to His law working in our lives. Therefore let us, with renewed confidence, worship God.

Fifteen years ago, on January 4, 2004, The Chapel Without Walls held its first service of worship in the Hilton Head Middle School. Now, fifteen years and four locations later, we are gathered in The Cypress to celebrate our fifteenth anniversary. We thank God for His guidance of our congregation during the past decade and a half, and we praise Him for His grace and love for everyone who has ever participated in the life of our church. Therefore, let us with new confidence in a new year, worship God.