In His Hands

We anchor the new year in Psalm 31 and the line “my times are in Your hand,” moving from honest lament to steady trust. We talk habits of prayer and journaling, hating our own sin, naming despair without shame, and choosing love and courage as our daily stance.

• God’s sovereignty over time and our days
• Read, pray, and journal as daily habits
• Bring small and large needs to the Father
• Hate personal sin before judging others
• Name despair and seek help in community
• Rehearse identity: we belong to Jesus
• Choose love and courage as daily practice

Transcript

Opening And New Year Theme

SPEAKER_01 0:00

In your Bibles this morning, would I invite you to the book of Psalm? Let's look together at the thirty-first Psalm. I want to encourage you today in this new year. And remind you of this sentence. When you go home, if anyone asks you, what was church about today, uh, you can say this.

Psalm 31:15 As The Anchor

SPEAKER_01 0:33

My times are in his hands. And it's very appropriate as we begin the new year, regardless of what it will hold. And let me tell you, it's going to hold some doozies. That's a theological term, by the way. However, my times are in his hands. Let's find great comfort in this today. It's namely found in the 15th verse of your passage, Psalm 31, verse 15. I'll read it to you. My times are in thy hands. Deliver me from the hands of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. My times are in your hands. Aren't you thankful that we serve a sovereign God who is not absent, nor is he absent-minded from our day-to-day goings on. We serve a God and creator who has made this thing in space and time, and this is where we live. But I want to tell you, he is outside of his creation. He is above his creation. He is outside of space and time. I said it earlier. He is everywhere. Let me

God’s Sovereignty Over Time

SPEAKER_01 2:00

just encourage you: if you're going to trust anyone with your times and your days and your schedule, trust them to the one who is able to handle them. Our times are in his hands. George Kingsley in 1843 wrote the song, My times are in thy hands, my God, I wish them there. Isn't that a good thing to say? I want you to be in charge. I wish them there. My life, my friends, my soul I leave entirely to thy care. My times are in thy hands, whatever they may be, pleasing or painful, dark or bright, as best may seem to thee. My times are in thy hands, why should I doubt or fear? My father's hands will never cause his child a needless tear. My times are in thy hands, Jesus the crucified, whose hands my cruel sin had pierced, are now my guard and guide. My times are in thy hands, Jesus my advocate, nor shall thine hand be stretched in vain. For me to supplicate. My times are in thy hands, I'll always trust in thee. And after death, at thy right hand, I shall forever be. From here until there, God is in charge of us. Miss Leah said it well. We don't know what tomorrow holds, but we know who holds tomorrow. And we, listen to me, solely, uniquely, exclusively, as believers in the one and only God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, can confidently and assuredly assert my times are in his hands, and he is good. Amen? Is he good? Is he trustworthy? Let me ask you a question, and I don't ask questions I don't already know the answer to. Has he earned your trust? Proven himself trustworthy time and again. And shame on us for worrying and fretting and the wringing of the hands. I do it too. To doubt him, to doubt his goodness. I think it's a true statement. You might disagree because I don't know your life necessarily. I think he has your best interest at heart. And everything he has allowed into your life, he has done it with your best interest at heart. Let me tell you this: God has not caused everything that has happened in your life, but he has in his infinite wisdom allowed everything that has happened in our life, and he is in control of it all. Therefore, everything that has happened has been in your best interest if you belong to God.

Reading Psalm 31:1–5

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Let me read our text to you this morning. Psalm 31. And I want to just recommend we start the year with David. Let me start the year with the Psalm, the psalmist, as he pens these words. And these are honest words. These are words from the heart. These are words of his journal. These are words of his prayer. Let's read the first five verses. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be thou my strong rock, for a house of defense to save me. What a good prayer to begin the year. For thou art my rock and my fortress, therefore, for thy name's sake, lead me and guide me. By the way, whose namesake are we? Yours? Mine? It's for his name's sake. David said that in another place, didn't he? In Psalm 23. For thy name's sake, lead me in paths of righteousness. For your name's sake. You see, it's all about Jesus. It's gonna be a good year if it's all about Jesus. If it's all about you, I'm sorry. You're gonna be disappointed. Verse 4 pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me, for thou art my strength. Into thy hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. Isn't that a wonderful title for him? O Lord God of truth, he's the God of truth. Here's the point, number one. There's gonna be four of these, and they're all very simple. And here's what we will happen, and here's what we should do. Here's the deliverance that David needs. Do you need deliverance in this new year? Have you been asking God for deliverance? You should. You should pour out your heart to God, and you should be honest like the psalmist is honest. This is a good prescription for the Christian life in the new year. He needs deliverance. You need deliverance. And we will need the Lord this year. We should make a habit of calling upon the name of the Lord. Now, let me just pause and say right there, I want you to talk to God. I don't

Habit Of Calling On The Lord

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want you to talk to him honestly and say what you mean to the Lord. You don't have to hide anything from him. Some things you might want to say quietly. You might not want anybody else to hear it. They probably can't handle it. He can handle it. On the other side of that coin, we should not say foolish things to the Lord. We shouldn't yell at the Lord. We shouldn't be angry at God. We shouldn't shake our fist at him. We shouldn't say, How dare you? I saw that in the book of Job one time. It doesn't go well. But we should cry out to the Lord. He's our heavenly Father. I can prescribe to you that you should tell God what you need. How did Jesus teach us to pray? To our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And he says, This give me today the things that I need. How does he, what does he say? Our daily bread. Those little things like breakfast. You can tell God the big things and the little things. We will need God this year, and you should get into the habit of calling upon the name of the Lord. Let me recommend a good habit for you in the new year. Journaling. Journaling is marvelous. First of all, in the morning you should rise and you should get scripture into your eyeballs and it'll go into your brain. Hopefully, it'll get into your heart. And then from there, we should pray about the things that we've read. So the reading teaches us to pray. And then from that, we should journal. We should write down, we should write down the scriptures and we should pray according to the scriptures. But we need the Lord and we should call upon the name of the Lord. That's not groundbreaking, is it? But let me ask you this: how many times in 2025 was going to the Lord your last, as opposed to your first line of defense? This year, pray without ceasing. Go to your Father in heaven. David seems to think he cares. Do you think he cares? Do you think he's mindful? Do you think he's busy? Do you think he's, oh come on, bring me a real problem later on. This is nonsense. You and your wife, you know, shake and make hand, you know, shake and make up. You'll be okay. He cares about it all. I've got a chinchilla in my house. I was trying to go to bed last night at 11:30, and I wasn't tired. And that's not good. I almost turned to drugs, but I didn't. I didn't. And I was just about to get sleepy, and over on that cage in which the chinchilla dwells, there perched aloft, on top, where he should not, she should not it the vermin. I don't care what it is. It was, it escaped, it was on top. And I went, you've got to be kidding me. And so I began to talk like Yosemite Sam. And I caught that thing and it escaped again, Leah. So we're having soup for. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Do you think? Just imagine Pastor John. Get stupid. God cares. I asked him, Lord, help me catch a stupid squirrel. God cares about it all. I don't got real, that's not a real problem. He cares about the big ones and the little ones. Is anything too great for him? Is anything too little for him? Any of your kids ever come to you and say, help me tie my shoe? And you go, Oh, grow up. There's YouTube, you know. Figure

Journaling, Prayer, And Daily Bread

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it out. You see, God cares and he knows our limitations, and he says, sure, baby. And he sits us on the couch and he ties our shoes. All right, go be good boy. God cares about it all. He's a good father. We should go to him. Number two, this year, you should hate your sin.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Let me say it again. Hate your sin.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

How many of you hate other people's sin? Oh, I hate your sin. I hate it. I could name it. I could list it. I could preach on it. My sin, hey, watch it. All right? Listen to what David says here. Look there in verse 6. I have hated them that regard lying vanities, and I trust in the Lord. By the way, if you're going to love God this year, you're going to have to hate sin. I believe it's Psalm 97, 10 that says, those who love God must hate evil. You're going to have to draw a line, you're going to have to take a stand, there's going to have to be some positions you're going to have to take. There are things that are appealing to God and pleasing to God, and things that are an abomination to God. We are the people of truth. We are the people of light. This is the church. We're the people with the Bible. We are the ones who go, that ain't right. But you know where we start? I just, as I read this, I mean, who are we reading here by the way? Who are we reading here by the way? David. David never did have no real big sins, did he? I just wonder that. I have hated them that regard lying. Do you have a mirror? Because I seem to recall one time, and I don't know if this is pre- or post. I'd like to think it's pre-Bathsheba, pre-Uriah. If you don't know, look it up. There was some lying going on there. But while we look at the world around us and we see all of the things that are perturbing and disturbing, let us pray, oh Father, help me to be perturbed and disturbed by the things that are wrong in my own heart. What does Jesus say? He gave an analogy about the eye, didn't he? He said, You want to help your neighbor to remove the speck out of their eye. You ever had a speck in your eye? It's no good. It's no good. One time I had a piece of hay from a hay ride at Charlie and Kathy Holt's house in my eye for well over 24 hours. I remember it. That's how big a speck of hay it was. The next day I woke up from a nap and it came out. It's miserable. Jesus said, even more so than the speck. He goes, first remove the beam out of your own eye. The beam, the log out of the railroad tie that you've got in your eye before you can remove the speck of hay out of someone else's eye. Oh, let us hate our sin. The Bible says there's a time for this. There's a time to love and a time to hate and a time to heal and a time to kill. There's a time this year we should, as Colossians tells us in chapter three, mortify, therefore, the deeds of the flesh.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Mortify Lindsay's deeds? No, I can't do that for her. I pray for her, but I should mortify my own as I pray for her. You have sin, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Okay, you're good. This is what we should do this year. We

God Cares About Small Things Too

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should call upon God because we're gonna need him. We should disdain sin because we're gonna have it. Number three, the despair that he feels. You may be sitting here this morning and you look so finely dressed. But God heard all the commotion this morning and the difficulties that you had. I mean, he sure saw my squirrel incident last night. Maybe you've got your own proverbial squirrel in your life you're chasing around. God sees it all. He sees the despair that we feel. Did you know that despair and depression are not isolated from the Christian experience? Did you know that? In the Bible, the greatest man, maybe the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, Elijah, suffered mightily with depression and despair and even suicidal tendencies. It was so bad. And you may be there as well. Listen to what David says, beginning in verse 9. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. Mine eyes are consumed with grief. Can you say that about your? Maybe you've been there. My eyes are consumed with grief. Yea, my soul and my belly. My life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing, my strength faileth because of mine iniquities, and my bones are consumed. What a description. Maybe you're reading that going, yeah. Yeah, I feel like I've been there. My eyes, my belly, my bones, my. And by the way, let me just say to you, verses 1 through 5 and 9 through 13, they're like the same thing. They're both dealing with despair and discouragement. Because sometimes it comes in waves. And you you're you're down, and then you get picked up, and church is good, and praise God, and there's an extra check that comes in the mail, and you didn't know it. Praise, and there's wonderful, and then it just seems like.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

And here it comes again.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

The despair he feels is real. Your despair that you feel is real and valid. And if you come talk to me, if you want to come and share and sit down with your pastor, we can do that. And I'm not gonna say, oh, buck up. It may not even be real what's happening, but it's real to you. David is saying, I am in trouble. He mentions in verses 9 and 10 a physical anguish and a social

Hate Your Own Sin

SPEAKER_01 17:13

alienation. He is scorned, he is slandered. Look in there in verse 11. I was a reproach among all mine enemies, especially among my neighbors, and a fear to mine acquaintances. They that did see me without fled from me. This is exactly what happened to Job. Everyone looked at him and said, Oh, your life is a mess. You must have done something really bad. I don't want nothing to do with you. He lost friends, he lost family. Everything is collapsing around him. Let me just take it to you this way: in 2026, bad things are gonna happen. I thought Miss Carrie Cox would make it to 2026.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

I was wrong. But I knew that she would die. Death is gonna be part of this year for us. It may be a real bad year for the United States of America. Terrorist attacks are gonna happen this year. So, what do we do?

SPEAKER_01 18:18

What do we do? Well, I'm gonna just answer that right here. Look there in verse 14. This is like a roller coaster. By the way, does your life feel like a roller coaster sometimes? How you doing? Good. How you doing? I'm not good. How you doing? What day of the week are you asking about? And life is up and down like that. Look at verse 14. But I have trusted in thee. So listen to that. Verse 1 through 5. Oh God, I need help. Bow down. Help me speedily. I hate sin. I hate those that sin. It's so difficult this world we're living in. Verse 9. I feel despair. I feel anguish. My eyes are full. My belly is full. I am grief stricken. I am overcome. And then he reminds himself let me just tell you this in 2026, don't quit coming here. Don't quit coming here. We have a list out here of all of our D groups they meet weekly. You can meet with men's and women's groups and you can pray and read God's word together. It will help you. I have heard over and over again, overwhelmingly, the D groups are the greatest things we've ever done. You're gonna need God's people and you need God's word. Listen to what he says here. Here's the answer. Here's the prescription for this morning. The delight he pursues. So if you're paying attention, the deliverance he needs, the disdain he has, the despair he feels, but the delight he pursues in verse 14. I have trusted in the O Lord. I said, by the way, some of you should remind yourself who's your God? Who's your God? Stand up here real quick. Put your chest out. Who do you belong to? Who does Miss Sandy belong to? She belongs to Jesus Christ. She told you that this morning. Amen. Whose name are you wearing? Are you a Christian? Are you the one who bears his name? Remind yourself to whom you belong. Call me, I'll tell you. I might have to call you, and you can tell me. He says, and then he says, verse 15. Here's our verse. My times are in thy hand. I trust in the Lord, O Lord. Thou art my God. My times are in your hand. Deliver me out of the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute me. Make thy face to shine upon me. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant. Save me from for thy mercy's sake. Let me not be ashamed. O Lord, I have called upon thee. Let the wicked be ashamed. And let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips, which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. Oh, how great is thy goodness. Sometimes we've got to remind ourselves how the goodness of God and how powerful He is, His omniscience, His omnipotence, His omnipresence. Look in verse 20. Thou shalt hide them in the secret

Despair Is Real For Believers

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place. Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man. Thou shalt keep him secretly in the pavilion of the strife of thy tongues. This is a man who has been on a roller coaster here. And I also wonder these Psalms. We don't know. We don't know the exact event that this was written around. It could have been his running from Absalom, his son. It could have been before he encountered the major fall with Uriah and Bathsheba. We don't know. And I'm thankful we don't have an exact because you can probably use this in your life. You could say, well, well, that was for David during that time, but that doesn't apply to me. It's intentionally nameless. So that you can say, Yes, I have been like that. And I also wonder if this is not verses 1 through 5 on Monday in his journal. And then verses 6, 7, and 8 about him hating wicked people on Tuesday when he got a little self-righteous. And then he's in despair on Wednesday, there in verses 9 through 13. I just wonder. I just wonder. But he comes back, and here's what we've got to do: we've got to remind ourselves of the goodness of God and who he is and to whom we belong. My little Judah, right now, he's going through this phase where he's he'll pray over dinner and he'll say, Lord Jesus, and he says beautiful things, but he's been saying, Lord, help us not to get broke into. Help us not to be broke into by a bad guy. He thinks about this all the time. And he's always going, you know, if a bad guy broke in here, you know what I would do? By the way, all you men, you're like, Yeah, I still do that. I hope you still do that, right? That's our job. He goes, you know what I'd do? I would. I said, that's good, buddy. I said, but daddy's scarier than anything coming through that door. Oh, yeah, that's right. He can rest at night because daddy's down the hallway, and I'm a little bit of a sicko when it comes to protecting that kid. Can I tell you your heavenly father is bigger and badder and more fierce and more faithful and more comforting? He's the one who is awe-inspiring and august. It is him. And this is how David ends it. Look there in verse 23 and 24. This is the declaration he preaches. He brags on the Lord. He reminds himself of the Lord. He preaches to himself. Oh, love the Lord. How should we behave? Here's the application for our sermon today. What should we do? Love the Lord. Ready? Verse 23. Oh, love the Lord, all ye his saints. For the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plentiful rewardeth the proud doer. He rewards the one who actively, proudly, gladly pursues him. The one who loves him. Let me read it to you again. Oh, love the Lord, all you his saints, for the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Troll, give yourself to him. Love the Lord. Now I could ask you a trick question, and we raise hands, and it would not be fair. I could say, How many of you love the Lord? And we'd want to raise our hands, but if you're a deep thinker, you'd go, I don't know if I could raise my hand to that, because I don't love him well. Do you love him right? I don't. I don't. But I'm working on it. I'm working on it. His word is showing me. And then lastly, he preaches, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. All ye that hope in the Lord. Be of good courage. What is courage? Courage is the rarest of all the virtues. If there's no courage, there's no other virtues at all. Courage is simply doing the right thing, regardless of if we know the outcome or not. We courageously get up and face the day, putting our trust in a God who we cannot see, praying to a God that we don't audibly hear, reading his word, and trusting that he is the one in charge of the whole universe. We courageously go on, and day by day we hold his hand and he walks with us, and we do these two things. We will love the Lord this year in 2026. And we will be courageous as we

Life’s Roller Coaster And Response

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live out the tenets of his scriptures. That's what I need. Because, church, I'm up, I'm down, I'm like you. I got sin, I got issues. I I hate my sin, but I also hate your sin. I gotta get that worked out. I'm down, I'm here. I need you to pray for me just like you need me to pray for you. This year, our times are in his hands.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

So let us love the Lord and let us courageously obey his word.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

Thank you this morning for the power of your scriptures. It rests heavy on my heart, Lord, and I burst with pride over the fact that I get to claim it as my own. Lord Jesus, we love you. Help us to be courageous in the new year. Help us to not despair, help us to call upon you and hate our sin, and help us to delight to pursue you. Our times are in your hands. In Jesus' name. Would you all stand?