End of year sermon outline

Text

Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.

1 Samuel 7:12 · Read the chapter →

Introduction

Every year-end we take stock: what went well, what was lost, what was left undone. In 1 Samuel 7, after twenty years far from God, Israel repents, Samuel prays, and the Lord delivers the people from the Philistines. Then Samuel sets up a stone and calls it Ebenezer, which means stone of help. The words he speaks there are the best way to close a year.

1. Remembering: setting up a stone of help

And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until they came under Bethcar. Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.

1 Samuel 7:10-12 · Read the chapter →

The LORD thundered upon the Philistines, and Israel won. Samuel did not let the victory fade into a vague memory: he set up a stone and gave it a name. Ebenezer was also the name of the place where, twenty years earlier, Israel had been defeated (1 Samuel 4:1); God writes a new story over the name of the defeat. “Hitherto” looks back and sees God’s help at every step of the way.

Application: Before December 31, write down your stones from this year: answered prayers, deliverances, provision, people God placed on your path.

2. Giving thanks: forgetting none of his benefits

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Psalms 103:1-5 · Read the chapter →

The psalmist speaks to his own soul and gives it an order: bless the LORD and “forget not all his benefits”. Then he makes the list: forgiveness, healing, redemption, lovingkindness, tender mercies, good things. Gratitude needs memory, and memory needs training, because the soul quickly forgets the good and long remembers the pain.

Application: In the end-of-year service, make room for short testimonies: each person shares one of God’s benefits in a single sentence.

3. Pressing on: forgetting what lies behind

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13-14 · Read the chapter →

Paul, after a lifetime of service, says he has not yet arrived. One thing he does: forgetting those things which are behind, he reaches forth unto those things which are before. Forgetting here is not erasing memory — the memory of God’s help remains —; it is refusing to let last year’s failures, or even its successes, hold our feet. The goal is still ahead: the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Application: Hand over to God what did not work out this year and choose one concrete step of faith for the year ahead.

Conclusion

Moses prayed: “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Numbering our days is what we do at the end of the year. May our count end like Samuel’s: not with the sum of what we achieved, but with the confession of the one who brought us this far. Hitherto hath the LORD helped us; and the one who helped us this far will not leave us from here on.