Ps 65
There will be silence before Thee, and praise in Zion, O God; And to Thee the vow will be performed. O Thou who dost hear prayer, To Thee all men come. Iniquities prevail against me; As for our transgressions, Thou dost forgive them. How blessed is the one whom Thou dost choose, and bring near to Thee, To dwell in Thy courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, Thy holy temple. By awesome deeds Thou dost answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation, Thou who art the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea; Who dost establish the mountains by His strength, Being girded with might; Who dost still the roaring of the seas, The roaring of their waves, And the tumult of the peoples. And they who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Thy signs; Thou dost make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy. Thou dost visit the earth, and cause it to overflow; Thou dost greatly enrich it; The stream of God is full of water; Thou dost prepare their grain, for thus Thou dost prepare the earth. Thou dost water its furrows abundantly; Thou dost settle its ridges; Thou dost soften it with showers; Thou dost bless its growth. Thou hast crowned the year with Thy bounty, And Thy paths drip with fatness. The pastures of the wilderness drip, And the hills gird themselves with rejoicing. The meadows are clothed with flocks, And the valleys are covered with grain; They shout for joy, yes, they sing. Amen.
As we consider this past year, with all its hardships and pandemic challenges, I cannot but remember that we began it as we are doing today. We dedicated it to the Lord for His Sovereignty to rule in our hearts and minds. Together we offered up our lives unto His plan and His purpose. We did not have some vision into the events of this past year. We just knew that God was in charge and that He would rule and overrule in full accordance with His predetermined and Sovereign Lordship in this, His creation.
That is something that we must never forget. He is the Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth. This whole of the creation functions only as He holds it together and as He has determined from before He ever put anything into place. This is His world to do with as He so Sovereignty determines. 
That is why, even as the nations are in such tumult and there is hopelessness rampant in the hearts and minds of those who have no other way to deal with the events and the tragedies and the deepening chasm of despair and desperation and desperation, we are anchored in the Lord Jesus Christ! We know that He has it all well in hand! 
To consider this past year is to see how He has worked in the lives of so many people. Many of those who were lost and floundering in anguish and extreme anxiety called out to Him and found the only means of salvation. Rich and overflowing were the harvests of hearts who cried out to Him.
As well, there were so many intense situations within families that were settled as those in Christ came together to wait on the Lord and to seek His plan for their lives. This was a time of bonding and holding onto that which God had brought into place within so many families. Anger and resentment and frustration and ill-will was set aside and there blossomed forth a uniting in Christ within so many of those family structures which were otherwise set to explode. Much rejoicing was forthcoming as hearts were healed and prisoners of resentment and frustration were released from their bondage under fear and worry and strife. Many walls of anger and jealousy and animosity were shattered as the Lord proved His Omnipotence, His Omniscience, and His Omnipresence over and over again within so many struggling families.
As well, in a most vibrant manner, The Word was proclaimed through the expanded media and technological advancements, which reconnected so many within our fellowship. There was ample time to simply focus on His Word in both solitude and with our fellow believers through Zoom and YouTube occasions. 
This year was an opportunity in learning how to use the technology which was developed as a gift of God’s benevolence. Communication and Bible reading and Bible translation has flourished as never before in the history of man, and we tasted of the Lord’s goodness in it all.
The Lord, through the platform of Zoom, afforded us the opportunity to pray together, as an answer to our earnest beseeching unto God for a stronger and more vibrant response to the needs of those in peril and strife. There was an exponential growth in the number of prayer warriors as the weeks melded into months and then into a year of standing together before the throne of God’s Grace for His will to be done in so many lives adversely affected and lost in the pandemic chaos. 
This earnest support in prayer was especially needed for those families who lost loved ones throughout the course of the year. There were those who belonged to the Lord and with whom we rejoiced in the truth that they are now with Christ, out of their physical anguish and pain. We stand together with those remaining loved ones and ask the Lord to show them His comfort and His mercy and His abiding presence as the only means of dealing with the full course of the grief cycle which He has put into place. Even that is His gift to mankind whom He created to find their solace and their healing of brokenness in Him, Alone. 
These are but a few of the truths in which we can stand before God today and say that He truly made this past year, His year in our fellowship. We have been partakers in the deepening knowledge of His faithfulness and His mercy and His lovingkindness and His majestic Supremacy over everything that He has created.
Accordingly, as we are gathered together to honor Him and more firmly established in our resolve to be His obedient people in the course of this next year, we do so in the full knowledge that whatever the Lord brings into our lives, will only serve to further cement the truth that He is the Only Living God! He is Jehovah! He is Yahweh! He is the Lord God Almighty Who Alone created the heavens and the earth! 
As detailed in Rev 4:8-11, He, only, is worthy of all praise and adoration and glory. Rev 4:8-11, And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come." And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created." 
Thus we ask the Lord to keep us fully aligned with His will in all that this coming year will bring. We know with all certainty that it will serve His plan and purpose in Jesus Christ as each day unfolds. God will have His way and will bring forth the praise of His people through His grace and mercy and love in action to His glory Alone. Amen.