At chapter 29, I think God, God really used them at a time in my
life when I really needed it. And honestly, it's, it's kind of
what directed me to, to, to really surrender my life to the
Lord. I'd already surrendered to do
what God wanted me to do with my life.
But these verses in Jeremiah chapter 29, and I'll give you
just a little bit of context into the passage that we're
going to read this morning. And I'm, I'm really just going
to kind of use this as a jumping off spot, but Jeremiah chapter
29, God had told the Israelites many times that if they followed
him, he had blessed him. If they didn't follow him, then
all the, the blessings would not, not only would the
blessings go away, but God would, God would bring a curse
upon them. And all of the things that that
should have happened to them was, was going to, if they
didn't follow the Lord. And God told them many times,
hey, you're going to be carried away into captivity if you don't
follow me with all your heart. If you don't, if you don't seek
me, you're going to be carried away into captivity.
And I don't know, if they didn't think that God was serious, why
would you? Why?
You look back at the Israelites and many times you just see the
way that they lived and and the way that they acted and the
things that they did and the things that they said and you
think, did you? Did you have a?
Brain in your head at all you know you can.
But we have the benefit of hindsight, right?
We can look back and say. God told you it was going to.
Happen and he did it when you didn't allow it when you didn't
allow him to work in your life. You know, and how many times we
do the same thing and I think we can ask ourselves the same
question. Do we have a brain in our head
sometimes God says you follow me, you live for me, I'll bless
you. You don't follow me, you don't
live for you. You're not going to have the
blessings of the Lord. You're not going to have God's.
Power. And yet many times we still walk
the opposite direction, right? But God told them that it was
going to happen. And sure enough, they didn't
follow God. And so Babylon comes in and
carries them off into captivity. And you start reading through
the passage, and I'm not going to do that this morning, but you
get into verse 4567. God tells them, hey, you're
going to be there in Babylon for 70 years.
You might as well just start over, get married, build houses,
have children, plant gardens. You're going to be here for 70
years. And I think maybe at that point
the Israelites started thinking God just hates us.
God just, God just, he's just, he's just being a bully because
he can put his thumb on us and, and, and squish us if he wants
to. And so that's what he's doing.
And God makes it very, very plain in this passage that that
is not why he allowed them to be carried away into captivity.
He allowed them to be carried away into captivity because he
had a plan for them. And in Jeremiah chapter 29 and
verse #11 the Bible says this. For I know the thoughts that I
think towards you, say it's the Lord thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end.
Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me,
and I will hearken unto you, and you shall seek me and find me,
when you shall search for me with all your heart.
Now the message this morning is meant to be an encouragement to
you, and I hope it is. I hope that you've been thinking
about some resolutions for the New Year.
Somebody said New Year's resolutions usually go in.
One year and out the next. That's the way it goes for most
of us. Let me bore you with some
statistics. 41% of people usually make resolutions 31 to
2025. Thirty 1% of people said that
they were making resolutions this year. 31.
That's one out of three people that say they're making
resolutions. 42% absolutely never make resolutions.
But I, I found a list of, of New Year's resolutions that people
have here in 2025 for 2026. And there's a lot of different
things on the list I pulled out, you know, kind of the kind of
the ones that had more people with them.
Number one, save more money. 26% said they were going to save
more money this year Improving physical health 22%.
Exercising more 22%. Being happy 22%.
Eating healthier. These are New Year's
resolutions. 20% said they were going to eat healthier this year
17%. Said losing weight was their
resolution. Improving mental health 17%.
Learning something new 15%. Reading more 15%.
Quitting a bad habit, 11%, Moving 6%.
A lot of other things in there too that were kind of smaller
percentages. But I thought this was very
interesting that 79% of people who said they were making a
resolution had something to do with their health.
They were going to, they were going to diet, they were going
to exercise more, they were going to do different things.
But they've broken these things down over the years and
typically they're right about the same. 37.8% of people in
their 20s actually reached their New Year's goals. 16.3% of
people over 50 reach theirs. I don't know if they just
realize it's not worth trying after you get.
I don't know what it is but but here's where it gets
interesting. People who maintained goals.
Through their first week, 75% of people actually kept their goal
through the 1st week. Two weeks was down to 71%.
One month it was down to 64%. Six months, 46% of people still
typically are keeping up with their resolution if they set
one. And of those people who have
similar goals but don't set resolutions, only 4% are
successful after six months. People who say this is what I
this is, this is a goal for the new year, this is what I'm going
to do. They write it down.
They have a list they had, they look at it. 46% of those after
six months are still following through.
With that resolution, the ones who say yeah, sure would be nice
to lose weight this year, I think I'm going to lose weight
this year. 4% of them are still on go on target to lose weight.
4% of them are still on target to do whatever it happens to be.
But why do people? Fail in their resolutions?
Well, in one study, 35% of the participants who failed their
New Year's resolution said they had unrealistic goals.
Right. I'm going to lose 50 lbs this
year. Probably unrealistic, Maybe not.
But huge goals. 33% of those who participated said they they,
they failed. That failed because they didn't
keep track of their progress. 23% forgot about their
resolution, that's why they failed.
And about one in 1010% who failed said they made too many
resolutions. People who who explicitly make
resolutions, though, are 10 times more likely, according to
this study, 10 times more likely to attain their goals than
people who don't explicitly set resolutions.
I can also. Tell you this, people who never
make resolutions cannot keep them.
I hope you, I hope. I hope you've been thinking
about some things that you can do this year to improve.
Obviously it's important to improve physically, right?
It's good to make resolutions. We always need to be trying to
improve. And, and by the way, a body
bodily exercise profiteth little the Bible says, right?
But it still profits at least a little bit.
It's important that you keep your health up, right?
Think about how many people who, who could have another 5 or 10
years of serving the Lord don't because they don't take care of
their body. You're the too unhealthy to get
out there and knock on doors or too unhealthy to stand up in
front of a class and teach, or too, you know, too overweight to
do whatever, right? It's important that it's not
everything, right? But bodily exercise does profit
a little. It helps, right?
And if I can get another year or two or three years out of
serving the Lord, then I want to do it.
And if that means that that I bring under my body and I and I
bring a little discipline to my body in order to make that
happen, then I want to do it. I want to be as effective for
the Lord as I possibly can be, right?
I'm not trying to be Mr. Mr. Olympia or anything like that.
I'm not trying to have huge muscles or any of that kind of
stuff. But I do want to be fit enough
that I can serve the Lord and do everything that he wants me to
accomplish, right? I don't, I don't know if I want
to live to 100, right? But but if the Lord lets me live
to 100, I don't want to be a basket case for the last 10
years of it sitting in a nursing home in a wheelchair somewhere,
right? I want to, I want to be like Mr.
Forbes at 95 years old. I want to still be involved in
everything, right? And hey, that's, that's, that's
what making those resolutions. Will help you with.
Right, I'm not saying that there's nothing to it, but you
should be consistently looking back and looking for ways to
make the future better than the past.
And I'm not into mythology at all, but.
I read that the month of January is actually named after one of
the Roman gods named Janus. Janus.
That's where the month of January.
That's why it's at the beginning of the year, because supposedly
this God has a has two faces, one that's facing.
Forward and one that's facing backwards.
I think it's a pretty interesting that that they use
Janus to be the one that named January at the beginning of the
year. Look forward, but look back at
the same time. What did I do wrong?
What did I do right? What can I improve on?
What can I keep doing better right?
It's and so all of those things are things that help us while
we're anticipating the new year, anticipating the future.
And so let's talk about what lies ahead of us this morning.
I want to, I just want to share with you a few thoughts on this
idea looking at the new year, looking at the new year.
And I'm not trying to convince you to make New Year's
resolutions. That's not the point of the
message, but I do think that if if we if we focus on doing a
couple things well for the Lord, then we can accomplish a lot of
things for him this year. And that's the purpose, that's
the goal. That's the point of the message
this morning. Let's pray and ask the Lord's
help, and then we'll look at a few of these things from his
word this morning. Father, again, we thank you so
much for your goodness to us. Thank you for the opportunity
that we have to be here on this last Sunday of the year.
God, may you help us as we're looking forward to this new year
to accomplish. Great things for you, not
because we're setting out to do great things, but because we're
trying to accomplish everything that you have for us.
God, may you, may you help us to set goals in doing things for
you, living for you in a way that's pleasing to you.
And may this message help us this morning to do that.
May you speak to our hearts. We ask for your power.
We ask for your presence in the service this morning.
And again, we thank you for all you do for us in Jesus name,
Amen. First thing I want you to think
about is this number one, look back and thank God.
Look back and thank God. Turn over to Colossians chapter
3. I think one of the things that
most of us are the most guilty of is not thanking God.
And I think if you if you actually stop and think about
how often you thank him. You know, think about how.
Often we beg God for things and then when He answers that
prayer, we barely give him thanks.
Think about how many times maybe, maybe there's a certain
thing that you've been asking God for, for a long time,
something that some answered, a prayer that you want to see.
And God finally answers that prayer.
You prayed for it 1000 times and you barely said thank you.
Oh, we, we read the story in the Bible of the, the 10 lepers and
only one of them came back. And every time we tell that
story or every time we read that story, we think, how can all
nine of those just walk away and not come back and say thank you?
But we do the same thing. God, please give us a good day,
protect us, help us keep us safe.
And He does that, and we just ask Him for it again the next
day. We don't say anything about it
to him. We don't thank Him for the
blessings. We don't thank Him for all the
good things that He's done for us.
We just expect that God's going to do it because I asked Him to
do it right. But if we would thank God as
much or more than we ask God for things, we would be very
thankful people and we'd be very different people.
Perhaps God would give us so many more answers to prayer if
we took the time to thank Him as much.
As we had begged Him for the answers in the 1st place, First
Chronicles chapter 23 and verse #30 says and to stand every
morning to thank and praise the Lord and likewise at even.
Could you imagine if that was a habit that we did this year if
we set that as a New Year's resolution?
I'm going to thank God in the morning and I'm going to thank
God in the evening. I'm going to be thankful this
year. I'm going to.
I'm going to make it a point to thank God for what He's done for
me. Colossians chapter 3 and verse
15. You're there and let the peace
of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in
one body and be ye thankful. It's pretty sad that God has to
command us to be thankful. That should just be something
that flows out of a heart of gratitude because of everything.
That he's done for us and yet he has to say, hey, be thankful.
All these things that I've given you, be thankful for those
things. That's sad that God has to
command us to do those things. First Thessalonians 5 verse 18
in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. I'm trying to figure out what
God wants me to do with my life. Well, I'll tell you one thing.
His will is for you to be thankful.
Maybe set that as a New Year's resolution this year.
The New Year's a great time for reflection.
But perhaps you made some mistakes or perhaps you you
didn't fulfill your resolutions from last year.
Maybe it's a a rough year physically.
There's no reason to not thank God you're still alive.
If you're saved, you're still on your way to heaven.
His grace is still shows itself in my life.
His grace is still sufficient, His mercy still extends to me.
His love is still evident. Well, I still even if it was a.
Rough year. I have a lot of things to be
thankful for. Look at how God worked in our
church. Look at how God worked in your
family. Look at how God provided for
you. Thank God for what He did allow
you to accomplish. Thank God for getting you
through another year. Thank God for all of His
blessings. Thank God for who He is.
There is always something to be thankful for in every situation.
It was a story that was written about a man who found a barn
where Satan kept all of the seeds that he's sown that he
sows in the human heart. And he found the seeds of
discouragement were more numerous than any of the other
seeds that were in that entire barn.
And as he was in there looking through those different bags,
Satan walked in. And and so he asked Satan a
question. And Satan reluctantly answered
the question, But he asked him, is there a one place that he
could never get seeds to thrive? Satan kind of hung his head a
little bit. He said, yeah, I have to admit
there is one place that is very hard to get these seeds to
thrive. And he said it's in the heart.
Of a very grateful person. Obviously that's just a made-up
story, but that's exactly what we find in the Bible.
When you are thankful, it's hard to get discouraged.
When you're thankful, it's hard to get down.
When you're thankful, it's hard to, to get to, to, to, to, to
find yourself in depression, right?
When you're thankful because God has done so much for us.
We have so much that we can look back and thank God for about the
past year. Perhaps we need to be a little
bit more thankful this year, but I also want you to see this
number. Two, and if you'll turn over to
Philippians Chapter 3, we'll talk about look forward and
trust God. Look back and thank Him, but
look forward and trust Him. Maybe you did have a rough year.
Maybe everything didn't go according to the way you thought
it was going to go. We do well to take the advice of
the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 3 and verse #13
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. Had a wrestling coach.
We grew up wrestling and one of our coaches in particular would
always get on us about keeping our heads up.
While we were wrestling, he said.
The second you put your head down, that's where you're going.
You put your head down, you're going to end up on the mat.
And he and he was right. It's it's true.
You keep your head up. You can see everything coming at
you if you keep your head up. You can, you can stay on the
offensive. And I think that translates very
well into life as well. If you put your head down, you
mope about all the things that that that that are that you were
defeated through this past defeat, saying you're never
going to be able to move on to have those future victories.
Keep your head up. Stop moping around about how
difficult life is. Everybody goes for difficult
things in life. What are the people who are
walking around with a smile on their face or not walking around
with a smile on their face because everything in their life
is just absolutely wonderful? The people who have a a great
personality and that you love to be around because they're always
upbeat. It's not that nothing ever
happens in their life and that's why they're that way.
They've just chosen to not focus on the things that they that
defeated. Them.
They've just chosen to not focus on the things that get them
down. They focus on the things that
that lift them up and that lifts you up when you're around them
and you want to be around that type of person.
This is not the year to cower behind past failures or past
accomplishments. Turn over to Proverbs chapter 3
so you don't don't look at your past and think that God can't
use you. There's so many stories in the
Bible of men and women who failed.
We looked at four of them last week. 4 ladies in the Bible who
who failed by all accounts. And God still used them because
they didn't dwell on those failures.
But there's many, many people in the Bible, you look at David,
boy, if anybody failed in a in a royal way, it was David and he.
He he committed adultery, the worst of the worst.
He he had somebody murdered the worst of the worst.
And yet God still was able to use David, Rahab, Moses, Joshua
at AI. Oh what a failure. 36 Israelites
died when none of them should have died because Joshua failed
to seek the Lord. But he didn't dwell on that past
failure. He looked to the Lord and he got
it right and he went forward for God.
Paul, Peter, the list could go on.
The Bible says this in Proverbs chapter 3 and verse #5 Trust in
the Lord with all thine heart and lean not into thine own
understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him
and he shall direct thy paths. It's not about you, it's about
him. It's about looking to him.
Don't look at your past accomplishments and think that
you've accomplished all that you're going to accomplish for
God. I think that's what happens in
in older in older Christians lives in in a lot of ways.
Well, I used to and back back in the 70s, I did back in the 80s,
back in the 90s, back when I was really doing and you start
talking about all the things that you used to do for the Lord
and you're still alive, you're still upright, you're still
walking. If you can come to church, then
you can do things for the Lord. And we've got a lot of things
that you can do in this church that don't involve a ton of
physical exercise. You can still accomplish a lot
for God. You still have time left to do
something for him. Don't just say, oh, look at
everything I've accomplished. Hey, it's just as bad as
somebody who's saying, oh, life has been so hard.
I just can't go forward for God, right?
It's, it's, it's no different than somebody who's saying, life
has been so good. I can't go forward for God,
right? What's the difference?
We shouldn't focus on those past defeats because there's still
more to accomplish for the Lord. But we shouldn't focus on those
past successes because there's still more to accomplish for the
Lord. Rest when you get to heaven,
right? You'll rest when you're dead.
Do something for the Lord now. You still have time and you
still have an opportunity. Don't let your guard down.
Don't stop driving forward. Don't stop trusting.
God, the same way you said you did back then.
Philippians 413 I press toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
You think about somebody who makes it 3/4 of a way through a
marathon and they get to that 2122 mile mark and they say wow.
Look at how many miles I've already run.
I think that's pretty good. You know what?
I'm going to stop. There, that's a, that's a that's
a great. Accomplishment.
You know what? I ran 22.
Miles and there's still 4.2 miles left for you to get to the
finish line. And it may may be the hardest
part of the. Race because you have the least
energy, you have the least amount left in the tank, but you
still have to go forward for the Lord.
There's still a prize to reach. There's still something that
you're trying to gain. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
That's what Paul said. I think that's that's a a great
mindset that all of us should take into this new year.
So certainly we should look back and thank God, but we must look
forward and trust God. And I want you to see this.
Turn over to Revelation chapter 3.
Look within and find God. Now don't take this the wrong
way. I'm not saying that all of us
have a little bit of God in US. I'm not going new age on you.
But what I am saying is this. If you have not accepted Jesus
Christ as your Savior, He's standing at your heart's door
waiting for you to let Him in. Revelation chapter 3 and verse
20 says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to
him, and we'll Sup with him and he with me.
If you've not accepted Christ as your Savior, what are you
waiting? For.
You don't even have to wait for the.
New year to get. Here do it as the old years
going out, except Christ as your Savior.
We, we put so much emphasis on making sure that we do it the
right way, that there's repentance and there's faith and
all of those things coming together that help help us to
understand that we're sinners and that we need a Savior.
And maybe you've been sitting here for a lot of years and
sitting in another church for a lot of years and, and growing up
in a church for a lot of years and you've been just relying on
some past experience and you don't know.
For sure, if you're safe, get it settled.
Get it settled, Find God this year.
But I'll say this, turn over to Ezekiel chapter 36.
If you already have Jesus Christ in your heart, if you already
know Jesus Christ as your Savior, then this is the year.
To let him work in your life. America desperately needs to see
a revival. Let it begin in you.
The great revivals that we see throughout history in America,
but in England and in other places that they didn't happen
because thousands of people got on fire for God.
Usually it was one or two or three people who just had a such
a great desire to see God do something in their lives, but
they saw a revival and that spread to other people and God
used it. Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse #25
The Bible says, Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you?
And ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all
your idols. Will I cleanse you a new heart?
Also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you,
and I will take away the Stony heart out of your flesh, and I
will give you an heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within
you and cause you to walk in my statutes.
And you shall keep my judgments and do them.
I wrote this as a devotional few weeks ago.
And maybe maybe those who get the devotionals, you see this
but. I used the illustration when I
was in Nepal with Brother Cloud and and we didn't have vehicles
that we got. Everybody gets around on a
scooter and so I just rode around in the back of the
scooter with him everywhere we went.
And he would drop me off at the hotel to clean up a little bit
and an hour or two later and he would come back and pick me up
for the for the service. I preached the a bunch of the
evening services and, and I, I got back from riding on.
We went to a couple different places.
We went and and visited a couple different people and did a
couple of different things and he dropped me back off at the
hotel and I just, you know, I didn't.
I didn't. I didn't.
Feel dirty. It wasn't like I needed to go
get a shower, but I had some little little white face wipes
that I carry with me everywhere. So I just, I just decided, you
know what, I'm just going to wipe the sweat off my face a
little bit. I started wiping that thing off
and when I pulled it away my whole rag was black.
And I thought. How in the world?
But what I realized was that I look in the mirror and I can't
really see much of it, right? But all of that dust and all of
that grime and all of the, the filth from that city was just
collecting all over me. I I couldn't see it because I
wasn't looking at it under a microscope.
Right. But when I take something white
and I use it and I'll wipe my face with it, it becomes very
obvious that there was a lot of grime and dust and dirt on my
face. And that's exactly what happens
when we get into the Word of God, when we have a desire for
revival and we let the Word of God get into us.
What you see is I'm a whole lot filthier than I think that I am.
Oh, I can look in the mirror of of everybody else and compare
myself to everybody else. And I may not look that dirty.
I may not look that bad. But when I compare myself to the
whiteness of God's Word and the whiteness of His Holiness and
His purity, boy, I see that I really am a dirty person before
God. And that's what he says.
Then I'll sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean
from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
I will cleanse you. That's what we need.
First Peter chapter 1 and verse #3 Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to His abundant mercy,
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope.
By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
We're so we're so used to swaying with the latest trend in
in culture in our lives and in our churches that we don't even
know how to get a hold of God anymore.
If somebody came to you and said I really.
Need to get you. I need you to get a hold of God
on this matter. Could you do it?
Do you know how? Where would you start?
Or would it just be God? I'm back.
I met you this morning, but I'm. I'm here again.
I need to bring this matter before you.
The truth is, most Christians have no idea how to get a hold
of God. Because we're not worried about
making sure that we're clean before him or make we, we just
try to make sure that we're clean before everybody else.
As long as I look OK to the rest of the people, then I'm good.
I want to be clean before God. I want to be able to get a hold
of God. I want to be able to have power
with him when the difficult times come.
And they, they surely will in this new year.
I need to be on on praying ground.
I need to, I need to know how to get in touch with God.
In fact, most of the things that we endure, we are doing because
God's trying. To make us stronger so we can be
more like Him. And we don't see it that way
many times, but but we go through difficulties.
And why does God allow trials to happen in our lives?
Because He's trying to make our life hard.
No, I know the thoughts that I think towards you.
Say it the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give
you an expected end. Then shall you go and pray unto
me, and I will hearken unto you, and you shall seek me, and find
me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.
That's where He's trying to get us.
He's trying to get us to the point where we come to the end
of ourselves. I'm not relying on me anymore.
I'm not relying on my, my talents and my abilities and my,
my, my anything. I'm relying on him to use.
Me. He's trying to get our attention
to show us where we are wrong and where we can do better.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the
earth, he says in Colossians chapter 3 and verse two.
Problem with a lot of people is that their affections are set on
things on the earth instead of on things of God.
One pastor said it this way. I should set my affection just
like you set a thermostat. I make a decision about where it
should be and then I keep it set there.
Most people are a lot more like a thermometer than a thermostat.
While the thermostat controls the atmosphere, a thermometer
just goes up or down according to the temperature around it.
He said we need to set our affection both in our marriage
and in our walk with God and make sure we keep bringing it
back to the right place whenever it begins to drift.
Boy with a great analogy, most Christians, most Christians are
not thermostats. Most Christians are
thermometers. What's the what's the what's
popular right now? OK, let me do this.
What's not popular? Oh, OK, let me stop doing that.
They just, they just respond to culture.
They just respond to what everything, what everybody else
is doing. And I want to be a thermostat.
I'm going. To set my.
Affection on things above and I'm going to stay there.
That's what that's what we're talking about.
Did you notice that there was one thing that was that was
curiously missing from the list of all the resolutions, The top,
I think, I think, I think they gave probably the top 20
resolutions and, and none of them, nowhere on the list did it
say I want to get closer to God. Nowhere on that list did it say
I want to see a revival in my own life.
Nowhere on that list did it say I want to pray more for others
or I want to pray, pray more for my own spiritual life.
Nowhere on that list. And isn't that so indicative of
our age? But the sad thing is, it's so
indicative of Christianity, too. I wonder how many of those
people that were polled would claim to be a Christian.
Probably a lot of them. Enough that they could actually
at least register on the list of percentages of people who want
to be right with God. But what about your resolutions?
Is it all about health? Is it all about improving
physically? Is it all about improving?
Your your state in life. I want to make more money this
year. I want to save money this year.
I want to I want to try to do this.
I want to try to accomplish that.
I want to try to go here. I want to try to do this and
that. What is your list of resolutions
look like? Hey, somebody who's serious.
You. You've got to be very specific
about it. Not I want to pray more.
That's, that's not, you're not going to do it, but I'm going to
pray 30 minutes a day. Or every day at this time, I'm
going to wake up and read my Bible or I'm going to accomplish
this this year for the Lord. You've got to be specific about
it and then make yourself a checklist.
So you're checking it off every single day, right?
So it's why when you, when you go to put your shoes on and you
go to, you don't think about how you're tying your shoes because
you've done it so many times. You just tie it and you keep
going. A lot of times you look down and
you're like, when did I tie those?
I don't even remember tying it, right?
You don't think about how you brush your teeth because you've
brushed your teeth so many times.
You're probably doing other stuff while you're brushing your
teeth because you've done it so much.
It's easy. It's a habit, right?
And not that reading your Bible should become just something
that you do to do, but it shouldn't even be a question.
I wake up, I read my Bible, I have my prayer time.
I do this, I do that. Whatever it happens to be that
you want to accomplish for the Lord, right?
Set a goal and accomplish it for the Lord.
Most Christians are going to fit into the category of trying to
improve their physical life or their appearance or whatever
without a care in the world of what their heart looks like
before God. Turn over to Hosea chapter 10.
What a great year to truly find God.
And that's what I say. Look inside and find God.
I'm not saying that oh, we've all got a little God in US.
I'm saying what a great year to truly seek the Lord and find
Him. That's exactly what the text is
saying in Jeremiah 29. And you shall seek me and find
me when you shall search for me with all your heart.
That requires looking inside to see what's there, requires being
totally honest with yourself. That's the problem with most of
us. We're not honest.
We we lied to ourselves and say, well, I'm better than I really
AM. But The thing is, you know the
truth. You know who you are.
You know how you are. Why?
Why lie to yourself? What advantage do you have of
lying to yourself? Be honest with yourself.
Be honest with God. Most of the things that you do
that are not right, you know they're not right, and you
choose to do them anyway. Most of the things that you
don't do, that you know you should be doing, you choose to
ignore, against the prodding of the Holy Spirit, God's telling.
You you need to do this, You need to start doing this.
You need to stop doing that. Whatever it happens to be, we
know what they are, and the Holy Spirit is prodding us to do
those things, or the Holy Spirit is prodding us not to do those
things, and we ignore that prodding.
The saddest thing is when God gets to the point where He stops
doing. That Could you imagine what life
would be like if you had no prodding of the Holy Spirit
because He gave up on you? Turn you over to your flesh,
because you just. You, you, you.
Seared your conscience. And the Holy Spirit has grieved
so much that he just says, fine, go live your life the way that
you want to live your life. Could you imagine?
If God just decided to stop using you.
But there's a lot of Christians that are in that category
already. Because your life is so dirty
and you don't even recognize it, right?
The same way that I've used this illustration many times.
You go, you don't go pull a dirty cup out of the sink and
look at it and say, oh, wonder what was in there.
Let me fill it up with water and drink it.
Right. You don't do that.
You want a clean vessel. You're going to get a clean cup
out of this, out of the cabinet and you're going to use that
because that's what I want to use and and the God is the same
way. And yet we think.
What's wrong with this? It's just a little bit of dirt.
Why can't you use this? It's it's not that dirty.
Look at everybody else. Look how dirty that cup is.
Of course you would never use that one.
But I don't have that much dirt in me.
Surely you can use me, but you wouldn't do that.
Why do you expect God to do that?
And he's very plain. He says that he's looking for
vessels unto honor, but there are also some vessels under
dishonor. It's still a vessel, but it's
not a vessel that he's going to use because it's dirty.
When I say we need to look inside and find God, He's
already there. Most of the time He's just
buried under so much trash that we've just kept throwing into
our lives and never went in and cleaned out.
That's what He's waiting for us to do.
Hosea chapter 10 and verse #12 The Bible says so to yourselves
and righteousness, reap in mercy.
Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord till
He come and reign righteousness upon you.
We need to get the sin out. We need to.
Get the weeds out. We need to get the, we need the
oil, the hinges on the door of our hearts and let God back in
there and let him come in and clean house.
And instead of having certain rooms that we've blocked off, we
need to let him in. Let him go into those secret
places that you have that nobody else knows about God.
Already knows about him anyway. This is the whole, the whole top
is cut off of your house and he's already looking at it from
the top. He sees all of the junk in the
garbage that's in there anyway. And here we are looking like
this. All the doors locked.
Nobody can get inside. I'm hiding this.
This is just me. I'm the only one that knows
about this. It's naked and opened unto the
eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
That's what the Bible says. He sees it all anyway.
Why don't you just let him get in there and clean it out?
Ask him to honestly show you. What things you should get rid
of. And I promise you that he'll do
it. The problem is, most people
don't want God shining a light in those dark corners.
You already know what it is. You just don't want him to bring
it to light. You just don't want him to put a
finger on it. You know what David could say?
Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me. And see if there.
Be any wicked way in me. You know why David could say
that? Because he had gotten out
everything that he knew was in there.
You're not going to pray that prayer if you know exactly what
God's going to put his finger on as soon as you ask him, right?
You're going to go clean it up first and then you're going to
say, God, as far as I know, everything is out, everything is
clean. And I feel like I'm in a
position where you can use me, but God search me, try me, know
my heart. See if there's anything in there
if there is. I'll get it out.
I'll. Clean it.
That's the intention of that. That's the intention of David's
question. Search me.
Oh God. Can you say that this morning?
Can you honestly ask God? Come in and search my heart.
I want you to find everything because I've already gotten.
Out everything that I know. That's there, but you come in
and search me, take a flashlight and shine it into every dark
corner I. Bet you wouldn't want somebody
to come and do that in your house, would you?
There's cobwebs in those corners and some of those places, right?
I'm glad that corner's dark because you can't really see
over there, right? But when you shine a light, oh,
wow, I didn't, I didn't see that before.
But now it's really obvious, you know, let me get the let me get
the broom and clean that. Out a little bit right, That's
what search me oh God is about. Hey shine it on even the small
cobwebs that that that even I can't really see.
I don't want him to be there. If there's a cobweb, even if
it's not really visible, it's still not clean.
I want it to be as clean as it can possibly be.
God, please search my heart, try me, know my thoughts.
And see if there's any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting. Romans chapter 13 The Bible says
in that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out
of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer
than when we believe. See, the church is a sleeping
giant, and the devil's fine with that.
A giant that's asleep is not dangerous.
He could be the meanest, baddest, biggest giant out there
with the. Best armor and the.
Best weapons? If he's asleep, he's not doing
anything. He's got potential.
Wake him up and see what happens.
The devil's fine with a sleeping church.
Devil's fine with a sleeping Christian.
You're not a threat to him when you're asleep, but the Bible
says now is high time to awake out of sleep.
We need men and women who awake to righteousness and say this is
the year that I'm really going to get right with God.
We need young men and young ladies.
We need boys and girls who say I'm just, I'm just determined
that I'm going to do what's right.
When God points something out in my life, I'm going to fix it.
I'm not going to fight against it.
I'm not going to, I'm not going to argue with him.
I'm just going to fix it. I'm just.
Going to do what God wants me to do.
If the church ever awakens from her slumber, she's going to be a
force to be reckoned with. But until then, the devil is
perfectly content to let the Christians sleep, because when
they're asleep, they're not effective in God's service.
And the devil's hope is that the church will stay asleep until
Christ comes back. Time for the church to wake up.
Time for Christians to wake up. It's high time.
To awake out of sleep, turn over
to John chapter #4 and we'll be finished.
John chapter #4 The last thing I want you to see is this.
Not only should we look back and thank God, we must look forward
and trust God. We must look within and find
God. But lastly, look around and
serve God. John chapter 4 and verse #35 The
Bible says, Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then
cometh the harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up
your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white, all
ready to harvest. If we could see the world as
being filled with people who are so deceived, so lost on their
way to hell, it would change the way we work for God.
We have so much to accomplish for God and so little time to
accomplish it. You think about just just our
little area. I mean, that's not, there's 8
billion people, over 8 billion people in the world.
That's a lot of people. If you actually started
counting, I mean, I don't know how long it would take you to
count to 8 billion, but that's a huge, huge number.
And just in this area we have 400,000 people, 350,000.
People in Henrico County, many of them that don't know Christ
as their savior. I don't believe in Calvinism.
God did not predestined some for heaven and some for hell.
Maybe you never thought about that idea before, but most of us
would agree that according to the Bible, God gives every man a
free will. There's a choice to decide if
you're going to accept him or if you're going to reject.
Him. But most people are not
interested in going on and knocking on doors.
Well, if they're going to get saved, they're going to get
saved anyway. Not.
Not if you don't tell them. Not if you don't tell them they
have a free will. They're not destined predestined
to be saved or not saved. See, and that's, that's what
that's one of the things that Calvinism does for soul winning.
Well, why do I need to go soul winning?
They're going to get saved or they're not God's not going to
come back until the last one that he's predestined to be
saved is going to be saved. No, they have a choice.
And if somebody doesn't tell them they're going to die in
their sins and they're going to spend an eternity in hell.
Oh, even the people in in Africa who have never heard.
Yes, even the people in Africa who have never heard.
Because somebody. God designed to tell that didn't
answer that call and they didn't leave the person who was going
to go to that little tribe and tell them and they didn't leave
the person who's going to go to that little tribe and tell them
because they they're going to get saved.
Or they're not. No, we have the we have the
responsibility to tell them. Most people are not interested
in handing out gospel tracts to the gas station clerk or the
worker at at the drive through window.
Most people are not going to take time out of their schedule
to talk to their Co worker or talk to their neighbors about
Christ. Do you know who your neighbor
is? If you do, then go invite him to
church. If you don't, go get to know
them so you can invite him to church.
But it's not about it just inviting them to church.
It's about inviting them to Christ.
All responsibility is to give them the gospel.
Our responsibility is to see them come to know Jesus Christ
as their Savior. Don't pretend to love sinners
the way that Jesus Christ loves sinners if you don't even know
who your neighbor is and you've never tried to give them the
gospel. We have such a tremendous
responsibility laid on our shoulders as Christians.
We have the answers to the questions of life, and Jesus
Christ is that answer. And you'll sit there on the
fence and talk all day long about cryptocurrency and about
AI and about all these other different things that are, that
are big issues in the world right now.
And you'll be very opinionated about those things and you'll
disagree with them and you'll argue with them and you'll have
a conversations with your coworkers.
You don't have any problem telling them they're wrong about
those things. But then it comes to Christ and.
Well, what are they going to think if I tell them that you
don't care about anything else? Why does it?
Why is all of a sudden you're afraid to share the message of
the gospel? That's what they need more than
anything. They need Christ.
Are you willing to share Christ with them?
This year might very well be the last year you have an
opportunity to look around and serve Jesus Christ.
He might take you home this year.
He might come back this year. This may be the last opportunity
that you have that that coworker that you have that that that
that family member that you have that is not saved.
This might be the last year you have an opportunity to lead him
to Christ. Are you going to do it?
Are you? Going to be faithful to at least
share the gospel with them. You can't make him get saved,
but you sure can't tell them. You can plead with them.
You can beg them the same way that if somebody was drowning
and you said, hey, let me throw you this life preserver, let me
pull you up, I'm good right now. I'm fine.
My head's still above water. All right, Well, whatever.
They had the chance to let them drown, all right?
You're not going to do that. You're going to keep your head
over the rail and you're going to say you're going to drown
though. Let me just, I have the life
preserver. Let me throw it to you.
Let me pick you up. Stop trying to stop trying to
tell me what I have to do. Stop trying to stop trying to
fix me. But you're drowning.
Don't you realize you're going to die if you don't let me give
this to you? You would plead with somebody
who was drowning, and yet this is far more serious.
They are drowning in their sins, and not only they're just going
to die from this life physically, they will die for
eternity. Do you care?
Do you care enough to look around and serve God by sharing
the message of the gospel, by doing everything we can with the
outreach opportunities that we have?
And I'm excited about some of the new opportunities that we're
going to have. I'll talk to you about some more
of that next week. But what an opportunity we we
have to serve God. I don't think there's ever been
a time in history when we have more tools right now to serve
God with than there ever has been, and more opportunities
because there are more people unsaved now in this world than
there ever has. Been.
We have more people to share it with and more ways to share it
with them, and yet we're sharing it less.
What sense does that make? Look around and serve.
God, famous Bible commentator Matthew Henry wrote this.
There's a resolution in his journal.
He wrote this on January 1st, 17 O five.
He said this, not renouncing, but repeating and ratifying all
my former covenants with God, and lamenting it, that I have
not lived up more closely to them.
I do in the beginning of this new Year, solemnly make a fresh
surrender of myself, my whole self, body, soul and spirit to
God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, my Creator, Redeemer and
Sanctifier covenanting. And promising, not in any
strength of my own, for I am very weak, but in the strength
of the grace of Jesus Christ, that I will endeavor this year
to stand complete in all the will of God.
I know this is the will of God, even my sanctification.
Lord grant that this year I may be more holy, and walk more
closely than ever in all holy conversation.
I earnestly desire to be filled with Thy holy thoughts, to be
carried out in holy affections, determined by holy aims and
intentions, and governed in all my words and actions.
By holy principles, Oh that a golden thread of holiness may
run through the whole web of this year.
Don't fall into the trap of just making resolutions that satisfy
your flesh. Anything wrong with I want to
lose weight this year? No, go lose your weight.
Anything wrong with I want to get back in shape?
No, go get back in shape. Go do it.
It's healthy for you, it's good for you, but don't fall into the
trap of making that all. Your resolutions are about don't
get me wrong, there's not. There's nothing wrong with
making those. But as Christians, those should
not be our priorities. How about?
That I may know him. How about?
That I may be. Conformed to the image of his
son. How about that, I that I'll
share the gospel with at least one person a week?
How about that? I'm going to, I'm going to spend
at least 30 minutes a day in prayer.
How about I'm going to, I'm going to get a Bible reading
schedule. I'm going to read the Bible
through this year. How about that for a resolution?
Nothing wrong with making physical resolutions, but how
about let's focus on the spiritual things, the things
that really matter, the things that are going to account for
eternity Because this may be the last year you.
Have an opportunity to do it one of these days.
We're going to stand before God. Could you imagine standing
before him and saying, I did everything I could for you with
your help? I tried my best.
I tried to accomplish everything that you had laid out for me to.
Accomplish. Or could you imagine standing
before him and saying I could have done a whole lot more?
I wish, I wish I had done so much more.
How do you want to stand before Him?
May not be this year, but it might.
It might. I don't know if there's a place
in heaven, but I imagine that that there's a room that God
will take every single one of us into.
And all the way around that room, there's going to be
blessings that we never got because we weren't right with
Him and He couldn't give it to us.
There's going to be people that he had for us to lead to Christ
that would be fruit that would be added to our account that's
still sitting on the shelf unused because I just didn't
have the desire. There's going to be things all
the way around that room that God wanted to do with us that
are just sitting on the shelf because I didn't care enough to
be used by God. Francis Haverigail.
She wrote this poem to her friends in a card that she sent
out in 1874. Another year is dawning, dear
Father, Let it be in working or in waiting.
Another year with thee, another year of progress, another year
of praise, another year of proving thy presence all the
days. Let's get busy loving Him.
Let's get busy in our relationship with him.
Let's get busy thanking him. Let's get busy trusting him.
Let's get busy serving him. Boy, we got a we got a fresh
start. Whatever happened last year is
done 2025. I think 2025 was a good year.
But whether it was good, whether it was bad, whatever it is, put
all those things behind. This is a fresh start.
This is a new opportunity that we have in front of us.
What resolutions are you going to make to help you live for the
Lord this year? Still got a few days?
January 1st is not till Thursday.
Got a few days? Think about it.
Pray about it. What are you going?
To try to accomplish for the Lord with His help this year,
because there's still a lot left to do.
There's a lot left to accomplish.
There's so much more that He wants to do with us and through
us, but only if you're willing. Only if you're willing.
Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so
much for your goodness. Thank you so much for the fact
that we do have a new year in front of us.
Thank you for what you did in 2025.
Thank you for the ways that you work.
Thank you for the people that got saved and baptized.
Thank you for those who have, who have taken steps forward in
their relationship with you this year.
That's what it's all about, is going forward for the cause of
Christ. But God, there's still so much
left that needs to be done. Still so much left that we can
accomplish for you. May you help us this year to
resolve that we'll just live holy lives that will be godly,
that we will be people of prayer, that we will be students
of the Scripture, that we will be soul winners for the sake of
Christ. God, may you help us.
May you help us to not be lazy, that you help us to not be
nonchalant about our Christian lives.
And may you help us to accomplish even greater things
for you this year. Please speak to our hearts.
Help us, help us to have a desire to live for you.
Thank you again for all that you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.
If you would please stand at your seats with your heads bowed
and your eyes closed. I want to give you an
opportunity to respond to the message this morning.
If God spoke to your heart, the piano's going to play you.
Come talk to the Lord. The.
The.
And I hope it's a help to you.
I hope you'll take it home and think about it, pray about it,
call the Lord to use it in your heart.
We have our, our new devotional books for this month, for the
next couple months. So if men, all the men and boys,
everybody come forward and we'll pass those out.
But then we'll, we have some for the ladies and the girls as
well. But men lead the homes and these
young men are future leaders of homes.
And it's important that we keep them in prayer, lift them up in
prayer while everybody's coming. I just mentioned a couple
things. Number one, we have the quick
bookstore meeting for all those who are working in the bookstore
with brother Greg, right as soon as we finish.
And then obviously we got the poinsettias down here too.
So if you if you want one of those and feel feel free to come
grab one as well. I'm going to get brother Brian
to listen prayer. And then we're going to close
with a different song this morning than what we normally do
on Sunday mornings. We're going to close with Press
on, Heaven's not So far away. All right, Brian, listen,
prayer. Let's pray Father, I thank you
for this day you've given us thank you for the the challenge
we heard this morning. God, I pray that you'd help each
one of us to take time here at the end of the year and just
take time to think. I wonder this year, have I done
my best for Jesus and where we haven't got I pray that we would
make changes that we need to. And God, I do pray that you'd
give us goals that are from you to help us in this new year.
And I pray that you'd give us the fortitude to make good on
those goals and, and be able to accomplish this year what you
want us to accomplish. And I got it as a church and as
families and as individuals. And I got, I just pray that
you'd be with every one of us men as we lead our homes and
that you'd give us wisdom, give us strength.
And that I pray that you just help us as we lead spiritually,
that we would do our best for you in that area.
Pray that you help us, our children, that you'd help them
to surrender their hearts to you.
And God, I just thank you for the church that you've put us
in. Thank you for the way you're
leading it. And God, I just pray that you'd
help us to accomplish so much for you this year.
And God, I pray that we would start off right away in the
beginning of the year in an effort to do that.
Pray that you bring us back here safely tonight.
In Jesus name, I pray, Amen. Let's.
Close with our song. Press on.
Press on, heaven's not so far away, Press on to the
everlasting end of endless day. Press on through the power of
God's Amazing Grace, the time destroying life to build this
world. Good night.
Very soon we'll see our Savior face to.
Face Amen. We're dismissed.
Don't forget about the poinsettias if you're interested
in taking one, and also the bookstore meeting in the
bookstore here in just a couple minutes.