Looking at The New Year

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

Jeremiah 29 · chapter mention

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

Jeremiah 29 · chapter mention

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

Jeremiah 29 · chapter mention

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

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

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

1 Chronicles 23 · chapter mention

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

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

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

1 Thessalonians 5:18

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

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

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

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

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

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

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

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

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.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

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

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

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.

Ezekiel 36 · chapter mention

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

Ezekiel 36 · chapter mention

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

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

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.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

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.

Hosea 10 · chapter mention

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

Hosea 10 · chapter mention

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

Romans 13 · chapter mention

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.

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

John 4 · chapter mention

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. 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.