(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Father God, we thank you that we made it through an awesome year. Thank you for this church, for all the accomplishments that were made through this church. God, may you bless Pastor Burzins and also this church, that we can grow as a church, that we can grow as a church, that we can grow as a church, that we can grow as a church. Thank you for all the souls that have been saved this year, and God, feel Pastor Burzins with your spirit, allow for him to preach for boldness, allow for his to be attended to your word, and to take notes, and to be able to learn something new, and to take those things home with us, that we can be able to meditate on these words that you give us. We praise you, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right. So really quickly, I did forget one thing I wanted to announce, and that's we have some calendars still left over from last week. If you want a 2024 calendar, there's still some available out. There's some on the table over here, and there might be some in the back too, so if you didn't grab one, you want to get one, please help yourself to a new calendar. All right. Romans chapter 6 is where we started off reading here, and the title of my sermon this morning is A New Start, and as we are here on New Year's Eve, we're getting ready to start a brand new year. I like preaching sermons about being able to kind of wrap up things and be able to get a fresh start. New Year's are great chance to do that. You know, there's a lot of things. You might have had a good year. You might have had a bad year. You know, whatever your year was like, it's a great opportunity now to just sort of be able to put the past behind you and look forward to a new start and a new beginning. And there's, interestingly enough, even literally just today, a lot of things that are new beginnings where this is going to hit home personally for many people. One is we are going to be bidding a farewell to Ms. Chloe. It's her last service with us here. She's moving to Arizona. They're going to be driving out, so we wish safe travels, and what an exciting part of Ms. Chloe's life as she's traveling out to Arizona. She's getting married this week on Saturday and is going to be living in Arizona. So, it's going to be a great, exciting new start there, and we wish you all the best, and so please make sure you get to say your goodbyes. Obviously, the rest of the Miller family is still here, so we should still be seeing Chloe, hopefully very regularly, but we're very excited about that and wish you well. And, you know, hopefully you can get something as well personally from the sermon this morning with the new start and getting God's blessing on your year and on the new start that you're starting. And we started in Romans chapter 6 here. We have other starts that I recommend. Those of you getting baptized today, baptism is also representation of a new start, just as salvation is a new life. Right? So, the best new start you could have at all is being born again, being born of the Spirit, and you have the new creature that's born again inside of you. That is the best new start for all of us to receive is that new life of being saved, being a child of God, being born into God's family, and now being able to walk in the Spirit and walk in newness of life, which is what we see here in Romans chapter 6. Look at verse number 1. The Bible says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us, as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. And we see the baptism reference there. And what I like to explain to people when we just talk about baptism in general is that there's kind of two things happening with a baptism. Well, three, really, if you say one, it's just commanded to get baptized. So you're just being obedient right away by being baptized according to scripture. But not just that, of course, what baptism also does is it represents externally what you already believe in your heart. Right? So we call believers baptism because we only believe that that people who are saved already, who have already put their trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are those that get baptized. And the symbolic nature of baptism when you're in the water, when you're standing in the water, it's representative of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. You get dunked under the water. We do full immersion baptism, which is what baptism is. There is no other way to biblically baptize people. Sprinkling doesn't count. Pouring doesn't count. You need to be immersed. It's literally what the word means. You are being immersed. You're being immersed with water. You get fully submerged under the water, which is representative of the burial, the death and burial of Jesus Christ. And then, of course, we don't drown you. So we bring it back up out of the water. And that symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that's what your faith is in. Right. The death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ for your salvation. That's what you should already believe in your heart. When you get baptized, you're trusting in that. You are outwardly expressing that that is where your faith is. But number two, what you're also doing, or number three, depending on however I was organizing in my head. Right. Two things, three things, whatever. Is like the Bible saying here, and in Romans 5, of course, says, hey, where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. Essentially explaining eternal security because it's saying that, look, even though we're saved, you know, we still sin, but you know what, grace covers every sin. So what happens after I get saved, but then I sin? Does it, you know, well, grace covers that. Right. So God's grace and the payment that was made for your salvation covers every single sin that you do. That's why we know when we die, we are going to heaven still, even though we sin after our salvation. Because grace covers all of that. But then the next thought is, okay, well, if that's true, if grace just continues to abound and keeps covering my sin, then should we continue in sin that we could just have more, like more grace, more grace, more grace. So like just keep sinning so I could get more grace. Let's just keep on increasing the great. No, that's not, God forbid. Right. That's not what we want to do at all. Thank God for his grace. Right. But we don't we don't we ought not to be living a life of sin. We shouldn't be continuing sin in sin in order for grace to abound. It will abound. But that's not the point isn't to just now let's just continue in sin. Verse two says, God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And if you're saved, you're dead to sin. Why are you dead to sin? He explains this in verse three. I know you not that so many of us as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death. Right. Because Jesus died for our sins. We have our trust in him and he nailed our sins to the cross. Right. So in the baptism picture, your sins are being nailed to the cross that Jesus, you know, bled and died on to pay for your sins. But just as Jesus conquered death in hell. Right. He has the keys to death in hell and his resurrection. He's not bound by that. You know, when he said, my God, my God, why is thou forsaken me? That was on the cross while he was still dying. Right. And ended up paying for our sins when he became sin for us. But you know what? That sin was left in hell. He didn't just retain that sin with him. He ascended up into heaven and sprinkle his blood on the mercy seat. No, of course, that sin descended with him in hell, with his death, with his burial. And that's where it stays. And then he arises, you know, perfect, of course. I mean, Jesus Christ is perfect. He was perfect from the beginning. But just the fact that our sins were paid for, resurrection has that newness of life. Now, that's how we ought to live. Hey, we were baptized into Christ. We were baptized into his death, which in verse four then says, therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. That new man, that new creature, that new life that we have from our salvation because Jesus paid for our sins is how we ought to walk. And baptism is a good point in your life where you can just think and get your mind straight and get this new start ready to go where you say, you know what, my old man, my old self, how I was before I was saved is going to die. I'm going to mortify the deeds of my flesh. I'm going to just put away that old man, what the old man's desires were, his dreams, all these things that was just in an unsaved mind, in an unsaved world. I'm going to just let all of that die. And now I'm going to start walking in newness of life. I've got understanding now. I have the scripture. I have the Holy Spirit. And I am going to let God direct my life. And I am going to not continue in sin. I thank God for his grace. But I'm going to walk in newness of life. And for many, many, many, many, many people, baptism itself, just that act of getting baptized is a great opportunity to start doing right. And I believe that people ought to get baptized as soon as possible after they get saved. That's what's right. We see that in Acts chapter eight. There's no time waiting with the Ethiopian eunuch from the time he gets saved. He wants to get baptized right away. He's talking to Philip and Philip preaching the gospel unto him and they pass by water and the eunuch is like, well, hey, here's here's water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Why can't I be baptized? As he's preaching the gospel to him. And Philip's like, well, if you believe with all your heart, thou mayest. He's like, if you believe in Christ, then sure, yeah, let's get baptized. And this is a side note, and the sermon isn't all about baptism, but, you know, I am against churches that want to do all this extra work and classes and all this waiting around to get baptized. I mean, if it was good enough for the Ethiopian eunuch to just say, hey, is your faith in Christ you believe? He said, yes, I believe that Jesus Christ, you know, I believe Jesus Christ is the son of God. He said, believe with all that heart, thou mayest. He answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. That was all that was necessary. And that is all that's necessary. Because it's faith, first of all, that saves you. And then the baptism, I mean, that doesn't affect your salvation anyways. So why would you have to stress so much on that? Look, just do it. Just get baptized. And people ought to be baptizing as long as you know, yep, yep, your faith is in Christ, great. That was the question that Philip asked the eunuch. And that's the same question that I ask people here is, OK, just, you know, what? If you say, hey, can I get baptized? Well, are you believing Jesus Christ with all your heart? OK, then there we go. We're good. Amen. Let's do it. And then, of course, he gets baptized and then Philip's out of there. He's gone. So, but this is a great example of a new start. And you say, well, Pastor Burns, I've already been baptized, right? Where's my new start? Well, that's why I'm preaching on this for the new year, right? You could still get in the right mindset. Now, we're not going to baptize you again and again and again and again and again and again, just because you want to feel like more spiritual or something. I was referencing, you know, baptism because a lot of people, myself included. You know, I got saved earlier and then years later I got baptized and that baptism for me was a point when I did start to live for Christ. And I did start to get serious about my faith and start going to church and going soul owning and reading my Bible and getting sin out of my life. You know, and it was really a good moment to to start doing what I should have been doing the whole time, but wasn't. And, you know, this is a great opportunity as a fresh start. It is literally talking the Bible about, you know, even so, we should walk in newness of life. But maybe you're already baptized. That's fine. Look at other people's baptisms today and put yourself back there to when you were baptized and say, you know what? I'm going to start walking in newness of life now. Right? If you are continuing in sin, if you've got something in your life that has been plaguing you, let's use this as a fresh start and say, OK, there's nothing I can do about what's been done in the past. I can't change that. You can't change your past. All you can do is change your future. There's nothing you can do about what's done already. Nothing. It's done. It's over. It's gone. And there's no reason to keep dwelling on it either. Now, you ought to confess and forsake your sin. And it's and there's nothing wrong with being grieved about being, you know, being in sin or having sinned. That's normal and that's right that you could get a godly sorrow. But the godly sorrow works repentance. So the whole point then of even thinking about considering, man, I sin, I've done this, I've done that. You know, I don't want to do these things. Great. Let that guide you into repentance to stop doing those things and start doing what's right. But if you're already now on that path and you say, look, I've confessed to the Lord. Look, I've sinned. I'm not trying to hide it. I'm not trying to cover for it. I'm not trying to make excuses for it. I'll just accept I've sinned, Lord. And from here on forward, I want to do right. I'm trying to help me to to get past that. Then don't dwell on what you've done in the past. Because there's no point to that anymore. Just just be able to put it behind you. And fresh starts are important so that you don't just get bogged down and just depressed and not able to move forward because you're just being hampered by what's happened in the past. Look at verse number 10 there in Romans six. The Bible says, For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. And this new year is a great opportunity to put that past behind you. And specifically in Romans six, in turn, if you were to First Corinthians chapter six, I'm talking about a sinful past, right? I'm talking about a sinful life. We're talking about the errors that you may have made that have been in part of your life to be able to just put those to death. Let those die in 2023 and say, you know what? They're not those sins are not going to be resurrected in 2024. I'm going to walk in newness of life and and whatever you've done, just just put that in the past, mortify that and just in your mind, just consider those sins as just being dead with Christ. Just be like, look, I'm leaving that there. The old man, I'm going to mortify that old man and just leave him back and start walking in newness of life. The Bible says here in First Corinthians chapter six, and I love this passage. It there's so much truth to be gained here, but look at verse number nine. The Bible says, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And some people will take these passages. There's a few lists like this very similar to this in scripture and try to use this to teach a workspace salvation and see, see, look, if you're doing this and you're not going to heaven because the Bible says that you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. But you got to read to the next verse to get the contextual understanding of what is being stated here, right? Because if you look at the list, look, there's a lot of things on here. Fornicators, idolatry, adultery, covetousness, drunkards, right? There's some a lot of things, some bad things on this list. But then verse 11 says, and such were some of you. And some of you were found yourselves on this list. But but here's the key. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. See, when you commit sin, whatever sins you commit, you are like I like asking people when we talk about usually this is reference to lying. But first I'll say, hey, you know, how many people do you have to kill before you'd be considered a murderer? Right. Well, you just have to kill one person and you're called a murderer. Now, once you do that, you are a murderer. You say, but I never, I'm never going to kill anyone else ever again. But you're still a murderer because you've killed somebody. And look, I use this example in this extreme example, but because it's real clear to a lot of people to be like, yeah, I mean, once you kill someone, you're a murderer. You've murdered someone. You're a murderer. Well, okay, once you've committed adultery, now you're an adulterer. You say, but I'm not, I'm married now, I'm never going to cheat on my wife again. You know, like, it doesn't matter, you are an adulterer. All these things. So when it lifts off all these sins, we are those things. We are liars if you've committed lies before, which everybody has, okay. Or any other, if you've stolen something, you're a thief, right. Because nothing undoes what you've done, but here's the key, and this is what the Bible is teaching here. But here's the difference. When God views you, hey, you've been washed in the blood of Christ. You're sanctified, you're justified, not because of your own deeds, not because you stopped doing that sin or whatever, but because Jesus paid for all of that. Because all of that now, the slate is wiped clean. It's all covered under the blood of Christ. That's the good news, is that even though you might have done things, as the people here, look, look, as in such were some of you. You've done some of these things, but you know what? That's all been wiped away, that's all been washed clean. But we shouldn't be living like that. These are grievous sins. You know, it's like, you know, people won't inherit the kingdom of God because of this. So should someone who's saved by the blood of Christ be walking like this? Of course not. Of course not. But the good news is at the end of the day, you know, when you breathe your last breath, that even though you may be guilty of these things, Christ has washed all of that away from you. You're still justified through Christ's justification, not your own. And I love this, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, because it's really clear about being washed, being sanctified, and being justified. And none of that has to do with us and our merit and our goodness. It's all through the merit of Christ. Turn, if you would, to Philippians chapter 3. But that's also a good reminder, you know, when you're thinking forward and you're thinking about how the year is going to go, remember, hey, I'm washed in the blood of Christ. So now I ought to walk like a child of God. I ought to live my life and carry myself that way and not, you know, as it were, proverbially turn as a dog to its vomit. Right? And go back to the filth of sin, whatever that may have been. Try to put that behind you. Philippians chapter 3, look at verse number 12, the Bible says, Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend, that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 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. Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Now, I'm not going to parse this too detailed, but essentially, the apostle Paul here is bringing up a couple of points. Verse 13, of course, is bringing up the point that I was already making, forgetting those things which are behind. Right? Forget about it. It's done. It's in the past. Any failures especially that you might have had, forget about it. Don't worry about it. But also, even successes. You know what? Forget about it. It's behind you now. Because maybe you're sitting there thinking, like, well, I don't really, I can't really think of, like, major sin or something where I just have this big problem in my life. Well, don't just think now, looking back on the successes, and hopefully you've had a lot of them, to just kind of sit back and coast going into the new year and fall into that pattern. Because that's going to lead you then down a bad path. You need to always just, look, if you've done great, hey, great, let's rejoice. But now it's time to still keep looking forward. And keep your eye on the prize, for the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. Let's not lose sight of what's important. Let's just keep looking forward. Right? Whether it's for the good reasons or for the bad, let's not just keep, you know, spend our time looking backwards. Forget about those things which are behind. Look forward to before. And also in Philippians 3 here, we started reading in verse number 12, I think we're seeing a very similar teaching of what's happening in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Because the apostle Paul's saying, you know, he's not counting himself to have apprehended. So verse 12 says, not as though I'd already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after. And this is kind of important wording though in verse 12, the latter part. If that I may apprehend, that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. So what this is saying is, in this sense, if you think about it, I'm already saved, but I'm going to live as if I need to work to be saved. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm already saved. I'm already, as 1 Corinthians 6 was saying, I'm washed. So that I'm not going to be a drunkard or a fornicator or whatever, you know, all this list, covetous, I'm not one of these things in God's eyes because I'm already washed. But I'm not going to live that way. Right? Like I'm still going to like apprehend and not live in that regard and in that sinful state. I'm going to still, even though I know I'm already saved, I'm not going to just live a sinful life. And that's essentially what Philippians 3 is expressing as well. Look, I'm already apprehended of, but I'm going to still walk like I'm going to apprehend that. I'm still going to keep my mind focused on the prize and keep looking forward and not looking back. Turn, if you would, to Ezra chapter number 7. Now I was, I've been preaching about the mindset, of course, of walking in newness of life, being able to mortify the deeds of your flesh and be focused on being able to live a righteous, godly life going forward. But none of these things happen by accident. And this is another reason why I like talking about and preaching about these things, especially going into a new year, because you can have this, this thought in your heart of just like, yeah, I don't want to sin. Right? And it's very generic and it sounds great, but you need to like take the time for yourself. And it doesn't have to be a lot of time, but just enough to evaluate, do an evaluation and be like, where have I been failing? Where should I improve? What do I need to work on? What didn't go the way I thought it would this year? I mean, because this is a good point. Just be like, okay, look, an entire year is gone from last year. And time flies, man. And the older you get, the more, the more it just seems to go faster and faster and faster and faster, faster, faster, faster, just every single year just flies by faster than the year before. And you go, like, where did this year go? Okay, well, what did I intend on doing? What did we plan on doing? What was it that I wanted to do, didn't get done? Where was I failing? Where did I start backsliding? You know, all these different things. And I think about that and say, okay, you know what? Well, this year is going to be different. I'm going to change this. But you have to, you have to change something. You can't just want to like, well, I just don't want that to happen again. Okay, but what are you going to do to make sure that that doesn't happen again? And this is why so many people do New Year's resolutions, right? Because you're going to resolve to say, okay, I'm not going to do this. But most resolutions fail when you don't have a plan on how to implement and how to execute exactly what you're going to do. There's not having a plan and just not starting are kind of, I think, probably some of the two biggest reasons why resolutions fail. So be aware of that. If you're going to change something in your life, one, start doing it right away. Like, I wouldn't even wait till tomorrow. The only thing you have to wait till tomorrow for is our challenge for the Bible reading. But so read, you know what, read nine chapters today and just get that going, you know, whatever. The point is, and that's just a challenge, you know, that's not necessarily, you know, fully applicable to what we're talking about here. Whatever it is, I mean, especially if it's something sinful, like get that out of your life immediately. Make a plan and start doing things different now. And that's always applicable. And even if you fail later, don't be like, well, I mean, I'll wait till next year. No, just forget it in the past and keep moving forward. But get a plan and purpose things in your heart. I've got a few examples from scripture where people succeed because they actually take the time. They make it a purpose in their heart. And that's the terminology that's being used, being purposed in your heart. I'll read for you from Psalm 17, verse three, the Bible says, Thou has proved mine heart. Thou has visited me in the night. Thou has tried me and shall find nothing. I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. Now, how the Bible talks a lot about just sinning with your mouth and how easy it is and how the tongue is a small member. But it's it's a world of iniquity. It's, you know, the fires kindled of hell and really goes into detail about that. The Book of Proverbs talks a lot about sinning with your mouth and how there's so I mean, there's so many ways you can do it. Right. Speaking foolish things is a sin. You know, backbiting, gossiping, all kind, all manner of sin that you can do with your mouth. Well, how would you control that? You need the purpose that your mouth is not going to transgress. And the reason why the psalmist here is so confident, he says, look, you proved my heart. You visited me in the night. You tried me and you're going to find nothing. Why? Because I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. It is a priority. I am making this very important to make sure I am not going to transgress with my mouth. And you could come and check on me and you could come and see me in the night. You could come and visit me. And I am purposed that that's not going to happen. You have to have that plan. You have to have that purpose established. Take consideration. Take the time as we move forward and get this new start going for yourself. Daniel Daniel one eight is another example. Again, you're in Ezra seven. But Daniel Chapter one, the Bible says in verse eight, But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat. Remember, the children of Israel have taken captive and they're put into different groups and they're getting this education from the Babylonians, especially the children. And then they were being fed with the meat and the wine of the Babylonians. And the king said, OK, here's what you're going to give them and had a whole, you know, public school meal plan set out for them or whatever. And Daniel was purposed in his heart that he's not going to be defiled. So what are some of the things that could have been offered? You know, the wine could have been alcoholic wine. And, you know, he's like, look, no, I'm a child of God. I'm not going to have that. The meat could have been offered unto idols. I mean, it doesn't say that specifically, but those are very good examples of what could have been being offered to them that would have defiled him. Right. And he says, look, I'm not going to be defiled with the portion of the king's meat nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. So what does he do? Because he had that purpose in his heart, like I'm not going to let this happen, he went and made the request. He decided this is important for me. I don't want to fail in this area. I am not going to allow myself to be defiled with meat and drink. And instead of going, well, I mean, he said that's what I have to have, so I'm just going to go ahead and do it. No, he spoke up and he used tact because it says he requested of the prince. Right. So he's entreating, but he had a purpose in his heart saying I'm not going to be defiled. And now he's trying to find ways to make everything work. And he works with this guy, the prince of the eunuchs, to actually allow for it. He's like, OK, well, wait, wait, wait, how about you just try it out, try it out on me, try it out on my buddies, and just see, just give us some time, let's see if this works. You can see how our appearance is going to be, and it's like a trial basis at first. Now, he had a purpose in his heart. I don't think he was ever going to defile himself. But he worked it out in such a way with his wisdom to be able to still keep himself undefiled from that. And, you know, I think about things as well like work. You know, a lot of times jobs will try to get you to miss out on church. You know, but are you purposed that, no, I'm going to make sure I'm in the house of God and I'm not going to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Whatever the case may be, I'm going to make sure I do this. I'm going to purpose. Well, you need to speak up about that then. You can't just be like, well, they scheduled me again. No, I mean, do something, say something, put a plan into action to make sure. I mean, how purposed are you in your heart? And this is the point, you know, when you purpose your heart, you are setting it that this is what's going to happen as we saw in Psalm 17. Look, I'm purposed, my mouth's not going to transgress. In order to do that, you really got to be focused on that and put different maybe rules into place for yourself as well to make sure that you don't transgress with your mouth. Ezra, chapter seven, we see a great success with Ezra. Look at verse number six, the Bible says this, Ezra went up from Babylon and he was already scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given, and the king granted him all his request according to the hand of the Lord is God upon him. So Ezra was already, he was a scribe, he was studying the word of God, he cared about the word of God. He was in his heart to go and rebuild Jerusalem and to just, you know, to do the Lord's work. And it says he was already scribe, like he was on it. And we see here, of course, God is involved, but the king grants him all his requests. So everything that he wanted, he's now getting granted. Verse seven, and there went up some of the children of Israel and of the priests and the Levites and the singers and the porters and the Athenians unto Jerusalem in the seventh year of our exerts, he's the king. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king, for upon the first day of the first month, he began he to go up from Babylon. And on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem according to the good hand of his God upon him. But then look at verse number 10. Why did all of this happen? For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. God opened up the door for him. He purposed in his heart, God, I'm seeking out your law and not only am I seeking out, I want to know it, I'm going to do it. And not only am I going to seek it and look for it and do it, I'm going to teach it as well. And he had that purpose, he had that goal, he had that set in his mind, in his heart, this is what I'm going to do. And then, of course, it's a very godly thing and God answered his prayer and God gave him the thoughts and intents of his heart to do this work and to do this great thing and it was blessed. And allow God to work in your life. Set good goals for yourself. Purpose in your heart in the coming year. What goals do you want to accomplish? Maybe there's an area lacking where you're thinking, and a lot of these things are just going to be spiritual right now. I'm thinking maybe you feel like, I haven't read my Bible, here's a good start, I haven't read my Bible cover to cover ever. I don't know if I've ever done that. Why don't you make that a goal for this year and set it in your heart and don't allow other things to get you off track and say, you know what? No, I am going to make time and this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to make sure this gets done. And I'm going to figure out how much I need to read, which by the way, you read four chapters a day, you can accomplish that. That is very, very little when you actually think about it. If you just want to get the whole Bible read in one year, you can read four chapters a day. It's about 15 minutes of your time every single day. But you've got to just do it every day. You do it every day, you will have the entire Bible read and then a little bit extra just by doing four chapters every day. It's not difficult, but you have the purpose in your heart. You have to get that set. You know, if that's one area, when you think about your prayer life, think about soul-owning, church attendance, you know, like all these things that are spiritual things that you know that God would want you to do. Think back on your life. Think back on the past year. Think about the areas where maybe can I do some improvements? What have I not done so well? Or, you know, I think I've got a pretty good routine on some things. What more can I do now? What area can I excel in and exceed in and do better at just in general and focus on that? And don't bite off more than you can chew, right? Be reasonable with your plans, with your, you know, if you do a resolution, if you do anything of the sort, you know, be reasonable with that so you're not just attempting, you know, because, I mean, the way things work, and it's also important to keep this in mind as well too, you know, you're going to get the big success usually in a series of small successes, and it will accumulate, and over time you just get to this point where, you know, you've been continuing to work on things, and, you know, if you had zero time set aside, for example, to do Bible reading or to do praying or anything like that, to just be like, well, I'm just setting two hours apart every single day now to do this, you're probably going to fail at that, right? Because you've filled your time with too many other things in that amount of time. Now, it doesn't mean you can never get to that point, but I would just recommend starting with, hey, why don't I start off with the 15 minutes? Like, let's just do that, right? And then you can work on increasing that, and then increase that, and then increase that and build the habit and change your life with these increments, right? Now, if you're involved in some big sin, okay, look, cold turkey, stop. Like, just, you know, don't wean yourself off of fornication, okay? Like, just don't do it anymore, okay? Don't wean yourself off of these things. Now, maybe if there's some hard, hard drug and, like, there's health reasons or something, you might need to wean yourself off, like, that would be a situation that might make sense. But, look, that should be very rare, okay? And if you're a drinker or a smoker or whatever, like, just quit. Just stop. Just stop. It's the only way to do it. Just stop. Don't wean yourself off of these things. Any sins you've got in your life, I mean, just stop doing those. It's easier to stop cold turkey on stuff than it is to add new things that are good for your life, right? Like, that's what I was saying. You know, if you want to add doing, oh, I'm going to dedicate all this extra time to doing something, that's harder to do, but stopping doing something should be a lot easier. And, look, with addictions, I know they're not always easy, and sin in general can be addictive, whatever. Like, many, many sins can be addictive, not just substance abuse, but there's all manner of sin that can be addictive. But the best way, literally, I'm just telling you, just stop. The sooner you stop, the sooner you get past the draw of the addiction, and then it'll just be done. And I've dealt with addictive substances in the past, so I know the craving, but I'm telling you, you know, you prolong the craving the more, even if you give into it less than you normally, you're still just prolonging it that much more in your life. Just cut it out and be done with it. And purpose in your heart, if that's something that you, you know, are struggling with, or you want to get out, like, just do it. Say, you know what, maybe I've struggled in the past, maybe this has been a problem for me for years. You know what, it's a new year, let's just start right now. I'm just going to say, I'm done, I'm going to take the first step, and I'm going to say I'm not going to defile myself. Like, I'm going to purpose, like Daniel purposed, I'm not going to be defiled. And you know what, just get rid of it. If it's booze, dump out another booze at your house, just get rid of it. Don't just let it sit there and be like, well, maybe I might, you know, like, if it doesn't work out, that was a pretty expensive bottle. Like, don't leave your heart in San Francisco, like, just get rid of it. Right, but I just bought this carton of cigarettes, like, dump it in the trash. That's where it belongs. We've all probably had to go through things like that. I had a music collection a long time ago that was really valuable, rare stuff, but it was all garbage. It was all garbage stuff, it was all stuff that I know that Jesus wasn't happy with me just pumping into my ears. So just get rid of it, destroy it, be done with it. And whatever the case may be, right, for you, whatever that is, just purpose it in your heart and think about it and say, you know what, I'm going to do this, I'm going to get rid of this, or I'm going to start doing this. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Actually, no, just go to Romans 5, I'll read Hebrews chapter 12 for you. Romans chapter 5. Just one final point here on getting that fresh start, getting that new start. You're going to need patience to accomplish the things that you want to accomplish. The Bible says in Hebrews 12, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. We have this race, this marathon race that we're running that's called the Christian life. And we're trying to improve. We're trying to get better. We're trying to run this race stronger and better and more effectively and not lose ground and keep gaining ground and keeping our eyes on that prize. We want to keep doing it. So, hey, the sins, they weigh you down. That's baggage you don't want to have in this Christian race. But you also need to run this race with patience because it's a long race. It's the long haul. We're not doing short sprints. We're trying to keep going at it. So you need the patience so that you don't get discouraged. You need the patience to endure. You need the patience to get through. But keep moving forward. Keep going the right direction. Keep your eyes focused on that mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. Romans 5, verse number 3, the Bible says, And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. So, you know, yeah, we've had struggles. We've had tribulations. You've had tribulations this year. I'm sure. 2023, you've had your share of trials and troubles and tribulations. But you know what? Those tribulations work patience. Because once you've been through something, allow that to help you to know what's to come. Any trial you go through, any testing, any hard, difficult times prepares you for the future. And maybe you didn't do everything right and handle those trials the best way at the time. But now you've learned more. Now you've grown more. And the next time, you know, if it does happen to rear its head again, you can be like, okay, yeah, I did this wrong before. Now let's do it right this year. And every year we can reset and say, you know what, okay, I've done some good things. I've done some bad things. Hopefully you're learning from the bad things. And I'm going to move forward into this new year and just work with patience and continue to move forward to gain that experience. Because when you're patient, you're not just giving up. When you hit the hard times and you give up, you're not getting any patience from that. You quit. You're out. You're done. But when you just get through that, that works the patience. And then when you have the patience to get through something, now you're gaining experience. And that experience is going to be very helpful and very useful. Because then with that experience, now you're getting hope. The experience leads you to, okay, I know, hey, I know this is going to end. One, like this isn't just going to be that I can make it through this. I've made it through hard times before. I can make it through this. And get through that. And take what we've learned in the past and now apply it for going forward. And I think of this, you know, this is maybe a silly, worldly example. Just recently I had the opportunity to go on a hunt with my boys. And this is, I've never done hunting from a blind before. But it was a great opportunity. I've done a lot more of like hiking hunts where you're stalking and doing a lot of moving. So, but in this hunt it was great because I had the opportunity to go with the kids, with my boys, and to try to teach them. I have experience. I have patience. Now I'm much more mature. I've grown up a lot. And again, I know this is kind of maybe a silly, worldly example. But there's times you could be sitting there. I was sitting there in the blind and it could be boring. And it's cold and it's uncomfortable. Right? And literally this weekend is when I was able to go. So it was cold. It was like 32 degrees outside. It was cold. Right? And you're tired because you're getting there before dawn. You want to get the right time. And you're waiting and waiting and looking and waiting and waiting. And sometimes, like which is what happened this time, you don't see anything. But as you're waiting, you know, early on it's easy to want to quit. I'm cold. I'm tired. I don't see anything. I just want to quit. But the experience will tell you, well, no, if you stick it out, you know, the time could come. And here's the thing. Once you experience when that time comes, so when the animal you're hunting for then does come across your path, I mean, like that's what it's all about. Because now it's like, oh, man, there, you know, then the excitement starts and then, you know, the thrill of the hunt. And then you're, you know, and then really everything kicks into just being really interesting, really exciting. And this is what it's all about. And that's what you're waiting for. That's what you're waiting for. For the young, like bringing my boys out there, they don't know anything about that because they've never even experienced that before. So you've got to encourage them to, no, no, no, you know, like we're going to stay. We're going to stay. We're going to keep doing this. Like we're going to, you know, watch and it will be worth it. And, okay, we went out once and didn't see anything, but that doesn't mean we're not going to still try and go out again because it's still fun. You get to that point. Now, look, again, you could never go hunting and that's fine, right? But the concept of being able to stick through it and keep that patience because there's reward in the end is important to learn for greater matters, right? For things that, for example, to have the faith knowing, hey, this is what the Word of God says, but I'm not really seeing this play out in my life the way that maybe I think it should be playing out. I'm trying to do everything right, but there's all, everything's falling apart around me. No, stay with it. Keep patience. We know in the end that things, all things work together for good to them that love God, to those that are called according to His purpose. Okay, all things will work together. We just, we have to be able then to endure and have that patience to get to that prize, to get to that end point. And you can make other applications the same way. It's like competing in any type of race. The training part's never fun. The putting your body through, you know, waking up early or staying up late and putting in all the time and all the hours and it's just kind of like, why am I even doing this? I'm like torturing my body, getting ready to try to do some, you know, win some race or whatever. But then it's when you win the race, that's what it's all about. It's like, this is awesome, I beat everybody. You put in the time, you put in the effort, you put in the work, you put in the hours and now you've won and that's what it's all about. And look, we're running a race. It's not a carnal race though. We're not running this race to win some crown or some gold medal or something that's just going to perish here in this earth, in this world. Our race is a Christian race, it's a spiritual race and we're going to stay, you know, you need to stay patient and just keep enduring and know, look, the more you keep, the more you stick with this, stick with the godly life, the Christian life, there's going to be ups and downs. There's going to be times where people fail you. There's going to be times where you're disappointed. There's going to be times where things don't seem to all be cracked up the way that you want them to be. But keep going forward and stay at it because there is a goal, there is an end, there is a high calling, there is a prize. And you know what, even if men around you fail, even if people around you fail, even if, you know, whatever is going on, the Lord knows and sees all and there is a judgment seat of Christ and there is a day coming that you will be recompensed for the work that you do. And it is all, and it will all be worth it. It is all worth it. But you've got to just stay the course. And we are like, I would liken this to the way that my children don't, they don't know any better at all with what I'm trying to show them. Similarly, we know so little about what's to come ultimately, right, in our human minds with just what God has given us and our own understanding of things. But there is so much more, what we can have, you know, eye hath not seen, ear not heard, the things that God has prepared for us. We just have to operate on faith and know and trust the same way I can tell my children, hey, they should trust me. I have experience, I know more than them, I have a lot more knowledge and wisdom than they do on certain matters and be like, look, you're going to love it, it's going to be worth it, we're going to do this. It's great, and give them that instruction, well, God has given us the instruction, no, stay with it, endure, don't faint, don't be weary in well doing, keep going because there is a prize, there is a high calling, there is more to this life. And even if everyone around you falls out and backslides out of the race, you just need to keep pushing forward. Use this year as the new start, reset, clear the slate of whatever the past has had for you and move forward now. But move forward in the right direction and think about things that God would have you to do and make the adjustments necessary, even if it's just small tweaks. Just say, you know what, I'm going to do this different going into next year. Purpose it in your heart and make sure that that's at the forefront of your mind, going like, I'm going to do this and not just forget about my goal. Yeah, whoops, I guess I was going to do that and now that never happened. Pick a couple of things, one thing, two things, whatever. Don't again, don't just try to take on the whole world and just change everything radically, you know, all in a year. Focus on some elements that can keep pushing you forward, though, and that you can attain it. And then, hey, maybe maybe it doesn't take you a whole year to do and you start doing this. Great. Now adjust and keep pushing the bar forward. Let's bow our heads, have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for showing us the right way, for giving us the great instruction from your word. I pray you please help us in our lives to be able to do a proper introspection and see what we where we may have failed in the past so that we can make corrections. Dear Lord, and really move move forward this year as a church individually and to just do a lot greater works for you and that we would make the proper changes in our life to do better. Lord, we love you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Now, I want to make this comment and I didn't write in my notes, which is why I forgot to mention it. But as a church, just in general, you know, last year we've seen overall the greatest growth that we've ever seen by a lot. So as a church, like our church is doing great and you probably already realize that. But it's I like keeping track of things, like keeping track of numbers, because I like seeing it and seeing data and just seeing where we're at. And, you know, this last year, 2023, we've literally averaged on average Sunday morning attendance has been over 100 people. On average, so that's the low days as well as the high days, which is great because we don't have that many like really high days. We have probably more lower days than we do have, like like extremely high day attendance days. So averaging out over 100 is is significant for our church. And what I've also noticed is that because I keep track on the giving and on the on the attendances and on the salvations. Just if I were to just kind of put all of those records together, you know, like we've grown and done a lot more just in 2023 compared to any other year over year. So for the past five years, if I just look the growth from year one to year two, year two to year three, year three to year four, year four to year five. Right. This past calendar year, 2023, we've grown much more than any other year that we've been in existence. So what's cool about that, and this is why I'm bringing this up, is where we're at in the church life span. I've already seen this with other even like other like minded churches that are older than ours. All follow a very similar pattern of growth. Right. So as long as we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, we're showing up, we're you know, the word of God's being preached. We're going out winning souls. We're trying to do everything according to his word. We're getting to a point to where we'll probably start seeing even more growth. And, you know, this year as a church, the big emphasis and the big push is going to be on that new church plant. The reproduction of churches. Right. So we start small. We start by trying to reproduce, by bringing forth new converts and new believers and getting new disciples and people following, getting excited about the things of God here locally. And, you know, that never stops. That should never stop. That should just always be the first works and the focus. We're always going to be doing that. But then as we grow, we can start doing greater things. We'll start organizing now more like like missions trips where we haven't done that yet. This is on the agenda where we start doing greater things. We're going to spend more time and more resources reaching out and getting and just reaching more people. Right. And part of that is by starting a new church plant to reach a whole new community that is one that will never reach like from here. Right. So we're starting a new church plant and getting things going out there. And that is the goal is to keep moving forward and to keep the growth, spiritually speaking. And, you know, things have been going great here. And but we're not going to just be like, oh, man, great. Yeah, that was an awesome year. And then just keep talking about how awesome. Oh, man, look, like I'm already done. Today's not even over yet. I'm already done with 2023. I'm already looking forward to 2024. Let's let's keep pushing forward as a church. All right. I'm going to turn the service over to Brother Peter. Now he's going to lead us in our last song. So to take wonderful grace of Jesus. So. I just sing this out on the first. Jesus. I. Like a mountain. Water. Greater. By the way. Wonderful race. My. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Great singing. Thank you so much for coming, you guys. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.