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

Alright, now Romans chapter 6, look at verse number 1, it says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now this is a continuation of Romans chapter number 5, so we're going to have to go back a little bit to see this in context with Romans chapter number 5. So jump back just to verse number 20 of Romans chapter 5, because it says here, Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now what he's saying there in Romans 5 is a great chapter that goes into Christ dying for the sins of everyone and that he died once for everybody. So in verse 20 chapter 5 it says, The law entered, meaning the law was brought in, because before Moses, the Mosaic law, the law wasn't given that way, like that came with Moses. So he's saying here the law entered that the offense might abound, abound means like increase and just multiply. So he's saying well the law came in because as soon as the law comes in, people are already sinners. Once it's stated and written down to say hey this is the law, it's just going to become apparent, it's going to become obvious, oh wow I am a breaker of the law, I'm really not that good. See if the law didn't exist, we'd all probably, even though we'd still all be sinners, we'd all be doing a lot of the same things, it'd be a lot harder to point out and understand oh no wait I really am, I really am breaking God's law because if it's not written down it'd be a lot harder to see that. So when the law came he said look the offense is abound, but, it says but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. So even though sin abounds through the law, grace surpasses that. God's grace, God's forgiveness of those sins has gone above and beyond all those sins. This is the thing that a lot of people have a hard time with when you go out sowing them. They have a hard time comprehending this and they don't like to accept it because they'll say wait a minute, because they explain to them look, salvation is a free gift. It's not by your own works, it's not by how good you are, all you have to do is put your faith in Christ and he forgives all of your sins and they try to explain look, it's not just what you've done in the past, it's even the sins in the future. He paid 100%. We do not have to obey the law in order to go to heaven because we can't do it. It's impossible. People think about that and when they start to understand that some people have a problem they'll say well wait a minute, then what you're saying is that I can just go out and as long as I believe in Jesus I can just go out and do whatever I want and I'll still go to heaven. People have a hard time with that and you know what? What does the Bible say right here? It says we're sin abounded, grace did much more about it. So what's it saying? If sin abounds, if sin abounds in your life, what's going to happen, is grace going to bow? Yeah? It will. Now, okay, that being said, see that's salvation, right? That's just being saved from your sins, but is that what we should do? Just because if I were to continue sinning, which I'll tell you what, news flash, I am going to keep sinning, I'm not perfect, I'm not the perfect man up here, I'm living in this flesh and I have this battle every single day to try to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh, but I'll tell you what, I'm not perfect and I am going to continue to sin, which is why we need that grace to abound. Now, whether I choose to sin or not, either way, grace is going to abound. We have that grace, but should I just say, hey, I know that grace is going to abound, the Bible says it's going to abound, so I'm going to go out tonight, I'm going to party it up, I'm going to commit adultery, I'm just going to do whatever I want, whatever feels good. Is that what I should do? Of course not. That's where we catch up in Romans chapter six, verse number one, it says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. You say, look, God forbid, don't we're not going to continue in sin just because grace is going to abound or that grace might abound over all those sins. That's not what we're going to do and that's not the mindset that we have. Now, people have a problem with that because they have a problem just accepting a free gift. That, look, it's not what you do. See, they have this attitude where they like to look at others and say, I'm better than them, that person can't go to heaven because they're not living as good as I am. And that's a proud attitude and that's one of the reasons why people don't end up getting saved because they can't humble themselves enough just to accept that free gift. But look, I'm going to get past that now because what I want to preach on today is what it says there in verse number four, it 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. Now we're heading into a brand new year, 2013 is coming to an end, 2014 is going to be starting up right around the corner. And I want to preach a sermon to help motivate you to walk in newness of life. This is something that we all do, look, we're saved, grace abounded, grace is abounding to cover all of our sins, but should we continue in sin? God forbid, God forbid that we would continue in sin. Let's strive to walk in newness of life. Now just because we're in this chapter, I want to just explain this real briefly about baptism because this is one of the times that baptism is mentioned and he's kind of using this to help us understand something. In verse three it says, know ye not that so many of us as we're baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? And then, of course, like we just read, 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. So baptism, what it is, it's a representation of what Jesus did. It's a symbol. When we baptize, of course, we believe in full immersion of baptism. It means you go completely under water and come back up. I'm not going to get into it because this sermon isn't just about baptism, but there's lots of places in the Bible where you can see that that's true, where John was baptizing near Avon because there was much water there, I mean you don't need much water just to pour some water over someone's head or do some sprinkling or something, you need much water to be able to go down and come back up. But what this is saying is that we're buried with him by baptism into death. So when we're baptizing someone and you go under that water, that is symbolizing, that's a picture of Jesus Christ's death, Jesus Christ being buried in the grave. You go down under that water, ok? But thanks be to God, and thanks be to you if you're getting baptized, you're going to come right back up out of that water because that symbolizes Jesus Christ's resurrection and him not being holding up death, coming back up out of the grave and being glorified to the glory of God the Father and what that does is that's a symbol for us, you know of course it's a picture of Jesus Christ and what he did for us on the cross when he died and rose again and when we get baptized, one of the things that it does is it displays that, it shows that, it shows that publicly that you're believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ for your salvation, but also it's so that we should walk in newness of life. So when you get baptized, think of it as this way, you're dying to your old self. We're buried with him in baptism and think of it that way where you're, you know, all of the old sins, all of the things that you've done, you're just going to bury that. You're going to put it away so that you can walk in newness of life and we'll leave that there, you get dumped under the water, hey I'm leaving all those old sins there, I'm dying to my flesh, I'm dying to myself, I'm dying to that ungodly lust and flesh I have and I'm going to walk in newness of life and that's part of why baptism is important, it's one of those things. It pictures that but it also explains that it's something that we can do here to walk in newness of life and it says, for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. In the likeness of our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin. We don't want to continue to serve sin because I'll tell you what, sin brings you into bondage. Sin makes you a slave. Sin makes you do things that when you got started you weren't planning on doing at all. When you get started in the sin, hey it looks great, you're just going to dabble with it a little bit, you're just going to have a little bit of fun, but I'll tell you what, every single time you start getting into sin, it's going to bring you into bondage, it's going to make you its slave so that you don't even have a choice anymore, you're just going to keep on doing it, keep on serving sin and just do the same stuff over and over and over again. We don't want that. I don't want that. I don't want to be a slave, I don't want to be in bondage to sin. I want to walk in newness of life. We see the same thing here. In Romans 6 he describes baptism and kind of uses that analogy to walk in newness of life. Look at Romans 7, just one chapter over, because in Romans 7 he uses marriage, which is a slightly different illustration, but it's the same concept. Romans 7, look at verse number 4, it says, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. So we all should walk in newness of life. I want to point that out too, in both places you notice that it says that we should walk in newness of life. There are a lot of false doctrines out there today that will tell you, oh, if you're saved, you're not going to sin anymore, you're just going to keep on doing good. And people try to make you doubt your salvation, and that's just not true. Now the Bible says, what must we do to be saved, that's must, what do we have to do? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what should we do? We should walk in newness of life. It doesn't say anywhere here, it says we shouldn't continue in sin. God forbid we should continue in sin. We shouldn't do that. We should try to do all these different things. We should try to live a godly, righteous life. But if we don't, it doesn't make you not saved, it doesn't mean you're not, it's just something that we ought to do. It's the best thing that we should do, it's what we should be doing. But make sure that you keep those words clear and that you understand and you read the Bible very carefully, especially when someone's trying to tell you something and maybe that doesn't sound right, hey wait, what does the Bible really say? Because normally what people also try to do is they'll try to tell you what the Bible says without actually like bringing the Bible out and reading it word for word. They'll say, oh yeah, the Bible says that, you know, if you're not saved, then you're not going to sit anymore. And they'll just say things like that, they'll make statements, and that's not really what the Bible says. You have to look and see exactly what does it say in context and what is it talking about. Now here we see that he's just equating, you know, before we saw the picture of baptism, now we see the picture of being married, you know, we don't want to be married to our old self, to old sinful us, we want to just, we want to be married into God. We want to say, you know, in the way of course God is the Father and the same way that the Bible describes a biblical marriage, the husband is the head of the household and the wife is supposed to be submissive unto the husband, that is the way that God defines marriage in the Bible, that is the way that God has laid it out for the relationship between a man and a wife to be married, that the husband is the head, he's the ruler, he's the chief, and that the wife obeys her husband and, you know, the husband is supposed to love their wife, you can read Ephesians 5, there's many other places that talk about that relationship, but the thing is, one of the reasons why it's important is because God uses the illustration of marriage in many places, because we are supposed to be like the wife to God the Father, we're supposed to be in that role of being submissive, of being subservient to him, in obeying him and being completely obedient to whatever he says, whatever he tells us to do, and I think he uses that illustration here for, again, walking in newness of life and think of ourselves as being married unto Christ, being married unto God, and whatever he wants us to do, that's what we're going to do. Now, again, like I said earlier, we're heading into a brand new year, I wanted this to be a new start, and that's the cool thing about New Year's, you know, I've never been one, honestly, I've never been one for New Year's resolutions, it's never been something that I've done a whole lot of, but it's not, it's definitely not a bad thing at all, I don't think it's a bad thing. God has given us time, and time is kind of cool, I mean, there's a lot of places, you know, when the sun comes up, it's a brand new day, you know, whatever happened yesterday, we can just put that behind us, it's gone, it's over, that's in history, ok? We have now, we have the future, we have a brand new day, today's a brand new day, hey, maybe today, maybe yesterday was terrible for you, maybe yesterday you had a horrible day, just one bad thing after another happened, you know what, today's, you go to bed, you wake up, it's a brand new day, you got a fresh start, and as this year's winding down, you know, maybe 2013 wasn't your best year that you've ever had, maybe it wasn't that great for you, but you know what we get to do, we can just chalk up and say, ok, that's done, that's in the past, I'm not going to sit here and dwell on those things I've done in the past, I'm not going to just, you know, wallow in my own misery or whatever, and just stay focused on the past and on bad things that happened, that's not what I'm going to do, and that's not what we should do, let's look forward, let's get our minds set, the Bible says in Philippians 3, 13, says, 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. There's a lot of things that we want that you can, and again, that's a cool thing, hey look, we're going into a new year, let's just put the past behind us, leave it in the past, and let's stay focused on what are we going to do in the future, let's stay focused, hey, 2014's going to be a great year for me, 2014's going to be a great year for our church, 2014, we're going to make some changes, I'm going to make some changes in my life that is going to just better me, that's going to get me closer to my walk with God, that's going to do these things, I mean, like I said, I'm not one, I've never been one to make resolutions, but you ought to make a plan for yourself, how are you going to do that, because these things don't happen by accident, if you want to make changes in your life, they don't happen by accident, you have to put something into motion, you have to think about going forward, and think about your life, and think about what do you want to do, what do you want to accomplish, set goals for yourself, think about it, say, you know what, I want to, for example, I want to read the Bible cover to cover next year, by the end of next year, that's what I want to do, so that's a good goal to have, if you've never read the Bible for yourself before, that's a very good goal to have, set that goal for you, make a plan, the Bible says I'm going to read some of this for you in Luke 14, Luke 14 and verse 26 says, if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brother and sisters, yea, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple, those are pretty strong words coming from Jesus Christ, and look, if you don't hate your mother and father and sister and brother, he's basically saying look, you can't have more love for your family than you do for me, you can't have love for your own self more than you do for me, do you want to be my disciple, see that, he's not talking about being saved, he's talking about being his disciple, being a disciple of Christ, that's someone who follows Christ, that's someone who's doing the work of Christ, that's someone who's doing a lot more than is just saved, so he's saying look, you can't be my disciple, if you don't hate your father, your mother, your children, your sisters, your brothers, and your own self, that's the type of dedication he demands if you want to be his disciple, you have to be willing to do anything for him, and he says in verse 27, whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple, you have to be willing, you have to bear that cross, whatever that cross is, whatever that burden is, you have to be able to bear that, verse 28 says, for which of you, intending to build a tower, and now he's going to explain this, what you need to do in order to be able to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, in order to do this, for which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether you have sufficient to finish it, so he's not always just using a parable, he's now saying look, if you want to build a tower, I want to build a tower in my backyard, he said, who's going to build a tower and not first, and now I say okay, what are the materials going to cost, how much time is it going to take, do I have enough money to do this, because no one's going to start doing that if you say, well, the tower's going to cost me $500, but I only have $200, so I'm just going to go out for the $200 and start building it, that would be ridiculous, no one's going to do that, you're going to say, oh, well, I don't have enough to do it, so I won't even start it, or you're going to say, oh, yeah, okay, well, I've got $1,000, so $500 is no problem, go out and get the materials and we'll get it finished, we'll get it done, says less happily, after he had laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish, or one king going to make war against another king sitteth not down first and consulted, whether he be able with $10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with $20,000, or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an amassage and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you, that forsaken is not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghill, but if men cast it out, he that hath the ears to hear, let him hear. So he uses these two analogies, one of going to war, saying, look, you're going to sit down, you're going to figure out, you know, how many troops do I have, am I going to be able to overcome this enemy, they've got this much power and this much force, and this is what we're dealing with, are we going to be able to win, are we going to be able to do this, are we going to be able to complete what we're setting forth to do, and that's what we need to do. For one, we need to know what cost is involved, and Jesus Christ is telling us, look, it's going to cost you everything, it could cost you everything to follow in, and you have to be prepared for that. If that's what you want to do, you say, you know what, I want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, a lot of people choose not to, but if that's something you want to do, you have to realize the cost first, and that's what he's explaining here to people that follow him, he's saying, look, do you want to be a disciple of mine, let me lay this out for you real quick here, let me just show you, you have to understand the cost involved in this, because what's going to happen is, if you start to follow, if you say you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, but you don't understand the cost, you don't understand what's involved, and then you just end up quitting and getting out, people are going to look at that, they're going to mock that. That's going to do more damage than it is good. People are just going to say, oh yeah, look at this person, he tried to live a Christian life and he failed, and they're just going to make a mockery out of it, and you don't want people to make a mockery out of that, it gives occasion for people to speak against Christ, even though it's not Christ's fault, it's just, we need to realize the cost that's involved, and knowing in advance is going to help you out a lot, because this is not going to catch you by surprise. If you know going into it, hey, this is going to be hard work, this is going to be maybe a struggle, but I know this, so when those hard times come, when the big costs come, when the big expense comes, you can deal with it, and you can deal with it a lot better, because you've already sat down and thought about it, you've already figured, okay, well yeah, I know it wasn't going to be easy, I know it's going to be hard, I know some things are going to come my way, I can get through this, this isn't just, it didn't just blindside me and it's just coming out of nowhere, and I'm totally shocked by it, and not prepared. We really need to be prepared for what you want to do, so again, all that just to say, you know, make a plan for the next year, make a plan for the next day, make a plan for the next year, what do you want to do with your life, what type of things do you want to accomplish, where do you want to see yourself headed, do you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, do you want to follow him, do you want to follow him with all of your heart? It's a great thing to do, but sit down and think about it, well what's it going to entail, what am I going to do, how far am I willing to go, what do I want to do, and lay that out for yourself. Now, there's a lot of things that you can do that you look at in your life for areas to improve, let's get some ideas from the Bible, 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse number 12 says, let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all, take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Now these are a lot of instructions that the apostle Paul is giving to Timothy here, and Timothy was a pastor, and Paul is mentoring him, and he's telling him all these things, but these are all things that we can apply in our life, and things that we can look to, because he's saying look, you ought to be an example of the believers. So if someone is going to look at you and say well that's what a Christian is supposed to be like, and they can see you, and what you do, and the way that you act, you should be an example of the believer, except in word, in conversation, the things that come out of your mouth, in charity, the things that you do for others, in spirit, in faith, in purity, purity that's cleanness, and you know, keeping yourself abstaining from sins, and from the lusts of this world, and purity, till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. You say look, you know, do a lot of reading, study the Bible, and understand doctrine, which is biblical teaching, and foundations, biblical principles in the Bible, understand this, and read this, and learn it. So number one, one thing that you can do, and I mentioned this already earlier, in the next year, a good thing to do is focus on your Bible reading. Are you reading the Bible? How much Bible are you reading? Have you ever read the Bible cover to cover before? If you have, you know, maybe how often are you reading it now? Try to increase it. We should always be trying to improve, and do more, and do better, and say you know what, you know, because everyone's at different stages and different levels in their Christian life, and what they do, and that's fine, and I'm just, you know, I just hope that we're all moving in the same direction, we're all just moving forward, because that's what we want to do. Now if you've never read the Bible cover to cover before, first of all, you can pick up, there are some Bible reading plans on the bookshelf back there that can help you organize to get the Bible read in one year, and you can check it off, and say, and it gives you different chapters, and I know sometimes there's certain chapters in the Bible that might seem a little bit more difficult, or you might get bored with them, because it seems to be repetitive, or it seems to be like oh, they're just listing off a bunch of names, and all this stuff. Now, the more you read the Bible, the more you're going to realize that's not just some boring chapters, because there's a lot to be learned, it's just a lot harder to learn what God has for us to understand in those genealogies, and in those things, parts of the Bible, and especially when he's going over how the tabernacle is supposed to be built, and all these different things, but one of the things I like about that chart is that it doesn't, like I like to read the Bible cover to cover, eyes go from the front to the back, from the front to the back, I just like doing that from Genesis to Revelation, but what that chart does is it'll split it up, and it'll say okay, today you're going to read Genesis chapter one, you're going to read like Psalm one, you're going to read Matthew one, and you're going to read, you know, like it splits it up, so you're kind of reading from different sections of the Bible, but it's laid out and planned out in a way that if you follow it, and if you stay true to it every day, and just put that time aside, it's really not that much, and honestly, like within probably 15 minutes or less of your time a day, you can read through the Bible cover to cover in one year. It's not that much. If you can devote just that little bit of time to God, then just say you know what, at some point in my day, I am going to make it a point to read the Bible, I'm just going to read it a little bit, I'm going to read, you know, the other way you can do it is if you read like four chapters a day. So if you don't want to skip around and read the different chapters, you can do four chapters a day, one, two, three, four, sorry, I'm getting this, one, two, three, four, and just keep going every day. If you stick to four chapters a day, you can get through the entire Bible, and I think in less than a year, and here's the thing, that's not that much, but you have to be consistent if you want to get that done, it's something that's just day after day, you have to do it. It's little by little, it's one piece at a time, and here's the other thing too, because a lot of people, and this is common no matter what you're trying to do, if you're doing New Year's resolutions, you know, everyone does great for the first two weeks of January, and then what happens? Something comes up, some events, and a lot of times there's legitimate reasons, I mean hey, you get stranded somewhere, you get stuck somewhere, you don't have the Bible with you, whatever it is, and you miss a day. The worst thing you can do is just give up completely and say, well, forget about it, because here's the thing, so what? If you miss a day, so what? So then that just means, maybe you finished the Bible in a year and one day. It's a lot better than just saying, oh, this is just too much, I can't do it, and just throwing in the towel and giving up, because then you get nothing. Then you've done nothing, then you've done very little. Don't let that get you out. Now Bible reading is just one thing, and I encourage you, you ought to know the Bible for yourself, the Holy Ghost, if you're saved, the Holy Ghost is inside of you and will teach you and will teach you his word. Now you're not going to understand everything right away, but that's okay. You have to read through it and read through it and read through it. I'm continuing to learn every single day. I was just amazed last night, I was preparing for the sermon for tonight, and I was looking at it and I was just like, man, like I never saw that before, and God's constantly just opening up behind some new things, and it's blatant, and it's obvious that it's right in front of you, but there's just so much in the Bible that it's just amazing. Keep reading, because the more you read it, the more you'll remember other places and things are going to start to come together and make a lot more sense, but if you haven't read the Bible cover cover, I encourage you to do it, and if you have read the Bible cover cover cover, try to do more. If you're on a plan or you're doing it once a year, try to up that to maybe reading it twice a year. Reading the Bible is extremely important. Another area that you might want to work on is praying. A lot of us, you know, we ought to be bringing all of our needs and everything that we have and cast it on Jesus, and go to Jesus for help with things. He should be our primary source. Hey, when we need help with something, our luck, He's there, and He's there to help us, and He wants to hear from us. Don't be embarrassed, don't be ashamed of saying, you know, because especially with men, like, you know, I have this problem, you want to do things on your own, you don't want help from people, you just want to do it. Or you might feel bad, like, you know, I'm always going to Jesus with stuff, I don't want to bother Him. Here's the thing, you're not going to be bothering God with stuff, okay? The things that might seem really big in your life to God, they're nothing. They are very, very minor as far as His power and what He's able to do. Go to God for everything He can hear from you. And the more you're praying to God, the more you're going to keep Him in your thoughts. The Bible says pray without ceasing. We should be constantly praying to God. Don't stop in your prayer, hey, you have a need, ask God to help you with that. You're struggling with sin, ask God to help you with that. You know someone else has a problem, ask God to help them with that. Get focused on what other people need, prayer. Now, both of those things, again, it goes back to preparing and making a plan, because those won't just happen on their own. You need to sit down and figure out, okay, when am I going to do this? I need to set up a time. What am I going to do? Am I going to do this first thing in the morning? Am I going to do this before I go to bed? What's going to be the best time? What's going to be a time where I'm going to be least likely to just have something else come up and screw up my plan and just, I won't be able to get it done then because I picked a bad time? You know what, again, this is all just guidelines, they're all things that help you. So like if the plan has to change, maybe you're changing, right? I mean if something comes up and you notice it's not working out, hey, modify it, change it. It's not something you have to be stuck in stone with. I mean obviously I'm sure you all probably realize that, but again, you don't want to get to the point where you're just quitting and failing because of some other outside thing happens. Now, another thing that you can focus on is soul winning. I've emphasized many times the importance of bringing the gospel to the lost and getting them saved. It is extremely important, it's one of the most important things that we can do as a Christian is to share that gift with other people. The eternal destination of the soul, soul not going to hell forever is a really, really, really big deal. Get a part of that. We have a schedule already, there's a schedule already laid out. We've got Wednesdays and Sundays, we have a soul winning time. Try to make it, try to make a priority where you say, you know what, I'm going to make it to that time and maybe other things are going to come up. And here's the thing, the more you prioritize stuff in your life, do you think it's ever a question to me when I wake up, am I going to go to church today? Of course not. I mean, for one, I'm the pastor, I've made this a priority, but you know what, it wasn't just being a pastor where I made this a priority, I made church a priority years and years and years ago. I said, you know what, no matter what comes my way, I'm going to do my best, I'm going to make sure I'm in church whenever there's a service. That's the decision I made for myself. Now, maybe you come to church on Sunday morning only or on Sunday evening or whatever, whatever it is that you come and again, decide what you want to do and what you think is best. I decided for myself, hey, when church is open, I'm going to be there. I want to be there for everything. I don't want to miss anything. I want to grow. I want to learn more. I want to improve my life. I know that church is a lot of good things for me. I like the fellowship and I want to hear more from God's word. That's what I decided and I settled that a long time ago. So when we go on vacation, we've gone out of town, and of course it's gone over church days, Sundays, Wednesdays, we find a church wherever we're at. You know what, it's important to us. With all of these things that I'm mentioning here, and there's more, I mean, these are only some things, these are kind of major things that'll help you, Bible reading, praying, soul winning, going to church, decide how important they are to you or how important you want them to be. Maybe they're not that important, maybe they weren't that important to you in 2013 or even before today, but think about it and think about these things and say, you know what, I want to improve. I want to improve in this area. I want to improve in this area. I want to improve in this area. How can I do that? Sit down and make a plan for yourself and say, you know what, I've never gone soul winning before. No matter what happens, I'm going to go soul winning at this time and I'm not going to change that because here's what's going to happen. When you want to get started, and the devil's great, you're going to want to get started doing what's right and making changes in your life, and you're going to be excited, you're going to be ready to go, and what's going to happen, the devil's going to throw something at you because he doesn't want you even getting started. When you get started, it's going to start building momentum. The more you get going, the more you start doing it, the more you start coming to church. You come to church once, and then a month later you come to church again. After a while, if you're in the right place, and if God's working in your life, you're going to keep building and building, and you're just going to be growing and doing more and more. But see, the devil doesn't want that to happen. He's going to try to take you at your weakest moment and say, you've never done this before, I'm going to throw something your way, and I'm just going to make it so that I don't want you to get started in that. He's going to try to do that to you. Don't let that happen. And one of the ways you can do that is just say, you know what? I mean, think about this. If you were to start saying, if you made up a decision and said, you know what? I'm going to start coming to church every Sunday. Maybe you were someone who didn't come to church every week or whatever. I'm going to come to church every Sunday. What a lot of time will happen is that very first Sunday, boom, flat tire, boom, whatever. I mean, the devil's going to throw something at you. And then it's going to prove, how serious are you about that? Are you going to let that take you out, or are you going to try and say, you know what? No. I decided this is important. I'm going to call up a friend and say, hey, can you get me over here? Can you get me to this place? Or whatever it may be. I mean, it doesn't matter. A car issue is an easy one, because everybody deals with that, and we all have that problem from time to time. We were just talking about that this morning before service. I'm not just bringing that up to do anything that you had to say. It's a real common thing. It happens to all of us. And the thing is, the devil's going to do whatever he can. I mean, whether it be with your car, whether it be with a relationship, with a family member, whether it be with whatever. I mean, he's going to be trying to use things to get you not to do what's right. And he's going to try to knock you out, and try to not even let you get started. But if you decide in your heart, say, no, this is important, this is what I want to do. Or here's another example. Eliminating specific sins. OK. We just mentioned a lot of things that are good things to you. Those are positive things, right? Those are things that are going to help you grow. Bible reading, praying, soul reading, going to church. Those are all things that help you. And those are things that you do that maybe you weren't doing before. But how about eliminating sins, right? Think about there's certain sins in your life that's getting rid of stuff that you're already doing. Right? It's not adding to what you're doing. You're getting rid of something. This is another area where the devil's going to try to tempt you. And I know this from experience. You know, when there have been many times in my life when I was trying to stop drinking and quit alcohol. But then there's always an excuse. There's always, you know, you make this, you know what, I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore. And then someone calls you up, hey, you know, so-and-so's getting married or whatever. You know, come with me to this event, to this barbecue. And you're like, well, OK. Well, it's the Fourth of July. Well, it's Labor Day. Well, it's Memorial Day. Well, you know, whatever holiday it is, there's always just some excuse. There's always some reason. OK, I'm going to do it this time, but then I'm done. And you know what? When you have that attitude, when you open up that door, you might as well just say, forget it, because I'm just going to keep doing it. And that's what happens. And you know what? And that's what the devil wants to do. Because you start off thinking, well, I'm just going to do it this one, just this once. But once you do it that one time, you're already weakened. Then it's a lot easier to get to that point where you say, hey, well, I screwed up. I did it once. I might as well just do it again. And that's the way that the devil works, and that's the way he gets into your mind. And he doesn't want you to get those sins out of your life. Think about specific sins. Don't give up an inch for it, though. Decide, hey, this is important. I'm not going to let this happen. But here's the thing. If it happens, try not to get in that mindset. OK? And it's not a condoning of if it happens. Look, I understand. If it happens, people have weak moments. It does happen to people. But if it happens, don't. I mean, first of all, don't let it happen. A lot easier said than done. If it does happen, don't let that become an excuse to continue in that sin. Say, you know what? No. No. Tomorrow's a new day. You're going to wake up. I'm done with it. I'm not going to have any more. That's it. And get it out. And think about your life. Think about the Bible reading. Think about the praying. Think about growing up winning souls of Christ. Think about coming to church. And think about specific sins in your life, whatever that may be. Everyone has their own sins. Think about something that's been a problem for you. Think about something that you know is wrong in the Bible. And say, you know what? I'm going to get rid of that sin. I'm not going to have anything to do with it. Now, again, the first three, you can make schedules for yourself. The Bible reading, praying, and so on. Hey, I'm going to make a schedule. I'm going to make a plan. I'm going to do this. Now, with the sins, you need to figure out what they are, first of all, what you want to focus on. And you know what? You don't have to tackle the whole world. This is going to take some time and different things. Try to get as much cleaned up as possible. But here's the thing. Focus on one thing at a time. Focus on, you know what? I'm going to get this solved and figured out. And I'm going to move on to the next thing. And start with the worst things. Get the worst stuff out. Don't worry as much about the little things. Hey, great. If you can do the little things, good. Add that to it. But get the worst stuff out of your life. Now, I'm going to use an example here. Because getting sin out of your life is a little bit different than just making a Bible reading plan. Making a Bible reading plan is easy. You just got to stick to it. You can just find a time and say, you know what? I've got 15 minutes a day. When I'm getting ready for work in the morning or whatever it is I'm doing before I go to sleep at night, I'm just going to stay up an extra 15 minutes, I'm going to read the Bible. OK? That's pretty easy to do. Getting out of sin is a little bit different. It can be a little bit more challenging. And there's different techniques and different tools you can use to try to avoid the sins that you're committing or whatever it is. Now, I'm going to use one. This isn't the worst sin in the world. But it was kind of an easy thing for me to think of. And I kind of want to prove this anyways from scripture of why it's a sin. That example is just watching TV. And yes, I believe that just watching TV is a sin. And here's why. Because first of all, it says the programming, they call it TV programming for a reason. They're trying to program your mind. And that's exactly what they're doing. They're deciding what images they're going to put in front of you. They're deciding what things you're going to hear. And they're going to program you the way to make you think the way that they want you to think. And here's the thing. You say, oh, come on. You're a nutcase. You're a conspiracy. You think there's someone else to get you. Yeah, there is someone else to get you. It's the devil. OK? Satan is. I know there's all these other big people that have a lot of money and in power and stuff. But you know what? Who's behind them? It's Satan. Satan has a plan. He's trying to destroy the family. He's trying to destroy the church. He's trying to destroy anything that's good and wholesome. And you know what? He's very, very subtle with it. And he's going to do little things to get into your head so that you don't even realize he's getting into your head. And that's why when you take a step back and you look at the broad spectrum, you can see how far he's come and how much work he's actually done. When you start looking at it on a day-to-day basis, it's not that big of a change. It's not that big of a deal. It's just like I don't notice my little girls growing every single day. I don't say, oh man, you're a lot bigger today from yesterday. It's a slow, gradual thing. But if I look back and say, hey, five years ago, none of them were even born. Two years ago, there's a big difference, a big change. That was done the same thing. He's done the same thing with television. You think back, I mean, I'm 36 years old. I think about what was even allowed, even morally acceptable to be displayed on television when I was growing up, when I was a child, when I was watching TV and stuff. It's nothing compared to what they do today. I mean, one big thing, and this should shock everyone. I don't understand how anyone can think it's okay to have sodomites and queers, reprobates just up there and kissing and doing whatever this nasty stuff, promoting that lifestyle and saying, hey, this is okay. And people sitting there watching it and just not even affected by it. Or just saying, that's kind of weird, but whatever, they can do whatever they want. That's exactly what the devil's been trying to do for decades. Okay, 20 years ago, you never would have seen that. If a show tried to do that, it would be yanked off the air. There would be so much outrage over that. And the outrage is happening, but you know what? He does it slowly. It starts off when you introduce the queer that is just, he's just funny. He's just a little different. He's prancing around with his limp wrists and ha ha ha ha ha. And you make a joke out of it, but you know what? That starts getting into your head thinking like, it's just funny. It's not an abomination like the Bible says. It starts getting you away from that wickedness and perverses and disgust that God has for it, to where you start thinking light of it. Say, you know what, that's just funny. And he uses humor as that tool. The devil will use that tool of humor to say, you just start opening doors a little bit. Okay, well, I know it's wrong. I know it's still kind of funny. And you start making light of it. You know what that does? It starts creating a little bit of a soft spot. It's not that big of a deal. And it just over years, over years, over years, they're gonna be pushing the envelope, and they keep doing that, and they keep pushing, and pushing, and pushing, until it's to the point of, what's not gonna be allowed? And here's the thing, now turn to Psalm 101, if you would, because this is important. I believe this scripture can refer to many things, but it blows me away how much I believe this applies today, in 2013, even just on watching television. Psalm 101, Psalm 101. Verse number one says, I will sing of mercy and judgment unto thee, O Lord, by saying, verse two, I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way, O when will thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. Notice that there saying, I'm gonna walk within my house with a perfect heart. Look at verse number three. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. So verse two, he's saying, he's talking about walking within his house. Walking within his house and then not setting a wicked thing before his eyes within his own house. Now, with all the wickedness that's being produced on the television, I mean, when you look at this and look, I'm not gonna set any wicked thing before my eyes, and none of that is I hate the work of them that turn aside. Then that turn aside, it's like, I mean, people who are turning aside from God's law and loving God, they turn aside from that. Now let me ask you this, the Hollywood actors and actresses, are they bottle example Christians? Are they people that live moral, righteous lives? Far from it. They are some of the most wicked people in the world. I mean, they go through wife after wife after wife. They get involved in the drugs and in everything. These guys are living this life of debauchery. And that's not something that we should be looking up to and looking to these people. I mean, the adultery alone that's on the television set, within their own personal lives and what they're depicting as actors and actresses on the set. The garbage, the wickedness that's going on, that setting wickedness, a wicked thing in front of your eyes when you sit down in front of that television and you turn on that garbage. Verse number four says, a froward heart shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked person. And it's funny how so many people know these top celebrities. They buy the People magazine, they buy all this stuff, and they really just know everything about these wicked people, the wicked musicians, the wicked movie stars. We shouldn't know those people. We shouldn't wanna know them. We should hate the work of what they're doing. We shouldn't let it cleave on us cuz that's what's gonna happen. When you start looking at it and liking it and enjoying it and being entertained by it, it's gonna cleave on you, it's gonna stick to you. Says in verse five, who so privily slandered with his neighbor? Him will I cut off. Him that hath in a high look and a proud heart will not I suffer. And who has more pride and arrogance and a high look than the movie stars of today? I mean, they roll out the red carpet and they have, and it's a big deal. They have to get the most shocking or fanciest or the best dressed and all this stuff. And this is what they focus on. They focus on vanity. They focus on things that don't matter. They have a high look. They're real proud, cuz I have all this money, and I'm doing so well, and I have everything I could want. Yeah, it's ridiculous. And you know what? We shouldn't be looking up to that. We shouldn't even be watching these people and care about what they're doing. Don't set that wicked thing in front of your eyes. Look at verse number six says, mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall certainly say, look, I'm not gonna have anything to do with these people, with the wickedness, with the unrighteousness. I'm gonna instead, I'm gonna rather group up and yoke up with people that are righteous, people that are faithful, people who are doing good, people who are serving God. Cuz he that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house. He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. Now the tell lie vision, the television, that's all it does. It's there to promote lies. It's gonna tell you lies. And it works deceit, and that's gonna be dwell, it dwells within everyone's houses. I mean, people have this cable coming into their house, and that television set, it's within your house. Now this example, I'm sorry, I'll finish off the chapter. It says, I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord. Now this example, it's relatively easy to deal with. Cuz for one, all you gotta do is cancel your service to the cable company. That's just, boom, let's just cut the cord, it's done. I can handle that sin, we're gonna get that out of my life right now, done. Now, another thing you can do like I did, I destroyed my DVD collection. I had all kinds, I mean, I had these Hollywood movies, I had all this stuff, and I didn't think much of it. But I'll tell you what, the more I got into the Bible, and a lot of people are gonna listen to this and say, you're crazy, you're nuts, you're out of your mind, I can't believe you think that watching TV is that bad. Well, here's the thing, okay? And this is why I understand why people say that, I get it. I used to be totally into the TV and watch it and watch all the movies and watch all the TV shows and talk about it and just be engulfed in it. Okay, I did it, I understand it. And the reason why you don't get it right now and why you think I'm nuts is because you're so far involved in it and you've come this way and the TV has programmed you. It's programmed your mind. Turn off that, see if you can do this, this is a challenge. If you think I'm nuts, if you think what I'm saying is crazy. First of all, turn off your TV for a month. See if you can even do it. See if you're not just addicted to it and if you're even capable of doing it. Don't watch any television programs, don't watch any movies for one month. And not only that, get in the Bible and start reading God's word. Instead of the time that you would spend watching that television, start reading God's word and read about his righteousness and what he says are sins. And then turn that TV back on and tell me that that is not just wickedness. And if you do that, I guarantee you'll see I'm not nuts, I'm not just crazy, I'm not just a lunatic saying that the TV's bad when it's not. No, there's adulterers and adulteresses that are on that set nonstop, okay? It's run by wicked people. The people in charge of the programming are wicked and the people who are acting it out are wicked as well. We ought not to have that in our sight. We ought not to let them dwell within our house and tell lies to us. Get rid of it, that'll help you. Now that should take care of the majority of the problem, if you have a problem with watching TV and you wanna get rid of that sin. But there's other things that you can do to help you with sins. And so one thing you can do if TV's one of your problems, memorize Psalm 101. The scripture that we just read, because it talks about so many different places about having this wickedness dwell within your house and telling lies and all these things. Hey, if you're struggling with something, say no, but I really like this show. I mean, I like to watch it, it's entertaining. Especially when you know something's wrong and you're trying to get it out of your life, memorize scripture that is associated with that specific sin. And try to keep that in your mind so that when an opportunity comes up, maybe you already get rid of the TV house, but then you go somewhere else. And the TV's on, and you start watching, and you can start thinking, wait, no, wait, and you can think of the scripture and help strengthen you a little bit. So I'm not gonna partake of that. And you can apply, this is just TV, and you might say, well, that's a silly example, and it's not the worst thing. But it's definitely gonna affect the thinking. It's definitely gonna impact how you think about things and how you think about sin. It is important, I don't bring it up, I'm not trying to make life, I mean, there's a lot of other things. I mean, if you got adultery, look, the TV is not the worst thing in your life, okay? But it is still a big thing, and it is still a sin, I believe it's a sin. If you're watching this program, I mean, 99% of the shows, okay, you might find one thing and say, okay, well, what's wrong with this whatever? I mean, look, I'm not gonna nitpick on the smallest thing, but I'll tell you what, does it have commercials? I mean, what else is there? How are the ladies dressed on the show? I don't know, I mean, there's a lot of things that you can look at. But, and be honest, if you wanna try to nitpick and find that one show, watch it online. There's no video like, if there's one thing that has absolutely zero wrong with it, and there's nothing wrong, and there's no commercials, fine, okay? But by and large, that is not what the TV's all about. You know it, and I know it. Now, the tools that you can use, okay, again, like I said, one is gonna be determine what it is that you wanna fix in your life, okay? And try to remove all access to it. So, TV, they unplug it, throw it in the trash, or cancel the cable, done. Cut it out of your knife, and just cut that out, and just be done with it. Strengthening you to help you not to go back into sin, memorize the scripture, think about that, and just try to keep that in your mind. Whatever it is you're struggling with. Job said, I made a covenant with mine eyes, why then should I think upon a maid? So he's saying, look, cuz he knows it's wrong to lust after a woman, cuz he's a married man, and he should be lusting after other women. So he made a covenant with his eyes, before, he said, how can I even think about a maid, cuz I've already made a covenant with my eyes. And you can do the same thing, make a covenant with your eyes. You can't control everything that comes in front of your eyes, necessarily, when you're out in the world. When you're out in the street, when you're driving in the car. But you can control what you look at again. The first look, maybe something just comes for you, we can't do anything about that. Now, you could with a TV set. If you say, man, I can't believe that this popped in front of my eyes while I'm watching the TV, well, turn the TV off. That won't happen to you, okay? But when you're out in the street, when you're out in the world, if someone scantily clad women or whatever, you can't control the first time. But hey, make a covenant with your eyes, don't look again. If that's a problem for you, I mean, and if you're a man, it probably is a problem for you. But make that covenant with your eyes and you won't have to think about a maid and lust after her in your heart and commit adultery with her in your heart, as Jesus said, and whatever. I mean, there's so many different sins. Think about whatever the sins are in your life. Think about them and try to find a scripture that deals with that. Learn the scripture and do whatever it takes to just avoid that. I mean, if there's a certain place, certain people, places that will maybe influence you and drive you to do a certain sin that you're trying to stop, just avoid that and get away from that and get that out of your life. Now the last thing I wanna go to here is we can take some comfort in some of the people, turn to Luke chapter 15, okay? Cuz we can take a little bit of comfort in our life. I know dealing with sin, dealing with this stuff, it's difficult. It's not easy, and I know that, I know that firsthand. It's not an easy thing to do. But I mean, Jesus Christ said, if you wanna be a disciple, it's not gonna be easy, you count the cost. It's not gonna be easy, but I'll tell you what, it's gonna be the best thing for you. The best things aren't always easy. It's gonna require a little bit of struggle, a little bit of effort. Well, the things that have happened in the past that are bad, things that have happened that have not gone your way, okay? We're gonna look at some of these stories because the worst thing you can do is quit. And the last thing I want you to do if you're struggling with something is just to give up and quit. Don't give up and quit. Look at verse number four. I'm sorry, now look at verse number 11, I didn't have the reference in my house. Luke 15, verse number 11, he says, a certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that fall up to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. And he began to be unwatt. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. And no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bred enough and to spare? And I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring him with a fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be married. For this, my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost in his fount and they began to be married. Now, in this story here, we see this is the story of the prodigal son. And it's important to notice that first of all, he was a son. Okay, this is not the story of someone who was lost. This is someone, if you wanna apply it to whether or not a person is saved. I believe this person in this story is someone who's already saved. He's already a son. He's a son of the father. Now, what he did was he asked for his inheritance. He asked, hey, I wanna go out and do something else. I don't wanna just stay here and wait for you to die to get my inheritance. Can you just give me what's coming to me right now? I just wanna have everything now. I'm gonna deal with it, I'm gonna do whatever I want with it. And what he does is, he goes out and he wastes it. He's foolish with it. He spends it on Ryan's living, he parties it up, he just does all kinds of things to just satisfy the flesh. And he wastes his complete substance, all the inheritance that he had from his father. So he gets to this really low point in his life where he's a foreigner in another country, and he's working for this guy, and he's feeding swine. He's wasted everything he had, he blew it, he made a big mistake, and just blew all of his stuff, and partied up, and lost it all. And now he's feeding swine, and now he's thinking, he's looking at the husks that he's feeding the swine, and just wishing like, man, I'm so hungry. I just wish I could eat that. He went from being in his father's house, having things taken care of for him, receiving his inheritance early, as he requested. Going out and wasting everything, and got to this low point in his life, to where he's looking at the pig food, saying, I wish I could eat that pig food. And then he comes to a sense that says he came to himself, and he's like, look, my father's house has many servants. I'm just gonna go back to my dad and say, I've sinned, I've done wrong. I'm not even worthy to be called your son. Just please, just please let me be like a hired servant. Let me just work for you, as the servants do. Not as a son, let me just do that. He humbled himself, and you know what? A lot of times people need to get to that point, to that low point, to humble themselves, but here's the thing. Now, a lot of people might think, well, I've gone off, and I've sinned out all this stuff, God's gonna be mad when I come back to him. But God's not gonna be mad, okay? If you come back to him, just like we see in this parable here, it says his father was looking for him, because he saw him a far way off. It says, and he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him. His father's been looking for him, waiting for him to come back. He's been sitting there, I mean, to see him a far off, that means he's watching for him, okay? He's looking for him to turn back and to come back to him. And when he saw him, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and he throws a great big party. They kill a fattic half, and he's just like, man, he's like, this is great. And his brother was upset that he received him that way with such happiness. And he explains to his brother, verse 27, he says, and he said unto him, my brother has come, and my father has killed a fattic half here, in verse number 30. 31, and he said unto him, son, thou art ever with me, and all I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad. For this, thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost, and is found. God wants you to find your way. Look, if you've had some bad things happen, if you've gotten low on your life, God wants you to come back to him, okay? And this goes to you even after you're already saved. If you're already saved, and you start going into sin, you start doing some bad things, you go down that downward spiral of sin. Look, come back to God, okay? What you've already done, you've already done. You're gonna reap what you've sown, but here's the thing. God still wants you to come back, and God's gonna be happy if you come back, and he's gonna rejoice, and people are gonna be happy. God, it's definitely something that's never too late to just come back to God. If you've gone off that way, if you've gone off into sin, if you've backslidden, don't let that keep you out. There's other examples here, but I'm gonna cut it short real quick, cuz I'm kinda running out of time. This guy hit rock bottom, okay? But that's what it took for him to wake up, and come to his senses, and say, look, what am I doing here? It's a lot better when you're with God. It's a lot better when you're walking with him. It's a lot better when you're living in God's house, when you're being there. He had it way better. He thought he was doing something else. He thought he was gonna, man, I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna party, I'm gonna live my life, and where did that land in? It landed him in the pig trough. Broke and hungry. Yep, it landed him with nothing, okay? Now, if he would have just stuck with it, and stuck with his dad, and stuck in that house, I mean, he would have already been living fine, and he would have received more of an inheritance, because he divided it at that point, and if he would have kept going, kept working at it, he would have gotten more. Instead, now, the other son, who did stick with it, he's gonna receive the entire inheritance. He's gonna receive everything. He's gonna receive that father's land and all that stuff. He stuck with it. Now, we can learn from this and take a little bit of comfort in it, too. This man, the father in the story, can represent God, and God's gonna be happy. If you've already done simple things in your life, come back to God. Come to him, and he'll receive you. Okay, he'll receive you back. Again, I'm not saying that you won't reap from what you've sown in your life. It's gonna happen, but God will receive you back. He's not just gonna cast you out forever. Now, the apostle Paul, again, he's a great example, someone who did a lot of things. He persecuted the church. I mean, he was actually going against God. He was going against the people of God. Yet, he came back, and he ended up doing many, many great things with his life. In my opinion, one of the best apostles, one of the best characters in the Bible. I mean, with the amount of stuff that he did, the amount that he suffered for Christ, the amount of work that he did going out, starting churches, and doing everything that he did, I mean, he really turned his life around. From being someone before he was saved, to going against God and going against the church, to then being someone who's doing everything in his power possibly, and going through a lot to make sure that that succeeds. Now, and there's other examples, too. I mean, if you think of Peter, I'm gonna go a lot more into Peter tonight, but he ended up denying Christ, and he had his little point, but he wept bitterly. But you know what? He turned his life around, he got back on track. He was on the right track for a while, he had a major setback, and he got right back up and got right back into things. King David, same thing. I mean, he committed adultery and murder. It was a horrible sin, horrible things. Yet, what did he do? He humbled himself with a godly sorrow, okay? He humbled himself, and when he realized, look, that was really wicked what I did. He had a meek and a humble attitude towards God, and towards the things of God, and he walked lightly, and he said, look, he is sorrow. And you can read in the Psalms, where he's expressing his sorrow, he's expressing his remorse for what he's done. Let's use this new year as a fresh start in our lives, and if you're serious about it, I mean, if you recognize, you know what? Whatever it may be, I mean, maybe one of the things I mentioned, maybe it's not one of the things I mentioned, I don't know. Whatever it is, you know your life better than I know your life. Whatever it is, if it's more Bible reading, if it's soul winning, if it's church attendance, if it's a sin in your life, whatever it may be. If you're serious about it, make a plan for yourself when you go over there. Make a plan. Think about it in your mind right now, but write it down, try to stick to it. And if you mess up a day, don't just throw in the towel. If you mess up, get right back up and continue with it. Because it's these little steps, it's this one day at a time, it's these one things where you're gonna be able to accomplish a lot. And don't get overwhelmed with an entire life of, man, how am I gonna do anything for God with my life? Make the plan of something that you can accomplish a day at a time or a week at a time in small spurts. I'll tell you what, the little bit of Bible that I've read just over years, though, amasses to a lot more knowledge, okay? The little bit of time that I've invested over, just in general, right? Like one or two hours a week going out, knocking on doors, and just preaching the gospel, trying to get people saved. There's weeks where I don't get anybody saved. There's weeks where it's one person, but over years and years and years. I mean, if you just stick with it, stick with it, maintain it, do it, keep it an important part of your life. Hey, I mean, you can get hundreds of people saved or whatever. It's over the course of a lifetime, over the course of decades, you can really end up making a big impact and doing a lot for God. And as you're doing so, you're gonna be blessed in your heart. Things will just end up working out a lot better for you. So let's use this new year, even if you're not big for resolutions, let's just use this new year as a fresh start. Just like every day is a fresh start, just like every week is a fresh start. Let's use this year, let's do something with our lives that's gonna be pleasing to God, and let's be better than we were in 2013. Whether it was a good or bad year for you, let's just improve on that. Let's keep our mind focused ahead and focus on the things before us, and let's do what we can to move forward. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you so much for this church. God, thank you for all the work that you've done for us and what you've helped us with, dear God, and the people that we've reached. Lord, I pray to you, please just help us to reach more people. Help us to bring more people into your house, dear God, and lead us and direct us to getting people saved. Lord, whatever our issues are, whatever our weak points are, especially help us to focus on those weak points and strengthen them, and even strengthen our strong points, dear God. Help us to be able to identify whether we need to spend more time praying or reading the Bible or so when you come to church, getting out and sinning in our life or whatever else it may be, dear God. Help us to identify and help us to make a plan and to stick with it, dear Lord, and just give us the comfort through the Holy Ghost of knowing that, it might not be easy, it might be a difficult task, but there's other people that have come before us and that have done it, and that you can strengthen us and give us the strength that we need to just focus on getting done what we need to get done today, and help us never to quit because that's the only way we're ever going to end up really failing, is if we just quit. Setbacks might come, but I pray to you, please just help us to brush ourselves off and get right back up and just continue trying to serve you no matter what comes our way, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.