(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 Rather good evening. Welcome to our stronghold Baptist church. We're going to begin our evening service if you can turn in your songs, hymns, and spiritual songs You can turn to the very first page. You will see M number 33 that is angels we have heard on high Once again, that is angels we have heard on high that's in your songs hymns and spiritual songs All right angels we have heard on high let's start on the very first verse here All right together on the first All right angels we have heard on high Oh No Oh Oh Jesus Oh Oh Spiritual hymns songs hymns and spiritual song book one page over Oh Oh Oh Oh All right great singing this afternoon And this time we go through our announcements. Once again, you do not have a bulletin slip your hand up real high we'll make sure that we get one out to you and If What should have one if you open up to the first page, you'll see the service times. They're listed on the front page first page Sunday morning at 10 30 Sunday afternoon again at 4 p.m. And then Wednesday at 7 is our Bible study We've got the soul winning opportunities listed there as well as the salvation and baptism for month of December as well as 2021 Let's go ahead and count up any salvations to report other than today anything outside of today. Yes, sir one yesterday Anyone else outside of today All right, then. How about for today? salvation for today to report to Joe Three and then Anyone else All right Very good. Keep up the good work preaching the gospel. Also, I forgot I've totally been forgetting to mention this We still have some of those Christmas CDs It's not very many left, but go ahead and grab as many as you want, especially this week You know take them with you to work take them wherever you want and just distribute those Just like everything else are free for the taking but those are best to give out before Christmas So the people are most interested in them prior to Christmas So if you want to don't worry, even if you take all of them take take the rest of what we have Just take what you know, you're gonna be able to distribute as much as reasonably as possible, right? Don't just take everything and then sit on them. The whole point is to be able to get rid of them. So By all means take those those Christmas CDs, you know Some people if you're allowed to distribute them at work or whatever go ahead and do that. We want to get those out Hopefully you've been taking about voting with you. I normally try to give them away to every single door that I go to when when we go out so winning around Christmas, but I some reason I just fail to keep mentioning it from the focus, but Anyhow, they're out there and I don't know I think that's all of them. Does anyone know if there's any have you seen any others laying around? Pretty sure that's all of them that are out there, right? All right, cool And I know someone put those out there too, right did you put those out there also you thought you got them from the storage and Okay very good, and I was also brought to my attention that the We're running lower on the invites we got still got a whole pack left about 250 so I'm gonna order some more but just You know use your supplies use your stock if you can Just in the next week or two I purposely didn't order as many because I thought we might be moving which I was trying to think I'm like We just ordered some we just guys like oh, that's right because I was only kind of keeping enough to Not have to waste very many if we had to give new addresses or whatever. So I'm gonna put place an order We usually get them in about two weeks. So ten days is typically what the order the lead time is I know so we won't have new ones for next week, but we'll have them the week after that So just try to make do with what we have. I'm sure it'll be just fine And then as long as I'm on the sole winning subject I do want to talk about you know we're still ironing out some wrinkles trying to perfect the way that we're that we're doing soul winning since we changed it up a little bit and I just want to make a few observations and things that I think we can do better in general My nan having a filing system by next week either way plan on when you get a map bring the map back Okay, as the next time that you're back in church again, just make sure we get back If you know, you're not gonna be back Let's say for Sunday afternoon service if possible give it to someone when you're done that can bring it back But not that big of a deal if you don't If you complete an entire section of map Right complete down on the top Just just so we know and and you know, it'd also be good to put a date on there put completed and then that date That way we'll know how long it's been since the last time we were there If it's not completed We're shading in the parts on the map But I also want to make sure that we could be as clear as possible for the next person who might be taking over a map So I got one today That That had a house number on here and it said ended at and then it had a house number and The problem with that is that it's not quite certain whether or not the house number that was listed was actually knocked, right? so If you run across that first of all and you're in doubt knock it anyways All right, so we're gonna err on the side of knock it again It's instead of saying well, maybe that was already done just make sure it was already done. Okay, no big deal Someone says oh someone was here last week. Okay. Sorry, you know and then move on then, you know Well, they must have finished at that but even better if you can make it a little bit more clear in the language You know, like I I would always put either like today I put a number and I put is done So we know it's completed or I might put the next one and say I'll put this needs to be done So like starting at this one the next time someone else takes over a map. So those are just some Small details, but they're gonna be helpful as we continue to reuse maps and don't quite finish off areas When we go out and someone else might be picking up where you left off So just be kind of thinking about these And I'm sure we'll all get better as this as you continue to use them because you'll see some of the same things going oh, yeah, this would be helpful if we had this and If you have any suggestions Bring them up to me, please by all means and don't don't think like well, this is the way it is, you know just just Come to me with any ideas that you have anything you think might make this a little bit better I'm all yours. I'd love to hear about it. But everything is going really well and I Appreciate that and everyone if you just mark down that you worked on the sheet that also helps have your name on there so that we know who to go back to if there's any type of Uncertainty on the map But just make sure you don't get rid of these and that they do end up coming back and and you can put them either On my desk in the office or whatever Just so we could maintain our records here with what we've already done Appreciate all that continuing on in our bulletin here. We've got the prayer requests We want to thank God for answered prayers with the Taylor family and congratulations to Jude Taylor a little boy that was born on Friday, December 17th the meal train has already started for the Taylor family if you are Planning on doing meals for the family Please just try to coordinate with my wife So that way there's at least one person who kind of knows when people other people are planning on Going or dropping off food or if you're gonna bring food here Just so that we're aware we could try to make things as smooth as possible for their family and we appreciate that and then The rest of the prayer requests we added Kristen Miller who is also with child So now we still have five ladies who afraid our church. So be in prayer for everybody on our list here and We have good news with Jaylene's foot. So you've asked to be removed from the prayer list So she's doing much better and walking around great now, and we're thankful for that and And DJ's boss is out of surgery from Sunday or excuse me from Friday But he's still recovering so he asked for continued prayers for him. And then we're also adding my father-in-law Henry Allen is his name and he's gonna be having back surgery on January 4th So he's got some some Bones in his back that need to be fused together It's kind of a significant surgery we appreciate prayers for him and then our churches and pastors for this week is Mountain Baptist Church Fairmount, West Virginia, that's adjacent Robinson on the next page already mentioned the Taylor family December singing challenge So we've only got what like another week and a half or so of the singing challenge of December for him's every day It could be Christmas songs, whatever not not Santa Claus not, you know frosty the snowman, but you know real real hymns That's what was what we're doing and For those every day and no no worldly music. So if you do those things you'll meet the December challenge January give you a heads up on the January Bible reading challenge talk about this this morning But basically we're doing the entire New Testament in the month of January So you do that you get a prize being able to complete the whole New Testament and then I mean you've got the whole rest of the year To read the Bible but getting the whole New Testament knocked out in that first month is huge that gives you a great head start on making sure that you could I Person is a personal conviction a personal belief, you know, you believe what you want one I believe very thoroughly that people should be reading your Bibles every single day First of all, now the amount that you read every day is up to you. I think it's wise I think it's a good idea to make sure you could try to maintain a standard where you would read the Bible at least once A year cover to cover. I think that's a good pace. I don't think that's asking for very much I think that's actually you know, it's it requires maybe 15 minutes of your day If you just dedicated 15 minutes of your day to reading the Bible You will get through the Bible from front to back in a year's time So I don't think that's asking very much as well I kind of think like as far as if you're making standards for yourself It's a good one to follow and if you do if you complete this challenge that actually sets you way ahead Because this will take a lot more than 15 minutes a day to do this challenge But that sets you at a great pace to have to do just the rest of the Old Testament for the rest of the year I mean that's very doable. Hopefully you can get Even more than that done Anyhow, that's the challenge I like to give you a heads up on that so you can make sure that you're prepared for it and you think about it And your plan you might even let's see a New Year's Day is on Saturday So you might even want to set a reminder in your phone or something to start it because you don't want to get behind on that challenge You come into church on Sunday and you're like, oh man, I forgot that we're doing the Bible reading challenge You know, you're enjoying your time off everything else and then you're like now I got to catch up, right? So you don't want to get get stuck behind on one of these things because that really does does Not make it very easy when you start getting behind but Yeah, that's a January challenge. The watch night service is Going off as planned December 31st, New Year's Eve. We'd love to see you here for that starts at 7 o'clock Upcoming events homeschool field trip in January as well as our camping trip and then the birthdays and anniversaries You have brother Peter has a birthday tomorrow as well as their wedding anniversary. So congratulations to them on that Mrs. Johnson's got a birthday on the 21st and Enoch Lilianox got a birthday on the 27th on the back Romans chapter 4 I asked this morning. Is there anyone? Who's planning on completing this by the this week 10 of 10 date That was not able to complete it in November. Is there anyone out there that that is gonna have this done? All right, figure I'd ask I'll ask one more time next week and other than that, we'll be starting off a new Bible memory passage next week and I Think that's it for our announcement. So Brother Carter would please lead us in our next song All right, everyone, you can turn your handles to number 431 Once again, it's hymn number 431, Silent Night, holy night. Once again, number 431 in your handbooks. Sing it together on the first. We Sing it together. We We We We are taking our offering if you can turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke chapter 14 Once again, that's the Gospel of Luke chapter 14 And we're going to read the entire script as we do custom here. I'm going to ask brother Devin if he can read the script. That Was Luke chapter 14 and It came to pass as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day that they watched him and behold there was a certain man before him which had the drop seat And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees saying is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? and they held their peace and he took him and healed him and let him go and Answered them saying which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit and will not straightway Pull him out on the Sabbath day, and they could not answer him again to these things And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden When he marked how they chose out the out the chief room saying unto them when thou art bidden of Any man to a wedding sit not down in the highest room lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee give this man place and thou begin with shame To take the lowest room, but when thou art bidden go and sit down in the lowest room That when he that bade thee cometh he may say unto thee friend go up higher Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meet with thee for Whosoever exalted himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted Then said he also to him that bade him When thou makest a dinner or a supper call not thy friends nor thy brethren neither thy kinsmen Nor thy rich neighbors lest they also bid thee again and a recompense be made thee But when thou makest a feast call the poor the maimed the lame the blind and thou shalt be blessed For they cannot recompense thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just and when one of them That sat at meet with him heard these things he said unto him blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God Then said he unto him a certain man Made a great supper and bade many and sent his servant at suppertime to say to them that were bidden come For all things are now ready and they all with one consent began to make excuse the first said unto him I have bought a piece of ground and I must needs go and see it I pray thee have me excused and another said I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to prove them I pray thee have me excused and another said I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come So that servant came and showed his lord these things then master of the house being angry said to his servant go Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind And the servant said Lord it is done as thou hast commanded and yet there is room and the Lord said unto the servant go Out into the highways and hedges and compelled him to come in that my house may be filled For I say unto you that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper and there went great multitudes with him and he turned and said unto them if any men come to me and hate not his father and mother and Wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life Also, he cannot be my disciple and whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple For which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost Whether he hath sufficient to finish it lest happily after he hath 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 what King going to make war against another King sitteth not down first and Consulted the 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 senteth an ambassador and desireth conditions of peace So likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath. He cannot be my disciple Salt is good But if the salt have lost his savor wherewith shall it be seasoned it is neither fit for the land nor yet For the dung hill but men cast it out he that hath ears to hear let him hear. Let's pray Brother mark do you mind praying for us, please? Thank you All right, so we started off excuse me in Luke chapter 14 When I preach about this evening is actually it's a probably gonna be a shorter sermon I know a famous last words probably a shorter sermon because you're here for another two hours. Just kidding a Very simple sermon and and what is your plan? What is your plan and What we see in Luke chapter 14 is a lot of things in Luke chapter 14 but one of the things that Christ brings up is about being his disciple and Before we get too deep in this. I just want to make sure that everyone's very clear I think I'm pretty sure our crowd tonight is very clear about this But being a disciple of Jesus Christ the disciple means you're a follower means you're you're actively you know doing and working with and pursuing and doing the things that Christ would do that's what a disciple is a disciple is not exactly the same thing as a believer a Disciple implies work a disciple implies. Hey, I'm doing this. I'm doing that. I'm following in the steps of Christ I'm gonna be following him wherever he goes You do not have to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in order to receive the free gift of eternal life Receiving the free gift of eternal life doesn't require your utmost dedication to walking in the ways of Christ Because that's hard work That's doing thing. That's effort. That's work now, of course God wants you to do that. He wants you to walk in those steps. He wants you to follow the example of Christ He wants you to give your life to serving him and to devoting yourself to him. He wants that So I'm not saying he doesn't want that but that's not what saves your soul That is the wicked false doctrine of the lordship salvation crowd It's gonna tell you you have to make Jesus the Lord of your life and be you know doing all these things He tells you look Christ being your Savior is Offered as a free gift you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved In the house, that's all you required for you to be saved become born again to be a child of God For with just as much simplicity as a child born of me of my wife in our household is Our child just because they were born into our house now if they choose to obey all of my Commandments and everything that I tell them to do and here are the rules and this is what I want you to do son That's great. I want them to do that I'm telling them what I want them to do but if they fail to do that if they don't walk in my steps if they don't Act the way I act if they're not following me and looking to me as their leader and their example and everything if they just Go their own way They're still my child. They're still my son. They're still my daughter It's the same way with salvation You're born again by receiving the free gift of eternal life Receive atonement for your sins through the work that Christ did not the work that you do But of course as a child of God God wants you to follow him and be like him and that's why you know Jesus was bringing up Abraham because the Pharisees would bring up Abraham and Moses look if you were a child of Abraham you do the works of Abraham He's saying if you were really like him if you if he really was your father if you're really looking to him as the example And said we're just like Abraham. No, you're not just like Abraham You're like the devil But having that out of the way look hopefully you want to be a disciple Hopefully you want to follow Christ. Hopefully you realize yes. This is what I want to do I am thankful that God saved my soul I am thankful for that and I want to show my gratitude by Listening and obeying and doing what he would have me to do and looking to the will of God For what he would want in my life. Yes. I want to be his disciple if that's you today What is your plan? What is your plan? Because becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ and following Christ doesn't happen by accident. It doesn't happen by mistake It's not just gonna automatically happen day to day day in day out of your life You have to want it to happen and make it happen You choose what you do with your time God is not going to force you to start following him in fact There's plenty of people who put their trust in Christ to put their faith in Christ and that's where it ends and it's sad That's unfortunate. But that's it. I mean, thank God they're saved But they don't walk the walk. They don't continue to do they don't follow in the steps It's up to you to choose every step that you put in front of you, but you need a plan to do that Look down to verse number 26 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 and Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciples Jesus Christ using this language very strong language Hey, you might be my disciple Well, look if you're gonna ready to bear your cross and follow after me. You can't be my disciple obviously showing look We don't need to be crucified ourselves in order to be saved We don't need to bear this bear across and carry across to like our own death for us to be saved Jesus did that for us be saying well if you want to follow me, this is what I did You want to follow in my steps? You want to be selfless you want to be a minister you want to help other people then? You know what? You've got a cross to bear to You'll be my disciple. That's what you need to do and he's saying he's putting this to them To let them know this is not just gonna be some easy life or easy thing to do He's saying you got to be you know, you got to hate your father mother wife, you know, and what do you say? Hey, here's a mean like Like man, I hate you and and I want you to die or something like that. Right? It's it's a it's a hatred in a sense that You you can't have anything come between you and your service to Christ It's it's the hate in the sense of Christ is first and primary foremost in my life and I will not allow father mother don't you know anyone to come in between that service to the Lord and bearing your cross and coming after me verse 28 for which of you intending to build a tower now, he's gonna start using some You know some other Illustrations in the world as worldly illustrations of oh you want to build a tower? Like if someone's setting forth to actually build a literal tower He says which of you intending to build a tower said it's not down first and counted the cost whether you have sufficient to finish it So if you're gonna take some undertaking some great task and say well, I want to build this great tower You're not just gonna go. All right. Well, let's just start building right like let's build a tower. All right Well, here's a rock. Let's move this over here and just and just start doing Without having some type of plan first. He says the first thing you're gonna do is like can we do this? How much is this going to cost? What is the investment? What do we have to do to accomplish this goal? Because a type of goal like building a tower is not something it's not like building a sandcastle You're gonna build a sandcastle. You'd be like, okay, we could do this and in a matter of minutes and there you go and it's done Right a tower is gonna take planning preparation and counting the cost. He says Of course, you're gonna count the cost first. You got to check to see if we're even able to complete this task Verse 29 lest happily after he had laid the foundation is not able to finish it All that behold it begin to mock him saying this man began to build was not able to finish Or what King going to make war against another King? sitteth not down first and Consulted whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand So again, we see this Creating of a plan. He's given these worldly examples. You're gonna go off to war Hey, you got to consider everything and say, okay Well, I've got this is what I have. This is what they have. Will this work building a tower? You got to create a plan count the cost so we're gonna be able to do this You analyze it you look at it and you and you formulate What's going to work to make this work? What do we have to do formulate a plan? Verse 32 says or else while the other is he had a great way off He sent it an ambisage and desireth conditions of peace So likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple So what he's bringing up here in these examples one is showing them first and foremost The cost involved that it's a high price to pay you wanna you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? You better make sure you know what you're getting yourself into Just as Jesus warned others when they said hey Christ. Well, you know, we'll follow you wither so ever thou goest And That's where he tells them, you know, hey the foxes have dens and the birds have nests You know, they have the rocks and it that these animals they have homes that they go to They have places where they could be safe and secure. He said but the son of man hath not were to lay his head So even then he's trying to warn people and trying to let them know. Hey if you want to If you want to follow me, excuse me, I didn't know I didn't even have this on if you want to follow me Then You better make sure you understand what it's going to cost. You better make sure you understand that It's not going to be easy. It's not going to be comfortable That sounds like fun you don't flippantly decide to follow Christ Because if you flippantly decide to do it, you're not gonna last long at all You don't just do this on a whim and you know If you're in church long enough you you do see people like that that come and go where it's like Some check just some short chapter in their life where they did the religious thing for a little while. Oh Yeah, you know they get all excited and zealous. So seemingly for serving God and then it's just they're gone They're here for a little while and they're gone. A Lot of times people like that they don't sit down and they count the cost and be like, okay, you know, no seriously We're gonna do this and it starts with making the decisions and sitting down making the plan and planning it out You know, I'll give you examples just just personally some of the things that I had done to make a plan Starts off very simple and it could start off simple, but make sure you have the plan Very simply I put rules in place in my household saying you know what we are going to be in church every single church service Every single church service we're gonna be there the exception of that is going to be sickness hospitals emergencies And emergencies is narrow it's not everything's an emergency it's not well we didn't have breakfast this morning So we're hungry and I don't you know, no, you know, you don't have breakfast and you don't have breakfast whatever right that's not an emergency and It's sticking to it then and say you know what it's gonna cost us and and you know When we live farther away from church, we made a whole day out. We do it today We do it on Sundays here to say well, we're gonna be there in order to do this We need to be there all day. So that's what we're gonna do And you make the decision you make the plan and say, okay Well, if we're gonna be there all day Then that means we're gonna have to have lunch and if we're gonna be there all day, we need you you make a plan You make it work because if you just go into it not thinking about it Then you're gonna run into all these obstacles. That's gonna be a lot easier to get you out and say well, it's too hard No make a plan Make the decision decide we're gonna do this. We're gonna make sure that we're and you know, obviously that's just one one little piece one small thing But you want to make sure you understand Okay, if we are going to do this Here's the cost and for many people that come to our church you're driving long distances And there's another cost involved with that of time and gas money, right? Hey, if we're if we're gonna commit to Coming to church. It's going to cost us X amount of dollars just to fill the tank up to get to and from the church service That's a cost So in order to make sure that you you can achieve that and say we this is important to us We're gonna accomplish this then you may need to budget and say, okay Well, I'm gonna sit down and take care of this to make sure we can do this And we're gonna have to take away something else. That's part of our budget to make this work It requires the planning if you really want to make sure you're gonna do this You need to get the plan and it's not fun. Look what I'm saying now No one wants it. No one wants to just sit down. It sounds like work Like I got I work five days a week passive versions. I don't want to work again on the weekend. Well, you know what? You want to serve God you want to be a disciple it's work No one ever said it was just gonna be easy in a cakewalk Why don't you ask Jesus Christ how easy it was? To do all the work he did It sounds great being a disciple of Christ until you actually want to get your your hands dirty, right? What's important Do you have a plan I Suggest this whatever is going through your mind right now is why I love preaching as well I love coming to church because there's a lot of things that I don't say that you're probably thinking of right now of areas where You know what? I need to make a plan for this. There's an area of my life. That's slipping There's something that I haven't planned out very well And I need to make a plan to make that happen Bible memory is a great example I mean, there's plenty of people who completed the challenge in November and there's people who stay with the Bible memory But you will never you will never memorize scripture unless you make a plan to do so If you say well, I'll just do it in my free time guess what that's never gonna happen Not not enough to be able to commit it and do it You might learn a little bit here and there you might memorize a verse or two But if you don't have a consistent plan and sit down say no, this is what I'm going to do this It's not gonna happen Reading your Bible going out. So any I mean you name it You Cannot just just rely on. Well, these things will just happen and work itself out. You need to make it happen and I suggest Literally writing out a plan for yourself Whatever area you want to tackle whatever thing that you're looking at your life. You're looking at your spiritual life You're looking at what is gonna please God if you really want to be a disciple of Christ And you're looking at the life of Christ say well, how can I be more Christ like write it down? How The cost figure out a way to make it happen and then stick to it but start by making the plan And if you notice sometimes you'll notice there's always things that will come up You want to try to start doing something? And you have all these different obstacles that come up you need that's well All the more reason to make a plan because you need to try to help foresee those things and say well What am I gonna do if this happens? What am I gonna do if that happens have a plan? don't let these things become stumbling blocks and get you out of serving the Lord and you could you could make your plan as Specific or as general as you want and you could make your plan based on I Mean all the way down to the minute you could go all the way up to the month, you know, whatever To the year. This is my goal. This is what I want to do I'm gonna make a plan for the whole next year and you know one of the reason I'm preaching this is because we're ending a year we're gonna be starting a new year and just a week or two and You know think about it And I don't you could call it whatever you want. I don't care if you call a New Year's resolution or not It doesn't matter to me. I mean this this sermon is applicable at any time of year But people just generally have a good sense of finishing of the year and kind of reflecting back and thinking what have I done? What have I not done? What do I need to do? Make It happen Sit down write it out You take the time to write out. Here's what I do with my week. Here's what I want to do How am I gonna make this happen? I Want to be able to memorize this must scripture. Well, how can I do that? Well, I need to look at my schedule then. What time do I wake up? What time do I go to bed? What do I do in between? How am I spending my time and writing it out make the plan? Make it happen If you don't have the burden to serve God in your heart, I mean right away then it's then you're gonna you're gonna fun That's why Jesus said, you know what? If you whosoever doesn't, you know, hate his father or mother or sister brother These things are all gonna take you away from serving. He's like, you know, you can't be my disciple You asked yourself first and foremost. Do I have the burden to serve God? Do I want to be a disciple? Then you identify the area of work that you want to focus on to serve God And there's many of areas that you could choose but you know Even if you just pick one you assess the situation sit down count the cost think well How am I gonna make this happen? You create a plan you actually take the time to write it out then you execute that plan and you update it make changes When necessary and allow for some flexibility because usually your first plan doesn't go exactly to plan Turn you to Nehemiah chapter 2. We're gonna see a little bit of this played out with Nehemiah Nehemiah had a plan Nehemiah wanted to rebuild Jerusalem Nehemiah was in captivity in Babylon, you know when the children of Israel went into captivity and he had this desire and Wanted to serve God wanted to restore Jerusalem and wanted to do what he could to make that happen he started with that desire and When the opportunity presented himself, he took it and he took it and Didn't just it wasn't just a thing like oh, yeah, that sounds great or or something passing He actually acted on it and and created a plan and was able to put it forward in action We're gonna see how he did that Because I think too often times people get opportunities and you blow it Because you're not ready because you're not actually thinking about what would I actually do if I was able to do this if the opportunity Presented himself. It's up. How would I make this happen? Nehemiah chapter 2 Nehemiah chapter 2 look at verse number 4 So he's serving the king he's in this position Then the king said unto me for what does thou make request? So now he has an opportunity to speak before the king about something that he never would have thought He could just go and approach the king on Personally, but you know what it's been on his heart He's been thinking about this a lot and I believe has already been formulating how he go about doing this But when he's confronted now, okay. Well, what what do you really want Nehemiah? The first thing he does is so I prayed to the God of heaven Wow God is a great opportunity God, please help me right help me to Say what's right help me to get what I what I'm asking for here And then he answers the king after he says his little prayer to God verse number five and I said unto the king if It pleased the king and if thy servant hath found Favor in thy sight that thou would have sent me unto Judah unto the city of my father's sepulcher's that I may build it Say well, here's what's on my heart. This is what's really this is what I really want King Send me to Judah Send me to Jerusalem. I want to rebuild the city. I want to rebuild the land of my fathers That's what I want to do verse 6 and the king said unto me the Queen also sitting by him For how long shall thy journey be and when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me and I sent him I sent him a time now The king starts asking him questions already about his plan We don't see the full conversation of every word that's spoken back and forth between the king and Nehemiah but I Highly doubt that Nehemiah did not have a plan When the king's asking about this, I think Nehemiah was able to say well, this is what it's gonna take It's gonna take me this long. I'm gonna need this much money I'm gonna need this much resources as much people to get this job done Why because he's already been thinking about he's already been planning it before he even had the opportunity to do it An illustration right we put it in into into what we're thinking what we might be talking about today You May not be in the position for example to pastor a church or to be a deacon of a church or some position like that You may not be in there But you know what if you have a desire to serve God a desire to do something like that. You ought to be Thinking about a plan. Well, how can I achieve this? What can I do to be you know? Putting this the things in motion So that way if that opportunity ever does arise if I ever do, you know am found faithful and meet the qualifications then I can be able to fill that role right away and Not just be like, okay. Well now I'm at all these other obligations now I'm gonna start studying the Bible now, I'm gonna start preparing myself. Like look you should have been doing that the whole time Right, you know, you don't you don't wait till well, I'm gonna wait till I have some kids I'm gonna wait till some of these other things are met and then I'll really get serious about About making sure I study the Word of God so that I won't be a novice No, you get that down as soon as possible as much as possible Make yourself ready have that plan so that you can be used of God in whatever capacity Nehemiah had the plan to rebuild Jerusalem and when the opportunity presented himself, he was ready to go Verse 7 moreover I said unto the king if it pleased the king Let letters be given me the governor's beyond the river that they may convey me over till I come into Judah And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest That he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertain to the house and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall enter into and The king granted me according to the good hand of my God upon me Now in order to be thinking about you know in order to be serious about doing this great work for the Lord He had to be thinking about this He hadn't even been there yet and he wants to do this and he already knows well I'm gonna need this this this this this so he's asking for it Now him asking the king would be akin to us asking God for the things that we need if you want to serve God You need to think about it say well What is it gonna take for me to do this and not only making the plan for yourself to actually put an action? But how about the things that you need help God's help with? So in order for me to do this, I'm gonna need to help here here here here here. God help me How about in many cases God give me some more wisdom. Give me some knowledge. Help me out. Show me the path I want to do this with my life. I want to do this in the next year I want to do this in the next month God. Can you please help me because here's what I need to get this done But you have to be consciously thinking about what you want to do in order to be Detailed and focused on this happening and if you can't have that level of dedication, you know, what's probably not going to happen You may start doing something and you haven't counted the cost you haven't count you haven't figured out what you need And it's gonna come to nothing we need to be prepared. Let's keep Reno because he continues to plan Verse number nine then I came to the governor's beyond the river and gave them the king's letters now The king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me When sent ballot the horror night and to buy out a servant the Ammonite heard of it It grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days and I arose in the night. I And some few men with me neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do a Jerusalem Neither was there any beast with me? Saved the beast that I wrote upon and I went out by night by the gate of the valley even before the dragon well into the dung port and Viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and the gates thereof were consumed with fire Then I went on to the gate of the fountain and to the king's pool But there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass then went I up in the night by the brook and viewed the wall and turned back and entered by the gate of the valley and So returned so what's he doing? He's assessing the situation. He's surveying. He's saying what all needs to be done I knew that there was work that needed to be done He was able to ask for supplies and there's other things that he knew he's gonna need anyways But now as he's getting into it even more he's getting more detailed and more specific. Okay? Here's the exact situation is what I need to do But he's still continuing this process of planning and acting and planning and acting and that's what we need to do on a regular basis And sometimes you just need to take a step back and be like, you know what? I need to reformulate a plan for myself. I've gotten too used to being in Routine which routines are great, you know, especially when you could form habits that are good Bible reading habits praying habits You know all these different things that are good habits, but you know what? There always needs to be a time to reassess. Where am I? What do I want to do with my life? Do I want to be a mediocre Christian? Do I want to be serving God kind of I mean when it's convenient or do I want to actually do something great? With the time that I have in this life on this earth Do I want to achieve something greater for the Lord? Do I want to bring as much glory and honor to him and serve him to the utmost? Well, if I really want to do that if I really want to follow Christ I need to formulate a plan to make that happen I need to start upping my game in whatever area whatever whatever vision whatever God's laid on your heart To serve him with whatever abilities and skills and talents that he's given to you You could look at that and say you know what God has given me this and I want to use this for to serve the Lord Here's what I want to do to serve God And you go to God and then you start thinking about it making a plan To make it happen, and then you still need to go back and reassess so you don't get stuck and you don't get stagnant And then what's interesting here We're not gonna go there, but when you go when you get into Nehemiah chapter 3 the works already starting he goes out he assesses and There's no delay. I mean there's obviously Just enough to make it happen, but you just see the work happening right away. He assesses and it's boom Let's get to work Let's get moving on it Let's not just put things off and that's a you know in order to really get things done I know it sounds stupid. Maybe and so simple if you want to get things done. You can't put things off You want to get something done don't say well? You know what I'll do this next year I'll do this at some point and look this sermon is just as much for me as it is for you There's a lot of things. I've been wanting to do in church say well when I become full-time I'll do this or that. I can't wait for that Now obviously there's a there's a limit on time in all of our lives and what we can do to accomplish But we need to start moving ahead and start making things happen There's things that I've already said like well I'll do that when I start to but you know what it needs to just get pushed And I've started doing some of those things too But it's you know we all need to be able to think about it have the plan But it's not good enough to have a desire to do something You know you could talk about all the ways that you want to serve God and all the ideas you have But you know we need to start putting into practice you need to actually start moving forward and doing them Turn through to James chapter 4 Because what I like about Nehemiah here too, it says that he went out by night He was assessing the situation doing everything But he didn't go around and start telling everybody what he was going to do yet first. He wanted to see what he needed to do Before he spread any word about it. He didn't come in boasting saying oh, man I'm gonna do this and this and this and he doesn't even know what he needs to do yet Right wait until you know what you need to do before you even start talking about the things that you're going to do right Obviously he lists the help and he gets people to Join him, but it's after he's already made the plan Because he's the leader easy. He's gonna be leading these people in this work You can't go around boasting of all the things that you're gonna do Without knowing what all it's going to entail James 4 verse number 13 the Bible says go to now ye that say today or tomorrow We will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain Whereas you know not what shall be on tomorrow for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appearth for a little time and then vanish at the way For that you ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that But now ye rejoice and your boastings all such rejoicing is evil therefore to him that know what to do good and Do with it not to him it is sin This is not teaching that you shouldn't have a plan to do something or talk about a plan to do something But is it saying that don't put off these things and say oh, yeah, you know next week next year We're gonna do all this stuff and start bragging on things. You haven't even done yet and talk about how great it's going to be Why don't you just start making it happen if you know, it's good then why don't you do it? You Know it's good. You know, it's something they should be doing to him that know what to do good and do with it Not to him. It's sin And don't start bragging about things that you haven't completed you haven't accomplished yet Before you even get started doing them get started doing the work Turn go to Philippians chapter 3 is the last place to have your turn Philippians chapter 3 Now Of course I have a lot of plans on things that I want to do with the church and with my own life And if I didn't I'd be a terrible leader if I didn't even have any plans on how are we going to? Grow and achieve more and do more But I'm hoping that you also have plans for yourself and for our church Okay be thinking about these things obviously I'm in a position where it is very important for me specifically to be making plans on how we're going to to continue to grow and reach people and and and just do the operation that the church needs to do and following the will of Lord, but everybody ought to be considering your own life your own service and the areas that you can be serving God as Well as even corporately as a group as a as a church right what things can we do Be thinking about these things and then not just coming up ideas, but come up with plans Come up with you know in this type of mindset and thinking obviously we're totally applying this spiritually because that's the most important thing But if you can develop this in your life, this is helpful in Work in business at home. I mean every aspect of your life when you can start Getting serious about accomplishing things you will make a lot of accomplishments this way Obviously the most important ones we want to focus on the accomplishments we could do for the Lord the things that are gonna be Have eternal value, but even in the short term even in the in the temporal things even in your job, you know You will add a lot of value by being able to identify Identify Things that are gonna be beneficial and good for say your company and then formulating a plan and say hey look I think we should do this and we could do this and this is what's gonna take to do this and we can accomplish This is this amount of time. It's gonna cost this much. And here's what the return that we're gonna get our investment and That's gonna increase your value within whatever company you're working for Tremendously Bill thinking about these things and looking at these things and planning for these things instead of just saying well I'm clocking in I'm clocking out and that's it and you don't think any further than that I Mean it makes sense when you apply it to the corporate world, right? Well, how about in the church world? You just went well, I showed up the church. I clocked out of church. I'm going home You think that's what God wants for your life? Just to do that Now hey look great. I mean Come to church do some do some of the just routine things. Hopefully you have the habits But God wants more He wants us all to be to be striving for more To do more to push ourselves Right, even with the challenges, you know, we're doing these challenges every year, but I don't even want that to just become some routine I want you know Like the whole point is to push and to do more and in the challenge and and and do this You know and be thinking about these things as much as we can to to improve Philippians 3 we're closing on this look at verse number 13 Well says brethren I count not myself to have apprehended don't think you made it You haven't made it yet. All right, obviously, we're not talking about salvation. You're saved Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you're saved, but don't just count it like well, that's it. Great. I'm saved cool No, there's a lot more to it. Now do your life a lot more meaning to your life than just being saved Brother 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 now forgetting those things which are behind I think oftentimes the first instinct and the first thing that people think about is yeah You don't want any any sins or any problems or failures or anything in the past to kind of choke you out So you just forget about those things, right? We don't care about that We're not gonna worry about that But it's not just talking about the things that might be negative that you need to forget about How about just forgetting those things which are behind because once it's already done it's done Successes and failures, you know what just forget about that because you also don't want to get into the writing on your previous achievements and not doing anything more in the future because well, I did this and you just kind of coast in What you've done already in the past instead of continuing to strive more and more the possible I think here is teaching us You know forgetting those things which are behind is not just talking about failures or whatever in the past But just what's done is done I'm reaching for some of those things which are before Continually continually looking forward keeping your eye on the prize I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus I don't want to just be average. I don't want to just be you know, this this Do nothing Christian he says there's a high calling I Want to achieve that I want to press for that mark that high calling of God in Christ Jesus That's what I'm looking to I want to strive to climb higher and higher and higher to reach that pinnacle of service to the Lord Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in anything you be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless where to we have already attained let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same Thing we need to be setting goals for ourselves Right. Yeah, put your put your sights high Don't limit God in your life with whatever service you want to do to serve the Lord And Also, like he says here in his verse 16 Never us where to we have already attained let us walk by the same rule as mine the same thing Don't be content with what you have already attained You know, don't you know put those things behind you you've already come to a certain point great Okay, don't lose those things as far as sliding back and and kind of going backwards But you know what? Don't just be content to stay with the the level you've already attained keep pushing forward Good What what ends up happening ultimately? Anybody who starts to feel comfortable of saying well, I made it to this point and I'm just gonna stay right here You will not stay right there If that's your mindset, you're gonna go backwards Guaranteed Guaranteed you're gonna go backwards. You cannot just maintain Your life is always gonna be fluctuating. You're gonna be going up and down But what we're trying to do is keep the upward path that upward trend of Reaching higher ground of continuing to press for the high mark and keeping our eyes Focused so that we're always trying to attain more and more and more of their life because as soon as you take your eyes down from off that mark There's no I mean there's no more upward momentum you might stay stagnant for a little while but then it's gonna be Because it's too easy in our flesh to go back down to start sliding backwards, it's too easy If you're not continually feeding the spirit and looking and focusing on doing more Your flesh will go. Okay. Yeah that this this desire to just kind of call it quits or coast I'm gonna take advantage of that and before you even realize it you're gonna be going backwards And usually it takes a while before even before it even pops your mind going like wow. Wait, what am I doing? Whoa, wait, hold on a second. I used to do this and this and this what happened You gotta start wrapping things back up again You know what that happens all of us Take your Christian life seriously enough decide do I want to be a disciple am I good just Coming in church once a week be a church member go back home Am I good with that being my whole life or do I want to actually be a disciple of Jesus Christ? If you decide you want to be a disciple get ready to work Get ready to plan set the goals set your sights up high take it seriously Don't just say well, it's a good sermon pastor groups. Thanks a lot and go home and do nothing Take the sermon go home and write down on a piece of paper the things that you want to do And I know that probably over half of you won't do that, but you know what for those of you that will it's going to Help you It's gonna help you Try it Test me test test this test my theory test the preaching and see if this works for you Make a plan for the next year write it on paper and see if you can if it's gonna help you stick to that in the next year and See if you'll be able to achieve it Try it out We see that we see the the model in Scripture Jesus Himself saying hey you want to be my disciple count the cost Count the cost sit down do it Because you know what I want to see I want to see everybody that's in this room right now here next year And when I say that I mean not out of a good church Or not out of church because too many people since we started you know we've all seen it people here And they're not here anymore and not only are they're not here. They're not anywhere And it's sad and I don't I don't like seeing that because all the people I'm thinking about I love them And I wish it would be here as you probably do too But it happens If we're not actively conscious trying to move forward That could very easily happen to you, too But the good news is is that you can have a very serious impact on whether or not that happens to you Because it doesn't happen to everybody Not everybody falls out of church Many do but not everybody does and it's not by accident that those people don't fall out of church. It's not by accident It is deliberate it is on purpose If people take it seriously you need to take it seriously, too As far as that word of prayer dear Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for your word I pray that you would please help our church Lord There's a there's a lot of people here that I'm sure of a vision for our church and God We help us to get our visions in line with your vision help us to That all that we do and all that we plan to do will come to fruition And that it's gonna be according to your will and that you'd lead us and guide us Lord inspire us and and help us to Just achieve more help us to to be able to add a little bit of extra work here and there and to make sure we Get things done and to formulate the plan that can actually make the big tasks that may seem to be Almost impossible because it may be so big we could break them down We could plan it out and say well if I only do this much For this amount of time a day or a week we can accomplish it Lord help us to get those plans together So that we can achieve great things for you God we know that ultimately the endgame is that we can just reach More people and just stand firm on your word Lord, please. Please help us to do the work You've set before us in Jesus name we pray. Amen All right, we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed by the card, please lead us in our last song You can turn on the third page, number 76, O Kamo Kami Manuel. Once again, that is the third page, or O Kamo Kami Manuel. Let's sing this one out loud together on the first. O Kamo Kami Manuel, And ransomed active Israel, That mourns in lonely Israel, Until the Son of God adhered. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel, Shall come to thee, O Israel. O Kamo, may she come and cheer, Our spirits, mine and near, Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And as our shadows blow to flight, Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel, Shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, thou wisdom from the night, And order all things far and wide, Till us the path of knowledge show, And cause us in her ways to go. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel, Shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, these iron nations ride, All peoples in one heart and mind, Bid it in his life and grow our old seas, Fill the whole world with heaven's peace. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel, Shall come to thee, O Israel.