Yesterday, I was on Jimmy DeYoung's weekend broadcast. They do an hour and a half program. I had a couple of spots on it. And the one thing we talked about, if you happen to have heard the program, thank you, sir, is 2025, for most of us as conservative, as Christians, as conservative Christians, we believe that the next four years are going to open up the door for us to do the job that God's called us to do in our country. The title, as I said, of the message this morning is 2025 American Revival, which is exactly where we need to be as a church, where we need to be as the body of Christ. When you begin to think about the things that, and again, this is not meant to be political statements, but we just have to look at what has been taking place in our country, the amount of times that things that I have done in the past year have been axed out of social media, that have been taken down from those that control the liberal media, the cancel culture which has existed, it's time for a change. And we've been praying for that and asking God to open the doors back up so that God's people aren't silenced, that we're not pushed aside, and that we can get the gospel out. When we think about things that are taking place domestically as well as internationally, which we'll go through a couple of things in just a moment, it brings this to light. Folks, we have an opportunity like never before. We've gone through, for the conservative folks, a bit of a tough, rough time. We've not been totally silenced, but that has been the culture. God has not called us to silence ourselves. God's called us to stay active, to stay vocal, to stay involved in the fight for the souls of mankind and the disciple believers, which is exactly where we need to go. We've been pushing this concept for well over a year. Biblical literacy produces a spiritual focus on the Lord. Families friendships and finances every area of our life if we have Jesus Christ at the center if we have a biblically based Lifestyle all those things will help you to succeed in life Now you say well, what do you mean succeed? That means I'm gonna have a big bank account fancy cars, and we're not talking about that type of success We're talking about spiritual success. We're talking about when you know God's Word when it becomes part of your life and It will permeate every single thing you do with your families, friends, business, and so forth if we keep a good spiritual focus on the Lord. Folks, my job, if you will, as someone who is blessed to be able to speak from a pulpit, is to make sure that we're constantly reminded that we need to stay in the Word of God, not just one hour a week in church, but every single day, every single week, every single month, every single year, We need to stay focused and keep crystal centric in everything we do. We're in the Paul's, what are known as the prison epistles, and you can take your Bible, start going to Ephesians chapter one, which is where we're going to be in a few moments. Paul wrote these four books, if you will, while he was in prison. Did you catch that? Sometimes we think that, well, everything was beautiful in the first century and Christianity was just going forward and everybody loved it. No, it was under tremendous persecution. It was on tremendous fire. Paul is writing these epistles to Ephesus, Philippi, and Ephesus, and of course about the book of Philemon. All of these were written while he was in jail for preaching the gospel. So it's very interesting when we take a look at what's happening around the world and even a little bit in our own country, some of these things that are, quite frankly, catching up to where the Apostle Paul was last week. And several folks in the church got an email from one of our special missionaries who basically is keeps in constant contact with those in the Middle East. How would you like to get this email from an Afghani Christian lady? From Afghanistan, this lady wrote, and this was sent to many of us, about a Christian lady who reported that her husband and daughters were abducted. Now, folks, in our country, that's unthinkable, for the most part. And here's this dear lady calling up The missionary who happens to be home right now, he travels back and forth between the Middle East and up here in the States, and here he gets this dear lady who calls, weeping, crying, and she was so distraught because her husband and daughters had been taken, and she asked if he would pray that God would take her life. Now folks, that's rough. Can you imagine if your family members were abducted by terrorists, and they're terrorists that abducted them, not knowing if they're dead or alive, hearing that your daughter was probably going to be enslaved by some terrorist as his wife because you're a Christian and you've been abducted? Folks, that's taking place in our world today. Nigeria, murder of many, many thousands of Christians right now, Syria, with a war that's taking place, with a new government that's coming in, with a new terrorist group that's coming in, you say, wait a minute, I thought this was a good thing for Syria. They got rid of one terrorist. Well, one terrorist just took the place of another. I've watched, and I get video clips from the Middle East, I've watched as The soldiers for Assad literally they ask them who they're with and watch them get murdered. It's not something I would share with you Through the video system, but I've seen it. I've watched it because Christians now in Syria are under severe attack persecution and in all likelihood will be jailed or martyred right in our own state Christian school shooting a couple weeks ago. I Someone comes in and it's one of the most quiet things that I've ever seen. The media's kept extreme tight-lipped about it. The police have kept very tight-lipped about it. But the one thing we know beyond a shadow of a doubt is someone in a Christian school, I'm not talking a liberal school, I'm not talking about a public school, I'm talking about a school that we would send our children to, happily, an individual not in her right mind shoots and kills people as well as injuring others. Those are not good stories. Despite the many persecutions of Christians around the world and the hatred and scattered acts of violence in America, we in the United States of America have a renewed opportunity to reach our neighborhoods, counties, states, and yes, the world, with the gospel of Jesus Christ and to help believers grow in their faith and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Folks, I'm calling upon us as Union Grove Baptist Church not to be stale, not to be stagnant, not to be half in, half out, half on, half off, half hot, half cold. I'm calling us to take up the mantle like never before. We have an administration now that says they will support the work of God's people, that we'll have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, Freedom of assembly is given to us in our First Amendment rights. And we need to pick up the mantle. Now, if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you can dismiss 90% of the message. I'll speak to you at the end of the message. But if you're here this morning and you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt if you were to die that you go to heaven, this message is for us as God's people, the church, the body of Christ. Christians in America have the opportunity and the obligation as members of the church, the body of Christ, to embark on the mission of being Holy Spirit-filled, revived individuals, bringing spiritual revival to our beloved country and reaching out to a lost world that needs the Savior, Jesus Christ. And that's where we're going to be headed this morning. The Apostle Paul, while in prison for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, prayed the following for the believers in Ephesus. Take your Bibles, let's go to Ephesians chapter one. We're gonna be starting at verse 15 and we'll go through verse 23 this morning. Think about this now. Paul's in prison. The first 14 verses which we've gone through over the last couple of weeks before Christmas came, talked about the benefits, the wonderful things that God has given to believers in Jesus Christ. And now Paul is taking a look at the church at Ephesus, and it's no different from any church that would exist today. And Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, makes this prayer that's recorded in Ephesians 1, 15 to 23. Paul says, Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith, in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. Do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Basically, we're talking about biblical literacy, verse 18. the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. far above all principality and power and might and opinion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him, Jesus Christ, to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Now, Father, as we open up the precious word of God, we ask you to speak to our hearts as, Lord, as it's meant more powerfully than ever before. We ask in Jesus' name that you would revive the saved and save the lost. And we commit this to you in Jesus' name. Amen. This morning what we're going to do is examine several spiritual truths necessary in determining and accomplishing God's will in our lives as we strive for spiritual revival in 2025. All right, let's start exegeting the passage then, Ephesians 115. Paul is rejoicing in the Lord. He's happy about those that have come to Christ at the church at Ephesus. He's writing to them, being thankful and rejoicing in what has been taking place. And he says, therefore, I also have, I heard of your faith. I heard of your faith. You're known. Folks, do you know that when I go through Union Grove and go to some of the businesses and even the Chamber of Commerce has contacted me and said, you know, we really appreciate what's taking place at Union Grove Baptist Church. I love to hear that. I love when I walk into the restaurant and people say, oh, either they already know me because I eat at the restaurants a lot, but they'll come in and say, hey pastor, how you doing? And I'll see some of you folks there and you have a wonderful, wonderful reputation in Union Grove and other places that are near to Union Grove. You're known. I hear folks that say, oh, you know, I know so-and-so from Union Grove and they've talked to me and they've told me about a little bit about the church. And as I listened carefully, they're like, you know, they talk about, Jesus and things and folks, you got a good reputation and that's great. And Paul said, listen, church at Ephesus, you've done a great job. You're out there. I've heard about your faith. Others know about it. You've been spreading the gospel. You've been telling your friends. You've been telling your neighbors. You invited them Christmas Eve. I'm not sure how many visitors we had here. We had a ton of visitors for the play. We had some folks, they couldn't even sit with their family. We had so many folks in here. And it's like, don't get discouraged by the way, today we got plenty of room. But on occasion, you're gonna walk in and it's like, where in the world am I gonna seat? We'll find you a seat, don't worry about it. Right up here, there's always some seats. This front row seems to always be vacant. So you can feel free to sit up there. We'll put chairs down the aisle if need be. But listen, keep it up, keep it up. Don't get discouraged, Bible, If you will, the metric is for church, when you hit 80%, it's time to come up with a new plan because at 80%, you're kind of, we're folks, we're on a normal Sunday when folks are in town, we're well over 80%, but we still got plenty of chairs. I was thinking about it, we had about 40 folks up here, young people that were up here in chairs up here. If we got to put chairs up on the stage and we got to squish our worship team a little, We'll make it happen. Don't worry about it. We've got other plans as well. We've got another overflow ready to go. So let's keep it up and let's keep your faith strong. But faith, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, boy, we say this almost every week. For by grace are you saved through what? Through faith. It is not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of our works, lest any person should boast. Your salvation, your eternal destiny is based on your faith and faith alone. in Jesus Christ. Well, he said, listen, therefore I also have to have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus. Now here's the next one. I just love this. And I just use the word. He said, listen, I've heard of your faith. You have a deep faith in Jesus, but you have a love for all the saints. Folks, do you know that in our culture, even among Christians, even among Christian churches, that sometimes love is not put at the top of the list where it should be. When you think back at John 3.16, for God so loved the world when we were sinners, when we were apart from Him. He said, I love you. I created you, I made you, and I love you. Take your Bibles, go to 1 John 4. It's not going to be on the screen, so I'm going to make you turn in your Bible to this one, please. 1 John 4, starting at verse 12. And we'll be there in just a moment. Folks, do you understand how important it is for you to love your neighbor, to love your fellow Christians, It seems like that's the dumbest thing to have to say in a church, that you should love other folks. No, it's the most needed thing in most churches. Did you hear me? I said talking about love is probably one of the most needed things in the Christian church today. You know why? Most of you didn't go out and get drunk last night, if any. Most of you probably didn't shoot drugs this morning or take illicit drugs. Most of you probably didn't go out and commit adultery or beat somebody up or rob somebody or murder somebody because that's not what Christians do. But you know what we do do? We chew other folks up. We eat our fellow Christians for dinner or lunch and we go home and we criticize others. We get mean spirited. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 6, one of the six things yea seven, that God hates his division among the brethren. Now folks, I'm so happy that our church is known for loving folks. Visitors that came in last Sunday and they said, good night, he said, your church, everybody's talking, they're happy, they're fellowshipping. He's like, man, what's wrong with your church? You're supposed to come in and be quiet and don't say anything and it's dull and boring. He said, your church is on fire. And that's, by the way, that's a good thing. That's a very good thing. And it's like, well, yeah, and that's why we have a half an hour fellowship time or close to it down in the gym between Sunday school and church. That's why we want folks to come to Ladies Bible Study and Men's Bible Study and Awana and Sunday school and youth groups and all the many other things that take place here to show the love for the saints. Let's go to 1 John 4 verse 12. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us. Wait a minute. It's a telltale of God's people. What will they do with each other? Bible says you'll love one another. If you abide in Christ, if you're a true believer in Jesus Christ, what should be shining forth? Loving one another. God abides in us and his love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit. Talking about the Holy Spirit, verse 14. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. By the way, did you catch the Trinity in here? The Holy Spirit, the Father, the Son, here it is, the Trinity. It's like, well, is the Trinity a true Bible doctrine? Well, you just read it, it's right there. Testify that the Father has sent the Son, Jesus Christ, as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is what? God is love. And he who abides in love abides in God. in God and Him. And Paul says, listen, church at Ephesus, I just can't help it. I'm just so excited. I've heard about your faith and your love for all the saints. You reach out, you love folks, you care for them. When we take our, once a month at communion time, we take what's called our deacon's offering. Tens of thousands of dollars have gone from your pockets into those that are needy. And you've helped so many folks and missionaries and people that are in need. And you sacrifice and you give. and so thankful for what you folks do. Well, here's Paul's request. Verse 16. Paul said, listen, I do not cease to give thanks for you. Folks, 2025 American Revival will never take place without the three elements we just looked at. It will not take place if we're not exercising and placing Christ in the middle of our faith. American revival will not happen if we don't love others as God has called us to do. American revival will not take place unless we look at the Lord, thank Him for what He has given us, and make mention of our fellow believers and so many more things in my prayers. Folks, you understand that without prayer we're impotent. Without prayer we have no power. Without seeking God's face, without spending time a father without spending time with the Lord, this church will fail. Any church that doesn't put Jesus in the center of it is going to fail. Now, they may get a lot of people there. They might build a beautiful social club. They might have tons of money and have tons of events. But if Jesus Christ is not in the middle of it, it's a failure. If we grew and continue to grow Because of social activities, we are a failure. Abject failure. This is not a social club, even though we do a lot of social things. It's a place where we come to honor Christ. It's a place where Jesus Christ alone is the one who is elevated. It's not the pastor, it's not the preachers, it's not the teachers. It's Jesus. And he must be the preeminent one. And God says, listen, Through the Apostle Paul, he said, listen, I give thanks for you. Folks, do you have a daily prayer life? Let's be honest. Like, Pastor, I don't want to go there. I know you don't. I don't want to go there either. Do you have a daily prayer life? Say, well, at mealtime, I say my rope prayer that I was taught when I was three years old. Well, that's good. Glad you do that. Do you spend time talking to the Lord every single day? 1 Thessalonians 5 gives us the essence of spiritual revival. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone. There we go, there's that, we can just take out don't render evil to evil and put what in there? Love your neighbor, love others, love your fellow Christians, love people. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all. So listen, God says, listen, okay, we can be a little selfish here. Do that which is good. And you're gonna have a great life. Do that which is good. Do things that are honorable. Do things that are right. Pursue what is good, both for yourselves, but not just for yourselves, but for who? Everybody. Every single person. When someone else has a blessing, rejoice with those who rejoice. When somebody's suffering and going through a tough time, we weep with those who weep, and that's exactly what he's saying here. But look at verse 16. This is a tough, tough verse. Rejoice when? Time out. No. You understand, I have relatives that are sick today. I'm not rejoicing in that. I'm not feeling good. I have an operation coming up. I'm not rejoicing in that. I've got credit cards that I can't pay off. I have debt that I can't pay off. I lost my job. I'm not rejoicing in that. I have things that are tough in my life. I have children that aren't doing the right thing. I have teenagers that have gone astray. I have a spouse that doesn't seem to care about me or love me. My life seems to be going in the wrong direction. God says if you've got the right attitude, rejoice always. It's kind of a silly statement, but when you have lemons, what do you do with it? Make some lemonade, get the sugar out, fix it up, figure out what's wrong. Yes, we're going to go through tough times. You're all going to go through tough times. You're going to have times when you're ready to give up. You're going to have times when you're going to take your Bible and say, I'm done with it. You're going to look at the church and say, if God's going to allow this to happen, I'm done. I can't take it anymore, it's too rough, it's too hard. And God said, wait a second, wait a second, hang on, hang on. Huh, just had a something pop into my head, I don't think I've ever shared it before. But I'm going to, you're the lucky crowd. Some years ago, Valerie and I had started church plant in Greenfield, Wisconsin. It was tough. I'm not going to go through everything that happened, but we were attacked ferociously by the ACLU. We ended up in court over some things. We had lost financially virtually everything. And I remember Sitting Down at our little house that we rented And I just said it's over. We're done. There's no way we can continue. It's over An individual and I'll say his name Paul Burt who had been a good friend of ours for many years and his dear wife They called me up and said hey Rich can we come over and How many people call you up and say, hey, can we come over and have dinner with you at your home? And I said, sure, come on over. And I basically had given up. Paul sat down, and he had been one that had been involved in the churches that we'd been involved in. He knew about the church plant that we'd done, even though he wasn't part of it. And he sat me down at the dinner table, and he said, Rich, And he knew what was going on. He said, well, where are you at? Where are you at right now with the Lord? Where are you at with serving God? And I knew exactly where he was going, and I wanted to throw him out of my house at that point. Dead serious. I didn't want to hear it. We'd finally just gotten our heads together. We were finally doing some secular work. And I've always done secular work. We've always been bivocational, minimal, until this particular church after I retired from the sheriff's office. But I was done. I'd had it. God had seemingly let us down. The church that we had started was merged with another church. They had a building. We had the people. The people merged with them. And that basically was done with Christianity. I wasn't done with Christianity, but I was done with church work. I'm like, I'm out of this. This is done work. It's not my cup of tea. And Paul sat down and he said, Rich, He said, and he started to flatter me a bit, which I really didn't want to hear. And he said, you need to get back in ministry and you need to get back in now. Because one guy sat down at my table and got in my face and said, Rich, don't throw it away. Don't throw away what God's done. Yeah, you went through a tough time. Yes, you went through a hard time. Yes, it seems like everything got crippled. But God's not done with you, brother. Get back in there and get fighting again. Because Paul Burt sat down with me and Valerie, it's the reason that Prophecy Focus Ministries was born. It's the reason that I spent 25 years as an associate in another church while working full-time at the sheriff's office. It's the reason why we're here at Union Grove Baptist Church, because Paul Burt said, Rich, stop the pity party and get busy for God. Well, I'm sitting here with heaven knows how many folks right now, those watching on the Internet, and some of you are ready to say, I'm done. It's been too tough. It's been too hard. My family's in trouble. I'm not feeling it. I've gone through the toughest times of my life. And God said, listen, get off of the tough times. Yes, it's tough. Yes, it's hard. Yes, you want to quit. But he said, listen, I want you to rejoice. I want you to figure out how to rejoice in this. And then I want you to do the one thing and the only thing that will help you through your tough journey, and that is to start praying without ceasing. Every single moment of every single day, no matter what you're doing, what you're involved in, God says, commit it to Christ. Pray without ceasing. You say, well, wait a minute, my baby's crying. Pray. You say, my baby's sick, the colic won't go away, pray. My husband isn't doing what I believe he should, pray. My wife isn't doing what I think she should, pray. My family is unsaved, pray. I don't know how I'm gonna pay my bills this week, pray. You say, well, wait a minute, how's prayer gonna change things? Well, why don't you just try it and let God do it? Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks for this is the what? It's the will of God. You want to know what God's will is? He said pray without ceasing. Rejoice always. This is God's will for you. You say, well I don't feel like it. I'm not happy. I'm not thrilled with life right now. It's been tough. You know why it's tough? Now, this is not Bible. but a couple of, oh boy, about five sheriffs ago, the logo was, this was his saying, attitude is everything. Now that's not a biblical statement, but it's pretty close. And God's saying, listen, if you got a rotten attitude about things, if you're gonna complain about everything, if you're gonna look at everything from a negative light, even though it could be pretty tough, you're gonna struggle. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Listen folks, when you're struggling, when you have a problem with somebody, when you have a problem with something, and you begin to pray about it, and you commit it to the Lord, and you go to Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart, don't lean on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall what? Direct your paths. Verse 17, that the God of glory Here's his specific prayer, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Folks, do you know how you do this? Right there. Say, Pastor, we wish you wouldn't constantly push. Read the Bible, read the Bible, read the Bible every day, read the Bible, blah, blah, blah. No, it's not blah, blah, blah, folks. Do you know any other book that God's given us to read? This is it, one book. Now, it's made up of 66 other books, took some 1,400 years to put together, has some 40 different authors, was written on three different continents, Africa, Europe, and Asia. One-fourth of it is prophecy when written, and it all sits in our little hand. God's Word. You say, wait a minute, that's not God's Word, it's simply a book that man compiled and put together. Well, let me ask you this, and those doubters that might be saying that right now, and we go through this a lot, how many prophecies are there in this book? 1,000 prophecies about future things. 500 of those prophecies have come to pass exactly as written. Do you know any other book that has 500 things that came to pass exactly as written before they were taking place? Do you know that over 321, specific prophecies came to pass the day that Jesus Christ came into this world and was up through his crucifixion. 321 different prophecies fulfilled in the life of Christ. Do you know any other religion, strike the word religion, any other faith that has one book that comes even one or two prophecies coming true, much less 321 about one specific event? I don't. Biblical literacy produces a spiritual focus on the Lord, families, friendships, and finances every part of our life. Spiritual revival is impossible without spiritual understanding. Let's go back to that verse. that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him. Folks, this is the revelation of Him. This is where the knowledge of Him is stored. And God has given it specifically to us. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Now listen carefully to this. Some of you say, listen, I've tried to read the Bible, it makes no sense to me. Well, here's maybe the reason why. Verse 12, 1 Corinthians 2, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now catch this, but the natural man, who is the natural man? It's the person who does not know Jesus Christ as their personal savior. It's someone who has not put their faith in Christ. They may say they're a Christian, they may go to a Christian church, but if they were to die right now, they don't know, they don't have a clue if they go to heaven because they have not put their faith in Christ. They're natural. If you are a natural man, the Holy Spirit does not live in you. If you're here this morning and you can't answer this question and affirm it, if you were to die right now, do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you go to heaven? and you say, no, I don't know that, then I'm just being kind as I can. The Spirit of God does not dwell in you yet, but he can before you walk out of here today. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are what? His foolishness. It's Bible nonsense. Folks, do you know why the world hates Christians? Do you know why they think we're dumb and ignorant and goofy and all the rest of the adjectives they want to throw at us? Because the scriptures are foolishness to those who don't know Christ. It's just nonsense. It makes no sense. It's foolishness to him. Nor can he know them. Wait a minute. Whoa. God says if you're not a saint person, if you don't know Jesus, There's a reason why. Because they are not what? They don't have the spiritual discernment. Do you know that the Bible tells us, 1 Corinthians 12, verse 13, that every single person, the moment they put their faith in Christ, who comes to dwell in them? The Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16 says, know you not, Christian, that your body is the what? The temple of the Holy Spirit. It repeats that again in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19. Well, Paul, the content of his prayer we've started with. Number one, he says, listen, that the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him would be with you. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened. How do you get that? Well, folks, if you look at the bottom of the page, spiritual focus comes when possessing the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of God. This is for God's people. Proverbs 1, verse 7. And most of you know these verses. The fear of the Lord is what? It's the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 9 verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For by me your days will be multiplied and years of life will be added to you. Do you have the knowledge of God? Do you have understanding? If you're not in this book, most people say, All's the Bible is about it's about Jesus. It's about his 12 disciples and it's about some miracles that he did well, that's a fraction of what's in this book a fraction a fraction 321 prophecies that were given about the birth resurrection of Christ in his life, huh? You know that in the Bible and most you know this I It tells us what's going to happen in the future. You say, what? The future. You say, Pastor, sometimes you talk about prophecy too much. I don't know how you can talk about one-fourth of the Bible too much. It talks about heaven. It talks about hell. That's prophecy. It talks about the seven-year tribulation that will come after the rapture of the church when God takes a generation of us home. It talks about seven years of horrible tribulation. It talks about the second coming of Jesus Christ. It talks about the 1,000-year millennium that'll come after that. It talks about our eternity when we'll dwell forever with the Lord. All of the things are laid out in Scripture. It's a whole lot more than Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Now, that's very important. But there's so much more in it. How much of that do we know? How much understanding do we have? Paul prays that you may know what is the hope of his calling. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, You've been called, you have a ministry that God has given you to do. Are you exercising your ministry? Are you exercising your giftedness? Number four, he said, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? Now catch this. I'm gonna give you a little quote from Warren Wiersbe. Many of you know him, former pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, nationwide speaker, of course, with the Lord now. Warren Wearsby said this about, let's just look at the verse one more time. He says, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? Catch this, what God thinks about you. This phrase, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, does not refer to our inheritance in Christ, but his inheritance in us. That's mind boggling. This is an amazing truth that God should look on us as part of his great wealth. just as a man's wealth brings glory to his name, so God will get glory from the church because of what he has invested in us. Isn't that special? I mean, God looks at you, and he loves you, and he cares about you, and every single one of you. When God created you, he knew who you were. We talked about this a couple weeks ago. He knew who you were. He loves you. He cares about you. and you are part of his precious possession. You are part of his wealth, if you will. Number five, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe? All right, we're gonna pull it together. He's talking about the power that God's people have. Who dwells within you, Christian? The Holy Spirit of God. We just talked about it a few minutes ago. Every single believer in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells within you. And he said, listen, Here's the reason for my prayer. Here's what I want for you as God's people. Here's what I want for you to accomplish in 2025. He says, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power, dunamis, dynamite, excessive power, if you will, towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power. He uses three major words here to explain what he's talking about. Paul enlisted many different words from the Greek vocabulary, one of these being power. God's power in you. Again, the Greek word is dunamis. We all know that that ties into the word dynamite. God's saying, listen, if you're dwelling with me, if the Holy Spirit, if you're allowing him to work in you, you have massive, explosive power through the Holy Spirit. It's dynamic. It's dynamo. It's working. It's energizing, it's powerful, and it's mighty. Now listen, you say, well, pastor, I've never experienced that. I mean, I know I trusted Christ, I know I'm a Christian, and I like going to church, and I read my Bible on occasion, all these things, and how do you become a good athlete? Practice, practice, you get up early, practice. You think about it. You read about it. You learn the different disciplines to become a great athlete. And you put those things into practice. Next thing you know, maybe you got a shot at the Olympics. Maybe you got a shot at a professional team because you put the effort in, and you worked at it, and you strived at it. And many of you know, I'll just use one name that's a household name, Simone Biles. How many of you can do what Simone does? I guarantee you, I can't. up in the middle of the night, working day and night, pushing through the pain, pushing through the anxiety, pushing through the hardships, but just kept working and working and working and not giving up. When the pain came, you fought through the pain and just kept working and working and working until one day they put you on the podium and put the gold medal around your neck. And God said, listen, Christian, are you working at it? We can become lazy. We can become complacent. We can become average. We become status quo. We can become just, yeah, just exist. I put my faith in Christ, but that's as far as it's going. Sunday morning's as far as it's going for me. And God said, listen, I don't really care who you voted for, but I do care about who's going into the office in a couple of weeks. And I do care about those that are giving us the opportunity in 2025 to be able to push forward the greatest news ever given to mankind, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. The doors are open, folks. The media will be open. The social accounts on certain venues will be open. Things are opening to where God's people can have a tremendous influence, or we can simply say, yeah, we got four good years, Ah, let's just eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die, whatever. Folks, we're small. The Christian community is 4% of the world's population. 4%. Those without Jesus Christ will die and go to an awful place called the Lake of Fire for eternity. We have an opportunity. Folks, how many of you, and I'm not asking for hands raised, but just think for a moment, how many of you know people in your family, relatives, friends, people that you work with, that have no clue if they died, they go to heaven. They've not put their faith in Jesus Christ. Every single one of us could make a list of folks that we know that don't know Jesus. And God says, I want to give you my power. I want to give it to you. I want you to be mighty in Christ in 2025. I want you to say, OK, I'm putting my foot down or my hand, as the case may be. This book is going to start getting into my head. I'm gonna start reading it. I'm gonna start, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna start going Sunday night, maybe Wednesday night, maybe to the Bible studies. Maybe you wanna, maybe God's calling you to start a Bible study in your home and reach folks in your neighborhood. Remember, what is it that God has for you this year? What is it that in 2025, instead of just saying, well, I'm gonna make more money, I'm gonna have more fun, I'm gonna recreate more, I'm gonna do all the things that we like to do, how about we become an army for God? How about in 2025 we say, listen, America needs revival. People are dying and going to hell by the millions. Folks, there's eight billion people on this earth. Only 4% of people believe the gospel of Jesus Christ and have a biblical worldview. Do we have some work to do? Ah, but I can't. Yes, you can. Dr. Greg Huffman will be here in a couple of weeks. made this statement, and it was mainly focused at senior citizens, but applies to every single one of us. If you're not dead, you're not done. Father, thank you for your love for us. Right now, Lord, we've heard from the Apostle Paul. We've heard from the Holy Spirit of God. And Father, it's so easy to get complacent when things are going well. And Father, like never before, as the Apostle Paul said, listen, put yourselves around who God is. Put yourselves around the wisdom and the knowledge and the understanding that only comes through spending time in God's Word, spending time in prayer, spending time discipling others. Father, we need your help this morning. I need your help this morning. Every single one of us, Lord, we need the power of the Holy Spirit to work in us like never before. Father, would you please use us this year? Would you help us to stay active like we have the last five years with people inviting others to church, sharing the gospel in their homes, sharing the gospel in the workplace, sharing the gospel at school, inviting folks to come, showing them love and compassion and care. Father, would you please help us to do that? Would you use our missionaries across the world, just as the ones we talked about this morning? Father, would you give them the tenacity? Help them not to get slack in well-doing either. They can get discouraged. They can get hard times. Father, would you help them to stand up strong and to get the gospel out and help folks come to Christ? Father, would you do a miracle in this church this coming year? Would you help us to have spiritual awakening, spiritual renewal, spiritual revival in our own lives, and then help us to permeate it throughout the church and throughout our community, and even throughout the world. If you're here this morning, if you put your life in the Lord's hand, if you've dedicated your life to serving Him, if you've done more than just take the free gift of eternal life, if you've made Jesus the Lord of your life, I would encourage you to do it this year. Let's become that Christians that God has called us to be. Finally, if you're here this morning, if you died right now, do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt if you died, you'd go to heaven? Do you know that? You say, well, pastor, I gotta be honest. I don't know that. I walked in here this morning. I've listened to the message, but I gotta be straightforward. I don't know if I died, I'd go to heaven. Very quickly, there's four things you need to know. Number one, the Bible says we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3.23, none of us deserves heaven. And God says, if we got what we deserved, every single one of us, starting with me, would spend eternity in an awful place called the Lake of Fire, Revelation 21.8. But Jesus Christ created you, Colossians 1.16. And he says, I love you, John 3.16. And God said, listen, here's the way that you can go to heaven when you die. No, you can't earn your way to heaven. No, you can't work your way to heaven. No, there's not enough good things in the world for you to do to get yourself to heaven. Jesus said, I paid the way for your ticket to heaven. The only way to heaven is to receive the free gift of eternal life by placing your faith in Jesus. How about that verse? Here's the promise. For God so loved the world, that's you, that he gave his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever, anybody who believes in him, believes in what? His death, burial, and resurrection, should not perish or go to hell, but have everlasting life. Right there where you are. How about receiving that free gift of eternal life by placing your faith in Jesus? I guarantee you. It's a life changer, and it's certainly a destiny changer. Would you receive that free gift? Right there we are. Put your faith in Jesus. Did you do it? Did you receive that free gift? If you did, I'm going to say a quick prayer of thanksgiving. The prayer is not what saves you. It simply confirms what you just did in your heart by putting your faith in Jesus. If that's you this morning, you can pray silently with me something like this. Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know I don't deserve to go to heaven. But I finally got it this morning that Jesus paid the entire price for my sin through his death, burial, and resurrection. And this morning, as the Bible says, I've put my faith in Jesus and him alone, and I've received that free gift of eternal life. Thank you for saving me. Now, Father, I pray that you'd help us all to make decisions that will move forward the gospel this year, that will stand strong as we continue to pray for and work towards American revival in a worldwide movement of revival for the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you Lord for all that you're going to do. We give you the glory and only you in Jesus' name. Amen.