I'd like to talk tonight about maybe some resolutions for the year. And Alec was like, boy, the first blew past me. It's too late. It's the second. But it's all right. I want to go through just some things tonight that maybe we could look at. And you might pull out a piece of paper and a pen. And if something jumps out to you like, oh, yep, I could work on that this year. So if you would, it'll be a little bit before we get there. I'm not gonna belabor things too much tonight, but let's go to Proverbs chapter five, and I'll look at that in just a little bit. But we'll look at some areas, some possible New Year's resolutions. Boy, isn't it sad in the Old Testament when they wandered for 40 years? Isn't that sad? God wanted them in the land of promise, in the land of victory, but they wandered and wandered and wandered and wandered and wandered. I wonder if maybe there are areas, maybe there are areas that you've been doing some wandering. And tonight, you could say, you know what, it's time. This year, by God's grace, I'm going to take some steps to get into the land of promise, the land of victory in that area. So just some things to keep in mind. So I won't, and I'll be preaching it myself some tonight too, you know, lots of areas to improve for all of us. Let's start with health and fitness. So we'll start with an easy one, right? maybe a little bit more exercise this year, and maybe a little bit more water, maybe a few more fruits and vegetables, maybe a little less sugar. I like my sugar. a little bit more sleep this year, maybe some more walking, maybe some more stairs. I remember years ago, Pastor Armacost, he preached a message on, except for Melody, yes. Pastor Armacost, he preached a message on, I want to live long and die short. And part of it was keeping yourself moving. These legs of ours are real important, and God wants us to be able to live a full life for his honor and glory. He's like, well, I like to sit a lot. Well, work on sitting less, possibly. Get those legs moving. Say, I wanna serve the Lord for many, many, many years. So keep those legs moving. All right. Health and fitness. Next, personal development. Personal development. Maybe more reading this year. Maybe we heard about journaling last year. I remember I had just started doing a little bit of journaling last year, and I try every night to get at my computer now and journal and just type a few lines. I remember Lyle Geist getting up here and talking about, my mom was 15 minutes away from dying. If she would have gone to the hospital that she wanted to go to, she wouldn't have made it. Somebody said, nah, you better go to this one instead, one of her friends. And then she called that hospital they were ready to, I'm like, wow, God did that. And I remember that night typing that out. A little while ago, I was visiting the Stockmans, and they were sharing their salvation testimony with me. And I'm like, you know what? That's wonderful. I'm going to type that in. Give God glory, some of those things. I was reading through the Olsen's book on adventures in Africa. And I said, Pastor Olson, how did you remember all of these things? And he said, well, we wrote some stuff down. And between that and their memory and writing down things for prayer letters, between all of those things, they were able to. And you have a collection of, wow, God is. And we are so forgetful. We're so forgetful. And so how fun to have that collection, that treasure. I felt like I was an honorary Olson. in Africa during that time, but just enjoying that time, what a treasure that is, to look back and remember. Even one year, wasn't that something? To say, oh yeah, all that happened. I kind of forgot. So to write some things down about how good God is, maybe some of those areas. Maybe learn some Spanish this year. Maybe develop that for a little bit for ministry. Take a class. develop an existing skill or learn a new one. We do have a Bible college here. In about two weeks, Dr. Strauss will be lecturing for hours and hours in the evening, going through a portion of the book of Psalms. Say, I wanna know the book better this year. I wanna know God's word better than ever before. And so maybe some of those areas. Our college verse, is Psalm 90, 12, so teach us to number our days. By the way, as you get older, you should understand how time works better, right? They talked about, you know, the old, mom, why is grandma always reading her Bible? Well, because she's cramming for finals. Right? She knows that she doesn't have time. Her days are fewer and fewer as she moves toward that appointed time. And so every one of us, you have one less year than you did a year ago. What are you doing to grow closer to the Lord? The wilderness wanderings, are you wandering somewhere? Are you wandering? God doesn't want you wandering. But God wants you living intentionally. And don't just intend. to live intentionally, get to living intentionally. Lord, I want to sharpen up some things this year. Do some praying about time management. Maybe do some reading on it. Maybe some music lessons. Maybe develop that. We talked not too long ago about the bookends of your day. Say, Lord, with your help, I wanna develop a killer morning routine and an evening routine. I want to make sure the book ends of my day. That was really fun the way Pastor Mitchell explained that, but I haven't done a thing with it. Are we guilty of that sometimes? Well, do something with that by God's grace. Practice some new aspect of gratitude. maybe be better with your thank you cards this year than ever before. There are some families that put us to shame. We have a thoughtful church, and I learned from some of you, just, boy, that's super thoughtful. That's super thoughtful. So we've got some growing to do in the area of thoughtfulness, and maybe you can too. We'll talk a little bit more about this, but maybe some social media breaks or some technology fasts Mr. Brady, he does a Baptist history. Maybe grab one of those names and do some additional study. I know Mr. Brady was talking about that, that somebody grabbed one of those names and did some more studying on that. And really I think part of buying the truth and selling it not is when you take ownership of some truth, where you hear it preached, then you take it and go and study it out for yourself. I think that's part of buying the truth and selling it not. So maybe there's, I think it was David Cloud years ago talked about the Oriental Institute that's not far from here and a lot of biblical archeology, some of those things are there and some have made the trip over there to Chicago, not too far away to see some of those things and link and do a study of the archeology and scripture and how those link together. Of course, we have the only perfect history book, The Word of God, and linking, studying out some of those things. So just a little bit of personal development there. How about for your job? Maybe review your job description this year. Are you really focused on what you're paid to do? Or have you gotten off track somewhere? Networking with others in your field, some iron sharpening iron. Maybe a career goal. I want to be the greatest asset to my boss that I can because I'm a testimony for my real master up there. It's like, well, that's the best worker I have. I think it has something to do with the fact that he belongs to the Lord. Can your boss say that? Well, maybe in some area you can develop that this year. Take ownership of your field at work. maybe take on new responsibility there. Develop a needed skill for the place. Lord, how can I become indispensable in some way? Ask for feedback from your boss or those with whom you work. Be a mentor to somebody or seek someone out to help you. All right, maybe some financial goals for this year. I'm kind of going into, for CE class, I'm gonna be teaching on money management. And so I've been studying Dave Ramsey and Pastor Dave Olson. And so got the money by the book. So this is our text for that class. And we'll go through some of the Dave Ramsey videos there, but maybe some financial goals. By the way, this one here, Dave Olson, if you haven't been through Pastor Olson's book, this is super good. I kind of raced through it a while back, but I'm gonna be teaching some on it this next semester. So I'm going slower through it now and marking things up. The thing, you know, Dave Ramsey gives those biblical principles, but sometimes when you listen to him, you know, you have the money signs in your eyes, you're like, oh, I could do those things and be filthy rich. I mean, with the goal of taking care of God at some point, but... And so, this one really, as you study these principles as laid out by pastoralism, his being... I have to find out where I was before my bookmark just fell out. But this one really, sometimes, sadly, this one doesn't interest us as much, huh? This one's more, it's like, How can you be pleasing to the Lord with your finances? That doesn't interest us naturally because we're covetous creatures. It's like, no, no, no. Tell me more about the other one where I can be filthy, rich, and then give generously. I mean, that's my goal. But after I'm filthy, and again, just be careful with some of those things. And not everyone that, but anyway. Remember, the Bible does tell us, so financial goals, 1 Timothy 6, 9 through 10, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare. So even be careful of some of those things. And it's the many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. So being careful with those things. But maybe this year, really harness the power of a budget. Budget, boy, that's powerful. Build one and stick to it. I think of some, you know, even like somebody, even like the Brady's, the Brady's, you think that you maybe outgrow a budget. It's like, ah, that's for when you're starting out. And it amazes me that the folks are like, oh no, we work our budget. They're powerful. So that might be a good thing this year. Have an emergency fund. And you might say, well, but some things are changing in this country. Things are looking up economically, you know, possibly, right? That's the hope. And so I don't have to be careful with my finances because, you know, later on when everything takes a downturn, boy, then I'll be thinking, oh, well, remember the Bible tells us to think of the ant. We notice that the ant, it was during times of plenty that it was careful about the future. Listen to this. Proverbs 6, 6-8, go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide or overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in harvest. So during the summertime and during the harvest time. So this might be a very good time to, hey, let's get serious about some things and make sure our financial household is in order. But at the same time, don't put God last. I think sometimes it is nice to sock it away. I'm making sure my 401k is fully funded, and that's a fun thing to do, but make sure you have everything. It's like, well, I'm not generous to God right now. I'm generous to me. I'm making sure every spare dime is going in my 401K so that someday I can be generous toward God. No, no, no. Today. Today, God is generous to us. So let's be generous with God today. You might not have 10 years from now all these plans of being generous while you're socking it away for self. So like I said, lay it away. Put money toward the future. Don't put off being generous to her that God is so generous to us. Pay off, try to get that debt paid down, invest for the future. Maybe take a course in money management. Get some advice from some of the older folks here that have learned some lessons. Avoid unnecessary expenses. Don't just buy stuff because you can. Stuff has a way of owning us rather than us owning it. Save up for things. Don't just decide you want something and throw it on the credit card. Be careful with your side hustles. Those are fun to get a little extra money, but sometimes they can start, you know, covetousness starts to sneak in and they can take too much of our time and attention to the point where our main responsibility is we start to resent. And so be careful how covetousness can sneak in. Save up and do some fun things. Take a vacation, enjoy some experiences with your family. Take lots of pictures. And not for the sake of all the likes on social media. You take pictures. And again, we like to tease my wife where we're so glad when we were, you know, mom's like, stop everybody. We need a picture. We're like, ah, mom, we're, ah. But then later on, you're so glad. It's like, oh, you guys remember this? This was so fun. So have those experiences and capture them. Another thing, relationships. Relationships. Some goals maybe in relationships. Spend quality time with family regularly. Work on your marriage. We're looking forward to the marriage routine. I know not everyone can go on it. I wish you could all be there, but that type of thing. And again, those going on the retreat, it's not just to enjoy the other couples, but spending time with your spouse. Don't forget your spouse at the marriage retreat. And then this year, like never before, would you pray for your church family? For one another? Really praying. They say a family that prays together stays together. Really pray. Sometimes when there's bickering in churches, and you think that is so childish and unspiritual, there is no possible way you're praying for that other person. It's a breakdown in prayer that's going on, and that's why there's this bickering. Boy, if we would really, really uplift each other in prayer, and how fun that is to go up to somebody and say, hey, this morning I was lifting up your loved one in prayer for salvation. And things kind of slow down and I look at you and say, oh, thank you so much. Well, that'll help a church grow closer to each other. Is there someone in the church you don't know very well yet? Maybe this year is like, you know, I'm going to get to know so and so. And you can start with that one. Say, hey, tell me, I have you on my prayer list. What can I put on there in particular that you need prayer for? That's a good way to start. How about some personal well-being goals? Maybe set some goals to take care of your health a little bit better. We kind of talked about that. And men, maybe get to those checkups. They say, at your age, you better go see the doctor. I was like, yeah, not me. Maybe get some of those checkups. And then this one's to me. Maybe learn to manage some of those intakes. before the doctor tells you you have no choice? Okay. Look to the Lord to help with the stresses of life. Learn to forgive one another. Forgiveness, do you have something again? There's someone in this church family, oh, I just avoid them. I just avoid them. I think prayer is a good way to start to get that relationship where it ought to be. I laugh about that old joke where you have the newlywed couple, right? You got the newlywed couple and they're going horseback riding. I think a lot of you have heard it. They're going horseback riding. And of course, this new bride, she's curious about her new husband. And so they're horseback riding and the horse kind of, you know, bucks the rider off into some mud. And the husband gets up and she's like, oh, I'm going to see what kind of a temper he has because I'm married to this guy. And she was so impressed when he gets up, calmly brushes himself up, you know, walks over to the horse and looks him in the eye and says, that's one. And then they're horseback riding a little bit later and the horse bucks him into a river. And he's coming up out of the water, he's like, oh, I'm married to this guy, what kind of a temper does he have? And he comes up out of the water, rings out his shirt, walks up to the horse very calmly, says, that's two. And then a little while later, they're going along, she's like, wow, what a guy that I'm married, what a guy. And then the horse bucks him off again. And he very calmly, she's like, wow, she's looking forward to something to journal about how amazing this man is. And he very calmly walks up and pulls out his pistol and drops the horse. That was three. And the wife started, she's screaming and hollering, what have you done? And he very calmly looks at her and says, that's one. Now that's kind of horrifying. And again, that's not a forgiving guy. What is that really? That kind of is a little bit of that heart of Peter in Matthew 18. Remember when he's like, should we forgive seven times? Should we forgive? Because again, it's not real forgiveness. It's just delayed retribution, right? Delayed retribution sometimes and we're like, I'm just I'm just I'm just waiting to see you get yours and I can't wait and so Lord give us a heart of Forgiveness where you said, you know, if somebody is doing something wrong, you're you're taking those biblical steps and saying Oh Lord Do a work in their life. I want your blessing on their life and they won't know your blessing. Forgiveness where you truly want God's best for that other person. So forgiveness this year. Learn to be more present. God didn't design us to be omnipresent. And so, you know, a lot of times we're thinking about everything in the whole world because our phones can ding and, oh, guess what? A plane just went down in Asia. And a lot of times we aren't bothered by phone notifications. We're addicted to them. Let me say that again. Americans aren't bothered by phone notifications. We're addicted to them because they offer an escape. We have a hard time being where we are. And we want our attention to be everywhere other than where we are. This year, maybe say, I wanna spend some time learning to be where I am. Just right there, with those people, in that moment, making the best of it. So being a little more present. Take responsibility for your own actions. Stop playing the victim. God didn't mess up your life. God has never messed up a life. If it's messed up, if you're living out consequences because sin in your own life, that's your fault. Own it and get right with God. Say, Lord, I deserve these consequences. I sinned. Please forgive me. I'm asking for your mercy and I want to get right. I don't want to have your blessings again. It's very, it's in vogue to be the victim nowadays in this country. You know, you go to, God gives you victory and he wants to take your drama from you. And it's like, well, my drama is who I am. I mean, I don't have an identity without my drama. You take my drama from me. What do I have left? I know it's a little scary, but the victory of God, that promised land, it's way better. So stop playing the victim. All right, how about some adventure and travel? Maybe pick a new destination. Have you been to Israel? Yet. It's fun to get over there. Different places from your bucket list. Maybe go see a missionary. Maybe save up and say, I want to go visit this missionary. That's wonderful. If you don't want to go that far, we have graduates. Go see the stars. Go see them. Go and say, hey, show me what you're doing. Let me visit with you. Let me take you out for dinner. Let me see what God's doing. I want to get excited. Go visit some of our graduates. Encourage them. And again, we're Baptists here. We have learned how to go on a vacation without spending an arm and a leg. So some of you young couples maybe say, hey, how do you do it? We've got ideas. We've got ideas. Pinch a penny. How about technology and digital habits? Work this year to limit some of that screen time. Practice a digital detox. Boy, these phones are taking over our lives. And somebody said this, I really made it a goal not to be on my phone when the kids were around. I only made it three weeks. I really started missing my kids. But the reason why that's funny is because, boy, we're like, oh, these phones, they're taking over our lives. So we're going to talk just a little bit about that in a little bit toward the end. But maybe learn a new technology, a software, a time management or something for the sake of productivity, not procrastination. So with technology, some of those things, learn to limit some things. And even if there's access to sin, on your phone that you have. Boy, I think 2025 is a good time of year to get some help with that. To say, boy, you know, if it's a husband, wife, teenager, hey, mom, there's music, hey, there's videos, I have no business watching. I have access to this other person. Boy, my family and I, we went to Chicago for just a little bit, and there were some people further up the train, and you could hear them just talking, and oh, young and filthy. Young and filthy. It's just so sad how, oh, we're cool, we're young and filthy. They're just going on about this and that and using the dirty, young and filthy. And this world has a way of making filth seem like the coolest, greatest, latest thing. And our young people are, some young and filthy people have access to our kids sometimes and we have no idea. get an idea and young person say, hey mom, I need you to help me. There's a crowd that somehow I'm running with and I don't know how it happened. So those things. There was a man, I heard a story about a man who was driving along, he was on the train. He had a package in his lap. And the conductor said, hey, what's in your package? And he said, well, it's an unexploded bomb. that I found in my garden. I'm taking it to the police station. The conductor said, an unexploded bomb? That sounds dangerous. Don't carry that on your lap. Put it under your seat. That'd be way better. Thanks, that's what I'll do. You know, to shift the danger doesn't help you. We have some stuff we need to get rid of, some danger in our lives. Some will take, you know, December 31st, and then we're gonna step into the new year on January 1, and we're just shifting some dangerous things, maybe from our lap to underneath our seat, but really what we need to do is take an honest look at some things that have been derailing our lives, keeping us in the wilderness wanderings, keeping us from that land of of promise. All right, so those are some things, some spiritual goals that you might take a look at. So I don't know if you, is there anything you could write down tonight? I have some more stuff. Oh yeah, I told you to turn to Proverbs 5, didn't I? We can save that, we can save that. It's 8 o'clock now, so I have a bunch more stuff. I can turn that into another lesson for down the road. All right, well, I'll at least read the verse. In Proverbs 5, verse 6, Proverbs 5, verse 6, it's talking about the strange woman and I got to thinking a while ago how the police are really watching for distracted drivers, right? Police are watching for distracted drivers. Driving is such an important thing that police want you to focus on it. And our phones, when we're texting or whatever it is, I have a study on it here. As you're driving while distracted, you're putting yourself in danger, your passengers in danger, other people on the road in danger while driving distracted. And so I have a whole study on it here. And there are police that say we have to watch because it's dangerous to drive distracted. But I think it's also dangerous to try to live this life distracted. I think our phones are causing us to live our life distracted. And just like the police out there are cleaning up mangled wrecks of people that try to do something important while distracted because their phones were distracting them, I think there's pastors and there's parents that are out there trying to clean up mangled lives of people that were living their life distracted. The devil wants us distracted so we're not living our life carefully. And so I see the strange woman, her goal, in that saying, hey, what if, hey, hey, what, hey, what, she's making these suggestions. And what in the Bible says that her lips drop as a honeycomb, her mouth is smoother than oil, and what's her goal? What's her goal? Verse six, lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life. She doesn't want you pondering the path ahead. She wants you distracted. Distracted from the path that God wants you to be on. And so just that idea, how with our phones, I think nowadays we're living so distracted. We're not pondering the path of life. And I think there's life after life after life that has just been crashed. And in verse 21, The Bible says this, for the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings. So God, he ponders the path ahead. There's important things, but we're missing the path ahead, so many of us, because of the temptation of the strange woman. She doesn't want us pondering the path of life. She wants us distracted, so we're not paying attention to what's supposed to be in front of us. She wants us distracted. And because of that, when we're looking everywhere else, there's lives that are being crashed all around us. So just like the police are out there trying to say it's dangerous to drive while distracted, I think as a church, We need each other to help police each other. There's so many of us living and why do parents have a hard time telling their kids, hey, be on your phone less. It's hard to tell someone to be on your phone less when mom and dad were addicted. So as a church, Families, let's be up front with our weaknesses together. Make some decisions. And maybe even tonight, among these other things that we looked at, maybe tonight we could say, Lord, I've been living a distracted life in 2025. I want you to have my attention. All right, so some things maybe to pray about. Living intentionally. And don't just like, yeah, I intend to do something about those. No, hopefully you wrote some things down. Maybe go home and talk with your husband, talk with your wife, children, talk with mom and dad. Say, hey, the Lord brought this to my attention. I need to do some, I need to work on some of these areas. I've been wandering. I've been wandering in the wilderness and God wants me to be done wandering and step into the life of victory he has for me. I need to live intentionally in some of these areas. All right, we'll pray. and have a time of invitation, and then we'll look over our prayer sheet together. Lord, we love you. We thank you for your goodness. I pray that you'd help us with these things. Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would have taken some of these ideas, Lord, one, two, maybe three items, but especially, Lord, in the area of the fallen, Lord. Driving a vehicle is so important. that it becomes very, very dangerous when we drive distracted. But also, Lord, another thing that's important is for us to be on the path that you have for us. And the strange woman, Lord, that temptation, that immorality, or whatever it is, the allure of the world, and even James chapter four, verse four reminds us, it causes that spiritual adulterers and adulteresses and that friendship with the world, Lord, as we're venturing down the path of life. The same phone that is distracting and causing great danger for people driving motor vehicles is also causing us to be distracted on the path of life. And Lord, the Bible tells us that you ponder the path ahead of us, and our ways are before your eyes, and you wanna tell us things, but Lord, we're not paying attention to you. You don't have our attention. We're living life distracted, and James reminds us, oh God, that the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. And Lord, that phone, among other things, we are an unstable people distracted from the path that you have for us. Lord, I pray that some of these things, we'd get serious about them and live intentionally. Oh Lord, how fun it was to see those wonderful pictures, all the wonderful things we saw in 2024. And Lord, we wanna see more. And we wanna see even better things as we grow closer to you in 2025. I pray that you'd help us to spend some time on our knees, living intentionally by your grace to live pleasing to you in some of these areas. We ask these things in Christ's precious name, amen.