This is the first Tuesday in January and we're continuing our study on the Word of God, but these first two Tuesdays we're going to look at goal setting and thought it would be appropriate before we went on to our continuation of the study of knowing, understanding, and teaching the Word of God that we spend two sessions on setting goals for 2022. So having said that, let's go to the Lord in prayers, shall we? O Lord God, this is your holy word. We are your servants. Give us understanding that we might know your testimonies. You have said, O Lord, Sanctify them in truth thy word is truth. Use your holy, eternal, inerrant written word to set us apart this morning for your service and your glory. Show us this day great and mighty things which we do not know. The sower sows the word. Let not your word go out and return empty, but accomplish that purpose for which you have drawn us together and for which you are now sending out your word. Protect us from Satan, Lord, who will snatch your some word. Protect us from the world's cares and the delight of wealth and the passion of other interests which enter in and choke your work. Protect us from a wrong reaction to difficulties and discouragements and persecutions which make our hearts hard and unresponsive to your work. Rather give us good soil, O Lord. Plow up now the hard ground of our hearts, that your sown written word might send roots downward and bear fruit upwards. Unsheath now the sword of your Spirit, O Lord. cut to the dividing point of bone and marrow, soul and spirit. Judge now the thoughts and intentions of all those gathered here this morning. Spread your word before us as a banquet table, O Lord. Grant grace that we might eat of the rich meat and drink of the sweet milk of the great doctrines of your word. Give us the heart of the prophet who cried to you. Thy words were found and I did eat them, and thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts. O LORD, we live in a dark and a wicked age. Broad is the way and many are on it that leads to destruction. Make your word a lamp to our feet. Make your word a light to our path. Show us that narrow way that you would have us run. And Lord, as we run in the paths of your commandments, enlarge our hearts that in loving you we might be more obedient to your written word. Drop your word against our lives as a plumb line, O Lord. Grant grace that we might see how we deviate from its high and holy purposes. Make your word to us a mirror, O Lord. Grant grace that we might not be as those who look and go away and promptly forget, but make us active doers, not forgetful listeners of your written word. O Lord, because of our fealty to you, because of our undying love and devotion to you, our resurrected Savior. We pledge to you our total submission to your holy, eternal, inerrant written word. And we pledge to you our unquestioning obedience to all of its commands. In the name of our Lord and resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Well, let's look at resolutions or goal setting for spiritual health in 2022. News media announced this week, as I was watching the evening news, that New Year's resolutions, according to their poll, were down 50%. that something that used to be very common in the U.S., and that is coming up with a set of goals or resolutions for a new year, is becoming less and less common. Well, you never know where they come up with these statistics, what kind of survey they did, but I thought that was interesting. It's been my habit. I actually began doing this about my junior year of college to set one-year, five-year, and ten-year goals. My one-year goals were always very specific, my five-year less, and my ten years even less, but I did have them. For instance, I come up on my five-year goal this year is to finish my dissertation and graduate. By God's grace, I'll do that. My 10-year goal right now is to worship at the feet of my Savior with a clear conscience. Should I reach 80, I'll have to, if I reach 81, I'll have to change that 10-year goal, but my 5-year goal is to walk faithfully with the Lord until I enter glory." One of the verses in my prayer notebook are from Proverbs. It says, "...Grandchildren are the crown of old men, but the glory of sons is their fathers." And a unearned crown that I have are nine grandchildren. We had them all in our home during the post-Christmas, pre-New Year's period, counting my sister and her husband and the extended family, we had 22, counting Eleanor and myself. And when I tell people I have nine grandchildren, they slap me on the back as if I've accomplished something great. And actually, I had nothing to do with any of the births of my grandchildren. But I praise God that my children are all walking with God and raising their children in the same manner. The second half of that verse says, the glory of sons is their fathers. And it is my earnest desire and endeavor to live my final years of my Christian life in dignity and in service of the Lord so as to bring honor to the, not only to the Lord, but to my family name and not to embarrass my children. Proverbs 2, I believe it's around 15, Paul exhorts Timothy, flee from the lusts of the youth. And that's still in my prayer notebook. And a man in my same school class recently asked me when we were talking about this subject, why are you worried about at your age fleeing from youthful lusts? And I shared with him, oh, I know many ministers who have embarrassed themselves, their church, the gospel, by engaging in youthful activities and pursuits and lusts rather than acting their age. Personally, I have three visual models of men. One is a missionary and had great influence on my life, named John Crawford, who is with the Lord. I feel like he lived his final years in dignity, quote, acting his age. Another is businessman Gene Waugh, who also had a great influence on me. In fact, it was Mr. Waugh that started me my freshman year of college. And he ended his life in dignity. And the last, it was the former vice president and international director, vice president of the Navigators, Jim Downing. I always felt that he presented himself when in a manner of dignity, walking with the Lord. I have shared with people that I consider it a great blessing that I received Christ in high school and went up through the college ministry. In a period in the church when high school and college ministries, the youth and university students aspired to the dignity and sobriety and maturity of the high school or college minister, rather than the high school and college minister trying to look like and act like a high school student or college student. And I feel like that put me in good stead as I entered adulthood, particularly since I did not have that model in my own parents. So having said that, our goals scriptural. since I make one-year, five-year, and ten-year goals. Now, there is a passage in scripture in which we should consider, and it's found in James 4. So, if you have a copy of the Holy Scriptures with you, please turn with me to James 4.13. I'll give you a second to join with that, because it's not in your notes. And then I'm going to cut and paste this passage to your notes. OK, let's see. Here we go. By God's grace, you can see that. There we go. James 4, 13 through 17. Matthew, give me a thumbs up if you can see that. Yeah, good, okay. Come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such city, spend a year there, engage in business and make a profit, yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you are to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this and that. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. Therefore to the one who knows what is the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. So this is not a teaching against incremental planning. What's it a teaching against? Well, the sin here is boasting and arrogance. See? It does not say, the key phrase here is that we do not know what tomorrow is and we should say, if the Lord wills. So we should give glory and credence to the sovereignty of God in our planning. It says, what are we to say? If the Lord lives, if the Lord wills, we will live, And we will do this or that. The passage does not say, do not plan. Do not plan at all. Do not ever say, you are going to live, and you are going to do this and that. What the Word of God does say is, do not boast in terms of presumptuous sins. We are warned in the Psalms against presumptuous sins to presume upon the grace and the will of God. So I am planning, but I am also freely acknowledging that my days are numbered. I cannot go one number beyond those that God has decreed. And that if I live, I will accomplish these plans. But I do not presume that my plans and my will supersede or trump God's plans and God's will for my life. That would be arrogant, that would be boasting. One of the things I often share, and I've shared this with Brother Richard, is in terms of the sovereignty of God, if the Lord wills, that God is so sovereign he takes all of the fun out of bitterness. Just about the time we really think we can sink our teeth into anger, bitterness, resentment. Rats! The sovereignty of God. God could change it. God is sovereign. He's on the throne. Nothing is spinning out of control. nothing is slipping through his fingers. So if the Lord wills, I will live and I will do this and that." It does not say, instead you are to say, let go and let God, do not plan, just drift along. It simply says that we are to give credence to the sovereignty of God and not boast. Now, in terms of a scriptural precedence for planning, we see that in God the Father. Genesis 2, 1 and 3, Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from his works which he had created and made." I always tell people, do not make God in your own image. God is not what we believe. We believe what God is as revealed in his written word. And God is not what we can conceive he is. God had an incremental plan which he followed in the creation of the heavens and earth and all its hosts over a six-day period, and on the seventh day he rested from his work, which he had created Psalm 3311, the counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart from generation to generation. So God does have a counsel, God does have a plan, which he is following. I'm also, I'm often asked, what does that word, the counsel of the Lord, stands forever? Well, one way of looking at that phrase, the counsel of the Lord, is how he counsels us. His plans stand from generation to generation. The other is that the interpersonal relationship and plans of the Holy Trinity the counsel of God within himself. These stand in his heart from generation to generation. So God does have plans, God the Father. It is not, I often tell people, you don't have to be more holy than God. Don't have to set your stance higher than God. If God has plans, we can, we don't say, well, you know, planning, that's unscriptural. We should just let go and let God. No, if we have plans, if God has plans, we can have plans. Jeremiah 29 11 for I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord. Plans for your welfare and not for calamity to give you a future in hope. So in Psalm 33 11 we see the plans of God in terms of his big picture for all of creation, which is marching incrementally, step by step, to its culmination with the return of Christ. But God also has individual plans for us, which he is also working out in our individual lives. I think a good passage on that in terms of God's individual plans for us is found in Philippians 1, verse 6. If you want to turn in your holy scriptures to Philippians 1, 6. We'll add that to our notes. It says, for I am confident that he who began his good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ. God has a plan for us. That plan is being perfected in our lives. And it will culminate with our ultimate perfection in heaven. when we experience the glorification which God has promised for us. So, God the Father has plans and He's carrying them out. He had plans from the very beginning, Genesis 2, 1-3. He has plans for the, not only the beginning, but the culmination. of all creation. Psalm 33 11 and he has plans not only in the big picture of his creation but also he has plans individually for us as Christians. God the Son has plans both in the training of the twelve It's beginning and end as well as his ministry. Mark 3.14 says he appointed twelve so that they would be with him and he could send them out to preach. Mark 11.1, when Jesus had finished giving instructions to his disciples, he departed from there to teach and preach in their cities. So, he appointed twelve so that he could send them out to preach and he had a finishing point in this. So, in Acts 4.13, now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated, untrained men, they were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus because he had appointed them to send them out. He finished giving instructions to them and sent them out and as they went out they recognized them as having been with Jesus and receiving this instruction. Matthew 6 21 16 21 from that time Jesus began to show his disciples He must go to Jerusalem suffer many things from the elders and priests and scribes be killed and raised up on the third day Jesus The gospel say Jesus set his face to Jerusalem. He was he had a plan and it was being accomplished John 19 30 when Jesus had received the sour wine wine. He said it is finished He bowed his head and gave up his spirit. So, God the Son, while on earth, had plans. They were incrementally fulfilled. There was both a beginning and an end to these plans. God the Holy Spirit recognizes and sanctions plans. Proverbs 15.22, without consultation plans are frustrated. but with many counselors they succeed." That assumes we are planning, doesn't it? Proverbs 16, 3, commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established. Proverbs 69, the mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps, and we thank God for that. A good cross-reference for that is Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. God will direct us as He completes His work in our lives, and we can trust Him in that. But He's directing our paths. In other words, we are assuming here that we have plans that we have submitted to God and are moving forward, and then God promises that He will not simply stand by idly and watch us go over the edge of the cliff. but will get involved in our lives and direct us in the way we should go. Proverbs 21 5 the plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage but everyone who is hasty surely comes to poverty and God here is directing us that in our spiritual and our worldly pursuits that we should be diligent planning and in the application of the plans and not just running here and there in a hasty manner. 2nd Timothy 2 to the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So it is assuming in our spiritual instruction of others that there is a plan. And that we are entrusting these things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. One of the mistakes that people make in when they are meeting in one-on-one disciple making ministry is to teach others what God is teaching them. Now, when you are a young Christian, that works. But what God is teaching Brother Emeka or Brother Richard, Pastor Greg Hudson, Brother Rennie, is on a completely different level than what he wants to teach a young, growing disciple or a young disciple. I taught the first student how to have a daily quiet time alone with God in 1971. Every year, to the best of my knowledge since then, I've been teaching people, both individuals and in small groups and in large groups, how to meet with God. Now, one of the reasons people grow weary in the disciple-making ministry is they lose their heart for people because there's only so many new and innovative ways you can teach people to meet with God daily in quiet time. So the thing that drives you in the disciple-making knowledge, but rather your heart for people. Now God's Word in Lamentations 3, 22 and 23 is new every morning and when you teach the same thing over and over again, hundreds of times over a period of 50 years, you do gain new insights and it does thrill your heart to teach the Word of God, but it is not a new thing and it's not the thing that God the thing that God wants me to teach them, which is entirely different. So God the Holy Spirit exhorts us to be planning, to be thinking through on these plans. Now, So what is a goal for 2022? And this is one that I have set for myself and that is to have a daily quiet time alone with God. To meet with God every morning. Now I have also having that to pray through my prayer notebook every morning. My prayer notebook is broken up into adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, intercession, and spiritual warfare. has six sections to it. My goal is to pray through that each morning. Psalm 119, 147, 148, I rise before dawn and cry for help. I wait for your words. My eyes anticipate your night watches that I might meditate on your words. I like this passage because some people say I'm just not a morning person. The time I like to have my daily devotional life is in the evening. Well, it's like the Russians say, ili ili oba. It's either or both. Feel free to do it. You can do it in the morning, you can do it in the evening, you can do it both times. I have a man I respect very much, a businessman, John Repass in Oklahoma City, who shared with me that each night the first thing he wants in the morning is the Word of God, that's his quiet time, and his last thought in the evening is the Word of God, that is his scripture review program. When I began doing that, I found I wasn't getting to sleep till one or two in the morning because as I reviewed my verses, I began thinking, you know, that would be a good, this would be a good cross-reference or, you know, I need to make a note to remember to add this to my teaching on this area. And I would start getting excited about the Word of God and pretty soon, this was before iPads, I would have my my notebook out and I would be doing a Bible study. So, I have a couple of verses that I review in my mind to settle my mind in the evening, but to do my scripture review in the evening just doesn't work for me. It stimulates my mind to be awake rather than allowing me to fall asleep. Eleanor's and I have it in the evening. We found ourselves worried about the events of the day, so we made two applications. One is not to watch the evening news, the 10 o'clock news. And the other was that we would fall asleep holding each other in our arms, spending time thanking God for all the good things that have occurred in our life and in that particular day. And so, whichever is best for you, do it. But to have a daily quiet time alone with God is an essential aspect of the Christian life. You know, there are many decisions we worry about that turn out to be inconsequential. I remember as my freshman year of college, I was worrying about where I would live. I was worried about who my roommates would be. in the dormitory. I was worried about the courses I would take, the professors I would take, seating, my meal plan. There was a lot of things I was worried about. And I really labored over the decisions, course selection, all these things. Now, these were not unimportant decisions. But the one decision I did make my freshman year, kind of on a whim, was to begin getting up in the morning and having a quiet time. And the upperclassman who shared that with me said, ask yourselves two questions, one in, at 10 o'clock at night, ask yourself, what are you doing right now that's more important than getting up in the morning and having your quiet time? And the second question you ask yourself is, you get up in the morning and you shave, you get dressed, why isn't meeting with God at that same level? Because you do get up in the morning and do things. Your alarm doesn't go off and you just walk out of your dorm room in your pajamas and start your day. You set your alarm early enough so that you can get dressed, you can shave, you can get your books together, you can have breakfast. You do have things that you set your alarm off in the morning early enough to do. And the second question he says, why isn't meeting with God at the same level of those things since you are doing it? Most people say, well, it's hard for me to get up in the morning. That's why I don't have a quiet time in the morning, which is not true. They do get up in the morning. And they get up in the morning because they need to do things before they do things. They need to get dressed. They need to take care of their morning routine. They need to do a lot of things, and they do do those things. The problem is just adding our time with God to that priority list. Now, how do mystics, both Christian and pagan, how do they approach meditation? I will ask somebody, what do you think? Amika, I'm gonna unmute you. Okay, and Matthew Wilkins, I'm going to unmute you. Okay, Matthew and Amika, I'll ask Amika first, what would you say, how do mystics or non-Christians such as Hindus, how do they approach meditation? What would you say, Amika? well uh... i was trying to uh... into their minds that's excellent what do you think that you have a very approach meditation i need to ask you sorry i muted you by accident that's ok i've never seen a hindu meditate but i get the impression that they probably light incense and they probably try to clear away distractions and not have kids running around and they probably, same thing as amicus, they just empty their minds. Okay, good. Good observation. That's exactly right. Mystics and pagans, they want to empty their minds and they want into this void something spiritual to happen. So is there a verse in Holy Scripture which commands us to empty our minds? Well, that's a rhetorical question. The answer is no. I am open to that. I do not have the Bible memorized. So if you know of a verse that says empty your minds so that God can speak it, mystically into it. I'm open to that. I was sharing this concept with a couple and they had said, well, our pastor said, be still and know that I am God. So see, we're supposed to empty our minds. I said, no, no, no. Being still and emptying your mind are two different things. Slowing down and recognizing that God is God and having a daily quiet time and filling your mind with His Word is different from emptying your mind. Is there a verse in the Holy Scriptures which commands us to abandon self-control? No, the exact opposite is true. The capstone fruit of the Spirit is self-control. Fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. The foundational fruit of the Spirit is love, but the capstone fruit of the Spirit is self-control. The commands of God the Holy Spirit will never violate the fruit of the Holy Spirit. So God will never command us to do something which is not loving, nor will he command us to do something in which we are not exercising self-control. The leadership of God the Holy Spirit will never violate the words of God the Holy Spirit. In other words, he will never lead us in a different way than he has commanded us. God will not lead us to commit adultery. God will not lead us to abandon self-control. So, when pagans and Christian and mystical Christians think of meditation, they think of emptying their minds and God's words speaking to them in their mind. So when we ask, what is the expectation of mystics when they meditate, is that God would speak to them. country in Africa for extended time and there was a group of women who overlapped. Eleanor and I stay in this country and they were leading conferences on listening prayer and meeting with the university students on listening prayer. Because I had problems with this on a number of levels. One is that God the Holy Spirit clearly says that women are not to teach or exercise authority over men. And they were, this group of women, on listening prayer and not only teaching women on listening prayer but they were teaching and exercising authority over the men on the ministry on quote listening prayer. Now I have no problem if you are praying over God's Word and meditating on God's Word and seeking to understand what is the application of this passage in my day-to-day life. I have no problem with that. A good method that I'll be teaching you on meeting daily with the Lord in prayer, is what is it that God, are three questions. Know, K-N-O-W. What does God want me to know, be, or do? That is an excellent methodology. One of the things I'm always exhorting the men who travel with me on the mission field is the KISS principle. Keep it spiritually simple. KISS. Keep it spiritually simple. Boil it down to its most basic level. So, when I teach a man how to have a daily quiet time, all he needs is a Bible, a pen or a pencil, and a piece of paper. And then he asks three questions as he reads the passage. What is something God wants me to know? What is something God wants me to be? What is something God wants me to do? And so then I'll say, what did God say to you from this passage? And I have no problem with someone saying, well, Matthew 6.33, God convicted me of this, or God wants me to do this. I have no problem from that when the orientation is from an application to the written word of God. But that is different from simply God's doing listening prayer the way they were teaching it where you just simply empty your mind and what comes into your mind is the Word of God. An illustration they gave was that a university student had shared during the share time that during the listening prayer he just was sitting there on the ground leaning up against a tree and he was emptying his mind to the best of his ability, and all of a sudden it came to him that he should change his major and had several other things. And they were very excited about this. They were saying, wow, you see, this is a good example of this. This poor young man was in the wrong, studying the wrong thing. And I said, no, Before he goes and changes his major, did you counsel him to talk to his parents? I mean, who's paying for his education? Who is making the sacrifice so that he could study in this major? Did you counsel him to talk to his pastor? Did you encourage him to go to the university administration and think through on the consequences of this decision in terms of job opportunities and his career direction? Did you counsel him to sit down and think through of a plan in terms of actually being able to do this thing? Which is, well, none of those things were done. It just popped into his mind. Well, as a parent, who was paying for my children to go to the university. I would have, personally, I would have problems with all of a sudden the announcement that they were not going to study engineering. Instead, they were going to study 15th century French poetry. I would have a real problem with that. So without any consultation or any advice, because what's going to happen next semester? A new idea pop into his head? And a new major? So what's the danger of this approach when we meditate of simply emptying our minds? Well one is 1st John 4.1, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false spirits have gone into the world. God the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit. And we can be led astray by these false spirits. Acts 12.7 is an example of this. Behold, an angel from the Lord suddenly appeared, and a light shone in the cell. And he struck Peter's side, woke him up, saying, get up quickly. And his chains fell off of his hands. as the Russians would say, Slavobogo, praise God. But notice 2nd Corinthians 11.14, no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of the light. So, simply because an angel of the light appears doesn't mean it's from God. simply because a spirit whispers something in your ear or brings a thought to mind doesn't mean it's from God. Another reason we should be cautious is Proverbs 14, 12. There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. This passage doesn't say there is a way which a man may be deceived into following. No, this way seems right. hasn't been tempted to disobey, to disobey, it just seems the right thing to do. And that is important to recognize the fact that we can have ideas which in every way seem right to us, but must first be cross-referenced with the Word of God. That's an important recognition and submission. When I lead my seminars, whether it's on family or marriage or discipleship or witnessing, I always remind the listeners that I did not come to free them from the word of God, but to bring them under submission to the word of God. And you know, I would say in the 80s, If I had said that 40 years ago, two generations ago, there would be a, good, this is what we want. We really want to live under submission of the word of God. But, here we are in the year 2022, when I see that, I can see the, almost feel the tension in the air. of Christians responding negatively to the concept of being under submission to the Word of God. As if their thoughts, their spirituality, their walk with God, they were co-laborers with the Holy Spirit. They were co-laborers with Jesus Christ. We are not co-laborers with the Holy Spirit. we live into submission of his word. We are not co-laborers with Jesus Christ. He is our Lord. We are his servants. So, how does this contrast with Christian meditation in Joshua 1.8? Joshua 1.8 says this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate upon it day and night and then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. But it doesn't say that, does it? That's how most of us read it. It says you shall meditate upon it day and night so that you might be careful to do. You might be careful to do, and not just to do anything that comes in your mind, but you may be careful to do what is written. We live in the church age. It is the age of the written revelation of God. It's very important for us to recognize that. It is not the mystical age. of the mystical revelation of God, but it is the age, church age, is the age of the written revelation of God. And when we do what is written, then it is a contingent blessing. Contingent blessings are if-then. You could almost put, if this book of the law does not depart from your mouth, if you are careful to do what is written, then you will make your way prosperous and have good success. That's a contingent blessing. It does not say this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you will meditate on it day and night so that the storehouses of heaven will open up and the blessings of God will pour out on your life. It doesn't say that. It says we do it for the purpose of obedience, which is entirely different. See, the book of the law does not depart We fill our minds with the Word of God when we meditate. We fill our mind with the Word of God that we might be careful to obey what is written in it. We read the passage and a nice simple approach is, what does God want me to know? What does God want me to be? What does God want me to do? That's very simple. Another simple approach, which I learned from my first Bible study leader, a Ghanaian who is now with the Lord, named Ransford Sinevo, who was involved in the navigator ministry with a businessman named Gene Ward in Oklahoma City. He was a graduate student. I was in his Bible study. He also taught me the ABC method. Think of A, adoration. What is something you can worship God for in the passage? B, B.E. What is something God wants you to be in terms of your character? C, confess. What is something God wants you to confess? D, is do. What does God want you to do? And E, express. What is something that you can share with someone else, either with a Christian or a non-Christian? And he said that was the ABC method. He said, read the passage of scriptures, see if you can come up with something on each of those, and then go forward. Well, I found both of those approaches very helpful, and so I commend them to you for your consideration. When did King David meet with God? Well, Psalm 5.3, In the morning, O Lord, you will hear my voice. In the morning I will order my prayer before you and eagerly watch. So, King David met with God in the morning. While on earth, when did Jesus Christ, God the Son, meet with God the Father? Mark 1.35. in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place and was praying there." Now, we have to remember in this passage, this is not a command, is it? This is not a command for us to get up early in the morning before dark. These two things are scriptural examples. I call them scriptural means. A scriptural means of application is an application sanctioned by God the Holy Spirit. A pure application is something that we simply come up with. The ABC method, the no-be-do method, is simply an application which man has come up with. But meeting in the morning is an application which is sanctioned by God. It's not universally commanded, it's not a doctrinal command, but it is sanctioned by historical revelation. So, although we cannot universally command it, nor can we forbid it, because God the Holy Spirit sanctions it. And I always try, when I'm thinking about obedience of scripture, one of the questions I always ask myself is, are there any scriptural means of applying this passage? Are there applications sanctioned by God the Holy Spirit? And one of those is getting up in the morning. Now, the reason that God the Holy Spirit, I feel, does not command us to get up while it is still dark is because God the Holy Spirit knew that because he was involved in the creation of the world that we live in a pear-shaped earth that spins on an axis that tilts and so daylight and changes in some parts of the world, like when I was in Russia to wake up a great time before daylight. If it was in December, that could be any time in 24 hours because it never got light. On the other hand, if it was in June, it would be almost impossible because it never got dark. So, uh, I praise God that we are not commanded to wake up a great while before daylight and thus all of us immigrate as close to the equator as, as we, as we could. Well, brother Richard, while he's in Kenya, we'll be very close to the equator. And so, uh, there was about a 20 minute difference, uh, throughout the 12 month year between daylight, uh, sunrise and sunset. So he won't have a problem with that. The further you get to the different poles, like Brother Steinberg in Cape Town, South Africa, or Brother Volkov in St. Petersburg, it will be more challenging. But they did meet with God in the morning. So one of the questions is, what is the value of meeting with God first thing in the morning? Is there a value in doing that? Why do many churches have staff meetings in the morning? When I was an education pastor at Rice Temple Baptist Church, I had responsibility for a weekly staff meeting, and we would We meet in the morning, once a week, but I also met with the administrative and office staff every morning, right before the day began, just to make sure everybody was on the same page, that were things getting done that need to be done. Now, the senior pastor held the weekly staff meeting with all of the staff, but as education pastor, I held a morning staff meeting with the people who were under my responsibility. Why do many businessmen look at their calendars and check their messages in the morning? Why do students attend review sessions before the exam and not after? Why do supervisors meet with their team in the morning? Why do you get them all together? My brother uses the phrase, well, we want to make sure we're all on the same page. I once heard a navigator say, I want to make sure we're all on the same dime. In other words, that was a little bitty circle. So I'm usually satisfied with being on the same page. Students attend review sessions before the exam and not after because they want to accomplish certain things, not find out what was not accomplished. And supervisors meet with their team in the morning to make sure that those things which need to be done that day, and that way, week, and that month, that they are moving forward incrementally on that. Well, that's why I meet with God in the morning. But the Bible does not command you to do that. But I would say a very important decision that I remake every year when I review this list is to have a daily quiet time alone with God. And I would include on that praying through my prayer notebook. So I've spent a lot of time on this mainly to cover the fact that goal-setting is appropriate. Now, next week we're going to do the other five, but this week I wanted to encourage you, before we go on and continue studying the doctrines of the written Word of God in terms of knowing, being, and teaching, and we will be emphasizing knowing doing and teaching the teaching week after next that you think through on those spiritual resolutions or we could say goals to improve your health in the year 2022. May God add his blessing to his holy word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.