And we will once again read from verse 2 through verse 9. What did you just do? You didn't do anything? That's impossible. Whatever you did, undo it. Well, if you didn't do anything, how come you just moved two things? Oh, you turned on the lapel. So that's what you just did. Okay. So turn on the lapel. The pulpit. Got the pulpit down. Now turn down the lapel. Turn it down a little bit more, just a little bit more down. That's just about right. You might need to balance the high and low on that just a little. I'm not in a coffee can, but I'm in a bean can. I'm in some sort of a can. If I'm in a can, it's chock full of nuts. Haggai chapter 1, let me invite you to stand with me out of respect for the reading of the Word of God. You follow along silently. I'll begin reading in verse 2, it's the same text from this morning. Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD's house should be built. Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, It is time for you, O ye that dwell in sealed houses, and this house lie waste. Now therefore, thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink. ye clothe you, but there is none warm, and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put in a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Look not for You looked for much, and lo, it came to little. And when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts, because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house." The theme here of Haggai is that the people who have come back to Jerusalem have allowed the temple that was destroyed some 70 years earlier to lie in waste. They have built up their own homes. They've built up their own businesses, but they haven't restored worship to God. That means they've gone 70 years with no day of atonement. They've gone 70 years without a feast of the tabernacles or a table of showbread. 70 years without any animals being offered on the brazen altar. They've gone 70 years without the priest offering any incense on the brazen or the golden altar of incense. They've gone 70 years without any of this. And God is telling them to prioritize themselves. They have been selfish and not gotten back to it. So I think there's a lot of good New Year's resolutions here. I gave you four this morning. that I think come from this text. One is decide to stop making excuses. They kept saying it's not time yet. We're going to get to it. Stop making excuses this year and do what you know God wants you to do. Number two, desire to quit being selfish. Their houses were sealed, his lied waste. They were selfish. Number three, determine not to miss the blessings of God. They were missing the blessings of God because they were sowing much but taking in little They were eating and drinking and clothing themselves, but still they didn't have much. And what they did bring in, God blew upon. God was saying, you're not getting blessed because you're not putting me first. So determine this year not to miss the blessings of God. And then number four, delegate time. to evaluate. Verses 5 and 7, he says, consider your ways. Stop and look at this. This is what's happening. Stop and figure it out. And then this afternoon, I'm going to give you three more things I think from this text and this passage in Haggai show us that we should set aside as New Year's resolutions. Father, I pray that you bless your word to us this afternoon. Help us to gather these truths and apply them to our life that 2017 might be the most profitable year we've ever had. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you. Decide to stop making excuses. Most people never get past that. They would rather make excuses than make themselves a good Christian. Someone in business once said, people would rather make excuses. I would rather make money. And so you have to determine what you're going to do. Sit on the sidelines and complain about the way things are or do something to change it. Number two, you're going to have the desire to quit being selfish. You're going to live the Christian life. It is a selfless life. That's what it's all about. Being Christlike is about sacrifice. Sacrifice is considering others. and something else bigger than you in making the adjustments or the appropriate sacrifices necessary. Determine not to miss God's blessings. Some folks would rather try to create their own blessing and bless themselves as opposed to being blessed by God. Now here's what you can understand. You can work to get a handful and bless yourself with a handful Or you can give to God and let Him, who has much bigger hands than you, give you a handful of His hand, from His hand, a handful of God's blessings. And then, most people won't take the time to evaluate where they are. If you can't figure out where you are, you can't honestly evaluate where you need to go. You gotta figure out where you're at, where you need to go, and figure out a process to get there. Then, number five. I think in this passage, one of the good New Year's resolutions we could make is to deal with the past. Look at chapter 2 with me very quickly, and I'm not going to give you the whole text here, but look at verse 3. It says, Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Haggai said, you fellows that saw the first temple, you see this now, and you realize it is nothing. They struggled with their past. They struggled with their past in a lot of areas. One of the reasons they struggled with the past is, in their heyday in Solomon's temple, they felt like they were really at the height of spirituality. But they had fallen away from that, but they still kind of remembered themselves like they were instead of like they are. They were remembering the past and what it was like then instead of what it was like now in their situation. And they were always making unfair comparisons. And so I think there's a few things you need to understand as you look to a new year and deal with the past. Number one about this, forget some things. There's some things you've got to forget. Philippians chapter 3 and verse 13 addresses that. When Paul said, brethren, I caught not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. There's some things about the past you need to forget. Let me give you a for instance. You need to forget past failures. Some people never succeed because they can't get past their failures. The devil's always going to remind you. You're going to make a decision to read your Bible, and he's going to remind you, you made that decision once before, you never kept it, you were a failure. No use trying. He's going to tell you, no use trying to be a prayer warrior, you said you were going to do that once before, you never did it. You tried to be a soul winner once, you witnessed that someone in there wouldn't listen, you handed out a track, you called someone on the phone, talked to a relative, but they would have no part of it, so you can't do that. He's going to remind you of all your failures to keep you from ever trying again. I'm reminded of the story I tell quite often about Thomas Edison when he was trying to figure out a way to make the incandescent light bulb and make it work. And he was trying all sorts of different alloys of metal to try to find something that they could run current through that would glow and produce light and not be consumed. And they were trying all sorts of different things. And they tried another one, and it was glowing for a while, and then it burned up, and his assistant was frustrated. And his assistant said, we have tried hundreds of different things, and we're no closer than we were when we started. And Edison said, young man, that's not true. He said, how can it be? Edison said, we now know hundreds of things that do not work. By the way, they finally figured out that the only way they could make it work was to suck the oxygen out into a sealed system, and then the alloys would not burn up. Anytime you take a light bulb, if you take one of the bigger old light bulbs, I'd get a light bulb that'd get hit by something and get a little hole in it, and as soon as you turn it on, you'd watch it glow red, and shoo! burn up the metal that's in there, the element would burn up, the filament would burn up. The secret was to take out the oxygen out of the element to make it sealed. Einstein used to say, most people continue to try to solve the wrong problem. The problem wasn't the alloy, the problem was the atmosphere around the alloy. And that's what made Edison a genius. When everybody was trying to solve a problem one way, he would look at it and say, if all the great minds are looking at something one way and can't solve it, the problem is they're looking at the wrong problem. That's not the problem. There's another problem. Can I tell you that quite often in Christianity, we don't forget some things that need to be totally put away from us, our failures, and the devil's going to remind you of them. Forget past failures. Number two, forget past grievances. Somebody gets something in their craw, and that's all that they can ever think about. They seem to live to complain about it, whether it's about their church, whether it's about their job, whether it's about their marriage, whether it's about their country, whatever it is, their education, their parents, their upbringing. You know, when I was pastoring in Pittsburgh, I'd go and visit folks and they were bringing up stuff. Now understand, I had started going to the church when I was five years old. They were bringing up stuff and complaining about stuff that happened when Pastor Kamer was our pastor. Now, Pastor Kamer was my pastor when I was five, six, and seven. So I am, you know, this is something that happened when I was seven years old at our church, and they're still complaining about it. you know, 20-some years later, they still got something in their craw that Pastor Kamer did. And I said, do you realize he hasn't been here in a long time? After him, you know, was Pastor Jones, and after Pastor Jones was What was Colonel Klink called? I forgot Colonel Klink's name, but anyway, there was that guy, he looked like Colonel Klink, looked just like him, if you ever watch Hogan's Heroes. And then there was Pastor Collette, and then there was Pastor Bales, and now there's me. So you're talking about a long time ago, okay? I had nothing to do with that. There's not very many people alive here that had anything to do with that. I'm trying to tell them, get over it and move on. But they're still complaining about that. They're still upset about that. I talked to guys that are sitting around on the stoop with no job, and they're still complaining about the high school teacher that had it in for them. Well, the reason I didn't do well is I failed algebra because that teacher had it in for me, and bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh. That was 20 years ago, and you think your life's been ruined because of some math teacher that had it in for you. Look, you gotta learn to put some things in the past and bury them. Forget your past failures. Don't let the devil remind you of them. Forget your past grievances. Number three, learn to forget yourself. What do you mean by that? You know, Paul wrote in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 4, Though I might have confidence in the flesh, if any other man think that he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised the Athenaea, the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal of persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless. But what things were gained to me, those I count lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless. And I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count the but done that I may win Christ. He said, Hey, you guys think you're something. I was it, man. I was at the top of my class. I was a Pharisee. The Pharisees, the Hebrew, the Hebrews. I had it all going on. If anybody could boast in the flesh, I could. But he said, I look at that and count it like waste, like refuge. It's nothing. You need to get to a place. What happens sometimes is people never progress because they think of what they used to be and how great they were. These people were thinking about how great Solomon's temple used to be. Oh, it was so great, it was so wonderful, and they couldn't get past that. Forget about what that was. What do we got now? We got blocks laying around on the ground, right? Look at where we are now and what we need to do. Don't think about what it was when it was in Solomon's day and all of its splendor and all of its glory. Guess what? Ain't there no more. Okay, Solomon's gone, and the temple's gone. Let's build with what we had, instead of thinking about what it was. And by the way, when they did rebuild the temple, until Herod the Great came along and remodeled the second temple, the second temple failed in comparison to Solomon's temple, until Herod came along. Now when Herod the Great came along and remodeled it, and he was not a religious person, he just was remodeling the temple because everything that Herod built when he was ruling the empire had to be the best. They were in that Roman mindset of architecture showed how superior we were to everybody else in the world. So he took and built the temple. Eventually, Solomon's temple became greater. I mean, Herod's temple became greater than Solomon's temple, bigger and greater. But when it was first built before he remodeled, When Ezra and Nehemiah built the walls, Ezra built the temple, when it was first rebuilt, it was not near what Solomon's temple was. But it was better than not having anything. You haven't been sacrificing animals for 70 years, and now you want to complain that this temple's not good enough? You haven't had a day of atonement for 70 years? The priest hasn't gone in on the day of atonement and sprinkled any blood on the mercy seat for 70 years? All you want to say is, oh, it's not as good as it was when Solomon was here. And he's saying, listen, you gotta get over that. You gotta forget about your past failures, past grievances, forget about yourself and what you think you were one time and look at what you are now and what you can be. I put this in here very quickly. Number four, some things we need to forget. Sometimes we need to forget old acquaintances. You know, we sing the song, let old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind. You know, as a Christian, sometimes you gotta forget old acquaintances. Let me suggest a few you should forget. Number one, forget your lost friends and lost life. Don't get hung up glorying on what it was like to be out in the wicked world doing wicked things. Forget the past acquaintances. They brought you nothing good in your life. Forget them. Let that go away. Secondly, forget past acquaintances that have hurt you. Everybody has somebody in their life, if you've lived long enough, maybe not some of you young people yet, But if you've lived long enough, you've got people in your past, whether they were Christians or un-Christians, whether they're family or friends, co-workers, that have hurt you and treated you unfairly. Welcome to the universe. Okay? It happens to everybody. And you can dwell on that. Or you can mentally forget it. Put it away. Forget about them. Forget about the situation. I don't mean to sound unkind, but to move on, sometimes you've got to almost treat it as if they're dead. They're gone. Forget about it. Move on. Or you can just keep raking it up. You know, well, they shouldn't have said this about me. They shouldn't have done this to me. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you live it every day. And the devil just wants to get you recycling. Just keep recycling it, keep recycling it, keep recycling it. All it does is bring hurt and pain and misery and anguish, and you're doing what? Wasting time. Because the time right now that you could be investing to spiritually succeed and grow is being wasted on dwelling on the past. Forget past failures, past grievances. Forget yourself when you were in all of your glory. Forget your old acquaintances that bring harm. By the way, don't forget old friends that are still friends. You know, thy father's friend and thine own friend forsake not, the Bible says. Man, people that have done good by you and are friends and so forth for years, make sure you keep that alive. And lastly, and I put this here, it's almost redundant about yourself, past glories. Forget about past glories. Paul talked about all the glory he had in the past, and it was nothing because of what he was now. Sometimes people just live on the past. I've been places where people come up to me, and they'll say, you know, man, preacher, you know, I used to have a bus route, and I used to be a Sunday school teacher, and I used to do this, and I used to do that, and I used to do the other, and this is really easy because I'm done preaching, I don't know you, and I'm going home, and maybe never gonna see you again. So I can smile and look at them and say, oh, really, great, and what do you do now? And most of the time, they do what Harry did. The point I'm making is, don't tell me what you used to be, tell me what you are. What are you now? Oh, I remember when we had VBS, and I did this, and I did this, and I did that. I got in a lot of trouble years ago when I was young and foolish. I appreciate my home church, because I just had a couple of people come to me and tell me about all the things, and by the way, they were about my age, they were about 57, so we're not talking about people that are in their 90s or something, okay? I'm talking about people that are 57, and they had sat down, a group of them, they were talking to me about all the things they used to do at our church. And what they were basically trying to tell me was, hey, lighten up on us, because we built this place. And we used to be the ones running those buses, and used to be the ones doing this, and used to be the ones doing that, and used to be the ones, and the whole time I'm thinking, You know, you're in perfect health, you're 57 years of age, you're in your late 50s, early 60s, what are you doing now? Let's not talk about what you used to do. So I preached a sermon called, Has Been Christianity. Yeah, I preached it on Sunday morning when I knew they'd all be there. And I didn't point them out or anything, all I did was made the point, people wanna talk about what they used to be, what they used to be, what they used to be, has been Christianity. You know, well, I used to be a sinner, now I'm saved, thank God for that, you know? And I used to play baseball, I don't play baseball no more. Now we're trying to serve the Lord. Let's talk about what we're doing today for God. Don't live on your past glory. Man, I killed the sacred cow. I touched the Ark of the Covenant. I should have been buried with my shoes on. I mean, I was in hot water for that one. Of course, I was young and thought it was, hey, this is obviously a problem in the church, let's address it. Because in my mind, everybody's gonna feel the Holy Spirit working on their heart and repent of this and move on to greater and gooder things. I didn't realize they'd have pitchforks and a noose waiting for me. But all I'm saying is I could see that. I could see how they get caught up in that, you know? And sometimes, by the way, we're all prone to that sometimes. I sit around and talk about stories when I ran big bus routes or when I was this great soul winner, and I start to say to myself, yeah, what are you doing now? Let's not talk about what I used to be. What am I doing now? Where am I at now? Now, a lot of things I can't do that I used to do. You know, the first time I hurt my back, I hurt it leapfrogging over the hood of a bus. because the kids, I used to leapfrog stuff. I was skinny and I could run and hit a pew like that and go bing and just really leapfrog really good. And so I'd run out to get things and the kids would all watch out the window and I'd leapfrog mailboxes, you know, city mailboxes and leapfrog parking meters, leapfrog an old stump, leapfrog the other bus worker, have him stand there and just bend his head and I could put my hands on his shoulder and leapfrog over him. I mean, I had springs for legs. Of course, they only had to push up about 140 pounds back then. I still have springs for legs, but right now the springs are overloaded. There's been more weight added to the trucks and nobody put relief springs on. So the kids, we had the old buses that used to have a skinny little hood in here, and it went down and had the fenders out, and there was wing hoods on each side. And they were screaming, leapfrog the bus. What they wanted me to do is run up and put my hands on that low fender and leapfrog over, and I couldn't do it straight, had to do it at an angle, leapfrog over the hood of the bus. I kept looking at that thinking, I think I can do that. And every week they'd try to egg me on to leapfrog that bus, leapfrog that bus. And I kept looking at it. And so I said, I'll tell you what, I think we had 36, 37 on our bus. I said, if you double the attendance next week, I'll leapfrog the bus. So we had like 35, you get 70 on the bus. When you get 70, I'll leapfrog the hood of this bus. They got 70. Well, the workers, my workers went out. I had two lady workers and a man worker. They went out and beat the bushes to get a bunch of kids, and they packed that bus out with 70 kids on it, and then everybody got outside and stood around. We pulled the bus over to a park, and I had to leapfrog the hood of the bus, and I did. I got over it, and I bumped my heel a little bit on the way past the thing. I got over that bus, but when I landed, I didn't land so well. and they were all cheering, and the bus driver looked at me and said, you all right? I said, oh yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine, we're gonna be good. Well, from then till now, all these years, it's just degenerated, and I'm sure that something's all messed up in my back, it's never been right ever since. So I can't leapfrog a bus anymore. Okay, not happening. We had a big vacation Bible school, and one of the workers told the kids, it might have been my wife, told the kids, oh, pastor can do handsprings. He used to do the gymnastic, you see those gymnastic routines where they do all those handsprings across the thing? Well, you start off with a round off, maybe a front handspring, a round off, and then you have to do back handsprings to travel across the mat. I used to be able to do that. Well, I hurt my neck doing a back handspring. I kind of slipped and hit the back of my neck and wrenched it bad. So I would get scared doing it back, I would get just kind of nervous. So I never did a good back one again. But I can still do a round off and still do a front one. So she got the kids all revved up, tell me do a handspring. Get me to a handspring on the platform at church for VBS. I did the same thing. I said, Okay, we had so many in VBS tonight, you have this many tomorrow, and I'll do a handspring. So they got that many. And I was looking at it thinking, my platform wasn't this big. There's enough room here, plenty of room here. But mine was a little tighter than this. Maybe about from here to the other side of the chairs, all the room I had. And I kept looking at it thinking, that's barely, barely enough room. It's gonna be tight, it's gonna be tight, it's gonna be tight. But I did it. I took like three steps, and did the handspring. And when I landed, I remembered jumping that bus. Because it all came back. So look, I understand there's a lot of things I can't do. I understand that. I'm different now. There's a lot of things I can't do that I used to do. But you know what? There's a lot of things I can do now that I never could do before. There's a lot of things now that I can do that I couldn't do before. Let's not focus on what we used to be. Let's look at who we are and what we're doing now with what God has given us and how we can better ourselves. You know, you may not believe it, but I mean, I've been preaching since I was 15, and at least once a month, I listen to one of my own sermons and I sit down with a sheet of paper. Same thing I do when Micah preaches. When Micah preaches, I sit out there with a sheet of paper. I have notes on every sermon Micah's ever preached when I'm here. and I write notes and go over it because I'm trying to help him become a better preacher. I sit down and listen to my own sermons and take a piece of paper, and I write my outline and write things down to correct myself so that I can become better. I want to be better at what I'm doing. And what are you saying? I'm saying I'm not living on any kind of past glory, any kind of past accomplishment. I can see where I am and try to get myself to go somewhere forward. I'm saying we need to deal with our past. And to deal with that, deal with it, we must forget some things, and then secondly, we must remember some things. He said, Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth of those things which are before. The psalmist said in Psalm 103 in verse 2, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles." Listen, there's some things we don't want to forget. We want to remember. Forget not all his benefits. Good night. Don't forget. Let me give you a list of things that you should never forget. Don't ever forget the pet from whence you were dug. Don't forget getting saved. And don't forget that you were a sinner on your way to hell. And if you weren't a sinner on your way to hell, you never got saved. Oh, I wasn't that bad. I don't think I was going to hell. Then you never got saved, friend, because you never figured out who you were. The reality of your sin and your condition has to be acknowledged before you could ever get saved. Remember the pit from which you were dug. Not only that, remember the decisions that you have made for Christ since you've been saved. The decisions since you've been saved that you made for Christ, don't ever forget those. Decisions to surrender things in your life, decisions to add things in your life, don't forget those decisions. Don't forget the blessings of God. Don't overlook and forget any of the blessings of God. The devil can get you so caught up in negative things that you forget all the benefits. That's what the psalmist said, all the benefits, all the good things God has done. Remember those blessings. Number four, remember God's promises. You know, there was a time in your Christian life when you were saved and you just looked at everything in the Bible and looked forward so much with great anticipation toward all the promises of God. And sometimes we get so sidetracked from that, we forget. Remember the promises of God. Number five, remember the possibilities of the future. I don't care how old you are. I don't care how young you are. Remember the possibilities of the future. What's the greatest future possibility that we can think about? The coming of the Lord, right? He could come today. He could come tomorrow. You could live to see it. Oh, that's a great possibility. Think of all the possibilities of the future. Don't think about what I can't do that has passed. Think about what I could do that lies ahead of me, the possibilities of tomorrow. I'm saying decide to stop making excuses in the new year and desire to quit being selfish and determine not to miss God's blessings. Delegate some time to evaluate yourself, deal with the past. And then number six, dedicate yourself to the future. In Haggai chapter 2, if you're there, look at verse 9. It says, The glory of the latter house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. He was telling them that the new temple is eventually going to be greater than the old one. Eventually, the glory of the latter house, the second one, is going to be greater than the former one. He was saying dedicate yourself to the future because what's coming is better than what has passed Philippians chapter 3 verse 13 says reaching forth unto those things which are before I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Haggai chapter 2 verse 19 says this is the seed yet in the barn. Yay. as yet the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate, the olive tree hath not brought forth from this day, will I bless you. Now I'm gonna come back to that verse in a minute, but I want you to understand this. We don't know what blessings God may have in store for us that is coming. When we look at that verse, when it says, is yet the seed in the barn? It's a question mark. He's saying, wait a minute, you're being so negative, but do you understand something? The seed's still in the barn. We haven't even planted it and seen the harvest yet. As yet, the vine hasn't produced its grapes. As yet, the fig tree hasn't produced its figs, or the pomegranates, or the olive trees. They haven't, he says, they haven't brought forth yet. In other words, you're all depressed, thinking things aren't going great, and you haven't even let the harvest come yet. You haven't even let this run its course. Is not the seed yet in the barn? I mean, you're upset about a bad harvest. We haven't even planted seeds yet. Here's what he's saying. The possibilities of the future are greater than what you think they are. The blessings that lay around the corner may be greater than what you think they will be. The temple that's going to come is going to eventually be greater than the one that was. And the harvest that's coming, you're already being negative about, and you don't even know what it's going to be yet. It's the possibilities of tomorrow. It's the possibilities of the future. I'm saying, make a New Year's resolution to dedicate yourself to the future and the possibilities that exist. What God can and could do in the future. Let me give you a few ideas here. God's grace will be, and by the way, God's grace is gonna be sufficient for whatever lies ahead. And God's grace is not only sufficient to deal with the difficulties that are ahead, God's grace is sufficient to bless you in the future. Make sure you keep a soft heart yielded to the will of God as it unfolds in your life so that you can see and appreciate the blessings instead of being hung up on the negatives. What do you mean by that? Sometimes our hearts get so stagnant on one thing, we think this is what God is going to do in my future. When that doesn't happen, we get so negative and upset about it. when in fact what God has for you is better, but you never really realize that because you're unwilling to yield your heart to the will of God as it unfolds. God's will is an unfolding thing. It will unfold for you if you'll allow it to. Number three, have a new dedication to the scriptures. so that the future will be brighter than the past. Number four, be more fervent in prayer so that you'll know the will of God and appreciate it when it comes. Number five, have a greater desire to give yourself in the future than you had in the past. Someone wrote, my life is but a weaving between my Lord and me. I cannot choose the colors. He worketh steadily. Oft times, he weaveth sorrow. And in my foolish pride, I forget he sees the upper and I the underside. not till the loom is silent and the shuttle ceases to fly shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reasons why. I want you to understand this whole thing's a work in progress. And when you criticize and complain what God's trying to do in your life and maybe even the life of your church and the life of a ministry, you can't understand. You're looking at it from the bottom side. He's looking from the top. At one point, it will unfold and we will see how it all goes together. All the dark threads woven with the bright colors to make exactly what God wanted to make. I'm saying dedicate yourself to the future. Decide to stop making excuses. Desire to quit being selfish. Determine not to miss the blessings of God. Delegate some time to evaluate where you are. Deal with the past. Dedicate yourself to the future. And then lastly, don't leave the seed in the barn. You'll notice in verse 19, He said, is the seed yet in the barn? I understand I made the point that he was making here. The point he was making is that they were already complaining and discouraged about what the harvest might be and they hadn't even planted seed yet. The point I want to make off of that is, don't leave the seed in the barn. There will be no harvest if there is no seed that is sown. Don't leave the seed in the barn. What are you saying? I'm saying let's get busy sowing the seed of the gospel so that people will be saved. Let's have a greater zeal for the lost than we've ever had before. Let's have a greater desire to give of our time, our talent, our treasure to reach people with the gospel. Let's put a greater effort into it and more energy into it so that we can see more people saved. Let's have a greater heart for the lost than we ever had before. Listen, if you want to see a great harvest, you got to sow a lot of seed. Just sow a lot of seed. That means we need to empty out these track racks on a weekly basis, giving out tracks to people. That means we need to knock on more doors and get more people out on Saturdays visiting folks. That means you need to invite more people to church and talk to more people at work, at the grocery store, and every place you go. Don't leave the seed in the barn. The seed doesn't grow in the barn. It grows in the field. So let's, this is the barn. I just thought to myself, what does that make us all? Sheep, that's what I was thinking. Well, there's always a few donkeys in there too, but we're not gonna talk about Jason like that. But anyway, he was smiling and grinning at me. I knew what he was thinking. Yeah, this is the barn. The seed's not, those tracks, we don't get tracks to put on a track rack. So we can say, looky here, we got tracks on our rack. I've never had a track rack get saved, never. All the gospel that I've put into track racks for all these years, never one time has a track rack ever repented of their sins and trusted Christ, never. Never did it. All the Bibles that I've bought and put on pews, all the Bibles I've bought and put on shelves, all the Bibles I've bought and put in pews and shelves, never one time has a shelf or a pew come down the aisle, never once. Because the seed isn't meant for the barn. The seed is meant for the field. And I understand, a lot of that seed's gonna go by the wayside. I got that. And some of that seed's gonna fall on hard ground, stony ground. I got that. Some of that seed's gonna be snatched away by the devil. I understand, but you know what? You gotta throw a whole bunch of seeds so that just a little bit falls on good ground. And sooner or later, if you just keep throwing seed, a little bit of it is gonna fall on good ground. Can I tell you one of the things about the parable of the sower is? The devil tries to discourage the sower because of all the seed that never produces. And I want you to understand that if you get discouraged and leave it all in the barn, you're guaranteeing a failure of harvest. There will be no harvest if all the seed stays in the barn. There'll be none. We're gonna lose 90% of it, we're gonna waste all that seed. No, no, no, it's not a waste, because you gotta throw all that out there that's just so that just a little bit of it will grow well. Just a little bit of it will grow well. I'm saying let's not leave the seed in the barn, let's get it out there. Let me say another thing about this I think that's important or interesting. I read this the other day, maybe one of you sent it to me on Facebook or somewhere, about a farmer. This farmer had won the award for the best the best growing corn, won the award every year for the best corn. He's being interviewed about this corn, this wonderful corn that he had developed. And he found out that this farmer shared his seeds with all of his neighbors so that they could grow the same kind of corn, grow good corn like he grows. And the reporter was saying, why would you do that? You have award-winning corn. People want the corn. They want your seed. They pay a lot of money for it. You win the awards everywhere. Why would you share it with your neighbors? And he said, well, what you don't understand is, If my neighbors grow bad crops, bad corn, the pollen blows into my field. And when that cross-pollination happens, their pollen ruins my crops. He said, I need all of my neighbors to grow good corn so that I can grow better corn. And that's why I give them seed. I want them to have really good crops that have my genetics in them, so when that pollen blows in, my corn will have good genetics. Can I tell you one of the mistakes we've made? One of the mistakes we've made is we haven't helped enough ministries that are very close to ours, very much like ours. I'm not talking about the Catholics. I'm not talking about the Presbyterians. I'm not even talking about liberal Baptists. I'm talking about other good churches. I'm talking about churches like Brother Royalty up there and many others, and like Brother Furman's church and others. I'm talking about other good churches that are preaching the gospel, believe in soul winning and standards and separation, all the things we believe in. Somehow, Community Baptist, good night, Community Baptist has loaned us a bus and gone head over heels, how many times we borrow that thing? Five times it seems like, I don't know how many times, a lot of times. By the way, in case you didn't hear, Jason passed his test yesterday, and now Micah and Joey and Jason, all three guys that started in this process and course have now all passed their test. Two out of the three have the license. He has the permit thing all filled out, and he's just gotta go into the license bureau and get his license now. By the way, none of that's possible. Well, it's possible, but it would cost us a lot of money to rent a bus to do it in every time. Now, if you don't understand, To get what we needed, we only have one bus with air brakes, and the bus we have is 25,500 pounds. It has to be over 26,000 pounds to get the right license to drive anything, or they would have to get one that they're not allowed to drive air brakes. So in the future, if I get something that has air brakes and it's over 2,600 pounds, they wouldn't be able to drive it. Community had one bus that has air brakes that's over 2,600 pounds. That's the only bus we could borrow. which brought a whole new set of problems when turnstiles wouldn't work, we had to fix that, when this wouldn't work, you know. But they, I mean, goodnight, they bent over backwards to help us. Anytime you want it, anytime you need it, leave the key in it, have people out there to meet us and unlock things and get things for us and all sorts of stuff. They're our friends. They're not our enemies. You say, but preacher, people have left our church and gone to theirs. Doesn't matter. Maybe they didn't like the smell of our barn. I don't know, I don't care. They are our friends, and they are just like us. They run seven or eight buses all over Akron picking up kids, just like we do. I've never seen, I don't know that we're in the same areas exactly, because I've never run into them out there. Matter of fact, they had a lady at their church that was having an issue, and she came here. When I went to visit her, she said, She said, Brother O'Donnell told me, I said, oh, you're, she used to be a bus captain at the church. I said, oh, man, you need to go back to your church. She said, no, no, Brother O'Donnell told me to come to your church. So I called him and found out all the problems of her life and situations. Yeah, I was like, hey, thanks for doing me a favor, buddy. Send me a problem to work with. But that was okay. And by the way, we've had people here that I've sent over there. I've said, hey, if you can't go here for whatever reason, go here, go there. They're not our enemies, they're our friends. We need to understand that if their crops are bad, it affects my crop too. I need them to succeed so that we can succeed. You understand? When we all succeed, all of our crops grow well, and the harvest is good, because after all, all the fields belong to the same owner. We're just caretakers. We're just husbandmen, which means we live here and take care of it, but we don't own it. The fields belong to somebody else. We need to get back into a place where we understand that. I'm saying, let's not leave the seed in the barn. Let's have a greater zeal for the lost, a greater desire to give, a greater desire to put our effort into it, and a greater heart for the lost, and greater cooperation with the farmers around us. Decide not to make excuses any longer. That's what Haggai was saying. The house needs to be built, quit making excuses. Determine to quit being selfish, building your sealed house while his house is a lying waste. Determine not to miss God's blessings. You've sown much and taken in little. You drink, and yet you're still not satisfied, and so forth. Determine not to miss God's blessings. Delegate some time to evaluate. Deal with the past. Dedicate yourself to the future, and don't leave the seed in the barn. Someone wrote, I do not know I cannot see what God's hand prepares for me, nor can my glance pierce through the haze which covers all my future ways. But yet I know that o'er it all rules he who notes the sparrow's fall. I know the hand that hath me fed. and through the years my feet hath led. I know the everlasting arm that hath upheld and kept from harm. I trust him as my God and guide, and know that he will still provide. So at the opening of the year, I banish care and doubt and fear, and clasping his kind hand, I say to walk with God from day to day, trusting in him who hath me led. Farewell, old year, with goodness crowned. A hand divine hath set thy bound. Welcome the new year, which shall bring fresh blessing from my God and King. The old we leave without a tear, the new we hail without a fear. Let's go into the new year, understanding that the blessings of God lie in front of us. Let's firmly grasp it and make some good resolutions at the beginning of the year, lest we waste another year, should he tarry, that he gives us. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes with me this afternoon. Father, I pray that you bless us this afternoon and that you would help us to enter bravely into this new year and make some promises and resolutions. So let's determine in ourselves that this year we are going to quit making excuses and that we're going to put ourself in position to be blessed. that we're going to endeavor to reach more souls than we've ever reached before. So may 2017 be the greatest year we've ever had. Our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. I wonder this afternoon, if you might say, preacher, you know what, I know that I'm saved, but the Holy Spirit of God is speaking in my heart about some things in my life. As I look at this year ahead, preacher, would you remember me in the closing prayer? Here is my hand. Yes, sir, God bless you. And yes, ma'am, and yes, ma'am, God bless you. One of us, someone else. Yes, young lady, God bless you. Include me in the prayer, preacher. Here is my hand. Include me in the prayer. I wonder if you might be here this afternoon and say, you know what, preacher, I've been living a lie and playing a game. I'm not really sure if I died today, I'd go to heaven, but I want to be sure of it. Would you pray with me? Here is my hand. Would you pray with me? Somebody like that. Pray with me, preacher. Here is my hand. Father, I pray for each of these that have raised a hand this afternoon, and I pray that you bless them and help us to make some important decisions as we move into this new year. the direction of our life and the direction of the lives of others as well. So bless this new year as we bravely go forward and bless this invitation. Now we pray in Christ's name. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed, and the Holy Spirit of God is speaking to your heart. Obey Him and maybe you should come to this old-fashioned altar while the music plays. That's right, just the bottom pedal. It's a New Year's resolution. Or the world will make a resolution to lose weight. The world will make a resolution to take up some new class, learn some new language. They'll make a resolution to climb the ladder of success, maybe in their place of business or job. Christians should resolve to be more like Christ and endeavor by His grace. He should carry His covenant. to be a better Christian at the end of the year than they were at the beginning, by applying the truths of His Word to their life on a daily basis. While these prayers are time for you, you need to come. Thank you for your attention. Let's stand and be dismissed in a word of prayer. Brother Jason, why don't you dismiss us in prayer?