Habakkuk chapter 2. We're going to look at verses 2 through 4. You know what I'd like you to do, Ashley? Stand up with me. As you go into 2,012, you know that there's an enemy who would like to knock your socks off. He is hell-bent on destroying your body, your mind, your spirit, your marriage, your children, your finances, and your soul. He is an incredible adversary who is certainly worthy of our respect. How will you ever deal with Him unless you have the sword of the Spirit? Can I just ask you all just to hold up your sword? Because if you're standing here today and you don't have the sword, Let me tell you something, how could you ever expect to go up against the adversary without the sword of the Spirit? So I just want to encourage you next week when I see you, I hope you will have the sword. If you do not have one, I'd be happy to give you one. I've got a few hundred of them up there and they're lonely and in desperate need of somebody who will read them every day and obey them. Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 2, Then the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him. but the just shall live by faith." Excuse me. I want you to bow your heads with me. Our Father, our Lord, who makes all things new, who gives the repentant sinner a clean slate, a fresh start, a new beginning, the God of exciting visions and incredible dreams, I pray, Lord God, for all of us today that you would renew our minds and our hearts and give us a fresh vision for our lives for 2012. And may it touch, Lord God, our spirits. May it go deeply down into our hearts and our minds. May it renew our bodies, Lord God. May it touch every area of our life, Lord Jesus. May it inspire us deeply within our heart of hearts. May it motivate us to take action and bring it into reality. And may it make us run and not grow weary. and soar upward, Lord, on the wings of eagles, and not become saint. So, Lord God, we ask this today, in Jesus' name, Amen. You can be seated. No, I'm okay. I have a little frog in my throat. I ran 8 miles in a row, 20 miles yesterday morning, so I took a little knock myself, called kilt. Where will you be from January 1st, 2013? One year from today, ask yourself that question. Where will you be? Will you be more like Jesus or less like Jesus? Will you be wiser in the wisdom of God or will you be more foolish in the foolishness of the world? Will you be healthier or more sickly? Will you have a greater peace or will there be greater chaos in your life? Will you have a greater joy or will there be greater misery in your life? What will your financial situation or your career be like? As of right now, today, we have one year until January 1st, 2013. That's 52 weeks. That's 365 days, 8,760 hours, 500,000, 525,600 minutes, and 31,536,000 seconds. And we just lost a few. And the clock is ticking. Don't be like Charlie Brown, who would go with a bow and arrow and shoot it against the tree and then go over and draw a bullseye around it. And little Lucy came over and she stood there in Lucy fashion. She said, what are you doing, Blockhead? And he said, this way I never miss. And she said, Blockhead, this way you never hit anything. What are you shooting for in 2012? What is your target? When we come to the book of Habakkuk, chapter 2, verse 2 through 4, I'll tell you, what a wonderful passage about getting a plan, getting a vision for your life. I want you to notice the first thing in verse 2, write the vision. God is in the business of giving His people vision. Proverbs 29.18, the King James Version, it says, where there is no vision, the people perish. Yeah, let me just give you, I'm going to give you a Bolelism. Where there is no vision, the people perish, but where there is vision, the people flourish. I want you to listen to this. Something that I started working on a number of years ago as I studied through the Scriptures, talking about vision. When Noah had a vision from above, he built the ark and saved his family and humanity from destruction. When Noah lost his vision, he got drunk. It did something that no 600-year-old man should ever do. And if you're wondering what that is, you've got to read the Bible to find out. When Abraham had a heavenly vision, he led his family to the promised land and fathered the son of promise, Isaac. And when he lost his vision, he almost lost Sarah, his wife, to Abimelech, the king of Gerar. Remember that story. When Jacob had a vision from on high, he became the father of Israel. And when he lost his vision, he deceived Esau, conned his uncle Laban, and was conned by uncle Laban. When Moses had a vision, he parted the Red Sea and led Israel to the shores of the Promised Land. And when he lost the vision, he struck the rock and forfeited his dream of entering into the Promised Land. When the people of Israel had a vision, they defeated the Amorites, Canaanites, Amalekites, and all the other ites. And when they had lost the vision, they whined and complained and died wandering in the desert. When Samson had a vision, he had the strength of ten bears and the heart of a lion. And when he lost the vision, he became as weak as a mouse and had the heart of a hyena. When Saul had a vision, he became Israel's first king. And when he lost it, he fell into despair, sought wisdom from a witch, and killed himself. When David had a vision, he slayed giants, killed his ten thousands, wrote songs that will be sung forever and ever, and led God's army from one victory to another. And when he lost his vision, he committed adultery and murdered Uriah, and for a time lost it all. When Solomon had a vision, he built the Lord, the glorious temple. And when he lost it, he married hundreds of pagan women who led he and Israel into idolatry. When Elijah had a vision, he stopped the rain from falling and called down fire from heaven. And when he lost it, he became depressed and begged God to kill him and take him off the earth. When Peter had a vision, he walked on water. And when he lost it, he sank like a rock. When Peter had a vision, he made a great confession, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And when he lost his vision, to a young maiden girl, he said the words, I don't know the man. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. I don't know the man." And when the apostles had a vision, they healed the sick, cast out demons and proclaimed the Kingdom of God. And when they lost it, they denied and deserted the Lord. When the early church had a vision, they left the upper room and turned the world upside down. When they lost the vision, they hid in Jerusalem, disobeyed the Lord's Word to go out and make disciples of all nations. And the world turned the church upside down. For the last 2,000 years, the church with vision from above has built churches in the four corners of the earth, saved souls, healed the sick, drove out demons, and proclaimed the gospel, and was a mighty force in the world. Without vision, the church is dead, compromising, lukewarm, and instead of being a force, is a farce. With vision, you will attempt the incredible, do the impossible, and receive the inconceivable. What's your vision for 2012? What is your vision for 2012? In the Scriptures, in the book of Joel, in the book of Acts, Peter quotes it on Pentecost. The Word of the Lord says that when the Holy Spirit comes, young men shall see visions and old men shall dream dreams. I think some of us are a little afraid of that. It sounds a little weird. And by the way, I've seen some very weird people come in and out of the doors of this church saying some things that were without question weird and destructive. The senior pastor of the church who was trying to protect that, protect the people here from that. Let me tell you something. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. God deals in vision. Vision is a very powerful thing when it comes from on high, when it comes to us through the Spirit. It produces passion. You know, Paul was a very passionate guy. Before he met the Lord, though, he was Saul, and he was very passionate about killing Christians and destroying the Church. You know what he was? He had a vision to destroy the Church. And after the Lord came into his life, he got a new vision, and he went from being Saul to Paul, and now his vision was to spread the Gospel throughout the world. Throughout Samaria, throughout Judea, throughout... Asia Minor, and then Greece, and then Rome, and to Spain, and to the very corners of the earth. Vision gives you power. You can see it in a young shepherd boy named David. What a powerful young man he was. Where did he get that power from? You know, he had a vision of God, and he had a vision of God wanting to expand the borders of Israel, and drive out the enemies of Israel. And that was David's commission, that was David's responsibility, not to build the temple, that was his son's. And David went forth in that vision and with that power, and he expanded the borders. He defeated the giants. He took out Goliath. And he, as the Scripture said, he killed his 10,000 as the great general and military leader of God's army, Israel. Vision gives you persistence and perseverance. Look at Joseph. It was Joseph, the great visionary, and he received the great vision of God in the book of Genesis chapter 37. And it was that vision that sustained him while he was a slave in Potiphar's house. And it sustained him when he was in prison. It sustained him for 13 years. And not only did he just endure it, he lived victoriously through those 13 years. Why? Because he had a vision. Notice what Habakkuk says here, and he's described and instructed by God in verse 2, to write it down. You need to get a vision, but you need to write it down. Why? Why do you think that is? God says to him, write it down. You know why I believe that is? Because we have a tendency as human beings to forget. Have you ever had a great thought in the middle of the night, And you know you should have wrote it down, you know you should keep that pen and that pad, maybe a little light right by the bed stand, but you didn't write it down and you woke up in the morning and you forgot what it was. That thing could have made you rich, that thing could have made you famous, that thing could have made you a hero in the Kingdom of God, and you forgot it! Because you didn't write it down. He says, write it down. There was a study that was done in 1953 at Harvard University, and then it was repeated in 1973 at Yale University. They studied the business class, and at the end of their four years in the university, they found that only 3% of all the graduates of Harvard and Yale in those respective years had goals accompanied by action plans written down. Only 3%. Again, this is a business school. Of the 3% who had the goals written down, they went back and studied each of those groups 10 years later, and this is what they found. The 3% who had their goals written down, accompanied by action plans, were making more, making more than the 97% combined. Now we think this, if it works in money, I think it should certainly work in our spiritual lives. Why does God tell us to write it down? Because it makes it more effective if we write it down. When we write it down, we'll begin to review it on a daily basis. Folks, whatever you focus on enlarges in your life. If God has given you a vision for your life, don't you think that's what you should be focusing on? We have a tendency to focus on failure instead of focusing on success. We have a tendency to focus on what's wrong with our lives instead of what's right with our lives. We have a tendency to focus on debt instead of focusing on abundance. Decrease instead of increase. You can't drive your car down the road of life staring at the rearview mirror. You know, when they teach you in defensive driving, when you start to lose control of your car, Don't look at the bumper in front of you. Don't look at the tree on the side of the road. Don't look at the guardrail, because that's where you'll go. They tell you to look to the area that you want to go to. Look to the open area, because that's where you'll drive the car. It seems like human nature, we're just naturally conditioned in this negative environment to focus on the tree, or focus on the bumper, or focus on the guardrail, and we wonder why we keep crashing into those things. Get a vision and write it down and stay focused on that as you go through 2012. I want you to notice the third thing that's said here. Make it simple. Make it simple. Make it plain on the tablets, verse 2. Simplify it. Make it plain. Break it down. Hey, I wanted to bring in a big Angus bull into the church today, but the deacons wouldn't let me. They said he'd stink up the building, he might dump on the platform, and they said, don't bring him in. I said, come on, you know, I'd like to use illustration. They said, no. So you've got to just use your creative mind with me. Imagine me bringing in here a big Angus bull, a few tons, How many of you think you could eat that bull? Chris, do you think you could eat the bull? We were talking about this at dinner last night. A big couple of ton Angus bull. Do you think you could eat it? Hey, how do you eat an Angus bull that weighs 7,000 pounds? Can somebody please tell me? That's right, listen. one hamburger at a time, one Big Mac at a time, one Whopper at a time, for the Italians, one meatball at a time, and for all of my Latino brethren, one taco o enchilada at a time. Hey, if you're 20 years old, you've already eaten an Angus Bull in your lifetime. If you're 40 years old, you've eaten two. And if you're 60, you've eaten three. And for the Bowdens and the Boellas here today, they've eaten eight between the four of them. And for all the vegetarians who are nauseous now, I'll stop there. The PETA people will be writing letters to us this week. How do you eat an Angus bull? Thank you, Debbie. One bite at a time. God gives you a vision. You write it down. Make it plain on tablets. Break it down into where each day you're just simply taking one bite. You're eating one burger. You're eating one meatball. Make it plain. Make it simple. You all know this is true. And as the older you get, you know this is true. I hear people come to me, they've got great ideas. They've got incredible ideas. They've got ministry ideas. They've got business ideas. They've got ideas that could change the world, that could establish the kingdom, that could do all kinds of wonderful things for people. Less than 5% though, ever put it into a plan and take action on it. Less than 5% ever set it up as a plan and take action on it. Some people in the church seem to think that planning is something evil. Do you ever see that? It's God's will. Well, hey baby, you need to find out what God's will is and you need to set up your life so that you're doing it every day. 2 Corinthians 1, 15-17, I put it in your notes. Look what Paul says here. And in this confidence, I intended to come to you before that you might have a second benefit to pass by way of you to Macedonia, to come again from Macedonia to you and be helped by you on my way to Judea. Therefore, when I was planning this..." Notice that. The great spiritual Paul, the apostle of apostles, the apostle to the Gentiles, he planned his trip. He planned it out. I do it lightly, he says. In fact, he's saying, therefore, when I was planning this, did I do it lightly? In other words, you notice he was not doing it lightly. He was giving careful thought to the plan. Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh? He wasn't planning according to the lower nature. This wasn't him doing it. This was him planning in the Spirit, not in his selfishness, not in his pride. He was doing it prayerfully. walking in the Spirit as He did this, that with me there should be yes, yes, and no, no. But you know what a plan is? A plan is a map. Let's say you decide today that God is calling you to go to St. Louis, St. Louis on a vacation. You're going to go to St. Louis and you're going to see the big golden arches. You're going to go up there into the Golden Arches, and you're going to look out over St. Louis. You're going to go to Bush Stadium, and you want to see the St. Louis Cardinals, the world champions of baseball in 2011, with Albert Pujols. Oh, that's right, if you're a Cardinal fan, he went to the Angels. People sitting there going past DeFranco, and, well, he's talking about sports. Albert Pujols is an angel, probably the greatest baseball player in the last 10 years in Major League Baseball, maybe the greatest first baseman to ever play the game. I know the Yankee fans are getting mad right now because they're saying, no, Lou Gehrig is the greatest. So you want to go to St. Louis, and you want to experience St. Louis, but you don't have a map to get to St. Louis. So instead of traveling west on Route 80 to get to St. Louis, you decide that you're going to get on 995. And hey, in a couple of hours, you're up in Rhode Island on I-95 looking for St. Louis. Is this St. Louis? And then you're up in Boston. And you're still looking for St. Louis. And then you drive all the way up to Maine. And you're passing the moose. You know, if it's a moose, when they're all together, is it called a mice? What are you passing the moose up in Maine? And there's all the moose. And you're still looking for St. Louis. And then you get up to Nova Scotia. And you get on a boat. And you cross the Atlantic Ocean. And you come to Europe. And you're still looking for St. Louis. Because you don't have a map. And you don't know where you're going. And now you're in France. Parlez-vous Francais? Maybe you're in Germany. Speaking die Deutsch? and you're still looking for St. Louis, but you're at the Eiffel Tower, you're at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, you're at the Coliseum, and you're not finding the Golden Arches of St. Louis. Then you get to Asia, and you take a rickshaw across China, still looking for the Golden Arches. Maybe you get on a boat and you cross the Pacific, and now you're in La La Land, LA, and you're still looking for St. Louis, and little people don't even know that they're in La La Land, so they can't direct you to St. Louis. You ever see people traveling like that? Folks, I see it all the time. I see people traveling like that all the time. They have an idea about what they want. They have an idea about what God wants for them. But you know what? They don't have a plan. They don't have a map. I want to say, the difference between success and failure, one of the wisest things I've ever heard by a Christian man named Jim Rohn, not the speaker, the sports broadcaster. Jim Rohn went home to be with the Lord a few years ago. Jim Rohn said this, the difference between success and failure, people who fail make a few errors every day over and over again. Let me ask you this, why would people make the same errors every day over and over again? You know why? Because they don't think it matters. See, in the short term, making the same errors every day over and over again, see, one day, guess what? One day, it matters! And whether it's your body, or whether it's your family, or whether it's your career, or whether it's your spiritual life, one day suddenly it matters! People who fail make the same errors every day, over and over and over and over again. And people who succeed practice a few productive disciplines every day, over and over and over again. What they've done is, they have a vision, and they break it down into a plan, and they write it down. And every day there are things, specific things that they do and success is accumulative. And when you do those things over and over and over again, success accumulates. Let me stress something to you. Discipline unlocks talent. Don't tell me about potential. It's not where you start that counts, it's where you finish. Everybody holds the person has so much potential. They have so much talent. How many people have you seen? How many people have I looked at in this church who are overflowing with talent, but they do nothing? They are so undisciplined, folks. They can't get up on time. They can't arrive on time. They can't follow through with things. And they're useless in the Kingdom of God. It's the same thing out there in your career. It's the same thing out there in the business world. Discipline unlocks talent. Tell me how much potential somebody has? See, people that God has filled with all kinds of wonderful talent, and they're useless in the kingdom of God. It's not about potential, it's about discipline. Look what the Lord said, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. He's talking about a disciplined life. Give me a person with one-one-hundredth of the potential of these people who are just overflowing with it, who have discipline, and they'll change the world for God. God will take that person in their hand, though they're limited on potential, but they have made themselves available to Him. It's amazing what God can do with a person when they make themselves available to Him. And they discipline their life so that God can work in them and through them, and they can accomplish all sorts of great things. Look at Psalm 90 verse 12, So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. You know what that means? Teach us to make the most of each day, to live each day according to God's will, according to God's way, to maximize the hours, to maximize the minutes. My belief is, if it's not going to support the vision, if it's not going to support the purpose, why even do it? Why waste time? Success is accumulative. I want to show you just a few productive disciplines. We call this the principles of first things. If you've been around here a while, you've heard this before. This, by the way, is Christianity 101. This is kindergarten, folks. I don't want you to get excited about it. This is kindergarten. This is nursery school and kindergarten Christianity. Four things that could totally transform your life and build a foundation. And you'll be in a very different place come the end of 2012 and where you are when you started. The first thing, give God the first day of every week. It's the Lord's Day. I put in your notes Acts chapter 20 verse 7, one of many passages in the Scriptures on the first day of the week. We came together, notice it was not on the seventh day of the week, it was the first day of the week, because after the resurrection of Jesus, the Church started meeting on the first day of the week. We are not Sabbatarians. This is not the Sabbath. The Jewish people have the Sabbath. If you want to worship the Lord on the Sabbath, you're free to, but the Church of Jesus Christ, right after the resurrection, because Jesus rose on the first day, began meeting on the first day of the week. On the first day of the week, we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people, and because He intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. Hey, maybe I'll do that today. The Giant fans will be very sad. How about this? Here's a vision for you and a plan. Commit yourself to being at 52 worship services. Every Sunday you will be at worship and not miss worship services. If you are traveling, then find a church to worship the Lord in. If you are in Iran, as I know some of you may be this year, and you cannot find a church, then wherever you are, have a worship service with just you and the Lord. But don't miss worshiping the Lord on the Lord's Day for the next 52 weeks. Can you do that? Five people said yes. Number two. By the way, I'm telling you, this is Christianity 101. Give God the first hour of every day. Notice Mark chapter 135, "...Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place, and there He prayed." Who did that? Yeah, that was Jesus, by the way. The Son of God, God in the form of man, the Almighty in the form of man, the incarnate Son of God, who was filled with the Spirit to perfection, and who had no sin. And if Jesus did that every day... You know what my lesson when I read that was? If He did that every day, man, do I need to do it? Because I am certainly not the Son of God. I am certainly somebody who has a whole lot of sin in my life. If Jesus did that every day, I would think that I definitely should be doing that. Now, some of you have kids. Some of you have kids with challenges. Some of you ladies, you have husbands with challenges. We know that. Our hearts go out to you here at Living Word. They're not being the men they need to be. I understand that. But listen, if you are in that situation, we'll cut you a little slack. You may not be able to do an hour. You may only be able to do 15 minutes or 20 minutes. You may need to build it up. But I just want to encourage you, every morning when you get up, have time with God. The next couple weeks I'll do the program, the Time Alone with God program here, show you how to have a rich, wonderful time. In fact, let me tell you, 20 minutes will blow by and you'll wish you had an hour. An hour will blow by and you'll wish you had two hours. You'll just love getting into the presence of God. I'm a doer. My nature, I'm... People say, well, you know, you're a thinker. No, I'm a doer. I've worked hard at developing the thinking part of my life. I've worked hard at developing the feeling part of my life, but they don't come naturally to me. I'm a doer. I like to be doing things, up and doing. And if God could teach me how to sit quietly in His presence for an hour, an hour and a half, and let me tell you something, I have to drag myself from that presence. I think He could teach anybody how to do it. But set up a time that you have with God every day And look, if by some chance it's just not possible in the morning, then whenever you do it during the day, set up that time, and just make an appointment with God, and get into His presence. That will have a major effect on transforming your life. The third, give God the first consideration in every major decision. Look at what the Word of God says. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Now, listen to what I'm going to say here. I'll get kooky with you. Some people are kooky. When you go to Baskin-Robbins, and you don't know if you want to have chocolate or tutti-frutti, and you're just in the dilemma, you don't need to fast and pray for two hours so that God would give you the revelation as to whether you're going to have... You know what I'm saying? Some people get kooky with this stuff. I'm talking about when you have major decisions. The big ones. To come to God before you make any kind of a decision, or before you go to someone else, and to pray to Him and seek His will. And if God says, and maybe your heart's set on something, and God says to you, no, that's not my will for you, that's not part of the vision I have for you, then deny yourself. Deny your culture is in a mess because people do not have a clue about denying themselves. Divorce rate is 51%. You know why it's 51%? You can talk about all the reasons why it's 51%. It is because people do not understand about denying themselves. We have people that are experiencing huge financial problems in this culture and in this world. It comes because people do not understand about denying themselves. We have people with all kinds of physical problems. Same thing. They don't understand about denying themselves. We are the fattest country in the world. I don't know if you've noticed that. Have you looked around and noticed? Right now our children, 35%, are obese by the time they're 5 years old. We do not understand about that. If it is not what God wants for you, deny yourself! He has something better for you. And whenever God closes the door, just make sure you open your eyes, because there are always other doors that He opens. So give Him the first consideration of every major decision. The fourth. Give God the first fruits of your income. Let me explain to you here, first fruit giving, or what is called storehouse tithing. I teach money, is a spiritual entity. Money has a spiritual dimension to it. Do you realize that there are more verses about money than about faith and love in the Bible? You know what's interesting? You know what kind of an effect this has on your life. It can make you do all kinds of crazy things. It can keep you up at night. It can keep you away from God. It can cause all types of physical illnesses, psychological problems. You know what? You can see a direct correlation between the divorce rate in the United States and financial problems. It is this powerful, powerful thing. Now, you get up and you go to work five, six days a week. And you use your talents and your abilities and your time The life that God has given you. He's given you the life, and at the end of the week, at the end of two weeks, you receive a paycheck. Now, when you give God your firstfruits, and firstfruit giving is, you're giving God the best, not what's remaining. Do you follow? It's the best, not the rest. Okay? You're not giving God leftovers. You're giving God your best. When you're giving God that tithe, you're essentially putting your life in the basket. You're acknowledging, now you can say, Jesus is Lord all you want. When you give God those firstfruits, you're acknowledging that your life is His. You know, this is something that I've seen in the church. The Crusaders, who would go down to the Middle East and fight and kill, When they would be baptized, they would go under the water and hold their swords out of the water. You ever seen that? They go down under the water because the sword, they would still... In other words, Lord, You've got me from the wrist down. This is what I see with a lot of Christian people. When they're baptized, they should do this. Isn't that kind of funny? It's true though. Because He's not the Lord of their finances. The whole concept of first fruit giving is, you have worked for a week, and God has given you those talents and abilities in time. And now you're acknowledging Him as the Lord of your life, when you give to Him your tithes. Now, I believe that storehouse tithing is, the tithe should go to the storehouse. And that's the concept. The people of Israel, the 11 tribes, supported the Levites. And that is where the tithe should go. To the church, where your 10% should go. Okay? It should go to... By the way, let me stress something. I get this from people. Well, pastor, we're not under the law. Tithing was under the law. We're under grace. Good. So I agree with you with that. Because if they were giving 10% of the Lord, then you should be praying to God. Just as Paul says in the book of Corinthians, maybe it's 11%, 12%, 15% or 20% that you should be giving. And you should decide that in your heart with God. You get that? If we're under grace, we should be abounding more. So I do agree with you, because I personally believe that tithing is the minimum. So you give to the church. If the people in this church tithe, we would never have to ask for money. We would never have to have a missionary offering. We would never have to have an offering for any missionary who comes in and out of here. We would be able to pay all of our missionary budgets. By the way, folks, we have an opportunity right now to take this program and basically get it on the radio worldwide. We don't have the money to do it. Okay? If people were tithing here, so you have an opportunity to be a part of the Great Commission, if people were tithing here, that's what would be happening. Okay? We would never have to, and by the way, I would still teach on the principles of finance, but we would not need to ever ask. And you know what was interesting? What I'm saying to you, I got a nice confirmation last week. Chuck Swindoll, in his church in Dallas, of over 5,000 people, a man that has been a spiritual father to me since I got saved in the 1980s, and probably my favorite preacher, I'm telling you this, I'm telling you, I had this on my heart to share this on this day. He said almost exactly the same words to his congregation in Dallas, Texas, in Christian land, where I thought things might be different, but they're not. Unfaithfulness is in churches everywhere. And you can see the man just broken as he shared this to his church. If our people tithe, and if they get storehouse tithing, Man, the things that we could accomplish in 2012. Let me share another thought with you here, because I want to stop there. God spoke to my heart this year, a few months ago. Baskets pass me all the time. We're walking through the mall, and there's always the Salvation Army. You know what God just laid on my heart? Don't ever let a basket pass you without reaching into your pocket and giving something. I said, but Lord, you know, we're already giving. We're giving to missions, we're giving to... You know, Frank, I've given you incredible abundance, and He has. So when the basket's out, just reach into your wallet and just give as your heart is led, and just every opportunity, and he said, and I will make my blessings abound to you more than you have ever seen in the next year. So when I was going through the malls, and I passed the Salvation Army buckets, I made sure I put something in. And if I had to walk across the mall, you know, walking through the big malls, you have to walk a little ways, I would make sure I put something in. And when the basket passes me, I make sure I put something in. That's just what the Lord laid on my heart. Think if you put yourself in a place... Isn't that how we should be as Christians? Instead of like this? I always wonder, people who are like this, When your hand is closed that tight on really what's God's and not yours, you know what's interesting? You have to open it to receive, and you can't put anything into it. How different would your life be in 2012 if you did these four things? Give God the first day of every week, give God the first hour of every day, give God the first consideration in every major decision, and give God the first fruits of your income. The principle of first thing. And again, it demonstrates simplicity. Isn't that simple? Say that, that's simple. Look at the person next to you and say, boy, was that simple. It was simple, right? Right, Chris? That was simple, right? Tony, was that simple? Okay, number four. Action. That he may run who reads it. Notice verse two, that he may run who reads it. Vision produces inspiration. Inspiration is emotional and it produces motivation. Motivation then produces perspiration. You know, people don't have any perspiration in their life. I get people come to me and say, well, you know what? My son is totally unmotivated. My husband is totally unmotivated. I don't believe in unmotivated people. I believe that they just simply have disempowering vision and goals for their life. They have disempowering visions and goals for their life. That's why they're unmotivated. Look at what Peter says in 1 Peter 1.13, Therefore prepare your minds for action, be self-controlled, set your hope fully on the grace to be given when Jesus Christ is revealed. Notice this, prepare your minds for action. Well, geez, how do you prepare for action? How many of you have played sports? What did you do before you went out and you competed? On the gridiron? On a wrestling? You prepared, you psyched yourself up. You psych yourself up. You prepare yourself. How do I prepare myself for action? You know how you prepare yourself for action? Listen, 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 24, Paul says, "...run in such a way as to win the prize." What do you think you should be focusing on if you're running? You want to just keep... I'm just going to focus on just keep running and running and running. What do you focus on? A lot of you ran races this year. Hey, if you're going to tell you, hey, we're going to run it. You know what? On February 11th, we're running a race. How long is it? No, we're just going to run a race. Just keep running. How many people are going to show up and run? Well, we're going to run a 5K, we're going to run a 10K, we're going to run a half a marathon, we're going to run a marathon, we're going to do a triathlon. And there's a distance. But Paul says, focus on the prize. Focus on the vision. Focus on the goal. He says this in Philippians chapter 3, verse 13. forgetting what is behind, and reaching forward to take hold of that which God has laid ahead. Laying the things behind, forgetting the things behind and focusing on the vision that God has for you. When we focus on the vision, we get motivated, we get inspired. Okay, and then, through the process, then we take action and we perspire. Number five. Confidently wait for it. Lenny, that was a timely song today. Confidently wait for it, verse 3, for the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Notice what he is saying there. It will happen! If God has given you a vision and you are pursuing it, if you are being diligent in the way that you are ordering your life on a daily basis, if you have got those key disciplines in place and you are doing them over and over and over again, you will reach your goal. You will see the vision manifest. Today is New Year's Day, and today people are making New Year's resolutions. How many of you have made some New Year's resolutions? I don't want to rain down on your party, but 95% of New Year's resolutions are done, are finito by January 15th. 95%. The diets are done. The exercise program is put away. Insanity, the CDs are put on the shelf. The decision and the resolution to be nicer is over. I used to own a fitness center, manage and own a fitness center. 70% of our members would sign up the day after Christmas until February 1st. 90% would quit by February 15th. How do you think all these fitness centers that charge $20 a membership, right? For a month? I mean, if all those people showed up every day, they would need fitness centers that were a hundred times the size. But they bank on the fact that people do not follow through with their commitments. They don't have any idea how to work on something and then just wait to see it happen. We live in a culture where everybody wants what they want yesterday. They want to be thin yesterday. They want to be healthier yesterday. They want to be more spiritual yesterday. They want to be wealthier yesterday. And the idea of just working diligently day in and day out, and waiting, waiting for it to manifest, waiting on the Lord. One of the biggest mistakes we make, folks, we have destination disease in this culture. We're destination freaks. instead of enjoying the journey, instead of enjoying the process. The Christian life is to be enjoyed every day. Enjoy making those incremental steps every day. Enjoy growing every day in Christ-likeness. Enjoy learning how to walk in the Spirit every day. Just inch by inch, step by step. I love to cross the finish line. I mean, just yesterday was a nice goal for me at the end of the year. 20 mile bike ride and 8 mile run. And I was happy when I returned and I was done. But you know what? I want to tell you something. I have learned to enjoy every step. Every rotation on the path. I've learned to enjoy just the incremental steps. And you know what? It's true in my spiritual life. In the book of Isaiah chapter 40, 31, but those who wait on the Lord, those who really learn how to wait on the Lord and they're waiting for God, they're waiting for the Lord to come back. They're waiting for Maranatha, for the Lord's return. And they may be waiting on some things that God has set out for them to do. You know what? By the way, waiting does not mean that you're idle. They're busy about the Lord's business. But they wait on the Lord, they say, they shall renew their strength, they shall mount up on the wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not be faint. It's just that progression of growth. It produces strength. Look at the last thing, number 6, and that is faith. Verse 4, Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith. And why is faith so important? Because when God gives you faith, He makes you immovable. When God gives you faith, He makes you unshakable. God gives you faith, He makes you imperishable. God wants to give you that faith so that you can just press through towards the vision and the goal that God has for you. It says in the Scriptures, now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. It is a certainty. It is a surety. I want to just wrap this up by sharing a couple of very simple things to you here. You ever hear the saying, we are all in the dark? How many of you hear that saying? Somebody said that to me years ago. We are all in the dark. Spiritual person. I was like, geez, I'm in the light. But then I began to think about it, and you know what it is, what he was saying? I think this is the meaning of it. Inside of us, we all have these, you've heard this, we have demons. I'm not talking about literal demons. I believe as Christians, they're going to be attacking us from the outside. But you know what these demons, limiting beliefs, these fears, these negative habits, these doubts, these wrong ideas. We've all got them. God gives you this vision. Just write it down and you've got a plan. And you know what happens tomorrow, the next day? All of a sudden the fears start creeping in, the limiting beliefs start creeping in, the doubts start creeping in. I want to share with you, there are five, I think, major demons that we will fight with in the next 365 days. I just want to share it with you, and I want to share faith's effect on it. The first, your God is too small. Many of us, our God is just too small. He's limited. And we limit Him by our faith. Remember Jesus, when He went into certain towns, He couldn't do any miracles? Or it says, you can only do a few miracles? Why? Because the people lacked faith. What is the answer to enlarging your faith? What is the answer to growing your faith? What is it? God makes it very simple for us. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Get into the Word of God. Man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. Faith is like a muscle. You have to train it, and you have to feed it. If you are in the Word, I just want to tell you something. I have no faith outside of the Word of God. I get into the Word, I could be in places of doubt, uncertainty, fear. Yes, Pastor Frank has those moments where he deals with those inner demons. And I get into the Word of God, and it's amazing. I get into the Word, and the Word feeds my faith, and my faith gets stronger and stronger, and suddenly, the fears and the doubts are dispelled. A second. You're too small. The self-concept that we have, I think in many of us, is a self-concept of inferiority. I want you to understand this. I know I sin. I say this to you, I'm the holiest man in the church with holes all through me. I fall short of the glory of God. I need God's grace, not every Sunday, but every day, every moment, every second, every millisecond. I need the grace of God flowing into my life. I cannot stand but by the grace of God. I need God's forgiveness, and repentance was not something that I did once, but it is an ongoing part of Pastor Frank Bilella's life. So I understand that. But I also know that I have been created in the image and likeness of God. That I have been wonderfully and marvelously made. By the way, what I'm saying to you now, I'm quoting scripture. That I have been created a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honor. That I am like a tree that has been planted by streams of living water that yield its fruit in season. Everything I do prospers. My leaves do not wither. I have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and I am the light of the world and the salt of the earth, an ambassador of Christ, a priest of Christ, a minister of Christ, a son of God, a child of God, and even a king under the dominion and lordship of Jesus Christ. All things work together for my good, because I love Him and have been called according to His purpose. And I can do all things through He who strengthens me. All things. Many of us, our self-concept is not one of Christ. Let me tell you something. Refuse to listen to what people have to say about you. Refuse to listen to what the media has to say about you. I want to tell you, for the most part, even to refuse what your friends have to say about you, and most of all, refuse what the devil has to say about you, and refuse what you have to say about yourself, and start believing and listening to what God has to say about you, because that is greater than what anyone on this earth could ever say about you. Let me give you a third discouragement. Discouragements come from below, they come from without, and they come from within. Here's the killer of discouragement. The killer of discouragement is faith. Faith always produces courage. Actually, discourage, right? It's the lack of courage. Faith produces courage. What did Jesus say all the time to the disciples? O ye of little faith, why are you afraid? Why are you afraid, O ye of little faith?" Over and over and over again. You notice the Lord makes a direct connection. The opposite of faith is fear. The opposite of faith is cowardice. You want to increase your faith, and have a heart of a lion, and courage. Again, focus on the Lord and focus on His Word. When David was at his lowest point, and his own men were about to kill him, The passage says that David, he got alone with God, and he strengthened himself in the presence of the Lord. God gave him the faith, again, to lead his army, and they defeated his enemies, and they retrieved their wives and their children and their possessions. Number four, failure. I don't want to make a big thing of this, but let me assure you, you will fail in 2012. I will fail in 2012. We all will fail in 2012. Let me just stress a couple of things about failing in 2012. When you fail, make sure you fail forward. And just, you know, remember this. It's not the person who gets knocked down who's a failure. It's the person who gets knocked down and refuses to get up. You're going to get knocked down. You're going to get knocked down in your spiritual life. You're going to get knocked down in your personal life. You're going to get knocked down in your careers. You're going to get knocked down in your athletic lives, and all the other areas, and in the ministry, and all these things that we're engaged in. It's only the person who stays down who's a failure. Listen to what the Lord says to Peter. He knows Peter's going to deny him. He knows Peter's going to desert him. Peter's saying to him, Lord, no, never, never, never. And the Lord says, Peter, the devil wants to sift you like flour. And then he says, Peter, I'm going to pray for you. And he says, and after you fall, come on back. And he says, strengthen your brothers. Look, the Lord just, he says, Peter, I know you're going to fall. Peter, when you fall, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back in the game. That's what he's saying to him. The fifth and final one, pain. You will experience physical pain in 2012. You will experience psychological and emotional pain in 2012. And you will experience spiritual pain in 2012. Again, I don't want to make this the focus, but it's going to happen. How do you deal with it? I love Rocky movies. I'm a little sick about it. It wasn't just watching the one once, twice. Whenever we're on TV, if I could watch a little bit of it, I just get inspired. And my favorite Rocky movie, believe it or not, is the last one, which people say was the worstest of them all. Is that a... the worstest. I think it was the bestest of them all. Maybe it's because at this time in Sylvester Stone's life, I'm kind of close to his age. I was much better than he looks. I know you're all sitting there saying it's true. It was about his life. He was the guy with the deformity. I don't know if you know that. Sylvester Stallone had deformity. He was actually, when he was taken out of the womb, they used some kind of a hook and they ended up damaging the nerves in his face. And that's why, if you ever see the way he talks, that's because of some nerve damage that happened. He was the guy that people said, you're never going to make it. They told him with Rocky, all the Rocky movies, the first Rocky movie, no way, we don't want you. You know who they wanted to? They wanted to play Rocky in the first movie. Remember the movie Love Story? Who was it? Ryan O'Neal. They wanted Ryan O'Neal to play Rocky. Boy, would that have been a travesty, wouldn't it? He wrote the script and they said, nope, we don't want you, we want Ryan O'Neal. Buckus was his dog in the movie. He had to sell Buckus to survive. And then after he made the movie, he made a little money and he bought Buckus back. But in that last movie, he's a guy who fought the fight. He's striven on. From what I have read, he is now a believer in Christ. That's what I've read about him, that he professes Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. So he's won the big one, or he accepted the greatest victory ever won. And just in the movie, he's talking to his son, and his son is complaining and whining about life. My son's heard this before, not because he was whining about life, but because it's one of my favorite scenes in a movie. And he says this, he says, it's not how hard you can hit. It's how hard you can get hit. How much you can take and keep on moving forward. That's how winning is done. And the truth of the matter is, that's true about life. Look, we're all going to get hit in 2012. I look at it from a... Man, you got hit hard in 2011. And I know for some of you, you're pretty glad, right? That it's over. It's gone. Some of you are like, wow, it's good that the year is over. But in 2012, you know what? I know some of us are going to get hit. Some of us are going to get hit harder than others. But it's not about... It's about keeping moving forward. It's about continuing to strive on through the power of the Lord and the power of the Spirit. So we're all going to undergo some hardship. But man, let me tell you something, we can live victoriously. And the way we'll do that is in faith. Faith is the conqueror. Faith will conquer pain. Faith will conquer failure. Faith will conquer discouragement. Faith will conquer our smallness. And faith will conquer the limitations that we place upon God, that we can live victoriously and make 2012 a year where we strive towards the vision that God has given us and complete it and fulfill it. And come the end, 2013, January 1st, we'll stand here and we will have made the most of the previous year. We will have lived that year in Christ and made it the best year that we have had since we have been on the face of the earth. Make it count for something great for the glory of God. The Everlasting God, The Everlasting God, He'll do nothing you want Him so weary. You're the defender of the weak, He'll comfort those in need, He'll lift up...