This morning is where we're going to be. Nehemiah, go to chapter number one. While you're turning there, I brought a couple jokes that'll hopefully wake us up here this morning, but I hope you'll find them funny. Two boys were walking home from Sunday school after hearing a strong preaching on the devil. One said to the other, what do you think about all this Satan stuff? The other boy replied, well, you know how Santa Claus turned out. It's probably just your dad. Now, you ladies are not going to like this next one probably so much, so just brace yourself. But I thought it was hilarious. And so, fellas, I think you'll get a big kick out of this. So, all right. A new sign in the bank lobby reads, please note that this bank is installing new drive-through ATM machines, enabling customers to withdraw cash without leaving their vehicles. So customers using this new facility are requested to use the procedures and rules outlined below when assessing their accounts. After months of research, male and female procedures or rules for using this machine have been developed. So please follow the appropriate steps for your gender. All right, here's the rules for the male. Drive up to the cash machine. Number two, put down your car window. Insert your card into the machine and enter your PIN. Number four, enter the amount of cash required and withdraw. Number five, retrieve your card, cash, and receipt. Number six, put the window up. Number seven, drive off. All right, so the rules for the female, this is the procedure you're supposed to go through when you use this machine, is number one, drive up to the cash machine. Number two, reverse and back up the required amount to align your car window with the machine. Number three, set the parking brake and put the window down. Number four, find your handbag, remove all the contents onto the passenger seat and locate your card. Number five, tell the person that you're talking to on the cell phone that you will call them back and hang up. Number six, attempt to insert the card into the machine. Number seven, open your car door to allow easier access to the machine due to its excessive distance from the car. Number eight, insert your card. Number nine, reinsert your card the right way. Number 10, dig through your handbag to find your diary with your pin written down on the inside back page. Number 11, enter your pin. Number 12, press cancel and reenter the correct pin. Number 13, enter the amount of cash required. Number 14, check makeup in rear view mirror. Number 15, retrieve cash and receipt. Number 16, empty handbag again and locate wallet and place cash inside. Number 17, write down debit amount in check register and place receipt in the back of the checkbook. Number 18, recheck your makeup. Number 19, drive forward two feet. Number 20, reverse back to the cash machine, retrieve your card. Number 22, re-enter handbag, or re-empty handbag, locate the card holder and place card into the slot provided. Number 23, give a dirty look to the irate male driver waiting behind you. Number 24, restart stalled engine and pull off. Number 25, redial the person on the cell phone. Number 26, drive for two to three miles. Number 27, release your parking brake. Now all you ladies are mad at me. We'll go on with the Sunday school lesson. I thought that was hilarious. True, but hilarious, right? So Nehemiah chapter number one. This morning, church family, we're going to, our folks are Let's see if I've got this right now that I've messed it all up. Okay. I think it's the wire. All right. Let's see if we can carefully put this back on. All right, okay, now let's try it. All right, this morning our direction is gonna be on goals. Obviously, we're getting ready to enter the new year, and listen, I really hope this morning to get your mind focused that direction, that in your Christian life, what am I gonna do this next year? And I realize, I know if you're like me, a lot of times when the holidays come, that's not what you're thinking about through the holidays, through Christmas. You're thinking about just trying to relax or all the things that you've got to get done. But if you haven't stopped and taken time to think about it, I really hope you will. Because what you decide to do right now is going to determine a lot of what you do this next year. And we're gonna use the book of Nehemiah in this story here, and hopefully it'll be a help to you this morning. Let's go ahead and pray, ask God to bless, and then we'll jump into our text and our lesson here. Heavenly Father, Lord, we stop, Lord, for a few minutes here in Sunday school, and Lord, we're grateful that you allow us to be here. Lord, we're grateful for the life that you've given us and the opportunities that we have to serve you. And Lord, as we look at our lesson this morning, as we think about our lives, and we think, Lord, about how short they are, Lord, I pray that you'd help us, Lord, to make goals, and Lord, to set our sights, Lord, on you, and Lord, to be looking for what your will is for our lives this coming year. And Lord, I pray that as a church and as individuals and as families, that we would do more than we ever have before, and then that you would get the honor and glory for all that takes place. Lord, bless our Sunday school lesson this morning. Challenge us from your word. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right, Nehemiah, let me just give you a quick rundown of the story. I really can't read all of the texts that I'm gonna cover, so we are gonna read chapter number one here in just a second. But in short, and most of you know the story of Nehemiah, Nehemiah hears about the wall being broken down in Jerusalem, and Nehemiah's first response is to seek God's help as far as what could be done about that. Nehemiah goes from there. He's a cupbearer, and he requests from the king as far as to be able to go and rebuild this wall. building begins and then of course Nehemiah finishes the wall. Now let's read the text that kind of covers that and we'll jump into our thought here this morning. Let's begin in Nehemiah chapter 1 verse number 1. The Bible says this, it came to pass in the month Chislew in the 20th year as I was in Shushan the palace that Hanani one of my brethren came he and certain of the men certain men of Judah and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped which were left of the captivity and concerning Jerusalem and they said unto me the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in look what the Bible says church family says they're in great affliction and and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Verse number four, and it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. And I said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him, and observe His commandments. Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes be open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel, thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee. Both I and my Father's house have sinned. Verse number seven, we have dealt very corruptly against thee, have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandest thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations. But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them, though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, Yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, Let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy name and prosper. I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, for I was the king's cupbearer. Church family, let's read a couple other verses. Go to chapter number two, go to verse number four. The Bible says, then the king said unto me, for what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said to the king, If it pleased the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my father's sepulchers, that I may build it. And the king said unto me, the queen also sitting by him, for how long shall thy journey be? And when wilt thou return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a time. Now we're gonna skip a bunch of the text, a bunch of the story. I want you to go over chapter number six. I want you to look at one verse in chapter number six. Look down at verse number 15. The Bible says this, so the wall was finished in the 25th day of the month, Elul. in 52 days. Now, church family, let's make a little bit of application from this story, and then we're going to look at the text on some specific things this morning. But when you think about this story, Nehemiah had a goal. Now, you're not going to see the word goal in any of this text that we read here this morning. You're not going to see that. But it's very obvious from the scriptures here. Nehemiah had a goal, and he accomplished his goal. Now, you and I as Christians, we ought to have a goal. We ought to have I think there's probably several areas in our lives that we ought to stop and say, okay We're getting ready to enter a new year What are my goals going to be this year when you stop and think about what Nehemiah accomplished in 52 days and it's incredible but I think that if you set goals in your life and you and you put your focus on it, you would be shocked at at the end of 52 days or at the end of a year, what would be accomplished in your life for the cause of Christ or as far as yourself, your family and your church or ministry, you'd be surprised what God would do with you if you would get focused and say, listen, I have a goal that I'm shooting for, I have a mark that I'm pressing towards as far as something to accomplish, all right? I find it interesting, Nehemiah had a plan, but he allowed God to lead and work out the details. If you were in Nehemiah's shoes and you heard that the wall's broken down and you were concerned like he was, I think, humanly speaking, you could just sit back and say, you know what? That's a huge problem, but I don't know how in the world I'm going to help. But Nehemiah didn't do that. Nehemiah didn't have all of the answers when he went to the king. He just knew, hey, listen, I've got to do something with this. And he obviously had already gone to God and said, God, would you help me? And it's interesting. In your life, there may be some things that you think, boy, I wish this could take place in my life, or I wish I could do that or accomplish this. But oftentimes, we just set back. We won't even make the goal. We won't even set our sights on the target. And we just set back and say, well, I can't do it, instead of saying, hey, listen, Lord, I'm going to try. you show me the details of how this is going to take place. I think it's interesting that Nehemiah stayed focused even when others tried to stop him. I think if you think about Nehemiah, as I know when I think about him, he's always going to be remembered for building the wall. When I mention the Bible character Nehemiah, the first thing that comes to your mind is the fact that he built the wall, and he accomplished what God had ordained for his life. And I wonder, when our lives are thought about, when our time is up, what will we be remembered by? You say, well, I'm nobody great, and I could never do anything big for God, but here's Nehemiah. Nehemiah's a king's cupbearer. He is nobody huge and important until he decided going to go accomplish God's will for my life at this point in time. And so again I think there is a lot of application here. I think also about Nehemiah. You know we think about him building the wall. But Nehemiah you understand in this as we are going through the book of Nehemiah the wall is finished in chapter 6 verse number 15. There's a lot of other things and people that Nehemiah influenced in his life. Building the wall was really, if you want to look at it this way, just the first step to all the other things and ways that God was going to use him. And same way in your life, there's going to be some goals that you and I need to set this year, this coming year, 2020. We need to set some goals. Why? Not just so we can say we accomplished this goal, because this goal is a step to me being able to influence others for Christ. I don't know if I need it, let me just switch to a handheld. I'm gonna switch to a handheld here by the fire. All right, it should be on there. Okay, all right, so let's do this, church family. I wanna ask you, if I can this morning, I do this a lot of times when I teach science school, I wanna ask you some questions. These are not questions for you to answer out loud. These are questions for you to think about in your mind when it comes to setting goals, when it comes to the new year, Some things for you to say, hey, listen, where am I at when it comes to this idea of setting goals in my spiritual life? Now, I got you have a few of them, six questions, I believe it is here, seven. And I want you to think about these. Ask yourself this, what goals did I have during the past year? So when you think about a 2019, were there some goals that you set in 2019? Now, I have been there before. When you get to the next year and you think, man, I know I set some goals last year, but I haven't even thought about them since January. So of last year, so if you're like that, hey, listen, I'm just trying to get your mind rolling this morning Hey, listen, what goals did you set and let think about this? What goals did I reach in? 2019 are there some things that you can look back in your life and say, you know what? I set some goals and there's some things that I accomplished Maybe you didn't make it all the way as far as you wanted to but maybe you made it partway to your goal Did it where there's some things that you accomplished? All right, I think about this. I Have I stopped and taken time to consider my goals for 2020? Listen, I realize that this year's not quite over, but we're only a couple days away. Have you stopped and said, what am I going to do in 2020? Think about this. Have I discussed my goals with others, such as authorities, spouse, friends, or family? Have you sat down maybe with your spouse or with your family and said, hey, listen, this is the direction I'd like to go for this next year, and we need to work together on this. Maybe there are things that are personal in your life or maybe in your family's life. You know the reason why we don't like to do that? It's called accountability. If so-and-so knows that my goal is to whatever, read my Bible through, or so-and-so knows that my goal is to do this in my family, then they're going to hold me to it. Hey, church family, that's a good thing. That's a good thing for other people to know what your goal is. Now, you don't have to broadcast them all over, but especially the people that are close to you. As a young person, it's a good thing for your parents to know this is what my goal is in my life. Think about this. A couple more questions here this morning. Think about this. What area in my life, talking about my spiritual life, what area in my life do I struggle with the most? What's the area that, boy, it seems like it just gets me down all the time that I really need to make some goals in this coming year? Think about this. Have I made plans for how I'm going to accomplish my goals in 2020. So if you say, yes, Brother Smith, I've already thought about some things I'd like to do. Have you taken the next step and said, okay, I would like to get to this point, and here's the steps I'm gonna take to be able to make that happen. All right, and then let me ask you this, and this is probably the most important question. Maybe this should have been first on the list, but more important than all of that is what does God want for my life in 2020? What is it in my life that I feel like that this is the direction that God is taking me or this is what God would like for me to accomplish this next year? Now listen, I hope that you're thinking about those questions in application to your life. Let's look at the book of Nehemiah and look at the things that Nehemiah did and helped him to accomplish that. Now before I do that, you can call this an attention getter here this morning, but I would like to just illustrate real quick. You know, we think about goals and you say it's really, You say, Brother Smith, I'm just not good at this making goals. You say, I just, you know, that's just not me. I'm just the type of guy that just plugs away at things one day at a time. Or I just, I kind of take things how they come. And you know, sometimes we can almost get Calvinistic with our, with our life. Well, what's going to happen is going to happen. If God wants me to accomplish this as a Christian, then he'll allow it to take place. Now listen, I think you make a big mistake if you look at life that way. People that accomplish great things in life are not people that sit back and say, well, it'll be what it'll be. It's people who do what? They have something that they're aiming for. Now, I'm not very good with darts, but even as bad as I am with darts, all right? I got one in there. As bad as I am with darts, What would it be like if I set this over here and then I get my dart out? Church family, what am I throwing at? What am I trying to hit? Now listen, setting goals is not a big deal. Setting goals is just, I set here and I say, look, you know what? I've got a bullseye that I'm gonna try to hit. Sometimes I might miss the board. Sometimes I get a little ways away from the bullseye. Sometimes you might hit the bullseye. I don't know how many darts I threw last night. Ashley and I were playing darts. I pulled the dart board out. I was getting ready for today. I probably threw at least 120 darts. I don't know. I'm just guessing. But one of those darts finally hit that little red bullseye. Can I tell you, I would have never hit it unless I'd have tried. And can I tell you that I quote unquote failed many times before I finally hit that center? This whole idea of your Christian life and looking for this is just a matter of stopping to say, okay, what do I want the bullseye to be in my life? Where is my life lacking and what am I going to do to try to hit the bullseye? Now, let's look at this story this morning. I think it'll be a help to you this morning here. Look in your Bible. I see the first thing that Nehemiah did. If you go to chapter number one, It's interesting to me. In chapter number one, we read these verses. I want you to read verse one and two with me, or just listen along as I read them. The Bible says this, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah, and it came to pass in the month Chislew in the 20th year as I was in Shushan the palace, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah. Now I want you to notice the next portion of this verse, church family, look at this. And I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity and concerning Jerusalem. Can I tell you why Nehemiah knew about the wall being broken down and the distress that they were in? Because he asked. Now, can I tell you the first step? You say, Brother Smith, how do I start this whole making goals in my life as a Christian? How do I even know where to go? You need to stop and look at your life. You need to stop, and I put it this way, take inventory on where you're at. You need to stop and think about just giving just some ideas. You ought to take your life and divide it into areas. My life personally, my life physically, my family, my work, my ministry at the church. You ought to break it down by category and say, okay, what's the condition of this portion of my life? Is it my walk with God that's suffering right now? Is it my service for God that needs help right now? I find it interesting that these brethren had come to where Nehemiah was, but it wasn't that they came and they said, hey, Nehemiah, we want to tell you about a need that you have no idea of the distress that they're in. They didn't say that. Nehemiah comes to them and he asked. Can I tell you the first thing that you ought to do when it comes to making goals? The first thing I see that Nehemiah does, he took time to stop and see the need. He took time to stop and see the need. Now, I find a couple things interesting about this. I find it interesting that God used other people to help Nehemiah see his need. Now listen, you come to church, you hear the pastor preach, and you hear him preach on things that sometimes convict your heart, that ought to be something that helps you to say, you know what, I need to set some goals in that area of my life. Because what's happening, God's using another human instrument to help direct you to this is where you need to be going with your life, this is the goal you need to be shooting at. I find it interesting that God used people to help Nehemiah see the need. I find it interesting, this is very interesting to me, Nehemiah took responsibility for the broken wall. Now, I want you to see, it's amazing to me. Look down in verse number five, Nehemiah's prayer. And he said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven and the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him, observe his commandments. Look at verse number six. Let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes open that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now night and day, day and night for the children of Israel, thy servants. And look at this, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee. Both I and my father's house have sinned Nehemiah looked at the condition of the broken-down wall and he didn't say well God that's my father's fault that that took place Nehemiah looked at the broken wall and said God it's because of sin and God I'm at fault Now listen, you can look at your life and you can blame every condition that's going on in your life that shouldn't be there on, well, that's just how I grew up, so that's the way it's gonna be. Or, well, this took place in my life, so there's nothing I can do about it. You can blame it on circumstances, you can blame it on other people, or you can say, you know what, the direction that Barney Smith's gonna go in 2020 is gonna be because Barney Smith decides and because God helps him to go that direction. And the condition of where Barney Smith is at right now is because of Barney Smith. When you stop and take inventory on your life, hey, realize that, hey, listen, you're going to have to take responsibility for where you're at. Now, let's look on a little bit further. I think I see a third thing that is really major. Nehemiah was sincerely concerned about the condition of the wall. You look in verse number four, the Bible says, and it came to pass when I heard these words, they told him about the the wall and the affliction and the reproach and all that. And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days. Wept and mourned. Hey, does it bother you, the areas in your life that you know need attention? Or is it just, oh, that's just the way it is, I'm just gonna live with it that way. Does it cause you grief in your mind that you're not where you should be spiritually, or that your family is not where it should be spiritually, or that there's some areas that you know you ought to be further on in life and you're not because of you? Hey, listen, can I tell you this whole thing about making? Before Nehemiah ever set one brick or rock down for the wall, before he started that at all, let me tell you what happened. He took inventory on it. He asked his brethren, hey, what's the condition of the Jews? He allowed God to use people to direct him. He took responsibility. Hey, the reason why it's in disarray is because of the sins of myself and my father's. He was the one that said, hey, listen, I'm genuinely concerned about this. This is not just something that, oh, I wish it wasn't that way. Hey, listen, this is a big deal. He wept and he mourned a certain day. So first of all, he took time to stop and see the need secondly this Number two is he made a plan. That's your family. I realize this is not rocket science I just want you to see it from the scriptures because I think it'll help you when it comes to making goals I see secondly he made a plan if you look we read all the verses The first thing he did in making his plan is is is he? Goes to the Lord in verse number five and you read verses five through eleven in chapter number one and he seeks God's help and direction Okay, God, this is where I'm at This is the state of the wall of Jerusalem. God, would you help me? Would you be merciful to me? Would you hear my cry? Would you show me which direction to go from here? I see also that Nehemiah's plan included people. Now listen, there's some goals that you're going to set in your life. It's going to include other people, because why? Our life influences others. It might be in your home or your family setting, or it might be with other people that it's going to take. Look at verse number, let me explain what I'm talking about. Look in chapter 2, verse number 4. Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make thy request? So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said to the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldst send me unto Judah, the city of my father's sepulcher, that I may build it." Do you realize that Nehemiah, although he is very concerned about the wall, and although he's very concerned about something being done with it, he's the king's cupbearer. He has a job. And for him to accomplish this, For God's glory, he's got to go talk to the king. And he's got to say, hey, listen, king, here's my request. Would you allow me to go back and to help rebuild this wall? Now listen, in your life, if you're going to make a plan, your plan is going to probably, more than likely in many areas of your life, your plan is going to include people. Your plan is going to have to include sitting down with your spouse and saying, hey, listen, this is the direction I'd like to go. Hey, you'd be surprised. How much people would help you try to get to where you're going? If you just sat down and be honest, this is the direction I need to go, this is what I need to do. I want you to see something else. Not only did his plan include people, but it's very interesting to me that his plan included a time. You'll find it interesting there that the king sat in verse number six, the queen sitting by him, for how long shall thy journey be? Last phrase of the verse, so I set him a time. So Nehemiah said, hey, listen, if you'll allow me to go, here's the time that I'll be gone. So secondly, he made a plan. Thirdly, I see that this, and you'll know this from the story, is he determined not to allow anything to stop him. Now I realize that's easier said than done, but I want you to think about just a couple things. Nehemiah's trust was not in his plan to go build the wall. His trust was in God. Look in chapter number two, verse number 20, the Bible says this, then answered I them and said unto them, the God of heaven, he will prosper us, therefore we his servants will arise and build, but ye have no portion, rite, or memorial in Jerusalem. I'm talking about Sam Ballett and Sam Ballett in The Horn Eye and Tobias, the Mount Tobias, which obviously tried their best to stop the construction of the wall all that time. And Nehemiah, when he spoke to them, he said, hey, listen. I know you're not for this. I know that you're going to try to stop this. My trust is not in my plan to try to build this wall. My trust is in God. He will prosper us. I see also that he was determined in his mind. Look at chapter number four, verse number six. The Bible says this in verse number six, so built we the wall, the people that he had working with him, and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof. Look at this, for the people. had a mind to work. Hey, when it comes to setting goals, you're going to have to stop and in your mind say, hey, listen, I'm going to set my mind on accomplishing this goal. There are going to be things that are going to try to get you off the path towards reaching your goals. There are going to be things that are going to trip you up. But you're going to have to stop and say, hey, listen, There's some times when building this wall that we have people that are trying to stop us, but our mind is set to work to accomplish this for God. I see thirdly, not only that, I see that Nehemiah was determined by setting a watch or a guard. Look at verse number nine of chapter four, chapter four, verse nine. The Bible says, nevertheless, we made our prayer unto God and set a watch against them day and night because of them. Nehemiah understood, hey, listen, There are going to be some people that are going to try to stop us. And so I'm going to set a watch. I'm going to set a guard. I'm going to set some things in place that are going to keep them from overturning this project of building the wall. Now, listen, in your life, when you decide, hey, listen, I'm going to set a goal. I'm going to read my Bible through this year. I'm going to set a goal. I'm going to be faithful to a certain ministry of the church or soul winning, or I'm going to be whatever it is. Hey, many people start diets. Lord willing, I'm going to start a diet. New Year's Day, all right? I know I need to. Do you know what you do when you start a diet? You put some guards in place. You set some watches. All right? I'm not going to put myself in this position because I know I will fail. All right. There's some things in the house that I'm going to get out because if they're still in there, I'm going to eat them and it's going to take me off the diet that I'm on. You're setting up some guards. Now, listen, that could be applied to your goals in your spiritual life as well. Hey, listen, I know there are some things. It's hard for me to get up in the morning and read my Bible. So you know what? I'm going to go to bed at night. It's hard for me to go out soul winning. So I'm gonna set some guards in my life. I'm gonna say, hey, listen, maybe it's accountability with another Christian to say, hey, listen, would you help me with this? I'm making this my goal, my plan. Would you help me when this comes to this area of soul winning? Hey, listen, church family, what are you gonna do in 2020? It's gonna be like this, and we're gonna be at 2021. And we're gonna be talking about this all over again. And you're either going to be sitting here saying, I wasted another year of my life, or you're going to look back on 2020 and say, there's some things that I accomplished because way back a year ago, I looked at a little bullseye and I said, it might be really hard to hit, but that's what I'm aiming for. What are you going to do this next year? Nehemiah accomplished something in 52 days that's unbelievable. But you know why? Because he had a goal. He trusted God. He set a guard. He did several things in his life to say, hey, listen, there's something that I want to accomplish for God, and I'm going to do my best to make it happen and allow God to work through my life. What's God going to do through your life this year? What are you going to accomplish for God? Hey, listen, you might say, Brother Smith, I haven't even thought about this until Sunday school this morning. Hey, listen, I've been there. Why don't you stop this afternoon Maybe you just need to go by yourself somewhere and just sit down and get out a piece of paper and say, what am I going to do this next year? Why don't you just take some time, maybe with your wife or your family, and just sit down and say, you know what? We need to make some goals. How are we going to make this happen? I can promise you, if you don't sit down and do that, you're not going to have anything to shoot for in 2020. Another year is just going to go by, and you're going to get all the way down to December 2020, and you're going to say, ah, I wish I'd have done something different this last year. Hey, listen, it's not by accident that there's a Sunday school lesson like this. It's not by accident that we stop and say, hey, listen, think about your goals. It's because you and I know if we don't do it now, we're not going to do it. Life is short. Use your life to honor and glorify God. Stop and set some goals that this is the direction that I'm going to go and make some plans on how you're going to reach it and allow God to use your life this next year.