was their intent, and to follow the star wherever it went. Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, born is the King of Israel. This star drew nigh to the Northwest, O'er Bethlehem it took its rest. And there it did both stop and stay, Right over the place where Jesus lay. Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel. Then entered in those wise men three, O reverend Lee, upon their knee, And offered there in his presence Their golden myrrh and frankincense, Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, born is the King of Israel. Amen. Welcome in this morning. Good to see you on a Sunday morning. And let's open in a word of prayer. Father, we do thank you. We we thank you for who you are and all that you have done for us. Lord, we thank you that you give us this time, Lord, this hour that we might come in. And Lord, you have established this body for our nourishment spiritually. And so I pray that it would be just that this morning, that you would meet the various needs that are represented, Lord, behind every face, every life, Lord, both young and old. We pray, Lord, that you would convict, that you would encourage, strengthen, Lord, that you would do the work that only you can do. We acknowledge your presence with us this morning, and I pray that you would help us Lord, as we worship you, truly we would bow in our hearts, and Lord, that we would sing to your glory, that we would give, that we would be hearers of the word, and that we would strengthen the brethren. We thank you for it, Lord. We thank you for this opportunity. Let us not waste it, Lord, but let us use it and treat it as precious. We thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you. And next we'll sing from our little paper pamphlet here, number 203, O Holy Night. There is at least one, probably two papers in each pew. Only one in the pew that Brother Burns is in. But there should be enough to share. Share with your neighbors if you need to. We'll sing number 203, O Holy Night. ♪ O holy night ♪ The stars are brightly shining ♪ It is the night of the dear Savior's birth Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till he appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. on your knees. O hear the angel voices. O night divine. O night when Christ was born. O night, O night, O night divine, on the last. Truly he taught us to love one another. His law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother. and in his name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, let all within us praise his holy name. Christ is the Lord, His power and glory evermore proclaim. His power and glory evermore proclaim. Let's take our Bibles this morning and turn to the book of Psalms, Psalms chapter 90. And as you find your place, for those who are able, would you stand with me for the reading of God's Word in Psalms chapter 90. And we are going to read verses 1 through 12. And if you would read responsibly with me, I'll read the odd number verses. If you'll read together on those even verses, Psalm 91 through 12. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Thou turnest man to destruction. and sayest, return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are blood as yesterday, when it is at its head, and as a wash in the night. Thou carryest them away as with a flood. They are as a sleep. In the morning they are like grass, which groweth up. In the morning it flourishes and grows up. In the evening it is cut down. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath, we spend our years as a tale that is told. of our years are restored years. And then by reasons of strength, it may be forced for years. Yet it is their strength, labor, and power, for it will soon cut off, and we who knoweth the power of thine anger, even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Amen. You may be seated. And a familiar passage there. But a good admonition, asking the Lord to teach us to number our days, that we spend our years as a tale that is told. And the Bible constantly reminds us, God's Word is always reminding us of how really short our time is. And it doesn't seem that way to us all the time. But those who are the older among us, those who are more ancient in this room, they can tell you that you blink and time has passed. And those of us who are raising children and those who have had children, they say, wow, enjoy the time. These days pass so quickly. And so make it count. Redeem the time. And something good to think about as we approach a new year. Let's see, Usher, if you could prepare for an offering at this time. And I've got quite a few things here. We have our New Year's Eve program tonight, and so we'll have different men are going to preach among our congregation here. Looking forward to that and praying that the Lord will use that. And so that starts at six. It won't go too long, too late. And then after that, we will have pizza tonight and some games. So if you have a board game, something you think that folks would enjoy, we'll have some tables set up and we'll be able to enjoy it. So you feel free to bring those in and that would be a blessing and a help. And of course the ping-pong table will be up. So we'll have to name the ping-pong champion. The pizza, now we've got some good pizzas coming. So they're not just all pepperoni and cheese. And so it'll be an enjoyable time. You won't want to miss that. Let's see here, we do have a teen activity, and some of you might have gotten that, but actually that's going to be opened up to the youth, all of the youth ages 8 to 18. I was going to say 8 and up, but somebody said, what is that like in the 80s or 90s? And I mean, you're welcome to come. You're going to have to sign a liability waiver about your health before you participate, though. But that's open to eight years old all the way up to teenagers. And that's going to be this coming Friday at 530 and ending at 8 PM. If you have questions, let Brother Joel or Miss Neely know. Probably be a good idea to let them know if you're coming just so they can plan for food and things like that. Let's see here. I will announce that another time. What do we want to do here? I think that's all that we're going to announce for now. And I'm going to ask Brother Brown, would you make your way up here? And he has been... Oh, as you're coming, you come ahead. Yes, sir. You had some insert in your bulletins, and that is for a devotional book put out by Brother Dave Olson. We support him. He was in Africa, and then due to a number of health reasons, had to come back to the States, and we don't support him as the same amount that we do our other missionaries on foreign field, but he does a lot of writing projects and things, and so he's come up with the devotional Evening Light. I've read some of the stuff he has written, and it's been a blessing. I have not read this one yet. I just got this one. So that's in there. If you're interested, if you're looking for something at night just to kind of give you something good to meditate on, I know that he puts out good material, and it's a blessing. So I've asked Brother Brown to come, Usher, if you could make your way up to the front, and he's going to give us just kind of an update, a quick update of what's been going on in the church lately down there in Missouri. He's a friend of our church and a dear friend of mine, and I know that our church loves him and his family, and so I've asked him to come, and then Brother Brown, if you'd pray for the offering after that. Well, it's good to be back. Amen. It's good to see everybody. Again, familiar faces and friends and family. But then there's I'm excited to see new faces as well. Amen. And that is a wonderful thing to see growth. Amen. And to see God working. And so. Just kind of wanted to update the church on some things. And so God has been good to us down there in Missouri. And so we're coming up on about a year and a half of being down there. And we celebrated 50 years as a church in September and had a great jubilee, had a three-day jubilee. And Dr. Bob Gray was there to speak and one of the former pastors that that labored there for 22 years was there and came to and it was just a just a great time and but God has really been doing some things and you know when we when we were voted in we were voted in by 13 people the last 13 that were left of the church At one time, the church ran 100, and so, you know, God has had been working in different things, and so, but a few of those, you know, there's gonna be attrition with a new pastor coming in, and so, out of the original 13, there's six that are still there, but God has given us 25 new members in the last year, and we've seen close to 100 visitors, in the last year, and just some amazing things that God has done. We had been praying for a candlelight service. We had decided God had put it on my heart to do a Christmas Eve candlelight service. And I've never really been big on changing services, and it's just kind of something that we've come from. But we moved the service to Tuesday, and I'm so thankful that we did. And we began praying, fasting and praying, And we put out 1,000 door hangers. And then we also had the opportunity to put the same display that we put on the door hangers on a digital display. And 16 different billboards throughout Cape Girardeau and then a few other towns within 30 to 45 minutes. And it was $150 to do that for a week, to hit 16 billboards. Our ad was up, it was seen, it was visible 380 sometimes a day for a week. And we had no idea what it would bring. But I was praying that God would give us at least 20 visitors and we'd see at least one person get saved. And so when Tuesday night came and our folks, we had 25 of our folks come and We had 60 in attendance. We had 35 visitors. And there's a lot of family in town visiting our church members and such. But we had eight first-time visitors. And one gentleman with his son came, and he trusted Christ at the end of the service. And it's just amazing. So I guess I will say this. I say all that to say this. God's doing some really neat things down there and opened some doors for us for me to be able to work with some folks in some other countries virtually that are closed to missionaries. And that's another story for another day. But God is just really doing some things. And so let me encourage you, don't quit praying. God may not answer in our time frame, but he answers in his. And he may not answer the way that we want him to, but he answers according to his will. And he's always on time. And so just don't, whatever you do, don't give up praying. If there's somebody you're praying for, something you're praying for, a decision, just put it before the Lord and trust that he knows best and let him work in your life in his timing. And you'll not be disappointed, I promise you that. But I love this place. I love your pastor, and it's good to be back, and it's good to be with you folks. And so I'm looking forward to what God has for us this morning. So let's pray for the offering. Father, we love you. God, we thank you so much for your goodness. God, I thank you so much for this place. this church, these folks, and just this lighthouse here in Fremont, Nebraska. God that's still waving the old banner of truth in the old King James Bible and still standing on the same convictions. And God, I pray that Father you would Bless not only the services this morning, God, and Pastor McQueen as he brings thy word, God, but I pray that, Father, you'd be at the offering this morning given by your people. God, I pray that, Father, you'd just bless now both the gift and the giver, and then God, it'd be used for your honor and for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Yeah. Amen. At this time, Brother Marshall and Miss Gretchen will come and bring us a special. Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head. The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay, the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay. The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes. I love thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky, And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh. Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay. Close by me forever and love me, I pray. Bless all the dear children in thy tender care, and take us to heaven to live with thee there. Amen. All right, some of you are fans of that song, I can tell. We've got one more announcement here, and I'll leave you down there, Brother Heath. Well, actually, no, we'll have you come up here. If Brother Heath and Miss Lois, and then if you are in the Junior Church, go ahead and make your way up here on the platform here. Everybody in the Junior Church, and then after this, after this, you're going to go to your class. But right now, If you've been in the junior church here in the past several weeks. So our junior church, many of you know, they were taking up an offering and they have a little treasure chest or something like that. And they take up an offering every Sunday and try to teach the kids to give. And that offering always goes to something specific. And this, the past couple months they've been building up an offering for the Anthony family, Brother Nick Anthony and his family. His wife had all kinds of complications with their last child, Ellie, and was on the brink of death. And he shared that testimony with us. But he went to pastor the church in Wayne. And they're up there, they are living in the apartment in the church in Lyons right now. And so definitely not, they don't have a ton of money and things like that, the Lord's providing for them. But our junior church with the Rippertrops wanted to take an offering for them. And so I raised some money, the kids gave, and I'm sure moms and dads gave. And we were able to give them an offering of $740 after it was all said and done. And they were super excited. I think it was at like 560, and they all came out and shared the news with me. And so I was able, kids, to go to the Anthony's, and I took them out to lunch. And then I took, I put that money in like a Christmas bag. So I came in like, you know, well I won't say who I came in like. That's controversial. But I came in like a Christmas character and handed that bag to them and all the kids, they wanted to see inside of the bag. Their faces got big, and so it was a blessing because they just had transmission trouble, and he had to pay like $800 for a title and all kinds of things. So that was a huge help to them at just the right time. So let's give a round of applause to our kids, and thank you guys for being willing to give. We appreciate you, and we appreciate you ripping troughs. All right, we're going to let them go to junior church, and then we're all going to stand and sing our last song here. One more song out of the paper pamphlet number 224, The Birthday of a King, number 224. In a little village of Bethlehem, there lay a child one day. And the sky was bright with a holy light, o'er the place where Jesus lay. Alleluia! Oh, how the angels sang! Alleluia, how it rang, and the sky was bright with the holy light. T'was the birthday of a King. Twas a humble birthplace, but oh, how much God gave to us that day. From the manger bed, what a path has led, what a perfect, holy way. Alleluia, oh, how the angels sang. Hallelujah, how it rang, and the sky was bright with the holy light. T'was the birthday of a king. Amen. You may be seated. Amen. Good singing this morning. Thank you, Brother Andrew. Thank you, instrumentalists, for your ministry and turning your Bibles to the book of Luke, Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. And what a neat song, The Birthday of a King. That is an example to us how Christ humbled Himself, made Himself of no reputation. He took upon Him the form of a servant who was made in the likeness of men. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So all of this affliction, He's born a king and nobody really took knowledge of that. It wasn't some huge celebration in Israel as it should have been. and that's how God had him and yet now God has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name that this birthday where there was no room for him and it wasn't a spectacular event in the eyes of man necessarily that now for 2,000 years we've been celebrating the birthday of Jesus And so that's a neat thing. I know for some, even the day of Christmas is not necessarily something that is, it's controversial sometimes. There's some folks that don't like to celebrate that. And that is okay. That's scriptural. One man can esteem one day and another one. But the fact that we actually get to have a birthday celebration for Jesus, whether you do that in December or some other time, I think that is a sign that God has exalted Him and said, yes, this birthday was kind of forgotten and scorned, and I'm going to make it one of the biggest events in the world every year for almost 2,000 years. So what a neat thing. Luke 16, And we're going to read this parable here and about 13 verses, so follow along with me in verse number 1. This is Jesus speaking, He said it also unto His disciples, There was a certain rich man which had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do, for my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship? I cannot dig, to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his Lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my Lord? And he said, And a hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, And a hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. And the Lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in that which is least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. He cannot serve God and mammon." I want to draw your attention there to verse number 4 and that phrase there, I am resolved, I am resolved. And I'm going to speak on that topic here. And don't worry, we're not going to butcher the text so that we can speak on New Year's resolutions, but that's what we're going to talk about. And we're going to follow right along with the thinking and the actions of this steward here, I Am Resolved. But let's go to the Lord, ask for Him to speak to us. Father, we thank you again for how you've already ministered to our hearts this morning. And Lord, we just pray that now from your word that you would scatter some seed and help all of us to have hearts that are good ground, that might receive the seed, and then bear fruit with patience. And so, Lord, stir us up. Holy Spirit, would you speak and utter things that even flesh and blood cannot say? and I cannot communicate. Would you communicate to folks as is the need? And we'll thank you for it. We love you in Jesus' name. Amen. I am resolved, this servant said. So we're going to talk about New Year's resolutions. And resolutions often get a bad reputation. And I came across some things that I'll share with you here, just some comments that people make about resolutions. Somebody said, last year I was able to keep all of my New Year's resolutions tucked away nicely in my journal on the bookshelf. Somebody made a resolution about food. They said, I made a resolution to eat healthier, but then I realized I'd better eat all the junk food in the house so I wouldn't be tempted later. Somebody said, one of my New Year's resolutions is to break my resolutions. That way I actually succeed at one of them. A boy asked his grandpa, he said, Grandpa, what are New Year's resolutions anyway? Grandpa replied, resolutions are basically a to-do list for the first week of January. And that is all too often true. And then one last person said, may all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions. And they get a bad reputation. But what I have found is that resolutions, they can actually be very powerful, very impactful, and the idea is actually a very biblical one. In God's Word, and you can start to think of times in God's Word that He gives all kinds of examples and instructions about renewal, reviving, kind of like new checkpoints where you get to start again, fresh starts, new perspectives, and so on. And so it's a very biblical thing. And we would love to make a decision and then just keep it for the rest of our lives. We would love that. But that's not necessarily the reality of what we are right now in the flesh. In the flesh, we degrade and we decline naturally. And there's a thing in the world that I learned in science class in high school called entropy. And that's the tendency of all things in this world are decaying and declining. And that's how it is in the flesh. So when we make a decision in time, sometimes it does wear off a little bit, and God knows that. The Bible says He remembers that we are dust. He takes knowledge of that. And so He sets up all kinds of things in His Word to make sure that there's new checkpoints, fresh beginnings, and things like that so that we can have a fresh start. And so we need that. We need restarts, resets, and resolutions. And in our text, we find here a man who made some resolutions. He resolved to do some things. And again, we're not going to butch this. Sometimes it's easy for a preacher to just kind of pull out one phrase that has nothing to do with the rest of what's going on, and we're actually not going to do that. So don't jump ahead of me. The overall passage, just so I can get the message, I've preached on this overall passage. I called that message, So You Haven't Been a Great Steward. And I really enjoyed studying through that and things, and so I've preached on it. But just so you get the overall idea of the message, that this was a steward who he had been kind of wasteful and so his master's gonna kind of kick him out and then he says, wow, you know, what can I do? Well, what he ends up doing is kind of lowering everybody's debt. I said, OK, you owe this much. Well, now you owe this much. And debtors have done that and they still do that. OK, it's more likely that this person might actually try to pay it instead of just declaring bankruptcy. And if I lower it and I might be able to get some more of my money recoup that. And so he goes out and he does those things and he says that way they'll take care of me. And. The Lord, the Master there, actually kind of took note. He said, it was not a bad idea that He did that. And Jesus used that to say that, He said, make to yourselves, in verse number 9, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. So the whole kind of focus is that you ought to be more focused on making a good life in eternity for yourself than being focused on making yourself more comfortable here in this temporal life that's going to end. And so use your riches, use your wealth, use your money in ways where you are going to, when you get to heaven, that you have sent treasure ahead into heaven. And so that's a different message for another day, but I do want to draw that out. And so, but we're going to look at the resolution this man made and how he came to it and the process he used to get there. And what you find is that resolutions are impactful. They're all throughout the Bible. So the first thing that we have here is an apathetic situation. An apathetic situation. And that's how every good New Year's resolution starts. Look at verse number 1. Jesus says, There was a certain rich man which had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. So we don't know all the background of this steward. The Bible, Jesus does call him unjust. So definitely somebody that he wasn't doing things with integrity. He wasn't doing things with diligence. And there was an accusation made that this steward, this manager of, maybe he was managing his lord's investments, the debts and things like that. He was a business manager for the wealthy man. And but he was accused that, look, he's not doing a good job. He's being wasteful. And and so we don't know all the background, but I get the idea that he was comfortable. He's comfortable in his situation, perhaps slothful, and he'd gotten sloppy. And we don't want to judge him too harshly because all of us, we will give an account of our own stewardship. And notice the word wasted at the end of that verse, verse number 1, he had wasted his goods. Have you ever been guilty of wasting something? Have you ever wasted time? And I'm preaching to myself this morning. I am so curious about so many things and it's so easy to go down some rabbit hole that has nothing to do with what I need to get done. And the Bible talks about redeeming the time. We read this morning, teach us to number our days. You don't have time to be wasting time. Have you ever wasted your money? I don't even want to know and I haven't looked up the statistics of how much money is spent on Starbucks and scooters and coffee drinks annually by Americans, but I'm sure it's a lot. And some of you say, look, that is not a waste. I need that in the morning. For me, it's soda and the wasted money and dollars that are spent. And I'm not saying that you never should partake of these things, I'm not saying that, but I think you can be honest with me and say, yeah, yeah, I've probably been wasteful at times. Restaurants, don't raise your hand. How many of you have items that you've purchased sometime back in the day and they're still in the package? And you so needed that thing and it's just been sitting there. And we're all in some of the same boat. How have you treated your health? Your health? I think sometimes that I've been guilty of taking maybe at least a few months off of my life by poor choices and with my health. And that is wasteful. I will give an account for how much longer maybe I could have lived or how much maybe I could have done with days that were in better strength and better health. And so how about your influence, your interaction with people? You ever had missed opportunities where you know you should have influenced somebody for good or for God or for Christ? And maybe you were a wasteful steward at that time. And my friends, it is easy to become wasteful. It's easy to see that we're not always the best stewards that we ought to be. Proverbs 18.9 says, He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster. And so even when we're slothful in our work, and I will tell you, this is something that I don't necessarily like to preach on. There's a lot of topics that I feel like, yeah, I like preaching on, but this is one of them that I think sometimes hits home with things that I deal with and struggles that I have, and that's time management and being diligent and doing things with fervency. But there's hope. And that's why we need restarts. So you start off with this apathetic situation that he's just, he's drifting, he's just existing, we let things go. And that's kind of how we see as we come to sometimes the end of a year that things have gone. In the book of Proverbs the writer says, So this person had just let things go and sometimes our lives start to look like that picture. that things just kind of get let go and get thorns that grow up. Have you had thorns that have crept up in your spiritual life? Have you let some things begin to break down? Maybe walls that you had constructed spiritually and you notice, wow, that they're starting to crumble a little bit. Have you gotten drowsy, sleepy about the things that you should be stewarding? Well, friend, there's hope. And so you start off with this apathetic situation. He had wasted his goods. And so then we come to this dramatic interruption, a dramatic interruption, and that's in verse number 2. It says, And he called him. So now the master is calling the steward. And he said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward. So this boss brings him in and says, look, I've heard some things about you and look, I wanna see everything that you've been doing. I want an account of this. And he said, you know what? I think you're probably just gonna get let go. So he's gonna get fired. Now, the funny thing is the way this man acts after he leaves this little meeting is he starts working on an exit plan because he knows when I give this account, it's not gonna come out well. And so he's basically going to get fired. because he's been wasteful. Slothfulness, wastefulness, it does have consequences. Somebody said the old phrase, you know, hard work pays off later, laziness pays off now. Your payday is now, but you will pay for that in time to come. The Bible says in Proverbs 15, 19, the way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns. but the way of the righteous is made plain. You know what that means? That means that when you and I drift, and we just exist, and we start letting things go, and we start getting lazy and slothful, then that makes things harder down the road. All of a sudden, wow, that deadline is coming up. I ran into that all the time in college. Whoa, this 10-page paper is due tomorrow. And now I could argue that there's a difference between procrastinating and being slothful, but I'm not going to try to make that case. And sometimes there are other things that are just kind of taking precedence, and I understand that. But it does make things a lot harder when we don't keep on top of things. When I don't keep on top of things in my yard, it gets a whole lot harder. When I don't keep on top of things in my health, things become a whole lot harder. All of a sudden, things start to not work like they're supposed to, and it's this hedge of thorns. All of a sudden, you have nowhere to go. And when we don't keep on top of paying our bills and those things start to creep up because we have been wasteful or bought other things that we shouldn't have been buying, all of a sudden we're in between a rock and a hard place. And now I've got to figure out what I'm going to do. When I don't keep on top of things at work, all of those emails, they start piling up. And then you get to this point where it's not even manageable. And you're hedged in by all these thorns and there's no way out. And so it's very difficult. So slothfulness, wastefulness does have consequences. And now he's got this rough wake-up call. And sometimes we run into that. And you know what? But the very thing that he needs is a wake-up call, is an interruption. It's actually just what the doctor ordered. to spur him out of apathy. If it hadn't been for this disturbance that would bring his life to a screeching halt, he would have just remained in a rut. And so sometimes it's exactly what God wants us to have. God said to Moses in Deuteronomy 2, 3, He said, You have compassed this mountain long enough. Look, you've been here long enough, we need to get you moving. God knows there are times when, you know what, you need a change, you need a reset. Elijah said, how long halt ye between two opinions? Look, you can't just go this way forever. Something has got to change. And you and I have got to reach that point where we say, you know, this is untenable, this is unsustainable. I can't keep doing things this way for the rest of my life." And sometimes exactly what we need is kind of that, you know, the Lord to come along like a good friend and just kind of give you a slap in the face. Say, hey, you need to wake up. This is not going well. This is just going to hurt you. Joshua said to the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you?" He says, look, you need to do something about this. And we don't like that. I do not like it when I'm trying to sleep and all of a sudden I'm jarred out of sleep. Now that we don't have an infant in the house or a newborn, that happens a lot less, but when all of a sudden there's that crying and you're kind of jarred awake. We don't like when people come and try to wake us up and tell us, hey, something needs to change in your life. But it is necessary, and it was necessary for this man. Ephesians 5.14, wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Sometimes God will use a job loss like this man, and all of a sudden, we've got to start thinking. about how to do things differently. Sometimes it'll be a negative health report. I remember when I, and look, I don't even want to tell you this, but when I went to the dentist one day a long time ago and they said, you have nine cavities. A couple of those are going to be root canals. And, you know, that was kind of a wake-up call. And I'm probably due for another one here soon, so. But those things, they will get your attention. Sometimes a health report that's negative all of a sudden gets you to start thinking differently. Sometimes it's a major unexpected financial blow that you did not see coming, an unexpected bill, a car breakdown. Sometimes it's a family crisis. But you know what? We see those as negative things. And I'm not saying they're always good. But they are opportunities for a true life change. Sometimes that's the very thing that we need to say, you know what? Things have to change. I need to do something differently. And that's the good news. You know what? And the neat thing is, that's why we call them New Year's resolutions. You don't have to wait. for a crisis to happen. God gives us a new year. Why is that even a big deal? God has programmed something into us to realize that a new year is a fresh start. And so He gives us these checkpoints. We say, hey, how about you not wait for the crisis to come? How about you just take this new time frame that you have and think differently now? And so these are biblical things. These are good things. And so this man has, this is a dramatic interruption in his life. And then thirdly, I have here a realistic consideration. So now he's got to get real. And notice what he does. Verse number three, then the steward said within himself, what shall I do? All right. So he said within himself, that is a thought. Do you ever talk to yourself? Just try not to do it out loud. We all talk to ourselves. It's just when you start doing it out loud, people start wondering about you, right? And so every major decision that you and I make, it starts in the mind. It started with a thought. Huh. You know what, I'm thinking I could do this. Now, that could be good. That could also be very bad. And that's why we have to bring into captivity every thought that kind of arises and exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ. And so, but this thing in his life, this interruption, it caused him to start doing some reflecting. He started thinking to himself, what am I going to do? And he starts reflecting. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7, 14, in the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider. So when things start getting hard in life, when trials come in, that's a time, and the wisest man in the Bible, aside from Jesus, said, look, that's a time when you need to think, you know what, I need to consider some things. I need to start rethinking my life. Now, don't make all kinds of negative decisions when you're very discouraged. So when the car breaks down, don't decide, you know what, I'm getting a horse and buggy, I'm done with this, all right? Don't start doing things that are just gonna kinda destroy your life. And when that kid, you know, wakes up or causes you problems, don't think, you know what, I'm throwing him out the window, that's what I'm gonna do. It's not gonna be good. So you don't wanna make a bunch of negative decisions. Well, I had a bad day at work, I'm quitting. Now, look, this man, he is considering some things. You want to be thoughtful about how you're going to approach things. But you can use those times of afflictions to do some good, hard thinking. Just make sure you're thinking biblically. And in the multitude of counselors, the Bible says there is safety. So when you're going to make a big decision, then make sure it's going to be something that you have biblical thoughts about, you're not just reacting in a negative way. But it is a good time to rethink. And so notice, he's got realistic considerations. Now, look what they were. He's not sitting there thinking, woe is me. You actually don't ever find him arguing with the boss. You don't, boss is just picking on me, no. You know what I can appreciate about this man? He's being very realistic with what's going on, very honest about where he's at, what's going on, and then what he needs to do. And the Lord later commended him. And so he's not sitting there pointing fingers, and so it's not a time to start pointing fingers at, well, it's my wife's fault, it's my husband's fault, it's the kid's fault, it's the boss's fault. So the first thing he says here is, my Lord taketh away my stewardship. Verse number 3, he said it within himself, what shall I do? For my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship. So he's facing reality. He's not ignoring a problem. Sometimes we want to ignore the problem and think it's just going to go away. All right, maybe my health is declining. Okay, I need to start thinking about that. Maybe I am having some issues at work. I need to think realistically about what is actually... Don't just ignore a problem. Start asking the Lord. Bring it to the Lord. It's not just gonna go away. If my finances are struggling, don't just, you know, expect that, you know, money's just gonna fall out of the sky from somewhere. All right, we have got to think about these things. And so he says, look, I'm facing this reality. My stewardship is going to get taken away. And then he says in verse number three, my Lord take it away from me, the stewardship. I cannot dig. I cannot dig. Now, why is that? He's talking about doing some kind of manual labor. Maybe, maybe it's because he's been kind of a business manager all of his life. I one time decided, and I've shared with you folks a couple times, I decided to roof my own house. And I've had mostly office jobs most of my life. When I was younger, I did a bunch of different things. I worked in factories and all kinds of stuff. But I got up, and you know what? I knew my body is not used to this. It was very, very different. And there were some guys then that kind of jumped in and helped. And one of them, he was going all over that roof. I mean, and he had been roofing all day, and then he jumped on my roof and started helping. And so this man's realizing, look, I've been a business manager. Maybe it's because his work, he just knows I cannot do that. It's not what my body is accustomed to. It could be because of old age. The Bible doesn't say how old this man is, but maybe he just knows I'm too old for that. Or my body is too broken down for that. Whatever it is, he knows he can't do it. He's honest about what he's willing to do. That's the thing about when you're going to make a resolution, you're going to make a decision, you're going to try to start seeing things differently and say, you know what, I need to do things differently. You do have to be realistic. If you decide, you know, you say, well, I've not really been a person of prayer like I should have been. You know, I'm going to start waking up at 4 a.m. every day and pray for five hours on my knees. That's probably not realistic. You probably aren't going to keep that. And so don't all of a sudden jump in and say, look, I'm going to do something that, you know, maybe you need to do something that's a little more realistic. And he's being honest. I can't do that. Sometimes we don't want to acknowledge our limitations. Sometimes that's pride. or stubbornness. I can do it. Look, if they're doing it, I can dig too. No, maybe you need to be realistic about what you can and cannot do as you think through how you're going to be resolved. It's one thing to be determined, even if things seem too hard. I'm not saying just give up. Oh, I can't do anything. You can have some determination, but it's another thing to be ignorant and prideful and to kind of think dishonestly about yourself. Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 10, 13, but we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even. Paul is talking about a measure. God, when He gave that parable about the talents, He gave to one five and to another two and another one. He gave differently. And so the one with one, He is going to be realistic. I can't do what the guy with five can do. You've got to be realistic. And Paul says, look, I'm not going to boast of things without my measure. I'm not going to pretend that I have all these abilities that I know I maybe don't have. Some of us are gifted differently physically. Some of us are gifted in different ways, even mentally, intellectually. And you kind of know limitations. Some of us are gifted organizationally differently. And there's all kinds of different gifting. And so we do not want to start comparing ourselves and in pride say, I could do exactly what he's doing. I don't remember who I was talking to recently, somebody, a preacher I think, and just kind of talking about, you know, different preaching styles even and among preachers. You cannot be like the next guy. That just does not work. God made you, you, and He's given you gifts for a reason, but don't try to go outside of your measure. And there's just some things that I'm not good at, I'm not gifted in. And sometimes it's because I need to grow. I need to grow in an area. You say, well, he's just being lazy. Well, at least maybe he's admitting that. I'm too lazy to dig, all right? And so it doesn't mean you can't develop and apply yourself, but you gotta be honest that you have a long way to go, and it's okay to say that. The quicker we get honest and humble, the more grace we can receive. So I could look at a very, somebody that I would see as maybe very organized in a ministry aspect and say, well, you know, number one, I could say, well, I'm going to try to do things like him. Why, no, I'm definitely not there. Second error I could make is to say, well, I'm just not like him and so I'm not even going to try to get things organized. That's another error. Or I could say, look, I am not that. I have a long way to go. I need a lot of help. And so He gives grace to the humble. God will resist the proud. If you don't start admitting where your limitations are or what you need to grow in or even your character defects, Look, I have this character flaw that when this happens, here's how I kind of respond. And maybe I have an anger issue. Maybe I have a pride issue. And I'm just going to be honest about that. Lord, I need help with that. And He will give grace. But if we don't want to admit that, then we're just fooling ourselves. And so he says, I cannot dig. And then he says, to beg I am ashamed. So he knows he can't do something as labor intensive as digging, but he also knows the other extreme is out of question. Like, look, I'm not some kind of like roll up my sleeves, hard worker, dig it out kind of person, but I also have a little bit of dignity. I'm not just going to sit there and just ask people for money. He's got a little bit of dignity. And so he says, I'm ashamed to do that. And so He's got some realistic considerations. So he thinks, what am I going to do? And sometimes those times are the best times to start thinking about that. The prodigal son, when he hit rock bottom, that's when he came to himself. That's when he said, I will now go to my father. And that was a resolution that he made because things had all of a sudden hit a reset. And so now fourthly I see an optimistic resolution. So now he gives us his plan, verse number 4. So here's what I'm going to do. I am resolved what to do, that when I'm put out of the stewardship They may receive me into their houses. So, and that's when he comes up with this plan. I know what I can do. I can't dig. I'm not labor intensive. I'm definitely not going to go around begging. So I've got to find that middle ground of what kind of fits me. And that is I'm going to make some business deals. And that way, I'm going to make some friends. I am a good networker. That's what he's saying. I can network. I can wheel and deal with people. By the way, I am not that type of person. This guy was good at that. Some of you are very good networkers. Some of you are very good laborers, and you don't really want to have to think. You're just like, hey, give me a shovel and tell me where to dig, and I'll be glad to do that, but don't make me try to plan all this out. Some of you are good administrators, and we have all kinds of different spectrums. So he finds something he can do, and he has this optimistic resolution that you come to year's end And I would encourage you, friend, to use this time in your life, maybe it's year end, maybe for some of you it is a crisis, that something has happened, some family situation, some health situation, some financial situation, something has happened, whatever it is, whether it's the end of the year or some other thing, let that be a time that you do some reflection. But be optimistic. Be realistic, but also optimistic. And say, you know what, there is hope. I have God on my side." And obviously this man was unjust and that wasn't a whole lot of his thinking, but for the Christian it ought to be. The Lord, what do You want me to do? Lord, what can I do in this situation?" And so he doesn't just sit down and mope, he sees there's something he can do. It's going to take some thinking, some planning, some communicating. It wasn't as hard as digging, it wasn't pathetic as begging, but what can you do? There's something you can do. The Bible says, a man's gift maketh room for him and bringeth him before great men. You have something that God has given you. Some of you are very, you're very sociable. I heard a preacher the other day talking about that and he said, you know, some of you, you go into a checkout line at the cash register and you know everybody's names by the end of it and they know all about your business. And then others of you, it is like you are programmed with like don't make eye contact with people, stay in your lane, and just get done what you need to get done. I kind of fall into that category a little bit more. And but God has given us something that we have. God asked Moses, he said, what is that in thine hand? Hey, what what do you have in your hand there? The little lad with the lunch. Well, it's not much, but here's what he has. Little is much when God is in it. And there's some things that maybe you have thought, well, this is a hopeless situation, but no, maybe you need to go to the Lord and say, Lord, what can I do? What have you given me that I can pursue? Something that's realistic, something that's in maybe my power to do. And to be honest, the Bible says, stir up the gift that is in you. Some of you, maybe you can read. And maybe you need to take up, you know, you need to say. Some of you might be able to read a couple books a month. Others of you, you need to say, you know what, I'm going to read a book this year. And all of a sudden, you're going to change something. Some of you, you can do a little more study in the Bible. Some of you need to start reading the Bible and say, you know what, I'm going to take 10 minutes and read my Bible every day. Or five minutes. If you're at zero, five minutes is better than zero. And so there's something that you can do. Others of you, you've been kind of on the same plan for so many years, and maybe you need to do something a little bit differently. You say, yeah, OK, I've read four chapters of the Bible every day for the past 10 years. Well, I'm going to do something different. I'm going to do a little bit deeper dive. And I'm going to maybe memorize a little bit. And so there's something that you can do. And so lastly here there's a dynamic conclusion, we'll close out, a dynamic conclusion. He said, I'm gonna do this, that way they may receive me into their houses. And so he's got this plan to where I actually have something set. And then even in verse number eight, the Lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely. And so God gives us a fresh reset. And if God has given you a reset, use it. In the day of adversity, consider. Be realistic, be honest, be humble, but be optimistic. And so what is it that God wants you to do? Don't just drift along in apathy. God uses these things in His people's lives to stir us up again. And you can think differently. Don't let the devil put thoughts in your head. You are in control of your mind, at least you're supposed to be, and you can be. Now sometimes we've just put it on autopilot and we have walked in the vanity of our minds and so we're just whatever thought is coming in we're just kind of living by that. Yeah, no, this will never change. This situation is just going to keep getting worse. No, it's not. Who said? The devil? Are you going to listen to him? Or are you going to start considering and God will say, I'm glad you woke up. Hey, I've been sitting here waiting for you. Now let's get a game plan and let's get working on this thing. And your life can actually be more abundant than it is right now. I'm not trying to preach that you're going to be, you know, healthy, wealthy, and prosperous. But God does want you to have the joy of the Lord. And whatever situation has been beating you up, whatever rut that you've been stuck in, there is a way out. And that is why we have resolutions. And that's up to you and the Lord. Would you stand with me at this moment? We'll have a time of invitation. If you would stand with your heads bowed and your eyes closed. And we have our time of invitation, the Bible says, Selah, that is meditate on.