Well, let's start in the book of Ephesians. Tonight, we're gonna be quite a bit different places. This is more of a practical little study, very, very practical thoughts tonight on preparing for the new year. And I hope it'll help you. Ephesians chapter five, please, if you would, Ephesians chapter five, we're gonna start here. And then we're gonna be in several different passages. Ephesians chapter five. And I understand that we're all different in different ways in reference to preparation, to planning. Our sons make fun of me constantly because I use a task list that confuses everybody. And it's just the way I'm wired. How many of you used to use a day timer? How many of you knew what the day timer was? I used to use that, wrote everything down all the time. And now I use a notes page and I do that. And really some of the things I'm going to share with you tonight, some of it are things that I really, I look at monthly. I don't wait till the turning of a page for a year. I've never been one that's a fan of New Year's resolutions. I think it's better for a Christian to say, I'm going to look at my life and I'm going to make some renewed commitments to the Lord. I'm going to read, you know, I'm asked the Lord to refresh my commitment and my commitment to his plan for my life and so on and so forth. And so we'll be very practical tonight and you just take what you can out of it, but it's all going to come from the scriptures. So we'll just get myself out of the way here. We'll open the word of God and let the word of God speak to us through the Holy Spirit and look forward to the opportunity. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 15, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And I want to be very, very, very practical tonight. I want to give you four things that Christians should do daily, but I'm going to get there toward the end of the sermon. Four things that Christians should do every day. So if you're the type that's already working, by the way, how many of you already have a list of books you're planning on reading next year? Okay, I don't have my glasses on, that's about two hands. Brother Philbrook and I will have lunch together and discuss it, amen? But I didn't see this side over here, right? I trust you, listen, don't come to me and say I'm not a reader, okay? You and I are gonna have a little convo about that, okay? You better become a reader. You're always learning. Always learning. Say, I left school a long time ago. No, you didn't. You're always in the school of education, whether you want to admit it or not, amen? And I'm always studying and always learning. I don't read as much as I should, but I hope you're getting yourself a good list of books. Of course, the Bible doesn't need to be top of the list. We'll talk about that in a few minutes. Redeeming the time in the will of God. That's what I'm gonna talk about, redeeming the time in the will of God. And just share some really practical thoughts here in a few minutes. You know, it shouldn't be that you wait till you get a little bit older till you realize how precious time is. You can't put a price tag on time. And again, the older you get, the more you do think about it. But I'll tell you the discipline one is a young person that says, that learns, that truly learns that time is precious. And when I say young person, I don't mean just a teenager or a child, I mean a young adult that realizes how precious time is. For what is your life? It is but a vapor that appeared for a little time and then vanisheth away. And I cannot believe, and the more I mention my age, the more old it makes me feel, but I cannot believe I'm 56 years old. Some of you would say, that's not really old. Some of you say, dude, you're an old man, okay? But the reality is that I cannot believe how fast time has gone, preacher, just like that. I cannot believe I'm already a grandfather. And just like that, it seems like just a few years ago, I was in Chicago on my bus route, running buses. And it seems like a few years ago, just a couple years ago, I was down in North Carolina pastoring a church. I was 29 at the time. And I look back and I say, man, where's the time gone? Just like that, time flies by. And it's not by accident this word is used, and I'm not preaching on this tonight. I'm not really going to be so much preaching, I'm a little more teachy. It's not by accident that this word is used with this reference in a matter of our time. The word redeem is a very precious word in the Bible. Of course, every word is precious. But when you think about redemption, that's a beautiful doctrine to study in the Bible. Maybe some of you have before. Redeemed it's what Jesus did when he came he comes from the Greek word agorazo. He came to the marketplace we were sold under sin and he came to the marketplace where you and I you and I were on the auction block because of sin and Jesus bought us back. How many of you glad about that? He bought us back. He redeemed us Lutros is another word that comes from it's letting loose. So after we've been bought back. We've been set free Wait a minute not to do what we want but to do what he wants. I And it's a beautiful study, but it's not by accident such a precious word is used. Redeem the time. Redeem your time, use it wisely. And listen, let me tell you, I feel sorry for young people that think that Christians and people that are sold out for Christ just never have fun and they never get to do anything they want. That's really such a lie from the devil. I will tell you that we don't think that everything in life is supposed to be fun and a party and a slap in the knee. But the reality is, is that it doesn't, you don't miss out on anything when you live in the will of God. Remember, I wasn't gonna give you this, but I'll just throw these at you super quick. It's not part of the message, but because we're talking about understanding what the will of the Lord is, and I shared this in Sunday school this morning. Oh, I heard these couple of thoughts years ago about the will of God. The will of God is trading up, not giving in. You know, you're not missing out on anything to do the will of God. You're trading up. You're making the smart move to do the will of God. The will of God is designed to protect you, not punish you. The will of God is a privilege, not a requirement. There is a requirement, but it's better when you do it because it's a privilege. And the will of God is a narrow path, but not a tightrope. And those are just a couple of thoughts about the will of God, but redeeming the time because the days are evil. And then the Bible said there, knowing, understanding what the will of the Lord is. What's the will of the Lord? Now, whatever planning you do for 2025, and I hope you'll endeavor to be, if you're not, you say, that's just not the way I'm wired, I don't really do that. Nobody's trying to make anybody robotic. But these things we're gonna talk about for a few minutes tonight are things that we should, biblically, we should strive to do daily. So you may say, well, I just, I don't really plan that way. And again, I have other ways we can go with this as far as I have a, each month I analyze this. I've got five or six different categories, faith and family and finances and funds the last one, but there's one more and I'm forgetting it. What is it? Oh, fitness. That's why I forgot about it. It's getting hot in here. I need my handkerchief. Anyway, yeah, fitness. Thank you for reminding me, sweetheart. I'll talk to you afterwards. Anyway, but, but, but so I have five different categories and everything under that fits under those umbrellas. It's a whole nother, again, that's not what I was going to preach on either, but, but faith, everything under it. So each month I analyze these faith, my relationship with God through his word. How's my Bible reading doing? What's my plan? My prayer time. My serving in the church, my soul winning, and some of the things we'll talk about in the points here in a minute. But faith, family, endeavoring each week to make sure I have a date with my wife, we do something together, and different things. So under the category of that, and that's just what I do. You may not be the type of person, that's why I'm saying this, you may not be the type that plans your schedule that way. But again, these things we're gonna see in God's word are things that God says we're supposed to do daily, all right? So let's look at these couple things. Four things, four things that we should strive to do daily. But let's do this first. Go to 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 31. And this will be one of the points in a minute. 1 Corinthians 15, 31. And you take these things, and if you would this week, you think about them and search your own heart, look at your own life. 1 Corinthians 15 31 Paul said I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord I die how often church daily. Paul said, I die daily. I'm going to explain that in just a moment. Here's another verse, Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 13. I can read this for you here. You're going to look at other verses. I'll give you some more in a moment for the points. But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So those are two examples, one of them specifically one of the points here, but the Bible says we're to exhort one another daily. You know, some people like to call the exhortation a gift that God gives to people. I'm gonna suggest to you that I believe every believer should be in the ministry of exhortation. Now you may not have, there are gifts that God gives, different spiritual gifts that God gives people, we understand that. But the Bible says in Hebrews that we're to exhort one another daily. You know, a catchphrase in our home when the boys were young, I don't think they had any toys named Bob the Builder, but a catchphrase was, be a builder. Do you guys remember that haunting statement, James? I'm talking to you. But be a builder. Be a builder. You know, boy, it's easy for us to tear down and critique and criticize. Matter of fact, it's so amazing to me that everybody can solve everybody else's problems except for their own, you know? Everybody else is the expert in something else that they've actually, in some cases, never even experienced before. Do you know the ones that can rear children the best? People that never had any children. I said, preacher, you're bordering on sarcasm. All right, pray for me. Pray me back into the message, OK? But you know the best one? You know the experts on being a pastor? Let me tell you who the experts are, people who have never pastored. They know how to do it, but they've never done it before. I'll never forget when I got my job, one of my jobs when I was in college for Icon Office Solutions, fastest growing printing company in the nation at the time back in the mid-90s. And we were sitting in the first orientation. And this boy's sitting there, this other guy's there, I'm in there in the class, I'm taking notes, I'm listening, you know, and he's sitting there, he's like, he's slouched back like this, man, all this, ooh, all this stuff, come on, man. You know, it's always like that, too, it's like, eh, you know, like you need some Pepto-Bismol or something like that, you know, it's like, eh, you know, come on, man. First break in orientation, this guy, he's figured out that this business can do their business better, you know? And he's probably built a hot dog stand maybe in his little play school when he was about five years old, right, you know? But, okay, you prayed me back, thank you very much. But there are things that we're to do daily. I want you to consider these things this week as we prepare for the new year. I hope this will be a help and encouragement to you. Number one, number one, surrender to the will of God on purpose. Every day, every day, surrender to the will of God on purpose. I read the verse for you, 1 Corinthians 15, 31. Paul said, I die, how often? Daily. Each of these can be a whole sermon themselves. I hope it's a life study that you're doing in your life to strive every single day to die to self. Let me make something very clear to you tonight. You will never know true living until you die. Say, Brother Barnes, it sounds so morbid. I came to church tonight to hear that I'm supposed to die. Yes, you did. Congratulations. Can I slip out? I'll say a quick prayer in a minute, give you a chance to slip out, okay? No, seriously, we're supposed to die every single day. I wonder how many Christians really think about that. Every day. We're supposed to die to self every single day. Jesus said we're to take up our cross daily. Every single day. I think most Christians think that we're supposed to walk around polishing our crown for everybody every day. And I'm not being sarcastic. I'm actually consumed now with the message. I'm ready to go forward here, okay? I think more people are worried about what people think about their crown than they are about the fact that they're supposed to take up their cross. And can I just lovingly remind you tonight that a cross package is not only the good things. Smile, you're on candid camera, okay? A cross package are not just the good things of life. Every one of us want to do the good things. Look, there ain't nobody robed in a piece of flesh that just says, I love problems. Bring it on, buddy. Oh, give me some more. That's all you got? Just a flat tire? Give me two of them, you know? All right? There's nobody doing that anytime soon, or we're going to take you to the funny farm, OK? But the reality is, is that none of us like problems, but that's part of our cross package. Jesus determines that for us. Why do we have problems? I don't know the answer to that all the time. One of the things I know, one of the things I try to remind myself of is that Jesus has commissioned me and commissioned every one of us to take up our cross. That's not something anybody wants to think about. Boy, going to New Year, man, I want to do this. I want to do fitness. Who remembered that one? I want to do this, man. I want to have fun. I want to play. We played a lot of board games. I love to play games. It's a lot of fun, especially when I win. It's not fun for anybody in my family when I don't win. Nobody. No, it's not that bad anymore. I've grown up a little bit in the last couple months. But seriously, hey, listen, boy, we all want to have fun. Everybody wants to play. Everybody wants to have a good time. That's okay, but there's other pieces to the package. Jesus said, take up your cross, surrender to the will of God on purpose every single day. Every day, surrender, surrender to his will. Surrender is what he wants. Let God be in control, not you, not I. Well, you know, that's not the way I thought it would work out. You know, I think sometimes people look at some people and say, well, I wish I had it like so-and-so. You probably don't really understand everything somebody else is going through either. You might, and yours might be a little harder than theirs. That may be true. I'm certainly not going to argue with you about that. But what I do know is that God has plans and purposes for every single one of us. And he knows exactly what he's doing. He didn't, there was no ups with God. Oh my lands, what did we do to brother Ruck back there? Oh, good night. Guys, angels, we gotta fix this fast, okay? He knows, okay? He understands that. God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't, whoops, messed up on that one. How are we gonna fix that one now? He knows exactly what he's doing. Surrender. Every day, surrender. You know, if we're not careful, if you're not careful, if we're not careful, we will get so consumed with our problems Listen, if you and I can get to, can embrace the grace of God and live a surrendered life every day, that helps us so much. We want out of our problems, God says, I want you to surrender to me in your problems, with your problems. Man, I didn't want to come on a Sunday night to hear something like that. Well, this is part of a daily responsibility that each of us have. Surrender to the will of God on purpose. Paul said, I die daily. You've probably heard this statement before. To find the will of God is the greatest discovery. To know the will of God is the greatest knowledge. To do the will of God is the greatest achievement, the greatest accomplishment. I don't know what tomorrow's going to hold, but I know this much. I can wake up tomorrow morning and say, God, reporting for duty, sir. What would thou have me to do? Surrender every day. You ever heard somebody make the statement you can't hurt a dead man? Did anybody say that before? I used to joke with one of the men in our church at state line, and he used to try to take me up on that. He used to try to say things to aggravate me. And it worked sometimes. No, I'm just kidding. But seriously, boy, listen, hey, you can't hurt a dead man. Die daily. Matter of fact, you may have to die many times a day. And so number one, surrender to the will of God on purpose. How many of you are still with me? Say amen. All right, that's enough, we can move on. Number two, every day, every day do these things. Number two, study the word of God with purity. Go to Acts 17 and verse 11, please, if you would, in your Bibles, Acts 17 and verse 11, study the word of God every day, every day, every day, every day with purity. Acts 17 and verse 11. I love this verse, familiar probably to many of you. We're looking at a new year. Every one of us are changing the page in a couple days, every one of us. New calendar year, what does that mean? Well, January 1st, just a day after December 31st. How many of y'all remember Y2K? How many of you remember that, Y2K? I was pastor in North Carolina at the time, man, I had pastor friends all over stockpiling ammunition and food. They were convinced, man, the computers were gonna crash, it was just gonna be a mess. How many of y'all remember, do you remember that? And you know what, guess what we did? We woke up the next morning and we just kept on going. Hmm, what a thought, right? But 1st Acts 17 verse 11, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, these, this is the people of the church, not just the pastors, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures, how often, church? Daily, whether those things were so. If you're not already doing this, can I encourage you to consider adding a Bible relationship to your Bible relationship with the Lord every week? Every Sunday when you get home from church, take the messages you heard and chew on them with your other Bible studying all week long. Now, maybe you're already doing that. I don't have my glasses on, so I can't see anybody right now. You might have all left and I might be here by myself, amen? But then it gives me a chance to practice my fitness and walk home in a little while, and I see my wife there, amen? But seriously, if you're not already doing this, you should take, you know, pastor doesn't just get up here, you know this, he doesn't just go, okay, what am I gonna preach on? He's been praying for you, he's been laboring over the scriptures all week long on what the Lord would have him to preach. And listen, I pastored for a couple decades, not as long as pastor here at this church, of course, but I've been in the ministry for several decades as well, but I'm pretty convinced a lot of people, they hear a message and they may, well, that was a great sermon. You know, a preacher doesn't really, he's not really impressed. We're past those days. Well, that was a great sermon. But when somebody goes, when somebody leaves to say, that's just what I needed. But now you take that truth and you keep studying that all week long. Don't leave it in the church. You go home and the next day, what did the preacher preach on? Well, the Bible. I mean, remember that answer. Jesus, you know, love one another, you know, for love is of God, you know. Take that truth you heard on Sunday and study it out. You know, preachers, you're not intimidated. Somebody may come and say, you know, I've been studying this. I don't really understand that. Hey, better you come, why not come to the pastor and ask him? You go to Google and you read some wacky nonsense on there, and you read some things that scriptures are taking, and I understand I'm not perfect, preacher's not perfect, we're students of the Bible, but you go on Google and read some wacky nonsense, and you put a seed of thought in your mind of some false doctrine, some false teaching. And your pastor's labored over the scriptures. And I'm not saying this to promote him or to belittle you. I'm saying, don't let those messages stay here in this auditorium. Take them with you all week long. Study the word of God with purity, with purity. Be on purpose about it. Be disciplined. Listen, let your Bible time be a sweet time. I understand, we're all busy. Look, many of you, we're busy. I'm like, I'm 100 miles an hour, nonstop, pedal to the metal all the time. I need to learn to slow down. I do. Maybe some of us, that's the way we're wired. But you've gotta be very disciplined in your Bible study time. It cannot be, I was very, some of you guys, they were there, Brother Adam, Brother Samuel, they were at the meeting in Maine, and Lord really convicted me about my meditation of the word of God. Brother Pope and Brother Scott Paulie were both preaching on, Brother Paulie preached on meditation. I was very convicted about that in my own life. Came home and told my wife and kind of pushed the spiritual reset, but I'm in the word of God every day, but I knew I wasn't really studying. I was just mostly doing reading. How many of y'all know what I'm talking about? Study the word of God every day. Be disciplined about it. Listen, even if a day is a little short of 15, 20 minutes, this ties in with the next one here just a minute, but turn all the noise off turn the noise and nonsense off and Just and just study the Word of God You know what? This is amazing in that When you read if you're saved when you read the Bible and you study it the Holy Spirit knows What he wants to teach you The problem is not that he doesn't know, and you already know that, the problem is we're not being disciplined in listening to the Holy Spirit. He knows what he wants to teach us. Hey, don't you believe, if you have a five-year-old son, don't you believe your five-year-old son, if they read the Bible, that the Holy Spirit could teach them what he wants him to learn also? Absolutely. So if you're 55, don't you think the Holy Spirit knows what you need? Of course. Every day, every day, study the word of God with purity. purely, to a full extent, totally, wholly. Purely is not just clean, it is, but it's also wholly, fully. Be all in, when you're in your Bible time, be all in. Don't be distracted. We have so much distractions today. So many things. Put a block around some of this stuff. Set a garrison around it. Because these are the matters of the heart. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Those things that you're feeding into your heart to be the spiritual man, be the spiritual woman you want to be, you're striving to be, guard those, protect that, because that needs to be sweet time where you get something. It doesn't need to be a four-point sermon. I put this together years ago. I'd heard a sermon that was similar to this, but I developed, I don't even remember how many points it was, but I developed it, and I studied it, and I thought about it. It was probably 10, 15 plus years ago. Not just because you're looking for a sermon or a Sunday school lesson or something to share with somebody else, but something that speaks to you personally. Number three. Number three, schedule your walk with God in prayer. Psalm 86 in verse three. Psalm 86 in verse three. Here's another verse about daily. Psalm 86 in verse three. Schedule your walk with God in prayer. Similar to your Bible relationship. Psalm 86 in verse three. We're talking about things that Christians should strive to do daily. Now listen, I'm telling you, as sure as I'm standing here, these are things that I struggle with in my life just probably like you do. I have never gotten all four of these intact completely like I should, I don't think any day. You say, wow, you got a bad track record. I'm still working at it. I may have one or two of them that are going real good one day, maybe even three or four, three of them, but it seems like all four of them all at the same time. Boy, this is, this is a bit, it'll keep you busy. But schedule your walk with God in prayer. Psalm 86 in verse three, be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto thee, how often church? Daily. None of us would question the fact that David had a very committed prayer life. You and I benefit from reading many of the, half of the Psalms that were written, Psalms that David wrote. And that wasn't all of David's prayers, surely we know that. But David said, I cry unto thee daily, schedule your walk with God in prayer, develop your prayer life. Hey, are you looking at 2025? What's your plan? What's your plan of attack? Well, I'm just gonna keep going like I do. Okay, can we do a little better than that? You know, can we be a little more disciplined than that? You know, I mean, we're soldiers for the Lord. Thank God for everybody that's serving our military. But I don't think if the drill sergeant came in and said, what are we going to do today? Oh, I think we're just going to go through it, you know? I don't think they even asked. I think this is what we're doing, fellas and ladies. Let's get after it. And we are soldiers for Christ, amen. We don't have to be militant about this, but we should be that disciplined in our heart and mind and passion every day to do the will of God, right? Schedule your walk with God in prayer. And I'm gonna say this, and I'll give you the fourth one. I'll talk about it for a few minutes, then we'll be done. This one, number three, is my greatest challenge in my life personally. I used to teach in a Bible college. And I used to make this statement to the preacher boys. The busier you get serving God, the more you have to fight to spend time with God. Now, you may not understand that, you might even disagree with that. There is something to be said about the fact that we're serving God, so that's part of being with God, okay? If you're super analytical in what I'm saying here tonight. But you get so busy serving God, you have to fight the busyness of life to spend quality time in communion, in prayer, in conversation with the Lord. You ever had a conversation with somebody and if you think of this quickly, I want you then to erase it from your memory bank and not think of it again. Don't think ill of somebody. But you're talking to somebody and in the middle of your conversation, they just walk away. Doesn't that bother you? Eh, whatever. I like to tell this story. Our son Joel, one time he was talking to me and I wasn't paying attention. And he grabbed my face like this. And I thought he was a kid. Was he like a teenager, Teresa? What's that? He was a kid? I don't remember how old he was. He was probably 40, even though he's only 20-something right now. But anyway, but he grabbed my face. He said, Dad, Dad, look me in the eyes. He knew I wasn't listening to him. And I said, get your hands. No, I didn't say that. But I said, yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'll be a good boy. But you know, how rude is it when you and I are having conversation with God and we're thinking about something else and we're not, don't look at me all pharisaical right now because if you've never done that, then you need to write a book on the discipline of prayer. And I have to ask God to forgive me because I was talking to him and I started thinking about something else and I stopped my conversation with him. So you don't even want to look at me, right? You're like, what? He's weird. People do that? Yeah, unfortunately. We have to ask God to forgive us. God, please forgive me. I was talking to my creator and my heavenly father and the one that saved me. And I went off and had a conversation with myself about nothing that meant nothing. And I actually was rude to you to do my own thing. You know, a lot of people have a prayer list. but that's a whole different thing to have a prayer life. Schedule your walk with God in prayer. Number four, here we go, we're almost done. How many are glad and happy in Jesus, say amen. All right, praise the Lord. Number four, seek to witness for God with persistence. Go to Acts chapter five, please, if you would, Acts chapter five. Seek to witness for God with persistence every day, every single day, Acts chapter five. The Bible says, and what's the next word, church? Oh, you're not there yet. Acts chapter five, it's after the book of John, page 139 in the Cambridge Wide Margin Bible. Do you have it yet? All right, here we go. Page number six in your tablet, all right. And daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. I don't know how this will help you or what this will mean to you, But I wonder how many of us believe that every day God perhaps might give us an opportunity to share Christ with somebody. Now, I'm not talking about having a block of time to go door to door, although that should be part of our plan. But we shouldn't wait until that time to every day seek for an opportunity to be a witness for the Lord. I wonder how it would change us if every single day, every one of us in this room had opportunities and we took advantage of it to, I don't mean just say a good word for Jesus, like just mention his name, but to testify about Christ to somebody else. Do you think that every day God might could give you that opportunity? Now, I'm not talking about, soul winning is a part of this, no doubt about it. But this matter, they were teaching, the early church was teaching and preaching daily the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't even have this in many homes today, not to mention Christians going out and sharing with others. How many times in the home is Jesus Christ mentioned? Well, why do we have to mention him? We all believe in Jesus. Why would you not want to mention him? Are y'all out there still? I took my glasses off. Oh, okay, you there? Every day, daily, seek to be a witness for God with persistence. I know preacher knows, we have several, I know of at least one or two friends that we went to college with that have made it a goal. Every day, every day to endeavor to witness and share the gospel with somebody. Now, I'm not comparing myself to somebody else. I'm just saying, and I think of somebody else that has that goal. His name is Thomas Michael. He's one of my heroes, not just for that reason. Everywhere he goes, he's carrying little smileys and little Bibles and tracts, always looking for opportunities to be a witness. I had another man who was an influence in my life. His name was Dan Flowers. He was my assistant pastor when I was a teenager. I couldn't go anywhere with him where he wasn't giving people gospel tracts. What a heartbeat, what a focus, what a discipline. Every day, gas station, supermarket, it didn't matter where it was. Why do some Christians think that's weird? We should think it's weird that Christians wouldn't want to share Jesus Christ. We're not judging others and we're not comparing. What I'm saying though is that as you're looking at a new year coming, what is your plan of attack? What are you targeting? What are you going for? What are you pressing toward the mark for? And I cannot look at these things without knowing, John, you got a lot of work to do. These are just daily things that we should strive to do every single day. And if we don't, we don't need to beat our head against a wall. We're not losers. We're not depressed and discouraged. We wake up the next day and we say, Lord, help me to do this today. Maybe these are things that are already part of your discipline. I tell you though, these have been part of my discipline for a long time, and I still have to work at them every single day. But I'm not gonna give up. I'm not gonna give up. I'm gonna keep pressing on. I wanna cross the finish line strong for Jesus, don't you? I don't wanna just coast along. I don't wanna just barely make it. The Christian race is a lifelong marathon. I only ran one marathon in my life, It was in October of 2012, I think, in the Hartford Marathon. I trained for about 10 months. I got to about mile marker one, and an elderly lady was standing on the sideline. And she said, keep on running, Sonny. You're almost there. And I was like, oh, I love her in Jesus' name, amen. And I was running my pace. I was trying to, I really wanted to get a pace to where I could qualify for the Boston Marathon. And at my age at the time, I really needed to get to like an 802 per mile and maybe even less, maybe 746 or something like that. And I couldn't get there for, I could do four or five miles at the time at that, but I couldn't do 26.2 miles at that. But I kept on running and I passed by this guy and he's standing there and he is pounding his leg. He pulled his hamstring, and he's beating his leg up. I thought, dude, this guy's going to kill himself, you know? But you know, I kept on running, and I kept on running. I don't remember. I think I came in 1,306th place, or something like. You can look it up later, and tell me later, and discourage me. I'll cry my way home tonight. You say 1,306. There were about 16,000 runners in the race. I didn't run that race against anybody else. I ran that race against John Barnes. I promise you, I didn't have any of my friends running. I was all by myself. But every now and then, the whole way, people are cheering for you. And I didn't care what number place I came in. I wanted to finish, but I wanted to finish well. And I finished that race. And I haven't run one ever since. My legs are still sore. And that was 12 years ago. Oh, I learned so many lessons in preparing for that. The Christian race is not a 100-yard dash. You might be faster than other people, and you might get to some milestone, but you're not at the finish line. You haven't finished your race yet because you're still breathing. Stay on the track. Stay after it. Don't give up. My biggest concern, preacher, is when people lose their fight. I get more concerned about people than any other time when they lose their fight. Don't lose your fight. I don't mean fighting each other, but your fight against this flesh to finish strong for the Lord. Jesus may come back before even January the 1st. But if he doesn't, he says, occupy till I come. And I'm not real interested in just telling stories about what God used to do a long time ago. I wanna see God do it again if he tarries his coming in 2025. You believing in a big God? Are you anticipating the bigness? I'm not talking about stuff and money. I'm not talking about that at all. I'm talking about knowing the hand of God on your life personally. Personally. In it to win it. Eyes on the prize. Going forward for Christ. So you gotta get yourself a plan. If you fail the plan, you plan to fail. Get yourself a plan. Think about these daily things.