open up to Romans chapter number 12. Romans chapter number 12. And I want to preach on this evening, what does God expect from me? What does God expect from me? Really the idea there is the will of God. And what is God's will? And this morning we looked at keys to a new year and setting goals and moving towards that goal. And I really want to focus on the latter part of verse number two of Romans chapter 12. And we're going to look at that text here in a moment. But really the idea of what does God expect from me and what is God's will? As we think about a new year and often we think about our own goals and we think about our own plans and we think about our own aspirations that we want to accomplish in our life and where we're at. It's also really wise and it's really good to consider, hey, what does God want from me? And what is God's will for my life? And where am I going in my life? Those are all important things. And so the Bible says here in Romans chapter number 12 and verse number one, my life's verse, to be honest with you, the Bible says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. that ye may prove what is that good acceptable and perfect will of God let's stop right there and let's pray father I pray that you would use me I pray father that you would speak through me God I pray that you would just touch hearts as only you can and father I pray that you would and get across the message, Father, that is on these pages and on my heart. And God, I pray that it would be clear to each and every person, and Father, that we would be understanding of what the will of God is for our life. And Father, we'll certainly thank you for that. And God, we'll be careful to give you the honor and glory and the praise for every accomplishment and every great thing that is done, Father, and we'll thank you for that. And God, I ask all of these things in Jesus' precious name, I pray. Amen, as we look at the passage, uh, the idea there is, uh, the latter part of verse number two says that, uh, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect Will of God Let me just start out by saying the beginning here of these verses. He says I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, so he's writing to Believers he's writing to saved people he's writing to those who are born again and know the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Savior and and there's some certain things that he says, of course, he wants us to to dedicate our lives and give our lives to to Him and I absolutely love that verse. Why is it that I love that verse so much? I don't know other than it reminds me on a regular basis that I have a responsibility and that's the bare minimum for the Christian life that I would present myself to God. and allow him to use me. And that's the bare minimum. I'll stop there. We could preach on that verse. That's a phenomenal verse in my opinion. But he goes on in verse number two and he says, and be not conformed to this world. but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God." And so God has a will of what He wants us to do, and that becomes very clear. There's other places in the scripture where it is very clear what God's will is. Because he says in 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse number 3, he says, And he talks about purity in there, in that chapter of 1 Thessalonians chapter four. He goes on in 1 Thessalonians chapter five, and he says this in verse number 18, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And so there's some definitive things that God lays out that is definitely his will for our life, and that's for every believer. I don't have to say, well, I wonder if it's God's will that I'm sanctified or set apart for the Savior's use. No, you don't have to question that. That is God's will. It says this is the will of God, and so there's no question. It's very clear that that's what God desires from our life. I don't have to question. Well, I wonder if God wants me to be thankful. Now, I don't have to question that because it says in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God. And so it's very clear that there are some definite things that God desires from us. And, uh, and they're laid out very clearly. Uh, but let me just say a word. Uh, perhaps there's those that do not know Jesus Christ as their own personal savior. These verses that we're talking about are addressed to saved individuals, born again, believers. And maybe there's somebody that would be listening that does not know the Savior as their own personal Savior. Then listen, to you He says this, The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Savior, what His desire is, that you would be saved today. That you would put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and Him alone for salvation. That's why He came to the world. Jesus Christ came, we just celebrated Christmas. He came, He was born, we remember that day and we celebrate that day that Jesus was born into this world. And why was He born? We know that, of course. He was born so that He could live an absolute sinless life and then go to the cross of Calvary and shed His precious blood and die on the cross of Calvary. Why? Because He took our, as my dad said, condemnation upon Himself. In other words, we were condemned to die. Why? Because of our sin. The Bible is very clear about that. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We know that we're sinners. By and large, man understands that and they realize that and they understand, man, they don't want to stand before God. Why? Because, man, that's a scary thing to stand before God. And yet God is there and the reality is every person is going to stand before God. And the reality is, hey, you're far better off getting your sins taken care of and preparing yourself to stand before God before you die. Because once you die, it's too late. Once he comes back, it's too late. And so you want to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and ask him to save you. That is the will of God. That's what he desires for every person that is lost. And so understand that this evening, that God loves you, He cares about you, and He died on the cross so that you can be saved and you can be born again as most of us, I would venture to say in this room, are tonight. and you'd be joining good company. And so, as we think about this idea of what does God expect from me, understand that He has a will for us. And in Romans 12, in verse number two, He wants us to prove or live out that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. And how can you know the will of God for your life? How does God reveal what He wants for us? Well, that's a fair question, and that's a good question. And I'll tell you straight up front that the very first way to know the will of God is through the Word of God. That's why we encourage you to read the Bible. Because, listen, this book reveals the will of God. Those verses I quoted, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse number 13, this is the will of God that you are sanctified or that you set apart for sanctification. This is the will of God that we give thanks in 1 Thessalonians 5. I know I jumbled those up, but that's the idea. Where are they found? They're found in the Bible. That's how we know God's will. You're not gonna walk down the street tomorrow and see a billboard that's gonna slap you upside the face and say, this is God's will for you. That's not how God reveals his will. You might see something that might stir your mind to think about God, but that's by and large, that's not how God reveals his will. He reveals his will through the word of God. And that's important for us to understand. You want to know what the will of God is? Then look in the word of God. The Bible says in Romans or Psalms chapter 119 and verse 105. So the Bible says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And listen, light exposes the street that lays before you. You wanna know where to go? Then listen, you gotta turn on the lights of the word of God. That's how God describes his word. He says it is a light unto his path. And the reality is, God will help us to understand where we're going in life and where we ought to be going in life through the word of God. And if the Word of God is a light unto our path, then the reality is the way is very dark and in need of illumination. God wouldn't have given us a light if we could see where we were going. But the reality is we cannot we cannot navigate through this world. We cannot navigate through this life without the word of God. And and the reality is, listen, this world has a way of twisting what is right and what is wrong. You know that. You read the news. You watch the news. You see what's going on in society. And you find everything is completely flipped upside down. And the world is purporting what is right is everything that God calls wicked and evil. And you say, man, this is a crazy time that you live in. And yeah, it is. There's no doubt about that. But that's why we have the Word of God. to guide us, to help us navigate what is right and what is wrong. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 5 and verse number 20, woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, and that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. But listen, that's where we're at in society, that our world has twisted everything up and the norms of society are completely contrary to the Word of God. And so the Word of God helps us see the right path that we ought to be walking on and we ought to be living in. Not only does light expose the street, but I want you to notice that light exposes the step as well. And where you put your foot down is just as important as the path that you're walking on. And both of those things go hand in hand. I lived in Peru for many years. And in Peru, the sidewalks are, how do you say, not very good. They're just there's holes in them. You'll be walking down the sidewalk and there might be an entire chunk just gone. I mean, I mean just gone, you know, and if you were to step down or step without looking you'd fall right into the street and and then there's manhole covers and sometimes they're covered and sometimes they're not covered. And so you always have to watch, I mean, where you're, you can't just like here, you often just assume, well, the walkway's there and you walk without looking, you're looking around, but you're not looking down. But in Peru, you don't do that. You want to look down. And I remember one time, I was walking and we were I was looking for a new building to rent for our church. We had to find a new place to move to. And and and driving was too fast and too crazy. And I couldn't I couldn't look around and find signs. And so I'm just kind of walking the streets and I'm looking around and I'm I'm looking for places. And I, I, I knew there was a manhole and it was actually covered there. But what I did not know was the manhole cover was askew. It wasn't set right. And so when I stepped my foot on that manhole and put all of my weight on it, that foot disappeared and it went right down the hole. I don't know what happened if this one went straight up. I just know that I was way down in that hole and only one leg went in. And man, I was like, it happened like I couldn't even believe how quick it happened. And I'm looking around and thinking to myself, how did I get in this mess? And my my shin and leg was all bloody. I scraped it all the way up and it hurt. And and I finally got my leg back out of there and I sat there and I was like, man. I need to be very careful about where I put my foot down in Peru and listen in the Christian life. Hey, listen, we need to be careful about where we walk. We need to be careful about spiritually how we place our feet and where we're walking and the things that we that we go along with. And and the reality is that, hey, listen, the light of the word of God will expose where you put your foot. And you need to be able to see that you're placing your foot on solid ground. And you need to be able to see the direction you're going in. And listen, the Word of God reveals the will of God. And the Word of God will never lead you contrary to the will of God. There's people that they make crazy claims. They say, well, I did this because God told me to. And it's clearly contrary to the word of God. I mean, crazy things I've seen. And and I'm thinking, no, that's not God's word. God didn't lead you to do that. There's no way on earth that was that was leading of the Lord for you to do those things. And but what happens is people just get all caught up in what they want to do. And then people don't read the word of God. And listen, we need to spend time reading the Word of God. And when you open up the Word of God, allow God to speak to you. Just take two seconds and say, Lord, speak to me today through your Word. I want to see something. I've read the Bible over and over. I've read it in English. I've read it in Spanish. I've read it in Italian. And I'm just telling you, when I open up the Word of God, you know what? I'm not saying teach me something new. I'm saying show me something. And you know what? Every time you open up the Word of God, every time I open up the Word of God, if I'm looking for God to speak to me, you know what happens? He'll show me something. He'll speak to my heart. He'll illuminate my path. He'll illuminate my step. He'll show me what I am supposed to be doing. He'll remind me of things that maybe I need to brush up on or be better at or things that have kind of fallen to the wayside. And He reminds us and helps us. And the Word of God reveals the will of God. And so the Word of God is the first thing. The second thing, is walking in the Spirit of God. The Bible says in Galatians, we're talking about the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. It's revealed through the Word of God. The second thing is walking in the Spirit. Go over to Galatians chapter five, Galatians chapter five, and I want you to see this verse. Galatians chapter number five and verse number 16. Galatians 5.16, the Bible says this, it says, this I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Go on to verse number 16, just briefly, or 17. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Jump down to verse 25. He says, if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. And so the first thing is the Word of God is going to illuminate our path and allow us to see it. Galatians, we don't have time to look at every passage there and every verse there, but understand it's talking about the flesh. And our flesh, and every one of you have flesh because I can see it. Sticking out the top of your shirt. It's there. All right, and you're glad it's there because if it wasn't you'd have serious problems and And you wouldn't be here. Okay, but we all have flesh and that flesh has those fleshly desires and it's telling us it gives us a list of what they are you can go down through and you can read in Galatians 5 and verses 18 and down it tells us all of the works of the flesh that are our desires of our flesh, and every one of us have those temptations, and every one of us have those things, but then he tells us, even before he gets into that, he says, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. The will of God is such that, listen, he desires to guide us by the Word of God and tell us what things he wants us to do, but then he's also given us the Spirit of God that dwells Within us, we're talking again to believers, people who know the Lord as their own personal Savior, and the Spirit of God dwells within you, and that Spirit of God is contrary to our flesh. In other words, your flesh desires this or that or whatever it is, and we have a list of things, but then the Spirit of God says, no, that ain't right. Let's not do that. And you go back to the cartoons that you ever seen when you were a kid, you've seen those and you have the little bad angel on this shoulder and the little good angel on this shoulder. That bad angel is really your flesh. And that good angel is the spirit of God that dwells within you. And they're both warring inside of you. And the reality is the spirit of God is going to help you to live the Christian life if we walk in the Spirit, the Bible says. Now I want to put this out there just to say this as well, I hinted towards it, that oftentimes we can convince ourselves that something is the will of God. And it doesn't even have to be sin. It can just be a decision that maybe is not a bad decision or a good decision. Lord, should I buy this brand new beefed up truck with big wheels? Is it sin to have a big truck with beefed up wheels? No, it's not sin. Is it the will of God? Well, I don't know. I can't answer that for you. But we pray about it. Oh Lord, that's a beautiful truck. It's the right color. Man, I really love that. And we're saying, Lord, I really want that truck. And you know what? We convince ourselves, well, that's the will of God. And we go out, we buy it. Now, is it right or wrong? I don't know if I would say it's right or wrong, but I might say it might be stupid. We might not need it. And I'm not saying it's wrong to own a truck like that at all. Understand what I'm saying. Maybe you have it for work. Maybe you have it just because you like it and you can do that. Hey, wonderful. But I'm saying if we're praying about it, we're saying, God, what is your will? And we're earnestly seeking. We can convince ourselves that this is what God wants for my life. And we can step out on our own and we can go the wrong direction. You say, Pastor, how do you know that? Because I've done that in my life. And you know what? If you're a Christian, you've probably done that, too. Not on a big truck, but maybe something else. You know, you've convinced yourself and you say, hey, this is really what I want. And you convince God to convince yourself that it's God's will. And you go out and you do that thing. And again, we're not talking sinful things, but maybe just kind of foolish things, to be honest with you. And things that aren't really that important. And things that maybe we'd have been better off without. And I look over my life and I say, man, I know there's things that I've done. And I'm like, yeah, that probably wasn't God's will. But you know what? God turns it around, praise the Lord. And he usually helps us out of our own foolishness and our own errors and our own mistakes. And I'm just telling you that there's those those things that we need to be careful about and convincing ourself. But in this passage, I want you to understand the submission to God. And that is that the Bible says, this I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If we were to go back to Romans, we'd find out that God does not want us to fulfill the lust of the flesh. He says, transform ourselves by the renewing of our minds. In other words, hey, that we would think different as a Christian, and that we would live as God would have us to live, and not after our flesh, and not do the lust of the flesh, but rather to submit ourselves to the Spirit of God. And you know the first step of submission is denial to self. There is no way around that. You cannot get around that. You have to deny yourself. The apostle Paul put it, or Jesus rather, put it this way in Matthew chapter six in verse 24. He said, no man 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. You cannot serve God and Mammon. And we know that verse, what does mammon mean? Mammon simply means it's wealth that is personified. In other words, in our life, many times you're gonna choose, well, am I gonna live for the wealth of this world? That's just one example. You could plug in many things. Am I gonna live for the pleasures of this world? Am I gonna live for myself in this world? And decide, well, what do I want? And what do I want out of this life? And what things can I get for myself in this life? And listen, he's saying that we're not to live after our flesh. We're not to live after our fleshly desires. We're not to live after the wealth of this world or the pleasures of this world, but we are to submit ourselves to God. And he says, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. How do we do that? We have to submit to God by denying ourself. Joshua told the men in his day, choose you this day whom you will serve. And he was making them decide if they were going to live for self or live for God. And we need to walk in the spirit. Submission is yielding to governance or an authority. And the question becomes, who's the one that's directing our life? Who's the one that's calling our shots? Who's the one that's dictating how we are to live our life? And it's a personal question. It's something that you can sit down and you can identify in your life, well, these are things that I wanna do. Well, these are things that I wanna do. And I'm not saying that it's wrong to do something that you wanna do, but I'm telling you this, that we need to be subjected to God. submitted to God and say, God, what do you want me to do? How do you want me to live? What's my life? How is my life to be conformed to your image? As he was saying there in Romans chapter 12, he's saying and renewed or transformed by the renewing of our mind. In other words, hey, our thought process needs to change. And the things we think about and our desires need to be submitted to the Spirit of God. That we would walk in the spirit. And listen, God gave us the spirit to help us, to guide us, to give us direction. You find in the Bible, spirit and truth, the word of God go hand in hand. And listen, if you've got all the spirit of God and none of the word of God, you got problems. You got all the word of God and you're not walking in the spirit, then you still have problems. They go hand-in-hand. They work together because God is going to speak to you through the Word of God and the Spirit of God is going to give you understanding and help and direction from the Word of God. And so they go hand-in-hand. And we find the Word of God that He gives us direction. We find the walking in the Spirit of God that we ought to do there in Galatians chapter number 5. Then I want to give you the last one talking about the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. And that's the wisdom of counsel, the wisdom of counsel. And listen, the authority is the word of God. There's no doubt that's our ultimate authority. But God has placed authority in our lives to our for our benefit. For example, for children. The Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 1, Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. You know what? I think that was the first verse our kids memorized. Not because they wanted to, but because we were their parents. And we said, you know what? Children, obey the Lord, or obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. That was the first verse they memorized, and we'd repeat it to them all the time. Why? Because they need to know, hey, that God has given them authority. And that authority is their parents, and they're over top of them. And that, listen, we have a responsibility as parents to train and nurture our children, and raise them up in the things of God, and teach them the Word of God, and teach them that they have a responsibility to obey their parents. That seems like a lost thing in 2024 and 25. It really is kind of gone by the wayside that people don't teach their children to obey. And it is a process. Many times in Peru, in teaching through parenting and things like that, I would tell our people, listen, learning to teach your children is more about parental training than it is about child training. Because listen, as a parent, you know what? You gotta learn to, man, I gotta stay on top of these kids. I gotta teach them to obey. I gotta get up off of the couch when I don't feel like getting up off of the couch and make them obey or teach them to obey. And it's a lot of work as parents. And yet God gave the authority there for the children to obey their parents. And so the counsel there of the parents Then, not only that, but go with me to 1 Peter. I want you to see this, 1 Peter chapter 2. We're not going to spend a lot of time here, but I want you to see this. 1 Peter chapter number 2, verse number 13. 1 Peter 2.13. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 13, the Bible says, Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God that with Well doing, ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Let me just stop right there and we'll look at this just for a moment. But understand that God has placed our government over top of us. Listen, there's times I don't like what our government does. So you know what we do? We vote, we pray, we ask God, hey, to move in this direction and to sway the heart of man. But as a overall, we have a responsibility to live in accordance to our government. There was a Christian man, years ago, I won't even bring him up, his name, but he was advocating to go against the government. And you know what, in the end what happened? He got sent to jail. Imagine that. And I'm thinking, I don't agree with this guy on this stuff. This is not right. This is not what the Bible tells us. That hey, we have a responsibility to our government. And what happens when they disagree? What happens when the government goes contrary to the Word of God? Which, by the way, it could. It very well could go against that. Then I would take what the Bible says in Acts 5 29, then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than man. and understand that, hey, there may be consequences for that. I mean, Peter and Paul and those apostles that were preaching in the name of Jesus Christ, what happened to them? They were thrown in jail. Did they say, well, that's not fair and that's not right. No, they said, yes, we're preaching in the name of Jesus. Yes, we're going to continue to preach in the name of Jesus. And if you let us out on the streets, you know what we're going to do? We're going to preach in the name of Jesus. Because they said, hey, we've got a responsibility to obey God over the government. And listen, again, the Bible says that we're to live in accordance to the government. And as long as the government is not mandating contrary to scripture, then we have a responsibility to live in agreement with that government. And a responsibility not just to live in agreement with that government, but also to pray for that, the leaders of our government. You like it or don't like it, like them or don't like them. We have a responsibility as Christians to live underneath the rule and to pray for those that are in leadership. And so that's the authority that God has placed over children. Obey your parents. And then in 1 Peter 2, 13, submitting yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. But then not just those authorities that God has placed over us, but understand they're spiritual counselors that God has given us. In Ephesians chapter 4, and we won't go there for sake of time, but you can note it down. You know the verses. Ephesians 4, 11 and 12. And He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Listen, God gave us pastors, preachers, teachers of the Word of God, men of God, so that we can learn. And listen, my whole life, I've sat in church, and you know what? I'm grateful for the messages that I hear that are preached out of the Word of God. You know what, even now, I enjoy listening to preaching messages. Why? Because I need preaching. And God guides us through the Word of God. And those men of God that stand and proclaim the Word of God, listen, they're asking God to use them, to speak through them, to touch the hearts of people, to teach things, to remind us of things. And the reality is many times when you listen to preaching, they look at it from a different angle. They look at something from a little bit of a different perspective and they might bring something out that I may never think of. I read and study. Why do I do that? Because there's other men's approaches and sometimes men see stuff in the scripture that is completely there. But I just miss it, I overlook it. And God uses that and he helps us to understand. He's given us pastors and preachers and teachers of the word of God so that we can have wisdom in counsel of the Word of God. And so there's the authority of the law that God has given us. Children, obey your parents, the government, and we're to submit ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. And then there's spiritual leaders of preachers and teachers of the Word of God that God has given us to help us to understand the Word of God. The Bible says this in Proverbs 12, 15, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. Listen, sometimes we don't, we're torn and we're not for sure. And listen, it's wise, it's good to get godly advice. It's good to go to your pastor and get help. It's good to go to good Bible teachers and people who know the Word of God and can help you to understand the Word of God. That's why God gave us them. so that they can help us, they can give us counsel. Maybe they'll remember a verse that we forget or something of that nature, but we have the word of God that will teach us the will of God, walking in the spirit of God that will help correct us and keep us straight, and then wisdom from counsel from godly men and preachers and teachers that teach the word of God that will help us. And listen, those three, oftentimes, they'll align and they'll help us. There's been times, I don't know who I was talking to recently, two times I heard this just recently, and they said I had three good pastor friends, I think it was a preacher's I was talking to, and said I had three good pastor friends that I went and talked to, and the first one said this, he said yay, and the second one said nay, and the third one said, I don't know, brother, you better pray about that. And sometimes, you know what, it's hard because there's things out there that are just difficult. But you pray and ask the Lord to give you wisdom. And God says, hey, any man that lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all men freely. And He'll help us. He'll give us wisdom. And He'll guide you through the Word of God. He'll guide you through counselors. He'll guide you through the Spirit of God. And He's given us those things to help us to live within accordance of the will of God. What does God expect you? He expects you to live within his will. What is it for every person? I can't tell you this and that and every person what the will of God is. I can tell you some vague things that he does expect us to be sanctified, set apart for the master's use. I do know that he tells us he wants us to be thankful. I do know that he tells us this, that if you're not saved, he wants you to be saved. That's why he came. He died on the cross for every person. And I do know that there's some basics that he does want us to do. But when it comes down to this job or buying this house or buying this car, boy, it can be tough. And you pray about it and you ask God to help you. Does God care? Well, yeah, God God cares. God God knows where you're at in your life. God is interested in your life. He will direct you. He will help you. He will guide you. If you ask him and you try and follow the Lord through the word of God, the spirit of God, counselors that God has put in your life and God will guide your life as we stand to our feet with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. What does God expect of me? Going back right to our verse, Romans 12, one and two, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. That's what he expects. Father, I pray. that you'd speak to hearts as only you can. And God, I pray as we try to navigate 2025 in our lives, and God, we set spiritual goals and even physical goals and new resolutions that we desire to do. And I pray, God, that you would help us to live 2025 within your will and reading your word and walking in the spirit Getting counsel, God, from preaching and from the pastors and teachers and those that you have put into our life to help us. God, I pray that you'd guide each and every person. I thank you for each and every person that's here. I pray that you'd bless them. I pray, Father, that you would encourage them, help them, and strengthen them. Father, if there's one that does not know you as their own personal Savior today, God, I pray that they would put their faith and their trust in you. Father, we'll thank you for that. God will give you the honor and glory for those decisions that are made. In Jesus' precious name, I pray. Amen. As our heads are