 Amen. So keep your place there in Daniel chapter number ten. So happy New Year's Eve. We're going to look at this story in Daniel chapter ten this morning as we look at going into the new year. Now I have said this before, but I don't know if you can really have a favorite Bible character, but if you can, Daniel's on my shortlist for sure. I really like Daniel. I think, you know, as we look at going into as we reflect back on a year behind us, and we look at going into a new year, I think that Daniel is a perfect example for us in the Bible on some things that we can learn a lot of things from Daniel. But I want to look at this morning some very specific things on why Daniel was so successful. Daniel is one of the people in the Bible that did not, you struggle to find failures with the man Daniel in the Bible. Obviously, Daniel was a man, but he was very good at many good things. And that's what we're going to look at this morning. As a matter of fact, the title for the sermon this morning, I rewrote the title several times this morning, but the title of the sermon this morning is Why We Fail. I was going to title it Why You're a Failure, but I figured that didn't really have, you know, the right tone for going into the new year. All right, but we're going to look at this morning Why We Fail. You know, as you look back on 2023, maybe there are some things that you wanted to do in 2023 that you didn't get a chance to do. And I'm going to tell you this morning, using the example of Daniel and other places in the Bible, why it is that we fail. You say, how could you just kind of paint a blanket statement on failure? And I'm going to show you from the Bible that the core cause for all of our failures in our lives, especially our Christian lives. So if you can remember back to, I don't know if you do New Year's resolutions, but I'll apply the sermon to New Year's resolutions, I'll even give you a couple examples. You say, I don't have any New Year's resolutions. Well, I'm going to give you a couple of mine, and maybe you can, you can steal them or you can plagiarize them if you want. But I think that they're good New Year's resolutions for the Christian. But we'll look at what Daniel does right. We'll apply that to our lives. We'll apply that to why we fail. And then we'll look at some New Year's resolutions going forward, especially as a church. So they say, you know, I don't know, it depends on who you, who you, you know, article or what research you look at, but they say that 80% or so of New Year's resolutions, meaning, you know, commitments that people make going into the New Year, they fail by February. 80%. 80% of people that say, I'm going to change this, this year, they fail before a month is over, before one 12th of the year goes over. Maybe you look back on 2023 and you see some things that you remember you kind of committed to last year that you did not accomplish. And maybe you say to yourself, well, you know, I didn't have time to do that or I, you know, other things came up, you know, whatever, insert excuse here. By the way, excuses don't help you ever in your life. That's a sermon in itself. But let's look this morning, you're going to keep your place in Daniel chapter 10. I want you to turn to Jeremiah chapter 17. Why do we fail? Why do we make commitments? Why do we say we want to change something? And why do we fail? And look, it's a majority of people that especially with this idea of New Year's resolutions, which I'm not really a huge fan of the New Year's resolution. Anyway, and I'll explain to you why that is. But why is it that so many people fail? And I'm sure all of us, we look back on the year at some things that we wanted to get done. Maybe we didn't. I'm sure all of us can come up with at least one or two examples of things that we wanted to do, but we didn't. And we have excuses and, you know, I was too busy or whatever that is. Well, I want to show you why we fail, and then we'll look at Daniel and how he didn't fail in his life. Look at Jeremiah chapter 17 and look at verse number nine. The reason that we all fail, I don't care what it is, any thing that you want to accomplish, anything that's good that you want to accomplish. The reason that you fail is because there is a problem with your heart. Look at verse number nine of Jeremiah chapter number 17. The Bible says the heart is deceitful, above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? The heart here, when it's talking about the heart, it's not talking about the physical heart in your body. It's talking about how you feel. It's talking about the things that you want, your desires, what you are desiring at that moment. The Bible is saying that heart inside you, what the things that you desire. The Bible is literally saying here in Jeremiah 17, verse number nine, that that thing inside you, your desires and your wants, they change. The Bible is saying that your desires are not constant. Your desires are not consistent. And this is why we fail. This is why in December every year and this morning, this sermon is about, you know, our desires going into the new year, but in December every single year, look, I do this myself. I reflect back on the year behind me. I reflect back and to see, hey, what worked? What didn't work? I spent a lot of time pondering these things. But literally in December towards the end of the month, everyone is reminded of the things that they didn't get done in the previous year. And this is why people come up with New Year's resolutions. It's things that they want to do better. But think about it. This is why I'm not really a huge fan of the idea of New Year's resolutions because if you look back and you see problems, I mean, should you have to wait till December to fix those problems? If you have problems in your life, you can fix those problems at any time. However, here we are, New Year's Eve, let's talk about why we fail at those things. The Bible is telling us here in Jeremiah chapter 17 is the reason that we fail is because at the end of the year on New Year's Eve, we all think about the things that we want for 2024, that we want for the new year. And the Bible is telling us that those things will change. The Bible is telling us that how we feel on December 31st is going to be different than how we feel on January 20th. Say, whoa, I'm literally going to feel differently about these things. So the problem is the heart, the desires change. Maybe people have improvements they want to make. And those improvements are very important to them on December 31st, but they're not as important on January 15th. They're even less important on February 15th, even less important on March 15th. How they feel, how you feel is going to change. That's the problem statement. That's why you fail, right there. See, the problem in our society is everything's available to everyone all the time. If you think about American society today, I told you a couple of weeks ago, we're all rich. We're all rich. There's not anyone here that is lacking food or lacking clothing. Everyone within the sound of my voice is rich. Everything is available to everyone all the time. I mean, everyone's one of the most common New Year's resolutions is I'm going to start a new diet in 2024 and I'm finally going to get myself healthy and I'm going to lose some weight and all these different things. But guess what? On January 2nd, there's all kinds of junk food available to everybody. There's all kinds of everything available, every single place you go, all kinds of nifty restaurants everywhere you look and your heart changes. Your heart is deceitful and how you feel about that specific resolution changes. Those cravings set in, you know, I mean they say that hunger, I mean look at Proverbs, go to Proverbs 23, I think it's verse number two, it's one or two. But the Bible literally says in Proverbs 23 talking about, look, hunger is one of the most strong desires that a person will have. Just this idea that they're hungry, they want to eat. Where the Bible literally says, put a knife to your throat. The Bible is literally telling you to overcome, you know, if you're a man given to appetite, it's saying if you want to overcome that, literally put a knife to your throat. That's what it's going to take. That's what it's going to take to defeat that desire. But the point is, your feelings change. That's just one small example. Your feelings change, your heart changes, your desires change. It's literally a battle. What I'm talking about this morning, it's a battle with yourself. It's a battle amongst yourself. Now go back to Daniel chapter 10. Let's see why Daniel was so successful. So this battle that people fight, people fail because they're in a battle with themselves and they lose the battle with themselves. It's really what it comes down to when you think about it. Look at Daniel chapter 10 and look at verse number 7. Now let's look at Daniel as an example of somebody. So Daniel, it sure looks like he met the Lord Jesus Christ here. If you look at Revelation chapter 1 and you look at this person that Daniel is standing in front of, it sure looks like the Lord Jesus Christ is talking to Daniel in Daniel chapter 10. Now that's a profound moment and many people are shaken by that moment in this chapter. Look at verse number 7 of Daniel chapter 10. The Bible says, I alone saw the vision. Why? Why was Daniel the only one that saw it? For the men that were with me saw not the vision, but a great quaking fell upon them so that they fled to hide themselves. Look, it's not that God came to just talk to Daniel. Everyone else ran away. Everyone else was very easily shaken, but Daniel was not easily shaken and that is a consistent trait that we see from Daniel throughout the entire book of Daniel. He was not somebody that was easily shaken. Daniel was not led easily by his changing heart, by his changing feelings. Look at verse number 8. Therefore, I was left alone and saw this great vision and there remained no more strength in me. So look, it even had a physical effect on Daniel. For my comeliness was turned in me into corruption and I retained no strength, but he did not run away. Yet heard I the voice of his words and when I heard the voice of his words, then I was in a deep sleep on my face and my face towards the ground. And behold, and hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright for unto thee I am now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. Look at verse number 12 now. Then he said unto me, Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst look at this. And remember Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse number 9. For from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. This is why Daniel was given these great visions, because Daniel was able to set his heart. Daniel was not led around by his heart, well actually we'll go back to verse number 2. He set his heart, meaning by set his heart it means like you place, like setting something concrete. Daniel was able to control his heart and set it and put it a place where it would not move, where it did not change. Look at verse number 2. This is just a small example. In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks and I ate no pleasant bread. Neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled. Daniel did this all the time. Daniel's talking about he's fasting here. He's fasting. He's taking it fast where he's not going to eat certain things, certain pleasant things. Those things are available to him. It's just he's not going to eat those pleasant things. Why? Because Daniel sets his heart. He sets his heart and he controls his heart. I'm sure when he looks at pleasant bread he had the desire for pleasant bread, but Daniel had his heart set. Daniel's heart did not control Daniel's actions. This is why Daniel did not fail because Daniel controlled his heart. He did not allow his heart to change when desire came. He did not allow his heart to change. If you go back to Daniel chapter 1 in verse number 8, the Bible puts it a different way. It says Daniel, in verse number 8 of Daniel chapter 1, it says, but Daniel purposed in his heart. You notice here it says, you know, then he's talking about again how he's not going to eat certain things and he's going to just stick to what he used to eat even though all these things in the king's house were available to him. Daniel was able to control his heart. He set his heart. He controlled his heart and any desires that came to him did not change it because why? Because it was set. And Daniel was very, very good at this. So set your heart and you won't fail. Don't be controlled by changing desires by this deceitful heart that wants to flop you around every single way. Daniel was successful and the Lord responded so well to him because Daniel set his heart. But look, he also set his heart towards things that pleased the Lord. You can set your heart towards the wrong things. You can set your heart towards bad things. Let's go to Ezekiel chapter 28. We'll see an example of that. But Daniel very simply put this morning, Daniel had such a positive response and the Lord Jesus Christ came to Daniel and gave Daniel this great vision in Daniel chapter 10 because he had set his heart towards the Lord. He had set his heart to be humbled, to be chastened before God. The opposite of that is setting your heart to be proud, setting your heart to be lifted up, setting your heart to think you are something great. And we see an example of that in Ezekiel chapter 28. This is actually kind of a parallel passage describing this King of Tyre, but it's also describing Satan in the Bible. So we see Daniel and then we see this contrast. So Daniel set his heart to chasing himself before the Lord. You know, and that's part of fasting, by the way. Part of fasting is to bring yourself low and chasing yourself and humble yourself before the Lord. But good luck with a fast if you can't set your heart in anything. Because guess what? If you decide to fast for a day or a week or whatever it is and you can't set your heart, you will fail every single time. You will just not be able to do it. Forget New Year's resolutions. You won't even be able to fast and humble yourself before the Lord, as Daniel did. Instead, in Ezekiel chapter 28, we see that this man, or describing Satan here, he set his heart in something different. Look at verse number one. It says, The word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, say unto the Prince of Tyrus, Thou sayeth the Lord God, because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas, yet thou art a man and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God. Notice that that this man here, Satan himself did this very thing, and that's why he's describing Satan as a parallel passage here. It is saying that the biggest problem with Satan, by the way, and the biggest reason that people are not saved today is because they've lifted up their heart. But Satan wanted to be as God. He wanted to be as the most high. He wanted to set his heart lifted up to be equal with God. And he wasn't God. Look at verse number three. It says, Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel. Interesting that he brings up Daniel as a contrast here. There is no secret that they can hide from thee. With thine wisdom and thine understanding, thou has gotten the riches, and has gotten gold and silver into thy treasures. But with thine wisdom and thy, and by thy traffic, has thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because, and here it is again, because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God, behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of nations, they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shall die deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. So here we see Satan was lifted up, and he set his heart as the heart of God, but we see Daniel set his heart to be chastened before God. So the reason that Daniel is successful is that he set his heart towards good things, towards things that were pleasing to the Lord. And look, the reason I bring up Ezekiel chapter 28 is because it is possible that you fail because you have your heart set towards wrong things, that you have your heart set towards things that are not of God. It's possible. So Christian growth, this is, look, this is Christian growth right here. Christian growth is realizing that maybe you need to unset some things in your life, and then set your heart towards a new way. But that is how you are successful. Go to 1 Chronicles chapter 22, and look at verse number 17. This is the verse of the week here, but actually turn there in your Bible, and we'll look at a little bit more context than, than just verse number 19. Look at verse number 17 of 1 Chronicles chapter 22. Here we will see that setting your heart is the first step of Christian growth. Getting your heart set so your heart doesn't toss you from side to side, instead setting it towards something that is good, towards something that is pleasing to the Lord, towards something that chasens you in, you know, chasens you in the eyes of God. That is the first step towards actually doing good things. Look at verse 17 of 1 Chronicles 22. This is where David is commanding Solomon. He's giving him advice to build the temple. David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon, his son, saying, is not the Lord your God with you. And hath he not given you rest on every side, for he hath given the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land is subdued before the Lord and before his people. Now set your heart, notice how he says, set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God. So what does he tell the people the first thing that they need to do? He's like, look, God gave you peace. God gave you rest. God gave you, you know, this time where you're not at war and you're not having to fight for the basic necessities like your land and your families. And he says, now set your heart towards the Lord. Step one is set your heart towards the Lord, and then the work can start. And then the work of your Christian life can start. So look, if you have goals that are spiritual goals, which I hope you do for 2024, the first step is, as David tells the people, is to set your heart towards the Lord, meaning set it in concrete, set it so it doesn't change. Set your heart for the Lord. And when you have the desire to change, no, my heart is set. My heart is set towards the Lord. Look at the rest of the verse. He says, arise therefore, then you can arise and accomplish things. And build you the sanctuary of the Lord God to bring the ark of the covenant to the Lord and the holy vessels of God into the house that is to be built to the name of the Lord. So step one is getting the heart set. Look, I'm not talking about getting your heart right. Look, getting your heart right is important, but if you get your heart right and you don't set your heart, your desires will change. Something will happen next week. You'll get busy. Something will be put in front of you. I've said this many times, but whatever can get you out of the Christian life, that is what Satan is going to come at you and throw in front of you, because he knows that, oh, this guy's heart is pretty set, but if I just put this in front of him, I can drag his heart away. So you have to get your heart right. Yes, that's true, but you have to set it. You have to get it locked down and anchored. Isn't there an anchor? There's a ship back here, but you need to anchor yourself. Set your heart so your desires do not change. Look, here's what it comes down to. It doesn't matter how you feel. It's set. Once your heart is set, it doesn't matter if you're hungry. If you've said, I'm going to fast until Wednesday, and I'm going to humble myself before the Lord, and look, you're going to get hungry on Monday and Tuesday. You just have to expect that, but it doesn't matter to someone who is good at setting their heart to Daniel. It doesn't matter how you feel, and that's why he succeeds. This is the problem with America today. People do what they feel like. This is the problem. I mean, this is a problem actually with libertarians. Think about it. This is a problem with libertarian philosophy. You say, well, I think libertarians are pretty good, and I agree with a lot of the things, but just think about libertarian philosophy without any moral anchor in the Bible. And what you get is a disaster. Why? Because you can just do what you feel like. You never can just do what they feel. You never can just go and do drugs and just be a drunk and whatever they feel like doing, they can do. Daniel was able to control what controls most people. This is why Daniel was successful. It's very simple, because most people can't do it. So how do we apply this to our New Year's resolutions? I looked up some of the most common New Year's resolutions. I looked up, I don't know, four or five lists, and many of these things repeated. So I just listed the things that repeated through most of the list, but here's pretty much what, and it's nothing new from what it was last year. Here's some common New Year's resolutions. Let's take this idea of setting our heart and then look at how we could apply that to common New Year's resolutions. And I'm actually going to tell you what I think is wrong with most people's New Year's resolutions here. I'll tell you that, and then I'll give you a couple of my New Year's resolutions that kind of fix what I think is wrong with these common lists today. But from the most common lists are this, improve fitness, improve finances, improve mental health, lose weight, improve diet. These all seem like they're all kind of the same one to me. Stop smoking. Some of these actually contradict each other. When you have a list of New Year's resolutions and your own list has contradictory items in it, you've got a problem there. One of them is stop smoking, and then another common one was drink less alcohol. This is just like we've seen the highway signs are always in California, and sometimes they'll say, don't drive drunk. And the kids that go to a Bible preaching church will ask, why doesn't it just say don't get drunk? Because you've been reading too much Bible, that's why. I mean, drink less alcohol. I mean, what in the world? It's like stop smoking and drink less alcohol. Well, if you have to drink less, why? Because it's bad. Well, shouldn't you just stop drinking alcohol? I mean, you would just think that logic would prevail here, but maybe not. What are some other ones? Learn a new skill, travel more, meditate regularly, whatever that means. Perform better at work. There was a lot of them about work. There was one that's like, perform better at work and then improve work-life balance. So basically what someone's saying in their list there is perform better at work and work less. It's like work hard and be lazier. But the point is this, I mean, even with the New Year's resolution of working harder, I mean, that's another good example. Say you're lazy. Look, it happens. Some people struggle with slothfulness. Say that you're a slothful and you're a lazy person and the Bible's got plenty to say on that. But guess what? You're like, I'm going to work hard in 2024. Guess what? When you go to work in January and you start working hard, it's going to be painful for you if you've never worked hard before. I mean, it's going to be like you're going to be uncomfortable when you start to sweat and you're like working hard. It's just like, oh, I don't like this. You're going to say, and then your heart changes. So if you don't have your heart set, you're just going to stop. You have to set your heart towards those things because look, at some point, no matter what your New Year's resolution is or the things that you want to change, at some point very quickly within a few days, I guarantee it, you're going to experience some pain. You're going to experience some uncomfortableness with that new thing that you're trying to change. And if your heart isn't set, you're just going to stop. But here's some two thoughts I had on all these different things that I was reading about on New Year's Resolutions for everybody. I'm just going to kind of sidetrack the sermon here. But there's two main categories that all these things came up into. And it was basically like health and finances is basically what, you know, many, most people's New Year's resolutions were. But one thing that I realized was they were all very self-focused. They were all just focused on themselves. I mean, everybody's New Year's resolution was just completely focused on me. And I was like, where's Jesus here? I was like, where's Jesus in this New Year's resolution? I was like, hey, how about this one? Where's other people in these New Year's resolutions? They're nonexistent. Well, I was like, well, it's self-improvement. So it's self-improvement, but there's no spiritual aspect at all. And there's no other people that's just completely vanity focused on myself. There's a problem there. There's a problem there. I'm going to give you two goals that I have. I'll just give you two of my goals. Just going into the New Year. Look, again, 80% of people fail by February. But I'm going to give you two goals that I have that are not self-focused and that hopefully we can all have these goals together. You have to set the heart. Or all of this is a waste of time. I mean, people don't set their heart. I mean, because, you know, their heart, they just have a heart that's different. This is why you see people that just go from thing to thing to thing. This is why Jacob said to Ruben, you know, unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. He's saying you can't set your heart on anything. That's what Jacob was saying. Unless you can get your heart set, you will fail at every single thing that you try to attempt. I don't care what it is. But here's just some things that I thought about, especially when I was reading through these lists, these very self-focused lists. 2023. So you look back on 2023, as I like to ponder back on things, 2023 at Holt Fast Baptist Church, we had the most salvations we've ever had. Even if we get no one saved today, we had the most salvations we've ever had in 2023. We had the most baptisms we've ever had. We've had the most new church members that we've ever had at Holt Fast Baptist Church. And you know what? You really can see it as a pastor, pastor's family, people like the ushers, things like this. All the people that do help out, volunteer things with the church. I don't want to leave anybody out. Everybody that helps out with cleaning. Everybody that helps out with anything. You can really see these changes because things are getting busier. Things are getting busier. Things are getting, you know, I mean, there's just more people. There's just more activities. There's more everything. And look, there's more distractions. And maybe even down the road, there's going to be more problems because there's more people and all these different things. Which whatever, we'll deal with that, you know, if and when it comes along. But one thing I was thinking about, see, one thing I was thinking about with all of this, and if we haven't, I would just tell my wife this morning, I was like, I hope we have. Can you imagine, I said to my wife, can you imagine if we have a 2024, just like we had a 2023? I was like, how crazy would that be? If we had another year like that. But you know what I was thinking when I was just cutting through all of this busyness and how things are growing and how things are just getting busier and busier, I personally want to refocus on the individual in 2024. You say, what do you mean by that? Because look, here's what I believe, from the top of my head to the tip of my toes, I believe that the Christian life is what people need. I'm not just talking about you. I'm talking about all people. I believe that the Christian life is what people in this country, in this community need. Look, people are unhappy. People are depressed. People are lonely. People do not like what's happening to their children. People do not like what's happening around them in their neighborhoods, in their communities. They don't like it, but they just don't know. They don't know, many of them are not looking into how to fix it. But here's the point. I also believe that a biblical church can facilitate that Christian life as much as religion and even the word church has been ruined today by false prophets and wicked people that are, I can't stand hearing stories about people that have, look it's not that I can't, it hurts me to hear stories about people that have been hurt in churches. People that have been hurt with religion. People that have been hurt by abuses of power in religious organizations. There's so many stories like that, but I believe that a proper Christian life, a biblical Christian life, and a biblical church that is being run according to the word of God, the way Jesus Christ wants it to be run, I believe that is what people need. I believe that's what individuals need. I believe a church, I mean this is crazy, but I believe a church can and should be a safe place that is edifying for both children and adults. And it's what people need to fix their lives. Look, most people out in the world today, in our country today, around us that you work with that, look they don't like the results they're seeing. If you know people outside of church and most of you men are working out in the world and I get that, you see this. They don't like how their kids are turning out. They don't like what is being taught to children today. They don't like the influences that are ruining their families. They don't like it. Guess what? They don't like it because they have a conscience that God wrote inside them, whether they are saved or not. But the thing is, I believe that the Bible, I mean this, I believe the Bible has all these answers. Most people don't want the answers, but guess what? Some people do. Some people do. And when I, we need to find those individuals. This is what I mean by focusing on the individual, even when the noise gets louder, even as we grow and things get busier and activities become, you know, larger and all these different things. We need to find those individuals, we need to preach the gospel to those individuals. And then we need to help guide those individuals into a Christian life that can turn things around for them and the people that they love that are around them. Guess what? The War of God works. The Bible works. Look, the Bible works whether you don't believe it or not, whether you believe it or not. If you just said, hey, I'm just going to try to do everything in the Bible, I'm not even saved, but I'm just going to do everything in the Bible. Someone's going to tell me what the Bible says because I can't understand it myself, and I'm just going to do these things. The machine is perfect. It will work for people. This is why 60, 70 years ago, 80, 90, 100 years ago, the morality and just the family structure of our country was just so much better even though people were just not necessarily saved, but at least they believed the Bible. At least they believed the basic structure and the gears and the rods connecting things together of this machine in front of us because it works. And look, the practical application of it. That's the power of a church. That's the power of a church. Not only do we edify each other, but you get preaching from the Bible that gives you the practical application of the words in this perfect machine. But the noise out there is louder, you see, and the noise out there is getting louder and louder and louder. The noise is simply louder than the truth today, but the truth is still what the individual needs. I believe that. I believe that people want that truth. I believe there's a lot of people, especially in this community, that want that truth. They want to hear the gospel, but I believe they want the truth of what the Bible can do for them in their lives, but the profit that it can bring to them. So as we get bigger, as we get busier, as things are more organized and just more activities and all these different things, I want to refocus on the individual. I want to refocus on connecting with those individuals. That's a personal goal that I have. I want to refocus on, you know, following up with people that I have met out soul-winning. Going and making connections with those people, not only just giving them the gospel, praying with them and just having a nice life, see in heaven, but actually helping those people get plugged in and feel comfortable coming to a church that can literally change the generations in front of them. I mean, look folks, this is why I went into the ministry. I didn't go into the ministry for my family. My family was fine. We were in a good church. My family was fine. My family was thriving. We were growing. I went into the ministry for other people. I went into the ministry for other individuals. And you know what? I challenge some of the men that are hearing this, that the ministry is not about you. The ministry is not about your family. I had a lot of friends at Verity. I had a lot of friends. My wife had a lot of friends. My kids had a lot of friends. Everything was great. But the more men that can go out and start other ministries, what you do is you facilitate that for other people, other individuals. You facilitate salvation in a different area. You facilitate a church that helps disciple and baptize and grow people in this Christian life in other places. Literally, if someone's going into the ministry, there's nothing in it for them. It's everything for other people. But guess what? It's a force multiplier. It's a force multiplier. Instead of now just one person, now you're leading a group of people out there doing the same thing that other churches are doing. So I mean, refocusing on the individual is really just refocusing on what my goal was going into the ministry. But you should all have your own ministry here. You should have your own ministry. You should all be focusing on the individuals. You should all be focusing on making connections in 2024. Finding people that are around you, maybe people you know that you love, people that you meet at the door and making that connection and bringing those people to the answers that the Bible has for them. That's what it's all about. Individual other people, one at a time. One at a time. Salvation isn't collective. It's not like you go and knock on somebody's door and you're like, hey, do you know if you're going to heaven? You're like, yeah, my dad's a deacon. That doesn't work that way. Salvation is an individual belief. It's up to the individual person. It is that individual person that needs to decide whether they trust in themselves or trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is that individual person that is going to be responsible when they stand in front of the Lord Jesus Christ on what they set their heart on. So that's the first thing. I'm going to focus on individuals, refocus on individuals. I never want to lose that no matter how big this church gets. Here's another one. Turn to Proverbs chapter 19. Here's another one that's a good one for everybody too. And this is kind of like a subset of focusing on the individual. But one thing that I want to do in 2024 is I want to get better. And this is something that I try to get better at every single year, especially in my marriage. This is good for the men, maybe for the women too. But here's a good one. I want to be a better listener. I want to listen more. In 2024. Did you know, now men, this is an important one. And this is one that I figure out a little. I think I figured out, see if my wife's nodding her head or not. But I think I figured out a little bit better every single year. Sometimes men pay attention here. Sometimes people, especially your wife, just want someone to listen to it. This is a tough one for men. Like early on in my marriage, my wife would come to me and she'd talk to me about something that was bothering her. And within 22 seconds I would cut her off. And I would be like, you know what? I've identified the problem. Here's what we're going to do. Because I'm like, she's talking to me about something that's bothering her. And I'm like, look, it came from a good place. And I'm like, what's bothering my wife? I want to figure this out. And we're going to start fixing some stuff. And she starts talking to me and I just cut her off and I talk right over to her and say, what are we going to do? We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. Problem solved. And she's like, I just want someone to listen to me. I'm like, what? We're solving problems here. We're fixing things here. Sometimes this is the lesson, especially for the guys. Sometimes people just want people to listen to them. Sometimes friends just want people to listen to them. Sometimes somebody comes to you, a friend comes to you and tells you about their week. Tells you about what happened to them from Sunday to Wednesday or whatever it is. And sometimes people just want you to listen. Sometimes it just makes people feel better to know that someone is listening. Look at Proverbs chapter 19 and verse number 20. Here's the interesting thing and here's why it's always good and always, it's a great, just common resolution every year to just become a better listener because in Proverbs 19, the Bible tells us in verse number 20 that there's something unique about listening versus talking. Look at verse number 20 where it says, hear counsel and receive instruction, that thou mayst be wiser in the latter end. So the Bible here is telling us, this is really interesting and this is so true if you hang out and just fellowship at church. Hearing equals instruction. Hearing is instruction. It doesn't say talking is instruction. Hearing is. It's listening where you learn. You got to think about your wisdom and it's like it's a wise person that hears more. And here's why. Here's an analogy that I always thought of it this way. Think of your wisdom as a bucket. Every single person, I don't care who it is, only has so much wisdom. And as you speak, you empty that bucket because you pour out that wisdom on somebody or, you know, I'm assuming you're not a fool. But you know stuff and you know stuff in this bucket and as you speak, you pour that out but as you listen, you fill the bucket. What you don't want to be is the kind of person whose bucket is empty that just speaks with an empty bucket constantly. You should listen and fill the bucket. By the way, another way of filling the bucket, another way of listening, so to speak, is by reading. Reading is listening. Reading is listening to the word of God, the Bible says. This is why as we listen more, it's a good idea to read the nine chapters a day challenge in January because what are you doing? You're filling the bucket up. And what you'll see is as people read the nine chapters a day, they like to come to church and they like to talk about what they read that day in the Bible because they're filling the bucket. But listening is getting wiser. I can't tell you how many times I've been around. It happens to me at church all the time. It happened to me. I won't mention the guy's name but a guy was telling me about like some scientific stuff about ballistics the other night at church and I'm like, I caught like a third of it. But I was just listening and I'm just like, wow, I've never even thought about all that stuff. But listening is wisdom. It's filling up that bucket. So I want to listen more in 2024. I mean, you don't get smarter by talking. Think about it. As I sit here and I talk to you. You say, what are you trying to say, pastor? Guess what? By preaching this sermon to you, I am not getting smarter by preaching this sermon to you. Look, I got wiser by studying and learning and writing down the notes for the sermon. But me just speaking to you, I'm not getting wiser. Listening to the Word of God, reading the Word of God, that's where the wisdom comes from. So I want to listen more. I want to listen more in my marriage. I want to listen more in my friendships. I want to listen more in fellowship. Look, I mean, quite frankly, I get tired of hearing myself talk. I mean, you preach 150 sermons every single year. I just want to listen more. There's nothing that will come out of that except good. So those are two of my generic resolutions for 2024. But back to the point of the sermon. Whatever your resolutions are, make sure that they are in line with the Lord. Make sure that they are something that will humble you before the Lord, set your sights on spiritual things, set your heart on spiritual things, and then set your heart there. Realize that as you get into the new year, your heart is going to, your desires are going to be tempted to change. But just, this is why we have to be based in the Bible, because no matter how your desires change in January or February or March or wherever it is, you always know, this is why you set your desires and set your heart according to the words of God, these words are not going to change in March. These words, you can say, oh yeah, make yourself notes. I'm going to do this this year in 2024 because of this Bible verse. I'm going to set my heart towards the things of the Lord because of First Chronicles, chapter 22 and verse number 19, because that's what David told the Israelites to do before they could go do great works for the Lord. Write yourself that down and then if your heart changes or your desires change in the year, go read that verse. And it'll re-anchor yourself, but understand that your desires are going to change. It's normal, because the heart is deceitful and Satan is going to come at you where you are weakest and where he thinks it is easiest to get you to change your heart, to pull your heart out of that setting. But this will never change. The Bible will never change. Set your heart towards the Lord, towards those worthy goals, because here's the thing, no one else can set it for you and then just expect it, expect it that you are going to want to change. But then guess what? Just like Daniel, it's set. Daniel controlled what most people can't control and this is why God responded so positively to the man, Daniel. Think about that going into 2024. Happy New Year. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.