 Amen. Alright, go ahead and keep your place there in Genesis chapter 49. So here we see Jacob giving his last words, I wouldn't even say their blessings because they weren't really blessings to all of his sons, but he was giving some blessings to some of his sons and he was just giving commands, you know, or this is how it's going to go for you for his other sons. And when I'm thinking about a New Year's sermon and a sermon to preach for going into a new year for this church and for just in general, you know, this scripture came to mind if you look down at verse number one, the Bible says, And Jacob called unto his sons and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together and hear ye, well there's get my sermon out, and hear ye sons of Jacob and Harkin unto Israel, your father, and then he goes right in and he starts with Reuben and he says, Reuben, Thou art my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellence of dignity and the excellency of power, sounds pretty good for Reuben so far, but then he says, Unstable is water, thou shalt not excel because thou wentst up unto thy father's bed and defilest it thou, he went up to my couch. And of course, the story of Reuben in Genesis chapter 35, we're not going to read it, but his father was away and Reuben, you know, awy with his father's concubine, the Bible says. So, you know, turn to Genesis 37, when we talk about Reuben, you know, Reuben did some decent things in his life, he wasn't all bad. So if we go to Genesis 37, we'll see another story about Reuben, because we've, you know, we've got some pretty bad news about Reuben so far. If you turn back to Genesis 37 and look down at verse number 20, and the Bible says, now this is where Joseph's brothers are trying to kill him. Joseph said, you know, I dream to dream and you all work for me and you serve me and they're all mad at him and they see Joseph coming and they're conspiring to kill him. In verse number 20, the Bible says, come now therefore and let us slay him. He deserved the brothers and cast him into some pit and we will say some evil beast hath devoured him and we shall see what becomeeth of his dreams. And Reuben heard it and he delivered him out of their hands and said, let us not kill him. And Reuben said to them, shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness and lay no hand upon him, that he might rid him out of their hands to deliver them to his father again. So notice that last part kind of explains what Joseph's plan was. It was to rid Joseph out of his brother's hands so he could go back into the pit and save him. So Reuben was looking out for his little brother here. He tried to save him. So it's not that Reuben didn't know what the right thing to do was. That's not really what his father said at the end of his life or that he was all bad. He was just unstable. So he knew what was right. He did what was right some of the times. He was just easily knocked over, the Bible says. Thus my object lesson here. Now there was some theological debate on whether or not this elephant represents Reuben or the perfect Christian in my house because it keeps popping back up. But we're not going to overthink it. He's easily knocked over. So that's the whole idea here. He's easily knocked over. So Reuben did the right thing sometimes in his life, but he was easily knocked over. But Reuben, you know, he had some stability issues. And I imagine it wasn't just this one incident in his life. We don't know that, but the Bible does say, I mean, that was a pretty big mess up. So Jacob said to Reuben that being unstable will cause you not to excel. And he basically made that general overarching statement over Reuben's life. Basically talking about in everything, you know, in life in general. Meaning that if you're unstable, you're not going to excel at anything is what his father was implying. You know, work, family, think about it. Anything in your life. So why? You know, why would being unstable cause you to not excel? You know, think about yourself. Think about, you know, you have a job, right? Maybe you have a job and you don't get fired. You have a job, you don't get fired. You know, you do well enough to where, but does that mean you're going to excel at that job? No. If you're unstable, you know, you don't show up on time. You know, you may not get fired, but you won't excel, the Bible says. You know, stay at home moms. You may homeschool. You may stay home with your kids. But if you're unstable, you will not excel at that. There's no guarantee that you will excel if you're unstable. So what I want to do tonight in the sermon is just look at some root causes from the Bible about instability. What causes it? And how can we fix it? All right? That's a great thing that we could look at amongst ourselves for the new year. Now the first, turn to Proverbs 26 and verse number 13. We're going to be in Proverbs quite a bit tonight. Proverbs 26 and verse number 13. The first obvious cause of being unstable, we're not even really going to focus on that much tonight because it's more of a simple thing, but I will touch on it. Look at Proverbs 26 and verse number 13 where the Bible says, the slothful man saith, there is a lion in the way. A lion is in the streets. So this isn't the point of the sermon tonight, but look, we're building, think of it this way. We're building Christian castles here, okay? Being lazy is having work ethic is that first building block at the foundation of that castle. And if you can't get that first building block, you're going to go nowhere in the Christian life. It's on the foundation of Christianity is having work ethic. It's Bible 101 stuff, okay? So we're going to be in a 201 class tonight, so we're not going to talk much about being lazy, but having work ethic is a foundation to your Christian life, okay? So I have to at least mention it. Turn to James chapter one. James chapter one. I want to show you the main biblical reason for instability. So instability is the effect. What's the cause? If we're looking at cause and effect, being unstable, unstable is the effect. What is the cause? James chapter one in verse number eight where the Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Well, that's pretty straightforward right there. Being double-minded will cause you to be unstable. So why is double-mindedness tied to instability? It's right here. If you're double-minded, everything is a question to you, okay? Some simple examples, especially heading into the new year. Everyone's going to have New Year's resolutions. I hope you do. If not, make some. I might as well use this marked day that we all made up on a calendar to make yourself better in some way, right? So a common New Year's resolution is weight loss goals. Everybody does that, right? Everybody has weight loss goals. Look, if you're double-minded, here's what will happen. There's going to come a point on your diet plan. So I mean, I have weight loss goals, and there's going to come a point on your diet plan on whatever you've decided to make your goal, and that point's probably going to come like tomorrow or the next day, like right away, when you wonder whether or not you want to break that plan. Hey, do I want to eat those cookies that I've been eating for the last six months? I mean, it's going to come a question to you. And let me just spoil or alert for you right now. If you're double-minded about it, if it's a question to you every single day on whether or not you will keep that goal in your life, you will fail. You might not fail in a week, but you'll fail in two weeks or three weeks, but you will fail if you're double-minded about it. James chapter one says so. If you're double-minded, you will be unstable in all your ways. It doesn't say maybe in some of your ways, all your ways. Okay? Eventually you'll fail. Goals in general, some of you in this church have a list. I've seen it. I've helped you make it, some of you. If you're the kind of person that stares at one thing on that list for weeks and weeks and is just double-minded about whether or not you can accomplish that thing or not, you will fail, period. You know, if it's too complicated of a task, break it down into smaller tasks and don't be double-minded about it. Be single-minded about it. So if everything is a question with your goals, you will fail in all your goals. That's what the Bible says. Look, we're in a church, so let's talk about some spiritual goals. Let's talk about church attendance. You know, that should be a spiritual goal for you. You know, the starting point for your Christian life, I used to coach baseball way back when. And I remember coaches telling me this, when we would have a wrestling meet and we would just get destroyed and the coach would say, you guys didn't even show up, he would say. And I've said that to baseball teams that I've had. You know, you guys didn't even show up out there today. Look, church attendance, the start in your Christian life is showing up. It's that simple. You know, this is where many of you need to reset yourself for the new year. Did you know that just for this church here, that if we had everybody show up, every single service, we would have over 60 people in service every single time? That's pretty good. But the double-minded man will always say, should I go? There's always a reason I have a headache. There's a lion in the way, the Bible says. That's the double-minded man. Look, it's not just last Sunday. It's not just the Thursday before that. It's not the Sunday night before that. There's always going to be a reason to the double-minded man. Always. It's not like, oh, just last Sunday, I just wasn't feeling. No, to the double-minded man, there will always be a reason to not go or to not do something. That's what the Bible says. Look, other spiritual items that should be goals, soul-winning. You know, you should set a goal to go soul-winning once a week. That's a good goal for the new year. You should purpose that. Reading your Bible, we're all going to set forth on this challenge and we're going to read our Bible. Guess what? Let me tell you something. I don't care what you do or what your definition of busy is in your life. But there will always be periods where there's no time to read the Bible. There will always be that thought in your mind, I just don't have time to read the Bible today. It'll happen to you every time, if you're a double-minded man. If you're double-minded. If you come through every single day and I just can't find time to read my Bible, you are double-minded. It's that simple. Look, if this is you, the nine chapters a day challenge is going to be just that. A challenge, like a real challenge for you. And it'll probably only last a few days. And then you'll burn through your grace period days and you'll just fail. Because you're double-minded about it. If you fail, that's why you failed. Because you're double-minded. There's always going to be something that comes up to the double-minded man. You'll always be too busy. Look, struggling with a sin is the same thing. Struggling with a sin. Remember when I said the beautiful thing about having a drinking problem is you can immediately clear up that drinking problem if you're saved by just stopping drinking. Just like that. Because the Bible says that you've been made free from sin. So if the Bible's true, you can stop. And we know the Bible's true. Being then made free from sin, we studied it in Romans. Look, I actually feel sorry for the double-minded man because I can't imagine. It must be very stressful to walk through life every single day with everything being a question to you. It must be stressful. I'm telling you, it's not stressful if you don't have that problem. Your life will be much easier. So that's the cause of instability, the Bible says, being double-minded. Let's talk about how to fix it. Let's talk about how to get stable, alright? Because what kind of person would I be if I just gave you problems and not solutions? So turn to Isaiah chapter 33, Isaiah chapter 33. Let's look at how to get stable. The Bible tells us how we can get stable. So we don't have to be easily knocked over in our life. Isaiah 33, look down at verse number six. And the Bible says, and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times. And strength of salvation, the fear of the Lord is his treasure. So the Bible says that wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability. It doesn't say it'll help you with stability. It doesn't say it'll be a partner to you with stability. It says it will be your stability. Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times. It's relating stability directly to wisdom and knowledge. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3. So that begs the question, where do we get wisdom and knowledge? Where do we get wisdom and knowledge? Turn to 2 Peter chapter 3. And the Bible reads in verse number 16. And also, as also in his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable rest as they do other scriptures unto their own destruction. So it says that, so we read in Isaiah that in order to be, you know, the wisdom and knowledge is your stability. It says, and then we read in 2 Peter, it says that people that are unlearned are unstable, they're unlearned and unstable. They're both, those things go together like that. Okay, look at Proverbs 1 and chapter 7. Right in the middle of your Bible, the book of Psalms and right after that is the book of Proverbs. So where does wisdom and knowledge come from? Proverbs 1 and Proverbs 2 will answer this question for us. Proverbs chapter 1, in verse number 7, the Bible says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and destruction. So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools are the opposite of that and they despise it. See? And then look at Proverbs 2 and verse 6 and we get the full answer right here. Okay, so the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord. Got it. But I want to get wisdom and knowledge. Where do I get the whole thing, not just the beginning? And the Bible says in Proverbs 2 and verse number 6, the Bible says, you know, Proverbs is, if you just like listen to all the connections that it's making in Proverbs, it's like giving you the answer to everything in your life. Proverbs 2 and verse number 6, for the Lord giveth wisdom. Well, how? Where does it come from? Out of his mouth come with knowledge and understanding. So the Bible is saying that wisdom and knowledge, we're connecting the dots here. If you're learned, you have wisdom and knowledge. You will have stability. You will be stable. And the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of that knowledge, but the real wisdom and knowledge comes out of the mouth of the Lord. The Word of God. The Word of God. Knowing the Bible will make you more stable. That's what I'm trying to get at through this whole chain of events. So the nine chapters a day challenge coming up this month, it's not just so you can say you did it. It's not just to have your name on the plaque. I mean, as cool as that's going to be. That's not really the point. The point is to make you more stable in your life. It's to build you up. It's to give you stability. So don't get into this thing where you're just like blasting through the Bible. You're not even paying attention to what you're reading either. Listen to what you're reading because you're going to do it this year and then you're going to do it next year. You're going to do it next year. And guess what's going to happen? Every single time you read the Gospels, every single time you read the Epistles, every single time you read the book of Revelation, you're going to see things you didn't see before. So pay attention. It's like an adventure reading it every single time because there's never been a time that I've done it where I haven't even one book of the Bible, where I haven't read through it. And they're like, how did I not see that the last X times I read it? It's awesome. So pay attention to what you're reading. And the Bible says that it will give you stability. Turn to Daniel chapter 1. Actually, turn to Proverbs chapter 28. We'll go to Daniel next. The Bible also says that if you're double-minded, being double-minded is the cause of your instability. But the Bible also says that if you're double-minded, there is something wrong with your heart. So I want to look at that as well. Look at Proverbs 28 and verse 14. And the Bible says, happy is the man that feareth all way, but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief. Isn't that what happened to Reuben? He fell into some serious mischief, right? See, he didn't get up. He's down. He's unstable as water. Zechariah. Turn to Zechariah chapter 7 and verse number 12. Zechariah chapter 7 and verse number 12. I knew someone would break a window around here eventually. I just never thought it would be me. Look at Zechariah chapter 7 and verse number 12. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone. Now, adamant stone is this. No one really knows what kind of stone it is, but it's this way of describing the stone that is just infinitely hard. It's infinitely, it's got the properties like harder than a diamond. So that's what that word means. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts has set in his spirit by the former prophets. Therefore came with a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. You see, it's all tied together. If your heart is hard, you will not want to hear the words of the Lord. You will not want to listen to preaching as your heart gets hard. You will become more double-minded and unstable. It's a snowball effect. It's super dangerous. Turn to James chapter 4. It's basically a problem that builds upon itself and becomes more and more serious over time, this whole being double-minded. I'm going to read for you Jeremiah chapter 7 in verse number 27. I'm going to read you two passages from Jeremiah that shows a people hardening their heart and what God does and how he responds to that. In Jeremiah chapter 7 and verse 27, if you go to James chapter 4, the Bible reads, Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them. God is saying, go speak these words unto them, but they will not hearken unto thee. Thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee. Poor Jeremiah, nobody ever listened to him his whole life. In Jeremiah chapter 11, in verse number 14, we see the answer. We see what happened to those people because they didn't listen to the words that God told Jeremiah to speak. And the Bible says this. It says in Jeremiah chapter 11, verse 14, Therefore pray not, thou for this people. He says, don't even pray for them anymore. Neither lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. So when the trouble comes on these people and they're being killed and taken into captivity, God says, I won't even hear their cries. So that is the result of people that have hardened their heart against the Lord. Look at James chapter four in verse number eight. This is the opposite of that. This is the opposite of hardening your heart towards God. Where the Bible says, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts, ye what? Double-minded. So it's saying, if your heart is hard, purify it. Because you have a hard heart, you're also double-minded. You see how these things always go together in the Bible? So purify your hearts ye double-minded. So the people in Jeremiah were double-minded. Those who have fallen away from God, God has fallen away from them. And God says he won't even hear their cries. So hardening your heart, having a hard heart makes you double-minded. It's very dangerous if you have a back-slidden heart. Turn to Daniel chapter one now. So recognize that. Start listening to God's word. Start reading God's word if you're not doing so. So he doesn't stop listening to you. You'll never become unsaved, but you can fall out of favor with your Heavenly Father. Don't forget that. So look at the flip side of this hardening of the heart. In Daniel chapter one, look at verse number eight. The Bible says, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. So what a perfect example, even heading into the new year when we were talking about diets, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would just follow his commitment to the Lord. He purposed in his heart. Now let me ask you something. Was this purposing in his heart a process that took place over years or over a long period of time? No, it was the decision that he made. That's what it meant. Daniel just made a decision in his life. Turn to Joshua chapter 24. We'll see a great example of this. Let's look at the last advice of a great leader. Joshua's last words. Joshua's last words. Joshua 24 in verse number 15. Joshua is talking about something that he's purposed in his heart. About a decision that he's made. And he's giving advice to the children of Israel. He's about to die. He's done great things. He's won great battles. And the Bible says in Joshua 24 in verse 15. And if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood were the gods of the Amorites in which whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So he's saying, hey, just pick one. Because they're going this way and they're going that way. Where's my elephant? He's saying, just quit being pushed over like this all the time. Just pick one. Here, I'll put them over here for now. He's like, just pick one. But as for me and my family, we're solid right here. He said, look, here's the conclusion of the matter. If you're double-minded, it won't just be in one thing. It will be in many things. And you know this is true. The Bible said, unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. At anything, at anything. And it's a choice. It's a choice. It's a decision. You know, here's the nice thing about it. Once you purpose to be single-minded, it will serve as a warning to you. Once you purpose to be single-minded, it will serve as a warning to you when you stop enjoying the spiritual things in your life. That can be your first red flag warning. If you're single-minded and you do things like just take church for an example. In my family, there's no choice. There's no choice. I did an experiment with Ashley on Sunday morning. We got up and it was, I don't know what time it was. It was early. But Ashley got up, it was probably 6.30, 6.45. She came out and I said, go back to bed. I said, I have a headache. I'm not gonna go to church today. And she's like, dad, whatever. And I'm like, no, I'm serious, go to bed. I'm just gonna text everybody and I'm just like, and she's just like, she thinks I'm crazy. Because she knows we're going to church. And there's nothing that would ever happen where we're not going to church. Every time the doors are open, we're at church. On Sunday morning, we're an hour and a half early. On Thursday nights, we're an hour early. And last night, we're fixing sinks and we're putting up projectors and it's great. I mean, bring it on, all of it. I can't, you know, I can't get her off the whole thing. But that's because we've purposed in our heart, in our family, it's not a choice. We do it, we go. That's what we do. It's the same with the kids. I want it to be the same with my kids. And by the way, dads, here's a rabbit trail for you. I talk to my kids about this all the time. And here's why you should talk to your kids. Because it starts in the heart, right? The problem with becoming double-minded, it begins in the heart. And then you get double-minded and then you become unstable, the Bible says. I'm constantly talking to my kids. How's it going? What did you do at church today? Did you, who'd you talk to? Did you have fun? What'd you guys play? Because I'm trying to see if they're having, if they're liking. My kids love coming to church. And if I talk to them so much about all these dumb details, there's a reason for it. They're just like, oh, dad's interrogating me again. But there's a reason for it because I wanna know if something's going on where they're not enjoying their spiritual life anymore. And I talk to them so much, I'll know right away. And then we'll fix it and we'll find out what's going on. So look, I don't wanna get five years down the road and realize that my 13-year-old didn't like going to church and now she's 18 and she doesn't want to have anything to do with it. No way. I wanna know if there's any small issue right away so we can fix it, so we can purpose again and our hearts together, you see? So you need to be talking, look, dads, moms need to be talking to your kids. This is why you spend time with your kids. This is why you spend time with your family because conversations pop up and they'll just talk to you about stuff. When you're doing things, as your kids get older, it gets even more important. It's not so important to have a conversation with a one-year-old. I still did it, but it was pretty much talking to myself. That's fine. So look, nobody wants to be unstable. Nobody wants to be that guy. No one will be able to rely on you. I mean, I can't lean on this guy. That's not gonna work out for me. So nobody wants to be unstable. I mean, if you're unstable, can you support this church in any way? I mean, you might come to church once out of four times or whatever, but I mean, you're standing sometimes, right? He's up sometimes, but it's not reliable. No one can rely on you. And look, this whole church thing that we're doing here with this new church, the newness part of it, spoiler alert again, the newness is gonna wear off. But maybe it's not about you. You should, if your heart is right, you will enjoy coming here. If your heart is right. Otherwise there's a problem and you should start looking for causes of that problem. Maybe you're missing a lot of church and that snowball is getting bigger. Maybe you're not reading your Bible. Maybe you're, I mean, you're starving yourself spiritually. It's very possible. You know, you're probably not going soul winning. The snowball's getting bigger and bigger and bigger. You know, double-mindedness and instability will grow and it'll sneak up on you. So make your main goal, if I can make goals for you in your life, make your main goal in 2020 to become spiritually stable. That's what you should do. It's a good goal. And look, all other stableness, it will build from there and you'll see it in your life. Because the Bible says you'll be unstable in all your ways. So when you start building those foundations, you start building that work ethic, that's a foundational block. You start deciding I'm gonna be single-minded when it comes to spiritual things. I'm gonna set a time to read my Bible and I'm just gonna do it no matter what. No matter what. From 8.30 to 9.00 o'clock or from 8.30 to 9.30 or whatever you wanna do, I'm gonna block this out every single day and that's when I do these things. And it's a decision. And I'm telling you right now, it's the right one. So just make it. I mean, that's the biggest struggle in my life when I have hard decisions, like, wow, do I go this way or that way? Look, this is the right decision. Get spiritually stable. You know, be faithful to church. Become a soul winner. Your whole life will get grounded and stable from it. That's what the Bible says. It's not just me saying that. So get stable and everything else will build from there. I don't wanna take up a lot of time tonight. Just wanna give a short sermon so we can get ready. I know we can still, we can smell the turkey right now. Looking forward to tonight. Looking forward to the new year. I do wanna say thank you to everybody for this first four months of the church. It's been great. I do feel like we have a good foundation of this church. Let's shore ourselves up. Because people are gonna start coming here. Let's shore ourselves up and let's show them what a stable foundation of a church looks like. Okay, let's show these new people. They're gonna come in and join this church and worship with us and grow with us. Let's show them what a stable foundation of a church looks like. Let's show them how to do this whole Christianity thing. Because there's no other church like this around here. There's no other church that's gonna talk about the things that we're gonna talk about out of the Bible. That's gonna say the things that we're gonna say here because if it's in the Bible, we're gonna say it here. And we're gonna go out and we're gonna preach the gospel to people like we've been doing for 219 souls already in the city. And we're gonna continue this thing. If people are gonna come here and they're gonna, look, we're gonna get the word out because I am convinced, I am convinced that if people knew that there was a church like this, they would come here. And I'm convinced that if people knew what the Bible said for their life and what the Bible said that it would actually work for their families, I'm convinced that people wanna have families like this. They just don't know how to do it. And we're the only ones that are gonna tell them how and they're gonna show them how. But we need a foundation here. We need a strong foundation here. We need a stable foundation here. When this church has 50 people in it, I mean, it's like, I mean, I love it right now. Don't get me wrong. But when we build this foundation, we are gonna be such a blessing to this community and whatever comes our way when we're a stable foundation, I mean, whatever, who cares? We'll take it. So thank you. Thank you for all of you being here. Happy new year. I'm excited. I'm super excited for the next year. My wife and I, we love you all. And your kids are great. Even with the chest thing, I mean, it's fine. So, all right, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer and then go eat some turkey. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this church. I thank you for the last four months. I thank you for just the blessing that you've given me, Lord, personally this year, that you would allow me to have this great responsibility, Lord, and you would have given me such a great group of people to start a satellite church with, Lord. We thank you for everything. We ask that you just strengthen us, Lord. Just make us, when it comes to spiritual things, Lord, just give us that decisiveness, Lord. Especially us men as leaders, Lord, just build us up and help us be the leaders to our families and to this church that we need to be, Lord. Lord, we love you. I ask that you bless the food to our bodies and the fellowship tonight, Lord. Help everyone have a safe travels back home. And just, I just can't thank you enough, Lord. We love you in the name of Jesus. Amen.