 Hey man, all right, keep your place in Luke chapter six. We're gonna talk tonight about New Year's resolutions. So we're coming up on the new year. How many of you have thought about New Year's resolutions so far? Raise your hand if you've thought about your New Year's resolutions. How many of you don't have any idea what your New Year's resolutions? Maybe you just won't have any. Maybe last year was pretty good and you're awesome and you're like, you know what? I can't get any better or I'm gonna start making everyone around me look bad. So maybe some people have that attitude. I hope not but you never know. So let's talk about New Year's resolutions. So it's a really big thing as we come up to the new year to come up with a New Year's resolution. And that's kind of like we reflect back on the last year and think about things that we would want to improve. We come up with some goals and then we move forward. The funny thing about New Year's resolutions is that if you look at the statistics of New Year's resolutions, the average New Year's resolution last they say, it depends a few days here and there but the average New Year's resolution lasts about 31 days. So it's about one month and then once you get into February pretty much everyone just forgets about it and those New Year's resolutions fail. So let's talk about some New Year's resolutions. This evening I have kind of a unique way I'm gonna go about this. But first of all, let me just say as far as a New Year's resolution that you should have is you should have the New Year's resolutions to do the nine chapters a day challenge that we have for you out in the four year. Why do that? Because like basically all your New Year's resolutions can be said to kind of stand on that one. Because basically everything in your life is gonna be built on the foundation of the Bible. So why not set the goal to start the year by reading through the New Testament? Many people have never done that before. Make this your first year if that's the case. It's not that hard, it takes about 30 to 45 minutes a day and just persevere and get through it. And if you do that, your New Year's resolutions that you make that we'll talk about this evening will have a much higher chance of success since you're building your life on the Bible, okay? That's what we should be doing. So read the New Testament. Men, encourage your wives to do the challenge as well. I mean, just get your whole family involved. And if you're saying, well, I don't know if I can do that, then here's a New Year's resolution for you. Be the spiritual leader of your family this year. Be the spiritual leader of your family this year. So first of all, that's a no-brainer. We should do that one, okay? Let's read through the Bible together as a church in January. So what I did tonight is I went through and I found like the top 10 New Year's resolutions that everybody goes and everybody chooses out there. And I picked out four or five that are relevant to the Bible that the Bible says that we should do. And I'm gonna go through these New Year's resolutions, these examples, and I'll give you biblical reasons for them. But I'll go through them, rating from the highest percentage of Americans that make these resolutions down to the lowest percentage. And then I'm gonna give you the really big New Year's resolution that you should definitely have. Look, the reading the Bible, the foundation, the New Testament in January, that's just the base. That's just the foundation, okay? So we'll talk about building the house on top of that foundation at the end or the latter part of the sermon. But let's just go and look at some good biblical New Year's resolutions according to how popular they are out there today. The first one, I'm sure you could all guess, but it is losing weight or getting healthier in this country that's a very popular New Year's resolution. 50% of people say that they are going to have, losing weight, getting healthier as a New Year's resolution. Now that tells you is if you look at 50%, that's one out of two people say that I'm telling you it's gonna be one of my New Year's resolutions, for sure, is to get healthier, maybe lose a few pounds. But the point is, is that many people feel like they're not healthy. That's why so many people, 50%, you can see that that number is gonna drop as we go through the different resolutions, but 50% is the largest group of people and they say that they wanna get healthier in 2022. So, you know, I mean, especially today, when everyone thinks and everyone's so worried about being sick, you know, you would think that this would be a bigger deal to people. I never really understood actually why, you know, in the mainstream narrative on, you know, the COVID pandemic and all this, I didn't really understand why that didn't include this actually. I didn't really understand why the mainstream narrative didn't include, you know, I mean, why is the government doing all these things? I'm not gonna go off on this for too long, but why is the government locking everything down and mandating vaccines and all these things? It's because they care about me, right? It's because they care about me and they care about you. This is what people will tell you. People are like, they just care about you. They're just trying to do what's right. Well, if they care about the country, why are they not telling people to do the things that they know will help people get through this illness? Things like what? Lose weight. Things like what? Take vitamins. Like vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin C. Take these vitamins. Take zinc, take magnesium. Stop eating so much sugar. I mean, why? I mean, look, diabetes is a huge, you know, comorbidity that is killing people, you know, with the COVID. You don't know that, and this number is, you know, it varies a little bit depending on the studies that you read, but 90 to 90 plus percent of deaths from COVID-19 have at least three or more comorbidities associated with that death. What does that mean? That means that that person also had diabetes. That person also had heart disease. That person also had high blood pressure or hypertension or pre-hypertension. Look, 90 to 94 percent, that's statistically all of them. I mean, that is the vast majority of them. And all of these things, all of these comorbidities that they're talking about, they're all self-inflicted. So why is it the government that cares about me telling me this? This is what I'm wondering. Look, everybody knows this. If you watch anything, read anything other than CNN, you know the things that I just told you. It's not news, especially to anybody in this room. Why wasn't it at least part of the narrative? Go get a vaccine and do these things. Why not? If they really, I mean, look, we have had over two years now as a nation to scare people into getting healthier. Why aren't we doing that? Why hasn't it been like, hey, get healthy or you're all gonna die this winter? Why is that not part of the narrative? To scare people into getting, I mean, a government that was trying to protect me would tell me these things. But here's the thing, folks, they don't care about you. And people will say, how did you know? Well, here's the thing. The first clue is that the government is okay with killing 60 million unborn children. So thinking that this government today cares about my health and the health of my family is kind of like interviewing a serial killer to babysit your kids. I mean, why would you trust that? I mean, no thanks. Don't get me started. Back to health. Let's go to First Corinthians chapter six. So health, it's a good New Year's resolution. It's good. One thing I like about California actually is it kind of has a culture of kind of healthiness and activity and staying active. I mean, California kind of has that, that culture of health and activity. It's the reason I have some of the hobbies that I have. It's just because they're, you know, I mean, crap fishing. I'm no good at it. It's a lot of work with almost no reward at all, like pretty much zero reward, but it keeps me active. You know, it's something to keep me moving around. So I will have this New Year's resolution this year. I'm not just telling you you should have it. I'm gonna have it as well. Look at First Corinthians chapter six and verse number 19. Now we use this. We use these verses a lot for our own benefit. Look at verse number 19. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God and you're not your own. For you're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Now look, we use this verse, rightly so to tell the government that they can't mandate a vaccine, that it can't tell me what I have to put in my body, what I have to do to my body. Because my body's not mine. My body was bought with the blood of Jesus Christ and it belongs to God. So you can't mandate people to do things to their body. But look, then we just go and we just destroy our bodies. Day in and day out on a daily basis. And we do it how? We do it through inactivity. We do it through putting garbage in our body. Day in and day out. You know, the pandemic and I mean, this is so true. The pandemic they say has increased fast food intake in the average family by 25%. I mean, I believe it. There was nowhere else to, a lot of times there was nothing else open, all these things. Look, that's a huge problem in this country. It's just what we eat and just our lack of activity. It's a major problem. Turn to Joshua chapter six. Think about the people in the Bible. Think about the people that you read about in the Bible. They're just, you know, just think about people in the past throughout history. They're working to survive. The people in the Bible, they're walking everywhere. Just think about all the wars and the battles. Think of the mighty men and killing hundreds of men in one day in one battle. I mean, I think about the, I mean, how is that physically possible? I mean, that's a lot of physical work. Look at Joshua chapter six, even a battle of Jericho where God like basically just handed them the battle. Look at Joshua six in verse number three. And you shall compass the city. That means go around the city. All ye men of war and go round about the city once and thus shalt thou do six days. So there to walk around the city once every day for six days. But look at the seventh day and the seven priests shall bear the ark before the seven trumpets of Ramshorns. And the seventh day, ye shall compass the city seven times and the priests shall blow with the trumpet. Look, that's a lot of activity right there. And they weren't even really fighting at that point. The Lord pretty much won that battle for him. Turn to Luke chapter 10. Obviously we could go through example of example of example in the Bible of just how active people were and how physically hard their lives were. But let me just give you another example. Look at Luke chapter 10 in verse number one. Luke chapter 10 in verse number one. Look at what the Bible says. It says, after these things the Lord appointed other 70 also and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whether he himself would come. Look, he sent them to all these cities and they walked from city to city. These guys, they literally walked from city to city. That's why Ephesians six 15 says that your feet will be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. That's why with the armor of God it's your feet that are shod because you are walking. I mean, that's us soul winning. We're literally walking from door to door. These guys walked from door to door and from city to city. They didn't get in their car and go drive somewhere. They walked to the neighborhoods. They walked to the cities. So look inactivity is a huge problem in our society today. Times are changed today. So what are we to do? What are we to do? I was told growing up, I was told growing up that if you had like a manual labor job that was the lower thing and you should never want a manual labor job because you'll wear out your body and you'll be all broken up and all busted up by the time you're 50 years old. You know what? The opposite is turning out to be true. The opposite is turning out to be true. They are now saying that having an office job where you sit all day long is equivalent to smoking. That is how healthy that is for you. How unhealthy that is for you. That's why everywhere you see offices now you're seeing the standing desks everywhere. So you literally have people standing up and they'll sit down and they'll stand up throughout the day. The standing desk because sitting down is literally killing them. It's like smoking. Inactivity is a major problem today for men and women, by the way. And here's why. It's not just for the obvious energy balance where if you don't burn more, if you eat more calories than you burn you're going to gain weight. I mean, we all understand that but activity has so many benefits for your health. I mean, it'll help you control your weight, yes, by just that calories in, calories out balance but it reduces your risk of heart disease. Heart disease is the major killer in the United States even though people will tell you otherwise today. It still is. It'll help your body manage blood sugar levels. I mean, diabetes is a major problem in the United States. Type two diabetes, type one diabetes, I've talked about that before but get this. It improves your mental health. Working out, exercising, having an active life, it literally makes you not depressed. So if you're depressed or you have problems with depression or things like that, go and exercise. Go, I mean, it's literally scientifically proven that exercise releases chemicals into your brain that makes you feel better. It makes you feel better. I mean, that's why you feel so good if you go for a long run and you're done after the run you get these endorphins and they just, you feel great. After you do something like that. It improves your mental health. It keeps your brain healthy as well. When you exercise, when you have an active life, your body produces proteins that literally feed your brain. And it keeps you able to think, to learn, to have, you know, you wanna be sharp. You wanna be sharp in your life. It also strengthens your bones and muscles. It reduces your risk of cancer. In men, it increases testosterone levels in men. You wonder, I mean, I've brought this up before, but there's this, I mean, I've kind of figured this out in my life. You know, I don't know why, I mean, other people have figured it out too, but here's the thing, testosterone levels in the United States are dropping by 1% a year on average. It's not, ha, ha, ha. It's not that funny if you're a man. You know, you're like, ah, what's going on? Here's what's going on. Men are overweight and they're inactive. And they eat garbage is what we'll talk about next. That's why testosterone levels are going like this every year. It's not, you know, it's not some phenomenon that's in the atmosphere. It's what we're literally doing to ourselves. And you will find that, man, as you get older and if you get in better shape and you lose some weight, you're just gonna feel like, you're gonna feel better. You're gonna feel better. I mean, I drive by a high school every day around three or four o'clock. And, you know, I see, I was telling somebody this the other day, but I mean, I'm just, I'm shocked. Because I'm seeing these kids walk, a lot of times I'll get at the stop light and these kids will walk in front of me and I'm just like, where are the athletes today? I'm like, they're all obese. They're either obese or they're just these scrawny little, you know, these little twigs with long hair, you know, I'm just like, what's happening? I'm like, where's the football player? Is there not a wrestling team? What's happening here? You know, what's going on? So look, it's a huge problem in the United States. So we should think about that. That should be part of our New Year's resolution. Get active, get active, get some hobbies. I mean, there's so many things that, I mean, it would be terrible to not be able to be active in California, if we're talking about California. There's so many things to do out there and your body is kind of like this use it or lose it machine. So keep it moving. Here's the other part. Here's the other part and it's gonna be part of my New Year's resolution as well. Garbage food, garbage food. Here's what I found. Here's what I found getting older. Getting older. Look, here's the energy balance for you, okay? You can go and I can do 25 minutes on the elliptical machine and I'm 194 pounds and I will burn 325 calories in 25 minutes on the elliptical machine and I try to do that as many times as I can per week. But guess what? One McDonald's strawberry shake is 1,000 calories. So it doesn't really work and when I go and I exercise, I get hungry and I wanna eat more. So the problem is, is that in order to really lose weight, I have to eat less and I have to eat better. And you know, because just quite frankly, exercise has all those benefits that I gave you but in order to actually lose weight, I need to eat less is what I need to do. Just because that energy balance, you could just ruin that too easily. You could exercise and it's just not enough if you're eating a lot of calories which is very easy to do and you're eating bad calories. So look, you must eat better and you must eat less. And look, on eating better, I'm getting more and more extreme on this every single year and I'm thankful for that. I mean, there are good foods out there and there are bad foods out there. I mean, we're starting more and more to get into the no preservatives, the less chemicals, the all this kind of stuff. Because look, I mean, you can literally tell. You go and eat at certain places and you just feel bad. You go eat there and you're just like, I have done something wrong to myself. You can tell. I mean, it tasted good for like five minutes and then you're just like, ugh, something's wrong with this stuff. So look, eat better. Don't just eat less, eat better. What you put in your body over time will matter, folks. And not only will it matter for you, it'll matter for your kids. So here, why would we teach our children? Think about this church. Why would we teach our children manners and etiquette and respect and all these practical things in life that the Bible talks about and then not teach them how to take care of themselves physically? Look, we need to be teaching this as well. We're gonna have PE classes in the whole school class, but guess what? That's like once a month, maybe twice a month. That is to spur you into action. That is not to take care of that void in their life. That is to just show you, hey, this is what you should be doing throughout the week. That's not to just like, oh, my kids don't have to exercise or learn how to exercise or learn how to lift weights or learn how to run or learn how to do anything. Look, you need to be providing, especially as your kids get older than eight. You need to start teaching your kids how to exercise. You need to start putting that into their routine and you need to start, look, it's a lifestyle. It's a lifestyle, because guess what? They may not need it now, but they're gonna need it when they get older. And if they've been exercising from the time that they were eight to the time that they were 38, guess what? They're gonna be a healthy person. You are literally teaching them how to have a healthy lifestyle. And you're gonna be, just think of the problems. You can be saving their life. You'll be stopping them from dying early, literally. So look, I mean, we're gonna have a church resolution too. We're gonna start buying like for, I mean, my wife had to walk me back on this one because I was all fired up on this one. And my wife's like, okay, whoa, slow down. But basically we're not gonna buy, we're gonna buy better food for kids' activities. You know, I couldn't just blanket statement that one on the church or we could never have Valentine's Day cookies and Christmas cookies and birthdays, Sundays and all this kind of stuff. So I didn't wanna ruin the fun of the whole church, but guess what? Those things aren't a big deal. Those things aren't a big deal if the 98% of your life is eating healthy and eating less. Then you can come to church once a month and you can eat some birthday cake. Maybe you can have two pieces. But if that's your life every day, you're gonna have major problems and you're gonna pass those problems onto your kids. So look, folks, we're home to schoolers. We do not have the public school teaching our kids the food pyramid or whatever it is. We need to take care of these things ourselves. We need to look, total, total responsibility, total freedom equals total responsibility. And we have total responsibility, so we need to take it, okay? It's a big deal. Our bodies are a temple, not just for vaccines, but for, you know, for Big Macs too. No, we need to make sure that we're bringing up our children and the best way to do that is through example, okay? So we're not buying any more trash for kids' activities. So we're gonna take care of ourselves physically and teach our kids to do the same. That's a good New Year's resolution right there. But you gotta set some specific goals, okay? Don't just say, hey, I'm just gonna be better physically this year. You gotta set some specific goals for yourself and for your family. But that's a good idea and something that you should do. Here's the next one. Here's the next one. 44% of Americans, 44, and I could have guessed this one too. 44% of Americans say that they're gonna save more money. Meaning, looking back on 2021, they don't think they did so well. Okay, they don't think they did so well as far as how they dealt with their financial situation in their homes. And I'm not gonna get into this one tonight because Sunday morning, I'm gonna give you some extremely practical and very specific advice in this area straight out of the Bible, okay? But this basically shows that most people or 44% of people have failed at their financial goals for the year. Most people spend too much and they're not wise with their money. It's very simple. We'll talk about that. We're gonna table that one for Sunday morning. The third one, the third most popular one at 21% is career improvement. I'm not really gonna get into that one tonight, but number four was interesting and it has to do with number three, which is, I mean, it's amazing that this one made the list, but it was 13% of people said they're gonna spend less time on social media. I thought that was interesting. So basically, 13% of people are decided they have wasted too. It's interesting that you didn't find people that said, I need to spend more time on Facebook or Metta or whatever they call it now. But anyway, if people are just wasting their time, we're gonna talk about that Sunday morning as well. But really what they're saying there is 13% of people, I bet you what they were doing was they were engaging in being a busy body, which if they would pay attention to number three and focus more on their career or the job that they should be doing as a mother or whatever, the God-given role that they have in their life, guess what? They wouldn't be a busy body. They wouldn't be on social media. They wouldn't be wasting their time. So fix your career, fix your job, fix your house, according to the Bible, and you fix number three and number four, okay? Now the fifth one is really what we're gonna spend some time on this evening. Turn to 1 Peter chapter four. 1 Peter chapter four. The fifth one in popularity was 15% of people in the country said that they wanna focus more on charity work. Now obviously, charity work, I'm just gonna go in, I'm gonna translate that one into the spiritual for us tonight, but basically 15% of Americans are saying that they need to spend more time on other people. They need to spend more time thinking about others. And look, let's translate this one for us tonight. 1 Peter chapter four. We are a good soul-winning church. We are a good soul-winning church. We have very good, I think, pretty much 100% participation in soul-winning, meaning what percentage of the adults that can go out and speak and talk soul-winning actually do so at least once a week, because that's kinda my bar, that you would go, that would be my hope, my goal for you, that you go soul-winning at least once a week. Why once a week? That's just kinda what I think. Many people do more than that here, but people in this church, we have pretty much 100% participation soul-winning. We're a good soul-winning church. Look, that by itself is impressive. Look at 1 Peter chapter four. Look at 1 Peter chapter four. But let's build on that for the new year. Look at 1 Peter chapter four, look at verse number nine. The Bible says, use hospitality one to another without grudging. Look at verse number 10. It says, as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. This is a great verse right here. This verse is saying, don't take the gift of salvation and squander it all to yourself. Show it to others. Show others, look, show others that grace that you have freely received, is what this is saying. But for the new year, for the new year, let's take it up a notch. Look at verse number 10 again. Look, everyone saved, look at this. Every man, every man, that includes, that's every person is the way he is saying here. And every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another. Everyone who is saved, he's talking about everyone who is saved here. He's saying everyone who is saved should minister one to another. You know what he's saying? He's saying every saved person should have their own ministry. That's what he's saying. That's what he's saying. You wanna talk about spiritual goals? Let's talk about spiritual goals for you tonight. In order to really affect, go to Matthew chapter 28 and verse number 20. Remember verse 19 and verse 20, when we go out and we're gonna preach the gospel and then what are we gonna do after we preach the gospel? Then we're gonna teach them to observe all things. In order to really affect someone's life on earth, they not only have to get saved, folks, but they need to get baptized. They need to get in church. They need to get plugged in. Remember the last part of the Great Commission? It's verse 20. It's verse 20 of Matthew 28. Teaching them to observe all things. Whatsoever I have commanded you. You know what he's saying there? He's saying teaching them to deserve all things. Whatsoever means teach them everything that I have told you. Do you think that you're gonna teach people everything that Jesus told us at the door? In front of them? Absolutely not. He's talking about something different here. He is talking about getting people saved and then he is talking about teaching them everything that I have taught you. Look, Jesus taught Paul for three years. This is a serious challenge here. Look, in order, this is not door time that we're talking about in Matthew 28 chapter 20. This is not door time that we're talking about in 1 Peter chapter four in verse number 10. He's talking about ministering unto people. Go to Philippians chapter two. You know what he's talking about? In order to make this happen, folks, you have to give personal attention to someone in your life. That's what you have to do. You have to make a connection with someone. Look at Philippians chapter two. Look at verse number three. Look at what the Bible says. It says, Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others, twice here. We see the word focusing on others, focusing on others. This means giving the same attention out soul-winning to someone else. Out soul-winning as you do to your own. Not things of your own, but others he's talking about. This means, you know, I mean, can you really say that you do that? I mean, I just, you know, praised you all for being good soul-winners, for being reliable soul-winners, but can you really say that when you go out soul-winning, you care about that person at the door and care about their life going forward after salvation like they're your own children? Look, folks, this is how you get people into church. You make a connection and look, you take personal interest and you care for their needs like you would care for your own needs or that of your own children is what you do. This is the next level right here. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter four. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter four. But I mean, do you really get somebody saved and take interest in them like they're your own children? I mean, that seems kind of extreme. Wouldn't you say, look at 1 Corinthians chapter four and verse 14. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. What is he talking about? Paul spent a lot of time chastising, correcting, visiting, sending people, writing letters to, look, look at verse 15, my beloved sons, what? For though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ, he's like, you have all kinds of people that are teaching you to observe all these things. He's like, yet have ye not many fathers? What, what? For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. You know what he's saying? He's like, I got you saved, I've adopted you. He's like, I'm adopting you. You kind of like, it kind of seems like he's adopted them. Have you read 1st and 2nd Corinthians? It kind of seems like a father chastising his children is what it sounds like. It kind of seems like he cares about them. It kind of seems exactly like a loving father actually. In 1st Corinthians, he just tears them down to the ground. In 2nd Corinthians, he's like, oh, now he builds them up again. Now forgive, now move forward. It's kind of like exactly what a spiritual father should do. But the point is, he adopted these people. He considered them his spiritual children, writing to them, sending people to them, visiting them. Look, he invested his life in them. So here's a spiritual New Year's resolution for you all. Soul winners, adopt someone this year. There's a New Year's resolution for you. Adopt someone this year. You say, what? How many? Just one. Start with one. How do you accomplish things? You fight the one in front of you. How do you accomplish that? How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Just one. Adopt one person this year. Do you understand the effect that that would have on this community, on this church, on other families? If every single soul winner in this church adopted one person, took special interest in just one person? I mean, look, that's what it takes. That's what it takes. You have to make a personal connection with these people. You have to actually care about them. You know, you can have a bad day. You can have, look, we've all done this. I've done this. You can have a bad day and go through the motion soul winning. You can go out there, and by the way, by the way, here's another good one for you. My wife and I were actually just talking about this on Sunday. Because every now and then, you'll have an amazing day soul winning. And here's the thing. When you at least wanna go, and you just decide, you know what? I just, I didn't really feel the greatest on Sunday morning. I was laying down, and I was just like, oh man, I don't know if I was just really tired, or what was going on. And I remember, I was laying in my suit, in the bedroom, and I was just laying on the floor. My wife came in, and that's a weird thing to see. I'm all ready to go, and I'm just laying on the floor. She's like, what's going on? I'm like, I don't know, nothing. I don't think I feel good. And I'm like, she's like, what, really? I'm like, no, I feel fine. And I just got up. And guess what? That was the most amazing day soul winning. Like amazing things, that happens all the time. It's not just me, it's, oh, you're the pastor. No, it has nothing to do with me. It's just when you just do what you're supposed to do. So you know what? I kind of started out soul winning on Sunday. I shouldn't confess all these things to you. I started out soul winning on Sunday, just kind of going through the motions. And all of a sudden, I met a guy, and I met this blind guy. Literally the first blind guy ever got saved. I didn't even see him for three quarters of the gospel presentation. I didn't even see him. I'm talking to him through one of those metal doors with the holes where they can see you, but you can't see them. Brilliant invention. And I'm sitting there, and I'm giving the gospel of this guy, and he was super interested from the beginning. He's blind as a bat, he's blind. He's blind, he told me that. And he told me right at the beginning, he's, I'm like, I could show you from the Bible. He says, well, I can't see the Bible because I'm blind. I said, well, I said, if you'll trust me. If you'll trust me, I can read the words of the Bible to you. And I can explain. He had all kinds of questions. He told me before I even started giving him the gospel. He said, I got all kinds of questions. My brother-in-law and we're talking to some, this Baptist priest, he called him, I don't know what that is. But he said, we got all kinds of questions about the Bible, and we're trying to figure things out. And I'm like, would you know about the heaven? And all this, he's like, I don't really know, but I have lots of questions. I was like, well, I can show you, I'm blind. He said, and I said, well, if you will trust me to read the words to you, that they are the words of the Bible, I will explain all your questions, and I will show you how you can get to heaven. And I couldn't even see him. And three quarters of the way through the gospel, I could just see it right there. I could just see, he just understood. I couldn't even see him. I couldn't even see him. And then, like, it was like two minutes after, you can see that. You know what I'm talking about? When you're giving the gospel to somebody, and they just get it. And you know, okay, now we're moving in the gospel. And he gets it, and then he opens the door, and I see him. Look, that is why you get up and go. Adopt somebody this year. Take personal interest in somebody this year. Go when you don't wanna go this year, and see what God does through you in your life. And guess what? Turn to Luke chapter six, where we started. But guess what? Let me just warn you, as you invest everything in this, and you should just go, just go for it. Look at Luke chapter six. Let me just prepare you as you all start a ministry in 2022. Let me prepare you for the ministry. Let me just tell you this, and I'm gonna show you this in Luke. Don't expect anything out of it. Don't expect anything out of it. Look at Luke chapter six in verse 32. The Bible says for if you love them, which love you, what thank have you? For sinners also love those that love them. And if you do good to them, which do good to you, what thank have you? For sinners also do even the same. And if you lend of them, that you hope to receive, what thank have you? For sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much gain. But love your enemies, and do good and lend, hoping for nothing again. And your reward should be great, and you should be the children of the highest, for he is kind unto the unthankful, and to the evil. So just kind of forget about the enemy's part right there, and let's just look at the concept of these four verses right here. You know what he's saying? You know what he's saying? Here's the thing, don't expect anything out of this. You may try 10 times at this before you get one. And the thing is, generally people that you minister to aren't gonna give you back what they got. But guess what? If you got everything back that you put in, that's kind of like you're doing it for yourself. That's easy to do. What's hard to do is when you just give and give and give, and you get nothing back. I mean, if you got everything that you put in, what thank have you? You did it for yourself. You gained from it. You're not supposed to gain from it. You know who's supposed to gain from it? The person you adopt. They're the one that's supposed to gain. And you may give 10, and they gain two. And then you have to give another 10, and they gain one. And then you give 15, and they throw 17 away. But what do you do? That's ministry. And your ministry is gonna work no different than a larger ministry. So just be prepared for that. The Bible's telling you that it's not something that we're doing for ourselves. It's Philippians chapter two. We're doing for others. So you have to start with that in mind. But look, adopt somebody this year. I mean, it will be the best thing. I mean, look, I mean, all the other things, yet get in shape. Get in shape. You know, we'll get your financial house in order. We'll talk about that Sunday morning. You know, get in shape, set specific goals for yourself. You set specific goals, then you break them into steps, and then you just knock the ones, two, three, four, five down. That's how you do it. Okay, if you need help setting goals like that, just come talk to me. We'll set some stuff up. But the point is, these are all great things. Read the Bible in January. That's the basis of everything, especially for this big one right here. Look, this is not a small thing that I'm talking about tonight. Okay, this idea that you're gonna go home tonight, and you're gonna pray, and you're gonna say, you know what? I am gonna start a ministry in 2022. That's a big deal. That's a big goal. Okay, that's a big goal that's gonna have many steps. And there's gonna be much labor involved in that goal. And the thing is about that goal, you can't fake that goal. You can't be like, yeah, I'm gonna tell pastor that I'm gonna do this. And you don't really have the heart for it. I mean, basically, you have to have the heart of Christ to do this type of thing. And that's why the Bible said, in 1 Peter 4, as Christ. Start a ministry as Christ did for us. Because that's what it is. That's what it is. Start yourself a one-person ministry this year. And we'll address more pragmatic issues about the new year on Sunday morning. But guess what? And here's another thing. The last thing, don't be afraid to fail. Because you may fail 10 times, you may fail 15 times before you succeed once. I mean, if it was easy, everybody would do it. Think about it, pray about it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.