["Pomp and Circumstance"]
And at this time, we'll close the announcements.
If you'll be following, we'll do some number 427.
All right, well, if anyone would like a bulletin, just go ahead and stick your hand up, and we'll get you one.
As always, the service times are in there in the upper left-hand side.
And tonight, we are in a brand-new book.
So if you're here tonight, you're here for the first service in a brand-new book of the Bible.
And hopefully, you can maybe make it a New Year's resolution to be here for every chapter throughout the rest of the year.
I'll give you a hint.
You're about to find out. I know you're on the edge of your seat wanting to know.
But I'll give you a hint.
It's going to take at least 50 weeks to preach through this book if I go a chapter a week, all right?
So you say 50 weeks of being consistent on a midweek.
Hey, it's time for New Year's. It's time for challenges.
That's a good one for you.
Anyway, we've got the Churchwide Soul Winning, Regional Soul Winning, and Salvations of Baptisms, of course.
There's this special little note there next to the Total Salvations for the year thus far.
We broke our all-premius annual records.
So that's a great thing to have people that are—
And I was talking to my wife about this.
I make my soul winning efforts, although I've been going out consistently, have not contributed a great deal to those numbers.
This has been mainly on the backs of consistent, faithful church members going out week in and week out.
So that's a great encouragement to me.
And that's something that the Lord, I'm sure, will continue to bless in the years to come.
And then, of course, on the right-hand side, we had the farewell party to the Elliots.
I got a text from Brother Joshua, or Josh. I don't want to be too formal.
But Brother Josh texted me this morning, and they made it to their destination safe and sound.
So that was good to hear.
And then, of course, the Christmas caroling in Tempe is taking place.
Don't forget, Sunday we're going to have cocoa and cookies after the evening service on Christmas Eve.
And again, I understand it's Christmas Eve. People have things going on.
But hopefully you can make one of these services to acknowledge the birth of Christ on Christmas Eve.
You know, kind of the whole reason for the season.
But if you can only make one, maybe those cookies and cocoa will be enough to kind of bring you in.
But also, below that, if I haven't received your email after having had your yearbook photo taken,
then I do not have your email.
Or I don't have it because it sends me, and you will not get a yearbook photo.
So if you want to get that photo, you have to send me your email, okay?
No questions asked.
And it's after having had the photo taken.
So anyway, hopefully everyone's gotten that message loud and clear at this point.
But also, one other thing I just wanted to mention, tonight there's a possibility,
just because of the new job that I've taken on, for those that might not know,
I'm working 40 hours a week plus sometimes at a new job.
I'm not going to put it online for the haters out there to exploit.
But this job does require, it's kind of a last minute thing.
I kind of wanted to be, you know, a new guy wants to be the S-man.
So I stepped up to the plate and took the on-call for this next seven days.
So that means that if this phone rings, I have to stop what I'm doing and answer it, okay?
So the good news is, is that going forward, we've made adjustments.
I am going to have other on-calls throughout the year.
There's going to be four other weeks throughout the coming year where I'll have to be able to answer this phone.
So, but we've made adjustments.
The good news is that you'll get guest preachers.
So we're going to probably bring in, you know, our regular rotating guys,
but we're also already talking about, you know, bringing in some guest preachers from, you know,
other parts of the country, guys that might want to come and fill the pulpit and kind of have a special day.
A special day will be great for me because I'll be here.
I'll actually get to be here to hear the preaching.
You guys will get a break from me and see what else.
What else did I want to mention about that?
Because I know weeks in advance, I'll know six months in advance when my on-call weeks are.
So that gives us a lot of time and opportunity to kind of plan for these things.
But I did want to let you know tonight that if this phone rings,
I'm going to just have to stop what I'm doing and answer it.
Because again, it was this last minute, you know, it just kind of came up.
They threw me and they saw how buoyant looking I am and thought,
this guy is equipped for the deep end.
Right. So they shoved me in the deep end.
Okay.
But anyway, we'll have some interlude music if that happens, but hopefully it doesn't.
But anyway, that's it for announcements.
Let's just go ahead and count up the soul winning very quickly.
Going back to Monday, if anybody has any report from Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or today.
Let's go ahead and sing one more song before we get into the pre-change dance.
So let's go ahead and sing one more song before we get into the pre-change dance.
So
so