Philippians chapter 3 could be one of the greatest chapters in the Bible, I think.
And Father, I just pray that you would be with the message tonight and use it in the lives of everyone who's here.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Boy, I love this chapter, Philippians chapter 3. What a powerful chapter in the Word of God.
And there's so many things that I'd like to point out that I'm not preaching on tonight.
Like, for example, just let me blow through some of these. I can't resist.
Look at verse number 3.
For we are the circumcision. Who's he writing to? The Philippians, the Gentiles.
He says, we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
See, he's saying again, as we talked about, that the believers are spiritual Israel.
Not the Jews after the flesh, but the circumcision is those who worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
See, if you're saved tonight, you have no confidence in the flesh to get you to heaven at all.
That's what salvation is. It's putting all your faith in Jesus Christ.
Which is what's talked about a little down further where he says in verse number 9,
being found in him not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.
And then on and on down through the list. What a great chapter.
But here's what I want to focus on. Verses number 13 and 14, the Bible reads,
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. He's saying, I haven't arrived yet, but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Here's what he's saying. I've not arrived. He says, I haven't apprehended.
He says, I'm not perfect, a little bit earlier there. But he says, there's one thing that I do.
He says, I forget the things that are behind me, and I reach forth unto those things that are before.
And he then restates how he does that by saying, I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Now, of course, here we are at the last day of 2006. And so it's a time, as the apostle Paul did,
where he stops and he says, I'm going to think about and ponder the things behind me.
But then I'm going to forget about that and move on. And he says,
I'm reaching forward to something greater and better in the coming years.
You see, he looked back over his life, and there's so much in chapter 3 here,
but he looked back over his life and he said, what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ.
See, he's doing an examination of himself and his past.
He's thinking about some of the things that he achieved in the Jews' religion, which was a false religion.
And he was thinking about some of the degrees that he'd attained, some of the recognition that he had,
some of the physical benefits that he had, circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel with the tribe of Benjamin.
He said, I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
He said, I had zeal. He said, I was blameless according to the Jews' law.
But he says, what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ.
Take a look at 2006, and think about the things that were gained to you, but were they gained to Jesus Christ?
And he's saying, the things that were not gained to Jesus Christ, the things that were gained to me, he said, I count them but done.
He said, that's what it means to me.
He says, when I look back at my past, he says, all the accolades that I had in the Jews' religion, the fame, the popularity,
he said, to me it's literally like done.
He says, I count all things but done. He says, none of it means anything to me.
He says, the only thing that matters to me is what counts for eternity for Jesus Christ.
That's all that matters to me. That's what he's saying.
And he says, here I am, and maybe he wasn't writing this at the turn of the year like we are, but this is when we're pondering it.
Here we are at the end of 2006, we say, we look back and say, okay, what did I do for Jesus Christ in 2006?
What have I accomplished for the kingdom of God? And we can rejoice in that.
Whatever had nothing to do with the kingdom of God, it means nothing. It's not important.
It's going to be gone in eternity. A few hundred years from now you won't be thinking about it.
But then he says, then I'm going to forget what's behind me, some of the worthless things that I did,
and even some of the good things that I did. I'm not going to ride on the past.
He says, I'm reaching forth unto those things which are before.
I'm looking forward into the new year with what's going to be accomplished greater in this new year.
Now, how am I going to do that? Well, the answer is in verse 14.
He says, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let me point out several things about this verse.
Number one, he says, I press toward the mark. He had a mark, he had a goal that he was trying to reach.
Do you see that? I mean, you can imagine archery, you know, somebody pulling back the bow and arrow.
And what fun is it? Who has shot a bow and arrow? Put up your hand if you've shot a bow and arrow before.
Wow, everybody has shot a bow and arrow. But think about this, what fun would it be to go shoot a bow and arrow with no target?
Think about how boring it would be. I mean, think about how silly it would be.
Think about going and taking out some guns. Hey, let's go out and shoot guns for a while.
Just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Just nothing. It's boring, right?
The whole fun is to set some kind of a mark, some kind of a target, and shoot toward that target.
Now, if you miss the target, is it still fun? Sure.
Because at least you were shooting at something, at least you had something to do.
But just going out and just, wow, that was neat, give me another one. Okay, it's boring.
Do you want to have a mark? He says you want to have a target that you're shooting for.
Now, a lot of people think that, you know, talk about New Year's resolutions.
And they think, oh, New Year's resolutions are so stupid. Look, I don't think they're stupid.
I don't think it's stupid to have a goal. I don't think it's stupid to have a target that you're shooting toward.
You know, I guess the only reason that it would be stupid is if you don't do it.
You know, if you just say it and then don't do it.
But you know what, I'd rather have a goal that I'm shooting for and fail at it
than to just go into the New Year with no goal, just no point, no purpose, just la-di-da, another year.
At least I'd rather have something that I'm aiming at.
I mean, think about our goal for salvation. It pushed us to the end.
And we hit it, you know, two hours ago or whatever it was. We hit that goal.
And you know what, that goal drove us to push ourselves a little more than we may have without the goal.
Do a little more soul winning, a little more prayer, pushed us and motivated us.
And you say, what if we didn't hit the goal? Wouldn't that have been depressing?
You know what, I wouldn't say it would be depressing. It would be annoying, not depressing.
It would irritate me, but it would irritate me to want to hit it next time better and to push myself harder next time.
It wouldn't be depressing. It would be inspirational even more.
But thank God we hit the goal. Praise the Lord.
And that makes us more excited because we achieved the goal and we say,
what's the big goal that we can set next time and hit an even bigger goal and push ourselves even more and do even more?
See, goals are very important. Having a mark is what I'm talking about.
Pressing toward the mark. What mark are you pressing toward in your Christian life?
You know, most Christians in churches that I've been in, they have an attitude like they've arrived.
Literally. I'm not saying they think that they're perfect, but they're not interested in moving their Christianity up a level, is what I'm saying.
They're pretty much satisfied with where they're at. Are you satisfied with where you're at in your Christianity?
I hope not. I'm not. I'm not satisfied with myself. I'm not satisfied with what I accomplished this year.
I'm not satisfied with my Bible knowledge. I'm not satisfied with my soul winning. I'm not satisfied with any of it.
David said, I will be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness. That's when I'll be satisfied.
And so don't ever get to the point where you think that you've apprehended.
He said, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.
This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
Because I haven't apprehended because there's so much more that I want to do.
Greater, better, bigger, more, more, more. Don't ever get to the point where you think you've apprehended.
The apostle Paul hadn't apprehended. When he was sitting in a jail cell, he'd started churches all over the world.
He's sitting in a jail cell being persecuted for the cause of Christ and he said, you know what, I want to do more.
I'm not going to tell you about the church I started in the past, he's saying.
I'm not going to tell you about all the souls that I've seen saved. I'm going to tell you about the souls that I'm going to see saved.
When I get out of this prison, when I get out of this jail cell, I'm going to do even more than I've ever done.
You see, the attitude of the apostle Paul is not one of, I've apprehended, I've arrived.
It's, I'm pushing myself. I have more goals, greater vision than I've ever had before.
We think about, well look if you would at 1 Corinthians chapter 9, 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24.
So just back a little bit in the New Testament toward the gospels, 1 Corinthians 9, 24.
And you know, I'm not really one that's big on holidays. I'm not one of these people that gets excited about holidays.
Like, you know, my birthday comes around, it's not really that big of a deal to me.
Christmas is not that big of a deal to me. Easter is not a big deal to me.
I don't know, I mean, I'm just, some people get real excited about holidays.
To me, it doesn't really mean a whole lot. That's the way that I am.
But, this is probably the holiday that I like the most, to be honest with you, is New Year's Day.
Not because it's some kind of a football game that I could care less about, you know what I mean?
Not because it's some kind of a day off from work. Actually, I'm going to work all day tomorrow on New Year's Day.
But not because it's a day off. I just love that reset button at the end of the year where you can start over. I love it.
And so this is probably the day that I look forward to more than any other day as far as on the calendar,
is I look forward to that punctuation at the end of the year and starting a new year. I like it.
Because, good night, you should know how many goals that I have for this next year.
I've got all these ideas. I've got all this stuff that I'm starting on January 1st.
Hey, I love it. I thrive on it. I love that new year. I remember one of the biggest...
I could look back at certain turning points in my life.
Obviously, Christianity is a slow growth process. But I can look back at certain turning points in my life.
For example, I got saved when I was six years old. There's a major punctuation mark in my life.
That's really the start. That's the beginning of the whole thing.
And then I went on through that. And then I remember when I was 17,
I decided to read through the Bible cover to cover. Huge step in my growth as a Christian.
I'd never read it cover to cover. When I read it cover to cover, it revolutionized my life at age 17.
I was in a liberal church, was not even in an independent fundamental Baptist church.
You wouldn't believe how liberal the church was that I was in.
The NIV, girls up in miniskirts singing, rock music. The sermon was ridiculous. It was a joke.
It was unbelievable, the church I was going to. But I started reading through the King James Bible cover to cover.
It revolutionized my life. Another big thing, when I got married. Huge step in my life.
When I got married, they just really pushed me to a new level of maturity.
You know, moving out of my parents' house, obviously. Having to pay the bills. Having to be responsible for myself.
Great step that really pushed me forward in my Christianity. So I had my salvation.
Then I read through the Bible cover to cover. And right around the time I read through the Bible cover to cover,
I started winning souls and got in a good church. So those two kind of went hand in hand.
Because God saw me reading the Bible. He said, let's put this guy in the church where he can do something.
I got married. That was a big step. Boy, having children shortly thereafter.
Huge step that really boosted my maturity level and responsibility level.
And then I think about, probably the next big one was New Year's Day of 2003.
So what? It's four years ago. Four years ago. Am I doing the math right now?
Let's see, was it the beginning of 2003? Yeah, it was the beginning of 2003. So it was four years ago.
So it was the 2002 to 2003 New Year's Eve. And I remember, this is the first time I'd really done this,
but I made a big list of goals that I was going to have for the year of 2003.
And I was going to really push myself to some new levels. And I remember some of my goals,
I was going to go soul winning for four hours every week, was my goal.
Now did I go soul winning for four hours every single week in 2003? No.
But this was my goal at the beginning of the year. Four hours of soul winning every week,
and to have an adult or teenage visitor in every service, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.
And then I had several other goals. And I was really going to push myself. I was going to do this.
And boy, me and my good friend Roger Jimenez back in Sacramento, he had some similar goals,
and he was going soul winning with me. We did the four hours together each week.
And boy, it was amazing what God did in my life during those first few months, especially of that year.
And yes, I carried it a little further than the first few months.
But boy, who cares if I didn't make my goals the whole way through?
The first two, three, four months of that year, we were seeing all kinds of people saved.
I mean, we're out for four hours a week. I had every time, and by the way,
every single time that I spent four hours out soul winning, if we did the full four hours,
I had a visitor in every service that week. Because it was like God saw me do my part, and he did his part.
And so we had all kinds of visitors coming. I mean, people were being saved, people were being baptized.
It was exciting. And it pushed and really boosted my Christianity in a great way.
When I took that step of just saying, I'm going to set some goals for myself.
And I made a chart about it. I mean, I charted my soul winning. Do you remember my chart, honey?
Yeah, my wife remembers the chart. I mean, I colored it with crayons and everything.
I mean, I drew it with a pencil, and I had it color-coded with crayons and stuff
of different areas that I was going soul winning geographically.
And if I hit the goals like green, and if I failed in a certain area, it was red.
And it sounds silly, but you know what? Those people are going to be in heaven that I won to Christ.
Some of those people are still in church that I won to Christ and they got baptized.
Hey, it's exciting to set goals for yourself. Don't waste what I'm saying.
Don't waste today and tomorrow. Don't waste it.
Use it to boost yourself to a higher level of Christianity to set some goals for yourself
that will challenge you and push you to a new level.
You have not apprehended. I have not apprehended. Faithful Word Baptist Church has not apprehended.
We need to take it to a new level in 2007, personally and corporately.
But look at verse number 24 of 1 Corinthians 9.
The Bible reads, Know ye not that they which run in a race run all?
But one receiveth the prize. So run that you may obtain. He's saying run to win.
And then he says, And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.
The word temperate means totally under, he's controlling his own body, controlling himself.
You know, athletes, they control their diet, you know, explicitly.
They control their exercise regimen. They have sleep regimen.
They have all these different things that have to fall an exact line.
Think about these Olympic athletes. People all over the world are vying for these titles.
And only one person is going to win. I mean, it's a full time job.
These people train themselves and they're temperate in all things.
They're totally under control. And he says they do it to win, to obtain a corruptible crown.
He says, Who cares about this gold medal that they're going to win?
I mean, do you think that a gold medal is really going to mean anything in eternity?
You know what, the gold medal is going to be wood, hay, and stubble.
So he's saying, Why does the Olympiad, you know, champion or the Olympic athlete,
why does he push himself so much more than we do when we're obtaining an incorruptible crown?
When we're earning something that's real, that's eternal in value?
Think about it. His whole life revolves around winning that corruptible crown.
Our life needs to revolve around winning the incorruptible crown.
Hey, we need to have goals and a regimen and a plan.
You think that he just says, You know what, I just really liked ice skating?
Or, you know, whatever they do. What's the biggest thing that everybody gets excited about in the Olympics?
Does anybody know the big, who even knows? I don't know.
It seems like in the Winter Olympics, I don't know, the skiing, right?
You know, for some reason I always watch the Winter Olympics.
I never really got interested in the Summer Olympics.
And I don't have a television or anything now, but this is like a long time ago.
But I used to like the Winter Olympics, the skiing and everything, because I love skiing.
I love snow skiing. And so, think about this.
You think that some guy just says, You know what, I really like to ski.
I went skiing every chance I got. I gave it a shot, and I won the gold medal.
There's no way. I mean, this guy has it laid out.
Probably just years of training. You know, at this month, I need to be at this point.
You know, at this month, or maybe even better illustrated would be like a runner,
like a track and field runner, because he's saying, I've got to have this many seconds.
And probably in February, it's going to be like this. In April, it's going to be like this.
By the time I get to June, it's got to be like this.
I need to weigh exactly this many kilograms and just be the exact right weight.
Then I have to, you know, shave my legs and do all kinds of stupid things
just to try to gain that extra hundredth of a second.
And see, your Christianity is going to be the same way,
because you're going to have to lay out a plan for yourself and decide how this is going to happen.
If you don't plan on winning the prize, you're not going to win the prize.
If you don't have a method, I mean, you know, I sat down this week,
and I was thinking about how we were so many salvations short of our goal,
and I just sat down and I thought, okay, approximately how many hours is it going to take
to get this many people saved, just based on past solvening?
And I sat down and said, you know what, this is how much time I may need to spend.
And I planned it out. I took a little time off work.
I decided I'm going to go on Thursday for this amount of time and see how it goes.
And then I'm going to go again on Saturday for this amount of time.
And I had a plan, because I wanted to make sure that I hit that goal.
And so I had a plan and a backup plan and a backup plan for how we're going to get it done,
because things like this don't happen by accident is what I'm saying.
But look back at the passage. He says, you know, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown,
but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run.
See, he's saying I run like they do is what he says.
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly.
So fight I, not as one that beateth the air,
but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection,
lest by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be cast away.
He says, I don't fight my way through life and run my way through life uncertainly,
like somebody who's beating the air.
You know, you think about somebody just like shadow boxing, right, just wham, you know.
He says, that's not my Christianity.
He says, I have a target that I'm hitting.
He says, I don't just swing punches randomly.
He says, there's a certain target that I'm hitting, that I'm aiming at.
And that's what's so important to realize at this time of year.
You must have a plan for 2007.
Here's some good ideas for goals for 2007.
Let me just give you some ideas that I quickly thought of.
Number one, reading the Bible cover to cover, of course.
That's vital.
And you say, well, Pastor Anderson, that's nothing.
Hey, read it through one time cover to cover, if that's where you're at, you know, great.
But you know what, you say, well, that's a little easy for me.
You want to have a goal that pushes yourself, you know.
Say, I'm going to read it through two times cover to cover.
I'm going to read through three times cover to cover.
Whatever you want to push, four times cover to cover.
You know, do whatever it takes to push you, but have a Bible reading goal of some kind.
Don't go into the year just with random Bible reading.
Now, Amanda and I were talking about this, that she was saying, boy,
this certain particular part of the Bible is interesting her the most right now.
Now, there's nothing wrong with spending a lot of time reading that.
You know, have a goal to read that ten times, you know, great.
It's not that you have to read the whole Bible proportionately, you know.
That, if you haven't read Ezekiel ten times, what are you doing reading Romans again?
You know, come on now, read about how they built that temple again, okay.
No, look, if you like a certain book of the Bible, read it a hundred times.
But just have a plan or just check it off every time you read it.
And motivate yourself with goals for Bible reading.
Or maybe you just want to read a certain portion of the Bible.
You know, read whatever your goal is, big, small, medium.
You say, good night, I can't read through the whole Bible in a year.
What can you do? You know, then do it.
But just have some kind of a plan.
Have some kind of a chart where you're checking it off.
You'll read more if you check it off on a chart.
So, Bible reading, we've already talked a lot about that.
Number two, have a goal for perfect church attendance.
Perfect attendance.
You say, good night, there's no way I'm going to have perfect attendance.
Hey, look, I have had perfect attendance this last year.
And you say, well, wait a minute.
You say, wait a minute, you're the pastor.
Do you know how many times I had to struggle to make sure that I didn't miss church this year?
Literally, because I work a full-time job.
My job is very demanding.
I got in fights with my boss where he's yelling at me about refusing to miss a Wednesday night service.
Now, of course, I would have gone to church.
I could have gone to work where he wanted me to out of town and gone to church somewhere else.
It's not like I was going to lay out at church.
But see, it was important for me to be here.
Now, I'm not saying that it's bad for you to travel.
If you need to travel somewhere, go to church where you are, though.
If you travel to New Mexico or something, go to church there in New Mexico.
Praise the Lord. That's fine.
But I felt like it was important for me as the pastor not to be gone, to be here.
Maybe I could get somebody to come in and be a substitute.
But I'm not trying to give you a substitute.
I'm trying to be here myself because I think that this is the most important place I could be.
And if I bring in somebody else to preach, it's not going to be because they're filling in for me.
I want it to be because we want to all hear what they have to say as a church.
You know what I'm saying?
I don't want to just, well, I've got to go, who's willing to come over here and undo this?
No, this is important.
I'll tell you this right now. I will never.
No, I'm just kidding.
But I will never go and preach in another church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, or Wednesday night
and have somebody else fill in here.
Because I'm going to tell you something.
This is the most important church in my mind.
Now, I will never, never, now I'm not saying that I will never miss a service.
Now, God willing, my goal is to never miss a service in this church.
But maybe perhaps I may miss a service at some point.
But I'm never going to go preach at some other church as a guest preacher and miss this church here
because I'd rather preach to you here because this is the important place for me to be because this is my church.
Oh, this church has all these hundreds and thousands of people.
I don't care.
This is the important church.
This is Faithful Word Baptist Church.
This is where I'm going to be.
So what's my church attendance goal for this year, for 2007?
My goal is perfect attendance right here.
Now, if you have to go somewhere, make your goal perfect attendance just in church.
You know, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
If you have to be out of town, then you will be in church in that other town.
That's fine, okay?
But make it a goal to have perfect church attendance.
You say, well, I get sick and everything and things happen.
That's true.
Things do happen and I understand that.
And some of that is totally out of our control.
There have been times that I've missed church, not in this church but, you know, in years past,
where I literally couldn't even get out of the bed.
I was so sick.
I mean, I could not even drag myself.
And I drag myself when I'm sick.
I just drag myself to church.
But there have been times when I couldn't even drag myself to church.
I mean, many times.
I can remember right before I moved here, two months before I moved here,
I can remember just laying in a hotel room in Indianapolis, Indiana,
working with a guy who were working out of town there.
And I just remember I'd been going to a church there in Indianapolis while I was out of town.
My wife was in Germany.
I just couldn't make it.
And I really wanted to go to this church.
I was really enjoying visiting this church.
Could not make it.
And I was kicking myself.
But sometimes the spirit's willing and the flesh is weak and you just can't go.
But you still have a goal to be here every time.
And pray that God will allow you to come here every time.
And try to be here every time.
You know, that's still a goal that you can have.
And who knows, maybe God will bless you in that way.
But sometimes he keeps us out, you know, for reasons.
But you know what, have a goal, though, to be here.
Number three, you know, have so many goals.
Have a goal for how many people you'd like to see saved this year.
Think about how many people you won to the Lord last year.
And think about how many you'd like to see saved this year.
That's important to have that goal.
Number four, have a goal for visitors.
You know, like I shared with you a little bit,
my goal was to have a visitor in every service.
And whenever I spent my four hours out knocking doors,
I had a visitor in every service.
And to do that, to have a visitor in every service,
do you think I just knocked doors for four hours and just saw what happened?
No, I mean, I worked at that goal.
I mean, I had lists of people that I talked to who said they were interested.
I went back and talked to them again and stuff like that.
I had friends.
If I didn't feel like I was going to have a visitor coming from soul winning,
I'd call up friends.
I'd talk to people at work and say,
and just do whatever I could to get a visitor in that service
because it was my goal and I wanted to hit my goal.
So I have a goal for bringing visitors.
Number five, you can have a goal for getting some kind of sin out of your life,
you know, kicking some kind of habit,
getting rid of some kind of sin that's been bothering you.
Hey, have a goal to get rid of it in 2007.
And then let's see, number,
I didn't have these numbered so I have to count every time.
Number six, you know, some kind of a prayer goal.
You know, maybe you spend a certain amount of time praying.
Decide I'm going to spend a little more time praying.
You know, decide what would be a goal that might push you or motivate you.
Or maybe if your schedule allows, you could even set a specific time
and say at this exact time every day I'm going to spend time in prayer.
That would do a lot to increase your prayer time.
Now, my schedule is extremely erratic
so I have a hard time with this seven days a week setting an exact time
so I just try to make sure that I spend the time praying.
But, boy, if your schedule is a little bit more normal than mine,
you could set a time, a specific time every day,
maybe it's first thing in the morning,
maybe it's sometime in the middle of the day,
maybe it's in the evening, it doesn't matter,
but just set that time and say from this time to this time,
and I would recommend, you know, getting on your knees actually
and bowing your head and praying to God.
I mean, you can pray at any time, you can pray walking down the street,
but there's something about just getting on your knees by yourself
and praying to God.
It's something that the Bible talks a lot about.
And then nextly, you could have goals about memorizing the Bible.
You know, whatever level you're at, again, you know,
whether you want to have some verses that you want to memorize,
a chapter you want to memorize, a book of the Bible that you want to memorize,
you could do it if you break it down into small pieces.
Think about this.
I don't know if you're at this point,
but maybe you could memorize one verse a day.
I don't know.
If you could memorize one verse a day, multiply that times 365.
You just memorized the book of Hebrews and the book of Jude
and the book of Philemon and the book of 2 John.
That's a lot, okay?
One verse a day.
Think about that because I believe that's right.
There's 303, I believe, because I have a book of Hebrews memorized,
but I want to say there's 303 verses in the book of Hebrews.
So, boy, you'd be 303 days into the year,
you'd have the whole book of Hebrews memorized,
Jude 25 verses, Philemon 25 verses, 2 John 12 verses, one verse a day.
You see, the key to setting goals is to break things down into small parts
and to work on it throughout the year.
Now you say, that's insane, I could never memorize the book of Hebrews.
Well, you probably could memorize one verse a day
and quote the one that you knew the day before
and add to it throughout the year.
See how these things are a little more possible than you think.
How do people succeed at great, big endeavors?
How did we win 200 people to the Lord this year?
Did we do it all in the last week?
No, it's because we were working on it every single week throughout the year.
And that's four a week?
Wow, you see what I mean?
If you break things down into small parts, you can get it done.
Next, have a weight loss goal.
Now I'm not talking about weight loss because I don't believe in all that garbage.
But think about what the Bible says,
lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us,
and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
Look, there are things in your life right now that may not even be a sin,
that are what the Bible calls a weight.
God says, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us.
There are some things that are sins that we need to get rid of
that are holding us back in our Christian life,
but then there are some things that are just weights.
There are things that may not necessarily be wrong,
but there are things that are holding us back from doing more.
Sometimes hobbies are great, and I have several hobbies,
but sometimes hobbies that consume your life,
take up all your time, take up all your energy,
sometimes that can be a weight that you need to get rid of.
Sometimes people get too involved in following sports and things like that.
It is a weight.
It is a waste of their mind.
It is a waste of their time.
It is a waste of their energy.
That is a weight that needs to be laid aside.
People always have these weight loss goals for the New Year,
these diets that they go on.
I think that dieting is stupid, to be honest with you.
I think that you should just eat healthy food,
and a lot of this obesity and stuff would go out the window.
A lot of that is just due to all the ho-hos, the Twinkies,
the McDonald's french fries.
It is all the junk food.
You do not have to go on these extreme diets to lose weight.
All you have to do is eat normal, healthy food that is homemade,
and you would be great.
I heard a preacher once saying this was kind of funny.
He said, if you would really sell out for God,
this guy was preaching, and this was a long time ago.
I heard him say this.
He said, if you would really sell out for God,
he said you would not need any dieting.
He said you would not need to join the fitness club
because you would be out knocking doors.
You would be out soul wedding.
That would be your exercise.
By the way, I feel like I have some exercise today.
He said you would be out walking up and down the streets.
You would be going up and down the stairs at the apartment complex.
You would be knocking on doors.
He said you would get a great workout.
You would not need the fitness center.
You would not need all that workout because you would be out working for God.
He said you would not need the Weight Watchers and the Jenny Craig
because he said you would be fasting.
You would be praying and fasting for lost souls.
You would be controlling yourself.
He said you would not need all the dieting and the fitness
and the weight loss and all that kind of stuff.
He was kind of kidding when he said that, obviously.
It is kind of funny.
But it is true in the sense that you do not need some goal
about dieting for the next year.
You do not need to look like these anorexic weirdos from Hollywood.
In the paper, how many of them died?
Like four models in Brazil or something died because they are anorexic,
because they abuse themselves and the self-destructive behavior
so that they can look like what the world says is attractive,
which is some skinny-as-a-bone thing.
The only reason that they do this, let me just share this with you.
When you take a picture of somebody, it makes them look fuller-figured
than they really are.
If you have ever seen these models in real life, they are very skinny
because the camera adds some depth.
I do not really know how it works.
I am not an expert in photography.
But I remember when I was a teenager, we were at a big dirt bike motorcycle ride.
We were watching Motocross where they were riding dirt bikes,
and they had these girls there.
They are signing their posters of them with these dirt bikes.
It is not a good thing.
It is pornographic in my book, these girls in the bathing suits
and stuff with the motorcycles.
But in real life, they were not attractive in real life.
They have these faces that were very skinny and emaciated.
It just looked a little bit unnatural.
But what happened was, when you put that on the camera,
it fills it all in and everything.
It is an illusion, is what I am trying to say.
It is an illusion, is what it is.
Do not let Hollywood tell you what is attractive.
Let God tell you what is attractive.
Eat healthy food, eat, drink, and be married.
But the point is, do not get all sucked into all this weird dieting stuff.
Why do not you have a goal about Bible reading?
Why do not you have a goal about soul-winning?
Why do not you have a goal about prayer and fasting?
Why do not you have a goal about the spiritual things of God?
The Bible says bodily exercise profited a little.
Exercise, he says, exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
He says that is the exercise you need.
Not some kind of a physical exercise of getting your body in shape for the New Year.
Get your spirit in shape for the New Year.
And do not get me wrong, I believe in exercising.
I train, I do all kinds of exercising.
I do boxing and I do all kinds of exercise and training.
But you know what?
The most important exercise I do is when I sit down with my Bible and quote the Bible.
That is the training that I need.
And so, quickly, turn if you would to, I am going to show you two practical things and then we will be done.
I am not going to preach so long tonight, but look at Luke chapter 14.
I am going to show you two practical things when you are making these goals.
I gave you some ideas about what kind of goals to have.
You know, reading the Bible, prayer goals, perfect church attendance would be a great goal,
soul winning goals, goals to bring visitors, goals of taking some kind of a habit or sin,
increased time in prayer, Bible memorization goals.
And do them on a daily basis, the Bible memory.
Or say one verse a week, 52 verses.
Now we are talking about two good sized chapters from the New Testament you could have memorized.
You know, 52 weeks in the year, that is 52 verses.
That is two big chapters.
You could have memorized it by the end of 2007 if you do it consistently.
How hard is it to memorize one verse in a whole week?
I mean, you can do that.
Come on.
Anybody can do that.
And so, look if you would at Luke 14 verse 28.
I gave you some examples of goals to have, but how about this?
Make goals for yourself that challenge you, but that are realistic.
Have a realistic goal.
Don't have a goal that you can't attain.
Look if you would at verse 28 of Luke 14.
For which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost,
whether he hath sufficient to finish it, lest happily after he had laid the foundation,
and is not able to finish it, all that beholdeth begin to mock him.
He's saying, we are going to make fun of you if you start something that you can't finish.
Saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish.
Or what king going to make war against another king sitteth not down first
and consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000?
Or else while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambisage and desireth conditions of peace.
He's saying, count the cost and see whether your goal is realistic and doable.
He says, don't start something that you can't finish.
That could be very discouraging.
Start a goal. I'm going to read the Bible ten times this year.
I've got it all figured out. I only have to read 40 chapters every day.
Piece of cake.
You're just going to get discouraged because you get one day behind.
Now you've got to read 80 chapters.
That's pretty tough.
Don't set a goal that's unrealistic.
This is how you set your goal.
Look at what you did last year and then increase it in a reasonable way.
Some things you might want to double, but are you able to double it?
Think about something that's realistic.
You want it to be realistic enough, and yet at the same time you want it to push you
and motivate you and challenge you.
You have to find that balance of something that's attainable and doable
so that you can be encouraged by reaching a goal.
God says that the end of a thing is better than the beginning of a thing.
Have goals that you can finish, that you can do, that you can accomplish, not some pie-in-the-sky goal.
There's no point to that at all.
It defeats the purpose of having a goal.
And then my last point, look at Romans 15.
Romans 15, look at verse 22.
Romans 15, 22, and I'm going to read this for you.
Now remember in our text verse, I press toward the mark that's having a goal
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Do you see that word high?
He says, my goal is a high goal.
He says, I'm not just shooting for a mark.
Well, I know I can do this.
That's what I'm going to go after.
He says, no, I'm pressing toward a mark of a high calling of God in Christ Jesus,
the maximum, the ultimate.
So yes, make it reasonable, but look if you would at verse number 22 of Romans 15,
the Bible reads,
For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you,
but now having no more place in these parts,
and having a great desire these many years to come unto you,
whensoever I take my journey into Spain,
I will come to you.
For I trust to see you in my journey,
and to be brought on my way thitherward by you,
if first I be somewhat filled with your company.
Look at verse number 28.
He says, when therefore I have performed this,
and have sealed to them this fruit,
I will come by you into Spain.
Now, did you know that that's the only time that Spain is ever mentioned in the entire Bible?
Think about this, if you take a map,
I don't know if you have a map in the back of your Bible,
but if you have a map of the journeys of Paul
and of the Mediterranean Sea in the back of your Bible,
who's got a map in the back of your Bible?
Now, I'm looking at my map right now.
Spain is not even on my map,
because it centers on the Mediterranean Sea.
It doesn't even go that far.
Does anybody have one that goes all the way to Spain?
You have to get the one of Europe.
There we go, that's the one right there.
See, it doesn't show Spain at all.
It shows Italy, the boot there on the west side.
Does yours cover Spain?
Okay, hers just shows a tiny little sliver of Spain,
just on the east side of Spain.
You can just barely even see it.
It's not even labeled,
because if you think about a map of Europe in your mind,
I don't know how much familiar you are with geography,
but think about a map of Europe in your mind.
On the far west side is Spain,
because you have where Israel is
on the east side of the Mediterranean Sea,
and then, of course, there's the peninsula of Turkey,
and then there's Greece, and then there's Italy,
and then there's the countries of Germany, France,
and then what's the furthest one?
Spain and Portugal is all the way over here
on the mainland of Europe.
So what's Paul saying?
He's saying, and this is the man that brought the gospel.
He said, I preach to everyone in Asia the gospel.
He started churches all over the world.
I mean, he lived a long lifetime.
He was in this thing for a long time.
I don't know. It must have been 50 years.
I don't know how long exactly it was,
but he spent a lot of time serving God,
and he says, late in life,
this is one of the later books that he wrote
in the book of Romans.
He's saying, you know, I've wanted to come to Rome.
He said, I've been hindered to this point,
but he says, I'm going to come and see you.
I said, I've wanted to be in Rome,
and he says, when I take my journey into Spain,
I'm going to stop by on the way there.
Now, did the apostle Paul ever make it to Spain?
I don't know, to be honest with you.
Probably not. Maybe he did. Who knows?
But the point is, look at his goals that he has.
As an older man, late in life,
he's not looking at some small goal.
He's saying, I want to take the gospel in my lifetime
to the uttermost part of the earth.
See, I don't think that he necessarily knew about
North and South America at this point,
and I don't even know if there were really people
living there at that time, and people say that there were,
but who knows whether any of that's true.
But I will say this.
In his mind, Spain was pretty much the furthest point.
I mean, that's the furthest that he could go.
He said, I'm not satisfied to preach the gospel
to everybody in Asia and not worry about Spain.
He says, I want to take the gospel
to the furthest point that I can get to,
the furthest point I know of.
Where is the furthest part away?
Well, that's Spain.
He said, well, that's where I'm going then.
That's where I'm going in 2007.
In 2007, I'm going to Spain.
I'm going to go to the furthest point and push myself,
and I'm going to stop in Rome, and I'm going to go to Spain.
See, have a goal that pushes you.
Have a goal that's a high mark, the high calling of God.
Have a goal that makes you a little bit uncomfortable.
Balance those two ideas.
Have a goal that you can do, that you can attain
with the help of Jesus Christ, with the help of God,
but have a goal that pushes you.
Have a goal that drives you.
Don't have a goal that's too easy
and don't have a goal that's too hard.
Have a goal that is doable, but that's going to make you work,
just like the salvation goal that we had.
I mean, we had to work on it until the 31st of December.
I mean, pushing ourselves this last week.
I mean, just pushing it to the limit.
That's the perfect goal.
It's exactly the right kind of goal to have that makes you work,
but that you can achieve and be excited and say,
glory to God, we reached our goal.
Yes, we got it! Great!
But at the same time, it was a big goal.
There's a lot that we did.
And so that's what you want to work on.
Make a decision tonight.
Don't just walk out of the service and say,
oh, yeah, okay, church, you know,
we heard a sermon about, oh, what was the sermon about?
Oh, it was about making goals and New Year's resolutions.
No.
Walk out of the service and sit down and write down some goals.
Write them down.
I like to write things down.
I like to even use crayons and do the color coding.
I write things down because when you write things down,
it solidifies it a little more.
Make a plan.
And you know what?
Sometimes I'm not even afraid to share my plan with somebody else.
Why?
Because then I'm going to look like an idiot if I don't do it.
So that's another motivating factor.
That's something else that pushes me.
I tell somebody, hey, this is what I'm going to do.
This is my goal.
And then if I don't do it, I've got an egg all over my face.
Yeah, it'll blow off your mouth.
You're going to do this and that.
Hey, tell somebody about your goal.
Write it down.
Say, this is what I'm trying to do.
And then you're going to be motivated and pushed to do it.
Well, that's the wrong reason to do things.
You should just go somewhere because you love God.
No, wrong.
If you love God, you'll find a way to motivate yourself
to do what God told you to do any way that you can.
And so find a way to motivate yourself.
Different things motivate different people.
I'm motivated by setting a goal.
God talks about setting a goal.
I'm motivated by pushing toward a mark like Paul was, like God said to be.
That's something that motivates you to use it.
Don't waste December 31st.
Don't waste January 1st.
Use this time to start a great new chapter in your life
and to push yourself to a new level in 2007.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
God, thank you so much for this creation that you've created
of days and months and years, as it says in Genesis, chapter number 1,
Dear God, where you talk about how you put the moon and the sun and the stars.
Why?
You already created the light on the first day,
and you put the sun and the moon and the stars for signs and for days
and for months and for years.
Thank you for giving us these punctuation points in our life
where we can push the reset button, as it were, and start a new chapter.
Forget the things that are behind.
Let's forget about the failures of 2006, the things that we were weak on.
Let's just move on from it because now it's 2007,
and we're going to start out strong.
We're going to do things that we've wanted to do.
We're going to push ourselves. We're going to have big goals.