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Lord give us ears to hear and understand the preaching and listen to your word Lord in his name we pray. Amen Okay, we're in Luke chapter 6 this evening Luke chapter 6 look down in your Bible verse 46 Luke chapter 6 and verse 46 says and why call you me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say Whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings and doeth them I will show you to whom he is like He's like a man which built in house and dig deep and laid at the foundation on a rock And when the flood arose and the stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it first founded upon a rock But he that heareth and doeth not is like a man that without a foundation built in house upon the earth Against which the stream did beat vehemently and immediately it fell and the ruin of that house was great What I want to preach on this evening is the subject of standardizing before you optimize Standardize before you optimize and I'll explain what I mean in just a bit now here We see that there's two groups of people that Luke chapter 6 is talking about this is also reiterated in Matthew chapter 7 and Obviously the the main application that we see in Matthew chapter 7 is this matter of salvation, right? Building your house upon the rock is referring to the fact that you are working after salvation You basically had laid that foundation which is Jesus Christ and then you begin to build there upon But we can also apply that to ourselves that we need to make sure that we have a strong Foundation as a Christian and build there upon as well now What I want to talk about this evening is this fact that you know before you start improving yourself or improving and undertaking Some consistent custom needs to exist, right? You know You can't refine a habit that hasn't been established and one of the number one reasons why people In my opinion fail at what people often refer to as a New Year's resolution It's because of this fact right here. Okay. Now there's nothing wrong with having a New Year's resolution In fact, I think it's good to set some goals and say you know what? 2021 is coming around. I want to improve myself. I want to be a better Christian I want to improve my godly habits or I want to establish some godly habits of some sort I want to improve I want to change what I am, you know in 2020 and change it to something else in 2021 I want to become a better Christian nothing wrong with that but the problem is this let me reach you from Luke chapter 14 verse 28 and Tell me if this doesn't you know describe Christians, you know at the beginning of the year or later on in the year 2021 for which of you intending to build a tower Sit it not down first and count at the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it Less happily after he had laid the foundation and is not able to finish it all the behold it Begin to mock him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish I mean, wouldn't you say that that describes not just Christians, but just people in general at the beginning of the year You know, man, we're gonna do this. I'm gonna create a new health plan. I'm gonna read a bunch of Bible I'm gonna do a bunch of prayer and praying I'm gonna do a bunch of sowing I'm just gonna I've had all these aspirations and goals and then what happens at the end of 2021, you know They were not able to finish You know what that could be discouraging for a lot of people Because their intentions are right, you know, they have the right intentions. They want to change their life to have these godly aspirations They want to exercise themselves rather unto godliness But unfortunately, they're seeking to optimize their goals rather than just standardize a habit Okay, and I'll explain what I mean just a bit now what I mean by standardizing something in other words You want to establish something before you make it better? You can't make something better that doesn't exist Well, you know, I'm gonna read 20 chapters of the Bible a day, but you don't even read your Bible period You need to standardize a habit of reading the Bible before you optimize how much how many chapters you're gonna read You know, well, I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna get up at 4 o'clock in the morning and pray for an hour every single day Starting 2021. Well, here's the problem. What if you don't even pray? What if you didn't know how to get up in the morning Then you got yourself a problem you haven't standardized you're trying to optimize something that doesn't even exist All right. Well, man, I know the gospel and I'm gonna be preaching the gospel in 2021 Yeah, but have you even standardized a time when you go with the church? Have you even standardized a basic level of just memorizing the Romans Road and things that are just basic You see what I'm talking about and look often people who do this don't have ill intentions. It doesn't mean they're proud They're just misguided. Okay, and let me give you a couple reasons why people have a tendency to optimize Before they standardized. Okay. Number one is because they assume That because they set high goals that all it automatically means they're gonna fulfill them You know, they make a list of goals for 2020. I'm gonna do all these things. It's just like done That's half the battle right there wrong You know You write down all your goals everything that you want to do come 2021 and then at the end of 2021 you just did nothing Why because you fall into this trap of assumption? Well because I have goals that means I'm automatically gonna fulfill those goals wrong You're trying to optimize something that doesn't exist. Okay. What's another reason? Well, sometimes people just don't know how to grow I'll be honest See we understand that the Bible teaches us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ We understand that that's a command of God, but you know what growth people often think well, you know What if I just have some sort of goal if I have some of these aspirations if I have something on paper It's just gonna buy osmosis become a part of who I am You know, I'm gonna be a soul winner Okay So now I'm gonna become a soul winner because I said it doesn't necessarily work that way Trying to optimize something that doesn't exist, you know, you need to add to your faith virtue And in fact the beginning of that commandment it says this giving all what Diligence add to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge Etc. Okay. So why do people optimize before they standardize because they fall into this trap of assumption they don't know how to grow or They're inspired to make a dramatic change, but then they bite off more than they can chew right You ever been inspired it's just like man, I'm motivated I'm inspired I'm gonna go run five miles today You don't run after that because you can't even get out of bed And look there's nothing wrong with inspiration because the inspiration is great Motivation gets you going Discipline keeps you growing though So it's important to be inspired. It's important to be motivated. But let's be honest. Let's just be real honest We're not always motivated to do the things that we're supposed to do, right? We're not always motivated to read our Bibles We don't always delight to open up the Word of God and just like oh, man. This is the greatest thing in the world I can't wait to read my Bible. Sometimes we do it out of habit and if you have already standardized a Custom of opening up the Bible and reading it. Yeah, you may not have every single day a delight of God's Word But it will come around once again Rather than the person who is motivated they're inspired They sit down to read five chapters and they don't even see the remainder of that book for another month I'm gonna read 20 chapters a day. This is great and then they miss tomorrow and Then they miss the following day and then they miss the following week and then months have gone by they haven't even touched the Word Of God they were inspired But they didn't discipline themselves. They didn't standardize before they optimized. Okay. So what do people do this? Well, because they fall into the trap of assumption They don't know how to grow they're inspired to make dramatic changes, but then they bought up more than they can chew and Then here's here's a big reason why people try to optimize before they standardized because they compare themselves with other people Wouldn't you agree What do I mean by that? Well, sometimes it's just like well so-and-so reads a lot or so-and-so does this so that means I have to set the bar At that level right there in order for me to attain that goal So they compare themselves among themselves and the Bible says that's not wise Because everyone has a different level of spiritual growth different level of spiritual maturity different level of wisdom different level of consistency You know, you can't compare yourself to other people and look you think yourself Well, you know so-and-so does this much so that means I should do that much as well wrong what's gonna happen is you're gonna attempt to do the level of consistency or Optimization as that individual you're comparing yourself to you're gonna get discouraged and then you're just gonna throw it all out Like well, I can't do it, you know So this is one of the reasons why people optimize instead of standardized, you know They try to optimize their goals rather than standardize a process This is a really basic sermon. But as we near the end of the year, I need to talk about this Okay, we need to talk about this because look, you know, you should have some goals for your life in 2021 You should seek to be a better Christian in 2021, but you need to be realistic about it Okay, and I want to set you up for success I want you to be able to succeed and reach those goals, but I want you to be realistic in how to set them Okay and recognize. Hey, you need to be able to fall in love with the process rather than the product We all like the product but it's important that you love the process more than the product because here's the thing if you have a Custom a habit a process of constantly growing constantly reading the Bible. You will always hit your goal You always hit your goal. You're always gonna grow But if you only have a goal of reading your Bible once or I'm just gonna make sure that I read through the Bible this Month, well, then you've already reached your goal. There's no longer a process after that We need to make sure that we just love the process of growing we love the process of learning We love the process of improving ourselves. And guess what happens is we hit our goals every single time We need to standardize before we optimize, okay And there's nothing wrong with optimizing our goals becoming better at what we do We just got to make sure that there's something that we can improve upon Okay, you know if you haven't read your Bible through if you if you're let's say you do read your Bible through every single day You read your Bible every day But you have a goal of reading 20 chapters a day. For example That's not a good goal to have to read 20 chapters right off the bat. It's not a good goal Let's say you struggle and you you're just hit and miss with your Bible reading. Okay Let me just give you a good goal to have I know this sounds super elementary, but this is good. Okay You know, why don't you just read one page not a chapter a page a day You're like a page I can do more than a page. Yeah, obviously you can good for you. You want a cookie? I'm glad you're able to read a page a day The reason I'm saying read a page a day is because you're establishing a habit of going to your desk Go into your room go into your favorite chair wherever and opening up and reading it So after a while your habits become muscle memory Bible read is not something to you that you have to make yourself do is just something that you do You understand so the more you just read one page of the Bible a day Eventually, you're gonna open up your Bible and you're just gonna read more pages Because you already have the habit of opening up the Bible reading it through and you're like, you know I'm just gonna read through the book And at that point you can begin to optimize what you've already standardized you understand About prayer life Okay, you know people want to improve their prayer life and they they make this huge list of all the things They want to pray for they want to pray for an hour. Well, how about you just do this? And I know this is real practical. Why don't you just set a timer for five minutes? And say at this time, I'm gonna pray for five minutes and no more than five minutes. I Know this sounds crazy, but I promise you this will work Okay, you said a time you say I don't want to say because then she starts talking back he says hey, you know Set a timer for five minutes Begin praying and as soon as those five minutes are done you stop Why what if I want to pray more would just stop at five Because it's more important for you to standardize that habit than try to optimize it because you will get to a point or it's just like well, this is just what I do and Since it's a core value that's already embedded in you because of repetition What's gonna happen is that after a month you're gonna be like, well, I'm just gonna you know improve upon this I'm gonna optimize my prayer life because now I have embedded in me the habit of praying you understand How about this standardized church attendance before you optimize Bible knowledge a Lot of people out there who have a lot of Bible knowledge, but they can't seem to even get the rear ends in church It's a problem with that folks You know, we have we have all these online pastors out there who they did someone should have ordained them already You know, they just know so much of the Bible, but they haven't come across Hebrews 10 You know, they need a standardized have a standard of going to church right And maybe you're a person who's saying, you know, and I know I'm preaching to the choir. You're the Sun and night crowd Hey, man, that's great You know, maybe you're saying thinking yourself. Well, I need to start coming on Sunday nights or you know Thursday nights Okay. Well just start by being consistent on Sunday mornings for like a month right Or start being consistent just on Sundays period Standardize the habit of just going to church and Then you can optimize it and say well, I'm gonna start coming on Thursdays after that. Okay, and Then you start growing from there. I know this is real basic But in order for you to succeed as a Christian in 2021, you do have to standardize these things Because here's the thing you want your Christian life the vast majority of Christian life to be as much muscle memory as possible right Like the things that you do is just what you do. It's just who you are You know when I think about being new IFP for example, I don't have to wake up and say man, okay I gotta make sure I'm new IFP today You know, I got to make sure that I just believe the right things and say the right things It's just who I am Now these wicked people these false prophets like manly Perry they probably do stuff like that or they did stuff like that Where it's just like I gotta make sure I don't slip up. I got to make sure I don't do this I got to make sure that I say the right things I got to make sure I act like I'm new IFP because it's not a standard to them They're trying to deceive people and therefore They have to put on this facade and make themselves seem as though as though they're new I people they're really not Whereas people who have these things as their core value, you know They're not gonna change if they're new I have here not because just who they are Being new I have is just who you are who I am who you are Okay, and so what I'm saying is the gist of the sermon is this embed These values into your life make them part of your life to the point where they become spiritual muscle memory And then you can just optimize it Quarterly monthly yearly and just improve upon it get a good foundation As long as that foundation is good. You can build there upon you understand Hey when it comes to singles who want to get married, amen Standardize before you optimize Well, I want to make sure that I get the godliest laid the most fiery soul winner Those lady who knows how to cook and clean and can follow me reverence me call me Lord But they haven't even standardized themselves Hey Sarah called Abraham Lord, yeah, but like are you at Abraham though? Right Standardized maturity standardized faithfulness Standardized a good reputation Okay In order for you to get married get ready to get married, you know ladies. Hey, it's good to standardize being a housewife Right learning the tasks of a housewife how to cook how to clean, you know learning these principles To be a blessing to your husband into your household how to rear children, okay? How about when it comes to future pastors It's important that you know, a lot of people try to optimize Before they standardized they want to become the experts on how to be a pastor, but they haven't even mastered the basics yet Right you guys ever seen that uh that mean where it's like a kid He's going up like three foot or you know They got like a row of stairs or something like that and he has his leg on the like the fifth stair He wants to like skip all the stairs and just reach that that's kind of how like a lot of Young men are sometimes where they just want to skip all the qualifications of a pastor and Just optimize themselves as a pastor even though they haven't standardized anything And look if you don't believe me, that's why we have a bunch of unqualified pastors today Who are forcing themselves to become a pastor? But they never standardized that which God requires in order for someone to become ordained and become a pastor You know, they need to standardize their marriage Right You know get their wife to follow them To respect them to be on the same page with them. Okay, they haven't standardized their leadership They don't know how to lead people They haven't standardized servitude You know, it's important that if you're gonna be a great leader You got to learn how to be a great servant to be a blessing to the church, right? They have to standardize influence or how about this just credibility just in general Because here's the thing. Like for example, if I ordained someone if and when I ordained someone in our church I'm placing my approval on this individual But so is the rest of the church They have to have a good report of everyone in the church to say well this person. Yeah, I know this person They're a blessing. They are a hard worker. I know their wife follows them. They're they've been above reproach You know, they have their ducks in order so to speak They have standardized what it is to be a pastor now, let's optimize them and ordain them kind of thing you understand So you get where I'm getting at here now You're there in Luke chapter 6 I'm gonna read to you a couple verses here Titus chapter 2 verse 6 says this young man likewise exhort to be sober minded and all things showing thyself a pattern of good works In doctrine showing uncorruptness gravity sincerity Sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of You Luke chapter 16 verse 10 says this he that is faithful now Which is least is faithful also in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much the Bible tells us go to Titus chapter 3 hold your place there in Luke chapter 6 go to Titus chapter 3 if you would the Bible says Luke chapter 4 verse 15 and he taught in their synagogues being glorified of all and he came to Nazareth where he Had been brought up and as this custom was He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read now We often think how is it that this Christian has been a Christian for? You know, he's been serving the Lord for decades on in 30 years 40 years How do they just like they must be some just supernatural individual, you know, they must just have all this talent They must be gifted. They just must have all these things in order really what it is is they just had a custom They were accustomed to living a godly life They set customs in their life which whereby they live by and they just stuck to it. Okay? You know you think about the Apostle Paul. What did the Apostle Paul? Why was he placed into the ministry because God counted him what faithful Obviously, he knew a lot of Bible obviously, you know, he was trained with the Old Testament He knew what the Bible said, but more than that He was just faithful and I believe when it talks about that it's actually referring to when he was sent out with Barnabas on the first missionary trip He counted himself there are they counted him faithful when he went with Barnabas to Jerusalem to just handle the menial tasks The day-to-day things they saw that he was faithful. They saw that he was consistent They saw that he had a custom of serving the Lord and therefore God's hand was upon him He put him into the ministry because he counted him faithful I'm gonna reach you from 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 10 says but that was fully known my doctrine manner of life purpose faith long suffering charity and Patience the Bible says in 1st Peter 5 10 But the God of all grace who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus After that you have suffered a while make you perfect establish strengthen settle you Romans 11 Romans 1 11 for I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to The end ye may be established and look this is the goal for us as Christians here to be established to be steadfast Unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord. You kind of wonder that is like wait. Hold on a second How am I always abounding if I'm unmovable Well, you're unmovable because you don't move from your customs your habits You're the godliness that you exercise and therefore you can abound in other areas as well. Okay Most successful people are just those people who are of character Who have disciplines? Who do things even when they don't feel like doing them? Okay, look at Titus 3 8 This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly That they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain Good works. These things are good and profitable unto men look at verse 14 and let ours also learn to maintain Good works for necessary uses that they be not Unfruitable over and over again God emphasizes as a matter of consistency Faithfulness maintaining good works a faithful man. The Bible says shall abound with blessing And so the sermon is simply this hey as we're nearing 2021 you have two weeks Nothing wrong with making a list of goals But put a process to those goals and say starting Monday morning I'm just gonna read one page of the Bible. I Know that's not very glamorous. I Know that it doesn't seem very Elijah like You're not gonna be like the John like John the Baptist or whoever, you know you admire in the Bible but it's something and I promise you, you know, and look if you just Improve your spiritual habits by at least 1% doesn't seem much in the very beginning, but it adds up over a year So you just improve your habits by 1% a day even if you do it a day You will make Drastic changes at the end of the year. Okay, so I'm not saying don't have big goals It's okay to have big goals, but be realistic about it and start small Standardize something before you make the goal of optimizing something that doesn't even exist. Okay Now a great illustration to this is back in Luke chapter 6, let me read it to you in Luke 6 verse 46 Verse 49, excuse me It says but he that heareth and doeth not is like a man that without a foundation built in house upon the earth against which the stream did be vehemently and Immediately it fell and the ruin of that house was great now Let me talk about churches for example a lot of churches out there They want to optimize their ministry before they actually standardize their convictions Number one, how about this? They want to optimize outreach before they even standardized salvation Right, they want to build their house, but they don't even have the right foundation They want to have all this outreach and all these programs and we're gonna do this It's like yeah, but do you even have any bonafide solid sowners in your church period? Okay, you want to add these ministries and build bigger and greater barns? But their members are not even saved No standard they're not standardizing before they try to optimize We want to make sure that we as a church even in our young years as as a church that we are perfecting the basics Right. We want to make sure that when people come through our doors that we're checking on their salvation That people in our church not just those who are preparing to be pastors, but just a regular layman knows how to preach the gospel Now look obviously Some people slip through the cracks or they get confused or whatever they get saved later on and there might be people in our church That you know are not saved. We don't know that for sure But as far as we know on our part, we have tried to be thorough as possible and checking everyone's salvation so before we ever Optimize anything about the soul winning program before we seek to have these great Aspirations and goals to reach the world. We need to make sure we get the home base, right? Right We don't want to be like those guys in acts 19 Where when the Apostle Paul said have you received the Holy Ghost since he believed they sent it to him We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost What You guys aren't even saved What in the world but you know I guarantee you if you go to some of these independent fundamental Baptist churches that run five thousand six thousand you're running to people there They're just like yeah, it's by repenting your sins. Oh Yeah, I'm going to heaven. You know, I I serve at this church. I got baptized at this church. It's like Well, hold on a second. Well, hold on a second here What is salvation according to you and look it's out there? Because of the fact that the pastor the leaders have placed a greater emphasis on Optimizing their ministry rather than standardizing that which is most important. Okay, which is salvation you Go to Revelation chapter 2 Revelation chapter 2 Our sowning training is coming up in the beginning of the year and I would expect to see a full house When we do the training and then because we have new people in our church and therefore new people You know, we're gonna have a sign-up sheet sign up to that you said why do we have that to standardize? so learning to standardize salvation to teach you how to preach the gospel so you can be thorough in your gospel presentation so you Can be effective and actually win people to Christ and to establish and standardize in our church what it means to be a soul winner what it means to preach the gospel and standardize our Plan to basically evangelize our Jerusalem Judea Samaria and the other most parts of the world We don't want to just say yeah, we're just gonna do a bunch of sowning. Well, hold on a second Let's standardize something first Let's get a habit of sowing in Jerusalem It's get a habit of sowing in Judea and Samaria and let's get a habit of going all around the world thereafter But let's be good stewards of Jerusalem first Obviously 2020 has been weird with this whole coronavirus thing and we were hindered a little bit from going on to the people in Belize But you know what doors will open once again, and there's people here that we can still reach There's people here that are still getting saved And we want to make sure that we standardize that as much as possible. Look at Revelation 2 verse 2 I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them Which are evil and thou has tried them which say they are apostles that are not and has found them liars and has Born and has patience and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted. We would say this is a great church These are workers Bus ministry and you know all these other ministries, I mean they're laboring they're doing so much right nevertheless, I Have someone against thee because that was left by first love that first love being what? So yeah, they were working hard They were laboring in their ministry They were doing all these works and God recognized them for their labor and their effort But he said this I have something against you though because you're doing all this work you're optimizing You're not standardizing. You've less you've left your what first love Remember therefore for once our fallen repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of its place Except thou repent and this is why we make such a big deal about sowing here It's the most important ministry. There is not the only ministry, but it is the most important one to get people safe and We want to standardize it to the point that we want to make sure that everyone here as long as they allow us to are Trained to be a soul winner. We want to have a culture where Basically, we know that hey when someone new comes within the next three months They're gonna be a bonafide soul winner if that's what they want to do Not only that but sometimes churches they'll try to optimize Discipleship But they haven't even standardized baptism Right, they have all these fancy schmancy things going on in their church where they have, you know Paul chapel in his continue book and they have all these things but they don't even baptize people And churches do this all the time folks You know the church plant that I was a part of that I that I helped start The guy who was who was put in charge of that just completely blew that thing Destroyed it. Okay. I remember that church used to run like 300 people which is quite a bit 300 people is a lot of people right and this is without YouTube This is just you know, so winning following up on people discipling them 300 people of the people that were locally from that church in that in that area a lot of people Today that church probably runs like 50 people Now look, here's the thing 50 people is not bad When you're starting out, but when you've been around for like 11 years And when you're originally ran 300 and now you're running 50 or 40 or whatever That doesn't say a lot. In fact, you know what that shows me you try to optimize before you standardized Right try to optimize your ministry before you standardized and in fact, I specifically remember being a part of that ministry and The music ministry was just struggling okay, you know, we didn't have like I remember that the guy I was I was in the Spanish ministry at that time. I was preaching in Spanish and S Bagnole and He would tell me because he was in charge of like the entire church plant and he was saying I want you To be in the English. I want you to lead the English choir though you need to preach and head that Spanish ministry up, but you we need to have a Choir in our church and look let me just say this is I'm not against choirs. I'm just against having them in our church I'm not gonna say they're sinful because they're not You know, I enjoyed the choir when I was back in my home church, not the church, but my home church You know, I was I was part of that and I loved it I would never do it in our church just because You know, there's a lot of philosophy that goes behind that ask me after church. That's not what the sermons about I don't think it's it's sinful to have You know, I know a lot of our some of our friends have that but um So he told me he said this he's like you need to have a church choir and I told him I was like But we don't even have piano player He's like you need to make it happen I'm like, I don't know how to play the piano What do you mean? So he wanted to optimize the music ministry have a choir No piano player Or when we did have a piano player the piano player going to play like basic songs like nothing but blood at Calvary I mean don't put a choir book in front of that individual. They'll fall over dead But here's the thing today they still struggle with that 11 years have gone by and in fact someone who came from that church they came here and they said this they're like they were still asking Their home church the one that sent them out Who They're independent from already Who they no longer have an association with supposedly They're still asking them to send piano players to play for their service ten years later folks He could have learned the piano in ten years or something Right And you always tell me the man we we need to pray that we that God just sends a piano player it's just like I get that but you know if if if you're praying that that's not happening price should like train someone in your church That's why I look if Eric ever dies or something like that. God forbid I'm kidding I'm just joking Hey, Eric does a great job He does an awesome job. He's doing an awesome job with it with the with everything with all the music But here's the thing. Let's say God forbid something happened to Eric My wife can play Why cuz I've already standardized that before we even started a church I Got her a piano. It's at the house You need to play in case we ever need a piano player Because I don't want to be a part of a church service where there's no piano But I know in our church there will always be a piano player always because this is how it works folks Eric's not here Glenn. You're playing Glenn Can't play or he can only play a few songs then him and John have to switch off John can play a little bit and if for some reason none of these guys are you know, they're just they got coronavirus or something You know They don't come to church My wife can play and I'll just watch the kids and Brucey and Kyla can just stand right there next to their mom as she Plays the piano. We'll make it happen Because we've already standardized a plant a B C D E F G And that now we're adding more letters because I've heard some other people in the church can play the piano too Hey, man, and they're gonna you know, they're gonna be getting involved. Hopefully Still that out there real quick But look folks I would not have an orchestra if we didn't have a piano player right This is like John put an orchestra together. It's like we don't even have a piano player though. I don't care make it happen It's Unrealistic it's foolish It's what happens when people try to optimize before they standardize and let me just say this the reason that guy wanted to do it Cuz his favorite pastor, mr. Burns over North Valley Baptist Church He had two piano players and all this music and all these things just like phooey with that Yeah Get someone who can play five songs and they'll sing it every single sir folks when I was in the Spanish ministry They didn't have music and I said, I'm not gonna do that. My wife can play the piano. She can play seven songs And we're gonna sing all those songs were rotate them every single service You know because we were ready there's a prepared place for prepared people But Here's the thing he fell into that comparison Flaw where he's comparing himself to some church North Valley Baptist Church, but they got all these queer piano players over there Mike Zachary little faggot who's a pedophile You know and he wants to be just like that Right and so he has these unrealistic expectations that he places on the people in his church and look where he's at now You know, it's nonsense We need to make sure we just make the best with what we have now and then improve upon it Okay, you said well, how are we gonna improve the orchestra by adding more instruments as the time goes? You know and we brother Eric and I and brother John and I were talking about this It's like well, we don't want to just throw anybody into the mix We want to make sure that we standardize we have a standard of music that we want, right? And I think that's a great I think that's a great philosophy to have To standardize something rather than try to optimize it because once we have a core group who plays well They know what they're doing. Then we can begin to improve upon that. Okay? Spent a lot of time on that but that was necessary How about this people who try to optimize their preaching With all the bells and whistles, you know the screens and the visuals and the smoke and all this lasers But they haven't standardized their doctrine The sermon is lame They're not preaching anything deep. They're not teaching the Word of God. They had they're trying to optimize their visuals They're trying to optimize their lasers smoke and mirrors But they have not standardized doctrine They have need that someone teach them again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God Yeah, they're becoming such as some of those who have need of milk and not of strong meat. Okay? So what is the basic sermon tonight? The basic sermon is simply this. Hey, we're rolling into 2021. I Want to encourage you that this week? You go sit down and you write down those goals Have some goals. Don't let 2021 just happen to you. I Will see what happens We'll see how much Bible I get in We'll see what you know, just kind of go with the flow you have it to life You have it to 20 21 a man Have some goals write those down Okay, you write down a list of goals. Do you have be realistic about it and Then go through that list and say how many of these am I actually doing now? Right You look at your Bible reading my Bible. Yeah, I'm reading by reading my Bible every single day. Yeah, okay Then what's your what's your goal? And by the way, if you've already standardized that okay begin optimizing Absolutely, why not? If you're already accustomed to reading 10 chapters of the Bible a day awesome, then you know what optimize it to 15 Okay Now if you're only if you've only standardized yourself to read a proverb a day Okay, then standardize it to reading five chapters read a proverb and five chapters of the New Testament Okay, and you don't have to use these examples. I'm just giving you an example of what you should do what you could do. Okay But write a list of goals of things that you want to accomplish Be realistic about them ask yourself. How many of these am I actually doing and if it's none of them, okay Doesn't mean you can't do them But you need to standardize by 1% each of those eat the process of each of those goals Okay, like where can I start man? I want to be this great soul winner But I haven't even like I just go out and I'm just a silent partner Okay, then get with your team leader and say hey, can I work on my introduction this 1%? So this coming Saturday, I'm gonna work Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday and this coming our next Sunday I'm gonna have a bonafide introduction ready Why I introduced me I introduced my church I introduced my partner and then I leave it off with him and then you increase it by 1% the following week or something Okay, but you have to start somewhere. Don't be sloppy about your spiritual growth Don't be sloppy about it. Don't be careless about it. Hey, this is important Your personal growth is important. Amen. I Think it's important. I think my spiritual growth is important. It's the most important thing to me You know is my spiritual growth because in order for me to be an effective husband an effective father an effective pastor I need to keep growing and if I don't put an emphasis on my personal growth, then I start dying spiritually You know you the church will suffer because of it. My family will suffer because of it. This is important folks. Hey scripture memory. Oh Man I'm gonna memorize the whole New Testament this year How much have you memorized already? the Romans Road Okay, I Get what you're saying But you need to standardize something else first. It's good goal. I'm not saying this bad. It's great But why don't you standardize? Memorizing a chapter or how about this just start with one verse every other day. I Know this doesn't seem like a lot but you know what to some people it's a lot Hey, by the way, a chapter a week is a lot To some it's not But who cares what to some of this? Don't compare yourself with other people If one verse a day or one verse a week is all you can handle it's better for you To get up in the morning and say at 730 every single morning without fail I Always review my verse and I memorize it and that's what I do. That's who I am. That's just what I do You know, I tell my wife, you know, my mornings are for my non negotiable What do I mean by that Nothing waivers when it comes to this don't bother me during this time. I'm not taking phone calls during this time This the things that I do here my non negotiable is basically something that I do every single day without fail Doesn't matter what happens or where I'm at it's a non negotiable and Each of you need non negotiable But the way we establish non negotiable is the important things is by making a custom out of it every single day I promise you believe me, okay That if you just implement this one thing and if you just want to do it for one goal then just do it for one I'm just telling you if you can just do this one thing and just standardize that specific process that specific habit That's specific custom. The possibilities are endless of How successful you can become? Because that's our goal is not to be prosperous and successful in our Christian life To get more Bible and get more knowledge and get more scripture in learn a language, you know lose weight or whatever You know, whatever may be you whatever goals you may have. Those are great But look, you know, I'm just saying cuz I know it sucks when you reach the end of the year You're just like man. I didn't accomplish anything you look at your goals list. It's like well, maybe 2021 But here's the thing how many know what the definition of insanity is is doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results So if you're trying to do the same thing the same way in 2020 the way you did in 2021 as you did in 2020 you're gonna get the same results So, you know what? That means it's time for a change a 1% change Just do a 1% change and if you don't believe me when it comes to this 1% just think about this when an airplane takes off If it moves one degree to the left, no one feels it But once it, you know flies for like a couple hours, you will see a major difference It will not reach its original destination Right, if you just move just a little bit that little that little percentage of degree of change will take you somewhere completely different In the long run though in the long run and that's really what you need to think about the long run What about now I want to see change now no now you just need to cultivate a love for the process It's cultivated love of being able to wake up in the morning and read your Bible. This is great. I'm reading my Bible today This is great, this is what I do. I got another day down where I read my Bible one page I Prayed for five minutes. I memorized one verse I got that done And then a month when I was like, you know, I think I'm gonna increase it a little bit I think I'm gonna increase it because I've already had the habit and Then you look back at in December and you say wow I was actually able to consistently do this for an entire year and I accomplished actually more Because it compounds It compounds so just want to leave you with that. Okay. I know it's not a super deep doctrine Sermon, but I think this is I have to I typically preach something like this at the end of every year Just because you know We need to keep growing We need to keep abounding and increasing but the only way that can happen is if we change Amen, inspire heads and I've ordered prayer father. We thank you so much for your word and Lord, thank you for the spirit of truth that dwells within us and Enables us Lord gives us the power to do that which is supernatural and but also even the basics of life Please help us to increase and to become better to abound in our Bible reading in our in our prayer life and our scripture reading Scripture memorization and our soul winning in our home Lord help us to do all that we can to become better servants for you I'm thankful that you would want to use us Lord. I pray that you'd help us to be Equipped vessels for you to use so we can go further in this life and reach more people for Christ We love you so much and we thank you