[0:00] Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to the book of Nehemiah, and we'll be in chapter 6. Nehemiah chapter 6. I am so glad to end the year with you and start a new year.
[0:11] Now, I don't do it much anymore, to be blunt, honest with you, because there used to be these things that hung on the wall called calendars. How many of y'all remember those? You know, those paper calendars, and you used to turn it up or tear off a sheet.
[0:23] And back when Betty and I first got married, it was basically a rule in our house that every month I got to change the calendar, because I enjoyed thinking, I can throw that one away, praise God.
[0:34] Maybe I'll do better this coming month. And so I enjoyed very much that calendar. I enjoyed very much New Year's. Now I'm 64 years old, so I'm basically like, ah, I've been through this a whole bunch of times.
[0:46] It's not that big a deal. But, you know, as you start into a new year, you ought to have in your mind, boy, I want to do something for God. I want a year that counts. I want to move forward and accomplish something for God.
[0:58] So I was praying about us and praying about the church, and we're in the book of Nehemiah, we're in chapter 6, and it just interestingly lays out beautifully to think about the fact that you're going into a new year.
[1:10] Nehemiah is building a wall. You know that. He has now basically finished the wall in Nehemiah chapter 6, and he's through building the wall, and he's got a lot of people that are really attacking him.
[1:23] See, he started doing good. He started having success. At the very beginning, as he started cranking up, people were like, ah, it doesn't matter. He can do anything he wants, and the devil will let you get along or get away with what you're doing.
[1:35] But when you start really accomplishing something for God, the devil steps up. So if you happen to have your Bible open in Nehemiah chapter 6, just let me kind of run through the chapter with you.
[1:46] In verse 2, they wanted to do him mischief. People were out to harm him, and they tried to do anything they could to get him to stop doing what God had in mind for him to do.
[1:58] In verse 3, he said, I cannot come down. And so in verse 4, they asked him like four times. They sent him private letters, and they said, look, buddy, you need to stop what you're doing.
[2:09] We're not trying to embarrass you. We just need you to stop trying to build this wall, to stop trying to accomplish something with your life. Well, he didn't listen, so in the fifth letter, long before Facebook and Twitter and all that, they sent him an open letter.
[2:24] They sent him a letter so everybody could read it, and they wanted to accuse him. And in verse 6, they said, you are wanting to rebel against the king, the king who lets you go do that.
[2:35] You're trying to rebel. We know you're a proud guy, and so we know you've got prophets out there, and they're preaching and saying that there's a king in Judah, and Nehemiah's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
[2:46] You are making that up. That is simply not true. You're just trying to scare me. And so he stops, and he prays to God and says, God, help me.
[2:57] And in verse 10, he said they want to, they're talking to him, and they say people are wanting to come kill you, and so you need to run. And Nehemiah, I love Nehemiah. He's a man's man. He says, you think a guy like me ought to run?
[3:10] You really think a guy like me ought to run? I have no intentions of running. And in verse 12, he said, and I figured it out. God didn't send those guys to tell me to run. God didn't do all of that.
[3:21] And he said they were trying to bring up in verse 13 bad things about me, an evil report. They wanted to embarrass me and mess me up. And in verse 14, he said, they just wanted to scare me.
[3:32] They just wanted to scare me. And in verse 16, all the enemies started realizing, boy, God is doing a work. It is a work wrought of God in verse 16.
[3:43] And so he's even starting to hear the good deeds of the bad people there. Now, so you read that whole chapter now. Look at you, and I think, all right, we're fixing to go into a new year. We're on the brink of 2019.
[3:54] I don't think I ever dreamed I'd live to 2019. When you're born in 1954, 2000 seems like a long ways off. And now we're in 2019. And as you launch in the next year, there's some things, I think, that are taking place in Nehemiah's life that will work great to help you accomplish something.
[4:14] You've been growing. You've been learning the Bible. You've been having victory over sin. You have seen the walls build in your spiritual life. You're growing. You're learning more Bible.
[4:25] What used to be the sin that bothered you, you're getting victory over that. You're seeing God help you do ministry. And now you're fixing to go into a new year. You need to know that the enemy will attack.
[4:36] He'll do everything in his power to get you to not serve God. He wants to scare you. He wants to run you out. He wants to cause the work to cease. And you're not going to let that happen.
[4:47] So turn with me, if you would, to Nehemiah chapter 6. Lord willing, I'm going to give you five things to write down to help you in 2019. Nehemiah chapter 6, verse 9. Write this one down. Next year, you need to walk with God.
[5:00] You need to walk with God. That's what Nehemiah does. How does Nehemiah have the victory he has? He walks with God. I see that because the way he calls on God in prayer at every juncture in his ministry.
[5:13] He's been doing that all the book. But look at Nehemiah 6, verse 9. They all made us afraid, saying, their hands shall be weakened from the work that it be not done. Now, therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
[5:26] So his enemies are doing things to stop him. And in the middle of the attack, he stops and says, God, I need your help. God, strengthen my hands. As you try to serve God, as you crank up this new year, and as you say, I'm going to do more for Jesus in 2019 than I ever have.
[5:43] I'm going to read my Bible through. I'm going to be witnessing. I'm going to be praying. I'm going to be giving. You can mark it down. The devil's going to do everything he can to hinder you. So you walk with God.
[5:54] You do that by talking to God. Nehemiah 6, verse 14. When he has enemies, he asks God to deal with them. It says, my God, think thou upon Tobiah and Samballot according to their works, and on the prophetess of Noadiah and the rest of the prophets that would have put me in fear.
[6:12] God, I need to talk to you about my enemies. God, I need to talk to you about those that are attacking me. All through the book, Nehemiah is a praying man. All through the book, Nehemiah is a man on a mission from God.
[6:25] He wants to please God with his life. So I'd just like to give you some walking with God things real quickly for this coming year. You ready? Develop your prayer life.
[6:37] Develop your prayer life. How much time do you spend with God in prayer? You need to decide, hey, you know what? In the past, I've been pretty weak in my talking to God stuff.
[6:48] But this coming year, I'm going to really grow in my prayer life and time I spend with God. Second, listen to God from and through his word. Let me tell you what the weakness of most people's prayers are.
[7:01] Some of you are going to say, no, no, no, no. I do a lot of praying. But let me explain to you something about prayer. Whenever you talk to God, you need to hear God more than you talk to God. Any fool can babble.
[7:15] Anybody can make a lot of words. Anybody can use vain repetitions. People have been taught to pray a set prayer, memorize a prayer, and repeat it.
[7:25] That's something that Buddhists do. You want to start in this walking with God thing. You want to stop and have a time when you say, God, before I pray, speak to me.
[7:36] So you want to take the Bible, you want to read the Bible, you want to pray through the Bible, you want to think through the Bible, you want the Bible to get into your heart, because that's how you walk with God.
[7:47] Now, some of you have known one of those talkers. They just can't be quiet. I have a beautiful little granddaughter named Abby. I have a lot of fun with Abby. Sometimes my wife gets a little tired of Abby.
[8:00] And so we were riding home the other night, and Abby's in the back seat, and grandmama doesn't usually arrive with granddaddy, so it's usually just granddaddy and Abby. And we can have a great conversation all 20 minutes from here to the house, because Abby starts talking, and she doesn't stop.
[8:14] And I just let her talk. So we got in the car, and grandmama's sitting over there on her side, and I'm driving, and Abby's in the back seat, and Abby started talking. And so grandmama said, Abby, you sure like to talk.
[8:28] She said, yes, ma'am, I do. So Abby just kept on talking, and finally Betty said, Abby, do you want to stop talking for a minute? And Abby's like, no, ma'am. I'm afraid that's like you're praying.
[8:42] I'm afraid you got grandmama in the car who might have some wisdom you could listen to, but you're doing all the talking, and you're never hearing from God. That's not really walking with God. Can I get an amen there? I mean, when you're walking with the God of heaven, don't you think you ought to hear something he has to say?
[8:55] A lot of us have been pretty weak in our Bible time. A lot of us have been pretty weak in our Bible time. You'd say to me, I pray all the time. You have to talk to me about praying.
[9:06] I pray when I get up. I pray all day long. I pray God will let my football team win. I pray God will this. Yeah, but you'll never let God talk. If you're going to walk with God, you want to spend some time listening to God.
[9:16] Let me just throw you an o'er. You need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. If you're going to walk with God, you've got to be sensitive to him. I've been married 45 years. And let me tell you something about being married a long time.
[9:27] You've got to learn to be sensitive to her. And if she ain't here today, she's sick. And so I can say anything I want to say. Amen. I think she's watching. Don't be shaking your head that she's watching. Now you make me nervous.
[9:40] She's got to be sensitive to her. And I was sitting there singing this now. And I thought to myself, man, this is a weird service. I reach down my hand because we always hold hands while we're singing. I reach down my hand. I'm all by myself. And, you know, because I just know she's there.
[9:53] I want to feel what she's feeling. I want to know what's going on because I love her. And you want to learn to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. He lives in you. You are his temple.
[10:04] He wants to deal with you. He wants to say to you. In fact, there will be times if you're honest and you really say to him, in 2019, I want to walk with you. He's going to be like, yabba-dabba-doo.
[10:14] I'd like to hear that. Let's talk. Let's walk together. Listen to me. And then he's going to say to you, why don't you read your Bible? It will come into your heart. Man, you ought to have some time in the Word of God.
[10:25] It will come into your heart. You ought not be sinning like that. It will come into your heart. You ought not be doing that. You want to be sensitive to him. In the book of Isaiah, chapter 30 and verse 21, talking to the nation, he said, you'll hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way.
[10:42] Walk you in it. And when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left, he will be talking to you. In the New Testament, he told us to quench not the spirit, to grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.
[10:55] Every person I've ever known who fell into sin, I always ask them, did you feel in your heart that God didn't want you doing that? And every one of them say, I did.
[11:07] But I kept saying no until I didn't feel it anymore. Don't quench him. You want to walk with God? He's sensitive.
[11:18] He's sweet. He's quiet. He wants to speak to you, the Holy Spirit of God. But you are in rebellion against him. If you really want to walk with God, you're not saying, God, help me.
[11:31] You're saying, God, I love you and I want a relationship with you. And God's with you and God's dealing with you. And Nehemiah literally acts like he thinks God's there. And in the very middle of his questions, he's like, God, you need to work on that.
[11:43] God, here's my friends. He's praying. He's talking to God. I want to challenge you to be sensitive to him. How many of you have had the Holy Spirit of God deal with your heart before?
[11:53] Say amen. Don't you want to walk with him this coming year? And while you're walking with him, Ephesians 5.10 says, Prove what is acceptable unto the Lord. In this coming year, you want to say every decision I'm making, if I'm walking with him, good night, I don't even go to eat.
[12:10] I don't even go to eat without knowing what bet he likes. I don't do anything without thinking about what bet he likes. But yet you're walking with God and you almost never consider what he likes.
[12:21] Something wrong there. Say amen. You ought to prove what is acceptable to the Lord. So let's walk with him this coming year. Second thing I'd like you to look at. Turn with me to Matthew chapter.
[12:33] Well, you go to Nehemiah 6.1. I'll just quote Matthew 6.33. Write this down. Focus on his purpose for your life. Focus on his purpose for your life. We're cranking up 2019.
[12:46] You're laying out plans. You're making decisions about what you'll do in 2019. Write this down there. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
[12:59] Seek ye first the kingdom of God. A long time ago, I made that kind of like my life's verse. And when I'm thinking about anything, I'm thinking to myself, is this putting him first? Is this what brings honor to him?
[13:10] Is this what advances and furthers his cause and his kingdom? You see, Nehemiah in Nehemiah 6, he knows what God has for him. Nehemiah knows I am a man on a mission.
[13:23] I've been sent with a job to do. Nehemiah chapter 6 and verse 1. It came to pass when Samballot and Tobiah and Geshem the Arabian and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall. You ought to underline that.
[13:34] I had built the wall and there was no breach. And I still hadn't put up the doors. He knew what he was doing. He had come from his place.
[13:44] He had come to the city of Jerusalem. He had come with the express purpose of building those walls. Nehemiah chapter 6, verse 3. They're trying to get him to stop. And I love what he says.
[13:55] I sent messages to them saying, I am doing a great work. I cannot come down. Why should the work cease? I know what God wants me to do. I am doing what God wants me to do.
[14:07] And no, I'm not stopping what God wants me to do. He knew that he was only an instrument in God's hand. Nehemiah chapter 6 and verse 16. Just to underline the last words in the verse.
[14:19] It says, they perceived that this work was wrought of our God. That's saying God did the work. God did the work.
[14:30] It was God who had built the work. He finished the job. He built the wall. He got finished. Now, let me ask you. Are you working at finding what God would have you do next year?
[14:42] If I were you, if I were you and I were sitting there in your seat, I'd be wanting to say, man, I want my life to count. I want to leave a legacy of having served God.
[14:52] I want to accomplish something. So I'd like to just say a couple things to you about how you ought to figure out what to do next year. Number one, you should be available to do ministry. Too many of you are spectators.
[15:04] You just sit. But you soak up the ministry and you sour and you get an attitude because you don't do ministry. You ought to be available to do ministry.
[15:15] What's ministry? It's serving. That's all it is. It's a fancy word for serving. It's a fancy word for being a nurse. It's a fancy word for being a waiter. It's a fancy word for being a cleaner.
[15:26] It's a fancy word for being a helper. That's all it is. All ministry. You ought to be available for all ministry. Nothing too small. Whatever is needed. We have a teachers and workers meeting.
[15:38] You ought to come to that. You ought to come and say, I want to be trained. You ought to say, what abilities do I have? What is it you enjoy doing? You need to make plans to serve God.
[15:48] Now listen to me. God never meant for church. I know popular church today, popular church today is this. A handful of people doing a work and you coming and watching.
[16:00] And so that's how you build a mega church. You build a mega church by no expectations. Just come, just watch. We have specially trained singers. We have specially trained preachers.
[16:11] We have specially trained everything. And all we want out of you is you just come and give us your money and watch the show. It's like the NFL of Christianity. It's come and watch the show.
[16:21] But in the Bible, you are to be involved in ministry. You're to find a job. You're to be doing something. You're to be needful to the kingdom of God.
[16:34] Now, if you're going to focus on what y'all do this coming year, you ready for something? Read your Bible. It's 2019 coming up. Most of you haven't even read the Bible from cover to cover.
[16:46] You haven't ever started and said, I really want to know what God says. You claim to believe a book you never read. You go to church. I mean, I'm always astonished at how people come out of good godly homes, quote, unquote.
[16:59] They never read the Bible. Make plans now to read your Bible. It doesn't take but 12 and a half minutes a day to get the Bible read from cover to cover in one year. If you're normal.
[17:12] You say, well, I'm real slow. Okay, 20 minutes. Man, I am stinking slow. All right, 30 minutes. A half an hour a day, you can finish the Bible. Some of you guys don't need but five minutes a day to read the same amount of passages of Scripture.
[17:25] Just 15 minutes a day. Thinking about this coming year, how do you honor God with all you do? Do you honor Him with your money? See, if you're going to focus, here's what old Nehemiah said.
[17:37] God sent me here to build a wall. Well, God's got you building a family. And God's got you raising kids. And God's got you taking care of a husband or a wife. God's got you doing a ministry. So seek God's will.
[17:50] You're in a church that's always talking about world evangelism. And you could easily think, boy, God's got something special for them. But He doesn't have anything special for me. I was raised in the home of a farming mechanic.
[18:03] During the day, he worked at a big company doing mechanical work. He was a maintenance man with training to work on all those machines. And in the afternoon and night and the dates when he worked nights, he was a farmer.
[18:16] You know what my dad used to say to me? God doesn't have a will for preachers anymore than He has a will for me. I grew up with that. I believe that. I want you to know God wants to do something with you.
[18:27] I want you to know your life counts as much as it does to being a missionary. So why don't you sit down with an open Bible? Why don't you sit down in prayer and say, God, what do you want from me this coming year? How can I serve you?
[18:39] What would you have me do? Why don't you decide now that leading your family for Jesus this coming year is a big deal? Dad, why don't you decide you are the pastor of your home?
[18:50] You're going to take and lead your wife to serve Jesus. Do something worth doing this year. Number three. Write this one down. Trust that God will give you all you need to accomplish His purpose.
[19:05] God will give you all you need to accomplish His purpose. Go with me to Nehemiah chapter 6 and verse 3 if you would. Nehemiah chapter 6 and verse 3 if you would. He says, and I sent messages unto him saying, I am doing a great work.
[19:19] I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you? And they asked me four more times. You know what you're going to hear all through the life story of Nehemiah?
[19:32] You're going to hear that he was focused. He was focused on what God wanted him to do and he knew that God had given him what he needed to get the job done.
[19:43] Nehemiah knows I'm the man of God. So as you launch out into next year, you need to realize God can use you. And God can accomplish things in your life.
[19:53] God can take your money and if you learn to manage it for Him, He can bless you as you serve Him with your money. He can take your time and He can bless you as you serve Him with your time. He can take your talents and He can bless.
[20:05] Here's what God wants. God wants all of His people living in faith. What's it say in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6? A verse you ought to memorize. Hebrews 11 and verse 6. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him.
[20:18] For they that come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. I want to tell you something. Since I was a kid, I wanted God to use me.
[20:29] Before I was ever in ministry, before I ever knew I was going to be in ministry, I knew I didn't want to be just an average, regular person. I wanted God to do something to me. Don't you? Don't you hunger for that?
[20:40] Don't you want God to do something to you? You don't have to be a preacher. You don't have to be a pastor. You don't have to be a missionary. But you do have to be somebody that says, Hey, I want to walk with God this year.
[20:51] I want to find out what God wants me to do. And I want to believe God can accomplish that through me. I want a life that makes a difference. We believe God before it happens and before we see it.
[21:03] In Hebrews 11 and verse 1, it says, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You know what he was going to do? Nehemiah saw a wall before there was a wall.
[21:15] Nehemiah saw God accomplishing things with him before God ever accomplished things. You can see that God will do things with you. That God will use you. How many of you read your Bible through?
[21:26] You say, Oh, it's too big a book. You ever seen how big a Bible is? I think it's way too thick. It's like a long time. I don't read books. Well, you know what? You can just decide. I can plow my way through. I can read a little bit every day and learn a little bit more every day.
[21:39] Some of you would say, I can't trust God to handle my money. I can't honor him. I can't be a giver. But if you just trust God and let him, he would do something with you.
[21:50] Now, you listen to me. God wants to use you. My favorite story is in the Bible. I told this at the summit that we had up in Ohio. It was a lady named Dorcas.
[22:03] And even on the way home, they were making fun of me in the car because I really did want to name my second daughter. I wanted to name her Dorcas. And my wife's like, You're a dingbat. You're not naming our daughter Dorcas.
[22:16] But Dorcas was this great lady. And so Dorcas, in the book of Acts, she had sewn clothes and she had met widows' needs and she had met orphans' needs.
[22:26] And she wasn't a preacher. And her name was Dorcas. And I remember reading that story. And when I knew God was going to give me a daughter, I was like, There's not a greater woman that I love in the Bible than Dorcas.
[22:37] And my wife said, You're not naming our kid Dorcas. She said, What's another name that you could use that says the same thing? And I said, Her other name's Tabitha. And that's a witch's daughter. And I don't want to name our daughter like you're a witch.
[22:49] So I like Dorcas. And she said, Nope. And since I'm a sensitive man and obey my wife well, we named her Stephanie. But you know what? When she dies, the ladies come upstairs, bring her body, and prepare her body for burial.
[23:04] And they're all sitting around the room and everybody's got things that she did for them. And they said, We want somebody to go get Peter, the pastor, and tell him to raise her from the dead.
[23:16] And they went and got Peter, brought him in, Peter raised her from the dead. No pastor dies in the whole Bible. And people say, Got to get him back. So if I die, I can see what will happen.
[23:27] Praise Jesus. Dime a dozen, we'll get another. But Dorcas, who my wife has no respect for, she dies and the church goes on strike. What are you going to do this coming year?
[23:39] God could use you. You could make a difference. You say, Well, what can I do? Well, I don't know. You could make some clothes for poor people. That's what Dorcas did. You could take care of some widows and some orphans.
[23:50] That's what Dorcas did. Why don't you ask God where you could fit in his plan for him to use you in this coming year? Now, I want to take you to the fourth thing to write down.
[24:02] You need to discern what's happening around you. You've got to be awake. Watch and pray. You've got to know that you're under attack. So Nehemiah walks with God in prayer all the time.
[24:15] Nehemiah knows his job is to build a wall. Nehemiah knows that God's given him everything he needs to get the job done. Nehemiah is a very smart guy. When attacks come, he evaluates the attack and he decides, That's the devil trying to mess with me.
[24:32] Now, let me tell you something. Whenever you go to a church service and really get excited about serving God, immediately a thousand thoughts will flood your mind about how you can't do it, it won't work, and the preacher tricked you into doing it, and you made an emotional decision and you shouldn't do it.
[24:50] So you've got to know why that's happening. Say, Nehemiah, we're in Nehemiah 6. He's building a wall. And while he's building the wall, nobody says anything when he starts building the wall.
[25:03] Nobody really does much when he starts. He's got some attacks going on. But by the time Nehemiah 6 comes along, we've got full-blown, all-out attacks on this guy. We've got it happening.
[25:14] So this coming year, you decide, Man, I'm going to read my Bible through. And you know that everybody starts deciding that about, Come on. Genesis and Exodus. How many of you read that through like a hundred times already? Every new year, you say, I'm going to read my Bible through.
[25:27] You get into Genesis and Exodus, and then you quit. Genesis and Exodus are the most well-known books of the Bible. You get over to Leviticus, and maybe you plow your way through Leviticus saying, All right, there's some boring stuff in here, but I can handle it.
[25:40] And then you get the numbers. You're like, Lord, help me. The last thing I want to do is count a bunch of numbers. Why did God put all this in the Bible? And then you get to Deuteronomy. By the way, we believe it's important enough here. We have actually preached all of that.
[25:51] You know that. We've been through that. You found out it's not near as boring as you thought it was. That's how you read it. But if you keep plowing, you'll get through. You'll get the Bible read. But what you need to do is learn how to decide that the devil's messing with you.
[26:05] You know what he wants to do? He wants to make you useless. He just wants to get you to be a good church sitter.
[26:16] Little do you realize that these churches that have gotten all the people to just come and listen to the show and go about their lives like a normal thing, and they dedicate an hour to watching a show. The devil's very happy with that. The last thing he wants is you pouring through the Word of God.
[26:30] The last thing he wants is you praying and really getting to know God. The last thing he wants is you to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as you walk in the Spirit. The last thing he wants is you finding a ministry where you can get plugged in and make a difference.
[26:42] He don't want that. So what you've got to do is decide, I need to understand what's happening around me when all these doubts and thoughts and things happen. So look at Nehemiah 6 and verse 2.
[26:53] He recognizes his enemy's tricks. Sanballat and Geshem sent and said, Come, let us meet together in one of the villages of the plain, and they thought to do me mischief. He realized they are just trying to get me off track.
[27:08] They're just trying to get me off track. I know what's happening in this passage. They attacked him by questioning his motives. In Nehemiah 6 and verse 6, they said, You're only building a wall so you can be their king.
[27:24] You're building a wall, and so you say you're doing a good thing, but I know what you really got in mind. You're just trying to build your own kingdom. In Nehemiah 6 and verse 8, Nehemiah realized they're liars.
[27:36] He said they fake this out of their own heart. In Nehemiah 6, 12, he said, They make this up, and they claim God said it, but God didn't send them. They got hired and paid for.
[27:47] Now, here's what you need to realize. As a believer, you have to make the right decisions. If you really loved God, you wouldn't go to church all the time because you need some family time, so you should take off a few Sundays and just not go to church for family time.
[28:04] You should skip a few services for family time. This getting too tied up in reading your Bible and praying, that's a waste of time. You need to focus on things that are really important. Giving too much money, that'll mess you up.
[28:16] Trying to really please God all the time. Why don't you think about your wife? Why don't you think about your kids? If you get too heavenly focused, you'll be of no earthly good. They're going to tell you every lie in the book.
[28:29] It's going to pop into your head. But you've got to focus and say, Now, wait a minute. Is that God speaking to me? Is that what the Bible would tell? Or is that the devil trying to stop me from doing what God had had me do?
[28:41] So you don't come across your head. Well, if I were to really focus on God and become a real giver, look how much money I'd be losing. You're giving all that money away?
[28:51] No, no, I need that money. If I were to really dedicate my life to serving God, I'd have to spend time reading my Bible and time praying, and I wouldn't have the time for my family or my football game.
[29:03] And you'll come up with all of that in your head. You want to have a good year? Realize who's trying to get you to not do this stuff. Realize who's lying to you.
[29:15] Did you know if I focus on God, I'll be the best husband I've ever been? Because as I obey, you know what God's going to say? God, I love you, and I want to serve you. And he's going to say, Well, good. Love your wife and treat her right. But no, I was trying to serve you.
[29:26] I said, Love your wife. You say, He didn't say that. 1 Peter 3, verse 7. He said, You know why your prayers are hindered when you talk to me? Because you're not treating your wife right.
[29:38] Whoa. So here's what you're going to say. Well, I don't want my husband to get too focused on God because he won't be focused on me. Well, that means you haven't read the Bible enough to know what. Boy, you ought to get him focused on God.
[29:50] Because if he gets to talk, if he gets on his knees, Oh, God, help me. God, work in my life. God's going to say, All right, I'm ready to work with you. You're going to be sensitive to me? Yes, sir, I'll be sensitive. All right, go love your wife a little bit. No, I was trying to talk to you about doing something for you.
[30:04] And he's going to say, Exactly. And so we start with raising our family for Jesus. God, get an amen right there. But here's what you're going to do. You're actually going to try to talk your husband out of loving Jesus this coming year.
[30:16] You're going to try to talk your wife out of loving Jesus this year. Realize where the junk comes from. Last thing. Courageously follow God's will. It's going to take a lot of courage.
[30:28] You will not finish 2019 serving God unless you say, I'm just going to do it. You can't scare me. That's why I like old Nehemiah. I'm telling you, Nehemiah is a John Wayne of the Old Testament.
[30:41] And all of you that are too young to know who John Wayne was, he was the baddest of the bad. The gooddest of the good. You know? He was our cowboy hero. Look at it.
[30:52] Nehemiah 6.2. They said, Come let us meet together. They thought to do me mischief. So I said to them, I'm doing a great work. I don't have time to mess with you people.
[31:02] You're just trying to stop my work. Nehemiah 6.9. He said, Y'all just trying to scare me and trying to weaken my hands. God help me not let these guys mess me up. Nehemiah 6.11.
[31:13] You really think a guy like me runs? You really think a guy like me runs? He says, Should such a man as I flee who is there that being as I am would run and hide in a church building?
[31:28] John Wayne says, I'll meet you in the middle of the street high noon and shoot you. I am not running to a church and hiding behind a priest's skirt. That's what he said. I will not go in.
[31:39] You can make a difference this coming year. You can have victory. You can lead your family forward. You can grow in the Lord. The Bible, you can read it through.
[31:51] Don't let anybody intimidate you and think you can't. You can read it through. You can spend time in the Bible every day. It's time in prayer. You can honor God with your money. You can lead your family to serve Jesus. You can see your family, your children get saved.
[32:04] You can see your wife and kids love God like never before. But it's going to take courage. Some of you men need a good dose of manhood. Just to be blunt and honest, you needed a good dose of such a man as I flee.
[32:20] You think I'm running to a temple and hiding? Some of you need a dose of saying, I can't leave my home. You're scared of your wife. You're scared of your children. You're scared to say, let's have family devotions.
[32:33] Come on. Say, oh, me. Because you can't say amen right now. You're afraid to say, we can love Jesus this year. Nehemiah gets the job done.
[32:48] It's because he's courage. He has the courage to keep going when everybody else would get scared. Now, a year is a long time. And if you make a big decision, it'll scare you. But you need to know that God can accomplish everything he puts in your heart.
[33:03] Here's what I believe. I believe you do want to serve God. I believe you do want to read the Bible. I think you're sitting there going, yeah, I really ought to do that. Yeah, I really should get in the Bible.
[33:13] Yeah, I really should be faithful to church. I really should get my kids to be in church. I really should. I want to do that. But as soon as you get out the door, you'll let little thoughts and doubts scare you.
[33:24] And you won't have the courage to say, I'm going forward. I'm going forward. 2019, just a few hours away. What will you accomplish?
[33:37] Will you be stronger for Jesus next year? That you were this year and the years before. You have talked a long time about God doing something with your life.
[33:50] It's time to stand up and courageously move forward. You can walk with God. I believe if you'll be sensitive, the Holy Spirit's already speaking to you. I think he's already saying to some of you, you're not saved.
[34:02] You're not born again. You can't serve me this coming year. You need to be born again. You can be. Jesus died for you so your sins are forgiven and you can be saved right now. Some of you are saved and you are on your way to heaven.
[34:15] But the truth of the matter is, the truth of the matter is, you have not been taking stands. Ten years ago, this would have been exciting to you. Right now, you're like, well, I decided last year and the year before that I'd do something for God.
[34:28] I'd never done it yet. My wife doesn't even expect me to really man up. Isn't it time to make a decision?