WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:28.580 MUSIC 00:28.580 --> 00:34.500 Paul's preaching in other churches, and we're tickled for that, though we do miss them. 00:34.500 --> 00:38.800 We've had a wonderful month this last month. 00:38.800 --> 00:44.740 We got money in the bank, we're ahead, school is doing great, and you pray for the school, 00:44.740 --> 00:50.180 there's great things going on, and we love that, and we give ourselves to it, and let's 00:50.180 --> 00:52.460 just pray for its continued success. 00:52.460 --> 00:57.860 We had nine editions last month, seven by baptism, and I just praise God for a wonderful 00:57.860 --> 01:03.860 season this fall, and coming out of a good revival, it's just been a grand time, and 01:03.860 --> 01:08.620 I appreciated the music, I've appreciated the solos, I've appreciated everything that 01:08.620 --> 01:12.300 everyone has done to make this a great season. 01:12.300 --> 01:13.940 God bless you all. 01:13.940 --> 01:22.380 Now, we're talking about goals this morning, and I like that passage of scriptures, which 01:22.380 --> 01:30.380 is really in Proverbs 29, verse 18, where there is no vision, the people perish. 01:30.380 --> 01:34.260 And I've thought of that over and over again, I've had that in my mind for a long time. 01:34.260 --> 01:37.660 If you don't start thinking winter, you'll never be a winner, and this isn't one of those 01:37.660 --> 01:40.740 goody-goody sermons, but that's the power of God. 01:40.740 --> 01:48.060 If you have a vision, you have something tangible, and it will bring great profits to you. 01:48.060 --> 01:54.820 Pat talked last two weeks ago about the creation, and how wonderful the creation is. 01:54.820 --> 01:58.960 On a morning like this, would you trade it to be anywhere else in the world, then right 01:58.960 --> 02:03.460 here in Wyoming with a tree's turn in gold and the smell of the sage, and I look at a 02:03.460 --> 02:10.380 beautiful sky, and I see the doxology of the heavens and the earth and the stars and the 02:10.380 --> 02:16.780 universe replete, how wonderful it all is, and God's creation had a point. 02:16.780 --> 02:25.180 It literally tells us that God made a promise, and he had a goal for all of mankind. 02:25.180 --> 02:28.260 Now we know that God has plans. 02:28.260 --> 02:33.500 In Jeremiah, one of my favorite passages of scriptures, Jeremiah 29, 11, where God says, 02:33.500 --> 02:37.240 I know that I have plans for you, saith the Lord. 02:37.240 --> 02:41.380 I got plans for you, saith the Lord. 02:41.380 --> 02:44.340 And you could just stop right there, and that would be great. 02:44.340 --> 02:50.860 But he says, plans not to hurt you or harm you, but to profit you. 02:50.860 --> 02:55.900 And then he says, plans again, this is the third time, he says plans to give you a hope 02:55.900 --> 02:56.900 and a future. 02:56.900 --> 02:59.020 Now stop and think about that. 02:59.020 --> 03:00.020 What does God want from me? 03:00.020 --> 03:01.420 He wants me to have a good future. 03:01.420 --> 03:04.340 He wants me to have hope. 03:04.340 --> 03:07.940 My hope is just, keeps you alive, doesn't it? 03:07.940 --> 03:13.540 Hope for a better day, hope for a better job, hope for a better relationship, whatever it 03:13.540 --> 03:14.540 might be. 03:14.540 --> 03:17.900 This is the nature of the human being, to aspire to something better. 03:17.900 --> 03:22.900 It's the nature of God, since we're made in the nature of Him. 03:22.900 --> 03:27.620 We are made in His image, and He had a dream for His people. 03:27.620 --> 03:30.340 He had a dream for His universe. 03:30.340 --> 03:31.340 And we can prove that. 03:31.340 --> 03:33.380 I believe that with all my heart. 03:33.380 --> 03:38.780 You know, in talking about the creation, it really says that God had something specific 03:38.780 --> 03:42.260 in mind when He invented the universe. 03:42.260 --> 03:45.140 He wanted mankind to be there. 03:45.140 --> 03:51.060 You know, a very prominent British astronomer, he's the world's best, he's the elite in 03:51.060 --> 03:56.780 the pecking order of world astronomy, is saying that he's not a believer. 03:56.780 --> 04:00.740 But he's come up with the idea called the anthropic principle. 04:00.740 --> 04:04.340 Anthropos in Greek really means man, doesn't it? 04:04.340 --> 04:10.180 And he says that the anthropic principle in astronomy and in physics, and in atomic physics 04:10.180 --> 04:17.060 as well, that the whole universe is so designed for the benefit of mankind. 04:17.060 --> 04:19.460 Now, just stop and think about that. 04:19.460 --> 04:23.700 Here's an astronomer who's supposed to be a scientist, an atheist, and he's saying, 04:23.700 --> 04:27.580 there's a cause, there's a reason for everything, and that everything invented has been for 04:27.580 --> 04:30.580 the fruition of mankind. 04:30.580 --> 04:34.940 That we might have a hope, and we might have a place, and we might have a dream. 04:34.940 --> 04:39.780 Now when a physicist says that, see, when a scientist says that, you've kind of got 04:39.780 --> 04:45.980 to wonder, hey, maybe that Romans 120 is being fulfilled that invisible things of God are 04:45.980 --> 04:47.580 clearly seen. 04:47.580 --> 04:51.780 You think that an astronomer would be an equipped to see fairly clearly, very far away? 04:51.780 --> 04:53.860 Yes, he would, wouldn't he? 04:53.860 --> 04:57.020 I can see clearly now, sure goes for the astronomer, doesn't it? 04:57.020 --> 05:03.780 He reaches out into light years, trillions of miles away, and it's a big outdoors, and 05:03.820 --> 05:08.540 it says, I'm bigger than the outdoors, God himself speaking. 05:08.540 --> 05:15.100 He wrote this down, he wrote a book called Just Six Numbers, Six Numbers. 05:15.100 --> 05:20.980 He says there are six variables in the universe that if you change one of them by a tiny fraction, 05:20.980 --> 05:26.940 then all of them are fouled up, and there is no way that life can exist, that life was 05:26.940 --> 05:30.340 made to exist under very narrow limits. 05:30.340 --> 05:35.740 That was God's promise, and that was God's goal. 05:35.740 --> 05:42.460 He prepared a place fit for us, but it was touch and go, and man could never design a 05:42.460 --> 05:49.020 place where man could live in a universe as wild and foreboding as this is in his book, 05:49.020 --> 05:50.980 he says this. 05:50.980 --> 05:57.580 The hydrogen gas in the sun, as it converts itself to the larger molecules and becomes 05:57.620 --> 06:00.540 heavier, begins to give off heat. 06:00.540 --> 06:06.100 At no time does it give off more than seven thousandths of the mass to the purpose of 06:06.100 --> 06:07.340 heat. 06:07.340 --> 06:13.900 He says if it is .006 or six thousandths of its mass converted to heat, then it would 06:13.900 --> 06:19.340 be a cooled universe, and there would not be enough authority or power in the superbonding 06:19.340 --> 06:25.260 of the atoms to have a nucleus and an electron orbit, and you couldn't have atoms. 06:25.260 --> 06:29.180 But you can't have atoms, you can't have things, you can't have worlds, you can't 06:29.180 --> 06:31.980 have churches, you can't have humans, see. 06:31.980 --> 06:40.180 He says if it's even as much as .008, just a thousandths more than .007, seven thousandths. 06:40.180 --> 06:44.580 He says you'll have the atomic fusion process, and the world would be burnt to a crisp and 06:44.580 --> 06:51.060 everything in it in a matter of seconds, and life could never exist, much less cosmic could 06:51.060 --> 06:52.060 never be. 06:52.060 --> 06:55.100 The cosmic universe could never pass or never be. 06:55.100 --> 06:59.500 I'm sure it's a touch-and-go thing, but it shows that God had a vow. 06:59.500 --> 07:03.500 He had a place for us in this world order and in this universe. 07:03.500 --> 07:10.500 How wondrous that is, Proverbs 19-21 says, many are the plans in a man's heart, but 07:10.500 --> 07:15.220 it is the Lord's purpose that will prevail. 07:15.220 --> 07:18.100 And I have lots of plans, how about you? 07:18.100 --> 07:22.220 If you're married you may have less plans than you used to have, but they're better 07:22.220 --> 07:23.220 plans. 07:23.340 --> 07:25.660 That's a good deal too. 07:25.660 --> 07:34.340 As I make a goal, as I set up a way for me, I tell you what, I have to consider God's 07:34.340 --> 07:35.820 plan for me. 07:35.820 --> 07:37.980 I got plans for you, he said, Fat Albert. 07:37.980 --> 07:44.180 I got plans for you, and he wants to profit me, and he wants me to have a hope and he 07:44.180 --> 07:45.380 wants me to have a future. 07:45.380 --> 07:49.020 He didn't come to punish me, a lot of people are looking at the kingdom of God and saying, 07:49.140 --> 07:55.140 well you guys just preach justice and retribution and hell and things like that. 07:55.140 --> 08:03.140 No, no, that's a small part of what God preaches and what Christ gave his life for, isn't retribution. 08:03.140 --> 08:04.780 It's redemption, isn't it? 08:04.780 --> 08:09.660 That's a better R, redemption, resolution, that's a better word too, isn't it? 08:09.660 --> 08:11.660 Of all of our problems. 08:11.660 --> 08:14.380 What fulfills your dreams? 08:14.380 --> 08:17.300 Each one of us here has a different dream. 08:17.300 --> 08:21.660 My, I don't know, you may want to get the biggest elk in your life, or maybe you had 08:21.660 --> 08:28.980 a dream to have the most good paying job, the most prestigious home in the valley. 08:28.980 --> 08:33.020 I don't know what your dream is, very few people in this group would have dreams like 08:33.020 --> 08:35.940 that, but you know, we all have a variety of dreams. 08:35.940 --> 08:36.940 Why? 08:36.940 --> 08:41.100 Because we're all so unique, so wonderfully different. 08:41.100 --> 08:45.900 Every one of us is different than the other, and that variety makes an exquisite church, 08:45.900 --> 08:46.900 doesn't it? 08:46.900 --> 08:54.380 It makes a whole organic body, fingers, thumbs, and elbows, and noses, and ears, and head. 08:54.380 --> 09:00.700 All those things are different parts, but all glorious, all needed, all wonderful, see, 09:00.700 --> 09:02.980 and all perfect in their own way. 09:02.980 --> 09:06.460 I have a different dream than you have in you men. 09:06.460 --> 09:10.580 If you don't have a dream for your wife, more to be pity. 09:10.580 --> 09:13.020 You should have a dream for your wife. 09:13.020 --> 09:17.860 You reach over and you touch that wiggly little thing that might be close to you, and just 09:17.860 --> 09:24.340 discern that I got a dream, I got a goal, I got a vision for this little guy. 09:24.340 --> 09:28.820 I've got something for this tall, gangly teenager that sets by me. 09:28.820 --> 09:32.100 I have a hope, and I have a dream for them. 09:32.100 --> 09:33.380 I have a vision. 09:33.380 --> 09:36.780 I have a goal that I've purposed for them. 09:36.780 --> 09:39.300 And then you'll have a good family life, won't you? 09:39.300 --> 09:42.500 You'll have a good home, a good heart. 09:43.260 --> 09:50.580 I think that this gives us the fact that we believe that there is a goal and that God 09:50.580 --> 09:56.300 has prepared something better for every one of us, that He wants us to profit, that He 09:56.300 --> 10:00.340 wants us to have some great promises fulfilled. 10:00.340 --> 10:06.660 I think that gives us the power to walk more boldly than we've ever walked before. 10:06.660 --> 10:11.260 I don't mean I'm not plagiarizing that TV that you'll walk boldly where no man has 10:11.260 --> 10:12.260 gone before. 10:12.260 --> 10:17.940 Well, in this case, a lot of men and women have gone for boldly in faith. 10:17.940 --> 10:24.660 But what He wants for you is that you, you, go forth boldly as you never have before, 10:24.660 --> 10:31.260 to live a life without fear, without frustration, without the potential always of defeat. 10:31.260 --> 10:35.260 But rather that you are exalted, and you're lifted up, and in your family life you exalt 10:35.260 --> 10:37.260 one another. 10:37.260 --> 10:42.140 Everyone I see a powerful man exalt a beautiful woman at his side. 10:42.140 --> 10:47.740 I think boys and girls, look how these two Christians live. 10:47.740 --> 10:48.740 Man alive. 10:48.740 --> 10:52.980 When you see a big, old, strong man take a little child and lift him up like this and 10:52.980 --> 10:57.900 exalt that little boy or that little girl, you know that that's love and that's power 10:57.900 --> 11:01.060 and that's authority and that's the way to live, isn't it? 11:01.060 --> 11:03.980 God wants us to exalt, to lift up. 11:03.980 --> 11:06.620 And I want that to be your goal. 11:06.620 --> 11:11.380 Now we have goals for the church and they're good goals and we've hammered them out over 11:11.380 --> 11:16.660 the years and you know what was to seek and that's what the church's business is to seek. 11:16.660 --> 11:24.220 It's to reconcile, it's to restore mankind and it is to equip them to come close to God. 11:24.220 --> 11:26.480 Those are four wonderful things here. 11:26.480 --> 11:31.980 There are many ways you might fulfill those things but we've got a lot of ways, don't we? 11:31.980 --> 11:35.500 Lots of kids in the church, lots of young couples in the church. 11:35.500 --> 11:40.740 You're beginning in a life not at the end but in the beginning of a life and you are 11:40.740 --> 11:47.380 exalted when you lift a child up, when you lift a young woman up, when you lift an elderly 11:47.380 --> 11:52.300 person up, you have exalted them and you've given them a goal and you've helped God accomplish 11:52.300 --> 11:53.300 his purpose. 11:53.300 --> 11:56.220 That's the reason I'm in the church. 11:56.220 --> 12:01.700 Don't you want to be in the church that tries to reach out and to equip, to restore, to 12:01.700 --> 12:04.180 seek, to reconcile? 12:04.180 --> 12:08.340 We're not here for any other purpose that I can think of, the stained glass windows 12:08.340 --> 12:10.780 kind of stink, don't they? 12:10.780 --> 12:17.260 In fact, we only got two and they're cracked and that's because they're cheap and we don't 12:17.260 --> 12:20.100 care about stained glass windows. 12:20.100 --> 12:23.260 Obviously, it's not a pretty thing, is it? 12:23.260 --> 12:27.740 But it's an adequate little church and it's comfortable and it's paid for and it's seen 12:27.740 --> 12:34.160 hundreds of young couples go out and young men and women go out and preach the gospel. 12:34.160 --> 12:39.040 Sometimes they come home to us with great victories to tell us about, you know. 12:39.040 --> 12:47.620 Hebrews 13.5 says, I will never leave you, I will never leave you nor forsake you. 12:47.620 --> 12:50.200 That gives me courage to go boldly, doesn't it you? 12:50.200 --> 12:55.680 If you ever walked in the dark and you know that things in the dark go bump, don't they? 12:55.680 --> 12:59.240 Man alive, have you ever done that in the night, you know, when you stepped on a kid's 12:59.240 --> 13:08.920 doll and all at once there's this terrible shriek and you know, it's scary, isn't it? 13:08.920 --> 13:14.480 But I'm not afraid to go barefoot in the dark, hey, I can boldly go where I've never gone 13:14.480 --> 13:19.280 before because I know that he's not going to forsake me. 13:19.280 --> 13:22.360 I know that I might get hurt and take my licks. 13:22.360 --> 13:26.960 I know that I might get tired, I know that I might stumble, but he's not going to forsake 13:26.960 --> 13:27.960 me. 13:27.960 --> 13:30.560 He's going to be with me, with me. 13:30.560 --> 13:31.800 God is with me. 13:31.800 --> 13:33.280 How wonderful that is. 13:33.280 --> 13:38.520 You know the Spanish phrase, vaya condios, God go with you, what a wonderful blessing 13:38.520 --> 13:39.760 that is. 13:39.760 --> 13:42.400 We know God will go with us. 13:42.400 --> 13:48.640 Listen to the little poem below, Mason, that's not our little pygmy, Mason, but that's the 13:48.640 --> 13:54.880 one that wrote some of the great songs of the inquisition of the dark ages when the 13:54.880 --> 13:58.640 Bible was chained to the pulpit. 13:58.640 --> 14:00.040 That's bad news, isn't it? 14:00.040 --> 14:08.760 And one of those powerful songs or poems was this, a charge to keep I have, a God to glorify, 14:08.760 --> 14:16.400 a never-dying soul to say, and fit it for the sky, to serve the present age, my calling 14:16.400 --> 14:23.360 to fulfill, O may it all my powers engage to do my master's will. 14:23.360 --> 14:31.400 I just am here and you are here because I know that you want to do your master's will. 14:31.400 --> 14:34.200 Well, I've had personal goals before. 14:34.200 --> 14:38.760 One time I announced that for this next year, I think that was two or three years ago anyway. 14:38.760 --> 14:44.560 I said, I'm going to try to do some good deed every day of this next year. 14:44.560 --> 14:47.040 And you know, I did pretty good. 14:47.040 --> 14:51.440 It wasn't anything special, but I went quite a few days before. 14:51.440 --> 14:52.440 Whoops. 14:52.440 --> 14:54.000 My goal wasn't met. 14:54.000 --> 14:56.320 I didn't make it. 14:56.320 --> 15:00.800 Now I'd have to say there were some days I did two things, at least for God, see. 15:00.800 --> 15:03.120 Well that's kind of a counting game, isn't it? 15:03.120 --> 15:05.680 I don't want to count up things I've got to do. 15:05.680 --> 15:09.520 I don't want to go through a series of beads. 15:09.520 --> 15:12.720 I don't want to repeat anything over and over again. 15:12.720 --> 15:13.960 I don't want to be made to do it. 15:13.960 --> 15:14.960 That's works, isn't it? 15:14.960 --> 15:16.760 It just works itself. 15:16.760 --> 15:19.480 But there is a higher calling to a goal. 15:19.480 --> 15:26.520 I want to be made access to Jesus Christ, and I want Him to have access to my heart, 15:26.520 --> 15:33.640 and the two of us together have a goal, a goal that He will bless and embellish, and 15:33.640 --> 15:36.200 a goal that I can live with. 15:36.200 --> 15:39.080 God doesn't want His people frustrated. 15:39.080 --> 15:45.120 And you know, I've often thought the testimony of my life is I have spent many, many nights 15:45.120 --> 15:50.960 being frustrated because I realized that I hadn't done what I thought I should have 15:50.960 --> 15:52.880 done that day for the Lord Jesus Christ. 15:52.880 --> 15:56.400 Have you ever had days or nights like that? 15:56.400 --> 16:02.240 But maybe you're kind of new in your heart that, man, if eternal life had anything to 16:02.240 --> 16:05.880 do with me today, there wasn't going to be much of it in heaven. 16:05.880 --> 16:09.520 Well, and I believe that we have a testimony. 16:09.520 --> 16:13.920 I believe that we're supposed to show people Jesus Christ, that we should be effective 16:13.920 --> 16:16.440 ministers in the faith. 16:16.440 --> 16:19.360 And I want that, but He's not saying that's a labor. 16:19.360 --> 16:23.320 He's not saying that's a work that you have to commit in order to enter into heaven. 16:23.320 --> 16:26.760 And I know that personal goals are good because they're kind of practical. 16:26.760 --> 16:31.080 You know, doing something good for everybody once a day is better than doing something bad 16:31.080 --> 16:32.080 for somebody. 16:32.080 --> 16:35.600 Imagine some of the days Hitler had, there were a lot of days he did a lot of bad things 16:35.600 --> 16:36.600 for a lot of people. 16:36.600 --> 16:39.960 Boy, he had a good night's sleep, I'll bet. 16:39.960 --> 16:41.720 They said he slept like a baby. 16:41.720 --> 16:44.440 He had no conscience of any kind. 16:44.440 --> 16:47.760 He didn't have a living Christ in his heart, obviously. 16:47.760 --> 16:49.280 He did not. 16:49.280 --> 16:54.600 First Peter 1.3 says, he has given us the privilege of being born again. 16:54.600 --> 16:58.520 Man, a lot of people put down that being born again, don't they? 16:58.520 --> 16:59.840 How corny. 16:59.840 --> 17:01.120 You must be born again. 17:01.120 --> 17:04.120 Jesus said seven times must, and that's one of them. 17:04.120 --> 17:07.560 You must be born again. 17:07.560 --> 17:09.000 That makes seven, doesn't it? 17:09.000 --> 17:11.080 Someone was going. 17:11.080 --> 17:12.080 That's not seven. 17:12.080 --> 17:13.440 This is seven, see? 17:13.440 --> 17:16.200 And so, you must, he said, be born again. 17:16.200 --> 17:18.720 He affirms it there in 1 Peter, doesn't he? 17:18.720 --> 17:24.320 He has given us a privilege of being born again so that we are now members of God's own family. 17:24.320 --> 17:28.440 There are many people who don't have a church home, and I really think that's sad. 17:28.440 --> 17:32.360 You need to be part of a spiritual family as well as a physical family. 17:32.360 --> 17:36.880 If your physical family is wonderful, think how much more wonderful a spiritual family 17:36.880 --> 17:37.880 would be. 17:37.880 --> 17:42.840 And someday, Jesus said he would present his body, his bride, his Christ, his church, 17:42.840 --> 17:46.480 his kingdom to the Lord in heaven. 17:46.480 --> 17:50.080 And I want to be part of that family. 17:50.080 --> 17:53.440 That's a great family member to be part of, isn't it? 17:53.440 --> 18:00.840 Ephesians 2.19 said, you are members of God's very own family, and you belong in God's household 18:00.840 --> 18:02.920 with every other Christian. 18:02.920 --> 18:06.040 We belong in God's household with every other Christian. 18:06.160 --> 18:09.720 Boy, a household is a wonderful thing, isn't it? 18:09.720 --> 18:15.600 You ever wake up in the morning and try to find the Wheaties and, oh, we forgot to get 18:15.600 --> 18:16.600 milk? 18:16.600 --> 18:18.600 Well, you go melt the goat. 18:18.600 --> 18:21.160 Maybe we better pick up some eggs while we're at it. 18:21.160 --> 18:22.640 Oh, there's no bread. 18:22.640 --> 18:25.960 By the time you get breakfast organized, you're already exhausted, ladies. 18:25.960 --> 18:27.200 Have you ever noticed that? 18:27.200 --> 18:29.040 Sometimes that's the way it is. 18:29.040 --> 18:32.240 But a household is the most wonderful thing alone, isn't it? 18:32.840 --> 18:36.360 Better than being alone is a household as a place. 18:36.360 --> 18:37.760 Household is an activity. 18:37.760 --> 18:43.320 A household is a source of warmth, of goodness, of being together. 18:43.320 --> 18:49.600 And so I would pray that all of us will be wafted up to heaven someday as part of God's 18:49.600 --> 18:51.160 household. 18:51.160 --> 18:53.600 And I realize there are many households. 18:53.600 --> 18:59.520 There are many wooden and stone and glass boxes that are filled with God's people. 18:59.640 --> 19:03.600 But on the inside of that is where the body is, not on the outside, and certainly not 19:03.600 --> 19:06.320 in the wooden building at all, is it? 19:06.320 --> 19:08.800 There's no mercy in the building, per se. 19:08.800 --> 19:09.800 I help build it. 19:09.800 --> 19:11.720 It looks pretty spastic in places. 19:11.720 --> 19:13.720 That's a small part of it. 19:13.720 --> 19:15.560 But you can see my hand on things. 19:15.560 --> 19:18.400 It's where a smudge is as if something crooked. 19:18.400 --> 19:25.440 Hey, boxes are imperfect, but God's spiritual household can be a perfected thing. 19:25.440 --> 19:27.200 It will help you get to heaven. 19:27.200 --> 19:29.600 It will help you know eternal life. 19:29.600 --> 19:31.920 And the saved are brought into God's household. 19:31.920 --> 19:37.680 And the Lord added daily into the church, such as we're being saved, Acts 2.47. 19:37.680 --> 19:39.680 So that's a wonderful and a rich thing. 19:39.680 --> 19:43.160 I would model myself to be a member. 19:43.160 --> 19:44.160 I really would. 19:44.160 --> 19:49.880 My goal, if I do was not a member, would be to be a member of God's household somewhere 19:49.880 --> 19:51.080 on the face of the earth. 19:51.080 --> 19:54.960 Some physical place where you meet together to break bread, to give offerings, to bring 19:54.960 --> 19:59.320 your tithes, to sing your praise, to unite together to send out missionaries around the 19:59.320 --> 20:00.600 face of the earth. 20:00.600 --> 20:05.240 Man, the communists are still sending out missionaries across the face of the earth 20:05.240 --> 20:07.400 and are still winning many parts of the world. 20:07.400 --> 20:08.400 It's not dead. 20:08.400 --> 20:13.680 There's all kinds of ugly things that are winning the world when we are not. 20:13.680 --> 20:19.080 Listen to the second one, which I think would be that I would set a goal for myself this 20:19.080 --> 20:22.520 next year to model his character. 20:22.520 --> 20:26.160 In other words, to become spiritually mature. 20:26.160 --> 20:30.280 You know, if all the members of the church were spiritually mature, you wouldn't need 20:30.280 --> 20:35.760 goals, would you, for the whole church itself, because everybody would be doing their job. 20:35.760 --> 20:40.800 And we'd all be doing the right things, and we would get it done in a more effective way 20:40.800 --> 20:46.200 if each one of us had the goal of being more like Christ, being more like the Lord Jesus 20:46.200 --> 20:48.800 Christ, see, and his character. 20:48.800 --> 20:55.880 Peter 2.1 says, To this you were called because Christ suffered for you. 20:55.880 --> 21:01.320 Boy, boy, I hope that as you took of the communion this morning, we offered every Lord's day 21:01.320 --> 21:04.520 as the Bible tells us to do. 21:04.520 --> 21:07.320 The Bible tells us to do that. 21:07.320 --> 21:13.200 And I hope that you saw him suffer in that moment of the cup, the loaf, the body, the 21:13.200 --> 21:20.680 blood, the precious gift of the sinless, pure one who died for sinners. 21:20.680 --> 21:25.360 I'm so glad that he did that this morning, and that's what we can offer the world, isn't 21:25.360 --> 21:26.360 it? 21:26.360 --> 21:32.400 Grace, eternal hope, salvation, heaven, heaven to come, see, and heaven on this earth, so 21:32.400 --> 21:40.600 to speak, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow 21:40.760 --> 21:44.520 in his steps, follow in his steps. 21:44.520 --> 21:51.240 I was reading in a little church magazine about a lady in Costa Mesa, California, every 21:51.240 --> 21:54.720 time she turned around, there was this little guy bumping into her. 21:54.720 --> 21:59.720 Now ladies, I don't know whether you've never had that problem here in Wyoming, I'm sure, 21:59.720 --> 22:05.960 but you know, if you had a mansion with 14 stories, where would the kids be? 22:05.960 --> 22:09.480 I've heard people say, We need a bigger home so that we can spread out and, you know, have 22:09.560 --> 22:12.840 more privacy and all that. 22:12.840 --> 22:14.760 Heaven's to Betsy. 22:14.760 --> 22:17.600 If you got little guys, where are they? 22:17.600 --> 22:23.200 On your Achilles tendon, stepping on your heels every time, and you know what I thought 22:23.200 --> 22:24.480 was kind of neat? 22:24.480 --> 22:27.560 This little guy kept bumping into her, and bumping, he says, Honey, what's the matter 22:27.560 --> 22:28.560 with you this morning? 22:28.560 --> 22:32.040 Every time I turn around, I'm bumping into you, he said, Well, teachers said that we 22:32.040 --> 22:34.520 should follow in the steps of Jesus. 22:34.520 --> 22:39.360 I couldn't find Jesus this morning, Mama, but I could find you. 22:39.400 --> 22:43.560 Well, maybe that's why he was chasing you, but moms, you know, they prefer your presence, 22:43.560 --> 22:44.560 don't they? 22:44.560 --> 22:46.280 You have to be very careful of that. 22:46.280 --> 22:50.120 You have to balance that because sometimes you don't need their presence, and it's not 22:50.120 --> 22:51.960 right for you to be present with them. 22:51.960 --> 22:54.520 There are times like that, isn't there? 22:54.520 --> 22:59.600 That little boy maybe had a good Sunday school teacher, and I know there's lots of teachers 22:59.600 --> 23:05.200 here who have had little guys grow up under you, and they followed in your steps, and 23:05.200 --> 23:09.080 they're going to teach little guys to come along and follow in their steps. 23:09.080 --> 23:11.800 That's cool, and that's what it's all about. 23:11.800 --> 23:17.480 How do we do these things, like setting a goal and what have you? 23:17.480 --> 23:21.520 Well, it's, I think, in fairly faithful ways. 23:21.520 --> 23:27.440 First Timothy 4-12 is worthy of your writing down to maybe peruse it at your own speed, 23:27.440 --> 23:32.720 your own velocity, and during study time or devotion time, and I hope you have a family 23:32.720 --> 23:34.720 devotion time. 23:34.720 --> 23:45.400 First Timothy 4-12 says this, set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, 23:45.400 --> 23:48.040 in faith, and in purity. 23:48.040 --> 23:51.120 Well, that's fairly easy steps to follow, isn't it? 23:51.120 --> 23:59.400 Well, first of all, be an example, set a goal, to be like Christ in your speech. 23:59.400 --> 24:02.360 Well, that's not presumptuous. 24:02.360 --> 24:06.760 You know that there's things Christ would not say, and by the same token, you know there 24:06.760 --> 24:14.040 are some things that Christ would say, I forgive you, oh, brother, I hope you're doing better. 24:14.040 --> 24:15.040 Can I help you? 24:15.040 --> 24:17.040 Need a little cash? 24:17.040 --> 24:19.160 Oh, that's one that hurts. 24:19.160 --> 24:22.560 It's hard to be a phony and say that one, isn't it? 24:22.560 --> 24:24.600 Need a little cash, man? 24:24.600 --> 24:25.920 Could that help you? 24:25.920 --> 24:27.920 That's such an easy one to give. 24:27.920 --> 24:29.840 Well, maybe. 24:29.840 --> 24:31.400 Maybe not. 24:31.400 --> 24:33.720 But he says, be an example in life. 24:33.720 --> 24:36.280 That means lifestyle, doesn't it? 24:36.280 --> 24:39.840 Christ's lifestyle had to be perfect. 24:39.840 --> 24:42.000 He saw things that weren't good. 24:42.000 --> 24:49.440 He turned his head, says in every way he was tempted as we are, but he never fell guilty 24:49.440 --> 24:51.400 of the temptation. 24:51.400 --> 24:55.080 He never succumbed to the attack of Satan. 24:55.080 --> 25:00.680 And he got out of there, if that was the case, you see, and he avoided the taint of sin and 25:00.800 --> 25:05.000 any ugliness or any impurity, and that means lifestyle. 25:05.000 --> 25:06.000 And you know what? 25:06.000 --> 25:07.360 I would say this is an important truth. 25:07.360 --> 25:09.600 I wrote it down as a matter of fact. 25:09.600 --> 25:18.520 Success in goal setting comes not just in learning new things, but it is in a lifestyle. 25:18.520 --> 25:23.960 Set a goal for you and your family that can be accomplished by your lifestyle and will 25:23.960 --> 25:29.640 show or demonstrate to the little guys and to the unbelievers as well as the believers 25:29.640 --> 25:35.240 that you're close to Jesus, that you're a pattern in your life after him. 25:35.240 --> 25:44.520 You know, put it over here, that's a sign of age, you know, carefully prepared. 25:44.520 --> 25:48.280 This is a neat book, Spiritual Growth of Children, Focus on the Family. 25:48.280 --> 25:53.520 Focus on the Family is a good, positive, fundamental approach to teaching things. 25:53.520 --> 25:58.960 If you're having trouble with little guys, hey, I tell you, we got a class, don't we, 25:58.960 --> 26:03.680 and what is the title of it? 26:03.680 --> 26:10.880 Okay, and Raising Kids, God's Way, and I'll tell you, it is very important. 26:10.880 --> 26:16.520 A lot of young couples today have bought the idea that children shouldn't be disciplined. 26:16.520 --> 26:18.480 What all are all? 26:18.480 --> 26:23.600 It's antithetical to the Word of God, and children need discipline. 26:23.600 --> 26:28.480 Children are desiring it, children need the framework of right and wrong and yes and no 26:28.480 --> 26:31.920 and you stop it and you stop it now. 26:31.920 --> 26:39.360 And if you don't have that, you'll never have an intact, intact home. 26:39.360 --> 26:45.560 You will always be tied to a child's training program, he's training you, and you're supposed 26:45.560 --> 26:50.960 to raise up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from 26:50.960 --> 26:52.960 those ways. 26:52.960 --> 26:58.040 Kids are real good at training parents, but that's not God's way, and there is a better 26:58.600 --> 26:59.600 way. 26:59.600 --> 27:03.600 And you know, if you're having problems with little guys, we have a rich source, we have 27:03.600 --> 27:08.920 many classes, and we believe it's the heart of a good, happy home is to bring those little 27:08.920 --> 27:12.320 ones along in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 27:12.320 --> 27:16.680 I believe that's the only way to raise kids, and I've raised quite a few. 27:16.680 --> 27:23.040 And what a blessing they were to us, everyone, everyone, and we wanted them all. 27:23.040 --> 27:31.760 You know, this idea of being an example to the believers in our faith, be faithful to 27:31.760 --> 27:39.680 your faith, and then last in purity, we had a neat little program last night for the faith 27:39.680 --> 27:42.280 walkers, the singles. 27:42.280 --> 27:48.080 When you're single, you have to walk on faith, you can't always depend on a buddy, can you? 27:48.080 --> 27:52.520 I know that many of you know that if you're married even, you don't always have a companion. 27:53.520 --> 27:58.520 And that sometimes even with a large family, you may walk much of your life alone. 27:58.520 --> 28:03.520 But remember, you're never entirely alone with the Lord Jesus Christ. 28:03.520 --> 28:12.760 And with your faith, you can have authority to walk with a power and with a victorious 28:12.760 --> 28:17.560 kind of life, and accomplish great things with you and your family. 28:17.560 --> 28:19.920 I believe in that with all of my heart. 28:20.080 --> 28:24.360 The faith walkers, they were talking about what the word purity had to mean. 28:24.360 --> 28:28.600 If I were going to have a goal, I would say, I'd like to be pure like you, Jesus. 28:28.600 --> 28:31.120 I want to be pure like you. 28:31.120 --> 28:36.400 And that's accomplishable, really, in the sense that he never gave us anything, any 28:36.400 --> 28:39.040 commandment that we could not fulfill. 28:39.040 --> 28:41.320 That's what I like about the Word of God. 28:41.320 --> 28:46.600 I'm not given an impossible dogma or doctrine that I can't live up to. 28:46.600 --> 28:50.560 But with grace, see, I can live up to anything. 28:50.560 --> 28:56.000 With God's graciousness, he can fill in the holes in my character and in my weak 28:56.000 --> 29:01.080 framework and cement me and bond me and make me the kind of pure person that I 29:01.080 --> 29:02.080 ought to be. 29:02.080 --> 29:06.320 What a wonderful word that is to be pure, to be pure. 29:06.320 --> 29:11.960 And I think it's particularly important that singles can walk in purity and are 29:11.960 --> 29:14.720 an example before the world. 29:14.760 --> 29:19.600 We have some wonderful, pure people in the congregation. 29:19.600 --> 29:22.200 I don't name myself with that. 29:22.200 --> 29:30.200 I tell you, if you've come out of sin, it's very hard to be totally pure because 29:30.200 --> 29:33.880 your mind has been tainted by the foul mess of the past. 29:33.880 --> 29:37.280 And it's only with the presence of the Holy Spirit that you can overcome such 29:37.280 --> 29:41.360 things, but you can overcome. 29:41.440 --> 29:47.680 And I believe that the way to live and the way to walk in purity is the basis of 29:47.680 --> 29:48.680 the Reformation. 29:48.680 --> 29:51.120 You know what the Reformation was. 29:51.120 --> 29:57.920 Started way back there in 1517, when a man nailed 95 tenets or theses saying, 29:57.920 --> 30:05.320 this is what needs to be done to become a pure church, to become pure worshipers. 30:05.320 --> 30:09.360 And what a wonderful phase of the past that was. 30:09.360 --> 30:16.880 And the call of the Reformation was solos, meaning soul or entire, scriptoria. 30:16.880 --> 30:21.320 Scriptoria meaning we use the scriptures alone. 30:21.320 --> 30:26.760 The scriptures alone are the goal-setting standards of our life. 30:26.760 --> 30:28.280 And that brought on the Reformation. 30:28.280 --> 30:32.880 And I thank God for that because you and I are still part of the Reformation. 30:32.880 --> 30:37.560 I thank God for it, and I praise those who have given their life for it. 30:37.560 --> 30:44.840 One of my goals also would be that I would become a minister of God's grace. 30:44.840 --> 30:52.240 I really think, people, that the world needs grace. 30:52.240 --> 30:57.920 And I believe that many young families are noticing in the day that with integrity falling 30:57.920 --> 31:06.240 apart in politics and in our country, and even at the job or in work, wherever we are, 31:06.240 --> 31:09.080 we see that a man's word isn't as important as it used to be. 31:09.080 --> 31:12.040 And a handshake doesn't mean as much as it used to mean. 31:12.040 --> 31:16.080 And you just wonder, is the world falling apart at its seams? 31:16.080 --> 31:21.680 And in this unseemly time, I think if we could tell the world that we've got something for 31:21.680 --> 31:24.200 you, you can be forgiven. 31:24.200 --> 31:26.320 You can have God's grace. 31:26.320 --> 31:27.680 It's unmerited favor. 31:27.680 --> 31:31.520 You didn't earn anything, but He's going to give it to you for the asking. 31:31.520 --> 31:33.640 It's a free gift. 31:33.640 --> 31:38.720 God's gracious gift, and how important that is. 31:38.720 --> 31:46.200 Look at 1 Peter 4, verse 10, he says, each one should use whatever gift he has received 31:46.200 --> 31:47.480 to serve others. 31:47.480 --> 31:53.580 Now, if I win a million dollars in the lottery, I can't have the feeling that that's one hundred 31:53.580 --> 31:56.960 million dollars for me, and I don't know whether God would ever sanction you winning 31:56.960 --> 31:57.960 it in a lottery. 31:57.960 --> 31:59.480 That's not the way to win money. 31:59.480 --> 32:05.880 If I'm given talent, I have to realize I should use that talent for the service of others. 32:05.880 --> 32:11.400 If I've got a good job, I should use that stable good job to support missionaries and 32:11.400 --> 32:16.120 to support the church and to support the school. 32:16.120 --> 32:20.680 You know, that little school over there is just as sound as this little church is, because 32:20.680 --> 32:25.000 the brunt of its money comes from this small group right here, and the one just before 32:25.000 --> 32:28.720 you an hour ago. 32:28.720 --> 32:33.600 The strength of the school lies in the strength and the integrity of the church. 32:33.600 --> 32:39.680 Right now it's in good hands, but it won't always be unless we decide to win replicas 32:39.680 --> 32:42.480 of ourselves, like DNA. 32:42.480 --> 32:46.920 We should convert others to the faith and show them that there's a great work to be 32:46.920 --> 32:47.920 worked. 32:47.920 --> 32:52.040 You know, we give 20, 25 percent of our income to missions. 32:52.040 --> 32:53.040 That's great. 32:53.160 --> 32:59.560 We always wanted to make it 50, but who knows, 25 is better than nothing, sure, and half 32:59.560 --> 33:06.040 as good as 50, and with those kind of goals, we'll prosper, and the Word of God will certainly 33:06.040 --> 33:07.040 prosper. 33:07.040 --> 33:15.000 Well, my goal would be to have a ministry, whether it's me or whether it's you, that 33:15.000 --> 33:17.720 we should serve in some capacity in some way. 33:17.720 --> 33:20.320 That should be our goal, and I don't know what that is. 33:20.320 --> 33:24.560 My silly little goal, you know, is to do some good, like Boy Scout, do some good.