Ephesians 1: 1-10

1From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God?s will. To the holy and faithful people in Christ Jesus in Ephesus.[a] 2?Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

3?Bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven.?4?God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in God?s presence before the creation of the world.?5?God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love. This was according to his goodwill and plan?6?and to honor his glorious grace that he has given to us freely through the Son whom he loves.?7?We have been ransomed through his Son?s blood, and we have forgiveness for our failures based on his overflowing grace,?8?which he poured over us with wisdom and understanding.?9?God revealed his hidden design[b]?to us, which is according to his goodwill and the plan that he intended to accomplish through his Son.?10?This is what God planned for the climax of all times:[c]?to bring all things together in Christ, the things in heaven along with the things on earth.

Jeremiah 29: 4-7, 10-14

4?The?Lord?of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims to all the exiles I have carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon:?5?Build houses and settle down; cultivate gardens and eat what they produce.?6?Get married and have children; then help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number there so that you don?t dwindle away.?7?Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the?Lord?for it, because your future depends on its welfare.

10?The?Lord?proclaims: When Babylon?s seventy years are up, I will come and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.?11?I know the plans I have in mind for you, declares the?Lord; they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope.?12?When you call me and come and pray to me, I will listen to you.?13?When you search for me, yes, search for me with all your heart, you will find me.?14?I will be present for you, declares the?Lord, and I will end your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have scattered you, and I will bring you home after your long exile,[a]?declares the?Lord.

????? Over the last two weeks we have begun on journey to living a healthier life. In order to do so, we have talked about importance of honoring your body and treating your body as the temple God designed it to be. We have worked through the importance of lasting change and that lasting change comes through dedication, concentration, evaluation, cooperation/group support, affirmation and love, and motivation and enthusiasm. Lasting change comes from being in God in all we do. Today, we are going to tackle goals. The passages from Jeremiah and Ephesians talk about the importance of God?s plans for God and for God?s people. These two passages are the base for me in sharing the message today. I am also going to use many of passages from scripture that talk about goal setting. You have them on your handout for taking notes today.

When I say the words ?goal setting? what is the first thing that comes to mind? Some phrases I have heard are: I stopped doing that! Settings goals doesn?t really work! I did that when I was working, but I don?t do that now that I am retired. They start off well, but then I just kinda quit doing them. I love goal setting! It brings me so much joy to accomplish something. And many other things can be said! The biggest thing when it comes to goal setting is believing the goals are possible and having the faith to believe you can change and set some faith goals. And I want us to hold on to the word that I added in goals. We need to have some faith goals.

When Rick Warren asked a world famous psychiatrist said this question, ?In all of your practice over the years, what has been the most helpful thing you?ve given to people that has made a difference in their lives as they were seeking change?? The psychiatrist said, ?There?s no question about it: I?ve discovered the most helpful thing I can do for people in a personal or relational problem is help them to set personal goals.?

Personal goals ? why is that? Why do I need to set personal goals? The Bible shares with us five very important things.

Goal setting is a spiritual discipline.

It?s far more than just a good idea. It is a spiritual discipline. Like prayer, like fasting, like spending time alone with God, like giving. Like all the other different spiritual habits and disciplines that help you grow, goal setting is a spiritual discipline. In fact it can be an act of stewardship where you say ?God, I want to make the most of what I?ve been given.? It can be an act of worship saying, ?God, I give you back the life you?ve given to me and I want to use it and I want to go your direction.? It can be an act of discipleship. When you do it with other people it is an act of fellowship. It actually can fulfill all of the purposes of God in your life. It?s a spiritual discipline.

There are four kinds of people in the world.

There are people who make things happen.
Then there are people who watch things happen.
Then there are people who have no idea what?s happening.
Those who never do anything themselves but criticize those who are making the effort. That?s the worst group of all because they?re just sitting around taking pot shots at people who are at least trying to do something with their lives.

One of the reasons why we need to set goals in every area of our lives is because God sets goals. God is a goal setting God. You may not have realized this but God has goals for history that have not happened yet. God has goals for his family, the church, that haven?t happened yet. God has goals for your life that have not happened yet. God is a planner. God is a goal setting God. God wants you to set goals too. God plans and God wants us to be like himself.

In our passage from Ephesians, verse 10 says ?This is what God planned for the climax of all times:[c]?to bring all things together in Christ, the things in heaven along with the things on earth.? First circle the phrase ?God plans?. Notice God plans. God doesn?t just sit around and let things happen. God plans what?s going to happen. God is a planning God.

Some people think, I?m not going to plan; I?m just going to trust God. I?m not going to make any plans for my life. I?m just going to kind of go with the flow. Friends, that?s not spiritual ? that?s stupid! The Bible says God plans and you should make some plans too. You should not go one more day into this decade without some plans. Otherwise you?re just drifting.

We don?t want to drift through life. God doesn?t want us to drift through life. We need to plan and move toward a goal. In doing so, we are embodying God?s goal setting nature and creating goal setting is a spiritual discipline.

Goals focus my energy.

Energy that is not focused is diffused and it doesn?t have much power. Energy that is focused has enormous power. Paul models this in 1 Corinthians 9. He says ?I do not run without a goal. I fight like a boxer who is hitting something – not just the air.? I?m not just out there running around in circles. A lot of people you know are running around in circles. He says I?m running toward a goal. I run to win.

I don?t want you running around in circles. I don?t want you just boxing in the air and not hitting anything. Paul says I have a purpose. I have a goal in everything that I do. That helps us focus. The reason that?s important is because you don?t have time for everything. Would you agree with that? You don?t have time for everything. The good news is God doesn?t expect you to do everything because not everything is worth doing in the first place.

Sometimes we struggle with what is urgent and what is important. I know I do. The urgent is almost never the most important thing. What?s most important in your life is the stuff that?s easiest to set aside. I want to spend time with God, but I set it aside for what?s urgent. I want to spend time with my family, but I set it aside for what?s urgent. The urgent almost always pushes the important out of the way. So urgent doesn?t mean it?s most important. It just means it?s urgent. A lot of stuff isn?t going to matter tomorrow. Goals focus my energy.

Do you ever get to the end of the day and go, where did all my time go? It?s because you were unfocused. You didn?t have a goal.

The Bible says this: ?Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days.? We are to make the most. That means don?t waste our time on nonessentials. It means you need to know the difference between urgent and important, pressures and priorities, activity and achievement. You need to know what matters most.

The secret to an effective life, if you want your life to count, is focus. Don?t try to do fifty things that you dabble in. Know what?s most important and do those things and don?t worry about anything else. This is something that I am learning I need to work on in my life!

Goals are not only a spiritual discipline and they focus my energy but the Bible says?

Goals stretch my faith.

Actually, goals are statements of faith. Godly goals are statements of faith. They affirm your trust in God. When you say, I believe God wants me to accomplish this by this date, that?s a statement in faith.

Dreams are good, but dreams don?t do anything unless you wake up and go to work. There are dreams and then there are resolutions and then there are goals. The best of all is goals. A lot of people have dreams and don?t do anything about it. They just keep on dreaming. Then other people set resolutions and there?s nothing wrong with resolutions, but you?ve got to have the other things behind it ? like a team, accountability, the power of the Lord, and things like that. It?s to say, I want to do this, but a goal is a dream with a deadline. A goal says by the end of 2018, I?m going to have this job, I?m going to weigh this amount; I?m going to have read this number of books. It?s specific, it?s measurable.

The Bible tells us that God wants us to set goals because it stretches our faith. That?s so important because the Bible says, ?Without faith it is impossible to please God.?

The Bible says in Matthew 9:29, ?According to your faith it will be done unto you.? You have never really trusted God until you have attempted something that can?t be done by ?my? own power. If you can do this on your own power, then you don?t really need any faith. So, faith goals are those that are so big they force you to depend on God.

You let the size of your God determine the size of your goal. And we have a big God so we?ve set big goals. We don?t have a puny God. We set big goals and we watch God work in a big way.

If you are a business owner or a leader in some area, let me tell you the most common mistakes leaders and people in business make for your business. The biggest mistake we make is we set the goals too low and we try to accomplish them too quickly. What you need to do is set bigger goals for your business and then spend the rest of your life going after them. If it?s not worth the rest of your life, it?s probably not worth five minutes. So don?t set little goals and try to accomplish them quick. Set big goals.

The problem with goals when they?re done in faith is they almost always get fulfilled earlier than you thought.

I guess what I?m doing is I?m challenging you to dream great dreams for God and then set a deadline on it. Say, this is what I?m going to do in faith. Ask God, what would require me to have faith.

The next thing about dreams is it doesn?t cost anything. It doesn?t cost you a penny to dream. But you can set a goal and nothing happens until you start dreaming.

The Bible says in Romans 14:23, ?Everything that does not come from faith is sin.? So how many times did you sin yesterday? A lot! And so did I. Because most of what we do doesn?t require any faith.

How do you know when you need faith? You?re taking a risk. If there are no risks in your life, if you are playing it safe in every area of your life, then that is not pleasing to God. Playing it safe is not pleasing to God. Because you?re not trusting him. You?re not depending on him. It doesn?t require any faith so you?re being unfaithful.

Goals are a spiritual discipline. Goals focus my energy. And goals stretch my faith.

Goals build my character.

They build, they develop, they cultivate my character. Listen very carefully to this. The reason I?m teaching you on the power of faith goal setting is not so you can just accomplish a bunch of things. I?m happy for that. I?m glad. But what I?m more interested in is what happens to you and what happens to your character. The greatest benefit of setting goals in faith is not that you reach your goal and accomplish what that is. It?s what happens in you on the journey. What you become on the journey. What changes in you on the journey. Who you become for taking the journey to build your character.

One of the ways you develop character is by setting a goal and going after it and not giving in when you have all kinds of difficulties. It is in that process, that struggle, you develop the kind of character that God wants you to have. While you?re working on the goal, God is working on you.

If you don?t have any goals for this next decade, what?s God going to work on? If you don?t have any dreams, then really why do you even get out of bed? What is the struggle? While you?re working on your goals, God?s working on you because that?s going to last for eternity. Life is a course in character development.

Paul is honest about this, about growing in character, becoming more and more like Christ, maturing and the struggle that it is, that it?s not slow.

Paul says, ?I do not claim that I?ve already succeeded [In other words, reached my goal] or have already become perfect. [That my character is fully developed.] I keep striving toward the goal for which Christ Jesus has won me to himself.?

What is that goal? You know what God?s number one goal is for your life? It?s not to make you happy ? that?s a side benefit. It?s not to make you comfortable because it?s not always comfortable. It?s not to make you secure because life isn?t always secure. This isn?t heaven. This is earth. God?s number one goal in your life is to make you like Jesus Christ. God wants you to grow up in character. God wants you to learn to respond to everything the way Jesus did ? to trials, to troubles, to tribulations, to difficulties, to problems. God wants you to know how to handle criticism. God wants you to know how to handle enemies. God wants you to know how to be kind to people who can?t pay you back. God wants you to learn how to love people who are unlovely. God wants you to learn how to forgive the people who have hurt you. God wants you to learn the fruit of the Spirit ? love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. God wants you to learn the fruit of the Spirit. That?s character. That?s becoming like Christ. God wants you to become like Jesus.

?Then we will be mature, just as Christ is, and we will be completely like him.? Let me say this to you. As your pastor, this thing about becoming like Jesus, it?s not automatic. It?s not easy. And it?s not instant. It takes time. In fact, it?s going to take the rest of your life to grow in character. It?s going to take an entire lifetime. There is no pill I can give you that will make you instantly mature, and all of a sudden you?re not worried any more. You?re patient. You?re loving to everybody. You never get upset. You?re never afraid. I can?t give you a seminar, a conference, an event that?s going to take away all of those things in your life that mess up your life. It?s going to be a process, and that is the process of how goals build my character.

So, you should have spiritual goals. I want to be more kind this next year. But how? How am I going to measure that? You need to think that through. I want to treat my spouse or children better. Specifically, how? Can you measure it? Goals build my character. They make me more like Christ if they?re good goals.

Goals give me hope.

The reason why you need to set goals is goals give you hope, and you have to have hope in life. You must have hope to cope. You can go without water for a day or so. You can go without food for many days. You can go without air for a few seconds. But you must have hope in your life. It?s essential to life.

The fact is life is tough. Everybody agree with that? Life?s tough. It is not easy. This is not heaven on earth. And life is full of losses and full of accidents. And it?s full of illnesses and stuff happens. I don?t know what?s going to happen in the next ten years of your life. I don?t know what?s going to happen in my life. I do know this: there will be problems. I do know there will be pain. I do know that we will all lose people that we love. That?s life. You?re going to go through difficult times.

But what happens is, if you?ve got goals, goals give you the hope to keep moving forward even in the losses of life. Goals keep you moving forward when you feel like giving up. They?re like magnets that draw you forward, that pull you forward. Without a goal you don?t have any reason to go on. You don?t have any reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Job had to deal with this. Remember when Job lost everything in his life? He says this in Job 6:11 ?I do not have the strength to endure. I do not have a goal that encourages me to carry on.?

I don?t know what you?re going through right now, but I?m sure some of you are going through some really tough times. Maybe you think, I?m going through hell right now. I?m going through hell! What do you do when you?re going through hell? You keep going. You certainly don?t want to stop and have a tea party. When you?re going through hell, you keep going. And you eventually get out of it. You?re walking through it. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I?m not going to stay in the valley of the shadow of death; I?m going to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I?m going to go through it.

So, without a goal you don?t have a reason to get out of bed, but you keep on going. No goal, if you don?t set any goals for your life for this next year, your goal is the goal to stay the same. It?s the goal by default. If I say to you, what?s your goal for your health this year? And you say, I don?t have one. Then your goal is to stay the same or get worse.

If I say, what?s your goal for your finances this year? And you say, I don?t have one. Your goal is to stay the same or to go further in debt.

What?s your goal for your career this year? I don?t have one. Then your goal is just to go around in a circle. The status quo.

What?s your goal for your marriage? I don?t have one. Then it?s not going to get any better.

What?s your goal for your relationship with the Lord? I don?t have one. Then you?re not going to get closer to him.

You need a goal. If you aim at nothing you?re going to hit it. You?re going to hit it! Long term goals keep me from being discouraged by short term setbacks. Everybody has setbacks. I have setbacks in my life every single day. I deal with tough stuff every single day of my life. But if you have a long-term goal, you?re looking at that and short-term setbacks don?t slow you down.

I have held onto this verse from Jeremiah during times of discernment: ?The plans I have for you are plans to prosper you, [That?s what God says about you.] not to harm you. They are plans to give you a hope and a future.? You need to have some plans that coincide with God?s plans for your life.

I don?t fully know what?s going on in each persons? life. But the reality is some of you have just been coasting. You?ve been drifting along. You?ve been going through life aimless, maybe during the entire recession or maybe for months or years or even longer. Do not waste any more time. For some, there isn?t much time left. Make a decision to live life differently.

Maybe you?ve gotten stuck in the past or maybe you?re just bogged down by today; the bottom line is you need to set some goals. You say, I?m discouraged like Job. I have no reason to get out of bed. You need to set some goals.

It?s important to realize that not every goal is a good goal. Not every goal is a godly goal. Not every goal is a goal that gets God?s blessing. You obviously want God?s blessing on your goals, so what kind of goals does God bless. I?m not going out there and set goals that God isn?t going to help me with.

I need to set good godly goals. Five things. What kind of goal will God bless in my life?

Godly goals, the kind that God blesses, bring glory to God.

That?s an obvious one but let?s just say it. The goals that God blesses are those that bring glory to God! 1 Corinthians 10:31 says this, ?Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.? The Bible says you can do everything in life to the glory of God, if you?ve got the right attitude, the right motivation, the right reason. Anything can be done to the glory of God if you do it with the right motivation.

It says, whether you eat do it to the glory of God. I?ll be honest with you, if I sit down at a restaurant I don?t naturally think which food is going to bring the most glory to God. I?m not thinking that at all. I?m thinking which smells, tastes, and probably is the most calorie loaded. But would I be healthier if I asked that question? Yeah, certainly.

There?s a bigger issue here than this. It is that no matter what you do in life, it can be done to the glory of God if you do it with the right attitude and the right motivation. What is the right attitude? Gratitude.

And I want to bring honor to you. You could take the garbage out. You say, Lord, I?m taking this garbage out and talking to you at the same time. You just keep this running conversation in your mind, practicing the presence of God all the time. Anything can be done for the glory of God.

What kind of goal brings glory to God? Any goal that causes me to love Jesus more is going to bring glory to God. Any goal that causes me to be more grateful to God, any goal that causes me to want to serve God, any goal that causes me to be more drawn to him, any goal that causes me to want to brag on God to other people and share testimony and witness and say, Look at what God did for and through me! That?s a godly goal. So that gives you a whole lot of room. Any goal that?s going to cause you to love Jesus more as you fulfill it and cause you to obey him more and trust him more in going after it, that?s a good goal. So you want to bring glory to God by loving and trusting and serving and obeying.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:9, ?We make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.?

Godly goals, the kind of goals God blesses are motivated by love.

This is very important because God is far more interested in why you do what you do than what you actually do. God?s much more interested in your heart, than your actions. God wants to know why you do what you do. Why did you set this goal?

God is not going to bless a goal that is motivated by fear. God?s not going to bless a goal that is motivated by guilt. God is not going to bless a goal that is motivated by pride. [I just want to be better than everybody else ? by ego] Some people set goals by peer pressure ? everybody else is doing it. I need to do this. They?re all upgrading ? I need to upgrade. Some goals are motivated by jealousy and envy. God isn?t going to bless that kind of goal. Some goals are set because of materialism ? I just want to get more ?greed. God isn?t going to bless a materialistic goal, I just want to get more. There?s no reason God would bless that. Jealousy and pride and fear and anger.

God blesses goals that are motivated by love. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 16:14, ?Everything you do must be done with love.? Why? Because that?s the number one lesson in life. Remember? God is love and God put you on earth to learn how to love and share that love with your neighbor. And if you don?t learn that, it doesn?t matter what you accomplish or what you acquire or what you do or what you experience, because God put you here to learn love ? to learn to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and to learn to love your neighbor as yourself. Learn to love God and learn to love others. That?s the big lesson. So, if you?re not learning love in your goals, God?s not going to bless it. Why you do what you do is more important than just what you do.

There are two kinds of love that motivate us to set goals. Our love for the Lord, for Jesus, and our love for other people. When you use those two motives to set your goals, ?Lord, I want to get in shape because I want to give you a healthy body. I want to get in shape because I love my family and I want to last and not die prematurely. I want to get in shape because?? And you?re doing it for others and for God, not simply because I want to look sexier. You?ve got a better goal and God can bless that.

The first is my love for the Lord. The Bible says this, ?The life I live in the body I live by the faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.? Jesus Christ gave himself for you on the cross. He loved you and he does love you. And he gave himself for you. How could you not love him back? If somebody died for you, wouldn?t you love them? Yes, you would. Jesus Christ died for you.

The other motivation is our love for other people. The Bible says this, ?No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another?, if we love one another God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.? If you set goals in your life without love then people become projects. You will use them to get to your goal. Then you miss the whole point of it. Because the whole point is learning how to love. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 14:1, ?Let love be your highest goal.?

Godly goals that bring glory to God and are motivated by love?

Godly goals fulfill one of God?s purposes for your life.

If you want to have a goal that God is going to bless, that God?s going to get behind, that God?s going to help you with, you need to set a goal that fulfills one of God?s purposes for your life.

God has five purposes for your life. God says when you?re fulfilling my purposes I?m going to help you.

When you pray, do you pray to use God for your purposes, or do you pray to align yourself with God?s purposes. You say, God you made me. You have a plan for my life. What do you want me to do with my life? How can I serve you forever? Let God use you for his purposes.

The Bible says this, ?Do not use any part of yourselves to sin or to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God? surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes.?

Paul did this. He says, ?I run straight toward the goal with purpose in every step.? Paul was a purpose driven runner. He said when I?m going through life, I?m running toward the goal. I want to please Christ. I want to follow him. I want to do what God wants me to do. He refuses to be distracted.

The Bible often compares life to a race. In a race you don?t get to set the finish line. It?s already been preset. You don?t get to move the finish line. You make progress one step at a time. That?s the way you go towards your goals ? one step at a time. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. You set a big goal and then you go after it one step at a time ? making progress, with purpose in every step. You may have some mishaps. You may fall down. But the good news is, life is not a fifty-yard dash. Because if it were, most of us wouldn?t make it. Life is a marathon. Here?s the key to the marathon of life: God doesn?t care how fast you run it. He just wants you to get to the finish line. You?re not in a race to run fast. You?re in a race to end well. You?re in a race to get to the finish line.

Godly goals fulfill God?s purposes.

Godly goals are set in faith.

If you want God?s blessing on your goal you?ve got to set one big enough, that it requires faith. If you set a goal that?s too small and you can do it in your own power, that?s not a goal. That?s just a to-do list. A goal is something that?s big enough that you?re going to have to trust God and depend on him to make it.

I want to encourage you this week to set a health goal for your life. If everything you do in life you can do in your own power, you don?t need God. Then you don?t need any faith. And ?without faith [the Bible says,] it is impossible to please God.? So you?ve got to set a goal that?s big enough, that stretches you, maybe scares you a little bit. Then you have to trust God.

Godly goals are not only motivated by love, fulfill his purposes, set in faith?

Goals are achieved with God?s power.

They?re not achieved by your own power. But the kind of goals God blesses are so big that God has to step in and help you and give you the strength and give you the energy to do it. Godly goals are achieved with God?s power.

I looked up on the internet the other day on Amazon. There are now 86,981 self help books. That?s a lot of advice. The truth is some of those books actually have some good advice in them. The problem is they don?t have what this book has and only this book has. Only this book gives you the power to do it. Self help books will often tell you the right thing like, manage your time well. Yeah that?s good. How? And it will tell you things like, don?t hold on to past grudges because they?re going to mess up your life. That?s obvious. But did you ever try to do it? Ever try to forgive somebody who?s really hurt you? You say, I just can?t forgive that person! You?re right. That?s why you need God. You need him to give you the power to let it go. Because he forgave you and he?ll give you the power to forgive them.

You say, it says don?t worry. That?s easy to say. Where do you get the power to not worry? Where do you get the power to be patient? Where do you get the power to love unlovely people? Where do you get the power to do the right thing, the honest thing, the ethical thing when everybody else is cheating? You only get power from this book. From God?s Word. So godly goals are achieved with God?s power.

Let?s just be honest. How many years have you started off in January with a new resolution and a new desire or a new diet or whatever, and only a few weeks later to be back in the same spot? Because you didn?t do the two things the Bible says you have to do. One, rely on God?s power. And two, get a partner or a small group for accountability. You will not stick without those two things. God?s power in your life and community. God?s power in your life and other people who are a part of the process. You will not get well on your own. You will not change on your own. You need the support of a small group or you need the support of a spiritual partner, an accountability partner.

The Daniel Plan which is based on Daniel 1, a fifty-two week health program. This is not a diet. It is a lifestyle. Diets just go up and down and up and down. Our small groups are going to study this for six weeks. I?ve asked every small group to pick one person in your group who will be a health champion.

You?ve got to have godly goals achieved by God?s power. Let?s look at these last three verses.

?We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it.? That?s why we fail at our resolutions. We don?t depend on him. The Bible says, ?You will not succeed by your own strength or power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.? The Bible says, ?Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, [That means in your finances, in your sex life, in your health, in your career] Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.?

So many of you are still tired all the time even though you?re living on Red Bull and Starbucks. You know what? If you do it God?s way you?re not going to need to depend on Red Bull and Starbucks.

First you?ve got to trust the Lord with all your heart. Then you?ve got to get some spiritual partner in your life. You can?t do this on your own. You?re going to have to get a partner in your small group. Say, I want to do this Daniel Plan with you. We?ll check up on each other and help each other out. Invite a friend and do it.

I just taught it to you. It?s yet to be done.

Let me tell you a new goal. I want to challenge you, for the glory of God, to consider what might happen in your life if you would believe that you could be, at the end of this year, healthier than you were ten years ago ? because you did it God?s way, with God?s power, and God?s people.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I thank you for our church family. We love you and we love each other. We greet this new decade with great enthusiasm. We want to give you all of our lives. Help us to take the time to sit down and make some faith goals in areas of our lives. I pray that the message will not just be heard but it will be done. In your name I pray. Amen.