Let's pray together. Father, how thankful we are for your tender care to us, the way you look after us. Lord, as we are considering where we've been, where we're headed, there's certain things we know; we know where we've been. There's a lot we don't know in terms of where we're going, but we're confident to rest in the fact that you know, because we know you personally, that makes all the difference in the world. And so we have a confident expectation, a settled and a sure hope, a foundation with your everlasting arms underneath.

One thing is for sure, Lord, there's a lot out there buying for our attention, trying to grab it. We have come here today, and just our coming here is a statement that we're interested in spiritual matters to some degree, not all to the same degree. But, Father, it's my prayer that we would surrender our future in a very real way, in a very practical way, to you as a result of our gathering here this morning. Help us to do that, in Jesus' name, amen.

At the end of every year, toward the beginning of a new year, I always notice how news services, agencies, magazines, talk about the previous year. They usually call it "the year in review." They go over highlights and lowlights of the previous year, and just to get us to remember what this year has been like nationally and internationally.

And then typically in those newspapers or magazines, there's somebody who will make a prediction, some expert about the future, what you can expect in the year or years coming. And actually, some of those predictions have been astonishingly accurate, while others have been appallingly inaccurate.

Here's an example of accuracy: Nineteen eighty-seven Apple Corporation predicted the iPhone. Eighty seven? They actually had a prototype. It was like a tablet, sort of like an iPad. It was rather large. It had a screen that had an interface on it. It had a camera on the front, front facing camera. It was both a telephone—it'd be a big telephone for us today, but that was like, wow! A telephone and a reader, and would have the capability, Apple announced in 1987, to voice command search the Internet. Keep in mind the Internet wasn't even around in 1987. It's an astonishing prediction.

But go back a little bit further to the year 1900 when articles appeared in magazines around the country and around the world by a guy by the name of John Elfreth. The name of the article is "What Might Happen in the Next One Hundred Years." In the year 1900 John Elfreth predicted digital photography within a hundred years' time.

Listen to what he writes: "Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance. If there be a battle in China one hundred years hence, snapshots of its most striking events will be published in the newspapers an hour later. Photographs," he continues, "will reproduce all of nature's colors."

Now, keep in mind in the year 1900 the only photography was done with big plates in view cameras with long exposures all in black and white. This guy made an astonishing prediction that we know as a reality today. Not only that, but he said that Americans would be within the next hundred years an average of two inches taller, which is also accurate almost to the tee. And that wireless telephones would span the world. It's an incredible prediction.

But then there are those prophets who say things, and you look at it and you laugh as time goes on. For example, in 1967 experts predicted that by the turn of the century, by the year 2000, technology would have taken over so much of our work that the average American workweek would only be twenty two hours long. Oh, we only wish. And that there would be twenty seven workweeks per year says the article; the result is that one of our biggest problems will be deciding what to do with all of our leisure time. Yeah, right! All of the technology has made us crazier. We're texting while we drive now. I'm not saying I do it, I'm just saying I notice that other people do it.

Technology has sort of taken over our lives and made us busier. So here we are at the end of 2012, considering 2013, wondering what it's going to be like. What is it going to be like? Answer: You don't know. But somebody said it well, "We don't know what tomorrow holds, but we know who holds tomorrow." And that's the hope of the Christian as we look into a new year; we know that God has this whole thing under control.

And Paul knew that, and with that somewhere in his mind, in his heart, he writes a letter, the Book of Ephesians, to a church that he spent three years pastoring in Asia Minor. But as he writes this letter, he is no longer with them. By the time he writes this letter he is in a Roman prison, a jail cell.

And he writes to them to encourage them and to admonish them both in what they should know and in what they should do, and that's basically how the Book of Ephesians is divided. The first three chapters, this is who you are in Christ; the last three chapters, this is how to live for Christ.

Chapters 1, 2, and 3, this is what you ought to know about who you are and what you have. Chapters 4, 5, and 6, this is what you need to do about what you know and what you have. So the first three chapters, the wealth of the believer; and now, the walk of the believer.

By the way, Paul uses that word a lot describing the Christian life, the "walk." Sometimes he says it's a run, but more often it's a walk. It's that steady onward pace. It's the lifestyle of the believer. So beginning in the fourth chapter, and I'm just giving you the context before we jump into the text; I always like to give context with text.

Beginning in chapter 4, he speaks about the walk. Here's how to walk. Walk in humility. Walk in unity. Walk in uniqueness, different from the world. Walk in love. Walk in light. And now, walk in wisdom. That's how this is laid out.

And so with that as a brief background, we look at our verses, chapter 5 of Ephesians, verses 15, 16, and 17. "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is."

Three verses and these three verses yield three simple principles for you and I to navigate the coming year. In fact, not just navigate the coming year, but to navigate the rest of our lives with.

I heard a story about a port, a harbor in Italy, that is so narrow and precarious for ships to get through because of the rocks and the shoals underneath the water that you can't see. That so many shipwrecks happen in this part of the world that eventually the people of that area decided they would put three poles in the harbor at strategic locations.

And on those three poles, three lights so that the ship's captain as he gets near, and as he enters the mouth of the that channel—the idea is that you would align all three of those lights, and once they're all perfectly aligned then the ship could proceed to port.

And that's a good way to look at these principles. As we go through principles for life, certainly for the New Year, let's get the idea that we're going to get all of these lined up, because that's the way to proceed forward in our life with the Lord.

Three basic principles, you don't have an outline in your bulletin this morning, but I'll just give them to you. First of all, walk carefully. In the coming year make sure that you walk very carefully. Look at what it says in verse 15, "See then that you walk circumspectly." That's what my Bible reads, "circumspectly."

Now, that's not a common word, circumspectly. When was the last time you used that in your vocabulary? "Hey, dude, I'm walking circumspectly." That's sort of an older word, but it's a good English word, and it comes from two Latin words. It means basically "to look around." Circum, around. Right? Circumference, circumnavigate, it means around. Spect, like inspect means "to look." So the idea means: look around.

And what he is writing this for: "Walk circumspectly," means that you watch and look around as you make every little step that you make. It's simply a call to exact living, precise living. Live with exactness; live with precision.

Let me tell you something: the Christian life is not to be lived haphazardly, like, "Whatever. Whatever happens happens." It should be lived very carefully with life principles governing how we interact, what we do. Live with exactness; live with precision.

Didn't Jesus say that the gate is narrow that leads to life, and that the path, once you get through the gate, is also very narrow or pressured or constricted? Which means you need to learn, I need to learn, to walk very, very carefully. There needs to be an exactness, a purpose to each step that we take.

Now, I heard this from being a kid. My parents would say as I go outside, "Be careful." If I'd go out barefoot, which I typically did year round, they would say, "Watch your step." And if I would cross the street: "Look at both sides before you cross the street, both directions."

When I was in grade school, my class took a field trip to a dairy. The bus stopped; we got out of the bus. Between us, where the bus was stopped on the side of the road and the place where they milked the cows was a pasture where cows did things.

And the teacher said, "Now, students, we're going to walk to the dairy; watch your step. Look around as you step, and be very careful because you don't want to step in any messes." Well, I thought I did until I got home, looked at the bottom of my shoes, and realized I had not been walking very circumspectly as I was walking toward the dairy.

So, in the coming year rest assured that you are walking through a minefield, or if you want to use the illustration, a cow pasture. And Satan has many little things in the way to mess you up, to get you hung up; so walk very, very carefully.

Some of you remember what happened in June, June fifteenth of this year, this past year. A guy by the name of Nik Wallenda took a walk, a very careful walk. He walked eighteen hundred feet, that's six football fields. You go, "So what? I can do that." No, no. He did this over Niagara Falls on a tightrope; a high wire suspended two hundred feet off the ground.

He walked from the United States of America into Canada on a tightrope. Now, he was tethered to the rope, so in case he would fall he would be caught, and that was because ABC who filmed it insisted that that be the case.

But I did a little research on Nik Wallenda. He comes from a very famous family called "The Flying Wallendas," and they have been an act for many, many years, many generations; father, grandfather, great grandfather, all the way back to Germany, extended family—do all of these high-wire acts.

And as I, I read through their history I thought, "Now, here is a family who has learned to walk very circumspectly." They have to, as they're walking every step counts. So that's the first pole in the harbor. As you march forward in this coming year make sure that you look around, that you measure your step, that there's a precision and an exactness to the choices that you make.

But read on, he qualifies it, "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise," with wisdom. When the Bible speaks about wisdom versus foolishness, it is not speaking about intellectual acumen. It's not speaking about how many degrees you have in school. It's not speaking about human intelligence. Wisdom is more the application of knowledge.

The Greeks used to talk about wisdom, but they sort of meant it in terms of conversational sophistry, and an intellectual acknowledgment, etcetera. But, but wisdom is different; in fact, you can be smart and foolish at the same time.

I read a little article some years ago about measuring knowledge, that mankind is growing exponentially in the knowledge we've been accumulating. So, this person put it this way: that if you could take all of accrued accumulated knowledge from the beginning of recorded history to the year 1845 represented by a single inch, then what we have learned from 1845 to 1945 would be represented by three inches, and what we've learned from 1945 to 1975 would be the height of the Washington Monument in D.C., 555 feet.

What we've learned since 1975 until now has more than quadrupled. The exponential movement in knowledge is astonishing. But again, you can be smart and foolish at the same time. So wisdom means more than just intellectual ability.

What did Paul say when he wrote to Timothy? He spoke about a group of people who are "always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." So when the Bible speaks about wisdom versus foolishness, it's a very different level than what is your IQ.

In fact, according to the Bible, what is the biggest fool? A person who denies God, right? Psalm 14, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' "By the way, I discovered that it's not really speaking necessarily of the atheist, because when David wrote that, there really weren't any around him. It's literally: The fool has said in his heart, "No God." No God.

It's not denying the existence that there is a God. He's just saying, "I don't want God controlling my life; he has no claim over me." Sort of like when you go to a restaurant and you have coffee, and you've had a cup or two, and the waitress comes by and she's about to pour more in, and you put out your hand and you go, "No coffee."

Now when you say, "No coffee," are you denying the existence of coffee in the world? No, you're saying, "None for me right now." The fool says in his heart, "No God. I don't want God making any claim on me."

In fact, you can be a theological Christian, and at the same time a practical atheist. Oh, yeah, you got all your ducks in a row, you know what you believe, you have this doctrine, you believe that wholeheartedly, but the way you live is as though God does not exist in the choices that you make.

So walk carefully in the coming year. Be very, very specific about where you place your steps, not as a foolish person, but as a wise person. In other words, don't live like the world, don't think like the world, don't choose like the world. Let there be a conviction that comes from what you know to be true intellectually. Let, let a conviction arise, and from that conviction will be birthed wisdom.

Now, there's nothing wrong with knowledge. I don't want you to get the idea that I'm down on knowledge or going to school or getting degrees; knowledge is good. In the Old Testament Hosea the prophet says God declares, "My people [perish or] are destroyed because of lack of knowledge." Peter in the New Testament says, "Grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

But the knowledge should be converted into wisdom by its application. And so if you're a wise person, if you're a Christian person, if you're walking carefully, that means it will affect the choices you make, the places you go, the things you buy, the movies you watch. Walk very carefully, that's the first pole in the harbor.

Here's the second, and that comes from the very next verse: watch faithfully. Walk carefully, that's number one. Number two, watch faithfully. Look at verse 16, "Redeeming the time because the days are evil." And the idea is that you are faithfully watching for opportunities; I'll explain.

"Redeeming the time." Now time is interesting, you know, we ah, we know that time is relative; Einstein proved that. But we, we go through our lives with time; we're governed by time. We have a year; we call this what's coming up a "new year." Now, it's going to be another day like any other day, but it's the end of the year: "It's the beginning of a new year."

It's because we've decided that; we've marked that out. We've taken the journey of the earth around the sun. How many days does that take? Three hundred and sixty five days; 365 days, 12 hours, 49 minutes, 12 seconds, roughly, for that journey to occur—we call that a year.

Now, according to the Bible, back then when it was written, the average lifespan was seventy years old. Listen to what it says in Psalm 90 verse 10, "Seventy years are given to us! Some may even reach eighty. But even the best of these years are filled with pain and trouble; and soon they disappear, and we're gone."

So I thought about that, "H'm, seventy years." Now, if I lived to be exactly seventy years old, I calculated that I have from this day 4,586 days left to live. Boy, that, that's just looking at it a whole different way. That's not a whole lot of time.

David writes in Psalm 39:4, "Lord, remind me how brief my time is on earth. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away."

Dr. Billy Graham was asked by a group of students at a university, "Dr. Graham, what's the most surprising thing you've discovered about life?" He instantly said, "Its brevity." Of course, he said, "Its brevity." [laughter] It's so short; it goes by so quickly.

People magazine had an article about an interesting clock, sells for about a hundred dollars, ninety-nine ninety-five. It's a clock that will tell you how much time you have left to live. It takes the average, average lifespan of a man, seventy five; the average lifespan of a woman, eighty; you plug in your current age, gender, and a few things about you, and it will from then on tell you how, how much time you have left to live. I would hate that clock.

So the Bible says the average lifespan is seventy years. People magazine said here's a clock that says the average lifespan for a man is seventy five years. So, so let me change my figures; I don't have 4,586 days, I now have 6,411 days. So life is good.

But that's not the point of the text. When Paul says, "Redeeming the time," he uses a different word than the typical word for time. The typical word for time in the Bible is chronos. Do you recognize that? Chronos, chronology, chronometer is a watch. Chronos, chronological time, calendar time, minutes, seconds, days, hours—that's chronos.

The word he uses is different, it's the word kairos, and that means event time, opportunities that come up. Events, opportunities, moments in time that you are to seize and make the most of, to take advantage of—that's the idea of kairos.

I know a doctor back in North Carolina, he's seventy-one. He's very, very fit, in great shape, rides motorcycles, does all sorts of activities. He went to a clinic—this guy is a heart guy. He went to a clinic where they determine not only—well, they know his chronological age; I just said it's seventy-one. But they'll tell you your physiological age based upon your shape, your health, your arterial health, how your systems are functioning.

And his physiological age, though he's seventy-one chronologically, physiologically he's fifty eight years old. Well, he went to that clinic with a friend of mine who just turned sixty years of age, who isn't as in great of shape. His physiological age is a little bit older than his chronological age. So my friend Dr. Fuhrman likes to say to my other friend, "You know, I'm a lot younger than you are."

That is physiologically, not chronologically. But physiologically is really what counts. Now the reason he's in better shape is that as time goes on chronologically, he sees every meal as a kairos moment, an opportunity to make a good choice about what he's going to eat, or a bad choice about what he's going to eat. When it comes to: "Should I run today or should I not run today? Yes, I'm going to run today." He makes that an opportune time, a kairos moment; so that over time chronologically, the chronos moments, he has seized opportunities that give him a well being and a health over the years.

So the point of the passage isn't counting time; the point of the passage is making your time count, making every moment count, seizing the moment, looking at things as opportunities. Notice a word in the text, the first word of verse 16, "Redeeming the time." What does that mean to "redeem the time"?

Well, you're familiar with the word redeem; it means to "buy back," of going to a slave market. We mentioned, I think, last week or the week before, and, and paying the price and letting the slave get free, and you take that slave home, slave home. So redeem means to buy back.

The word is exagorazo, which comes from a word agora, which some of you know is the ancient marketplace in Greek cities. You go to the agora, the marketplace. Why? To make a profit, that's why.

So the meaning of redeeming the time is taking the kairos moment, the opportunities, and seizing them and making them the most profitable for you spiritually in your future—that's the idea of redeeming the time.

Now, here's why you need to do this; here's why this needs to be the second pole in your harbor as you navigate the New Year. Because we are locked in a time space continuum, and choices are given to us on a daily basis, and we do whatever we want.

We choose what we're going to eat. We choose if we are going to talk to anybody or not. We choose if we're going to encourage a person or not. We can live for others, we can live selfishly, those are choices we make every day.

But here's the deal: One day you'll leave the realm of time and you'll enter the realm of eternity, timelessness. When you're in eternity where there is no time, those opportunities are gone. You'll never be able to share the gospel with another person in heaven. Why? Because everybody in heaven believes already, that's why they're there.

You'll never be able to hand out a tract, you'll never be able to write a book or an article, preach a sermon, write a song, make a phone call, encourage a person—those days are over. So while we have our chronological time, whatever time we have left, make it a kairos moment, an event, an opportunity that you seize for the glory of God.

So walk carefully; watch faithfully. Jesus put it this way beautifully, "We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day, for the night is coming when no man can work." Now is the time to seize those moments.

There's a book out by Leslie Flynn called "It's About Time." He said something in there; I want to share it with you. It's really astonishing; it's arresting. He made a statement, said, "If you are thirty five years old, you have five hundred days left to live."

I thought, "Boy, this guy's not a very good—must've flunked math." But this is how he figured it: if you subtract all the time you'll be spending sleeping, working, eating, hygiene, medical visits, odd jobs, chores around the house; effectively, if you're thirty five years of age, you have five hundred days left out of all of that to do with what you want.

Well, now that just changes my math completely, because I went from 4,586 days upward 6,111 days. Now I'm at about, maybe, 175 days left. But wait a minute; I'm all wrong in my figuring, aren't I? Because the truth is, I may not have a single day left. I can't plan how many days I'm going to live.

Some of you this Christmas season have been made aware of the fact that life is a vapor, and people you love and know are taken suddenly from your midst. And, yes, plans are made, and all of that, but then suddenly your plans change dramatically. That person is taken instantly. I had a couple examples of that in our own life with friends and coworkers, ministry workers that we have known over the years, just happened the last couple of weeks.

The Bible says our life is a vapor; it appears for a moment, vanishes away. You want to know what your life is. You're making all the plans, you're going to do this, do that—haaaaaa—that's it. And it can happen sooner than you think.

So that's why at whatever scale we find ourselves, whatever place on the scale of time, we don't know exactly, some of you won't make it through the year, you use every opportunity as a moment that you seize for the glory of God. Walk carefully; watch faithfully.

Now, he, he does go on in verse 16 to qualify what he means, "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." There's a lot of ways to look at that, but I tell you what, time isn't always our friend. I was reminded of that this morning as I looked in the mirror. I went, "Yeah, time has not been a friend." And it's not going to get any better, and I'm not going to go get something done about it like [stretching face with hands], because it is what it is. [laughter]

But have you discovered, have you discovered that Satan is a thief? He wants to rob what's in your life. He does, he wants to destroy. The Bible says he wants to kill, steal, destroy, rob. One of the things he wants to rob from you more than anything else is your time—gets you to waste your time.

Think how much time is wasted in just sin: petty affairs, shallow affairs, going to bars, saying stupid things, gossiping, petty arguments, holding onto grudges. Think how much time is wasted just by sin. The Bible speaks about people who had opportunities that evil days got the better of them.

For example, Noah preached to those around him for years, and years, and years, but the flood came one day and only eight people were saved, which means the day of opportunity for everybody else was over. They were doomed.

In the New Testament there's the parable about the five wise versions, versions, virgins, and the five foolish virgins. And they weren't prepared, they didn't have oil for their lamps and they were shut out of the wedding feast because they were foolish; they didn't seize the moment, the opportunity.

Jesus stood over the City of Jerusalem and wept over the city that rejected him: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . How often I wanted to gather you, as a mother hen gathers her chicks . . . But you were not willing!" And the day of opportunity passed for them.

And the ultimate example is Judas Iscariot. Hey, he hung out with Jesus in close proximity for three and a half years, and he forfeited his own soul. Wasted time, wasted moments, wasted opportunities, because the days are evil.

Not only does sin rob our time, but you know what? Be careful this coming year, because there will be good things that come into your life that can rob your time. I've discovered that one of the holiest words I can use is the word no. Opportunities come up; it might not be what God wants. I have to be very careful. What does the Lord want here?

Remember that story of Martha in the New Testament? She's cooking a meal for Jesus, Jesus is over for dinner, she's cooking and her sister Mary is just sitting at the feet of Jesus, just soaking it all in. And you know the story goes where Martha comes to Jesus and complains, "Jesus, tell my sister to come and help me. I'm doing all the work by myself."

Remember what Jesus said? He said, "Martha, you are distracted and worried about so many things. But one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken from her." Now, was it a sin for Martha to cook a meal for Jesus? Not at all. But the deal is she became so preoccupied with what she was doing; she forgot: "God is in my living room. I should take advantage of this moment. He might have something to say." "Mary has chosen the better part."

You know we do that every day. We get so caught up with things that we lose sight of the eternal perspective. So we need to watch for opportunities coming up. To put it another way, since time flies, it's up to you to be the pilot. You're the navigator.

You know how, how many people live their lives this way? Let me describe it for you: I was flying this week. I was flying yesterday, coming home yesterday afternoon in time for last night's first service, and we had a layover in Denver, Colorado. What would it be like if I walked into the restroom in Denver airport, one of the many, and I walked in there and I just paused and I looked around and go, "I don't like the paint? Yeah, you know what? A painting here, statue here, maybe a throw rug in the middle could really pep things up."

You go, "Dude! You're crazy. You don't live here; you're in transit. You're going somewhere else. Don't make it all about the airport." So many people live their lives making this earth the airport. That's just what it's all about. All of their focus is on here. Wait a minute, you're going somewhere else. So in time that you have, understand who you are, where you're going, and don't get all hung up on the airport.

Walk carefully; watch faithfully. And the third pole in the harbor to navigate the New Year: work thoughtfully. Work thoughtfully. Verse 17, where we come to a close: "Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." You say, "Great, you're going to leave us with that. As you live your new year just do everything God wants you to do." Yeah, that's a pretty tall order.

That's our problem, isn't it? We want to know what the will of the Lord is in areas, but we don't. So we walk by faith, not by sight. Yet, here Paul is saying, "Therefore don't be dumb, don't be like an unbeliever, don't be unwise, but understand what God wants you to do."

And so we ask the natural question: How do I find out what God wants me to do? Well, I've discovered, and I bet you have too, that God's will is revealed in God's Word. And if you want to be a wise person and live a wise life, you will find the life governing principles that come from Scripture, what God has already revealed. Let's call it God's general will. And if you know God's general will, you'll find out that the special, particular will, will just take care of itself.

You know, we usually get hung up on things like: "What is God's will for where I move, or where I go to school, or what house I buy, or, Lord, should I buy a red car or should I buy a black car?" Let me just say, black's always better, but that's a different story. But then there are those principles we neglect in the Bible, His special will. Now, let me just kind of close with, with this thought. I'm going to give you five areas that the Bible reveals to us exactly what God wants, no ambiguity.

Number one: God wants unsaved people to become saved people. That's God's will. He wants unsaved people to become saved people. Second Peter 3:9, "[God] is not willing that any should perish."First Timothy chapter 2 verse 4, "[He] desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." So without question, God wants unsaved people to be saved people.

Number two: God wants saved people to become holy people, especially in the area of their sexual morality. First Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 3, "This is the will of God, your sanctification," which means holiness, "that you should abstain from sexual immorality; and that each of you should learn to control his own body." So we know without a doubt from the Word of God, this is the Will of God 101 that God wants unsaved people saved. He wants saved people holy.

Here's the third: God wants holy people to be humble people, submissive to their spiritual authority, and submissive to governmental authority. Gods wants that; First Peter chapter 2 verse 13, "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether kings as supreme, or governors . . . For this is the will of God."

So we've learned a lot. God wants unsaved people saved. He wants saved people holy. He wants holy people humble. Here's a fourth thing, this is going to shock some of you: Sometimes God wants saved, holy, humble people to suffer. Why would he do that? Because he loves you. He doesn't want you to be shallow. Wants you and I to grow up. I found two passages in the Book of Peter where he talks about suffering in the will of God. Suffering in the will of God.

And number five: Unquestionably, God wants all people to be thankful. First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 18, "In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you," now, that's God's general rule as revealed in the Bible. If we were to just take that, we'll find that all of the other areas of our life, the specific will, which color of car to buy, it's just going to come naturally. It'll take care of itself.

George Mueller who founded Bristol orphanage years ago in England served ten thousand orphans by faith, had no money, by faith for years. He said, "Ninety percent of our problems are solved when we are ready to do the will of God whatever it might be."

But I got to thinking as I was preparing for this message. You know, if we, as a church, kind of made a pact together that in the coming year we're just going to concentrate on these five things and no more, that we're all going to be about what God just said in his general revelation, it would revolutionize us.

It would revolutionize our city, our state, our country, because what it would mean is that we would be preaching to lost people, we would become more set apart for Jesus Christ, we would become humble and submissive and honoring of people around us, we would not complain because we would be thankful in all things—that would be revolutionary. So, we don't know what tomorrow holds, we know who holds tomorrow. We're navigating some waters that are pretty rocky, but just keep these three principles lined up and its full steam ahead.

I want to close with something I found, it's an Irish prayer. You know, wherever you find an Irish blessing or an Irish prayer you, you always got to be careful. You know, they say some funny things like, [using an Irish accent] "May you make it to heaven a half hour before the devil knows you're dead." You know, things like that. [laughter]

But here's a really good one that I found: "During the new year may you have enough happiness to keep you sweet, enough trials to keep you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to keep you happy, enough failure to keep you humble, enough success to keep you eager, enough friends to give you comfort, enough wealth to meet your needs, enough enthusiasm to make you look forward to tomorrow, and enough determination to make each day better than the day before."

Let's pray. Father, here we are again at the end of the year, just moments away from a new year. That's a period that we have from a human perspective chosen, marked out, as a way to keep track of past events and stay on target in our present life, being in certain places on time, but, Lord, you are the Lord of time and eternity.

One day we will leave the time and space continuum, where we will be in timelessness in eternity, and the present now, the eternal now. And it's interesting that you'd use that term so often in the Scriptures: "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." I pray that would be our word in the coming year.

That as we survey the landscape being very careful about where we walk and what we do, that we will look at events as opportunities, and we would seize the day, seize the moment. And that we would work for you and use our energies with our thoughts intact, with that precision intact, very thoughtfully, knowing, understanding, what your will is simply because you have revealed certain principles to us that we pray and hope will become a part of the fabric of who we are.

Lord, I pray for those here this morning that don't know you personally. It's their opportunity to bring to reality the first in that list of five things you want. You want those who don't know you to know you, the unsaved to be saved. You are not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to eternal, everlasting life.

If you're here this morning and you don't know Christ, you've never made a personal surrender of your life to him, now is your moment, your kairos time, your opportunity.

Right where you're sitting you can invite Christ into your life. If you want to do that right where you are, I want you to pray this. You can say it inside your own heart, your own consciousness, your own mind. If you'd like, you can pray it out loud; that's even better.

Say: Lord, I know that I'm a sinner. Forgive me, please. I believe that Jesus died for me, that he shed his blood for my sin, and that he rose again from the dead to conquer death. I turn from my sin. I turn to you as my Savior. I want to live for you as my Lord. I pray that you would help me to do that, in Jesus' name, amen.