This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Avalon Park, Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. We are in part two, second week of a new sermon series that only has three parts actually. It's called our Back to School list because whether or not you are a student, if you're a parent, this is on your mind, and even if you don't have kids, your kids are grown or gone, or whatever else, this community, which by the way has 87% of the homes, have at least one child in it, is run, is driven by the school calendar. And it's starting up. There's been things in the news, there's been things going on in your house, you can't go into a store without seeing things going on. So it's on our radar, and in many ways as we talked about last week, really the start of a new year, more than January 1st, in many ways, really is the start of the school year for a community like this. So as we're thinking about that, I want to challenge you to not just prepare for a school year, and some of you got to do that in very specific, tangible ways. Right guys? Yes. Painful ways. To think through, how are you starting off? What are things, are you ready for the new school year? Well, we talked about last week, a very primary tool. We talked about the compass. Now the compass is not that little cool, mathematical thing we talked about. We talked about a real compass. You've got to know true North, you've got to know where you're headed, because you're headed somewhere, and you're sure to hit nowhere, if you don't know where you're headed, you'll be right on, but if you want to hit somewhere, and if it needs to be something important, and something that counts for eternity, you better have a compass. You better know where true North is, and you better trust the instrument over the other senses that things around you. And we talked about last week how God's Word tells us very clearly, and it's a very different type of tool than the average person uses to determine what is really important. God's Word says, hey, you want to know what's most important? And Jesus said to himself, once I said, hey, what's the greatest commandment? Jesus came up and specifically said, you want to know what the greatest commandment is? You want to know what pleases God most? You want to know what's most important for you? And I'm telling you as your creator, I'll tell you. Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. He summed it up. He said, oh, yeah, in part two, love your neighbor as yourself. If you want the second one. Jesus said, boil down to that love for God above all else. We unpackaged that last week, and if you missed it last week, you can listen to that sermon online for free, or just go back to that text, and Matthew 22 and read it and ponder and think about it, what it means. But what it means is that God's got to be central in your life. God's got to be most important. And it's not just because God needs that, because he doesn't. It's not because God's egocentrical, as though he's insecure. He's not, but there's nothing more glorious than God himself. And God knows that. The problem is we don't, because we live in a sinful world. We have sinful minds, and God's saying, believe the truth. You're not going to get this natural. You're not going to get this reading in the newspapers. You're not going to get it in popular books like The Secret, as we talked about last week. But this is the secret, and I want you to reclaim it to the world. Well, how do we build on that? Where do we go from that? Another tool you must have is something that we'll just call the calculator. You've got to be able to calculate. What does that mean? What does it mean to take what is most important? And if you really want to follow God, God's saying, it's me. It's loving me above all else, and me being the biggest passion of your life. And me being the center of your life in every aspect, not just Sunday mornings, every aspect of your life. Then what does that mean? How do we calculate that? Nothing can involve something called intentionality. And I want to talk to you and challenge you about that this morning. But before I dive right into that, let me tell you an interesting quote. Not a quote, or just a statistic I learned this week. Did you know that the number of cars, automobiles, is increasing three times faster than the population? Now, that's kind of ironic, if you think about it, because if that trend continues to go in that direction, and knowing what we know about the high cost of fuel, at least the last year or so, and thinking it could even go up higher, it can be mind-blowing here. But cars are worthless without fuel. They need that to sustain that. And let me tell you this, that intentionality is worthless without fuel. So we're going to look at this morning, three ways, three things, that fuel intentionality. And before I get into that, even further, how important is intentionality? How many of you have watched any of the Olympics so far? Raise your hand. Okay, most of us have watched some. There's what, two weeks worth of this. Imagine you're going to watch more, or at least see highlights on the news. But there is not a single athlete, male or female, no matter what their age, who is doing their sport that hasn't put into practice the principle of intentionality. And not just a little bit, right? Do you know that the average Olympic athlete, average Olympic athlete, trains seven days a week, eight hours a day. It's a full-time job. Now, the training may not be actually on the field or doing their sport. The training may be in a weight room. The training may be in looking at video of themselves and seeing how they could improve. The training could take on lots of different forms, but they are intentional. More than a full-time job would be. Every single day, it's part of them. They're regimented when they go to sleep, what they're going to put into their bodies. There's no better example of intentionality, at least in the athletic realm, and currently for us, than looking at an Olympic athlete, they take that seriously. Because they know if there's going to be something draped around their neck one day, it will only come through intentionality. So, as we look at that, as we look at three different things that fuel that, I want to use a story from the Bible, which is pretty amazing, from Daniel chapter one, because Daniel was intentional. And let's see how he was. Daniel chapter one, I believe it's printed inside your bulletin as well, as I think we'll have it on the screen here in just a second. Chapter one, this is God's word, holy and inspired. Here is his word. In the third year of the reign of Jehoic in King of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoic in King of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his God in Babylonia, and put in the treasure house of his God. Then the king ordered Ashfinez, chief of his court officials, to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility, young men, without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the King's palace. He was to teach them the language and the literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the King's table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the King's service. Among those were some from Judah, Daniel, Hennoniah, Michelle, and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names to Daniel, the name beltises are, to Hennoniah, Shadrach, to Michelle, Meshach, and to Azariah, Abednego. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, but he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, I'm afraid of my Lord the King, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men, your age? The King would then have my head because of you. Daniel then said of the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hennoniah, Meshach, and Azariah. Please test your servants for ten days. Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food and treat your servants in accordance with what you see. So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days, they looked healthier and better nurse than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine that they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. To these four young men, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning, and Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. At the end of the time, set by the king to bring them in, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them and he found none equal to Daniel, Hennoniah, Meshach, and Azariah. So they entered the king's service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. And Daniel remained there until the first year of king's sires. This is God's holy and inspired word. As we look at that, this morning, we read that here this morning and think about Daniel and his role and his use of intentionality. Number one, intentionality is fueled first by conviction. Intentionality is fueled first by conviction. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln said that he could get a number of men who were willing, quote, willing to shed their last drop of blood. The problem, said Lincoln, was that he found it very difficult to find anyone willing to shed the first drop of blood. See, his Lincoln understood and pointed out there. It's one thing to have people talk, a good talk. He said, hey, we're with the Abraham Lincoln. South needs to be conquered. But when it came time that people would actually sign up, would actually go, the list was much smaller of those who were really going to be intentional because the conviction was lacking with that. Without conviction, this is just a true statement, true fact. Without conviction, you will not be intentional. It won't happen. And by the way, whatever you are intentional about, and all of you are, to some degree or another, in some way, whatever you are intentional about, it's something you have great conviction about. The degree of your conviction will dictate the degree of your intentionality. Now, think about that. How many of you here raise your hand are an Olympic athlete, other than Daniel Haughton, nobody in this room, okay? We are intentionally not Olympic athletes. Is anybody here not intentionally not an Olympic athlete? Okay, we are purposely not training seven days a week, eight hours a day. Now, some of you do athletic things, but most of us probably are just kind of diddling around that whole realm of athletics, especially as adults who have moved on to that. Maybe you kids are still have aspirations, whatever else, but none of us are doing that. We are intentionally following our convictions, that that is not our conviction to be an Olympic athlete. But there's thousands of them in Beijing right now, from all over the world. See, we are intentional about whatever is our conviction, and that's not a slam. Say, everybody's got to be an Olympic athlete. Obviously not, but you got to be intentional about whatever you're convicted of, and you are convicted. Every single one of you, me included, of something, even if it's just to say, hey, I just want to chill out in life, kind of take it easy. That's a conviction, and you intentionally do that. When you, when every decision you make. When you think about that, think about the, I was reading an article about the Spokane. Back, Spokane, the city, back June 13th of 1889, a long time ago, okay? The Spokane newspaper printed an editorial pleading for the establishment of a fire department. Back then it was, I guess, optional to have a fire department. And Spokane, the city's Spokane did not have one at all. Seattle had recently been ravaged by a fire, and the paper desired to prevent the same claimant from ever happening to Spokane. So this article went out, this call went out, that we probably should have a fire department ourselves, unless we experienced the same thing that Seattle experienced. Well, it was a good article. Had a lot of truth to it. Historically accurate, Seattle had burned. We could burn. Nobody responded to it. Nobody took efforts. No fire department was started, and two weeks from that Spokane burned literally to the ground. That entire city. There was no intentionality. An intentionality is fueled by conviction. Nobody had the conviction. Even though it seemed like a good idea, nobody was convicted to act and to move on it. An intentionality is always fueled by whatever you're convicted by. Now I want you to think about Daniel and this story here. You know, a lot of the details we kind of skimmed over real fast. Remember, it tells us that he is taken from exile. And the city of Jerusalem had been besieged. Now, Jerusalem was besieged several times during this time of exile. We're not sure exactly for sure what time this was and different things like that. But do you know what happens with the besiege of the city? You know, the city is locked off. And sometimes months, in some cases, Jerusalem, at least for a couple of years, one time was under siege where no food would come in. And there were some accounts in the Old Testament where people were literally dying. And there was cannibalism happening because there was nothing else to eat. This was a terrible time. It had been a terrible time for the city. And Daniel, along with his friends, had been young men, maybe teenage boys like some of you guys sitting here on the front row. And had eaten hardly anything, maybe up to a couple of years. And you're finally taken off to exile away from your foreign home. I mean, away from your home to a foreign land. Some place you haven't been before. Some place they speak a different language. I mean, imagine those of you have been to other countries where, you know, for the first time, you don't know anything about the language. Here's where these guys are. But then you're given an opportunity to be put into the king's palace. And to be given really good food. I mean, you've been hungry. But now you're getting from the king's table. The strongest most powerful king, reigning at the time, Nebuchadnezzar. Not table scraps. Great food from the king's table. You're given an opportunity to serve and become a leader in a new country. I'll with this. Do you understand how tempting that would have been for Daniel to have said, look, I'm just going to go right with the flow. Things have been bad, but things are turning good. But that's not what Daniel did. Daniel was a man, and apparently a young man of conviction. Something grabbed him. Something stirred in his heart that was deeper than merely satisfying his desires, looking opportunistically like, hey, God's blessing me now. I have this opportunity. Daniel saw something more deeply. Something was more important. Because trusting and obeying God would be better to Daniel than trusting his own perspective, than trusting his own ability. What did it say about Daniel and these guys at the very beginning? Young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand and qualified to serve in the king's palace. Daniel could have easily said, look, you know, God gave me these things. People have finally recognized who I am and the talent I have. Why don't I just take it and run with it? And he could have continued to have walked away from God. But Daniel had at least the understanding of this now. You know what? The reason why we are in exile is because we have sinned as a people as a nation against God. God has not been who we love with all of our heart, soul and mind. And that's why we're in this situation. That's why the temple was desecrated. That's why I'm in a foreign land. And there's an opportunity now for me to eat a follow course and just say, look, I'm a talented guy. I've got my future right in front of me and look at the opportunity before me in the king's palace of the greatest country in the world as a foreigner. Or I'm a leader that can start a repentance for my people. And I can return to trusting and honoring God. See, Daniel had lots of reasons to not trust God and to rely on himself. He had everything going for him. But Daniel knew that trusting obeying God would be better than trusting anything about himself. Trusting anything about what others were doing around him. And by the way, there's a good chance in this context that he had Daniel shattered in the second minute to go for guys. There was probably more than four guys that were taken because they were compared to the others from Israel, meaning that, and listen to this, kids, that the majority of the other young guys didn't do this. The majority of the other guys said, oh, there's no big deal. Yeah, God's given us dietary laws that we should follow the Old Testament. But hey, God's turned his back on us. We're in exile. We're just going to not worry about it. We went against the grain, did something different, had conviction of the truth. They don't get me wrong. The other guys had conviction, too. But it was a different conviction. Daniel and his three buddies had a very different one. You won't be intentional to do what is important until you are filled with conviction. And your conviction must be what is important. Intentionality is fueled first by conviction in number two. Intentionality is fueled second by vision. It's fueled second by vision. Visualizing the decisions in advance and determining your choices in advance is the only way to be intentional. Think about it. Verse eight tells us very plainly. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. Somewhere before the opportunity even proposed itself, Daniel made a decision. Daniel, again, we're told he's one of the brightest guys in all of Israel. He knows that you know how I'm going to get a foreign land. And they're not going to follow the commands of God that Yahweh had given to the people of Israel. There is a hundred percent chance that I'm going to be given food that goes against the dietary laws of the time that God had given them. Could have been food, sacrifice to idols. It could have been food that was considered unclean. God had given lots of different rules with that. Somewhere ahead of time, Daniel envisioned a choice that he was going to have to make. And he had predetermined already the choice and the decision that he would make when that situation presented itself. And kids who are about to start school, I want to tell you guys and gals this morning that you're going to be facing some decisions this school year. But if you don't already have the answer to today, there's a good chance you're going to make the wrong decision and give a wrong answer when the choice comes later the school year. There's a good chance. I remember growing up I had a friend my age in my class. We went through elementary school, high school together. His name was Stephen. And Stephen was a really nice guy. A guy who really was trying to follow God with all his heart best he could. And he was incredibly talented. He was a great basketball player. Had the height for it, had the discipline for it. All the teams he was playing on were a little league and even in the high school he was doing great on was the athlete. I always remember thinking I wish I could be like him. I wish I had the physical abilities that he had to do that. But I did it. I remember one time sitting in one of those school presentations. I think we were like late elementary school, like seventh grade. We didn't have middle school in Atlanta where I grew up. We went right from seventh grade into eighth grade which was high school. And I remember there there was this presentation you know to the seventh grade class I was going to graduate. And it was on drugs. And they told us about the dangers of drugs. They told us about the problems related to drugs. They told us about real stories of people and we had people in the room that were saying look don't do what I did related to drugs. And then they challenged us. How many of you will make that commitment? Because they knew we're heading to high school where a lot of those decisions would be made. We'll make that decision to say no to drugs right now. Stand up. Stephen and I stood up. There's a bunch of other students. I think everybody stood up. I mean who's not going to stand up in that situation right? Stephen and I right there. Side by side stood up. Yeah. Three years later. Stephen was kicked off the varsity basketball team for drug use. But you think wait a minute. He made the decision ahead of time. Let me tell you there was another decision that Stephen made that I didn't know about. And maybe he was even aware of. And it was this decision. Being accepted and approved by my friends is really more important to me and a stronger conviction than saying no to drugs. I honestly think Stephen was very sincere when he said I'm going to choose ahead of time to say no to drugs. But what I don't think Stephen was as aware of is that he had a stronger conviction. And that conviction was that his friends approval was more important to him than that decision. If Stephen had envisioned, envisioned ahead of time and had a vision for the situations he was going to be in and knew that hey realistically I'm going to have friends especially in the cool sports teams and all those arenas where I'm going to be exposed to this. I'm going to have to make a decision now. There's going to come between a point between friends and drugs. And I'm going to have to tell my friends and I'm not going to do it. Stephen had made that choice. He just didn't realize it. And he acted out on it when the time came. Kids, you've got to visualize this next year choices ahead of time. And you guys know it's much more than things like just about drugs. Whether you're going to do your work or turn in somebody else's work. Whether you're going to truly do your best in school knowing that this is how you glorify God or just times great by. Nobody will know that anyway probably. And you big kids, you're not off the hook. I'm like, you guys are my age. You're going to make decisions this year. And you know, the number way you big people are going to make a decision? Your calendar? What are you going to carve out and say is important? Are you going to say no? Like you always say, ah, we're too busy. What's your conviction though? Are you being intentional? You really think you're too busy? Your calendar will tell you whether or not you think you're too busy. Ah, I can't afford to do this. Can't afford to do that. I'd be great. I wish I could do that. Your checkbook tells you all the time what you're most convicted about and what's most important to you. Not just our kids and our kids are watching us. They're the kind of decisions we make. We have got to visualize like Daniel did ahead of time and make our choices now what we're going to do. And for most of you school starts a week from tomorrow. Some of you I know it starts Wednesday. We've got decisions to make. You won't be intentional to do what is important until you have been filled with conviction. And secondly, until you have already visualized and have a vision for your decision ahead of time. Third, lastly, intentionality is not only fueled by conviction. It's not only fueled by vision, but lastly, it's fueled thirdly by commitment. By commitment. When the moment of action comes, you must have the commitment to see it through. You've got to have the commitment to see it through. Hopefully you can have a conviction and be firm in it. And you can even envision ahead of time and hopefully all of you are right now. What are the choices you're going to make to start this new school year? Hopefully those decisions are already clicking. I'm going to have this temptation. I know I'm going to choose this. I'm going to decide ahead of time to choose this. But if you do not have the commitment to follow through with it in the moment, you can all go away as quickly as it did. You know, we were talking about a lot of Olympic athletes. You probably know Dad, I've heard this story. I think there's been on TV and been highlighted. But in the 1992 games, there was a guy named Derek Redmond, who had been his lifelong dream event. They've been this gold medal runner in the Olympics. But in 1988, I think it was a torn Achilles tendon that kept him out. He thought hard because you know it's difficult enough to make it to win Olympics and such a small percentage of athletes even make it to a second. Although there's some. He thought hard to get back into the 92 was that Barcelona Olympics to get back in there and to do that. He'd worked hard. In fact, he was in one of these races that was the top four that finished in this race qualify for the final, for the gold medal. And if you know the story about it, you know, he was running around and he'd gotten to the last 175 meters when he was running and he was in the lead. When he heard it, a horrible sound for every athlete to hear, a pop sound from the legs. And his hamstring had torn that moment. And he had an excruciating pain, in fact, fell flat down on the track as the other runners passed him and as his dreams have even making it to the finals much less winning a medal passed him. He laid there on the ground in agony, probably seen the video of it. Rescue team members began to move towards him to, you know, to paramedics to provide help and aid. Somebody else was moving towards him as well too. His father came running down from the stands. But Derek Redmond had a choice there. He had the conviction. He had the vision for what he was shooting for ahead of time. But the question was a matter of commitment. Derek got up, refused to be put on a stretch by the paramedics, and began an excruciating pain, continuing to hobbling around the track. Because he was committed to finish the race. He wasn't in control if he wanted gold. But he was in control at that moment. And I'm going to finish this thing even though I'll hope his loss. That's why we still talk about Derek. Why he still stands out in Olympic history is because of his commitment. We got to have commitment. Daniel, his three buddies, had commitment to see this through in this situation. Because intentionality is fueled by it. Because it's one thing for Daniel ahead of time to say, all right. And by the way, it was about a two-week journey where he would have been taken from Jerusalem and the Babylon, at least. He had two weeks to contemplate this, to think about this. He probably didn't know what was going to happen to him. When he gets there, he's told he's going to be stand out and be brought in with one of the top Israelites, young Israelites, to come to the King's palace. That could have taken a few days for that whole process to happen. He's thinking ahead of time. And it's one thing to say, you know what I'm going to do? And I'm going to stand strong for what I know is right. It's quite a bit different when you're in the King's palace. And there's the power there for them to kill you. Worst case scenario, best case scenario, if they don't like it, to kick you out. And then you're back out in the streets and you've lost the opportunity. It was commitment that caused Daniel to follow through. And by the way, the commitment wasn't just to make the decision. The commitment took ten days were told. Right, ten days they were tested. And you had to wonder the Daniels think and wait. You know, they probably didn't know as much about the body and dietary as we do now. But Daniel had to know that, hey, you know, I'm not a vegetarian. And he wasn't, by the way. Okay, Israelites ate meat. Okay, but it was certain ways and certain types. So he was not this vegetarian that had come in there. Daniel had to be thinking, this isn't going to make sense. These other guys are going to have protein and opportunities that we aren't. For ten days he had to be wondering, is Guy going to deliver me? There's no promise that would be. We're taking into exile. We're experiencing the results of our sins. God owes me nothing. But not just day one, but through day ten Daniel was committed. And Daniel faced on day ten knowing that, hey, this may not turn out the way we want. How do we know that? You remember the story of Daniel and the lion's den. If you grew up in church at all. Daniel, in this situation knew you had to be committed through the end. And by the way, I don't think Daniel ever made it to the lion's den. Or he wouldn't have it, hadn't been for this precursor story. This tested Daniel to know that he could make it through that situation. To be thrown into a den of hungry lions, left overnight. To trust God. Well, what about us three buddies? Remember, Shadrat Misha can have been to go? Would not bow down to the Nebuchadnezzar's idol. We're thrown into the fiery furnace. Where no one had survived. Where the guards who actually threw them in were consumed by the fire themselves. The guards died. These guys had commitment. And it was tested in the little areas. And kids, wait's why it's so important for you to understand this now. When you're faithful in the little things. God knows you're ready to take on the big stuff. And big kids, because you still have dreams and hopes. And a future ahead of you. You're faithful in the little things now. God knows you're ready to take on the more important things later. And there's a reason why Daniel and his buddies listen to how God honors that. They come back and they look better than all the other guys who were eating the defiled food. But listen to what else God did. To these four young men, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. This is after they were faithful. Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kind. Down to verse 20. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than anybody else. Ten times. There was nobody close. God took their raw talent, their abilities, their handsomeness. And he turned into something glorious for him. That far exceeded their expectations. Because they were faithful to serve and trust God. What had finished the whole story with Derek Redmond, did I, for those of you that know it? Because his dad just come down from the stands and peer over the rail, did he? Cheers son on. So, hey son, get up, you can do it, Derek. His dad hopped the rail. Okay, his dad ran up to his son. And as his son was hobbling, his dad put his arm around him, lifted him, and his dad walked the rest of the race with him. When we make that kind of commitment, we are resolved, like a Daniel, to be intentional. We have a father in heaven who comes in and with his power picks us up. And he said, hey, watch what I can do on your vegetarian diet. You'll be alright, you trust me. And by the way, you'll be able to deal with some lines and a little bit of fire later too. You'll be alright. Trust me. We see the power of our father in heaven. When we have made him the most important, the love of our life. And I'm telling you here today, if you haven't trusted your life with Jesus Christ, and asked him to give you forgiveness of your sins, and to turn over your life and say, I'm trusting in the work of Jesus Christ to be penalized in my place, to suffer, to take on my death penalty, so I might have life. If you haven't done that, then you don't have the promise of God. Because the temptation would be in a message or a sermon like this, is to think, wow, okay, intentional intentionality, that's pretty cool. That's some good stuff there. And all those Olympic athletes over there, they're doing intentional, they're achieving their dreams. If God is not your ultimate dream, whatever you're shooting for and achieving, will sorely disappoint you, even if it has a gold medal attached to it. It's not worthy. It's not going to last. We talk about Derek Redman more today than how many other thousands of athletes who have won medals? Because there was something more important that happened that day, wasn't there? Something that will inspire more athletes, something much higher. God's saying there's something much higher. Don't take this kind of a message of a work harder, be better, and God will give you your dreams. Your dreams aren't big enough. And by the way, your dreams are self-centered. And your dreams will not only disappoint the people who are closest to you, and maybe even drive them away, you'll disappoint yourself. Your dreams will bore you when you turn 70 and look back and go, what was that? God knows. He's got to be central. He's got to be most important. And he does that because he loves us. He does that because he knows us. And he says, come, be intentional. Because this will set you free. You've got decisions at the start of the school year. Every single one of you kids do. And some of you are in college, some of you are in graduate programs. Every single one of you adults here, including me, we have decisions this year, don't we? Do you have conviction for what is important as God defines it? Do you have a vision of the decisions ahead of time that you might have to make and have already predetermined what you're going to decide? Do you have the commitment to see it through? And the confidence that there's a father who plans to carry you through, who you're going to trust in, who won't desert you, and will carry you through. Let's pray. God, as we come and respond this morning as we are reminded of the reality, the father of opportunities we have like the start of a new year. Thank you so much for giving us these starting points in our calendar routine for us to thank and to ponder more deeply to look at the year ahead as we have right now. And father, will you come and will you invade the busyness of our hearts that are so clouded with different messages that we hear, different truths that we try to wander through rather than focusing our eyes and our hearts got on you and on your word and through Jesus Christ. God will you capture our imaginations with the reality of eternity, with the reality of a God who created the entire universe who wants to have a personal relationship with us and would go to the extent of sending his own son to die in the cross so that could happen. So we might know you. God would you set us a fire guy with a desire to know you, to walk with you, to throw aside the trusting in ourselves, to throw aside resting in our own abilities and talents, to throw aside our own personal dreams, to have a vision for the kingdom of heaven, to have a vision of righteousness, to have a vision of living in freedom away from self-centeredness and sin. God, would you set us free with that this morning? Would you come and give us faith by your grace, by your mercy God, to trust you? Set us free to do that. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.