Will Your Life This Year Be Permanent

It's a real joy family to be back with you after almost a month. I too like Dave said I'm very thankful for this family. I can say the last seven years also have been the best I've had and that's because of the work God is doing in all of you and I wish I could look each of you individually in the eye and say the same.

Personally, I really mean that as God is my witness. Traveling and being among the churches in India reminded me of that. I want to start by saying just how much of a blessing this church is across the world.

I'm thankful that we're a blessing in a way that we don't realize it, lest we become proud. I tell almost everywhere I went, we went, people said how much they appreciated us. They watch live, many of them it's late at night, past midnight, or they watch it afterwards.

They usually try to watch it live because their favorite part is the children getting up and saying their favorite verses. Everything else they can watch later on but they they stay up late because they want to join us live and singing and see the children get up and you children have been a blessing to so many children around the world by your faithfulness and steadiness and I always tell them I wish you could come here and see that we're actually a very small church. A small building, a small church.

We're not looking to be a big mega church and fancy building and I praise God for that. That he uses the small things. Now small actually has more to do with our own thoughts about ourselves than numbers.

Numerically we have grown so much in the last six, seven years but I see us remaining small, simple, looking to God, helpless and remaining small in our own thoughts. God can multiply the blessing. God picked a little boy with a small lunch to feed the multitude.

I personally think that there were people who had more food that day. There was probably a family that brought more than five loaves and two fish but they didn't want to give it. They kept it for themselves because they thought how is this going to work and God found a little boy with five loaves and two fish that he gave gladly and I see God doing that through our LCF.

Giving gladly and remaining small in our own thoughts and perhaps one of the smallest churches in Loveland, I think. Quite likely. I don't know but regardless we should be the smallest in our own thoughts and then God can multiply the blessing.

So just to say and many of them have conveyed their thanks to you all and passing it on to you for your faithfulness and I thank God for the ability to live stream that he opened the door for and is using. Let's remain small family all our lives. Let's remain small and God can do greater things through us.

We have low thoughts about ourselves. Don't try to compete with others even within the church. If you feel less gifted, you feel insignificant in the church.

Remain small in your eyes. Say Lord you placed me in the body for some very specific reason. In this body.

I want to know what that is. Is it to pray constantly throughout the day for this church family to uplift them? Is it to fight battles against Satan in the spiritual realm? Whatever it might be. Is it to do some work of service helpful in the church practically? Whatever it might be.

It's not the public ministries that a few of us have that you all should covet because it's the small things that God is using to multiply the blessing to many and I pray I believe 2025 is going to be a year of even greater blessing through RLCF as we go smaller. As we remain humble. I do want to say one other thing though as we start a new year and a new month.

You know we have a lot of tools. I was thinking about this this week. At our church we provide many tools to help our spiritual growth.

If you look at the bulletin there's the Bible reading plan. There's the month book reading plan and memory verses. Most of the bulletin is these tools that we might know God's word and as I've said often in this church this is a dangerous church to be a part of because with all these tools and these encouragements and facilities that we have.

I'm talking about spiritual resources that we make available. The book table in the back and opportunities to meet regularly and messages. Prophetic word.

To whom more is given more will be required and I've been convicted about that this week. Especially as I thought about all the resources we've had. We've been on a book reading plan.

I think we're on year three now. Off a three year plan which means we should have read close to 24 books. Short books maybe a little bit less than that because some of them are doubled up in a month over the last two years.

I wonder how many of us have taken it seriously to read many of these books. A lot of people in India have put a lot of effort to even make them available on audio so if you don't have time to sit and read you can listen to it in between while you're driving or something like that. I hope you'll take it seriously.

First of all God's word. There's no book like it. To know God's word and look at the resources we have today to know God's word.

You can read it on your phone. You can listen to it if you're busy driving and you can't read. You can listen to it.

And you think that God is just going to say that say somebody lived in the 1300s who didn't even have a printed Bible before there was the printing press. And they stand before God and they say Lord I hungered for your word and whatever I could morsel I could hear here and there from whoever had it written down. I absorbed it.

I valued it. And then one of us will stand and say Lord I had it. I had like ten Bibles at home.

Five different translations. I had it on my phone and I could listen on audio but I never went through the Bible even once. What do you think? Could I stand there with my head held high and say Lord I took it lightly to read your word.

Don't be discouraged. I'm not here to condemn anybody but this is the book that will change your life like no other book. And that's why we have these resources.

That's why we have the memory verses. That's why we have the Bible reading plan. And the books that we read also point us to Christ.

Point us to the word. I'll say this without bias. I don't know of a teacher that uses God's word, references to scripture as much as my dad.

That's why we've been blessed so much by that. Not that he's perfect but I see that that constantly sending us to the word to see it's there. It's written in your Bible.

That's why we have those books as well and the resources. So a little encouragement as we start a new year to take these resources to heart and even if you haven't done it so far start today and don't be discouraged. You can start reading God's word today on the Bible reading plan.

We doubled the recipe to twice the reading so that we can get through it in a year. In the last four years we've gone through it twice as a church. So let's go through it now every year.

We're running out of time before Christ's return and if God calls you home tomorrow or next week and you haven't read through the Bible you have no more chance to do it after that. Even if you're in heaven, I'm not here to say that if you don't read the Bible you won't go to heaven. That's not what God says.

He doesn't want to threaten you with hell to get you to read your Bible that way. But if the one book that God wrote you never went through even once in your life on this earth you'll never have a chance to do it again. I don't know what heaven will be like for such a person.

I can only imagine that it will be a life of regret even in heaven where there is fullness of joy because the Lord took pains to make it available to us and we neglected it. So we want our children also to learn the value of this book and so I hope children you'll take it seriously. I hope young people you'll take it seriously and brothers sisters let's all take it seriously to know God's word to use the resources that he's given us.

There's plenty of them. We're going to share in a little bit what we're thankful for and what we're hopeful for. I thought I would start with mine.

I'm thankful for the royal robe I don't deserve. We sang about it. In royal robes I don't deserve.

I've been meditating on that for the last few days, last couple weeks. I looked down even as I sang and in my mind and I saw the royal robe I was wearing and I wept in my heart saying Lord I don't deserve it. This is such a fine robe you put on me.

The righteousness of Jesus. I don't deserve it. I know who I am.

I know who I was when you picked me up and I know who I am even now when sins crop up or unconscious sin that's there. I know there's so much sin in me still that I need to be saved from and yet he has put a royal robe around me. I don't deserve.

I'm thankful for that. I'm hopeful that I will keep this robe clean. That's my hope for 2025 that I won't allow any spot or blemish to come on this robe.

It's such a precious robe. It's such a valuable royal robe. Imagine that you had some really expensive garment and anytime you're around food you'd be so careful that it doesn't splash on it.

Pure white and a little bit of pasta sauce or Indian food especially will stain your garment. That turmeric sauce will be there forever. Think about the things of this earth.

May not even be sinful things but good things that will stain your garment. Keep your garments pure brothers, sisters. Jesus told the church in Revelation, Sardis, there are few who have kept their garments pure.

Be among the few. It'd be nice if all of us, God can say all of you at RLCF, you kept your garments pure. Do you know what the second last command in the Bible is? Let's turn to it.

Revelation chapter 22. The second last command in the Bible is Revelation 22 verse 14. It's actually a promise but it's also a command in the promise.

Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. This may be a gospel you don't hear many other places. Most of the Christians will tell you, you say a prayer, you sign a decision card and the gates will open for you.

Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. I want to do that this year. And if you're wondering the last command in the Bible is a few verses later.

Come. Verse 17. Come.

God's not holding you at a distance. He's saying come. Here's the command.

Wash your robes twice. Come. The blood of Jesus will cleanse you from all sin.

I want to share briefly now on what the Lord's laid on my heart, which is a personal vision as well as I believe one for the church. And it's like David said, we don't compare notes and we don't plan so that there's no confusion. It's the Holy Spirit within us.

I'm experiencing unity with this church and among us elders like I've never experienced before. I really say that as God is my witness. And it's not through lots of like planning and meetings.

We get together as often as we can. But there's a unity in spirit that comes from a simplicity and not competing with each other. Not fighting.

Not wanting prominence. But each of us really seeking to identify our role in the body of Christ and to fulfill it. I'd like to start in Psalm 90.

It's a good psalm to think about when you start a new year. Because Moses said in this psalm, teach us Lord to number our days. Psalm 90 verse 12.

And you'll see in this verse, in this psalm, many times he says that the life that we're given is very short. Verse 6. In the morning it flourishes and sprouts in you. Do you think that your life, you're in the prime of your life? Vigor and strength.

You go to the gym, you work out and you've got a good job. And everything stays. All around you think, wow, this is the prime of my life.

He says, even if it's so, in the morning it flourishes, but toward evening it fades and withers away. All my days have declined. Verse 9. We have finished our years like a whisper or a sigh.

You know what a sigh is? That's how short your life is. That's a sigh. Moses said, I recognize.

He says, you might live 70 years. Verse 10. Maybe 80 if you're really healthy and you eat healthy and avoid all that sugar.

But it's still a sigh. It's a very, very short life we're here on this earth. Verse 4 he says, a thousand years in your sight.

If I lived to be a thousand, it would be like a day. Which means one year is like 1,000th of a day. You know what 2024 was? That entire year we just finished? It was 1,000th of a day in God's eyes.

Just like that. A few seconds. Divide 60 times 60 times 24.

Whatever that is. Is it 1,000, 440 or something like that? No, more than that. Anyway, you divide that by a thousand and that's the number of seconds that 2024 was from God's perspective.

God's perspective that entire 2024 was just those few seconds. Moses finishes this psalm by saying, verse 17, confirm for us the work of our hands. That's what he was getting to.

Lord, at the end of 2024, you ought to have written your stamp of approval on 2024. Didn't matter how much my bank account said I had or how much my boss said I was a good employee or how much my children thought of this or my wife thought of that, my husband thought of this. Did God put his stamp of approval over 2024? Okay, you can't do anything about the past.

Will God put his stamp of approval on 2025? Confirm for us the work of our hands. Yes, confirm the work of our hands. Make this your ambition, dear church family, brothers, sisters, children, that 2025, by the time you get to the end of the year, whatever you put your hands to, God will confirm it and say, yeah, I know.

I approve of it. Let's turn to 1st John chapter 2. 1st John chapter 2 verse 15. 1st John 2 verse 15.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, listen carefully, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from me.

It's not from the Father, but it's from the world. The world is passing away and also its lusts. The world is passing away.

The lusts of the world are passing away, this verse says. And so you'd say, yeah, sure, the pleasures of this world are passing away. The sin in this world, it's a temporary pleasure you'll get from sin.

It's passing away. In a few moments, that pleasure that you get from sin will soon end and you will be left with regret, guilt, shame. Sin always acts like that.

If you lust with your eyes, if you say a harsh word, you may have vented yourself and got it off your chest, but immediately after that, you will feel guilt and shame. Sin is always like that. And it's passing away, but you know what he says also? Yes, the lusts of the world are passing away, but the world itself is passing away.

For me, the difference there is that he's also talking about good things in the world. The world, nothing wrong with that, nothing sinful, nothing dishonoring to God, but recognize that that's passing away. That pleasure which you might have from playing a football game or soccer or baseball or work, success at work, making a little bit more money, a good hard day's work, that's wonderful, God planned for you to do that, but recognize that everything in this world is passing away.

The high opinion that people have of you here on this earth is passing away. The bad opinion that people have of you on this earth is passing away. The world and all its lusts is passing away.

I thought about it like this. I have a little whiteboard here. I'm going to write here with what's called a dry erase marker.

Most of you probably know, children, you probably use it in school. It's a dry erase marker. It's a pink one, I picked a different color.

A dry erase marker is one where when you write on it, you can erase it. I'm going to write on here, my life 2024, let's say. My life 2024.

This was me writing in 2024, my life, every day. Maybe you wrote that M and then the Y. Everything that you did this year, you're writing it. And what it says here in this verse is that the world is passing away.

Why is it passing away? It's because God is going to one day come and erase the world. He's got an eraser. You know what God has an eraser? Jesus said in Revelation 3 to one of the churches, I will not erase their name from the book of life.

Jesus has an eraser. And I think that's Revelation 3 verse 5. But one day God is going to come and run his eraser across everything on this world. And so when you reached the end of December 31st, 2024, I got this picture of, Lord, what is it going to look like? If you were to run the eraser across 2024 right now, would everything be gone? Would everything that I spent my time on and my money on, my thoughts on, especially our thoughts, if you were to erase it at the end of 2024, he's going to do it one day when he comes.

But he speaks to us today from his word so that we can test ourselves now. We can have him run the eraser through and see, Lord, what was left? Am I left with really nothing? 2024, a complete waste from God's perspective. And you may say, well, Lord, but I did a good job.

I provided for my family and my children are growing well. I came to the church. I finished the Bible reading plan.

And it's not just sin that will be erased, but it's also all the other things, the dry erased things, the world. He erases that too. Thank God he erases the sin because I'm ashamed of that.

The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. But what about the things I spent my whole year on? When he ran the eraser over it, is it all gone? You think about it. 2024, what's left on the board after God runs his dry eraser on it? What's left? The rest of this verse, he goes on to say, the world is passing away and also its loss.

But the one who does the will of God lives forever. I've got a permanent marker here. I'm going to write my life 2025.

It doesn't have to be like it was in 2024. You've probably seen permanent markers. Be careful how you use them.

Because once you put the mark on there, it's going to be on there for good or whatever. If you write on the furniture, as some kids like to do, it's there for all the visitors to come and see. We've had those, our walls.

If you come to our house and look carefully, you'll find spots on our walls that the kids have etched permanently. Now thank God for the permanent marker. That's what this latter part of verse 17 says.

When God runs his eraser over the whole thing, 24 was gone, but 25 is left standing. You can live a life, if you do the will of God, in such a way that when he runs his eraser over it, it's there. You live forever.

And I pray that my life and your life, as part of this church, will be the permanent marker life. That everything we do, we're not talking about sinful things. We're putting aside sinful things.

We're done with filthiness of the flesh. If you fall, get up. Repent.

Ask the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse you from all sin. Confess it. He will cleanse you right away.

I'm talking about those things that occupy your mind, that occupy your affections, the plans, ambitions, and goals, your motives, your attitudes, the secret, deep down things. God had run the eraser on your life in 2024. What would you have been left with? It was a serious thought for me when I meditated on that.

I've been meditating on it for the last couple of weeks since we started this new year. Because one day God's going to do that over your whole life. And the world is passing away.

And if what you wrote in 2024 was the world, it's going to be erased. You say, Lord, it wasn't sinful. Yeah, but it was the world.

You wrote the world on your life? Erased. And again, I don't know what the eternal destiny of such a person will be. I'm not the one to get to decide it.

God does. But I'm not prepared to take a gamble with it, brothers, sisters. I'm not prepared to take a gamble and say, well, Lord, all my sins were cleansed, but I invested all my life on money and pleasure.

Good pleasure, not sinful pleasure. I invested it on myself and my family. My thoughts were occupied with me and mine, even though they're not sinful.

It was the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life, thoughts, the way the world thinks. If that occupied your mind and if that's how you live 2024, it's gone, brothers. You can't live 2024 again.

But you've got 2025. Thank God that he's not running the eraser over your life permanently today. One day he will.

And for those who have reached the end of their life, there is no hope anymore. If they're in hell, their life is over. And if the eraser erased their whole life, they might have lived to 90 years old.

And we're not here to judge anybody. But what does it matter if the whiteboard was huge and all of it's erased? And maybe somebody else lives 33 years, short life, younger than most of us in this room. And everything he wrote was preserved.

That's the life of Jesus. And he's our example. That everything Jesus wrote, his entire life, from the moment he was born, every little dot, there's no blank space on his life.

And the father said, this is my beloved son. His page is full every single moment of his life. He's my example.

Now, the times of ignorance, Acts 17, verse 30, God overlooks. You can't change 2024, you can't change 2023, 22, go back, you can't change any of that. But there's hope, brothers, sisters, children, because you're still alive.

Because you're still in the land of the living, not the land of the dead, where there is no hope. Because you're still in the land of the living, because you still have breath in you, and because Jesus is still alive, there's hope. That 2025 can be the year that never gets erased, nothing gets erased.

Now, we're already 12 days in. Don't waste another day. Now, what does it mean? I don't want to leave you with a mystical, okay, sure, that's a great idea, but how do I write with the permanent mark? What does that mean? Let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. This is a serious message, but it's a message of hope, brothers and sisters and children.

And children, you have the privilege that you can start this journey of writing with the permanent marker now, before it's too late. Don't wait until you're even in your teens or 20s or 30s. Start now.

1 Corinthians chapter 3, we read in verse 12. Now, if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay and straw, each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it because it is revealed with fire. Now, this eraser is not just a, I don't know what this material is, maybe some kind of rubber.

It's a fire. God is going to run an eraser of fire over your life, according to this verse. It's going to be revealed with fire and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.

If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss. But he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

These are serious words. I believe he's talking about people who will be in heaven, but will have suffered loss for their entire life. The picture the Lord gave me some years ago about this from this verse was like standing in, you know how when you fly on a plane, you go to the airport, you go through security and you put all your stuff on this conveyor belt and then it goes to an x-ray machine to see if there's anything harmful in there.

If there's anything that's not there nowadays, you can't even take water. They'll dump it out. And if there's anything that you're not allowed to take, you got to leave it behind.

You probably get arrested for trying to take a knife or forgot it was in there. And I got a picture of a standing there and all of us at the end of our life standing in line to put our whole life on this conveyor belt. And the conveyor belt is not just an x-ray machine, it's fire.

And I put my whole life, from the year I was born, every year, all of it, put my whole, everything, empty out everything. It's all got to go through the fire. 2024, 2025, as long as God gives me life.

And then I watch it going on the conveyor belt and I wonder, what's going to happen? What's going to be left? And after that, I too have to go through the fire. And here he's talking about, yet, he himself will be saved through the fire. These are people who are saved through the fire because they trusted in Jesus.

Earlier he talks about the foundation which is Jesus Christ. So here's somebody who trusted in Jesus Christ for their eternal destiny. But everything they spent their life on was the world.

They trusted Jesus, their sins are forgiven. And if I understand this verse, they make it through the fire and they're with Christ for all eternity with nothing to show for it. Zero.

Everything they wrote on their life was a dry erase marker. And God ran the eraser over it and said, nothing left. Now, I said, thank you, Lord, that I'm alive today.

And I'm seeing this conveyor belt and you've given me the fire now. The fire of your word. The fire of the Holy Spirit that tests the quality now.

Because it's going to be tested one day. Thank God we're in 2025, not the end of all time, the great and terrible day of the Lord when everything will be put through the fire and then there's no more chance to set it right. Thank God that we can run the eraser over our work now and say, Lord, yes, there's a few scratches here and there, but most of it was dry erase.

God's going to run the eraser of fire to see is it the permanent marker or is it the dry erase marker. Let's turn to Romans chapter 11. What does it mean to write with the permanent marker? Romans 11, we read in verse 36.

This is the permanent marker. Very simple. I hope you remember these verses so you can go and meditate on them, write them down.

I mentioned 1 John 2, 17 and 18 and 1 Corinthians 3, 12 onwards. And here's Romans 11, 36. For from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. This is the permanent marker.

If what you wrote in 2024 was from God, through God and to God, even your work that you did and the planting of the garden that you did and taking your kids to school and teaching them school at home and playing sports with them and teaching them how to do different skills and disciplining them and going on a date with your wife and maybe enjoying a vacation with your family. If it was from him, through him and to him, it's the permanent marker. Now look back on 2024, dear brothers, sisters and children.

How much of what you spent your time and affection and thoughts on in 2020 was from God, through God and to God? That's what's left of your life in 2024. Everything else, you might as well consider it erased now because it's going to be erased in the future. But you have 2025.

How will you live 2025? Say, Lord, I want this, what you write to come from you. Let the idea to do this or to do that or to buy this or to buy that or to spend my time on this and to spend my time on that come from you. Help me to seek your will in prayer.

Help me to start every day listening to your voice. Lord, guide me. Guide me, Lord, today.

I know what I'm supposed to do. My boss has set this out for me and I'm going to show up at this workplace or sit at home in my office and do this, but Lord, guide me because I don't want to do the work that I'm going to do with a dry erase marker. Let it be the permanent marker and dear brothers, dear sisters, if it's from God that way in the attitude of your heart, you could go work for some ungodly employer who's interested in making money, but God sees that you did it from him and you asked him for the power of the Holy Spirit so that the work you did would be through him through his power and that the life that you live doing this earthly job would be for his glory alone.

And you'll find it's a permanent marker. That's the life I want to live. I've got an earthly job like you all do.

And I've got to go to work tomorrow and do something for an earthly employer whose kingdom is going to be destroyed. It's the world I live in. It's the world we live in.

And that company is going to be destroyed either in a few weeks, months, years, or maybe a decade or so before the Lord returns. Every earthly company, even the most profitable company on this earth is going to be destroyed. The richest man on this earth or woman, whoever it is, their wealth is all going to be destroyed.

And here we are working in the world for the same unrighteous mammon so that we can provide for our families. How you do it is going to determine whether it's eternal life or not. Whether it's the permanent marker.

How you do it. That's it. Is it from God? Say, Lord, I'm going to go to work today and I don't know what's going to come.

I know what I'm supposed to do. I have some ability. I've been trained in this or I've learned it over a period of time.

But let it come from you, Lord. You've given me this job. Do you know, brothers, sisters, how much comfort it brings me that the job I have was given to me by God.

I don't deserve it. Oh, I wish you could see it in my heart and see I don't deserve the job I'm in. God gave it to me.

No doubt in my mind about it. I hope you know that too. As qualified as they think you are in your company for your job, God's the one who gave it to you.

From Him. And they say, Lord, today fill me with your Holy Spirit. Not because I want to speak in tongues or go do some miracle.

Because I want to do my earthly job by the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord. Because I don't want it to be dry erase marker. I want to be filled with your Holy Spirit that this homeschooling I'm about to do with my children will be permanent marker homeschooling.

And this meal I'm about to cook, Lord, let it be permanent marker meal. And this laundry load I'm about to do, Lord, I want to do it by the power of your Holy Spirit. You see how it boils down to the everyday things in life? And Lord, you get the glory out of it.

When my children grow up, and they love you with all their lives, I will take no credit for what I did and say, Oh, I raised my children and look, they're all God fearing. No, I say, Lord, you know what I was, I did zero. But I did it from you and through you and for you.

And oh, that RLCF will be the permanent marker. And that's why Jesus taught us to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

This is permanent marker. Lord, I want your name to be honored in my life. By my work, I don't want to make more money or get a promotion and rise up the corporate ladder, all that Lord, your name must be honored by the way I live my life.

You've given me this job. And I want my life, your name to be honored by this job. You've given me my wife, you've given me my husband, you've given me my children, children, you God is the one who's put you in your class, you know that you can go and do that school saying, Lord, let your name be honored by this geography class, or this history or this math or that science, even the difficult subjects, Lord, let your name be honored.

Let your kingdom come. Lord, in this work, I tell you, brothers and sisters, I've said it in this church before, the only reason I'm working in the job I'm in is so that I can further the kingdom of God. If God says Santos, from now on, you're going to be doing this other work.

That's not as enjoyable as what you used to have. But I'm going to further my kingdom through it. Then I say, Lord, give me that job.

I want the job that will best allow me to further the kingdom of God. Bottom line. Now, it wasn't always like that.

I'll be honest with you. I don't want to stand here and pretend or sit here and pretend. I wanted a nice job, a comfortable job, a cushy job.

And now I say, Lord, it doesn't matter. I tell you one way it will change your perspective. Read Voice of the Martyrs sometime.

Read Fox's Book of Martyrs. Read Martyr's Mirror. Read the lives of these men that we consider heroes.

And consider the jobs they had. They were poor. They suffered.

They had very little to eat. And these are people still alive today in countries around the world. Poor countries.

I've been reading many of those stories recently. They grew up. They start out their lives poor.

And then they're in persecuted countries where even what they have is taken away from them. And their husbands are killed. And their children are killed.

And this one mom I read about recently where her two daughters were taken away. One was 18. One was 12.

Those are our kids. She doesn't know where they are. The rebels kidnapped her daughters.

And then her husband was killed because he was witnessing. And here she is. And they have a picture of her.

And she's smiling. The smile of Christ. And here I am worrying about, will I have enough money? Can I get a better job? Will I get the promotion? I'm not here to say that we should therefore all quit our jobs and live there.

God has a calling for your life. He does. And that calling may be to live in a nice house and have a car or two cars and provide for your children.

But brothers, sisters, don't let the world in. Don't let the world in. Let it be from Him, through Him, and to Him.

Therefore, chapter 12 verse 1, I urge you brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your life, your bodies, as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God. This is worship. Don't give your body a dead sacrifice.

God won't accept a dead sacrifice. When your life is over, and you're dead, and you realize that everything was erased, you were left with nothing, He says, that's a dead sacrifice. I can't take that.

I want a living sacrifice, He says, while you're alive. In the years that you have left, there are very few brothers, sisters, children, the years you have left on this earth are very, very few. And God says, you just give me that.

You can't change the past. You give me that as a living sacrifice. It will be permanent marker from now on, and you'll have no regret.

This is the life I want to live. And you know the secret to that? I think about it like this. What's the difference between the permanent marker pen and the dry erase pen? It's what's inside it.

This pen said, you can put permanent marker ink in me. And this pen said, you can put dry erase ink in me. No, I'm just using analogy.

But this is the choice you and I have. God's not going to force it down your throat. He doesn't force anything.

He says, come. What will you let me fill your life with? Will it be the permanent marker of the Holy Spirit, where everything is done, Lord, from you, through you, and to you, for your glory alone? Change it from this day forward, Lord, that everything I do will be with that one ambition alone. That it will remain.

That it will abide forever. Let it be your will. Let it be your name, your kingdom, your will.

That's what Jesus taught us to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is heaven.

This is permanent marker. And you can do anything. You can play a football game.

You can watch a good movie. You can go on a vacation. If it is, Lord, let your name be glorified.

Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done. You can work at a software company.

You can work as a carpenter. You can work as a mom doing chores at home and homeschooling them. You can work as a teacher.

You can work as a supervisor. You can work as a slave. As some in the scriptures did.

And it will be permanent marker. And there will be rich kings whose entire life was empty, nothing left, suffering for all eternity like the rich man that Jesus spoke about. And then there will be slaves like Lazarus, poor, full of swords that the dogs licked, who will have a full life because they lived a life of faith.

Now, we are all sinners. We've all sinned. We've all wasted our lives.

But today is the day of salvation, brothers and sisters. Don't look back. I'll close with this.

Philippians chapter 3 verse 7. Let this be your testimony as it is mine, as it was Paul's. I say that reverentially. It is my testimony now and I want it to be even more.

Whatever things were gained to me, I counted them lost because I realized they were just dry erase. Whatever things were gained to me, I have counted lost. For the sake of Christ, for the sake of that permanent marker.

More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. I've emptied myself of this useless dry erase ink. I hear Paul saying, and count them but rubbish, dung, so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, in order that I might have eternal life. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. This is why Jesus laid hold of you, so that you would write in permanent marker.

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind. Maybe your entire 2024 is arranged, forget it. That's what God invites you to do.

Isn't that a wonderful thing? If you wasted your entire 2024, He says forget it, it's okay. You've got 2025, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

This is a life of weakness. The reason we're full of dry erase is because we're so strong, we're so full, we have abilities. I invite you, brothers and sisters and children, to join me in a year of weakness, a year of brokenness, so that God can fill us with His permanent ink.

I close with this poem by Francis Haverhill. I could not do without Thee. I cannot stand alone.

I have no strength or goodness. This is how this pen got the permanent marker in it. Here's what it said.

I could not do without Thee. I cannot stand alone. I have no strength or goodness, no wisdom of my own, but Thou, beloved Savior, are all in all to me.

And weakness will be power if leaning hard on Thee. The reason this pen can write in the permanent ink is because it was weak and allowed the Master to fill it with permanent ink and allowed the Master to write what He wanted to write. This is my vision for 2025, not mine, but the one the Lord has put in my heart.

It didn't start in me because then it would be dry erase too. If I gave you something that I came up with, it's empty. Let's examine our hearts, brothers and sisters.

Let's pray. Let's spend a few minutes in prayer. Let's judge ourselves.

Let every man judge himself. Judge your motives. Judge your thoughts, your attitudes.

Judge everything. Put it through the fire right now. And then you will have no fear, no regret in eternity.

The times of ignorance God overlooks. Forget what lies behind. Forget even January 11th, 2025.

That's behind. January 12th is today. Today is the day of salvation.

Today if you hear His voice, don't harden your heart. He loves you. And He purchased you with a price.

He picked you up from the pit for a purpose. He laid a hold of you for a purpose. And Paul's ambition was that he might lay a hold of that for which Christ laid a hold of him.

And you make it your ambition, dear friend, dear brother, dear sister, dear child, to lay hold of. Why did you pick me, Lord? Why did you pick me? It wasn't just for me to have an empty slate at the end of my life and make it to heaven barely. You laid a hold of me for so much more than that.

Lord, open my eyes to see it. And may I never waste another minute, another second of my life on the things of this world that are passing away. Lord Jesus, I commit to you my spirit, my life.

I lay it on the altar today. Fill me, Lord, with your Holy Spirit. Let everything I do be that which begins in you.

Let everything I do be that which is through your power. Let everything I do be that which is for your glory. I believe it shall be so, Lord, and you will raise river of life, Christian fellowship, not corporately, Lord, but individually, organically, into this life.

As an example to others, let rivers of living water flow from us by this permanent life that you're giving us, an unshakable life. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Can we sing this song? I don't know if we have the words there. Take my life and let it be. How easy is it for us to pull it up? I might have to use open LP.

Alan, maybe you can help them back there. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. If you're able to pull it up on your phone, you can do that too.

Oh, we have it. Okay. Oh, we can my life and let it be filled with messages from thee, filled with messages from thee.

Take my spirit and let it be filled with messages from thee. Take my life and let it be filled with messages thee. Take my life and let it be filled Take my life and it filled with messages from thee.

Take my life and let filled messages from thee. let it filled with thee. Believe, Lord, you recorded this prayer we just sang in heaven and you will fulfill it, your promises you will fulfill it, in Jesus' name.

Amen.