My name is David Harper, pastor of HBC Rome, and we're excited to celebrate with you the message of Jesus Christ, expecting that for the next hour or so, you'll be filled with hope, encouraged, and refreshed as we learn together what it means to follow Jesus.
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I hope you enjoy today's worship and message, and if you haven't already, go ahead and stand up and let's get started. Thank you. You can be seated.
Good morning, Hollywood. Y'all sound like y'all had a good Christmas then. I hope you had a great Christmas and enjoyed the holidays. And, man, it's hard to believe we're here at the last Sunday of the year. Last Sunday of December, last Sunday of 2024. About a little over two and a half days left in this year, and then we move into 2025.
What an opportunity! I want to kind of redirect your thoughts this morning, if I might, not really about Christmas. I'm going to try to be mindful; I know we've got a lot of little kids in here and short attention spans, especially all those that end in the last name Harper. Absolutely have short attention spans. So I'm going to try to move quickly, and I want you to be with me.
If you'll turn to Matthew chapter 11, I really want to lay the groundwork for next year. Thinking about walking with God, what would 2025 look like? What would your life look like? What would this church look like if we all walked with God into this coming year and through this next year?
I wonder what God would do in your family, in your home, in the needs that you face, in the prayers that you're praying, in the needs that your family faces, in the life of this church, and impacting this community and this surrounding area that we have the opportunity to touch people's lives. I wonder what God would do through us if we all walked with Him.
As a pastor, you kind of take that for granted. Well, isn't everybody already walking with God? We're all Christians and here in church. I'm just going to tell you that's probably not true. This is a great church; you're a great group of people. But yet there's still a challenge in front of us.
Part of it, to me, is doing it together. I was going to say, "Well, I've got my own plan; I've got my own deal I want to do." Yeah, okay, do that. Why don't you join in with us as we together move forward in walking with God this coming year?
I want to take my text out of Matthew 11, where Jesus is talking to the church and the disciples. You know, you can be a believer and not be a disciple. There's a lot of folks that say they've followed, that they trust Jesus as their Savior, but they don't live for Him. They don't walk with Him; they don't have a strong relationship with Him.
There's a difference between being a disciple and being a believer, and I'm asking you in this coming year to really be, as Andrew talked about a while ago, about being a disciple. You can't be a disciple-maker, which Jesus commanded us to be. You can't make a disciple of God out of somebody else if you're not a disciple and following Jesus.
That's following some of the hard commands; it's doing some of the difficult things. It's being obedient to God in your life and giving up those segments of your life that you really don't want to give up. Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow me; lay down your life and follow me."
That's what I want to talk about here for a few minutes out of Matthew 11, with a title that says, "Don't Waste Your Life." There are a lot of things you can do to be a disciple of God; you can waste your life doing a lot of good things, and it could be a waste of life.
How many of us have times in our life that we look back on and go, "Wow, I wasted my teenage years," or "I wasted my 20s," or "I wasted my 30s"? Some people look back at their whole life and go, "I just basically wasted my whole life doing all these other things that call to us to do but really have no fundamental impact on our life in redirecting us to the right path to follow Jesus."
I want to challenge your thinking here this morning about that. As we talk here, Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says to the disciples, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden."
Anybody here got a heavy load on them? A lot of us, a lot of folks in this room, a lot of folks in this church are carrying heavy loads. Some of you, nobody even knows about it, but you are heavy, carrying a labor and a heavy load. He said, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
By the way, Jesus is the only one that can give you rest. Now listen to me: the church can't give you rest. The church will just ask you to do more, and I'm one of those. Let's just be honest. If God doesn't have a plan for your life, I'll help you find one. Follow Jesus, man. Serve God; walk with God. It's really that simple in your life.
He says, "Take my yoke upon you." I want to kind of focus in on that word "yoke" here for a minute. "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." And hear what He says: "For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke," He uses it again, "is easy, and my burden is light."
Father, I just ask that you would take your word and drive it home into our hearts and lives, into our very souls, our mind, will, and emotion this morning. God, speak to us clearly, powerfully, direct us on how we can follow you and walk with you and serve you.
I don't want to waste my life, and whatever I've got left of this life, I don't want to waste it. I want it to be in full effect. I want it to make a difference, not only for me, for my family, but for this church family, for this community. Lord, help us to make a difference for you and help us to walk with you into 2025 and walk with you through 2025. Just be amazed and see what you will do in this coming year if we would just walk with you, if we would take this yoke upon us and walk with you.
I pray for your guidance and direction in this moment. In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.
David, if you will, put up there. I gave them a picture. I found a picture of a yoke, just in case some of you don't know what a yoke is. Because if you're probably under 50, you don't know what a yoke is.
Here's an old yoke from old times. It was to allow two oxen, or it could be two other animals of burden. A lot of people in our country would maybe use those with mules or with oxen. It was so that two could work together instead of having just one. Instead of having one horsepower or one ox power, you could have two horsepower. You could have two ox power, and they would work together. It allowed them to bear the burden.
That's what Jesus is saying: "Take my yoke upon you." Now, the yoke was a burden. The yoke would, many times, cause the shoulders and the neck of the animals to be galled and burned because of the heavy burden they were carrying. And yet Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you because it's easy, and my burden is light."
As we walk together with Jesus, here's what I want you to see. He's saying, "Put on the yoke, and we're going to walk together. You and Jesus, me and Jesus, we're going to walk together through life."
Jesus is saying, "I'm going to bear the weight of the burden." Walking beside you. See, you couldn't have two oxen going in two different directions. If they're in a yoke, they've got to be together. They've got to be moving in the same direction. They've got to be moving at the same pace. They're moving together, carrying the load together.
Jesus says, "If you'll put on the yoke and walk with me and allow me, I will bear the burden. I will bear the weight of the yoke for you."
How many of us have tried to live our own lives, even as Christians, and say, "I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to go to church when I want to go to church. I'm going to read the Bible when I want to read it. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that." And we find that the burden is so heavy.
Many people drop out of church. They drop out of the Christian life because they go, "It's too heavy for me." Listen to me: yes, it is. You can't bear the burden of walking with God alone. It'll kill you. It'll wear you out. It'll wear you down.
Jesus died. The gospel that Jesus, when we were unable to save ourselves, Jesus came into this world at Christmas. He goes to the cross at Easter. He dies there. He's resurrected. He comes up out of the grave victorious to not only save you but to empower you so that He can walk with you in this life and carry the load with you as you try to follow Him and walk with Him.
That's the challenge of the Christian life: to walk with Jesus. And so that's where I want to challenge you this morning: walk with Jesus. Don't waste your life on other things. You can waste your life. You can put on the wrong yoke.
How many people are yoked to alcohol? And it's destroying their life. The more you read, the more you see. If you'll read medical journals of today, they're telling you alcohol is a poison.
Now, my sermon today is not just anti-alcohol, but I want you to understand there's a yoke, and it'll get on you, and you can't get it off of you. I've watched a lot of people struggle with the yokes of life.
There was a gentleman in this church years ago, up in the old building. I bet you once every three or four months he would come to the altar and he would lay down two or three packs of cigarettes. He was yoked to nicotine, and he couldn't break it. He would come to the altar brokenhearted, wanting to give it to God and break that yoke on his life.
He would give me his cigarettes that he had on his person, and he would go back to his seat. A few months later, you know what? He'd be right back again. I mean broken. I mean weeping, crying, devastated, not just brokenhearted, but brokenhearted. Not just some show, not just come and say, "Hey preacher, here's my cigarettes. I'm quitting," and that's it, and walk away.
I mean, he was broken, weeping, devastated that this thing had a hold on him. And he couldn't, as far as I know, till the day he died, he couldn't shake that yoke off of him, of nicotine.
Drugs and nicotine, there are so many things out there that will get a yoke on you, and you can't get it off of you by yourself.
Anybody say amen? There's a lot of stuff that will grab you and hold on to you, and it will pull you down and destroy and devastate you. One day you'll realize, "I can't break this."
I love the people who say, "Well, I can quit smoking anytime I want to. I can quit drinking anytime I want. I can turn off the pornography anytime I want to. I can do whatever. I'll do whatever I want to." Well, then why don't you want to? Because apparently you don't, because you're not doing it.
It's easy to get yoked into things that are a burden on your life. And Jesus says, "Get yoked up with me. Join in with me."
Religion can be a burden on your life. Trying to do all the right things—light the candles at the right time, stand up, sit down, raise your hands, say the right words, sing the right songs, do the right thing, be all the right things, dress the right way, do all the things that religious people are known to do—and you'll find that religion is a heavy burden and yoke on your life.
I don't want you to be yoked up with religion or all these other things. I want you to be yoked up with me because Jesus says, "My burden is light." You know why? Because He's going to carry the bulk of the burden. But you've got to move with Him to be yoked with Him.
Anybody say amen? You can't go off to the left while Jesus is saying, "Go to the right." You can't stop when He says, "Go forward."
When He says, "You got saved, and you need to be baptized to identify yourself publicly as a believer," that's something He commands us to do. And you say, "Not going to do it. I'm afraid of water. I don't like to do stuff in front of people. I'm not going to do that."
You just stop the work of God in your life. I call it the law of the lid. You just put a lid on your life and capture life.
He says, "Give," and you say, "I don't have any money to give. I've got to buy my own stuff. I've got to do my own thing." And you just put a lid on your life.
When He says, "Follow the Holy Spirit, share the gospel," like Andrew was talking about out of the book of Acts, it's all about sharing the gospel with the world, going into the world, sharing the gospel. You don't have to go to Africa. You don't even have to go to Mexico. Why don't you go to work? Why don't you go to your neighborhood? Share the gospel.
When you say, "I'm not going to do that," you put a lid. You put a lid on your spiritual life, and you'll stop growing, and you break the yoke because you're going your way, and Jesus is saying, "We need to go this way."
You'll find that that burden is so heavy, you can't bear it by yourself. A lot of people drop out because of that.
Walk with Jesus. You yoke yourself up with Jesus to get your relationship with Him right.
A question I've been asking for, I guess, the 30-something years I've been here is this question. Thad Reynolds used to say it's the David Harper question: "Tell me about your walk with God."
You know what I can do? I can sit down with you, and you can tell me about your family. You can tell me about your job. You can tell me about your health. You can tell me about your finances. But when it comes down to that, "Tell me about your walk with God," you're going to tell me everything I need to know if you'll tell the truth about where you are with Jesus.
Because if you're not walking with Him, and I mean daily, daily in the word, in prayer, obeying the Spirit, then you're not walking with Jesus. You're not in the yoke with Jesus because that's where He takes us.
You receive Him as your Savior. Then you've got to yield to Him as Lord and let Him be the leader, the boss. That's what Lord means; He's the boss. He's the master of our life. He promises to bear the weight of your burdens on Him.
Some of us today are burdened down and broken down because we're not letting Jesus bear the burden. We're not walking with Jesus. We're off on a walk on our own. We're out somewhere by ourselves.
His yoke is an offer of freedom, and it's one we're meant to live under.
Quickly, let me give you two or three things just real quick. Jesus understands your burden. You may say this morning, "I don't know, does God understand the burden that I have? Does God understand the burden that I'm under? I'm dealing with my family. I'm dealing with my brother, my sister, my mom, my dad, my neighbor, my friend, my job, my physical state. Does God, does Jesus even understand that stuff?"
Well, let me quickly say yes. You know that Jesus on this earth, He was surrounded by people in need all the time. You know the stories.
Mark 10:46 says He comes near to Jericho, and a guy named blind Bartimaeus. Can you imagine being called blind Bartimaeus? That's your name for the rest of your life. You're the blind guy. You're blind Bartimaeus. That's how we distinguish that from any other Bartimaeus.
You know, there's slow Bartimaeus, there's fast Bartimaeus, there's blind Bartimaeus. We had a bunch of tailors connected to our family at one time. My family gets a kick because they already know where I'm going. We had all these tailors. There was girl tailor. There was karate tailor.
One of the guys in our church, he had a son, and he took karate, and he got the nickname karate tailor. I mean, there are all these different tailors.
Can you imagine being nicknamed the rest of your life blind Bartimaeus? And blind Bartimaeus was there in Jericho, and he comes and he sat by the road; he's begging, and Jesus will heal him because Jesus was always surrounded by people in need.
Hey, look at me. Don't think it's unusual or strange that you bring your need to God. Jesus was always around people with needs.
Remember, He's out on the hillside one time, and He's preaching this great sermon, and all of a sudden the people are, it's getting kind of late, and they're going, "We're hungry."
We hungry. We hungry. That's a Harper thing. See, out of a—what was it? Something about the moon. There's a book we used to read to the kids, and Andrew would always say, "I hungry," when he was reading. I'm saying, "I'm hungry."
The people said, "I'm hungry." Sorry, private joke. Went right over your heads.
I said, "We're hungry." And they're like, the disciples are like, "Hey, what? We can't go. There's no McDonald's. There's no, you know, there's no Chick-fil-A. There weren't even Christian chicken back then. Where are we going to go to get food?"
Jesus said, "There's a little boy here with the lunch," and bring him up, and He blessed it and broke it up, and they gave it out and fed everybody. Those people were in need. He cared about that need.
Listen to me: Jesus cared about the fact they were hungry. Not just that they were blind or somebody. How many people were in need? How many people were in need? How many people were in need? How many people did Jesus run into?
He ended the funeral. It stopped with Him. Excuse me. He was always, always around people in need, and He understood that.
Not only that, He became weary Himself. In John 4:5-6, it says He came to Samaria, to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and being weary from His journey, He sat down.
Ever get weary, tired? Ever feel like, "Boy, if I could just sit down for a few minutes, I could recoup right here. If I could just get a drink of water, I'd feel better." Jesus did.
Jesus knew exactly. Even though we'd celebrate at Christmas that He's God come to earth, He's also a human being. He is as much human as He is God. He's the most unusual person that we've seen that's ever lived. He's fully God and fully man.
So He knew what it was like to get tired. He knew what it was like to get thirsty. Remember when they're out on the—He's with the disciples out on the Sea of Galilee, and this massive storm comes up. I mean, these men were professional fishermen. They spent their whole life on the Sea of Galilee, and all of a sudden they're petrified by this storm.
Where's Jesus? Where is He? He's asleep in the back of the boat. How could He sleep through that storm? He's exhausted. He's preached and spent and ministered and done for people till His body is exhausted, and they're afraid the boat's going to sink, and Jesus is asleep right there.
He understands what it's like to be tired. He knows what it's like. He knows what it's like to have His friends leave Him. His own family didn't even believe that He was the Son of God. His own brothers and sisters do not follow Him till after the resurrection.
He knows what it's like to have His family turn their back on Him. He knows what it's like to—Lazarus was one of His best friends. Whenever He went through Bethany, He always stopped at Mary and Martha and Lazarus' house, so much so that they made a room there where He could come and sleep at their house. Anytime He was in that area, He loved them, and He hears that Lazarus has died, and He goes to his tomb, and when He sees he's dead, He weeps for him and He weeps for the people there.
He knows what it's like to carry the burden. You know, don't think Jesus is oblivious to your burden. He knows exactly what you're going through. He knows exactly what the need is.
We need to always understand that when you woke up in the morning, it's you and Jesus. When you go to bed at night, it's you and Jesus. It's you and Jesus. It's all about that relationship.
And I wish I could get that across to you. As a believer, it's not just about coming to church and reading your Bible and praying and doing, going and marking things and giving money and checking off boxes for church. It's about a relationship with Jesus.
You guys know as well as I do, I got a wonderful wife. She's been with me for 35 years. We dated, and we're friends for a year or so before that. If I just go through life checking the boxes for her, that ain't going to work out well.
I don't know how it works at your house. If I'm just checking boxes, that ain't going to work well. I want her to know I'm connected to her and I relate to her, and I want to be around her.
I've chased her. I chased her everywhere in those first few years. She was working in Atlanta, and boy, I'd go to Atlanta about every other night to try to catch up with her and see her and spend time with her. It's a relationship. It works just like that, that we're connected together.
Here's some things I'd have you see about Jesus' yoke, and I'll wrap this up this morning. Jesus' yoke, it's a spiritual device. It's not that physical device I put a picture on. It's a spiritual device that connects you to Jesus. It ties you to Him. It's that relationship that connects you and Him together, moving forward in life.
It goes together. It's what links us together. I would have you know that that word "yoke" implies, listen to this, it implies a certain amount of work. You don't just coast through life with Jesus.
Jesus is going to challenge you about some things. He's going to challenge you about some stuff in your life you're going to have to work on. When I was a kid, I see it in my grandkids now. When I was a kid, I had a horrible temper. Got me a lot of switches.
As an adult at my home church, the old ushers used to tell me, "We thought you were going to single-handedly kill off the shrubbery in front of the church," because my mother would have to take me out and go down there to the shrubs and rip off a limb.
Did your mother ever do that? Have a little boy, she'd take that, grab that thing and run her hand down through there and pop all the leaves off of it, and that little—I can still hear that thing in the air.
I learned to dance in that house in front of a Baptist church. People say Baptists don't dance. I did. I was out dancing on the sidewalk in front of Saks Baptist Church.
And by the way, I needed every one of them. I was one of those kids. Some kids, you know, you can talk to them, and you can get them directed, and they're okay with that, and that's fine, or you can use other means. I was a full-blown Harper. I'm hard-headed, stubborn, temper, angry.
Jesus will work on that. He'll work on that. If you're selfish, He'll work on that. If you're all about you, He'll work on that. If you've got your eyes in other places and other directions, He'll work on that.
It implies work. A yoke implies work. And you're going to have to do some things. That's why I'm going to challenge you in a few minutes about getting in the Word this next year, being with us as we walk together in the Word of God, that this book is God-breathed.
This isn't just another book. When I was a kid, I used to look at my dad, and he'd preach through the book, and I'd go, "I wonder what you do when you get through, Don. When you go Genesis to Revelation and you're done, you kind of go, 'Okay, done. Now, where do we go then? Do you go to the encyclopedia? Do you go to Reader's Digest?'"
I mean, when you finish this book, and I didn't understand, you'll never finish this book. You'll never exhaust this book because this is a God-breathed book. This is God's love letter to you. It's His owner's manual to you. It's His direction for life for you. It's how to find His will.
Somebody said, "I can't find God's will." It's in here. It's not nearly as hard to find as you think it is. But you've got to get in the book to find it. There's some work implied.
There are some times I have to pray, and it's not just a, "Now I lay me down to sleep." Can I tell you that one of the hardest things I do—and you're going to say, "As a pastor, one of the hardest things I do is spend an extended time with God in prayer." It's like wrestling.
Coach, wrestling coach right here, man, some of these wrestlers, I love them. I've watched Andrew wrestle in high school and Luke Lansdale and others, man, and they're thinking about the next move. They're already thinking three moves ahead. If I get you here, I'm going to get you there, and I'm going to—what was that thing Luke used to do, the banana split? Is that it? Banana split move. That was his signature move.
Can I tell you that praying sometimes is just like wrestling? The enemy is trying to do everything he can to stop you because you know why? He knows if you keep praying, you'll have a breakthrough moment with God, and he will do everything he can. He'll make you think about you need to change the oil in the car. The dog needs to go to the groomer. You need to clean out the pantry.
Your kids came to your house this last week at Christmas and went through your refrigerator, your pantry, and found all the expired stuff and pointed it out to you. Oh, that was my family. Does your family do that? My family loves to do that. It's a game they play with us every year.
I'm like, "I'm stocking up stuff for Y2K. Leave me alone."
The enemy will do everything he can to distract you and pull you away. Listen to me for a moment. Listen. This is what I feel like the end of 2024 has been for us: a ginormous distraction.
A ginormous. That's in the Greek. Ginormous. Huge distraction. We've been distracted with sickness. We've been distracted with death. We've been distracted with cancer. We've been distracted with surgeries. We've been distracted with all kinds of problems.
If you're not careful, those distractions will pull you away from that walk with Jesus that He wants to have with you. I think that's why they come. I think that's why they come.
If you don't turn that distraction into a way to focus in on Jesus, that distraction will turn you away from Him. You won't even realize it for somewhere down the road. You'll go, "How? How did I get here?"
Have you ever slipped away from God in your life? I have. Have you ever slipped into a place you didn't plan to be with God? You're walking with God. You're reading the Word. You're praying. You're going to church. You're serving in a ministry. You're doing all the right things. You're singing. You're worshiping.
I don't mean just on Sunday. Through the week, you're worshiping God and walking with God. And then all of a sudden, somewhere down the road a few months, you go, "Hey, how did I get out here? How did I get to this place? How did I get out here? I feel like I don't know where I am. What's happened to me?"
Because we get distracted from that daily walking with God, and the enemy would use that to quickly move you away from God if you're not careful. It can happen so easy to any of us, to me, to any of us.
I've watched a lot over these 30-something years now. I've watched. It seems like pastor after pastor has fallen here, there, and everywhere because they get distracted with the bigness of church or with who they think they are or what they think they're supposed to do. And they get distracted.
When you get away from the walk with God, it doesn't matter if you're the pastor or the janitor; you're in trouble.
Anybody say amen? Come on, guys, I'm about done.
So here, it's a spiritual device. It implies a certain amount of work. It involves learning. If you think you've learned everything about the Bible and everything about God there is to know, can I be nice and just say you're a fool?
You know what I found out? When I was in my 20s, Joey, I thought I knew everything there was to know. I knew everything there was to know about raising kids and grandkids and having a great marriage and read all this stuff. And you know what I know now? In a little over a month, I'll be 70. You know what I know now? Nothing. Nothing.
I know this book is right. And I know God is right. And I know if I'll stick with Him and follow Him, you know what? I'll always wind up at the right place.
But this idea that you've got it all figured out, I'm constantly learning. I hope I'm still learning. I had one of the deacons, one of the guys, he was on the pulpit committee that called me here. And I'd been here about 10 years. And he said, "You've changed. I don't like the fact you've changed."
I went, "What do you mean?" He said, "You don't say and do. You're different than you were when you came here."
I looked at him and I said, "Dear Lord, man, I hope 10 years from now I'm different than I am now. Because if you keep learning and walking with God, you'll be different. He will change you. He will redirect your life in a better path, in a better way. He will teach you things you'll never know if you don't walk with God. Keep learning. Keep learning.
That's why I say it's so important to get in the Word. Keep learning and walking with God and see what He'll do.
It requires trust. It requires trust. You've got to trust God. You've got to say, "God, here I am. I'm laying myself down on the altar for 2025. Would you direct my life to be where you want it to be throughout this year? I'm going to walk with you daily. I'm going to be with you. I'm going to yield myself to you. I'm taking your burden."
Jesus, it ain't "Jesus take the wheel." Jesus take the yoke. Lead me to follow you where you want us to go. Amen.
It includes His promised presence. I love this verse. Maybe you ought to make a note of this verse. In Hebrews 13:5, it's one of the many places He says this. It's all through the Old Testament. And in Hebrews 13:5, He talks about our conduct and our content. But at the end, He says, "For He Himself," talking about God, "has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'"
You know what God promised? Thomas, He'll always be with you. Thomas, He'll always be with you. No matter where you go, no matter what you go through, no matter what life brings at you, no matter what happens in the next two and a half days or the next year, God's going to be with you.
If you will stay with Him, He will stay with you. He will walk with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Matter of fact, whether you leave Him or not, He will never leave you. He will always be working in your life.
And that's why I'm challenging you: don't waste your life. Don't waste. Don't waste another year. Don't waste another opportunity. You've had so many opportunities to walk with God and be with Him and see what He would do.
Here's a new opportunity in 2025, and I'm begging you to be part of this time of walking with God. You know, the last few things I'd say to you, it necessitates surrender. You've got to yield. You've got to say, "You're in the yoke with me. You're leading. I'm following your lead. I surrender my lead to your lead."
It gives peace. Man, He gives peace that the world can't give you. You want to know what peace could be like in 2025? Then find that peace in Jesus.
John 14 is one of my favorite chapters in all the Bible. You've heard me quote John 14:1-6 probably at every funeral I've ever done and many times hear about, "I'm the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but by me."
But if you slide down that chapter, when they're so troubled, because in verse 1 He says, "Let not your heart be troubled." If you slide down that chapter to verse 27, He says, "My peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
Jesus promises you a peace that you can't find anywhere else in all the world but in Him if you walk with Him.
Then the last couple of things I'll say, it requires a choice. It's a choice. You've got to make a choice. You decide. I wish I could decide for you. I've said it over and over again. As a matter of fact, I said it so much years ago.
Somebody brought me a little mason jar, and it had all this sparkly sand and sparkles down inside of it because I talked about I wish I had a jar of spoofle dust. I think they even tied a string on it that had some little bitty jingle bells on it, you know, kind of fixed it up real nice because I talked, I wish I had some spoofle dust that I could walk around and, you know, kind of do this and throw some spoofle dust on you.
When that dust hit you, you'd go, "Oh man, I want to walk with God. I'm going to follow Jesus." Need some spoofle dust. But it ain't spoofle dust. It's your choice.
You've got to decide, just like I've got to decide. You've got to decide, "Am I going to follow Jesus this year? It's a choice. Am I going to be yoked up with Him?"
And then you've got to acknowledge that you need Him. You've got to receive His forgiveness. You've got to walk at His speed and in the same direction. That's key.
And you've got to live according to His will. Please hear me: don't waste your life in 2025. You're good people. You're here on the last Sunday of the year when a lot of the people are out traveling, and some people are homesick, and some people just stayed out today because it's still the holidays.
You're the ones here. But you know what? Listen to what I'm going to say to you. You're the ones that are going to make the difference in this church. You're the ones that are going to make the difference in your family. You're the ones that are going to make a difference in your community.
You're the ones that are going to help make a difference in Rome. There are a lot of other good churches that link up together with the same mindset. You're the ones, you're the ones God has here this morning to hear this message, to say, "Let's put on the yoke with Jesus and let's choose to follow Him. Walk with Jesus."
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for this time together. Please direct our lives. Please speak to us this morning clearly, powerfully for every man, woman, boy, and girl in this room. No matter what our age, if we're old, if we're young, if we're in between, wherever we are, married, single, whatever we are, God, speak to us now.
Holy Spirit of God, please take your word and deliver us. Lord, I pray that you would work with us and deliver us forever and ever at home into our heart, into that mind, will, and emotions and right into our very soul. Speak your truth and help us to obey you and follow you here this morning.
There are some choices. There are some decisions that need to be made. And I pray if there's somebody here that doesn't know you in the forgiveness of sin, they've never trusted the gospel of Jesus Christ for their own personal salvation, that first and foremost, that would be done and be settled in their life here this morning.
Then, Lord, I pray if they're walking at a distance from you, that today's the day they choose, "I'm going to take on the yoke, and I'm going to follow Jesus. Forgive me and restore me, Father."
Maybe like that prodigal son, I want to come home, and I want you to lead my life where you want it to go as we move into this new year. Accomplish your will and your purpose and your desire for me, for my family, and for our church family together, I pray here today. Work your divine will.
Heads bowed, eyes closed. The Holy Spirit of God's here speaking to you. Perhaps He's challenging you about what you need to do this morning to follow Jesus. To make that choice that you're going to put on that yoke and walk with Jesus.
To let Him lead, and you're going to walk with Him into this coming year. I don't know what He's telling you. I don't know what the Spirit of God may be saying to you this morning. But I beg you, follow His lead. This is where it begins.
It's not at home Wednesday morning where it begins. It's right, for some of us, it's right here, right now, today. I'm going to choose today. I'm going to follow Jesus. I'm going to walk with Jesus beginning right now.
As the Holy Spirit speaks to me, I will follow Him. This altar is wide open for you if you need to come and pray. You need to come talk to God about what's going on in your life. You've got a burden you're bearing alone, and you want to come leave that burden with Jesus today.
This is the place. This is the time. This is the moment that God's calling you to do that. Whatever it may be, I'm begging you to follow His lead in this moment.
Thomas is going to sing. I'm begging you to take a step out. My courage, faith, and follow Him. Lord, have your will. Glorify Jesus. It's in your name we pray. Amen.
Would you stand with me, please? Heads bowed, eyes closed. They're going to begin to sing, and I'm going to ask you right now to step out and follow Jesus and what He wants to do in your life in this moment. Right now. Would you follow Him? Come on. Come on, people, come on. Adults, whoever you are, men, women, come on. Follow God. He's calling you.
You can be seated. Thank you this morning for your attention or your presence here today.
There's a couple of things I still want to do with you, and I would really like to have your undivided attention for a moment. If you will find your info sheet and go to the back side of it, there's a couple of things I want to talk to you about.
We've talked about for weeks, and I really kind of want to explain it a little bit this morning. So if you'll bear with me for just a few minutes, I'll come back and we'll do the offering and announcements and some prayer requests and get us headed out.
But I really want you to really focus in with me here for a moment as we talk about how we're going to walk together this coming year, how we're going to walk with Jesus in this coming year. One of those ways is getting in the Word and doing this together.
I know a lot of you have your own devotional guides you do every day and do your own thing. If you still want to do that, that's fine. But I'm asking you as a church family for the family to say, "We're going to come together, and we're going to do this exercise together through this year."
So that we're reading the same scripture, reading the same passages, praying some of the same prayers so that together we walk together through this coming year with what God's doing in our lives.
I've heard a lot of different ones of you talk about the Bible recap, and since I started talking about it, even had some this morning telling me they've been doing it.
Here's one of the struggles of this. I want you to hear me. Do you know that most New Year's resolutions are done by the second Friday of January? Most people quit their New Year's. As a matter of fact, there's a name for that day, the second Friday in January. You know what it's called?
Anybody know? It's called Quitter's Day. I don't like being a quitter. I don't know about you. There's a lot of things I quit when I was a teenager I walked away from that I shouldn't have. But as I've gotten older, you can tell, man, I like sticking with stuff.
I've stuck with y'all for a long time. I'm asking you for this year, let's not be a quitter. Let's stick with this.
I want to share with you a couple of different ways, and there's some info on the back of your info sheet about this Bible recap, and that's kind of the plan. I'm going to try to help you.
There are at least four different ways to get into this, and I'm going to try to show you one of those four that maybe will connect with you here if you'll hang with me for just a minute.
On the back are some steps. On the back of that info sheet are some basic steps. I'm going to ask you to maybe get a pencil or a pen or something and jot down a couple of notes of what I'm fixing to show you here that I think could help you.
First of all, it's in the seat there near you. It's the 365-day plan. It's basically—and it's not reading the Bible, just reading it through. It's reading it through chronologically.
So you're going to find it's going to kind of jump around in places because there's some of Job that is older than some of Genesis. So it's going to—and it's basically three chapters a day you read and some prayers up at the top of that page.
There are some prayers you pray before you begin. Good short prayers: "God, give me wisdom and knowledge and understanding as I read your word." So there's that plan. You can take this piece of paper in your Bible, and you can do the Bible recap plan and read through the Bible.
Just having this sheet right here that gives you from day one, which will be Wednesday, all the way through this time next year at December 31st of 2025. So that's one way you can do this, and that's a real simple, easy way that you can do this.
There's also, as you can imagine, there's books out there. I think there's a picture of the Bible recap book that I hold in my hand right here. It's basically, it tells you on day one what chapters to read. You can buy these at Walmart. You can buy them at Sam's. You can get them off Amazon.
If you need a book to hold in your hand to do this, it tells you how to do it. It reads, there's the first Genesis 1 through 3, and then it gives some follow-up to that. It's kind of the, "Let's talk about it. Let's talk about what we've read right here."
It's a real simple, easy way that anybody can do this together. There's even—I didn't know this until Andrew texted me yesterday. He was at—was it Sam's? You found this? He found the Bible recap book for kids.
So even your kids can go through this, and it's a kid's version of reading through the Bible. Man, my Lord, what a difference it would make if we led our kids through the Bible in a year. What kind of difference do you think that would make in your family and your children?
I think it would make a massive difference. I know there are going to be times you're going to come in late. You're going to go, "I like to do stuff early in the morning. I like to start my day out with God. I want to walk with God from the moment I get up in the morning."
I usually get up around 6 or 6:30, and I need that time to get into the Word and get God talking to me and me talking to Him and get my life directed. But some of you, Beverly's a night person. She doesn't like getting up early in the morning. She'd rather do stuff at night. She's a night owl.
You may be, whether you're a morning or evening person, I'm just asking you, would you find the time that works for you? Maybe on your lunchtime. Years ago when I worked for the phone company a long, a lifetime ago, I would have a lunch break every day.
I would go spend my lunch break in the Word. I'd find a place that I could pull over my van, and I would sit there, and I was reading through the Word of God. At that point, I think I was reading through the book of Psalms on a regular basis, Psalms and Proverbs on a regular basis.
Whatever works for you, find the spot that works for you and be part of this. Now, for all you techie people, is this the one, David? Are we ready for this?
Yeah. All right, if you've got a smartphone, get out your smartphone right now. Come on. I'm going to help. If you want to do this, I'm going to help. I'm doing everything I can to help you get started with this because some of you are going to leave and go home and go, "I don't know what to do. What did he say?"
You can't even remember the sermon. Don't feel bad; I can't either about Tuesday. One thing I learned a long time ago as a pastor is don't ask what you preached the Sunday before because nobody in the service will remember it, not even your family.
If you have the YouVersion Bible app, the Holy Bible app, go open it. You've got your smartphone out. Come on, this is the one time you get to play. You know, you can't go shopping on Amazon. I know some of you do because I see it on the cameras later after church. You're looking at Amazon during the sermon or Facebook or whatever.
If you'll open your smartphone and go to YouVersion, this is easy to do. If you don't have the Bible app, the YouVersion Bible app, go download it real quick from your applications.
Get that Bible app open, and then go to the bottom of the page, and it says Plans. If you will click on Plans, right, go look through that group. The second one down on mine is Bible Recap. There it is right there.
I've got one above that on mine. And you click on the Bible Recap. And then you can click Start Plan. Go to the third one, Dave. Right there is when you do Start. Start Plan, then it's going to ask you, do you want to do the devotional?
Then it's going to lay it out for you there of what you're going to be doing each day. Next slide. And here's the prayers. There are the prayers that you're praying. Every day, direct my steps according to your word. Correct any lies I believe about God or anything I misunderstand. Help me see something new about you that I've never seen before.
Aren't those great? Those are great prayers to pray as you read the Bible. Great. And it's all laid out for you. And then there's even YouTube videos. You can click right on your phone and see the recap reading right there on your phone for the daily recap.
You just go down there and click Play, and it'll take you to the Scripture. It'll take you to—you can see the YouTube video, the whole thing.
And then this page is the fourth way. The fourth way is if you like YouTube and you've got a computer at home and you like playing with your computer better than your phone, or you've still got a flip phone. If you've got a flip phone from 1990, it's going to be hard to do it on your phone.
But you can do it on your computer. Go to YouTube and type in Bible Recap. And there is a page. And there's a video that says Prep Episode 1. You can watch this video on YouTube, and it will tell you.
So if you forget anything I've told you today about what to do, go to YouTube. You're looking at everything else on YouTube. Huh? Come on now.
Well, I've been looking for the end of YouTube. I've been looking at YouTube for years, and I can't find it. Go right there, watch the video, and it will tell you.
And there's day one. There's a video for day one, Genesis 1 through 3. It'll take you right through. And every day, there's a video.
Guys, this is about as easy as I know to make it, and I'm trying to do everything I can to simplify, to put it in your hands. You've got the Bible reading chart for the year right there in your hand. If you want to take that home with you and use it, take that as a backup, maybe.
Take it as a backup. They're in the pews right there. There may be more of these out there somewhere, but there should be these right there in the pew. You've got the info on the back of your—hold up the wrong paper—info sheet tells you kind of step-by-step.
If all else fails, go to YouTube and pull up Bible Recap, and it'll tell you what you need to do. And if you don't understand what we're talking about, if there's still some question in your mind, come see me.
Come. Valerie Martin is the creator of the Bible Recap. She's the queen of Bible Recap. Some of the Myers are in Bible Recap. Some of the rest of you, I've heard from several different people, are in Bible Recap.
I just think this is going to make a big difference if we're all together reading the Word of God together and moving forward with God together into 2025, don't you? I really do.
So I'm asking you to be part of that, okay? So now back to our regularly scheduled program. If you're a guest, we don't ask you for anything, but for our church family, man, here it is.
Here's the last time right here in these next two and a half days. You've got the last time you get to give in 2024 this morning. My family always—we want to be givers. We want to be generous to give to the work of God.
I don't ask anything of you that I don't expect more for me, nothing. And I'm asking you to be part of that. Asking you to give. Some of you, we've had some people give some big gifts over the last week or so, and I'm grateful for those.
But you know what? Big gift, little gift, all the gifts bless God and honor Him and are used to carry on the ministries of this church. So I'm asking you to be part of that.
Hope for the Hungry is coming this Thursday, January the second. Man, first Thursday, and here it is. If you're supposed to be part of that, the church office will be closed on Wednesday, the first.
By the way, it'll probably close tomorrow as it's planned right now. David Bailey could not have his chemo last week, so he's scheduled, if everything goes right, he'll have chemo tomorrow.
So please keep David and Tracy in your prayers, and of course, Tracy will be there with David. But if you want to give any gift that you want scheduled for 2024, it's got to be either in the office or postmarked if you mail it in before December 31st, okay?
And then don't forget to pray for our Mexico mission team. They're there on the field now serving. They'll be back Thursday. They travel back. Please keep Greg. God has already answered so many prayers for that team.
We didn't think or months ago we didn't think Greg would be able to go because of physical issues, and God has just done miracles there for him and for others. Just pray He does a mighty work through them, and you'll hear some of that next Sunday.
I'll share some other things with you going on. Pray for the Mexico mission team. Pray for the church staff, for Shelly, for David and Tracy, for the Hodges. It's good to see you guys back there.
The Renfros were here for Christmas Eve. It's so great to see them. Keep our church family in your prayers, and then go out of here, figure it out.
If you've got questions, let us know. Email me. Let us know how we can help you move forward. Andrew's so right.
David, if you'll put back up that text number so how they get connected to the emails and text messages. Hey buddy, I told you their attention span didn't last long. It's been a miracle to get here.
I read the other day they're already predicting some snow maybe towards next weekend in the next couple of weeks. It always seems like in January, February we get surprised or March.
If you want to know whether we're meeting or not, instead of having to call 40 people to find out, if you're on the text link, we'll tell you, "Hey, we're meeting. We've got the parking lots cleared. Everything's good. We're able to move forward."
Or we can't get everything opened up, and we're not going to be able to meet. We'll let you know that through text messages. So if you want to be connected to that in the info and other issues that come along, we don't try to—we try not to send out a text every day or even every week, but what's really important, we try to share with you.
All right, thank you for being here this morning. God bless you. Watching online in the room, I'm so excited for what God’s going to do in this next year for us, and I beg you, man, let's walk with God in 2025.
God bless you. Have a great week. You're dismissed.
Whether you were with us online or in person, thank you for joining us today. We hope you experience God's presence in today's service and see God moving in your life.
We would love to pray with you and come alongside you on your journey with Christ, so be sure to connect with us this week and let us know how we can help. You'll find us on social media, or you can visit us at hbcrome.org and connect with us there.
We would love to hear from you. Have a great week!
on Dec 29, 2024
