Loving the Word with the MudPreacher

This year I want us to begin a Journey, Journey 2010, in which we discover the awesome power of our creator God in a more personal and intimate way. 2009 is over, and I admit that at times I felt powerless, inadequate to deal with situations with friends that resulted in them turning away from this awesome God. Sure there were times of victory. but I lost some good friends last year, friends that made conscious decisions to turn away from the church, from our fellowship, and I have trouble not taking that personally. When people make decisions that I know will affect their eternity and their love for God, and affect their families, I don’t like it, it really bothers me. That is why I want this Journey 2010 to be life-impacting.

When we decide to go on a Journey with God, to discover His power, He will show us what in our lives is hindering our view of Him. No matter the problem in our lives that hinders our Journey, they will center upon three areas:

1. Temporal Value System
2. Bitterness
3. Moral Impurity

John reveals this to us in 1 John 2:16: For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.

The world desires to keep us from this Journey 2010. The world wants us to see a God who is powerless. So these problems that are in every persons life, will try to dog us, to drag us down, limit our seeing Him who is invisible. We must recognize this when this happens, and deal with it.

In the movie City Slickers, Billy Crystal plays a radio advertising salesman going through a mid-life crisis. He and his friends deal with the humdrumness of life by participating in a cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado—an experience that turns out to be a kind of epiphany for all of them. At the end of the movie as they prepare to return to New York and the familiar routine, Billy Crystal explains to one of those friends the concept of a “do-over.”

We Get a Do-Over

Crystal is addressing his pal who, nearing 40, feels he is at a dead-end.

Brunno Kirby: I’m at a dead-end. I’m almost 40 years old. I’ve wasted my life.
Crystal: Yeah, but now you got a chance to start over. You know? Phil, remember when we were kids? And we’d be playing ball and the ball would get stuck up in a tree? And we’d yell “Do over!” Huh?
Kirby: Yeah.
Crystal: You got a clean slate..

Crystal tells him that he can start over again. His life can be a do-over.

In a follow-up (comical) scene he sees the light:

Kirby: You know you were right, Mitch. My life is a “do-over”. It’s time to get started.
Crystal: I hope I can help.
Kirby: Now I’m gonna go home, and I’m gonna get Kim pregnant.
Crystal: I hope I can help.

Something like that happens every January 1. We all  get a “do-over”—another chance to do it right. If 2009 was a tough year for you, cheer up. It’s a brand-new year! There is a biblical perspective we need to remember at the beginning of a new year. It’s a perspective that’s wrapped up in one simple word. If you remember not to use this particular word this year, your chances of succeeding are going to go through the roof. In fact, I think you’ll be happier if you make a decision here and now to cut this word right out of your vocabulary. I am designating it the “No-No” word for 2010. Just as we do with our small granddaughter, we say “No-No” to using this word.

Cutting this one word from your life will force you to open your eyes to God, to His greatness. That is what Journey 2010 is all about-discovering the greatness of our Creator God. Perhaps you saw the recent news report of the Mom who had a heart attack while delivering her baby. The baby was delivered by emergency C Section (without anesthesia) and her newborn baby was delivered without a heartbeat as well.

Dr Martin said she did not have a “great explanation” for why Mrs Hermanstorfer’s heartbeat returned.
“Somewhere between four and five minutes she had been without heart rate and had stopped breathing a minute or two prior to her heart stopping,” she said.
The doctors were then able to resuscitate the baby.
Despite tests, she said doctors were still not sure about what had happened.
However Mrs Hermanstorfer and her husband Mike have said they believed it was down to a miracle.
She said: “I got a second chance in life.”
Dr Martin said she would take help from wherever it came.

This world ignores God. Clearly God was at work here. Perhaps he has great plans for this baby. The world just looks the other way rather than give glory to God.

This year I want to Give Glory to God! I want this to be a Hallelujah Year. So by official Pastoral Proclamation I am banning one word from use at Pleasant Prairie. That word is “CAN’T”. If you catch anyone saying this word at church, it will be a $5 fine. If I use it in a sermon after today, fine me $5.

That’s right. The one word you shouldn’t say in 2010 is the little word can’t. We use it all the time, don’t we?

We say, “I can’t lose weight.” “I just can’t seem to save money.”“I try and try but I can’t find the time to read the Bible.” “After what she did, I can’t forgive her.” “No matter how hard I try, I can’t change, I can’t quit smoking, quit ….”

If 2010 is to be a year of Journeying with our Mighty God, it will be a CAN DO year.

Our Can-Do God

In order to understand and embrace this wonderful CAN DO God, we need to understand a few “CAN’TS from God’s Word. These Cannot’s help us understand how we can live in God’s will. Amazing how the cannot’s of God are not negative, but liberating to see Him! So let’s understand them, make them our foundation for our journey 2010, and then move on with our CAN-DO God!

So here are the foundational Truth’s for our Journey into the Will of God and seeing Him as our CAN DO GOD!

God Limited

• Accept Yourself: Mt 5:36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.
• God is It!: Mt 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. 1 Cor 10:21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Mark 3:25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
• Care for your Soul! Mk 7:18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him

We must accept ourselves as God designed us, we must decide that He is Lord, and we must decide that the condition of our soul is of primary importance in our life.

God Ready

• Father uses kids as excuse for not helping a stranger in need: Luke 11:7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything
• Man uses his wife, family as excuse for not following Christ: Luke 14:20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’

If you journey with God you must be ready to go when He calls. No excuses, No delays.

God Prepared:

• Spiritually Healthy: Mt 7: 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
• Prayers: Mk 9:29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
• Pay Attention: John 8:43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.
• Value God’s Word:  John 10:34-36 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
• Know the Holy Spirit: John 14:17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
• Abide: John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
• Seek Truth: 2 Cor 13:8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.
• Let Go: 1 Tim 6:7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
• Know His Faithfulness: 2 Tim 2:13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.
• Avoid Temptation: James 1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
• Seek the Unshakeable: Heb 12:27-28 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,

God-Focused

• Self-Denial:Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.  Luke 14:33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
• Single Minded: Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
• Born Again: John 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
• Look to God: John 3:27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.
• Lose the Flesh: Rom 8:7-8 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
• Lose the Sin: 1 John 3:9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
• Forgive and Love: 1 John 4:20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

Ok, Now to Get rid of Can’t from our lives, so we can focus on our Can Do God! I think you can make a persuasive case that “can’t” is the single most destructive word in the English language.

• It destroys motivation.
• It shifts responsibility.
• It denies reality.

When you say “can’t”—especially with reference to the problems of life—you are simply giving up without a fight. You are walking off the field, turning in your uniform, turning in your helmet and admitting defeat—all without a battle. You are saying, “I’ve lost and it’s not even worth trying.”

Suppose that you knew you could … in 2010? Could what? You could get out of debt. You could lose 20 pounds. You could restore a broken friendship. You could have a relationship with your spouse that is giggly and mushy again. You could get a new job. You could get a decent raise. You could get well. You could overcome your shyness. You name it. Suppose you knew that this year you could do it. What a difference that would make. What a great year 2010 would be!

I want us to see that God is our Can Do God. If we are willing to focus on Him, depend upon Him, abide in Him, God will open up to us how truly Amazing and Awesome He is. I firmly believe that this year you can do everything God intends for you to do. You can live in His Will, you can live in His power!

No matter how hard, no matter how difficult, no matter how impossible things may seem right now. If you want God to be your Strength, in 2010 you can!

Many Versions of One Verse

Our Can-Do God is revealed in one verse. You’ve heard it, you’ve read it, and most of you have memorized it. The verse is Philippians 4:13. It reads like this in the familiar King James Version: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Here are some other readings:

• I can do all things through him who strengthens me. ESV
• I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me. GW
• I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me. HCSB
• I can do all things through Christ, because he gives me strength. NCV
• I can do everything through him who gives me strength. NIV
• Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. MSG
• I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me. TEV
• For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. NLT
• for I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power. TLB

J.B. Phillips gave us this colorful rendering: “I am ready for anything through the strength of the one who lives within me.”

The Amplified Version combines all:

I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency]. Philippians 4:13

No matter what version you use, Philippians 4:13 is a verse of unlimited possibility. There is no way I can convey to you in this message the power this verse can have for your life. This verse must be experienced, but most of us take it for granted and say “ho-hum”. This verse has lost its power to amaze us, to challenge us, to encourage us and to convict us.

We need to see it in light of a New Marketing Campaign, calling it the P413x Extreme Christianity Fitness Plan!

P413x “Can-Do” Christianity

Here, then, is the question before us in 2010: The Bible says that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. “All things.” Can you really do “all things” through Christ? Is that just wishful thinking, just another piece of hopeful religious propaganda? Or is it literally true?

“All things?” Most people would say, “Some things, yes. All things, no.” But the Bible clearly says, “All things.” Is this just hyperbole or is it literally true? Is this a verse upon which you can build a coherent, optimistic philosophy of life or is it just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo?

Can you do “all things” in 2010? I am going to give you four answers to that question. Along with each answer, I will also give you a principle to think about. These four answers—taken together with the four principles—make up what I call “P413x Can Do Christianity.”

Can you really do “all things” in 2010? Yes with “P413x Can-Do Christianity!”

1. You Can If You Want To.

The P413x Principle of Personal Desire. Before you can, you must want to. Before the deed, there must be the desire. In order to accomplish your goals in 2010, you’ve got to decide what it is you truly want to do. I love the movie called “Rudy”.

Rudy Ruettiger harbored a dream to play for Ara Parseghian and the Fighting Irish football team, despite being merely 5’6″ and 165 pounds. Ruettiger earned a place on the Notre Dame scout team, a practice-squad that helps the varsity team practice for games.

After Parseghian stepped down after the 1974 season, Dan Devine was named head coach. In Ruettiger’s last opportunity to play for Notre Dame at home, Devine put him into a game as defensive end against Georgia Tech on November 8, 1975. In the final play of Ruettiger’s senior season with the Fighting Irish, he sacked the Georgia Tech quarterback. Rudy was carried off the field by his teammates following the game. (Only one other Notre Dame player holds that honor).

The real Rudy says: Prepare for your Dream. “Preparation is what comes from struggle. Knowledge comes from preparation. These are the elements that pave the road to your Dream. If we do not prepare we will not succeed. Set your goals and pursue your Dreams with all your heart. If you miss a goal, don’t quit, reset it! You just need to learn more … step by step you will win!”

Now there were a lot of football games over the past four days—a fact many wives discovered when their husbands suddenly turned into TV zombies and sat in front of the tube 12 hours a day. One phrase we hear a lot when it is a closely fought battle (Penn St and LSU, Oregon and Ohio State, not MU and Navy)-“They Wanted It More”. That DESIRE is what winners have.

Here is how you prepare and get your desire and your want to going in the right direction: should be:

Hebrews 12:1 “let us strip off everything that hinders us, as well as the sin which dogs our feet, and let us run the race that we have to run with patience, our eyes fixed on Jesus the source and the goal of our faith. For he himself endured a cross and thought nothing of its shame because of the joy he knew would follow his suffering; and he is now seated at the right hand of God’s throne. Think constantly of him enduring all that sinful men could say against him and you will not lose your purpose or your courage

One team wanted it more. Our Savior Jesus Christ wanted it More! That is why He went to the Cross!

There’s an important lesson for us to learn. Isn’t it a principle in life that you usually get the things you really go after? Isn’t it true that if you really want something with all your heart, and if you focus all your energies toward one supreme goal, that’s what you’re going to achieve? That’s not the end of the story, but it is the place you have to begin. If you want it badly enough, you have a fighting chance of getting it. If you don’t really care, then it probably won’t happen. So many people who say they want to do things really don’t want to. If you don’t aim for anything, you won’t accomplish anything.

Can’t Versus Won’t

One thing I have learned dealing with people in the ministry, and before that with employees; you get a lot further in dealing with your problems when you are honest about yourself. People never get anywhere making excuses or blaming others. If you’ve got a problem in your life, you’re going to get better faster if you stop saying “can’t” and start saying “won’t.” Once you start saying “won’t” you’ve put the matter in the right framework.

We say, “I can’t lose weight.” For most of us that really means, “I won’t lose weight.” We say, “I can’t forgive.” For most of us that means, “I won’t forgive.” We say, “I can’t find time to read the Bible.” For most of us that means, “I won’t find time to read the Bible.” “I can’t love my spouse, is I won’t love my spouse…”

When you say “won’t” instead of “can’t,” you have started to tell the truth. For most of us “can’t” is simply a convenient excuse. Is it possible for you to do “all things” this year? Yes it is. But first you must want to. That’s step number one—the P413x Principle of Personal Desire.

Can you really do “all things” in 2010?

2. You Can If God Wants You To.

The P413x Principle of Divine Direction.

It’s crucial for you to understand this second answer because it is clearly stated in the text. “I can do all things through Christ.” This verse is not a blank check. It’s not as if Paul is saying, “I can do anything I can dream up.” No. If you read the context, he is speaking about the varying and sometimes difficult circumstances of life.

• Verse 11—”I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”
• Verse 12—”Sometimes I find myself with plenty of food and sometimes I have nothing to eat. Sometimes I have a roof over my head and sometimes I don’t.” “I know what it is to have money in the bank and I know what it is to be flat broke. And I’ve learned to be content no matter what my situation might be.” (The Jimized version)
• Then verse 13—”I have learned through the power of Jesus Christ that I can face whatever comes my way.” If it’s good, I can enjoy it. If it’s not so good, I can deal with it.

Why? Because I have access to the everlasting strength of Jesus Christ. Let me put this teaching in one sentence:

Through Jesus Christ you can do everything God wants you to do this year. You can face everything he wants you to face, you can fight every battle he wants you to fight, you can obey every command, you can endure every trial, and you can overcome every temptation through Jesus Christ.

“If God Is In It, You Can Do It”

Back to Rudy. At one point he wanted to quit. Here is what happened…

(Charles Dutton)Fortune: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey what are you doing here don’t you have practice?
Rudy: Not anymore I quit.
Fortune: Oh, well since when are you the quitting kind?
Rudy: I don’t know I just don’t see the point anymore.
Fortune: So you didn’t make the dress list, there are greater tragedies in the world.
Rudy: I wanted to run out of that Tunnel for my dad to prove to everyone that I worked…
Fortune: PROVE WHAT?
Rudy: That I was somebody.
Fortune: Oh you are so full of crap. Your five foot nothin’, a hundred and nothin’ and you hung in with the best college football team in the land for two years, and you were also going to walk out of here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame in this life time you don’t have to prove nothing to nobody except yourself and after what you gone through if you haven’t done that by now, it aint gonna never happen, now go on back.

God doesn’t have to prove anything to you. He has done so much or you, you simply need to trust Him and say OK be my Can-Do God. Let me share a simple phrase with you: “If God is in it, you can do it.” That brings it all together, doesn’t it?

• If God is in your difficulty, you can face it.
• If God is somehow in your failure, you can overcome it.
• If God is in your dreams, your dreams will come to pass.
• If God is in your goals, you can achieve every single one of them.
• If God is in your prayers, he will not only hear them, he will also answer them.

“If you are going through hell, keep going.”~ Winston Churchill

Can you really do “all things” in 2010?

3. You Can If You Rely on Jesus Christ.

This is the P413x Principle of Divine Enablement.

We come now to the heart of the verse: “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” The last part of that verse is a participle in the Greek. The word itself means “to pour strength into.” It’s like pouring milk into a pitcher or water into a glass or coffee into a cup. It’s the picture of something empty that is filled by an outside source. It’s the picture of a believer facing the problems of life—hopeless and helpless—and in that situation; Jesus Christ pours his strength into the believer’s life. He strengthens us—by pouring his strength into us.

This is what makes Philippians 4:13 totally different from things like Positive Thinking, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” and other purely secular approaches to life. Those techniques may be useful and may in fact help you to a limited degree, but if that’s all you’ve got, you still don’t have anything that impacts your heart.

You may get up every day, look in the mirror and say, “Every day in every way I’m getting better and better.” That’s a nice thought, and if it helps you, okay. But that’s a far cry from the truth contained in this verse. How far will Positive Mental Attitude get you when you lose your job, when you come home and your wife has left you, when the stock market crashes, when your daughter has just decided to have an abortion? Where’s the hope for life? What will you cling to then? How will you find the strength to go on? Where is the anchor for your soul?

It takes more than positive thinking.

You’ve got to have Jesus Christ on the inside. Are we who believe better than other people? No. Are we stronger? No. Are we spared the problems of life? No. Are we tougher than others? No. Does God give us a free pass so that what happens to others doesn’t happen to us? No. Are we wiser than others? No. Do we suffer? Yes. Do we know heartache and disappointment? Yes. Do we see our dreams crumble? Yes. Do we face opposition? Yes. Do we get sick? Yes. Do our loved ones die? Yes. Do we know tragedy, tears and death? Yes. All that anyone else suffers we suffer too.

What makes the difference? Only one thing. Jesus Christ within. We have the power of the indwelling Christ and that makes all the difference in the world.

Is it enough? Is Jesus Christ enough for the problems of life? Is his broken body enough? Is his shed blood sufficient? Is his intercession in heaven able to sustain us? Can his power meet the problems of life? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes, and the saints across the ages testify that Jesus Christ is enough.

You can do “all things” if this year you rely on Jesus Christ. Not on your own strength, not on your own power, not on your own wisdom, and not on your own ability to figure things out. But if you will say, “Lord Jesus, this year I’m relying on you,” you can do all things through Christ.

Can you really do “all things” in 2010?

4. You Can If You Start Today and Don’t Look Back.

This is the P413x Principle of the Personal Choice.

One question: Which way are you going this year? Are you going backwards into 2009 or are you going forward into 2010? Your answer makes all the difference. So many people I know live in the past, worry about the past, fret over the past. Forget it! 2009 is over, done, gone, kaput, finished. It’s never coming back. You can’t go back even if you want to. The old year is over, the new one is dawning. Wrap up the old year and give it to the Lord. Then strike out in 2010 to do great things for God.

Let me put it all together. Can you really do “all things” in 2010? Yes, you can. Here are the four P413x principles:

• Personal Desire
• Divine Direction
• Divine Enablement
• Personal Choice

Notice that the first one is personal, the next two are divine, and the last one is personal. There’s perfect balance here. Two depend on you, two depend on God. Does it depend on you? Yes. Does it depend on God? Yes. Think of the verse this way: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It begins with I, ends with me, and Jesus Christ is in the middle.

Let me boil it down to four key words: “I can through Christ.” To make it clearer, let me explain what I am not saying:

• I am not saying, “I can do all things.”  Those are the words of a boaster.
• I am not saying, “I can do some things.”  Those are the words of a doubter.
• I am saying, “I can do all things through Christ.” Those are the words of a believer.

You can do in 2010 everything God wants you to do. You can fulfill his will in your life. You can obey every command, endure every trial and overcome every temptation. You can do everything God wants you to do this year—through Jesus Christ.

There is, then, one word that is our NO NO Word for 2010. That’s the little word “can’t.”  Instead we need to make “I CAN THROUGH CHRIST” our motto for 2010. We need to write this out and put it in our car, in our bathroom, on every wall in our house, at work: Instead of I can’t, we say:

“I CAN THROUGH CHRIST”

“William Carey… dedicated his life to spreading the gospel in India. Serving as a missionary there from 1793 until his death in 1834, he… [hoped] to translate Scripture into as many Indian languages and dialects as possible….

Carey supervised the creation of India’s first printing press. He established a large print shop in the city of Serampore, where he did his Bible translation. The building was two hundred by fifty feet, and twenty translators worked there in addition to typesetters, compositors, pressmen, binders, and other writers. On March 11, 1812, Carey was teaching in Calcutta. While he was gone, a fire started in the printing room…. Despite many hours of exhaustive efforts to fight the fire, the building burned to the ground. Just five pieces of equipment were saved. Carey’s entire library, his completed Sanskrit dictionary, part of his Bengal dictionary, two grammar books, and ten translations of the Bible were lost. Gone also were the type sets for printing fourteen different languages. Vast quantities of English paper, priceless dictionaries, deeds, and account books were all gone. When Carey returned to Serampore and surveyed the scene, he wept and said, “In one short evening the labours of years are consumed. How unsearchable are the ways of God. I had lately brought some things to the utmost perfection of which they seemed capable, and contemplated the missionary establishment with perhaps too much self-congratulation. The Lord has laid me low, that I may look more simply to him.”

Although he was heartbroken, he did not take much time to mourn. With great resiliency Carey wrote, “The loss is heavy, but as traveling a road the second time is usually done with greater ease than the first time, so I trust the work will lose nothing of real value. We are not discouraged; indeed the work is already begun again in every language. We are cast down but not in despair.”

Carey resolved to trust God that from the embers would come a better press and more scholarly translations. Within a few months Carey had set up shop in a warehouse. Little did Carey know that the fire would bring him and his work to the attention of people all over Europe and America as well as India. In just fifty days in England and Scotland alone, about ten thousand pounds were raised for rebuilding Carey’s publishing enterprise. So much money was coming in that Andrew Fuller, Carey’s friend and a leader of his mission in England, told his committee when he returned from a fund-raising trip, “We must stop the contributions.”

Many volunteers came to India to help as well. By 1832 Carey’s rebuilt and expanded printing operation had published complete Bibles or portions of the Bible in forty-four languages and dialects!

William Carey lived his life with the following creed:

There are grave difficulties on every hand, and more are looming ahead. Therefore we must go forward. (William Carey was a I CAN THROUGH CHRIST kind of guy!)

Where are you as we look forward to 2010?

• Are you facing difficulties ahead?
• Are facing marital difficulties?
• Are you facing financial difficulties?
• Career difficulties?

Some of you are facing tasks that are so difficult that it seems impossible. The year ahead seems impossible. Don’t despair, don’t give up, don’t think you are powerless.

Let’s get with God and live the P413x “Can-Do” way:

You can climb any mountain in 2010. You can do it. When you come to the end of this year, you’ll say, “Wow, God, You are amazing”

The Little Engine said I think I can, but in Jesus we say I know I can!

Let’s make this very practical. In the space below, write down three goals that you believe God wants you to reach in 2010. It can be personal, professional, relating to your family, your marriage, your friends, your career, your dreams, any part of your life at all.

A Place to Begin

With Christ’s help, in 2010 I can …

1. ______________________________
2. ______________________________
3. ______________________________

What are you trusting Jesus Christ to do in your life in 2010? Are you willing to live in His Will?

Can you really do “all things” in 2010? With the P413x System of Jesus Christ you can.