Entering the New Year with Intention

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A daily program powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you what. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. Seek your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host.

Yes, it is New Year's Eve Eve. And that opportunity here at Truth Talk Live means what? We get to do the last live show of 2025 on sort of a New Year's idea. Uh I am so blessed, really unbelievably blessed, to have Dr. Carson and two of his many sons.

Had Dr. Carson's anyway, two of as many sons we have, Clayton, and we have Chris. Yes. And so, how fun. But the question we have for you, right, is we've come on to a new year.

There are so many different practices.

Some people call them New Year's resolutions. Other people, like if you know Nidakita Koloff, as I do, the man's been working on his goals for like, oh my goodness, he's got goals. And and and they're a big part of what he does in December is work on those goals. And and there's other people they adjust, right? They prune and other people fertilize.

And and in my case, which is just really different, I would never expect that from you. I ask God for a word. A word of the ear. word of the year that kind of honed me in on Uh the whole idea of what may need to be pruned or what may need to where we're going this year. And it's a fabulous thing that I have come to practice just blows.

I I do it every single day of the year, whatever word he gives me. And we go into that every It's just amazing. But the question is, obviously, maybe not, but how do you do it? What are you working on? Like, as you enter in 2026, is it a resolution?

Is it a word? Is it something that you feel like is part of your disciplines, your discipleship? In going into 2025, we have such a panel today of pastors, actually. To help. to see where all this goes.

But it's not it you know, this show is the reason why I love live shows, the reason why I love doing this show is your calls, right? You guys illuminate everything.

So 866, the number to call in and share your New Year strategy. 866-348-7884, 866-34TRUTH. Doc, you like to call it an adjustment based on some verse that you.

Well, boy, you hit me there. I don't know if it's been, quote, a verse on that one, but I've just always. looked at um the the The key for like if you're dealing with a car, Uh I love NASCAR. You gotta make adjustments. And they make those split-sucking adjustments in the pits.

And then when you look at a football game, halftime adjustments. And Chris was one of my student leaders, and then he was one of my associate directors. And every year, as we got to December for the school year, that's called halftime. And so we would do a lesson at the beginning of December. All right, what kind of adjustments are you going to be making so that your second semester will be better than your first semester?

And it's all about taking time for inventory. Evaluation and okay, what adjustments do I need to make? And we would challenge them to think from the standpoint of their spiritual life, but also the academic life, because one of the things about being involved in a The world of academics is there's certain things that become final. You get your final grades, and all of a sudden, here's this student who has been here for a semester and has not studied, and they've taken their final exams, and some of them fail, some of them have low grades, some of them now have low GPAs. And it's okay, if you want to be back here next fall, the spring semester has to be a lot better.

Well, then, not only academic life, but you want to look at that. We really want to stress, even on our show today, how do we make the spiritual life better? All right.

Well, we got Patricia is in Ohio. And Patricia, you're on Truth Talk Live. What you got for us, Patricia? Good afternoon.

Well, it's The last year and a half has just really been difficult. And I And it's all okay. God's grace is more than abundant. But I fell off. My regular track.

Um Morning devotion with the Lord and spending time with Him, and that. ending the day the same way. And I have done that for decades. And the last year and a half, like I said, has just had so much tragedy and death that Um I was just exhausted. And so I look I'm looking at it as kind of like a sabbatical of bread.

And now It's time to get back on track. Where I need to get up in the morning and I am doing it now and I'm loving getting up earlier. I'm just waking up at five o'clock. Usually I'm sitting down at five thirty, six o'clock and doing my time with him and Rowing But this year I want to make sure my priorities get back on full track where I have My devotion with him. And then to make sure that I prioritize My husband, my children.

And then after that, everything else could fall into place. Yeah, I love, love, love that. Chris, you were talking about that actually. before the show that People that are in their Bibles four times a week, tell them that about that. Yeah, so I was doing some research recently thinking about the new year and I found a study by Lifeway Research who looked at what is the impact of Bible reading and those who read the Bible four times or more a week.

It has significant life impact. In fact, 30% of people had loneliness drop. 32% of people had anger issues drop. Bitterness in relationships drop by 40%. Alcoholism drops by 57%.

Feeling spiritually stagnant drops by 60%. And witnessing goes up 200%. You see, I really believe God's word tells us that everything we need for life and for godliness and the way that we can see him and know him and find him is through his word. And so that priority, like it has to be more than a desire. It has to move to a value in our life.

that says there's nothing more important than that, and when we do, It seems that God has this thing figured out that all the other things start to fall into place. Isn't that awesome, Patricia? I had not heard those statistics, but that encourages me that. Right, it And it sounds like you're getting seven in, so you know. Yeah, yeah, which the other thing I've learned with it is that.

I tried The digital Bible just for Like, just a brat. And after just a couple times, I was like, no, I need. the pages. And that way I can write my notes in there and And I'll go, oh, yeah, in 22 this happened, and look where I'm at.

So it could just be a word or something in the Uh slide that jogs my memory to tell me the struggle that was going on, where the Lord led me in the Word, and how I've overcome it and moved on and grown. Yeah, that is so, so precious, Patricia, and someday. for your children. Right. Yes.

Yeah, I can assure you. Yeah, I had a Bible myself when I went through cancer and I almost lost my leg. There are several issues that people that know me well know happened to me in two in when I was. In 1996 actually is when it happened. And in that particular Bible, I wrote all those instances in red, what the notes that I was making as I was going through those in that particular Bible.

And my kids all knew that and when my Youngest daughter turned about 17. She said, Dad, can I have that Bible when you die? Because those notes are so precious to me. And I said We're not going to wait till I die. Here you go.

We got to go to a break. I hate that. We're going to be right back with a whole lot more. Patricia, if you can stay online, we want to talk with you a little bit more. Yeah, we do.

We'll be right back. And you. We got to get your call. You're listening to The Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Yeah.

Yes, it is the last live show for Truth Talk Live. In 2025, moving into 2026, I've been corrected.

So exciting as we are taking your calls on, you know, what is your strategy? What are you looking at doing to improve your spiritual life in 2026? And we're so blessed, really, always by your calls, like Patricia, who just called in. I was talking about. Uh You know, her devotion time.

And along those lines, for anybody that calls in today, you're going to get a date, the word calendar. I mean, truly, one of the coolest things I have, you know, to look at every single day, there's a verse that Dr. Carson has done for you. But for you, Patricia, Dr. Carson has something special.

Yes, Patricia, the question.

Well thank you that you uh Wanted to have the physical Bible.

Well, we also have a physical Date the Word daily devotional book, and that just has become available. People can get it from going to the website date the word.com. But we're going to send that to you for free. You just need to give to Nick your address, name and address. And where are you in Ohio, by the way?

I'm close to Dayton, Ohio.

Okay. All right.

So you're close enough to be to understand when I say go bucks. That's a big deal. Oh, yeah. Robbie doesn't like the Buckeyes, but I love the Buckeyes. Oh, listen, listen.

And we love Buckeyes to call in.

So. Keep calling in. Or tar heels or whatever at work. But nonetheless, can we pray for you, Patricia, as. You know, we all need more devotion, right?

And I think we're all looking at that for 2026.

So let's pray, Lord, thank you for Patricia, and I thank you for what you've put on her heart already going into 2026. And Lord, I pray that you just continue to bind up her heart from what it sounds like has been some difficult times, that you would come for her in these times to continue to heal her, but also to build out those new branches that can bear much fruit. Lord, we thank you for your word and pray that you would open her heart to see wonderful things out of your law. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you. Thank you, Patricia. God bless. Have a happy new year. Thanks.

You too. Happy New Year to everyone. Thank you. All right, how about you? What say you?

How do you do this? Do you do goals? Do you do resolutions? Do you do a word of the year? What does that look like for you?

866-348-7884? 866-348-7884.

Well, we haven't heard yet much out of Clayton, Dr. Carson's other son, sitting on his. Left in this particular case.

Well, I would say before you can be able to look at your 2026, you got to grade your 2025. And my dad was talking about looking at those final grades. Let me give you the standard by which you should grade yourself because we create terrible standards. It is based off of your commitment to the mission of Christ.

So you're looking back at your 2025. How committed were you to the mission of Christ? And that primarily looks like evangelism. And so when you're looking at year 2026, I would say the adjustment everyone should make is how many people am I going to evangelize this year? And I would tell you your goal should at least be one person a month.

But I really think every Christian should look for, it is very easy. If you're intentional, you can evangelize one person. Week. And I'd also encourage you to date the word. We have one of the best resources with birthday verse evangelism.

You can look up the birthday verse track, and it is. Yeah, well, go into that, Clayton, Reddit, because people may not be familiar with the here comes this person, you've never seen him before. What are you going to say to him? Yeah, well, you go up to someone. If you download the Date the Word app, it has all the verse.

You go up to someone, you just say, Hey, random question for you. When's your birthday? People love talking about their birthday. I don't know why, but everyone loves talking about their birthday. They'll give you a birthday.

You give them their birthday verse. It's really easy in the app. It's pretty self-explanatory when you have the date the word app. Read them the verse, take whatever said in that verse, and then follow up with the second question: Do you have a date for your second birth? And people who are lost, they don't know what that means.

They don't know what it means to be born again. And you go right in. If you get the track off of our website, if you have trouble with the aspect of explaining the gospel, you can just read that track. But it really is: if you'll evangelize one person a month, on average, one person will come to know Christ in a year. If you evangelize two people a month, on average, in that year, you'll lead two people to Christ.

And so I think that's the biggest adjustment that anyone can make is how committed are they to the mission of Christ. Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome.

So earlier we were talking about adjustments. And so, you know, Doc's got a verse that I know you're you're you've been wanting to share. I've been wanting you to share, however it works. Because after all, you are doctor date the word, man. Come on.

Well, when we take that word adjust, we have a word also you're going to add. There are things that you want to add. And 1 Peter, 2 Peter, got to get it right. 2 Peter verse 4, chapter 1, verse 4. He talks about us having these great and wonderful promises.

He's given us great divine, this new nature. But then verse 5, but also for this very reason, giving all diligence. Add to your faith. And then he lays out things that you begin to, as Clayton was talking about, the evaluation. How did I do with these things?

So add to your faith virtue and to virtue, knowledge, to knowledge, self-control, to self-control, perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if you lack these things, you're short-sighted, even blind.

Well, we don't want that for your sponsors. No, but we have Scott in Thomasville. All right, Scott. And he, no, Thomasville, Missouri, not just any old Thomasville.

Well, the beautiful Thomasville in North Carolina, but there's also a beautiful Thomasville, apparently, in Missouri.

So, Scott, you're on Truth Talk Live, my friend. Hi. Yeah, I'm going to devote my 2026 morning to prayer this year. It said like I was reading I was listening to a program on the Truth Network and they said ninety percent of the people don't really pray as much as they should.

So I thought, well, maybe I ne need to start with me. I need to start praying more and I mean, I study I must a studier and I study prayer books. I I Read that Donald Whitney book. How to pray the Bible, and that's been really helpful for my prayer life in 2025. And I just want to keep increasing That's beautiful.

Increasing my knowledge in Christ. Yeah, 'cause if prayer is where the rubber meets the road, right? Yeah. Yeah. That it is that that intimacy that even happens while you're reading the Bible, as you describe is that conversational.

I love what they said. I don't know if you ever heard this in Eugene Peterson's I forget how you put it when he didn't write his auto. The person who did his biography said that he. Had A conversational intimacy with the Word of God. Like Hello, Psalms 1, my old friend.

I've come to talk with you again. You know, like that kind of. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's cool. It is cool, right?

And so, but yes, prayer, like, oh my goodness. And I, I. I am with you. And then here's the one that's a challenge for me, Scott. One of those adjustments.

Pray without ceasing. Yeah. Yeah. Man, I want that. And and man, I want to live my life in communion with God.

And and that comes through prayer is such a challenge.

So I am with you, my friend, but challenged, I gotta tell you. What do you think, Doc? You've probably got a verse, no?

Well, sure. Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17. And 1 Thessalonians 5, 25, brethren, pray for us. And so what a great ministry you will have, Scott, to be praying for others as well as praying for yourself.

But I was just curious, has the Lord laid on your heart as you're thinking about praying some burden to be praying about? Hmm. Ah my vision. Mm. I've been losing my eyesight.

Okay. I'm totally blind in one eye and I'm I'm uh can you stay with us, Scott? Because we want to pray with you too. But we got to go to a break right this second, and we don't want to lose this opportunity.

So stay with us, Scott. You guys stay with us. You call us 866-34TRUTH. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Uh It's New Year's Eve.

Leave. You know? Uh That's what Adam said to his wife the day before the last year of the month. It's New Year's Eve, Eve. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm sorry, I can't resist certain things, but today we're talking about how do you, how. Are you going into this New Year season asking God Oh. For some direction, asking God for a path, right? Ask for the ancient paths, right?

And walk in them. What that looks like for you personally? And some intimate time, prayer time, as Scott was talking about. What does that look like for you? We would love to hear how you're doing it.

866-348-7884-866-34 TRUTH. We still have Scott, who is in Thomasville, Missouri, but inquiring minds need to know Scott. How how are you listening to our station in Missouri? Off the internet. I listen to Jacksonville Radio.

I love it. I picked up that. Jacksonville radio station 'cause I gave up XM radio and I found it And uh then one Sunday I was scanning other stations and I that's when I found the Truth Network.

Well, thank you. And it it it's uh it shows my favorites. It always comes up to the truth network.

So when I On Sunday morning, I have to switch over to the Jacksonville radio station to listen to Fruit Cove Baptist Church. All right, that's awesome.

Well, I'm so grateful.

Well, Scott. Uh we want to pray with you, my friend. Um and I'm gonna let Chris, pray this time.

So, Chris, can you lead us in prayer for Scott and his vision? Yeah, I'd be happy to. Father, thank you for Scott. Thank you for what you are building in his life, for his passion and his desire in 2026 to just continue to become more intimate with you through prayer. And Lord, right now we pray for Scott's vision, Lord.

We just ask, Lord, that you would slow and even restore what time is taking. And Lord, we just pray that, Father, in your power and for your name, that Lord, you'll just give Scott peace. And that through all of this, he would just know that you are with him, that you walk with him, and that he would sense your presence. Lord, would you help him to continue to become a man of prayer who's used for mighty things in your kingdom? We pray that in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Scott. We're so grateful for you listening and for your call today.

What a great thing to do. But happy new year, my friend. God bless you. Happy New Year, y'all. Bye.

Bye for now. Bye-bye. All right, we got Mike. Is in Dayton, Ohio.

So, Mike. Inquiring minds need to know Mike, Mike, Mike, as my friend, my dear friend. I am wonderful.

So tell me. Thanks for taking my call. Oh, you know. In Dayton, Ohio. Yes, sir.

How how is it snowy up there? Just a little flurries, and it's cold. It's very cold. But, you know, the Bucks are going to play this New Year's Day, and, you know, we're going to have a good time.

Well, it's cold. It's very cold. I confess. They're playing in the cotton bowl, Robbie. You probably wouldn't even know anything about that, would you?

Sorry. It's far from me. I can't, you know, it's distant. But nonetheless, Mike, what's on tap for 2026? For you, my friend.

I'm going to memorize the word more. And there you go. God laid in my heart, you know, while I'm listening to the show, and I was praying for Scott, for his vision, and all those people that called in. And that is such awesome things. Prayer.

and uh all that. But uh t this year I'm gonna pray for You know, that God helped me to memorize His scripture more. And I'm always reminded of what my dad and. just now. And he wrote it on uh On uh By five cards.

And he carried that card around him and he put it in his pocket. And he wrote that scripture and he kept that scripture in his car pocket until he memorized it and he had it with him. And then he wrote down another one and he put another one in his pocket. You know, and I said, Dad, what is in your pocket? And then I heap, and I said, Oh, it's just a scripture I wrote down, I'm trying to memorize.

And he did that over and over again. And I. I know that's going to work for me, and I can't wait to do it next time. You know what's beautiful about that? As you may know, Mike, because you know me pretty well.

You may know this story, but I can't help but relate it under these circumstances. You know, I ask God for a word of the year every year. And last year my word was worship because I was worshiply challenged, and I probably still am to some extent, but He helped me along those lines. And this year, the word he gave me is wholehearted.

So I'm excited to see where he takes me with that word. But two three years ago, my word was engaged. And I began to ask him, like, where are we going with that? And he goes, well, I want you to, first thing he did, coming right out of the shoot in January, he says, I want you to memorize the 16th Psalm.

Well, I knew the last verse of the 16th Psalm was in your presence is fullness of joy, right hand or pleasures forever and more. I knew that, and I was like, oh, well, great. I'm going to see how you get there from the first, you know, and I'll have that in my heart. And I thought, well, that's just awesome, Lord. Thank you.

And I memorized that. It was so exciting. And I said, okay, so You know, I ask him, What am I memorizing next? What do you want me to memorize next? And he says, Robbie, I want you to memorize the thirteenth verse.

The 13th Psalm. 13th Psalm. Yeah, the 13th Psalm. And I was like... What in the world is the thirteenth Psalm?

I have no idea.

So I'm like, man, I hope it's not long.

So the very first words in the 13th Psalm are How long, oh Lord? I'm not kidding, Mike. And I just opened it up, and as I looked at it, he and I had a pretty good laugh. Fortunately, the 13th Psalm isn't very long, and it didn't take me terribly long to memorize that. When I got done with the 13th Psalm, I said, okay, God, what are we doing next?

He said, Psalm 119. I went, what? But you know I'll share this mic for you, my dear friend. Thank you. Thank you.

When you memorize scripture, it gives you the opportunity You know, you commune in different ways with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. When you are memorizing scripture, you commune with the Holy Spirit in ways that really become spectacular, especially when you're memorizing longer scriptures, because those verses will come to your mind and you clearly didn't memorize it. And you know and you can sense where did that verse came from? It came from the Holy Spirit, it's feeding it to you. And you go, oh, and that's it.

And so you begin, again, that communing with the Holy Spirit through scripture memorization is one of the absolute joys of that adventure that you're on in this year for 2026, Mike. I know that it will be spectacular, but I just wanted to highlight that for you so you look for it. And Mike, I want to highlight for you that you've said the words several times about your dad. He wrote. He wrote.

And probably. Proverbs 7 talks about us hiding God's word, keeping God's word. But in verse 3, Proverbs 7, 3, it says, bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart. And that idea of writing it, not just hiding it in your heart of Psalms 119, 11, but writing it, that idea, visualizing God's word being written out, but then you write it out on that.

3x5 card. And I'm going back to a study that was done by Harvard about how you memorize things and remember, not just for a quick moment, but you truly remember it, is you write it down. And so, to our listeners, you've challenged a lot of people. It's one thing about talking about: I'm going to pray, I'm going to read God's word, I'm going to be a soul winner. It's a whole nother thing when you say memorize, oh, I can't do it, and listeners hear me.

You don't need to memorize the Bible this year this 2026. But if you memorize one verse a week, that's 52 verses. If I told you to memorize 52 verses, you're going to scream at me. But one a week, write it down. And what you said, Mike, you take that index card, you write it down, and that just something about writing it is going to help it get locked in and visualize as you write it on the index card, you're writing it on your heart.

And now the Holy Spirit, as Robbie said, is going to be going to work. And that word from the Lord becomes a part of you. Right. And when you need it, it is shocking. Yeah.

Where all of a sudden you're in the middle of you, you're counseling with somebody, you're having a discussion, and all of a sudden, here comes this verse, like cablamo, right in your mind. Like, where'd that come from? Where did it come from? I'm excited for you, Mike, my friends.

Well, thank you. And so you probably already have a date-the word calendar, don't you? Yes, it's supposed to be coming, so I haven't got it in the mail yet, but I can't wait. Thank you, Dr. Carson.

I really appreciate your ministry and all that. That is really nice. Thank you. I get an email every morning, and I read it and I go through it. uh part of my demo devotions and um Yeah, you're you're an awesome person, and uh I really, really keep being used by God.

Please do. And I pray for you guys and uh pray for the Truth Network. How can we pray for you, Mike? Oh, how can you? Yeah.

Oh, gosh.

Well, I got a fam I've got a father-in-law coming in to move in with me, and I'm remodeling my home. Oh, yeah. You know, I took care of my mother-in-law through her last days and my father through his last days. And you can't get that time back. I mean, it is so precious.

What an opportunity for your wife. What an opportunity. Yes, it has its challenges. Many, many challenges. But, oh, man, am I glad that you know, and I think my word this year will be patient.

But we don't want to pray for patience. Yeah, right.

So, Doc, can you pray for Mike? Yes, you better believe it. Father, we thank you for Mike. What a blessing he has been this year to Truth Talk Live, to Truth Network, to me personally, and with Dave the Word. We are praying, Father, that you will give him the strength.

the patience, the long suffering that is needed with the adjustments that would be taking place in his home. May your love for him flow through him To his father-in-law, to others, and just be, may he be a vessel in your hand. That truly makes an impact more than just with his family, but with his entire community. And we thank you for Mike in Christ's name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Oh, man. Happy New Year, Mike. A happy new year.

I can't wait. Yeah, me too. More adventures with Mike for a whole year. All right, here we go. God bless, buddy.

God bless, sir. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. 866, the number.

We need it. We need to know what are you doing? What are you thinking? Or maybe you have a process, or maybe you hate the whole idea. We're okay with that.

That's what we're here for is we want to hear from you. 866-348-7884.

I can tell you, having been in the car business literally for 40 years. When somebody mentions the word goals to me, what are your goals for next year? My skin bristles. I get all kinds of, there's things, hives about breakout. I'm telling you, you don't want to mention that word goals to me, but Nikita loves it.

Okay, what's yours? 866-348-7884-866-34 TRUTH. This is our last segment and the last time in 2025, you got a call. We'll be right back. Truth talk line.

You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Mm. It's New Year's Eve, Eve. Uh Yeah. Um For 2025, this is our last Truth Talk Live for 2025 Live.

How do you like that for a couple of doubles? Um and we are Man, we are so blessed by your calls. As always, the things I'll remember about Truth Talk Live this year will be those calls. And so we need them. How do you do this?

How do you resolve? Maybe you like goals and you want to tell me how much you like goals.

Okay, I'll listen. 866-348-7884.

866-348-7884.

It is this opportunity, right, to adjust, to see, ask God. You know, and I feel that in my own life, Doc, as. My word for this year was wholehearted, Robbie.

So are you putting everything you got into these different ministries and what might that look like? And yes, you have to say no to some things that you've been saying yes to, and you've got to be saying yes to some things that you haven't had the time for. And one of those, honestly. for me is simply the idea of Shabbat. Hmm.

In other words, a Sabbath. Actually doing that. It's what I've learned is it's significant. Not just for your own soul, but for your family. Because if you don't Shabbat, if you're the head of the house.

Guess what didn't happen? They're not going to be doing it and And so, what is that pressure that puts on your wife and the pressure that puts on your family? And I hadn't, you know, he's. He's pulling up me and he's saying Robbie? Oh.

Yeah. You got some splanning to do.

Well, you know, the book of Revelation talks about that first church there, Ephesus. It's lost its first love. We can drift away. And I learnt this many, many, many years ago now, that the week between Christmas and New Year's is a great time for self-evaluation. Who was it?

Was it Aristotle that talked about the unexamined life is not worth living? And so, yeah, you look back and you look at the highlights of it. And you rejoice and you give thanks to the Lord for the great things He has done. But then there's also, okay, what did we miss? What were the missed opportunities?

Why did we miss them? Was there a misuse of time? Was there a misuse of our treasure? We couldn't do the things God wanted us to do because we spent money on things that didn't really matter. How then can I make an adjustment so that there'll be an increase?

In 2026, I want to do more for the Lord, not in the sense of numerically, but I just want it to be better. I want it to be better. How can I do that? How can I be more effective with my time, my treasure, my talents for him? How do I use my testimony?

So I don't know if you know this, but it's it's a beautiful thing to me that the town of Bethlehem, which is simply house of bread, it lies dead in the middle. A VRAH. Which happens to be. Ash heap. And that sheep.

also means fruitful. And and so it's fascinating that they're And The place where Rachel died. Where the son of Jacob's right hand would be born. Right? In this ash heap.

Of the death of Rachel? Mm-hmm. Would come this Son to die, right? It's a fascinating thing when you think about fruitfulness that a lot of it happens simply when we die to our own. Whatever that may be.

That we can be that ashy, so to speak. And which results. Fascinatingly, and the House of Bread. It's kind of a. Amazing kind of thing to think about as we do that.

But I don't want to be remiss because Clayton over here shared. What his, and we haven't gotten back to it. What you're actually doing, what you personally are doing for 2026.

Well, I would add on just to what you said. I think dying to self is always the answer to it. And that's exactly what Paul says in 2 Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 4:12, so death is at work in us, but life in you. and it's dying to ourselves so others can live.

That's the basics of ministry. It's how much how can I die more so others can live more? And I think when we start taking that attitude, we can actually see stuff. And so, in that, when you're looking at your 2026, the answer is not how do I have more life? It's how do I have more death?

How do I die to things more and let God decide those things? And with that, that's suffering. That's willing to look at that. And that's also just how we observe our life. Verse that hit me this year of studying is 1 Peter 4:2 says, The one who suffers in the flesh ceases from sin.

And the Lord made suffering so that way we'd stop sinning. And I think there's a lot of things in which when we start thinking about our. You didn't have to tell me that, Clayton. That's not good. I think probably the biggest problem with resolutions is it's all about us, and that's why it fails.

If you want to go to resolution, make it about someone else, and certainly make it about the Lord. No. I like that. I like that a lot. Because again, anything that where you focus on self, you're you're f You're now on the wrong path.

Yep. And that's why, again, you look at Luke 9:23, take up your cross, die daily, die daily. But John 12, 24. on Christmas Eve.

Okay. That's the verse for me is John 12, 24, that if a grain does not fall to the ground and die, it remains alone. But if it falls to the ground dies, it brings forth fruit. And one of the you know, we don't want to write this down on our resolutions, but yeah, I I want to die more in twenty twenty six. Yeah, or just push into that, right?

Chris, what your your thoughts on dying more for 2022?

Well, I think I go back to kind of even how you started, Robbie. Like, what do I need to prune out of my life?

So sometimes the word die is really hard for us, right? But But if we just come to the word prune, like what things are getting in the way Of me growing this year? What things am I allowing? You go back to the story of Mary and Martha. Maybe they're not bad things.

I mean, feeding Jesus is not a bad thing, right? It just got in the way of the best thing.

So what things do I need to prune out of my life this year? Because they're really hindering me from growing into who the Lord wants me to become and what the Lord wants to do in me. I also think as you think about resolutions, one of the things that keeps coming to my mind, I think part of the reason people fail. is they set way too many. I'm going to change 10 things in 2026.

26 things in 2026.

Well, that'd be you, Dwayne. But, you know, really, I think studies show us two to three is about all we can significantly adjust because we're adverse to change anyway. Uh and so don't pick seven things you need to change this year. Pick one, two, three that you're really just going to prune things out of your life. You want to get up early and spend time with the Lord, it means you're going to have to go to bed early.

And so there's some things in the evening you got to prune.

So pick a couple of things this year and just lean in. And you know what? If the Lord does amazing work and gives you those things by July, Then pick a couple more things in July. Don't wait till 2027. It's okay to keep adding things to your growth even as you go through the year.

I think Chris hit something very well there of the the trade off. I think one of the things we easily forget is everything done is done to the exclusion of something else. If you say something, it's to the exclusion of something else. If you do something, it's to the exclusion of something else. And I think that's where we think we can have everything.

We can't. We have 24 hours. If you want to use five minutes for something, that means you can't use five minutes for something else. And that's just the reality of it. And if we start with that, we can start going, all right, it's worth it.

I'm going to choose the best things, not just everything. That's good. Yeah, man. You've got great sons. You've done great work.

Because I. There is the word evangelism, but there's also the word discipleship. Yes. And. You know, that sonship idea that God continues to teach me this year is that Jesus.

was such a son. Mm. He wanted to please he went to the father constantly. Like, that was his deal. Like, father, how do I do this?

Father, what do I do with that? Father, you know, because we think. You know, independently, you know, the John Wayne idea of, you know, I can take this on, or the Rambo idea of it's all on me. But it's not. It's not.

And when you think about. Um that fatherlessness leads to slavery. And they understood this, that is how they would make slaves slaves. is they would take the fathers out of the house. Mm-hmm.

And fatherlessness leads to slavery. And so if we can turn to father. Mm. And and it How that reliance on God rather than reliance on self, um. can really help us and those are things he's He's taught me.

Well, Robbie, I want to say something to our listeners based on Scott. He told about listening to Truth Talk Live through the Truth Network. There's a website. We have an app, there's a Truth Network app. And I encourage you folks, download that because you can be listening to us on the radio, but you can also be listening to us on your phone, wherever you are, by then just going to that app and going to any station you want to.

And for 2026, I just hope we'll have more listeners as they hear God's word. Then it begins to transform their lives.

Well, a happy new year, everyone. Oh my goodness, what a year you have given us, Doc and I, and all of us at Truth Talking Live, the many, many hosts. We are praying, praying, praying that you have a blessed new year and some amazing time with the Lord setting it up. Happy New Year. Happy New Year.

Yeah.