: Welcome to the Aggressive Life. Starting out the new year in one of my favorite places in the world, my garage. It's here in my garage that I've been restoring a 1978 CJ-7. I had this in college. I couldn't afford the gas. I sold it when I saw it leaving the parking lot. I said, someday I'm gonna have another one of those again. So about a year and a half ago, I found one and I've been restoring everything meticulously. Not perfectly, but meticulously. bolt on this whole thing, every gear, everything has had my hands in it except for the transfer case. But man, it has been quite a journey. I'm getting closer and closer. And I did a little thing on a YouTube channel I have called Garage Bible Study, where I look at the spiritual parallels between many things in the physical world, or more specifically, many things that are in my garage as we work on things in the garage. I just find many times there's spiritual parallels and I talk about those things. So you can check that whole thing out on my YouTube channel, just check Garage Bible Study. And for this year, I'm gonna take what I did to start the new year on that YouTube channel and just put it here for the rest of life because the parallels are great. And by the way, I don't need to create extra work for myself when there's already good content. I hope you agree with me. I think it's some pretty good stuff. So here we go. Let's start 2024 in the right way. with a good word for you. Hey, this is Brian. Welcome to my Garage Bible study. Got a little different one for us today. I don't wanna actually get into doing a specific thing in the garage, but I wanna do like sort of a holistic thing of where we are with the Jeep and what this might mean for your 2024. I wanna talk about what do you do to mark the passage of time from the last year to the new year? I gotta tell you right away, I'm not a big resolution guy. I do set goals, but I don't find it's really helpful for me to have a whole list of things that I wanna do on December 31st, go in the next year. But I really do think it's important from time to time to step back and to set goals, but to do more than goals. That's the process I wanna lead you through today. In the book of Haggai, chapter one, verse five and following, Haggai is having the adoration of Israel. He's a prophet. They're coming into the brand new temple. and he's having them understand what their life means as it relates to this marking of the moment. And here's what he says in verse five. Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is worn. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Haggai says, consider your ways. I'm asking you and I to consider our ways, to step back and get a holistic understanding of what 2023 was like, and are we happy with it? Are we not happy with it? Haggai says, he says, don't you notice? You're working, you're working, you're not getting ahead. You know, if you've got a job, and you're not getting savings, Something is wrong. This is what Haggai is saying here. Just consider it. Give careful thoughts your ways. So we're gonna go through a process for you for the next several minutes, and this is a process that I do regularly. It's based on this Jeep right here. I had this on stage at our Oakley campus a few months ago. This is a project I've been working on for about a year now. I've had a year and a half right now. It's a 1978 Jeep CJ-7. I had one just like it, same engine, when I was in college. I couldn't afford the gas, so I sold it. When you're running out of gas, going to school every week, because I never had enough money to put anything more than, literally, like 75 cents in sometimes, and you're getting eight miles a gallon, you just kept running out as I was driving up the road, Narrow's Run Road, going to Robert Morris University. And I said, when I sold this, someday I'm gonna have it again. This is the day, I'm restoring it, everything has come off. I've had my hands on every single bolt in this entire thing. And it is a metaphor for my life and for your life. So what does that mean? When we consider our ways, we should ask ourselves in 2023, what new things did I do in 2023? What was it? What new things? This Jeep. I did something new I've never done before. This engine is entirely rebuilt with me own two hands. I built this engine. Actually, I took it out, I disassembled it, I sent it to a machine shop. They did some stuff with their equipment that I don't have, got the parts, got new parts, put it all together here and put it in and it runs. I gotta tell you, it is so satisfying to do something I've never done before. I've always wrenched on things. I've been pretty handy, but I've never rebuilt a motor. crankshaft, bearings, rings, pistons, all of that stuff. And it gives me satisfaction. How about you? Look back on 2023, is there anything new that you did? Maybe you went to a camp for the very first time. Maybe you camped outside. That's a big deal if you've never done it before. It's wonderful. Maybe you got married. Maybe you had a kid. Maybe you started your first job. Maybe you had your first and only graduation from college or whatever it is. Notice the new things you did. Take your hand and just pat yourself on the back. Good work. And a day when people keep doing the same thing and they're in ruts, you did something new this year. You're to be commended. You're in the 1%. The second thing I do every year as I look at my life, I try to notice the dings that are in my life. What dents are in my life? I am now at the process with this bill. This is all primer. And let me show you something over here on the side. For weeks now, I've been working on this body. This is all restored, reconditioned. There was just dings and knocks and pings all over the place. It's an incredibly tedious job to bang out dents, take body filler, put it in, sand it, more body filler, sand it again, put it again, sand it again. It's really, really rough, which is why body work is so expensive. It takes, someone knows they're doing, a long time, and I don't know what I'm doing. It takes me a really long time. But you can see right here, I've got some Bondo. This is stuff that I've put down and I've sanded it to fill in some dents and imperfections because over the decades, this Jeep has had a lot of abuse. People kicking it, rusting, all kinds of things. It's gotta deal with the dents. I think it's an important physical and spiritual discipline to look at your life and just recognize what dents you've had. Where have you been kicked in the teeth? What emails have we had that hurt us? Who gave us words in the last year that have stung and we're holding onto? What have been our disappointments? Whether we've been laid off or let go or didn't get the promotion or broken up with. What are those things? When we don't wrestle with our pain. we can't get to a new place. Haggai says, give careful thought to your ways. Give careful thought to the ways in which you've been dented. In fact, some of the things that haven't gone right in your life, it could be traced back to dents that you picked up years ago that you've not looked at. We are human beings. We are this essence that's soft and pliable and dense and cuts and bruises our hearts, our mind. All of it, look at the dents in your life. So last year I have a really close friend of mine who had a child and had brain issues and seizures and actually ended up getting in to the doctor surgery after months and months and months of altered diet and all that stuff with his infant daughter and cutting out a section of her brain. Now miraculously and amazingly through medical science, and the gift of God and a lot of people praying for them, she's healed, it's beautiful, they have their daughter back. And about that same time, one of my grandkids was born and had some issues, some real issues, it was really, really scary and fortunately, all is well, all has gone well. But I'll tell you what, it was about 48 hours or 72 hours of just kicks to the gut. kicks to the heart, fears about what if this happens, what if that happens, really difficult. We have to recognize these pains and bruises and notice what they're doing to us to be honest. And hopefully we'll come out on the other end as these stories I just told you are with happy endings. But sometimes we don't have happy endings. Sometimes there's a permanent dent that is there. We just have to recognize I might never be the same. You could put some putty over it and sand it, but there may always be a dent in me. And it's okay to believe that. It's also okay to believe that there's a Redeemer who can redeem in 2024 and who can do for you things that you can't do for yourself. Who can offer healings that you can't heal yourself. That is part of what we do. Now. It's not just the dense, giving careful thought to your ways. It's not just the new things I learned with the engine. It's not just the dense that I've had, the ways I've been kicked. It's also what mistakes have I made? So dense are I am the recipient of something going wrong and I was sort of a passive participant in it. But then there's the where was I actually making a mistake myself? I did it. I've got over here, and you have to forgive me, there's just, there's. putty dust all over the place. But this is a transmission right here. That's a three-speed transmission. I'm very proud of this. You know why I'm proud of that? Because I rebuilt this transmission, that's why. Oh, look at how it shifts. It's wonderful. You know why it's wonderful right now? Because I rebuilt this transmission, did it with my own hands and the help of YouTube University. And the problem was I rebuilt it three times. Three times. I kept getting it wrong. I'd put it together and things wouldn't work. I'd take it back apart. I'd put it together and there were these little needle bearings in there that they'd fall out and I'd have to take it apart and do it again. Over and over, weeks and weeks of work, just getting it done, ordering new parts, new gears. It was mistake after mistake after mistake. Now, I think it works. This is the problem is I think it works. but I'm not gonna know until later on in 2024 when I actually start this thing up and take it down the road. The thing about a transmission is it's a pretty easy thing to mess up on because you're kind of proud of yourself, you tried to figure it out, no one's gonna judge you too much. But then there's other mistakes that really, really bother you. And it's important for us to look back at our 2023 and just be honest, give careful thought to our ways. of where we made mistakes. I made so many mistakes, I can't even think of them all. I made so many mistakes that covers a lot of people, their involvement that I can't even share all of them without their buying. I'll just give you a couple very simple ones. I've hired people who shouldn't have been hired. I made a mistake on my motorcycle in terms of how to ride the bike, and I had bad. breaking technique that caused me to go over my handlebars and caused me to bruise and banged up for a while and sore. I took a trip to Alaska and I made a mistake. I didn't count the cost properly and what the finances would be on it. It hurt me financially. I'm actually still recovering, I'm fine. But it was a mistake. I had a hunt and I had an animal in my sights and I had a bad shot and I could have still. Gotten one off and I made the mistake and it was just a mistake. I've said things from stage when I hear it and I critique my talk, I think, oh man, I wish I wouldn't have said that. I've had conversations with Lib that have been hurtful to her. I go on and on and on. These are just some of the ones I'm wanting to talk about publicly. Do you know the mistakes you've made? Are you recognizing them? are you admitting them? Repentance is when you say it and you bring it out. When you look at the old of 2023, you say, this is not what I want in 2024. All right, I'm gonna take a commercial break, but hold on, you're gonna hear this crazy, I just had my exhaustive annual physical that I have every year, and it was crazy. The doctor looked at my blood work from this year versus last year, and he said, what are you doing? He said, your numbers have always been great on cholesterol and triglycerides and all that stuff. He said, but they've actually gone down. They've actually went down, cholesterol went down 20 points. He said, we just. would never see that happen. He said, what are you doing? I went, I don't know, have the same amount of tobacco I've always had. Maybe I'm spitting out cholesterol. So I don't know, but then it dawned on me, it could be two reasons. And both those two things are connected to the aggressive life pockets. I get asked all the time, hey, would you do this? Could we pay for this? And no, no. We've got two so far, the ones I use and ones I believe in. One is Flying K Ranch. Today's episode is brought to you by them because I believe that I've only been eating, unless if I go out to a restaurant, pure meat, no hormones, whether it's Flying K Ranch, whether it's an elk I've killed, whatever it is, pure hormone-free, pesticide-free, chemical-free, whatever meat. So let me tell you, I've had Flying K Ranch's steaks. And I am mad about it. Not mad cow disease. I mean, I am mad about it. Oh my goodness. They're producing some of the most mouth watering, healthy burgers, steaks, roasts I've ever had. They're in Finley, Ohio. Flying K raises their beef with no hormones or antibiotics. So you know you're getting the most natural product. It's a family business, partnering with state national certification boards to ensure both cattle and customers are happy. I'm telling you, If you try this meat or this beef, you will not be disappointed. It's really amazing. You can find out more, place your orders at flyi That's flyi Do it, tell them BT sent ya. Hope it helps your cholesterol, no guarantees, but something's going on with me. I'm liking it a lot. And the second possibility is actually, I send this to my doctor, is AG1. Send him the back of this thing and said, here's all the vitamins I'm getting, here's all this and that. And my doctor's not generally a big supplement guy, but he's like, well, something's working. If that's what it is, fine, keep doing it. Taking care of your health isn't always easy, but it should be at least simple. That's why for the last two years, I've been drinking AG1 every day, no exceptions at home. on a hunting trip, camping off my motorcycle, no exceptions, it's just one scoop mixed in water once a day, every day, and it makes me feel ready to get moving. That's because each serving of AG-1 delivers my daily dose of vitamins, minerals, pre and probiotics and more. It's a powerful, healthy habit that's also powerfully simple. I like to have it in the morning, I have a 12 ounce of water, so right off the bat, I'm helping my hydration every single morning. This is the one product, if I had to recommend one, I'd recommend this one to elevate your health. It's AG1 and that's why I partnered with them for two years. So if you wanna take ownership of your health, start with AG1. Try AG1 and get a free one year supply of vitamin D3 plus K2 and five free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkag1.com slash aggressive life. That's drink AG1. dot com slash aggressive life. Check it out, drink it out, get yourself some. And Ephesians talks about our old mind, the way we used to operate, and the new mind. Here's what it says. Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So there's our old self. which is ourselves before we come in relationship with Jesus. And then there's the new self, which is when God gives us a brand new identity, we receive His Spirit, we have His Holy Spirit. And we make the decision, when I go forward with Jesus, I turn my back and I turn my mind on the old ways of thinking and I go forward. This is what this spiritual principle means. Now, it's not related to New Year's resolutions or New Year goal setting, but I think this applies to what you should be doing on the verge of 2024. I think you should be thinking about things that you thought, things that were in your mind in 2023, and you should be taking them off and putting on the new mind. Choosing to think something new, to do something new. As a man or woman thinketh, so is he, says Proverbs. If you think. You're gonna have an awful 2024. If you think 2024 is gonna be same old, same old, then 2024 is gonna be same old, same old. If you think you're gonna get divorced in 2024, then you're going to get divorced 2024. If you think no one's gonna have you on a date, then no one's gonna have you on a date. We start with our mind as one person said, which is so cheesy, I hate to quote it. I don't even know who had said it, but there's some truth to it. that which you believe you can achieve. You have to choose the beliefs that you want in 2024 that goes before the things that you achieve. New things. Now, related to my Jeep here, I've got another new thing that I'm doing to this Jeep. Here in the next couple months, hopefully, I'll be ready to do something I have never done before. I'm looking forward to this, I'm planning on it. I'm going to paint this entire Jeep. myself, it's not the same as painting a chair in your dining room, which I've done. Painting a car, the whole process of priming, coat, finish coat, clear coat, it's very, very difficult, very involved. That's why I've never done it, because I've been intimidated by it. Now I'm thinking, I've done enough new things and things I've never done before, let's just go all the way. So I'm gonna be learning how, for the very first time, paint a car, and I don't know what it's like, but that's important to me. What about you? What about you? What are new things you're gonna do? I'm going to do some new things in my job description. I'm going to let go things that I've been doing and have other people do those things so I can focus on other new things. Letting things go and taking up new things. Are you going to do a new type of vacation? Are you gonna do a new type of story time with your kids if you have kids? Are you going to a new discipline for how to find friends? If you're lonely and you don't have good friends, you're gonna have to do something new this year. Don't keep doing the same things you did last year except you're gonna have better friendship results. You're gonna have to go to different places, try different things, talk to new people. This is the day to do something new. This next year, you're gonna hear a lot about revivals and awakenings. It's a new thing that I want to be a part of. I don't only want to be a part of a church that's growing every year significantly. It's better than being part of church. It's decreasing every year significantly, but we've been on a crazy growth tear over the last few years, and hopefully that happens. But you know, I want something new. I don't want just that stuff. I want to be a part of something that's beyond simply having crossroads get larger. I want to be a part of seeing if God might use our church, he might use our organization to bring in. An awakening, now, I've talked about this before, I'm gonna talk about this much more in 2024. Let me help you understand what this is. Revivals and awakenings are very similar, but they're a bit different as I see it. Revivals is when people who have a walk with Christ, they come into a building and they get revived. Their faith gets revived, their spirit gets revived. It's great, it's wonderful, that's what I want more for my life. An awakening, historically, is when the Spirit of God comes on a region. and he works through an organization, there's actually a church or churches or an organization that's organizing, and the Spirit of God comes on that region, and there is a mass amount of people who come into the family of God for the first time. They get awoken to the beauty of the grace of God. They start changing. Charles Finney, who was one of the leaders and one of the revivals that took place in our country, he said this, a revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God. Revivals and awakenings aren't about me having fresh feelings, having a fresh spiritual experience, which I want to be clear, but that's not the end of it. We have a fresh spiritual experience. God brings us into a new place because he wants us to have new levels of obedience. He wants us to do the things that he wants us to do. For many of us, the mistakes that we have are passive mistakes, things that happen to us or the dents we have are things that took place just because we weren't going to do the thing God wanted us to do. Those are always the hardest pain points for me, the biggest regrets. God is doing something to you because he wants you to be different in 2024. If your 2024 is what your 2023 is like, your 2024 will be a failure or to use a very heavy-laden word, you will be in sin. God wants you to take off the old mind, to put on the new mind, to be revived, to be awakened, and to do things you haven't been doing He wants you to do. And to stop doing things He doesn't want you to do that you've been doing. So that's what I want for your 2023 or 2024. Take a look at the new things you started this year. Take a look at the ways you've been kicked in 2023, the failures you've had in 2023, and the new things you're going to do in 2024. That's what Garage Bible Study is here for, not to give you new thoughts, but to propel you do new actions. We'll see you next time on my Garage Bible Study. Thanks for joining us on this journey toward aggressive living. Find more resources, articles, past episodes and live events over at bryantome.com. My new books, a repackaged edition of The Five Marks of a Man and a brand new Five Marks of a Man Tactical Guide are open right now on Amazon. If you haven't yet, leave this podcast a rating and review. It really helps get the show in front of new listeners. And if you want to connect, find me on Instagram, at Brian Tome. The Aggressive Life is a production of Crossroads Church, Cincinnati, Ohio.