the verse I want to focus on was in verse 12, where the Bible
reads fight the good fight of faith, fight the good fight of
faith. Now, out of my sermons a little bit different than this
verse, but it's really the concept of this verse that I
want to utilize for sermon this morning, but the title of my
sermon is this, make the spiritual decision, make the
spiritual decision. Now, why would the Bible emphasize this
idea of fighting the good fight of faith? It's because there are
bad fights in this life that you can entangle yourself in. And so
not every fight is equal, and its importance and what we
should prioritize. And the reality is, I feel like
especially in the last year or last couple years, that there's
been a lot of fighting going on. But it's not necessarily always
the good fight. You know, people are fighting in a lot of
different ways. But it may not be the right fight. It's not the
biblical fight. You know, people are fighting a lot for money
right now because of our economic woes or because of all
the uncertainty today, people are fighting with the government
today, you know, there's a lot of fighting, I feel like people
become more political in the last couple years than they ever
have in the past, just because it's, you know, it's prevailing
in our society, it's affecting our every single day. And so
it's just a lot more concerning to people. I believe that when
it came to the voter turnout in the presidential election, it
was one of the highest turnouts, or both candidates, theoretically,
you know, more dead people voted for Biden than ever before, you
know, more machines voted for Biden and all kinds of stuff
like that. But at the end of the day, there's a lot of fighting,
you know, it would be, you'd be pretty much in a wholesome where
buried and not paying attention to realize that people are not
fighting. And there's a lot of conflict. And even ourselves,
we're fighting all kinds of different things, we're fighting
things that we never had to fight before. And life has just
become more increasingly difficult, you know, just going
out to the store, and I have to fight, you know, wearing a mask
and all these protocols and all the screens, and you're trying
to listen to people that you're like, what, you know, it's like,
I don't even know what you're saying. And just like the
feeling of being frustrated, I feel like I have to fight the
feeling of being frustrated all day. You know, you go out in
public, you see the news, you anything going dealing with the
world today. It just feels like you're constantly in fight.
You're constantly battling, you're constantly being worn
down, and being taken advantage of when it comes to just our
society, you know, this woke culture that we live in, where
they're trying to cancel everything. There's just so much
more effort that has to be put into certain tasks that you've
never had to before. You know, when it comes to just putting
things online as a church, trying to put the truth out
there trying to put information, it's constantly being canceled,
or it's constantly being stifled, or, you know, there's
new ways. I mean, we've recently had so many issues just trying
to get information out there. We're trying to promote our
film, the sodomite deception, but man, that thing, that's a
fight. That's an uphill battle, when it comes to trying to
disseminate that type of information. You know, you put
all this effort, energy and getting a billboard put up there
and then it's immediately taken away or, you know, you pay for
ads to go on certain advertisers, and they reject the
ad, or they put it out there for a day, and then it finally gets
taken down. So you're just putting all this extra effort
and energy and you're just trying to exert yourself. And I
think the question is, you always have to ask yourself, is
the extra effort and energy? Are the things that I'm doing? Are
they the good fight, though? You know, because I think there's a
lot of ways that you could get really into a fight. But it's
not really the right fighting. Okay. Now, let's get a little
context in this in this chapter, look at verse number five, it
says perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute
of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such
withdrawal thyself. You know, there's this idea of the rat
race, where everybody's just chasing to get that dollar
chasing to get that buck. And they actually think that by
getting more money, or by having more money, it's actually going
to make them more godly, or it's more right, or it's the right
decision. But the Bible is teaching that the person that
supposes that adding gain to them is going to somehow make
them a better person, or somehow draw them closer to God, you're
supposed to actually withdraw from that person. Why? Because
covetousness will destroy you. What it says in verse six, but
godliness with contentment is great gain. So someone that can
be completely perfectly happy, being righteous, even if he has
financial woes is the type of person you're wanting to be
around, not the person that's willing to sacrifice godliness,
sacrifice righteousness or get in the wrong fight. Just so to
gain money, gain wealth, gain these type of attributes unto
himself. He says in verse seven, we brought nothing into
this world. And it is certain we can carry nothing out, your net
worth at the beginning was zero. And your net worth when you
leave is zero. You know, there's not any all the stuff that you
acquire in this earth is really to be consumed or spent or given
to others at the end of the day. And so it's it's kind of a
futile fight. Imagine if I told you, you know, you're gonna I'm
gonna put you in the ring, and you're not gonna win. You know,
I already I can already tell the future, you know, it's over. And
it's like, okay, well, what's the point in expending a lot of
energy in that fight? Right? Wouldn't you want to kind of
just avoid that fight as much as possible? If you knew you're
going to lose already, you'd want to just go down quickly or
something. And so when it comes to the loss of the flesh, and it
comes to chasing the money in this world, you know, it's not
really a worthwhile fight, because in the day, you're going
to lose. You're like, well, I'm just so worried, I'm gonna lose
all my money, you are. Well, the government's gonna take all
my money, death is to, you know, the good thing about death for
some people is they went from being negative to zero. Okay.
They didn't, they didn't lose anything. They lost debt. Okay.
But the love of money is a dangerous sin that affects all
of us. You know, it's something that's very easily can creep in.
And you start getting into the wrong fight. You started
expending all this extra effort and energy for something that's
ultimately futile. There's a verse eight, and having food
and raiment, let us be there with content. You know, that's
a hard verse to really look at. I mean, he's just saying, Hey,
you got food, you got clothes, you're, you're supposed to be
content. That's a hard verse. I don't think almost anybody seems
like that, you know, and, and again, this is some of these
verses are really just a challenge to every Christian. I
don't think anybody can really just say, you know, I'm just so
content with just food and clothing. You know, even the bum
on the street once more, okay. And so nobody is really going to
probably arrive here. But we need to strive and do the best
that we can to be content with these things that we have verse
nine, but they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and
the snare and into many foolish and hurtful lust, which drown
men in destruction and perdition. Yeah, the Bible
saying if you have a desire to be rich, you are headed down a
wrong path. It's not if you are rich, because the reality is
most people are not and most people will not be. But a lot of
people fall victim of this. You know, it's called the lottery.
The lottery. It's crazy to me that people even play the
lottery. It's crazy to me how many casinos exist in Oklahoma.
Look, they're losers. You say why? Because the house always
wins. You know, it's the casino doesn't look like they're
hurting. You know, I drive by and it's filled with cars. I
mean, it looks like it's got more cars than the biggest
church in the area. It is the biggest church in the area
basically. And they're just taking everybody's money and
laughing all the way to the bank. And they don't care that
it's stimulus money. Great. You know, it's drug money. Great.
It's what it doesn't they don't care what kind of money is they
just going to take all that you will give them. They will just
hey, you took out a loan. Sure, we'll take that money too. You
know, they don't care who they're going to ensnare. And
really, why would you ever go to the casino? What's the point of
really going to casino? You're rich. I mean, I don't know what
else we at the end of the day. I mean, obviously, people are
like, Oh, I'm going there to have a good time. You secretly
want to get rich. If you're going to the casino. You're not
like, Oh, I pulled this slot machine hoping I would lose.
You're hoping for 777. I mean, you're hoping for bar bar bar,
right? You're hoping to hit the jackpot. You're hoping to win
the car. You're hoping that something happens. You know, you
don't buy the lottery ticket thinking like, well, that was a
good waste of money. You know, they're like, they're checking
it out. Yeah, they want to get that number. They're already
spending it before they bought the ticket. They're thinking
about all the things all wouldn't it be so great. You
know, I could just have even more marijuana now, you know, I
could have more drugs and alcohol because that would
really make my life better. And the reality is being rich is not
going to solve any of your problems just exaggerates the
problems that you have. The drunk becomes drunker. The drug
addict becomes he gets more expensive drugs. Okay, he gets
more of them. You know, he od's quicker, he destroys himself
quicker. The people that win the lottery, it doesn't help them.
It doesn't benefit them. And so why do you have these desires?
You know, it's just a deceit, the deceitfulness of riches,
people think of their life would somehow be better with more
money. But the reality is the people that have more money have
a horrible life. They have so many problems, and they have so
many issues. They have so much stress, and they're worried
about all the money they're gonna spend, we don't have any
money, you don't have to worry about how you're gonna spend it.
There's nothing there's nothing to spend it on. Okay, you like,
well, I don't want to worry about bills. Well, if you had
money, you'd worry about what you're gonna do with your money
and you'd be worried about your investments, you'd be worried
about someone stealing it, you'd be worried about someone taking
it away from you. You don't have anything to take. It's not that
hard. You're not that worried about it. When I leave something
of good possession or good value in my truck, you know, it makes
me a little bit anxious about leaving it in there that someone
might break through and steal it. You say why? Because it
happens all the time. Okay. But when I have nothing in my truck,
I'm not worried because no one's looking at my truck thing and
like, Oh, man, I'm gonna take that thing. You know, because
it's like, you know, they're afraid they wouldn't be able to
get away getting into that thing. Okay. So the reality is,
you know, the love of money is a dangerous sin. What's the right
fight? But that old man of God, believe these things and follow
after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience,
meekness, fight the good fight of faith. You know, make the
spiritual decision today. Whenever I have a decision where
it's money on one side and a spiritual decision on the other
it's love. It's godliness, it's meekness, it's gentleness. Why
don't I pick that decision? Why don't I make the spiritual
decision? Why don't I flee these things and chase after
righteousness or chase after the things of faith? I go to Psalms
119 go to Psalms 119. And really, I don't have any points
to the sermon because this is concept we just need to think
about it and apply it in lots of areas in our life. But Psalms
119 look at verse 72. Psalms 119 look at verse 72. The law of
thy mouth is better unto me than 1000s of gold and silver.
That's a powerful verse. He's saying that your word the Word
of God should be viewed as better than gold and silver. And
as much as people are chasing gold and silver today,
literally. And I know why because it's the best investment
you could possibly make. I mean, it's not the US dollar. Okay,
that thing is constantly losing value by the second. It's like a
deflating balloon. Okay. But gold and silver, that thing's
gonna just jack up forever. They're not making any more of
it. All right, you can only find some that's the best bet. And so
it's saying that the most precious commodities on this
earth, gold and silver, the Bible is more precious. Yet I
don't think very many people view it that way, do they?
Because where they at this morning, they're at the casino
chasing gold and silver, rather than in church, chasing the
things of God, trying to get the great riches of the Lord. But
let me tell you what, you need to make the spiritual decision.
And Sunday morning, what decision are you going to make?
Are you going to chase the dollar? Or are you going to
chase God's Word? Which one are you going to seek for? And you
know what, I want to make the spiritual decision. I want to be
in church. I want to find the words of God, the law of the
mouth is better under me than 1000s of gold and silver. Say,
Hey, I'd rather win the spiritual award today, then the
jackpot at the casino, then the car at the casino, then whatever
the money, you know, some people, especially if I
presented to them, you are going to win at the casino this
morning. Or you're going to win someone to Christ. If you go to
church, a lot of people pick the casino. A lot of people would
pick the dollar. A lot of people pick that constantly in their
lives. You know what, that's because they have the love of
money in their life and in their heart, and they think that
having more money will somehow solve their problems. But the
reality is God can solve all your financial problems. He's
not going to let his children just go without. But you have to
be content with food and clothing. And that's where the
difficulty comes in. Because he's gonna provide that. But you
know, more than that, you know, that's today's discretion verse
20 set 127 127. Therefore, I love thy commandments above
gold. Yeah, above fine gold. So you're saying that 24 karat,
just perfectly refined, pure gold. I mean, this is the top
notch quality gold. He says, you know what the word of God's
better, his commandments are better. Leviticus 2013 is better
than gold. I mean, better than anything. And not just that
verse, all of them. Every single verse is better. Go if you would
to Second Chronicles chapter 35, go to Second Chronicles chapter
number 35, if you would. And the reality is that you're going to
fight in your life, okay? Pretty much, I mean, you know, unless
you're literally a bomb, okay, these guys pretty much don't
have money, they fight with each other. Okay, that's their fight,
right? You're gonna have some kind of a fight, you're gonna
have some kind of a conflict, there's going to be something at
some point in your life where you exert some energy, you exert
some effort. And what are some bad fights? Well, some of the
worst fights are with money. You know, don't, don't always chase
the money, don't always chase the dollar. Sometimes, you know,
obviously, you need to work hard in your job. And we need to make
money. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't work hard at your
job or do the best that you can. But whenever, you know,
contrasted with an obvious spiritual decision, we need to
do our best to be content with the things that we already have,
and go ahead and start making the spiritual decisions in our
life. Okay. And there's other fights that you can make that
are bad, you know, here's one that I think is really bad fight
is trying to convince atheists that there's a God. Because you
could convince an atheist all day long that there's a God and
it won't profit him anything. Hey, the devil's believe that
there's one God. How much how much benefit is that doing to
them? not doing any benefit to them. And you know, there's so
many people they get into the wrong fights that are not a
faith. You know, they'll say I want to prove to the atheist
that God exists with using logic. He rejected logic by
saying there's no God. Why would I then try to use the same tool
to try and convince them or win them over? You know, hey, I'll
try to preach an atheist the gospel. I'll try to show on
salvation by faith. You know what, I'm not going to use logic
outside of the Bible to, you know, argue with an atheist.
It's a bad fight. And you know, there's even good people in the
Bible that get in the wrong fight. Look at Second Chronicles
chapter 35. And look at verse 20. After all this, when Josiah
had prepared the temple, Nico king of Egypt came up the fight
against karkemesh by Euphrates and Joseph Saya went out against
him, but he sent ambassadors to him saying, What have I to do
with the king of Judah, I come not against the this day, but
against the house where they have war, for God commanded me
to make haste for bear the from meddling with God, who is with
me, that he destroy the knot. Nevertheless, Josiah would not
turn his face from him, but disguised himself that he might
fight with him, and hearken not under the words of Nico from the
mouth of God and came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo, the
archer shot at King Josiah, and the king said to his servants,
have me away, Brian sore wounded. The servants therefore
took him out of the chariot and put him in the second chariot
that he had. And they brought him to Jerusalem and he died and
was buried in one of the sepulchres of his father's, and
all Judah and Jerusalem mourn for Josiah. So we see Josiah
and you know, Josiah is regarded as the man who performed the
greatest Passover feast ever. God said there was there was the
best Passover that was ever observed. And Josiah turned the
kingdom back to the Lord. He found the Word of God. He
restored the house of God. He was doing great works. He was
getting rid of wickedness. But then what happened? At some
point in his life, he got mixed up in the wrong fight. Okay,
there's this fight between Pharaoh, Nico, and I always
forget this guy's name because it's so so it doesn't even
matter. Okay, I just call him Trump karkemesh. All right. But
there's like this, there's this fight because between these two
guys named Biden and Trump. And people get so well, I have to
fight Biden. I have to fight Pharaoh Nico because he's just
so bad. And he's so wicked. And he's so evil. But here's the
thing. karkemesh isn't great either. And why do you just have
to get in that fight? Why do you just have to go out there and
battle? Because, you know, 20 years ago, if the fight was
between George Bush senior, you don't give me my time, my
timeline might be I need to go like 25 or 30 years back, okay,
George Bush senior and Trump, you'd be like, well, we got to
get George Bush senior because Trump's wicked. Okay, it's all
circumstantial. And Trump's not someone worth fighting for. I'm
sorry, make the spiritual decision today and say, you
know what, that's not a fight I should even get involved in. But
people get so excited. So like, we have to fix our nation. And
we have to fix all the politics. And we have to fix and right
every single wrong. And you know what, that's not right that
Nico's coming in here and Nico's fighting and Nico's gonna press
look, leave Nico alone. You know what, what if I decide? Well,
you know, I don't like all this stupid election fraud, which has
existed for every presidential election ever. Okay, sorry to
warn you. Okay, they've always cheated. Okay. Now the cheating
might have been worse. I'll grant you that. Okay, but the
other day, what what's the goal of me just getting so involved
and all the election fraud? Let's say I even found it. Let's
say I found all the smoking guns. How am I going to share
that information? As soon as I put it on Google search result
deleted. As soon as I put on YouTube video deleted. As soon
as I put it on Twitter account suspended. Okay, so how am I
going to share that billboard gone? Like, I know what it's
like to try and spread the truth. I'm already I'm already
struggling to get any kind of truth out there. Why would I
think that truth is any different? And look, you see
somebody conservatives people that don't even like, you know,
the Bible. There's literal like sodomites, like meo Yiannopoulos,
okay, this like sodomite freak, who's a conservative, and he's
fighting for Trump, and he's fighting for the truth. And it's
like, look, that guy's so wicked. Why would I want to
partner up with him and hold hands with him and, you know, go
shoulder to shoulder with this guy and get in that battle. I'm
like fighting with karkemesh. You know, why would I fight the
devil with the devil against the devil? You know, the anti
crisis so bad, I'm going to get on the team of the false
prophet. It's like, it doesn't really make any sense today, to
get involved in that fight. And you know what, if I get all the
way to the bottom of the barrel that you know, it's in the
bottom of the barrel that the Clinton deathless has the bottom
of the barrel that, you know, Jeffrey Epstein being able to
sprinkle himself with another man's hands, you know, it
doesn't really make any sense to get in that fight. And you say,
how do you know that? What happened to Josiah?
Then he died getting in the wrong fight.
Why would I want to get involved in such a dirty look, the
politicians of today, and these fights are dirty. And when I say
dirty people's heads are rolling. I mean, all kinds of
crazy stuff is happening. Pretty much every like, cop that had
something really, you know, to do with the capital riots and
stuff. They all just started killing themselves, you know,
like one cop supposedly, like shot himself and stabbed
himself and drove his car off a cliff. All this I don't know how
he timed that. He's like driving and he's just like, off the
cliff. You know, we evaluated this and it was just an obvious
suicide. You know, it's like, okay. I mean, why do I want to
get involved in that fight? It's dirty. People's heads are
rolling. You want to get canceled hard? You want to get
people to fight? And what at the end of the day? What is it
going to do?
If Trump gets into the presidency, is it really going
to change anything? Would you say that 2020 is better than
2016? You had four years of Trump, what happened? Did it get
better? I mean, oh, well, Trump got out a vaccine faster than
anybody else ever before. I mean, that's a good one, right?
And look, I'm not saying that Karkamesh isn't better than Nico.
He probably he could be. Why would Josiah want to fight if he
wasn't? You know, is Trump better than Biden? Yeah, I can
actually form a complete sentence. I mean, obviously,
okay. It's not even it's not even an honest comparison. You
know, it's really, you know, I like what Pastor Jimenez said,
he said that God is not a republican, but the devil is a
democrat. And I get that. But at the end of the day, you only
have so much effort. You only have so much energy. And, you
know, all the energy, you're expounding to tell them about
911 truth, and to tell them about the election fraud, and
you know, to fight and call people and change these, what
are all that energy is what it's going to do, it's going to take
it away from the fight that the spiritual fight that you could
have been putting that effort. Instead of telling you about
911, I could have been telling you about Romans 623. And I
could have been telling you about the lake of fire, and I
could have been telling you about the gospel of Jesus
Christ, right? Because at the end of the day, you can only
fight so much. And I believe this, I believe the devil knows
that he's not going to stop us from understanding what we
should be doing. But what he can do is he can distract you and
get you in the wrong fights. He can get you interested. And you
know, I've noticed, unfortunately, in the last six
months, nine months, a lot of good people kind of just fading
away. A lot of people just fading away, go to First John
Chapman roof. And I have to ask myself, why? Why would it be
fading away? Because they're fighting so much the wrong
battles, that they're they're not interested in fighting the
spiritual battle tired. Because look, the Bible talks about the
bat, the spiritual battle fatigue, talks about being
weary. It talks about, you know, the reality of the fact that
it's hard, it's difficult. And you only have so much energy, so
much effort to put in. And whenever you're just putting so
much effort, energy and all these other things, churches
kind of starts to become like, Oh, man, I don't have time for
excuse me, I don't have time for going to church, I don't have
time to go soul winning, I don't have time to do all these other
things. I don't have the effort and energy to expand, you know,
expand into the spiritual matters, they put them on the
back burner. And so then they just kind of fall away. And they
replace it with other things that are going to give them joy.
Because you know, we need joy, we need recreation, we need
these things. But it can ultimately replace the spiritual
life. Look what it says in First John chapter two, verse
15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the
world, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is
not in him, for all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the
Father, but as of the world, the world passes away in the lust
thereof, but he that do the will of God abideth forever. So
according to the Bible, we're not supposed to love the world.
But it's so easy to love the world, because that's all you
can see. All you can experience, you know, and look, there's lots
of pleasure to be had on this earth. You know, there's lots of
things to enjoy. And I'm not against having fun. Okay. But
how many people are choosing this over the spiritual decision
that how many people are gonna decide you know what, instead of
church, March Madness? Hey, instead of church, you know, the
NFL game? Or the NBA game? And I don't think you don't have an
NFL NFL team, but you think you have like almost everything
else, right? You have an NBA, you have the Thunder, right? You
have what else do you have? You definitely have? Oh, you Okay. I
mean, man, that thing's big, right? But people, they're going
to choose basketball, they're going to choose football, you
know, they're not going to miss the season opener of the MLB
game. You know, they're not going to miss whatever it is
that they really care about that they really enjoy. And look, I'm
not saying going to a sporting event is sin. I'm not saying
sporting events not fun. You know, you could find time for
that. But does it have to be on Sunday morning? Does it have to
be during the soul wanting time? Does it have to be when church
is because I don't care what sporting events happening on
church day, I want to be in church. You know, I'm not trying
to be legalistic about it. But at the end of the day, you know,
make the spiritual decision. You know, the spiritual decision
should try out and virtually every single category every
single time. You know, okay, your wife's about to give birth,
okay, go to the hospital or you know, have the birth at home or
whatever. We don't that might be a little distracting with the
service. I know we're family integrated, but that's a little
extreme. Okay. Obviously, if you're sick, stay home. You
know, obviously, if you're out of town, you're traveling,
you're doing things on occasion. But you know what, that should
be the extreme rare exception. That shouldn't be you know, your
life, sir, your life shouldn't be just always an excuse to not
come to church. No, you need to go ahead and just make the
spiritual decision in your life. And you need to decide not to
love the things of the world. But which one do you really
love? Would you say well, I just I don't want to miss church. I
don't want to supporting it. We can't go to both. You can't go
to everything. You can't do everything. Which one are you
going to ultimately decide which one are you going to go? Go
through with the Psalms or go to job 23 actually go to job 23
for a moment. But let me say this life is a series of
decisions. Life is a series of decisions. And I'm trying to
encourage you to make the spiritual decision. Because who
you are, where you're at, and what you are, is a culmination
of all the decisions you've made. Who you are, what you are
and where you are is a culmination of all the decisions
that you've made. And if you haven't been making spiritual
decisions in your past, I guarantee you're not very
spiritual right now. And you're not in a very good spiritual
location or place in your life. Right now, if the only decisions
you're ever making are carnal, well, guess what, you're going
to find yourself in a very carnal position. But if you end
up start making lots of spirits, and as you start making
spiritual decisions in your life, guess what, you're going
to find yourself in a very spiritual position in your life
today. And you say, Well, how do I start? Well, you start by
waking up every morning, and immediately deciding to make
the spiritual decision. You say, what would be the spiritual
decision? Well, I can look at my phone, or I can look at the
Bible. Isn't that kind of I mean, hey, I'm there with you. I
got a lot to do every day. I'm sure you do. I got things that
I'm interested in every single day. And it's real easy to want
to see like, do I have any text? Do I have a, you know, an
emails? Do I have what's going on today? What's going on in the
world? What are my friends doing? You know what? It's easy
to want to know what's going on at the end of the day, but
what's the spiritual decision? Wouldn't it be reaching for the
Bible? You know, maybe your phone has the Bible on and
that's what you're using. But sometimes that's not always the
best just because your phone has a lot of other things going on.
And I've never I've never seen a Facebook status post on my
Bible. I never got any notifications like, you know,
cool, cool meme. Everyone's laughing at it. I'm like, Okay,
I want to check that out. You know, you know, this this thing
is, you know, it's old, but you know, it works. It's a good
spiritual decision. Look what Job had to say about it. Look at
chapter 23, verse number 12. Neither have I gone back from
the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his
mouth more than my necessary food. Here's another one. Some
people wake up and their first thought is food. Physical
little. I understand why you're hungry. You know, my kids first
thought food. Okay. They want yogurt. They want a fruit bar.
They want a pop tart. I mean, they're number like, they're
ready for food as soon as they wake up. And look, there's
nothing wrong with having a natural desire for food. You
need it. Notice how Joe worded it necessary food. He didn't say
like this is a bad thing. He didn't say it's a sinful thing.
He didn't say there's anything wrong with it. He even is going
to obviously partake in it. He said it's necessary. But he
said, You know what, I esteemed thy word more than my necessary
food. So when I he wakes up in the morning, I guarantee he's
going to make the spiritual decision, not the carnal
decision. But the Psalms chapter number five, before just the
hair Psalms chapter number five. When you wake up in the morning,
let me ask you this question. Are you making a spiritual
decision? And you know what, I don't know. I don't know if you
are, you know, doesn't know God. God knows what decisions you
make when you wake up in the morning. God knows what
decisions you make every single day of your life, every single
moment of your life. And none of us are perfect. We all need to
work on these areas and try to improve on these areas. But what
I'm trying to encourage you to do is think about every decision
you have, and weigh, okay, what's the spiritual decision?
What's the carnal decision? Maybe I should go ahead and make
the spiritual decision today. And you have to force yourself
in a lot of times, you know, making the spiritual decision
may not always just be the thing that you're automatically
gravitating towards. Because if it did, I wouldn't even have to
preach the sermon. Our church will be filled with people this
morning. It's not an easy decision. It's the harder
decision to make the spiritual decision. Psalms chapter five,
look at verse three, my voice, shout now here in the morning,
oh Lord, in the morning, while I direct my prayer unto thee, and
we'll look up. You know, there's a desire to wake up in the
morning to talk to people. But who's this person going to talk
to first God? Why? Because he's going to make the spiritual
decision. He's going to say, you know what, the first person I
should be talking to today is God. And my prayer, you know, I
like his attitude. My voice, shout out here in the morning,
he's already decided that he's going to make the spirit of the
decision before he woke up. And let me tell you this, it's hard
to make the spiritual decision every single time. It's easier
to make the spiritual decision or now. And then you just that's
your pattern. That's your habit. No, hey, he's gonna hear my
voice in the morning. No, I've already set aside that time I've
already set aside a part of my day, or are there I've already
put in motion these plan, you know, things like this, my wife
will set out church clothes on Saturday night. Why? Because we
already know we're going to church on Sunday morning.
Right? Or you iron your clothes the night before, or use you
prepare the lunch stuff for the next day, or you're already
making plans for the next day. And then that helps you make
that decision, you already made the decision, make the spiritual
decision now. Go to Psalms 55, go to Psalms 55. You already
made the spiritual decision to come to church this morning. But
you know what, there's more spiritual decisions to be made
every decision of your life. Now, obviously, we're going to
eat, we're going to we're going to sleep, we're going to go to
work, we're going to do these things. And there's a balance to
our lives. But at the end of the day, if you're not making any
spiritual decisions throughout the day, you're not right with
God. You know, we got to have that balance, we have to be
making some spirit decisions and elevating some spiritual things
in our life above the carnal things, so that we can have
communion with the Lord. What it says in Psalms 55, verse 17.
Evening and morning and at noon, will I pray and cry aloud, and
he shall hear my voice. This person's also decided not to
just pray in the morning, but a noon, not just a noon. In the
evening, this guy is a like clockwork, he is going to pray
to God. Now that gives them a lot of other time to do what
work, eat, use other stuff, but you know what, hey, there's
going to be some time, you know, Daniel pray three times a
day. So he had a very specific routine, he had made this
decision to be spiritual. And no matter what his physical
circumstances were, he was going to pray, but this person is
praying in the morning, go to Mark chapter one, go to Mark
chapter one. And I find this, when you when you start off on
the wrong foot, you usually have a hard time getting on track in
the later part of the day. The Bible says sufficient unto the
day is the evil thereof. And man, is that a true verse. Man,
it seems like once you start getting going, you know, it's
hard to slow down, get back on track, get right with the Lord.
You know, if I really want to accomplish daily Bible reading
or prayer, those type of things. If I don't do them early, I
struggle to get them done. By the end of the day. It's more
difficult to get them done. When you put them on the backburn.
When you get them all knocked out, though, it seems like
things actually go a little bit smoother. Because why you put
the Lord first, and he can basically increase your time,
you never know what he can do with the time that you give him.
How about Jesus himself, Mark chapter one, look at verse 35.
And in the morning, rising up a great while before day. That's
before the sun comes up, FYI, it was dark. And it wasn't dark
when he went to bed. It's dark when he went he got up in the
morning, okay, some of you night owls says this, and departed in
a solitary place. And they're prayed. Notice what Jesus Christ
is like, he's one who's getting up before the sun even comes up.
Here's the reality. He can't do a lot of work for the sun comes
up, especially back then, you know, especially in that. So
he's saying, you know what, here's a portion of my day that
I could just give the Lord that I wasn't going to use for
anything else better. And then I can just pray. He's starting
by making the spiritual decision. What a good example
that he can have on to us. Go to Luke chapter 14, go to Luke,
chapter number 14. Your morning is a great place to start when
it comes to making the spiritual decision. What is the
spiritual decision you're going to make? Are you going to read
the Bible? Are you going to think about the Lord? Are you
gonna pray? You know, a lot of good things that you can do in
the morning? Or is it I'm going to check Facebook, I'm going to
grab a bagel. I'm gonna, you know, sleep in. And hey, I get
the sleep in one. All right. And sometimes, you know, obviously,
you start out on the bad foot. What that doesn't give you
excuse to say, well, I started off bad. So I'm just might as
well nuts to it, you know. Now you can still pray and read in
the later day and then try to make up for it. I'm not trying
to say don't make up for what I am saying is sometimes harder to
make up for. It's more difficult. It's easier when
your routine is you're getting up early and just starting on
the right book. Luke chapter number 14. Look at verse 26. If
any man come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and
wife, children, brethren, sisters, yay, and his own life
also cannot be my disciple. That's intense verse. Why?
Because he's asking you to make the spiritual decision. A lot of
people struggle making a spiritual decision because of
family, because of relationships, because of the
people in their life. But notice that Christ literally contrasts
every relationship you could have that would be the closest
to you. And then he says, yeah, your own life, your own desires,
the own the things that you wanted. And he says, You know
what, you need to make the spirit decision. But some
people, they're faced with a decision in their life, where
it's family on one end, or the spiritual decision on the other.
And you know what they choose the family? Well, my family's
Catholic. I don't want to go Baptist. But is that a good
decision? Is that the spiritual decision? Well, my family
doesn't go to church, my family's going to the racetrack.
But I want to go to church. Or my family's going to Joel
Osteen's church, you know, Mike, my family goes to life church at
home. You know, do they even really watch it? Is it even on?
Okay. Are they blasting like Miley Cyrus in the black and
with it? You know, sounds the same, probably. You know, at the
end of the day, you have to decide, well, which one's the
spiritual decision here? And you say, Well, I even want to go
there. But when it Christ, you got to hate even your own self.
Yeah, even deny yourself and say, Okay, but what's the
spiritual decision? What's the right decision that I can make?
And even putting that on the back burner, look at verse 27.
And who served does not bear his cross and come after me cannot
be my disciple, for which of you intending to build the towers
that is not down first and counted the cost, whether you
ask sufficient to finish it as happily at that he has laid the
foundation is not able to finish it. All that behold it
begin to mock him thing this man began to build was not able to
finish. Now, what could this look like? You can look at a lot
of things. Well, here's one thing. You know, if your family
says, Hey, come with us to the racetrack. And you're like, No,
I want to be in church. Make the spiritual decision. Like, great.
But then what happens in the next week? They're like, Oh,
come on, man. It was great at the racetrack. You should have
come with us. And he's like, All right, now go. And they'll
be like, Hey, remember when you were stupid, you thought like
church was the good idea. And start making fun of you. Because
even though you made the spiritual decision the one time,
you weren't willing to stick with it. So then they make fun
of you and mock you for making the spiritual decision. You
know, some people they get right with God for a little bit. Oh,
for six months for a year for two years, but they didn't
really count the cost. And then they just fall away. And then
people mock them. Why? Because they're never going to want to
make this decision. So they want to ridicule and mock, you know,
they'll have respect to the guy that sticks with it eventually.
At the end, they'll be like, Oh, wow. I should have been like
that guy. The foolish virgin will come and knock and say,
Hey, give us oil also. And it's like, sorry. That was your
fault. You know, the person you know, it's not in the parable.
But if there was a virgin that started with the oil and then
later dumped it out and ran with the other foolish versions, it
wouldn't matter what it they would have mocked them and said,
you know, you got to think about the decisions you're making and
say, you know what, is this something that I can do in the
long in the long run? When it comes to the family, this is what
I think of when it comes to family decisions. If you make
family decisions and you evaluate your life, you say,
Okay, well, me a year ago, here's where I was spiritually.
And now here I am a year later. Am I more spiritual or less
good? Do I go to church more or less than a year ago? Am I
reading the Bible more or less? Am I going so winning more or
less? Do I pray more or less? Am I following God's commandments
more or less? Do I have a bigger sin problem? I mean, think about
your life and say, Okay, where am I in my spiritual positioning?
Because I told you, wherever you find yourself, it's going to be
the result of the decisions you've already made. So if
you're looking at yourself and say, I feel like I'm in a more
carnal position than I was earlier. Let me tell you why.
Because you weren't making the spiritual decision. And look,
family is a great thing. I'm not against family. I love family.
It's, it's wonderful. But you know what, it can actually take
you away from the spiritual positioning that you could be
in, you can end up finding yourself in a less spiritual
position. Because even your sister, your brother, your mom,
your dad, your spouse, or even your own personal desires are
dragging you in the wrong direction. Make the spiritual
decision. Here's another one. How about going into the
ministry? When this be one that you want to kind of count the
cost before you just jump into the ministry, as the people that
just jump in the ministry and then quit fail, or a loser, they
end up getting mocked and ridiculed because they didn't
count the cost. You know, getting into the ministry is not
like taking an Uber, where you just like, well, I tried it once,
but it wasn't a big, you know, I'm not gonna try that again.
It's not a drive through. It's not a light commitment. It's not
something that you should just just, well, I'll just see what
happens. I don't know. You know, no, this is a this is a real
commitment that you're having to make. And you don't want to just
make it lightly. But it says in Matthew chapter four, skip over
think about people that went in the ministry. Peter, James,
john, think about these men, and then think about the decision
that they had to make when it came to getting into the
ministry. Okay, because this is, this is a real person with a
real family and a real life. Okay, it wasn't just this isn't
just a story here that we're reading. Matthew chapter four,
look at verse 18. And Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee
saw two brethren Simon call Peter, and Andrews brother
casting a net into the sea. They were fishers. And they say to
them, follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men. And they
straightway left their nets and followed. That's intense.
I mean, just imagine someone walking into your place of
business today, walking up to you and says, quit and follow me
right now. And the person is just like, sweet done. You know,
now we can imagine that because a lot of people quit, but not
for spiritual decisions. They quit because you know, they're
like, Oh, they asked me to work an extra shift or hard or do
something do my job or whatever. But in this case, Jesus is
saying, Hey, come and follow me. And it says they straightaway
left their nets. They just immediately follow Jesus Christ.
That's quick.
Let's read the next few verses and going on from Vince. He's
all the two brethren James the son of Zebedee, and John his
brother in a ship was Zebedee their father, mending their
nets, and he called them and they immediately left the ship
and their father, father
and father. Don't let those three words in and their father
straightaway.
Just immediately, hey, if it's the spirit is it's like, you
know, is it Christ on this side, and it's my father. On this
side, he just straightaway said, Jesus, he just straightaway made
the spirits. He just said, Well, this is the obvious spiritual
decision. And look, a father is a very precious person in your
life. You shouldn't ever disrespect your father, the
Bible makes it clear to honor thy father, my mother, you
should love them, you should do good unto them. And you know,
that never ends. And I guarantee these men still love their
father and you know, respected them. But when it came, push
came to shove. And it's like follow Jesus or stay with dad in
the boat. They're following Jesus Christ. They're going to
make the spiritual decision. Jesus isn't going to ask you
again. Jesus wasn't going to walk by again and say, Hey, come
on. This was their opportunity to walk through the door. And
it's like it's time to walk through the door. Otherwise, we
wouldn't even be reading about these men. Go to First Kings
chapter 19, go to First Kings chapter number 19. You know,
when it comes to ministry, when Jesus walks by and ask you to
follow him, you know, that might be your one opportunity. I've
seen men, I've known men, I've even talked to people at times,
where I feel like I gave them this kind of opportunity. And
they didn't want to do it. He thought it seemed like they did
and then they didn't. And then it's just like, okay, well, it's
not like you're gonna get that opportunity next the next time
necessarily. You know, maybe will. Don Mark, obviously, you
know, screwed up and he got a second chance. But a lot of
people aren't gonna always get that second chance. And you
know, you got to make the spiritual decision, but don't
make it lightly either. Don't think like, oh, sweet, I'm just
gonna jump in the I'm jump out of the boat. You know, realize
the decision that you're making, count the cost, think about it.
But I would think you know, and I imagine since these men were
chosen by Jesus, they're probably already pretty
spiritual. They're probably already sitting in the boat
thinking like, man, I wish I could be following Jesus in
their hearts or in their minds or thinking about the spiritual
things, hearing about john the baptist hearing about all the
things that are going on. And they're just ready. They're just
ready. And they're just waiting. And then when Christ says they're
just like, yeah, well, we're following Messiahs. I mean,
look, whenever one runs off, and the book of john and chapter
number one, he's like, we found him. Now, how can you find
something you're not looking for? It wasn't like these guys
just sitting here with a boat in the boat, just like I love
fish, I love fish, you know, and then Jesus walks by and like,
follow me is like, sweet, anything else? Yeah, I was just
waiting to do something else with my life. You know, no, they
were thinking spirit, they were spiritual men, okay. And
obviously, they were carnal to they had their problems. And,
you know, we're all carnal. But at the end of the day, you know,
the people that are getting picked here are making the
spiritual decision. First Kings chapter 19, like a verse 19. So
he departed things about Elijah, the son of Shafat, who was
plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him. And he with the 12
and Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. He
left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Let me I pray
the kiss my father and my mother, and then I will fall.
He's like, Hey, let me just kiss him goodbye.
Hey, I'm gone.
And he said, I'm go back for what have I done to the return
backroom and took a yoke of oxen and slew them and boiled
their flesh with the instruments of the auction, and gave unto
the people and they did eat. He rose and went after Elijah and
ministered on him immediately just destroyed his entire
business. He just sold the business, gave it away, kiss his
mom and dad goodbye. I mean, this guy is ready to make the
spiritual decision. He knew everything in his life. For what
the spiritual decision, make the spiritual decision. And look,
you think it's a surprise that the people that nuked everything
in their life to make the spiritual decision, end up being
the ones we read about and doing the greatest works for God. It's
not a coincidence. It's the reality. You know, going into
the ministry can at times be one where you're nuking all of the
carnal things in your life to accept the spiritual things in
your life. Go to Mark chapter three, I have a few more verses
and I'll look at and then I'll close. But this could go we
could go on and on. How about which Bible use? Want to make
the spiritual decision on that one? Well, this one's got a
cuter cover. This one's easier to read. You know, it's not
easier to read lies. Okay. It's easier to know what the Bible
says. And at the end of the day, why don't you make the spirit?
Let's just say it was even harder. Wouldn't you still just
want to make the spiritual decision? You just really want
to go with the easy route, the easy course, you know, play on
level easy. You know, eventually get kind of bored just beating
level easy. You're like, give me some a little more challenging,
right. And the reality is, you don't want to go around bragging
to everyone about how you won on easy. Did you see I won on level
easy on super novice, you know, with all the Chico's, I bold 100
with the bumpers. It's like, No, I bought 300 without them, you
know, with my left hand going around my back, you know, I'm
just, that's what you really want to say. And when it comes
to spiritual matters, why would you want to say, Yeah, I got the
Bible. There's just pictures. How is that even the Word of
God? If it's just a picture? It's well pictures worth 1000
words, you know, we can come up with stupid mantras all day
long. You know what the spirit decision is to read the King
James Bible. And that's how you draw close to God. Not some
faggoty picture of a queer, effeminate Jesus. That doesn't
it's not even him. Oh, but it's got pictures in it. I don't like
any of the pictures. The pictures are weird. I've never
found a Bible that pictures and I was like, sweet. I'm thinking
like, what in the world is that? What? What weirdo drew that? You
know, they're always creepy and weird. And they got things on
them just thinking like, what person did that? That was the
person that wasn't paying in a church was just drawing. And
they certainly weren't paying attention to what Jesus looked
like. You know, they were thinking he was wearing a dress
or something. I don't know where he got that idea. But Mark
chapter number three, what about when it comes to what church,
you know? Well, I'm gonna pick the church that's the closest to
me physically. I guarantee this church isn't closer to anybody.
Like I guarantee there's a church closer to you. Every
person, no one let this is the absolute closest church. Because
there's a church in every corner. I mean, most of you
probably have a church with less than about point five miles
from your house. I mean, if we were just looking like this, I'm
not saying like a real church. I'm just saying like this says
church on it or something experience, you know, or St.
Something or whatever. I mean, there's something real close.
Okay. Is that the best decision though? You know, when it comes
to eating out? I don't do that either. I don't think like
what's the most physically close place with food next to my house?
Okay, could be like Arby's or something. No, you know, I
looked at Western Sizzler, you know, if I want to get a steak, I
looked up just for fun. And it has like a 1.5 star. Okay, on
the Google reviews, which if it's at a three, it's probably
sketchy and bad. 1.5 I can't even imagine. Okay, most of the
steak houses are like four or three to 1.5. I'm just thinking
like, Oh, man, you pass that one by, you know, you're just
like, too much gristle too much. Just I don't know what's going
on there. Right? Why would it be different with church? You
know, who cares about the proximity of the church? When
it's in a general scale, you know, 15 2030 minutes, hey,
maybe even a couple hours. Right? If there's no good
option, you know, I've lived in small towns where they didn't
have a good option to go out to dinner. So we would drive to a
completely different town just to go to dinner. Sometimes we
drive to even further town just to eat at a specific restaurant
because it's a really good restaurant. I remember when we
lived in Canyon, there's a restaurant in Hereford, and they
made a really good chicken fried steak. Their mashed potatoes are
excellent. Their bread was good. And I would never even go to
Hereford. I don't even like her. It smells like cow. Okay. There's
a reason why you stay away from that place. Okay. But there's a
particular restaurant there. That was excellent. And so I
would drive there. You know, why would I not want to make the
same decision with the church and say, you know what, I don't
like this place. But you know what, there's a church there.
That's better than the other churches. You know, you pick the
church based on convenience, you pick it on relationships, Mark
chapter three, look at verse 32. And the multitude sat about him,
and they said, and behold, my mother and my brethren, for the
and he answered them saying, Who is my mother? Who is my
brethren? He looked round about on them, which sat about him and
Behold, my mother and my brethren, or whosoever shall do
the will of God, the same as my brother, and my sister and
mother, you know, would you rather be in church today with
all your family, or be in the best church? I'd rather both.
But that may not always be the case. And in the day, what
decision did Jesus make? Jesus decide to hang out with a family
or with a spiritual family? Did he make the spiritual decision?
I have a lot of other verses, but I'll just kind of give you a
few thoughts here. Go to Revelation chapter two. Where
you live, you know, that could be a spiritual or carnal
decision where you live. If you asked me where I would want to
live, it would not be the same from a spiritual perspective
versus a physical perspective. You know, first of all, I'd
probably live in Phoenix, because it was great. I like it
Okay. I wouldn't want to live you know, here. I wouldn't want
to live in Oklahoma City from a carnal perspective. Okay, I'm
just gonna be honest with you. All right. Just because I grew
up in a similar climate where it's so windy, and I just me and
wind. It's a real battle. Okay. I want to fight for Nico, and
I'm gonna lose. All right. But you know what, you could decide
to live in in Oklahoma City for spiritual reasons. There's a lot
of people here that need the gospel of Jesus Christ. A lot of
people that need to be preached, you know, against all the
casinos and all the marijuana and all the stupidity, all the
foolishness, all the nonsense, like everywhere else. Well, I
like this other churches preaching because it's so it
never talked down to me. They never say them doing anything
wrong. It's only encouraging. They never say that I'm doing
anything wrong. They never challenge me. They're never
trying to put pressure on me to do something, you know, like
preach the gospel or something, or show up, or, you know, open
my King James Bible or something, you know, have the
right Bible. They're not putting all this pressure on me to have
kids, which are like the best decisions I've ever made my
life. I mean, these people, you know, man, I can't imagine
they're not trying to put pressure on me not to murder my
children. And they're not putting pressure on me to not
dress like a whore, and dress like a fag. Not putting
pressure on me to follow the commandments. It's real
comfortable. You know, the tears even more comfortable. It's the
lights, they turn them down. Only like 15 minutes sermon. I
get out on time for lunch all the time. You know, it's a good
experience. I like the preaching. Well, you know, the
Bible says there's gonna be a time when they cannot endure
sound. Well, like this church, it's bigger. You know, I think
when you read the Bible, it almost sounds like the the good
church is only gonna get smaller. And I don't want that.
And you know what, we're gonna fight to build the church. You
know what, there could be a place in this world where the
good church is smaller than the big church, since the big church
is alluded to as being the one where they're heaping to
themselves teachers having itching ears. And they're turned
into fables. I like his stories. He always always the cool
stories. But they're not even real. There's exaggerations and
just nonsense. We're being in a church and this guy's telling me
this pastor of several hundred people. He's telling me about
how he didn't have enough courage to give someone an
invite to church. I preach the gospel. I'm saying like hand
them an invite to church. But finally the his hairdresser that
he sees every week, finally asked him for a card and then he
gave it to her and he was like, Oh, the Lord just blessed me and
took that pressure off. I'm thinking like, what? How is this
guy gonna encourage you to go soul winning? When he's he's
expecting his hairdresser to ask him for an invitation to
church. That's what you should do. You should wait for
everybody to ask you to come to this church. Good luck with that
one. You know, oh, I like the I like the fables Baptist Church.
You know, I look at the old IB a lot of them. And they remind me
of the non and non churches in the 90s. They're preaching
style, their programs are met. It's just like this. They're
just this slow, just dragging down everybody with them. And
they're losing people to the fun and excitement. You know what I
say? Let's keep losing them. I'm not going to change. When are we
going to get the pink lights? Never. When we get the 15 minute
sermon? Sorry. Come like an hour late, maybe. But don't
actually. I mean, what? What is it going to be like you just
tell us that we're great and wonderful, when you're great
and wonderful. Okay. What's the spiritual decision? Why do you
want to go to church and hear how great you are already? You
don't need that. You need to be challenged with the Word of God.
Like a revelation chapter two, verse four, nevertheless, I have
someone against me because that was left by first love.
Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen and repent and
do the first works are also a comedy quickly, and will remove
thy candles to God's place except our friend, Christ
really looks at a church. They're not doing the first
works, which I believe with all my heart is so winning. Preaching
the gospel. What's the point of even having church if you're not
going to preach the gospel? Well, I love this church. They
don't pressure on me to go so winning. Well, Christ doesn't
consider them a church. What's the point of him going? Might as
well just go get a coffee somewhere else. It's just a big
coffee shop is what it really is. We got the Wi Fi, still get
to pay the expensive prices. Hey, I've been in the church
where they have the coffee shop is five bucks a coffee. I'm
thinking like, what? Why do people torture themselves with
this junk? You know, water tastes better anyways. All
right. I know I'm losing my coffee friends. All right. Which
is everyone else. But it you know, make the spiritual
decision. Look at chapter three, verse 14. And then the church of
the angel the latest scenes, right? These things say, Amen,
the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of
God, I know thy works that are neither cold nor hot. I would
that work colder hot. So then because they are lukewarm,
neither cold nor hot, I will spew the out of my mouth. Well,
I love this church. They don't pressure me to do anything. Well,
God might just spew you out of his mouth then. The lukewarm
Baptist Church, why do you want to go there? What's more
comfortable? They're not putting any pressure on, you know, look
at chapter three, verse one, and then the angel the church and
start is right. These things said he that hath the seven
spirits of God, and the seven stars I know thy works, that
doesn't name that they'll live is and are dead. Well, I love
this church. It's big. It's huge. They have a name. They're
alive. Are they dead? Basically or spiritually? You know, a lot
of people read this and they think like, Oh, they think of
the church where like, nobody's coming and the doors are
decrepit. This could be the booming, you know, it's not
like they have a name that they live. So it's not like you're
walking up to the old building is about to fall over and no
one's going. No, this is the church where everybody's in the
town. Have you heard of this church? And this church is the
big church and it's the big name and everyone's going there.
But they're spiritually dead. Why? Because the pastor doesn't
get up and preach anything spiritual. He preaches kernel
junk. He gets up and he just tells everybody how great they
are. He tells everybody that hey, if the Cowboys win the
Super Bowl, I'll wear their jersey on Sunday morning. You
think I'm joking? Hey, go there's some church in Tulsa. I
don't know. This guy's like basically got a basketball court
on stage and he's like doing dunks while he's preaching.
It's an entertainment fest. They have a name that they live.
Most popular church on YouTube. filled with people. They got a
campus. There's a campus coming next to you. Why? Because that
proximity matters, doesn't it? Like it was the great church.
Why do you need to have one so close? Why don't you make
everybody drive?
Go to Psalms 119. We'll finish there.
The silo sermon make the spiritual decision.
When you think about all decisions you make in your life.
Are you making? Here's a question. Are you making any
spiritual decisions?
Do you make spiritual decisions in your life? Or the spiritual
decisions you make? You know, are they made for you? And I
think about children. You know, a lot of children kind of get
away with their parents forcing them to be spiritual. But here's
a question. Would you be spiritual if your parents
weren't making you? Would you go to the right church if your
parents weren't making you? Would you read your Bible your
parents weren't making you? Would you dress differently? If
your parents weren't controlling what clothes you wear?
Because at the end of the day, you're going to become an adult.
And then when we look at you, we're going to say, Okay, well,
you know why they're like that? Because of the decisions that
they made? Or were they being spiritual before? Because look,
when you grow up, you don't like automatically become more
spiritual. You don't just like naturally, you know, children can
be very spiritual. I've known lots, you know, we tried to do
Bible memory verses and stuff like that. And there's certain
kids, they do it every time. I know they're gonna get it. I
already know my mind. I'm thinking about prizes that I
could get for them before I even pick the passage. And I'll
pick hard ones. I'll pick Proverbs one. There's a kid in
pure words, I picked Proverbs one, he had it done like week
five. And I was like, how'd you do that? He's like, I just read
it over and over every day. Young child just deciding to
what makes fair decisions in his life. You know, at that age, you
know, all I want to do is play, you know, soccer or video games.
I was making the video game decision as a child. But is that
really the spiritual decision? Now, I'm finishing here. And I
just really wanted to kind of just go through and just read a
lot of verses here. Because let's see if this part what this
person's attitude is, if he's going to make the physical
decision or the spiritual decision. Okay. Look at verse
number eight. Psalms 119. Look at verse number eight. I will
keep thy statutes. Look at verse 15. I will meditate in
thy precepts. Look at verse 16. I will delight myself in thy
statutes. Look at verse number 30. I have chosen the way of
truth. Look at verse 32. I will run the way of thy commandments.
Look at verse 46. I will speak of thy testimonies also, for
kings will not be ashamed. Look at verse 47. And I will delight
myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. Look at
verse 48. My hands also will I lift up under thy commandments,
which I have loved, and I will meditate in thy statutes. I
want to read more. What are this guy's attitude? I will keep my
statue, I will keep that commandment. Now he's saying,
you know what, I'm going to make the spiritual decision. Hey,
when I'm pushed, and there's a conflict, you know, Dad, Jesus,
Jesus, hey, which church the right church? Hey, the right
Bible? Hey, I'm gonna keep the commandments. I'm gonna dress
right. I'm gonna act right. I'm going to do these things. Hey,
there's some people they decide, I want to follow Jesus. You
know, we sing that song that you want to follow Jesus. But do you
mean it? Or is it just kind of lackluster?
No turning back. No turning back. Wait, what? This guy means
it. You know, how do you mean the things that you say? Look at
verse 57. Now my portion of the Lord, I have said that I would
keep thy word. I said it. Verse 94. I am dying. Save me for I
sought thy precepts. Verse 95. The wicked awaited for me to
destroy me. But I will consider the testimonies. You know, a lot
of people, the only person who's going to destroy them is them.
Why? Because they stop making spiritual decisions. There's a
lot of wicked people, very evil people. They are just sitting
and waiting and watching every day for me to destroy myself,
for you to destroy yourself, for my family to destroy itself, for
good churches to destroy. So they just get on there every
day. They're just hoping they just can't wait for you to
destroy yourself. Just can't wait for you to make that
mistake. They just can't wait for you to finally say you know
what, I'm not going to church. I'm not reading the Bible anymore.
I'm not going someone, you know, it was a cold and I knew it. And
I'm not going anymore. No, I'm finally getting out. I'm finally
getting free. I'm gonna vote by now. Now you don't destroy
yourself. Keep making spiritual decisions. You know, you destroy
yourself, stop making spiritual decisions. I promise you will
destroy yourself. It'll be very easy. You won't even have to
exert any effort. 105 thy word is a lamp on my feet and a line
on my path. I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep
thy righteous judgments. Verse 115. Depart from me evildoers,
for I will keep the commandments of my God. Wouldn't that be the
great verse to tell these trolls and losers and enemies and say
depart from me because I'm going to keep God's commandments. I'm
going to make the spiritual decision today. You know, what
did God someone spirit we riled up today, not by my words, but
maybe the words of God and when say, you know what, maybe I'm
going to keep God's commandments. Nope. I will keep
God's commandments. No, I shall keep God's commands. I said it
and I'm going to do it. Why would I not?
Look at 120. My flesh trembleth for fear of the and I'm afraid
of my judgments. You say how can I do it Pastor Shelley? How can
I decide to make those decisions? Well, do you really
feel the Lord? You really look at decisions and say, which one
should I make? Well, if I make this one, God might destroy me.
That's, I think this one, you know, you know, what if what if
Peter and john, and you know, all the disciples, Peter, James
and john, Peter and Andrew, they're in their boats, and
Jesus like, follow me, or you're going to drown right now. That
have been even easier. But if you just think in your mind, God
could, I might as well just follow him. The fear of the
Lord will terrify you into keeping his commands like 128
therefore I steam all the precepts concerning all things
you write, and I hate every false way. The carnal decision
is the false way. Not just false doctrine, the love of
money. Loving your parents over the Word of God. That's the
false way. The wrong way. Like 145. I cried with my whole
heart. Hear me Oh, Lord, I will keep thy statutes. I like this
guy's attitude. I feel like he keeps saying the same thing.
Like 146. I cried under these save me. And I shall keep my
testimonies. Like 172. My tongue shall speak of thy word for all
thy commandments are righteousness. 173 that thine
hand help me. Right chosen by precepts. I've chosen by
precepts. What did this guy do? Made the spiritual decision.
Closing prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word.
Thank you for this great church. Thank you for the opportunity to
serve you. I pray that we would see the futility, the futility
of the world, and also the flash and the things that are out
there trying to chase us down that are trying to distract us
that are trying to get us in the wrong fight. And I pray that we
will be motivated by your word, that we could have the faith
actually make spiritual decisions in our life. And just
purpose in our heart and say, you know what, we are going to
keep the commandments of God. I am going to stay right with the
Lord, I am going to keep your testimonies and ask for your
hedge of protection and for you to guard us and I pray that you
would just increase the fear of the Lord in our lives, so that
we can be motivated to stay on the right path. In Jesus name,
we pray. Amen.