It's great to be here in Norwood, Ohio, or Cincinnati, or whatever you guys call it.
And I just wanted to say, first of all, thank you to Pastor Webb for inviting me out.
And for Good News Baptist Church, I appreciate the invitation and everybody's showing up
tonight.
And I know some people traveled from a far distance to get here and I appreciate that
too.
And also Brother Stockton, thank you so much for everything.
It's been great.
And so I wore this suit just so in case you didn't like my preaching, at least you'd vote
for me for president afterwards.
So anyway, it was a good deal, okay?
It was a good deal.
I'm just kidding.
All right.
Well, it's great to be at the Fundamentalist Conference and this is the third year this
conference has been going on.
I better look at my, okay, 19, okay.
So yeah, it's great to be here and it's nice to be the first preacher to preach to because
then they can just get mad at me for preaching all the things that they wanted to preach
anyway.
They have to change their sermons after I'm done.
But yeah, so fundamentalism is something that's dying in this country.
And obviously independent fundamental Baptists, it's not what it used to be.
And it's great to have people that are zealous for the word of God and that would like to
come to a conference such as this because they're fired up.
It's Labor Day weekend, I'm sorry if I ruined your camping trips or the conference ruined
your camping trips.
So hey, it's better to be in the house of the Lord, amen.
So anyway, so the title of my sermon tonight is five ways to level up your spiritual life
because the conference theme is it's level up, right?
Yeah.
So how to level up.
Yeah.
Well, hey, what's better than preaching about five ways you can level up your spiritual
life.
And immediately when I heard level up, you know, I'm an old video gamer and I'm old.
So like when there was like Pong, I remember playing Pong and but Super Mario, I had an
NES.
Anybody know what an NES is?
Okay.
The Nintendo Entertainment System.
And it came with Duck Hunt and Super Mario Brothers.
That's how old I am.
That was in sixth grade.
I got it for a Christmas present for my grandpa.
And you know, I beat Mario and got sick of Duck Hunt.
And then I got my third game I ever got was Mike Tyson's Punch Out.
Anybody ever played Mike Tyson's Punch Out?
So now I think the licensing went away.
And you can't fight Mike Tyson anymore on the newer ones or whatever.
But yeah, that was my life as a sixth grader.
I'd come home, I get like, I think an hour to play video games when I got it.
And then I had to do my homework or whatever.
So but so an alternative alternative title can be how to be a Super Mario Christian because
I'm going to bring up some things about video games.
Now I'm in no way condoning, you know, just being some gamer, some lazy couch potato gamer
that doesn't go to church.
Obviously, if you get that out of my message, then that's not the message I'm trying to
preach here.
But you know, part of being a fundamentalist Baptist is doing things in your daily Christian
life that the Bible teaches like following Jesus, you know, wouldn't you say that that's
a fundamental part of Christianity is that we're actually supposed to follow Jesus.
Now following Jesus doesn't make us saved, but following Jesus is what we're supposed
to do.
I mean, that's the whole point, right to be like Jesus.
And he left us here so that we could go out and preach the gospel.
But preaching the gospel isn't the only thing that we do.
That's just part of what we do.
It's an important part.
That's a very big part of what we do.
But it's not all we do.
We need to strive to be balanced in our daily Christian lives.
And that can be a struggle for people.
So if it's a struggle for me, I know it's got to be a struggle for other people.
And so I just thought of five different ways that we could level up our spiritual life
or or how to become a Super Mario Christian.
All right.
Level up means to, you know, it means in regards to video games, it's to progress to the next
level or to gain enough points in the game to enable a player or character to go up to
a higher level, gaining more skills and strength.
So I'm not going to talk about a bunch of other video games because I don't play video
games anymore.
All I know is what I what I know and I want to I have to be able to prove the things and
I don't know much about the World of Warcraft and all this other stuff or whatever games
people play now.
But I mean, obviously, I'm out of the times a little bit here.
So you're just going to have to bear with me a little bit.
But yeah, so, you know, I didn't come up with the theme, by the way.
So video games just kind of, you know, I think it's a good theme, though.
I like the theme.
It helps me relate to it a little bit.
So but the game Super Mario Brothers, you level up and then, you know, if you're hit
by an enemy in that game, you lose your life or you must level up again.
You know, you start off as a little bitty, small Mario, right.
And then, you know, you get one of those.
What is it?
You bump a brick and then like a mushroom comes and it makes you turn into the bigger
Mario.
Right.
And then like in some of the games you can get where you can shoot fireballs when you're
big Mario.
Right.
And then, you know, I think Super Mario three, which is the last Mario series game that I
ever played.
You could get on Yoshi and like, you know, eat things or whatever.
I don't know.
And then you can get like a little raccoon tail or you can fly, you know, like you hit
it and then like make you glide through the air or whatever.
Anyway, so I kind of was just thinking about, yeah, it's like this is a real fundamentalist
servant, right.
I was thinking like, you know, little Mario would be like a babe in Christ, you know,
and you got a level as a Christian.
You start out as a babe in Christ.
And you know, you got to get to do certain things to level up.
So as to be not a babe in Christ, but you know, then the big Mario would be like the
mature Christian.
Then big Mario that can shoot fireballs is like the above average Christian.
And then the big Mario that can fly with the raccoon tail or ride on Yoshi is like the
super Christian or whatever.
So but if there's other Mario things that they can do, I don't know.
This is just the knowledge of the games that I have.
All right.
So and all it takes to get knocked down, though, once you become, you know, once you're a Christian,
you're leveling up, you're leveled up, you're reading the Word of God daily, you're praying,
you're going soul winning, you know, you're doing all these things.
All it takes is to have a bad day to knock you back right down to where you were before.
And so I guess in the video, you know, and the focus verse that I wanted to focus on,
I had him read 62 verses just so I could pinpoint this one verse in here.
So there's actually other verses in the chapters I'm going to go to.
But Luke 9 23, look down your Bible says, And he said to them all, if any man will come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily.
See that word daily?
And follow me, because every day as a Christian, can you guys hear me okay?
Every day as a Christian, we have to wake up with the purpose in our life that we're
going to serve Christ.
And it's something that we do on purpose.
And some days we wake up and we don't feel like doing that.
Some days we wake up and maybe something throws us off of our schedule.
And I know if you're anything like me, I have to be scheduled in order to maintain a routine.
And sometimes we can get into a funk where we're not on our right schedule, which makes
us not read our Bible, which makes us not go to the Lord in prayer, you know, or, you
know, you're working too much overtime and you, you know, you can't go soloing as much
as you wanted to or things like that.
But the Lord wants us to deny ourselves and it says to take up his cross daily and follow
me.
And so God wants us to follow him.
And here's the thing that, you know, once, you know, like in the game Super Mario Brothers,
it only takes us one thing to knock you back down to another level.
Or you could accidentally jump off the cliff and go into hot lava or whatever.
Right.
And so, you know, there's all these problems that we experience as Christians.
And you know, but we want to live a balanced Christian life.
You know, being a perfect Christian doesn't mean that you walk on water.
Being a perfect Christian means you're the complete package.
That means you do all the things, the fundamental things that God wants you to do.
And you're like, that's impossible, Pastor Thompson, to just, you know, do everything
perfect all the time.
Well, I didn't say you have to do everything perfect all the time, but you should try your
best to strive to follow Christ on a daily basis.
And so, you know, when you fall behind in your spiritual life, that makes you become
unbalanced.
If you are, you know, you're not praying, but you're reading your Bible, you're going
soul winning, you're going to church that, you know, but if you're not doing one of those
things, you're off balance.
If you're driving in a car and it has a flat tire or a low tire, it makes your car not
balanced and not operate correctly, right?
And so if you look at it in that point of view, so some of you car people, you're like,
I don't know about video games.
What about cars?
Okay.
If you do something wrong, if you're not maintaining your car correctly, then your car is not going
to run right.
It's the same thing in the Christian life.
If you're not living a balanced Christian life, then you're going to have maintenance
issues and you're going to need to get fixed.
So and, you know, let's be honest, not everybody picks up their cross daily and follows after
Jesus every single day.
That's why he says it's a daily thing.
You know why?
Because a lot of people fail in the Christian life and, you know, maybe you've had one bad
day out of the week, but all the rest of the days you did everything else you were supposed
to.
That's, that's okay.
But, you know, God, God knows we're but dust.
He knows our frame.
He knows that we're not going to always do and have a perfect day because things happen.
We live in a fallen world and we're all sinful.
Look at Proverbs chapter 24 verse 16.
You're like, you need to put some Bible in this sermon.
Well, trust me, it's coming.
Okay.
Proverbs chapter 24 verse 16.
See when we fall or fail or falter in anything that we do, we need to get back up and go
back at it again.
Every day is a new day.
And Proverbs chapter 24 verse 16 says, for a just man follows seven times and riseth
up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
And so when we fall, when we falter in our daily Christian life, we need to get back
up and do it again.
The next day, take up your cross daily and follow after Christ.
Hey, you messed up the day before.
Maybe you didn't do any of the four things that I'm about to mention in this sermon.
Actually there's five things.
Maybe you didn't do any of that stuff that week, but you know what?
Every day is a new day.
You can reclaim and live a godly Christian life that next day.
And everybody has those days where you look in the mirror and you're just like, man, I
really blew it today.
I didn't do what I was supposed to be doing.
I mean, I didn't even think about God today.
I'm sure people have those types of days and look, you know, don't be self-righteous.
You know you have problems too.
So I'm not the only one in here, but anyway, so how, how can you rise back up though?
What if you fall?
What if, you know, King Koopa knocks you off your perch, but you haven't gone soul winning
in three months.
You're just, you lost the zeal to go soul winning.
Well, you know, there's some things that are going to help you in this Christian life to
live a fundamental life, to live a godly Christian life that you can actually say, you know what?
I might not be perfect, but I am perfect, which you're not walking on water.
You're not, nobody's going to be like Jesus.
We're weak.
You know, if it was up to us to keep our own salvation, we'd lose it every single day.
That's just the fact.
So we just need to be as perfect as we can be.
And number one, the one thing that you can do to get back up after you've been knocked
down, how can you be, how can you get back to being Super Mario, so to speak, how can
you get back to being a leveled up Christian?
Well, number one, you need to rediscover your Bible.
So maybe you've quit reading your Bible or maybe you're not reading it on a regular basis.
You know, we're supposed to read the Bible every day.
Turn to Joshua chapter one, verse eight.
So number one, the one thing we can do to level up as our spiritual life or the number
one thing we can do to become a Super Mario Christian, which sounds really funny every
time I say that.
So bear with me, Joshua chapter one.
The Bible teaches that we're supposed to read our Bible not just once a day, but twice a
day.
Look what it says.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein.
What does it say there?
Day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein,
for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous.
Then thou shalt have good success.
So what does the Bible say?
It's going to make us prosperous.
What's going to level us up?
That we read the Bible and we meditate therein day and night.
So if that's not what if you're if you know, who's Joshua talking to?
He's talking to the children of Israel here, right?
He's not saying, you know, and obviously Joshua had to do that, too.
But he's talking to fellow believers.
He's saying, hey, you know what?
If you meditate in the Bible day and night, then you're going to have a prosperous way.
You're going to have good success.
So that's number one.
Rediscover your Bible.
And look, don't tell me that you're reading your Bible twice a day, everybody on without
fail.
And maybe you are, but I'm sure there's a day that you haven't.
And so all it takes is that one day to get out of your scheduled reading time.
And then you're like, oh, man, I'm already so far behind on my on my one year Bible,
that thing.
Hey, just catch up one one chapter at a time.
Catch up one.
You know, one day you don't have to just catch up all of it because you know what that's
going to do?
It's going to make you burn out.
And so maybe you've missed a couple chapters.
You're behind.
Doesn't matter how far behind you are.
Just get up and start reading your Bible again.
Don't make excuses for yourself.
Pick it up.
Put your eyeballs on it.
And you know, all you have to do to read the Bible in one year is to read it for 15 minutes
a day.
15 minutes a day.
I mean, you take a break at work for 15 minutes a day.
And I'm not saying you have to use every break that you have to read the Bible.
But if that's all the time you have, then maybe that's a good time to read it.
But you know what that computes to be?
If you're reading it day and night, seven and a half minutes in the morning, seven and
a half minutes at night.
I mean, you look at Facebook longer than you do that.
You look at YouTube longer than you do that.
You do whatever it is that you do.
That's like your downtime.
And look, I'm not saying don't have downtime.
Everybody needs a little bit of downtime.
But if you put your eyeballs on your Bible for 15 minutes a day, you'll have read it
one time throughout the year.
And so if you read it on purpose for that long, you're going to get through the Bible
once a year.
What about if you do it for a half hour a day?
What does that total up to?
Twice a year, right?
What about 45 minutes a day?
Three times.
What about an hour a day?
Four times.
So you could read the Bible four times if you just take an hour out of the 24 that you're
giving.
You're giving that seven times in a week.
And I'm not saying you have to read it four times a year.
That is a lot of, you know, it's a lot.
But just 15 minutes a day, can you do that?
Can you give God 15 minutes of your day to read your Bible?
Hey, if you're following after him, then what does he expect you to do?
It says to read a day and night, right?
So look at Psalm 119, verse 18, Psalm 119, verse 18.
Here's another good thing that you can do when you're thinking about leveling up as
a Christian.
Hey, if you're just reading it, and it's just like, you read a whole page of the Bible,
and you're like, I don't even remember anything I just read.
That's when you actually go back to the beginning of the chapter and read it again.
Because our mind wanders.
You know, we're commercialized people in some way, shape or form.
There's just all these things that are infringing on our time, our lives and just our eyes are
always wanting to be diverted to these things.
And, you know, it's tough.
Just turn that stupid thing off or put it on airplane mode for a little bit.
But we should read it until God speaks to us.
Read your Bible until God speaks to you.
It says, open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
So hey, have you ever asked God, hey, will you show me something new from the Bible today?
I guarantee you, if you read the Bible every single day, that God is going to show you
new things.
And you might have already read it 15, 20 times, however many times you've read it,
you're going to learn something new every time.
You're going to be like, I didn't even notice that before.
It's because you weren't paying attention the last time you went through it.
But God's not going to give you everything the first time you read the Bible.
You're not going to know the whole timeline.
You're not going to remember all the king's names in alphabet, in yearly order.
You're not going to know the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah and what years they
reigned and all that stuff.
You're not going to, there's a lot of things you're just not going to get.
It takes probably a few times just reading it to get the timeline.
You're like, it's all out of order, I don't get it.
But you'll start to get it as you read it.
And if you just ask God to open your eyes to see what the Bible's, you know, to get
something out of it, he'll show you something.
1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15, another thing that we should do when we're reading the Bible
to try to level up as a Christian, we need to study the Bible.
Now I would recommend that you just read through it and don't just sit there and get all caught
up.
And if you're, if you have like a study Bible, that's just going to send you on missions
that you don't need to go on yet.
You know, the next thing you're doing is studying the Nephilim or something.
It's just like, just read it all the way through like three times at least.
And then you'll get like a good, a good foothold on what you're looking at, what you're dealing
with, the timelines and everything.
Because a lot of people, you know, believe it or not, a lot of Christians don't even
read their Bible.
But in a church like this, I'm sure that people are encouraged to read the Bible.
And you know, God wants you to read the Bible.
He wants you to study the Bible.
So but don't use like commentaries and, you know, the Schofield reference Bible and, you
know, things like that.
Because, hey, just the printed things on the page, that's God's Word.
All the commentary junk that's underneath it in a study Bible is man's opinion.
We don't need man's opinion to study the Bible.
We can study it on our own.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2.15, it says, study to show thyself approved unto God.
It doesn't say approved unto man, does it?
It says approved unto God.
Who do we need to be approved by?
God.
What difference does it make what man thinks?
You know, if we're studying the Bible, we need to be approved unto God.
It says a workman.
And look, reading the Bible is work that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word
of truth.
Now, and like I said, God is going to give you your knowledge bit by bit.
Let me prove that to you.
Turn to Isaiah chapter 28, verse number 9.
Isaiah chapter 28, verse number 9, the Bible says, whom shall he teach knowledge?
And whom shall he make to understand doctrine?
Then that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast.
So he's saying, who's going to understand doctrine?
People that are past the milk stage.
You know, a baby drinks milk, you know, from a bottle, right?
But most or more from the breast, right?
But look, once you get in and you've read your Bible a few times, then, you know, and
then you put that stuff into practice, it's not enough to just read the Bible.
You actually have to start trying to do what it says.
And so if you want to be a fundamentalist, you know, and it sounds like, you know, it
seems like you want to be because you're here at a fundamentalist conference tonight,
that we got to get past the baby stage, the little Mario stage, we got to get past that.
We got to try to build up and be Super Mario at some point, right?
It says for precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line
upon line, here a little and there a little.
So how do we learn doctrine?
Well, first of all, we have to be weaned from the milk and then we just start building our
doctrine by going line upon line, precept upon precept.
And in 1 Corinthians 2 13, it says, which things also we speak, not in the words which
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things
with spiritual.
You want to learn the Bible?
Well, you got to compare spiritual things with spiritual and you learn it line upon
line, precept upon precept, you compare scripture with scripture, and that helps you to build
a doctrine.
You know, a lot of people build doctrine off of something that isn't even in the Bible.
Like they literally just like will pick some some random verse that doesn't even that's
not even what it's teaching.
But like if you don't have a way to, you know, to prove the doctrine that you believe, then
you probably are just believing something that just man taught you.
And that's why it's important to go to the Bible itself and go to words that the Holy
Ghost teaches instead of the things that man teaches.
Mary's, you know, they're just, like I said, man's word.
So we got to get away from that.
Look at John chapter, 1 John 1 27, or excuse me, 1 John 2 27, 1 John 2 27.
And, you know, God's given us pastors and evangelists and teachers and people to help
us and encourage us and exhort us in the Word of God.
But if you're on a desert island and all you had was a King James Bible, that would
be enough.
That'd be enough.
And obviously being saved with the Holy Spirit, that'd be enough.
Look what it says in verse 27.
But the anointing which you have received, that's the anointing of the Holy Ghost of
him abideth in you.
And you need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teach you of all things
and is truth and is no lie.
And even as it hath taught you, he shall abide in him.
So what's the Bible saying right there?
It's saying you don't need a man to teach you.
You know who teaches you?
God.
And if you have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and I'm not talking about some Pentecostal
prayer meeting, I'm saying once you get saved, the Holy Spirit comes and seals you into the
day of redemption and you have the Holy Ghost, you have just as much Holy Ghost as anybody
else, and, you know, all you need to do is just put your eyeballs on the Bible and it's
going to teach you.
So we don't need commentary.
We don't need man's word.
Jesus said in Matthew 4, 4, but he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
You know what you need?
You know what Christians need today?
To put their eyes on the Bible and read it and try to understand it.
And you know, if you have the Holy Spirit, God's going to help you understand it.
If you ask God for knowledge, he's going to give it to you.
If you ask God for wisdom, he's going to give it to you.
But you know what?
If you just never open this book, it's never going to help you.
You're never going to level up because this is the main thing right here that we need
is the Bible.
So number one, if you want to level up as a Christian, you need to rediscover your Bible.
So if you stop reading it, start reading it again.
Number two, restart your prayer life.
Turn to Psalm chapter 55, verse number 17, Psalm chapter 55, verse number 17.
So some people, they read the Bible, but they don't pray.
Now what is prayer is when we go to God and ask him for things, when we go to God and
praise him for the things he's done for us.
But you know, just like reading the Bible, we're supposed to pray, you know, but a lot
of times people just kind of forget that, don't they, or, you know, your, your prayers
like thank you for this food, amen.
You know, there's people that, that do that and that, I mean, at least you're doing something,
you know, but, and I'm not saying like you have to be on your knees for 13 hours a day
and you know, look, there's people that claim that they do stuff like that and I just really
have a hard time believing that.
But anyway, Psalm 55 verse 17 says, evening and morning and noon will I pray and cry aloud
and he shall hear my voice.
So obviously David being the psalmist here, he's saying evening, morning and noon will
I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice.
You know, God's going to hear your voice when you pray to him, but that sounds like three
times a day, doesn't it?
You know, you want to help yourself get into the mode of prayer.
Look, everything that you do, you know, you have some kind of, you know, repetition to
help you to, to have a scheduled day, right?
So why not, you know, we all have these, right?
Who uses your cell phone as an alarm?
Anybody?
I do.
That's all I use.
And mine's like, you know, it's not the iPhone that my wife has, like
you know, but maybe I should get an iPhone so I can get that when I need to pray and
it's like, okay, okay, I'll pray, you know, it's like, but, you know, remind yourself
through your cell phone, hey, it's time to pray, you know, and even if, you know, say
you're at work and like, obviously, you know, you're not going to get out your prayer rug
or whatever in front of everybody and pray, I get that, but you can probably find a chance
to just bow your head and pray someplace.
I'm not saying you have to make a spectacle of yourself and, you know, sometimes this
might not even be possible, but this is just what David did, you know, it's a good example
for us to be Christians that pray three times a day and you don't always have to be on your
knees to pray.
I get that.
I understand that.
You don't even have to have your eyes closed.
You know, I think it, but it would be weird if like, you know, we all, let's pray together
and everybody's just like staring at each other like this.
So you can pray with your eyes open like there, I don't, I don't know that there's, maybe
there is a verse that says you have to pray with your eyes closed, but I don't know which
one it is, but you know, it just, it makes you feel more comfortable, right?
Let's pray, you know, you're just like staring at people, I don't know, it'd be weird, right?
So, you know, it's just kind of one of those things that we do, right?
But you know, we should at least spend at least five to 10 minutes in prayer a day.
And if that's on your knees or if that's just bowing your head, whatever, and that's a very
small amount, isn't it?
I mean, I'm just saying that, you know, if you prayed for five to 10 minutes a day, just
imagine what great things could come in your life.
But a lot of people, you know, we have the God of heaven and earth, who's our father,
you know, and he says, if you asked me, then I will give it to you.
You asked me and I'll answer you.
And we just say, you know, I don't need anything.
We wait until we're like in dire straits before we actually pray.
And that's not right.
You know, he wants to, he's our father, he wants to hear from us what, you know, think
about you and your children, like if your children only came to you when they were just
asking you for something that, oh, I need this, dad, give me some food, dad, give me
the keys to the car, dad.
And if that's all the interaction you ever had with something that you need, some selfish
need, it's never for anybody else.
It's never just thank him for providing for you and doing all the great things that he
does.
It's like, eh, I just need something, you know, what kind of attitude is that to have?
We shouldn't have that attitude.
We should spend some time in prayer.
Look at Daniel chapter six, verse 10, Daniel chapter six, verse number 10, I told you the
verses are going to come.
They're going to come.
Daniel six, 10 says, now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into
his house is talking about, they made a thing, if you pray or do anything, then you're going
to be thrown into the lion's den, right?
And it says, and his windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled
upon his knees three times a day.
So this was just something that Daniel always did.
He opened up his windows, you know, he prayed towards Jerusalem.
Look what it says, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day.
So I would say this that you don't have to kneel on your knees, but the most, the best
way to show your humbleness to God is to be on your knees.
You know, if Daniel, you know, Daniel was a pretty, a pretty righteous guy, right?
He was a, he was a good guy and it says that he, he kneeled upon his knees three times
a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a four time.
This is just something that he always did.
So it wasn't because they passed the law and Daniel was like, I'll show them, you know,
and open up the windows, it was like, it wasn't like that at all, it's just, that's what he
always did.
You know, but unfortunately most Christians are too embarrassed to even bow their head
and pray, you know, when they're out and dinner in public.
That's sad.
You know, we shouldn't feel that way.
You feel like a freak because you're the only one in the, in the restaurant praying.
You know, we shouldn't feel that way.
We should be thankful to God for all the things that we get.
You know, I'm sure, you know, Daniel knew if he prayed that he might actually get thrown
into a den of lions, you know, he knew that that was what they were going to do to him
and they did because they passed a law about that.
You know, the government's trying to pass a bunch of laws right now.
My job is at risk because of the COVID mandates.
They're like telling people you have to take them, you have to take it or you're fired,
you know, and so what should we do?
We should stand up, but you know what, before we stand up, we should kneel down and ask
God to, you know, do something in our lives, do something in this country to change it
because you know, just two years ago, things were a little more normal and now it's just
like they're just, you have to take this.
No, I don't, no, I don't.
I'm going to refuse it just like I did all the other vaccines in times past, but anyway,
this isn't a vaccine sermon, but it's just on my heart right now, but you know, we shouldn't
be too embarrassed to, and at some point in our day, you know, we can get on our knees
no matter how old we are, no matter how young you are, you know, they have pillows.
You can put pillows under your knees if you really need to, but we should get on our knees
and thank God for the things he's done for us.
Mark chapter one, verse 35 says, and in the morning rising up a great while before day,
he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed.
And Jesus was a great example.
He would get up before it was even dawn outside and go off by himself and go pray.
And so I just want to leave you this little acronym.
If you have a pen or something, you can just write this down.
This is a good thing to help you remember when you pray, what you should, what you should
pray for.
And it's, you know, the acronym is pray, praise him and thank him, praise him and thank him.
So like the first thing we should start off doing is praising God and thanking him for
all the things that he does for us.
And then, and then the other one is for ours, repent.
So you know, everybody in this room has sin that they do daily and we're supposed to confess
those sins to God daily.
You know, obviously it's not to be staved, but you know, if you're always just messing
up and your dad's always, you know, you never want to clean your room or you never want
to do this or that and your dad's always mad at you or whatever, everybody's been through
that where their dad's mad at them for some reason.
But what helps get that relationship right is when you go to your dad and say, I'm sorry.
And you mean it, you know, so repenting, ask.
So the A is ask.
So ask for what you need, you know, how you have not because you ask not.
So we should ask for the things that we need.
You know, a lot of times we're like, oh, we think about things that we need.
What about what things other people need too?
You know, we need to start thinking about God first, other, have other people in mind
and then praying for the things that we need in our lives because I'm sure if you go to
church, there's a lot of prayer requests and like, are you always, you know, remembering
those prayer requests?
You probably, sometimes you forget, you're like, ah, I forgot about so-and-so, but you
know what?
You can still bow your head or whatever, get on your knees and ask for something for that
person right there, or you could just stop what you're doing right then and just ask
God.
You know, just because you forget then doesn't mean you have to wait until next prayer meeting,
you know, on Wednesday night or whatever to ask God to help that person.
And the last thing, the Y would be yield, yield to his will.
You know, Jesus said, not that, not, not thy will, but thy, or not my will, but thy and
be done.
So even though Jesus, you know, Jesus prayed to get out of it at the garden of Gethsemane,
you know, he says, it doesn't matter what I want though.
It's what you want, God.
And that should be our attitude also.
So number one, we need to read, if you want to level up as a Christian, first rediscover
your Bible.
Number two, restart your prayer life.
And number two, or number three, excuse me, reconnect with God's people, reconnect with
God's people.
So in that would be like church attendance and fellowship.
You know, it's good to have friends.
It's good to have friends that believe the same things that you do.
And it's best to hang out with friends that believe the same thing that you do.
That's called fellowship.
But where does that mainly take place at?
It mainly takes place in the church house.
And so church attendance is important.
And a fellowship with other people, especially right now, bring up the whole COVID thing
again.
Everybody's hiding in their homes for two years.
It's like, that's not good for you.
You know, and obviously, there's a lot of scare tactics, and people do get sick and
die from it.
I know that that's true.
But we still need to be in God's house.
We still need to be around God's people.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25.
Hebrews chapter 10, verse number 25.
Like where's the Bible say, you're supposed to go to church, right here.
Hebrews 10, 25 says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.
That means we don't forsake it.
That means we assemble ourselves together, as the manner of Psalm is.
And some people have that manner, and that just means your way of life.
Your manner is your way of life.
So is your manner to not, or to forsake God's house?
Do you just like, I don't know, I just go once a week.
You know, I just I just go whenever I feel like it.
We should be in church whenever the doors are open, whenever you have the opportunity
to be at church with God's people, and worshiping the Lord, and listening to the preaching
of God's word, and getting on board with the soloing program at your church.
We need that exhortation that says, but exhorting one another.
So we're supposed to be here to encourage one another to do good works, and to stick
in church, you know, people will say like, you know, hey, brother, missed you on Sunday
night, you know, and I don't think that people are just doing that as a jab.
I think that people are generally concerned because we know when someone's three to thrive,
and also they just start missing Sunday night every week.
We know something's wrong.
We're trying to like, you know, nicely, gently stir them into thinking about the fact that
they keep missing Sunday night, because something is more important than church and God and
being with God's people.
What is it?
Well, that's a sign that someone's on their way out.
Now, pastors know that, you know, I miss every single, if there's somebody missing, I know
who that person is, and I don't like just call them at home as soon as the service is
over, like, hey, where were you today, huh?
Because I'm like, you know, I'm not a cult leader.
I know I get, you know, accused of that, but, you know, I really, I want people to live
their own lives.
I don't have speakers in people's houses saying come to church, you know, I noticed, I saw
you smoking on your back porch on the video camera.
I mean, we're not cult leaders.
I don't want, I don't care, you know, I mean, I care about what's going on in your life.
I just don't want to live your life or run your life.
But you know, when it's time to go to church, we should be in church.
It says in so much the more as you see the day approaching, not so much the less, so
much the more.
So it was, are we closer to Jesus coming back today than we were yesterday?
Absolutely.
And tomorrow we'll be even closer.
And so the Bible is teaching, you know, I think that God knew through the, you know,
the inspiration of the Holy Ghost is telling us, hey, in the end times, people are going
to be less likely to go to church.
And that's what you see today.
And that's why God's saying, hey, don't forsake that assembling together as the manner of
some is.
We ought not to be that person, that person just forsakes the assembly because it's important
for us to be together.
It's important for us to, fellowship is a big deal.
Why did God have the church to be where all the people that are saved gather together
and we sing unto the Lord and we pray, you know, for God's people, we pray for this world.
We go out and preach the gospel and we hear, we come to gather together to hear God's Word
being preached.
But why?
Because it's important.
We need to exhort one another.
Acts 2 41, Acts 2 41.
So it's so important to now more than ever, as we see the day approaching, to be assembled
together.
I know that's not a popular thing on the news.
You know, I just saw a meme, not a meme, I saw a news report where a guy was, it's this
pastor that shows them all hooked up to all these tubes and it's like, he was making fun
of the fact that, you know, he's not going to get the vaccination.
It's like pastor dying in hospital bed.
It's like, they're just trying to do that to scare us.
You know, I don't know anything about that pastor.
I don't know whether he's even saved or not saved or whatever, but you know, that's just
the kind of media that's just blasting us.
It doesn't matter if you don't watch television.
If you have social media, you're going to get blasted the same way.
Don't let them scare you into not fellowshipping though, or scare you into not going to church.
But what it says in verse 41 Acts chapter two, it says, then they that gladly received
his word were baptized and the same day were added unto them about 3000 souls.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and what's it say?
And fellowship and in breaking and bread and in prayers, they were together.
They continued steadfastly, you know, and that's the example that we have in the early
church.
And do you think God wants that today?
Absolutely.
He wants us to have fellowship today because you know what, if you're just alone, you're
a pretty miserable person and we need each other to encourage one another.
Hey, maybe, you know, the fact that you don't show up for a Sunday night service discourages
someone else and makes them miss.
Oh, well, if it's not important to brother so and so, then maybe it's just not as important
as it is for me to go either.
And that can be a tidal wave.
It could be a domino effect.
And maybe you were supposed to encourage somebody the day that you missed church and you weren't
there.
Look, I'm not I'm not saying there's never a reason to miss church.
But there is obviously reasons to miss church.
But like, it shouldn't be because you're going swimming with, you know, your family
because you're just having a family day or something.
It shouldn't be just some lame excuse.
God wants us to be assembled together in the church with his people for a reason.
Because we need it.
We need that stability.
First Peter chapter two verse 17 says, honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor
the king.
We should love the brotherhood.
We shouldn't go on I want to go to church because, you know, brother so and so is annoying
me or whatever.
Hey, you don't have to be best friends with everybody at church.
But you should still if they're a brother in Christ or a sister in Christ, you should
still shake their hand and say hello.
And be nice.
Just because you don't like him doesn't mean you can't be nice.
Jesus didn't like people and he was still nice.
He was still nice to Judas.
He called him friend after he kissed him on the cheek and betrayed him.
Friend, wherefore art thou come?
You know, we can still be nice to people even if they're not our best friend.
Doesn't mean you have to hang out with them every moment of every time you're at church,
but you could still be nice.
You could still be Christian, you know, and gossiping and spreading rumors and things
like that.
That ought not to be done in God's house.
So we should fellowship with believers and assemble regularly together as the Lord has
commanded us to do.
And that'll help us to level up.
The more you're in church, the more preaching you're going to hear, the more encouragement
you're going to get from fellow believers.
And you know, number one, we need to rediscover our Bible if we don't level up.
Number two, we need to restart our prayer life.
Number three, we can reconnect with God's people.
Maybe you've broken your connection.
Reconnect.
You know, you go to family reunions, don't you?
Reconnect with your family.
Well, hey, maybe you need to get in church and reconnect with your church family.
Number four, resist your besetting sin.
Resist your besetting sin.
And this is something, it's a lot of times we hurt ourselves, you know, the excuse out
there is that the devil made me do it, you know, and obviously the devil can prompt you.
Satan has his forces that we can't see and they prompt us to do things.
I get that.
But you know what?
Sometimes it's just our own flesh.
Sometimes our own flesh is what hinders us.
It gets us out of church.
It gets us away from our Bible because when you're really in sin, you're in deep sin.
The last thing you want to do is pick up your Bible.
Why is that?
Because your flesh wants to just do the things that the flesh wants.
You're not going to pray because you don't feel spiritual and you're not going to go
to church because you feel like, you know, a hypocrite.
So we need to learn to resist our besetting sin.
It's going to help us live a better life here as Christians.
Look at Hebrews chapter 12 verse number 1, Hebrews chapter 12 verse number 1.
The Bible says, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud
of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth easily beset us.
And let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
So we're in a race and eventually our bodies are going to give out.
And honestly, while we're as young as when we can do the things that we can do for Christ,
you know, you don't see a lot of 95 year old people walking apartment complexes and knocking
on doors, do you?
How about 85 year old, 75 year old?
You know, when you get old, you start to hurt more.
You start to wear out and you can't do some of the things you used to do.
So while you're young, and I know that we have a mixed crowd in here.
I'm not saying, you know, anybody that's older is useless or anything like that.
I'm just saying that it's harder for you when you get older to do physical things.
Okay?
It's just science, right?
We believe in science, but, you know, it's going to be easier for us to run with the
weight of sin off of us also.
And you're a lot more effective in the Christian life when you're not living a sin riddled
life also.
Look at Hebrews 11, turn back in your Bible, just one page to Hebrews chapter 11.
And people get this thing, like, people will say, like, sin's not fun, sin, it can be fun.
That's why people do it because their flesh likes to do it because their flesh is wicked,
right?
You're wicked.
But listen to what the Bible says about Moses, by faith, Moses, when he was come to years,
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to what to say, enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
See, sin is pleasurable, you know, it is pleasurable, but it doesn't make it any less wrong.
It's just we are sinful people and we're prone to sin and the sin that easily besets us are
the things that we already had problems with before we got saved.
And so if you have a sin that easily besets you, you should get away from that and do
whatever you can to fight against it.
You know, we need to fight against our flesh.
That's why we're supposed to pick up our cross daily and follow after him.
We need to deny ourselves.
And that is very hard, isn't it?
Because, you know, the heart wants what it wants.
The flesh wants what it wants, you know, and sometimes we just get into weakened stages,
but sometimes we put ourselves in positions that we shouldn't be putting ourselves in.
And so when we know what our pitfalls are, the best thing to do is to stay far away from
that.
And you're like, easier said than done, Pastor Thompson.
Well, yeah, I understand that.
Turn to Romans chapter seven, because we do have two natures.
If you're saved today, if you're saved in this room, we have a spiritual man and we
have a fleshly man.
And there's two, these two fight against each other.
It's like, you know, two dogs fighting against each other, right?
Have you ever seen a dog fight before?
Two pit bulls?
I mean, I haven't actually.
I mean, I've seen some dog fights before, but I've never like been to a professional
dog fight or anything like that, but I'm sure it happens in Cincinnati.
I'm sure it happens in every town, but like whatever dog is fed and bred the best is the
dog that's going to win.
And so we have two natures.
We have the spiritual man and the fleshly man, and these are just doing this all the
time.
No, don't do that.
No, don't go there.
No, don't do this.
Don't do that.
And then you're, you know, your flesh is like, yes, let's do this.
Let's do this.
Who cares?
Nobody's going to find out.
And so that's kind of how our nature works and it's like a daily battle.
That's why he said that you have to deny yourself and daily follow after Christ, daily pick
up your cross.
It's a daily thing.
So like when you, when you put it in the terms of video games, it's like you're going, you're
going through this, you know, level and every level is a day and every level, every day
you're having some other things happening in your life that you can't help, you know,
and our own flesh steers us to do things wrong.
Just like if you're doing some kind of move on the video game and you mess it up was because
you mess it up.
That's the same thing.
When we fall into sin, it's because we fell into sin.
It's nobody else's fault, but it's because we let the flesh win over the spiritual man.
Look at Romans chapter seven, verse 23, the apostle Paul, arguably the greatest Christian
that ever walked the face of the planet, says in verse 23, it says, but I see another
law on my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members.
Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?
The apostle Paul said, I'm carnal, sold under sin.
You know, he's having problems with sin too, just like everybody else does.
In verse 25, this is very encouraging.
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so that with the mind I myself serve the law
of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.
We need to try to crucify that flesh, and we need to try to beat the flesh and feed
this dog, the spirit dog, over the flesh dog, the pit bull, and then whatever the spiritual
dog.
I don't know.
Is there a spiritual dog that you guys could think of?
Chihuahua?
No, I'm just kidding.
St. Bernard.
St. Bernard, yeah, St. Bernard's like the noble one, it has like the, is that medicine
in his barrel?
I don't know.
But anyway, we need to be able to fight against these things, and obviously not putting yourself
in bad positions, you know, resisting the devil, resisting temptation, you know, denying
yourself.
James 4, 7 says, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee
from you.
So, every day we're tempted.
Every day we're tempted with sin, we're tempted to go back to our old life, you know, church
is just too hard, it's too hard to be a Christian, yeah, but you know what, what was it like
before you became a Christian?
See, people forget what it was like before they became a Christian, and they want to
go back like a dog to the vomit, they want to go back like a pig to the walnut and the
mire, they want to go back to that, but then once you're there, they're like, this isn't
as fun as it used to be, and you feel bad, and rightly so, but then again, we got that
principle where we wake up, and it's a new day, right?
Ephesians chapter 6, verse 11 says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able
to stand against the wiles of the devil.
So we resist the devil, he'll flee from us, we stand with the armor of God on, and we
can stand against the wiles of the devil, does that mean we win?
Not necessarily, but at least you did everything you could to stand.
So you know, if we have the armor of God on, that's what we need, you know, that like in
a video game, you get all these different kinds of armor, and all this, you know, I
don't know, all these guns that are special guns or whatever, I don't know, I haven't,
the only time I played Call of Duty was one time and my son just ran around the maze and
stabbed me in the back like 30 times, and that was it, and I was, he was like, come
on, did I play again?
I was like, no thanks.
So yeah, just, you know, it's not fun losing the whole time.
So that was like, he's like, come on, play one more time, nope, I'm done, I'm never playing
again.
So I played one time.
I'm wicked.
But anyway, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13.
How are we supposed to power up?
We need to resist our besetting sins.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, there hath no temptation taking you, but such as
is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that
you're able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be
able to bear it.
That's a very comforting verse.
You know, you know that like, hey, if you, God's not going to let you be tempted more
than you're able to take it.
And I'm not saying that God's tempting you to sin.
I'm saying that, you know, in your temptation, whatever you're, you're tempting, you're tempted
to do, God's not going to allow you as a Christian to be able to be tempted more than you're
able to handle.
So we can't handle it.
So every time we willingly sin, that's because we gave in, that's because we failed.
But again, it's not all, you know, it's not all doom and gloom.
It's just the life that we have to live as a Christian.
It's hard.
It's harder than a video game.
It's hard to be a Christian.
It's not easy.
Nobody ever said it was going to be easy.
So first John one nine, though, this is, this will probably give you a little bit of, um,
reprieve here.
So it says the first John one nine, if we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So Hey, you had a bad day.
You let the flesh win.
Well, you know what, remember that prayer part I was talking about the repent part.
That's when you go to God and just like, I'm a loser, I messed up again, please forgive
me.
So, and God will, he says, if we confess our sins, when's the last time you actually got
on your knees and ask God to forgive you of your sins.
And again, not for salvation, talking about just in your daily life, because every person
in this room sends, okay.
And so he's faithful though, and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He wipes the slate clean.
We're good again.
Right?
But a lot of people will go for long periods of time and never just ask God to forgive
them.
And it just makes things worse.
It's just like, like I said about if it's your dad or your mom or something, and like,
there's just this unspoken, you're angry at them and they're angry at you.
It's best to just get it out of the way.
It's just like a spanking when your kid's being a brat and you're just like, I'm going
to give you one more chance.
But you know what the best thing to do is just to get it done then, and then you have
that peaceable fruit of righteousness, right?
You're back on good terms again, you know, and God will punish us for the sins that we
do.
Obviously, he's going to be more merciful to us if we plead to him for mercy.
But if you're just like doing sins that are besetting you, and you never go to God because
you're like, you're thinking, well, he's heard this before he heard it yesterday, and the
day before that, and the day before that, but at least he's hearing from you.
A lot of people just won't even admit that they are sinning.
They make excuses.
So number one, if you want to power up as a Christian, as a fundamentalist, you need
to rediscover your Bible.
You need to read your Bible day and night.
Restart your prayer life.
At least get on your knees at least once a day and pray to God.
Number three, reconnect with God's people.
Be in church, be faithful to church and fellowship with other believers.
And number four, resist your besetting sin.
Number five, and this is my last point, reclaim the soul winning spirit.
Reclaim the soul winning spirit.
Proverbs go ahead and turn back to Luke in our in our text here.
And I'm going to read Proverbs 11, verse 30.
Proverbs 11, verse 30 says, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.
And he that win his souls is wise.
Have you lost your love for lost people?
Have you lost your love for soul winning?
Are you just doing it out of duty?
You should still do it out of duty.
But have you lost your first love?
Because that's, you know, when you lose your first love, who's supposed to be Jesus, it's
because you're not doing the first works.
And we need to steadily be out.
I personally think once a week you should be out soul winning.
Don't let it go past that.
You know, obviously, if you're sick, you know, I go cough on people's faces and stuff like
that.
I get it.
But we should at least be soul winning once a week as a you know, that's that's going
to show that you love people, you're going to see people's plights.
You're going to care about those people, even though they're perfect strangers, even
though they're telling you to get out of here.
But you see what the what squalor they're living in or what their kids are doing.
And you just your heart's going to break for people.
If you face them at a door, multiple people on a day, it's going to make you love people,
it's going to make you love God more.
Because you know what, we were that person before, not necessarily each situation, but
we were lost to at some point.
And you know what Jesus cares about people, he has compassion for people, he came to seek
and save that which was lost.
And you know, if you're a soul winner, you're wise, the Bible says, look at Luke chapter
nine, verse 53.
Luke chapter nine, verse 53.
We shouldn't have an attitude where we just think every single person at the door is some
kind of reprobate.
Right?
That's going a little over the top.
If you don't know what reprobate is, just someone that, you know, is just so vile that
they can't be saved anymore.
But look at Luke 9 and 53, it says, And they did not receive him, talking about the people
of Samaria, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
And when his disciples, James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command
fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elias did?
But he turned and rebuked them and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of?
For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.
And they went to another village.
So we ought not to have this attitude like the disciples did, where they're just like,
hey, let's call fire down, Lord, and just scorch all these people.
They didn't receive you.
They didn't want, they didn't get saved.
They were upset that they were just walking through and going to Jerusalem.
But Christ, he rebuked them.
He didn't just reprove them, he rebuked them.
So he was probably screaming at them, like, you don't know, you know not what manner of
spirit you're of.
So we shouldn't just be out trying to just thunder judgment upon people, we're going
out to try to save people's lives.
We're going out to try to save someone's spirit and soul from hell.
And you know, the reason, so God didn't allow them to, you know, obviously, Jesus wasn't
about trying to barbecue people, you know, he wants to save their lives.
But look in Acts chapter 4, how this ended up turning out.
See this same place in Samaria was later after Jesus was taken up to heaven.
And Philip, he was one of the first deacons and an evangelist.
He went out to the same place where they wanted to kill everybody.
They're like, let's just call fire down from heaven and kill everybody.
And look at what verse 4 says in Acts 8, it says, Therefore, they that were scattered
abroad went everywhere, preaching the word.
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them, these same
people, the same place.
And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and
seeing the miracles which he did, for unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out
of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies, and that were lame
were healed.
And what's it say?
And there was great joy in that city.
So we ought not to be out just trying to just condemn people and tell them they're wicked
and all this stuff.
We should be out there loving people and trying to get them saved.
We don't know.
I mean, obviously, there's some people that, you know, it's pretty obvious when they answer
the door.
But you know, this is a weird world that we're living in right now.
Some people that might look like, you know, a flamer or whatever, they might not be.
They might just be going along with the crowd.
So we got to be careful about how we perceive things.
Now, if there's like rainbow flags and, you know, just I skipped those doors, okay, but,
you know, there was somebody had like the if we if you believe, you know, I believe
in our America, we believe, you know, in science and all that stuff.
And I knocked that door and the person was perfectly nice.
They didn't yell at me.
They didn't cuss me out or anything, you know.
But I have been to doors like that where they do.
But you just don't know until you knock on the door, you know.
So we should probably try to knock every door that we can unless it says, you know, we have
enough Girl Scout cookies.
We Jesus is our savior, you know, those signs where they're just like, you know, don't don't
come knock on my door.
They just make it very obvious with a sign that don't knock on their door.
They're already asking you not to.
We just have we should have an attitude around so many that we care about people and want
to see them saved.
That's what I'm saying.
Matthew Chapter 9, Matthew Chapter 9, I'm almost done here.
Matthew Chapter 9.
This was Jesus's attitude.
Matthew Chapter 9, verse 35.
Bible says, And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues
and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among
the people.
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted
and were scattered abroad as sheep, having no shepherd.
Then sayeth he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.
Pray therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers and to his harvest.
You know what Jesus really needs?
He needs laborers.
You know what we should really be praying for?
Laborers to go into the harvest.
There's not enough.
I mean, this is a big city, right?
And this a lot of people here went soul winning today.
We need more laborers.
That's one thing that we should be praying about.
But Jesus had compassion on the multitudes, and he was moved with compassion.
That means he actually really cared.
It's not just a fake caring.
It's a real care.
And why?
Because they were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.
And like when you look into every city in America, it's just like that.
And there's some good churches out there, but we need more good churches.
We need more laborers.
We need more soul winners.
And if you want to level up as a Christian, then add soul winning to it because if you're
not fishing, you're not following.
You know, we're supposed to be following Jesus, right?
So we need to fish, fish for the souls of men and women all over in this country.
Every day is another level in your life.
You know, we have to wake up with our minds and our hearts and our soul and our spirit
focused on living that day for God.
And if we do that, we're going to be successful Christians, and we're not going to be out
of balance.
You know, these five things are going to help keep balance in your life.
And so if you, you know, if you think about it, like if you think about it in video game
sense here, you got your, your level minions, you know, the lost in the flesh that you have,
you have the, at the end of each video game level, you have a boss.
Those could be the trials in your life that you need to overcome.
You know, to beat the level, what do we got to do?
We got to walk in the spirit.
We got to use the spiritual armor that God has already given us.
And you know, the final boss is like Bowser and Mario, right?
Isn't it Bowser?
He's like the devil, you know, and how do we beat the devil?
Well, we resist, you know, we, we put on our armor and we resist, you know, and we, we
need to go and fight the good fight of faith.
It's a fight.
It's, you know, when, when you get into a fight, you know, you're in a fight.
And if we're out doing these things, you know what we're going to have the fight is going
to come to us.
But you know what, how do, how do you win in the Christian life?
You finish the race, you finish.
You don't stop.
You don't quit.
You don't say, this is too hard for me.
I'm quitting church, you know, someone's too hard.
My bunions hurt or whatever.
You got to keep going.
We got to finish the race.
Paul at the end of his life was like, I finished.
And that's what everybody should be striving to do in here is to finish.
You know what?
Five things that I brought up tonight.
Those are going to help you finish.
And yeah, I know this has been a long sermon.
I'm sorry about that, but I'm almost done, but you know, what do you want Jesus to say
at the end of your life?
Hey, I wish you would have finished.
That's not what we want to hear.
We want them to hear, or we want to hear well done thou good and faithful servant enter
into the joy of the Lord.
That's what we want to hear.
And whether we finish or not, we're still going to go to heaven if we're saved.
But I mean, do you want to finish strong?
Do you want to finish?
You know, the ultimate thing about winning a video game is that you finish it, right?
And if sometimes they're too hard and you're just like, okay, this is dumb.
I give up.
But you know, and again, I didn't preach a sermon and talk about video games.
So you go and you know, on this desirous video game binge and pull out Super Mario Brothers
from your shelf or whatever, you know, that's, if you're getting that out of the sermon,
you weren't listening.
Okay.
So, you know, the Bible says, you know, our springboard verse was that if any man would
follow him, they must deny themselves, take up his cross daily and follow after me, right?
So Lamentations 3.22 says it is of the Lord's mercies that were not consumed because his
compassion fail not.
They are new every morning.
Great is thy faithfulness.
And so that should be encouraging to you that, hey, maybe you didn't do all the things I
talked about in this sermon tomorrow.
Maybe tomorrow you don't get up, you don't read your Bible, but you know what you can
do it the day after that.
You can just add this stuff to your daily life and it's going to help you.
It's going to help you more than even realize, but you have to get into a pattern of living
this way because if you're not, if you're just neglecting Bible reading, but you do
all the other stuff, how's that going to help you?
If you're just expecting the pastor here or wherever you go to church is just, that's
all you're going to get is the chapter that's read before the service every week.
Well, I've got my Bible reading in today.
I followed along every word, you know, that's good.
You can add that, you know, to your list or whatever, but it shouldn't be the only
times that the Bible is ever in front of your face is when you're at church, it should read
at home.
Now, I told you that I had that game, Mike Tyson's punch out, right?
When I was in sixth grade, I came home every day after school and I tried to beat Mike
Tyson.
And you know what, it took me three months to beat Mike Tyson.
I could beat all the other characters in the game easy.
I could get to Mike Tyson without even, you know, losing a fight.
And like, if you lose the game's over, right?
And when Mike Tyson comes at you, you know, his eyes start going like that or whatever,
and he just starts throwing haymakers on you.
And if you make one mistake, he knocks you out in the first shot, you know, or he knocks
you down.
And if you get knocked down three times, then the fight's over.
And sometimes if he knocks you down even a couple of times in the first round and you
make it to the second round, he knocks you down again, game over.
And it took me three months.
I wasted three months of my life, one hour per day, to try to beat Mike Tyson.
And you know, if you think about it this way, you know, the worst thing we could do as a
Christian is get knocked out of the fight.
So if you're trained, you do everything that you're supposed to do as far as what the Bible
tells us to do, and you stick with it and you make it to the end, you finish the race,
you know, you knock Mike Tyson out at the end.
I finally knocked him out, but it took me a long time.
But what you don't want to do is quit, all right?
Do not quit, stick with it, and you know, you'll be thankful that you did at the end
of your life.
So number one, if we want to level up as a Christian, we need to rediscover the Bible,
get your Bible reading in order.
Number two, restart your prayer life and get on your knees and thank God and ask Him
for the things you need.
Reconnect, number three, reconnect with God's people.
Make sure that you're in church as much as you possibly can be and have friends that
are Christians that you fellowship with.
Number four, resist your besetting sin.
Do your best to resist, get yourself out of the situation, beg God for help, you know.
And you know, obviously, you're not always going to win that battle.
But you should try.
Don't just lay down and let Magtyson knock you out every single day, right?
So to speak, you know, whatever.
But number four or number five, excuse me, is reclaim the soul winning spirit.
Start caring about people again.
You know, we go through phases, but we should never quit soul winning because, you know,
Jesus wants us to go out and save those people that are lost, just like we were.
We got to remember where we were at one day and we need to go out and care about other
people, okay?
So let's pray.