Music
Kind of.
Music
Alright, welcome back to church, why don't you stand with me, we'll start with hymn number 44.
Hymn number 44 will work till Jesus comes.
Music
So please, if you're able, if you could bring a dish for that main side or dessert.
And church will provide some, usually provides meat of some sort.
And we'll have the barbecue and stuff so you can keep things warm.
So we'll do that next Sunday, we haven't had a potluck in a while but I think we're kicking off potluck season.
So potluck season has started, okay.
And it's all to prepare you for the bake fest that's coming at the end of November.
And we're also going to have men's preaching next PM service.
So that's going to, if you want to preach 10, 15 minute service or sermon, that's what that's for.
Let's see our verse of the week, 2 Chronicles 30 verse 9 says,
For if ye turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that leave them captive,
so that they shall come again into this land.
For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you if ye return unto him.
Obviously some things are different, but the message is if we return to the Lord, like if the nation actually returned to the Lord, we would have God's blessing.
Okay, so that's why it's very important that we keep doing what we're doing, preaching, gathering, soul winning, and doing all those things.
Because we're just doing our part to bring the love of God back to this country, which can at least be in His house here.
Let's see, anything else Pastor? You good?
Alright, with that why don't we sing a couple more hymns. Let's go to hymn 400.
Hymn 400, I Wish I Had Given Him More.
Stand with me as we sing 400, I Wish I Had Given Him More.
Hymn 400, I Wish I Had Given Him More.
By and by, when I look on His face, Beautiful face, thorned, shadowed face.
By and by, when I look on His face, I'll wish I had given Him more.
More, so much more, More of my life than I ever gave before.
By and by, when I look on His face, I'll wish I had given Him more.
By and by, when He holds out His hands, Welcoming hands, nail-riven hands.
By and by, when He holds out His hands, I'll wish I had given Him more.
More, so much more, More of my love than I ever gave before.
By and by, when He holds out His hands, I'll wish I had given Him more.
In the light of that heavenly place, Light from His face, beautiful face.
In the light of that heavenly place, I'll wish I had given Him more.
More, so much more, Treasures unbounded for Him I adore.
By and by, when I look on His face, I'll wish I had given Him more.
Hear ye the Master's call, give me thy best, For be it great or small, that is His test.
Do them the best you can, not for reward, Not for the praise of men, but for the Lord.
Every work for Jesus will be blessed, But He asks from every one His best.
Our talents may be few, His may be small, But unto Him is do our best, our all.
Wait not for men to laud, heed not their slight, Winning the smile of God brings His delight.
Fading the good and true, there goes unblest, All that we thank or do be in the best.
Every work for Jesus will be blessed, But He asks from every one His best.
Our talents may be few, His may be small, But unto Him is do our best, our all.
Amen. You may be seated this time. We'll take an offering.
In the meanwhile, I can turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 in your Bible.
May the Father be with thee on this offering.
1 Corinthians chapter 3, the Bible reads, starting in verse 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it.
Neither yet now are ye able.
For ye are yet carnal, whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions.
Are ye not carnal and walk as men?
For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos.
Are ye not carnal?
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos?
But ministers, by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man.
I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
So then, neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.
For we are laborers together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder,
I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed now how he buildeth thereupon,
for other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
every man's work shall be made manifest, for the days shall declare it,
because it shall be received by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
And if any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work be burned, he shall suffer lost, but he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Let no man deceive himself, if any man among you seemeth to be wise, in this world let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, for it is written,
He taketh the wise in their own craftiness again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, and they are vain.
Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death,
or things present, or things to come, all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this time, for us to gather and hear your word preached,
I pray that you fill Pastor Thompson with your spirit as he preaches to us, and that we would have ears to hear.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Amen.
Well it is great to be back up in beautiful Surrey, BC. It's been just a beautiful weekend, and I just want to say thank you to Brother Wynn, Miss Queenie, and the whole church family up here.
For all the hospitality, I had a lot of fun playing games yesterday. I'm not a big game player, I guess, but it was fun.
I'm not very good at cornhole, obviously. I didn't even hit anywhere near the hole, really, except for one time, and it went right over the top of it.
I like Pictionary. I was a lot better at that. I just want to say happy anniversary to our church up here. It's been a great five years.
A lot of people have been saved. I think over 1,500 people have been saved up here, over 100 people baptized. I don't know the exact number.
I know I preached about it not too long ago, and I just forgot all the details. There are so many churches, it's hard to keep track.
I just came back from abroad. I had one of my busiest travel months that I've ever had. I was in Toronto, then I was in Texas, then Fresno, then England.
That was just last month. I went back to our church for one week, and now I'm up here. I'm just happy to be here.
This morning, I want to preach a motivational sermon. Obviously, I'll be preaching to the choir a little bit. All the people here are here, so that's good.
I want to preach a sermon called Personal Bests. Look down at your Bible, verse number eight, where the Bible reads,
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.
For we are laborers together with God, your God's husbandry, your God's building, according to the grace of God, which is given unto me.
As a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon.
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon the foundation, gold, silver, precious stones,
and of course these are things with eternal value, then wood, hay, and stubble, things without eternal value,
every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it. Because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
So, like I said, the title of the sermon is Personal Bests, and you see, it is a team effort, Christianity.
It is a church effort to do great works for God, to do the best and to be the best church out that there is.
But there's also the individual part of making sure that you're doing your excellent part as part of that team.
Look back in verse number eight where it says, every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.
So there is an individual side of Christianity, and you have your own personal walk with the Lord, you have your own personal works with the Lord, which add to the whole of the church.
So, and obviously we're building that foundation upon what Christ has already laid, so we don't have to reinvent the wheel.
We know what we're supposed to do. It's in the Bible there for us to read it and to obey what it says.
And we're supposed to be building upon what Christ has already done, what the apostles have already laid forth and what other people before us have done.
We're not, you know, we're not just making up our own works and just starting from scratch.
We already know what we're supposed to do. And, you know, that song was perfect, our very, you know, to do our best.
A lot of those songs were probably picked according to the title of the sermon because it's really important that we as individuals do our best.
Now you're like, well, this is a fifth anniversary, Pastor Thompson, it should be about the team.
Well, this sermon is about the team also, because when everybody does their best, then that helps the whole team.
It helps every, every individual effort helps the whole of the church.
Let's look at first, at Colossians chapter 3 verse 23.
Colossians 3, 23. And remember, you know, we want to, we want to do things that are, have eternal value.
Obviously it's okay to have hobbies. It's okay, you know, to do other things that might not count for eternity.
But just know the difference, you know, know the difference between what God values and what is just kind of, you know, everything, you know, just your own personal entertainment or whatever.
So look at Colossians 3, 23, it says, Whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men.
So who are we working for? We're working for the Lord.
Whatever job you have, men, whatever your role is, ladies, we're not doing it necessarily. We are doing it for our boss.
We are doing it for our employer. But in reality, the ultimate boss we have is the Lord Jesus Christ.
So any job you take, you know, you should just have that attitude. This is for Jesus. I'm doing this for the Lord.
And so then you're going to do what? You're going to give your very best.
It says, Knowing of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ.
So will there be individual words in heaven? Yes, there will.
And you know, this this world has kind of just ditched every every personal accolade.
It seems like unless you're talking about professional sports. But when I was growing up playing football, we had MVP trophies.
But you know what? When I went back to try to coach football later on,
the MVP trophies would hurt other people's feelings because then you're saying they didn't do as good either.
But how does God look at it? God looks at that there is individual rewards.
There are individual best that we can do. And those help the whole.
And we aren't going to be judged by how often your friend didn't come to church.
We're going to be judged on how much you came to church. You're not going to be judged based upon how many souls somebody else in this church won.
You're going to be judged based upon the souls that you got saved or the ones that you were out there helping labor to bring forth with somebody else, obviously.
But even praying for people as they go out. Maybe you're hurt. Maybe you are past your prime.
You can't knock those. You can't get out and knock those doors. And nobody in here is like that.
But I'm just saying there's going to come a time in our life when you're not going to run the triple decker apartments.
If you're 90 years old, I've made this point lots of times, but there's no 90 year olds out here preaching and knocking doors.
Nobody in this church is 90 years old, for one thing. And nobody is knocking doors in any church I've ever seen in the new IFB.
You know, there might be the diamond in the rough, the one 90 year old in the world that can do it.
But, you know, most of those people are not even if they're in church, they're barely getting there.
They're coming from an assisted living home or someone's bringing them to church.
But it says that he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done and there's no respect of persons.
So your personal stats as a Christian are your personal stats, but they do affect the whole.
And, you know, maybe it's because it's the beginning of football season that I'm going to relate a lot of things to sports today.
OK, so I just can't help it. The Seahawks are playing today their first game.
Not that I not that I care that much. You know, red, blue. I don't really care, honestly.
I'm not going to watch it again. We'll probably watch the highlights later.
But, you know, make this true. Why don't we just decide today to make this the best church that we can by adding value through our personal best.
Through our personal best works.
And just because you attended a good church doesn't mean you're necessarily adding to its greatness.
That just because you come here doesn't make you a soul.
Just because you come here doesn't make that you're adding to its greatness.
And what do I mean by that? Well, if you just brag about your church or how great other churches are that you follow, doesn't mean you're adding anything to it.
I mean, what about the keyboard warriors out there that this can never make it to church,
but they're all over the new IFB posts and all over YouTube commenting things, but there's a church really close that they'd be going to and they don't do it.
That doesn't, you know, just because you say you follow the new IFB doesn't mean that you are adding to the works of the churches that you attend.
You might not even be adding to the church that you attend to.
And just because you're a fanboy doesn't mean you're in the game. Does it? It doesn't.
And if you're just a fanboy, you know, most of the fanboys I've seen kind of wither, you know, they get upset because their idol wasn't what they thought they were and they made a mistake or something.
And now all of a sudden, oh, the new IFB is bad or whatever, you know.
This is the kind of thing I've seen multiple times. The biggest fanboys usually end up being the biggest burnouts.
So fans are in the stands to cheer others on, right, in like a sporting event, which is fine, right?
I mean, the team needs fans. Wouldn't it be weird if they just played? Oh, yeah, that was during COVID.
But wouldn't it be just weird if they played and there's nobody there?
Well, we saw what happens. It's kind of just weird, right?
Like they had to put fake fan noises in.
Weren't they like putting like styrofoam people in the stands and things like that?
Virtual reality fans clapping in the stands.
I mean, they had to make fake crowd noises and it was just bizarre, wasn't it?
But fans are there to cheer people on and that's what was missing during those years and it still wasn't right.
I mean, fake fans doing all this fake mockery to try to pretend like they're actually in the game.
But, you know, it's good to be a fan of the game.
But isn't it better to actually play in the game?
I mean, most of us here are not professional athletes. None of us are, as far as I know.
I mean, you guys might be some professional ping pong athletes who might be getting close or cornhole athletes or Pictionary athletes.
You know, but like you're not going to pay billions of dollars to do that, right?
And there might be some good athletes in this room. I mean, I'm not really sure.
I think that there probably are. But none of us are good enough to make the pros, right?
So we're not good enough to make the pros as athletes.
So, you know, but we kind of, we're in a team that's the best team that you could ever be on.
Team Christianity.
And you don't have to be some stud athlete in order to be successful in the Christian life because this is a spiritual life that we're in.
Now obviously we have physical bodies and those bodies wear out and, you know, they get tired and things like that.
That is about the most of the physical side of Christianity.
Having to be here, driving to church, being part of things, going out soloing.
Those things do take physical strength and physical activity, but it also is mind over matter.
Sometimes you don't want to go soloing. You don't want to go to church.
I don't want to preach sometimes. I don't want to travel sometimes. I don't want to go soloing sometimes.
Everybody kind of has that thing in them, but you know what professional athletes do?
They just do it because they know that's their job.
And we've got to be not only just doing things because we know it's our job, but doing things because we're working for the Lord.
He's expecting us to be part of the team, not just cheering in the stands.
Oh yeah, my church is so great. Oh yeah, we want all these souls. Oh, such and such church is so great.
They're doing lots of things, but what are you doing?
Are you doing your personal best? Are you doing your best to make sure that this is a great church?
Or coming to support this great man of God and this great woman here and all the, you know, we're here to serve each other.
It's not just serving them. It's not just serving yourself, but it's serving each other.
And I think it's just awesome that we're on the greatest team of all time.
We're team Christianity underneath the greatest coach of all time, God the Father.
And we all have the talent that we need spiritually to succeed from the Holy Spirit.
And we have the best captain we could have on our team, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he's the greatest leader to look up to because every sports team has a captain, whether it's on defense or offense, depending on what sport you're talking about.
But, you know, I mean, you can liken the Christian life onto sports.
Paul the Apostle talks about it quite a bit. It seemed like he was into sports.
But the Lord Jesus is the captain of our team. He's the best player on the team.
He's the perfect player on the team in every statistical category.
He allows us to have gifts and talents and we reign from or with him as champions of the world for all eternity.
I mean, we are the greatest team of all time. We are the greatest dynasty of all time.
I mean, when you think about all the other teams, Team Mormon, Team Jehovah's Witnesses, Team Seek or Sick or whatever you say, I think they're sick.
But Team, you know, Team Islam, who's going to reign supreme?
You know, we're eternity and O versus all those places, all those teams, right?
And they might seem like they get victories here on earth, but really they're just storing up wrath for themselves on the great day of judgment.
I mean, think about that. We are the greatest team of all time, the greatest coach of all time, the greatest power of all time, and we have the greatest captain of all time.
And he gives us and allows us to play on his team. And not only does he let us play on the team,
but we get to inherit everything that the Son of God inherits when we get our glorified bodies to go to heaven.
I mean, he shares with us, even though he did everything for us, he purchased our salvation for us and he still says, you know what, you're like me.
You're my brethren. I'm going to share with you. I mean, what other team has that?
You know, usually have people that ride the bench, but they're still part of the team and they still get trophies, don't they?
Don't the people on a championship team get a trophy also? So, yeah, you can literally do nothing and get a trophy.
You know what your trophy is? Eternal life. That's the benchmark. That's the thing that everybody gets.
But, you know, some players are more, get more accolades than others in sports.
It's just the fact, just the way the world is, but it's also the way the Christian world works.
You know, the Apostle Paul, why do we revere him so much? Maybe because he wrote half the New Testament, maybe because he turned the world upside down,
maybe because all of us Gentiles in here are probably saved because of him, because he was the Apostle to the Gentiles,
and everything brings forth after its own kind, and the Apostle Paul brought forth and he built faith to faith, and here we are today serving the Lord.
So, apparently I like sports, so I like American football. I mean, who likes American football in here?
I mean, you don't have, it's okay. I'm not going to like say, you're unspiritual. I like basketball.
I mean, I don't really like what the NBA has become. I really, I don't even know if I watched the whole game at all this year of anything, really, but I like MMA.
I like watching two guys with different skill sets fight each other to see who, you know, what styles win that fight, but I definitely love team Christianity a lot more than I like sports.
And, you know, in retirement, like where I worked before, they would take, you know, you get a pension after 30 years or whatever.
You work for 30 years, and then they take the top three years that you had of making money, and then they average that all out.
When you retire, that is what you, that's the amount you get. So, I kind of was just thinking about this.
I was thinking, what about Christianity? What if we just took our, I wonder if God just takes our top years and kind of, you know, gives us rewards based on that.
I don't know that he does. He figures rewards differently than we probably would ever guess.
But I would think that if you have the right motivation and the right reason for doing those works, that God's going to bless you tremendously for those great years you had.
I'm not saying just do three hard years and then you're done with Christianity. I'm not saying that.
But I'm saying that we can have some really good statistical years as Christians, and maybe you can't even do those statistical best in the same year.
That would be pretty hard. There are some athletes that, you know, like in basketball, some people have, I think Oscar Robertson averaged a triple-double season.
I think he's the only one that's ever actually done the full triple-double season. I think I'm right about that.
So that's 10 rebounds a game, 10 points a game, 10 assists per game. But he scored a lot more than 10 points.
But that's like a triple, you know, what do they call it? The triple crown when the horse, the same horse wins three major races in a year.
And do they have like something like that for hockey too? You Canadians up here? Huh?
I think tennis too.
Yeah, tennis. All sports have those kind of things. But, you know, we as Christians, we have works that we could really, you know, go forward with and have some great statistical years.
Maybe you can do it all in one year. Maybe that's the key to try to get your best statistical years as an individual in a year.
But, you know, you can have the best stats ever. And if you don't help your team win though, your reputation in retirement is whether you were what?
How many what you win? Championships, right? So you can be the greatest statistical player that ever played.
But if you didn't win any championships, you're not considered in the same class as somebody that might have less stats, but they're the great leader.
They'd really help their team go to the upper echelon of teams. So you're not just judged by your own stats, but how you help the team and how many championships you won.
Why do people say that Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time? Why?
Six rings.
Six rings. How many did he lose? Zero. He didn't lose any finals championships.
And they compare him to LeBron James and people that are smoking crack actually think that LeBron James is anywhere near as great of a player as Michael Jordan was.
I watched him play. I'm an older guy. I actually watched him play. You see all of his highlight stats, but he did that kind of stuff in every single game.
He's taking game winners every game. He's dominating on the defense every game.
And yeah, LeBron James is probably a great player, but I never saw Jordan pass off the final shot because he didn't think he could make it.
I saw LeBron do that in the first final series he was in. He's like, here, anybody but me.
I mean, they get smoked by Denver last year. I mean, LeBron, he can't hold a torch a lot.
People are like, well, yeah, but he's different. He's bigger. He's this, he's that.
Michael Jordan wouldn't have ate his lunch one-on-one anytime. He'd be like, here, can I have that?
He was fast. He was good at defense. They're around the same height or whatever, maybe I guess a little bit.
But anyway, what do you judge by? Why do people judge Michael Jordan better?
Well, he has statistically better high score. He was the leading scorer, one of the best, first team on defense, all this other stuff.
But thinking about football, Joe Montana, why was he considered one of the best quarterbacks of all time?
Well, because, what did he do? Did he win three Super Bowl rings?
But now who do they consider the greatest of all time quarterbacks?
Huh? Tom Brady, right? I mean, you might hate him, but he is the best quarterback of all time.
But I think he's got more championships, of course, but he's kind of a weird dude.
He does kind of witchcraft or whatever, I don't know. I'm not celebrating these guys.
I'm just making a point that people are judged based upon what they do statistically on teams.
But they're also judged on how well their team did. Because Dominique Wilkins never won anything.
Except for, I mean, he even lost the slam dunk title to Jordan.
He was a great player, but he didn't even win in the playoffs to go past the first round ever.
So he's not even in the conversation. So, you know, there's nothing more personal and individual than wrestling.
I mean, wrestling is pretty much a one-on-one combat sport, isn't it?
But it is part of a team. Because if you play on high school or, you know, if you wrestle on a team in high school,
they take the points of everybody and then that whoever has the most points at the end wins that wrestling tournament or whatever.
But then, of course, you've got the individual accolades.
You've got guys that win gold medals or they're all Americans or all Canadians, I guess.
They have good wrestling teams up here, I'm pretty sure.
But, you know, even in the most individual sports, there is a team behind them.
Even like tennis and golf and all these things, don't they have to have hitting coaches, strength and conditioning coaches?
Everybody, no matter what individual sport you're playing, nobody just trains themselves on everything.
They have to go and get these people to help them, nutritional coaches, weight training coaches, strategy coaches, technique coaches,
you know, in MMA, someone that's calling out, hey, do this, do that, knee, this particular combo in boxing, whatever.
So, and a lot of people go for, what do they call it when you do your personal best in weight training, like your best deadlift?
What do they call it?
YAR.
Huh?
YAR.
Yeah, personal records, right?
And that's kind of a big thing right now, getting all these personal best.
But there's going to come a time when you can't reach that personal best anymore, isn't there?
There's going to come a time when, you know, you just can't get any more gains.
And if you do, you have to work really hard for them.
And so your personal best, you know, just kind of translate that to your personal best in Christianity.
A lot of people in this room are in the prime of their lives.
And are you, but are you performing the best Christian life that you can perform right now?
Or are you going to wait until you're past your prime and try to do it?
It's a lot harder, trust me, when you're older to go out sowing.
It's a lot harder than, you know, it is, you know, it's, and, you know, I'll give you this.
If you have a lot of kids or if you have kids, it is harder to get to church, but it's not impossible.
So it's just something that we have to work at and get better at.
So, you know, eventually we're going to get atrophy, whether it's in our physical life or our spiritual life,
because we're not going to be as good physically, we're not going to be as good mentally,
we're not going to be as good visually, and we're not going to be able to hear as well as we used to.
So even though we're not in that physical battle, we're still limited by our physical body
to continue to produce statistically like we could or can in our physical prime.
So what if everybody is judged by that personal best?
Well, I think that to a certain extent, if Jesus wants our very best,
then there should be a statistical best season that we have, right, as a Christian I'm talking about.
So, but would you have successful years as a Christian to look back on right now?
Do you have good successful years as a Christian?
I mean, I think that many of you do.
I think all of us probably have something, but can we get better in one of those areas?
Can we get better in certain areas?
Have we done better in the past or are not doing as good right now?
Those are things that we need to really, we need to take a self inventory of ourselves and say,
hey, was I a better Christian last year or am I a better Christian this year?
You know what I mean?
So let's just be real.
We only have a short amount of time on this earth, an even shorter amount of time to do great works.
There is a season of our lives where we can do our very best.
And we've got a guy at our church at 62 years old.
He goes to every soul winning server, every soul winning thing that we have going.
And it just makes me feel bad because I don't go to every single soul winning time that we have.
Does anybody do that?
But what his mentality is, is he didn't do things when he was young right,
and now he wants to make up for that lost time.
It's called redeeming the time, right?
But we might not all have that opportunity to redeem that time when we're older because we could be in a wheelchair.
You could get into an accident where maybe your back gets messed up.
Today could be the last day you ever get to go out soul winning.
Have you ever thought about that?
I'm passing up an opportunity to where I might not ever get to go soul winning again.
It is possible.
You could get so hurt that you couldn't make it to church ever again.
We don't know what's going to happen in our lives.
And so I think that what is the best time to do our best things now?
Right now while we have the opportunity and the ability to do those things.
So have you reached your prime?
A lot of us probably have.
Have you had your statistical best year as a Christian yet though?
What is your top soul winning year?
You know I don't know if people keep track of this stuff.
I really don't like keep track of how many people I get saved in a year.
I just don't do that.
But I mean I know when I've had a better year than I did the last year or something.
I know when my best years have been.
What about your best prayer year?
Have you put in your best prayer year yet?
Well maybe you could be a better prayer warrior this year.
This coming year than you ever have been before.
Or how about your best year of church attendance?
Could you have your best year of church attendance?
Why not just set personal best in church life categories?
You know and be part of a great team.
And you know you guys could be making this church the best church in all of Canada.
I already think it is.
But you know I don't know that for a fact because I've never been to all the churches.
But I'm just biased because this is my church right?
I think this is a great church.
But could it get better?
Yeah.
Do you think that the best days are behind in this church?
I don't think that they are at all.
You know and most sports teams.
You know most of the sports teams that we follow.
You know they have good years and they have bad years.
Some players have good years and some have bad years.
Some have the best statistical season ever.
But what do we judge those players by ultimately?
What do we judge in retirement?
How do we judge players?
We usually test them by their best years that they had right?
You don't go oh that's the year that he was the worst in assists or whatever.
You look at the best.
So and I think if we're going to be the best we've got to try to be our best and do our best every day.
So I have some things to go through.
I know that was a long introduction but I'll get through this faster than you think.
So plan on having number one this morning.
That was kind of a big long introduction.
I'm sorry about that.
But number one I want to make the point that we need to plan on having our best attendance year that we've ever had.
And I'm not saying it has to be this year.
But could you pick a year where you're going to say I'm going to be here three times a week when the doors are open.
Or when anything in the church is going on.
Can you pick a year to do that?
Maybe you should just start right now.
Maybe you should just you know because we don't know again.
People get sick.
Things happen.
You know life happens.
But if we already have the mentality that I'm going to be in church every time I can be.
Then you can have your best statistical attendance year that you've ever had.
You know instead of planning on going to another church to hold you hold in higher regard.
Why not help make this church the best church by being at this church instead of envying other churches that are out there and other pastors.
And what do I mean by that.
Well what about this preacher and his wife.
You know do you get behind them like you get behind some of the other pastors that you know.
Or that you've followed or that you've listened to their preaching.
You know I haven't taken you guys to whatever it's called Chief Mountain or whatever.
What was the place called?
Chief.
Yeah the Chief.
Who took you there.
Brother Wynn took you there.
I've never taken you there.
I've never taken you out on a hike to a lake.
I'm not here every single Sunday or every single Wednesday you know to be here for you spiritually to pray for you.
You know obviously I love you guys.
This is you know I'm the pastor of this church but he is actually doing the work here.
And you know I'm not saying you don't respect him.
I'm just saying you should highly esteem him for his work's sake.
And you know he's not a pastor.
Well does that make him a second rate man of God because he's not a pastor?
I don't think it does.
I think that you know if you have the mindset that hey I live in Canada.
This is my church.
Then I'm going to get behind the man of God here.
I'm going to get behind the programs of this church.
And I'm going to go to this church.
And I'm going to sow it in this church.
I'm going to pray for this church.
I'm going to do my best and have my best statistical categories so I can make this church better.
Not some other church that you have some fantasy of moving to.
You're Canadian.
You're never going to get out.
Just deal with it.
You might be able to visit but you got $150,000 to buy your citizenship down there?
You probably don't.
You're like well I've been saving for it.
Well you might be saving for a long time.
Then it might be too late you know.
So you know why not make this the best church?
Why don't you make this the best church by actually being at this church?
I didn't take, you know, my wife didn't take you ladies on special, she doesn't take you ladies on special tea dates or whatever you guys do.
I don't know.
Or you take a bunch of pictures and fluffy whatever you guys are doing.
I don't know.
You know what I'm talking about.
Special ladies days.
Ladies and men's days.
We don't do that.
But they do.
They're here.
They're putting in the work.
You know I think it's a discouragement to any leader when you see people just giving up.
You see people not doing their best.
And you know this is the uncomfortable part of the sermon but it should be uncomfortable if you're not doing your best.
But if you're doing your best then you're just like hey I'm doing okay here.
Well I'll get to you.
Don't worry.
But why are you giving your heart to an idea of a better church someplace else?
I mean I'm not saying that anybody is.
But if you are why are you doing that?
Why can't you just have the mentality that this is the church I'm in.
This is the one that I want to be the best church.
And when you're here you make it better.
So you're like well Pastor Thompson our church is small.
But you know what it's even smaller when you're not here.
Well this church is small.
Be here it'll be bigger.
Bring more people it'll be bigger.
So you know why are you going around trying to get into free agency?
Why are you trying to be like LeBron James of this church?
You know Cleveland wasn't good enough for you so you got to go to Miami and you know do some stupid press conference where you're like oh you know I'm so important I'm going to I'll tell you what team I'm going to pick and they do some kind of like ESPN special.
Which team is LeBron going to pick?
It's like what a jerk.
He really hosed that team pretty hard by doing that.
But then didn't he go back and win a championship there?
Then he left again.
He's like here's your consolation present.
One championship.
Did he win a championship in Cleveland anybody know?
Yeah.
Okay.
So that was just like everybody hated him so he thought he'd go back just for one year to make him love him again and then he just stabbed him in the back again.
You're like well he's a free agent he can play wherever he wants.
Okay.
But you know he wants to go to Miami or LA where the glitz and glamour is.
Where the best weather is.
The most highly sought after teams.
But what would have happened if he would have just stayed there?
How many championships would he have won if he would have just stayed in the place?
Michael Jordan where'd he stay at?
He stayed in Chicago.
And he made that team work and he built that team.
And then he stayed on that team, retired, then came back and won three more championships.
You know obviously he went to the Wizards later on but he like bought that team or something and he was just that was the end of his career you know.
But he was loyal to the Bulls.
LeBron is loyal to nobody.
And so we don't want to be a LeBron James Christian.
We want to be a Michael Jordan Christian.
And I'm not saying Michael Jordan's a good person okay.
I hope you understand that.
But what if he would have just stayed where he was?
Who knows how many championships he would have won?
Turn to Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24.
I realize I'm light on Bible a little bit this morning but that's going to change right now.
Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24.
The Bible says, let's consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
You've probably heard these verses lots of times.
But look at verse 24 again.
Let us consider one another.
So being a church is being considerate to other church members isn't it?
Isn't that what it says?
And what does that help do?
It helps provoke unto love and to good works.
So isn't love you know it's talking about Christian love, Christian fellowship.
And when we all hang out together and we talk about things, you know, we're fellowshipping.
We're talking about the things that we love about God.
And it's also provoking us to love other people.
It's provoking us to love our neighbor as ourself and to do good works.
What are good works?
Well, how about to go preach the gospel?
How about to go help people in the community?
How about to set up some nursing home ministry?
Whatever it is that you're doing, when you go to church, you're considering somebody else beside yourself.
You're not being selfish and you're provoking someone to do something that's good.
That's what the Bible says.
And it says not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together.
So when we're not here, what are you doing?
You're forsaking the assembly.
And people don't like this.
Well, you just don't understand.
I do understand.
You know why?
Because I have to go to church three times a week.
I have to.
Because if I don't, I'll lose my job.
But, you know, there's obviously times if I'm sick or something, which is a rare occasion.
But if I get sick, I'll stay home.
But most of the time, I'm here even if I do have the sniffles.
So it's not something that's optional for me.
So why do you make it optional for yourself?
You're like, well, I don't have to be here because I don't have to preach.
Well, you know what?
But someone else is counting on you.
And to consider them and to provoke them to love and good works.
Because, and listen, this really frustrates me.
Because, you know, when our church could be running more and encouraging more people,
you know, there's people that fall into this slothful, uncaring pitfall of slacking with coming to church.
People are counting on you.
Do you understand?
Isn't that what the Bible is saying?
People, other people are counting on you.
And you know what?
It helps you because other people are going to be provoked by you being there.
You know, you're going to get helped by other people because they're there too, is what I meant to say.
So, you know, listen, your team is counting on you.
Your under captain is counting on you.
And I mean that by, you know, Brother Wynn being the under shepherd, so to speak, of, you know, being then of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he's counting on you to be here for contributions to the team.
You know, when, you know, Allen Iverson does that famous practice video.
Have any of you guys ever seen that before?
Like most of the women were just like, what are you talking about?
But Allen Iverson, he was skipping, he missed a couple of practices or whatever.
And now it's a big deal in the sports world because what are they teaching?
Practice makes perfect.
You know, if you skip practice and it makes other people skip practice,
it gives that people the mentality that you don't really need to be there because you're too good.
Or you're just too important to make it to practice.
And he just has this rant where he goes on, he's like, yeah, let's talk about practice.
Practice, man, not the game.
Not the game, but practice.
Well, you know what?
Church is the game.
Being at church isn't practice.
Being at church is the game.
So we need to be here when we can be and stop making excuses as to why we can't be here.
You know what?
You're also wasting your talent.
How many players have not taken sports seriously and then they could have been the best of the best,
but they didn't take it seriously so they wasted their talent?
How many of us maybe have even said, well, I could have played college this or college that,
but, you know, I chose to do something else instead.
And, you know, you have these regrets or whatever some people do.
But, you know, people waste their talent all the time.
And when you're not here, when you're not contributing, you are wasting the talent that God has given you.
You know the parable of the talents where the one person just buried it in the ground and said,
you know, I just want to bury it here.
You know, I knew that you were an austere man and all this other stuff,
and God's mad at the person that wastes his talent.
But the people that don't waste their talent, he's like, you know, here's ten cities.
Be thou over ten cities and enter into the joy of thy Lord.
What is he saying?
He's saying, hey, the people that are using the talent that God's given them,
he's going to bless them tremendously for using that talent.
But if you waste your talent, he's going to call you a wicked and slothful servant.
So, you know, you're wasting the gift or gifts that the Holy Spirit has given you
because hasn't the Holy Spirit given to every single one of us in this room a gift,
some kind of spiritual gift?
And maybe you don't even know what your spiritual gift is,
but there is no doubt that if you have the Holy Spirit, you do have gifts.
And if you're not here to use them, then you're wasting your talent.
You're wasting the gift that God gave you to serve each other and to serve other people
and to serve, most importantly, the Lord himself.
And you're letting down your head coach, God the Father.
You're letting down your captain, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
It's important that you're here and you're like, oh, I've heard all this before.
I'm just going to do what I want.
Well, you know, it's discouraging to come to church
and see a bunch of people missing that should be here.
It is.
And you know what?
Our bad habits rub off on other people.
That's the detriment of it.
When you have the bad habit of skipping church, then other people are like,
well, you know, I looked up to this person and now they're not here.
So what does that mean?
It must not be that important to them.
Maybe it's just not that important to me.
And our bad habits will rub off on other people.
And it's frustrating as a pastor to have people just not show up for church.
And, you know, they just don't even bother to give excuses anymore.
It used to be excuses.
I'm not going to be here because of this or that.
It's like, how many times are you going to get sick in one year?
Come on.
You think I'm going to fall for that every time?
I was born on a day, but it wasn't yesterday.
I was born at night, but it wasn't last night.
You know, excuses, you know, are like armpits.
They all stink and everybody's got one, right?
You've probably heard the other version, Pastor Shelley version.
But anyway, just kidding.
Got to hit them every once in a while.
But our bad habits discourage the leadership.
And, you know, look, you don't want to discourage your leader.
You know, we want to encourage the leader.
We don't want to discourage the people on our team by, you know,
we want to provoke, you know, you're provoking discord, basically,
and dissimulation.
Because doesn't it say we're supposed to be assembled together, not dissimulating.
So dissimulating is kind of breaking apart.
But we're supposed to be having love and good works and, you know, provoking people to that.
And you're like, well, you know, Pastor Thompson, you don't understand my situation.
Really? I don't?
I got things that come up.
Last Thursday, I was interrupted like probably 20 times that day over just not even church stuff, just random life stuff.
Right?
And it's just like it's annoying.
And it's like here I am trying to prep myself for a sermon, trying to get ready, you know, to preach the word of God.
And it's got all these interruptions, all these, you know, stupid things that are going on.
But you know what?
I still went to church.
I still preached a sermon.
And we just got to be able to say, you know what?
This stuff's all sucks.
This stuff's going on.
It's not fun.
But I'm going to just have some grit, some intestinal fortitude, some, you know,
I'm just going to have the guts to just sweep all this stuff aside and go to church.
Because you know what?
You're going to feel better when you get there.
When you start singing the songs, it's going to put you in the spirit.
When you start, you know, listening to the preaching and you're preparing to hear the word of God,
and you actually receive it into your heart, then grafted word, you know,
when pastors write sermons, they have in mind helping people.
You know, and obviously some sermons are just, you know, you're ripping face or whatever on the wicked things of this world.
But it still helps people, doesn't it?
Because we want to hate evil and love the good.
So what does it say in that verse?
It's we're exhorting one another.
What does exhorting mean?
It means to address or communicate emphatically urging someone to do something.
So when you're going to church, you're communicating, you're urging someone to do something.
What?
To love and good works.
Provoking.
Provoking is usually something that's negative, isn't it?
Don't provoke me.
I'm going to knock you out, right?
So provoking is to stimulate or give rise, a reaction or emotion, typically a strong or unwelcomed one in someone.
So usually when you're provoking someone, you're trying to get them to get mad, right?
It also means to stimulate or incite someone to do or feel something, especially by arousing anger in them.
So you're trying, like, have you ever had someone, your boss is just picking at you and it makes you work harder because you're pissed off?
Is anybody else like that besides me?
No?
Well, it makes me mad.
It's like they're getting on your case, you're like, oh, yeah, I'll just show you how hard I can work.
And I'm just like, ah, going as hard as I can.
And then they're like, mission accomplished.
But number three, it's deliberately make someone annoyed or angry.
But in this case, in the verses that we're on, to provoke is a good provoking.
It's provoking them to do something that's right.
Provoking is, you know, when someone, you're like, well, you're always talking about soul winning.
This is what our enemies will say.
All you ever preach about is going soul winning.
Yeah, because it's provoking someone to do that, which is right.
It's exhorting them to do it.
It's like, okay, I'll go soul winning.
All right.
And then you're just like, where's my Bible?
Where's my invitations?
Well, I'm going, all right.
That's what it should be, right?
We're provoking for you to do something.
If you have to get angry about it and do it, then get angry about it and do it.
When you get to the door, be nice, though.
When we're ripping on sin, then we're trying to get sin out of your life.
You're like, quit watching those Hollywood movies.
Quit listening to the worldly music.
Okay, okay.
And you just like smash all the CDs and burn them in a fire, right?
That's what we want.
I mean, people do that.
People just throw their whole CD collections away
or chop their hair off if they're a dude with long hair.
And we have that church in Yakima, and I guess three sermons in a row,
there was talking about men not having long hair.
And I really didn't just say, there's a long hair.
I'm going to go rip on this for a little while.
I don't operate like that.
I didn't even realize that the guy was there, really.
And he just like, his brother was like, hey, you cut your hair
because he had like pretty long hair.
He was a native.
It's a big deal for their culture to just cut their hair like that.
It's a big deal.
Because to the other natives, it's going to be like,
why are you trying to be like the white man or whatever, right?
But he chopped all his hair off.
Why?
Because the preaching caused him to realize that it was wrong,
and he cut his hair off.
I don't know how he felt when he did it,
but he could have been going, okay, you know.
We get on to people to read their Bible.
They're like, I was just saying, read your Bible.
You know why?
Because this is our instructional book.
This is our textbook for life.
This is where we get all the answers to every question that we might have.
How we live, how we act in marriage, how we are as parents,
how we should be as children.
You know, the Bible is our guide, the best thing that we have,
the only thing that we have to guide us in this dark, miserable world.
And so the more you know, the better of a Christian you're going to be.
So when you're here at church, you're going to get provoked to go soul winning.
You're going to get provoked to get sin out of your life.
You're going to get provoked to have your doctrine straight.
You're going to be provoked to read your Bible.
You're going to get provoked to pray more.
You're going to get provoked to sing out loud.
You know, and you're just like, okay, I will.
Right? That's the provoking that we need to have.
And maybe I'm just being overly dramatic about it, but it's true.
You know, sometimes when someone just harps on you enough, you're like, okay, I will, finally.
Just leave me alone.
Then you just come back next week and get more of it.
That's the way we should be.
Look at Philippians chapter two, verse one.
I think I broke your timer. No, it's good.
Might as well be broken because I don't care about it.
Anyway, Philippians chapter two, verse one.
I'm just joking. I do care.
Kind of. Not really.
Philippians 2, verse one.
For if there be therefore any consolation in Christ,
if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any bowels and mercies,
fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded,
having the same love, being of one accord of one mind.
See, but it's the individual.
It's the individual efforts,
but then the whole is the church coming together
and fulfilling the joy, being like-minded,
having the same love, and having one accord, one mind.
Because if we all have our own different missions,
we all have our different favorite people that we look up to or whatever,
you know, we're looking at another church that's better than ours.
That should not be our mentality.
Let's make this the best church that we can make it
because, like I said, you're not going anywhere.
This is like this and the church in Winkler right now
are the only new IFP churches in Canada.
But you know what? There isn't any other ones.
There's old IFP churches and some people have chosen
they'll just leave and go back to those.
You know, have fun with your unlimited altar calls.
I mean, I could only just deal with that maybe one day
and I'd be like crying to come back to the new IFP.
Or another sermon about salvation.
How about that?
Everlasting sermons about grace.
Sunday night series on grace, part 36.
You should have grace.
You know, I love grace, but do we need 36 part?
I mean, I looked up Paul Chappell's sermons one time.
I was just like seeing what he's preaching on.
And like literally it was like number 36 in a series of grace.
It's just like, and then he probably preached
salvation sermons in the mornings.
I mean, what are they getting fed?
They're not getting fed anything.
But you're going to get fed at this church,
you're going to get first kings, second kings,
first and second Samuel and, you know,
the guys are up here on Wednesday nights
preaching great sermons.
And, you know, you're getting a topical sermon generally
in the morning.
These are great things.
But you need all those parts.
Not just one to survive.
Because it's three to thrive,
two to stay alive,
and one to survive.
And if you're barely surviving and barely hanging on,
you might consider just coming back to church for more.
Look at second Philippians 2 verse 3.
I don't know where that was coming from.
It says, Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory,
but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
better than themselves.
Is that your mindset?
Are you thinking about other people?
Or are you just thinking about yourself and being selfish?
Because, you know, a team player is not selfish.
There is no I in team.
Have you heard that before?
There is no I in team.
And so obviously we do have our own individual stats,
but we also have a team mentality to go with that.
Our contributions, our gifts, our talents
mean something at this church.
And that's why you need the whole body fit together.
And someone's got to be the nose.
Someone's got to be the hind parts.
Someone's got to be the toes.
Whatever your part to play in at this church
is your part to play.
It says, Look not every man on his own things,
but every man also on the things of, what's it say there?
Others.
It's not saying don't mind your own business.
It's talking about thinking about others besides yourself.
Think about others, not just your own things.
Others.
And is that your mentality?
Because that's what it should be.
People claim to be these spiritual Christians and stuff,
but then when it comes to actually living them out,
they have issues and they have problems.
Why not make it a goal this year to not miss one single service
and just see how you do?
Just have the mentality.
Don't come here with the Hong Kong flu or whatever.
Don't come here with COVID.
I'm saying come here as much as you can.
Make it a goal.
Do the best you can.
Make it a goal.
Maybe put it on the calendar.
Every weekend that you come here,
what's great about Sunday is that you can already knock
two of them off the list on the same day.
You've already started the week on a good foot.
If you go soloing in between those services,
then you've already gone soloing once a week.
You've already gone to church twice.
All you've got to do is make it the third time.
If you want to get another day of soloing in,
on a Saturday or something,
then you're really going above and beyond what most Christians
what probably 95% or maybe it's 99% of Christians actually do.
Because you're going to a soloing church,
how many of the churches around here are soloing?
Are there any?
There was a guy, I forgot what his name was,
but I think I talked about it before,
but I went to a camp where he was preaching,
and he was the featured speaker at this youth camp in Washington.
He said he was in Vancouver, B.C.,
and I said, do you guys go door-to-door soloing there?
He's like, no, that doesn't work in Canada.
He's like, it's just too hard.
I'm like, okay.
Then I look at our church here,
all these years later, it's not impossible.
Is it harder than other places?
Yeah, it is.
I'll admit that it is,
but you guys have more people saved this year than we do at our church in Yakima.
You guys have more people saved this year than we do at our church in Seattle.
You guys have more, I mean, it's not that unreceptive.
You're still, that's 120 people that weren't,
221 people that were going to hell before this year,
and now they're not going to hell.
Now they're saved and going to heaven.
In order to make it your best statistical year of going to church,
mark your calendar on every service you go to.
Make an effort to get the three to thrive mentality.
It's called character.
You're like, well, the Bible doesn't say that.
Isn't it funny how everything else is like threes though?
Pray three times a day.
Read your Bible three times a day or whatever, at least twice a day.
If you're just going to put that off,
the Bible says to go so much the more as you see the day approaching,
not so much the less.
We have two services on a Sunday and a service on a Wednesday
to recharge your batteries because you've been out in the world.
You've been out dealing with all this garbage,
and it's nice to just have a reset in the middle of the week
so that you can recharge your spiritual batteries
and be able to take on the challenges of life for the next few days
because it's hard to live in this world sometimes
with all the garbage that's going on,
but have the determination and the character
to try to make it three times a week maybe
and make it your best statistical year of going to church.
Number two, plan your greatest and best soul winning year yet.
Plan your greatest and best soul winning year yet.
How do you do that? Go more.
The more you go, the more opportunities you have to get people saved.
The more time you put in, the more people are going to get saved.
If you're only going soul winning once a week for one hour,
then you're not going to get big returns on that.
But say you go for two hours or three hours or four hours a week,
maybe you just want to make it your best year ever.
I don't know what your best year ever is,
but the more you go, the more you're going to get saved.
Number two, go to soul winning trips in foreign countries
or just fly to Toronto. It's receptive there.
Just fly to Toronto and go soul winning for a while there.
That's where all the immigration is happening.
I think there's like 181 salvations or something crazy like that
when we did that week long soul winning there.
Just plan to go to some other place where it is receptive.
Not just skip out here, still go here.
Still support your church.
Still make your church the best church you can,
but maybe you need to go someplace else
and just check out or go on a missions trip to one of these countries
where you can get a lot of people saved.
Pray for boldness, number three.
Number four, sharpen your presentation.
Just get better at it.
Number five, you have to care for people.
If you care for people, then you're going to have your love for Christ
and a right attitude.
When you love Christ, you're going to love other people.
When you love other people, you're going to love Christ more
because you're going to see people get saved
and it's going to be a great blessing in your life.
I'm going to go ahead and turn to Matthew 13.
I'm going to read Titus chapter 3 verse 14.
Titus 3, 14 says,
And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses
that they be not unfruitful.
So maintain, what does that mean?
It means to keep working on things in order to keep,
like it's talking about that you're not unfruitful.
If you don't maintain your plants or just say a fruit tree.
Say you have an orchard,
don't you have to do things in order to make that more fruitful the next year,
whether you're trimming the trees or donging the trees
or whatever else you have to do.
Watering them probably helps, things like that.
But what's it saying? Maintain good works for necessary uses.
Do the things that are necessary.
Do the things that are going to help you be a better
and more fruitful soul winner the next year.
You know, getting the sin out of your life, praying for boldness,
going more, sharpening your presentation,
actually caring about people.
That's good stuff to do, right?
Matthew 13, 23 says,
But he that receives seed into the good ground,
is he that heareth the word and understandeth it,
and also beareth fruit,
and bringeth forth some an hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
So as a soul winner, you're going to have different years
where you have different numbers.
And I believe that the teaching of this is saying that this is a yearly thing
because every fruit has its season, right?
So you're going to bear fruit, and sometimes you might get 30 people saved in a year.
I mean, it could be less, but it could be more.
But it's like just giving you some numbers here
that if you're going to bear fruit,
these are some of the numbers you might come into depending on how much time you go.
Look at Mark 4, 8. Mark 4, 8.
The Bible says,
And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit,
and sprang up, and increased, and brought forth some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.
And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
So bringing forth fruit is something that Christians do.
The righteous are going to bring forth fruit.
The soul winners are going to be a tree of righteousness and bring forth that precious fruit.
But how much fruit are you bringing in?
And again, it's time and dedication that's going to help you bring more fruit in.
Turn to Genesis chapter 26 verse 12.
And obviously I believe that this is a picture of this principle that Jesus is bringing forth
that we're just going to have seasons in our life where we bring forth more fruit
and sometimes it's going to be less.
But if you go sowing, you're still going to bring forth fruit in its season.
You're going to doubtless come again bringing your sheaves with you.
If you're sowing the seeds, you're going to get people saved.
Look at what it says about Isaac.
I think this is a picture of him, a soul winning picture here.
It says, Then Isaac sowed in the land and received in the same year and hundredfold,
and the Lord blessed him.
And the man waxed great and went forward and grew until he became very great.
So Isaac is digging all these wells every place.
And then it says he sowed in the land.
And I don't think that that's an accident that it's just saying that he brought forth a hundredfold.
It is a picture of soul winning.
It's a picture of him being a great man.
He got the hundredfold.
That's the top number, right, in the three different categories, the 30 to 60, the hundredfold.
He's the top grocer here.
But his stats were the hundredfold.
He liked the triple crown, liked the hat trick, the MVP of the league.
That's kind of the big number.
But obviously you could get more if you're in some African country or if you're in the Philippines.
You could probably get more than that.
But it's just kind of a guideline, basically.
But a hundred isn't necessarily the limit to what you could bring forth in a year.
To become the goat, you can go a little further to be the goat, right?
What's the goat?
The greatest of all time, right?
Some of these players, like I was talking about in the sports stuff,
some people are considered the greatest of all time in their sport.
And you could be the greatest of all time in your church.
You could be the greatest of all time.
Hey, what's really stopping you from being the greatest soul winner in the world?
Nothing's really stopping you.
God's given us this power.
It's just we limit things.
It's like, you know, Elisha said for the king to pound the arrows however many times that he'd defeat the Syrians,
and he stopped at, what, three, right?
He went one, two, three, and then he was pissed off because he could have done it five or six times
and then would have smoked the Syrians all over.
So we limit ourselves by our own limitations because God doesn't put limits on what we give you.
Look at 1 Samuel 18, 1 Samuel 18, verse 25, 1 Samuel 18, 25.
Now, again, this is, I think, a picture of soul winning.
And you're like, this is kind of a weird picture, but I think it still is a picture.
Because don't we consider David to be like the greatest king?
I mean, besides Jesus, of course, but is there any king that you would consider to be a better king than King David,
the man after God's own heart?
Look what it says.
And Saul said, Thus shall you say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines.
So obviously that's a pretty gross thing to have to do, right?
I mean, that's a rough job.
I mean, first you have to kill them and then, you know, I mean, I don't want to get too graphic here,
but it's not something that I would want to partake in.
But it says, To be avenged of the king's enemies, but Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law, and the days were not expired.
Wherefore, David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men.
So not a hundred. Isn't that what was asked, a hundred?
What did he do? He doubled that.
He's like, I'm just going to double it.
Two hundred men.
And David brought their foreskins and gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king's son-in-law,
and Saul gave him, Michal, his daughter to wife.
So David, instead of just doing what the very best, you know, getting that hundredfold number,
instead he goes, I'm going to get two hundredfold.
And so what I'm saying is that in sowing, yeah, we're going to have our years where we do more or do less,
but you're not limited by that top number.
You can double that if you actually have the means and the drive to do those types of things,
because why is he considered the goat, the best king, the greatest king of all time?
Well, because he was an overachiever.
He was one in ten thousand.
You know, when David was like, they were like, David, don't fight anymore, because losing, you're better than ten thousand men.
And instead of the thirty, sixty, or a hundred, how about two hundred?
You're like, we can't do that, pastor, why not?
Is the arm of the Lord waxed short this morning?
He just can't do all the things that he says that he's going to do for us?
Is anything too hard for the Lord?
Like, I just, I don't know if I can do that.
Yeah, that's because you have that mentality, because you say, I can't.
And I can't never did anything in reality.
But put your mind and spirit to do something that you can, and you will achieve it.
Look at Mark chapter 11, verse 22, Mark chapter 11, verse 22.
The Bible says in Mark chapter 11, verse 22,
it says, And Jesus answering saith unto him, Have faith in God, for verily I say unto you,
that whatsoever, or excuse me, whosoever, shall say unto this mountain,
Be thou removed, and be thou cast in the sea,
and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass,
he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever you desire when you pray,
believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
So is Jesus saying you have limits to what you can do?
No, he's saying if you really had the faith, you could remove mountains and have them cast,
cast away from you, removed from your sight.
But see, we limit ourselves on what we can do.
But God has no limits for us when it comes to the great things that we can do.
Number three, plan your best Bible reading year yet.
Turn to Joshua chapter 1, verse 8.
Joshua chapter 1, verse 8. I'm in hurry mode here.
The pizza's getting cold, Pastor Thompson.
The ice cream's melting. You don't have ice cream, do you?
Well then, who cares? Joshua chapter 1, verse 8.
The Bible says, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein
day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein,
and then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
But what's it say to meditate? How often should we meditate in it?
Day and night. Right? And if you're not even doing that right now,
can you do better? Yeah.
Can you slip another Bible reading time in there? Yeah, you can.
You can make this the best Bible reading year that you've ever had.
Why are you limiting yourself? You're like, well, I just don't have time.
Well, I think that sometimes we find time to do the things that we really want to do,
and then we slack on the things that we know is hard to do.
And some, you know, reading the Bible's hard, but reading the Bible the first time cover to cover
is hard. Doesn't seem like it's never going to end. You're like,
it's never literally going to end. But it does.
And then it's easier to read the next time. And then you get more out of it the third time.
I think the third time I read the Bible all the way through, I was like,
starting to fully understand and grasp the timeline.
And then, you know, I've read it multiple times now,
and I learn new things every time I read it.
But, you know, am I saying that you should have to do
your best in all these categories today, this year? You can try
that. But maybe you have to just try to focus on one thing that you could be
the best at that year. And do that. Psalm chapter 1
verse 2. Psalm chapter 1 verse 2. The Bible says,
I know you probably don't have time to get there, but I'm going to read it anyway.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate
day and night. And, you know, you're reading the Bible,
you're focusing on the Bible, you're applying it to your life,
you're engrafting it in your heart. Psalm 1-3 says,
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth
forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and
whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. You know how we prosper in this life?
By getting the word of God into us, by reading it, and
studying it, and meditating on it day and night, and we're going to be like
that tree. I mean, who wants to be, you know, the dead tree in the yard?
Where you're starving because you're not getting fed.
You're not by the river. You're not being blessed in all the things that you do.
Your leaf is withering, and whatever you're doing is not prospering.
Because, you know, without the word of God, we're
blind, walking blind in this world. And there's no way you can remember everything
that you've read. That's why you've got to keep reading it, and reading it over and over again
so you get everything that you need to get out of it.
Because, you know, just like anybody else, I
skip over things. I miss things. And I'm like, I don't remember ever
seeing that in the Bible tour. Has anybody ever done that? Like, you've read it maybe multiple times, and you're like,
I really just honestly don't ever remember reading that verse. It happens.
That's why it's so important we need to keep reading it. Fifteen minutes a day
will get you through seven and a half minutes in the morning, seven and a half minutes at night. That's one
time through in one year. Fifteen minutes in the morning,
fifteen minutes in the evening is two times. Forty-five minutes per day
is three times a year. Thirty minutes in the morning,
thirty minutes in the evening is four times a year. And maybe you can't do the
four times a year. Maybe you can't do the three times a year. Maybe you can't do the two.
But can you do the one? I mean, you probably look at Facebook more than you look
at a Bible. I mean, in all honesty. If you're only doing seven
and a half minutes in the morning, I mean, you know when you're trying to get ready in the morning, you're like, man, I only got
so much time left, and all of a sudden it just like goes like, you know, it's funny
when you have to do something, like you're under stress, how every second like is
a stress. Like, I'm trying to get ready as fast as I can.
But like, it seems like if you're just goofing off and looking at Facebook, it's like, wow,
I've just ate up a half hour looking at stupid reels of dumb videos that
are not going to help me in any way, shape, or form.
Psalm 119, 97 says, O how I love thy law,
it is my meditation all the day.
And, you know, if we make the Bible our meditation all the day, we're thinking about the things
of God, we're thinking about the things we read. I mean, the Bible says that Isaac went out
in the eventide to meditate. You know, and then what's he see coming?
His beautiful bride-to-be, not Rachel, Rebekah shows up.
And it's like, you know, sometimes God's going to give you the desires of your heart
when he knows that you love him. Maybe you're single and you are looking for a wife or something
and, you know, you just need to read the Bible. Maybe God will
just give you the things, the desires of your heart, or teach you
how to, you know, actually get a girl. I don't know. I mean,
but if you're single and you're looking for a wife, maybe you should just try to be the best
statistical Christian that you can be, and maybe God will bless your life.
But if you're just like sitting at home not doing what God says and you're not reading the Bible
and you're not going soloing, I mean, he's like, oh yeah, I'm going to send you a wife,
let me get right on it. And you're not praying. I mean,
it's just insanity to think that God's just going to give you
all these desires of your heart when you're not doing anything to please him.
You know what else you can do this year is you can memorize more verses that
matter in your daily life. And I know in this movement it's popular to
try to memorize as much Bible as you can, taking whole sections.
I don't think there's anything in the world wrong with that. I'm not putting that down or gainsaying that
in any way. But why don't you focus on the verses that will help
you in your daily life and memorize the
ones that you can use for a lifelong learning. And then when you're having a
struggle with sin you can just quote that verse. When you're trying to
get motivated to serve the Lord, quote verses that you know in
your heart or memorize the soul-winning path. You know, maybe you don't have that
fully memorized. That can help you in your daily life.
Last thing, last point is plan your greatest prayer year yet.
And turn to Daniel chapter 6 verse 10.
I'm going to just start reading because
I need to be done here. Now when Daniel knew that
the writing was signed, he went to the house and the windows being opened in the
chamber toward Jerusalem. He kneeled upon his knees
three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God
as he did aforetime. Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and
making supplication before his God. So here's what's happened. Daniel
they've made prayer illegal. You know,
you want to talk about a mandate that you want to just
I mean I would rather wear a mask than not be able to pray. I mean I'll
pray with a mask on. You know, obviously I don't want to
wear a mask. But what I'm saying is that there's been way
worse mandates in history than having to wear a mask. I think not being
able to pray was a big one. But you know what? Daniel didn't care. And look
what he did. He kneeled upon his knees three times a day. That's the
benchmark. That's like what a man of God or a woman of God
that's the benchmark. That's the high echelon of prayer life.
Because I mean you can't deny that Daniel wasn't a great man of prayer. I mean there's whole
sections of the book of Daniel where he's just praying to God.
So he's a man of prayer. David is obviously a man of prayer.
Psalm 55 verse 17 it says evening and morning and at noon
will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. You know what?
God will hear your voice because you're saved and you're calling upon him.
You know how much do we waste? How much time do we waste worrying about
things when we can just pray and ask God to help us with it? But it's like we forget.
Oh yeah, God's our Heavenly Father. He'll do what we
ask. You know if you ask in faith, he'll give it to you.
You want wisdom? Ask. You want a great job
to support your family? Ask. You want a wife? Ask.
You want a husband? Ask. All you have to do is just ask.
And God will provide you. You want a baby? Ask.
You want to be more spiritual? Ask. You want more boldness? Ask.
I mean but we just neglect prayer to the point where we're just like
oh I don't understand why. Pray! Ask God!
Make supplication to him. You know Daniel was a great man of God not because
he was just born special or something. It's because he asked!
He made supplications before his God. He made the best
of the life that he had there and he was such a great man that he was
basically like the second in command there. Next to King Nebuchadnezzar.
And David, what made him a great man of God?
It wasn't just that he was a great king and all these other aspects but he was a man of prayer.
He loved the Lord. He loved the Word of God. So I'm winding
down here. But those are four things that we can really just statistically
improve in. There's great things ahead for you
if you heed these things. And maybe this year isn't going to be your best
sowing year. But you know we can make the effort.
Try. Do your best. Do your best to be there.
Do your best to be there for all the sowing times. Do your best to be here
for all the church services. Do your best to
be on your knees three times a day with God. Do your best to read the Bible
at least one time cover to cover. But if you want to do even better
do more. There's nothing stopping you. There's nothing restraining you
from doing better and being like the Michael Jordan of this church.
Or who's the, I don't know, the WNBA player.
Not Brittany Greiner. Don't be the Brittany Greiner.
But you know what I'm saying? And I'm not saying for your own glory.
I'm saying for the glory of God and for the glory of this church and for this team.
We need to have one mind striving together
for the gospel. In Philippians 1 25 it says,
I know and I shall abide and continue with you
for all your furtherance of joy and faith that your
rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming
to you again. Only let your conversation be
as it become with the gospel of Christ that whether I come to see you or else be
absent I may hear of your affairs and you stand fast
in one spirit in one mind striving together for the faith
of the gospel. See we as individuals when we come
together we're supposed to have that one mind and we're standing fast
with one spirit and we're striving together as a team
for the gospel. Not as individuals. We do the
individual work for the betterment of the team. And we're supposed to run
the race. 1 Corinthians 9 24 says, know ye not that they which have run
the race, run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run that you may
obtain. Sometimes there's times where you're just walking. Sometimes you're
jogging but you know what? What's it say here? Run.
Run that you may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is tempering
in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown but
we and incorruptible. You know you've probably seen
the pictures where Michael Jordan's getting champagne dumped all
over him and he's like kissing the trophy the
what is it the Naismith trophy or whatever, no it's not the Naismith it's whatever the basketball
championship trophy is. He's like kissing this gold idol.
You know but it didn't satisfy him. It didn't satisfy him but
you know what? It's going to satisfy you because
our rewards are eternal and it's more important to do
the works of God than to have these vain things in our life
that really mean nothing. It says I therefore so run
not as uncertainly so I fight. So fight I not as one that beateth
the air but I keep my body under my body
and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I preach to others
I myself should be cast away. So Paul's saying I keep my body
in subjection. I'm not one that just, I'm not shadow boxing you know I'm
actually in a fight. And so don't be the shadow boxer of the church be the
one that's come to fight. Last verses I'll just have you turn there real quick and we'll be done.
Philippians chapter 3 verse 13. We need to press toward
that mark of excellence. Put some pressure on yourself
to reach your personal best which by proxy helps
the team. Put some pressure upon yourself to reach your personal
best which by proxy helps the team. Look at Philippians 3
13 it says brethren I count not myself to have apprehended
but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind
and reaching forth unto those things which are before. Who cares
about the past, the past is over, live in the now, live
in the future. And it says I press toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. That should be our goal.
What's the mark? We're trying to get to
that end as Christians that have lived a great Christian life
not to quit, not to get out of church, not to
just quit soul winning, quit praying, quit reading the Bible.
There's a lot of burn out Christians out there that wish that they could have
just stayed in the fight. Paul says that he finished his course, he kept
the faith. And he went through a lot more than we've ever gone through.
If someone didn't have an excuse to go to church, he gets stoned
and left for dead and then he just hops up and goes to the next place to preach.
It's like I wish we had that attitude. I'm like oh man I'm
so hurting I just don't feel like going. Paul's just like let's go.
He's probably got blood all over him and stuff.
Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded.
And if anything you be otherwise minded God shall reveal
even this unto you. Nevertheless where to
we have already attained let us walk by the same rule and mind
this same thing. So there's things that we've already attained but you know what
we can attain more. We really can. There's really no
limit to what we can do as Christians. And you know what I'd
rather fail trying than not fail not trying.
That's a pastor of menace quote. That's a good quote. I'd rather
fail trying than not fail not trying.
And that's a good attitude to have because you know maybe you're like well this is
pretty close to my best attendance here but I didn't quite get there.
But at least you tried. You know and we still get consolation
from God for that. You know they call it consolation prize when someone gets second place.
But you still got a consolation. You know you still got the trophy so
don't worry about it right. So do your best set goals to
accomplish this and you know hopefully this motivates you a little bit
to just look at where you're at right now as a Christian
and say hey can I do better? Can I have a better year this year?
Can I have a better year next year? And for us to you know just try to do our
best to make this the best church in Canada hands down
and that we would focus all of our energy on loving
this church, this preacher, this pastor's wife, our
brethren here. You know let's try to make this the best church instead
of just worried about other churches and how great they are. Because you're here.
So be here and make this church better. Let's pray.
Lord thank you so much for this great church up here. I pray Lord that
there will be many many great more years to come. Lord
that we haven't seen the best yet but the best is yet to come. I pray that you'd help
us Lord as individuals to do more and to
love you more and to care more about this church and care more
about our personal best so that we can be better parts of the overall
team. And that's Team Jesus. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Alright we're going to sing one last hymn before I get into
it. A couple announcements.
Immediately after the service we're going to take a picture.
We're going to take a group picture. So before you bail
and start going next door, going to the bathroom or anything please
come up here. We'll try to take the picture as soon as possible.
We're going to have pizzas here. We're going to
Brother Dick if you can help get the barbecue set up after the picture.
We're going to barbecue some hamburgers. We're going to have some food.
We're going to have Becky's sister Paulina. Is she here?
She was here for picking up a cake. We have cake next
door. Also we do have a gift. We usually
do something. We have these shoppers that we got.
It's got the anniversary.
It's got a Bibleway to Heaven QR code so if people are like what's that you're going to have them
scan it. I think we can do two per person
if you want that. We're going to do one but we got plenty. You can do two.
There's a box of them in the back over there.
Is that it? I think that's it.
Why don't you stand with me and we'll close with one last hymn.
Hymn number
417. True hearted, whole hearted.
True hearted, whole hearted.
Faithful and loyal.
King of our
lives by thy grace we will be.
Under the
standard exalted and
free.
Exalted and royal, strong
in thy strength we will battle
for thee. Heel out the watch
word, silence and ever.
Song of our spirits,
rejoicing and free. Heel
out the watch word, loyal
and forever. King of our lives
by thy grace we will be.
True hearted, whole hearted.
Full list allegiance,
yielding hands forth to our glorious
King. Valued to
ever and loving obedience.
Freely and joyously now
would we bring. Heel
out the watch word, silence and
ever. Song of our spirits,
rejoicing and free.
Heel out the watch word,
loyal forever. King
of our lives by thy grace we will
be. True hearted, whole
hearted. Savior all glorious.
Take thy great power and reign
there alone. Over
our wills and affections victorious.
Freely surrendered
and holy thine own. Heel
out the watch word, silence
and ever. Song of our
spirits, rejoicing and free.
Heel out the watch word,
loyal forever.
King of our lives by thy grace we
will be.
Amen.
You are dismissed.
Oh yeah.