(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

It's great to be here in Norwood Ohio or Cincinnati or whatever you guys call it and I just want 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 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 also I wore this suit just so like 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 it was a good deal I'm just kidding all right well it's great to be at the Fundamentalist Conference and this is a third year this conference has been going on I better look at my okay 19 okay so yeah it's it's great to be here and and be the it's nice to be the first preacher to preach to because then you know 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 is you know it's 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 you know it's Labor Day weekend I'm sorry if I ruined your camping trips or the the conference ruined your camping trips but 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 love it's level up right yeah so how to level up yeah so I thought well hey what's better than you know 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 so if you 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 gonna 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 and 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 what 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 it's a it's a very big part of what we do but it's not all we do and 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 how to become a Super Mario Christian all right so 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 gonna 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 super 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 that you 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 what are your big Mario right and then you know I think my Super Mario 3 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 where you can fly you know like you hit it and then like make you glide through the air 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 the 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 and do certain things to to level up so as a 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 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 the knowledge of the games that I have all right so and all it takes to get knocked down though once you become a good you know once you're a you know you're a Christian and you're you're leveling up you're leveled up you're you're reading the Word of God daily you're praying you're going soul-winning you know you're doing all these things and 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 and the focus verse that I want to focus on I had him read 62 verses just so I could pinpoint this one verse in here but there's actually other verses in the chapters I'm going to go to but Luke 9 23 look down your Bible it 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 a 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 the Lord in prayer you know or you know you're working too much overtime and you you know you can't go soul-winning 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 and here's the thing that you know once you know it like in the game Super Mario Brothers it only takes just 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 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 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 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 and that point of view so some of you car people you're like I don't know about video games well 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 will trust me it's coming okay Proverbs chapter 24 verse 16 see when we fall or fail or falter and 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 this or 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 and 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 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 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 gonna 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 nobody's gonna be like Jesus we're weak you know if it was up to us to keep our own salvation we lose it every single day that's just a 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 Christian well number one you need to rediscover your Bible so maybe you've quit reading your Bible or maybe you're not reading on a regular basis you know we're supposed to read the Bible every day turn to Joshua chapter 1 verse 8 so number one the one thing we can do to level up as ours our spiritual life or the the 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 1 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's 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 gonna make us prosperous what's gonna level us up that we read the Bible and we meditate there in day and night so if that's not what if you're 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 gonna have a prosperous way you're gonna 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 that you don't have to just catch up all of it because it's out you know what that's gonna do it's gonna 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 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 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 all right and so if you read it on purpose for that long you're gonna get through the Bible once a year what about if you do it for a half-hour 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 given you given that seven times in a week so and I'm not saying you have to read it four times a year that's a that is a lot of you know it's a lot so but you know 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 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 could 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 that I just read that's when you actually go back to the beginning of the chapter read again because our mind wanders you know we're commercial or commercialized people in some way shape or form they're 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 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 gonna show you new things and you might have already read it 15 20 times however many times you've read it you're gonna learn something new every time you're gonna be like I didn't even notice that before it's because you weren't paying attention last time you went through it but God's not gonna give you everything the first time you read the Bible he's not gonna you're not gonna know the whole timeline you're not gonna remember all the Kings names in alphabet in yearly order you're not gonna know the the the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah and what years they rained and all that stuff you're not gonna there's a lot of things you're just not gonna 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 I don't get it but you'll start to get it as you read it and if God if you just ask God to open your eyes to see what the Bible's you know to to get something out of it he'll show you something 2nd 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 gonna 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 just 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 2nd Timothy 2 15 it says study to show thyself approved unto God it doesn't say approved unto man does it says approved unto God who do we need to be approved by God what difference does it make what man thinks you know for 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 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 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 gonna 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're once you get in and you've read your Bible a few times then you know and then you put that stuff in a 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 here 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 1st 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 we'll 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 and go to words that the Holy Ghost teaches instead of the things that man teaches commentaries you know they're just like I said man's word so we got to get away from that look at John chapter first John 127 or excuse me first John 227 first John 227 and you know God's given us pastors and evangelists and teachers and and people to help us and encourage us and exhort us in the Word of God but if you were 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 but 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 teacheth you of all things and his 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 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 gonna help you you're never gonna 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 number two restart your prayer life turn to Psalm chapter 55 verse number 17 Psalm chapter yeah 55 verse number 17 so some people they read the Bible but they don't pray now what is prayers 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 prayers like thank you for this food amen you know there's people 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 gonna 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 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 and what 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 gonna 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 like you know well 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 there 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 ten minutes in prayer 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 ten 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 ask 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 of the car dad and if that's all the interaction you ever had was something that you need some selfish need it's never for anybody else it's never just thank him for providing for you and and and and doing all the great things that he does is it you're just like 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 6 verse 10 Daniel chapter 6 verse number 10 I told you the verses are gonna come they're gonna come Daniel 6 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 then you're gonna 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 he prayed towards Jerusalem he 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 whole a pretty righteous guy right he was a he was a good guy and it says that 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 it wasn't because they passed the law and Daniel's like I'll show them you know open up the windows is like 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 oh 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 1 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. 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 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 it's 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 what helps get that relationship right is when you go to your dad 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 that we need what about what things other people need to 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 I forgot about so-and-so but you know what you can still bow your head or whatever get on your knees and and and and ask for something for that person right there you could just stop what you're doing right then and just ask God just because you forget then doesn't mean you have to wait till next prayer prayer meeting you know on Wednesday night or whatever to ask God to help that person and the last thing the why would be yield yield to his will you know Jesus said not doubt not not thy will but thought are not my will but thine 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 us 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 and 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 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 some 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 to our 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 that shouldn't be our that 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 him on board with the soloing program at your church you know we we need that exhortation it 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 that's a sign that someone's on their way out now pastors know that you know you admit I miss every single if there's somebody missing I know who that person is and I don't like just bet calm 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 don't we ought not to be that person that person that 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 241 acts 241 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 as 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 gonna 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 blast is doesn't matter if you don't watch television if you have social media you're gonna get blasted the same way don't let them scare you into not fellowshipping though or scare you into not going to church but it says in verse 41 acts chapter 2 it says then they that gladly receive his word were baptized and the same day were added unto them about 3,000 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 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 two brothers 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 miss church and you weren't there look I'm not I'm not saying there's never a reason to miss church but there 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 family day or something not 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 2 verse 17 says honor all men love the brotherhood fear God honor the king we should 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 where wherefore 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 can still be Christian you know and gossiping and spreading rumors and things like that that's 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 gonna hear the more encouragement you're gonna get from a 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 only that 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 we hurt ourselves you know the the excuse out there is that the devil made me do it you know and 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 gonna pray because you don't feel spiritual and you're not gonna go to church because you feel like you know a hypocrite so we need to learn to resist our besetting sin it's gonna 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 are 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 gonna 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 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 we it's harder for for you when you get older to do physical things okay it's just science right we believe in science so but you know it's gonna 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 it back in your Bible just one page to Hebrews chapter 11 because and people get this thing like people will say like sins not fun it sin it can be fun that's why people do it because their flesh likes to do it because your flesh is wicked right you're wicked but listen to what what it said 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 you're like easier said the done Pastor Thompson well yeah I understand that turn to Romans chapter 7 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 two dogs fighting against each other right have you ever seen a dog fight before two pit bulls or I mean I haven't actually I mean I've seen some dog fights before but I've never liked been to a professional dog fight or anything like that but 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 gonna win and so we have two natures we have the the the spiritual man and the 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 gonna find out and 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 and 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 it's because you messed 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 7 verse 23 the Apostle Paul arguably the greatest Christian that ever walked the face of the planet says in verse 23 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 it says though 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 and you know 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 all right 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 yeah the St. Bernard's like the noble one it has like the is that medicine in this barrel I don't know but anyway we just we need to be able to fight against these things and obviously you know 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 that every day we're tempted every day we're tempted with sin we're tempted to go back to our 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 wall and in the mire they want to go back to that but then once you're there 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's like come on dad play again I was like no thanks so yeah just you know it's not fun losing the whole time so I 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 1st Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13 1st Corinthians 10 verse 13 how are we supposed to power up well we need to resist our besetting sins the bible says in 1st Corinthians 10 13 there hath no temptation taken 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 I'm not saying 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 this is 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 1st John 1 9 though this is this will probably give you a little bit of reprieve here so it says in 1st John 1 9 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 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 sins 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 no 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 gonna give you one more chance but you know what the best thing to do is just to get get it done then and then you have that peaceable fruit of righteousness right that 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 know 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 you know pray to God number three reconnect with God's people get in state 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 winneth souls is wise have you lost your love for a lot 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 i personally think once a week you should be out soul winning don't 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 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 too 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 9 verse 53 luke chapter 9 verse 53 we shouldn't have an attitude where we just think every single person at the door is some kind of reprobate all 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 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 you know not what manner of spirit ye are of the son of man 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 and 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 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 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 you know condemn people and tell them they're 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 you know they're pretty it's pretty obvious when they answer the door um but you know this is a weird world that we're living in right now some people that might look like uh you know a flamer or whatever they might not be they might just be going along with the crowd so we 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 i 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 if they just make it very obvious with a sign then don't knock on their door they're already asking you not to we just have we should have an attitude we're out 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 the 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 into 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 this 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 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 as a christian then add soul wanting 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 lust and 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 in 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 that'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 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 you know what these 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 you're just like okay this is dumb i give up but you know and again i didn't preach the sermon and talk about video games so you go and you know on a 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're 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 you 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 it's just that's all you're going to get is the the chapter that's read before the service every week well i've got my bible reading in today i followed along everywhere 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 you 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 he knocks you down and if you get knocked down three times and then the fight's over and sometimes if he knocks you down even a couple 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 uh you know if you 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 if you're trained you do everything that you're supposed to do as far as what the bible tells us to do then 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 mike tyson knock you out every single day right so just 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