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. . . . . . Hello and welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church. Thank you everyone for coming out this morning. Please file in and take your seats. And let's open up our blue hymnals to page 490 who is on the Lord's side. Page 490 in your blue hymnals who is on the Lord's side. Let's all sing it out on that first verse. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side. Savior, we are thine Sing it out on the second Not for weight of glory Not for crown and palm Enter we the army Raise the warriors' song But for love that for whom he died he who Jesus name it must be on our side by thy love constraining by thy grace divine we are on the Lord's side Savior we are the line on the third Jesus thou hast bought us not with gold or gem but with thine o life blood for thy diadem with thy blessing filling each who comes to thee thou hast made us willing thou hast made us free by thy grand redemption by thy grace divine we are on the Lord's side Savior we are the last fierce may be the conflict strong may be the foe but the king's own army none can overthrow round his standard ranging victory is secure for his truth unchanging makes the triumph sure joyfully enlisting by thy grace divine we are on the Lord's side Savior we are the line and thanks for coming out the sure foundation Baptist Church this morning brother Eli can you open us with a prayer man page 430 in your blue hymnals the banner of the cross page 430 page four three zero the banner of the cross sing it out with me on that first verse there's a royal banner given for display to the soldiers of the king as an enzyme can we lift it up today while as ransom once we sing marching on marching on for Christ count everything the boss and the crown for Lansing meet the banner of the cross on the second though the bow may rage and gather as the flood let the standard be displayed and beneath its fold as soldiers of the Lord for the truth be not dismay marching on marching on for Christ count everything but loss and the crown overland and see where ever men may dwell made the glorious tidings of the crimson banner now the story tell while the Lord shall claim his marching on marching on for Christ count everything but loss and the crown me the banner of the crossing and off on the last when the glory dawns is drawing very near it is hastening day by day then before our king the foe shall disappear and the cross the world's house way marching on marching on for Christ count everything but loss and the crown Foundation Baptist Church let's take our bulletins and go through them really quickly so I appreciate everybody for coming and everybody traveled from far and wide and those that came from nearby and you got pastor Jones with us today and he's gonna be preaching for us tonight so good our bolt if you need a bulletin would you just raise up your hand and bring you a Bolton there's kind of a ringing or maybe a I don't know a little bit of feedback here on this mic maybe turn it down just a little bit on our front cover we have our verse the week it says through those I beginning excuse me those I beginning was small get thy ladder in should greatly increase job chapter 8 verse 7 it's a great verse there obviously we have increased our building size so I think that was the inspiration for the verse there but if you look at the picture on the front that was a you can see where's Waldo's brother CJ right next to the sign there he's cooler than Waldo though all right so anyway our service times sure foundation Baptist Church Sunday morning service is 10 30 a.m. Sunday evening service 3 30 p.m. and our Thursday Bible studies at 6 30 p.m. or so many times are listed below we do have so winning today Brandon are we gonna still work on do you have maps done or do we need to I can help you with them after the service but we got some apps we can finish up from yesterday we had 10 salvation yesterday so praise God for that and we had one on Friday night a young he was like a nine-year-old boy but he got saved so we had 11 saved over the weekend hopefully we'll get some more today and we'll try to send you to a good area yesterday our first through our first half was kind of a rough soul in area but we switched locations and and did well so anyway praise the Lord for that if you're going so any faith please let brother Brandon know we raise your hand Brandon so everybody knows who you are okay if you're not in our whatsapp group that's how we do all of our maps and stuff we'll place you in a group that you can go soul winning in so one o'clock this afternoon is the soul winning time so that gives you about an hour maybe 50 minute break and on how long I preach or could be a half hour to get yourself something to eat and come back and be here 1 115 is usually when we go so if you're going please let brother Brandon know like I said and you can look down you see the praise reports the salvation totals baptisms and attendance last Friday we went past me he was here we had our own six in attendance so praise the Lord for that and so today is our three year anniversary services I'll be preaching this morning at 1030 like I said pastor Joe Jones is here from shield of faith Baptist Church he's a good friend of ours he's a good friend of mine and he's a loyal friend I appreciate that there's few and far in between in that area sometimes so I appreciate a loyal friend and pastor Jones was with us when we started the church and then he was a traitor and went down to Verity and got trained on just kidding now he went down and got trained by Pastor Jimenez and then got sent out the shield of faith their church is doing really well and so we're very happy to have him here spend a day with us and you know we almost call our church knife point Baptist because all the men in our church carry knives at all times if you guys if you have your knives will you just pull them out do this real quick yeah see clicks all around the building but anyway we're gonna tonight we're gonna head to the golden tent afterward for fellowship and dinner so if you want to go it's just it's not too far from here we'll get addresses to everybody if you need to if you're gonna plan on going that's gonna be after the evening service and what else we got going on we got so I'm going to be preaching in Spokane on August 15th Sunday most Sunday services there and August 21st we have a soul-winding marathon in Longview Washington so it's just about 40 minutes up to five and it's usually a very receptive area done well there in the past with soul-wining so we're gonna go there the all the details will be upcoming for that I'll be preaching in Cincinnati Ohio this September 2nd I'll be back for Sunday so don't worry I know it looks like I'm traveling a lot to the because I am can I say that I'm tired of traveling yet I kind of feel that way but I'm excited about going to the conference in Cincinnati Ohio it's the fundamentalist conference it's been going on for the last I think two three years now and so we preaching there with pastor Jimenez and brother Oliver will be deacon Oliver will be there you that's for Shelley's Church down there and then our October 5th I'll be preaching at the fire-breathing Baptist Fellowship Conference so when I go back to work in December if I do I'll be ready for a rest from traveling over the place but I'm thankful to get to go and preach and and it's a great blessing so one thing I just want to say is if you get a chance to pray for the people in our tree a lot of people are sick right now so otherwise I think this room will be jam-packed right now but we have a lot of people sick including my wife so she had to stay home today so she woke up with a sore throat stuff so I think it's kind of going around so if you want to wear a mask I won't be offended anyway I'm just kidding so you can if you want though it won't bother me but I can't you know I can't say that people won't mock you but I'm just joking they wouldn't I'd get mad so anyway we're a family in a great church that means the children infants are welcome during the church services we do have available for your family mother baby rooms and a dad baby room for your convenience during the services now the mother baby room is directly that way that door right there is for mothers only and then there's a like a little other subsection back there for infants so if they can walk they can't go into that room and so you can't take your other children into that room it's just infants so then that's a really big mother baby room there there's a video monitor but you can also see through that make that window so if you need to put a chair in front of the window it's fine I don't care I think people have been hesitating to do that but you're welcome to do that and you can even see back from the other room there and put chairs right there if you want and then we have a dad baby room which is right there where that guy right there is walking away from and so that's where the the men and their their children can go into that room there those are the only ones we have so but they're for your convenience and you can utilize them however you need there is baby changing stations in there and in there and so there's also one upstairs in the middle bathroom if you absolute like all the bathrooms got jam-packed and you need to use that bathroom that's available for you to use also so anyway we so the layout of this building is different so I'm trying to like get through these announcements the best I can here so now the rockers are for pregnant and nursing mothers and elder ladies also I forgot to put elder ladies so those are can are for they're not for new IP punks and they're not for young men to kick their feet up it's it's actually they're utilized be utilized for mothers and their babies so anyway no men are allowed in the mother baby rooms and vice versa please no unattended children in any area of the building so we're very big on watching your children so don't just let your children run all over a mock and things like that this is a new building there's new areas and so we don't want them just off in some corner that vault room is only first authorized personnel only so I don't want to see any kids in there ever and walking up and down the stairs children are allowed to be upstairs by themselves or walking up the stairs by themselves for any reason so if you even catch them by the baby gates just you know if it's not your child then just say I'm going to get your your parent and then you go let their parents deal with it so anyway so that's in the very back area of the church building there's a gate and that would be an exit there's three exits in the building one in the back here we don't want to but that's where the bank teller area is so this was an old bank in case you can't tell but the bank teller area back there is you know nobody's supposed to be back there if there was an emergency you can use that but I don't want people using that for a general I don't want any of the doors except for the front doors being utilized to come in and out of the building so there's a exit in the mother baby room there's an exit back there for emergencies only this is the only door you should be coming in and out of okay unless you have permission so yeah watch your children please new food in this area here please make sure you're not spilling coffee in here because I people are asking me about the coffee and coffee does stain this is a brand new carpet it appreciated if if stuff starts getting spilled in here it's gonna be it's gonna be your fault so don't spill your coffee and let's see what else we got please silence your cell phones at this time escorts are still available from the ushers if a lady needs a walk to her car there's a big parking lot out here you can see sometimes it gets busy and sometimes there's transients walking back and forth I think they like to go to that pot shop next door so we can pray that goes out of business soon because it seems to just attract you know unsavories so but anyway I just want to let you know that you can still get walk to your car by one of the ushers and then you can see where all the donation availabilities are there the ties and offerings for July are on the bottom of the page and we have a couple birthdays this week but I don't see Ethan here is Ethan here no I least not here either all right well we'll have to sing happy birthday to them when they come back but no anniversaries for this month apparently August is not a popular anniversary month so anyway I just want to appreciate also all the hard work that's been put into this place there's a lot of people that have put in a lot of hard work I was trying to track how many hours we all worked here I can't even I just for myself I think you know over 80 hours this week just in general so not necessarily here but there was a lot of hours I don't think we left anybody my I know I didn't leave this building before 9 o'clock on any night this week so and I know there's a lot of people that stayed later and got here earlier I just want to say thank you again from the bottom my heart for all the hard work all the people that have helped and make this happen including just you know letting your husband's come and work extra hours and I know that it's hard to you know be by yourself with you know 18 kids and trying to wrangle them all so I'm just kidding but I really do appreciate it I just want to say thank you once again and if you're a first-time visitor we're happy that you're here and we do have we have some gift bags out the front for your their gray and red gift bags please take one of those with you when you go it's got a DVD in it and some other information about our church and a nice pen so we just give that to each first-time visitor anybody that comes and visits our church and we're happy that you're here we're thankful that you're here please grab one of those as a token of our appreciation and we do have a couple we have three baptisms today and if anybody else wants to get baptized just come and talk to me but we have three baptisms today so right after I get done preaching we're gonna sing a song or two while they get ready to go they're gonna line up right here but for the ushers I didn't get a chance to talk to you I just want to make sure that we have towels down here ready to go you don't have to move anything the water's warm I'm only gonna hold you under for like 30 seconds to a minute I'm just joking I won't do that but three baptisms so and then I think Miss Annie's gonna take some pictures don't let me dunk people without getting their picture take taken because I get all I get all you know happy and whatever and I forget so anyway so I think that's all I got for announcements and then again pastor Jones will be preaching for us at 3 30 p.m. so let's sing another song and then we'll receive the offering let's open our Bibles to Psalm 11 Psalm 11 Psalm 11 let's sing it out on the first verse in the Lord put I my trust I'll say to my soul flee as a bird to your mountain for lo the wicked bend their bow they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may privately shoot at the upright in heart if the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do the Lord is in his holy temple the Lord's throne is in heaven his eyes behold his eyelids try the children a man the Lord trite the righteous but the wicked in him their love is violence his soul you he shall rain snares fire and brimstone and and horrible tempest this shall be the portion of their cup for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold doth behold the upright in the Lord put I my trust man at this time I'll have our offering brother Sean can you bless your offering for us please you you you you good morning would you please turn with me to the book of Philippians Philippians chapter 3 the book of Philippians chapter 3 if you would please turn your cell phones off or you can turn it to full volume so that I can stop reading and point you out by name Philippians chapter 3 in Philippians chapter 3 the Bible reads finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous but for you it is safe beware of dogs beware of evil workers beware of the concision for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh though I might also have confidence in the flesh if any other man think it that he has where of he might trust in the flesh I more circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law a Pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the church touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless but what things were gained to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus 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 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in anything ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing brethren be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensemble for many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things for our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even does to subdue all things unto himself for the Brandon would you pray for us amen all right well the title of the sermon this morning is pressing toward the mark and let's look at verse number 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 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus let's have a word of prayer Heavenly Father Lord we thank you so much for this great group of people that are here Lord I pray you bless those that are sick and not able to be here Lord I pray that you'd help us help us pay attention to the message this morning Lord and I just pray you fill me with your spirit with boldness and power as I preach in Jesus name I pray amen so our church at the beginning of the year had three main goals I don't know if you remember the sermon I preached on New Year but around that time but one of our main goals one of my main goals for this year was to get a new building it's done we had to press toward that mark though didn't we we had to press forward and this week I felt some pressure so prep being you know pressing something is actually a thing of that that's it's tied to that word pressure and so in the Christian life there's a lot of pressures there's pressures from without there's pressures from within and there's pressures the you know just of goals that we were trying to make and keep and Paul the Apostle Paul arguably the greatest Christian that was in the Bible in the New Testament he he has some good advice for us in this chapter I thought it'd be good for us in a new building and to preach about this because you know everybody's in different stages of their Christian life some people have been saved for a long time and you know but we're still supposed to press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus that's something that's a lifetime goal that we should be trying to make now if you're a new Christian you just newly been saved maybe you haven't even baptized there's things that you can press toward to make your Christian life more excellent and so like I said I felt some pressure this week to get this thing done and I'm sure everybody else felt the same pressure that I did because as the you know Thursday came along we're still I got all this stuff to do there's this and the garbage company hadn't come and that they delivered it to the wrong place and I kept going back and forth with them we literally got our internet installed at like three o'clock on Friday before the service so it's just little things like that just kind of add up and even in your daily jobs you can have a lot of pressure to succeed pressure you know you want your boss to like you so you try to work hard you press toward the mark of being a better worker a greater worker and as parents we try to press as Christians to be better Christian parents and better parents than then than we were yesterday as children hopefully you're you have a goal to be a better child and as you read the Bible you know in this church children are encouraged to read the Bible to not just the adults but as a child you your goal should be to get better as a child get better as a Christian yourself because we can't we can't walk your walk for you you have to walk your own walk children and you have to you have to make the decision to be saved we can't make that decision for you this isn't a Calvinist Church where you just automatically the elect because you were born into somebody's family that's what they believe that's not what we believe you have to make a personal decision to trust Christ as your Savior so you know goal you know when you press towards the mark what is the what would a mark be a mark is something like in sports that you're trying to get like in in a football they have the pylons to score a touchdown if you hit that pylon you score if you cross that boundary you score right and so a lot of sports have marks in different positions of you know will be out of bounds or goals that you're trying to go forward and football you don't go backward do you know you always you're always supposed to be trying to go forward to get to the prize which is the touchdown that you get the six points for right and Paul does talk a lot about sports in his epistles and you'd be surprised how much he actually does talk about him and I talk about him too so I just want to be like the Apostle Paul you know I just I'm pressing toward that mark I was kidding so but our goal should never be to rest on our laurels of what we did yesterday our goal should not be to look back on the accomplishments that we've made in the past you know and honestly the things that we've done in the past in our before we were saved in our worldly lives those things mean nothing what means something to press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and what does that mean well it means that we're trying you know what is the highest calling that we could have is it being a doctor is it being a lawyer is it being a construction worker now obviously we need to work jobs we need to and we need to have jobs and things like that we have all these different things we have to do in life but the high calling of God in Christ Jesus is that we would know Christ better that would be conformed to the image of his son you know of the son Jesus Christ you know that's the way we ought to live our lives and constantly pressing towards the mark of being a better Christian and and and obviously knowing the Lord better because when you get saved you don't necessarily know the Lord as best as you could it's it's a lifelong process it is so let's read number verse number 13 again it says brethren I count might not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind does he want you to remember those things or forget them forget that stuff right and reach forth unto those things which are before we're always supposed to be trying to gain new ground we're always supposed to be trying to get better as a Christian and better in our in our daily lives so we ought not to be people of God that dwell and live in our past accolades and achievements like I said humanist you know Pastor Jones calls it human human achievements right that's what people that's what the world thinks is important you know Michael Jordan what does he think is important getting six championships you know but those the gold from those championship trophies are gonna fade away they're gonna burn up they're not gonna mean anything but how many people idolize and worship Michael Jordan maybe not so much today but his shoes people still kill people for his shoes literally so the guy has ice cubes at his personal golf range that have him doing that famous like dunk stamped into the ice cubes were at the bar where you get drinks from that's how proud that guy is but it all means nothing when he dies and goes to hell because human achievement means nothing you know Paul the Apostle in this chapter will look at that later that none of that stuff meant anything to him all because he was good at human achievement he had a really good pedigree and he did a lot of things well I don't want to get ahead of myself but the world looks for the things that they that they can do to make other people impressed with them in this world you know people want to be good at golf you know I mean I don't understand it but I know there's people that get into it or whatever but you know you to be good at golf you know you have to practice a lot you have to practice like hitting a little ball into a little hole multiple times you have to practice smashing it as hard as you can and keeping it straight on the fairway you know you got 18 holes you know and the 18 holes of golf and just playing nine holes I think it'd be tough I think I played like a par three before one time I part of my first one but it was easy you know but if you're if you're trying to play on these hard golf courses and stuff like that it's tough and to be a professional golfer you have to be really good that means you have to practice a lot talent will only get you so far in this life for the things that you do you have to try and work hard to to increase your ability and your talent so let's define some words here look at verse 14 I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus so let's what does press mean well it means to move or cause to move into a position of contact with something by exerting continuous physical force so if you're talking about pressure physically you know you got to squeeze grape juice you have to put prep a press that you put up in a press and back in the old times people would just stomp on them you know and then they would make grape juice doesn't sound very healthy to me but like whatever I mean they must have washed them or you know boiled it or something later on those people I don't want people nasty grannies in my grape juice but anyway but a mark like I said it's it's contact with some exerting continuous force applying pressure on something so when what's Paul is Paul talking about a physical thing here you know some of it could be physical but mainly what he's talking about he's trying to show us that we need to press forward and we need to we need to apply pressure to reach those goals to reach that high calling and you have to in order to get better you have to put pressure on yourself you know if you played I'm gonna talk a lot about sports today but just because Paul talked a lot about sports to help us to understand this concept so in sports I remember when I was in high school and I was playing basketball and I was I got to be where I was better than everybody else I was playing with in this certain area that I was playing but what I what I realized is that to get to be better than I even was then I had to play the best people because you're not going to get better at anything unless you compete with the best people you're not going to get be a great rest if you can cream everybody in wrestling in this room you know but they're all week it's not going to help you you know being the best because you're the you know there's only a certain amount of people that and none of them know how to wrestle and you're just like yeah I creamed them you know I pinned them all in less than 10 seconds it's like yeah but they don't know how to wrestle you know so wouldn't you want to great competitors will compete against people that are better than they are so that they can get better themselves and as Christians we have to be the same way hey if you see that someone is is successful in the Christian life well why don't you emulate what they're doing and help yourself get better or even ask that person hey what are you doing what's working for you what's what's helping you you know stay on task with your Bible reading what's helping you stay it to where you're going soloing every week what's helping you and your prayer life what can you help me and so that's I guess that's how you would apply it in our spiritual lives is that you have to be around people that are better than you they're like Pastor Thompson nobody in this room is better than anybody else it's not true there's some people that are more successful at being a Christian than you are and you know if you want it don't don't don't get better get better don't get bitter because that person can read the Bible better than you out loud get better practice you know Alan Iverson has this famous you probably don't even know who he is but he was a basketball player from like the 90s and whatever and he was in the two early 2000s and he was really good at basketball but he has this famous clip on YouTube where he was in trouble for not showing up to practice and so he was getting fined by the NBA because he was not practicing so he goes on this rant he's like you know what do I you know what do I need practice you know practice we're not talking about the game not the game we're talking about practice man I miss practice you know but practice makes perfect doesn't it and so in our Christian life if you're never practicing your Christianity then you know when you get into the game you're gonna fail and so we need to constantly be in practice hey if you want to be a Bible reader in front of the church then practice on reading the Bible if you're just like to you know every time you get up you know and everybody stumbles and everybody stutters I'm just saying if you want to be an excellent reader practice reading out loud if you want to be an excellent soul winner you got to actually show up to the soul anytime if you want to be an excellent if you want to know the Bible and know what you're talking about when you're in people that are more knowledgeable than you and you want to fit into that conversation if you know if you don't read the Bible and you're not around people to read the Bible you're never gonna get better iron sharpened with iron so anything that you want to do in the Christian life you've got to be around people that are better than you you got to get better and so if you want to just be the king of the people that don't know the Bible you know then just read the Bible very sparingly and you'll still know more than that but if you want to be if you want to press toward that mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus then you're gonna try to get around people that are better than you and yes you do need to practice all right that practice makes perfect it's true you know if a golfer just says I just want to be a professional golfer and they just walk out under this life you know that they're not a professional golfer your professional idiot you should just walk off I mean there's I watch this guy and here's another sports reference okay just just know it's gonna happen everybody in here has played sports at some point I'm sure there's this guy he challenges boxing coach who was older than him and he actually had I think he had like a bad hip or something and I just happened to catch it last week maybe it was just for this sermon but this guy he thought he was real tough he was a young buck and he came in he was like I'm gonna beat you up in front of you know your whole gym and all this stuff and that coach like dropped him and then like he kept saying get up get up get up he's like I'm not gonna hit you I'm not gonna hit you and the guy was getting all scared but hey if you if you can't you might be big you might be strong you might be fast you might be everything but if you don't have the skills to box they're gonna get dropped even by an old busted hip coach and he's schooled that guy and made him look like an idiot so hey get the knowledge before you don't don't get puffed up because you got a little bit of knowledge hey keep getting better don't don't try to come in and and you know I know the Bible better than you you know people do that people get puffed up and they and they want to come in and share their Bible knowledge with everybody but it's not something that you know we should be we you know we're not we're not trying to be like I'm the best Bible reader in the game you know I can read the Bible better than everybody I mean that's that'd be a dumb thing for someone to come in and say but Richard Sherman did it when he knocked down a pass you know and got the Seahawks in the Super Bowl or whatever you know if you come in and you're like I'm the best soul winner in the whole church I mean bragging and being prideful about the fit the spiritual things that you can do is it's a weird thing for people to do and if someone does that then they're just you can just see that they're not very spiritual they're not as spiritual as they think they are so pressing is putting pressure on and it can be with an enemy can attack persistently and fiercely and they can put pressure on you see Christianity you know we put it we should put enough pressure on ourselves to get better but you know we're gonna get outside pressure too and it's either gonna get you better or it's gonna get you better it's either gonna make you fall out or make you stay strong but how we how we live our Christian life is gonna is gonna ultimately we're getting attacked from everywhere we're gonna attack from family members we're getting an attack from you know sometimes people within your own household and they're saying you're a nut job you know you're you're in a cult you're you know you're this you're that you know last time I checked Jesus wants us to read the Bible Jesus wants us to go to church Jesus wants us to you know live a full life in him and pray and all these things and go so wanting why is that so weird why is that so strange but yet people will say oh you're in a cult why because we actually believe the Bible I don't get that why because we preach the Bible you know I last I checked we're supposed to preach the Bible we're actually supposed to believe that the Bible is true but you got the United Methodists that don't even believe the Bible is even true why are you even going to church if you don't believe the Bible's true how weird to be you know call yourself a Christian but you don't believe any of the the things that Christianity teaches that's weird like go live your life man if you just want to not believe anything then why say you're a Christian because a lot of people are just phonies and they want to bring more phonies into the fold so we need to apply pressure on ourselves and also realize that the pressure is going to come from multiple different directions it's is it easy being a Christian it's not easy being a Christian but it is good to be a Christian and it's good to have a fulfilled life as a Christian we don't want to end up like lot or he just blew it but was lot a righteous man yeah but you know in the end he didn't end up in the place that no Christian wants to end up or a lot ended up we want to end up in a good place right so let's see so we also want to move toward this as I press toward the mark so we're supposed to press toward it and that means always going forward always not giving up ground we want to press toward that mark and and that means we're all we're not going backwards you know sometimes we're gonna fall down though right sometimes we're gonna we're gonna mess up we're gonna fall down but we've got to get back up again and do it right so the mark like I said is like the goal or the finish line what are we trying to finish well we're trying to get that prize when people compete in sports they want the ultimate prize what's the ultimate prize to be the best and to get that trophy or get that crown or get whatever it is they're trying to get but our crown that we're trying to get is different than what the world's crown is so a prize is a thing given as a reward to the winner of a competition or in recognition of an outstanding achievement but see we're not trying to be humanist achievers we're trying to be Christian achievers we're trying to get that we're trying to compete to be the best Christian that we can possibly be and so like I said Paul is definitely referring to a sporting event here I believe and does so multiple times in the New Testament multiple times let's look at some verses together turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 9 verse number 23 you know athletes have a lot of pressure to perform well don't they if you're an athlete you're not just trying to be the mediocre ist you're not trying to be the worst athlete I mean right now the Olympics are going on and people are trying to get these medals right they're trying to get gold medals that's the ultimate goal silver medal that's pretty good the bronze and all that stuff they're trying to they're trying to compete for medals but there's a lot of pressure for an athlete to perform well isn't there an athlete must be in top physical shape for whatever sport they're in obviously golfers probably don't have to be in great physical shape but they do walk a lot and they carry heavy clubs so that you know you have to be able to walk it's one of the rules to play the PGA is that you have to be able to walk to those places there's a guy that had like some kind of problem with his knee and he was just like trying like he was there letting him use a golf cart and it was pissing everybody off because they didn't get to use a golf cart you know you have to be in top physical condition to be able to be an athlete so you have to have a great diet you have to have strength training you have to have endurance you have to maintain the things well you have to be disciplined to do those things and the pressure that they put on themselves that has to come from within talent like I said can only get you so far you have to be able to you have to be able to pressure yourself to get better and be better and so there's also a pressure without for athletes that pressure is the coaches riding them the fans or whatever if there is fans obviously not every athlete is gonna have fans and you know do compete in a stadium or something but I'm just saying athletes in general there's a pressure from your family you know you're the dad that's vicariously living through his son you know stuff like that and friends your friends your co-athletes or whatever or just your friends there's a lot of pressure when you fail but that pressure I mean just think about that in the spiritual terms there's the same pressure you know people stop showing up for church there's a pressure to come to church isn't there but see not all pressure is bad pressure you know someone's saying hey you know we miss you at church or whatever that's a kind way of saying hey why aren't you in church sucka you know oh you were sick again no I'm just kidding but like you know obviously people are just concerned that it's not like they want to just like oh I know what I know why their life's going wrong because you know I know why the dog died because they didn't come to church on Sunday you know we shouldn't be like that but most people I think generally when they're asking where were you you know or hey where were you miss you they're generally concerned because they you can see people starting to slip out before they even notice it themselves they they start doing it they don't realize that that's what's going on but a lot of people if you got some discernment you know that that person's starting to fade out I start sitting in the back of the room no offense present in the back of room but they start leaving right after the last so right when the last song goes before while everybody's down for prayer they're slipping out the door already you know it's true it happens so first Corinthians 9 is where I had to turn it says in this I do for the gospel's sake that I might be partaker thereof with you know you not that they which run in a race run all but one receive at the prize what's he say so run that you may obtain if you never start the race of Christianity if you never just start to run you're not gonna obtain you're just gonna stay stuck in the level that you're already at but again the Apostle Paul is talking about sports running a race he actually talks mostly about that maybe he liked watching foot races or something but look at verse 25 it says and every man that striveth for the mastery and that's trying to be the best you can be is temperate in all things so temper it means that you're not going overboard you're not going under board you're keeping yourself in subjection you're trying to do the best you can and that's so you don't want to go overboard in other areas you want to have a balance in your life as a Christian and so if you start say you go three three times a week you know you read your Bible every day you pray every day but then you don't go soul winning ever you're off balance you know if you think about it as a car you know you want it those are the main four balances I think that a Christian needs to have to live a balanced Christian life those are the main ones and if one of those tires starts to get flat you know you only start coming to one service a week obviously I'm not talking about people that travel okay but you only come or you only read your Bible every once in a blue moon you know at the you know once in a while when you get try to get your family right with God once a month and you know we're gonna read the Bible you know sit down be quiet you know we're gonna pray as a family and then you just do that like once in a while you know that's not being balanced you know we have to have a balanced life and that's Paul's talking about here that we have to be tempering in all things hey if you want to strive for the master you want to be the best Christian that you can be hey be balanced be a balanced Christian says now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown talking about the sports people right they do it for something that's corruptible but we and incorruptible I therefore so run so just like the Apostle Paul runs hey he wants us to run like he is this is not as uncertainly have you ever seen someone that runs weird just like I don't know there's professional ways to run you know you move your arms pump your pump your arms or whatever I'm not saying I'm a professional runner okay I'm just saying that there are ways to run right that'll make you run faster that'll make you more efficient and he says you know so Paul saying I therefore so run not as uncertainly like he runs the same everything you know you run at the same every time how are you gonna get better at free-throw shooting if you're a basketball player you shoot the same way every time my cousin who's seven foot tall taught me how to shoot free throws and you know what when I did his plan I shot 89% from the free-throw line that year and I wasn't even really a good basketball player at that time but like he just told me he said go up as close as you can to the line you want you know you don't want to be as some people have you ever seen people that shoot free throws and they're like way back by the three-point line or something so what shooting farther away is not gonna hurt your chances of being better so he says get your feet to close to the line without touching as you can you know bend down shoot don't shoot with your arm out like this don't shoot like this don't shoot like I mean there are guys that can shoot like that like Rick Berry was you know every once in a while there's a talent they can do stuff like that but the point is as he tried to do the same things and get and and practice makes perfect you just do it the same way every time hey every morning when you get up read your Bible in the morning every night when you pillow your head read some Bible when you get up in the morning acknowledge God and realize that you know he's the most important thing in our life and we should just you know before we even get our day started let's acknowledge the Lord for the great mighty things he's done in our lives be thankful for all the wonderful things that he does for us you know we should go soul winning at least once a week a regular basis I'll show up to a soul winning time on purpose and you know don't just wake up and say I don't know if I'm gonna go to church or not I mean what do you think honey go to church purpose in your heart you know Daniel purpose in his heart that he would not eat the Kings meat or drink the Kings wine why don't you purpose in your heart and say you know what I'm gonna go to church today I'm gonna go with all my might I'm gonna go both services on Sunday I'm gonna come on Thursday nights for the Bible study I know I'm tired but you know what you make things a habit and you do things the same way all the time you temper yourself you have temperance in your life you know if you're if you're just like a flash in the pan it's like oh I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that and I'm gonna do this you're never gonna get settled you're never gonna get temperate in all things in the things of God it says I therefore so run not as uncertainly so fight I not as one that beateth the air have you ever seen someone like shadow boxing you know they're really tough right they're so tough they're just beating the air right but a boxer you know he's talking about now he's talking about fighting you know not as one that beateth the air I literally think he's talking about you know shadow boxing or whatever but not as one that beateth the air but I keep my body under I keep under my body excuse me and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I should myself be a castaway he's saying hey you know and he's applying this to sports you know if you're if you're a boxer you're you learn to throw certain combinations but if you're just like trying to like you know fight like super macho man on Mike Tyson's punch-out or something you know you're just like spinning around doing these crazy punches that's not gonna help you you need to be doing it the way it's supposed to be done first of all you know and that's gonna help you in your daily life to be a better Christian so look at Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 trying to get this air conditioning move this pulpit over just a little bit more all right I'll just preach like right here anyway 12 Hebrews 12 one says wherefore seen 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 see he's applying it here again to a race the Christian life is a race and you know what we got to have patience what's he saying you got a pace yourself you know you got these Roman candle Christians that like you know I'm gonna show up to every soul anytime I'm gonna do this I'm gonna do that and they say all these things that they're gonna do and then they don't end up doing them or they just burn themselves out you know in the Christian life a lot of people get burn out and can't handle it and they fade away it's a lot easier to just go back to your old life than it is to live a Christian life but you know what if they weren't just being so extreme and and and and just you know just blowing up like a like a flash-in-the-pan you know Christian like if they were just blowing up like fireworks right eventually those colors go away you know they're like really bright and shining at first and then they just fade away a lot of Christians are like that and so the Apostle Paul saying hey we need to run with patience the race that is set before us we're all in a race in this room we're in a race against time you know we're in a race to run the Christian life and to run it well and you know the person that just takes off sprinting in a race as fast as they possibly can I guarantee you that person's either not gonna finish the race if they continue to keep that pace or they're just gonna lose because they're gonna get tired and they're gonna fade away so we need to run it with patience we need to run the race that is set before us with patience and not just be a Roman candle Christian turn to Galatians chapter 2 verse 2 Galatians chapter 2 verse 2 while you're turning there I'm gonna read Galatians 5 7 it says you did run well who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth there again he's talking about running well running the race well here in Galatians 2 2 it says and I went up by revelation and communicated unto them the gospel which I preached among the Gentiles but privately to them that were of reputation lest by any means I should run or had run in vain again he's bringing up running it seems to be his favorite sport but I'm just showing you that the Apostle Paul he used sports and athletics to help us to understand some of the some spiritual things second Timothy chapter 4 verse 7 he talks about fighting too I think boxing might be his second favorite sport or MMA pankration so he says in second Timothy 4 7 he says I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith you know and a good a good fighter in MMA or boxing or kickboxing or whatever sport is wrestling you know to what Paul saying is I fought the good fight I've finished my course you know you got to have the endurance to fight that fight a lot of times what happens with with boxing and MMA they just come out swinging for the fences and just throwing multiple strikes and all this stuff and then what happens in the third round they're toast they just can't even lift their arms up and they're just getting punched in the face and they're running and they're getting punished and then they like try to save up some gas just throw some stupid swing and they get taken down that's the same thing that's gonna happen in your Christian life though you got to make sure that you know you're fighting a good fight and to do that you have to finish your course so in the end what what you've done for Christ is the only thing that's gonna matter and we're in regards to rewards and things like that I've bought the good fight a good fight excuse me I finished my course I've kept the faith turn to Philippians chapter 2 verse 16 Philippians chapter 2 verse 16 the Bible says and Philippians 2 16 it says holding forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain neither labored in vain so we don't want to live a life that's vanity and vanity means emptiness nothingness it doesn't matter that's not the kind of life we want to live as Christian and again Paul talks about running and the Christian life so second Timothy 2 5 second Timothy 2 5 says that if a man also strived for masteries yet is he not crowned except he strived lawfully so you know the Bible is talking here about we have to do things the right way you know we can strive in a Christian life but if you strive in a wrong way then you know you're not you're not getting crowned for that you know if you're like if your only reason for going soul winning is so you can come back and tell how many numbers you got and say I got ten saved first of all I don't believe you second of all that's not striving lawfully I mean that's not the reason why we go the reason why we go is not to be a bragger that's the fairest that's an old trick the Pharisees would do you know they pray long prayers they would dress in long robes to look more righteous than other people they would fast often they'd fast twice a week and they just wanted everybody to see how good of works they were doing but if that's your motivation so everybody else can see what you're doing then you're not going to get crown with that crown you've already earned your reward and that reward is that you've already been acknowledged by other people because that's what you truly care about instead of caring about doing it for the Lord so again an athlete will work for hours and hours of practice any sport you can think of basketball wrestling MMA golf gymnastics target shooting football soccer whatever it is it takes hours and hours of practice to get good at those things and you know what it's the same thing for a Christian it takes hours and hours of Bible reading to be knowledgeable in the Word of God and you don't just stop at one time through you keep going and keep reading the Bible and you're going to glean and learn new things every time you read through it I'm sure every person has read through the Bible every time you read through it you learn something different don't you you find some nugget in there they're like hey I didn't even notice that the last time I read it so in the Christian life the more you go soul-winding the better you're gonna get at it you know if you're a silent partner for six months it doesn't matter how long you're a silent partner for but eventually you should get the training to where you can talk to other people and if you're not doing it you're not putting the pressure on yourself to do that then you're never gonna do it you're just gonna be the perpetual silent partner that just sits you know and you go and that's great but you know that we're supposed to be prepared to preach the gospel can you preach the gospel have you been a five-year long silent partner I mean to me that's a little much you should put some pressure on yourself and put you have to practice even if you're just practicing in front of a mirror even if you're just practicing on your soul winning partner you've got it again practice makes perfect I remember the first time I fumbled through a gospel presentation and I fumbled through many of them you know but you have to put that pressure on yourself they don't realize how much you're fumbling they don't I told the story about that guy Orlando remember Orlando Orlando was with me and he was just like I was just like cringing about how long it was taking for him to answer the questions that the person was asking but she was just the perfect person for him to get and he purposed in his heart that day he was gonna give the gospel no matter what and I wanted to jump in and help him so many times but I was just like nope he said he doesn't want any help he never even looked at me you know the look of concern like so but like she would ask a question like seriously he would just like look in his Bible for like I'm sometimes like a cup like two three minutes I mean maybe it wasn't that long but to me it seemed like that long but he ended up getting that lady saved you know practice makes perfect you want to you want to strive for masteries you want to you know press forward to the port maybe your mark is to be a talker and you got to meet that mark by actually doing it you want to be you know you want to be a knowledgeable in the Word of God you need to read the Bible it's not gonna help you to just listen to sermons all the time there's a lot of people listen to sermons but they could never explain that doctrine to someone if they asked them they could never just take their Bible and show them they always have to post the link of the sermon as to their knowledge of the Bible that's not knowing and a lot of people get they're like oh yeah you can't just explain it yourself you have to have your cult leader you know explain it for me or whatever but if you want to get more knowledgeable in the Bible you want to get better then you need to read it so so what's the goal what's the prize it's the high calling of God in Christ Jesus what's the high calling to become a perfect Christian you're like Pastor Thompson nobody's perfect well perfect in the King James Bible isn't referring to that it's talking about being like the total package nobody's sinless there's not just man upon the on the on the earth that do it good and sin it's not everybody sins nobody's gonna be perfect in that way but you can be a person that's complete perfect means complete you're the you're the complete package you're fully balanced here you got it going on as far as the Christian life is concerned you're doing all the things that you should be doing you're reading your Bible you're praying you're going to church you're going so away and then obviously there's lots of other things too but those are the main four that like I said I preach I preach about that a lot but I think that if you get that right you're on a right track so how do we do this well number one we must cast off our worldly accomplishments and esteem Christ more than our earthly accolades look let's look back at our text and we reframe back I'm gonna try to hurry up so I can get through this before soul wanting time but anyway Philippians chapter 3 verse 4 how do we how do we cast off our old worldly accomplishments and esteem Christ more than our earthly accolades well look at verse number 4 it says though I might have also have confidence in the flesh if any other man think thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I'm more so here's the Apostle Paul is gonna give us his accolades from the past circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin in Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the church touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless so he's got a lot of good accolades he can say in the his past religion in the Jews religion he was the cream of the crop right he was the cream always rises to the top he was like the macho man Randy Savage of the of the Jews right the cream always rises at the top right verse number seven but what things were gained to me I those I counted loss for Christ so we have to lose that mentality of just falling back on the things that we've done in the past what did what did Paul say he said you know what those things that were gained to me those I counted loss for Christ a doubtless I count all things but loss all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord what are we supposed to be getting the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord who cares what all that stuff is in the past you know what's most important that we know Christ and we know what he wants for our life and then we serve him with our whole heart it says for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ what's the prize he wants to win he wants to win Christ and everything else is a pile of crap it's a pile of that's what dung is okay he counts them but dung and what do we do with dung we flush it down the toilet right I mean I'm not trying to be too graphic here but that's what we do all right we don't save it unless you're using it for mulch or something but we don't say we get rid of it and that's what he's saying hey get rid of all that stuff it means nothing it's dung it's dung and that's what he counts being the Pharisee of the Pharisees and you know he's this he's just the Hebrew of the Hebrews he's blameless according to law you know what he counts that as dung whatever you were before you got Christ count it but dung it says to be found and being and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death what's more important than then worldly accolades and his past religious stuff and how great he was you know and as a Christian he's a great or you know he was a great writer and speaker and and very intelligent obviously but you know what he cared most about that he may know Christ the power of his resurrection the fellowship of his sufferings did Paul suffer he did and look if you live a good Christian life you are gonna also suffer and if you're not ever being persecuted for anything then you're not a good Christian period I'm not saying you have to have like sodomites around your house or you're not a good Christian or that you have to have you know all these crazy be in the news as this bad guy or whatever I'm just saying that there should be some persecution and if you're not living godly in Christ Jesus you're not going to suffer persecution so if you are living godly in Christ Jesus you shall suffer persecution at some point in your life but if you want to press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus you must focus on the prize and discard the dung number two we must follow the good examples we have in the Bible and in our daily lives number two we must follow the good examples we have in the Bible in our daily lives look at verse number 15 and Philippians 3 it says let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in anything you be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you so we should be thus minded what's the mind that he wants us to have well look at verse 14 again what's the mind that he wants us to have I press for the marker of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus that's how he wants us to be minded and as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in anything you be otherwise minded if you just think you don't you don't you don't count that as as as like going for the prize of the high calling it says God shall reveal even this unto you so when you're when you're messing up in other areas of your life God's gonna reveal that to you you know you have the Holy Spirit of God if you're saved today and God's gonna help you and guide you you know the Holy Spirit prays for you when you don't even know what to pray so you know we have a great ally we have the Holy Spirit of God and he's gonna help us bring these things into our remembrance you know how he does that a lot of times through his word being preached maybe you're failing in some area of your Christian life and you need to you know you need to bring that into subjection you need to be tempering in that thing well you know this is the type of sermon that's gonna help you this is the type these are the scriptures are gonna help you and the Holy Spirit's gonna bring that to your remembrance says nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing brethren be followers together of me who's who's talking here Paul we need to follow the things that Paul did so if you just look at the life of Paul he says be followers of me you know well are we supposed to follow Jesus yeah but Paul followed Jesus and so it's not wrong to follow a man as long as they're following Jesus and and to be an example for other believers it says a mark them which walk so as you have us or an ensemble so and other people in our daily lives as Christians can be examples for us to look up to says brother says a turn to Luke chapter 9 verse 23 Luke chapter 9 verse 23 and while you're turning there I'm gonna read the Proverbs 24 verse 16 Proverbs 24 16 says for a just man follows seven times and rises up again but the wicked shall fall into mischief so if you're just you are gonna fall but you know whether you get back up and get back on the horse or whether you get back up and follow and keep going toward that prize that means all the difference and Christ wants us to follow after him right look at Luke 9 verse 23 it says and he said to them all if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross fortnightly is that what it says no does this say whenever you feel like it no it says take up his cross daily and follow me does Christ want us to follow him daily yes he does not fortnightly not every lunar moon not every full moon all right we were supposed to follow him at all times and you know obviously we're gonna fall sometimes but we need to get back up and follow after Christ morning by morning new mercies we see every day there's another day for us to get right with God number three resist the pressure from without in order to escape the Christian life resist the pressure from without in order to escape the Christian life see a lot of people want to escape you know they want to they want to you know use the pressure and the outside things that are going on and the hard times are going through life you know you know what I know that God's working in someone's life a lot of times is when they're saying I want to follow God I'm gonna follow God I'm gonna do this or do that and then you just see all these tidal waves of persecution come towards them their families are turning against them their car breaks down their kids are having health problems they're having health problems you know when you say I'm gonna follow after Christ I'm gonna I'm gonna you know go towards that prize I'm gonna try to live godly in Christ Jesus that's when I see people being attacked and why is that because the devil does not want you to succeed in your endeavors the devil there is a spiritual world that we cannot see we can't see them but they influence our lives that pressure comes without and they they might use your unsaved family members to accomplish those goals maybe they're not reprobates or whatever but they're just influenced by the devil or Devils to wreak havoc on your life and make you quit they want to put the pressure on you the bad kind of pressure on you so that you'll quit that's what the devil wants he doesn't care if you're saved so much as he cared like once you're saved you're always saved right but you know what he wants to do he wants to the devil wants to oppress us in our daily lives he wants to oppress our families he wants to oppress our wives he wants to oppress us and our children and make things so difficult that we're just like I can't do this this is too hard but the Bible says we resist the devil and he will flee from you resist the devil and he will flee from you so when you're going through this storm hey you know just like job he can't he went through the worst storm that you could ever possibly think of but you know he came out like gold he was doubly blessed for everything that he lost you know he got ten more children he got all this cattle back and all those riches back he still seemed like he was married but at one point his wife was just like curse God and die nobody wants to hear their wife say that right obviously she was under a lot of pressure at the time too but look to live the Christian life there is gonna be pressure from without pressure from our enemies to try to stop us from pressing toward the mark that we're trying to get to so we need to keep that in mind and understand when these things are going wrong in our lives maybe God's trying to do something big in your life but he was testing you you know I'm not saying God's tempting you to do something bad I'm saying that he it's it could be a test wasn't jobs life a test you know and people look at that and they go that was wrong for God to do that who are you to say that God's wrong to do something you're just a man you're just a woman God is God he lives above us all of his ways are higher than our ways look at Philippians chapter 3 verse 1 look Philippians 3 verse 1 so that we need to resist the pressure from without in order to try to escape the Christian life because sometimes people just want to escape they're just looking for a reason to leave all the pastor didn't say happy birthday to me pastor did do this pastor didn't do that you know as the church gets bigger it's gonna be harder for pastor to individually talk to each person before the Sunday service you know that it's already getting hard but like I try to like spend some time with everybody as much as I can okay well like don't is your Christian life based upon what pastor does is your Christian life based upon whether I said hi to you or maybe I said something that you didn't like or I reproved you about something or I rebuked you about something hey you need to take reproofs you need to take rebukes and pastors just a man to pastor the pastor of this church is a man and I'm gonna mess up and I'm gonna say things I shouldn't say sometimes and I'm gonna do things I shouldn't do sometimes but that doesn't mean you quit the Christian life don't use me as your excuse to walk out this door but a lot of people do that and a lot of people have done that Oh pastor did this I'm leaving okay well so it's just like the people that were mad because we shut down for the mass thing for a little while it's like so you're telling me you quit the church because we had online services we still have people in our church by the way and we were holding church in a house for a while we had a house church but people left because of that multiple people left because of that and never came back and you know what they're sitting on their butt on their couch right now not doing anything for God but you know what they just wanted to use what I did and the decision I made as an excuse to get out because they were weak anyway they're weak anyway and they'd already quit in their hearts long before I made that decision so here's the thing you know you're so you're telling me that you are out of church right now because I are what is there are we still holding church here at this church yeah we're still holding services where are you at homie where are you at sitting on your couch doing nothing and then just looking down your nose at our church because we shut down for a couple weeks or something you're shut down forever you're shut down permanently you don't even go to church anymore you're a clown gonna talk about our church like that you're gonna talk about hey I still go to church buddy where are you at you're like who's he talking about just anybody anybody that quit for that stupid reason I talked to one of those people personally I was like did I do something to offend you well and they wouldn't say what it was I did but like I knew that it was something it's like I'm not even reading my Bible and going to church so I can't really say anything exactly so look at where okay we're in the verse here finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord to write that I read excuse me rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous but for you it is safe he's wants to give us some some things to keep us safe what to say beware of dogs now that could be the physical real dog when you're going soul wanting beware of those dogs I got attacked by a little schnauzer one time and it tore my little ankle up but he was holding a big pit bull behind him thank you thank God for that that thing was bigger than me but beware of dogs but you know the Bible considers sodomites dogs it uses them in reference to dogs oh hey we're should we beware the sodomites it yeah yeah that means don't let him in your church don't hang out with them don't go on windy walks with them they just want to hurt you and abuse you and they want to get into this church and abuse children and and just cause problems it says beware of evil workers you know those are run-of-the-mill false prophets and just people that come into church and they're we don't understand these people it's hard for us to fathom why someone would come to this church just to cause problems just to try to sow strife and discord but what's the devil do he sows tears in among the weak and he says let them you know stay together until the harvest you know and their harvest time sometimes is different than other false prophets or sneaky people's harvest times and we think that they're you know we love them that we try to you know but once they reveal themselves as evil workers you know we need to be aware of them not just continue to feel bad for them and oh well they're not that evil they're evil enough if they're trying to cause problems in our church they're evil they're evil workers says beware of the concision this is talking about the Jews so three things we should be aware of dogs evil workers the concision so avoid things that the Jews in Hollywood make avoid thing avoid the you know being some kind of want to be some kind of rich bankster or whatever that you know we need to avoid the influence of these three types of people but it says for we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh you know we had dogs attack us almost like what ten months ago and they stood in front of our church building and twerked and danced and wore weird masks and looked like that Ursula from the Little Mermaid and one dude is wearing a pink mask and trying to challenge everybody to fight and he was just a scared little dog himself but well pinky remember pinky spray-painted my truck was six six six on the side of it but you know what I'm thankful for this morning is that those dogs can't line up in front of this church building well not when I started thinking about a church building I was thinking I don't ever want to go through that situation again where the police are sitting there saying you have to let them stand in front of your door I don't want that situation ever happen again it could happen but we need to be aware of them you know even out solo and you see that big rainbow flag in the window that says black lives matter just that's code for I'm a sodomite and I it's not about black lives it's about lesbian lives and black trans lives that's what it really is so I mean that one there was one of those yesterday did you end up knocking that door and hey maybe you know I understand people are confused you know we we have accidentally given the gospel to more sodomites than probably any church in this city they just wanted this people just want to condemn us and say oh you guys hate the sodomites and yeah and what's your point but we've accidentally I've I know for a fact I've given the gospel of sodomites multiple times you know and they because they don't always sound like sugar britches they don't always look like sugar britches that sometimes they just look normal they talk normal so the fact that we're just actually going out and preaching the gospel you know while they're just condemning us for what we believe you know we've still given the gospel to more sodomites than they'll ever hope to because they don't even go out and preach the gospel but there is a pressure from without to quit and when those sodomites came to our church that was that was a good opportunity for people to quit but nobody did as far as I know quit because of that but when evil workers get exposed in our church that's another thing that we shouldn't let us don't let that get you out of church the Bible says that they were gonna be sown in among us and the people are like I can't believe it was them believe it they didn't believe it was Judas either they said is it I Lord so look don't let these evil workers and dogs get you out of church and don't let these Jew baggers get you out of church either what do I mean by that well there's a lot of people that have Israeli flags in their churches and they have American flags in their churches and look whatever do what you want but not in this church but that's that star of David thing that's not it found in the Bible anywhere that is the star of Molech or whatever right ram fan yeah ram fan excuse me but Molech is their God too so but let me just tell you this if they don't believe in Jesus they're not saved and that means they're not God's chosen people the only people that are God's chosen people now see look it was a physical nation of Israel that was saved back then today it is all nations made up of believers in who Jesus if they don't believe in Jesus they have no hope and they're not God's chosen people so these are the three things we should be aware of on the outside they would they would pressure us to try to escape from Christianity and try to go back to our old life that's what they want the devil wants that these evil workers want to put pressure on us so we'll quit but we need to press toward the mark just brush that stuff off of you press towards the mark of God of Christ Jesus right press towards the mark of God in Christ Jesus right so we need to press for that mark and there's also other people that will pressure you to try to quit your own family members your own family members can be your own worst enemy you know Jesus said I came not to bring peace but a sword you know and that a man may be at variance with his household you know we're not supposed to let family members pressure us out of church out of the people of God hey if they're pressuring you like that look I know you love your family members and I love mine too but at some point you have to make a decision on what is right and what is wrong and if they're trying to pressure you to quit going to church or you're just too deep into it you know there's a whole book written for us to get deep into and there's a lot of things that are said in this and not all of them are positive you know so this hearts and unicorns Christianity that you see today is not reality living nope Church down here they're having a rap concert on Friday night to bring people in and selling leathers and knives and stuff like that and try you know selling stuff on their property to try to get these young people in or whatever and they say they want to preach the gospel but are they preaching the gospel no they're going around giving concert tickets out to people to come and then I don't know what they do at that point but like I was driving up the hill with Pastor Mahie on Friday night and I saw this guy he was just like rapping or something like that it was a crap concert Christian rap so is that how we're supposed to reach people you're well you know we got to reach them with the tools we have yeah it's called the Bible the Bible is gonna get people saved the Word of God is what gets people saved and it says in verse 3 for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh it isn't about the flesh it's not about whether you were born as a physical son of Abraham we're supposed to have no confidence in that flesh you know what it is it's the spirit that quickeneth it's a spirit so it's your family that's gonna try to pressure you out of church it's these false prophets these sodomites these Jews there's all this pressure on us but we got to withstand that pressure look at chapter 3 verse 18 in Philippians it says for many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ yes your dear old sweet granny could be an enemy of the cross of Christ it's a sad thing sad when your family turns against you but it just shows you what their battle lines are you know but you're not willing to make the right decision they've made the decision already you just keep hanging on I'm not saying give up on your family members aren't saved but I'm saying if they're an enemy of the cross of Christ then you should probably not have it you should have as little fellowship with them as possible whose end is destruction whose God is their belly whose glory is their shame who mind earthly things what are we talking about not minding earthly things and pressing toward the mark of the of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus for our conversation is in heaven that's our lifestyle from whence also we look for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself hey it's not always going to be a struggle folks eventually we're going to get through that battle that we've been in through that race we've been running through that MMA match of the Christian life that we've been going through right it's gonna be hard but at some point the Lord Jesus Christ is gonna come back and he's gonna change these vile bodies that fail us all the time and he's gonna make us unto like unto his glorious body and we're gonna be saved forever and all these people that hate God and all these people pressure to try to pressure us and get us out of the Christian life they're not gonna they're not gonna meet God they're gonna go to hell unfortunately so how do we do how do we walk in the spirit how do we how do we how do we press forward in this in this body that we have well turn to Galatians 5 I'm gonna hurry up and try to get done here real quick but Galatians chapter 5 verse 16 says this I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh like yeah pastor Thompson that's easy to say but it's hard to do and you're right it is this is for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and I always try to make it liken it unto two pit bulls right you got two pit bulls you got the vile flesh that wants to sin over here this is you know Bowser or whatever and then and then you got this other pit bull that's the spiritual pit bull all right and whichever so you feed but if you feed both of them then you're still not gonna be right but you want to be spiritual you got to feed the spiritual pit bull in your life and then starve the fleshly one and then who's gonna win the spiritual pit bull right the you don't want to feed the fleshly pit bull because that's gonna kill your spirits gonna kill your walk it's gonna kill your Christianity so what's Paul say for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh these are contrary the one to the other the spirit and the flesh don't work together well so that you cannot do the things that you would if you're trying to press towards that mark for the of God or for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus if you're walking in the flesh you're gonna have a hard time in the Christian life and obviously everybody does to a certain extent but the more you limit it the more spiritual things you're gonna do in your life and the better off you're going to be it says for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh these are contrary one to the other look at verse 16 or 18 it says but if you be led by the spirit you're not under the law and then it goes on and and mentions all the things of the law and the are the things of the flesh and the things of the spirit but it says but if we live in the spirit verse 25 oh excuse me look at verse 24 it says they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust if we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit let us not does be desirous of what's it say vain glory vain glory things that don't matter provoking one another envy one another so to end this sermon I just want to say hey if you're you know failing in some of the four main categories that I said then you need to get back into balance you want to if you want to finish this race if you want to reach the mark if you want to reach the goal if you want to win the prize then you got to get yourself into balance once you get the four main things into balance what are they Bible reading prayer time soul winning church attendance you get those things into balance you're gonna be doing really well but you don't want to be out of balance you don't want to have the one and not the other because you know how well does your car drive when it has a flat tire it doesn't run well does it you know and eventually you're gonna wear out the other things and your car is gonna be destroyed so you know we need to get the basics down if you want to get it to get the basics down and you just just get that down and then start delving off into the other things that you want to get good at but anyway I got to close this sermon it's it's 12 10 okay let's pray heavenly father we thank you Lord so much for the scriptures Lord and how you teach us how we can just be victorious in the Christian life I pray that you just help each and every person in this church Lord to help us to be in balance and try to be as perfect as we can Lord I pray you'd help our soul winning as we go out today thank you so much Lord for this great new building and all the workers that helped make it possible and all the people that give to this ministry thank you Lord for them I thank you Lord for blessing us with this great place and all the great people that you have in this church I pray you help us to to just press towards that mark daily in our lives in Jesus name we pray amen page 296 in your blue hymnals higher ground page 296 higher ground sing it out with me on the first I'm pressing on the upward way new heights I'm gaining every day still praying as I'm on were bound Lord plan my feet on higher ground Lord lift me up and let me stand by faith on him Lord ground Lord lift me up and let me stand by faith on heaven stable and a higher plane then I have found Lord plan my feet on higher ground my heart has no desire to stay where doubts arise and fears dismay though some may dwell where these about my prayer my aim is higher ground Lord lift me up and let me stand by faith on heaven stable and a higher plane then I have found Lord plan my feet on higher ground I want to live above the world though Satan starts at me or her for faith has caught the joyful sound the song of saints on higher ground Lord lift me up and let me stand by faith on heaven stable and a higher plane then I have found Lord plan my feet on higher ground on the last I want to scale the utmost high and catch a gleam of glory bright but still I'll pray till have not found Lord lead me on to higher ground Lord lift me up and let me stand by faith on heaven stable and a higher plane then I have found Lord plan my feet on higher ground man thanks for coming out this morning to our morning service oh okay page let's turn to page 399 my faith has found a resting place page