We're going to take our message out of 1 Corinthians chapter 9, and we're going to read verses number 24, which will be our text, and then through the end, verse 27. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, and it says in verse 24, 1 Corinthians 9, 24, Know ye not that they which run and race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. Let's read the rest of these last three or four verses here. Know ye not, as it said, verse 24, verse 25, and every man that striveth for the mastery is tempered in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly. So fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I preach to others, By any means, when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray for the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord, to do something here today that is certainly beyond the ability of the pastor to preach and beyond the ability of those that are listening to understand and to apply. Pray, God, that you'd please bless this and use this in our lives. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. I'm preaching this as another in the series of sermons that correlates with our yearly theme that I try to do either on Sunday morning or Sunday night of the first of every month. And I have preached on running the race out of Hebrews chapter 12 because it's spoken of very clearly there. And this passage is another one of those that uses this metaphor. Our year long theme that you can see on the sign here, there's another one in the other room, pressing toward the mark. Now that comes out of Philippians chapter three. But as this is a metaphor that Paul says the Christian life is as if we're running a race, running a race. And there's plenty to be said about that. But speaking about the fact that when you got saved, you joined, you'd say a fight. He talks about in verse number 26, so fight I, not as one that beateth the earth. In other words, I'm going to fight biblically. Make sure you're fighting biblically. And I'm going to keep at it with a purpose. I'm not going to just waste my time shadowboxing. I'm going to accomplish something with my life. But he's speaking about in running, it is certainly speaking about the fact of the things that are part of our Christian life that it ought to be continuing, continuing. That you're moving towards something. So, in the things that we have to say today, I begin with this issue of salvation. That you need to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. The Lord purchased salvation for you completely when He died upon the cross. and when he was buried and he rose again. So that is the gospel message according to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses one through four. That the gospel message is that Jesus died and was buried and rose again that you might have the payment for your sins taken care of. It's a pretty simple concept. It's a substitute. It's the issue of being substituted. I'm a sinner. I deserve to die and pay for my own sins. But instead, Jesus died in my place. And if I put my faith in him completely and only, use that word only, the trouble is many of us believe that You're gonna end up, the world wants to believe that you're gonna try to believe in Jesus plus work hard, plus behave in order that one day you might be accepted by God. But that won't get you acceptance from God. That'll just confuse the issue. When Jesus paid for your sins, he did everything for you and there's nothing left for you to do. He said, turn to Him. Turn. Repent. The word repent means to turn. Except you repent, you shall likewise perish. Turn to Jesus. And put your faith only in His finished work. And when you call upon Him with that in your heart and in your mind, He said, thou shalt be saved. And that's the gospel. Pastor, that's too simple. That's the problem for some people. But the Lord knew that there's nothing you can do to wash away your sins. You say, but I've worked so hard. I've tried so many things. And the more you try, the more you try in vain. It has no use. Now I have a lot to go over today, but it begins at salvation. If you're not saved, then you haven't joined the race. You haven't joined the army of God. You haven't begun the good work that Philippians 1, 6 says that he, God, hath begun a good work and you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. But if you are saved. If you look back upon a day when you'd put your faith in Christ alone and you said, I have believed in Jesus. Well, then you started to run and run the race of the Christian life where Paul says, as we have preached on second Timothy chapter four, verse seven, Paul said, I have finished my course. Right? Speaking of the fact that he had gotten to the end of his life from that book of 2 Timothy 4, the last words that he penned in a prison, he is then taken and beheaded for the name of Jesus Christ. He said, I have run my race, I have finished my course. God wants you to finish the course. So as we evaluate our lives while we are still running this race on our way to heaven, we already know for a certainty we are not pressing toward the mark as if we're working to get to heaven. We already know we're going there because salvation is all of God. We are pressing toward rewards in heaven. We are looking forward to that time when we see Jesus and the reunion when we could possibly hear the words Well done, thou good and faithful servant. And the Lord will give us work to do based upon our service for the Lord here. But as we look upon our church, we have begun as of May, we started our fifth year as a church, a very young church, a church that has seen the blessings of God and the miracles of God. And we've enjoyed a special place, I believe, in the work of the Holy Spirit of God. And if you've been here, you're aware of what God has done. This church is a miracle. Our lives are miracles. And we know that God has His hand upon what is happening here. However, every Christian ought to daily and weekly, whenever you can, evaluate the running that you're doing. We are running for the Lord and we need to have a good dose of discontentment with our efforts. I'm not talking about being discontented with the things that you have or discontented with your savior. But every sportsman here, every person that's ever played a sport on a team knows that you're always striving to do your very best for the team. And I believe that part of that is looking back and saying, I could do better here. I remember in basketball, I'd always spend the time after a game shooting more foul shots, shooting more small shots, just getting used to the things that I missed in the game that we just played. We ought to have a new desire then in the Christian life. We're not just running to win a earthly prize. But we have a desire to draw closer to the Lord. Do you have a desire in your heart for that? We ought to have a desire to have a clear understanding that we are not presently living in a state of revival as a church. Now, as your pastor, I couldn't be more pleased with the progress of our church. But a pastor knows that our responsibility, I would be a dishonest pastor if I didn't continually push a church to say, Christians, we need and we are capable of having an outpouring of God in our midst. That it's not enough to just have church. We must seek after a revival experience. Thirdly, I think we, See a lot of people, many, where the sins of the flesh seem to be winning over our desire for God. that some are facing the same sins of lust, or drinking, or cussing, or whatever the case is, or prayerlessness, or one of those areas where we say the desire for God is not winning in our life. We sing about, like the girls just sang, victory in Jesus, but I don't know it personally. We ought to evaluate our lives. How are you running the race? And unless you're cold-hearted, which happens to Christians who determine to follow the world, and I don't think you are. A faint longing in your heart exists for great spiritual life. It was born in salvation. The Spirit of God came and dwelled in your heart, and in your heart there is a desire, a spark, a small fire, maybe a little bit of smoke that you can detect, and that is a burning heart that says, I long for God, for truth, for right. It needs to be a longing for God. not a longing for comfort, not a longing for acceptance in the world or among the brethren even. Not even a longing for the relief from the trials and the toils and the work of this world. The heart longing I'm speaking of ought to be a longing for God and God himself. that God would want and have and hold our affections, our desires, and that everything is funneled into this one area, and at the head of that is a God who loves us, and that relationship we ought to have, and that God would manifest Himself to us in a way that is real and undeniable, and its effects change our lives, our hearts, our minds, our community, our families, and it's evident in a revival that can spread from this place and around the world. I believe that. I believe that we ought to go forward in this time. We're living in history. A lot of my pastor friends are saying, hey, the revival is not possible anymore. And I know that the enemy is taking up its place, and he is wanting to control the lives of people. And I say Christians ought to want to die going forward for Jesus Christ, not going backwards. Amen. When you read biographies of Christians of the past, and these people who were greatly used of God, I mean, I'm talking about the sweeping revivals you will find a common idea that they had a great longing for God. not a dismissing prayer life, not a prayer life that, you know, you get down and pray, pray, God, please bless this, bless this, bless this, bless this, bless this, but rather a long period of time where God is dealing with my heart and I am speaking with God and revival happens when Christians step from the platitude of prayers to the supplicating heart. where we go from just speaking to God about things we would like in our life to asking God, what does God want in my life? Where does God want me to be? If you will run, you will need to come to the truth from the Bible that it is not your power that does it. It is Christ in you. Christ through you. Christ filling you. He teaches us in Philippians 4 how to think and speak. He teaches us all around the rest of the scriptures about how to be given over to the power that is, God calls his power, his omnipotent power, his total power. All power is given unto me. And he says, you let me live this life through you, then you'll be able to run and you'll be able to run and never stop. But Christians today, it's a feeling like we should be walking instead of running. Or like those that stop walking and then they find themselves standing, standing in the way of sinners. In Psalm 1, then they find themselves sitting in the seat of the scornful. until somebody ought to grab a Christian by the lapels on both sides and give him a good shake and say, what are you doing in this place? I'm not talking about the location, but what Christian are you doing in the condition where your heart is not burdened for souls and you're not burning to see God work in your life? Where did you grow cold? And the coldness of worldliness has frozen your heart that said, I'll give all to God. I'll do all. I'll go wherever he wants me to go. because you've been frozen by sin. And the great Paul, he compares the Christian life to running. And as a metaphor, it is our experience that we need to explain and apply what this could mean. And let me just let it remind you of some things. And we begin with the fact that running requires persistency. And I believe this is really the main point of the message. In verse 24, it says at the end, so run that you may obtain. Paul is speaking here about running to win a race. And if you're going to win the race, you must run with the whole race. Are you here just for a segment of time, or did you sign up to be permanently part of this? And yes, I'm talking about the church, I'm talking about your family, your heart. What motivates your running? I was talking to one parent one time, not a parent in this church, but another parent, and their children were wayward. They were starting to stray. They hadn't been raised for the Lord, but they started to stray, and the parent was weakening in their devotion to God. And I was talking to them, I recognized in them that the motivation for their good right walking and running the race had to do with as long as God keeps my kids where they belong, I will run the race. Now let me tell you something, friend. You need to determine that no matter what happens to the people around you, even your own children, that you're into God's race so that you might finish the course. That it wouldn't matter if other people around you don't make it. I am going to run the race and I'm going to run the entire race. I'm not going to stop just because of the sin of others. I knew of another man who told me that the preacher that won him to the Lord went off into sin. Then he got a Sunday school teacher as a boy that also helped him out in his Christian life, but then later went off into sin. And then a third person, if I remember the story right, was involved in his life as a mentor, and he for a time helped him, and then he did not last. And this man had determined that even though three great leaders in his life had done wrong, he said, why should I let their sin allow me to sin by quitting the Christian duties that God wants me to do? When you start to run in a race, and especially if you're not physically fit, you quickly run into a oxygen debt, there's a place in mind where you say, everything is crying out for relief. And please just walk, my body says. After a while it says, please just sit down and rest. But in the race that is for God, you're not going to get anywhere if you quit. Stay at it. Running the race means persistency. If you quit a race, you're running, it's hard to get started back. It's harder to get started back than it was to start at the beginning. If you let up for God, you say, I don't feel like reading my Bible today. It doesn't really make that much difference. It would to God. God wrote you the Bible as a love letter to you. And you've despised that letter by not even opening it up this morning to see what message God has for you. It's not a dead book. It's not cold. It's a living book where the Holy Spirit wants to meet you in the morning and show you the word of God. Speak to your heart to direct your life. I have finished my course, Paul said. We have many quitters today in the Christian living, Christian work and Christian service. Oh, they have excuses. They point to the trends of our day. They point to the problems among Christianity. They point to leaders who have failed. And I believe that in a real way, the shepherds of our country have failed us. Not too many churches are really being sold out to the truth. I heard of another one that's in Chicago closing its doors. You know, it's temptation, you know, because the properties in that major city are so expensive and they're so valuable. So one pastor saying, I know what I feel like doing. I feel like going to the suburbs because out in the suburbs, it's not such a crazy life and there's not as much sin out there as it is in the city. It's always right in your face. There's not as much danger and I'm gonna sell this building and I'm going to go to another church where they need a pastor, and I'm going to donate all the money from this expensive, valuable building, liquidating all of its assets, and then at the end, you have a rich, suburban church, and you have another church that has left the city, and to leave it without a gospel witness. And between that building and Pastor Lewis's is a million people that need to know the Lord. Pastors have quit running the race. Oh, it's times that we ought to consolidate. It's us for and no more. It's where we ought to just be satisfied that we're not going to change the people in these houses down the street. And you know, I'm not going to, but God can. We can't stop believing the Great Commission is for our day. Would you please find a passage of scripture that says that the Great Commission only extended for a period of time? And I'll tell you, it goes until the day we see Jesus Christ. Running the race, rearing your children, salvation is unchangeable. When I say quit, I'm not talking about losing salvation, but I am talking about your rewards. And friends, I am talking about the losses in this life. Losses in this life, losses that are devastating. Do you know that your family, you might be sitting here with all of your children together with you, or maybe, you know, they're probably downstairs in the Sunday school, and you say, I'm saved, and my spouse is saved, and my children are saved. Isn't that enough? Listen, friend, you are one generation away from unsaved children. If you quit on God and you stop going forward for the Lord, yeah, your children might be saved, but are they gonna go to church? Probably not. Will their children hear about Jesus? Probably not. And by quitting, the losses are incredible. It's devastating what losses are. If I had time to talk about that, I'm in a desire, friend, to stir this church up. I want you to think about that. It would be easier for me to just pat you on the back. I'm not made that way, but I am thankful. It's easy because we really care for you, and we say, Let me just pat you on the back. You're doing wonderfully. You're doing great. But my job as a preacher and a faithful preacher is to say, thus saith the Lord, there's danger ahead. And if you don't get hot on fire for God. The losses will be more than you will want to pay. That's what a pastor ought to do. Bible says, speak the truth in love. I don't know any other loving way to say this, that if you don't discipline your children today and keep them faithful to God, then you're gonna rip your heart out one day. That you put God above your weekend trips, put God above your comfort, put God above your finances, put God above everything, because he said, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Even you students, you say, pastor, I can't come today. I've got a test tomorrow. Listen to me. I was a student. I've been a student for a long time and I taught a lot of college classes. I'm going to tell you a secret. When you need God for that test, you better be faithful to God before you get to the place where you're sitting there saying, God, I need your help. Oh, but I know I didn't go to church last night. How can you pray? Oh, I didn't read my Bible this morning. Why are you expecting God when you aren't seeking Him first to just take care of you? He put conditions on those promises. My friend, listen to me. You say, I have a big test tomorrow. It's Labor Day tomorrow, you don't have big tests. So everybody should be here tonight. Now listen, you say, I've got a big test tomorrow. I've got to be at home studying. I'm afraid if I come to church, I won't do well on my test. Now listen to me. If you're really trusting in God, you're going to be afraid to miss church. Because when the test time comes, you want to be able to pray for God to help you. I knew a man that said when he was in Bible college, when the final exam week came, he would do this on purpose. He would double the amount of time he spends in prayer instead of trimming it so you can spend more time with your notes. Trust God. Trust in God. Run the race. It takes persistency. My longest point, let me give you these points and get you home for lunch. requires persistency, it also requires perspiration. Okay, it's why many of us are not runners. We're lazy. I'm not saying what your problem is, but that's my problem. I work out a couple days a week with Brother Wayne, and if he doesn't come, if he tells me he's not coming, a lot of times I don't go. Yeah. It's a joke, we go back and forth and say, I don't think I'd be faithful to it if it weren't for him being there, and if I'm not there, he doesn't go. No, it's not just one way, is it? We don't like to put the effort in. And why is it that we can polish our guns, get this, polish our guns, prepare wonderful food for your home, you ladies, and keep your kitchens clean? But you're not even going to put that kind of effort and heart into your relationship with Jesus Christ. Prayer is left undone. And then we wonder, well, why isn't God giving us revival? It only comes one way. The spirit filling only comes from one source. Every Christian, now get this, now put this in your mind. If you start, you say, I've never read my Bible, I've never prayed good, good. Tomorrow, read five verses and pray for five minutes, amen. Start somewhere. But every mature Christian, now get this, ought to be able to say that I'm spending an hour in the morning with Jesus. An hour? Maybe we'd get somewhere. Maybe we'd really see answers to prayer, maybe we'd see miracles of salvation of souls. Maybe we'd see something really shaken in this community if every Christian spent an hour with Jesus in the morning. Running requires work and prayer is work. Prayer is a work of faith. You're bowing and you're closing your eyes and you're talking to somebody that you cannot see. You cannot feel his breath when he speaks. It's believing God's Word concerning a prayer, hearing and prayer, answering God. But it is at the heart of your faith. No prayer, no faith. Small prayers, small faith. And I'm talking both in terms of time and what you're praying for. So I'm just praying God for a little, like that one song, A Little Prayer, what does it say? I have a little prayer with Jesus. I'm saying, go to God for big things. Believe in a God who can answer big prayers. Go to God and say, God, I've got something that you laid on my heart to pray about, and it's so big that I don't even know if I have the right to come to you and pray for this. But if you'll direct me, I don't even know if it's possible. And then you're really praying something. And I'm not talking about consuming things on your own lust. God, give me $10 million. I'm talking about a Christian who says, I can believe that God can change my wayward children. I believe God can save my neighbor. I believe my boss can come to know Christ. I believe in a God that can do what I cannot do. Is that the kind of God you have? Is that the kind of prayers you pray? We pray these small prayers. It's a reflection of a small faith. Well, God, you're only a God the size of a quarter. Somebody else might pray the size of a dime. And God says, I want you to pray the size of an entire bank. Believe in God. He's a great God. But prayer is work. In your path, there's going to be pressures. You know, you have, you say, Pastor, you don't know, if I get out there and run, I'm flat-footed. Man, that doctor told me my feet are like a bag of bones, because they're flatted. He said the flats, when I make a, when my feet are wet and I go on that pavement, I make like, I don't make just like the whole footprint. Mine is more like, and it leaves the whole print there. Man, you run, Pastor, I mean, you know, that, you could say, well, I've got an excuse. I've got flat feet. Yeah, what is your excuse spiritually? Only the ones that cross the finish line get the prize. Well, pastor, I've been hurt in this world. Yeah, we've all been hurt. So that means you should stop seeking for revival. Well, God, I've been down that road with God and I've seen him and it doesn't work. Why? Because you failed God? I promise you, God has never failed to answer prayers. It's us. And we say, well, I can't because what you're saying is God can't. Have a little faith in God. Believe in a big God and watch God do something marvelous in your midst. Running is work and prayer is work. You know, there's a certain feeling of all the trials and weights and pressures of this world and the demands and the responsibilities that try to hurt us. And we say, I don't feel like running anymore. Reminds me of these people that, you know, they go on vacation someplace and then after a while they move to that vacation place. Did you ever see that happen? We lived in Belize and people come to Belize and they're having a great time. Pretty soon they say, I'm going to retire and I'm going to move down here. And then they realize something real quick that the real problems of life and real living is the same anywhere. They say, I thought I would live like I'm on vacation. You cannot. Vacation is not real life. You can't even be satisfied playing all of your life. And Christian, listen, we have a promise of an eternal rest, but this is not our rest. And until we see Christ, we should be running the race and going forward for God and saying, I want revival in my life and in my heart. I want to see the reality of miracles. So we need perspiration. Thirdly, we need purpose. He said in there, so run that you may be able to obtain, that you may obtain. You know, if you're any kind of Christian, you're saying, I want to run successfully because I have a goal in mind. And the goal as a Christian, you know, in this metaphor, because, you know, the Christian life, I'm not running physically right now, but I'm running spiritually. It's a picture that Paul used. But what are you running for? To some, they run because they really love to run. Others run because they know they want to stay in physical good condition. But when you get into a race, that's what he's talking about, you're running to win the prize. The metaphor is clear. I was the principal of a Christian school in Indiana at Fairhaven for a dozen years or so. One of the things we did, we had girls intramural sports. And one of the things they did was a track and field meet. I had never, growing up, I had played a lot of sports, but I'd never been part of track and field. So I went and studied to pass the test as a, what do you say, a referee. And so you order those things every year. They give you a new one of those booklets and you're reading and you're seeing anything that's changed. And then you pass that on to the coaches and to, we had three different teams and the girls would compete and they would follow the rules. Okay. But each one of those gave us certain way and purpose to run. a purpose and rules. People don't like rules. You know, God has a way for you to run this race. He's written it down in his rule book. And we ought to study it. We ought to just say, I'm going to follow God. Now, I'm not talking about fighting like fighting amongst each other when he says, so fight I. He's talking about in every metaphor, he is talking about utilizing the weapons God has given and fighting according to his word. Now what I mean by that is, if you notice, in certain passages the Bible says, fight the good fight of faith. What does that mean? That means we should get bloody knuckles, right? Say if somebody doesn't come to church, I should go to their house, pow! I don't know if we'd have anybody left in church, but maybe they'd be more faithful. Of course not. What we're talking about is when I'm fighting the devil, I rely upon God's given weapons. Other throughout the Bible, but mainly through the word of God and through prayer. Those two issues are the two that upon that hinges all of our success or failure. So Christian, when you're seeing run the race, go forward for God, when you're seeing passages that talk about fighting the good fight of faith so that Paul could say, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, what you're reading there is Paul saying, I utilized the armor of God and the fighting tools that God gave me and I became good at it. By the power of the Holy Spirit, conducting this life, on my way to heaven and saw the miracles of God all throughout. And Christians, we are living with victory as possible for us as for the Apostle Paul. Now that's where we feel like in our hearts. If you're anything like me, I don't doubt that God wants to do great things. Now get this, because I believe the Bible. I really believe I believe the Bible. I don't doubt that God wants to do great things. What I doubt is why would God want to do them through me? Who am I? But when I go to the word of God, what I read is that God has not just promised, but because of the nature of what he states and his statements becoming truth, he has obligated himself to keep these same promises to you. So what are you facing in life? What are your needs? If you're here and you're not saved, of course, last week, two weeks ago, we talked about your greatest need is salvation. But to those that are saved, what is your greatest need? Pastor, I need a good marriage. Our marriage isn't right and I need a good marriage. You really need that? Do you have a faith in your heart that says God has obligated himself to meet my needs? then you get your life where God can bless it and watch God do so. I'm serious. You might get tired of this, you might think I'm just like one track minded and I might be, but I'm Bible track minded. Okay, I have a history in my life of seeing God bless, God's blessed, God's blessed, God's blessed, God's blessed. You might say, Pastor, would I want more out of life? I want a bigger house and a nicer car than the pastor has. Amen. You don't get into pastoring for money, I promise you. Not if you're honest. Before God called me to preach, I wanted to be a medical doctor. Part of that is I wanted the rewards of being a doctor. financially so that I could benefit. My idea was I wanted to benefit a church. I wanted to be a good giver. I had good intentions for having a good living, but that also meant I wanted to make some money. The Lord called me to preach. I had to give up that kind of concept. It's not wrong if you have money. Please follow what I'm saying. Even if you are judging my life and saying, Pastor, you know, you have whatever personality traits I don't like. I'm not talking about personality traits. I'm not talking about whether you like the coordination of the clothes that I wear. I'm not talking about petty things, but I am talking about the blessings of God have attended my way from the time I was first surrendered to God and given over to God. I've seen him bless and do things that if we had time, we'd spend the rest of the day talking about how God has done for me, and it's just me. I'm a nobody. I happen to think all of you deserve more than of God than I do. I'm a nobody. But if God can give to me the blessings of a good family. What else do you want? Of enough to live on, of seeing God work in many ways, I'd say he would moreover do it for you. If he'll do it for me. And I'll say this. It comes by coming under the place where God can bless you. Now, I'm gonna share one of those examples. A few simple things. Read your Bible. Read your Bible. Read your Bible. Some people tell me, well, Pastor, I just don't understand the Bible. What do you read? You read the Bible, if you read it, you would get past that little bit of learning curve that there is, because it was translated in 1611, and pretty soon you're going to be starting to say, if you'll pray and read your Bible, you're going to start to jump up and down and say, Pastor, the Lord spoke to my heart this morning. Now, if you want to just sit back and have a Christianity that's just outward and, well, you know, I'm a Christian, so I go to church every now and then, You know, I believe I'm a good person. If that's all this is, then don't listen to what I'm saying. But if your heart is to see God one day and know that face to face you've done what you should, then a Christian needs to bear all to God and learn to pray every day. You don't read your Bible and pray every day. You're saying, God, I know you blessed others, but please don't bless me. You may not like some things about my life, but I have a good family, and I have what God's blessed in this life, and every ministry I've been in, people have been saved, and God has grown every single ministry, and I don't deserve it. But I know what I'm talking about. I'm just a cop's kid from Cleveland, Ohio, and if God can bless me, he can bless every single one of you abundantly. But if you don't read your Bible and pray, you're saying, I don't want it. This next one's going to be tough for many of you. You ought to be in the house of God Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Thursday night. But pastor, I've got to work. So why don't you ask God to change your job so that you can be in the house of God? Wow. I'm not saying quit your jobs. I'm saying why don't you ask God, God, you know my heart. I want to be where God can bless. Look, I just need a job, God, that'll take care of that. It reminds me of my son, Ezekiel. They wanted him down at Lamb West and offered him a good amount of money. And he said, okay, but they said, you'll have to work on Sundays. Ezekiel said, I guess that's not the job God wants me to have. Wow, you mean that you'd put that above? Yeah, I believe that means seek ye first the kingdom of God. God will bless you. Then God gave him that job over on semiconductor. And then a little bit later, God says, hey, son, I don't want you to work this all your life. I want you to be one of my soldiers in the pulpit of God. I'm going to call you to the ministry. I'll get this. And he says, my life belongs to God and I'm going to go to Bible college because God's called me to do this. Forget the jobs. Forget my plans. But if you're sitting at home, yawning and saying, boy, that church service was good this morning, and five o'clock comes and you're not in the house of God, what you're saying is, God, I love your blessings, but give them to the others, not me. I'm not really that serious. Now people are saying, I think some of you might even think, that pastor's extreme. And I'm not. I'm telling you, I have a track record. I want God to bless you more than he's blessed me. And I'm telling you how. You can play around with Christianity, but you're not going to get blessed. It's like saying, man, I want to wash my hands, but there's the fountain of water. There's the clean water. But you're saying, boy, my hands are dirty. I need to get them clean. They're sticky and stinky and a mess. But all you got to do is put your hands under where the water is and get some soap and clean them. And you're saying, man, I want my life right. I want my family. I want to stop arguing with my wife. And I want to start having a good home. And I want to start rearing my children. I want to see them stop their talk back talking to me, mom and dad. I want to see God do something. Well, there's the water. Put your life under where God's blessings are coming out. And you sit back and say, well, God, you got blessings, but don't give them to me. I'm not that serious. And to some, they should rewrite Matthew 6.33 and say, but seek ye third, the kingdom of heaven, or seek ye seventh, the kingdom of heaven. Or maybe to some, it's seek ye 20th, meaning if I have time, I'll go. But I've got to work. Why don't you pray? God, I'm serious about everything that is biblical. Help me to rearrange my schedule to be faithful to you. I'm gonna tell you one more and then I'm gonna let you go. You wanna run the race and you're not involved in the soul winning outreach of your church? You're pretending. If you had time, you can go back, if you'll just look for just a blink at verse number 22. To the weak I became as weak. Why? That I might gain the weak. I am made all things, we know this passage, All things to all men that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake. Why was he running? The whole metaphor has to do with souls for Jesus is my plea. I said, I don't have time to give God my, go knock on some doors, go pass out some literature, or if you're physically unable, I'll give you some visits to make to encourage some people or tell them about Jesus. Yesterday I was flying home and I was, got in the line early in the morning in for the security. You know, you go through the security and there was a lady there, she was, I thought, a little older than me. And she just looked like she needed some help. And she had a question. She looked, is this where you go? I said, yeah, come on this way, I'll show you. And she was heading to the, and then she said where she was going. I said, oh, we're on the same flight, and I'll show you where to go. And she just didn't know what she was doing, and looked a little mixed up a little bit. And you know, then I had, it was Southwest, and I got on the plane. I was one of those A-list ones, you know. And I got on, and I made it to that coveted aisle, the one over the wing where you're on the exit row to help people. You get like another six inches. And I got there, and the stewardess was standing there. She's probably in her 60s and saying, and I gave her a gospel tract to read, and she's telling me her life story. So she stood next to me in the row. I was on the window side. And I guess the other people kind of thought nobody, they kept passing the row. I mean, those are coveted seats on Southwest, right? And sure enough, this lady that I was helping out came in and she looked over and saw that empty seat and saw me and sat down right there. And I gave her a gospel track and talked to her. She seemed a little mixed up. We got near the end of the flight. And, you know, I'm trying to weigh, you know, not trying to be too personal, like asking too many questions about it. I talked to her as much as I could. But she needed help. You could tell she needed help. And we got all the way out to show her what it was, the follow the signs for baggage claim. And we went out there, this and then look, here's our flight, number three carousel. That's kind of how it just seemed like. She needed that kind of instruction. And we'd stand in there. I said, well, if you stand here, I'll help you get your bag. And she asked me what I did for a living. I said, well, I'm a pastor of a church. And I said, what do you do? And she said, stage four cancer. She says, it's gone to my bones. I'm done. I'd given her a track. I talked to her then about her soul. She's supposed to call me. I walked her all the way outside and made sure she got to where her son was picking her up. Boy, her son come out, shake my hand, thanking me for help. A little mixed up, all that chemotherapy. I gave her a copy of every track I had then, and I'm trying to talk to her, and then she's supposed to call, and Debbie and I are gonna go down this week to find him and try to see if she gets saved. Souls. You don't think God wants people to get saved all around you? And he puts them right there. Puts them right there. Running the race is soul winning. That's the context. I wouldn't be a right preacher if I didn't put it in its context. I said, Pastor, I just want to come to a church that has good music. Wasn't that good today? I'm pointing at the organ. I love to hear that thing play. And they sang, I love the music. And that pastor, if he weren't so long in his messages, would be a good preacher. There's things you like. But my heart is this. If you don't really grasp salvation, what good was it? If it doesn't give you a good marriage, what good was a church? If it doesn't rescue your wayward kids, what good was a church? If it isn't possible for you to see the miracles of God at work in your own life so that you know the relationship that is so real, if you can't pray and have God give you a revival in your spirit, what good was a church? And a faithful preacher has to tell you these steps that are necessary. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I've taken a lot of extra time this morning, but I believe I did what you wanted. And Lord, I believe you want to speak to hearts of these dear folks. Lord, I started out today saying it's a privilege, Lord. I don't deserve to be a pastor of so many good people. I know there are better people than I'll ever be in this world. They're gifted, they're logical, there's so many here that have so many gifts. But Lord, there's some among us Many all of us need revival, but there's some that. Or just need to put their lives right where the water comes out, where the blessings are going to be had. And Lord, I have given it today and I pray, Lord, that it wouldn't come across this sternness. Lord, but that you would come across in Christian love to plead with our people. Let let you let God bless their lives. If they would just give their all to you, they would be blessed. Please bless this invitation. In your name I pray, amen.