Roller Coaster Christianity

Amen. Let's take our Bibles and let's stand together now out of respect for God's word. And I want us to turn to the book of Acts and we'll look at chapter two, Acts chapter two, and we'll begin reading but let's see if you find it. Acts chapter two and when you find it, stand if you will, if you're able and if you're not, you just read along and Acts chapter two. It's amazing what God can do in a week like this, folks.

It's amazing what can happen if we really seek God. Some of you dear folk are here visiting tonight. What a great blessing to have you with us and just get encouraged in the Lord and then this week, you come as much as you're able. If you able to We're do to Just forty five minute sermon, sometimes forty minute sermon, sometimes maybe forty eight minute sermon, sometimes about once, a thirty minute sermon but what God can do, it's incredible. The power of the word of God.

Alright, Acts chapter two, I want to begin reading at verse 42. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believe were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. And they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.

Did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Our heavenly father, we thank you for this passage and all the passages of scripture but tonight as we look at this, we ask you to use it and then build us through the week that we would be different, we'd be better, we'd be closer, there would be souls saved, added to the the the the the kingdom, added to those who are numbered in Christ, and even added to this church according to your will. But we pray, Lord, that tonight, you'll begin that great work and that not one of us will leave here without you working in our heart in some good way. Lord, we know that you're able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think and in you is glory in the church.

In Christ name we pray. Amen. Thank you and you can be seated. Do you like to get scared? I do.

That's why when I go to an amusement park, I don't waste my time riding the flying elephant Dumbo. I don't waste my time riding the model t cars that go so slowly you could walk past them. I do like bumper cars. But generally, go to the roller coasters. I've survived a lot of them.

The Big Bend, the Matter Mouse, the Matterhorn, the Edge. They take you straight up and drop you straight down 10 stories, and your heart catches up with you later. Recently, I rode one called The Fury, and that one got me a little sick. Now I might enjoy roller coaster ride, and roller coaster rides may be fun to people like me with a little bit of brain damage. But roller coaster Christianity is not any fun.

Now, when we talk about roller coaster Christianity, I know it's an elementary terminology. I know it's just kinda simple thinking, not deep. But it's the idea of being up one day and down the next up one week and down the next week, walking with God at one stage and then away from God at another stage and it gets a little discouraging. I talked to a young man who told me that he had gotten right with God so many times and failed so many times that he decided to quit trying anymore. You know what the bible teaches about that?

It teaches that the just man falleth seven times. You know what that means? Not once but many times. And the Bible says that we as believers are going to probably fall at one time or another but it finishes with this but rises up again. And you may be here at the beginning of this revival meeting in a condition where you've fallen and it's time for you to rise up.

Get back standing. Get back in fellowship. And shake off the failure and get back and write with God. Because the Bible says that if we sin, we have an advocate with the father, the Lord Jesus and Jesus who saved you is Jesus who can get you back up as a fallen Christian. Now, in this passage of scripture, however, we read about the New Testament Christians and they were not up and down and this roller coaster thing.

Notice the words that we emphasize, if you look at verse 42, it says, they continued. That's not falling. They continued steadfastly. See that faithfulness and it says, and fear came upon every soul. Verse 43, verse 44, all that believe are together and all things common, it says, the departed and gave to all men as every man had need and the Lord added to the church daily such you should be saved and what you get from this is they weren't in this roller coaster life but they were steadfast in a thing.

Now, folks, when we have meetings like this, believe it or not, they help. It's not just a person coming in and yelling at people or it's not some great man coming in to make weaker people perhaps like him or maybe just giving a little shot in the arm but God gives the word of God and he gives evangelists to equip the saints to the work of the ministry but also till they come to the stature of Jesus Christ but get it. They come, they get there. And you know what that means? Is maybe you've been away from God and God sends evangelists like me, like the Murrays, not because we're super people but God ordained this for this purpose to help you become who you need to be And that is an indication that you and I can be built.

I've been built by hearing other preachers. I've been built by other evangelists. I've been built by preachers when I was a teenager. And I am better because I was exposed to that and now what God has for you is an opportunity to be exposed to something that might make you be more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ and stay like the image of Christ. So, be here and be built.

But as we look at this, as we're kind of getting started in the meeting, the idea of conforming to Jesus Christ, the New Testament Christians were not up and down but they were steadfast and there are many things that we could look at that helped them to be better than what they were but there are three things that I'm going to look at tonight from this passage that will help us to be better and now first, there was, well, I might call an inward look or they were sin conscious. Now, as you notice, verse 42, it says, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. Now, I'm taking a little liberty with this. I'm going to bring in another passages to make this idea point and show it is really a biblical point that they were sin conscious but what's the primary application that they continued in the apostles doctrine? That means teaching, folks.

That means they continued listening to the teaching from the apostles. Now, where were the apostles teaching? It says that they were doing it in the temple and they continued daily in one accord in the temple and so what the people did was they came. They didn't stay home. They listened.

They didn't ignore it. They took advantage of the preaching and teaching of the word of God. Now, what is happening that so many people are falling away from God? One of the reason they're falling away from God is they're not hearing the preaching and the teaching of God. Now, when I was growing up, we had a great church and we had great youth pastors.

We had great pastor and things like this and we were the family that my mother said is going to be in church and if it was Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, church revival meeting, if it was a youth group activity, if it was a prayer meeting, if the doors of the church were open, we were there. If it was church cleaning day and we could be there, we were there. Why? Because my mother knew that the one of the great helps to the family would be being constantly exposed to the word of God. Now, there are some people that don't think it'd be important anymore to be committed to the preaching and I'm not scolding you.

I'm trying to encourage you and build you. You will never be a strong Christian if you're not faithfully hearing the word of God preached. It's necessary and some of you have fallen away from God. Again, I'm not beating you. I'm trying to build you and you have got to change this thing.

You say, why is it that I don't have this zeal for the things of God? Why is it that I don't have a heartbeat for the things of God? Why is it that I'm so dry and God seems 10,000 miles away? Check it out. And you may find that you are very seldom in the church house.

Now, you don't have to come to church to get to heaven but if you don't come to church, you will not be as strong as you would be if you came to church. Everybody follow me? Amen. So, be here and get built and get strengthened by being exposed to the apostles doctrine. You need it.

Now, if the meeting's done and one of the main things that gets accomplished is the three or four people that weren't going very much anymore. Start going and you don't remember anything I'm preaching rest of the week. You know what I think? It'll be good and it'll be profitable because it will build you and you've got to expose yourself to this book and the preaching of the apostles doctrine. Now, a secondary application though is not only did they teach what was truth but they taught what was right and what was wrong.

In other words, what sin was. Now, do you think the New Testament Christians were sin conscious people? I think they were. How do we get that? In Acts chapter five, Ananias and Sapphira, how many know that story a little bit?

Alright. They told a little white lie. They said we gave all of the money but they only gave a part of the money and they were not in sin because they only gave a part of the money because they didn't have to give it all but they lied to try to make themselves look a little better and they say we gave all the money and God struck them dead. Now, why did God strike him dead? Because they told the white line.

We gave all the money when they gave a large portion but they kept a little back for themselves and it wasn't keeping it back. It was the lie about it. So God struck him dead. Ananias first struck him dead. Sapphira then struck her dead and everybody realized I had better not tell a white lie or God might strike me dead.

Now, the fact is we're very soft on ourself and we're very light on this area of guarding our our lives from sin. We're looking at things we shouldn't. We're saying things we shouldn't. Our spirits are like they shouldn't be. We're drinking things we shouldn't and we are light and we're easy on ourselves.

Now, we need to be sin conscious if we're going to be walking in fellowship with God. Now, there are two ways that we can become sin conscious. Alright, number one, defeat it. Number two, let it defeat you. Romans six twelve and thirteen, let not send therefore rain in your mortal body.

Let not send therefore rain in your mortal body and the verse goes on, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. I can take these hands and I can yield them to sin. I can take these eyes and I can yield them to sin. I can take my mouth and I can yield it to sinful words. I can take my heart and my mind and yield them to sinful thinking.

And attitudes and God tells us let not sin reign. Now what that means is if sin is raining it is because we are letting it rain. I'll say that again for our benefit, for our help. Are you thinking right now about your struggle with a cigarette? Are you thinking right now about your struggle with a can of beer?

Are you thinking right now about your struggle with pornography or something? You're thinking sins just in charge of me. I can't change. Here's what the word of God tells us all including me. If sin reigns, it's because we're letting it rain.

We are letting it rain. And we're never gonna change until we acknowledge that and accept responsibility. If sin reigns, we let it rain. Let not sin therefore rain. Evidently, we can't control it.

And we let it rain. Nobody comes up to us and puts a gun to our head and makes us use a cuss word. If we use it, it's because we choose to. Nobody came to you and put a knife to your throat and made you smoke a cigarette. Nobody came to you and put a gun to your head and made you look at a filthy picture.

If you looked at it, it's because you choose to look at that filthy picture and when sin reigns, it's because we let it rain. And we have to understand it. We have to own that and the Bible teaches that God can give us victory over it. So, therefore, if we fail, it's because we choose to yield our members. We use these fingers to hold the cigarette and this lip to go around the cigarette and the lungs to breathe in the cigarette.

And we yield our members to sin. I'm not beating telling us this is what we're doing. Now, why is it that we don't want sin to reign? Because sin is our greatest enemy. Now, think about this.

If we get destroyed, it's going to be God who destroys us or sins that destroys us. It's gonna be sin that destroys us. Anselm, a preacher days gone by said, if you put sin on one side of me and hell on the other, I would rather leap into hell than to reap leap into sin. Why? He was making a point to his congregation that sin is his greatest enemy.

If it wasn't for sin, there wouldn't be a hell. If it wasn't for sin, there wouldn't be a devil. If it wasn't for sin, there would not be all these horrible things. Now, either we defeat it or we become sin conscious once it defeats us. The Bible says in Proverbs one hundred thirty and thirty one and I'm preaching to you but I'm preaching to me.

I'm preaching to us. Do you think that the day that you become an evangelist that you never will be tempted again? Do you think that the day that you become an evangelist, you never be tempted to be an angry man? That's not going to happen and so I'm preaching to all of us because we all have a sin nature. We all get tempted and we're all living this world and what we have to understand is we've gotta defeat this foe and if we don't, it'll defeat us and we also need to understand if we will be sin conscious and deal with it and defeat it, it will be well with us but if we let sin defeat us, we'll be sin conscious once it destroys our life.

We eat the fruit of that sin. Samson had a problem with his eye gate and that's why we've got to really be on top of this eye gate. And Samson looked at this woman named Delilah and consequences came. He lost his eyesight and he lost his freedom and he had ropes on his arms and on his feet shackles. And then he was chained to a millstone and a whip behind his back, hitting him and every step feeling the weight of that millstone as a blind man feeling a whip in his back every moment he thought sin did this to me.

When he woke up as a blind man, when he was used to waking up as a seeing man and he sees he a blind man. He's thinking, I'm blind. Where is my sight? And why am I blind? And it's reminding him every morning, I sinned, I sinned, and now I lost my sight.

And so when we sin, if we play with sin, we pay with sin, We either defeat it or it defeats us and there's not one of us in this world that's not gonna be tempted. So, we've gotta think ahead of time. A preacher may have temptation like I am a preacher. If I don't defeat that temptation, I'll lose my relationship with God. I'll lose my future and none of us are free from the consequences of our sin.

Right. If you have this problem and you're trying to get victory, God bless you. But if you have the problem with the cigarette smoking and you don't stop it, you don't think about it. You'll think about it later once you lose your ability to breathe. You don't defeat it, it'll defeat you.

And if you're involved in something like alcohol, you will find that you'll be sin conscious once it takes away something good from your life like your health or maybe something like your If you don't defeat sin, it will defeat you. Last week, I was talking with the pastor and he told me about how he was trying to get this young man to come to church and the young man kept making these excuses and finally said, yes, I'm going to come but he did not come. Why? Another friend of his called him up and said, we got something going. You gotta come.

What was it they had going? They had a drug party going. And so here's a guy who was struggling with drugs, struggling with that sin, and he had a choice. Go to church or go to this party. And so at 04:30, the service at six, he made up an argument, made up an excuse, excuse me, and he said to the pastor, yeah, I'm sorry something came up.

I can't come. Oh, man. I can't come. You know what came up? Sin.

And you know what drew him away? Sin. And that night folks, he died from an overdose. He did not defeat it. It defeated him.

A 14 year old boy on his birthday was given a birthday present. It was a night of immorality. He was now going to experience immorality for the first time. And so he was in this hotel with this woman of ill repute and he had his immorality and the next morning, he woke up and the woman was not in the room and so, he wonders where she is and he looks around, he sees the bathroom door shut, calls her name, no answer. So, he knocked on the door, no answer And he called her name again, no answer.

She's nowhere around. But with that door locked, he assumed she had to lock it. So he thought something was wrong. He broke that door open with his little 14 year old body and he saw she was not in there but the wind window was open. So, his mind thinks and he thought, she must have called out that window.

Why would she do that? And he went and shut the window and turned around, walked back to his motel room wondering what is going on and he noticed something written in the mirror with a bar of soap. Welcome to the world of AIDS. And sure enough, he did not defeat sin. It defeated him.

He wasn't sin conscious before but he was sin conscious once it destroyed good things. Now, is there any sin that we've come here to to this revival meeting at the beginning of that we don't defeat it, it's going to defeat us. Is there any sin that we need to turn from? Because if we're not sin conscious and deal with that sin, we'll be sin conscious when we are in the hospital. Will be sin conscious when we lose our testimony.

So, sin conscious and inward look and the first thing I'm saying tonight that will help us get started is that inward look are being sin conscious and all God's people said, we agree with this. Now, simple but the second thing, look at verse 42 again. First, the inward look and then we need an outward look And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine but secondly and fellowship. Fellowship would be an outward look or others oriented. Now, the main application again is they got together and they encouraged each other in the faith.

Now, as you read through the book of first Corinthians and it talks about the church, It says, we're a body. It says, our purposes, we build each other, we edify each other. And so, Christian fellowship helps us all to do well, to be stronger, to do what we should, to walk with God. That's why we've gotta have church. We've gotta have each other and you will not be strong if you're not faithful in church.

You can get to heaven but you won't be strong. Now, fellowship is also the idea of just getting together to build each other in the faith. When I was growing up, we had a lot of fellowship. In my church, after church on Sunday night, the teenagers would go to the parents, get 5 or $10, borrow it, steal it, ask for it, and our parents would give us 5 or $10 and we would go to Pizza Hut and we'd eat pizza. But hanging out, we'd build each other.

I can remember we also would get together at different homes. We go to the Prairie's home, we go to the Schultes home, we would go to the Bruner home, And at the Brunner's, all the parents would go upstairs and play games. All the young people go downstairs and play games or kill each other or come up with things. And while we were downstairs, parents were upstairs playing pit and they were going to two two three three two two pit. And they had a lot of immaturity and fun.

But then my mother would say, time to go. Danny, don't Paul, Mike, Tim, get your coats on. And Will Burner would say, all bev, let them play. Okay, take your coats off and we play a little bit longer. Then he'd say, Danny Don Paul 19, we gotta go and school tomorrow.

And Wilburda would say, oh Bev, let him play. Sit down. Eat some more popcorn. Play another game of pit. And she would be like this.

And so we'd sit down. We'd play another game or two. And after a little bit, Daniel and Paul 19, we gotta go school tomorrow and the little bird say, oh, Beth and he would say, no, Will. We're going and it was this fellowship almost every week. Now, listen, we don't have that fellowship and I'm just throwing something out.

We need fellowship with each other. Listen, we're afraid to talk to each other. There should be fellowship with each other. There should be looking for that other person that seems to need somebody to lift them up and it should be inviting people over to each other's homes. There should be fellowship so we build each other in the faith.

But an application here is an outward look or one of the things that keeps a Christian going is being soul conscious or others oriented and I'm talking primarily about the idea of trying to win people to the Lord. That keeps us going. Alright, please look at verse 47. Praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church. Now, get that little phrase, the Lord added to the church and God is the one who builds the church.

We know it's not us. We know it's not some great preacher or good talker. The Lord does it but he does it through people and it says, the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved and what that really means, I'm not making it up in the original language. It's saying such as we're being saved, not should be saved, we're being saved, and what it is saying is people are getting saved every day in the New Testament church. Now, how can people get saved every day in the New Testament church?

Evidently, people were witnessing every day in the New Testament church, right? Now, have you ever noticed when you witness to people, you get excited? Have you ever noticed if you don't keep witnessing to people, you start drying up? Now, let me tell you who some of the most excited Christians are that you'll ever meet in your life and who some of the biggest dead beats are that you ever meet in your life. Some of the biggest dead beats, I went to Bible College with them and they were getting their doctorate degrees in Bible.

But they were dry as dust. Why? They wanted that big paper on their wall and they just cared about the degree and the respect. But let me tell you who some of the best Christians are, most exciting Christians that I've ever met are. They also went to bible college with me and they were getting their doctorate degrees in bible.

You say, Mike, that's the same group. You're confused. No, I'm not. This other group, they were learning their Bible and they weren't learning it for a bad motive, pride. They were learning it to serve the Lord.

And when we know our Bible, that's a good thing but we have to have a heart to use what we learn. Now, the biggest deadbeat sometimes not trying to be unkind but if some people that'll go to church like this one have all the standards and we need them, but you never do anything with it except criticize everybody who's not what they should be. And you dry up because all you're doing is sitting and learning and learning and learning and learning and not doing anything with it. Now, my brother Tim came to me one time and he said, Mike, I pray that God will give me a burden but I don't have any burden. He said, what do I do?

I said, you don't get a burden just by praying for it. You get a burden by seeing people in their need. And please again, don't think that I am coming in as the standard. But I am an evangelist that God I believe wants me to share these truths with people and I think he equips me to be an encouragement to churches and I've not arrived but I'm growing but you know what I've learned? I have got to be soul winning and trying to help people or I dry up.

Now when Jesus saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion. How? When he saw the multitudes and in their condition fainted as sheep scattered abroad with no shepherd and that means he was moved with compassion when he saw them in their need. Not when he saw them just in their sin as bad. He saw them in need as sheep, tender sheep need somebody to reach out and take care of them.

So my brother says, I'm drying up. What do I do? And I showed him first Timothy four seven. It says, refuse profane in old wise tables but rather exercise thyself unto godliness. Now, what happens if all you do is eat, eat, eat, eat, you never exercise, you lose your energy.

Now, what happens spiritually if we come to Sunday school, Wednesday night, Thursday, we read our bibles. Friday, we read our bibles. Sunday, we hear preaching and all we do is take it in, take it in, take it in, take it in, take it in, we learn it and learn it and learn it, but don't serve. We get blah. So we've gotta reach out and get involved in the work of God.

I remember when God began to stir my heart and whenever I get a little dry, I know exactly what to do to get warm again. I was in bible college. I was getting a's in Greek, a's in theology. I'm very smart, you know. And I was doing okay with that.

And then my friend came to me and he said, I'm drying up in this place. Bob Jones University. I was drying up in that environment. I said, so am I. I'm drying up too.

What do we do? He said, I don't know. Let's go soul winning. I said, okay. Well, where do you want to go?

He says, I don't know. Let's go find some drunks. So, okay. So, we got on our bikes and we rode our bikes downtown and we went to Coffee Street where we heard the drunks were hanging out. So we went downtown and we saw the drunks and we didn't know what to do then because we were scared of them.

But we swallowed real hard and we decided to just start. And we went up and we talked to them. And as we were talking, we found out they were real people and they had names. One guy I met named Billy Nabors. Billy used to be a neurologist.

He said, whether that's true or just the alcohol talking, I don't know but he claimed to be an a neurologist which means he had a good job. And then he got to drinking and he lost his job and he lost his credibility and he lost his wife. She left him alcoholic and then sons didn't want anything to do with their drunk dad. And now he's a guy who's lost everything dear to him and he drunk on the street. Now, I used to look at them and say, get him off the street.

What a bunch of bums. But I can hardly see one of those drunks on the street now without having a burden to try to reach out to them. How do I get my burden for the races? I never thought I was a racist. I had good friends, several different colors, but I evidently had an issue.

I was out looking for Billy Nabors and a man came up a man of color and he looked at me and he said, sir, would you give me a ride home? An elderly man. And for some reason, I had an attitude that day. He was on two crutches. Would you give me a ride home?

And I look at him and I, for some full reason, I said, you look like you could probably make it. That was a really tough college student. And God put his fist in my chest and said, what was that? And so I was convicted and I went back and I said, sir, I'm sorry. I should never have talked that way.

I'll take you home. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? Come on. Get in my car.

And he got in my car and I drove him around on these curves up and down these hills, and I parked in front of the place where he lived, and I looked at that driving home. I realized with all those curves, there's no way the man could have walked home in his physical condition on crutches. He was in need. And then I looked at his home. It did not look fit to live in.

I thought I would not wanna live in that. And then all of a sudden, when I got there, we parked in front of his house and the black man got out and when he stood up next to the car, all these little faces got plastered against that big picture window. And I saw all these little children plastering their face against the window, and they were looking out, and their eyes got big when they saw the man. And then the front door flew open and all these kids came running out toward the car and they were jumping up and down, jumping up and down. They were going grandpa, grandpa, and then they surrounded him and they started pulling on his arms and clothes saying, grandpa, papa, grandpa, we love you grandpa.

We missed you grandpa and when they said that, I realized he evidently been away a long time because nobody take him home. That man leaned down and he looked at me through the window and he said, Saul, you've been kinder to me than any white man ever been in my whole life and I pointed him to cry Christ and that gave me a burden to get over myself. How did I get my burden for teenagers? I got a burden for teenagers by traveling with a group called Men and Men Evangelistic Team in my early days and I can remember seeing teenagers. We have a war.

Army versus Navy, tugger over mud pit, tackle sports, and things like this and we would get to know them. There was one girl who was molested every day for a year and a half. She had burn marks on her body where her molester would tell her, if you tell anybody, I'll kill you and burnt her just to show he wouldn't mind hurting her. Fear and all the things that these people go through. While we were in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and there were a group of young people hanging out behind the video store and they call themselves the skinheads.

They're troublemakers and I told the driver keep going. They look too tough but then I thought, well, the worst thing could happen is they kill me and I go to heaven. So, I said, let's go back. I didn't think till later they could have paralyzed me from the neck down for forty five years. But anyway, we did go back and we invited them.

And when I was there, they were all talking tough and stuff and they were intimidating. But I invited them to the activity. I didn't know they'd come, but one of them came. His name was Shane. He didn't get saved the first, second, or third night but the fourth night he did.

And when he did, we were in a tent meeting and his knees got weak and he slithered down the tent pole and he began to shake and in the ground, he kept weeping and weeping on his stomach, weeping, and saying over and over, Mike, thank you so much. Mike, thank you so much. As if I had saved him and when he finally could, he stood up to his feet and he reached in his pocket, grabbed a handful of something. It was drugs. He held the drugs up in the air and he goes, I don't need these anymore and he threw them on the ground.

He smashed them in the grass with his foot. That gave me a burden for teenagers. When I go on a mission trip, that gives me a burden for people. When I go soul winning on the street, it gives me a burden for people. And listen, if you are not soul winning, you're going to dry up.

And so we've got to be people that are soul conscious and we can be. Now, you don't have to be and I don't have to be somebody who knows more Bible than anybody else to be used by God. All we need to know is John three sixteen and then we learn other things And the important thing is that we do what we can to make an impact on other people. And we don't wait until we are doctorates waiting on our on our wall. We don't wait until we know everything.

We get active right now and some of you are active right now and you can tell that keeps you fired up, doesn't it? But if you're drying up because your Sunday school, Sunday night, Wednesday night and you used to go soul winning and you've fallen away from it, get back at it and that's what will keep you going. Alright. So first, getting started, be steadfast in the faith. That's what we're here for.

Get back at it. If you've fallen, the same Jesus that saved you is here to get you back up. If you have not been going to church, you can get to heaven definitely if you never put your foot in the door of a church again. If you genuinely accepted Jesus Christ, genuinely. Genuinely but I will say this, you never will be a strong Christian in everything you could be and should be if you're not getting in church.

You need it and some of you, if you'll make a decision, even if from tonight, this is the only thing you get. I am going to change this thing about hearing the apostle's doctrine. I'm going to hear it. I need it. It will change the next forty years of your life.

Now, sin conscious, defeat it. Is there any sin that you folk have? How many of you have a sin nature? If you do, would you raise your hand? Okay?

If you got a sin nature, what do we, what do you have a tendency to do? Sin. So, what we do is we just ignore it but if if we don't defeat it, it will defeat us and so we've got something to do with it and we take these hands and we say, I'm no longer going to yield these hands to cigarettes. I'm not gonna do it. I'm no longer gonna yield these lips to cigarettes to put them around so I can get a good breath of it.

I'm no longer going to yield these lungs to the very sin that is going to defeat me. I'm going to yield these lungs to God. And we decide, I'm going to defeat it with God's help. Sin shall not have dominion over you. You're not under the law but you're under grace and God will help you if you will yield to him.

I yield these as instruments of righteousness unto God. I yield these lungs as instruments of righteousness unto God. Number two, we need to have that others looking, others oriented, get involved in service. If you're drying up spiritually, get it going and serving God and looking for something you could do to make an eternal impact. You will get fired up if God uses you.

Now, the last thing I want to look at Acts chapter two and verse 42, it says, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship but get this, in breaking of bread and in prayers. Now, breaking bread and in prayers can refer to two things. Number one, on the in communion table, it'll say, this do in remembrance of me and when we have communion in the church, it doesn't absolve our sins, it doesn't wash away our sins, it's faith in the blood of Jesus that washes away our sins. First John one seven, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Not the baptist baptism, the infant baptism, not of works the same man should boast.

By grace, are you saved through faith, not of yourselves. But once you are saved, they who were saved continued in breaking of bread and prayers, meaning, two things. One, they had communion together as a church to remember the death, bone, and resurrection of Christ to build each other, to remember his death till he come but then also in the evening mealtime, Alexander McLaren's commentary says, they took in time in the evening to remember the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. You know what that means? They basically had family worship, family worship.

The family took time to remember Jesus. Now, when we would get up in the morning, it would do us good to remember Jesus. And set your course. I'm going to remember Jesus today. Get in the word.

Remember him. Pray. Set your affection on things above. Save your conscience. And it would help us to be steadfast in our faith.

Now, an illustration as a silly one who we're about to wrap this up but a good one. When I was interested in dating my wife years ago, at the time, I really wanted to marry her, but she did not like me. And I knew she'd never marry me unless I got her to like me. I was very bright. I knew that wouldn't happen.

So somehow I had to get her to like me so I became very Becky conscious. I was traveling with her dad along with four, five other guys. There were six of us as a matter of fact and one day, we were getting some training in evangelism. Her dad's an evangelist. We decided to go exercise and get our bodies in shape.

We were all single. And so, she and her sister decided to sneak out of their dad's trailer and hide behind their dad's truck and watch us exercise. They must have thought it was been been been funny. So, we're in the church parking lot exercising and the church yard. And I can remember I saw her sneak out and watching us.

And being Becky conscious gave me extra energy. We did push ups, and Larry Gillen did 25. I knew Becky was watching. I did 50. Never did 50 before in my life, but it gave me extra energy.

Somebody came by and said, Pelletier did 50 push ups. I thought, say it a little bit louder, And I wanted her to know how strong I was. And then we did pull ups, and I could never do them because I just don't have good arms, strong arms. And so anyway, he did some, and then I did double. Why?

Wanted her to like me more than Larry Gillen. Follow me? And everything that he did, I did double. We went jogging and I stayed in front of everybody. Why?

I wanted her to think I was quite the man. Now, being Becky conscious helped me. It made me stronger. It made me better and being savior conscious helps me. The bible says that the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good.

The Lord is in his temple. Lord stone is in heaven. His eyes behold. Psalms 11 and verse five. Great in counsel and mighty in work.

Thine eyes are open upon the ways of man and he seeth all is going. Get this. When you are on the inside of a bedroom or the inside of your home and nobody can see, God sees. It says there's no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. And so folks, being savior conscious will help us.

Being savior conscious and realizing when I start the day, he is here. When I go through the day, he is here and as I do what I do, he sees and it's not just the seeing the sin, it's recognizing his presence at all times. In good ways too. So, savior conscious, sin conscious, and soul conscious and what the world needs today is Christians that are steadfast and what we need is to be more steadfast ourselves. Let's bow our heads and we'll have a word of prayer.