Hey, happy summer to all of our campuses. And you may not know this, but across South Mississippi today at Venture campuses, there'll be over 2,500, close to 3000 people in the summertime that are gathering to teach and to serve and to seek the Lord with regard to their life. And man, you're giving and you're serving, and you, you're being here. It matters. And so I want to thank you because as we enter into the summer, uh, you're gonna face all kinds of distractions. I mean, you're gonna see all these opportunities and man, you ought to enjoy them. But don't leave your strategy for growing in your faith at home this summer. I mean, I'm telling you, listen, every summer, six weeks of summer, that's about what it is. Now, you can create some of the worst habits to come back into the fall with that are really hard to shake. And, and I don't know about you, like, like I was thinking a few weeks ago, kind of got discouraged because, uh, I've been a believer over 50 years. I've been here 38 years. And you would think at some point, like, I wouldn't be tempted like that.

I don't have a day when I get up, and it's just all butterflies and unicorns, you know, rainbows. And hey, I see the Lord there working man, every day I get up, I am bombarded with all kinds of images, thoughts that come into my mind. Wh when I look at the news, I try not to look at the bad news because it's all bad news or lies. And, and when that gets in my head, I'm thinking, man, when is it ever gonna be easy? And, and I'm finding that it's never going to be easy unless you give in.

And today we're gonna look at a guy that's gonna help us have a strategy for the summer, because you can do this. Listen, these extraordinary figures of the faith, they're ordinary people. They're ordinary people that had faith of faith that was consistent in a extraordinary God, that they're no different from you. You, you can't say, well, if I was in, you know that. No, no, no, no, no. Th this is you. It's the same God who wants to use you. And, and there's a strategy that we're gonna find today out of one of those characters in the New Testament. And his name is Saul. Saul.

Do you remember Saul Saul's a Pharisees? Pharisees were religious. You say you think, oh no, my cousin's religious. No, the no, no. Saul had him beat. I mean, he, he kept the law. He memorized verse the scripture, first five books of the Bible. He could tell you, you could like do a sentence in jeopardy. He could give, give it to you. You know, the, the, the, the whole deal of where it is and the verse and the book and all that. He never missed church. He never missed church. But he wasn't a Christian. That's a whole nother series, okay?

Because here's the thing, if you're into religion and, and you're like, Hey, I'm gonna gut this out and white and knuckle this, and I'm gonna do this and not do that, I'm gonna do this less man. That is not Christianity. Christianity is a free gift that you received through faith in Jesus who paid the penalty for your sins and took your place and salvation. And you know, we get to see this this morning in the baptism. We got another one at 11, about 120 already going into the summer, okay? It's crazy. And, and you're seeing what salvation looks like. The old you has died, a brand new you is raised to walk in newness of life.

Now, here's the thing about salvation that you may not know. Salvation is not a one and done. Like, like when you, when you get saved, when you come to know Jesus, when you know, Hey, I've been changed, you, you don't go, I punched my ticket to heaven, so now I can chill. See, salvation is a process. It happens in the past. It continues in the moment. And one day in heaven, you will be saved. You were saved, you are being saved, also worked out. You're salvation, inferior and troubling. And one day you will be saved and it'll be glorious. But until then, you're in a battle.

And if you ever lay down, I'm gonna tell you, man, this is so crazy, because when I get a little weak and I don't wanna lay down a little bit and like take some time off, you know, like, Hey, whatever, I, I'm gonna push envelope, man, it is disastrous for me. And if you're a believer, you're gonna find, if you've got a strategy to stay close to God, you can have the best summer. You can have the best life. I mean, God will throw these other things in for free, okay? You'll get to enjoy a whole night. Now, not getting buck wild, you know, on, on a cruise, it's all inclusive. I don't mean that like, if you just go buck wild, that's different. Okay? Like, cuz you're on your own then. But he'll throw in like the joy of the things that you're getting to enjoy from him. And, and you can feel close to him and not feel so much shame you say, well, how do you do that?

Well, first Corinthians chapter nine, if you have your Bibles, go to the out because I want you to remember this message. Uh, I know that that's hard for you because I don't remember my messages that I'm preaching, but I want you to remember this message as you go into the summer, because I truly believe you can go into this summer with a strategy of growing in godliness with self-discipline, and he'll change your life. First Corinthians chapter nine, I'm gonna back up in verse 23. Paul is talking about all these things he does. He says, I do this, I do that. You know, I contort myself to do this, to make sure I can share the gospel. He says, I'm always on 24 7. He says, I do this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings. He says, do you know that in a race, how many of you're runners would you raise your hand in at all? Yeah, your runners. Your runners. There's two people that run like, like, you're like me. If I'm running, you call the law. Okay? Yeah. Well, the, these are people that actually trained and ran and, but when you run, all the runners run, only one gets the price. He says, you need to run in a way where you get the prize. You want to finish first for Jesus in your lane, in your life. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, he says, I don't run like someone aimlessly running aimlessly. I don't fight like a boxer like beating in the air. He said, no, no, I strike a blow to my body. I make it my slave. I'm not gonna keep giving into that. And after I've preached to others, if I'm not careful, I myself will be disqualified for the prize for being what God has called me to be and doing what God has called me to do.

And then in chapter 10, he says, these are the people that took the summer off and, and they're all like lying in the desert. He, he says, you know, there, there is a penalty for like, just like laying down on your faith. He says, man, it's gonna be bad for you even if you're a Christian, if you just lay down on Jesus. You know, like, well, I'm done. You know, I I'm not drank as much as I used to then, then you're gonna be in trouble. But this is what he says in verse 11. He says, these things happened to them as examples, and were written down as warnings to us on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. He says, no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful. He will not let you be. You said, well, I just couldn't say no. Yeah, you can. He says He's faithful. He won't let let you be tempted beyond what you're able to bear. Because in every temptation he will make a way for you to escape. You'll give an escape hatch. You'll have that moment where you can say no. You'll have that moment where you can step back and then you say, nah, nah, I think I'm getting a little closer. And all of a sudden you're toast. He says, therefore, my dear friends, and he says, flee from idolatry, because idolatry is anything you put into your life. And you go, man, if I just feel good, if I just get lit like that, like that's gonna be great. That's what I need.

Then all of a sudden, you know, you wake up, you say, well, what, well, what does that look like? I mean, like, when, when you start talking about self-discipline, what does it look like? Will it looks like you saying yes to some things? Are you with me and no to other things? H how many of you work out? Do we have anybody that works out? Thank you. Yeah. Not all of you're going to like die heart disease. Okay, well, well, here's the thing. When you work out, you, you say yes to some things. You get up early, you're, you're in the gym, you know, you're drinking those shakes. You know, you, you got all these things going on and you say no to other things. I'm not gonna eat a bucket of chicken and c tea. You know, I'm not gonna just lay around every morning. I'm gonna do something. That is what happens when you decide I want something good to happen in my life. I wanna accomplish something.

Kobe, Kobe Bryant. I mean, you like Kobe Bryant? Uh, yeah. I I love Kobe, man. I, I'll tell you, when he died, it was like, he just crushed me. I'm like, I love that guy. Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods, uh, Tom Brady, not so much. But here's the thing about all of them. They were very disciplined. They had a strategy to be the best at. What was their goal? Their goal was to win championships and be the very best. Do you know what they all three had in common? They all cheated on their wives. Uh oh. That wasn't in the, the workout routine. Tom Brady was so good. He, he had two super balls predicate at the same time. I think that's where he got so fast. He was running from those ladies. I mean, I, I mean, here's the thing. The question is, what are you training for? Well, what are you focused on? Be? Because if you are training to, to, to have more money, uh, more things, more whatever, that's outside of putting God first in your life, man, you're going to struggle. I I'm not like this. This is just a law. You, you're going to struggle.

And, and, and if you start saying, well, no, I'm gonna put my faith first. I'm gonna put Jesus first in my life. I'm gonna put my family second in my life. I'm gonna work on my marriage. I'm gonna work on my kids. I'm not gonna murder my husband. I I'm not gonna throw away my kids. I'm gonna work on this. I'm gonna work on this. And then you begin to develop good friends, godly friends, and then you take your money and stuff and you learn to give it away. Man, that is a plan. That is a plan man, that will bless you. You say, well, that's prosperity gospel. Oh no, that's just the Bible. Jesus said, I came to give you life and give you life abundantly when you get serious about your faith. And I don't mean just when you come here, but when you leave here, you get serious about your faith. Like, like, I wanna be close to God, man. God does things in your life that are better than you've ever imagined.

Uh, I I love the story. And you probably know the story of Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps is a swimmer. Uh, matter of fact, he received 23 gold medals, 23, not three, not 2023. And Michael Phelps, after his last meet, went to his room. Now this is documented. He tells a story. He went to his room after his last swim meet, he closed the door. He refused to talk to anybody. He refused to eat, and he thought about taking his life. You say, why? Because earthly glory has an expiration date. I, I don't care what it is. You say, well, I wanna do this. I wanna go there. I wanna win this. I wanna make this number. I wanna go to that place. And all of a sudden, you're there and it's over.

But when you understand the power of Jesus Christ in your life, you, you have a reason to live a godly life. Why should I live a godly life? Because God made you, there's a God shaped vacuum in your heart. If you put anything else in that God shaped vacuum, I don't care how good it is or how hot she is or how much money you're gonna make, listen, it will not satisfy you because there's a principle of sequence it. This is the princip. I I found this, this term this week. Would you let me have just a second to love this term, the principle of sequence where there's something that's gotta be first. And then after that there's a sequence. This is second, this is third, this is fourth. This is like a domino. This is first, okay? And it hits this domino. It hits this domino that hits this domino. If you put anything else in the sequence of number one in your life, you're gonna lose. If it's something other than God, give you an illustration from me. Uh, I have a battle with food. I know you can't tell. I've been working out, uh, I've been, you know, really like trying to, to work on this thing. But if you put food first, it ruin your health. If you put work first, it'll ruin your family. If you put sex first in the sequence, uh, it will ruin your marriage. I, if you put shopping and buying and going and doing first, it'll run ruin your finances. But when you put God first, amen. That is so hard.

Can I just say that is so hard because there's so many things vying for your attention. But when you put God first in your life, you choose people over things. You choose joy over addiction. You choose your purpose in life over momentary pleasure, you choose obedience over happiness. Listen, when you choose, say, Hey, I I wanna fall more deeply in love with Jesus. When you do that, this becomes easier.

I dunno if you know the story in the old Testa about Jacob. And, uh, he was working for his uncle and he saw Rachel and she was smoking hot and he went to Labban and he said, God, you've been like, if you've ever been smitten by a girl, you know, or a guy, you know, oh my goodness, oh my goodness. Oh, Matthew McConaughey, oh, oh, at least you'll do that. Sometimes when watching, you know, shows, she'll go, look at that guy. I'm like, what's wrong with this? You want me to go change the TV set? Yeah, yeah. Well, he saw Rachel and he said, Hey, hey, I wonder, as my wife and layman said, you worked seven years and I'll give her to you as your wife. And he worked seven years. And the Bible says that those seven years seem like a mere day to him because of his love for Rachel.

Listen, when you begin to love Jesus and you learn how to do, I'm gonna show you just a minute how to do that. You all of a sudden the things you go through, they're not that bad. Paul said it this way, he said in second Corinthians 1125, he said, I gladly suffer all things. Oh, you wanna beat me again? Go ahead. You wanna throw me in prison? Go ahead. You wanna throw rocks at me again? Go ahead. Because I suffer these things in order to please Jesus, who gave me life. When you understand how much Jesus loves you, how he is with you, and he is faithful to you, even when you're not faithful to him, you'll fall more deeply in love with Jesus. And the struggles that you're facing and the things you're having to say no to will be a whole lot easier.

You say, well, well how do you do that? Can you, can you give us like practical things? You preachers always talk about Greek words, you know, well, let me give you some practical things. If you wanna grow this summer in godliness, I want you to write these things down because these are proven. And, and when I went back and looked at 'em, I thought, you know, I'm not doing that as much right now. I mean, it's summertime. People are busy, people are out. You know, like, like, I'm mad cuz I'm not at seaside. And you know, like all, all those things. But, but here's, here's four things that will help you this summer if you wanna grow in self-discipline and fall more deeply in love with Jesus. Okay? You ready?

Number one, you put some guardrails in place. I mean, you know this, when you go certain places, you're with certain people, you do certain things. You know, if you don't have like a guard rail, guard rails aren't right by the canyon. They're off like right here. So that if you get kind of close, you bump up against it and, and it's no, well, you know, oh man, I should have done. But, but, but you've got some margin. But when you roll into something and you know it's going to be a struggle, you don't keep li you know, living right on the edge. It didn't take a whole lot to knock you off. I mean, the enemy is stealing stop signs in your life. He's going like, Hey, let me get this stop sign outta the way. Let me get this. There's curve coming. Get this out of the way. And he's just turning you loose just to run wide open. And it's gonna destroy you. You have a strategy, you think ahead. There's some places if you have to go there, you don't stay all night.

For some of you, it's in your personality. Enneagram, number ones. How many of you're number ones on the Enneagram? I mean, you're, you're very focused. You like organization. You're just like this. Everything fits in a box. Some of you're like that. Do you know your greatest challenge and anger? So before you get to the boiling point, you kind of, you learn this phrase, well, you could be right. I mean, you find ways to cheat the system and, and you have a boundary so that you just don't roll into it. If you're a two, your, you're your main sin, your challenge is pride. If you're three, it's deceit. You're like a salesman. Well, you know, that's not really true. I no, no, you need to tell the truth. If you're a four, it's envy. If you're a five, it's greed. If it's six, it's fear, man. You're always afraid. And you set some guardrails up where you go, Hey, no, no, no, I'm not gonna be afraid over here. These are things I know that I can do. Listen, if it's, if, if you're a seven, it's gluttony, man. You're the life of the party and you love to eat and you love more of this and more of that. And if you're a eight, it's lust. How'd you like to be a preacher and be an eight? How'd you like to deal with that? Whereas an eight every single day with every kind of image that comes on the screen, you're having to kind of move away from that. You're having to train your mind to think differently and do different things. If you're a nine, it's laziness. And as you go into the summer, you, you don't, you have some guardrails where you're never too tired, you're never too stressed, okay? You're never too angry, you're never too bored. You kinda get up and make yourself do something. Because if you stay there, you're gonna fall off the cliff.

Number two, take the first 15 minutes of your day. This is so simple. Are you listening? The first 15 minutes of your day, will you take the Bible or one of our reading plans? And, and the scripture Craig used this, the, the not soap scripture. You read the scripture, you make an observation what it says, this is so simple, but you apply it, there's application and then you pray. That's 1% of your day where you say, even in the summertime, I'm gonna take the first 15 minutes of my day and, and I'm gonna spend it with God. And I'm gonna read his word and I'm gonna say, what does this mean? What does this mean to me? And I'm gonna pray when I'm praying, God will bring a whole lot of other things to my mind. Pray for my wife and pray for my kids, and pray for my grand. Pray for you. And you do the first 15.

And number number three, you connect with someone of the same sex who loves the Lord at least one or two times a month. And you ask him these questions, how is, how's your relationship with God going? H H how's your ma? See you're going, well this, this is not fun. I this is, wait, wait a minute. This is not, I just wanna know how you know to, you know, work on, no, no, no. This is how you work on your marriage. This is how you work on your life. How's your relationship with your wife or husband? Where are you struggling? And then you say, where have you lied to me? Let's be honest. And you'll, you'll be able to tell when you're looking at their face because this is someone who cares about you and loves you and wants to walk with you and wants to shoulder the burden with you. Because Jesus said there's no temptation that is overtaken you, but such as is common. And and that's where the common unity, the community comes in where you fight together with regard to your faith.

Here's the last one. You find time every week for corporate worship. And, and I hate to say that to you because it's summertime and you're here, but did you know that that took the fourth place and the most important things you can do with the Lord? I, I mean, right, right. After using God's name in vain and, and having any other gods before him and, and making him number one. I mean, you get into stealing and keeling killing and fornicating and all that. I mean, it's that important where you find one day a week, it didn't have to be your Sunday, but where you have the sequence where one day a week, this is going to be our time to worship. This is going to be the time where we get together. This is going to be the time where, where we say, Hey, this belongs to God. And God begins to work in your life. That's a strategy. It's it's that simple. You say, oh man, I never do that. Well, it's not then important to you.

Friend of mine, I like to call him my friend cuz of the bling. Brian Dozier, I called him. So, and I said, Hey man, can I u can I use your world series ring? And uh, I thought he would go, no, because it's worth $30,000. It's worth more than your car and I don't trust you. He said, no, bring, yeah man, I'll bring it by. You mean I'd bring it by your house? Let's bring it back. I'm sorry. Lemme put it up there where you can see it. Uh, yeah, you see that. And this is the apex of what everybody wants, right?

Pervis tornadoes won the state championship. They got a, they got an award and man, I was so happy for them. Some all you know, last year and wanna be careful cause they all go to our church. And you gotta be careful, you know, uh, us n beat Auburn yesterday. Praise the Lord for anyone who beats Auburn, especially to the top. And, and yeah, it's just the truth. You know? That's just not God's team. And, and so, so I was looking, I was looking at this and, and you know, I thought about all, you know, all the sacrifices that were made for this. Brian's probably going crazy right now. Don't drop that. Don't drop that, don't drop that. Uh, but, but all the sacrifices, you, you know the sacrifices that went into winning this ring.

Here's one of the phrases that he used. Go one and oh every day. I love that. Today. I'm gonna go for it. Today. I'm going to do the things that I know. Bring me close to God. I'm gonna go one and oh today, if you're struggling with alcohol or pornography or whatever it is, you know what I don't know about tomorrow, but today God's gonna help me go one and oh today For baseball. He, here's another thing on here that I just happened to love. Fight finished, fight finished. I think about all these guys that can walk around with this bling fight, finish. I was paying the price for this. Paul says, Hey, this right here, one day not gonna be me. Somebody gonna lose it. It's gonna get melted down somewhere along the line.

You say, well what does that mean? Let me read something to you and I'll be done. Okay? Cause I'm hitting right on time. You with me? It's important. You, you got me, okay. You watching. Therefore, therefore, he says in Hebrews 12, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, men and women, boys and girls, who said, I'm gonna go all out in my faith for Jesus. He said, let us run the race, our race in our lane that is set before us. And let us throw off anything that is tripping us up. And, and the sin that is so easily besetting so that we can fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him. Yeah. Cry out. You know what you are to Jesus. You're the ship, you're the championship. You are the prize for the joy set before him. He endured the cross, scorn the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God, not for the whole world. I'm talking about you, you said me. Yeah, you, you were his championship ring. You're the bling of God. Yeah. You carried the glory of God in you. You were more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ who gave you life.

There's more for you. He wants to work in you. Give him something to work with. Lean into Jesus, Have a Strategy to grow closer To him And see what happens.

Would you pray with me? Please, Father in heaven, I thank you that there was a time when Jesus looked down at us and said, Hey, that is my Rachel. I am willing to give my life. I'm willing to lose my honor and my glory and my power so that my children might know me and walk with me and have the very best life. Father, I pray if there's anyone that's, that's listening, that, that maybe they're like Saul, but they've never become Paul, that they would place their trust in you and God, if they have placed their trust in you, that they would walk with you. That they would have a strategy to grow in love and more in love with you. So all the things we go through, it's like a, it's just like a day, just another day. God's got me, God's with me. I can overcome this. My identity's in him, not in what somebody thinks about me at work or school, or pickleball court, or that my identity is in the one who prizes me like a World Series ring and has a special name for me. That one day when I get to heaven, he's gonna call my name that only he and I know. And the joy is gonna be unspeakable and filled with glory. Father, we pray all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen.