You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. Competition, just like any
other aspect of life, can be either healthy or unhealthy depending on the application.
Make no mistake about it, Competition is at the heart of the human
experience. That's a good thing. The desire to press on, to push
forward. That competitive spirit is definitely of God. But as a Christian,
it must be applied to your life in a godly fashion. If not,
it can take a hold of you. It can become something altogether different in
your life, something that becomes problematic, even harmful. Competition is certainly in
the air today, and you can feel this excitement as millions of Americans and
people from all over the world really gather around their TVs with this this anticipation
of their team securing the win. Now, the very definition of competition means
a contest in which a winner is selected from among two or more entrants.
So this means by that definition that there will there'll be a winner, and
of course they'll be a loser. So in a case like the Super Bowl,
competition is that propellant. It propels each member of the opposing team to
train, to work hard so that they may excel in their performance for this
particular big game or any game. This oftentimes know that athletics can go down
an unhealthy path at times, but more often than not, this is a
healthy display of the competitive spirit, that spirit that does push you, that
does propel makes you want to be better, not so you're better than the
other person in some sort of state of judgment that they're actually less than you,
but that competitive spirit, that ability to push on and push forward and
build your muscles stronger, make yourself quicker, be able to be more accurate
when throwing a ball, when catching a ball, that all these things are
about training your body by way of discipline to do beneficial things. So,
if you're involved in sports, and today is obviously a huge sports day,
that many of you watching the Big Game are really focused on the fact that
this is a place where athletes come together to push themselves beyond normal limits to
achieve a goal. That's the competitive spirit in a healthy place. But there
is an unhealthy side to competition as well, one that drives people by way
of jealousy and envy that only leads to despair and destruction. This is not
the competitive spirit, but the spirit of pride and conceit. The Father certainly
does not approve of this kind of competition, James four to six says,
but he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud,
but gives race to the humble. Giving that grace to the humble is
showing that there there is a place for you to be competitive, but to
still be in that that that place of humility, knowing that you're pushing your
limits, knowing that that as a creation of God, that I designed you
to desire to propel yourself and excel, but to also be of a humble
spirit. Because when you latch onto pride, when you get to that place
of pride, you invite ugliness, that jealousy, that justice. It's not
even it's not even competition. It's just you wanting to push others down,
to push yourself forward. Says if you would lie, cheater steel to get
to that place, it doesn't even matter how you get there. And to
the real athlete, to the real individual with the proper competitive spirit, you
want to do things right, you don't do it the right way, it
doesn't count. These two different paths or patterns of competition can be seen throughout
all kinds of walks of life, not just in athletics, but you can
see where people tried to even apply athletics in a positive way when there when
even the world itself was teetering from wars and arguments and ugliness. The original
Olympics were abolished in three ninety three a d. But if you look can
see the timeline, you'll see that about fifteen hundred years later, in the
eighteen nineties, a young Frenchman actually set out to revive the Olympics, and
he used this pitch. Let us export our oarsmen, our runners, our
fencers into other lands. That is the true free trade of the future,
and the day it is introduced into Europe, the cause of peace will have
received a new and strong ally. This young visionary saw the importance of replacing
the negative the inter country competition of war with a new, healthy inter country
competition centered on athleticism, a tradition that continues with the Olympics even to this
day. This points to someone who desired a healthy form of competition. This
young man saw that the competitive spirit had moved from a place of learning,
of discipline, of growing in understanding, and had become this jealous or prideful
excuse for war. He thought, instead of countries actually fighting against each other,
tearing each other down, why not compete in a healthy way, propelling
one another by way of competition. God wants you to have a healthy competitive
heart, one that pushes you to win, but also to win righteously,
to be in a place where you win at all costs, and that it's
really not about the challenge itself, but it's more about putting yourself on a
pedestal, making yourself look better than someone else, putting someone else down.
How is God going to How is God going to bless that? Why would
God bless that? You hear stories of sportsmanship, good healthy sportsmanship, and
you hear stories of ugliness. There's even penalties on the field in all in
all types of sports because of bad sportsmanship or not playing by the rules.
That's why the referees are there right to look on the judge the movements on
the field to see who is winning fairly, because that's what should dictate whether
the win is worth anything. So you have this competitive spirit you want God
to bless. But if you go about pursuing the things you want in life,
pushing yourself in a way that is healthy. God will be there by
your side the entirety of the way, coaching, instructing, encouraging. However,
if you push the rules aside, only being in that place of pride,
only desiring this so called win, that is when it becomes an ungodly
spirit of competition competition. At first, as a believer, you might hear
the word competition and think, well, competition is bad thing, right,
isn't that when two people are fighting over the same thing. No, the
definition of competition means a contest, and yes, there will be a winner
selected from two or more entrants, and of course that means there will be
a loser. But this can be used in a positive way to propel you.
Today is a big contest. You've got competition in the air, as
everyone is excited about this contest of prowess and strength and ability, and really
everyone sits to watch. Knowing what it takes to win, knowing what it
takes to me win means that you know that there are rules and there's things
that you have to work by and live by and obey, and it's going
to take great discipline. And that's why people appreciate big sports competitions like the
super Bowl, because what it takes to actually win is something to be proud
of. But what God doesn't want is that ugly spirit, that spirit of
jealousy and envy that comes from a place of pride, that doesn't help anyone.
It actually tears people down. God wants you to have this a healthy
competitive heart, one that pushes you and makes you want to excel, but
to do it righteously. One Corinthians nine twenty four through twenty seven says,
do you not know that those who run and race all money throughout the day,
but only one receives the prize, run in such a way that you
may make a cold super Bowl. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self
control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath,
but we un imperishable. Therefore, I run in such a way as to
not without aim, as not without aim. I box in such a way
as not just beating the air. But I discipline my body and make it
my slaves, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will
not be disqualified. Isn't that a concept of competition, being disqualified, not
playing by the rules, not having that humble heart. Not having that proper
spirit of competition can make you disqualified in the Kingdom of God. When you're
out as a Christian. You should use these things to propel you, to
excite you, to make you want to be better, and to put yourself
in that state of discipline, that self control in all things, as it
says in one Corinthians nine. Not just winning at all costs. That's not
blessed by God. Lisa, welcome to the Jesus Christia. Thank you.
My question is should Christians pat through their bodies? Well? Should they?
Or can they? Should they? According to scriptures? Should they? Should
they? Is going to be an individual choice, because there's nothing in the
Bible that says they cannot. There is Leviticus nineteen goes through some religious laws
that some people get confused about. That says in verse twenty eight, you
shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead, nor make any
tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord. The verse there is actually
talking about a practice. A matter of fact, most of these in Leviticus
are talking about a practice that the Pagans were doing that our Jewish brothers and
sisters didn't want to be associated with and wanted us to look as different as
possible from them, and that this would fall into the same category. Now,
people that have a problems with it would have problems with other parts of
it too, because just above it it says you shall not round off the
side growth of your head, nor harm the edges of your beard. So
if you shaved, you'd be falling into the same category of tattoos. Then
also the word used for cut would be the same that you'd use for pierce.
So any woman that pierces our ears would now have problem. So any
man that shaves, or any woman that pierces her ears would now have a
problem, not just the tattooing. So really, when it's speaking about tattooing
here, it's not it's speaking about a process that was done to the dead
or for the dead by Pagans, and that it should not be brought to
pass by Christians. But having a tattoo for a Christian is not inherently wrong.
It depends on the content, of course, but it's not inherently wrong
for a Christian to have a tattoo. All right, thank you, you're
welcome. Howcome I got the impression that maybe that's not the answer she was
looking for. Sometimes you just pick up on subtleties, tiny little subtleties.
That's kind of what I do here. But the Bible is filled with many
things, and the best advice I can give you is to see that the
entirety of the Bible and understand that there's a difference between prescription and description.
These are two very important principles I want you to hear, and I want
you to understand the difference between a difference between prescriptive language and descriptive language.
Descriptive language is Jesus woke walked up a hill. Now if I walked up
a hill, I walked up a hill, there's nothing really to be done.
It's describing something that happened. If it's prescriptive, there's an admonishment,
there's a statement of understanding, this is what you should or this is what
you should not do. And with a Christian it gets even more difficult because
now you are looking into what you refer to as the Old Testament, and
you're seeing things in there that are based on context of things that were going
into the lives of our Jewish brothers and sisters, and they were trying to
abolish appearing to look like your average every day he then who did whatever.
There most certainly are rules to live by, and scripture is filled with them,
filled with plenty, oh plenty. There's more than ten commandments. Let
me assure you, it's not just ten. There are over four hundred commandments
in scripture, and to hear those and to respond to them is wonderful.
However, don't get lost. Don't get lost in some of the statements,
some of the descriptions of things going on, and assume them to be prescribed
telling you you must because there is a difference, and there's some that have
been pulled over through the entirety of scripture. But context is going to be
important in those places as well. That's the key. Jack, Welcome to
the Jesus Christio. Yeah, Hi, I just got a quick question about
this thing called lordship salvation and non lordship salvation. Where the lordship salvation guys
believe that genuine save and faith includes the willness repent from one's sin and submit
to the lordship of Christ. And then the non lordship guys say they don't
see repentance from sin and the willingness to submit to Jesus's lordship is essential for
salvation and that I got into a conversation with the guy and he said that
that by me telling someone, or by Christians telling someone to repent from their
sins and submit to the lordship of Christ, that's adding works to the gospel.
So I want to ask you what your thoughts were on that. No,
it's not adding works to the Gospel. Here's the thing, and a
lot of people get confused based on what happened versus what had to happen.
For instance, people talk about Judas. Should it be put on Judas.
Here's this major plan, this big plan. It's going to go down,
it's going to put me on the cross, it's going to cover the sins
of the world, and everything's going to be taken care of. So why
would people look down on Judas He just helped it alone. Well, because
Judas as an individual, specifically decided to jump in and to participate in a
specific way, and it really, you know, kind of whittled down to
the fact that he wanted things to be done sooner. So when it comes
to things that are going to be done, there's a difference between somebody who
is trying to create fire by flapping their wings versus the passing along of a
torch. And really, when you're going to spread the gospel or share about
any of that, you're just passing the torch. But it's the flame of
God always, and it's not something it's not a work that you yourself can
build upon. You can't bring somebody to the salvation of Christ. You can't.
Right God does, and God will use you in that process. So
when it says that no man should boast, it means there's no bedpost that
you can put those notches of how many people you share the gospel and who've
come to know the gospel through because they're not yours. They're they're not yours.
So there is no works in that context. Now, the lordship salvation
has, you know, some nooks and crannies. In the basic line of
things, it comes down to, you're receiving God. It's not about you
the things you've done wrong. It's about how good God is. It's not
about anything that you've done. It's not even about what the good you've done.
It's about who God is. And that's that's the simplicity of it.
When you talk about repentance, right yes, a lot of people get confused.
I get confused on it. But as repentance is more like a change
of a heart, it's not really necessarily an act always. So so like
we're saved when we get saved, we're saved from half sins, present sins,
and future sins. Is that right? Yes, of course, but
so so the these lordship are the non lordship guys go, well, it's
impossible not to sin because you're gonna sin until you get into heaven. But
that doesn't give you a license to sin. So there's like a fine line
there, or or do you understand what I'm trying to get across? Of
course, they were arguing in the in this in two Timothy, I mean
it's it's not new. The whole point is are you a good guy?
You good guy? Jack? And I don't mean in the biblical sense.
I mean you don't go out murdering and raping in any of those things?
Right, No, okay, So that's just not who you are. So
I come to you tomorrow and I say, hey, I'm doing this thing.
We're gonna shut down any any access to law enforcement tomorrow in your area.
There's gonna be no video cameras. There's gonna be no way for them
to find out. And I just wanted you to know. And you found
that out. Are you gonna go out raping and pillaging because you're not gonna
get caught. No, No, because it's not your nature. There's no
such thing as a as a get out of jail free card. The whole
point here is the assumption of the world is, oh, you're gonna you've
got this high life now and you can do whatever you want, and God's
gonna love you. God's always loved everyone, right, That's always been the
theme that hasn't changed. Now, the reconciliation is different. The reconciliation knows
that get to heaven is different. So those that have this so called free
they do whatever they want, just as long as they believe they wouldn't misuse
it. By the very definition of what it is. If a kid goes
out and gets new cars from his family and every single time crashes it and
goes, oh, well, not only does that kid not appreciate that car,
that kid does not have any feelings for his family, right, And
that's different than just a family going you crash the car, it's bound to
happen at least you're okay. Come on, let's take care of you.
We'll talk about the car there. It's a matter. You've got either allegiance,
which is going to be bumpy allegiance because you're human. You're going to
stand versus rebellion, which is you specifically ignoring the Gospel, ignoring the word
of God, the will of God, and doing whatever you want. And
they're two different things, and trust me, they have two different endings.
You can't rebel yourself away from the knowledge of God. You can ignore what
He has for you to the point of death. There's a lot of ways
to reject. But as a Christian, it's not about you. It's about
God, right, and not how bad you are, but how good God
is. Every other religion, every one of them, Jack is always focused
on man. Oh man is going to receive christ consciousness, or man is
going to receive total consciousness, or man's gonna be so high he's gonna these
these are weird want to be God things. Christianity is the only one that
says, nah, man man, even good Man doesn't do it very well.
So God is going to send his son, and his son's going to
step in and be the bridge so someone could be saved and still struggle with
sin. Right of course, okay, of course, what the perfection is
going to be in heaven when it's washed away finally, But of course you're
going to have sin. There's not one preacher, not you know, one
Bible thumper, one Bible reader. There's not one that isn't struggling. And
there isn't one in the Bible either. These are the same guys that'll bring
up Matthew seven to one. You know about not judging, and I go,
I told the guy so, well, you can judge actions, but
we can't really judge the heart. Is that a correct statement? Well,
yeah, it's a you know what you tell me someone that is upset because
you said they looked good. Hey you look really nice tonight. That's a
judgment. Not one person goes, don't judge me, Oh they go,
ah, thanks, right, judgment is fine. Judgment. What in scripture,
the judgment that they did not want was met with this newfound understanding of
who God was and how it interacted with their life. They didn't want them
running around saying I am better than you, I am somehow closer to God
than you. And that was what was wrong. Trying to read men's hearts.
That's what was vulgar. That was the problem, not saying, hey,
that whole pipe you have in your mouth, Yeah, the one you're
smoking crack with, that's bad. Don't judge me. I will judge you
plenty. Louis Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Yes, I have.
I'm confused when I go to math and I listened to the apostle Greed where
it indicates Jesus sends into Hell, and I'm confused, and I don't understand
that rightly. So it is a little confusing. And really what it has
to do is that there's many words that are translated as hell, but they
do mean different things depending on how they're used, one of which is sheol.
She Al simply means the place of the dead or the place of the
departed souls or spirits. In the New Testament, it's well, in the
New Testament, the equivalent of shiol is actually Hades, So Hades is the
place of the dead, and that's what's being spoken about, not Hell's,
but it often gets translated hell. So it can be quite confusing to hear
that and think that that's where Jesus went, but that's not the case.
He went to Hades, which shall also refers to the place of the dead.
Other scriptures of the New Testament would talk about the same thing and refer
to shol or Hades as a temporary place where souls are kept as they wait
for their final resurrection and judgment. You find out more at Revelation twenty eleven
fifteen. So it's really one of those things that it's like heaven. If
you think of heaven, it often refers to the layers of heaven, and
the layers of heaven really are not layers of heaven at all. It's different
heavens. So they talk about the first heaven. The first heaven is the
sky that you see if you're standing on the earth and you look up and
you see blue sky's the first heaven. Second heaven would be space. You
see space, that's when the atmosphere drops and changes, the sun goes down,
you actually get to see the stars in the heavens. That's the that's
heavens, right, So that's number two. Number three heaven is actually the
domicile of God, and that's different, So it depends how it's used.
As well, and sometimes they have different references and people get confused based on
those, so they're going, well, was he in heaven or was he
not in heaven? Where did he go? So, yes, it can
be confusing. It's because those words are often mistranslated into hell. But if
you get a good lexicon and you want to do some word studies, you
can go back and forth and you can see which word was used where,
even for the word hell, which word was used, how it was defined.
Those types of things that might give you some clarity and understanding that otherwise
might be lost. And that's not the first and only time that happens.
Things like that do get tossed in there from the HD dealing not necessarily a
bad translation, it's just a confusing translation if you're not familiar with every other
word that's going on in conjunction with it. From the HD deals, if
you're just looking at that kind of well, I know what hell is,
I know what heaven is. To kind of put those into their own category
and you keep going. Sometimes you might miss exactly what's going on. KFI
AM six on Demand