We have one life to live in this game called life, and forever with the final score!

We have one life to live in this game called life and forever with the final score.

Hello and welcome to the weekly broadcast of Jeshurun Ministry GB in the Bahamas.

For many of us, life is one game after another. Sometimes, our team wins, and there's great jubilation when this happens. At other times, our team loses, and the devastation for the next 24 to 48 hours is unbearable! However, it is never very long before there's another game. And as we wait for game time, excitement once again fills the air and those feel good hormones are released into our system and the atmosphere is rife with anticipation. Sometimes, there may be a little booze and there may be some betting on the side. Our spouse or special friend or friends may also be at the game, or watching it with us on the TV, and there's great camaraderie and banter. Life is grand while the game is going on especially if our team is winning.

And this is the way many live their lives from one day to the other, one week to the other, year after year. They live from one game or sporting event to the next. And if their team fails to make it to the finals or win it all this season, no worries. They have other teams in other sports. And there's always next season.

Have you given a thought about how important the ball game, and its super athletes have become to people all around the world? Are you aware that it has descended to the level of extreme idol worship? Well, let's just take one sport, soccer or real football, football that is played with the feet. This one sport alone has approximately 4 billion fans and 120 million of them fill stadiums annually. The FIFA World Cup for soccer drew five billion viewers.

A sport that flies under the radar is digital gaming. This non-contact virtual sport is unbelievably humongous. Did you know there are at least 3.2 billion gamers in the world today and 1.5 billion of them are in Asia? Millions of men and women are addicted to this lazy sport. Many gamers live a double life. They live in a virtual community and have a whole other family online. And this is infidelity very often.

Let us pray. Our father and our God, we give You thanks. We give You praise for this word and we pray you'll send it forth. We present every listener to this message and any who are guilty of idol worship. We ask Your forgiveness. Father, please forgive them their sins. We ask that You would open their eyes so that they may see clearly and know how they have been offensive and despicable to You by placing sports and the game before You.

Thank You Lord for Your forgiveness in Jesus name. Amen. Friend, please press the subscribe and the like buttons. Please remember to share this message with as many as you can. I pray a special blessing of health, strength and prosperity for anyone who shares this message. God bless you.

We also have basketball and cricket which each have about 2.2 billion fans and the athletes who play various physical sports are idols in the eyes of their fans who love them more than they love life itself.

The global sports economy is huge, and growing day by day. The economic size of the sports industry is pegged at 2.3 trillion! And this includes the various conglomerates of sporting goods, tourism influenced by it and many participants in various businesses. By 2030, it is projected to be almost double that number.

What about betting on sports events? Did you know that six billion people worldwide placed at least one sports bet in the past 12 months? That is 75% of the entire world. And the gambling is considered the most deadly addiction of all addictions because it has the highest rate of suicide of all addictions.

It would be great if the game of life was as simple as a soccer, basketball or internet game. In fact, many have convinced themselves that life is just as simple as this. And this is the way they look at life. Even though it is quite different from this picture and is not anyway like the games that we are used to playing by any stretch of the imagination.

Some gamblers are so reckless that they may even be foolish enough to place a bet on life and the way they think life will turn out for them. Of course, I would not advise this for only God knows what is ahead for each of us.

Perhaps many are deceived by the way things continue to roll along in their own day-to-day routines. They always recover after their team loses a game. They go out day after day and always manage to get back home. So they begin to think life is just like a game. And they feel that somehow they will always have another chance, just like there's always another game and somehow it will always work itself out.

And so they foolishly decide they will deal with the final results of their life whatever they are when they come to that point because they always manage to move on whether their team wins or loses. It's as simple as that.

But wait, what's the score in the game of your life? Are you winning or losing in that most consequential game of all games? Are you at halftime or in the final seconds of the games? Have you truly considered the real consequences of losing it all in the game of life?

Well, here's the sobering reality given us by the holy scriptures according to Hebrews 9:27. It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him, He will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation.

Clearly, this verse is telling us that we will only die once, and this is certain unless Christ returns first. In addition, we must be aware that the very next event after death for unbelievers will be the judgment. They will have to appear before the Lord and answer for how they have lived their lives.

Be aware, friend, that we will not all die. Some will still be alive when Christ returns for salvation, which will occur before the day of judgment. There's no going around twice, my friend. We have one chance to get it right, and then after that will be the judgment. There's no reincarnation where we'll have a second chance.

Is there any way to avoid this day of judgment that is appointed unto every man and every woman? Guess what? There is. Thankfully, believers in Christ are urged to judge themselves daily. And this will enable them to avoid being judged in the final white throne judgment.

Yes, 1 Corinthians 11:31 and 32 make this crystal clear, telling us, "For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world."

In other words, we should do daily analysis, introspections, and evaluations of our motives, the reasons that we do what we do. And this relates to the things we think, the things we say, the things we do, not only before going to communion, but every day. So this is a requirement for every area of our life, calling upon us to inspect our own life, confessing sins, correcting ourselves when we say and do wrong things.

And this scripture encourages us not to wait for the judgment but to be real with ourselves every living day. This is absolutely necessary in order to live a life that is holy. Unfortunately, many of us refuse to be accountable to anyone and not even to ourselves. We do no self-reflection. We take no responsibility for our behavior and we keep moving along from one day to the other. Keep in mind friend that life is not really a game.

Yes my friend some may consider life to be a game but if life is a game it is no ordinary one. It is a totally different kind of game from the ones the world enjoy watching.

If life is a game it is one in which the table is not rigged, the match is not fixed and one in which you will have to play the cards that you're dealt. Only those who study and believe God's Word know how the game is played and how to score or win. If life is a game, it is a game in which all who run and make it across the finish line established by God are declared winners. It is a game in which the enemy is wearing camouflage and very few people are astute enough to recognize and deal with the enemy. Those who cannot identify the enemy fight against their fellow man, believing that he is the enemy, meanwhile, Satan and his demons are having a grand time at their expense.

If life is a game, it is one in which the linesmen, the umpires, and the referees are all fair and they never miss a call, they are always perfect. It is a kind of game in which everyone can win but strangely enough only a small amount will win and those who simply believe and do as instructed are the ones who will win the prize.

If life is a game, it is one in which the strength to run the race is supplied to every runner one day at a time by the Master. All those who compete in this life by doing the will of the Father are fed every day by that which comes down from the Father of Lights and He never changes.

It is a game in which help from above is available to all who will call upon Him for help. It is a game in which there's no halftime, a game in which none of the players really know the score, because the scores are kept in heaven. And the game in which there's no set time for the length of the game, and no one knows when it really will be over.

Here's something to think about. What did King Solomon mean by saying life is vanity and vexation of spirit? Well, he was simply saying that all the things like the game and sports upon which we place so much emphasis are really nothing.

He was saying unless God is the main ingredient in the formula, unless your heart is right with Him, everything else is a waste of time, a chasing after the wind.

He was saying, "Unless you're putting God above all things, fearing Him, and being obedient to His commandments, it is certain that at the end of the day, your spirit will be vexed at how you have wasted your time."

The Gospel of Luke paints a vivid picture for all who think life is a game that goes around and around. And those who are dwelling in a false sense of security will be surprised. Those who are following false doctrines that dismiss hellfire and who do not believe Satan is a real and deceptively evil character bent on the stealing, killing, and destroying of God's creations called mankind. That person is in for a surprise. On that day, they will be beside themselves with remorse and sorrow, but it will be too late.

Here's how it will unfold. Scripture says, "When once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open for us." And He will answer and say to you, "I do not know you where you are from." And then you will begin to say, "We ate and drank in Your presence, and you taught in our streets." But He will say, "I tell you, I do not know you where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." Luke 13:25-28.

This is saying that when Christ has come and you're left behind, no matter how passionately you scream and holler after Him, He will not respond to your call! No matter what evidence you give about how you attended church or read the Bible will be acceptable if your motives were wrong in the first place. He will insist that He never knew you because you never knew Him. You never sought Him. It was always about you and your selfish desires.

And when you see all the people you despised and your neighbor whom you hated in the kingdom, you will be shocked. And the Word of God is telling us that your disappointment will turn to sorrow. And then your sorrow to grief and your grief will cause lamenting and tears. And your tears will become uncontrollable weeping. Your weeping will turn into the madness of grinding your teeth like a mad man or a mad woman. God bless His holy and wonderful Word.

You're listening to this message and perhaps you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior or you've wandered away from Him. This is a great opportunity for you to commit your way unto the Lord. This final time or maybe the first time, but this time it will hold. It will stick. Please say this prayer after me. Engage your heart and be prepared to turn away to change:

• Father, I am a sinner.

• I am sorry for all my sins.

• I crave Your forgiveness.

• I must have Your forgiveness.

• I want to turn from wickedness and toward Jesus Christ, making Him my Lord and Savior.

• Dear Lord Jesus,

  I give You the key to my heart.

• Thank You for making it Your home.

• Please give me the Holy Spirit to give me wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, to keep me on the narrow path that leads to salvation.

• Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Amen.

Welcome friend to the body of believers in Christ. Now the journey begins. First I encourage you to become water baptized as quickly as possible. Let your pastor know that you've committed your life to the Lord and you want to be baptized the way Jesus Christ was baptized.

Begin reading the Word of God. Begin in the book of John. Then go to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Reading every day because it is your daily spiritual food. Reading audibly for faith comes by hearing the Word, the Word of God. Pray daily. Attend at your local church and one glad morning the Savior will come and receive you unto Himself and you shall forever be with the Lord. God bless and keep you in Jesus mighty name. Amen.