How to Get Closer to God, explained as a video game

join me as I walk you through each of the three big levels of the Christian Life you must complete in order to beat the game and reach the level every Christian longs to play level Infinity starting with level one imagine your character in a video game called life the goal of the game is to finish level one with enough life to get into level two but you have a problem the game is pretty much impossible to beat for starters there are these pits called in that you have to jump over but your avatar doesn't have

the ability to jump over most of the pits which explains why your default Avatar's name is sinner every time you fall into one of these pits your heart loses more life this is a problem because you need 100% life to get into level Infinity oh yeah and at any moment the game could end but you don't know when seems pretty impossible right but as you're playing the game you notice something interesting every once in a while you pass someone named Jesus who has a new heart in his hand he says that he can replace your

heart which has lost a ton of Life at this point with a new heart that has unlimited life you ignore him at first because you want to beat the game on your own without any help but soon you realize that it's impossible and that if the game suddenly stops it's game over for you so you accept the free gift of unlimited life immediately your old dying heart is replaced with the new heart but not only do you get a new new heart with unlimited life other things happen too first your avatar is changed into one

that looks similar to Jesus Avatar You're Now set apart to be on his team this is called sanctification the Bible says when you receive Christ's gift of unlimited or eternal life he also transforms you into a new creation second your name is changed from sinner to righteous this is called justification the Bible says when we put our faith in Christ we become righteous in God's eyes third you are promised to get into level infinity even if the time runs out before you get there this is called glorification the Bible says that you are sealed by

the Holy Spirit meaning you are promised eternity with God in heaven after you die but this introduces an important question why even bother struggling to get to the end of level one when you know you're going to automatically get to level infinity even if the game suddenly ends before you get there because there's something else that happens which is actually pretty exciting Jesus doesn't just leave you there to play the game yourself he asks you to follow him because the lessons you learn in level one will help you in level Infinity although you still mess

up and fall into sin sometimes you are continually encouraged by Jesus to get up and try again but when you do fall you never lose any life because you always have the unlimited life that Jesus gave you this is called discipleship the Bible says that Christians should lay aside the sin that can easily trip us up and follow Jesus to the end so now that we have briefly defined salvation how can you lose it there are two main ways people say you can lose your salvation the first way people say you can lose your salvation

is by repetitive sin maybe some of you don't feel saved because of how often you've sinned I mean someone whose name was changed to righteous shouldn't be falling into sin as much as you are right the truth is you shouldn't someone who is truly transformed by Christ should be someone who also follows him daily but sometimes we fail in following him in fact every one of us fails to follow him daily sometimes this happens when we ignore Jesus for a few minutes to think about something we shouldn't of course most people would say you can't

lose your salvation over something as small as this but some people ignore Jesus for months or even years at a time continually sinning so then if we can lose our salvation by continually sinning then the question becomes how many sins can we commit before we do lose salvation the truth is the Bible doesn't answer this question which tells me that you can't lose your salvation by repetitive sin don't forget that you've already received eternal life if repetitive sin could keep you out of heaven then Jesus wouldn't have used the word Eternal which means forever or

unlimited to describe our salvation he would have called it temporary life Instead This is why I think the second way people say you can lose your salvation is a much more compelling argument the Bible talks about people who fall away from the faith and it's found in the book of Hebrews chapter 6 so let's look at this passage together take a look at verse 4 for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the Heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God

and the power of the age to come this is clearly talking about a Believer here someone who's been enlightened someone who has the Holy Spirit but Watch What Happens Next if they fall away to renew them again to repentance this is talking about a Christ Christian who has rejected Christ becoming unsaved and is trying to be renewed again to repentance but remember the word impossible this word impossible encompasses all of this that you see here the author was trying to teach the Jewish Believers that it's impossible for someone to get saved and then get unsaved

and then resaved again it would mean that Jesus would have to be crucified again it is impossible ble to give back eternal life get unjustified and unsanctified because there would be nothing left of you your old life was crucified with Christ on the cross and he isn't going to do it again congratulations you just beat level one and now you understand salvation but it's in level two that something devious happens Impostors manag to skip level one and take a shortcut to level two let let's see who will stand a chance against the final boss of

level two imagine there are three players called christans in a video game called life and the only way to beat the game is to finish with enough life to beat the final boss but there's a problem only one of these Christians will actually be successful the other two so-called Christians will fail miserably in the end and the only way to identify which Christian will win and which will lose is to carefully observe how each player plays the game Watch carefully and ask God which of these three Christians am I Christian number one very early in

the game this player made a decision to identify himself with Jesus he even put on a Christian hat to let everyone know I'm with him but after that he played the game the way he wanted and was losing quite a bit of Life as a result Christian number one was practically at zero life before facing the final boss but before we see what happens to our friend here I have a confession to make Christian number one used to be me I was what you would call a cultural Christian I grew up going to church I

knew all the Bible stories and I even raised my hand in Vacation Bible School to accept Jesus in my heart but when I took an honest look at my life I couldn't see any evidence that I was God's if I didn't tell you that I was a Christian you would have never known based on the way that I live my life this is because I wasn't living for God I was living for me and for me being a Christian was no different than being an American praying was no different than washing my hands before I

ate there was nothing about my faith that was real it was all just cultural until I read this terrifying verse in the Bible in the Book of Matthew Jesus describes a day when these cultural Christians are going to be in his presence they're going to say Lord Lord look at all these great things we did we prophesied in your name we cast out demons in your name we did all of these wonders in your name but then Jesus will turn to them and say depart from me I never knew you you who practice lawlessness when

I read this verse I was horrified because I knew that this was me going to church and praying couldn't make me a Christian any more than going to Chick-fil-A and dipping myself in barb barue sauce could make me a chicken nugget if I would have continued living like this I wouldn't have stood a chance on the day of judgment I'm going to tell you exactly what I did to become a real Christian in a moment but first let's take a look at Christian number two this player started out similar to the first player he too

identified himself with Jesus but unlike Christian number one Christian number two was already thinking about how he was going to face the final boss every time he slipped up and lost life he would make up for the Lost Life by punching a good deeds box this would give him a PowerUp so he could keep playing by the time he faced the final boss he was full of life and full of confidence that he would win this battle I remember reading about someone who was just like this he was an ordained English minister in the 1700s

and was even president of the Holy Club at Oxford University yes that was a thing one day he was caught in a deadly storm but noticed that there was a group of missionaries aboard praising God because they knew they were going to heaven even if they died on that ship even though he was a famous Minister preaching to thousands in England he realized on that ship in that storm that he did not have the same peace that these missionaries did he realized that none of his Good Deeds could could save him from hell not even

being president of the Holy Club it is only by God's infinite grace that anyone is saved the man in our story is none other than John Wesley and he's what I would call a religious Christian this person is considered a genuinely good person by the others around them but this Christian is putting faith in their own good works to save them if they don't repent like John Wesley did they too won't stand a chance on Judgment Day Christian number three this player also started out the same way the first two players did he identified himself

with Jesus and then started doing what Christian number two did collecting powerups from the good deed boxes every time he failed but this player still really struggled and was terrified about what would happen when he faced the final boss so Christian number three did the unthinkable he quit he stopped trying to beat the game on his own and cried out to Jesus Jesus responded by supplying Christian number three with unlimited life and said follow me but for some reason even though Christian number three had been given unlimited life and was following Jesus he was still

terrified that he wouldn't stand a chance against the final boss he thought to himself how can I face the most difficult challenge of all when I can barely dodge a bullet moving a mile an hour this person is what I would would call the doubting Christian when I realized that none of my good works or church attendance could save me I surrendered my life to Christ and allowed him to change me from the inside out if you're unsure if your life has been transformed by Christ the Bible actually has a checklist that you can compare

yourself to in the book of Galatians this chapter here describes a person of the Flesh and a person of the spirit describes a fake Christian and a real Christian says that the fake Christian is someone who will be habitually practicing idolatry sorcery which is another word for drug use hatred contentions jealousies outbursts of Wrath and so on but the real Christian will produce traits such as love joy peace longsuffering kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control this passage is not saying that a real Christian will never mess up it's saying that when the Holy Spirit enters

you that he convicts you of all of these things and produces these things in their place so even though you've put your trust in Christ sometimes you still mess up and go back to your sins when this happens you start thinking to yourself would a real Christian be sinning like this and then you start questioning maybe I'm not saved if that's you there's something you must know you guys when I stood this it settled all doubts I had about being a real Christian and it can be summed up in one word sanctification let me explain

imagine you buy a used car that car is now your car positionally that car is fully owned by you but it's had some damage done to it over the years it's got some dents on the bumper the paint is chipping and don't even get me started on the interior it's your car but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done when I finally became a real Christian God adopted me as his son I was now his but there was still a lot of work that God needed to do on me that's

where the process of sanctification comes in God begins to transform us he replaces that engine Smooths out those dings and gives us a new paint job and this often takes some time a lifetime just because you slip up here and there doesn't mean you're not a Christian it just means you're on this road called sanctification and if you haven't guessed already the final boss is called death and as a real Christian it's not something you need to be afraid of because when you go down that pipe one day you'll realize that this final boss was

already defeated by your savior at the cross the battle has already been won so the only thing left for you to do is love God congrats you've just beat level two and you now know what it is to be a real disciple of Jesus Christ you can now move on to level three this level will be your greatest challenge by far because unlike level two where there was a very clear final boss to beat there is a test you will come across in level three that is much more subtle but extremely dangerous this is the

level where your faith is truly put to the test imagine your life as a video game in this game you are collecting as many coins as you can but it isn't easy sometimes you're dodging Fireballs other times you're scaling Great Heights all in pursuit of another coin it was fun at first but all of this effort and all of these coins are really starting to weigh you down you feel like you can't pursue one more coin when suddenly Jesus comes along and says follow me immediately your burden is lifted from you and you begin to

follow Jesus pursuing him is like playing a whole new game a game filled with fun and Adventure but without the burden and loneliness you felt before everything is going great when you suddenly come across this a red pipe with the sign reading free coins inside you realized that since you started following Jesus you stopped collecting coins with zero coins to your name it appears that you're losing the game of Life compared to the other players without consulting your savior you jump at the opportunity and go down the red pipe suddenly you are completely surrounded by

coins and what's even more exciting every time you take a coin another one appears in its place you remember what it was like to collect these shiny coins and think to yourself why did I ever stop a day goes by and you continue collecting coins then a week a month now it's been a year and you are still there competing with the other players you feel alone and weighed down like you did before Jesus showed up in your game you don't know how to escape at this point and feel like maybe shutting off the game

for good we're going to come back to our game in just a moment because it's critical that you know how to get out of this pit but first I have a confession to make this guy was me I'm honestly embarrassed to talk about this publicly but if it can help one person watching this video it's worth it not too long after I became a Christian I started to develop an addiction to sinful images on my iPhone it started with one image I saw but that wasn't enough I was curious to see more and before I

knew it I was addicted I'll admit I was jealous of the people I saw on social media these guys who seem like they had it all the girls the money the status I felt alone and ashamed but also paralyzed to break this addiction until I came across this passage in the Book of Revelation In this passage Jesus gave me three steps to escape the Trap that I had put myself in let's take a look at them together Jesus is talking to the church at Ephesus and says you have left your first love do these three

steps to return to me or else you'll end up becoming useless in this life step number one is to remember where you have fallen so you're trapped in this pit you're depressed but can't see any way out when suddenly you see a figure come through the red pipe it's Jesus he simply walks up to you and says remember me as you lift your face you look into his memories begin to flood your mind you remember how he found you when you were completely alone and and lifted your heavy burden from you you remember the joy

and peace you had while following him you remember what life was like before going down the red pipe this is the first step to getting out of the pit you're in and back to Jesus you need to remember where you have fallen but sometimes this isn't always easy to do which is why I want to give you two quick tips that helped me remember where I had fallen after giving into my addiction for months the first thing I did to help me remember was to find those old worship songs I had listened to shortly after

Christ saved me I know this sounds almost too simple but listening to these songs transported me back to the time where I felt freedom from the burdens of my sin I remembered the intense love and devotion I used to have for Jesus I began listening to these old songs on repeat constantly through the day and was able to truly worship Jesus again but listening to these songs wasn't enough I had to put my memories on paper I bought a journal and began to write down everything I was remembering so I wouldn't forget it again I

wrote down how he saved me what I was thankful to him for and how I had strayed the songs and journaling led me to remember the life I had in Christ which naturally led me to step number two step number two is to repent this is a word that most Christians don't really understand the Greek word for repentance in the Bible is metanoia and it means to have a radical change in the way you've been thinking about reality after you remember what it was like to be rescued by Christ and follow him a Godly sorrow

should follow because you will realize something shocking that you hadn't fully realized before you've been playing the wrong game this whole time you thought that because everyone else was collecting coins it was important for you to collect them too you can hear Jesus say the goal of the game was never to follow the coins the goal of the game was to follow me into the next level level Infinity in fact these coins aren't even worth anything there you then weep as you realize that you've wasted the last year chasing something completely worthless in the Bible

people who had similar realizations would put on un comfortable ragged clothes called sackcloth and would literally sit in dirt and Ashes to show how sorry they were for their sin this outward demonstration represented an inward change of the Mind called repentance the reason I had been addicted to my sin was very simple even though I knew that what I was doing was wrong I thought it was the only thing that could bring me a real sense of happiness at the time every time I sinned I got a quick jolt of enjoyment followed by the burden

of Shame and loneliness which of course led me to do it again and again to alleviate the shame and loneliness I felt I was playing a game I was never designed to play a game that was leading me to death but once Jesus showed up again and I remembered my life outside of the addiction I was finally able to repent I realized that something had to change no matter matter the cost I got help by confessing my wrongdoing to my pastor and deleted social media off my phone I gave back my burden to the only

one I knew could take it from me and began to do step number three but I must give you a big giant warning some people never get to step number three because they feel like a hypocrite the word hypocrite has its origins in the theater the hypocrite was the actor who wore multip mle masks during a show you might feel like you've messed up so bad that if you start following Jesus again it'll be like you're just putting on a mask but I have a question that only you can answer who's behind the mask if

you say I'm a Child of God because of my faith in Jesus then you're not a hypocrite when you follow Christ you're a hypocrite when you don't follow him knowing this should give you the confidence to begin step number number three do the first Works after remembering where you have fallen and repenting the next thing to do is let Jesus take you out of the red pipe and do what you did before follow him and don't ever look back again you'll be tempted to either go back to your sin or to start condemning yourself after

Jesus has already forgiven you don't do it instead do the first Works do those things you used to do when you were following Jesus the closest this will include reading your Bible daily getting involved in your local church and most importantly worshiping Jesus when no one is looking you've just completed the most difficult level of all for most Christians and are now on your way to level Infinity when suddenly you fall into this deep pit this is a theological trap that many solid Christians fall into when they least expect it while they are being faithful

to follow Jesus and read their Bible they come across a verse that makes them question everything a verse about a sin that can never be forgiven imagine your life is a video game and you are in a pit that is many levels deep whenever you sin it's like you jump down a level when suddenly someone comes along throws you a rope and tells you to grab the Rope so he can pull you out you know in your heart that he is a good guy you contemplate whether or not you should take the Rope but you

decide not to touch it and instead go deeper into the dark pit but as you do this you notice something interesting happening every time you go deeper the Rope gets longer no matter how deep you go into the darkness the Rope is still there even when it's too dark to see the Rope is there and you can grab it at any time so here's the problem most people think of the unforgivable sin as a level that is so deep not even God's saving rope of Grace can reach it the idea that there is some huge

sin that the blood of Christ cannot cover is Unthinkable to us as Christians just look at this verse here where sin abounds Grace abounds much more this is why many respected Bible scholars have suggested that the unforgivable sin has nothing to do with the length of the Rope but instead has everything to do with time they say that a person has a limited amount of time to choose to grab the Rope you can run as far away from Christ as you want until eventually you die then your ability to grab the Rope is no more

and this is definitely true Bible says that man is permitted to die once then comes the Judgment you are only given One Life to make your choice between Christ's free Saving Grace or your sin but although I agree wholeheartedly with this statement I don't per personally believe that that's what the unforgivable sin is why because it's not what the text says take a look at Matthew 31 Jesus says that the blasphemy against the holy spirit will not be forgiven the word blasphemy used here literally means to speak evil against Jesus even defines blasphemy in the

next verse anyone who speaks a word against the son of man it will be forgiven him but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit it will not be forgiven him is the unforgivable sin as simple as saying anything bad against the Holy Spirit Well if all I had was this verse with no context then I would have to agree with this interpretation I'm going to tell you exactly how Jesus defined the unforgivable sin in a moment but first I find it interesting how many people use the unforgivable sin as an excuse to not follow Christ I

remember trying to share the gospel with someone when he stopped me mids sentence to tell me that he had blasphemed the Holy Spirit he said he was a lost cause and hell was inevitable for him so he might as well just live it up but the truth is that most people have not actually committed the unforgivable sin as you're going to see in a moment it's extremely important whenever reading the scripture to read what is written before and what is written after the passage in question this is called context and it is one of the

most important tools we have to study the Bible so let's take a look at what led to Jesus saying these shocking words about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit a demon-possessed man who is both blind and mute is brought to Jesus Jesus cast out the demon and heals the man completely so that he can see and talk the crowds of course are amazed and no doubt remembered what they learned as good Jewish boys and girls in Bible School growing up the coming savior of the world will Open the Eyes of the Blind and work all

kinds of Miracles and so they asked the obvious question about Jesus could this be the Messiah but there were also some jealous religious leaders in the crowd too they would have known exactly what kind of Miracles the Messiah was going to perform and Jesus had done these Miracles right before their eyes they would have known without a doubt that Jesus was who he claimed to be the Messiah who was prophesied in the scriptures but that's not what they say instead they spread lies they try to convince the people that Jesus is not the Messiah by

saying he casts out demons not by the power of God but by the power of Satan Jesus then shares why this is not logically possible and it's at this point that Jesus says his famous terrifying words every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men but the blasphemy against the holy spirit will never be forgiven so based on the context Jesus was very clearly addressing the sin of the religious leaders the Bible even tells us that Jesus told them this because they were saying he is possessed by an evil spirit so it's clear that the unforgivable

sin is whatever the religious leaders were doing these religious leaders were shown indisputable proof of who Jesus is they knew without a doubt that this was the power of God but not only did they reject Christ but they told everyone around them that it was actually the power of Satan let's go back to our video game illustration and remember it's just an illustration it's not perfect but it's the best I can do to try and explain this imagine you have gone super deep into this pit so far that you can barely even see the light

at the top of the pit anymore but the rope that you have stubbornly refuse to grab is still there you even give some excuses to the others in the pit with you that you are not really really sure what's at the top so you don't want to grab the Rope to find out when suddenly a giant Dove flies down into the dark pit picks you up and flies you to the top of the pit as your eyes adjust to the light you can see the beauty and goodness of God you can finally see the man

at the top for who he is a loving Savior and he's reaching out his hand to help you out of the pit but instead of grabbing his hand you spit on his face break free from the Dove and start making your way down the dark pit again and on your way down you tell everyone that the guy at the top is actually an evil man trying to lead people into the Flames of hell you do and say all of this while knowing that the opposite is true and so for this reason although it Grieves his

heart the Savior accepts your full rejection and removes the rope from you leaving you to your decision you see the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit cannot be committed in ignorance only someone who has been given full revelation of who Jesus is is capable of committing this sin this is why some scholars believe that the Pharisees In this passage were the only ones who were ever guilty of this sin they were given full light but instead called it Darkness although I personally believe it's possible to commit this sin I think it's highly unlikely because most people

have not been shown this much light they can't hide behind the unforgivable sin the Rope is still there for them to grab no matter how far they've run from God maybe you've been like that man running from God and going deeper and deeper into your sin you feel like you've fallen so far from Jesus that all you see is your sinful darkness and all you hear is the faint echo of his voice but you need to know something the Rope is still there God's arm is not too short that it cannot save you from whatever

you've done in your past you don't need to clean yourself up before you come to him you need to grab on to his grace because he loves you and he has all the power to save you if you'll just turn to him and for those of you Christians who keep worrying if you've committed the unforgivable sin your uncertainty proves that you haven't committed it because like I said earlier you cannot commit this sin in ignorance you're already saved from the dark pit and his loving arms are wide open to you so Embrace him great you

are now out of that horrible pit take a deep breath and praise God because you now understand what it is to be saved by Jesus what it looks like to follow Jesus how to overcome addiction and get rid of the fear of the unforgivable sin that was looming over you you are now ready for level Infinity but before we get there there's something you need to know even though the Christian life is like a video game it's not a game at all it's real it's natur now and it gets way more complicated than the 8bit

video game you just saw but thankfully God hasn't just given us a two-dimensional map to follow he's given us the ultimate life map the Bible as you continue down your Christian Life don't ever forget that Jesus loved you so much he died for you and is preparing a place for you in heaven or as I like to call it level Infinity to find out what the Bible says Heaven is going to be like check out this video here