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1st Corinthians chapter 15 verses 29 through 34. 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verses 29 through 34.
Would you please stand with me as we get into God's holy word? Else, what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. And if after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage it me if the dead rise not? Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
Be not deceived. Evil communications corrupts good manners. Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. Father, thank you for your holy word. We desire to be awake Lord.
Awaken to righteousness. We do not want to, walk in the gray Lord. We don't wanna walk in darkness. We wanna walk in the light as you're in the light. And Lord, we pray evermore in these last days and the time of great great deception.
That lord, we would not be filled with shame or guilty in trying to, stay in a place of gray or even darkness, lord, to avoid, the persecution, to avoid the scrutiny.
Lord, I pray that we'd come out from the shadows, that we'd get on the rooftops, and we'd shout the good news of your coming kingdom.
I pray, lord, that you'd help us, lord, organize, have a systematic theology in our heart and mind of the essentials of the Christian faith, not waver, not compromise, one iota, lord, not one bit.
I pray that we'd be students of prophecy, lord, and we'd be able to give an answer of the hope that's within us with meekness and fear to people that don't have a clue.
Lord, help us evermore to rise above the status quo of the times we're living in, lord.
This apostasy, this rebellion, this falling away from the faith. Lord, make us make us those that are, well equipped well equipped, lord, to do the work you called us to do.
So bless now, we pray. Be our teacher. Open the scriptures. Start understanding we ask. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you please be seated? Some of the professing professing believers of Corinth, and we use that word professing.
We have, true believers. We have professing believers. And, some profess that they know god, but in works, they deny him. Meaning, their character, their behavior isn't consistent with that of being a Christian.
They profess that they know him, but, Jesus said you'll know them by their fruit. And you know in the election cycle that people make a lot of promises.
People posture themselves, to act like they're Christians presently. And, and we as Christians, we need to be wise according to Matthew 7 because Jesus said, many will come to us in, you know, wolves in sheep's clothing.
And a lot of false doctrine, a lot of false Christs, and false prophets, and YouTube prophets, and everybody circulating things.
But something as basic as the resurrection. How could the church of Corinth succumb to something so basic, so elementary, so I mean, this is this is this is the bottom.
This is Christianity 101, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus. How could there be a certain group of people in Corinth so confused about the resurrection that they don't even think there is a resurrection, you know?
What what's up with that? So Paul says, this is to your shame. You need to wake, you know, to righteousness. Jesus said that the children of this age are wiser than you and I as sheep. Sheep are pretty stupid.
How smart are wolves in comparison to sheep? How smart are the devil's minions in the time in which we're living presently? Can we be tricked? Can we be confused? Can we be filled with fear and anxiety and and, you know, overwhelmed?
If we don't know the promises of God, if we're not standing on the promises of God, how many people do we know that attend church that claim to be Christians might find out the Lord say to them one day, away from me.
I never knew you, you that practice iniquity.
They got the Christianese down. They know to call him Lord, Lord. They say that they go to church and, you know, I I I was so excited, about the recent, you know, Trump victory that I went out and got me a Trump bible.
It's signed and everything. It's a patriotic bible. And, I got new sheets in my bed.
I've got it's a it's a flag that I that I sleep on, you know? Because I think Jesus is an American, you know? I think that's I think that's what's being conveyed, that we are special. We're just really special, you know?
And, it's it's the Christmas season, and I just can't wait for all the gifts, all the things that that are gonna be fixed, you know? And, but I wanna ask you a question. Do you think there's going to be a financial reset? Yes. Yes.
Do you think the dollar's going by the wayside? Yes. Lot of lot of yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. That means you're awake. And if that happens, the present administration is gonna be the administration that, implements this.
So I just encourage you to go, to the Calvary Chapel Bremerton, Facebook page, and I put a article there this week from Catherine Austin Fitz, and it's about a 20 minute article.
And she described our president as, a man with multiple personality disorder.
So if we get the one guy, we as people that are awake from the ground up can resist globalism, can resist, you know, the the digital everything, the AI and all that.
But if we, aren't aware and aren't on our game and we go back to sleep, you know, the title of the message is awake to righteousness.
Whole lot of people awakened. Right? Can't go back to sleep. We gotta be vigilant. We gotta be aware. We gotta know what's going on. So if we're awake, we can slow down, and that's the picture the Lord gives us as salt and light.
We as Christians, we slow down the corruption by exposing the lies, and that's what they hate the most. Right? And so we if we if we're on our game and we recognize, hey.
Wait a minute. We've gotta vet these guys. I encourage you to vet every single person. I heard some prominent Republican people during the election cycle say, well, he's running with JD Vance. We don't know nothing about him.
Excuse me? You don't know nothing about this guy? You haven't vetted him? You're you're gonna Catherine Rosson Fitts says he's gotta put together 10 cabinet members, and then it extends to a1000, which extends to 10,000.
So let's just focus on the 10 this week. Let's let's vet because we don't wanna be deceived.
We wanna make sure that we're getting a nationalistic president who who adheres to the sovereignty of America. I put another, one on our thing where Sherry Tenpenny and Facebook wiped it out.
Sherry Tenpenny is pointing out that the UN remember we talked about this? The UN slipped in a deal, during this whole election cycle to where, we would surrender our sovereignty to them in the event of another pandemic.
So your sheriff's in Kitsap County and those that are protecting you from the mandates, this next time around it have more teeth.
Compulsory. And if we move in a direction of a digital ID and a digital currency, Catherine Austin Fitts calls that a digital concentration camp. Her words, not mine. That means it's game over in regard to freedom.
So we better be on our game. We better be aware. And as Christians, we better be sure that we're not embracing people, posturing themselves as Christians and quit thinking and say, well, we're just gonna let them make those decisions.
We've gotta be involved from the ground up in Kitsap County everywhere if we wanna slow this globalism down.
The globalist. Now, I can see the B system approaching. I can see it. I can see that the Jews want a temple. I can see Israel in the land, May 14, 1948. Prior to this, the return of Christ, it wouldn't be imminent, would it?
But since Israel's in the land and since in Matthew 24, Jesus is speaking of the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, well, it can't happen unless Israel's in the land.
90% of Christianity, 90% of the time of the church age, Israel wasn't in the land. And there's no temple. But they're practicing. They're getting ready.
The priests are getting ready. And they're getting ready to rebuild the temple, aren't they? There can be no beast to go into the temple and declare himself to be god and the man to be worshiped as god unless Israel's in the land.
And the imminent return of Christ is such that it can happen at any moment. So I'm not gonna tell you it's gonna happen at the midpoint of the tribulation period because that would be a lie, because there wouldn't be any imminency.
You would know. You could count 1260 days in to the signing of the peace treaty, and you would know he's coming back at the midpoint.
If I told you he's coming at the end of the tribulation period, you could count another 1260 days from the abomination of desolation.
3 and a half years, 42 months, 1260 days. And Jesus would return and we'd just be raptured and come right back with him. But it's imminent because he's coming before the signing of the peace treaty.
He's coming before the 77 of Daniel. And so we're not gonna be deceived. We're not in a church that doesn't teach prophecy. Amen. We're not gonna be ashamed at his coming because we didn't awaken to righteousness.
We're gonna be involved in every sphere of the culture. We're not gonna abdicate our responsibility in the public schools anymore and just leave the education of children to fairies.
Trans this, trans that. People are more active. They're more aware. We went asleep. If we've learned anything, we can't be asleep at the wheel.
We can't be sheep. So stupid that we don't even see a wolf or wolves, plural. So your homework assignment, vet those that are appointed. Ask yourself, is this person connected to George Soros?
Is this person connected to the bankers, Larry Fink, BlackRock, Chase Bank? Who are they connected to? Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel JD Vance is connected to Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel is the guy that started PayPal.
He's a globalist, just to not burst your bubble. All the technocrats are surrounding pres our president now. It looks like we're headed toward globalism. But according to Catherine Austin Fitz, there's this personality.
She called it personality, not derangement center, but multi a multi personality. And I hope the personality that we get is the one that tells us what we wanna hear, and he actually backs it up with actions.
He knows what we wanna hear. He's good at it. But I want you, as Jesus said in Matthew 7, you'll know them by their fruits. No rhetoric, no promises, no excuses this time. You've had 4 years to get it right.
Now it's time to do, and we have to hold them to the fire. One of the things they don't like is that, that we're awake. They wanna push legislation to censor you so that you can't point out that doctor Tenpenny thing that we posted.
They've already blocked it. And she's talking about the UN, what happened this week in regard to medical. And they blocked it, said it's a lie. Well, we need to be aware. We don't wanna be surprised.
We don't want those 30 monkeys that got away for them to be able to build a case that there's monkeypox going on. You know? 30 monkeys escaped the lab. You know? I mean Monkeypox. Monkeypox. Right there, baby. Alright.
So my daddy wasn't a monkey, and, I'm not worried about it. So awake to righteousness. So some of them that profess to be Christians, I mean, the basic, basic, basic, basic, they do not believe in the bodily resurrection of believers.
So how illogical is this? How unreasonable, you know, our faith is based on this? If the dead rise not, you know, we're of all men most miserable, we saw last week.
And so this morning, 3 three problems if the dead rise not. Number 1, if the dead rise not, why baptize? Why would you baptize somebody if the dead rise not?
When you're being baptized by me, we, we try to let you know that it's an act of obedience. We let you know that it doesn't save you. We we when we dedicate babies, we dedicate babies on behalf of the parents.
The parents are promising God that we're gonna raise these children in the nurture and admonition of the lord. We don't sprinkle the babies and baptize them because that's an act of obedience.
It's the outward expression of an inward reality of my faith in Jesus, his death, his burial, his resurrection. And now at an age of accountability, I I come forward because it's an act of obedience. He said, go preach the gospel.
Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all things I've commanded you, you know, and along with you always, even at the end of the age.
And so we leave it up to the person to determine when and if they wanna be baptized.
And then when we come across the church of Christ people and they say, hey, you know, you're not saved if, if you're not baptized. This jack is really bugging me. All all day long, I'll be messing with it.
Okay. There we go. Alright. So there we go. That feels better. So church of Christ, I've been I've been confronted out front here with people from church of Christ before and it's happened my whole Christian life.
That if you're not baptized, you're not saved. And then many of them go to the extent of, if you're not baptized, you know, wearing the secret underwear of the Mormons, you're not saved.
And you know, on and on and on and on. And then you and then you simply say to them real simple. You say, what about the thief on the cross? Jesus said, this day, you'll be with me in paradise.
Salvation is by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ. The act of obedience is such that I wanna identify with him. I wanna obey him, and I want everyone to know publicly that I'm no secret agent Christian.
That if you deny me before men, I'll deny you before my father and the angels of heaven. If you confess me before men, I'll confess you before my father and the angels of heaven.
And so the glorious experience of professing all your friends and family and everybody that you're a Christian. I'm a Christian, and I identify with Jesus, his death, his burial, his resurrection.
But if he didn't raise himself from the dead, why would we ever have a baptism? What what are we doing? And then there's also a proxy baptism here mentioned.
The Corinthians and the, Marcionites are a cult at the time, and they would actually baptize for the dead. So what they would do is somebody would profess to be a Christian, and then they die before they could be baptized.
And they felt bad for him, and so they might not enter into heaven unless we do a proxy baptism for him. So they're gonna baptize themselves for the dead.
And then if you have any Mormon relatives like I do, when they retire from working, a lot of them travel around the country and they go to all these places to look up the genealogies of all their ancestors and family members.
And what they do then is some of them will brag, you know, that I've been baptized 400 times for family and friends.
You know, I looked them up, and I went all the way back in the family tree, and I made sure that they're gonna make it into Mormon heaven, you know, and, baptized forms.
So baptism by proxy. So Paul takes the misunderstanding or the aberrant cults, which they're doing, what the church of Corinth was aware of, the baptism for the dead.
But we just interpret it very simply as the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus. If he's not resurrected, then why are we or any of us to be baptized?
Our children, yes, we're gonna dedicate them to the lord. And we're gonna say like Hannah, Hannah you know, lord, thank you for this child Samuel, and lord, we dedicate him back unto you.
You gave him to me. And lord, you know, I I agreed with you that if you give me a child, I'll I'll give him back to you.
And he became the first prophet and the last of the judges in the book of judges in 1st and second Samuel. And so, god denied her a child until she came to the place of hearing from the lord as to what this child would do for him.
So these children belong to the Lord, and he's entrusted you and I to raise them in that nurture and admonition of the Lord.
And we saw where Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to, the temple, and Simeon and Anna were there, and they came to dedicate Jesus, you know, under the under the Lord, and so, the firstborn.
And so we recognize that. But that's the point of baptism. My grandkids, Judah's 14, he was recently baptized.
And so we wait for the kids to reach an age where they wanna publicly, you know, be baptized. Kathy and I were baptized when we were 20 years old because we didn't get saved till we were 20 years old.
I got baptized in the swimming pool by Randy Ziegler, and, he's a great guy evangelist at the concerts and stuff I used to go to Saturday nights.
And, and Cathy is baptized by pastor Ken Ortiz from Calvary Chapel Spokane at, Pirates Cove, and I recently posted a picture of that.
And, and my daughters were also baptized at Pirates' Cove. And when I asked my grandkids, hey. Do you guys wanna be baptized? They said, we wanna wait till we go to Pirates' Cove, papa. I said, okay. Alright.
And some of you, you wanna be baptized a second time when you go to Israel, and there's nothing wrong with that. You go to Israel, I wanna be baptized in the Jordan. I wanna be baptized in the Gihon Springs. A lot of people do that.
And it doesn't matter how many times you're baptized. Just identify, you know, with Jesus. It's a glorious good thing. It's a it's it's a wonderful thing. So we identify with the death, the burial, the resurrection.
But if the dead rise not, why would we identify with this? So what's the point if the dead dead rise not? So the line of reasoning would be illogical, irrational if the dead rise not.
So our faith is in vain, our preaching is vain, and baptism is vain if the dead rise not. Now, in Romans chapter 6 verse 3, Paul says, know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
So when Mike and I are putting you into into the trough, the trough we put outside there to baptize you, if the dead rise not, then we're just gonna leave you down.
You know? What's the point? You know? You're gonna drown. It's not a baptism. It's a drowning. You know? But, if you're baptized, the symbol the symbolism there is, we're baptized unto his death.
We go under the water as the grave, and then we come up out of the water, typifying the resurrection, and we walk in that newness of life. So awake to righteousness. Quit denying the obvious facts of the resurrection. Can you imagine?
Do you really think there's professing Christians in our community that would deny the resurrection? Really? I mean, that's pretty basic, isn't it? I mean, the church of Corinth was having trouble with a lot of things, weren't they?
They were having trouble with immorality in chapter 5. A man had was sleeping with his, you know, father's wife, and they're having trouble in chapter 6 of of suing each other.
They're also having trouble, you know, with immorality. Paul went on to say from verse 9 down a whole list of things.
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. You know? And then in chapter 7, they're having problems in marriage, so he's addressing marriage.
And then they go on to have trouble with, the gifts of the spirit. You know, he's trying to teach them the gifts, everything to be done decently in order and the emphasis upon love in chapter 13.
And so now we're here in 15, it's the big resurrection chapter, and he's making an argument. He's bringing forth an argument that we can use that, hey. The whole heart of the gospel is the resurrection.
So I was over at Sweeney's a week or so ago getting some meat. Yeah. I'm a carnivore, and I was loading up, baby. And, as we're there, there's a customer there, and then there's the gal that works behind the counter.
And she, I don't know. They began to talk crazy stuff. And so I just brought up the resurrection, and both of them they never heard that.
You know, why Jesus? Well, it's because he's the only one that raised himself from the dead. Oh, I never heard that before. And then she says to me, well, where was he from 12 years old on? And I said, well, the bible's silent.
We don't speculate when the bible's silent. We don't know. Well, he was over in India. And I said, well, you're gonna have a hard time proving that. And, I said, we also have the more sure word of prophecy.
And then I began to tell her about 300 prophecies fulfilled in his first coming and covering the state of Texas 2 and a half feet deep, marking 1 silver dollar and putting somebody into the state of Texas blindfolded to find that one silver dollar is mathematically equivalent of 1 man coming on the scene and fulfilling just 8 of the 300 prophecies, 10 to 17th power.
And that's Jesus. He fulfilled over 300. So then you go through and you say, well, in Micah 5 12, where is he supposed to be born?
Bethlehem. How is he supposed to be born? By a virgin? Isaiah 714, Isaiah 96. What tribe? Oh, Genesis 49. Tribe of Judah. So you, off the top of your head, can give them 8 prophecies. That's pretty easy.
And that's equivalent, mathematically, to 1 man fulfilling 300 prophecies. That's why Peter says, we were eyewitnesses of him. We handled him. We touched him. We saw him on the mount. Transfiguration transfigured before us.
And then later, we saw him for 40 days. We handled him. We, Thomas, look at my hands and my you know, where he hit me in the side. You know? Look at the scars. Still bearing the scars. It's me. It's not a ghost, not a spirit. Touch me.
He he's eating you know, he's a carnivore. He's eating fish. He's eating broiled fish. You get it? 40 days, they're with them. So Peter says, we're eyewitnesses. And in our eyewitness testimony, we're willing to die for the truth.
Because we know that we know that we know that he was crucified, buried, and raised himself from the dead, and we don't fear death anymore. When the shepherd was smitten, we, the sheep, scattered.
I denied in one night that I even knew him on 3 different occasions, Peter could say, before the cock a doodle doo. You know? But now my buddy, James, is apprehended by Herod in acts chapter 12, and they killed my buddy, James.
They killed my friend, Steven, in chapter 7. But I'm here in prison. They're gonna kill me after Passover. In just a day or so, they're gonna kill me.
But I'm not afraid. I'm gonna I'm gonna get a good night's sleep because you know what? God's got a problem. In chapter 21 of John, Jesus promised that when you're young, you're gonna go about where you want.
And when you're old, others are gonna grab hold of you and take you where you would not, speaking of what kind of death he was gonna die.
He's gonna die crucifixion. And so tradition says that Peter, thinking of himself unworthy to die in the same manner as his lord, requested that he'd be crucified upside down. So he's crucified upside down.
But in chapter 12, Peter's young. He's he's not ready to die, so he goes to sleep. And then there's a jailbreak. Right? You know the story. And, the angel comes in. Peter, get your shoes on, the whole thing.
These guys weren't afraid of dying. Peter's able to raise Dorcas from the dead. Why would he be afraid of dying? Jesus has raised the raising the widow of Nain's son, raised in Jairus' daughter.
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11 of John. And he declares, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though you're dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes me shall never die.
Believest thou this? You're never gonna die. What is death? How do we define death? Separation from God. Eternal separation from God. You're never gonna be eternally separate from God.
You're gonna separate your old body to enter into your new body, your new glorified body that I'm preparing, but there's no fear of death. To be absent of the body is to be present with the lord.
For me to live as Christ and to die is gain. It's such a boldness, such an incredible boldness that all of them died violent deaths of martyrdom, all except for John the beloved of the disciples, of the apostles.
And he's exiled the island of Patmos. And in chapter 1, he sees a vision of the risen lord, if that isn't enough.
The alpha, the omega, the beginning and the end. The one with the keys of hell and of death. You think these guys feared death? They tried to boil John in oil and he wouldn't boil.
Polycarp was given an escape path. Right? And he says, 80 in 6 years, he's been faithful to me. I'm not gonna deny him now. They burn him. You know, the the lictors, the torturers, the executioners are begging with him.
They don't wanna do this to an old man. And he's like, not a chance, man. Not a chance. It says that blood and water came out and extinguished the the flame when he was being being executed, burning at the stake.
And so therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Awake to righteousness. Quit denying the obvious facts of the resurrection. For verse 5, for if we have been of of Romans 6 verse 5.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. So that planting of seed. So we're told that except a corn and wheat fall to the ground and die, it abides alone.
That seed has to go on the ground and germinate. It has to die. You and I have to die. We have to reckon the old man dead, mortify the deeds of the flesh.
We've gotta be crucified with Christ. You take that seed and we go like him into the ground, we die. The old Rick's dead. Except a corner we fall to the ground, die it abides alone.
But if it die, it bears much fruit. And so our lives become fruitful as a result of being dead, then we're raised from the dead. David said in Psalm 1715, I will behold thy face in righteousness.
I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness, the hope of the resurrection. Mary and Martha had the hope of the Daniel 12:2, resurrection. They hoped in the resurrection.
The Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection, and that's why they were sad, you see. They didn't believe. The Pharisees did. If the dead rise not, why baptize? Secondly, if the dead rise not, why be abused?
Why wouldn't you want your best life now if the dead rise not? Why would you go through the horrors and the persecution and the struggles that the early church went through, specifically, Saul of Tarsus?
Do do you hear Saul of Tarsus? Do you hear the salesmanship in trying to get Saul to convert? Can can you hear the marketing strategy that God used with Saul?
He's he's a he's a blasphemer. He's a chiefless of sinners. He's wasting the church. He's going all the way to Damascus with letters to incarcerate Christians, which was a derogatory term of the Romans.
So how did how did Saul of Tarsus, this hater, this guy that they put the coats of when they were stoning Stephen as he's given consent to the death of Stephen, what kind of methodology, what kind of marketing, what kind of message did he hear?
The lord himself said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he immediately says, who art thou, lord? He's on his face. He's already repenting. I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. Jesus identifying.
We identify with him in baptism, in his death, his burial, his resurrection. He identifies with us as the son of man, not the son of a of an angel. He came as a man, the son of man, the babe of Bethlehem, the seed of the woman.
Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? When you're persecuted, when you go through suffering, you're a reminder to people around you of the crucifixion of Jesus.
You're a reminder to people around you of the millions of people that are Christians that have suffered for only one reason, they're Christians.
The world hates them. Governments hate them. The devil hates them. You're a reminder. And he says, who art thou lord? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. Can you continue to kick against the goads?
Can you continue to resist my love? Jesus said, no man can come on to me except the father who had sent me. Draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day. The holy spirit was drawing Saul of Tarsus to Jesus.
And Jesus tells him to go down the street which is called straight in Damascus, the home of the guy that was that was there. And he sends Annas the prophet, and he says, Annas Ananias, go go there to the house there.
And Saul of Tarsus, behold, he prayeth. And he's he's blind. The lord blinded him. And Ananias says, he's a hitman. You know what that guy's done to people?
There's no way I wanna go there. That guy's dangerous. And here it comes. Know he's a chosen vessel unto me. And here's the punchline. Here's the marketing strategy. Show him what things he must suffer for my name's sake.
That doesn't sell. You you can't convince people to follow Jesus with that kind of a line. Yeah. Those those books aren't gonna sell. You gotta tell them they can have their best life now.
That if they believe hard enough and long enough and give enough, it's always the giving these false prophets. Give and you'll give back. You know? But people buy into it. No mention of getting sick.
No mention of dying. No mention of heartache or kids becoming prodigals. No. None of that. There's a formula here. It's the health and wellness and blab it and grab it and all that stuff. But, no, the reality is you're gonna be abused.
The a word. No. Not adultery. Abuse. You're gonna be abused. You're gonna have injustice happen to you. Things that are so incredibly cruel and unjust that you're not gonna be able to figure it out with your human mind.
You're gonna have to walk by faith. You're gonna have to view things and see things through the eyes of faith. You're gonna have to look up ahead looking for the author and the finish of your faith.
This life's but a vapor. And you're even gonna come to the place in your growth where you can go away from a beating, rejoicing that you are accounted worthy to suffer for his name's sake.
You're gonna go into a jail cell having been beat, and you're gonna be strong enough, kind enough, loving enough, christ like enough that you're gonna be singing.
You can be worshiping at midnight with Silas. That's the kind of man I'm making you.
Why be abused? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? The cross is foolishness of them that are perishing. Jesus said in John 15 19, if you were, notice, of the world we're in the world, but we're not of the world.
I'm not a worldly nor are you, nor should you be. You shouldn't be living in the gray. It's it's darkness or light. You're either gathering with them or you're scattering abroad.
There's no washing your hands like Pilate and say, I'm innocent of this man. Either believe or you don't. You either live it or or just forget it. If you're of the world, the world would love his own.
Now think for a minute. How many Christians, celebrity Christians, have tried to get the world to like them? Do you think Paul's being invited to Rome to get a congressional medal of honor from Nero?
Do you think he's gonna go there and go golfing with him? Give me a stinking break. Excuse me. It is a stinking break. Give me a break. That thinking is so oxymoron. Jesus says, if they've hated me, they're gonna hate you.
Somebody's compromising. How could you have a CIA guy come to your church and preach in your pulpit when they're trying to execute Julian Assange from WikiLeaks. What are you thinking? These people don't like you.
They're using you. If they like you, then something's wrong with your profession of faith. If things are going easy for you, there's something wrong with your profession of faith, with your living like a Christian.
Because Jesus said people of your own household are gonna hate you. The next time you're being abused, the next time you're being mistreated, ask yourself, how is Jesus treated?
How are the disciples treated? You're in good company. Rejoice. If you're not hated, if you're not mistreated, then you're no threat to the kingdom of darkness.
The devil's leaving you alone. People are comfortable around you who are evil, who love darkness. I watched the guy this week, 210 IQ, I guess. Chuck Missler had a 160 IQ. And the interviewer said, how come you're not super wealthy?
You know, you're just a farmer. Well, those farmers are pretty smart. Right, Ray? They're pretty smart, Eddie. Especially if they're from Nebraska, they're really smart. And he said, well, it's about truth.
The more truth you tell, the more well, let me back up. He said, the way to wealth is a networking with people. It's relationships you build. So you go to college and you're part of the skull and bones.
You're part of whatever fraternity, whatever. So you're meeting your bankers, their dads, their everything. It's a whole chain, a whole connection. And that's what he's basically saying. It's you wanna get super wealthy.
It's not just playing the stock markets. It's networking with people you connect with. But he said the problem is the more truth you are of, the more truth you tell, the more they will hold you at bay. They don't wanna hear the truth.
You're a threat to them if you're a man of truth. Think about that. All you gotta do to be liked is keep your mouth shut. Don't speak truth. But he was all about truth because he's because he loves the lord.
And, that's why many of us are hated is because we tell the truth. So many times, you're confronted about making more money if you just lie, creative financing, or however they wanna spin it.
But if you go straight up with truth I've been told that if you're gonna work like for the FBI or some of these some of these agencies, as a as a young buck, you come in and they'll take you out and and you'll go on some sort of a hotel type thing.
And if they can't compromise you you're a married guy. If they can't compromise you and film it, if you're a man of truth Ross Perot once interviewing a guy said, I'm not hiring you.
Why? Because you cheated on your wife. And if your wife can't trust you, how can I? We don't think like that, do we? We just don't think like that. But that's awaking to righteousness.
That's what it means to wake to righteousness. We're asleep. We're dead while we yet live. And so you, you can't prosper unless you unless you're compromised there, and they film you. Now you have what's called handlers.
Now they own you. And now it's so weird. Many times when these guys get caught in heinous things they do, why did they get promotions? They get promoted. It's bizarre, isn't it? And the whistleblower is also to tell the truth.
They're ostracized and gotten rid of. You know? So I believe this is true. The more of truth because Jesus is incarnate truth. The devil's a liar and the father thereof, the father of it. And so why be abused?
You're a truth teller. How much truth should you tell? How much should I tell? How much should I hold back? Should I should I hold back some truth? So that we feel better should I hold back prophecy so you feel better?
Should should I should I take into account that you're buying a house and you've got kids and you wanna raise the family and the thought of the rapture, the thought of, you know, I just wanna have kids first.
I just want my house. I wanna decorate that kitchen like I've always dreamt of.
I don't like him talking about the b system and all those changes and all that stuff coming because, you know, I I've worked hard for my retirement. I wanna travel now. I wanna go on those Christian cruises like Ray and Betty.
I wanna go to Hawaii on a cruise. I have a shirt that Vicky bought me. It says, be careful what you say. It might wind up in the sermon. So all these guys hanging out with me, I've got stuff on you.
I'm a truther. The world loves its own, but because you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore, the world hates you. And that's why during COVID, I could see who was compromised.
I could see clearly because they were espousing the party line. They claimed to be Christians, but they were mimicking what the government was telling everybody through the media.
And I've never heard them go back and apologize. It's because it's a business. They don't wanna jeopardize their business because they're a part of the means of deceiving people.
If Paul wanted, he could run for office. He could seek the favor of men by watering down the gospel. What do we mean by watering down the gospel?
Don't ever mention repentance. Don't ever mention sin. Make the unbeliever feel comfortable. Fill these seats up with unbelievers. Be seeker sensitive, And get them writing checks. Get them supporting your empire.
Don't lose them. It's all about nickels and noses. It's all about building your empire. You tell the truth, they're gonna leave. They're gonna take off. They're gonna be offended. You can't talk about same sex marriage like that.
I have a friend that's gay. That's offensive. How many time I've heard people say that to me? Well, I'm sorry. That's what the bible has to say, but I'm an equal opportunity offender. Adulterers and thieves and liars won't enter either.
Alright? Did I cover us all? We're not picking on anybody. We're not homophobic. We're god phobic. We fear god more than we fear man. And I'm gonna answer to god if I water down the word.
I'm accountable for what I say. And and a lot of heresy, a lot of heretics are really known by what they won't say. It's what they won't declare in god's word that makes you a heretic.
It's funny to me that many of them jump on board years later when there's no more risk of being a wackadoodle. I risk it every day. One person recently contacted me, and I I love her, but probably watching.
I love you. I love you. But, alright. Let me just say it this way, so I don't offend her. Let's just say, people want me to watch videos on, we really didn't go to the moon. Do you really think I wanna go there?
Aren't I already a wackadoodle? So even if it was true, do you think I could convert 3 of you to believe my way? Yeah. What what's the point? I'm not gonna I'm not gonna further the gospel. There's already a lot of lies out there.
Well, let's go a step further. What if this is happening a lot right now. What if the earth's really flat? Do you think I could convince you if I watched 12 hours of videos? The earth is flat, man.
I want you to know the truth. Now maybe it's true. No. These peep these people no. These people are very intelligent, far more intelligent than me, and they're emphatic. And my daughter and son-in-law, they have friends on Bainbridge.
It seems to be trending, this flat earth stuff. I I told her, you know, I might I might be willing to listen to the 12 hours in the millennium because I don't have time right now for that. You know? You know?
And so I I give verses in Isaiah that he sits upon the circle of the earth, and I give verses where in Isaiah, the earth is wobbling like a top, like a drunken man spinning, you know, breaks its axis during the tribulation period.
I'm just not smart enough to counteract counteract what we all know to be or think to be true.
So apparently, the moon has its own light. I mean, I could go on and on and on. But you know what? I have a hard time keeping people as it is, just telling the truth.
The truth that I know. I I would he's a cult leader. He's a flat earther. I'd be done. I'd be done. I'd be run out of town. You know? Oh, I love him, but, man, he's he went too far.
No. He's a flat earther, man. And he's trying to get all of us to be a flat earther. I can't take the risk. I I I'm just not that courageous. Okay? I just I gotta draw the line of how much truth I can handle.
Alright? So that one, I that one, I I gotta say, hey. The risks are too great. So I'm gonna preach some sermonettes for Christianettes. I'm gonna compromise. I'm gonna go for the seeker sensitive, the psychobabble.
I'm gonna be a motivational speaker, a life coach, and help you to feel better. I'm gonna make it therapeutic. Therapy. Man centered. The insipid drivel the unbelievers crave. And yet Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
Romans 116. Right? Are you ashamed of the gospel, pastors? Are you ashamed? I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For therein, within the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
That's what we're gonna stand on. But if the dead rise not, why be abused? Why be abused? There's really no gospel. There's no good news. What would be the motivation of of being a martyr? Of being abused?
In 2nd Timothy 1 verse 8, Paul said, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our lord, his death, his burial, his resurrection, nor of me, his prisoner. Paul's in jail. We gotta have perspective, perspective, perspective.
If you're in God's will for preaching the gospel, you're not in a Washington state jail. You're not a prisoner of Jay Inslee or Bob Ferguson. You are a prisoner of Jesus Christ. He puts you there. Perspective.
Paul says, I'm here because the Lord put me here, nor of his nor of me, his prisoner, not Nero's prisoner. Isn't that great victory in your mind? But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of god.
So you know what? You can't do it without the power of god, but that power that raised Jesus from the dead is operative in your life right now. God will raise you from the dead. You'll rise above that abuse, that injustice.
In second Corinthians 1123, Paul's got a list. Paul loves to make a list. And the next time you're inclined to think that, nobody knows, you know, the trouble I've seen. I mean, sing it, man. He says, are they ministers of Christ?
I speak as a fool. Talking about the false prophets. The false prophets don't go through any of these troubles. The false prophets are capped teeth and plugged hair and nice cars and jets, and the jets are never big enough.
They gotta get a bigger jet and 1,000,000,000 of dollars nowadays. That's them. And they're these the people are falling into line with the false prophets because Paul has a ugly appearance, if I can say that word.
His eyes are oozing from the malaria, from the ophthalmology he has. He's been beaten with an ugly stick. He's he's he's I mean, it's been hard on him. He's not all polished like the false prophets are.
He doesn't have an air conditioned doghouse for his dog traveling with him. Okay? He says, are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I'm gonna I'm gonna go down to your guys' level now.
I'm gonna show you the sincerity of my calling. I'm gonna show you my calling by the things which I'm willing to suffer. I'm not gonna boast to you about the books of the bible I've read.
I'm not gonna boast to you about raising Eutychus from the dead. I'm not gonna boast to you about, you know, seeing Jesus face to face. None of those false prophets have done any of that.
They can't even serve. You know? They're just posers. He says, I am more, in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure. So he's working hard. He's being whipped with stripes. In prison's more frequent. He's in prison all the time.
Everywhere he goes, he's thrown in prison. Riots break out. In deaths, often, they're trying to kill him. Of the Jews, now the Jews in the Mosaic Law, they can only whip you. They can only beat you 40 times. So they stop at 39.
Jesus, when he was whooped, he wasn't whooped by the cat of 9 tails, wasn't administered by the Jews, but the Romans, so they could've went way past 39 stripes. So Paul says, of the Jews, 5 times received thy 40 stripes save 1.
I mean, people died just from this kind of a beating. The enormous amount of blood loss. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Remember in Acts 14 at Lystra, he was stoned? He wasn't doing gummies.
He got stoned. They threw rocks at him. He fell down there and they circled around him like he's dead. And then he stands up, and what's he do? I quit. I didn't sign up for this. What did I do wrong? God, why you treat me this way?
No. It's injustice. It's always in unjust. He didn't deserve that beating. He didn't deserve to be stoned. He's telling them the truth. One moment earlier, they're willing to worship him and Barnabas as Mercury and Jupiter.
They're off ready to offer sacrifices to their priests. And he says, no. No. No. No. We're like men as you, like passions as you. Don't do that. Worship God.
Now they drag him out and stone him. He's caught up to the 3rd heaven and can't even tell people what he saw. It's so so wonderful. And he stands back and what's he do? I'm gonna go on the Oprah show and tell everybody how abused I am.
I'm mistreated. He went right back into the city, emboldening the people that we through much, not the tribulation, but that we through much tribulation, not a little, much, enter into the kingdom of god.
That's the reality of Christianity throughout the ages.
We happen to live in a time of prosperity. A Christian in Iran, the fastest growing church in the world, they don't live like you and I live. They don't have a constitution to protect them, do they?
They're god given and amenable rights. It's all by faith. Secular governments throughout history have hated Christians and tried to destroy Christians, and they just flourish under persecution.
It purifies them and cause them to reproduce. It's when Constantine, when the government joins the church, that the church goes through the dark ages of corruption.
Paul got stone there. Thrice, I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day, I have been in the deep. So he's the ships are sinking and he's out there floating a day and a half and journeyings often.
Now notice perils. He uses the word peril in the King James 8 times here. Now Paul said in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, identifying you and I, in the last days, we're in the last days, perilous times are gonna come.
Dangerous times. It's gonna get dangerous. And when I hear, danger, danger, Will Robinson, I know I'm old. I know I'm an old guy.
You're really old. When I was a kid, the robot dudes, you know? They're before their time. Right? All this AI stuff? Notice perils. 8 different times here. In perils of waters, in perils of robbers, people are robbing them.
In perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea. Boy, he must have really hated the sea. Keeps mentioning it, doesn't he?
Water, sea, shipwreck. In perils among false brethren, in weariness, painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger, and thirst, and fastings often, in cold, and nakedness. Why be abused if the dead rise not?
If Christ isn't resurrected from the dead, why go through all this? You know it's a lie. You know you hid the body. You know you stole the body. You know he swooned. Why would you go through this if you knew it was a lie?
If you're Islamic and they've lied to you that you got 70 virgins waiting for you and you don't know the truth that they're really not there, but what guy could handle more than 1 virgin?
You know? 70 virgins? Come on. That's a fantasy. I mean, Adam, he he had the most beautiful, beautiful wife. But when a beautiful, naked wife speaks to you, we as men, we do what they say.
That's what Adam did. He couldn't resist, no matter what. That's how weak we are as men. It's the woman you gave me. Seventy virgins? These guys are less than that.
Seventy virgins. If I go and I die, if I blow myself up, I'm gonna get 70 virgins. And a lot of guys are motivated that way, but they believe a lie. What if you knew the truth? You wouldn't be motivated in that way.
Some have been motivated in that we will give your parents. We'll pay their house off if you be a human bomb. Then the Israelis had to counteract that. Anybody that's a human bomb anywhere, we're gonna bulldoze your parents' home.
Now their parents are teaching them the truth. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't go there. He says, verse 31, I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus, our lord.
I die daily. He's abused daily. Do you die daily? Husbands, do you die daily? Do you love your wife like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her daily? You guys thinking you wanna get married?
When I do marriage counseling, I get this preacher's kid, and he used to be a preacher, Pentecostal preacher, became a comedian. And he, went through a divorce. And I play a little clip of it. He bends over and he just starts screaming.
Ah. That's what marriage is like he's trying to say. That's what it's like. That's what it can be like. That's what he experienced. So you'd be careful because if you're not willing to die daily, you're gonna wish you're dead.
You're gonna wish you're dead. But with the help of Christ, with the help of Jesus, With the help of Jesus, you can be a new creation in Christ Jesus.
Amen. I really stepped in it, man. I'll tell you. Good thing Kathy's not here. Right? Don't any of you tell her. Alright. 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 8. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
We know nothing about this kind of Christianity. Everything's been so incredibly dummied down and watered down.
If we go on a mission trip to meet some real persecuted Christians, we're gonna be so incredibly ashamed. And their love their love is just so over the top. They'll give you their last meal. You know?
So loving. So giving. And we're told in the last days that inequity is gonna abound and the love of many is gonna wax cold. Less and less love in the days ahead. But we, as Christians, we used to sing a song at Calvary Costa Mesa.
Love, love, love, love. Christians, this is your call. Love your neighbor as yourself for God is love. Pastor Chuck had come out and he'd just sing that without any accompaniment, and the whole place would start singing it.
And we're reminded, without love, we're nothing. Don't deny the Lord to avoid the abuse. Jesus is Lord. No compromise. Be not conformed to this world.
Stand tall and tell the truth. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts in Bremerton, what advantage is it me if the dead rise not? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Paul went to Ephesus in Acts chapter 19.
And Demetrius, the silversmith, was losing money, because Paul was letting everybody know that these idols, these little metal and wood things they were fashioning out of silver to the goddess, fertility goddess, greatest Diana of the Ephesians, that it was a false god, that they're not gods.
And people are getting saved. And Paul spent 3 years in Ephesus, you know, establishing a church there. And Demetrius did him much harm, and Alexander the coppersmith did him much harm. Nero's doing the apostle Paul much harm.
Do you know what Nero did to Christians? Nero many believe that Paul had a chance to share in his first imprisonment the gospel to Nero. And then afterwards, Nero went insane by resisting the holy spirit.
Nero, thereafter, took Christians, took their clothes off them, rolled them in tar, and then put them impaled them on a pole on a on a wood pole, and then put it through his garden.
Okay? And then he got in his chariot, this homosexual naked guy, and he's going through his his garden with a torch, lighting the Christians on fire, shrieking. What's it feel like now, Christians, to be the light of the world?
10 waves of Roman emperors did these kind of things to Christians in the 1st 2 centuries. Over 6,000,000 Christians killed in this manner. They would take Christians, children, men, women, and they put them in coats of animals.
And they put them into the coliseum, into the arena, and allow the wild animals, the beasts, just to devour them for the sport, the entertainment of the of the populace.
They would throw the Christians to the lions. And the Christians were known for how much they love the lord, how much they love each other, and for singing, worshiping the lord when these things would happen. Unjust.
Terrible abuse. Incredible abuse. I don't think the false prophets are gonna be able to sell any books during that time. They're gonna hide, aren't they? They're not gonna be around. So why fight the beast like Demetrius and like Nero?
Why contend for the faith? Why fight it out? Why would we suffer the abuse if the dead rise not? Psalm 3419 says, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the lord delivers them out of them all.
Out of them all. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, not the unrighteous. Many. Not not few. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the lord delivers them out of them all.
So, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I gotta go through these trials. I gotta go through these afflictions. But the lord delivers me out of them all.
And then you got the people who come along and say, hey. He's not gonna give you more than you can handle. Well, I just lost my baby. That's more than I can handle. I'm sorry to disagree with you. So how do we interpret that then?
You insensitive people. They're being abused. It's unjust. I reached my limit. There's no temptation that's taking you, but such as common demand. The unbeliever loses babies at the Ronald McDonald House with cancer.
The believer loses babies, loses children at the Ronald McDonald House. On the sea of life, the storms that come, there's a whole lot of boats out there. People in cars and homes that don't know Jesus.
They're going through the same cancers, the same troubles and pains of being human beings as we as Christians are. The difference is the lord Jesus gets me through the valley of the shadow of death.
He's there with me. The difference is Jesus is in my boat. He's in my boat to get me through it. So there's no temptation that's taken you, but such is common to man, and god is faithful.
Who will not tempt you above that which you are able? And that's where they stop. But who will, with the temptation, make the way of escape? Where's the escape? We wanna escape from.
That you'd be able to bear it. How am I gonna bear it? I can't. But Jesus will. He's there with me in that trial. I have to cling to him. I have to hold on to him like I never have before. My faith is a desperate faith now.
My prayers are desperate prayers. Lord, just get me through. Just get us through, lord. Be glorified. Take all that the enemy means for evil, Lord, and turn it around for good to save many people this day.
In Philippians 129, unto you, it is given behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer. Has the preacher ever compelled you to count the cost?
Hey. Not just believe. I want you to come forward and receive Christ. I want you to believe on him. But I want you to know you're also gonna suffer. Not only to believe on him, but to suffer for his namesake.
You get to wear a badge. You get to wear a badge that marks you out as a Christian as people see you suffering. His stigmata, his scars. Paul said, I bear in my body the marks, the stigmata. You guys wanna question my sincerity?
You wanna question my calling as an apostle? I'm not gonna go into all the great things god did with me. I'm gonna go into these things, the sufferings I've endured, to show the sincerity, the genuine faith, the calling that I possess.
Because if he wasn't raised from the dead, who would wanna go through all this? Who would wanna endure this?
But because he's raised from the dead, because he chose me, who was the chiefest of sinners, everything I had, every advantage I had beforehand, I count as refuses and as dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.
I was headed to hell before he intervened in my life.
I thought I was so righteous, so holy as a Pharisee, but I was a persecutor. Continue in the faith and that we, with much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God in acts 14, like we talked about.
And to the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:10, Jesus said, fear none of those things which thou shall suffer. I didn't sign up for this.
Yes, you did. If any man come after me, let him deny himself daily. Deny himself and take up his cross daily. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that he may be tried and he shall have tribulation 10 days.
There's 10 waves of Roman emperors that are gonna persecute the church in that first 200 years. And in 313, Constantine is gonna institutionalize the church, nationalize the church, join the church.
Church becomes extremely corrupt. During the time of persecution, there's a purity that takes place. And Jesus says to the church of Ephesus, be thou faithful unto death and I'll give thee a crown of life. So a promise there.
A promise of suffering and a promise of the martyr's crown, the crown of life. If the dead rise not, number 1, why baptize? If the dead rise not, why be abused? And we can go through a lot when we know we're gonna be resurrected.
Do you remember that analogy of the test they did with the with the rats? They put the rats in a bucket, and they measured how long the rats would swim before they drown.
And it was, you know, like a short number of 3 minutes, 4 minutes, whatever. I don't know how long you last. But then they stopped just short, like 2 minutes 30 seconds.
They pulled the rats out. They fed the rats and blow dried their hair and some oil and pet them, give them a name. Then they put them back in, and it was exponential how much longer they lasted because they had hope.
We have the hope of the resurrection, and we can endure and go through a great fight of affliction because we have the hope of the resurrection that Jesus is gonna take us home.
To be absent the body is to be present with the lord. And we don't fear. Don't fear him who can kill your body, but fear him. Fear God who can not only kill your body, but cast your soul into hell.
He's almighty sovereign. So if the dead rise not, why baptize? If the dead rise not, why be abused? Thirdly, if the dead rise not, why behave? Why should I behave? It's more fun to live out in the world, isn't it?
No. 2nd part of verse 32. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. This is an Epicurean philosophy. Hey. If there's no God, if there's no heaven, if there's no hell, then you know what?
It's every man for himself. It's the fittest of the strong. Eat and drink today for tomorrow we die. Let's be hedonistic. Let's just satisfy try to satisfy all of the cravings and the desires of the flesh.
Live like animals. Sounds plausible if the dead rise not. Party. Have fun. Live for pleasure. If it feels good, do it. Go to Burger King and have it your way. Enjoy the ride.
Grab all the gusto you can. Eat, drink, and be merry. Just do it. Life is a bowl of cherries. You know? Chocolate cherries. There's this guy that went to the hospital, and, he went to visit this, elderly lady, pastor I know.
And she is asleep. And, he saw this little bowl of nuts beside her bed and he was hungry and he began to eat some of those nuts. And she eventually woke up and, oh, pastor, you're here.
Eventually, he let her know. He said, well, I hope you don't mind, but I helped myself to some of those nuts. And she says, oh, it's okay. I already sucked the chocolate off of them.
Life's a bowl of nuts, you know? Why behave? Why not be a bad girl? Why not be a naughty girl if the dead rise not? Religion's boring. I went to church every Sunday growing up. It's boring. That pastor spoke for 2 hours.
My mom and dad complained every time on the ride home. I'm never going to church again. Religious people look like they've sucked on lemons. There's no fun. They're always whining and complaining. Well, girls just wanna have fun.
Bad boys too. Why behave if the dead rise not? He says in verse 33, be not deceived. That sounds like a good podcast. How many times in the bible do we see that phrase, be not deceived? Bad info, bad advice, bad teaching.
Don't believe the lies. The Greek poet, Meander, he said evil communication corrupts good manners. We would say, birds of a feather flock together. Be careful who your children, your kids are making friends with.
Bad company corrupts good morals. And I have to say this. When I moved here, I didn't know anybody. And I let my girls go to the local youth group. I didn't know what's going on in the local youth group.
I thought they thought like Cathy and I thought. The very first time Jessica spent the night at somebody in the church, a new family, they introduced her to rated r movies and smoking pot.
We didn't know. And then when she resisted, they began to mock her. We weren't there to protect her, to help her through that.
Homeschool kids, sometimes they want kids they want friends so bad, especially when you move them away from all their friends. And you come up here. And it's happening in youth groups all over the country.
It isn't just here, but they just caution you. Don't allow a youth group to disarm you because it got much worse than that as our daughters continued in that youth group. Be not deceived.
A lot of the kids in the youth group are posers. A lot of their parents are posers. They're calling in hookers. They're doing cocaine. They're doing all the things people in the world, but they go to church every Sunday.
The kids are watching it. Evil communications corrupts good manners. Proverbs 23:7 says, as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. And that's the one that I try to get through to everybody.
As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Truth is important. The devil spends a lot of time in the media trying to lie to you. And I've gotta counteract those lies with the truth because I gotta get you to think like a Christian.
I gotta get rid of all that junk that's there, all the psychology that you learned at church, all the meism in college, and all that stuff, and bring it down to what we're going through here. You don't hear sermons like this.
They don't sell. But, man, the people that have ears to hear, they really grow. They grow in-depth in their walking relationship with the Lord. And so what I try to do is I try to counteract the lies in your head with the truth.
Get you to read your bible. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. So it comes with ideology. Karl Marx understands this. The communists understand that they need to grab hold of the children to not educate, but to indoctrinate with lies while they're young.
And why is it we raise our kids in Christian homes, and we try to get the word into them at church and at home and bibles and all that? And by the way, make sure that you make time to go see the greatest Christmas pageant ever.
We saw it at Silverdale last week. Great movie of a family that didn't know nothing about Jesus. Nothing. These kids knew nothing about Jesus. And the glorious truth of the Christmas season, the incarnation.
Oh, it's it's so fun to watch the light bulb go on with somebody. So as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. The communist wanna indoctrinate. We wanna educate. We're told to train a child up in the way they should go.
When they're old, they won't depart from it. But many of our kids do when they go to college. The peer pressure is so great. The desire for money and wealth and careers is so great.
There's compromise. That's how you prosper is compromise. If you stand for the truth, you're ostracized. You're a weirdo. And many choose what the Japanese chose from America, the prosperity.
General Douglas MacArthur implored the churches to come to Japan as missionaries. Their emperor was just proven to not be deity. They lost the war. They believed he was a god, proven he's just a man.
There's a void, a a vortex, a huge void. Spiritually here, general MacArthur is saying, churches come here. But the churches were taught to hate the Japs and didn't go. So the Japanese embraced our materialism.
Peter Drucker, who helped Rick Warren device his purpose driven book in life, was called in to Japan and to reindustrialize Japan. Sad, isn't it? In Iran today, the fastest growing church in the world. Why?
Because the people saw through the lies of Islam. The mosque are empty. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Changes their behavior. Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. You having trouble with some habits?
Jesus said, if your right hand caused you to sin, cut it off. Your eye caused you to sin, pluck it out. Cut that cut those things out. Maybe it's your phone. Maybe it's a television. Cut it out of your life.
You sow a thought, you're gonna reap an action. You sow an action, you reap a habit. You sow a habit, you're gonna reap a character. You sow a character, you're gonna reap a destiny. Getting drunk once doesn't make you a drunk.
Looking at a woman with lust in your heart doesn't make you an adulterer. You've committed sin. You've committed adultery by looking, The thought in your heart and mind, but you repent of that.
Moving forward with the actions far worse than the look. Some pastors even say, you grew up in a beach community where the girls are wearing bathing suits, the first look is not sin.
It's that second look, that staring, the lusting. Job talks about how he made a covenant with his eyes that he wouldn't look at any evil thing.
Boy, it's so difficult, isn't it? To remain pure and not allow the filth of the world, the sewer of the world to be poured into your home, into your life, in the hearts and minds of your kids.
Wayne and Britney were educating me the other day of churches that are into Harry Potter.
How could you be into witchcraft at church? How could you be doing Dungeons and Dragons? How could you be doing these little cards they have? These satanic cards and they trade and I didn't know. That's a no brainer. Real clear to me.
I don't want that stuff in my kids or grandkids' heads. It's witchcraft. It's demonic. It's occultic. Your rejection of the resurrection will affect your behavior. Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of god?
Be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of god.
There's a list, and I love it.
It goes on. And such were some of you. What were you into before the lord saved you? What were you into? It doesn't mean you were born that way. It doesn't mean you have that gene. That's a lie from the pit of hell.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. All things have become new. Such were some of you in your past. You were effeminate. You lived the gay lifestyle, lesbian lifestyle.
You're an adult. You're a liar. You're a covenant in the past. So it's were some of you, but you've been washed in the blood of the lamb. You've been justified. You've been sanctified. Completed action, complete.
He sees you perfect it. You're going along. You're still falling, still struggling, but he sees you perfect it, justified just as if you've never sinned. That's not who you are anymore. You're not that dog anymore.
You're not that victim. Let the wicked forsake his way, in Isaiah 5:7, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the lord, and he will have mercy upon him and to our god, for he will abundantly pardon. Repent.
Turn back to god. He's a prayer away. Your washing, your cleansing is a prayer away. If we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Just agree with the holy spirit.
Don't rationalize, don't justify, don't give into the flesh, don't continue in the flesh. Grab hold of the cross. He says verse 34, awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
It's a willful ignorance. How could you not believe in the resurrection if you're a Christian? Every Easter, every Sunday, willful ignorance and refusing the obvious facts of the resurrection is to your shame.
Shameful. In Ephesians 5 14, he says, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
In Isaiah 60 verse 1, arise and shine. Rise and shine. My dad was in the navy. And when he adopted us, I was 4 years old. And I remember Saturdays Sundays, whenever it was time for him to wake us up, he'd say, rise and shine.
Rise and shine. I don't know if they do that in the navy or he learned that as a kid with his parents. But Isaiah is saying it here. Rise and shine, for thy light has come and the glory of the lord is risen upon thee.
You're not living in darkness anymore. Romans 13:11, knowing the time. Do you know what time it is, church? Do you know the times that you're living in? Are these perilous times? Are we living in the last days?
Are these perilous, dangerous times to raise a family? Do do you feel like, hey. I better be on my game with my kids and my grandkids because I can't just let the neighbors of the schools raise them for me.
There used to be a time where your kids are walking down the street, and the neighbors got your back. They they every the whole community is protecting these kids from predators.
Not anymore. Kids are going missing all the time. Knowing the time that now time is high time to wake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe.
How awake do you want to be? How awake? Do you wanna be like Jonah? Do you wanna be so awake that God tells you to go to Nineveh and tell them 40 days and they're gonna perish, but you feel like sleeping concerning that command?
And you're content to live in the gray. You haven't lost your salvation. You you're just gonna content to live in the gray. I don't wanna live in the light. Those guys might repent. I'm a patriot. We hate those Ninevites.
We hate them. We hate those Japs. I ain't doing that. We hate those communists. We hate Iran. We've been taught to hate Iran. There's Christians there. You've been taught to hate Russia. There's Christians there.
There's people who need Jesus. The I ideology is evil. The government's evil. But there's a whole lot of people just like you and I raising kids that just wanna be left alone to raise their families. They want Jesus.
They want the freedom that he brought as the great emancipator. How awake do you wanna be? Well, I wanna go down on the boat in the bottom there, and I wanna sleep while these guys fight the storm because I'm running from God.
And the captain says, wake you sleeper. Time to rise up. Who's your god? Call upon your god, or we're gonna perish. Who's your god? Well, my god's the god of the ocean and the land.
He's a god of creation. You get up here and you call on your god, man. They got him to work. Oh sleeper, arise. Call upon the god. It be so that god will think upon us that we perish not.
There's people living in darkness, who don't know your god, and you're content to live in the gray. You don't care if they get saved or not. You've got yours. What's it gonna take?
God preparing a fish. He preparing a fish to swallow you to get you to understand that he's almighty sovereign. You in exercising your free will and living in the gray, those days are over. You're gonna feel like you're in hell soon.
You're gonna be in anguish as that fish takes you to the bottom of the sea. The seaweed's gonna crush you. The gastric juice is gonna bleach you like Bob the albino, and you're gonna be in hell or you're gonna think you're in hell.
And your free will, you're gonna be willing. And God's gonna spit you out upon shore, and you're gonna go give the message.
And you may not be given it with the right heart, but God's gonna save a multitude of people In spite of our prejudices, in spite of our insurance policy against hell, I've got mine.
I don't need to live in the light. I don't need to take a risk of losing my job.
I don't need to jeopardize everything I've earned. Because if I if I go radical, if I go wackadoodle like pastor Rick, man, look at what happened to him. Look what happens to people that do that.
Tone it down, man. Tone it down. Kathy says it to me all the time. Can you just tone it down? They're gonna all leave again. No, I can't, Cal. I'm sorry. I got nothing to lose except my relationship with the lord.
I'm not gonna live in the gray. I'm not gonna go along to get along. Have you believed in vain? Is your savior dead? Dead promises? Are you headed down a dead end, a dead end road?
Who are you hoping in? What are you hoping in? Is your hope in a dead savior? Then we're of all men most miserable. Our faith is vain. Our preaching is vain. If the dead rise not, why baptize?
Why be abused? Why behave? Why awake to righteousness if the dead rise not? John says in 1st John 32, describing our hope. The return of Christ is imminent. He could come before we leave here today. And you're like, oh, please do.
There's no prophecy that needs to be fulfilled for the rapture of the church to take place. Israel's in the land. What Jesus described in Matthew 24, we can see happening. We can see the temple's gonna be rebuilt.
We can see the beast system coming. We can see the technocratic 10 toes of Daniel 2, the 10 horns of Daniel 7. We can see Revelation 13 and 17, the 10 kings, the 10 rulers, the crowns of the world morphing into an empire.
The rebirth of the Roman Empire, empirical empire with 10 kings. 3 who fight against the antichrist, this peacemaker after a severe war. 3 destroyed. The other 7 handing over their sovereignty to him, and he's the 8th.
And he's got a false prophet along with him. He's got the image of the beast, the AI technology. The whole government run by artificial intelligence. When did you ever see that close to happening?
Now. The technology's happening. We're moving so quickly into AI. Jesus is coming soon. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, that we shall be like him.
For we shall see him as he is. And he that has this hope in him what hope? The hope of the resurrection, the hope of the rapture, the hope of our new bodies, the hope of heaven.
If Christ be not resurrected from the dead, then we're of all men most miserable. It's not a blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great god and savior.
It's all a lie. And he that has this hope in him purifies himself. How I behave is gonna be a factor. Purifies himself even as he is pure. Jesus is changing us from glory to glory into the image.
The father's changed us from glory to glory into the image of the son. Are you awake? Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins? That he was buried, that he rose again the 3rd day?
Do you believe that he will raise you from the dead? That he will raise you when he returns for his bride, the church. How awake do you wanna be? It was a willful ignorance, the rejection of the resurrection.
Plenty of evidence all around them. What are we willing to reject? What are we willingly rejecting? If you're not awake, you need to be born again. Awake to righteousness even now. God doesn't want you sleeping.
God doesn't want you living in the gray. He doesn't want you to be lukewarm. He wants you to be hot or cold. He doesn't wanna be on the outside because you think that you're rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing.
You're delusional. You're naked, poor, blind, and miserable. You can't see clue, and he counsels you to buy eye salve that he can clean and touch up your eyes so you can really see spiritually of where you're at.
Awake to righteousness. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the exhortation, lord, that we need in a time where we're so susceptible of going back to sleep.
There's so many things in the media, so many things happening that grab our attention and bring us to a place of anxiety and or we try to escape. We try to be live in denial in a place where we just wanna be left alone.
I don't wanna think anymore. Too much thinking. Lord, help us to be the Psalm 1 people to meditate upon your word day and night. To the fill, to flood, to overflow our hearts and minds with the word of God that our faith would increase.
Give us an appetite, a insatiable desire for prophecy, Lord. Students of prophecy, students of the study of last days things, Lord.
Help us to connect the dots all through the old and new testament of what you've told us gonna happen before it happens. Help us to be like the 10 virgins that have oil, that are ready, that are watching, looking for your soon return.
While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed as you continue to pray, is there anybody here this morning you don't know Jesus Christ as your lord and savior?
Christianity is a relationship, a place where the holy spirit bears witness of the son.
He's bearing witness with your heart the truth of Jesus was crucified, that he's buried, that he raised himself from the dead, and that he's coming again.
That's what he's bearing witness to in your heart, the holy spirit bearing witness of Jesus. And it's incumbent upon you to simply respond in faith, to surrender your heart and mind unto Jesus, and to cry out to God.
God, be merciful to me a sinner as you turn from your sins. As you turn to God and you say, God, save me. Save me. Anyone here this morning, you're praying that prayer, you want to be saved, just lift your hand up.
We wanna lead you in prayer. We're not gonna baptize you today, but you can receive Christ. Anyone here this morning? Father, thank you once again that we don't need to walk in darkness.
That, lord, we don't need to be half alive. That we can be on fire for you. That we can walk in the light. That moment by moment, lord, you reveal more and more of yourself to us as we become more and more addicted to you, lord.
Everything else pales in comparison, fades away as we taste, as we see that you're good and we want more, that we might know you, the power of your resurrection, and the fellowship of your sufferings being made conformable under your death, lord.
Help us, lord. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.