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Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
Second Corinthians chapter eight verses six through, 15. In so much that we desired Titus that he had begun, so would he also finish in you the same grace also.
Therefore, as you abound in everything, in faith, and in utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and your love to us, see that you abound in this grace also.
I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity of your love.
For you know the grace of our lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich.
And herein I give my advice for this is expedient for you who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.
Now therefore perform the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to will, so there will be a performance also out of that which you have.
For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man has, and not according to that which he has not.
For I mean, not that other men be eased and you burden, but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality.
As it is written, he that has gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. So father, we thank you for your holy word. We thank you for your provision.
We thank you for the greatest provision that we've received as the precious blood of your dear son, washing and cleansing us of all of our debts, all of our sins, all of our trespasses, that though he was rich and joined the splendor of heaven and fellowship with you, yet for our sakes, he became, as an example, he became poor, that we, through his poverty, that we might become rich.
So father, help us to have a balanced view, a balanced understanding of the privilege of worshiping you, in giving.
So bless now we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you please be seated? Paul's reminding the church of Corinth of the generosity of the churches of Macedonia, that of Philippi and all.
And, they had taken an offering no, taken. They'd received an offering. Don't say taken. They'd received an offering, and accumulated and brought it together so that they could, ease the suffering of the church in Jerusalem.
The church of Corinth is a wealthier much, much wealthier church, and they they too began to, gather together some some proceeds, some monies and all to bring this gift to Jerusalem, but they didn't finish. They didn't continue in it.
So he's letting them know that, hey, Titus is gonna come back around, and why don't you, he's given them four appeals or four reasons why it might be good for them to actually follow through with what, they originally were talking about.
So four appeals Jesus gave that that that we might live.
Number one, the virtue in giving. There's a virtue, in giving. In so much, verse six, that we desired Titus, that he as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also.
Therefore, as ye abound in everything, so notice these virtues here, you're abounding in the virtue of faith, your faithful people.
Utterance, you guys are really good with speaking in tongues and singing in tongues. We talked about that in first Corinthians. Knowledge and in all diligence and your love to us. You're very loving to us. Those are great virtues.
See that you abound in this grace, the Greek word, karius, this grace also. It's, this giving is a grace of virtuous grace. So the Corinthians were abounding in every virtue except the virtue of the grace of giving.
They had faith. They could speak in tongues, as I said. The tongues of angels and of men. They had great knowledge. They were diligent, loving toward Paul and Titus, but they were stingy, with giving financially.
They had all these spiritual gifts freely bestowed upon them by God, and yet they lacked the virtue, the grace of giving. And so they previously expressed a desire to do it, but they didn't follow through.
They didn't do it. So Paul's kinda saying, hey, buck up. You know? Get ready. Get send the Titus back through there. So get it ready. They just need a little bit of encouragement.
So follow through. How many of us have great ideas many times, dreams, visions, things that we wax eloquently about that we're gonna do for the Lord, and then we kinda let it drop, dissipate, roll away, get away.
We get distracted, involved in other things that really don't add up.
And so giving's a virtue. It's the Greek word charys, c h a r I s. It's translated as grace, thanks, as a gift, found seven times in our in our, text here moving forward.
It's found, first of all, in eight verse one, chapter eight verse four, chapter eight verse six, chapter eight verse seven, chapter eight verse nine, chapter eight verse 16, chapter eight verse 19, and then three times in chapter nine, nine verse eight, nine verse fourteen, nine verse 15.
So grace huge amount of grace here. Huge amount of virtue. Huge amount of, the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life. So it speaks of gratitude, it speaks of favor, it speaks of benefit, it speaks of thanks.
And so as we look at God's attitude towards us, it's one of grace, isn't it? We're not in a legal relationship with God, doing things initiating to God and demanding that he's our debtor and he owes us and that sort of thing.
We know that we're in abject poverty, that, we could never ever ever pay the debt that we once owed, and that it was simply because of God's grace, his unmerited favor upon us, that the debt of sin that none of us would ever be able to pay, that though he was rich in verse nine, Jesus being rich, the free exercise of his deity at the right hand of his father, he left the splendor of heaven, the splendor of being the, you know, the second person of the trinity to become the carpenter from Nazareth, the babe of Bethlehem.
He took on the form not of an angel, but he took on the form of a man.
And, and in that, in that form and in that kenosis in Philippians chapter two, he set aside the free exercise of his deity. So Satan tempted him, said, if you are the son of God, you haven't eaten for forty days.
Physiologically, your body's just screaming for food. If you're the son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Now he could do that, couldn't he?
He could feed a whole multitude of people. A little boy sack lunch. He could walk on water. A lot of things he could do, but he wouldn't use the free exercise of his deity in a selfish manner simply for himself.
He set that aside. And so, it's though he was rich, yet for our sakes, he became poor, which means the he left heaven, came to the earth, the incarnation, that we, through his poverty, might become rich.
So he's gonna empty himself. He's gonna pour himself out upon the cross of Calvary, and his blood is gonna be poured out because it's impossible that the blood of bulls and of bullocks could take away sin.
We can't be redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold.
It's only with the precious blood of this one person, this one person, the only one that has this blood, this type of blood, this perfect blood that would be payment for our sins, past, present, and future.
And why are we recipients? Because of his grace. For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, you know, not of works, lest any man would boast.
Right? And so, we we say, to god be the glory. Everything we've ever received, everything we've ever done is a result of being connected to him, being in in fellowship with him.
Everything, every ability, every brain cell, every every gift, talent, ability, every every virtue in our life first comes from the Lord.
Everything comes from him. So the gratitude, the favor, the benefit, and boy, I thank you so much, Lord, for saving me.
It never gets old, the thought that why me? Why did you save me? Second Timothy two verse one says, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
So grace is something you can be strong in. Grace is something you can exercise, that you can be a part of, this grace of giving, this grace of caring, this grace of serving.
All these different aspects of this grace, the thankfulness, the gifted gifting, the all all of this. So maybe you're too weak in grace, too weak, maybe stingy. You, you're not very gracious toward others.
You're kinda stingy. I don't know. Second Peter three eighteen, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. So grow in this grace. Grace is something we can grow in again.
And in knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. So he initiates. He's the one that, wakes you up and says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And who art thou lord? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting.
God didn't deserve a thing except hell. Right? That's about all that Saul of Tarsus deserved is hell. But Jesus said, you're gonna be a trophy of my grace. Show him what things he must suffer for my namesake, right, to Ananias.
And so Paul is purposely selected by the Lord to go forth with the gospel, to be beaten like an ugly stick, you know, with an ugly stick, and to suffer probably greater than anybody except for Jesus.
And, it's all because of God's grace. Paul considered it grace. When Paul was sick, he prayed three times that the Lord would remove this messenger of Satan that was buffeting him.
You ever had a messenger of Satan buffeting you where God allows him off the leash to come thump on you physically, mentally, emotionally, in in any way.
And, and so Paul prayed three times. He's got a lot of faith like the faith preachers.
Right? They say, you got enough faith, you won't get sick. Well, Paul is able to raise others from the dead. He's able to heal others with his gift of healing, gifts plural of healing. But in this case, he can't heal himself.
In this case, you know, how much faith does he need? Is it a lack of faith? No. It's a lack of God's will. It's not God's will. Paul, you're in my will. You're in my will. No. No. No. He answered his prayer three times.
No. No. No. So what's Paul to do? So he learns that God's grace is sufficient for his strength is perfected in weakness. So therefore, more gladly, I'm gonna glory in infirmity. I'm gonna glory in sickness when I'm weak.
Because when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Because now it's not Saul of Tarsus or the great apostle Paul moving forward. It's me, Saul of Tarsus, the apostle Paul, independence as a child trusting in the lord.
His grace is sufficient for me. His grace, his unmerited favor is gonna get me through this terrible, terrible headache that I have that I that I, you know, can't even get to sleep.
And I know many of us, many of you have health challenges. You've prayed. You've done everything you can.
And, and the Lord says, my grace is sufficient for you. My springs are affected in weakness. In this weakness that you have, you're gonna find out how much stronger I am, your dependence upon me to get you through this.
And so, then we have a compassion towards others that are going through these sort of things, and we begin to grow in grace.
We don't have just a real quick formula for everybody about how everything's supposed to work out, but then that devil comes in and throws a chink in the the whole mechanism, and everything's all messed up, and we're asking the lord to make it right.
And, how do you do that? How do you get it all back right? How are we ever gonna get back to normal? You know? And, sometimes we don't. Sometimes the Lord takes us deeper.
Sometimes he takes us to a greater measure of breaking in our lives so that we learn more of his grace. We may be indifferent toward people around the world that are suffering until we start to suffer.
And then we have the compassion, the grace, the greater grace in our heart to alleviate suffering in other people's lives. So Jesus gave that we might live. Number one, the virtue in giving. Number two, the verification in giving.
We need the proof. Chapter eight verse one. I speak, not by commandment, by by occasion excuse me. I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove or verse eight.
I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity of your love. So granted by God as a test, God allows us the privilege of giving to test the to verify our love for him and for others.
And so Paul's saying, this is a test here. We're gonna verify it. You guys have an opportunity. And in this opportunity, there's no constraint. God loves a cheerful giver. You don't have to give.
Don't don't give. He's gonna go on later. Don't give beyond your means to be able to give. You don't want to one of the guys I was reading this week was talking about how churches would take off, and do what's called pledging.
And so you would have, the year coming, whether it's a building project or missionaries or whatever in your budget within the church that you would need monies for.
And then they would go through and play the music, you know. And and you guys are teaching me some stuff that is still going on.
The hat goes through the room here. The lights come down. The music's playing. It comes back up to the front. This is still happening. I've never seen it happen, but it's still happening.
It's not enough money, so we're gonna send it through again. And they keep in our town, people do this. And they keep sending it through till they get that amount of money that they're looking for out of people.
And if they have to put a cancer person upfront, no matter what they gotta do, they're gonna get the heartstrings of people moving.
And then they're going to take a percentage for administrative fees from that cancer patient, and then she or he gets a certain portion for their medical. You know? I mean, who comes up with this stuff?
I mean, come on. It's mind boggling to me, but that's what goes on. You know what's funny? They go back every week. They go they give permission for the leadership to treat them that way because they go back every week.
You think people would vote with their feet and say, this is making merchandise of people. This is ungodly. No. No. No. No. This is the way it's done. And, mind boggling to me.
Totally my I mean I I mean, one of the greatest things for me as a Christian was when I'd go to church, my pastor would never put the bite on people. So I could invite a non believer. I could invite a family member.
I could invite people that watched Christian television programming and say, all those churches want. All those Christians want your money. I say, no. No. No. He's not even gonna mention it. He wants to teach you the word.
You're gonna worship and study God's word today. No. They won't. They always want the money. You know? And, that and that's their their reason why they don't even wanna go with you. And then you bring them and there's no pressure.
No financial pressure on anybody. Because freely we receive, freely won't we we we wanna give. If people don't wanna give, they don't have to give. It's it's no big deal. And that's the way it should be.
That shouldn't be by constraint. It shouldn't be this heavy guilt and pressure. And so back to the pledges again. So what they do then is they get people in the audience to sign a card and to say, I I pledge to give this much this year.
Well, it's beyond your income. Well, they're teaching you that if you have enough faith, then you'll get more income. You know? So now the budget's based on pledges and stuff.
And holy smokes. You know? When we were, trying to do our building project and we didn't have, anywhere near enough money going for it, there were some, sources of of financing that we began to explore.
And one of them, you know, I mean, they got these they got plans. They got schemes to approach the people with.
And I just I I I no. I'm not gonna do that. Not gonna do that. We're not we're not we're not gonna obligate other people, in that way. We're gonna we're gonna wait and see what the Lord gives and work it out that way.
And and, but boy, they got a lot of different different schemes and strategies and all. And, so Paul's just straight up saying to him, you know, examine your own heart and, let's see if you really wanna give.
Don't talk about giving. Let your yay be nay, your nay be nay. Don't even talk about it if you're not gonna. So first John three sixteen, hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us.
And we ought, so the response might be, not a guilt, but a responsibility as someone that's grown up a little bit, to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoso has this world's good and sees his brother have need and shuts up the bowels of compassion from him.
So you've got money. You see people suffering around you. God's blessed you with an abundance. How dwells the love of God in him? So John's saying, hey.
How's the love of God even dwell in you if if your heart isn't moved to compassion to, alleviate some of that suffering? He says, my little children, let us not love in word, let us talk, Neither in tongue, but in deed and truth.
So we would say, talk's cheap, man. Show me. So do more than just talking. And I would suggest that we not even talk about it if we're not gonna do it. So if you're so exuberant, so excited, you wanna give, then then give.
But really, don't let your left hand know what your right hand's doing. You don't need to advertise to everybody what you're gonna do for Jesus or do for the church so that, you know, then you got your reward.
If if you're getting the applause of people doing what you do before men to be seen of men, whether it's prayer or giving or whatever, then Jesus said you've already got your reward.
You know? But instead, go into your prayer closet and your father who sees in secret is gonna reward you openly. And so we we don't need to do our prayers, big eloquent prayers before men on the streets. They think we're all so holy.
Jesus brought attention, like we talked last week, away from the Pharisees, the very wealthy fat cap people that were bringing all the attention how much money they were given and brought the attention over to an anonymous invisible woman who gave out of her living her two mites.
And Jesus said she gave more than everybody else because she gave out of her living. And so God measures what we give, not by the amount, but by what it costs us. Worship is measured by what it costs us.
Aruna, when David went to the threshing floor of Aruna and, David, was instructed of the Lord that he'd need to sacrifice there, bring a sacrifice upon the threshing floor for the Ark of the Covenant, to bring it back into the city.
And, Aruna said David, you're a prince of a man. You can have it for free. And David understood this principle and he said, I will offer to the Lord that which cost me. I will not offer to Lord that which cost me nothing.
And so he, paid Aruna for that threshing floor, which, was earlier. It was Mount Moriah where Abraham offered Isaac on that same mount. Later, it's near the area of Golgotha where Jesus at Calvary is gonna be crucified.
Verse nine. For you know the grace of our lord Jesus Christ, that though he is rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich.
So what better example of giving? How is God proving his love for you? I mean, what better example is there of giving than that of Jesus himself?
Jesus said, greater love has no man than this, and a man lay down his life for his friends. Husbands, love your wives like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. You know?
And so that sacrificial love, your willingness to go serve in the military all over the world to keep the battle on foreign shores so that your grandma, your grandpa, your mom, your dad, you know, you're willing to risk your life.
You have the moral high ground, you believe at the time, maybe not anymore, but you have the moral high ground that there's bad people out there.
And if we don't stop them, we're all gonna be speaking German. Right? And so you go and D Day the whole thing and and beaches of Normandy and your grandparents and people sacrifice.
Why? Out of love. Christian love. That's what our culture is taught. It's Christian love. And so greater love is no man than this, than a man laying down his life for his friends.
So too in your home. Your mom and dad are gonna lay down their physical health. They're gonna be up all night with babies and burping and and sick kids.
And, you know, they could they could keep the woman could keep her figure. She could say, I don't wanna have any kids. I wanna keep my career and my figure. You know? I I wanna be young as long as I can.
You know? These kids, man, they really take a toll on your body. Yeah. They do. And then your stupid husband's at work, flashing on all the young secretaries. Right? What an idiot. He's supposed to lay his life down for his wife.
And so the godly man, he's up in the morning. Right? He's doing his devotions. He's in the word. He's making sure the family's okay before he leaves, and he might do that for forty years. Inclement weather.
Giving his body up, his health up, everything up, so the kids have shoes and clothes and a home and all these things. Great. What what's the motivation? Love. It's love. Somehow, we want our kids to have it better than we had it.
You know? You so you're willing to lay your life down for them. One of the greatest, things for our kids when we have kids is for them to have children. Because then they're gonna have to lay their life down.
They can't be so selfish anymore. Right? Having having a kid, man, it really humbles you. It really makes you you know, I mean, they interrupt your sleep. Can you believe that? Somebody interrupting your sleep?
And most of us, we're not the kind of people that complain about it. It's a joy and a blessing. I just marvel at Britney with the type of mother she is and Wayne, what a good husband, good father and all. Just a it's mind blowing.
You know, I don't know how anybody could do with seven kids. You know? And and they're just getting started. Their oldest one's only 14. Their youngest one's just a few months. They got a long road ahead of them.
Kathy and I, man, we get to travel a little bit and go places and bike ride and eat good foods and things like that, you know. But, but, yeah, when you're starting out, no nobody has to hold a gun to your head to do that stuff.
It's a passion. It's a joy. It's a blessing. You're you're gonna lay your life down no matter what. And that's the love that the Lord has to us.
He initiates and he's asking us to respond. He's asking us to love him, first and foremost, with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, all of our strength, and then to love our neighbor as ourself.
And husbands, no man yet ever hated himself. So when they try to tell you in your counseling classes, your problem is you don't just don't love yourself enough, that's a bold faced lie.
You're always nourishing it. Oh, look at this owie. Oh, and I need a sandwich. I you know, that's love.
That's an obsession with self. So what Paul's saying is, how about you guys, since you're so obsessed with yourselves, how about you love your wife the way that you're obsessed with yourself? How about that? How about you care for her?
You know? So no man yet ever you know, every man nourishes and cherishes himself. So so that's the way you need to love your wife. You need to love your wife like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.
You know? And so as we as we love in this way, as we, allow the women and children to have the lifeboats and life preservers, you know, we're willing to die when the Titanic's going down, it sends a message of love.
It sends a message of the gospel. It's the same way that God loved us in the sending of his son.
And so how has God proven his love for you? For me, it's the cross. For you, it's the cross. It may not be your bank book. It may not be your job, your health. All that stuff can go.
And when it goes, when Job is stripped of all the external things, and internally, he's he's having a real hard time, you know, justifying this, rationalize this, understanding this, so too you and I when injustice comes.
Because the greatest victim in the whole world is Jesus. He that knew no sin became sin. So if ever you want a pity party, let it start with Jesus.
Right? Let it start with how criminal, how wrong it was, what he went through. Right? And then by the time we're done with that, we'll kinda realize, alright. I got it pretty good. You know?
And, because I deserve what I got. But he didn't deserve what he got. He's an innocent man, Pilate said. I find no fault in him. And he yet he knew for envy that the religious leaders had railroad him, you know, to to be crucified.
And, we see the disparity of who he is and the kind of person he is and all the things he did with how he was treated, by people. And so what nailed him to the cross of Calvary, your sins, my sins, but actually actually, it's love.
Greater love is no man than this. It's love. No man takes my life from me. I willingly lay it down. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again, Pilate. And so completely in control, but demonstrating his love.
And so for me, when I'm inclined to listen to a lie of the wicked one, I I have to stop myself, take that thought captive, and remind myself that God proves his love for me at the cross of Calvary.
For God's soul and look at the love in the past tense.
He's pointing me back to the cross. Maybe not in the present tense. It doesn't seem like it. I can't really envision the future tense. I can maybe meditate on some things. Hey. Streets of gold. Oh, it's gonna be great. No more sorrow.
No more crying. No more tears. You know? Hey. That's alright. What about in the immediate? What about right now? What if I play the comparison game of, well, how come they're not like that? How come you did it just, you know?
You gotta go back to the cross. You gotta go right back to the cross because the devil's gonna nail you. It's the cross. Jesus went to the cross for us. That's where God proves his love for us because of the cross of Calvary.
And so what did Jesus sacrifice for you? What did he give up for you personally? Not in a general sense of everyone out there, but for you personally, what did he give up to save you?
What did it cost him to save you? Didn't it cost him everything? Didn't he didn't he give it all? He gave it all, didn't he? Father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me, but nevertheless, not as I will, but thy will be done.
Satan's offering him a shortcut. You don't need to go by way of the cross. You don't need to suffer in that way. You don't need to have your beard pulled out and and be beaten beyond recognition of a man.
You can bow down and worship me, and I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world. And how many people have chosen have chose a shortcut? A shortcut to a temporal a temporal pleasure or power or mammon, whatever.
But it's so short lived. It's it's it's as a vapor. And we have a greater sense than that, hopefully, as we're evaluating money, as we're evaluating wealth. We look at what EF Hutton says. No.
We look at what Jesus says. Right? Jesus said, what's it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what would a man give in exchange for his life? I don't think Bill Gates has much more time to be murdering Bill.
You know, that guy is obsessed with murdering people. And I think his days are coming. Right? And George Soros, his days are coming. Pretty soon, these guys are not gonna be tools of the devil that God, you know, uses.
You know? Pretty soon, it's gonna be lights out for these guys, and they're gonna spend all eternity in hell like Voltaire and every other atheistic person in the past has has done and has boasted and all.
And, and and their life's over. They're they're going to be alive in the sense of being aware, being awakened to hell. That doesn't look like a very good business plan, Bill.
You you should have you should have, prepared for eternity because, you're gonna lose it all. You're gonna lose everything. And, you're gonna be tormented day and night. And so how how how do you reconcile that?
How do you think about that? How do you how do you kill so many children? Look at the glee of jabbing them in Africa and all these kids and reducing population and population reduction with your mosquitoes and all those things.
How do you negate how much God's blessed you, Bill? You got more than everybody. And yet you're using it to destroy people. Not you and I.
We're not going there. There's a thankfulness. There's a gratefulness that God saved us. How's he proven his love for me? Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. So Jesus leaves the splendor of heaven for you.
Jesus, as we said, set aside the free exercise of his deity. He's still fully God. He's still fully man, but he sets aside, the riches of his omnipotence, being all powerful. The riches of his omniscience, knowing everything.
Although he he knew everything, he could look inside Simon the Pharisee's heart and know what Simon the Pharisee was thinking. So he still knew everything even though he's in that body. And omnipresence. He he's in one place at a time.
But yet he's able to say, you know, to Philip and Andrew, you know, didn't I see you and you're standing over there by that tree over there just a little while ago? You You know, so he's got this he's got this godlike quality.
Right? He's fully god, fully man. But we understand in the kenosis in becoming a man, there are some limitations in that human body in that when he went in John four, he was thirsty. He experienced weariness, being tired.
If he's not in that body, he's not gonna feel any of that, is he? Not gonna happen. But he's tempted in all points like we and yet without sin. He knows the feelings of our infirmity, the weakness of being in this human body.
Right? Still fully god, but tabernacled, clothed with a human body. So he has great empathy toward you and I of the these bodies and how inadequate they are in these fallen bodies. You know?
And, not that his has fallen because he's the second Adam, the last Adam, the prototype that, never sinned. But, the human body speaking has limitations in that of the free exercise of his deity at the right hand of his father.
And the glory, he set aside the glory. He prayed in John 17 that they'd know the glory that he once had with his father. Fellowship with his father. He that knew no sin became sin.
And he's crying out in Psalm 22, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? So on the Mount Of Transfiguration at the bapt baptism of Jesus, you can hear a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
You know, there's fellowship. But at the point of going to the cross, there's a separation of fellowship. For the first time in all of eternity, Jesus experiences a separation of fellowship from his father.
My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from my roaring? And at that moment, he that knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
To take on the form of a man, to be born of a poor woman in a humble manger, in an animal stable, to be raised in a poor home, you know, in a poor neighborhood, that of Nazareth.
He's created all things and he's reduced to being homeless. He's despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we his as it were our faces from him. The humility, the emptying of him, the way he's treated by people, spit upon, and as we said, his beard pulled out, deep furrows put within his back, and the mocking the mocking that people had.
He saved others. Himself, he cannot save. If you are the son of God, save yourself. You know? I mean, just unbelievable. Why? Why did he go through all this?
He goes on to say that you, through his poverty, might be rich. For you to go from rags to riches, God's gonna take you from your rags, from your debt that you could never pay, from the type of person you are to the way you're made up.
Everything about you is out of being unqualified. Completely unqualified for heaven. Unqualified to have a relationship with God.
Your sin has separated you from you and your God that he will not hear. Right? And so we don't have enough gold, silver, ingenuity, money, SpaceX, nothing nothing can redeem us or pay for our sins, only the precious blood of Jesus.
So way back in Genesis three fifteen, the Lord gave hope, gave her a prophetic picture that the seed, the virgin born son of God, that his heel would be bruised, that he'd go to the Cross Of Calvary, that he'd be crucified, but that he would crush the serpent's head one day, the seed of the serpent, the antichrist, and the the false prophet and also the devil, the dragon.
Jesus gonna crush them all. Gonna destroy them with the sword of his mouth and the brightness of his coming and have an angel put the devil into into the abyss for a thousand years.
At the end, a thousand years loosed. And then it's the lake of fire, baby. And why was hell made? It was made for the fallen angels, for Lucifer, for the devil, for Satan.
And one third of the stars, Revelation 12, that fell with Lucifer. Somehow they believed in this goo. Somehow they believed in this rebellion that they could that he could pull it off with his Isaiah 14, I will statements.
I will ascend to the, you know, height. I'll be as the most high God. And somehow they they thought this exalted chair would be able to do that.
But in Hebrews one, we see that Jesus, he didn't come on the scene in his incarnation as an angel. He's made a little lower than the angels in that he's made a human being.
That's pretty humbling to be made a human being. A poor one at that. One destined to be crucified, to experience death. And not just any death, but the death of the cross. That you through his poverty might be rich.
From you and I to go from rags to riches. Greater love has no man than this than a man laying down his life for his friends. I think back to I gotta be careful here this morning. But I think back to when I was four and a half years old.
Can you remember that far back? I can remember my biological dad taking me in this Volkswagen Bug, and I'm four years old. And I remember going on a freeway on ramp as it's curving and my door flopping open.
And him reaching over and, you know, those cars aren't very low. Shutting it, you know. And then I also remember wearing a nice little suit and going down to the courthouse.
And I remember the day that this is where I gotta be careful. And I remember the day that my dad adopted me. You get the idea. Alright. Jesus gave that we might live. The virtue in giving. Secondly, the verification in giving.
Thirdly, the value in giving. And herein I give my advice, for this is expedient for you who gave who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago. So they're thinking about it a year ago.
And, and he's trying to show them the value in following through, the value in giving. Now therefore perform the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which you have.
So quit just talking, follow through, prove your love, give, verse 12. For if there be first a willing mind and it is accepted according to that a man has and not according to that he has not.
So God's not asking you to give something you don't have. If you don't have, you don't give. But if you do have an abundance, you do have it. Paul's saying, go ahead and give. It's it's it's in your power, Ananias and Sapphira.
It's in your power to do with as you please. Do with what you want. You don't have to give if you don't want. But if you are gonna give, then fall if you say you're gonna give, then follow through and do.
If you give and then you lie about what you've given, be careful. You're not lying to the Holy Spirit, you know. You're You're gonna drop dead Ananias and Sapphira. But it's really not that heavy, is it?
It's not that heavy. It's freely we receive, freely we're gonna give. God loves a cheerful giver. We don't have to make it a big old, you know, heavy trip on people, you know? In our case, we run out of money. We rent the school here.
That's what happens when you run out of money. You don't you don't beg. You don't manipulate. You exhausted all your credit. You exhausted everything you had in your family. You did everything you could. And alright.
Let's see if we can go rent the Seventh day Adventist Church where we can honor God and not beg for money. Ain't that a good place to be? That's where I wanna be. What's it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?
What if I have to give up my soul to keep things, to keep buildings, keep stuff? What if I dishonor God by going that direction? So Psalm a 27, except the Lord build the house. They that labor, labor in vain that build it.
I don't wanna labor in vain and try and build something for men. I thought I was in God's will. I went for it with everything I got with the best years of my life. And I enjoyed tremendously serving the Lord.
Oh, it's a dream come true. What a great ministry. But it was for a season. That season's over. So what I learned was you can't life support a church. You can't artificially life support a church.
My dad does not wanna be life supported. Sure. He wants the pneumonia to go away and some meds and and the colitis. And he's told him he didn't want the appendicitis, surgery yet. Maybe he will later if he's feeling better.
But, he doesn't wanna be hooked up to machines indefinitely. I don't think many of us would. But but our loved ones, we'd hook them up to machines if there was hope for a new liver, a new heart, or a new I would.
I wouldn't want anybody to off themselves until there's absolutely no hope left, you know. But if the brainwave that's gone or whatever, how they explain that to you, they're not there.
You know, they've left the building. Then we have to agree that, alright, God's made that decision for us. And it's time to, you know, wipe our face like David did.
And he's fasting and praying that the little baby would live. And then when the little baby died, you know, he wiped his face and got up. And the guys are like, what's up with this? You were you were fasting and praying before.
Now you seem okay. And he says, well, I can't be with him now, but I will later. Be reunited later. That's God's decision, you know. And so we we don't need to take it so ultra serious, like somehow we're the ones in control.
Pastor Chuck has the same where God guides, he provides. And, if he's not guiding and providing, then we're gonna have to wait until the Lord inspires people within their hearts.
And what if you guys wanted a building out there? You saw a building, a church that got so old, a church that doesn't evangelize, fossilizes.
And they've got this building, wonderful building, land and all that. And they they wanna they wanna sell it and or give it to Calvary Bremerton. What would you do? We'd pray about it. We'd ask the Lord.
And they say, how much you got? Not much. We just pray and ask the Lord, you know. But we certainly wouldn't I wouldn't wanna be a part of, you know, going down to the bank and trying to get a loan again like I did so many times before.
I'd have to say, you know, Lord, it's at the nitty gritty. It's at the end of the end of the end of the end.
And I don't wanna spend all my time fixing up an old building for the Chinese to take over. You know? But, Lord, if you have a use for that building, if they wanna just gift it to us, then, then, Lord, certainly.
You know? And, I would go that route. But I'm not I'm not gonna get in a situation at the age I'm at I am now, where I've gotta shoulder so much of that stress.
When I was younger, it was it was great. It was adrenaline. Let's go for it. Let's take the city. Joshua and Caleb. It was awesome. But at this age, it's like, nah. I need to spend more time with the grandkids, I think.
You know? So I would have to I would have to say, you know what? If we don't have the money, no. But, hey, if you do, that's great. And, praise the Lord. But no pressure. No pressure. Like, you know, gotta have this.
So he says in Ephesians four twenty eight, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give that need give to him that needeth.
And so God rewards many of us with careers, with talent, with abilities. And in those talent and those abilities, maybe before we were kinda derelict in our duty.
We didn't work. If a man don't work, he don't eat. And, some in the early church were quitting their jobs because they thought the rapture was coming. So they ran their credit cards up.
They ran all their bills up and then they were just waiting for the rapture to take them away. That's a bad witness. That's a bad witness. And, so Paul had to find a wind up saying, if a man don't work, he don't eat.
No freeloaders, you know. And so not only that, but Jesus said it's more blessed to give than to receive. So when you work, in many cases, you wind up having more than your daily food. You wind up having a little bit of an abundance.
When Paul worked, he was able to help some of the guys that were traveling with him and all. And there's a huge, blessing in be able to work and for the Lord to produce through you because of Adam's sin.
Right? Because of the curse, we gotta work. We gotta do it. But when we do it, there is sort of a sense of accomplishment, a sense of him.
I'm in God's will. I'm doing what God's called me to do. If we're dissatisfied with that job, then we ask the Lord to show us another job, another career, another place like that.
But ultimately, a lot of us are in careers that really aren't that glamorous. We may not really like those jobs. We can tolerate them. Because why?
Because it's part of the curse. It's a curse. But we do it because we need the check. We need to pay the bills. We need to help with the kids, the grandkids, everybody else. And, and then we have a little bit left over to help others.
And then we start to realize, you know, this is how God provides for our family. And, he doesn't let a whole lot of people win the lottery. He says, here's a way to provide. How about working?
And when you get a good job, when you have been poor and you don't have work and you're looking for work and you can't find work, and you finally find a a well paying job like a lot of the jobs here in Puget Sound, the shipyard, Keyport, Banger.
These are wonderful, wonderful jobs. And Britney was saying to me the other day, you know, Jude is 14 and some of her friends are asking if, he's gonna go to college, what kind of career he's gonna go in and all that.
And, she she's a smart real smart mom. And she says, probably more of a trade school, more of a trade.
Now granted, if he wants to go to Olympic College and school, you know, that's up to him. That's up to the kids. And then I chimed in, if the shipyard is still going strong, Doge hasn't wiped out all the nice jobs that are there.
The best place for these young kids to go is to the apprentice program in the shipyard. And they'll pay for him to go to college and for him to gain a gain a real skill and, and a good income. And guess what?
Traditionally, these young kids that go there are able to buy a house too. And they're able to raise families. And it's a very, very good opportunity. And isn't that true? Isn't that a blessing? And so we we look at that.
We think, hey, well, maybe he used to do drugs, this kid. And he used to steal. And he used to burglarize houses and all. Paul said, hey, you got saved now. You you're saved. You're you're not that person anymore.
Now go down the shipyard and get a job as long as you don't have a felony if you can get in there. And, if not, you're gonna have to work construction, start your own business, cut trees or something.
But, God's gonna bless you as you work hard. And you're gonna now, rather than stealing, you're gonna have something to give to somebody else that's that's in need.
And you're gonna feel wonderful about it. Proverbs twenty one twenty five, the desire of the slothful kills him for his hands refused the labor. He covet greedily all the day long, but the righteous giveth and spareth not.
And so the the righteous, they're so incredibly blessed, and they just wanna give back. They wanna give back to the lord. So the Macedonians were poor and generous.
The Corinthians were rich, but stingy. I've met some very very wealthy people. I mean, extremely wealthy. And it broke my heart when I saw their son, you know, living living in such a way that it just didn't fit.
It wasn't right. And, I don't understand that. I just don't understand the pontificating, the dominance that the wealthy want to have over everyone, including their own children. Just mind boggling to me.
And, just absolutely, broke my heart. Because the desire within my heart would be to make life a little bit easier for my kids, you know, and to prop them up in a way that they could have incomes and careers and all that sort of thing.
But not to not to, just broke my heart.
And then they're they're not, they don't have relationships with their kids. They don't have relationship with people because money's their god. And money's always the dominant factor in the room when they're in the room.
And, it's very sad that how money can take on like a personality. It's it's very I don't know if you ever felt a demonic presence in regard to money, but it's it's palpable.
It's it's, it's it's scary. And you you don't wanna give give your life over to that pursuit that every moment of every day you're trying to build that 90,000,000 to a hundred million, you know.
How much is enough? Just a little bit more for people that are into that. Because it's power. Psalm one thirteen seven. He raises up the poor out of the dust and lifts the needy out of the dunghill.
So the Corinthians had forgotten how God had taken care of them and brought them from rags to riches. They were nothing. They were nobodies. They were they were the laughing stock of the whole culture.
To be called a Corinthian was to be just a degrading term. And now you're a Christian and God's blessing you because Corinth was an extremely, prosperous city. And, Jerusalem once was too, but Jerusalem was under attack.
A lot of persecution. So a lot of people lost their jobs. I said that the Monday night bible study one time the other night, I said when I was in California in 1989 that, 200,000 aerospace employees lost their jobs.
Where did Long Beach Shipyard go? My friends worked at Long Beach Shipyard. Came here. Those guys lost those jobs down there.
And what about McDonnell Douglas? Didn't Boeing, you know, eventually gobble it up? And you had all sorts of aerospace, companies in Southern Cal. And for some reason, they began to move them out of that area.
How many military bases around the world are we gonna shut down as we downsize America? How many what's the budget gonna be? How many people are gonna lose their jobs? Gonna have to move, transfer?
And, my friend Joe came up here because down in Southern California in 1989. I went to school in 9193. Joe was in our bible study. Had a bible study at our house. And, he was standing outside of a Home Depot.
He had with a partner, they had three or four houses that they were remodeling and then to flip them. But the market hit. It changed like that. And he couldn't get any wealthy people to remodel their kitchen.
All the tile work that he was doing, he it was done. So he was standing out in front of a Home Depot waiting for John Q homeowner to come out with his pallet of tile and say, hey, do you need someone to help install that?
You know? And, and then they just couldn't find any work because it's a trickle down.
If the engineers and all these people, these professional jobs are out of work and they're looking, for new jobs all over the place, there's no jobs available at that point in time, It causes great fear in people.
Huge fear. And, Joe, like me, we got saved, right around 20 years old. And we went to Calvary Costa Mesa. And we met a bunch of girls. Tons of girls and guys. Mostly girls. And, and a lot of us got married to those girls.
And Joe found a girl there and he got married too. But he also found a a friend, two friends, that left Puget Sound to go down to Costa Mesa to go find the girls. And they too found girls and brought the girls back up here.
And they were working on Bainbridge. And Bainbridge had enormous amount of work going on. And the guy that they knew was a designer. He had a design place where you Bainbridge people go in and and you pick out your tile and all that.
And then Joe's your installer. So he talked him into coming up to be an installer And they people have to move. So he moved up here and they began to work and do these nice kitchens and all the stuff they learned in California.
They're bringing it up here and they're doing that sort of work. So then he begins to tell me to come on up. Come on up. Come on up. Start a church up here, you know. So it's just funny how the Lord can use an economy.
Loss of jobs, new jobs, all these things to move us around and, get people all over where he wants them to be. And, in a time of of persecution in Jerusalem, the church ran out Philip ran out to Samaria.
Apostle Paul was all the way out to Damascus and Syria chasing Christians. They Jesus said to go and make disciples of all nations. They weren't gonna go as long as everything was really sweet for them.
Now a famine came. Now persecution came. The gospel went out. So in Southern Cal when the famine came, part of it resulted in us, you know, coming up here even though we had plenty, plenty of work.
But a lot of the guys didn't. And, so I've always remembered that. I always remember my first job that I got at Anthony's Fish Grotto that my grandma got for me.
My mom was extremely poor going through a divorce there with with, welfare. And and it was tight, but she always had a house. My mom always had a house. But let me say this.
When I got that job at Anthony's Fish Grotto as a busboy, I had enormous amount of what's called discretionary income. I didn't have any overhead. I bought a car for $600. Lickety split, man. I went from a bicycle to a car.
And I had a work schedule of two to ten, not every day of the week, but two to ten. So that means you go to the beach every morning. And the waitresses would give me these cups, these styrofoam cups with $5 in it every shift.
And, and my paycheck would come every two weeks and that went into the bank, you know. It was unbelievable. I went from having $2 a week paper route, you know, to to that.
And, phenomenal. So I always I always loved the joy in the blessing of working, of being productive and not, having that sense of of, that sense of poverty, that inability, to be a blessing and to bless others.
So Jesus gave that we might live. The virtue in giving, the verification in giving, the value in giving, and fourthly and finally, the victory in giving.
Verse 13. For I mean not that other men be eased and you burden. So God's not anyone to carry the burden, the financial burden themselves, but by an equality.
So here's where the communist tried to come in and take the Christian principles, Marx and all and, you know, and, they're always at the top though and, the one percenters.
And so it's an idealistic kind of an idea and yet the people don't realize when they give up their middle class of what slaves they're gonna be to these guys.
But by an equality that now, at this time, your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality.
So everyone's sharing the whole thing. It's kind of an equitable exchange. It'd be good in a communal lifestyle if we could do it, in a kibbutz, if if that'd be great.
The Puritans, the pilgrims, when they came to this country, how did it work for them? At a certain point, you have to let people know they need to work and need to produce, and and then you can share from that point.
But, so they need your help now. They've had a injury. They've had no medical insurance. And, the bills are piling up and and they're part of your fellowship and they need some help.
And so give them a hand. Help them, alleviate some of the suffering. You might need help later. And so the victory in given is that the needs of the poor are met to the glory of God.
The Lord's glorified. People in The Philippines, as you send money to The Philippines and they have a greater far, far less standard of living of us, you're you're there for twenty, thirty years.
Some of you have been providing for your families in The Philippines. Your moms, your sisters, your brothers. When they get sick, Alan's, wife Cora's brother got sick or a family member got sick.
They're sending money over to The Philippines to help them with the medicines and things like that. And God gets the glory. The Lord gets the glory when you as a Christian person reach out to those.
People in Mexico who are poor as you reach out. People in Syria, the Christians in Syria. Christians in Ukraine. Christians in Russia. Christians in Sudan. Christians all over the world. And even non Christians.
We give to non Christians too. We give to people that are suffering. Americans typically with relief agencies in different ways, we donate, we give, we wanna alleviate suffering. We wanna be a help. We wanna bless.
The Lord's blessed us with so much, we wanna give back. And so, we might need the help later. So the wealthy continue to have their needs met and the Christians in in The Sudan, The Philippines, and other places, they get to eat.
Hospitals are built, homes are built, schools are built. The universities in America and the founding of our country were built by Christians.
We're the ones that wanted to be the educators of children, that want to help in a community. Spiritual needs are met. Think of the church, the spiritual needs that can be met in a community. It's mind boggling the people that I meet.
And, I mean, I know that the word of God can help them, but they're not being taught the word of God. The pastor of the church isn't teaching the word of God. And I know the word of God can minister to them.
It's sharper than any two edged sword, a dividing of soul and spirit and joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. I know the power of the word of God to transform and change a person from within.
But if the people aren't being taught the word of God, then how is that change gonna take place? I know. Let's hire 20 counselors. And let's give them Freud and Roy.
Let's give them psychology for twenty years till their insurance runs out. And they're no better off later. I mean, I got a phone call this week from a person that isn't getting better. Isn't getting better.
My counselor said, my counselor said, my counselor said. And basically, what a counselor becomes is somebody that just listens. Because the person can't move on. You and I as Christians, we should be able to move on.
We should be able to take the victimization and all the stuff that's done to us, all that bad stuff, and to be able to look at what the God's done for me, what he's given me in comparison.
And to say, you know, I'm not I'm not gonna be leashed to that anymore.
I'm not gonna be bound to that anymore. What the Lord has done for me is so much greater. I'm gonna forget those things that are which behind and press on to the things that are before.
Lest I just chase my tail the rest of my life. It's very sad. It's very sad. The riches the riches that I've received just by attending Calvary Chapel.
The way that I learned to be a husband. The way that I learned to be a father. The way that I learned to just be a Christian man. It seems like people are confused about what a man is out there.
I'll show you. Right right here. Right here. I mean, it's just it's bizarre to me. It's just so bizarre. These these roles, they're all found in the Bible. And we have the help of the Holy Spirit to teach each of us, you know.
Kathy and I got married. We we we're clueless, you know. Some things carried over from the fifties, you know, from our our parents generation. But, sixties and seventies growing up, we weren't in Christian homes.
But there were still some absolutes, some things that were pretty pretty clear. Neither of us were questioning whether we were a male or a female. It seemed to it seemed to fit just right.
But, but today, the confusion, the level of confusion is just off the charts. And, what is a family? What is a home? Why would I have a home? Why would I have children? Why would I have kids? And and and the church helps us.
The church helps us be be a family of believers that stays with the word of God, the creator of the universe. And we wind up getting through much of the chaos and confusion and the demonic ideologies to things.
As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. So as we study God's word, our mind is shaped. Our values are shaped. And our values that's why the communists don't want children to have the bibles, you know.
That's why they wanna indoctrinate them in their own, you know, ideologies. And, and so we I just I mean, what what value would you place on that? What dollar amount? How much are you paying at a counselor every week?
How many years you've done that? Well, we don't charge you here. Freely, we've received. Freely, we give. And I I come into that church several nights a week. And I'm I'm struggling, you know, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.
I still don't have this figured out. I got some ideas in my head that are wrong ideas. And I need an adjustment, an attitude adjustment. And by going to church, the lord gives me that attitude adjustment, calms me down.
And then I realize, oh, alright. I can go another week. You know? And that that's how it works for us. It works for me. And I've been thinking a lot of Matthew seven.
I want you guys to think for a second, a little side issue. Matthew seven, you have a house that's built on the rock and a house that's built on sand. And when I do marriage counseling for you, that's where I take you.
And now, it's the comeuppance. Now, it's time to find out who has built their house on the rock and who has built their house on the sand. In a time of prosperity, you can get away with building your house on the sand.
When everybody's there to back you up and lots of money, lots of jobs, lots of stuff, lots of Amazon, lots of everything. You can get away with being a tiny, whiny, selfish little Christian, baby baby. You know? A whiner.
Nursery school. You can get away with it. But when the boat's rocked, when the earthquake comes, when the storm economic storm comes, now we're gonna see who is the doers of the word and who are just the talkers, Just the hearers.
We're gonna see so many people in our community melting down, unable to walk by faith, unable to cope with reality that's coming.
And you and I need to be there to help them walk by faith. To just help them, it's real simple, become as a child. Jesus has been there all along.
You can trust him. He's trustworthy. He will help you. He will open the scriptures to you. He'll calm your heart. He'll help you with your anxiety. He'll help you with all these things that you're facing now.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's the great physician and it's a walk of faith. You haven't been walking by faith. You haven't been a doer of the word, only a hearer only.
And it's I think so, I think so, and I feel, I feel, I feel. Stop that. Do. Do what he tells you to do. Do the first thing he tells you to do, and then he'll give you something else.
But an equality there. As it is written, he has gathered much, had nothing over and he that had gathered little had no lack. And so he's he's quoting from Exodus sixteen eighteen, the manna that came down from heaven, the angel's food.
The manicotti, as Keith Green would say, all the different ways that the the coriander, the golden grain of heaven came down. And so Jesus is the bread of life. He's the manna come down from heaven.
And, and in that frame, if you gathered a lot, it would have worms and be stinky. If you gathered a little, it'd be enough. And so you couldn't hoard. You couldn't hoard. So if you had more, you'd share with others.
You don't have to hoard it. And so Jesus leaves the splendor of heaven for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he is rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich.
So he gave it all that we might live. And we went from rags to riches. We talked last week in Ephesians the word plutos, plutocrats, the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus.
And so the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus are in Christ Jesus. So that's a phrase, in Christ Jesus. Either in Christ Jesus or out of Christ Jesus.
Either in the boat, in the ark, or out of the boat. You're the saint. You're an ant. You're not almost pregnant. You're either pregnant or not. You either have a seed in you or you don't at all.
You're either a believer or an unbeliever. And don't say you believe in a general way because demons say they believe and tremble. So what's it mean to believe? We have to define all of our all of our terms today.
What is saving faith? What's it mean to believe? Well, we'll find out. Jesus said, you know them by their fruit. We don't know what flavor you are till you as a teabagger put in hot water.
Once you're put in hot water, that bitterness, that anger, that rancor, that comes out. Wait a minute here. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What happened here? Where's the fruit of the spirit, which is love?
Calm down. And then there's other people can lose everything. And they're like Job, they're praising the Lord. They're just praising the Lord because that's who they are. They're worshipers. And they know that God's on the throne.
He's got it in control. It's out of your ability. You're not in charge. You did everything you could with that job in the shipyard. You did everything to put your money in the TSP and everything in there. You did your job.
They stole it from you. Nothing you do about it. Nothing you do. That grave of an injustice, there's nothing you can do. That's where faith comes in. You're gonna have to trust because these guys are wanting to steal, kill, and destroy.
When they're done with this, they wanna be the one percenters and have it all. And you'll be happy and no nothing. So don't be don't be thinking that the golden age, according to these politicians, is coming.
You be you keep your eye open and you do what God's telling you to do as far as you being like Joseph and prepare for the storms that are coming. Hopefully, the rapture will take us out.
But if not, we need to be like Joseph and be ready, as best we can, to prepare for a time that maybe we haven't seen in a lot of years or never have. So we went from rags to riches. The riches that are ours in Christ Jesus.
Has your life been enriched by God's spirit? The day that I received the Holy Spirit in my heart and life, I smiled for two weeks. I couldn't stop smiling. It's just, like, amazing. Are you still living in the rags?
The filthiness of your old life, the unrighteousness, your stingy, prideful, self serving existence. Jesus is the bread of life. The manna come down from heaven and he offers himself to you and I as the true riches of life.
He wants you and I to go from rags to riches. Jesus said in John six thirty three, the bread of God is he which comes down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.
He says in verse 35, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. You go from rags to riches. Will you believe? Do you believe?
When Jesus is rolling into Jerusalem on a donkey, according to Zechariah nine verse nine, He's presenting himself as the king because Zechariah nine verse nine says, your king is gonna come to you lowly and sitting on the foal of a donkey.
Right? And he told the disciples, hey, prepare for the upper meal and all that and go over and talk to this guy about his donkey and let him know that your master has needs of need of it, you know.
A donkey that nobody's ever ridden upon, you know. That sounds like a rodeo, doesn't it? And, and go get them. Your master needs them. And so they prepare the upper room and all that and get all that ready.
And and Jesus is presenting himself according to Psalm 18. He's presenting himself on the donkey according to Zechariah nine verse nine as the as the king of Israel.
Psalm one eighteen twenty four says, this is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And then it says, save, which means hosanna.
Save now. Save now. And, I beseech thee, oh Lord. I beseech thee. Send now prosperity. And then going on, blessed is he that comes in the name of the lord. We have blessed you out of the house of the lord.
And so in Matthew twenty one nine, it's hosanna, hosanna, which means save now. Save now. So the people are crying out, save now. And you can see in Mark and John's gospel, but also in Luke 19, the people are crying out.
And, the Pharisees say, you know, tell your people to quit, you know, yelling that out. Hosanna. Hosanna. Save now. There's palm branches down according to Matthew 21.
He's presenting himself. He came under his own and his own received him not. You know, the world was made by him, but his own they didn't know him not. But as many as received him, to them gave heed the power to become the sons of God.
Even to they, they weren't they they weren't that believe on his name, those who weren't, born of blood or born of the flesh nor born of of man, but they were born of God. So Nicodemus, you must be born of God.
And so the people that are receiving him, hosanna, hosanna, hosanna, blow in the you know, waving the palm branches for their king coming into the city, the official religious leaders are rejecting him, telling your people to be quiet.
And Jesus is saying if they don't, then the rocks would cry out. Right? The very rock. Because creation is known. This isn't, done in a corner.
This isn't something that that, wasn't prophesied in Luke 19. And so Jesus wept over the city later because they went from shouting hosanna, hosanna, save now, to four days later saying crucify him, crucify him.
So though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty that we might become rich, but we must receive the riches, the unsearchable riches of Christ in our heart and lives.
Now, do you believe in Jesus? Have you received Jesus? Have you received those riches? Are you still living as a pauper in your unrighteousness or in your own self righteousness?
And so Jesus, as he's weeping over the city, if you'd known in this thy day, in verse 22, this day, the day of your visitation, but you didn't know the day of your visitation.
Behold your city is left empty desolate. Do you know the times you're living in?
Do you know that today being Palm Sunday is as we're looking back that Jesus wrote in on the very day that God prophesied? In Daniel chapter nine verse 25, we're told that there would be 70 sevens, pertaining to the nation of Israel.
And after sixty nine of these seven year periods of time or four hundred and eighty three years, from the command to go forth and restore and rebuild Jerusalem and come unto the coming of the Messiah the Prince, that it would be a sixty nine seven year periods of time.
And so you take the sixty nine and you times it by three sixty, which would be the Julian calendar.
There'd be a hundred and seventy three, eight hundred and eighty days from the command in Nehemiah two verse one on March, that Artaxerxes gave the command to go and restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
And then you go a hundred and seventy three, eight hundred and eighty days forward to April. That's the day that Jesus according to sir Robert Anderson, who's computed this, That's the day that Jesus rode in to Jerusalem.
In Luke 19, you can see in this thy day, this very day he says in verse 42. And so your city has left you desolate because you didn't in verse 44, because you did not know the time of your visitation. Many people out there asleep today.
They don't know the time in which we're living. We gave you the prophecy books. Today's a day of fulfillment of prophecy. So Palm Sunday. Next week, Good Friday this week, Passover week, Feast of Unleavened Bread. So many types there.
The lamb of God who's gonna take away the sins of the world. The Passover lamb of Egypt and all. And, there's so it's so rich. There's so many ways to share the good news with people. He came under his own and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. It's about receiving Christ in your heart today. It's about looking at the evidence, the overwhelming evidence and saying, you know, I'm a pauper.
I'm a sinner. I can't face a just and a holy God in my own clothes. I'm gonna need to be clothed in the clothes of righteousness. I'm gonna need to be washed in the blood of the lamb. I need God's forgiveness through his son.
And he's offered, by taking on the poverty of it being a human being and going to the cross and dying in my place to bequeath to me, to give to me, that I receive as a gift, a free gift, eternal life by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
Anyone here this morning? You want to be in Christ. You want to know what it is to have the spiritual riches that are ours in Christ Jesus.
A future and a hope. You don't want to continue to try and do it alone or trusting in men. You wanna trust in Jesus. He proved that he's God by being crucified, buried, and raised himself from the dead.
He proved he's your God. He proved of the nation of Israel by riding in that donkey into that city. And four days later, these same people are shouting out, crucify him.
They go from Hosanna, save now, to crucify him. Let his blood be upon us and upon our children. You know what that is? That's unbelief. That faith or that recognition of that party and all that that excitement, that wasn't saving faith.
They were hoping, they were thinking, is this the Messiah that's gonna overthrow the the Romans? And he could have had they had they received him. He's presenting himself.
But, Daniel told us that he'd be cut off and there'd be one final seven year period. The seventy seven of Daniel, the time of Jacob's trouble. The time that we're fast approaching watching the nation of Israel in the land.
And at the midpoint of that seven year period, the Antichrist goes into the temple being rebuilt, declares himself to be God, demands to be worshiped as God.
And in John five, Jesus said, I come in my father's name and you receive me not. Another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. The world is being deceived.
The world is turning back upon God. They're rejecting truth and in that rejecting of truth, they're being given over to a strong delusion of demonic doctrines and fables and things that deceive people and keep them down and in darkness.
But you and I are not children of darkness that that day should overtake us unaware. So we're proclaiming the good news. We're proclaiming that Jesus came to make you rich. To take you from rags to riches.
And it's okay to say that. The riches that are ours in Christ. Why not? The spiritual riches. So if we take John 10 verse 10, the thief comes not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy the strategy of the wicked one.
But I've come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. Don't dishonor God by saying he's promising to make everybody financially rich. That's not what he's saying there. That's diminishing.
That's There may be if riches increase just don't set your heart on it. You might be financially wealthy. That might be part of what God's given you. But that's not what that's saying there. It's the spiritual riches.
It's the spiritual riches of fellowship with the true living God. Because you could be like Job then and lose it all and still have the spiritual riches that moth and rust can't corrupt, thieves can't break through and steal.
Store for your treasures in the heaven. Right? And so this morning, we can walk away from here knowing that on this Palm Sunday, that as people were waving those palm branches and saying, save now, save now.
So to the Holy Spirit saying to us in this room here, save now. Anybody here, you want to be saved now, you want to receive Christ. Today is the day of salvation, for why would you die in your sins tomorrow?
Today's the day. Anybody here, just lift your hand up. We will lead you in prayer. Anyone here this morning on this Palm Sunday, give you a palm branch to wave, cry out hosanna, hosanna, save now. It's so great being a Christian.
It's so comforting to have my children and grandchildren in church and in Sunday school. And learning these truths, these eternal truths, the most important eternal truths that any of us could learn that Jesus loves us.
And he proved it by going to the cross of Calvary and giving himself for you and I. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for your love. Thank you for the work of your Holy Spirit in our lives in the past, the present, the future.
Thank you, Lord, that we're not fatherless. We're not orphans. That we belong. That we've been born again, but we've also been adopted. We've been adopted into your family, Lord. And Lord, you have great plans for us.
We thank you for what you've done so far in writing our name in the Lamb's Book of Life, in sealing us with the Holy Spirit, in teaching us and getting us ready for the soon return of your dear son.
We thank you for the work of your Holy Spirit, the grace, the virtues you poured out upon us, the way you transform and change.
There's so many things, huge long list of benefits, Lord. The riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. And father, we pray that our life would be an expression.
Our life would be a response to all that you've initiated, all that you've done, all that you're doing. That we wouldn't bad mouth you and whine complain when circumstances go sideways.
But, Lord, like Job, like like yourself, we'd worship. We'd simply worship. So father bless. Make us worshipers. Make us those that worship you in spirit and in truth in these last days, Lord, that we ascribe worth unto you.
There's anybody on Facebook, if there's anybody that doesn't know you, Lord, we pray that they would respond to make contact.
Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit. Save now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Jesus told the his generation they wouldn't see his face again until they say, blessed is he from Psalm a hundred and eighteen twenty five.
Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And so we're watching, we're waiting for the national conversion of the nation of Israel.
Amen. Only a one third remnant comes to a saving faith. And they have a great future with Jesus ruling and reigning from Jerusalem. But they're not gonna see his face until they say, blessed is he.
They were saying on that day, Hosanna, Hosanna, save now, but they didn't believe. And so he's waiting for that day that they come to a national confession and conversion.
Jeremiah thirty one thirty one, an unconditional covenant that God's gonna give them right in his law within their heart. The national conversion of the nation of Israel. Isn't that exciting what God has planned?
And you and I, as the church, as kings and priests ruling and reigning upon the earth for a thousand years with Jesus, with the nation of Israel, with David there, with the disciples, with the apostles. Isn't that exciting? So exciting.