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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.
1st Corinthians chapter 16 verse 13 through 24, would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word, together? Watch ye stand fast in the faith. Quit ye like men. Be strong. Let all your things be done with charity.
I beseech you, brethren, you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints, that ye submit yourselves unto such and to everyone that helpeth with us and labors.
I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, for that which was lacking on your part, they have supplied. For they refresh my spirit and yours, therefore acknowledge ye them that are such.
The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord with the church that is in their house. All the brethren greet you. Greet ye one another with a holy kiss, the salutation of me, Paul, with my own hand.
If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.
Amen. Father, thank you once again for your word. Thank you that as we've ventured through first Corinthians, we can learn a lot from the church of Corinth, a lot what not to do, a lot to do, and, that's how life rose along, Lord.
We thank you that the apostle Paul is bold enough, strong enough to make correction, to rebuke, to correct, to instruct in righteousness.
And, Lord, I pray that you give us the boldness to take our medicine, Lord, to take that which you're wanting to as the great shepherd, as the chief shepherd, as, the shepherd of our souls, Lord, the great physician.
We pray, Lord, that you minister to us. Build us up, strengthen us. Help us, Lord, to see things clearly and to yield evermore to surrender to your lordship in our lives.
So blessed now we pray. Be our teacher. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you please be seated? Paul gives number 1 an exhortation. In verse 13 and 14, there are 5 imperative commands.
In the Greek, what that means is continuous action. So it's it's it's not a suggestion. These are commands in a continuous way to position yourself and to apply these truths that he's gone through, to our lives.
So number 1, he says, watch ye. Stand fast in the faith. Quit ye like men. Be strong. Verse 14. Let all your things be done with charity. So the first imperative command, he's saying to be watched, to watch, which means to be alert.
As we said, don't go back to sleep. Be alert. You've done a good job. You've been like the men of Issachar, you're watchers. You're like those in Ezekiel 3 or Ezekiel 33, you're watchmen on the wall.
And, when you see a thief coming through, you alert people. If you didn't, then their blood would be upon your hands. But you're alerting people to the impending doom of hell. Sin brings forth death, eternal separation from God.
And so you're warning people and it's they gotta hear the bad news so maybe they'll appreciate the good news that God doesn't want them to be accursed as we're gonna finish up in, in this in this book.
He says, let him be anybody that doesn't love the lord Jesus, let him be accursed. Maranatha, you know, our lord cometh.
And so, you're accursed if you reject Jesus Christ. You're under the curse. He became accursed and went to the cross of Calvary. He that knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
And so, it's it's just a bummer if if a person doesn't believe. It's a huge bummer. It's an eternal bummer, you know, if I were to use that vernacular. So be alert. Stay awake. Be alive. Diligent in carrying out the will of God.
What's the will of God in your life? What's our plan, his plan, and purpose? The great commission to go and preach the gospel to all creatures, the great commission to go and make disciples, to make learners.
The church of Corinth had difficulty in watching. They succumb to the world's wisdom rather than holding to God's wisdom. And so, the wisdom of this world is foolishness, you know, of God.
And so they became enamored with the Greek philosophers, the stoics, the the Epicureans, and different different people, the gnostics, the people that began to come with a pseudo intellectualism undermining the word of God.
And and Paul says, you know, just keep it simple.
Keep it simple. Don't be don't be enamored with the world and their different lives or different things that they try to infiltrate, within the church. And so they needed to continue to watch. They became factious.
They were saying, I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollos. I'm of Cephas. I'm a flat earther. No. I believe the earth is round. You know? There's so many different ways that we can fall into the trap of the wicked one of dividing us.
And, John MacArthur, this week, was quoted as as as saying, you know, when it comes to doctrine, we might need to be, divided because there's no compromise on doctrine.
Things that are non essentials, we can agree to disagree. We don't have to, you know, divide. But these people were factious in the sense that I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollo, some of Cephas, some of Christ, is Christ divided?
They were following celebrity pastors, celebrity people. And, is Christ divided? You know, that's the question rhetorical question.
Of course, he's not divided. These guys are all just servants of the Lord just like you and I, so don't allow yourself to fall into these little groups, you know, and be divided over that.
They were tolerant to the immorality. So if you look at, Andy Stanley this past week has said he doesn't believe, you know, all of the Bible.
And we've seen that. We've seen where he's undermined the Bible. His his father, Charles Stanley, did. But Andy Stanley has a huge church in, Atlanta, and he's been undermining the Bible, for quite a while.
And he's just came out and, you know, and he said it. And so when, when a topic comes up of immorality of, gays and lesbians and LBGTQ and all that, he's soft on those issues.
He would he would applaud president Obama when Obama puts the the front of the White House, you know, in all different colored, rainbow lights saying love wins.
So they're misinterpreting love. They're going against the model, the doctrinal model of a marriage, 1 man, 1 woman, and we're supposed to be quiet about it.
Otherwise, we'll be labeled haters, bigots, and homophobes. And so, we have to stand up. We can't be tolerant of immorality. We can't wink at a man in 1st Corinthians 5 sleeping with his father's wife, his stepmother.
And, Paul said, no. Little leaven leavens alone. You gotta watch. You gotta be aware of this. And, you know, as much as I can, I try not to, be a sin sniffer?
I don't wanna know what all of you are doing. But if you rub it in my face, if you parade it, then you put me in a whole different mode. Now I've gotta confront it. And now I gotta be the the heavy. I gotta be the bad guy.
And so Paul said, you know, this little eleven eleven's a lot. You need to confront this couple. You need to confront these people and, give them over to Satan for the destruction of the body. So what he's saying is excommunicate them.
Tell them this is an illicit relationship. John the Baptist lost his head because he had the courage to tell Herod that taking your brother Philip's wife, Herodias, under yourself that that's illicit.
That's wrong. And Herodias was angry and imprisoned them, and he became a party favor with it losing his head over the truth.
And so that's the righteousness that we're to have. We're to stand against no matter who it is. We're to stand against for the sake of truth in honor of Jesus against these lies. You can't be you could build a church with tolerance.
You could build a church and not call sin sin anymore and not call, you know, immorality immorality anymore. You could tell people there's no such thing as hell. You could tell people, you know, everyone's going to heaven.
You could make it easy believism and have it be just all chocolate and candy every week, and people love that. You know? But as soon as you, say no or tell the truth or stand your ground, you watch what happens.
It's gonna be a divider of people. And so they, they learn that you can't be tolerant of immorality. The the body of Christ has an immune system. And a little leaven, one little sin like that, left unchecked, is bad for the people.
It's not loving for them, and it's not loving for the church or our young people that are watching observing what is a marriage, where's the proper use of sexual activity. God designed sex and he designed it, for the place of marriage.
Marriage defined as a union, the 2 becoming 1, male, female. So we got a lot of terms we have to define today. We have to define what a woman is, what a man is, what a boy is, what a girl is.
We gotta define, marriage. We gotta define aberrant behavior. And fortunately, the Bible, defines it for us. And so they were also in in chapter 6, they were suing each other, taking each other to court. And so he says, watch.
Don't let that happen. That's an embarrassment that we need the world to bring correction. So, it's impossible that offenses come. We're gonna offend one another, but we don't need to resolve these conflicts with the world.
We can, go to that person quietly according to Matthew 18, and then we can take a witness with us, and then we can bring it before the church leadership if need be, and we can bring accountability.
And so just as the way in chapter 5, he excommunicated them. He gave them over to Satan. And then as we get into 2nd Corinthians, we're gonna find out that that couple, under the pressure of being excommunicated, that they, repented.
And that's what we want. So if any man be overtaken into a fault, you are a spiritual restore such one in a spirit of meekness, lest you also be tempted.
So you don't you don't, make a public example of them unless they're parading it, making it public. So first, you try private. You beg them. I don't wanna go down this road.
I don't wanna do this. Please, I don't want to be a flat earther. But if they persist, if they force it, if they rub it in my face and make it public, then I gotta plant my feet. And I gotta deal with it as aberrant, doctrinal heresy.
My, son son-in-law and daughter, they have a friend that's a flat earther. And they, the flat earther started out with an aberrant, teaching of flat earth. And now they don't believe in heaven. They don't believe in hell.
Now they don't believe there's a holy spirit. So when you undermine the word of God in that way, now you're allowing all sorts of other heresy to come in and undermine the faith of people. So it's very serious.
Doctrinal error like that when the Bible states that the, you know, the we have a sphere in Isaiah chapter 22 or excuse me, Isaiah, 40 verse 22 says the it's a circle of the earth and the Hebrew in that is a sphere or a globe.
The Latin is globus. And so you go to Job and it's a sphere. It's a globe.
You go outside and you look. This morning, I took a picture of the round moon. When we have a lunar eclipse or a partial eclipse, it's a shadow off of a global earth, you know, over and over again. So biblical and also just natural.
It's clear. But why why is the devil so bent on dividing churches over whether it's a flat earth or a globe? Why is it so important? Who come up with this heresy? Is it the CIA? Is it is it a means of undermining, you know, the church?
And and, you know, I thought this was an isolated thing. I thought it was just so incredibly stupid that on a Saturday, I could say no to this person 10 times and they'd leave me alone, But they wouldn't.
They just gotta keep after me with it. So finally, I I see some other people in the church falling into it, young believers, and I gotta do something about it.
I got I I gotta I gotta divide over doctrine. I I can't just just let it go anymore. I don't wanna deal with this. I got better things to do. To me, flat earth is something we laugh at.
Oh, they're flat earthers. No. They're really serious. So then I check out, Answers in Genesis or, Institute For Creation Research. I check out pastors that I know who are much smarter than me, and everyone's being inundated.
All of these groups are being inundated with flat earthers that are interrupting them and going online and creating all sorts of trouble. They have to block them. So it's not an isolated thing.
I don't know why it's it's picked up so much, you know, momentum, if you will, But, we're we're having to address it presently and make sure that it's not like a leaven that leavens through here and, undermines the faith.
The person couple people in our church dabbled with it, looked at it, investigated it, and began to question the Bible, whether the inspiration of the Bible is correct. Like Andy Stanley, they began to doubt the Bible.
They began to look at, other Apocrypha writings and things that aren't included in the Bible. They began to question creation, how God creates and all. So it's a slippery slope. You gotta deal with it.
You gotta be able to try and, ground people in the faith, begin to help them. I refer, you know, guys like doctor Kent Hovind for some, you know, answers, you know, to biblical cosmology and, young earth and things like that.
So in past years, we've always had a lot of videos and things to help the new believers help people with creation, people that are stuck on evolution and all.
And, Charles Spurgeon, the late 1800, there was a thing that came into the church called modernism.
So you had the Scopes trial, the monkey trials, and you had Darwinian evolution begin to raise its raise its head in England. And Spurgeon is a pastor, a prominent pastor of over 10,000 people.
And, the church felt like they weren't as intellectual as the world. So the world of philosophers came along with an evolutionary theory that we evolved. And Spurgeon is telling them, you gotta fight against this.
You can't give into this. So what did the church do? They began to come up with a theory called theistic evolution. Alright. We'll make a compromise with the world. We'll say that God started it, but then everything evolved thereafter.
That's a heresy. That's a compromise. And Spurgeon, his wife said that he died of a broken heart because he watched so many people get sucked into that lie. And what's that lie do? It takes away the glory from the God of creation.
And so if you look at Romans 1, you can see where this is headed. When you suppress the truth in verse 18, the obvious truth of going outside looking up, then you're given more glory to the creature rather than the creator.
You're taking away the glory from the creator. In Psalm 8, when I consider the heavens, the moon, and the stars, the work of your fingers, what is man that you're mindful of him?
You go to Psalm 19. You go to all through the Psalms, you go to places where where God is glorified, obviously. I mean, these guys Rob listened to 12 hours of videos. 12 hours of videos on this topic.
And he finds out that the stars aren't really the stars. Those are angels out there. Do you know what poor hermeneutics that is? Do you know how poor that is to take from Revelation 12, and 1 third of the stars fell with Lucifer?
And it obviously is referring to fallen angels or the stars that are watching over the churches, you know, the 7 churches. So so you see that word used as the bright ones, the morning star.
In some cases, yes, that word star is referring to an angel, but not those out there. That's not Harold out there twinking, you know, twinkling and it's a wonderful life. Oh, look. He's a star out there.
So they're interpreting that all the stars out in heaven are angels. They're also interpreting saying there is no gravity. Alright. Well, jump off the roof then. Prove to me there's no gravity. Our God's a God of order.
He's a God of order. We saw that in chapter 14. Do everything decently in an order. Well, then we we find out that you can't, the earth is flat that you can't get past Antarctica, that there's a big wall of ice.
And all the global leaders got together a 100 years ago, and they decided that we can't let anybody cross Antarctica because, you know, they might fall off the edge or whatever.
The earth the earth is flat. Why do you have to even talk about this stuff in this day and age?
How could this even come into a group of intelligent people? Why waste my time? You know? But it's but it's just it's it's it's a distraction. And so the Apostle Paul is faced with aberrant teaching.
He's got to deal with it. He said to the church of Galatia, how come you're bewitched? You're bewitched. Have have having begun in the spirit or now you're gonna be made perfect through the flesh?
So what happened is Paul planted the church and leaves and moves away. Judaizers come in and and the Gnostics come in who think they're smarter than everybody, and they begin to undermine the Bible.
Now Paul needs to give a letter to expose the Gnostics and to expose the Judaizers. That, no, the people don't need to be circumcised.
They don't need to live according to the letter of the law. The Judaizers would come in want everyone to live according to the letter of the law. You're a Christian, but you gotta keep the law.
Well, no. Paul says, no. That's that's erroneous. That's false. It's always been by grace through faith. And so a lot of these letters are letters of correction to keep the leaven out. And, and we've seen this.
We've seen the factions. We've seen the suing. We've seen the difficulty in marriage that they were having. We see the idolaters practices in chapter 7. We saw them disrespecting the Lord's table in chapter 1011.
And he he brought a correction to that. They were abusing the gifts of the spirit. They were excited about their new 1,000 horsepower, you know, car they have, burning rubber and donuts out front and all that stuff.
Well, hey. You got that power, but you need to use it decently and in order. Let pastor Rick drive it. He'll show you how. They were unloving.
So sandwiched between chapter 12 and chapter 14, he comes down to chapter 13, which is love. Without love, we're nothing. So don't get so one-sided. The the bottom line is we love one another. We we want we wanna get along.
We don't wanna be divided. We wanna be we don't wanna be ignorant of the enemy's devices, and that word devices is stratagems. He's strategizing how to divide and to ruin the Koinonia and the sweetness of a fellowship.
Who would have ever thunk that a flat earth false doctrine could be used by the wicked one to try and divide this church? Never in a 1000000 years would I think it would be something like that.
To me, that's here here's Rick Beaudry. That's a no brainer. K? A no brainer. That's that's something that is so far tucked away that we don't ever have to address this again.
You know? Just go outside and look. Look up at the stars. Mind boggling to me. It it just I'm underestimating the the era or the period of deception we're facing. What do what are those what are those drones doing?
What is that all over the globe? What what other things are gonna be put in play to try and freak us out and to get us to, you know, doubt the bible? When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith upon the earth?
We're gonna be stretched. So the the disrespect of the Lord's table, the abuse of the gifts, they allowed heresy in concerning the resurrection. What could be more basic than the resurrection?
So in chapter 15, Paul addresses the resurrection to teach the resurrection because they were allowing heresy in to deny the resurrection. Nothing more basic than that. So the exhortation is to watch, to be alert.
In Ephesians 6:18, watching unto prayer. Because we know in chapter 6 of Ephesians, we fight not against flesh and blood, but against spirits and principalities of the air. It's a spiritual battle.
The devil wants to deny God's word. The devil wants to get you to doubt God's word and the truth of God's word and the truth of the God of creation. In in Mark 1438, he says, watch ye pray, lest ye enter in temptation.
So the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, they were to exercise themselves spiritually by watching and prayer so that they wouldn't enter into temptation from the wicked one.
Peter, you said that you're gonna, never deny me. And I said before this night's over, you're gonna deny me 3 times. Peter, the spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak.
You're falling asleep. You guys are all falling asleep. And, so watch in prayer. Don't be asleep. Recognize the battle. We're fighting not against flesh and blood, but against spirits and principalities of the air.
He says in 1st Peter 5 verse 8, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour.
So be aware. The devil's gonna try and slip in. He's gonna try and attack you from behind. He told Peter, Satan desires you, Peter, that he may sift you as wheat.
But I prayed for you. And when you're converted, that your faith fail not. And when you're converted, strengthen your brethren. So Peter's gonna go through a period of time where the devil brings him to a great failure.
He denies the Lord three times, and he wants to go back to fishing. He's dejected. And the Lord Jesus is there to restore him and say, Peter, you just need to rely upon me even more than you ever have.
Don't rely upon yourself. Rely upon me. And so these these guys are recognizing the spiritual battle. Do you recognize the spiritual battle we're in?
The oppression, the intensity, that which the devil's bringing. Now I listened to Jam Raquel, video this week and, Billy Crone and and Brandon Holthos and several of the prophecy above type pastors went to Ireland again.
And they met with some of the pastors in Ireland. And you'll get testimonies from these pastors in Ireland that what they're up against is state run churches.
The pastors are paid by the state to not preach and teach the word of God. So if you preach and teach the word of God, you come under fire from who?
From the other Christians, the other pastors. If you are pro Israel, if you believe Israel has a right to the land, you can get beaten. If you're a Jew in Ireland, you can get beaten.
There's a strong antisemitism. So much of the churches are what we call replacement theology where they think that the church has replaced Israel and Israel doesn't have a right to the land of Israel.
And so, these guys are trying to teach the Bible from Genesis to Revelation verse by verse. And what's happening is, same sort of thing in Europe, same sort of thing in the UK, and it's happening here in America also.
People are having a very difficult time finding churches that teach the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. So guess what? They're going back to home churches.
Pastor Chuck once said that he believes the church will go back to the way it started, back to homes. Why? Because of the persecution. Because they're gonna be state run churches here in America where the pastors are paid.
They've never asked me to be a part of the clergy response team. I don't know why. But when FEMA, any kind of any kind of emergency that comes along, the pastors are supposed to quell the fear, the anxiety of people and say, hey.
The government's got some water for you down over here. You know? They've got some shots for you. They got some new stuff for you and food and the whole thing.
So let's all mosey over there. You know? And during COVID, a lot of the pastors had tents set up out in front of the churches to facilitate giving everybody jabs, you know, and, that sort of thing.
So they have the clergy response team where the clergy is supposed to calm people down in the event of a crisis.
And, I don't worry about you guys. You guys know how to handle it. And, I'm just wondering which one of you are gonna come up with a directional EMP because I don't know how we're ever gonna fight against those drones.
Do you? Swarm of drones? Everybody's 2 a, 2 a, 2 a. I got my weapon. I got my weapon.
How are you gonna fight against those swarm of drones? You've seen China's drones? You've seen those dog robots? You've seen those man, it's ominous. It's off the hook. So, you I would I talked to a guy at the gym who's in the military.
He says they do have a directional EMP type thing that will render the the drones useless. And, boy, we need some of that. I've been working on my microwave seeing if I can get it go like that, but, you know, I'm just not smart enough.
But I'm telling you, I'm scared. My when I saw videos of those swarm of drones and those robots, man, you know, I don't know how you're gonna stop them.
I did see somebody said they they have a new round with Remington's come out with, it's called the drone round. So I don't I don't know if that's true or not, but I know you'll I know you'll empty the barrel.
You know? You know what to do. And, some crazy times coming, violent times. Secondly, stand fast in the faith. What's that mean? To stand firm while under attack.
Yield not an inch. No doctrinal compromise. Stay the course. So what's that mean for me as a Calvary Chapel pastor? It means that 25 years ago, Rick Warren came along with the purpose driven life, purpose driven books.
He came along with a marketing strategy to change the church all over the world. He had a 3 legged stool. And his 3 legged stool was number 1, government, number 2, business, and number 3, the church.
And we would merge together. And what's the Bible say in Revelation 13 and 17, Daniel 2, Daniel 7, it says that there's gonna be a one world government, a one world monetary system, that's business, and a one world religious system.
What do we see happening? We see the blockchain, the digital AI age approaching with the digital currency. No man can buy or sell, Revelation 13 16 through 18 without a mark on the right hand or the forehead. We see it coming.
We see the precursor to it. We see the house of Abraham, the effort on a one world religious system developing, with the Catholics, with Muslims, with Islam, with, apostate Christianity, Judaism trying to join together.
And, we also see the empire called America, the global empire America, collapsing in an empirical rebirth of the Roman Empire where the world's divided according to the club of Rome into 10 regions.
So we would be the North American Union. There'd be no borders with Mexico, no borders with Canada.
And we would, have one technocratic, possibly, business type king over us. President Trump is surrounded with Elon Musk and all the other tech giants, billionaires all around him.
They're getting ready for something. And so Rick Warren came in and he knocked on doors and he found out that people didn't want, verse by verse teaching of the Bible.
He would instruct his pastors that verse by verse teaching of the Bible is death to a church. The more of the Bible you teach, the smaller your church will be.
Well, I came through the era where pastor Chuck and all the pastors were saying, if you teach it, they will come. Sounds like a movie. And so I came up here and I taught it just as I was taught it, and they didn't come.
And you'd you'd go down to the pastor's conference and the guys would say, how many are you running? How many people you got? And I'd say, well, I got 86 kids in the Sunday school and couple 100 adults.
And how long you been there? I've been here, I don't know, 7, 8, 9 years. And then you're not worth talking to. There must be something wrong with you. Because if you were doing it right, you'd have 1,000 by now, you know.
You'd have 1,000. And then what happened was is their churches started to empty out. Pastor Chuck's church started to empty out because so many people were drawn to, like, let's say, Silverdale Baptist becomes GracePoint.
You're rebranding. Christ Memorial becomes gateway. So Rick Warren teaches you how to rebrand and appeal more toward not religious like your grandparents, but more toward the unbelievers.
And the unbelievers don't want much of the word, if at all, any of the word. They don't wanna hear about sin or hell or judgment or any of that.
And so it's nickels and noses. Let's get them into the pews, and let's, entertain them. And now you have people, and I saw a phrase this week. This is pretty interesting.
If you're dealing with people that aren't born again, and you're making it therapeutic, trying to help them through all their problems and you're a life coach now, the guy said it this way, we'd rather have you get saved than try to counsel your demons.
Isn't that amazing?
The enormity of trying to, with psychology and whatever motivational speaking, try and deal with symptoms in people. But we're told, give them the gospel, don't water it down, and allow the holy spirit to do the work.
Allow the holy spirit to transform from within Amen. That person. And so and it would also it would thin out the proud who don't wanna hear the truth.
So your church would be primarily believers that need to be taught the word rather than preaching to the unbeliever, the seeker sensitive, you know, model that they used.
And so anyway, pastor Chuck, what he said when, he saw the enormous growth of the church growth movement and the whole purpose driven stuff, he he told us at the pastor's conference, gentlemen, stay the course.
What's that mean? Stay with the word. Keep teaching the word. Don't worry about the churches getting smaller because the Bible says in the last days, there'd be an apostasy, a great falling away from the truth.
When the Bible says there's a famine in the land for the word of God, it's not that the guys aren't teaching it.
It's that the guys are following the leading of the people. The people don't want to be taught it. So they're heaping themselves teachers having itching ears and they want pastors that'll tell them what they want to hear.
Their best life now seems to sell. And so you gotta stay the course. You can't give you can't compromise doctrinally.
You can't water down the gospel. You can't water down the word of God. The eschatology, no more prophecy, Rick Warren said. One third of the Bible's prophecy. These guys don't teach prophecy.
It's none of your business when Jesus is coming back, he told everybody. It's deeds, not creeds. So now you're getting the Protestant church who has been a a bible study church no matter what denomination.
Now you're getting to be like the Catholics to gloss over your evil by doing good things, by writing a check. Makes you feel good as an unbeliever. I'm alleviating suffering and hunger, and I'm cleaning the community.
It's commissional and all that. Doesn't work. There's what's the fruit thereof? So the churches are gonna get smaller and smaller. We know that. We're going back to homes possibly, greater and greater persecution.
But you as a pastor, we as a we as a church, we need to stand fast in the faith, in the word of God. Apostasy means departure from the faith, departure from the truth. It speaks of rebellion.
It's rebellion against God. The Laodicean church, Laodicea means lao laity Decean means people rule. So now you have the people ruling, and they tell Jesus the rich increase with goods in need of nothing. And where is Jesus?
Revelation 3:20, he's kicked out of the church. The church is very prosperous, thinking they're rich and increased with goods in need of nothing. Jesus said, you're naked, poor, blind, and miserable, and I counsel you to buy eye salve.
For me, the church of Laodicea was famous for some balm that would help people with blindness and, that you might, you know, truly be able to see. And so that's the picture of the last day's church. So that's what I'm dealing with.
I'm dealing with everybody going to YouTube and all the social media and getting their truth from there, lies, whatever, and then trying to bring that into the church. And I've gotta stand there and stay the course and say, no.
That doesn't match the Bible. No. That isn't the truth. But who do you who are you? That's your truth. I've got my truth, and that's the attitude of the apostate church, the Laodicean church.
They're not submissive to the word of God. Everybody's doing that which is right in their own eyes as in the time of the judges. And so, you're able to judge me. You're able to hold me accountable to what?
To the word of God. Who's the head of the church? Jesus. So we're Bereans. We search the scriptures to see whether those things are so. We have to be able to take the scripture to see whether those things are so.
We have to be able to take the scripture and prove from the scripture a flat earth. Can you do that? Can you take this and prove the earth is flat? Do you have any verses?
I can give you verses that prove the earth is a sphere, a globe. It's globus in Latin. I can show you an Aramaic. I did a little study. The circle of the earth in Isaiah 4022 is the Hebrew word kug, k h u g, speaks of a vault.
It speaks of it being three-dimensional. In the Hebrew, it's kadr, galgal in Arabic, mazal, it's a ball. In Latin, it's globus. How many more interpretation you need? He hangs the earth on nothing in Job. Proverbs 827, Job 2214.
Then there's the Romans 1, I walk outside. You're without excuse. If you take the God of creation, what he's obviously created, and you suppress that truth and say that it evolved, that we came from monkeys, that's idolatry.
Now you've degraded God and you've taken a a greatest Diana of the Ephesians, made a statue.
You've made a a golden calf, and you've taken God and you've reduced him to even lower than yourself because you think of yourself as God. And these statues you make, eyes have they, but they can't see.
Ears have they, but they can't hear. Mouse have they. And throats, but they can't speak. You've degraded God. So God says, I'm gonna give you over to reprobate mine. I'm gonna degrade you. So that's the whole LBGTQ struggle.
It's for normalcy. They wanna be respected. And God says, no. You're denying the truth. You're denying marriage. You're denying the model that I've made. You're reducing me to to little idols, idolatry.
So I'm gonna allow your own actions to judge you, your own lifestyle to judge you. It's self explanatory. He says, you're without excuse. You don't even need somebody to come through and give you the gospel.
You can stand before God and say, well, I didn't know there was a God and be a liar because he said from creation, you can see there's a God. That's one form of revelation.
Then you have the revelation of the incarnation of God becoming the babe of Bethlehem. Then you have the revelation of the word of God that he's given to you. 100% accurate, infallibility, the infallible word of God.
Satan wants to undermine the word of God and get people to doubt. So stand firm. No watering down the gospel. 2nd Thessalonians 2:15, stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught.
Quit ye like men, he says, the third command. Act like men. Be mature. Grow up. Be courageous. 2nd Timothy 2:3 tells Timothy, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
So grow up. Quit being wimps. Quit whining. Quit complaining. As soon as as soon as people are told no, if they lose the argument, you know what they do next?
They seek sympathy. They start crying. Well, you hurt my feelings. Well, I'm just telling them, you know what? Get a hanky. This I'm insensitive.
I I don't care anymore. That's not gonna work with me. You degrading men telling telling everybody men lack testosterone? Well, you just found a fully filled up testosterone, spirit filled man that's not backing down.
You just met 1. You found 1 because you put it in my face. In the fellowship that God has entrusted to me, you put it in my face, and there's no backing down now.
In case you're watching, I got a globe up front there. God communicates with object lessons. When I was trying to get through to you to not listen to your doctor per se, I wore a smock.
Know, a white smock with a stethoscope and all that. Right? And I'm letting you know that when Obama changes health care and he floods the White House lawn with all these actors wearing white smocks, doesn't mean they're a doctor.
Anybody can wear a white smock. In fact, mine was a butcher's white thing. You know?
And you're just trying to break the spell people are under to just question, prove things, Make sure it's clear. And so we're Bereans. We're wanting to look to the word of God, and I'm secure in believing that the earth is round.
I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it. The Bible teaches it's a sphere. It's a globe. How long am I gonna hit this hobby horse? You guys are like, oh, man.
He's on another one. Here we go. Never gonna let it go. Takes a little courage. In 2nd Samuel, captain Joab, 2nd Samuel 10 verse 2, he said, be of good courage and let us play the men of our people and for the cities of our God.
And we have a military culture. We know what it is for our men to go off to war and to be willing to lay their lives down, to be courageous so that the wars aren't fought here on our soil.
We have history of that. And we have, women also, you know, in the military like like the Israelis, you know, and various aspects of, of the military that they're able to to conduct and do.
If the men don't step up, if the men wanna wear dresses and high heels and and, put lipstick on and parade around, prance around, you know, as whatever you call that wokeness in our military.
It's disgusting, isn't it? Then, you know, the Lord's gonna, raise up a Deborah if the men won't won't do it. And so in Judges 4 verse 9, you know, God raises up Deborah to lead the nation to victory.
He's not looking for any UN or NATO sissies wearing blue helmets, you know, who prey upon his innocent people. They're, they're certainly not peacekeepers as they're used around the around the world.
They prey upon, you know, unarmed people and such. And so we, we're a little worried about the UN. It would be really good if they would abolish the UN about now, you know, because we're headed toward globalism.
We're headed toward with the treaties that are being signed, we're heading toward relinquishing our sovereignty over to a global entity that hasn't had the teeth just as yet.
And so play the man for our people and for our cities and for God. So it's gonna take courage. It's gonna take a lot of courage to stay with the truth, to move forward, church of Corinth.
You're gonna have a lot of opposition against you. And so look at it as a as a war that we're in. So the freedom we enjoy today was won by those who believed in God and were willing to die for him.
What was not an option? Bondage. Bondage was not an option. I, I read a story of of a African leader named Chaka of the Zulu tribes in Africa.
World famous, leader. Millions of people in battle lost and such. And one of the one of the persons commented that one Zulu was worth 5 of any other. Even women went to fight.
And, and the reason was is as they were engaged in one particular battle, some of the women fled and came back. Half of them were lost in the battle, but half of them fled and came behind the lines to be protected.
And what he did was he covered his eyes, told him he loved him, covered his eyes, and allowed his men to execute all of the cowards. He instructed them to go and give their lives. And thereafter, everybody knew what the cost was.
It's gonna cost your life. And they were they were it's kinda like when you watch Band of Brothers and you see that guy with the machine gun there, and there was the guy that's overwhelmed with fear, tons of fear.
And he said, soldiering is recognizing you're already dead.
You and I as Christians, we're already dead. We've already been crucified with Christ. What threat? What can they do to us If they can't, sue us or infiltrate or cause trouble or threaten or whatever, they'll threaten your life.
And to be asked on the bodies to be present with the Lord, the early church was willing to die for the truth.
What are we willing to die for? And that's the commitment. He says, be strong, fourthly, which speaks of an inner spiritual growth. Be strengthened. Submit ourselves to God that he might strengthen us.
And I believe that's what's lacking. Things have been so soft in American Christianity. I believe we're headed for a lot of meltdown. Whole lot of people aren't gonna be able to handle what's coming.
So my job as a pastor is to prepare you, to get you ready, to teach the truth in such a way that every time you're here, you're reminded of it's essential to be dead, to be crucified, that your biggest enemy is self.
Your biggest enemy is the love of self and the love of the world. Those will trip you up in this battle.
But if you're already dead, if you're already crucified and Christ is living through you, you've already won. You've already triumphed. And there's an inner strength that comes when you surrender unto him.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might in Ephesians 611. 5thly, be loving. Let all things be done with charity.
So don't lord it over people. If there's a disagreement and you in a place of leadership or whatever have to make a stand, speak the truth in love. You're you're not trying to dominate or be a cult leader or lord over anybody.
You're not gonna force anybody. People are free to believe how they want to believe. You stand against the aberrant teaching, but you love the people. You you seek to make them teachable.
You seek to win them. You seek to educate them, help them, disciple them. You do everything. You exhaust everything you can. If they don't listen to you, then you refer people that they might listen to.
You refer doctor Ken Hoven. You refer pastor Chuck. You refer, Martin Henry. You refer David Guzik. You refer great men of the bible who all agree the earth is round. You say, alright.
You can't hear me. Maybe you'll hear these guys. And then you find out, no. They're all wrong too. Everybody's wrong. Well, I don't know what to do with that. So how about this? If we can't agree to disagree, then you're free.
I'm done. I'll I'll wipe my hands of it. Now you're free to do whatever you want. I'm not gonna force you to believe how I believe. But you're not gonna inject it and poison the rest of the group that I'm responsible for.
You can do it on your own time. Nothing I can do about that. And I can use it as a as a sifting to see who's susceptible to it and who's not because that's what 1st Corinthians 11 said.
These sec these heresies are necessary for it manifest those that are approved. So God allows these people to come in to manifest those that come through the fire, come through the temptation, come through the seduction.
Those that come through have come through the fire and they're approved. Those that succumb to it and begin to undermine and break down, that's a means of God showing you those that he's removing or neutralizing.
I mean, I've had people in the bible study where I've said, you know, Moses was a murderer and they go crazy. Moses didn't murder, you know?
And you're looking around the room. He killed an Egyptian, didn't he? I I think I remember that part, you know? I met Moses, she says. I met him. Oh, wow. What am I supposed to do with that? What am I supposed to do? I mean, okay.
Well, David's a murderer too, and he's an adulterer. The point being we're all we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. So we love. Don't lord it over people. Free will. They're free to come. They're free to go.
They're free to study on their own. And, one thing I I sent to, Shannon because she used to be a flat earther, man. She used to be but we got her out of that. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. It's okay to be skeptical.
When I came to Christ, I was not skeptical. I bought in hook, line and sinker. Everything that was taught me, I had the faith and here it is. I'm in. And I don't have difficulty doubting. God said it, I believe it, that's it.
But I'm learning there. There's a whole lot of apologetic guys out there and I sent some of the books to Shannon, Josh McDowell, Don Stewart. There's a whole lot of people out there that we would call skeptics.
Some are unbelievers skeptical. Some are new in the faith believing, they're still skeptical. They might need a little more time, a little more help coming to grips with the infallibility of God's word. They're doubting God's word.
So some of the guys are able to help them look at some of those questions that their YouTube friends and their white witches and their college professors and people are giving them that undermine their faith.
How many angels can fit on the end of a pin, you know, stuff like that. And I don't have time for that stuff.
You know? I don't have time. But there are those that have books that deal with all those kind of questions out there and, and and truly can help a person overcome some of those that skepticism, if you will.
And, me, I'm a mocker. I like to mock and ridicule and use humor and, and so be careful. So exhortation. Secondly, be an example.
Verse 15. I beseech you, brethren, you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia. So household of Stephanas was the first fruit of Achaia, the southern province of Greece, an area of Athens and Corinth.
And so Stephanas believed and was baptized by the apostle Paul, one of the only, persons mentioned by Paul as being baptized because the the people that are factual still say, well, hey, you know, I had lunch with Billy Graham.
I got baptized by the apostle Paul. I got baptized at Pirate's Cove by pastor Chuck, you know. I was a part of the hippie days. I was there during the tent days. Well, I got one that all of them, none of them can say.
I flew in the jet with him. I'm jet man. And they're like, what? You flew in the jet? Yeah. I did. I flew in the jet with pastor Chuck. I hold that one back. I that's when I really need to get him. You know? And, yeah, baby.
I'm Jetman. 1st fruits. Remember when we're in 1st Corinthians 15, what first fruits mean? Jesus, the first fruits and more to follow. Stephanas was the first fruits in this region to believe more to follow, more people to come.
Now the apostle Paul, when he was stoned at Lystra and, left for dead there and he stood back up and he went back into Derbe Lystra and Iconium, And he said that we through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
He's a human being and every stone, everything that he went through hurt him. He's susceptible to fear just as much as we are.
And so he's there in chapter 18 of the book of Acts and he's a little afraid. Corinth is a very, very wicked town. Very, very wicked. And, if if somebody wanted to make fun of you, they'd say that you live like a Corinthian.
You know? You're from Vegas. You know? You're from San Francisco. You're from Louisiana or some some really vile filthy kind of a Mardi Gras kind of a city, decadent.
And Paul's like, man, there's a lot of really wicked people here, really wicked sinners. And the Lord Jesus appeared to him, to the apostle Paul. In Acts chapter 18 verse 9, notice what he says, be not afraid.
So when the Lord says, be not afraid, it means you're afraid. Right? You're already afraid, Paul. But speak and hold not your peace. So don't hold back. Speak. Let it rip, man. Just let it rip. If they reject you, that's up to them.
But you just let it rip. You stay with my word. So speak and hold not your peace for I am with thee. If we know the Lord's with us, we can do great things. He says, oh, I'm with you always even to the end of the age.
He's with us, church. The Lord Jesus is there with us. If we stay with his word, if we stay with the word he's given us, he's gonna honor his word. His word's gonna go out there and bear fruit.
If we're afraid of Him, if we're ashamed of Him, and we water down His word, we're on our own. And Psalm 127 says, except the Lord build the house, they that labor, labor in vain that build it. What are you trying to build out there?
What are you building, man? What are you building? That's not a church. What kind of social club is that? You know? Don't even hear God's word taught there. So far, I'm with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee.
Notice he says, I have much people in this city. So Stephanas is the first fruits and the Lord is saying, Paul, I've got a lot of people that I've saved before the foundation of the earth.
I already know who they are. They don't know who they are, but you're gonna go in there and you're going to not hold your peace.
You're gonna share the gospel in this city, and you're gonna see me bring them to myself. You're gonna see me save them and form a church here in Corinth. What amazing thing that is, where sin does abound, grace does much more abound.
Super abounding grace. I don't know what I looked like before I was a Christian, but there must have been something on this mug that made it so nobody at the pier at night.
The Krishnas were there. Krishna. Krishna. Higher rent. Krishna. And they were at the airports in the day, a lot of the cults.
And then there were people with big black books, you know, their big black hats and they're preaching something, saying something, and and people passing out papers and all that.
And I had friends in high school, I find out now, that were Christians in high school.
They didn't look any different than me. They acted and lived the same way I lived, but they were Christians, girls and boys. And so I'm at the pier. I'm at the beach. I'm in the community. And, nobody ever shared the gospel with me.
Why? What what was it? What what was that look? You know? So ominous. He says, I have much people in this city. The people that you'd least expect to come to Christ are maybe some of the most hurting.
Maybe some of the most empty. So don't pass over anybody. Preach the gospel to every creature, everyone. And they that have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. Oh, that word addicted.
Addiction. They dedicated themselves. In Luke 7:8, the same word for addiction in the Greek is under authority. They came under the authority of their master. They addicted. They dedicated themselves to meet the needs they saw.
Spontaneous service by volunteers. William Barclay, he says they were they were willing and spontaneous service as the beginning of official office. So you wanna know what you can do for the Lord? Look around. What needs to be done?
You don't need to wait to be asked. Just just do it. You need to visit somebody in the hospital, you hear they're sick? Don't wait for me to go there. You go there. They need a meal? We don't need to organize it. You go there.
You do it. You bring a meal. You cut their grass. You get groceries for them. We're the body of Christ. My job is to perfecting of the saints, which mean bring into maturity that we collectively do the work of the ministry.
All of us have the joy and the blessing of serving the lord. Addicted. And, so what are the characteristics of drug addiction? How many former drug addicts or alcoholics?
It can be oxy. It can be pot. It can be any kinds no. You're afraid to raise your hands. I know you're all bunch of drug addicts. I know. So addiction, number 1, a strong habit. You get a real strong habit.
I used to take my dad a 12 pack for him to go to sleep. He was so tormented after my mom divorced him. He couldn't get sleep. Take a 12 pack. And then you need to increase the dosage. Secondly, larger doses required.
When my daughter, Jessica, had a friend that I went to the hospital to visit, Joshua. He, he had a heroin addiction. And he came to church here with Jessica one time. And, we had them meet us over at Silver City.
And by the time we got there, they had already downed, like, $80 worth of alcohol, man. I can't believe how much alcohol cost. We didn't even have lunch yet. You know? And, and then a while a while later, he overdosed.
And when I did his funeral, I was talking to one of the guys that was his friend, close friend, and he said the problem is is the guys will get off the heroin, and then they'll go back to the dosage that they previously did before they went off it.
So when you first start out, you start out real small, then you increase to get the high a little bit more and more and more.
Well, this guy made the mistake of going to the more and more rather than starting over again, and he overdosed. So number 1, strong habits. Secondly, larger doses required.
So in the positive, reading your bible, falling in love with Jesus, nobody has to hold a gun to your head. Nobody has to force you, berate you, guilt you. A strong habit's developing. You're addicted to Jesus. You're in love with Jesus.
I don't need to call you up and say, why aren't you in church today? There's a strong habit developing, a strong desire within your heart. And then the dose increases. You know, I wanna go to church Monday night too.
You know, I wanna listen to this bible study during the week. I can't get enough. I'm thirsty. I'm hungry. I want more. That's a that's like a baby. Babies, man, the way they want more milk, more food, more and more and more.
My grandkids, when when we go out to eat with them, they're growing. I mean, they're really growing. And, I loosely start to use whenever food's around, I loosely in a kind way, I use the word, they're savages.
Because, man, they if grandma makes them their chicken legs, their favorite with rice and and Caesar salad, you just set that down and get back, man, because they're in there.
Savages. You know? And they want more. Larger doses required. So you have the strong habit, the larger doses, and then what? Dependency. Now you reach a place of dependency. You're you're dependent. You you're you're in.
If you try to quit, what happens? Withdrawals. You go through withdrawals. Oh, I miss going to church. I miss the saints. I miss reading the word. Oh, I backslid, and I'm miserable. The world's not like it once was. I know too much now.
I've tasted. I've seen that Jesus is good. Nothing else compares. Serving the Lord becomes an addiction. It becomes habit forming. Larger doses required. Dependence is higher. Paul said, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.
Try to quit, Jeremiah. Go through adversity and watch God throw you into a dungeon, throw you into a hole. I mean, you can rehearse it. You can say, God, when you first called me to do this, I told you I'm just a child.
I told you to go find somebody else. I told you I didn't want this gig. And you said, no. No. No. No. You will go do what I told you to do. I've ordained you a prophet under the nations.
Try going the other way, Jonah. I got a fish waiting for you. You may be not a person that believes in free will, but I'll make you willing. I'll bring you down to hell, and you'll come back begging for me to burp you out on the shore.
And you'll go into that city and you'll say 40 days and you're gonna perish with all the anger you can muster. And I'll still save I'll still save the city in Nineveh.
And Jeremiah is like, I'm not gonna speak in your name anymore. I quit. I didn't sign up for this. And his word was in me like a fire within my bones. I could not refrain. Just try to quit. Wanna know if you're called?
Just try to quit. Wanna know if you're a Christian? Just try to quit. Just try it. I dare you. No. Don't do it. You know, we we, people that start to hear the word of God and become addicted, nothing else compares.
They they can leave here and they can go look for churches. And if the churches aren't teaching the word, they're not gonna be satisfied because we've got them.
We've got them. They finally got them. They're addicted to Jesus. They go online and listen to Bible studies and such but but, being a Christian is more than bible studies. There's the interaction.
There's the everyone needs to be insulted. They need to be offended. They they need to be mistreated from time to time, so that we can gauge whether or not they have the capacity to forgive, to love, to endure, to love like Jesus.
There's no perfect church. There's no perfect pastors. No perfect people. We're a family of believers under the lordship of Jesus Christ. And part of a maturity is that we don't take our toys and run.
And if we need to, the door goes that way. But I've discovered people are usually already on their way out when they're angry at me. They're already on their way out. They just need they just need an insult.
And by God, I can give them one. That's what I'm good at. I had a guy that we helped through a divorce he was in and all of those sorts of things. Years of helping him, ministering to him, getting him on track, getting him going.
God began to bless his life. And then he began to listen to the whispers, the backbiters, the slanders. He began to have trouble in his own life, and that's typically where it emanates from.
They're having trouble in their own lives. Now they need to blame God. And since they can't punch God in the face, they'll wanna punch me in the face.
So now they're waiting for me to say the slightest thing or do the slightest unloving thing. And this guy, it was raining. And it was raining hard. And he wanted me to bring the van up into the breezeway there.
And I said, no. You're gonna block the breezeway because we need it open for men and women, the congregation, people go and get in the cars to load their family members and stuff.
He was afraid of getting his hair wet. So what did I say? I said, man up. That's all it took. It's all it took. He was offended.
He's out of here. Man up. And so he invited me to coffee, and we went to coffee and talking to him and he, you told me to man up. You told me I said, well, Bible commands you to forgive me. If that offended you, forgive me.
We've been through a lot together. No. I can't forgive you. No. No. No. No. Hang on. And I said and here's where I got him. Here's where I got him. If you want to leave, you don't need a reason to leave.
It's your choice. You don't need to you don't you don't answer to me. You don't need to justify leaving this church. I'm not gonna call you when you leave and say, why'd you leave? That's your decision. I respect your privacy.
I respect your decision making process. I'm not a cult leader. I don't own you. Boy, he just had peace. He had such peace. You don't need to give me an explanation. I don't need one. If you're supposed to be here, you're gonna be here.
You're gonna be addicted to my ugly mug and the way I insult you. You're gonna love it. The more I insult you, the more you love me more. Because it's my personality, and I'm not gonna be something I'm not.
It doesn't work with a whole lot of people because people are so incredibly sensitive. You know? I'm gonna start giving hankies to everybody. I'm gonna get him pass him out. And yet I'm the one that probably cries the most, you know?
I can't quit. Imagine how many of you have offended me and my family. Mention through the years, how many people been mean to me and my family. And we don't say, God, I'm out of here.
They they're mean to me. Bunch of flat earthers. We're addicted. The love of Christ constrains us. In the church at Colossae, Paul says, whatsoever you do, do it heartily with your whole heart as under the Lord and not under men.
I I'm here because I love serving Jesus. I love it. There's nothing I'd rather do. I'm 65 today. Aren't I supposed to be retired? Aren't I supposed to start enjoying the golden years?
I love what I'm doing. I wanna do this like pastor Chuck did in his eighties with oxygen in my nose. You know? Maybe not the oxygen part, but, you know, 86 years old, then be raptured.
I love it. There's there's nothing out there that I enjoy more than serving the Lord. And a lot of the pastors I'm hearing this, it's happened a lot. They're losing their memories. They they they can't think in the pulpit.
They can't think when they're here. They're they're losing their train of thought. And if that happens to me, you guys will be patient. There'll be just real long pauses, and then you won't be complaining anymore. I talk too fast.
You have time to catch up. And I'll have to manuscript my notes rather than speaking extemporaneously. I'll have to have rather than an outline. I'll have to have it manuscripted. So if I forget what I'm saying, oh, there it is. There.
And I'll just read from it. I have a hard time keeping up with the thoughts coming into my head. I got so many personalities in there. I don't know which one which voice to listen to. Verse 16, that you submit that's pretty hardcore.
That you submit yourselves unto such and to everyone that help with with us and labors. I'm glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Akakakas. You guys don't even know if I pronounce it right.
I just roll with it. For that which was lacking on your part, they have supplied. So they filled in the blanks. They brought information. We we work together. Verse 18. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours.
Therefore, acknowledge ye them that are such. And so a lot of us are lonely. Paul's a lonely guy in many cases. Prison. At my last defense, no man stood with me, but the Lord stood with me. We're never really alone.
So they refreshed. What's that word refresh means? It means rest. They brought rest. In Matthew 1128, Jesus said, come on to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, carrying a big burden you're not supposed to carry.
Come on to me, all you that labor because the religious leaders put trips on the people. They put them under the law and the law is a heavy heavy burden to bear. The letter of the law kills, but the spirit gives life.
Come unto me, not a program, not a philosophy, not a 3 legged stool. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I, look at the pronouns, personal pronouns, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke. Be yoked up to me. Serve alongside me. Be yoked unto me. Take my yoke upon you and learn learn of me. Get to know me.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light, and you shall find rest under your souls. It's not a big heavy trip. Who are you an example to? How does your life inspire others? We talk of influencers. What kind of influence is your life?
Are you an influencer for the kingdom of God? Paul gives an exhortation, an example, and thirdly and finally, an encouragement. Verse 19, the churches of Asia, Asia Minor, he's he's in Ephesus, salute you.
Aquila and Priscilla salutes you much in the Lord. With the church that is in there, notice their house. Aquila and Priscilla, husband and wife, were tentmakers like Paul.
They worked with leather and stuff. And, and in AD49, Emperor Claudius banished all Jews from Rome. So Paul met them while they were in Corinth, and they were now with him in Ephesus, and they would eventually go back to Rome.
Wherever they went, what did they do? They opened their home to the saints. Kathy and I opened our home in California, for a bible study, Friday night bible study when I was in school of ministry. The place was just packed.
It was a mega church. It was unreal. Amazing. A lot of work, but a lot of fun. And then, when we came up here, Joe and Anita opened their home, and that's how the church in Bremerton started, Joe and Anita's home.
He was a he was a guy that was in my Friday night bible study in California. And they moved up here 2 years before us, invited us up.
The Macedonian vision come on up here, and we went to Oregon, then we came here. And, we spent the, 1st Sunday of June 1995, we first time we met, on a Sunday morning at Ilhi State Park.
And Brian, our sound guy came the 2nd week that we met there. That was in 1995. 94 from October, we were in Oregon and then at Joe and Anita's house.
And and the church, you know, had just a few people, but enough to, have enough faith to keep going. And then we had a period of time where we had a bible study in Jeff and Christie's house.
And they, opened their home, and, we had bible study at their place. And then, Britney and Wayne, for 6 years, opened their home to have a bible study with the young people. Old people were not invited.
But it's a very important ministry. You think of the young people here, very difficult for young people to attend here because we don't have all the amenities in the Sunday school and junior high and high school and all that.
And so, but the thing is it never it never grows until some families say, alright.
I want I wanna I wanna serve. How can I serve? So 2 families becomes 3 families becomes 4 families, and it starts to grow. And then we've got Rob and Vicky who, and also Ivan and Donna.
Ivan and Donna opened their home on Monday nights. Gary Kalogowski goes there, and John Jokers used to go there. And, but Rob and Vicky have opened their home. They've even asphalted.
They got a huge parking lot ready. About a 1000 cars can fit there. And, they, they got the down below area ready. In case we have to have to do church at their house someday, they're already ready. They got a sound system in there.
They've got a new coffee pod. They've got everything you can think of, to minister. They've started the, you know, the podcast and the Facebook ministry and, facilitate the all of you bring food and everything.
And, it's it's an amazing ministry like Aquila and Priscilla. And it bears a lot of fruit, in that we get to know each other, a little bit better.
And, we study through the old testament in the book of Ezekiel presently. And so there could be more families that open up their homes and have bible studies.
We might go back to that. The guy that I was talking to about in in Ireland said that that's where they think they're headed to as home churches because of the persecution against the church there in Ireland.
So, if you teach the bible, you become a target. And, so we might have to go under the radar, once again, the the church. Verse 20, all the brethren greet you, greet you one another with a holy kiss.
So this speaks of affect affectionate kissing of the hand or the cheek in a greeting. Now I've told you, if I ever get the myocarditis heart attack and I pass out, I don't ever wanna wake up some man's lips on my lips.
Give me give me mouth to mouth, you know. Just let me go. Let me go, you know. That's not a way to live. So if you if you, wanna give me a holy kiss, you can kiss my ring, I guess, or I don't know.
But, I don't have my Popemobile yet, but we're working on it. And, but affectionate being affectionate. So we shake hands. We fist bump. A lot of the men, they take the chest and grunt, you know. Oh, oh, you know. Yeah. Hey, bro. Yeah.
You can do that. Side hug. Side hugs are appropriate, that kind of stuff. And, I will sign your bible and have a picture with you if you want, but, I won't get you much. But, you can say, hey. I used to go to Rick Beaudry's church, man.
He signed my bible. Alright? So, anyway, peck on the cheek's good. Just be careful. Careful. Careful. Do everything decently in order. So that was their custom of kissing the cheeks, 2 cheeks, maybe.
I don't know. But, I love being affectionate to my grandkids, you know. That's the picture I have. And, so we shake hands, we hug, we grunt, and sometimes, we kiss. And as my grandkids get older, it's hard to get a kiss out of them.
And what's up with that? So verse 21, the salutation of me, Paul, with my known hands. So he's closing the letter in his own handwriting. He has a secretary, that's, he's got ophthalmology, possibly, problem with his eyes.
One guy said it's possibly when he came to Christ, remember when he got blind, that bright light that was shining. Others say malaria, the ophthalmology that comes as a result of going through malaria.
So it's pussing and oozing and causing him to have poor eyesight. So he's dictating the letter, but now at the end here, he's signing it, with his own hand.
There were actually 4 different letters given to the church at Corinth. We have 1 and 2, but we don't have the other 2. We don't know, what happened, to them. He says, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.
Anathema means accursed. You mean we can be that strong. We can say, hey, do you love Jesus? No. Well, you'd be accursed, man. Be accursed. There's a curse on you. I speak a curse onto you. Can you see Jesus doing that?
If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. And so anathema means a curse devoted to destruction. So Paul was intolerant of unbelief. What it means is, if you don't believe in Jesus, you're already condemned.
You're already accursed. Then he says, Maranatha, our lord cometh. So evaluate this. Our lord is coming. And when he comes, it ain't gonna be no little donkey ride.
Not no little pony show this time where you're gonna crucify him afresh. He's coming as king of kings and lord of lords. Every knee is gonna bow and every tongue gonna fast that Jesus Christ is lord.
So you you consider your eternal destiny. He's given you 3 score and 10 and 10 more by reason of strength. 80 years on this planet to decide the most important question, what are you gonna do with Jesus Christ?
You can't hide him. Can't deny him. Can't act like you don't know God didn't do this in a corner. You celebrate them at Christmas. You celebrate them at Easter. You celebrate them all over the world.
They're celebrating him. How could you say, I didn't know? Well, if you look at creation, you're still without excuse. He's the God of creation, God of redemption. And so unbelievers are cursed already.
And Jesus went to the cross to be that curse, to take the curse that's upon you and I, and it's placed upon him that the father would part his wrath upon his son so that you could be saved from judgment, from sin, from hell.
The good news of Jesus Christ is encouraging to only those who believe. He's a divider of men.
1 of 2 camps, believer or an unbeliever. You're either flat earther or globe, sphere, biblical creation. Not the church or the unchurched. Think about that. Just because people go to church, they think they're saved.
No. It's not it's not the church or the unchurched. It's church attendance, social justice, gospel won't save you. Many are gonna come to him that day saying, lord, lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not cast out demons in your name? And he say, wait for me. I never knew you, you that practice iniquity. Not gonna happen. Think not that I'm come to send peace on the earth.
I came not to send peace, but a sword, Jesus said in Matthew 1034. He's the prince of peace, but he came with a sword. He's a divider of men. People have to choose. You're either for him or you're against him.
You can't wash your hands of him like Pontius Pilate did. You're still responsible, Pilate. You're still responsible. Knowledge brings responsibility. Too much is given, much is required. You knew he was innocent, Pilate.
You knew for envy that the religious leaders delivered him to you, to murder. You're gathering unto him or you're scattering abroad. You know, backsliding, you're gathering unto him or you're scattering abroad.
We're either always moving closer to him, getting to know him better. There's no arrested state. There's no neutral with him. 7 days of not reading the bible makes you weak, w e a k.
7 days something about it's a week, something like that. Weeks. 7 days a week. So as you're reading the word of God, you're getting stronger. Basic instructions before leaving earth, stay in the word.
Don't think you've arrived. Don't be complacent. No compromise, no tolerance of evil, one way the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. Are we ashamed of the gospel? Are we afraid of rejection?
He says verse 22, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, accursed. It's a Greek word. We can't appease the unbeliever. We can't water it down so the unbeliever feels comfortable in his unbelief in the church.
Jesus said, they hated me without a cause in John 1525. In John 3 17, God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. So if you don't love him, you're already accursed.
You're already condemned because you don't believe. The word maranatha is an Aramaic word, and it means, our lord cometh. I love to sign off with people. Maranatha, Maranatha. It's a great way to say goodbye.
Maranatha, our lord cometh. It means great encouraging news for those who love him and are watching for his return. For those who despise the world, if you're in love with the world, there's a problem. Do you despise this world?
Do you yearn for the day where they won't be praying upon the children anymore, the pedophiles? The adrenochromes, the just the complete decadence of Sodom and Gomorrah to yearn for the day where everything will be made right?
The world that crucified our lord that continues to reject him, that dishonors him, refusing to glorify him as the creator and savior of the world.
And yet a world that God loves and died for. A world he offers salvation unto whosoever will let him come and just as you are. Maranatha, our lord cometh. And as I said, it ain't gonna be no pony ride this time.
Jesus will subdue all evil. He will rule with the rod of righteousness as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Satan, the demons, every man, woman, and child will bow to God and declare Jesus Christ as lord.
Our lord cometh. He says verse 23, the grace of our lord Jesus Christ be with you. So God offers grace. Grace is unmerited favor. He says, my love be with you all in Christ Jesus.
Amen. So love is the final word of God's love letter to humanity. God loves you. The question is, do you love him? Do you love Jesus? When you stand before a just and a holy God, he's not gonna ask you what good or bad you did.
He's gonna ask you one question, what did you do with my son? What you do what did you do with Jesus? And all the excuses in the world aren't gonna get to the right answer. I didn't tell you to believe in your pastor.
I didn't tell you to believe in your church. I didn't tell you to believe in men. I told you to believe in my son. I told you to get to know my son through the study of my word, to study to show yourself approved unto God.
I didn't tell you to listen to all those other voices and places and people and stuff. I made it simple. Except you become as a child, you'll no wise enter the kingdom of God.
It's so simple. Go outside and look up at the stars. Look at the moon. Look at the look at the sun briefly. Look at the birds, the bees, the animals, the puppies, the cats.
Look look at his creation. You can see what a loving God he is, a God of order. And he so loved you that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
Do you know Jesus? If you die today, do you know that you'd be in heaven to be asked on the body, be present with the Lord? If you have any doubts, any doubts about your eternal destiny, let's get them right now before Christmas.
Before Christmas, crystals mean so much more to you if you embrace Christmas this year as a saved person. I'm looking at all you. You're all saved. All of you are saved. Every single last one of you.
That's a good place to be. Let's pray. Father, thank you once again. Lord, for anybody that's listening that doesn't know you, Lord God, we pray by the power of your Holy Spirit that they surrender their lives unto you even now.
That they yield to your Holy Spirit as your Holy Spirit shown on the cross of Calvary.
That they recognize that your wrath was poured out upon your son as a substitute in their place so that they might have eternal life by grace through faith in him alone.
Father, we pray that you'd quicken them, that you'd open their hearts and minds as they turn from their sins as they cry out to God.
God, be merciful to me a sinner. That they know that as many as received him to them gave he the power to become the sons of God.
Lord, I pray they'd receive you even now. That they discover their names already written in the lamb's book of life slain before the foundation of the earth. Save now, Lord, maranatha. Our Lord come in Jesus name. We pray. Amen.