Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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.
So you wanna open up your bibles, to James chapter four. We will start there and, do a little bible adventure today. James chapter four. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?
You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that your friendship with the world is hostility toward God?
Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us. But he gives a greater grace. Therefore, says, God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you. Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it.
And there is only one law giver and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But who are you who judge your neighbor? Come now you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Yet, you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that. Buzz as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. Thank you so much Lord for the scripture, for the word, for these lessons that you've given us to read and to learn.
Thank you for speaking to us through the word. Thank you that we could gather together and just, let you be our teacher. Holy Spirit, I just invite you here to this place to minister to us. Teach us the word today, Lord. I just pray that it's not me speaking, but you speaking through me.
And I pray, Lord, that you lead and guide and direct, the word, the scripture, the teaching to edify the body and to build up and to speak to them what you would have them to know. We love you so much and thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and be seated. The presence of the Lord, the presence of the true almighty God, the true almighty God.
What does it mean to be in his presence? What does it mean to have that fellowship with him? And when is the last time that you sought to seek out the face of God and be in his presence? What is preventing you from doing this? When we had the opportunity to fellowship last week, we talked about the bride and we talked about how as believers in Christ, you are the bride and you are his precious possession.
You are, his beloved, and he is yours. And that's a very beautiful thing. We talked about how there's a lot of things in this world that can discourage you and that can get you off track and cause that love to grow cold, lawlessness, and all the different things that's going on in the world. And hopefully, you left encouraged And you left with that perspective of, okay, let's not let our love grow cold. We know who we are and we're valuable.
So the presence of the Lord is a very powerful thing. Not simply just asking for salvation and knowing that you're gonna go to heaven when you die and walking away. But do you really know the power of your God? And also knowing that the enemy of your soul knows the power of your God. And he fears his presence.
So let's take a look at the scripture here today and let's go through it and let's study what the Lord has for us. So James chapter four, I'm gonna read verse one through five here. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source of your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have, so you commit murder.
You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
I'm a go ahead and stop there. So when we read through those first few verses there, your alarm bells are going off and you're thinking, okay. We have a group of people that James is writing to here, predominantly probably Jewish people. And their selfishness, their lust, their envies are causing a byproduct of sin in their lives and their fellowships. So when you think about the body of Christ having fellowship with each other, I'm sure that you've experienced times of conflict with the body of Christ, times of betrayal and backstabbings and gossips and all the vicious horrible things that have happened with people that you love and care about.
And I'm sure that it's broken your heart in ways that miss somebody dying and passing away couldn't break. You know, your heart breaks when you miss somebody that dies and passes away, but when you experience that betrayal or that just cruelty from somebody in the body, it just hurts. And so what is the cause of these things? Why aren't these people consecrating themselves to the Lord and separating themselves to the Lord? Are they seeking his presence?
Are they humbling themselves? So if you know the things that are gonna cause the body to stumble, then you can be on the offensive in combating those things. Right? Instead of being in reactionary to them and being on the defensive. So on the battlefield, you have an offensive force that moves forward and conquers and advances on the enemy.
Okay? Marine Corps infantry doctrine is to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver and repel the enemy's assault by fire and close combat. We are an advancing force. Once we have conquered the enemy and destroyed them, then we bring in, our soldier brethren to set up the defenses around that area and to guard it and to hold it. And then we only know how to go forward and destroy things.
K? And then once we've done that, somebody else comes and takes it over and cleans up the mess and holds it. Right? As Christians, my understanding of the scriptures is you need to be on the offensive. Stop being on the defensive.
K? There's this awesome video that this, dude put up last week, a high level trained military guy, lots of stuff, whatever. And it was all about his brand is beyond the offensive for everything, you know, in his military training, in his careers, in his job, in his life. And he's applying that same logic to everything that he does. And I'm thinking, man, if only the Christians would do this, be on the offensive.
Your frontal battle parade armor's in the front. You're not looking backwards. You're moving forward, doing work, whatever else. Right? So combat these evils and these things that are going to come into the body ahead of time by consecrating yourselves before you come into the body to fellowship, before you're coming in to be around people.
Now, what does that consecration mean? Where does this term come from? Let's turn, back a few chapters to Exodus chapter 19. The consecration, the washing, the purification, the preparation. God gives you a model throughout the Bible.
He gives you an example of how he wants things to do. K? In the Jewish world, they look at prophecy as a pattern. These are patterns to try to show you what God does. Right?
These are his patterns in the Old Testament of, hey, this is what you need to do with the new covenant of Jesus Christ. With the lambs, they would slaughter to pay for things and the blood they would do to pay for things. Right? Well, now you have the ultimate sacrifice that paid for things with Jesus' blood. K?
But we still have to consecrate ourselves. Look at Exodus chapter 19 verse 10 and we'll read through. The Lord also said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments and let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people and you shall set bounds for the people all around saying, beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.
No hand shall touch him but he shall surely be stoned or shot through whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people to consecrate and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments. And he said to the people, be ready for the third day. Do not go near a woman.
So it came about on the third day when it was morning that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder. And the Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up.
And then the Lord spoke to Moses, go down. Warn the people so that they do not break through to the Lord to gaze and many of them perish. Also, the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves or else the Lord will break out against them. Moses said to the Lord, the people cannot come up to the mountain to Mount Sinai for you warned us saying, set bounds about the mountain and consecrate it. Then the Lord said to him, go down and come up again, you and Aaron with you, but do not let the peep let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord or he will break forth upon them.
So Moses went down to the people and told them. So what are the conditions that God set back then? Very strict conditions. Consecrate yourselves even to come close to the mountain. But he warned them, put boundaries up so they don't even touch the mountain.
Even though the people are consecrated, they still can't touch the mountain or God will come down upon them. He has these parameters. Do we still take this stuff seriously? Is this not the same God that we serve today as served then? Do you think he is not offended if we try to come into the fellowship without consecrating ourselves?
And what are the consequences of that? How so much is the body hurt by people that are unconsecrated and unclean and coming in with their nasty envies and jealousies and deceits? All the things that they would do viciously and they're in the flesh and they are not aware of it. Now, I'm an unworthy man. I am victim of all of this as well.
I look back on my own week this week and I look at my own failures and I look at my own, ebbs and flows and mountain tops and valleys of getting in the flesh and getting in the spirit. We all battle it. We all struggle with it. We all go through this. We have to be reminded to consecrate ourselves, to constantly be going before the Lord, to be in that place, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, because every single one of us are victim to this.
Turn over to Joshua chapter seven. If you're gonna go before the Lord and you're gonna try to do some work for him, but yet you haven't taken seriously his requirements or the things that he asks of you, If you wanna be in his presence and you want to experience seeking the face of God, but you've got sin in your camp, what are the consequences of that? Look over to Joshua chapter seven verse one. But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban. For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabadi, the son of Zoran from the tribe of Judah took some of the things under the ban.
Therefore, the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel. Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven, East of Bethel, and said to them, go up and spy out the land. So the men went up and spied out Ai. They returned to Joshua and said to him, do not let all the people go up. Only about two or 3,000 men need go up to AI.
Do not make all the people toil up there for they are few. So about 3,000 men from the people went up there, but they fled from the men of AI. The men of Ai struck down about 36 of their men and pursued them from the gate as far as Shebram and struck them down on the descent. So the hearts of the people melted and became as water. Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening, both he and the elders of Israel.
And they put dust on their heads and Joshua said, alas, Lord God, why did you ever bring this people over the Jordan? Only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us if only we had been willing to dwell beyond the Jordan? Oh Lord, what can I say since Israel has turned their back before the enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth and what will you do for your great name? Sense a little bit of panic in Joshua's voice here, a little bit of fear.
So the Lord said to Joshua, rise up. Why is it that you have fallen on your face? Israel has sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. And they have taken some of the things under the ban and have stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their things.
Therefore, the sons of Israel cannot stand before the enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies for they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst. Rise up. Consecrate the people and say, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel has said there are things under the band in your midst, oh Israel.
You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed things under the band from your midst. In the morning, then you shall come near by your tribes. It shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes by lot shall come near the families, and the family which the Lord takes shall come near the by household, and the household which the Lord takes shall come near by man, man by man. And it shall be that the one who was taken with the things under the band shall be burned with fire. He and all that belongs to him because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel.
So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel near by tribes and the tribe of Judah was taken. He brought the family of Judah near and he took the family of Zerites and he brought the family of Zerites nearby man and Zabadi was taken. He brought his household nearby man by man, and Achan, son of Camri, son of Zabadi and Zerah from the tribe of Judah was taken. And then Joshua said to Achan, my son, I implore you, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give praise to him. And tell me now what you have done.
Do not hide it from me. Isn't that kind of a strange response from Joshua? Immediately, he says, give glory and praise the Lord in the midst of this chaos and suffering. You ever tried that in the midst of your chaos and suffering? Kids yelling and screaming, conflict, whatever it is, and just stopping and giving glory and praising the Lord.
It's a really difficult task to actually do. But when you do, it brings peace, and the peace of the Lord falls down upon you in the midst of that. Verse 20, so Achan answered Joshua and said, truly I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is what I did. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold 50 shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them and behold, they are consecrated in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it. So Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent and behold, it was concealed in his tent with the silver underneath it.
They took them from inside the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the sons of Israel and they poured them out before the Lord. Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan, the son of Zarah, the silver, the mantle, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that belonged to him and they brought them up to the Valley Of Acre. And Joshua said, why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day. And all Israel stoned them with stones and they burned them with fire.
After they had stoned them with stones, they raised over him a great heap of stones that stands to this day. And the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore, the name of that place has been called the Valley Of Acre to this day. There are consequences for sin. A parent and a father never wants to have to be in that place to where they have to look upon their child and say, why have you done this?
Now I have to correct your behavior. As painful as it is, I can't allow this to go forward. How much worse would it be just the disobedience if later, and you know this happens, they intentionally provoke him to anger. And he doesn't wanna behave that way. He doesn't wanna act that way.
He wants to just love and cherish and take care of his children and his people, but there has to be correction. What would have happened if they would have kept okay. Well, let's try to do battle still, and there's sin in the camp. The slaughter, the killing, thousands upon thousands of them because they weren't in obedience and they weren't working together. There's another Old Testament reference that I like to use is there's sin in your camp.
So if you, like, have a group of people that are trying to do something, let's take for example, I don't know, like a group of elders in a church or something. Right? And they're trying to solve a problem, do something to edify the body and help the body. Let's say they start acting out in the flesh, arguing, yelling and screaming, acting just nasty sinful creatures. Your first response should be to stop and pray, seek the face of God, and say, where's the sin in our camp?
Why are we as the leaders and the elders and the people acting like sinful little children to each other? Where's the sin in our camp? Let's stop for a minute and clean up our own house before we can move forward to help the body. Look over at Deuteronomy chapter 23. Deuteronomy chapter 23, look over at verse 12.
You shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there and you shall have a spade among you and your tools and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn to cover up your excrement. Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy and he must not see anything indecent among you, or he will turn away from you. I know that's a pretty, clear picture, but you need to keep your own house clean. He doesn't wanna walk amongst your house where there's a bunch of excrement laying around. Right?
How can you go out and move and do work and do things in other places if there's excrement laying around in your own house? God walked in the camp of the Israelites. He is holy. How can he walk on that? And you look at the examples of the fear.
Oh, look at this giant mountain with thunder and lightning and trembling, and people are terrified. Like, okay. Yeah. We better listen to his instructions. So they're waking up in the middle of the night, they're going outside the camp to a different place to keep the camp clean so the Lord will walk in fellowship with them.
This is an absolute. Right? God doesn't want to walk amongst the earth in those things. Now, you look around the earth around you. How much junk is on the ground around us?
The blood of the earth cries out. The blood of the innocent cries out. Look at all of the earth that is shaking around us at the very moment. It was like in the last seven days, there's hundreds of earthquakes around the earth. The earth is groaning.
How much more sin and evil and blood and filth are we going to pollute the earth with? You know? God sees it all and recognizes it all. So when people try to come at me with some interesting suggestions of, well, you as people need to go forward and make the earth clean enough for Jesus to return. I can't fathom that.
How are you gonna go clean up all the excrement off the earth? The drugs that have been dumped down the drains and the fentanyls and the methamphetamines and the blood that's been shed all over the earth. How are you as a human being gonna go forth and do a supernatural task of cleansing the earth so it's holy enough for Jesus to return? I know I'm a crayon eaten simple guy, but that just doesn't make sense to me. If you won't even walk through the midst of a camp with excrement on it, how are you going to get every little speck of excrement off the planet to issue in a new kingdom or something?
It doesn't make sense to me. So let's take a look here. Go back to James. So let's look at James chapter four verse four and recognize this hostility towards God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Now keep in mind, before pastor Rick left on his trip, he was super blessed by the sweetness of the fellowship here at the body. Keep in mind, I'm not talking about you specifically. Okay. But if you know somebody or for some reason you're convicted about something, you know, so be it. But I want you to understand that we're gonna let the scripture teach the scripture.
And if you think about people who it applies to, so be it. Okay? So therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. The world is going to go away, and these things in this world are gonna go away, and they're gonna perish. A friend of the world is an enemy of God.
Let's look over at second Corinthians chapter six. Second Corinthians chapter six verse 11. Our mouth has spoken freely to you, o Corinthians. Our heart is opened wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections.
That means that they chose their restraint. Now in a like exchange, I speak as to children open wide to us also. Do not be bound together with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
Or what harmony has Christ with Belal? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord.
And do not touch what is unclean, and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord. Separate yourself. Consecrate yourself. Light with darkness.
John chapter one verse five says, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it or the darkness did not overcome it. Light pushes darkness away. You start studying physics and things like that. They say, well, you cannot create darkness. It's not something you can make.
All you can do is simply remove light from an area, and then the absence of light, there is darkness. You can create light. You turn the light bulb on, and it pushes the darkness away. You light a match, and it pushes the darkness away. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void.
And the darkness fell upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God separated the light from the darkness. He created two separate things. They don't mix into some weird, gray, fuzzy thing.
They're very clear separations. Ephesians chapter five verse six. Ephesians chapter five verse six, and we'll read through to 21. Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Therefore, do not be partakers with them. For you are formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, awake sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil.
So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is and do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Wow. That's a whole another sermon in and of itself.
The theme here, do not participate in the evil deeds of darkness in verse 11. You were formerly darkness. Verse six, with empty words for because these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Seems like a pretty clear cut and dried description. Acts chapter 26.
We'll go to verse 12. Acts chapter 26 verse 12. While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday, o king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is is it hard for you to kick against the goads?
It is hard for you. And I said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Do you remember last week when we talked about the bride of Christ? We are the body of Christ.
We are his body. He is telling him here, that is my body you are persecuting. That is my body you are hurting Saul. Verse 16, but get up and stand on your feet. For this purpose I have appeared to you to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you.
Rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the gentiles to whom I am sending you. To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God. That they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me. Wow. That's a bold statement.
Turning from darkness to light from the dominion of Satan to God. That seems really cut and dried. Yes. I like it simple. Okay?
You're either wearing your green camis or you're wearing your tan camis. It's simple. One or the other. K? You're either part of darkness or you're part of light.
Now if you belong to the darkness, who do you belong to? Dominion of Satan. And if you transfer to the dominion of light, who do you belong to? To God. That seems pretty simple to me.
So he's given us guidance not to have fellowship with these things. I'm not saying you guys, but I'm saying there's people out there that claim the name of Jesus Christ and that have fellowship with darkness. K? It seems that there's, quite a bit of things like witchcraft around us in this county and in this state. Darkness, warlocks, and spells, and wickes, and things like that.
Now, when we read last week, do you remember what God called the adulterous wife? The whore? The one that willingly went and paid people to be an adulteress? That's what she was doing. The one that God cherished was going to the witches, and the witchcrafts, and the idols, and all of the pagan stuff, and paying them to commit sins against God.
And remember when I said that that that thing that he was talking about in Ezekiel chapter 16, that just graphic description of what was going on there, that is completely separate than you, the bride of Christ. You love the Lord. You recognize he shed his blood for you. He poured it out for you willingly. Do you value and cherish that?
Do you really look at it and see, man, this is special and important? And knowing that, would you willingly go out and adulterate with the witchcrafts and the sorceries and all these other things? Why? Why would you do that? I know a lot of people that think that it's okay to do that, and it baffles me.
And and the subtlety so when the serpent came into the garden, he subtly put little hints towards Eve. Hey. This sure surely isn't a problem, is it? Those subtle hints of, yeah, that's not really that big of a deal, is it? You can do this.
Well, hey, no, it's fine. Just you want your kids to read. Right? Go ahead. Just let them read that Harry Potter book.
It's okay. Yes. That's what I said, the Harry Potter book. The witchcraft and the sorceries. It's okay.
Let them do that. That's gonna cut you to the heart if you really love a good book. But it's either lightness or it's darkness. It's one or the other. And I've had people try to argue with me and say, oh, well, it's good versus evil.
I said, no, it's not. It's evil versus evil. You get two witches killing each other, they're both evil. You get three or four of them killing each other, they're all evil. It's not good versus evil, it's evil versus evil.
Okay? Dear brother of mine, awesome guy, Jamie Walden, we listen to a lot of his stuff online. He's real passionate. He did a ministry that he talks about where they help children that had involved with a lot of sexual abuse and things like that. K?
And in the midst of this rehab facility place where they were just ministering to these kids and stuff like that, he did some statistical, I guess, analysis. And he said 100% of the kids that were there that had these abuses that were trafficked or abused or used, 100% of them that had these demonic manifestations in these issues, one hundred percent of them had two things in their life. One of them was Harry Potter. And kids would say, oh, yeah. I would say these incantations in the book when I was reading it out loud, and then I would see these things manifest in my room.
Is that light or darkness? Yeah. I ask rhetorical questions. It's kind of a marine thing. Hey.
Right or wrong? You know? You know, it's just kind of a common sense thing. You get the person to say the stupid thing, and then they realize how stupid it is. And then they're, oh, yeah.
Maybe I shouldn't do that. Because when they say it, it hits them in the face, and they're like, oh, yeah. You know what? That does sound really stupid. The other of the two things was anime.
K? You may think Pokemon are innocent little creatures or the whole gambit of the whole world. There's a missionary that was overseas that lived in this tribe where they had a lot of these witch doctors. And these men would go and they would snort cocaine, and they would starve themselves for days, and they would summon demons intentionally to try to get as many of them as they could to be a good witch doctor. And there's this story about shoe something, shoe guy, quick shoe shoe foot, chief shoe foot, whatever.
Right? Something shoe foot was his name. K? And there's these amazing testimonies of how many demons he would get to possess him through these ceremonies. K?
And there's a missionary that went to this tribe and ministered and served. And eventually, this man was saved and he gave his life to Jesus. Amazing testimony. Okay? The missionaries continued to serve in this region.
As they lived there and they served there, their kids got sent care packages and gifts. And this kid was sent a book. It was a book all about Pokemon. They didn't know what it was. Parents are like, yeah, kinda, you know, we're not gonna do that, whatever.
Days, months, winks, went by, whatever. And like, you know, I'm kinda curious what Shoe Foot thinks about this. So they took it out to him. This guy couldn't read or write English. Okay?
He only spoke their native tongue. And so the pastor goes to him and says, hey, Shoefoot, you know, what do you think about this? He starts looking through and flipping through the pictures and he's, you know, oh, yeah. I recognize this one. This is a nasty little demon.
It chews and bites and gnarls and is really irritating. And the pastor looks at the description of this Pokemon and literally word for word, almost word for word, but in English, that's what it says. Now keep in mind this guy can't read or write English. Can't even speak English. Only speaks his native tongue.
He flips through the book. He's like, I don't know that one, but I know this one. Gives the exact description of it. He goes through the book and does that for all these different demons that he's possessed because he recognizes them and he's familiar with them. Now when you're inviting these things into your home, into your kids' lives, you gotta analyze it.
Are we under the protection of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ? Are my children protected? There's other people that have been involved in demonic activities and witchcrafts and sorceries where they've said, oh, yeah. We've done this specific thing to try to go after that child, but we couldn't because there was this this blue flame orb around this child protecting it. Nothing we could do could touch it because they were protected by Jesus Christ.
Light or dark, it's simple. We want fellowship in the presence of God. We wanna seek the face of God as believers. We don't wanna be in fellowship with the darkness. Can I get off that soapbox now?
So this leads me into the main point. K? The presence of God. You go over in James chapter four to where he starts talking about the presence of God. James chapter four, and let's go over to, verse seven.
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil. Resist him. Do not invite him into the home. Resist him and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep and let your laughter be turned into mourning and let your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you. The presence of the Lord.
Turn over to one of my favorite books of the Bible, if you haven't guessed, Revelation chapter six. Because the book of Revelation references every single book of the Bible. Every single book of the Bible is represented in this book. It's amazing. Revelation chapter six.
Look over at verse 12. I looked when he broke the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair and the whole moon became like blood. And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree cast its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of their place. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and amongst the rocks of the mountains.
And they said to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand. What does the enemy fear about the presence of God? They fear his face. Fall on us and hide us from the face of God, from his presence. Should we fear his presence?
No. We should desire it. As you seek the face of God, everything else around you melts away. Everything else disappears. What happened to Moses when he sought the face of God?
Look over at Exodus 33. Exodus 33. Oops, that's Genesis. That's not going to work. I'm sure you guys already know this because you're such great Bible scholars, but we're gonna read it anyways because of how awesome it is.
Exodus 33, then the Lord spoke to Moses, depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, saying to your descendants, I will give it. I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in your midst because you are an obstinate people, and I might destroy you on this way on the way. When the people heard this sad word, they went into mourning, and none of them put on his ornaments. For the Lord had said to Moses, say to the sons of Israel, you are an obstinate people.
Should I go up in your midst for one moment? I would destroy you. Now therefore, put off your ornaments from you that I may know what I should do with you. So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward. Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting.
And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. And it came about whenever Moses went out to the tent that all the people would arise and stand each at the entrance of his tent and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent. And whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would arise and worship each at the entrance of his tent. Thus, the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face just as a man speaks to his friend.
And when Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man would not depart from the tent. Do you refuse to leave the tent of meeting? Have you ever been in a place of desperation where you desire the presence of God, you desire to seek his face, and you refuse to leave until he is there with you? You refuse to leave because the he is there with you. And then when he is there with you and his presence is there with you, why would you want to leave?
Why would you ever want to leave his presence? And yet the enemies of God refuse. They rebel, and they fear his presence. I'm gonna tell you a little story. I hate story time, but I'm gonna tell you a little story.
Go on a camping trip with, Judah and his trail life troop. Okay? So a bunch of older, you know, 11 to 15 year olds. We hike up to is it Mount Rainier? To Paradise?
Bunch of snow up there. We're gonna do some snow camping. Alright? You got 12 to 15 feet of snow in certain areas, 20 feet of snow in certain areas, you got your snow shoes and your gear. You hike in a few miles.
You go to the snow, and you're gonna make snow shelters. You dig down into the snow, certain depth, probably about 10 feet or so, and then you start digging a tunnel going into the snow. You hollow it out, and you make this cave. This is great skills for, ski patrol, snowboarders, and back countries. You get lost in a blizzard or whatever.
You need to build a snow shelter to survive or you're gonna freeze. Mountain warfare guys in the Marine Corps would learn these skills. So you dig your snow shelter. Right? Once you get in there, there's no wind, there's no bad weather.
Okay? You can light a candle and be warm enough to survive. Kids are having a blast. You dig these snow caves, we get them done. And the whole time I'm looking at like the other dude that's there that's a leader and I'm like, man, you're small and I'm big and I'm not gonna like being claustrophobic stuck inside a little tunnel to sleep in.
So I'm hollowing this thing out and making it large. I need a little extra room. We get this thing done, and you crawl through this tunnel and you get in, and there's this big shelf going all the way around the outside. There's a little bit of headroom there, but you're still kind of on your knees. But then I got the shelf that I'm to climb up on, and it's almost like you're laying in a coffin, the amount of room that you've got in this snow cave.
And you've got six feet of snow above your head, and it's kind of a very claustrophobic feeling. So since my latest head injury that I went through, my brain is a little off with the way that it reacts to certain things. So like, you know, startle response and things that are kind of dangerous or whatever, it acts a little funny. So I'm kind of trying to anticipate this a little bit. So get in the snow cave.
It's dark. It's night. Everybody did their thing. I get up on this shelf, it's like of the hardest tasks to get in a sleeping bag and tuck yourself in this tiny little shelf. And the snow is like this close to my face.
And I'm looking at this and all of a sudden this weird stressful like panic sensation sets in. And I'm thinking, man, I did this when I was a kid. I never experienced this. You know? And I'm thinking, okay.
Well, God made the snow. God made all this stuff. I'm good. I'm safe. Just need to pray about it.
So I start praying. And I look over, and the wall's, like, right here, and the roof is, like, right here. And I'm like, okay. So I had a backup plan. I pulled out a chem light and cracked a chem light and then I stuck it in the snow right over the door.
So it's kind of like a visual reminder of there's the light, there's the hole, there's the escape, you're gonna be fine. But for some reason, this weird crushing feeling just coming set in. This unsettling feeling about being buried alive underneath something was just terrifying and crushing. And I logically could walk myself through this and pray about it and just be like, okay, I'm fine. I couldn't sleep for hours.
It's like every fifteen minutes my brain would go through this cycle. And I'd feel this thing again. I'm like, oh, this is really bad. And at one point, I felt like I was gonna jump out of my skin. And I was like, I gotta get out of this place.
I gotta crawl through that hole there and I gotta get out into the open sky where I can see the stars and I gotta be just free where I can see everything around me and not be crushed by this stuff above me. This weird, horrible, panicky feeling. So I didn't, you know, didn't do that. I just kinda like sucked it up and suffered through it, kept praying through the night and whatever else. And I dozed off for like an hour or so, and I woke up and it was daylight and everybody's out of the cave.
I'm like, oh, great. Can get out of here finally. So I get out. It was a Sunday morning. We snowshoe over to this great hound look.
You could see this beautiful mountain. I could see everything around me. I could see the sky. I could see the trees. I could see God's beautiful creation.
I'm praise God I'm not buried under this snow pile. It's so liberating and free. And then everybody just kind of wanders off whatever else. And I snowshoot over to this giant open hill, bright and sunny out. And I literally just fell back and laid down in the snow, looking up at this beautiful mountain.
And I pop in my audio bible, and I'm sitting there, and I'm listening to the book of Revelation, one of my favorite books. Right? I'm sitting there. I'm staring at this mountain. I can hear cracks in the ice and all kinds of birds and squirrels, whatever.
Just like, man, God, this is awesome. It would suck to be buried under the ground. Literally, as I'm thinking all this stuff, I read through Revelation six where it's talking about these men crying out for the rocks to bury them and the mountains to fall on top of them. And I'm like, you want that? You want to be buried and crushed?
You must have an absolute terrifying fear of the presence of God to want to be under a mountain. And then I had just like this amazing I don't know if it was an idea, a thought, a vision, a whatever of like, think about the presence of God. Think about Moses. When he went up to the cleft of the rock and God warned him, you can't see my face. If you do it, we'll kill you.
So I'm gonna put my hand over the cleft of the rock and I'm gonna move past you Moses. Then you could see just a glimpse of my back as I move past. And what happened to Moses after that? He shone with the glory of God. His face glowed because this fleshly body can't handle it.
Because God is so pure. We can't handle his glory. We can't handle his greatness. Now, I want you to imagine, you know, would you rather I don't know that game, but I've heard it used before. Would you rather, one, be buried in a mountain or two, be standing on a hill where you could see the sky in the mountains and the trees, beauty God's beautiful creation, and have your fleshly body disintegrated by the glory of God and instantly be in his presence with your soul and spirit.
Which one would you rather choose? Number two. Right? Now choosing number two, think of how much fear that alleviates. Do you need to fear the hundreds of earthquakes that are going around the planet right now shaking the earth that men can't explain?
Some men know what it is. The demonically inspired ones know this is God doing this. The volcanoes erupting under the oceans, the water being broken forth from the depths. My brother Jamie did an awesome sermon last week about perplexities. So many people are perplexed by what is going on in the world.
Just did such a great job of breaking it down. When you know what your god is doing, and there's giant asteroids out in space that are freaking people out like, oh, this could hit the earth. You ever heard about that one, the asteroid Apophis? It's not supposed to be visible till the end of the year, but when people see it, they're going to freak out and like all kill each other or something horrible because they're going to be panicked. Do you need to worry about that?
What are the global powers of the world doing right now? Current events there, church. Current events. Right? What's the world doing?
They're amassing armies. They're amassing troops. In our own country, they're doing the same thing. In all the countries around the world, they're doing the same thing. Why?
Why are they amassing troops? They're amassing because they're terrified, because they're fearful of the face of God. They're fearful of his presence. Look over at Jeremiah chapter 25. The book of Jeremiah is a very intimate book to me.
When I went into, the marine corps and I was in boot camp, I decided to like get my life life right with the Lord and make him a priority. Mainly the suffering and getting thrashed every single day, it really sucked. So Sundays, I'd go to church and just, you know, worship the Lord, my buddy that was there with me. And then I was like, I'm gonna read my Bible every day and whatever else. For some reason, I chose to read the book of Jeremiah.
So when you read through there, there's some intimate passages there that really speak out to me, and that was kind of God's way of, like, encouraging me, like, hey, trust me. This is great. But the the powers that be at the world and the people in the world, they fear what God is bringing. Look over at Jeremiah Jeremiah chapter 25 verse 12. Then it will be when seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation declares the Lord.
For their iniquity in the land of the Chaldeans, I will make it an everlasting desolation. I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it. All that is written in this book about Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them, and I will recompense them among according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands. For thus the Lord, the God of Israel says to me, take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.
They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them. Then I took the cup from the Lord's hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it, Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and its kings and its princes to make them a ruin, a horror, a hissing and a curse as it is this day. Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes, and all his people. And all the foreign people, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines, even Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashad, Edom, Moab, and the sons of Ammon, and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastlands which are beyond the sea, and Dedan, and Tim Timah, Buzz, and all the cut those that cut the corners of their hair, and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the foreign people who dwell in the desert, and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and the kings of Media, and all the kings of the North, near and far, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the earth, which are upon the face of the ground.
And the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. You shall say to them thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, drink, be drunk, vomit, fall and rise no more because of the sword which I will send among you. And it will be if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink. Then you will say to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, you shall surely drink. For behold, I am beginning to work calamity in this city which is called by my name and shall you be completely free from punishment?
You will not be free from punishment for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of hosts. Therefore, you shall prophesy against them all these words and you shall say to them. The Lord will roar from on high and utter his voice from his holy habitation. He will roar mightily against his fold. He will shout like those who tread the grapes against all the inhabitants of the earth.
A clamor has come to the end of the earth because the Lord has a controversy with the nations. He is entering into judgment with all flesh. As for the wicked, he has given them to the sword, declares the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, evil is going forth from nation to nation, and a great storm is being stirred up from the remotest parts of the earth. Those slain by the Lord on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other.
They will not be lamented, gathered, or buried. They will be like dung on the face of the ground. Wail, you shepherds, and cry and wallow in ashes, you masters of the flock. For the days of your slaughter, your dispersions have come, and you will fall like a choice vessel. Flight will perish from the shepherds and escape from the masters of the flock.
Hear the sound of the cry of the shepherds and wailing of the masters of the flock for the Lord is destroying their pasture in the peaceful folds made silent. Because of the fierce anger of the Lord, he has left his hiding place like the lion. For their land has become a horror because of the fierceness of the oppressing sword and because of his fierce anger. Who is the Lord God Almighty coming against? All flesh.
So when someone wants to come to you and say that, oh, well, you know, the book of Jeremiah was fulfilled in its time, it's only for that time and that already happened. Did the Lord God Almighty come against all flesh on all the earth from the ends of the earth? No. That did not happen. When Daniel in Daniel chapter nine is spending his time praying and fasting before the Lord, and he is requesting, God, how much longer are we going to stay in captivity?
How much longer? What was Daniel reading in Daniel chapter nine? Daniel nine verse one, in the first year Darius, the son of Osarius of Median descent, who was made king over kingdom of the Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books of the number of the years, which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations at Jerusalem, namely seventy years. What we just read is what Daniel was reading.
This is what they fear is the judgment of God. Now, I played a little game. I thought it was kind of fun. When you type it into the Google search and you ask it like, oh, you know, the prophecies of Jeremiah 25 fulfilled or whatever else. It goes through and it says, oh, seventy years, this, that, and the other thing.
But then when you prompt the right information, it'll say, you know, oh, yeah. Sixty nine weeks of years not fulfilled, one week of years left. Well, that's the judgment of God, the time of Jacob's trouble. So when you start playing around with it a little more, thought it was kind of fun. Like, okay.
Knowing that God has his judgment coming, knowing that there's people in the earth that are gonna rebel against God, what's their plan? How are they gonna fight against God? Now a lot of people, there's all these different viewpoints. Okay? And the Google AI said, well, there is no way that you can fight against God.
It's futile. And it went on to say that some people speculate, oh, you know, NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Space Force, all these guys have these, like, space based weaponry they can use to try to fight God when he comes back, things like that, which is kind of fun. But, I asked it the question. I'm like, you know, from a demonic perspective, what is the rebellious plan? And it told me that, the demons know that there is no fight against God, And they know that you can't win.
But their goal is to deceive the human beings on earth. They will not fight alongside the human beings against God. But they want to deceive the human beings on earth so they think that they can destroy God. They think that they can fight God, and they rebel. It's a deception.
Men will fear the wrath of God because they read the Bible and they hear it. But the deception is they think that they can destroy him, fight against him. But the demons even know that is a futile last stand against the rebellion against God's ultimate authority. And it is a simply solidifying their rebellious nature as a final desperate slap in the face to God. So the presence of God, the crushing weight of being stuck under a mountain does not sound fun.
So willingly enter into God's holy presence and knowing that this flesh is gonna be destroyed. This is gonna go away one way or another. Either we die of whatever circumstances naturally, Or hopefully, the holy presence of God just boom, this body's done and our soul and spirit's with him. So knowing that when you read the scripture, no man knows, hey, what tomorrow is gonna bring. Don't you know, planning out your years of what you're gonna do.
Remember last week when we said you have no idea how short your time is? Plan on your time being short. Go with like, hey, this is my one day goal. This is my three day goal. What's your two month goal?
If you got two months left before you have a brain aneurysm and you die, what would you do for God? What would you do with your time if you knew? Man, we're all gonna go out someday. So what could we maximize in our time? We don't have to fear being crushed under a mountain and praying for the rocks to fall down upon us.
We don't have to fear that. We just have to worry about a presence of God that we want to be in. We have to worry about consecrating our camp and purifying our camp and having that clear delineation between light and darkness, not having fellowship with it, seeking the fellowship of God, seeking the fellowship with each other. What could we do as a body seeking the face of God, preaching the gospel, the whole gospel? What could you accomplish for the Lord in the time that you have?
Let's pray. God, thank you so much for your promises. Thank you for being so good to us. Despite our simple nature, despite our uncleanness, what we don't deserve, God. Thank you so much for being good to us.
Thank you for leading us. Thank you for your son giving us a hope of redemption. And thank you for the power of your Holy Spirit that we could go forth on the offensive and battle against the evil. God, we just can't thank you or praise you enough. I just want that tent of meeting where we can just sit and be in your presence and just dwell in it, Lord, and be at your feet.
There's no place I'd rather be, Lord, than here in your arms. Go before us, Lord, and direct our steps. Our time is short, Lord, and we wanna honor you and glorify you with our time. I pray, Lord, for this body that they be not discouraged at our own sinful nature and our failures, Lord. I pray that the enemy's discouragements will be gone from us, and that you would protect us from his discouragements.
We know our failures. We know our weaknesses. We know who we are, Lord, and we know that you forgive us and love us despite them. So go before us this week, Lord. Fill us with your Holy Spirit and direct our steps.
But somehow, in some way, we can just bring glory to your name, be it loving our wives and being good husbands, loving our children, whatever it is you've given us, help us to do it faithfully and bring glory to your name. And we love you so much in Jesus' name.