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Jeremiah 23 - Part 2

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We're live Monday night. Welcome. Jeremiah 23 at Robin Vickie's home in Bremerton. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for the time that we get to spend together, Lord. As pastor Chuck said, as he once said, Lord, the church started out in homes. It may finish up in homes before the rapture. So, we we just thank you that we have a place to meet and just pray that you bless this time as we study your word, as we worship, as we fellowship and pray. We just thank you so much, Lord. We don't take it for granted. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Lord, I lift your name on high. Lord, I love to sing Amen. That was fun. Thank you. Praise the lord. Alright. We are in Jeremiah 23. And as we're getting there, Thomas has an announcement. Yeah. Yeah. Just wanna share this. I'll say, Gentiles eat pork chops. You know what that means? I guess they're not Jewish. Anyway, it means it means Gentiles, the portraits, meaning Galatians. Yeah. Galatians. Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Thank you. Thank you, Thomas. Right on, brother. Did you get that? I got it. Yeah. Cool. I eat pork chops. You you said god eats peaches? Yeah. Yeah. No. He's just peaches with you. Thank you, sir. Welcome. Did anybody see my birthday cake that I'm a be getting? I did. I want that, Shannon, by the way. Oh, yeah. Happy birthday cake. Oh, you have to look on the Calvary Chapel There's a a friend of ours, Nadine, sent it to me, so I posted it. And this guy takes, and he makes a birthday cake out of steaks. Oh, yes. And he stacks them, and then he has these beautiful, beautiful bacon rolls all around it. And then he takes potatoes and makes mashed potatoes and does the icing all around it. Oh. And you gotta see this guy. Oh, man. Oh, man. Oh, baby. Better than Dairy Queen. Oh, baby. I'll tell you. No bugs for us. Right? Mm-mm. Okay. So last week, we left off around verse twenty nine thirty, somewhere in there. 32, Rob says, 23. So we'll pick it up back up at verse 21, and but as we get there, we're gonna go over this section. We're gonna contrast the the false prophets with the true prophets of God. We're gonna contrast heresy, false teaching with the word of God. And and I want you to think in terms of how many people in Jeremiah's time were getting it. When I say getting it, meaning did they understand what Jeremiah was saying versus what the false prophets were saying? And basically, why is it so many people follow the false prophets and so few follow the word of God? Jeremiah spent forty years, not one convert. There might be one. There might be one as we move through here. And God gave these guys plenty of time to hear the truth. The irony of it is they're really sore losers. At the very end, reality bites them. Everything that Jeremiah said comes true. But meanwhile, the false prophets are able to say, oh, he's crazy. There's not gonna be any rapture. There's no rapture coming. Noah Yuval Harari says you're gonna be left behind. And when you're left behind, you know, the technology, you know, you're gonna really be messed up if you don't get in with the technology and all that. And so but it doesn't it doesn't come to bite them till the very end when people find out that the globalists are liars and that they can't make people live forever, and none of it's gonna work. So with Jeremiah's case, Nebuchadnezzar did come, and he did conquer Jerusalem, and he did take a group of people back to Babylon and destroyed, you know, thousands and thousands of people there. And king Zedekiah tried to flee. He got caught. He watched his sons be executed right before his eyes. Last thing he saw, then his eyes plucked out. Everything Jeremiah for forty years warned of came to pass, and then the sore losers took Jeremiah when Nebuchadnezzar was allowing Jeremiah to or get a lie on them to remain and kind of be a you know, kinda like an imperiform of government like the Romans do where you're able to stay in your land, but you're subservient still to the Babylonians. So they're to be subservient as long as they behave themselves. You're fine. Well, they took and they fled to Egypt, and tradition has it that they're such sore losers that they killed Jeremiah in Egypt. So it's interesting to me the way that the false prophets get away with it for so long. God is so long suffering. He's so incredibly patient, and and in our case, we're watching more and more people fall away from the truth, less and less churches teach the Bible, and and it's the road truly is narrow, you know, and few there be that find it. Broad is the way that leads to destruction. Many go in there at I'm amazed at how many people are calling themselves prophets, prophetesses, calling themselves into the ministry, you know, like they get official titles. I'm an I'm an apostle, you know, I'm a prophet, and if they think it to be so, it must be so, you know? And it's mind boggling to me. And I'm very grateful for the group of people that we have that we can study the Bible with. I don't have any formulas or something new that nobody's ever heard of before. It's just we go through the Bible, we allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us as we study, you know, God's holy word. Shannon Shannon had a a comment about what's happening with the pastors. Tell us that. Oh, well, on all the Christian stations, they're talking about how it's up to 41% of the pastors. I'm not sure where the area is, like, it's Washington or if it's America, but 41% of the pastures are talking about leaving because they are too full of anxiety and depressed, and they can't go forward because they're just so sad. And so they're doing they're teaching about mental illness, and they're trying to save the pastors from their mental illness. Oh my gosh. This is serious? Yeah. This is yeah. Because of what I mean All Christian radio? Is it everywhere? Just in the Northwest? I've heard it on two different stations. The I can't remember the names of them, but two of the local stations that I listen to. Well, I want you to know there's no hope for me. I'm crazy. I'm certifiable and unredeemable. I mean, only the Lord can fix me. So Amen. Well, you know Amen. Amen. Amen to that. So Kathy's hooten. Finally, he admits it. Finally. Kathy said, oh. I like when she said it was sad. Sad you sees Yeah. Turns into sad you sees. Yeah. Yeah. That's I I mean, it's it's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous that Oh, man. The spiritual leadership would succumb to something like that and then seek sympathy from everybody. Mhmm. And it's just it's mind boggling to me, but we should have expected it with the enormous amounts of self help messages, therapeutic messages, focused upon self, and now people are sensing a turn. They're sensing the economy. They're sensing, you know, their whole way of life is turning, and it's not the tribulation period. It's simply communism. They're they're sensing a breakdown of America, and the pastors are sensing that things are gonna change, and they're they're representative of much of so called Christianity in America. They're not ready for what's coming. They haven't been equipped. They haven't been strengthened with the word of God. So what do they have to rely upon? You know, their emotions. And this tying in with what she said last night when I got home, this was on my on my wall, the largest church in our community. It it says a new life. It says, what is the best definition of mental health? So I talked to Jason, a friend of mine at the gym today, he says, this is the theme, and it ties in. I didn't know Shannon and everybody was talking about this, but this is the new theme that all the churches are gonna be talking about right now, is mental health. Therapeutic feel good messages, how to deal with the soul, the sadness of your soul, you know. Now, the joy of the Lord is our strength. Amen. Amen. What what happened? Yeah. We just sang some songs to the Lord, and, you know, and the the root cause of sadness is looking within. If any of us start to fixate from within and have a pity party and bemoan our lot in life or whatever, we're we're gonna it's gonna pull us down. When we lose someone we love, God's made us in such a way there's a grieving process, there's a sadness, there's a mourning, and it can go on for indefinitely. But what the Lord has to offer is so much greater that as we focus on Him, we're pulled out of that. We don't stay there in that spot. So it says, what is the best definition of mental health? Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community. Okay? So this is a church. It's on the screen. What verse is that in the bible? Oh, it's not. It's not. Now here's the irony. It's from the World Health Organization. Oh. Oh. So when I saw this and I think of COVID and all these churches that shut down, and a lot of their people are already on psychotropic drugs because they can't cope when things are good. Enormous amounts of, you know, antidepressant drugs that when this one wears out, then you get a next one, then you get a next one. A lot of them are self medicating on marijuana, alcohol, all other sorts of things. And so during COVID, they shut them down, and the people are, like, without shepherds. They're without leadership. And the pastors take the money. They stay shut down. And then when they reopen, one of the churches that's a sister church of this hired, Rob told me this, I think 11 counselors counselors to deal with mental issues that people were having because of the shutdown stuff. You know? So now now you're gonna cause these people to pay money to schedule appointments to meet with these new psychological counselors that are gonna talk with them. They had no one to talk to during COVID, and they're sad. You know? It's mind boggling to me. Absolutely mind boggling, but the people love it so. So what hit me today was this is the government church. That's what this is. Mhmm. This is the government church that's going to be used, you know, to usher in the tribulation period where people are in conformity just as they were in Hitler's time, conformity to what the government tells them, and and leaves the word of God out. Do you understand that in China, there are government churches, and there's a government bible. Do you understand that? You can go to church in communistic countries, but you just can't give the full counsel of God. So I'm talking to Jason, and he's telling me, you know, the church I go to is going through its love and its grace and its mercy. He goes, everything they say is true, but it's really light. It's really soft. And and I said, well, what did they leave out? That's the real root of heresy. Heresy in our time is not so much what they say, it's what they won't say. So what do they leave out? Sin. They leave out hell. They leave out repentance. Mhmm. So now I've gotta sit there and I've gotta bite my tongue when people are saying there's this revival going on over here. And I and I've gotta bite my tongue, and I gotta I gotta try to educate people and say, let's see how they're doing two weeks from now, three weeks from now, a month from now. Mhmm. Because when I got saved, you know, it was, you know, I'm saved from my past lifestyle, and so I come out of the sinful lifestyle, and now I'm walking in that narrow path, and I have the help of the Holy Spirit to help me stay on track. Does it mean I fall? I don't fall? No. I can fall, but I don't continue. What these guys do is they could be living together, going to church, raise their hands as this revival, and or even be away from church for for years, and then come, raise their hand. But then they just go right back to living like the world, you know? No no repentance. And so if there's any problem, the problem's addressed as I'm sad, and I I got mental illness, and and I need a hug, you know, and and it's just mind boggling to me. Absolutely mind boggling, and this is gonna be their theme, it ties in with with community. It's community issues and stuff. And so, now, when I was in school of ministry, we had a counselor that came there to try and teach us biblical counseling, and what he did now, is 19 I don't know. This is almost thirty years ago that I was in school ministry. And he basically asked the question, does the Bible can the Bible answer does the Bible have answers for the issues of today, the type of things that people are facing today? And his answer was no, that we have lots of new knowledge, lots of new things that can help people when they're sad or they're mentally ill or this, that, or the other. And and it really, really bothered me greatly because then he transitioned to what would you guys do if you had a woman come in and needed counseling, and she's probably having problems with communication. They had a communication problem, her and her spouse. And and so they schedule an appointment. They come in, and it's two women. What would thirty years ago, what would you guys do? We're Calvary Chapel guys being trained to be pastors. Okay? And I raised my hand, and I said, well, doctor, I would counsel them that they need to be born again. That's the root that's the root of it. Yeah. You get born again, and everything else is gonna work out. Right? You know what I mean? Mhmm. But if you're not born again, you're dealing with symptoms. You know? But they're not saved, doc. They're not saved. And he says, oh, what difference is their sin than than your sin? Overeating, gluttony, you know, whatever. So, anyway, I had to deal with him. I pinched his neck off, and and he old pencil neck guy. But, anyway, he he event eventually, you know, they got rid of him, but he was a guy that was counseling the pastors, pastors' wives. He was in he was through all of the Calvary Chapel pastors and stuff. So this guy was really, you know, integrated with these people. So what helped me was turn to second Peter one verse three because I don't I don't want to be in a situation where where I think the Bible's inadequate, and that the creator of the universe who made my mind and made your mind, you know, had to wait until the twentieth century that Freud and Roy could come over and teach everybody how to become whole, how to how to reach nirvana. You know? Second Peter what? Second Peter one verse three. I want you to have a confidence that God's word, with the help of the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the great physician, is able to minister to you. It doesn't mean that you're not gonna have anxiety, sadness, all these different things that we face. All it means is is that God's going to get you through it, and he's going to help you outgrow it. It's not going to be so overwhelming when you when you learn to rely upon the Lord. And that's the key. You've got to learn to rely upon the Lord to get through these things. But if you negate that process, if you negate the trials by simply running to the doctor and getting a pill, you're in an arrested state of development. You're not going to grow. You're just not going to grow. It's your trigger. Every time something happens and it triggers you to go to the default setting of what you used to do to cope. Everybody has coping mechanisms. Everybody. When you become a Christian, you gotta let those coping things go by the wayside. And maybe it used to be alcohol, or drugs, or sexual activity, or anger, or making money and spending. It could be a number of different things that you use to cope with with life, and it gives you a momentary release from it. But until you learn to rely upon the Lord and depend upon him, you're not gonna grow spiritually to the point of overcoming those triggers. So as according as this divine power has given unto us what's that word? All things that pertain to what? Life. Life and goodness. And godliness. So the point is he wants us to be godly. Amen. Right? Life and godliness how how do we do how do we how do we reach that place? Through the knowledge of him that he has called us to glory and virtue. So the doc was telling me the Bible's inadequate, that we have new information. And I'm told here, in other places, all through the Bible, the Bible's more than adequate. The creator of the universe, the word of God that I quote every every week, Hebrews four twelve, the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, dividing the center of soul and spirit and joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The soul, the soulish man, is a touchy feely guy, the center of the mind, the will, the emotion. That's the best they can do, the World Health Organization, is try to deal with the soul, with chips and whatever else they got, pills and therapy. It used to be invoked to go to therapy, to talk it out. Then it became, no, there was a struggle in the psychiatric business model when it went from therapy, because you can charge how much an hour, a lot of sessions, and you're mysteriously healed when your insurance runs out. And, you know, so but and if anybody's ever been to any of these things, you know, sorry, but I want you to focus on something far, far greater. You were desperate, and you were lied to, especially by pastors that would point you to them. Hey, we have one on staff. She's a Christian counselor, and she can help you through this for a $150, 75 an hour, whatever it is. And basically, they do what we're doing here tonight, except, you know, they talk, but we need to be able to talk. We need to able to pray. We need to be able to listen. That's something that should be a part of fellowship. Right? Mhmm. And but most importantly, we need to be in the word of God and allow God be able to speak to us and to as we get to know him as we're getting to know him, according to his divine power, so he's not lacking power, he's given unto us already all things that pertain to life and godliness. I've got everything I need to live the Christian life, the life of the spirit that Jesus said, the thief comes not, but to steal, to kill, to destroy. I've come that you might have life and that more abundantly. Right? John ten ten? Amen. And life and godliness. God godliness is living godlike. You're you're you're living a life according to godliness, to according to holiness. You're becoming more and more like Jesus, being changed from glory to glory in the image of him through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue. And so he's gonna complete the work that he's begun in us. And so I believe the real root problem is is the pastors are hirelings, and they've been trained in marketing, and the emphasis is upon money and planting as many churches in a given community, and getting a piece of the action of every little one that's in that community, and and basically a religious social club that does do good things in the community, and nobody can question that, but, you know, you're not allowed to question it. But as far as the transformation, as far as power, as far as the power of the Holy Spirit to transform and change lives, not happening. Not happening because you you're the churches are filled with unbelievers, and they're being pointed in Colossians turn to Colossians two. Because if if if my salvation is inadequate in any way, any way shape and form, You know, what am I doing? What's the point? Notice chapter two verse eight. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy. Philo is love. Ossophy, the the wisdom. Lovers of wisdom. Lovers of wisdom is the wisdom of man. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, and after the tradition of men. Nando says, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. This is the lower knowledge. The rudiments, the elementary understanding of human behavior passed on from person to personal. And notice what it says here. He's not inadequate. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him Amen. Who is the head of all principalities and powers. No doubt. No doubt in your mind. You know? He never says, oops. You know? He he oh, I'm sorry. I made a mistake. Well, Lord, I was in an abusive relationship. Well, join the party. So was he. He he got nailed to the cross at Calvary, you know, murdered by his own creation. Life is not fair. But the beauty is is he didn't leave me there. He saved me. Amen. And as I go through these trials, I learn to let go of my selfishness, let go of the world, let go of my demands, and God is transforming and changing me from glory to glory in the image of the sun, and there's a day that he's gonna make the pain stop. It may not be now, but there's a day where all the pain is gonna stop. All the tears are gonna be wiped away. This is a he's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Jesus is a man of sorrows. So he's been tempted in all points like we and yet without sin. So if that's the theme and the pastors are wimping out, whining, you know, 41% of them, holy smokes, a lot of them already can't handle. I mean I mean, what's the problem? You know? And they're not even mentioning the pastor's wives. Huge pool of pastor's wives. You know? Same sort of thing. And and I knew it was coming. I knew all it took was for the prosperity to stop, and it hasn't even stopped yet, and all of a sudden people are gonna have to rely upon Jesus, and they've never learned to rely upon Jesus. They've been so pampered and so insulated, And so, you know, I was gonna quit earlier today because I got vertigo, you know, it's almost wiped me out. I have to leave the ministry, you know. Kathy's like, how are gonna drive over there? You know, I mean, give me a break. I'm a camper. I'm camping, You know? And I don't have I'm not in that 41%. Okay? Just die to self, would you? Just die. It's not about you. You know? But they're gonna put this thing out there, and I guarantee you, because I saw that, I listened to Shannon, and it's on the Christian radio, this whole next wave of themed themed sermons, themed whatever you wanna call them, is gonna be poor you and your mental health. I read years ago that in Spain, they had an enormous amount of people like we do that were in mental institutions and unable to cope with life, and then war broke out. And when war broke out, when their country was attacked, these people had a cause greater than themselves to live for, and they got out of those hospital beds and went out and started helping, you know, to to deflect what was happening. And it's that selfishness. It's the inwardness. It's the it's the looking within and have not having a higher cause to live for. We're living for Jesus. We're already dead. You know? And that's that's that's the secret. The secret is you're dead, and allow Christ to live through you. Allow his resurrection power to lift you out of that. And I'm not I'm not saying that you're not gonna get depressed or discouraged, but then I'll take you to Psalm 42, and I'll say, alright. Why art thou cast down, oh my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? David's talking to himself. He's talking to himself. He's talking to the soulless part of his being. Why art thou cast down, oh my soul? A cast down sheep is a sheep that's helpless, lying on its back, and it can't get back on its feet, and it says, you know, there's enemies all around. Sometimes we might be in that condition. Why art thou cast down, oh my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? And he gives a solution in chapter in Psalm forty two and forty three. The solution is hope thou in God. Hope in him. Guess what? People don't wanna hear about the blessed hope. They're they're they're denigrating the doctrine of the rapture right now too. So, I mean, it's so exciting to be a Christian at this juncture, at this point in time, and to know that very soon here, the thirty years I've spent dealing with people that won't listen, it's finally gonna happen. It's finally gonna happen. We're finally going to see everything we've been teaching for thirty some years come to pass. It's happening, and there's nothing gonna stop it. Nothing's gonna stop it. These guys are not gonna stop the tribulation period or the return of Christ and the setting up of his kingdom. And if they wanna try and be government churches to gain six months or eight months or three and a half years of of not being, you know, killed or put in jail like they're gonna do to us, you know, all the power be to him. So I don't plan on going through the tribulation period, but I do warn people that communism is not the tribulation period. I don't know when the rapture is gonna take place, and a whole lot of people have died when their governments have collapsed because of immorality and evil, and I don't know, you know, at what point. One thing that's holding back the pedal to the metal globalist is the church. The church needs to be raptured because we restrain. The holy spirit through us restrains this evil. They can't get it done without the church being raptured. So so anyway, I anticipate the rapture of the church very soon, and 41% of the pastors wimping out. That's disgusting. It's you're supposed to be leaders, you know? Can something? I Yeah. Sure. When I I was in therapy, intense therapy, for almost eighteen years of my life. Wow. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But I'm intense. All the drugs that you can think of. Sometime one time, I was going four times a week. I did everything, and not one day did I feel as healthy as I did the moment I died to self and look to the Lord. I mean, yeah, I get sad sometimes, but I it's it's night and day. Like, literally in the first day, and and now, like, you know, it's been three years, and I look back on that, and I I just can't even believe that I thought I was mentally ill. And the only thing wrong with me was in spirit. It was just my soul. It was just the lack of Jesus. That's that was I mean, for me personally, I think that's what it is for everybody, my opinion. Well, I I see the demonic at Gadara, and he was cutting himself. He was chained. Nobody could deal with him. Nobody it was out there in the tombs, you know, him and another guy. And when you factor Jesus into the equation, you know, he the demons identified themselves. We know who you are, Jesus. Have you come to torment us before our time? And what's your name? Legion for we're many. And, you know, the demons are asking, can they go into the pigs? Pigs go over the cliff into the water. First case of deviled ham. And and so it it's a bad joke. Bad joke? So you're keep hearing it. Ouch. Vicky knows all my joke. So I don't like it. It says it says that the dem the the guy that was demon possessed was he was clothed and in his right man right mind. He was clean. He was clothed, and he was in his right mind. In his right mind. And I believe a whole lot of people are struggling with demons. Amen. And I I believe the demons are on steroids, and the people are opening up the door for great and greater oppression. We're sensing a greater, greater oppression in our community in the in the spiritual realm, but I'm also sensing a greater and greater outpouring of God's spirit upon us to help us to overcome, to be victorious. So the key reason I believe that we're getting victory is we are learning to let go of this world. If you're still trying to hold on to this world, you're gonna be very sad, you know, as you watch it being ripped out of your fingers, you know? But if finally you reach the place where you let go, and you just say, Lord, you know, come quickly, Lord Jesus, now your hope's in a different place. Mhmm. Alright. So we we wanna make sure we're balanced. There's another thing we're gonna look at here that I wanna bring in, and that's the word sound. We're living in the Puget Sound. Right? Sound word. And I wrote it in the the notes. Vicky posted it. You should be able to see. And in the notes, as we're gonna go through here, the word sound means healthy. Healthy. Yeah. God wants you to be healthy. Sound. Okay? And so we have sound doctrine, healthy doctrine. We have sound words, the word of God. We have a sound mind. Timothy was timid. Timothy was afraid. Timothy was fearful as a pastor. And Paul told him, God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and a sound mind. Where's that verse for this guy? When he wants to put up there what mental health is, where are these verses? Where's bible verses that encourage these people? You're gonna use the World Health Organization definition, and then you're gonna capitalize on that and try and make these people whole by talking about it without the bible? I mean, come on. It drive me nuts, and the people love it so. And we have sound faith, healthy faith, and we have sound speech. And so so verse 21, I have not sent this these prophets, yet they have ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. Now how can these guys get away with it? How can false prophets get away with it? Nobody stops them. Nobody corrects them. Turn to chapter five verse 31. This is why these churches grow, why they keep getting more money, why they keep expanding. These people love it. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their means, and my people love to have it so. And what will you do in the end of it all? You know? At the end, you're not gonna be too happy. You're not gonna be happy at the end. But the reason these guys are able to keep showing up is because the people love to have it so. The guys are telling the people what the people want to hear. And so talking to Jason today, he said, yeah, the church he attends, you know, everything the guy says is biblical. Grace, love, a lot of emphasis on love and mercy and all that. It's all biblical. And then sappy stories with it, feel good stories, but no mention of repentance. No mention of sin. Everything everything is a disease. It's a sickness. You see the difference? The sickness and disease rather than sin. It's not sin. You didn't you didn't sin against God. You've got a sickness, and we need to heal that sickness through therapy and make you whole. You know. And we're not gonna use the word of God. We'll only use the word of God to jump off a little bit here and there to make you think it's the word of God, but we're gonna give you our ideas, our philosophy, our the rudimentary, the lower level understanding of human behavior, which Shannon was in for eighteen years. So if that doesn't work, you know, let's shock you. Let's do shock treatment. I'd like to be there for that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sign me up. Verse 22, but if they had stood in my counsel and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way. So there's the problem. The pastors didn't give the word to help them turn from their evil way. So I want the Lord to speak to you. All I gotta do is go through the Bible and God will speak to you, and and he'll he'll bring conviction. And he's not gonna say it's a sickness where I've got a pill that'll make you whole. There's no pill gonna make you whole. There's no rehab program gonna make you whole. God's God's diagnosis for our condition is death. Death. You need to be a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old you is dead. So he's he's not gonna rehab the old you. You're not gonna be a better old you. Right? He's gonna take and transform us into the image of Christ. Right? That's that's what it means to be born again, to be born of the spirit. And he says, have these guys done it? You know? So they're called under repentance. And am I a god at hand, saith the lord, and not a god afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I should not see him, saith the lord? Do not I feel heaven and earth, saith the lord? So we talked about the three omnis the other day. Right? Omni. Omni what? Omnipresent. Omnipresent. He's omnipresent right there. The Lord's everywhere. The devil is not omnipresent, so the devil's gonna develop a whole grid system to try and track and trace and, you know, get a handle on everybody, and yet complete failure because a whole lot of people make it through the tribulation period into the millennium who are not tracked and traced, who are not with the jab on the right hand of their forehead. Right? Mhmm. So although they project what they think they're gonna do as gods, they they're limited. Limited. And the 144,000, they have a seal of god on them. Can't even touch them. Mhmm. The area of Moab, which is present day Jordan, the antichrist isn't allowed to touch it, to even mess with that area. So pretty interesting, the place that the Jews are gonna flee to is a place Aren't we sealed with the mark right now too? We we're sealed Yeah. We're sealed with the Holy Spirit. Right. Yeah. We have in Ephesians one, we've been sealed. The earnest earnest down payment's been given. Mhmm. And so, the devil knows we're marked out, that we belong to him. But we don't have that that seal in the sense of the the 144,000, the antichrist can't touch them. If God allows affliction in my life, the devil needs to get permission. But for me as a Christian, even though I'm sealed, doesn't mean that I'm not gonna suffer affliction. So but the 144,000, they're right there in Jerusalem, they're right there, can't touch them, can't touch me. They're singing MC Hammer, can't touch me. There. Right there. I knew you. You that? Okay. I just had to. Alright. I told you I'm certifiable. Alright. So I'm in good company. Amen. So he's everywhere. He's he's he's omnipresent, he's omniscient, and he's omnipotent. I don't have the power to defeat these demons, and I don't talk to the devil, and I don't I don't make outlandish, you know, hey, devil, and I don't talk to the devil. I don't do that. Mm-mm. I talk to the Lord. I say, Lord, please protect me from the devil. Please keep your hedge of protection around my family. Right? I keep Jesus between me and the devil. And and the other thing is the devil's not concerned about me. I'm not I'm not on the top 10 hit list. The devil just sends a lower lower level demon to try and torment me and my family. Right? There's principalities and powers. The devil's not omnipresent. He's not anymore. He'll only be in one place at one time, and he's typically he's typically with the Biden family, you know, right now. He's you know? Everything he does is a counterfeit. Speaking through them. You know? Is that why he trips all the time? Oh. Got a case of vertigo? My vertigo's gone now. Amen. Thank you, Lord. Praise the Lord. He's gotta persevere through that stuff. I'll tell you, every day, the devil presents reasons, logical, reasonable reasons for us to quit. Mhmm. Every day, we have reasons to quit. And if we give in to those reasons, you know, what are we gonna do? Amen. You know? So and when we persevere, we get a little stronger, and the Lord's glorified, and and we're so thankful. I'm always so thank thank you, Lord. I didn't quit. You know? Thank you. So many times, Kathy and I have thought thought of quitting. You know? We've had our pity parties over the years, and we thought of it. We thought, you know, hey. And and we've dialogue with God and how unfair this is and went through our whole thing, our whole list. You know? And and like I told you guys, God's never apologized to me for that which he's allowed into my life. I've never heard him say, Rick, I'm so sorry. You're so abused. You're just so abused. You know? And the way that I overcome is I come back all the way. I gotta come all the way back to, Lord, thank you for saving me. Amen. Where would I be if you didn't save me? Mhmm. Mhmm. And once I thank him for saving me, everything else is fine. Everything else works out. I can't imagine not being saved, you know. Has Satan ever affected your dreams? Affected my dreams? Yeah. Only when I went to bed. Oh, does? Yeah. I'm sorry. Well, so let's talk about that a minute. What are you gonna do in regard to that? Well, it happened about a couple of weeks ago. I was dreaming that This guy come down and laid down next to me in my dream. And he kept telling me, I'm not gonna let you go. And I found myself in my dream. I was trying to fight it, but I couldn't move. And I was trying to scream out, and, like, nothing come out of my mouth. And so in my dream, I rebuked him in the name of Jesus. I called on Michael, the archangel, to help me. Yeah. And next thing know, boom. I was wide awake. Yeah. And what should happen now? But that's I used to drink for I drank for forty three years. I've been sober now for forty five months. Okay. And he even affects me in my dreams there. He wants me to dream go back drinking again, and he says, you just gotta rebuke him. You just gotta say, hey. You don't don't owe me no more, man. You know? I would encourage you to call upon Jesus. Yeah. You're doing the right thing by call calling upon the name of Jesus. Yeah. And the other thing is the devil's a liar and he'll bring condemnation, and so call upon the blood of Jesus, that the blood of Jesus, God's son, continually cleanse me of all unrighteousness. And the devil hates to hear about the blood. Not not that I want you to dialogue with the devil. Just call upon the name of Jesus and start to worship Jesus, and the devil will flee. Just worship the Lord. The devil will flee. He doesn't wanna be there past that. He wants to trip you up, neutralize you, and try to get you to obsess about the condemnation. He wants to get in your head. So you gotta take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, compare it to the word of God, but you did right by calling upon the Lord. And Michael the archangel made not a railing accusation against the devil when he wanted the body of Moses, but said the Lord rebuke you in Jude. Right? So that's that's our approach if that happens. I did have a dream a few days ago. A lot of times I can't remember the dreams, but Kathy was crying, and it was so real. It was so incredibly real. And I could hear her crying, and I woke up, and I was gonna go tear some heads off. I was gonna I was gonna go after whoever made her cry. And and then I realized she wasn't there. So then when she got over, I said, hey. Did anything happen? Everything okay? Oh, everything's great. Everything's great. Everything's wonderful. But I think the devil would love to, you know, lie to us, get us in the flesh, get us to war in the flesh. Mhmm. And and so can't trust the feelings. Can't trust those dreams and all that, but you're you're learning to implement spiritual warfare. You're in a war. So study Ephesians six, be equipped with the warfare, you know, the armaments. Yeah. Go ahead. And look look at look at Ephesians six, read over. Look at the strategies. We're not ignorant of his devices, his strategies. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty of God to the pulling down of the strongholds. So you're gonna develop as a prayer warrior, be in prayer. If the devil won't let you sleep, if he's allowed to attack you and bring back there's a pastor, a very prolific pastor, that has relapses of Vietnam. So you know how long ago that was. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And he is, from time to time, relapses and thinks he's in Vietnam. So he was a point man, and he saw a lot of bad stuff, so much so that he got put in San Francisco, you know, to the mental health facility there. And through through these things, he came to know Christ, but now all these years later, he's suffering with what do you call those things when you I call it relapse, but it's something else. He's had flashbacks. Flashbacks. Flashbacks. He's having flashbacks, and it's really messing him up. And but he overcomes it by again, his whole walk with the Lord has been relying on the Lord. So the devil doesn't play fair, but we're gonna learn to war. We're gonna learn to fight. We're gonna learn to overcome. Hi, Chris. I'm just gonna mention Brandon Holdhouse had, about three months ago, had in his one of his online talks about exactly that. Okay. Yeah. And and how the devil will, you know, will just you know, will be motionless. We can't move. We can't breathe. We can't you know, we try to get up, and we can't. And so I've I've I've heard Brandon talking about a lot of that, and he's delving back, he's looking at a lot of historical information from the Catholics. And I there's some certain things in there I I'm ignorant of or I I disagree with because I'm ignorant or whatever. But as far as contracts and agreements, remember you talked about that, Family members prior to you living there and all. Yeah. When we got saved, Kathy went in her in her mom's house and took all of her mom's astrology charts and got rid of them all. You know? Anything that was, you know, occultic got rid of them all. So I do agree with Brandon on that. If you have anything occultic in the house or whatever, you can get rid of that stuff. Also, you can talk to Brandon, Robin Vickie's son, because he went through a period of time of of intense spiritual warfare due to the games, the Dungeons and Dragons, a lot of different gaming that introduced the you the devil needs permission in the life of the Christian. As a Christian, the devil needs permission to get into your head, to get into your life. And if you say no to him, no. No. No. No. No. If you don't give those windows for them to come in, you're being protected. So you gotta think in terms of how's he getting into my head. Is he is it through the dream? Is it through television? Is it through a movie I watched? I still to this day, I had nightmares from watching Jurassic Park when I was in my twenties. Mhmm. So I can't watch those kind of things and think I'm gonna have a good night's sleep. You know? So that's just me. So I know that that's I've never done horror movies, never done things like that. So but if you've dealt in some of those areas and some of that stuff has happened in your life I started getting into the paranormal. Well, there you go. There you go. You open it. My brother died when he was two years old. Yeah. And I wanna go back and talk to him. Okay. But I don't do that anymore. So remember, the devil cannot possess you. The demons cannot possess you because you're a child of God. Okay. They that we talked about last week, these crazy people that say, oh, you've got the you've got the demon of gluttony, and we're gonna we're gonna have a casting out ministry, a deliverance ministry, we're gonna deliver you from this, deliver you from that. That's bogus. Shannon came up with the right answer why that's bogus, because a house divided against itself can't stand. You don't simultaneously have the Holy Spirit live and dwelling within you, and a demon live and dwelling within you. You know? The demon can oppress and suggest and tempt, but can't be here. So you take that thought, the fiery dark captive, bring it back to the obedience of Christ, and then in the positive way, use the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and you're gonna get victory. But if you've opened yourself up in the past to paranormal and that sort of thing, then you can expect, not all the time, sometimes we're delivered completely from stuff, you know, But then other times, God allows certain things in our life so that we learn more and more to rely upon him. And so it's strategy. It's a strategy of warfare to take you down. You know, every every single battlefield is different, each and every different people, but but the devil's strategy towards me might be different towards you, but he's studying me, and he's also very patient. He'll wait twenty five years to take me down. Thirty years, forty years, fifty years to take me down. David was taken down when he's in his fifties. Mhmm. You know? So he'll study David and say, David, you got a weakness with women. And David, for thirty years, did fine. Forty years. But then there came a point in time where the devil used, you know, David's lust toward women, toward Bathsheba, and Samson's minimizing Samson not appreciating his walk with the Lord, and Samson being taken down. So be very careful of the devil with the blue dress on. That's right. Alright. Detroit widows. He's making sure we're Okay. Alrighty. But, yeah, Brandon Holthaus did a very extensive thing on demonology and the activity of the wicked one and stuff. So different strategies, different ways. I I like I like when I used to watch football. I don't watch anymore, but it used to be a phrase, the best defense is a good offense. And so I like to be on the offensive. And if I'm on the offensive moving forward in my walk with the Lord, it's a good defense. But if I'm idle, neutral remember what they used to call the prevent defense? It didn't prevent anything. So you're you're ahead. You're three touchdowns ahead, but now you're gonna put your DB's back, and you're just gonna try and prevent them from going deep. And they score three touchdowns in no time, you know, just over the middle. It didn't prevent anything. Oh, for Keep attacking. You know, keep attacking. Keep moving forward. You know? So that's that's how I look at it is keep doing what God's called you to do. Be on the offensive. When Jesus says, upon this rock, I'll build my church and the gates of hell not prevail against it. It's we're on the offensive. We're we're storming the gates of hell. We're storming the beaches of Normandy. That's what we're doing. That we're not to be passive Christians. We're to be moving forward with what he's given us to do. And the devil and the world should be on their heels. And the greatest way to combat the evil of our time is for us to truly love. In the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to love people that look at us as being their enemies. Alright. So here we go. So am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places? So when so he's the alpha, he's the omega. We're we know that he's the beginning and the end. We know prophetically everything's already happened. You know? We know that eternity, it's it's already been played out. The Lord knows everything that's gonna happen. You know? So he's the God near. He's the God afar off from a time standpoint. He and can any hide himself in secret places? No. If I go to hell, you are you are there. There's no place God's not. He's he's omnipresent, Saith the Lord, do do not I fill heaven and earth? Saith the Lord. I have heard what the prophet said who prophesied lies in my name. Imagine that. You're you're representing God. You proclaim to be a prophet. You're gonna speak forth the word of God. You're gonna foretell, and and you're saying, thus saith the Lord. And the Lord's saying, I didn't send them, and I didn't give them that message. They're prophesying lies. You know? And I don't wanna be those guys. I don't wanna be them. And and they're doing it in my name. They're bewitching people. They're demonic. And my name saying, have dreamed. I have dreamed. And so now we've got to take somebody's dream, and somebody's dream when we're doing a Bible study, not not you, not you. But in many cases what happens is people will take their dream as authoritative. Like, if I'm gonna try and help you and disciple you here with the word of God, you could come back to me if you're unstable in the word, and you could say, I had a dream and God spoke to me, and I was taken up to heaven one time, And all of a sudden, your experience is authoritative. I can't say anything about it because I wasn't there. Well, excuse me. That's not the word of God. The word of God trumps your dream or your vision or whatever. If your dream or vision is contrary to the word of God, guess what? We stay with the word of God. Mhmm. Right? Right. How do we know? Why do they think their dream is authoritative? I'm gonna go marry this person. Go do this because I had a dream. You know? Good luck with that. You know? So how long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea. They are prophets of the of deceit of their own. So now I'm thinking in terms of Matthew 24 where Jesus said, be not deceived. Right? Sounds like a good podcast. Right? Mhmm. And he warned us of false Christ and false prophets. They're gonna come in his name. Right? So perfect time for Vicky to have her be not deceived. Everything's a lie anymore. Everything. On every level. Banking's a lie. Food's a lie. Climate is a lie. You know? Everything's a lie. You know? Especially yeah. I mean, transgenderism's a lie. It's so simple. It's boy and girl, but they make a lie out of it. You know? Mhmm. The most basic things. Marriage is a lie. You know? And we have the truth. It's so heartwarming to just stay with the truth and not not even allow myself to, you know, to be moved out of direction. Dee Ford posted a thing about, you know, October 4, the warning system going off. Right? Yeah. And and FEMA's talking about it'll be so good, you know, to warn everybody if emergency happens. Right? Yeah. I put on there, yeah, like in Maui? And she says, exactly. And then I tried to follow it up with another little thing that said, yeah, wasn't FEMA at a resort, an island over Yeah. At the time of the Maui thing? Yeah. And they put a red block around it and wouldn't let me do it. Wow. They're watching. They know that I'm right. They know it's the truth. Yeah. But they didn't want yeah. FEMA was there in Hawaii at a resort while that was going on. So not only did they not warn them, not only did they not shut down the water, you know, and allow it to burn these people to the ground, but now they have the audacity to come out and they're gonna save us. And and Putin is doing tomorrow, Putin's doing a a bunker. Mhmm. 160,000 bunkers, I think, they built. Yep. And he's he's going to go through the effort of getting his people familiar with the nuclear call to get into the bunker tomorrow. That's what he it's first time ever. Now there's one bunker that's built for civilians, lots of them for military people, but one built for civilians, and guess where it is? Holds 200 people. It's in Seattle. So I'm gonna get there before you. Just kidding. You guys will be a banger under underground. You know, what have they what have they been building in Banger for fifteen years with all that concrete that they've been taking there? You know? Dump. Deep underground military bunkers all over all over The United States and and foreign countries. Deep underground military bunkers. When they tell you that 50,000,000 pounds of ground beef went bad, e coli, no. No. No. No. They're using it. They're putting it in their deep underground bunkers. That's they're they're taking the food and supply and everything in their deep underground bunkers because they know they're going underground. Right? So I told you I was crazy. Right? This is crazy conspiracy talk stuff. Right? But and then we talked about EMPs yesterday and USS Donald Cook and fiber optics. And then today, my buddy sends me a thing of Russia and China putting an EMP to blow up all of our grid, everything, you know, here. So it's not my imagination. A lot of these things could very well happen, and I'm not depressed. I'm not in that 41%, man. You know? If they're gonna nuke, and I think they're gonna nuke, Kathy says, we need to get some iodine pills. Rick, remember when we got iodine pills? I it fills up your thyroid and doesn't allow the fallout of the radiation to to come in through your thyroid. And I said, but, honey, Banger's a target. We're just gonna be with Jesus. There's no 10 miles away from here and the radiation blown over here. It's gonna be right here, honey. We're target right here. And I said, we're gonna be right and she goes, oh, that's even better. That's even better. You know? And so she's thinking in terms of preparedness, that would definitely get the Daggle report. And then and then tonight before I came here, you know, the guy that's in Canada there that has the little news feeds, you know, he's building a case and pointing out how we're going to war with China, that we've been preparing for war with China. So it looks like wars and rumors of wars. The Degevo report might reach the place of 90,000,000 Americans in a myriad of different ways, but it looks like depopulation's on the on the horizon. So if I if I talk about that, I notice that none of us get depressed. We're not in that 41%. It doesn't affect me or you. Doesn't bother me because my hope's in Jesus. Amen. My hope's not in this world how to survive the tribulation period, you know? I'm not I'm not worried about that. So it's so great to be free. Mhmm. COVID was the best thing that ever happened. Yes. Mhmm. It just separated the men from the boys, the girls from the the women from the girls. I mean, and now you got 41% of the pastors are sissies. Being exposed as sissies. Right? If you can't handle so let's go back to Jeremiah 12. Remember the verse that I told you I love? Jeremiah, he's he's wimping out. Jeremiah's wimping out. And the Lord says, Jeremiah, if you're wimping out in this battle on the time of the foot soldiers, what are you gonna do in the time of the swelling of the Jordan and the horses and chariots that are coming? Jeremiah, I'm not backing down. It's gonna get worse, Jeremiah. So get your big boy britches on and get ready, Jeremiah. You know? And then as we move on through this, we watch him be, you know, put in jail. We were gonna watch him later on be put in a in a pit, in a in like a bungee dungee thing. We watched him say, I'm not gonna speak in your name anymore in chapter 20. Remember that? And then he says, the word of God was in me like a fire within my bones. So the Holy Spirit lets us see his humanity, the the the adjustments that are made to let go and to trust in the Lord more and more and more and more, you know, as he's going through this. But the Lord says, I'm not gonna dial it back because 41% of the pastor's ready to quit me. You know? How am I gonna get my work done if 41% of the pastors melt down? You know? He he just let them melt down. They can they can melt down all they want, but he'll still get his work done. The Lord will still get the job done. Mhmm. And so that's the thing is when you say, I'm gonna quit. I'm gonna quit. You know, you're just hurting yourself. The work's gonna continue. The Lord will replace you with somebody else. You know? And so I had a worship guy when we first started the church. We went through a little crisis. A bunch of people left, and and he says, hey. Without me, all you got's a boombox. Oh. And I'm like, yeah. Also a guy. Mhmm. So I I I just bide my time. I you know? I just bide my time, and then at the appropriate time, the Lord brought in some new boom boxes, you know. Some really cool boom boxes. Yeah. Alright. So who thinks to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor as their fathers have forgotten my name for Bala Balak Baal. So as I just said earlier, they're using dreams to try and circumvent God's word through the prophet, through Jeremiah, and they're coming along and they're saying, I had a dream. I had a dream. Oh, I had a dream. And and then I I watched a YouTube. Did you hear about this YouTube guy, the YouTube prophet? Yeah. He had a dream. He had a dream. He has a vision. He had a vision of America, you know, all busted into flame or whatever, you know. And all of a sudden everybody's supposed to stop. Oh, wow. Did you watch that video? No. Don't I don't I don't watch that video. I'm sorry. I don't know how to watch that video. I don't have time to watch that video. The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream, and he that has my words, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? Saith the Lord. So we talked about this last week. It's a contest. The word of God's gonna win out every time. Amen. You know? Sometimes we need some time to prove the word of God being superior. But I mean, that's what I was saying with Jeremiah. But it's incumbent upon us to be faithful, to be faithful with the word of God even when nobody's listening. Our church was down to 10 people, you know, after fifteen years of doing it. We had 86 kids in our Sunday school as we're as we're growing, and then we hit a we hit a spot where we struggled, and then everything went down all the way to just 10 people. You know? And we kept going. We're at the the Seventh day Adventist Church, and and we just we just said, alright. We're gonna keep going. We're just gonna keep going. By faith each week, we're gonna keep going. And we didn't start a new advertising campaign. We didn't shout out to everybody in the community to let them know we're there. They call the phone line and nobody answers it. They drive by Taylor Road. They don't even know where Taylor Road is. There's no signs out front. There's nothing. You know? I'm tired of it. I'm tired of it. The Lord's gonna build his church. He's gonna bring the people he wants to be there, and I'm not gonna give in to consumerism. I don't care if you're shopping for a church and evaluating what we do or whatever. That's up to you. But I'm not gonna try to pick your brain on what you want in a church. You know? We're just doing what we do, and if you like it, if it fits, that's great. If it doesn't fit and you don't like it, well, there's other churches for you. So one of the things that's happening more and more now is I met two ladies this Sunday, and this is becoming a very common thing. They can't find churches that teach the Bible. Mhmm. And they're even checking out Calvary chapels that are not teaching the Bible as they're accustomed to hearing. So they wound up at our place, and I said, great. Maybe you're supposed to be here. You know? Can you handle an hour and forty six minute sermon? Pretty good test. Sean told me one time I went till 01:30. No way. I've never gone till 01:30. There's another church that meets after us. He said it was when they quit coming. When they got to that's hilarious. It's hilarious. You guys are thanking the Lord. There's a church that comes in after us, aren't you? Yeah. I didn't hear that alarm go off at twelve noon this time. Thank you. Thank you, Vicky. It's for not doing that. I love the word of God. I have the greatest confidence that if I stay with the word of God, we're gonna bear fruit Amen. Because his word doesn't come back void. So the prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream, and he that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff that's wheat, saith the lord. Now if I have excuse me. If I have a dream and I approach the church on a Sunday morning, and I I mean, I'm really I had a dream. And those of you that have dreams, Joel too, God said he's gonna give you dreams. And I love when you tell me about your dream, and when you tell me about your vision, when you tell me what you see in the spiritual realm at the church there, you know, some of you told me you see angels there and things like that. I love that. Now just because I don't have that kind of gifting or tightness or or sensitivity to Holy Spirit doesn't mean I don't love to hear about it. You know? But for me, I just stay with the word, and the other the other thing I think the Lord has helped me with is discernment, is evaluating where we're at, and taking the word of God, and holding it up, and discerning the times we're in. But as far as the charismata, the gifting, and the dreams, and the visions, and all that, I love it, and we're a body. And and it's exciting to see the holy spirit moving and working through people with that kind of gifting, and it comforts me greatly. So I'm just like a I I got a one string guitar. Just one string, Rob. Thomas, I got a one string guitar. One string strong. It's just the bible. That's that's all I got. It's my bible. And when I leave Kitsap County someday, when Kathy takes my bones and sprinkles them over Huntington Beach, it's gonna bring my bible. That's all I have. That's all I brought in. That's all I'm gonna leave with my bible. Right? So that's it. So I value the word of God. So the prophet that has a dream, let him tell the dream. He that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the what is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? So we talked last week about the wheat being the bread, and the chaff is the that just gets blown away. You could tie that in with Psalm one. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, in his law does he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree that's planted by the rivers, that bring forth its fruit in its season, its leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper, but the ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff Mhmm. Which the wind drives away. Right? Mhmm. So we have the word of God, and we're positioned. We're in that place where our roots can grow deep unto Jesus, and he's gonna cause our life to bear fruit. So is not my word like a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? So the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words, everyone from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongue and say, he saith. Behold, I am against how many times you gotta say that? I'm against. Now since God is for us, who can be against us? Right? Romans eight thirty one. Greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world. God is for you and I. He's not against us. We're more than conquerors through him that loved us because of the cross. Right? More than conquerors. Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them and cause my people to by their lies and by their instability. Yet I yet I sent them not, nor commanded them therefore. So I'm trying my best to teach the word of God. You should be trying your best to learn the word of God. Mhmm. And learning the word of God is not just taking in the information, but in Matthew seven, it's applying the word of God, being a doer of the word. Right? So if you're only a hearer of the word or selective hearer, you're gonna be unstable when things get tough because you built your house on sand. Now, don't know how your house is built until it's tested by a storm. And when a storm comes and it comes down quick, we know that you didn't allow the word of God to be rooted deep within you, that you built your house on sand, that you were a hearer of the word and not a doer. The doer goes through the same trials, but makes it through. Right? We make it through. Our faith is going to prevail. The word of God that's written in our hearts is gonna prevail. Our faith when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? And so we I cherish my faith. I cherish that the Lord saved me and gave me as a gift, the measure of faith to believe in him. And I and I just thank the Lord so much for pastor Chuck and the teaching of the word and the time that I got to spend, you know, falling in love with God's word, falling in love with the Lord, falling in love with prophecy, and study of God's word. And so I sent them not nor commanded them. Therefore, they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord. So you see in the right margin on the notes, Daniel two. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, forgot the dream, and came back to the prophets and said, not only do I want you to tell me the interpretation, I want you to tell me the dream. Yeah. Otherwise, I'm gonna kill you. Right? And never has a king ever, ever, ever demanded that of his wise men, you know? Well, buckle up. And so Daniel says, hey, give me a little time, and I'm gonna I'm gonna seek the mind of the Lord, and I'll not only tell you the interpretation, but but also the dream. And so the dream of the of the kingdoms of the earth, you know, is what the Lord laid out there for Daniel, the times of the Gentiles, and the 10 toes. And then later in chapter four, Nebbe had another dream, and Daniel was able to interpret that dream for him. And it was, hey. When you say, is this not great Babylon which I have built? You're gonna lose your mind. God controls our minds. Right? You could lose your mind. I do believe in mental illness. I believe Nebuchadnezzar experienced mental illness. He lost his faculties. He went out and he began to eat grass for seven years. That's a long time to lose your faculties. And then when his faculties came back to him, when he's in his right mind, like the demoniac, clean, clothed, and in his right mind, God hasn't given us a spirit spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind, then Nebuchadnezzar gave the glory unto the Lord. If he can raise one up a king up, take him down. The Lord is the one that's on, you know, in control. And that that portion there is where Chuck Missler and many commentators have pointed out they believe Nebbe were gonna see him in heaven, that he became a believer, you know, at that point. Now what we're gonna do, before we jump into this last section here about the burden, the oracle that these guys are having, and this this this last section is kind of a good section in light of what we're learning about the churches moving in the direction of of 41% Kent Hackett, and another phenomena that's happening in Southern California is Calvary Costa Mesa used to be 20,000 people attending that church when I used to go there. Phenomenal. And when pastor Chuck died, you have a you have a situation where the church now is a memorial. So when God wants to do a great work, he starts with a man. Right? He's looks for an Abraham, and then he it becomes a movement, and then it becomes a machine. It becomes just a machine pumping out, you know, that success. And not necessarily relying on the holy spirit like in the old early days, but a machine. Such such great success, nobody can question it. And then it goes from that machine phase to memorial. Once the Martin Luther dies, the Lutheran churches change. Once the John and Charles Wesley die, the Methodist church changes. They have women pastors. They have, you know, LBGTP and all that other sorts of thing. So over the course of time, Andy Stanley, a great name, Charles Stanley, diminishing that, getting involved in things he shouldn't and all. He knows better, but he's not carrying the torch. So one of the things about Southern California, it's prolific from the standpoint of settlers. You have pioneers and you have settlers. They settled the Azusa Street revival in the LA Basin years ago, the turn of the nineteenth century, nineteen o six, nineteen o three in there. In enormous amounts of ministries that flooded there, like people flooding to Texas today, and establishing ministries, getting a beachhead, getting the groundwork in there, and huge prolific churches with Jack Hayford, and John MacArthur, and J. Vernon McGee, and Charles Swindoll was there, and Chuck Smith, and David Hawking, and enormous amounts of ministry centered there, and the radio stations, and the word of God going out. And and churches sprung out and spread out, and missionaries and all that, great great mother church, motherland, and all that. But now, in the times we're living in, that 20,000 people at Costa Mesa, they've left. It's down to less than, like, 400. And where did these guys go? They just went a city over and started a new church and became the overflow of transfer of growth. That's it. They want easy. They want easy. They want it to be as easy as possible. They don't wanna go to a place where they're gonna spend thirty years like we have fighting with the natives and unable unable to get a settlement in. Just barely hanging on, you know, at the fort, you know, the little cavalry Bremerton Fort. It's just always under attack. You know? So it it but it comes down to, are you in God's will? If you're in God's will, we're here for such a time as this. And God's brought us here. And some of your plot and your where you're gonna move and where you're gonna whatever. And that's great. I hope you go with what you've learned, and and, you know, have a home bible study, start a bible study, and begin to disciple and minister to people with what you've learned. That's probably the best thing we could do. Alright. So we're going to look at some verses. We're going to pay close attention to sound, which means healthy doctrine, sound words, sound mind, sound face, sound speech. We're going to pay close attention to the times we're living in where we're told ahead of time what the climate would be like, what it would be like from a Christian standpoint in regard to the word of God, in regard to truth, in regard to the false prophets that were going to seduce people and trick people, and the people. The people demanding teachers that would tickle them where they itch, what they wanted to hear. So remember we saw Jeremiah five thirty one, the people love it so. The false prophets give in to the people. The false prophets knock on doors and say, what would you like in a church? That's why I said I'm not concerned about the consumerism Christianity. I'm not open to negotiating what they want this church to be. I've been down that road, and I went broke. I went bankrupt trying to provide everything for everybody. So at this point, one string guitar. This is what we do. I'm sorry we don't have a youth group for your kids. Maybe your kids can sit in the sanctuary with you, or maybe they can go, you know, pastor Kevin's church in Port Orchard with a nice youth group. I don't know. All I know is this is what I'm doing. Alright? So I'm not I'm not I'm not here to try and if you want a youth group, I say to him, you wanna you teach the youth group. You know? You want a youth group? You stay with your kids and you teach it. You you see what I'm saying? And so it's I'm not gonna try and provide everything like we did to appease the consumer mentality. We started a Wednesday night, and the very person that was angry that we didn't have a Wednesday night didn't attend. You know? So I I've been down that road. Bought a building next door to do Sunday school for those 86 kids, and it's a nightmare, you know? Just wonderful growth and all that, but then they bail on you, you know, and you're left holding it. So if you can understand why I'm more concerned about the word of God, I'm more concerned about doing what just my simple little thing that I can do, this is what I can do, and I hope it bears fruit. But I can't do everything like a big church with a huge budget that can hire everybody to help him and all that. So the Lord's gonna have to raise it up, but we can we can be comforted in not melting down, and not succumbing to the pressure, the anxiety. One one other little tidbit. Fifteen years ago, I attacked Xanax Christianity. I attacked the lie of a serotonin imbalance that cannot be verified. There's no test for it. And when pastors told me, well, it's like diabetes, man. No. No. No. Diabetes physiological. We can check my blood and determine it's high or low. Serotonin or the brain is subjective. You have no test to determine the serotonin levels, so you have no understanding of how that works. Instead, what you're doing is you're going to introduce psychotropic drugs that that ruin the brain chemistry Mhmm. And then have to escalate to the next one, the next one, the next one, the next one. And I understand in the state of Washington here, it's very oppressive. It's dark. We suffer with depression here. We suffer with high suicide rates and such, but we just have to become stronger Christians than those in Southern Cal or Florida or Texas where it's sunnier. We have to learn to rely upon the Lord. The joy of the Lord is our strength. So now, all those years later, been proven right, proven right, and the Xanax Christianity is not gonna get them through what's coming. That's why they're melting down. And it's not just the people, it's the pastors and the pastor's wife that have been on them and trying to deal with stress and anxiety and all these things that God uses to break us and to get us to rely upon him more and more and to be men and women of the word and and rely upon the power of the holy spirit. If you have a physiological problem, you have an arm that's broke, go get it fixed. You have an imbalance, let them verify there's an imbalance and and bring it back to where it's right. But they've even admitted, I think Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company even admitted that it's ineffective. The so called serotonin imbalance, they were ineffective. So it wasn't working. It's not working. So people were lied to and given a false hope, and the Christians jumped all over it. What's that tell you about the state of the churches? What were the churches like that that the people weren't given the word of God to meet their greatest need to know God, and instead were given a little Band Aid. You know? What difference is that than smoking pot or alcohol to try and take the edge off, you know? And now we got a lot of churches doing doing pot, you know, to cope. So alright. Titus one nine through 13. Titus one nine through 13. Let's turn there. Bob says to me, you might not have enough verses to Mhmm. For next week. We might have to add the no. I I think I think we got plenty of verses here. 13. Right? So Titus one nine through 13. So Paul is talking to a young pastor named Titus, and Paul's letting Titus know his job description, what you need to do, Titus, and here's some of the opposition that's gonna come at you. So he says, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine, healthy, sound doctrine. God hasn't changed. He's given you. Doctrine is teaching. It's the body the body of the scriptures, the body of teaching. We we sometimes watch people that I've got a guy that's been trying to message me, and he's written a lot of articles, a lot of rebuttals, and and and stuff. And I I wrote him back, I said, you you fail to understand expository preaching. You fail to understand inductive bible study. You fail in the area of of identifying the context. You fail in that I do not believe you have a systematic theology. Systematic theology comes as a result of being a student of God's word from Genesis to Revelation. It's a working knowledge of the scripture ties in, it's integrated. You can't take one portion of Isaiah and then try and apply it over here and make it dance. You've gotta you've gotta look at what's the context is there in Isaiah and what it's saying, you know. So we have a whole lot of prognosticators, people doing that. So sound doctrine, both to exhort and to confute the opposers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. So the problem was coming in through the Judaizers, the Jewish, whose mouth must be stopped. Passive? Is it unloving to stop them? You keep hearing about love. Every time you point out somebody's living contrary to God's word, they say, what about the love, man? Just love. Just love. Whose mouth must be stopped. Why is it so imperative that their mouths be stopped? Because it's poison. You're poisoning the hearts and minds of people who might come to know the true Jesus, who subvert whole houses. So now you're causing whole houses to fall apart, teaching things which they ought not. For what reason? Why are they doing it, these guys? Money. Money. Money. It's all about the money. It's always been about the money. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. This is so funny. Look what Paul says here. This testimony is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, healthy in their faith. They have an unhealthy faith, unhealthy belief system. Right? And so rebuke them sharply. No. That would be unloving. Judge not lest ye be judged. Not allowed to do that. Man be pambies. Now chapter two verse one through six. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. You know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna continue reading verse 14. Okay? Some good stuff there. Not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Under the pure, all things are pure, but unto them which are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess. The churches are filled with professors. They profess that they know God. I'm a Christian. But in works, they deny him. What's that mean? They have no fruit. They have no fruit. Fruit. Deeds. Their actions don't Deeds. Fruit. So it's not working for salvation. Faith without works is dead. James, it's fruit. Paul says, by the works of the flesh shall know you know, no by the works of the law, nobody shall be justified. Right? So working for your salvation, works of the flesh, you don't get salvation by working. But when it speaks of in works they deny him, it speaks of there's no deeds, there's no fruit, there's no behavior indicative of a person that believes. But in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and under every good work reprobate. So disqualified of a reprobate mind. He says in contrast to them, in contrast to these filthy false prophets, he said, but you speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober minded, grave and temperate, sound in faith, and love, and patience. So we've got some aged men in our church, aged women, be sober minded. I still don't take the senior discount. I do not identify as an aged man. I want to pay twice as much if need be, and so grave, temperate, sound in faith and love and patience. The aged women, likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given them much wine, teachers of good things. So you want a wine with your a little glass of wine with your dinner tonight? Fine. But don't be given to wine. Don't be given over to it. Right? And your behavior, it's holiness. Right? And don't use your tongue to be gossips, that there may be that they may teach the young women to be sober minded, to love their husbands, to love their children. So the demonstration of what a family is. I saw a thing today. Apparently, this girl is pretty pretty famous with podcasters and stuff, but she was describing marriage for and and this is mind boggling to me. I mean, I understand Brandon much better now. But a guy like Brandon, let's say, he's got an 80% shit doesn't factor in being a Christian. But the average guy out there has an eighty percent risk failure rate in trying to get married and have a lasting marriage. There's an eighty percent failure rate according to her. And she listed all these reasons, the way that women think, that men think, and all. And and then on the other side of it, you've got Robbie pointing out they don't have testosterone. You know? So there's the woman side of it too. They can't find the right kind of men. And but the system, apart from Jesus, is broken. It's absolutely broken. Mhmm. And so imperative, when you have a marriage, a Christian marriage, it's phenomenal because that's what people want. Deep down, even the gays want that, but they don't know how to achieve it. They don't know how to do it. So you take and you model the Christian life, what it means to be a mom, what it means to be a dad, a husband, a wife, son, or a daughter, and then teach the younger ones coming up because they're not learning it from social media and from the culture. The culture is corrupting. Some of the guys, like Mitch, it made me understand him better, he'll go out there on social media and get a girl from Brazil because they're not as Corrupted. Worldly thinking yet. They still have the traditional, idea of marriage, I guess. I don't know. But in any event, I'm glad I met Kathy when I was 17, and I'm still married to my best friend, because it's a jungle out there. Sounds like Rodney Dangerfield. Yeah. So they may teach the young women to be sober minded, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers of home, good, obedient to their own husbands that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise, exhort to be sober minded in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works and doctrine, showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech. So you got sound doctrine, sound in faith, now you got sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. So we can't find anything on Daniel. We're gonna have to change the laws. We're gonna have to make it illegal to pray cause we know that he prays. You know what mean? They can't find anything. So isn't that pretty amazing? Alright. Now, who wants James three one? I'll give some verses. James three one. Okay. Rob's doing that. Who wants acts twenty twenty six to 32? I'll take it. Okay. And then John eight thirty one and thirty two. Anybody want that? You want that George? George, take it. How about John twenty one fifteen through 18? Okay. Chris will go there. I'll give you first Timothy four one through 16. You get a big portion. Okay? Who wants first Timothy one three through 11? Anybody? Okay. I'll take it. I'll take it. Well, what's it? I'll do it. First Timothy 1311. Okay. And second Timothy 1714. Second Timothy what? 1714. And I'm not repeating these a second time, so I'm gonna write them down. Such a hard guy. Alright. What was mine again? I know. I know they're gonna do that. Isn't it time to go? Isn't it time to go? Thirteen. First Timothy, would you have one or four? Oh. You had 41 through 16. 4 oh, there you go. Okay. Alright. Alright. There you go. You go. Second Timothy? Forget it. Forget it. I'll just do it myself. I need it. Alright. Yeah. I'm We're looking at acts twenty twenty six through 32. Or no. James three one. Yeah. James three one. Yeah. Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for he who teaches will be judged by God with greater strictness. So if if people were sober minded and understood the responsibility before them, they wouldn't stand up there as false prophets and say, thou face the Lord, knowing they're gonna be judged harsher. The judgments be greater upon them because they are standing in a place where they're representing God. Yeah. You know? So be not many teachers. You know? Be careful. Make sure that's your calling. I believe all of us are called to teach. We're gonna see some passages in that regard. But as far as the office, that office that you have, that calling in that office, and it should follow that if you think you're a teacher and you're gonna move in that direction. I mean, nowadays people just go online to ordain themselves. Yeah. And you got women ordaining themselves and doing marriages and stuff, and they're prophetesses, they're priests, and you got guys who become these pastors, and they got no working knowledge of the scripture. And one of the things that astounds me is I'll see these guys work real hard at not having to teach. They're always trying to find somebody else to fill in for them. Mhmm. And I'm like, you don't love what you're doing. I'm greedy. I I wanna be there every week. You know? I wanna I wanna do this every week. Right? And but I watch them. It's like it's a struggle for them to teach, and that's an indicator you're not gifted in there because because it's the most effortless thing to do something that you're called and gifted by God to do. It's just it just flows. You know? So those are some indicators. Dry, and oh, well, he has a real hard time. Well, give him some time. Let him grow up in his gifting. Give him some time, and be patient with the guy, the new guy that comes in and all that. But any event, he's gotta teach. Gotta be able to bring it. Alright. So acts twenty twenty six through 32. Now, let me preface this. Guys telling me that, yeah, you know, what they're teaching is it's biblical. Grace, grace, grace, love, love, love, mercy, mercy, mercy. It's the gospel, and a lot of stories mixed in with this real quick. It's Christian light, but what are they leaving out? Heresy is not so much what the guy says, but what he won't say. So Bonhoeffer point that out. So they won't talk about prophecy. They won't talk about sin. They won't talk about hell or repentance. So this is what Jason, my friend, gave me what they do mention, and I have to always write it down for in Kathy's thing here. So Jason said there it's a bunch of h words. Let's see. I'm hurting. Let me see here. Oh, their themes are and you can see what, like, what Shannon said. They're talking about hurts, habits, hang ups, goof ups, but never mention the word sin. And their series is a mental health series. So this is traveling around all over is the theme. Now granted, I'll bet you there's a whole lot of people struggling, whole lot of suicides, whole lot of everything, especially if you're jabbed and all this stuff, job in jeopardy, marriage, marriage has fallen apart, but they're they're not allowing the great physician to get at the root of the problem in that these people really don't know Jesus. And if they know Jesus, they don't know trust him enough and know him well enough to to trust him that he'll get him through it. So they're gonna try and band aid it and use a bunch of the world's methodologies to try and deal with it. Okay. So acts twenty twenty six to 32. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves and to all the flock over the over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Remember or sorry. Not remember. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I command you to God and to the world of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. So they had an example. They had a real preacher, real pastor, the apostle Paul. He spent three years there in Ephesus establishing this church, building this church up. He gave him the full counsel of God. He didn't shirk from the words repentance or sin or conviction. Gave him gave him it all and prophecy, all of it. I mean, so at the church of Thessalonica, Paul was there three weeks, and he taught them prophecy. These wimpy pastors say, we can't teach prophecy. You know, it's too in-depth. We can't teach the book of Revelation. Oh, who can understand it? You know? And here you know, we're just we're just gonna give them the gospel. This is a church of Thessalonica, and he's giving them the doctrine of the rapture, preacher of rapture, the second coming of Christ. He's teaching prophecy, and he's only there for three weeks with a church that's three weeks old. Come on. You know? I mean, get a clue. Alright. John eight thirty one and thirty two. Get a clue. Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed in him, if you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. It isn't about freedom. When the enemy comes with all these lies of COVID and all this stuff, do you see the fear? Did you see the the lack of giving glory to God? That's the part that pricked me the hardest was they're not glorifying my savior. They're not glorifying Jesus. They're they're showing a wimpy Christianity, you know, based upon deception, you know? Mhmm. But you know the truth, truth set you free. Amen. Alright. John 21, Jesus speaking to Peter 15 through 18. 15 through 18. Twenty one fifteen through 18. Yep. So so when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than the than these? He said to him, yes, Lord. You know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord. You know that I love you. He said to him, tend to my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he had said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished. But when you were old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird another will gird you and carry you where you need where you do not wish. So if a guy has the role, the calling of being a pastor, which is a shepherd, it's in the Latin, it's a pastor. We can use words like elder, same function, bishop, overseer, pastor in the Latin, and deacons handle the tables and all that. The elders, the bishops, the pastors are to oversee and provide the spiritual needs of the people. Jesus said, if you love me, you're gonna teach my lambs. Whose lambs are they? My lambs. Mhmm. My sheep. Now what is the food? And it doesn't say it there. We saw that in acts 20. What is the food that the shepherd feeds? The word of God. Word God. Right? Not Freud and Roy. Right? Okay? Not the self help therapeutic philosophies that we saw in Colossians two, the rudimentary things of men, ideas of men. We stay with the word of God. The guys will say, well, you know, we have a lot more information now than Jesus had back in his day. And pastor Chuck says, I don't think I wanna talk to somebody that thinks they know more than Jesus. Boom. You know? So he's eternal, alpha, omega, beginning, the end. He hasn't left us without his word dealing with the world in which we live. Nothing new under the sun. So first Timothy one three through 11. As I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God, which is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, strained from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the law even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mother, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and purgers and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. Dear boy, for the grace of God. So you and I are not under the law, but the law hasn't ceased, has it? The law is still in effect. The law is to be used to identify right and wrong behavior. Right? You and I are to live on a higher level of relationship with God based upon love. We don't need to have the police run around and make sure we're not doing something wrong because we're living according to the the principle of love, of wanting to please Jesus. Right? And so but if we reach a place of disobedience and rebellion, the law's there to judge us. The law's there to point out that our behavior is wrong. So the law is for the lawless, and that we live in a time of lawlessness, and the lawless one, the antichrist, is coming on the scene. And when John the Baptist let Herod know that what you're doing is lawless, taking your brother Philip's wife, it was against God's law. And by speaking the truth, you know, he lost his head and all, but he had to do it. So too we, we have to let God's word identify right and wrong behavior. When people say, hey, you shouldn't judge. You know, you just need to love. Well, wait a minute. You're violating God's law. You're violating the word of God. It's very clear here that this is wrong behavior. And how far does it have to escalate before we finally make a righteous judgment upon behavior? Are we gonna are we gonna continue to pander and give in to these idiots to the point that pedophilia becomes legal? I mean, you're not allowed to judge right and wrong behavior. You're not gonna protect these kids. You know what I mean? This is ridiculous. Pastors don't wanna talk about it. First Timothy four one through 16. Four one through 16. Four one through 16. Jim has it. Right? I got it. Yeah. Jim has it. Unless you want. Okay. Now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God Stop there. Meats. Okay. Go ahead. Which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If thou be the brethren excuse me. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. But refuse profane and old wives' tables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all our acceptation. For, therefore, we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the savior of all men, especially of those that believe. These things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, and or in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading and exhortation to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine continue in them for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. That's to a young Timothy. Now Timothy later took over, you know, the he became the pastor of the church at Ephesus, the church that Paul founded, you you know, for that three years. And tradition tells us that Timothy stood up against the celebration greatest Diana, kinda like a Mardi Gras, and they beat him to death. So he started out being timid. He was afraid. He had his courage. He spoke the truth. He's maturing. He's growing. And then ultimately, he died that of martyrdom by the those in Ephesus. They great as Diana of the Ephesians, they made a lot of money off their idolatry, making these little statues. There were multi breasted type things of Aphrodite, which was, you know, a form of bell and asterisk. So they they present ballism, and they make it a part of it. It ties in with sexual rituals and all, so it entices and stimulates people, but there was a whole point of of making a lot of money off people with that false religious system. So as people are coming to Christ, and Paul's Timothy and others are teaching people, don't give in to these idols, but that which the Gentiles worship, they're actually worshiping demons. The demons are behind those idols. And so anyway, Timothy went to heaven through martyrdom. Alright. So second Timothy one seven through 14. One seven through 14. Seven. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power and love and self discipline. So you must never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord, and don't be ashamed of me either even though I'm in prison for Christ with the with the strength God has given you. Be ready to suffer with me for the proclamation of the good news. It's God who saved us and chose us to live a holy life. He did this not because we deserve it, but because that was his plan long before the world began to show his love and kindness to us through Christ Jesus. How how far? One seven through 14. 14. And now he has made all this plain to us by the coming of Jesus Christ, our savior, who broke the power of death and showed us the way to everlasting life through the good news. And God chose me to be a a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this good news. And that is why I'm suffering here in prison, but I'm not ashamed of it for I know the one in whom I trust. I'm sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day that he returns. Hold on to this pattern of right teaching. You learn from me, and remember to live in the faith of love and love that you have in Christ Jesus. With the help of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard what has been entrusted to you. As you know, all the Christians who come here from the province of Asia have deserted me, even Pegilus and Hermogeners. Oh, you're good. Okay. 14. 14. Yeah. I just kept going. It was so fun. And I know. You're a good reader. It was so fun. These guys wanna go home and sleep, though. So alright. Second Timothy two one and two. Second Timothy two one and two. I'll read it. You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. So all of us are learning here. I've been a lot of bible studies I've learned, and I'm passing on what I've learned. You're learning. We're learning, and we pass on to people in our lives that which we've learned. That's how the Lord does it. Right? Ain't that amazing? Especially our children. And then in verse fifteen and sixteen, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly divided in word of truth, but shun profane and vain babblings for they will increase unto more and more ungodliness. So I would say be careful of the YouTube prophets. Be careful of the latest, greatest, newest thing. Familiarize yourself with the word of God. Be in the word of God. Be a man and woman of the word of God. Study to show yourself approved. And and then he says second Timothy four two through five. He says, preach the word. Be diligent in season and out of season. Repure of rebuke. Exhort with all long suffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Mhmm. So but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, They shall turn away their ears from the truth, which is apostasy, a departure from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, and make full proof of your ministry. And so, this exhorting Timothy, hang in there. Be faithful. Alright. Now we're back at our text, we'll finish up here. So we're back up at verse 32. But I'm against those who prophecy false dreams, and saith the Lord, do tell them and cause my people to by their lies and by their instability. Yet I sent them not nor commanded them therefore. He shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord. Verse 33, and when this people, or the prophet, or the priest shall ask thee, saying, what is the burden of the Lord? Thou shalt then say unto them, what burden? I will even forsake you, saith the Lord. So two aspects of this. One, that word burden in the Hebrew can be an oracle. So people would claim to have a word from the Lord. Hey. I got a burden. You ever had somebody come in, hey. The Lord showed me something about it. Lord, give me a burden. A bird I got a burden from the Lord. I got a word from the Lord for you, brother. And then they wanna stand up and put that word out there. That's what all these people were doing, and it was contrary to what Jeremiah was instructed to say to these people. So the the truth is being circumvented by subjective, thus saith the Lord's from these people, and rather than absolute truth. I think, I think, I think, and I felt, and oh, I you know, you know. And so what is the burden of the Lord? Thou shall say to them, what burden? You say you say it the Lord. And as for the prophet and the and the priest and the people who shall say, the burden of the Lord, I will even punish that man in all of his house. Thus shall ye say even one to his neighbor and to everyone to his brother. What has the Lord answered? And what has the Lord spoken? So what you really want to hear is Romans two verse four. It's the goodness of God, the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. That's what the people need to hear. And sometimes burdens of the Lord can be head trips. They can be burdens, heavy weight. A lot of pastors wield cult leader type personalities where they lord over people. They use guilt and coercion and condemnation to try and manipulate and coerce people. So Jesus comes along and he sees the people carrying this heavy burden. If we look at the word burden in a different way, this head trip, a guilt trip, if you will, that the religious leaders were giving them. And he said, come on to me all you that labor and heavy laden. So these 41% pastors that are wimping out, Jesus didn't give them a burden that they can't bear. Amen. Right? They're burning out because they're doing something in the arm of the flesh, and the flesh burns out. So my yoke is easy. He says, come on to me all you that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, learn to me. From meek and lowly in heart, you shall find rest under your souls. And so Jesus is saying, yoke up with me, serve alongside me, and my yoke is easy, which is kind, and my burden is light. I'm not gonna overwhelm you with a legal trip upon your head, you know, a guilt trip and all. And so the letter of the law kills, the spirit gives life. We can be technically right. We can have the law down, but we can do it in the wrong manner and the wrong spirit, and maybe the Lord wants us to be gracious and kind and loving and not major on the minors, the minute things. You know, you strain at a gnat, but swallow a camel, you guys. You know? And going too far. So the burden of the Lord, have punished that man that in his house. Thus shall ye say everyone to his neighbor and everyone to his brother, what has the Lord answered, and what has the Lord spoken? And the burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more, for every man's word shall be his burden, for ye have perverted the words of the living God of the Lords of hosts, our Gods. So because people don't have a knowledge of the word of God, it's it's out there for feeling, and so every charlatan, every false prophet, every YouTube prophet can say, I've got a burden. I got a vision. I got a dream. And everybody evaluates it, and they're moved emotionally, but it has no foundation of the word of God. God didn't send them. God didn't speak through them. So for us, we're Bereans. Acts seventeen eleven. Right? Everything I say, you filter it through what? The Bereans were more noble. They searched the scriptures to see whether those things be so. We talk about accountability. We're all accountable to Jesus. We're all I'm more accountable than you to Jesus because we saw that in James three one, be not many teachers. Right? Because your judgments can be more severe. So for me, I'm more accountable, and you have to hold me and me hold you accountable for the word of God. If I say something contrary to the word of God, you have a responsibility to bring the word, open it up, and say, pastor, this is wrong. I think this is wrong, or did I hear you right? Is that is this what you're saying? And and then I need to evaluate it and look at it. And if I've if I've misrepresented God and the teaching of his word, then I need to repent. I need to confess. I need to say, hey. I'm sorry, and and not double down because I'm the heavy. I'm the big guy. You know? Alright. So we're all accountable to Jesus. The words of of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. So, and the burden of the Lord, and you mentioned as no more every man's words shall be his burden for you have perverted perverted the words of the living God, and of the Lord of hosts our God. And so, thus, shall thou say to the prophet, what has the Lord answered thee, and what has the Lord spoken? So we want God's word. So we remember Cathy's verse, second Peter two sixteen. Right? And so Balaam was serving for the unrighteousness, the unrighteous mammon and all, and they wanted to make money. And and so Peter says, and the Lord used Dumbass. The dumbass to rebuke the prophet. Right? And and he spoke with a man's voice. Right? And rebuking the prophet. So God can use a dumbass to rebuke the dumb prophet who's who's saying the burden of the Lord, the burden of the Lord. So I love how the Lord uses Kathy in my life to to pop my bubble and help keep me on track. Alright. So as if I'm not humble enough, I'll tell you. So what has the Lord spoken? God's word. But since ye say the burden of the Lord, therefore, thus saith the Lord, because ye say this word, the burden of the Lord, and I have sent unto you saying, ye shall not say the burden of the Lord. Therefore, behold, I even I will utterly forget you. Now notice back over in verse 27. Who think and cause my people to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. The Lord says here, I'm gonna forget you. Forget you, man. And I will forsake you and the city that I gave you, Jerusalem, and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence. This is a bad thing. This is a bad thing when the Lord says, not my will, but your will be done. This apostate, you quench the Holy Spirit, and reminder of Ichabod, the glory of the Lord departing. So we're promised, Jesus promised you and I, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. So you don't have to worry about the Lord ever leaving or forsaking you. You have the holy spirit, and he doesn't come into your heart and then leave your heart. He's there to stay. You're secure, and you belong to him. And so but these guys, in their disobedience, they're going to miss out on the fellowship that was once theirs in of God's presence. And and I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten. So God's angry, and verse three and four, and I will gather a remnant of my flock out of all countries of which I have driven them, and I'll bring them again to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase, and I'll set up shepherds over them who shall feed them, and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking anything. So the those the rebellious ones, the Lord's saying, you're gonna be disqualified, but I've always got a remnant. I've always got a group of people. Have 7,000 that haven't bowed their knee to the prophet Baal, and I'm gonna restore them. And Habakkuk, the prophet, when the Lord told Habakkuk what he's gonna do, Habakkuk three two, Habakkuk said, Lord, in your wrath, remember mercy. Mhmm. You know? Because if God's wrath gets going, you know, that flame, that fire, that fur of when God switches gears from treating us in a merciful, gracious manner, and now he, in His holiness, pours out His wrath, His punishment, His righteous indignation towards sin, toward rebellion, who can stand? You know? So remember mercy, Lord. Remember our frame, that we're fashioned from just the dust of the ground, you know? Alright. Well, let's pray. Character construction zone for anybody that did that. Thomas Poole gave me that. Alright. I got a lot of growing to do. Father, we thank you that we can be confident of this very thing that he that has begun a good work in us that you're gonna complete it, Lord. I'm so thankful, Lord, that you saved me, so thankful you saved Kathy and many of my family. So thankful you saved each one here, and we cherish our salvation. We don't wanna cheapen it or diminish it. We don't want to be those that bring reproach to your name. Lord, we wanna bring glory and honor unto you, and the stage is set. There's so many opportunities to speak the truth in love and to stand firm for the truth, to not give in to the lies, not give in to the feelings and the craziness of the times in which we're living, but to proclaim the good news, Lord. It's good news of your coming kingdom. Lord, we pray this week that as we go out, that you give us many opportunities to share with people that are hopeless, that are experiencing a mental anxiety and disillusionment and melting down, breaking down. That's Lord, that's when maybe their heart's prepared to receive the truth. And, I pray that you give us opportunity to share the glorious gospel, to and share the glorious gospel, the good news, with people who think they've already heard it and already responded to it, but but have not, Lord. They don't know that place of rest, that place of peace, that place of intimacy with you. So, help us explain more clearly what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be saved, to operate, to live in the power of the holy spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Testimony time. Alright. They said I'm I'm improving. They said they asked me they were glad that it's improving. They said, what have we been doing? Somebody should've said, I should've I've been praying. You know? Anyway, they they saw it would better, the wound. Praise the lord. That's a good praiser for it. Right. Right. Very good. Amen. Right on, brother.

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About This Podcast

Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Home Bible Study

Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, lead our home Bible Study session in worship and teaching the Word of God. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes released on Tuesdays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.

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