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Jeremiah 28
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Oh, live from Bremerton. It's Monday night, Jeremiah 28. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for Rob and Vicky opening their home and all the food that's brought in here, the fellowship, the prayers. We just lift up all those who are sick, especially Lee with his knee replacement. Just just heal him up and just pour out your holy spirit upon us. Bless this time of worship and fellowship. We commit it to you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright. Thank you. Jeremiah 28. How many of you enjoyed Edward from Far Reaching Ministry Sunday? Amen. Yes. So keep praying for them. They're down in Costa Rica. So going down there to scope it out, do help do what they can. And is it true did I read today is it true that Zelensky surrendered in Ukraine? I saw that. Is that true? I don't know. Is that true? I saw one posting on it. Okay. I don't know. That'd be good. Real good. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. And how's Israel doing? And a shout out to Sherry Tester. Look at the shirt she bought me. Deuteronomy six four. The Lord our God is one God. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy mind, all thy soul, all thy strength. Right? Six four and five. Anybody read Hebrew? Okay. Now Hebrew, do you start from this side or this side? Yeah. No. This side. Right side. Right here? Back. Okay. Goes this way. Yeah. Mhmm. Alright. So do you know these I'll read it. Do you know these letters? Yeah. They all look the same to me. K. Alright. Anyway, I feel really spiritual. Thank you so much. I love I love it. I I have the shirt to prove it now. Right? Thank you, Sherry, so much. She's so sweet. She always posts me really good stuff. She she researches a lot of things and then passes it to Robbie. Robbie Robbie they post stuff, and it's it's very important. It's good stuff. You guys are getting really, really good at that. And it's one of these days, gonna stop. They're not gonna let us. They're gonna say it's tyranny and censor the Internet and all. So Mhmm. As many people as we can, we're trying to wake up with the truth. Mhmm. Alright. Let's pray again. Father, thank you so much for the yesterday, the beautiful time that we had being stirred, being exhorted, that it's not over yet. To be looking, to be watching, nor our redemption draws nigh, but also, Lord, to be occupying until you come, to be about our father's business. There's so many people that are hurting and perishing that need to hear the glorious gospel. And thank you, Lord, that you've called us and privileged us to be able to share the good news of your coming kingdom. So, father, now as we study Jeremiah 28, help us to draw parallels of the time we're living in as, Lord, you're trying to awaken the nation of Israel who is coming under judgment. And, Lord, you're still trying to speak even at the eleventh hour under your people, Lord. And I just pray that you would anoint and help us to understand what's being said here and reveal your heart unto us and reveal and expose the false prophets and how Jeremiah handles this and equip us and help us to understand how we can best handle the false prophets in the time which we're living, Lord, that none of us would be deceived. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright. In about May, and it came to pass the same year in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in the fourth year and in the fifth month that Hananiah Hananiah, the son of Azur, the prophet, who was of Gibeon, spoken to me in the house of the lord in the presence of the priests and of the people saying. And so this is a public time of challenge. The Gibeonites, he he's of Gibeon. Do you remember the Gibeonites in Joshua chapter nine, what happened? Joshua and the boys were whooping on all the nations around them, and they dealt with Jericho, and then they got discomfited with AI. And then the Gibeonites heard that, uh-oh, they're here, and we better do something to try to preserve ourselves. What they did is they took some old bread and some old food and some old clothes, and they they deceived very sneakily. They they deceived Joshua and said they came from a far country, and would you make a league of peace with us? You know, we want a we want a peace treaty. And so Joshua did inquire of the Lord and made a peace treaty with the Gibeonites, which God held to be binding. So this Hananiah is from that same kind of cloth, cut from the same cloth, Gibeonite, and he's a false prophet here. Now nine times, as I tried the number, nine times in this chapter, the holy spirit names Hananiah. And over and over again, Hananiah, Hananiah, Hananiah, Hananiah. And and then you have Jeremiah and him, they're gonna they're gonna come into a challenge. And so kinda like Elijah with 450 prophets of Baal, Hananiah is one of these prophets we see today on YouTube, and the new apostolic reformation. The folks that don't want truth, they want feelings, they wanna feel good, and they want messages that make them feel comfortable in a time of judgment. And so Jeremiah is trying to bring forth the truth. The truth that he's bringing is, if you as a nation will humble yourself and submit yourself to Nebuchadnezzar, it's gonna go better for you. But if you if you continue to fight against Nebuchadnezzar, it's gonna go really bad. And so, Jeremiah is actually illustrating wearing a a yoke around his neck, and he's still wearing this yoke in chapter 28 here that he that he put on in chapter 27. And it's illustrative of be subservient to Nebuchadnezzar. Be subservient to him, and you can kinda be like the Jews were in the land when Jesus came on the scene where they they were it went better for them if they were subservient to the Romans. If you fight against the Romans, you know, you're gonna lose. So the zealots, you know, that were trying to fight against Rome, finally Rome's patience wore out in seventy AD and they had surrounded Jerusalem, and not one stone remained upon another just as Jesus said. So in this case here, Hananiah is more of a politician. Hananiah wants to be liked. Hananiah wants a big church, and he wants a big following, and he wants a positive message, a message of, you know, patriotism of, oh, this isn't true. We're gonna get everything back. We're gonna get the cups back. We're gonna within two years, he says, within two years, we're gonna get all the cups, all the everything that Nebuchadnezzar took previously, three different invasions, three different times. May was the last one, but Nebbe's already been there and subdued the city of Jerusalem and taken much out of the temple. And so Hananiah is saying, hey, we're gonna get it all back. You know, we've been listening to Q, and Q's been telling us that Trump's playing with, you know, quadruple four degree chess, and he's got the white hats and the black hats in that deep state, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue. And everybody's just like going, woah, man, my head hurts, you know? And we're gonna get this all back, get it moving in the right direction. And and Jeremiah's like, no. It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. And and so he's not very popular. Not very popular. But Hananiah, he's met his match. He makes a huge mistake. The huge the the biggest mistake a false prophet can make is to speak in the first person. Biggest mistake. So today, people come up to me and say, I'm a prophet. I'm a prophet. I'm an apostle. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, I'm only a pastor. I'm sorry. You're why don't you take over? You know? And and then they've got a word for me. They got a big word. You know? They gotta be, you know, woo hoo hoo. You know? And I think Trump's gonna do it, you know, and all that. And then it doesn't happen. Fortunately, they're not speaking in the first person because that's very serious. If they say, I think I think the lord showed me, you know, like, alright. Well, we can live with that a little bit, but how many people are you gonna deceive along the way? How many people they gonna buy your book? Are they gonna make you rich by following that that false hope that you're giving them? At what point does it become dangerous for people to get their eyes off of Jesus and onto this man that's gonna save them? He's gonna win the election and change everything and make America great and and the whole thing. Do you see today where NBC admitted that Obama's the president? Mhmm. No way. NBC admitted that Obama's actually in his third term. Everybody's been speculating. Right? We we know that. Yeah. Been speculating. Right? Yeah. But he bought a home just down the street in Washington DC to get this ready. Right? And so much of the people that helped him in his administration are still there helping. And and Joe, you know, he's he's like got an earpiece in or whatever and being told what what to, you know, what to say or whatever. But it's so sad, isn't it? Now you know what's really the the most sad thing about that is every single Republican knows it to be true. Yes. They do. And they don't stop it. Right. They don't expose it. Every single Republican knows that the election was stolen, and they don't talk about it. That's that's where we get messed up, is that there's supposed to be checks and balances. And if one side's evil or something's happening, you, you know, you gotta be able to push back and use the rule of law and catch them in their lives, and it's lawlessness. They're all globalists. They're all working for for the bankers. So it's so frustrating when people come along, though, because they don't want to admit that America's under judgment, that America's going down, that the dollar's going down, the stock market's going down, treasuries are going down. And so for me as a pastor, when I try to say, hey. Did you see today the central bank digital currency? You know, they're moving in that direction. You start to let people know a few things, and and it's your congress is putting it on hold, but they're actually implementing it. And I saw today where a guy out of Houston was gonna fly out of Houston Airport, and all he needed was facial recognition. Now that's the red state. That's the most free state there is. Right? That's where everyone's running to. Right. In Houston, Texas, he couldn't get on the plane without the facial recognition, and his comment was, I don't need any ID. I don't need a passport or nothing. You know? I'm in a I'm in an international database now. Right? When when my second wife and I were married, it was back in the nineties. She stopped off at four down by Keyport, and there was a guy a customer two in front of her. This was back in the nineties. And Brenda came home, and she says, all they did was scan his hand. Way back then? Back in the nineties. And she went up and she asked the clerk, how do you pay? She said, it's in his hand. Oh, okay. Back in the nineties. Wow. That's interesting. He was probably a test case, beta beta test case. Yeah. Wow. Alright. Well, they're not getting to my forehead. Not gonna happen. Alright. So so Hananiah the son of Azer the prophet who was of Gibeon spoke unto me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and of all the people saying. So in Micah three eleven and twelve, it talks about a prophet speaking presumptuously. Also, in Deuteronomy chapter 18, prophet that would speak presumptuously, and God warns against it. So so this guy, like a three like a three, eleven, and 12, No? Not three, eleven, 12. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. Let's try it. I might be a false prophet. So her heads judge for reward and the priests teach for hire. There we are. And her prophets divine for money, yet will they learn lean upon the Lord and say, I, not the Lord among us? Is not the Lord among us? No evil can come upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house of the high places of divorce. And so because they're lying to the people, because they're giving them these positive messages and all, the people don't aren't warned to the point to come to the place of repentance. So we would say today, and the churches today, many of the pews are filled with unbelievers. They've come, you know, believing that, hey, I'm gonna accept Jesus, but no repentance, no turning, no conversion, no conviction of the holy spirit. So they have what's called a false sense of security that I'm secure. And the way that the false prophets get around that, around any sort of a responsibility or calling calling the people under repentance. The word repentance isn't used. The word sin isn't used. The word hell isn't used. The word that is used over and over, worn out, is love. Mhmm. Love. If you question homosexuality, you're unloving. Mhmm. If you question any aberrant behavior, you're judgmental, bigoted, homophobic, and unloving. So we've we've redefined love as tolerance and permissiveness that we've taken one characteristics of God's personality, one aspect of his personality, that of love, God is love, at the expense of God is also holy. And he must judge because he's holy, must judge sin. And so adjusting a holy God is not adjusting a holy God if he just winks at sin. So in acts 17, Paul reminded that in times past, God winked in that he allowed a certain level of of of a degree of bad behavior, but knowledge brings responsibility. So when Jesus comes, now the whole world's responsible for the person of Jesus Christ. Every Christmas, a person becomes more responsible, every Easter more responsible when they stand before God. God winked at before, but now commands all men everywhere to repent is the message, that of repentance. And so Hananiah isn't bringing forth the message of repentance, Jeremiah is. Hananiah is bringing forth the message of, oh, Jeremiah is a wackadoodle. God loves us. God we're the most precious, perfect people. And Jeremiah is a liar. And I talked to God, and he's gonna do it in the first person you're gonna watch. And he's gonna lie, just straight out lie. And how's Jeremiah supposed to respond to that? And if Jeremiah does respond, is Jeremiah all of a sudden unloving? Mhmm. And so the people saying, thus speaks the Lord of hosts in the first person. You can't do that unless you're a real prophet. Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel saying, and notice I, I have spoken, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. So he's saying that God spoke to him, God's saying, I've broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Jeremiah is wearing the yoke, saying, come under the yoke of the king of Babylon. Be subservient of king of Babylon. And now he's saying, I broke the yoke of the king of Babylon. Right? Within two full years. So now he's prognosticating. Within two full years, will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord's house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried them to Babylon. Sounds good. Sounds real good, but it's false. It's boastful. It's a lie. And the the pride of man, the incredible pride of man, second Timothy three two, men would be proud, boastfuls, blasphemers, disobedient to God. And he says, and I will bring again to this place Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah. So they've been taken captive. They've been taken to Babylon. I'm gonna bring them all back, he's saying. And and all the captives of Judah who went into Babylon, saith the lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Total false prophet, false everything. But it is what the people wanna hear. It's exactly what they wanna hear. They wanna hear that normal's coming back. They wanna hear that America's gonna be great again. They don't wanna hear that everything's gonna be destroyed, then we're gonna build back better. They don't wanna hear that. They wanna hear that God loves us and that, God's well pleased with us. And, don't be looking for the rapture. Don't be looking for Jesus to come. We're gonna fix this, and we're gonna get the right guy in there, and we're gonna, take America back. And nobody, nobody can take us down. We've got more nukes, more everything, and there's just no way. So you look at it militarily. You look at it well, how do you explain the poorest borders with an invasion force coming in every day? How do you explain that? What what strategy is that, you know, of preserving America? You know? So many different things in play right now to take us down, and yet people wanna keep their head in the sand. They wanna attend a church that doesn't talk like this, and they wanna hear smooth things, things that make them tingle. And and I can't be one of those guys. Can't happen. Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah, in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who stood in the house of the Lord. He's gonna bring forth a public rebuke now. He's gonna rebuke Hananiah the prophet. And and he says, even the prophet Jeremiah said, amen. So he's speaking kind of sarcastically. Amen. And who wouldn't want America to be great? Who wouldn't want a candidate that I can trust and and start with Epstein Island, the the list of people, and start arresting them, take them to Guantanamo? Who wouldn't want all the all the the Bamas, the Valerie Jarrett's, the all these criminals that have been doing these things to be arrested? I would love that. I would love for these guys to be arrested. Is it gonna happen? No. It's not gonna happen. And they're they're Teflon. They're immune from prosecution. So if you're gonna drain the swamp Trump, start by arresting just one. You know? Just one. Give us confidence that you're gonna arrest just one of these criminals, and look how look how much worse it's become since those promises were made. You know? And he had the house, the senate, and the presidency, and he didn't do anything. And then January 6, he could have pardoned all those people, and he didn't pardon them. And people are in jail simply for saying this is a tyrannical government. Simply speech, free speech, political speech is now being interpreted as, you know, you're an enemy of the state and guys are guys are still in jail. So see, even the prophet Jeremiah said, amen. The lord do so. The lord perform thy words which thou hast prophesied to bring again the vessels of the Lord's house and all that is carried away captive from Babylon into this place. Boy, I'd like that for my grandkids. I'd like for everything to be made right. I'd like for the economy. I'd like for them to start drilling oil again and fill up all the reserves that he's emptied, you know, and and just on and on and on all the different ways that would make us strong and secure and have a future ahead of us. That would be wonderful. You know? And and so he's great. It's what we all want. We want victory. We want prosperity, and we want peace. That's what we all want. And so, know, Hananiah is posturing himself that this is what God wants too. This is what God's gonna do. And Jeremiah is like, that's a great idea. I wish I would have thought of that, you know? Only problem is it's a fantasy. It's not true. And today, the word that we throw around is revival. Who doesn't want a revival? So if have we had enough time to analyze the Asbury revival? Have we had enough time? Yes. Because you can't you can't refute it when it's happening. Right? But you need some time to examine the fruit thereof. What is the fruit of the so called Asbury revival? How many of the supposed students are still walking with the Lord? Where are they sleeping around? Are they doing drugs? Have they have they repented? Without the fruit of repentance, that profession of faith is a false profession of faith. May take some time to repent and really get going in the right direction, but still there's the desire to please the Lord and to walk in that newness of life with him. And so, you know, I don't wanna be a quench to a revival. I want revival. I want Kitsap County to be revived, but I don't want a false revival. I don't want an emotional time of so called worship. Oh, we had revival, but then you go home and you watch porn. You go and you mess around with, you know, sexually with people outside of marriage, that's not a revival. That's just emotionalism. And so he he's gonna rebuke them. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. Second Timothy three sixteen and seventeen. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's God breathed and is profitable for doctrine, teaching. Right? For reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness. So a certain aspect of the scripture is used to expose the lie, to expose the false prophet, to expose what they're doing as not measuring up to the scripture. The scripture is the measuring stick. If it doesn't adhere, measure up to the scripture, then it's false. It doesn't matter how you feel about it. Your feeling, your opinion doesn't matter. So we take and we use the scripture to hold up to a person's idea. We hold that idea, that opinion, that whatever, that vision, dream, whatever, we hold it up to the word of God. And if it doesn't measure up to the word of God, we let them know that God changes not. God hasn't changed his mind about marriage. Doesn't matter what you think. He's defined what marriage is. The scripture is clear what marriage is between one man and one woman for one lifetime. End of story. You don't reinvent it. You don't reinvent it and vote about it and determine that, hey, this is love if we start to have men with men, women with women, men with children. You know, there's no end to it. With beasts, with dogs, with everything, it's it's Satan's the author of confusion. God's not confused. And so we stand and we use the scripture to say the people that are saying this, the Andy Stanleys and these kind of guys are false prophets. Period. So when you say that publicly or Rick Warren is a false prophet, you're warning people to examine their doctrine, examine what it is they're saying, compare it with the scriptures. First Thessalonians five twenty one says, prove all things, hold fast to that which is good, try every spirit, pray about it, look at it, ask for discernment, and and use the scripture. And so so it's profitable doctrine or reproof for correction, for instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped to every good work. And so I need to walk according to the word of God. I need to stay consistent with the word of God. I need to walk the narrow path. The broad path, the popular path is the way of destruction, and many go in there at. So you're gonna be alone. Jeremiah's alone. Hananiah is gonna be the popular guy. He's gonna be the one that that, more the people like. And so he says, nevertheless, hear now this word that I speak in thine ears and in the ears of the people. So he's gonna speak God's word. The prophets who have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries and against great kingdoms of war and of evil and of pestilence. So Jeremiah is saying, I'm not the first guy that's had a negative message. I know it's not popular, but there's a lot of guys that went before me. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, all of them came with a warning to various nations, including the nation of Israel, to repent. Jonah the prophet, that whale up there reminds me of Jonah. Jonah the prophet, he he had a message to the people of Nineveh, the Assyrians, you got forty days and you're gonna perish. It's a harsh message. The good news is they repented, and God repented of the evil. God gave them a reprieve. And so a reprieve means he gave them a hundred years, over a hundred years. And then later they backslid. They went the same way. And then later the Lord brought the judgment upon them. He says, the prophets who have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries and against great kingdoms of war and of evil and of pestilence. The prophet who prophesies of peace when the word of the prophet shall come to pass then shall the prophet be known that the Lord has truly sent him. So you've gotta be able to test what the prophet's saying. The antichrist is gonna come along and the globalist is saying peace, peace where there is no peace. He's gonna be a peace treaty guy. Right? And the seals are open. He's on a horse, like, wanting to bring peace with a bow with no arrows. We need peace upon the earth. You know? And who can argue with that? And yet and yet, we're gonna see we're gonna see him turn against the nation of Israel, three and a half years after signing a peace treaty with them. And so they're gonna say peace and safety, and then sudden destruction's gonna come upon the world like a woman in travail, like a thief in the night. They're not even gonna see it coming because they've been deceived. They've been softened. They've been softened with a with a false message. And so Jeremiah is letting them know how to test a prophet. So let's turn to Deuteronomy 18 verse 20. So this is what God warns concerning a prophet. Sometimes the Lord will send a prophet that he's using the prophet to test us whether we'll love him or not. And the prophet may even show some power, may may have some vision or soothsaying or witchcraft or some sort of occultic powers, and you see it and you know, oh, that's real. And And the Lord is testing us to see whether we'll follow that guy or stay true to the Lord. Verse 20, but the prophet who shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thy heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? Then the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord. If the thing follow not nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken, but that prophet has spoken it presumptuously, thou shall not be afraid of him. So how much time has gone on since all these people said that Trump was gonna be reelected and America's gonna be great? Have two years gone by? Did it happen? At least. So if they're telling me they're a prophet and they're speaking in the first person, hey, the Lord told me, our test of them is, well, let's see if it comes to pass. If it comes to pass with the 100% accuracy, they heard from the Lord. If it doesn't come to pass, even if they bet 500, there's still a false prophet. They have to bet 1000%, right, to be a prophet of God. So that's what he's saying here. We're we're gonna test it. Let's see if it's gonna happen or whatever. And he's saying within two years, all the stuff's gonna be brought back. And and he says, then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and broke it. So he's a sore loser. He's a sore loser. Now now he's a drama queen. Now he's taken the yoke off of Jeremiah, and you got the drama where where Hananiah is gonna break it right in front of everybody. And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people saying, thus saith the lord. So again, in the first person, this guy's this guy's bold. Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, from the neck of all nations within the space of two years, and the prophet Jeremiah went his way. Jeremiah, I'm gonna walk away. There are lightning bolts gonna hit this guy. I gotta get away from this guy. You know? Now we gotta wait because so many people are gonna believe this guy. And this is what's happened to me since I've been a pastor. So much false false, doctrine's been taught and aberrant behavior and aberrant things allowed into the church, and the people love it so. And I have to just walk away. People won't listen to me. And I have to I have to let them fall apart, basically. So if if if all of a sudden John Piper and Mark Driscoll and these guys are introducing the drinking of alcohol in the churches, Seaside Church down there, and I'm trying to tell the kids, be careful, be careful, you know, don't don't fall into that. It's a trap. I've gotta wait. I gotta wait for it to manifest itself. I've gotta wait for it to Jesus said, they're gonna come. In Matthew seven, he says, beware of false prophets would come to you in sheep's clothing. So you gotta look for the fruit of it. He said a fruits can be known by its tree. So Driscoll, who's quoted as saying, I don't know that my drinking's ever stumbled anybody, and then began to brew beer to be popular. And then his second in command, the guy that he started the church with, had two DUIs and a divorce. There's the fruit. It's rotten fruit. It didn't produce good fruit. You know? You see what I'm saying? But nobody's gonna correct them because we're having too much fun. Right? Nobody's gonna nobody's gonna say, hey. That's dangerous, that kind of doctrine and teaching. Then he comes out with a sex book. In the sex book, they spend $250,000 to get it at the top of the New York Times bestseller list, and they get caught. You're a liar. But it doesn't matter. And the content of that sex book. He's a sexpert. He's pastor sexpert. Do you really want your pastor to be your sexpert? What what do what do pastors know about sex? You know what I mean? I mean, come on. You know? I mean, that's just I I never want pastor Chuck to from the pulpit to be talking about sex. Come on, man. You know? And here the guy is teaching the guys how to do it. I'm serious. The book is teaching them how to do it from the front and from the back, how to do it how to do it safely so you don't hurt your wife. And I'm like, are you kidding me? This isn't Christianity. Mm-mm. You know? And and he gets away with it. He gets away with it. And so I've gotta wait for it to manifest itself. And then finally, the thing blows up and he goes down to Arizona. And now he's posturing himself as a real man. I'm a man. That ain't a man. That's a wimp. That that's not a man. A man doesn't do that. A man doesn't doesn't undermine children and young people and take advantage of them and and try to posture himself as this hipster and all that. It's it's cowardice. And and so I had to wait so long for that to happen because the the the trend at that time was, you know, we're a part of the not the reformation. Some of them were going reformation with John Piper and them, but they were the emergent church. Now we're the emergent church. And so we're gonna reintroduce things of the period of the Reformation where Spurgeon smoked cigars and and what's his name? Martin Luther loved his beer, and, Whitfield loved his whiskey. And all of a sudden, all these pastors and everybody got their flask, and they're all thinking they're hipster cools and all that. You know what the world thinks about you Christians that think you're hip and cool? You don't know how to do it. You guys are teetotalers. You know? Quit acting like you know how to get drunk. You don't know how to get drunk. I'll show you how to get drunk. And so they they you know, you just go so far and you think you're in the world and, oh, I'm so hip and cool like the world. No. You're not. You're making a fool of yourself. The world sees the world sees right through it. You know? And Did Mark Driscoll was he in California and then he went to Arizona to try to escape all that? Or what He he had to leave the Seattle area because that big coup took place with Mars Hill. Oh, was he part of Mars Hill? He's the founder of Mars Hill. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay. Founder. I know the history of Mars Hill. Yeah. Well, that's that's Mark Driscoll. Oh, I didn't know that was him. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I I mean, there there's stuff like I'm gonna say this, and it's it's I won't say it. It's too ugly. It it's too ugly. I've said enough. I've said enough. I've said it's worse. There's a lot of sorts of stuff that's even worse. Mhmm. He's on Larry King saying this stuff, and people think it's funny. But it's dishonorable to God, what he's saying. Yeah. You're right. It's totally dishonorable. And he's kind of a rock star because he appealed to the young people, and they had an angst against their grandparents' church, their grandparents' Christianity. That was the that was the methodology, make fun of the old guys. You know? And so, anyway, I I had to live with that. I had to deal with that. I had to I had to wade through the purpose driven era. I had to I had to wade through that and wait for it to manifest. So now twenty years later, people don't know their bibles. All the denominational churches were rebranded and taken over, and and you've got a whole generation of young people that, were not taught the word of God. Social justice was promoted. The Protestant churches became like Catholic churches. It's good deeds, not creeds. People weren't taught. They weren't taught prophecy. Only 6% of the church today believes in a pre trib rapture. That's the fruit of that aberrant teaching. Only 2% of churches teach prophecy. That's the fruit of the purpose driven era that we that we had to wade through. And so when you're in a place like Bremerton, Kitsap County, you've got to wait it out. You've got to wait it out that the fruit of it is corrupt. It doesn't bear fruit. In other places, people identify it quicker, sooner, but because they have the word of God to analyze everything and to expose it. So Ephesians five eleven, you know, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose it. So turn to Ezekiel chapter 13 now. Frustrating to be a Jeremiah, to watch Hananiah get away with it. They're not gonna ultimately get away with it. So chapter 13, he says, and the word of the Lord came unto me saying, son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, hear ye the word of the Lord. Where is it emanating from? Their heart. What did we learn about the heart, Oprah? Jeremiah seventeen nine. The heart is deceitful. Deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Who can know it? So, hey. Oh, follow your heart, man. You know, like, god's saying this emanated from their heart, the heart of man, the fallen heart of man. Thus saith the lord god, woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing. That's the blind leading the blind, baby. Oh, Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts, the flourishing in the ruins. And you have not gone up into the gaps, made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. And so they've got nothing to rebuild. There's no prayer warriors. There's nobody standing in the gap. The walls are falling apart. The society's corrupted. The society's fallen apart. They have seen vanity and lying divination saying the Lord saith and the lord has not sent them. And they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. False hopes. You provide false hopes for people. Have you not seen a vain vision? Have you not spoken a lying divination? Whereas you say the Lord saith it albeit I have not spoken it. You liars. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because ye have spoken vanity and seen lies therefore behold I am against you saith the Lord Lord God and mine hand shall I be upon the prophets that see vanity and that divine lies. They shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, that I am the Lord God, because even because they have seduced my people. So Paul says in second Corinthians 11, I'm jealous over you as a godly jealousy because I've espoused you under one husband, under Christ, but I fear lest as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so you would be seduced. You'd be seduced and drawn away from the simplicity that's in Christ If they come to you with a different Jesus, a different gospel, a different spirit, don't go that way. Don't go. Don't get sucked in. Don't allow yourself to be seduced. So he says, because even because they have seduced my people saying peace and there is no peace. And one built up a wall and lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar. So they're trying to rebuild, trying to build back better. They're gonna try and fix the wounds of America, but they're just daubing it with whitewash. It's corrupted on the inside, but on the outside, Jesus said, you're like white wall sepulchres full of dead men's bones. There's so much corruption, but you're trying to cover that corruption. You know? And say unto them who daub it with untempered mortar that it is a wall that shall fail, there should be an overflowing shower and a great hailstones shall fall and a stormy wind shall break it. So one of the things the Lord, I believe, spoke to my heart this week as we were fellowshipping and talking with Edward and his brother Charles and talking with Rob and Vicky and Mark and Shelley, For me, I'm having a very difficult time getting the men to come to church. You wanna be a man, a real man, come to church. Mhmm. You want a good marriage? You want kids? A godly home? Get your butt to church. Don't have your wife drag you to church. You get your family to church. Why? Because I've got I've got injuries in my body. And if I don't go to the gym, all my symptoms come back. All of them. I receive Christ just like all these men I'm exhorting and trying to get to. And many men, they want a wife for a lot of different reasons. And one of the way to get a wife is I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. And then you get married and the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches chokes off where you don't bear fruit. And so the Lord showed me from a spiritual standpoint, if you do not attend a church on a regular basis that teaches the word of God, you are gonna you're going to drift. Your symptoms, your old nature is gonna become dominant, And you're not gonna have the protection of your wife and the protection over your children and your family. You're gonna be vulnerable. It may take a while, but you're gonna be so incredibly vulnerable to spiritual deception, and you're gonna be vulnerable to the flesh dominating the spirit. I have to exercise. I have to physically stretch and roll and exercise and get on the treadmill and do my part to keep my sciatic nerve from acting up and crippling me. So too spiritually, I need to be in the word of God. I need to be in a manner of prayer. I need to be in a place where God can where my wife can hear God's word, where my children can hear God's word, where my family can grow spiritually. If I don't, then I'm in Galatians five. If I if I walk in the spirit, I don't fulfill the lust of the flesh. If I don't walk in the spirit, all the flesh, all the old nature comes back to dominate me, even though I'm still saved. So the exhortation is stay in a place where you can grow spiritually. It's the greatest protection of your marriage. It's the greatest protection for your children. Doesn't mean you're not gonna go through tough times. Doesn't mean your kids might go astray or whatever. But but it does mean that you've got help. You've got the help of the holy spirit. You've got the word of God. The word of God's gonna be planted within them. So what happens is you think you're doing really good because you've daubed the outside of the wall, the outside of the marriage. You put a whitewash on it. You smile like you're a Christian and all that. But within your home, there's pornography. There's lust. There's covetousness. There's all the sins of the old nature that are wanting to dominate and take over that home. And so how do you counteract it? How do you how do we know where you're really at? How does anybody know? A storm. He's saying here, when a storm comes, that wall that you've erected is gonna fall. Well, that takes us to Matthew seven. You're not a doer of the word. You're just a hearer of the word. The hearer of the word builds his house on sand. We see your house is built on sand when the storm comes and everything falls apart because you're not you're not strong enough spiritually to withstand the the storms that are coming. You've gotta grow spiritually. You gotta roll. You gotta stretch. You gotta be stretched. You gotta let your faith muscle grow because and then but the one who builds his house upon Jesus, he hits the storms. The storms comes against his marriage, his house, his kids, and all that, but his faith remains. When the son of man comes, is he gonna find faith on the earth? How many people are gonna fail in their faith in the days and weeks to come because they're not spiritually fit enough to handle the reality of what's coming? Adverse, difficult times are coming to the whole world, to America. So our prosperity and all of our peace and everything that props us up and makes us think that, oh, we're in the will of God and he loves us and all that, as soon as as soon as it's tested, we're gonna find out, you know, where we're at. And so he says, because even because they have seduced my people saying peace, and there is no peace, and one built up a wall, and lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar, saying unto them who daub it with untempered mortar that it shall fall, there shall be an overflowing shower and ye, oh great hailstones shall fall and a stormy wind shall break it, lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, where is the daubing with which ye have daubed it? So a false protection. False protection. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, I will even break it with a storm, stormy in my fury, and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger and great hailstones in my fury to consume it. So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed an untempered mortar and bring it down to the ground so that it is foundation shall be uncovered and it shall fall and it shall be consumed in the midst of it. And ye shall know that I am the Lord. When you gonna know? After a complete collapse. Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar and will say unto you, the wall is no more, neither they that have daubed it. To it the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem and who see visions of peace for her and there is no peace, saith the Lord God. Likewise, thou son of man, set the face against the daughters of the people who prophesy out of their own heart and prophesy thou against them. And say, thus saith the Lord God, woe to the women that sow amulets upon all their wrists and make kerchiefs of their head and every person of stature to hunt souls. Will ye hunt the souls of my people and will ye save the souls alive that came unto you? And so there's witches. There's psychics. There's black magic. There's the occultic, and they're preying upon God's people. God's saying, you're gonna send these these people after my people? And will you pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley? Why are you doing it? Handfuls of barley, ill gotten gain, filthy lucre, the love of money, the root of all evil, and for pieces of bread to slay the souls that should not die and to save the souls alive that should not live by your by your lying to my people that that hear your lies? So you're preying upon the fears of the people. You're bringing them in place of fear, and you're preying upon those fears. Wherefore, thus saith the lord god, behold, I am against your amulets, which he they're hunting the souls to make make them fly, and I will I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them. So I'm gonna set them free. Your kerchiefs also will I will I tear and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. And so they're preying upon people. It's like great as Diana of the Ephesians. They make a lot of money off their false religious systems. Because the lies ye have made, the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad, and strengthen the hand of the wicked, that he should not return. So there's repentance from his wickedness. So you've caused them a false sense of security, the wicked, and they and they won't return. They've been seduced by your lies. Promising him in life, it's a false gospel. Therefore, ye shall see no more vanity nor divining divinations for I will deliver my people out of your hand and ye shall know that I am the Lord. And so God's gonna intervene and rescue his own people there. And back to Jeremiah here. So verse 10, so then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke upon off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and broke it. And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people saying, thus saith the Lord, even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two years. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way. He walked away. Sometimes you just gotta walk away and just let it happen later on. Then the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the prophet after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah saying, go and tell Hananiah saying, thus saith the Lord, thou hast broken the yokes of wood, but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron. So he's saying, you might have broken off a yoke of wood, but I'm gonna make it a yoke of iron. And you guys aren't gonna you aren't gonna be able to evade king Nebbe. For thus saith the lord of hosts, the god of Israel, I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations. So remember back in the previous chapter, how in chapter 27, they were getting together with all these different nations, with Tyre, the Ammonites, the Moabites, Edomites. Nebuchadnezzar was busy. His armies were busy in a certain area of rebellion, and these guys are saying, let's form an alliance, and then we'll be able to overthrow king Nebbe. And so, the Lord is saying through Jeremiah, that's not gonna happen. It's gonna be even tighter. It's gonna be a yoke of iron now, and you're not gonna be able to worm your way out of it. But thou shall make for them yokes of iron, for thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, and I have given him the beasts of the field. He's gonna be so dominant that even he's gonna have control over even the animals. All the beasts of the field are gonna be obeying this guy. And so there's no breaking of God's word. And so Jeremiah is sent by the Lord to rebuke the false prophet. When are we to rebuke a false prophet? What's it mean to rebuke? Call them out. Call them out. And how do we call them out? With scripture. Right? And when are we to do that? How are we to do that? What's that look like? In Proverbs twenty seven five, it says, open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. The kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Judas betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss. The posture is that of love. I love you. Right? If you really love him, open rebuke is better than secret love. You'll seek to wake him up. Right? You'll seek to if you really love him, you'll send Nathan the prophet and tell David, David, you're the man. You blew it, David. You've given great occasion to the enemy of the Lord to blaspheme his name. David was miserable until the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to bring him to exhort him to the place of repentance. And so you you don't allow him to continue in it and it get worse and worse and worse. And so in Romans sixteen seventeen, watch this. Romans sixteen seventeen. Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them. So you have to identify the false prophets among you who are strained from the doctrine, the teaching of the word of God, the sound doctrine, the healthy doctrine. If they have aberrant doctrine, aberrant teaching, and false teaching, the pastor especially, me, my job especially, is to confront them. Otherwise, I'm not a pastor. I'm not a shepherd because I'm gonna allow the sheep to be deceived, especially the young babes in Christ. And I not not only have to confront the aberrant behavior, but I have to put a jacket on that guy. He's the guy with the yellow jacket. I I need to everyone to be able to see him for what he is and not allow him to wear sheepskin, a wolf in sheep's clothing. He's gotta be called out. Got to. In first Corinthians five, the apostle Paul exhorted the church of Corinth to call out the man that had taken his father's wife sexually. It's not loving to allow them to continue in that way. He's saying a little leaven leavens the whole lump. It's poison. It's corruption. It's gonna permeate the whole church. The young people are gonna look at marriage. They're gonna look at relationships and say, hey. I guess anything goes. No. He says this is detrimental to the to the body of Christ. You've gotta you've gotta confront this sin. And he says, and you gotta throw them out until they repent. Remove them. So Paul told Timothy, he says, those that sin rebuke before all that others may fear. So Matthew 18 tells us, first of all, you go to them privately. Secondly, you bring a witness. Thirdly, you bring it public before the leadership. But a false prophet a false prophet needs to be confronted publicly that others may fear. And it's it's very, very important to confront that behavior. They're gonna say, judge not unless you be judged. They're gonna say that's not loving. Oh, you're not loving. And you gotta have thick enough skin that all you care about is pleasing God. It's all you care about is pleasing God. And you're his man, you're his woman, and you let the chips fall, but you're not gonna compromise the word of God. In the name of love, you too. In the name of love. No. Not gonna happen. So you gotta mark them. And you gotta protect the sheep, gotta protect the integrity of the flock, and not allow the corruption to permeate and others to emulate that that behavior. A lot of times the pastors are cowards. People that are involved in this are big donors, big givers, and they're so afraid if I confront them, oh, man, they'll hold their check, oh, they'll leave the church, oh, they're on the board or, you know, whatever. And, you know what? Trust in God. Let let God sort it out. Don't be trusting in man. Vain is the help of man. And and so now I'll go there in a second. We'll we'll move move on here. Verse 14, for thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. They shall serve him, and I have given him the beasts of the field. Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah, the prophet, hear now, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent thee, but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. That's pretty straightforward. He just got his yoke knocked off his head. Hananiah took and knocked it off, broke it off. And you're a false prophet. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth. This year thou shalt die because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord. So Hananiah, watch this, remember in the fifth month of verse chapter 28 verse one verse one, the fifth month, watch this, two months later, watch what happens, two months later. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month. Allowed some time. He made audacious, huge claims in the first person. Jeremiah is sent by God to confront him. Now why two months later? Time for Time to repent. Repent. Amen. God gave him space to repent. I'm so glad you saw that. So when Judas betrayed the Lord, Jesus gave Judas a moment, didn't he? Judas betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss. At that moment, Jesus is giving Judas the space to repent. Mhmm. He always gives us space to repent. He doesn't just bring the hammer down. Right? Now faithful are the wounds of a friend. The kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Turn to Matthew chapter 16 now. I wanna attack I mean, attack this idea that confronting sin and confronting a false prophet, confronting a friend, a family member, that somehow it's unloving. We speak the truth in love. Right? Now watch verse 13. When Jesus came into the borders of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, who do men say that I, the son of man am? What's the general consensus? Who do they say I am? And they said some say you're John the Baptist. Some say Elijah. Some say Jeremiah or one of the prophets. So in the general consensus, that's a very important question. Who is Jesus? Mhmm. Mhmm. But we have to bring it home. Who do you say that I am? Each and every person needs to bring it home. And so he says, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living god. Man, what a revelation. Amazing. And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed, oh, how happy are you Simon Bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you, but my father who is in heaven. God revealed me to you, and that's that's for you and I when we come to Christ, the holy spirit's revealing Jesus unto us. Right? And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, little stone, little rock, pebble. And upon this rock, this massive rock, Petra, it's a play on words, I'll build my church. The foundation of the church is Jesus. The foundation of your marriage is Jesus. The foundation of your life is Jesus. Amen. And he said, except you fall upon that rock and be broken, be broken in humility, be broken in repentance. If you don't if you don't come broken and yoke up with Jesus and be subservient to him, one day that rock's gonna fall upon you and grind you to powder in judgment. So in this life, it's incumbent upon us to humble ourselves. Pride's what intoxicated the devil. Pride's what intoxicates these globalists and these people. They wanna be as God. God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble and merited favor to the humble. So he says, I'll build my church. Whose church is it? It's his church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And so hell can't stop it. We don't need to be worried about how dark Hitsap County is. The gates of hell will not prevail. All we need to do is turn the light on. All we need to do is let the lion out of the cage, the lion of the tribe of Judah. All we need to do is take the sword out of its sheath, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Right? Just take it out. Use the word of God and watch watch the enemy back down. Has to back down. And I will give unto thee the keys. Now this isn't he isn't the first pope. Okay? He's talking about the nation of Israel in the millennium and the apostles are gonna have positions of leadership. And I'll give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So the apostles are gonna have power. They're gonna have authority, and authority like we see in Matthew 18, where two or more gathered under my name, there I am in the midst. It speaks of the authority of the church, not to the point of lording over people, dominating people, forcing people like the potpourri or many of the cults do. It's free will, always free will, freely we receive, freely we're gonna give, but there is a hierarchy. There is Jesus as the head of his church, and he does have leadership. He has he has leadership within the church that we're to respect and not rebel against and fight against and all. And all of us are accountable to the word of God. Any one of us can be taken aside and rebuked, including me, for misrepresenting the word of God. Do you understand that? The word of God, Jesus is the head of his church. He's in charge. Then charged to his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. Then he says verse watch this. From from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how he must go unto Jerusalem who's he's talking to? His disciples. Go into Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day. Watch Peter. Peter, only time he's taken his foot out of his mouth is when he's putting another one in his mouth. Then Peter took him. He's taken Jesus aside. Get over here, Jesus. I got a bone to pick with you. This isn't happening, man. I'm sitting on the right hand. John's sitting on the left hand. We've already discussed this. You're gonna overthrow the Romans, and we're gonna be great in the kingdom. Right? You're not gonna be killed. You're not gonna be crucified. They were clueless, weren't they? Salome, the mother of James and John, came to Jesus secretly and tried to negotiate that her sons would sit on the left and one on the right. Can you drink of the cup that I'm gonna drink? They don't even have clue what that cup means. Can you suffer at the cross the wrath of my father be poured out upon me? Oh, yeah. We can drink that cup. Oh, yeah. They don't they don't have a clue. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him. Have you ever rebuked Jesus? You rebuke God? Are you kidding me? Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying, be it far from thee, lord. This shall not be unto thee. You're not gonna die. You're not gonna be crucified. You're not gonna be buried. There's no need to be raised from the dead. Take the devil's offer. Take the devil's offer. You can have all the kingdoms now without the cross. You can have the crown without the cross. And Jesus, watch this. Watch this. Do not tell me. Do not tell me correcting somebody, reproving somebody, rebuking somebody is unloving. Teaching the truth is unloving. Confronting the culture about the culture's sin is being unloving. Here's the epitome of love. Love incarnate. And watch the words that he chooses to use against someone he deeply loves, who he just said, blessed art thou Simon Bar Jonah, flesh blood is watch this. Peter goes from the mountaintop to the gutter. He says, get thee behind me, Satan. So who's really behind those thoughts, Peter? The devil. The devil, man. He's influencing you, bro. Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savors not the things that are of God, but the things that be of men. Peter, your heart's in the wrong place. And, you know, this night before the cock crows, you guys are gonna deny that you even know me. When the shepherds smitten, you sheep are gonna scatter. Not me. And the Lord lets Peter know, hey, Peter, all that natural courage is gonna dissipate as in a moment when you see them apprehend me. And, Peter, Satan desires you. He desires to sift you as wheat, to beat on you, Peter. But Peter, I'm praying for you. And what's he praying? That your faith fail not. And when you're converted, when you come back from this terrible breaking that you gotta go through, denying me three times, When you come back from that, strengthen your brethren, strengthen the rest of the boys, and do it in the power of the spirit. And so you can't have leadership. You can't have a relationship built on falsehood. It has to be based upon truth. And that's why we have to all come to the word of God, to the truth of God's word, and each and every one of us need to be in submission to Jesus and walk in obedience, the obedience of faith, and not gloss over and wimp out and walk away and and and try to be popular and liked and, you know, man centered. Being a Christian, the days ahead is gonna be lonely. Jesus said your enemies be those of your own household. Father against son, mother against daughter, men's enemies be those of his own household. Jeremiah's family plots to kill him, the men of Anathoth. You know? Earlier in the chapter, you know, they were plotting to kill Jeremiah. It's it's not over yet. There's gonna be others that plot to kill him. He's a marked dude, and, he's not he's not applying the book properly of how to win friends and influence people. He's it's just it's just he not didn't go to enough seminars. It's just not working. So very difficult dealing in time of apostasy, which apostasy, a departure from the truth, departure from the faith, is a rebellion against God. And we're living in that time of rebellion against God, and we're not here to be popular. I'm very, very blessed to, you know, to be able to teach on Sundays and Mondays, but I have no visions of grandeur that somehow, eventually, one day it's gonna click and, you know, this church is gonna grow so big that we're gonna outgrow the place. No. It's not. We're probably gonna be a house church at some point. We're gonna get smaller. It's gonna get tougher. It's gonna get harder. Mhmm. People are gonna leave. People are gonna gravitate and move to a place that's not so hard. They want to be lied to. They really want to be lied to. They want to be told what they wanna hear. They're not ready for the truth. Right? I saw the movie. They're not ready for the truth. Right? But those that endure are gonna be in a safe place. They're gonna be secure. They're gonna be safe from the seduction and and the lies of the wicked one who's come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. And so Jesus said, you know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And John eighty said, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. What's that mean? You really are my disciples. You really are. How will I know? How will anybody know you're really my disciple? That you continue in my word. Mhmm. If you fall away from my word, a departure from my word, if you walk away from my word, then it's manifest you really weren't my disciple. Right? They went out from us because they weren't of us, John says. If they've been of us, they'd have continued with us. Right? So over the course of time, the testing that we all go through that we're gonna see, Jesus said you'll know them by their fruit. It's gonna manifest itself. And so we're gonna see the fruit of love, the love that we have for Jesus, the desire that we have to walk in obedience unto him, and the obedience of repentance, the obedience of saying, god, I'm sorry. God, I was wrong. Lord, please restore me. Please help me to get back on track rather than perpetuating lie and undermining and dishonoring his lordship in our life and gambling and playing games and not abiding in him in that place where where our lives can bear fruit because we're abiding in the vine. And so the only thing I've known to do since I married Kathy in 1980, I knew I knew to the greatest degree that the only way this marriage would work is if we're serious about Jesus. I don't have the luxury of being casual with Jesus. I will fall back to the old rick so quick, But with the help day by day, each and every day, the holy spirit I'm addicted to Jesus now. That's who I'm addicted to. But I but I don't I knew that I need to get my family to church. I knew that we need to be discipled, that we needed to be built up and strengthened, that we had many, many, many temptations coming after us. And I knew the safest place for my family was to be in church on a daily basis that my pastor, with the help of the holy spirit, could disciple us in God's word. I never ever ever had a confidence that somehow I was such a strong Christian that I could go to church when I just feel like it. Amen. I knew I had a responsibility. Because maybe I'm doing good with the Lord, but maybe she's struggling this week. Or maybe she's doing good in the Lord, but I'm struggling. Only way I know that we're gonna get the feeding that we need and the nurturing and care is by being there. You know? Be there. Get there. So, anyway, father, we come before you, and we just pray that in these last days that we would appreciate, that we'd value, that we'd put you first, that we'd seek first the kingdom of God and your righteousness. All these other things be added unto us, Lord. I pray that as times get more and more difficult, that Lord, we are growing, that we not remain in that arrested state of development, but Lord, that we're growing, that you're stimulating us, that you're helping our faith to grow in our love and our dependence and our trust in you, Lord. I pray that we would have that discernment like Peter had, thou art the Christ, you're the son of the living God. And Lord, that we'd hear the Holy Spirit rebuke us when we get off track. Get behind me, Satan. I pray that we would be clear, Lord, and hear clearly, and just keep a short account, No long distance relationship. No years away from you. Help us, Lord. Help us to to grow in the grace and knowledge of you. Reveal yourself to us to greater and greater degree, greater and greater measure, Lord. Revere yourself to us, Lord, that we might glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.
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.
