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Ezekiel 34

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Live from Bremerton. It's our Monday night bible study at Rob and Vicky and Brandon's home here in Bremerton. We are gonna be in Ezekiel chapter 34 tonight, and we wanna give a shout out to Brenda. Brenda, we miss you. And I do. We do miss Brenda. We love her. And we miss Gloria too. Miss them all. But and Nancy. Lee and Nancy Dunn. We really miss Nancy Dunn. Hope she's watching tonight, and we would love to see her soon. Lee said she's doing a little better. And so we'll continue to pray for Alan and Cora. Let's just lift up John. John Wright? Tom? Joe. Joe. God knows. And then pastor. Okay. Lord, we lift up Joe, the access bus driver, as his rent's going up, and he needs to be able to cover his rent. Lord, give him a raise. We pray he raises pay. And, Lord, we pray for the family that lost a loved one to cancer. We pray for your comforting hand upon their lives, Lord, that you'd use this to draw them closer onto yourself, Lord, that they would draw near to Jesus. And, Lord, we lift up our loved ones. We lift up our families. We lift up Bram and Vicky who've been sick. Make them feel better and anybody else that's out there wrestling these respiratory problems and such. Be with Alan. Help him to rebound. Be with my dad. Help him to rebound. And, Lord, we just commit this night into your hands, and we pray that you'd inhabit the praise of your people, that you fill us overflowing with your holy spirit, and that you bless, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Now is the time to worship. Come. Now is the Alright. Thanks, Rob. Alright. We are in general excuse me. Ezekiel chapter 34. Ezekiel 34. What before we get started, what are some things prophetically that that you've been seeing this week? Any dots to connect? Anything prophetically that the Bible tells us gonna happen before it happens? AI. Unity. AI. Bernie says AI, artificial intelligence. Yeah. Brandon says tomorrow there's an announcement, and we don't know what that announcement will be, but we hear a lot of talk about a blockchain technology, a Bitcoin, central bank digital currencies, basically a removal of the dollar or the dollar will stay, but they'll convert it to a you can convert it to a digital. But in any event, the Bible tells us eventually we are going to Ezekiel excuse me, Revelation thirteen sixteen through 18. Nobody will be able to buy or sell without a mark on their right hand or their forehead. So a digital economic system, and with that digital economic system, the thing that happens is we lose our freedom because our dollars in gold and silver makes it so that we have tremendous amount of freedom. But if we lose that ability and everybody has a mark on the right hand of their forehead and you have a a digital ID, a digital identification, and a digital wallet, and and a digital social credit score where you can't buy or sell. I mean, I'm trying to eat so much meat right now because I keep thinking they're gonna take my meat away, and I'm almost getting tired eating so much meat. You know? But I don't want I said almost. Almost. You know? But it's hard to hard to hard to know. But Who wants to answer that? We'll be before then. We'll be gone before then. It comes after the rapture. Right? Right. Yep. Always. So what starts the tribulation period? Of the peace. The peace Signing treaty. Is there a need for a peace treaty yet? Almost. Are there negotiations happening in regard to a peace treaty with Gaza, with Palestinians in Israel right now? Yes. Yeah? So we don't know if that's the one or if a bigger war is gonna escalate. Wars and rumors of wars? I know what NASA means. Never again stay angry. Oh, okay. Rob believes that. He believes that. K. So Yeah. We'll be gone before that. So but if you find yourself there, Betty, don't take the mark. Give up your head. Alright? Just give up your head. Jesus has a new head for you. A new head. But that won't happen, Betty. So some people think we're already in the millennium. Tonight, we're gonna talk about the millennium. What is the millennium? Thousand year reign of Christ. Of Christ upon the earth. Has that happened yet? No. Did Adolf Hitler try and others try? Currently, is somebody trying to inaugurate or bring in a golden age? Yeah. Right? Statues and all. So don't be deceived. A one world religion, a one world economic system, and a one world what? Government. Government system. So a partnership of like a technocracy of business with government, with the church. And is the pope making it? Is he is he okay? What kind of smoke is coming out that chimney right now? Gray or white or black? Which one? Okay. Alright. Okay. Got people thinking. People are thinking. Alright. So we'll just have to trust the Lord. Keep trusting the Lord. Alright. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would continue to give us insights, Lord, to keep our eyes open to be discerning, to not be deceived by anybody that's parading or trying to get us to go or sell us on on on war, sell us on giving up the freedom that we have for quote unquote security. Lord, we pray that you make us discerning that we we just follow that straight narrow path and do that which is right and not be deceived in the time which we're living, Lord. Open the scripture to our understanding now. Be our teacher, Lord, and give us ears to hear and hearts to apply that which you're you're teaching us, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Alright. Ezekiel 34. And so prediction events that take place at the end of the age when Israel will again own the land. So prediction of chapter 34 through 39 and a message to the faithless shepherds of Israel. The faithless shepherds of Israel. Now when we look at shepherds here, we're gonna look at it in the context of civil shepherds and also religious shepherds. Shepherds are those that are in places of leadership to oversee, to feed, to protect, to lead and guide the sheep. And these sheep belong to the lord. They belong to god. And so human government is an instrument of god that god implemented after the Noahic flood. And and this human government, according to Romans 13, is to preserve the good. And if they cease to produce, you know, preserve the good, god can switch them out at any point in time. But in many cases, people are under under the tyranny of of of evil government, China and North Korea and other places in the world today. And we have enjoyed in America a constitutional republic, a government by and for the people, and government is supposed to be chained to the constitution. And we are given some god given and given inalienable rights that are not derived from the government, this these rights, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, are given to us by god. So if the government can give you privileges, they can take away privileges. Right? So when we speak in terms of, in America, of obeying the government, we don't mean obeying tyrants. What we mean is we're gonna obey the highest law in the land, which is the constitution. So we have no intention of disobeying the constitution as Christians. But if the powers that be, those that are elected, the elected officials, they're to swear to uphold the constitution against enemies foreign and domestic. So if that's breaking down, if our constitutional republic is breaking down, then who knows what comes next? The bible says that there's gonna be 10 the bible the world divided up into 10 regions with a king over each of those regions. And then three of these kings fight with the antichrist who comes along, and he becomes the eighth as the three are defeated. Then the other seven give over their sovereignty to the antichrist. And so he's gonna become a, as Debbie pointed out, rider on a white horse. You know? Revelation chapter six, a false peace and a false messiah is gonna emerge and the world's gonna gonna embrace that person and the nation of Israel. So anyway, it says, and the word of the Lord came unto me saying he's gonna cover verses one through six, the sins of the shepherds. Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Now a shepherd Moses was a shepherd. Amos was a farmer. Abraham was a shepherd. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all shepherds. Isaiah sixty three eleven says that Moses was a shepherd. Joshua in Numbers twenty seven seventeen was a shepherd in the sense that he was going to lead the flock when Moses went upon Mount Nebo and saw that he was gonna die. Joshua would assume that role after after Moses. Another interesting one is in Isaiah forty four twenty eight. God describes Cyrus, a a foreigner, a king of Persia, and that he was one of the lord's shepherds to oversee god's people. And it's Cyrus that's going to give the artifacts of things that Nebuchadnezzar and his guys stole from the temple when it was destroyed in May. Belteshazzar in Daniel chapter five was playing with when he had that drunken party and all, and he was weighed in the balance and found one in the kingdom divided from heaven give given to the Medes and the Persians. And Cyrus was the one that God gave a surname to a hundred and ninety years before he even came on the world scene. God named him and described him as my servant. Second Samuel five verse two, David is described as a shepherd of Israel. Jeremiah seventeen six, Jeremiah is a shepherd. He's a a leader there of Israel. The lord Jesus is the Good shepherd. Good shepherd in John 10. The chief shepherd. Chief shepherd. Right? The great shepherd of the sheep in Hebrews thirteen twenty. The chief shepherd in first Peter five verse four. He's the good shepherd in John chapter 10. And David said the Lord is my shepherd. Right? And so we are the sheep. The Lord's our shepherd. And But we're not sheep. We're not sheep? No. What are we? We're goats? Are we goats? Paid the price. He paid Jesus Christ paid the price. A very high price. Do you do you picture yourself as a as a sheep and he as the shepherd? Yes. Okay. There you go. I I didn't know if you were a flat earth or not. I'd have to ask you to leave. Alright. Okay. Alright. God paid a good price, so we're not cheap. Maybe a goat. You know, maybe a goat. Alright. So prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds, woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves. So what would how do we apply that? Where the where the religious leaders from the time of Jesus, were they really poor? No. Pretty wealthy. Right? And Jesus looked on the multitudes as sheep having no shepherd. Right? They were they were left to themselves. And it was a huge business. Church Incorporated today is a huge business. People are getting wealthy of being spiritual leaders. Right? And it's always been that way. And for the false prophets anyway. One of the qualifications of being a shepherd is that he would not be covetousness of filthy lucre. Just because you can as a shepherd doesn't mean you should. So millions of dollars can come into Church Incorporated. And just because you can make a million dollars a year or $100 a month doesn't mean as a shepherd you should. You see what I mean? So you you better have a heart after after God's own heart and determine alright at what point will I cut it off because these mega churches are unprecedented in the bible. Right? There's no megachurches in the book of acts. The only megachurch in Jerusalem went broke. So the church went from house to house. So this whole concept of embracing a worldly model, a commercial corporate worldly model is just that, a worldly model. And and so the pastors today, the shepherds become celebrities, and they have image consultants and PR firms, and and their promotion is even as they get bigger, it's not even promoting their church anymore. It's promoting their name. So for instance, I got kicked off of YouTube and I was terminated. So as Calvary Chapel of Bremerton, I was terminated. So maybe I can rebrand myself and call myself the Rick Bodrey hour, you know, and get back on there. And maybe we can promote Rick Baudry, pastor Rick Baudry, you know. And maybe I could get a doctorate. I could go online, doctor Rick Baudry, professor Rick Baudry, you know. And boy, we could really start pumping that up, you know? And I could write a couple books too. And holy smokes, I can see it now. I got a vision and I want you guys to pay for it. Okay. So so they do feed themselves. And should not the shepherds feed the flocks? So is Zelenskyy feeding the flock in Ukraine? Oh, he's he's lining his pocket, Sean says. He's a he's a billionaire. Right? Our politicians, our shepherds in the civic world, if you come in as AOC and you're a bartender at $80 a year attending bar, How is it just a few years later you're worth 10,000,000, 13,000,000? How is it Nancy Pelosi and all of her family members and and the Feinstein's and all of these politicians? How is it the Doge hasn't exposed how they got so incredibly wealthy? Billionaires. You know? And and so apparently it's you get $250 a year, but you get insider trading or bribes or whatever it is, and pretty soon you got your golden parachute and you never look back. So should not the shepherd feed the flock? And so the exploitation, you're exploiting people, and it's even worse when it's a religious ex exploitation because a shepherd, if Jesus has started out, if he's the chief shepherd, if he's the good shepherd, if he's the great shepherd, if he if he's the example, then as an under shepherd, foxes have holes, birds are there have nests, son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Now it doesn't mean we need to be homeless as shepherds, but and everything in moderation. Right? And so you you wouldn't want to be so extravagant that there's a huge gap between you and the people that you're shepherding because ultimately you're just the sheep too. And and he's the he's the great shepherd. So we're not advocating poverty. We're not saying it's more spiritual to be impoverished. We're just saying there's a great gap between the one percenters and the rest of us. Right? And removing the middle class, that's tyranny. And we know that we work, and as we work, the Lord provides, and and we're able to prosper, we love that. When the when they take everything and make us all you'll owe nothing and be happy, Klaus Schwab, then we got a problem. Right? They're fleecing the flock. They're land grabbing. They're raping and pillaging everything. All the all the tangible assets are going into their coffers. So you eat the fat and you clothe yourselves with wool and you you kill those who are fed but you feed not the flock. So you're fleecing the flock, you're not feeding the flock, and you're taking the fat from the bullocks and all that, and you got the goats that give you milk, you got the sheep that give you clothing, you're fleecing, taking the wool from them and selling it, whatever. You kill those that are fed, and you feed not the flock. If we apply this to the church today, I'm watching a lot of pastors, prominent Calvary Chapel pastors, blowing the whistle right now. And apparently, it's not just Calvary pastors. It's it's the Barner Report and a lot of these people that analyze Christian dumb. And there's a real lack of bible teaching today in the churches. The the norm today is the bible is not taught in the church today. And so there's the exhortation to provide the full counsel of God. If you look at the job description of a pastor, Jesus said to Peter, feed my sheep. Feed them. That's the job description is to feed the sheep. Tend them. Care for them. Healthy sheep reproduce. If you don't feed the sheep, then what happens? They wither, they die, they get sick. And when they get sick with heresy and false doctrine, then their marriages, their homes, their lives become weaker and weaker. And then the devil, the wolf comes along and he still he kills and he destroys. Right? But if the sheep are being cared for, Jesus said, if you love me Peter, feed my sheep. Right? And he said it three times. One for each of the times Peter denied that he knew him. Right? And lambs. Lambs. Tend my lambs. Yeah. Yep. And not just feed, but also tend. Tend the lambs. So a shepherd, that's what he does. He tends, he protects, lays his life down if necessary, and he feeds them. So we take knowledge of the lambs. And Kathy teaches the Sunday school and provides the word of God at a level that children can understand. So you're providing the milk of the word, and you provide the veggies, the meat, and all that. Now my frustration is I'm living in a time of apostasy. I'm living in a time of a falling away from the truth. So as a pastor, as a teacher, I have a very difficult time very difficult time having enough sheep to even continue to be a church because the sheep are the ones that make the decisions. They're the ones that decide. They vote with their feet. And Amos says who wants to read Amos eight eleven and somebody else read second Timothy four verse three. Okay. Amos eight eleven. Debbie Scott, Amos eight eleven. Behold, the days come, saith the lord, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of the hearing of the words of the Lord. So when I used to hear this, I used to think, god, there's a lack of pastors out there. There's a lack of bible teaching churches. And but that's not what it's saying. It's saying there's a lack of people that want to hear the word of god, a famine in the sense they don't wanna hear the word anymore. That's not what they wanna hear. They wanna be purpose driven. They don't want creeds. They want deeds. They wanna do good things. And that's what Rick Warren marketed and changed a lot of the churches that were bible teaching churches into do gooder churches. Now second Timothy four verse three tells us why. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap up to themselves teachers having itching ears. So what's it mean to have itchy ears? Pursue things. Pursue things easy things, Debbie says. Scratch me where I itch. Tell me what I wanna hear. Right? Right. So I don't wanna hear the word of God. I want sensual things. I want to feel good. I want to be entertained. I want the smoke machines. I want forty five minutes and hours worth of very rock and roll type music, you know, change all the music. And and then I want a little sermonette for Christianettes. So you might jump off with one verse, but the topic needs to be about me. I wanna hear about me. How I can be a better husband, better father, better home, more successful, my best life now. The theme needs to be me, not Jesus, and not death itself. So basically, don't teach the bible. Begin to teach smooth things, things that tickle people's ears and give them goosebumps, make them feel good, and make them cry, and laugh. And so you're more entertainment than anything else. And so that's a very difficult time. So if you're a pastor like that, then you're a Jeremiah, and you're gonna spend forty years telling the truth, but people don't wanna hear it. And that's the kind of times we're living in now. It used to be that the formula was if you teach the bible, people will come. They're hungry. They're thirsty. They want to be nourished spiritually. But now, they teach the pastors that the more the bible you teach, the smaller your church will be. The verse by verse teaching is death to a church. That's what they tell them. That's what they teach them. So they have man centered, watered down the word of God, and very little of the bible being taught. So doctrines of demons creep in. Demonic influences begin to influence the pastors. And you got youth groups and people that are engaging in Harry Potter. And people Christian parents see nothing wrong with witchcraft veiled as Harry Potter in the youth groups and stuff. Right? And these are doctrines of demons, very popular doctrines of demons that people like. And I've heard Christian parents say, well, you know, at least my kids wanna read. You know, well, what are they reading? What's the content? And so the Lord's given an indictment to the to the preachers, to the shepherds to feed the flock and to tend the flock. I'm I have my mandate from the Lord. So I'm 65 years old. I don't know how much time I have left. I I contacted the mortuary and we're getting ready to put me in the ground. But I don't have to put up with this much longer. But I'll tell you this, I'm never gonna back down. As long as there's a home bible study group that wants to learn God's word, that's what I'm gonna do until the Lord takes me home. So there's no way the devil's gonna come along and say, Rick, you wanna be one of the fat cats? You wanna you wanna make more money? You wanna buy your wife a house? Then you need to conform. You need to tone it down, Rick. You need to make the message only twenty minutes. Think I could do that? Betty. But more people would attend. More people would attend. And many of you, when you first came, it was too much for you. It was like, woah, your hair got blowed back. And but as time went on, you developed an appetite. You developed what we would call an attention span. Amen. Amen. Now why don't you have an attention span, people? Because you're gamers. Because you're on the artificial intelligence. Because everything spoon fed to you, and it's you you can't even have a conversation without interrupting the person. You know? Everybody's just like, you know, very, very poor comprehension, very poor ability to read a paragraph, to read a page in the Bible, and to comprehend what it's saying. So we're being dummy down, and it's very sad to watch watch what's happening, the biblical illiteracy. And the pastors, only 2% of the pastors teach prophecy. Right? 27 of the Bible's prophecy, but the churches don't want to preach or teach people, get them ready for the soon return of Jesus Christ. That's that's criminal. So I'm I'm very thankful for you. I'm thankful for those on Sunday morning and on Facebook and other people we're able to fellowship with. And I get my marching orders. My job description comes from the Bible. Right? Now turn to Acts two forty two, and I'll just give you an idea of what of how fancy we are. We're pretty fancy. We came up with a really good program here to grow the church. And So acts two forty one, then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added under the under the about 3,000 souls. So that's pretty good with the preaching of Peter. You know, the the response was people being baptized, about 3,000 people, growth of the church, church growth. So what do those people do? I see a bunch of disciples following Jesus in John chapter six. They're called disciples. Disciples are learners. And they're following him because he's taking a little boy's sack lunch and feeding everybody. He's given them a universal basic income where they'll never need to work again. Right? And he knows why they're following them for the loaves and the fishes, the happy meals and all. And and he and he sits them down and he lets them know that you're gonna need to follow me for me. And it might cost you something. You guys might suffer a bit. So it says, and many of his disciples no longer walked with him. They went away in John six. And then what did he do, Thomas? He turns to the 12 and he said, are you gonna leave me also? Right? Have you guys counted the cost? And Peter chimes in, where are we gonna go? You have the words of eternal life. Right? So where are you gonna go? Once once you've become addicted to Jesus and you know the word of God and you have an appetite for the word of God, nothing nothing else will satisfy. Nothing else will satisfy. So here they were. Acts two forty two. And they continued steadfastly. It doesn't mean half heartedly. It looks like these guys probably met every chance they could. They were excited about getting together. And you didn't have to worry about, are they gonna make it to church this Sunday? And so they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. So what is the content? The apostles' doctrine. The 12 apostles, they have been given the word of God. The New Testament's gonna be written. And the apostles are primarily teaching the Old Testament to these people with the gospel message that they've learned because it it hasn't come to the point at this point where you got Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you know, already laid out. But you do have the apostles verbally telling people what they learned from Jesus and then it's written down. And so they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. So what's the content? What are we gonna teach? We're gonna teach the word of God. God's word. Fellowship, that's the second part. We're gonna fellowship. What's it mean to fellowship? Koinonia, a oneness. We come together as one, like minded believers. The breaking of bread and prayer. So you've got the word of God, you've got fellowship, you've got worship, and then there's going to be evangelism too. You're going to evangelize. And fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done to the apostles. And all that believed were together and had all things common. So here's part of your fellowship, you're sharing with one another. And and they sold their possessions and goods and part of them to all men as every man had need. And they continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking of bread and from house to house and did eat their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord had added to the church daily such as should be saved. So the word of God, fellowship, part of that fellowship is breaking bread, you know, having meals together like we did tonight. And and then worship the Lord in song and partake in the communion together. That's that's worship. And and we would add to it evangelism. We know that we're to go, the great commission, go and and preach the gospel and make disciples. So it's pretty simple. It hasn't changed. And that's what we continue to do or try to do. And we can't build a church. We can't make people like the word of God. But let me tell you something. When I meet somebody that's a man or a woman of the word, it's effortless for me. It's effortless. You're expecting me to teach the bible. That's what I'm here to do. But if you're not a man or a woman of the word, then I gotta listen to all the excuses. The problem's not me. The problem's you. And that's why there's a bunch of other churches out there for you to go find where you fit in. Cause you're not fitting in here. Cause you're not a man or a woman of the word. And you will opt for a pastor that doesn't even teach the bible. That's an insult. That's an insult to me. That's an insult to God. You're allowing him. You're paying his salary and he doesn't even study the bible and feed you the word. That's the problem. The people love it so. So you eat the fat and you clothe yourselves with the wool, you kill those who are fed but but you feed not the flock. The disease have you not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost, but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them. So these abusive shepherds, you're just making merchandise. As Peter said, one of the ways you know a false prophet, just make a merchandise of the people, the fleecing the flock. It's always about money. The messages are always about money. More money to pay my vision, you know, support my vision. And you guys are butchers. You're just butchering the sheep, fleecing the sheep, selling the sheep. You don't care about those who are sick. You don't go over and and, you know, and you contrast this you contrast this with with Psalm 23. Look at the abusive work of these guys, these false prophets, false shepherds, and then contrast that with Psalm 23 where the Lord is my shepherd. You guys wanna go through the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Right? He makes me to lie down in green pastures. So he's feeding me. He's leading me over the hills and in the meadows and he's making sure there's really good green grass for me to eat because I'm a sheep. Right? And then what I need to drink? Where does he lead me to drink? Snow waters. Snow waters. So why not raging waters? You might fall in. You sprout. And if I fall in, do sheep swim well? No. No. So boat what about stagnant water? What what if it's stagnant? Sick. Poisonous. That's poisonous. Right? So he's leaving me this water that's, you know, moving. It's moving enough to keep it keep it without the Jardia and all that. Do sheep worry about Jardia? No. They don't worry about it. But they still they still need moving, fresh, clean water. Right? We all we all need clean water. And and he restores my soul. So sheep have souls. Right? And we as sheep have souls. And the soul is the the part of your being, the seed of your mind, your will, your emotions. Right? And the Lord understands he made us from the dust. We're three part beings, body, soul, and spirit. And the soul of man can become depressed, discouraged, defeated, or filled with joy, singing, you know. And so we're we're susceptible to various circumstances that affect our emotions. And but the life of the spirit is such that we can overcome the attitudes and the emotions of the soul. We don't we we recognize we have these emotions. We have these ideas. We have these desires, but it all needs to come into submission to the lordship of Jesus. And the dominant the dominant part for the Christian is the life of the spirit. Our circumstances can be adverse, and it can affect our our demeanor, but we can also be like Paul and Silas in a prison, and we can be beaten, and it could be midnight, and we can be singing because we're living the life of the spirit and not succumbing to the soul of man that's saying I got a bad deal. I I didn't sign up for this Jesus. You know, I I did what you told me to do. I went out there and I preached the gospel and look what I get for it. I get thrown in prison, beaten. Everywhere I go, I get beaten. But they didn't they didn't think like that. They they weren't soulish in the sense of dominated, you know, by the soul. So he restores my soul. So restoring my soul in Psalm 42, David says, why art thou cast down, oh my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? And so we can be down, but then we need to get back up. Hope thou in God. He answers his own question. Put your hope back in the Lord. And and then what comes after that? He restores my soul. Believe in me in the path of righteousness his name's sake. For his name's sake. So for not for my name's sake so if we like to quote Romans eight twenty eight, all things are working together for good for those who love God and are the called according to my purpose, his purpose. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. He wants to be glorified. He wants us to bring glory and honor unto him. Right? And And so after that, he leads me and passes righteousness for his name's sake. Ye, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. So he's leading me. Now he's leading me somewhere I don't wanna go. The valley of the shadow of death. Right? Right. And he prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. A table is a place to eat. He's preparing me another place for me to eat. But I'm so stupid that sometimes these fields, these meadows that he leads me in, are littered with poisonous mushrooms that I shouldn't be eating, weeds and things that I shouldn't be eating. So he goes through as a shepherd and he identifies these noxious weeds that could make me sick or even kill me, and he removes them by preparing that table before me in the presence of my enemies. My enemies are on the fringe waiting for a chance for the shepherd to turn his back to come in there, swoop in, and grab one of those sheep. Right? Right. And what about those eagles that like to come down and grab the little babies, the lambs, you know, just whooom, gone, you know. So he's preparing a table performing in the presence of my anemones. And then he anoints my head with oil. Why is he doing that? He anoints my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Right? Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So he anoints my head with oil. The sheep, they got all this hair, and all this hair gets little gnats and bugs in there. And the gnats and the bugs get into my mucous membrane. They get into my ears, and they buzz around. They make me crazy, those things. Right? And they can bring disease. But again, my temperament my temperament is such that those mosquitoes, those gnats are getting into my nose and making me crazy. So he comes along and he rubs in some oil. Pours that oil over me and rubs it in and rubs it in Thomas's beard and gets it in there. You know? And and it it just encapsulates everything and it feels so good and brings it into here and my nose and all that and kills all those bugs. And man, my cup runneth over. The holy spirit, the oil is the holy spirit. My cup's running over, man. I'm not worried about anything anymore. Right? That's my shepherd. He's meet me physically, emotionally, spiritually, everything I need to be to be a contented sheep. Right? He's he he knows what I need. Right? My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy I'm looking future. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And future? And I will dwell in the I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Right? That's a good shepherd. Right? Amen. That's a good shepherd. And that's the kind of shepherd that the Lord wants us to be. The Lord wants us to love enough that we're willing to lay down our lives for one another for the sheep. Jesus said in John 10 that I'm the door. You wanna get out there at at my sheep, you're gonna have to go through me, he's saying. And nobody's gonna get at my sheep. So he's the disease have you not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick. So the shepherds must know different ways to heal the heal the sheep that get sick. Neither have you bound up that which was broken. So a little spindly leg of a sheep breaks a leg, The devil just destroys people, just leaves them in their brokenness. But not the shepherd, not the good shepherd we have when we're broken. When we fall, he picks us back up and he puts a splint there and he wraps that that bone and he sets it. And then what's he do? He can't walk. He carries us around on his shoulders. He's carrying you around on his shoulders till you can walk again. Right? Which is broken neither has he brought again that which was driven away. So there's some that are driven away, they're scared but you don't go looking for him as a false shepherd. Neither have he sought that which was lost but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them. So when when I hear of somebody leaving the church, I respect their decision and I don't follow them. I respect their decision. They don't owe me an explanation. They're not my sheep. They belong to Jesus. And they're free to come and free to go. They're free to find another church wherever they want to be. But if I hear of somebody leave the church because they fell, or they're hurting, or now I'm gonna call them. Kathy's gonna call them. I'm gonna call them. We're gonna see if they're okay. We're not being intrusive. We're not trying to hurt them. We're we're concerned as, you know, you leave the 99 and you go look for the one that's that's wandered away. You wandered away. What happened? And are you okay? I heard something bad happened, you know, to your daughter, your son. You know, I heard your husband left you, you know. You haven't been to church in a few weeks. And you you minister to him. You you bring food to him. You announce to others, hey, there's an opportunity here to minister to this this other sheep within the body who's sick right now that needs help. So we we investigate from that standpoint, but we don't we we don't put a sense of ownership on sheep. They belong to the Lord. And when I hear that they're at such and such a church and they're enjoying themselves, they'll never get a phone call from me. They'll never I'll never follow-up and ask them why. I don't wanna I don't wanna embarrass them. I don't wanna make them feel guilty. I don't I mean, I respect their decision to decide how long they wanna attend Calvary Bremerton, And I respect the decision to move on and find a church that better meets their needs because very few people can handle me. So I understand that. And it's like a big relief for some people when they get away from me. And they were scattered because there is no shepherd, and they became food to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. So you need leadership. You need people to help. You need those that have walked the path. And the wolves will come in and they'll scatter the sheep. The sheep will just just just spread out. And these wolf hunt in packs, you know. And so that's why the shepherd has to be willing to lay his life down. That's why he has to have a weapon. That's why he's gotta have a rod and a staff. That's why the sheep were comforted. His rod and his his rod and his staff, they comfort me. Right? In Psalm 23. Because on the one hand, sometimes I need discipline. Sometimes he needs to take the crook of that shepherd's staff and grab me and pull me out of the ditch that I fell in. Other times, he needs to whack me a little bitter. The rod that they have, they were they were really good at throwing those rods as weapons. And you saw David with a slingshot, what he could do. So it's it's comforting to know that the guy that's your shepherd, that he's there to protect you. If need be, he'll lay his life down with a lion or a wolf or whatever might come along and to try and try and hurt you. Sheep sheep don't recognize wolves. It takes sheep a long time to develop the skill set and discernment to recognize wolves. Wolves in sheep's clothing. And for me as a pastor, it's taken me a long time, and I don't even think I'm very good at it yet. I tend to open up and let people come in just as they are and give them a chance. Even though my discernment, my bells are going off, I'll still give them a chance. And but Kathy, she pegs them the first time she sees them. And she tells me, you be careful of that person. You be careful. They're not who you think they are. And so we we know that the Lord allows the devil to sow tares among the wheat. Right? Goats among the sheep. But a a shepherd needs to develop others that can help with with nowadays, the pastors develop these security groups, you know. Somebody might come in and shoot everybody up. So you gotta you gotta get your security detail. Hey, I'll be with Jesus, you know. Not I'm not worried about that. But but you guys are all packing. You guys are all you guys are the security detail. But from a spiritual standpoint, I have to make sure that heresy, false doctrine, poisonous doctrine doesn't come into the church. And and if I hear of a wolf preying upon vulnerable young believers, you bet I have to step in there and do something about that. If I don't step in, then I'm not a shepherd. If I'm afraid or passive about a wolf coming in in a in a arrogant, prideful manner, or like a serpent slithering in, if I'm afraid of that confrontation, then I'm not a shepherd. Because I'm I'm only thinking about myself. Save yourself. So the shepherd has to be willing to be hated, to be misunderstood. Because when the wolves, when they do their crocodile tears you know what crocodile tears are? Tears are powerful. The telephone with tears is very powerful to destroy the fellowship in the church. It's powerful. So the best way to counteract it is for me to just teach the word. Because now, I'm looking in terms of Jesus said my sheep know my voice and they follow me. Now I have to trust that the Lord will allow the sheep that can hear to hear his word and to discern between lies and truth. Because I can't run around trying to do damage control to all the undermining these these wolves do. I just have to keep teaching the word and see who shows up. And if they're hearing God's word and God's ministering to them, then I trust that they'll, you know, follow the leading guiding of the Holy Spirit. And so there's tests that take place in the church. There's sex. There's heresies that that Paul told the church of Corinth in first Corinthians chapter 11. They're necessary for it manifest those that are approved. So a lot of times when a church goes through a trial, goes through a, you know, an upheaval, it's a test for the church. It's a purifying. And some people get through it and some people don't. So there's a purging. Some pastors call it the blessed subtractions. And we saw the addition, multiplication. I would love multiplication. Church multiplied. That'd be great. COVID helped it addition. And then and then every now and then there's things I have to say that cause a division. People have to decide. And then there's the subtraction. But it's his church. It's the Lord's church. So as long as as long as I'm trying to love them by teaching them the truth, teaching them the word, and I'm not making merchandise of them, and I'm not preying upon them, It's amazing to me how much abuse people will endure in these false churches. The slightest little thing at Calvary Bremerton can be built up to be so huge. Well, what did he do? And it can be so magnified. But then they'll go over to a church that does nothing but beg for money and just uses them and abuses them and doesn't teach them the word. Mind blowing. Mind blowing the way that works. Verse six, my sheep wandered through all the mountains and upon every high hill, yea, and the flocks scattered upon all the face of the earth and none did search or seek after them. Selfish indifference. We don't care. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the lord. So that's his indictment, the first six. Now he says, you shepherds, hear the word of the lord. Judgment's coming, verses seven through 10. As I live, saith the lord god, surely because my flock whose flock is it? God's blood. Purchased with blood. Right? Blood bought. That's what Paul said. Remember we we studied last week, chapter 33. We looked at acts 20. Paul is giving, you know, his warning to the Ephesian elders. Take heed over the flock which he has purchased with his own blood. You know, you're just an under shepherd because my flock became a prey, p r e y, and my flock became food to every beast of the field. So they're abused and exploited because there was no shepherd. Neither did my shepherd search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and fed not my flock. And so Jesus said, upon this rock, I'll build my church and the gates of hell not prevail against it. It's his church. And God can switch out a pastor anytime he anytime he wants. All of us are replaceable. All of us can be replaced in a heartbeat. Therefore, o ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Can you hear the word of the Lord? Thus saith the lord god, behold, I am against the shepherds and I will require my flock at their hand. So you're responsible and cause them to cease from feeding the flock neither shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore for I will deliver my flock from their mouth that they may not be food for them. And so the exploitation of the hirelings, the way they exploit. And now he comes to Israel gonna be destroyed. So he's has an indictment against the civic leaders and the religious leaders, how they left his flock, the nation of Israel, in such poor, poor, poor condition. And for thus saith the lord god, behold, I even I will both search my sheep and and seek them out. So I'm the good shepherd. I'm the great shepherd. I'm the chief shepherd, And then I'm gonna seek him out. I'm gonna I'm gonna leave the 99 and go, you know, go find him. Amen. And as a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out my sheep and will deliver them being scattered in in the cloud and dark day. So now this cloudy dark day speaks of the tribulation period. The nation of Israel is gonna be scattered. The Antichrist is gonna try to destroy or will destroy according to Zechariah 13 verse eight and nine. Two thirds of the nation of Israel, only one third remnants gonna come through the fiery trial, the fiery dark day of the tribulation period and be preserved. But this dark, cloudy, dark day, they're gonna be scattered. And according to Matthew chapter 24 verse 31, at the end of the tribulation period when Jesus returns, he's going to send out his angels to regather the flock of Israel from all four corners of the earth. Doesn't mean it's flat. Just a it's a phrase. Say, north, south, east, west. Cover the whole globe. Alright? And and so this is speaking of who wants Zephaniah one fifteen? Joel Joel twelve two. I'll take Joel twelve two. And Acts two nineteen through 21. We'll take that. Okay. Okay. Go ahead. Oh, I'm still finding it. Okay. I got some more. Joel two twelve, Psalm ninety seven two, Zephaniah one fifteen, Acts two nineteen through 21. Joel two twenty eight through 32, the person that's gonna be there. So we're in the church age. The church age ends with the rapture. According to Romans eleven twenty five, blindness in part has happened unto Israel. So in this dispensation, when Israel rejected their messiah, the church age sprung forth with the priority being the Jew. The church started out all Jewish. And then when persecution came, Philip went into Samaria. These were half Jews. And so a revival broke out in Acts chapter eight. Then we see Saul of Tarsus going all the way to Damascus to apprehend Christians. Excuse me. And we see in chapter 10 Peter being called to the house of Cornelius, Gentile part of the church. So Yep. 14. I like to start in 14. Okay. Alright, buddy. The great day of the Lord is near. It is near and hasten greatly. Even the voice of the day of the Lord is my a mighty man shall cry there bitterly. The day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. And that was where? That was fifteen. That was Zephaniah. Zephaniah. Now, I don't wanna be in the tribulation period. And when you see day of the Lord, that's not the rapture. That's the tribulation period. That's a the tribulation period is a series or a culmination. It culminates with the return of the Lord. So the day of the Lord is a campaign from the from the signing of the peace treaty to the return of Jesus Christ in that 77 of Daniel. A campaign, the book of Revelation calls this the apocalypse or the unveiling of Jesus Christ. And so it's the the seventieth seven of Daniel. So blindness and partisan in Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. That's the cutting off of the church age. There can be a gap there. There could be a gap after the rapture before the signing of the peace treaty. There could be a period of time in between there. And the beast system could be developed during that gap. There could be the one world government continuing to develop. There could be, you know, the economic system, AI continuing to develop, the religious system continuing to develop, especially since the church is gone. It will be easier for the worldlings to put together their beast system once the church is raptured because the restrainer, the work of the holy spirit through the church is restraining. So as much as they wanna get this thing together, it's not coming together as fast as they want. But as soon as we're gone, then there's gonna be greater latitude for them without the restraint of the Holy Spirit and the Christians pointing things out that are wrong. And it could happen very quickly, you know, thereafter. And so the antichrist is gonna emerge. The seed of the serpent, the seed of the of Satan is gonna emerge and as a as a peacemaker. Peace peace where there is no peace. He's gonna be a rider in Revelation chapter six, the first the rider upon the white horse. You know? And alright. So that was good. Acts two nineteen through 21. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and paper of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Amen. Amen. Alright. So he's quoting Peter's quoting out of Joel. Joel two twenty eight through 32. Joel 228. Yeah. And you can also do Joel 2212. 212. Yeah. So two twelve. Therefore, also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning. How about Joel two two? Two two? Yeah. So two a day of darkness There it is. A day of darkness and of windiness, a day of clouds and of thick darkness as the morning spread upon the mountains. A great people and a strong. There hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. And Jesus said that Matthew 24, the tribulation periods you made a time the world's never seen with how horrific it is nor will ever see again. Psalm ninety seven two. Clouds and darkness are round about him. Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. Great. Okay. Now we'll go to verse 13. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and will bring them to their own land and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers and in the inhabited places of the country. So this began at the end of the eighteen hundreds leading on into the nineteen hundreds, the Zionist movement, a a desire for the nation the scattered Jews around the world to begin to go back to Israel. And then with World War two happening, Adolf Hitler and the world coming together to try to exterminate the holocaust, the great holocaust, 6,000,000 Jews destroyed. Too. Right? Haman tried, but didn't didn't even didn't didn't pull it off. And so the Antichrist is gonna try and do it, two thirds of them. So if there's 16,000,000 today, two thirds of them gonna be wiped out. So on 05/14/1948 with the Belfar declaration, the nation of Israel is reborn. We're gonna see that in Ezekiel thirty six and thirty seven where God prophesied that he would cause the nation, the valley of dry bones, to reconnect and for the nation to be reborn. So part of the way you know the Bible's true is is that this happened, and you don't see these other nations that were around two thousand years ago being reborn today. You don't even know who the Edomites are. Right? But the nation of Israel, they never lost their identity of who they are. They just lost the being in their country. God did Diaspora. The god scattered them all over the world. And the temple was destroyed in seventy AD, and the Romans scattered the people out. There's always a small remnant that stayed, but but there you have it. And so by the rivers and inhabited places of the country, and I will feed them in a good pasture and upon the high mountains of Israel shall they fold be there. They shall lie in a good fold, and in rich pastures they shall feed upon the mountains of Israel. So you take it from being a desert and a totally wasted country to blossoming and providing flowers and food and God causing the people to replant trees. It it the ecology. The early in the latter rain began to come back in again. And a prolific prolific in in being reestablished in that way. God causing it to blossom and bloom. Jesus said, my yoke is easy. My burden is light. And so the the lord is the lord is bringing them back around. He's the good shepherd. I'll feed my flock and I will cause them to lie down, saith the lord god. So he's he's gonna give them rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me from meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest under your souls. For my yoke is easy, my burden is light, Jesus said. And and so Jesus laid down his life for the sheep, John ten eleven through 18. He's the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. I will seek that which was lost and bring again that which was driven away and will bind up that which was broken and will strengthen that which was sick, but I will destroy the fat and the strong. I'll feed them with justice. So the leadership, the fat and the strong, those that were bullies, those that were abusive, the Lord's gonna give them the justice that's due their name. It says judgment, doesn't it? Judgment. Yes. Judgment. And it's gonna give them judgment there. And but the weak, the ones that were neglected and all, the Lord's going to restore them. And so if you've ever had a prodigal son or a daughter, a prodigal mom or dad, those that have gone astray, the Lord's gonna seek them out. Those that were driven away, I'll bind up that which was broken and will strengthen that which was sick. And he says, verse 17, and as for you, oh my flock, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I judge between cattle and cattle and between rams and he goats. So he's discerning. And like in Matthew 25 when he discerns between the sheep and the goat judgment that's gonna be there entering into the millennium, and he's gonna separate the sheep from the goats. The goats are the ones that didn't treat the nation of Israel favorably during the tribulation period. And when saw we thee naked? When saw we thee hungry? When saw we thee thirsty? And as much as you've done it on to the least of these my brethren, you've done it unto me, Jesus said in Matthew 25. And so so he's discerning. Seems it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture and to have drunk of the deep waters but drunk of the deep waters, but you must foul the residue with your feet. So it's not like Psalm 23. You're walking through the horses, everything are coming through and causing all the dust and everything to come up, and you're not giving them the the cool, you know, deeper water. And as for my flock, they eat that which have trampled with your feet, and they drunk that which you have fouled with your feet. And so around the wellhead, where there's a wellhead, you take the rock off in the water, artesian well, the water comes out. You remember Moses, you know, when he removed the rock. We remember when Jacob, when he came and he saw Rachel there, and he fell in love with her when he first saw her because she's a shepherdess and she had the sheep there. And they all these shepherds would come there to water their flocks. And anyway, Jacob removed the stone and the water came out so he could water Rachel's sheep and all. And so you get that real good fresh water there, not the water maybe that's around there that's all muddy and dirty and all. Fresh water. Jesus said, I have water you can drink of that you'll never thirst again. Right? So it seems that a small thing unto you that I've eaten up the good pasture, you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures and have drunk the deep waters, but you have fouled the residue with your feet. So you trampled the grass, you trampled through the water. And as for my flock, my flock, they eat that which ye have trampled with your feet, and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. So one day I'm gonna I'm gonna answer to Jesus. One day I'm gonna stand before him, and I'm gonna give an account because James reminds us to not be many teachers. And YouTube's got everybody wanting to be a pastor now, wanting to be a teacher. But be not many teachers because the judgment's gonna be greater. Right? And and so we're gonna give an account. We're gonna stand before the Lord, and he's going to judge us on did we feed the flock? Did we care for the flock? Did we love the flock? You know, his flock. And there's a day of reckoning. There's a day where the Lord's gonna gonna judge us. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God unto them, behold, I even I will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. So there's renegades, there's bullies, there's those that were fat and they're, you know, pushing and button heads, you know, on the on the weaker ones. And a friend of mine, John Molinea, I miss John. I was thinking about him recently. But he used to always talk about the sheep bites. Sheep bites. That sheep bite. Do you know their sheep bite, Rick? Do know that sheep bite? And I'm like, what? So I haven't been around sheep, but apparently, John according to John, he'd turn you back on a sheep. Maybe they bite you. I don't know. They bite each other. But I remember I remember watching donkeys bite. Right? And they kick. Horses bite. But, you know, think in terms of sheep in the church. It's not always it's not always, you know, the unbelievers that cause trouble. It's sheep biting each other. And biting and devouring. Right? You're biting and devouring. You're not forgiving one another and you're biting and devouring and it causes the holy spirit to be quenched and to be grieved. And when the holy spirit is quenched and grieved, we all suffer because we, you know, we need all the Holy Spirit we can get. We need the Holy Spirit to be pleased to you ever hear people talk about praying, help them to sense your presence. You can't evade his presence. He's everywhere. But Lord, help your people sense your presence that God's well pleased. People talk about a vibe. They come into a building, a house, your home. Do they sense God's presence? Do they sense that the Holy Spirit's pleased with you in this home and all? Or can you sense strife and anger and rancor and the sheep biting and the strife? The servant of Lord must not strive, must not be fighting all the time, but be gentle. So a lot of conflict in churches all through the book of acts, all through the epistles. There's conflict in the church of Corinth. And Paul is addressing that conflict with letters trying to bring correction to the conflict of doctrine and behavior, you know, all through. So we we like the holy spirit to address that conflict as we're teaching the word, as we're studying the word. So therefore, thus saith the lord god unto them, behold, I even I will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle because you have thrust with the side and with the shoulder and pushed all the disease with your horns. So you can picture that flock, the ones that are stronger and the horns and they're they're fighting against each other. And we're supposed to help the weakest. You know? We're supposed to lift up and build up. Because you have thrust with the side with your shoulder and pushed all the disease with your horns till you have scattered them abroad. So Wayne and Brittany's house, they've got a picture of this big steer up there with horns. And when the grandkids come over and start messing with me, I always remind them, you mess with the bull, you're gonna get the horn. Go like that. You know? And last night, Isaiah was reminding me that he's going, papa. You know? And yeah. Therefore will I save my flock and they shall no more be a prey and I will judge between cattle and cattle. So the Lord's the Lord's gonna separate. So in Matthew seven, many are gonna come to Jesus so they think they're in they think they're in and they're gonna say, Lord, Lord. They even know the words. They even know the title. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we not do many mighty things in your name? And then what's he say, Thomas? Bill, I do not know you. Depart from me. Depart from me. Was a curse. Even the goats. Right? I never knew you. I never knew you. Relationship. No relationship. Ye that work iniquity. So people get away with it. Boy, you can get away with it for a long time. And then there's a day of reckoning, there's a day of judgment. And I don't wanna hear the Lord say that away from me. I never knew you. You know? And therefore, will I save my flock, my flock, and I will judge between cattle and cattle. And I will set up one shepherd. Here we go. Who's that one shepherd? Jesus. Now we're in the millennium. Right? Now we've come through the marriage supper of the lamb, and we've got the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one, Hebrew and Greek, and he's the promised Messiah. And, you know, when God's telling Abraham, in your seed, all nations of the earth are gonna be blessed, it's not just the nation of Israel. He's the savior of the whole world Amen. Of every ethnic group, every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Right? And my savior's a Jew. Right? But he's a human being. He's a human being. He's the son of man. Didn't come as an angel. But he decided to come through the loins of of Abraham in the Abrahamic covenant that he would be a Jew, that he'd be Hebrew. And that doesn't mean that the nation of Israel has preferential treatment from a natural standpoint. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. Each and every person that's gonna be the true Israel of God needs to be a believer in Jesus Christ. It's not the natural. See the remember the Pharisees and the religious leaders, they in John eight, they say we were Abraham's seed. And Jesus said, you know, if you're Abraham's seed, then you'd be able to hear what I'm saying. You don't even hear what I'm saying. Your father's the devil, and he was a murderer and a liar from the beginning. Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and he was glad. You guys don't have a clue. And he called them a brood of vipers. Right? And so their natural their natural pedigree wasn't enough to save them. It has to be mixed with faith. So Paul's talking in Romans nine ten eleven, Israel's past election, Israel's present rejection, Israel's future restoration, and the true Israel of God are those who believe. So Jesus is the savior of the whole world. Jesus loves Iranians. Fastest growing church in the world is in Iran right now. He loves Iranians. He loves the Chinese. He loves Russians. We're taught to hate. We're taught to hate various ethnic groups. And when I tell you the story of of Japan and general general Douglas MacArthur, you know, on the deck of the USS Missouri and terms of peace to the emperor, Hiroto, one of the things that general MacArthur implored Americans was send your missionaries. Send your missionaries. He spent seven years there helping them to re industrialize and to get them going again. And Peter Drucker, who interestingly helped Rick Warren with his vision, was also part of that young Peter Drucker. And the American churches wouldn't go because they were taught to hate. They were taught to hate Japs. They didn't go. So that void, that vacuum that was there when everybody believed that the emperor was deity in their belief system, that's why they're kamikazes. They're given their life, you know, for their country And kinda like the lie that Muslims are taught that you have 70 virgins, they didn't know. But when that bubble was popped and they saw that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are, you know, bombed and devastated, they saw that their emperor couldn't stop that, and that he wasn't God. And so the church was supposed to go there. So that void, that emptiness was filled with what? What was that emptiness that void filled with? Commercialism. Commercialism. Japan became very good as industrialists and very good at making cars and making everything else. Right? And so that's what filled that void, was materialism. Where'd they learn that from? Us. Yep. From us. So I will set up one shepherd over them and he shall feed them even my servant David. So the Davidic covenant. You have the Abrahamic covenant, the Messiah is gonna be a Jew. And you have the Davidic covenant that the kingly line, that the dynasty David, I'm gonna build you a dynasty. I'm gonna build you a house. Second Samuel chapter seven. And David wanted to build God a house, and Nathan the prophet said, hey. That's a good idea. That's a good idea. But he comes back and says, David, sorry. God says, no. Your hands are too bloody. You're a man of war. I'm gonna build you a house. And so the dynasty that would come forth through David. So Jesus is the root root in that David emanates from Jesus. He's the root and the offspring of David. So Matthew one and Luke three, we can look at the pedigree. We can look at the lineage of Jesus. And he's he's the in the kingly line from a legal standpoint and also from a DNA standpoint through through Mary's line. And he shall feed them even my servant David. So gonna have a shepherd that feeds. He shall feed them and he shall be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God. And my servant David, a prince among them, I the lord have spoken it. So you're gonna have king of kings and lord of lords, Jesus, almighty god, ruling and reigning from Zion, from Jerusalem for a thousand years. And you're gonna have the nation of Israel there with David as a prince. David will literally be there. The apostles are gonna have positions of of leadership, the 12 apostles. And you and I are gonna be ruling and reigning as kings and priests during the millennial reign. And so you have the nation of Israel. Right now, we have what's called the times of the Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles is where Israel is subservient to Gentile nations. But the times of the Gentiles is gonna end when Jesus comes back, and Israel is gonna be the dominant nation over the Gentile nations that begin to repopulate the planet during the thousand year millennium, the rule and reign. Are you leaving, Betty? No. I'm just watching. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. She's locked in. She can't go. Alright? Okay. So So when Jesus said it is finished, and the kingdom come, is it the new is here now? Where? Do you see it? In heaven. Right? Is it here now? It's the kingdom is within. So From a spiritual heaven. Right? From a spiritual step, from a spiritual standpoint, this kingdom not as well. It's a spiritual kingdom, but a literal kingdom is coming. Literal kingdom. Literal rule and reign. He's ruling and reigning in your heart right now. Mhmm. He's ruling and reigning my heart. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Right? And there's a day where his kingdom will come upon earth. And so when we talked on Sunday about the day of atonement and taking the blood and the blood of bulls and the bullocks was was just a covering. And behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We talked about the high priest on the great day of atonement going into the holy of holies and offering this blood. Jesus, our great high priest, entered into the holy of holies in heaven with his blood, and that's the that's the atonement. That's the that's what paid for all of our sins, past, present, and future. He took away our sins. So in Revelation twenty one and twenty two, we have the eternal state. We have a new heaven, new earth, a new Jerusalem coming down from heaven down to the earth. New earth. New heaven, new earth. In chapter 20, we have the millennium, a thousand year rule and reign of Jesus upon this planet, this planet that he created, this planet that he redeemed with his blood, but he hasn't taken possession of this planet yet. He's marked us out as believers with the engagement ring, which is the holy spirit. We've been marked out. We belong to him. We're saved but he hasn't taken possession of us yet nor of this planet. Romans eight says that all creation groans in this travailing because we're in an endemic fallen nature now. This world is fallen. But there's a day coming where Jesus will come and destroy the devil, the antichrist, the false prophet, all the enemies, all the demons, everything's gonna be subdued, thrown into the lake of fire eventually. Right? The devil's gonna be held for a thousand years in the abyss. The antichrist false prophet, all of them are gonna be in the lake of fire already. And then the millennium, he's gonna allow the earth to be restored, so to speak, like a recreation, so to speak, after the tribulation period. It's so horrific. There's a there's a recreation and to make it look like the garden of edenom because he's gonna reverse the curse. So let's look at some verses that describe the literal rule and reign of Jesus. Who wants Isaiah two one through five? Okay. Who wants to read Isaiah 11? How about Steve read Isaiah 11? Who wants Hosea three five? I can do that. Okay. How about Ezekiel thirty seven twenty five? I can do that now. Okay. How about Jeremiah thirty eight nine? I can do it. Okay. And the last one, Isaiah fifty five three and four. So we're looking at the millennium is gonna start after the seventy five day interval. In Daniel chapter 12, blessed is he that comes at thirteen hundred and thirty fifth day. Now twelve sixty days and twelve sixty days is the seventh year tribulation period. The midpoint of the tribulation period, the devil goes the antichrist goes into the temple that's rebuilt, declares himself to be god, demands to be worshiped as god. That's the abomination of desolation. The two witnesses are are killed. They're left in the street, and then they ascend up, you know, resurrected and ascend up into heaven. Twelve hundred and sixty days after the abomination of desolation is the second coming of Christ. The rapture is imminent. You don't know the day or the hour. No man knows what the day or the day or the hour. He comes as a thief in the night. But the second coming could be calculated. It could be calculated. And so after the 1,260, blesses he that comes the thirteenth and thirty fifth day. So there's a seventy five day interval like we talked about, the judgment of the sheep and the goats, the restoration of the planet, setting things up, and then the the marriage supper of the lamb is the inauguration of the starting of the millennium, the one thousand year rule and reign. And the Gentiles that come in from Matthew 25 are those that come through the sheep and goat judgments. They don't have their new glorified bodies. They're able to have children. You and I are in our new glorified bodies. All of Israel is saved. All of those that are at Basra, at Petra, those those believing Jews are saved and they get their their they get to come into the millennium and Jesus is their king and they're dominant over the Gentile nations over a thousand year period of time that begin to reproduce. Then we're told that at the end of the thousand years that Satan is loosed, and that he's loosed from the abyss that he's held, and he begins to tempt those Gentile nations. And in that temptation, they along with the with the devil try to rebel and come against the lord, and fire comes out of heaven, destroys them all. And that'll be the end of that thousand year rule and reign. And then we come into the eternal state, into eternity, Revelation twenty one and twenty two, new heaven, new earth, golden streets, and all that other stuff that we read about in Revelation twenty one and twenty two. But the earth, during that thousand year rule and reign, the curse is reversed and the the battle between a lion and a lamb and all of the fallen part of of what happened with Adam of the curse is reversed during the millennium. Although there's still sin because the Gentiles sin, but the sin is nipped in the bud in that Jesus ruling and reigning with the rod of righteous. And Jesus doesn't need cameras. He doesn't need artificial intelligence. He doesn't need surveillance. He's omniscient. He knows everything before it ever happens. So picture somebody trying to concoct in their mind because their mind's still evil because they're human beings. Right? Picture them trying to plan to steal a child. I would think that the Lord, like these guys are trying to do right now, pre crime, pre crime technology, they're gonna come arrest you because you said something on Facebook. And then they subjectively say, you're gonna grab a kid. Well, didn't. No, I'm not. Well, Jesus will know what you're really gonna do. And he can stop that sort of stuff before it happens. And he's gonna rule and reign with the rod of righteousness. Your kids are gonna be safe. People are gonna be safe. Alright. So Isaiah two one through five. The word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And that should come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains. And shall be exalted above the hills and all the nations shall flow into it. And many people shall go as go and say, come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the Lord of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways. And we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And we shall and he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people, and they shall bear beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. So that's the kingdom age. That's the golden age. That's the messianic age that everybody tries to, you know, to use and say, oh, we're we're entering into the millennium. We got the golden age, you know. We got the we got bitcoin, man. Everything's gonna be great. You know? Alright. But you see how the nations are gonna flow in? They have to go to Jerusalem. And when we get to to to show allegiance unto Jesus and and when we get to Ezekiel 40 through 48, you're gonna see the Ezekiel's temple, the fourth temple, and you're gonna see sacrifices. Why do you need sacrifices? Right? He's smitten once. It's gonna be a memorial for those Gentile nations pointing back to the cross. It's gonna remind them of the cross, of Jesus dying for them. So these Gentiles that come into the millennium, they need to come to Christ. The the believers the ones that come in already do believe, but their children that are born, those children that are born and begin to repopulate the planet have a an opportunity to receive Christ. And in Isaiah 65, it talks about how they have till they're a 100 years old to choose him or not before they die. They would they would die thereafter if they don't. And so it says here, there shall be no more in it an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days. For the child shall die a 100 years old, but the sinner being a 100 years old shall be accursed. So during the millennium, these unbelievers that you're raising your kids, they have till they're 100 years old to choose Christ or not. If they don't, they're gonna die. They're gonna be accursed. Ain't that a weird verse? That's a strange verse. Never heard that verse. Alright. So Isaiah eleven's another good one. Good passage. Now anybody that thinks we're already in the millennium, think about that as we're reading this. This doesn't remind me of the millennium. Alright? Isaiah 11. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, and the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and the spirit of counsel, and might, and the spirit of knowledge, and the spirit of fear of the Lord, and shall and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the lord and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes neither reprove after the hearing of his heart But with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth. And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins. And faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid. So, there's the reversing of the curse. Right. Right there. And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and the little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed. Their young ones shall lie down together. And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling child shall play on the hold of the asp and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Amen. And in that day, there shall he and in that day, there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an in ensign of the people to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Kush and from Elam and from Shinar and from Hamath and from the islands of the sea and he shall set up an ensign for the nations and shall assemble the outcast of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephratis shall, no, excuse me. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not envy Judah and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the West. They shall spoil them of the East together. They shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river and shall smite it in the seven streams and make men go over dry shod. Dry shod. Dry shod. And there shall he and there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria like it was to Israel in the day that he came out of the land of Egypt. Second Exodus. Alright. Coming back. Coming back home. Hosea three five. Afterwards, shall the children of Israel return and seek the lord their god and David their king and shall fear the lord and fear the lord and his goodness in the latter days. Ezekiel thirty seven twenty five. Jeremiah thirty eight nine. Jeremiah thirty eight and nine. 38 verse eight and nine. Right here. Sorry. For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him, but they shall serve the Lord, their God, and David, their king, whom I will raise up unto them. Alright. Isaiah fifty five three and four. I'll do that one. Okay. Hold on. Isaiah fifty five three and four. Give ear and come to me. Listen that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. My faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler, and a commander of the peoples. Amen. During the law. During the millennium. And the Ezekiel. Sure, go ahead. Then they shall dwell in the land and I have given to Jacob, my servant. Where your fathers dwell and they shall dwell there. There they their children and their children's children forever. And my servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover, I will make covenant of peace with them, and it shall be everlasting covenant with them. I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set my sanctuary in the midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them. Indeed, I will be their god, and they shall be my people. The nations also will know that I am the Lord, sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore. Alrighty. The millennium. So God's peace plan. Jesus is the prince of peace. And so I, the Lord, will be their God and my servant David a prince among them, and I, the Lord, have spoken it. And I will make with them a covenant of peace. So everyone's looking for peace, peace, peace where there is no peace. And the antichrist wants to make a peace plan. Everybody's got a peace plan. But the true prince of peace is Jesus. There's no pre peace without the prince of peace. Right, Thomas? Okay. So I'll make with them the covenant of peace that will cause the evil beasts to cease from the land. And they shall dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing. And I will cause the shower to come down. So again, ecologically, it's gonna cause it to blossom and bloom and and grow and be prolific, much fruit. And I'll cause the shower to come down in season. There shall be showers of blessing. Amen. Don't you love that? Amen. And now the Lord causes rain on the just and the unjust. He doesn't just specifically allow only the nice water to come into your garden and your heathen neighbor not get any water. Right? He causes the rain to come down on the just and the unjust because he loves them. He loves them. The heathen farms, they grow, don't they? They get they get they get rain. So rain down blessings. And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit and the earth shall yield its increase and they shall be safe in the land and they shall know that I am the Lord when I have broken the bars of their yoke and delivered them out of the hand of those who enslaved them. And so God's God's he's the great deliverer. And they shall no more be a prey to the nations, neither shall the beasts of the land devour them, but they shall dwell safely and none shall make of them afraid. Now, this this horrible things that they've gone through is a result of disobedience and unbelief. You know, Jesus wept over the city. Right? Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered you as a mother hen does gather brood under her wings, but you would not. Your city has left you desolate. So as we're reading here, yeah, there's gonna be nations that hate him and holocaust and all these other things, but comes down to faith. Comes down to faith. And they shall no more be afraid of the nations, neither shall the beast of the land devour them, but they shall dwell safely and none shall make them afraid. And I'll raise up of them plant of renown and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the nations anymore. So God has an unconditional covenant in Jeremiah 31 where they come to believe they're born again. And as a result of being born again, now they get to enter into all the blessings that God has promised here. Thus shall they know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and they they even the house of Israel are my people, saith the Lord God. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture are men. And I am the Lord your God, saith the Lord God. And so they don't even know him yet. They don't know the true living God. And we used to sing a song, he shall feed his flock like a shepherd, and he shall gather lambs in his arms. Right, Thomas? Right. Alright. So any other comments or questions before we close in prayer? Alright. Father, thank you for the sweet time that we can spend in your word, Lord. And we thank you, Lord, that the best is yet to come. That, Lord, we get to rule and reign with you in our new glorified bodies. Lord, we're not gonna be in these bodies much longer, and that you're coming for us, your bride. And as Israel is in the land, and the nation of Israel dominant of the Gentile nations during the millennium, we, Lord, the church, the bride of Christ, as Israel is the wife of Jehovah, we're the bride of Christ. And, we too are in a prominent place of servanthood. We get to serve you, Lord. And we get to enter into those roles, those places of service that you preordained. And Lord, we yearn. We we yearn for that day, Lord, that we see you glorified. We see you ruling and reigning from Jerusalem and the nations drawn to you year by year coming in. And, Lord, the access that we have and the fellowship that we have. And, Lord, maybe, we don't know, but maybe we even have access to to the new Jerusalem up in heaven. And we get to go back and forth in our new bodies, not limited by anything, and that that'd be pretty cool. So thank you, Lord. Thank you for the hope that is ours, and we love and praise your name tonight, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.

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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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