Transcript for:
Romans 9:14,24 -Vessels Of Honor- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2023-08-06

Vessels of Honor, Romans chapter 9, 14 through 24. Romans 9, 14 through 24, would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid, for he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. So then is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. For the scriptures saith unto Pharaoh, even for the same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore has he mercy on whom he'll have mercy, and whom he will, he hardens. Thou wilt say then unto me, why do you find fault, or who has resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall a thing form, say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Has not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory? Even us whom he has called, not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles. Father, we thank you that you, Lord, have fashioned us from the dust of the ground, as you brought forth Adam from the dust, and Lord, as you brought forth Eve from the rib bone, and Lord, as you, Lord Jesus, as you came as the babe of Bethlehem, you came in the form of a man, the Son of Man, fully God, fully man, and you're the last Adam, and you're our representative. You're the one that went to the cross of Calvary, and took the wrath, took the sins of the whole world upon yourself, and you did it willingly, you did it joyously for the purpose of saving us, saving us from an eternity in hell, and Lord, we pray that our lives would be expressions of worship, that we would be vessels of honor, not of dishonor, that we would be these clay pots that you fill, and refill, and keep filling, Lord, and flowing through, that we'd be the temple of the Holy Spirit, that we'd be anointed and used of you, Lord, to bring glory and honor unto you, Lord. We pray that we not bring shame or reproach to your name. We pray in these last days you give us the courage and the faith, and Lord, the tenacity to never compromise, to never give in, to be, never tolerate evil, Lord, but to call it out like it is, and to stand firm, and to appeal unto you for your mercies that are new each morning, and knowing, Lord, that we're frail, and knowing, Lord, that we're but dust. And Father, you're the one that brings value. You're the one that brings meaning and purpose to our lives. You're the one that fills us, and allows us to experience the power of your Holy Spirit. So, Father, we pray this morning that you'd teach us, that you'd overwhelm our hearts and minds, that we'd be totally addicted and in love with you, more so than we've ever been, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Would you please be seated? Paul's been speaking about Israel's past election. In chapter 10, he's going to speak of Israel's present rejection in the present tense. His theme has been the gospel, Romans 1, 16 and 17. He said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first, and also unto the Gentile. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, that Josh shall live by faith. And then he goes on in Romans 1 to render everybody guilty. Render the idolaters that exchange the use of male with male and female with female, that deny, in verse 18, you know, they suppress the truth of God, they get into idolatry, they deny the glory that's due God's name as the Creator. And then he gives them over to their lusts. And so you think, well, I'm going to beat up on homosexuals and lesbians and LBGTQ plus P. But he doesn't stop there. He goes on to talk about the moralists. He talks about the religious people, the Jewish religious people that think that they're saved, and he renders them guilty. And then he concludes that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All means all. Every group, every person, every person upon this planet is guilty. And the reason being is that he's going to show the way of salvation. The theme is salvation. The theme is the gospel, the good news. And so eight chapters Paul uses to describe the gospel, and he gets into the importance of faith in chapter four, and justification chapter five, and chapter six, that the power of sin will be subservient to the power of the Holy Spirit, that sin won't dominate us anymore. He describes in chapter seven the struggle between the flesh and the spirit, the things I do want to do, I don't do, the things I don't want to do, I do, and oh wretched man that I am, who, not what, not therapy, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Then he gets into chapter eight, a glorious chapter of the spirit, the life of the spirit, the security for the believer, that nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. And now he addresses the replacement theology people of today, people that don't acknowledge the nation of Israel, that don't acknowledge on May 14, 1948, Israel was reborn as a nation as prophesied in Ezekiel 36 and 37. Somehow people think that the church has replaced Israel. Paul says, no, no, no, no, no. Let's look in Romans nine at Israel's past election. Let's look in chapter 10 at their present rejection. Israel by and large has rejected their Messiah in this dispensation called the church age. The gospel priority goes to the Jew first, but when the Jew rejects, Paul says, go into the Gentiles. So the Gentile bride, the church is continuing to be made as the Lord is calling. And then we see that in chapter 11, the future restoration of Israel. So you have the past election, present rejection, the future restoration of Israel, and until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so at the rapture of the church, Romans 11, 25, when the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, we're going to be raptured out of here. That'll be the end of the church age. The next age that takes place is the 77 of Daniel, Daniel 9, 25 through 27. There's a seven year period of time called the time of Jacob's trouble, the time where God is going to preserve and purify a one third remnant. According to Zechariah 13, 8 and 9, two thirds are going to die. They're going to perish during the tribulation period. But a one third remnant is going to be purified. They're going to come to faith. They're going to be given an unconditional covenant according to Jeremiah 31, where God's going to write his law upon their heart. They're going to be born again. Nikki, you've got to be born again. They're going to be born again. Jesus said, you're not going to see me again until you say, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord and the nation of Israel, that one third remnant, the true Israel of God, in Isaac shall they see be called. They're going to have a saving faith. They're going to call out upon the name of the Lord and the Lord Jesus is going to return. Jesus said, except those days be short and no flesh will be saved. But for the elect's sake, the elect be in Israel, not the church, the elect's sake in the context during the tribulation period, the Lord Jesus will return and stop the Antichrist and stop the armies of the Antichrist and stop the devil from totally and completely annihilating that one third remnant that remain, two thirds having already perished. And so here we are watching, as Paul is pointing out, that in this election, it isn't because there, you know, anything special. It's simply because of God's sovereignty. It's because of God's mercies, God's mercy in your life, in my life, and so too in the life of the nation of Israel, there's, there's people that he's saving. And so Paul has been speaking about the past election of Israel. He reminded us that God loved Jacob, but hated Esau. He chose Jacob. He rejected Esau. He chose Isaac. He rejected Ishmael. And so God is sovereign. He makes some vessels unto honor and he makes some vessels unto dishonor. If God has called you, are you called of God? Are you a child of God? Do you know the true and living God? I remember the day when I was with some of my friends at my reunion this past week. There was a reunion at the beach and I saw a bunch of friends from high school and stuff. And it's been so many years. A lot of people don't even know who you are when you go there. You got to wear a name tag, you know, but there were some. And it's just interesting to see how we can talk about the past. And for me, it was January of 1980 that I was 20 years old and God snatched me. He just apprehended me. He just grabbed hold of me. I didn't see it coming. I wasn't looking for it. And I began to explain to these guys what was happening to me. God chose me. And I find out later that he chose me before the foundation of the earth, that I was predestined, that I was elected, that it wasn't me conjuring up faith. It wasn't me building the faith up. It wasn't me going to catechism and Catholicism or I'd go to the pier. And I was showing you guys some videos of me being at the pier and various people there sharing the gospel and praying and worship. And it just brought me to tears. Just people everywhere sharing the gospel. When I grew up, when I was going to the pier, it was like that. Except there were also some higher Krishna guys. I saw one. I saw one higher Krishna guy when I was there. But for the most part, it's Christians there sharing the gospel. And Kathy made a good point. She said, you know, these people here in Orange County don't need to go out as missionaries. All the foreigners are here. All the foreigners are coming here. The Chinese are everywhere. They're all over the place. Just people from every nation, tribe, tongue, lineage. So they're sharing the gospel there. And I told Kathy and I reminded myself that, you know, I used to walk this pier. I used to come here after partying or a date or whatever. And you'd finish the evening typically taking a walk on the pier at night or in the day or whatever. And nobody, nobody ever came up to me and shared the gospel. Not one, not one single person. I had friends in high school that were saved. They never shared the gospel with me. But that night, that night when a friend of mine invited me to a concert, at the end of that concert, a guy got up there and shared the gospel. That was the very first time I heard the gospel. And I responded immediately. Absolutely immediately. And it wasn't, it wasn't that I was planning this or thinking of it. It hit me upside the head. I didn't even know what was hit, you know, what was coming. But it was so overwhelming. And now I look back on it as you're meeting with classmates and people. And there's this question of why, why me? Why did you choose me? Why didn't you choose all these people? Why didn't you choose them all? You know, I know theologically that you died for the sins of the whole world. All their sins have been paid for. But there was something triggered in me. There was something God did in his election, in his predestination of me, in his choosing of me that was so incredibly overwhelming. I would have been insane had I rejected. That's how it is. So if God has called you, if he's chosen you, he's making you a vessel of honor. So you look at your heritage, you look at your home, you look where you came from. I have a lot of things I'm ashamed of. I have a lot of things in my family I'm ashamed of. A lot of things in my own life, my past life I'm ashamed of. I have a lot of things in my present life, things about me and my character and who I am I'm ashamed of. He didn't just choose me and save me. Now he says, I'm going to make you a vessel of honor. I'm going to make something good out of you. Some of you think you're really good, that you're a prize for God. That he really won when he got you, right? Not me. Not me, man. Not my family. Not who I am. I know what a wretched man I am. And I know the grace of God. I know his mercies, not just in saving me but in keeping me. I'm not letting me slip through his fingers, you know? And to think of the future. To think in the future that I'm going to be standing there before him, perfected in him, glorified. And that he has a plan and a purpose for my life that extends into the ages to come. That I'm being prepared for that function within his government. We're going to rule and reign with him as kings and priests. And our function within his kingdom is being groomed, is being prepared even now based upon faithfulness, based upon you and I being faithful, based upon you and I yielding to the potter's hand as he's molding and shaping us into that vessel of honor that he can display, that he can put on display, that he can use, that he can be glorified in. He said, Church, you're the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. You don't take that light and hide it under a bushel. You don't run around ashamed of the gospel, ashamed of Jesus Christ, ashamed of, you know, being a Christian. No, it's the most glorious privilege we've ever been afforded, ever been blessed with. Why me, God? Not why did you allow this evil, this victimization, or these bad things to happen to me. God, you've got some questions to answer when I get there. No, you see the scarred hands of Jesus, his scarred face, the lamb that had been slain before the foundation of the earth, and all your questions are answered in the incarnation of God's love in the person of Jesus Christ. The Master Potter makes us vessels of honor, number one, it's by his decision. He decides. It's his decision. He decided to save me. He decided to save you. His decision. Before the foundation of the earth, he knew you. Before the foundation of the earth, your name's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. You came to discover, as Paul said, before he formed me in my mother's womb, you know, separated from my mother's womb. God told Jeremiah, before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you and I ordained you a prophet unto God. I knew you, Jeremiah, and I had a plan and a purpose for your life before I even formed you in your mother's womb. Isn't it great to know God's plan and purpose for your life? Isn't it great to not be kicking against the goats and fighting against his plan and purpose, but to just yield and to rest in him, to rest in what he's called you to do, and to be that person he's made so unique, so incredibly unique, you don't need to compare with anybody else. You just be who he's called you to be. You're the only one that can be that father to those children. You're the only one that can be that mother. You're the only one that can be that friend. You've been called. God's counting on you. He's dependent upon you to be a vessel of honor, to shine bright, to be filled, be being filled with his spirit in these clay pots. He says, verse 14, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Isn't it unfair that he chooses one and rejects another, that God chooses one and not another? No, it's merciful. None of us deserve. None of us deserve to be chosen. None of us deserve to be saved. None of us deserve to be justified. All of us, what do we deserve? If we were to have justice, if we demanded justice, it'd be hell. Mercy is when we get what we don't deserve. We're saved. We don't deserve to be saved. We don't deserve it. He's merciful. In Genesis 18, 25, Abraham's negotiating with God. He's negotiating for Lot and Lot's family in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. God's letting Abraham know, the friend of God, that he's going to judge Sodom and Gomorrah. He's going to take it down. And Abraham begins to appeal to God based upon God's righteousness. God, you're righteous. Are you going to destroy the righteous with the wicked? And it's a beautiful, beautiful picture there of the rapture. A beautiful picture of not being subject unto God's wrath. A beautiful picture of Lot and his family being delivered before the fire and the brimstone comes upon Sodom and Gomorrah. God's going to rapture us before he pours out his wrath upon this Christ-rejecting world. Do you believe that? Is that the hope of your heart? The blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior? And he goes from 50 people, if there's 50 righteous, and he asked God a question, shall not the God, the judge of all the earth, do right? You're right. Would you judge the righteous with the wicked if there'd be 50, if there'd be 45, if there'd be 40, if there'd be 30, if there'd be 20, if there'd be 10? If there's 10 righteous Abraham, all right, I'll spare the city. Didn't even 10. Lot and his family. Two daughters, wife, Lot, and they barely get out. They're lingering. The angels have to grab hold of them and bring them forth. They can't even bring the judgment upon the city until they get them out of there. Psalm 145, 17 says, the Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. It would be just to condemn all men. Why couldn't God just start over? Why didn't he just start over with the great Noahic flood? Why not just wipe the whole planet out? Say, hey, this is a bad experiment. This isn't going to work. The thoughts and intents of man's heart's only evil continually. They're just getting better and better and better as they're living seven, eight, nine hundred years. They're just getting better and better at sinning. And that's what you find out when you go to your high school reunion after 50 years. The people are not better. They didn't become better people. They're just better at sinning. They're better sinners. They know how to hide it and lie. And I mean, it's like high school. They didn't grow up. You're scratching your head like you didn't grow up. You're still scamming on these girls here. They're scamming on you. You're still listening to Led Zeppelin. How can you still be listening to Stairway to Heaven? And it's blaring so loud, it's giving me a headache. I need earplugs. I'm old now. They had this big old bar like thing there. And the bands are there all day and night. And I'm just like, oh, man, I just can't take it. Thank you for saving me, Lord. Thank you for saving me. I can get on my bike and ride away from this. And I stayed and I had my friend Jenny and Glenn and Eddie there and my friend Tim. And we hung out for about an hour or so, maybe two hours. And Kathy didn't want to go. And the grandkids and all of them are with her. And they're at Ruby's eating. And oh, man, that's where I wanted to be. But I needed to be there. And I saw firsthand. It's just like, you know, I can project. I can see from 20 years old or 18 when I was in school to the present, 63 years old. I can see, wow, Lord, look what you've done in my life over the span of time. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for snatching me out of that. Some of them began to divulge to me that they spent time in jail. Others were told by the judge, you either go into the Marine Corps or the military or go into jail, you know, drug possession and stuff. They've flown through windshields. They've been through marriages. They just horrible, horrible things, horrible things and horrible things happen to Christians, too. There's no there's no, you know, immunity for us. But the difference is we have the Lord to help us get through these things. We don't have to go to therapy and and delve into did your mom hug you enough and stuff like that. You know, I don't even want to go there and think about that, you know, who comes up with that stuff, you know. And so I just don't deserve to be saved. And I'm so thankful that I am. There's none righteous, none deserve to be saved. God decides it's his decision to save. He's sovereign. He decides. He decided to pardon Israel. God decided to pardon Israel. He decided to forgive Israel of their sins. Verse 15, for he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. Mercy, again, is getting what you don't deserve. In his love, he chose to forgive Israel's sin. In Exodus chapter 32, Moses went up to Mount Sinai to get the commandments, the Ten Commandments. And he's up there for about 40 days. And the people are getting restless. They're getting really restless. They wanted to party. So they talked to Moses's brother Aaron, and they said, you know, we don't know about this Moses guy, you know, he may not come back. We want you to fashion a God for us. So quickly, so quickly, they backslid. So quickly, they're seeing God deliver them from Egypt. They come through the Red Sea. They're in the land. They're on their way to the promised land. And so quickly, they're overwhelmed with unbelief and dishonoring God. How quickly. And so he tells them, get all your gold earrings, get all the stuff that when we despoiled Egypt, and give it to me. And, you know, he takes the sand and he fashions a, you know, golden calf. And later on, he tells Moses, when Moses is confronting him, he says, hey, we just threw it in there and it popped out. It just popped out. Yeah, right. And nobody wants to take responsibility. And so, you know, they very quickly, and then they get into a very immoral, part of their pagan rituals was, you know, sexual activity. And so they're basically orgying and all, and there's a big noise and volume of noise that Joshua misinterprets and says it's a sound of war. No, it's not the sound of war. It's a, these guys are partying. And I went to the beach party. I heard, I saw it, you know, and craziness. And so God says to Moses, I'm going to wipe these people out. I'm going to wipe them out. I'm going to raise up a people from you, Moses. And God's testing Moses. God's fed up with the children of Israel. God's testing Moses. And Moses, the intercessor, he begins to intercede. As we saw in Jeremiah 15, when we were studying last time, God says even if Moses or Samuel were to pray and intercede and stand before these people, I'm not going to back down. I backed down before when Moses interceded for them. And the Lord backed down. He repented of the evil that he's going to bring upon them. And then the Lord, the Lord told them to take off their ornaments, all their idolatrous things that they had, that they were delving into and all. And Moses said, those of you that want to stand for the Lord, stand with the Lord. And those that don't, don't. And only the Levites stood with Moses and stood for the Lord. And then he commanded that the Levites would go take their sword and wipe out the rebellious ones. And 3,000 died in Genesis, Exodus 32, 28, 3,000 of them died. But in Exodus 33, 19, it says, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy and I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. Jeremiah, when he, at the end of his ministry, when he saw Jerusalem destroyed, when Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed Jerusalem, he'd been telling for 40 years that this was going to happen, that people didn't listen. God said, even if Moses and Samuel were to intercede, I'm not going to listen. I'm not going to relent. I'm not going to give up this time. They are ripe into judgment. I'm going to judge my own people. They're going to go into captivity for 70 years. They're going to be taken to Babylon and many, many, many of them are going to die. Just as Jesus wept over Jerusalem and knew that in 70 AD, that Titus would surround the city and put a siege upon the city and millions of Jews would die in that siege. As he wept, how often I would have gathered you as a mother hen does gather her brood under her wings, but you would not. Your city's left you desolate. And within 40 years, it came to pass and it broke God's heart. It breaks God's heart when people harden their heart and won't give in. And so here in the case of what Paul is saying here, is that God pardoned the nation of Israel. He didn't wipe them out, but he did wipe out the Egyptians. In lamentations, it is the Lord's mercies that were not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. I'd rather be like the publican that smites his breast and says, God be merciful to me, a sinner, not even looking up to heaven, than to be a Pharisee, a self-righteous Pharisee that thinks he's better than everybody, whom Jesus said, Luke 18, prayed with himself. Thanking God that he's ties and he gives, and he is an extortioner and a murderer and adulterer like these other guys, or even like this tax collector. You know, Jesus said he didn't come for the righteous, but for sinners, to draw sinners. It's those who are sick that need the physician. Jesus is the great physician. You've got to acknowledge your need of the antidote, your knowledge, your need of Jesus. He's the solution. He's the one that can make you whole. He's the one that extends mercies. His mercies are new every morning. Verse 16, so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy. So it's not you. You didn't decide. It's not of him that willeth. Hey, I'm saved because I willed to be saved. Hey, I'm saved because I went to church every week as a kid. I was raised in a Christian home. It's not because you're an American. It's not because you're a Jew. It's because God chose you. Jesus looked at his disciples in John 15. He said, you didn't choose me, but I chose you. You didn't choose me, you guys. I chose you. And I ordained that you bring forth fruit and that your fruit will remain. That once you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. And Peter's saying, away from me, from a sinful man. Children, you caught any fish? And they're going to see this later when Peter's wanting to leave the ministry after denying the Lord three times. But at the beginning of their calling, as Andrew came to Peter, and hey, we found the Messiah, you know, and James and John there, and they're fishermen in the Sea of Galilee, partners and all. Cast your net on the other side. And it's just a full net of fish that brings Peter to the realization, this is miraculous. This is crazy. We're here cleaning the nets and he tells us to push out from the shore and try again. And it's hot out. We catch fish at night. We fished all night and caught no fish. But it's your word, Lord, we'll do it. And then Peter says, away from me from a sinful man. Because anytime you see or you draw near to the glory of God, in comparison, you're undone. In Isaiah 6, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips. Those who are proud, God resists the proud. You haven't been with Jesus. Those who are humble, those who are broken, those are the ones Jesus spends time with. The broken, the humble. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. Not by Titus 3.5, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but as according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Or Ephesians 2.8 and 9. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself. Even the faith isn't of you. For by grace, grace is unmerited favor. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don't deserve. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works. Why? Unless any man should boast. Hey, I worked a little harder. I believed a little more. I served a little more. I gave a little more. There's no boasting. There's no boasting around. He shares his glory with no man. You're saved simply because God chose you. Because God chose to be merciful to you. God is sovereign. It's his decision. He decided to save you. Well, Lord, why me? Why did you decide to save me, but not my friends? I know I'm not special. I know in many ways I was meaner and nastier and a bigger sinner than all of them. Not really, but a lot of them. Why me? And I scratched my head. I just scratched my head like, and then you're gonna be, and on top of that, you're gonna make me a pastor? You should see the way these guys looking at me. How did you get saved? And you're a pastor? How does that work? One time I went to the doctor years ago, and I first came up here, and I had a back injury, and I went to get an MRI because somebody crashed into our car. So finally I had medical insurance because they crashed in my car. And so I was able to go in there and get the MRI. And the doctor asked me, you know, what I do. And I said, well, I used to have a cleaning business, carpets and upholstery and all that in Orange County, but I came over here to plant a church. I'm a pastor now. And he goes, how does that work? You know, you don't look like a pastor to me, you know. Well, what's one look like? A lady came up to me one time down at the rock scene. She says, you know, a pastor at our Methodist church, you know, he was a holy man. Holy man. And I'm like, aren't I? What am I, you know? What's a holy man look like? You know, he's a holy man. So I thought, well, if I wear that collar and the robe and the whole thing and talk, you know, then they'll think I'm a holy man, you know. These guys are putting on airs, you know. They want a distance. They want some sort of hierarchy. They want a laity. They want to dominate the laity in their position, you know. And I believe the Lord uses the biggest freaks, the things that are, you know, the base things, the things that are not to count on the things that are mighty, you know. He gets the glory that way, you know. So he decides to punish Pharaoh. For the scripture, Exodus 9, 16, say unto Pharaoh, even for the same purpose have I raised thee up. So Paul's saying, look at the example of Pharaoh. Look at the example of the nation of Egypt, but also of Pharaoh, this world leader, this Klaus Schwab. And Klaus Schwab is not a world leader. He's a pretender. And Maurice Strong years ago was a part of the UN. And these pretenders, these globalists, these lower level globalists, if you will, because there's those above them, they pontificate of how important they are and how you're going to own nothing and you're going to be happy and all their different rhetoric and all. And the Lord says, you know what, I'm raising these idiots up on a stage. I'm bringing them all up on the stage during the tribulation period, and I'm going to be glorified in the way that I pour out my wrath upon them. I'm setting the stage to show who I am to these, these God haters. And that's what he did with Pharaoh. He just set the stage. For the scripture, Exodus 9, 16, say unto Pharaoh, even for the same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. When God uses Russia and Turkey and Iran, in case you didn't know, do you want to know how treasonous our government is? Our government is presently pushing through a $3 trillion, my buddy Dennis Eck posted this, a $3 trillion gift to China, Russia, and Iran. So in the media, you're being sold, we're going to war with Russia, that they're the enemy. So could it be our treasonous government says, you, the American people are the enemy of the globalists. And we're going to fund China, Russia, and Iran to go to war with you. Because you have the de facto global currency, you have an unlimited war budget, but they do not. So we're going to give them the technology and $3 trillion that you have to borrow, America, and give it to them. So before we crash the economy, we're going to arm them with what they need to take you down. $3 trillion. Who comes up with that? God's setting the stage. God is going to cause Russia, according to Ezekiel 38 and 39, Russia, Turkey, Iran, a coalition of nations that are going to come against Israel, God's going to put a hook in their jaw on the world stage. And many feel this hook is the natural gas and the oil that Israel now has enormous amounts. We want no competition with providing energy to Europe, this whole climate, religion, it's all a farce. It's all a means of tyranny. It's a Luciferian religious new age system. They need energy. People in Germany are going to freeze this year. And so Russia is going to go after Gazprom, they're going to go after the nation of Israel, they're going to invade the nation of Israel. And God's going to destroy according to Ezekiel 38 and 39. This is prophecy. Your pastor is teaching you prophecy. So go to Ezekiel 38 and 39 to make sure that I'm not lying. They're going to invade Israel, thinking there's unwalled cities that they're vulnerable. And it's God that's going to put it in the mind of Gog, the leader of Magog, to go and take this spoil. Some say the spoil might be in the Dead Sea, the strategic minerals, enormous amounts of minerals that are there in the Dead Sea. Just as we invade Afghanistan for the strategic minerals, the enormous amounts of minerals that are in Afghanistan. We constantly invade countries to seize assets for black rock in Ukraine. I think it's 17 or 18%, I forget what the number is, of Ukraine now belongs to black rock to fund the war, so-called war, of Ukraine and Russia. The globalists wind up taking all of the assets, the tangible assets, when the music stops. You will own nothing and be happy. And Russia and Turkey and Iran and this coalition of nations from Sudan and such, five out of every six of them are going to be wiped out. And I believe this war is coming before the tribulation period. The reason being, thereafter, the whole world knows, as God is being glorified, He says they're going to glorify me through this. Everyone's going to have to say, that was a God thing. Just as when Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls in Jerusalem, his enemies, Tobiah and Samballot, and everybody's coming after him, trying to stop him and mock him and keep him from building those walls. But they build them in 50 and two days, and his enemy said, we know that this work was wrought of God. So too, when Israel wins in this battle, God's going to intervene and destroy this invading force. Five out of every six is going to be wiped out. The world, the stage is going to be set for a peacemaker. And the Antichrist, in place of Jesus Christ, I believe, is going to emerge with a seven-year peace treaty with the nation of Israel. But the stage being set that God is glorified in the way that He will judge these nations coming after the nation of Israel, so too Pharaoh, the way that he treated for over 400 years, the children of Israel, as God was forming a nation, as God sent Joseph ahead of them, as Joseph was being prepared for from time he's 17 to the time he's 30, he's being prepared for leadership. That preparation for leadership is suffering, being broken, being falsely accused. And then as he's 30 years of age, as he's a type of Christ, and that he was sold for 20 pieces of silver, as Jesus was sold by his brothers for 30 pieces of silver, and as he comes into the place of being ruler over Egypt, and he's able to nourish his 70, the Jacob, and the 70 that came down, that 70 over a period of time, over 400 years, became a couple million people. And then a Pharaoh came along who knew not Joseph, and they began to cause him to work so hard and make bricks without straw. And I saw, I saw it on the Ten Commandments, I saw it. Moses, you know, I saw it. So God pardons Moses, he forgives Israel, but God punishes Pharaoh, he judges Egypt. Every series on television, every movie that's worth anything, needs a villain. Always got to have an injustice done first. Somebody's mistreated, somebody does something wrong. And my kind of movies are, there's a new sheriff in town, there's somebody that comes and gets rid of the bad guy. Once you get into a series and they finally catch the person that's doing all the bad stuff, the series is over. What are you going to do? You have to produce a villain. The villain in the story of life is the devil. He's the villain. He's doing bad, he's God's hitman. He's the one that goes around doing bad stuff. In this case, the devil's working through Pharaoh, working through Egypt. God's setting the stage for Pharaoh to act like he's God, a God-complex, like the globalists today. God's just, in Psalm 2, he's saying, oh how the heathen rage and imagine a vain thing against the Lord and against his anointing, against Jesus. They're going to actually try to stop Jesus from returning, these globalist idiots. But the stage is set that God has glorified, God is allowing them. In Revelation 17, it says these 10 kings, these 10 kings in Revelation 17, when they get together, they're going to give over their sovereignty over to the Antichrist. And God is putting in their hearts to do according to his will, that the stage would be set in the tribulation period for God to thump on evil. God is sovereign. And in the midst of that, God decides to save an innumerable multitude of people in Revelation 6 and 7 that can't even be numbered. God decides to save 144,000, 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel. With them being marked out, they can't even be touched. God decides. He's completely in control right now, no matter how chaotic it looks, Democrat, Republican, whatever. He's absolutely completely in control. Everything is falling into place. Everything is happening according to his will. Jesus is coming again. If you're in love with this world, that won't resonate with you. You're going to look for a solution. You're going to look for a Trump. You're going to look for a Pence. You're going to look for a Biden. You're going to look for an Obama, whoever else they roll out for you. You don't have no choice. You've got a choice between two people. And you can't vet them. You can't say, where'd Obama come from? You're not allowed. You're not allowed to vet them. You're not allowed to fact check. You're fed a whole baloney of guilt that the sin of America is white people. We need a black homosexual Islamic president. And you, out of your guilt, will vote for him twice in the name of love because Rick Warren brings him up on stage. And he's fundamentally going to transform America all according to God's plan. Going to take it down. He's the destroyer. And then you're going to be deceived when they bring in someone to the right who's also on the same team. The objective to take America down. God is setting the stage. Superpower America has to go. God is bringing forth a global government, a global economic system, a global religious system. And then Jesus is going to return and he's going to establish a global government, a global religious system, the worshiping of him. So as Mark said last week, you know, the fastest growing religion in America is Satanism, Luciferian, witchcraft, people apostate, abandoning the truth in rebellion against God. God is setting the stage. He's setting the stage for the rebellion of man in Revelation nine. You know, he's going to allow these demons to come out from the earth. Demons that are being held back. He's going to allow unleash them with heads like lions and tails like scorpions stinging and and praying upon people. And they're wanting to die, but they can't die. And then in chapter 11, the two witnesses are finally allowed to be executed by the Antichrist and they throw a party. They're so excited. They're so incredibly rebellious against God. They hate God. And that's just the midpoint. They ain't seen nothing yet. They ain't seen nothing. And they're hiding, Revelation six, the globalists, they're hiding in their bunkers and their caves and their deep underground military bunker system that they've been building, preparing to go underground with their food store and seed stores and all the other stuff, because on top of the planet, they know that they're tearing it down. They're bringing it down. They got to reduce the population in their minds. Did you see this week in California that there was a bio lab, a Chinese bio lab in a commercial building that an inspector happened upon? They're taking mice and they're infecting mice that the can then go out and spread various bio chemicals, bio problems, pandemics, whatever you want to call it. And I truly, truly believe that they know how many guns you have. They know how many blades of grass there are. We've heard that over and over and over and over and over. And yeah, they want to disarm you, but they know you're not going to give them up. You know what they're going to do? They're going to bug spray you. You're going to be bug sprayed. You're going to fly over. They're going to put it in your food, your water. They don't like when you can shoot back at them. They're cowards. They're going to bug spray. They're going to reduce the population in that way. And then when you're emaciated and you can't eat and you can't function, then they're just going to come in and mop up with the $3 trillion they just paid China, Russia, and Iran. Welcome to America. The stage is being set. It's so evil, isn't it? There's villains. It's bad. It's ugly. If you don't understand the sovereignty of God, that he's on the throne, he's in control, that you're not in control. There's no human champion you can elect and fix this. It's not a political problem. It's a spiritual problem. America's turned its back upon God. Pharaoh was raised up to fight with God on the stage of history. Psalm 75, 6 says, promotion comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south, but God is the judge. He puts down one, he sets up another. Didn't Nebby find that out in Daniel 4? Is this not great Babylon, which I have built? Seven years of eating grass, becoming a hippie. Man, I wish he'd do that to some people on the world stage. There's some guys I can think of. I'd love to see them be imbecilic and not just tapping them so that he starts again McConnell or drooling a double. I mean really. Everybody knows it. Oh, don't talk about it too loud, but Nebby's out there eating grass again. He's out there. The dew is falling on him. He's lost his mind. The emperor has no clothes on. Be careful though. And seven years later, the Lord restores his faculties and everything. Think about that. Your faculties, when you take them, your faculties given back to you. The demoniac, when Jesus delivered him from the legion of demons and said he was clothed, seated, and in his right mind. God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but a power of love, a sound mind. When the pandemic hit, you acted in faith. You didn't have all the facts. It didn't sound right in your heart. You had discernment. You stayed with faith. You stayed with trusting God through this. I'm not going to give in to fear. He hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but a power of love, a sound mind that will serve you in the future as the battle intensifies. You're being trained. You're being groomed to be a vessel of honor, not of dishonor and shutting your church down and wearing a mask, double mask, triple mask. One of the things about Kitsap Karen, can I call it that? There are so many Karens here, whatever a Karen is. People that think they're in control, they're going to make everybody else abide by that speed limit of 65 in that left lane. I just drove for two days. I got back to Kitsap County, Karen County. And I saw on Facebook, some people posting 10 cars, you know, back and the right lane clogged and the whole thing. And this one car holding it all back and everybody trying to, Oh, but you're supposed to obey the law and all that, you know? Hey, if you can get away with it, take the shoulder and get around them, you know, just, just get around them. Take the mask off, you know, take the gloves off. It's just, it was, it was glorious, glorious moves. I learned some new moves on this trip. These people in California got some moves, man. And I'm afraid to try some of their moves, but I was just in disbelief. Like, did you just see that? That guy went all the way over there and all the way over there. He made everybody back off of him. You know, I wouldn't try that one. Kathy watches. I don't know why she's doing this. She's constantly watching all of these car wrecks, people doing maneuvers and things. And she's constantly educate me on how it happens. I don't know why, but, but, uh, but Hey, she's, I can hardly drive with you anymore. I said, well, you're getting old, honey. You're getting old. Promotion comes neither from the East nor from the West, nor from the South, but God is the judge. He puts down one and sets up another. And that's what Nebby concluded. God can raise up anybody he wants to play the role of King. Case in point, Biden. Biden was raised up by God to demoralize America. Biden's doing the greatest job any president has ever done. He's fulfilling his role to destroy America. He's doing what he was put in there for and is bumbling and is drooling and all of the fraud and aspects of it. It's all according to plan a communistic plan, the demoralization to teach you and I learned helplessness. They want to teach you that you're helpless to stop them. And even your so-called champion, I'm not you. I want to insult you. Those of you that believe in Trump, a lot of pastors do. I do not. He's also part of the team. And he's also there to show you that they're going to indict him and continue to bring up charges on him and nobody else, just him to teach you, you have no power. Whatever your champion is, whoever he is, we will not, we will not tolerate the populist candidate. We will arrest him. We will put pressure on him till he begs for a plea deal. That's all that is. All it is, is to teach you a learned helplessness, that you are helpless. There's nothing you can do. The system's so corrupted it's over. Give up, give in, just hand in your guns, eat bugs. We won, you lost. There's no champion, there's nobody coming to rescue you. That's the message. And yet the solution is the church. It's truth. If the truth be known, they can't do it. They can't govern without your consent. But yet we keep giving in and in and in and in. And the whole January 6th and the Pence thing and the Biden thing and Obama, the whole thing is a communistic takeover. And the church complies. By and large, the church complied with COVID, gave in. Now you're hearing a bunch of them saying, I never closed. Oh, really? No, we never closed. And we won't close next time. We're not going to close next time. You had your chance. God raised up the Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians, God's raised up Alexander the Great. He raised up the Grecian Empire to be subdued by the Roman Empire. God raised the Romans to the stage of history, to the stage of Golgotha, to Calvary, where Jesus was crucified. God is in control. It says in Acts 2.23, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. God is sovereign. Years ago, I talked about the next thing that was coming, guys, is the pedophilia. And they said, you're a nut job. And I said, where's your red line? When are you finally going to wake up, man? When are you going to stop it? They said, you're a nut job. That'll never happen. And it's here. It's in your face. It's all over the place. And now we got movies of guys going out, courageous, good movies of rescuing children that are being trafficked. My question to you is, what's the agenda? What's the greater agenda in these movies now coming out? When there's so many priests that have been messing with children for so many years, billions of dollars paid by the Catholic Church in damages for years, the Epstein Island List, nobody prosecuted for years. Years ago, in Nebraska, there was a place called Boys Town that Bush Sr. was involved in. Years ago. What about Pizzagate with the Obama administration with Podesta? This pedophilia has been around forever. Why now? Why not show me you really mean something by arresting the people that are on the Epstein List? Show me. Arrest one. Arrest them. Indict them. You'd empty Washington D.C. out. These guys are pedophiles. You'd empty the king and the queen of England out. There's bodies of little children found as an excavation nearby. This has been going on forever. So why now? Why now all of a sudden do we have a conscience? Why now? Are we going to do something about it when our own government is bringing these kids in with the lust that these pedophiles have for these children from all over the world being brought in? I don't trust it. I'm sorry. I don't trust it. I believe the producer of Sound of Freedom mentioned what possibly could be the agenda is we need to chip every child. Crisis reaction solution. Every single person needs to be chipped, needs a global ID so that we don't have voter fraud again. They stole the election from Trump. The problem is they're harvesting ballots. They're bringing in immigrants and people that aren't citizens. We need to know who's a citizen and who's not. We need to chip every person. Oh, the drug cartels, the trafficking of drugs. Cash is demonized. Cash is no good. We've got to get rid of cash. And cash spreads diseases. We need a digital currency, central bank digital currency. You're going to get it whether you like it or not, the globalists are telling us. It's coming. Nothing you can do about it. Got to sell it to you. There's an agenda there. Got to get you to accept it. The stage is being set. Therefore has he mercy on whom he'll have mercy and whom he will, he hardens. God decides. God is sovereign. He rules and reigns. This word harden, it means to be insensible, unimpressionable, to make firm or stiff. It means immovable. It's used 20 times in the book of Exodus. So we're looking at free will. We're looking at the moral free agency of man. We're looking at the sovereignty of God, that of election or predestination. Railroad track going down the cross. Both are true. How do we, if we go to extreme on one side of human responsibility, it's error. If we go to the other extreme, that God actually predestines people to go to hell, we err there too, because we know scripturally that he's not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance. God's heart, he's the savior of the whole world. And yet he's sovereign. He chooses. He chose you. You didn't choose him. And he's also chosen, made a decision to punish evildoers. Paul's example is that of Pharaoh, the hardening of his heart. The first 10 hardening of the heart was Pharaoh hardening his heart. The second 10 in the book of Acts of the 20 use of the word harden is God confirming Pharaoh's decision. In order to get into hell, you need to repeatedly reject Jesus Christ. You need to continually over your lifetime, reject Jesus Christ. You need to continually react in unbelief in sinning greater and greater measure to harden your heart against Jesus Christ. The sun that melts the wax hardens the clay. Over the course of time, you have a reprobate heart, a heart that's past feeling, a cauterized heart. Your conscience is cauterized. No longer sensitivity, a desensitizing of the society. That's why I couldn't deal with the reality of the Sound of Freedom movie yet. It can make me cry. I'm not desensitized to the point that I can go watch Barbie three times. There's going to be a certain degree of truth there that's going to break my heart. Certain degree of truth that is just overwhelming, too much for me to handle. I can go there. I can be educated. The danger is that emotionally I'd be drawn to give every penny I have to stop it and to find out the people involved in these agencies are only using like 10 percent of the monies to actually do the work. They're getting very wealthy, getting very wealthy off this desire we have to rescue children. Not to say we don't support and give, but we got a vet, right? We got a vet. We got to do something. That's why I say, isn't this the job of law enforcement? Why independent groups have to do this? Isn't the law, you know, the job of our jurisprudence system to take the Epstein list and start there? Let people know that you're not going to get away with this? The hardening of the heart. Oh, I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. Well, you're past feeling. You've been desensitized. If that doesn't bother you, if it doesn't rock you, there's something wrong. God gave Pharaoh space to repent just as he gave Judas space to repent. Judas betrays thou the son of man with a kiss. Are you sure, Judas? You really want to do this? Is this what you want, Judas? You want to be the son of perdition? Judas betray, friend, betrays thou the son of man with a kiss? You kidding me, Pence? You're going to pinch me? I'll give you space to repent. Do the thing, Pence. Do the right thing, Trump. Tell the American people that you're a part of a plot, a conspiracy, a plan for the military to develop a bioweapon called the COVID vaccine. It's not a warp speed jab. It'd been in development way before. And you're the salesman. You're the spokesperson for it. And it's not a gift of God, Franklin Graham. Jesus wouldn't take it. Tell them the truth. You have space to repent. Come clean. And Amir Tesfari, you come clean. You parade these doctors there and you tell everybody it's safe. Almost all of Israel has the jab. You come clean. I don't want to hear anything until you come clean. It's serious. People are dying every day from this vaccine. And we're acting like it's over. The media is just silent about it. It's a genocide. And then I read this morning that, you know, they're wanting to produce an Ebola vaccine for children 18 years and younger. They're never going to stop. As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why you die, O house of Israel. God takes no pleasure in judging the wicked. Jesus, the Savior, he died for the sins of the whole world. Men choose to harden their heart. And then God finally says, all right, not my will be done, but your will be done. A tragic day, as I said earlier, a tragic day when God gives you over to your demands and you receive leanness in your heart. I've got to have that house. I've got to have this, that, or the other. I've got to have this career. I've got, well, if you don't take the jab, you're going to lose it. You're being tested. You're being tested. I've got to have it. I've got to have it. I've got to have it. It's my identity. It's who I am. All right, I'm gonna let you have it, but you're going to miss out on the true riches. You're going to miss out on serving me in such a way that you glorify me. It's going to be all for you. You're going to get tired of it. It's going to get old. You can't ride your bike forever, Rick. You can't lay in the sun forever. You're going to turn into leather. It's okay to visit. It's okay to enjoy to a point, but keep it in perspective. Be a part of the true riches. The master potter makes us vessels of honor by his decision, secondly, by his design. Verse 19, thou will say then unto me, why do you yet find fault for who has resisted his will? So how can you judge me when I am he who you made me? It's God's fault. I'm a victim. I sin because I'm a sinner because you made me this way. It's not my fault. So now you're going to blame God. Now you're the victim. He says, no, nay, but oh man, who are you that reply against God? Shall the thing form say to him that formed it, why is thou made me thus? The creator is absolute sovereign. He's the designer, the architect, the builder. He's the master potter. When we get to Jeremiah 18, we're going to see this illustration of the potter and the clay. In Job's struggle, Job at the beginning, have you considered my servant Job, Satan, behind the curtain, a man perfect and upright in all of his ways, a man that fears God and eschews evil. Now all this stuff that happened to Job, he had miserable comforters because they misconstrued that this bad stuff was happening to Job because now the prosperity doctrines breaking down, the economy's breaking down, there isn't enough food. So it's not just Job that's going to be without. Everyone's going to be without. And now we're going to find out that suffering is a part of Christianity. Oh, they left that part out. Oh, in Romans eight, if we suffer with him, we're going to reign with him. But I thought that you were a leper. I thought the reason you were suffering, I thought the reason your marriage fell apart, because you're secretly evil. You've been secretly doing things, Job. God's bragging on him. He's perfect. He's upright in all of his ways. He's a man that fears God. He eschews evil. Satan says he's a mercenary. The only reason he loves you is for the blessings. He's like Esau. Esau doesn't love you. Esau just wants the blessings. These people don't love you, Jesus. They're not following you in John six. For you, these disciples of yours, they're following you because you gave them a universal basic income. They can stay at home and game and get two thousand dollars in their Fed card. If they comply, if they say the right things. And Jesus said, you're not seeking me for me. You're here for the loaves and fishes. You're here for the blessings. You're here for the happy meals. Have it your way. And then it says many of his disciples no longer followed him after that. These are disciples, learners. When he told them the cost of following him would be to partake of him. Come for me, not the externals. And so Job is stripped of his stuff. Naked came I into the world. Naked I go. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. The Lord knows the way that I take. And when he's tried me, I'm going to come forth as gold. Great perspective. Satan says, well, skin for skin, all that a man has will he give for his life. Make him sick. Fill him with boils from the crown of his head to his feet. Cause the children to reproach him and give him bad breath. Nobody wants to be around him. Take away his health and he'll curse you to your face. Says, okay, but spare his life. So Job, you know the story. These things happen to him. And Job sinned not with his lips. His wife comes to him. Do you maintain your integrity? Why don't you curse God and die? You speak as the foolish women speak. Shall we not receive good at the hand of the Lord and not evil? But Job is still fighting in there. He's looking for a dazement. He's looking for someone to justify him and say, I'm not a bad person. This is unfair. This is unjust. This, I'm not who you guys, LFS, Bildad and Zophar are saying I am. I was following the Lord. I was praying for my kids. I was tithing. I was giving, I was going to church. I was an honorable man. I never lied in any business deal, whatever. God blessed my life. He blessed me to nth degree. And now he took it all away. And I don't know why. I want to talk to him. I need to talk to him. This is unfair. This is unjust. And then we get to chapter 38. God asked Job, we've got a lot of questions for God. God has a few for us. Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? You don't know nothing, dude. Gird up now your loins like a man. Get your big boy britches on, boy. We're going out of the woodshed. For I will demand of thee and answer thou me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you? Declare, if thou has any understanding. Who has laid the measures thereof? Thou knowest. Do you know it? Or who has stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof? How do you just suspend the earth out there with no foundation? Tell me how that happens. Tell me how that works. If you can, answer me. And then Job speaks. Chapter 40, verse 2. Shall he that contend with the Almighty instruct him? He that reproved God, let him answer it. So God's still talking to Job. God's asking him. Then Job answered, verse 3, the Lord, and said, Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Good answer. Do you know, I've discovered that the Lord never says, oops. With any circumstance that he's allowed in my life, he's the potter, I'm the clay. Every single adverse circumstance in my life, God has never said, oops, I made a mistake. You know what else? God has never said to me, Rick, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Rick. I'm sorry you had to suffer that way. He's never said that to me. But men sit there. God, you owe me an apology. How could you allow this in my life? In her life, in his life? If you're a God of love, then why? And you and I are saying, why me? Why would you be merciful to me? Flip side. We don't deserve salvation. We don't deserve anything. We're in a fallen world. We should expect adversity. We should expect problems. We're in a fallen world. What made you think that you could go through life with no problems, that you'd have your best life now? Who told you that lie? Jesus never said anything like that. Jesus said, if any man come after me, let him deny himself daily, take his cross up and follow me. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord shall deliver them out of them all. We through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. We're not promised a Pollyanna existence here, silly girl. Verse 21, has not the potter power over the clay? Speaking of his sovereignty, he's the potter, we're the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, another unto dishonor. Proverbs 16 forces, the Lord has made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. The Bill Gates, the Fauci's, the Trump's, the Pence, the Hitler's, the Biden's, the Obama's, the Noah, Yuval, Harari's, the Klaus Schwab's. All of these pretenders, the sorrows, all of them are going to be bodily resurrected from the dead at the great white throne judgment, give account of what they did while they're in their body, good or bad, and their destiny is the lake of fire for all eternity. And before they go there, the Lord's going to humiliate them on the stage of planet earth, complete failure, complete losers. They lose because we read ahead, Jesus has already won. Oh, how the heathen rage and imagine a vain thing against the Lord and against his anointed, against Jesus. God holds them in derision. God just laughs from heaven. You guys, you guys, you've been influenced by the devil, haven't you? I've seen this before. Nothing new under the sun. By design, God determines who we are. The clay has no rights. The clay is dead. The clay is worthless. What is dirt worth? What is a little dirt and a little water mixed together to make clay? What's the value thereof? In the commodities market, how much do you pay for clay? Worthless, helpless, powerless. You're not in control. The Karens are not in charge. Stop it. You don't work for the government. Making sure everybody wears a double mask. Everywhere I went, these Karens coming after me. If your name's Karen, I'm sorry. Change your name. I didn't, I didn't make it. I don't know why there's a synonym there with controlling. Is it a schoolteacher thing? What is it? I don't know. I don't know. Anyway, I'll behave myself. In Jeremiah 18, for the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Cannot I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand. God wants to make each of us into a vessel of honor. When Jesus was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, when Judas brought the the money back to the temple there, to the religious leaders, they said, what is that to us? And he throws it at their feet. And what do they do? They bought the potter's field with it. The potter's field was a place to bury the wicked dead, to bury strangers in. The potter's field was strewn. It was worthless, a worthless field, because it was strewn with shards of clay. The potter would make a vessel. He put it in the kiln. It would crack. And sincere means no wax. They would try to cover the crack with wax and sell it to somebody, that vase, in a dark room. But you and I are sincere. We're genuine. We have a genuine, sincere faith in the Lord. So they take these shards, these broken clay pots, and they throw the shards into that field. That's by Jesus, because your life is broken, because your life is a broken shard. The devil, he's the one, he's the one, the counterfeit, that's throwing these broken lives away. They're worthless to him. He's just throwing them away. But Jesus said, no, they're very valuable unto me. Shall I not remake them? Shall I not bring life unto them? Shall I not breathe life into Adam? Breathe life into you? The breath of God to stir within your heart, the flicker of your life almost going out. And the Lord, the Lord causes the flame to flow again by adding oil to the lamp. A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he won't quench. He's not going to snuff you out. He's not going to throw you away. He's here to restore you. He's the potter. You're the clay. He's in control. What must you do? Yield. Yield. Surrender. Go back to Bremerton, Rick. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. I'll do it. As long as we're, as long as we're turning the corner and you're coming for us soon, you know. God wants to make each of us in vessels of honor, but we must yield. We must trust him. He doesn't want to make you into a bedpan. You want to be a bedpan? You want to be one of those things they put underneath the person that can't reach the restroom? Yeah, I've always desired to be a bedpan. Want to be a commode? Want to be a trash can? You want to be an ashtray? When I was growing up, there were ashtrays everywhere. Everybody smoked. All the parents, grandparents, everybody smoked. You see these ashtrays. They're dirty, stinky, nasty. Yeah, make me an ashtray. Or do you want to be a vessel of honor? Something that people that come into the room, they see an artisan made that. A master potter made that. Somebody took something that was worthless and made something beautiful out of that. Something gorgeous, something very valuable now, because we see the expertise of the master. What the master took a broken life. A lot of you guys are working with cars, and these cars are broken. These cars are rusted. They're worn out, and some would say it's time to crush them. Not you. You can see the value in that car, and you love to pour your life into that car and fix the rust spots and work on the body and the fender and the engines and all the different things, and it begins to shine. And people come to the car show, and it's like, man, look at that thing. And you show them the before pictures. Well, I've got before pictures of me. I've got the scars of my heart and the things that are there that won't go away. But the Lord's saying, I'm going to perfect that which concerns you, Rick. I'm not going to leave you like I found you. If you yield to me, Rick, I'm going to make something useful out of your life. I'm going to make something out of you that brings me glory and honor instead of reproach. You're no longer going to be ashamed or condemned in who you are. You're going to be thankful, and you're going to keep continually saying, why me? Why me? Lord, why would you save me? For we are his workmanship, his work of art, his poema, created in Christ Jesus under good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. We're his workmanship. He's the potter. We're the clay. These people have I formed for myself, Isaiah 43, 21. They shall show forth my praise, Isaiah 60, 21, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. Can God display you as a vessel of honor? Are you representing him? Are you his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost? In a great house, 2 Timothy 2, 20, in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor, some to dishonor. Does your life bring God glory or shame? David got caught. David was given so much, and in a time of prosperity, he couldn't handle the prosperity, and he got caught. So too you will get caught. Our sin will find us out, and we will bring shame and dishonor to our wives, our husbands, our family, our children, our grandchildren. You're still saved. You're not going to lose your salvation, but don't be the fool. Don't give in to the flesh. Don't give in to the lie. It's going to bring heartache and pain to everyone around you. And God's saying, you're better than that. You're my vessel of honor. You're going to bring me glory and honor as you yield unto me. Are you a phony? Does your marriage glorify God, your spouse, your kids? And God knows. God is rich in mercy. He wants to pour himself into your life. Let him, your cracked clay pot, let him restore you. He'll take the years that the locust and the canker worm have eaten, and he'll restore you. He'll fan you back into a flame. He'll fix the cracks. He'll remake you. He'll take that lump that's there, and he'll crush it down and thump it down, that pride, that arrogance, that resistance. And he'll crush you back down, and he'll bring you back up onto the wheel, and he'll put the right measure of water in there, and his finger there, and he'll put his foot there and spread it around. And I took pottery because a lot of pretty girls were in the pottery class. He's got to make them something pretty, right? And if there's inconsistencies, you've got to work it. You've got to push it. You've got to put your thumb in there. You've got to put pressure upon it, and that's the pressure of the circumstances of life, vessels of honor. In 2 Corinthians 4, 7, we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Paul says, you know you're not, you're the temple of the Holy Spirit. You're a clay pot, but you're the temple. You're the dwelling place. The Father and the Son, they come, and the Holy Spirit come to make their abode in you, to live within you. Collectively, in the plural, we are the temple, the Holy Spirit, the church. But individually, in the singular, you and I are vessels of honor. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We're no longer body and soul. We're body, soul, and spirit. We've been born again. God wants to use your life. God wants to display you and be honored in and through you. Verse 24, even us whom he has called not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. Not just the Jews, but also of the Gentiles being called. Psalm 138 says, the Lord will perfect that which concerns me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endures forever. Forsake not the works of thine own hands. As a parent, one of the greatest privileges that Kathy and I have ever been afforded was having Jessica and Brittany. Knowing that we were going to raise them in a Christian home, and that we would raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And when I see your children, when I see your grandchildren, I see your moms and dads, and you display your children, they're a reflection of you. They're a reflection of your home. And you want so much for them to glorify the Lord. You want for people to see them and to say, you know, there's something different about them. Those kids are behaved. Those kids are, you know, they love Jesus, walking with Jesus. No greater joy than to see that our children, our grandchildren are walking with Jesus. Now along the way, many of them lose their way. Many of them fall away, stray away. And I believe that God never says, oops. That God is going to perfect that which concerns them. That God is going to restore them. God is going to apply the right amount of pressure to bring them to the end of themselves in their brokenness. And the Lord's going to take them in that broken condition and restore them to the place of fellowship with himself, and bring glory and honor first and foremost unto himself, but thereto in your home. Mary, the mother of Jesus, lived a life of reproach. People in the community were whispering that Joseph and Mary had sex before they got married. She knew she didn't. She knew that this child was the Messiah, the Christ, the Messiah. She had to live with those whispers, those wagging tongues for all those years. And I've heard the whispering. I've heard people slam my daughters, slam my children, criticize them because they might have tattoos, or they might this, or they might that. And you know, God's not done with my girls. My grandkids look perfect presently. One or two of them might stray for a time. I'm going to be able to communicate with you and love you and encourage you. I don't have a book or a formula or anything that can tell you how not to let that happen. I tried everything I could to keep that from happening in my home. People have a free will. They can choose to follow the Lord or not follow the Lord. But I haven't given up praying. I haven't given up that my girls are going to be vessels of honor in that day. Being confident of this very thing that he that has begun a good work in us, that he's going to perform it. He's sovereign. He's in control. He's merciful. He hasn't given up on me. He hasn't given up on you. He hasn't given up on your children or your grandchildren. God will perfect that which concerns him. He's the potter. We're the clay. He is the master potter. He's sovereign. He makes us vessels of honor by his decision, by his design and for his display. I'm almost ready to start getting some tattoos. I'm so proud of my daughter. I'm so proud of her. She's ministering to an atheist. She's a caregiver to a man that's almost ready to die, and she's ministering to him, wanting him to come back to his faith. She ministered to Jerm, who was an atheist, and he's saved now. She's got a bucket load of problems, huge amount of problems, more problems than I had before. I was a believer. As an unbeliever, I never had as many problems as her. Adverse circumstances or things that came into my life as a result of bad decisions with drugs, alcohol, whatever. But I know that day that she was born, and I know that day that we took her to church and we dedicated her to the Lord. I know that day when she was baptized, and I've watched her walk with Jesus, and I've watched her struggle. And in my heart, my life is incomplete. I'm not going to be able to rest. I'm not going to be able to sigh until finally, finally she's in that place of surrender to the potter. I think she's close. I think she's getting there. She's 41 years old. I know what it's like to have a prodigal child that hurts themselves over and over and over again. My hope is that God in His sovereignty, God who chose her, God who knows her, God who saved her, is going to bring her to the end of herself. And that which the enemy means for evil, God's going to turn around for good to save many people. Let's pray. Father, we come before you, and Lord, we thank you for the hope that is ours, that this work that you've begun in us, that you're going to complete it. None of us deserve to be saved. None of us deserve anything except hell. Lord, we're real good at a few things. One of them is sinning. We're prolific sinners. We don't need to practice it. We don't need to work at it. It just comes natural to us. And Lord, we need the help of your Holy Spirit. We need to be able to overcome that old nature, that edemic nature within us. And we yearn for that day where finally, Lord, you're going to complete it. We're going to be glorified. We're going to be perfected in you. And Lord, we're watching. We're looking for your appearing. Beloved, we read, Lord, in 1 John, now are we the sons of God. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And he that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. We're tired, Lord. We're tired of failing, of being failures, of bringing reproach, of bringing dishonor. Such a high calling, such a huge, huge calling, Lord. We thank you that your mercies are new each morning. We thank you that each morning we wake, we get a fresh new start, a fresh new start to determine, to yield to you, to not give in to the flesh. The days we blow it, the days we fall, Lord, you're there to pick us up, straighten us up, get us on that straight and narrow once again. None of us, Lord, none of us have arrived. None of us have apprehended that for which we were apprehended. But Lord, each of us, we desire to press toward the mark. Keep pressing toward the mark, running the race to receive the prize, to bring you glory, to bring you honor. Lord, help us. Help us to glorify you in Kitsap County, to be a church that's a shining bright light, to be a Christian that makes others thirsty. They want to know our Jesus. They want to know who you are. While your heads are bound, as you continue to pray, if there's anybody here this morning you don't know Jesus Christ, you don't have a relationship with him, this is your moment. This is a time where God says, I want you to realize that I called you before the foundation of the earth, that I chose you, that I know you, that I have a plan and a purpose for your life. And for you, it begins right here. For me, in my mind, I knew you before I even formed you, before I even made the earth. Because I'm omniscient, I know all things. I'm eternal, the alpha, the omega, the beginning, the end. Anyone here this morning, this is your moment. Just lift your hand up. We want to pray with you as you receive Christ, as you receive Jesus into your heart and life. Jesus said, no man can come unto me except the Father which sent me. Draw him and I'll raise him up in the last day. That's election. And Jesus said, whosoever comes to me, I will no wise cast out. That's free moral agency. That's your choice. Anybody that comes to him, he's not going to cast you out. It's your choice. The ball's in your court. You decide this morning. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up. Father, thank you for saving us. Thank you that your mercies are new each morning. Thank you, Lord, that you identify us as vessels of honor. We are vessels of honor that you have made, that you have fashioned, that you fill, and you desire to use to display for your kingdom and your glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.