Transcript for:
Romans 12:14,21 -Love Conquers All- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2023-10-08

Romans chapter 12 verses 14 through 21. Would you please stand with me as we read God's Holy Word together. Romans 14. I encourage you to read on your own Psalm 122. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. The Lord will prosper those who love Israel. Genesis 12. He'll bless those that bless Israel. He'll curse those that curse Israel. So we're not anti-semitic in the least. We love the nation of Israel. We also, today we're gonna learn, we also love Iran. We love Saudi Arabia. We love our enemies, right? Because again, there's people there. There's people that God loves, that Jesus loves. He came to seek and to save. All right, Romans 12 verse 14. Bless them which persecute you. Bless and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I'll repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Father, again, we thank you for your Holy Word. Lord, we're so excited. We're so excited to be alive at this point in time, at the end of the church age. We're looking up, knowing our redemption draws nigh. And Lord, we ask that you'd be our teacher. We ask that you'd open the scriptures to our understanding. Please instruct and teach us in the way that we should go, Lord. Lord, we want to experience your peace that surpasses all understanding. We don't want to be caught up in the time of this great anxiety that's a spiritual oppression that's coming against the earth dwellers, Lord. Men's hearts failing them for fear. Lord, we pray that we would experience your peace. You said, my peace I give unto you, not as the world give I unto you. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. Lord, make us more than conquerors this morning, that we can rest in you, that you're on the throne, you're in control, that everything has to go through your providential filter. Lord, help us to keep our eyes fixed upon you and your soon return. Open the scriptures. Bless us, Lord. Be our teacher. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you please be seated? Those who follow Christ will have enemies. Jesus had enemies. The disciples had enemies. We live in a world that hates our God. We live in a world that hates Israel. We live in a world that hates God's people, that of Israel and that of Iranian Christians. There's a target on the backs of Iranian Christians. I was told when I read an article on their advancement, also in China, when they leave in the morning, you give your wife a kiss to go to work. You're giving her a kiss like it might be the last time you see her because you can't be real vocal and outward in your Christianity because you wind up having your heads lopped off. But nevertheless, Bible studies and people growing and just proliferation of growth. The fastest growing church, we're told, in the world presently. So how do we live among unbelievers? Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. So how do we overcome evil with good? Number one, by being humble. Verse 14, bless them which persecute you. Bless and curse not. The word bless is eogalo in the Greek, to speak well of, to bless, to think or invoke a benediction upon, to praise or to eulogize at a funeral. You only want to speak of all the good things that Johnny did in his lifetime. Whether good or bad, you only remember the good stuff. So you let everybody know, and it comforts everybody what a wonderful person he is. And a lot of times, we even lie and we say, yeah, they're in heaven. Everybody wants to think in terms of everyone's going to go to heaven. There is no hell. Nobody's going to go to hell. I did a funeral one time over here, and I mean, the people were ready to kill me. They were so angry. Because I preached the gospel at funerals, and I bring the cross in, and boy, they were so angry because all their friends were there, and they're hearing the gospel. And this lady who thought she was in charge tried to interrupt me, and I just kept going. And my family, we had to huddle together to get out of that. That crowd was angry because they didn't want to hear about the cross. They didn't want to hear about Jesus. And so I just brought up Jesus. I mean, I'll still say good things about people, but come on, you know. Hey, they made great cookies. I mean, I can say good things about anybody. But to lie and say everybody goes to heaven, no, I don't think so. It's a choice. I mean, you get to go to heaven by believing in Jesus, but if you reject Jesus, I'm sorry. You've made your decision. So we, by being humble, we humble ourselves. So our natural inclination is to fight back when somebody provokes us or curses us or persecutes us. It's a provocation, the world provocation. When I go out into the public, I have to be so aware of provocation, of people at the grocery store, Costco, wherever you go, crazy drivers, because I follow the rules. I'm a good driver. I'm a friendly driver. And people that do things that, you know. And so you try to turn the other cheek. You try to walk away. You try to not listen. You try to keep going. If you're backed into a corner, obviously you need to defend yourself. But I have to always remember there's going to be people that the devil sends to try and provoke me into the flesh. To get me into the flesh. To get me angry. And one of the, there's triggers we have. You know, one of the triggers I have is if anybody makes Kathy cry. If anybody makes one of my kids cry or something. I see red and I have to really, really, really be careful. Because I could wind up in jail. So you have to, you have to not give in to that provocation. You have to, you have to learn to turn the other cheek. Go the other way. A soft answer turns away wrath. So as much as you can, you're a police officer, you diffuse the situation. You try to de-escalate. You don't want to throw gasoline onto the fire, you know. And so you try to calm them down. One of the things that Gary Kalugowski does is he makes these go bags for the homeless. And then he gets them over to the sheriffs. And then Wayne and the other sheriffs are able to take a bottle of water, a sandwich, and some go bags. And these go bags de-escalate problems. When people are losing it mentally in Kitsap County here, you can offer them water. You give them something to eat. You start talking to them softly. You can get them to, you know, to calm down instead of the problem escalating. So some of them are very, very good with these techniques. Some of us are not, you know. Some of us it's, it's, hey they got me on a bad day, you know. I'm on my period. What am I going to do, you know. And so, you know the difference between a terrorist and a pit bull, right? Or, excuse me, a terrorist and a woman on PMS. What's that joke saying? A terrorist, what's the difference between a terrorist and a pit bull? The pit bull you can put on a leash. All right, there you go. All right. Yeah, I got some good jokes. All right. So Matthew 543, Jesus said, You have heard it been said thou shall love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. And pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. And so Paul is speaking in terms of what Jesus had previously said on the Sermon on the Mount. A soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. And so Jesus wants us to love our enemies, right? Turn the other cheek, go the extra mile. And we're not passivists. We know that we only have two cheeks, you know. So you hit me on the one cheek, I'll turn the other. You hit the second cheek, well, game on, right? You're not getting my other cheeks. And so most of you are armed. Most of you have weapons with you. You know that we live in a world that's very, very evil. And the most polite society is a society that's armed, right? And this isn't a shooting gallery here. This isn't a school of unarmed people, and then a lone gunman come in and treat it like a, you know, a shooting gallery. So people have to be polite. You never know if that guy or that gal that you're wanting to attack is armed or whatever. And so I've told you this many times. I've been told by some of the ladies that shoot each Tuesday night. They go to target practice each Tuesday night, and locally here, you know. And many of you guys are ex-military, and many of you gals are ex-military, so you know. And so I was told by Sue Lovelace, you know, the pastor, if any gunman comes in this church, somebody that hates you, you know, we don't want you to be shooting him because you might miss and hit one of us. And so we've got you, pastor. We'll get them, right? And so that's kind of a tongue-in-cheek, but it's a truism there. But I mean, you got to put them down. If they're rabid, they reach a point of being a rabid dog, you know, you're going to have to put them down. You try and do everything you can to de-escalate it, turn the other cheek, walk away, go the extra mile, soft answer turns away wrath. But I think it was the, you know, the Duck Dynasty guy that let it be known to people, if you give us no other choice, we're going to have to defend ourselves, you know, basically along those lines. And so I don't want to preach this or teach this in such a way that you go away from here thinking you're Pollyanna and everyone's going to like it. You know, it's just, it's not going to happen. You're going to have enemies. You're going to have enemies. And the Lord's there to also protect us. So Jesus says in Matthew 7, 12, whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. So this is in the positive. Others have used this in the negative. Hey, if somebody wronged you, wrong them back, you know, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, the law, you know? So you put them under the letter of the law, the letter of the law kills, the spirit gives life. So no, Jesus is saying in the positive, what you would want people to do to you in the positive, you love them the way you want to be loved. You know, you treat them the way you want to be treated today. We would use the word respect, have respect for one another, you know? And I think that's a really good way to operate is have respect. Don't be, don't be mouthing off and disrespectful to anybody for any reason whatsoever. So don't be rude. Love is not rude. So love like you want to be loved, be treated like you want to be treated. So live in love on a higher plane than the world. The world loves its own. So what's that mean? That means that, you know, if you're a, if you're a criminal, you'll love other criminals as long as they're, you know, doing what you want to do, right? You're in prison. There's people in prison love each other, you know? So it's no great thing to just only love us as Christians. The real, the real interesting thing is when we can truly love our enemies. When we can pray like Jesus, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. When we're wronged and we don't harbor resentment, bitterness, and anger and seek revenge, when we can walk away, when we can pray for that person. If you're having trouble with any people in your life, continue to pray for them. Allow God to soften your heart. I like going to Luke chapter 17, verse 1 through 3. If somebody wrongs you, you know, you take, you go to them privately. Matthew 18, if they don't listen to you, you bring a witness. If they still don't listen to you, you bring them before the church leadership and all. But in Luke 17, if somebody wronged you, you, if they repent, you know, forgive them. So in Matthew 18, I want to forgive this person from my heart, lest I be given over to the tormentors in my heart. My heart becomes embittered. So I want to have that freedom to not be embittered and angry at somebody that's wronged me or my family. But it doesn't mean I'm going to have them over Thanksgiving again, all right? So in Luke 17, it says, if they repent, forgive them. So I'm looking for the fruit of repentance if we're going to be restored to fellowship with each other. How can I trust this person, you know? What if they do it again, you know? So you're, the Lord's not telling you that you have to be friends with every single person out there. There's levels of friendship, right? So we love in a general way, but Jesus, you know, had the multitudes. Jesus had the 12. Jesus had Peter, James, and John. And Jesus spent time with just him and his father, you know? So there's different levels of interaction, if you will. But in a general route in public, you know, treat others as you would want to be treated. Don't be rude to the waitress. I get so nervous when I'm out to eat with some of you guys, because you're so rude to the waitresses, you know? I'm just kidding. But I am with some people that are like that. And you know what I think when you're rude to the waitress? They're going to spit in our food, man. Don't do that. Don't do that. You know, my daughter Jessica, she doesn't take it. I mean, if the food isn't right, she sends it back and all that. And I'm just like, holy smokes, man. You know what they're going to do to our food when it comes back? Don't do that, you know? Don't do that. And if you're going to sit there and pray these big long prayers, you know, do it after the food gets there, you know? I mean, obviously. But I mean, I mean, what if they find out we're Christians and spit in our food? What if you're a police officer and they see your uniform and they spit in your food? I mean, I want to be as nice as I can to people that are handling my food, okay? My food's important to me. And I don't want to go that route. So be nice. Be really nice. Tip big. Make sure that you tip in such a way that they welcome you the next time you come in. And I mean, just be nice. I mean, recognize, you know, a lot of them are making their livings from their tips. So don't be treating them that way. What if it was you, you know? What if it was your wife or your daughter working in a place like that and taking all that abuse and all that junk, you know? And then you don't, you have the audacity to not even tip them or hold to the letter of the law. They didn't bring my coffee in time, so I'm not going to tip them, you know? I never like that. Never. Never. Err on the side of grace, right? Err on the side of grace. And if you got someone like Jessica there with you, I mean, she'll tell them and you'll get your coffee, believe me. One time somebody mistreated us at a place we were and Jessica and Brittany both went after him for me, you know? And I was embarrassed, but they did it, you know? So it, uh, mama bears, I guess they're mama bears, you know, taking care of papa, papa bear. But, um, I just choose to just not even, not even magnify it, you know? All right, there you go. I can eat most anything, just about anything, just about. All right, so soft answer turns away wrath. So in the positive, so, um, Jesus blessed the two thieves that were on the cross with him as they were reviling him. Uh, one actually, uh, joined him in paradise. This day, you'll be with me in paradise. Jesus cried from the cross, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. All these people were saying, if you're the son of God, you know, save yourself, come down from there. And they're spitting in his face and all, pulling his beard out and mocking and ridiculing him and all. What's from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. When you're provoked, um, some have said, we don't know, you know, what you're like until you're put in hot water. So Christians are like teabags. When you put the teabag in the hot water, when you're provoked, when you're, that's what we're in a time of crisis that's arising. We're in a time of pressure that's coming against us. And we're going to find out, um, what each of us are like in a time of crisis, right? In a time of prosperity, everything's good. We're on our best behavior. We're civil and all that, but, um, uh, Jesus on the cross and at the crucible, you know, at the very worst, um, father, forgive them for, they know not what they do. You know, that's, what's coming out of his heart. Abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so, um, we, uh, uh, we want the Lord to change our heart. The centurion exclaimed, truly this was the son of God. Stephen, when he was being martyred in Acts chapter six and seven, how did he react to those that were stoning him, that were mistreating him? He said, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Same way, like Jesus, you know, he was interceding, intercessory prayer for his enemies that were, um, mistreating him this way. Verse 15, rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. So forget self, congratulate your coworker when your coworker gets the, uh, promotion. Weep with them that weep. Do you realize it's easier to weep with them that weep than it is to congratulate the coworker when the coworker gets the promotion over you? We have a hard time with our pride of being, being, uh, jealous and envious and go home and complain that I deserve that promotion. Why did they get that promotion at all? But something goes wrong with somebody. Um, and you know, there's a greater measure of, of, uh, sympathy, you know, we're able to, we're able to, uh, um, for some reason, we're able to, uh, show a little bit more empathy, uh, and sympathy. But when it's happening to the other person, bad things are happening to them. We're secretly relieved that it didn't happen to us. We're secretly relieved that our formula is working. There must be something wrong with Job. He must be an imposter. Look at that stuff that's going on him. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, they're going to come. They're miserable comforters and they're going to try and comfort Job and they're going to keep pointing out that Job, you must have been a hypocrite. Job, you must have secret sin in your life. There must be sin in the camp. You know, you've buried some Babylonian garments in gold underneath your tent, man. That's why those at AI are whooping on us now. You know, there's sin in the camp and they don't see behind the curtain where God's bragging to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? They don't see that. A man perfect and upright in all of his ways, a man that fears God and eschews evil. No, they only see the leprosy. They see the boils and they're secretly relieved that it didn't come to their home, to their lives. You know what I discovered when I was really big, when I was at my biggest? Everybody felt real good around me. Everybody felt skinny. Everybody felt like, oh, at least I'm not as fat as Pastor Rick, you know? They treated me like I was Santa Claus. Oh, he's a jolly guy. He's jolly. You know, everybody feels good around the fat guy. Everybody feels, wow, you know, at least I'm not as wretched as him, you know? And, uh, but that's, that's human nature. They'll come up, make fun of you. They might be 30 pounds overweight, but they'll come up, make fun of you, hold food in front of you. Oh, you like that, huh? You like that, huh? I had a pastor do that to me. Hey, you like that? And, uh, so anyway, just human nature, crazy, crazy people. Very seldom do we have someone that really, really loves, that truly loves, that knows how to love. Verse 16, be of the same mind, one toward another. So be like-minded, find things you agree on. Don't be argumentative, looking for the fault. Um, I love the fact that we are a like-minded group of people. Paul told, uh, the church of Philippi that Timothy was a like-minded person. Uh, like-minded means that you're a critical thinker. You're thinking, but you're on the same wavelength. You're on the same path because you're a biblical thinker. You're not a worldly thinker. You don't, your value system is a biblical worldview. And because you know the Bible, you're taught the Bible, you're getting to know Jesus. It's effortless for us to fellowship as we stay with the Bible, as we stay with God's word. And so it's, uh, it's exciting to be with you to be with a group of people that are like-minded, that are students of prophecy, that are knowing and expecting the soon return of Jesus Christ. Um, I've had people, um, who are angry with me about a pre-trib rapture and I don't try to talk them into staying here. I spend time trying to educate them, help them go through the scriptures, try to get them analyze their view. I know their viewpoint. Does this make any sense? Can you, can you connect this with the rest of the Bible? Does it fit like a glove? No, no, no, no. Then why are you going that way? Well, because of Darby, because of Darby, you know, it's just, it's craziness. And, and so you, this is what Jesus said. Here's what he said here. And here's what John said here. And can you see it? Here's what Paul said to the church of Thessalonica. If they can't see it and they just want to argue, then I say, you know, there's another church over here that believes the way you believe. You might be, you might be more comfortable over there. Oh, we've never been told to leave the church. I didn't tell you to leave the church. I'm just letting you know that I don't think you'd be comfortable here, you know, because you're going to hear every week about the pre-trib rapture every week. I'm going to hammer at home. Jesus is coming. I'm going to keep telling the church about Jesus coming. I went to a pastor meeting last Tuesday with Kevin and at the pastor meeting, when I, when I was leaving, pastor Tom says to me, you know, Rick, you're a Maranatha pastor. That's who you are. You're a Maranatha pastor. The word Maranatha means our Lord cometh. So they must've been listening to some of the messages, Brian and Vicki recording and kind of observing what we're doing here. And they concluded Rick's the Maranatha pastor. Yes, I am. Yes, I am. That's what I want to be. I want to be a student of prophecy. I don't want the Lord rebuking me. Like, why didn't you tell them? Why did you leave out the blessed hope? Why didn't you get them ready for my sin return? Why didn't you encourage them all to be believers with oil that he could come at any moment, you know? And so I get so excited studying the Bible with you because it's effortless because we're, we're like-minded. And so Proverbs 28, 25 says, he that is of a broad heart stirs up strife. So I don't need people stirring up strife, finding fault, finding this, finding that. I mean, if it doesn't agree with you, if now, number one, anybody can approach me biblically and say, this is why I don't believe that. But the problem is they don't, they don't have any biblical proof. It's just, it's theology, aberrant theology. You know, they'll say, I believe in the pre-wrath, you know, rapture. Well, what's that mean? Pre-wrath. It means these guys put you in Revelation chapter six, and they don't think it's the Lord's wrath to like verse 17. But the seals that are being opened from verse one on down, those seals are the wrath of man. The wars, you know, the horse with the war and the pestilence and, oh, the pestilence of COVID. So now they've got you in the tribulation period. You're already in the tribulation period. The problem with that is the only one that can open the seals is in chapter five. Mind-boggling, mind-boggling idiocy. But they've got some guy in the eighties that came up with this pre-wrath theory. And all of a sudden we're in the tribulation period and buy more stuff. Cause you're going to go through the tribulation period. They're not very happy people. They don't have the blessed hope. They don't have the joy of the Lord. Well, if we're not like minded, don't be a quench to me. Don't be striving and quenching people here. Go somewhere else. Talk. I mean, and they don't teach prophecy in these churches. What are they teaching? What are they doing? Mental health? What are they doing? Replacement theology, preterists? What are you doing? So, well, well, we're still in, you know, the communal mission. We're doing good deeds. Okay. Well, it's also creeds, Rick. It's also creeds. Teach them the Bible. Teach them the entire Bible so that they can make their own decision. Don't slam them or move them in a direction in ignorance that, uh, with your books and your ideas, you know, let them know, let them know the word of God. So they might not high things. So be impartial. Don't be a respecter of persons. Uh, Jesus treated Nicodemus, a wealthy religious leader, the same as he, the hated Samaritan woman. Uh, he wasn't a persons. Everybody had an ability to approach Jesus. He wasn't intoxicated or thought, Oh God, this guy's got lots of money and he'll support me in my ministry. I better put him on my board. You know, that isn't how Jesus operated. Okay. He relied completely upon his father. So he treated poor people just as well as he treated rich. Uh, he wasn't prejudice in any way, shape or form. And, uh, everybody had access to him in that way. Jesus treated the thief on the cross as kind as he did his own mother. Think of that. Jesus treated Judas, the one who betrayed him the same as John, the beloved. Jesus looked at Judas and Judas friend called him friend. When Judas came to the garden of Gethsemane to betray Jesus with a kiss, he says, but traced out the son of man with a kiss. Do you know what Jesus is doing at that moment? Jesus is, is focusing on Judas saying, Judas, this is your moment. You have the space to repent. I'm giving you this timeframe to not do what you're about to do. I'm giving you the opportunity to turn back toward me with a godly sorrow that leads to repentance, Judas. But Judas's sorrow was a sorrow, a worldly sorrow that his plan didn't work out. And he went out and hung himself the son of perdition and all. Haven't I chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil. Jesus knew who was among him. He knew what was happening, but he still was incredibly loving toward Judas. Do you know, we, we know John 3 16, but John 3 17 says for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He didn't come for the righteous. He came for sinners. He came for those who were sick, those who are whole need on a physician, but those who are sick, the sickness of sin, the cancer of sin, it's lethal. And Jesus is the antidote. Jesus is the only one that can wash and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He says, but condescend the men of lowest state. That word condescend means to be carried away with the lowly things, accommodate those who are different. And I have to tell you that pastor Chuck, my pastor was really, really good at this. He, uh, um, I'm a nobody and he is a real somebody. And, uh, he would make guys like me and others like me, uh, you know, feel like we were special, like we mattered, like we, God could use our lives. And, um, and he taught the Bible and he ministered unto us, discipled us, exhorted us to go for it and all. And when we began to respond to God's, uh, leading and guiding, he didn't condemn us or belittle us or, you know, he just encouraged, encouraged, encouraged. And his wife, Kay was the same way. They're like Christian royalty, but Kathy and I could be around them and Chuck's family. And they didn't treat us like we're low life. You know, they elevated us. They treated us with respect, with love, with kindness, with encouragement. And, uh, that's the way that Jesus treated people. Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28, he said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. And then he says in verse 29, take my yoke upon you and learn of me from meek and lowly in heart. And you shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. If he was high, lowly in heart, if he was high in heart, like I'm really super special, I'm the son of God. We'd never have access to him. And do you know, presently he'd be an almighty God and seated at the right hand of his father. The veil of the temple was rent into the priest could only go in the Holy of Holies once a year. But since the cross, since Jesus was crucified, buried, raised from the dead, that veil of the temple was torn in two. You have access. You have access according to Hebrews four to come boldly before his throne of grace, not of judgment. He's ready to receive you. Doesn't matter how lowly you may think. Doesn't matter how, how far your husband condemned you. You have access to Jesus. You're the bride of Christ. And he's never going to say, wait, wait, do these five things. And then I can talk to you. You have access presently right now, just the way you are right. As you are, the Lord welcomes you. In fact, he implores you. He says, ask, seek, knock, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. I want to talk to you. Pray to me. You know, you don't need to go through Rick. You don't need to go through a priest. You don't need any other mediator. There's one media reputing God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. Right. Come through Christ, come through Jesus. You have access. And that's so incredibly important because even pastors will try to name drop and they'll try and see who you're connected to. And if you're connected, this guy connects to that guy. And it's a form of politics, people playing politics. And, um, I'm as ready to go out and have a ribeye with you low lives as I am to have with anybody else. Okay. I, there's nothing special about me that says I can't eat with you. Jesus ate with all these guys. I mean, if you're buying, I'm, I'm flying. All right. There you go. All right. So guy asked me the other day, Hey, uh, uh, you know, pastor Chuck. I said, yeah, I know pastor Chuck. And everybody's doing the whole legacy thing and the heritage thing. And, uh, how old, you know, well, I never had dinner over at his house, you know, but I did fly in the jet with him. I didn't tell him that, but that would have made him crumble. But, um, but I did fly in the jet I'm jet man. Okay. Be not wise in your own conceit. So don't be conceited. Don't be proud. Don't be arrogant. Why? Because God resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble. Um, the downfall of Satan, Lucifer in Isaiah 14 was pride. The downfall of Sodom and Gomorrah was pride, fullness of bread, idleness, and they cared not for the poor and needy. There was no love. So we don't want to be like that. We want to be humble so that we have access to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords that we have access unto God. He's going to resist the proud and give grace unto the humble. Uh, I like a deal Moody's quote. You can never be too small for God to use only too big. If you're big for your britches, if you think you're so great, God's going to pass over you because he shares his glory with no man. God delights in taking the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and things that are based things that are not to show the mighty, to show the noble. And, um, and he gets the glory. He shares his glory with no man. My dad used to wear a shirt when I was growing up. Um, when you're as great as I am, it's hard to be humble and, um, kind of a funny tongue and cheat shirt. He likes that. So the life and death of Jesus rebukes the world of pride. Men love themselves. The world's pride of birth. Hey, where were you born? I was born in Nazareth. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? I was born in Beverly Hills. I was born and you fill in the blank. Oh man, he was born in a good place, man. It wasn't an armpit of the world there in Bremerton. Oh man, born a great place. You know, where were you born? It's not this the carpenter's son in Matthew 13 55. Isn't this just the carpenter's son? Don't, don't we have his brothers are here with us? Isn't, isn't his mother Mary still here in Mark's gospel? What makes this guy so special that he's in the synagogue, you know, uh, teaching these things and all. Nothing, nothing good about him. Pride of wealth. You got money. As soon as people find out you got money, man, you're important. Let's talk to that person. They got money. You don't have any money. You're poor. They don't want to talk to you. You're not in their league. You're not in their social strata or whatever. And so foxes have holes, birds there have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Jesus is a homeless man. Herod wanted to talk to him. Pilate wanted to talk to him. They all wanted to talk to him. They all are curious about him. Sean told me there's 43 acres in Bremerton just designated recently for camping. Jesus was a camper. Foxes have holes, birds there have nests, the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. He would couch surf at people's houses and the people would feed them and stuff, right? But there's times where he could get a real good night's sleep by going out camping, right? Out underneath the stars. We can all relate, right? Pride of respectability. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? You know, oh man, he's from Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth. If they'd have checked the records, they'd find out he's the babe of Bethlehem, right? They should have checked further. Pride of personal appearance. Oh, people love Jesus because he's so good looking. He reminds me of Brad. No, he wasn't a Brad. Not a Brad. It says in Isaiah 53 verse 2, he had no form nor comeliness, outward beauty that we should desire him. So he didn't look like a Hollywood star. Wasn't the outward beauty. Pride of reputation. This guy has a great reputation. You want to hang out with him? No, we're told that he was a friend of publicans and sinners. So it means his social credit score was very low because he was hanging out with publicans and sinners, with harlots, and he should have known, you know, who these people were and all. Simon the Pharisee, he got rebuked by the Lord for that. Those that are forgiven much, they love much Simon the Pharisee. Pride of education. Do you know that guy's a doctor? Went to Harvard. Seriously educated. Then after that went to Stanford, you know. Oh man, this guy's really something, this Barack Hussein Obama. Occidental College, the only problem is nobody remembers him ever attending any of those places, right? There's no records. He's not even an American citizen. Oh, how'd that get past us, huh? Yeah. Elected twice. Twice. Reputation. Education. How knows he letters in John 7 15, have he never learned? So Jesus had no formal education, much like the apostles, except for Saul of Tarsus. He was very, very educated, and as we said before, we love those in the body of Christ who are the intellectual like Saul of Tarsus, the apostle Paul. We learned so much from him, but God was greatly received by the common people. Receive them gladly, you know, and never a man spake like this. When Jesus would speak, they'd never heard teaching like that. And Stephen, who was a deacon, just shredded all the intellectuals of his day, the doctorates, you know, in Judaism and all. And so Jesus didn't have any formal training and couldn't show them his Nobel peace prize. He couldn't show him his doctorate degrees and all the other degrees above it and all. It says he'd never learned. Pride of superiority. Jesus said, I'm among you as one that serves. I'm here like the waiter. I'm like the waitress. You know, for who I am, you guys should be ministering to me, but I'm the one taking the basin of water and washing your feet. I'm the one getting down and doing the job of a slave. Right before you. Happier you if you do this also. The greatest among you be the servant of all. And Jesus demonstrated this. Pride of success. No, he was despised and rejected of men. He had no New York Times bestseller books. The pride of success. Despised and rejected of men. Pride of ability. He says in John 5 30, I can of my own self do nothing. Jesus lets you and I know without me you can do nothing. So the next time you're inclined to boast of what you're doing, how great you are, he says, I can't do anything except the father gives me that ability. Pride of self-will. He says, I seek not my own will, but the will of my father who sent me. Pride of intellect. As my father has taught me, I speak. And so his intellect is not of this world. As we said earlier, there's a whole lot of people that have a worldly view and there's others that have a biblical worldview. Everything we learned, everything we filter, we bring the word, everything we're hearing, all the media, all the information, we bring it to the obedience of Christ, to his word. We're critical thinkers. We evaluate it through the filter of God's word, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We don't give in to the world system. We studied a couple weeks ago, be not conformed. Don't allow the world to push you and press you into its mold. Be not conformed to this world. But in contrast, be transformed, a metamorphosis by the renewing of your mind through the study of God's word. God's word renews your mind. That's why the communists, the Luciferians, don't want your children studying God's word, learning God's word. Now this past week, Alan turned me on to a Jack Kibbs video presentation, Jack's mad. And they are going after the public schools that have these pornographic, terrible, terrible books there. And Jack did a presentation, wonderful, wonderful thing they're doing. And they are, in fact, getting a lot of these pornographic, horrible, horrible books out of the school so that the kids don't have that, you know, don't have to be stumbled by that in the libraries and such. It can be done. It's a lot of work. Parents need to be involved in the school board and all that. And I told Kathy about it and all. And, you know, I don't know how a Christian parent can put their kids in the public school so we can be active in getting rid of the books. And I applaud. I applaud every effort. Is it too little too late? Is it over? Can we really take control of the school boards? I mean, they're having some effect. They are. They're getting some victories, you know, in Orange County. They're getting some victories. They're fighting hard. But my thought is with the transgenderism, with the laws that are coming, it's just a matter of time where you're going to lose custody of your kids. You really want to take that risk of losing custody of your kids in the public school? Wouldn't it be better to live on one income and have less material things? And one of the parents' homeschool, if you can't afford a viable Christian school, Christian schools are expensive. Not everybody can afford it. I understand that. But there's just no way. There's some things that are just non-negotiable for me. And the thought of putting my kids, my grandkids, in a public school with the filth that's there, how can we possibly protect them at this point? If you get it all clean, Jack, then we'll jump in. The difference of pioneering and settling. That's what it's like planting a church. There are those who stand by the wayside and they look for the other people to do all the work and then they jump in once all the danger is gone. I understand that. I understand that. But I just can't see treating children or grandchildren as missionaries in a luciferian environment. You better not be busy. You better vet everything they say and do. You better make sure if you have them in there that they're not being groomed and brainwashed into one day they described to you or let you know that they told the teacher that they have impulses toward a boy being a girl or a girl a boy. What are you going to do with that? There's no going back. You can't back that up. So they get them for five years, according to Fidel Castro. They got them the rest of their life. So we're a very proud people. God resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble. Humble your side from the side of the Lord and he shall lift you up. And we sing the song leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. And that's what we want to do. We want to rely and lean upon the Lord. So how do we live among unbelievers? Verse 21, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good by being humble. Secondly, by being honorable. Verse 17, recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men. So don't retaliate. Don't repay with evil. The word honest speaks of beautiful, valuable, honorable. So the cross is God's answer to man's hatred. The cross of Calvary is God's answer to man's hatred. He did not repay evil. He gives space to repent. Jesus was rejected by the Samaritans. He set his face toward Jerusalem to head toward Jerusalem in Luke chapter nine, verse 54. And as he's heading toward Jerusalem, he fixed his face. I got to get to Jerusalem. He's stopping off into a village of the Samaritans. The Samaritans were half breeds. The Samaritans were hated by the Jews and the Jews, you know, um, the Jews hated the Samaritans. Samaritans hated the Jews, the prejudice there and all. In John four, Jesus purposely made an appointment with a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. You see how much he loved her. He wanted to alleviate the pain that she was suffering through of not being able to fill the void in the emptiness in her heart and life in five different marriages. Jesus said, I'm the living water. I'm the one that can take away that pain, that gnawing, that emptiness in you. So as they're going through Jesus and the sons of thunder, James and John, the rest of the disciples, as they're going through Samaria, the people rejected Jesus. And then James and John roll up on their Harleys and their big beers. And they say, Jesus, do you want us to call down fire from heaven? You want us to call down fire and barbecue these guys like Elijah did. And Jesus says, Hey, you know, not what spirit you were off. That's not what we're about. We're not about barbecuing people. You know, we're not about calling down, you know, fire upon them. Although you may be asking the Lord to barbecue a few people. That's he's saying that's not what he's about, you know. So they went to another village, wipe the dust off the feet, move on. In the first Thessalonians 5.15, see that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and all men. So Jesus is letting you know, you're not sent out there to destroy men's lives. The thief in John 10.10, he's come but to steal, to kill, to destroy. In contrast to that, you and I as Christians, we've come that we might have life and they might have it more abundantly. We're trying to help them to discover the treasure that we've discovered, the unsearchable riches of Christ. We want to share the love of Jesus with people that otherwise would hate us. And so he says in verse 18, if it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. And I like how he puts it there. If it's possible, we're not pacifists. We're not going to have everybody like us like Pollyanna once. Not going to happen. We're not going to be able to embrace everybody out there. Hey, all of you pedophiles, let's join arms, you know? And let's sing kumbaya right now. Let's have a rainbow church. We're all in love. We all love. No, there's some real differences here. You're a predator. You're evil. You need to be put behind bars. I can't close my eyes around you. My kids aren't going to be anywhere near you, you know? And so you come to the place of repentance, we'll talk, but sorry, ain't going to happen. Not going to happen. The law's there to protect us from evil, from chain evil people to consequences that would keep them from hurting others. So Jesus, the Prince of Peace, had enemies. Why? It's impossible to please all. You just can't please everybody. But as much as lies within you, you be the peacemaker. You be the one with the olive branch. You be the one that goes the extra mile, that turns the other cheek, that ignores slights and different things that they're going to say and do. In Matthew 10, 34, Jesus said, think not that I am come to send peace on the earth. He's the Prince of Peace, right? I came not to send peace, but a sword. He says, verse 35 of Matthew 10, for I am come to set a man at variance against his father and daughter against the mother and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law and a man's foes shall be they of his own household. And so even our own homes are going to be divided. It's said that if you become a Christian in a Jewish family, they have a mock funeral for you. You're ostracized. You're outside the family now. And it happens in many families. I mean, I hear reports of people who are into drugs and alcohol and having a hard time or whatever, and they get saved. And they're so radically in love with Jesus and zealous for Jesus that the family members tell them, I like you better on drugs. You know, I like you better when you're on drugs. You're so high and mighty. You're so Mary and Joseph. You're so self-righteous. We can't even be around you, you know? And in some cases that's true, but a man's foes be they of his own household. When COVID happened, one of the most wicked, evil things I ever heard was these wussy, coward kids with their first or second children, child, two kids, forbidding grandma and grandpa to come see them. Because you got to be double jabbed and triple masked. Now you can't go visit the grandkids anymore. It divided families, you know? And all for what? All for a lie. But you're going to double down. You're going to double down and not admit it, are you? I talked to a pastor the other day that he hasn't been able to visit his grandkids. Not allowed to see his grandkids because of his biblical views and the COVID thing and all that kind of stuff created a situation where the kids think they're so great and you're not allowed to see. And they claim to be believers. He actually preached from his church one time, his son. And so a divider, and that would crush me, that would break my heart if I couldn't be grandpa, if I couldn't be papa. And we have family members we're divided from, you know, where you can't associate with them. Now as you move closer to a time of totalitarian rule and the social credit score in China, you're going to get brownie points for turning in, Homeland Security is giving money to people who will come into churches and spy and tell on us, you know? Your own family members are going to turn you into the Gestapo and a man's own family is going to be divided from itself. And so Jesus came not to bring peace but a sword. So Jesus needs to be the head of every home and for some they don't like it. So a prophet is not without honor, Jesus said, except in his own country, among his own kin, in his own house. There's no honor for many of you as you're a child of God. Your family members don't honor you, honor your faith, honor your Jesus, because they don't like God, because they don't believe the way that you believe. Now Jesus' own brothers mistreated him and said he was beside himself until after the resurrection. His brothers didn't believe that he was the Messiah until after the resurrection and so he suffered that. Psalm 69 kind of gives a picture of how he was treated. So we all have enemies. Jesus said in Matthew 5 verse 9, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Don't you love peacemakers? Don't you love people that that diffuse problems and and bring things back to a place where people can talk, where people can be around each other? The holidays are such a powder keg in many cases with the alcohol and all the stuff going on. I'd hate to be a, you know, a police officer, have to go out on a call on a full moon, you know. People go nuts. They go nuts howling at the moon with Halloween and stuff. Crazy. Blessed are the peacemakers, you know. Pastor Chuck, he said living peaceably means we overlook things, ignore statements, and pass off irritation. Sometimes it's better to act like we didn't hear a statement. Unfortunately, some people spill out their poison even louder the second time. Love is not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrong. Our part is to be at peace, to love unconditionally, to lay our lives down, to be honorable. So if you want to be successful at marriage, guess what? According to Pastor Chuck, you need to be blind, deaf, and dumb. That's the secret of a good marriage. Verse 19, dearly beloved, there you go, see? Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I'll repay, saith the Lord. So the prerogative of vengeance is God's. I love movies with the theme of vengeance, where at the beginning somebody's wronged, somebody's mistreated, and I love how the movie brings the equalizer in there. Old Denzel, man, he's going to make it all right. I need an equalizer in my life. I need somebody to come in and take vengeance, take numbers, and make it all right. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen until Jesus comes, right? And so we, in many cases, represent Christ and His suffering, filling up His sufferings as we're mistreated. People are reminded of the cross. No, we're not passive. It takes more strength to walk away. It takes more strength to turn the other cheek. It takes more strength, more courage, to not allow the violence to escalate. It takes more courage to be meek. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is strength under control. It's that horse with all that power and all that strength, but there's rains through his mouth, and he's learned to follow the leading and guiding of the Master, right? So we must be controlled by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will help us, especially and most importantly, when we're provoked. Vengeance is mine, I'll repay, saith the Lord. So Psalm 2, all the heathen rage, imagine a vain thing against the Lord and against His anointed. These people are imagining vain things against you, vain things against God, vain things against Jesus. These guys in Psalm 2 actually think that they're going to stop Jesus from returning, and God holds them in derision. He laughs at the plans of Noah, Yuval, Harari, Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, and all of them. He's laughing from heaven at their desires and their effort according to Revelation 17, 17. He's put it in their heart to set the stage for God to be glory, for Him to receive the glory. When He comes back, He's going to destroy the Antichrist with the brightness of His coming, the sword of His mouth. In Revelation 14 at Armageddon, when Jesus comes back, the blood is 1400 and something furlongs, like a 200 mile radius, and the blood is as high as the horse's bridle, four and a half feet high. It's a slaughter, and their bodies are going to remain all over the earth with carnivorous birds. No, they're not vegans, they're carnivorous. Meat is good, and they're going to eat and pick the bones of all these guys that fall in the battle of Armageddon. Vengeance is mine, I'll repay. Now, interestingly, if you look at types and arch types, you know, who's the enemy? Who's the opposite of God? Nobody. There is no other god. Satan's a fallen angel, trying to convince people that he's a god. He's not omniscient, he's not omnipresent, and he's not omnipotent. He's used by God to entice people, basically, to tempt people with evil. At the end of the millennium, they've had a thousand years of Jesus ruling and reigning with the rod of righteousness, where everything's right, and these Gentiles who begin to populate the planet during that thousand year, they're tempted. Satan is put into the abyss, awaiting execution, awaiting incarceration, where the Antichrist and the false prophet are, which is a lake of fire, and he's loosed for a season. He tempts the Gentile governments and people, and they concoct a plan to try and destroy Jesus, even after all they've learned, and all they've seen, and experienced, where the curse is reversed, and everything's made right. It's not your environment that makes you evil, it's the heart of man. It's the natural, fallen, idemic nature of man, of those Gentiles, that they're enticed and move in that direction. And so, the evil of man. And so, his vengeance is against the Antichrist, who's the archetype of Jesus Christ, in place of Jesus Christ, if you will, on the human level. He's destroyed with the brightness of the Lord's coming, according to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and the sword of his mouth. When Jesus returns, when he's coming with the clouds, when he's coming, his brightness, his Shekinah glory, destroys the Antichrist and the false prophet. They drop dead in the ground at Basra, where they're trying to, you know, go after the one-third remnant that's in southern Jordan today, in the area of Petra, and their bodies are just left there, no burial, and then they're taken and put in the lake of fire. And then a thousand years later, so too with the devil. And so, vengeance is mine, he's going to get all of his enemies, he can remove them all, and he's much better at it than we. We have a tendency to be unable to handle that sort of anger, where it becomes wrath, his wrath. Lord, in your wrath, remember mercy. So he gives room for his vengeance. We have to give room for God's vengeance. Pastor Chuck always says, let the Lord defend you. Now, I've discovered, when I came under assault, there were a whole lot of verses that I had stored up in my head that were going to protect me when I'm under attack. One of them is, is when the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against them. So the enemies come in like a flood after you, and I'm saying, let the Lord defend me. Chuck said, let the Lord defend me. And boy, I got, I got tapped out, broken. Nobody came to rescue me. Taken out. Since God's for you, who can be against you? Taken out. Taken down. What did I learn? I learned to let go. To let go of all the cliches and all the stuff that I thought I knew, and to simply walk in a childlike faith, trusting in the Lord, that he didn't abandon me. He didn't forsake me. He allowed the whooping. He allowed me to be whooped. It was unjust. It was unfair. Humiliating. A reproach. Horrible. There still lingers to this day, but he's still my hero. He's still my Savior, and there's one day where he's going to exact vengeance. There's one day where he's going to make things right. In the interim, he's reminding me of the cross. He's reminding me of the injustice that's perpetrated against him, and how he held back, and how he waited, how he continues to wait. He reminds me of what spirit I am, that I'm not here to destroy people, to get, you know, to get even, or to exact vengeance. And so we fill up the sufferings of Christ. We go through suffering. We let go. We endure, as the Apostle Paul and his list of things that he had to endure. And we pray for those who are persecuting us and doing these things. And we don't allow it to change us. We don't allow it to wipe us out. I remember I talked to a lawyer, and we were under the gun. We were in a lot of trouble. And I said, well, he told me, you know why you were really shut down? And then he described what happened. And now it's commonplace. And I said, well, the Lord will defend us. And he looked at me like I was from a different planet, like I was from Mars. And I'll never forget that look. But what did I learn? Got to let go. Got to let it break you. Got to die to self. Got to allow the Lord to remake you, if you will. As you're broken, you're more reliant and dependent upon him. And the leash is real tight. You're there, and you're going to get through it. You're going to get through it. It may seem unjust, but you're going to get through it. King David, when he was being anointed by Samuel the prophet to be the next king, King Saul came after him for 10 years. That time of preparation to become king. He went from being a killer of Goliath, you know, to be the next king. But he had to go through 10 years of preparation. When guys aren't prepared, where Rehoboam's unprepared, not go through the school of hard knocks, he's not equipped to be a good leader. Rehoboam and Jeroboam after King Solomon. But a guy like Joseph, he's prepared for 13 years to become second commanded that of Pharaoh. Abraham and Sarah, 25 years before Isaac come. And then you've got Moses. He's prepared for 40 years in the deserts of Midian until he's elevated to the place where God had ordained that he'd be a deliverer leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, 80 years old, spend the last third of his life as a deliverer. But David spent 10 years running like a partridge from King Saul. There were times where he in the cave of Engedi and all that he could take when Saul was relieving himself, he could have killed Saul, but he wasn't going to touch the Lord's anointed. He was going to leave vengeance, you know, up to the Lord that God would deal with him. And so no selfish ambition. In Proverbs 24, 17, it says, rejoice not when thine enemy falls and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbles. How do we live among unbelievers? Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good, by being humble, by being honorable, and thirdly, and finally, by being helpful. Verse 20, therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. And so Elisha, there's an example of Elisha in 2nd Kings 6.21, where Ben-Hadad was coming against the children of Israel who were in Samaria. And Ben-Hadad, his intel was such that every time they tried to come as terrorists to come against Israel, Elisha would let the king know what was happening. And so Ben-Hadad's like, hey, wait, we've tried twice now to attack by surprise, but they have intel and such that somebody's letting them know who's the spy among us. And one of his guys says, no, there's no spy, but Elisha is able to tell what you say in your bedchamber. You know, they got bugs here. You've been bugged and the bug is Elisha. It's so anyway, there came a time where they came to the city of Dothan and they grabbed hold of Elisha and they're trying to come after him. And Elisha has one servant with him and the whole city surrounded with chariots and horses up to come after this marked man, Elisha, who's given up intel. And Elisha prays that the Lord would open the eyes of his servant, that he'd see that there's more with him than there were with those guys. Then he saw the chariots of fire and the angels that were there surrounding the city and all. Great picture there, great name for a movie and all. And so the majority, God before you, who can be against you? And then he took and he says, Lord, cause blindness to come upon this invading army, that of the Syrians. And the blindness covered these guys. And then he says, Hey, I'll take it. I'll lead you to the city. And he led them rather than their own city, led them to Samaria. And the King of Israel, as they're in Samaria, the 10 northern tribes are in Samaria. The King of Israel said in verse 21, shall I smite him? Shall I smite him? And second King 621, shall I smite him? Shall I smite him? And he says, no, don't smite him, feed him, give him water, give him drink. They're like prisoners of war. And then they fed him and all. And it says there that they never, so the bands of the Syria came no more into the land of Israel as they let them go after they fed them and all. And so by love serve one another, be helpful, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. Matthew Henry said, he that has this rule over his spirit is better than the mighty. William Barclay, I like this quote, the only way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend. Have you ever had that? Ever been at odds with a bully, been at odds with your ex-husband, your ex-wife and the whole, you know, holidays and your kids and everything's real awkward. Well, what if God made you friends? My mom and dad, when they were divorced, it was tense. It was ugly. It was, and then my dad became a Christian. And when my dad became a Christian, he was at least able to show up, you know, at Christmas with my grandparents and all the family members there that we used to all gather with. And, and he, he operated really well. He, he could handle all of it in a, in a group like that. You know, that's a, that's a work of God's spirit, isn't it? Huge work of God's spirit to change his heart. They were no longer enemies. So be helpful. Heap coals of fire upon their head. And you remember when Elijah, as we talked about James and John, sons of thunder wanting to call down fire. Well, they, they got that picture from Elijah because Elijah earlier had called down when the King sent 50, a soldier with 50 group to come after Elijah. He called fire down from heaven to barbecue. And then they sent another 50 barbecue, the third 50 group of 50 that came, you know, he, they begged him not to barbecue him. And, and, and he didn't at all. And they said, the King wants to see, you know, and got through to him. And so here you have a picture of, of a heaping coals of fire upon their head in, in a good way. So we use this in the negative so often where I'm going to be kind to him. I'm going to do some, it'll heap coals of fire on their head. You know, in that they'll, they'll you know, they'll get theirs, they'll get their vengeance or whatever it'd be heaping coals of fire on them, but it's in the positive. So you're helpful in the sense that the fire has gone out. There's no propane torch. When I first came to Washington here, the family that invited us, I noticed when he was lighting his wood burning stove, he pulled out this propane bottle with a, with a plumber's torch and, and I'm like, man, that's a way to start a fire, man. You know, cause when I start fires, they don't lie, you know, cause I'm a city boy. And, and then I go to the other extreme. You see somebody that's an Eagle scout and they're trying to one match, one match, you know, watch me do this with one match, you know? And so they're really good at doing one match. And, and I just give my daughter a propane torch here. Here's have this for Christmas. You know, you married a boy scout, this, this you'll really love this, you know? And, and they love that propane torch, right? I love it too. And I put, I put wood, wood starter stuff there. So anyway, you have a home where their fire has gone out. The fire has gone out in the house. They don't have matches or a propane torch or any of that. They need coals from your fire. They need to come over to your house and say, Hey, do you got a bowl of sugar? Do you have some salt? Do you have some coals we can borrow? And they typically carry it, you know, up on top of their head. And so their home is cold. It's filled with strife. There's hatred, there's jealousy, there's no peace and love conquers all. And so you take some coals and you put it in that container that they have and they'll carry it back to their house. You're putting coals upon their head. It's a kind gesture, a loving gesture. You're wanting your, your neighbor for his home to become warm and peaceful and a home once again. And so you're heaping coals of fire upon them when you're, when you're loving and kind toward them. So if your neighbor doesn't like your whatever and they're cold, you know, and you're having trouble with them by giving them some of the coal, by helping them, you're diffusing the problem. You're turning the enemy into a friend and you're showing that love conquers all. First Corinthians 13 forces, charity suffers long in his kind, charity envies not, charity vaunted not itself is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil, rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Charity, love never fails. Love never fails. Love conquers all. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Stop, in the Greek tense it says here, stop being conquered by the evil. Keep on conquering the evil with good. Drown the evil in the good. Now imagine if we could apply that in Israel, apply that Taiwan and Ukraine, places where war is breaking out. If you can overcome the evil with good. In the world we're living in, the globalist, the devil, is trying to divide and conquer. Jesus said there would be iniquity abound, the love of many would grow cold, and that nation would rise against nation, which means ethnic group against ethnic group. We're watching where fat old white guys are being demonized, and so people are being taught to not like white people in South Africa, not like white people, you know, in America, right? Get blacks against whites, Asians, all the different ethnic groups against each other, that's one way. Another way is rich against poor, that's another way to get us all at each other's throats. Civil war breakout, martial law, the end of America. Many of you as Christians have held back, you've been wronged, you've been mistreated, you watched the election fraud take place, election stolen, all these sort of things. Why are you waiting? What are you waiting for? You're doing the best you can, you're trying to get the bad books out of school, you're voting, you're doing everything you can with the system in which you're within, and you're trying to love, you're trying to do the higher good, you're trying to be decent people, you're paying your taxes, paying your bills, you're watching this evil, you know, encroach and get worse and worse and worse, and you're crying out for Jesus to deal with it, and in the human level, we can conquer a lot of it at work, a lot of them that are taught this hatred by simply loving them at work, loving them at school, loving them in the community. Soft answer, turn away wrath, don't get sucked in, don't get sucked into the road rage or the fighting against each other. If the devil can get us hurting each other, they win, right? And so if we continue to keep our heads and to love our enemies, love people that we normally wouldn't love, we're going to lose if we are filled with hatred. I don't hate Russians, but the news media would want me to hate Russians lying to me saying they stole the elections. They didn't steal the elections, your own government stole the election, you know. If I'm going to hate anybody, it's going to be the Bidens and Obamas and the Trumps and the RINOs, the red and the white, those are the ones I'm be angry at, you know, those are the ones, they're doing it to me, they're my enemies, they're moving toward globalism. And so on the street, people on the street, you and I, we cannot fall into that trap. We cannot fall into the trap of hating. We've got to continue to love, love, love, love one another. So we, there's no other way, love conquers all. So by being humble, by being honorable, by being helpful, we drown the evil in the good. Love never fails, love conquers all. Father, we come before you and we pray, Lord, that we wouldn't take the bait, that as people are demonized, as countries are demonized, as prejudice is taught, as hate and bigotry, but Lord, let us not misconstrue that which is right and that which is wrong. Lord, let us love at all times, but let us also be men and women of truth, that murder is still wrong, that sin is still wrong, there's still a hell. Love doesn't conquer all in the sense of being tolerant of evil, but Lord, the law is there for the lawless, for those who violate the law. And Lord, the jurisprudence systems to deal with them, we don't take it into our own hands, but Lord, as we engage, as we're around people, Lord, let us go forth with the good news, the love that you have, that you came not to condemn the world, but that the world through you might be saved. Lord, we pray that we discover that although one might be a Republican, one might be Democrat, one might be liberal, one might be conservative, one might be black, white, brown, yellow, Lord, what we have in common is you. We need a Savior. We need to be made whole. Lord, save us, save us from ourselves, as the world, as you say, Lord, in your word, except those days be short, no flesh will be saved. Lord, we have the capability of destroying every man, woman, and child upon the planet, and without your intervention, without you intervening, we are moving in that direction. And Lord, we thank you for the years of peace that we've enjoyed here, as there's been wars all over the planet, the rate of murder in Chicago, and the rate of suicides in Seattle, people being destroyed, being wiped out. Lord, we pray that you'd raise up a standard against it. We pray that you'd equip us and strengthen us to love within our homes, our spouses, our children, grandchildren. We pray that all that the enemy means for evil to divide and conquer. Lord, we'd not be ignorant of his devices, his strategies to steal, kill, and to destroy. Love conquers all. Help us to love, Lord. Help us to take wrong. Help us to admit wrong. Help us to humble ourselves and to walk in that newness of life. Don't let the enemy rip us off in our pride, in our selfishness. Help us, Lord, we pray, in Jesus' name. And if you're here this morning and you've never received Christ in your heart and life, you've never been introduced to Jesus, we want to introduce you to him. We want you to know that he's risen. He's risen indeed. And he's here, and by his spirit, his spirit is knocking on your heart, saying, let me in. He's a gentleman. He's not going to kick the door in. He's given you the power of choice to choose whether you receive him or reject him. That's all of life comes down to. What did you do with God's son? And if you're here this morning and you want Christ, your heart is open, you're turning from your sins, you're crying out to God, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. His love is, you can't resist his love. His love is so great. If that's you this morning, just surrender your heart and life to him now, right here and now. Let him clean you up. Let him make you whole. Just lift your hand up. We want to lead you in prayer. Anyone here this morning? You've never surrendered your heart and life to Jesus. This is your moment. Father, thank you once again, the security of salvation, the security of knowing that nothing will ever pluck us out of your hand. Lord, bless now as we partake of communion. Let us come into that union, that fellowship, that koinonia, Lord. Bless now, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.