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Romans 12:14,21 -Love Conquers All- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2023-10-08
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Romans chapter 12 verses 14 through 21. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Romans 14. Encourage you to read on your own Psalm one twenty two. 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 say. Alright. 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 the 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 under 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 shall 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 wanna experience your peace that surpasses all understanding. We we don't want to be caught up in the time of the of this great anxiety that's that's and and 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. They I was told when I read an article on on their advancement and 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 you can't be real vocal and and, you know, 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 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 wanna speak of all the good things that Johnny did in his lifetime. You know, whether good or bad, you only remember the good stuff. So you let everybody know, and it comforts everybody what what a wonderful person he is. And, and, you know, a lot of times, we even lie and we say, yeah, they're in heaven. You know? Everybody wants to think in terms of everyone's gonna go to heaven. There is no hell. Nobody's gonna go to hell. You know? And, I did a funeral one time over here, and, I mean, the people were ready to to kill me. They were so angry. And, 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 and my family, we had to huddle together to get out of that. That crowd was angry because they didn't wanna hear about the cross. They didn't wanna 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, they made great cookies. I mean, I can say good things about anybody. But, but to lie and say everybody goes to heaven, no, I don't think so. Yeah. It's a choice. I mean, you can 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 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 gonna be people that the devil sends that try and provoke me into the flesh, to get me into the flesh, to get me angry, to, 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, your police officer, you diffuse the situation. You try to deescalate. You don't wanna 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 deescalate 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, 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 gonna 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. Or an what's that joke say? A terrorist what's the difference between a terrorist and a pit bull? The pit bull you can put on a leash. Alright. There you go. Alright. Yeah. I got some good jokes. Alright. So Matthew five forty three, Jesus said, you have heard it been said, thou shalt 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, and we we're not passive pacifist. 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 you're not getting my other cheeks. And, and so it's, 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 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 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 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, and many of you guys are ex military. Many of you gals are ex military, so you know. And so I was told by Sue Lovelace, you know, the pastor, if any 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 him. Right? And so that's kind of a tongue in cheek, but it's a truism there. But I mean, you you gotta put put them down. If they're rabid, they reach a point of being a rabid dog, you know, you're gonna have to put them down. You try and, do everything you can to deescalate it, turn your cheek 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's let it know be known to people. If if you give us no other choice, we're gonna have to defend ourselves, you know, basically along those lines. And so I don't wanna preach this or teach this in such a way that you go away from here thinking you're Pollyanna and everyone's gonna like it, you know. It's it's just it's not gonna happen. You're gonna have enemies. You're gonna have enemies. And the Lord's there to also protect us. So Jesus says in Matthew seven twelve, whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do even so to them for this is 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 wanna 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 be disrespectful to anybody for any reason whatsoever. So don't be rude. Love is not rude. So love like you wanna be loved. Be treated like you wanna 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 wanna 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 to soften your heart. I like going to Luke chapter 17 verse one through three. If somebody wronged you, you know, you you take you go to them privately, Matthew 18. If they don't listen to 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 wanna forgive this person from my heart lest I be given over to the tormentors in my heart, my heart becomes embittered. So I wanna 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 gonna have them over Thanksgiving again. Alright? So in Luke 17, it says, if they repent, forgive them. So I'm looking for the fruit of repentance if we're gonna 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 you're the Lord's not telling you 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 different levels of of interaction, if you will. And, but in a general route in public, you know, treat others as you'd wanna 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 gonna spit in our food, man. Don't do that. Don't do that. And my daughter Jessica, she doesn't take it. I mean, if 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 gonna do to our food when it comes back? Don't do that. You know, don't do that. And and if you're gonna 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 wanna be as nice as I can to people that are handling my food. Okay? My food's important to me. And I don't wanna 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 recognize, you know, don't a lot of them are making their livings from their tips. So don't don't be treating them that way. What if 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 not even tip them or or hold to the letter of the law. They didn't bring my coffee in time, so I'm not gonna tip them. You know? I'm never like that. Never. Never. On the side of grace. Right? 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 but they did it, you know. So it mama bears, I guess, they're mama bears, you know, taking care of papa papa bear. But, I just choose to just not even not even magnify it. You know? Alright. There you go. I can eat most anything. Just about anything. Just about. Alright. So soft answer turns away wrath. So in the positive. So Jesus blessed the two thieves that were on the cross with them as they were reviling him. One actually 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 and all. What's from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. When you're provoked, 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 gonna find out, 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 Jesus on the cross and at the crucible, you know, at the very worst, father forgive them for they know not what they do. You know, that's what's coming out of his heart. Abundance the heart, the mouth speaks. And so we want the Lord to change our heart. The centurion exclaimed, truly this was the son of God. Stephen, 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, lay not this sin to their charge. Same way like Jesus. You know, he was interceding intercessory prayer for his enemies that were, 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, 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, jealous and envious and go home and complain that I deserve that promotion. Why did they get that promotion and all? But something goes wrong with somebody, and, you know, there's a greater measure of of, sympathy. You know, we're able to we're able to, for some reason, we're able to, show a little bit more empathy, and sympathy. But when it's happening to the other person, bad things are happening to him, 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 impostor. Look at that stuff that's going on him. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, they're gonna come. They're miserable comforters, and they're gonna try and comfort Job, and they're gonna 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 you've buried some Babylonian garments and 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 excuse 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, 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, but that's that's human nature. They'll come up, make fun of you. They might be thirty pounds overweight, but they'll come up, make fun of you, hold food in front of you. Oh, you like that. You like that. I had a pastor do that to me. Hey. How do you like that? And 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 fall. I love the fact that we are a like minded group of people. Paul told, the church of Philippi that Timothy was a like minded person. 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 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, 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. I've had people, 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 a Darby. Because a Darby, you know. It's just it's craziness. And and so you this is what Jesus said. Here's what he said here. Here's what John said here. You see it? Here's what Paul said to the church of Thessalonica. If they can't see it and they just wanna 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 gonna hear every week about the preacher of rapture. Every week. I mean, there's a hammer at home. Jesus is coming. I'm gonna keep telling the church about Jesus coming. I went to a pastor meeting, last Tuesday with Kevin. And, at the pastor meeting, when when I was leaving, pastor Tom says to me, you know, Rick, you're our Maranatha pastor. That's who you are. You're our Maranatha pastor. The word Maranatha means our lord cometh. So they must have been listening to some of the messages Brian and Vicky are recording and kinda observing what we're doing here, and they concluded, Rick's the Maranatha pastor. Yes, I am. Yes, I am. That's what I wanna be. I wanna 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 soon 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 twenty eight twenty five 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 it 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 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 till 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. All of a sudden, we're in the tribulation period and buy more stuff because you're gonna 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, preterist. What 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, 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. Jesus treated Nicodemus, a wealthy religious leader, the same as he the hated Samaritan woman. He wasn't a respecter of persons. Everybody had an ability to approach Jesus. He wasn't intoxicated or thought, oh, god. This guy's got 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. He wasn't prejudiced in any way, shape, or form, and 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, betrayest out the son of man with a kiss? Do you know what Jesus 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 time frame 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' 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 twelve 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. You know, we we know John three sixteen, but John's three seventeen 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 not 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 low estate. 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 I'm a nobody, and he is a real somebody. And he would make guys like me and others like me, you know, feel like we were special, like we mattered, like we God could use our lives. And 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 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 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, that's the way that Jesus treated people. Jesus said in Matthew eleven twenty eight, he said, come on to 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 under your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. If he was high and lowly in heart, if he was high and hard like I'm really super special, I'm the son of God, we'd never have access to him. And you know presently, he being almighty God and seated at the right hand of his father. The veil of the temple was rent in two. 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 gonna 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 wanna 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 mediator appearing 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 to this guy, connects to that guy. And it's a form of politics, people playing politics. And, I'm as ready to go out and have a rib eye with you low lifes 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. Alright. There you go. Alright. So a guy asked me the other day, hey, you know pastor Chuck? I said, yeah, know pastor Chuck, and everybody's doing the whole legacy thing and heritage thing. And, 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, but I did fly in the jet. I'm jet man. Okay. Be not wise in your own conceits. 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. 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's 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 gonna resist the proud and give grace under the humble. I like, D. L. 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 gonna 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, the things that are based, things that are not, to show the mighty, to show the noble, and, and he gets the glory. He shares his glory with no man. My dad used to wear a shirt when I was growing up. When you're as great as I am, it's hard to be humble and, kind of a funny tongue in cheek 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 in a great place, you know. Where were you born? It's not this the carpenter's son in Matthew thirteen fifty five. 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, teaching these things and all? Nothing nothing good about him. Pride of wealth. You got money? 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 wanna talk to you. You're not in their league. You're not in their social, you know, 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 him 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 did check 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 two, he had no form nor calmliness 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 wanna hang out with him. Now 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, the 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 this guy's really something, this Barack Hussein Obama. Occidental College. Only problem is nobody remembers him ever attending any of those places. Right? There's no records. He's not even American citizen. Oh, how'd that get past us? Yeah. Elected twice. Twice. Reputation. Education. How knows he letters in John seven fifteen having 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 him gladly, you know. And 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 them his his doctorate degrees and all the other degrees above it and all. It says he 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 and doing the the the job of a slave right before you. Happy are 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 five thirty, I can have 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 mine 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 learn, 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 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 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 Hibbs video presentation. Jack's mad. And they are going after the public schools that have these pornographic, terrible, terrible books there injected at 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 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 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 gonna lose custody of your kids. You really wanna 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 once all the danger's gone. I understand that. I understand that, but I just I just can't see treating children or grandchildren as missionaries in a luciferian environment. You better not be busy. You better 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 describe to you or let you know that they told the teacher that they have impulses toward a boy being a girl or girl a boy. What are you gonna do with that? There's no going back. You can't 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 wanna do. We wanna 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 the 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 gotta 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, 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 beards 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 of. 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 and move on. In first Thessalonians five fifteen, set see that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men. So Jesus let you know, you're not sent out there to destroy men's lives. The thief in John ten ten, he's come but to steal, to kill, and 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 wanna share the love of Jesus with people that otherwise would, you know, 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 gonna have everybody like us like Pollyanna wants. Not gonna happen. We're not gonna be able to embrace everybody out there. Hey, all of you pedophiles, let's join arms, you know. And, let's let's sing Kumbaya right now. Let's have a 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 I can't I can't close my eyes around you. My kids aren't gonna be anywhere near you. You know? And so you come to the place of repentance, we'll talk, but but, sorry. It ain't gonna happen. Not gonna happen. The law is there to protect us from evil, from to chain evil people to consequences that would that would keep them from, you know, 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 that ignores slights and different things that they're gonna say and do. In Matthew ten thirty four, 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 gonna 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 and 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 liked 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 would 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 gotta be double jabbed and triple masked. Now now you can't go visit the grandkids anymore. It divided families, you know, and it all for what? All for a lie. But you're gonna double down. You're gonna 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. And 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 that would crush me. That would break my heart if I couldn't be grandpa, if I couldn't be papa. And, we have we have family members we're divided from, you know, where you where you can associate with them. Now, as you move closer to a time of totalitarian rule and the social credit score in China, you're gonna get brownie points for turning in Pastor Rick. 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 gonna turn you into the Gestapo, and a man's own family's gonna be divided from itself. And 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 and 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 five verse nine, 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 wanna 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 under 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 their old Denzel man. He's gonna 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 gonna happen till 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. 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 guiding of the master. Right? So we must be controlled by the Holy Spirit. 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 two, 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 two actually think that they're gonna 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 all of them. He's laughing from heaven at their their desires and their effort according to Revelation seventeen seventeen. He's put it in their heart to set the stage for God to be glory to 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 1,400 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 gonna remain all over the earth with carnivorous birds. No. They're not vegans. They're carnivorous. Meat is good. And they're gonna eat and pick the bones of all these these guys that fall in the battle of Armageddon. Vengeance is mine. I'll pay. Now, interestingly, if you look at types and archetypes, 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 a 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, identical, edemic nature of man of those Gentiles that they're enticed and move in that direction. And so the the evil of man. And and so his vengeance is against the antichrist who's the archetype of Jesus Christ and place of Jesus Christ, if you will, on the on the human level. He's destroyed with the brightness of the Lord's coming according to second Thessalonians chapter two 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 at 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 with the devil. And so vengeance is mine. He's gonna 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 gonna 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 him. So the enemy's coming 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 gonna 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, and how he continues to wait. He reminded me of what spirit I am, that I'm not here to destroy people, to get to get even or to exact vengeance. And so we fill up the sufferings of Christ. We go through suffering. We we let go. We endure as the apostle Paul in 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 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 says, 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? Gotta let go. Gotta let it break you. Gotta die to sell. Gotta 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 gonna get through it. You're gonna get through it. It may seem unjust, but you're gonna get through it. King David, when he was miss being anointed by Samuel the prophet to be the next king, king Saul came after him for ten 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 ten 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 thirteen years to become second command to that of pharaoh. Abraham and Sarah, twenty five years before Isaac come. And then you've got Moses, he's prepared for forty years in the deserts of Midian until he's elevated the place where God had ordained that he'd be a deliverer leading the children of Israel out of out of Egypt. 80 years old. Spend the last third of his life as a deliverer. But David spent ten 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 gonna touch the Lord's anointed. He was gonna leave vengeance, you know, up to the Lord that God would deal with him. And so no selfish ambition. In Proverbs twenty four seventeen, 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 evil. Be 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 shall heap coals of fire on his head. And so Elisha, there's an example of Elisha in second Kings six twenty one, where 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 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's able to tell what you say in your bed chamber. You know, they got bugs here. You've been bugged, and the bug is Elisha. It's Elisha bug. And and so 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 and the whole city's surrounded with chariots and horses of them to come after this marked man, you know, Elisha, who's given up intel. And 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, and so the majority, God before you, who can be against you? And then he 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 and I'll 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 them? Shall I smite them? In second Kings six twenty one, shall I smite them? Shall I smite them? And he says, no. Don't smite them. Feed them. Give them water. Give them drink. They're like prisoners of war. And then they fed them and all, and, 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 ugh. 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 fifth a soldier with 50 group to come after Elijah, he called fire down from heaven to barbecue him. Then they said another 50 barbecue him. The third 50, group of 50 that came, you know, he they begged him not to barbecue him, and and and he didn't and all, and they said the king wants to see and all got through to him. And so here, you have a picture of of heaping coals of fire upon their head in a in a good way. So we use this in the negative so often, where I'm gonna be kind to them, I'm gonna do something that'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. 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? Because when I start fires, they don't lie, you know, because 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 fire one match. And, I just give my daughter a propane torch. Here. Here's I 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's gone out. The fire's gone out in the house. They don't have matches or 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 want your your neighbor for his home to become warm and peaceful and, a home once again. So you're heaping coals of fire upon them when you're when you're loving and chi torn them. So if if your neighbor doesn't like you or 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 thirteen four says, charity suffers long and is kind. Charity envies not. Charity vaunteth 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, 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 break out, 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 you're within. And, and you're you're trying to love. You're trying you're trying to do the higher good. You're trying to be decent people. You're doing your 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 in in the human level, we can conquer a lot of it at work, lot of them that are taught this 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 gonna 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 gonna hate anybody, it's gonna be the Bidens and Obamas and the Trumps and the rhinos, the red and the white. Those are the ones I'm gonna 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 on the 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 gotta 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, and 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's still wrong, that sin is still wrong, there's still a hell. Love doesn't conquer all in the sense of 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'd 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 and no flesh should 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 and life, you've never been introduced to Jesus, we wanna 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 gonna 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 wanna 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 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.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
