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1 Corinthians 7:17,24 -Surrender- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-05-19
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First Corinthians chapter seven verse 17 through 24. Please stand with me as we read God's holy word together. For I would that all men were even as I myself excuse me. We already went there. 17. But as God has distributed to every man as the Lord has called everyone, so let him walk and so ordain I in all the churches. Is any man called being circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Any called uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandment of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called. Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it. But if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord's being a servant is the Lord's free man. Likewise also he that is called being free is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price. Be not ye the servants of men. Brethren, let every man wherein he is called, there abide with God. Father, thank you for your holy word. Thank you, Lord, that we didn't choose you, but that you chose us. And Lord, you ordained that we would bring forth fruit. Lord, I thank you that as I was headed toward hell, as many of us were headed toward hell, Lord, arrested us, you stopped us, you awakened us, you converted us. We turned from our sin in repentance. We cried out to God to be merciful unto us, and Lord, you you forgave us of all of our sins. You came into our heart and lives, you continue to transform and change us, to renewing of our minds, and Lord, we we desire to know you to an even greater measure this morning, that we might know you. We pray that you would reveal yourself to us and be our teacher, Lord. We pray that you would remove all fear that faith would rule and reign, Lord. That we'd have such an incredible confidence in you, Lord, that we care not what Klaus Schwab or anybody else, Bill Gates, is planning or scheming or whatever, Lord. We, lift up Psalm two, Lord. Oh, how the heathen rage, imagine a vain thing against the Lord and against the anointed. Lord, you win. You've already won. Lord, we wanna celebrate that victory this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. And one little one little little note. Could you please shut off your phones? Please turn your phones off. Okay? I'm in the car. Okay. If it rings, you you might be surprised that your name's not in the lamb's book of life. I'm telling you. It's a serious sin. This is serious, man. I'm telling you, it's serious. Be infiltrated by the devil's people, I tell you. And then I got mine with me, and it'll go off. Alright? I looked at it twice. Is it on vibrate? Is it on vibrate? You know? Because one of these days, one of you are gonna realize my phone's not on vibrate. And to really get me, you're gonna call to my number, and it's gonna ring while I'm in the pulpit. So I know you guys. I know. And I'm just as absent minded as the rest of us. And but I have to act tough. Alright. So discerning God's will for our lives is one of the greatest questions we face as Christians. Lord, what's my will? You know, what's your will? How does my will and your will, how do they converge, Lord? How do how do I come into harmony with the plan and the purpose of which, you know, you created me and, and then called me and brought me to be a Christian? So Lord, what are my gifts? What have you gifted me with? What what can I do? What can't I do? What should I do? How should I, you know, live my life? If I'm single, should I be married? A young guy came here this morning named Christian, and he's gonna, he's asking for the hand of, Jocelyn. And I asked him, I said, why do you wanna get married? And well, you know, and, so why do you wanna get married? What's the purpose of getting married? I I have to be honest. Well, I better not go there, but, you know, when I was his age, there's really one reason why I wanted to get married because Christians can't have sex, or Christians can in in the context of marriage. But outside of that, you know, you gotta be single your whole life, and I can't abstain. I'm not a celibate. I'm not a eunuch and all that. So if somebody asked me why, hey, why do you wanna get married so young? Because I wanna have sex, man. I'm being honest. How how long can you fast? How long can you last without sex? So God's given this drive, this huge drive that men and women have, and you guys are like, he's not very spiritual. I know. I know I'm not very spiritual. But this is true. This is what Paul said previously in the chapter. If you can't abstain, then get married. So what are you gonna do? You're gonna just sweat it out till you're 40? You know? No. Get married young. Get married young. Start having kids. And, you know, jump in. Pastor Chuck and Kay, they jumped they jumped in and they swam out. And so many of us, we say, oh, no. I can't get married yet. I can't afford it. You never can afford it. You might as well jump in now. You know? You might as well go for it. And and so we make all these different I gotta get my career done. I gotta get this done. I got a house first. You know, all these different things before. And and then what it comes down to, as Paul was alluding to, fornication. It comes down to a whole lot of sleeping around in the church, messing around. So I can say that Kathy and I have been faithful to one another for forty three years, but, I wouldn't have lasted much longer. I I I know my weakness in me that is my flesh dwells no good thing. And, so that eighteen months that I had to be abstinent, you know, I didn't I I didn't sit down the night of our wedding and say, you know, let let's just talk. You wanna talk, honey? Let's just talk. You know? Tell me a story, you know? Alright. So so if I'm married to an unbeliever or an unloving person, should I seek a divorce? If I'm a slave, should I demand to be made free? Now you got 60,000,000 slaves at the time that Paul's writing this. So if you're a slave, should I seek to be freed from that slavery? Is it is it God's will that every man, woman, and child be free? If I'm poor, should I strive to be rich? If you're going to Joel Olsteen's church, you should because that's what he's selling. Your best life now. So what is God's will for my life? If I knew God's God's will, would I accept it? If you really knew God's will, would you accept it? I heard of a young girl in high school that was having trouble, Christian girl, abstaining from sex. And you all know her. And she was having a difficult time. She was promiscuous. And I'm not saying like crazy promiscuous, but she wasn't a virgin anymore. And she prayed, Lord, I don't like who I've become. I don't like what's happened to me. Do whatever you gotta do to change me, to stop this. And she was going swimming, she jumped off the dock, she hit her head on the bottom, broke her neck, and she's been a quadriplegic ever since. Johnny Erickson taught her, serving the Lord Jesus in a wheelchair as a quadriplegic. She prayed the prayer, Lord, do whatever you gotta do. I don't like who I've become. And so what if it was God's will for you to sit in her chair for a lifetime? Would you accept that? Would you accept that as God's will? Or Fanny Crosby, she writes over 5,000 hymns for the early church or for the church, and, she's born blind. She can't see, and people feel sorry for her, and she's got an attitude of, well, the very first thing I'm gonna see is the face of Jesus. And although she couldn't see, the Lord gave her spiritual eyes to see in the spiritual realm to write songs that glorify the Lord and to be used of the Lord. Except the corn of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abides alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. She had to die to self. She had to die to the desire to see and be like everybody else. So too, Johnny Erickson Tada. But God gives them prolific gifts, and those gifts they'll be able to use for his kingdom and his glory. People scratch their head, and they think, how come they don't commit suicide? How can they cope? How can they how can they endure a lifetime of suffering? What if it's God's will for you to suffer? You think that kind of sermon will sell today? God wants you to suffer. What if I phrased it that? God wants you to suffer. You think they'll come through those doors to hear that message? No. You gotta tell them your best life now. You gotta lie to them. We're gonna have our best life after this now. We're gonna have our best life when this life's over. But Jesus promised you and I, in this life, in this world, you will have tribulation. You can bank on it. You can put it in the bank. You're gonna have pressure. You're gonna have tribulation. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. Right? So that false doctrine of your best life now, did Jesus have his best life now? Did Paul have his best life? Did any of the apostles have their best life now? Paul described it as this light affliction, which is but for a moment in comparison to eternity, Working a far more eternal weight of glory while we look not at things which are seen, but things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, things which are not seen are eternal. So Paul's saying, I'd rather suffer temporally so that I'm rewarded and enjoy the splendor and the bliss of heaven eternally. Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ as as greater riches than all the splendor of Egypt, you know, that we're told in Hebrews 11. So he gave up being the next pharaoh of Egypt and being the best, you know, the best guy of the world at the time, the greatest Moses, to be Moses. Tending his father in law's sheep for forty years, and then being a deliverer, you know, delivering God's people. And we see that that he's estimating. He's looking at his portfolio, and he's saying, alright. How much should I have in the stock market? How much should I have in real estate? How much should how much education should I have? Where should I invest? What should I do? He's he's esteeming the reproach of Christ, that of losing it all, has greater riches than all that he could fathom that would be his if he compromised and lived for the world, if he lived for self. Gave it up. What would you do? What happens when God's will is in conflict with my will? Who wins? I'll tell you, in my case, who wins? The whale wins. God prepares a whale for me. And he says, Rick, really? You think you've got free will? Rick, really? You think you're going the opposite direction of what I've intended for you? Yeah, Lord. I got free will. I want my will to be done. Rick, we're gonna rearrange your will. You want a little sickness for a while? No. No. No. No. No. No. I don't wanna be sick. You want a financial reversal? You know, Rick, I know your Achilles heel. I know your weaknesses. I know what it what it takes to spank you to apply a little pressure here or there and and to get you to where you finally say, uncle. Uncle. Okay. Okay. Three I tap out. I tap out. I'll quit fighting you, Lord. You have that kind of relationship with the Lord? I do. Keeps me on a short leash, real short leash, man. Cause he knows if he lengthened it, all the trouble I'd get in. I'd get in so much trouble. In Hebrews chapter five verse eight, it says, though he were a son, speaking of Jesus, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to under them that obey him. And so how can God learn anything? He's the God man, fully man, fully God, and it's more of a a demonstration. He's demonstrating through suffering his obedience unto his father. And that demonstration is incumbent upon us that we too are gonna learn surrender through suffering. And when we surrender in in the midst of suffering, we're glorifying the Lord. And that perfection speaks of growth. Remember how I asked you, do you wanna grow? I've got to give you the real word of God, the reality of suffering, the reality of persecution, the reality of of being persecuted for righteousness, so that as you face these things, you too, you and I both learn what it means to surrender, what it means to be perfected, to grow, to mature. The secret to contentment is surrender to God. Paul gives three reasons why. Number one, consider your calling verse 17. But as God has distributed to every man as the Lord has called everyone, so let him walk And so are Danai in all the churches. That word distributed speaks of gifts. He's given gifts to every single Christian. As we get to the gifts of the spirit in first Corinthians, eleven twelve thirteen, or excuse me, twelve thirteen fourteen thirteen, being loved, twelve and fourteen, and also in the back of Romans, you're gonna see the Holy Spirit has given gifted every single Christian severally as he wills. And so some of us have one gift, two gifts, three gifts, four gifts, whatever it may be, but you're a gifted people. You're gifted. You have spiritual gifts to be used for the kingdom of God. The devil's people, they also have gifts, you know, and they use their gifts for the kingdom of darkness, don't they? And they're very good singers, they're very good liars, they're very good actors, they're very good swindlers and such, and those are those are demonic gifts of deception, of deceiving people, and moving people, influencing people. The word called is found in verse 15 through twenty two eight times. Being called, being invited. God has called us. Means to invite, to choose. So God has gifted and chosen you for a specific purpose. What's your purpose? Jesus said, you haven't chosen me to his disciples, but I've chosen you and ordained that you'd bring forth fruit and that your fruit would remain. That whatsoever you ask the father in my name, he may give it to you. We're in his foreknowledge, God knew us, God predestined us, he called us in the book of Romans. Right? Aries tense, completed action, and he's justified us just as if we've never sinned, and he's even glorified us. He sees the finish you and I in heaven glorified in our new glorified bodies. That's why I love Philippians one six so much. Being confident in this very thing, that he that has begun a good work in you, that he will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. God's not gonna throw you and I away because of our physical infirmity and the times that we fall, the times that we blow it. Now in whom is able to present you faultless, we read in Jude. He's gonna present you faultless. He's gonna complete the work that he's begun because it's a work of his spirit. I didn't wake up one day and say, you know, I wanna be a Christian. Didn't happen to me. You know, I think I'm gonna change my spots. I think I'm gonna quit drinking, quit messing around. I think I'm gonna be a good guy now and go to church. I wanna find a church. Didn't happen. Life was good. I had no need, no desire, none whatsoever. But God was working in my heart. I didn't I didn't know there's a difference between your head and your heart, but he's working in my heart, and he was blocking me from a lot of different things that I thought were to be fulfilling. And I saw the emptiness of it. I began to see how shallow it was, and that wasn't that wasn't me. That wasn't nobody teach me that. That was a work of God's spirit, and, show me these dead ends. And so I began to position my life and try and figure out which way to go and and such, and then next thing I know, I'm at a concert, 20 years old, but the concert happened to be at a church. And I took the bait, and I went to the concert, and at the concert, it's the very first time I ever heard the gospel. And I responded. I didn't go in there thinking I was gonna respond. I didn't go in there saying, you know, I'm gonna be a bible thumper or preacher or whatever. You know, the preacher thing came way later, but I mean, it was just such an incredible surprise and surprise to my family and friends and people. Really? Kathy used to call the house that I was living in the Christian new Christian house. I got out of my party house, and her and her friends would, on Fridays, you know, nights, they'd be partying, and they'd call the house, and I used to answer the phone there, because I had a bunch of roommates, and I used to answer the phone, praise the Lord. And, they'd do that phone call just to hear me say that so they could giggle. Hey, this is Rick Bodrey. Listen listen listen to how he answers the phone. Then they, you know, that sort of thing, And smoke another joint or something, you know. I don't know. But but that's that's the way they rolled. So God God intervened, and he intervened in your life. And I never ever ever ever could conceive of becoming a pastor. I didn't know what my gifts were. I didn't know I had any gifts, and it took a period of time for other people, to convince me. Because I just flat out never ever ever thought that God would bestow such a high calling upon me, and I resisted for many years. And and then finally, to where that whale finally spit me out on shore here in Bremerton, and I've been hating it ever since, man. So the question is, have you accepted that purpose? Have you surrendered? In John five thirty, Jesus said, I seek not mine own will, but the will of the father which has sent me. So even Jesus, you know, I do always those things that please the father. And that's what it should be like for you and I as Christians. Verse 18. Is any man called being circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Oh. I I don't know how that happens, but is any called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. So basically, what it's saying, Jews are to remain Jews. Gentiles are to remain Gentiles. Here's a here's a mind boggling one. You'll never see this in the bible because it's a no brainer. Doesn't need to be said. It's self evident. K. Ready? Men remain men, and women remain women. Amen. Okay? Be who he made you. Alright? So if you're called being a man, you're a man. Alright? If you're called being a woman, you're a woman, you know? Alright. That's pretty basic, but we live in a time of great, great confusion. The devil's the author of confusion. High suicide rate for guys that fall into this lie. And then, you've got children, boys and girls, who are being lied to, confused in regard to their gender. Those are born girls, you're girls. Boys are boys. God didn't make a mistake. And so in this case here, the there was a the Judaizers were trying to put pressure upon those in the church to be circumcised and become Jews. So Christian Jews, basically. So Paul say, no, you don't need to do that. Now, in the case of Timothy, Timothy had a Greek father but a Jewish mother. Paul took Timothy out and had Timothy circumcised so that Timothy could be more effective in his ministry with both Gentiles and Jews. But Titus, was a Gentile, Paul refused to have Titus circumcised because he used Titus as a means of exposing the hearts of the Jews in a mixed groups and such. That the Jews like Peter one time even drew Barnabas to a point of where they didn't eat with Gentiles. Paul went to Peter to his face rebuking him, you know. And so there there's no difference. There's no, wall of separation anymore. We're all one in Christ Jesus. And so don't play that game anymore. And so remain how God has called you. So God has strategically placed you where you are and made you who you are for his purpose. In Jeremiah one verse five, before I formed you in the belly, God told Jeremiah. And before thou came forth out of your mother's womb, I ordained you a prophet under the nations. I sanctified you. I set you apart as a prophet under the nations. And Jeremiah disagreed. Jeremiah says, oh, but I'm but a child. You you can't use me. I'm just a child, you know. And God says, no, I'm gonna use you. I'm gonna use you to, and he touched Jeremiah's mouth and he put his words into him, and I'm gonna I'm gonna You're gonna be my spokesperson, Jeremiah. You're gonna be Later, you're gonna be known as the weeping prophet. You're gonna serve me for over forty years, and nobody's gonna get saved. Not gonna be any fruit. Nobody's gonna think, you know, you're a very good writer or speaker or anything, you know. And, they're not gonna regard you at all, but you're my servant. And later when they ask, when Jesus asked the question, who do men say that I am? Some say you're Jeremiah. There you go. You remind people of Jesus later on, Jeremiah, who you are. And I'm gonna use you, Jeremiah, to root out, to throw down, to destroy, to pull down the nations. And I'm gonna use you also to build up and to plant. And so the build back better, that theme, they stole it from the Lord. Right? You gotta tear it down, build it back better. And so God's gonna tear down the nation of Israel because it's at a point in time of its apostasy where it's ripe for judgment. God's gonna use Jeremiah in that apostate time. He's kind of a fight against a whole lot of false prophets. And then in the book of Lamentations, he's the last man standing, and it's reality. Everything he prophesied came true. And it doesn't make him happy. But boy, what a calling. What an incredible responsibility upon his shoulders. And then as we talked about Moses, Exodus three and four, Moses, ran from the pharaoh. He felt his calling within his heart. He thought God might be calling him, but he tried to implement his calling in the arm of the flesh by killing an Egyptian. He looked to the left, he looked to the right, and he killed the Egyptian. He didn't look up. And so word got out that Moses, the daughter, the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and he fled and he fled to the deserts of Midea of Midea, and Jethro, his father-in-law, and he had a a wife and some children, and he served there for forty years. So now he's 80 years old, and then there's a as he's out with the sheep, there's a burning bush, but there's a fire, but it's not consuming the bush. And he gets near the the tree as he's as he's looking at the bush, and he hears Moses. You think it was like that? Like the 10 commandments? And Moses and the Lord, who are you? Moses, I don't even know who you are. I am that I am. Moses, I'm gonna send you to Egypt. You're gonna set my people free. You're gonna bring them out of there. I hear their cries four hundred and thirty years, you know, in a furnace of affliction, the Lord forming a nation, you know, with Joseph going before them in his affliction. And then the 70 with Jacob coming on down, and then the the a time came when there was a pharaoh who knew not Joseph. So then they went into an era, a period of time of great suffering of being slaves to Egypt and building building with bricks, you know, and then later with no straw. And so God's hearing the cries of the people, I'm gonna send you Moses, and Moses says, no, I got a speech impediment. I can't do it. Who made your mouth? Who made your tongue? I'll give you the ability to speak. I don't even know you. The people what if I what if I go there and I tell them I am that I am, but but they don't believe me? They don't believe that I've actually seen you. How am I gonna get them to know that that I really seen you? Well, what's in your hand, Moe? What's in your hand? A staff. A shepherd's staff. Throw it on the ground. Becomes a serpent. Picks it back up by the tail and becomes a staff again. There you go. Show them that. Take your hand. Put it in your bosom. That's why I wore this jacket. Now it's leprous. Put it back in there. Now it's clean. Show them that one. And if they still don't believe you, here's another one. Grab some water out of the Nile, throw it on the ground, and I'll turn it into blood. He still didn't wanna go. No. I'm not going. I'm not going. You can't make me. Now God's getting angry. Hey, your brother Aaron's on his way over. Aaron's gonna come. He's gonna be a spokesman with you, you know? I mean, look how hesitant he is. And then we read a commentary in Acts chapter six and seven of Stephen talking about Moses, how eloquent he was, how brilliant he once was. But God emptied him of that brilliance and that confidence that he had in the first forty years of his life. He spent the next forty being emptied, and now God says, alright. Now I can use you. And that's what God does, doesn't he? Lest we go there like Peter and though everybody's gonna deny you tonight, not me, you know. So the Lord has to humble us and get us to rely upon the Holy Spirit instead of our natural gifting and our natural abilities. They have to be spiritual energized empowered abilities that God uses, lest we be filled with pride. And so you have Moses, he finally surrendered. You have Jonah, as we talked about. He disagreed. He went the opposite direction. Go to Nineveh. Tell them forty days they're gonna perish. No. I'm not going. You're loving God. You'll probably save them. You'll probably forgive them. I hate those people. I'm a patriot. I'm a Jewish patriot. I'm not gonna do that. Fastest growing church in the world is Iran, guys. God loves Iranians. God loves the Persians. God love the Ninevites. He doesn't just love Israel. Abraham, through your seed, all nations of the earth are gonna be blessed. Messiah is gonna be a Jew, but he's gonna be the savior of the whole world. So get over your prejudice, Jonah. Jonah was willing later, wasn't he? He finally surrendered. And we think of Gideon in Judges chapter six, the angel of the Lord came to Gideon, oh, mighty man of valor. Where was he? He was in a wine press, that's a hole. He was threshing wheat. You thresh wheat on a mountain top so you can get the wind to blow so the chaff doesn't come down on your sweaty face. So he's not really very brave because the Midianites, if they see him threshing wheat up on a little hill, they're gonna come there and take everything that he grew, everything that he worked for, they're gonna take it. So he's down in a hole trying to get some wheat, some kernels ready so they can make some bread and all. Oh, that mighty man of valor, that's how God sees you. He sees your potential. He sees your future. He doesn't see you as you see yourself or others may see you. And he says, I'm gonna use you to deliver my people from the Midianites. And and and Gideon says, you got the wrong guy, man. You got the wrong guy. I'm from a poor family, and I'm the least in my in my father's house. You know? I'm I'm the lowest of the low like David with his brothers, you know? And and God says, no, I'm gonna use you. And God used him in a mighty fashion all the way down to, you know, just 300 men. And so God gets the glory. And Gideon even went further with fleeces, you know. Well, Lord, if you want me to go into the ministry, then sell my house for a million dollars. But Rick, it only appraises for 200. Well, Lord, you want me? That's the cost. Alright, Lord? I'm putting it on the mark, and if you want me to serve you, that's what it's gonna take, Lord. So Gideon says, hey, I'm gonna put this fleece out there and you cause the water to come down, the mist, the dew to come down, and to only get the ground wet but the fleece dry. And hey, the next night, we're gonna reverse that, Lord. Alright? So you show me, you make sure that that I'm hearing from you and this is what you want me to do. So are you in agreement? Have you accepted God's will, his sovereign will for your life? Verse 19, circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. So God has called you to obey him, to obey his word, not man's words. Very important today to not fall under the sway of the false prophets, the false Christ, the cults. If you wanna move away from Bremerton, you don't need to call me and get permission. If you wanna get married, don't call me. I don't care. Get married. Who am I? Definitely don't wanna come to me for financial advice. You're out of your mind. I've lost everything. If you've got a bible question, I'd love to help you. That's that's that's where the Lord has placed me within the body. But I'm no cult leader. I can barely lead my own family. Why would I wanna impose some sort of authority over you that somehow you, you know, I rule over this many people? That's that's how crazy these guys are. And many of you have been in churches like that, where you had plans, you had purposes, you had things that you thought the Lord was telling you to do, and the pastor intervenes and tells you why that's not God's will for your life. How's he know what's God's will for your life? How's he know? Doesn't even know what God's will is for his own life. But he's imposing upon you some, you know? And I don't do that. I don't come up to you when I see you vulnerable and going through a hard time and put my hand on your back and start rubbing your shoulders and saying, God's told me things about you. Those are false prophets that do that to unsuspecting women. Vulnerable women who don't have a covering in many cases, have gone through maybe the loss of a husband or or they're widows now. They prey upon them on the television and all with emotional speeches and such to get money out of them. It's manipulation. So be be submissive to God's will for your life, to his will. Fear God. Don't fear men. Don't fear men. Don't go that direction. In John fifteen fourteen, Jesus said, you're my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. So surrender to his will. He's savior Annie's lord. He's your master. Mary Magdalene called him master, Raboni, master. What would you have me do? People used to come up to pastor Chuck and they say, hey, Chuck. Hey, I got this decision to make. What do you think I should do? Now what that does is we got a church here of, I don't know, 500, let's say. And if I start to make you Rick dependent, do you know how many hours of the day I'm gonna answer your texts and phone calls because you can't pray yourself and ask the Lord what the next step is? Now you're gonna be pestering me. And man, I'm Moses. I'm way too busy for all that, and you're interrupting me. So what Chuck would do is he'd say, what's the Bible say? Have you searched the scriptures yet? Okay. Have you prayed about it? What would Jesus do? So these are guys on his staff. Guys on his staff asking Chuck, they don't wanna make a mistake. He doesn't want them Chuck dependent. He wants them to be dependent upon the Holy Spirit. So he's trying to teach them, to wean them from that, you know, looking toward a man, and to make sure they're listening to the Holy Spirit. That they're consistent with the word of God, that they're men of prayer, and that they're consistent with the character of God as they ask the question, what would Jesus do? And so that's that's how we need to be. So So if you're my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you, so we wanna we wanna obey the Lord. We wanna do what he has us to do. And hostility, anger, bitterness, confusion, discontentment stems from what? My will be done. When my will is in conflict to God's will, there's bitterness, there's anger, there's flesh, there's confusion, discontentment, and it's like, I want my way. God, I came to be a Christian because I want you to bless my life. I want to bless me life. I don't wanna have to work anymore, I just wanna follow you, and I want the loaves and the fishes to pop out every day. I wanna be fed, I want shelter, I want good health, I want everything. I wanna rub you a certain way, pray a certain way, say us a few words, and I want my bank account to fill up, I want my kids to be perfect, I want everything my way, and so Lord, get with it. Philippians three twelve says, not as though I had already attained either or already perfect, but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. So Paul's saying, I wanna fulfill the reason I was apprehended. Paul's saying, I wanna discover I wanted to discover the reason, and I wanna fulfill that purpose that God had in grabbing me as Saul of Tarsus and arresting me that day. He apprehended me. Now I wanna apprehend that for which he apprehended me. So we spend our life, we live it out serving the Lord to fulfill his plan and his purposes for our lives, which in many cases can be contrary to what you've dreamt, of what you once thought, of what you believed, of what you prayed for, and you find out twenty, thirty years later, oh God, your plans are so much better than mine. So much better, Lord. So thankful that I didn't force my way, that I didn't demand my way, that I didn't demand of you. So the secret to contentment is surrender to God. Number one, consider your calling. Number two, consider the caller. Who's calling? Who's calling you? Verse 20, let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called. The purpose driven life for 50% of the culture at this time was to be slaves. 60,000,000 slaves in the Roman Empire. You had no rights. If you made your master angry, he could take you with no accountability, no impunity. He could take you, and he could throw you into a pond that he had previously placed piranhas. And he could, for the joy of just watching you scream, throw you into that pond and and instill the fear of his wrath into all the other slaves, and nobody, not his wife, his children, nobody could stop him from doing it or punish him for doing it. Now you're got Christ. Now Jesus has come along, and Jesus isn't asking people to sign a petition to abolish slavery. Slavery is a reality, but slavery is gonna be removed as the Christians begin to multiply, and they're going to change the culture from within. That's what's gonna happen. But in the case of a Christian being a slave, if it's God's will for you to be a slave, you're gonna be a slave. So stay in that place. Six million would die in the first two centuries of the church at the hands of the Roman government and and other antichrist type people. All they had to do once a year is pinch a piece of incense and say Caesar is Lord, and they could live, these Christians. But 10 waves of Roman emperors over a period of two centuries decimated over 6,000,000 Christians. Christianity was not cheapened Christianity was not cheapened by the prosperity doctrines that we see today. It cost you to be a Christian. You were living for something noble, something real, something bigger than you, bigger than your country. You're living for Jesus. We see so much fluff today. Suffering was the norm. It was normal to suffer. Suffering as a slave was God's will for many. And how did they cope with their reality? How did they cope? Pills. Isn't it pills? Isn't there a pill for every malady, every affliction, every suffering, every mind bent, every difficulty? Isn't there a pill? Sure. They went to the pharmaceuticals and they just picked up a pill. Maybe this I'll just self medicate. I'll just smoke the reefer. No. I'll I'll the way I do it, drink lots of wine. I drink lots of wine, so I'm drunk, and I don't have to face the reality of my suffering. Here's one of the best ones. This is this is a mind blower. Shopping. I feel bad. I feel a little depressed. I'm just gonna shop. I'm gonna ram them credit cards up. I feel good when I'm buying stuff. I'm a high maintenance guy. I need a high maintenance wife that makes lots of money because I like to shop. Nowadays, it's what? It's Amazon. I'm shopping all night long. And that guy that guy or that gal is coming to the gate, coming up to the house every single day with little trinkets that I'm buying online. It feels good. And when there's no money to buy, I'm sad. I'm so sad. You know? I'm go to the casino. That'll make me feel better. I'm gonna go to church and hear a feel good sermon. I'm gonna I'm gonna go hear a sermon that's built around me. I. I wanna feel good. I want a therapeutic sermon that tells me the reason I'm such a wretch is not my fault. It's my mom's fault. It's my dad's fault. It's society's fault. I'm such a loser. I'm so fat because people are shoving food down my throat. I can't stop it. It's the woman you gave me. It's the serpent's fault. The blame game. May I suggest to you the secret of contentment in the time of suffering is one word, surrender. Just surrender. Surrender to the sovereignty of God in your life. It's not an accident. That he's ordained this suffering, that he's appointed to you to be a slave, to be in this place suffering, to be poor, to be sickly, to go through difficulty. Why? So you'd be Christ like, so that you'd be perfected, so that you'll grow, and most importantly of all, so that you will glorify your father in heaven. Because people are watching, why would they have a smile on their face now? Don't they know what losers they are? Those slave Christians, they sing so loud. They rejoice. They're so filled with joy. Well, happenstance is circumstances that go my way, but joy is a fruit of the spirit. The Lord's put joy in my heart more than in the time that their grain and their wine increased. What's that mean? In an agricultural society, when the grain and the wine increases, that means we're rich. But the Lord's put joy in my heart more than in the time that the grain and the wine has increased. I can be impoverished. I can be poor. I can be a slave like Onesimus. His name means profitable. And I can be a slave that doesn't like his lot in life, and I run away from Philemon, and I wind up in Rome. And I meet this guy named Paul, and he's a prisoner. And Paul leads me to the Lord. And I come to Jesus. I have my come to Jesus moment. What's Paul gonna do to me now? I'm gonna send you back, Onesimus. I'm gonna send you back to Philemon, your master. And I'm gonna send you with this letter. And I'm gonna remind Onesimus the debt that he owes me because Philemon came to the Lord through Paul. And I'm gonna let Philemon know, Onesimus, that if there's anything that he owes you, if he's done anything wrong, tell him to put it on my account. I got your back, Onesimus. And also, one other thing. Philemon, I want you to receive Onesimus not as a slave anymore, and here's how here's how slavery was abolished, but as a brother. I want you to receive him as a brother now. Relationships. And you could see Philemon, Saint Onismus, hey, brother. You're no longer a slave to me. You're free to come or go. I'll pay you. I'll give you a I'll give you a salary if you wanna work here, but if you don't wanna work here, that's fine too. You're free. You choose because we're brothers. If you can be made free, get out of here. Be free. You don't need to stay there as a slave simply to show everybody how spiritual you are. But if you're in that predicament, don't try to get out of it. Wait for the Lord to change the circumstances and deliver you. He says, verse 21, art thou called being a servant? Care not for it. Be content. But if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. So when opportunity knocks, go for it. Use what you've learned from your time in prison. If God opens the door for you to bail on Bremerton, move and do it quick before he changes mind. But take all that you've learned while you're here because this is a hard place to serve God. Not an easy place. Lot of demonic activity. Lot of mentally ill people here. Lot of opposition from churches, from so called Christians. For some reason, don't want anybody to rise above what this is here. The envy, the jealousy, the whole thing. Whole lot of takers, always wanting to take, but not give, not serve, not make it better. So if you're called here, and you're in a place of difficulty, if you don't rely on the pills, and how many are in this community, if you don't self medicate, if you don't use the wine, if you don't use the shopping, the casinos, if you don't use the feel good sermons, and you simply learn to surrender in the midst of the suffering, you're gonna grow. You're gonna grow exponentially because you're relying upon the word of God with the help of the Holy Spirit, and he's transforming and changing you from within to the point that you can make it anywhere. Hey, I lived in Bremerton, man. This is easy. Right? Seriously, you could go to prison, whatever. It's it's an internal change, not external. You can move away and change the externals, but you better be ready with the internals. Because if the internals aren't mature, Texas isn't gonna work. Idaho isn't gonna work. Be okay for a little while, then you're gonna be back to realizing that there's that same person in the mirror that you've been dealing with. There's that same person in the mirror that's resisting the will of God. You haven't surrendered. And it's a choice we make every day. On a daily basis, we take our cross up, deny yourself, take your cross up, and follow me, Jesus said in Luke nine. Every day, we determine whether or not we're gonna surrender today or not. And when we do surrender, then we rely upon the Holy Spirit, and we have great great fellowship with God. And so when opportunity knocks, go for it. Use what you've learned while you were in prison, while you're in that crucible, while you're in that time of suffering. Joseph became a released slave when he went to Egypt. He's 17 years old. It would appear he's the father's favorite. He had the coat of many colors. His other brothers are very envious and jealous. They hated him. He had some visions and such, and they didn't like it. They'd be subservient to him one day. And he's a type of Christ, Joseph. And he, he's 17 and he's sold into slavery. Some Midianitish traders were headed toward Egypt. His brothers lied to dad and said an animal must have killed him. Look at his coat of many colors. There's blood all over it. And Jacob's just heartbroken. And so we see Joseph in God's will, in God's sovereign will, being unjustly treated for thirteen years. Suffering, surrendering to God. He goes to serve at the home of Potiphar. Potiphar's wife makes advances at him over and over and over again. And he scorns her, and a woman scorn. She grabs his robe. She lies and says, he raped me. He came at me. So now he's he's missing out on this slavery role, this servant role to Potiphar and his household. Now he's actually in a prison in Egypt and such, and or or in Egypt, and doesn't look good. He's able to interpret dreams like Daniel, and he's interpreting dreams of the baker and the and the butler. The butler, you're gonna be raised up. The baker, your head's gonna be put in a a nest and the birds are gonna pluck it, buddy. You're gonna lose your head. The pharaoh hears about this guy that can interpret dreams, elevates him up, and he he can see the future prophetically that, hey, we're gonna have a famine in the land. Let's store up some grain. We store up enough grain. We store up enough food, and like Klaus Schwab said, you guys will be happy and own nothing. Why? Because it took all of your real estate. It took all your gold, your silver to buy food from the pharaoh. And the pharaoh owns it all. A story being repeated. But he's a smart guy. And we read in Psalm one hundred and five seventeen, the preparation. How did God prepare king Saul to be the first king of Israel? No preparation. He was the people's choice. He was a head taller than everybody and handsome. But he was a man pleaser, not a God pleaser. And he radically blew it, didn't he? David was a man after God's own heart. David had to run from king Saul for ten years in preparation to become the king. He had to go through suffering. And here we here we see Joseph. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant. God's will. This is God's will in Joseph's life, a type of Christ. Sold for 20 pieces of silver, Jesus sold for 30. Whose feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid in iron. This is God's man. And he's got he's in the stocks. They hurt his feet with these fetters, these iron gripping his ankles and such. Until the time, there's a time period, there's a shelf life to your suffering. For some of you, for some of us, it's gonna end when we see Jesus face to face. You're gonna spend a lifetime of suffering physically, mentally, emotionally. Maybe not. Maybe for just ten years. Maybe they'll come up with a cure. But the reality is there's no there's there's no definitive how long. It's until God says. And in this case, it's from the time he's 17 till the time he's 30. Until the time that his word came, you're waiting upon God's word. It's so hard. You're praying. You're praying. You're praying. You're praying. And you're wanting to pray according to God's will. You know this is good. You think you're hearing from the Lord. You're praying. You're praying. You're praying. And nothing. Nothing happens. Year after year after year, you see your son, you see your daughter going deeper and deeper into the things of the world. Your heart's breaking. Until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him. I love that. The word of the Lord is trying me. The word of the Lord is refining me and testing me. Am I gonna be a man of faith and trust in the word of the Lord? Or am I gonna be a man that relies upon his own instincts and his own ideas and his own feelings and gives in to the people in these churches that want man centered churches and doctrines of demons, and fables, and what do I get out of it? I get a bigger house and salary and car because, hey, we've got the nickels and noses. We got the money. Really? Is that the church Jesus builds? Is that what church is? Until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him. I have to stay true to God's word. I can't compromise God's word, neither can you. Your kids are watching. Your family's watching. Your objective is to get them into heaven. If they see it's a sham, if they see through the facade, the dog and pony show, you might lose them for eternity. But if they see the reality of your suffering, if they see the credibility of your faith and your stick to itiveness, and you're not gonna give up, you're not gonna compromise, you're not gonna give in to things of the world, they're gonna have a confidence that your God's real. The God that you worship. How are they gonna know? How are they gonna confirm it? By watching you suffer? By watching you suffer as a as a righteous person, as a good person? Joseph's a good guy. The king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of his substance. Boy. How about that? Verse 22, for he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lord's free man. So if you're a servant, you're really the Lord's free man. Likewise also, he that is called being free is Christ's servant. So those that are free in the in the community, in the Roman empire, they're really the Lord's servants. They're ministers if they're Christians. So where did the song Amazing Grace come from, church? Where did it come from? Came from slaves. The melody was derived from slaves. Songs that they would sing beneath the ship as, the ship captain. What's his name? Say it again. John Newton. So John Newton being a slave captain, as he's going over to Africa and getting these slaves, and these their own people are the ones incarcerating them, putting them there, there's a market for them. They don't have the industrial revolution, so they're gonna be, you know, working the agricultural for Great Britain, for America, and the others, Jamaica, all over. And they're gonna be putting irons, they're gonna be mistreated, and and they're singing these songs, the melody to Amazing Grace is one that John Newton heard. And then he gets saved, he becomes a pastor, and then we've we're gifted with the Amazing Grace. That God would save a wretch like me. He knew that what he was doing was wretched. And, and how many hymns and how many songs from the era of slavery in America came out of great great suffering among those in America enslaved. And yet they had faith, didn't they? They had faith and they believed in God, and they overcame the suffering with such great faith. The belief in Jesus. So you're Christ's servant. So notice the apostrophes. Notice the apostrophes. For he that is called the lord in the lord, being a servant is the lord, l o r d apostrophe s, speaks of ownership. Free to serve him. Likewise also, that is called being free is Christ, c h r a s t apostrophe s, ownership. He owns you. He created you. He redeemed you. He delivered you from slavery. He delivered you from the slavery of sin and death, the devil that held you captive. Jesus came to set the captives free. You're now free. The secret of contempt and his internal freedom. The revolution within is surrender to God's will. Jesus said in John four thirty four, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work. That's what Jesus was consumed with. I'm gonna do my job. I'm gonna do what God's called me to do. Except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. If you seek to live for yourself, you're not gonna bear any fruit. You seek to save your life, you're gonna lose it. If you lose your life for his sake, you're going to find it. You're going to find the purpose of your life. So the secret to contentment is surrender to God. Paul gives three reasons why. Number one, consider your calling. Number two, consider the caller. And number three, consider the cost. Verse 23. You're bought with a price. What's the price of your redemption? You're bought with a price, be not ye the servants of men. Don't give into these these men. You respect your boss. You respect those in authority. You do your job, but you don't you don't you don't give them worship. You don't worship men. You obey the laws, but when Jay says, strip bars are gonna stay open, but churches are not essential. No. No. No. No. No, Jay. We're gonna keep meeting. Jesus is the most essential. We're gonna continue to worship Jesus. We'll obey God rather than men. Surrendering to God is something we naturally rebel against. The very root of sin is self will, a demand for my will, my way. I'm gonna sing a few songs. I'm gonna make lots of money. And then when I die, I want to be buried in my Cadillac with a pack of cigarettes in my front pocket, and I want everyone to sing at my funeral, I did it my way. And then Clint Eastwood gives his Oscars back to him. Yeah. Because they're immoral. He has a greater sense of righteous indignation than many of us that call ourselves Christians. That which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination unto God. And he gets it. It's internal. If we could just get him to come like he did in Unforgiven and deal with these guys, you know, that's what we need. The very root of sin is self will. I did it my way. It's all about me. I want to be in control. I want to be as God. Satan fell and men fell. The serpent said in Genesis three four, you shall not surely die, Eve. For God does know that a day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods, little g gods knowing good and evil. Man disobeyed God's word, asserting his free will and rebellion to God's will equals sin. Now, here's another distinction I want you to understand. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So there's Jesus, and he's hungry. Forty days of fasting, and the devil comes along and says, if you are God, command that these stones be made bread. Now, he's God. He can do what he wants. He's hungry. Is there any laws or anything sinful about you eating, especially after forty days of not eating? No. But man shall not live by bread alone. There's a higher standard here. But by every word and that word is rhema, spoken word. So for you, it might be okay for you to work hard, and God's called you to be a Christian businessman, or for you to be wealthy and to live on the water, and take nice vacations, have nice cars, and all that. That's God's will for your life. And for me, I may have some of those desires in my heart. I may wanna buy a house for my wife. I may wanna improve our condition. And I'm not an idiot. I mean, I'm practically a genius now because the whole world's gone crazy, you know? So it's not that I intellectually can't plot the path to figure out how to fix what's broke. It's that God speaks to my heart and says, not for you. I want you to submit to me and keep doing what you're doing, what I called you to do. But Lord, I wanna get down from the cross. Rick, is it your will or my will? My will is for you to remain. My will is for you to be faithful to what I called you to do. But Lord, I could fix the problem with a little help from you. Just sell a building, Lord. Just sell a building. We can fix this. Everybody gets to sell a building, Lord. Not you, Rick. Not you. Now you can run back to California. You can quit, or you can continue to follow me. I suggest you continue to follow me because that's a place of contentment. What's it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul, Rick? Well, they're doing it. They got it. That's their will, my will for them. That's not my will for you. It's not the money that's the problem, Rick. It's the covetousness. It's the love of the money. The love of the world, lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, the pride of life. God may have called you to be faithful right where you're at, doing what you're doing, and you know that you know that you know that you're in God's will because you see the fruit thereof in the lives of other people who are hearing from God, and you wouldn't trade it for a million dollars because you're in God's will. It's internal. God speaks to your heart, and that's the place we wanna be. Sin led to death, separation from God, but God had a plan of redemption. Consider the cost. You're bought with a price. Genesis three fifteen, the seed of the woman is the cost. Adam and Eve sinned, but God gives a promise of the seed of the woman shall his heel shall be bruised, but he's gonna crush the serpent's head. God's given a prophecy of what in the future is going to remedy this problem. Gonna fix it. You've been bought with a price, Paul's saying. It's a great price. It's a price that God ordained way back in the garden. Jesus, a lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. In Isaiah seven fourteen, the virgin shall conceive bring forth a son and will call his name Emmanuel, God with us. In Isaiah nine verse six, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace. And of his peace in his government, there shall be no end. You've been bought with a great price. You've been bought with a price. Who owns you? He owns you by right of creation. He owns you by right of redemption. We're twice his. First Peter one eighteen, for as much as you know that you weren't redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Consider the cost. You're bought with a price. Christ crucified. Jesus surrendering to the will of his father. He prays three times, oh my father, if you're willing, remove this cup, this cup of wrath from me, but nevertheless, not as I will, but thy will be done. Three times. Sweating as it were great drops of blood. And you can tie that in with Hebrews chapter five with strong crying and tears. He's in agony. He's agonizing within the garden. And I I truly believe the reason he's agonizing is because in eternity, he's never been separated from his father. And now the first time in all of time, measuring of time, we see in Psalm 22, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from my roaring? At that moment, he that knew no sin became sin. The sins of the whole world were placed upon his shoulders. And the wrath of his father to be just and holy to punish sin is poured out upon his son upon the cross of Calvary. And he's separated from his father in fellowship. At that moment, he's forsaken. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. There's the agony. Is there any other way? There's no other way. He said, I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. In Matthew 20 verse 28, Jesus didn't come to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom. That ransom price, bought with a price. What's the goel price of the kinsman redeemer? What's what's the price? His precious blood. Consider the cost. You're bought with a price. Verse 23, you're bought with a price, but be not the servants of men. So respond by living to please God, not men. Don't fall into a cult. Don't fall into a cultic mechanical legalistic relationship with God. The letter kills, the spirit gives life. Walk in the power of the spirit. Be being filled with the holy spirit. Jesus said, I do always those things that please him in John eight twenty nine. Do you know one of the most grievous sins that we can commit is unbelief. Jesus said, I do always those things that please the father. Sins of commission, sins of omission. Sins of omission many times are sins of unbelief. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. For they that come to him must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And how's faith come? Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Be a man, a woman of the word. Be in the word. Allow God to transform and change us from the inside. At Jesus's baptism, they could hear the father say, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. At his transfiguration in Matthew 17, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. Peter, be quiet. Be quiet, Peter. Hear him. Hear him. He's talking Peter. Verse 24, brethren, let every man wherein he is called there and abide with God. Three times we're told to surrender. Verse 17, verse 20, and verse 24. We're called to abide. We're called to surrender. When God called you as a single person, stay right there. God called you married to an unbeliever, stay right there. You pray and you ask God, please reveal your will to me. And in his timing and in his way, you're single, he might bring a spouse to you. Over a lifetime, he might bring that unbelieving person in your marriage to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. You're gonna sacrifice the joy and the blessing of having a Christian marriage for the sake of saving your spouse, the unbeliever. Because you stayed in the marriage. Because you stay where God called you. Because God was gonna use your life to save that spouse. You stay in that marriage, that bad marriage, because God's gonna use you to save those children. You don't leave it up to the state. You don't leave it up to day care. He's called you. You're equipped. You're gifted. You're their mom. You're their dad. They depend upon you. Are you abiding with God? Have you surrendered to his will for your life? I think of Abraham in Genesis 22. He's he's done it. He's done it all. He's the father of our faith. Him and Sarah have had a had a victory. They've had Isaac. Their tent is filled with laughter. They've got it all. They had to wait twenty five years, but that man, they got it. And now about seventeen years later, Isaac's about 17 years old in Genesis 22. And when you open up Genesis 22 verse one, it says, let's test Abraham. Let's test him. Now, in those tests, God already knows how it's gonna end, right, before it begins. He knows how you're going to respond. He knows if you're gonna fail or if you're gonna succeed in that testing that you're going through. So what's the purpose of the testing? What's the purpose of your suffering? What's the purpose of the adversity that God brings into your life? It's not an accident. Have you considered my servant Job? It's not an accident. God's bragging on you. God's putting you through the test. And so he tells Abraham, take thy son, thy only son, oh, that Ishmael might live before you. You know, the work of your flesh doesn't live before me. The seed of promise, and Isaac shall thy seed be called. And Isaac, Messiah is gonna come forth. Take thy son, thy only son, Isaac, up to Mount Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering. And Abraham, Jesus said, rejoice to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Abraham knew that one day, another father would take his only begotten son to that same place, Calvary, and offer him upon a cross. Father, we've got the wood. Father, we've got the knife. Father, we've got the fire. But where's the lamb for the sacrifice? Isaac, a type of Christ in complete submission to his father. He could have said, dad, I think you need to be on the altar, you know. Complete submission. And his father says, God will provide himself a sacrifice. Jehovah Jireh, my provider. And so they continue to go on up. Abraham is an altar builder, which means Abraham's a worshiper. He's a worshiper of God. Everywhere he went, he built altars. Do you have a family altar? Are you a worshipper? Do you have a place of worship in your home? Isaac was so comfortable around his dad. His dad a worshipper of the true and living God. He knew that dad had such a tight relationship with God that everything would be okay. And he ties him up, didn't need to tie him up, put him upon that altar, and he raises the knife. In Hebrews 11, the mindset, the holy spirit shows us Abraham's mindset, I know that Ishmael won't live before you. I know that the seed, the offspring from this, from me, is gonna be the Messiah. I know he's gonna die on a cross one day. You've got a problem, God. I can't recognize it. I can't rationalize it. I can't reconcile what's going on here. You've got the problem as I bring the knife. That's faith. And then he stopped. Stop. Stop. Stop. There's a ram caught in the thicket. Over the ram. And this is why Abraham's known as the friend of because God could see that Abraham would not withhold anything. Even the most precious and beautiful and wonderful aspects of God's blessings and gifts in his life. He would worship God completely. Nothing would be an idol in his life. There would be complete surrender in his heart for the true living God. What a place to be. And that's where God's bringing all of us as we go through our trials and our suffering and our difficulties. Abraham just didn't show up one day and be like that. There was a famine in the land and he wimped out and he told Sarah, tell him you're my sister. There's growth here. They're learning. We're learning. We're learning to be content. We're learning to surrender. We're learning to let go of America. We're learning to let go of the world. It's a hard thing. We wanna be in control. We wanna hold on to something. We want security. But Abraham made it. Are you abiding with God? Have you surrendered to his will for your life? Are you wrestling with God like Jacob did? Fighting the circumstances of your life, frustrated with God, and then you have that w w w meeting with God at the brook, and God dislodges your hip. You're in great, great pain. In that great pain, you surrender. You tap out onto God. Hosea tells us, Jacob crying, but Jacob lost, but he won because he lost. And God changed his will. God changed his name to Israel, governed of God. Surrendered to God. No longer heel catcher. No longer Jacob. Are you kicking against the goads like Saul of Tarsus? A 180 degrees out of God's will, tormented by the face of Stephen shining like bright like that of an angel. Who art thou, Lord? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. Can you continue to resist my love, Saul of Tarsus? You're a chosen vessel unto me, and I'm gonna show you what great things you must suffer for my name's sake. And Paul considered it a privilege and a blessing. The secret to contentment is surrender to God, even if it means suffering. The cross speaks of death to self. Even Jesus, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Now you say, believe, I believe, I believe. In Philippians one twenty nine, for unto you it is given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe, but to suffer for his name's sake. In Acts 14, Paul was stoned, but he went back into Derby and Lyster and these cities there. And he says, not only to believe, but we through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Lest they were blown away that here's this great Saul of Tarsus, the apostle Paul, and he got stoned at Lystra. That's how God treats his servants. Hey, this is normal, guys. Chill. Chill. We, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. This is the normal Christian life. Get ready. Get your big boy pants on. Don't be surprised. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he'll direct your paths. Godliness with contentment is great gain. What are you seeking to gain? Colossians one twenty four. He said, Paul says, I am made a minister. A minister is a servant. And he describes himself as a prisoner of Christ as he's writing these prison epistles. A bond servant of Jesus. He's not a prisoner of Caesar. He's describing I'm in God's sovereign will for my life. I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ. He's placed me here in this prison cell. And the whole palace has heard the gospel. He says, I, Paul, am made a minister, Colossians one twenty three verse 24, he says, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you. He's rejoicing in his sufferings for the church of Colossae. I'm rejoicing in these sufferings because you guys are being furthered in the gospel. If I wasn't willing to suffer, if I wasn't willing to surrender to God's will for my life, then you wouldn't get the word of God. Because I don't get both. I've gotta choose. And I choose Jesus. And I choose his will for my life. And I'm rejoicing because except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and dies, it abides alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. I died. Saul of Tarsus lives no more. And I'm rejoicing. I've esteemed it. I valued it. Who now rejoice in suffering for you and fill up. What's that mean? And fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. Jesus hasn't suffered enough yet. When you and I suffer, we're filling up the sufferings of Christ. We're the body of Christ. And when we suffer, people are watching the body of Christ suffer. We're filling up his sufferings. They're reminded of the cross. It's the gospel. What a privilege in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. What if God gave you the whole world, but you lost your soul? What if you won the fight with God over wills, but became empty? You were tired of manna. You were tired of the bread of life. You were tired of Jesus. I'm tired of Jesus. I got a movie to watch. This service lasted too long. I'm tired of Jesus. I want some meat. I want some meat. You need to give us some quail, or we're going back to Egypt. We're going back to our our bong and our fentanyl and our meth, and we're going back to all the savory foods and the drugs, and we're going back to the world, man. This Jesus is boring. I'm tired of the bread of life. I'm tired of the word of God. I need more. And these are unbelievers talking. These are the mixed multitude who can't appreciate the bread of life. So homers of quail are coming in, and they're hitting them with sticks over the fence till it's coming out of their nostrils, but God put leanness in their heart. That's like you not appreciating all the blessings around you, your wife, your children, your grandchildren, the church you attend, the pastor, and everything else. And you totally degraded and then discounted means nothing. All you are obsessed with is winning that lottery. And you win it, but you can't enjoy it. He puts leanness in your heart. You don't know the joy of holding your grandkids in your arms. The joy of weeping with your wife, going through hard times, of watching the Lord surround you with the body of Christ. No, you're alienated. God wasn't good enough for you. What he blessed you with wasn't good enough. You had to have the promise of the world, the things of the world. And now you spend spend spend and you're empty. You can't find no satisfaction with Mick Jagger. You can't get no. You just can't get no. It's not there. So what if you heard the Lord say one day, not my will, but thy will be done. If God gave you up and think of that term, that phrase, if God gave you up, think of Romans one. If God gave you up to your own desires, do you know what you're capable of? Do you know how low you could go if God gave you up? Don't you love the sovereignty of God? The sovereignty of God, and he asked us to surrender to his sovereignty. The secret to contentment is surrender to God. Lord, we surrender. We surrender afresh. We surrender this moment. We lay everything at your feet, and we ask, Lord, that you forgive us. You wash and cleanse us for being so duplicit, so conniving. And Lord, ask that we would afresh have fellowship with you, sweet intimate fellowship with you, Lord, to enjoy you forever. So bless now as we partake of communion. Lord, let us come into that union, that oneness, the blessing of knowing you. In Jesus' name we pray. 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.
