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1 Corinthians 7:25,40 -Time Is Short- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-05-26
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First Corinthians seven twenty five through 40. Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my judgment as one that has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I suppose therefore that it is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for man to be. Art thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife. But if you marry, thou hast not sinned, and if a virgin marries, she hast not sinned. Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the flesh, but I spare you. But this I say, brethren, the time is short. It remains that both they that have wives be as though they had done, and they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoice not, and they that buy as though they possess not, and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passes away. But I would have you without carefulness, he that is unmarried cares for the things that belongs to the Lord that he may please the Lord, but he that is married cares for the things that of the world, how he may please his wife. There's a difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord that she may be holy, both in body and in spirit, but she that is married cares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. And this I speak for your own prophet, not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is calmly, and that ye may attend unto the Lord without distraction. But if any man think that he behaves himself uncommonly toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and and need so require, let him do what he will. He sinneth not, let them marry. Nevertheless, he that stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but has power over his own will, and has so deceived in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well, or decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin doeth well. So then he that gives her in marriage doeth well, but he that gives her not in marriage doeth better. The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth, but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord. But she is happier if she so abide after my judgment, and I think also that I have the spirit of God. Father, thank you for your holy word. And Lord, as we study this morning, we pray that you'd help us understand what time it is. Paul says that time is short. Two thousand years ago, time is short. Lord, how much shorter the time is now? How great are their urgency now at the end of the age? And, we pray that we would be aware of what time it is, that we'd not fall asleep as many do, that we'd not be in denial, unwilling to look at the prophetic clock, the things that are taking place in the time in which we live. So Lord, we pray that you'd stir us up inside, help us to be aware, identify how we can help, how where we fit in within the body, and how we can be, those that bear fruit and bring glory and honor unto you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Would you please be seated? Time is short. Paul provides four advantages of remaining single. How many wanna get married? Four advantages of remaining single. Nobody wants to get married. Okay. Alright. I hear different all the time. People pining away of, oh, I can't find anybody. I can't find I wanna get married. I wanna get married. And then I hear people that are married, I wish I'd never got married. So he provides four advantages of remaining single. The first one is the focus of singleness. What is the focus of singleness? When you're single, what is your greatest focus? When Kathy and I were single before we got married, you know, we were the rapture's gonna happen. We didn't even know if there was time to get married because the rapture's gonna happen. And we we kept thinking, boy, we better hurry up and get married because we wanna have married and have kids before Jesus comes. You know, that's our way of thinking back then. But he says, now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my judgment as one that has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. So God speaks through the apostle. Verse 26, I suppose therefore that it is good for the present distress, I say, that it is good for men to be, this word distress means in this time of crisis. What time are we living in? We're living in a time of crisis. It speaks of pressure. It speaks of difficult times. How many of us are planning weddings, you know, during World War two as the Nazis are invading, you know? Your best plans, hey, I got the hotel ready, I got all this ready. Are we gonna be able to get this wedding off before the, you know, the window, before before it ends, before Poland's invaded? So are you planning a wedding? He says, verse 27, art thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife. So remain as you are, he's saying. Don't don't be in a hurry. Don't complicate your present situation. Why? Because the times are times of distress. Nero was gonna be active within ten years. Paul's prophesying, hey, times are gonna get tougher. Greater persecution's gonna come against the church. And he's gonna point out that your focus when you're single is to serve the Lord. But in a time of persecution, what the terrorists do, what the CIA does, what the FBI does, if you're talking too much, if you're a whistleblower over at Boeing, first of all, they come along and they say, we're gonna kill your wife. We're gonna kill your kids. We're gonna take your pension. You're gonna lose everything. We're gonna defame you. And if none of that works, then they kill you. Right? And so if you have a wife and children, there's a greater vulnerability in your situation to resist persecution, to compromise with evil, to give in to evil. If you're in love with the world presently, you're gonna give in to evil. You're gonna go along to get along. You're not gonna stand and fight and jeopardize your house, jeopardize your pension, jeopardize your family, children, however they wanna escalate it to whatever threat level they need to to make you silent. And so that's what Paul is saying here. But if you marry, thou hast not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the flesh, but I spare you. So marriage is possible, but very difficult in a time of persecution, and the persecution is bad enough, when you're single. So Paul doesn't wanna watch as Jonathan Livingston did, his wife come into the mission field, you know, and she's feeble, she's sickly, she gets malaria, she gets disease, and she dies in Africa, whereas she should have stayed, you know, apart from him back in in England. But, the wagging tongues of the of the of the people there in England, to maintain the reputation, he brought her back into the mission field, and and she perished there. She died. Very hard upon her, very hard upon the children. And so Paul's saying, hey. I'm single. I was once married and probably married the apostle Paul because where he where he stood within Judaism, a member of the Sanhedrin, one of the requirements to be married. And as we said before, coming to Christ, your family, a Jewish family, would have a a mock funeral. They'd have a funeral for you and and, disassociate you. Just you're dead unto them. So Paul's saying, hey. I'm I'm single. Peter has a wife, and he's able to serve the Lord in a certain capacity. But, the way that I travel all over the globe and, get up and moving and such, and the persecution that's come against me, it's only against me. And emotionally, it's much easier than if I had to watch, my entire family suffer this sort of treatment from the enemies of the cross. So if Paul had a family, it'd be too painful. In John sixteen two, Jesus said, they shall put you out of the synagogues. Yea, the time cometh What time is it? The time cometh that whosoever kills you will think that he doeth God's service. The time's coming where people think that if I kill these Christians, I'm doing God's service. Nero would be torturing, the Christians within ten years, and, Paul's letting the people know ahead of time. Jesus speaks in Matthew 24. He speaks concerning the end times, the times that we're watching. He speaks of wars. Can you believe how crazy your government is picking a fight with Russia and China? Can you believe how insane that is that over and over and over again, they're mentioning nukes and mentioning, you know, giving armaments to Ukraine, and, and Russia's ready to stop, ready to stop the whole thing. China's getting ready and bolding themselves to invade Taiwan, and, we're we're just, like, going crazy from the standpoint of wanting to engage these superpowers that we built, and yes, Western Power America built China and built Russia, Western banks built them, your technology, your research and development that you developed here in this country has been given to both of these countries, and you hold down, you stand down with technology that could save you, you're gonna you're gonna be, humbled on the world stage so that the globalist new world government can emerge. But it's not by accident. It's planned. And so, the favored nation status that you gave China, the Rockefellers, and the Nixons, and the Kissingers, and the outsourcing of all of your industry, and allowing them to have whatever kind of pollution they want. They can pollute the planet all they want. Nobody's gonna stop China from polluting the planet, let me tell you. And so we get to the advantage of Costco goods, Chinese overseas trading company, and we get these goods for cheap, and people get wealthy on the stock market to a certain degree. But you send all your technology, and you make yourself extremely vulnerable in a time of war because you don't have the ability to rearm yourself because you left it in Afghanistan, and you're leaving it in Ukraine. You're depleting everything you have. You're not you're not, rearming. And, it's it's a it's and and here's the interesting thing. It's not by accident. It's an engineered collapse by your own government. An engineered collapse. These guys aren't stupid. They're purposely doing these things, and Jesus said there will be wars. It used to be when we hear of a war that the war would be somewhere else, not here on our soil. And so as we're reading these passages, wars. There's gonna be apostasy. One of the greatest, prophetic fulfillments in the time in which we're living is apostasy. Apostasy is a departure from the truth, falling away from the truth. In Hosea, my people perish for a lack of knowledge. It's it's incredible how incredibly incredible how incredibly dummy down people within the church are, who claim to be Christians, don't read their bible, don't know their bible, haven't been taught their bible, and I place the responsibility with the pastors who have refused to teach the bible, and instead they teach fairy tales, Feel good therapeutic sermons and little comic strips and and little talk discussions and things, you know, little, you know, I'm gonna have a talk show and, just mindless idiocy, and it's it's caught up with us. It's an apostasy. It's a departure from the truth. The enemy, needs lies. He needs a people that don't know the truth, that can't discern the truth, to get away with his evil. If you know the truth, the truth will set you free, Jesus said. But if you don't know the truth, you don't adhere to the truth, don't apply the truth, then you're as you're as bad as as an unbeliever that's gonna be manipulated by the evil one. Persecution, famine, pestilence, earthquakes. Now again and again and again, I've been saying that the fastest growing church is in Iran. And when the leadership of Iran recently crashed their helicopter, what did the people of Iran do? They cheered. They cheered that they're I mean, can't we pray that would happen to our leadership? Lord, don't you love us as much? You love the Christians in Iran, you know? Can't they just just just one plane, Lord, filled with all of them, you know? I mean, just one fell swoop. I mean, what a I would rejoice. I'd be rejoicing. You what? What? Haman swung from his own gallows? All these guys that are plotting and scheming, Lord? What? That would be that would be outrageous. I'll meet you at Armageddon. So famine, they're producing famine, producing pestilence, and the seal judgments aren't opening. These these are men doing this with their billions of dollars to create this famine, this pestilence. The earthquakes, some of it can be human, energized with the type of space weapons they have and the way that they can use the harp and different radio frequencies and stuff to attack the tectonic plates and get them to move a bit, but we don't know to what degree. In Matthew twenty four nineteen, woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days. So if you're pregnant, the persecution that's coming, it's gonna be much much harder on you to have a wife and a child, and your wife's pregnant, and she's nursing the babies and such. Very difficult to move and, to move about. I told my grandson yesterday when we were coming in after being out last night, said, you know, Judah, we need to buy a drone. There's a drone at Costco for $600. I've been watching this guy with a drone, a $3,500 drone that he he comes to the baseball game and he sends it up. When he sends it up, it goes out, and he doesn't even need to monitor it. Those those ones that cost more, they'll go around, they'll map the whole area, they'll take the freeway, the whole the houses that are being built, everything. Super good image, and it'll come back. You know, he can preprogram it to come back, or it'll come back when it knows it's it's getting low on, you know, on on energy, on the battery. But amazing, amazing tool. And so the reason I told him we need to get one is not to play, but if we ever come under attack out where we live in the trees, it sure be nice to throw one up and to look out over the area, the general area, and to get kind of an understanding of what's going on out there. I mean I mean, what an advantage to have something like that, a night vision and things. And so, anyway, told my grandson that. So guess what? We understand that evil's coming. And we, like you, are trying to prepare as best we can to defend our families because evil's coming. But we don't act like it's not coming. We don't act like, you know, those 30,000,000 invaders are gonna just, they only wanna hit Seattle, but not the Peninsula. You know? I mean, banger is the number two target in of all of America to be hit. Number two. So, and I pray for that one too. Lord, hit it with a nuke. Take us all home. I mean, it's over then. Right? Don't have to worry about my grandkids. I worry about my grandkids. And if a nuke hit here, that would be a blessing because we'd all be in Jesus' arms. Right? We'd all be there. But a war of attrition or guerrilla warfare or a long elongated starvation and famine and that sort of thing would be very, very difficult for us to weather, to endure, and especially in our family where my daughter and Wayne have, you know, seven children. That's that's the tough part. Really tough. If Wayne was alone and didn't have a wife and kids, he could be a part of a whole guerilla warfare thing, you know, whatever. But and you can take greater risks. But you got a family? It's a whole different ballgame. Imagine going over to Iraq with your family. How how difficult that would be. And so the guys on Memorial Day, they go out and fight the wars on foreign soil so that we don't have to fight them here. But unfortunately, these globalists, these demonic globalists, have, infiltrated the upper echelons of our federal government, and, our federal government works for the bankers. And the bankers want to remove, America. So we're in the crosshairs. This is the focus of the world is to take America down. Once America goes down, the dollar goes down, then the rest of what they have planned will fall into place. So marriage demands your attention. Who could focus on serving the Lord in a time of cataclysm I just described? And, you know, you go away from here. Pastor Rick says, banger's number two to be hit. Woah. Get a drone. I mean, I can hear it. That's okay. That's alright. But we're gonna be ready. Right? We're gonna we're gonna steal our minds. We're getting our minds ready. We're not going to give in to Pollyanna escapism or acting like it could never happen. We're gonna we're gonna look at reality. We're looking at what our government's doing. Why are there 30,000,000? When in your lifetime has there ever been this kind of activity in regard to food and security and and and on and on and on and on. When? I mean, it's it's mind boggling to me that none of the military has, you know, arrested some of these guys, these criminals. They're they're all in out. They're all being paid off. There's a no unlimited money to those who go along with it. Everyone's being bought off until the merry-go-round stops. So being wrapped up, time is the church age is being wrapped up. But this I say, brethren, the time is short. So he's saying evaluate the time. Look ahead. How much time do you have? It remains that both they that have wives be as though they had none. So time is short. There's much work to do. Married means less time to serve the Lord. You have much more time you have to dedicate to the family and the raising the kids and such. People that are single, they have a greater ability and a focus upon the Lord to serve the Lord as missionaries, to go to different countries, to share the gospel, to sleep on a sofa if they need be. They don't need all the encumbrances of all the amenities that a family needs. They they can survive on a very, very little, and and that's that's part of being available. And Paul would go about as a tentmaker, working with leather and sewing needle and such, and he was able to partially underwrite his mission trips. He received, you know, from the churches of Macedonia, he received more than once support, and and so he's able to be all in. And so he's able to be sold out for the rapture, waiting for the rapture. And they that weep as though that those who weep not, and they that rejoice as those that rejoice not, and they that buy as though they possess not. So the focus is upon eternal. If your focus is on material things, you're not gonna be focused upon serving the Lord. All you're gonna be focused upon is the next trinket or next thing that you're gonna buy or the next trip that you're gonna take, next vacation you're gonna take. And and some of us, as we sense time is short, we know time is short, we're running our credit cards up. We're going for broke to get that last thing in there, do that last thing, play that last thing, buy that last thing, buy all these things because, we know that normal is never coming back. So all across America, people are running their credit cards up again. And I read a I read an article the way that Klaus Schwab, who recently designed from the World Economic Forum. Do you know that? Klaus resigned. And Jamie Dimon from Chase resigned. Do you know typically what happens when the CEO of Disney resigns? He's letting you know the stock's gonna drop, and he doesn't wanna be the one that gets blamed for it. So when the dollar collapses, Klaus isn't gonna be there, and nor is Jamie Dimon at Chase. They're gonna preposition other people to take the blame and such. And, the central bank digital currency is gonna be rolled out, but, and that's that seems to be an absolute. When? We don't know, but, the whole world is working in that direction as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Revelation thirteen sixteen through 18. No man's gonna be able to buy or sell without a mark on their right hand or their forehead. The prelude to that are gonna be a number of different, blockchain devices that they're, that they're exercising presently, testing and such, and more and more countries and more and more banks are, moving in this direction. And so, when once they get that, they say they've got us. Once they can track and trace every expenditure upon the planet, that's tyranny. That's the tyranny the devil dreams of. So time is short, and as we sense that, we're saying, you know what? What's gonna happen to the equity in my house? What's gonna happen to this? I'm gonna lose it anyway. I might as well start borrowing. I might as well get another second, get another third, and and at least engage and and do the things I wanna do before it all collapses and such. But what's interesting is, does anybody think that way concerning serving the Lord? I better get over to China and share the gospel before the door closes. I better take a second on my house to to help this missionary group or that missionary group or go to Africa or go to Iran or or whatever. Why is it always ourselves? Why is this obsession with self? Christianity has been sold to our generation in America as self fulfillment. Christianity is not self fulfillment. Christianity is death to self. We're living for Jesus. Everything you do for yourself is gonna pass. Only what you do for Jesus Christ is going to last. That's it. But we've been sold a bill of goods that, hey, these are the blessings of God, and, you know, and and I'll put Jesus off till later. Jesus can wait. My focus is upon myself and my family, and I'm raising up the next Tom Brady or whatever, the next Kelly Slater. You know, I gotta I gotta invest in sports and football and golf and all this other thing because after all, my kids are gonna be the the superhuman athlete that I didn't get to be, you know, because I got injured or whatever. And so we we live a fantasy, but if we put that same effort into the things of the spirit, into supporting the church and serving at the church and and serving beyond in our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost, we'd be getting the work done, wouldn't we? But we leave it to someone else. We leave it to the professionals. The temporal. We live for the temporal rather than the eternal. Our focus is on the temporary. And they that use this world is not abusing it for the fashion of this world passes away. Now the word fashion, that's an interesting word. You remember in Romans chapter 12, where we've studied the theme of the book, which is the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein, the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Romans one sixteen and seventeen. And then Paul, after he introduces his theme, he goes through and he explains the gospel. And he gets to chapter nine, and he's hearing the question that people have. Well, what about Israel? Do we believe in replacement theology? Does the church take the place of Israel? And Paul says, no. Chapter nine, Israel's past election. Chapter 10, Israel's present rejection. Chapter 11, Israel's future restoration. Blindness apart has happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. Rapture. Rapture of the church right there. When the fullness of Gentiles come in. Then he gets into chapter 12, the practical side. The application side. See, I can teach theoretically. I can teach even the gospel theoretically. I can even teach it tangible where you receive Christ. But now what do you do with it? What are you supposed to do with it as a Christian? I've got to bring you to the application. I've gotta bring you to the place of this is the reality of the world you're living in. This is how Jesus lived. This is how John the Baptist lived. He lost his head because he told the truth. There's application in there somewhere. So he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, in chapter 12 verse one. Therefore, all that he said before, grammatically, he's now he's given the application. I beseech you. Beseech you means I'm I'm exhorting you. Listen to me. In all that God's done for you, you're saved now. What's that mean? I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you, your response, that you present yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. That means worship. It's reasonable that you would worship God by offering yourself now. That's the application. Here am I, Lord. Use me. I'm on the altar of life. I've offered myself. And then he says, contrast to those who would not do that, he says, be not conformed. Be not conformed. That word conformed is like this word fashion. Don't allow the world to press you into the mold, into the fashion of this world. To be fashionable, to be like, to be a worldly Christian, hip cool, the cool hipsters. I'm gonna go down and smoke the cigars and the pipes and drink the beers with the boys at the bar and watch sports and, oh, by the way, we're gonna lead these people to Christ. No, you're not. They're laughing at you. They think you're an idiot. Why don't you live different than them? Why don't you live distinctly different from them? Be not conformed to this world. Here you go, anybody that thinks they're a celibate gay guy. Anybody here? Raise your hand. Be transformed. A metamorphosis. The world's using your words. The world's saying there's human beings that are being transformed. Transgenders. It's all a big lie. It's your word, gang. It's your word. It speaks of a metamorphosis. It speaks of you being a worm of a man, a degenerate worm of a man, and God causing you to be born again, to be a butterfly. We could sing butterfly kisses if you want. That's taking it too far though. Right? Because we'd be men. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. There's where the battle's won or lost. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. How are we gonna get you to think biblically? By teaching you the bible. How do you really get to know the bible? By living the bible? By applying the bible? Not selective hearing. Applying the bible. I'm gonna apply this to my home. I'm gonna apply this to my life. I'm gonna be one that gets up and I'm gonna read the bible. I'm gonna set my phone down. I'm gonna set the switch down. I'm gonna set all the electronics down. I'm gonna spend time reading God's word, that God's word would transform transform my mind, that my thinking will change, that I won't be a worldling. The devil uses propaganda. The devil uses the mainstream media to to lie, to deceive, to brainwash the population. You as a Christian, you're better than that. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. How are you gonna know God's will if you're not being transformed? By the renewing of your mind. Used to think a certain way before you're a Christian. Now as a Christian, you think different. Maybe before you're a Christian, you thought you bought into the lie at college that abortion is a woman's choice. The argument was in the abstract. It's freedom. It's freedom, man. It's her choice. It's her body. It's just a tissue. It's not even a baby. So you believed the lie, and you believed in that way of a woman's choice, so you were pro choice. But later, God moved and worked upon your heart, and he began to see that that that development of life within the mother's womb as a baby, his hands and eyes and feet that can feel, that can cry, that can laugh. And so you see an ultrasound, irrefutable proof that this child's developing as a child from the womb. So you see the physical science. You also within internally, the holy spirit's moving and working upon your heart, and you know that you know that you know that it's not an argument to be won in the abstract, but in the tangible and the real, the truth of the matter is, this is a baby, and taking this baby's life would be murder. Regardless of what circumstances the mother encountered, it's murder, murder, murder every time. And what transformed? What changed the way you think? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit moving and working in your heart, got you past the lies that you gave into in college and within the culture, which basically means you can be promiscuous and sleep with as many people as you want because after all, you can fix it through abortion or just a pill nowadays. It's a crutch. It's a lie. And then when COVID comes along, all of a sudden, can't use the same argument. Well, it's my body. I don't want no jab, man. Sorry. You guys all gotta get jabbed. No. No. No. It's my body. My body. Remember that argument? It's my body. My body. So they that use this world as abuse in it for the fashion of this world is passing away. So all the everything Jesus said, what's it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what would a man give in exchange for his life? The fashion of this world is passing away. It's going away quick. Time is short. In, second Kings chapter five, you remember the story of Naaman the Syrian. He's a captain for the, Syrian army, and, he would had prolific, victories and such for the Syrians. And there was a prophet in the land in Israel, in the city of Samaria named Elisha. And Elisha, could do miracles and such. And so Naaman the Syrian, when he went on one of these campaigns of of invading other countries, he wound up with a slave woman who was a Israelite, a woman to be a maid to his wife, a a servant to his wife. And so Naaman the Syrian, prolific as a general, a real warrior, one problem, he had leprosy. Leprosy is like leprosy. Not a good thing. Like having AIDS. And so he yearned to be healed of this leprosy or a solution to leprosy. His gods, his little g gods, couldn't do anything about it. Well, the little maiden spoke up, and she testified of the prophet Elijah, a prophet of God that could heal him of his leprosy. And so word got back to the king, and the king sent a letter to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel says, what am I? A god? Am I a god that can, you know, remove this? You're putting a big head trip on me. You're wanting to pick a fight. You're wanting to go to war, aren't you? There's nobody that can do this, you know? No. No. No. We heard that that, this was the case. And so Elijah heard about it, that the king tore his his garment, and Elisha says, hey, send unto me. So Naaman, the Syrian, with, talents and talents of gold and silver and rewards and all that with his whole caravan, all the limousines and everything pulling up to Elijah's house, and, Elisha doesn't even come to the door. Doesn't even go there. He just sends a servant out and tells Naaman the Syrian, here's the word from Elisha. Go into the River Jordan and dip yourselves seven times. If you dip yourself seven times, you're gonna come up out of the water clean, you know, like a little child's skin and all. And Naaman the Syrian's a very proud guy, and he says, what the heck? What kind I mean, I'm just paraphrasing. But he's he's he's in a rage. He's so angry, and he's he's like in rage. He's enraged. And and he's saying, Anna, Annabar and Paphar, the two rivers of Damascus are far cleaner, far better than this river Jordan. Why would I dip in this river Jordan? It's such a inferior river. He's thinking in the natural. He's gonna have to humble himself and he comes as a child. Except he becomes a child, you'll know why he's entered the kingdom of God. He's gonna have to humble himself and dip himself in that water to become born again. And so his servants say to him, hey, you've done a lot of great things in your life. This thing he's asking you is not a great thing to go do, a great exploit that you've done. It's a little thing. Just a little thing. Go do it. So he goes and he dips himself seven times in the River Jordan, and he comes up out of the water clean. His skin is like that of a a little baby, a little a little child. The leprosy is all gone. He's totally healed. So he's so excited. First thing he begins to do is to to praise the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he recognizes that when he goes back that he might get in trouble because he's not worshiping the false gods of the Syrians. And Elisha says, be at peace. And he wants to give Elijah money and the silver and the gold and all that stuff. And Elisha says, no. Freely we've received. Freely we're gonna give. We don't sell Jesus to people. We don't market Jesus. We don't prostitute Jesus. We don't Christianize, you know, the world why, you know, marketing and scamming and scheming, you know, marketing Jesus. Now, this water here, in case you know, this is Jesus water. And if you drink this water, it'll transform and change your life. Watch. Watch. See that? You know? These guys, you're gonna see them on TV doing that. They're gonna they're gonna sell that item on TV. I'll just tell you, they are. The Christian television, oh, this changed my life. This is the Jesus bottle. This is water from the River Jordan, don't you know? And that's that's what they do to these people. Oil, all this other kind of stuff. So anyway, pass myself here. So Naaman the Syrian with all of his his dudes, they dudettes, they begin to move away. They're leaving the area. They haven't gotten out of the area. And Gehazi Gehazi is running after him, the servant of Elisha. And Gehazi says, hey. We've got two of the prophets that came down from the school of ministry, and, they need a change of garment, a couple talents of silver, don't you know? And so Naaman the Syrian gets down and tells them to give him a couple talents of why not 2 talents each? You know? 2 talents of silver and two changes of garment. They really needed clothes. And so they carried it for him. They came to the tower where Gehazi lived, and and he brought it in there like Achan. When Achan took the Babylonius garment when they went up against Ai, He was Achan because he kept some of the stuff at Ai. So anyway, they stoned him to death. But anyway, back to Gehazi. So he's there. He's hiding the stuff. He comes back to his master, and his master says, Gehazi, where have you been? He goes, neither here nor there. And Elisha the prophet says, did not my heart go with you? I see what you're doing. And then he asked a very important question I want you to think of. Is this a time? See, some of the times we live in are different than other times. When I grew up in the seventies, it was rock star times in Huntington Beach. It was prosperity times. It was poor middle class people like my family could live like kings. It was like that. It was just amazing time to be an American growing up in the seventies and then the eighties. Amazing. Just amazing. It was a different time. Now, what time is it? The time that Elisha was living in was a time of apostasy. The nation of Israel and Judah were apostate. They turned their backs upon God. Is this a time? And he could see in his heart. He could see in his heart and he said, I know why you're doing that. You holy man. You got a problem with covetousness. Is this a time to receive money? Is that what this time is? Is this a time to receive olive yards and vineyards? Is it a time to receive oxen and sheep? Is that what time it is? And he says, behold, the leprosy of Naaman's upon you and your seed after you forever. Why? Because Gehazi should have known better, being a servant of the Lord, being a servant of Elisha, to much is given, much is required. He should have known what time it was. Not a time to make yourself rich, Gehazi. Time is short. In July, the the Assyrians are gonna invade Israel and destroy Israel. Very Naaman with the Syrians. In May, Nebuchadnezzar is gonna invade Jerusalem. The nation, the children of Israel are living in apostasy. They've turned their back upon God. What time are we living in? Where's your focus? Jesus is coming soon. Focus on serving him. Time is short. For the fashion of this world passes away. The clock is ticking. The age is ending. There's a new day dawning. In Romans thirteen eleven, knowing the time. Do you know the time? That now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. As a nation, as a people come through a time of prosperity, the inevitability of a church, a nation, a country coming through a time of great prosperity is decline. It's cyclical. It's the cycle we see in the book of Judges. It's nearly impossible to wake people up as the time of prosperity is coming to an end. It takes pain. It takes a lot of pain to awaken a people, to prioritize, and to focus upon Jesus and put him first. They'll refuse to do it in a time of prosperity. You can't awaken them, you can't get them to, but the next cycle is that of pain. And once they go through the pain of tyranny, the pain of of being enslaved because of their lust, the next season is crying out, crying out to God, as in the book of Judges. And as they cry out to God, he sends a deliverer. He sends a Jephthah. He sends a a Samson. He sends a Gideon. He sends a leader. You need a leader, America? You don't have one. You haven't experienced enough pain. You still think these billionaires can save you. These billionaires are the very ones taking you down, deceiving you. But there's a carpenter from Nazareth coming. He's gonna save you. That's your savior. Where's your focus? The focus of singleness. Secondly, the faithfulness of singleness. Verse 32. But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried cares for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord. This word carefulness speaks to be anxious about, to take thought of. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these other things be added unto you. The heathen, the unbeliever, all he's consumed with is, what am I gonna eat? What am I gonna drink? What am I gonna wear? Especially when you're married, when you got a family and responsibilities and such. But when you're single, you don't need to be chained to so many of these cares and responsibilities. You can take greater risks, in serving the Lord. So don't be consumed with your temporal earthly need. I would say for you and I, the borrower is slave to the lender. For you and I in a practical way, to free us up to serve the Lord with greater intensity and freedom and and joy and blessing, would be to be debt free. Because once we start accumulating debt, all we do is work hard to service that debt. We keep working and working and working to service all that debt that we've accumulated. We don't have time or energy to serve Jesus. Real practical. The borrower is slave to the lender. The bankers want to take your houses. They want to take everything from you as you overspend and go into greater and greater debt. And as they continue to raise inflation and your food prices go up, they're gonna make it available with new legislation to provide very easy loans for your seconds and thirds on your on your property. They're actually going to digitize everything you have, all your equity, and make it so accessible to you as with a card. And now that card, you're able to use wherever you want, and it deducts the equity from your home of your assets. Your house, the payment goes up, and pretty soon you can't afford the payment on your house, and the banks have taken your house. That's their strategy coming forward because the borrower is slave to the lender. How do you circumvent it? Use cash and be debt free. Real simple. But are we gonna be able to do that? So the faithfulness of singleness, the carefulness. In Matthew six thirty one, Jesus said, take not no thought saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed for all? After all these things do the Gentiles seek for your heavenly father knows that you have need of all these things. So anxiety, be anxious for nothing. But in everything through prayer and supplication with thanks giving, let your request be made known unto God, and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. Guard your hearts and mind through Christ Jesus. Anxiety. Pills for anxiety. Gummies for anxiety. Why are we so anxious? Why are we so nervous? Why are we so distraught? Because we've overspent. Because we have corrupt leaders. Because our future is uncertain. We sense the insecurity of the times in which we're living. But he that is married cares for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. And so these wives that you guys are wanting to marry, you need to understand that they're high maintenance wives. Botox is expensive. Plastic surgeries and implants are expensive. High maintenance wives, I'm telling you. I think that's as far as I'll go. There is a difference also between a wife and a virgin. So you've got the wife, but then you have the daughter as your father concerning she hasn't been married yet. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, how she may be holy, both in body and the spirit, but she that is married cares for the things of the world, how she may, oh, notice, please her husband. Women are low, but men are a far greater load, aren't they? Right, women? Huge burden. Very needy, especially when they're sick. They get sick, and it's like they're sitting down on their man cave, their man room, their chair, their lounger. Hey, honey. Get me a beer. Get me a beer while you're up. You know? Hey, honey. When you finish that, why don't you go cut the grass outside? You know, it's getting a little long. What? You work a double last night, hon? Work a double? Men are a burden. Selfish men a huge burden. Marriage divides our cares. We wanna please each other and still please the Lord. The single person can devote themselves entire entirely to the Lord is Paul's argument. Verse 35. And this I speak for your own prophet, not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is calmly and that you may attend upon the Lord without distraction. So faithfully serving the Lord without distraction. When you before you were married, you were gonna be a missionary. You were gonna serve the Lord. You were gonna go all over the world. You were gonna go to bible college. You're gonna you're gonna do all that you were in bible college, and you're excited. And then you got married, and the bills started coming, and she got pregnant, and he got me pregnant or whatever. You know? And now you got the baby. You can't take the baby out in the mission field. Can't do it that way. Very difficult. Complicated everything. Gonna have to wait till they get a little bit older, we can homeschool. And then we go, well, now you got a house. Now they got school. They got good schools. The grandpa you don't get away. You can't get away. And so when it talks about the snare here, in this I speak for your own prophet, that I may cast a snare upon you, he's talking about a rope around your neck. Being married can be like having a rope around your neck. One of the weddings that I did, I began to talk about wax eloquently about the ring, how this ring that's going on your finger, that it speaks of his love, that it's like infinity. It goes on forever and ever and ever, you know? And then to the man, he was an electrician and he didn't wear a ring. He took his ring and he put it on a chain around his neck. And I said, so to you, with your ring upon the chain, it signified through history that you now have a ball and chain around your neck. The snare, baby. The snare upon you. Your life is not your own anymore. Faithfully serving the Lord without distraction. You remember the Jesus speaking of the four types of soil. The wayward soil, where the seed just sets upon the top and the birds come, the devil comes and takes it away. The second type of soil is the soil with the rocky soil. Well, that's a a shallow soil that the person, I believe, and I want Jesus. And then the trials come. The sun begins to beat upon, and it withers, and it fades away. And, the third type of soil is the weedy soil. It's the Church of Laodicea soil. Jesus said, it's the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches that choke off that profession of faith. Because you're so in love with the world, the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches quenches your desire to serve the Lord. Quenches your desire to endure trials. The fourth type of soil is a good soil that bears fruit. Which one do we wanna be? Do we wanna be like the church of Ephesus that leaves our first love, that goes back into the world, so in love with the world, that kicks Jesus out of the church, the church of Laodicea? He's on the outside knocking on the door. Jesus kicked out. Why? Because you say, I'm rich and increased with goods in need of nothing. We're ruling at our church. Laodicea means people rule. Our pastor does what we want him to do. He teaches what we want him to do. We don't wanna be convicted. We just wanna hear about prosperity, how to get more stuff, be more blessed. Let's change the words. We're blessed. The devil can bless you. Paul provides four advantages of remaining single. One, the focus of singleness. Secondly, the faithfulness of singleness. And thirdly, the foresight of singleness. Now, I doubt anybody's gonna come up to me afterwards and say, I'd like to get married. No. I'm just kidding. You can. Verse 36. But if a man think that he behaves himself uncommonly toward his virgins, so this is a father towards his daughter. If she passed the flower of her age and need so require, let him do what he will. He hasn't he hasn't sinned, let him marry. So fathers would dedicate their daughters to the Lord to serve the Lord as single women sometimes. She could say no to that. Dad, I want you to arrange a marriage for me. Go into the betrothal of the engagement period and such, a a prearranged marriage. But, some fathers, the foresight thereof, would, dedicate their daughters, to serving the Lord, to be single and to be serving the Lord, but the daughter was, free to choose. Verse 37. Nevertheless, he that stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity but has power over his own will, and has so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well. And so, if you can convince her to remain single in a time of persecution, a time of upheaval, you know, you do well, but, you know, it's up to her. So then he that gives her in marriage doeth well, but he that gives her not in marriage doeth better. So it's okay to marry, but better off remaining single and serving the Lord. So you remember in Judges chapter 11, where Jephthah went up against the Ammonites, and he made a rash vow. He said, Lord, the first thing that comes out of my tent, I'm gonna offer up to you as a burnt offering. God gave him a great victory. He didn't need to make a deal with God. Let's make a deal. Don't make deals with God. God is gracious. God is merciful. God wants to bless your life more than you wanna make a vow and prove your faithfulness to God. Rash vows are dangerous because you make a vow, God's gonna hold you to the vow. So his vow was, Lord, whatever comes out of my tent to greet me after this victory with the Ammonites, I'm gonna offer unto you as a burnt offering. And who came out of his tent? His one and only virgin daughter. And he said, oh, oh, oh, you can't imagine what I vowed to God. And she says, father, God's given you a great victory over the Ammonites. Whatever you said is fine with me. And then as he began to divulge what he had vowed, she says, let me go be with my virgin friends for two months upon the hills and stuff, bemoaning my perpetual virginity, you know, And then I'll come back. And then it and then it says that, and Jephthah did. He fulfilled his vow. Now I'm hoping the commentators are divided on this. Nowhere does God ask for, except the Lord telling Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering, but other than that, was a test. Nowhere does God ask you to offer your children as burnt offerings. God, in his love, offered his son as an offering for for you. Jesus became the curse he hung upon the cross. And so in our case, we're hoping that Jephthah didn't offer her as a burnt offering, but instead, as described here, many of the commentators say he he dedicated her as a perpetual virgin. She'd no longer be married. She wouldn't be married. She would serve the Lord as a a virgin. So okay to marry, but better off remaining single and serving the Lord. Paul provides four advantages of remaining single. The focus of singleness, number one. The faithfulness of singleness, number two. The foresight of singleness. And fourthly and finally, the freedom of singleness. The freedom of singleness. And I told Kathy this morning, as we're driving in, thinking about this, that she's bone in my bone and flesh in my flesh. That there's nobody in this world that I'm closer to than Kathy. Our family members are dying, moms, dads, things like that. And as time increases, you know, more and more, we're we're we're growing closer to each other and hopefully closer to Jesus. And that's the beauty of of marriage. But for those who are single, they're they're married to the Lord, and God said it's not good for man to be alone. And so we don't apologize those of us that are married that somehow we're not as spiritual as others. But if there's a time of urgency, if there's a time of crisis, time of great peril that's coming, and your desire is to serve the Lord in these times, like in a time of war I read a a commentary years ago about the nation Spain that had a time of great prosperity. And in that time of prosperity, the Spanish people began to, get these, mental illnesses, if you will. Depression and such, discouragement and and all. And so the the the psychological hospitals and stuff began to fill up with these people and, ways of handling this mental illness. And then a war broke out. And when the war broke out, people had a greater purpose than themselves to live for, and they began to evacuate the mental hospitals because they had something greater to live for than self. And that's the case here. There comes times where we have something greater than ourselves to live for. Yeah. We'd like to be married. Yeah. We'd like to have kids, but the nation needs me. Yeah. We'd like to do this, that, and the other, but Jesus is enlisting me in his army. Jesus is gonna send me all over the world with the glorious gospel. Jesus is gonna use me for his kingdom and for his glory. And you can do that as a wife, as a husband. Hope you are doing that. Hope you are covering your Jerusalem, that of Kitsap County, with the glorious gospel. Change this place. Please change it. So the wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth. But if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord. So don't marry any unbelievers. If your husband dies, and now you're a widow, you can remarry, but only in the Lord. Only marry an unbeliever. We're not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. So marriage is binding, a huge responsibility, but singleness e equals freedom freedom to serve the Lord. He says, but she is happier if she so abide after my judgment, and I think also that I have the spirit of God. So Paul's saying, I'm really enjoying serving the Lord. I know what it is to be married, but I'm really, really enjoying serving the Lord, and I think she'd be happier if she remained as I am. You remember many of the women that followed Jesus as he was ministering. So a lot of folks, they they prepared the meals, housing, all sorts things, men and women, but there's a whole group of women that dedicated themselves to, following Jesus. So it's okay for widows to remarry another believer, but ask the question, why go back into bondage? Enjoy the freedom. The guy's been holding you back for over thirty years. Take the retirement. Take the life insurance. Sell the big house. Serve the Lord. That's freedom. You say, how pastor Rick? Well, start by going to the nation of Israel. Take your money, take your freedom, and go to Israel. Walk all over the place. Get on a tour. Go with another group of people. Bring a friend. Go to Israel. Sign up for bible college. You're never too old. Haven't you always been wanting to go to bible college? Haven't you always been wanting to study the bible all day long with other believers? You haven't been able to because you've been working, raising a family. When I went to college, it cost me greatly to spend two years going to the school of ministry because I had a family. I had responsibilities. The guys that were single, it was easier for them. They could sleep anywhere, do anything they wanted. I had a business to run. I had a family. I had a house. I had responsibilities. It was very, very difficult. But Kathy helped me. We we we we didn't quit. Join a mission team. So many mission teams out there. Many of you, when you were growing up, you were a part of YWAM. I don't know what happened to YWAM over in Hawaii, but a lot of my friends went over to Hawaii with YWAM. What a great place to go. Youth with a mission or mercy ships. Spend a period of time serving the Lord. You're never too old to serve the Lord. How about you get a pilot's license? Imagine that. You go to school to get a pilot's license. You rent a plane and or buy a plane or the missionary organization has a plane, and now you're able to fly a plane to relieve the needs of people in the mission field to bring resources to the mission field. Teach a lady's bible study. Homeschool your grandkids. Kathy's been homeschooling my grandkids, our grandkids, and man, she loves it. She so loves each one. Each one, the way they learn, what they're learning. She prepares the lesson. She gets excited. She gets the food ready, she gets to spend the day there with them. She is so excited about being a part of teaching her grandkids. How about teach Sunday school? The first class that Kathy and I taught was two year olds. How do you teach two year olds when you got 30 of them? You just basically pull them off of each other as they're biting each other. No bite. No bite. No bite. No bite. But we did it. Provide meals to shut ins. Hospital visits. Somebody goes in the hospital, you go visit them. You go cut their grass. You bring them food. Don't you dare say, is the church doing anything? You're the church. You are. Our job as pastor is to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry. I'm not a professional that works for you and does all the ministry. It's a joy and a blessing for you to be in ministry, for you to serve alongside Cathy and I, and we can reach a lot more people in that regard. Use your sewing needle like Dorcas did. Make blankets. Make quilts of valor. Sew my jacket that ripped last week. Right? Right? Your time. Use your talent. Many of you are far more talented than I am. I know that's hard to believe, but you are. The time that you have, especially if you're retired, use your treasure God has given you for the kingdom of God. The widow is the widow is happier in Paul's opinion if she remains single. She remained focused on the Lord's soon return. She will remain faithful in living to please the Lord. She will see the foresight of God and enjoy the freedom of singleness serving the Lord until he returns for her by rapture or by death. We talked last week about Simeon and Anna. Anna served the Lord like eighty and six years from her virginity. Her husband died when she's real young, and she served alongside Simeon there, you know, in the temple waiting for the consolation of Israel, speaking to people of the redemption, the blood of Jesus that would redeem us from our sins, Anna, the prophetess. Philip had four daughters. They were virgins and prophetesses speaking forth the word of God. Don't have to be a pastor, a woman pastor, like these people are trying to create, you know, to proclaim the good news. You can teach ladies bible studies. You can be a prophetess in the community speaking forth God's word. Time is short. Are you presently serving the Lord, or are you too busy? In Luke twenty one twenty eight, Jesus said, when you see these things begin to come to pass, do you have a prophetic awareness? Well, our pastor hasn't taught prophecy. 27% of the bible, we don't teach prophecy because it's too hard to understand. No? That's an excuse. Jesus spoke of a guy having a wedding feast and went out and sent out invitations. And one wedding feast, the invitation, one of the guys says, no. I just bought a piece of land. I gotta prove it. The second guy says, well, I bought some oxen and or excuse me, I have to go check out the land. The next guy had the oxen. I need to prove the oxen. Who buys land and hasn't seen it? Who buys oxen sight unseen hasn't proven them? These were just excuses, lame excuses. And then the third guy, he says, I can't I can't make it to the feast. I just got married. Oh, boy. Excuses. Kathy and I get to serve the Lord together. You don't have to do it alone. If you're married, both of you serve the Lord. Find a way to serve the Lord. When these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh. Jesus is coming for you. He's coming for his bride. He says, behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according to his work shall be. What is your life's work producing? Everything you do for yourself is gonna pass. Only what you do for Jesus Christ is going to last. Jesus said, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot corrupt and where thieves can't break through and steal. Your portfolio, everything is secure in heaven. What's the benefit package for the child of God? You send it on ahead. It's not in jeopardy. The stock market crashes, it doesn't crash your benefit package. It doesn't crash your reward. The bimacy judgment's secure. The Lord's gonna bless you. You're gonna hear him say, well done. Thou good and faithful servants. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm gonna make you ruler over much. Time is short. It's really short. If it was short two thousand years ago, think of how short the time is now. Anybody wanna get married? Let's pray. Father, we come before you. And, Lord, we thank you. For those of us that are married, I thank you for Kathy. I love being married. And, Lord, I was glad the rapture didn't happen. I was glad there was time to marry her. Now I wish the rapture has come, Lord. Come quick, Lord. My grandkids won't have to suffer. People won't have to suffer, Lord. Come quickly. Come for us, your bride, your church, Lord. But Lord, if you delay, if you tarry, Lord, we pray that we'd be about our father's business, that we'd occupy until you come. That Lord, these people that are perishing, people that who don't know you, who have no hope, when they watch all the things that prop them up, all the things that they once trusted in begin to collapse all around them. Lord, I pray that they'd not look at the pit of hell, but, Lord, they'd be looking up, that they'd be looking for you, that you'd open their eyes, that you'd give them ears to hear, that you'd make divine appointments for us as you did with the woman at the well, that we could go and alleviate that suffering, alleviate that torment of mind, that they'd come into a peaceful understanding of who you are, knowing all their sins have been paid for, as they turn from their sins, as they cry out to you, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Lord, we pray that all that anxiety, all that worry, all that guilt be washed away. Lord, thank you for the peace that we enjoy, the blessings that we enjoy, the fruit of the spirit, the the hope that we have a confident expectation of good that's coming for us, Lord. You're coming for us. And you've gone to prepare a place for us, and if you've gone to prepare a place for us, Lord, you're gonna come again and receive us under yourself, that where you are, there we may be also. Lord, we thank you that this earth is not our home, that our citizenship is in heaven, that we're children of the king to represent you here and now. And as you continue to pray, if there's anybody here this morning, and you're a man or a woman that's undone, you're incomplete. You you have a bucket list, and in that bucket list, it's grossly incomplete. You're not right with God. Is the Lord on that bucket list? Do you have a desire to be right with God? The things you wanna accomplish, things you wanna do before you die. It's appointed to all men once to die, then the judgment. One of them may be to get married. Well, hope and pray that you get married, if that be God's will for your life. Maybe you wanna serve the Lord, but the most important thing is first and foremost, you need to know the Lord. You need to be born again. That's the greatest, greatest engagement, the greatest appointment that you would ever keep, is that appointment with Jesus as the Holy Spirit bears witness of Jesus, and is dying upon the cross for you. That he paid for all your sins, past, present, and future, and this is your day. Time is short. Today is the day of salvation. You can't put it off anymore. Today is your moment. The Holy Spirit's wooing you. The Holy Spirit's drawing you. Anyone here this morning, as you're surrendering to the Lord, just lift your hand up. I wanna lead you in prayer. Jesus is a prayer away, a prayer within your heart. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He's that close to you. Anyone here this morning? Father, thank you. Thank you for your sovereignty. Thank you for the work of your holy spirit to lead and guide us into all truth. Thank you for showing us your perfect will for each of our lives, all varied and different. Some single, some widowed, some married, some never married, some divorced. But Lord, all a part of the body of Christ, all working as the body of Christ in harmony with you, Lord, as the head of your church. So help us more and more, Lord, to discover where we fit, how we might be used of you, how we might glorify you in these last days. We pray for a great harvest. Save now, Lord. 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.
