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1 Corinthians 9:1,14 -Don't Muzzle The Ox- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-06-09
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Alright. This morning, we got your favorite topic and, don't muzzle the ox. First Corinthians nine one through 14. Would you please stand with me? Oh, you're standing. That's wonderful. Verses one through 14. Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. Mine answer to them that do examine me is this, have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? Or I only and Barnabas have we not power to forbear working? Who goeth to war at any time and his own charges? Or who plants a vineyard and eats not of the fruit thereof? Or who feeds the flock and eats not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man or say it not in the law the same also. For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the corn. Does God take care for oxen Or saith he altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he that plows should plow in hope, and he that threshes should thresh in hope should be partaker of of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things? If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless, we have not used this power, but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple, and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so has the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. Father, thank you for your holy word. Thank you for your faithfulness, Lord, that we can trust completely in you. Lord, you own the cattle on a thousand hills. If you needed the help of man, know, there's no way you ever need the help of man. The earth is just a footstool. And Lord, you don't need our money, but, Lord, you're able to show us our heart, as we have the free will to determine the use thereof of that which you give us, Lord. We pray that we'd be worshipers, that we'd prioritize and keep you first, that the life of the spirit be the uppermost, that Lord that our country, our communities, our homes, our lives would greatly benefit of the abundant life of the spirit that you promised us Lord. In Jesus name, amen. Would you please be seated? Okay. So in chapter eight, the emphasis was upon waiving your rights of liberty so you don't cause someone to stumble. So like that of eating meat or eating veggies or having a beer or wine or going to a movie, the type of movies or going to casino areas that you may think are liberties of yours, but you wouldn't utilize these liberties or exercise these liberties in the company of somebody that thinks it's sinful, and, so you wouldn't wanna stumble them. So what'll happen is is you will hold back, you'll deny yourself that liberty because these are non essentials, these are peripheral areas, so as not to stumble, a weaker brother. So when I'm around a weak brother, I'll eat a salad because, it it bother them if I eat a rib eye, you know. So I'll choke down the salad and then I'm planning as I'm sitting there talking to him that, when I get home, I'm gonna have two rib eyes just to show them, you know. Just as long as they don't know about it. Alright? Not gonna do bugs, so then I told you that I'm I'm the weaker guy when it comes to that of eating, you know, bugs or crickets and all that. So, don't stumble me. If you ever invite me out, we're we're not doing meal worms, we're not doing bugs, we're not doing crickets. It violates my conscience and I'm I'm sorry, but you shouldn't eat that around me because that will really make me very sad. And and, so in love, deny yourself, don't demand your rights at the expense of others, don't eat meat if your weaker brother should be offended, and, but on non essentials, on on central issues, there is no compromise. As I said last week, we will debate, we will fight, we will allow the word of God to, determine, the truth. But these areas are areas of liberty, gray areas as they're called. And so now Paul comes to the topic of, giving, that of supporting him as an apostle. And what was happening is in the church of Corinth that he labored as a tent maker for eighteen months in the city of Corinth to establish this church and all. And what would happen is Apollos could come through, Cephas could come through, Peter or the Lord's brothers could come through, and they receive support and their wives travel with them, and so they're they're supported fully by the church. But Paul and Barnabas, in being more of an evangelistic effort to plant churches, desired that they they wouldn't bring any kind of stumbling block or anything in the way of those who they're trying to minister unto in the way of money. Money's a big issue. And, so they wanted to be able to, get the people to, you know, grow and learn in the Lord and trust in the Lord before they come to a place where they understand what a privilege it is to worship the Lord in giving. Once a person's saved and the Holy Spirit's moving and working in their heart, there's an overwhelming sense of a grace attack of, God, God, you know, you saved me. Why me? Why did you save me? Lord, here am I, use me. And so it's it spills over the desire to give financially from, you know, just the rejoicing of the heart. God loves a cheerful giver. So Paul, rolled in that way. Also, false prophets would come through, and the false prophets like we see today are the guys that got the jets, and the jet isn't big enough, they want a bigger one, and, they've got the, you know, I think they said, Copeland or one of those guys is worth $600,000,000 now. So all you gotta do is go on television, Christian television, and you'll see these guys on. They're snake eyes and and just the most vicious, evil, evil people espousing a prosperity doctrine where you give and it'll be given back to you. And as you do an auditing, as you trace the money, you find out over the last twenty, thirty years that these guys are, like I said, close to a billion dollars, in worth, in net worth. And, lavish lifestyles won't fly on commercial airplanes because, they don't wanna be around the low lifes and all. And so, just jets and mansions and family members and everybody in on it. So what that happens is is that when you share Christ with somebody at work, and they work hard in the shipyard, in Bangor and Keyport, real hard, thirty years of tough labor after coming out of the military, and you really don't get paid a whole lot, you know, while you're working, a woman told me the other day. But it's a good retirement if you can make it till you're 30, is what I'm told. So you got enough money to take care of a family, have a house, and medical, dental, and all that, but you're really not getting rich until later, hopefully, you know, all that they've invested in the stock market goes up and the stock market doesn't crash and Claus Schwab doesn't take it all. But, but the emphasis upon working hard. So you're working hard, sweat of your brow because of the curse, and you're watching these fancy guys on TV just, you know, exploiting people. And it just bothers you greatly. And so, someone comes and shares the gospel with you, they said, no way, it's all about money. I'm not going to church. Those people, all they want is my money. I work too hard for my money. And, and so it shows their heart. They're they're good stewards of their money. They worked hard. It's theirs to do with what they want. But then you say to them, no. No. It's not about the money. We attend a church that doesn't beg for money. We have opportunity to worship the Lord in giving and there's an Agape box at the back, but there's no pressure. There's no, you know, sermon about money every single week and there's no manipulation. The false prophets make merchandise of people. They're the ones that exploit and that sort of thing. And so we've always tried to not to fall into that trap because it's the mark of a false prophet. What's amazing to me is how many people love the false prophets? Do you know they'd go broke if people quit going there? Do you know that? But the people love it so. They keep going there because there's a message that appeals to their sinful heart and that is I can get rich too. It's covetousness. It's maybe this formula works. Maybe if I if I practice this formula that Joel Olsteen's saying, then I'll get rich, you know. So it's it's it's a it's a lie from the pit of hell. And many of you have come through the prosperity gospel, the name it and claim it, blab it and grab it, and all that kind of stuff for years. And then, what happened was is you were never taught the word, never brought through the word of God. Instead, you dried up spiritually. You didn't get all the blessings, you know, that they were promising, especially the spiritual blessings. Your marriage went on the rocks, your business fell apart, you know, you didn't, you know, your health didn't didn't hold up. And these guys gotta go to the hospitals incognito. They gotta have a, you know, a false name to enter a hospital if they get sick because according to their doctrine, they're never supposed to get sick if they have enough faith and all. Right? And so, you you look at it and you and I are like, how could anybody believe that and yet, it's very appealing. So the apostle Paul had the false prophets coming through, they had letters, I have a doctorate from this school, know. They had the nice Armani suits and all polished and everything. And there's Paul and Barnabas sweating, all day long working. How could that be a man of God? Look at that guy, you know. And and yet these guys are eating and and hanging out with everybody and partying and all that and they're given the persona, the perception that they're really successful, and because I'm successful, it must be the blessing of God upon me. And that if I hang out with Bill Gates, then I'll get rich too. If I if I just if I just buy the pharmaceuticals that he's buying, if I invest in synthetic meats right now and crickets and all, guy, I might make some money. I need to follow all of his investments or Berkshire Hathaway, you know, I need to follow these guys. And if I follow them, you know, then I'm gonna get rich too. So too in Christianity, they see a guy up there all polished and worth a lot of money and the people think, God, if I order my life and position myself in such a way, if I pray enough, give enough, you know, hope enough, serve enough, then God's gonna bless my life too, you know? And that only happens in in prosperous countries. It doesn't happen in many of these third world countries and all. But the world still clamors toward. They want the American dream and unfortunately, the American dream is not biblical and it's crept into the church and it's even in Calvary chapels and all. It's under the radar, but it's there. We expect to be blessed. You know, we don't we don't promote, suffering, self denial, going through heartache. That doesn't sell. We have to give people hope that in the next election cycle, we're gonna be able to keep all of our money and our pensions and that everything's gonna be okay if we vote for the Donald, you know. It's all gonna go back together. And that's a popular message. It can build a church and it can last for a period of time, but unfortunately, reality sitting of the genocide that's taken place and people that are starting to wake up are gonna have to wake up to the fact that this was a pre planned effort by all of our governmental leaders and bankers and such and you cannot build upon a lie, as I said earlier. So here's the here's the truth of it. He gives six arguments, six point sermon, six arguments for receiving financial support. Wouldn't you know it? I gotta have six points to convince you that you should support this ministry in verses one through 14. Number one, your obligation to me as an apostle. I'm not an apostle. There are no apostles today as we'll see by definition. But Paul is saying, because I'm an apostle, you church of Corinth has a obligation to me to support me in this ministry. Nine verse one. Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? So four rhetorical questions. First question, am I not an apostle? The word apostle means one sent under commission. Am I not free? Free to exercise my liberty. I can receive or not receive. Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? So this is the qualification of being one of the 12 apostles is that you've seen the risen Lord. Today, you hear these nut jobs saying that they have the, you know, the office of being an apostle in the church today, they're nut jobs. They're quacks. They haven't they haven't seen. They don't they don't qualify. Acts one twenty two, when Judas went out and killed himself, Peter, I believe he was he was preempting what God was gonna do, And he said, you know, it's it's it's not good that we only have 11 here. We need to we need to get a a twelfth one in here. 12 men. We can't play football without 12 men. Right? And so what are we gonna do? Well, in chapter 13 of book of acts, we see that Barnabas and Saul and the elders and the leaders of Antioch gave themselves to the word of God in prayer. And during prayer, the Lord said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work where I've called them. They're gonna be apostles. But in chapter one, Peter's leading the the gang and let's roll the dice. This is an old testament way of discerning God's will where the priest would take a white stone and a black stone and put it in and shake it or whatever and pull it out. White means yes, black means no. So that's basically what they did. They cast lots with some gentlemen that had seen the Lord, Matthias is who they chose, who had seen the risen Lord, because many of them had seen the risen Lord after three days and then he saw he's seen by over 500 and followed with him and all. So it wasn't just the 12, so they choose Matthias and we never hear about Matthias ever again. But we do hear about an apostle born out of due time, as Paul described himself. Where in the book of Acts chapter nine, the Lord revealed himself unto him, and that's part of his proof. And then also, in Acts chapter 18, while he was in Corinth, the Lord appeared to him in a vision and said, I have don't be afraid, Paul. Why is the Lord saying don't be afraid? Because he was afraid. Don't be afraid. This is a vicious city. I know it. He fought with beasts in Bremerton, know, and, this is a tough place, but I have many people here. I have many people here, Paul. So don't don't wimp out. And then in Acts chapter twenty two seventeen and eighteen, Paul said the Lord, he was in a trance. So he got a vision in a trance. He's in a trance and he's praying, and the Lord told him, don't go to Jerusalem, they won't listen to you. They won't listen to you. And but the Lord appeared to him. And so three different occasions recorded and so he has the qualifications of being a an apostle. He's a witness of the resurrection. He says, are not ye my work in the Lord so my life has bore fruit. You are my epistle. I don't have the letters of the false prophets to parade around. Hey, I'm so and so. Look at my office. Look at all the letters I have. I got them online by the way. But you're you're my letter. The epistle of Christ written in your heart as I invested eighteen months in you guys, and now your lives are being transformed and changed. And as people watch that transformation, there's proof text, a proof that I'm a an apostle. So you're not you you are my work in the Lord. Eighteen months of teaching them for free. Verse two, if I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. So the seal speaks of proof of ownership. And so second Corinthians three verse two, you are an epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Verse three, mine answer to them that do examine me is this, so judge not, lest ye be judged. The word judge there in Matthew seven is krino, it means condemnation. So we're not to condemn, but anakrino is a word that's used for a legal examination. All of us make judgments. And when Jesus in Luke chapter 20, three verse 14 was before Pontius Pilate, he was examined before Pilate, and Pilate found no fault in him. And so the Greek word, anakrino. Here Paul's using the same word anakrino and that of a legal inquiry. Mine answer to them that do examine me is this. Verse four, have we not power to eat and drink? Are we not are you not obligated to feed us? You know? Wouldn't you at least feed, you know, the guy that isn't working in the shipyard, isn't at Bangor or Keyport, isn't working at Boeing, the guy that dedicates himself to studying the word of God and praying and walking by faith in order to prepare spiritual food for you to eat. So if we've labored to you in spiritual things, would it be cognizant? Would it be a reality somehow that would occur to you? There's a value in it, a spiritual value, and that collectively, corporately, that we could support a pastor, maybe pastor's wife and his family, you know. Is that valuable in a community? Is it valuable to have the greatest building in the community be a church building rather than a bank building? Do you know what used to be in America? One of the first buildings they'd build would be the church. Whole community would be centered at the church and schools were started in churches and all, and yet now and it's not about the building, we're the building of God, made with hands, but when we speak in terms of what's prominent in the community, what's important in the community, the buildings, the churches in Europe are empty. There's no Christians to support them. They're they're becoming mosques. They're becoming flea markets. They're becoming, you know, just whatever, night clubs or whatever. And, and the reason is because people don't value the life of the spirit, the things of the spirit. In fact, people are being drawn more and more to witchcraft and to the occult around the world today. And so I'm just thankful that we can meet here as a congregation of people, you know, rent this building from the Seventh day Adventists who are so gracious to us, that we have a place to to meet and to focus upon Jesus and the overhead's low, and you know, that that's a wonderful blessing. But as a pastor, there's enormous pressure upon pastors to be the fix it guy and to provide everything that everybody ever thought of. And so you wanna get a building, you wanna get a Sunday school, you wanna get parking, you wanna get everything, you know. Radio stations and all this kind of stuff, and it's enormous, enormous undertaking. And so you have to you have to wait for the Lord to provide, you know. If that if that's the direction the Lord would wanna take you. So how we not power to eat and to drink? Are you not obligated to feed us? Galatians six verse six says, let him that is taught in the word communicate, which means give, to him that teaches in all good things. Verse five, have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles and as the brethren of the Lord and of Cephas? So you're further obligated not only to pay for me, Paul's saying, but if I were married and Barnabas were married, you're further obligated to take care of my wife and take care of my children, my family. You're you're to evaluate the pastor and the pastor's wife and and family and make them just as well off as you are. Do you know it only takes 10 tithing families to take care of a pastor? And that pastor lives in the same standard of living that those 10 tithing families live? But what happens in many cases, especially as as men are, you know, ambitious, is the pastor's wife has to go get a job because we don't wanna pay the pastor very much because we're in a building project. And we gotta get all our money together and build a building, and then in many cases, the pastors are living lives of poverty, on the verge of poverty. And and it's a it's a it's an indicator where people's hearts are. It's it's not a good thing. It's not something to be to be bold about. And so very sad. So we call it bi vocational. When I first started, when we first started the church, I worked a side job, and I worked cleaning carpets, and I worked construction, and that's that's understandable. In Calvary Chapels, we don't get sent out and we're not underwritten by the mother church. And when we fall, don't get picked up by the mother church. We're autonomous and so we have to rely upon the Lord. And and so as the church started to grow, and there was enough people, then we able to quit the job and focus full time on on on the ministry, and building the ministry, and sowing the word of God, and outreaches, and evangelism, and such. And the Lord's been very faithful, to provide for us. When the Lord, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. When the Lord takes away, my whole life my life was going up. Started a business when I was 20, 21, and every year, the year future was always better than the previous year. So you're building. And then when we started the ministry here in my thirties and forties, same thing happened. Building, building, building, building, building. And then that day came where the day care was shut down on a Friday. And from that day to the present, there's been a breaking. Been going backwards. But we had to adjust. Cathy and I had to adjust. We had to make an adjustment. So we had to lower overhead. We had to figure out how we can continue to pastor this church. And so what we did is we just started over, you know, in our fifties, now in our sixties. And and now we're at a point where we as long as we don't go out and try and buy a building and try and do something, you know, out of what we're doing, we're okay. We survive. We get along. And we don't impose upon you. I don't come up here and say, I have a vision and I want you to pay for it. No. I'm enjoying right where we're at. There's no pressure on you to give, there's no pressure on me to go borrow money. I I don't I don't even have a credit card anymore. So, know, I I trust the Lord week to week, day by day. And if me, Kathy says, you gotta you gotta knock it off about Trump Rick. The church is getting smaller and smaller. I said, honey, I can't. I can't. I've always stood for the truth. I stood for the truth and the psychotropic drugs when they came through the church. I stood for the truth concerning 09:11, a lot of the other lies that came through. I I've been standing for the truth concerning psychology, and the therapeutic messages these guys are given. I stood the truth concerning Rick Warren and his purpose driven baloney. And and yeah, I lose. I lose every time I lose people. But I gain, as that sifting takes place, I live, I gain truth seekers. I want truth seekers. And so I'd rather have a small group of people that love the truth because Jesus said, you know the truth and truth will set you free. I'm not gonna build on lies. And I love you so much, I don't want you to follow those lies. I've gotta warn you. And so this morning as I was reading Ezekiel chapter three and Ezekiel chapter 33, there's a place there where you remember in Acts 20, Acts 20, where Paul said, I'm innocent of the blood of all men. He grabs that from Ezekiel three and Ezekiel 33 where he preached the full counsel of God. Today, happens is people impose upon us, oh, don't talk about that stuff. Don't talk about that stuff. It'll make your church really small. Don't talk about politics either, you know. Just just give him the gospel. Well, did Paul just give him the gospel? Didn't he give him the gospel and everything else he could think of? You know, he gave him the full counsel of God. He warned them concerning sin, concerning liars and liars and liars. John the Baptist lost his head because he stood against the lies that King Herod was perpetuating with taking his brother Philip's wife. Just just simple adultery caused him to lose his head and he spoke out against it. And the pastor's afraid to speak out about adultery or fornication because everybody in their churches are fornicators and adulterers and liars. And so there's an unwritten rule. You don't convict me or talk to me about sin, and I'll write a check for you, buddy. We don't have that agreement here. We challenge you every single week to live the truth, to hear the truth, to love God's word. And if you wanna give, you give. If you wanna go, you go. You wanna come back, you come back. But Jesus is preeminent here. And we're not gonna be bought. We're we're not asking you to buy us off. We're not asking you to buy us a house or a car or give us me a new coat or anything. I mean, you have no idea the leverage people placed upon Kathy and I while we were losing stuff. Losing our home, losing the church buildings. All I had to do was give in to them and they'd have written a check and we'd still be there. But I'm not gonna throw Jesus under the bus. It has to be right. It has to be based upon the bible. It has to be biblical. It can't be men except the Lord build the house. They that labor labor in vain that build it. And money is a big part of the bible. God has a lot to say about money but not every week, You know, like these churches do. It's crazy. So I mean, where the man's treasure is, there was heart be also and I hope your treasure's in heaven. And so only I or Barnabas, have we not power to forbear working? So we're tent making. We're we're underwriting our own ministry and and we have the credentials. We have that of being an apostle. Barnabas was also called an apostle, one that was sent. So number one, your obligation to me as as an apostle. Secondly, should I not receive financial support because it is my occupation? Who goes to warfare anytime at his own charges? Those of you that served in the military. Did your family support you? Yeah. You didn't get enough pay, I know. So they sent you boxes of cookies and stuff. But what happens when the reset happens and the, economy crashes, and your government doesn't have enough money to pay you as you work in the shipyard at Bangor at Keyport? What if they try to put you on like a furlough payment? We can't pay you right now. Hold on to this check for three weeks. How fast do you think you guys would run out of there? How how many people would continue to be a sheriff if they couldn't be paid simply because they believe in being the sheriff and wanna protect the streets? How long could they sustain that heartfelt desire to do that when reality hits? How long could they could they remain in that mode? And so why do you go into the military? Well, I believe as a Christian, you don't go in there for the money, you go in there because greater love has no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends. You're living a life, a sacrificial life, first and foremost. That's what motivates you. You're you're the people they hate. You're the ones they wanna weed out of the military and weed out of government service. When the rapture happens, this whole country's gonna greatly fall apart because you're the backbone of this country. And so it's not always about the money, but you gotta pay the bills. So if they ever come to a place where they're not gonna pay you, guess what? You're not gonna readjust your life like Kathy and I did. You're gonna try and find another job. A workman's worthy of his hire. Right? And so what soldier goes to war at his own expense? Cathy and I went out and leveraged our house. We went out and got loans. There were times where I didn't have enough money for payroll or whatever. I'd take her car and I'd go over to Beneficial and I'd hawk the pink slip on her car just to so I could meet payroll. And then when the checks do start coming back in, I'd go buy her pink slip back. Know, do you know how much trouble I'd be in if I lost her car? It was horrible. Absolutely horrible. So Gary's here. Gary Koligowski. He worked in the shipyard with finances. Gary, what percentage of people in the church tithe? So one to Well, that's I don't I don't don't impose that upon this group. People are givers, they're generous, but those are the facts. And so people are able to attend here who don't tithe, who don't give, and nobody knows who you are, nobody cares. The Lord is generous, he's gracious, he loves a cheerful giver, but these are the facts. And that's what Paul's bringing forth. He's bringing the facts. This is this is the way people are and and somehow, some way the Lord the Lord makes it work. But what soldier would go soldiering, go to war, at his own expense? Paul's saying, hey, this is my occupation. You've I I I believe the the whole you know, vets deserve everything. I've houses, low interest loans, the best medical, best of everything for the sacrifices they've made. It would be it would be shameful. It is shameful to see so many homeless soldiers and people that have suffered going three, four tours and PTSD and such. It's just horrible. And then the hypocrisy of taking care of all these 30,000,000 immigrants you're bringing in, giving them $2,500 a month in housing and medical and everything, know, mercenaries that you're hiring to be soldiers. And, who plants a vineyard and eats not of the fruit thereof? So the farmers are paid. A farmer plants a vineyard, he sows and he reaps. Shouldn't a pastor who's going to plant a church, and he knows it's gonna be lean at the beginning, he knows it's gonna be hard. And so he gets a job, and maybe his wife's working too, and they're trying so hard to sow and to sow and sow spiritually, And in hope of one day, the church will be grown enough, grow up enough, be large enough that they can dedicate themselves full time to what they believe God's called them, to do. So the farmer, he plants in hope, the guys in Idaho that are planting. This morning, I was thinking, know, their own government officials are gonna deny them water. Well, you deny the farmer's water, what happens? Well, it's deja vu of California. You blame it on a little minnow and you run the water out into the Pacific Ocean, and then now these farmers go broke, especially all the small farms in the San Joaquin Valley. And then George, not George Soros, but Pelosi and Feinstein's husband, they broker real estate wise, they broker these lands and sell them to the Chinese. And guess what? Water will reappear in Idaho once the Chinese own that land. It will reappear. There's plenty of water there. This is bureaucracy. This is a purpose, that of economic, destruction and famine. To cause famine to I mean, it's mind boggling to me. He says, the ox treads out the grain with hope of eating of the grain. God cares for the ox. God cares for the sparrow that falls to the ground. He has a funeral for the sparrow. Not one hair of your head falls that he doesn't know. So if God's providing this way for the animals, how could a government, Romans 13, who's been created by God, allowed by God for the preservation of good. What happens when government becomes the very vehicle of the evil one to cause famine, widespread famine and genocide? Where where is where is anybody saying do not comply? Or like The Netherlands, the farmer people party. We used to have a while back, had the tea party signifying when we didn't wanna give in to Britain with the taxation. And we throw threw all the tea in into the in into the water and such, but taxation without representation. And it was a fierce spirit within the people at the time. They weren't gonna give into it. And it allowed the shopkeepers in America to develop their small businesses and such when they could get all the the British imports from coming. And so, the small business being the backbone of the country. So, we had the tea party and guess what the globalists, with one of their greatest demonic enterprises or strategies. They just brought in an evangelical republican that told the evangelical republic conservatives who love money everything they wanted to hear. I'm gonna arrest Hillary. I'm gonna drain the swamp. I'm gonna make America great. And people fell for it. And where'd the tea party go? It went bye bye. Now you're left with a uni party. You're left with you've deceived. And now they're going after your food. So who plants a a farm? Who who goes to fight in these wars? Who teaches school? Who invests their lives in America and then winds up, what? You're gonna allow foreigners to take it away from us? We sowed in hope. We sowed. We sowed our lives in hope that our children and grandchildren would reap the reward of a safe, prosperous country. So why would I why would I go in labor? Why would I go into the military now when they're wearing, you know, red high heels and going woke on me and all? Why would I why would I be willing to lay my life down for a country that doesn't respect the military? Why would I plant and invest my life in being a farmer? A young man receiving his parents and his grandparents farm. Why would I invest myself in that and dedicate myself in one of the hardest jobs on the planet when I don't know if anybody in the community is gonna support me? And I'm not asking them to come out there and help me plow, I'm just asking them to give me some water. My own water out of my own well. Who's gonna do it? Who's gonna plant a vineyard and eat not of the fruit thereof? Proverbs twenty seven eighteen says, whosoever keeps the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof. So you're you're working in the groves and you're you're trimming and and harvesting and all. Can't you reach up once in a while and eat a fig? Amen. Why wouldn't you be able to do that? Or who feeds a flock and eats not the milk of the flock? So you've got the goats, nice goat milk. You got the sheep and the goats. I mean, shepherds, aren't shepherds paid? Don't they get to have, you know, a little bit of lamb, a little bit of goat? Don't they get to have some milk and cookies once in a while? Six arguments, receiving financial support, your obligation to me as an apostle. It's my occupation. Thirdly, the old testament law commands it. Verse eight. Say I these things as a man or say it not the law the same also? Verse nine. For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shall not muzzle the ox, the mouth of the ox that treaded out the corn. Does God take care for the oxen? So look at the care that God has for the oxen. Look at he doesn't want the oxen treading around, treading the the corn, the grain wearing a muzzle. He doesn't want you wearing that mask. Get that mask off. He wants you to breathe. God wants you to breathe. He made you that way. And there's a balance of carbon and oxygen out there. Don't believe the lie. Don't believe the lie of your carbon footprint and such. All this stuff's been proven false. Doctor Vernon Coleman, listen to the video that I posted this morning. Four years of information just right there for you to be reminded of all the lies that you've heard, and God's saying, hey, I care about the the oxen. I care about the birds. I care about the animals. We're the greatest environmentalists there are. The hunters, the the farmers. We're we're the ones that care about the environment. We're the ones that wanna be able to go back year by year by year by year and be able to shoot a deer, catch a a salmon. We're not the wackadoodles that wanna wipe the whole thing out so that people can't eat. We're we're we're not the type of people that are gonna reintroduce wolves that we've genetically altered so they don't get parvo. Parvo would cause some of their litters to die so they don't overwhelm everybody. So we're not gonna take a apex predator, reintroduce them in a community that already got rid of them, a community of farming, a rural community with horses and cattle and such and just reintroduce these so that they can attack down the chain. And so what was told me about Idaho is that in the upper area because of the the wolves and also the mountain lions, that the first they go after is the elk. And once they wiped out all the elk, then they they go after what's next and that's the deer. So where are the deer? The deer are down in the lower area near the farmer to protect them. They're not spread out anymore, horses and and all that. So, it's it's a it's a ludicrous policy against the environment, against human beings and and who who does this? Why don't they keep the human being at the top of the chain? We need food. We need water. We need clean air. Why are they so hell bent on genociding us? Because they're demonic. It's a Eugenics that Bill Gates grew up with. It's a demonic agenda to steal the souls of people, send them to hell before they hear the gospel. So we sense the urgency of the gospel. You see God's heart, you see that he cares. The ox needs to plow in hope. Deuteronomy twenty five four, oxen plowed the field, and we're to thresh in hope of eating some of the grain. So if you wanna really get some productivity out of your ox, put a little basket there where he can eat while he's while he's plowing the horse or whatever. Know, give him some food to, you know, hold it up there like that. Get him get him get him moving, you know. And so they're able to they're able to maintain their the At the gym, they call it you put kindling into the fire. So when it talks about metabolic rate, they don't like fasting because fasting slows your metabolic rate. But they want six or seven meals a day to keep that furnace hot and and, you know, stoked and all that, so that you have the highest metabolic rate so that you can get more work done, is their philosophy on it or their science on it. So so too pastors, first Timothy five seventeen, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and of doctrine. For the scripture saith, thou shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn and the laborers worthy of his reward. And so the word of God, old and new testament commands it to provide compensation for those that labor in the word of God and in prayer. You remember in Acts chapter Acts chapter six, five and six, that the church was very, very busy as Barnabas came and sold some land and brought the proceeds to the feet of the disciples. And the church in Jerusalem was under tremendous persecution. Paul received gifts later from Macedonia from Philippi to bring him to the church, some other church in Jerusalem. So there's a great blight where they had no food and the church was in dire straits. So so the the welfare system was such that people would share and they'd bring food and sustenance and all. And then there began a fight in Acts chapter six between the Hellenistic and the Jewish widows over the ministration of the goods and all. And so, Peter lets them all know that you guys decide who you want to be, the you know, the elders, the deacons. And so they chose Stephen who is Hellenistic and some others so that it take away the the problem. So for the distribution, so it's the service part of the church of ministering to the material needs, the physical needs of those within the body of Christ, which we need. So you have deacons and deaconesses. But he differentiates and he said elders, which is a pastor. It's not a board of elders that are rich in your community that stifle you. An elder is a pastor. In the Latin, it's pastor. So we're gonna give ourselves to the word of God and prayer. So you don't go just call pastors.com and get one of Rick Warren's canned sermons to create social justice in your community. You are And you and you don't. I'm gonna say it again. You don't wimp out and say, I'm not gonna teach the book of Revelation because I was never taught it. No. If you're a pastor, job description. Timothy, study to show yourself approved unto God at workmans that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Study. Be a student. Study. You haven't taught the book of Revelation yet? You're not teaching 27 of the bible prophecy yet? Be a student of prophecy. Why are you denying God's people a view of his soon return? The blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior. So it's crucial that the men and women who are gonna dedicate themselves to teaching that they have time to be students. Students of God's word. And I love, I spent over twenty five years, twenty twenty years, just sitting because I had a back injury. And the Lord, gave me enormous amount of time, to read. In fact, we got in a car wreck the first Sunday, the first day we were here in Bremerton, we got ahead on car wreck and I already had my injury before I came here, l four and l five, and I had enormous sciatic problem, hardly be able to sit, hardly be able to sleep. That first year was really rough with that injury. Chiropractor gave me a card for a neurosurgeon, I went to physical therapy, all that blah blah blah. And then I'm just starting to figure it out a bit and find spots where it didn't hurt, and we're getting a head on car wreck here in Bremerton. So we go through that, and we're starting the church. We decided to do it here, and so there's a lawsuit pending because of the lady that hit us. And and I want so bad to get this church off the ground. And I'm doing everything I can and working and and and all that. And then we had a crisis in the church, one of our first, where some of the guys said, you either cooperate with me or we're gonna put you in jail and lock you know, lock you up and take away your kids from you, you know. Those were my first elders I had. And when I didn't do what they wanted me to do, all I did was rebuke their children for using f bombs in the youth group. And instead of correcting their children, they came at me and they said, I talked to my lawyer and you're wrong and you because you rebuked them, yelled at them, they said. And I like to say, hell yes, I yelled at them. If I was their parent, I'd have done a hell lot more. But but in any event, that's why God didn't give me a son. Daughter, she can you know, what do you do with a daughter? But a son, we'd went toe to toe. So anyway, so he lied to me and said, here's your options. You need to go to the church and apologize to the church and and if you don't, we're going to, put you in jail and take away your kids from you. And so fortunately, one of the pastors had a lawyer on his staff and I talked to him and he let me know it was a bluff. He's lying to me that, still in this country, you can still use your words to rebuke somebody, especially if you have a position of authority like being that of a pastor. And so I went to him and I told him, I said, hey, you lied. And he goes, yeah, know, but I didn't know what else to do to control you. And so that was the last of those kind of elders I ever had, and, they ganged up on me. So what I did was I, found a building because we were very invested in a property that that, he was purchasing, and that we were doing the labor and and investing in to make it a youth, you know, a youth facility. We started doing concerts there, because I had a huge desire to do concerts. And so what I did was, is I found a building in Downtown Bremerton, right across from Burger King. We called it Salmon's Porch, but I didn't have any money. So that lawsuit came due, and I went over to Seattle, and I went, upstairs, and I sat in this meeting there, State Farm and everybody. And the lawyer says to me, what do you like to do? I like to read. I love to read. I'm a reader. Don't you like to hike? No, I don't do much hiking. Now now you know me, I go to the gym, but at the time, all I wanna do is sit there because I was in so much pain. Just get my seat right, I sat for the next fifteen years just gaining weight drinking mochas with Breve mochas, you know. And But I got a lot of work done, a lot of work done as a pastor because a pastor is more cerebral, it's not so physical, so I'm able to be a student, a reader, and a voracious reader, and a student of the word. And and so he says, he's They they're they're looking at me like you're the biggest idiot ever and so we wound up settling for $7,000. And he goes, don't you want surgery? Don't you want, you know, he's he's appealing to me. And all I could think of is I'm gonna take that 7,000, I'm gonna go rent a building so that we have another place to meet. And that's what I did. Because I'm committed to the mission God's given me, to what he's called me to do. And any money I have belongs to the Lord. It's all his money. Maybe I shoulda hung out for a $100, I don't know. But it wasn't in my mindset, it was simply, hey, we're in a financial crisis here, Lord, and it just so happens this thing's done, let let's just do it, and and, that's what we did. And and that Salmon's porch exploded and then after that we were able to buy the Roxy and we had a great run. We had a really good run and the problem is is I could never ever ever I was always under financed. I never had like enormous amount of money just to do everything the way everybody does stuff. It was always day by day by faith, trusting God to build the buildings, to put a roof on the building. When we were putting a roof on the building, the Roxy, nobody came and paid for that roof. I had to go get a loan and the biggest roofer in the county had me go to his bank and get a loan. And so that's one. Then people wanted to go to Mexico. I had to go get another loan to get the church van. Those are payments. That's a $400 payment and another $400 payment in addition to the to the rent. That's more pressure on me. Lot of pressure on me. And then they wanted a Sunday school building. 20 dormant Sears building. It's like the big black hole. You could never have enough money to renovate that thing. So now we're going into a lease purchase option, and all these wonderful people are volunteering, and they're building it. It's fantastic. Architect from heaven and just beautiful, beautiful, wonderful, very talented people out of the shipyard. Guys are very talented, dedicating themselves to all their trades and and it's for the children, know, the day care and the preschool. And the church had 86 children, and we were renting everything in the downtown there to try and do our Sunday school. And so we're so excited, but we ran out of money all the time. And I never asked for money. So I said, Kath, let's take a loan on our house. And that was the downfall. That's what I should have never done. Never should have done it. But we did, and we were all in. We weren't halfway in, we were all in. And I believe the people would rally, that the people would be all in too, all the way. And the only reason a pastor would start a day care is because he knows the people are poor and they can't underwrite the ministry, they can't afford the building. And so you you take steps of faith and the Lord has supported us with very, very faithful people. There's just enough. There's just enough to get by every week, every month. But God's people are faithful. We've never the righteous have never been forsaken nor his seed ever begging bread. We don't have any medical insurance, we're in our sixties. We don't have no retirement, we're in our sixties. We have no assets, we're in our mid sixties. We're all in. So when you guys lose everything, you come to me and I'll teach you how to get through it. It's Matthew six. Read ahead of time, Matthew six. The heathen are always concerned about what they're gonna eat, what they're gonna drink, what they're gonna wear. But Jesus said, you're not the heathen. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you. The Lord will take care of you, just as he's taking care of us. And and those are those are things that I can say as a testimony of God's faithfulness. You've Many of you have never even heard of these things. There's so many of them. So many miracles that God's done along the way. One time we were driving on the 5 Freeway and out in the middle of nowhere, and there's a friend of mine from school of ministry, Michael Leonard's behind me. It's the holidays, and he pulls me over and he goes to my trunk of his trunk of his car and he says, Rick, I got something for you. And he gives me this envelope full of money. Well, that gave me enough money to pay the rent up there and to move here to Bremerton from being on the Oregon coast. We went to the Oregon Coast with a thousand dollars. That's all we had to go with. And then many of the people from our bible study in California began to underwrite this ministry so that we could get it off the ground, co laboring with us to get it going. And then we, rather than living off those monies, will put it into the church account to pay the rent and do things so that then the church could finally build some momentum and get going. Bizarre, Crazy. And you gotta As I'm saying this, probably the biggest thing in your mind is that Kathy sure is a saint for her to follow that fool into the ministry. And and you'd be correct. She she's amazing in that everything, every idea, everything we've done, she's been willing to walk by faith. Verse 10, or say it he altogether for our sakes, for our sakes no doubt, this is written that he that plows should plow in hope and that he that thresh should thresh in hope should be partaker of his hope. So hope's essential. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing? We shall reap your carnal things? What value do we place upon spiritual things? Our giving reflects our love thereof. I believe there's a day coming where people that call themselves Christians won't even need a church to attend on Sundays. They're gonna rely upon artificial intelligence and videos from home. And they can they can get all the so called spiritual feeding they want, and they don't need a pastor, support a pastor, support a building or any of it. It's all free. That's happening more and more. And yet the false churches, they never stop figuring out mean, do you understand that these these pastors and these these false churches, do you understand when they go to seminary cemetery, do you understand the number one course they take is marketing? They're taught to market you. They're always coming up with a marketing scam to get more money out of you. Do you understand that? And the people support them. Mind boggling. Mind boggling. But maybe the Lord proves us in that we're willing to go through those season of small things. To go through those things. What value do we place upon spiritual things? If I look at that and internalize that, my pastor and the church I came from, it was the most important part of my week, part of my life, was going in here and the the word of God taught, asking the Lord where can I serve, how can I help, how can I give? I As my business got going better and better in my twenties, I was not being fulfilled. Although I was being blessed, I wasn't being fulfilled within. And so I said, Lord, if you don't want me to keep doing this, you know, what do you want me to do? And being a pastor was the furthest thing from my mind. There's just no way I could ever do that. But people began to tell me that I had a gift and that if I didn't use this gift, was a sin of omission. And and so I began to invest, and look at it from a standpoint I went to the bible college first and I left my business to my guys down the mountain and they ran it into the ground. And so I had to quit school after two months and go down, start all over, move into my mother in law's house and start over and the Lord blessed for four years. And then I tried again, went to the school of ministry for two years. And the Lord again, the business started waning, but man, I was being fulfilled. I found it. I found why God made me and it was so thrilling, so exciting to study the word of God and to be taught. Was just amazing. So the spiritual things were so the uppermost for Cathy and I. Home bible studies at our house, church several times a week, everything we did centered around the Christian community, if you will, and we wanted to be a part of it. Paul says in second Corinthians eleven eight, I robbed other churches taking wages of them to do you service. So Paul's saying I was supported, I worked, but I was also supported by other people rather than you, because you guys were too immature. And I wanted you to get mature enough to understand that at some point, you'll value the spiritual things. Like for instance, hey, used to be a drunk and a drug addict. I used to be an abuser. Now you're saved. You're clean and clothed and in your right mind. You used to be a demoniac. Well, at some point, it might occur to you that God did something for you. And it might well up in your heart that you wanna give something back to him. And you know what he wants? He wants worship. He wants you to ascribe worth to value spiritual things, ascribe worth to him. And when you do that, your walk with the Lord will grow exponentially when you become a giver. Simply responder, you respond to him. He first gives and then you respond. Your walk will grow unbelievably spiritually. But if you're stingy and you're just a taker, you're gonna remain in an arrested state of development. You're not gonna grow spiritually. Just not gonna happen because it's laws of sowing and reaping. You sow, you reap. And it's not just the material part, it's the spiritual part. Freely we receive, freely we give, and you begin to grow. Why should Paul receive financial support? Your obligation to me as an apostle. It's my occupation. The old testament law commands it. Fourthly, others receive compensation. It's the norm. Peter's receiving compensation. The Lord's brothers are receiving compensation. If others be partaker of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless, we have not used this power, but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. So Apollos and Peter were paid, why not us? He says, nevertheless, we have not used this power. We've waived our rights. That's what love does. Love will waive, you'll waive your rights. You have the right to this, you have entitlement to this, but you'll waive your right because there's a higher purpose involved and that is you wanna love them, help them mature, and not be a burden unto them. So he says, why? But suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. So it's better to suffer than to hinder the gospel. So same is true today, like I tried to illustrate for you. You think about the guys at work, think about family members, people that observe the channel forty stuff, the TBN. In Orange County, was channel forty. And they get the whack a doodles on there, and they just started going into all their scams and schemes and marketing everybody. And when I was a partier, they'd come on, a lot of them a lot of the weird ones would come on around eleven, twelve at night, and so you'd be drunk, you'd be whatever, and you just laugh at these guys. They're just laughable. They're just like, who does that? Who wears hair up to here, you know? And it's just just crazy the way they're dressing and the stuff they're doing, you know. It's it's not normal. And the way they talk, the inflections in their voice, you know. Nobody does that. No. That's not normal. And, it's not spiritual either, but they're trying to be so different. You know, I you know, your eyelash, get some water stuff. Don't wear the eyelash, the eyeliner that makes your face black and all that, you know? Just, you know, get an air conditioner. If you're sweating profusely, it's hard to watch you, you know? Quit wiping that sweat off. You get an air conditioning unit, you know? Cool the place. But man, these people, they're crying all the time. They cry more than me. Well, Jesus wept. And and so it's just bizarre. And so how are you going to bring the gospel when these guys have ruined it for you? I've used the word ashamed. I'm ashamed to be a pastor today because of how it's been ruined. The office I mean, Charles Spurgeon said, if God calls you to be a pastor, don't lower yourself to be called a king. It's a high calling, a very high calling. But there's so many charlatans and false prophets and people that have muddy the waters. It's like it's like, oh, I I I'm guilty by association. Know, it's just it's Oh, it's sickening, man. They make me sick. And so he says, we've waived our rights because we want the gospel to go forward. So again, that's why Calvary Chapels, when I went there, pastor Chuck never asked for money. Can you imagine that? Church of twenty thousand, they do not ask for money. They never let you know any shortfall. That's why Kathy and I did what we did because we could never let people know the shortfall. We don't stand up in front and say, we're gonna lose the building if you guys don't get. We never did that. When we were losing everything, we met on Sunday nights for worship and prayer and we prayed because our father who sees in secret, wore us openly. And we prayed for God to intervene and he chose not to. But under all that pressure, we never panicked and misrepresented the office that he's given us. He doesn't want his people, his pastors begging for money. You misrepresent God as being poor and unable to pay his bills. It's a spiritual work. Where God guides, he provides. We heard that over and over again. Where God guides, he provides. God must have guided and then guided out of it, you know. Like with Job, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I still can't reconcile it in my head. I just know it happened. But, see again, you gotta walk by faith. And and I don't believe we've ever hindered the gospel. We've always been free to share the gospel and you've been free. You can invite anybody except if they come today, but you can invite anybody and they're not gonna hear about money, are they? And you can with the confidence that that that that thing they have there, that problem they have with Christianity and the gospel that, no, you're not gonna hear that at our church. He's he's not gonna he's not gonna beg for money. He's not gonna make you feel like all he wants is your money. It's about Jesus and that's how my pastor was. Always always always about what God's given us. The blessings that God's given us. So better to underwrite the ministry than to beg for money from people who really don't wanna give. They don't wanna give. They gotta be transformed and changed. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Compensation. Number one, your obligation to me as an apostle. Number two, it's my occupation. Number three, the old testament law commands it. Number four, others receive compensation. Number five, those who offer partake of the offering. Speaking of the priests. He says verse 13, do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the temple, things of the temple? And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? So the priest partake of the offering. So many became wealthy because of the surplus. So from the burnt offerings, he could sell the hides. So the priest is there, he's offering the burnt offerings, he's gotta butcher it, he's a butcher, and now he's got the hide to sell. A lot of the tent making is made with hides. Right? From the sin and trespass offerings, the fat was burned and he received all the flesh. He gets all the flesh. What a deal. From the meal offering, the flour, the wine, the oil, he received the greater part. From the peace offering, he received the breast and the right shoulder. I'm dying for a breast of chicken, man. I can't eat chicken because I don't trust where it's come from. I'm dying for a juicy breast of chicken, man. Although they didn't offer those, but I'd take a breast of a lamb or whatever, you know. As long as it's as long as it's good. So this principle of giving predates the law. Now here's another obstacle. People say, they come into the church and they say, hey man, we're not under the law. The tithe is of the law. Wrong. I'll beat you out that door. I'll make you feel so small. You ever try that with me? Wrong. Genesis 14. Abram goes out and he's used of God with 318 men to wipe out Chedolamor and all of the kings that were five against four against the Lot, against Lot's king, which was the king of Sodom and Gomorrah. With 318 men, Abram's there to wipe them all out, and when it's all said and done, who greets him? Melchizedek. Melchizedek, king of righteousness. He's a king and he's a priest. And what's Abram do? He gives tithes of all the spoil to Melchizedek. Predates the law, a principle in the bible from the beginning to the end that God gets the first, that God gets the best. 100% he gives to you and he says, you honor me, you worship me, which is 10%. That's 90% for you to keep. And if you do that in Malachi three, you're testing a place where God says, test me, test me. And watch what I'll do. It's a it's an act of faith. And I watch people whether their overhead increases or whatever their financial structure is, they're brand new married, it's always in the mindset, I can't afford to tithe. You can't afford not to. You you can't afford not to. You wanna grow spiritually? You wanna see God blessed? You These are laws of sowing and reaping. It belongs to the Lord and he says test me. Sixthly, it's ordained of Jesus. Even so has the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. In Matthew 10 verse seven, Jesus sent the 12 out. In Luke 10 verse seven, he sent the 70 out. He sent them out in the same way. He said, he didn't tell them, Peter, you guys go back to fishing and you fish four ten hour days and then spend three days preaching the gospel and you guys underwrite your own ministry. No. Peter went back to fishing when he felt like a failure when he denied the Lord three times. And the Lord restored Peter, do you love me feed my sheep, tend my lambs, feed my sheep. That's your occupation now. I'm gonna make you fishers of men. And you're gonna walk by faith and you're gonna trust me that I'm gonna take care of you. And so, it says in Matthew 10 verse seven, and as as you go, Jesus speaking to the 12, preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out the devils. Freely you have received, freely give. Verse nine, provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, real men don't carry purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves, for the workman is worthy of his meat. Verse 11. And into whatsoever city or town you shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy and there abide till you go thence. And when you come into a house, salute it And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart out of the house or out of that city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily, I send you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that city. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. You can't force people to give or appreciate the tremendous cost of the gospel. This unspeakable gift that God's given. Now again, today, who in their right mind would come to Bremerton to plant a church? It's called the Pastor's Graveyard. It's been known for wiping pastors and and wives and families and ministries out. In the Pacific Northwest, you have no you have no in the Pacific Northwest, no upper echelon ministry here. When Franklin Graham comes to town, he's amazed that so few people show interest. When other ministries come to town, they're amazed. So what happens? They do studies of demographics. Ministries need to be supported. So they do, again, marketing. The church planter groups, a friend of mine, Eric Irwin, down in Dixon, Tennessee, lives in a similar situation. Some guys from Fort Lauderdale, very very wealthy place in Florida, came up to visit. They planted collectively a church in Chattanooga because they had the demographics to support a church. When they came to visit Eric over in Dixon, they told Eric, nope, it won't work here. Won't work here. It's all about the money. It's all about Nashville or hey, let's move our ministry to to Texas. Let's move our ministry, leave California because they're so crazy and go to Texas because there's lots of red state conservative people in Texas that'll support our ministry. But Jesus is saying, you guys just go to the cities and you trust me. Some of them aren't gonna care one bit about you, just wipe the dust off your feet, move on to the next one. And so we walk by faith, not by sight. We don't do these demographics and all this stuff, but interesting Paul and a lot of his his church planting effort was in big cities like like Corinth, like Ephesus, like Rome, but not that he planted church in Rome, was already there. But And then what would happen is from Ephesus, the smaller cities would have church plants that would emanate from the one larger one. So we appreciate in Orange County, we appreciate in Southern California, the mega churches. There was a point during COVID where so many people were given money to pastor Jack Hibbs and Arthur, and pray for Ramona. That's the one I forgot. She her eyes are bothering her. But Art and Ramona went there the other day, and they're just blown away at Christian Disneyland. That's the kind of church I came from, 20,000 people. And, they buy conference centers. They plural. Radio stations, trips to Israel, 60 trips to Israel, they build the baptism in Israel, airplanes, just just everything, but done tastefully in a very very called the Gold Coast, a very affluent area, and explosive growth and started out in the power of the Holy Spirit ending Ichabod, the glorious departed, even though Brian Brodersen, the pastor that inherited the church, son-in-law pastor Chuck, recently sold the Myriad of Hot Springs conference center for $52,000,000. Now, he's left with millions of dollars when he took over that ministry and it's gone. So this is a church now of only like 400 people from 20,000, but going through the money as fast as you can. So you have church planting where it's a work of the Holy Spirit and the Lord provides, and then you have those who are caretakers who wind it down at the end of the age in apostasy and and it's it's very sad to watch, very sad to watch. And then you got others have multi million dollar churches and they're afraid to talk because they might lose it all. Afraid to say anything. Just do the gospel, Just do the gospel. That's why JD Farag was taken off of the CCA because he was so vocal about COVID and nine eleven and what's happened, you know, Maui and every I mean, everybody's forgot about Maui. Right? And so he's he's he's awake, man. He's awake and he's trying to warn people and get people ready and preach the gospel and speak of the rapture and all. But now, he's asked to not be a part of Calvary Chapel Association. And then Brian Brodersen, he's running Calvary Global Network and his global network needs money. So you're burning the assets. You're just spending the assets and which is not a work of the spirit. It's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts. So reliance upon the Holy Spirit's essential. We can be a spirit filled ministry simply by relying upon the Lord, simply by not folding, simply by being truthful and loving and kind and watch God move and work. God can do great things in a small little church. We don't have to impose upon us another church of what another church is is like or hey, you gotta be like that church or whatever. So the hallmark of what we do is simply teach the bible and that seems to be a famine in the land for the word of God. So that's our uniqueness, that's where we fit in And fortunately, we don't need very much money to do what we do. So it's not it's not the upper most. So like Paul, can lay out a six point argument of why you should not muzzle the ox while he treads out the grain, but ultimately comes down to love, to free will. You can't force people to give, to appreciate the tremendous cost of the gospel which was God's only begotten son. So if a person's cognizant and aware for God so loved that he gave, and they have no response to give back to God, because when you give, you're not giving to me and Kathy, you're giving to God. And if they have no desire to give back to God, then that says something about their heart, something about where they're at with the Lord. And so it's always free will. It's not grudgingly nor obsessity. God loves a cheerful giver. That word cheerful means in second Corinthians chapter nine verse seven, it means a hilarious giver. Some of you guys, you you you love to give. You can't wait to get to church and give. Arthur came this morning and he only came to fold the bulletin and to get the communion ready. And his wife's at home and she's she's can't see. And so Arthur comes and he says, I just came to tithe and to fold the bulletins. I said, hey, you're dressed real nice, why don't you stay? No, my wife needs me at home. So he didn't wanna miss out on giving and serving this morning. Ain't that amazing? And I didn't need to call them up and say, you better get here, man. We're gonna go under if you don't give that tie check today. Remember how that what was that guy? Oral Roberts? God's gonna kill me, man, if you guys don't give. I built this big tall statue and he's gonna kill me. He's gonna send a hit man to kill me if you don't give, you know. He's on TV doing that. Really? God's gonna kill you? God's gonna send a hit man? People like, I better give. What? Guilt. You use guilt to motivate people. But it's a love. It's a free will. Freely we receive, freely we give. Love gives with no strings attached. That's so important. No strings attached. Freely we receive, freely we give. We give it to the Lord. God loves a cheerful giver. By faith, Paul waived his right of compensation. The right even as an ox treading out the grain enjoys, so that no Corinthian would have an excuse to not listen, to not receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. Freely we've received, freely we give. And if you're here this morning, you know that we don't manipulate or cause pressure or guilt to get anything out of anybody here. And so, what is your excuse this morning for not receiving God's gift of eternal life through his son, Jesus Christ? What excuse could there be? We've held back. We've waived our rights of compensation. It is finished, paid in full. The price has been paid. Jesus paid it all. He waived his rights for you in going to the cross. He paid for you. He paid a debt you couldn't pay. How will you respond? Keep your money. God doesn't want your money. God wants you. He wants you. He wants far more than your money. He wants your life. He gave you his life, will you give him yours? Now, another side note in Genesis 14. What did the king of Sodom want? We have a type of Christ, Melchizedek there. King of Salem, king of Jerusalem. A Christophany, Jesus appearing as Melchizedek, king of righteousness. The priest of the most high God. He ever lives to make intercession for us. You have a theophany, you have God there meeting with Abram and they partake of communion together. But who's the type of Satan? The king of Sodom and Gomorrah. He was saved only because he had Lot there with him. This world is still spinning because you're here on this planet. Because you as a Christian are here preserving this culture presently. And the king of Sodom only made it out of that battlefield because Abram with his 318 men, they weren't there to save the king of Sodom, they were there to save Lot, a believer. And then what's the king of Sodom say in his pride? You guys can have the stuff. I want the people. The devil wants the people. The devil wants the souls of men to take them to hell. And Jesus has commissioned you and I to preach the glorious gospel because Jesus wants their souls. He doesn't need their money. He's come to seek and to save those whom are lost. That's the message. That's the beauty and the blessing of serving Christ in these last days. Will you keep muzzling the ox while he treads out the grain? Don't muzzle the ox. Let your life be without covetousness. In Hebrews 12 verse five, let your life be without covetousness. Be content with what things you have for the Lord has promised. Are you content? Are you content? Or are you like Mick, you can't find no satisfaction. Right? Are you content? Godliness with contentment is great gain. So let your life be without covetousness. Be content with what things you have, for the Lord has promised, he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do you know why you're rich? Do you know why you're a plutocrat? Plutos, the riches of ours in Christ Jesus? Because Jesus is your portion forever. You might lose your house, you might lose your pension, but the devil, nobody can take away your Jesus. He's your portion forever and that's what makes you rich. Father, thank you. Thank you for your love, Lord. Thank you that you initiate, That you move forward with your plan of redemption. Lord, a lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. You knew before you even created this earth that there'd need to be a plan of redemption, that you would exhibit, that you would communicate your love for your creation, for humanity. You knew that Adam would fall, that Eve would fall. You knew that as Lucifer fell and took one third of the stars, the angels of heaven, you knew there'd be a battle between good and evil. During this church age, Lord says, as it winds down, Lord, you're gonna come as a conquering king. Every knee is gonna bow and every tongue confess that you're Lord. You're gonna subdue the devil, the anti Christ, false prophets, and all the globalists, all the bankers, all the trillionaires, simply with your appearing in your Shekinah glory, the brightness of your coming, and the sword of your mouth. You're gonna subdue them all, the blood's gonna be as high as the horse's bridle at Armageddon. And Lord, you're gonna come for the apple of your eye, you're gonna come for that remnant of Israel. The one third remnant that's been purified, that's been gone through the time of Jacob's trouble, the tribulation period. And Lord, except those days be short and no flesh be saved, for the elect's sake, for Israel's sake, Lord, you intervene, lest man destroy everything that's on the planet as as strategized by the devil. He come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. And Lord, we're trying to preserve, we're trying to be salt and light to preserve some vestige of normalcy, some vestige of that which is good in the culture in which we live. It's increasingly more and more evil and chaotic and crazy out there. And Lord, we thank you that we can meet together and Lord your peace that surpasses all understanding, guards our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And the joy of the Lord is our strength and Lord we we we give back unto you. We lift our hearts in adoration and song and we give unto you all that we are Lord. Here am I Lord, use me. We offer ourselves afresh to you as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto you which is our reasonable act of worship Lord. Use us in these last days. All belongs to you. You purchased us, Lord, out of sin and death and hell. We've been bought with a price. God, wanna glorify you. We wanna let go of everything knowing that you're holding on to us, Lord. That you're our portion forever. So bless now, we pray. Pour out your Holy Spirit. If there's anybody here this morning and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, Christianity's a relationship, not a religion per se. God loves you and he wants you to know him. He wants you to fellowship with him for all eternity. He wants you to know that he held nothing back. That he gave it all to save you at Calvary, the cross of Calvary. That he became that curse. That he gave up. He he he set aside the preeminence of his deity and he took on the form of a man, the son of man. He knew what it was to suffer. He knew what it was to thirst. He knew what it was to hunger. He knew what it was to feel pain. The pain that you felt, the pain that you're feeling, the loneliness that you're feeling. He came for you. That you would be made whole, that you would be saved. He wants to make you right. He wants to bring you in harmony with himself that you might have fellowship with him. Anyone here this morning? You want Christ, you're turning from your sins, you're crying out to God, God be merciful to me a sinner, come into my heart and life. Anyone here, just lift your hand up. Father, thank you for your love. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your kindness, Lord. We love and praise your name, and Lord, we pray now as we partake of communion that you would you would bless.
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.
