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1 Corinthians 9:15,27 -The Soul Winner- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-06-16
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First Corinthians chapter nine verses 15 through 27. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? First Corinthians chapter nine beginning with verse 15. But I've used none of these things neither have I written these things that it should be so done unto me. For it were better for me to die than that any man should make my glory and void. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory for of necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. What is my reward then? Verily that when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge that I abuse not my power in the gospel. For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more. Under the Jews excuse me. I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under the law is under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that are without law, as without law, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak. I am made all things to all men that I might, by some means, save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake that I might be partaker thereof, with you. Know ye not that they which run-in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run not as uncertainly, so fight I not as one that beats the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be cast away. Father, thank you for your holy word. And Lord, we thank you that, Lord, you keep it simple. And it's just so simple, Lord, that we're to love you with all of our heart, all our mind, all our soul, all of our strength, and love our neighbor as our self, Lord. And we admit to you, Lord, as you command us to love, Lord, we we see our inability. And this morning, we've come to be refreshed and strengthened. We've come to be filled overflowing with your love that we might have the capacity to forgive and forget. We might have the capacity to restore and build, not tear down. That we might love truly, that your love would reign in our hearts and minds, that we'd have a burden for the lost. That Lord, we'd see you bring in a great harvest of souls in these last days. It equip and use us, Lord, as soul winners. So bless, we pray. Bless now, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you please be seated? Winning souls was more important to Paul than any form of compensation as we talked about last week. He said, what soldier goes to war at his own expense? You know, what farmer and such? And so he, and Barnabas were willing to work when they were in places like Thessalonica or Corinth or Ephesus and such so that as evangelists, they could bring forth the gospel free of charge, that money wouldn't stand in the way and all. But as he pointed out, you know, Cephas, Peter, and the Lord's brothers and such as they were spreading the gospel. They bring their wives with them, and they receive compensation and such, and so no problem there. So the work was very hard, very dangerous, extremely difficult, but it was all worth it when just one sinner repents. Kathy and I live for that one sinner that repents every now and then. We don't pastor a church where we see, you know, ten, twenty, thirty, seventy people, you know, a service, you know, get saved. And but there's rejoicing in heaven among the angels when just one sinner repents. And every now and then, the Lord saves one, and it tells us it's all worth it. It's all worth it. Everything's worth it. All that you go through, all that you invest in and you plant in another waters, and then the Lord surrounds me with people like you that are soul winners, that share the gospel everywhere you go. You got little cards and tracks and little things you do and sandwiches, and you put little notes in the sandwiches and and, you know, the Romans road that we've taught you, and you you try to share the gospel. You're always telling me about people that you're sharing the gospel with, and we we we all of us, it's there's no greater joy than, when we see the Lord, you know, finally save somebody. So that's what Paul's saying. He's addicted to the ministry. He's addicted. If you want an addiction, he's addicted to serving the Lord, and he'd gladly do it for free. You know? And I asked you guys last week, I said, how many of you would continue to work at Bangor, the shipyard, these kind of places, you know, if you didn't get a paycheck anymore? If somehow they furloughed you and and said, hey. We can't pay you for a couple weeks, two, three weeks, couple months, whatever. And, somebody laughed, and, you know, it seems preposterous and all. But if you know it as your calling, God's called you there, then, you're ready because you serve the Lord. You don't serve man. And you certainly don't wanna back off of, serving the Lord simply because of, you know, somewhat, that of adversity or whatever. Obviously, know in a practical way, gotta find another job to feed your family and such, but much of what we do is motivated, you know, by money. It's just simply about money. But, if you look at your ministry there at Banger, Keyport, Walmart, the hospital, as it's a ministry, a calling that God's placed you there to strategically spread the gospel, to spread his word in every facet of society, then it it it reaches a whole different upper echelon of of purpose in your heart and mind that you're not there just to make a buck, although you need a buck. You're also there, as a missionary. You're there as a soul winner. You're there to be there to weep with people that weep, rejoice with those that rejoice, share the gospel, water the gospel, live the Christian life, and hope and pray. You pray over them, and you seem to be the person that at times they hate, and then at other times they come to and confide in, and, wanna talk to you because their life has, you know, reached the place of crisis. So Psalm one twenty six five says, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Jesus wept. He wept over the city. Our hearts should be breaking that so many people are perishing, but as the Psalmist says here, you know, you go forth weeping bearing precious seed, and you know that, those tears are watering. They're watering the hearts of the people as the seed of God's word germinates and grows, and one man sows another waters, and God brings the increase, and there's great rejoicing, although it may be very, very difficult for a season. Some of you have prodigal children who have walked away from the Lord for many, many, many years, and some of you have prodigal husbands, prodigal fathers, prodigal mothers that are away from the Lord, and and you you don't give up. You continue to intercede. You continue to pray, and the Lord brings other people in addition to your input, in addition to your effort to live the Christian life and to sow the seed of the gospel in their hearts and minds, and your objective is that their soul would be one. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God God It breaks God's heart to see people perishing. Breaks his heart. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn from his wicked way. Turn ye, turn ye, for why would you die, o house of Israel? Broke his heart to watch Israel in the rebellion turn their heart, away from the Lord. Precious are these folks. Precious are their lives and their souls. He doesn't want their souls to, you know, be in hell for all eternity. God sends nobody to hell. People choose to go to hell by rejecting Jesus Christ, and we bring forth Jesus as the one that proved his love for them by going to the cross of Calvary and being crucified, buried, raised himself from the dead. How could you not love a God like this who's willing to die in your place and take all your sins, all of your wickedness upon himself. He that knew no sin, who didn't do anything wrong. Pontius Pilate said, I find no fault in him. He's an innocent man, and yet the sins of the whole world, your sins and my sins were placed upon him. And his father poured out his wrath upon his only begotten son as a substitute so that he'd punish, so that he'd be just and holy in punishing sin. Jesus died in your place. He took the punishment that you and I deserve so that we'd have eternal life. That's all it is. God wants you to be saved. And you and I have the privilege and the blessing of seeking to win souls to Christ. The devil wants to destroy them. He's come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. He's come to make them losers, that they lose out on eternal life. And not just a quantity, not just living forever, but a quality of life. I've come that you might have life, and that more abundantly, Jesus said, the life of the spirit, the life of the holy spirit. Proverbs eleven thirty says, the fruit of righteousness is as a tree of life, and he that wins souls is wise. Are you a soul winner? Do you want to be a soul winner? The bible says you're wise. You're wise to invest in the lives of people, to invest the word of God, to invest the gospel, to invest prayer, and inter and interceding, and and feeding the homeless and caring for the orphans and the widows and and being a representative of who Jesus is. We're ambassadors of Christ, and our citizenship is heaven. The Lord says, you're wise. You're wise to be a soul winner because that's eternal, And there's eternal rewards for the soul winner. You know? And, much of what we do in this world today, we see where Tom Brady is, you know, being hailed as the greatest, you know, quarterback ever and making it into the Patriot Hall of Fame, and he worked hard and he has all that and all that. Are his children gonna make it into heaven? I don't know. Jerry West just died this week. Is he, his wife, and his children gonna make it into heaven? Do they know Jesus? If they don't know Jesus, it's all for naught. As a husband, as a father, it was all for nothing. 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? So if I see a Tim Tebow playing sports and using this platform or a Kurt Warner using that platform to share the glorious gospel, they're soul winners. They see a higher purpose, and they know to invest in their children. They know to make sure that their children don't fall through the cracks. You can be out there as an evangelist saving the whole world, but your own son or daughter could go to hell. We don't want that to happen. At the end of our life, we wanna know that we wanna know that we know that we know that those that were entrusted to us, especially those within our family, that we did everything we could to win their souls. Everything we could that were innocent of their blood. We did everything we could over a course of a lifetime to see their name be written in the lamb's book of life. The disciples came back from a mission trip, and they were rejoicing that demons were subject unto them. And Jesus said, don't rejoice that the demons are subject unto you, but rejoice in that your names are written in the lamb's book of life. Is your name in the lamb's book of life? Is your name there? Is Jesus, your Jesus, a lamb slain before the foundation of the earth? God knew you before the foundation of the earth. In his foreknowledge of you, he predestined you. He called you. He justified you. He's already glorified you. You belong to him. He's never gonna let you go because your soul is why he sent his son. It's your soul that he wants. As we talked about last week in Genesis 14 when the king of Sodom and Gomorrah came, he wanted the people. He wanted the souls of the people. The devil wants the souls of the people too. The devil wants to take these souls. The devil wants to break the heart of God and take as many souls as he can to hell. And God has entrusted, not to the angels, not yet. There's gonna be an angel in the tribulation period flying over the the earth proclaiming the glorious gospel. But presently, in this dispensation of the church age, God has entrusted the winning of souls to Christians, to you and I, to believers. Through word-of-mouth, not through artificial intelligence, but which I hear they're real liars, those guys. Demon possessed. But, but to you and I. I mean, he could use angels. He could use a donkey, Balaam's donkey. He doesn't need us, but he chooses to use us and we have the privilege and the blessing of being a part of his desire to save souls. And he's given us the message and the message hasn't changed, hasn't changed for two thousand years. It's the message of the cross. And there's no watering it down. There's no making it easier. There's no, making it user friendly. It's the glorious gospel. Jesus Christ and him crucified for their mission of sins. And whosoever will, let him come. Let him come just as he is. Come come as you are. And he'll change you. He'll transform you. He'll bring you to the place of conversion as you turn from your sins and you cry out to God, God be merciful to me a sinner. And the light will go on, you'll no longer be body and soul, you'll be body, soul, and spirit. You'll be born again. You're not gonna be walking through life seeking satisfaction, trying to fill the void and the emptiness that God designed and created within you. He created that void, that emptiness. He made that void and that emptiness in you so that you would be incomplete apart from him, but complete in him when you come to know him. It's like, now I know why I'm here. Now I know why he put me here, why he made me. I was made for his pleasure. I was made that I might know him, that I might enjoy him and he might enjoy me for all eternity. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his wickedness. God's long suffering, willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance. The call goes out to whosoever will, let him come. So the soul winner runs the race to win. Notice first of all, the motive. Why are you running this race? But I've used none of these things neither have I written these things that it should be so done unto me. For it were better for me to die than it any man should make my glory and void. So money is not Paul's motivation. What's his motivation? The winning of souls. Why do you do what you do to win souls? Why do you support, you know, the ministry or those that go? Some go, some stay. It's to win souls. That's that's why we do what we do. We wanna see people saved. Paul would gladly work. He would spend and be spent to be able to rejoice in watching God win souls through him. If money is a problem, no, I'll tent make. I'll get this church planted because people are watching in the beginning stages that you're trying to gain trust with them, that you're not like all the TV preachers just after their money. And so you're willing to spend and be spent to bring forth the gospel. Freely we've received, freely we give. And then later as the church, matures and begins to grow, Paul puts a pastor there named Timothy in Ephesus, and Timothy is then able to be compensated and and stay there through the long haul. Paul, the longest he stayed was three years in the city of Ephesus. So now your pastor, he's leaving you. You need a pastor. You want a church. You want a healthy church where the word of God is taught and such. So from an evangelistic standpoint, Paul's Paul's saying, hey, I I don't want money to be, you know, in the way. I don't want money to be a problem. And he says to the church of Thessalonica chapter two verse nine of first Thessalonians, Laboring night and day because we would not be chargeable unto any of you. We preached unto you the gospel of God. So night and day, he and Barnabas, you know, they're working, and their money isn't an issue. They're working in the daytime, the nighttime when the people get off work. They're having bible studies at night, and they're sharing the glorious gospel. In acts chapter 20 verse 33, Paul's meeting with the elders of Ephesus after three years of ministry there. He's meeting with them on the Island Of Melita, and he says, I've coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. He says, yay yourselves know that these hands have ministered under my necessities and to them that were with me. He said he was innocent of the blood of each and every person because he ceased not for the space of three years to teach the full counsel of God. We hear people say, hey, don't talk politics. Don't talk about, you know, King Herod having his brother Philip's wife, John the Baptist. You don't wanna lose your head. Don't go in that direction. Just just isolate it down. Bring it down to just John three sixteen. You know? Can you do that much? Paul says, no. We're gonna give him the full counsel of God from Genesis to Revelation, the pace of three years. I'm gonna teach him prophecy. The city of Thessalonica, you know, there's a three week effort there to plant plant that church, and he brings forth some very powerful prophecies there to a brand new baby church. You hear people say today, well, we're baby Christians. We can't we can't, study prophecy. We can't read the book of Revelation. Well, guy, why did God put it there then if you can't read the book of Revelation? God tells you there's a blessing just for reading it. There's a blessing just for reading it. So why wouldn't your pastor teach 27% of the bible which is prophecy? Paul did to brand new babes in Christ. He taught them the doctrine of the pre trib rapture. He taught them, concerning in second Thessalonians chapter two, concerning the tribulation period with the antichrist that Jesus spoke of, Daniel spoke of, the abomination of desolation. Pretty heavy, heady type teaching, but yet with the help of the holy spirit, we can we can rightly divide the word of truth. Verse 16, for though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Not only a privilege, but a duty, an obsession that of serving the Lord. A necessity. He says, not of constraint or compulsion. It's not something I have to do. If you're ever wanting to be in the ministry or in the ministry or wherever it is you're at, and you're like, hey, it's my job. I have to do it. You know? And there's no joy in it. Paul's saying, you know, I've got to do this. There's a duty. There's obsession, but really, the love of Christ constrains me. There's a great love in my heart, a passion in my heart to win these souls to Christ. And so if you lose the emotion, if it gets you're if you will, that's an indicator to spend some time at the Lord's feet that he'd restore you with that with that sense of passion, that compassion, that love that needs to be there. People don't know how much you know till they know how much you care. Why are you doing this? Because we love it. We love serving the Lord. We love preaching the gospel. We we love teaching God's word. We love see we love seeing people's lives transformed and changed. We love seeing people grow up into things of the spirit. We love to pass on to people that which our pastor invested in us, and we share it. We It's not our own. We pass it on. We pass on what we learn, and we try to get the word of God out there to people who are lost. And we use our testimony too. I was once blind, and now I see. I was once a drug addict, and now I'm I'm I'm sober. I was once a demoniac filled with demons. Now, I'm cleaned, and I'm clothed, and I'm seated, and I'm in my right mind. I lost my mind when I was in the world, and the Lord's given me not the spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. Love motivated Paul. He could not resist God's love. No kicking against the goads anymore. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who art thou? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. Can you continue to kick against the goads? Saul of Tarsus was haunted by the face of Stephen when they stoned Stephen. Haunted by it. Tormented by it because his face was shining bright with great joy on his face. Shining like that of an angel. And he's looking up into heaven, Stephen is. As they're laying the coats at the feet of one Saul of Tarsus. He was insane in going after the Christians. He said he wasted the church. He was the chiefest of sinners. He was compelling people to blaspheme. Blaspheme, to recant their profession of faith in Jesus. And yet, the Lord Jesus chose him, a chosen vessel unto me, and show him what great things he must suffer for my name's sake. Yeah. That was Paul's calling. A calling of suffering, but also a calling of being before kings and rulers and all different types of people, all different different echelon. He's a he's a well groomed, a well educated Jew, a Pharisee of Pharisees, but also a great command of the of the Greek language, great command of the Hebrew language, a great intellect, could argue, could debate, could reason with anybody, and the Lord says he's a chosen vessel unto me. And he he he would turn the world upside down with his passion to get the gospel out, and to plant the church, and to go forth with the glorious good news of Jesus Christ. He says, woe unto me. If I preach not the gospel, there's no escape. He owns me. One of the best ways to find out if you're doing what you're supposed to do is just try quitting. I'd go insane. I love what I'm doing. And if I if I were to try and quit and alright. It's time to retire, I I would I'd go insane. Now, nothing against people that wanna retire, but but I wanna go like pastor Chuck did. I wanna go preach on a Sunday at 86 years old and go home to be with Jesus on Tuesday, you know, with oxygen in my nose, you know, whatever it takes. It's a passion. It's not a job. It's it's a calling. It's a privilege. It's so exciting. The day that you guys kick me out and say I'm too old is the day I would I would I would say, hey, I'm not old. I don't identify as an old person. I don't have an AARP card. I don't take a senior discount. Don't start with me on that, you know? I'm fighting. I'm not gonna let as Clint Eastwood said, I'm not gonna let the old guy in. I'm not gonna let him in. These guys really bum me out when they try to do that to me. Oh, you look like so and so. No. I don't. So they they say, well, we're gonna we're gonna do this trip with the young bucks. Yeah. You're too old. You're gonna sit this one out. So you know what I did with them? I said, how much you bench press? And then I posted a bench press, me bench pressing 305 pounds. Shut them up. I got the gray hair. I can't I can't I'm not gonna I'm not gonna dye it. At least I have some hair. But the point is, what do you got? What do you got? Show me. It it's all about show me. It's not about talk, you know? So it, come to the gym. I'll show you who the young buck is. Jeremiah 20 verse nine. I will not make mention of him nor speak anymore in his name, But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up within my bones, and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay. So Jeremiah got discouraged. Discouragement is a part of ministry. Discouragement is a part of the job that you have. Discouragement is a part of being a father, being a mother, having a family. Great, great discouragement. We idealize. We we think that we know everything before we're married, and then we get married, and we still think that, you know, things should fall into this place, and and then life happens, and curveballs, and everything just goes sideways. And you might have one compliant kid, and everything is going just fine. You're nurturing and raising the nurturing admonition of the Lord, and you got another one that's demon possessed. And you can't get the demon out of them. And you're praying. You're doing everything you can. You just I mean, it humbles you. It radically humbles you. And you might have to endure years, years of watching your prodigal or prodigals being destroyed in the public arena, and it breaks your heart, wipes you out. You were gonna write a book about parenting, but now you can't write that book because you don't have a clue. You don't have a clue how to parent a child like that. Some of them are just so compliant, they just follow along, and then they reach college, and they quit. They go the opposite direction. It was a lie. They were lying to you the whole time, And it breaks your heart. And you gotta get them into heaven, but you don't know how. And Jeremiah went through a rough patch. His own family was wanting to kill him. And not only that, but the false prophets didn't like what he was saying. So they ostracized him, and they threw him in a pit. And he's up to his armpits in the pit in a miry miry situation, stinky rats and such. And he was so angry at God. So angry at God because he knows he's telling the truth. He knows what he's saying is the is the unadulterated word of God. Why are these false prophets getting away with this for forty years? And I'm the weeping prophet. Not one person's getting saved. You know what, God? I quit. I told you. When you came to me in the beginning, you said I formed before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you, and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations. I told you to get somebody else. You got the wrong guy, but you told me, oh, you will speak. He says, will not mention of him nor speak anymore in his name, in Jeremiah 20 verse nine. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. He was incomplete without the sharing of God's message, God's word. Each and every day, each and every week as the Lord would fill him up, he had to have an outlet. He had to go tell somebody. He had to share what God was sharing with him. He couldn't just hold on to it and be like the Dead Sea. There had to be a flow in and a flow out. Be being filled with the Holy Spirit. He says, couldn't I couldn't refrain. I couldn't hold back. I had to go and proclaim what God was putting in my heart, and that's all God wants you to do. He wants you to first receive and then give. Freely we receive, freely we give. We don't make up our own message. We allow the holy spirit to use us with our own personality. You don't have to be Billy Graham or pastor Chuck or anybody else. God help you if you're trying to be me. There's only one of me. Verse 17, for if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. You're obligated. There's a stewardship. There's a duty. There's a calling. Try rebelling. Try telling God, no, I'm not gonna do this. God's preparing a whale for you. You're gonna have a whale of a time, Jonah. You really wanna go that route? You got free will? You're exercising your free will? You wanna go down on the ground and hold your breath and kick your feet and have a temper tantrum? Wanna pull all your clothes off and and have a temper tantrum in public till your mommy gives in to you? God says, no. No. No. I got a got a whale of a time for you. And you're gonna feel like you're in hell resisting my will. And I'm gonna bring you to the place where you're willing. There's your free will in the sovereignty of God. For you and I, to walk away from Jesus would mean choosing insanity. We could theoretically walk away, go back into the world, but we would go insane, wouldn't we? We would absolutely go insane because we are really saved. If you're not really saved, then it's demonstrated in that your nature hasn't been changed. You're like the pig that, every election season, they put lip stick on and call her Hillary, and as soon as as soon as she gets away from the public view, she goes over to the pigpen and starts wallowing in the mess because her nature hasn't changed. Even though she may be holding a bible up somewhere, doesn't or meeting with the ladies, you know, Methodist group, her nature has not changed. She's body and soul. She's not body, soul, and spirit. And so she wallows, and she runs back to the filth. But you and I as Christians, we try to go back in the world, and we're like strangers. We're like aliens. It isn't like it was before. I went to my high school reunion last, summer, and, they were on the beach there, and and I saw a couple Christian friends of mine and, one other friend of mine that's not a Christian yet, but I spent some time with him. And, but it was so strange. It was like, you guys haven't grown up. You're still listening to the same music at the same volume level. And you're you're you're just here getting drunk and you're gonna try and sleep with each other. What what's up with this? You know? It's just mind boggling to me that that's a reunion. I mean, a reunion of what? You know? God. But anyway, it's just sad. I didn't fit in. I knew I didn't fit in. I couldn't wait to get out of there. I'd rather be at some church. Don't even know who the people are, but, you know, there's a oneness. There's a fellowship when we're in Christ. There's a stewardship, a duty. You go to the shipyard, to Keyport, to Bangor, you're working, you're getting up at 03:30 in the morning, you know, you may not always feel like doing it. It isn't always a loving exercise that early in the morning, but there's an obligation. There's a duty. Why is that? Because you're a dad. Because you're a father. You're setting the example. You're providing a home. Because you're a mother, you're providing a home. Your kids need you. Your community needs you to be responsible, be productive. And the Lord doesn't necessarily need you, but you need the Lord. You need the Lord. You need to be doing what he's called you to do. And it's because of love that you're willing to lay your life down for your family, for your kids. It's because you love them, and they may not understand it. They may rebel against you, but there's a day coming future where they begin to evaluate all the lies and all the pretenders and all the propaganda and all the stuff, and you're the Steady Freddie in their life. You're the one person that was honest with them. You're the one person that fulfilled your word, that did what you're preaching. You lived it. You lived the truth. Very few people like that in our lives. Very, very few. What is my reward then? Verily, that when I preach the gospel, verse 18, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge that I abuse not my power in the gospel. So preaching for free to win souls. Good deal. One of the things that's pastor Chuck spoke against was when Calvary Chapel began to venture out to do crusade evangelism. The first few were underwritten by Calvary Costa Mesa, and Greg Laurie was the preacher. And they would rent to Angel Stadium, and pastor Chuck emphasized, we do not wanna receive an offering. God's provided the money to pay for this. We want the unbelievers, the believers to bring unbelievers, and for them to hear the gospel without any attention being given to money. And it worked great for a couple years, and God provided. And then as Greg became, hey, I like this being Greg the evangelist. He instead took the Billy Graham model. He said no to what pastor Chuck was trying to get through to him. And so they became more professional like Billy Graham and and such, and he's he's a big evangelist today and such, and I met I imagine it takes an enormous amount of money to do what they do, but I like pastor Chuck's faith. I like his and and then he asked the question, why would you do that when God's been providing? And so people have these ideas of expansion and how much it's gonna cost, and and freely we receive, freely we wanna give, and especially when it's evangelistic, when the emphasis is upon reaching the lost. We don't want money to be a stumbling block for people. The soul winner, he runs the race to win. Number one, the motive. Secondly, the method. What's your methodology? Verse 19. For though I'd be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more. So I'm free, but I'm choosing to serve. No man takes my life from me. I willingly lay it down, Pilate, and everybody else. Don't you know that I have power to crucify you? You have no power except that which has been given you from above. I have the power to lay my life down and to take it again. He willingly laid his life down for you and for me. His choice. So much so, you and I as we serve the Lord, we might reach a place in a rough patch where we're bankrupted, we go into debt. And as an indentured servant, we've gotta work that debt off with our master. And our master, he could be cruel, he could be evil, but in the Mosaic law, he can only hold on to us for seven years. The seventh year is the year of jubilee. And in that year of jubilee, we're free. We're free from that debt. That debt's gotta be paid. It's gone. You you gave your seven years. But you have a choice therein. If you choose to serve, if you choose to stay with that master, then he would take you before the priest and they'd take your ear and they'd make a pirate out of you. They'd put a earring in there. And everybody in the whole community would know that you are a bond servant. That you're a servant that chose to serve and continue in that servitude, and that's you and I. We're bond slaves to Jesus. Jesus is so loving, so kind, and he bought us with a price. He bought us out of sin and slavery and death, and we choose to put our ear to the post for the priest to put that earring in to advertise to everybody that we serve a glorious master, a wonderful master, and what a privilege it is to serve him. In Mark ten forty four, Jesus says, whosoever you will be the chiefest shall be the servant of all. For even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. The disciples were always fighting over who was gonna be the greatest. One of the one of the most difficult times in a church is when a church starts to grow and people get in power struggles of who's going to rule. Men like to come along and build, and the women like to come along and nest for the Sunday school, but then what happens is there's a power struggle of who's going to rule it. And that's a very difficult season, if you will. A very difficult time. And so the disciples, when they came on in, to the house and gonna partake of communion and all, In John 13, it's the duty of the lowliest slave to wash the feet of those coming off the the dusty dirty roads as they take their sandals off. They take a basin of water and a and a towel and wash their feet, wash their toes on. Because they're gonna sit down on the ground on a nice oriental rug, and they're gonna partake of food. They're gonna have food together, so it's very intimate. It's very personal. And so you don't want some guy with, you know, cow pucking between his toes, you know, while you're there. You know? You wanna get rid of it all. And, is that a word? So and, anyway, you get the drift. And and so the disciples, it was beneath them to do that. They were getting intoxicated with their importance following, you know, being with Jesus for three and a half years. And, they're fighting over who's gonna be on the left hand and the right hand when he comes into his kingdom. And the mother of James and John even went so far, Salome, to come to Jesus and say, hey, when you get in your kingdom, you know, put James on one side and John on the other, you know. A good Jewish mother would do that, you know, try and find a place for her boys. And Jesus said, you know, are you able to drink the cup that I'm gonna drink? And they're clueless. They're clueless. Oh, We can drink it. They had no comprehension of the suffering that Jesus would go through, that of the cross. The greatest among you be the servant of all. And you know the story, Jesus put his outer garment up, put his belt around it, and he he knelt down and began to wash his disciples' feet. The greatest among you, Jesus said, be the servant of all. Verse 20, and under the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the law, as under the law that I might gain them that are under the law. So what's this mean? When you're around Jews, you don't eat a honey baked ham at Easter. You don't do that. You stay away from pork. So you take knowledge of them, like, alright, they're dietary restrictions and such. If I drink this brew, if I eat this or whatever, it might stumble them, it's going to hinder me from sharing the gospel. The objective is to win the soul. So I can eat something else, you know, unless it's Father's Day, then of course, I'm gonna eat what I want. But anyway, verse 21, to them that are without laws, without law, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ that I might gain them that are without law. So because I love these Gentiles, when I'm around them, I'm gonna eat some bacon. I'm gonna have some Sweeney's bacon or oak table bacon, and I'm I'm gonna stack it and and eat all the bacon I want. I'm gonna blend in with them. They're gonna see that me as a Jew, that they're not under the Mosaic Law anymore, and that it's about Christ, that Christ fulfilled the law. I'm gonna gain access with the gospel, with the liberty that I exhibit. Verse 22, to the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak. I made all things to all men that I might by all means save some. So, might refrain from eating meat, he'd become a vegan. He might even become a soy boy with skinny jeans on so he could win these weak minded, emaciated, hipsters, whatever you wanna call them. I don't know why so many of the pastors wanna parade themselves like that to pull their jeans up and this much hanging down. It's almost like Peter Pan, you know, prancing around. I mean, you know, get some muscle on you. Don't don't be don't be miss be masculine. Don't be all like feminine, effeminate, and soy boy. If God's given you that kind of body, then be a marathon runner, you know. We all got different kinds of bodies, but you don't have to parade your weakness in front of everybody. A feminine. First, I mean, I'm at the gym. There's some girls so strong. You can't believe how strong the girls are today. I'm sitting there, and I'm gonna try and do some dead lifts, and they got this box area. And a girl walks up next to me and says, is it okay if I if I lift right here next to you? And I says, not if you're stronger than me. You gotta go over there. You're gonna bust my ego, man. There's a kid there the other day that was lifting, and he lift to we call it lifting to failure, and so the bar is sitting on his chest, and he can't get it off. And I've had that happen to me so many times. And so he he's like, So I go over there and, you know, you lift it off of him. And I say, dude, if you're gonna do that, always do it around a pretty girl because they'll come over. If you wanna meet these girls, do it around the pretty girls, you know. Not around beastly guys like me, you know. First Corinthians eight thirteen, Paul says, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. So in love, he removed all stumbling blocks. Now when we, and many times an evangelist, become all things in all men that I might save some, it doesn't mean you're going to the bar and get drunk to save souls. You're not gonna cross those lines, and that's what a lot of the idiots did over the last few years, in their so called evangelism in the pubs. And I'm gonna be like Spurgeon and smoke the cigar, and I'm gonna be like Luther and drink the beer, and I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna drink the rum, and we're gonna go save everybody in the bars. No, you're not. They see right through you. You can't even handle your alcohol. Get out of there. You know? They see right through you. So don't don't compromise. Don't ever compromise your integrity. People don't respect you when you do that. They don't want you to come down to their level. They're looking for someone that they can come up to their level. They wanna be elevated. They wanna be edified. They wanna be lifted out of the power of this world that's seeking to destroy them. They're looking for someone greater to save them. And this I do for the gospel's sake that I might be partaker thereof with you. So partnering with others to win souls is the objective. He's running to win souls. In Isaiah 52 verse seven says, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publishes salvation. He that winneth souls is wise. What a blessing it is to be sent by God with the glorious gospel, especially in these last days where people are losing hope. And we've got the glorious good news of the return of Jesus Christ at the end of the age here. The glorious blessed hope and glorious appeared of our great God and savior. What a great message we have. And yet, so many people are trying to figure out a way to get back to normal and what politician will get me there. And I'll By the way, I don't believe in a pre trib rapture. We're We better get ready for the tribulation. You you you degrade God. You take away from God's glory. God's not gonna put his bride through the tribulation period. You're not subject unto his wrath. So don't cower in fear of of proclaiming the soon return of Jesus. He says, when you see these things begin to come to pass, then look up for your redemption draweth nigh. You can see the one world economic system coming. The dollar's going down. On the twelfth, last Sunday, Saudi Arabia pulled away from America in regard to the dollar. They're now going to sell oil and other currencies, Chinese currencies, the yuan and such. That's that has I mean, that's what's held up the dollar is the oil. It's called the petro dollar. We're watching it. We're watching the central bank digital currency emerge. We're watching the digital economic system that Revelation thirteen sixteen through 18 talks about everybody receiving a mark on the right hand of their forehead. It's irrefutable. Even worldly people can see it. So you say to him, hey, the bible projected this. It means that Jesus is coming. He said when you see these things begin to come to pass, what things? Well, one world government. The world's gonna merge with 10 toes, 10 crowns, 10 kings, 10 regions with a technocrat possibly over each one. A global empire. No America anymore. Oh. We love America, but we can't allow it to be an idol, can we? The age is closing, the time is short, and we have the glorious good news of our coming savior. And prophecy is a great way to win souls. People can see, Peter said we have the more sure word of prophecy. We were eyewitnesses of Jesus. We handled him. We touched him. We saw him on the Mount Of Transfiguration being glorified. But we have the more sure word of 27% of the bible of prophecy being fulfilled. Like a woman's birth pangs increasing in frequency and intensity presently. Things are happening quick and you need not be silent about prophecy, prophetic fulfillment. This is a time to be on your game. This is a time to be a student of biblical prophecy. To be educating people, letting them know. That's what intrigued me when I first came to Christ was prophecy. It's what got me going. A more sure word, a more sure word of prophecy. God who stands outside of time, who's eternal, he's letting us know what's gonna happen before it happens. Nobody else can do that. Even the devil doesn't know the future. The only way the devil knows what's gonna happen in the future is by reading his bible. So if the devil's gonna read the bible, how much more we read the bible, study the bible to be aware of the times we're living in? People wanna know. They're going to place their hope in false hopes. They're gonna place their hopes on lies, but once those lies are exposed, they're gonna crash. And when they crash, they're gonna lose hope because their worldly leaders failed them. And that's where you and I come in and say Jesus never fails. This all has to fail. It all has to crumble. It all has to come down because the Lord Jesus is returning to set up his kingdom. It's not doom and gloom. It's not negativity. It's glorious good news of our great God and savior. Jesus said when, when you see the pray always that you'd be kind of worthy to escape these things. What things in Luke? The tribulation period. It's emerging. You could see the tribulation period. You could see the beast system emerging. They're putting it in place. I watched the video this week where the five heifers, red heifers from Texas, as they're in Israel, they still only have red hairs. They haven't been able to find one little white one, which would disqualify them and one red heifer, the ashes thereof can serve in the temple for a thousand years. So they just need one. They just need the ashes to and what's that mean? To re inaugurate the temple, the beast temple, the temple that's gonna be built in the tribulation period. They're getting ready. To purify the priests and all, they need the ashes of the red heifer. They're working on this right now. Crazy, isn't it? All these little pieces coming together, big pieces, little pieces. The soul winner, he runs the race to win. The motive, the methodology, and the mastery. Verse 24, know ye not that they which run-in a race run all but one receives the prize, so run that you may obtain. So run to win, to obtain the prize. Paul's using an athletic metaphor. Corinth had what's called the Ithmian games. And in the Ithmian games, they let Caitlin Clark play basketball. She's so good. They had athletes. They had wrestlers. They had boxers. They had runners. And so he's using the imagery, and he's looking at them the way that I look at the athletes at the gym that I go to, and I'm fascinated with their ability to lose fat. Anybody had a hard time losing fat, yo yo diets over your lifetime? Up and down, up and down, billions of dollar industry. Well, these guys that I'm watching, guys and girls, are really good at it. They're extremely disciplined with what goes in here. They call it a calorie deficit. You just have to burn more calories than you take in, and you gotta be tenacious at it. You gotta be disciplined about it. You gotta do it over a a period of time. And you can have a cheat day, but you can't have a cheat week or you lose all that progress. And you've gotta really watch your macros, and you gotta really watch what you're eating and and, careful of processed food and junk foods and eating out, and they're very, very, very disciplined. I'd like to just take a pill and have it all go away. Even thinking about liposuction, you know, you know. That'd be nice. Soul winning requires the mastery of a world class athlete. It's not all talent. It's not all steroids. Steroids greatly helps these guys bulk. Steroids greatly helps older guys with low t to get lean, but I'm not going there. I'd rather be soft and chubby for Kathy. For the mastery of your body, your flesh, and your mind, it's a mind game. It's getting up before everybody else and going out for a run. It's going to the gym after work when you're dog tired, you've been up since three. These guys have goals. They wanna achieve these goals. Many of them are in the military. They're in the peak years, the prime years of their life. They wanna stay, you know, strong as many of you did. Notice I said did. God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. So much of winning or losing is in the mind. When COVID hit, many people lost because fear gripped them. They also had the inability to discern between good and evil, right and wrong. They couldn't look rationally at what was happening. They simply believed the lies that were espoused on the media, through the media. They cowered in fear. They panicked, and they gave in. They lost. They lost the victory. We have to be very careful if if there's one thing that I look at when we look at the metaphor of fighting. We're all fighters. We're all earnestly contending for the faith. One guy said, I was once a contender. You know, you're contending for the faith. Right? It's a fight. It's a battle. This isn't easy. It's hard. And the battle we're in is a battle for truth. That's all we need to be aware of. Is their lies. The devil's the father of lies and a murderer, and the way the devil gets people to move in the direction he's want is through propaganda, through lies. And we in the church are not to compromise with the lies. We are to be fighters of truth. We fight with the truth. We fight with the word of God, but we're also engaged in the culture understanding that cows don't have flatulence. It's a lie. Cows are good to eat. It's a lie to say it's burning down the planet, ruining the planet, so you don't comply. You raise cows. You raise chickens. You eat eggs. You eat protein, good protein. You wanna stay strong. You will not tolerate a compromising church that doesn't teach God's word. You're not gonna live in denial acting like the reality out there isn't happening. You're not gonna go look for a place to escape. Why? Because you wanna win. You want genuine converts. You want people really to get saved. You don't wanna fill the pews with unbelievers that you pacified with lies, trying to appease them that their gay lifestyle's okay, that they're transgender and their pronouns and this that and the other's okay. No. You wanna let the guy and the gal that are sleeping together know that fornicators won't enter the kingdom of God. You wanna watch their heads go down as they're convicted. I got a good job, this view here. And I don't cherry pick. I I just go through the bible. And as I'm going through the bible, all these topics come up, and we go through these topics, and every single one of us is hit. Every single one of us, the holy spirit speaks to us and says, you know, you're looking into the mirror of my word, and it's time for you to adjust. It's time for you to admit. It's time for you to confess your sin. And I'm faithful and just to forgive your sin and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. But living in denial isn't gonna work. You're gonna you're gonna waste time. You're gonna be in an arrested state of development. You're not gonna be ready for the bigger fight that's coming. You gotta be in training. In the minutest of details, you've gotta be you've gotta be disciplined. You've gotta be the guy that reads the word in the morning, in the afternoon, at lunch, at work, and at night. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. That needs to be you. And he'll be like a tree that's planted by the water. Its leaf shall not wither, a fruit will come forth in its season. Leaf shall not wither whatsoever it doeth shall prosper. God's gonna cause your life to be fruitful because you've sown his word into your home, fathers, mothers. You've been a man, a woman of God's word. You're equipped. You're ready to give an answer of the hope that lies within you with meekness and fear. You're ready in season and out of season because you're training every day in God's word. You're in the word. You're not a Sunday morning only Christian. You don't open the bible just on Sundays. You guys still bring bibles to this church. Right? Everybody brings a bible to this church. How many churches you don't even need a bible anymore? All you gotta do is listen to the latest motivational speaker, the latest theme, the latest psychological bent, you know. And that's what's being promoted within the churches today. Motivational speaking, selling a lifestyle that can't be sustained because it's a false lifestyle. Your best life now, you can't sustain that. The truth is the opposite. This is gonna be the worst your life's ever gonna be. The best is yet to come. You remember the woman that went to all the potlucks and she prescribed and she said, when when you bury me in the coffin, make sure you put a fork in my hand. Why a fork? Because all the Christian potlucks I ever went to, we'd eat the food and then they'd say, hold your fork. The best is yet to come. Jeremiah was defeated in his mind in chapter 12. His family was plotting to kill him, and I love that the holy spirit shows me the weaknesses of Abraham, of Moses, of Jeremiah, of David. Doesn't edit them out. And I I like when I read ahead and I see that they won because of their faith. By faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. But the holy spirit added out their failures, their failures, their failures. Tell the pharaoh that you're my sister. Don't read that in Hebrews 11. The man of faith, Abraham, had lapses of faith. Jeremiah has a lapse of faith and he's he's saying to God, why is it, you know, it's like Psalm 73 he's saying here in in, Jeremiah 12. You know, why are these wicked prospering? Why is Bill Gates and Soros getting away with it? Why don't they have pangs of death like the rest of us? Why is it they're all in control and they're doing all these wicked evil things? How how come they're all getting away with it? And God doesn't sympathize with Jeremiah in that way, nor did he with Elijah when Elijah was running from Jezebel. He told Elijah, get back to work. I'm gonna let you rest here for a little bit because physiologically, you're spent. You're a little depressed. You know, your soul, mind, will, emotion. I'm gonna let you rest. I'm gonna feed you. I'm gonna bring the ravens to feed you. But then it's the time to get back to work, buddy. Quit wallowing in your self pity. God says to Jeremiah chapter 12 verse five, if thou has run with the footmen and they have wearied thee, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace wherein thou trust, they weary thee, then how would thou do in the swelling of the Jordan? So the Lord uses an imagery, a picture of warfare. If you're a foot soldier and you're weary in the time, easy time, a time of peace with the foot soldiers, this is a time of peace gang. We're not at war yet. America's not at war. Things could get real ugly. Do you ever get the feeling that your federal government in DC is surrendering to the world? Allowing China and Russia to be emboldened, allow the whole world to see America surrendering. We ain't seen nothing yet. Nobody could touch us if we didn't turn our backs upon God. Nobody. Everybody would be afraid to touch us, even attempt to touch us. But since our federal government's turned its back upon God in rebellion against Israel, rebellion against God, it emboldens our enemies. As the Russian fleet comes into Cuba, there was a day where that was a huge infraction. But today, why don't you come in to study our grid too? Why don't you look at our nuke facilities? Why don't you learn everything about our water facilities and everything, so that when you do invade, you know exactly how to shut off all the electricity and the water and all of our infrastructure. Why don't you buy up land, already buy up the land, strategically place around all of our military bases on our US soil, and bring in 40,000,000 military aged single men and infiltrate America before so that you hear ahead of time. Do you ever get the feeling our government's surrendering? What are you gonna do? You're in a time of peace right now, and people can't cope now, the suicides and the depression, the discouragement, just the financial pressure of 30% increase in, you know, inflation trying to pay for our food. He said, Jeremiah, if you've run with the footmen, they've wearied thee. Then how can you contend with horses when the horses come in? And if the land of peace, you're wearied in a peaceful time, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna trust in with the swelling of the Jordan when you're overwhelmed with the armies of your enemy coming against you? What are you gonna do, Jeremiah? You ain't seen nothing yet. It's gonna get tougher, Jeremiah. You need to buck up. You need to get ready. You need to train for a triathlon. War is coming. And whether you recognize it or not, you're already at war. It's a war against darkness. It's a war against lies. It's so simple for me. It's simply a war against lies. That's all it is. It's not a political problem about voting. It's a spiritual problem of lies. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. If you if you don't know who you are in relationship to Christ, if you don't have the habit of taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and every imagination and high thing that exalts itself, then you're gonna constantly be manipulated through the lies of those in the world. The rab shekha that comes and boasts and laughs and and threatens and such. Your own leaders, the Fauci's and such. And so have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. Ephesians five eleven. Our job is to expose the lies. You'll know the truth. The truth will set you free. You will be setting people free if you engage in this war for truth. And if there's one thing I would describe our ministry here for twenty nine years, it would be that Kathy and I have fought for truth the whole time. Very few churches want to engage in that battle. They want to sell Jesus, to soft sell Jesus, so that people can come in and and escape reality. And I won't let you escape reality. I challenge you to think. I challenge you to dig in. I challenge you to look at all the, media, the alternative media, so that the lies that you're being told are exposed so that you're free. So that your mind's free. So that you're not so filled with terror and guilt and and and discouragement like it's over. And then I try to factor in the hope of heaven, the gospel, the rapture to counteract the lies of the wicked one. Trying to keep you free, but it's a battle. It's a fight. It's a huge fight, and people hit that door. They don't wanna hear the truth. They don't wanna hear it. And yet, some do. Some are training. Some are fighting. Some are fighting for the truth. And every man that strives for this mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. That word strives means agonismai, means to agonize, to contend, to fight, a fight for truth. That's all it is, a fight for truth. The devil's a liar. We should be the pillar and the groundwork of truth, the church. That's why the devil wants to censor us and stop us from educating people to the truth. All truth. I don't wanna eat poison. I I wanna be educated about arsenic. Don't act like it's an unspiritual thing to educate me about eating arsenic, or lead, or something in my food, or genetically altered stuff. I I want I wanna know the truth. I'm a reader. I like to read. I like to I like to investigate. Ignorance is bliss. I know, but you're only gonna get away with it for so long. You can neglect your body. You can neglect exercise. You can eat poorly. You can neglect sleeping. And then there's a day where the doctor says, hey, you can't neglect it anymore. You need to walk each day. You need to eat better. You need to get better sleep. I don't wanna live in denial. I wanna anticipate ahead of time whatever that illness might be and do my part. I don't wanna live with a false sense of security. I wanna I wanna make sure that I know the reality of what I'm facing, that I know how to pray, that I know how to stand against the lies. The word temperate means self restraint, discipline, self control. So you wanna make sure that you got the pure word of God. No pain, no gain. First Timothy four verse seven, but refuse. So watch your diet, profane and old wise fables. Why do people put up with these doctrines of demons in the churches today? Paul said it would happen. He said it's a part of the apostasy where people would heaped in themselves having itching ears, teachers that would tell them what they wanna hear. Why do they put up with it? They don't want reality. They don't want the truth. Why are they even Christians? Why do they even go to church if they wanna live a lie? It makes no sense to me. Fables, little stories. Might use one verse and then they venture over into their little stories. They're cute little stories. The bunny rabbit went, oh, it went over here. You know, it's And the world loves it so. The world, the flesh, the devil, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little. Yeah. Profits a little. Even in the gym, they'll tell you, all that hard work you're doing, it only accomplishes 20%. Eighty percent's your diet. A bad diet can ruin all of your exercise. So what's that mean for us? You need a good diet of the word of God. You exercise out there sharing the gospel and all, and living the Christian life and discipline in all these ways, but you gotta have the word of God in your life to make you strong. 80% is diet. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of this life that now is and of that which is to come. And so you could be working super hard and be body beautiful, but bodily exercise profits a little, it's gonna fade away. Your beautiful pecs are gonna drop, you know. You're gonna have old man boobs. There's nothing you can do about it. You can't get them to come back up. You work so hard, and your wife will say, hey, you look pretty good in your shirt, but Rick, keep your shirt on. Keep your shirt on, bro. Yeah. Thanks, hon. When you're younger, it just all is in the right places. You get older, everything moves around. It's not supposed to be there anymore. But you work out so hard, so hard, so hard. Such a great investment. Hours and hours and hours in the gym. Bodily exercise profits a little. Well, maybe your cardio's good. Maybe your mobility's working. There's certain aspects of it great. But godliness profits much. That time you spend sitting at the Lord's feet and worship, that time you spent in the word helps you get through a crisis that destroys families. Because you're a man or woman of the word. And you may not have a, you know, a lean body mass, 6% body fat, 7%, you know, whatever that might be. But when people that think they're in control realize they're not in control, a lot of times they crash. You and I know we're not in control. We're to take and be faithful with what God's given us to use, but ultimately, we're walking by faith, not by sight. And when curveballs come in, when things happen, and the doctor says, hey, you got cancer, now our faith becomes even more real. And we've got to trust in the Lord through a crisis that we've never faced before, but the Lord will get us through. And so he says, now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. So these runners, when they would come back, and these athletes, they come back, they'd get a celery wreath. You've seen them though, kind the Romans are wearing where they'd weave these these plants and they'd put it on top of the head. Now, how long do you think that crown is gonna last? Hey, I just won the Olympics and you got this crown. How long you think that's gonna last? Can you even make it to your party with your friends before that thing begins to wilt? It's gonna wilt away. But he says, but we have an incorruptible crown that fades not away. And so for you and I, there's eternal rewards. We we run to win souls and this is eternal. These souls that are won, the devil can't snatch them away. Their names are written in the lamb's book of life. Jesus said, no man is able to pluck you out of my hand. We know they're secure. We know they're gonna make it because we know that being confident in this very thing that he that has begun a good work in you, he's gonna perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now, unto him is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before his presence was singing to the only wise God, Jude says. He's gonna complete the work. One man sows another waters, but God brings the increase. Jesus wore a crown of thorns. You remember the crown of thorns, the eugen thorns that they fashioned into a crown to mock Jesus, thrust it down upon his head? He wore a crown of thorns so you could have a crown of righteousness. Paul says, the time of my departure is at hand. Departure of the tent is being taken down. Paul knew that he'd be martyred by by Nero, have his head cut off. The time of my departure is hand, but there's now laid out for me a crown of righteousness. What was Paul running for? Why was he doing all this? For eternal rewards. To hear the Lord say, well done thou good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm gonna make you ruler over much. There's now therefore laid up for me a crown of righteousness and not for me only, but for all those who love his appearing. God has a crown of righteousness awaiting you. God has a robe of righteousness awaiting you. He's got a ring, you're sealed with the holy spirit. He's got a wedding ceremony and a and a reception awaiting you. As Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you onto myself that where I am, there you may be also. On this Father's Day, in my Father's house are many mansions. Jesus is gonna get us to the Father's house, isn't he? There's gonna be crowns. There's gonna be the Bema Seat judgment, crowns of righteousness. There's gonna be crowns of rejoicing. As we rejoice over those who were lost and now they're found according to first Thessalonians two nineteen. There may be crowns of glory according to first Peter five verse four. We're in our new glorified bodies. Crowns of righteousness, crowns of glory, crowns of rejoicing. There's rejoicing in heaven among the angels when just one sinner repents. To me, that picture is the Lord Jesus is there, there's angels, and there's this sinner that repents, and it's Jesus that's rejoicing. There's rejoicing in heaven among the angels. They're around the throne when one sinner repents. You're tickling the heart of God. There's great joy. The crown of rejoicing. There's a crown of life, the martyr's crown, And our crown is an incorruptible crown that faded not away. We win. He says, I therefore so run not as uncertainty, so fight I not as one that beats the air. So don't just enter the race for a t shirt. I went to the New York Marathon. You didn't finish it, but I got the t shirt. Run to win. Fight to win. Don't be just a shadow boxer. Hit what you're aiming at. Hit the devil in the nose. Knock them out. No aimless pursuits, no ships with no rudders, no drifting through life as people perish. You fathers have the power, tremendous power to get your family to church. Why is that so difficult? Do you think you can be indifferent to the things of the spirit and win? Haven't you learned from Tom Brady and all the athletes the tremendous discipline that goes in in achievement and winning? Do you wanna win spiritually? Do you want your family to win spiritually? It's not your wife's job. It's not her haranguing or whatever reminding her whatever. It's your job. You're the head of the of the household. You want a truly glorious Father's Day? Come to church with your kids next to you because they respect you so much as a man of God. Be a father. Be a representative of their heavenly father. Cause your life to be live your life to be one of integrity, consistency, truth. Live the Christian life. Don't tell them do as I say, not as I do. Monkey see, monkey do. Make sure you've won their soul. That's the objective. Get them into heaven. Fight to win. James five twenty says, let him know that he which converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins. Save a soul from death from eternal damnation. Verse 27, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I preach to others, I myself should be, excuse me, a castaway. It's the Greek word, It means you're disqualified. So you do all this what you're doing and in the end, you find out you're a loser. You've been disqualified. You may have been preaching the right thing, been evangelist, a lot of people got saved, but you and your life and your home as a father, you blew it. You're cast away. Paul says, no. I've gotta I've gotta When I'm at homes, when I need to be on my game the most, they see me at my at my worst. They see me at my weakest. They need to see me reading the word. They need to see me on my knees praying. They need to hear me pray. They need to watch me live the Christian life in times of great heartache and and failure. They need to hear me say, God be merciful to me. God forgive me. They need to hear me apologize to my wife and apologize to them. They need to see me be Christ like in my own home, lest I be a castaway. I keep under my body, which means Paul gives himself a black eye, he's willing to suffer. The word subjection means to be a slave driver. So I'm I'm pushing myself. I'm practicing spiritual discipline. Cast away a disqualified, rejected, an l seven loser. Missed potential, a vessel of dishonor. And the Lord's apprehended you and I to be vessels of honor. Vessels that would be set up on the mantle above the fireplace that bring glory and honor onto the master's home. God wants to bring you home. He wants to show you off as vessels of honor. And he says, the way that the best way is to live it yourself first and foremost, and then to seek and to save those who are lost. Be a soul winner. Be a part of his harvest. He says, look on the fields, they're white under harvest and the labors are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest, they'd send forth labors into his harvest. Don't say there's more time. No, the urgency's now. The fields are white under harvest, Jesus said in John chapter four. It's an urgent time. Know the time you're living in. It's high time to wake out of sleep. People are perishing. People are going to hell. There could be nothing more important than saving souls. First in your own home, then your neighbors, then your community, wherever the Lord would send us, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost. So what's the real problem? Why are we so defeated? We have everything we need to win the race. Could the problem be we have a divided heart? The cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches choke off our life's energy, our priorities. We don't prioritize winning souls, we prioritize material things. Our houses need fixing, we can't get to church. We've got this entertainment thing we wanna attend, we can't get to church. I'm too busy doing my thing. I don't have time to read the bible. I don't have time to pray with my kids. I don't have time to take them through family devotions and take them through the word of God during their formative years. I'm too busy. I want too much of the world. I'm gonna send them to public school. I'm just gonna hope and pray that if I take them to church on Sunday once a month, that somehow it'll it'll trigger something in them. Are you playing a gambling game? You're gonna gamble with the eternal life of those you love most because your heart's divided, because you're in love with the world. No motivation, methodology, no mastery. The eyes of the Lord, they run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of a man or a woman whose heart is perfect toward God. Perfect means undivided. Are we in love with this world? Are in love with America? Do we love America? Do we love the world more than we love Jesus? More than we love the souls of men? People are perishing. Time is short. God's eyes are running. God is looking for those who will run the race to win the souls. The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. Isaiah said, here am I, Lord. Use me. Be a soul winner. I love when you guys share the gospel. I know you do. And I love when you invite one of your friends to church. And I got the easiest job of all. I just shared the gospel. You've done all the work. You've disciplined. You've, over a period of time, modeled the Christian life in front of them. They've seen you in tough times and and you still love Jesus. And they come talk to you at work or the neighbor or whatever, and you invite them to church, and then I see a different face here and I say, oh man, we got a we got a live one here. I wonder if they're saved. And then we share the gospel and they raise their hand and they they receive Christ and then we disciple them and it's like being in a birthing room. The the joy and the blessing of a new baby, like Paula's new baby. Everybody just loves a new baby. You know? A church that, it's been said, that doesn't evangelize, fossilizes. Everybody just gets old. Bunch of old people. The frozen chosen. But, such a joy when you have a heart for the lost. And, I know you guys do. It's so healthy, so spiritually healthy to have a heart for the lost. It's the heart of Jesus. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. Father, we thank you so much that we're saved. We thank you that you sent people into our lives to sow into water. Lord, in your timing, you saved us. Lord, we wanna be used of you in these last days. We wanna be aware of the times in which we're living. And we need equipping, Lord. We need you to empower us to live the Christian life around our children, grandchildren, around our community. Lord, they see us at our worst. And Lord, I pray that you'd help us to be at our best, Lord. I pray that they could see through us as the the Greeks came to Philip and said, sir, we would see Jesus. I pray they could see Jesus in us. I pray that those at work and in the community could see Jesus in us. There's something different about us. I pray for the empowerment of your holy spirit that you give us the words. You give us the ability to share your love with those who are perishing. Give us open doors that no man can shut, Lord. Give us divine appointments like the woman at the well in John four that you went to, to give her living water. Lord, save our kids. Don't let any of them fall through the cracks. When it's all said and done, Lord, let let us be there in heaven. Grandma and grandpa, aunts and uncles, family members, Lord, that made it. Friends, coworkers. Help us, Lord, we pray. We know that's your will. We know that's your will. If there's anybody here this morning and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, Christianity is a relationship. If you don't have a relationship with Jesus, and that you don't know him, God wants you to know him. Becoming a Christian is a means of revelation. God's revealing himself to you. The Holy Spirit's revealing Christ to you right now in in the spiritual realm. God's given you a measure of faith to believe and trust that Jesus is who he claimed to be, that he was crucified as God's only begotten son, that he was buried, that he raised himself from the dead, that he ascended to the right hand of his father, and that he's coming again. That he died in your place, he died for your sins, and you appropriate salvation as a free gift from him by grace through faith alone in him, by you depending upon him for your righteousness. Trusting in him, believing in him. And you're ready to do that today. You're ready to As many as received him, we we read in John one, to them gave he the power to become the children of God. Are you ready to receive Christ in your heart and life? Anyone here this morning? Just lift your hand up. We wanna pray with you. You really make your dad a proud father today, your heavenly father. Father, thank you for the assurance of salvation. Thank you that, Lord, we know if we died today, we'd be with you in heaven. That there's no condemnation of those that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Thank you, Lord, for the assurance, the peace that surpasses all understanding that guards our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
