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1 Corinthians 10:14,22 -Flee From Idolatry- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-06-30
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Flee idolatry. First Corinthians ten fourteen through 22. Please stand with me as we read God's holy word together. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as the wise men judging what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body, for we're all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh, are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then that the idol is anything or that which is offered as sacrificed idol is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? Father, thank you for your holy word. Lord, please instruct and teach us, guide us, Lord. Help us to allow your word to sink down deep within our hearts and lives. Lord, if there's any area of idolatry, any area of duplicity, any area in our lives where we've left our first love, Lord, we pray that you'd reveal these things onto us, that Lord, we would set aside these things that, are detestable unto you, and Lord, that we'd return to our first love, that we'd love you with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, all of our strength. And Lord, we thank you for the blessings in our life. You're the blesser, but Lord, we don't wanna fall in love with the blessings and neglect you, the God who's blessed us. So bless now we pray. Teach us Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Would you please be seated? He says, wherefore my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as the wise men, verse 15, judge ye what I say. So what is idolatry? Idolatry is worshiping something besides the true and living God, or worshiping God, in in an erroneous way, failing to worship him in a true way. Jesus said the Lord desires people that would worship him, that would worship him in spirit and in truth. That's the right way. So it strikes the very character of God since the fall of man, man has attempted to, make God in their own image. And that's the lie in second Thessalonians two where people will believe Noah Yuval Harari and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of president Trump and, Klaus Schwab and the technocrats who claim they're very close to reaching a place where they'll never die again, where they can live forever. And so the Antichrist, when he comes along, he's going to convince people to the point that same sort of a lie, that lie that originated in the garden where the serpent told Eve, you shall not die. And so, the attempt by the antichrist, the attempt by the devil to circumvent the responsibility that all of us have, in regard to our sin. And, and so death is a reminder when you do a funeral, a celebration of life, it's glorious because it it when you're doing that of a believer, because to be absent of bodies, be present with the Lord. But when the unbelievers are in attendance, they're reminded that it's appointed unto all men once to die, and then the judgment. Are you ready to meet your maker? But people will reject God during their lifetime. They'll worship and serve the creature rather than the creator in Romans one. They'll lie to themselves. They'll worship self. And in second Thessalonians two, when they reject God, it says that he gives them over a strong delusion that they would believe the lie. What's the lie? It's the lie that originated with the serpent in the fall that you can be as God. And so men be basically began to worship men. They worship self is what takes place. In Romans one twenty one, now based upon creation, just the very creation, the trees, the babies, the butterflies, God's creation, beautiful beautiful. We we get a picture. We get an idea of who God is, you know, based upon his creation. As as much as, we've beat on his creation and tried to destroy his creation, it could be a Mount Saint Helens kind of devastation. And within a few years, you know, there's fauna, there's growth, there's it's reemerging, you know, and more beautiful than ever. Well, that's our Lord. That's our God. So because that when they knew God, Romans one twenty one, so they knew God in the sense that God's revealing himself to you. You may not have heard the gospel yet, but God's revealing himself to you through a sunset, through the stars in the sky, through the warmth of of the sunshine. He's revealing himself to you through the the blessing and the love of of, you know, a husband, a wife, a baby that's born. So because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God neither were thankful, but became vain empty in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they become fools with their evolutionary theories and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man into birds and four footed beasts and of creeping things. And so they begin to worship the creation rather than the creator. They begin to fashion, as we spoke of last week, the children of Israel fashioning a a golden calf, and they bow down and worship the calf. They worship, you know, the trees. They worship, the planet, and they put people subservient to the planet. They call it global idiocy. And, in their global idiocy that somehow us breathing off, you know, carbon, c o two, that somehow we're destroying, you know, the planet and the flatulence of the cows, the methanes is destroying the it's all idiocy. It's false. But it's it's steeped in a worship of the planet, of mother nature, and people will be given over to that and give into that and basically, disregard the needs of man. God told man to be fruitful to multiply, to take dominion over the earth. So we're not subservient to the animals. We're stewards of the animals. We're stewards of the planet. And we certainly don't bow down and worship the trees or worship the planet. That's absurdity. But but men who turn their backs upon God, they're given over to the strong delusion. And the atheist, the one that says there is no God, his belief system is such that he worships himself. So worship in an image is the most literal and obvious kind of idolatry. Many of you that fought in Vietnam or fought in foreign countries, one guy told me he said that he he shot, he blew up so many Buddhist statues, you couldn't even count them. You know? So people will put in their gardens a statue of Buddha, and that's who, you know, they worship. Other people from a Catholic background will have statutes of Mary, and part of their whole belief system is an idolatry of worshiping mother Mary, the queen of heaven and such. And, you know, it's it's pretty, remedial, you know, to be in that situation that you need, you need statues and things and beads and that sort of thing to bring you into that place of of worship. And that's what Jesus said, not in this place or that place, but God God desires people that would worship him in the spirit and in truth. And so we walk by faith, not by sight. In Psalm a 115 verse four, the Lord is describing through the psalmist the absurdity of people worshiping statues. He says their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. So I would say, well, you know, I worship my Ferrari, man. That that is I wash it, I clean it, I shine it, I polish it, And then I drive that thing around, and people are looking at me, and, oh, man, I've made it. I'm I'm I'm silver and gold, the work of men's hands. Now some of you, you worship your Prius. I don't understand that. I don't understand how you anyone can do that. I've I've got seven different settings on my my hydro thing on my my excursion. And when I see a Prius, I put number five, the Rad Ripper. And when I go by it, I bug spray the Prius. Black smoke just just comes they can't even see. They gotta pull over. You know? That's that's how little I worship a Prius. So they have mouse, but they speak not. So you fashion a mouth, but it doesn't have the ability to speak. Eyes they have, but they can't see. They have ears, but they can't hear. They got noses, but they can't smell. They have hands, but they can't handle. They have feet, but they can't walk. Neither speak they through their throat. They make they that make them are like them, so is everyone that trusts in them. So now we go future and we go to Revelation chapter 13, the image of the beast. Or pull your phone out, your phone's already listening to you. I've already been cataloged by the NSA and several things I've already said. It's already in my record just simply when I started here. And your phone is listening to the other phone, listen to everything. And I I read a I read a report the other day where a guy said that, it was yesterday, that, he was fishing or something and he caught something, was pulling on it, and it exploded. And his phone went off, and the phone was listening, and questioned him concerning, did you just fire a gun? That's how much your phones are listening. So they don't have ears, but they're listening, And the devil is not omniscient. He doesn't know everything. The devil is not omnipresent. He can't be everywhere. That's why they got demons. And the devil is not all powerful. But with the b system, through technology, they're trying to put listening ears, microphones everywhere they can to keep listening to everything that's said. And not only that, but even the streetlights have not only, you know, a means of listening, but also means of watching. They may not have eyes, but they got eyes today. The eyes are on you. So they're all seeing eye in the pyramid on your dollar, you know, big brother watching everything you do. In in in China, if you don't have a smartphone on your person, they'll come and grab you and haul you away. So they want everyone to have a smartphone, everyone to be tracked and traced, everyone to be listened to. And, I'm thinking about getting rid of mine. I don't I don't like that idea, but they're so addicting. Everything we do is tied to it. You know? Our music I mean, I'm I may try to find a little music thing so I don't need it anymore. Basically, that's the one thing holding me there. But I also like the Bible studies, and I like a lot of good things that come from the the technology, but I don't like the the them listening and watching and cataloging everything that we do. And so the image of the beast the image of the beast be able to speak to people. Some of you don't even type anymore. You just talk to artificial intelligence. Hey. How do I change that tranny? You know? And all of a sudden, a voice comes back and tells you, you know, hey. I need this, and what about that? And, you know, boom. They're just waiting there. They're waiting at your beck and call to tell you. It's real quick. It's real I wanna cook a cheeseburger. How do I make a cheeseburger? You know? And, boy, it'll come back. That voice will come back and teach you how to cook a cheeseburger. Not that I don't know how, but some of you aren't as as good a cook as I am. So if you need help, just go on YouTube. Just talk to AI. You know? And, and more and more as AI catches on, the artificial intelligence, more and more people are going to depend because it's convenience. They're creating convenience for us. But then the whole world is gonna receive a mark in Revelation thirteen sixteen through 18 at some point where nobody can buy or sell without a mark on the right hand of their forehead. They're going to bring into their body the image of the beast, the mark of the beast, six six six. And so you have the antichrist, you have the false prophet, and you have the devil who is a counterfeit God the father, and then you have the idolatry, the image of the beast one day. So John four twenty four, God is spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now, the worshiping of angels is idolatry. Twice in the book of of, Revelation, John the beloved bowed down to an angel and the angel told him, don't do it. In Revelation nineteen ten, I fell at the feet to worship him And he said unto me, sell see thou do it not. I'm thy fellow servant and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. And then he says, worship God. Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So we don't worship angels. And Paul said to in Galatians one, if an angel comes to you and gives you a different gospel, let him be anathema. If the angel Moroni comes to you, he's a moron. Don't listen to the angel Moroni with a different gospel. Don't go there, Joseph, and don't follow a burning in your bosom or any of these kind of things the cults do, and you're degrading God. You're being deceived. God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. It's by faith. So worshiping demons is idolatry. Those who are seduced by the cults, the doctrines of demons. Worshiping dead men is idolatry. The worshiping of Mary, the queen of heaven. Covetousness. What is that? What's what's that mean? That that's that's not even in our vocabulary in the church, covetousness. How would you define that? That just means more and more and more. That's to me, it's God's blessing. The false prophets all tell me that if I'm favorable and walking in a favorable manner with God, that he's obligated to bless me if I have enough faith. And if I got enough seed money that I give to these false prophets, then God's gonna give me back more and more blessings, you know. And if my jet is too small, I can demand of God to give me a bigger jet, you know. And you guys better pay for it or you're pagans, you know. And so this covetousness and and by the way, my name is Dollar. You know? You get a clue there? I mean, woah. Really? I mean, how ironic. Your last name is Dollar, pastor Dollar? They'll make merchandise of you, and yet the people do it. How do these guys follow through with it and actually pull it off? Because the people have the same heart. It appeals to him. He's appealing to their flesh. It's what they want. They're selling covetousness more and more and more. Once asked Rockefeller, how much money is enough? Just a little bit more. When you're owned by covetousness, just a little bit more. You're never content. The heart of the wicked is never content. Godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into the world. It's certain we're gonna carry nothing out. Right? And so for you and I, we'd rather live a godly life. We don't want to be in the place where the eyes of the wicked are never full, where it's always more and more and more and more. And so, we're thankful for what the Lord has given us. And like with Job, naked came I into the world, naked I'm gonna go, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Let your life, in Hebrews 13 be without covetousness because it's certain you can't take it with you. You can't take it with you. You've never seen a U Haul following a hearse. Right? It's not gonna happen. You're not gonna be able to take it with you. So the gods of materialism. In Ephesians five verse five, no whoremonger nor unclean person, so that's the sexually impure. But then he comes over to us good godly Christians. He says, nor covetous man. Wait a minute. What are you talking about? I'm a good person. And then and then he says, who is an idolater? So Paul's defining the rich young ruler who thought he was really good, and Jesus said, one thing you lack, go and sell all you have, give it to the poor, and then come follow me. So Jesus is identifying the one area of this man's life where he was divided, where he was idolatrous, and it was his wealth. It's what he had, his power. And so it's not the money that's the problem. If riches increase, don't set your heart on it. It's the love of money that's the root of all evil. It's not the money, it's not the things, it's not the stuff, it's the love thereof. So Jesus is identifying the love, the connection that he has with this, and that Jesus would just be added to the equation as a part of his life, but not his life. So Jesus is showing him what stands in the way of that 100% commitment unto Jesus, and that would be demonstrated with the repentance and the selling of the stuff. When Zacchaeus was saved, Zacchaeus gave half of what he had, you know, to, back his reimbursement to those he defrauded all. And Jesus said, salvation has come to this house. Why? Because he's a Jewish man, very wealthy Jewish man. They don't just give away money, do they? Right? And so Jesus said, salvation's come to this house because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So it's an identifier of where your heart's at. God wants your heart. And the mistake that the false prophets and many of the churches make is there's an inordinate emphasis upon money, and money becomes the whole reason of the business of nickels and noses amassing money. And it's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. And so we wanna emphasize the Holy Spirit and the the money. You can't serve two masters, Jesus said in Matthew six. You can't serve two masters. You can't serve God and mammon. He said, you're gonna love the one and hate the other. You're gonna draw near to the one and despise the other. You can't serve God and mammon, you can't serve God and money. So be very careful of the hook, of the intoxication, the bondage that comes with covetousness through covetousness. It becomes idolatry is what Paul's saying here in Ephesians five verse five. Where your treasure is, there where your heart be also, Matthew six twenty one, So God wants your heart. So how can God show me where my heart's at? Take away some of my stuff. Just take away some of my stuff. Not all of it. Just take some of it away. Little bit of loss here and there. Business deal that I heavily invest in, but I lose. Woah. What just happened? I thought God was for me, and since God's for me, who can be against me? I know a great Christian man who invested $20,000,000 about thirty years ago and got a lot of other people in the church to invest with him. Hundreds of thousands of dollars from people. They're gonna make a lot of money, and they lost it all. And this is a giant in the faith. This is a man that's a teacher, and people revered him for his business acumen. They revered him, the bible studies and all. But now before all, at least for me, he's one of the teachers in the school I attended, and he was suicidal. He talked of his life insurance and how sometimes you think along those lines, you'd be better off dead so that your wife, your family has what they need. God showed him his heart. God showed him how important that wealth was to his ego, to his persona, to who he he portrayed himself to be. Fortunately, he didn't succumb to the voices of the wicked one. 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? A man's life does not consist, Jesus said, in abundance of things which he possesses, but that's how we measure each other. We wanna show everybody our house, our car, our stuff. We wanna let everybody know what we're doing, how blessed we are because blessing means God's favor. It means God I'm doing good with God. But in a financial reversal when it's all pulled away, what's that mean? How do we apply that same value system to the early church that was by and large poor? They had nothing. Does that mean they didn't have favor with God? That doesn't mean does that mean they didn't have enough faith? They didn't pray? Foxes have holes, birds there have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Jesus was homeless. Does that mean Jesus was inferior to those who today preach a prosperity gospel? A life of covetousness, a pleasure? Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ as greater riches than all the splendor of Egypt because he had respect under the recompense of the reward. He would rather send it ahead to heaven. Jesus said, store not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust does corrupt, where thieves break through and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. I was listening to pastor JD Frog last Sunday's message where he spoke of the final lap and the importance for you and I as Christians to begin to let go. Now how long since and even before COVID have I been teaching about the monkey and the importance of letting go? That Jesus is coming. We've got to let go of America. We can't allow America to be an idol in our life that we hold on to so tightly that we miss the prophetic picture and what God's trying to communicate to us. The truly free man is the man that needs the least. Paul said, I've learned to be content. There's a learning. There's a learning curve. It's hard whether I'm abased, I'm down at the bottom, or whether if I'm abounding, I've learned the secret of contentment. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. These are lessons we're all learning. And so JD said, and I like this. He said, remember, we're all just renters. We're all renting. Now if you've ever been a renter, that's a derogatory term. All the people that own homes around you where you live in the rental house, they basically mock and make fun of you that you're the renter. That's the renter. And you pride yourself because you're the owner. I own a house. No. We're all renters. And then he asked the question, which of you, if you were renting, would remodel that rental house? Isn't that a good question? Who renting would put in new light fixtures and pour concrete and remodel the bathroom, remodel the kitchen, all at your own expense? Who would do that without a rent reduction or something? You do that out of your own accord, a temporary dwelling, you got a one year lease, but you're gonna pour thousands and thousands of dollars in that dwelling, no, it's only temporary? We're all renters. Everything we do for ourself is gonna pass. Only what we do for Jesus Christ is gonna last. Store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moth and rust can't corrupt, where thieves can't break through and steal. Why should we flee from idolatry? Number one, the communion. We want to be in union. We want to be one with the Lord. If we're idolaters, we're separated from the Lord. God's not gonna share you with anybody. God wants exclusive rights to you as his bride. He's not gonna share his marital bed with another man. There's no what do they call it down in Portland where they put three of them together? I I forget what it is, but he didn't do that. Exclusivity. You're his. He made you, he bought you, you're the bride of Christ, and loving something else more than him, church of Ephesus. One thing I have against you, you've left your first love. No. You gotta love me supremely. You know what? You can't put me in second place, church of Laodicea, church of Ephesus. You've kicked me out of the church, church of Laodicea. You make me sick. You're lukewarm. You're not on fire. You don't have a fervent passionate love for me anymore. You you're blinded. You're delusioned and you say, hey, we're rich. That's God's favor. I'm rich. I'm increased with goods. I'm in need of nothing. I must be in good standing with God. Look how he's blessed me. And then he says, Jesus says, no. Your true condition is you're naked. You're poor. You're spiritually poor. You're blind. You can't even see spiritually, and you're miserable. The material things don't bring the joy of fellowship with me anymore. Christmas morning is such a blessing. You wake up, you can't even sleep so excited as a kid, and you get that new bike or toy or book or whatever it is. Maybe the Red Rider BB gun, you're stoked. You're just so stoked. And when we're as a child, that's we understand that as a child, but as we grow up, we're learning that, you know, these are these are just tools. They're they're things that God can use to bless others with, to bless our families, to bring security, and, you know, I like a, you know, heating system and windows that shut and a nice bed and a bathroom. All this stuff's wonderful. Those are tools. Those are a means of of helping us to survive and to have fellowship and to enjoy. But when we remove it from just simply being a blessing and it becomes our identity, becomes an idol in our life. So during the course of time as the Lord causes a sifting to take place, he's wanting to show you his heart. If you're a young little eaglet and you wanna stay in the nest because the nest is so nice and cozy, beautiful, wonderful, and mommy brings you food every day. And you're you're growing a beard now, and might be time to leave the nest, but you're not gonna leave unless the mother comes up there and she starts to stir the nest up. She's gonna come there and she's gonna break that nest up. And, when she does that, she's wanting to teach you how to fly. And what she does is she takes you on her pinions on the back, and then she flies out there, and she lets you fall off. You're free falling. You could make a song out of it. I'm free falling. You could do it. And you're either gonna learn to fly, which is exhilarating. Right? It's exciting. Why why sit there on the bench and say, wow, I really marvel at that guy, that gal, how how well they fly. Well, don't you wanna get in game? Don't you wanna learn how to fly? It's gonna take some risk. It can take some faith, but step out there. Step off the boat. Learn to walk on water. Take a step of faith. Take God at his word. And so sometimes the Lord will bring adversity. He'll bring the stirring of the nest to get us to trust in him even more. And the desire is communion. He's wanting us to draw near to him. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ, the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? The word communion is the Greek word koinonia, and we see this Greek word koinonia used in different ways. One is communion. Another one is contribution because when you're contributing, you're one with those as the body of Christ or friends, family, you're contributing food, wherewithal, as partnering. And then the third use of it would be, fellowship, having things common, being of one accord, of one mind. So communion to have in common, to participate with, the partnership. It says in acts two forty two, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. So the church, the church model, if you wanna know what Calvary Chapel Bremerton's program is, I got a new program. I went to pastors.com and and such and such a pastor taught me how to build a purpose driven church. What's my methodology? What's my scam, my scheme, my marketing? I just got out of my marketing class. How do I market the church now? Well, here's what we do. We go back to the early church, what they were doing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. Jesus asked Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep, feed my lambs. There you go. Paul to the church of Ephesus, I'm innocent of the blood of each and every person because I've given the full counsel of God. Feeding's essential. They continued steadfastly. They wouldn't they wouldn't veer to the left or the right. They made it to church on time. They made it to church every time the home fellowship was open. They were there, and they opened their bibles, and they were there to study, and they didn't wanna hear anybody's opinion. They wanted to hear from God. They wanna study the word of God, the holy word of God. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. Now yesterday, I was on the phone with a friend of mine that's, and you can pray for him. His name's Rock. He's having a really hard time. He's working down in Vegas, and man, he's fallen. He came across some financial difficulties, and he decided to take a contract and work out of Vegas for two years, and his marriage, his life, everything is falling apart. And so I talked with him yesterday, and I said, Rock, I think the Holy Spirit's showing me that you didn't build your life upon the rock. You built your house upon sand. And now that all this adversity is coming, you're falling apart. I said, you know what happened? You've been a Christian thirteen years, but you've never been discipled. You've never studied God's word. You've never gotten the word into your heart and life. So now you're vulnerable. Now you're so weakened, you can't trust in your uncertain riches. You need to learn to trust in the living God, the true living God. So I gave him a homework assignment to read the gospel of John. I asked him to read Psalm 32, Psalm 38, Psalm 51, David's Psalms of Repentance, and to listen to the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit reveals his heart unto him. Then I asked him to be ready for a friend of mine, Joe Monto, who's a worship pastor at a Calvary Chapel in Henderson, Nevada, that Joe will call you. You need fellowship. You need a bible teaching church. You need some friends. And so I called Joe, and Joe called him, and as far as I know, Rock didn't call him back. I messaged him this morning, get up, get your big boy pants on, get to church. Nobody ever did that for me. Nobody ever called me or told me, hey, you need to be discipled. Get in church. Pastor never called me. Pastor never asked, hey, why weren't you here last week? You see, there should be something going on in my heart that I want to be there. And my fear of losing Kathy, my fear of being a failure as a father and a husband motivated me to be in church, to learn what it means to be a husband, a father, what it means to be a Christian. I didn't know how. But I spent eight years going to every bible study I could, bringing my family that I might get grounded in the faith. And that's the only thing that's kept me from being defeated by my own weaknesses. Areas of my life, of my flesh that the devil would love to capitalize upon. As we feed, as we're fed the spirit, as we come into communion with Jesus, as we experience the fellowship and the blessing of being a part of the body of Christ, it so supersedes the friendships we had with our worldly friends and the parties and the alcohol, the drugs, the promiscuity. It's so far greater, so much better that we gain victory because why would we wanna go back to the pigpen? We've tasted, we've seen that the Lord is good, and we wanna continue in that fellowship, that communion, that blessing as we should. We don't allow idols into our lives, so we're gonna continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and then fellowship. I wanna be with the saints and the breaking of bread. And Rob and Vicky at their home every every Monday night, they have a meal together. The early church would meet and break bread. They'd have meals together. And then we worship. We break bread in the sense of having communion this morning. We're gonna do that. And prayer. So four pillars of of the church, four characteristics of the church, that of the word of God, that of fellowship, that of worship, and that of prayer. There's your program. That's what you can expect at Calvary Bremerton. Very simple. We're not as smart as Freud and Roy. We're not as smart as all the the new pretenders out there that come up with new ideas. Because, you know, Jesus, he just didn't know a whole lot about technocracy, technology, transgenderism, wokeism. He just didn't know that stuff. He didn't know how archaic his ideas were. We we've advanced past that, Noah, Yuval, Harari would boast. And I'd say, Psalm two, read it, buddy. Choke on it. Oh, how the heathen rage, imagine a vain thing. God laughs from heaven at you guys, you pretenders. So we're humble enough to keep it simple. We're humble enough to say, Lord, you you got this figured out. Communion is essential. Coming to church is essential. Neglect not the assembling yourselves is as a matter of some is, especially as we see the day of the Lord approaching. It's essential. Rock, I need you to get to church. I want you to meet some Christians who can help you, who've been through these things. I want you to get in a prayer group. I want you to start reading the gospel of John and get to know Jesus. Set the whiskey down. Quit going gambling. Get serious about your walking relationship with the Lord before you crash and burn. Can I talk to him like that, or do I have to ask for permission? He's a man. Be a man. Lead your family. In Romans fifteen twenty six, the word communion is used as contribution. Contribution for the poor saints. When you when you give to the poor, you're lending under the Lord. You're helping the orphans and the widows. And the Lord has given you and maybe given you in an abundance, and out of that abundance in your stewardship, he's able to entrust you with funds beyond what you need because he knows you're a wide steward of resources that you're going to reinvest in the lives of his people. Philippians two verse one, the fellowship of the saints, same Greek word, koinonia. Philippians three ten, the fellowship of his sufferings. Do you want to experience the communion, the fellowship of Jesus' sufferings? Do you wanna get to know him as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him? Or do you only want the Jesus, the happy Jesus, you know? Your roots grow deeper as you face the reality of fulfilling his sufferings, a reminder of the cross, a reminder of the lashing that he took. As people are reminded of Jesus, of his love for them, that he would lay down his life for them. Why are you suffering? Why are you going through this? Why do you have that smile on your face? Where's the what what do you call this? It's called the joy of the Lord. It's a fruit of the spirit, the spirit of God. I'm in fellowship with Jesus. He's drawn ever closer to me as I draw ever closer to him. He's revealing himself to me in ways I I never knew him on the mountain tops. But in these valleys, in this difficulty, he's whispering and I can hear the whisper of God's voice in my heart and mind. As CS Lewis would, you know, say that God whispers to us in our sufferings because we're ready. Lord, your servant hears. I'm listening, Lord. You got my attention now. The cup, what's the cup symbolize? It's symbolic of his blood. It speaks of his death. In Leviticus seventeen eleven, the life is in the blood. The bread is symbolic of his body, his life, his humanity, his death. The breaking of the bread speaks of him sharing his life with us. Jesus has broken bread and poured out wine. He says, verse 17, for we being many are one bread and one body, for we all partakers of that one bread. So as we partake of communion this morning, partakers of that loaf, that bread, that bread that was nailed to the cross of Calvary. As his life is broken, his life is assimilated into us as the body of Christ in a symbolic way, not a Catholic way, but in a symbolic way, we're experiencing through the spirit communion, a oneness. It's not the literal body of Jesus. We don't do a mass service of the literal blood and body of no. Transubstantiation, no. It's symbolic. And remember, he were they that were God is spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So coming into union, becoming one with him and with each other of one accord. Ephesians four twenty five, we are members one of another. Romans 12 verse five, one body in Christ. First Corinthians twelve thirteen, baptized into one. That's why when COVID happened, it was an absolute, not subjective, not some esoteric truth, or it was an absolute concrete belief in my heart that Jay Inslee and everybody else that were telling the church you have to close down, that you couldn't sing if you did me, and you couldn't have communion, it was 100% in my heart, n o. Nobody can tell me that I can assemble with the body of Christ, that I can't sing and worship him, that I can't have communion. Not gonna happen. Not ever gonna happen. And I don't care how much money you offer me to stand behind plexiglass and have people out there jabbing the people. I'm not your salesman for your erroneous lion COVID stinking the place up. Not for sale. No. I want the fragrance of Christ. I want the blessing, the beauty, and the sweet communion and fellowship that we have being worshipers. And that's what happened. It was so sweet. It's still so sweet to be a rebel, to be a revolutionary, to say Jesus, my Jesus. We're not throwing my Jesus under the bus. He's essential. You can keep your strip clubs open and try and shut down the church. We're not doing it. We're gonna obey God rather than men. We know where you're coming from and it's demonic. It ain't gonna fly here. But it did in so many quote unquote churches. And you know what's so funny? Many of the people that came here ran back to their old churches that closed down. That's a consent. You're consenting to what they did. Didn't we earn didn't we earn something? Some measure of credibility or respect that we refused? Must be worshiping a different God or something because it's so incredibly strong in my heart that if you're a worship of Jesus, worshiper of Jesus, there's no way you could give into the denying of communion, of being one with him. Not just ideologically, but intimately as the body of believers, making your own decision the freedom of joining together, being one. Behold Israel after the flesh are not they which eat of the sacrifice partakers of the altar. So now he looks at the Old Testament, he's saying, hey, the altar speaks of this, this oneness, this communion. The sharing in the altar, the Lord's portion, you bring an offering. There's the Lord's portion that's offered to the Lord. There's the priest portion that he can sell or take home to feed his family. There's the offerors portion, but all of it came from the same lump. All of it came from the same sacrifice and we're all communing, partaking, being one with what's happened. Jesus prayed in John 17 that we'd be one with him even as he and his father are one. He doesn't want any schism or division or separation. He went to the cross that we could be one, that we could experience fellowship, that we could experience communion. Why should we flee from idolatry? Number one, the communion. Number two, the conflict. If if we don't, if we're idolaters, there's a conflict. A huge conflict. Verse 19, what say then that the idol is anything or or that which is offered and sacrificed to idols is anything? The idol itself is powerless. The meat is neutral. But I say that the things with the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils or demons. So there are demons behind this false religious system of idolatry, bringing a professionalism to religion and bringing things that people that aren't spiritual so they have something they can touch and feel and get the buzz and hold and rub the beads and this whole thing is central. The senses, physical senses, non spiritual. You and I are able to relate with God in the spiritual realm by grace through faith. Sensitive to the Holy Spirit. He that has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. When we worship, there's a communion, a connection with God. We don't have any mediator. We don't have to go through the priest or the pastor or any statue or whatever. We one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. We have access to immediately stand in the presence of God. It's a throne of grace, not of judgment because Jesus has taken down the middle wall of partition. Jesus has removed the veil. It's been split. We have access now to the intimacy we would call this. Why would you sacrifice the devils and not to God? And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. So people talk about the experience they had in the witchcraft, the experience they had in the occult, the experience they had as they delved into the drugs and the idolatry and the chanting and different types of singing and stuff they do to get that buzz going. You remember Elijah with the 450 prophets of Baal, they're cutting themselves. It's a cultic. It's pagan. They're trying to conjure up the demons to give them that rush, to give them that power, if you will. And Elijah is the Holy Spirit's holding all that back and Elijah is mocking him. Well, where is your God? If your God is so great, cause the fire to come down and lick up this this this offering here. Bring fire down. And Elijah makes it even more difficult to demonstrate the power of God and who the true living God is. He puts water in the trough when it's his turn, and the Lord licks up the water and consumes it. And and Elijah's mocking him, where's your God? Is he in the restroom? Is he sleeping? And these guys are getting more fervent, cutting themselves some blood and the whole thing. It's demons behind it. It's demonic, and it's sensual. The burning man, the pagan festivals even today in the forest and the witchcraft and all the sorcery that's gonna take place during the tribulation period, this building up steam if you will. First Corinthians six fourteen, what communion has light with darkness? We think that we can peacefully coexist with these pedophiles? We think that we can negotiate with those of Sodom and Gomorrah? You can't negotiate with Sodom and Gomorrah with your children? Are you crazy? You're gonna put your kid in their religious institutes, in their in their institutes of learning, which is really a place of religion? Fifty percent of the kids are under therapy now in these schools. Undergoing therapy, forty nine percent. Well, that therapy is mean a means of of coercion, manipulation to try and convince as many as they can that they're really not a boy or a girl. They're wanting to operate on these kids and hormone them and do all sorts of things to change them. It's demonic. It's a false belief system. It's from the pit of hell. You can't send your kid in there and act like he's a missionary. Are you kidding me? You couldn't handle it. Rock's wife told me that in Vegas today that Rock can't handle it. He's a former addict. He's a former guy that had a problem in these areas. And I said, it's there's a church in Henderson. There's Christians that live in those areas and, you know, if he strengthens his spirit, doesn't need to give into that stuff. And she says, Rick, the girls are walking around with no tops on. They're at Lowe's, at the markets, the corners. It's not just passing out leaflets anymore. It's everywhere. It's Sodom and Gomorrah. And Lot tried to negotiate with the pedophiles, the Adrenochrome, the Epstein Island guys. He tried to negotiate, take my virgin daughters. You there's no negotiating with these people. And even when the angel, two angels that took Lot and his family out of that city, it says, they were at the door before they left. And these these demoniacs, that's what they are, they're filled with demons. The angels smote them with blindness. Now you would think, a rational thinking person, if you were doing something against the Lord and you were spit with blindness that you'd get a clue. Uh-oh. I'm doing something wrong. Warning. Warning. Warning. But no. These guys, it says, are groping toward that door to get after those two angels who are men, they who they haven't been with yet because they wanna sexually dominate them to sodomize them. There's no negotiating with evil. No negotiating. When your culture reaches a place of dominance along those lines of corruption and evil, that's why that's why we're so sad that president Trump didn't drain the swamp. Not one person arrested. The lawlessness is exponential now. It's getting worse. We need a new sheriff in town. We need somebody that's going to do what's right to protect us and our children in this culture. You can't trust those in power, can you? But in the community level with the sheriffs and others, there's still rational thinking and there's laws in place to protect us from from the craziness that's going on. But you can't negotiate with evil. It has to be God's way or the highway. There's no middle ground here. I mean, ladies that are in front of abortion clinics are being arrested and thrown in prison. How could that come about? Where why the silence of the Republicans? You actually think you're going to you're going to vote somebody in that's going to stop these demonic people? I wish it would. I wish somebody do something. I I I wish some would be hung. I wish there'd be Nuremberg trials. I wish the fear of God would so permeate the land. I wish that those Josiah would be raised up and pull down all of the idolatry, all those in the groves, and all the sodomites just purge them from every facet of government as little termites they've permeated. They're permeating Coeur D'Alene. They're permeating all the beautiful cities. They're they're demonic missionaries being sent out. The work from home type people from all the technocrat companies bringing their evil. Do you understand what I just said? They don't have to work just in Seattle anymore. It makes Seattle filthy. They're being sent out as demonic missionaries to places that used to be havens for conservatives and Christians and people that wanted to keep their community safe. The wackadoodles are going everywhere now. These nut jobs are denying water to the farmers near Boise, Idaho. They're everywhere. Their demonic ideology, their demonic influence and and such. You can't negotiate with them. I am a common light into the world and whosoever believes on me should not abide in darkness. There you you can't peaceably coexist with darkness. You can have no fellowship. You can't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. There needs to be a line of separation. You can't bring the darkness into the church so as to build your church. What does light have in common with darkness? Demonic forces are being are behind the idolatry. Psalm a hundred and six thirty seven, it says, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. Manasseh, the most wicked king that Israel that Judah had, would sacrifice his own children on the demons. They sacrificed their sons and daughters on the devils and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters whom they sacrificed under the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. What happened? Well, in the sixties, they had the sexual revolution. In the fifties, the 10 commandments were on the walls in the schools, and even the unbelievers, they learned right and wrong based upon the 10 commandments. They knew adultery was wrong. They knew fornication was wrong. And prior to the sixties, the the American Psychiatric Society Association cataloged homosexuality as a mental illness. The same way until recently, cataloging pedophilia as a mental illness. The normalization of Romans one being normalized, God says, judge you and you're not gonna be normal. You're gonna be a freak. And it doesn't matter if you have pride month, you're still a freak. And that being a freak, that being different is judgment against you. And instead, what they do is they wanna normalize, get everybody to tolerate and accept, and everybody talk about, yeah, I have a gay friend. I got a gay one. And to peacefully coexist and bring the the gays into the Sunday school and the pedophiles into the Sunday school, where's it gonna stop? And they try to convince people that they got the gay gene, that they were born this way, and that they're good because God said that everything was good in creation. They didn't choose to be this way. God made them this way, so it must be good. And everybody needs to accept and tolerate a same sex marriage as normal. And now these guys preying upon children. Oprah saying it's good for the kids if you do it right. The trafficking of children and slavery of children, sexual slaves and such. I mean, it's gone so far, So far beyond the fifties and the sixties, the sexual revolution to break down the mores of society, the borders that protect protect us, the moral borders, the spiritual borders, don't cross this line. It leads to corruption. Marriages between a husband and a wife, between a male and a female. For one lifetime, that's the norm. That's the that's the ideal. That's the engineering of God. The idea of God. It's his idea. And he made the male and female. And sex outside of marriage is sin. It's adultery. It's not an affair. It's fornication. And people knew this in the fifties, and they tell us that those in the fifties were more moral than the professing church today because they had parameters. They have the law. They have the word of God to protect them from themselves. Worshiping the gods of pleasure leads to abortion, leads to unwanted pregnancies, leads to offering these babies on the bow. They would heat the statue, the idol so hot, they take his arms which are outstretched and they would set a fire underneath it and the arms would be red hot, even white hot. And then they would take these little babies and they'd set them onto the arms of bowel. And then there'd be this fury, this screeching and howling so they couldn't hear the screams of the babies. Sing louder, lest you hear the screams of those going to Auschwitz. It's the economy, stupid. It's the idolatry of pleasure, the idolatry of prosperity. Millions and millions of babies aborted in the name of pleasure, sexual pleasure. It's my body. I can do what I want with it. The arguments in the in the abstract, no, this is not a choice. This is a life. This is a baby, and you don't have the power of choice to kill anybody. Not according to God's word. Verse 21, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils. We have a conflict. There's a conflict here, light and darkness. There's a conflict and there's no compromise. There's no negotiation. It's God's way or the highway. It's lighter, it's darkness. You're a saint or you're an eight. You're saved or you're not. There's no in betweeners. There's no negotiating, pilot. There's no washing your hands of this evil. You can't just wash your hands of the COVID jab that's killing millions of people and act like, oh, it's business as usual. We're just gonna deny that it even happened. We're gonna make excuses for those involved. No. There's lives at stake and if you don't deal with this, it's only gonna get worse. Famine's coming, pestilence coming, the sword's coming if you don't nip this in the bud, if you don't stop this. Your whole society is going down and your idol, the dollar, is going down. Your way of life's going down because you didn't put me first. You compromised with the world. There's no neutrality. Why should we flee from idolatry? The communion, the conflict, and thirdly and finally, the chastening. Don't you love how soft this message is? Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than him? Our God's a jealous God. As we said earlier, he's not gonna share his bed with another man. You're his bride. You're his virgin bride. There's just no way he's gonna allow you to be defiled. There's no way he's gonna share you. You're his. He made you. He purchased you. Poor Hosea. Hosea had a wife that was unfaithful, and the Lord illustrated a picture of her unfaithfulness and how much the Lord loved the nation of Israel, the wife of Jehovah, but he had to give her writing of divorcement because of her unfaithfulness. She went out to be a harlot. He tolerates no competition. He's intolerant of sin. He's intolerant of evil. There's no tolerance for these things. There's no DEI with God. Do you know what d e I is? They're pushing that acronym. Diversity. It means we need to be diverse and accept all sorts of lifestyles. Gays, lesbians, all. A friend of mine is trying to get some housing in the Kitsap County area and the person that's helping is a wonderful person, but she said, you're gonna wait a long time because you're white. Because you're a white male. Well, where's your diversity? I thought we're supposed to practice some diversity. I thought I didn't know we're supposed to be prejudiced. Diversity. Equity. Where's your equity? Where's the fairness? Inclusion. You've got to include everybody. Everybody's got to be allowed in. If you got too many white males, you got to get rid of the white males and bring in some transgender. You got to put people in your military in dresses and shave their head and wear lipstick, parading around in high heels. What message does that send to Russia and China and the world? You guys are not jobs. You're not to be taken serious. Ludicrous. As I told you, the way that we could be a megachurch is if I'd show up one day wearing a dress. I'd be a rock star overnight in the Seattle area. The only difference for me is I'd be a good looking woman, you know. You see how butt ugly those people are? Oh, so degrading to women. And women are so beautiful. And these guys, just stop it, you guys. Stop it. I love women, and you're ruining it. God made them beautiful, and you guys are wolf. Buzz girlfriend. Watch Home Alone, wolf, Buzz girlfriend. Oh, yeah. Just a child. Can't wait for my grandkids to get home. In Exodus 20 verse four, thou shall not make under thee any graven images or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shall not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God. Now apparently, that made Oprah angry that God would be a jealous God. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third and the fourth generation then that hate me. God takes it personal. God considers you the bride of Christ. He considers you the wife of Jehovah nation of Israel. He's not gonna share you with these false deities, the little g gods of the world. Deuteronomy four twenty four, the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. You you can't you can't games with him. You either love him with all your heart or not at all. There's no in betweeners. There's nobody almost saved. When you get saved, when you come to Christ, you you surrender all. You're surrendering it all to him. You don't you don't bring in other things into the relationship that that have the uppermost in your heart. So what is an idol? What is an idol? It's the master passion of your life. What is the master passion of your life? If the master passion of your life is Jesus, you're in a good place. If the master passion of your life is pleasure or power or money, things, materialism, that's an idol in your life. That's something you need to get rid of. Psalm seventy five fifty eight says, they provoked him to anger with their high places and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. So what they would do is they put it out in the outlying areas to begin with, then it encroaches and it comes into the city. The city of Corinth that Paul's addressing had a had a a some prostitutes, men and women, just outside the city that would come down from an upper area and come into the city offering themselves as temple prostitutes under the sailors, under all those that were in the city. And, so these places of idolatry were all over, this area. And Corinth was like a New Orleans or a Vegas or that sort of a place. So it was it was a heightened place. Fornication was huge, so it wasn't something outside their minds. He's trying to educate them and help them understand that their commitment to Jesus needs to be a 100%. Hebrews ten thirty one, it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God. Flee idolatry. Idolaters shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Make no mistake about it. Prevelation 21 verse eight. The fearful and the unbelieving and the abominable and the murderers and the whoremongers and the sorcerers and the idolaters is in the list. And all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death. So you gotta be born again. If you're born once, you're gonna die twice. Death is separation from God physically, your body and soul away from God, and spiritually, eternally, as you appear before him at the great white throne judgment, and he says away from me, I never knew you. You the practice iniquity. You didn't have a relationship with me. So God is warning us to flee idolatry while we can. Religion can't save us from our sins, only relationship with the true living God will save a man. God's desire is that you would know him, that we would know him, that we might enjoy communion with him for all eternity. But each man, each woman must choose. In order for this love relationship to be meaningful, he didn't make you artificial intelligence. He didn't make you a robot. He didn't program you to love him. He gives you the free moral agency, the power of choice to choose whether or not you will love him or hate him. And there's no in between. You either love him with all your heart or you hate him. No compromise. You cannot drink verse 21, the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils. He says, flee idolatry. Flee like Joseph did. Flee from Potiphar's wife. Flee fornication. Run to Jesus while you can. All that the father gives me shall come to me, Jesus said in John six. And he that comes to me, I'll know why is cast out. It's your choice. Flee to Jesus. Run from idolatry. Run from the things that are trying to bring you into bondage. Jesus came to set the captives free. You're once an idolater. You're once a demoniac, but he's delivered you of the demons. He's delivered you of the bondage you're once in. He wants your love. He wants you. He doesn't care about your money. He's got all the money he needs. He's not broke. He just uses money to test, to prove where your heart is, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. He wants your heart. He wants your worship that you would ascribe worth unto him, that you would value him above all else, above everything else, including, and most importantly, you'd value him above yourself. Run to Jesus while you can. Drink the cup of the Lord. Partake of his body. Jesus said, take, eat. This is my body broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Worship only him. Only him. Flee from idolatry. You remember Peter? This night before the cock crows, you're gonna deny that you even know me? What did Peter do? Peter lingered. He lingered at the enemy's fire. Are you lingering at the enemy's fire? Are you playing with fire? Are you toying with your relationship with God? Not valuing your relationship with God? Are you allowing the things of the world, the demons to deceive you? Are you trying to incorporate the darkness and the things of the world? A double minded man is unstable in all of his ways. It's it's Jesus or or not Jesus at all. It's all Jesus or no Jesus. He will not tolerate idolatry. Flee idolatry. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the seriousness of your word, Lord, as you snatch us out of the fire, some of us. Some of us that are warming ourself at the enemy's fire, compromising, backsliding, falling away. And Lord, we thank you that that look that you gave Peter was not one of condemnation, but one of restoration. Peter, you may have failed. We fail, Lord. But Lord, you're there knocking on the door of the church of Laodicea, a church that's kicked you out in an apostate last days church that's lukewarm, a deceived church, a delusional church, a church that's blind, who's fallen in love with the things of the world and have diminished and degraded and devalued their relationship with you, who are practicing idolatry, materialism, pride. And you're knocking on their hearts, you want fellowship, you want communion. You're knocking and you're letting them know that if any man hear your voice and open the door that you'll come in and what's up with them, that you want communion, that you want fellowship. And Lord, we want fellowship this morning. We want communion. And Lord, you're the one that binds us together. You're the one that joins us. You're the one. Lord, you're that loaf. You're that bread that as we partake of you, Lord, it brings us all closer to you and to each other being of one accord, one heart, of one mind. So help us, Lord, to flee idolatry. The things that compete in our hearts for that upper most place that's only for you. The altar of our heart. Lord, rain. Rain in our hearts, Lord. While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, as you continue to pray, and no peakers, no peakers. Is there anyone here that you don't know Jesus, you don't have a relationship with Jesus, but you want to? We wanna give you an opportunity. He came on to his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the children of God, the sons of God. Are you receiving Christ now? Are you turning from your sins in repentance? Are you confessing in your heart, Lord, I've been an idolater. Lord, I don't want a divided heart, a double mind. Lord, I want you to reign supreme in my heart and life. Lord, I want a love relationship with you. Just lift your hand up. The Lord Jesus, come into your heart and life. Let him clean your life up. Let him wash and cleanse. Let him sweep the house. Get rid of all the junk, all the stinky stuff that's in there. You come as you are, here and now. Anyone here this morning? Father, thank you that Lord, there's now therefore no condemnation of those that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Lord, you desire a people that would worship you in spirit and truth. Lord, we desire to be those people. We desire to be a people that in a time of conflict, in a time in which we live in, that we would be worshipers. That we'd bring glory and honor unto you, that we would have a uncompromising attitude and heart and mind and and lifestyle that says no to evil, not on our watch. No compromise. Lord, we're gonna stand for you. Lord, help us to stand. Help us to be steadfast, immovable, always and abounding in the work of the Lord for we low know that our labor's not in vain because you raised yourself from the dead, and you're coming again soon. 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.
