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1 Corinthians 10:23,11:1 -Free To Glorify God- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-07-07
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First Corinthians chapter 10 beginning with verse 23. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles that eat, asking no question for conscience sake. For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, then you be disposed go, whatsoever is set before you eat, asking no questions for conscience sake. But if any man say unto you, this is offered and sacrificed unto idols, eat not for his sake that showed it for conscience sake, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Conscience I say not thine own, but of the other. For why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? For if I by grace be partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks. Whether therefore we eat or drink whatsoever we do, do all the glory of God. Give none offense neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God. Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own prophet, but the prophet of many, that they may be saved. Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Father, thank you once again for your holy word. Lord, we're living in an age, a time as you know of apostasy, a falling away from the truth, and I thank you, Lord, that we can meet this morning, gather together around your word. We ask that you'd be our teacher. We ask that you'd open the scriptures to our understanding, that we'd be edified, built up, strengthened, that we'd fall more in love with you, that we'd be more equipped to share the glorious good news of your coming kingdom, that we'd glean and understand the prophetic time clock that we're that we're living through Lord in these last days. And Lord, pray that you'd be glorified all day long, all night long, every day, every moment of every day. God, that you would receive the praise, the honor, and glory that's through your name. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Would you please be seated? As Christians, we enjoy tremendous liberty secured for us by Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary. He saved you and I from being slaves to sin. Every now and then, we'll we'll see a person snatched from the devil and go through a whole process of being converted, being a new creation in Christ Jesus and getting victory over the world, the flesh, the devil. It's For some, it's instantaneous, and for others of us, there's some areas of instantaneous, you know, relief and liberty and such, but others, you know, will struggle too from time to time. And it's in that struggling, it causes us to be humbled and broken before God and rely upon the Holy Spirit to an even greater measure, and to yearn for that day where we can throw off this old body, this old nature that's warring against the the spirit, the new nature that we're we've entered into. But as long as we feed the spirit, we walk in the spirit, we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh and, the world, the flesh, the devil that are warring against us, and we just so, you know, enjoy the victory we have that we don't need to be slaves to sin. And then we hear about somebody, that we love, one of our our friends, family, and they they backslide. They wind up, going on a bender, maybe drinking or go to Vegas and crystal meth or whatever it may be, and it just absolutely breaks our heart, breaks their family's heart. They hadn't done something like that in fifteen, twenty years. How could they go back to the pigpen? How could it happen? And and we're reminded of the, you know, how precious our liberty is, how precious our freedom is. And we don't wanna take it for granted. We don't want to test God and and see how far we can get to the world and, you know, not get burned, you know, playing with fire and such. And so every now and then there's a reminder, you know, cherish this freedom, enjoy this freedom, but cherish it. You know, really cherish it and thank the Lord day by day simply because, we're not slaves to the devil, the world, the flesh, and the devil. In Hebrews two fifteen, it says, he came to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. The bondage of the world, the flesh, the devil, the bondage of being dominated, in this in this life, but Jesus came to set the captives free. In Isaiah forty two seven, his mission was to open the blind eyes. So there's a spiritual darkness. We don't understand the light. We don't know God. We are walking through life and we have no inclination of who he is, and so we're blinded spiritually. To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and then that sit in darkness out of the prison house. And so, you know, it's it's such a radical thing when maybe you've been religious and you've gone to church your whole life, but you've been walking in spiritual darkness, blindness. You didn't really didn't know God. And then one day, the Lord ministered unto you like the apostle Paul. You're a very religious person heading toward Damascus to be zealous and wipe out Christians and all. And the Lord is shining bright at noon, you know, brighter than the noon sun, the Shekinah glory of God, and you hear a voice and the guys that are with you can hear something, but they can't articulate what's going on. But you hear, Saul Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who art thou Lord? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. Can you continue to kick against the goads? And we see Paul blinded and going on into the city, the street which is called Straight and to a house of to a home there, where Annas Annas the prophet's gonna meet with him and the Lord's going to have him, lay hands upon the apostle Saul of Tarsus, the apostle Paul, and the scales are gonna come off of his eyes, and he's praying. Behold, he's praying, and, and his life has transformed and changed radically. He would later call himself the chiefest of sinners. He would later describe himself as a blasphemer, one that wasted the church, and he did it in ignorance. He did it in spiritual blindness, but thinking that he was the pharisee of pharisees, that he was the greatest, that he was gonna be the greatest of his era, and yet he was delusional, wasn't he? And so he always wanted to try and make up for. He always wanted to, by God's grace, to give back unto the Lord, not that he could earn his way or earn back, but just simply as an expression of worship that, he would spend the rest of his life living a life of thankfulness. Lord, I'm gonna live a life of worship and thankfulness unto you as I offer myself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto you, which is my reasonable servant act of worship because I was so incredibly blind. I was going the opposite way, and you arrested me, awakened me. And Paul never went back into the big pen. He never backslid and went back into the old life of Saul of Tarsus. He was so grateful day by day by day by day, no matter what trials came his way, to walk in that liberty, that he's that he's describing here to the church at Corinth. In John eight thirty six, Jesus said, if the son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. So this new freedom we enjoy over the bondage of the world, the flesh, the devil comes with responsibilities. So Paul outlines three responsible ways of utilizing our freedom. So the responsible use of our freedom, number one, is to be considerate. We've gotta be considerate of, those around us and, you know, the the limits of that freedom or that power, if you will. Verse 23, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. So the first consideration, how will this freedom affect me personally? This freedom that I'm enjoying, how will it affect me personally? It says all things are lawful for me, which speaks of a tremendous freedom, freedom from sin. God's revealed will, in my life. And so how how how do I consider this? What's that gonna mean? This freedom that I enjoy. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. So I have the liberty, but I need to ask the question, is it profitable? I need to do a profit loss. I need to evaluate every single liberty that people put out there as Christians. Maybe you're a Christian that likes to drink wine or drink alcohol, and you say, hey, I've got this liberty to do this, or I got a liberty to go over the casino over there after this, or or I can watch a certain kind of movie. I have a liberty to do that. I'm not under the law. And now doing that, exercising that, does it have the potential to build you up and draw you closer to Jesus, or does it have the potential to tear you down and and wipe you out? What if you got transferred in your job and you began to work in in Las Vegas? And if you didn't go, you didn't know where you're gonna work. But now you're in Vegas, you say, hey, I've got great liberty. I'm free. I've been I've been walking close to the Lord for over twenty years now. That gambling and the drugs and the women and the song and the men and and whatever it is that's your area of weakness, the world, the flesh, the devil, that's not gonna affect me. It's not gonna affect me. I'm gonna be strong. I can do it. I can I can win Vegas to Christ, you know? You're delusional, aren't you? You're delusional. But hey, you go there thinking you can. And, but as the prophet, Clint Eastwood once said, a man needs to know his limitations. Right? And, you are in over your head, little boy. And so, you need your wife, your children, your family, you need your church body. And there's some good churches down there. I I if that ever happened to you, that scenario, make sure you get into a church. Make sure you're in bible study with people surrounding you because, they're adept at work in the casinos as as card people and all the other different kinda businesses and stuff associated with it, but, they're they don't wanna go back to the big pen either, and so they'll be able to help you stay stay away from the temptation, to try cocaine just one more time, to try heroin one more time, to look at that pornography just one more time, and it's that one more time that, takes you down. So all things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient, which means profitable. So you ask the question, hey, I've got this beer, I've got this brandy, I've got this these gummies, I got the pot, whatever may be the thing you like. Is this gonna draw me closer to Jesus? That's how you evaluate it. Profit and loss. Yeah. I can do it, but is it gonna draw me closer to Jesus? If it's not gonna draw you closer to Jesus, do you wanna be neutral? You just wanna be neutral in your walk with the Lord? Don't you wanna be doing things that stimulate and cause you to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ? Now you also have to ask a question, does it have the potential of loss? What's the potential of loss? Could it take me away from the Lord? Could it take me down a path? A friend of mine in California, his wife was praying real hard for him to get saved, and finally, he started going to church with her and all, and he was sober for the first time in years and years and years, and he went to a bible study men's meeting and the guys were drinking. And he fell, and he spent years again with drugs and alcohol before he finally rested away from it. And he's walking fine with the Lord today, but he'll tell you, it wasn't at a bar. He didn't go looking for it at a bar. It was one of these Christian groups where these guys think they're cool hipsters. You know, do you wear the skinny jeans and think you're a hipster? You know? Not me. Not me. And so when they were all going through that phase, what would Jesus brew? And all these different youth groups and people and churches around here are smoking the cigars and playing poker and the guys that meet on Tuesdays, they have their brews, you know? Cause they're so cool, you know. And DUIs, brokenness, broken homes, that's where it leads to in many cases. And then there's others like my dad that can have a beer a day and, doesn't affect him at all. It's just part of part of the way he is, his constitution if you will. He's tried, or he's he's refrained from drinking a beer a day twice and both times he passed the kidney stones. He said, never again. I'm a drink a beer a day at least, you know. So whatever it is about his body, he needs that sort of lubrication, and and that's that's the way he rolls, you know. So all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. So expedience is is it profitable? Edify is to build up. Will this build me up? Will it build my family up? If my wife and I go away on a little getaway and they give us, some wine to drink, does it have the propensity to maybe tear my wife down, to break her down, to lead her back to where she was before we met, before we got married? Or does it enhance the relationship? Is it a good thing? Is it something gonna draw me closer to Christ? Is it something that's gonna build us up in our relationship with Jesus? Because without building up our relationship in Jesus, again, we're in that neutral place where we don't know if we're gonna be able to resist temptation as it comes as it comes our way. Alcohol, drugs, a lot of the pleasurable things that are so called neutral things disarm us. And so we would be on guard, we'd be armed in most cases, but if we're one drink, two drink, three drinks, or one joint, whatever you do, and and you know you know that I'm kidding about pot. Pot is definitely pharmakia. You shouldn't be doing that. But, from a distal standpoint, your gummies that you like to pop while you're here, you're getting all anxious, I guess that's okay. But, but in any event, you you want to make sure that you're being built up and the people around you are being built up. And then you need to evaluate your children, your household. What kind of household do you want? Is this gonna edify? Build up my household. What if one of my kids have a weakness in this area? Will she spend or he spend the next twenty years in and out of, you know, rehab places because they didn't have that that, strength maybe that you have in exercising that liberty, and it's a it's a, you know, it's a means of weakness to them. David had a weakness with women. It came back to bite him. Samson had weakness with women. It came back to bite him. And so many that think they're strong, take heed, lest you fall. If any man thinks he stands, take heed, lest he fall. So better to be protected and protect yourself and know your limitations than to venture off in a way that, potentially, could destroy you. So the movies may be entertaining, but do they build you up as a Christian? Is it profitable to you, and your family? The f bombs, the cursing, all these different things. What kind of what kind of things do you want your kids, your grandkids to be listening to? You know, all these things need to be evaluated. Well, we're gonna just fast forward through it, you know, the bad part. It's got one bad part. We're gonna fast forward through it. Okay. I I hope I hope it doesn't stick, you know. How much, How many chocolate chip cookies with just tiny bit of dog poop in them, you know, can you circulate to people, you know, without them, tasting, you know, tasting a bit of the defilement? And, oh, it's just a tiny bit. It's just a tiny bit of porn. It's just a tiny bit of nude scene, you know. Well, I've got some chocolate chip cookies for you. You know, let's let's experiment here. How far do you wanna go? You'd say, that's crazy, pastor Rick. Well, a little 11 eleven's a whole lump. You allow a little bit in, it has the potential to permeate and to lead to even greater, greater, and greater because you have to keep increasing the stimulation, you know. Now I love how many of you are refusing, to watch a lot of the Disney movies because you recognize as a family person, as a mom, a dad, grandma, and grandpa, you're they go woke, they're gonna go broke. Right? You're not gonna you're not gonna indulge in the witchcraft, the occult, the l b g t q type stuff. They're not gonna ram it down your throat or or your your kid's throat and all. And yet, I watch many Christian parents fail in the time of the Harry Potter series. It deeply deeply grieved me how many so called Christians in our church, you know, began to boast about, well, at least our kids are reading. Well, they're getting an introduction to witchcraft, to the occult. Why would you why would you there's other books they can read. How about the bible? You know? I mean, imagine that. Imagine learning to read by reading the bible. Well, that's boring. Well, we got a spiritual problem here then. We got a bigger problem than If you if you're thinking the occult is a greater stimulation than the bible, we've got a huge problem. And that's that's what's happening with this apostasy. We've fallen away from the truth. The very first textbook that the United States government commissioned to be printed was the bible. You know? The King James bible is written in an eighth grade level. So reading and writing arithmetic, you know, the the bible, the McGuffey readers in the bible, you know, that's, that's the way that people started. And, you don't need a lot of this sexualization that's really not learning. It's indoctrination. It's brainwashing. It's pollution. It's defilement. And so be so careful because a lot of the little things in even the cartoons, the Disney cartoons and such are a means of defilement, and wanting to get that filth, that sewer into the brains of our children, the young impressionable minds, those innocent beautiful wonderful minds. Wanna keep them as pure and innocent and protected from this world, you know, as long as we can. And so consider God's word in in Acts chapter 20 verse 32. I commend you to God and to the word of his grace. So Paul's talking to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, face of three years he neglected not night and day to, give them the full counsel of God with tears and all. And so he he poured his life out for three years in the city of Ephesus that these people get rooted and grounded in the faith, that they would be disciples, that they'd be instructed in doctrine. And from Genesis to Revelation, doctrine. Imagine that. Jesus asked Peter, do you love me feed my sheep? Imagine that pastors, your job is to feed the sheep. Feed them the word of God. Tend the sheep. Give them the word of God. All scripture is given by inspiration. It's God breathed, the inspiration of God. And is profitable. There you go. Profitable for doctrine. Doctrine is instruction for doctrine. For correction instruction in righteous that the man of God may be equipped thoroughly furnished every good work. So that's the job of the pastor is equip you to equip the saints in Ephesians four for the work of the ministry. You need to be equipped first before you go serve the Lord. And the way you're equipped and the ongoing equipping is to continually be in the word of God and have a good working knowledge of the scripture. To be able to allow the Holy Spirit to bring to remembrance the word of God, which is able Paul says here, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace. So Paul says, I'm not gonna be here, so I'm commending you to God. God's gonna watch over you, but also the word of his grace, his unmerited favor, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance inheritance among all them which are sanctified, which means set apart, made holy. By faith, it's in Jesus. And so, you know, the word of his grace, God's grace, his his the holy word of God, not psychology, not the philosophies of this world, but the word of God that's able to build us up. The second consideration, how will your freedom affect others? He says, verse 24, let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth. So not self centered, esteem others better than ourselves. Consider others, as I said, consider your children, consider your wife, your husband, consider those in your sphere of influence, how your liberty, exercising that liberty may affect others. Philippians two verse four, look not every man on his own thing, but every man also on the things of others. So today, when we're eating across the street there, don't let anybody know that that food was purchased at a temple, some temple somewhere. No. They don't do that anymore, do they? But, you know, don't try to slip in Bill Gates synthetic foods and that sort of thing. That would stumble me. And, no crickets, no roaches, you know, none of that stuff. Just real real good stuff. You know, nowadays, the moms and dads, I mean, you watch my grandkids, they'll tell you that's, no, you can't eat that papa. That's r 23 red dye, man. That's bad. That's bad papa. Ezra will tell you, that's bad r twenty three. Don't you know that's r twenty three? You know, I'm like, r twenty three. Okay. Okay. You know? And just everything's poison nowadays. You gotta have organic, organic, organic. Alright. I got it. I got it. I got it. And, so, you know, no cookies, nothing. No processed foods. You gotta eat you gotta go to the bare bones real. So carnivore. We're gonna do some carnivore celebration today. Now I can roll with that. That's good. And I hear it's very difficult to get fat if you eat real food. That it's processed food that puts the pounds on us. All the sugar, all the junk, all the everything. So maybe there are some consideration here with our diets, you know, before they poison us and kill us with all the the poisonous foods and all. Now, if you love all that sugary stuff and all that, just be loving and kind toward, well, I have a real weakness with this, so don't don't hold it around me. It's very very difficult and, very difficult for me to, avoid sweets. It's like super super hard for me. It's my it's my kryptonite, man, and it'll kill me. But I do know that if I do stay away from it, or in moderation, that's my problem. I do everything to extremes. So if I give into it, it's like binge time, and, that's really bad. Really bad at night and bed eating a whole pie yourself, you know. So that that pie eating contest out there, don't leave any pies because if they go home with me, I might pound one down tonight and and I'll be so miserable tomorrow. I'll be backsliding and and confessing my sin. Oh lord, why'd I do that again? So will your will your freedom stumble him? Are you willing to sacrifice your liberty for him? And so we have to refrain in many cases. We have to deny ourselves. We not do certain things around certain people because it might, stumble them. So whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat asking no questions for conscience sake. So be quiet about it. Don't don't say where you bought this from, you know. Verse 26, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. So Paul's reaching back to a Psalm to say that, hey, everything out there, you know, that God produced is good to eat. The the real God food, if you will. Psalm 24 verse one. So another way they analyze this is they say, look at the ingredients. If there's one ingredient, it's good for you to eat. God made it. If there's a whole list of ingredients, it's bad stuff, it's processed. What we're watching in many cases is Kathy will buy some apples. And she she did buy a watermelon the other day and it tastes like a watermelon. Once you got a good one, it's like, woah, this this this this is tasting like it's supposed to taste. You go get a melon, cantaloupe, and it tastes like insecticide, and you get to, what what did they do to this, you know? So it's hit and miss a lot of times getting food. Now one of the ways you can tell that the food is unfit for use, you know, to eat is those apples have been there for two months and they've never rotted. They're just cruising and they're bigger than, you know, most apples. Well, that's genetically modified apples, you know. Those aren't those nice Washington heirloom type seed ones that grow in this state. These are these are ones that have been genetically modified for profit. Same with the oranges, same with all of it. If it if it's fresh, it's gonna it's gonna wilt and go bad quickly. So it's not gonna sit there forever. So I'm learning a lot of this stuff, and why? Because I'm tired of being sick. I'm tired of them spraying me and poisoning everything I ingest and having to constantly cough with you, upper respiratory coughing all the time. It's getting ridiculous how much poisons, toxicity, you know, that they're throwing around at us. So when Paul says here, for the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof, that's where your food comes from. And there's no such thing as flatulence from cows causing the climate to climate idiocy. It's a it's a religious it's it's a means of control is what it is, this carbon tax credits and such. It's totally false. It's erroneous. It's false science. God gave you these animals for you to be on the top, them on the bottom. You're at the Adam, you know, Adam, be fruitful and multiply. You know? Rise Peter, kill and eat. These are for servicing for you and I and their renewable resource and you're the farmer, you're the steward, you're the one that that knows more about husbandry and taking care of the climate and the environment than anybody because it's your livelihood, it's who you are. If you allow it to erode and and, become poisonous, then then you're you're out of business, you know, you can't provide the food and all. So God provides these foods and, there's no shortage of it except man made shortages, scarcity. You know, like the ice this morning. It's a man made scarcity. It's idiocy. When you go to the grocery stores and there's a scarcity of food, they're creating the scarcity. They're blowing up all of the processing plants, over a 100 of them in America here, and wiping out, you know, our food processing, the farmers, and not allowing water to the farmers over in Boise, Idaho, the the growers of potatoes. So what? We're gonna have a food scarcity, and Bill Gates has a contract with McDonald's to provide potatoes for their french fries. I wonder if that's even real potatoes, know. Buying up all the farmland, they're creating a scarcity. So let me remind you why. Henry Kissinger said, if you control food, you control the people. You learn that from Stalin, you learn that from Mao, the amount of people they genocided, by simply starving them to death. Right? Then you have inflation. You have the food costs increasing. Your food budget rose over 30% in the last couple years, and it's there's no end in sight because supply and demand, you're not gonna take care of your farmers in The Netherlands, all over the world. You're gonna make it illegal for them to grow and, denying them water and such, but you're gonna sell that land to Bill Gates when they go broke. You're gonna sell it to the Chinese when they go broke, and water's gonna miraculously reappear when these other entities own these these these lands, and I've heard reports where they're actually taking topsoil and off of the land that they're buying in America and taking it back to China. We already know that they were bringing water back to China in these huge blobs and bringing food back to China, but we didn't know they're taking the very precious topsoil from some farmland and trying to, you know, bring it back, to China. So starvation up ahead, and, so what do we do? We garden, we we raise food, we work locally, and we try to take care of take care of business here. And so, every creature of God, first Timothy four verse four, every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Now, I don't wanna question the word of God, you know. I don't wanna every creature of God. So John the Baptist say locusts and wild honey. Okay. Alright. I need to research what that locust was, what's the protein content, because I'm not gonna eat Bill Gates mealworms. I'm just not gonna do it. Now he's got mealworm milk. Milk for mealworms, you know, and roaches and crickets and it and it's it's not even feasible economically. You can't get enough enough protein in your body eating crickets to make it even feasible economically to buy that many for what they but but they're just playing with us. They're just messing with us, you know. And you eat one good steak, and man, you got everything you need. I mean, and and that's vegetarian too because the the cows eat grass. I mean, get it? They eat grass. So you're even getting your salad in there. So it's pretty basic. Fruit is sanctified by the word of God and prayer, and that's, you know, so we pray over our food, and I can't emphasize enough to pray over your food. We're gonna pray over the food out there because that's really where it comes down to. Lord, if this food's tainted, if Bill Gates is trying to kill me, Lord, make this food, you know, without that appeal. He sprays all the avocados and everything with this stuff called appeal, and, man, they're trying to get the m n r n a spike protein in me even though I told them I don't wanna be jabbed, you know. And we're watching the statistics now on the jabs. It's off the charts. It's starting to come out. We're being vindicated. They're quiet as church mice, but they can't deny it. It's so overwhelming the amount of people that have died from the jab and right on time for the bird flu jab. Right? Right on time. So we're not that stupid. We're not gonna do it. We're not gonna comply. We're not gonna be in there, but our food. He says, well, you're all gonna get it. So they're gonna try to sneak it into the food. So even eating out at restaurants anymore, you have to pray about eating out at restaurants. What's where's the source of this food? And so my conscience is violated, so we I gotta pray. Lord, please. That guy working back there, I don't know if he if he blew his nose or what he did, you know. I don't know what kind of stuff, washed their hands, what's getting into my food, so I'm always always always wanting to pray over my food and ask God to sanctify and bless it. And and those are real things that happen. Police officers, when they go in to restaurants, it's notorious restaurants for having felon, ex felons working the grill, and if they see a police officer in uniform, they love to put something in the food out of their hatred for law enforcement. So it's a well known fact. So be careful. Mod Pizzas declaring bankruptcy. And, I'm gonna I don't know if I'm gonna miss that or not. I was kinda used to go there with my grandkids and make our own pizzas and stuff. But a lot of restaurants are going out of business. Gotta be careful. So pray over the food. So if any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, so you're going to the picnic today, you're invited to a feast, and you've been disposed to go whatsoever is set before you eat, asking no questions for conscience sake. But if any man say unto you, this is offered and sacrificed to idols, eat not for his sake that showed it and for conscience sake for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. So for me, I asked, where'd you get this? So I'm finding myself, we're buying our meat from Woodpecker Hill Farms, we're buying our meat from Sweeney's, we're buying our meat, and we're sourcing it. We're wanting to know where was this, you know, food raised. I'm not eating chicken anymore because Tyson chicken, they they wiped the chicken out. I'm not eating pork anymore because the Chinese bought the biggest pork manufacturer and they've got the m n r n a vax in pork and in chicken, but not in beef yet. So I'm on the safe side. I don't want that spike protein in me. So I need to source the food. So I'm gonna ask, where did you get this, you know? And and I hear that Sweeney's over Brownsville that I can get some chicken. I'm dying for some good chicken. And I haven't had, you know, chicken like I like to because I I don't trust it. I used to eat anything put in front of me. I still eat almost anything put in front of me, but I'm concerned. So if any man's saying to you, this is offered and sacrificed on idols, eat not for his sake that showed it. And for conscience sake, for the earth is the lord's and fullness thereof. Conscience I say, not thine own, but of the other, for why is my liberty judged in other man's conscience? So if you and I are gonna go out to a restaurant, we're gonna butt heads. I'm not eating the junk. I'm not gonna eat the stuff that comes off of some of those trucks. I'm not eating at these places anymore. I get sick. My wife gets sick. So out of respect for me and my wife, we're gonna have to eat somewhere, or you don't even need to eat with me, but if we're gonna eat, we're gonna eat somewhere that we don't get sick afterwards. Because the food I mean, maybe your constitution, your immune system's so strong eating that stuff, it never happens to you, but it does to us. So we look at it as medical insurance. We look at it as exercise, sleep, and eating good wholesome food builds up our immune system, and then we aren't as susceptible to adult onset diseases, which the Rockefellers have been trying to get us to succumb to, you know, from for a hundred years. And so that's how we roll, that's where we go, and I'd rather I'd rather pay a little bit more and make sure that I'm trying to stay as healthy as I can. It's no fun being sick. And we're getting so incredibly sick in this church always. Every week, there's more and more of us that have this upper respiratory ever since COVID, coughing, and phlegm, inflammation, and everything else you can imagine. I've never seen a time where there's so many people constantly battling just to be healthy. And if you think that flu shot in the in, you know, October is really for the flu, you're crazy. You need to reexamine your head. They're mixing all sorts of other things with the flu shots. They're trying to make you sick. If you haven't learned that, you need to learn it. So, anyway, the food across there is kosher. It's kosher. It's it's been vetted. It's it should be good. Don't ask. Don't ask where it came from. I know where what I'm eating, where it came from. And many of you, the stuff you're gonna give me, I'm not gonna ask any questions. Today is a a day of faith. Alright, Lord? If they went and bought it at so and such, oh, Lord, I gotta eat it, Lord. They want me to eat it. I'm the pastor. All this jello, the secret jello, I don't I'm not gonna ask any questions, man. Now the lumpia, know the lumpia is from God. That's a God food. So I I know I know I'm okay there. And, for if I by the grace be partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? So Paul say, you know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna have to deny myself. There's times where I'm around people with a weak conscience, I have a weak conscience. I'm weak concerning synthetic food. I'm weak concerning crickets and roaches and the junk they're trying to pass off. I'm I'm the weak guy. K? So if I don't eat it, you can eat it if you want. It doesn't bother my conscience. But what Paul's saying is, if there's somebody in a mixed group and somebody blurts out, that was from Joe's temple over there, know, offered to idols, demons. Paul's saying, man, I would have eaten it. Don't these guys understand it has no spiritual ramification at meat? All that matters is how the meat was processed, how they how they bled it and dealt with it and all. Oh, I was really looking forward to some, you know, carnivore afternoon. But what Paul will do is he'll say, alright, now I'm not gonna eat it. Not that my conscience is violated, but his conscience is violated, and I don't wanna stumble him. So I have to consider the person that's there. I've got this liberty, but I can't exercise this liberty because it it's gonna bother their conscience. So for if by grace for if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of that for which I give thanks? So be blameless. Don't give them anything to accuse you of. So your your responsible use of your freedom is you're committed and to the glory of God. He says, verse 31, whether therefore you eat or drink whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. So you're considerate and you're committed. I'm committed. The priority is everything I wanna do, I wanna do for the glory of God. The last thing I want is a big, big battle about meat and food and things that are neutral and cause, cause somebody to stumble, cause, now here's a cool thing. This is hydrogen water. There's one born every minute. Caught it all. Alright. There we go. Guys laughing at me. Just putting hydrogen in there. It's little bubbles. You can sing little bubbles. Look at that. It's like getting water from a fresh stream. So whether therefore you eat or drink whatsoever you do, do all the glory of God. So that will your exercise of your freedom, will it glorify the Lord or not? Will it become a big battleground? What type of things do churches divide over? Well, we divided over the potlucks, you know. There were the vegans against the against the soy boys and the carnivores, you know. And it was it was really sad the way the pastor always made fun of the soy boys, you know, the guys in the skinny jeans and all. Well, I gotta tone that down. Okay? I gotta tone that down and recognize that we're all at different different places, different things. And and I've told you that I know how to build a a prosperous big church is the day that I show up wearing a dress, you know, that I'm looking for numbers, you know? Because, that with Seattle nearby, this church would be on the news, and, and I'd be a good looking woman, I'll tell you that. So I'd draw a lot of people. Okay. So exercise my freedom to the glory of God. So King David thought he was free as a king to seduce another man's wife. Is that what freedom is, the proper use of freedom? Hey, go get me Bathsheba's get me Bathsheba. She pleases me. Who is that woman? That's the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of your mighty men. That's the granddaughter of Ahithophel, one of your wise douj. And, well, you know, we're all under grace, I'm gonna pull the grace card out. And, you know, in time when kings go out to battle, I'm idle. I'm here on the palace. I've got a harem of women already. God's given me victory over king Saul, and I'm in a time where I can kinda let my guard down and look at her. She's beautiful. She's bathing there. Go get her. She pleases me, you know. And I get to do whatever I want. I don't have to live by the same standards as everybody else. And so now you're telling yourself, well, you know, it's all about love. You know, it's all about love. Love wins. It's sloppy agape. And the grace card, it's license, I can do whatever I want. And then a year later, the Lord in his grace and mercy toward you, he sends Nathan the prophet and he says, David, you're the man. Not that man. You're the man that gives great occasion of the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme God's name because you exercise sin and you misconstrue it as liberty that you're free to do whatever you want. You didn't do it for the glory of God. The word glory speaks of worthy of praise or exaltation, beauty, brilliance, renown. So what is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy him forever. God has intrinsic glory because of who he is. So if I'm Job and I'm worshiping the Lord when the Lord blesses me with everything, I'm bringing glory and honor unto the Lord. Satan says that's an easy thing. And then when the Lord takes it all away, we see the integrity of Job and that God's worthy of glory be intrinsically because of who he is. Simply because he's God. The Lord giveth, Lord taketh away, blessed be, the name of the Lord. And then also ascribed glory, as we recognize his attributes of his greatness, his holiness, his love, his kindness, as we meditate. A w Tozer has a real good book if you want, where you can read concerning the attributes of God. So you do a study, look in the multifaceted aspects of God's character and what makes him great and why we glorify him. So how do we glorify God? In Joshua seven nineteen, by confessing our sin as Achan did. If there's sin in the camp, if God's saying, hey, I'm gonna give you a great victory at Jericho and then I'm gonna have you go up against the Ammonites, the city of Aaiah is up there, send a couple thousand, send some guys up to go scope it out, check it out, and the guys come back and say, they're just a small, you know, handful of people. We don't need to send everybody up there. We can send just a couple thousand up there. But the Lord had indicated in the overthrow of Jericho that he didn't want the children of Israel with Joshua and his people to keep any of the spoil. None of the Babylonians garments, none of the gold, none of the silver, none of it, buried all, all the spoil belongs to God. And and then they go up against those men of AI and they discomfit the Israelites, they they whoop on them, beat them. So Joshua is bummed. Joshua the general, he's he's like new at war, he's like, what happened? How come we lost? How come we lost to this little group? You know, what's happening? And, the Lord indicated to Joshua that there's sin in the camp. And the sin of the camp is somebody disobeyed. And so they went through each tribe and each family, and they came down to the family of Achan, and, in Joshua chapter seven, and Joshua indicated to Achan, don't keep the glory away from the Lord. Glorify the Lord by confessing your sin. The Lord is glorified, and then it comes, you know, out in the open. Don't try to cover it. And so, confess that sin, and that's what Achan did, and then they surrounded the house of Achan. They grabbed him and his family, his children, everybody. They stoned him and and dealt with him there in Joshua seven nineteen. In Romans chapter four verse 20, we're told that Abraham glorified the Lord because he believed God. Now the opposite of that is when we don't believe God, we quench the Holy Spirit, we grieve the Holy Spirit like the 12 spies that went up, 10 came back with an unbelieving report. And their unbelief permeated the hearts of the rest of the multitude, and Joshua and Caleb had to wait an additional forty years with a whole new generation of people to enter into the promised land because that older generation refused to believe. And so that that, how how we can so incredibly grieve and limit the holy spirit and what the holy spirit might wanna do in our congregation, our fellowship, our lives, our families, our kids, simply because of unbelief, simply because we don't believe. Think about them, the multitude of people today in the church that don't believe in the rapture. What what's that do to the congregation? What's that do to the moving and working of the Holy Spirit? I mean, so many churches today are anti rapture. Pastors are afraid to even mention it because people, you know, don't wanna hear it. Well, if you're afraid to mention the rapture, now you're afraid to mention the resurrection. Now you're afraid to mention eternity. Now you're afraid to mention, you know, I've gone to prepare a place for you. And if I've gone to prepare a place for you, I will come again. You know, so how do you teach through John 14? You know, let not your heart be troubled. Do you believe in God, believe also in me? In my father's house are many What do you do? You just cross over? Yeah. That's what they do. They just bypass huge sections of the bible. They find a spot that meets their, you know, their agenda. They're always teaching with their agenda. And, and so the agenda right now might be in the churches and our community, how to be a loving father. How to It's always how to. It's a how to messages. How to. It's He's a life coach and the life coach is gonna help you to have a better marriage, better daddy, better mommy, better at your finances. Oh, be better at your finances, write more checks to us. It seems they always come to that conclusion every time they every time they go into these whole things. And, it's always about the money, but it's also about making you feel good. But why does the rapture make somebody feel bad? The rapture is exciting to me. As pastor Barry Stegner once said, and I think he got it from Thomas Ice, you know, what problem do you have this morning that the rapture wouldn't solve? Yeah. That's right. You know? That's right. Well, that's escapism. Yeah. You're darn right. Yeah. I wanna escape. In fact, Jesus said, when you see these things begin to come to pass, you know, look up for your redemption draweth nigh. And he says, pray always that you may be able to escape these things and stand before the son of man. Where is the son of man? Location, location, location. I go to prepare a place for you in heaven. We're gonna we're gonna be raptured to heaven. We're gonna be raptured to the father's house. And, the whole part of the Jewish, four parts of the Jewish, wedding, you know, ceremony there in heaven, and, the fetching, the rapture, and then we're gonna return with the marriage supper of the lamb upon earth, gonna rule and reign with Jesus for a thousand years. What's negative about that? Why why are people afraid of eschatology or the last days teaching and that of the bible? Abraham, he believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Well, the Lord told him when he is 75 that he and Sarah that they'd have a multitude of kids. That in your seat all nations of the earth would be blessed. But God had to set the stage. God's maybe setting the stage in your life. Things that he spoke to you when you were younger, and years have gone by, and you haven't entered into those things or things that you knew you heard from the Lord. Abraham and Sarah were so confused about did we hear from God or not that we went into Hagar and brought forth an Ishmael. Oh, that Ishmael might live before you. No. And then there's a thirteen year silence and the Lord appears to Abraham and Sarah. He's 90 and nine, she's 80 and nine, And the lord comes into camp with two angels. Two angels are gonna go check out Sodom and Gomorrah, but they come into camp and this time next year, Sarah's gonna conceive and bring forth a child, and you're gonna call him laughter. Your tent's gonna be filled with laughter. And she's laughing incredulously, but he's he's excited because he knows it's true. But in chapter 17, when the Lord brought this subject forth, he believed God. And Romans four verse 20 says that God imputed him. It's an accounting term. God credited to his account for righteousness because he gave glory to God and that he believed them. If he didn't believe in God, then it would grieve God, and we read in the book of Hebrews how they greatly limited God through their unbelief, the murmuring, complaining, and all, and they failed to enter into God's rest because of unbelief. So Abraham was able to rest in the promises of God. You and I are able to rest in the promise of God. They're yay and amen. He's gonna fulfill everything he's ever said. And and so too with Israel. Why are people so against Israel, this anti Semitism that's building? I mean, God's promises to Israel, the church does not replace the nation of Israel. No if, ands, buts about it. We're a blindness in part has happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. So we're rejoicing in that Israel's in the land according to Ezekiel thirty six and thirty seven. We're excited because we have a time clock. We know that, hey, the time is ticking. We know we're at we're at the end of the age, if you will, because of Israel being in the land. And then the emphasis upon a one world government, the emphasis upon a one world religious system, the emphasis upon a one world monetary system. We know in Revelation 13, Revelation 17, Daniel two, Daniel seven, we know there's going to be the world divided into 10 regions with 10 kings over over the planet. And we know there's gonna be a monetary system nobody can buy or sell without a mark of the right hand of their forehead. So we're excited and we give glory to God because we believe, we're trusting in him, we're trying to let people know that these things are so, that God's promised them, and so God and we're bringing glory to God. It's not a it's not something to be ashamed of. The gospel's not something to be ashamed of, to bring forth the full gospel rather than watering it down and, you know, dissecting hell and sin and that sort of thing. No. Bring it. Bring conviction. Bring the power of the holy spirit. Allow God to convict. Allow the sinner to recognize his nakedness before God, and then bring the grace. It's the kindness of God that leads a man to repentance. Bring the kindness in that Jesus died in their place. It's a wonderful gospel. Doesn't need to be changed, doesn't need to be edited. We don't need to make it more user friendly. It's friendly enough. Jesus took all the pain, all the punishment. I don't know how it could be more friendly towards sinners, toward enemies of God, but yet we get caught in this user friendly church building kind of a thing and water it down and we fill the pews with a bunch of unbelievers. We try to appease the unbelievers and we bring no glory to God. Amen. And when COVID happened, you brought glory to God because you kept meeting, because you kept singing, because you kept partaking of communion when people told you you weren't allowed to. You chose to obey God rather than men. And by doing so, you brought glory to God. And you have many more decisions along those lines up ahead where the decision's gonna be, do I glorify God or do I glorify men? Do I try to save myself or do I deny myself? Herein is my father glorified that he bear much fruit. John fifteen eight. Suffering glorifies God. We in the church were not taught to suffer, taught about suffering, we're taught the opposite. The gospel that's sold today is the gospel of your best life now and that's what people want. They want feel good messages. But Peter says, first Peter four sixteen, if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God on this behalf. So you should be able to go away in Acts chapter four, rejoicing that you're counted worthy to take a whooping for Jesus. That you were thrown in jail. What's your crime? Well, we just continued to preach in his name. We were told not to preach in his name, not mention him anymore, but we couldn't refrain. We had to continue doing what God told us to do. And you guys decide whether it's right or wrong, but we're gonna obey God rather than men. And they turned the world upside down with that attitude and that, desire to simply, glorify God. So Peter says, hey, when you're suffering as a Christian, that's something to glory in. Don't suffer as an evil doer, that's that brings shame and dishonor unto the Lord. So praying, preaching, giving glorifies God. Verse 32, give none offense neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God. So three groups of people at the time. What group are you in? You're in the church age. The church is made up of both Jew and Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, male, female, whosoever will, let them come. We're in the church age presently. The church age is complete at the rapture. When the rapture comes, the church age has ended. What's the next age? Ephesians two verse seven, he's gonna continue to show his kindness unto us in the ages to come. You're in the church age. What's after the church age? Tribulation period. What's after the tribulation period? Millennium. The millennium. What's after the millennium? Eternity. Eternity. In the ages to come, on into eternity, the Lord's gonna continue to part his kindness. We've just started. This is just the beginning. The best is yet to come. Not your best life now. Complete opposite. And so give none offense, neither Jew nor to the Gentiles nor to the church of God. We're to be more concerned about the glory of God than our own rights. We take the wrong, we go the extra mile, we turn the other cheek, we love sacrificially for the glory of God. We don't wanna give any occasion like David did of the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme his name. So the responsible use of our freedom, number one, we're considerate. Number two, we're committed. Thirdly and finally, the responsible use of your freedom is to be Christ like. A Christian should be Christ like. People should see Jesus. The Greeks should come to Philip and say, sir, we would see Jesus, you know. Verse 33, even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved. So Paul's saying, you know, I'm not gonna be selfish in these things. I'm gonna try and find, you know, a group of people that I can gain, you know, an audience with that I can share, you know, the gospel. If I'm around the, you know, Kitsap County salad eaters, you know, then I'm gonna be a salad eater so I have a chance to speak there and and you know, and share the gospel. Know, I'm not gonna try and convince everybody that it's more holy to have a, you know, a rib eye or whatever. So I'm gonna take knowledge of them, and, I'm gonna I'm gonna try and not create such a such a fuss that I gain the ability to to share with them. So if I'm in Athens, Greece, and I see the city wholly given over to idolatry, completely given over, and they have have idols to every little god there is, you know, a myriad of different gods, polytheistic and all. Paul's saying, I'm looking for a launching pad. I'm looking for a way that I can gain an audience. And so, oh, I know, I'm gonna I'm going to jump off of this idol that they have represented as the unknown god. I'm gonna introduce them to the true and living god. And so I'm gonna quote some of their poets because I've studied. So I'm gonna quote some of the epicurean poets and some of their, you know, to gain a gain a connection, if you will, a hook, if you will, in the introduction, so that I can, you know, connect with him. When he was at the Antonio Fortress and the, they were trying to pull him apart, the pharisees and all were trying to pour him apart, and, the the captain that was there, the centurion and all, he didn't know what was going on. One of the ways Paul tried to connect with the Pharisees and all those that are pulling apart is he immediately began to speak in Hebrew. And that connected them. It they listened until he came to one word, Gentile. Once he came to the word, they picked sand up, they threw it in the air, you know, away from this man. So he's trying to find a way to gain the audience. You've got to study that group. You're a fisherman. You're Jesus said, I'll make you fishers of men. So as a fisherman, man, nowadays these fishermen, I I used to love to fish, but they got these little drone, little little lures now. How can a fish resist those things? They put them down in the water. You know, they're they're like, they're robotic. They're robotic. These little flies, you know, you just have to go catch a fly and let the fly do its own thing or you make it duplicate it. It's it's irresistible. So let the technology work for you and, be irresistible that you'd gain an audience with people to share the glorious gospel. You don't change the gospel message, but, we used to do concerts, we did prophecy conferences, we do all sorts of things to try and invite the community in, the high school kids and all, because we wanted a a stage set, if you will, to prepare the ground so that we had the blessing of sharing the gospel with these kids. And it was it was a huge huge blessing to be able to do that for many years, and I I I really really miss it because I get to meet with you guys. You guys are all saved. But in the day when we had the outreach at the Roxy, we would invite the whole community in, and and it was like having the high school there. On Friday nights, it was like having the high school with those kids in the bands and stuff. And many of them are Christians, and they would invite their, you know, invite their friends from school there, and then we had the huge blessing of sharing the gospel. And you never knew. You never knew if somebody get caught, if somebody get saved, but it was always exhilarating and exciting to at least, you know, wet the bait and put the bait out there, you know. In Matthew 20 verse 28, Jesus said, even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give his life a ransom for many. So Paul was out, wasn't out for Paul, he was out to reach people. In first Corinthians nine twenty two, the weak 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 I don't know how you'd apply that today to the weak you became weak. Maybe if you're as strong as me, maybe you go to the y and do water aerobics. Become like the weak, you know. Just do that, you know. I'm glad somebody got it. So it probably means to the weak, means I didn't eat cheeseburgers, I had a salad. Okay? And, so I ate the kind of food the weak people eat. And remember, I'm the weak person when it comes to the bugs. I'm not a stud. I'm not I'm not strong about eating bugs. I don't wanna be strong about eating bugs. I don't wanna go on a mission trip and eat bugs. I will offend them. I will offend them. I will have my own beef jerky with me. I am not gonna eat bugs. Okay? Paul is much more spiritual than me. Much more spiritual. I'm not that spiritual. Alright. So we got that covered. Chapter 11 verse one. Be followers of me even as I also am of Christ. So imitate me as I imitate Christ. Who can say that? You wanna be a Christian? Just follow me. You wanna see what a Christian is? Follow me. Paul's able to say that. And the wives and the husbands, there's no submission from a wife to a husband that isn't following Christ. There's no such thing. She's able to submit unto you as you submit unto Christ. Headshit. Christ is the head of the home. If she doesn't see you in submission to Jesus, she doesn't have to follow your idiocy. She can plant her feet and say, you know what? You're in sin. And if you don't stop, I'm gonna tell the pastor. I'm gonna bring it public. So you make sure that you're the example of laying your life down for your family. It's that godly Christ like leadership that's infectious, that people will follow. Because they're really not following following you, are they? They're following Jesus. They come to a place of being of one accord, of one mind, of one heart. They know that it's Jesus working in their home and in their marriage, that even if it doesn't work out, that all things are working together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. So be followers of me, as I also so qualified, as I'm also of Christ. In first Corinthians four sixteen, Paul says, be followers of me. I can't say that. I'm not a cult leader. I'm not as strong as Paul. So I'm not up here to say, hey, follow me. I'm saying follow Jesus. Follow Jesus. Keep your eyes on Jesus. I don't have that confidence Paul had. Be followers of me. In Philippians three seventeen, he says, be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as you have us for an example. So Paul's saying, there's a flow in every church and if you find that flow, if that flow is Jesus, if it's not to make the pastor a Christian celebrity or his books or whatever, if that flow is truly Jesus and the glory of God, then get in the flow. Just get in the flow. As you see the leadership, as you see the pastor willing to lay his life down, willing to forego rewards now, wait for his rewards in heaven, then you too can live a sacrificial life, deny yourself, take your cross up, and follow Jesus. And that's that's what I believe we as Christians wanna see. We wanna see the leadership be willing to take their cross up and follow Jesus. And when we see that, it's it can be infectious. It can be exciting. So be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as you have us for an example. So take note of those that that are also, you know, in the flow. If this church isn't in a flow that you like, don't try to change the flow. Find a different church with a different flow. Because I'm the most stubborn guy you're ever gonna meet. And many have tried, and that's why this church is so small because there's one word that makes people leave here, and that's the word no. Power struggles, man. It's all about Jesus. There's nothing to fight over. There's no leadership. There's no positions. Nothing to fight over. We're at the end of the age. We're at the end of this almost thirty years of doing this. It's only about Jesus. We're not gonna build a building. You don't need to fund my vision. Been there, done that, it's over. Just keep it on Jesus. Keep it on Jesus and his soon return, and we're all gonna get along great. And that's the flow that I wanna be in. I wanna be a part of the last days proclaiming the soon return of Jesus Christ. And no compromise, absolutely no compromise with this world. Zero. That could that that should set us apart from most of what's out there that calls itself Christianity. Those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you. So hypocrisy will not glorify God. Jesus said, woe unto you scribes and pharisees in Matthew twenty three twenty seven, the religious leaders. He said, you hypocrites hypocrites and actor. For you're like on the white whited sepulchers which indeed appear beautiful outwardly. So outwardly, they clean the outside of the grave sepulcher, whitewashed it, but are full of dead men's bones. Within you're full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness that which defiles. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you're full of hypocrisy and iniquity. That's why Jesus said in the sermon on the mount in Matthew five verse 20, he told his disciples, except your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees, you shall no wise enter the kingdom of God. And they're running around going, but they're masters at it. They stray and had a gnat. They're so kosher, so so worried about eating something that's not kosher. They strain all their food lest a gnat got in there, you know. That would render them unclean. These guys are masters at the outward. Jesus was illustrating the inward makes us all guilty. If you've looked upon a woman, you've already committed adultery. Even though outwardly you didn't do the act. If you're angry with your brother, inward, inward, you're already a murderer. So we're all guilty. So Jesus is saying, it has to go beyond the outward. These guys are masters of being hypocrites. Has to go way beyond that. Has to be inward. And you can't change your heart. You need your heart to be changed by God. You need to be born again. And so no Christ like character in these guys. Compromise with the world will not glorify God. And this, again, this is one of the most important things for me heading forward is no compromise with this world. Because life is going to be easier for us if we compromise. But I'm not asking you to do anything the Lord wouldn't tell you in his word, but there's no way that I'm gonna give into this world for a few moments of pleasure, a few moments of greater comfort. Because it's gonna come down to decisions. And these decisions, as we saw during COVID, you either wear the mask or you don't get to go in here. You either get the job or you don't get to you lose your job. More and more, they're gonna try and bring forth this sort of tyranny once again, and it's gonna affect the way that we worship the Lord. It's gonna affect when we can meet and how we meet and and all the above. It was a test. That was a test run. It's gonna get even more difficult. But what I discovered during COVID is the fellowship became even sweeter because I was gathering with people that Jesus was preeminent in their heart and mind, and there was no way they were gonna throw Jesus under the bus. It was incongruous to them. It was an oxymoron that their church, the first time in their lifetime, would shut down. The church is closed? For what? Somebody's got a cold. They've got a cold. Upper respiratory, a flu. Our bodies dropping? No. No bodies dropping. Not till now. Not till everybody's been jabbed. The church was deceived. And the pastors took the money, they shut the churches down, they taught the people to comply, they mistaught Romans 13, and I believe the real reason underneath all of it is money, pleasure, love of money. They didn't want to lose their opulent lifestyles. They knew if they went against the establishment, that they might follow through with their threats. JD Frog, he recently had a talk, now he's one that doesn't compromise. But he said something that I haven't said publicly, don't think, maybe I did, but I'm gonna quote him. He said he thinks the reason so many of them are quiet right now, unwilling to talk about COVID, the amount of people that are dying from it, that have been dying from it. That's the that's the one I'm screaming from the rooftops. The the media is silent about it. More and more media people are coming out now though. It's getting out. It's a genocide. Millions of people have died from this experimental mRNA spike protein, which causes great inflammation in the heart and all through the body, and people die suddenly, people die a little slower, the immune system's compromised and all, turbo cancers reappear. Just unbelievable statistics with the insurance companies and with the morticians and doctors and such, and it's coming out now all over the world. The Japanese especially, they're shouting from the rooftops. And he said, he thinks the reason the pastors are still so silent about this is number one, they took the money. And in taking the money and shutting down the PPE money, there's a clause in there, you don't have to pay it back as long as you stay quiet about it. Number two, JD said, it could be just as with the politicians, many of these celebrity big pastors have handlers and have files on them where the powers that be can roll the information out publicly about them to ruin them in their pasture. Thirdly, just like politicians that try to get off the reservation, for instance, Ross Perot, when he was winning against Bush, daddy Bush, it said that Ross Perot got a phone call that if you don't pull out of the race, you know, your daughter's life is in jeopardy. That's all they have to do, just threaten. Because they use the power of assassination, these guys. We don't. But they use it all the time. Look at the Clinton, the list of Clinton people that are dead, going against the Clinton dynasty or whatever. And so, anyway, JD said that some of these pastors, families and such are threatened. Now, a nobody like us, they don't care. You can say anything you want. Right? Doesn't matter. But some of the guys have a lot lot more to lose. And for me, I don't wanna lose my relationship with the Lord, that's all I got left. He's my portion forever. So there's nothing this world can dangle before me that is more important to me. And that's the value system that has been ingrained within me. So in first John two fifteen, love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If a man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life, think of Adam and Eve in the garden, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, the pride of life, is not of the father but of the world. And the world passes away and the lust thereof, he that doeth the will of God abides forever. So God's looking for some Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego's that wanna glorify God. Not an easy way out. God's looking for a Daniel that'll say, I'm gonna pray three times a day no matter what laws you guys enact. I'm gonna stand, and here's here's one you're gonna have to really check yourself. I'm gonna stand with some of the elderly women in wheelchairs in front of abortion clinics on the sidewalk and pray for these women going into these clinics. Why is that a courageous act? Because they're throwing them in jail right now. They're being thrown in jail for doing just that. And they're these are courageous men and women who are gonna stand for righteousness, and they're willing to be railroaded by a evil court system that would make them criminals. No free speech, nothing. So to be a Christian is to be Christ like. Friendship with the world will not glorify God. James says in James four verse four, friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. It's one or the other. It's either you're for him gathering with him or you're scattering abroad. You're either for Jesus or you're against him. There's no neutrality, Pontius Pilate. You're either a saint or you're an aint. You're either pregnant, there's no almost pregnant. There's no almost a Christian. You either have his seed in you and you're pregnant, you're you're one of him, one of his or you're not. No neutral place. No foot in the world and the foot in Christianity and find out later what happens because that's where the persecution comes in and exposes those who believe and those who don't. Second Corinthians six seventeen, wherefore come out from among them and be separate saith the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing and I'll receive you. So a separation from the world. We're in the world but not of the world. We're not worldly Christians. We don't act like the world. We don't emulate the world. We don't try to Christianize the world to get people to come to church. We're different. We're pilgrims. We're sojourners. We're strange. And I believe that's what the world wants to see. They want to see something different. They laugh at us when we try to be to Christianize the To make the world come into the church. So we are his church. The Greek word ecclesia means the called out ones. Those who separate themselves from the unclean thing physically, socially, ethically, morally, and spiritually. We do not want to be like the world. We seek to distinguish between the holy and the profane that we might use our liberty to what? To glorify God. It's okay to be different. It's okay to be laughed at. It's okay to be mocked. It's okay to to be like Jesus. It's okay to be like, how were they all treated? How were the prophets treated? How were the apostles treated? How are Christians treated in the first two centuries? All they had to do to live and fight another day was to pinch incense once a year and say Caesar is Lord. 6,000,000 of them in the first two centuries refused to do that one little thing. The state wants to be worshipped as God. The devil wants to be worshipped as God. And we say no, not gonna happen. I do always those things that please him, Jesus said. So whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Everything filtered, Every thought filtered. Every action filtered through the will of God. His revealed will and his word as you pray and yield to the Holy Spirit. Lord, here am I, use me. How can I be used of you? Father, we thank you. We thank you for the time that we got to spend together in your word, and now, Lord, we pray as we partake of communion that you would bless us in this oneness, This desire to be one with you, a fellowship the world doesn't even have a clue about, Lord. That you prayed in John 17 that we'd be one even as you and your father are one, Lord Jesus. We pray that spiritually, Lord, we'd throw off all the weights and the sin that so easily besets us. Wash and cleanse us, Restore fellowship and bless our time as we love one another, as we have a picnic together, as we have Agape Feast, and bless the kids with the snow cones and the the cotton candy and the bounce house and all the good food and fellowship and games, and just bless mightily, Lord. Pour out your holy spirit. 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.
