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1 Corinthians 11:17,22 -Refined As Gold- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-07-21
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Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? First Corinthians chapter 11 beginning with verse 17. Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you that they which be approved may be made manifest among you. When you come together therefore into one place, this is not this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For an eating everyone taketh before, the other of his supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. What? Have you not houses to eat and to drink in, or despise ye the church of God and shame them that have not, what shall I I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. Father, thank you for your holy word. Lord, we pray that you instruct and teach us, that you help us, Lord, to discern between good and evil, between right and wrong. And Lord, that we wouldn't be like Oprah and just trust your heart, trust your gut, but Lord, that we trust you, and that we'd stand upon your absolute word, the truth of your word. And we thank you for the trials that you allow in our lives. We thank you for the teaching of your word as we study your word that Lord is a mirror and it shows us our hearts. You show me my heart, my deceitful heart, Lord, as I go through trials. When things are going well, Lord, I don't know my heart. When I face trials, you expose my heart. You expose how covetous I am. You expose how prideful I am. You expose how lustful, you expose every aspect of my heart where I conclude with Paul, in me that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. Lord, we have no confidence in the arm of the flesh. Our confidence is in you and the life of the spirit that God you are gonna transform and change us. You're continuing to transform and change us into the image of your son. Lord, keep up the good work. Keep transforming and changing us, Lord. We ask this in Jesus name, amen. Would you please be seated? Why does God allow divisions in a church? How many of us have been a part of churches that, for a period of time, you develop really good friendships with people and, ladies group, men's group, you know, youth groups, you know, different smaller groups, big groups, You love the pastor, love the pastor's wife, and different aspects of the leadership and all, and everything's going along real well, and then all of a sudden there's this division, the church divided. Wayne and Brittany were going to a camp this summer up in Colorado, and a week before the camp took place, the leadership, suffered half of their people quitting and taking everybody with them, you know. I've had I've had seasons of that sort of thing happening, particularly in the beginning when there's a lot of power struggles going on. But it's it hurts and the person that hurts the most, I believe, is our children, p k's, pastor's kids. Because they make friends and they think that we're gonna love each other and be Christians and and be friends. And then next thing you know, there's a whole group of families leaving and you wanna try and explain to the kids, you know, why? What happened? What happened? Why? And it's always the most miniscule, tiny, little weirdness, and you're just dumbfounded, like, that's what church is like? Really? This is what church is, you know? Because I wasn't behind the scenes when I was at Calvary Costa Mesa. When I was in the school ministry, I was a little bit. But as I began to see more and more behind the scenes, thought, woah, this is this is not like Pollyanna. This is pretty brutal, you know. There's a lot of infighting stuff going on. Then later on, I was able to see a lot more. But you've seen it too. You've seen where, you go one of the things they they used to say was if you wanna get rid of your pastor, start a building project. And, that whole building project process seems to just inflame the flesh of everybody of what color the carpet's gonna be, and the walls are gonna be, and the type of chairs, and you're spending too much money, you're not spending enough on this, we need more for the Sunday school. And everybody, all the committees are going crazy, committee after committee after committee, and it just it just wipes the pastor out and and the family and such. I've been at meetings, a dinner with a guy, and and his dad was a pastor here and first he was a chaplain in the navy and then he was he was burying a lot of bodies that were coming out of Vietnam. Real quick funerals, lots of them. Then he came to Kitsap County here, actually it was in Oregon and then he came here, and he's a pastor over here in near Silverdale Silverdale and doing a great job, wonderful job. And this pastor's kid, who's a grown adult now, he says to me, my dad, the church wanted to build a school. They wanted a Christian school. And my dad, being the pastor, said I think we're moving too fast. I think it'd be better if we wait a little longer. Well, the board fired him and fired him. Just fired him because he didn't wanna do it. The board was wanting him to do and all. And and when I heard that, you know, it it resurfaces a lot of those emotions because because you love these people. You love them. And you love their kids. And now all of a sudden, everybody's mad at each other. They're knocking on doors. They're calling people. They're trying to burn the church to the ground if they can, if they don't get their way. And, it's just so incredibly ugly. And what's the world think? What's the world think as they're looking on, you know, to these things, these power struggles and such. And, I never ever ever when I was in school or I never was preempted or taught that this was gonna happen. One thing pastor Chuck did say though, the reality of it is, outlive your detractors. So for us, going into the ministry, you're gonna have detractors, you're gonna have people that are there to try and destroy. As Paul said, some are gonna come from without, some from within. And one of the disadvantages for us is that when we came to this community, we only knew one family and they were from Huntington Beach where we came from. So we had a great great disadvantage. We didn't know anybody and so we trusted everybody. We let everybody in and things began to happen that were just so incongruent. They were oxymorons. They were just like, this can't be Christianity. I don't understand why you would have my daughter come spend the night at your house and have her watch a rated r movie and smoke pot. I don't understand that. I trusted you as a Christian family. You know, what what are you thinking? You know? And, say a whole bunch of things like that were happening began to happen, and so my frame of reference was just so skewed because I thought, hey, it's one or the other. Either we're Christians or we're not, you know? So please please let me know where I'm where I'm missing the mark here because I I can't figure this out. And and so he says in verse 17, or excuse me, says, why does God allow divisions in the church? Number one, to rebuke the rebellious. The divisions will take place in the church because God's saying there needs to be leadership that such that will confront. Godly leadership confronts sin and has to confront sin. If you don't confront sin, if you don't confront rebellious people, then a little leaven's gonna leaven the lump and possibly destroy the whole thing. So it's it's one of the worst aspects of church planting is that you don't have a an assistant pastor that can be your hatchet man, that can be your in the military, you've gotta have a guy that's the sergeant that goes and screams into the faces of people. Right? There's gotta be that guy, you know, that keeps him disciplined, keeps him on track. And now pastor Smiley up front, he can't do that, you know. He's gotta be nice because otherwise, he won't be able to minister to anybody. But what pastor Smiley does, what I learned, is pastor Smiley takes the assistant, kick them out of the church, get them out of here. And then he's like this, you know. And so now you're angry at the assistant pastor, not at pastor Smiley, but it's pastor Smiley that's the he's the one that'll cut your head off, man. He's the one. And but I never knew that either. I thought, woah, you know. And so pastor Chuck had Romaine And Romaine would be the guy that the hatchet man, ex military, and he would deal with rebellious kind of people and and show them the door, deal with them, help them, you know, learn that isn't gonna happen here, that sort of thing. And so, you know, you just I guess my hatchet person is Kathy. No. I'm just kidding. No. When when people come against Kathy over the years, I know they're out to lunch. I know 100% they're in La La land, you know, because she is she's the best thing to this church. She's been the best thing. And I've watched I've watched little little groups of women and people, know, come against her, come against my girls over the years, and you you just know it's not of the Lord. That's that's not of the Lord. How do you reconcile them? How do you get them back around? How do you calm it down? I've been to a lot of coffees, a lot of meetings, a lot of letting them vent all their their whatever, you know, and you're you're trying to win them back. I had a worship leader that was causing a coup, causing trouble, and he says to me, without me, all you got's a boombox, you know. And so if they sense they have leverage, they're gonna use it And they'll pull 30 people away. Your church of 40 or 50 people, they'll pull 30 people away. And and so it's ugly. It's just it's just ugly. But the good news is if you're that kind of a target, if the devil's after you that hard, it must mean you're doing something. And so you gotta rebuke them. Rebuke. And they're doing more harm than good, people are being abusive, they're being unloving. He says you're doing worse, which speaks of a moral evil has ruined your agape feast and your communion. So open rebuke is better than secret love. So what's happening here, the church of Corinth was, having difficulty with factions. I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, they're very fleshly. They're having what's called an agape feast along with communion. And so the communion would follow the agape feast, and at the agape feast, they were refractious. They were little sects, little groups and stuff, little heresies. And, some were poor, some were rich. The rich seemed to be insensitive to the poor. And the rich are eating all the food. The poor there, there isn't enough food to go around. And it's shameful, and Paul hears about it. And, he says it's it it needs to be needs to be dealt with. So without love, the church is nothing. God is love. The fruit of the spirit is love. He says verse eighteen, first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you. And I partly believe it. The word division speaks of schemata, schisms. There's schisms in the body, a tearing or a cutting. There's sex. There's split. Is Christ divided? No. Christ isn't divided. Why do we divide into little groups, little little clicks in so many churches? I love your ministry here. Many of you when you see new people, before I scare them away, you invite them to lunch and you try to get to know them and and you're very gracious toward them and make them feel welcome and all. You're not the type of people that say, well, there's some new people, let them figure it out themselves, you know. You're trying really hard to make them feel welcome. Now some of you do that because you attended churches, and you've told me, where you came in and the the church was set. The groups were set, and you weren't allowed in the group. You weren't a member of the club. So you're ostracized from the outside just kinda watching, and and it broke your heart to see that, you know, within the church. But but churches are like that. They they can become like that. But that's not a real church, is it? So Paul says that there's divisions. There's these sects, these splits, these different little groups here. First Corinthians one verse 10, he says, I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but they be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment. So contentions, factions, where you're saying I'm a Paul. I'm of Apollos. I'm of Peter. I'm of Cephas. I'm of Jesus. Is Christ divided? And so if if we want to really grow a church right now in this next few months, we need to say I'm of Trump. And if we say I'm of Trump, and we really run with this, make America great, make a lot of money, this church will grow. You will attract a lot of people who have ulterior motives to try and try and, you know, this is what I want, Lord. Fix our country. And they're so immersed in the factions, in the divisions of left against right, Democrat, Republican, and all, they're gonna be on the side that they think, you know, is in the right. But what they don't understand is it's a uni party. They're both on the same team. It's the globalist that is really controlling things and and you and I as the people, I asked I asked Jim there. Some of his friends are mad at him because he's gonna vote for Pedro. He says he's not gonna vote. And so they're mad at him and people have heard me say that. They're, you know, so I wanna ask you this. If I vote for Trump, will that stop Bill Gates from poisoning my food? Will it stop Bill Gates from investing in all the pharmaceutical companies and coming out with another jab? Will will it bring attention through the media to all the small children, the surge in myocarditis and heart disease that's happening in children right now, which I posted this morning because of this jab? So will will it change the people's view of what a victim is? Trump's a victim right now. He sympathy for him. But isn't he the champion of the warp speed jab? Is anybody concerned about a bioweapon used against the entire globe in concert with all the governments together doing that, is my vote going to bring the attention to this and expose, is anybody gonna say, oops, we did wrong, let's change this? Are are they gonna are they gonna get rid of all the appeal and all the stuff they're spraying on my food? Are they gonna get rid of the synthetic meat that they're trying to get everybody to eat, the meal worms and all that kind of stuff? Isn't it the government agencies that should hold the Bill Gates and the Soros and all these people accountable? But they own the FDA, the Bill Gates. He owns the World Health Organization. He invests they they put their money into these things. They're buying up all the farmland. So what's my vote gonna do? Is it gonna change any of that? Is it gonna change China buying up all the farmland? We we have a criminal government. We're divided. We're a divided country. And they know if they can get us into a civil war, if they can get the churches war and fighting against each other, you know, that that they win. And so united we stand, divided we fall. We understand that in the church. So we should be able to look and evaluate what's going on without compromise, without giving into the world, without having ulterior motives of covetousness and pleasure and, you know, make America great type stuff, but stand upon truth, stand upon what's right. And if we win that fight, then we preserve a country for our children. But if we continue to go along with lies, there's nothing to preserve. You can't build upon lies upon lies upon lies. And that seems to be, where we're at today, And it breaks my heart to watch this, to watch the you know, the pastors just fall right into it. Just fall right in. I mean, just mind boggling to me. But I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, I'm of Christ. And in first Corinthians chapter three, their problem was carnality. In first Corinthians chapter five, they have a problem with immorality. In first Corinthians six, they were taking each other to court, they were so divided. They were suing each other. And now they have a problem at the communion table during, the Agape feast, the love feast that would take place. In John fifteen twelve, Jesus said, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. I expect the world to be at war and fighting with one another, but I don't expect we in the church here to succumb or give in to the schisms, the division and such. We can have differences of opinion on these political issues, but we we have to stand upon truth. We have to do our due diligence and stand upon truth. All truth. All truth. Not not just some truth. Two plus two equals four. We can't build upon lies. And we can't peacefully coexist based upon lies. We have to keep the main thing the main thing. We understand that. Some of the peripheral areas, whether the rapture's, you know, gonna happen pre or post or whatever, we know it's pre. I wrote a book on it. We know it's gonna happen, but but we don't kick people out of the church or whatever because they're post trib or whatever, different eschatology. That would be unloving because we're in agreement on the central issues of Jesus Christ and him crucified for the remission of sins. So that makes us a brother, makes us a sister in the Lord. And so some of the some of the peripheral truths or doctrines, we can differ in. Now, if you were to impose upon me, hey pastor, I think it's time for you to have a woman pastor, that's not a peripheral issue. That's a central issue, and we'd say no. And we're not gonna go woke. We're not gonna try and grow the church in Kitsap County by being more woke, by being more open to the pride fest that happened this weekend. We're not gonna do it. We're not gonna fly a pride flag. We're not gonna let fairies in here to read to the children. We're not we're just not gonna do it. It's not gonna happen. So I don't care who puts pressure on me, not gonna happen. Biblically sound teaching lets us know that husband of one wife, it's real clear that women are not to teach nor to usurp authority over men, but it seems to be a hot topic, a real big topic in many of the churches, the ordination of women, and, wanting them to be upfront. And for some reason, these guys are feeling the pressure of the whole wokeism that's taking place. I don't feel the pressure. Acts two forty six, and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house that eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. So the early church in Acts two after Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit, you know, came upon them, there there's a oneness, there's a sweetness that's within the body. A church can get sick. A church can be sick. A church can be sick through unbelief. You look at the children of Israel coming out of Egypt. They were sick because of unbelief. They grieved the Holy Spirit. You can quench the Holy Spirit. Without love, we're nothing. And it breaks my heart. When you when you see the ugliness hit, the factions and the groups begin to spar. A lot of times, it's the real beautiful, wonderful, soft, kind people are the first ones to leave. They just can't stomach the ugliness. Now, when you do that, who do you leave me and Kathy with? We're left with the wolves, man. We're left with the people that just aren't gonna stop till they burn it to the ground. And so God's always had some that stay with me. Some beautiful wonderful people that refuse to, you know, leave or whatever that continue to stay and support, know. But it's just so amazing to me how how your heart breaks as you watch them, you know, leave in droves and I've been through it. I know it. And so the early church, the next two, the Holy Spirit freshly coming upon them and the love, the fruit of the spirit being love, the oneness, the singleness of heart. In John seventeen twenty one, Jesus said that they all may be one. This is Jesus praying the father, the Lord's prayer. That they all may be one as as thou father art me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou has sent me. So our witness to the world when they see us as one. If the world can get us divided and fighting amongst ourselves, if the devil can get us fighting amongst ourselves, even this church against another church, all the different factions and denominations and all, then the world wins. The devil wins. We're we're powerless to affect the community. But if they see us loving one another, you know, even people in political sphere in America say united we stand, divided we fall. The strategy of the wicked one, we're not ignorant of his devices. Hey, my strategy will be divide and conquer. I'll infiltrate. I'll be tares among the weed. I'll be goats among the sheep, and I'll begin to use my tongue to sow gossip, backbiting without the pastor knowing all the little whispers and all the little stuff that's going on. And you know what? Here's what we'll do, screw tape letters. We'll call it the prayer chain. And we'll call people up and we'll say, did you hear so and so? And be sure and pray for them, you know, pray for them. But did you hear this about pastor Rick's daughter? Yeah. That's the prayer chain, you know. Just get it out there. Right? And that's the prayer chain. Boy, some of the some of the prayer chains, I'll tell you. You guys are handling it real well though, presently. In Matthew twelve twenty five, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. So divided church must what? Must be rebuked. You gotta rebuke a divided church. It's gotta be dealt with. Gotta come to, you know, on the table. And notice four causes of division. Number one, anarchy. A desire to rule. Mike McIntosh, he had a saying, when you're in a building project, the men will all come out and help build the buildings. And I've I've seen that. Wonderful wonderful men and women servants coming out using all their skills. So so many skilled people in the shipyard, so many skilled people with all these different trades and abilities and they come out and you take over a building that's been dormant, empty for twenty years and now you gotta resurrect the buildings and that's what we did. And we didn't have enough money, but we sure had a lot of help. And they did a great job. Phenomenal. Phenomenal job. Amazing to watch. Just, oh. But Mike McIntosh, she pointed out that then the wives come in and they wanna nest. They wanna find a place for the little ones, the Sunday school rooms and all that sort of thing. Well, you gotta buy everything for all that too. And that's a lot of pressure on a pastor's and pastor's wife. But the men, once they build it, then they wanna rule it. They wanna take control of it. And they start going online and wondering how much pastor Rick's house is worth and telling me, hey, your house just went in value, you know. And and who owns these buildings? Who who owns them? Well, it's in a corporation And the corporation owns them, you know, Calvary Chapel owns them. And well, you know, that's a that's a lot of equity. That's a lot of you know, all of a sudden you got all these guys vying over for control of the cash flow and of the assets, And boy, they're just so worried. They're just so worried that you'd finally get out of the hole you've been in for fifteen years, you know. Where were they when you're in the hole? Nowhere. But now all of a sudden, you're starting to able to breathe a little bit and all of a sudden, you can't do this without our help. Well, how'd I do it without anybody's help, you know? How do we survive with no money? You know, it's a lot easier to do things with money than it is with no money, but all of a sudden, you think we need you know, we need your help. So anarchy, a desire to rule, vying for control. And so you see this with David, with Absalom. Absalom developed a coup against his father David. You saw it with Moses and his family, with Aaron and Miriam, trying to develop a coup against Moses. And Miriam got some got some leprosy on her and all. The Lord the Lord corrected her. You saw Coradathen and Abiram with 250 other leaders, coming to coup against Moses. You saw 14,700 people vying with him against Moses in that attempted coup, but, God preserved Moses, you know. I think the greatest day of Moses' life is the day he died. To get away from those people. Everybody's like, oh, poor Moe. He didn't get to go on the promised land. Well, I see him on Matthew 17 on the Mount Of Transfiguration. What a great place to be with the Lord, you know? I mean, he's the meekest man on the planet and these people provoked him to anger and he got in trouble for smiting the rock a second time. Well, I'd be I'd be more like Nehemiah and grabbing their beards and smiting more than the rock, you know? Or you got a guy with a different temperament, Ezra, who's praying the people through it. How long can you pray, man? These are teenagers. These are these are crazy people, you know. And all they understand is brute force. That's all they understand. There's no negotiating with them. And so God had to provide the brute force opening up the ground, swallowing them up, you know, serpents, you know, biting them and all. You need the Lord to defend you, I'll tell you that. Anarchy. Second agendas. People have agendas. The only agenda at this church is we're gonna teach the word and we're gonna evangelize. We have no building project. There's there's nothing else. We're just here to study the New Testament this morning, the Old Testament tomorrow. We're here to pray for each other, care for each other, visit each other during the week, share the gospel throughout the week. Very simple ministry. We don't have any agenda that I can think of. I have no vision that I want you to pay for. Alright? So I have no special offering or or electronic funds that you need to put into our bank account each week. I I got no scams or schemes or manipulation or whatever. It's just all by faith. We trust the Lord each and every day. Just walk by faith. Lord, what would you have us do? Without a vision, the people perish? This is my vision. Just hang on. Hang on till the Jesus comes. That's my vision. Just try not to quit. Try to continue to tell the truth and make it to the finish line. Fight the good fight. It's not easy. It's very difficult, but that's my vision. Just be faithful. That's my vision. If the Lord wants to add something, hey, great. I was watching the summer, the Harvest Crusade last night, and I grew up down there when it was first starting thirty five years ago. My family, my little girls were a part of that. We'd all go. Calvary Costa Mesa is the one that that pastor Greg used to teach every Monday night there and sixty, seventy kids would people would come to Christ every Monday night. It was just a normal thing to see people come to Christ like that. Then pastor Chuck challenged them to go to the Pacific Amphitheater and do like a Billy Graham type crusade. They did that a couple years and we're we were so excited about that in our community, that outreach of evangelism and all. And then then they went to Angel Stadium and huge witness, huge blessing, all the churches. Last night, Greg said 250 churches in the community, non denomination, all different denominations helping with putting together this huge crusade there. And and what this gal got up there and began to to worship and man, it was really emotional for me because I used to be able to do that here in this community in a microcosm way when we own the Roxy. Even before we own the Roxy, we do outreaches at the Kingston Ferry Terminal. We do outreaches at rent buildings, rent places, and just outreach, outreach, outreach. And, I didn't know I was an evangelist, but people said I was and said, you know, I like how you're evangelizing. And I, had a chance to meet Greg and, a lot of the musicians and a lot of the people that ministered to me down there, but, it just there's something inside of me that loves to the nth degree worshiping the Lord and sharing the love of Jesus with people and seeing people come to Christ. It's a huge part of who I am as a Christian. And it was I I suppress it, I keep it down. I don't go to a lot of the pastor's things or any of the stuff because it's it's a humiliation for me. What happened? Why'd you lose it all? How come you don't get to do that anymore? And, but the Lord encouraged me that he's entrusted me with the gospel. And every day is an opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ and his soon return with anybody that he puts me in contact with. It doesn't need to be a big formal, you know, crusade type thing or concerts at the Roxy or those kind of things. I I cherish the time that we got to do that with my girls and with this community and all. We had a vision. We had a huge vision. We had a huge desire to reach the lost and to reach people. But for some reason, the Holy Spirit shut it down and, I've been bewildered ever since. I I I'm in survival mode. I just wanna survive. That's it. There's been a huge attack. The third one is ambition, carnality, pride, wanting the preeminence like the atrophies in third John one eighteen, people with pride will be seeking position and cause all sorts of of problems within the church. You see it a lot of times with worship teams, people vying to ace out the other one so they can have the place and it causes huge division. So anarchy, agendas, ambition, and fourthly, animosity, Hatred of light, truth, holiness. And a lot of people don't like the light. They don't like how much light's being exposed. It exposes them. And so they have animosity toward the ministry, the very ministry of the church. They wanna lessen the light. They wanna lessen the glow. They wanna tone things down, if you will. In Luke twelve fifty one, Jesus says, suppose you that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you no, but rather division. Jesus is the greatest divider of men. He's a divider of men. You you can't be for him and against him. It's one or the other. You can't be almost saved. You can't be compromising with the world and still be gathering with Jesus. He's gonna expose you. He's gonna expose you in that, let's say, Republican National Convention. Let's say you're a Christian. Say you are, and let's say the Republican are the Christians. Because we know the Obamaites and them are an abomination. Right? They're evil. That's the evil party. But this Republican party, they're the godly Christian evangelical party because they got Donald j Trump leading it. Right? So why would they have a Hindu woman come in there and give a Hindu prayer at the Republican National Convention? Who would tolerate that? Who would allow that if they were to be leading this huge voting block called evangelicals? Why would they acquiesce and give in to same sex marriage just like the Democrats where twice you voted on it and you said no, marriage is between a man and a woman for one lifetime. One man, one woman, one lifetime. And you voted on it and you let the politicians know that's what marriage is. It's been that way five thousand years. But Obama comes along and he says he's got political equity because he won. Now he can arbitrarily change marriage on his own and light up the White House with rainbow pride lights and flags and stuff and tell all of you deplorables Hillary's words, you guys got it wrong. And then now the republicans acquiescing given into that to that. Who who why would Trump have these people to Mira Lago to his to his home to garner support from them, to show them that we accept the LBGTQ as part of the Republican Party. Really? Want me to keep going? You're either for Jesus or you're against him. There's no in betweeners. And when you take a strong stand against evil, against what that which is wrong, you're gonna have a whole group of people angry at you, at me because oh well, you know, we gotta vote for the lesser of the two evils. Show me that in the bible that I'm gonna vote for the bioweapon, that I'm to vote for this compromise. What if we stood for Jesus and he gave us a third person to run for office? You're never gonna find that third person or any other person if you continue to diss Jesus, if you continue to shame him and and and act like you're in control, that your voting machines work. That your your failed election last time, it's gonna work this time. Franklin Graham never came out and said anything at the r n c as he's there praying. At least pastor Jack called president Trump out this past week telling him he needs to repent and publicly profess Jesus Christ as his lord and savior. That's a good start. It's one or the other. You're either a Christian or you're not mister Donald j Trump. And we in the church, we're either Christians or we're not. So Jesus is a great divider of men. In John seven, men sent to take to kill Jesus. They said never man spake like this man and there was a division among the people because of him. A blind man was healed on the Sabbath in John chapter nine verse 16. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, this man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others said, he can't how can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. In John ten nineteen, it continued, there was a division therefore again among them, the Jews for the same. And many of them said he has a devil and he's mad. Why hear ye him? Others said, these are not the words of him that has a devil. Can the devil open the eyes of the blind? See, what's the people trying to figure this out? How can he do these great miracles and all that? But he's going against the pharisees who say, you're not supposed to heal on the Sabbath day. And the people are like, never a man spake like this man. One minute they're saying, Hosanna, Hosanna. Save now. Save now. He's riding in Jerusalem on a donkey. And in four days, they're shouting out the same people, crucify him. Crucify him. And Pilate's saying, why? What evil has he done? I find no fault in this man. Why are the people so divided? Why do they hate him? Why do they have so much animosity toward Jesus? I know. I'll give them an out. I'll bring forth a real murderer, a real thief, a real killer named Barabbas, son of the father, his name means. And I'll give them the opportunity to take their anger out on Barabbas and let Jesus go. And they choose Barabbas to be to be freed. And Pilate washes his hands and says, I'm innocent of the blood of this man. There's no neutrality, Pilate. You're either former against him. You acquiesce to the political pressure, political expediency. You're guilty for that. You should have been willing to lose everything for the truth. What is truth? A cynical man in a time of great lies and existential humanistic philosophy of no absolute truth. And incarnate truth is standing right there in front of him. That he came to bear witness of the truth of his kingdom. Mind boggling. That seduction, that that delusion that happens when it comes to truth in many cases. So refined as gold. What does God Why does God allow division in his church? Number one, to rebuke the rebellious. Number two, God allows division in the church to refine the righteous. So you have those within the church that are true believers, and now they're gonna be refined. Now they're gonna go through the fire. They're gonna go through the trial of the ugliness of the affliction and the anger of those trying to destroy. And you're saying, pastor, you're going too hard on this. This is just an agape feast. Some people got to eat, some didn't, you know. But these sects, these heresies, they're they work their way all through the church and all different issues at all times. And you guys have experienced it. You've seen it. The most trivial things can become where they take and they make a mountain out of a molehill. So to refine the righteous, verse 19, for there must also be heresies among you. So this is a must. I don't like it. I don't like the division. I don't like the heresies. I don't like the sect, s e c t s. I don't like the division. I wish we could all sing Kumbaya and just hold our hands in a circle and just look at our navel, I don't know what, just just have a great time together. And when we do, it's just it's it's so rewarding as a pastor to go home after the picnic or the potluck or the Christmas party and to just realize, hey, we did it. We loved one another. Hey, there was plenty of food for everybody. More than enough food. Everybody brought, you know. There wasn't any fights that I know of. Nobody was mad at each other. Everything went so well. Hey, I think Christianity's working. I think it's working. It's finally working. After all these years, people are loving one another and I just marvel the way that you love one another. I'm so grateful and thankful the way you love one another, the way you share, the way you minister, the way that you pray for one another, the way you go without an official word for me. You guys are doing it on your own, helping one another, ministering to one another, giving each other cars and fixing cars and food and rides and babysitting and, you know, just gifts and just amazing gift cards and stuff. Thank you for the gift cards, by the way. I went to the oak table this week and used one of them. Somebody gave me here. I think Rose did. Then I used a couple that my daughter gave me, took them out to the to the boat shed. Boy, it's expensive to take a family out to eat, isn't it? So these agape feasts, as 30% inflation continues and food becomes very very expensive, it's gonna be very important that at least once a week that we have a meal together so that those of us that are poor get plenty of protein. At least once a week, plenty of meat, and don't let me be the first one in line because I'll take for eight people, you know? So I've gotta wait at the end to make sure there's some left over for everybody. I gotta remember that. Or as Paul's gonna point out here, eat before you go. And I do that a lot. I'll eat before I go to these kind of things to take the that appetite down a bit, know. Lest you guys see me as a savage, you know. For there must also for there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. So must be an inevitability thereof. So it's gonna happen, the inevitability. Now, as I said, there's people that just leave real quick and I'm not saying they're disqualified, I said they're the most beautiful wonderful people, they just don't like confrontation. And they might come back later. But then there's other people that refuse to leave and they're going through a very hard time with phone calls and people trying to convince them that pastor Rick's a wackadoodle and you know, he's mean and he's not loving and he's this and he's that. And you're going through that trial, you're going through that acid test and Paul's saying it's necessary to manifest those that are approved. You're going through the fire, going through the test. We had people that had no dealings with many of the poor in the church, but once this fight was on, they're knocking on their door inviting them over for Christmas. They're giving Christmas cards to people they never paid attention to. Come over to my new church, you know. They systematically were trying to burn this church to the ground. And when we stayed, when Kathy and I stayed, and we went over across the street there to have a Sunday night at the school there, A couple there was a couple that came from their church, their new church that said, oh, they're just so angry. They thought that you'd leave town. Well, I'm entrusted with the gospel. I'm not gonna leave town. I've lost everything else, but I'm entrusted with the gospel. So I'm gonna take my bible and I'm gonna continue to teach God's word. And that's what we did. That's what we're doing. That's what we will do. So outlive your detractors, Chuck said. Just outlive them. They'll fade away. And they have. They fade they fade away. And you know what else? I don't know any of them that have been entrusted with the gospel, that have moved on to these ministries that they thought they deserved and had to have and everything. They wound up being so embittered and angry and whatever. Adultery and divorce and all these things happen later. The very things they were accusing me of, well pastor Rick's having an affair with somebody. No, he's not. You guys are. You're imposing those things upon me. See, this guy outlive him. Just outlive him. Heresy speaks of self willed opinions which oppose the truth and leads to division, factions and sex, s e c t s, sectarian. I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, you know. And so what are you gonna do? So turn to Leviticus chapter eight. While you're turning there, Leviticus chapter eight. This isn't gonna be pretty. But people can just ignore it. See, goes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. Right? Yeah. Verse 23. And he slew it, and Moses took of the blood of it and put it on the tip of Aaron's right ear. Oh. And upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot. That's what the Secret Service was doing. Consecrating him a priest. He's a priest. Donald j Trump is a part of the ironic priesthood. God consecrated him in front of everybody. And this is circling on my Facebook wall. And I'm watching some people that attend church here and have to attend church here buying into it. And I'm like, it's happening. They're making a messiah figure. He he's gonna lead. He's the Christ, you know. God saved him, you know. And consecrated him and and The whole chapter eight has to do with the Aaronic priesthood. Now, turn to second Chronicles chapter 26. Second Chronicles chapter 26. What happened when once a king tried to cross over from being a king into that of acting like a priest. You remember king Uzziah? Remember king Uzziah? Watch what happens when when you're small in your sight, things go good. God blesses your ministry. But when all of a sudden you're puffed up, verse 16. Chapter 26 verse 16. I can't take it. Oh. Speaking of king Uzziah. But when he was strong, heart was lifted up to his destruction for he transgressed against the Lord his God. And went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. You see where I'm going? A king trying to enter the office of a priest, the ironic priesthood, which was forbidden by God. But you say, well, wait a minute is his right ears got blood on it, man. That blood means he can hear better. And Azariah the priest went in after him, after the king. And with him 80 priests of the Lord that were valiant men. Why? Because of God's glory. Because God's honor. You're defiling the temple. You're defiling the priesthood king. Even if a king were to do it. Even if Obama thinks he's a king, which he's not, you stand against him. He doesn't have that kind of equity or collateral. We have a limited power system in a constitutional republic. Limited authority, not unlimited. Don't let a politician crossover like some pope in past years and gain control of not only the secular government, but also the religious side. And Azariah the priest went in after him and with him four score priests of the Lord that were valiant men and they withstood Uzziah the king and said unto him, it pertains not unto thee Uzziah to burn incense under the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary for thou has trespassed, neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God. Then Uzziah was wroth and had a censor in his hand to burn incense. And while he was wroth with the priest, the leprosy even rose up upon his forehead before the priest in the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar. And Azariah, the chief priest and all the priests looked upon him and behold he was leprous in his forehead and they thrust him out from thence. Yea, himself hasted also to go out because the Lord had smitten him. Be very careful. Now, Judaism ended. Right? The ironic priesthood is over. It's done. If you go to Hebrews seven eight nine, you see that Jesus is a priest forever after the order, not ironic, but after the order of Melchizedek. King of righteousness. Right? And the blood is his own blood and he ever lives to make intercession for you and I. May I suggest to you, you don't need a politician becoming a priest or a messiah to intercede or to fix you, help you, whatever. He just needs to do his job. Whatever you hired him to do. He's not a god. He's not a priest. He's not a messiah. But people are becoming sectarian. Don't buy me a Trump hat. Don't give me a coin. I'm not following into it. I'm not gonna be a part of the cult, the Trump cult, and watch it escalate the the craziness of people. Maybe that right ear means that he's being consecrated as a priest. And they love it so. They just love it so. Well, if you're gonna go that route, be ready for leprosy. But why would you go that route when the temple was destroyed in seventy AD and all the records destroyed and the whole ironic priest had everything defunct gone? During the beast system, the beast, the antichrist is gonna rebuild the temple and try to resurrect Judaism. Why would you do that? Is God asking you to resurrect Judaism? Don't we have a new testament? A new covenant in the blood of Jesus? Isn't Jesus coming again? And you and I are a royal priesthood. We're kings and priests, and we're gonna rule and reign with Jesus during the millennium. I don't need a pretender or become a part of a sectarian group of people, a Christian nationalism that gets people off track. Seven mountains or seven hills or whatever it may be. So just be so careful. Give it to them on social media. Give it to them. Give them the scripture. Correct them. I did. They won't talk to me now. And I asked them, can can you hear me now? Alright. So on to the world because of offenses, in Matthew eighteen seven Jesus said, for it must needs that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offenses come. So expect the offenses, expect the opposition, expect that if your ministry, your service to the Lord is truly making the powers of darkness angry, You might be one of the seven sons of Sceva and use these demons, this demoniac you try to get him, the demons out of this guy and the demon is speaking through this man saying, Jesus we know, Paul we know, but who are you, you seven sons of Sceva? They're not a threat to the kingman of darkness. Right? We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. You don't know Jesus. You're not called to be an exorcist, seven sons of Sceva. And now you're gonna be embarrassed because this guy is gonna take your clothes off you and you're gonna run away naked. Right? And so when you have opposition against your life, it means that you're a threat to the kingdom of darkness and you should expect opposition. Opposition against you and I as Christians is a good thing. Jesus said, if they've hated me, they're gonna hate you. Right? If everybody loves you, Jesus said, woe unto you when all men speak well of you. Somebody's not telling the truth if everybody's speaking well of you. No. I have a real gift of making people angry at me. A real gift. I'm a divider of men and women. They either hate me or they love me for a time. And I always tell Rob, Vicki, I tell everybody, say, well, you'll leave pretty soon. Oh, no. We're not. We've been here at this well, everybody leaves eventually. They find something. They find some reason. It's inevitable. It's gonna happen. But you just minister, pour your life into them while they're still there. And so, Paul said in Acts 20, I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. So Paul's a good shepherd. He's speaking to the other shepherds, the Ephesian elders who are pastors. I'm gonna be gone. I can recognize wolves. You guys better be able to recognize wolves because they're gonna come in, not sparing the flock. Take heed over the flock which he purchased with his own blood. These are blood bought sheep. Be careful you pastors. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. So from within, people are gonna see an opportunity from without and from within. Why does God allow this? It says, that they which are approved may be made manifest among among you. So you begin to find people in the heat of that battle and you can't defend yourself. Chuck always says, let the Lord defend you. So now you just gotta let it happen. You gotta let it take place. You gotta wait till the dust settles. And so they that come through it, they pass the test. It's like the precious metals tried by fire, proved by the fire going through the fiery trial and made pure. And this fellowship becomes much sweeter, really sweet as you come through it. Evil helps manifest that which is good. We need Donald Trump right now. We need Donald Trump to manifest people. We need to allow the sifting to take place. It's easy to spot Obama. It's easy to spot Biden and all that stuff. But we need the Trumpster to do his thing and to watch evangelicals to discern who are the real Christians and who are the phonies. Because any real Christian would never ever ever vote for a guy responsible for a bioweapon. Doesn't happen. Can't happen. People are dying. Then secondly, so many people continue to say, I even this morning when I was listening to Whitney Webb talk to this redacted. Do you think Trump knows? Peter Thiel, do you think everybody likes to say, oh, he just didn't know. He just didn't know. But wait a minute, thought he's four d chess, dude. I thought he's genius, dude. If he doesn't know, then he's not qualified to be president. Do you understand that? Their ignorance is no excuse. Especially when there's so much water under the bridge and especially since governments are spending money again for disease x, for bird flu. They're already ramping up with a vaccine for the next one. These things are planned. But oh, wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. We just want the economy to be good. We just wanna make America good. Well, shows me what group you're in. Shows me what you're in love with. You're in love with this world. It's a test. Are you gonna pass the test? Mark them which caused divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which we have learned and avoid them. So Romans sixteen seventeen, we could hold past, you know, Trump if he says he's a Christian, he wants to use the name Jesus and the resurrection and he wants to say all these words now to get a following, then we need to hold him accountable to a man that professes to be a Christian to the word of God. Are you gonna fund planned parenthood? Are you gonna make a federal law that against abortion? You're gonna fund it. Are you gonna allow Gavin Newsom to get away with in California, taking away parental rights? And grab hold of children without the parental knowledge and transitioning them from a boy to a girl, a girl to a boy without parental knowledge, without parental consent. The fire of division purges and purifies at the same time. In Isaiah forty eight ten, behold I have refined thee but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. The affliction you and I go through, the difficulty we go through, burns off the dross, it burns off the impurities in our life. We're headed for a very difficult time, we as Christians in America. We're on the cusp, we're on the verge of an economic collapse, which is gonna change everything. We're on the verge of the wars and the rumors of wars Jesus spoke spoke of in Matthew 24. It's inevitable. It's gonna happen. It's planned. Our leadership is suicidal. They wanna cover their sins. They wanna implement the great reset. The approved are entrusted with the gospel. First Thessalonians two verse four, we were allowed of God to be put in the trust with the gospel even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God which tries our hearts. There's the key. I know the things that I'm saying right here are gonna make some people very angry because they want both. They want both. They want Jesus and they want Donald Trump to fix what the what they perceive to be Obama and the Democrats made bad. You know nothing about Vance, absolutely nothing about him. You know nothing about Peter Thiel and the people that are the money people, the Larry Finks and all the globalist bankers who surround these puppet politicians. But you're gonna put your faith and your trust in these puppet politicians, and you want them to be Christians. You want them to join the church. And somehow if he acts like he's joined the church and Jim was telling me more and more evidence coming out that he's actually committed to Judaism. Well, we'll see. We're gonna find out, aren't we? If we even make it to that point. But I've never seen a political figure be so embraced by the church as being the Messiah, the savior, gonna save us. The approved have discernment. In Deuteronomy 13 verse three, do you remember where that book is? Deuteronomy 13 verse three. This is a test. This is a test that God does to prove us. He says, I'm gonna send a false prophet among you, a dreamer of dreams. He says, Deuteronomy 13 verse three, thou shall not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God proves you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul. If you read in Deuteronomy 13, if somebody comes along and they say, hey, I'm a Christian. I believe in the true living God, but I wanna introduce you also to this other God. Because we want to be DEI. We wanna be diverse, equitable and inclusive. We don't wanna believe that the one and only Exodus chapter 20 verse three, thou shall worship the Lord thy God and him only shall thou serve. No. We wanna have the Republican National Convention and we wanna show everybody that we have a Hindu woman here also praying, you know, to her God. We all believe in the same God. God's saying that's a test. That's a test. Thou shall not hearken unto the words of the prophet or the dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proves you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul. So God's saying, I'll even let a guy come along that does signs and wonders. Lying signs and wonders. I'll even allow him up on stage and turn his head and do you notice his hair didn't even get messed up? Do you notice the secret service kept their hand there? That that's you don't touch my hair. People up in front, nobody moved. How'd that happen? I don't have the answers to it all. But I sure got a lot of questions. There's a sure a lot of anomalies, things as Mark Dinsmore would say, red herrings in there. I mean, who's gonna come back up like this and fight, you know, photo op and the whole thing? The anti crisis is gonna be they're gonna try and kill him and he's gonna come back. He's gonna have lines, signs and wonders. And when they move you in a direction away from exclusivity to Jesus Christ, you know they're a false prophet. Jesus is the only way. Tested, approved. The approved are true believers. They went out from us be they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would not have they would have continued with us, but they went out that they may be made manifest that they were not all of us. So they're purged. He knows the way that I take and when he's tried me, I'm gonna come forth as gold, Job said. In Zechariah thirteen eight nine, his own people, the Jews, two thirds are going to be going through the fire, the time of Jacob's trouble of affliction. Two thirds are gonna die. A one third remnant's gonna come through purified. Zechariah thirteen eight nine, Amalachi thirteen two and three. Why does God allow division in his church? Number one, to rebuke the rebellious. Number two, to refine the righteous. And number three, to restore those reproached. There's always the innocent. There's always those that are reproached, are hurting, that are victimized. When you come together therefore into one place, verse 20, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. So the factious persons were running, ruining the sweetness of the communion in in the celebrating the mockery of the agape feast as it carried over to communion. They were dishonoring God. For an eating everyone takes before the other his own supper and one is hungry and another is drunken. So they're inconsiderate. The rich people are inconsiderate. They brought in a lot of food and they didn't share the food with the poor. They just gobbled up theirs and didn't distribute in such a way to to accommodate each and every person and it was dishonoring and causing causing division, causing factions and sex. So, again, I wanna applaud you. Every single party, every single picnic, every Monday night at Rob and Vicky's, there's always been plenty of food. There's been sharing. There's contributing. Sometimes people can't bring food, but everybody's like, who cares? We got more than enough. More than enough. Don't worry about it. You know? And if you're inviting friends to the picnic or the church parties and all that, Your friends and family don't need to bring food. I mean, who it's free will. Whoever wants to, you know. And Kathy's always prayed this at these kind of meetings. Lord, loaves and fishes. Loaves and fishes, Lord. Loaves and fishes. Cause the loaves and the fishes to multiply. And and we always go away just so thankful that the Lord made it so there's adequate more than enough food, and people even take food home with them, you know, afterwards. So you guys are getting this one done. This one this one is a huge generosity that's taking place. And that's part of communion. Communion is is contribution. It's sharing what you have in common, with others. Jude rebukes the false prophets in Jude one twelve, these are spots in your feast of charity, your love feast. When they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. So the false prophets were feasting upon the people, there was no love at these love feasts. So the social networking, the neglecting, the oblivious of the poor, the schmoozing with the rich. That's another thing you'll notice in churches is the pastor, if you're not careful, and the leadership, if you're not careful, will gravitate toward the those who they perceive to be wealthy. And they schmooze them. You know what schmoozing them is? Spend a lot of time with them. They're gonna sell the church to them, sell everything. They know that they wanna get money out of these people. Now fortunately, we're all poor, we don't need to do that here. Right? But it is part of the whole church methodology is if a guy comes in and he's a professional and he's got money, it's it's so sad that they can't just be left alone and just come to worship the Lord. So both sides play each other of what's the rich, how they play it, they want recognition and then the pastors and the leadership want the want the reward, they want the contribution. So for instance, in pastor Greg Laurie's Harvest Crusade, if you're a big donor, you're gonna get to sit on the platform. That's up on stage, you get to be one of the people that sits there because you are a big donor. Now, you could be a Christian of twenty five years and a prayer warrior and you don't get to sit up on that platform. What kept you from getting there on that platform? It's a it's a place of honor. You didn't have the dough. So God is no respecter of persons. So the person putting them on the platform knows what the rich guy wants. They want recognition. You give them the recognition, they'll write the check for you. You could have this building called the William James Hunt building. You know, if mister Hunt's wealthy and we need a new wing to the building or we need a Sunday school thing, the pastor's gotta come up and sell it, then he's gotta find people that you maybe, maybe we could even reduce it down to this. If you'll contribute to this building project, we'll give you a brick with your name on it and we'll put a brick in the lobby there on the wall and you'll be one of our whatever they call that donors, you know. Legendary donors. Or the bricks out front there as you're walking up to the approach. You gave a thousand dollars. You bought that brick. It's manipulation. It's it's marketing. So we don't wanna do that. We don't wanna fall into that. The Lord is is it doesn't impress the Lord. God's not broke. He can build his building without all that kind of carnality and that stuff. Leave the rich people alone. Let them worship. But you know, don't let the left hand know what the right hand's doing. Give them privacy. It's between them and God. So what have you not houses to eat and to drink in or despise you the church of God and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. And so Paul's saying, hey, eat at home. You rich people eat at home. Fill your bellies at home and then you come back and be a part of it. But don't shame the poor. Word despise means to think against, to be contemptuous. Shame means to disgrace. So the division has exposed a problem that needs to be corrected. The poor are being shamed, they're suffering reproach. And so Paul rebukes because of the offenses. I had a guy in the church that used to do this to Kathy, used to take and come into the lobby at the Roxy and he'd open his wallet up and show her like $1,000 bills. Like it was gonna impress her. Look at that lettuce. Look at that lettuce. Look at that. Look at that. You know. Why would he do that? Because her husband's poor. Look at me. Then he then he he went with this other guy down to the Starbucks and he berated the guy that he was such a loser because he didn't make right decisions. That he was on government assistance because of poor decisions that he made. Now, I'm trying to build this guy up. He's on meds. He's I mean, he just needs to be loved, man. Just love on this guy. But in many cases, things are happening that you don't know about as a pastor. You find out about him later and it's very shameful and embarrassing to me to think that people would treat each other like that. That they would I mean, we're so missing the mark, we're so missing it. That's the whole reason the church got sick. It's because of that sort of an attitude, not loving one another. Not caring. Proverbs seventeen five says, whosoever mocks the poor reproaches his maker and he that is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished. First John three seventeen says, whosoever has this world's good and sees his brother have need and shuts up his vows of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him? Selfishness breeds division, corrupts the church. How do we restore those who are reproached? In Matthew five verse 23, if you've reproached somebody. If thou bring thy gift to the altar and there so you come to church and you remember that thy brother has ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. So reconciliation, seek reconciliation. Don't allow it to fester and to grow that root of bitterness. Don't let it become a root of bitterness. Keep a short account. So what happens when we have all things common, no division? Notice God's arithmetic. The Lord adds, the Lord multiplies, and the Lord subtracts. That's his arithmetic. And so we read in Acts chapter two verse 44, where the Lord added to the church. And all that believe were together and had all things common. So all these believers, rich and poor, Barnabas would go and sell a piece of land and bring it laid at the feet of the disciples, you know. And that monies would go and be distributed to all the people who were under persecution because of the Jews there in Jerusalem. And they would distribute, and Stephen and Philip became deacons and helped in the distribution to meet the the material needs of the people, especially the the widows and the widows that needed to be ministered unto. And and there were one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house and did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. That's a loving, loving fellowship. That's a loving group of people and the Lord's adding to the church daily. Now I got a call from a guy this week that asked me to pray, asked me an opinion on what he should do. And what had happened was is a pastor planted a church like Cathy and I from scratch. And and the church grew and the church is doing well, and he's got a salary and he's got a house and he's got a pickup truck and he's taken good care of the flock and there's a million dollars in the bank. Million dollars in the bank. We don't have anything in the bank, so don't that's where this breaks down. So the pastor dies and they've gotta replace him. They gotta find somebody to replace him. So the board is looking for a pastor, looking for someone to replace. They're preaching, pinch hitting. So for the first year, the pastor's wife gets the husband's salary, what he was making. Now, a year's gone by. Now, they found a pastor. And they're worried that this pastor might not cooperate with them as the board, so they changed the bylaws to where the board is in charge and the pastor can teach and be a pastor and get a salary, but it's not his decision. He doesn't make the decisions. So they decide, the board, that the pastor's wife can now get a thousand dollars a month for one more year. And after that, they're done with her. What would you do to Kathy? Gonna kick her out in the name of love? In the name of a million dollars in the bank you're worried somebody might have to dip into, makes me sick to my stomach. Sick. That's a no brainer, I told him. She gets a salary the rest of her life. She gets his salary. She built that church with him. Her and her kids, are you guys out of your minds? You just throw these pastors away? Mind boggling. Multiplication. Acts four thirty two. And the multitude of them that believe were of one heart and of one soul, neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. Communion. They had all things as communion. It all belonged to the Lord. Let's let's take care of one another. Refined his goal, the manifest approved of God, his church. They passed the test. They got past selfishness. They ministered to one another. What happens when we become divided? Acts five. Ananias and Sapphira saw what Barnabas did and they tried to trick everybody. And so they put a certain portion of the money from the sale of some land and laid at the apostles feet and Peter says, you haven't lied to men, you've lied to the holy spirit. While it was yours, wasn't in your power to do with as you want, but why have you lied to God? And so, he dropped dead. Ananias just dropped dead right there. Now, that would put the fear of God in everybody that don't lie to the holy spirit. Right? And then his wife came in a little while later and she'd rehearsed the story. Hey, yeah, boom. She dropped dead. It was a conspiracy. Now, they're dead and it says that fear, godly reverential fear permeated the church. And it says, that God multiplied and the multitude of them that believe were of one heart and of one soul, neither said any of them that ought to the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. And then they've got the blessed subtractions of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts five. Sometimes God subtracts. And so we say, Jesus said upon this rock I'll build my church and the gates of hell not prevail. It's quality that Jesus is after, not quantity. Verse 19, for there must also be also heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. So refined as gold, he knows the way that I take and when he's tried me, I'm gonna come forth as gold. First Peter one verse seven, Peter says that the trial of faith be much more precious than of gold that perishes, but be tried by fire might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. All these trials, all these afflictions, all these battles that you go through as a Christian, The Lord's using them to refine us. The Lord's using them to burn off the dross. And we're able to bring glory and honor unto the Lord at his appearing because the wood hay and the stuffle has been burned up and that which is precious has come through the fire as we've been refined. And so, we're never gonna reach a place where the church doesn't have problems. Families have problems and we work through those problems with the help of the Holy Spirit, following God's word in a loving manner. And to preserve the purity, there's times where we have to confront. There's times where we have to discipline. There's times where we have to restore. And and so it's a it's a growing organism. It's the body of Christ. And we're all sinful, but when we love one another, it works. And without love, we're nothing. And the only way we can love is to abide in John 15 in Jesus. And as we abide in him and he in us, his love flows through us, you know. And all of a sudden, all this pettiness and all the it doesn't mean as much, you know. We wanna be a part of something that's real. We want authentic Christianity. We wanna be a part of a church and a family of believers that truly are loving one another. And Jesus said, by this shall men know that you're my disciples, that you have love one for another. I've met up with people that left the church. A few months ago, the Jesus revolution movie was playing and and I went to the movie theater and there was a guy there that that I wronged. And he was really hurting about it for a number of years. And, he did some things that were wrong, but my reaction to it was was equally wrong. And, so I just immediately apologized to him. And you should have saw the just the weight lift off him. And his friend that was there with him, he said, see, I told you. I told you. Another guy, I had an opinion about him and his wife and their carnality. Called them out on it and they didn't like it. They left the church. And then during COVID, they came back, and I apologized to him. And the wait just he started weeping. He just started weeping. And his wife says to me, I forgive you. And I'm thinking, you're the one that needs to be forgiven, Jezebel. No. But I took wrong. First Corinthians six says, why don't you just take wrong? Why are you going to court and have to win the fight? Just take wrong. Cathy and I are in a fight. I never win a fight with Cathy. Always take wrong. Always, I'm the one that says, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And then it's over. She wins every time. She's stubborn. Really stubborn. And even if I'm in the right, I probably said it wrong. I I did something wrong. I don't know, but all I know is it just takes away the the problem's immediately removed, you know. And maybe I just hurt her feelings the way I said something. I don't know. I'm like, one lady who's maybe listening today, she said, I'm like a bull in a china shop. And that I break a lot of stuff, you know, online or when I'm teaching and everything. And I and I said that to Kathy and she goes, that's a really good description of who you are. You're even like that in our marriage. You're just been like that forever. You're a bull in a china shop. Okay. Alright. That's why I say I'm sorry so much. Because I wanna be truthful. I wanna stand firm for Jesus. But there's that delicate balance of doing it in love. How can you do that in love? How can you be angry and sin not? How can you have a righteous indignation toward this evil, but not call people idiots, you know, stuff like that, you know. Ew, idiots. Calling people names. I don't think you should call people names. Well, Jesus called people names. He called them a brood of vipers, white walled sepulchers, know, who's gonna save you from the damnation of hell? So anyway, alright. So father, we just thank you. We don't have it figured out. Without your help, our marriages would fall apart. All of our relationships would fall apart. Our country would fall apart, Lord. The church would fall apart because the heart's deceitfully wicked above all things and who can know it? And Lord, we need your help. We need a new heart. We need you to continue to transform and change us from within. That loving, being able to love is a work of your holy spirit. Just a flow of your holy spirit in and through us. God, we ask ever more that in these last days as people are going to hate each other more and more, as people are gonna become more and more wicked, as we're gonna see the worst in humanity, as we're stripped of all the comforts of things that keep us civil, Lord, we pray that we'd be able to love, that love would prevail, that we'd win, that we'd not succumb to the ugliness of hatred and evil. Help us to continue to speak the truth in love. 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.
