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1 Corinthians 12:1,11 -Spirit Filled Ministry- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-08-04
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First Corinthians 12 verses one through 11. I'm so tired of being lied to, and I'm surprised you guys keep showing up, but man, it's a rant every week, isn't it? It's first Corinthians twelve one through 11. Now concerning spirituals, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away under these dumb idols even as you were led. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calls Jesus a curse and that no man say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit. There are differences of administrations but the same Lord. There are diversities of operations but is the same god which works all in all. But the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all. For the one is given by the spirit, the word of wisdom. To another, the word of knowledge by the same spirit. To another, faith by the same spirit. To another, the gift of the healing by the same spirit. To another, working of miracles. To another prophecy. To another, discerning of spirit. To another, diverse kinds of tongues. To another, the interpretation of tongues. But all these work that one in the self same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will. Father, thank you for your holy word. Lord, we don't want to live the Christian life, in the power of the flesh. We wanna live the Christian life, Lord, in the power, the effulgence, the energy of your spirit. And we pray, Lord, that you would pour out your spirit afresh upon us, that you illumine our hearts and minds, that any of us here that don't know what our gifts are, Lord, that you would identify where we fit within the body of Christ and how we've been given gifts to be used for your glory and for your kingdom, for the edifying of the body of Christ. We pray that you comfort us, Lord, and help us to differentiate between the fruit of the spirit and the gifts of the spirit. We thank you that the fruit of the spirit is love, the evidence thereof that we truly are Christians. So blessed, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you please be seated? Now concerning spirituals in the Greek, the word gift is not there. Now concerning spirituals, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. From carnal issues to the topic of spirituals, pneumaticos. The word gifts, cheris, is a word that's added, speaks of gracious endowments leading to miraculous, results. They were ignorant of being truly spirit filled. And so another time in Romans chapter 11 verse 25, Paul starts out by saying, you know, I don't want you to be ignorant. I don't want you to be ignorant concerning the nation of Israel that blindness in part has happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. And so there don't be ignorant about that. Don't be ignorant and be be high minded or wise in your own conceits that blindness in part has happened unto Israel. The only reason know, blindness in part has happened under them is is because we're in the church age until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. Once the fullness of the Gentiles become in, the they're gonna be grafted back in because they're the true. They're part of the true vine, you know. You've been grafted in, foreigners, you you Gentile believers or whatever. So that would be a an indictment against replacement theology. Don't be thinking there's any replacement theology. Don't be ignorant about God's role with Israel. Blindness in part has only happened to them until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. And then in first Thessalonians four verse 13, he said, you know, don't be ignorant. Don't be don't be ignorant concerning those that fall asleep, those who are dying. That you sorrow not as those who have no hope. And then he goes on to describe how God's going to raise up the dead in Christ first and the way that your alive remain shall be caught up together with him. And so, we sorrow when someone within the church dies, but we don't sorrow as those who have no hope because they don't understand the resurrection and the soon return of Jesus Christ. And so men, ministries and manifestations concerning spirituals. Number one, the man of the spirit. You know that you were gentiles carried away under these dumb idols even as you were led. This word carried away means a condemned prisoner led away to execution. You were in bondage. Under what? Under dumb idols. Idols that couldn't speak. Idols you're bound down to that, you know, mouse they have but they can't speak. They have throats but they can't articulate a word. They have ears but they can't hear. They have eyes but they can't see. So when the devil has his image of the beast and artificial intelligence, his image is gonna speak, isn't it? You guys are running around your house, a lot of you speaking into your phones. Artificial intelligence and answering your questions. Right? Some of you got I forget what they call them, but hey, what you know, and you call out Alexa. Yeah. Alexa, you know. And but your dumb idols can speak, can't they? They can wow. We've come a long way, baby. And so the idol was mute, unable to speak, but God can and does speak unto us. In first Thessalonians one verse nine, the second part he says, how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. So when I say, you know, I don't always hear from the Lord, Jesus said, he that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying. We do hear from the Lord and we do pray and we have access on them. There's a relationship there. I'm just saying that I'm not so tight with the Lord that I hear, you know, every moment of every day, you know, the Lord speaking to me, telling me these huge things, you know. Every now and then, the Lord whacks me upside of the head and says, listen, and you know, and I hear. But I'm not as dumb as I used to be looking at dumb idols and following things that that, you know, that I that I couldn't hear. So the natural man, the body and soul man, he understands not the things of God neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. But when we come to Christ and Christ is in our heart and life, we have access to his throne of grace. We have ears to hear, spiritual ears to hear. Eyes not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered in the hearts of men the things which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed them unto us by his spirit. And so God by his spirit is revealing himself to us as we study his word, as we listen, God is speaking to each of us. I just wanna caution in regard to the YouTube prophets, they're always professing that God spoke to me, God spoke to me, God spoke to me. And we as brands, we listen to what they say, and we evaluate it whether it lines up with the scriptures or not. And then we also put a test upon them. We test every spirit. We try the spirits to see whether they be of God. And we also put the test of did it come to pass? Did it happen? If it doesn't happen, if they keep prognosticating these things and everybody gets, oh, this is gonna happen, and it doesn't happen, that's a false prophet. Quit listening to those who proclaim that God told them, God told them, God told them. And so I'm very careful here. So what happens is is so many abuses of the spirituals, people abusing the gifts of the spirit that many people don't wanna hear it anymore. And, we don't wanna be in that camp. We don't wanna be so baptistic that, we think the gifts and administration of the of the gifts of the spirit that they ceased with the closing of the canon of scripture. We're not those people. We think when that which is perfect has come, then that which is part shall be done away. So we're in chapter 12. We're gonna go in chapter 13. We're gonna go into chapter 14 concerning spirituals. And in chapter 13, they make an error, grave error. They say when that which is perfect has come, they think that's the canon of scripture. Then that in which is in part the gifts shall be done away. So they call them the apostolic gifts. When the apostles died, the gifts ceased. Well, that's not true. That's a cessationist. We're not cessationists. We believe in the gifts and the operation of the spirit continue to this very day. And but we don't wanna go to the as pastor Chuck wrote a book, Chuck was raised in a Pentecostal home, and so we don't want to go to the point of the abuses of the charisma, the charismatic. So so many of them abuse it. So on television years ago, you'd see them falling down on the ground, these so called Pentecostal charismatics, and they fall on the ground and they'd bark and they'd roar. They'd have a drunk tank and they'd say that they were drunk in the spirit, they couldn't drive home, things like that, you know. The Toronto blessing and these kind of things. And so, absurdity, and then it causes the John McArthur's and those on the other side to look at us and laugh at us and tell us we're wackadoodles, we're crazy and all that. We'd have to agree. But they wanna throw the baby out with the bathwater. We're saying, no, the gifts are real. They're in operation today, and we need more and more of the work of the holy spirit. We need all we can get from God, you know. So if somebody wants to speak in tongues, we don't forbid a person that can't speak in tongues, but we go to first Corinthians 14 where we see that everything's to be done decently and in order. So Paul's gonna teach the church of Corinth, which is very gifted, how to exercise their gifts for the edification of the body, but to be done decently and in order, not for selfish reasons draw attention under themselves and cause a schism, cause division, cause chaos, cause confusion. God's not the author of confusion. He says verse three, wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calls Jesus accursed. Spirit filled man spilled spirit filled men and women don't call Jesus accursed. They don't curse Jesus. Hot, you know, pure water and bitter water. A fountain doesn't put out both. So here's what's happening. They've got people speaking in tongues. They got people prophesying publicly. And then the interpretation to scare everybody about the gifts of the spirit is, oh, those guys just cursed Jesus. They're cursing Jesus. They're saying bad things about Jesus. And the people like, oh, wow. Well, we better stay away from that gift of tongues. We better stay away from, you know, the gift of prophecy and these kind of things because because, you know, we don't know what spirit thereof. We don't know and Paul say, no. That's absurd. That's absurd. The holy spirit doesn't do that. Which of you fathers, if your son asked for bread, would you give him a stone? If he asked for a fish, would you give him a serpent? If he asked for an egg, would you give him a scorpion? If you then being evil, yes, you are evil. I am evil. If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your kids, how much more the holy spirit will be given to you by your father? And you have the holy spirit. The holy spirit within you, his job, the job of the holy spirit is to bear witness of Jesus, not to curse Jesus. So that's a different spirit if you see somebody doing that. That's not the spirit of God. And that you can test the spirits and try them to see whether they be of God. One of the tests is did he come in the flesh? The gnostics would say he didn't come in the flesh. The incarnation his body and soul, body, soul, and spirit. The babe of Bethlehem, is he the God man? Is he fully man? They were trying to say that Jesus wasn't fully man in his incarnation as the God man, the son of man, that he was like a phantom. He was a ghost. He was a spirit. He walked along the beach and there were no, you know, no footprints. So they tried to base a doctrine that everything that you do in the physical doesn't matter. Only what you do in the spirit matters. So you could fornicate, do whatever you want, none of it mattered. It was all about this secret knowledge they had. The Gnostics had secret knowledge. And so Paul's refuting that that part of the test is in first John, John gives a test, you know, these gnostics, we gotta stop them. This is one of their errors. This is they present a different Jesus. And so apparently, these prophets were calling Jesus a curse while prophesying. So how could the holy spirit be inspiring some to curse Jesus? In Mark three twenty two, it says, the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, he has Bilzebub and by the prince of the devils, casting out devils. Bilzebub's the lord of the flies. And when I open the screen door, the kids come in and open the screen door and all these flies come in, you know, I curse Bilzybub, the lord of the flies. Get out of here. Get out of here, you flies, you know. But that's that's what they were ascribing. They were saying Jesus does these miracles by Bilzybub, the lord of the flies. And and so he says, the devils cast ye out devils. And so, and he called unto them and he said unto them in parables, Jesus is showing the how irrational this is. They're thinking that the miracles that he doing, you're ascribing these miracles, the blind are able to see, the deaf can hear, the lame are walking, the lepers are cleansed. You know, you're ascribing these miracles which none of you can do, none of you have ever done. You're ascribing them to the devil? You're saying that I'm getting the power to do good from the devil? You know? That's absurd. That's illogical. It's irrational. So he begins to chide them. He says, how can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. Verse 25. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. Verse 26. And if Satan rise up against himself and be divided, he cannot stand but has an end. No man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods except he will first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house. Verily I say unto you, all sin shall be forgiven you under the son of man and blasphemies where where so ever they shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against the holy ghost has never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation. And so rejection of Jesus is blasphemy of the holy spirit. That's the only way you get into hell is to resist the holy spirit. You guys are in danger of that. You're in danger ascribing these works on the Beelzebub, the lord of the flies. You're getting close. Be very careful because there's all your blasphemies, all your rejection, mean, that'll be forgiven. But blasphemy of the holy spirit, resisting the holy spirit in receiving Christ as your lord and savior, that's a game changer. That's gonna keep you out of the kingdom of heaven. So in John fifteen twenty six, Jesus said when the comforter has come, when I will send unto you from the father even the spirit of truth which proceeds from the father, he will testify of me and not of men not of men who are trying to take God's glory. So the spirit, the holy spirits, the the Paracletus who comes alongside is gonna reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, of sin because you believe not on me. Of righteousness because I ascended the father and of judgment because of the prince of this world is judged. And so Jesus is the standard. No man comes to the father but through him. He's the only way under the father and, the holy spirits come to bear witness. And so, not of men taking God's glory and that no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the holy ghost. So only a spirit filled man can sincerely call, and we use the word sincerely, can call Jesus Lord. Thomas said, my Lord and my God. He didn't believe at first that he's resurrected. Then Thomas was absent, but Thomas eight days later being present, Jesus comes through the walls. Right? And doesn't even use the door and Thomas exclaims, my Lord and my God. The apostle the apostle Paul as he was Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. And Jesus saying, Saul Saul, why are you persecuting me? He says, who art thou, Lord? That was that was Saul of Tarsus' conversion. That was where he came to know the true and living God. A God that he was blasphemy, a God that he was resisting, a God that he was compelling, you know, against and tormenting Christians and compelling Christians to blasphemy. And the Lord Jesus says, you're a chosen vessel unto me. Show you what things you must suffer for my name's sake. But he became a trophy of God's grace in that moment, his conversion, turning from his sin and crying out to Jesus, confessing that Jesus is Lord as the Lord reveals himself unto Saul of Tarsus, the the man, the apostle Paul, his his conversion. In acts seven fifty nine, they stoned Stephen calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Lord, my life's not my own. My life belongs to you. And Lord, if you want me to die for telling the truth, if you want me to be stoned to death right here and now as one of the deacons in Jerusalem there, so be it. My Lord, my life surrendered unto you. And then he says, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge and his face is shining like bright like that of an angel. And guess what? Jesus, who's seated at the right hand of his father, Jesus stands. Jesus stands up and give Stephen a standing ovation. So pleased that first martyr within the church, Stephen, a deacon, being used of God to bring glory and honor under the true and living God. Martyrdom avoided by cursing Jesus and saying Caesar is Lord, renouncing Christ. That's all it would take. Renounce Christ, blaspheme, pinch a little bit of incense, you Christians of the first two centuries. Once a year, you're being compelled to say Caesar is Lord and you can live another year. You can take the mark of the beast on your right hand of your forehead, and you can live another year. But if you say no, Jesus is Lord, then we're gonna take your head. Well, to be asked in the bodies, be present with the Lord. He's my Lord, my Lord and my savior. Nonnegotiable. I don't fear them that can kill the body. I fear him that can not only kill the body, but cast your soul into hell. I fear God. No giving in at all. Only a spirit filled man. So don't be fooled, Corinthians. The spirit filled man is yielded to the spirit. Concerning spirituals, the man of the spirit, secondly, the ministry of the spirit. He says verse four. Now the diversity is of gifts but the same spirit. Diverse gift speaks of the charisma, the gifts, the charisma, charismata, spiritual endowments, divine gratuity, four lists of gifts. In this present listing, under verse 11, we have nine different gifts that are listed but they're not exhaustive. We have in verse 28, another list that we'll get to later. We have another list of gifts in Romans chapter 12 verses six through eight. And then we have in Ephesians four six through 11, we have a gift to the church. These are gifted men and women who have an office. An office is given to them. We have an office that's called those of apostles. An apostle is one who sent in the general sense, Barnabas being an apostle, but in a in a clear sense, the apostles, the 12 apostles are those that saw the resurrected Christ. And the apostle Paul, one born out of due time. So those who actually met Jesus, saw Jesus, saw the resurrected Christ, and they went on to be their office within the church as the 12 apostles. And then you have prophets. Prophets within the church. Ananias, a prophet, and others. We have, Philip's daughters who are prophetesses. They had an office within the church speaking forth the word of God, beautiful virgin daughters of Philip. I love Philip the evangelist. What an amazing man. You know, he's raptured to a zodus, you know. Another one of the deacons and his daughters, four virgin prophetesses. So you have apostles, prophets, you have pastors, teachers, you have evangelists. For what? For the perfecting of the saints, which means the maturing of the saints, to mature the saints. So the church has given pastors, teachers who will teach the word of God, who will feed the sheep so that the sheep can grow. The only way for sheep to grow is to feast upon the word of God. And so when you have a pastor, when you've been looking for a pastor and you can't find one, you can't find a church that teaches the word of God, they're lacking one of these offices, one of these men that God has placed there. What about evangelists? Wouldn't it be great if we had an evangelist in Kitsap County that had the gift of evangelism and we saw a huge intake of people coming to Christ? Wouldn't it be great if we had Greg Laurie who at the harvest crusade, they, had, you know, tons of people come to Christ and they went to Pirate's Cove a week later and baptized over 2,000 people. Wouldn't that be great? Be exciting. Right? They have the gift of evangelism. And, some of these teachers, they're better suited for teaching Sunday school or teaching in the seminary. And other of these teachers are are suited to teach, you know, in a in a church setting. So they may have the gift of teaching, but they have different diversity of ministrations, ways that they minister. And, and then you have evangelists. Some of you are evangelists, not like Greg Laurie, but you're evangelists in the sense you have the gift of evangelism. You're a one on one evangelist. You do real real well with one on one with people that the Lord puts in your way. And you go out casting seed. You're casting the seed of the gospel. Evangelist can't save everybody. Evangelist is an evangel, a herald heralding the good news of his coming kingdom. Not everybody responds. Not everybody responds to great glory. Not everybody responded to Jesus. But we do the work of evangelists. I don't have the gifting of an evangelist, but I love doing the work of an evangelist as a pastor. So I love giving an invitation to people to receive Christ because you have been going out there sowing the seed, watering the seed, and then in many cases, you invite them to church, and then I get the blessing of watching God bring the increase as we simply give an invitation for people to come to Christ. What a glorious day that is when that happens. And so we see this other gift there in Ephesians four of gifted men and women that God's gives gifts for service. In first Peter four verse 10, as every man has received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. So what are your spiritual gifts? What gifts do you have? What gifts has God given you? He's given gifts to all of us severally as he wills. God's gifted each of us and as we go through the various gifts of the spirit, it's gonna be fun to wait upon the Lord, all of us in prayer, and to listen to the Lord as to how he reveals what it is he's he's gifted us with. For me, personally, a pastor, when I was baptized with the Holy Spirit, you know, I began to speak in tongues and I was filled with God's love. That's the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, not the speaking in tongues. But, I didn't know what my gifts were, so I just began to serve. I just began to serve at the church in helps, in cleaning the church, in teachings two year olds in Sunday school. You know, in bulletins in churches, a lot of times they have recruitment. They're asking for people to help. So I just responded by helping. And and that's, you know, that was exciting journey to try and discover what my gifts were, where I fit within the body. And as we study next week and as we continue through these chapters, that's what you're you're in a journey. You're to discover, where you fit within the body. And for me, it took other people coming up to me and telling me what my gift was. I I I didn't have the confidence to think that I had a gift of teaching. I thought everybody I thought everybody had a working knowledge of the scripture the way that it works in my head. And Kathy would tell me even still today, Rick, that doesn't work like that in everybody. And so I didn't know. I I didn't know that the dots connect and that that was a purpose of recalling the scriptures and tying the scriptures together and getting a harmony, harmonious flow of the scripture to bring about truth. So I used the Bible to teach the Bible, and that is part of the gift of teaching. It's part of what God placed within my heart, but I didn't I didn't understand it at the time. And then when I began to understand that, I began to teach Sunday school, more Sunday school, more bible studies. And then at the bible studies, there's fruit. There's people telling you, hey, I got something out of that. And then I went to school. I went to school because I'd still didn't have confidence. I went to school because I wanted to be able to test it. I wanna be able to test it in a in an environment, a safe environment before I come out here and ruin good people like you, you know. And so within that environment, you know, they were hard on me. They were really hard on me. The first time I spoke, my my knee shook. My knees went crazy and I got this nervous thing coming up to my cheek all the way there. And they roared in laughter. And one of them came up to me and said, you know, there's other things God could have you do. And I'm like I'm like, well, I don't know about that. And then I continued and they would they would listen with their clipboards in our homiletics class, is preaching. And then they had a guy there that was a real estate guy that would go and, they have these these groups that go and speak. They do a little speaking, public speakings, apparently is people's greatest fear. And, so he's there, wonderful guy, and he'd listen and everybody would grade you. And what I got out of it was ta is not a word. So the way that I talk, I said I went ta the store, but to is not a word. So that's how critical they were in all that stuff. And then you gotta learn Greek and Hebrew and all these other different means of rules of interpretation, observation, interpretation, application. So all of that was an exercise in preparing preparing me, for the ministry. And then we come up to Oregon, then we come up to Bremerton, and man, I was ready and we just went for it. We didn't know what we're doing. We didn't have a clue what we're doing, but we went for it. And I mean, I even prayed over people that are dead to see if God had raised them from the dead. I don't know if I have a gift of healing or not, but Kathy and I went into a room where a beloved brother of ours was dead, and we were actually trying to raise him from the dead, man. We tried everything. We've tried it all. We don't we don't negate, you know, all of that could never happen. God would no. We've tried it all. And that's the way that we discovered what our gifts are. And, so for those of you that live in riotous lifestyles of God or to smite you dead, just know I don't have the gift to raise you back. Alright? So behave yourself. Alright? I don't have that one yet. And there are differences I can hear Lindsay laughing. I love that laugh. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. So areas of services or offices and so how do I know where I fit in? Step out in faith. Step out in faith. Get out of the boat. Get out of your comfort zone. We all fail. We all fail. Failure is a part of it. Peter steps out of the boat and he sinks. Right? But at least he stepped out of the boat. At least he could say, hey, I was walking on water for a little while. You know? At least I got out of the comfort zone and stepped out of the boat. We all fail. Especially me when I try to sing. I don't have that gift, do I? But I try. I step out of the boat. I give it a risk and you know Amen. As I'm getting older, I'm not old yet, but as I'm getting older, I don't care what people think anymore. I want the joy of the Lord. I wanna make a joyful noise on the Lord, but I don't wanna be so bad at something that distracts people, you know. You gotta pick your pick your spots where it isn't gonna be a distraction for people to You can't pass your spirit. Enjoy the Lord. So a man's gotta know his limitations. Right? Prophet Clint? Verse six, and there are diversities of operations but is the same God which works all in all. So operations speaks of an effect or working. Different operations but the same God working energizing each of us. So it's the power of the Holy Spirit operating through us. And we're just clay pots. We're just vessels that God chooses to use. And like we like to remind ourselves, if we were to get puffed up and prideful, Kathy would remind me, hey, you're just a jackass. You're just Balaam's donkey. Alright? God spoke through a donkey. Don't be puffed up and thinking that you're so great because he's able to speak through you, Rick. Right? And so if you were to refrain and not sing and not worship the Lord, then he would cause the rocks to cry out, you know. So don't be all high and mighty. Philippians two thirteen, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So God is working in you. He's working his will in you both the will, so the will comes there. So for me, it was, Lord, I I'd like to try to teach some Sunday school. I wanna step out in faith. Lord, I'd like to you know, people invite me to teach a home bible study. Alright, Lord. Should I do that? Should I not do that? Alright. I'd like to try, and then you and then you try. He's putting in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. He's given you a vision. He's given you direction. I had a nice business. My family was provided for. We were loving where we lived, but the Lord didn't allow me that sense of fulfillment, and I didn't know what to do. And so he began to work this thing in me over and over and over over years of time that he was calling me into the ministry. And one brother came up to me and said, Rick, the reason you're so miserable is because God's called you to be a pastor and you're disobeying him. Another brother came up to me and said, you're committing sins of omission. Boy, what a head trip, you know? Why don't you guys go out and leave everything you have and go venture out somewhere? Take your family out there, you know? And easy to say, you know? But but in any event, the Lord stirred me and kept stirring me. And as I approached it with fear and trembling over a period of time in school, and then after school, then eventually, it started to click. Eventually, you know that you know that you know that you're in God's will. What keeps me here in Bremerton because I've been so successful? No. I've been a failure. What keeps me here in Bremerton is knowing I'm in God's will. I have very little to show for thirty years of being here. But one of the ways to look at it is the only way I could have stayed here is because of the help of the Holy Spirit, because God has called me here. So I'm not a great glory. I'm not gonna get the big numbers. I'm not gonna get a big church and all that stuff like in Orange County, but I know that I know that I know that I'm supposed to teach God's word, and I know that I know that I know it's settled in my heart that this is where God has me. And that's a good place to be. Better than better than trying to buy two houses and being dissatisfied and unfulfilled the rest of your life, trying to fill that place within your heart. Take nothing away from people good with real estate, and business people, and people that know that's their will, that's God's will for their life. For me, I wanted to be a Christian businessman. I thought that was plausible, but it wasn't gonna fill my heart. It wasn't gonna satisfy. So this whole ministry thing came as a shock to me and continues to blow my mind. So I also labor striving according to his working, Colossians one twenty nine Paul says, which works in me mightily. So you're striving your working according to his working which works in me mightily. Jesus said in John fifteen five, without me, you can do nothing. But we know Paul said in Philippians four thirteen, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And then pastor Chuck's favorite passage at the pastor's conference, every pastor's conference I ever went to, the theme was always Zechariah four six. It's not by might nor by power. And when it says not by might, it means your natural might. It's not by might nor by power, your natural power, but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts. I've looked at this plant in Bremerton here and I've looked at it in such a way like, you know, if I were to evaluate what's going on here, like I even said it to one of the pastors one time, was all high and mighty on a trip I was on. And guys in Southern Cal just don't understand a place like this. That's why great glory won't come back. He came here once. It's it's a rough place. That's why he'll do a harvest crusade every year in Orange County because it's a slam dunk. But coming up here, it's humbling. Franklin Graham, the guys, they all stay away, don't they? And and so if I evaluate it, I look at this and I said to this pastor, I said, can you do what you do on $5,000 a month? Feed your family, fund the ministry, reach the lost on $5 a month. And he looked at me like I was a alien from another planet. But that's the reality for many false small church pastors. You're facing impossible odds. The impossibility. You can't compare yourself to other ministries in other places. And so you recognize, you know, it takes money, but you're not to beg for money. You're not to ask for money. Where God guides, God provides. So it's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord. So where's the Holy Spirit providing the money and providing everything that's needed? He is. He just hasn't said he wants you to be like those guys with lots of people and lots of whatever. So be faithful in the season of small things. Be faithful with those he's, you know, given you to minister. Guys were jealous of Charles Spurgeon, how big and prolific his ministry was, and how many how many are you pastoring? Well, 50 people. Well, 50 people's a lot of people to give account on on the day of judgment before God. So that's how you have to look at it. You have to look at it as without the help of the Holy Spirit, I know a lot of pastors from Southern Cal that couldn't have hacked it this long. I've seen them try to leave Southern California and go somewhere else, and they don't they don't make it. They run back. They can't take it. So it's a miracle of God that Kathy and I've been able to weather this. I mean, just in my introduction, a couple that was sitting right there got up and left as soon as I put my head down. People can't take it. They just can't take the truth here. And this election cycle is such that people that are in the Trump cult and have drinking the Kool Aid, they can't take what I have to say. They just can't take it. So they're gonna hit the door because they're still hoping in America. And I I want you to vote, but I want you to vet these candidates. Take heed that no man deceives you. If you don't know he's deceived you in his previous time with the COVID jab, what makes you think he's changed his stripes this time? So it's pretty much a no brainer to me, but I know that part of growing the church in Orange County is presenting Trump as the answer because we have such a good lifestyle in Orange County, we can't possibly lose this. You know? That's the mentality. And so I think that's part of the reason God sent me here is as people have said is I'm like a bull in a china shop. I cannot I cannot sit by and be passive toward the lies that are being forced down our down our throats, you know. I just can't do it. God's opened my heart and my mind. He's opened my eyes to these things. And if it's not true, somebody's gotta prove me wrong. And to this point, nobody's been able to prove me wrong in regard to these things. They just say stuff like, well, maybe they didn't tell him. Maybe he didn't have his binky. You know? Maybe he needs to sleep more. You know? Always making these idiotic excuses that doesn't even depict a leader at all. Diversities of gifts, differences of administrations, diversities of operations but the same spirit, verse four. The same Lord, verse five. The same God who works all in all in verse six. Concerning spirituals, the man of the spirit, the ministry of the spirit, the manifestation of the spirit. Verse seven. But the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all. That word manifestations, the Greek word, speaks of shining forth, light shining through the lantern. So notice this light, this manifestation is given to every man. Jesus said, you're the light of the world, Christian. You're a city that set on a hill that can't be hidden. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. Right? Now Nero took this truth that Jesus conveyed concerning Christians. And Nero history tells us records for us that he had a garden, a lush garden. And many believe that the apostle Paul shared the gospel with Nero in his first imprisonment. In Philippians, you can see where Paul said many in Caesar's palace. Caesar's palace, not Vegas. Caesar's palace, you know, come to faith. And, they feel that they were able to he was able to preach and teach to Nero. And much like Agrippa and Festus and others, kings and governors and dignitaries that Paul presented the gospel to, some of them, you know, said you're mad. Your must learnings made you mad. You know, Paul, leave me, you know, now and they're trembling and all that. Well, they say that Nero went insane after that. And he got really demonically possessed and such. And so what he did is he would have a chariot and he would take Christians and he would put a pole in the ground, have his servants do it. He'd take a Christian and roll them in pitch, which is tar. And then he'd take the Christian and set them upon that pole and pale them on that pole and then line them. And he'd be in his chariot naked, driving through his with a horse, through his garden, lighting the Christians on fire, shrieking in a demonic voice, what's it feel like now Christians to be the light of the world? Can you imagine? Can you imagine the decadence? Can you imagine the evil when God removes that hedge of protection, and yet the Lord is glorified in how we shine. The Lord's glorified how we enter the Colosseum as a spectacle, Theatron, the whole world watching. Angels watching, demons watching, everybody watching how we will face martyrdom. Jesus said, you're my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria to the uttermost. How will we face it? Will we hide the light? Will we try to hide from what God's called us to do? Or will we be like Polycarp and and say, eighty and six years, you know, he's been faithful to me. I'm not gonna wimp out now. You know. And they the the soldiers are begging Polycarp to recant, begging Polycarp to not go forth with this. They don't want to kill this old man. And yet, he remained true. They lit the faggots on fire, that's the wood. And the fire came up and they took a spear and he wouldn't die and they took a spear and rammed it into him and the water gushed out and put out the fire. John the beloved, they tried to boil him in oil and he wouldn't boil, so they exiled him to the island of Patmos where he wrote the book of Revelation. So note of the site, this manifestation is given to every man, to every believer, not just some. Does God do this so that we can shine? Hey, this is Rick Bodrey. Watch him shine. Look at me. Look at me. No. It's for the profit and the benefit of all. In John twelve twenty one, the Greeks came to Philip and they said, we would see Jesus. No such thing as Christian celebrities. No such thing as pastors getting press agents and building their brand and building their name. You don't see that in the bible. If you're prominent within the bible, if you're well known, you're on the devil's 10 most wanted list. You're gonna face grave grave circumstances. It's not a picnic, it's not a playground, it's a battleground. All of the apostles died violent deaths of martyrdom except for, as I said, John the beloved, who was exiled on Island Of Patmos. Two million Christians died in the first two centuries with 10 waves of Roman emperors trying to stamp Christianity out. And yet, the church continued to shine. Jesus said, you're a city set on a hill. You're not to take your light and put it under a bushel, but let it shine. Let the world see your good works that they may glorify your father in heaven. So we are just lanterns. We're just clay pots or as the band, we're just jars of clay. Earth and pots that the Lord fashions. He's the potter, we're the clay, and he fashions this lantern, this earthen pot, but we're nothing until he puts himself within that clay pot. We just reflect who he is. Without the oil, we're nothing. Without the holy spirit, we're nothing. We can't shine. God shining through us. We depend upon the oil of his spirit to shine. And it's not yesterdays. It's not the day before or last weeks. It's not what we once did and tell everybody about our past. You know, I once had lunch with pastor Chuck, man. That makes you really special. Well, I flew in the jet with him. You flown the jet? No. I didn't fly in the jet, man. You got the bigger anointing. You got the bigger anointing. God, if I'd have just flown in the jet with him, I'd have got the anointing, you know. That's how these guys act. Always looking in the past. Looking in the past what God's saying. What about today? Is the holy spirit filled your heart and life today? Do you do you have the courage to face that world out there? That angry world that's getting more and more angry at Christians that wants to blame and is gonna blame the evangelical Christians for the collapse of the economy, the collapse of everything. As Nero lit Rome on fire and they put it out and he relit it and blame the Christians. Talk about false flags. In Matthew five fourteen, Jesus said, you're the light of the world. The city that sat on the hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick and it gives light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. The god of the universe wants to fill and to use your life. What a great privilege. Charles Spurgeon said, if God has called you to be a pastor, when I was reading lectures to my students, because I couldn't get through my my head that I was actually gonna be a pastor. It it was it was so overwhelming that thought for me. I'm no Chuck Smith. How could I possibly do what he does? There's no way. Well, Chuck Smith can't be everywhere. And if nobody wants to go to Bremerton, know, Mikey will eat it, Mikey will do it, you know. So it's a privilege. It's an absolute privilege. But lectures to my students, Spurgeon, you know, as he's as he's trying to help people understand God's calling. How do you know if you're called? And he says in there, if God's called you to be one of his pastors, don't lower yourself to become a king. It's a high calling, a very high calling. And each of us has a calling. Each of us has gifts. And those gifts and those callings are without repentance. They're high callings. You're serving the king. You're serving king Jesus. And he's gonna use your life. He is using your life to build up his body, to edify his body, to strengthen his body. Your role is not to condemn his bride. Your role to accuse his bride. Your role is to build up his bride, to encourage his bride, to nourish his bride. God manifest himself in you with gifts of the spirit. So concerning spirituals brethren, I would not have you ignorant. For the one has given the spirit of the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another the gifts of healing by the same spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. Verse 11. But all these worketh that one in the self same spirit dividing to every man severally as he wills. Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Ephesians four verse seven. All of us in Romans eight have the spirit of God, lest we're none of his. We have the indwelling of the spirit, but we also have the api, the spirit upon us giving out gifts of the spirit upon each of our lives. Severally as he wills. When you're called a Christian, when you're made a Christian, God gives you a gift, at least one. You're not a pauper. You're a plutocrat. You have the gift. Gifts, the charisma, the charismata, the spirituals. Now, the witches, the warlocks, the the the people in darkness, they want power. And they see Christians as powerless. The salt is good for nothing but to be trodden under the foot of men. Right? But they're enamored with power. They're enamored with demonic power. That's why they're being set up for the antichrist. One day, they're gonna look to the antichrist and he's he's lying signs and wonders in second Thessalonians chapter two. The world's being set up. Sorcery, witchcraft, trickery, smoke and mirrors, artificial intelligence. So many ways people are deceived into thinking that the antichrist is God. He's just a man. Thinking the devil's God. He's just an angel. But lying signs and wonders. And yet you and I have the genuine. We have the real. We have the real holy spirit gifting us with real gifts, gifts of the spirit. And when we exercise those gifts in the body of Christ in harmony instead of division for the glory of God, we bear much fruit. And we bring God much glory. Right? What a blessing to to be given that which we need to perform and do that which he's called us to do. So the manifestation of the spirit is given to each believer as God determines. So be in prayer. Next week, we will seek to discover and define your gift or gifts which God has given you. So next week, we're gonna pick back up with verse eight, this whole list, these nine gifts of gifts, and we're gonna go back over it painstakingly one by one. We're gonna define what these are and ask that you pray and ask the Lord to reveal if your gift is found on this list. There's other lists. This is one of several lists of gifts of the spirit, the charismata, that of spirituals. So be in prayer. Next week, we'll pick it back up. So concerning spirituals brethren, I would not have you ignorant. The man of the spirit, the ministry of the spirit, the manifestation of the spirit. Now, acts chapter two verse 17, as Peter is quoting out of Joel chapter two, and it shall come to pass on the day of Pentecost in the last days, say it God, I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughter shall prophesy. And your young men shall see visions. I've been seeing a lot of visions. I've been prophesying. And your old men shall dream dreams. I'm not dreaming anything. And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I'll pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. This speaks of the tribulation period. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood. Remember the blood moons, blood moons, blood moons, those are some of those false prophets I was telling you about. Came to nothing. Same as the clip stuff came to nothing, but I gotta listen to it. Speaking of the tribulation period, before that great notable day of the Lord come, when Jesus comes again with his bride in his second coming. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And that's true still today to this point. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved. Save from what? Save from damnation. Save from condemnation. Save from hell. Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost. He came not for the righteous but for sinners. And he came for broken people, broken lives, people who are riddled with sin, people who are in bondage to sin. Jesus came to set the captives free. And you and I have been privileged to be a part of that ministry, a part of him saving people and then equipping people, edifying people, discipling people, helping them to mature for the work of the ministry that they find their place within the ministry. So there's still still time for you to become a man and I guess I have to define what a man is. X y chromosome. Okay? If you're a neuter, I was educated this morning, there's some that are neuters. Okay? So neuters apparently are boxers that have an x y chromosome, but their genitalia didn't fall down, you know, during birth. So they don't have male genitalia. I I don't know what to say. But apparently, there can be that anomaly, and I don't wanna pick on anybody. And then you've got, a woman who's x x. So still time for you to become a man or a woman of the spirit. Doesn't matter physiologically who you are, what you are. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things are passed away. All things have become new. If you think the inside of you that God's made a a mistake and outside you have the appearance of being a man, you have the genitalia and all that, but inwardly, he made a mistake and I identify as a woman. How about identifying as a Christian? Maybe it's a spiritual deception. Maybe you're headed in a wrong direction where there's no fulfillment. Why don't you call upon the name of the Lord and be saved while you still have time? Jesus said, all that come to me, I'll know why is cast out. He's not gonna reject you for who you are. He's not gonna reject you that you identify as whatever, a dog, a cat, whatever. He wants to change you. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things are passed away. All things are become new. God doesn't want you to settle. He doesn't want you to settle for something other than his best. In the beginning, he made them male and female. They were finitely perfect. They sinned against God. They transgressed against God. They were thrust from the garden. Their body and soul, he wants you to be body, soul, and spirit. He wants you to be born again, born from above. The life of the spirit is the most superior life that we as human beings can live and experience for all eternity. Anyone here this morning, you're confused about your gender. You're confused about a lot of things. What it means to be a husband, what it means to be a part of a family, what it means to be a mother. All sorts of confusion the devil brings into the equation in this lifetime. If you're confused in the gay lifestyle, we don't pick on you. We don't we don't we don't beat you down and try to hurt you. We wanna we wanna win you to Christ. What we stand against is the demonic indoctrination of our own children. The brainwashing of our children, the confusion that comes from people in authority that would cause them to question who they are during their formative years, during years where they're just not sure. And where they take it upon themselves to to say that we're gonna change their gender because they're confused in public school. No. No. No. No. No. Give them time. Give them time to grow and mature and and make adult decisions. That's a that's a lifelong thing you're doing to them. That's what we object to. The agenda, the grooming, the degradation of the family, the degradation of God's glory of male and female, Genesis one twenty seventy made them. We don't wanna see some man in the boxing ring on the Olympics smash a girl's head and overwhelm her as a as a male against a female. We don't wanna see this grinder girl in women's basketball. He's a man. We're tired of the confusion. We're gonna stand against the ideological bent, the enforcement of that narrative upon the rest of society, the normalization of the aberrant lifestyle of the homosexual gay alphabet soup, whatever you wanna call it. It's ungodly, and there's no future in it. But God says, whosoever will, let him come. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We're all sinners. But we don't parade our sin and want the whole world to accept us as murderers, as pedophiles, as bigots, as racist, or whatever it may be your sin is or my sin is. That's where we take the stand. We stand against the lies. And so still time for you to become a spirit filled Christian, a new creation, body, soul, and spirit. Anyone here this morning? God speak into your heart. He's wanting to rescue you from this putrid world we live in. He's sending people to Sodom and Gomorrah to rescue you. He's sending angels to Sodom and Gomorrah to rescue you. Anybody wanna be rescued? The majority of the people, they came against the angels. They're reprobate minds. How do you reach people like that? How do you reach them? Lot was hesitant. His daughters were hesitant. His wife looked back and Jesus said, remember Lot's wife. These guys were smitten with blindness and they were still groping toward the door to fulfill their lust upon the two new men within the city. Cause they had their way with every other man except Lot, hopefully. Hopefully. And righteous Lot. He was offering his daughters. How do you deal with a corrupt society like that? And Jesus said, prior to his coming, that the time would be like Sodom and Gomorrah. That it would be like the time of Noah. What are the days in which we're living? The call goes out to whosoever will. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his wickedness. We're not belittling. We're not trying to hurt anybody. Maybe one of your sons or daughters entered into the gay lifestyle. We're not trying to hurt them. We're trying to rescue them. We're trying to come alongside you and equip you and help them come back to their senses. The prodigal needs to come home. The same as our adulterous daughters and sons. The same as our fornicating dark, you know, whatever covetous. It doesn't matter. We all need to come to Christ. But we're not gonna settle for being nice in the face of evil and change the way that we view it just to pacify an aggressive Sodom and Gomorrah type culture. No. We're gonna tell the truth. We're gonna speak the truth in love. And sometimes our words are not the softest, nicest words. They might be you serpents, you generation of vipers. Who's gonna save you from the damnation of hell? If those kind of words can wake a person up, those very words that Jesus spoke to the religious leaders, why are we trying to be nice, passive as they're legislating to mutilate our children. Where's the red line? They're legislating to legalize pedophilia and we're gonna talk nice. Enough's enough. The provision is salvation. That's what we offer. Anyone here this morning? You've been sobered. You're sobered by the truth and you want to turn from your sins and cry out to Christ, God be merciful to me a sinner. Just lift your hand up. We wanna pray with you. Anyone here this morning? There's still time. You're not dead yet. You still have a pulse. Anyone here this morning? Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We pray Lord that you bless this time as we partake a communion, That you bless this time as we remember the cross, your broken body, your shed blood. We desire communion, Lord. We desire to be one with you. We desire for fellowship, Lord. Thank you for gifting us. Thank you for equipping us with your holy spirit. Help us to have spirit filled marriages, spirit filled homes, spirit filled children who are sealed with the holy spirit. And Lord, let us let us exercise the gifts of the spirit in the power of the Holy Spirit for your kingdom and for your glory to edify, to build up, to strengthen the body of Christ. 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.
