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1 Corinthians 12:7,11 -The Manifestation- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-08-11
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First Corinthians chapter 12 verses seven through 11. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word? 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 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. But all these worketh that one and the self same spirit dividing to every man severally as he wills. Father, we thank you for your holy word. Lord, please help us to identify the gift and or gifts, plural, that you've given to each of us. Help us to shine as lights, Lord, to manifest your glory in a very dark period of time in world history. Lord, we pray that we'd not wimp out, we'd not quit. We pray that we not gimmick, that we not market. We pray that the going forward, Lord, would truly be a working of your holy spirit. You manifest in yourself working through each of us, Lord, with the gifts that you've given, that we operate not by might nor by power, but by your spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. So help us, we pray in Jesus name, amen. Would you please be seated? What are your gifts of the spirit? If you're a Christian, have at least one gift. You're not a pauper. In in Ephesians, one of the words that, Paul uses is plutos, riches. The riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. And so we have we're bountiful. Jesus said, I've come that you might have life, that you might have it more abundantly. The abundant life of the spirit. We shouldn't be, you know, even though we're here in Kitsap County into spiritual, you know, desert or graveyard, for us, we can we can still live the life of the spirit here. We can still share the gospel. We can still have discernment. We can have a pocket here. We can have a remnant group of people that love meeting and studying the bible and being with Jesus, and and and it it's not a location kind of a thing. But it is imperative that we operate in the power of the holy spirit. Twenty years ago, if we wanted a a bigger church in Kitsap County, all we needed to do was rebrand. All we needed to do was take Rick Warren's recommendation of a world that's apostatizing a Christian group of Christians around the world apostatizing, meaning falling away from the truth. And, the more of the bible you teach, the smaller your church will be. And verse by verse teaching is death to a church. So what he did is he taught social justice. He began to rebrand the Baptist churches and the AOG churches and anybody that wanted to take down your cross, take down your stuff that you know, that looks religious and, have a different approach. It's not it's not creeds, it's deeds. Get the people doing good deeds, good things. Give backpacks to the kids at school, cover up, you know, graffiti and feed the homeless and all those sort of things, you know. So what happened was is that prophecy wasn't taught, the bible wasn't taught, feel good therapeutic messages are taught, making people feel good. And then you have twenty years later, you have 40 year old people, 50 year old people, still infants in the faith. Having and then when trouble comes, they can't handle the trouble. So now they're on the psychotropic drugs, they're going to counseling, The churches are filled with counselors trying to deal with their depression and discouragement and all that. Why? Because the pastor didn't do his job. Because the people didn't weren't pointed to Jesus. They weren't pointed to read the word, to get into the word, to study the word. It's a spiritual problem. And and so it became marketing. The pastors go to college to get a marketing degree. They learn to market their church in the community. They knock on doors and they feel the pulse of the community. What's the community want? And then they began to, you know, adapt the church to what the community wants. So each summer, you gotta have a huge youth camp for the kids to go to. Are they learning the bible? It's a fun time. But most of what takes place has nothing to do with the bible. Most of it's fun and games and for adults and kids, and we could have done that. We could have we could have branded, rebranded, and gone in that direction. A seeker sensitive church where you take repentance out of the sermon, you take sin out of the sermon where anything goes. No church discipline, no emphasis upon holiness. Instead, an overemphasis upon grace or a sloppy agape, not allowed to judge any kind of behavior. Now, you're gonna allow women pastors in. You're gonna allow homosexuals and and others in places of leadership, and you're gonna go woke, you know, pretty soon. And as the churches are moving in that direction, and so we didn't wanna go that way. So what we want is we wanna look at acts two forty two, and we wanna stay in the book of acts, and they were in the apostles doctrine, which is the bible, the early church. That's our marketing. That's that's our mandate. That's what we're supposed to do. Jesus told Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep. That's what we do. Paul said he was innocent of the blood of all the Ephesians when he met with the elders because of base of three years. He gave him the full counsel of God. So his hands were not bloody. He let the people know. And we've tried to let the people know in Kitsap County. It's their decision whether they want it or they don't want it. And they made it clear that most of them don't want it. High percentage don't want it. But our hands are clean. On judgment day when I stand before God, I'm gonna be clean because I exhausted every single verse in the bible on you guys, you know. It's everything I could. And so but the beauty is is if you're in a spirit filled church with spirit filled believers, now there's a a convergence or the body working in harmony. We'll see that next time. The body working together, the head with the foot, the hand, everything in harmony in sync with all the different gifts that are operative in that church. And and there's the edifying of the body, the building up of the body of Christ as a result of a spiritual gifts rather than always begging for money and always marketing and always trying to trying to appeal to the senses of man. The carnal sensuality rather than the spiritual aspect of man. Filled with the holy spirit in Ephesians five verse 18. So manifestation speaks of a shining forth and so God wants to shine through you by the power of his spirit for the benefit of all. He manifests himself through gifts of the spirit that he has given each of us. So we saw a list here in first Corinthians 12 verses eight through 10, in verse 28, Romans twelve six through eight, and Ephesians four eleven, various lists. That's not exhaustive. There's more than that. But various gifts, manifestation of the gifts of the spirit. So the manifestation, verse eight, for the one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom. The word of wisdom means the right words at the right time. In Matthew twenty two seventeen, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? So they're trying to catch Jesus. The religious leaders are trying to entrap Jesus by saying he's he's a revolutionary and he's advocating don't pay taxes. So they're coming up to him and saying, hey, should we pay taxes? So you have a lot of patriots who don't like paying taxes to the Romans, and they would love to try and be those that overthrow the Roman government and such. And even Jesus' disciples thought that he was gonna overthrow the Roman government by being able to walk on water, by being able to cause the wind and the waves to cease. You know, they they knew he had the ability, the power to do that and they were fighting over who was gonna sit on the left hand, the right hand, but they didn't see that, he'd be crucified. They didn't understand every time he talked about that he'd go to the cross and such. So Jesus uses wisdom here, but Jesus perceived their weakness. So when COVID happened, did you take time to pray and ask God for wisdom? If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God. When your doctor said, hey, this is harmless. Take this shot. Did you pray? Did you ask God for wisdom? When you put that mask on, did you ask God for wisdom? Why'd you put that mask on? Why'd you keep putting it on? Why'd you put two or three of them on? Why'd you drive in your car with the mask on? How silly. How how silly we are. Right? How silly. Why did we get caught up in that? What happened? Peer pressure. Maoesque, like China. Everybody pressuring all the I'm not even gonna say it. They're not Karens. They're not Karens. I don't who are they? I got kicked out of so many places. So many places I went into without a mask. And these young people, I I know Hitler's youth, they were empowered. They were empowered. And they couldn't have the police come and make me put on the mask, but we got a policy, and if you don't have your mask, you know, you can't come in here. And, why do I need a mask? And I flashed my card. I got money to spend. You want my money? Isn't that what they want? And one guy down in Cannon Beach, it was a surf shop, was buying a buying a board. And they I was in the store and then they kicked me out and then, hey, you want you want some money? And they wanted the money so they came outside and did the transaction. You know? I went over to Tractor Supply, they kicked me out. I went over to get my haircut, they kicked me out. I went to the Galaxy movie in Gig Harbor, they kicked me out. And I'm filming her. I'm filming her. Why? There's a movie there about Hitler. Look at that. We're gonna go see that movie about Hitler. How ironic. How ironic, you know? But the people I I tried to go to Cannon Beach to a hotel down there during COVID, and there was just one person that went off. It was her mission in life to not let me in there without a mask. I mean, she she had a meltdown. She went insane. We've never been back, but my daughter's laid into her because she was nuts, you know. And had a great time down there because everybody was at home because of COVID, so we had Cannon Beach to ourselves. It was like, we'd go bike riding and they'd say, stay home, save lives. And we'd be, yes, stay home, save lives, you know. Everything's wide open, know. I love COVID. And the church filled up because there were people that had wisdom. There were people that said, I'm not I'm not gonna do that jab. I'm not gonna wear the mask. I'm not gonna do that. The plexiglass everywhere, spitting on people. And and if you if you got caught up in that and you feel foolish, there's still another opportunity to exercise wisdom because they're gonna do it again. It was such a success to groom and to model and to bring about a brainwashing and conformity to an allegiance and a and a giving into the state. The state wants to be God, and they want your allegiance. They want you to give into them. They and the pastors. The pastors gave in and they mistaught. They did not teach Romans 13 properly. They simply said, hey, obey the higher powers. Well, that's not what Roman 13 teaches. You're not a conquered people. The highest law in the land is the constitution. And your representatives, that's what they are representatives, they're not tyrants, they're not dictators, They can't mandate things just out of thin air. Now they're working on they're working on changing laws this next time around so that they can use the United Nations and the World Health Organization to have more, you know, more ability to impose that upon us as they declare an emergency, but we're supposed to have the constitution to protect us. And they might call a medical, you know, like, martial law if they can get some traction out of this bird flu or whatever else they're gonna spray upon us or whatever. So we did here at Calvary Bremerton, what we said was, alright, if this is a pandemic, they need to stack bodies. So let's give them two weeks. Let's see if they can stack some bodies. And now I'm posting articles here where they're talking about how the death rate or excuse me, if you get COVID ninety nine point, you know, eight percent survival rate. People with pre morbidities and problems, you know, they would die. And then you go to the hospital, and now Fauci's, you know, prescribing remdesivir and ventilators. The amount of people that died from remdesivir and the ventilators and the amount of money they were receiving and all that. Where's the wisdom? And then Donald j Trump, I want you to exercise wisdom. Donald j Trump championing, selling, he's a salesman, the warp speed jab. Franklin Graham saying, even Jesus would take this jab. Amir Tessafari with a couple doctors convincing people that this jab is safe. The nation of Israel stopped it because they were having so many people dying after eighty percent of their people got the jab. It's the jab that's kill killing people. People are getting I had a guy at the gym, a wonderful wonderful wonderful man, young guy, didn't wanna hear anything about Jesus. One of these good guys. I don't I don't understand how guys can be good without Jesus. But he's a good guy and he's recently married. He works in the shipyard, was in the military, works in the shipyard, and they just had a new little baby, little Lily. And he told me after he told me, didn't wanna hear anything about Jesus and all that, it's good for you, but not for me. Then he says that Lily's got COVID, but it's okay. The doctor gave her her shots and she's got her boosters now. And I can't I can't say a word. I I where where am I gonna go? That that that's a no win. So I just have to walk away and pray and pray that that God will intervene. And some of you got the job, but God intervened. You might have got the placebo, you might have got a saline, you, thought it was best to do, but again, moving forward, a lot of the wisdom that we desire, a lot of times we make mistakes because we don't stop and ask God for wisdom. And so if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, James says, and not doubting, don't doubt when you ask, but ask the Lord. Jesus gives us the privilege of prayer to ask, to seek, to not keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. But there's also a gift of wisdom. There's people among us that are just wise. They have a gift of wisdom. And they it's a spiritual thing. So within your heart, sort of how it operates when it may not operate all the time because I'm pretty foolish, but best I can say is Cathy's pretty wise. And then I would tie in the other word discernment. There's a discernment and you have a check-in your spirit. You hear something and it doesn't sound right. So now you vet it. Now you now you now you ask for wisdom, but you research it. So you you look for a doctor that is honest, and you doctor Peter McCulloch, you look for doctor Sherry Tenpenny, Judy Melisovic. There's a lot of doctors, frontline doctors that were whistleblowers trying to let people know. And if you're abreast, if you're in the alternative media and you're watching, you can read their articles, listen to them, follow through, and then make an intelligent decision about what's happening because there's a great deal of deception taking place, enormous amount of deception. So Jesus said, take heed that no man deceive you, and so you don't want to be foolish and lack that wisdom. And also as Jesus is illustrating here, there's people gonna try and entrap you. There's gonna be people at work that ask you, hey, what do you think about abortion? Hey, what do you think about same sex marriage? What do you think about the Olympics and that male boxer, you know, whatever boxing with the women? If you're not careful, if you don't have wisdom, that's entrapment. Because if you give them your honest opinion of what's happening, you might be meeting with people at work that are questioning, you know, how how woke you are. And you upset these people because you don't agree with trans transgenderism, and you don't agree with, you know, same sex marriage and stuff like that. And so for me as a pastor, I can just I can just let it rip from the pulpit. This is my bully pulpit. But you guys gotta exercise a little bit more wisdom as you navigate out there in the real world different policies and things that are going on. You need to know your rights and pretty much as Rob's indicated at work where he's at, he just doesn't talk to him. You know? That's the best best way. Just don't even talk to him. And so but be aware that people are gonna try and bait you and and get us in trouble because, what we believe it's funny how they wanna get into your head, how they wanna develop AI to try and predetermine whether you're gonna commit a crime or not. And, they want to really be able to read your mind. And so, we've called them the thought police, that even your thoughts are being judged like whether they're good or bad thoughts, know. And so, don't let them know what's going on. The devil can't read your mind. And so don't, you know, don't open your mouth. Take the fifth and don't say a word, you know? And so Jesus says, why tempting me, hypocrites? The greatest hypocrites out there, the governmental hypocrites, the atheist hypocrites. They can be inspectors and working for the government and such and and act like so pompous and self righteous and all that, and yet under the radar, they do all sorts of things that aren't according to code. If they can get away with it. Right? Because they're hypocrites. Show me the tribute money and they brought it to him a penny and he said unto them, whose is this image and superscription? They said unto him, Caesar's. Then say it he unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's. They didn't know how to handle that. Boy, what a what a great response. Wouldn't you love to be able to respond in that way? So you're thinking, hey, whatever taxes is owed to Caesar, you know, give him his portion. But what's owed to God? Everything. Render under Caesar that which is Caesar, render unto God that which is God's. Everybody owes God. So if those guys really wanna exact for Caesar, well, what are you guys giving giving to God? That's why I get frustrated when people are barking and going rabid about voting. It's your duty, your civic duty. And I wanna say to them, well, how are you voting for Jesus? Do you attend church every week? Do you support the church? See, I'm voting for Jesus. I'll I'll vote for men. I'll vote for women. I'll vote. That's fine. But don't think on a secular level that that's your only obligation. What what are you doing in the church? How are you helping spiritually in your community? Every time you read your bible, every time you come to church, you're voting for Jesus. That's a vote. It's volitional. But these same people in the election cycle, it's like it's like we're gonna share the gospel. It's their gospel. But the where's the wisdom? The election was stolen last time. How come you're afraid to talk about that? You really you really think he won that thing? And now you want me to believe in that system and come back and how could he possibly lose to that guy? How could he possibly lose to Harrison temp on Tim? How could that possibly be? If Trump were to lose to those type of people, we're cooked. We're done. There's no hope for America. No hope at all. And then they have the audacity to say the reason Trump lost is because the Christians didn't go out and vote. That's a bold faced lie. He had the biggest everything. They stole it. And then his buddies, pants, he got pantsed. He got betrayed. And they did nothing to change the Diebold machines and the Dominion machines and the all the different ways the election was stolen. They know it was stolen, but they did nothing to fix what was broke. And now they want you to come back and do the same insane thing. Why? Because it it's deception. It makes you think that you have some control. You don't. You're a conquered people. It's over. Their strongest weapon is deception. To deceive you into thinking that that somehow you're on the right and you're gonna we're gonna get this back. They're both on the same team. It's the uni party. And and it frustrates you because if you can see through those lies, you're gonna be you're you're you're gonna be so frustrated at the lack of wisdom. It's real simple to me. You have a tea party. You have a third party. Donald Trump wiped out the tea party. The globalists are smart enough to roll out a candidate that's all of a sudden a new Christian. He doesn't even know what it means to repent. He doesn't even know if he's ever sinned before, but he's a new Christian. He's the Messiah of Israel. And boy, we just jump in there and we go And not vetting anything. Not looking at it. Not looking at who is all connected with the bankers and is Larry Fink? Is Jamie Dimon gonna be the treasury guy for him? Who's he gonna surround himself this next time? Mind boggling. Jesus promised us the word of wisdom in Luke twenty one five. I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversary shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. So we we should be able to debate, but unfortunately, it's a monopoly on information. Wouldn't you love to be able to debate some of these people and prove creation over evolution? Wouldn't you be wanna be able to prove that at at conception, a child begins that it's not a blob or a fetus that this is life? Wouldn't you love to be in the arena and be able to prove your point in the educational system? I will give you a mouth of wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. So what do they do when you win the debate? When they're so afraid of your truth, they're so afraid that that you would expose them. What do you get when you win? When you expose them. You get marginalized, you get called a conspiracy theorist, and then if you don't shut up, they kill you. So you're Stephen, you're in Acts six, and you start to debate, you're a deacon, you start to debate your countrymen. So they've got these they've got these guys there in acts chapter six that come over to Stephen, these libertines, and they start to debate him, and he wins the debate. And then they take him to the council. And now he rehearses in chapter seven, all the history of Israel and which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute and kill and all and they gnash upon him with their teeth. They saw his face shining like that of an angel as he's exercising that wisdom, as he's preaching and teaching, as he's going through the scriptures. And ultimately, they stoned him to death, didn't they? To silence him. They couldn't take the conviction because he and even there was one guy there named Saul of Tarsus. And Saul was tormented. He was haunted thereafter. And Saul was a professionally educated rabbi. Stephen was just a deacon. Hellenistic, Greek speaking deacon like Philip, anointed with the Holy Spirit and gifted and used mightily of God. And that was the criteria to to minister to the material needs of the distribution of wealth, distribution of food and such to the Hellenistic widows. There was a battle between the Jews and the and the and the Greek speaking widows of who was gonna get the goods, and so the wisdom of the apostles was appoint some Hellenistic deacons. That's wisdom. Point Stephen, but the criteria was filled with the spirit. Find some guys filled with the spirit. There's there's your there there's that's what we're looking for. Luke twelve eleven, when they bring you under the synagogue and under the magistrates and powers, taking no thought how or what thing you shall answer or what you shall say for the holy ghost shall teach you in that same hour what you ought to say. Now that's not advice for a pastor to just show up here and extemporaneously preach. Alright, Lord. What do you want me to preach? You need to prepare. You need to study to show yourself approved. This is talking about you being taken before the police or the judge or whoever. You you don't need to rehearse what you're gonna say. The Holy Spirit's gonna help you and give you the words. And a lot of times when you're sharing the gospel with people, you've experienced this where the Holy Spirit takes over. And the Holy Spirit's flooding your mind with things to say, and, it's effortless, isn't it? And, that's a work of the holy spirit, God given you wisdom and a lot of different gifts operative in you, several different gifts operative in you when you're, sharing, the gospel with people. To another, the word of knowledge by the same spirit. So information given to us supernaturally, knowledge of things that we could not know through natural acquisition or study. So over and over again, you'll hear people say, pastor, were you listening at my house this week? Did my wife call you? No. You're just as wretched as me. I know who you are. It's pretty common. Well, how did you know those things? How did you know we're going through that? How did how did that happen? That's the work of the holy spirit. That's the word of knowledge that God gives you and I when we're trying to minister to folks, trying to pray with people. And and God gives us insights to be able to minister to people. How did you know that? In John chapter one verse 48, Nathaniel, before that Philip called thee when you were under the fig tree, saw thee. And so in John four twenty nine, come and see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? So Andrew is bringing people to Jesus and Nathaniel, he's being told, hey, we found the Christ and all. Come and see. And and Jesus said to him, oh, a true Israelite indeed in whom is no no guile. Do you know me? Well, before you were came over here while you're under the fig tree, I saw you, you know. And, of course, I know who you are, you know. You're under the fig tree, I saw thee. To another, verse nine, to another faith by the same spirit. So special faith for miracles, different types of faith. Even the unbeliever exercises faith. But this is a special, a spiritual kind of faith, a trust, a belief. Special faith for miracles different from saving faith. A divine certainty, lifting a person above the crisis he may be facing, knowing God will intervene for him. So you go to the doctor and the doctor says, it's cancer, stage four. How long do I have, doc? Eighteen months. It's a death sentence. What kind of treatment? No treatment. Nothing we can do. It's beyond. It's all through your bones. It's all through your body. And we thank the Lord for the doctors that have alleviated so much suffering and so many people that have been, you know, healed from cancer with the gifting that God has given the doctors, the nurses, the medical professionals and all. But ultimately, Jesus is the great physician and it's his call, it's his decision. If he wants to take somebody home, they're going home, and they're gonna go home right on time. If he wants to give them some more time here on earth to suffer, then he'll heal them. And he does. Kathy, recently, we were told that someone we love and know, has cancer, and she's got a very strong, word from the Lord that God's gonna heal him. And that's what happens. God gives you a measure of faith and just tells you ahead of time, hey, this sickness isn't unto death, but for the glory of God. And you believe that, you stand on that, and you continue to pray, and you, you know that you know that you know. And there's other times you have doubts. There's other times you don't have that faith. And so you pray in faith, Lord, not my will, but thy will be done. You're praying everything you can for the healing of that person. And then as Jesus prayed in the garden, nevertheless, not my will, Lord, but your will be done. Whatever you will, Lord, we have the faith to trust that you're sovereign, you're in control, and that your decision is what's best. We surrender to your sovereignty, you know, in our lives. And in first Kings chapter 18 verse 33, Elijah called down fire, the fire of God upon Mount Mount Carmel. James and John, sons of thunder, they wanted to call down fire upon the Samaritans because they weren't friendly toward Jesus and the boys when they were going through their city. And Jesus said, you know not what spirit you're of, you know. We're not here to barbecue the Samaritans, you know. But in Mark eleven twenty two, have faith in God. For verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say into this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things shall he say it shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he say it. And so I always look at that as, god, my faith must be so small because a mustard seed's the smallest of seeds. So if the Lord's saying, hey, if you had that kind of faith, just that much faith as a mustard seed, tiny little bit of faith, you could say to this mountain, this huge mountain, this you know, we're dealing with COVID, we're kept reminding ourselves, COVID's the little c, cancer's the big c. We've gone through cancer. COVID's like the flu. What are we so afraid of? You know? So we could evaluate it in that way. But there's insurmountable things. There's huge things in our life that are like a mountain. How are we gonna be able to move that mountain? Are we gonna move it? God, this is impossible. God many times sets the stage to move and work. He sets the stage in Abraham and Sarah where it's impossible for Sarah to conceive and have a child. For twenty five years, Abraham and Sarah are together and they're trying to have children and her womb is barren. She can't have children. So she gives up. You you give up at that point in time. Elizabeth and Zachariah, the parents of John the Baptist, they'd given up. They were old. God passed them by. But God loves to set the stage when it's an impossibility, humanly speaking, that he then begins to move and work, and he's looking for people who will believe, who will trust him, who will who will trust him before he actually does the miracle. You're already praising the Lord because you know the outcome, you know? And so this time next year, Sarah's gonna conceive and have a child, and we're gonna call him Isaac because we're gonna fill the tent with laughter. And everyone around is gonna know it's a miracle of God. This Isaac's a miracle child. And some of you, you have miracle children. You have medical miracles that have happened in your marriage, in your life, in your family where God gave you the measure of faith to pray, to believe, to trust. And for some of you, he even spoke to you and told you he was gonna heal. Doesn't happen every day, doesn't happen all the time, but that's the God that we serve. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And I believe as we erode more and more of our ability to alleviate suffering and problems with money, that we're gonna be able to say, silver and gold have I none, but the name of Jesus Christ stand up and walk. God's gonna move and work miraculously when we reach a place that we can't do it ourselves. How much of what we see going on in the church today is really a work of the spirit? AW Tozer in the sixties said it this way, 90% of what you see in the book of Acts is a work of the holy spirit. 10% is only the work of marketing and man. The flip is true today. 90% of what we see today is a work of man. Church is a business, church incorporated, The marketing. Only 10% of what we see operative in the church today, and this is him writing in the sixties. I don't know what he'd write right now. It's truly a work of the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit. We need this kind of faith. God hasn't stopped giving these kind of gifts. Some of you here may have this kind of faith, faith that believes in miracles. To another, the gifts, notice it's plural, gifts of healing by the same spirit. So gifts plural, different forms of the gift. In Exodus fifteen twenty six, God says, I am the Lord who heals you. In Psalm 30 verse two, oh Lord my God, I cried unto thee and thou has healed me. Sometimes the Lord heals us quick, doesn't he? Other times, it's a long process. Long drawn out process of rehab, surgery, all all the other sorts of things, just a long drawn out thing. It it this past couple years, it seems like all of us are getting upper respiratory things that just won't go away. And summer's sunshine, vitamin d, all these things are real good for our respiratory, and we're hoping and praying our immune systems get strong enough to endure another, you know, winter, here in the Northwest, you know. But it's not just happening here, it's happening all over. So God who heals thee. In Psalm a 103 verse three, who forgives all thine iniquities, who heals all thy diseases. Ultimately, yes, ultimately, all of our die diseases are gonna be healed. Ultimately, we're gonna have a new glorified body and there's gonna be no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more death. He's gonna wipe away all tears. But he's a god who heals all thy diseases. Jesus heals in Matthew twelve fifteen. Great multitudes followed him and he healed them all. Now, here's where there's a radical teaching where guys say, no, there's no gift of healing today. The healing was back in the apostolic times and when the apostles died, so too the gifts of healing stopped. Why is that? Because then they say, if you've got a gift of healing, you should go into the hospitals and heal them all. Well, that's not how the gift works. God doesn't heal everybody. And we'll see that as we continue to study here. There's times where he did heal them all. There's times where he didn't and he exercises these gifts sovereignly. In Matthew fourteen fourteen, the disciples heal next five fifteen, they brought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. They came also a multitude out of the cities round about under Jerusalem bringing sick folks and them which were vexed with unclean spirits and they were healed everyone. Now that's a really good way to grow a church, isn't it? Man, if everybody heard that you bring your sick here and we'll heal them all, man, that woah. Everybody be coming. But they be coming for the loaves and the fishes. They be coming for the healing, not coming for Jesus. The way to get saved is the gospel, not healing. Now these are signs, they're wonders, may attract some attention. But a whole lot of people come to to check out miracles. The antichrist is gonna use lying signs and wonders to deceive people. So be careful of just being drawn by the experience side of everything. You want a church where you can always experience these miracles. It doesn't work that way. The greatest miracle of all that you and I witness is God saving somebody through the miracle of the gospel. The good news of Jesus Christ. In acts chapter eight verse seven, Philip healed. Guy was demon possessed and cast out a demon and and people had the palsy. He went to the area of the Samaritans and Philip the deacon was healing these guys. In Acts chapter 28, the apostle Paul verse eight was on the island of Miletum and Publius, his father, was sick, and the apostle Paul, healed him. Now Paul was gathering wood, it was raining, it was cold. He was gathering wood and a viper, poisonous snake grabbed hold of his hand as Paul's grabbing hold of wood, and he shook it off. And the natives looked to see if he'd swell up and die. When he didn't swell up and die, they thought he was a god, you know. Hey, look at him. He's a good guy. That's that's how that's how people without faith look at things. Do you know what an ordeal is? I told you what an ordeal is. Oh, they're really going through an ordeal. You can't see Satan behind the the screen bragging to God that if you afflict that person, he'll curse you to your face. You can't see that. But people, they what people do is they'll take and allow a person Well, they actually used to tie somebody up and they used to throw them into the water and then they'd stand back and say, well, if he's a godly guy, the Lord will help him survive that. He won't drown. That's called an ordeal. People make it impossible, well, God's gonna have to intervene. And, Paul had a snake on his hand and people are looking at it like, hey, if he's a good guy, he'll survive that. Not always the case. A lot of good people like Jim Elliot, they die in the mission field. Had nothing to do with being good or bad. It had to do with loving them and laying down their life for the Okui Indians and all. And except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abides alone, but if it dies, bears much fruit. And so God brought forth fruit that remains to this day. In Ephesus, in Acts nineteen eleven, God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought under the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. So points of contact. The woman was telling herself with the issue of blood for twelve years that if I just can touch the hem of Jesus garment, this bleeding that I'm experiencing will be stopped. And as soon as she touched the hem there, her faith activated and some call that points of contact or activation. So she Jesus said, power had gone out from him. Who touched me? And, and it was the woman. And, the shadow of Peter just walking by and his shadow touching people, going over people, just healing them. I mean, that's just a phenomenal thing. Now, Paul's working during the daytime and he's got his sweat cloth, his sweat or his apron that he's wearing because he works with with leather. And, you know, you, take your sweat cloth and it's filled with sweat and Paul would get another one, another one maybe. The people would grab hold of those sweat cloths and the handkerchief and, be healed from it. Some pastors and a lot of the guys, the wackadoodles on Christian television, prey upon people with this sort of thing, but some some are some are genuine. Pastor Chuck used to, upon request of people, have a, you know, a prayer cloth, let's call it, handkerchief prayer cloth that people could have sent to them and maybe help them pray. If you want me to sign your bible, I'll sign your bible for you. If you wanna kiss my ring, you kiss my ring. But probably you'll just get boils if I give you anything. I don't have that kinda kinda sway with God. But just try to get out alive. That's that's that's just survive. So these guys had handkerchief or aprons and getting healed. But notice in John five verse three that not all are healed. At the Pool Of Bethsaida, there were multitudes of people, but there was one man there at the Pool Of Bethsaida that had spent thirty eight years being sick. And the water would would, be like a Jacuzzi, you know, it'd start to move and so the people who could ever get down in there in the pool would get healed. That was what they believed. Well, this guy's paralyzed. He can't get in there fast enough. His friends can't get him in there fast enough. So for thirty eight years, he's been begging near this pool and, waiting, and, the Lord Jesus comes by and and heals him. But he healed him on the Sabbath, so he got in trouble for doing that, but he healed the man. So not everybody, there were multitudes there, and this one man had to wait, and the Lord chose to heal just this one man. And then you remember in John nine, the disciples saw a man that had been born blind, born blind. And they had a question, who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind? And again, evaluating your life, my life, that bad things only happen to bad people. That if he was a good guy, if he had good parents, then he wouldn't have been born blind. But that doesn't work with Jesus, does it? He's the best person on the planet. Did only good things happen to Jesus? Did only good things happen to the disciples? Good people are promised persecution. All they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Good people, wonderful people, people like you get sick. And when you get sick, it's not because you're a bad person. When you have a child that's born down syndrome, it's not because you're a bad parent or a bad person. Jesus answered their question. He said, neither, but that the power of God may be made manifest. God was gonna heal this guy that was born blind, gonna cause him to see. God was gonna be glorified. God purposely waited to get to the city of Bethel, purposely waited four extra days so that Lazarus would in fact die. Jesus said the sickness isn't unto death, but that the power of God be made manifest. He knew what he was gonna do. And Mary and Martha didn't comprehend. They didn't understand. If he'd have gotten here sooner, gotten here sooner, gotten here sooner, but God had something greater he wanted to demonstrate, something greater he wanted to do. So God delayed. Jesus delayed his getting there to simply heal Lazarus. Jesus knew that he was gonna raise Lazarus from the dead. As a prelude, Tim raising himself from the dead. He's gonna increase his disciples' faith, gonna increase their faith. Lazarus come forth and Jesus is able to say, I'm the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me though you're dead, yet shall he live and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Yeah. We believe in a general resurrection. Daniel 12 verse two and three. No. Not that general resurrection. Not that resurrection at the end of the tribulation period for the Old Testament saints to be raised. No. I'm talking here right now. Lazarus gonna be raised from the dead. I am, the great I am, is gonna raise himself from the dead. So the apostle Paul himself was sick in Galatians four verse 13. He was ministering while he was sick. In second Corinthians 12 verse seven, the apostle Paul was given a messenger of Satan. He was given a demon to afflict him, to beat him. And many feel that Paul contracted what's malaria, and the malaria that he contracted which is very common for missionaries to contract, that he had a eye disease because later he had to have a secretary, you know, actually write out the letters that he would dictate, and then he would sign the end of them. But his eyes oozing and pussing, an ophthalmologist that he contracted as a result of the malaria. And one of the things that happens with malaria is intense headaches. Some of you have migraine headaches, and these migraine headaches take enormous amounts of medication to try and alleviate that pounding. Paul said he had a mess messenger of Satan that was buffeting him. In the in the Greek, it's a tent stake. It was so painful. And he prayed three times, And he's got a lot of faith. Right? People were getting healed just from his sweat claws before. But now, so God could keep him humble because God had called him up when he was stoned to death and he was caught up to the third heaven. He knew a man whether in the body or out of the body caught up to the third heaven. That revelation that he saw has a tendency to puff you up. So God took that kite that would soar to that height and put a tail, a weighted tail on it. God has put a weighted tail on some of you. He's given you an infirmity that's not going away. Something you have to endure the rest of your life as you're hoping in your new glorified body. But that that tail, that weight, that sickness keeps you grounded in him. The only way you can cope is through prayer, through fellowship with him. You're a little strange, you're a little different, but that's okay because you're connected to him in ways that people that don't need that connection could never never fathom. So what God told Paul is Paul, my grace is sufficient for you for my strength's perfected in weakness. And in that weakness, God's grace is poured out upon Paul. So Paul says, want to know him in Philippians three ten. I wanna get to know Jesus. It's wonderful to get to know Jesus on the mountain tops, but how about in the valleys? Paul goes on to say, and the fellowship of his sufferings, plural, that as we go through suffering, Jesus is suffering with us. Saul Saul, why are you persecuting me? Where out the Lord, I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. Jesus identifies with his church. Jesus identifies with you as you go through suffering. God does not always heal everybody. Some of us, God has given us a messenger of Satan to buffet us or what we would call a thorn in the flesh. Jacob, his name was changed. His character was changed. He was transformed, but he walked away with a limp, didn't he? He was crippled. God crippled Jacob. God broke the sinew in his hip and caused him to walk with a limp the rest of his life. But God changed his name within. He was changed from Jacob who's a heel catcher, a conniver, changed his name to Israel, which means governed of God or prince of God. God's using the suffering. Jesus suffered more than any man, anybody. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was bruised. He was rejected, despised of men, a man of sorrows. Fanny Crosby was born blind. She penned over 5,000 hymns in the church. And she said that she knew it was all for good and she knew the first thing she'd see would be the face of Jesus. And she knew it was that blindness that drove her to Jesus and that she could actually see and hear with spiritual eyes and spiritual ears better than many people who have eyes and ears. That's where she got the insights and the inspiration for many of the hymns that she wrote for the church. In first Timothy five twenty three, Timothy was sick and Paul prescribed a medicinal methodology. Take a little wine for your stomach's sake. And I know a lot of you say, you know, at night when you have your glass of wine, hey, I'm just obeying the bible. Take a little wine for my stomach's sake, you know, which is fine. It's good for your heart. Right? But the water was bad and the water would bring Montezuma's Revenge dysentery. And so the wine has an antiseptic quality to it to try and help Timothy's stomach because he had flu symptoms. Epaphroditus, Philippians two twenty seven, Paul said was sick, almost under death, but God healed him. Trophimus was sick and he was left at Miletum in second Timothy four verse 20. So you look at Paul, there's times where he can heal. There's times where he can't heal. He can't heal himself. He prayed three times. The Lord said, no, no, no. My grace is sufficient for you. But Timothy prescribed some wine with Epaphroditus and Trophimus, he's praying. You know, why didn't he just heal him if the healer can heal everybody at all times always because God's sovereign. The gifts don't work like that. Sometimes God heals, sometimes God chooses not to heal. Verse 10, to another, the working of miracles. The Greek word is dunamis power, raising the dead. And so Jesus said, you're gonna be my witnesses. You shall receive power, dunamis, dynamic power when the holy ghost comes upon you. You're And gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the world. Peter raised Dorcas. Dorcas was was so revered by the early church. She's a seamstress and she made coats and blankets for those who were poor and she died. And they came to Peter and Peter raised Dorcas or Tabitha from the dead. Paul was long preaching in Acts chapter 20 and they have candle lights and the candle lights would make the room heavy. And, Uticus was sitting up in the rafters because there's so many people there, and he got tired, and he fell, and he died. Paul preaching long, it says. So that's my justification, Paul preaching long. And and some of you, you come up to me afterwards and you say, well pastor, you know, I I fell asleep during the sermon. That's okay. That's okay. As long as you don't fall down and die because I don't have that gift, you know. I have to do your funeral. But Paul had that gift and he went over and raised Epaphroditus, you know, or excuse me, Uticus. He raised him from the dead. Jesus raised the widow of Nain's son from the dead. Jesus raised Jairus' daughter from the dead. And it's interesting to me on that one is that before he raised Jairus' daughter from the dead, he removed the mockers from the room. I love that. There's always those that'll mock. There's always the professionals that'll be paid to mourn and wail and all and all that. And she's not dead, she just sleepeth and they're just gonna mock Jesus. Mock them. And he puts the mockers out. They don't get to see the miracle. You keep believing. You keep trusting Jesus. He wants you to see the miracle. He wants you to be a part of what he's gonna do in Kitsap County, what he's gonna do in the last days. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus raised himself from the dead. He said destroy this temple in three days. I'll raise it up. In John fourteen twelve, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto the father. So Kathy and I have a simple faith. People think we're so stupid that, they're sending me, literature to teach me how to vote. Am I really that stupid? That's a that's a roundabout way of mocking me. Well, I believe this bible. And that's why I told you last week when I had a friend of mine that died, and, and he was laying dead in a mortuary place. And we were called there by the family. Nobody was there yet, so Kathy and I went in there, and we laid hands on them. We prayed that God raised him from the dead. Jesus said, greater things than these you shall do. I knew I had the faith. I had the faith. I knew that God is the same today, yesterday, forever. Yesterday, today, and forever. I knew that God could raise him from the dead. I didn't know if he would. But the only way to find out is to step out of the boat. Are you willing to step out of the boat? Do you wanna walk on water? Do you wanna take God at his word? You think, oh, god. That's so stupid. You really think that God would use you to raise him from the dead? I don't know. I still can't believe God uses me in the ways he does to to teach the bible, to study the bible and stuff. I'm not gonna limit God. I'm gonna I'm gonna approach him like a child with childlike wonderment. I'm not gonna be so old and mature as a Christian and walk with Jesus so long. I've never seen anybody raised from the dead. Well, he could. You might be that agent. You might be that conduit, that person that he wants to use in that way. Don't limit God. The manifestation to another prophecy. Prophecy is speaking forth the word of God through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, being a channel through which the Lord may speak. So in Hebrews one verse one, God who had sundry time and diverse manner spake in times past through the prophets has in these last days spoken through his son. We're in the last days and God has something to say and he's saying it through his son. In second Peter one twenty one, the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So the Holy Ghost is is inspiring them and they're writing down these prophecies, the canon of scripture. David in second Samuel twenty three two, the spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue. Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, John the Baptist, all these Old Testament prophets, God spoke through them. Old Testament women, prophetesses. In the Old Testament, Miriam, the sister of of Moses, she's a prophetess. Deborah. Deborah, she's one of the judges and God spoke through Deborah. She's filled with courage and Huldah and Anna, prophetesses. New testament, Philip's four virgin daughters were prophetesses. In the New Testament also, Agabus took a rope, took a belt and put it around himself and did an illustration saying this guy that owns this belt, Paul's belt is gonna be bound in Jerusalem. He also predicted famine. In acts twenty one twenty eight that Paul would be bound in Jerusalem. And so not just a foretelling, but a forthtelling. And so as we teach the word of God, as we study the word of God, the holy spirit speaks to us. That's a form of prophecy. It's identified within your heart as, hey, that word's for me. The Lord's speaking to me, you know, right now through the teaching of his word. In first Corinthians fourteen three, he that prophesies speaks unto men to edification, exhortation, and comfort. So if I'm gonna speak forth the word of God, there's three areas that the Holy Spirit's gonna speak through us. One is edification. Every sermon should be a means of building you up, to edify you. Exhortation, to motivate you. What's that mean to me? I just heard that. What what how can I apply this to my life to motivate you to share the gospel? Motivate you to step out of the boat. And then comfort. Because you get convicted, but now we wanna comfort you and we wanna show you the cross so that you're not condemned in your mind. Wanna remind you of the finished work of Christ upon the cross of Calvary. So edification, exhortation, and comfort, a balanced sermon. To another, discerning of spirits. First John four one, beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Boy, is that applicable to us today. Prove all things, hold fast that which is good. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. In Ephesians five eleven. Boy, do we need men and women today who have gifts of discernment. Who can see through the lies of the media, the lies of the government, the lies that are just so paramount in the times in which we're living. Four times in Matthew 24, Jesus warned against being deceived. The greatest weapon of the devil is is is deception. And we have the truth and the truth will keep us free. We wanna pray over everything. Wanna ask God for wisdom, and we wanna try the spirits to see whether they be of God or not. Now, one of the things that keeps me from having very many friends is God has given me a gift of discernment. And so I just can't tolerate in many cases, the lack of discernment in many of my pastor friends and stuff. It's not that I'm so great or anything like that, it's just it's just I can see it. I know it. I know that I know that I know that this is a lie, but it makes me very very unpopular with the guys. So you gotta go with the company line, the company thing and stay just, you know, stay in step. And so I I don't roll like that. So I do I do better solo. I do better on my own because I'm always always always very intensely trying to discover the truth. I can't let it alone. I have to keep at it and at it and at it. And then finally, after I've exhausted it, I can rest. And then I know that I know that I know, and I don't have to even mention it to anybody. When I first started talking to people about 09:11, I boom, they take off, people going crazy. But I know that I know that I know. There's no doubt in my mind that it was a controlled demolition. And that happened at a time where I believed everything the government said, everything the media said. That's how naive I was. But because I started going through my own, upheaval, I began to reevaluate everything I thought I knew and it changed me. It made me it made me far greater discernment, far far more willing to invest the time to evaluate and see if if what I'm hearing is the truth or not. Some things are murky, some things we don't know. Donald Trump's attempted assassination thing, I'm still not sure. I think it was staged. I think it was part of a a, you know, a script to gain great popularity. One thing I do know for certain, that right ear of his getting bloody, you know, did not make him a holy man. He was not being inaugurated as a priest because it went directly against the word of God. But time will tell. Some of these things you have to wait on. Absolutely positive, John f Kennedy was killed by somebody other than Lee Harvey Oswald and his brother Bobby too. They were killed by their own government. Absolutely. But when you're growing up and you keep hearing, you know, the powers that be tell you the way it was, and Martin Luther King, his family won a civil suit that the FBI killed him. A civil suit was won by the family, proving that Martin Luther King was killed by the FBI. So we're not delusional conspiracy theorists that the CIA labeled us anybody that would question the official narrative. But if we ask the Lord for wisdom and we research and we try to connect the dots, birds of a feather flock together. So who is JD Vance? Who's he connected with? Who is Donald Trump? Who's he connected with? And when you see the people he's connected with that you know that you know that you know are bad dudes, then why is he even connected? The greatest deception you and I are gonna see as Christians are the angels of light or ministers of righteousness that pose to us as Christians. That's the greater way. They disarm you. So try the spirits. Try them. Don't just don't just give in. Pray and ask the Lord for the wisdom. And and he'll keep us on that straight narrow. He says in Matthew 24 verse four, take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many. In second Timothy five thirteen, evil men and seducers shall works worse and worse deceiving and being deceived. I don't wanna be deceived. I hate being lied to. I'm tired of being lied to. I don't have the I I don't have the desire to be a part of a a an evil wicked system that's based upon lying to me all the time. I'm tired of it. I want somebody to tell the truth. Is there anybody out there that can tell the truth? Paul exposed in acts thirteen ten, Elamis the sorcerer. He exposed him as he was baptized and or excuse me, trying to stop Sergius Paulus from hearing the hearing the word of God and standing against him. Elimas had an influence with the guy, and so Paul, in acts 13, exposed Elimas as a as a fraud. In acts chapter eight, Peter exposed Simon, the term Simonie as he wanted to purchase, the laying on of hands of people who received the gift of the holy spirit. Peter Peter exposed him. To another diverse kinds of tongues, so the gift of tongues, very controversial. The gift of speaking in tongues is the ability to speak fluently in an unknown language through the agency of the Holy Spirit. It is the ability to worship God through praise in a language you have not naturally learned. And so though I speak in the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I'm nothing. Now here's a problem again, the John McArthur's are cessationists. So the John McArthur's say that the gift ceased with the completion of the canon of scripture, which we're gonna see in chapter 13. So when that which is perfect has come, when that which is part shall be done away. So they interpret that which is perfect as the canon of scripture, the completion of the canon of scripture with the death of the apostles, and then the completion of the bible, the canon of scripture, that the gifts ceased. And so he makes a lot of fun of the charismatics. And and in many cases rightfully so because charismatics, the wackadoodles on the Christian television ruin it for all of us that wanna move and work in the, you know, in the power of the holy spirit. And they abuse the gifts. And so again, one of the one of the problems is is they say that the gift of tongues is for you go into a foreign country and you're able to speak in their language and share the gospel in their language. That is not the what the gift of tongues is. He that speaks an unknown tongue speaks on the God and not on the man. You're not speaking to man. You're speaking to God. And it's a prayer language of worshiping God. So in Acts chapter two, when there's 17 different dialects being spoke when Pentecost poured out, people are hearing in their native tongue the wonderful things of God. They're not hearing the gospel. They're hearing people praise and worship God is what they're hearing in their native tongue. It's directed to God. It's not directed to you and I. So if somebody were to interpret it, it's not all my children, you know, I'm gonna do a great work in Bremerton. No, that's prophecy. That's a word of knowledge and prophecy. That's not not the proper interpretation. That's not how God communicates that. It would be more like a person praising Lord. God, you're so great. Lord, I worship you. It would be more like that directed toward God. So we see the Paul in chapter 14 is gonna talk about everything being done decently and in order. The church of Corinth was disorderly with their their new toys, their new gifts that they received, especially the gift of of speaking in tongues. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, I was in a in a meeting in Balboa Peninsula, where I were going down this tomorrow, the next day, in an upper room when I was a brand new Christian. Been a Christian maybe six months. And there was a woman there, and we were sitting like in a circle. We're worshiping the Lord, and she began to go around and lay hands and prophesy and pray. And that's where I that's where I got a word from the Lord about he was gonna use me. And I tucked that away for almost ten years. I didn't understand it, but she prophesied over me. And I began to speak in tongues, but there was a friend of mine, a roommate of mine that began to sing with like an angelic voice. It was the most beautiful beautiful sound, you know, you'd ever hear in a worship service. And, I'll never forget hearing Brian singing in that angelic language, if you will. Just so beautiful. In Mark sixteen seventeen, these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils and they shall speak with new tongues, John MacArthur. Along with you always even to the end of the age, not to the end of the canon, not a cessationist. Jesus saying to the end of the age, end of the church age, you're gonna continue to have these gifts. These gifts that I've given. And so in Acts two verse two, suddenly there came a sound from heaven of a mighty rushing wind and it filled all the house with where they were sitting and there appeared under them cloven tongues, divided tongues like as a fire and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. So these are Galileans and they're speaking in 17 different Greek dialects. There's Medes, there's Parthians, there's Persians there. And then also in Acts chapter 10, when Peter was at the house of Cornelius and the Holy Spirit was poured out, in Acts ten forty five and forty six, they too began, these Gentiles began to speak in tongues. And then in Acts chapter nineteen two for two through six, when the apostle Paul was there in Ephesus and he laid hands upon those there, they too began to speak in tongues. To another, the interpretation of tongues. So an interpretation gives a sense of the meaning of the utterance in tongues, not just a word for word translation from language to language. And so he that speaks in unknown tongue speak of not on the men but on to God. He that speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself. So it's your prayer closet that you're speaking to the Lord and your and your and your prayer language, singing to the Lord with your prayer language. Even so ye for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you may excel to the edifying of the church. Wherefore, let him that speaks in unknown tongue, pray that he may interpret. If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two or by the most three and that by course and let one interpret. So if we're in an afterglow, there's one person could speak in tongue out loud, a second person, but we'll stop it there, and now we're gonna interpret it. We're gonna do everything decently in order. We're not going to have everybody speaking in tongues. So one of the things pastor Chuck points out that's very crucial is that if you're raised in a Pentecostal church rather than a Baptist church, and it's a church that speaks in tongues and has the gifts of spirit operational, the church he grew up in, the pastor would start to speak, and then the same people in the church would interrupt with their speaking in their prayer language. And nobody to interpret or anything. It's just they wanted to let everybody know they speak with tongues. And so, his emphasis was the Holy Spirit doesn't interrupt the Holy Spirit. So you have control over your gift. You don't have to interrupt to extemporaneously beat out. If the point in time here is the Lord using the gift of prophecy, the gift of teaching God's word, then that's what we do at this point in time. If we're in a place of an afterglow or a place of worship, we're waiting upon the Lord, that's different. Now we have the freedom to to speak out as the Lord leads and guides, and we do it decently in order. Then he says, forbid not to speak with tongues. And, first Corinthians thirteen eight, tongues they shall cease. One day they shall cease. Now one other note. The baptism of the Holy Spirit. If you don't speak in tongues, it doesn't mean that you're not not baptized in the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, the proof thereof is not speaking in tongues. The proof of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is agape love, the fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is love. Without love, we're nothing. So when I was baptized with the Holy Spirit, my face hurt because I couldn't stop smiling for two weeks. It's just like I was so overwhelmed with God's love and a desire to everyone to know the Lord and kinda like Moses coming down from the mount, your face is shining and you're just so enraptured, if you will. And why did Moses put the veil over his face? Because the people didn't have sunglasses? No. He took the veil because it was a fading glory. He couldn't keep it going. Right? It was fading. And he liked he liked the shining. He liked how Stephen shown his face shown like that of an angel. So that glow that you have in this dark world, use your gifting. Wait upon the Lord till he help till he brings you to that place of glowing. You're just filled with his love. That's why we pray every week. Lord, fill us with your love because we're leaky vessels. We get out there in the world and a few people drive crazy or interrupt us or talk mean, nasty, whatever. You know, you you react in the flesh. You get in the flesh. But as you have that time again to spend with the Lord, not on your phone, but with the Lord, now you're being refilled. So that's Ephesians five eighteen. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be being filled with the Holy Spirit. That's why it's important as we come to church to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be filled of overflowing. Your ministry is from the overflow. You're filled all the way up. It's the overflow that's your ministry. You don't operate in the arm of the flesh. You operate in the power of the Holy Spirit. Overflow of the Holy Spirit. So be being filled with the Holy Spirit. Nurture your walking relationship with the Lord. Pray and ask the Lord, Lord, what are my gifts? Some of you know what your gifts are, but you let them dormant. You let them go dormant because, we're in a different season now, you know. Well, maybe we wanna spend time with the Lord again. Utilize our prayer language, if you have one. Utilize your praying upon the Lord and asking to try the spirits. Lord, I'm asking for discernment. I'm asking, how would you have me walk? What should I do? Lord, I'm the head of this family. Should I take them all down to the to the clinic and have us all jabbed? Should I repeatedly have us jabbed? Lord, they're they're threatening they're gonna take away my job. I'm gonna lose my job if I don't get this jab. Lord, I got a family. I got kids. What do I do, Lord? They got a gun to my head. Those are questions. Those are things. It's amazing to me how quickly people just fold. They just give in. How about pray? How about grab the hands of your wife and pray and and honey, what what what would God have us do? That's where faith comes in. When your wife looks you in the eyes and says, honey, God has another job for you, but we're not taking that. We're not taking that job, honey. We might lose this house, but we're not gonna do something that's wrong like that. I've got discernment. I know it's wrong. I know they're lying to us. Many many decisions we have like that. More than ever before, we need the power of the Holy Spirit to be a light shining in a world that's hopeless, in a world that's looking toward demonic powers, witchcraft, sorcery, drugs, pharmakia. The world wants power, and they're looking to the devil to get it. And we have the creator of the universe, almighty God, gifting you and I. And don't you think the people in the world would love to see you and I filled with the spirit? I don't know who said it, someone once said that if you're so filled with the spirit, if you're so on fire, people come to see you burn. People wanna see you burn. They they wanna see you shine in. They wanna see Christianity operative in your life. Authentic Christianity, Not the not the marketing, not the scam, but real genuine Christianity. They wanna see Jesus. They wanna see that love, the love of Jesus in a world that's perishing, a world that's hopeless. And you have the truth, and you have the power of the Holy Spirit to exercise your gifts that they might come to know Jesus. So let's pray. Father, thank you that we're not powerless, that we're not pauperous, Lord, but we have riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. We're plutocrats. And Lord, we pray evermore that that Lord, you give us all that you wanna give us. We might have one gift, two gifts, three gifts. Lord, give us it all. And let it develop. Let it grow. Let let our gifting grow and mature and become more strategic as we fight against the principalities and the powers, Lord. That, Lord, we'd be equipped with the word of God, the full armor of God as we go into battle with the wicked one, with the principalities and the powers, with the powers that be. Lord, thank you that we have the equipping. Thank you, Lord, that we have the power. Thank you that we have the gifts. Thank you for your holy spirit. Lord, we pray evermore. Use us mightily in these last days. Lord, we pray for those perishing. We pray that God you'd anoint and use us to share the glorious gospel, that we'd see a harvest of souls here in Kitsap County and around the world. But Lord, open the eyes, cause the scales to come off of people who are so deluded and so deceived. Open their eyes, Lord. Let them see what we see. Let them see what you're showing us, Lord. Give us give us the spiritual eyes evermore. Expose the wicked one. Expose the wickedness. Speak to us, Lord. Help us to walk in all truth. While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, these gifts are only available to people that are Christians, have been born again, who have the holy spirit living and dwelling within them. He manifests these gifts severally as he wills to each person, each person that's a Christian. If there's anybody here this morning, you don't know Jesus Christ, Christianity is a relationship. If you don't know him, the holy spirit's bearing witness of Jesus now in your heart, testifying, letting you know that he was crucified, that he was buried, that he raised himself from the dead, that he's ascended to the right hand of his father, that he died for your sins, that he has the antidote, that he has the solution, that his blood is payment for your sin. And he offers salvation, eternal salvation unto you, all your sins forgiven. And he's given you a measure of faith to act upon. That you would act upon that saving faith as he brings about conversion, converting you from body and soul to body, soul, and spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus, you must be born again. Anyone here this morning? You want to be born again? Just lift your hand up. We wanna pray with you. Anyone here? Father, thank you once again. Lord bless us. We partake of communion now. Just bless this time. We desire fellowship with you. In Jesus' name, 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.
