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1 Corinthians 12:12,26 -The Body- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-09-01
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First Corinthians chapter 12 verses 12 through 26. Our faith is gonna be challenged. First Corinthians twelve twelve through 26. For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were they hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now has God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it has pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say into the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor, and our uncommonly parts have more abundant comeliness. For our commonly parts have no need, but God has tempered the body together having given more abundant honor that that part which lacked. That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all members rejoice with it. Father, thank you for your holy word. Lord, I vote for you. Lord, I vote for you, and I'm watching and looking for your soon return. And Lord, I pray that we would understand what you're saying here in the scripture here, that we would be as one. There'd be no division, no schism within the body here. That Lord, you as the head of the church, your body, that we'd get our marching orders from you, that we'd stand for righteousness, that we'd not succumb to compromise of the lesser of two evils is still evil. Lord, we pray for a higher standard, a greater solution, that of the church being salt and light and standing for righteousness, not tolerating evil, not compromising with evil. And we pray within this little fellowship, Lord, that it's your love that binds us together, that Lord, we're ever patient and long suffering, and Lord, that we build our desires to build to edify one another and not tear down. So give us ears to hear. Let us hear what the spirit is saying to the churches today, Lord. Lord, help us to be compliant, to be broken in your hands, Lord, to be those that apply your word, be doers of your word and not hearers only. Strengthen our families, strengthen our relationships with our children and family members and friends. Lord, don't allow any schism, any division within the body. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you please be seated? The word body is the Greek word, psoma. It's found 18 times in verses 12 through 17. Paul is now using an illustration of the human body to emphasize the unity of the church body, the body of Christ. The church of Corinth, were divided. They were saying, I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollos. I'm of Jack. I'm of Greg. I'm of Billy Graham. I'm of this. I'm of that. And you get kinda what flavor they are. And Paul asked the question, is Christ divided? No. He's not divided. So why are you developing these little factions, these little groups, these schisms? And, so he's using the illustration here of your physical body to illustrate the spiritual body of Christ and how we're to operate in that manner. So the creative unity of the body, first of all, verse 12. For as the body is one and has many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. So the church of Corinth was divided, but Christ is not divided. In Ephesians five verse 30, Paul says, for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, one body, a living organism. That's why you don't join the church. It's not a club. You have to be born again. You're born into the church. You're a living organism. You're a part of the body of Christ. Verse 13, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles. Think of the division between Jews and Gentiles. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. So the baptism is an immersion. You're immersed into the body by one spirit. So whether you're male or female, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, gentile, Jew, whatever, we're all one in the body of Christ. Jesus prayed in John 17, his prayer is that we would be one with he and the father because there was a schism, a division because of sin. Sin separates us from God. And then we as as Christians, we like to pride ourselves on being loving and kind and, and being in loving and kind, and yet Jesus said in the last days, nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And that word in the Greek nation is ethnic groups. So we're watching the propaganda trying to agitate various ethnic groups to get the ethnic groups, you know, to fight against each other, to divide. And so we have a saying on the back of our cars, united we stand, divided we fall. If you go into the military, if you're in the military, can that military survive if people are divided over ethnic groups? Can you go into battle and worried about this man's a black man, this man's a white man, this man's a, you know, Hispanic, This woman's Chinese, you know. Or or I mean, how are you gonna go into battle unless you know your brothers, unless you know you're a part of something greater than what your difference is? How come we can't celebrate our differences? When I see America as a melting pot, you know, I love the fact that all this good food's coming in. You know? I I don't like to just eat bland Northwest food. I like some Mexican food, and I like a taco truck, and he better be good at it. You know? I want some barbecue, and I want some Chinese food. And, you know, you have you have ethnic groups that in Ohio, you know, Kathy's from Columbus, Ohio. Her family, they had an area called German Village. You know? So all this ethnic German stuff going on. You know? And, all over America, melting pot. You come up to Washington being from California, I don't care if you're Christian or not. This place is prejudiced. Only thing that saved me is the navy. That's all that saved me here. People coming in from Hawaii and San Diego and others because this community, by and large, is prejudice against people from California. You laugh. You laugh, but it's true. It's true. And I've never been able to understand that because where I'm from, it's a melting pot. I was just down there. There are so many Chinese people, you can't even imagine how many Chinese people are in Huntington Beach, Orange County where I grew up. And I was corrected. I was told, well, they're Taiwanese. And you know why? They're very wealthy. They'll buy the houses up, you know, $2.03, $4.05, $10,000,000 houses, just snatch them up because Taiwan's gonna come under war with China. And the Taiwanese know it. So the wealthy Taiwanese are fleeing to a place that will accept them and allow them in without being prejudiced. And that's Southern California. I grew up with the Vietnamese coming in after the Vietnam War. I I grew up in Huntington Beach, Westminster was right next door to us, and they call it Little Saigon because so many Vietnamese and Cambodians came in and, just began to work hard. Their kids are the valedictorians. Their kids study. These families will live together in one house, buy it, and then buy another one later. You know? They'll open a business and then open another business in a strip center and just take up the whole street, the whole avenue. And and they're filling up our high school. They're filling up everything, and they're driving those little rice burner cars, you know, nowadays and all that. And but I mean, you accept it or move away. It's just the way it is. And you gotta marvel because they can't even speak the language when they show up. But in a short period of time, as I said, they study, they get good jobs, they produce, and and it's just absolutely amazing to to see that happen, to see people getting along, to see people not, you know, dividing on, you know, ethnic lines or ethnic groups and all that. But the churches seem to have a difficult time. Wait a minute. I'm a Christian. Why would you be prejudiced toward me? I'm a Christian. I'm here on behalf of Jesus to plant a church. Well, you're from California. What what do you think? You're you're and my buddy Eric that left California to go to Tennessee, same thing. Who do you think you are? My grandpa built this church. My grandpa over here did that church, you know. Who do you think you are? We don't need you here. Just leave your virgin daughters and and leave, you know. That's all we need. And so, case in point, this is gonna be humbling for you to hear. You Bremertonians. Coach Joe, what did he do, Bremerton? He prayed. He prayed with some football players. And what did Bremerton do to coach Joe? They fired him. And then did the churches reach out to him? A Christian man? Did they help him get a legal fund together? And he won the case, and he got a million dollars, and he came back to Bremerton. And the church, not the church, the school ostracized him. You're not welcome here. And then I get on Facebook, and I'm listening to people that claim to be Christians in this community, envious that he got a million dollars. He won. You're wrong. He won. And now he moves to Florida. Wouldn't you? He's gonna write a book. What a pathetic Christian community. This is a man standing for righteousness. Everybody should have rallied around him. And that million dollars, it goes to his lawyers. He didn't get rich off it. It's called envy. California builders come up here, and they build all these apartment buildings and all this stuff going on. I hear people when I'm getting my oil changed, yeah, it's those California builders. They water down the paint. Those walls you can see through them. Well, how many years did you Bremerton Kitsap County builders have to build something here? Do Do you know those California developers are making you rich because they're buying up your land that was dormant for forty years? You're getting top dollar for it? It's like quit your whining. When we were buying the Roxy, so many people whining. It sat empty for twenty years. If you wanted to buy it, why didn't you buy it? So we buy it and we do something with it that's constructive, that's good. We put a new roof on it, and we're constantly fighting to stay alive. And then when we had our collapse, so to speak, we're left with about 10 people. Everybody bailed. I know what coach Joe's going through. I know what it's like. It's a very difficult thing. When I was invited after school and ministry to go to Kentucky to pastor a church, my father-in-law did some business in Georgia for a few years, and he pulled me aside and he said, Rick, I don't think you understand the South. And what do you mean? Well, Rick, they have black churches and they have white churches. I said, no. There's no way that that that could be a thing. No way. That's not Christianity. He said, Rick, it's true. They'll bomb your church. That's probably a little hyperbole. Never heard of that happening. But I called the guy that was inviting me down there, and I began to ask him questions. And he began to give me a, like, a speech on, you just don't understand the culture down here. Well, I know enough about Christianity that I'm not going. If I'm a pastor of a church and a black man, a Asian man, a brown man, whoever, a woman, whatever comes through that door, I wanna get them saved, number one. Number two, if they do get saved, there's no difference. There's no difference between male, female, barbarian, Scythian, bonder, free. We're all one in Christ Jesus. And if you don't understand that, then you're just in a social club. You don't understand the love that's necessary, that that's imperative to give us the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to have impact in the community. You just play in church. And so I'm glad I have you guys to beat up. It's it makes me feel really good. In Matthew three eleven, John says, I indeed baptize you with water under repentance, but he that comes after me is mightier than I whose shoes I'm not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the holy ghost and with fire. This baptism, you're immersed in one body, in the body of Christ. Galatians three twenty seven, as many as you has have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ. So that speaks of conversion. When you come to Christ, there's a baptism in in by the Holy Spirit of bringing us together as one. Your your official baptism in the water is an outward expression outwardly of what already has taken place inwardly and that the holy spirit's come into your heart and life, and you're baptized by the spirit. You're immersed in the body of Christ by one spirit. And so we, and have been all made to drink of that one spirit. So Jesus says in John seven thirty seven thirty eight, if any man thirst, any man, not just a Jew, just a Gentile. If any man thirst, let him come on to me and drink. He that believes in me as the scripture said out of his belly shall flow torrents of living water. So the woman at the well in John four, she's thirsty. She said five husbands and those husbands can't fulfill that void that that Romans eight twenty, that void, that emptiness created by him who subjected us all by hope. God's made us all with the God shaped hole in our heart. We are made for his pleasure. We're made to know him, made to fellowship with him, but we're divided from him. He wants us to be one as Jesus prayed in John 17. And so this woman is talking with Jesus, and Jesus let her know, I have water you can drink of. You'll never thirst again. I'm the answer to your thirst. As the deer pants after the water brooks, oh lord, so my heart pants after thee. You're the only one that can fill that void, that emptiness of my heart and life. When I was in my twenties, we had the privilege of living in Huntington Beach and starting our family and going to a great church and got saved at 20. And there came a point in time after, several years where I was able to send my guys out. I was about 28, 29, right in there, 30. So I'd send my guys out in the morning, and they'd go out and do the jobs that I have scheduled. Just a couple guys, one truck, later on a second truck. And, and then my job was to sell the next jobs, estimate, manage it. So I would get on my bicycle before they had e bikes. And I would get on that bike around ten ish, and I'd ride down to Huntington Beach. And I had a PO box on Main Street, and I'd go there and I'd collect my checks. If there were checks there from had accounts that were nighttime accounts and commercial accounts. I get those checks, and I take the checks from the previous day. The guys come to my house and alright now, then I drive over to the bank. I deposit the bank. Then I drive back home and wait for the guys to come back from work. If my beeper went off, then I'd call my customer, potential customer, schedule, have my thing with me. And then cell phones came in, same thing, toward the end there. I had one of the first cell phones. It was like a briefcase. It was so big. You know? And I went fishing with my buddy, Eric, and I had that thing in his bass boat at Paris Lake, and we're catching fish. And my phone my beeper's going off, and I'm scheduling jobs. You know? And then later, I had one of those ones about that big, you know? And, looked like a huge walkie talkie thing. And so though very convenient. You know, nowadays, way way better. But I mean, that's what we did. That's that was my my job. I didn't physically have to be at every job, you know, on the tool, doing the physical part of it. And what that opened up for me in my twenties was just a glorious bike ride, exercise, sunshine, time with my family. Then I'd then once the guys are back, we'd go to a bible study on Wednesday night. We go to bible study Sunday morning, Sunday night. Kathy had homeschooling duties. The girls, us, we could be together as a family. So I reached the place where this is good. This is really good. God has really blessed me. But there was something missing, and that was this. God had called me to be a pastor, and there was I still was very unfulfilled, and I didn't know what it was within the body of Christ where I fit. Where do I fit? Where do I fit in? Because as a Christian businessman, it wasn't ringing the bell for me. It just seemed kinda silly. It seemed kinda And this trip that I took down there reminded me of that. I could win the lottery and live on the beach, which in my flesh is my greatest glory. But in the spirit, it's here because this is where I'm supposed to be. And doing what I'm doing right now, teaching the word of God. And so as I began to teach bible studies, and as I began to, go back to school, it got a hold of me. It just radically got a hold of me. And, and by faith, we began to move in that direction, step out. And so again, when I went back to California this time, hey, my flesh loved it. Great. But I knew by the end of in that third week, I knew that, you know what, I couldn't do this. I I would be empty. I'd be dry. I would dry up. I need an outlet. I I need to be filled and and then let it flow. Let it go. And, that's that's my function within the body and to not be there, to not to not address that thirst that's in my heart and life that desire to know Jesus and then to make him known to others. The money didn't do it for me. Money's fine. It's great. We all need it. But it wasn't gonna be the master passion of my life or my calling. Some of you are called to be Christian businessmen. Some of you are very good at it, and and it is very rewarding for you, the ins and outs of it. But for me, as much as I enjoyed it, as much as it was fun to progress and and to learn and to to grow in that aspect, I didn't know where I fit within the body. So we've all been made to drink of that spirit. So not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. So the creative unity of the body. Secondly, the cooperative unity of the body. Verse 14. For the body is not one member, but many. So the church body, like the human body, is united, but also very diverse. Not one member but many. Many different functions within the body. The human body epitomizes a cooperative unity, a coordinated effort, each member doing his job. And that's what Paul's gonna bring out here illustratively. Verse 15. If the foot shall say because I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? So attitude's everything within the body. And so the the body can be stifled if the if there's war going on, the foot says, I'm tired of being in the smelly shoe. I'm tired of all the toe jam and the the the note this guy doesn't wash his feet and stuff. I'm sick and tired of the smell. I'm sick and tired of being here. You know, the ear, man, the ear is out there right out in the open, you know. And then the ear starts to say, I'm sick and tired because I wanna be the eye. The eye, man. A little tiny little speck of dust gets in the eye and tears start flowing. Well, I've got hair growing off of my ear. This hair that doesn't belong there. They're piercing me. I'm tired of being pierced. There's wax inside of me. There's all this, you know, I don't get no respect at all. Look at the eye. The eye has got that thing that covers it covers it up, and it's just so pampered. These pampered priests, these pampered chefs, these pampered pastors, you know, they got it so easy. So we sit there and go, oh, I wanna be like that Christian. They got it so easy. Oh, they make so much money. They got a better house, and I'm really dissatisfied with who I am in the body. I played that game for a lot of years. I know that game. I invented that game. You know, why'd you send me to Bremerton? Because I belong here. Because the guys down there can't handle it here. They couldn't handle it one minute. Guys are moving in the Huntington Beach, popping up churches like crazy. They're all from outside it. They've heard the parties on. They heard it's exciting, Christian Disneyland. Well, I'm from there, and I got kicked out by God. What did I do wrong? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Man, that verse oh. But I'm supposed to be here. Why? Because the Lord's given Cathy and I endurance. You need endurance. This is a pastor's graveyard. You gotta have you gotta have endurance, and the Lord has given my wife incredible endurance. Case in point, married to me, but I mean, you you gotta be careful of that envy. The socialism, the envious of rich people and middle class and lower class and everybody's they wanna get the envy going. They wanna get you angry at people that have more than you or or whatever, look different or whatever. And, it's it's all, you know, appealing to the basis part of our nature as human beings. And, we as Christians, there's no way that we should, give into that. We should be content with who we are. So I'm tired of being covered by this sweaty sock bound by this shoe. That hand is so free, so expressive. Why do I have to support the weight of this body? And this guy won't go on a diet. Do know how much he weighs now? My my my feet are hurting. I'm hurting all the time. Now I got cankles. I'm all swollen up, man. And now you're going, what about him? You know? In John 21, Jesus told Peter, Peter, when you're young, you get to go wherever you wanna go. You're uncharged. You're in control. You have that youthful invincibility. Yeah. Just wait. Somebody's gonna help me go to the bathroom soon, buddy. When you're old, another will take you where you would not, Peter, And you can't even conceive that. You know? Now, that never happened to me. Not Rocky. No way. Though everybody is gonna betray you. Not me. Not this night. You know? I'm gonna be there at crunch time for you, Jesus. Yeah. Before the cock crows, you're gonna deny that you even know me on three different occasions, Peter. And people would cock a doodle doo when Peter would enter the villages, we're told traditionally. They didn't want him to forget about that, and Peter couldn't go back to fishing. Do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than the fish? Do you love me more than the other guys you're boasting about? Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. Do what I tell you to do. And then Peter's like, well, what about John? John's your favorite. He's laying down to got his head on your chest during during Passover, you know, and, he's just so pampered by you. And Jesus said, what is it if I allow John to continue until I come? What is that to you? What business is that of you? I have a distinct plan and purpose for John. It's none of your business. He says, follow me. You follow me. Don't worry about the other guy and his gig. God's got a place for each of us within the body. We can't be overtaken with envy and jealousy and all that. And I I I know that the pastors down in Southern Cal couldn't hack it here. I know that. Very clear to me. There's just no way. They have no comprehension of what it's like to pastor a small church, to teach the word, to be so incredibly rejected, they they they just don't get it. So sometimes I invite them up. Come on up. One time a guy came up and he was doing his thing and he's like mister mister big shot, you know, down at Costa Mesa. And one of my lovely Bremerton young kids at the concert was sitting there and began to heckle him. Well, you don't get heckled in big churches. You get hauled out. These guys are superstars. You can't heckle me. And one of my lovely Bremerton kids is, you know, just a normal kid that we love to minister to, and he's heckling them. Well, the guy loses his composure. You know? And he's he's just better than that. I'm just so much you can't heckle me? And when he was talking about coming, I I had to I had to get the Orange County Supertones, which cost $10,000 to come to the Roxy so that I could get a crowd there for this guy and his superstar Southern California band. Because nobody here cares about him or even knows who he is. So he says to me, I wanna come back on Tuesday. He had so much fun because we set the stage for him. He had a blast. And I said, well, that's gonna be tough. I'm gonna need to get a band from Seattle. I'm gonna need to get a local band so that they'll bring the people. And he says, why don't you just rely on the holy spirit? Wow. That's a new one. I've never heard of that one. So Tuesday comes around, and that heckler's there, and there aren't as many people as there were on the Saturday night concert with the Orange County Supertones, you know. The place was packed. It was on. It was amazing. And, and then he left, and I heard him on the radio. And he said, yeah, we just did a tour in the Northwest. And we went to all these small churches, and he used d words. Yeah. They were defeated. They were discouraged. All the all the negative d words. And I'm like, dude, don't even go there. You're you're like a soldier that stays away from the battle that goes to the USO, and help me here, where they're having a dance going on. There's no other soldiers there except just a couple guys because the rest of them are over there fighting, but you're back with the girls dancing around like you're such a big soldier. You know? That's what it's like. You don't have a clue. And he previously tried to pastor a church on the East Coast, and it didn't work, so he came back to Orange County where everything's easy. So I know who I am. I know who you are. I know who we are. We're in God's will. So don't worry about the other guy. I spent a lot of years worried about the other guys and what they have and, you know, the things they get to do, and it's the doing that bothers me the most. I wanna do more. I don't wanna spend thirty years doing nothing waiting for God to show up. So I stepped out in faith and just tell he stopped me. And yet we continue to do in this season as a grandparent what he's called us to do in these last days. So the head instructs. Jesus instructs. Jesus says to the body, hey, Peter. Whether you're a foot or a hand, what is that to you? I placed you within the body. You're gonna do what I tell you to do. You don't worry about John. If I if I want John to remain till I return, that's fine. And you know that John, when they tried to boil him in oil later, he wouldn't boil. All of the all the apostles died a violent death of martyrdom, all except for John the beloved, who died in exile on the island of Patmos in present day Turkey, where he wrote the book of Revelation, the apocalypse. So God had a plan for John the beloved to write the gospel of John in first, second, third John, the epistles, and to write the book of Revelation. And he had a purpose for Peter, first and second Peter, and for Peter to be a leader within the early church out of out of Jerusalem there. And I believe Peter got the lesson because Peter in Acts chapter 12, when James was taken, James and John, James' brother, the brother of of of John, sons of thunder, when he was grabbed hold by Herod and executed. It pleased the Jews, and so they grabbed hold of Peter in Acts 12. And what was Peter doing? Sleeping. How could Peter sleep? Where's this character change? He's the same guy that denied that even knew the Lord on three occasions prior to that. But after the resurrection and after that meeting with Jesus in John 21, when you're young, Peter, you're gonna be able to go where you wanna go. Oh, I'm not old yet. I'm not dying yet. And so he's sleeping. He's not pacing the floor. He's not wringing his hands. He's sleeping. And an angel comes in and wakes him up, tells him to get his shoes on. We're out of here. It's a jailbreak. And then John the Baptist, he was so kinda like what I'm trying to convey to you. He was so fixated on his role and what he's doing and what he thought. He imposing, projecting the way he thought his life was gonna go that when he's apprehended and he's put in prison, this guy that loved to live out camping and in the wilderness, now he's incarcerated. He's so behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world in John two. Now he's like, hey cousin, are you the one or do we look for another? That's what can happen when your life is just a curveball hits and you just need to know where you're at. And then Jesus needed to remind him, just regain perspective, John. The poor have the gospel preached to him. The blind are seeing. The lame are walking. The lepers are cleansed. John, I'm the guy. I'm the guy you thought I was. Be faithful. Be faithful unto death, John. And John's disciples come back to him and convey that message, and we see that John was was ready to be martyred as a party favor for Herodias and Salome. How unjust, how horrible, but and yet, ordained of God. And if the ear shall say, because I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? So the ear's going on strike. I'm on strike. I want a new contract. The eye sees everything while I'm left to endure all the noise. I'm tired of the noise. I'm tired of filling up with earwax. I'm tired of being pierced. I'm tired of hair growing all over me where it's not supposed to be. I'm tired of being the unibrow, the eyebrow. There should be a gap between the unibrow. Why is the eye so pampered? Just a little speck of dirt and tears start flowing. The pampered pastors can't take it. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves. The secret of joy is Jesus first, others second, yourself last. Quit imposing upon everybody else your envy and jealousy and dissatisfaction with your place within the body. Verse 17, if the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? So we each have different functions and responsibilities within the body. Verse 18, but now has God set, notice that word set, the members every one of them in the body as it has pleased him. That word set is a Greek word tithymi, which means placement, appointment, ordination. I love it. The greatest place of fulfillment in your life is when you discover where the Lord has set you, where he's placed you. Some of you, you've been set within the body of Christ as mothers, and it's not by accident. It's God's calling. It's it's ordination. It's the highest calling of any human endeavor is that of being a mother. If you're unable to have children and you're not a mother, That's a heartache. It's a heartache. But those of you that are mothers, don't allow anyone to ever, ever, ever degrade you in the calling God has given you. When they say, what do you do all day? Smile. Do you see the calling? Raise your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Don't let anybody degrade you that you're not important because you don't make a 6 figure income, you know, and be a super mom at the same time. Some of you are able to do this. Some of you, God's called you to be a career woman. Some of you, your your husband abandoned you or died, and you had to be. But deep down with many of you within your heart, you know that desire to nurture those little babies, to not send them in the nursery or the public school, the hours and hours and hours you're away from them. And others of you, that's not your calling. You know that, alright, that's that may be a high calling, but that's not what God's called me to do. And so we each find our place in life. But the calling of a mother, our culture would love to degrade and denigrate that calling. The calling of being a husband, a father that gets up at 04:30 every morning and or a mother and goes into the shipyard to work, bang her key port, thirty, forty years. The calling of a father on a navy vessel that goes away from home for months on end, a Westpac or whatever. And the sacrifices you make to provide for your family, the wars that you fought to keep our country safe, the places God sent you to share the gospel. It's not by accident God's ordained and called you and equipped you. And becoming a pastor doesn't mean you have a higher calling. He sets us where we fit within the body. All of us. He's no respecter of persons. Placement, appointment, ordination. In John fifteen sixteen, Jesus said, you have not chosen me, but I've chosen you. And I've ordained that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain that whatsoever you ask the father in my name, he may give it you. So we don't choose him, he chooses us. And then he commissions us. He ordains us. He told Jeremiah, before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you. I knew you before you even knew you, and I ordained you a prophet of God under the nations. No accident. No accident, Moses, that you're gonna go tell pharaoh, let my people go. No. You go get somebody else. I'm 80 years old now. I'm content here tending the sheep of Jethro, my father-in-law. No. You're gonna go, and you're gonna tell them. You're gonna do what I tell you to do. And Jeremiah, you're not quitting. There's no quit. You're you're not gonna quit. You're not gonna hold back. You're not gonna hold the word back because my word's gonna burn within your heart like a fire within your bones. Well, God, this is unfair. I didn't sign up for this. Why why am I in a hole, a pit when I'm the one telling the truth and the false prophets are making so much money and so pampered? Why am I thrown into a dungeon? Why am I mistreated this way? Why don't you defend me? They set a rope down and they get them out of there, and then he begins to preach once again. Forty years of ministry. Nobody believes, maybe one convert. And yet Jonah who has no heart, no compassion, no love, goes into Nineveh and says forty days and you wretched people are gonna perish. And the greatest revival in the old testament breaks out, and the new testament breaks out except for the book of revelation. Numerable multitude of people beneath the throne of God who've been martyred for refusing the mark of the beast. Right? But in Jonah's case, thousands of people come to Christ from the king on down. Just a very simple message. Forty days and you're gonna perish. Boy, you sure got their attention. Who do men say that I am? Jesus said. He asked. Some say you're John the Baptist come back from the dead. Some say you're Jeremiah. Some say you're Elijah. Nobody said, you remind us of Jonah. No. You remind us of the weeping prophet Jeremiah. You remind us with your miracles of Elijah. You remind us of your preaching, boldness that of John the Baptist. Before I formed thee, in the belly I knew thee, before thou came forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, set thee apart, I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. God sets us in the body. Verse 19. And if they were all one member, where are the body? So God created the body to bring glory unto himself. When we cooperate with the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ functions in a very beautiful unity. Churches can become sick. One of the greatest strategies of the devil to destroy a church is to divide, to get us divided, to get us fighting with each other, different factions. And they have a saying, if you wanna get rid of your pastor, start a building project because everybody goes crazy. Colors and drapes and carpeting and, you know, nursery, and everybody says, woo, you know, going can't hold it together. So you got committees, and the committees got committees and more committees and, you know, trying to keep people from, you know, going nuts. And envy. When the Lord started to bless Kathy and I, and we bought a house finally after we'd been here. We were driving home the other day, and I told her, you know, I don't I don't know why in my forties, you know, thirties and forties that I allowed myself to get so overweight. I should have went to the gym earlier, she says, you were at the church morning and night. You had no time for the gym. I'd be there nine in the morning, nine, ten, eleven, twelve at night, those concerts, outreaches, all that kind of stuff. It didn't seem like work though. It was the funnest thing on the planet. Just I loved it. Loved being there. But I did let my body go. I drank a lot of mochas. I had a mocha machine, and I drank a lot of mochas, man. And I got all the fast food down there, the teriyakis and stuff. And and a pastor friend of mine called me one time, and he says, hey, we're gonna come up that area, and, we wanna do vacation. Where should we go? What should we go see? And I said, I don't know. I've been here nine years. I haven't gone anywhere. Let's plant this church. Just like when I in my twenties. When you start a business, when you start an endeavor from scratch, you better be prepared to put the time in. And once we overcame that hump and God started blessing, then when I was almost 40 years old, I didn't even have a credit card anymore. God opened the door for us to buy a house, bought the Roxy, and then we bought the Calvary Building and the house out back, the lighthouse. And this envy crept in where people were worried about who owns these buildings, who who owns this wealth. And so I started having people. I I had a very nice house. 3,500 square feet, three bathrooms, two and a half acres, Central Valley Road, two by six construction, tile roof, perfect perfect house. Seventeen years we lived there, and it started going up in value. And people began to go on the computer to the records at Port Orchard at the courthouse, and they come up to me and say, you know how much your house is worth now, pastor Rick? Have any of you ever had somebody do that to you? Anybody worried about the equity in your home, how much your home is worth? Anybody worried about you might be getting rich or you might be blessed or whatever? Little factions develop about, you know, Warren Wiersbe says, board of elders in these churches, many of them will say something along the lines of, God, keep them humble and we'll keep them poor. Why? Why in human nature is that the case? And then on the other side of it, you got the false prophets, billionaires nowadays. The jet's not big enough for me. My name's dollar. I need a bigger jet, and the people do it for them. Mind boggling. Absolutely mind boggling. The division within the church, placement within the body. So when we cooperate with the holy spirit, the body of Christ functions in a very beautiful unity. For we are his workmanship, Ephesians two eleven or two ten. For we are his workmanship, the Greek word poema, where we get poem. We're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. So the differences, the abilities, the gift, the worship, singing, artistic, analytical, whatever it may be, all these gifted, these traits come from God. What do you have that you haven't first received from God? So he gets the glory. But they're used in harmony with the leading guiding of the holy spirit with the head, Christ, helping us to walk and and serve in harmony, appreciating one another and the various gifts that are exercised and such, and and God gets the glory. So when we don't cooperate, what happens? What happens when the body has a cell that does not cooperate with the body? A rebellious cell is a cancerous cell. In normal circumstances, normal, the immune system is supposed is supposed to be such that if we don't eat poisonous foods and we don't get chemtrailed and we don't have all these things that come in with vaccines and stuff that compromise our immune system, the body is able to attack rogue, rebellious cells, cancerous cells, and defeat them. But if we're addicted to sugar, or it could just be God's sovereign will that that we get cancer. My buddy Andy didn't smoke. He didn't drink. He didn't chew, and he didn't run with girls that do, but he got stage four lung cancer. Now it might have been from the oil fields, some toxicity, and we prayed like crazy. The doctor told him you've got eighteen months, and he died eighteen months later. He went to Mexico a couple times, and the tumors were alleviated. They went away, but they came back with a vengeance. And we're hearing what's called turbo cancers today because of the jab, because of the vaccines. Why? Because it crippled the immune system. The immune system can't fight these diseases off. And so we get vitamin c dosages, high dose vitamin c to fight it. We have what's called surgery where you cut it out. We have radiation where you try to burn it out, and then you got chemo going through your body to try and kill each bit of cancer cell. Now the interesting thing, can your body survive the cutting, the radiating, the chemo because it's so so difficult, so hard on the body? Do you have much of an immune system left that can fend off the rebellious cells to keep them from coming back and overtaking the body. So as we're younger and our immune system's stronger, we tend to not get the cancers till we're older when our immune system's compromised. In the church, we in the body of Christ, we have an immune system, and that immune system might have to have a blessed subtraction to cut out a rebellious cell, a person that's causing trouble. See you. Bye bye. Blessed subtractions. The word of God's the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, sharpened an intuit to its sword, dividing the son of soul and spirit and joint marrow, discern of the thoughts and intents of the heart. There's times where the preaching of the word causes people to leave, cuts them out. They get convicted. They can't handle it. There's other times where the holy spirit convicts or moves against those that are trying to ruin the sweetness within the body. Churches can can become sick. They can quench the Holy Spirit. They can grieve the Holy Spirit. They can be so carnal, fleshly, and mean, and nasty that the Holy Spirit will move on and start a a work somewhere else. Terrible to be a pastor in a church like that. You're pleading with people to love one another. Quit fighting. Quit fighting. You know? It's just they're not gonna stop till they tear it down. And we got down to 10 people when started over. So these sects, heresies, first Corinthians 11, they're necessary for it manifest those that are approved. We go through the fire of testing. And God purifies the body as we go through these things. And so a healthy immune system destroys, eliminates, purges unhealthy, rebellious cancer cells. And I'm thankful for the purity. I'm thankful for the love. I'm thankful for the way that you guys are loving one another, caring for one another. What I also learned was is when a pastor doesn't have anything and there's nothing we're renting the building, there's nothing to worry about, there's a whole lot less pressure on me. Now it's about Jesus. Right? It's only about Jesus. That's a good place to be. The creative unity of the body, the cooperative unity of the body, and thirdly and finally, the complementing unity of the body. Verse 20, but now are they many members yet one body. And they cannot say under the hand, I have no need of thee nor again to the head, to the feet, have no need of you. So the body is mutually dependent. No lone rangers, cancer cells. We need each other. We complement each other, working together in harmony, in sync. Nehemiah, when he was commissioned to rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, it was just a burden in his heart. He was a cup there for king Artaxerxes. And, it was just blazing on his heart the the the that Cyrus is allowing, king Cyrus allowing the Jews to go back from captivity in Babylon, allowing them to go back to, Jerusalem to rebuild not only the walls, but also the temple later on with the Zerubbabel's temple. And, so this cup heir on March fourteenth four forty five BC, Nehemiah chapter two, Artaxerxes gave the command to go and restore and rebuild Jerusalem. And Nehemiah responded and took a group of people, and they went back. And they have enemies there. There's there's people that are in this area that don't want those walls rebuilt, that don't want that temple rebuilt. Seventy years is lying dormant, over 70. And, Nehemiah has this desire to do this, but he can't do it by himself. And he has opposition. The devil doesn't want him to succeed. So he has Tobiah and Sambalat. These guys trying to trick him and try every strategy they can to keep him from the objective of doing what he's supposed to do. At one point, that people are having to have a trowel in one hand for the bricks and another hand, the sword. At a moment's notice to be able to defend themselves from the attack of the enemy. And in fifty, in two days, they rebuilt that wall because they worked in sync. They worked together. Amazing what we can do in America when we're in sync. When we have a common enemy, a foreign enemy attacking us, amazing how it can bring us all together to protect the homeland. But it's equally amazing to watch how this idiocracy taking place where people are being manipulated to hate, to just hate. It's just it's mind boggling. We have so much to be thankful for, and yet we're so dissatisfied and so hating. Fifty and two days, so shall the wall finish in fifty and two, and the month Elul in fifty and two days. And it came to pass that when our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes, for they perceived that this work was rod of God. The Lord saves by few, not by many. It's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord, Disrubable. God's gonna do it by his spirit. And when the enemy is watching, and he's tried to manipulate and divide and conquer and stop you from what your your objective, but you still succeed. And they know you didn't have the the monies and all that other stuff, and God provides along the way, then they're they know that this is a work rod of God, and to fight against you would be to be fighting against God. And so they're not gonna do that. Verse 22, nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. You say, oh, man, pastor, you know, I'm I'm a I'm I have physical handicaps now. All I can do is pray. Prayer is essential. Keep praying. Nothing gets done. Nothing continues. Nothing is sustained without prayer. Ask, seek, knock, Jesus said. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. And and you may not be noticed. You might not be out there like pastor Jack or Tony Perkins or Greg Laurie, these celebrity pastors, but they're doing what God's called them to do. So you should celebrate them. You should be thankful, but it doesn't mean you're to acquiesce and, alright, we're gonna vote Donald in, then everything's gonna be fixed. No. You got your part too. We have our part. Our part is to hold them accountable, to make sure we're in the game, our heads in the game. And these pastors pray for them, pray for their families. The devil would love for them to have an illicit affair, adultery, tear it down, tear their reputation down. How many big name pastors it's happened to? You be in prayer. You pray that God keep that hedge of protection about them. I'm more concerned with being a good husband, being a good grandpa, being a father, and being a pastor in this church than I am some adulterous celebrity. I don't care what I accomplished. I don't care what kind of bells could be rung. Oh, he's just such a good teacher. Make me vomit. Never gonna be able to look your wife in the eyes. You're a zero. My mom was married seven times. You don't value your marriage? What happened to you? Didn't you get any dates in high school? Now you wanna act like you're a Christian celebrity and the chicks like you? You're old, man. You got hair growing all over your ears. You got a unibrow. You're wearing a wig. You got cap teeth. Everyone's laughing at you. You're the emperor with no clothes. Knock it off. You're embarrassing everybody. Go home. Be a man. Be a husband. Knock it off. All I can do is pray. Pray. Ask, seek not. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow much more abundant honor and uncommonly parts have more abundant comeliness. So we complement our bodies by covering the weak areas. The beautiful hair of a woman and many women conceals her ears that go out like this. She could go get operated on, or she could stay away from cutting her hair real short or putting it behind her ears. Because now you're like Obama. I'm sorry if your ears like that. But now you're dumb, though. Alright? But if God's given you beautiful hair, cover that weak part of who you are. If you're getting older and you got wrinkles right here, wear a turtleneck. And get your sunglasses on for the bags, you know? Cover the weak parts. You got parts of your body that nobody should be seeing? Cover them up. Don't be on the viral video, the Walmart shopper. Don't wear your p j's to Walmart if you're overweight and they're like spandex. Alright? We that's too much information. Cover up the uncomely parts. When you see a weak part in the body, cover it. If if one part of the body hurts, we're all gonna hurt. So we we cover that part of the body that's weak. And we walk in in humility. We walk in sync. We walk together. Life's painful. Life's not fair. It's very, very, very difficult. But as the body of Christ, we pray, we encourage, we love, we exhort. We don't tear down. The black baggy, flattering clothes, they hide the weight that we're carrying. That's why we wear black. We don't wear spandex, except for nacho, stretchy pants. Bury one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Compliment. Verse 24, for our calmly parts have no need, but God has tempered the body together having given more abundant honor to that part that which lacked. That word tempered means mixed together. Kathy has strengths. I have weaknesses. I have strengths. She has weaknesses. But we complement the two coming together as one. Now, when we're driving down to California, this this concept doesn't always work, but, I've got a sciatic condition that's been killing me for six months, and so it's, very painful. Right now, I'm not in pain, but if I sit in Kathy's car, it activates all the way down to the toe. And I just drove 3,200 miles. Very painful. And I try to get a roll in the bag, McKenzie Method, all this stuff. Very painful. And makes you insane. And I just take gummies to numb the pain, but no, I don't. Because then I'm all over the road. You know? No. I don't. I don't do that. But, so anyway, she says, you want me to drive? And so, prior to our trip, I I said, alright. You gotta drive. Go ahead. And I was just going into Silverdale, and I'm sitting in the passenger seat, the pain's gone. There's no pain in my sciatic. But, man, the pain of letting her drive was so much greater than the sciatic. I didn't let her drive even one of the 3,200 miles I just drove. No. No. You want me to drive? No. No. No. No. So when I'm weak, she's strong. She could do it. She's a good driver, but she drives too close to the back end of cars, man. I can't, you know. All I could picture is I won't die, but I'll be sucking food through a straw the rest of my life. You know. You wouldn't let me die. Now I gotta suck my food through a straw the rest of my life, you know? So, man, I heard her scream a few times though in all fairness in my driving. Oh, she screamed? Woah. Last night, you know, I don't do bugs. Last night when we got home, the motor home was locked up for three weeks, and all of a sudden, this shriek, man. I'm like, what's up? There's a big spider, you know. Well, get it. Get it. I don't know where it is. And then a few seconds later, the spider's chasing her. And I hear her going, ah, you know. I mean, loud. And I didn't even move. I I it's not my job. That's not how I compliment that marriage. I don't kill the bug. Kathy kills the bugs. She deals with the rats, all that stuff that traps the whole thing. So, I mean, we have our strengths, our weaknesses, but together, we make a good team. You know? And, when I watch Ben Hur, I love Ben Hur, and, my favorite movie, and there's a guy in there that's this really strong, big dude, you know, and, I watch it with my grandkids. And then there's this other guy that he carries who got got, crippled by Marcellus. You know, they tried to get him to talk and he wouldn't talk, so they crippled his leg. He can't walk. So this big strong guy carries this guy around, so that's what I do with my grandkids. I say, I'm the muscle, you're the brains, you know, And I carry them around. So they're complementing each other. Right? And that's how the body of Christ, is supposed to work. We have weaknesses, and, we have strengths. And we're not to get puffed up and prideful on those strengths and begin to judge everybody else because they don't have those strengths. We're to compliment. We're to because we're we're gonna be humble. We got weaknesses. We got things that we can't even do. This morning, I don't know how to set my phone up right. It kept roaming the whole time, so I gave it to John. And John went through there and fixed it for me again. I can't do that stuff. Somebody wanted my me to take their phone number down when I was on my trip, and I don't even know how to put a contact in there. I handed it to them. You know? Here, you do it. You know? It's just like, come on. Give me a break. You know? But I'm really good at eating. I'm I'm really gifted in eating, and, I'm a carnivore, in case you don't know. And I can really put it away. So that's one of my gifts. You know? So bury one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ to complement him. And, for our commonly parts have no have no need, but God has tempered the body together having given more abundant honor to the part which lacked. So this temper tempered is is mixed together. So, the marriages that we have, the strengths, the weaknesses, we see that how we complement one another. We cover for each other. Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. So it's death to self. It's taken the cross of dying to self where we find our life. Verse 25, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. So God is no respecter of persons. He's not more concerned about Billy Graham or any Christian celebrity than he is for you and I. That's how the world is. But Jesus looked upon the multitudes with compassion because the religious leaders didn't value them. And and so he looked at them as as sheep having no shepherd, and he looked on the fields. They're white under harvest, but the laborers are few. Why were the laborers few? Because nobody cared. Nobody cared for his sheep. They didn't care. They didn't care for the poor, the needy. They were only treating Church Incorporated as a business. It's nickels and noses. And we're going to prioritize and we're going to give a, you know, an inordinate amount of attention to those that have the greatest propensity to give to this church. Those are the ones we're going to give recognition unto, but people that are poor, people that are falling through the cracks, people that have nothing to offer me, you know, how tragic. That's not the mind of Christ. That's not who our Jesus is. That's not who he is. And how tragic when we have schism within the body, different clicks and groups and things like that. And heck, I'm such a nobody pastor. I'll go out to lunch with any of you if you buy me a steak. Alright? I'm a what do they call that? I'm a equal opportunity carnivore. Right? But you better bring your checkbook because we're gonna go for it. Alright? I'm not one of those wimpy guys. He eats two meals. Yeah. I've been known to do that. Yeah. I gotta start a diet tomorrow. Alright. All blood purchase. When you recognize where in acts 20 where Paul spent three years in Ephesus, and he's talking to the elders there, the pastors, how he was innocent of the blood of each person because he he gave them the full counsel of God. He didn't leave out prophecy or leave out, you know, vast portions of the bible. He made sure that, he covered the basis for them to feed them for three straight years. And he says, now take heed over the flock which he has purchased with his own blood. These are blood bought sheep. So you better take heed because the value that he places upon them is indicative of the price that he paid to purchase them, is the blood of his dear son. We're all blood bought. So when he saw the multitudes, he saw them as sheep having no shepherd. Jesus cares, and, who cares enough to pray to stay to go. Many of us start out in the ministry, but we don't stay. Many of us want to know where we where we fitted within the body, but we don't go. The great commission is for somebody else. We'd like to be armchair quarterbacks and hey, he's our celebrity. He'll go do it. Donnie will fix it all. Well, what about us? Where do we fit in? What's our role? What's our place within the body of Christ? Judgment begins at the house of God. I'm so thankful the Lord let me go. I'm so thankful the Lord hasn't disqualified me yet and put me on the shelf. I wanna keep preaching and teaching and doing this till I die like pastor Chuck did with the oxygen in his nose, you know. What I mean, there's nothing else that rings the bell for me than serving the Lord in this capacity and being a grandpa. I'm in the grandpa season. I'm in a great season. That other season, I was trying to minister to the young people with all those concerts and evangelistic outreach and everything. That season's behind me now. I got a new season. I'm trying to prepare people for the apocalypse. Get you ready. I want you to weather it if things get tough in America. I want you to have the faith and the ability prophetically to understand the times you're living in. And I want you to spend some precious precious time with one another, especially with your grandbabies, and your children, your family, and make sure you don't take anything for granted the time that God has given you to love one another, encourage one another, and to build one another up. We're gonna be okay. And whether one member suffer, all members suffer with it or one member be honored, all members rejoice with it. So the body is bound together. If the toe hurts, the whole body feels it. You stub your toe, guess what? You know, the whole body feels it. You're gonna you're gonna give all that attention you can to that toe. One time, my dad, came over to visit Jessica and Brittany, and they were playing around. And somehow he had sandals on, and he still to this day remembers they kicked his toe, but it ripped the toenail off. And and, you know, that's funny to kids, but that's really, really painful. And my grandkids do all sorts of stuff like that. They take the back of a pirate, you know, pistol and hit me in the forehead, and the blood runs down. And, when and I love it. I love it. I I I encourage it. I encourage the interaction. I'm not one of those that doesn't want the interaction. But when I go over to their house, the one thing I do is get a pillow, And I put that pillow in my lap because more than once, these boys have run at me and whacked me, and I can't even see. I see stars, you know? And, so gotta be on guard, you know, because they think that's really funny, you know. And the first time Judah did that to me, man, I'll tell you. So I told my grandma about this. Said, grandma, you can't believe this. I said, was sitting there in the in my chair, and this is when I had the house, and I was laying back, and Judah's just a little guy. All of a sudden, next thing I know, he racks me, you know. And I just I couldn't breathe, but then I started laughing because it reminded me when I was a kid, the way that we used to do that to each other, us guys, you know. And, probably too much information for you, but that's that's how we were. That's what kids do. And, you're kinda curious all that. And my grandma looks at me so serious and different generations. She says, Ricky, I think grandpa would have taken you and given you a spanking if you'd have done that. And I'm like, ah, maybe. But, I really enjoy these kids, grandma. They crack me up. You know? They make me laugh is the thing. And I don't ever want to be so serious that they're afraid of of but now when I come over, say, papa, do you need a pillow? Yeah. I need a pillow. Papa, your pillow fell down. You want me to get that pillow? Yeah. Get that pillow for me. So so the whole body feels it. When a divorce occurs, we grew up together. We got married together. We went to church together. We broke bread together. Helped each other raise our kids together. And then there's a divorce. One of us falls. And now what do we do? When one part of the body hurts, we all hurt. It hurts all of us within the church. But we minister to both people, don't we? We minister to the husband and the wife. We minister to the children. We give them a safe place to heal, to regroup, to grow, to understand that God's a God of the second chance, a third chance. Mike's case, the fourth chance. Fourth chance. And, right, Mike? Next one would be murder, he says, if you ever try it again. Go by way of death. Dee's not gonna stand for it. When a son or a daughter rebels I have a rebellious daughter. She's doing better, but it's been very, very painful. And the body of Christ has been very, very kind to my daughter and to my family, and very understanding, and, no condemnation. Early on, those idiots were condemning, but they were that that was a weird season. They were just a bunch of very immature people condemning my daughter for wearing black clothes, and then years later, she sees the same woman in a bathroom at one of the restaurants changing into her party clothes because she's cheating on her husband. So it comes back around, you know. But but for the most part, people have been that was a long time ago. I can't recall any indicator of people pontificating and acting so self righteous and looking down their nose and condemning me and my family of what we've had to go through with a prodigal daughter. And, she's coming up with germ next week, and, get ready. She's got more tattoos all the way up here now. Lots of lots interesting things. Kathy says there's an addiction with tattoos, if that's your aversion. Once they start doing, apparently, they can't stop. I'm glad I never started. But, the compassion, it's about love. And she loves as a caregiver for the guy that she's ministering to, who's an atheist, who's a retired lawyer, and she, been ministering to him and brought him to tears. What's his name? Justin Peters? I think his name, one of these podcast guys, who was a psychiatrist, a Canadian guy, but he's, recently, identified his faith, wanting to come to faith to Christ, Justin Peters. So she gave him the video of Justin Peters describing his atheism and then his conversion and how it happened and all, and brought, Jessica's client, to tears. And so she's still being used to the Lord. She still has a huge heart for the unborn children. She'll fight you to the death over abortion and all, and she hates cancer, and and she's she's strong in that way. When tragedy strikes, when somebody dies within the church, we all suffer. It all hurts. We all lose. When somebody wins the lottery, a friend of ours wins the lottery. They're our best friend all of a sudden. I love you. I really love you. We all rejoice when one is promoted, when they're honored. I rejoice when Greg Laurie is doing a harvest crusade and all these people get saved. It just blesses me that Greg's one of ours. It blesses me when I see Jack Hibbs ministering, you know, at congress and all these different places and all. Did tell you I saw Jack? Yeah. And it just blesses me. I'm just so blessed that he's a Calvary Chapel pastor and that I'm a nobody unknown or whatever, but it blesses me the way the Lord is mightily using Jack or using pastor Ralph Reese or pastor Chuck, these guys. I mean, they were my heroes, not Jack, but they were my heroes, lot of the older guys, until until I found out how things really work. Now, I don't lift them up as heroes, but I appreciate them. I appreciate them, their place within the body, and I'm so thankful for the role and and the place that they have. But I do not worship men. I do not exalt any man. I know they have feet of clay. In spite of what I really know, I still appreciate them. I still appreciate where they are in the body of Christ. I've recognized a lot of them have no discernment. They have a very difficult time, connecting the dots with what's really happening. And so I I I scratch my head. Why? Why don't they have more discernment? Why would they shut down during COVID? These are my heroes. Why would you do that? But then you gotta be gracious toward them. Be gracious. I don't know why they did, but I'm thankful that the Lord gave us some discernment. And and to me, I look at them as they're so spiritual, and then I realize, no, they're gifted in that area. And the Lord's blessing that flow, but it doesn't mean they're gifted in every area, you know. And so they're just men just like the rest of us, men and women. And but we do appreciate and we we're thankful that they're one of ours. We rejoice when they're promoted, when they're honored. I had the the privilege and the blessing of hanging out with a friend of mine, Ken Gibralson, at the at a lunch while I was gone. And Ken and I grew up, grade school forward in high school, and so neat to hear about his life. He's just so incredible and so productive. As a fireman, early on with my buddy, Eric, at a Long Beach fire, then they they're firemen in Orange County and all, married and kids and all that, and both, you know, we come to the Lord. That's amazing thing is I'm looking around the table. A bunch of us kids that weren't Christians became Christians. It's just incredible. And so he began to tell me about, how many kids he has. I mean, guy's got lots of kids. I don't know. I wanna say like six or eight, you know. It's just amazing. And, three of them are firemen, including one of it one of them's a daughter. And so Ken is a fire captain. Now he's a chief fire guy up in Colorado. Just a little, fireplace, but he gets to use that years of, training and all that he did, retired from Orange County fire. But here's where I'm getting at. He took on Brazilian jujitsu with the Gracies, and he's the first black belt of, any Caucasian person of Brazilian jujitsu. And when the Gracy family came over from Brazil, Ken initially, right then, got in with them and began to help, pioneer Brazilian jiu jitsu. Did I say that? How many times I said that? And, and anyway, he's an eight degree black belt now, which I hear takes my granddaughter, Evie, told me, papa, I have a friend who has a trainer that's a coral belt. Coral belt is eight degree black belt, but it's a red and black belt. And, so Ken has trained navy seals. He's done a lot of this combative fighting and all this kind of things, you know. And in between there, he's raised a family. He's prolific in his work as a fireman, prolific in in his, he has he has training places. Three of his kids, I think, are black belts also, and they train other people and all that. So I'm just he's prolific. Just amazing. Just beautiful wife and children and all, and I'm just I rather than being jealous in comparing my life to his, like, oh, I'm such a loser. Look at how blessed he is. I rejoice. I'm thankful that I know this guy, that he's my friend, that we grew up together, and I I I'm too pretty to get all cauliflower ears and all that. There's no way there's no way I wanna wrestle with men. You know? Why would I So anyway, after football, they say, you guys wanna wrestle? And I was watching the guys, and they take their arm and they go like this under there, and I'm like, I don't want anybody grabbing me there. This no. That's not my style. No. But, anyway, he's prolific. And I have other friends. That's when I when I meet him and I hear, Rhonda's a respiratory therapist, a single mom, three divorces, but prolific, a fighter, intelligent, persevering, loves her grandkids. Not all of us have a spotless record, but I just rejoice in in the endurance, and the the tenacity, and the the achievement, and things like that. It just so blesses me. The thing that blesses me more than anything is they came to Christ. Along the way, we came to Christ. And then I start thinking about the other friends I have that didn't come to Christ. And then I come back to why me? Why would God save me? You know? And so I rejoice. There's a rejoicing in heaven among the angels when just one sinner repents. And so we all rejoice. How are we functioning as a body? Are we a creative unity? Are we a cooperative unity? Are we a complementing unity? Are we rejoicing with heaven when just one sinner repents? When Mark comes in, when I'm absent and he teaches or Wayne teach in the last two weeks, you can see that this churches can continue with or without Rick Bodrey. God has people within this body that can teach and minister and love and do everything that's needed. But Rick Baudry, if he keeps his nose clean and keeps his attitude right, he might be able to continue a while longer. Right? So don't be thinking, if any man thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. So that's the blessing in my life is recognizing my calling and appreciating God's calling upon my life and the desire to glorify him and to be faithful. That's all he wants of you and I. Be faithful with what he's given you to work with, to be within the body of Christ. Do we know what it is to be the body of Christ? And one other little side note, we're not the only body of Christ in Kitsap County. I would love to see a maturity where where we thank the Lord for this Baptist church. We thank the Lord for this other church, and we we recognizing that these little flocks, fear not little flock, you're just one little flock of many flocks. The Lord's the head of his body that it goes beyond. So we don't divide over. Well, I'm of Paul, and I'm of Apollos, and I'm of Cephas. We don't cut down these other churches or whatever. It it's beautiful when we recognize they have a bent toward this, and they do a really good job at this, and that church does a really good job at that, and we have our little thing that we do, and together corporately, we're covering the basis. The Lord's glorified. That's maturity. If we can ever reach that place, I'm not that mature yet. No. Alright. Let's pray. Father, we come before you, and I do pray, Lord, that on the essentials, Lord, that we're united, that we're of one, that on the peripheral areas that there'd be grace, Lord. Churches that don't teach a preacher of rapture or don't teach eschatology. We divide over some things that are real crucial, real very, very important. But, Lord, people are getting saved. People are converted. They may be wimpy. They may be shallow in their growth, and the pastors need to address that before you. But, but Lord, we might not be loving enough, caring enough. We may not whatever those blind spots are, Lord, we pray that you would reveal those to us, that we would be a more equipped body, a better body, a place that a place of refuge, a hospital where the hurting can come be built up and strengthened and encouraged. And, we pray that Lord there'd be a great harvest of souls that come to know you. We delight, we so enjoy when you save, Lord. And now as you continue to pray, if there's anybody here that doesn't know Jesus, give me a reason to stay. Receive Christ. I love when people receive Christ. I love it. It's just nothing greater than to see people receive Jesus. And every now and then the Lord gives me the opportunity to provide the invitation. You've sown seeds, you've watered, and and now we hold it out to you. It's your chance, it's your opportunity, your point in time where the Lord is tugging on your heart, and you respond in yielding to the Holy Spirit. Anyone here this morning? You're turning from your sins, you're crying out to God, God be merciful to me a sinner. Anyone here, just lift your hand up, we wanna pray with you. We so enjoy reminiscing thinking of those that the Lord has saved over the years. It hasn't been for naught. So important, the role that we have in Kitsap County, you, me, us collectively. One man sows, another waters, and God brings the increase. We're looking on the fields, they're white under harvest, and the laborers are few. God is entrusting to you and I the glorious gospel that we'd care enough to share the love of Jesus with the world that's perishing. Anyone here this morning? Father, thank you once again. The peace that we enjoy, not working, not striving. The servant Lord must not strive. Just the easiness, Lord. Your yoke is easy. Your burden is light. We don't need to force anything. Lord, you're moving. You're working. We wanna get in the flow, Lord. We wanna get in the flow of where you're going and what you're wanting to do here in Kitsap County. Continue to give us a vision. Continue to give us a burden for the lost, a heart of compassion, and Lord equip and strengthen us with the gifts of the spirit to do the work and the power of the spirit that you've given us to do. We ask this 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.
