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1 Corinthians 13:4,7 -Path Of Love- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-09-22

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First Corinthians 13, the love chapter. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I'm become a sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind. Love envies not. Love vaunteth not itself, it is not puffed up. Does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not provoked. Thinketh no evil, rejoice not in iniquity, but rejoice in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never fails. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love. These three, but the greatest of these is love. Father, thank you so much for your love. Thank you, Lord, that you are love. And Lord, we love you because you first loved us. We were dead in our sins and trespasses. And Lord, you quickened us. You raised us from the dead. You illumined our hearts and minds, revealing yourself unto us, Lord. We entered into this joyous, glorious, loving relationship with you. We thank you that you're not a God of hatred, a God of vindictiveness or anger, Lord. Your greatest attribute is that of love. You are love. And Lord, we pray evermore that we would be like you. That you mold and shape us and and work within transforming and changing our hearts and minds from this old ademic nature that we'd have victory walking in the power of the spirit, this new glorious nature of being able to, be able to love, Lord. Help us to love more and more. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Would you please be seated? Last week, we looked at the prerequisite of love, and today, the path of love in verses four through seven. Love is the Greek word agape. Agape in the verb form here, love is something you do. Something, I don't feel like I wanna go to church today. Well, because you love Jesus, you'll come to church today. Because it's an act of the will. I don't feel like going to work. I don't I don't feel. I don't feel. Don't feel. Well, it isn't it isn't an emotion all the time. Sometimes the emotions are there in the marriage. Sometimes the emotions are not there, but it's something you do. It's it's not a duty obligation or whatever necessarily, but it's love. The love of Christ constrains me. I love this person. I love my family. I love my responsibility in that in that it's what's God has called me to do. And I love the Lord Jesus. There's no way that we could shut the church down for any reason in my lifetime. Why? Because we love the Lord more than we love ourselves. Because we love the Lord more than we love our stinking neighbor. And I use that in there because it was a marketing tool. It was a way to deceive you in that it was noble for you to mask up, get jabbed, shut the church down because it means to love your neighbor. That was a bold faced lie. Bold faced lie. Truly love my neighbor, I'd educate them. Say, this is this is bogus. Ninety nine point nine percent recovery rate. Don't fall for it. Recently, they've come out with two articles I posted that it was just a test. It was a test by the globalist to see if you would comply, if you and I would comply. If we'd give in to all that crazy stuff, like like I said last week, over there, you can sit over there, six people at that table in the restaurant, But if there's a seventh person, that's COVID time. You know? And you gotta walk you gotta walk down that aisle. Follow those arrows, man, and keep your distance, man. And and I gotta have plexiglass here because if my spit hits any of you in the front, man, you're done. You know? You're you're gonna get COVID and AIDS and the whole thing, man. And and just this fear mongering, just lies everywhere. And the religious part of it, there's a book Jim Raquel's recently showing where pastors for hire, and it's chronicling and showing all the pastors that took the money. The churches are shut down for the money. And and the way that the seminaries and that the way the Christianity today and the leadership within Christianity is being paid by George Soros and many of the of the globalists to try and erode and to destroy the truth of the bible in the bible belt in the South. They want to woke. They wanna make they wanna make the South the bible belt where people don't know their bible. So they wanna infiltrate the pastors as they go through the seminary and introduce, you know, DEI, the wokeism, all the all the, you know, women pastors and gay pastors and all these different things. And so when we're hit when we're hit with this thing we've never seen before, give us two weeks and all that, it's a test for us. It's a test to determine who do we love. And for us, it was we love Jesus more than our own life. If I die, I die, but I'm not gonna I'm not going to throw him under the bus. Not gonna happen. Nowhere in history. Nowhere all throughout church history, people resisted the love of self to glorify the Lord. Willing to die. Will willing to, you know, go into the room, the doctors, the nurses, the the first responders and stuff, they're always putting their lives at risk. They could catch something, and all of a sudden, the whole world's afraid of catching a cold. Ninety nine point nine percent recovery. Unbelievable. Absolutely un unbelievable. And I I recently heard of a a pastor, and this was his conscience, but he he refused to provide religious exemptions. He said that it's a lie, that you guys had tetanus shots, you guys had vaccinations when you're a kid. He refused to be a part of it. Pastor JD Frog is presently getting his religious exemptions together again because we're gonna be headed toward round two of forced vaccinations and vax vaccine cards and stuff. They're gonna spin it as a loving thing to do. It's gonna be loving. You guys that don't do it, you don't love your neighbor. You don't love people. And JD's given out a 150,000 of them, and they're ready if you need one. And he does it in three angles. He does one as a health, your HR department at work, whatever they might need, from a religious exemption, a health exemption, and then from a a legal standpoint. So three different angles. And pastor Kevin at Calvary Church Port Orchard, he also produced them. And Rob and Vicky at the shipyard, you know, others of you got them from this lady named Peggy. I forget her last name. But anyway, they provide them, and I signed a couple of them. You know? And you know? So I can't imagine being so self righteous that I that I'd say, no, I'm I'm not gonna do that. Instead, I would, you know, whatever we gotta do to, you know, keep the church open, keep coming to church, keep working, keep our lives as normal, I would resist the lies. I would investigate the lies and and stand against that. I told people, don't don't die on the hill of having to wear a mask at work, but for me in public, I'm not gonna wear a mask in the name of loving my neighbor. No way. I want I wanna break the spell people under. I wanna break the fear that's in their eyes. I want them to see that that they've been duped, they've been lied to, that it says right on the box that it can't stop, you know, a virus, an airborne virus, and can't stop even smoke if there's smoke in the room, you know. So so many different ways. When Obama made same sex marriage, he he used the word love. Love wins. So a misuse of the word love. Using it in such a way to try and fill, you know, white, fat, European, Christian men with guilt, you know? They wanna focus upon the men. The men are toxic masculinity and all that. All these things are a means of breaking down society, breaking down the role of male female, breaking down the role of the family within the community and all. It's not love, but they'll try and introduce it as love. So it's important for us to understand that God is love, marriage is his idea between one man, one woman, you know, for a lifetime. That's his idea, that's the ideal. This aberrant teaching, these, perversion of what a family is and what a what a relationship is that's not love. It's lust. In actuality, it's rebellion against God. You're rebelling against the true and living God. You don't love God. In fact, you're you're in rebellion to him. You're in love with self. Self is on the throne of your life. And and so we see that love is something that we do. So as we walk in love, the more excellent way of love, we fulfill the law of Christ. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for. So there's a sacrificial love. Fa husbands, fathers demonstrate their love by a willingness to lay down their lives, sacrificially for their wives and family. The way that Jesus indicated in John 15, greater love is no man than this than a man who lay down his life, you know, for his friends. That's why many of you signed up to serve in the military to protect this country. That's why many of you continue to serve in some way, fashion to protect against evil. And it's love that motivates you. But if you take love out of the equation, there's a disillusionment that comes in. Why am I doing this? Why why why am I here? And so if you finally reach a place where you realize you've been deceived and that the enemy's a perceived enemy that the CIA's created and that this whole thing's a lie, now you've lost some motivation for love. You're why am I here? And and there's the disillusionment that comes in. Your your your motives may have been pure in the beginning, but now as you understand what's happening, you start to see Iraqi people different, the civilians different. You see Iranian civilians different. You see Russian people different, Ukrainian. The objective of the CIA, as they're the talking heads in the media, they all work for the CIA, is to deceive and to try and make it a noble, loving thing for you to do what they're wanting you to dance and do. And but when you come to grips with, wait a minute, 2,000,000 innocent people in Iraq? Really? And there were no weapons of mass destruction? And we were told nine eleven was perpetrated by terrorists when in fact it's a controlled demolition. Once you come to grips with understanding what happened, then wait a minute. This was a very hateful thing we did. Very evil thing. And I don't wanna be a part of evil. I don't wanna be a part of any of that. So they're having a very difficult time getting these good men and women from Christian homes to serve in the military anymore because they're forcing them into this wokeism, this craziness. And I I read an article this morning, where the ferry system, they lost so many workers on the ferries, the Washington ferries with their COVID policies and jabbing and and all that, that they're now recruiting high schoolers, mariners from high schools nearby to go and work on the ferries. And they they just don't have enough bodies. They don't have enough people ready. You're gonna see that with airplane pilots. You're gonna see that in a lot of different doctors. You're gonna see it in a lot of different professional professions as as we're watching more and more people die as a result of the turbo cancers and and the the compromising of the immune systems of people. So they'll they'll they'll continue to try and couch it in love, and we need to be wise enough to understand, is this true love? Is this real? Is it legit? If it's legit, hey. Everybody'd sign up. But Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself. We understand that. So love the Lord thy God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. And in these two, all the all the the bible, the 613 precepts of the law are summarized as love. Love is the fulfillment of the law. And so we recognize that, and and it's something that we do. It's a so love not in word only, but in deed and in truth. And so we feed the homeless, we alleviate suffering, we make a way for people that are sick to get better, we cut people's lawns that are that are injured, they can't can't take care of their yards anymore. We do a lot of different things within the church, bring meals, visitation, you know, just whatever we can to encourage, send cards, take people to lunch. It's something we do. And and that's we're we're not designed by God to isolate ourselves and be by ourselves. Part of fellowship, the koinonia, is to minister one to another. The potlucks that we have, the times that we spend together, we're able to express love and encouragement to one another. So Jesus commands us to love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself. So Paul shows us the path of love we're to walk in. He provides 15 different characteristics of love, showing us what love does and what love doesn't do. Notice verse four, love suffers long. Now Christostom, he said the word used of a man who is wronged and who has easily in his power to avenge himself but will not do it. So he's slow to anger, never retaliates. So we see this a lot of times represented by, powerful men and women who have fifth, sixth degree black belt, and, they have crazy drunks, crazy weirdo people that try and provoke them and, try to pick fights and do weird stuff, and they have the presence of mind to defuse police officers, men and women, the the presence of mind to diffuse the conflict, to bring the escalate not allow it to escalate, to bring it down. They're very knowledgeable of how strong they are, but they'll they can walk away, they can turn the other cheek, but they in many cases, they have to confront the the problem and try and bring it to a place of de escalation. And so they they know that they know that they know that if they if they act in such a way, there can be an over overuse of power, overuse of force. So because they're the ones that have been trained, they're the ones with the greater power, they've gotta be able to be like a big dog when your grandkids go and pull on their cheeks and all that. And, that dog's strong, the dog could wipe them out, but the dog knows that somehow these dogs know, these these dogs with good temperament that, you know, you don't do that. No, you take it. You know, you take the hit. And so too you and I, when somebody when we're younger and somebody insults us or a bully tries to hurt us, people try and hurt us, many cases, we're forced to defend ourselves some way, shape, and form. And Jesus said, if somebody smites you on the one cheek, turn to him the other. And so you're you're as a Christian, you try to walk away, you try to diffuse, you try to talk your way out of it, whatever. But at at a certain point, you might have to defend yourself. You might have to teach the person a lesson or at least let them know that, hey, I may lose this fight, but you're gonna know you're in a fight. But as much as lies within us, seek peace with all men. As much as we can, be peacemakers. We live in a violent, you know, world. And, as a pastor, as a Christian, as a husband, as a father, as a friend, people take pokes at us all the time. People on Facebook could take pokes. You know, they'll they'll try and provocateurs will come, people to try and get us in the flesh. And, we can't, we can't react in the flesh. We can't react by slapping somebody or hitting somebody. We'll go to jail for assault. And another thing, we can't even react with unkind words. We have to be careful with our words. They're allowed to say anything they want about us. They're allowed to degrade the Christian, degrade, you know, every every aspect of who we are. And in many cases, we hold back because we're long suffering, because we're used to taking it. Your kids, in many cases, will say things and do things, and you realize, hey, they're just immature. They don't know. And so I'm not gonna act in kind. I'm not gonna get into it with them. At some point, maybe they'll have kids, and they'll grow up, and they'll realize how wrong they were. But we hold back tremendously, you you and I as Christians. We we have to be careful with our words, and that's what cross Christostom's saying here. We're slow to anger. We don't wanna retaliate. We don't wanna escalate the problem. Romans twelve seven says, recompense to no man evil for evil. And so a guy, as I said, know, hits you. Jesus said, turn to the other cheek. He compels you to go a mile, go the extra mile. Do whatever you can to try and, be a peacemaker as best you can. So Jesus said in Matthew five thirty nine, resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. So I have to say this, we're not pacifists. We're not pacifists. If somebody hits me on the right cheek, and I turn the other cheek and he hits that next cheek, game's over. I only have two cheeks. So now it's a fight on. It's a fight. I'm gonna defend myself. But I will try as best I can to not give tit for tat, to not react, you know, to the letter of the law. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I'll try to walk away. I'll try to, as much as I can, just walk away, diffuse it as much as I can. Now if a person insults my wife or my children, my grandchildren, now they're on shaky ground. You know? Especially all you guys packing weapons. You know? They're they better be careful. You know? There's a point where we defend ourselves as Christians. But if it's just words, if it's just insults and that sort of thing, we should be able to, you know, just walk away, consider the source. A soft answer turns away wrath. Be able to use humor. Any way to diffuse the problem, don't let it escalate, and, as best we can. I, I like to just walk away. If I see conflict or things going on anymore, I don't know why people wanna run over to Seattle if you know the Black Lives Matters are gonna be over there breaking glass. I have no desire to go and get in the middle of that fray and try to show everybody how tough I am. No. I'd rather stay here. You got nut jobs, go over there, and I'm gonna stay far away as I can from it. But again, if it's my home, my family, I'm not a meddler. If it's our community, our church, then we have a responsibility to stand up against evil. We definitely do. So Jesus is showing here that how quick people were to react, with anger like that, and then let it in a flame and get out of control. And that's why they have in these in these inner cities, the CIA, false flags and stuff and and crisis actors, they have what's called provocateurs. And the provocateurs will come in and take the unsuspecting people and try to escalate their grievances into a justification to bring in martial law. You know? So we have to be very careful with the election cycle coming when the nut jobs go back out in the streets and and are so angry because Trump wins, you know, they're gonna go nuts. Everyone's gonna go nuts. We have to be careful not take the bait. On our watch, we don't want the Republican Party to be the ones that demand martial law because that's a trick. That means we lose our our our protection. We lose our freedom. So before we do that, we want the police officers, and that's we want the, you know, the law enforcement to deal with it before they allow it, where they stand down and allow it to become a crisis. You know? So so law and order, basically, establishing order. When we're in chapter 14, we'll see the Lord commands that everything be done decently and in order. So love doesn't mean that we're pacifists. It doesn't mean that we sit there and look at our navel and out and act like, oh, you know, we can just let evil go unabated. No. Greater love hath no man than this, and a man lay down his life for his friends. And so, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church, die to self. And, do what's ever necessary to protect and provide and preserve life. So love is kind. Greek word, Christos, gracious, gentle, active, goodwill. Origen said that love is sweet to all, and that's what I like about being around you people, about being at church. You're so sweet. You're so kind. The sweetness just exudes from you. It's just it's fun to be around people like that. It's fun to be around Christians, the sweetness, the kindness, the blessing. It's it's infectious. You know? You're an infectious, a loving church where people are kind. If if we're unkind, then it's not Christ like, and we know that we better spend some time with the Lord. Romans two four says, despises thou the riches and the goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness or Christos of God leads thee to repentance. And so God's God's long suffering with those that are rebellious, those of us that are sinful, those of us that are going the wrong way. He he goes the extra mile. He turns the other cheek. He's very patient. He's not quick to judge and throw us away. And so it's his kindness. It's his kindness that leads us to repentance. The goodness of God. The good news. And so in many cases, I have to present the bad news first so that people appreciate the good news. And what I mean by that is I I can't withhold the word sin. I can't withhold the word repentance. I cannot withhold the word hell. Jesus spoke more about hell than he did heaven. I can't sugarcoat the gospel, the good news, and only tell you about heaven and your good people, and your good people go to heaven. You know? I can't pollyanna it. I have to start with all have sinned and come sure of the glory of God. I have to break your pride. I have to break you down, and I have to get you to see your need of a savior and his long suffering and his patience with you and his patience with me. That all we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all. That Jesus is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with greed. We've got to first of all establish that you and I are not basically good. That our problem is not our environment, our parents, or society. That our problem is an innate problem within an endemic nature, selfish by nature, and that the wages of sin is death, that we deserve eternal damnation. We deserve eternal separation from God. But the gift of God salvation's gift. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we have to first establish the the ugliness of it, that if you don't come by way of Christ, if Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me. If you think you can get there with the new apostate religion, which is a religion of being good, you can be a good Buddhist, a good Hindu, a good Mormon, good Muslim, a good Christian, and if you're good, you go to heaven. That's a bold faced lie. That's from the pit of hell. Because there's none righteous, no, not one. So rather than the diversity, equity, inclusion, you know, we teach a gospel, exclusivity of Jesus Christ. Not the inclusion of a universal gospel, universal goodness that God all of us are children of God and all roads as the pope recently said, all religions lead to the same God. Or as George Bush after nine eleven, we all worship the same God. No. That's not true. As we prove that the Democratic party has, I guess, one of the senators or one of them running that wants to be a Christian that says he's a Christian, and they're shooting back at him. That's not part of our platform anymore. We don't believe in God. We're gods. And so they're asking him or or imploring him, demanding that he prove the divinity. If you're gonna be a believer in Jesus, you gotta prove his divinity. Well, that's easy. That's super easy. The the onus is on them to disprove. Jesus said destroy this temple in three days, I'll raise it up. The evidence for the resurrection is overwhelming. We celebrate Easter. We celebrate the resurrection every year, and we celebrate the resurrection every Sunday morning here. Without the resurrection, we're of all men most miserable. Proving the deity of Christ is easy. He raised himself the third day. You produce a body and you destroy Christianity. And all you religious leaders and all you governmental leaders have tried for over two thousand years to stamp out Christianity and disprove the deity of Christ, and you failed. And you're gonna continue to fail. So we stand on the side of prophecy, the more sure word of prophecy, and we stand side of many infallible proofs, as Luke says. The the onus, as I said, is in their court for them to disprove the deity of Jesus Christ, and that he raised himself from the dead and destroy this temple. In three days, I'll raise it up. And so we we preach, we teach from a position of strength, and we we love from a position of strength knowing that destroy this body and three you know, to be asked on the bodies to be present with the Lord. And so we don't fear death, we stand upon the promises of God. And so then we bring forth the good news. We bring forth the good news of the cross that God's not willing that any would perish the that all would come to Christ, that each and every person would be born again. That's his desire. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Now when our kids are acting up in Ephesians four thirty two, be kind, we'd make them look at each other, and I think Britney's starting to do this with their kids, because sometimes the kids become savages, you know? Live in a Christian home and supposed to love, and and Evie got a really good kick in on on Ezra the other day. And that's really humbling for a a boy, for a brother to get a really good, good, big kick, man. She's got long legs and humbled them, you know. They like to fight. So what Brittany does, they bring them together, and y'all know your kids never did that. Right? You never fought. And bring them together like we did, and you make them look them each in the eye, and they say they're sorry, and then they they sing the song, Ephesians four thirty two. Be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Ephesians four thirty two. So one has to sing it, then the next one has to sing it. And they're like, that's babyish. That's babyish. Well, now my kids are making their kids do it. So you sing it, you put it to music, people people people will remember it better. See? And so be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another. Why would I do that? Even as Christ, for God's sake, has forgiven you. He's forgiven you, now you forgive. You be kind. You be tender hearted. Love envies not, so love is not jealous. Greek word zulu, to have a strong desire. So it's the first of eight negative descriptions of two classes of people. There's two class of people. There's millionaires, or let's say today, billionaires, and then the second class of people are the wannabes. Which camp are you in? The millionaire or the wannabe? There's two types of envy. The first envy is that which covets another's possessions. The second kind of envy, and this is the one that we see we see them both in the church. The type that grudges another for having what it does not have. And since we're just poor middle class people, you don't see it as prevalent here. But wealthy people that come into a church like this, they have to deal with very covetous poor people, judging all the time, the kind of car they drive, the Rolex they wear, the whatever. Now when rich people go to rich people churches, they don't have to do that. So you'll see, it used to be traditionally the rich would go to a Presbyterian church. Calvary chapels are a mixture of all sorts of people based upon demographics of where the church is or whatever. But I feel sorry for people that come in, and then everybody's coming up to them putting the bite on them, a sales pitch, you know. And that's that's a sad thing, envy or jealousy or the whole thing. So godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into the world, certainly carry nothing out. Let your life be without covetousness. Right? And the Lord's promise, he's never gonna leave us nor forsake us. So for us, if we have Jesus, we're rich. We're plutocrats. We have everything we want. And, God has given you and I, the ability to purchase cars, purchase food, purchase housing. It's called work. It's a beautiful thing. The only thing worse than not having a job or excuse me. The only thing worse than working is not having a job. It's a horrible thing to watch a man lose his job and not be able to find another job. That's a horrible, horrible thing to watch. It hasn't happened in a while around here, but, it could very well be a lot of layoffs, a lot of people losing their jobs, and very difficult to find jobs. It's a glorious thing to be able to work. My first job was glorious. I worked at Anthony's Fish Grotto in La Mesa, California, and I got $5 a a day from tips from the waitresses. I was a busboy. And that money was my gas money. Gas was only 49¢ a gallon. That get me to the beach, you know. And I work, I work swing shifts, so I work like two to ten. So it's early enough to still go partying afterwards, and it's late enough in the morning to still go surfing at Ocean Beach in the morning. And so I was I had what's called discretionary income because my paycheck would come every two weeks, and I went from having $2 a week super poor. When I was younger than that, before we moved to San Diego, I had paper routes and I would catch golf balls that the guys would hit out of the out of the over the fence, and I'd bring them back to them and sell it back to them for 25¢. And I paid for my own, you know, Pop Warner football one year, $35, by doing that. And my parents paid for my little league, but they wouldn't pay for the other. But then when I was 15, right after freshman year, they moved me to San Diego after football season. And I was too I wasn't old enough to get a job, and there are no paper routes there, so I got a $2. My mom was on welfare. I get $2 a week. That was nothing. I couldn't do anything with that. I felt so poor. And as I said, she was on welfare. She went through another divorce. So so humiliating. My grandma got me a job at Anthony's Fish Grotto, and man, I'll tell you, that was the most glorious thing, that first job. And I bought a car for $600, a Nova, in a very short period of time because that two week check just kept building up, and, my uncle went out and found me a car and stuff. And, man, that was freedom. That's freedom. And I don't understand guys that don't ever get driver's licenses. I don't get that. How are you gonna go on a date if you don't have a car? You know? How are gonna do that? You know, hey, let's take the bus. You know, what do you do? Come on, man. I got a bus I got a bus thing, man. It's such a different world, I tell you. And nowadays, maybe the guys want the girls to pick them up. You know? I don't know. It's so bizarre. You know? And I just don't get her. It makes me this makes me feel strange, like I don't belong here anymore. I had my music blaring. I picked Kathy up, and the biggest mistake of my life I ever I think one of the biggest I've ever made is on my first date with Kathy, her mom's looking out the window, and I didn't open the door for her. I never forgot about it. To this day, I'm reminded of that. I could I could open the door the next millennium, and nobody's ever gonna forget that. Now, as soon as they come with those key fobs, I I now I Jeff understands me. I say, hey, Ken. Let let me get that door for you. I click it. But, yeah, that's I don't know who I can blame for that, but somebody somebody other than me. Yeah. Her mom never let me off for a lot of stuff. But and so envy, the the envy. And and when you become a Christian, there can still be that envy and that that whole, hey, the pastor's doing this, and hey, they're doing that, and she's wearing a dress that costs 900, and he's got these shoes on. Look at their car, and everybody's kinda judging and measuring up and that whole thing. That's not being loving. Somebody wins a lot, we should be we should be rejoicing with them and then become their best friend. You know? So don't quench the holy spirit. Don't don't quench when somebody, you know, takes a nice trip. Be happy for them. Be happy for them when they get a new car. Judy just got a new car. She's stoked. I'm stoked for her. It's exciting. I don't go up to and go, must be nice. You know? We're blessed. Should be. The type that grudges another for having what it does not have, and that's a a lot of times, it's a secret grudging. How do they afford that? How do they do that? What are they doing? In Matthew 20 verse 15, there was a story that Jesus spoke of those that go out to work in the morning, and they agree for, you know, a dollar a day, let's say. And they start in the morning early, and they're out there working in the field, and then about halfway, three quarters of the day through, a guy comes up, needs some work, and goes to the master, and the master lets him out into the field to work. And at the end of the day, he pays each person what he agreed, a dollar a person. And one of them has an evil eye. I worked all day for that dollar, and that, you know, that's an evil eye. It's envy. Peter needed to be told by the Lord when the Lord was telling Peter how he was gonna die, and Peter was worried about John. Well, what about John? And Jesus said, what is that to you? Follow me. You just do your job. Be thankful for what you have and who you are. There's nobody else like you. You know? If I will that John Terry till I come, what is that to you? Follow me. Every single one of us has trials and difficulties. You could have a friend that has a beach house, which is secretly, oh, that'd be great, man. Wouldn't it be great to have a beach house? But you know what else? They've got shingles. They've got back problems. They're addicted to oxycodone. They've got a prodigal daughter or a son. They've got heart problems. Everybody has something. Just be thankful for what yours are. Thank the Lord for your trials. You know? Don't be envious and jealous of other people. You don't you don't know what they're dealing with. Be grateful. Be thankful. Have a thankful heart. In everything, give thanks for the will this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Even in the trials, rejoice in the trials. Paul and Silas are able to sing after being whipped by the Philippian jailer. There's joy in their heart. Their their spirit cannot be broken. Pilate knew that for envy that the religious leaders had delivered Jesus. He's an innocent man. It was because of envy that Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. Envy. His own brothers. Cain slew Abel out of envy. There was a time in my life, there was a time in my service here in Bremerton where I felt like I was Joseph with the coat of many colors and that my pastor buddies were so envious and jealous of me and treating me bad. And it's because we were we had the most fun type of a ministry. It was just exciting. We're doing something every week. And and it was it was it was glorious. It was great while it lasted, you know? And, and then there came a time where it went away. There came a time where you've heard it million times, where it all went away. And they weren't envious anymore. They didn't want my trials. They didn't they didn't want the trial part of it. You know? And here's a funny thing about human nature. We it love doesn't rejoice when you hear evil, when you hear about bad things happening to people. None of them ever invited me to their house to see their house for dinner. But when I lost my house, now they wanted me to come see their house. What are they doing to my wife inviting her there? Are they rubbing it in? They rubbing the paint in? They want they want my wife to see their house that they didn't lose? That they were smarter than the than her husband? Why did they wanna come and glory in when the glory was happening? You know? Look how God's blessed and Rick and Kathy. Oh, I can't stand to be around them. It makes me crazy. I'm so jealous. I'm so envious. And then when they lose everything, it's like, now I get to invite them over to our place. That's evil. That's just evil. But it's human nature, small minded people. And we, we see where the Lord was blessing king David in the top 40 radio. They were singing Saul has killed his thousands and David has tens of thousands, and it was making king Saul crazy hearing that. We see where David was really good friends with Jonathan. Jonathan could have been the next king. But Jonathan understood God's plan and purpose for his own life, and he knew that David was gonna be the next king. It drove Jonathan's dad, Saul, crazy, but Jonathan was content with who God had made him and and just so blessed to be a friend with David. It said Jonathan loved him as he loved his own soul. Love vaunteth not itself. Love doesn't brag. And awareness, you know, great prize, being filled with wonder that God even loves you. Jesus never bragged. As a Christian, there's only Paul says, what do you have that that which has already been given to you? Everything we have has come from the Lord. The ability to get it, the ability to work, the ability to think, the bill ability to plan, all of it comes from the Lord. But we love to pontificate. We love to compare and act like we're better than others, but love love doesn't vaunt itself. Doesn't vaunt itself. When when you're the smartest guy in the room, which no. I guess not today, but So let me phrase it a different way. When you're the fattest person in the room, everybody's laughing and joking around you. Even people that are thirty pounds overweight, they're feeling good, man. They're feeling good Because you're like a solar system, you know? Everything's just floating around you, man. And when I when I got really overweight at the Roxy, and I hurt my back and I just gained a ton of weight. Now, I came from being my biggest strength was maybe the outward look when I was younger. And then you go through that, and now now people pity it. Oh, it's hard to look at. Oh, you know? And but it made people feel better about themselves. Now the flip side of that is if my wife is the most beautiful woman in the church, it made these ladies from Calvary Silverdale angry. They're so angry that she was so thin and so good looking, and some guy in the church, I didn't know about it, but bought her a watch. You know? And I didn't even know he bought her a watch. Who's another man buying my wife a watch? You know? She knows how to keep time. I bought her good watches. You know? She's afraid to tell me about it. I didn't even know about it. You know? But there's a strength in that. People look at the hour. God looks on the heart, and there's a, you know, a pecking order. Everybody's sizing everybody up. Who's this? And we had one of the wealthier guys in church used to do this around Kathy. He'd come over to the coffee bar in the morning, and he'd open up his wallet, and he'd show her the c notes, the Benjamins in there. And he'd he'd he'd flutter them like cards. And why'd he do that? Because he knew that she was married to a poor pastor, and he's rich, you know? And you couldn't buy her. It didn't work with Kathy, you know? It's never gonna work. She's the real deal, and so I I would rather glory in my infirmities, Paul said. You know? And so Jesus said, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Not Jesus, but Jeremiah the prophet in Jeremiah chapter nine. Let not the wise man glory Jeremiah nine twenty three. So you're really wise. Don't let the wise man glory in his wisdom. You're really strong. Don't let the mighty man glory in his might. You're really rich. Don't let the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glories, here's where you can glory. Let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me. You know Jesus. You love Jesus because he first loved you. You can boast and brag that you know Jesus, that you love Jesus. And the reason you love Jesus, he said, you didn't choose me, but I chose you. And I ordained that you'd bring forth fruit, that your fruit would remain, you know? You rejoice that he selected you. You're not an orphan. You're not a reject. You belong. You've been purchased with his blood. You're very valuable unto him. Let him that glory glory in this, and he understands and knows me. And what do you know about him? He's a God that exercised loving kindness. He's a loving God. He's not the God of the Muslims that have to kill people to get 70 virgins. No. He's a God that sent his son to die for you. You don't have to die for him in that sense to gain anything. The work's been done, been complete. He said, it is finished. Tatala said, paid in full. Salvation's a free gift, and you have that free gift. He's a God of loving kindness, judgment. He's gonna judge all evil and righteousness. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. That's what you can boast in, is I'm a believer. I believe in Jesus. Love is not puffed up. It's not proud, nor arrogant, nor inflated with self importance. Arrogance is being big headed. Love is being big hearted. William Carey was one of the greatest missionaries and linguists ever. He was translating bibles in India in 34 different dialects. Now before that, he was a humble shoe cobbler in England. And he was in the mission he was in a dinner party, and, and in this dinner party, a snob, there's always snobs, at a dinner party said, didn't you once work as a shoemaker? It's a cut, cutting them down. Now this is a guy, unbeknownst to everybody, that had a great gift in translating the bible in 34 different languages by the time he's done in in India. Didn't you once work as a shoemaker? And notice his words, oh, no, my lordship. You know that that snobbery, British snobbery. Oh, no, my lordship. I only repaired shoes, just a cobbler. John the Baptist learned that he must increase and I must decrease. Paul tells us in Philippians, esteem others better than ourselves. Whosoever exalts himself shall be abased. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. God resists the proud. God's never gonna use that snob. He's never gonna be used like a William Carey. He's too proud, too full of himself. You can never be too small for God to use, only too big. Too big for your britches. He'll just pass you over. A w Tozer said, before God uses a man greatly, he must hurt him deeply. Maybe that's why you're going through so many trials. God's emptying you of your pride, your self reliance, thinking you're so good or better. He's gotta empty you. He's gotta break you because when he starts to use your life, it's pride that'll destroy you if you take the glory onto yourself. So you're always reminded of your own worthlessness. In me that is in my flesh, Paul said, dwells no good thing. But I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. Does not behave itself unseemly, which means gracelessly. We think of in terms of charm. Love is not rude or crude. Love is not careless nor overbearing. Love is polite and and mannered. So for me as a Christian, I need to I need to make sure that I'm not always acting like a clown. Around my grandkids, I can be a clown. Like, it's appropriate. I can get down on the ground with them, and I can try to connect as best I can like a child. You know? And Kathy will say, Rick, I got, you know, six grandkids, and you make seven. You're so much work for me. You know? Once you act your age, you know, things like that. But but I need I need to put my pastor face on when I'm at a funeral. Right? I can't act like a clown. I got I gotta be serious. I gotta try and encourage and comfort people at a funeral. At a wedding, I need to be able to compliment the bride and the groom and compliment the family, and and there's a certain seriousness about it. And so we have to we have to be sensitive and have that have that that charm, if you will, that that, politeness and know how to how to act with grace, the grace of the Lord. Love is polite and well mannered, not careless, not overbearing. Jesus said the first shall be last and the last shall be first. So we ladies and children go first. You know? Men go last. Love seeks not her own, so it does not insist upon its own rights. Not a victim, not a whiner, always looking within instead of looking up. You, in the habit of looking within, you're gonna be depressed. You're gonna never never be satisfied. You know? But when you're looking up, when you're looking at the Lord, now you're a person of worship. You're worshiping the Lord. One of the things that helps me, rather than seeing myself as a victim, is the privilege of going away rejoicing that you're counted worthy to suffer for his namesake. When we lose a church building, when we lose a house, when we lose a child, it's very cruel of people around us to say, well, it's because there's sin in their life. They couldn't see what Job was going through. They couldn't see behind the curtain what God and Job were talking about. Job said, that which I greatly feared has come upon me. What'd he fear? He feared losing it all. Spent your whole life amassing it all, and it's it's proof of God's favor. That's what we all want. We want some proof that we're good people, and that God thinks we're good. And because we're good, he's blessing our life. We all want that. But if he takes it away, what's that mean? How do people read that? How do they see that? He must be a criminal. Must have done something wrong. For me, some of the guys, my enemy said, we know what's wrong with Calvary Bremerton now. Pastor Rick is evil. Well, that's a general term. I mean, soon as I walk in this building, the building's filthy. I am a filthy person. I'm a sinner. There's never been a day where I've glowed and been all holy, you know. So in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing, but my my obedience to the Lord is based upon love. I don't wanna break his heart. I'm not looking to try and shine so bright, shine her in anybody else. I just wanna serve the Lord. And so we we look at this seeks not her own, and we or excuse me, seeks not her own, does not assist upon its own rights, not a victim, not a whiner. We get in this pity party, and we say, God, why'd you do that? Why'd you take this away? Why how can we not take away from them? Why me? Why are you so hard on me? Why why are you doing this? And we get into that pity party, we it's hard to hear. It's hard to hard to know. And so Job's miserable comforters came to him and began to surmise, well, it's because of this, because that, because this, because of that. But you don't know till you get to the end of the book. And Job himself says, I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes. Job sees his own sinfulness. None of us receive good because we're good. Because there's none righteous, no, not one. When we receive good, it's because God is gracious, because God is good. And Job's able to say, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. And so real Christianity real Christianity is seen and when we suffer loss. What's your Christianity like when you lose? When God takes it away? Are you gonna still praise him, worship him? How many people are gonna stick around in the church if we go through a financial upheaval in America? When their whole doctrine, their whole false doctrine has been your best life now. All about you. So when I see the devil leveraging, the devil's leveraging me that I would become increasingly selfish in entitlement and see myself as a victim, and God's not a God of love. Why why would he do this if he's a God of love? But when I understand when I come to grips with the understanding of the privilege of loss, the privilege of suffering, the privilege of trial, because why is it a privilege? Because it's showing the angels and showing the devil that I actually love God for who he is. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. He knows the way that I take, and when he's tried me, I'm gonna come forth as gold. So now I see it as a privilege. I see it as, wow, the devil leveraged. The devil leveraged. He bet on taking these things away, and he he was banking on that Rick and Kathy would leave and quit and not love God anymore. So every single day, you and I have a chance, have an opportunity to be worshipers. Godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into the world, sir. We're not carrying nothing out. So we don't want to reach that place where the devil's proven right that we only love God because we're mercenaries. We're only coming along to love God, and we raise our hands in a certain way because it's part of the prosperity gospel. And so a death to self, we take our cross that we follow the Lord, no longer us live, but Christ living through us. So we're not there to seek our own. We're there to seek the Lord, To seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, trusting him that all these other things be added unto us. There's a peace that comes in my heart knowing that I'm in God's will. This is God's will for my life. I'm not a victim. He saved me. His son was the victim. His son's the only victim. He's the only one innocent. All of us, if we got what we deserved, if we got justice, it'd be hell. You really want what you deserve, Rick? No. No. No. No. Lord. I don't want what I deserve. And so the privilege, the perspective comes back when we realize, wow, Lord, you're you're privileging me with these trials that we can demonstrate to anybody that's watching that we continue out of love. It's because we love you. The love of Christ constrains us. That's an awesome thing to think of. Going away from a beating, rejoicing that you're accounted worthy of a beating, that's that's so contrary to the way that we think today. Everything's measured by what we get, what we have. And yet the Lord's measuring our love and our our worship and what it cost us. The widow's mites. She gave more than the rich people. She gave out of her living. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy mind, all thy soul, all thy strength. That's what he's God so all God wants from me is to love them. And Satan says, they only love you because you give them blessings. Take away their stuff. Take away their health, and they'll curse you to your face. So it's maturity. By nature, we're selfish. We need to catch ourself in that selfishness. Sometimes it's, why art thou cast down, oh my soul? I'm in Psalm 42. Why art thou disquieted within me? I'm looking within, and I'm depressed. I'm discouraged. It's the sun's not shining. It's raining again. Man, if your life is based upon the weather, you're in trouble. That's a shallow existence. Right? Gotta be something more in in in you than that, and I'm I'm confessing right now. So why art thou cast down? You're talking to yourself. There's voices in your head. They're all talking. Everybody's, can you shut up for a minute? Why art thou cast down, oh my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Why am I so bummed out? And the devil will give you a whole list of reasons against God. He's the accuser of the brethren. Well, your mom didn't hug you enough, you know. Your dad, he wasn't much of a dad, an alcoholic. And the devil can give you all sorts of reasons to get you to believe that lie that you're worthless. But the problem is you've gotta change your focus. You're looking within. You look within long enough, you're gonna find fault because it's true. In me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. Why art thou cast down, oh my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? And then he says, hope thou in God. Get your eyes off yourself. Have a confident expectation in God. Be looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior. The world's a mess. Get your eyes off this world. Get your eyes onto Jesus and his soon return. Don't see yourself as a victim. You're a victor. You're a conqueror, more than a conqueror. Jesus is one. He's defeated the devil. He's defeated them all. Your citizenship is in heaven. Your eternal life's secure. Let go of this world. Let go of your own life. More concerned about what they owe to life than what life owes them. We deserve hell. Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Philippians two four, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. The acronym for joy, j o y, is Jesus first, others second, yourself third. If you put yourself first, you're gonna be miserable. You're gonna lack joy. Joy being the fruit of the spirit. Put Jesus first. Think in terms of others. Pastor Romaine, he used to counsel a lot of people, people that were self absorbed and and like we all can be and depressed. And he said, well, I want you to make some cookies, and I want you to go visit Rick Bodrey. No. I wish. I want you to go into a nursing home, and I want you to go in there with your guitar and sing your songs. I want you to hold hands, talk to people, spend the day there, and bring some cookies, and and then come back and tell me what it's like. Amen. All your problems go away, don't they? When you're around people that are not visited by their own families anymore, when you're around people who are so lonely, people who don't have the mobility anymore, don't have the strength anymore. And you know, deep within their heart, have all those hymns that are still there that they sang at church. But the activities directors don't want the Christians there singing the songs, playing the piano, doing that anymore for them. So glorious when we're able to get in there and do that kind of thing. Courage people. And you come back from there and you're just like, wow. Wow. You know? I don't have a problem in the world. Those people got problems. Me, I'm love. People surrounded me with love. Love is not provoked. That word easily is not in the Greek manuscript. It makes us feel better that not easily because as someone asked for prayer yesterday, pray for me that God would give me patience and help me overcome my anger. And James said, well, we all need prayer for that. Love is not provoked. No irritation or sharpness of spirit, not losing your temper, the anger. I've got words I use when I'm driving. I got a lot of names I call you guys when I'm driving. And my grandkids hear them sometimes. And people are out there, call them nimrods. Bunch of nimrods, what are they thinking? You know? Gets my goat. The one that probably bothers me the most is people that clog the left lane. There's a five mile long line behind them. They don't have a clue. They're breaking the law. And and I if and it's getting worse. A lot of Californians coming up here. It's gonna more and more accidents can happen. You better get over in the right lane. It's serious. I'm gonna use the shoulder more and more. Not gonna stop me. Better than having a heart attack right there, you know. But, yeah, that can get me. People cut me off, that sort of thing. Then they and then when I'm doing that, they they give me the one way sign. Yeah. One way. One way. One way. Sign language. Love is not provoked. Again, it doesn't mean we're passive. Doesn't mean we don't have a brain. I mean, some of them, they've already had their lobotomy. They're Kathy says, Rick, they're on meds. Rick, they're on meds. Rick, it's not their fault. They're on medication. Well, shouldn't be driving then. They should go to bed. And, you know, a lot of them, it's it's the gummies and the marijuana and 04:20. They gotta get their dope at 04:20. It's it's crazy. And, don't they know how important I am? I mean, I got appointments. You know? It's my road. And that's the attitude. We're all selfish, but Jesus saw a righteous indignation came out of Jesus when he saw the money changers in the temple making a business out of the church, you know? And he threw over their tables. It is written, my father's house shall be a, you know, a house of prayer, but you made it a den of thieves. And he's thrown over to Jesus is angry, but it's a righteous indignation, not selfishness. You and I have a difficulty. Much of our anger is selfish. We're inconvenienced. My wife didn't bring me my food fast enough. You know? And you didn't keep this warm. You know? No. You can't talk like that. And so you get it thrown on you. And every now and then, I try and test her, and boy, oh boy, you don't wanna do that. Been married long enough. She doesn't put up with it. So he's throwing them over, but the wrath of man, James tells us, worketh not the righteousness of God. So we gotta be careful because we it can go too far with our righteous indignation, you know? And we gotta be careful not being hypocrites around our kids, things we get angry about. Maybe you're getting angry at your kids because one came home and said a, you know, a bad word. And we watch Christmas story every year. Right? And he says a bad word. And all of a sudden, the mom in her self righteousness wants to know which of his friends taught him that word. And he gave into it, and boy, what a thrashing that friend he mentioned took. I was getting beat by his mom. But he tells the truth. He says, I heard that word every night. My dad said it. You know? Heard it right at home. You know? So don't be all hypocritical and angry when when you're that same way, you know? The wrath of man works not the righteousness of God, and so we're hypocritical in many ways in the way we we do this. So be angry and sin not. There's certain things to be angry about. Are you angry about abortion? Let me change the word. Are you angry about the murdering of innocent little babies? That make you blood boil. Are you angry about it? We should be angry. We shouldn't be passive about it. We shouldn't act like it's no big deal. My my daughter Jessica, she's angry about it. She wears a hat, you know, at the fair, letting everybody know it's alive. And then she sent me this thing on my phone this week. She says, she watches this caregiver, and I know the caregiver. None of them listen to this, so I can say this. But she listens to this caregiver, or she cares for him, and he's 86 years old, a very wealthy lawyer, and retired, and and she works there through the week. Well, he's been a strong supporter of Planned Parenthood. And his mail comes to the house, and she opened the mail up. And she grabbed those the envelopes and the coupons to send back to them with money in it. And she wrote, abortions, murder, and you're going to hell, you know? Stuffed it and sent it back to them, you know? So might lose her job over that. Right? Might lose her job. But it just makes her blood boil. Just she the thought of that, you know? And he's coming closer to the Lord. She shared a Justin Peters tape of Justin Peters coming from the place of an atheist to saving faith, and she let her guy listen to it, and he wept afterwards, you know. And so something's getting through to him. I expect unbelievers to abort and kill babies and lie and be nasty people, but we in the church are salt and light, and we should resist that evil, and we should have a enough chutzpah within us that it that it really affects us, but not to the point of bombing any kind of center. We don't do that. That's not who we are. But we pray and we resist evil, and we do what we can to set the children free and have crisis pregnancy centers and things like that to counteract. And so that righteous indignation as an affront to God is an affront to God, not of means. So I need to be careful when becomes a selfish thing. Love thinketh no evil. The Greek word, which is an accounting term. So what this means is, you're keeping score. That's unloving. Don't keep score. Love doesn't keep score. And a married very many married couples within that marriage, in many cases, you're keeping score. You're reminding Rick that he didn't open the door, you know, or Speaks of accounting. No record of keeping of wrongs, no score. Resentment keeps the books open. Love forgives. Love forgets. The devil's the accuser of the brethren, and he'll use your spouse, your relatives, your friends to accuse you. And the devil doesn't need to lie about you and I. The devil has enough dirt on me just by telling the truth about me. But he's a liar when he crosses the line and tries to show it as a as a debt that I still owe. That it's gonna send me to hell, condemning me, pointing me to hell. No, there's no record of wrong. Jesus said, it is finished, to tell us that I paid in full. There's no record. It's not in the ledger. So why do we remember? Why do we keep bringing it up? Why do we hold it as leverage over a person that we supposedly love? Love doesn't keep score. Love love thinketh no evil. It's not there. And, I love I love in a lot of ways where we forget about how people wrong us. It it takes Kathy to remind me how certain people have wronged me because I'm such a holy guy, a holy man. But she'll say, Rick, why why do you even wanna talk to that person? Do you remember what he did to you? She's protective. She's trying to protect me from another bloody nose. And like, what what are you talking about? What did he do? And it's it's in the history. It's in the history books. Oh, man. Well, I I don't care about that. Let's just love on him. Let's see let's see what God has. And you reengage, you go there, and they insult you even more than they did last time. And my daughter and my and my wife were saying, we're never going back there again. Dad, you have the weirdest friends. You got the weirdest people. We're invited by one friend of mine, and super, super wealthy. And they had us over for to eat, and it was breakfast, and they fed me cereal. Who feeds a carnivore cereal? Cereal. Come on. Can you afford the milk, man? You know? And then they sat me down, and we're on the water in Newport Harbor, and they're super wealthy. And it's the first time I ever felt evil in regard to wealth. I could feel the love of money in that room. It was horrible. First time I ever felt that. And they spent their whole lives working their money and building it larger and larger and larger. And and they they said, we checked you out. They used to come up here when we're in our building projects, and I bought a carpet cleaning van off of him. He's a great guy, great mentor, all that stuff, but something skewed in their head. I don't know what happened. But anyway, they began to just lay into me. At one point, he said, you must be retarded. Yeah. That identifies that. Yeah. And and I took a beating. I just took a beating. They were trying to tell me how to invest some money and the way that they're doing it now and things like that. And and all you need is $300. All you need is $300. You know? And that's why I'm looking at him like, deer in the headlights, yeah. It's all I need. $300. I don't have $300. You know? And but he's he's seeing that though it's not computing. I understood everything he was saying. Everything he's saying. But I'm just saying. And he's really laying into it, waxing eloquently, 10, 10, 10, you know, 10% interest on your investments. Alright. Alright. Alright. Alright. What are you, retarded? Yes. I am. I gotta get out of here. I was retarded for even being here. No. So I took it and took it and took it. And then then they're done with you. It's time to leave. So I left, but Kathy and Kathy's looking at me like, you didn't defend yourself. You didn't you just let them do that to you. And I'm like, I get that every week at Calvary Bremerton. That's nothing. But you you consider the person, you look at them, you're like, they're old. They're older than me. I know this isn't the voice of God coming out of their mouth. I know that. This is the devil. These poor people these poor people are so deluded. It's the devil. And I had compassion for them. They're they're so off off center. That's not the voice of God. You need to recognize that when the devil uses people that are seemingly intelligent and seemingly, these are Christians. These these people sit on the platform with great glory. They're really important Christians. Well, how'd they get on the platform? How come your dad didn't get on the platform? Because my dad's poor. You gotta be rich to get on the platform. Money opens those doors, but is that godly? Is that what the Lord does it? It's a worldly means, a worldly thing. So consider the source. Love rejoices not in iniquity. So no pleasure in evil doing. Love hates what God hates. You don't rejoice when you see laser guided missiles into destroying a supposed an an enemy's house and all of his children and family, you know, wiped out. You don't rejoice in that. There's a mother there and a grandmother and there's children there. When, Hillary Clinton and her ilk went after Gaddafi, and they publicly boasted about killing Qaddafi and his family. You don't rejoice in that. That's not who you are. That's not your God. He's not rejoicing in that. There's a whole lot of lies surrounding that whole scenario. Whole lot of lies. Qaddafi was providing farmland and houses and enormous amounts of, help to the people with the oil revenue they had. It was the most prosperous African, you know, nation. But he made the mistake, so too Saddam Hussein, of saying they were gonna trade oil in something other than the dollar. They were gonna come up with a either the euro and or the dinar. Gold dinar. Well, you don't mess with the bankers. John Fitzgerald Kennedy had a document, the abolishment of the Federal Reserve on his desk. Once he died, you don't mess with the bankers, Lyndon Baines Johnson rescinded that order. You don't mess with the bankers. So they gotta make and demonize these countries and say there's weapons of mass destruction when they actually go in there, wipe these regimes out that they propped up for a time. And then companies like BlackRock and major major US companies take possession of all those natural resources. And we're so duped into thinking that Iran deserves to be wiped out, and yet it's the fastest growing church in the world. What's gonna happen if Iran starts to get bombed? All these Christians that are there that are fleeing Islam, And yet, we're so demonizing Russia, so demonizing Iran, demonizing these places that we don't we don't we don't see that's not the heart of God. God doesn't hate these countries. That's not the sons of thunder were gonna wipe out the the the Samaritans because they weren't welcoming Jesus and the boys as they're walking through these villages. Should we call down fire like like Elijah? Jesus said, you know not what spirit you're of. That's not the heart of God. That's not my heart. Why do you think Jesus used a Samaritan in his analogy, in his teaching of what it means to love your neighbor? He is as the good Samaritan as as the guy that's the hero of the story, not the priest or the pharisee. He goes and he meets a woman at Jacob's well. No pleasure in evil doing. Are you happy when you hear of the failures of others? Somebody that's been in church with us and you find out, guess what? So and so just got caught committing adultery. And that's gonna pass through all the churches. Oh, man. Their marriage is on the rocks. Do do you rejoice in that? Don't you wanna cover that? Don't you wanna try and help with the exposure of that? Did it not go on the evening news? Jeremiah says, oh, that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. The Lord's heart would be that you weep for that wife, that you weep for that husband, that you weep for that family. When one part of the body hurts, we all hurt. If any man be overtaken in a fault, you are a spirit to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, lest you also be tempted. Could happen to you. Leave no man behind. Bring the wounded in. They're wounded. The devil the devil's plan to wound. The devil's plan to kill, to steal, kill, and destroy. This is a wounded family. Seek restoration. In Ezekiel thirty three eleven, the Lord says, as I live, saith the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die, oh house of Israel? It breaks God's heart. The heart of the prodigal, the father, his heart's broken. He can't go into the foreign land and just kidnap his kid and bring him home. He's gotta let the kid suffer the consequences of his actions that that kid's heart would change, but his heart's broken. The righteous brother that stayed there didn't understand this. Didn't understand why why the why his father would put the robe on him and the ring and kill the fatted calf in a party. He was dead. Now he's alive. It's time to rejoice. All's forgiven. Time to restore. The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Our God's a God of second chances. Our God's a God of third and fourth chances. There's now therefore no condemnation. God's not condemning. A church shouldn't be a place of condemnation. It should be the cross. God's forgiveness and his love. But rejoices in the truth. So you're glad when truth prevails, when truth wins out. Boy, I'm getting tired of the lies. The age in which we live is such a deceptive age, And I rejoice. I really, really rejoice when we're being vindicated, where we're getting confirmation that our discernment was correct during COVID. That many of these doctors, doctor McCulloch and others are doing shows, and information continues to pile out and come not on mainstream media, but in the alternative media. Because when we're navigating COVID, there's a lot of times where we're not 100% sure. Some things were abs are absolute. It's a no brainer. Other things are like, well, I need to I need to pray and think this through. I need to do some research. But now now it's like it's like it's like we really heard from God. Because we weren't the experts, but we're just listening to God. And and we had to check on our spirit. This didn't seem right, didn't feel right, didn't sound right. But so many people didn't want to pray and think it through and evaluate it and critical think, and they just went in fear and responding to fear. And now, we're not gloating. We're just saying, boy, it's glad that I can still hear from the Lord. I'm I'm just glad that we that truth prevailed, that the truth is coming out. I wish more people would acknowledge. I wish more people would would would recognize it because we're gonna need that discernment the next time around. We need people with discernment. More and more people to discern, awaken to the truth. Rejoice in the truth. If if Hillary and everybody were exposed, all their lies, do you know how glorious that would be? If the blinders came off, the people are, ah, truth. Rejoices love rejoices in the truth when the truth prevails. And that's what the devil's most afraid of. The devil's a deceiver, a murderer, a thief, and deception's one of his greatest weapons. And in Matthew 24, Jesus said, take heed that no man deceive you. We need to be more and more lovers of truth. In three John one verse three, for I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, speaking of Gaius, even as thou walk walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. That's so incredibly important that we're walking in truth, that we're walking in the truth of the word of God, that we're not living lives of deception. Committing adultery is not love. You can plant your feet and say, no, it's adultery. That's not love. That's lust. Relationships are based upon truth. That's a boy. That's a girl. That's a man, that's a woman. God makes it real simple, real clear. Love bears all things. The Greek word stego speaks of roof, of covering, enduring quality, bears any insult. Love covers. Love never reveals faults of others. Throws a veil over. So today, I couldn't wear my shirt that says, if I hear it, it's gonna wind up in the sermon, you know. You can uncover my wife, Kathy, and tell things about her where she's embarrassed, and I get a good joke, get get a good laugh, but sometimes she's like, Rick, you you're supposed to be my covering. I'm not supposed to say that. So I gotta be real careful because, you know, you can get a cheap laugh. Right? And some of you ladies, I can't believe the stuff he says. You know? I would hate that if you did that. And my my my daughters my daughters cringe. They cringe the stuff that comes out of my mouth about them. Don't ever talk about me. Don't talk don't say nothing. You know? But I really don't say anything that would be well, I don't know. That's up for debate. I'm the pastor. If I say it, it's right. Okay? No. Anyway, I gotta be I know. So you don't wanna be so private and so concealing that you aren't transparent enough, humble enough to admit to people the struggles maybe that you have and be able to laugh at them. So I'll put things out there about me and Kathy, different attitudes, different things, and it she finds out afterwards, and you guys go to and tell on me, if you wouldn't tell on me. But she reminds me afterwards, Rick, you're supposed to be my covering. I'm not supposed to say that, Rick. I'm supposed to do that. You know? And but she says it, you know, in a kind way. She's not really mad at me. She's not really that bad. So we're to protect each other in regard to our weaknesses. When when somebody does something wrong, really wrong, we're to cover them. We're not to expose them to everybody else. And, we're to keep it within the family, so to speak. And, if she burns my toast, I don't tell you about it. I don't want They used to be able to divorce a woman for burning toast, those guys, you know? Women had no rights. So I remind her that sometimes, and I remind her, you know, that Sarah called Abraham Lord, and and when are you gonna call me Lord? You know. And she says, you know your name. You know your name. Then she refers me to second Peter, Balaam's donkey. You know, she'd Rick, it's it's biblical. It's in the King James. He's a jackass, and that's you, Rick, you know? So hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins. And so again, as a body, if we hear something, and you know how you couch it as Christian? You wanna make it sound really spiritual? Tell me the gossip, and I'll put it on the prayer chain. And somebody's naive enough to come in here and think that you're gonna keep it a secret. But it gets on that prayer chain, and it's the gossip chain, and man, it's everywhere. Everyone knows about it, you know. That's that's that's not good. We need to we need to cover. You you have some people in this church that you're real close to, and they trust you enough to divulge some personal things. Don't put it on the prayer chain. And don't mention it to everybody and tell this person, be praying for so and so. She just don't do that. Don't do that. You're gossiping. You're passing it on. She trusted it with you. You cover it. You pray for it. Don't be naming names and, do you know what happened to pastor Rick's daughter? And I love that you guys prayed for my daughter, and I don't conceal a whole lot. I I told you she's drinking vodka. I mean, what pastor could be more transparent than that? Pastors get up in front like they got it all together, like they're a winner, and that's why everyone will follow me because I'm such a winner. Well, you know that's not true about me. And my daughter needs prayer, I covet prayers. And I don't need you to dance around it. I need you to be a prayer warrior, right on point. Help them stop drinking the vodka. But there's certain things that are private, certain things people entrust. Only to us, and some would call it professionally confidentiality. And I noticed a lot of you are real afraid to tell me your secret stuff. I wonder why that is. I would never. I would never. I told him yesterday, it's going in a sermon. It's going in a sermon. And so you bear all things. You throw a veil over it. You don't divulge to everyone your spouse's weaknesses. All of us in our marriages, our spouses have weaknesses. We don't divulge it. You may have committed sin ten years ago in another church. This church doesn't need to know about it. It's gone. It's over. Stuff travels fast in this community. It should be forgotten. It's cruel to keep bringing it up. We're to protect each other. Above all these things, have fervent love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins. Love believes all things, believes the best about people. Job's friends believe the worst. Miserable comforters. Miserable. And so you've got the prodigal daughter like mine, I still believe in her. I still love her. I still let her know that I have an optimism, a a confident expectation that God who began this good work in her is gonna complete it. I don't berate her, belittle her, or beat her down. I'm powerless to change her. Absolutely powerless to change her. Only God can change her. You give him the benefit of the doubt. You give him a chance. You trust God and his promises. You hold on to these promises. Love hopes all things. It sees the bright side of things, optimistic, desired expectations. No man is hopeless. No situation is hopeless. Love refuses to take failure as final. He's a God of a second chance. We remain hopeful. Our prodigals are gonna come home. We remain hopeful. I have a friend that's losing her spouse, losing her husband. He's not in his right mind anymore. But she's hopeful. She's hanging in there. She's forgiven him. She's doing everything possible, everything under the sun, everybody praying to bring him home again. The child, we never give up. I've, done funerals for guys that a guy, a friend of Jessica's, that died of heroin overdosing. Visit him at the hospital and ministered to him and got him a bible and went to Walmart and got him some pajamas so he wouldn't be naked and and, not that you want he didn't wanna be naked sitting there. And he, got out of the hospital and then within a short time overdosed and died. And he'd been raised in a Christian home, strong Christian home. And I had time and Jessica had time to minister to him, and he came to church here a few times. And his family came out, flew out for the funeral. They were just so incredibly thankful that the Lord entrusted him to us, this little congregation, that we would love on him, and they got the confirmation that his faith, which was active when he was younger, that it was reactivated toward the end of his life, and and that he's in heaven. Comfort him. Is family comforted? We hear of people with children that commit suicide. They're not in hell. Suicide isn't the unpardonable sin. Overdose isn't the unpardonable sin. It's a man's faith that's imputed to him as righteousness. Along the way, many of us have children, family members whose brains are subject to lies and condemnation, and things that bring them to a place where they're not really in their right mind. But their faith is imputed to them as righteousness. The faith that they've had in Jesus, the faith in believing and trusting in Jesus is a finished work. And they struggled with sin. They struggled over and over and over with sin. A foothold that they allowed the enemy to get in. But it doesn't mean that they've lost their salvation. It means they succumbed to the tactics of the wicked one who's come to rob, to steal, to kill. And we would look at them as a casualty in the battlefield. And we don't send them to hell. We get them off the battlefield, and we plug the wounds and do everything we can to restore them and help them and bring them back to the family, bring them into the fold. If God chooses to take them home, then he takes them home, but we know it's Christ's righteousness. It's his righteousness, not ours. We hope all things. We endure all things. Means to bear or endure triumphantly. No whining, a triumphant fortitude, perseverance, rejoicing in trials. Your spirit can't be broken. Paul and Silas singing in jail. Peter able to sleep in Acts chapter 12. And Stephen facing martyrdom, able to Father, you know, lay not this sin to their charge. Jesus, father, forgive them for they know not what they do, not bring in retaliation, not calling down 12 legions of angels to snuff out these people, you know, for what they've done. Father, forgive them. So we endure triumphantly. We endure all things. And that's probably one of my biggest prayers is, Lord, help me to rejoice in trials more. Help me to not succumb to the enemy's whispering that all this happened to you because you're a wretched man, because you're evil, because you're a loser. And everybody's like, you know, you are. You are. Look at it biblically. It's a trust. God's entrusted these trials to you because he knew that you would glorify him in and through it. Anybody can glorify God in abundance. We're gonna find out how much you love God real soon here. When things get biblical, we're gonna find out who loves Jesus and who doesn't just like we did with COVID. Many have already sold out and will take the easy way. But you, in your willingness to sacrifice, in your willingness to die to self, to be dead, what's uppermost in your heart and life is to glorify God, to love him with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. And when you love him in that way, you're gonna be loving your neighbor. You don't fall into that trap of, I'm gonna compromise my relationship with Jesus to love my neighbor. I'm gonna throw Jesus under the bus and shut the church down while strip clubs stay open to love my neighbor. You're smarter than that. Not gonna happen. My neighbor truly, if I love my neighbor, I'm gonna set my neighbor free from the lies and the fear that their church put them under, in their compromise. So he says, covet earnestly the best gifts and yet show unto you a more excellent way. Are you walking with Jesus down the path of love? Are you growing in love? The most excellent way? Take the test. Rick suffers long and is kind. Rick envies not. Doesn't that sound smooth and and that fit? That's fitting. Rick vaunteth not himself. Rick's not puffed up. Does not behave himself unseemly. Seeks not his own. Rick's not provoked. Rick thinks no evil. Rick rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Rick bears all things. Rick believes all things. Rick hopes all things. Rick endures all things. Rick never fails. Don't you get tired of hearing that name Rick in there? It'll make you sick. Jesus suffers long and is kind. Jesus envies not. Jesus wanted not himself. Jesus is not puffed up. That fits. Now I have confidence that there's a day coming where my name will fit right there. Because as I read next week, we're gonna see that when that which is perfect has come, that that which is part will be done away. I'm under construction. You're under construction. There's a day coming where I'll know even as I am known, where the Lord's gonna complete that work that he's begun in us. And I'm being changed from glory to glory in the image of Christ. Rick is learning to love. Rick's loving more than he used to. And hopefully, there's growth in my life. There's death to self and greater growth in the likeness of Christ. Right? That's what we're hoping for. That's the goal, and that's the confidence that I have in Philippians one six, being confident this very thing that he that's begun a good work in me, that he's going to complete it. He's gonna finish this work he's begun in me. My greatest weakness when I first met Kathy is I didn't know how to love. I knew how to lust. I knew how to the arrows. I knew how to be selfish, but I didn't know what it was to agape love. And it wasn't till I came to Christ that he gave me that agape love and that I can will to love the way Christ has commanded me to love. Amen? Father, we come before you, we thank you, Lord, for the power of your holy spirit, the fruit of the spirit, which is love. Help us evermore to walk in love, Lord. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

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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.

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