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1 Corinthians 16:1,12 -The Open Door- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2024-12-08
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First Corinthians sixteen one through 12, would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word, together. Now concerning the collection for the saints as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him that there be no gathering when I come. And when I come, who's whosoever ye shall approve of your letters, then will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem. And if be meet, I go also, they they shall go with me. Now, I will come unto you when I shall pass through Macedonia, for I do pass through Macedonia, and it may be that I will abide, yay, and winter with you, that you may bring me on my journey whithersoever I go. For I will not see you now, by the way, but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord permit. But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. Now if Timothy has come, see that, he may be with you without fear for he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do. Let no man therefore despise him, but conduct him forth in peace that he may come unto me for I look for him with the brethren. As touching our brother, Apollos, I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren, but, his will was not at all to come at this time, but he will come when he shall have convenient time. Father, thank you for your holy word. We're excited about today. And Lord, we pray that once again you'd be our teacher, that we'd have ears to hear, that you'd just sweetly, lovingly minister unto us with your word, Lord. Spank us, convict us, do whatever you gotta do if we're obstinate, if we're not hearing. But Lord minister to us. You're the great physician. Put our lives back together. Help us to, see our marriages be stronger, our children, not rebel so much, just walk in harmony, walk in fellowship with you, so many of them do. I'm so proud of of my girls, Lord, and grandkids, and I pray this season, that we we could be huge encouragements to others. And so bless now, we pray, Lord. Bless your word in Jesus name, amen. Please be seated. Have you ever had a door slammed in your face? Maybe you went door to door selling something. Those doors just get slammed right in your face. You applied for a job and they chose someone else. Bummer. We didn't We decided not to take you, you know. And oh, you found a house to rent and, your credit score wasn't high enough and your application was denied. You submitted your photos for the preciousmatch.com and they thought you were gay. You even offered to donate blood, maybe even a kidney, and still you're rejected. The doors are all closed. Jesus opens doors that we might serve him. We can't force we can't force ourselves on others. We are like salesman in that we have the glorious gospel to sell in in a certain way. And, many times we sell out Jesus, and we try to make him like the world and all. But, basically, we're presenting, the good news, the good news of his coming kingdom. And people have a choice to receive or reject, and and, you know, my experience has been the vast majority of people reject. Doors are shut. We're rejected all the time. Maybe some of you have been through a, you know, a bad breakup with a girlfriend or a boyfriend or a divorce or whatever. You know, being the one rejected is just overwhelming. It's it's it's very difficult. But we as Christians, we need to evaluate that, hey, it's it's a numbers game. And if you sow that seed to a 100 people and one of them responds, you know, you don't know which one's gonna respond. Our job is to simply go through the doors the Lord's given us, the opportunity he's given us. We can't force people to believe, can't beat them over the head to believe, but we can certainly spread the seed and pray that God, bring somebody else to water that seed and the Lord bring the increase in his timing. Some people get to see huge amounts of people respond. There's a great revival taking place in The Middle East right now with in the in Iran and other Muslim nations there. Syria is under attack. Assad has resigned from his office there. And so, you know, these kind of things that happen, it stirs things up. And and in many cases, people are presented with the gospel and they begin to respond. They begin to see through the lies of Islam and things like that. And and within our country, there may be a great opportunity here. Jesus said, look on the fields, they're white on the harvest and the laborers are few. And so we can pray ahead of time, Lord, give me an open door. Lord, in this day, as I'm going out, as I'm going shopping this holiday season, give give me an open door, Lord. It but if that door is slammed in your face, and then they not only reject you, but then they begin to mock you, ridicule you, because that's a powerful tool of the wicked one, till you laugh at you so that you'll never open your mouth again. Remember, it's just a game of numbers, and it's not a game. I say that loosely. It's it's it's a very high calling, but don't let rejection paralyze you with fear that you wanna be liked by people because, man, I I've been rejected by so many people. You know? It's it's not I'm not a politician to get everybody to like me. You know? So Jesus is rejected. All the disciples, there's rejection. It comes with the territory. It comes with being a Christian. So don't, don't worry about, those that reject you. Pray for them. Continue to pray for them. But, but again, it's so exciting to see the Lord save somebody. Be a part of the person's life who responds and help them get into a good church and and disciple them and help them grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. And the very first mission field, of course, is your home. You know, your children, your grandchildren. Don't overlook them. And, and then you spread out from there. You're Jerusalem, you're Judea, you're Samaria, and then out to the uttermost, you know, open doors. And so Jesus opens doors for us to serve him. Number one, notice the doors of contribution. Verse one. Now concerning the collection of the saints, as I've given order to the churches of the Galatia, even so do ye. So Paul's instructing the church of Corinth. Paul's in Ephesus. He's got a letter that he's writing that, we don't know who's gonna deliver it to the church of Corinth. Several letters, delivered to the church of Corinth, but, we have two of them that we call first Corinthians and second Corinthians. And so this letter is gonna be delivered and but concerning their responsibility of financially contributing to the less fortunate believers in Jerusalem. So Jerusalem came under attack, and with that attack that came to the mother church there in Jerusalem, there's a great dearth, which means like a famine, you know, lack of food and all. And we remember in Acts chapter six that they were, fighting over the Hellenistic Greek widows were fighting with the Hebrew widows over the distribution of the food and that, you know, the gifting, the benevolence that was being given to the poor. And and Stephen was raised up, and Philip raised up both Hellenistic Jews and trying to curtail the problem. And the disciples said, we're gonna give ourselves to the word of God in prayer, but we're gonna raise up some deacons that can minister the the material goods to people and distribute and all. But first of all, people from various churches. So you've got the mother church there in Jerusalem, and you have these outlying church where the apostle Paul and Titus and Timothy and Barnabas and Silas and Peter and others are going out now, and, they're sharing the gospel, Philip the evangelist, and churches are being established. So now what Paul's saying, hey, church of Corinth, if the mother church, if we have ministered unto you in spiritual things, it's appropriate that now you minister in material things to the time of need to the church in Jerusalem. So in Acts 15, when they have their their counsel there, James, brother of Jesus and all, one of the things they said to Paul was to remember the poor, which he was very much willing to do and wanting to do also. And so Paul is organizing a collection, and then this collection is gonna be delivered to Jerusalem to help alleviate the problems there. So, basically, it's a door of contribution. You have an opportunity to be a part of communion, fellowship. Part of the word of koinonia, we look at as fellowship, but it's also contribution. It's it's you're able to contribute. You're able to be a part as a body of believers to alleviate suffering, to alleviate shortages. So as you go into the grocery stores, I read an article that over 50% of the people shop at Walmart to get their groceries, And and we're watching shortages at Costco. Constantly, there's a run on eggs and all sorts of, you know, main staples. All all we found problem with this. Well, basically, what they're doing is they're hoarding it for themselves, for the globalists who are gonna go underground when when they bring forth what they're planning. But they're they're causing food scarcity. And with that food scarcity, the article was saying that Walmart is warning people ahead of time that they're having a more difficult time getting food items, and don't be alarmed when you're not able to get certain things like you've been able to. So they're letting you know ahead of time. They're letting you know there's gonna be food scarcity. So all of a sudden, panic's gonna ensue. You know? And I'm not saying we're gonna act like that, but let's hold it down. And and maybe we've prepared, maybe we have chickens, maybe we have a garden, maybe we have a few freezers filled with beef or whatever. You know? And so, basically, it's gonna come down to, should I share what I have? Should should I share what I have? Is there an open door, an opportunity for me to contribute and share what I have, maybe out of my abundance even? I've got more than I need to eat. You know? Now what happens if you have a power outage? And all that meat that you have stored up in your freezer, how quick can you eat all that meat? We better have some barbecues. Right? We better get that meat distributed and get some protein in these bodies. Right? Because we're not gonna it's gonna go bad pretty soon. Right? Or we're gonna need to get some more propane, gasoline, or whatever and get, you know, get those get those freezers going or whatever. So, basically, like we're having today, a potluck today, a means of coming together for an agape feast. And remember, a lot of these people were very poor and their protein they might get protein maybe one time a week, you know, like we eat protein, you know, every day or whatever. So they're they're they're gonna be very, thankful for a potluck that has a a honey baked ham that Carl ran home to, you know, put in the oven, you know. And a turkey and prime rib and lumpia and all I mean, we take it for granted. We got so I mentioned lumpia. Right? Somebody's bringing lumpia. I know somebody will. And and so that's what I'm praying about. I we better stop now. I'm getting so hungry, you know. And so they have an opportunity. It's not by compulsion. You don't have to. You gotta look at it as the doors open, an opportunity. And Lord, here am I, use me. Lord, where can I give? You've blessed me so much. Where can I alleviate suffering? Who in the church is having a hard time getting, you know, a family meal together for Christmas this year? New Year's, Thanksgiving. Lord, can we invite them over to our house? Can we deliver some groceries to their house? Can we help them with a a card for gasoline to be able to travel? You know, all these different ways within a church that you your ears are open. You're a giver. You got the gift of giving, and you just wanna know. Sometimes I get the phone call, pastor, who can I who can I help during this holiday season? I wanna get a get a gift card. And if you're putting together gift cards for Oak Table, you bring them to me. Alright? No. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. No. And so it's funny when people give those for poor people. It's funny how they never get to them, you know? That's funny. No. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. Won't give me anymore. That's right. It's too big a temptation. So the apostles recognize the need of remembering the poor. Paul alluded to that in Galatians two verse 10 also. In Romans fifteen twenty five, he says, now I go into Jerusalem to minister under the saints for it has pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia, so the area of Philippi and all that, to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. Verse 27. It has pleased them verily and their debtors they are. So Paul see it as a debt. Their debtors they are. For the Gentiles have been made partakers of the spiritual things. Their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things. So you've benefited spiritually by being taught the word of God and now it's your opportunity to minister with the physical aspects of your abundance, to their physical needs. So the Jerusalem church needed help. When should we give? When should we give as a New Testament church? Verse two, upon the first day of the week. We just finished chapter 15, the resurrection chapter. When's the first day of the week? Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. So that's where you you store up, you at home, you pray over what God's blessed you with, And as you pray, you ask the Lord before you even get to church of how much you're gonna give, if you're gonna give, if it's appropriate to give, if you know, all of that. You you should never attend a church where the pastor is putting pressure on you. It should already be decided at home in your prayer time, in your budget. It's your decision before God. Don't do an Ananias and Sapphira and lie about it and all that, you know. While it's yours, it's yours. And so you determine before the Lord that this is an act of worship. Otherwise, it's meaningless. That's why we always try to teach you, Lord, we worship you in giving. So there's never any hype. There's never any sales pitch. There's never any thermometer that you need to support my vision. You know? All the different scams, these these guys that are in the pulpits nowadays, they go to college to learn how to market you. It's a marketing strategy. And Peter says they make merchandise of you, the false prophets. I don't wanna attend a church like that. Pastor Chuck never did that. There was always the joy and the blessing of knowing that if I would invite a coworker, friend, or relative, anybody to church, that they wouldn't come on a Sunday like this where the pastor's talking about money. Right? Which happens all the time in these churches. Right? I knew that if it was done, it would be done in a tasteful way of strong emphasis upon free will so that nobody feels guilt ridden, you know, about giving. Giving's a blessing. It's a joy and a blessing. We don't wanna take that blessing away from people, and God doesn't like, you know, put a gun to people's head and you gotta give, you know. He loves a cheerful giver, hilarious giver. It's an act of worship. And so certain contribution for the poor saints and their debtors yar, for if the gentiles have been made partakers of the spiritual things, their duty also is to minister in the carnal things. And so you give on the first day of the week. Why the first day of the week? Because Sunday, as I said, is the day that we meet because of the church met on the first day of the week. So our giving's an act of worship. Paul just finished explaining the resurrection of Jesus, happened on Sunday. And so the first day of the week, the day that we gathered to celebrate his victory victory over sin and death. So we respond to his love by giving financially back unto him. So everything we have comes from him. Your ability to think, your ability to whatever whatever you've amassed, whatever he's given, it's by God's grace. And and he's entrusted you, and so it all belongs to him. So that's why sometimes we phrase it in such a way, Lord, we're gonna give back unto you because it's all his. And so you're giving back unto him in an act of faith, in an act of worship. And so, that's why we describe it that way. Matthew six nineteen, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust as corrupt where thieves can't break through and steal. For your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So here it is. God's not broke. God's not wringing his hands like the evangelists on TV are trying to make you think that God's gonna kill me if I don't get a million dollars by tomorrow. You know? God can't pay his bills. God God's that's misrepresenting God. So giving shows your heart. Where your treasure is, there where your heart be also. He doesn't need your money. He's showing you your heart. Are you grateful? Are you grateful for what he's blessed you with? Are you grateful for your salvation, first of all, purchased with blood? You know? Are you grateful for, the home you have, the car you have, the health you have, all that he's given? So where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So basically, from an investment standpoint, he's saying, send it on ahead because you're never gonna be able to hitch a U Haul trailer, you know, to your hearse, you know, going to your grave. Naked came I in the world. Naked, I'm gonna go. You can't take it with you. Right? And so you ask someone like Rockefeller, how much is enough? You got so much money. Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. So the eyes of the wicked are never full. And godliness with contentment is great gain for it's certain that we brought nothing into the world, that's certain we're not gonna take anything out. So send it on ahead. Invest in the kingdom of God. And there's rewards, Jesus saying, awaiting you. And that's and that's your portfolio. That's your investment portfolio. You sit down with the Lord and you say, Lord, how do you want me to divide this up? Do you want me to diversify this portfolio? How much should go to the work of your kingdom? How much should go to my children? How much should go to whatever it is? Whatever's on your heart, whatever he's entrusted and he has entrusted it to you, and that's your decision. That's your decision. So you're giving as a way for God to know or to show you where your heart is. Your giving is not for God, it's for you. You need to give to express your love to God who gave his son to save you from hell. Boy, that's heavy. Right? God has given us a way to what? To say thanks. Tithes and offerings. A way to say thanks. A way to overcome our instinct of selfishness. Attitude and act of gratitude. And, I know a lot of you already know all this stuff. All the churches you've ever attended have done a much better job than me of teaching about giving. You know all these verses. They've been hammered into your head. How do I know? Because you give here at Calvary Premerton. You're givers. You've learned to give. One time, pastor David Hocking, when we're at the Roxy, there were steps and it was dark and all that. And he said to me, I had him come to do a a prophecy conference, and he said, Rick, you need to do something about these steps. You need to get more light in here. You need to build some ramps. And I said, why? And he said, because these young people you have don't know how to give. They haven't been taught. You need some older people to help support this church because we had a lot of young people. And they need ramps, and they need lights to be able to see. And he's just telling me the practical aspects of pastoring, and I'm just like, oh, where God guides, God provides. You know? And but there are some practical aspects of it, I guess. And so the point I got out of it is there's a whole generation of people that are mature enough in the Lord. They they were taught the blessing of giving. And he said, you want these people, these gray haired people, you want them in your church because they've been given their whole life. And and the other thing is you teach people they taught people is that you can't out give God. You sow sparingly, you're gonna reap sparingly. So the laws of sowing and reaping, which you've heard, and and but but it's true. And so so not giving, what happens when you don't give? It's gonna stifle your growth in the Lord. Giving is an act of faith. It's an act of thanksgiving, and you can sit down and you can do your budget, and it doesn't work. There there isn't enough to go around. So you know what? I'm I'm I'm not gonna be able to give to the church, Lord. It's an act of faith. It's an act of worship. And so you're you're gonna have to come beyond that point. You're gonna have to come beyond that in your walk with the Lord and begin to take the Lord, you know, at his word. We're gonna read a verse out of Malachi in a minute here that'll show you where the Lord says, test me, prove me. And so it's a huge act of faith. But I watch people as they come to the Lord, as they come to church, and those that are ones that are growing the most, most excited about their walk with the Lord, they're givers because God's given them so much. And those that are when we used to watch a cartoon, there used to be a guy named Snidely Whiplash. Those that are real real, you know, selfish and it's all about me, you know, they don't grow. They they don't grow in the Lord. And and it's sad. It's sad because you can't out give God. You know? And so givers can't help themselves but to give. It's just part of the gifting. It's part of what's in their heart. It's part of expressing gratitude for what the Lord has done in their life. I mean, a guy that's been a drunk his whole life or addicted to, you know, drugs or, you know, failure in marriages or whatever it is, and they come to Christ, and the Lord cleans them up and gets their feet planted, they got a good job, now they're being blessed. They wanna give. They wanna say thanks to God. Thank you, Lord, for my my son or daughter going to that church over there and getting saved. They're not drug addicts anymore. How can I support that work? You know? They wanna give. They they wanna they're just so elated that the work that God's doing in that place. You know? And you're never gonna experience the joy of being used of God, of watching God use the job and the skills you have to generate income which you use to further the gospel. And so God gives you an open door. You decide. Galatians six ten, as we have therefore opportunity to let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. So who should give? Let every one of you, he says. Let every one of you, all of us. If all of us would give like the cults, like the apostate churches, all the bills would be paid. We had a big church building, parking, and all that stuff. How are they able to do it? And they have a false gospel. They almost put the law on the peoples what they do. Free will means that you got a lot of freeloaders. But, man, you go to a Mormon church, you go to a Catholic church, you go to a lot of these churches, very first thing they do is sign you up as a member. And all those little small groups you go to, the the one thing the facilitator does is sign you up. Hey. Here's a card. Fill out your bank account. We want you to do an automatic transfer. Now, some of that stuff again may be practical in the future here. We still use cash and checks. Churches are gearing up for the cashless society. They're getting it ready for it. So they are letting people know, hey, this is a way to give or whatever. I don't wanna go there. I hope we get raptured first. You know, I'm not that sophisticated. We'll find a way. You give me a cookie. I'll be fine with a cookie. You know? I'm pastor Cookie. So it it'll work out. But, there are some practical aspects of it. But we we just don't want to overemphasize that whole thing. You know? There's gotta be free will mixed in there. There's gotta be people that their left hand doesn't know what their right hand's doing maybe, you know? They don't feel like the you know? It shouldn't be the issue. It is more blessed to give than to receive Jesus said. Freely you've received, freely give. We have all have something to give to God to contribute for the work. How much should we give? Notice he says, lay by him in store as God has prospered him that there be no gathering gatherings when I come. So you evaluate it in your home as God has prospered you. As you get older and your bills are paid and the kids are raised, you might be able to give more percentage wise of your income than a than a young couple that's just getting started. Or now you're on Social Security and prices are going way up and it's harder to give, you lower the amount, you know? It it's you decide. You decide what you can and if you want to give. And it doesn't always have to be money. It could be service. It can be, you know, your ministry. How however your ministry works. The Lord's given you a ministry, and all of us have a ministry. And there's ways that we can share. There may be times where you're the one that needs the help, and there's other times that you go, and you're the one that provides for those, you know, in need. And so you guys already do a great job of this. I'm having a hard time with this sermon. I I don't like these. It's hard for me to do these these I like I like the previous chapter. I like that chapter. So we're to give proportionately of what God has given to us. Don't be stingy. So where do you start? You start with the tithe. What's tithe mean? Tenth. That's where you start. Tenth of your income. Tenth of the increase that God, brings. So in Malachi three eight, will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me, but you say, wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings? You are cursed with a curse for you have robbed me even in this whole nation. So here comes the challenge. Bringing all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in my house and prove me now. This is one place in the bible where the lord says you can prove him or you can test him. This is gonna require faith. It's it's gonna require some faith. You're gonna have to step out of controlling every aspect of your life, being in control. What do I mean by that? It may look like you can't afford it. Now watch what happens if you don't step out in faith. Here's what happens in many cases. Prove me here with saith the lord of hosts. I won't if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out to you a blessing that there should not be room enough to receive it. So God's saying, I'm gonna bless you. Now you don't give to get. You don't wanna get caught in that. The false prophet's doing all that, but there is laws of sowing and reaping where God says, I'm able to provide for you, and I'm gonna I'm gonna give you more opportunities, you know, per se. I saw I saw a thing on Facebook. I'll just briefly give you an idea. Kathy and I got married at 21. We had nothing, just like many of you. And she got pregnant, and we didn't have any medical insurance. And I started a little business, a cleaning business, cleaning houses like a maid and offices at night. And, out of my Volkswagen square rack. You know? I put a ladder on top and all my stuff inside, and I had day accounts, I had night accounts, and and she was pregnant, and that was her account. You know? And, stay at home mom. She quit her job at the phone company to be a stay at home mom. It was all by faith. If we're thinking in terms of future growth and money amassed and retirement, she would've worked. But we were willing to trust God that the investment she was gonna make in in that little child and children as a mother was a far more important investment than that of money. Some of you are superwoman, you can do both. But I I knew it was her choice. Honey, what do you wanna do? If you wanna stay at the phone company and be mom and have your mom watch the kids and stuff, you know, whatever you wanna do. But we chose to walk by faith right there. So you've cut your income in half. Right? So we venture out in faith, and after ten years, we had a business that that, I was 29 years old, '19 '89, and the business transitioned from that cleaning service to more of a carpet and upholstery and and, flood restoration. Two trucks, and and I only had two guys working for me. Didn't have all the the headaches of 17 employees when I tried to go to bible study at the age of 25 and ran my business into the ground. I had to start over. But I started over and changed it. And God blessed me mightily. I didn't even know how much he blessed me. And I felt like he was always holding things away from me. I was working so hard trying to catch up. I was just so impatient. And but any event, he he blessed that little business where it would have a gross of $240,000 a year in 1989. That's $20,000 a month. So Kathy and I can live on one third of that. So about $8,007,080,000, plus the business pays for a few things. So here's the Facebook thing. Facebook educated me that today, Wayne and Britney would need to make $246,000 net to be the equivalent of that 80 that Kathy and I lived on in 1989. That's a lot of money. Things were cheap. So here I am pastoring up here. We need to renegotiate my salary. I'll tell you that. My benefit package. So don't tell me about faith. I jumped out and just took off with a thousand dollars. I tried to sell my house. The Lord didn't let it sell. I tried to sell my business. He didn't let it sell. He he's always made me poor and wanted me to walk by faith, to depend upon him day by day. It's been a journey. Let me tell you. So I know a little bit about this. I'm not speaking theoretically. I didn't say to God, you sell my business for this much and my house for this much, and get me this much support, and then I'll go into the ministry. We just jumped out there. Naive, young family. By that time, I'm 29 years old with two kids and, leaving our family and friends, and I went to school after that. And the business went down as I was in school because every time I move in a direction of serving the Lord, I'm hit financially. When I set aside serving the Lord, man, the devil gives me lots of money, lots of opportunities to make money. It's like, I wanna keep this guy from teaching bible studies. I don't want him teaching bible studies. Maybe I can distract him. And then I was also taking a real estate course at the time, and, and I chose, because because that that carpet cleaning business is a young man's business. You can keep it going still. You have two employees. Well, now I can wear nicer clothes and go sell real estate in my thirties. But I chose to go to bible college. I chose to go to school. And at the end of the school of two years, we'd lost so much business that I said to Kathy, do you want me to quit school and, you know, get back on the tool, start all over again? She goes, no. We've come this far. We're not quitting. Well, that's all I need to hear because there's gonna be sacrifices along the way. And I can't grab my wife by the hair and say, you will do this, you know. You you can't do that because that's not gonna work. You need to be of one accord. So when I started a bible study at home, she says, Rick, Rick, Rick, don't do that. You know what happens to us when you do that. And so I waited. I prayed and I waited. And then a couple weeks later, she came to me and she said, alright. I'm ready. You have to be of one accord. You don't force these kind of crazy ideas on your wife. You know? She's gotta be all in. And the Lord didn't tell me ahead of time what my lifestyle would be like in Bremerton or anywhere, you know. It's all by faith. And, so we have to be examples of this. So start with the tithe. So prove me here with saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you shall, not be room enough to receive it. And I'll rebuke the devour for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time of the field, say it the Lord of hosts. You know what that means? That when you trust the Lord, that that if you don't trust the Lord and you do it your way, guess what happens? Your tranny breaks down. Your car constantly breaks down. Unexpected bills come. Your kid, you have no medical insurance, your kid's arm breaks. All sorts of unexpected things. The devourer comes, and you say, hey. Look at this money we're making. The tax man comes. But when you put the Lord first, you may not have you know, we never had any credit cards till we were in our forties. We walked by faith. We walked by what God provided is what we lived on. That's crazy, isn't it? To be 40 years old, not even have a credit card? I went to rent a house up here when I came here, and she says, you don't have much credit. You got good credit, but just not very much. Well, yeah, I I didn't I never had credit cards. But I bought a few work vehicles and and things that, you know, built a little bit of credit, but but but we just trust the Lord. We work, and I always expected the Lord to provide. I always expected, whatever we need to expand that going out that there would always be a flow coming in because we're working. When you work, the Lord provides. That's what we thought. That's how we looked at it. And he did provide. He provided phenomenally like I told you. At the time, I didn't know it was and I know I was blessed, but I I I wanted more. I needed to be even more blessed. I wanted to be in the Bless Me Club like all the other people, you know. And I am blessed now. I'm I'm blessed that a lot of the guys didn't go into the ministry because they put restrictions on God. They weren't willing to walk by faith. Like I said, Lord, if you sell my house, I'll go into the ministry. And pastor Ray Stook said to the guys, hey, guys. I can get your house sold. Just drop it $5 a week. It'll sell. No. No. No. No. No. I gotta go with equity, man. I'm not going to mystery unless I got equity. I gotta have money in the bank, man. And so it comes down to faith. Always comes down to faith. For your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground neither shall your vine cast your fruit for the time of the field. So you're a farmer and you lose the crop. You haven't been given the Lord first. I think farmers are some of the greatest men and women of faith that we have. So dependent upon God for water, air, everything. In an agricultural society, I mean, your faith grows. When you work at that shipyard, you're gonna get a check every two weeks no matter what. You don't even need to work in some cases out here. You can go hide out in the bathroom, and you're still gonna get a check. Right? And you can do it for forty years. And you can go complain, and you can get a disability policy, and you get all sorts of stuff. You're a farmer? Nobody cares. Get out there. You're gonna turn the lights on your tractor during the harvest to work all night if you have to. And you're so thankful for the right amount of rain and the right amount of wind, no wind, no topsoil gone and every you're so thankful for the price that you can sell for everything. Whole lot of praying going on in the churches in an agricultural community. Right? But what ruins it? Government. Government subsidies come in in many cases. So places used to be very conservative and faith filled communities. Now they become government communities. Right? And so you're paid to not farm, keep the price right, control the price. I know there's a lot of variables there. You still have to have a lot of faith, but, totally different than biblical times of the Lord saying, hey, you're disobeying me, I'm gonna cause a famine. It's gonna affect you. The Lord can get Abraham's attention, a father of our faith with just a famine. He'll go down into Egypt and say that Sarah's his, you know, his sister he's so afraid. Have a great victory and then a great lapse of faith. Twice he did it. He's made of the same stuff you and I are. God's stretching us to grow our faith. Now I can hear some of you there. I can hear you. Well, we're not under the law, pastor. We don't need to tithe. Ever heard that? That's the law, man. If you turn to Genesis chapter 14 verse 20, you'll see that Abraham meets a guy named Melchizedek, who's king of Salem, king of Jerusalem, king of peace, but he's also a priest. And he meets Abraham as Abraham and his 318 men went out and did a miraculous victory of of rescuing Lot and the king of Sodom as they had this huge battle. And as they come there after the victory and the spoils all there, here comes Melchizedek, a Christophany, a pre incarnate appearance of Jesus. And he's bringing wine and bread. Again, the spiritual first to have communion with Abraham, mighty man of faith. That whole victory, 318 men. I mean, that's a huge move of faith to come after those guys. There are armies of these five kings against four or whatever it was. And, the very first thing is spiritual. And then what's Abraham do? He pays tithes. He gives tithes to Melchizedek. In Genesis chapter 14 verse 20, gonna give him a tenth of all the spoil as an act of worship. So this principle of giving back to God in response to all that he's done for us is before the law. And then we look in the New Testament. What did Jesus have to say about it? He says, woe unto you, Matthew twenty three thirty twenty three twenty three. Woe unto you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. You pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin. What's that? It's the spice garden you have. They're so into tithing that they're gonna tithe from their spice gardens. Little tiny little spices. They're tithing and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done and to not have the other undone. So you're doing good by tithing. Don't leave that undone. New Testament, Jesus saying it. But there's some weightier things here that you're that you're missing out on. So worship is describing worth under God. Now, how does God measure your giving? Not by the amount that you give. For one person, $50 is nothing. For another person, $50 is today's food. They're gonna go without eating today. It's gonna affect her food budget, the woman with the two mites. She's given out of her living, and Jesus purposely, strategically sits the disciples down near the treasury to teach concerning giving in the heart of man. And you don't just give with the check there, you they're giving with coins and the coins are going to to to to to like people used to hear at the slot machine. And so people marvel. They'd marvel the Pharisees, the rich guy's given so much. Catch the eyes of people. Well, that's nothing to them. They're wealthy. So how do you measure it? Not the amount. He brought attention to this widow, this poor widow. And she's given out of her penuary, she's given out of her living. So David, when he said the threshing floor of Aruna, Aruna says, David, you're a prince of a man. You can have it. And David says, no. I will not offer to the Lord that which cost me nothing. You're giving to the Lord is always measured by what did it cost you. What did it cost? What did you give up? This poor widow has cast in more, Jesus said, than they all. For all these have of their abundance cast in under the offerings of God, but she of her penuary has cast in all the living that she had. Verse three, and when I come, whosoever ye shall approve of your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem. And if need meet, I go that I go also, they shall go with me. So Paul's saying, get it together, accumulate it, and we'll send some a contingent of people, some people one person might get robbed, so we're gonna have a group of guys. Maybe if I'm there, Paul's saying, then I'll I'll accompany them. We'll take this gift, you know, to Jerusalem. How exciting that would be to come into these poor churches and and be able to, you know, give in that way. So exciting. We have so much. Gary gives to a pastor in Tanzania, and there's others of you that give to to African nations in Mexico and places. We've done Mexico trips, and we've seen just how thankful they are. We've had the African children's choir come to Bremerton here and hosted them, and we've had children in our home that that when Kathy had a a basket of fruit on the kitchen counter, they were just mesmerized. Mesmerized at that food. It just captivated them. When we took them to the Red Robin, this was this was this group's first two weeks in The States. We've had other groups have been it was nothing to them. You know, they've been here a couple years. But those fresh ones from African nations, we went to Red Robin, and they have the fan above like that one. And they're just fascinated at the decor and how everything was, and then the food coming to the table and all. Just fascinated. Just captivated. And so thankful. So incredibly thankful for fruit, fresh fruit, and all that Kathy prepared and, you know, got ready for him. And we had a wood burning stove in one of the, one of the, chaperones, older, African gal who had earlier had been one of the part of the singing part, and she went over to that woodpile that I had, sat there by the wood burner, and she made some kindling out of stuff. I don't even know how she did it. She grabbed hold of that, and she knew what to do, man. She's it was fascinating. Just I mean, come to cooking, they're gonna cook with wood where she lives. You know, she knew exactly what to do. It was it was just amazing. Some of you girls are like that. I know. So Jesus opens doors for us to serve him. Doors of contribution, secondly, doors of communication. Verse five. Now I will come unto you when I shall pass through Macedonia for I I do pass through Macedonia. So from Ephesus, he spent three years in Ephesus in Acts 18. Spent eighteen months in Corinth establishing the church. Now he's in Ephesus. He wants to come back to Corinth and receive this gift that they're accumulating and then take it and, you know, move on and continue to go to, Jerusalem. But, from Ephesus, he actually goes to the area of Macedonia, which is Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. And then from Macedonia area, he's able to go to Corinth, you know, later on with his plan there. Verse six, and it may be that I will be abide, ye, and winter with you that you may bring me on my journey where wheresoever I go. So Paul is yielding to the Holy Spirit. He's looking for the Lord to fill in his itinerary. I might be able to do that. Lord willing, I might be able. This is what I'm hoping I might be able to do, but I don't know what the Lord's itinerary is. I don't know what his plans are, so I gotta be flexible. For I will not see you now, by the way, but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord permit. So the Lord opens and closes doors of opportunity, and we all walk by faith. Now I wanna caution you, Just because a door opens doesn't mean it's the Lord opening the door. Sometimes it's the devil opening a door. What do I mean by that? I'm in a situation where the Lord has kept me dependent upon him. It's very humbling, but it's good for me. It's where he has me. But there are opportunities, open doors that come from time to time for me to take much better care of my Kathy and my family and make much more money and be a man. And I have to pray over those opportunities and those things and ask the question, Lord, is this your will? Is this what you want? And inevitably, to this point, it's a real easy decision. I'm right where he wants me. And again, I asked my wife what does she wanna do? Cathy, what do you wanna do? Even this last time I went down to California, I had a guy, provide an opportunity for me to move back down there. I know I'm in God's will here. But maybe if it wasn't for my grandkids, I'd leave so fast, you guys wouldn't know. I'm just kidding. I just know I'm supposed to be here. I'm in God's will. I mean, I I sleep real good at night, and I love what I'm doing. I don't wanna retire. I know a lot of people can't stand me, and they've left the church, and the Lord brings new ones, you know, so they stay for a time. And people say, oh, you're so good, pastor. I'll never leave. Yes. You will. They all leave eventually. They all leave. It's just part of it. Rejection's part of it. Some of you are gonna leave by way of you're gonna die. I'm gonna do your funeral. You know? That'd be great. That's a better way. The rapture be a good way for all of us to leave. Right? I want the rapture. But all we need to concern ourselves, God, what's your will? What's your will? You know? What do you want? What do you want, Lord? I like being in God's will. When we were down in California and we had it, you know, that idyllic life that I really love, that sunshine and all the beach and all that, I was empty. How many times can you ride your bike along the beach? Even this last time when we spent our, like, three weeks there, that last week, we wanted to get back here. We wanted to get back to church to be with you and get back to work. How much how much time can we lay around, you know? I mean, even if you gave me a house there on the beach, I'd be empty so quickly. I'd be empty spiritually. I experienced that back when I when I was, running that little business. I experienced the emptiness of that unfulfillment. It didn't fulfill me. It's like, what do I do now? Do I buy a second house? Do I do I go into real estate? You know, what do I do? I wasn't fulfilled. It didn't make me tick. But if I teach Sunday school, man, I get real excited. If I teach a bible study, man, that's exciting. That's eternal. And that's just who God made me. Some of you are Christian businessmen, Christian, you know, business women and careers and such, and God made you that way, and you're productive. You're fruitful. God's using you in that place he's placed you. He hasn't called you to teach Sunday school, hasn't called you to go out and plant a church. That's my function. That's where I fit within the body. Some of you are nuclear engineers. I mean, you're I mean, some of you are janitors. It doesn't matter. We just operate where we're where we're placed in the body. We grow where we're planted. And so the Lord opens and closes doors of opportunity. We walk by faith. In Acts sixteen six, the Holy Spirit closed the door on Asia and moved Paul into Macedonia first. So Paul had a vision. He wanted to he wanted to go to Asia, to Ephesus and all that, but the lord gave him the Macedonian vision of a man saying, come over here. Come over here. And the Lord stopped him from going into Asia at that point in time. Later, Paul, always a timing factor, and, but he went to Macedonia first area of Philippi. He says, verse eight, but I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. He says verse nine, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me and there are many adversaries. Why does there have to be the adversaries? God should just wipe out the adversaries. I got a job to do. Why do I always have so many adversaries, so many obstacles, so many problems? Well, it's a good indicator you're a threat to the king of darkness, and it's gonna stretch you and cause you to depend upon the Lord. And as the Lord uses you, he's gonna get the glory. It's for his glory. Right? And that you can't take credit for anything he does. So Paul had more to work to do in Ephesus before he could leave. God had given him a great door, a great opportunity to communicate the gospel. Where would we be without opportunities, without open doors? Simply a dead social club. Only God can open the doors of ministry as we step out in faith. In acts fourteen twenty seven, Paul describes how God had opened the door of faith under the Gentiles. Sometimes the door shut on their hearts and we share the gospel. It's not the timing. They they're not ready. And we keep sowing, we watering, and some missionaries spent close to forty years in the mission field before people respond. Jeremiah spent forty years ministering to his own people and they didn't respond. Rejection. Huge rejection, but in God's will. Tried to tried to do something else, told God in the beginning, you got the wrong guy. And God said, you will speak. And he tried to refrain from speaking after the Lord allowed him to be put in prison, big deep hole. I'm never gonna speak in your name again. I've had those fits with God. I've shook my fist at God. You call yourself a father, and you're treating me and my family like this? I was about 25 years old. It's the first time I went to school, tried to go to school. And when I was up there for two months, it was the most glorious two months of my life. I finally had an outlet of what was stirring in my heart, and I I began to come to grips with this desire to express what God was stirring in my heart. And it was in the written page. I had I had assignments. And as I pour out those assignments, you know, in the written page, no preaching, but in the written page, it was a it was a flow in and a flow out, and it was glorious. It was wonderful. Pastor Chuck says the best way to learn is to teach because you have to study so much, and I love it. I love getting to know the Lord, and and it was glorious. And then after two months, my guys that were running my business for me began to steal from me and ran it into the ground. They began to have the customers write the checks in their own name. You know? And I I reached the point where I couldn't pay my van payment, and and I had to I had to quit school. And I had I scheduled a job for Monday morning, and I was Kathy and the girls were living in this house that I rented up there because we couldn't live on campus, and I go to school each day. And I'm not a snow person. It's up in the mountains, San Bernardino Mountains, and it snowed all weekend. And I spent all day Sunday out there till I was purple, past purple, trying to position my vehicle to get out in, you know, in the morning so I could go do that job on Monday to pay my bills. And that van just kept slamming against the snowbank, you know, and slamming it. I couldn't get it out to the road that had been plowed and all that. And finally, I just shook my hands and god, you know, I was so frustrated. And shouldn't have been because the lady let me reschedule it, and and I still was able to pay the bills and all that, but she sure showed me my heart. And I was angry because he he just wasn't opening the doors for me to be in school and all that. Anyway, the whole thing, I began to have a pity party. I've had many pity parties, and I'm the center of my pity party. And I know you're tired of hearing about my pity parties, but you need to know in this walk of faith, sometimes things don't go right. And by faith, we just continue to trust the Lord that in his timing, if it's his will, that door will open. And so I went back to work, and he blessed me like crazy. And I felt that emptiness, and I said, alright. I'm thinking about going to school again. And this time, it was the school of ministry. And same thing happened. The business began to erode, but this time around, we didn't quit. We let it all erode, and we came up to Oregon then up to here. So it was it's been a journey. I've been here like thirty years now. And I still look like I'm 20, but I'll tell you it's been tough on me. So he opens and he shuts these doors. He says, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel and a door was opened unto me of the Lord. He says in Colossians four three, pray that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ. Do you see the emphasis upon the door? We need the Lord to open the door. A door of faith in the person's heart that we're gonna share with. A door of utterance so we get to speak, you know. We need the Lord to open shut the doors. To the church of Philadelphia, the church under persecution, Jesus said to them, I've set before thee an open door and no man can shut it. Since God before us, who can be against us? Right? Greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. You're gonna have opposition. You're gonna have adversaries, but the Lord's gonna prosper you according to his will. So Jesus still opens that no man can shut, but who will go? Who wants to go in the ministry? Who wants to go plant a church? How are you gonna be supported? How are gonna support your family? I didn't have an answer to any of those questions. We went by faith. And still, we're continuing by faith. I'm getting old now. But I'm not old. I I never take a senior discount. I don't do ARP. I don't do it. You're old. So Jesus opens doors on to us to serve him, doors of contribution, doors of communication, and thirdly and finally, doors of cooperation. As a church body, as believers, we cooperate. We work together. At the Brook Besor, when the when the Amalekites came, when David and his men were away from them, Ziklag, you remember the story that the Amalekites came and took all of his family. He was away with the 600 mighty men over near the Philistines, and when they came back to Ziklag, everybody was gone, everything was burned to the ground. And as mighty men, they wept. Mighty men, real men, high testosterone men, wept. Jesus wept. Some of you freak out if I cry. Real men cry. Anyway, they wept till they couldn't weep anymore. Think about that. Then the next emotion switched the other way. They wanna kill somebody. Who's responsible for this? David is. So now they're plotting to stone David. And what's David? What what does the leader do? He gets away alone with his God and he begins to pray. And the Lord the Lord ministers to David, that he's with David, and that he's gonna retrieve everything. So as they're headed out to go, they find a a guy that's sick, an Amalekite, and Amalekite lets him know where, his his master had left him sick and all. And so David got the location where these guys are, but when they were going, they came to this Brook Besor and, 200 stayed back with the stuff. 400 went forward to the battle. And they defeated the Amalekites and came back with all the boot bounty and all the everything and all. And these these guys that did the battling, the guys that went out and planted the churches or whatever, they came back and they're stingy. And they said, alright. You get your wife and your kids back, but you don't get any of the rewards. At the Bema Seat judgment, you don't get nothing. We're the heroes. We're the celebrities. We're the ones that did the work. And David said, no. No. No. No. Those that stay with the stuff, those that stay with their job at the shipyard, those that paid their bills that are responsible, that continue to support the ministry of the missionaries that go out are gonna share alike at the beam of seat judgment as co laborers in cooperation. Nobody goes solo. Nobody does this. You know, does anybody go to war? Paul asked at his own expense. You that served in the military, did you go at your own expense? Hey, mom. I'm gonna join the army. Can you sew me a uniform? Hey, dad. Can you get me a, you know, a r 15? Can you get me a good helmet? And, you know, maybe in some countries, they have to do that. But the people here recognize December 7 is serious and we need somebody to go deal with these enemies of ours. And your heroes. And they'll gladly. My dad said that his dad when World War two happened December 7 that his dad ran out of the house and ran down to sign up like a lot of other men. And he came home crying. They lived in Minnesota. And he came home crying because they wouldn't accept him because he had a a heart, defect. So physically, he couldn't do it. So what did they do? They moved to Seattle. And him and my dad's mom and dad, they began to work in the effort to provide for those that we're fighting. They began to work in the factories in the Seattle area, the shipyard and all, as many of you do. And then there's other guys that are out there in the front lines, but we all share alike when we go to heaven. And so that's a very important distinction thing to understand. We cooperate. Now if Timothy has come, see that he may be with you without fear. Why would Paul need to say this? He's sending his young protege, Timothy, a young pastor, who eventually was beaten to death in Ephesus. Why was he beaten to death in Ephesus? Because he said when they were worshiping great as Diana of the Ephesians, it's like a Mardi Gras in Louisiana, very decadent thing. Timothy had the courage to tell them they were sinning. Well, they didn't like to hear that. They remember Paul coming through there, and for the space of two hours, great as Diana of the Ephesians. They remember how their income was cut in half because because Paul was preaching the gospel and saying their idols weren't real, that they really weren't gods. So they took timidity out and just beat them to death. So Timothy was timid. That's why Paul had to tell him, God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. Timothy, don't be afraid. So Paul's saying ahead of time, take care of this young buck. Don't be an adversary to him. Don't look down on him. Don't despise him. Don't condemn him. Take it easy on him, you know? So if Timothy has come to see what he may be with you without fear for he works the work of the Lord as I also do. So why would Timothy fear? Back in verse nine, it says, many adversaries. So great big doors, but great big adversaries. To the Ephesian elders at Meletus, Paul said there are many wolves. Wolves are gonna come from without and from within. The devil infiltrates churches. The devil is sabotaging churches today. There's a great great cloud move, a storm of deception hitting the church today. A strong delusion is coming, and it's getting more and more difficult to be a teacher of truth, to be a teacher of the Bible, to stay with God's word. Greater and greater attacks against those who are uncompromising in the teaching of the full counsel of God. You can you can be left alone if you bring in psychology, if you make it fun and theatrical, and and you'll you'll never have any adversaries. But the devil's gonna come after you with everything he's got if you're representing Jesus in a truthful manner. So that was the enemy purposes for evil. God works together for good. So the adversaries come, they pressure you. You're Joseph and you're sold into slavery, but now you're Joseph and the Lord, that which you meant for evil, God meant for good to save many people. Now you're cooperating with your brothers. Your brothers that tried to throw you out, tried to kill you. Now years later, God's using you through all that adversity to be one that protects them from destruction. Verse 11, let no man therefore despise him, but conduct him forth in peace that he may come unto me for I look for him with the brethren. Now who is Paul talking to? The church. Why do you have to say this stuff to church people? The world we understand. Why would you despise a young pastor coming to your church, coming to your city? Why why why? That that's incomprehensible. Why do we in the church have to deal so often with people from within? There there's nobody outside there telling us we can't meet and threatening us you're gonna go to jail. It's not the it's not the world. It's people that profess to know Jesus that come in with anger and it's it's it's mind boggling. My Kathy has a chest where her chest cavity hurts from a week of anxiety, of nastiness. Heartbreaking. And it wasn't some communist coming after us. It's that infighting in the church. Charles Spurgeon's wife said that her husband died in his fifties at a young age of a broken heart. Why? Because the scopes trials and the Darwinian evolution began to permeate London, permeate Europe. And to look intelligent, the churches capitulated and gave into Darwinian evolution from the standpoint of theistic evolution, that God started it in creation, but then everything evolved. That's a compromise. That's a bold faced lie. But Spurgeon saw the churches giving in to that lie, and he's trying to hold the line. Hold the line. Don't give in to that. And it broke his heart because that was the hip thing to do. That was the popular thing to do to to look intelligent, to have the wisdom of men. How tragic. That word despise means to look down upon, to disrespect. Why? Why does that even need to be said? Where's the love? Where's this disrespect come from? I've got thirty years of tapes of recorded teaching, and anybody that wants to know what I'm about as a pastor can get any of those tapes and audit them, look at them, scour them to try and see if there's some heresy that I've been teaching. And if I am, if I have, then you confront me, we'll fix it. But inevitably, the attack becomes personal. It's so egregious. Personal. Why? I thought we were friends. Shame on us. So here's what I do. When you won't listen to me anymore, I never tell you, go get my tapes, listen to Rick Bodrey teach. Never. Because I know you don't respect me. So I tell you to go listen to pastor Chuck. I tell you to get the Word For The Day app because if you're not listening to me and you're getting into all these gooky, kooky stuff, and you don't respect me enough as a teacher. And after I've given you the scriptures and you still won't listen to me, I don't want you to shipwreck. I don't want you to crash. So I say, you know what? Maybe they'll listen to my pastor. Maybe they'll listen to pastor Chuck, and he can get through to them because he's a celebrity. He's a big kahuna. You know? Listen listen to some of these these big guys. You know? And I'll give you their tapes. I'll I'll tell you to go on YouTube and, you know, watch Chuck Mistler on some stuff or watch pastor Chuck. You know, get if if I'm going to the gym and I'm still listening to pastor Chuck, you can do that. You can get the word of God in you and quit listening to all that stuff on the Internet, all those podcasts and all that crazy stuff. It's so simple. Just get into the word. So Timothy is being despised. You know, don't don't disrespect him. He's bringing forth the word. If he brings forth heresy, confront him. But if he's teaching the truth, you be a Berean, and you search the scriptures to see whether these things be so. And you respect the office that he's in. You may not like the man. And I would say, get in line. You're pretty hard to like too, you know. None of us have arrived. So I encourage all of you to get pastor Chuck Smith's Word for Today app is free, and put it on your phone, your device, whatever, and immerse yourself in the word of God because things are getting more and more difficult to cope with. More and more lies, more and more deception, more and more anxiety, people melting down, empty food shelves, fear. And I've discovered if I will get into the word and allow God to speak to me, I can sleep just fine because now I'm trusting the Lord. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. I just need to be reminded what I already know, what I've already been taught in many cases, and I still learn new stuff. But in many cases, I just need to be reminded of these things, as Peter said, though I know them. And my heart just just melts, and it just it's so comforting to hear the truth of God's word and the holy spirit ministered to me. If I go on online and I'm watching these kooky videos, my my I tried to watch a video the other day, and my spirit, I felt I was gonna get sick physically because my spirit was listening to what was being said, but also even the voice, and it made me sick. It was like listening to a demon in that false doctrine. So I I shut it off. I don't need to invest that time in that. I'm not gonna invest my time in that. I'm gonna stay with the word of God. And that's where the comfort is. That's where the blessing is. And I encourage you, if you if you don't respect me and the and the the teaching here, supplement your your diet by listening to pastor Chuck. If what you hear here in two hours is enough, you know, I don't know. If you need more, dig in. There there's lots of good bible teachers out there. Another thing you can do is add to your phone the blue letter bible, and there's lots of good commentary there, including pastor Chuck and other pastors. And if you you've got questions on things, if I can't help you, you know, there's a lot of guys out there that can. And so sometimes these things that come along, they're kinda kooky, and and I'll stand against it, and I'll use the scripture to stand against it, and it doesn't get anywhere with these people. So I say, you know what? Check out these more credible pastors. See what they have to say on the subject. So I'll lay out three different solid pastors. Like like, let's say we ask John MacArthur. What's John MacArthur have to say about this? What's Chuck Smith have to say about this? And you know what I find out? My understanding of what the Bible has to say about it is consistent of what they think it is. So who's on the who's out of their tree? Is it me? So why disrespect me and and try to destroy my character when I'm simply trying to get at the truth? Again, thirty years. Of teaching the word of God. So, again, you never hear me say, hey. You know what, you guys? You wanna grow in the Lord. You get Rick Bodrey's tapes. Brian tapes it every week. Vicky, I don't know why she listens. She listens to the revelation tapes. I don't know why. She could listen to pastor Chuck. He's much better than me. Just get into the word. Allow God's word to transform and change your lives. And we're in good company because in Isaiah 53 verse three, he says, he, speaking of Jesus, is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we his were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. That's the ministry. Expect rejection. Don't quit because of rejection. Don't ever let somebody that rejects you take you out of your ministry because the Lord brings people that do receive your ministry and your family of believers. There's love there. There's a love bond, if you will. And it may be just for a period of time. Many of these people I baptized them. They got they received Christ here. It's glorious. It's exciting. We're just rejoicing. And then few months, few years later, he's a demon. He's possessed with a demon. He's terrible. That's what breaks my Kathy's heart. None of it ever bothers me. In John fifteen eighteen, Jesus said, if the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. They hated me without a cause, Jesus says. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they're gonna persecute you. If they've hate, have kept my sane, they'll keep yours also. So we're in good company. No compromise. Jesus said, I came not to bring peace but a sword. Unfortunately, Jesus is a divider of men. I'm watching a sifting take place right now. Kathy told me that the other day. Rick, there's a sifting taking place. The Lord is exposing and showing those that believe and those that don't. And my heart is they all still believe they're just having a hard day, a hard time, that they'll come back around, that they'll find a church, they'll find a teacher, they'll find somebody that finally the growth just grows exponential. Nobody wants someone to be shipwrecked. Nobody wants somebody to be deceived and ripped off by the wicked one. None of us want that. In second Timothy four verse three, the time will come when the when they will not endure sound doctrine. What can I do with people that don't endure sound doctrine? Trying to teach healthy doctrine from the bible. I don't wanna add anything from YouTube or from the world that I can't substantiate or prove from the bible. Why do you wanna force it on me? But after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. So what I I mean, perverted sex churches, you know, seems to be the trend. Everything has to has an illusion or some idiom of sexual activity, of perverts. You don't wanna be gay. I don't wanna be associated with that woke and all that weirdness to get people to attend church. We love every single sinner out there, but they gotta come the same way every other sinner comes, and that's by way of repentance. My sin, their sin, all of us are sinners. None of it's gonna be normalized. None of it's accepted. None of it can be watered down and think that God grades on the curve. The wage of sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes. We have a conversion ministry. We share the gospel that the Holy Spirit would convert sinners. All shapes, sizes, whatever. Doesn't matter. But we're not gonna compromise with the world. And play with sin. Verse 12, as touching our brother, Apollos, I greatly desired him to come to you with the brethren, but his will was not at all to come at this time. But he will come when he shall have convenient time. So Paul's saying, free will. In our cooperation with each other, there's free will. None of us are gonna lord over anybody. Nobody has to give. You don't wanna give, you don't have to give. God loves a cheerful giver. It's your decision. Nobody has to serve. Nobody has to do anything they don't wanna do. If you don't wanna hear from me, you don't wanna listen to me, you got free will to go find a pastor, find a teacher, find somebody that you can that you can receive from. I can't force the truth on anybody. Paul's saying, I I wanted Apollos to go there. He doesn't want to. He'll go at a convenient time to his schedule when he wants to go. We respect another person's free will, and we work with him. He's not denigrating him. He's not saying anything bad about him. He's just saying, Apollos has decided not to go, and we respect. So I would say this, we agree to disagree at times. Don't wanna fight about it. Leave me out of it. I don't wanna do this. Leave me alone. They won't stop sometimes. So no lording over Apollos. No force. Apollos would come when God directed him to come. Free will. Don't ever let a pastor, any kind of religious whatever dude, guilt you, manipulate you, or try to force you into doing anything that you have a the holy spirit, you gotta check-in your spirit. You follow the leading and guiding of the holy spirit. This position that I have here, this is a powerful position. Not not in the sense that I'm powerful, but guys can manipulate and use the badge if they're a policeman. Any kind of person can prey upon vulnerable people. Some of you, it doesn't work, and they know. They they move over to the ones that they they study people. They let all their needs be known from the pulpit. They constantly, you know, communicating that our car broke down, stuff like that. You know? And it's it's manipulation. Pastor Chuck talked about a evangelist that came to the church, and in his prayer, he said, you know, Lord, I just pray for some shoes. You know that my shoes are wore out, and I could really use a new pair of shoes. And and then somebody in the congregation brought him up at the next service a pair of new shoes. And he shows the shoes to Chuck. Look, the Lord provided me some shoes. And Chuck says, no, that wasn't the Lord. That was you. Jesus said, you have a need. You go in your prayer closet, you ask your father in secret, and your father who sees in secret award you openly. You manipulated the people. Right? Yeah. Don't fall for it. You pray about what you wanna do with what God's blessed you with. He you're the steward. You're the one he's entrusted. You're the conduit, you know, of where your time, talent, and treasure, where you want it to flow for the kingdom of God. And no force. You run if somebody tries to force you into anything. It's crazy. Now there's times where I have to stop you. I have to stop somebody and say no further. This is dangerous to the body here. This is 11. This is something heretical doctrine I have to stop. Now, I'll try to deal with you privately first, but if you're not gonna listen to me again, if you're not gonna listen to me and you continue to try and interject this heresy with other people, then I'm gonna say, you know, you're on the verge of stumbling somebody. I don't want to see somebody shipwrecked or stumbled. And then if you bring it public, I'm going public. And if I go public, I'm not stopping until it's over. Because now you involved a whole bunch of people and the potential for more people to succumb and and fall into this. I mean, what were you thinking? You think I'm just gonna stand by and and watch this poison, this heretical doctrine, which degrades God? I was willing to not even talk about it, to agree to disagree. I don't even wanna go there. I don't wanna invest the time. But you had to push, push, push. And now there's people falling. And I believe the Lord allows things in my life at times to show me that Rick, this is much bigger than you think, and this needs to be addressed. And so I don't want I don't want the fight. I want peace. But I wouldn't be a pastor if I was passive about heresy. No condemning any person, no denigrating any person, but the heresy has to be stopped. Prove all things, hold fast that which is good, earnestly contend for the faith. In Ezekiel 33 verse three, in Acts chapter 20, in Ezekiel three, as a pastor, if I don't warn, then your blood's on my hands. I'm gonna give an account to God because I didn't warn you, because I didn't stop you in that what you were doing. And so, yeah, free will. At a certain point, I just say, you know what? You won't receive from me free will. I love you. I love you, but I can't force you to understand. But what I can do is I can make sure that the rest of the body at Calvary Bremerton understands how serious heresy is to keep them from going so far, they fall over the edge. So if we all or if we fail to go through the open doors, God opens, we lose out. We miss the blessing if we are uncooperative with God, and he continues to knock on the door of our hearts saying, let me in. Cooperate with me. I wanna do great things in and through you and through that little church. What doors has God opened for you? What doors? Cathy and I prayed always for open doors. This walk of faith is so exciting. I have no idea what lies up ahead for me. I have no itinerary. I have nothing planned. I don't have a day planner. I don't have a five year plan or a ten year plan. I do Matthew six, this day, today. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteous, all these other things be added unto you. That's how I live. That's how we roll. The heathen are always concerned about what they're gonna eat, what they're gonna drink, what they're gonna wear. Did I say eat? Oh, Carl, you better get going. Think about food. But Jesus Jesus said, don't be filled with that anxiety. I I feed the birds. I clothe the the fields. I'm gonna take care of you. And so that's that's that life of faith that we need to cultivate because we might come back to that sort of childlike relationship with God in this sophisticated world in which we live of all this technology. It may come that you and I get through it because we have faith. When the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Faith is the most important commodity, most important thing. I don't wanna lose my faith in the word of God. I don't wanna lose my my way of life of trusting him day by day. Lord, I got it figured out. I'll call you when I need you. Father, thank you. Thank you for the families that we enjoy, the friendships we enjoy. Thank you for the times as as kids, we could see mom and dad and grandma and grandpa struggling. We get together at the holidays, and Lord, they're trying not to be all stressed out and different things happening. But Lord, we we thank you for them how they they pointed us toward a window of opportunity, a time where we could celebrate, where we could have a meal together, where we, just kinda get away from the craziness of the world. Thank you for what escape the Christmas season is for some. And for us, Lord, a reminder, just a reminder how precious you are and your tremendous love for us and the meaning, the how meaningful this holiday is. And Lord, we don't wanna fight in war with each other, but the reality is as Paul lays out here, there's free will involved, there's those who despise involved, there's young pastors filled with fear, there's wives and children filled with fear, there's obstacles, there's adversaries. And Lord, we wanna set all that aside. We wanna cooperate. We wanna yield to the Holy Spirit. We don't wanna quench the Holy Spirit. Lord, I've seen a church get sick. I've seen people can turn and bite and devour with one another. It's ugly. And Lord, we we never want that to happen here. So today, Lord, as we go across the street, I pray that we could love on one another, listen to one another, minister one another, give us great doors of opportunity, doors of utterance, and two ears to hear, and to strengthen relationships, and pray for those who who need prayer, rescue those who need to be rescued, and Lord to stand for your kingdom and your glory, Lord. So bless, we pray. 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.
