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2 Corinthians 10:7,18 -An Approved Ministry- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2025-05-18
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We are in second Corinthians chapter 10. Second Corinthians chapter 10 and, verses, seven through 18. And would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Second Corinthians chapter 10 beginning with verse seven. Do you look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ, even so are we Christ. For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority which the Lord has given us for edification and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed. That I may not seem as I would terrify you by letters for his letters say they are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech, contemptible. Let such a one think this, that such as we are in word by letters, we are while we're absent, such will we be also indeed when we are present. For we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. But we will not boast of the things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God has distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure as though we reached not unto you, for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ, not boasting of things without our measure, that is of other men's labors, but having hope when our when your faith is increased that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly. To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you and not to boast in another men's line of things made ready to our to our hand. But he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commended himself is approved, but whom the Lord commended. Father, thank you for your holy word and thank you for the real life examples of the apostle Paul in planting the church in Corinth and spending eighteen months there, pouring his life out onto these people, and Lord, they reach a place where they're being tricked by false prophets who are coming in and undermining the apostle Paul, and Lord, he has to deal with that and discipline and alert the church to the dangers involved. And so Lord, we we pray that we would glean the way that the enemy, his tactics, his strategies, the way that he tries to deceive and ruin the momentum of a church. And Lord, we pray that we'd not get sick. We pray that we'd be focused on you, that you continue to build your church, and Lord, that we'd be able to discern between good and evil between those who are trying to trick us, wolves in sheep's clothing, and those, Lord, you put into our lives that are true teachers of your word, Lord. So bless, we pray. Pour out your holy spirit. Teach us your word, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Would you please be seated? Boy, we live in such a time of crazy I gotta get this jacket off. Such crazy times of deception, YouTube and all, and apparently from the very beginning all the way in the garden, you know, the devil's been trying to deceive people, just to deceive Eve and Adam and try to get them to corrupt them and and to ruin God's plan, but God God knew before the foundation of the earth. So Jesus is a lamb slain before the foundation of the earth and knowing how very very much we're gonna need him to lead and guide us down that straight path. And Kathy in the bulletin today showed you those two different branches that are branching off. We wanna go down the straight and narrow, you know. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and life. No man comes to the father but by me. And as we're trying to discern, you know, she she pointed out Proverbs three five and six, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he'll direct your paths. And that's a good verse, a favorite verse of many people, a good way to live your life of committing everything under the Lord. A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps, you know. You may have things within your heart that that, you're planning and you're, wanting to implement and doing all, and we gotta bring all these things before the lord. And the church of Corinth were being seduced, and we'll see that as we get into chapter 11. They're being seduced by some false prophets that have come into Corinth. As Paul left Corinth after about eighteen months, he's been over in Ephesus for three years, and he's planting a church there, and little churches are popping up in and around these these major metropolises and all. And and he's he's trying to correct problems. Part of the problem is these people are allowing the false prophets to undermine Paul's authority as an apostle and as a pastor and as a teacher. And it's it's dangerous for them because once they get off course one degree, it's a slippery slope to heresy, a slippery slope to backsliding and apostasy. And so an approved ministry an approved ministry bears fruit. The false prophets were undermining Paul's ministry by three things. By number one, criticizing the outward. They were looking at Paul and they were saying, look at this guy. He's a clown. Look at him. His his his appearance is contemptible, you know. He provides a weighty letter, you know, a written letter, but the guy's the guy's isn't polished. He's not a real hipster. He's not a mover and a shaker, you know. He's not he's not Hollywood. He's not g q. He doesn't look like a guy that's dressing for success, you know. And and so they're they're being influenced by the false prophets in that way. So he says, do you look on things after the outward appearance? So you guys are that superficial? You're that shallow as Christians that you're gonna look and be governed or be be hoodwinked, know, be tricked by the false prophets that come in, you know, wearing the right kind of clothes or the right everything and all. So if any man trust to himself that he is Christ, do you belong to Christ? Let of himself think this again that as he is Christ, even so are we Christ. So Paul's outward appearance was being criticized. They're being very superficial. In first Corinthians chapter nine verse one, he says, am not I an apostle? See, he's being challenged as being an apostle. So what are the requirements of being an apostle? These fraudsters, they weren't apostles. They didn't see the risen Christ. Paul saw the risen Christ. The Lord arrested him on the road to Damascus. And that was one of the prerequisites of the priorities of being apostles that you've seen the risen Christ. So he says, not I an apostle? Am not I free? Haven't I seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not you my work in the Lord? So these people got saved through the apostle Paul's ministry. He's the one that bore the danger of going into Corinth. And in chapter 18 of the book of Acts, Jesus had to appear to Paul and tell him, Paul, chill. Paul, be calm. Be calm. I'm here with you, and no man's gonna set on thee to hurt thee. Why? Because he just a few chapters earlier, he got stoned at Lystra. You know, they they, these people are beaten on this old boy. And so he's looking at Corinth, and Corinth is one of the most wicked cities there is. And you're saying, you know, Lord, you really want me to go in here to this city? And so where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. And I love the way the Lord ministered to Paul and says, Paul, I have much people in this city. Ain't that amazing? That in a very sinful place where you would think that there's no way anybody's gonna respond to the gospel, the Lord says, have I have much people. I have many people in this city, And I I need you you just put it in in loose need. What does the Lord need? And yet he chooses to use us. I need you to trust me, Paul. Go into this city and share the glorious gospel, Jesus Christ and him crucified for the remission of sins. At Mars Hill in chapter seven, they 17, you know, they're they're saying you're just a babbler, you know. The Epicurean philosophers and all, but Paul, it's a simple message. Jesus Christ and him crucified, buried, raised from the dead, ascended the right hand of the father, and he's coming again. And the church at Corinth was formed over eighteen months of Paul ministering day by day, working a job, ministering at night to these people. And then they don't appreciate him. The false prophets roll in after the work, the hard work, the pioneering work is done, and now they wanna settle. Now they wanna the sheep steal. They wanna you know, and I like when you go out to other churches and steal sheep and bring them back here. That's a good thing. Right? That's really not the methodology to be used. You know? We're to evangelize. You're to reach the lost. Right? We're not to be trying to brand or come up with a brand that the sheep are more attracted to us and come over here, and then they get tired of us, and they go over there, and this whole marketing thing and all that, it's just kinda ridiculous. So we want the Lord, to do the work in that my sheep, you know, know me. My sheep hear my voice, and they know me, and they follow me. And so they're his sheep. You're his sheep. And if you're here to learn today and the holy spirit's, ministering unto you, then you're in the right place today. Tomorrow might be somewhere else where where where you need to be, but we don't own you. We didn't die for you. We didn't shed our blood for you. But if we've labored in this field and had the privilege of watching you come to Christ or come back to Christ, and then we had the privilege of baptizing you and then discipling you, and then all of a sudden, a year, two years later, you're smarter than us. You think you're smarter than me. And now you start to tell me the way it is, and I'm like, oh, god. These these immature teenagers, They just don't have a clue, but they think they do. So now they're gonna be tricked. Now they're gonna be tricked if they're not careful. They're gonna get off course. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, children. Be careful how you use it, you know. And so you you have to be so incredibly patient in those situations where where, alright, they're gonna stub their toe, they're gonna they're gonna wind up having to learn the hard way, you know. And so they go out on their own, they're, you know, and all that, and some of them come back and others of them are, you know, they don't come back. Why? Because of pride. They found out. They knew. But because of pride, they won't come back. Because they got all intoxicated and self important and oh, wow. And then they get caught up in the gossip thing of pastor Rick's doing this and oh, he might be that, and I disagree with this and I disagree with that. Well, guess what? Why don't you go plant a church? Why don't you start a bible study and go through what we've gone through for thirty years? And then you come back and tell me how to do it. You come back and show me how to do it, you know? So we have to weather these sort of attacks and and, you know, undermining. You know, if the church is big, it's like the people can't get away with a lot of that stuff. But when a church is small, people are gonna become intoxicated with their self importance and act like, you know, if he doesn't cooperate with me, I'm out of there. Well, do you think I'm shaken? I've done this thirty years. I'm still here, and my objective is to help you to grow, to not be tricked. And if you leave in your anger and your puffed upness and all that, and and you know what it is? It's feelings, it's emotions. The whole world's filled with this this thing that's guiding them that of emotions rather than reasonable, you know, tangible absolute truth. So come on back if you if you wake up to how you've been tricked, and we'll continue to try and minister unto you, but we're not gonna give in to the waves of doctrines and the waves of things that come through the church from time to time. And especially the Dathan Corinne and Byram groups that that wanna take control, and they're trying to take control of the church that Paul has planted here, these these false prophets and the people are falling for it. And so basically, they're saying, you know, I wanna go to a church where the pastor's a celebrity. I wanna mention Jack Jack Jack Jack Jack every chance I get. Yeah. That's where I wanna go. I wanna go where they go to the White House and have dinner. Great. Great. Great. Great. And I wanna do a fan badge on Facebook. I can hit their badge button. And if I play it right, I can send in some money that and I don't wanna say this. This isn't fair. But it does happen. Not to those guys I mentioned, but I can get a hanky. I can get a sweat cloth that Paul wore. You know? They have a signed hanky for me. Well, I tell you to bring a hanky, bring your own hanky. You know? You don't need someone else's hanky. Can you imagine buying a hanky? Buying a sweat cloth from somebody? That just from Paul's sweat cloths, people were being healed. And then guys today have the audacity to sell people on the Christian networks a a hanky? Come on, man. You aren't that shallow. There's no way that I'm going to be a worshiper of man. There's no way I'm ever gonna be an idolater. Kathy, when she was walking on the campus at the bible college at a ladies retreat, a pastor's wife's retreat, all these women are around pastor Chuck, big group of people. You know? I know what that's like. It's it's a tough gig. You know? But we Kathy made a point to walk to the outside. She's just not like that. She's she's just not gonna fawn over someone, you know, in that way. Respect from afar, you're my pastor, all that, but no worship, no idolatry. And she's the one that caught pastor Chuck's eye. He followed her. Why isn't she walking over here like the rest of them, you know? That's how she got me. They play hard to get those good ones. You know? They play hard to get. They're just not gonna give in that easy. So don't give in to it. Don't give in to it. Be be a worshiper of Jesus And and respect their ministry. Respect their their their hard labor and their teaching and all their gifting and all that bit. I mean, we need teachers. We need them. I I've been listening this past week to John McArthur do a few little teaching sessions. Oh, so refreshing. How articulate. How strong hermeneutically. How strong. I don't wanna hear that kind of preaching anymore except at Calvary Bremerton, you know. It's it's so rare. The good guys are dying off and John almost died, but he's coming back, isn't he? Oh, I just love it. I love hearing a good bible study. And then there's so many that I start and stop. It's just fluff. It's fluff. There's nothing there. It's a waste of my time. But, oh, how they prance around, you know? Playing the image, the clothes, the suits, the clown shop, know, the all of it, it's just all an act. The outward emphasis. And superficial shallow, looks like a big church, but, you know, they they go real big looking there, but it's half an inch deep. No depth in the lives of the people. Just superficial. So you get saved from his ministry. How can you be so shallow? It's like when God rejected King Saul, and he's he's really handsome, and he's a head taller than everybody else. And God told Samuel, Samuel, don't be bummed out about this. They haven't rejected you. They've rejected me. And what happened, the people in the time at the particular particular time at the end of the book of Judges, every man was doing that which is right in his own eyes, and they needed leadership. They had leadership. They had a theocracy. God was leading them from Egypt on out to that present time. And they rejected God. They wanted to be like all the other nations. So God says, alright, I'm gonna give you a leader after your guy's own heart, after a human being's heart. Well, I'm gonna give you a guy that tells you all to get bigger pockets because you're gonna get rich. You're all gonna get rich. Isn't that the most intoxicating thing that people know, the devil knows you wanna hear? He's gonna make me rich. He's gonna cut out taxes. Oh, that's intoxicating. That's the guy I wanna follow. And you don't even know what kind of tricks coming, but boy, sounds so good right now. So they get king Saul, and king Saul is not a man after God's own heart, it's illustrated in that God told him to go out and smite all these Amalekites, kill every every last one of them, and don't don't take any of the spoil. The spoil's mine. And he's a people pleaser. He's a real politician. He wants the people to like him. So he allows some of the spoil to be spared so that the people could have it, but he wanted to make it a religious kind of bent toward it so that he can Christianize it and make it acceptable, his disobedience. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna act real religious and sacrifice some of these animals that we're supposed to annihilate and wipe out and old king Agag and we spared his life too and Samuel's gonna do a number on that guy. Right? And so he tells Samuel, hey, I have been obedient. I have been well, what's the believing of that sheep in my ears? Oh, the people. The people. Oh, and by the way, we were gonna do this for God. We did it for God because we're gonna worship God by. And Samuel told him, obedience is better than sacrifice. Don't think that you go into church and going through the motions satisfies a just and a holy God. Your righteousness is filthy rags. He'd rather you live a life of obedience than to follow-up your obedience with a ritual mechanical act of worship. That's not true worship. That's religion. He wants your heart. And the way he knows he has your heart is obedience in the little things. And confession when you blow it like I blow it every day. I have a straight line to him in my confession. He hears me every time. Never never puts me on hold, but I'm not gonna try and cover my sin. And so then the Lord told told Samuel, you know, king Saul's torn. He's he's not gonna be my king. Go over to the house of Jesse and anoint the son of the house of Jesse as my king. So he starts out with Eliab in first Samuel 16 verse seven. Eliab's a real tall dude, good looking dude, the eldest son of Jesse, who's got eight sons. And he goes through the whole list of sons all the way down to the last one. You must do you have another son? God's rejected these seven. Well, I've got an eighth son, but he's just a little shepherd boy, and he's out with the sheep right now. Go get him. We're not even gonna sit down till you bring him here. And then they bring David, and David's described as ruddy and good looking, but most importantly, it wasn't the outward. It was his heart. And God says, man looks on the outward. Yeah. Men can be tricked. Men can be tricked by the outward, but God looks on the heart. God's always after the heart. God wants your heart. Doesn't matter what you look like outwardly, you're not living in California. This isn't Hollywood. You be who God's made you, your body style, your hair, whatever you want, doesn't matter. It's the inward, it's character, it's godly character proven through trials that glorifies God as you go through trials and the Lord is able to show the brightness of your love for him. It's not the outward brightness. It's not the tummy tucks and the plastics and the face lifts and the hair plucking and all that other stuff. If a bar needs painting, paint it. Go ahead. Put some makeup on. That's fine. If you're a guy, don't put makeup on. If you're JD Vance, take the mascara off. You're embarrassing me. What's with the mascara? Come on. Oh, you're a Catholic. Okay. Go ahead. Wear the mascara. But if you're from Calvary Chapel, don't be if you're a guy, don't don't call it manscape and all feminine. Come on. Grow some courage. Show us some scars. Show us some some hands with calluses on it. Something. Mind boggling. How soft. I don't even put on lotion on my skin. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm mister lotion. So David's a man after God's own heart, and that's what God's looking for. And these people are being tricked by the outward emphasis of the culture, and and so too we. We are so tricked, so incredibly deceived by the by the outward. And so the Christian community is just as shallow. We've got the whole Hollywood image consultants, the press agents, the promoters, the fluff cell gullible people. How glamorous is Jesus? That's where we have to bring everything back to. How glamorous was Jesus? Did Jesus attract people by his outward beauty? Did he stand out from everybody because he was a head taller, more beautiful than everybody else there? No. In Isaiah 53, we're told that he has no form nor comeliness, outward beauty that we would desire him. And certainly, not after his crucifixion where in Revelation five, he's still bearing those scars. He's disfigured by the beating he took. You ever see a celebrity disfigured standing up in front of people? Do you think the anti crisis is gonna be disfigured standing up in front of everybody? No. He's gonna appeal to the outward. The GQ, the gentleman's quarterly. Right? I used to have that magazine. I'm glad I got saved because who knows what would've happened to me, the path I was going down. He wasn't feminine. He wasn't a metrosexual. He wasn't a transvestite. He didn't have those little pithy stories and fantasies and fables and this moronic idiotic stuff that comes out of the mouth of these guys that call themselves pastors today. But the people love it so. The churches are huge because they're superficial. So why do the people like it so? Because these guys never convict them by teaching the word. There's no conviction. What do I mean by conviction? When you go through the bible, you're gonna look in a mirror and you're gonna see that you're a sinner. In these big churches, you can't do that. You might offend them. Don't you know these people are so important? And it's not their fault even, so I better have 20 counselors on staff to just listen to them. In a bible teaching church, when Jesus speaks, Jesus says they're gonna hate me. They're gonna and they're gonna hate you guys too if you if you take my word to them, they're gonna hate you too. You're in good company. Why do they hate Jesus? Why do they hate you? Because they're convicted. Because God's word convicts them. God's word exposes that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God's after their heart. He doesn't want them coming in superficial and filling all the seats up with unbelievers and the pastor's afraid of offending them. So the pastor has to prance around as Peter Pan. Pixie dust out of the sky. They do that. Vicky told me she went to a church. They had pixie dust coming out of the vents. Tinkerbell flying around. And wait till AI gets involved. Wait till they have more and more technology to to entertain people, holograms and things like that. It's off the hook. We're just simple. A simple gospel, the simplicity that's in Christ. Through the foolishness of preaching, through the foolishness of the message preached. This is foolish way to communicate through a sinner. He could communicate much better through angels. Right? But he chooses fishermen. He chooses broken people to fill with the holy spirit and to communicate a very simple gospel. It's not complicated. But when you're trying to deceive people, you've gotta come up with con after con after con. Might call it a harbinger or from Jonathan. I don't know, but con after con after con. Tracks attention. Doesn't come true, but it sold a lot of books, and it never convicted anybody. That's the key. Don't make them feel sad about their sinful condition. Well, bible says godly sorrow leads to repentance, not to be repented of. A worldly sorrow doesn't lead to repentance. A worldly sorrow is like Judas going out and hanging himself because his plan didn't work. A godly sorrow is like Peter going out and weeping till he can't weep anymore, but coming to the place of repentance. That's a godly sorrow. And that's a result of confrontation with the truth. Jesus looked at Peter. Peter denied him three times just as Jesus told him, and then he gave him a look, and it wasn't a look of condemnation, but a look of, Peter, I'm not done with you. And Peter, I'm praying for you. Satan desires to sift you as weep, but I'm praying for you, Pete. I'm praying for you that your faith fail not. When the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Paul's objective here is to build up these people's faith. He wants to enlarge them, enlarge their faith. He isn't there to steal anything from them. What are the false prophets there for? What do they want? Well, in exchange for not convicting you, in exchange for making you feel good about you and your sinful condition, I just need a check so we can go do good deeds. How big a check? Oh, it's it's it's infinity. It's infinity. We're never gonna cover it all. So every week, there's gonna be all these opportunities for you to fix the world. And when we get it fixed, Jesus is gonna come back. Another false doctrine. Enter into a golden age when we get it all fixed. And the people love it so, James Jeremiah five. They just love it so. Butterfly kisses everywhere for everyone. How glamorous is Jesus? He has no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. But what about the devil? What about Satan? What about Lucifer? In Ezekiel twenty eight seventeen, we get a picture of part of Lucifer's problem. Thine heart was lifted up, which speaks of pride. Because of what? Because of thy beauty. Man, I tell you, heart is lifted up because of your outward beauty. Some of you really beautiful people have a cross to bear. You gotta fight that pride. You gotta go out and be beaten with an ugly stick so you can be proud, you know, humble. But life has a way of beating it out of you, doesn't it? It's not a beauty contest. It's not a means of people wearing costumes to stand up in front of people. Character matters. God sees the heart. Verse eight, for though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, they're undermining Paul's authority, which the Lord has given us for what's why did God give Paul this authority? For edification means to build up a construction term, to build you up in the faith. And not for your destruction, the thief comes not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Jesus said, I've come that you might have life that you might have it more abundantly. We're here this morning to build you up church, not tear you down, not condemn you, to point you to Jesus. He said, upon this rock, I'll build my church. God wants to build you up. You're the church. And he knows your individual unique problem that you're facing today, and he's the only one that has a solution. He's the only one that can fix you and put you back together. Jesus. Not me. Not my programs. Not my ideas. Not something I'm gonna sell to everybody. I do have some gummies that I wanna sell. They're pretty if you're stressed out, I got some gummies. So we don't need God's peace anymore. We've got chemicals. We got drugs. We got whatever, you know? It's crazy, isn't it? Edified to build up. To help me be a man, to help me be a father, to help me to be a husband. I'm grossly inadequate. Cathy definitely could have done much better. But for some reason, she still loves me. That's a God thing. Only God can do that. You can't make it work without God. We're a fallen people. We're a broken people. Might last for a time, but then you go online and you get tricked, you get seduced, you get into an area you shouldn't be. Now you're leaving the wife of your youth because you're an idiot. Because you got no brain in your head. You've been tricked. And you're gonna try and justify it, and you're gonna try and sell it, and you're gonna go listen to a counselor, and the counselor's gonna say, did your mommy hug you enough? It's your mommy's fault. And she's dead. She's not even here to defend herself. And you won't look in the mirror and take stock. You won't take responsibility for your sinful lifestyle, and you haven't been attending a church where the pastor has enough guts to tell you what a wretched sinner you are. So you've been led to believe that you're the center of the universe and that you make your decisions on your terms, and God's gonna have to accept it. Really? You really that big? You wanna fight with God? You wanna lie to yourself? Want me to help you think properly? How about I take you to first Corinthians chapter six? Be not deceived. You're deceived. Know ye not that their unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters. What category you fall in? Nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor the abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, drunkards. Have I did I leave anybody out? Shall inherit the kingdom of God. And here's the good part, and such were some of you. That isn't who you are anymore. Such were some of you, but you've been washed, washed in the blood of Jesus. You're not gonna go back to the pigpen if you've been washed in the blood of Jesus, are you? That's not who you are anymore. You've been sanctified. You've been set apart. You've been made holy. That's not you. That's not a believer. That's not a Christian. If you find yourself there, here's a word you can't mention in these shallow churches, repent. What's it mean to repent? To turn from your sin. Come back to Jesus. Confess your sin. Confess that the word of God is correct. Absolute truth. And that pastor wasn't trying to destroy you and your marriage. He was trying to help you. He was trying to build you up so you wouldn't be susceptible to the lies that are being circulated on the internet and social media, television, and every other facet of society that we live in. It's a filthy society. The only hope you and I have of making it through to the day that Jesus gets us is to be men and women of the word with the help of the Holy Spirit because we're gonna dry up and shrivel and have no power at all if we neglect the building up that comes through the study of God's word. And the holy spirit undergirden and strengthen us. Holy spirit speak in our heart, giving us ears to hear. He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. The church has become dull of hearing. Christians are dull of hearing. They're looking for pastors with itchy ears that'll tell them what they want to hear. We're not going there. Jesus isn't for sale. His church isn't for sale. We're not gonna sell Jesus out. We're gonna hold him up and honor him and and worship him by teaching the truth. And those that can handle the truth, those that love the truth, gonna want more truth because there's security, there's peace, there's joy, there's a blessing in being embraced by God's truth. To edify that I may that I should not be ashamed. Verse nine, that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. I'm not trying to terrify you. I'm trying to reason with you. God's saying to the his his his own people, the nation of Israel in Isaiah one, they're really religious. They're going to synagogue. They're offering sacrifices. And the Lord says, come now, let us reason together. We wanna reason. He's a reasonable God. It's your reasonable service in Romans 12 verse two to worship the Lord. To offer yourself as a living sacrifice is reasonable. He's a reasonable God. Use your reasoning faculties. Think. Think. Not existential humanism. It's not feelings. It's thinking. He made you in his own image. He made you with the ability to think, to know good and evil, right and wrong, up and down, male, female, black and white. Come now, let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet, they'd be white as snow. Though they'd be red like crimson, I can make it less wool, white wool. I can wash and cleanse you of all unrighteousness. That's the hope. That's the good news. The bad news is all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The good news is Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, especially for those who appropriate that free gift, especially for those who believe. So it's not to terrorize. It's only a terror to those who are perishing. Only a terror the good news, only a terror to those who refuse to repent. It's a terror to those in the tribulation period who find out that all their polyanic plans aren't working. The utopian golden age is is God's wrath being poured out upon it. And there's no place to hide from the wrath of the lamb. And when the two witnesses are executed publicly, they show their heart by throwing a party in Revelation 11. And then when they're resurrected up, when they're ascending up to heaven, the two witnesses, Uh-oh. And they don't even care about the utt oh. They don't even care. They're gonna continue to party and shake their fist at God and rebel against God. Oh, how the heathen rage and imagine a vain thing against the Lord and against his anointing? They're gonna try and stop Jesus from returning. That's how insane unbelief is. Aren't you so thankful the Lord removed that unbelief from your heart and gave you faith to believe? And that you find it easy to believe in him even when you can't figure things out intellectually? There's faith. And this faith is a confidence that you have in him, that he's on the throne, he's in control, and you trust in his word. You know that if he spared not his own son, but willingly gave him up, how shall he not with him freely give you all things eventually? It's not terror except for those who are perishing, except for those who are refusing the good news. Jesus took the terror upon himself. He says, verse 10, for his letters say they, so now they're gonna critique his letters. They're gonna critique his sermons. Their letters are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. Now they're looking for oratory skills. They're looking for sermonettes for Christianettes and, you know, hit it like a bull's eye. Get it done in fifteen minutes or less, you know. And and use big words and big concepts and big ideas. And yet when COVID happens, these big shots shut their churches down, take the jab, and hide like little sissies they are. And guess what's happening now? I'm getting reports, and if you get reports about pastors dying and pastors getting myocarditis and stroking out, how much more the people in their congregations? And I'm getting reports that couple pastors I found out this past week are stroking out, hauled out on gurneys. One of them's in rehab right now trying to come back from an almost fatal heart condition. One common denominator, the jab. Anybody here regret they didn't take the jab? On my watch, did I try to beg you to vet it, to research it, to look at it, to make sure? Didn't I even wear a doctor smock so that I could break so I could break that spell that you have that a guy in a white smock that Obama put out there for Obama health care on the White House lawn is a is a lie? It's a means of deception? I tried my best. I even had the stethoscope, the whole thing, and when I'm in this pulpit wearing this man, it's the voice of God. And now doctors, pastor Kevin told me that his doctor begged him to take the jab, and Kevin begged him not to. And now his doctor's sick, and his patients are sick. And his doctor's telling Kevin, I wish I'd have listened to you. See, you have that. You have that sense of discernment. And that that's a glorious thing. That's a good thing because you're gonna need it even more in the days and weeks ahead. Because we're living during a very deceptive time. And I'm asking Jesus for wisdom. Give me wisdom, Lord. People are asking me questions presently, and I'm like, I don't know. It's so convoluted. It's so chaotic. I can't quite make sense of it right now. I think the dollar's collapsing. I think we're going to a reset, a whole new digital currency. Everybody's getting a license to be able to fly. They're conditioning us. And the state of Washington's mandating that no more religious exemptions next time, so that kinda tells me they're planning another one. And that tells me that a lot of you are gonna move away again to Texas and all these places. Yeah. The free states. And I'm gonna be left here with all the dregs of society. The true Christians. Right? Holy huddle. But I mean, it's not over. There's a lot to learn, a lot to discern, a lot to resist, a lot of evil to resist, but I love being on the side of truth, let me tell you. And when we had the daycare, we had cameras everywhere because I was so afraid a child be molested, and nobody ever was. And in this church, I didn't want anybody to die from getting the job. I did my best. The only thing more tragic of dying for a a lie like that or because of a lie is to die without Jesus. I don't want anybody to die without Jesus. So we warn people. We plead with people. For the letters say they are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. So the critics, they like immature children, they poke fun at Paul's appearance and speaking ability. I I've experienced this when I was grossly obese. Yeah. It happened. People used to poke fun at me. Pastors poke fun at me. But man, I have such a confidence inside here. I knew who I was. Nobody could shake that. I knew what it was on the outside to be body beautiful when I was younger, and I knew that adulation and appearance opens a lot of doors, but I also knew the shallowness of that type of Christianity. The Lord began to show me how much more important it was for the inner man rather than the outward man. So it didn't matter to me at a certain point of how much weight I gained, especially after I got injured and and didn't know how to manage it anymore. So I sat and sat and sat for over twenty five years and drank huge Breve Mochas all day at the coffee house and no exercise, and I had that l four, l five thing going with the sciatic enormous pain. So I just got bigger and bigger, and I can show you the before photos. But when diabetes started clicking in, I got scared. I'm really scared of doctors. So I began to do the treadmill and cut out sugar, and 80 pounds came off. And then we reconfigure our bodies by lifting weights, and so now I would say to these false prophets, everybody like, alright. I may not be as good looking as I used to be, but how much do you bench? You know? How much you bench press? You know? Don't have to talk a whole lot. You know? You don't have to say anything. Just lift the weight. I did that to one guy. They they were making fun of me about how old I was. Don't go there. Don't ever go there how old I am. I don't take senior discounts. I don't identify as an old guy. Kathy's like, he's old. No, I'm not. I don't want no senior discount. I will tip you more if you don't. And these guys are telling me to get on the treadmill because it's gonna be hot, and and we're gonna wear a bulletproof vest and, you know, and all that. And I know what they're doing. They're making it sound really dangerous and all, but they're gonna be laying by the swimming pool on the weekend. That's funny. It's true. They offered they offered that for me. But I said I said, no. I wanna get home to Kathy. I wanna get back to the congregation. I wanna get back. I'm not playing games. It's a mission trip. Well, you better get on the treadmill because it's really hot and sweaty and, you know, we're really worried about you. You're old. You know? So I I took a I told him I told him, I said, I I I I'm on the treadmill. I work out five, six days a week. I'm good. And then one of them chimed in, yeah, and he posted on Facebook, and they all started laughing at me. So I took me bench pressing 300 pounds, a video, and I posted on Facebook, and I named him, hey, so and so, how much you bench? I could only keep it up there for about a day because he was so embarrassed. In compassion, I pulled it down. So that's real strength. Real strength is a quiet strength that you don't have to bring it out front and show everybody. You keep your mouth shut. One of the other things to look for is if you see a woman with ear lobes, her ears are just really crushed. She's in jujitsu. You better be really nice to her. Look for the earlobes. They are crushed from all that on the mat and hammering and stuff. So don't don't mouth off. Don't be mouthy. I mean, prove it, you know. And so I know danger sells, and I know marketing. And I could go wear a bulletproof vest and talk about all the danger. But what are you like day by day? What's your character like day by day going into the shipyard, your jobs, and 03:30 in the morning? That that's that's a warrior. That's a spiritual warrior. Providing for your family, living the Christian life under the radar, not advertising it for everybody. Going public when you have to, but for the most part, 90% of it's under the radar. Some of it can't be hidden. I mean, it's hard to hide these good looks. I mean, it's it's just it's just out there. What can I do about it, you know? So so Jesus wasn't g q enough. These guys are all over it. He says, such a one think this that such as we were in word by letters when we're absent, such will we be also indeed when we're present. So he says, you know what? Paul's saying, you guys are undermining me? You're saying I'm just strong in letter and a poor speaker and bad, you know, speech. Till I get there. Like Arnold, I'll be back. That's what he's saying. I'll be back. That's what he's saying right here. I can see it. Do you see it? That that hermeneutically, that's exactly what that Greek means. I'll be back. Or another way, game on. When I get there, it's game on and we'll see who's got the goods. I'll bring it. An approved ministry bears fruit. The false prophets were undermining Paul's ministry by criticizing the outward. Secondly, comparing themselves with others. The comparison game. I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas. When I was younger Christian, had a real hard time with this. This is Things you have to admit, I had a real hard time comparing myself to other pastors, other Christians, other people. And I did a lot of whining. Lot of whining. God, why? Why are you blessing him and not me? Why, God? You know? And Kathy, she says, you need a little cheese with that wine? You know? She never lets me get away with it. Why are you whining? You're a sissy right now. You know? Because I still start to do it, but she corrects me. And, it's in my nature. It's it's inside there. And I heard one guy say that, you know, you need to die to Christ and dead men don't whine. So if you're still whining, you're not dead. You're whiny whiny about why are you so whiny? That's what she says to me. She says, you're a dumbass, you know. And she says, that's biblical too, Rick. That's biblical name. So I don't you know, that's the woman God gave me to help me overcome this selfish, whiny, sympathy, sympathy comparing to everybody. He says, for we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves. Of the number, you know, the James and John, the guys James, the brother of Jesus in Jerusalem of the number, the heavy hitters, the the heavies. Paul says, whatever they were, they're nothing to me. They didn't do anything for me. You know, he's not one that's gonna worship these guys. He's gonna bring it. He brings it. He's not even gonna be overwhelmed by Peter's majesty. Peter, your your hypocrisy, Peter, you know, when the when the heavies aren't there, when the Jews aren't there from Jerusalem, you're eating with Gentiles. But when some of the heavies come down, you disassociate yourself and move away. And I I told him to his face, Paul says, you know, your hypocrisy. But even Barnabas was caught up in it. Paul's all indignant about it. With some that commend themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. What's the measure? What's the standard? Jesus is. Not other people. It's unwise to compare ourselves among ourselves. The flesh loves recognition. The flesh hires press agents and promotional agencies to hype your image for your adoring fans. I gotta develop a fan base. I gotta make a brand. It's no longer Jesus, it's it's my name, it's my brand. Pastors want to become celebrities and that's why Rick Warren had all these churches change their names. Do you know there used to be AOG church here, Baptist church there, Calvary Chapel, that city. Now it's you gotta rebrand. You gotta come up with a name that's more conducive, more inviting, you know, for the seeker, for the unbeliever because the crosses and those names, what it'll what it what it's what it reminds people is it's your grandparents church. And the kids, the young people, they don't want your grandparents church. So we're gonna do a hip new cool thing. We're gonna drink beer with the young people. Well, that's nothing new under the sun. Your old grandpa drinks more beer than you ever thought of drinking. He just didn't do it at church. He's not that big an idiot. But you guys are gonna try and brew beer and drink it at church, you idiots. You're not attracting anything except ridicule for Jesus' name. There's no lasting power in that. You're gonna cause people to get DUIs and get drunk. You're gonna cause wives that have husbands who drink way too much to quit when it gets hard. It's a facade. The flesh loves recognition. Churches wanna build that brand. They wanna become celebrities. There's competition in the marketplace, and it demands that we stand out from among the masses. Like in my favorite movie, Nacho Libre. Nacho wants to be the best, better than everybody. Verse 13, but we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God has distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. Jesus is the standard. We all fall miserably short in comparison to Jesus. John the Baptist, his boys came to him in John chapter three, and they said, hey, Jesus. Or excuse me. Hey, John. Cousin John. Cousin of Jesus. Hey, John. You're the baptizer. You're John the Baptist. Well, you know that guy that the holy spirit came down upon? You know that guy that you baptized? He's over there with his boys baptizing a little way over there, you know, in the Jordan. How could he dare do that? You're the baptizer. And John says, no man can receive anything except at first be given to him from God. So here you are comparing and you're angry. I mean, when I came to town here to plant a church here, I was taken out to lunch and told, you don't belong here. We got it all covered. Well, nobody was in Bremerton. Why not Bremerton? Well, we got it covered. We got it covered. So you got, you know, you you gotta be careful. There's that competition. You're the baptizer. And then John said, he must increase and I must decrease. It's about Jesus, not about me, not about my brand, not about my cult, you know, it's not a cult, but not about my following. I'm the forerunner. I'm to get people ready for Jesus, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. John knew his role. And yet, John, like you and I, when he's put into a situation that's irreconcilable mentally, he's in prison. He's John the Baptist. He eats locusts and wild honey. He's a man of the wilderness, and now he's confined to a jail cell. For what? For letting Herod know that it's illicit for you to take your brother Philip's wife, Herodias. Illicit to who? The Romans, the Greeks? No. To God. He's calling them out for being an adulterer. And Herodias, a woman scorned, she's not gonna stop till she has the head of John the Baptist on a charger with a hemi in it. No. A charger's a plate. And so John's a little confused at that point, isn't he? Now he's wondering if Jesus is the one. Because in his mind, he's thinking Jesus is gonna overthrow the Romans, and we're gonna get this show started. Are you the one or should we search for another? And his disciples went back to John and John the Baptist and told him what Jesus said, hey, tell him the gospel is preached to the poor, the blind see, the lame are walking. You know, tell him the fruit of my ministry. Remind him. It just was John's time to go home to be with the Lord is what it was. And then later, John James and John, the brothers, other cousins of Jesus. James is executed by Herod, and he turns into worms a little bit later, Herod. Chapter 12 of the book of acts. And John's allowed to live. And John's allowed to live so long that when Jesus is meeting them as they're fishing in John 21, Peter says, I'm going back to fishing. I'm going back to my old trade. And Jesus told him before the cock crows, before this night's over, you're gonna deny that you even know me on three different occasions. Children come and dine and he's got fish for them to eat in the breakfast in the morning after fishing all night. Cast your net on the other side. They're loaded with fishes. Deja vu to when he first called them three three and a half years earlier, I'll make you fishers of men. They're contemplating going back to fishing because Jesus isn't there with them anymore. And he appears there, and he focuses on Peter. Peter, do you love me? Feed my lambs. Peter, you love me more than these feed my lambs. You know I love you, Lord. And there's a play, if you wanna look at the words, there's a play of agapeo and phileo. Do you love me like a brother, or do you love me the spiritual love, the unconditional love? You know I love you like a brother. Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. And then Jesus goes on to tell Peter, Peter, when you're young, you went wherever you want. You're rocky and you can go anywhere. But when you're old, another's gonna grab ahold of you and take you where you would not. And then John gives a commentary signifying what death Peter would die. Peter would die the death of crucifixion. He would die like Jesus, and yet tradition tells us when he was being smuggled out of Rome that Jesus, he saw a picture of Jesus, he saw a vision of Jesus walking back into Rome. And he asked the Lord, where are you going? I'm going to be crucified, and Peter got it. Peter, you're my man. You're my witness. You're gonna go be crucified. And Peter told his his tormentors, his executioners, I'm unworthy to die in the same manner as my Lord upright. Crucify me upside down. That's tradition, not in the bible, but tradition says that's how Peter was executed in Rome. And so Peter says, in comparison to John the beloved, the one that puts his head on Jesus' little pillow right there, little Johnny. Well, what about him? And this is where I I love I love this play of words there because we're always so worried about the other guy. We're always comparing about the other guy, competing with the Joneses. You see the new car they just got? You hear about the sound system that church got, man? What a sound system. You know? Look at their parking lot. Look at their new building. You know? Pastors are like that. You know? Hey. How big's your budget? You know? Very important thing to pastors because it's a big deal. When I hear that big deal, I think of VeggieTales and COVID and how easy it was to tell people about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It's that simple. Just trust the Lord in the midst of the trial. It's that it's that big a deal. It's really simple. Becomes a child. What about him? And Jesus said, if I will tell you, if he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Jesus saying, quit comparing. I have a unique plan for you Peter. You follow the plan that I have for you. You be who I've made you. You grow where I planted you. Don't worry about the other guy. You're all gonna be rewarded for what? For faithfulness. Just be faithful to what God has called you to do. There's no person out there that's more important than you. No person out there that has a greater calling than you. You all have a unique calling. So Jesus saying, what is that to you? Follow thou me. You follow Jesus. Follow him. Keep your eyes on him. Get your eyes off of other people, other ministries, other whatever. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Are you in God's will? That's all you need to worry about. I have a friend of mine. We talk often, haven't talked this much since I said this to him, but I know he's busy. Dear friend, sometimes I do it to him, sometimes he does it to me. Monday mornings are a wine session. We don't drink wine, but it's, how was Sunday? How'd it go? Did you get a lot of people? Was there a lot of people there? You know? And you start going through your whole list as a pastor about Monday morning. And I just like to picture George Bailey. We made it another day. You know? That's how I look at it. We made it another weekend. Praise the Lord. We're still in business. You know? We're still at church. And but anyway, he's going through his whole thing. And then you go into the other churches nearby and certain people and things going on and heard this about that pastor and how big their church is in California and blah blah blah blah, you know, going all over the world with it, you know. And and I finally said to him what I have to say to myself. Do you like being Rick Bodrey? I love being Rick Bodrey. I love who I am. Not that I'm in love with myself, but I love who God is making me. I don't want to be anybody else. I like being Rick Bodrey. And I finally had to come to that place that what a blessing in getting to be who I am, who God is making me. I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm a grandpa. I get to preach the gospel. What a blessing. Why would I ever wanna be somebody else? There's no other one like me. So I need to be me. Godliness with contentment is great gain. You brought nothing into the world, you're gonna take nothing out, you know, and let your life be without covetousness. We can covet all sorts of things. The Lord has promised he'll never leave us nor forsake us. Right? You've got Jesus. He's your portion forever. I don't belong in this pulpit. I don't belong in a marriage of over forty years with Kathy. None of that is a entitlement or a rite of passage. It's by God's grace. It's because of his mercies being new each morning. And I appreciate the tremendous mercy God bestows upon me every day, or I wouldn't make it. If he gave me what I think I owe, he owes me, If I ever got in that in that place of wanting justice and fairness and you owe me. Really, Rick? You want me you really want what you deserve? Oh, that's a bad place to be. There's a whole lot of negativity, a whole lot of bad stuff that I might receive. So I'm thankful as I'm getting older. When I was younger, was much more driven and had to accomplish and achieve and all those sort of things. And now, he just wants me to be a worshiper. I'm there to sit at his feet and to worship him and let him do what he does. Let him build his church. Let him minister to his people in this community. This is where he's called me. Hasn't called me anywhere else. This is the place I belong. I don't need to compare. I don't need to strive, sweat, and try and force things, and manipulate things, and strategize, and market, and brand, and figure out a way to grow his church. He said, upon this rock, I'll build my church and the gates of hell not prevail against it at his church. And except the Lord build the house, they that labor, labor in vain that build it. Psalm a 127. God's building you up. That's my objective to see you be built up. Not look over you and worry about who's not here. I'm concerned about you that are here. And when a couple people leave because of sin in their life, my heart breaks and I pray for restoration. I pray the Lord restore them in their marriage and help them because that was my objective was to build them up, make them strong so that wouldn't happen. When I hear about it happening, it breaks my heart. Those that leave because they're better than me, they found someone better than me, The door swings. Thank you for the three years I got to baptize you and minister to you and pour into you. Now you found someone better or you're better? If you wanna come back, you can come back. I don't worry about that one. It's the ones who get ripped off. I wanna restore them. I wanna help them get back on track. I don't wanna leave it to somebody else. Don't get caught up in playing the compare game. Comparing themselves among themselves is not wise. Let your lifestyle be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for his promise he'll never leave you nor forsake you. Jesus is your portion forever for all eternity. An approved ministry bears fruit. The false prophets were undermining Paul's ministry by one, criticizing the outward. Number two, comparing themselves with others. And number three, competing for ownership. Whose sheep are you? Who do the sheep of Corinth belong to? Paul gave you a picture there in Acts 20 concerning the Ephesians elders, the pastors that were there, whom he has purchased with his blood. Oh, they're blood bought. They belong to Jesus. So who are you pastor? You're just an under shepherd. He's the chief shepherd. He's the great shepherd. He's the good shepherd that laid down his life for the sheep. So you take heed how you oversee this flock because wolves are gonna come in from the outside. Some emanating from within, some from the out, not sparing the flock. So you as a shepherd need to identify the wolves in sheep's clothing and protect the sheep. That's your job. But they belong to him. They're not notches on your belt. They don't you don't sign them up with a whole membership list and if if you like that, go for it. But you we don't own you. And in many cases, when you leave, we don't call you and try to talk you into coming back. And we don't call the pastor of the church you're going to say, do you know that I baptized him? Do you know that he got saved under my ministry? They belong to me, man. Never get that from me. They belong to Jesus. And he's got your name in his book of life. There's freedom here. It's freedom. You're free to come. You're free to go. Don't want anybody to feel like they're owned somehow, and oh, I'm gonna get the stink eye from the pastor if I this and, you know, his wife if I see him in public, you know. We saw a few people that used to attend here at a movie the other night, and we did big hugs and and love on him and all that, but, you know, I don't need an explanation. Are you doing how are you guys doing? We're doing great. That that's it. You don't need to explain anything to me. I don't own you. It's between you and God. Verse 14, for we stretch we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure as though we reach not unto you for we are come as far as to you as also preaching the gospel of Christ. So he's saying, the pretenders were delusional. They're boasting beyond themselves. They bore no fruit in Corinth. These people that come in, they bore no fruit. They're building on another man's foundation. Paul's ministry reached to these people of Corinth. He planted this church here. He says again in first Corinthians nine for two, if I be not an apostle, they're undermining him as an apostle unto others. Ye doubtless I am to you church of Corinth. I gotta be an apostle to you. You were saved under my ministry. Why do you reject me now for the false prophets? How quickly people forget eighteen months of dangerous labor for them. When you're planting a church, especially in a small community, there are a lot of danger. It's difficult. It's a hard road. It's hard to plow. And there's lots of sacrifice involved. So now the pretenders come in as settlers not wanting the difficulty of pioneering. So think about people that went from the East to the West. Do you think the fields were ready to to plow? Didn't they have to remove the trees and get rid of the weeds and get rid of the rocks and prepare all the soil and a whole arduous difficult thing to even get to a point of having a harvest? And all the weather and all the other difficulties and all the people not wanting them on that land, know, they have to fight off and all. And so many people will wait for the revolutionary war to find out who wins before they decide what side they're on. Less than 10% will fight the good fight. Some wealthy will go up to Canada waiting to see who's gonna win. And then when it's clear that Washington and his boys won, now you're an American. You're gonna wear a MAGA hat and get rich. Did you fight the good fight? Were you fighting every step of the way to secure the land? Big fight in front of us. Right? If you're in Texas and they're wanting to put in Islamic city there, Do you recognize the fight? Do you recognize, first of all, your constitution that provides freedom of speech and freedom of religion? How about that? The cults have just as much right for their religious expression as we do of orthodox Christianity. So the difference might be assimilation. Will these Islamic groups assimilate and become Americans or will they enforce Sharia law? There you go. Now your constitution should be able to protect you. But as far as a community and a mosque, if you let it go like in Europe, they'll take over the whole place, won't they? But how's your brand? How's your brand of Christianity? How's your moving and working by the Holy Spirit resisting evil? Are you doing your job resisting evil? Are you the restrainer? Can Muslim groups come into a vibrant, strong Christian community? No. Only into a vacuum. Only into a vacuum where there's no power. The church in Europe died and it's Islam filling the void left by an apostate Christianity. All you need to do is crank it back up, worship king Jesus, and you give people a choice of Jesus or Allah. Who do you think they're gonna pick? Jesus. Only way Allah works is Sharia, dominance, the sword, the tax. Christianity wins because Christianity is true. And all over Iran, the fastest growing churches in Iran, they see through the fallacy. So in Texas, plant some churches around there. Give the people an opportunity to meet Jesus. I had the privilege of ministering to a guy a couple years ago at the gym that was a Muslim, and he was really coming after me trying to convert me. And he took me out to a all you could eat smorgasbord, and he went broke. But I mean, he tried some things. And then all I all I had to do is just share with him the gospel and share with him out of the old testament. He was so he was so mesmerized at the working knowledge of the book of Genesis with Abraham and and everything. He just hadn't run into Christian like that. It was easy. It was just so easy. And then at Christmas time, as it's approaching, it's a great time to share the gospel, sharing about the babe of Bethlehem and the lineage of Jesus and just going through it. He almost went insane. He had to go back to Egypt where he's from and go meet with his spiritual leader, and a spiritual leader said, don't talk to that guy anymore. He went insane, resisting the holy spirit. Why would I be afraid of him or anyone else like him? They don't have the truth. We have the holy spirit. So be who we are. Our function presently is to restrain evil, to restrain the coming of the antichrist. The antichrist can't come on the scene till we're raptured. We're salt and light. We're preserving the good. We're staving off the corruption, the putrefying of our culture by being Christians. The light shines, the darkness flees. Not boasting of things without measure that is of men's labors, but having hope when your faith is increased. Isn't that a great idea? Your faith increased? That we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly. They're lacking faith. They're not in the word. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Paul wants them to mature. He's gonna talk about in chapter 11 how he's worried of them that just as Eve was seduced by the cunning serpent, so they would be seduced from the simplicity that's in Christ. It's really simple gang. You've gotten off track. The intruders came in and were boasting about the field that Paul planted, watered, and watched God bring an increase in. Paul never built upon another man's foundation. He wasn't a sheep rustler. He planted. Verse 16, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our to our hand. So the apostle Paul, he had his eyes on Spain. He had his eyes like in Star Trek to regions far beyond, you know. He wasn't he wasn't concerned about places where there are already churches. Now, Spain was an outlying area where no missionaries had gone yet. Never gone before. So he's wanting to get out of Rome and out of the jails, and he's wanting to go and reach the outer reaches to him, which was Spain. That was his missionary strategy. He wanted the Christians to grow up spiritually and co labor with him and reaching those in Spain with the gospel. Isn't that a great idea? But he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. So there's only one thing you guys can glory about is the Lord. So he's quoting from Jeremiah nine, let not the rich man glory in his riches, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his mind, but him that glories glory in this, that understands and knows me. Do you know Jesus? You can boast in Jesus. I was blind and now I see. I was a wretched man and God saved me. That's what you can boast in. But you don't boast in men and you don't self boast. You don't give a boastimony, you know. You might have a testimony, but not a boastimony. You give the glory to God, always the glory to Jesus. Otherwise, we'll refer you to first Bolonians and or second Hezekiah, something like that. For not he that commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. And so remember who you are. Remember in first Corinthians, he said, for you see your calling, brethren. Who is Rick Baudry? How that not many wise men after the flesh. Is Rick Baudry wise after the flesh? No. Only wisdom I have is what God gives me. Not many mighty. No. He's not mighty. He's he's pretty wimpy. Not many noble. No. I don't come from nobility. I'm a mixed bag. But God has chosen the foolish things. There you are. There it is. That's the majority of us. But God but God has chosen, you didn't choose me, but I chose you. God has chosen the foolish things of the world. Why? To confound the wise. The wise are looking at you and I like, you crazy people. God chose you? At one time I had an m r MRI when I first came up here from my back, and the doctor interviewed me for a second there, and and I told him how I came out of I used to be clean carpets and stuff like that, and now I'm a pastor. And he goes, how's that work? How do you go from being a carpet cleaner to be a pastor? Because he's a doctor, you know. And I said, I don't know. I'm just walking by faith. I could have given a sermon about fishermen and harlots and the kind of people God chooses, you know. Confounds the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound things which are mighty, and base things of the world and things which are despised has God chosen you, and things which are not to bring to not things that are. That no flesh or glory in his presence. There's no boasting, no glory. When God uses people, he first breaks them. If you are strong, he's gonna break you. He's gonna empty you. You're gonna be crippled. You're gonna be walking away, changed from Jacob to Israel. God's gonna use you. You can be Moses and be eloquent and great for forty years in Egypt, you're gonna spend forty years in a wilderness being emptied of Egypt, emptied of the world. And when you're 80 and too old, you're not too old for God, you're gonna spend the next trimester, the last forty years of your life leading the people out of Egypt. And Stephen's gonna give a commentary on you in Acts six and seven, and he's gonna say, and Moses, who was eloquent in speech, when God meets you in Exodus four, you say, I got a speech impediment. I came and talked. You're so empty. You're so broken. And God has to remind you, as a God of creation, he's the one that put the tongue in in that mouth of yours, and you are gonna speak Moses. You are gonna speak Jeremiah. Even if you think you're too young, you're gonna speak. You're gonna tell them what I put in your heart to say. Because I've chosen you, and I've ordained you before I formed you even in your mother's womb, Jeremiah. I've chosen you. And Gideon, you might think you're the least in your father's house and your father's house the least in the kingdom, but you're a mighty man of valor. You're a warrior. Even though you're a threshing weed in a wine vat and you're getting all those husk all over your sweaty forehead because you're not above where the Midianites can see you and where the wind can blow the chaff away, but you're a mighty man of valor because I see the potential when you finally get it. That's what God's saying. Not many wise, not many mighty. He's chosen the foolish things to confound the wise. Paul knew their opinions of him were irrelevant. Do you like that word irrelevant? You guys are irrelevant. The church is trying to be relevant. Their opinions of you Christians are irrelevant. Doesn't matter. All that matters is what does Jesus think? What does he want? And the unbeliever, his opinion of me is irrelevant. I'm not trying to be relevant to you unbeliever. I'm trying to be biblical. It's simple. A child could understand. You're a sinner in need of a savior. Jesus is the savior of the world. He died for you. He loves you. He's praying for you. He ever lives to make intercession. The ball's in your court. We're not gonna be a worldly church, a lukewarm church to try and make you comfortable in your sin. What you think is irrelevant. Not what I think. What we think is relevant. What we're doing is relevant if we're biblical. If we have a biblical worldview, it's relevant to God. Paul knew their opinion of him was irrelevant. Sometimes we're too worried about the opinion polls. Paranoid about what other people think of us. Oh, I got more friends on Facebook. Oh, they like me. They like me. I'm the flying nun and they like me. Political correctness. Colossians three twenty three, and whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. Knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. Live to please Jesus. To hear Jesus say, well done now good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm gonna make you ruler of much. Enter into the joy of the Lord. That's what you're waiting to hear. Be faithful. If he gives you 50 people, Charles Spurgeon would tell the pastors as they're comparing their ministries to his with 10,000 people in London. And Spurgeon would say back to him, he had a school of ministry and all, he'd say back to these young pastors, if you've got 50 people to stand before God and be held accountable, that's a lot of people to be held accountable for. God's gonna hold the pastors accountable. Beware of false prophets, Jesus said, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits, their actions. An approved ministry bears fruit. Is your life bearing fruit? Are you abiding in him? Are you abiding in Christ? If you're abiding in him, your life is gonna bear fruit. All you need to do is be connected to Jesus and your life will bear fruit. You wanna disconnect from Jesus and kick him out of the church Laodicea and have him knocking on the door saying, let me in? You can think that you're rich and increased with goods and you have nothing, but he says, no. Your true condition, you delusional church in the last days, apostate church, is your naked, poor, blind, and miserable. That's really, spiritually, you're empty. You're empty spiritually. And if the Muslims come in, they're gonna take your country over, and there's nothing you can do about it unless you let me back in and connect to me. In John's fifteen four, he said, abide me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. No more can ye except you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit for without me, you can do nothing. But I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And that's who I'm banking on, that's who I'm trusting in, that's why I'm looking to the author and the finisher of my faith that he's gonna complete this work that he's begun. Hence, faithfulness. Whatever the Lord's put in your sphere of influence, just be faithful. Be who he's made you. Don't worry about the other guy. Don't compare. Don't get caught up in that starlet idolatry of Christian celebrities. It's not who Jesus is. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was in the world, the world was made by him and the world knew him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Do you believe on his name? Anyone here not believe just yet? You don't know Jesus, you don't have a relationship with Jesus, but you want to? You want to receive Christ in your life? Just lift your hand up. We wanna pray with you. Anyone here this morning? This is your opportunity. Ivan told me about a family member of his that they're unbelievers, and four days ago, the husband got in an automobile accident and died. He doesn't get a second chance. It's appointed unto all men once to die and then the judgment. I don't have any secret words or comfort at a funeral of an unbeliever. I I can't go beyond the scriptures. It's appointed unto all men once to die and then the judgment. But I can turn to those who are still alive and say, if you died today, where would you spend eternity? Based upon based upon Jesus. Have you received Christ in your heart and life? Or have you rejected Jesus Christ? There's no neutrality. You're either for him or against him. You're the believer or you believe not. You're either gathering with him or you're scattering abroad. Will you confess him before men? Will you confess him now? If you confess him now, he's gonna confess you before his father and the angels of heaven. If you deny him now, he's gonna deny you before his father and the angels of heaven. Let's pray. Father, we come before you, and Lord, we thank you for saving us. We thank you for choosing us. We thank you, Lord, that your hands are all over us. And Lord, I I just so enjoy knowing that the only true peace and safety, the words peace and safety that in first Thessalonians five that the worldlings are gonna hear. When they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes. But for us, Lord, we're presently living in peace and safety because our lives are wrapped up in you. And we know a peace that surpasses all understanding. Our mind is stayed on you, Lord, and we so appreciate the fellowship that we enjoy with you in a in a world that's filled with chaos, in a world that's deconstructing to bring in the b system. Lord, we have peace. We sleep real good at night. We're not worried about this world. Heaven's our home, and you're coming again, and all the prophecies are lining up. Everything's coming together just as you told us ahead of time. The only thing left to do, Lord, is to share the glorious gospel with those who are perishing. That's all that matters. People are perishing. This might be their last day. And Lord, we lift up Ivan's family, those that have to, in the next few days, deal with the death of a loved one. We pray, Lord, that you seize this opportunity, that you send Christians to to plant and to water, and God, bring an increase of souls of people. Give open opportunities to Ivan and and Donna, and Lord, we lift up those who are sick and their families so too, how close they are to death, and Lord, let it be an opportunity to share the hope that is ours. To be absent the body, to be present with the Lord, for me to live as Christ, to die as gain, heaven is better, that's our hope. Pour out your Holy Spirit, Lord, save now. Give us opportunities. Give us open doors that no man can shut to share the glorious gospel today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
