Transcript for:
Galatians 3:1,5 -Bewitched- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2025-08-10

Galatians three one through five. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth crucified among you. This only what I learn of you received you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Are you so foolish? Having begun the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministers to you the spirit and work with miracles among you doeth doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Father, thank you for your holy word and we're just so blessed to be here this morning, Lord, to hear your word, to study your word, to get to know you better as you reveal yourself unto us. Lord, we thank you for the scriptures. We thank you, Lord, that they're a light unto our feet, unto our path, that we not walk in darkness, not walk in the ditch. And Lord, with all the different voices out there, with all the different AI technologies and this enormous amount of demonic deception out there, Lord, we pray that you would help us to lead and guide us into all truth, Lord. We don't wanna we don't wanna be deceived, Lord. We want discernment. We wanna operate and move and live in the power of the Holy Spirit. So Lord, be our teacher this morning. Disciple us, build us up, strengthen us in our faith. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Would you please be seated? I'm already under attack. Excuse me. In chapters one and two, the apostle Paul's argument for the gospel, he personally preaches the gospel personally given to him. He said it wasn't from anybody else, but by Jesus, directly from Jesus. In chapter three and four now, Paul will now argue from a doctrinal standpoint. He will prove the justification and sanctification, big words, theological words, but very important, in the life of the believer is a free gift from God received by faith alone. Paul begins chapter three by asking six direct questions of the Gentiles. He seeks to reason with them concerning their desire to assist God in justifying and sanctifying them. He will contrast works versus hearing, law versus faith, and flesh versus the spirit in hopes that they will see that they have been bewitched and recognize that they were denying the truth of the gospel delivered to them. They denied three things. Number one, they denied the presented evidence. Notice verse one. Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whom whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth crucified among you. This word foolish means to be spiritually dull. I've met a lot of these people. Not using your mind. Senseless senseless people, delusional. And you guys know what I'm thinking right now. You know what I'm thinking. I don't wanna say it because some of you still are trying to protect them, but boy, I'll tell you. Flat earthers, man. Where did you get that stuff, you know? Why bring it in here? You know, where where are you going with that? And I know we lost a bunch of people because, oh, he's mean. But you know what? You're dishonoring God. You're dishonoring my Lord. You're dishonoring his word. Shame on you. Shame on you that you support somebody going down that stupidity, you know, senseless, idiotic, foolish. Who has bewitched you? Delusional thinking. I mean, we're not that stupid. You're not supposed to be involved with Harry Potter as a parent raising your kids. You're not supposed to be involved with Dungeons and Dragons. How stupid are we? You're not to be involved in the occult with the AI technology and chat g p d GPT. You're smarter than that. You should be. You shouldn't be given into that. The whole world's gonna be given over to a strong delusion by God because they reject the truth in second Thessalonians two verse 11 during the tribulation period. You don't you don't wanna be in Romans one denying the God of creation, and he says, professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. Oh, foolish Galatians, who's bewitched you? Involved in idolatry, involved in homosexuality, and and lesbianism, and and men with men, and women with women in Romans one, and and, you know, and with animals and all. You know, and the reason is is God gave you over that way because you rejected the truth. You rejected the truth of creation. The obvious revelation that God is a God of love, that he's a God of creation. And you deny that, and you worship and serve the creature rather than the creator who's blessed, then God says, you know what? I'm gonna give you over to a strong delusion. Not just not just there in Romans one, but in second Thessalonians two eleven in the tribulation period. People doing some really silly things, foolish things. You remember when Jesus was resurrected from the dead and he's walking down the road, and there's two guys there walking down the road of Emmaus heading toward Emmaus, Cleopus and his buddy. And he says, oh, and he's going through the scriptures and he's expounding the scriptures, all the scriptures concerning himself. And they're gonna conclude, did not our hearts burn within us? Burning hearts. You want a burning heart? Study the scriptures. Study the word of God. Go through the word of God with a fine tooth comb wanting to know Jesus, to discover Jesus. Mind the treasures of God's word getting to know Jesus. And he says, oh, fools. Can I use that word? I saw this guy on Facebook, this pastor, and he's like he's like a clown, you know, trying to make it really fun to come to church, you know. And I'm like, I can't see myself doing that. That'd be like me wearing a dress. I wouldn't do that, you know. And I'm sure he doesn't use this word, old fools. That might hurt somebody. And and they love to use these words. These broken people, we're there to fix you. Well, we're all broken. You don't have the market on broken people. You don't have to try to pacify and give them a pacifier for broken people. Help him to grow up. That's the best thing you can do for him. Quit lying to him. Quit pampering him, you know. It's kinda cute when they're just a baby, but, you know, guys, he's 36 years old now. Put the bottle down. Quit letting them play the blame game. And so Jesus said, oh, fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Are you believing all that the prophets have spoken? Are you those that Peter described as scoffers in the last days? You're a fulfillment of prophecy. Peter said that there'd be scoffers in the last days. Saying where is the promise of his coming? Everything continues as it always has. That pastor Rick's always talking about the rapture, about Jesus coming for his bride, the church. But you know what? I think I'm just gonna, you know, be like in the times of Sodom and Gomorrah and the times of Noah, eating and drinking and getting married and giving in marriage. Business as usual, you know. Everything continues. Slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not God to have suffered these things and enter into his glory? And beginning to Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. His his appeal to the two on the road to Emmaus is an appeal to think. Think for a minute. Who's that big black lady that sings that song? Think. You know, think about it. He goes there. I think it's I think it's Belushi, John Belushi and them guys. Aletha. Yeah. Aretha Franklin. We should play that right now. Think. Think about it. An appeal to think, to reason through the scriptures, you know. God, he can't take it. She can't take it. I'm I'm such a child, you know. Those things come into my head. It's not in my nose. It just came into my head. I can I can see it, you know? I can see Tina Turner stomping her feet saying, what's love got to do with it? I can see it, you know. The Bereans were more noble in Acts seventeen eleven because they didn't just go along with it. They searched the scriptures to see whether those things be so. Think for a minute. In Isaiah one eighteen, God says, come now, let us reason together. God wants to reason with you. You're a thinking person. You're made in the image of God. You're not a robot. You're not a robot. You you have the ability to think. So use your faculties to think, reason, you know. And so come now let us reason together, though your sin be as scarlet, be white as snow, they'll be red like crimson, God will make it as wool. You know, come to the cross, come to Jesus, come to the true living God. Quit trying to do it through idolatry. Worshiping of idols, nation of Israel. An appeal to think to reason through the scriptures. This word bewitch means to subject a person to an occultic evil influence, to cast a spell, an evil eye, to to fascinate. Now as a grandpa, I like watching The Jungle Book. I love The Jungle Book. The other day, I put on for Ruthie and then I put on, Bambi, you know. And I'm watching Bambi with him and and, and talking about Little Flower and, you know, Thumper and what do your father say, you know. And I'm going through it all with him. I love being a grandpa. But The Jungle Book's one of my favorites. And so I see Mowgli, you know, the the young young boy, and he's he's accosted by Ka, this big serpent, this big snake. And Ka puts his coils around him, wraps him around him, and then takes his eyes, and he captures Mowgli's eyes, and he's in a trance. And he starts singing trust in me, just in me, you know, and and it's getting there. Or like when you're driving home and you see the deer in the headlights, you know, and, they're they're they're grabbed, they're they're they're stuck. I'm told that a cobra or some of these snakes when they when they put their eyes toward a mouse, the mouse just stops, can't move. Bewitched, caught under a spell. And sometimes I look out in the audience and blink a minute. Blink, blink, you know. You're under a spell. I don't I don't know what's happening, but here here hey, wake up. Wake up. What's happened? Where's your head at? Get your head back here. And so the jungle book, great great trust in me. Mowgli's just like there. The Mowgli's gotta be rescued, know, by Begira and and all that. And so are you bored with the truth? Is that why you're venturing into other things? If you're in a church that doesn't teach the bible, if you don't read the bible, then you become bored with Jesus. We're tired of manna. We're tired of the bread of life. We're tired of Jesus. We want something fresh, something new. Tell us new things, you know. Tiddle lady new things and these guys that try to do that, they have to keep coming up with false radical doctrines and programs and entertainment to try and keep the people interested. For you and I as Christians, we're interested in Jesus. We can't get enough of him. And so as we as we study his word, we like Cleopas and those on the road to Emmaus, as we study the scriptures, our hearts do burn. Our hearts burn within us. We can't get enough. He's our portion forever. So we don't wanna ever settle for the alcohol. We don't wanna ever settle for the bewitching of the times we're living in, a very demonic occultic times, and go away from the truth of God's word. Only 2% of churches today teach biblical doctrine. Only 2%. You're in a church that not only believes in biblical doctrine, 70% of them said they believed it, but they weren't teaching it. Why wouldn't you teach it? Because the people, apparently, the majority don't want it. But I think they do. I think there's more out there that do. People getting hungry and hungry for reality, tired of the lies, tired of the fantasy that people are presenting, wanting to see through things. They want authentic as they say, Christianity. The apostle Paul in speaking of the church of Corinth, second Corinthians chapter 11 verse three, you remember as we went through there. He says, I fear, less by any means as the serpent has called eve in the garden through his subtlety. So your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus, three things. If somebody comes along and preaches another Jesus, now Jesus said, who do men say that I am? Everybody's got a consensus. They got a general report of who Jesus is. Oh, he's a prophet. Oh, he's a wonderful teacher. He's a wonderful guy. Everybody's got some sort of an opinion about Jesus of Nazareth. And a whole lot of people today think that they've got more knowledge than Jesus. They've got more pharmaceutical, psychiatric, occultic, sorcery type knowledge than Jesus ever had. Well, no. Then you need to go to the cross, be crucified, buried, and raise yourself from the dead to prove you have a greater knowledge. Because our whole faith rests in the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus. Until you can duplicate that, we don't think you're really all that smart. Professing yourself to be wise, you're really a fool. So another Jesus, and so his disciples said, well, some say you're John the Baptist. You remind people John the Baptist. Some say you're Jeremiah. All that weeping you do, that weeping over the city, that weeping over people, the brokenness that you watch, the hard heartedness, that weeping there. Yeah. That reminds us of Jeremiah, the forty years of him weeping over the nation of Israel, and nobody listening. Nobody listening. Forty years of ministry, and like one convert. Jeremiah the weeping prophet. You remind us of Jeremiah the weeping prophet. Others said, oh, you remind us of that prophet, the one that Moses was saying one day would come. And then Jesus narrows it down. Who do you not the consensus. Who cares what Tucker thinks? Who cares what the media thinks about Jesus? Larry King, whoever it is, whatever talking head there is. Oprah. Who cares what Oprah thinks? What do you say? Who do you say that I am, the great I am? And Peter says, thou art the Christ. In the Greek, the Christ. In the Hebrew, the Messiah, the anointed one. And Jesus said, blessed art thou Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father's in heaven. I say unto you that you are Peter, little stone. And upon this rock, Petra, massive stone. No. Peter's not gonna be the pope. Jesus isn't gonna build his church on the little stone, Peter. I say that you're little stone. I'm the big rock. I'm rocky. And upon this rock, I'm gonna build my church, my church, and the gates of hell not prevail against it. Pretty simple. Right? So they come to you with a different Jesus. You take them to John one, we've taught you. You take them to Colossians one. You take them to Hebrews one, and you take them to Revelation one. Four books, four chapters that prove what? The deity of Christ. If he's not God, we're wasting our time. So you go to first John you go to John, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God, the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. And down in verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt tabernacled among us. And we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth. There's your Jesus. That's who he is. Tabernacling in a body of flesh. The God man, fully God, fully man, the last Adam. The one that's gonna live a perfect life and die in your place. There's your Adam. There's your gospel. Or if they come to you with a different spirit. You look at first John, John will talk about the spirit of anti Christ that's present. People being drawn away from the holy spirit, being drawn away from the true living God, the triumph unity of the Godhead. Jesus said in John chapter five, I come in my father's name and you receive me not. Another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. The world's the nation of Israel is gonna receive the antichrist. They're gonna be deceived. And except those days be short, no flesh should be saved. But for the elect's sake, for the nation of Israel, the Lord Jesus can intervene when the nation of Israel cries out from Petra, from Basra, from Mount Seir, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. They're gonna awaken. They're gonna receive this new covenant, this unconditional covenant, an everlasting love that God has for them. In Jeremiah 31, he's gonna write his word on their heart. That one third remnant that's purified at the time of Jacob's trouble. And then they might come not only with another Jesus, another spirit, but another gospel. And that's what's happening in the church of Galatia. The gospel is being polluted. It's being watered down. You start out believing, hey, salvation is by grace through faith alone, but now I'm gonna be worthy of God's blessing in my life. Now I'm gonna make myself holy by trying to keep the 613 precepts of the Mosaic law. I started out in the spirit, but I'm gonna perfect it in the arm of the flesh. God's gonna change me. No. I'm gonna change myself and and I'm gonna win brownie points and then God's gonna bless me more. So you trusting or you're trying? Are you believing or you're working? You're working? You're working to get better? Every day, I'm getting a little better. I'm reading more of the bible. I'm praying more. I'm going to mass every day. I'm saying three hail marys for our fathers. I'm doing it all. I got holy water all over me. There's no way, you know. And I get cream from Amway and that Amway cream, man, it washes away all my sins. It's really good stuff. I'm in trouble. I know, but I'll see if my daughter's listening. A different gospel. Just a joke. It's just a joke. Which you have accepted, you might well bear with them. Don't bear with them. So you guys are the gatekeepers. If somebody comes along like a snake and tries to seduce your wife, seduce your children, seduce your family, and they're wearing let's say they're wearing a smock, a white coat. I saw a picture of Bill Gates wearing a white coat. Is he a doctor? Is he a biologist? What is he besides a psychopathic, most evil guy in the planet? I've got a white smock. I've got a stethoscope. I've I've got I've got it all, but that don't make me a doctor. Oh, everybody on the lawn at the White House when Obama passed, you know, passed his Obamacare. You got all these people wearing white coats. How do I know they're a what is that? A uniform? Who wears a white coat out in public? Oh, he had a white coat on. He told me the job was gonna be good for me. It's a holocaust, millions of people dying. Nobody wants to talk about it. The church is like Germany today. It's like the Jews are being loaded in rail cars, but nobody wants to talk about it. Just sing louder. Act like it's not happening. There's a holocaust taking place with turbo cancers. The myocard what are people bewitched? Are they under a spell? How did Sony people go along with it? What happened? They were deceived. They were coerced. They were leveraged. They were forced. They were also enticed. The enticement. And you're just like, why? The train is headed toward a, you know, over a cliff. And you're screaming, you're warning, but feel all this doom and gloom. I don't wanna hear that. I'm gonna go somewhere where I get butterfly kisses, where they give me my binky and give me a, you know, a new afghan to wrap around my shoulders, you know. Grow up. So don't go with them. He says in again, oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth. That word set forth, that phrase evidently set forth speaks of a prografo. It speaks placarded, posted, postcards, big billboards are out there. Evidently, Jesus was crucified. It's obvious. It's over the top. It wasn't done as as Paul told King Agrippa. I know that you know about the crucifixion of Jesus. It's common knowledge. It wasn't done in a corner. You know? It wasn't done privately. And Jesus even warned that in the in the tribulation period in Matthew 24, if people say, oh, we found him. He's he's he's in this cave over here. We he's on this certain mountain. No. When he comes back, every eye's gonna see him. He's gonna come in the clouds and it's gonna be so bright that every eye, every tribe, tongue, people, they everyone's gonna see the second coming in Jesus Christ. So don't listen to him. They got the Messiah. They got the Christ. Got wait. We got him over here. He's he's in a bunker. We got him. He's not coming in through the back door. He's coming in straightforward as a lion of the tribe of Judah. He came the first time as a lamb. Next time as Lambo, they better get ready. It's happening. It's public. Publicly crucified. Look to him. Get your eyes on Jesus. Jesus Christ and him crucified right before your eyes. As advertised, as prophesied, as proclaimed by the church. Look at keep looking, looking up when these things begin to come to pass. In Luke Luke, we're told to look up knowing that your redemption draws nigh. And as I said in acts 26, the apostle Paul's preaching to Festus, the governor, and he's he's incarcerated and he's held because there's a huge riot that took place at the Antonio Fortress. And the Hebrews, the Jews are going crazy with him. So the the the centurion had to grab hold of him and and save Paul from being ripped apart, and they they bring him and he's in prison. And so now, Festus, the governor wants to come and see him. And Festus wants some money, some payola to let him loose, but Paul won't do it. And so then, Festus, King Agrippa and Bernice, they hear about it. So King King Agrippa and Bernice, they come on in with all their pomp and glory and all that. Now the apostle Paul's preaching, he's showing them what the Lord told them, open their eyes, turn them from darkness and light, and then the power of Satan unto God that they might receive inheritance through faith that's in me. Jesus said, that's the gospel that Paul was given. And Festus chimes in, oh, your much learning has made you mad, Paul. You're bewitched. You're mad. You've got you lost your faculties. And Paul says, no. I haven't lost my faculties. I've I'm speaking truth in a sober mind. I'm bringing forth truth and sobriety to a world that's upside down, to a world that's crazy. And then he says to King Agrippa, he says, King Agrippa, you know, this this wasn't done in a corner. You know that it wasn't done in a corner. You're well aware of the prophecies. King Agrippa, you believe the prophets, don't you? You believe the prophets. I know you believe the prophets. And king Aggram says, almost, tragic word, almost thou persuaded me to be a Christian. Is anybody almost pregnant? Is anybody almost saved? Is anybody almost in heaven or almost in hell? It's one or the other. You're either with them or you're against them. You're the believer or you don't believe. You're the saint or you're an ape. You're gathering with them or you're scattering abroad. There's no place of neutrality, Pontius Pilate. Every single person has to decide. And king Agrippa, I wish that not only you were almost, but all together, not just you, but both the people you and those that are that that are listening would come all the way that you'd be like me except without these bonds. That's Paul's desire. And he's letting them all know this wasn't done in a corner. This is public, a public execution. Pilate said, I find no fault in him. He knew that for envy he was being delivered, being railroaded in this public execution. You can't get away from the cross. You can't get away even now historically from the crucifixion of Jesus. Our time when we write checks, some of you still write checks. We write checks. Right? We write it '20 08/10/2025, you know. It's ano domini a d. It's not before the common era. BC is before Christ. And odomini is in the year of our Lord. All time is measured by him because he's the most important person of all of history. He's the savior of the world and it's not done in secret, know. And so we look to him. We look up. Jesus told Nicodemus and them in John chapter three, as Moses lifted up in the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up. And what's he alluding to? What's Jesus saying? You know, remember his crucifixion. Remember Moses in Numbers chapter 21 when the children of Israel are taken out of Egypt, and as they're near the Red Sea, and as they're moving in the direction near Edom, where Esau, the brother of Jacob lived. Harry, red guy, big red giants. As they're moving in that direction, the people began to murmur and complain. They complained that they didn't have enough water. They complained that they didn't have any food. They complained that they were tired of this light bread. What's the light bread? The manna. You're tired of Jesus? You're tired of the bread of life? You're bored with Jesus? You're looking for a spicier savior? A spicier religious experience? Something that stimulates your sensory apparatus but not your spirit? Yeah. I want I want the I want the goosebumps, man. I wanna laugh. I wanna cry. I wanna feel it. Well, they're gonna have to keep increasing it every time. They're gonna have to have more smoke machines and, you know, more stimulation to your natural senses. We wanna go beyond the natural senses as Christians. We want to move and work in the power of the Holy Spirit, something they can't do. The world can't do. They can't experience the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is a fruit of the spirit. They can't love what an agape love and unconditional love in their marriages. Their marriages are failing. Marriages are on the brink of destruction upon this planet because people are selfish, because they need the help of the holy spirit to die to self. Allow God to build that marriage. Allow God to be the center of that marriage, the center of the family, the center of raising kids, the center of society. Can't do it without Jesus. We know that. Forty four years of marriage, man, I'll tell you, only by the grace of God. Only by the Lord giving me a woman that can put up with anything and everything because she's in love with Jesus. He's answering our prayers. He's answering our prayers. Lord, help us do this. Help us stay married. Help us be faithful to you and to one another. The world can't do that. They're falling apart. If only they had Jesus, if only they knew that he was their portion forever. Everything changed when Cathy and I came to know Jesus. And nothing this world has to offer has even come close in comparison to simply knowing Jesus? Every day, every moment of every day, walking in fellowship with him. And so the Lord caused fiery snakes to break out, begin to bite everybody. Lot of people are dying everywhere. And then pretty soon the people came back to Moses and they they told him that they were sorry for complaining to him that he brought he's the one responsible for bringing them out of Egypt and there's no food or water here or anything, you know. And we're tired and so we're sorry and please tell God we're sorry that we said to him too. And so God told Moses, take a and make a brass serpent and put it upon a pole. And anybody that looketh, that beholds, when they're bit by a serpent, when they're bit by the devil, when they're bit by sin, oh sin. As Paul says in first Corinthians 50, you know, fifteen fifty eight, you know, oh sin, where's thy victory? Oh grave, you know, where's thy victory? It's been snuffed out. The Lord the Lord, he that knew no sin became sin. God poured out his wrath upon his son. But this serpent, this slithery serpent, Jesus who knew no sin became sin as he hung on the cross of Calvary. And God poured out his wrath upon his own son. So anybody that looks to the tree, that looks to Calvary, Jesus is taking your sin. Jesus is taking the punishment you deserve. So God through Moses is speaking future that brass is a type of judgment that his own son would hang upon the tree, that he would be like the serpent. He'd take on the form of sin. He that knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And God's fully just in punishing sin. Jesus as a substitute, you and I deserve that thrashing. We deserve that punishment. The wrath of God upon us. And so when they look, just look, and he's telling the Galatians, keep looking. Don't take your eyes off of Jesus. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith in Hebrews 12. Keep looking. Keep looking up, knowing that your redemption is drawn nigh in Luke twenty one twenty eight. This do in remembrance of me today. Don't forget the cross. Don't forget. Remember exhibit a. Remember the evidence. He that knew no sin became sin for you. He hung upon the cross of Calvary. They denied the presented evidence. Secondly, they denied their previous experience. What experiences have you had in the past tense as Christians? Was there ever a time in your Christian experience where you were closer to Jesus? More joy, more praise, more blessing in your life? You remember the honeymoon? You remember when you first met him and became married to him, trusted in him? And Kathy and I, when we first became Christians, man, a prayer was barely out of our mouth and God was answering those prayers. And I thought, man, this is easy. How come everybody's not a Christian? And then I made this real pious, self righteous, prideful prayer. My wife and I are married. She's pregnant. We're gonna have a baby. We got our little business. We're healthy. We got a nice place to live. Going to church. She's in love with me. I'm in love with her. It's the first few months of marriage, then I get so self righteous. I say, you know, Lord, I wish you wouldn't answer this prayer, but, you know, Lord, this is really easy. This is this is amazing. I want you to make me the type of Christian that praises you in the midst of the storm. Holy smokes. Should've never prayed that prayer, you know. It's been a lifetime of trying to become that guy. And but praise the Lord. That's how we grow as we go through the storms of life. But it just occurred to me, man, just everything's going my way. What a blessing. But I have to tell you that my walk with the Lord is deeper now. My walk with the Lord is so incredibly precious. And I wanted to get even more so. I'm not satisfied. I I haven't apprehended that for which I was apprehended. I'm pressing toward the mark of the prize, the high calling God in Christ Jesus. I'm not there yet. And I have my huge swings where I fall. But you know what? I don't like being miserable. I don't like the fall. I don't like staying there. I get back up and cry out to the Lord and ask him to forgive me and I get going again. Sorry I'm a complainer. Sorry I'm whining. I begin to thank him. I begin to thank him for the circumstances I'm in. I'm counting it all joy. God God's answering that prayer. It's weird. It's exciting to to be married to someone that's your best friend and in love with Jesus. And together, you get to grow in the grace and knowledge of him. It's very, very exciting. It gets better as time goes on, not worse. If you don't know Jesus, you don't get better. You just become a smarter sinner, a more selfish sinner. People think, oh, I'm getting better. It's like, no, you're not getting better as you're getting older. You're getting more selfish. You're just a better liar now. But as Christians, God's changing us from glory to glory in the image of his son. As we go through these difficulties, he's changing us. He's transforming and changing us in the image of Jesus. So their previous experience, he said, verse two, this only what I learned of you, received you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. How were you saved? What was your experience? Did you get saved through works? Did did you get saved by keeping the 10 commandment by saying those 10 our fathers and hail mary's? Did you get saved by taking a pilgrimage to Mecca, Costa Mecca? Is that how you got saved? Or by hearing? Was it by doing or was it done? Did you hear Jesus say it is finished? Tetelestai paid in full. The work is done. He did the work. Did you believe? Was it through the law? By trying to keep the law? Is that how you got saved? Or by faith, trusting, trying or trusting? The obvious the answer is obvious. He says, verse three again, are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? God, I've got this. Thanks for saving me, but I got this. I'm gonna be the super Christian. You know? I'm gonna have a super turbocharged bible and prayer life and everything. I got this. No. God resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble. Whosoever exalts himself, God's gonna God's reject you. You humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, he'll lift you up. Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Yeah. Through Christ. Your sufficiency is of Christ. Try being a parent. Being a parent is one of the hardest things ever, especially in this day and age. You need God's help. Grandparent's much easier. Walk away. Walk away. Not your job. It's your job to spoil them, rot their teeth in their head. That's your job. How foolish. Sanctification speaks of perfection, maturity. How are gonna get to the place of being perfected, of growing? It's a work of God's spirit just like justification. Justification is just as if I've never sinned. Sanctification, God says you're holy. You have positional, you've justified, you have positional sanctified and that you're you're holy already positionally. But the practical outworking of your life, there's a process. You're being changed. There's a metamorphosis taking place where you're being changed from glory to glory into the image of Christ. God's working in you in Romans five through these trials. He's developing character, Christ like character as you go through the trials and difficulty. He's burning off the dross with a metallurgy figure. He's burning off the impurities that Christ might shine through. But we have a lot of warts. We've got a lot of old nature, a whole lot of things that need to die. And as long as we demand and insist and, you know, I'm demanding God, I'm praying according to the formula, I'm demanding, I'm speaking it, man. Health, wealth, and prosperity. How's that working for you? Are you more like Jesus? Do those guys on TV remind you of Jesus? He says, the word salvation by definition means deliverance and healing. God delivered you. He's healing you. He's making you whole. He's delivered you from the past penalty of sin in the past tense. In the present tense of Romans six, he's delivering you from the power of sin. Sin shall not have dominion over you anymore because you have the holy spirit within you. And in the future tense, you're yearning one day when you see Jesus face to face, you'll know even as you were known. In the future tense, you'll be perfected. But you gotta wait. You gotta wait for the rapture or for death. You're asking the body to be present with the Lord, and you're gonna be perfected in him. In Romans chapter eight, Paul said, all things are working together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Whom he did predestinate, whom he did foreknow and predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son that they might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, he did predestinate them, he also called, pay close attention to the tense of the verbs. Whom he did predestinate, he called. Whom he called, he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified. Glorification means he already sees you in the aorist tense of a completed action. When God sees you, you're already complete. You don't see yourself there yet, but that's where he's taking you. Your positional righteousness, Just as if you've never sinned. And so we see in Romans eight verse 30, whom he did predestinate. God's predestination, he knew you before the foundation of the earth. Jesus is a lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. It's God's idea to save you. It's God's idea to perfect you. Paul says in Ephesians two verse 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. That word workmanship is a Greek word poema. You're his poem. You're his work of art. He's changing you from glory to glory. He's like Michael Michelangelo with a huge block of marble. And to some as they look at that block of marble, they're like, what the heck? But Michael Angelo sees a beautiful angel in there. Not that you're gonna be an angel. But he he can see. He's got vision of where he's gonna go with this. So too God with you. You're just a block of clay. You're just a block of marble. But he's gonna chisel. You're gonna hammer. He's gonna take you on the potter's wheel, and at a certain point, he's the potter. We're the clay. You're his work of art. He might smash you. And if you ever worked with pottery like I did in junior high and high school, Sometimes you have to knead it, to break the bubbles out of it, get the air out of it. You can't put it in the kiln with air. Can't go through the fire, you'll crack. But God loves crack pots, doesn't he? The 30 pieces of silver that Judas used to betray the Lord. For 30 pieces of silver, the religious leaders bought the potter's field with it to bury dregs like you and I. What was the potter's field? The potter, as he's working and it would go through the kiln, these these artifacts, if it was just a slight crack, the unscrupulous potter would take wax like a Bondo in a car in the old days and cover that that crack with some wax, and then try to bring some color to it, and then and then show it in a very dark room. Look at this face. It's in a dark unlit, you know, poorly lit room, and oh, you're looking at it, you can't see the crack. Oh. That's where we get the word sincere. The word sincere, genuine means no wax. Are you sincere in your love for Jesus? If not, the potter would take the cracked pot and throw it into the field. Just throw it adjacent to his workshop, and that's the field the religious leaders bought with the blood money given to betray Jesus. And Jesus takes that field of shards and crack pots, and he says, I can make something of you. I can transform and change you. I can bring a metamorphosis. I can bring a transformation, not transhumanism, not the technology of the world. I can do an internal work in your heart and life. You'll never be the same. That's why we love Jesus so much because he's not gonna leave us how he found us. We're all broken in some way. And Jesus has taken Humpty Dumpty and he's putting them back together again. Have you forgotten that? Or you think, hey, I'm doing pretty good. I can take it from here. God was up on top of the barn, a farmer, and he was wrestling with his faith, having a hard time with his faith. And he was up there hammering nails, and all of a sudden he slept. Do you remember years ago? Years ago, a guy up on top of the Tacoma dome, and he un stripped it, unhooked his belt, and he slid all the way down the roof of the Tacoma dome to his death. Well, this farmer, he's sliding down. He starts praying, God save me. God save me. And a little nail poking up caught the pants and stopped him. I got it. I got it. Don't don't worry. I got it. That's how a lot of us are. I got it. In a foxhole, we need God. He's got our full attention. My wife's divorcing me. He's got your full attention. My husband's leaving me. He's got your full attention. Not gonna play games at church anymore. Gonna make sure we got family devotions now. Make sure that we're men and women of the word because you know what? Emulating the world isn't working. We're worldly Christians and there's no substance. There's nothing there's nothing there. There's no power. And boy, our enemies strong, the world, the flesh, the devil. But greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. Since God's for me, who can be against me? But you gotta be for God. Are you for God? Then enjoy him forever. Yield to him. Yield to the holy spirit. Allow the holy spirit. Spend some time with him if you're in love with him. Get to know him. Hide his word in your heart and watch God transform and change. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove as a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. With a life of worship, ascribing worth unto him. Conformity to the world, anybody can conform to the world. Anybody can compromise. Anybody can grow a church by conforming to the world. We don't want a worldly church. We don't want a worldly a worldly marriage or a worldly life claiming to be a Christian, professing that we know God, but in works we deny him. There's no fruit. We're just like the world. People at work, the only way they know we're Christians is if we have to tell them. They can't see it from the life we live. We're so much alike. Well, Christians, you're supposed to be strangers. You're supposed to be pilgrims. You're supposed to be different than the world. They should look at you as strange. You're a strange one. Yeah. I am. Thank you. That's a compliment. I don't wanna just blend in like a chameleon. Come out from among them. Be separate, saith the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing and I'll receive you. Salvation includes sanctification. God will perfect you. I love this verse, Philippians one six. Being confident, are you confident? Being confident of this very thing, that he that begun a good work in me in 1980, when he saved me that night, when he saved Kathy and I that year, being confident of this very thing that he that has begun a good work in you, that he will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. God's working in me. He's the worker. He's the one doing the work. He's the one that saved me. He's the one that's sanctifying me. All I need to do is yield. Don't rebel. Don't walk away. Don't do it my own way. Yield to the holy spirit. Surrender to the holy spirit. And watch what God does with your life. Watch how he transforms and changes you. Now some of us, we're obstinate. We're fighting God, but we're still saved. You got free will? You say I get to do what I wanna do when I wanna do it. I'm a free moral agent. Yeah. You are. But what if God says, hey. I got a work for you to do. Nah. Get somebody else. I'm busy. I'm busy. That's not something I wanna do. I didn't sign up for that. And God says, oh, yeah? Well, you're gonna ride in a fish for a few days. I got a fish for you. You wanna ride in the fish? I didn't ask to ride in the fish. Well, throw him over. It's my fault. Now you become Jonah. You're in that fish, and man, you go to the depths of hell in that fish. And guess what? God's just made you willing. So is he sovereign in control? Absolutely in control? How's he work with your free will? Can he make you willing? Yeah. He can make me willing, uncle. Little pain goes a long way with me. Just a little. Just a tiny bit. I don't need a whole lot of pain to correct me the direction I'm going. Older you get, the more pains you're getting. Boy, my prayer. Oh, lord. Lord, help me. Have you suffered so many things in vain? Is it all that suffering you went through is just for nothing? If it be yet in vain, so as as Christians, as Galatian Christians, you know, there's a certain amount of suffering associated with being Christians. When Paul was stoned at Lystra, he went right back into Iconium, Derby, and Lystra area of Galatia, the Galatia churches, and he said, we he's just been stoned and left for dead. He stands back up. He goes right back into those cities and he said, we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. It's to be expected. If they hated me, Jesus said, they're gonna hate you. Did you go through that? Did you go through those trials initially when you became a Christian? For the Jews, for the apostle Paul, they would have a mock funeral. You'd be ostracized from your family. There's a great cost associated with being a Christian as a Jew and as a Gentile too. You became marked. You became public enemy number one. 6,000,000 Christians were killed in the first two centuries of the church making sport of it. Did you go through all that for nothing? Are you now made perfect, you know, by the flesh? Was it for nothing That suffered you'd experience your experiences that you've had. Has your experience been for nothing? What happened to the joy of your salvation? Where'd that go? Once you start working, you lose the joy. You started out joyous. You knew you couldn't save yourself. Filled with joy. He forgave my sins. Now you're trying to make yourself better following a list of do's and don'ts. Somebody imposed upon you. You listen to them. Now you're bewitched by them. You need to reject them and walk in the freedom of God's word because the letter of the law kills. The spirit gives life. Walk in that liberty. Reject those nonsense heretical people. Don't come under their spell. Don't come under their sway. Where's the joy of the Lord? The joy of the Lord is our strength. When did it become work? Oh, god. I gotta go to church tomorrow. I gotta listen to that guy till about 12:00. He's so boring. We'll find another church. Find one you can be excited about going to. And you know what? Don't always blame the guy in the pulpit. It might be you. It might be you're not in fellowship with Jesus and there's not a thing I could say here that would be interesting to you. You're just working. You're just going through the works. You you don't have a relationship with Jesus. But you wanna blame me. Oh, too much bible. Well, not enough bible. You got a three and a half hour movie schedule. Oh, that gets me going. Yeah. I like movies. What about the word of God? How much time do you spend in God's word? So so I am the reject. So what about you? Do you spend time in God's word? Do you have an affinity for God's word? Do you have a love for God's word? Do you spend time in prayer? If you're in a marriage, do you spend time with your spouse? Or is it a relationship from afar? How close do you wanna draw to Jesus? Do you have ears to hear? Can you hear what the spirit's saying? Why is it the person next to you is riveted and it's life changing and transformational, but for you, you could take it or leave it? Maybe you better look into the mirror. Maybe you better examine yourself to see whether you're in the faith or not. Lest you be a reprobate. Those are hard words, but I'd rather you examine it now than one day hear the Lord say, away from me, I never knew you. You that practice iniquity. I don't want you to have a false sense of security because of somebody's false doctrine. I want you to know that you know that know that you're saved, and I want you to live it out in such a way that the joy of the Lord is your strength. That you're walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. Your life's being transformed and changed regardless of the outward circumstances. Happiness is happenstance. Joy is not predicated on circumstance. Joy is a fruit of the spirit. We'll get to there in Galatians five. But these guys were bummed out. They're Debbie Downers. They're drinking too much lemonade. They're sour. Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. In Jeremiah two thirteen, my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. They're working. But then they they can't hold the water. They can't hold the refreshment. They're losing their refreshment because they're working. They're they're just religious. They don't have the walking relationship. The Lord says, you know, in in Isaiah one, he's saying you're you're you're going to church, you're going to temple and all these sacrifice, it makes me sick, you know. I don't I don't want all these blood things. Your heart's not in it. Church of Laodicea, you're lukewarm. You're indifferent to the things of the spirit. Jesus said in John seven thirty seven, if any man thirst any man if any man thirst, let him come into me and drink. He that believes in me as the scripture said out of his belly shall flow torrents is the word, rivers of living water. God flowing in your life and out of your life. As a Christian, you can be like the Dead Sea. There can be a flow into your life, but you're not operating, you're not exercising, you're not serving the Lord in any capacity. You might be a prayer warrior, and that's your capacity. That's your function in the body, and it'll be very, very satisfying to be a prayer warrior. Nobody knows you're that prayer warrior, that intercessor, but there's great great satisfaction in sitting at the Lord's feet and worshiping him and interceding in prayer as Anna did, looking for the consolation of Israel waiting for for Jesus as Simeon did, as Mary did, sitting at Jesus' feet. But to be idle, to not be connected, to just go through the motions, you're like the Dead Sea. There's a flow in but no flow out. You want vibrant life, a flow in and a flow out. Be being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit coming in and flowing forth from your life as God has called you. Has someone bewitched you? Are you still flowing in the spirit? Having begun in the spirit or you're in the flesh now, church of Galatia? You remember in acts chapter eight that chapter seven, Stephen was stoned. On into chapter eight, the church spread out, began to spread the gospel everywhere. In chapter six, there was a an altercation of fight, a argument over distribution of the the goods, the food, and sustenance for the for the poor that were there because the apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus, he was wreaking wreaking havoc upon the church. People are losing their jobs and ability to provide, and so the church became very poor. So in chapter six, the Hellenistic widows, the Greek speaking widows were complaining that they weren't getting the proper distribution of of goods and stuff. So the apostle said, you know, we're not gonna give ourselves to this business, the distribution of goods to make sure it's fair, because we're gonna give ourselves to the word of God in prayer. So you guys choose seven men who of honest report, filled with the holy ghost and with wisdom to put over this business here. So two of them, one was Stephen who just got martyred in chapter seven, and the other one was Philip. Philip the evangelist. Ain't that great to be an evangelist? Who had four daughters, and these daughters were prophetesses. I love Philip. And Philip in chapter eight, he's blazed away from from Jerusalem. He's gone down to Samaria. The Samaritans were the half breeds. They were those who were Jewish mixed with the Assyrians, intermarriage. So the Jews didn't like the Samaritans, that's why Jesus spoke of your neighbor being the good Samaritan that did the good stuff, just to kinda goad them guys, you know. And and so anyway, Philip's there and he's preaching the gospel. And of one accord, the people in Samaria are coming to Christ. Demons are being cast out. The those with the palsy, those that were lame in their feet are being healed. And everybody's all stoked about it. They're getting really excited about it. And then they're reminded of this guy in their town, Simon the Sorcerer. And Simon the Sorcerer was a great man in all those people's eyes. A man that threw sorcery that bewitched the people. And then he saw he saw Philip laying hands on people. He saw actually Peter and John came down when they heard about the revival taking place and they these people came to Christ and they laid hands on him and they received the gift of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Simon or Simon y is Simon. It says that Simon came to Christ. I'm not sure, a big old thing there. And Peter's looking into his heart, he's full of gall and bitterness. And he said, you know, you you think your thought process that you can purchase the gift of God and you can't purchase, your money perish with you. So Simon the sorcerer is one in the occult that bewitched the people. Who are you listening to? Revelation nine twenty one, there was no repentance of the sorceries. Revelation chapter 18, the Babylonian city, the city of Babylon, was deceived. The rich of the world deceived the people through their sorceries. The people, the nations were deceived. You could look at Harry Potter. You could look at Dungeons and Dragons. You could look at chap GPT. There's so many different ways for Christians, quote unquote, to invite the occult into your home, in your lives, in your children's lives, and for them to be bewitched. To come under the sway, come under the control of the wicked one. So bewitched, they define the they denied, excuse me, they denied the presented evidence, they denied their previous experience, and thirdly and finally, they denied the powerful endowment. What if you've been endowed with a you're a plutocrat, a huge inheritance, but you were living like a pauper, a street person on the street, trying to do it yourself. But God's got this huge endowment, this huge gift, this huge source for you to tap into. They've denied that endowment. They're living worse than when they were in the world. He says, verse five, he therefore that ministers to the spirit and worketh miracles among you, doeth it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. They were denying God's power in their lives. His endowment, that word ministers means, it means to supply abundantly and with great generosity. It's used to those that donate to the arts underwriting the cost of the production. It's also used of a groom as he's going to take care as he vows to love and to care for his bride. So this ministry, this supply is in the present continuous tense. You never run out. This ministry, this ministry of God by his spirit is in the present continuous tense. You're never gonna run dry. You're never gonna lack power as long as you stay connected in John 15. I'm the vine, you're the branches. Stay connected to Jesus, and his life will continue to flow through you, and you will bear fruit, much fruit. To supply abundantly. Our groom promises to supply his spirit, not just the indwelling, the work of the holy spirit is within and upon. So with the holy spirit comes alongside you, the Paracletus, to convict you of sin. Of sin, of righteousness, and judgment of sin, Jesus said, because they believed not in me, of righteousness, because I ascend to my father, of judgment because the prince of this world is judged, the devil. So that with, the holy spirit comes alongside Rick and says, Rick, what this guy is saying with the gospel is true, you're a sinner in need of a savior. Bears witness with my spirit. Boom. I'm converted. I'm turning. I'm saying yes. I'm surrendering. That's the with. When I say yes, when I turn, when I cry out to God, be merciful me, the sinner. There's the end. The holy spirit comes in me. I'm no longer a body and soul. Now I'm body, soul, and spirit. Nicodemus, you must be born again. Bambi, you must get up. Must. Imperative. Can't do it in your own strength. Gotta be born again, born of the spirit. And then, a few months later, I'm down in Balboa. I'm going there this week, Lord willing. And we're in this upper room and there's this woman going around, and I'm a brand new Christian. Not married yet. Cathy's a brand new Christian. I'm even she's newer than me. And this woman's laying hands on us, and she's praying going around the room. I didn't know what was up. I've been to some afterglows and some things at the camp and stuff, but this is kind of a whole new thing. And she begins to pray over me, prophecy over me, and I believe the prophecies I heard that day were in line with me being here right this moment. And the Lord came upon me that I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and I couldn't stop smiling for two weeks. The evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not speaking in tongues. Although Lord gave me the gift of speaking in tongues. Do you wanna hear it? No. Just kidding. I'm Pentecostal, man. You wanna hear it? The baptism of the Holy Spirit, the evidence thereof is love. That's the fruit of the spirit. Love is the fruit of the spirit. And I was so jazzed, so excited about Jesus and being in love with him that my cheeks hurt. I couldn't stop smiling for a couple weeks. I'm like Moses when my face was aglow, man. So as it started to fade a little bit, when I started looking at myself and getting bummed, I put a mask over my face so people couldn't see the departing glory. Worked for Moses. So what about that? Do we still operate in the gifts? Do we still operate today? Are we denying our endowment? Was it a one time thing to save you and then you're on your own bud? Or is he there to continually supply unlimited supply of himself to empower us through cancer, to empower us through divorce, to empower us through prodigal children, loss of job, loss of health, whatever it may be that life lays out for us, we have no control over. Are we still able to tap in? Are we still able to flow in the power of the spirit and regain perspective that this light affliction is but for a moment, and it's working a far more eternal weight of glory while we look look not at the things which are seen, but things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal. The things are not seen are eternal. Do we have an eternal perspective? An excitement of the soon return of Jesus. He's coming soon. He's almost here. This is the worst it's ever gonna be for us as Christians. The best is yet to come. Is that where we're at? Not just the indwelling, the evidence of your past experience of conversion. In John 20 verse 22, Jesus, after his resurrection, he met with the disciples and it says, he breathed on them and say it unto them, receive the holy ghost. This is the indwelling. The disciples received the indwelling of the holy spirit at that point. They're born again. Right there. At conversion outlined by Paul in verses two through four, the indwelling as we're here. Verses two through four, he's outlining the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit. And then he says in Luke twenty four forty nine, so they've already received the indwelling. Right? Now he says, behold I send the promise of my father upon you, epi, within and upon. The preposition epi in the Greek is upon you. With, in and upon. He says, I send the promise to my father upon you, but Terry in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. So he's been with them for forty days, nights. Now he's ascended to the right hand of his father, and he tells the 120 to wait in this upper room for the promise of his father, for the Epi experience. Pentas 50. On Pentecost in Acts chapter two, the Holy Spirit's poured out upon them and the church there in Jerusalem. Yeah. And they're speaking in tongues and all that. And, you know, Peter, his shadow people are getting healed and a a guy lame for forty years, silver and gold have we not in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk, you know, as Peter and John are walking by. Great miracles start to happen. 3,000 get saved, 5,000 get saved, revival's breaking out, all as a result of the outpouring of the holy spirit. God emboldening this early church. You know, we took knowledge of them that they were ignorant unlearned men in acts four, the religious leaders, the professionals. These are ignorant unlearned men. They don't have the gifting. They don't have the schooling, you will, but they've been with Jesus. That makes all the difference in the world. Right? They've been with Jesus. You've been with Jesus. You are with Jesus. Endued with power from on high, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. You can't do the work that I have for you unless you be endued with power. I'm not gonna send you out there powerless. I'm gonna send you out there that you have the holy spirit, a greater power than the devil, And all of darkness, greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Since God before you, who can be against you? You rely upon me. Don't do it in your own strength. Jesus said in acts one eight, you shall receive power, dunamis, dynamic power when the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you're gonna be my witnesses, martyrs. You'll be my martyrs. You're dead men walking, the Holy Spirit working through you. In Jerusalem, first of all, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost. That's my calling upon your line. That's the great commission. Go and make disciples. You can't do it in the arm of the flesh. Jesus said, without me you can do nothing. Paul discovered I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. His grace is sufficient for me for his strength's perfected in weakness. I can be buffeted by the devil with physical infirmity. I'm relying upon the Lord. I'm not relying upon my brilliance as salt of Tarsus. It's God working through me. It's the Lord. Within and upon. Verse five, he therefore that ministers to you the spirit and worketh miracles among you, do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Lord, we want this person to be healed. Lord, we're gonna keep all of us have have written on this piece of paper here that we're gonna keep the 10 commandments for a week now, for ten minutes, for how about a minute? You're lying. You're lying when you sign that. No way you can. Impossible. So what God's saying, yeah, let's make a deal. You guys be holy. You guys keep the 10 commandments, that kind of holiness according to the letter of the law which kills. Not the holiness which is predicated upon reliance upon the spirit, the finished work of Christ. You guys perform, and then I'll heal that person. You show me that you're worthy of a healing. You guys go to fasting and prayer and and work it out. Work it out. Not that fasting and prayer, this kind goeth not out, but through prayer and fasting. But the prayer and fasting should not be a working, it should be an emptying of ourselves and and drawing near to the Lord and allowing the Lord to do the work. The cutting away of the flesh, the cutting away of all the things that take us away from the Lord, our phones, all that stuff. So you set all that aside and you get serious about intercessory prayer. Are you praying like a dying man? The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. If you have faith as a little mustard seed, you say this mountain, be thou removed, cast in the sea, nothing be impossible for you. And yet we still pray, not as I will, but thy will be done. Trusting in the sovereignty of God. But we go the distance in praying and intercessory and asking the father to do the work. Which of you fathers, if your son asked for bread, would you give him a stone? If he asked for a fish, would you give him a serpent? I think little Toby, got to hold him this weekend. Got to hold that little guy. Give him a laugh and scratch at me. If he was wanting, papa, I want a fish. I'm gonna give him a serpent? Papa, I want an egg. Here here, Toby. Have this little scorpion. Play with the scorpion for a minute. And then Jesus said, now check this out. You know how the psychiatrists say you're basically good? You're good. You know? And, you're basically good. And it's your mom's fault. Someone didn't hug you enough, and it's drugs. It's society's fault. And I'm getting better. I'm getting better. My therapist says I'm getting better. Well, has your insurance run out yet? You know, I'm getting better. I'm trying. I'm trying. I'm trying harder. I don't have the triggers anymore. I'm I'm recognizing my triggers. Jesus said, if you then being evil, you being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your father who's in heaven give the holy spirit to those that ask? Jesus said to ask to seek to knock. Ask. Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. And don't stop until you have that double portion. I want the triple portion. Now let me tell you an occultic practice of Bethel Church and these wackadoodles of the n a r. They call it soaking. I think it's soaking. You go to Amy Semple McPherson or Catherine Coleman, you go to one of these Pentecostal women or men preachers that are dead, probably gotta guard Jimmy Swaggart's grave right now. And they go out there and they lay on their grave. They might travel to Europe to go where there was a revival in Scotland years ago, and they'll lay on the guy's grave. They're gonna soak it up. That's occultic. You're bewitched. All you gotta do is ask. God says, hey, you gotta go work, travel all the way to Scotland to go soak up some guy's he's dead. He's not even there. You're into witchcraft if you do stuff like that. The alcohol. Just ask. Your father, he wants to he wants to give you the holy spirit more than you want the holy spirit. Don't work for it. Believe. Trust in him. Do you hear by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith that you were saved? By faith, you don't work. For salvation and you don't work for the anointing. I gotta work harder for the anointing. I need the anointing. I need I need the anointing. I'm Simon the sorcerer. I need to pay for the anointing. Well, you know, in the magical trades or the magical arts that you purchase tricks. Jennings and Jambres had tricks with Moses. So the magician knows the secret and you can purchase a trick from another magician. That's what Simon the sorcerer was alluding to. I wanna purchase this ability to lay hands on these people and watch the holy spirit come upon them. That's been known as what's called simony. Thinking that you can purchase a church, purchase a position, and purchase the anointing. Crazy, How funny people are. In acts chapter two, the holy spirit was given to those who believed. In acts chapter eight verse 15, Peter and John laid hands on the Samaritan believers and they received the baptism of the holy spirit. In Acts chapter nine verse 17, Ananias was sent to Saul of Tarsus, Paul, and he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So for Paul, just like me, he believed, who art thou Lord? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. Then he's blind, then he goes down the street which is called straight. He's held for three days, they're blinded, wondering what's up. Jesus has just apprehended and real revealed himself to him. And now, God's sending this prophet Ananias to him to lay hands on him. Behold Paul prayeth. Lord, he's a hit man. He's wreaking havoc. He's a bad dude. No. He's a chosen vessel unto me. Show him what things he must suffer for my name's sake. He's mine. He's a trophy of my grace. And I want you to pray for him that he received the power, the empowering, the baptism of the holy spirit. In acts chapter 10, we have an in a situation where Peter's there, and Peter's introducing house of Cornelius with the gospel. They not only have the indwelling and the baptism at the same time. And And that might have happened to you when you've got saved. It wasn't a two part experience like for me, but simultaneously you had conversion, the indwelling, and the external at the same time, the p upon you. It can happen that way. For others of us, it could be you got saved and you look at acts 19 when Paul's asking those at Ephesus, well, what were you baptized in? We're baptized in the name of John. Baptized, you know, in such a way. John nineteen six of the Ephesian believers when Paul laid hands on them, they received the holy ghost and came upon them and they spake with tongues and prophesied. So they believed in Jesus, their baptism and the baptism of a John of repentance, but they didn't receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit yet. And that might be the case for you. Are you trying to do it on your own in the flesh, in your intellect, the arm of the flesh? God was still working among the Galatians. He freely gave them his power for service. The gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. God's not gonna take it away. You can abuse the gifts, you can abuse the calling, you could sin against God, and you may be disqualified and put on a shelf, but there's still the gifts and the calling out. You know, sometimes your hair grows back if you're Samson, and you can still pull the pillars down in your suicide. Sometimes the word of the Lord comes to a Jonah a second time. And in your obedience, you go back in there with the gifts and the calling God's called you, and God causes a great great revival to take place even though you don't love those people. You hate the men and women of Nineveh, and the Lord's trying to reason with you about the children who are there. Don't know their left hand or their right hand, and 20,000 of them, and and the animals that are there. And you don't care, prophet Jonah? Nobody said, by the way, when Jesus asked, who do you say that I am or who do men say that I am? Nobody said, you're minus of Jonah. Why is that? Because Jesus cared. Because Jesus loved. Don't be bewitched. Ask and you shall receive. Be not bewitched in Ephesians five eighteen. Be not bewitched or be not drunk with wine wherein a success, But be being filled, the Greek tense, be being filled. Continuously, be filled. Be being filled with the Holy Spirit. You say, pastor Rick, how do I how do I get filled with the Holy Spirit? Ask. Ask, seek not. Get into God's word. As you read God's word, you're being filled with the holy spirit. Are you dry? Jesus said, come on to me. If you're thirsty, come on to me. He'll give you living water. Torrance of living water. His powerful endowment being endued from on high. Are you endued from on high? Day by day, I can't live the Christian life and what happened last week. I need I need the Lord today, every moment of every day. Why do I say that? Because I'm married. It's not easy. But isn't that true? I can't I can't treat Kathy the way she deserves and is supposed to be treated as the old rig. I need the holy spirit to help me, and she needs the holy spirit's help. I can't do what God's called me to do as a pastor here with past experiences. I I need a fresh anointing, a fresh moving, a working of God's spirit today. I can't love on you and pray for you and minister unto you in the arm of the flesh. I need the help of the holy spirit. And the only way Kathy and I can persevere and last this long thirty years here is with the help of the Holy Spirit. God preserving us, God sustaining us, God dealing with all the discouragement, and all the rejection, and all the bewitched people losing their minds. I think that's one of the hardest things for me is dealing with people that are nonsensical. And you know what they do now to me? Actually, I block them all. I don't I don't wanna deal with it. But people actually are on their phones or online, and when they're challenging you, this part's hardest for me. When they're challenging obvious, concrete, absolute truths, and you're trying to reason with them. Whether it be a guy saying, give me one verse, one verse that says the rapture's pre trip. So you start going through it with them. You're describing all the verses. They just want one verse. Well, Revelation three ten. Or somebody says, there's no millennium. And you start going through the scriptures with them, showing them concrete, absolute proof. And what I've discovered, whether it's that or flat earth or whatever, they now have as a part of their arsenal, they don't need to know the scriptures very well. They go to chat GPT in real time, And they rebut what you're saying scripturally with something that kinda sounds kinda close, but not there. And if you know the word, you can call them out. You get them. But that kind of interaction for me is so exhausting. It's so exhausting. So I'd much rather minister to those that show up, block everybody else, and have a good time with Jesus. Because I can't win them. I can't reach them. They're just looking for an argument. And pastor Chuck said the same thing. If they're looking for an argument, just move on. If they truly are looking for answers, take the time, spend the time with them. And that's what we do. We try, but we're in a we're in a situation where people are gonna very quickly try to rebut with and and they're gonna you gotta know the scripture. They're gonna they're gonna bewitch you. You're gonna get sucked in to that very powerful seduction if you're not careful. Be in the power of the spirit. Ask the Lord for discernment. Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you that we're reminded of the simplicity that's in Christ. You don't want us being bewitched. You don't want us being seduced. Lord, we come as children, except you become as a child, you'll know why he's in the kingdom of God. And Lord, we come as children, not presupposing or acting like we know everything, but in humility, asking you to teach us, to empower us. Pour out your holy spirit afresh upon us, Lord. We're your children. We're asking. We're seeking. We're knocking. Pour out your holy spirit upon us, Lord. A fresh, fresh outpouring of your holy spirit to fill us to overflowing. Overflow the cup, Lord, and let the overflow of the cup be that which ministers to others, Lord, around us. Let us be known by our love that they have the fruit of the spirit, spirit filled believers, they have the love of Jesus. By our love, they'll know we're Christians. So bless, we pray. Heal, Lord. Heal those who are sick. Comfort those who are downtrodden and hurting. Lord, we're all the broken ones. Put us back together. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.