Transcript for:
Galatians 4:12,20 -Christ Formed In You- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2025-10-05

Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Galatians chapter four beginning with verse 12. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am for I am as you are. You have not injured me at all. You know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh, despised not nor rejected but received me as an angel of God even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? For I bear record that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me. And I have therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth. They zealously affect you but not well. Yea, they would exclude you that you might affect them. But it is a good thing to be zealously affected always in a good thing and not only when I'm present with you. My little children of whom I travail and birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now and to change my voice for I stand in doubt of you. Father, we come before you and we pray, Lord, that you would teach us. We pray, Lord, that we'd not backslide, that we'd not be seduced, that we not veer away. We pray that as Paul is saying here, Lord, that we not be like the churches of Galatia, that, Lord, they needed to be born again all over again. They they just didn't grow. They were immature. They got seduced by the legal legalists, the Judaizers. And so Lord, we pray that you'd help us to grow day by day, moment by moment as we study your word. Build us up, strengthen us, Lord. Help us to be doers of your word, not hearers only. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Would you please be seated? Paul continues to expose the inadequacy of legalism in contrast to the all sufficiency that's ours in Christ Jesus. Paul makes a three part appeal here to the Galatians to abandon the legalism, they have embraced. An appeal to their memory. He's want them to remember. Remember. Think about what I taught you. Think about the gospel. Think about how you were once in bondage, you know, to idolatry and how Jesus, the great emancipator, set you free. Think about God's grace. Think about his mercy. Think about how how free you are now or you have been, lest you fall back in, you know, to the legalism. He also wants them to look at the motives of the legalists. Why are they doing what they're doing coming in after Paul has left the area and reintroducing legalism and Judaizers trying to bring the church of Galatia under the mosaic law, this bondage. And thirdly, he wants them to notice the emphasis upon maturity. What's it mean to mature? What's it mean to grow as a Christian? That the church be that Christ be formed in you. So I want you to remember, I want you to understand the motives, and I want you to focus upon maturity that Christ would be formed in you. Notice first of all the memory. Verse 12. Brethren, I beseech you. This is an appeal. This is a prayer. This is a pleading with them. Be as I am. For I am as you are. You've not injured me at all. So be of one mind. Don't divide. Don't divide over over the truth. We're watching an ecumenical effort for a one row religious system. The the Charlie Kirk, memorial service kinda, it, illustrated this to us in that they had representatives from every religion. And it's one thing to be politically active and to have some things in common and move in the direction of stopping abortion or, you know, conservative effort, get rid of wokeism and all. But when people get up there and then they speak as if we all worship the same Jesus, there's a problem there. We've got to divide over this. We can't allow Glenn Beck to say that Charlie Kirk was the second martyr in American history behind that of Joseph Smith. Not gonna allow that. Not gonna allow Mormons. We're gonna divide. We're gonna divide. We're not gonna allow Mormons to say that they're Christians. To say that that the Latter day Saints can get away with it. We're not gonna allow the potpourri to stand up in front with their beads and pray the rosary and act like we believe in the same Jesus. We don't believe in the same Jesus. Not gonna happen. We're gonna divide over doctrinal, central doctrinal issues so as to exalt Christ. We're not gonna be involved in diversity, equity, inclusion. We don't include all the people or all the religions of the world. We have to divide. We have to stand for the truth. But once you and I and the body of Christ agree on who Jesus is, because that's where all of the cults, all the isms, all the Hindus, all the people there at Charlie Kirk's thing, that's where we disagree. They'll want people to believe that we all, as George Bush said, we all believe in the same God. Oh, no. We don't. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the father but by me. Oh, those are fighting words for the Muslims and a whole lot of other people. Why Jesus? Why only Jesus? Well, I'm willing to divide with you because Jesus said destroy this temple. In three days, I'll raise it up. That's why. Because of the resurrection. Buddha Mohammed Confucius, Joseph Smith, none of them are crucified, buried, and raised themselves from the dead to prove they're worthy of anybody following them. Nor can they present prophecies in the Book of Mormon or any of their books with a 100% accuracy. So why would I follow a dead savior? A corrupt who's still dead, still on the ground. My lord's risen and he's coming again for me. And so the exclusivity of Jesus Christ, we have to divide over. I saw a guy that got real angry because somebody had mentioned that Mormons weren't Christians. They got real angry. Well, that's one we're gonna divide over. Now we can agree you're an American, and you're conservative, and abortion is wrong. We can agree on that. But when it comes to a religious service, a means of focusing upon the true and living God, we're not gonna let it water down. This past week, something happened that really made my stomach turn. A Baptist minister took the artificial intelligence apparatus and had a message to the congregation from Charlie Kirk from the dead. That was spooky, man. That was creepy. The way that he was his his voice and the whole thing giving them an exhortation from the grave, you know. That's spooky. That made me think of Revelation 13 when the image of the beast, the antichrist can use an image of the beast with AI technology to speak to people. Demons speaking. Crazy times we're in. So I'm willing to divide over those things to the minutest degree. It's gotta be about Jesus, exclusivity of Jesus Christ. And people are gonna get so angry at you when you act that way. But Paul's saying, you know what? We we we're being divided by the legalists. The legalists are coming in here and they're undermining the gospel. They're undermining the work of sanctification in our lives, and we should be smarter than that. And so Americans should be smarter than watching our country be divided over conservative liberal ideology. You're still Americans. Why do you why do you wanna go to war to destroy people that disagree with you? Don't you still want free speech? If somebody says they think that that there is no God, if they think that Charlie Kirk is a bad guy or Trump was bad or or whatever it is they come up with, don't they have that right? Don't they have free speech and right of assembly in this country to voice their opinion? Do you want it to be labeled hate speech if somebody says something bad about Israel and to divide this country? You fought for free speech. You have to respect, if you will. You have to respect their idiocy. If they're wrong, if if if it's not true, just just respect the right to say it. You don't have to go to war. You're gonna go to blows over it. Gonna start throwing people in jail, gonna take social media and track and trace everything people say in social media and incarcerate them. Come to their house at two in the morning like in The UK. Hey, you said something offensive, something hateful toward the LBGTQ. Crazy. Crazy division taking place. Eric Dowd, who worked for BlackRock, he said this week that the Charlie Kirk assassination and all, part of why it happened, why it was arranged and all, was to divide the country, to divide the focus, to get people real angry at wokeism and the woke wokesters, the liberals, real angry at the conservatives. And he said, it's a classic of the pitchfork people with the torch people coming to the place where the king is in his entourage, and they're up top and they're looking down, and they're like, uh-oh. They're learning. They're potentially, they could overthrow us, the pitchfork, and the torch people. And one of the advisers said, well, what we gotta do is we gotta get the torch people to hate the pitchfork people and get them fighting with each other, and we don't have to worry. Satan can do a frontal attack in Nigeria right now and wipe out 7,000 Christians in no time. He can do a frontal attack with ISIS in Syria and just just obliterate Christians. In the first two centuries, Satan tried to destroy the church and 6,000,000 Christians died in the first two centuries with the sanctioning of the government against Christians. And it didn't work. The church flourished under frontal attack. Jesus said, the gates of hell not prevail against me. So then Satan says in three thirteen, I'm gonna join the church. I'm gonna have Constantine nationalize the church, and I'm gonna bring all the secular wicked people, and everyone's gonna have a sermon from AI generated. Everyone can preach the gospel. That'll be the catalyst. They can preach the gospel, but we control information. And they're not gonna have bibles in individual churches teaching all. We have state run churches. The churches are gonna have armies that come against anybody independently worshiping without our permission. In China today, they have churches. You just have a Chinese bible. And you meet you meet under the auspice of the Chinese government, the supervision of the Chinese government. When Britney went to China to sneak bibles in, she later went to Laos. And in Laos, could get in lot of trouble. In China at the time, they just deport you, get you out of there. But when she went to Laos, it was a little different. It was it was pretty heavy. And so what they did is you go and you meet in a state run church, and some people come up to you, and then you go outside from there, and there's some people on little motorcycles. And the people on the motorcycles take the materials, the bibles and stuff that you're bringing, and they take them up into the upper mountainous areas for the true church meeting underground. That's how it works. And so we we recognize the importance of a solidarity, a oneness, the koinonia, the fellowship of those that are in Christ, and if somebody comes from the outside and tries to seduce or undermine this established truth of the gospel and the new testament with Jesus Christ, We we divide from them, but we don't allow them to divide us. We don't allow it. And so he says, you haven't injured me at all. He says, you remember how we agreed that whether Jew or Gentile, we both needed Christ. That all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace. You forgot Romans three two, you know, twenty three and twenty four. Why would you go back into the law? The performance of the law, the 613 precepts of the old testament law. Why would you be meeting on days and weeks and months and years and all and trying to act like you're a Jew right now? We agreed both Jew that was saved and Gentile saved that it's about Jesus Christ who happens to be a Jew, but he's the savior, the messiah, the anointed one. You remember that. How did you forget? It's about Jesus. It's about Christ formed in us. It's not about the externals. It's Christ formed in me. It's not about conforming to this world. You remember Jesus said, this do in remembrance of me. In remembrance of Jesus. He says, verse 13, you know how through infirmity of the flesh, I preached the gospel unto you at the first. You remember when we first met? You remember how sick I was on my first missionary journey? You remember that messenger of Satan that was buffeting me, giving me this terrible terrible headaches and couldn't sleep and this banging in my head? Some doctors say possibly from malaria. Others say because he's gonna describe the oozing of his eyes and his his disfigured features where it was hard to even look at him. He was so beat up by the whatever this messenger of Satan, this disease that he had. Some call it ophthymalia, so it would be a a very poor eyesight with a lot of oozing. Imagine if you're pus and there's oozing coming out of your eyes, then the inflammation and all. And that's was his outward appearance. And he says, you remember that? But I still got the gospel to you. You remember that? You remember how weak and frail the sickness left me? My outward man was perishing, but my inward man was being renewed day by day. Christ formed in me. I prayed three times. I prayed three times for the Lord to remove this messenger of Satan that that was buffeting me. In the Greek tense, it's like a tent stake. A tent stake going through his temple, the pain that he was feeling. And if you have intense headaches, a lot of us that have these sort of things, migraines, you go into a dark dark room and you just try to get to sleep because your head is just so incredibly banging, and that's sort of what they believe that the apostle Paul had. Some say he might have had a form of epilepsy that would kick in and out. And so he's just being beaten, And he's praying. He's asking the Lord, hey, I got a lot of work to do. I got a lot of work to get done, man. This is this is really waiting me down. This is debilitating. This is difficult. And you know, and if I really want the church to grow, I gotta I gotta look nice, you know, Lord. I can't get be getting up there looking like this. Nobody's gonna follow a guy looking like this, you know. So fix me, man. And the Lord said, answered the prayer three times, no. No. No. My grace is sufficient for you, Paul. For my strength's perfected in weakness. They're gonna see Jesus in you, Paul. Not you. You're not gonna be the celebrity. I am. The great I am. They're gonna see Christ. And they're going going to experience with the power of the Holy Spirit Christ being formed in them, not the legalistic externals of religion. Being born again, Christ formed in you. Nicodemus, religious Jewish man, you must be born again. There's no other way. Well, how can a man that is old be born a second time, you know? You need to be born of the water and the spirit, Nick. You have the natural birth and the spiritual birth. You need to be born again. Body, soul, spirit. Adam, the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Adam and Eve died spiritually. Death is separation from God. Their body and soul. Soul is the seed of the mind, will, the emotions. But the spirit is how we relate with God. How we commune and fellowship with God. And so we must be born again, and we're born again when the Holy Spirit comes to live and dwell within us. Now we're body, soul, and spirit once again, and we have the capacity in being born again to hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. We have the capacity to pray and to have access to the very throne of God and and to have spiritual ears to hear and a will that's in sync with the Lord where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus on the good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. We're able to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling for it's God who is at work in you, putting in you both to willing to do of his good pleasure. It's not a religious exercise. It's a relationship. And the Galatians were falling back into a rigid letter of the law, sterile, insipid, powerless observance of the law. They were being seduced. They were being tricked. And Paul's wanting to awaken them. Do you remember? Do you remember what it was like? Do you remember how I prayed? And the Lord says, my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Remember when I preached the gospel, the power to save, the power to change you, Christ formed in you as you were born again. He says, verse 14, in my temptation or my trial which was in my flesh, you despise not nor rejected, but receive me as an angel of God even as Christ Jesus. Remember how you received me? You received me as if I was an angel. You received me as if I was Christ himself. You guys were so ready to to, you know, to be a blessing unto me, to minister unto me my frailty, my weakness as a part of the body of Christ. Why why am I your enemy now? What happened? How'd you turn on me? What what what changed? Who came in you and changed your mind about not only me, but about Jesus? What happened? How could that be? So in my repulsive condition, love me. You look beyond my temptation, my trial, the testing that crushed me and saw Christ reveal Christ formed in me. Verse 15. Where is then the blessedness you spake of? For I bear you record that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them unto me. Where's the love now? Do you remember how much you loved on me? You remember how much your your empathy and your care and your love for me that you're watching me find it so difficult to be able to talk, to see, to hear, to keep my thoughts going, my eyes oozing, the pain and all. If you could, you'd have plucked your own eyes out. You'd have plucked your own eyes out. You'd you'd have been willing to go blind so that I could see. That's the love that you conveyed. That's the love that you ministered unto me with. What happened to that love? How to become quenched? How to go away? How to dissipate? The letter of the law kills, but the spirit gives life. Ever been in a legalistic church? Is there any love there? Everything's rigid. Everything's gotta be done according to the elders, to according to those in power, you know. And they determine what's holy and what's not. What church you can go to, what church you can't go to, what clothes you can wear, what clothes you can't wear, what kind of car you can drive, what kind of car you can't drive. Somehow there's a hierarchy that's developed, and you've gotta toe the line, you know. And if you don't, you're excommunicated. You're kicked out. Where's the love? I've seen many cases since I've been a pastor where a young they never bring the guy in, but they bring in a woman comes in who's pregnant outside of marriage, or a woman who's just had the baby outside of marriage. And these rigid legalistic churches drive her away with self righteousness. Don't want you around our girls. You're a bad example. You kidding me? You kidding me? Freaks. You guys are freaks. That's not Christ like at all. No. We don't we don't minister to her by acting like it didn't happen and, know, hey, let's celebrate it, you know, like in first Corinthians five. We recognize she sinned. She made a mistake. And you know what? She's wanting to get right with God. So let's help her. Let's have a baby shower for her. Let's buy her some baby clothes. Let's let's help her get an apartment. Let's help her with everything she needs. Because she's come to Christ now. She's like the woman at the well, you know. She's she's tried these men and none of them satisfy. She's empty. And now she's coming to Jesus, the fountain of living water, and he's flooding her heart. And let's pray that the Lord bring a godly man into her life. Let's do the wedding, you know. Let's take all that the enemy meant for evil and turn around for good. So we're leading her in the way that Jesus did in John eight. Woman, where are thine accusers? No, Lord, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. We teach her concerning repentance, but we remind her as in Luke seven with Simon the the Pharisee and Jesus there, and a woman's there and she's washing, and she's not a very holy woman. Right? And she's washing his feet with her tears. She's taken a very expensive alabaster box of perfume and anointed him. She's taking her hair and drying his feet. She's worshiping Jesus. And Simon the pharisee, he's like, this Jesus can't be a very holy guy because if you knew this woman would have poor reputation, how do he know? How do you know, Simon? Where are the men? Where are the men? It's always the woman that's caught. Where are the men? And Jesus reminds him, Simon, the very first, you know, you didn't give me any oil for my head. You didn't give me a towel. You didn't wash my feet. And this woman from the very beginning, those that are forgiven much, Simon, they love much. Those who are forgiven a little, you self righteous Pharisee, they have very little love. Hard time loving. Self righteous, living according to the law, performance relationship. But that isn't who you guys were before. You guys received me. You guys loved on me. Greater love is an old man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends. You're willing to lay your lives down for me. Willing to have your your your eyes plucked out. Who would do that? I might give him one eye or one kidney, but both eyes, well, lay your life down. Your willingness to be blind that I might see. You remember your willingness to die to self that Christ might be formed in you. Are you willing to die to self? Are you willing to sacrifice that Christ might be formed in you? Faithful are the wounds of a friend, the kiss of an enemy, or deceitful. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss, Judas. Do you guys remember? Do you remember these guys? Do you remember what happened? Do you remember the love, the bond of love? Do you remember falling in love with Jesus and being born again and that and that seed beginning to grow, Christ being formed in you? He's growing. He's growing. He's growing. Now how many of us have wives, daughters, mothers who have miscarried? The baby starts to form. Baby starts to grow. I remember in Britney's first pregnancy that she started what they call spotting. And when she started spotting, which means a little blood, I became worried. Oh my lord. Oh my lord. Is she gonna be able to carry this baby to full term? A baby's being formed in her. I don't know at what stage, at what week, but baby being formed, and boy, you're so excited, aren't you? Paul's so excited. Christ is being formed in them. We got a call last night that our older daughter Jessica, that she's eight weeks pregnant. She's had She's had a couple miscarriages, and I could see with her sister with seven children and her love of children. I could see it. I knew it. And you just pray and you pray and you pray and you hope and pray that as this baby, Lord willing, comes to full term, the mommy experiences the death to self, the dying to self. No longer am I gonna be a partier and do these things that are destructive. I'm gonna seek the mind of the Lord, and I'm gonna raise this child, protect this child. Amen. And that's the that's the beauty of marriage. That's the beauty of a family. That's the beauty of having children as all of us know what it is to die to self, to have to lay our lives down, to give up our eyes, give up our ears, give up years. For what? Because a life is growing, crisis being formed. That's what how we express our love. Greater love is no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends. What mother wouldn't lay down her life? What father doesn't lay down his life? When we see the unwillingness to lay down a life, we think that's not the role of a father. That's not what a father's supposed to be. That's not the role God intended for a mother. And Paul's saying, I I tried my best as a as a parent over you to see Christ formed in you. Do you remember? Do you remember the labor? Do you remember what we did? Do you remember what we did together in all that pain and all that heartache? I want you to consider secondly the motive. What's the motive of these legalizers? And again, that's that's another thing as a parent, is you're raising these kids in Christian homes and you're wanting the very best for them, and then a guy comes along and seduces your daughter with false teaching, false living. And you're like, don't snatch all that beauty. Don't take all that beauty away. All that God's forming in her. Breaks your heart when those you love are seduced. Verse 17, they zealously affect you. Yeah. You're you're moved. They're very persuasive. These guys, these false prophets, these guys that are demon possessed, they're on YouTube and all. Man, they're they're very persuasive. They're very zealous. They they can twist your head, especially today church when people don't know their bible. All it takes is, God told me. I had a dream. All of a sudden, well, can you substantiate with the word of god? Are you a Berean? You search the scriptures to see whether those things be so. Did you cut them slack? Did you wait till the first dream they had came true? And when it didn't come true, did you give them place for a second dream? A second vision to capitalize on the emotion of the time the culture's in? Why are you following these false prophets? Why not follow the prophets of the bible and connect the dots biblically? Why would you want to be deceived? But not well, yay, they would exclude you that you might affect them. Why are they kissing you? Why are they campaigning against you and then campaigning for you? Why are they wanting to make you a customer? They want something from you. They want your digital ID. They want your electronic fund transfer. They wanna make it difficult you for you to ever leave. They're gonna they're gonna use ridicule and shame you and peer pressure from other families in those groups that you meet at. But they never want you to grow spiritually, that you'd understand how you're being played. They wanna keep you as babes. They don't want you to yield to the holy spirit, know the leading, guiding of the holy spirit. They wanna take possession of you, and as Peter says, make merchandise of you. They basically wanna lord over you. Paul in in Philippians two twenty, Paul, in speaking of Timothy, one that he was discipling, he says, I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state to the church of Philippi. I'm sending Timothy. Timothy gets it. Timothy is gonna care for you. He's like minded with me. He understands the gospel. He understands discipleship. He says, for all seek their own. So Paul, think of it. All seek their own. All the people I'm trying to minister with to equip and help. Let's go let's go for this. I only got one guy, just Timothy. These other guys I've been working with, they all just seek their own. Everybody's looking to be the next whatever big thing. Grow their own ministry whatever. You know? Simon the sorcerer, you know, I'm gonna buy the trick. I'm gonna give money to lay hands on people, you know? And they receive the holy spirit. For all seek their own and not the things which are of Christ Jesus. So analyze their motive. Are they seeking the things of Christ Jesus? Or are they just making merchandise of you? You're a customer. You're a client. What's their motive? Is it Christ formed in you? In acts 20 verse 28, Paul said to the Ephesian elders, take heed therefore unto yourselves and all the flock over which the holy ghost has made you overseers. So when we think of elders, a lot of times we're thinking in terms of a board of elders, a five zero one c three corporation. And we look at it as a business model that these elders are on the board, and they're going to elder. They're gonna oversee. But there's different words that need to be used. An elder is a pastor. An elder is to meet the spiritual needs of the people. A deacon are those who are gonna wait upon the tables like Stephen and like Philip with administration of the goods. And the and the elders, another Latin word for elder is pastor, another one is the word bishop, or another one is an overseer. You're a spiritual overseer of the flock. And your function is not not only oversee, intend, and care for the flock, but most importantly, to feed the flock. Because a flock that's not fed is a flock that's easily seduced by false prophets. But a flock that's fed and knows the truth, you can't sway them. They can't be swayed. They're gonna stay with Jesus. They're gonna stay right there. And it's so he says, take heed. He's warning, therefore, unto yourselves and all the flock over which the holy ghost made you overseers, to feed the church of God. How about that? And now let's have so there's the function. So in Ephesians four, he gave some prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. For what? For the work to edify the body of Christ. Once they're edified and built up, for the work of the ministry. God wants you to be a part of the ministry, the serving the body of Christ, but you need to be equipped. You need to be rooted and grounded in the faith. You need to you need to be not able to be swayed by the lies that are out there. So the job of the pastor is to build you, help you mature, to disciple you. The disciple is a learner. He says, to feed the church of God which he has purchased with his own blood. They're blood bought. So really take heed, man. They're blood bought. They're very very valuable to him. For I know this, Paul says, after he's leaving, he says, after the my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you. So some are gonna come in from the outside. They're gonna see that the shepherd's gone. They're gonna see that Paul's gone. Now the shepherd, the pastor, he sees things the sheep don't see. He sees the wolf that comes in or the wolfette. And sometimes, you know, he has to discipline publicly, and the sheep start going, oh, he's so mean. He's so mean. They don't understand. They don't get it. They don't understand how dangerous false doctrine is. So it'd be much nicer if you could take the wolves outside and discipline them away from the sheep, and if the wolves would just go away, but they won't go away. They keep coming around till they pollute and tear down, and and these sex or these heresies, Paul says, necessary for it manifests those that are approved. So when I find myself in one of those battles, I gotta let the chips fall where they may. I gotta take my hands off the people and say, Lord, I'm gonna protect them as best I can as I teach. But if they can be swayed by a wolf to haul them away from here or to denigrate me and break down my reputation among them, my ability to minister, then Lord, I hope you lead and guide them to a place where they can receive, where they can grow. But I can't I can't compromise. I can't give in to the battle. I can't give in to the wolves. And he says, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves, so even those that are waiting in the wings for their opportunity also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. So you see the the the pattern there. It's always about them. What's the motive? It's always about them. It's not about Christ. It should always be about Christ. Why are we here this morning? It's about Christ. It's about Jesus. Why are we at church? It's about Jesus. It's not about pope Peter. It's not about pope Peter. It's not about Saint Charlie, Golden Donald, the Golden Arches. It's not about them. It's about Jesus. It's about it's not Jesus and. It's not Jesus and some clown. That's hero worship. That's celebrity worship. It's exalting of a man. You know what God does when a man starts to exalt himself or even be exalted by the people? Sometimes the man has no control over it. It's the people that start to exalt him. And I make sure that doesn't happen around here. We're all the same around here. Sometimes the things I say are kinda like in Proverbs, a little fly in the ointment. Like, how could how could he say that? He's a pastor. He's a holy man. A lot of times I do that to diffuse that attitude. I don't want you exalting me that somehow I'm holy man. Holy man. We're all sinners. Every single one of us. And these churches where the guy's acting like that, how how many pastors in Texas right now are being defrocked? Messing around with kids. Mega church pastors, 10 of them I think I read this morning. They're going by the wayside. If any man thinks he stand, take heed lest he fall. You think you're all it? Paul says, in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. So what's that forced me to do? Rely upon Jesus and his sufficiency. That's his righteousness. That I wouldn't position myself or present myself as a celebrity dressed for success. Yeah. It's a clown show today. This is absolute clown show. Not gonna go there. And so I gotta be careful. Sometimes I go I cross a line, and it's like, well, I'm supposed to be more dignified than that. But the Lord took Moses when everybody was, he's all that, the Mosaic law, and oh, he's the one that brought us out of Egypt and all. And Moses didn't get to go in the promised land because he smoked the rock a second time. That rock was Christ. And the picture, the type there according to Hosea twelve ten, is that Jesus would be smitten once. Moses speak to the rock this time. Jesus is only smitten once. When these people need to get a word from me, they don't need to go you, a type of the law, and be smitten. No. I will smite my son, the one who kept the whole law. Perfection, righteousness. And then Moses speak to the rock and water will gush out. And Moses said, you rebels, must we weren't the weak come in there, Mo? What did you bring forth? You're just my servant. My servant Moses. I like that. And I like that he's on the Mount Of Transfiguration. Kinda bummed that he didn't get the promised land, go into the promised land. But on the Mount Nebo watching, looking over. But imagine for a minute that exaltation of Moses that he's like God, his face is glowing. Does Rick glow? Do I need to wear a veil so that you can't see the fading glory? We can have a really good day in the pulpit. We can have a really good day in the Lord, and we can be so glowing. And then we go out that door out there and we say something wrong, and they see you got feet of clay. Say the wrong thing. Sunday afternoons are rough for me because I'm so tired in the afternoon. You If ever go out to lunch with me, I'll say some things that just so different than what you heard in the morning. Because who I am as a man, it's inevitable it's gonna come out. But if I only spend fifteen minutes with you, and you've been going to church for fifteen years, chances are I can control it for fifteen minutes. And you might think I'm a holy man, but I gotta stay away from you so you don't find out that I'm just like you. You spend time with me. If you're around my wife, you'll know real quick. So Moses didn't get to go in, the talk of the town is Moses didn't get to go in. God will not tolerate the raising up of idols. Raising men up as idols. And these legalists want to be idolized. They want to be Christian celebrities. They wanna gain control over people. And one of the best ways of gaining control is the smoke and the mirrors and the promises and keeping the people dummied down. Lot of condemnation, lot of letter of the law, very little grace, very little mercy. And so these sheep wrestlers come along, these thieves come along, they try to steal the sheep. False prophets seek to, if we can use the word today, false prophets seek to clone themselves. Picture that. I want a bunch of little ricks running around here. Sycophants. Look at the celebrity churches. You got a bunch of people worshiping that celebrity dude. Little clones running around. Kathy, I love her so much, she'd go to the ladies conference at Marietta, and all the and pastor Chuck couldn't help it. I know what it feels like, what he was experiencing. But all these women were surrounding him, and I know what that's like. But Kathy walked way around him. Wasn't gonna be like part of the crowd worshiping Chuck. Know, can I touch the hem of his garment? Can I just get over there? You know? And Chuck saw her and walked her eyes. Like, who's this? Doesn't she know who I am? No. He didn't look that way. He probably thought there's a real one. There's somebody following Jesus. And that's the way we need to be. We respect, we honor the men that God places in the body of Christ to lead, to teach, but you keep your eyes on Jesus or you'll stumble. You keep your eyes on him. Christ formed in you. He says verse 18, but it's good to be zealously affected always in a good thing and not only when I am present with you. So zeal is good if it's real. What's your motive? Is your motive to be seen of men? The pharisees would do a lot of good stuff out in public to be seen of men, to be popular. Let everybody know about it. In Matthew twenty three fifteen one, he describes pharisees hypocrites. Hypocrites, an actor. For you compass sea and land to make one proselyte. You're very zealous to go find a a place where quote unquote a revival's taken place. Bunch of Christians on the campuses coming to the Lord, but now you're gonna send airplanes full of LDS are gonna go to Guatemala when a revival breaks out in Guatemala. And before these Christians can be rooted and grounded in the faith and understand who Jesus is, we're gonna present a different Jesus. A Michael, the brother of Lucifer. We're gonna present Jesus as a god but not god of the Jehovah's Witnesses. And they seduce and they grab and they rustle away and steal and they make them a proselyte. You're very zealous. Go to all those links and he says, and when he has made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Look at that phrasing. Two more the child of hell than yourselves. Jesus said, your father's the devil, you religious hypocrites. He's a liar and a murderer from the beginning and you're operating just as if the devil's being formed in you. You wicked brood of vipers, who's gonna save you from the fires of hell? That's how Jesus spoke to these guys. And Paul's saying, yeah, they're zealous. They're building a business. Church incorporated. Pharisaical clones. Big talkers. They say, Jesus said, do not. They talk real well, but they don't do. Jesus saying, they're wolves in sheep's clothing. And the way you know it is there's no fruit. There's no love. There's no compassion. There's no laying down their lives. They're just making merchandise of you. You're a commodity. Jesus wants us to be his witnesses, not somebody else's witness. When we go around boasting of being a Paul or I'm of Apollos or I'm of Cephas, He says, are you not carnal? Which means fleshly. You're just babes. You're exposing your immaturity. You're exposing your need of Christ being formed in you. Now I appreciate my pastor, pastor Chuck. And I I want Christ to be formed in you, and one of the best ways for Christ to be formed in you. Now listen closely. I think most of you do this, but this is something I say to every single person that I have the privilege of being a pastor. I said, everyone, get the Word For Today app and start to listen to pastor Chuck's tapes constantly. Get the word of God in you. If you don't like Chuck, that's who I that's who that's who I nippled on. That's who feast upon. I still, if I go to the gym, I listen to pastor Chuck tapes as I'm at the gym. I listen to bible teaching and worship music. I don't go back to the oldies of what I did before I became a Christian. It doesn't satisfy. Doesn't doesn't doesn't put me in communion with Jesus. And if you want somebody else, try Chuck Missler. Get a coin in e house and just start to be saturated in the word of God. And if not, then go to John Corson. He's a great bible teacher. Jeff and Christy, when Christy first got saved years ago, that's what I did with her is I said, you know, you get into the bible. You come to bible studies here. I'll teach you as best I can. But you begin to get the word of God in you with pastor Chuck's teaching, with John Corson teaching, and they begin to grow and grow and grow and grow. And presently, many of you have I'm watching growth. The best reward I have is from time to time, doesn't happen very often. From time to time, there's actually somebody in here that listens to me. That treats me as if I know what I'm talking about. So many think they're smarter than me, and they think that they can do it their way. And then you watch them, they fade, they leave, and they remain the same babe in Christ somewhere else, not being fed. But if I can get you to listen right now, pull your phone out and get that word for today app on your phone, and then go through the bible from Genesis to Revelation, you're gonna grow. And you're not gonna be susceptible to all the stinking lies out there, and you're gonna make my life much easier. You're gonna have what's called discernment. You're gonna know between good and evil. And I'm not saying everything that pastor Chuck teaches is 100% accurate. Some of the stuff, you know, now we know later that maybe some of the application wasn't true. He believed the official narrative of 09/11. We know the official narrative is a lie. So some of that kind of stuff you gotta spit out. We know there's a Building 7 that fell into its footprint at 05:20 in the evening. No airplanes hit it. Irrefutable. Doesn't matter how much you hate me. Irrefutable. Controlled demolition. Aren't you glad you're here this morning? So I've got I've got a couple that came in here four or five years ago. I don't do this very often, but I I have to give you an example because I'm so sick and tired of the false game players. I've done this thirty years. I know what I'm talking about when it comes to this. If you ask me for financial advice, I don't know what you're talking about. If you ask me how to raise kids, I'd say, read your bible. I don't know. I got one good, one bad, but she's pregnant. She's getting better. There's a lot of things I don't know. But one thing I do know is God's word doesn't come back void. And in many cases, it's not me that's the problem. It's you. And I'm not saying you that are here because I know you guys are disciples or you wouldn't be here because you endure an hour and twenty minute sermon with lots of bible. That says a lot about you. So here you go. You got somebody who comes into the church and they get saved. You get to baptize them. What is their past? 15 different psychotropic drugs. What's that mean? I've been told that I've got a brain injury. That physiologically, my brain is inadequate. It has the wrong kind of minerals or serotonin imbalances or whatever. And yet the doctors are looking at you subjectively based upon behavior, and they're determining that if you take lithium or you take this drug or that drug, this one wears out, you know, another one, that somehow you will overcome your bipolar living, your raging, your craziness, your demon possession. Can I go there? And you spend years in therapy to no avail. Basically, you are drugged to keep you from hurting yourself. Torment. But I gotta deal with people that the gospel's not powerful enough to transform and change you. You say, oh, you don't know what you're talking about, Rick. Well, I got case in point. I got Shannon and Sean. Came in here and actually did what I asked them, what I begged them to do. Read your bible. Put the bible in your home, in your car, wherever you go. Don't need any more drugs. Don't need any more therapy. Growing day by day in the things of the Lord. You go from being a meth addict to being a Christian family, homeschooling, bible study fellowship. Sean's listening to pastor Chuck. They're growing. It still works. That's what worked in me. That's why I know. How much do you wanna be like Jesus? Just a little bit? Then go be a Christianette. You want Jesus and something else? Did you believe a false gospel? That coming to Christ would make your life better? Try that with the Christians in Nigeria right now. Try that in Syria. Nowhere does it say come to Christ and your life's gonna be better. He says you'll be saved. You'll be saved from your sins, but all hell might break loose upon you. We might get somebody that comes through that door that wants to shoot at us or burn this place down. God, pity him. Because like Sue Lovelace said, pastor, don't shoot back at them, pastor, because you might hit one of us. We got your back. There's all kinds of people here carrying today. Men and women. Some of the kids in the Sunday school are carrying. And Jim and some of the others might put together a security team, but I mean, you got my permission. If if somebody bad comes in here, you send them to hell. I'll try and get them to heaven. But before they hurt somebody, you send them to hell. Burn fish straight to jail, straight to hell. That sounds terrible, doesn't it? But it's their decision. They put you in that position. They wouldn't listen. They won't listen. I'm not saying we're gonna impose those sort of things upon you. You have free will. You do it how you want. That's why there's so many churches out there. Go somewhere else. But if you're serious and you don't wanna waste my time, go through the bible. Constantly go through the bible. Hide God's word away in your heart. Be built up and strengthened in God's word. Christ formed in you. The memory, the motive, and thirdly, the maturity. Verse 19. You need to grow. How many people claim to be Christians after forty years of going to church and are still babes in Christ? They they they've never studied the book of Revelation. Get pastor Chuck's app. Study the book of Revelation with pastor Chuck. If you've got a pastor in one of these churches you're going to, like a guy came up and said to me, well, pastor, do you realize that some of the pastors have never been taught the book of Revelation? Do you realize some of the pastors, the reason they don't teach the book of Revelation with all these prophecies going on today, the reason they don't is because they've never studied it? Well, they better go get a job at the shipyard because they're not a pastor. Because Paul said, study to show yourself approved on the God, a workman that need not to be shamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. There's more there's more qualified people in the shipyard who live like that that could be that pastor. He's disqualified. What's he doing? Oh, the Rick Warren. The Rick Warren thing. Rick Warren denigrated prophecy. It's a waste of time. We need to do social justice, good deeds. Where's that left us 25 later? You don't have a working knowledge of the scripture. You're easily deceived. You don't know theology. You don't know doctrine. You're like a airplane pilot that's never taken a lesson to fly, making it up as you go. So my little children of whom I travail in birth. He's travailing a second time. What happened? The first time was a miscarriage? I'm travailing in birth. I'm I'm still agonizing. I'm still in the pain, the throes of pain until Christ be formed in you. My little children, my babies whom I travail. You can see I don't have much patience anymore. I'll just let you know. You travail. You you take knowledge that they're young and they're be patient, Rick. Be patient. Be patient. They're well, they've been here five years. They're not growing. Most people don't last five years here. They either grow or they or they're gone. Either either take it or they can't. But you travail. There's a pain. There's a you're dealing with the the mistakes they're making, the struggles they're going through, the the broken marriage and you're helping them in their second marriage and you're helping them get going again and a second time. As a mother who has miscarried, I appeal for your maturity that Christ be formed in you. You gotta grow. You gotta you gotta reach that last trimester. You gotta reach that place where finally you come through the birth canal, where you're finally born of the water and the spirit to be born again. Do you remember when you were born again? Do remember the excitement, the zeal? Do remember when the light bulb went on? Years you spent being religious and you didn't understand a thing. And then the light bulb went on the day that you received Christ in your heart and life anew. For by grace are you saved through faith, not not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. You could quit working for it and playing the role and acting like a hypocrite. You're born again. And man, the bible started to open up. And the pastor was there teaching the bible, taking you through the bible, doing his job. And man, you couldn't get enough of it. You're like a baby that can't get enough milk. Christ being formed in you. That word formed is a Greek word morpho. Morpho, no morpho. From the same, we get our word fashion to fashion. Christ like character. You're changed. There's a inside change. You're born again. Not external, internal. That's why Jesus had to deal with the religious leaders who are so caught up in the externals and the keeping of the mosaic law. So he teaches the sermon on the mount and he begins to cause everybody to be guilty because he shows the law was to stop every mouth. And the law deals not just with action, but attitude and even your thoughts. So he says, if you look upon a woman with lust in your heart, you're already guilty. You're already an adulterer. If you're angry with your brother, you're already a murderer. In fact, went, except your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees, you'll no wise enter the kingdom of God. They were masters at the outward. He's busting them on the inward that they quit being so self righteous. And he's showing the people, you don't need to carry that burden. Come on to me all you that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Yoke up with me. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Learn of me. From meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest under your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden's light. It is finished. To talus, I paid in full. The work's done. Enjoy your salvation. Enjoy your fellowship with Jesus. He'll change you. This work he's begun in you, he's gonna change you. Don't be a phony. This metamorphosis, this transformation is the same word used for the transfiguration as Jesus was transfigured there before Peter, James, and John. And Moses, oh, felt bad for Moses. He didn't get to go in the promised land. Where do I see him now? He's on the mount of transfiguration. New glorified body, Moses and Elijah. In Romans twelve two, be not conformed. That word conformed means you're under the peer pressure. They're talking today about progressive culturally. Churches being progressive culturally. The culture is causing the church to change and the change is being more like the world. We don't do that here. You already know that. I don't care what they do. Progressive culture, relevance, tolerance, acceptance, compromise. A powerless church could be huge church numerically filled with unbelievers who are not transformed and changed. Who are gonna hear Jesus say, away from me, I never knew you, you that practice iniquity. False sense of security. Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove it as good and acceptable and perfect will of God. A transformation. How? Being in God's word. Husbands, love your wives like Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Washing her, sanctifying her with the washing of water of the word. You want your wife to be changed? You want your home to be changed? You wanna prepare your bride to meet Jesus? Husbands, love your wives. Lay down your lives. Make sure she's sanctified in the word of God. The word of God will make her holy. The word of God will change the way she thinks. And eventually, she'll respect you as a representative of Christ in that marriage and that home, that she'll be able to respect you the way that God's made you to be. As you love her like Christ loved the church. Greatest marital counseling is simply be in God's word. Encourage your wife to be a woman of God's word. She'll be transformed and changed, washed. The filth of this world that gets in our minds that that causes us to get off track. We get back on track when we're in the word of God. Second Corinthians three eighteen, we all with an open face beholding in the glass the glory of the Lord. So you're looking at the mirror of the word like James says. We're studying. We're looking into the word. Now the word of God, you see yourself in relationship to who Jesus is. And you see that he's so incredibly holy and you're not. You got the accurate picture of who you are. And now you're yielding. You're wanting to apply the truth of God's word that God that God might transform and change the way you think. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Not rules and regs, it's from the heart. God is transforming, changing your heart. He's writing his word in your heart. Beholding as in the glass the glory of the lord are changed, there's that formation, into the same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the lord. So how are you changed? With the word and by the spirit. We wanna be changed. We don't wanna leave here the same way we came in. I want God to change me. The revivals you're hearing about all over the country, Charlie Kirk chapters and all that, all I'll say is give it some time. How do we know? Give it some time. If the adulterers quit adulterating, if the drinkers quit drinking, scamming, all that, if there's repentance, then there's revival. There's no revival without repentance because that means there's no change. There's no change of heart. God changed me from the inside. Continues to change me from the inside. If I can be an adulterous Christian, if I can be a homosexual Christian, if I can be a thieving Christian, and the world accepts me and anybody that questions it's a hater, bigot, homophobe, that's not Christianity. That's not a Christian. I may have been like that in first John six, and such were some of you, but you are justified just as if you never sinned. You're washed in the blood. You're sanctified. You're made holy. That's the beauty of the change. That's the beauty of coming to Christ as that he sets me free from the bondage of sin in my life. The tyranny of sin. So what does this growth, this maturity look like? Philippians three ten, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection. So the knowing of him, that's what it looks like. Getting to know Jesus. The power of his resurrection to lift me from the dead, to lift this old rick up. The old rick's gotta die. The new rick's rising up as I come out of the water being baptized. The new rick. And the fellowship of his sufferings, yeah, I'm gonna suffer. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as I suffer, I experience the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable, there's our word. Christ formed in me. Being made conformable unto his death. So what is maturity? Maturity is death to self. What's our problem? Selfishness. Not republican democrat. Our problem is selfishness. What's the problem in your marriage? Selfishness. What's the problem in your walk with the lord? Selfishness. What's the prescription, the remedy for selfishness? Not reformation. Not a reformed you, death. You gotta die. No longer you living, but Christ living through you. I'm crucified with Christ, Galatians two twenty. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live, the new Rick, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Elon Musk, nobody can do this. Nobody can transform you. Nobody can clone you. Nobody can make that internal change no matter what their technology, no matter what their occult, demonic effort. Yes. They're gonna counterfeit it, but they can't do it because it's a work of God's spirit, the holy spirit. All I know is I was blind and now I see. You guys figure it out. I was a drunk, now I'm sober. No longer us living, but Christ living through us. Christ formed in us. Verse 20. I desire to be present with you now and to change my voice for I stand in doubt of you. Did I labor all that labor in you and you're really not saved? Didn't it take? How do I know if it's a real revival? It's got to take. You'll know them by their fruit. I gotta be able to see. A lot of people, the the seed germinates. It's excited. It pops up, puts its hands up, begins to worship like a feminine group of people. You didn't get that. And then a trial comes. The sun comes down on that profession of faith, and it withers. Why? Because the seed was there was a rock ledge. It had no roots in Christ. It was destroyed. It was withered. Another seed is the weedy soil and the cares of this life and deceitfulness of riches in America. The prosperity, the materialism, it withers. Doesn't bear any fruit. There was a there was a seed that hit the wayside soil and just stayed on top and the birds, the devil came and took it away, snatched it away. Paul's saying, I think we I think we had a germination. I think it germinated. I think I saw some growth there, but I'm not sure if you're rooted in Christ. But the good soil, the good heart, it comes for for some 30 fold, 40 fold, a 100 fold. It bears much fruit. Jesus said, you'll know them by their fruit. If you abide in me in John 15, you'll bear fruit. If you don't abide in me, you're not gonna bear fruit. My life needs to flow through you so that you bear fruit. I'm the vine. I'm the source. You're the branches. Abide in me. Just stay there where the where the lord's life flows through you. Very painful to watch our children be seduced by wolves. Very painful to watch your adult children backslide and act like babies. Very painful. And I know a lot of you told me you have adult children that have fallen away. It's painful. Our job's not done yet. We're we're not dead yet. Our whole life long, we pray that they'll get on track. So incredibly painful. Very painful to become an enemy of people we love and have experienced such great fellowship with. You're demonized for what? I'm demonized by you because I'm trying to wake you up to the fact that the mega cult is that a cult? So now you hate me? And now I'm being proven true over and over and over again to the nth degree, but you're gonna double down on me? No. You're not. I'm standing with the truth, and you can't change the facts. The facts are the facts, Jack. Millions of people died from the word's prejab. You can't change that. They're gonna do it again. And they're bringing in the beef system through you, through the evangelicals. The beef system is coming. Not the not the Harris's. It's through the evangelicals that believe the lies. With Palantir, with Peter Thiel, and Alex Karp, and Elon Musk, and all the technocrats. The Stargate Project, the very first day in office. Irrefutable facts. And you hate me because I'm telling you of the facts? I don't want you to be seduced. I want Christ to be formed in you. I don't want you to be a part of the seven mountain mandate. I don't want you to follow the ecumenical aspect of all these religious groups being merged with Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump and MAGA to be the golden age. We're gonna get rid of all the wicked people. You know what they're gonna do? They're gonna use the law. They're gonna evade cities. The posse comatatus isn't active anymore. Martial laws come out when the economy collapses. They know people are gonna freak out when they realize they've been deceived. But I'm trying to prepare you to make sure that no matter where you go, what happens to you, you're okay because you have Jesus. He's your portion forever. Nobody can take that from you. I don't want you to have a false hope, but you're gonna hate me? I'm the demon? And yet there's no blood on my hands. I don't have any blood on my hands because I've been warning you, trying to awaken you. How about you? Do you have blood on your hands? Do your friends have blood on their hands? Are they gonna be held responsible of God because they didn't have the courage to warn the culture that they need to focus on Jesus, that Christ would be formed in them? Not the Donald, not the Charlie, not the Jack, not the Greg, not the Billy, not the Chuck. Not Peter the pope. Christ be formed in you. We want so much to see Christ formed in us. Is Christ being formed in you? In John twelve twenty one, it's a great day of the feast. Jesus rode in Jerusalem and there's gonna be the Passover. And Philip's standing there And these guys, these Greeks were told in John twelve twenty one came to Philip and said, sir, we wanna see the Donald. No. They didn't say that. Sir, we wanna see you put any select we wanna see Peter. We wanna see the pope. Where can I get some beads? No. They said, sir, we would see Jesus. Jesus just raised Lazarus from the dead. This is the guy we want an audience. This is the guy we wanna meet. Sir, we would see Jesus. And then Philip went to Andrew. Andrew and Philip both went to Jesus and said, these guys wanna meet you. Sir, we'd see Jesus. And Jesus, what did Jesus say? The hour that the son of man would be glorified has come. What's he speaking of? The cross. I'm going to the cross. Except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and die, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. I was reading this week of Charlie Kirk once again and I'm just horrified at how he was assassinated. Just horrible. Breaks my heart. I don't know all the other intricacies, all the other spin, and all that stuff. It just comes down to this was a good guy, loved Jesus, and he was trying to do the right thing. And he was taken out because he's a threat to somebody. Maybe to Israel. He started speaking about Gaza. He started speaking about things in regard to Israel. I love Israel. That mean Israel has to give up the land because they're immoral? No. That's unconditional covenant based upon God's promises. In fact, Israel's gonna go into the tribulation period and two thirds of them will be wiped out as God pours out his wrath upon them. There's only a one third remnant that's gonna survive. So I love Israel, but I know Israel is like you and I. They got a whole lot to explain to do. So my heart breaks for Charlie, but I'm not gonna lift him up and and have a chapter here at church, a Charlie Kirk chapter. I want Christ formed in you. Christ formed in us. Is Christ being formed in you? And Jesus said any man that loves his life is gonna lose it. And whosoever hates his life in this world will gain eternal life. You gotta die to win. You gotta die to have Christ formed in you, to have that eternal life. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, are you in Christ? He's a new creation. The old things are passed away. All things are become new. So you're leaving the cocoon as a worm. And now you're gonna soar as a butterfly, beautiful beautiful butterfly because you're born again. Christ is formed in you. And this is the one and only time we can sing about butterfly kisses. Alright? So that's what we call real revival. Real revival is a transformation and change. And I'm stoked when I see God transforming and changing people among us. And I can stand back and behold and and how'd that happen? They just surrendered to Jesus, surrendered their will, believed in Jesus, and began to study his word. And God by his spirit is transforming and changing them from glory to glory into the image of Christ. They're becoming more like Jesus. The metamorphosis, the transformation, the real change, Christ formed in you. Christ formed in us. Father, we thank you. So simple. So simple except we become as a child, we'll know why is in the kingdom of God. A lot of us think we're so big. We're too big for our britches. Lord, you resist the proud. You give grace to the humble. And Lord, I thank you for the examples of Christians here in this room who weathered tremendous tremendous sin and rebellion against you at one point in time. But Lord, as you brought us to the cross, as you brought us to repentance, Lord, we we rejoice, we celebrate the changes that are taking place in us. And Lord, we want our children to experience the same changes, the same transformation that education can't bring, that money can't bring, that success in the world can't bring, but only a a metamorphosis, only an inward work of your spirit, a transformation, Lord, that Christ be formed in them and us. Without which, Lord, there's there's just hell. There's no hope. There's no second chance. It's appointed on all men once to die and then the judgment. Lord, it has to happen now. Today is the day of salvation. For tomorrow we die. So God, let us have a sense of urgency, a sense of how short the hour is, and not play games. Not play political or cultural games. Let let's stay with the word of God. What's the word of God say? And Lord, help us to apply these truths to our lives that you transform and change us. And while your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, if you don't have a relationship with Jesus, you know, I guess some of you guys are older people that have been in the Catholic church, that have been in churches and you didn't grow. And God brought you here and you're growing now. You're growing like Shannon and Sean are. And it's clicking for you. The word of God's coming to life. And it's exciting to watch your growth. And your kids are watching you. Your grandkids are watching you. And it's undeniable changes taking place in your life and in your marriage and your home. To God be the glory. God's still moving and working. Anyone here this morning, you don't know Jesus Christ, you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, but you want one. Just lift your hand up, we wanna lead you in prayer. We want you to experience what it means to be born again. Anyone here this morning? Christ formed in you. Father, thank you once again for your love for us and sending your son to the cross of Calvary that he'd be crucified, buried, raised from the dead, ascended to your right hand and come in again for us. So Lord, we pray evermore that you equip and strengthen us to not hold back, to not compromise, but to proclaim boldly the glorious gospel which entails, which includes your soon return. Bless, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.