Transcript for:
Galatians 5:16,18 -Gods Recovery Program- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2025-11-02

We are in Galatians chapter five verse 16 through 18. Would you please stand with me as we read, God's holy word together? Galatians chapter five beginning with verse 16. This I say then, walk in the spirit, ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lust against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led of the spirit, you're not under the law. So father, we thank you for your holy word and we ask that you be our teacher. And Lord, I pray that we would be those who know what it is to walk in the spirit. That in the times in which we're living Lord, where such uncertainty, such great great uncertainty, never knowing from one day to the next what's going on. That Lord, we would glean and learn what it means in Matthew six Lord, to seek first the kingdom of God and your righteousness knowing that all these other things be added unto us. Help us not to revert to the flesh as Christians and as we're triggered, Lord, as as things that we so incredibly take for granted like paychecks and food and and shelter and so many different things, Lord, as our world is being turned upside down, Lord, we pray that our faith would prevail, our faith in you, not faith in faith, but faith in you Lord. That you would prevail through us, that you'd undergird and strengthen us, that you give us your peace, the fruit of the spirit which surpasses all understanding, Lord, would guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. That we not rely upon alcohol and drugs and buying things and and just all kinds of illicit things, the the areas of the flesh that trying to sarge the flesh, but Lord, that we rise above that and live the life of the spirit, the abundant life of the spirit that you've taught us, that you've demonstrated, that you want us to walk therein. And when we fall, Lord, us to get back up and instruct and teach us today. Help us to know what it is to walk in the spirit and get that victory. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Would you please be seated? Proverbs twenty two six says, train up a child in the way they shall go and when they're old, they won't depart from it. This is any mother that's here today and many fathers, this is a verse that all of us as parents recite and know and and hold on to and claim and all. And, we've remind God of this promise over and over again as we've watched our children, many of us, our children stray from that narrow way that we raised them in. They remind God of the many Sundays in church, the reading of the bible at bedtime, the times that we prayed, and the expense the tremendous expense to put our children in public and Christian schools, and summer camps, and endless amounts of energy expended to train the child in the way they should go. Mothers are faced with questions only God can answer. Lord, how did my son become a dope addict and dealer? Why won't he stop making or smoking marijuana, smoking pot? Why did my daughter become seduced by that man? Where was her discernment? She knew better. She was raised better than that. How do we get her off the meth? What will happen to my grandchildren? Will social services really put them in foster homes? Lord, you said, train up a child in the way they should go, and when they're old, they won't depart from it. When, Lord? He's almost 40. He's almost 40 years old now. How long, oh, Lord? Is it true, Lord, that he got his gay gene from you? Is it really your fault he's the way that he is? He's chemically imbalanced. The doctors claim he's bipolar. He has a d d and other diseases I can't even pronounce. Whose fault is this? Did we hug her enough? Did we bond with her? Did we show her enough affection? Lord, she's in her third recovery program. The judge is going to send her away next time. Please make this new recovery program effective. Please help it to work. We've tried everything and nothing works. Lord, you said train up a child in the way that they should go, and when they're old, they won't depart from it. Lord, what's your recovery program? What's your recovery program? God's recovery program is a walk with the Holy Spirit. Notice first of all, his command in verse 16. This I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That word walk is in the Greek, and it's in the present tense, and it means a continuous regular action, habitual way of life. Now, the tense is an imperative mood, which means it's not a suggestion. It's not the great omission of go and make disciples. It's a command to go and make disciples. It's a command to continuously walk in the spirit. It's not in the passive. It's not when we feel like it or whatever. It's a it's imperative. It's it's you gotta do this. God's command is that you this is this is how you get the victory. It's a command, not an option. Walking implies progress, moving forward becomes a way of life, a habitual way of life. The volitional, the action, the obedience. We prayed and we sang, I surrender all to you, and that's what we do every day. The J. Vernon McGee, one time he said, the only problem with Romans chapter 12 verse two, a living sacrifice, offer yourself as living sacrifices, is that when the fire gets hot, we get down from the altar. What if Isaac, when his father was taking him to Mount Moriah and gonna offer him as a burnt offering as God had said, what if Isaac had refused? What if he didn't obey as a type of Christ? He says, no, dad. I'm not gonna do this. I've got a long life to live. How about we offer you? And yet, as Jesus prayed, father remove this cup from me, but nevertheless, not as I will, but thy will be done. He said, do always those things that please the father. Is that the desire of your heart? To live not a legal relationship, but a love relationship? I do always those things that please the father. Each and every day, first thing we do is I surrender all. Lord, I got these bills. Lord, I got these kids. I got this wife, this husband. I got a job that I'm losing. AI is taking over. Thousand white collar employees at Amazon are losing their job. Many more to come with the robotics in the warehouses. Microsoft, all these tech companies scaling down. Why? Because they have AI technology now. They don't need human beings. Much more efficient. We're watching the dollars that we have not be able to extend far enough to feed the whole world. We're going broke, and the globalists wanna enter a new system, a whole new digital blockchain system. But they don't want us to blame them, so they've gotta blame it on somebody else. Maybe a war. Maybe craziness in the streets in the next few weeks. Maybe an insurrection act with soldiers in our streets to try and quell the uprising like in Nepal, where the people overthrew their government recently. It's all scripted. It's all designed to bring us to the brink, to bring us to the end. We've been so blessed, so incredibly blessed in this country. And if the gravy chain stops for any of us, what's our reaction gonna be? For we as Christians, are we gonna be able to every morning we wake up and surrender all? The unknown? Lord, I've been putting out jobs. I can't find any job. I've been watching these these young mothers just just crying. They're already working three jobs. The rents are so high, they're raising their kids without a spouse, and how are they gonna make ends meet? Refrigerators are already bare. And what? Now they're not gonna get food assistance? What a dog and pony show. What an incredible dog and pony show. It's just it's just so scripted. It's so crazy. And then the elderly, the rent's going up with them, the taxes going up, fixed incomes. And now you're gonna I mean, my grandma, the last few years of her life, when when my grandpa died, you know, she's on a fixed income. And thank God they had what was called the Jarvis amendment down in San Diego where her property taxes go didn't go up, but but when grandpa died, she lost his social security. She lived on only 1,300 a month. And she'd go to the dollar store to buy food. And her church helped her out, we should help one another. And she didn't do a reverse mortgage to go take cruises and live it up with the equity in her home that was paid for because she wanted to give her two kids an inheritance. She's a depression era woman who saved and scrimped and really watched her pennies, you know, her whole life. And even at the end of her life, she need to be frugal. She knew how to do that. She had the discipline of doing that. Do we? Do we have these disciplines? The jobs may not be there, and so we as Christians, we have a choice to live like the world and react in the flesh and go crazy. And I I I agree. They they should be going crazy. Who who's got the answer for them? Great opportunity for you and I to share Christ with them. Because if your coworker's losing their job and they're facing a Christmas, if this goes on to Christmas, and they've exhausted all of their savings and they got nothing left and the family members can't help, what are they to do? The food lines? All the different places to get food in the community? What happens? We as Christians, what do we do? We need to set an example, don't we? We need to not lose it. Gerald Celente says, when people lose everything, they lose it. That's when we'll find out who we really are as Christians. Is our faith deep enough? Our roots deep enough to trust in Jesus? Can we really live like in Matthew six? This thy day, give me this day my daily bread. Can we live like that? Can we pray like that and live like that? Do do we see the birds being taken care of? Do we see the the hills aerated in in in glory with the flowers and even even more beautiful, the leaves and all of God's creation better and more beautiful than Solomon and all of his glory? Do we really believe these things? Can we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness knowing all these other things will be added unto us? That's the life of the spirit. That's what it means to yield each and every day and to walk, commanded to walk, the obedience of doing what God tells us to do. God gives us the power to obey. We can't get into the blame game. Adam and Eve, if they had a mother, each of them would have blamed their mother for who they were. It's my mom's fault. Well, neither one of them had a belly button, neither one of them can blame their mom. But they still blame, didn't they? Adam blamed the wife that you gave me. That doesn't work in my house. And who did Eve blame? She blamed the serpent, the devil. If God had given them a mother, as I said, they'd have blamed her too. No one wants to take responsibility for their actions, including and I put people in different groups. I expect worldly people to lose it. I expect people that don't know Jesus to melt down. I would. I never expected my mom and my family members that didn't know Jesus to be holy. I expected my mom to abuse alcohol and smoke and rage and go crazy because that's who she is. That's in her DNA, if you will. How could I impose upon her a standard of living that none of us can live apart from the help of the Holy Spirit? Sinners sin. But we as Christians are to be distinctly different than the world. We're not to blend in with the world and act like the world, that's living the life of the flesh. We're to live the life of the spirit. And later, my mom, God used cancer to bring her to the end of herself and and she came back to her faith and I expect to see her in heaven one day, but man, that lady did it the hard way. Resisting the Holy Spirit her whole life long. Finally, saying uncle, finally, okay. And so you blame. You play the blame game, not wanting to take responsibility. I never blame my mom or my family like telling people, oh, I came from a dysfunctional family, that's why I'm such a loser. Doesn't work with me because the day that the Lord saved me was so radical, so much greater than anything I ever went through. Sometimes you explain your childhood to people that are probing, explained it one time to a pastor dude, and, oh, yeah. You came from a dysfunctional family, you know? And if I let them, they probably would have put me on drugs and put me in therapy, you know? That would minimize what Jesus is is presently doing for me. He's changing me. I'm not that old Rick, and I don't wanna make excuses. I don't wanna be that guy. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things are passed away. Praise God. The old things are passed away, and all things are become new. His mercies are new each morning, and he's transforming and changing me from glory to glory in the image of Christ. I don't wanna negate the work of the Holy Spirit and cheapen the gospel and cheapen the work of the Holy Spirit in my life by saying, well, I've got an excuse. I came from a dysfunctional family. Where'd that come from? Do you know that Jesus came from a dysfunctional family? Do you know that his brothers and his sisters were unbelievers? Do you know that they didn't even believe that he was the Christ till after the resurrection? Do you know that at one point, they said he's mad. He's beside himself. All of us have come from dysfunctional families. All of us have stories of uncle so and so at the holidays. All of us. And a lot of us just grin and bear it. Right? And when you're a kid, oh, baby, you gotta really grin and bear it. And then as you get older, you're like, well, I don't necessarily have to put up with that anymore, you know? But you do. It's your family. And I I marvel at when I was growing up, the way the family used to get together. All the aunts and uncles, everybody used to get together. Not just your immediate family. And they go to have a picnic at a park or birthdays or weddings, and I see some of you, man, you haul off to Oregon, you haul off everywhere for the family. If there's a wedding or any kind of family function, that's old school. That's the way it used to be. We can barely get our kids nowadays to show up for Christmas with us. People seem to be individualized, and and their friends and their social groups and everybody else seem to be more important, you know, especially at the holidays. That's that's kind of bizarre to me. Because where we came from, family meant something. Do you know in a time of crisis like this, a family is a very important thing to have, to belong, to a tribe, to have a family. No matter what would happen to me, I know that my grandma give me a place to to sleep, to stay, to recover, to get a fresh new start. She wouldn't kick me out. She'd tell me, Rick, quit whining and get a job. She'd never ever ever allow ever making excuses and whining. Even if it's true, she didn't wanna hear it. No. Don't bring that in into this room here. Always looking for the positive. Always looking for a way to bring it back around. That's a life of faith, isn't it? All that the enemy means for evil, Joseph says, you meant it for evil. God turned it around for good to save many people. Well, what was the evil? His own brothers were able to perpetrate upon him and his dysfunctional family. Well, they took the boy with the many colored coat and they threw him in a pit. They plotted to kill him, and yet they figured out, well, we can make some money off of him, and we're gonna sell him to this this business caravan that's heading down into Egypt. So they sold their brother Joseph for a slave at 17 years old. And that isn't enough circumstantially, then the guy becomes a slave, you know, a dentured servant to Potiphar, and Potiphar's wife makes advances at him, and he says, no. He does the righteous good thing, the injustice of her claiming he did do the bad, and so he's thrown into prison. It's not until he's about 30 years old, the age of our Lord Jesus has a type of Christ that he emerges to be in second command to that of only pharaoh. And then he's got his brothers. He's got his family there in the land of Canaan, and they're going through a really difficult time of famine. And the dreams that Joseph's receiving are dreams that he knows with his wisdom that they're to save up the grain. Did anybody save up during the plentiful years as we're going to face famine? Stripping away of all the wealth so that the globalist can get us to take the real ID and a digital wallet with 5,000 digital crypto things in there to entice you, to make all the pain go away by getting involved in this beast system. No. It's not the mark of the beast yet. It's a prelude, but it's scripted, and it's gonna bring us to the end of our will just as Jacob was brought to the end of himself. He didn't wanna go in there, but when he sent the boys on in to go get some grain and come back and Joseph's just storing that up, he's taken the wealth like black rock from everybody. He's taken all the houses. He's taken all the land. He's taken all the wealth and put it into the coffers of the pharaoh. Everybody's gonna give up everything they have for food. And then eventually, Jacob's gotta go down because Joseph's working a plan there to get them all down into Egypt, the 70. And the 70 go down in there and he reveals himself to his brothers and he begins to take care of them, and then they've got land to to raise their sheep, the area of Goshen, and the the Egyptians hated. They hated shepherds and that sort of thing. But because of Joseph, the pharaoh was favorable. Then there came a pharaoh that knew not Joseph. They're gonna spend four hundred and thirty years down there where God's gonna strip them and empty them and get them ready to be a people. 2,000,000 strong to miraculously cross through the Red Sea with God dividing it and Moses leading them. But in the beginnings, it was Joseph God used to bring them to the place of salvation, if you will, to save many people this day. They're baptized into Moses, but it's Joseph that got the 70 there and revealed himself unto his brothers later when Jacob died. And the brothers are all scared like, what's what's Joseph gonna do now that dad's dad's gone? His days were few and evil, he told the pharaoh that of Jacob. And he said, that which you meant for evil, God meant for good to save many people this day. Joseph cultivated. Joseph had the discipline during those lean years to cultivate a relationship with God. A relationship with God when nobody else was watching, when nobody with the law was forcing, where they could go and join up with the marines or the the navy, the army, whatever, get away from home. And when all the other guys are going to the naked bars and doing all the stuff that they wouldn't do at home if somebody knew what they were doing, Joseph walked the straight and narrow. When he was accosted by Potiphar's wife, he said, how could I do this great evil against God? God sees. God's watching, and I don't wanna break his heart. Wouldn't you love to raise kids like that? Raise kids that are so entrenched, so in love with Jesus, you don't have to watch them. You know, they're 18, 19, 20, they're going off to college. You don't have to worry about them. They're they're not going to give in to the peer pressure. They're not gonna give in to the flesh, the world, and the devil. The Christianity that you modeled, the Christianity that you raised them in, They've they've gone out, they've received the manna, the bread of life on their own. You as a parent or grandparent, you can't you can't gather it for them. They gotta gather on their own. And the proof that they have is they live a life of obedience. As my girl said, I'm 18 now. I don't have to do what you say. That's the point where, alright, Lord. Let's see. Let's see if it took. Let's see if we got a real one here. I remember I remember leading them to Christ. I remember them praying the prayer. I remember I remember baptizing them. I remember them, you know, as we're reading the bible and we're praying with them and giving the bedtime stories and going to church. I remember all the stuff that we poured into their lives, Lord. Did it take? Do we got a real one here? Are we gonna endure the heartache of a prodigal? How long, oh lord? What's your recovery program? Oh, I lose my temper. I got a rage problem as an adult. I've gone to anger management three, four times. That's my brain. It's my low self esteem. It's my genes. I'm Irish. I'm a Saint Patty Caker, man. We get red in the face. We lose our temper. Romans thirteen thirteen says, let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantness, not in strife and envy. And he's talking to Christians. Really? Would Christians still walk like that? Chambering? What's that mean in the King James? Wanting this, drunkenness, rioting, fighting. Not in strife and envy. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. We cannot be passive in this fight. We cannot be passive about sin. We are commanded to walk in the spirit. Commanded to walk in the spirit. Be controlled by the spirit. God's recovery program is a walk with the holy spirit. His command number one. Secondly, his control. Verse 17, for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. So man apart from God is body and soul. God told Adam and Eve, the day you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die. They died spiritually. The spiritual part of their being allowed them to have fellowship with God. Death is separation from God, so they're separated from God spiritually. We recognize today that a person is body and soul, and that when they die, the soul leaves their body. The body's left from dust you came, dust you go back. But a born again Christian is not just body and soul, Nicodemus. You must be born again. You must be born from above. So we are body, soul, and spirit. And in our in our being, we still have the old, edemic nature. Adam, his nature is a fallen nature. In Adam, we've all sinned. In Adam, we all have a propensity to sin. We got the Adam gene. When he committed the Adam bomb, we all fell. All of us bombed. All of us fell. You can laugh at that. Yeah. It's okay to laugh. So the flesh speaks of the old edemic nature. The doctor was right. It's in your genes. It's called sin. You're hopelessly controlled by sin. Apart from Christ, you do what comes naturally. It's in your hormones. It's in your DNA. It's in your makeup. You're endemic. You're fallen in nature. You're not basically good as the psychiatrist would want you to think. Paul says, in me that is my flesh dwells no good thing. We sin because we're sinners, because it's who we are. It's in our nature. We're shaping in iniquity, even the little babies. We're shaping in iniquity. It's been passed on to us from Adam. But when you surrendered your life to Jesus, he set you free from the tyranny of the flesh. You become born again. You're born of the spirit, a new creation, body, soul, and spirit. But you ask, if I'm born again, save for my sins, delivered from the power of sin, then why do I continue to lust? Why do I have such a problem with porn? Why do I continue to smoke the reefer? Why why do I continue to drug and rage? Why do I continue to kill people? I'm addicted to killing people. Freedom's dependent upon control. Who's in control of your life? You, the flesh, or Jesus? Now we use that hyperbole to illustrate. For many of you, you've been told by people the reason you're such a loser is because you've got the gene. The reason you have a desire toward men as a man is because you've got the gay gene. Let's blame God. Did God make you that way? Did God make you a rager? Did God make you a thief? Did God make you a liar? Did God make you an adulterer? Really? I can blame God for my actions, not take responsibility? It's God's fault. I need Elon Musk to save me. I need a Neuralink chip to change my behavior. I need the pharmaceutical companies to come up with a pill to change my heart, to change me, to keep me from killing people. Why do you why do we use the hyperbole of killing? Because when they come down the road and they say pedophiles are pedophiles because they have the pedophile gene, we need something to stop them with their irrational thinking. No. You you do that, you cross that line, and you're gonna be executed. It's a death penalty. One less pedophile, one less killer, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. It'd be absurd for a guy to stand up for the judge and say, I've got the killer gene. And yet, they say, I got the gay gene, and they're trying to normalize pedophilia presently, trying to build a case that it's not their fault that they're attracted to children. They've got the pedophile gene. So let's blame God for all this decadence, this evil, this wickedness perpetrated upon the most innocent in society. No. You've lost control. You volitionally, you made a decision to cross the line. And you know, for you and I as Christians, for us to become slaves of sin, we've got to give permission to the world and the flesh and the devil. We're influenced by the world. The world's trying to get us to like it and be like it. And then the flesh has the impulses, that old, edemic nature. But man, I'm a Christian, and my spirit is warring against this flesh, and the flesh against the spirit. There's a battle going on now. I'm born again. I'm born of the spirit, but who am I feeding? What dog am I feeding? The dog I feed is gonna be the dominant dog in this home, in this head, in this mind. If I sow to the spirit, I'm gonna reap life. If I sow to the flesh, I'm gonna reap corruption. You bring that corruption into your bedroom, you bring that corruption into your home. Be sure that God's not mocked. Whatsoever man sows, that shall he also reap. So it's a command to give God control of your life, to live the life of the spirit. Don't give control of your life. Don't give the devil permission. You may have once been a slave. You may have once been taken captive against your will, but not anymore. Jesus is the great emancipator. He set you free. He delivered you from the bondage of sin and of death and of hell. You turned from your sins. You cried out to God. God, merciful to me a sinner, and you experienced the joy and the blessing of being set free. So why would you give in? Why do we give in? That flesh dies. That flesh dies hard. That flesh cannot be rehabilitated. That flesh cannot be a saws and talked to and made to do what it's supposed to do. It's it's it's gonna always resist and move in a direction of selfishness. God's only remedy for the flesh is death. It's gotta die. You gotta mortify the deeds of the flesh. You gotta reckon the old man dead. You gotta crucify the flesh so that Christ may live through you. It's volitional. It's a choice that we make each and every day. Maybe today you leave here go, oh, I feel free again. I feel good. By the time you're driving down the car, you're a tax right now, the devil's messing with your mind. He just doesn't understand kind of home I was raised in. He just doesn't understand how brutal my dad was, how my mom I don't care. That's baloney. Throw it away. You're a new creation in Christ. What was the point of even being a Christian if we still suffer the tyranny of the past and these people that abused us? Learn from it. Allow God to use it to to rescue and to save and to comfort others in in the way he's comforting you and me. I'm not giving the devil that place in my life. No way. So freedom is dependent upon control. Who's in control of your life? You, the flesh, or Jesus? The worldly recovery programs only deal with the symptoms. God identifies the cause and the remedy. The world seeks to rehabilitate the old you. God prescribes death to self, the crucified flesh. So the world takes you into its recovery program, sobers you up at the Betty Ford clinic, takes you like a Hillary Clinton pig and washes you, puts a bow on your head and lipstick, and you come out and look at me. Look how good I look. Look at a a new me. And as soon as nobody's watching, what do you do? You go right to the pigpen. You go right over to the illicit sexual content and the drugs, the alcohol, all of it. It's drawing you. And you feel good as you're wallowing in the mud. That's who you are because your nature has not been changed. You need to be born again. You can't do it yourself. There's no Betty Ford or any pill or any neurological thing that the the world can do to change your heart. The problem's with a heart problem. The heart's deceitfully wicked above all things, desperately wicked, and who can know it? God knows it and he still loves you. And he still loves me. But you can't smooth him. You can't lie to him. You can't hide it. As a hypocrite, a religious hypocrite, coming to church doesn't make you any better. You need to be born again. You need to be transformed. And and don't believe the lie that, well, I if I clean myself up, then I can go to church. Well, once I stop drugging and doing all, then I can go to church. No. You come to church with all your baggage, and you lay it. You surrender it all at Jesus' feet. You let Jesus transform and change you. That's his business. That's what he does. Don't play the role. Don't play the game. Don't be religious. We don't need another religious, defeated person out there representing Jesus. We need victory. We need transformation change, a metamorphosis. We need a worm of a man turned into a I say it loosely because real men aren't like butterflies, but you get it. A new creation in Christ. But you gotta die so that Christ can live and take control of your life, that Christ might live through us. Romans six describes it this way, verse 11, likewise, reckon. You're gonna reckon ye also yourselves to be dead, indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign. Don't give sin control of your life to overwhelm you and lead and guide you. So let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, but they should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you. You're not under the law, but under grace. And again, that's the other blame game. The blame game is the devil made me do it. The world made me do it. My dysfunctional family made me do it. Sin shall not have dominion over you. There's a greater force operative here in your life, and that's the life of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has defeated the world, the flesh, the devil. Jesus spoiled all principalities and powers. He triumphed over them. Jesus set you free. He came to set the captives free. Live and enjoy that freedom. Don't go back into the law. Don't go back into a the letter of the law kills, but the spirit gives life. Live the life of the spirit. Enjoy your freedom. Why would you wanna be an alcoholic Christian? Why? Why would you wanna go back to the pigpen? Why would you wanna live as close to the world on the fence and never ever experience the power of the Holy Spirit operative in your life to use your life for the kingdom and glory. Because if the devil neutralizes you, even though you're still saved, you're like the carnal Christian. Paul says, are you not carnal? First Corinthians three. Wanted to give you meat, but all you can handle is is milk, this milky kind of lukewarm, insipid stuff that makes Jesus sick in the Laodicean church. You're still a Christian, but man, we can't differentiate. We can't decide or understand. Where's the fruit? You're living just like a worldly person. Only God knows. Only God knows. I hope and pray you're really saved. Because maybe you're not saved. We don't know. Because there's no fruit. You still look like the world. You act like the world. So Paul says in first Corinthians five, the guy that took his father's wife and the whole church was thinking, oh, we're so loving. We're so woke. Oh, baby love wins. Paul says, no. A little 11 leavens the lump. That corruption's gonna permeate the whole group, and your children are gonna be watching what it means, a husband and wife, and the two becoming one, that of marriage and all, and they're gonna see the incest. They're gonna see the passivity of the church not nip it in the bud, and they're all going to emulate. They're going they're gonna say, you know, this lacks power. We want power. We're gonna check out witchcraft. We're gonna check out the occult because at least they live with power. This this Christianity that we're seeing observed in the church of Corinth is insipid. It's powerless to transform and change lives. Paul says, hey, this is serious. Paul says, excommunicate them. Get rid of them. Give them over to Satan for the destruction of the body for the saving of their soul. So now they're going to go outside the church family, they're gonna suffer the consequence of their actions, and then the consequence suffering the consequences according to Hebrews 12, whom the Lord loves, he chases and scourges every son or daughter. Those that don't receive chastening, God doesn't deal with them as sons because they're not his own. So they're able to continue. So nonbelievers able to continue in their sin without chastening. A child of God receives chastening. You're miserable in your sin as you're sinning. You can't enjoy it anymore. You may have been able to enjoy it before, but you just can't enjoy. You feel worthless. You feel guilty. Never felt guilty before, but now you do because you're one of his. But you're living a life of defeat. And so the two that were excommunicated in second Corinthians, Paul said they they came to repentance. As Satan was whooping on them, they came to repentance. Why? Because it's the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance. God loves them enough to remind them of his love and to correct them, to bring correction. And all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may thoroughly equip for every good work. God doesn't want you to wander in the darkness of unbelief or the darkness of deception. God wants you to know the scriptures that your behavior is right or it's wrong. It's no middle ground. It's not up for debate. It's not how you feel. It's not a YouTube prophet. It's either right or it's wrong. Adultery is wrong. It's always been wrong. It'll never be right. David, you've given great occasion the enemies of Lord to blaspheme his name. There's always consequences. The sword's not gonna depart from your family, David. Even though you're the king, you're gonna watch your son, Ammon, rape Tamar, and you're gonna watch your other son, Absalom, kill Amnon. The sword is never gonna depart from your family, and then Absalom's gonna steal the kingdom, and then his hair's gonna get caught in a low flying oak tree. He's gonna be swinging off of his donkey, and Joab's gonna come up and put a dart in his heart. And you're gonna cry out, oh, Absalom, Absalom, would to God I would have died for you. David, it's your sin. It's your sin that led to this. Do you wanna live with that? How are your children affected by your profession of faith? They know the real you. They know what you're about. Are they gonna embrace your Jesus? Did Absalom make it into the kingdom of heaven? Did Amnon, did Tamar? David, even Ahithophel, your close adviser. His granddaughter was Bathsheba, and she married Uriah, the Hittite, one of your mighty men. David, David, what were you thinking, man? It can happen to any of us. What are we thinking? Think we're gonna get away with it? God's recovery recovery program works. We have all the need, all we need in Jesus. Now when you're in school, in this day and age, people will tell you, hey, the bible's antiquated. We've got some new ideas. We've got some new truths. We've got some new stuff. There's nothing new under the sun. People are saying they know more about how you're made than Jesus knows how you're made. Just listen to Noah Yuval Harari and watch how he tries to describe how they're going to cure death one day. They've got all the knowledge now of how to make people immortal and all. And I've had psychiatrists, people in school and stuff tell us that, you know, that we got new information about how the mind works and how the nervous system works and how, the soul of man works, and our psychological understanding and all. We are also with Neuralink and many different facets of the technology, we're gonna be able to reach a point where we can alter behavior, man's recovery program. Jesus is supposedly inadequate. The gospel's inadequate. The work of the holy spirit, inadequate. We need the help of men to transform and change lives. That's a counterfeit. The devil's playing counterfeit. Don't fall there. Be confident. In second Peter one verse three, Peter says, according as his divine power has given listen closely. He's given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. You're not a pauper. You're not poor. You're rich spiritually. You're a plutocrat. He's given you all things that you need to live the Christian life. There's nothing new coming. He's given it all. He says, it's expedient that I go be with the father because if I go be with the father, then I'm gonna send the comforter. I'm gonna send the holy spirit. And the holy spirit's gonna come alongside you and convict you of sin so you might know me. The holy spirit's going to indwell you so that you'd be born again. And the holy spirit's gonna come upon you. You're gonna be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the outermost parts of the world. You're gonna know power, dynamic power, distinctly different than the power of the world. Insipid, powerless churches that don't preach the gospel, that don't live the Christian life, that don't present the gospel. And the Christians, the the unbelievers, everyone suffers because it's a man centered humanistic talk show. God's recovery program is a walk with the holy Spirit. His command, number one. Secondly, his control. Thirdly and finally, his conquest, the victory. Do you want God to have victory in your life? Do you wanna experience victory over the world, the flesh, the devil? Jesus said, upon this rock, I'm gonna build my church and the gates of hell not prevail against it. Jesus is building you. He's building you up. You individually, he's building you up. He's edifying you. It's like a it's like a house that he's building. You're that house. You're that tabernacle that he lives and dwells within. And he's changing you. He's transforming you from glory to glory into the image of Christ. One day, he's gonna complete that work that he's begun, but presently, you're growing. You're not passive. You're growing in that command to keep walking in the spirit. You fall down. You get back up. You confess your sin. He's faithful and just to forgive you of your sin, to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. Fellowship's restored, and now you're walking again. You don't stay in the pigpen if you get your feet all dirty walking by it, you know? You don't stay there. That's not you. That's not your nature. God's recovery program is a walk with the holy spirit, his conquest. Verse 18. But if you'd be led of the spirit, so in contrast to the tyranny of the flesh, but if you'd be led of the spirit, you're not under the law. And so the question is, who's leading? Who's leading? Are we led of the spirit? Victory is determined by who's in control, the flesh or the spirit? And Jude, the brother of Jesus, the the one of the brothers James and Jude, He had several brothers, but Jude is one of the stepbrothers of Jesus. Jude one verse 17. But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their we're in the last time. Mockers who should walk after their own ungodly lusts, not walking in the spirit. He says verse 19. So if you want to identify them, here we go. These be they who separate themselves, sensual. How am I appealing to you this morning? Am I appealing to your five senses? Are are we on that level? Are we down at the human level to appeal to you up with your five senses? Touch, taste, smell. Is that where we're at? Do I need fog machines and entertainment and certain mist and incense and do I need to be a life coach and appeal to your heart and get you to cry because your mother didn't hug you enough and, you know, all that? Is that where you want to be? Do you want me to zoom in and say, I need $200,000. I've got a kingdom to build here in Kitsap County. Why do they fall for that? They're being manipulated. They're being appealed to sensually. They're gonna do good works and feel good. They're still sinners. They're still lost. They're still unsaved. They're not living the life of the spirit Because it's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. It's not a work of the spirit that's transforming changing lives from within except the Lord build the house. They that labor labor in vain that build it. They can build it with money and boards and all that other stuff, but it's powerless. It's a social construct. It's a social gospel. It's emerging with the world to get as much money with government grants as they can with their little five zero one c three little businesses attached to the church and to start a kingdom to take away suffering. With government funding and silver and gold, have we none? Name of Jesus Christ, stand up and wah. Where's that? Where's that aspect? And Peter and John are watching by a paralytic. The guy's begging for money. The pool of Siloam, silver and gold have we none by what we have. In the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. Where's that operative? Where we see that movie in a working of the holy spirit? A w tildeser said, what you see in the book of acts, 90% of it was a work of the holy spirit, only 10% of men. Flip it around in the sixties when he said this, imagine today. 90% of what you see in churches today is flesh. It's a business. It's marketing. It's appealing to the sensual appetites of men. Only 10% of what you see, according to Tozer, is truly a work of God's spirit. I wanna be a part of the 10%. I wanna see God move and work in my lifetime. I wanna see God move and work in my life every single day transforming and changing people. He says, but these be they who separate themselves central, having not the spirit. Churches today, again, flesh dominated unbelievers. You're either carnal. You got three types, flesh. And as Paul says, verse continue three, I couldn't speak to you as spirits, but as in the carnal. Greek word sarcast, fleshly. So you can have people in the church who are saved, but they're operative, they're dominant by carnality. The flesh is dominating them. I'm a Paul of an Apollos. I'm a Cephas. And then in Hebrews chapter five at verse 11, he says, you're dull of hearing, you can't hear. Do you know when I'm teaching the bible? A big part of the responsibility is your ears. Do you have the appetite for the word of God? Do you have the ability to understand what my lips are saying? For many people, they're dull of hearing. They shut you off. They don't have the spiritual capacity to understand what's being said. So they have to be entertained with sensual feel good messages, pep rallies. And they're left as babes. At the very most, they're left as babes if even they're saved or not. And we're gonna find out real soon here. As times get tougher, we're gonna find out there's gonna be huge separation of those who know what it is to live the life of the spirit and walk in faith and trust in Jesus and those who have been trusting in themselves and in men and the government and all the all the above. There's a real time of sifting coming. It's here. It's already here. All these people in churches who are not saved, they're not gonna make it. Rob and Vicky were telling me that even in the shipyard, as they're gonna go to four ten hour days, they're concerned about the enormous amount of stress people are under. Already at Winco, already at Costco, already all over people are prepping. How are they prepping? It's not toilet paper. It's alcohol. It's gummies. It's pot. It's drugs. That's how they're gonna cope. They're being triggered and now we're gonna see their coping mechanism. You as a Christian, you're not going there. You got your bible. You got Jesus direct, not through any man, and you spend time with him. You seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these other things be added unto you. You've got the word of God that says be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving, you're gonna thank the Lord for the pay cut. With thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, gonna guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. You're gonna be the guys at work experiencing peace. And they're gonna be looking at you going, what quality of relationship is this? You might be real. We haven't seen this kind of Christianity in a long time. You remind me of my grandma whose bible was worn out. I haven't seen this in so long. I tried some of the churches around here, but I saw right through them. I want nothing to do with them, but I want what you got. You're provoking me to jealousy. I'm thirsty to know the Jesus that you know. Great opportunities to share the gospel with people that need answers now. And you've got the answers. The answer is Jesus. It's not a program. It's a person. The Holy Spirit can minister in ways that no man can. Flesh dominated unbelievers will know them by their fruit. But you beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Command to walk in the spirit, yield to God, let him lead God, control you. He says, verse 21, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And if some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. And I love this doxology. Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our savior, be glory and majesty, dominion, and power built down forever. Amen. Jesus is gonna complete that work he's begun in us. He's gonna present us faultless no matter how many times we fall, no matter how far we stray. That work that he's begun in us, he's gonna complete it. We're gonna learn what it means to yield to the holy spirit. We're gonna learn what it means to be led of the spirit. We're gonna learn what it means to die to self, to die to the flesh. We're gonna get the victory in Jesus. He's available. He's there. If there's a distance between us, it's because we've strayed, he hasn't. We've drifted. We got caught up in the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches. We misconstrued that those blessings, that they were blessings. And yet, they're the very things that that caused us to say, hey, we're rich and accrete with goods in need of nothing. And where's Jesus sees on the outside of the Laodicean church? A lukewarm, insipid, powerless church. Jesus said, no, your true spiritual condition is your naked, poor, blind, and miserable. That doesn't mean mean that we have to be that way. We don't have to be that church. We don't have to be the church of Laodicea. We can be like Philadelphia, little strength but still some strength, know? Train up a child in the way they should go. When they're old, they won't depart from it. Lord, you said. You said, Lord, I I got a prodigal. Lord, I have a husband, a wife. I have I have loved ones that have strayed that have gone away. God always wins. Keep trusting the promises of God. God is working. He never stops working. In Jeremiah 31 verse 15, thus saith the Lord, a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children because they were not. Thus saith the Lord God, refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears for thy work shall be rewarded. God's saying, mothers, your work's gonna be rewarded. Father, your work's gonna be rewarded. Saith the Lord. And they shall come again from the land of the enemy. They're gonna come again. All that work, all that investment, all that pouring into on the word of God. They may have strayed for a time, but I'm telling you, they're gonna come again. They're coming home. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border. The context of this is Jeremiah 31 is a wonderful wonderful chapter that talks about God's love being an everlasting love. The context is God saying to Jeremiah that I'm gonna draw the Israel of God back onto myself. And in the last days on the latter end, I'm gonna write my word in their hearts. I'm gonna give them a new covenant, an internal covenant, the covenant that you and I are gonna celebrate with the bread and the cup. An unconditional covenant, it is finished. God says, I'm gonna complete the work that I've begun in them. And I'm gonna bring a remnant through the fire of the last days of the tribulation period. And a one third remnant according to Zechariah thirteen eight nine, a one third remnant's gonna be purified, preserved, and they're gonna mourn. They're gonna mourn over me in recognition of what they've done unto me. And in that morning, they're gonna cry out, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And I'm gonna fill their hearts with my spirit. And I'm gonna transform and change them from within. I'm gonna bring him home. And the prophet is using the picture of Rachel. You remember Rachel and Leah that Jacob married, and Rachel was able to have Joseph. And then at the end of her life, she was pregnant with Benjamin, Benoni. And her and her husband in the in the caravan is approaching a little town called Bethlehem. Ephrathra. Ephrathra. Bethlehem. And as she's dying, in Genesis chapter 36, 16 through 18. As she's dying, she's crying out, she's Benoni, you know, in her pain. And Jacob says, no, son of my right hand, Benjamin. And the picture there is of the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel being being raised from the dead. The nation of Israel coming back and letting Rachel know that all this hard work, all this hard labor, everything you've done is gonna come back to fruit, to bear fruit in the end. The Ephraim and Manasseh, God would call Ephraim the priority. Ephraim, the priority tribe, not the firstborn as Joseph had Ephraim and Manasseh, but Ephraimites, the 10 northern tribes as as as Jeroboam, stripped them of their identity of going to the temple and worshiping God and all and and setting up a a golden image and then going into years of idolatry. And then in July, the Assyrians wiping out the 10 northern tribes. And then May, wiping out Judah, and Jeremiah is is preaching and teaching concerning Judah and the and the nation of Israel, and that one day God is going to come and he's gonna restore them. And he's using the illustration, picture, the same picture that Matthew, the Holy Spirit gave to Matthew in chapter two of Matthew when Herod the great was wanting to wipe out all of the babes of Bethlehem. How the devil wants to wipe them out. The same picture that's in Revelation chapter 12 verse four, where the devil knows his time is short and he's wanting to wipe out all the Jews. And when after the child, when after the child, the the the Christ child, the seed of the woman, went after the people, the nation of Israel, and God's saying to Jeremiah, just as just as Rachel died in that, just as she didn't see the fruition and the and the reward of her work and all, the nation's coming back. At the resurrection, Rachel, you're gonna meet your son Benjamin. You're gonna meet all the patriarchs. It ain't over yet. God is gonna keep his promises. And so too, with the nation of Israel, God's gonna complete his promises that he's given to the nation of Israel. The church has not replaced Israel. That's what he's saying Jeremiah 31. The church is distinctly different than the nation of Israel. God's gonna bring them through the fire. The wife of Jehovah's gonna enter into all that God has for her. Thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord. And they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in the end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border. That's God's answer to the crying heart of a mother. Lord, you said train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he won't depart he won't depart from it. God's saying, I'm not done yet. You just wait. There's hope in the end. There's hope in the resurrection. There's a confident expectation that I'm gonna finish that work and I'm gonna bring him and you're gonna see him even if you don't see it. You know, in your lifetime, the prodigal will come home. He will walk in the cool of the day with his God. The alcoholic and the drug addict will be sober. The gay man and woman will be made pure. The leper will be cleansed. The blind will see. God will complete that work that he's begun in your child's life. Don't give up. Train up a child in the way they should go when they're old, they won't depart from it. Now, couple weeks ago, I asked you, I'm gonna try and I'm gonna try and do this. This is the hard part of the sermon. I asked you to pray for my daughter Jessica. We all live with the pain that comes with being moms and dads, brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. Sometimes we have to watch somebody be so beaten and and a lot of it's their own fault. I know. They go their own way, but it's still hard as a parent to watch. But God knows what he's doing. My daughter Jessica's lost her, baby the the other day, and, it's a third of the fourth one now. Her sisters had seven kids. And, if you look at Hannah, how deeply it grieved Hannah that she couldn't have a child in Elkanah, her husband, was able to give Pinnea children. And Mano and his wife, they had to wait for Samson, and Hannah had to wait for Samuel. Zechariah and Elizabeth, they they couldn't have children, and God set the stage for a John the Baptist. Some people have to wait, Jessica has to wait. I do believe that God will possibly, I hope and pray, make her a mother in this life. But her sister said something very, very profound when Jessica told her the other day that she'd lost another baby. And what you tell mom and dad? Brittany said, Jess, you're gonna meet those babies again. Britney said, Jessica, to start balling. The realization that she'd be rewarded. The realization that all this pain, all this suffering, all this that she's gone through some self induced, some of it not. That in this life, she's experienced a lot of pain and in that pain, the Lord is still gonna help her to win, to become a mommy, to see her babies in heaven. Your children, they're gonna come again, Rachel. You're gonna see your children. Your work's gonna be rewarded. And so too for every parent who's lost a child, who didn't see the fruition, the growth in that child, whom maybe the Lord took quickly or too soon for us to see the fruit bearing. Maybe they died of drugs, and you know that you know that you know they were saved, but they the Lord chastened them. The Lord took them to save their spirit. And you know that salvation's by grace through faith alone. That salvation's a free gift, and you know that you know that you know that the child's saved no matter what anybody else might say. You know that child's saved. Just as much as David saved being a murderer, they're saved. Their faith in God has imputed to them for righteousness. They got ripped off. They got off track. You trained them up in the way they should go, and they got off track. But God's saying, I can still work this. I still have enough to work with. I can get them home. Give Jesus control of your life today. Surrender your will to him. I surrender always saying, bow down in humble worship unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before his glory with exceeding joy. There Jesus said there'd be joy in heaven over one sinner that repents more than over the 99 that need no repentance. Make your mom proud. Make your dad proud today. Make grandma and grandpa proud. Make your heavenly father proud today. Yield to God's recovery program. Yield to the holy spirit. Walk in fellowship with the holy spirit. All that the world has, none of it's gonna be able to fill that void and that emptiness in your heart that God created you with. Only a relationship with Jesus Christ. Only fellowship with Jesus will take the gnawing, will take the pain, will fill the void and the emptiness. Jesus approached the woman, a divine appointment at Jacob's Well in John four. He said, I have water that you can drink of. You'll never thirst again. Go bring your husband, Jesus said. She said, I don't have a husband. You've had five husbands. And the one you're living with now, he ain't cutting it, is he? No. He ain't cutting it. Elkanah said to Hannah, aren't I better to you than 10 husbands? No. You're not. You're not all that. I need Jesus. I need the Lord. He's the only one that can fill this emptiness and fill my heart overflowing with his love. I need Jesus. And that's our prayer. Lord, I need you. I need you, Lord, to minister. I need you to minister, Lord, to our families. Lord seal them. Put a hedge of protection about them. Take those grandkids in their in their infancy. Lord, put your hedge of protection about them. Mark them out now, Lord. Don't let any of them fall through the cracks. Bring them all home, Lord. Bring them all to heaven. Let's pray, father. Help us live the life of the spirit. Lord, help us not be those that tolerate the gimmicks, the falsehoods, the counterfeit Christianity in our day. Help us to truly live the simple life of the spirit and brokenness and emptying ourselves and taking our cross up each day and following you. And praying, Lord, give us an open door that no man can shut, opportunities to share your love with people who are perishing, with people who are suicidal, who are having difficulty coping as Lord, they're being hit with something they've never been able to prepare for. But Lord, we've been being prepared. You've been preparing us. You've been training and teaching and helping us to sift through the lies and to stand upon your promises, to stand upon your holy word. By the power of your spirit, help us Lord. Use us now in the season ahead, days and weeks and months. Let there be great joy within our hearts and love and peace that people would be drawn to as Lord we introduce them to you. Let our light so shine before men that they would see our good works that we would glorify our father in heaven. Lord, the world gets darker and darker, help us to shine bright in the power of your holy spirit. And while you're continuing to pray, if there's anybody here this morning, I know all the people on the right hand side, the left hand side. If there's anybody on the left hand side that doesn't know Jesus and you want to, Christianity is a relationship, just lift your hand up. We wanna lead you in prayer. The bible says, as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Salvation is a free gift by grace through faith alone. Jesus went to the cross and died for your sins, past, present, and future. He was crucified. He was buried. He proved that he's God by raising himself from the dead. And then 40 later, he ascended to the right hand of his father, and he's promising to come again. And we're looking up knowing that our redemption draws nigh. And we want we want you too to know that your name's already written in the lamb's book of life, that God keeps great records. Jesus is lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up as as we wanna pray with you. We don't want you to leave here without being comforted and knowing that if you die today, that you'd spend all eternity in heaven. To be asked when the bodies be present with the Lord. Anyone here? Father, thank you once again. The peace even now in this room, the peace that we experience that there's now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Help us to live the life of the spirit, Lord. The victory that's ours, because you purchased us, Lord. Because you gave us the Holy Spirit to lead and guide and empower and and dwell within the sweet fellowship that we enjoy. Lord, use us for your kingdom and glory. Lord, we surrender all. We surrender all afresh now. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.