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Philippians 1:27,30 -The Joy Of Victory- Pastor Rick Beaudry
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Only let your conversation be as it become at the gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of the affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel and a nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is of them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God. For unto you, it is given in behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Having the same conflict which he saw in me and now here to be in me. Father, thank you for your holy word. And Lord again, we we just lift up this time unto you and pray that you'd be our teacher. That Lord our hearts would be open and pliable and you said to the churches of revelation, he that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. And Lord, we desire to be a spirit filled on fire body of believers that you fill and use That, Lord, your love just emanating from our hearts and overflowing. And Lord, send us the lost. Send us those that are hurting. Send us those that want to know you. And Lord, equip and strengthen us and give us the words. Give us the heart. Give us the the spirit, the love to minister Lord. To minister as you do. So bless and use us Lord in these last days in Jesus name. Amen. Would you please be seated? One of the things when I was growing up, one of the shows that I really really never missed, I would never miss it, and it was ABC's wide world wide world of sports. And it would start out talking about the thrill of victory and it would show a guy up on top of soccer game and, you know, a champion, a victor, somebody that won, you know. And then it segued into and the agony of defeat. And it had the sky skiing like at the Olympics coming down, and then he makes the jump, and then he's like a rag doll. He's just boom boom boom boom boom. And the music, the whole thing, the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. And then it's showing a bunch of other people, you know, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, you know. And it's always stuck with me. It's a show that I always liked and it had sports and that sort of thing. And Paul is in jail and they're not defeated. He doesn't want the church of Philippi to to be defeated. He wants the church of Philippi to experience the joy of victory, the joy of overcoming the circumstances that God sovereignly allows into our lives. Now Peter differentiates between different types of suffering. The type of suffering that we need to stay away from is suffering because of the consequences of our sin, the consequences of resisting God. But Paul's in prison not because he's resisting or rebelling God. And you and I and many of us, we go through times of difficulty and trial, not because we're in rebellion to God, but because we love the Lord and we open our mouth, we share the gospel, we refuse to compromise or lie with the culture. And, and so we we are a threat to the kingdom of darkness and God allows the kingdom of darkness to target us and to try and, stifle, neutralize, or defeat us. And, our marriages come under attack. Our homes come under attack. And if you don't think that's true, then just step out in faith and try to share the gospel on an airplane, on Alaskan Airlines, you know. And and you might find that you're a threat and that people are upset and they feel, you know, unsafe and and they don't have their stuffed animal in their blanket to hold on their binky to put in their mouth. So they start to complain. And then pretty soon now you're being led off the plane. Why? Because you shared Jesus in a public environment. Or you're in Canada and you're standing outside of abortion clinic and your lips aren't even moving. You're you're you're just standing there. And the authorities come over, what are you thinking about? What do you what do you are you praying? And now they wanna know what's going on in your head. You know, you're not allowed to stand there and pray in Canada, you know. You're not allowed to verbalize. You're not allowed to speak. So, you know, the gays, the lesbians, the militant aspects of of society, They can have a whole month of gay pride and boast it and parade it and be naked and everywhere, you know, all through society, every facet of society. But somehow, we're supposed to be quiet. It's a private thing. Do that in your own home, you know. And then even that, we're reaching a place where even in your own home having a bible pretty soon and being a Christian's gonna come under scrutiny, especially if you're in Nigeria or if you're in Iran right now. And so how is it, you know, you and I can live and enter into a quality of life where we we may crash, we may fall, but it's not the that we stay there, in that place of agony, but the Lord elevates us. Paul and Silas were beaten in Philippi. They were beaten ten years earlier by the Philippian jailer, but the Philippian jailer got saved and the shackles came off all the prisoners and all. A great victory, a great triumph, spiritual triumph of not succumbing to the pressures of the wicked one that would seek to silence or or or stop us from sharing the glorious good news of Jesus Christ. So Paul wants all of us to know the joy of victory. And so Paul is now providing personal instructions as how how the church of Philippi should behave in the midst of persecution. So the church of Philippi is also, experiencing persecution. Paul wants them to understand the how. Do you know the how? Do you know how to experience the thrill of victory? The joy and the blessing of rejoicing in Jesus in the midst of trials, in the midst of difficulty. Their lives are be to be an example of the joy and victory. We live in a time where people are so sad, so broken, incredibly broken and discouraged, and turning to pharmaceuticals and therapies and and rudimentary methodologies and theories and philosophies to try and deal with the inner man. And it's it's at a place of abject poverty, inability to transform and change a person's heart. And we as Christians, we throughout all history could be in a coliseum and wild animals be sent against us because we won't say Caesar is Lord and pinching incense once a year. That simple. That that simple thing compulsory to pinch incense in a pagan temple and say Caesar is Lord. Not Jesus is Lord, Caesar is Lord and you could live another year. But the audacity of these Christians to say no, I'm not gonna dishonor my Lord, Jesus is Lord. Now I'll obey the laws of this land and I'll work hard as a slave. I'll do what's required of me. But when you cross that line government and you try to usurp deity, you've made a big mistake. I'm not taking the mark of the beast. I'm not gonna worship the image of the beast. And they overcame him with the blood of the lamb, the word of their testimony, love not their lives unto death. In Revelation 12, the tribulation martyrs. Innumerable multitude of people saying no to the AI, saying no to the technocrats, saying no to the ungodly, unholy counterfeit trinity of Lucifer parading himself as God the father, the antichrist parading himself as in place of Jesus Christ, and AI parading itself as the holy spirit. A counterfeit holy spirit. Interesting, people are gonna be turning to AI more and more asking AI, who should I marry? Should I take this job? Should I take this vacation? Asking questions, asking what to do, and AI coming up with answers. Whatever happened to prayer? Whatever happened to reading your bible and praying and asking God to speak to you by his spirit? We're living in a very strange, strange time. It's really happening. And so you and I, we have the holy spirit living and dwelling within us, and we have fellowship with the holy spirit no matter where we may go. And these martyrs that went into these coliseums and the Romans and others are watching just as a circus, as a thrill, as a entertainment, you know, the Christians were singing. If you read Fox's Book of Martyrs, you can see where the Christians were singing. They were worshiping the Lord as as these wild beasts would be unleashed and crunched the bones of men, women, and children in the center of the coliseum. The blood lust of the of the masses, you know. And that's the that that's the character of being a Christian. That's who we are. In an indomitable will, we will not we will not bow our knee to the devil. We will not. We will not be silent. And that's the emphasis Paul is giving here is that as you're facing the suffering, as a result of living and preaching the gospel, if we want to experience the joy of victory, three things are necessary. Number one, we must be church of Philippi, church of Calvary Bremerton. If you wanna be victorious, if you wanna experience the joy of victory in the days ahead, we must be united in purpose. The devil's strategy is to divide and conquer, to divide us, to get us to divide over all sorts of little different things, you know. And I've seen a lot of people divide for me over Trump. How's that working for you? Because it's only getting worse. The beast system's being built. And so you're gonna you're gonna divide for me because I'm exposing Trump. I'm obeying the bible saying, have no fellowship with him, fruitful works of darkness, but rather expose it. And now some of the pastors are getting on board. Finally, starting to expose the proliferation of the beast system that's being built. And who's behind it? President Trump is leading the way with the technocrats. So I'm not supposed to talk about that or we're gonna be divided. We're gonna lose people. Well, I'm willing to lose people for the sake of the truth. And then I'm hoping and praying those that stay that we're united in purpose. That it's not about us. It's not about being a republican or being a democrat. As the culture, as the media is trying to divide America, I'm a democrat. Oh, we hate those democrats, those deem demon democrats and, oh, but I'm a republican. I'm a little bit better than them. I'm I'm a good guy. Well, worst be jab happened while republicans were in power. President Trump's the one that released the worst be jab. You're hearing all about Fauci right now, but nothing about Trump. And yet Moderna, the FDA has just approved the mRNA vaccine, which is gonna change people's DNA with the flu shot coming this fall. Approved. Moving forward. Children still being vaccinated bundles and bundles. So what's the whole parade? What's the whole circus of Fauci? Nothing's gonna happen. It's like Epstein. You're not thinking about Epstein anymore. I believe what it is is to divide us. Get everybody all divided and the demonization of Iran, the demonization of Democrats. And yet, you can't mention Trump in the same sentence that he's responsible for any of this. Not Epstein Island, not the jab, not Fauci. I mean, I can hear him saying give us two weeks. Let let us break the curve. Give us two weeks. Let let's let's be open by Easter then. Oh, I'm sorry. The numbers are too high. We we got to close churches for Easter. People have amnesia. They don't want to know. They don't want to hear. And yet it bothers me when I see people falling into the trap of demonizing Democrats, like somehow it's the Democrats fault and exalting republicans. Now we're divided as a nation politically. The churches are divided. I understand that when President Obama ran for office the first time he ran as a Christian, Paraded by Rick Warren and then later George Stephanopoulos. When Obama says, you know, my my Muslim faith, he corrected and said, you mean your Christian faith? Almost slipped out. But once he's elected, what happens? He's not only a Muslim, he's also gay. Oh, hit that from the voters. And I know that Christians voted for him, not only the first time, but even the second time. Because somehow we were made to feel guilty. Somehow we were made to feel that we were bad. And so we need to seize hold of this hope and change and how that work for us. And the woke ism and all that followed and the legislating of of marriage, same sex marriage and such. When have the republicans tried to reverse any of that? I believe the AI is going to take the place of Fauci. People are losing confidence in doctors. They want the AI to diagnose and prescribe what's needed. I believe the people are losing confidence in Republicans and Democrats and AI is gonna take the place of government, of a democracy or constitution republic. We're gonna have a technocratic government, which the Bible describes as 10 toes, 10 horns, 10 kings, the world divided into 10 regions, and artificial intelligence being the the means of governance with the track and trace and all the data centers and the flock cameras and the stargate project with all the satellites and all. We're headed toward a time of tyranny, tremendous tyranny and people are fighting over. I'm a republican or I'm a democrat. And it's a ploy to get us to a civil war to fight with each other. I don't care if my neighbors a democrat. I don't hate them. I would support them if somebody tried to hurt them. It's ludicrous. And the Republicans, as I said, if you're going to steal the elections from Trump and you don't do anything about it, Republicans, then you're complicit. You're a part of it. If you don't remove the debold machines and the algorithms that were used to steal elections that's in place presently all still in place, then you're part of the problem. When you're given the house, the senate, and the presidency, and you do nothing, you're part of the problem. When you're given the presidency in the first day in office, you you Republican President Trump, the Stargate Project, $500,000,000,000, $500,000,000,000 to with Palantir, with Peter Thiel and who's JD Vance? He's a product of Peter Thiel. If you put it all on the table and expose it like the Bible says, they can't get away with their evil. But if you keep playing Fox News, I'm a republican, I'm a democrat, they got you. United we stand, divided we fall. It's so easy to see. It's so easy to understand. And living in denial acting like it's not happening isn't going to isn't going to bring forth righteousness again. So united in person, he says, only let your conversation be as it become of the gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast. Notice in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. That word conversations is a Greek word, polito may I. Pastor, don't talk about politics. Well, here's your political word. It's about citizenship being the citizen. The rights of citizenship, the responsibilities of citizenship, and and according to as a Christian, our citizenship is in heaven. So we're living according to the mandates, according to citizens of heaven, being ambassadors of Jesus Christ. So your conversation, your political may I, your conduct, your worthy behavior. So live to please your king. So I like in the case of the children of Israel as they come through the time of the judges and Samuel's getting old, the last of the judges and and the children of Israel, in a time of judges, every man was doing that which is right in his own eyes, is existentialism, which is relativism, a lack of absolute truth. And so God would raise up judges like Deborah or Jephthah or Samson or Gideon and Samson Samuel being the last of the of the judges and the first of the prophets. And once Samuel was getting older, the people are looking at Samuel's sons and saying, no, we don't want your sons. They're not they're they're not who we're looking for to lead us. And so what do you guys want? Well, we wanna have a king so that we can be like all the other nations. Really? You're living in a theocracy. You're living where Jesus is your king, where God's your king. You're unique. You're not like all the other nations. You have a unique relationship with God, but you want to be like all the other nations. So the Lord allowed the people to bring forth king Saul. And God told Samuel, Samuel was really bummed about it. They haven't rejected you, Samuel. They've rejected me. So they're looking toward human government. They're looking toward a king, a human king to lead guide them, to guide the nation, to be like the world, to be like all the other nations. And what happened was the Lord brought forth king Saul who was a head taller than everybody, handsome, good looking, all of that, poised for a time. But as soon as trouble would come, what we found out about King Saul was he was a man pleaser. He was a politician. He sought to please the people rather than please God. So God instructed the children of Israel to go and wipe out all these Amalekites and all their stuff, everything, because God could see up ahead that these guys are gonna cause you guys a lot of corruption and a lot of trouble. In order to please the people, king Saul did not wipe out all of the spoil, all the animals, all the stuff. And so Samuel the prophet's gonna go meet him, and king Saul's posturing himself like like like he obeyed the Lord, but he didn't. He wanted to appease. He wanted to please the people, so he wanted them to have some of the spoil and even things maybe maybe let's make it religious. Let's let's twist this disobedience and make it look spiritual. I'll tell Samuel, I'm gonna offer some of these animals to God in worship. And Samuel says, what's the bleeding of the sheep that I hear in my ears? And king Agag, you know, and you spared him. You're supposed to wipe these guys out. And then king Saul went into his speech of how he tried to be political and tried to please everybody and honor God and everything at the same time. And Samuel cuts him off and just says, to obey God is better than sacrifice. Just simple obedience. Just obey the Lord. And so the kingdom's stripped from you, Saul, and given to another, another would be David, king David, a man after God's own heart, a man that would seek to please God rather than to please people. That's always the temptation of leadership. Is your pastor a politician? Or is he truly a pastor seeking to please God? No matter how many people reject, you know, or persuade or put their weight around the leverage or whatever, You couldn't get away with that with David. They they could pick up stones and say they're gonna stone David, and he would get away with the Lord and seek to obey the Lord. He wouldn't give in to public pressure or peer pressure and that sort of thing. And so if your if your environment is a political environment, then things are gonna sway one side of the pendulum in that system to democrat side, then it's gonna swing to the republican side. That's that pendulum. But if you understood that they're just two sides of one coin, all working for the globalists, all working toward the bankers, toward the one world government, the one world monetary system, But they gotta play you and I back and forth. But with a guy like David, King David, there's no mistake. He's he's for Jesus. There's no mistake with John the Baptist. He's for Jesus. He's willing to lose his head. There's no negotiating with John the Baptist, you know. And with the apostle Paul, he's not gonna receive money from from, Festus, you know, or Felix to lessen the load or to be released from prison. He's not gonna compromise. There's no compromise. And so that needs to be foundational that we're in agreement. We're going to live to please our king that our citizenship is in heaven. Philippians three verse 20 consistent with the kingdom you are proclaiming. He says, stand fast in one spirit means to be to be firm. No retreat. Stand as one with one mind striving together. It means a team approach striving together as athletes. Why? Of what purpose? Notice it says, for the faith of the gospel. If we're to succeed in the spreading of the gospel, we must be united in purpose. In Matthew twelve twenty five, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. In Galatians five fifteen, if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you'd be not consumed one of another. And so are we doing every man doing that which is right in his own eyes? Or are we getting our marching orders, all of us collectively by reading God's word, hearing from the Holy Spirit and be in agreement that Jesus is an authority, that Jesus is in charge. Otherwise, we have a committee and we all vote, and we've got a myriad of different ideas and ways and approaches. And so you gotta stay with God's word. You gotta allow the holy spirit to lead and guide. You gotta allow Jesus to build his church, and the gates of hell won't prevail against it. I've as a pastor, I've seen in building projects and trying to progress the church and and get Sunday school rooms and outreaches and all that. I've seen where we start out real well. We're excited. And then I've seen where the enemy comes in and divides us over little tiny things. Little tiny tiny things. You go from loving Rick and Kathy to hating Rick and Kathy. I mean, hating Rick and Kathy. And and you're like, wow, we we used to be friends. What what happened? You know? And then pretty soon it festers and it spreads and now the church is divided. Now the church is I'm on this camp. I'm a Paul. I'm a Apollo. Some of Cephas. Some of Christ. And as Paul said, is Christ divided? What happened when you're united in purpose? When you're moving forward as one, the devil couldn't get in there and and wipe you out. Now, what I've discovered too is if there's an outside force bringing in persecution against the church, if there's an outside enemy coming against America, all of a sudden, Republican, Democrats, Liberals, all were friends. We're all united in purpose to defeat whoever it is that threat. But in a time of prosperity, you know, everybody's doing that, which is right in their own eyes. And, yeah, there's different different forces and ideologies, whether it be communism or humanism or, you know, globalism. I think globalism is the biggest one that's that's affecting all the nations of the world. If you're not in compliance with the Bank of International Settlements, the Rothschild banking system, then you're a threat to the global banking system because there can be no breach. There can be no rogue nations. So any and every nation that is trying to operate outside of the prescribed financial system that's being implemented presently demands 100% compliance or you're gonna be invaded and there'll be a regime change, and each and every nation will be on board. And and that's that's a political and a prophetic direction that we're headed. The whole entire world is moving in that direction. And and so but as a church, whether I'm a Pentecostal or Baptist or Calvary Chapel or whatever it may be, we should all be united in purpose and getting the gospel out and spreading the gospel to people who are perishing. But if we're divided, then we're weakened. And Paul doesn't want you don't have these denominational factions at this point in time, but he's addressing the local church of Philippi and saying, don't let the devil divide you. And Paul's gonna describe how difficult it is to find like minded people, people that get it. Pastor Chuck used to say, ministry is more caught than it is taught. There are people that flow with the Holy Spirit and it's just effortless. Then there's other people that are always questioning, always accusing, always finding fault, and always wanting to, as the atrophies, have a place of prominence, a place of position, of authority. That's one of the biggest problems we had. One of the pastors said, the guys will all come out and help you build it. And once it's built, the wives and will nest it. They'll begin to nest it with all the kids, but then the men will start to fight over who's gonna rule it, who's gonna be in charge. And once that happens, watch out. It's it's a crazy pressure thing. And we lost the vision. We lost why we're here, what it is we're here to do. And then it goes back to the world. Every man doing that which is right in his own eyes, no united purpose, individualism, lay of the scene church, humanism, relativism, weaken vulnerable to the enemies. Had they lived to please God, they'd have been united in purpose to please their king. They would have known the joy of victory instead of the agony of defeat. The devout devil strategy of dividing and conquering. As I said, when the church is hit head on by the communist of China, the church thrives. When the church is hit head on and I and I ran today by the Islamist, the church thrives. The church is growing. The Islamic mosque are empty. But when Constantine nationalizes the church and all these politicians and Fox News people say, I'm a pastor's son. I'm a Christian too. When they join the church, we're compromised. We're undermined. We become filthy. We become corrupt. We can't move forward. That corruption has to be dealt with. No teaching on repentance. No teaching come out from among them be separate. Instead, hey, we're all Christians. It's convenient for me presently to be all of us to be a Christian because I can get the evangelicals to be silent and to go along with me while we build the beast system, and not a peep from the evangelicals, not a peep. And the greatest measure of tyranny is presently being built and not a peep from the evangelical voting block that voted this man in. Unbelievable cowardice. Shame on us. The trap is being set. Not gonna be able to undo it. What's what are you waiting for? Your digital ID. Everyone has to have a digital biometric identification for your health because Fauci ain't gonna help you. For voting because all the 11,000,000 invasion that Mayorkas conducted during the Biden administration, the chaos of the Diebold machines, all of it, it warrants itself. You need the solution, crisis reaction solution. You need a digital ID to vote. AI will help you vote. AI will help you with medical. AI will help you with your financial because we've got a debt bomb. This this debt bomb is gonna explode the derivatives explodes the whole world's financial systems imploding. What's the solution? A new digital solution. Every transaction tracked and traced. No more drug money. No more human trafficking of children. Everyone chipped. Everyone identified. The satellites will identify. No place to hide. And not a peep. If we want to experience the joy of victory, three things are necessary. Number one, united in purpose. Number two, unshakable in presence. Verse 28. And then nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you have salvation and that of God. Ben Franklin said, we must all hang together or we shall hang separately. There couldn't be division at the at the inception of our country. They need to be united in purpose and unshakable because if one guy freaks out and starts to betray all the rest of them, we're gonna all hang separately. We're gonna be hanging from the gallows. Esop is quoted as saying, united we stand, divided we fall. We've got to stay together. Keep your cool. I remember watching Jerry West, Chick Hearn, the announcer, and Jerry West, they came up with a way to describe him. They called him Mr. Clutch. Because at the end of the game, when there's a final shot to be made, he would be the guy even from half court that would make the shot. Mister clutch, poised under pressure. Sometimes you'll see the guys if they miss a freeway, a free throw, you know, a guy somebody will do this. He choked. He failed under pressure, you know. And we don't wanna choke under pressure. We wanna maintain our poise. And so unshakable in presence. Now, look at the leverage. Look at the leverage that can come against you as a Christian. If you don't pinch this instance, if you don't take this mark, fill in the blank. If you don't take this job, then fill in the blank. You know, when people told me, and now it's so funny, you you see some of them coming back out saying they're so glad that they're on the right side of history, That refusing the jab, now they're being vindicated. Vindicated that they made the right decision. And some of the athletes who were ridiculed and berated publicly for not taking the jabber now out in front saying, boy, I'm sure glad I didn't. With all the sudden death and the myocarditis and the turbo cancers and the compromising of immune systems and all the enormous amount of people that are dying and the Fauci stuff that's coming out, I'm so glad. Well, why did so many people that you and I know, why were they susceptible to manipulation? Number one lies, they were being lied to. Mandates aren't laws. They were seeing how far they could go. They as in the globalist. How far can we run with this? Joseph Goebel said, once you make them afraid, you can get them to do anything. So the media is used to make people filled with fear. You're gonna die. You're gonna die. But a ninety nine point nine percent recovery of COVID. It's not the COVID that kills. It's the shot that kills. And the remdesivir and the breathing apparatus put upon people and and such. And so all they had to say to you was, you're gonna lose your job. And then I heard people tell me, well, pastor, I I don't I have a mortgage to pay. So you're telling me there's not another job out there? You're telling me you can't walk by faith and trust God that he'll find you another job? Or why wouldn't you stand up against this? Why wouldn't you sue? Why wouldn't you stand for your rights? Why why would you give in, capitulate, give into this so quickly? You you know nothing about this job. You know nothing about it. Why would you shut your church down? Why would you listen to that? It was a test run and we failed. We failed it. Maybe we're smarter this time around. I hope so. I hope so this time. Not on my watch. There may be a day where we're forced to not meet. I don't know. But I have to I'd really have to answer that that word forced. I heard of a pastor over in the Spokane area, dear, dear, good, a great pastor. For the first time in forty three years, he had to shut down his church because of the fires. All of his staff, everybody, you know, just wiped out. The the housing is all down to ashes, cars melted, but trees still standing. Explain that to me. These weird fires, the weird things, that's a different topic. But for me as a pastor, would I actually shut the church down? His reasoning was he didn't have any staff. All of his staff had to evacuate the area. People had, well, maybe I'd be forced to. I look at the word forced. Okay. But in my mind, I'm telling Kathy, get your electric bike out. We're gonna go meet. We're meeting. If it's just me and you, Kathy, we're meeting. If a third person shows up before, well, we're having church today. If I can breathe and get through the smoke and make my way there, we're meeting. Because if I start to give in to reasons to close the church, which I've observed, I've watched since COVID. Guys are shutting the church down all the time now. And I'm not saying the guy in Spokane had any other choice. Think he was forced to. I'm just saying, once you give in, it becomes easier and easier to give in to all of the excuses and reasons the devil's giving you to not persevere, to choke under pressure. Don't fear him that can kill your body. But fear him that not only kill your body, but cast your soul into hell. The greatest threat they can bring to you is I will kill you. But I think there's an even greater one. I will kill your grandkids. Oh, that got my attention. That'd be hard, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be hard to be in that coliseum and watch your children in there with you? And all you need do is pinch a little incense and save your kids lives? That would be really, really difficult. And I believe the Lord will give you and I grace in that time of crisis to be unshakable. Not before though, but in that time of crisis, God's grace will be sufficient. God will give us the courage and our children the courage. Unshakable. What can they do with an unshakable group of people? All they can do is kill you. If they put you in jail, you're writing the New Testament. They put you in jail, you're preaching to Caesar in his household. Letters are getting out. They can't stop you. Thee that have turned the world upside down are here also. All over the place, the world's being turned upside down for the gospel. They're pulling you in, beating you, incarcerating you. Soon as you're released or the angel comes in and releases you, you're right back in the temple preaching the gospel. Can't stop you. MC Emmert write a song about it. Can't stop. Can't stop it. Not gonna happen. You're cool, calm. In Daniel chapter five, King Belteshazzar was having a party using the implements, using the the cups and everything from the temple that his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Jerusalem Temple in May. And they're partying and they're drunk and all, and he sees a hand on the wall on the plaster writing many many Tekel Eufarcin. And it says that his knees began to knock. He was so tormented, maybe like seeing a ghost, but all you see is the hand, the hand on there, a spirit. And and his whole countenance, he he was not calm under pressure. He was losing it, you know. His loins were loosed and none of the astrologers or any of his wise men or spiritists were able to interpret the writing upon the wall. The finger of God that wrote 10 commandments. The finger of God in John eight that wrote in the dust of the ground. Woman, where are thine accusers know our Lord, neither do I condemn thee. The finger of God is writing many, your kingdom's finished. Tech o, you've been waiting the balance and found wanting and you farson, your kingdom's given to the Medes and the Persians. And that very moment, Cyrus and Darius, the Medes and the Persians are at the Euphrates diverting the water and coming in underneath the the bars of the gate into the city. And that very night, Belteshazzar died. And then the apostle Paul, when he's ministering to in acts chapter 24 to Felix. And he reasoned it says in verse 25, as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come, Felix trembled. Why did Felix tremble? Why did he lose his faculties? Because he knew it was true. He was resisting the holy spirit. He knew it was true. And yet our unshakable spirit is a token sign when they're trying to get at you and they can't get you to tremble, can't get you to capitulate, can't you get you to give in. That unshakable spirit is a token that they're on the wrong side, and that you're living onto a higher calling, a calling to please Jesus, king Jesus. And you're willing to die. You're willing to lose your house. You're willing to lose it all no matter what is is being weighed or hanging in the balcony, you're willing to lose it all. Kathy and I, when we came here, we went all in, all in, nothing held back, nothing held back, all in. And that was always the pressure. If you don't give in to these people, you're gonna lose it all. If you give in to them, they'll help you maintain what you've amassed. But you gotta give up the power. You gotta put them in control. We couldn't compromise in that way. We couldn't give into that. The state told us to teach the kids in the head start reading program. We'd still be there, still have the financial engine to try and reach a place of debt free. But we kept teaching the kids in the abecca Christian curriculum, and that was a threat to their indoctrination of children with ungodliness. We for us, it didn't even take five hours of prayer to make that decision. Some some things are hard decisions. That was a no brainer. We will not capitulate. We will not teach these kids the head start reading program. The parents are in authority. The parents have agreed with us that we collectively are gonna raise these children the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The state, you are not in control of these children. And yet they were because the parents and we, the people, capitulated. If we'd have stood united as one, they couldn't have got away with it. If we'd expose the lies of what they were doing, they couldn't have got away with it. But the enemy long before that incident divided us. We were fighting among ourselves. People in our church were calling the state telling on the daycare. 23 calls to the state undermining the daycare. Something as simple as two blankets touching. And somebody that attends our churches call on the state to have them come investigate because lice could jump from blanket to blanket. Now, if you love Jesus and you're working, you attend our church and you're on staff and you're working in that daycare, a godly person would go over there if you're worried about that and move the blanket. Wow. We save the kids from lies. But an ungodly person is looking for ways to undermine and build a case like the devil to take something beautiful down. Why would God allow it to prosper that evil? I don't know. But I know it was a huge test deep deep within here if I was gonna compromise or not. And who would compromise? Those are the kind of lessons that you and I are facing that we've been facing. Much of your sufferings due to your unwillingness to compromise, your unwillingness to give in. Jesus said he didn't come to bring peace but a sword. A man's enemies be they of his own household. How many of you are facing enemies within your own household? Children, family members that hate you because you love Jesus so much. Because you won't tone it down. Because you're radical. You're like a Seahawk fanatic. You go to church every Sunday and you lift your hands and worship. And you tie then you give and you serve and you sing songs to Jesus. And they're threatened by the joy of the Lord that you exhibit in the midst of suffering physically. You still profess to believe in Jesus. And not just profess, but to live, to exalt, to shine, to lift your arms and worship and song. Uncompromising, unwilling to give in to the lies of Fox News and and the media, willing to be a kook, willing to be conspiracy theorist, willing to be the one on the edge because you've fact checked, you look into it, you've proven, you know they're lying to you. And when you present the facts, people hate you. They don't want to hear it and they don't want it in the church because church is supposed to be a place of escape from reality. We want fairy tales. We want doctrines of demons. We want to somehow escape the reality of truth. And you see them, they can't handle the truth. They their body language, when they come here, they're like, I need a gummy. I need a gummy. And then they're out. And they're finding a place that doesn't challenge him in that way. A challenging to think. Think. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. This this isn't just historical doctrine. This should affect the way you live of why you stand on the truth of why you say no. And Paul is reasoning of righteous temperance and judgment to Felix and he trembles unshakable in spirit. It's a token sign of what's coming to the unbeliever that they have lost and will be destroyed to the believer that God saves. That he's triumphant. Turn to second Corinthians chapter two verse 14. Let's illustrate that. You're unshakable spirit. You're like mindedness. Paul is speaking of a Roman triumph. Do you know what a Roman triumph is? When a general would conquer a foreign country, this general would bring a procession with the foreign king and many of the nobility chained to that procession coming into Rome. And that Roman general would be up in front and then there would be priests as they get near the city. There would be priests that come out toward this procession and they would have these little metal things with incense in it, and they'd whip them like this. So there's a savor. There's a smell. And the smell to those who are the conquerors, more than conquerors that have triumphed, it's a savor unto life. But to that foreign king and his family and these ones who are trophies of this general's victory, that smell, that savor is a savor unto death. A reminder that you're going to die in a few minutes here. That you're going to spend an eternity in hell. Now watch how Paul uses that imagery of a Roman triumph in first Corinthians or for second Corinthians chapter two verse 14. Now thanks be unto God which always you can underline always. I feel like a tremendous loser. I don't always I really can I use this Lord? Do we use it loosely? Because man, I fail all the time. Now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph. Oh, man. I've had my butt kicked. I've been beaten down. I know it is to rise up, the thrill of victory. And man, I know the agony and defeat too. I know both. Hey, he crashed and burned again. Yeah. Pray for Kathy. Now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ. Now in Christ, I am triumphant. No matter the consequence circumstance, no matter how my outward man may be perishing, my inward man's renewed day by day. That was the enemy means for evil. God turns it around for good. So I am always triumphant when I yield to the holy spirit and know that this is in Christ. This is God's will when I surrender to God's will. Circumstantially, I may have lost everything but inwardly, spiritually, I'm in God's will and I'm triumphing in that the circumstances aren't destroying me. I haven't quit. And make it manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. So the fragrance of Christ everywhere you go, the fragrance of Christ is filling that airplane, filling the workplace. You're that representative Christian in that workplace today. Very few of you there. For we are unto God a sweet savior of Christ. The Lord's well pleased. He's well pleased with the sacrifices you make. He's well pleased with the suffering that you go through. It's a sweet incense coming up. The savor of Christ, a reminder of Jesus Christ and his sufferings. And then that are saved and in them that perish to the one we are the savor of death unto death and to the other the savor of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? This is the verse that I honed in on and spoke on on my graduation at school of ministry. Of all the Greek, all the Hebrew, of all the tutelage and all the instruction. At the very end of it, I felt incredibly inadequate to go and do what we were supposedly gonna go do, is plant a church. I still feel inadequate. When I was when I was singing and praying here this morning, I felt grossly inadequate. And I said, Lord, help me. I need your help. Our sufficiency is of Christ. If any man thinks he stand, take heed lest he fall. Right? And so I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Not in my own strength, not in my own experience. To the one we are the savior of death and the death to the other the savior of life and the life And who is sufficient for these things? The great apostle Paul, he's not sufficient. For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God. Are we as many around here that are corrupting the word of God? No. That's a non negotiable. We're not gonna change the word of God. We're not gonna corrupt the word of God. We're not gonna make it dance and say what we want it to say. But as of sincerity, you know that word, no wax, genuine, real of sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ. And so the speaking, the teaching, the brings forth the word of God and the demons hate it. And many of the people hate it. We see their demons activated. They hate it. They hate the gospel. Why do you hate the gospel? Because you're stirred inside. You know it's the truth. It's a reminder of judgment. That's why the churches don't teach on sin or hell anymore. Because many of the people in the audience don't like to hear about sin. The consequence of sin is death, separation from God. So an easy believe ism. Everyone's a Christian. Everyone's gonna make it to heaven. No, that's not what the Bible teaches. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, especially for those who believe. Do you believe? If you don't believe, then you're lost. Or if you start out believing and fall away, maybe you were never saved. So an aggressive advancement of the gospel, a military refusal to back down. Look at look at the tenacity of the communist. Look at the tenacity of the gay, the lesbian agenda. Their militancy, their refusal to back down. Look at the agenda of the globalist refusing to black back down. The greatest weapon against the devil is a godly life. No compromise, unshakable. You have to kill them to shut them up. You have to make a martyr of them. The only way. If we want to experience the joy of victory, three things are necessary. Number one, united in purpose. Number two, unshakable in presence. And number three, understand the privilege of suffering. The gospel's been presented in our lifetime as a prosperity gospel, a way that you will not suffer. Those who suffer made to feel they don't have enough faith, that they've sinned too much, they didn't pray enough, didn't give enough. Something must be wrong. Must be the gene I got. Born with. I can't overcome alcohol because I'm a child of alcoholics. So let's make it into therapy. Let's commiserate and talk for twenty years and walk in a circle trying to find the solution, trying to find the reason, trying to find the methodology to transform and change a person. Well, nowadays, we can link up. We can put a link in your head, a chip in your head, Neuralink. We can give you pharmaceuticals to try and change behavior, but it doesn't work. Does it? Can't change the heart. Only God can change the heart. So Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for the power of God unto salvation, which means deliverance, means healing to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek for therein is the righteousness. There you go. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just, those justified shall live by faith. And we're being changed from glory to glory in the image of Christ. Sin shall not have dominion over us. Our greatest need is to be right with God and right with one another. And it's only the work of the holy spirit within my heart that can transform and change me. No AI, no sorcery, no pharmaceutical, no pharmakia and part of this change takes place in a time of suffering. God uses suffering to transform and change me, to bring me to the end of myself, my confidence in self, my confidence in the government, my confidence in everything else that I've been able to rely upon, my money, my education, all of it is brought to the end. And I laid at the foot of the cross and I say, God, help me. Front to you, it is given behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. God's gonna give you and I the grace to believe and to suffer. Doctor j verna mcgee who was preaching down in LA back when I first became a Christian, Church of Open Door, I think he called it out of LA. And he's a southerner, and he had the southern draw, but he was a very educated Christian man and a godly man, studied out of Dallas seminary. And he's quoted as saying this, when you get to the place where he as in God lets you suffer for him, you have arrived. That is the high calling of Christ Jesus. So different than the way the churches are teaching today. The privilege of suffering. I had a pastor's wife come up to my dear Kathy when we were first trying to launch. We had a lot of adversity, a lot of opposition against us when we're trying to launch living in California. As long as we focused on our business, we prospered. As soon as we focused on going to school and teaching bible study to teach in Sunday school, man, we came under attack. And a pastor's wife at the pastor's retreat, my wife attending, she came up to Kathy and says, why is it these bad things keep happening to you? Now, she of all people should have known she's a pastor's wife. Right? But to her, it in her sphere of understanding, she misconstrued that being in God's will means you don't have opposition. You don't have these trials. You don't have these things coming against you. There must be something wrong. There must be sin in the camp. There must be something Rick and Cathy are doing that this keeps happening, you know. We're God guys, he provides, you know. And the Lord wiped us out and we wound up leaving California with a thousand dollars by faith. Knowing that, hey, if I failed, I can always go back. I can always start over, but I gotta settle this here and now in my heart. I gave Kathy the option, hey, do you want me to get back to work in the business or you want us to keep going? The enemy was hammering me. She says, we've come too far to quit now. Let's keep going. See, it's her fault I'm still here. But she had to digest. She had to count the cost. She had to evaluate what it was we were sacrificing, what was hanging in the balance that the devil was allowed to hang there, offering us success, offering us prosperity if we just cool it. Don't be so fanatical. Be a moderate Christian. Wait for God to give you a million dollars. Then it's safe to go plant a church. Sign up a bunch of people that will support you when you go into that foreign land. Don't live by the seat of your pants, and then they could build a case that's really, really unhealthy for your children and your marriage. You're going to suffer so much stress and put such a stress in your kids. We should turn you into child protective services, man. You're evil. But J Vernon, he says not to privilege. In acts five forty one, they departed rejoicing that they are counted worthy to suffer. That hey, we're preaching the gospel, the religious leaders and all are telling us to stop, don't don't preach in his name anymore. And they get whooped on, but they go away rejoicing that hey, we're counted worthy to suffer for Jesus. There's a football hall of fame and baseball hall of fame and for some of you, you're gonna be in the heaven hall of fame. The hall of faith in Hebrews 11. The hall of heaven hall of faith in heaven. You're gonna walk around and and you're gonna meet Noah and you're gonna say, Noah, what was that like preaching to millions of people for a hundred and twenty years building that ark? Did it break your heart that only eight people got in that boat that got into Christ? You're gonna meet Jeremiah. Jeremiah, you know, forty years of ministering to the children of Israel, your own people. And nobody got saved. Maybe maybe one or two, but that's it. All those years of labor, all those years of serving the Lord. You tried to tell God you're too young. You tried to tell God he's got the wrong guy, but he persisted and you obeyed. You went with even your family of Anathoth, they turned on you, Jeremiah. People close to you betrayed you and threw you into prison and water going over your head and all. All you're doing is telling the truth. And Ezekiel and Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, indomitable spirit, they will not eat the king's food. Stoke that fire o king. We're not careful how we answer you. We're not gonna dishonor God. There's no if ands or buts about it. We already settled in our heart. We are unshakable in our presence. We will not dishonor God. And the fourth and he's as the son of man. Fellowship with Jesus in the midst of that suffering. In first Peter chapter four verse 12. Peter says, think it not strange. We live in a time where it's strange if you suffer. And Peter says, no, no, no, no. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that's come upon you as some strange things happening to you. This is normal Christianity. Christianity one zero one in the New Testament may seem like an oxymoron anomaly today with our great prosperity. But what if the protections that we enjoy begin to be eroded and we become marked, we become targets like the Christians in Iran today or in China and other parts of the world. Count it all joy. He says, rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. Like Jesus, look at the scars I got for you. Jesus, you wore that crown of thorns and you were beaten beyond recognition and look at my back. Look at the scars they gave me. And you're wearing that martyr's crown. That crown of life. You're wearing that crown of rejoicing, that crown of glory, you're wearing that crown of righteousness, incorruptible crown that fades not away. As Jesus honors you as one willing to suffer for his namesake, willing to testify of his love, testify of his king, he being king of kings and lord of lords, no compromise, no giving in, no going along to get along. If you're the only one standing in that whole group of people, then so be it. You're standing for king Jesus, And he's going to honor you for that. He sees you at home, unable to move about as before praying and interceding. He sees the widow's might giving of her living to support the work, not of her abundance, but of her living. He sees the stress and the difficulty, the way the devil uses tactics within your family and friends to isolate and make you feel like you're being gaslit and crazy. He knows the tactics of the wicked one and you stand firm. You're a man, woman of faith. James says this, count it all joy when, not if, when expected, expect suffering. Count it all joy when you suffer trials. These fiery trials that we go through. Jesus said blessed in Matthew five verse 10. The word blessed means oh, how happy. The thrill of victory, the joy, the rejoicing, rejoicing that you're counted worthy to suffer for his name's sake. He said, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It identifies you as heavens, your home, the kingdom of heaven. He said, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name's sake. He says rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great as your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Now ask yourself a question the next time you think you're weird because you're suffering. Ask yourself, how are prophets treated? Analyze the old testament as I start to bring you through some of them. How are they treated? Jesus asked the religious leaders, which of the prophets did not your fathers kill? Now, ask yourself, how was Jesus treated? Ask yourself, how was Paul and Peter and James and the apostles treated? Ask yourself, how has Christians throughout church history, how have they been treated by the world? Hated? Despise the hated? Rejected? You're in good company. That's where you need to be. Ask yourself this. Why aren't I persecuted? Why don't I just skate through life? Why have I never been a target of hatred? Reviling? Why doesn't the devil come after me? Pray about that. Ask the Lord that. Don't invite it. I'm not a masochist. I'm not inviting suffering trials on you. I discovered there's a honeymoon time in the walk with the Lord where everything's bliss. Enjoy it. Don't pray in that honeymoon like I did. Lord, make me a Christian that'll worship you in the midst of the storm. This is easy. Don't pray that prayer. There's plenty of time for you to suffer. Enjoy the honeymoon. Enjoy that season of brand new in the Lord and everything going your way. There's plenty of time to watch how maybe your wife can't get pregnant when everybody around you is getting pregnant. To watch how your husband's a womanizer and cheating on you. You thought you married a faithful Christian, a Christian man who would be godly. You're betrayed. You're surprised. You don't understand. How are Christians treated? What happens in this way? Think of the apostle Paul, funeral they had for him when he became the apostle Paul instead of Saul of Tarsus. The hatred of his own family. Paul was stoned at Lystra and what'd he do? He went right back into Lystra in acts fourteen twenty two confirming the souls of the disciples, which means there were people that believed. But when persecution comes in the parable, the soil, the sower in the soil, there's one type of soil where the sun beats down on it and that the profession of faith pops up. The sun representing Jesus interpreting that parable for us, trials. And when the trials come against that profession of faith, it withers and dies. So Paul's going back in them seeing the persecution that came against him and then evaluating, do I want to keep going? That could happen to me. I better live under the radar. I I wanna I wanna say, yes, I believe in Jesus so that I have fire insurance that I not go to hell. But I don't want anybody to know I'm a Christian because it might be hell on earth for a while. My life might turn difficult. I might lose my job. And so Paul says confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith. Don't just believe, continue in the faith. And that they and here's reality. Here's a reality check that they through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Don't be surprised. Jesus said in this world, will have tribulation, not the great tribulation. Tribulate pressure. There's gonna be demonic pressure against you. You were the salmon going with the flow. Right? The dead salmon, but the live salmon goes against the grain, goes against the current. That's the Christian going against it. The dead ones, they go with the flow of the world. You're going against the grain going against the world. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove was a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It's your reasonable service. It's an act of worship to worship God to offer yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto him. Expect suffering. Verse 30, having the same conflict which he saw me and now here to be in me. So you're not alone. Many suffer. We're not alone. Whole lot of people suffer. Now if you want, you can turn to first Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13. I'll read it for you. There has no temptation taken you but such as is common demand. You do not have the trials and the type of suffering you're going through, the market cornered. There's a whole lot of people out there with prodigal children, with health issues, marital issues, cancers. What's different? Jesus is with us in our trials. People in the world that don't know Jesus, they have to go through it relying upon the world, the wisdom of the world, relying upon AI, relying upon sorcery, relying upon all the things that we may we may say, thank you, doctor. Thank you, medication. Thank you. But ultimately, if any of it fails or it doesn't work or whatever, and we're at that place, we rely upon the Lord. We're relying upon him the whole time. Vain is the help of man, yet we thank the Lord for all the practitioners, everybody that can put Humpty Dumpty back together again as best they can, physiologically. Spiritually, only Jesus can deal with my heart and deal with my my my spirit. And we look to him and sometimes the Lord will exhaust every means necessary to save you, to heal you. And then in your desperation, as you're crying out to him, he's your only hope. No more hope in Jesus and? I do that. I hope in Jesus. Friend of mine asked me, would I use a contractor to build a building that's an unbelievers? Yeah. If he's the best, most honest contractor in the community, I don't need just Christian workers, Christian repairman or whatever. I give it to the Christian first if he's honorable. If he works hard and value for the money. But I'm trusting in Jesus that he's given me wisdom, lead and guide me, help me through this. And so too, if I'm sick, Lord, bring the best doctor possible to help. Bring the best meds, bring the best food, bring the best of everything. But Lord, if it all fails, if it doesn't work out, my trust is in you. I look to you, Lord, your sovereign, you make the decision. So there's no temptation taking you but such as common demand. We have a tendency tendency to think we're the only one that ever went through that thing you went through as a child. And you can't stop talking about it. There's a whole lot of us that went through similar things, and we just don't talk about it anymore. We moved on because Jesus gave us something so much better. And we've been to the Ronald McDonald House and we see these families there with children who have brain tumors and they don't know Jesus. But we do. We as Christians, we're we're we're not isolated. We're not devoid of of the same sort of suffering that the world goes through. But when we do the difference is Jesus in the boat with me. I'm facing the storms of life, but Jesus is there. So be comforted in knowing that, hey, this is a common thing because of the fall of man suffering. But God is faithful Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you're able. But will with the temptation also make a way to escape. So now the well meaning Christians come on. Lord won't give you more than you can handle. Lord's gonna give a way of escape. Don't worry about it. They're trying to minimize the pain, the suffering you're going through. Don't worry about it. He's not gonna give you more than you can handle. Let's read that again. But God is faithful. Yeah. Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you're able, but will with. Not take it away. You're telling me he's not gonna that that not gonna give me more than that is able. Is that he's gonna take it away? If it if it's too big for me, if it's a big trial, he'll take it away because he knows my frame. He remembers that I'm dusted. I I can't handle that big of a trial. Yeah. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'm going through it. I'll fear no evil because you're with me. But will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. How am I going to be able to bear it? Because I come to the end of myself. And the only way I can get through this is Jesus. Now I've reached a place where all of my ingenuity, all my intellect, all my money, all my problem solving capabilities, and everyone else I know. Now I'm Steve Jobs, the inventor of Apple, and I've got cancer, pancreatic cancer. There's nobody on the planet that can put me in a bed or or alleviate this. He's the unbeliever. And I don't know how he responded or wife or family or whatever was happening in those days. But I've seen many a believer go through a very similar thing. Stage four lung cancer, eighteen months of fighting it. A couple years of fighting it with Sally, James, and Joe. What was their way of escape? Jesus, their faith in Jesus, the end of self. The Lord got them through and the Lord got them through victorious. Rejoicing, praising the Lord, not abandoning their faith. Too big a burden for me to carry. I've got to come to the end of myself and trust in God. The doctors did the best they could. My spouse supported, the church supported, everybody prayed. Now I lean upon the sovereignty of God that he's got something better, a new body. Many of the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. Jesus wins. Come on to me all you that labor in a heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn to me from meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest under your soul. That burden's too big. God's gonna bring you the end of yourself. You're gonna learn the way of escape is Jesus. No longer me living, but Christ living through me. Do you know the thrill of victory, the joy of the victory or only the agony of defeat? We all fall as I said, every single one of us fall. We've all failed the Lord. We've all wiped out. But not all of us are willing to humble ourselves and get back up and to paddle out and go for it again and again and again. John the Baptist was bewildered. Are you the one or do we look for another? Cousin Jesus, wait a minute. They're gonna cut my head off here. This is unjust. This isn't right. Are you the one or we look for another? Well, go remind John that the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised to life, and the poor have the gospel preached unto him. That's all John needed. A little more courage. You're in my will. You're gonna be home with me soon. Peter denied that even knew the Lord on three occasions. One night, Peter's going back to fishing. He's given up on himself. He failed. Peter, do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than these? Three times. One for each time that Peter failed. Even cursing. I don't know the man. Peter, feed my sheep. Tend my lambs. Feed my sheep. Our sufficiency is of Christ. We all fall, But will you get back up? Will you paddle back out? Proverbs twenty four sixteen says a just man fall seven times and rises up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief, into the agony of defeat. Jesus never fails. Do you know him? Do you know the joy of his victory? What is joy? Joy is knowing Jesus. Do you know him? Can you rejoice in him? Let's pray. Father, thank you once again, Lord, for keeping it real, for reminding us, Lord, this life is but a vapor. That, Lord, our life is not our own, that we've been bought with a price, that we belong to you. And, Lord, you've measured our days. You you've given us an appointment unto death, and the most the wicked one can threaten us with his death, Lord, separation from from our loved ones. But, Lord, you have something greater in mind, Lord. Far far greater to be absent the body, to be present with the Lord. For me to live as Christ and to die is gain. And I don't need to operate in fear because you haven't given us the spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. And Lord, we pray as we move forward, no matter what adversity we're facing as a body of believers in our homes, a a a husband that abandons us, a wife that that is sick and lost her mind, or a child that's living a riotous life or whatever it may be that we're facing, Lord, you're greater and you're gonna get us through these things. And Lord, we're intercessors. We're praying and you ever lived to make intercession for us. And Lord, we lift each and every person who's suffering before you and God, ask that their suffering honor you, that they realize the privilege of suffering is to glorify you. And God, pray that we would experience joy unspeakable and full of glory, The rejoicing that's ours that one day we'd wear that crown of glory, that crown of rejoicing. This earth is in our home. Our citizenship is in heaven. And father, we want to represent you and your son in these last days that people would see Jesus. They would know you. They'd know your love. They'd know the joy unspeakable and full of glory. So father, move by the power of your holy spirit. Use our lives. Let the quality of life, the life of the spirit be evident. Let us be a sweet savior unto life, Lord, that they would choose life. While your heads are bowed, while you continue to pray, if you don't know Jesus today, you can. You can turn from your sins. You can cry out to God, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He'll hear that prayer. The Holy Spirit will will come into your heart and life as you repent, as you cry out to God. You'll no longer be body and soul. You'll be body, soul, and spirit. You know the life of the spirit. Your name will be in the lamb's book of life. You'll have eternal life. No longer any fear of death. Anyone here this morning, that's the cry of your heart. You want eternal life. As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God even to them who believe in his name. Do you believe in him? We've had the privilege of watching God save people. We've had the privilege of baptizing them and discipling them, watching them grow. It's an exciting moving and working of God's spirit, but none of us have ever been able to save a person. One man sows another waters. Only God can bring the increase. Only God saves. Will you yield to God? Will you yield to his spirit? Allow God to save you because he respects your will. He hasn't made you a robot. He's given you a free moral agency to choose. For love to be meaningful, you must choose. You must choose life. You must choose his love. For God so loved you. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up. We wanna pray with you. Father, thank you once again for the morning we got to spend together. Bless this time now as we partake the communion. Pour out your holy spirit afresh upon us, Lord. Let us go away from here today, Lord, refreshed and strengthened and ready for whatever you have intended for us. Give an open give us open doors of utterance, Lord. In the power of the spirit, the joy of the Lord being our strength. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
