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Philippians 2:12-18 -His Good Pleasure- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2026-09-20
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Philippians chapter two verse 12 through 18. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Philippians chapter two beginning with verse 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings that you may be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. Holding forth the word of life that that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run-in vain neither labored in vain. Yea. And if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy and rejoice with me. Father, we thank you for your holy word. We thank you for those that we've walked with, as we've walked hand in hand over the years, serving you alongside each other, co laboring. And, Lord, I I just lift up Wayne Stadtgarian, and I pray that you help him as the numbers are going up on his cancer. I pray that they would that you'd take those numbers away, Lord, that you'd heal him, that you'd give him many more years to serve you. And, Lord, I lift up Janette, and I pray for her courage and her her love for you and and how she testifies how you're there with her in the midst of that trial. And, Lord, we do pray that you heal her body, take away all the cancer. And, Lord, we lift up Steven with his esophagus, and we lift up Christy with hers, and we lift up Alan with his arm, how serious that was. Could have lost his life, but, Lord, we thank you they've abated the spread of it. And, Lord, it looks like he's on the road to healing. We pray that you continue to heal. And, Lord, Shannon Goods and her iron levels, Lord, we pray bring those up. And Selena, Lord, we pray praise you and thank you. It's so hard to watch a child suffer, Lord, especially a child. We thank you that the her face is clearing up and the mercy is being removed, and her body's improving, getting stronger. And so, Lord, we just pray for this body of believers here as I'm dying, as I'm coughing. And, we pray that you'd make us healthy and strong, that we, conserve you with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, all of our strength. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Please be seated. That devil, I tell you. Alrighty. Jesus said, I do always those things that please him. And Jesus didn't live for self, did he? He lived to please his father. And, Jesus lived to please his father. He lived for his his good pleasure. Can you say with the four and twenty elders in Revelation chapter four, can you say with them, thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. And so the four and twenty elders, they took their crowns. They laid them at the feet of Jesus as we see the church in heaven in chapter four of the book of Revelation. The church in heaven in chapter five in the book of Revelation. Who's worthy to open the scroll and to loose the seals? Nobody. Everybody's crying. John, don't cry. The lion of the tribe of Judah, he's prevailed. And that's what we need to remember. Jesus is already one. It can be looking really weird and maybe confusing for some, but our the gist of our life, the goal of our lives as Christians is to live for God's pleasure, to bring him pleasure. And without faith, it's impossible to please God for they that come to him must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder who those who diligently seek him. So the apostle Paul is saying, thou art worthy, oh lord, to receive glory, honor, and power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure, they are and were created. And so, Paul's, mirroring that. He's he's reminded of that. He's thinking the same thing. And as John the revelator, as he brings his fourth years later in in Revelation four eleven, it's a it's a way that we express how worthy God is and what why we were made. He's created us for his pleasure. Why am I here, Lord? What what's my role? What what what should I do? Well, live for my pleasure. Don't live for self. Don't live for the world. Don't live for pleasure. Live for my pleasure. And so the apostle Paul now gives us six ways to experience the joy of the Lord as we live for God's pleasure. Number one, joyous progress. When we live for, God's pleasure, to bring him pleasure, for him to be pleasing with our lives, God in our walking relationship with him, we progress. We mature. We grow. We can be in a rested state of development if we're living for pleasure, if we're living for this world, if we're living for self. We as Christians can profess to know god, but there's lack of transformation, lack of change, a lack of fruit bearing as, and and Paul alludes to this in first Corinthians chapter three describes three types of people. The natural man who understands not the things of God in first Corinthians chapter two. And then he goes on to say, but eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has it in the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us by his spirit. So the spiritual man, the things that God's wanting to reveal unto us by his spirit. But then he goes in chapter three of first Corinthians, and he talks about a carnal man, psuchos, fleshly man. You can be a professing Christian and still live in the flesh, still live catering to the tyranny of the flesh. The demand of of what am I gonna eat? What am I gonna drink? What am I gonna wear? Your your natural appetites. And then you incorporate the natural appetites, the fleshly appetites. You Christianize them, and then you define that as you project that that's the blessings of God. And yet you're heeding this. You're living just like the world. You're living for pleasure. You're living for power. You're living for, you know, the money. You can't serve God and money, but boy, if I've got the money, that must be the moniker. That must be the evidence that god's pleased with my life. Well, if riches increase, set not your heart on them. It isn't the riches that we measure everybody by it, retirement age and everything. It's the, heart. Bundle the heart, the mouth speaks. It's not the money that's the problem. It's the love of the money that's the problem that reveals where our heart's at. And so the the Christian is to be a worshiper, and we're to make progress as we realize that everything we have belongs to God and that we we yield to his holy spirit. Verse 12, wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, so not just when I'm there with you in Philippi, but, but now much more in my absence. So Jesus obeyed, you obeyed, so continue to obey. Continue to live for his good pleasure even when no one is looking. So Joseph is grabbed by the Lord, a type of Christ, and he's, mistreated, sold for 20 pieces of silver as Jesus was sold out for 30. And his brothers, they, grabbed hold of him, threw him in a pit. They were gonna kill him, and then Reuben intervenes, and they sell him, sell him out to some Midianidish caravan heading toward Egypt. And you know the story. He's about 17 years old. He's away from home like many of you men and women do with the navy. You go away from home, raised in Christian homes. You've got the coat of many colors. You got the favor upon your life. You have a relationship with God. Now what are you gonna do with it in a foreign city away from everybody watching? Are you going to continue to obey? Do you look like Moses? You look to the left, you look to the right, and then you slay the Egyptian? Or do you look up like Joseph and say to Potiphar's wife, how could I do this great evil against God? You have a moral compass that is in fellowship with God, and your gist of your life is you do not wanna do anything, not according to the law, not the letter of the law, like, oh, you know, I can't cross this line. Although that law is there to protect us, but it's it's an even higher motivation. It's a love relationship with God. You're living for his pleasure. And you know, even if you seemingly can get away with it because Moses said, your sin will find you out. Paul said, God's not mock. Whatsoever man sows, that shall he also reap. Right? So eventually, it's gonna come back to bite. But in the short term, because you haven't been caught yet, the cameras haven't caught you, the flock cameras, you know, you think you've got away with it, then you get something in the mail. Hey, look at you. Here's a picture of you. Speeding 92, you know. And, oh, I didn't think anybody knew, you know. And, but they do know. And so he he says to Potiphar's wife, as she's making the sexual advances at him, he doesn't say, oh, you know, well, God gave me these hormones. And these hormones God gave me are to be indulged, you know? God hasn't made me a eunuch. You know? Abstinence is crazy. Virginity is a nut job. You know? I gotta find out if, where I fit. I gotta find out you know, Potiphar's not treating his wife very well. Maybe the Lord brought me here so I could treat her better. You know? You can rationalize and reason any kind of sin you wanna do. You can call in a, you know, adultery an affair. You can call a murder, you know, abortion. You can blame, the psychotropic drugs you're on for murder. You can go in a myriad of different ways, but Joseph in his moral compass, because he knows God, he says, how could I do this great evil against God? Not gonna do it. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, not gonna do it. Not gonna eat your food. Not gonna bow down to your your Donald Trump golden golden image, you know. Not gonna do it. Not gonna happen. Our god's able to deliver us, oh, king Nebbe. And even if he doesn't, we've already determined. We've decided this long ago that we're not going to diminish or dishonor our God. We're not gonna eat the king's food with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We're gonna, stay kosher. We're gonna continue to worship our God even though we're in a foreign land and we've become slaves. We're gonna appeal unto our God. And if necessary, for the honor of God to live a life pleasing unto him, we're willing to go into that fiery furnace heated seven times hotter. The guys throwing us in are gonna die. The ropes that are binding us are gonna burn off. Even the smell of smoke isn't gonna be upon us. Hey. And there's a fourth, and he says the son of God, and he's there in the midst of that fiery trial. And that's what pastor Chuck's daughter, Jeanette, is trying to or testifying of. Yeah. This is a fiery trial, but Jesus is here with me in this trial. He's ministering unto me to a greater intimacy than I've ever known him, and I've served him for many years, Christian home and all, but this crucible, this trial, this this cancer that's attacking my body, my outward man is perishing, but my inward man's renewed day by day. And this light affliction is but for a moment, it's working a far more eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal. The things are not seen, you know, are eternal. And so I'm living for the eternity. To ask them the bodies be present with the Lord. If Lord decides to take me through cancer, I'll be reunited. I'll see Jesus face to face. I'll see my mom and dad. I'll see my husband, Greg. You know? And that's that's the hope of the Christian. We don't fear death. We we we don't wanna leave our loved ones. We sorrow, but not as those who have no hope. And so we continue to grow. Cancer's not gonna stop me from growing because I'm not living for self. I'm living for God's pleasure. I'm living to glorify him. I'm not living for self anymore. And so I'm gonna live a life of obedience unto him. And he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That word workout speaks to to full completion. It's like working a a gold mine. You discover there's a gold, a vein of gold, and you're not gonna go there and just take the, you know, the tailings, you know, just a little bit of the gold. You're gonna take that vein if you're smart, and you're gonna dedicate the rest of your working life to to the full. And you and I have discovered, God's revealed to us the unsearchable riches of Christ. You don't wanna remain a a Christian that's like big bird and Bert and Ernie, you know, living on the fringe of of entering in. You don't wanna just clap your hands like a like a monkey. You know? You want to enter in. You want to get into God's word. You wanna live the life of the spirit, and you wanna seek the Lord while he may be found, and you want to mine. You wanna mine in the sense of cooperate with the holy spirit. You're not working for salvation. You're working from the standpoint of already being saved, but now there's some effort on your part. Let's call it cooperation with the holy spirit to enter in. So what what's that mean in the practical outworking of your Christianity? It means that you're gonna evaluate your time, your talent, your treasure. And you're gonna say, I've been given this much time in each day. How much time do I wanna dedicate to eating? How much time do I wanna dedicate to sleeping? How much time do I have to dedicate to working? Because life's a grind. There's a curse upon my life. How much time can I dedicate to seeking the Lord, to being in God's word? Prayer, fellowship, serving the Lord. How much time do you have? How much time do you have on your phone, computer, pleasure, entertainment? It's a decision we make, all of us make each and every day. How much time am I gonna dedicate to nurturing my relationship with my Lord? I know for me, when I'm with Kathy, man, I feel complete. I feel like, you know, I like the time that I get to spend with this girl. Forty five years of marriage, and I just like being near her. If she runs into town or she's away from me, I feel like, you know what? I can't wait till she gets home. I listen for the car. You know? I can't wait till it's nighttime, and I get to lay next to her. You know? Talk to her, download, you know. She's sometimes if we haven't talked for a while, she's got a lot of things to say. And I try I really try to pay attention like I'm interested in all, but I do. I do. I try to stay off my phone at restaurants, you know, and, look her in the eye and talk to her, you know. It's really hard nowadays. That phone, man, that's a device. Let me tell you. But, when it comes to our walking relationship with Jesus, there's no microwaving, you know, getting to know him. That it takes time. Relationships take time. We spend time together. And so Paul's saying, you know, working it work it out. Full completion. Don't just come halfway. Don't just say to people, yeah, I've been a Christian for forty years. And I had lunch with Billy Graham one time. And you start name dropping this, that, and the other. But you know nothing about the main doctrines of the bible. You haven't studied. You haven't dug in. You're a a babe in Christ, still on the mount. You're you're still looking for therapy. A therapeutic means of making you whole. You're looking at rudimentary methodologies and things of men that that can't reach that place within your heart. You're looking at symptoms. You're fixated on symptoms, and it it stems from selfishness. You haven't crucified the flesh. You haven't reckoned the old man dead. You're not walking in the power of the holy spirit. You may be saved. We don't know if you are or not. Jesus said, you know them by their fruit, but the fruit, in many cases, is anger and bitterness and clamor and murmuring, complaining, backbiting, and all these things of the flesh that all of us are prone to, that all of us are guilty of, but not as a habit, as a way of life. Certainly not something we want to bring into the church and make the norm. The norm for us should be love, joy, kindness, long suffering, meekness, self control, the fruit of spirit in Galatians five. That that should epitomize, that should characterize, you know, who we are as Christians. Before I became a Christian, you know, it it, the number one thing that I wanted to learn to do is to love. Just love. I I wanna learn how to love, Lord. I wanna quit being so selfish. How am I ever gonna be married if I if I don't know how to love somebody? How am I gonna ever love if I'm afraid of being rejected? If I'm afraid of my mom's seven divorces? How am I gonna put it together? How am I gonna make myself lovable enough that somebody would stay with me forty five years? I still haven't reached that goal. I'm still not lovable enough. But what I discovered is God puts a love in her heart for me. It's a God thing. It's not because I'm so lovable. It's because God put a love in Kathy's heart. And so too in your heart and my heart, God puts a love in our hearts for one another. We're able to love. We're able to love like Christ love, like he is loving. A discovery. We're discovering the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. I think of the when we're studying the book of Revelation, I think of, you know, the galaxies out there and as we're studying in Genesis and the different planets. And when you're in Revelation twenty one twenty two, you know, the eternal state, a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem. And I like to imagine and use my my imagination. I don't have concrete proof, but different places around the galaxies out there that the Lord may have created for us, for our interests, for things that fit for who we are. And I've always said that I think there's a a a planet out there just the surfing planet, perfect waves. No sharks. No no yellow snakes in Newport Beach that are gonna bite me, you know, and and no more no more those stingrays that I step on a couple times. I met a guy down there this past month when we're down there, a guy that surfs there, lives local, and he says, I've stepped on at least 50 of them. And I'm like, 50 of them? Holy smokes, dude. I got some booties. These booties are supposed to keep them from hurting you. He didn't want no part of it. Well and then he listened to me. I told the lifeguard, told me about these dragon skin booties, you know. And but he loves surfing so much. It didn't matter that he'd been stung 50 times. Now that's a guy that loves what he's doing. And if you love Jesus, you're gonna no matter what happens, you're gonna spend time in his word. You're gonna work out your salvation. You're gonna work it out. Work to full completion. You don't wanna be in a rested state of development. You wanna mature. You wanna grow. You wanna see progress. And that's all the Lord's looking for, and that's all you're looking for in your children is progress. You don't want a 40 year old babe. A 40 year old baby. You know? You want your son, your daughter to grow and mature as a human being, be responsible. And most importantly, you want to watch that seed of faith grow, that they begin to discover and begin to walk in that newness of life and the relationship that they have with Jesus. They don't need to mimic yours or act like, you know, act like a Christian. You truly want to see them grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. And that's a that's a huge, huge blessing. If you have a prodigal child, your life's incomplete as a parent. What's a profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what would a man give in exchange for his life? You're wanting your children to mature in their walk with the Lord. You're wanting them to grow. You're wanting them to be mature enough to pass it on to their kids, to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. God's entrusted these children to us as parents that we might take his children and raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That they would learn through observation. They would learn through application what it means to work out their own salvation. To cooperate with the holy spirit, not grieve the holy spirit, not quench the holy spirit, not lie or rationalize the holy spirit, but to work it. And so this progress is getting all you can from the treasures of your salvation. It's like working a field, getting the highest yield, greatest production, realizing your potential in Christ. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things be added unto you. That word potential. That word potential we use in athletics. We see promise. We see educational, intellectual promise in our children. We see athletic promise. We see, you know, gifting and and teachers will tell us and all. And we're wanting them to realize that potential, don't we? We're wanting them to enter into all that God has given them and prepared them and and able to use it for his kingdom and glory. And what happens? In many cases, so sad, drugs. A boy, a girl. They get off course. They have great athletic ability. They get a scholarship, him or her. They go into college, and then they start to mix it up with the wrong people. And next thing you know, they're losing their scholarship, their grades dip, and you look at, hey, what happened? Well, some drugs got in there. They were moved in a direction with with friends or people they met at college that pulled them down. And we look at them, wow, what promise? They could have been a professional ball player and made so much money and all that. Well, what what short circuited? What happened? They were such a great athlete in high school. What happened in college? Drugs, promiscuity, evil. And how tragic for the devil who comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But then there's athletes that come out of that, and they talk about how they came to know Jesus through these things, through through through the failure. But coming to know Jesus means they have a second chance, doesn't it? Maybe a third chance. And they're able to dedicate themselves to a firm foundation to work out their salvation and to help some other young guys not fall in that same trap of the world, the pleasures of the world that begin to allure and draw them away from the from the Lord. The joy of beautiful beautiful fruit. Brittany Wayne went to Eastern Washington and they came home with baskets and basket of apples. Really, really good apples that Washington is famous for. Now, bite into those apples are just so good. They're non gmo. They don't have any worms sticking out of them. And they're you're looking at them like, hey, these things have grown to full. They've realized their potential. You know? And sad story on that. You could pray for this this farmer, apple farmer. He's he's working a farm that was his grandparents, and he's having a very, very hard time making ends meet as a as an apple orchard owner because the price of apples is so low. So what happens is we import apples from other places, and we drive the market down. And then these farmers who have a hard time with fires and water and, and sales to sell their big boxes of apples, they can't even get the price. You can't afford to hire people to come in and work your field because ice is everywhere chasing everybody away. So now you're also having a difficulty harvesting these apples. And one, two years into it, guess what? The globalist Bill Gatesers, they're all over the place wanting to buy up and make your farms corporate farms. No more family farms. Crisis reaction solution. That's just a side note. How sad that is. How great it is to entrust your food to hardworking farmers, family farms, who've done it for generations. You know? Give them a chance to succeed. Give them some diesel, you know, for $3 a gallon or something. You know? Give them a chance to feed America. Don't go don't go to Brazil or Argentina to get your beef. Let let it be raised here in Washington. Let it be raised, you know, in in in Texas and stuff. Drill the oil here. Why bring in oil from the Strait Of Hormuz? Who cares about the Strait Of Hormuz? Drill it here. Bring in energy from Canada. Quit using those tariffs to ostracize and to destroy every financial connection that we've had with these countries and producers, you know. It's, it's insanity. Work it out. Dig it dig in. Work in the field. Getting the fruit. The joy of realizing your potential. Now, for a lot of us, we never we never knew what our potential was. We never knew where our calling was. We never knew where we fit in the body of Christ. And then the discovery, you discover not only Jesus, but you discover where you fit in with Jesus. Where you fit in because he's the head, and we're all part of that body. And then now one's the arm, one's the foot, one's the mouth, one's the ear, and we all get to serve in his church, the body of Christ. And the great joy that is. What tremendous joy it is to grow in your gifting, to grow and to work it out. It doesn't just come like a microwave oven. You know? There's a working it out. There's a trial and error in many cases. But the Lord is so incredibly faithful. He's looking for, you know, the availability that here am I. You know, send me, Lord, and then you discover your gifting. You discover that God's calling are also God's enablement. He's gonna enable you. And it's it's it's so incredibly exciting for me to think that I'm from Village View and Kathy's from Spring View and and then we go to Marina High School. We never, in our wildest dreams, thought the Lord would privilege us to go plant a church in Bremerton. And to be here for thirty one years co laboring with you, I mean, what qualifies us? Who what makes us think that we could even do something like this? You know? And then you discover that it's God working in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So you work out your own salvation by cooperating with the holy spirit. And there's progress. You're getting you're getting in there. And the Lord is bringing forth fruit. The byproduct of living for his good pleasure is joyous progress. And secondly, joyous power. Notice verse 13. For it is God which works in you, so you're working it out. You're not working for your salvation. For for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. Ephesians two eight nine. So salvation, you're not working for it. You're not going to mass and working and you're not knocking on doors. You're not trying to be a kingdom maker, you know, a king maker or or, you know, god makers like the Mormons and all. Salvation's a free gift, but there's a working out. And then there's a cooperation to the the Holy Spirit as you tap in. For it is God which worketh in you, notice both to will and to do of his good pleasure. How do you know God's will for your life? It's God working in you. He's working in me, the will and the doing. Now I could ignore that and I had guys come up to me and say, you know, you're committing sins of omission. You know what sins of commission are. Right? God tells you don't don't eat that forbidden fruit. Commission, you step over the line, you transgress, you you you miss the mark, you know, you're you're belligerent. You but omission. God speaking to you. He's working in you both to willing to do of his good pleasure. And you're like Jonah. No. I'm I'm I'm gonna go the opposite direction. I'm I'm not going there. I'm not going to Nineveh. You can't make me go. I got free will. You know, God, I'm not a robot. I'm not a you know, I'm not one of Elon Musk's guys. You know? So, God, you need to respect my free will. And you might be telling me to go, and you might be telling Jeremiah to be a prophet, but, you know, he's and you might be telling Moses to to go and tell Pharaoh, let my people but we got free will. You know? Well, I've discovered God can make you willing. He can prepare a fish, can he? He can prepare a fish for a Jonah that doesn't wanna go. And so what, pastor Rick? Where's the sovereignty of God and the free moral agency of man? Where's the where where do they meet? I don't know. I just know that you're miserable if you don't do what he tells you to do. Absolutely miserable. Somehow he works it in you. He puts in you both to work and to do of his good pleasure. You try to run from God and head toward Tarsus. He's got a he's got a big fish for you to to to ride in for a few days as a type of Christ, you know, burial down to the depths of hell. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Mention that. What a blessing that is. And Peter denied the Lord on three times on one night before the cock crowed in the morning. And guess what? Jesus is there at the at the at the Sea Of Galilee waiting for the boys that are out there fishing, going back to their old profession. Even after seeing him resurrected, Peter just dejected, his self confidence removed, his rocky mentality, everyone gonna betray you, not me. I'm the strong guy. And Jesus let you know, you're no match for the devil, Peter. You're no match. And Peter, Satan desires to sift you as wheat, to beat you into his submission, you know. But Peter, I'm praying for you that your faith fail not. When you're converted, go strengthen your brethren. Peter, do you love me more than these, more than these fish, more than success, more than all the world can give you? Maybe you envision Saint Peter franchise perch sandwiches, fish sandwiches all along the Galilee. I'm gonna get rich. And God says, do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than the potential to be successful in the eyes of the world, Peter? Will you come follow me? Will you tend the lambs? Will you feed the sheep? Will you trust me for provision to provide for you as you do it? Yeah, Lord. You know that I love you. You know that I love you. You know that I love you. And the Lord restores Peter, and Peter's back in sync. He's back doing what God had told him earlier. Follow me, and I'll make you a fisher of men. Peter would go into villages and people would mock and they cock a doodle dude or remind him of his greatest failure. Didn't seem to bother him as much anymore. He could be asleep in acts 12 because God had already let him know that he was gonna die when he was old, that another would take him where he would not. But then when he's young, he gets to go where he will, that you're invincible until that point in time the Lord decides to take you. But that night that he denied the Lord, what did he fear? He feared death. He feared being beaten. He feared that they would recognize his Galilean dialect, his accent, and they would put two and two together and say, you're with the Nazarene. You're one of them. And he's cursing. He's so angry. He's so mad. He's following from afar. He's warming himself at the enemy's camp, the enemy's fire backsliding. But the Lord's so incredibly faithful, isn't he? Peter lacked the power, but God poured out the power upon Peter. The power of the Holy Spirit. You see him there in acts three and four. He's a different man. He's preaching the gospel. He's 's not afraid of anybody. He's growing in his walk and relationship with the lord. The lord is working in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians one six, being confident in this very thing that he that has begun a good work in you, that he will perform it. Now the Lord began to work in Cathy and I as a means of testimony. And like I said, I had people coming up to me tell me that I was sinning, a sin of omission. I didn't even know what that meant at the time. Omission? What do you mean? Well, God's called you to be a pastor and you're not obeying him. Well, that's easy for you to say. Do you know what happens to me and Kathy when I move in that direction? Everything we work for has to be sacrificed. Everything has to be put on the chopping block. Who's gonna provide for us? It's a sin of omission. You're not obeying the Lord. You're gonna have to walk by faith. Then another guy comes up to me and said, at the same time, you're the you're the most miserable person I know. Well, thank you. Why would you say that? Because God's called you to be a pastor, and you're ignoring his calling on your life. We were enjoying paradise. We were enjoying living near our family and friends and and having a little business that we could provide for ourselves. We were enjoying our Christian walk, every ride and attraction, Christian Disneyland, all of it there, everything to grow except years of flowing in, eight years of sitting, eight years of receiving brings it to the place where you're like the Dead Sea. The next stage of development of growth is an outflow. You've gotta exercise now. You've gotta discover what God's will is. And as you serve him, there's an outflow now. Certainly, you need to sit and receive first of all. Nobody wants to Paul said, don't lay hands suddenly on a novice. Each of us needs to be discipled and grounded, rooted and grounded in the faith, rooted and grounded in God's word, have a good working knowledge of the scripture. And once we have that working knowledge of the scripture, we can start day one sharing the gospel. Never a point in time for that. I mean, it's always all the way through. But as far as, the handling of God's word and and teaching Sunday school or teaching bible studies, being a teacher, even being a a husband and wife in many cases. There's a time of sitting. There's a time of waiting. There's a time of maturing before you're able to or ready to tackle that feat. And and so there's always a season of small things. There's always the time of preparation of God preparing us. And you and I need to cooperate with the holy spirit. I keep saying that over and over and over again. Cooperate with the Holy Spirit. The Lord is putting in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It's his pleasure. He's the one that selected you. He's the one that said you'll do. He reached into the toolbox, and he brings out this that old pliers that doesn't even work anymore, you know, that one you can't even you gotta put some lube on it and or whatever. Or he he's reaching in there and you're the you're the blade that's dull. You're the like, how could anybody use this but in the master's hand? You'll do. You're not the sharpest tool in the box like they say, but you'll do. In the hand of the master, he's able to use your life for his kingdom and glory. And you're not prone to pride. You're not prone to boasting because you know, you remember. You remember who you are. You remember that season of small things. You remember where you came from. I came from Village View. Can anything good come out of Village View? You know? I know what family I came out of. I was never intimidated by anybody else's family because they were all wretches too in my mind. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But getting into an arena and standing in a place where you represent God at work, at school, that's a high, high calling to call yourself a Christian and for God to depending upon you, and I say that loosely, entrusting to you responsibility, the privilege of serving him, of representing him at work during COVID, and you're the lone person that said, no. I'm not going to take the jab. What did that cost you? How'd you overcome your fear? Who could you who could you gather with at work and be emboldened? You had you had a confidence instilled within you as you spent time in prayer, and you asked the Lord directly. You didn't go to AI and say, AI, should I take this jab? You got on your knees and you prayed. And you asked the Lord, Lord, what would you have me do? And you heard so clearly, don't quit. Trust me. I got a plan and a purpose in all this. You're gonna refrain for my kingdom and my glory. Well, Lord, what if I lose my house? Do you know how many people do know my pastors told me? Rick, you can't do that. They're gonna lose their houses. So you're gonna encourage them to take it. The things we've learned. Did we really learn? Because two point o is coming. If we don't learn the lesson, the deception from the enemy is gonna come again. And again and again and again. They're gonna pressure you to get the real ID, a digital ID. Can't have a digital banking system without a digital ID. And all of the surveillance systems, all of the stargate all over The Philippines and every country is getting the Palantir data centers and data system to collate and to gather information on all the populace. The banks, all of them are ready to go. And president Trump's job, Camilla Harris, have done the same thing. Obama could have done the same thing. Biden, the same thing. I haven't seen anybody put a thing at the pump saying, I did that. But when Biden was president, everybody had that picture of Biden. I did that. None of the promises are being fulfilled. First day in office, he does the Stargate project. $500,000,000,000, and not just for America, but the whole world. The b system being built. You know when you're gonna get your $5,000? When the cryptocurrency is in play. It's gonna be the bait to get you into the new banking system if you comply. There's $5,000 waiting for you if you get your real ID and come into the system. Later on, if you don't do the system, then in Vietnam, 83,000,000 people had their bank account shut off until they came in and got the biometric digital ID. Yeah. It's happening. The b system's being built, But we're working out our salvation. We're discerning God's will for our life. How do I know? He's putting in me both the will and to do of his good pleasure. In Romans eight verse two, whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, not the image of the world. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God's intended in his foreknowledge of you, in his calling of you, to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the first born among many brethren, more of a whom he did predestinate, then he also called, and he called, then he also justified, whom he justified there, he also glorified. Aeros tense verbs, all completed action. God already sees you glorified. He's gonna complete the work that he's begun in you and I. What's he need from you and I? Cooperation. Simply cooperate with the holy spirit. Yield to the holy spirit. Surrender to the holy spirit moment by moment each and every day, taking every thought captive, the obedience of Christ. Quit listening to the world. Quit being brainwashed and fear mongered and all the different lies and propaganda that's being used to get you to move in the direction that Satan would have you move in. You won't progress in your walk with the Lord. You reach an arrested state of development because without faith without faith, it doesn't matter if your mortgage gets paid or not. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Are you living to please God? Are you those in Hebrews 10 that draw back and God finds no pleasure in them that draw back? It's all a test. It's all a test of faith. Will we honor God and live for his pleasure? What's on the chopping block? The leverage the devil tries to use against us to get us to conform. God is empowering. He's saving us. He's putting in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Psalm thirty seven four says, delight thyself in the Lord, and he'll give you the desires of your heart. James reminds us you have not because you asked not, you ask amiss, desiring to consume these things upon your lust. So we have to differentiate between God's desires and our desires. Are these desires that are emanating from my heart, working in me both to willing to do physical pleasure? Are they are they inspired by God? Or are they the loves of my flesh that I'm Christianizing? And God's not saying to you, you need to be poor to be spiritual. He might be really working in your heart in a business venture, whatever it might be, but, what's the motivation there? What why is he doing that? What's he working in you? What's the goal for his kingdom, his glory? Or just the flesh. Means of the flesh. Delight thyself in the Lord and to give you the desires of your heart. What I've discovered is if you'll take your cross up and follow him daily, which represents death to self, no longer you living but Christ living through you, then those desires that emanate from your heart thereafter are from the Lord. But the flesh has to be crucified daily, lest we fall back into that selfish motivator and we try to prostitute God. We try to use Jesus to get what we want. We're gonna rub the genie a certain way and three wishes pop out. We're gonna follow Jesus for the loaves and the fishes and not for him. A test is coming along, a stock market crash, and then we get to find out who loves Jesus for Jesus and who was just following him for the happy meals, wanting to be in the blessed me club? Delight thyself in the Lord. He'd give you the desires of your heart. Joy is progress. Joy is power. And thirdly, joy is peace. For verse 14, do all things without murmurings and disputing. So you're able to pray with Jesus, not my will, but thy will be done. You know you're going to the cross. You know it's gonna be excruciating. You know you're sweating as it were great drops of blood. Your body knows it. Your mind knows it. Your spirit knows it. It's gonna be brutal getting through cancer. Those chemotherapies, all those chemicals, it's brutal. Your hair is gonna fall out. You're gonna throw up a lot. You're gonna lose a lot of weight. It's gonna be brutal, torturous. And, Lord, really? This is your will? I served you all these years, and now you're gonna give me stage four's cancer? What's the point in that? Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. Know all your ways acknowledge him, and he'll direct your paths as a child and as a older adult or in betweener, wherever it is. It's always a walk of faith, isn't it? His ways aren't our ways. They're past finding out. That's where faith comes in. And as we surrender our will, as we surrender unto him, and we accept and receive this as from God, Not my will, but thy will be done. We're set free. We're free from trying to be God, trying to manipulate God, control God, and direct God. Lord, how can you use this for your kingdom and your glory? Not my will, but thy will be done. Jesus said, peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world give it give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid. We fail to enter into his rest. Fail to enter into that peace because of unbelief like the children of Israel murmuring complaining. That everything be done without murmuring and disputing. Don't be fighting with God. Don't be fighting with everyone around you. We discover many times with people in our circle, people around us as they go through difficulty and they're suffering, they go through pain from the buns of the heart, the mouth speaks. And because they're suffering, they want you to suffer. The most nasty things begin to come out of their mouths. Accusations and such, toxic, mean, nasty things. Because from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, that pain they're experiencing, they're mad at God. They're mad that things aren't working out. They're it's indicative of person where self is on the throne. They haven't died to sell. They've been warring and fighting with god their whole life, and god's using this as he did with my mother to break her will, to bring her will, to bring her into submission where she'd come back to her faith. God and his love for my mom gave her cancer. With her cancer, she felt the pain of the cancer, the brain tumors and all, and came back to wearing her cross and came back to her faith, a trust, a childlike faith and trust in Jesus. And for many Christians that are mature, and my my mom was not mature, but those who are mature, there's just a beautiful countenance, a beautiful, beautiful testimony where they don't fear death, where the doctors, the nurses, the people, everybody knows this person's special. This person's able to sing. This person has perfect peace. He that keeps his mind on him has perfect peace whose mind has stayed on thee. He gives us a peace as we'll see in chapter four verse seven. He gives us a peace that surpasses all understanding that guards our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Inexplicable, unexplainable peace. You should be losing it. You should be melting down. You should be falling apart, but you're not. Because your faith in Jesus is such, your relationship with Jesus is such that the byproduct is joy, peace, long suffering, temperance, self control, and the love, the agape love of God's spirit just emanating from your heart or life. Your arms are open. Your hands are open. Lord, not my will, but thy will be done. I surrender. I surrender. It is well with my soul. You're a man. You're a woman of worship. You're a worshiper, not a whiner, not disputing, not fighting with everybody around you. Oh, how we grieve the Lord's heart through unbelief, backbiting, not trusting him. John sixteen thirty three, Jesus said, these things I have spoken unto you that in me, not in the world, not in your elected officials, that in me you might have peace. He's the prince of peace. In the world, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. We're reminded when they say peace and safety, then comes sudden destruction. The globalist pretenders, the antichrist group, when they say peace and safety, know that sudden destruction's coming. It's happening. Jesus, the prince of peace, there's no peace without Jesus. Perfect peace. And fourthly, not only do we have joyous progress and joyous power and joyous peace. Fourthly, we have joyous purity. Verse 15, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crook and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. The word blameless means what a Christian is to the world. They can't find fault with you. They're looking, they're finding, they're looking, they're looking, they're looking to find fault with you to do credit you and your Christian witness and they can't find fault. You're blameless. The word harmless, what the Christian is to himself, a good conscience before God. A confidence in the Lord. There's now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. The devil seeks to steal, to kill, and to condemn, destroy, and condemn. In Revelation 12, he's the accuser of the brethren. He's gonna use the letter of the law to show you your inadequacy, to show you your sinfulness, and and you agree. You agree. You don't you don't try to rationalize who you are. I'm a sinner. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who? Not what. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? You're in chapter eight now. Romans. The spirit, the holy spirit, the holy spirit, the holy spirit, the holy spirit. God, by his spirit, is transforming and changing us from glory to glory in the image of his son. My confidence is not in myself. My confidence is in Jesus. The confidence that I have in him that he's gonna purify me, that he's gonna change my heart, that he's gonna change me from glory to glory into this into his image that I'm gonna be without rebuke, that I'm gonna be harmless and unblemished pure sacrifice unto God. Blameless, harmless, without rebuke. We walk a straight path in a twisted world. We walk the narrow path. The broad way leads to destruction. The narrow way, that path with Jesus, few go that way. We took the the path less traveled by, the path with Jesus. And and if we're following Jesus, we don't need anybody else. I don't need the approval of man. I don't need people to vote. One week, they like me. One week, they don't. I just need to seek to please king Jesus. If my life is pleasing unto king Jesus, that's all I need. If my life is unpleasing to him, he's gonna correct me. He's not gonna throw me away as a piece of trash. He's gonna bring to light. He's gonna show the area of my heart, area of my life that's inconsistent with my profession of faith, and it's gonna say, Rick, it's time to grow up. Time to stop this foolishness. I wanna change your heart. Without rebuke, an unblemished pure sacrifice unto God. We're light in a dark world. Jesus said in Matthew five, you're the salt of the earth. You're the salt of the earth, church. What's that mean? If we're to occupy till he comes, Luke 19, occupy till Jesus comes, which means be about our father's business, living lives to please him. Thou art worthy, oh lord, to receive glory, honor, and power of thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure, they are and were created living to bring him pleasure. Not on vacation, not on cruise control, still wanting to serve the Lord in these last days. So many of us are disengaged. We don't wanna serve the Lord. But being salt and light, salt is to stave off putrefaction. Salt, your life, causes the world to corrupt at a slower rate. In second Corinthians two, when the restrainer is risen up, the restraint, the restraining influence of the church over the world. You're restraining evil. You're holding it back. When a two year old child, a Down syndrome child is murdered in Norway in the name of convenience or saving money bill, we are outraged. And we will shout from the rooftops like John the Baptist, that's wrong. That's all we need to say. That's wrong. Not conformity, not agreement with that value system, but outraged. And no matter what they say or do to try and bring you into conformity with the murdering of babies of abortion, not on your watch, they're gonna hear it. Why? Especially in America. You have the bill of rights. You you have god given inalienable rights, not privileges garnered or given to you by the government. You're the government, a constitutional republic. But even beyond that, higher than that, you have God's law. You have God given inalienable rights. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, free speech. Right of assembly. The devil wants to silence you. The devil doesn't want you to speak up. The devil wants you and your children to learn conformity and the public indoctrinating in the schools and in social media. And all it takes is one juror. All it takes is one guy that knows right from wrong to send a message to all the rest of them that they're nut jobs. Even when the lady goes on GoFundMe and gets $3,000,000 to fund the killing of three babies, her own babies, you are outraged and won't stop talking about it till something's done about it. The church has to wake up. The church can't keep having these little little parties where they separate themselves from what's happening in the world and act like it's irrelevant, but, you know, I got my little my little party here. And I'm getting better day by day. It's self absorbed. You gotta have a spine. You gotta speak up. You gotta be salt. John the Baptist would have kept his head if he didn't say anything about king Herod taking his brother Philip's wife, Herodias. But he did speak up, And he was executed because he spoke to power. And he became a party favor for the power elite to cut his head off and put his head on a platter. That's an indictment against the culture and the time in which he was living, and things haven't changed. You're salt of the earth, Jesus said. You're the light of the world. You're a city set on a hill. The world's watching you, church. You're reflecting my glory. You're reflecting the light. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. And we say we have fellowship in him and walk in darkness. We're a liar and the truth isn't in us. So we simply walk in fellowship with him and like Moses who went up on the mount to receive the tablets, our face shines. We come back shining. The Shekinah glory of God, we reflect his glory. And one thing the devil hates is a light that exposes him. Exposes that darkness and what's going on in darkness. And so we are the light of the world. You don't light a lamp and put it under a bushel, Jesus said. You let it shine and shine bright. You expose. You have no fellowship. Ephesians five eleven. You have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. You are the fly in the ointment. You are that voice that they get tired of hearing. What are we gonna do with these Christians? These Christians won't comply. I know. We'll bring them to the place of compliance, or we'll shut their bank accounts off. I know they're gonna have to receive a mark on the right hand of their forehead. Oh, the Christians are gone. Oh, the aliens took them. Well, the trib saints then. The trib saints, innumerable multitude of people of Revelation six and seven said, no. We're not gonna take your mark on your right hand or our forehead. We're not gonna say Caesar is Lord. We're not gonna worship the image of the beast. We're willing to challenge you to the point of death. We're gonna overcome him, the devil. We're gonna overcome the antichrist and the false prophet with the word of our testimony, the blood of the lamb, and we love not our lives unto death. These that have turned the world upside down are here. We've tried beating them. We've tried putting them in prison. We've tried everything. Have you tried killing them yet? Yeah. We've tried that for two hundred years. 10 waves of Roman emperors. 10 different Roman emperors over the first two centuries of the church killed over 6,000,000 Christians. Guess what? The church flourished, kept growing under persecution. The worst thing for the church is prosperity. The dark ages ensue. When Constantine joins the church, he brings in the corruption of government into the church. Everybody's a born again believer now. They can get the votes now. But nobody vets, JD Vance. Nobody checks these guys out, Peter Thiel and all them. No, they're grasping at straws. They know the party's almost over. And when the lies presented, they grab hold of the lie because they love the world. And the enemy knows it and he exploits it and we lose our purity. We tell ourselves, well, I voted for the lesser of the two evils. Voting is an illusion. It's it's the it's the means of the globalist to lie and make you think you have some control. You and I have no control. It's over. But you think you do. And you go to the midterms, and you think you're gonna fix it. Well, did were any of the promises fulfilled in the previous? No. Never. Ever. No draining the swamp. It's getting worse. It's an illusion. And it's an illusion, a learned helplessness where you think you've got your champion, and he's gonna fix everything, then you go back to sleep until the next election. Your citizenship is in heaven. You vote every single day. It's not just one vote at the midterms. It's not one electoral pro it's every day you vote. You vote with your feet. You vote with your wallet. You vote with your mouth. You vote as salt and light. You gotta be diligent, militant. It's a war. You're a soldier. Evil wants to encompass and encroach and destroy it all, but god is wanting you to live for his pleasure. For you to be the voice, the fly, the ointment, the whistleblower. How many whistleblowers they kill? To silence. Do you do you see the threat? You are a threat to the kingdom of darkness by being salt and light, by being educated. It's such an incredible idiocracy that people can't even think. And God's entrusted to you his truth, his word. It's real simple. Killing two year olds is wrong. Killing babies is wrong. It's real simple. It's a no brainer. So the Republican Party duped you in that they're gonna reverse Roe versus Wade because they don't wanna hear it anymore. They wanna adopt the LBGTQ into the party also. We're gonna have parties at Mar A Lago with the gays. We're gonna bring in Peter Thiel, a flaming gay dude who sponsored JD Vance, and we don't want you talking about it anymore because we've accepted transgenderism, the whole thing, as a part of this culture. And you Christians needed to shut up about it. We've given abortion over to the states, so we, in the next election, don't have to hear about it. Pretty tricky. Pretty sneaky. Mind blowing. But I gotta keep hearing the pastor say, if you don't vote, you're not a Christian. Makes me insane. Keep voting. Vote every day. Your citizenship is in heaven. How are gonna stop a Gavin Newsom? How are gonna stop it? How are gonna stop these guys? They're appointed. They're appointed. They're not elected. The Diebold machines, the voting machines, haven't you learned? They appoint these guys. They put them in power. And if you go against the establishment as a whistleblower, they take you out. That's what the Epstein file is about. It's leverage. They leveraged you. They got videos and pictures of you with little boys and little girls. These are the pedophiles in power. They're not Christians. They'll parade as Christians to get you to think, hey, she's one of us. He's one of us. But Jesus said, you'll know them by their fruit. Show me the fruit. Building the beast system, using tariffs to destroy to destroy all the economic arrangements. Everything that's been placed in the old order is the wrecking ball wiping it out to make room for the new. All the financial agreements with all countries are being wrecking balled, torn down to make way for the new global system. Heck, we could say no to the rest of the world and be self sufficient here in America for two hundred years. We got enough oil in Texas for two hundred years. But we're made to think that the Strait Of Hormuz and that Iran has nukes and, oh, boy, we're gonna send your boys and girls over to kill these bad people, and we're gonna infiltrate Europe with 45,000,000 people with an ideology that that's antithetical to a Judeo Christian ethic in the West, and we're gonna infiltrate America and Texas and every vestige of the planet. So we have a multiculturalism and people lose their identity as being the Scots or the Irish or Netherlands or Americans. We're gonna bring Greenland and Venezuela and this whole North American union together. We're gonna build the beast system. The church is clueless by and large. You can vote against it. You can vote for king Jesus and his coming kingdom, shouting from the rooftops. Joyous preaching. Is that what I'm doing? Joyous preaching fifthly. Verse 16, holding forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ. What's the day of the Lord? The tribulation period. What's the day of Christ? The rapture. Are you gonna be able to rejoice in the day of Christ? Because you didn't hold back God's word, you gave out God's word that I have not run-in vain, neither labored in vain. So we joyously preach Christ to the lost. Think of Noah. Think of missus Noah. Hundred and twenty years preaching. Hundred and twenty years of watching overflowing evil. The thoughts and intents of man's heart were only evil continually, and it grieved God and God's heart that he made man. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And Noah was perfect in his generations, perfect in the sense of he didn't have the Nephilim, the fallen ones, DNA mixed with his. So no one is wife, shem ham japheth, three wives. They get in that boat with all the animals. Get into Christ. Get in the boat before the wrath of God comes. But meanwhile, Peter reminds us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. He was preaching for people to get into Christ, to get into the boat, that there's a day coming where the waters of the deep are gonna burst. There's a day coming where it's going to rain. There's a day coming where judgment, god's wrath is gonna come. And people mock and laugh and scoff about prophecy today. Do you know why the book of Lamentations was written? Because Jeremiah spent forty years trying to get people saved. Forty years called of God. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you and ordained you a prophet unto God. You're gonna say what I tell you to say. Forty years of dealing with the rebellious people. Why do we even need the book of Lamentations? Because the people rejected god, and Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed the temple in five eighty six BC. And if you read the book of Lamentations, it's a it's a description by Jeremiah of the utter apocalypse, the utter horror of what came with God's wrath being poured out upon his own people, upon the nation of Israel, with the instrument of Nebuchadnezzar as an instrument of judgment. Women eating their own babies. The whole place wiped out. Didn't need to write the book of Lamentations if people would have listened. If they'd acted like the the the Ninevites and repented, God would have repented of the evil that he's bringing with Nebuchadnezzar, but they wouldn't repent. They mocked. They scoffed. They laughed at Jeremiah. So to Ezekiel. They laughed and scoffed at Jesus. And you know what? We're in good company because Jesus said in the last days, scoffers will come. And they're gonna mock you and I telling them judgment's coming. There's gonna be a new sheriff in town, the line of the tribe of Judah, and he's gonna destroy the antichrist, the armies of the antichrist, the devil, the false prophet with the brightness of his coming, the sword of his mouth. There's a day coming. The Valley Of Armageddon, Megiddo, the Valley Of Jezreel where Jesus will deal with the world's rebels. And John the revelator was given the revelation, the apocalypse, the unveiling of Jesus Christ. Because God knew at the end of the age, the only way to secure this planet is by war. We're in a revolution even now. We're soldiers. We're fighting against evil, and God's using you and I to proclaim the truth, to preach the good news of the coming kingdom of Jesus Christ. It's not doom and gloom. It's the prophetic promise that Jesus is coming again. That blessed open glorious appearing of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. And you're not gonna be ashamed. You're gonna be rejoicing in the day of Christ. You're gonna be rejoicing that you didn't run-in vain, neither labored in vain, that the word of god doesn't come back void, that the word of god that went forth, that hearts and lives were touched and changed, that God saved. One man sows, another waters, and God brings the increase. You've invested in the kingdom of God. You've invested. We joyously preach Christ to the lost. We pass on that which we have received. We don't hide it. We don't bury it. We don't quench it. We're not ashamed of the gospel. We preach the gospel. And in Matthew 25, Jesus described a a king that went away, and he gave five talents to one, two to another, one to the other. And you know the story. He came back at a time they knew not, and the five the guy that had the five reinvested had 10. The guy that had two reinvested had four. The guy that had one buried it. He took the gospel that was invested in his life and just buried it. Didn't reinvest in the lives of others. And Jesus called him a wicked, slothful servant. We're not like that. We have the joy and the blessing of preaching the glorious good news, that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior until the day of Christ. There's gonna be joy in the presence of the angels when just one sinner repents. How could Jonah be angry? All of the Ninevites from the king on down repented. Why would he be angry? Reproduction brings joy. Babes, people coming to Christ. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Psalm one twenty six verse five. He that go forth weeping bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him. Save souls. Have you wasted your life? Do you regret one day that you've had as a Christian preaching the gospel? What response? Are you are you getting a great response in Kitsap County? Are a lot of people getting saved? Do you regret it? Do you regret the time that you've invested in learning God's word, sitting at the Lord's feet, be empowered of him, and going out and sharing the gospel at the ferry terminal or in this community at work or wherever when you see such a low yield? No. You're living in a time of apostasy. You're being faithful. And you know that God's word doesn't come back void because of one person during your lifetime, your whole lifetime of being a preacher, There's rejoicing in heaven when just one sinner repents. And in your case, you guys, many, many, many people have come to Christ through your witness and testimony as you've shared Christ. And if you're Noah and his wife, aren't you so blessed that at least your family got it? That at least your family's in the boat? And if they're not just yet, we pray that they will because nothing else matters. Living for his pleasure. Joy, the byproduct of living for his pleasure. Joy is progress, joy is power, joy is peace, joy is purity, joy is preaching. And sixly and finally, the joy is privilege of sacrifice. Verse 17. Yeah. And if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I join rejoice with you all for the same cause also do ye joy and rejoice with me. This word sacrifice means to spend to it's a libation, a drink offering. It speaks of a wine, taking the wine, the joy poured out at the sacrifice. So if there's a a animal sacrifice, they'd follow it up many times with a with a a libation. Water or wine in many cases. Wine speaks of joy, poured out wine and broken bread. And so Paul said, my life's a libation. I'm ready to be poured out. I'm ready to be like polycarp where they put put me, you know, polycarp didn't happen yet. But polycarp, we look back on where they grabbed hold of polycarp and they put them, you know, at the stake to burn them and all the bishop of Smyrna and, overseer and a contemporary John the, the revelator. And, and so they grabbed hold of him and he's old and just recant just recant, you know, we don't wanna kill you. We wanna put you to death and and he wouldn't burn. They tried to burn him. And John the revelator, they tried to boil him in oil, and they put him exiled on the island of Patmos. But in this case, the one of the centurions took a spear and and couldn't burn the guy, but pierced Polycarp's heart and blood comes out and quenches the flame. And, his testimony assured he wasn't gonna give in to the taunting. And all these years I've served the Lord, and he's been faithful to me for eighty and six years. Why would I deny him now? All my life, he's been there with me. Why at this point, at this age, would I ever deny him now was Polycarp's attitude. Not gonna happen. Not gonna go out like that. I'm gonna go out rejoicing. I'm gonna go out being poured out a libation, spending and being spent. So Paul was willing to be spent to be poured out as a man to sacrifice every personal joy of this this life so that others might experience the joy of life eternal. Jesus was despised and rejected a man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. But we're told in Hebrews 12, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated down at the right hand of the father. Paul, Moses, esteem the reproach of Christ is greater riches than all the splendor of each of the devil sizing you up. I don't know about you, but the devil likes to come along toward Kathy and I and whisper opportunities. Opportunities. Rick, you don't need to keep beating your head against the wall here in Bremerton. Rick, they my father-in-law used to say it to me a lot. Rick, you're wasting your talent. Rick, you're wasting your life there. Rick, come back to California. Rick, Rick. And I say, no. I'm in God's will. No. I'm staying here. No. The work's not done. But there's opportunities the devil presents. Greater salary. Do do you know what a manager of In N Out Burger makes? $200 a year. $200 a year. Do you think I could be a manager at an In N Out Burger? The devil's always bringing opportunities before you. Couple summers ago, I didn't tell you, but a guy offered for me to go down to California. He'd buy a house, and I would manage that house with drug addicts. He said, you get a bookkeeper and a retired nurse, and you be the spiritual dude, and I'll set you up. Call me. Devil's always always trying to take you out of your calling, always showing you an easier life, an easier way, the answer to all your problems. Bow down and worship me, and I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world. You know? But you know what? We're willing to be spent to spend and be spent. We're willing to go the distance. Go go no retirement, at least not yet for me. No try to wiggle my way out. Knowing that we're in God's will, knowing that this is where he has us, knowing all he asks of us is to be faithful, to do everything for his kingdom and his glory, to spend and and be spent. Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ. He could have been the next pharaoh. He's willing to go suffer with the children of Israel in the desert. Why? Because his value system was, I'll defer it. I'll be like a guy in the Dodgers. I'll defer the billions of dollars till later in life, till I get to heaven. Don't have to worry about the salary cap. We'll defer the reward. A benefit package that's out of this world, rewarded later in heaven. You get it? Jim Elliot, what they say to him? Why would you waste your life? No man's a fool that gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. It's been said everything you do for yourself is gonna pass. Only what you do for Jesus Christ is gonna last. We haven't played the fool. We've obeyed the Lord. He needs us in this field. He's given you and I many many opportunities to serve him. All of us collectively, corporately. And we do it. Why? What's our motivation? For his kingdom, for his glory. We sing with the four and twenty elders, thou art worthy, o lord, to receive glory, honor, and power. For thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Lord, we want to be pleasing unto you. Lord, we don't want to quit. We don't want to stop short of the goal. We want to run to receive the prize. Joy is the byproduct of living for his good pleasure. Except the corn of wheat fall to the ground and dies, it abides alone. But if it dies, bears much fruit. That was put gladness in my heart more than in time that their corn and their wine increased. I'm able to meet with my friends of forty, fifty years, even longer. They're retiring. They've amassed million, $2,000,000, or more in in fortune, you know, equity in their homes, and they didn't look very happy to me. Look miserable. Absolutely miserable. Why? Because we live for self. We're not serving the Lord. The secret of joy is serving the Lord. Amass that fortune, but do it for Jesus. Do it somehow where it's for his kingdom and his glory and how you use the what he's increased for his kingdom and glory. If you hoard it and hold it to self, you're miserable. I know people that hundreds of millions of dollars, and they're miserable. No joy. Pontificating, act like they're gods, yielding to god's will. For it is god which works in you both to willing to do of his good pleasure. Are you yielding? Are you cooperating? Can you say with the four and twenty elders, thou art worthy, o lord, to receive glory, honor, and power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Why created? Why were you created? Why did he save you? I got a friend, Rick Paleto. He serves at Door Number 8. Door Number 8 at Saddleback, Rick Warren's old church. And his function in the body of Christ is to give people big hugs. He's a greeter and he takes it serious and he meets people. He tells them invites them to church and says, go to Door Number 8. That's my door. And I'm gonna give you a big hug. Hugs are important. Love's important. Couragement's important. Pamela expressed that the new church she's going to, they're not hugging her enough. She misses you guys. Churches can become isolated and cold and whatever. And maybe, you know, you just forget these things sometimes. At first, it's a life saving station. We wanna save souls and and the excitement of people getting saved and and the camaraderie, the fellowship, the joy, the blessing of watching God move and work. And then after a great amount of success, kinda chills, little clicks develop. Been there, done that. But Rick, my friend, he's radically on fire for the Lord. Loves Jesus. And you say, hey, Rick. What's your ministry? I have a ministry like Barnabas, a ministry of encouragement. God uses me to encourage people. And I've been through a lot of heartache, a lot of difficult things, and I'm able to encourage people because I too have had a heart attack. And I've had physical setbacks and I've had trouble with my kids and with marriage and all the all the above, you know? And I don't broadcast it to everybody, but that's the secret. The Lord Jesus has been there at every point to comfort me and to encourage me, to give me his peace which surpasses all understanding. I can see them. I can see it in their eyes. I know where they're at. They're hurting. And God has called me to give them a hug and tell them how much Jesus loves them. Because I was created they were created for his pleasure, for his good pleasure. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for the body of Christ, the myriad of different ways that you use us to encourage one another. And, Lord, we pray that we would never ever ever surrender to evil, conform to evil, or be indifferent. Lord, we pray that we'd be radical, that we'd be revolutionaries, that we'd be storming the gates of hell. As you said upon this rock, I'll build my church and the gates of hell not prevail. Lord, we pray that we'd go out strong, not apostate, not falling away, not in rebellion to the truth or indifferent, lukewarm like the church of Laodicea. Causes to be on fire, Lord. To hear from you, to have ears to hear and to implement, to act, to cooperate with the holy spirit. Lord, as you send us, here am I, Lord, use me. Lord, we see what happens to the Charlie Kirks when they're whistleblowers. We see what happens to the JFKs and others, who who stand for truth, who stand for righteousness when they expose the wicked one, when they expose the wicked devices, Lord, how quickly the devil comes against them. And Lord, we see throughout church history the way the church has been treated, who stands upon truth, who refuses to give in, who continues to vote and vote and vote for king Jesus. Let our vote be for you every moment of every day, Lord. Help us to see through the facade of control, of evil, and compromise that so permeates our culture. Help us to have healthy enemies, Lord, to be hated by the world. That's when we'll know, Lord. That's when we'll know that, Lord, we hit the target, that we're a threat to the kingdom of darkness. Help us, Lord, to be bold in these last days, loving and bold, to live for your pleasure. 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.
