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Philippians 2:25,30 -A Soldiers Homecoming- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2026-10-04
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Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Two twenty five through 30. Yet I suppose it necessary to send unto you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion and labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered to my wants. For he longed after you all and was full of heaviness because that he had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick, nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him and not on him only but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I sent him therefore the more carefully that when you see him again, he may rejoice and that I may be the less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold such in reputation. Because for the work of Christ, he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life to supply your lack of service toward me. So father, we thank you for your holy word. Lord, help us to gain perspective. Help us to embrace and understand our role in these last days. Who it is we are, Lord. We can be a brother. We can be a minister. And Lord, all of us are called to be soldiers. And Lord, I just thank you for the men and women who dedicated their lives to keeping our country safe. And Lord, I thank you that each person here, Lord, in the spiritual realm, Lord, the battles that we face on a daily basis, the good against evil, the light against darkness, the kingdom of darkness wanting to encroach and and render us useless, Lord. But we thank you that our confidence is in you, that you've triumphed over all principalities and powers, and Lord, that we can walk in that victory. That victory that you wrought for us upon the cross of Calvary, your death, your burial, your resurrection, your ascension, and the hope that we have of your soon return, Lord. We know it's all in the bag. It's a done deal. And Lord, help us to function. Help us to act. Help us to be soldiers, Lord. Like Epaphroditus and others, help us to be your soldiers in these last days. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. Would you please be seated? Now, Epaphroditus, he delivered a message. He went he went he went to the apostle Paul or Paul's in a Roman chained to a Roman soldier and all, and very dangerous to go there. And while he was there, he got sick. And so Paul sent him back to Philippi with a letter to the church of Philippi. And he's wanting the church of Philippi to understand that that this guy hazard his life. This guy risked his life. He gambled everything. And that when he comes home, give him a soldier's homecoming. How are soldiers treated when they come back having been in battle, having been in Afghanistan or Iraq or Vietnam or or even in the Persian Gulf right now in these ships, you know, and they're supposed to come home, but the families are waiting for them to come home and they get to stay out longer and longer and longer. How's he supposed to be welcome when they come home from deployment? Most would agree as heroes. Heroes welcome befitting. A prey down Main Street, many cases, to honor the veterans from Vietnam and the families and who sacrificed so much. Judy just told me that they used to say to the wives and kids and stuff, you know, that, well, you can't fit in the sea bag, you know. But the the sacrifice, a lot of women in the military also, as as Pamela served in the military with her husband Ray and all, and many women, but also also the stay at home moms with the kids and all, and the sacrifice that you make in this community and all over the world to provide protection for our country so that our country can be free. A grateful nation would not demonize them as domestic terrorists and and a threat to homeland security. A grateful nation would not decrease their earned compensation, forcing them with their families to have to resort to food stamps. No. A grateful nation would not drug them and diagnose them unfit on a weapon when they get home or to jab them, forcibly jab them with with vaccines, so called vaccines that make them sick and many of them died early on. A grateful nation would not allow the powers that be to remove over 300 senior level officers because they would not capitulate. They they swore to uphold the constitution against enemies, foreign domestic, and a grateful nation would thank the Lord for those kind of people and thank the Lord for sheriffs that refuse to compromise the constitution, if you will. That would be treasonous if somebody did that. We would look at that as somebody's undermining the country and all, and why are you demonizing our soldiers? We should be thankful for these soldiers, these families. The best that we have in this country are the... Especially these Christian families that are willing to send their boys and their girls into the military, a career in the military or a period of time and and not come home to as many of the soldiers did with Vietnam with people protesting and rioting and mistreating them and all, that wouldn't be the way. Now Warren Wiersby said that Christianity is more of a battleground than it is a playground. And many of us that are home, we think in terms of Christianity as, you know, I wanna avoid any kind of conflict. I wanna avoid any kind of difficulty. I wanted to just be, you know, walk in the park, so to speak. And it it made me think about Jesus and his portrayal, the way people picture him. And and a whole lot of people think that Jesus is almost effeminate. Now this this is not my think Brian showed a song. There you go. So I was growing up in the sixties, seventies, and this guy would be on the Jackie Gleason show. He'd he'd... Ed Sullivan, he'd come on and we'd make fun and people would just be enamored with tiny Tim, you know, tiptoeing through the tulips, a very effeminate, his hands and all that. And, in many cases, people picture Jesus like that. They picture Jesus as this little lamb, this little innocent little guy, this this kind of a British looking, super white, effeminate guy, you know, and no muscle mass, no testosterone, just this this wimpy kind of a, you know, character. And and it it... And and then they portray that and impose that upon us as Christians that if we raise our voice as men, that somehow that's abusive. You know? That we we... If we see a kid or a family member in danger and like a coach or a father or someone in authority, a police officer, you know, that that, hey. Be be careful exercising that, you know, that authority, you know, if you will. And so we we wanna neutralize. We wanna make all those who are Christians to be effeminate almost, to be, you know, just passive toward evil, unwilling to engage, unwilling to fight the good fight, unwilling to risk danger, to risk it all. And that that picture of Jesus, of tiny Tim is not one that I have. I picture him. I got a I got a shirt sent to me this week. I thought it was from Pamela, but it was actually from John Persley up in South Dakota. He was from here, and he moved up there. And, anyway, he follows us. And I thought of Pamela, like, yeah, Pamela, she's a soldier. But basically, it's Jesus overthrowing the tables. And it says in the shirt, you know, been doing this since thirty two AD, thirty three AD. Right? And so the the threat when the bankers went into the temple and they were ripping the people off by... In the money exchange and all, Jesus wasn't tiptoeing through the tulips when he went into the temple. He wasn't all effeminate and singing, know, like that. He grabbed hold of these big tables. They weren't little card tables either. Grabbed hold of these tables and just threw them. And all of the money chain, the bankers the bankers became so enraged, you know, they wanna... They want to to kill Jesus. And, I mean, he went right at the head of the snake, as high up as you could go. If you were to take the head of the snake, the bankers, and then go beneath them in Satan's structure of government, Satan is obviously the head of the snake. But below him are the principalities and the powers, but also in the human level would be these bankers. And then underneath the bankers would be the, you know, the politicians who are puppets to the bankers and all. And you see the way the Epstein, the leverage they have on all these politicians that if any of them don't do what they're supposed to do, they either get killed or they get exposed with the children and everyone they've been with and all. And so they have absolute complete control of these puppets, but we fixate upon voting and Republican, Democrat, this, that, and the other. And if you could ever get people to look beyond the human level to the spiritual level and understand we're in a spiritual battle and to begin to exercise, you know, our spiritual strengths, our spiritual armor, we're... By way of review, I'm gonna read for you. Ephesians chapter six to to show the apostle Paul picture him, he's chained to a Roman soldier. And in being chained to that Roman soldier, he's looking at the armament. He's looking at what the soldier has, and he's he's trying to get you and I to equip ourselves to put on the full armor of God to recognize this isn't just skipping or tiptoeing through the tulips. This is a battle, a huge fierce battle, especially when you enlist, when you leave the homeland, when you leave the comfort of all the amenities here, and you actually go down there and sign up and go through boot camp and get your uniform and your training, and then go out into a, you know, a wilderness out into the world. We as Christians, this is this is the picture. We're not to just, you know, stay at home and try and hide or find a church that's trying to hide or live in denial of the battle, you know, that we face. And so he says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the lord and the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the wiles. That word wiles is strategy. The the strategies, the lies of the wicked one. We know the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty of God to the pulling down of strongholds. There are spiritual strongholds working against us as Christians. The devil's greatest weapon is deception to deceive. So Paul is saying he's saying, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood. So the flesh and blood would be the bankers. That'd be about as high as you could go with the Rothschild family and all. But they're still human beings and they may be... They may have a bloodline that goes all the way back to the Nephilim and that sort of thing if you're if you're into that. We know that the Antichrist is gonna be the seed of the serpent. We know that the Antichrist is gonna be like the Nephilim. He's gonna be a hybrid, if you will. And the whole emphasis upon these hybrids. And so it's been said that these Nephilim, these hybrid human, you know, angel beings that their their intelligence is off the charts. You know, the technology and their ability to outthink human beings and all. And so many think that the the powers that be that are still operating, many of them may be along these lines. But above that, remember, it's a spiritual battle. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities. So here you go. Principalities and powers against the rulers of darkness. You don't see these guys behind the curtain. You only see the left, republican, democrat thing in the midterms, of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take on to you the whole armor of God that you may be able... And notice stand, stand, stand, stand, not retreat. Never retreat. Never retreat. And notice, there isn't a whole lot of armor for the backside of the soldier in retreat. It's all frontal. It's a frontal attack. So when Jesus says upon this rock, I'm gonna build my church and the gates of hell not prevail against it. You're gonna put your enemy on his heels and you are gonna boldly storm the gates of hell. That's the picture. It's not this wimpy, afraid, and run, and hide, and oh, please, let me have a therapeutic message. It makes me feel better, you know. That's the tiny Tim class, you know. Wherefore take on the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand again, therefore having your loins gird about with truth, so the belt of truth you put on. The devil loves to use lies to to defeat you. So be a a student of God's word. Make sure that you're attending a church that teaches God's word. There's a famine in the land for the word of God. The apostasy that's taking place is a falling away from the truth. So Jesus said, you know the truth and the truth will keep you free. And having on the breastplate of righteousness. So, your chest is protected. The vital organs are protected by the breastplate of righteousness. The devil wants to get you to leave your first love. The devil wants you to be neutralized in a sinful manner, but stand just. Stand guarding guarding the the... Your heart and guarding the the the love of your heart and and that... And don't be like the church of Ephesus and leave your first love and don't don't allow yourself to become lukewarm like the church of Laodicea. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The best offense or best defense is a good offense. Storm, take your feet and spread the gospel. The Romans would have shoes that had little spikes in them. They wouldn't slip. They'd they'd cover their feet in such a way that they'd have good balance, and they'd be able to push with their feet and move forward. And and so your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith. The devil's gonna throw all kinds of lies and fiery darts and try to get into your head with neural link and all the lies that are on the internet and all. You've gotta take that shield of faith because the devil's gonna try and get you to doubt whether you're a Christian or not, if you're even saved or not. So you've gotta hit those fiery darts with the shield of faith, having faith in God when the circumstances are adverse, where with you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation. The devil again wants to get you to doubt your salvation, to doubt whether Jesus is gonna fulfill his promises that he's brought to you. Many many people when the economy collapses real soon here are gonna lose their faith. They're gonna be shipwrecked. They they thought that America was gonna be greater. They don't know what to do. They're they're gonna be so just wiped out. What an opportunity for you and I to share the glorious gospel, to share the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. We watch when nine eleven happened. We watch when certain crisis has happened where people start to come back to church maybe, and they start to look for answers. Will you be ready? You be ready to provide the the prophecy that you've been learning. Connect the dots for them. Help them to understand what's happening. Help them to understand that this is all prophesied, that the beast system being built because the antichrist needs a beast system to use his technology, the technocrats, because the devil is not omniscient. He's not omnipresent. He's not omnipotent. They need the technology because Satan can only be in one place at a time. And although he has a third of the demons that fell with him, they still need to be able to surveil, have the surveillance, the stargate from the from the stars, the whole thing this week with Elon Musk, you know. He's gonna work with headsets and they're gonna have SpaceX and Palantir with all the, you know, the the cameras and surveillance and data centers. And it's not, you know, artificial intelligence anymore. It's satanic intelligence, you know, or super intelligence. And and we're in a race to get it done because if we don't, then the Chinese are gonna do it, you know. And can you remember at election time, did anybody tell you this was the objective? This was the agenda? Not one. Not one. And you better been in... You you better grin and bear it because you're a fool if you don't wanna get rich off this. Everyone's gonna get rich if they go along with the cryptocurrency and the whole thing, you know. And don't you dare go against his mega base. He'll he'll turn on you, you know. And just incredible deception that's taking place, the betrayal that's taking place. So take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And so the sword of the spirit is an offensive weapon, and you don't sit there and talk about how sharp it is. You use it. Learn to use the word of God to combat the lies of the wicked one. The lies that that people gravitate toward. And then it says, praying always. And this one of our greatest weapons, praying always with all prayer and supplication, you know, in the spirit. And so Epaphroditus, he's heading home, and Paul wants Epaphroditus to have a soldier's homecoming. Now some of you that came from from deployment, when I watched the Christmas movies and all, a lot of times it it shows the soldiers, you know, coming home for Christmas. You know how heartwarming that is. The letters that are written, the homesickness that you experience, you know, in a foreign land, week after week, month after month, and then finally, you get a little little break time and you get to go home for the holidays or the war ends and you're you're finally home. And there's parades and filling up New York, you know, all down Main Street and everybody just cheering and the whole parade scene and everything. Everyone's so excited. And, you know, we we preserved freedom. We preserved our way of life. And so, again, Epaphroditus hazarded his life. By visiting the apostle Paul, he was in grave grave danger. And so Paul says he's my brother. He's a minister like a priest. And and also, you know, he's a soldier. That concept of a soldier that we're in a battle. Paul uses that to describe Epaphroditus. He became a soldier. Notice first of all his commission, your commission. Verse 25. Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and my companion in labor and my fellow soldier. Paul said, I'm a soldier. I'm in the Lord's army. And and we're in a spiritual battle. But your messenger and he that ministered to my wants. And so Epaphroditus was sent from Philippi to the apostle Paul. In chapter four, we'll see in Philippians that he was able to bring some financial help for the apostle Paul, bringing him gifts and all and the love of the people there in Philippi. And and so he's a messenger there. And while he was there, he got sick. And it's so kinda kinda strange because Paul in Acts 14, Paul was able to heal a guy that was lame on his feet at Lystra, believing and understanding that this man who had been crippled from his mother's womb, that he had faith to be healed. So Paul told him, stand up. And the guy stood up. And you're you're looking at that, and and the priest be... Came down from Lystan and Derby, and they said Paul was, you know, Jupiter or Barnabas was Jupiter, Paul Mercurius, and and they were gonna sacrifice animals unto them because they thought the gods have come down to us in the place of men. And Paul says, no. We're men of like passion as ye. Don't be worshipping us. You know, he stopped them and all that. And and then the next thing that happened is some Jews came down from Antioch and they began to coerce the people, crucify him, crucify him, let his blood be upon us. It's kinda like they did with Jesus. And next thing you know, they're stoning the apostle Paul. The people of this, he heals a guy, and the next moment they're crying out, hosanna, hosanna. Then they're crying out, crucify him. Familiar sound, isn't it? How fickle people are. They drag Paul out like he's like he's dead and and he might have been caught up to the third heaven, but Paul raises back up and goes right back into Lyster and Derby and all that. And so you see his ability to heal in that case. You see that God allowed him to heal. And then in Acts chapter 19, the apostle Paul, he just his handkerchiefs, just from working as he was a tent maker, the sweat cloths, you know, that people were able to take those sweat cloths and be healed. And then in acts 28, they're on the Island Of Melita. They were shipwrecked, and they finally got to shore. And the apostle Paul is able to heal Publius' father, the chief's father, and who had a nasty flux, a nasty bleeding kind of a thing. And he's able to heal him, and then the people there began to bring everybody there. And the apostle Paul, anybody that was sick was able to heal him all. And yet, he's gonna tell Timothy, take a little wine for your stomach's sake. He... Epaphroditus is sick. He can't lay hands on Epaphroditus and anoint him with oil and heal him because the gift of healing is sovereignly worked through the holy spirit. Sometimes the lord heals. In the case of Elizabeth's mother, Jean Jack, she's 90 years old. She's healed of cancer right now. Praise the lord. Few months ago, we released Sally and Joe as they succumb to cancer, and the lord moved them out of their body into their new glorious body. And so we pray, Lord, not our will, but thy will be done. We don't know when he's gonna heal. We know he still heals. We know he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. We know the gifts are still in operation, but it's interesting to me that, Epaphroditus, he he was healed in a natural way. So he sent to Rome. Paul held prisoner. He was a brother in arms, a comrade, a companion in service, a fellow soldier. He's in grave danger risking it all for the gospel. Very, very dangerous. That's why when the shepherd was smitten and the sheep scattered in the case of Jesus and the apostle Paul... Or excuse me, Peter denying that he even knew the lord on three different occasions that night before the cock crowed. Why? Because if you were caught with him, that's that's a guilt by association. You would... Your your your accent, your Galilean hick accent, Peter, betrays you. You're a Galilean. No. I don't know the man. No. I don't know the man. So they all bailed. They all took off because they didn't want... They feared for their life. But after the resurrection, they didn't fear anymore, did they? They didn't fear death. And so, we see that with them, the human aspect of, what happens. And so we're told to... Don't fear death, but fear... Rather rather the Lord who has the power not only of death, but to cast your soul, you know, into hell. Fear God. In Philippians four eighteen, I have all and abound. I am full having received Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you. So mission accomplished. He was commissioned to go and deliver these goods to the apostle Paul. They all would have loved to come see him, but they didn't. And so, Epaphroditus had the courage. He had the, steadfastness to do what God had instructed him to do. God is not instructing you to go fulfill another man's calling. God has a calling for each of us, and we need to know what that calling is, what that commission is. Hardest thing in the world for me is when God holds me back. That's the hardest thing in the world is to be held back when you wanna go so bad. You wanna keep going, and you're held back. Caleb and Joshua held back for forty years. So much more we could accomplish. So much more we could do. You know? But in some ways, it's the Lord maybe changing us. It's a season where God's preparing us for eternity. We envision so many things we'd like to do for the Lord, mission trips and places and stuff and outreaches and all that, and and you're you're unable. The Lord's saying, no, you're not going in the area of Asia Minor right now, Paul. The door shuts and another door opens. And so it's always amazed me. You want so bad to go, so bad to go, and you do go, and you risk everything, and then you're held back. And so what's the Lord doing? You can't run up ahead of the Lord. You can't force it in the flesh. And it may be that the Lord's changing you. The work that he's doing is in you rather than out there. So be content in that season of small things. Allow the Lord to do that work, to accomplish that work. And and until you don't have a breath anymore, there still may be something something up ahead that you've envisioned and dreamt of that God's gonna let you do. It may not be over yet. And so don't lose heart. And so the great commission is one that's given to each of us. Some have called it the great omission because we think, well, we're gonna send professionals and they're gonna do all the evangelizing and all the teaching and all. When Paul told Timothy, who didn't have the gift of evangelizing, do the work of an evangelist. Your gifting fits more with the pastor teacher of Ephesians four, but I want all of you to do the word of being the evangel, proclaim the good news of his coming kingdom. All of us can do that. So Jesus in giving the great commission in Matthew twenty eight nineteen says, go ye therefore. We need to go. Where are we gonna go? You go in your Jerusalem, first of all, your family, your friends, your Bremerton, your Kitsap County, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost. So you're gonna be witnesses. So we're using YouTube and Rumble and various ways to get the word of God out. And we collectively as a church are supporting getting the word out and trying to support those that are getting the word out there. And and so go ye therefore and teach all nations. So notice it says teach. In Mark's gospel, there's a preaching preached to every creature. It's preaching and teaching. The teaching is go and make disciples. Make disciples. Now we can't make converts. We can't convert anybody. But we go with the word of God with the objective of making disciples, learners, people that wanna learn God's word. So go and make disciples to all nations, teaching them in the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit, teaching them to deserve all things that I've taught you. And then he says, and lo I'm with you always, even to the end of the age, Calvary Chapel, Bremerton. The Lord Jesus is still here. He's not done with us. There's still a work to do. We have the great commission, and we do what we can do. One man sows, another waters. God brings the increase, and we have family members. We have people in our in our homes that badly need to be saved. So we might imagine great things we wanna do for God, and he says, you know, what would heaven be like without your kids there? Why don't we just focus on your family first? Why don't we just focus and bathe them in prayer and keep bathing them in prayer? And let's let's not give up because who's gonna stand in the gap? Who's gonna fight for their soul? Who's gonna battle the principalities and the powers that are trying to deceive them and take them to hell? If it's not you, grandma, grandpa, if it's not you, mom and dad, brother, sister, who's gonna do it? You're gonna leave it to a professional once every year to do a crusade somewhere? Leave it to the bastard on Sunday morning? I love when you invite your family and friends. I love the opportunity to share the gospel. I love the opportunity to teach God's word, to make disciples. It's an awesome commission. It's a great commission. It's a great calling. And all of us are teachers. All of us. I have the office of a pastor teacher, but so so you, all of us collectively are teachers. We teach our children. We teach those around us. We're constantly passing on that which we learn less we become like the Dead Sea, a flow in but no flow out. And so your feet shod with the preparation of gospel of peace. When you move with the gospel, you grow. God gives you open doors, gives you more opportunities. And nothing more exciting than a birthing room, new babes in Christ, people to disciple, to teach, to help grow. Nothing more exciting for a church. Churches that don't evangelize, fossilize. The old people, they get old and die. We need new people. I read an article this week. There's a whole lot of churches going out of business. Whole lot of churches all over America shutting down. And that's very sad to me. A post Christian era in Europe already taken place and we're watching in America. A part of it has to do though article I read was centered upon a woman gay minister in a Methodist or Lutheran church. I mean, why would anybody go there? I understand why that one be shut down, you know. But also churches like ours that teach God's word, there's very few people that wanna be taught God's word today. So you have to entertain. You have to be therapeutic. You have to take away the aspect of being a soldier and turning over tables, and you gotta make it more like Tiny Tim where everybody's a fruitcake, you know. And the pastor's a clown, and and you try to bring them away from reality, the spiritual battle that we're in. And they love to hold on to deception. They deception is their favorite place to be because after all, our government wouldn't deceive us. You know? So they want government to take the place of God in a walk of faith. I think most of us are mature enough now to realize we're being lied to every single day. Media all all over the place, it's off the charts. And so we have the antidote. The antidote is Jesus to preach and teach the word of God. And so Epaphroditus had a commission. He was commissioned to go minister to the apostle Paul to provide for him physically and spiritually and to encourage him. And so this soldier, Epaphroditus became a soldier. Secondly, the compassion. Verse 26, for he longed after you all and was full of heaviness because that you had heard that he had been sick. So he's sick like a cancer patient. Worried about what? What are cancer patients worried about? Everybody else. Sally's worried about James. Wonder how James is gonna do if the Lord decides to take me home. Alan's worried, you know. Cora's worried about Alan. What's gonna happen to Alan if I go home to be with the Lord? These men don't know how to live their lives without their wives. Right? And so not a selfish worry, but a worry about those around them. What about the kids? What about the grandkids? What about people around them? Homesick, wanting to comfort them to testify of God's faithfulness of his saving and protecting hand in battle. So Epaphroditus hears that they're worried about him, that he's been sick. And he's he's heavy because he doesn't want them to worry. He doesn't want them to be burdened by that. When I was watching my dad succumb to his sicknesses, he was courageous. He wasn't wimpy. He's a soldier. He's ready to go. He's ready. He's ready to be with Jesus. And he battled a lot of sickness, just as many of you have battled so many areas of sickness in your body. And Job you... Job found out how Satan, one of his strategies is to afflict people with sickness. That's one of the tactics of the wicked one in this battle you're in, this spiritual battle. All those trips to the doctor, all those medications you gotta go get, all the traveling and exhausting aspects of being sick and hoping and praying, you know, that you get back to being normal or to just manage your illness and all, and how it weighs on you and how, you know, you persevere through it and you make it to church. Or you persevere through the discouragement and you watch online. But you're engaged. You're in tune. You're focused upon the Lord. And for many of you, it's been years and years and years as a soldier, soldiering through the affliction that the devil tries to bring to challenge your faith and to break you and to steal your joy and to steal the gladness, you know, that's in your marriage and in your home and with your kids and and so many different ways. One of the most painful things that I watch in this battle is the way the devil can turn our children from us. Where our children treat us like we're the enemy. They don't wanna talk to us. They want nothing to do with us. And just how painful, incredibly painful that is. And what was it that made them so angry at you? You're Jesus. You were preaching Christ, loving on him, modeling the Christian life. They felt the pressure. They felt the the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And and then things began to go sideways for them and their lives, circumstantially. And what happens? They become angry at God. And they can't punch God in the face, so they wanna punch you in the face. They want you to hurt. They want you to feel pain. They want to deny you, the grandkids during COVID, you know. You're not able to see them, and you're not able to visit or, you know, all the different ways that the devil tries to break our spirit and to just make life incredibly painful. The life of a soldier is painful. And Jesus was tempted in all points like we and yet without sin. Jesus is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. Jesus is the greatest warrior. Jesus is not coming back as a little lamb next time. He's coming back as a lion of the tribe of Judah, and he's gonna thump on the devil. He's gonna thump on the antichrist and all the technology this world can muster, and all these cowardly globalists who are going into bunkers underneath the ground, he's gonna cause the ground to shake and they're gonna try to hide from the wrath of the lamb in Revelation six, there's no escape. There's absolutely no escape, not in the ocean, not in the center of the earth, not out in space where Elon wants to colonize. There's no escape from Jesus. Everything's naked and open before the eyes with whom we have to do, and he doesn't need a camera. He can see it all right now. He knows your thoughts afar off. He knows what you're gonna think, Elon. He knows everything you're gonna do, Trump. And you may feel called, you may feel appointed, you may feel special, But what is it you're doing? You're a tool of the wicked one. You're a tool of the powers of darkness. And you may feel invincible. You may feel like Voltaire that in your lifetime, you're gonna tear down Christianity. You're gonna destroy the bible during your lifetime. You're gonna remove Christianity from the French and all over the world, and you're gonna be a little sissy in your bed as you're dying, crying out and shrieking. You're not gonna have that peace that my dad had when he was transferring out of this body into the next. He wasn't tormented and so many others. Sally wasn't tormented, but Voltaire was. Voltaire was shrieking and the attending nurse said she never wanted to attend a, you know, a heathen like that ever again. The torment this person Voltaire was experiencing and the Geneva Bible Society bought his home thereafter and printed bibles just to show God always wins. And God's still gonna win with all these boasting boastful globalists and all of their minions and all of their strategies to destroy Christianity, to rezone and and change the free speech and assembly, all that's coming. If the rapture doesn't get us out of here, we're headed for a point in time that that could very well look like communist China. That's the model of the globalist, and we are gonna experience pain like we've never experienced before. And yet, when we experience this pain, simultaneously, we experience a joy that we've never experienced. The joy of the Lord counteracting the pain that we go through. Without suffering, there's no joy. We've gotta go through that that suffering to experience the real joy of the Lord. Going away rejoicing that we are accounted worthy to suffer for his name's sake in acts four as they threatened them and beat upon them because they were sharing the gospel. And so testifying of God's faithfulness, protecting us in the battle. We're invincible until that point in time the Lord says, alright, you're coming home. The bullets will fly by, the arrows, the fiery darts, all the stuff the devil throws at you, you're invincible until the Lord says, alright, I'm gonna take you home. Paul's... Paul testified in second Timothy four sixteen, at my first answer, no man stood with me. So Paul said at my first court hearing, no man stood with me. Nobody was there to stand with me. But all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Verse 17, notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. That by me, the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. The devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking who may may devour. Nero was likened to a lion devouring the church. And his first defense, Paul, they said Paul was released, the first one. But hey, I I dodged a bullet, You know? I dodged execution. I was I was released. And then later on, he was regrabbed hold of and and eventually, the Lord took him home through martyrdom. And... But what a privilege to get that crown of life as one of the lord's martyrs, but invincible till that point in time. And so Epaphroditus became a soldier. The commission, the compassion. Thirdly, the conflict. Verse 17. For indeed he was sick, nigh unto death. So sickness is part of the warfare. Jonathan Livingston, he went into Africa, you know, there's gonna be all sorts of different diseases and things by leaving Britain and going into Africa. Mosquitoes, as Bill Gates is trying to fashion mosquitoes to make us all sick. But Jonathan Livingston went there and you you know, you you suffer malaria. Malaria kills an enormous amount of people and headaches and tent stake like Paul's describing and all. And and he left his wife home in Britain because she was more feeble. She wasn't of a... As strong as he was physically. And the evil that the devil wielded against them was slander among the churches that his wife wasn't in the mission field with him, and all the different speculation and things about that. And so he, under pressure, allowed her to come into the mission field, and she soon thereafter became sick and died. The devil uses sickness. And then you as a husband, you've gotta determine, are you gonna continue in that mission? Are the souls of these people in Africa worthy? Is it worth it? Do I continue to struggle through malaria and and various sicknesses and illnesses and watching my body be depleted to what... To... For what? To get the gospel to these heathen? To get the gospel to these people? And the answer is yes. Because you're doing it for Jesus. The Lord's commissioned you. The Lord's called you. And there's conflict. And you have to count the cost. You gotta count the cost. If you if you say, Lord, here am I. I wanna list. I wanna be in the Lord's army. Here am I, Lord. Use me. Get ready for opposition. The only churches, the only pastors that don't receive opposition, the only Christians that don't receive opposition and conflict in their life and are compromisers. People who are no threat to the kingdom of darkness. That's where the devil can use you best to deceive people, to infiltrate churches. I listened to a Billy Crone DVD this week and he was describing what he'd gone through with some of the churches that he'd been in. And he was teaching on the Masons and Baptist Church that he was at, the one of the guys on the board of elders, you know, told him don't ever talk about that again and all. And he described how the devil over since the church growth movement, which is where you've heard me say this many many times, and I'm so glad that I'm hearing some other guys say this. But the church growth movement of Rick Warren, his purpose driven thing where all the churches rebranded is what caused the corruption. Where enormous amount of unbelievers came into the church and infiltrated places of leadership, places on the board, places of control and authority and all, and watering down the word of God, not teaching the word of God. And over a twenty, twenty five year period of time, we're experiencing the apostasy, the falling away from the faith. We don't have the strength to battle. So what's happened is a whole segment of the church in The United States has surrendered to the wicked one. And he actually used these words. He said, the devil's in control of these churches. In control. If you've got opposition against you, he's not in control. That's how you can know you're a target. There's opposition. There's there's an affront against your life. And if you're confused about that, just go outside and share the gospel with somebody. Share the gospel till somebody curses you. People don't like to hear the gospel. Keep that to yourself. Conform. Give in. Find a church of conformity. Conformity with the world. Go along to get along. Make America great. There's gonna be conflict. You're a threat to the kingdom of darkness. Paul, know. Jesus, we know. But you seven sons of Sceva, we don't even know who you are. You're not even on our radar. And then the men with the demons in them grab hold of the seven sons of Sceva and beat on them and take their clothes off of them and everything, but it's so interesting. Paul, know, we adjure you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches. They're trying to be powerful. Cast out demons and the demons say, Jesus we know. Paul we know. But we don't know you pretenders. Ain't that interesting? Are you... When you go into the post office, are you on the devil's list? Are you on the devil's list of people that need to be hit? Meet... Need to be destroyed? It's a badge of honor, isn't it? It's a badge of honor to be hated. Jesus said if they've hated me, they're gonna hate you. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that's gonna come against you. Right? Count it all joy when not if. All they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. There's gonna be opposition. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. That doesn't sound like the Christianity be sold today. That's not the Christianity people want. They don't wanna be soldiers. They don't want conflict. They wanna know the secret to the bless me life. They want the loaves and the fishes, universal basic income. They don't wanna work anymore. They want the tree of life. They wanna live forever without Jesus, without the cross, without the bread of life. They want no accountability. They wanna hear the preacher say, do as thou wilt. Do whatever you want. And that's satanism. That's the voice of the wicked one. Do as thou wilt. You're not accountable to God. Do whatever you want. And if anybody ever tells you there's a hell or you need to repent, you just come back to them and say, I thought the bible says thou shall not judge. Why are you judging me? People want no accountability. They wanna live the way they wanna live without any scrutiny. And so we are told in Ephesians five eleven, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. And if you start to expose the evil, you're gonna gain a whole lot of hate in people that hate you and don't like you. So the conflict, for indeed he was sick, nigh unto death. Sickness is part of the warfare. Very, very dangerous. The apostle Paul had a messenger of Satan that was buffeting him in second Corinthians 12. Paul prayed three times that the Lord removed that messenger of Satan. There was a woman that Jesus said whom the devil has afflicted these thirteen years who is bent over, couldn't stand up. Can you imagine? That's a backache, I'll tell you. And some of you have chronic pain, chronic attacks from the wicked one. Difficult to sleep, difficult to walk, difficult to live a somewhat normal life, and the reason is you're afflicted. Part of it's general sin in the garden. We're all getting old. We're all gonna get sick. You definitely know it's not because God's afflicting you because you did something wrong. That's not happening. That's not the way he works unless you're in rebellion to him. If you're in rebellion to him, he might take you to the woodshed and spank you a bit, get your attention. But many cases, what's happening as you wanna serve the Lord and you're excited about Jesus, there's opposition, there's conflict. And then we come up with excuses and we rationalize and we say, oh, someone else can do it, you know. I had Bruce and Rochelle's friend Jory come up to me a couple weeks ago and she's got two, you know, walkers and crutches and she had many strokes and she handed me a pamphlet of... A pamphlet for people who might be left behind after the rapture. So she isn't a woman of excuses. And Bruce has only one leg. He's not a man of excuses. He goes crazy on that piano. You know? He lost it because of COVID, you know? And they're warriors. They're fighters. They're soldiers. They they crave to be used of the Lord and to be in the Lord's will. They're not gonna just sit there like a rotted vegetable in a chair waiting for the moment they die. So she's writing out things, getting her bible out, and trying to help and equip others, you know. That's a spirit that can't be broken. That's a tenacious, all for Jesus spirit. And the devil's trying to crush your spirit through physical infirmity. He's trying to steal, kill, to destroy from you. And make you feel sorry for yourself and you're a victim and, you know. No. Not gonna happen. I I went to a play the other night and Anne of Green Gables, being a dad with two daughters and wife and over the years, like countless times they watched that stuff, Anne of Green Gables, all the girl stuff, you know. And I might wanna watch a football game or something else. I gotta go somewhere else. This is girl time, you know. So anyway, got invited to go see Anna Green Gables up in Port Gamble and a play, two and a half hour long play. And, you know, I was sitting in the front row and I think, man, I'm strong. I'm a man's man. And, you know, I would I would never cry at a play, you know. Why would I why would I ever cry, you know. And I found myself keeping my head away from my grandkids. Nobody could see me wipe my eyes on several occasions and my nose started running and and I might just have way too much estrogen. I don't know what's going on. You know? I'm like tiny... No. I'm not like him. And and all I need all I need to hear was I'm proud of you. I don't know why that resonates so much. Maybe one day I wanna hear the Lord say I'm proud of you, Rick. Well done, that good and faithful servant. I remember what it felt like when my dad said it to me a couple times, you know, maybe more than more than a couple, but Rick, I'm proud of you. There's something about that that living to please, living to please God, living to please your parents, your family, you know, to be pleasing and to be encouraged. And Anne of Green Gables, you know, she's this orphan that nobody wanted and you and I are orphans, but the Lord wanted us. And the Lord purchased us and made us a part of his family. And he's gonna one day say to you guys, well done. Thou good and faithful servants. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm gonna make you ruler over much. I'm proud of you. Enter into the joy of the Lord. Can you imagine what that's gonna be like? All the pain's gonna dissipate, all the scars, everything that you had to go through to get there to that moment mean pales in comparison. This light affliction which is but for a moment, it's working a far more and exceedingly eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which you're seeing, but things which you're not seeing. For the things which you're seeing, all that suffering are temporal. But the things which you're not seeing, why we're doing it, to be pleasing unto God, is eternal. You have an eternal perspective. You're not living for the now, for the moment. You're evaluating your life and you're saying, yeah, it is worth it. It's worth it. And then we're driving home and the boys are in the back seat. And, I'm in this estrogen coma, man. I'm just like, what's going on? I'm bewitched. I'm under a spell, you know. Hope nobody knows I came here, you know. Would have been so much better to go to MMA cage match or something, you know, the savage girls hitting each other or something. And I always wanted to date an MMA girl, you know. They didn't have them back in the day. Wouldn't that be something get choked out, You know? So we're driving home and the boys say, grandma, can we watch a show? Can we watch a show on your phone? And she says, yeah, I'll go ahead and I'm driving. I'll go ahead and put it on. What show do you want? And I hear Gideon say, one was somebody getting blown up grandma. And at that moment, I snapped out of that coma, that that bewitching of estrogen. All my testosterone started hitting again. Yeah. Just some other blows somebody up. You know, we'd be men back here. We're men, you know. But Jesus wept, didn't he? Jesus wept. He's a soldier, but he had compassion. Even though there's a conflict, he says, father forgive them for they know not what they do. We see his heart. We see his heart. He loves he loves sinners. He says, take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. There's no pleasure to defeat my enemies by killing them. I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but you turn turn from your sins. Why will you die, oh house of Israel? Why would you die in your sins? He's heartbroken. As the father in the garden to Adam, where are you? What happened? The compassion. The conflict. Job was so afflicted, all of his stuff, except his wife. Why don't you curse God and die? Oh, you speak as a foolish woman speaks. Shall we not receive good at the hand of the Lord, not evil? Naked came men in the world, naked come and go, the lord gave the lord take away. Blessed be the name of the lord. Skin for skin, all that a man has will he give for his life. If you let me afflict them with sickness, Rick will quit. He'll quit. And, you know, I don't know that I have the threshold of pain and sickness that many of have, but I think you'll testify that God gives you the grace when you're in the midst of that trial, not before, but he gives you the grace to get through it day by day. So I'm confident that the Lord, as Paul said, prayed three times. Lord, remove this messenger of Satan that's buffing me. Remove it. And the Lord answered that prayer. No. No. No. My grace is sufficient for you for my strength's perfected in weakness. And those are those areas where the Lord says, want you to grow. And you'll grow best through this pain that you're experienced as you rely more and more upon me rather than yourself and the doctors like King Asa. King Asa, when he was little in his sight, he was prolific when the Ethiopians and the Lubims came after him and God brought brought a great victory. Once he achieved great success as the king of Judah, Basha, king of Israel came after him and rather than relying upon the lord again, he solicited the help of Ben Hadad of the Syrians and and the prophet Hana came to him and said, man, when you're little in your sight, you know, you relied upon the Lord. Why didn't you rely upon him? You not only would have had Basha, but you'd had been Haidad. I'd given the victory with both. But instead, you paid your enemy to be mercenaries to fight against Israel. Crazy. What are you doing? The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of man whose heart is perfect toward God. I thought you wanted to be that man, King Asa. And then King Asa went into a rage, so angry in his pride. And then the Lord gave him affliction. The Lord caused his feet to be afflicted. And rather than crying out to the Lord in his anger and his stubbornness, he went to all the physicians, the doctors and all the technology to try and make him better. And it says King Asa died. Died with that bitterness, that anger against God. Amazing. Just so amazing. King Hezekiah, Isaiah the prophet came to him and said, king, get your house in order. This sickness in Isaiah 30 eight's unto death. Get your house in order. King Hezekiah looks to the wall, cries, reaches out to God, and God sends Isaiah back and says, take a little bit as... The figs and take a little bit of figs, make a poultice, put it upon the boil, and I'll give you fifteen more years. Thank God for medicine. Timothy, take a little wine for your stomach's sake. You... You've got that bad water. It's causing your stomach to be bad. And and Timothy, rather than laying hands on, pray for him, or sending a prayer bomb to... That he'd be healed, he's given a practical way for him to alleviate some of it. So we do both, don't we? We do doctors. We do nurses. We do the garden. We take the the leaves. In the new heaven, the new earth, there's a tree of life. There's there's leaves in the tree for the healing of the nations. Right? We recognize aspirin comes from a tree and whatever else it is. And I know some of you are thinking, thank God. Now I can smoke the joint and not feel guilty. No. That's hallucinogenic. That's sorcery. It's mind altering. Might find other uses with it that, don't alter your state of consciousness, but no, we're not going there. It's the herb pastor. Trophimus in second Timothy four verse 20, Paul had to leave Trophimus because he was sick. Couldn't heal him. Lazarus was sick and Jesus said this sickness is not under death but for the glory of God. I'm the resurrection of the life. He that believes in me though you're dead yet shall he live and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Believe us without this Mary and Martha. Yeah. We believe. No, you don't. Lazarus come forth and Lazarus comes forth from the tomb. God being glorified through that sickness. God is being glorified through your sickness, through the conflict that you're going through. The outward man is perishing but the inward man's renewed day by day. Epaphroditus became a soldier, the commission, the compassion, the conflict, and fourthly, the conquest. But God, there's the win. All that bad stuff, it's... Have you factored God into the equation? What have you tried? Oh, I've tried this, this, this, and this. Well, have you prayed yet? Let's start with prayer. Well, I called AI. I I asked AI what I should do. Alright. You exhausted all that. I wanna teach you to start here. Always start here, not go there at the end. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these other things bad unto you. Now if you pray and you ask the Lord and he says, alright, I want you to go to a medical library. You can find it through Google. No no harm, no foul. This technology to be used for good, if if God says so. But maybe the Lord doesn't want you to go that direction or even follow the advice of a doctor. Maybe the Lord has something else he's trying to communicate. So pray. Ask the Lord. Ask him what he would have you do. But God had mercy on him and not on him only, but on me also. Lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. So both are spared. Paul's heart is spared because he doesn't wanna lose another comrade, another soldier. The guys you started out at boot camp, how many of them finish? The 15 or 20 guys that I started out with, 30 guys in school of ministry, how many are still in ministry? How many are still pastoring? How many made it even out of school? You start out with so many, you finish with so few. It's a war. It's a battle. And sometimes the husband may feel that he's ready, he's strong enough, but your wife's not ready yet. You need to be of like mind. You need to be of one accord. You don't grab her by the hair and force her into a situation that God is trying to communicate to you. She's not ready yet. Minister under her. God's in no hurry. But both are spared. They came through the firefight alive for now, for today. But tomorrow, what happens tomorrow? It's appointed an all men wants to die and then the judgment, we're all gonna die. Only thing worse than terminal cancer is eternal damnation. Dying twice. Death physically and dead spiritually at their great white throne. Death is described as separation from God. You're cast to outer darkness. You're cast to the lake of fire where the devil, the beast, the false prophet. Hell was made for the fallen angels and the devil. God's not willing that any would perish but that all would come to repentance. There's worse things than dying. Pastor Chuck, the October 3 was thirteenth anniversary of him going home to be with the Lord. Isaiah fifty seven one talks about how the righteous don't have to see the evil to come. God spares many of us by taking us home. We don't have to see what's coming. Blow your mind if you saw what was happening today, pastor Chuck. Far worse. You're spared. We're gonna be spared through the rapture. The rapture of the church, God's gonna spare us. Except those days be short, no flesh would be spared. But the Lord takes us before he pours out his wrath, the sealed judgment of of Revelation six as it opens. The start of the tribulation period. We're we're in heaven in chapter four and five of book of Revelation. We're already there. We've already gone in John fourteen one through three. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you onto myself that where I am there, you may be also. We're already at the marriage ceremony, the bride of Christ. We're at the beam of seat judgment and we're being judged for whether we... Good or bad. Some of the bad's being judged. Some of the good. Lot of the good. In chapter 19 of the book of Revelation, we're coming back decked out clean and white and wedding gown, the whole thing, washed in the blood of the lamb. No condemnation. We're there with Jesus at the second coming, the marriage supper, John the Baptist, a friend of the bridegroom, the tribulation saints, the old testament saints, all resurrected, all there to see the bride of Christ and the wife of Jehovah, the nation of Israel, and Jesus inaugurating starting the thousand year rule and reign of Jesus. And here's a fascinating thought. What if there's dinosaurs in the millennium? What if the Lord is allowing the dinosaurs to make a comeback? All those animals that our kids are so enamored, maybe you are too. But now they're docile. No curse. They're not gonna eat us. Right? I still get nightmares about that guy sitting on that porta potty in that Jurassic Park, grabbing that guy. I had nightmares when I was 27 when I saw that, and I still think of that. Woah. That sound. Woah. How do they get that sound? Oh, crazy. I don't like horror movies. So the curse reversed. Little lion and a lamb and a child leading them. Right? We have a lot to look forward to. The conquest, but God had mercy. We don't fear death. They ask him the bodies to be present with the Lord. But God had mercy on him. Yes, he was healed, but more importantly, his sins were forgiven. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. For God so loved you that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be saved. God wants to be merciful to you. Jesus paid for your sins. God wants to pour out his grace, his unmerited favor toward you. Salvation being a free gift. God wants you to act upon the faith that he's given you. To call upon him while he is near. He's near. It's it's in your mouth. If you believe in your heart that he that he was crucified, buried, raised from the dead, and you exercise your will and saying, Lord, come into my heart and life. God, forgive me of my sins. God, be merciful to me a sinner. The Lord hears that cry of your heart. And you, like the publican, walk away justified just as if you've never sinned. It is the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed because his compassions fail not in Lamentations three twenty two. His mercies are new every morning. And if you're like me, where your the pet name your mom... You're not your mom. Your wife has for you is jackass or jerk or bunch of other and whole list of them. Then you're always so grateful when you wake up in the morning knowing his mercies are new this morning. Nobody's gonna continue with contempt or anger. Boy, I really blew it. I really blew it. Well, why don't you go tell her? Why don't you confess? Why don't you admit? Why don't you tell her you're sorry? Or the one that the guys have the hardest time with, I was wrong. Oh, that hurts. That hurts. I might cry on that one. No. And then it's all over, isn't it? You don't need to keep it going. His mercies are new every morning. Five results of his mercies. Number one, the release. I sent him there for the more carefully that when you see him again, you may rejoice and that I may be the less sorrowful. So if Aphrodite receives what we would call an honorable discharge. Do you have an honorable discharge? Have you been released? As you've served and fulfilled your duties? The apostle Paul in first Timothy four verse six says, for I am now ready to be offered in the time my departure is at hand. I ran a good race. I finished my course. I fought a good fight. He's getting an honorable discharge. He's being called to home. He's being called to heaven. And there's now therefore laid out for me, a crown of righteousness. I'm heading home to be rewarded. I'm gonna get rewarded for faithful duty, for running the race to receive the prize, for fulfilling the calling God placed upon my life. A crown of righteousness. And not for me only, but for all those you and I who are watching and looking for his rapture, his appearing. There's a crown of righteousness awaiting you. Cause your righteousness is of Christ. It's his righteousness. He said to tell us that I paid in full, it is finished. It's his blood that makes you righteous, that makes me righteous. He's looking for you and I to be faithful to be faithful in what he's called us to do. No more, no less. And so we we see this with Epaphroditus. Not only the release, but the reception. Verse 29, receive him therefore in the Lord, a soldier's homecoming. Receive him as king Jesus will his bride. How do you think Jesus is gonna receive you and I his bride at the father's house? What kind of celebration is it gonna be as he wants to show us off to all the old testament saints and the tribulation saints and all the angels of heaven here upon earth at the marriage supper of the lamb? And Luke 12, he girds himself. He takes his belt and he pulls his sash up, and he begins to minister to you there at the marriage supper. Ministering unto his bride. Scar still in his hands. That's his love for you. He's loved you and I and he drew you with an everlasting love, everlasting kindness, not condemnation, not reminding of you all the ways that you failed him. That's the voice of the devil, the accuser of the brethren. Notice the rejoicing with all gladness. Wipe away every tear. There's no oil without squeezing the olives. There's no wine without pressing the grapes. There's no fragrance without the crushing of the flowers, and no real joy without suffering. Let me say that again. No real joy without suffering. And we live in such a way that we don't wanna suffer. And if we are suffering somehow, we feel like losers. We feel like God doesn't love us, like we did something wrong. Well, what soldier doesn't suffer? A pansy tiny Tim kind of soldier. Not a real soldier. Life's tough. Even tougher if you wanna serve the Lord. And he says in Romans eight verse 17, have children than heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be all glorified together. For I reckon, Paul's from Texas. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Again, perspective. We suffer with him. We're gonna rule and reign with him. We're gonna rejoice with him. We're gonna celebrate with him. The rejoicing. What if when we get to heaven, instead of the angels and people asking us questions of what did you do for the Lord? What did you build? How many people got saved? Where did you go? How much did you give? What if the question was, how did you suffer for Jesus? Show me the scars. Show me what you went through. Describe for me the way that your daughter broke your heart over and over again. And now the devil tried to use it to destroy you. Those are attacks. Those are attacks from the wicked one. Those are attacks from the pit of hell. And they're powerful, powerful attacks. But you're not gonna let the devil win. You're gonna continue to pray and stand in the gap. Say, forgive them for they know not what they do. The rejoicing in that day. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. We're not home yet. You're not home yet. The missionary gets off the boat. Teddy Roosevelt's there and he's a celebrated young senator coming home from a hunting trip. And this missionary couples on this steam ship coming to shore. They spent forty years serving Jesus, forty years. And nobody's there to greet him, to welcome them home. Teddy Roosevelt's got a brass band down the street welcoming welcoming them home from a hunting trip. And they get in the cabin. They're driving away. And the husband begins to say, honey, I just don't get it. Forty years in the ministry, forty years in serving Jesus. And none of our friends, family, nobody from the missionary board, nobody's here to offer us a homecoming, let alone a brass band. And his wife says to him, honey, we're not home yet. This isn't our home. We don't do it for the adulation, the appreciation of people. We do it for king Jesus. We serve and war and fight for him. We engage the wicked one and we're willing to lay down our lives for gamers, for people that are... Have no comprehension of what it's like in Afghanistan or Iraq or the things that you go through as a soldier. Vietnam or wherever, Korea, wherever the Lord sent you as a soldier. The sacrifices you as wives and children make as your daddy goes away. Praying that he'll come home. Praying that he'll make it through it. Many have no comprehension. Life's just a party. It's to be enjoyed. Not a life of sacrifice, not a life of loving people to lay down your life for them. No. Me first. It's all for me. The release, the reception, the rejoicing, Fourthly, the reward and hold such in reputation. Yeah. Well done, that good and faithful servant. I'm proud of you. Man, that's so cool. So cool. Your faithfulness in the in the midst of the battle, everything's taken away. But you're faithful. You're still serving. You're still rejoicing. You're still in love with Jesus. The love of Christ constraining you. And no regrets. Verse 30, because for the work of Christ, he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life to supply your lack of service toward me. The Greek word there is in not regarding his life. It speaks of the gambler who risk everything. Do you live a reckless, courageous life, which you're ready to gamble everything including your life for the kingdom of God? There were the group called the gamblers during the early church. And they would go to the casino each day with Betty and Ray. No. They were the ones like James when people would get a plague and the heathens would take these bodies and just throw them in heaps. They're like James who went to go visit Alan, elder James, I call him. If any of you are sick, call for James, call for the elder who'll come and pray and anoint you with oil. Because I'm a wussy, and I'm not gonna go there and catch MRSA. So James went and he put on the suit, and he went in there and ministered to Alan, you know. And Alan kept trying to convince me that it was safe and all that. And I'm sure it was, but I'm not supposed to do everything. There's a lot of talented people here. So anyway, James went there. I've done that before. I'm just talking tongue in cheek. But risk everything. You'd risk everything to go out there and minister to the lepers. You might get leprosy. Jesus touched a leper. That's unheard of. 100 feet away, they're supposed to yell out leper, leper, leper. And he's touching lepers and healing them. Right? And these nurses, these doctors, these people who are near the contagion, they're risking their lives. And in many cases, they're contracting diseases and bringing them home to their loved ones. But these gamblers, they're willing to risk everything to go out there and minister to these people that are dying, to give them a proper burial. They're taking the bodies off the heaps and these were Christians. These were those who were not fearing death. And that's what James did with Alan. He's he's there to minister to Alan, to encourage him. When Alan had that MRSA. They're gamblers. They're risking everything. Now we talk about risk management, calculated risks. What are you willing to risk for the kingdom of God? To what degree? What risk will you take? We count the cost. Let somebody else do it. We're not gonna roll the dice. A reckless courage which makes him ready to gamble with his life to serve Christ and win souls. That's Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus had absolutely no regrets. He knew what was at stake. He counted the cost and he only lived to please him who enlisted him. He was chosen by Jesus to serve as a soldier. So too Jesus has chosen you. He's enlisted each of us to battle it out, to fight it out with these principalities, these powers, with this kingdom of darkness. And we can't do it in the arm of the flesh. We have to do it in the power of the holy spirit with the spiritual weapons God has given us, and we keep fighting. It's interesting when Jesus won the battle with Satan when he was tempted. In Mark's gospel, it says, and Satan left him as Jesus kept quoting the scripture, taking out the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And if you are the son of God, you know, command that these stones be made bread. And Jesus reaches back to Deuteronomy and says, it is written, man shall not live by by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds in the mouth of God. Well, if you're God, and he takes him up onto the pinnacle to jump off, he'll give us... He's quoting scripture now, Psalm 91. He'll give his angels charge over you, lest you dash your foot against a stone. And Jesus comes back with scripture again. Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God. Him only shall thou serve. And then Satan takes him and he shows him a high mountain and all the kingdoms of the world. If you bow down and worship me, I'll give you all these kingdoms of the world. The shortcut, you don't need to go by way of the cross. Jesus again goes to the scripture and says, it is written. Thou shall worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. And he says, begone Satan. And Mark's account says, Satan left for a season. That bugger, he comes back. You think you've won. You think you're done. You think you had a great victory at church, a great victory serving the Lord. You're on a mountaintop experience and you're saying, Lord, let's build a booth here. Let's stay right here. I don't like the battle down below. Let's stay on the mountaintop experience. Let's build a couple booths here. Moses and Elijah here, Lord. It'd be really good if we could just stay at the... You know, in this kind of Christianity where everyone loves me and praying for me, we're singing and, oh, we have a great retreat. Oh. And then you gotta leave the mountain, and you gotta go down in the valley and there's a demoniac waiting for you. One of your teenage kids is going crazy. Your husband's going nuts when you get home from that ladies retreat. You had the best time ever. You were on cloud nine. You were just, oh, this is so great. And then the, whew, reality hits. We got bills to pay. We gotta go to work. It's a grind. We gotta grind it out. This is a battle. That's the life of a soldier. That's the life of a mom and dad grinding it out for forty years to raise their kids in a Christian home. It's not easy. There's no shortcuts. And a prophet is not without honor saving his own country and his own house. He's despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him. But Jesus was still willing to die in this war for souls. Are you? Are you his soldier? Are you full of self? Or have you counted the cost continually denying yourself and taking up your cross and following Jesus. That's a soldier. That's one the Lord's called us unto. Epaphroditus became a soldier. He went home to Jesus with no regrets. Paul said in second Timothy two verse four, no man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life. You don't soldier for nothing. It says that he may be... May please him who has chosen him to be a soldier. For God and country, for God and heaven, not country, for God and heaven, your country may not appreciate you. A soldier's homecoming awaits us. Our citizenship is in heaven. We're pilgrims and sojourners passing through. Abraham was looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. And all we want to hear at the end of the day is well done. Rick, I'm proud of you. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm gonna make you rule over much in the millennium. Boy, do I have a place for you to serve in the millennium as you're gonna serve me as a king and a priest. You're gonna minister to others during the millennium. And then we hear the say... The Lord say, enter into the joy of the Lord. The sorrow's over. The pain's over. The tears are wiped away. It's all worth it. Epaphroditus, a soldier's homecoming. Father, we thank you. Lord, we don't pretend those of us that haven't served in the military and seen combat, we don't pretend to understand the depth of commitment and discipline and so to the fear, the breaking, the horror, Lord, we can imagine. And yet, Lord, we as Christians, Lord, we are in a heavy heavy battle, huge spiritual battle. The oppression, the powers of darkness are coming at us even harder and harder, Lord. But since you're for us, Lord, who can be against us and greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. Help us ever more, Lord, to rely more and more upon you. As the old man is perishing, as a new man is renewed day by day, help us to be more like you, Lord. Give us our confidence in you, reliance in you that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Lord, we're no match for the devil in and of ourselves. Lord, you've gotta stand between us and the devil. All the principalities and the powers were no match for their cunning, for their strategies, but Lord, you give us your word and you give us your holy spirit to have discernment and to know the truth and to test the spirits, to prove all things and hold fast that which is good, to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose it. Lord, you've called us to be salt and light. You've called us to resist evil. You've called us to restrain evil even though we see the beast system being built. Even though prophetically it's happening, we still are called to be soldiers and resist the evil. Lord, that others eyes may be opened, that people would not construe or misconstrue that that the beast system means that God's pleased. Lord, we know you never commanded the nation of Israel to rebuild the temple. And Lord, you never commanded your church to help build the beast system, but it's being built. And lord, what you said, when we see these things begin to come to pass to look up knowing our redemption draws nigh. But lord, we know the antichrist can't emerge. Lord, there's more time to share the gospel as long as we're salt and light. We can resist. There's more time. He cannot emerge until the church is taken out. The restraining influence through the church. So Lord, help us to restrain evil. Not for... As a love of this world, but as a love for people that are perishing. And and knowing our heartbreaking, knowing what they're heading into. The tribulation period. Help us, Lord, to stand in the gap, to fight for souls, to fight for the lost in these last days. And Lord, if need be, teach us how to throw over tables, to be bold, to stand bold, knowing you haven't given us the spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. And love, Lord, the most loving thing we can do is to stand against evil. When the innocent, when people are being preyed upon, to expose that evil, that you would raise up the standard against it, Lord. While your heads are bowed, if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus, you don't have a relationship with Jesus. If you're watching on Facebook or listening, it's real simple. As many as received him to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. By rejecting Jesus, you're rejecting the... God's provision for your sin. By receiving Jesus into your heart and life, you're confessing that you've sinned. You're confessing that Jesus is the only way. You're agreeing with God the father that in the giving of his son that he paid for your sins, that he died in your place. And your profession of faith, you're calling upon him while he is near. The Lord hears that prayer. He hears that cry, and he comes into your heart and life, and he causes you to be born again, to be body, soul, and spirit, the life of the spirit. You're with the holy spirit. You're marked out as belonging to God, And he gives you the gift of eternal life. That's the offer. That's the good news that Jesus is coming again, that Jesus came for sinners, that Jesus is coming again for his bride, the church, and you wanna be a part of the church. You don't want to be a part of this world. So anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up. We wanna lead you in prayer. We wanna help you make that first step. Anyone here this morning? Father, thank you once again. Thank you for your love. Lord, give us the courage. Give us the boldness as the early church prayed as they were threatened. Lord, they met at a prayer meeting and they prayed for boldness. Lord, give us that boldness to face this world straight on, to storm the gates of hell, to win the lost. 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.
