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Philippians 310,11 -Do You Know Him- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2026-10-18

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Philippians chapter three verses ten and eleven. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Verse ten eleven today, that I might know him. That I might know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings be made conformable unto his death. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Father, we thank you for the way that you used the apostle Paul, that all that he had to go through, and he's able to summarize. He's able to bring his life down to just one important thing, one important motivation, the master passion of his life to know you. And Lord, we pray with all the distractions, all the things that are coming against us, all the deception and all the different myriad of different ways to go Lord, that Lord we're reminded that you're the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but by you. And father, we thank you that this relationship that we have is just that a relationship, not a religious effort. That Lord, we've been born again. And Lord, you've given us of your holy spirit, and we have an intimate abiding relationship with you and with your son and in the power of the Holy Spirit. And so Lord, we pray this morning that you'd reveal yourself unto us, and Lord, that we would narrow life down to that one thing, that one thing, that most important thing that's necessary is to know you. To sit at your feet and get to know you. So bless now, be our teacher, open the scripture to our understanding. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. Would you please be seated? Sometimes we hear the skeptics, boast that, hey, God is dead. That, there is no God. And and, and in their pursuit of God, they look into the mirror and they declare themselves to be God, ignorantly proving that they know not God. And so you got the guys like Jared Kushner and others running around, and they're talking about how they're never gonna die and, you know, with transhumanism and all this, you know, that they're gonna be as gods. And we were reminded in second Thessalonians two that that's the lie. When they reject the truth, they're going to be given over to a strong delusion, and they're gonna believe that lie, the lie that was propagated by the wicked one by the serpent to Adam and Eve. You shall not die. You know, you're gonna be as gods. And so you're gonna see this hybrid effort, this transhumanist effort of man with a whole lot of bewitching, a whole lot of sorcery, a whole lot of occult and pharmaceuticals, and and just... It's increasing as people get away from the truth of God's word. And people being deceived into thinking that they're not gonna die. And not only that, but that they're gods, little gods running all around. And so do you know him? Are you deceived? Do you do you think that you're God? Do you think you're gonna be God? Do you think that you're getting better and better every day? Is there anybody out there that you're listening to that's lying to you, promising you that one day you're not gonna die? That you're gonna be like Jared Kushner and his buddies, the billionaires, and all Elon Musk, and all the technology, Bill Gates, and all And yet, you know, it's so preposterous because each and every one of them is getting older. Each and every one of them would die at any moment. When king Herod in acts chapter 12 was up there boasting in his Armani silver suit and all, everybody says, this isn't the voice of a man. This is the voice of a God, you know. And the Lord, as he received that adulation, as he received that that worship from man, it says the Lord smote him and worms consumed him. Just consumed him right then and there. You know? It's so fascinating. So don't take God's glory under yourself. So do you know him? Verse 10. Paul says that I may know him. So Christianity, as you've heard, I hope you've heard, is a relationship with the living God. And this word to know means to know by experience of the intimate knowledge of a husband and a wife, not the knowing about him. Many people can know about Jesus or you hear a lot of the pastors, a lot of the prophecy guys and people saying, yeah, I got a chance to go to the White House and meet Donald j Trump, you know. I got to go to Mar A Lago and one time I was invited there and I got to meet Donald Trump. Well, meeting somebody, knowing things about them doesn't mean you know them. And so you and I, we don't just look at Jesus historical figure or stand afar warming ourselves like Peter did, you know, the enemy's fire. There's an emphasis upon getting to know him. And so when we respond to the Holy Spirit revealing Jesus Christ, when we receive Christ in our heart and life, he comes into our heart and life, and the job of the Holy Spirit is to bear witness of the son. And so as we walk in this relationship with Jesus, we're being changed from glory to glory in the image of his son, and God's revealing himself unto us. And so we might know about Buddha, about Muhammad, about Confucius. They're all dead men. And there may be other people that come around and talk about how, you know, they they believe in this way or that way or this god or that god. You and I are unique. We are special in that our god is living. Their gods are dead gods. Who... How can you worship a dead god? He's dead. You know, it's over. And so that's the blessing of Christianity is a relationship with the living god, and there's an intimate knowledge or getting to know him. And that's why every time we we come here, every time we open the bible, there's different things that we pray. And it's not a a rote prayer. It's it's it's really we're appealing to God, ask him number one to be our teacher. And we don't... Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. It's not just external knowledge about him, but there's an intimate knowledge. We always ask the Lord, we follow it up with Lord, please reveal yourself unto us, that we may know you to a greater measure. I've known Kathy since I was 17, and and I'm 37 now. And it's it's it's been a great ride. But I'll tell you, I don't know everything about her. And so marriage is so is so special in that way. In that even if after you've been together so many years, you're still getting to know each other. There's sting... Still things about each other that God is revealing and that love can be so special and so incredible because it's it's fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit putting that love in our hearts and and just the imagery, the picture of our relationship with Jesus, the marriage that we have with Jesus, and the two coming together me and being one. And so how very, very special that is that we are the bride of Christ. And Paul saying that I wanna know him. There was a time where Paul didn't know him. There was a time where Paul was very, very deceived and very, very religious. We saw that last week. And he's on the road to Damascus, and he thinks he's in tight with God. He thinks he knows God. But just like many of the Jews today are who gonna try and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and and many people that we know trying to help them, Donald Trump included and and Jared Kushner and all. And they have the ashes of the red heifer ready and all the different intimalants and all. And they think that they know God, but they don't because they crucified God. They crucified Jesus. We crucified Jesus. Our sins placed him upon the cross. But to negate that, to deny that Jesus is God after he's crucified, buried, and raised from the dead is rebellion against God. And so whether it's a Mormon or whether it's a a Jew, Judaism, or Islam, all these different religions are pursuing a different God. You and I as Christians, we're pursuing the true and living God. In fact, he's pursued us. So the apostle Paul was apprehended on the road to Damascus. The Lord intervened and said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? I don't even know who you are. And he says, I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. You don't even know me, Saul. You remember when when you guys stoned Stephen and his face shone bright like that of an angel, And he's looking up to heaven, and I'm standing at the right hand of the father and giving him a standing ovation. And they laid all the coats at your feet. Do you remember how he he was just just shredding you experts in the law? You know, you you boast, you know, that you're a pharisee of pharisees and concerning the law, you know, you're blameless and all. You raise the feet of Gamaliel, brilliant mind externally, but you go through all that religious effort, streaming at a net, swallowing swallowing camels and all, and you don't know God. Have I been such a long time with you, Philip? And you don't know me, even his disciples. He that has seen me has seen the father. I'm here to represent. I'm here to show you who God is. One God and three persons, the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Do we follow a different Jesus? Do we follow a different gospel? Do we follow a different spirit? Do we really know him? Are we really Christians? Do we have a relationship with Jesus Christ? Or are we just religious, going through the motions? I hope by the end of this sermon that each of us can go away from here knowing that we know that we know that we're sealed with the Holy Spirit, that our spirit bears witness with his spirit that we're children of God, that our name's in the book of life, that he's never gonna blot it out, a confidence that in verse six of chapter one, being confident of this very thing that he that's begun a good work in us, that he will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Great assurance, great comfort, great great hope, and and the the source of our peace and knowing him. Do you know number one, his power? And the power of his resurrection. A dead god is impotent. A dead god can't help you. Our god's living. You say you know him. In James two nineteen, James said, you know, there's one god. You say there's one god, you do well. The demons also believe and tremble. Do you know him? Do you have a relationship with him, or do you just know about him? A dead god is powerless to save me. Can't save me from my sins. A dead god's powerless to change me. I need to be changed. I can't stay in this condition. I can't stay as Saul of Tarsus going out persecuting Christians. There needs to be a transformation and a change. I've been following Judaism. I've been following 613 precepts of the Mosaic law, but nothing's changed my heart. I'm just as vicious and just as angry, and I'm doing it in the name of the Lord. I'm doing the name of God. I think I'm doing God's service by fighting his people. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who art thou, Lord? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. I'm a religious guy. I think I think I'm doing right. I'm very zealous. And you don't know God. You don't know me, Saul. Powerless to raise me. I'm gonna die. It's appointed to all men once to die. And then the judgment. My God's powerful. My god's omnipotent. My god's gonna raise me from the dead to be absent the bodies to be present with the lord. Dead men, dead gods, the ones that people follow, they're still in their tombs. They're dust by now for many of them, and there's no power. There's no power to raise them. There's not enough power no matter how many trillions of dollars you have to bring immorality to the people of the tribulation period. The devil is gonna lie to people with his lying signs and wonders through the antichrist and the false prophet to try and make people think they're gonna live forever. And yet, half the population, 4,000,000,000 people by today's numbers are gonna die just with the judgments, the seal and the trumpet and the bowl judgments that God pours out. 4,000,000,000. Half the population. Boom. Gone. And yet they're selling? They're selling to people that we've got the way that you'll never die? And God's saying, you're in a rebellion to me. You don't know me. Dead gods are impotent, powerless. Powerless to to love me. Powerless. How can a dead God love me? How can I know that a dead God loves me? Jesus is alive. And Jesus said, destroy this temple. In three days, I'll raise it up. Jesus proved his love for me in being perfect, being the unspotted, unblemished lamb of God and going to the Cross Of Calvary to die in my place. God proving his love for me. For God so loved me that he gave his only begotten son. But if he didn't raise himself from the dead, if there wasn't the power of the resurrection, then it's just sentimental. It's just a sentimental love or expression of somebody that was once in my life that did some good things, but but an inability incapable of changing me, incapable of raising me from the dead, incapable of teaching me how to love, of giving me love, of loving me with an eternal love. It's just all sentimental. Powerless. In Luke 24 verse five, when the women, Mary Magdalene and the other women came to the tomb of Jesus and the stone was rolled away, the angel asked a very important question. Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why are here in the graves? Why why... He's alive. Why are you seeking the living among the dead? He's not here, but is risen. Remember? And that word remember when I'm... When I was studying this going through Luke, you know, you you you have to keep underlining remember remember remember, because everybody forgot, forgot, forgot what Jesus told them ahead of time. That he'd be crucified, that he'd be buried, that he'd raise himself from the dead. And we partake of communion at the end of the service, This do in remembrance of me. We have such a propensity to forget and to forget the details, the most important details, the important aspects of the of the gospel and and of his soon return. He's risen. He's risen indeed. An all power omnipotent savior. He's not here, but is risen. Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet with you in Galilee saying the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful man and be crucified in the third day, rise again. The power to save me. In John two nineteen, Jesus said destroy this temple. In three days, I'll raise it up. Forty and six years were they in building this temple, and you're gonna raise it... You know, destroy the temple, raise it three days. And then later, they understood, oh, he spoke of his body. His body being the temple. So much so that in Matthew 27, sixty sixty four, twenty seven sixty four, after his crucifixion, the religious leaders came to Pontius Pilate, and they said to him, hey, this deceiver this deceiver said that, you know, destroy this temple in three days, I'll raise it up. We get it. We get what he's saying now. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. There are no sign gonna be given. But the sign of the prophet Jonah is Jonah is three days and three nights in belly of great fish. So shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. They understood what he was saying. He's claiming he's gonna raise himself from the dead, but he's a deceiver. So you know what we need to do, Pontius Pilate? We need to put a criterion of soldiers around that tomb, and we need to put a seal upon that stone that if anybody were to come there, his disciples are gonna steal the body. They're gonna steal the body, and it'll it'll be worse what's coming after that if they steal the body than what we're dealing with now. And so they did all of us a favor in that they they put a quaternion of soldiers there, they sealed the tomb, and they had these soldiers there. And what happened to the soldiers? They, the ground shook. They did fear and quake. They're like dead men quaking. They had to be paid by the religious leaders to not speak and say anything because punishable by death if anybody, you know, got past them. Just like in acts 12 when Peter was released by the angel out of the prison cell, he was in the soldiers that were guarding that that Peter and that whole jail and all that, they were executed because it was on their watch that it happened. So too in Acts 16, when the Philippian jailer, saw that there was an earthquake and all the shackles, everything came off everybody, he's taken a knife, a sword, and he's ready to kill himself because he knew the shame of anybody that would escape on his watch. And Paul say, no. No. No. Everybody's still here. Everybody's here. But in this case, they did us a favor because these disciples, they were wimping out. They were freaking out when the shepherd was smitten. They all scattered. But after the resurrection, they were bold as lions. Nobody could shut them down. They went away rejoicing that they're kind of worthy to suffer for the Lord's sake. Why? Because of the resurrection. They didn't fear man anymore. They did us a a favor. In first Corinthians fifteen seventeen, if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain year yet in your sins. Just a dead impostor. If Christ be not resurrected from the dead, where of all men most miserable. Paul says, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection. I want that power operative in my life. I want that faith to believe in a risen savior. A savior that can conquer the world, sin, and death. A savior that's coming again and gonna set up his kingdom. That's the kind of savior I wanna believe and trust in that I might know him. The power to save me and secondly, the power to change me. What am I gonna do? I've got the I've got the fire insurance. I'm not going to hell, but I'm still living like a hellion. I'm still the same Rick. What... What's that about? Well, Paul says in second Corinthians five seventeen, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation, a new creature. The old things are passed away, and all things are become new. Salvation is in three tenses. He's the power to save me, but salvation, by definition, is deliverance and healing. So he's delivered me from the past penalty of sin. The wages of sin is death. I deserve death. Death is eternal separation from God. But he's saved me from that judgment, that just judgment that I deserve hell. The wage of sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ my Lord. So that salvation that I enjoy, he's power to save me. He's delivered me from the fear and from the the the absolute justice that God is gonna unleash against those who reject Christ. There's only one sin that will not be forgiven, and that's the sin of blasphemy, of rejecting Jesus Christ. If I die in my sins, it's because I rejected Jesus Christ. Jesus went to the cross to pay for the sins of the whole world, especially for those who believe. Those who believe appropriate that free gift, but we live in a place of positional righteousness. The righteousness of Jesus imputed in the ledger, an accounting term paid in full. I'm saved from the past penalty of sin. The devil seeks to condemn me, but I don't need to live under condemnation because I have a relationship with the true living God. And I know that I know that I know that he paid for all my sins. Now in the present tense, if I say I have no sin, I'm a liar, and the truth isn't in me. I know I'm still a sinner. I know I'm still sinning. Well, he's also saved me, delivered me from the power of sin. So in the present tense, there's a greater power working in me in that newness of life as a born again Christian, the power over that old edemic nature that has the inclination to to yield to the world, the flesh, the devil. So sin shall not have, in Romans six, sin shall not have dominion over me. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things are passed away. All things have become new. There's a newness of life being in Christ Jesus now. My salvation, I enjoy the power of the holy spirit. Although I once was a drunk, although I once was a womanizer, although I once was whatever, you fill in the blank. And you can go into first Corinthians six and you can see a whole list that Paul list of your past. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived neither, and he goes through a whole list. Idolaters and adulterers and thieves and the effeminate, all the way on through, we're all included there. But you are washed. You're washed in the blood of the lamb. You're sanctified. You're set apart. You're justified, completed action. But he's also working through a work of sanctification, of separation, that given us the power of the spirit, changing us from glory to glory into the image of his dear son. We're becoming more like Jesus every day. Every trial, every testing, each thing that we go through. As the old man perishes, our outward man is perishing. Our inward man is renewed day by day. We're taking on the characteristics. We're never gonna be gods. We're made in the image of God with a free moral agency, a freedom to choose of which way we're gonna go. But if I'm in Galatians five, if I sow to the flesh, I'm gonna reap corruption. If I sow to the spirit, I'm gonna reap life. So I wanna walk in the power of the holy spirit, the power of the resurrection. Give me victory over the temptation for that alcohol, for those drugs, for that selfishness that used to bind me and hold me and keep me in bondage. I've been set free. And if I choose to sin, I can still choose to sin. Do I wanna habitually continually move in that direction? No. If we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. I fall every day. I fall every week, fall every month, fall every year. It isn't like I sin just once a year. Oh, I better I better confess that now. No. It's more like every day. It's more like my thought. I'm sinning in my thoughts, maybe right now. I don't know. But God's washing and cleansing me, helping me. Creating in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. David in Psalm 51. David blew it with Bathsheba, didn't he? David blew it as a man after God's own heart in killing Bathsheba's husband Uriah. David's a murderer and an adulterer. And David tried to cover his sin with the power that he possessed as a king. And God sent Nathan the prophet to shake that finger, and David, you're the man, but you're not gonna die. God's gracious and merciful. And David was for that year that he tried to cover his sin, and not confess his sin. And he also violated his close friend Ahithophel, because Bathsheba was Ahithophel's granddaughter. Don't mess with a man's granddaughter. And David, God in his grace and his mercy sent Nathan. And David was rotting. He was corrupting from within. He knew God, but he'd sinned against God. Against thee and thee only have I sinned. And you can see the picture of his penitence, his brokenness in Psalm 32, Psalm 38, and Psalm 51. He wanted the the Lord to restore the joy of his salvation. He lost the joy of being saved. He was under tremendous condemnation from the wicked one, and alienation from God. He wasn't in fellowship with God. And God, by his grace and mercy, recorded David in Psalm 32, Psalm 38, Psalm 51. And he's he's saying, restore to me the joy of my salvation. He's crying out to God. God created me a clean heart. Oh God and renew a right spirit within me. Lord, I I want my heart to be cleansed. I want my heart to be washed of all the filth and all the memory and all the stuff that I did to people. God's changing David. God did change David, and he'll continue to change. David's perfected now. You remember the demoniacs in Luke chapter eight verse 35 that Jesus went across Sea Of Galilee and landed over in Gadara, And there was a couple guys there in the... Of the Gadarenes. We talked about them last week, and they they were in the tombs, and nobody could hold them. Nobody could keep them from hurting themselves and hurting others. And they'd break chains, and they were naked, and they were insanely demonically possessed. And and as they see Jesus approaching, they say, the demons are speaking through these demoniacs. We know who you are in Jesus, the just one. Have you come to torment us before our time? You see the the demons knew who he was, but they didn't have a relationship with him. They also knew their destiny. And then Jesus delivers this these guys of these demons. They were legion and they went into the pigs and they went over the over into the water. And and but it says that these guys were clean. They were clothed. They were seated, and they were in their right mind. Nobody can help them. But the power of the Holy Spirit to transform to save them, transform and change them right then and there. And some of us, we were demoniacs. Some of us, we were really gone, way gone. And some of us are maybe raised in Christian homes and self righteous, and we thought we were saved, but we weren't saved. We were religious. We're good people, moral people. And those are the, in many cases, the hardest people to reach because they're priding themselves and comparing themselves with others, and they don't see their need of Jesus. They don't see their need of confessing their sins before a just and holy God. They think god grades on the curve, and at least I'm not as bad as Rick Bodrey. You know? Certainly, I'm gonna get in heaven before that guy, and you you you you know, pride and trusting in yourself like the pharisee who prayed fast with himself. And the publican wouldn't so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but God be merciful to me a sinner. He saw his need. Those that are forgiven much, they love much. And these guys are cleaned and in the right minds in Roman six fourteen, sin shall not have dominion over you. They weren't slaves to sin anymore. They were saved. They were changed, and they're being changed. Power to change me. More powerful than any pill. Do you doubt that? Do you need Jesus and a pill to change you? To keep you from sinning? Getting a lot of trouble for this. People don't like this part of soteriology or the power of the gospel. Somehow the gospel isn't strong enough to change me. Somehow Jesus risen. All powerful Jesus isn't enough to change me. Oh, he can save me. I'm saved. But the power to change me? We've learned a lot of stuff since the cross. We've got a lot of new information, lot of pharmaceuticals and therapies and doctors and people that can identify that demonic gene in me, the propensity for evil, that selfishness. And if I take enough of these pills, let's call them happy pills. I'm gonna be happy. Happy all the time. Well, why didn't Jesus just simplify and give everybody happy pills? Here, I've got happy pills. Everybody take a pill and this will change you. Whatever your problem is, take this pill. Take it twice a day and whatever it is. You have a problem with rage? Here's a pill. You have a problem with selfishness? Here's a pill. You have a problem with discouragement, depression, whatever it might be? Here's a pill. Drink a little alcohol with it. Numb yourself. Incorporate this church. Bring it into the church. Lie to people and say they have a serotonin imbalance. Your Jesus is an impotent Jesus, a powerless Jesus, one that saved you but can't change you. We're no different than the world if we adopt that. What do I need Jesus for? The world is self medicating just to cope with life. What makes our Jesus so much greater, so much better? Because he's risen, because I know him, and because he's changing me. It's not the externals that need to be changed. It's me. I need to change. I need to die to self. Self is on the throne. And I don't just rub Jesus a certain way and get him to pop out like a genie. You give me my three wishes to get my best life now. I gotta deny myself and take up my cross and follow him. When I do death to self, that's where I experienced the power of the resurrection, the power to change me. Or an old pastor, it's a program. We got Jesus in a program. Got some new programs. These programs are... They're designed to change people. We've got 10 psychiatrists on staff and for $75 an hour, we'll listen to you and your plight, and we've got a program for you to fix your marriage, to fix your miserable life. We got the solution. Jesus had. We've got the plan. We've got the purpose driven life. We got the book for you. We've got the pope. The pope can fix you. The pope can speak. And when he speaks, man, it's the voice of God. If you eat fish on Fridays, you're gonna be okay. If you die, then we can teach you how to pray your loved ones out of purgatory. We can teach you how to get another chance. If you're Hindu, heck, we can get grandma from being a rat and change her next time. You know? That whole reincarnation thing. Don't eat rat. You might... Don't don't kill that rat or that serpent over there. You might be killing grandma. She... She's trying to be reincarnated. She's trying to come back as, you know, beautiful grandma in her new glorified body. You know? Reincarnation, annihilation. How about the resurrection? Do you know him? We're told to be not conformed to this world in Romans 12 verse two. Be not conformed. Don't allow yourself to be pressed into the conformity of the world to think like a worldling Jesus. We're gonna market Jesus. We're gonna use Jesus, but we're gonna present him as just about impotent to change us, to change anything. And yet, the apostle Peter says we begin everything already that we need for life and godliness. We lack nothing. There's nothing we lack because he's a risen savior. And he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He changes not, and he wants to change us. He wants to help us in our marriages. He wants to help us raise kids. He wants to help us get through these times of incredible evil, incredible deception. We're not gonna fix it at the midterms. It's not a Jesus and a person, the pope and a person. It's not Jesus and this new person that's prob... Promising hope and change. Always change. We're gonna change what's bad if you elect me that I might know him. Do you know him? The pulpits need to be ablaze of compelling people, calling people unto Jesus, not being used to point to a pill or a purpose or a plan or a person. Because none of them can fulfill their promises. Not one of them. And you know that. But Jesus, the immutability of his character, it's impossible for him to lie. He said, my peace I give unto you, not as the world give give I unto you. In the world, you will have tribulation. You're gonna have pressure, but be of good share. I've overcome the world. A quality of life that's only available through him. You can water it down. You can live like on one cylinder. I love a eight cylinder engine. You know, I want all cylinders firing. I want I want the power. Well, you can get by on only one cylinder firing maybe or two if you want. Why would you do that? Why wouldn't you want all eight firing with a turbo or supercharger, man? You don't need it all the time, but it's there if you need it. If you want it, you gotta pass somebody in a Subaru or a Prius, man. They just... They they always drive slower than the speed limit. Drive me crazy. It needs to be there when I need it. Dangerous to not have that power there when I need it. I don't put any Christian bumper stickers in my car when I place by. Why why would I want a car with no power? I'd rather ride my bicycle. Gotta have the power. Why would I wanna live a Christian life with no power? I can't do it. I don't wanna I don't wanna be like the world, defeated. I wanna be an overcomer. I wanna overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, and I can't do it, you know, myself. I need the Lord to change me. I need the power to raise me. In John eleven twenty five, Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though you're dead yet shall he live. My savior has the power to raise me, to raise me from the dead, to be asked in the body to be present with the lord. Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law, but praise on to God, Jesus Christ, my Lord. He's defeated sin and death and hell. He's delivered us. Oh, death, where is thy sting? He's removed the sting of death, the sting of sin. He says he's the God. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Power to love me for all eternity. Dead gods and dead men don't have the power to love. Why? Because they're dead. That's one of the greatest things that you and I experience as Christians. As we go from body and soul to body, soul, and spirit. In the life of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit's love. Finally, we have the capacity to love somebody more than we love ourselves. There's no such thing as low self esteem. That's a lie from the pit of hell. Your problem is not low self esteem. Your problem is the opposite, high esteem of self. You are obsessed with self. That's why in Ephesians five, Paul says, husbands, love your wives like you love yourself. Like you love your bodies. My body gets an owie. I want Kathy to fix it. My my... Attention... All the attention comes to my bloody finger. And everybody better stop and take notice till Kathy puts a band aid on my bloody finger. And the Lord's saying, how about you love her then that same way? Drop everything and minister to her the way you minister to yourself. No. No man ever ever yet hated his body. You gotta be a demoniac to hate your body, to cut it and everything like the 450 prophets of Baal. That's a demonic thing. No. No man ever yet hated his body. He nourishes his body. He oils his body, works on his body, cherishes his body. His body needs sleep. It has appetites. It needs food, weather, the whole thing, all of it. A lot of work on that body. That's why fasting is kind of a good thing every now and then because we give our bodies a rest, that obsession with the body, the tyranny of what the body's demanding all the time, and we get to focus maybe on more of the spirit. The capacity to love. I just I I still I I marvel at this that God put a love in Kathy for me. No matter what kind of a jerk I am, that girl loves me. And I know that I know that I know that she loves me and she doesn't love me because I'm so lovable. And you know that. You know that. Anybody that knows me. You women are always praying for Kathy. Help her get through another day being married to Rick. But she she thinks it's a good marriage. She thinks it's great. She really loves me. I asked her last night, do you love me? Yeah. I love you. That's that's from the Lord. That that's a gift. That that's the byproduct of being in fellowship with Jesus. He puts a love in your spouse's heart for you. It's not the erotic love necessarily. It's not the storge love of family or the filet love of a brother sister relationship. There's the agape love, the love of the spirit. Jesus is the center. The intimacy is Jesus that I might know him and that I might know my wife. And as I get to know Jesus, I get to know my wife better. There's a love in my heart for her. We could do the externals. We could go out there and live in the flesh and the externals, but it's nothing like the internals, nothing like the life of the spirit, a spirit filled marriage. You go through the motions and the other forms of love, but they're just externals. But the internal, the agape, the love of the spirit is so much more intimate. And it pictures our relationship with Jesus. This is the kind of relationship God wants you to have that you might know him, not the externals of being religious, of just going through the motions. The internals of a changed heart, a heart that's becoming more and more Christ like. Only God confession that. Only God can do that. Jesus said upon this rock, I'm gonna build my church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. In Revelation eleven fifteen, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. In Matthew twenty three eighteen, Jesus said, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. He's the alpha, the omega. He's the beginning, the end. He is all powerful. I wanna know the power of his resurrection. I wanna experience the power of his resurrection. I wanna live the life of the spirit, and I can't wait until he takes over this planet. We're the kingdoms of this world or the kingdoms of our God. And you and I are kings and priests and we're ruling and reigning with him in our new glorified body for a thousand years here on Earth. I can't wait. This Earth is not my home. This is... It isn't right yet. My citizenship is in heaven. But he's holding the title deed to the certain revelation five. He's the lion of the tribe of Judah, and he's gonna open the seals in chapter six, the book of revelation. And he's gonna unleash his fury, his wrath upon a Christ rejecting world. But before that happens, he's gonna take you and I home, the bride of Christ going home to the father's house. He's gonna bring us before the beam of judgment, and he's going to spank us for some things, but he's gonna award you and I lavish his love upon us to a greater measure because we're the objects of his love. When we come back with him after the thousand years... Excuse me. When we come back with them after the seven year tribulation period at the marriage supper of the lamb, we're gonna be seated there. The friend of the bridegroom, the John the Baptist in the Old Testament, you know, saints and the tribulation saints, and many from the nation of Israel, the wife of Jehovah is there. But the bride of Christ Jesus is girding himself. He's waiting upon you and I. He's saying, check out my bride. Look at her. She's unspotted. She's unblemished. I've completed that work that I've begun in her. Look at this. Look at her in her new glorified condition. No more sin. No more sorrow. All tears wiped away. We wanna know his power. But on the way to that perfection, there's gonna be some pain. Life is filled with pain. I wish I could give you a pill to take away the pain. I wish there's a way that we could take our girls and our boys, our kids, and to shield them, protect them from the pain that awaits them. Never in a million million million years did I ever think one of my children would have to go through the pain she's gone through. Never in a million years. I didn't think it was possible. I thought there'd be a hedge of protection that she's the daughter of a pastor. She's a daughter of a Christian. We're doing things your way, Lord. We're keeping her from the influences of the world, the things of the world. We weren't raised in Christian homes, Kathy and I, but we raised Jessica and Brittany in Christian homes, Christian home. And we we were fanatical. We we never celebrated Halloween coming up. We never allowed those ideas to enter her head. We went bowling every Halloween. One of the only people out there at the bowling alley. That's the one time a year we go bowling. The devil makes Halloween fun. It's the funnest holiday of the year. It's fun to get candy, especially when you're a kid and to dress up like them all. Even as a high schooler, early early... After high school, the funnest parties of the year were the Halloween costume parties. The devil makes sin fun. It's fun. Undeniable fun. How do you keep your kids from that fun from trick or treating at all? Simple. There's pleasure in sin for a season, but brings forth death. We're not gonna have them reading Harry Potter. We're not gonna allow the occult, the bewitching, and all that into their lives. We don't care how fun it is. The devil has to package sin as fun or who would do it. Yeah. I'm gonna go violate my marital vows with my wife, and I'm gonna go into this other woman, these other women, whatever, if that's your thing. And I'm gonna bring home some herpes. Oh, it was so much fun, though. I'm gonna bring home some v d that they don't even have penicillin for now. Your wife's so faithful. She didn't cheat on you. You cheated on her. And know this that your sin will find you out. Was it worth it? Was it really worth it? How stupid we are. The devil's laughing. The devil has to make it look alluring and fun, like you're missing out on something. He played you. She's a honeypot. You're just an ATM. That's all you're... You're just an ATM. Do you get it? If you don't get it now, when are gonna get it? I need God to change me. There's pain. We betray each other. We hurt each other. He says, I wanna know him. I wanna know his power, and I wanna know his pain. You're crazy. That won't sell. Pastor, you can't teach on pain. You can't teach on suffering unless you present the solution. Bring the counselors in. Bring the pills in. Alleviate the suffering. Alleviate the pain. Change the doctrine. Change the teaching. Convince them you know how to give them their best life now. If they're going through pain, they must not have enough faith. Healthy, wealthy, the Copelands and them are worth like billions of dollars now, years of doing this lying on television to people. It's what the people want. They're selling a false gospel. When they get sick, they gotta go into the hospital incognito, under a pseudonym. They can't admit to people that they got sick. They've been presenting a perfect life. If you believe the way we believe, you'll be healthy, wealthy, and wise. Your teeth are gonna get whiter. Your hair is gonna grow back in. Your your fat on your body. The estrogen levels are gonna drop, man. You'll be ripped again at 60. The fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. Do you know do you know the intimacy of sharing in his sufferings? As husbands and wives when we get sick, there's an intimacy a greater measure of of surrender of I don't want to lose this person and I've got to be there for this person And she's been there for me. I need to be there for her and and and the the trial and the difficulties of what we go through. Maybe you lost a child. And as you go through that losing of a child as a Christian couple can drive you away from Jesus or draw you closer to Jesus. And if you embrace the suffering as the sovereignty of God allowing this in your life, he's promising that he's gonna be there with you. And you're gonna get to know Jesus in that pain in such a way that you've never known him because why? Because he's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He's a man of pain. And it's in that pain that he identifies with us because of a fallen world, a world that's in rebellion to God, the consequence of sin upon the planet. Do you weep when he weeps? When he's looking at Jerusalem, and he knows that his own nation has rejected him. He was in the world. The world was made by him, and the world knew him not. And he came onto his own and his own received him not. The nation of Israel rejected him. They're crying out, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna. It's a great day. We just won the midterms. Hosanna. And then a few days later, crucify him. Crucify him. Crucify him. Let his blood be upon us and upon our children. I present to you Barabbas or Jesus, who is called the Christ. Why did they choose Barabbas? Because they hated Jesus. We'd rather have a murder than Jesus. Why? What evil has he done? He knew for envy. Pilate knew for envy that he was delivered by the religious leaders. It's irrational. Yeah. It's demonic. It's demonic when people hate Jesus. What reason do you have to hate Jesus? Everybody's running around today talking about how they got abused in a church. Well, welcome to the world we're living in. There's no promise in a church that we're not gonna sin or hurt each other. Families families reconcile. Families work it out. Families love. With the help of the holy spirit, we love one another. We choose to forgive. We don't try to capitalize upon it and say, hey. I've been abused in a church. They made me cry. Well, I got abused too. She got abused. We've all been abused. It's called sin. It's called being human. There's pain in life. It hurts. It doesn't negate the fact that Jesus is perfect. There's no perfect church out there. So don't stay at home saying, well, the church hurt me. Jesus never hurt you. Jesus understands the pain you're going through. Maybe he wants you to learn how to forgive. Maybe that's what it is. Maybe maybe he's allowed people to malign and not treat you with respect so that you'll learn how to humble yourself and forgive. Ask yourself, how is Jesus treated? What if he packed his toys up and went home? Dad, they've rejected me. Dad, they hurt my feelings. They made me cry. I just can't take it anymore. He wept over the city of Jerusalem because he could see in seventy AD the consequences of their rejecting him, the pain that they would go through. He wanted to alleviate that pain. He didn't want them to go through that pain. He saw the city surrounded by the Romans with Titus in seventy AD. 2,000,000 Jews in the siege, and and he wept over the city. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would gather you to his mother hand us gather a boot under her wings, but you would not. There's a whole lot of people we'd love to keep them from an experiencing pain, but they would not. They choose to go their own way. And then we start playing the blame game. It's Jesus' fault. It's his fault. He's the one that made me this way. He didn't answer my prayers. He didn't give me what I wanted. But Jesus, the one that's weeping. He's the one that says, forgive them for they know not what they do. Jesus is the one they hated him without a cause. Jesus is one is sad. Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. All we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. No whining. No complaining. No quitting. What makes you think you're the only one in the universe that's ever been hurt? And that your hurt is one that you gotta broadcast, let everybody know how hurt you are. Do you agonize with him for the souls of men headed for hell? Or do you say, you know, I don't like that pain. I'm just gonna tell everybody I'm saved and the prophecies are all lining up. And I got my fire insurance and I don't care about people perishing. Pastor Rick, why do you keep trying to wake people up? Cause I don't want people to perish. Well, Pastor Rick, we already got our salvation. We already know the prophecies. He's coming soon for us. Yeah. But we've got to be salt and light. We've got to restrain and resist evil. We might be able to buy some more time to reach a few more. Why would we do that? Because God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from a sin. God's long suffering not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance. That's the heart of God. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He's given us a great commission to go and make disciples. And long with you always, even the end of the age. How do we know he's done? How do we know that there there isn't a whole group of people that need to be saved? Why would we shut it down and just say, well, I'll say, love you. You know, what will be will be. It breaks my heart. Do you share in his reproach among men? People hate you. Paul was willing in Colossians one verse 24 to fill up that which is behind the afflictions of Christ. Paul saying, you know, I'm willing to be afflicted. I'm willing to be maligned and hated. It doesn't matter if I don't get a lot of likes on Facebook. I'm willing to be hated and to be afflicted to remind people the affliction of Christ, the way Christ is treated, to fill up his sufferings. In first Peter four fourteen, if you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye for the spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. What was your crime? You mentioned Christ. You mentioned Jesus to somebody, and they got mad at you. They don't wanna... Don't talk to me in his name anymore. Well, if they reproach you for the name of Christ, happy are you because you have the privilege rejoicing as you go away from there that you're counted worthy to suffer shame for his name's sake like an acts chapter four. Happy are you? You're excited. Hey, I'm in good company. Look how they treated Jesus. God's grace is sufficient for us for his strength perfected in weakness. Second Corinthians one verse five for the suffering of Christ abounds in us. So our consolation also abounds by Christ. So as you go through the suffering of physical infirmity, as you get sick and suffer, as you go through the suffering of watching your children walk away from the Lord, whatever the suffering is financial, physical, emotional, spiritual, that comfort that you receive the Holy Spirit. Now God's equipping you to be a nurse. And you've got a good bedside manner. And now you are gonna have empathy and the ability to comfort somebody else with the comfort that you receive from the Holy Spirit. Now you're able... Had you not gone through that suffering, had you not gone through those experiences, you'd kind of make jokes about people that can't walk. If you've never had physical problems, if if your knee never hurt, you know, you might make jokes. You might call them cripples. And then one day you can't get up the steps and you're like, oh my gosh, that guy's knees are killing him, aren't they? I shouldn't have been laughing. Yeah. I'm a real jerk. But as we go through these things, some of you don't know what it's like to lose everything. Four foreclosures and bankruptcy, that that freaks you out because that's your identity. I've been there, done that. I'm gonna be able to be there for you, encourage you when it happens to you. When Klaus Schwab, the prophet, you'll own nothing and be happy. When it's all stolen from you as it was for me. I'm gonna be there to encourage you to know Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Yeah. Life's unfair. Life is filled with pain. We've been promised tribulation. We've been promised suffering and affliction as Christians. How fair is the life of a Christian in China right now? How fair is the life of a Christian in Iran? The fastest growing church in the world, and our president is talk... Talking about dropping Moab bombs on these people. Do you think it's only gonna fall on Islamic people over there? Not gonna hurt the Christians too? Is anybody praying for the church in Iran? The church in China, in Nairobi? We're oblivious in many cases. Hey, the midterms are coming up. We got a new group of people. They're gonna give us promises. Take away the pain. Paul says, I die daily. As we die to self, taking up our cross and following Jesus, that's when we begin to experience the power of his holy spirit. The overcoming life, the life of the spirit. They overcame him with the blood of the lamb, the word of their testimony, and they love not their lives on the death in Revelation chapter 12 verse 11. They were dead men walking. They were already crucified. They were already carrying their cross, and they tapped into the secret of the overcoming life, the life of the spirit, the flesh, the self life can get in the way. The suffering we go through helps us to let go and to trust God to a greater measure, greater degree than we've ever had to trust him. Do you know him? Do you know his power? Do you know his pain? And thirdly and finally, Paul says, I wanna know his perfection. I wanna be perfected. I'm tired of being such a wretched man. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The things I do wanna do, I don't do. The things I don't wanna do, I do. Why do I hurt the people closest to me? Why can't I control my tongue? Why can't I control my anger? Why can't I? Why can't I? Why can't I? Why can't I? Because you're a human being. And your wife still loves you because God's given her a love for you that's supernatural that you don't deserve. That's the reality. It hurts to be human. It hurts to be so incredibly weak. But I can put on the airs. I can make people think I'm really holy and special. I could put on a collar, and I could have you call me priest Rick, rabbi Rick, The most special pastor of all, rabbi or master, whatever. I could give a title. I could let you know I'm doctor Rick Baudry. I've got a PhD. I know twice as much as you do about Jesus. Or I could say, you know, I got feet of clay. I could say, you know, there's none righteous. No, not one. The only hero, the only champion, the only celebrity is Jesus. He's the only celebrity. He's the only one that can complete this work that he's begun in us. I got no magic wand. I got no new gospel. I got no new candidate. I got no solution or purpose driven or plan to add to the equation. We have it all. We have it all. We have everything we need. And what we need is a person, Jesus. And he's the one that's transforming and changing us into his image, his perfection. He says, if by any means, I might attain under the resurrection of the dead. So Paul had no doubt about his future. Do you have any doubts about your future? This if by any means is not suggesting probability or doubt. It's... But instead emphasizes the certainty of being resurrected. Paul saying that's the day I'm gonna be perfected. Not before, but that day of my resurrection is when I get my new glorified body. And this old Adamic nature falls away. And this new nature that's warring against that old nature back and forth. In Romans seven or Galatians five, the back and the forth, man, I do good for for a couple hours and then that old Rick raise a head up. Oh, gosh. I hate it. It's disgusting. Why why can't I... And there's that battle going on. And you learn to rely upon God's grace and his mercies that are new each morning instead of condemning yourself all the time. You you... It's no surprise to you anymore. There was a period in your life of performance of trying to perform and and and make it happen, and so much failure, failure, failure that finally you say, you know, I'm I'm actually starting to become a better person as I don't even think about it. The Lord's doing it. It's by his grace now. He's putting his desires in my heart now. He's putting in me both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Wow. I didn't even recognize it. I'm looking back and it's like, wow. Look at the progress. Look at the growth. We're we're growing. Being confident is the very thing that he's begun the good work in me. He's gonna complete it. My my confidence is in him, not my ability to read enough, pray enough, give enough to finally reach the place of perfection. Paul says, I'm pressing toward the mark. I'm pressing toward the finish line. I haven't apprehended that for which I was apprehended for, apprehended on the road to man. I haven't apprehended it, the prize, the perfection, but I'm pressing toward it. I'm not just laissez faire sitting back. I'm pressing toward it. I'm doing what God's called me to do, and I'm being changed from glory to glory into his image. I'm becoming more like Jesus. I'm fighting the good fight. I'm not a shadow boxer. I'm fighting the good fight. I've engaged in the battle. There's demons after me. There's principalities. There's powers after me. There's physical infirmity I'm being taken down with. But I've learned that his grace is sufficient for his strengths perfected in weakness. And as I rely upon him and I cry out to him, he's changing me. He's making me anew. I'm becoming more like Jesus each and every day. In first... Second Timothy two eleven says, it is a faithful saying for if we'd be dead with him, we shall also live with him. So we're baptized under his death, the illustration, the identification with his death. That I might attain under the resurrection of the dead. So resurrected from among the dead is what Paul is saying here. I wanna be resurrected from among the dead. I wanna be resurrected with the living. There's two resurrections. And Paul saying, I wanna be a part of the first resurrection from among the dead. In John three thirteen, or excuse me, in John three sixteen, Jesus said, what do you say in John three sixteen? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever that's mean you believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And he that believes on him is not condemned, but that he that believeth not is condemned already. Why? Because he believeth not on the name of the only begotten son of God. You're already condemned if you don't believe. When you believe, when you trust in him, he's gonna give you the eternal life. You must be born again, Nicodemus. You're born twice. You die once. Paul is distinguishing between the resurrection of the dead, which is found in Revelation chapter 12 verse 20 verse 12, which is the great white throne judgment. So after the millennium, after the thousand year rule and reign of Jesus Christ, the devil's loose for a little season and and there's a big old rebellion again and the Lord subdues that. And there's the resurrection of the wicked dead that are in the oceans and in the grave and in hell, a holding compartment called hell. And they're going to be raised before and stand before the great white throne judgment. They're given a given account of what they did while they're in their body whether good or bad. You will never face that sort of a judgment. Why? Because Jesus was judged in your place. Jesus was made guilty. You and I are guilty and Jesus took the guilt. He took the punishment that we deserved upon himself and God is just and holy and pouring out his wrath upon his son. Salvation is a free gift, and those who believe and trust in Jesus, they don't experience the second death. They die once because they're born twice. Nick, you must be born again. You must be born of the spirit. You must be born body, soul, and spirit. There's the there's the breaking of the of the water like Jocelyn experienced yesterday. The natural birth, but there's also the spiritual birth, Nick. As Nick came at night, afraid to be connected with Jesus. Rabbi, you're a good guy. Why call me rabbi? You know, you must be born again, Nick. Born of the spirit. You're a rabbi, you don't know this? The life of the spirit, the natural man understands not the things of God, neither can he know it. But eyes not seen or heard neither has an in the hearts of men, the things which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed them unto us by his spirit. The life of the spirit, the spirit filled Christian life. And Paul said, you know, I wanna be perfected. I want I want I want this work to be complete. That's what I'm pressing toward because I still have the... Those tendencies as solitarsis are still there. The things I do wanna do, I don't do. Things I don't wanna do, I do. You know, I got an argument with Barnabas one time. How could you get an argument with Barnabas, son of consolation? He's the one that sought me out. He's the one that reached out for me when none of the James or any of the big pooh bah guys, none of the big boys, the heavies of Jerusalem wanted anything to do with me as Saul of Tarsus. Even though I was saved, even though I'm a believer now, they want nothing to do with me. And it's about ten years goes by and Barnabas reaches out to Saul of Tarsus. And the holy spirit says to the elders at Antioch in acts 13, separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work I've called unto them. Saul gets to get in the game now. He's been sharing the gospel and all. He's been sent at the feet of the Lord and learning. But now now he gets to go on that first missionary journey. And God bless us. God bless us mightily. He got stoned. Right? But then Barnabas says, yeah. Let... Let's go again. Let's let's go on a second journey. Let's go see how the churches are doing. Paul and Barnabas putting their heads together. And then Barnabas, son of consolation, this comfortable guy, this guy that's an encourager. He says, well, good. I'm gonna bring my nephew, John Mark, with us. Oh, no. No. Paul says, no way. John Mark does not get to come. He bailed last time. He failed. He's not coming, and the contention was so fierce. Imagine how Paul felt after that. I should have given in. Why was it... Why was I such a pig headed guy? Some called today that type a personality so stubborn. Why was I so stubborn? And then the Lord gave Paul, Silas, And Barnabas took John, and they went a different direction back to Cyprus. But later, Paul and growing in the Lord realized, hey, bring John Mark with you. He's profitable for the ministry. He's grown up, and I've grown up. I'm not that old crazy guy anymore. I'm a little softer, a little softer toward people. And that's the that's the blessing. That's the beauty of being a grandpa. I'll tell you. When we're young and first having our kids, we're so afraid of making a mistake, we're on the muscle. Everything's gotta be right. A little bit later, we expect one another to fail. We expect one another. It's not a surprise to God, and it's not a surprise to us that have lived a little while. We don't run into the house and say to our wives anymore, what'd you do all day? Where's my dinner? We're a little smarter than that. We come in through the door and we say, honey, you like to go out to eat? Yes. I would. Well, let's go. It's just so much easier now. It's not that that that power struggle going on anymore. Lighten up, man. Lighten up. Chill, man. That's growth. That's Christ likeness. It's exciting. And so the great white throne judgment Paul say, no, not that one. In John five twenty eight, Jesus said, Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forward. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil under the resurrection of damnation. So Jesus let them know that I'm the one that's gonna determine where you're going. That's why he's saying, don't fear him that can kill your body. The world may be able to kill your body. You may be murdered for not receiving the mark of the beast, those in the tribulation period, or the early church not saying Caesar is lord. Don't fear him that's threatening you, leveraging you that you're gonna lose your job, your house, everything if you don't or even take your life, but rather fear him that can not only kill your body, but cast your soul into hell. Cause the best the ungodly government can do is to kill your body. And once your body's killed, debastion of the body is to be present with the Lord, and he's got eternity for you. He's the one that's really the almighty sovereign, the one that's in control. So Jesus saying, hey, the day's coming when I'm gonna voice it and I'm gonna say, alright, graves open up. You people come forward. Though they've done good to life eternal, those have done evil, than damnation. So Paul is distinguishing between the resurrection of the dead and the resurrection of the living. Those who are alive really, best in the body present with the Lord don't have their new glorified bodies yet. So in first Corinthians fifteen twenty three, Jesus is the first fruits. And after that, they that are Christ that is coming. So this first fruits, a military term of speaks of sequential order. So you have the different troops. And the first is Jesus. The next wave of resurrection in the first resurrection is those in Christ Jesus, the church. Even though you got old testament saints over here that are already dead. No. In the first resurrection, they're awaiting bodily resurrection. It's those that are in Christ Jesus, the church. And that happens at the rapture. The dead in Christ shall rise first and we shall live remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds meet the Lord in the air. So shall I ever be with the Lord. So you have the rapture of the church, the resurrection of the church, we're up in the clouds meet the Lord in the air. And Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again receive you onto myself that where I am there may be also. Where's Jesus location location location? He's in heaven. And he said, pray always that you may be able to escape these things and stand before the son of man in heaven. That's that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great god and savior Jesus Christ. We're watching. We're waiting. We know we're gonna be transformed in a... In an instant in our new glorified bodies as we go. And down here on Earth, the world has to go through at a certain point. The signing of the peace treaty starts the tribulation period, the seven year time of Jacob's trouble. And at the end of that tribulation period, there's a resurrection, the second or third component of that first fruits of the resurrection. The sec... The next wave is the Old Testament saints. And then there's innumerable multitude of people in the tribulation period who say no to the mark of the beast in chapter six and seven of Revelation. Innumerable multitude of people in Revelation 20 verse four, they lost their lives. They lost their heads because they refused the mark of the beast. Revelation 12 verse 11, they overcame him, the antichrist, by the blood of the lamb, the word of their testimony, and they love not their lives unto death. They weren't so in love with their life that everything was about preserving their life. They said, no. There's something more important, and that's God's glory. It's a privilege to be a martyr. It's a privilege to be a witness of Jesus Christ because we have the power of the Holy Spirit where we no longer fear death. Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave. Where is thy victory? No. Been conquered. Jesus conquered all that. To be asked on the bodies to be present with the Lord. I'll be with him instantly at death. I'm gonna get my new glorified body and that's what Paul is pressing here that I might know him, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of suffering. If I any means I might attain under the resurrection of the dead. Tired. I wanna get on with it. I wanna get home. Are you anxious to get home? And for Jesus to come for us, to get us out of these old decrepit bodies, these new glorified bodies. Paul expected to be perfected in the first resurrection. Christ, the first fruits. The power of the resurrection, the power of the ascension being caught up, being raptured. The old testament saint, the tribulation saints, halfway through the tribulation, the two witnesses that completes the first resurrection. Being changed into the same image from glory to glory, even by the spirit of our lord, which speaks of sanctification. First Corinthians thirteen ten, but when that which is perfect has come... Now understand this, but when that which is perfect has come is not the completion of the canon of scripture. Nowhere is that in any context anywhere. The guys that don't believe in the gifts and operation today impose that upon the text, and it's kooky. When that which is perfect has come is Jesus. When Jesus comes, okay. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away. And so we're going to know him when we see him face to face. We're going know even as we are known. We're gonna have our new glorified body being confident this very thing that he that has begun the good work in us that he's gonna complete it. First John three two, beloved, now are we the sons of God. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear in that rapture, the blessed hope, when he shall appear, we shall be like him. For we shall know him as he is. And he that has this hope in him, hope of what? The midterms? He that has this hope in him purifies himself. There's a purity. There's a changing. I wanna be like Jesus. I don't wanna be found goofing off when he comes. I don't wanna be acting like, oh, the rapture's way on down the line. I can live like a heathen a little bit longer. I want as much as the world as I can get and still be a Christian. I wanna live on the fence. No. I wanna be more like Jesus Paul saying. He that has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. It's a purifying hope, the blessed hope of transforming and changing me. David said in Psalm seventeen fifteen, as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. That's when I'm satisfied when I'm finally finally like Jesus. When I awaken his likeness, perfected. Matthew seven twenty two. Jesus said, not everyone that say it to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of God. Lot of people got the Lord, Lord down. Lord, Lord, Christianese. Not everybody that say to me in that day, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of God, but they that do the will of my father. He said many. Now many is the majority. Many. Don't be afraid of being in a small church. The professing church is vast. People saying, Lord, Lord, professing that they know him, but in works, they deny him in Titus. They profess that they know God, but in works, lifestyle, the way they live, they deny him. Aren't you in the Epstein files? But you guys are telling the evangelical voting block that you're Christians. Has anything changed? Have you been born again? Is there any proof? Any fruit? Jesus said, you know them by their fruit. No. None that I'm aware of. It's a marketing scam to deceive the evangelical block of voters. Don't be deceived. Wolves in sheep's clothing. If you don't see the fruit, Jesus said, you know them by their fruit, not their campaign slogans. Many will come to me in that day saying, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Maybe the... Out in Bethel, they're prophesying in his name. Maybe the Bennies and all these guys are prophesying. Not coming true. The YouTube prophets all over the Internet, people prophesying saying, not coming true. Many will prophesy and they're doing it in his name. Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name? Didn't we cast out demons in your name? Hey, we're... It got so ugly, so demonic that we started acting like exorcists, you know? We're in acts chapter 19, and we see the apostle Paul great miracles happening with just handkerchiefs and stuff. And so the... These vagabond Jews come on down. These vagabond Jews, there's there's this there's this brothers, you know, the seven sons of Sceva. They come down, and they say we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches that you come out and the demon speaks to them. Jesus, we know Paul, we know we don't know who you are and gaped upon these guys took away their clothes the whole thing and they run around there out of their naked. But they said, Jesus, we know. Paul, we know. Who are you? Lord, Lord. Acting like they know him. And not even the demons know who these people are. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Didn't we cast out demons in your name? Did we not do many wonderful works in your name? And then what's he saying? But you didn't attend at Calvary Chapel. I can't let you in. You didn't agree with pastor Rick that Donald Trump was a fraud. I can't let you in. There's no distinction like that. You're free to vote for whoever you want. But you know Jesus. Do you know him? That's all that counts. Do you know him? Do you know his power? Do you know that pain, the fellowship of his sufferings, plural? He's still suffering with you. He's in that hospital room with you. He's in that fiery furnace with you. Did we not cast three in there? There's a fourth. And the greatest intimacy you've ever experienced with Jesus is in a time of suffering because he's drawing so ever closer to you. And he's there. And you're so comforted, so much so that, you know, Lord, we don't need to build any booths here on this mountaintop. Lord, I like getting to know you. All the distractions of the world, everything have stopped. Right now, it's just me and you. And the ones I love that are the closest to me. We're drawing near to you, Lord. One of the beautiful things that we heard in the testimony of Finley, Jamie Walton's son is... And every every father, every mother, every grandparent would love to hear this. Not to say he wasn't like this before, but the evidence thereof when he fell out of that ATV and it broke his legs and left him to the point of almost dying and like three blood transfusions and his dad happens to be a first responder, you know, paramedic, and they were able to keep him alive because they're on top of a mountain, and there's no way to get him to the airship or anything. Hours awaiting, and he's there on the ground. And he asked for his bible. He asked for his bible. That's the first thing he wanted. Suffering has a way of doing that. It has a way of us reprioritizing what's most important. And us getting to know our savior who's a man of sorrows. When you're suffering, it doesn't mean you don't have enough faith. Doesn't mean you did something wrong. It means you're in God's will. And the devil wants to destroy your faith and destroy your witness and your testimony. And Jesus is there and your faith is growing. Do you know his power and his pain? That I might know his perfection. Lord, I want to be like you. I want to wake up looking like you and Lord Lord and he looks at him and he says, away from me. Lord Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast demons in your name? Did we not do many wonderful works in your name? And he says, away from me. I never knew you. You that practice iniquity, a lifestyle of iniquity. You profess that you know God, but in works, deny him being abominable, disobedient, reprobate. That's not Christianity. What you're trying to pass on is Christianity. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep. And I'm known to mine. And I have power to lay my body down. I have power to take it again. Do you know him? He says he's known of his. Do you know him? Do you have a relationship with Jesus? He's not the god of the dead. Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. He saves to the uttermost. He wants you to know him. In Exodus 32, Moses, not Jonah. Moses went up onto Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai to get the 10 commandments, the tablets, the finger of God writing on the stone tablets. And he's gone a while. He's gone like forty days. And the people are like, hey, this Moses, this Moses that God used to get out of Egypt. This Moses that God used to get us across the Red Sea. This Moses, your brother Aaron. Why did God pick him? Not you, Aaron. This Moses that's been gone a while, this Jesus that's been gone a while. He's been gone two thousand years. Well, Aaron, let let's let's help God out. Aaron, why don't you make a calf? Let's make a golden calf. Let's make up our own religion. And Aaron's like, yeah, I can be the head of that religion. And I can get all your gold. All you guys bring your gold in. Bring your earrings. Everybody bring your earrings in, and I'm gonna fashion a plan. I'm gonna get a mold. I'm gonna get a plan for us in these last days. Because you know that Jesus hasn't come back yet. He hasn't come back yet. We say we know him, but in works we deny him. And, you know, we need to help him out. We need a program. We need a pill. We need a a different gospel, a different something because, you know, it's been a long time. I'm getting tired of waiting on the rapture. We can fix this whole thing at the midterms. We we can get the right guy in there. We can get the pope to be an American. We can we can we can make this happen. We can get a one world religion together. We can get a one world monetary system together. We can we can fix this. We can make America great. Golden Dawn's gonna help us. We can get this golden ox. And Moses, the Lord lets him know that, hey, that noise you hear isn't the noise of war, you and Joshua. That noise you hear is these people are naked. They're having a religious orgy. They rose up to play. They're just living for the world. They're living for Egypt. They're idolatrous. They think this golden dawn, this golden statue, this gold that is promised everybody, and the fleecing of the sheep, the fleecing of those in the churches. I need more money. I need more money. I need more money, and we can fix all this in our community. It's community. It's missional. I just need more of your money. And then Moses comes back, and there's a reckoning. There's a time of judgment. Jesus is gonna come back. And he's gonna say, away from me. Never knew you. You that practice iniquity. You're just religious. You didn't know me. And Aaron's like deflecting response. It's the people. You know how mischievous the people are. Why do you think I take the risk of hurting feelings? I I know the game. I know how to get more people in here. When someone tells me don't mention Trump's name or we're gonna leave the church, I know they mean business, but I'm not gonna present a golden calf. And if your feelings are hurt, I want to ask you, are you concerned about God's feelings? I'm more concerned of grieving or quenching the Holy Spirit than I am hurting somebody's feelings. And so if you're the last man standing, so be it. There's no compromise. What if what if one of you had your wife leave you or your husband leave you? And they heard me say, adulterous fornicators shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And when they heard that, they started crying. Pastor Rick hurt my feelings. He hurt my feelings. All I'm doing is tell them what the Bible says. Are you gonna console them and say, god, that pastor Rick shouldn't have said that. He shouldn't have said that gays and lesbians, thieves, and adulterers, foreign... Shouldn't enter. He's hurting my feelings. The state of Washington has laws. You're not allowed to hurt their feelings. You're not allowed to judge anymore. So what? I gotta water it down. I gotta get to a place where we risk hurting everybody's feelings, but we grieve the holy spirit? We quench the holy spirit? We present a different gospel, a different methodology of make America great? It's the midterms? We're gonna build back better? It's idiocy. It's heretical. And Aaron said that we just took the gold and threw it down there, and it just popped out. This ox just popped out. Hey. So fulfillment of prophecy must be god's will. Look. It just popped out. It's so sad at the end of the age to know that the church is apostatizing. The professing church is in rebellion to God and the globalist, they know how to deceive the evangelical voting block to neutralize the professing church from doing anything about the encroaching evil. Keep promising. Keep promising. Keep promising. They won't do anything. They're so fixated on the Democrats. They're so demonizing Democrats that they'll never admit they were wrong. No. They'll never admit they're wrong that the b system's being built on their watch because they went all in Omega. They went all in and they can't they can't admit that most of the people were crying out, Lord, Lord, religious people. And the Lord says away from me, I never knew you. You that practice iniquity. Let's pray. Father, we want it real Lord. We want real Christianity. We don't want to live deceived lives. We don't want to be deceived by the media. Lord, you gave us great discernment during COVID and we didn't follow the warp speed jab. We we knew enough to investigate. We knew enough to check it out. And and thank you so much, Lord, that you protected us in so many ways from the agenda at hand. As many churches, Lord, facilitated the jabbing of folks and all the different immune system problems and died suddenly and young people not be able to get pregnant and all the ramifications of that lie. Lord, people forgot about it so quick. And they voted for the warp speed jab guy. And the first day in office, he started the Stargate project. And man, the Genesis project, the genius project. Lord, we've been deceived. As a nation, we've been deceived. Lord, it's a golden calf. And father, we ask that you forgive us. We ask as we repent, and we ask dear God that at this eleventh hour, right on the brink of the collapse of the dawn, the collapse of the economic system, and the installation of the whole new system Lord that we see it's a spiritual problem. As we desire like the Ninevites to call people under God in repentance, turning from our sins and crying out to you that God you would raise up a standard. You always use a remnant church, a remnant of people who refuse to compromise. Lord use us. Use us to save one more. Just one more. Rejoicing in heaven among the angels when just one sinner repents, one at a time, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for the faith that we enjoy. Thank you, Lord, that we know you, that we love you because you first loved us. That you arrested us on this walk of life just as you did Saul of Tarsus. And we say with him, Lord, that I might know you, the power of your resurrection, the fellowship of your sufferings being made conformable under your death, that we might attain unto the resurrection. Bless now, Lord. Pour out your Holy Spirit. If you're here this morning as you are and you don't know the Lord Jesus and you want to, you want a relationship with him, He's ready to come into your heart and life. He says as many as received him to them gave you the power to become the sons of God as many as believe in his name. That's where it is. It's faith. It's belief. It's trust in the finished work of Jesus upon the cross of Calvary. Not in a man, not in a method, not in a program. Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever. He's a risen savior and he wants to fill your heart and life with himself. He wants to come into your life. He's standing at the door of your heart, and he's knocking. He's a gentleman, and you must turn the knob that's on the inside of your heart. The knobs not on the outside. It's on the inside. He exes... You exercise your free will by opening your heart to Jesus, and he promises to come in to transform and change you to have fellowship with you. Do you want to know him? He's a prayer away. Use your lips. Use your mouth. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord. You believe that he was crucified, buried, raised from the dead. And now you're calling upon him. God be merciful to me a sinner. Just lift your hands up. We wanna pray with you. Anyone here this morning? We wanna lead you in prayer. Anyone here this morning that you might know him. Lord, thank you. Thank you for the simplicity of the gospel. You made it so simple. Christianity is knowing you. So blessed now we pray, pour out your holy spirit upon us, and bless our time of the sweetness, this fellowship of partaking of the bread and the cup, partaking of communion. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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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.

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