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Philippians 4:1,3 -My Joy And Crown- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2026-11-08
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Philippians chapter four verses one through three. It's been an exciting week. Oh, such an exciting week. Crazy week. Father, we come before you and we just pray that you bless. So therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and long for my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beseech you, Deus, and I beseech Saint Thay that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also true yokefellow. Help those women which labored with me in the gospel with Clement also and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life. Father, we thank you for your holy word. And, Lord, Lord, it's not a somber time. It's not a time of doom and gloom that our candidate lost or whatever, but but very exciting time, Lord, that, you said there'd be a time of perplexity, no way out for human government, for humans. And, Lord, we just see the devil manipulating these world leaders, moving in a direction of rebellion against you. And, Lord, we as the church, we're to be salt and light, and we pray that you would enlighten us, that you'd give us ears to hear, give us great discernment, and help us, Lord, to apply these truths to our lives. Lord, we wanna be worshipers. We wanna simplify our lives. We wanna take all the chaos and the confusion and simplify our lives of being people who sit at your feet, who spend time worshiping you, gazing upon your face, Lord, looking unto you, the author and the finisher of our faith. And Lord, do we wanna experience the byproduct of that time of worship being that of peace? Your peace that surpasses all understanding that guards our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Bless now, we pray. Bless, Lord. Pour out your holy spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you please be seated? The church of Philippi, was experiencing a very common but serious problem of discord within the body of believers. Paul has spent three chapters teaching them the joy of being in Christ Jesus, reminding them of their, as we saw last week, their citizenship, which is in heaven. He now addresses the problem that has been brought to his attention. So he's specifically gonna name names. They have a problem of discord. They have a problem of division where two very angry mama grizzlies are fighting. You ever see what can happen to a church with angry women? I gotta retract that. I can't talk like that. Boy. But that's what was happening. So to the assembly, he says, resist the vision. So the entire church, resist the vision. Resist the gossip. Somebody will say to me, Rick, this whole section over here that there's no people, they left because you... And I'll tell you. That means they were all talking. They were all working it. You know? And it's your job to stop that division. It's your job to take that whole thing if it starts to stop it. You don't wanna lose your friends. You love these people. Some of them told you, don't call me anymore. I'm out of here. They're angry. It's irrational. They're they're hurting. They're hurting. Something hurt them, and they can't quite put the pieces together. And you are mature enough to love them regardless. You still love them. You still hang out with them. You still... And you should. Let them be mad at me. Let them be mad at God. You know? Because I'm the object that doesn't move. I'm an immovable object. Right? Not gonna happen. Especially if it's if it's the truth that somebody's wanting to fight over. So resist the division. We don't know exactly what the problem was, but Paul said, hey. Reconcile it. How many of us have division in our homes at the at the holidays? You know? You know, some of us will say, my wife doesn't even like me. You know? I don't know. I mean, Kathy told me that last night she loves me. I have to ask her all the time. Do you love me still? Yeah. I love you. But you're an ass. You're an ass, but I love you. You know? No. But at least I'm hers. Right? I'm hers. He says, verse one, therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and long for, my joined crown. So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. So the therefore grammatically speaks of our citizenship in heaven that we learned about last week. How should citizens of heaven treat one another? And we watched this week. Citizens of this country are going nuts. Blue against red. Red against blue. And the globalist, the devil is trying to stir that up, trying to get a civil war to erupt, to get to get the people to go so crazy in the streets like in Paraguay that you can implement martial law, no more constitution, and training the ice skies, training the National Guard, bringing in maybe even in foreign troops to quell the potential of a civil war. Well, what can... How... What what more can happen to, cause that to erupt? A blackout, food shortage, energy shortage, cyber attack. So they can just continue to manipulate, manipulate, manipulate, manipulate. But if you don't take the bait, if you don't see your neighbor as an enemy, if you if you seek to feed your neighbor and love your neighbor and give your neighbor some water and help them, you know, now you fulfill the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Pretty hard to hate them. Right? But if you fall in that trap of all them rednecks, I hate them Seabeck rednecks. I love the Seabeck rednecks. They're ready to fight. They're ready to rumble. They're ready to... A lot of police officers and people live out there. They're ready. They're ready to protect their area from the Tacoma Nazis coming in here. Crazies. Right? You don't think it'll happen? You don't think they'll be tribal? People in their tribal lords running around crazy. You know? You know what I'm afraid of? Drones. I don't care how many guns you have. Think you're gonna quell this storm? There's weaponry now. It's it's far greater than your musket. The guy you're looking across at that you think you you achieved your revolution and your freedom from. All he had was a a musket and a cannon. You had a musket and a cannon. It's it's far different now. But it's still good to have a threat because everyone's afraid of dying. Everyone. So at least having a weapon might instill the fear of God in them that they better they better think about it. So how do I see it coming? Bug spray. A warning. Come down here and get your real ID, your bank account shut off. We're gonna starve you out. But if you've stocked up as a prepper, a redneck and CBEC, we're gonna fly over and bug spray you. And you're gonna be sick and dead within two weeks. They don't wanna get shot at. They... They've already been spraying you with airplanes. There's so many different ways that our government has, the globals have, to subjugate the people. Drones, flyovers. What about forest fires? Directed energy weapons. Out in Seabeck, they're just gonna burn the forest down. So I better have a whole lot of patriots in the military, in law enforcement, in government who have sworn to uphold the constitution against enemies, foreign domestic, and we better not fall in the trap of hating rednecks or people from California or Tacoma or blue or red or whatever. It's just ridiculous. It's... They stand back and laugh at us as we as we destroy. I mean, in churches that you've been in, that I've been in, we get this momentum going. We're we're just taking the land like Joshua wanted to, you know. And then outwardly, all the Satanists that are trying to stop us, the witch covens and the dark people and dungeon, you're not afraid of them one bit. Not one bit. And everybody's telling me, oh, pastor, it's dark down here. It's dark. You know, the witches here and the dungeons and dragons, and the guys used to chant and all that stuff at... When we're downtown and didn't faze me a bit because I knew... Flip the light switch on. I knew they were afraid of the light. Just be light, Christians. Be light. They came and they put a bunch of their pornography along the wall there, tried to provoke me. See what I do if I go to the newspapers? No. No. Just continue to love on them, share the gospel. They came in one time with salt and they threw it all around with the kids here with a concert and they called themselves a church of sodium chloride. They got a bunch of the kids from the college over one of the art studios there and tried to provoke us and everything and get me all and they're passing out pamphlets and all and telling the kids, come down here to the fountain and we're gonna baptize you in the fountain for, you know, for Satan and all that. And again, all I said to the guy was, I don't think the city's gonna like the salt in the in the planters out here with all these beautiful flowers that we've planted. And his eyes went big like that. He overstepped his bounds. The city's not gonna like all those flowers dying because of salt you spread everywhere. You know? And, but the one thing I couldn't stop was the devil's attack from within. From within, people be coming dissatisfied. People fighting and gossiping, slandering from within, divided from within. And I knew that if I if I kept moving forward as a leader, I could keep the majority of the people to catch the vision of of what the real objective was. But when we were hit so hard and I couldn't move it forward anymore, that's when that's when they took off. Everybody took off. Few people stayed, but it was it was the most, brutal, painful thing. Now what do you think all the Satanists and the witches and everybody around the area who have been chanting and doing their prayers to the devil to destroy that church are thinking, we beat them. No. You didn't. It was our flesh. We got into the flesh. We quit we quit loving one another. We quit walking in the power of the holy spirit. We did it to ourselves. And that's what the globalist want. They don't want us to wake up to the real enemy. They want us to do it to ourselves. You know? They want us to burn the cities down. You know? Because I don't like rednecks, or I don't like blue. I don't like red. And it's just it's just idiocy. It's just crazy. We as Christians should be smarter than that. Way smarter than that. And so the therefore speaks of our citizenship being in heaven. How should citizens of heaven treat one another? So Paul instructs the assembly to stand fast in the Lord. Or we would say in the Calvary Chapel, stay the course. Stay the course. In the Calvary Chapels right now, there's a huge effort to divide everybody. There has been since pastor Chuck died. And and so I'm of Paul, or I'm of Apollos, or I'm of Cephas, or I'm CGN, or I'm Calvary Association, and a lot of the guys have changed their names and dividing and all that. To me, it's just a huge distraction. We're Calvary Chapel of Bremerton for thirty one years. I don't care what anybody does. We have autonomy. We have the freedom to rely upon the Holy Spirit. I don't need to turn to Costa Mecca and ask for my marching orders because we're not a denomination. If they want to be weird, if if the generation that assumed leadership there and the family, the Brodersen family, if they want to ordain women as pastors, if they want to neglect the nation of Israel, as pastor Chuck loved the nation of Israel, if they don't wanna emphasize prophecy... Sound familiar? All the churches are going this way, aren't they? If they wanna side with Rick Warren, the ordination of women as as pastors, if they wanna, whatever they wanna do, it's none of my business. You say, well, wait a minute, pastor Rick. When when we tell people about Calvary Chapels, what did Calvary Chapels believe? Well, just tell them to check out Calvary Bremerton because I don't know what the other Calvary Chapels believe. We're all autonomous. Well, wait a minute. If I go into an In N Out, I wanna know that at the In N Out Burger, I'm gonna get an In N Out Burger because we're a franchise. Well, we're not a franchise. Every Calvary Chapel is autonomous. There's there's no CEO that owns all these little Calvary Chapels. Calvary Chapel will bear fruit based upon you and I yielding to the Holy Spirit. If if I go off course from the word of God, you have a responsibility to hold me accountable and say that's heresy, and you gotta stop that. So too with you. All of us are accountable to the lordship of Jesus Christ. It's his church. And so everybody's on Facebook right now talking about their reasons and big eloquent stories and speeches and and again, I'm just... There's... It's just scratching the surface. There's so many things that are egregious in every church. I've got enough sin in my own life in this church for me to be concerned about. So if they wanna go ordain women and all that, it breaks my heart. But if you ever have anybody that says, hey, what's your church like? Just have them listen to one of the messages. Casemuth said that in John 10, when you're dealing with people that are dividing, she said... Jesus said in John 10 that my sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. I'm confident enough that the Lord will bring sheep here that want... He wants to be fed. He wants healthy sheep. And every now and then, he'll birth a new one. We'll have a new one to minister and tune to disciple. I don't wanna be distracted by what's happening at Costa Mecca. You know? I don't want to side and divide. I'm CGN, or I'm Calvary Association, or I'm over here, there. I mean, I have to keep changing my name all the time. So basically, what I wrote was, hey, we're autonomous. We have the freedom to stay the course in this colossal division that's taking place once again. And and there's things about CGN, the Brodersons, and their whole direction. There's people there that we love, and we disagree with them on things, but we still love them. And then on Cavalry Association on this other side, know, they're staying the course. They're the Chuck ones. The Chuck. We're we're following Chuck. So that's first Baptist and second Baptist and third Baptist. And so we know enough to say that when God wants to do a work, he looks for a man. He looks for an Abraham. And then once he grabs hold of that man, there's a movement that comes from that man, the Calvary movement. And that movement gets so successful that later it morphs into a machine because it has so much money and so many assets. And it has just tons of other churches out there. And the good thing Chuck did was didn't allow us to be a denomination. That we all got to be autonomous. And so that machine, it's it's just cranking. It's getting bigger and bigger, radio station assets and the whole thing. And then once the founder dies, it becomes a memorial to the man. And we were taught in Calvary Chapel that that's tantamount to putting new wine into an old wineskin. That you pour this new wine that you once had, and you're trying to put it into an old memorial wine skin, it bursts it bursts. It can't contain it. So I think the Lord did a wise thing and pastor Chuck passing it off to his son-in-law. It forced all the other Calvary Chapels to get their eyes off of Chuck. Just like with Moses not being allowed to go into the promised land. Can you imagine if Moses, was able to go in the promised land? There would have been Moses... A Moses religion. People following a man. And the Lord showed that Moses had feet of clay like every leader. And the Lord... Next time we see Moses, he's on the Mount Of Transfiguration, not so bad. But God will take out the man that he started with, and the key ingredient is we, the people, we continue to look to Jesus. It's his church. And if Jesus wants to move left, he wants to move right, he wants to go up, down, we need to keep our eyes on him. We can't be looking back. Oh, this is the way Chuck used to do it. This is the way they did it. You know? That's an old wineskin. So it becomes a memorial, and and then a monument. A monument to Chuck and Kay. I don't wanna fall into that trap. I I I appreciate all that I learned. I appreciate that history. I appreciate it all. But I understand that eventually, that part of the ministry is gonna be taken over, not by a spirit filled man, but by a caretaker. A caretaker who's interested in the power and the assets and the money, and he's going to spend that money over his lifetime degrading that particular location, that particular work. And that's exactly what's happening because he's a caretaker. That's it. But boy, can they spend the money. They're selling assets now. They sold the Marietta place. They sold the castle. Who knows what they're gonna sell next? I mean, when they took the thing over, they had 60,000,000 cash, 250,000,000 of assets. They don't care what anybody thinks. They're gonna do what they wanna do because it's the family business, and we need to mind our own business and do what God's called us to do and rely upon the Holy Spirit. God can do great things here if he wants. If he doesn't, then he'll do great things in us. You know? And so I don't wanna get caught up in the division of what side I'm on. So what I wrote is I wrote... And you you guys won't like this, probably not, but you know I'm I'm a little I'm a little weird, but I just can't take it. So I said, well, if Brian and Char want to wear a dress into the pulpit, let them wear a dress. If they want to identify, they're free to identify of whom they ever wanna be. And so, basically, I'm taking it a step further that it's not just the ordination of women. We're gonna start to have transvestites in the pulpit. We're gonna start to have, just like all the other denominations, fairy tales and fairies and people with their wands up there and rainbow and the whole thing, you know? I mean, there's no end to it. So for me, I told you, I know how this church could grow. If I just wear a dress, it would grow, but I don't wanna do that. You know? But that's... That seems to be the compromise. We've got to get women in leadership, women in places that the bible doesn't allow for, and all the church will grow because there's a lack of masculine leadership. So we've got to get these women in places of leadership, and they control the homes, and they'll bring the families and all thing because the men have dropped the ball. That may be true. That might be a secret to church growth. Put women in the pulpit. Call them pastor so and so, whatever. I don't know. But we can't compromise in that way. And so we stay with the word of God that Paul said I... First Corinthians, first Timothy two, forbid that women would teach you to assert authority over men. And then in first Timothy three, and in Titus, a pastor, a bishop, an overseer, a spiritual pastor that meets the spiritual needs of the people, he is to be in the office of a pastor, an office of a bishop, the husband of one woman. So this woman that you're trying to ordain as a pastor, that's what I was getting at. Is she a lesbian? Is she transvestite? Does she identify as a man, husband, or wife? The bible's pretty clear about these genders. It's not that confusing. Husband of one wife. What don't you understand, you know, church? So it's... Once you steer off, once you stay away from staying the course, anything can happen. So Paul's saying, stand fast. That word stand fast means to persevere, to resist the tendency to be divided. Stand fast in the shock of battle. So here's one that was really egregious in Calvary Chapel. Really hurt hurt bad. When I first got to Calvary Chapel, we had what we would call balance. We are very balanced, fresh, new movement out of the hippies. You know? And we had the best worship, unbelievable worship. And Christian musicians and artsy artsy fartsy people, you know, the the ones that are just all over the place. But, man, they're so they're so gifted. And we had them writing songs and playing and doing their thing. You know? And then on the other side, there could be a hippie over here and long hair, no shoes, grungy. And over here is a suit, a guy, a business person, a person... A Baptist. You think he's a Baptist. He's got three piece suit on. So we had the Baptist side of the church where we taught the word of God line upon line, precept upon precept, and it helped to balance the crazies. The crazies, we needed them to get me out of my stoicism. You know? Get me out of... But I was more on this side. Not so artsy, but fartsy. And and so this, you needed you needed these guys to keep these guys kinda corralled a bit. Because, man, if if they don't have structure, no telling where they're gonna go in their next experience. So pastor Chuck watched John Wimber out of Anaheim take the Calvary Chapel Anaheim in a direction with Lonnie Frisbee that you couldn't substantiate with the Bible, the experiences, the charismatics. Chuck wrote a book charisma versus charismania. And so he was raised in the Pentecostal side of of denominations in the Foursquare Church, and he saw the abuses thereof, how people would stand up and speak in tongues and interrupt the pastor as he's teaching, you know. And he would emphasize to us that the Holy Spirit doesn't interrupt itself, you know. And that he that speaks in an unknown tongue speaks not unto men, but unto God. And so a prophecy is for the edification, the speaking forth of God's word. And so, anyway, he he saw those abuses where this this woman, one particular woman in his church, he... His story goes is that he invited a friend to church, and and he wanted this guy to get saved. And the pastor starts into a sermon, and then this woman starts to rev up. You know? And she's... He reached his hand over there and touched her on the shoulder and says, not today. Because he wanted his friend to hear the gospel and get saved, to not interrupt the holy spirit. And so he saw those kind of things. And so at Calvary Chapel, there was the balance of the charisma, the gifts, operation today. And now John McArthur doesn't think the gifts are in operation today. He's a prime example of someone that teaches the Bible, very strong line upon line, precept upon precept, but over here can be dry in the area of the charisma, the charismata, the gifts of the spirit. And so we had a balance. I mean, it was great. And then, as I said, John Wimber and the guy started venturing over in things you could substantiate from the word. They started having experiences like later in the Toronto blessing and today in Bethel. It became things like roaring in the spirit. It came on television drunk tanks. I'm so drunk in the spirit. I need to sit in a drunk tank at church till I calm down because I can't drive my car home because I'm under the influence of the Holy Spirit. And then you'd watch these guys worming. They'd worm on the ground, rolling and just just silly. I mean, stuff. And Chuck says, you know what? You know what? This is confusing. Why don't you guys just change your name? So that's what came from what we call today the vineyard the vineyard movement. And the vineyard movement, man, a lot of good worship music came out of the vineyard movement. Lot of stuff I love. But, over the course of time, those churches, dissipated or morphed into what you see today in Bethel Bethel, the whole Bethel thing, new apostolic reformation, and they're, they have no boundaries. They have no biblical boundaries on what they do. So, so anyway, it was... It... I felt that Calvary Costa Mesa was our church, and we felt a great loss with the loss of those brothers and sisters. We've never been the same because we need each other. Nobody won. You know? And and so we stayed the course and stayed with the, you know, the baptistry aspect of it. And we've got good worship in a lot of the Calvary chapels, but, man, back then, it was... There was something. There were afterglows. There were times of waiting upon the Holy Spirit. There was a real moving and working of the Holy Spirit that I don't see in any of the Calvary's anymore, including when I go to pastor's conferences like I used to. And we we sit in and we wait upon the Lord with an afterglow, and guys are gonna have a prophecies and things like that like we used to, and, it's not happening. Just not happening. Now in pockets, some churches, it still is happening. God's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So beware of people that are sitting next to you that are different and may have a different way of expressing, their worship and their adoration of the Lord. There isn't one. You know, you hear churches today saying, you know, we should only sing hymns. Only hymns. You know? Well, no. I don't agree with that. I love hymns. Let's do both. Let's do it all. Well, we... The young people should only shouldn't be able to do that. We shouldn't have drums, and we shouldn't have saxophones, and we shouldn't have a bunch of instruments. It it... No. And and we should put that drummer behind one of those plexiglass cages. You know? It's too loud for my ears. So we put a sign up at the Roxy. If it's too loud, you're too old. And then I pass out earplugs. Hey, wear these earplugs. We're not gonna quench for you. We all have to adapt. And then they get mad. Well, you got a mosh pit up there. Those kids are jumping, and they're breaking the chairs and stuff. What do you call that? Pastors would say to me, what do you call that? Fun? Just fun. And I'd watch people... The kids grab the... Their friends and have them up over their heads and boom, they fall. And I'm thinking, oh, no. A lawsuit. Broken neck. They get a jump. You know? They jump again. I don't know if you know what a mosh pit is. But the first pastor conference I went around here, the pastors and pastor's wives were just appalled. How could you do that? You know? I don't know. I didn't do it. It's just the kids did it. They're having fun, and people are getting saved, and we're outreaching this community. And and I'd have to tell the moms, hey, Thursday night is a youth group, and I'm teaching the youth on Thursday nights. But Friday night is outreach, and we're gonna have the high school kids here. And it's gonna be messy. It's gonna be messy because we got a lot of unbelieving high school kids gonna be here. And they're gonna play their bands, and after they're set, we're gonna share the gospel, And we're also gonna have our bands, our Christian kids with their bands. And it's the battle of the bands. It's Elijah on top of Mount Carmel. And he's asking the secular kids, the 450 prophets of Baal, show me what you got. And then the Christian kids get up there, Brittany and Christie and some of the kids, and, and also bands. And, like, there's a band at the time called five smooth stones and and a lot of lot of cool names, Christian bands, a lot of musicians here in this community. Enormous amount of people playing guitars in this rain, you know, in all instruments. Very talented people here. And we tied in with Seattle and Switchfoot up here and the Wickhams and a lot of international bands in California and around the country, Australia, a lot of different bands. And and I always insisted that we were gonna share the gospel. They need to cooperate with me in that I have a youth pastor or somebody get up there and share the gospel. And the kids were allowed to walk out, and they're smoking outside, but I've got the... What's happening inside the sanctuary on the speakers out there. So they're still hearing it. And there's f bombs blowing off and people going crazy sometimes. It's messy. A clean sterile barn. There's no reproduction in a clean sterile barn. Have you ever heard of the water breaking? Do you know what kind of excrement and things come out of an animal when there's a birth going on? If you make it all sterile, squeaky clean, nobody can cross that boundary. We're all Baptist here, and we're doing like Billy taught us forty years ago. Then the Holy Spirit moves and goes somewhere else and looks for another man, a Chuck Smith, a k Smith, who are weeping. And praying over the kids. Much of what we see today is church is a business. It's a machine. We've got ours and we don't care about anybody else. How's God gonna catch them fish? How's God gonna catch them evil, demonic Democrats? How's he gonna catch them? How's he gonna be in Luke seven at the home of Simon the pharisee and a woman of the street come up and wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair and break open an alabaster box? And Simon the Pharisee can't believe that Jesus is even having anything to do with a democrat. And you know the story. Those that are forgiven much, they love much. We're blowing it. We're blowing it, allowing the world to divide us in these little factions. Stand fast to persevere. Resist the tendency to be divided. United, we stand. Divided, we fall. Patriots, united, we stand. Divided, we fall. There's a war for ideas. I get it. But I guarantee you, we have won every single election. They've just been stolen from us. You've been made to believe the Christians didn't vote. You've been made to believe the conservative Christian Catholic thinking people, even conservative Muslim families. That somehow they're your enemies or whatever, or you don't vote, you don't care. Well, I can give you an illustration of how that's wrong. Every single time somebody comes up with a movie that's wholesome, that's godly, that has good Christian values, they sell out. Overwhelmingly, the families want to service that. But that's not the objective of the globalist. They've gotta use Disney. They've gotta use Starbucks. They've gotta use these black rock corporations to indoctrinate their lies, to lie to you, to force the the sorcery and the witchcraft and all the other stuff to mix it in. And so pretty soon, you as a parent, as you're trying to discern, is this appropriate for viewing, You say, no. I I can't go there, which you're smart to do. But, man, if it was all... The objective was money, because they're a business, then they would understand that there... There's a wholesome approach that you would vote for. Ann Coulter years ago said, you know, the problem with the Republicans is they're too moderate. They're they're just a little more conservative than the Democrats, and they they don't inspire the conservatives. But when they when they finally present a candidate that's full blown radical conservative, they come out in droves to vote for that person. But then when that person deceives them and doesn't follow through with their promises, then they reach a place where I don't believe in the system anymore. They're all on the same team. And that we as Christians got to view it as that's the world. Our objective is not to make America great. Our objective is to get them saved. The system's breaking down because the people are in rebellion against God. But I still believe there's a there's a remnant of people, patriots, and even unbelievers believe in family, believe in the home, believe in educating their kids. Not everybody's a pedophile. They're ready to receive Christ. But if we're hypocritical, if we're not true, if they can see through us, I attend their church, and all they do is gossip and slander. There's no love. Nobody greeted me. By your love, they'll know you're Christians. By this shall all men know you're my disciples. Right? That you love one another without love or nothing. And we're even to love our enemies. I'm not afraid of Muslims. I'm not afraid of them moving into a community. I fear the breakdown of the rule of law. Let them move here, but you still gotta follow the constitutional republic we have established here. You don't get to take over Michigan or Texas or have Sharia law in your commute. No way. You're in America, and every other ethnic group that's ever moved here has assimilated and followed the rule of law. So if our government facilitates an invasion of radical whatever and does... And then stands down when they're out in the streets doing stuff, it's our own government that's betraying us and allowing an invasion. And we look at those that fund these side type wars and and things like that. But, man, we should bring the gospel to them. The fastest growing church in the world is in a Muslim nation called Iran. Get a clue. The mosques are empty. The people saw through the facade. They've seen through. They see through Islam. They're they're voicing their freedom and saying they wanna know Jesus, the fastest growing church in the world in Iran. So what is Texas afraid of? What are we afraid of, Jack? Just get the gospel out. Love. Win them with love. And to the incorrigible, to the evil, whether white, brown, black, yellow, redneck Californian, if they break the law, the law's there to protect you, to arrest them. So stand fast, persevere, resist the tendency to be divided. Stand fast in the shock of battle. Even when the enemy is surging down upon you, a soldier stands firm in battle. We're in a war of ideas. We're in a war for truth. And that's why I'm such a crazy man because it all comes down for me to truth. And over and over again, I've told you the greatest weapon of the wicked one is deception. So I've sought to expose the deception over and over and over again in this war of ideas, this war for truth. I don't care who the man is, who the woman is. I want to know... Jesus said, you'll know them by their fruit. What do they do after they're elected? That's another way to vote. It's called hold them accountable. What do they do? Do they build the beast system? Don't ignore that. Don't ignore that and go back to the well a second time and think you're gonna get a different result. Expose them. Shout from the rooftops. We don't want these data centers. We don't want a tokenization of our of our assets. We don't want the digital ID. We don't want the... We didn't vote that. We didn't ask for that. That isn't what you promised us. We don't want these new wars. You're in a battle. You're in a spiritual battle. Resist division. Philippians one twenty seven. Stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. In acts two forty two, this is where Calvary Chapel... This is who Calvary Chapel is. If you were to look at a program, if you were to look at what is Calvary Chapel, this is it right here. Simple. Real simple. Acts two forty two. You can turn there. Four components. Maybe five or six. Four good ones. And they... Who's they? The church. The church that just got saved, that just got formed in acts two at Pentecost. And they continued, notice steadfastly. That means they're not wishy washy. It's a battle. They've got Judaizers. They've got other people coming there to try and circumvent them. Mormons, everybody jumping in, trying to confuse them because they're new babes in Christ. And so they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. What did Jesus say to do? Go and make disciples. How do you make disciples? Doctrine. What's the doctrine? The apostles' doctrine is the word of God. At the beginning, there is a Old Testament. The New Testament is is being written as as they're speaking. Stand fast. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. That's one component of Calvary Chapel. Stay the core. Stay in the apostles' doctrine. From Genesis to Revelation, give them the word of God. Secondly, fellowship. We believe in fellowship. We believe in getting together in fellowship and Koinonia, loving one another. Thirdly, breaking of bread. We believe in worship. The word of God, fellowship, worship, prayer, and I would add evangelism. We believe in going forth preaching and teaching the word of God. That's basically what Calvary Chapel is. There's no purpose driven book I want you to read. There's no forty days of purpose. There's no Daniel diet. There's no shack. There's no little gimmick here or there. It's just simple, simple, simple. Every time you come here, you should think, I'm going there because I'm gonna get an in and out double double with fries and a... We like the we like the iced tea and a shake. Every time I go, I'm not disappointed. I know what I'm getting. I'm hearing the pastors trying to teach the book of Revelation and butchering it, destroying it, embarrassing me? How could you take the book of Revelation and twist it into a preaching on giving financially? Show me where that is in there. How do they keep coming back to that topic no matter what book they teach? Yeah. The Bible has a lot to say about money where your treasure is there, your heart also, but let's wait till we get there. Good lord. Making merchandise of people. It's embarrassing. And, you know, the book of revelation starts out with a warning. You know? If you take away from this book or add to it, the curses of this book are gonna be upon you. So take heed, you know, be careful if you decide to teach it, pastors. What about Paul and Barnabas? They had a situation of being divided. They're gonna go on a second missionary journey, And they they got into disagreement. But they'd went out there confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue to persevere in their faith and that they must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God next 14 verse 22. This is when they went back out a second time to encourage those in that first missionary journey. And so Paul's in a Roman prison. He knows it's not easy, even impossible without God's help. And Jesus incurred the church of Philadelphia in Revelation three eleven. Behold, I come quickly hold that fast, which thou has that no man take thy crown. So he's saying, be ripped off by the devil. Don't be distracted. God has so much he wants to do in your lives and in this church. Even though we're like the church of Philadelphia, we're poor and small and all that, but he's given us an open door that no man can shut. We're autonomous. We're free. We can preach the gospel. Nobody can tell us you can't preach. Nobody can tell us we can't meet here, that we have to shut the church down. No. We can say, no. I'm I'm I'm meeting. We're meeting. We're free. We could step out in faith and trust the Holy Spirit. We need to trust in Jesus that he'll build his church. No gimmicks. There's no ceiling on Calvary Bremerton. The Lord can go as far as he wants. And we're waiting for that day. We're waiting for the Lord to do that in each of our hearts. Lord, there's no limits. Lord, I wanna enter into all that you have for me. I don't wanna be distracted. I don't wanna be quenched. I don't wanna grieve the Holy Spirit. Notice how Paul describes the assembly at Philippi. He says, my brethren, these aren't enemies. Woah, pastor, they're flat earthers. They're still my brothers. They're still my sisters. We love them. We love them, but we love God more. We love his word more. It's incumbent upon them to humble themselves. They're not gonna force an aberrant doctrine upon the pastor in this church. They're out of line, and you needed to tell them so. Watch out for Yadiyah and Sinkti, man. They're they're crazy. They're angry. They're not gonna stop till they burn the place down. But he says, my brethren, and he stands up. Anybody care about this? Yeah. We care about doctrine. We care in Romans one about taking away from the glory of God through creation. We're not gonna tolerate that. You can't prove your premise. You can't prove your position. So why try to pollute? Why try to spread that here? You know the pastor begged you to not do that, but you do it anyway. Doesn't mean they're my enemy. He says, my brethren. He says, dearly beloved and longed for. These are endearing terms. He's he's he's not so angry at Eudaius and think thee that you're you're canceled. We're kicking you out of the church now. We never do that. When have you seen me kick anybody out? If if you got a pulse, you're welcome here. If you lost the pulse, then Christie will take you. She's in the dead guy duty. I mean, we're the church that's so hard up. We'll take anything. Anybody. We don't cherry pick. We don't just look for wealthy people. We didn't study a demographic and say, hey. We're gonna plant this church in a very affluent part of the community to to make make it so this business really thrives. We went to Downtown Bremerton with the dregs, with the losers, because we're losers. There's none righteous, no not one. We're not too good for anybody. But don't make the mistake of thinking that we have to have you and we're so desperate that you think this church is small and that somehow you can leverage me, or I've gotta give in to your demands when it's contrary to God's word. That's not gonna happen. As much as I love you, I'm not gonna be a people pleaser. I wanna hear the Lord say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. My brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown. So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. One of the standard things I remind people after thirty one years of being a pastor here in Bremerton, Eventually, all of you will hate me. Every single one of you. You think I'm the greatest thing you ever heard at the beginning, some of you. Whole lot of people leave anyway. And if I were to analyze, well, why did they leave? They got their feelings hurt. Over what? I don't know. I started out being the greatest thing they ever heard. And then another point when I told them no, they got their feelings hurt and they left. Sounds like spoiled children, doesn't it? Sounds like in pastor appreciation month, no respect. And if you don't respect me, at least respect God's word and respect the office that I've been given, the responsibility I've been given to teach God's word in such a way that sometimes it cuts. Sometimes it hurts. Sometimes the scalpel goes in to get rid of that that lump. Like Shannon right now, pray for her. She's got a lump by her shoulder. She asked us to pray for her. Christie had one here. You know? The scalpel goes in and takes that out. The word of God said, living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, dividing the center of soul and spirit and joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. God's convicting you. God's ministering to you, and your pride is in the way. Humble yourself that you can hear what the Lord is saying. If I teach heresy, man, come at me with both feet. So what does Paul mean by my joy and crown? In first Thessalonians two nineteen, he says, for what is our hope or joy or crown or rejoicing? Answer. He answers his question. Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For you are our glory and joy. So Paul is saying the fruit of his labor when I'm across the street there and I have the privilege and the blessing of baptizing people. People that are new to the faith and come to the faith, and I have the privilege and the blessing of discipling a new believer? Maybe a husband and wife or people that are getting... You know, rededicating their life to the Lord? Or you're sharing the gospel with somebody? You're you're ministering to somebody, when we get to heaven, that's your joy and crown. They're standing there next to you. Paul says, you're my joy and crown. When I stand before the lord, you're gonna be there. You're part of that labor that I put into Philippi. The years that I spent at Ephesus, the years that I spent on the missionary trail sharing the gospel, there's some fruit that comes from it. One man sows another water. God brings the increase. But that day when we're standing before Jesus, I'm gonna look around. Yeah. I got to baptize her. Yeah. I got to I got to take her through the book of Revelation. She never studied the book of Revelation. And the light bulb went on. She became a fanatic. And I got to share John three sixteen with this little girl. These kids, when I used to teach Sunday school, the fourth graders, so many of them came to Christ. The people that have come to Christ over the years here at outreach concerts and in church and just... They're our joy and crown. That's why we do it. Do you think I'm getting rich from doing this? Why do we do what we do? It's for the glory of God. It's because God's called us to be faithful. Paul says, you're my joy and crown. You got saved through this ministry. My joy and crown of rejoicing is standing next to you in his presence knowing we all made it. We all stood to the end. Wouldn't that be a blessing if we all make it and we're there? That nobody falls through the cracks, nobody backslides and goes back into the world, that each and every one of us makes it. At the very least, want that for immediate families, don't we? As a father, as a mother, as grandparents, you're my joy and crown, honey. The Lord entrusted you to me. The Lord put you on loan to me, and he exhorted me to train you up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and and we followed his instructions. We dedicated you unto him, and you obeyed him. You grew. You had a heart to be taught. You were teachable, and you applied these truths to your lives, and you bore fruit for his kingdom and glory. And he gave you to me to be your daddy, to be your mom, to train you up, to disciple you. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In Proverbs four verse nine, she, wisdom, shall give divine head an ornament of grace. A crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. In Proverbs 11 verse 30, the fruit of the righteousness is tree of life, and he that wins souls is wise. Jesus wore a crown of thorns so we could wear a crown of righteousness, so that we could wear a crown of glory, so that we could have the martyr's crown, the crown of life. And so we could present you as we present you to Jesus, as you present your kids to Jesus, as you present those that you disciple, that you share the gospel with, that you contributed financially to get the gospel out. We all share in the blessing of the spoils of war. Those that sit with the baggage and those that go and engage the enemy, we all together are gonna share in the blessings of the fruit, the spoils of war. We all share alike. We all have our place within the body, our function within the body, and we work together as a body. And we present you. We present your loved ones. We present neighbors and friends and people the crown. You're the crown of rejoicing, an incorruptible crown that fades not away. To the assembly, Paul says, number one, resist division. Number two, to the accused, resolve your differences. Conflict resolution. Verse two, I beseech you, Adiah, and I beseech think thee that they be of the same mind in the Lord. These angry mama grizzlies, how are we gonna get them to reconcile? What are we gonna do? Hey. The holidays are coming up. Family's divided. How are we gonna meet for Thanksgiving? How are we gonna meet at Christmas? Is that a reality in your home, in your life? There are people that aren't speaking to each other anymore, won't talk to their mom. Wouldn't it be such a joy if somehow we could reconcile and have a Christmas together? Set aside our differences? Well, you're a democrat. I can't be in the same room with a democrat. I'm just amazed at how self righteous, how condemning red republican MAGA people are that call themselves Christians. I mean, there's some real condemning statements. I mean, these guys are guttural. These are these are the the scum of the earth. And I could just see Jesus going over there and hanging out with them, washing their feet and helping them as they're overcome with sores from their drugs they use and the way the devil's destroying them. These are unbelievers in many cases. In most cases, they don't know the truth, and you do. Not gonna win this war by getting a republican in there and forcing all these Democrats, whatever direction you're going or whatever. They need to be saved. There needs to be love. They need to be reached with the gospel. We need a revival. Paul is not commanding, rebuking, or scolding. He is beseeching. He's pleading with the guilty parties. These people are his family. His dearly beloved is long for his joy and crown. Sometimes we as Christians, if we hear that somebody's homosexual. Oh my god. That's, oh, A lesbian. How about a pedophile? How about republican democrat pedophiles? Does that get you? Yeah. It gets me. I don't wanna deal with them. They deserve to die. Is that the attitude of God? Is that his heart? Can God save a pedophile? I don't even wanna think about that. Oh. Well, some people think that way about all different kinds of sins that they don't like. Murders. Is there anybody that God can't save? Maybe Paul still remembers how painful it was when he and Barnabas parted company. Barnabas, you remember, wanted to bring John Mark, his nephew, on that second missionary journey. And, Paul was, no way. No way. He abandoned us on that first missionary journey. He's not going. So God hooked Barnabas and John Mark to go to Cyprus, and and he had Paul and Silas take off and go to Philippi. And they got beat and brought the house down at midnight, and the Philippian jailer got saved, a church planted, and ministry's painful. Ask yourself, is it worth dividing over? I mean, Kathy and I have had some really good relationships with people over the years. Deep friendships, we thought. And then it ends. It's just like this love that they had on this side became the same degree of hate on this side. Over and over and over and over again. Think of how that affects my daughters. As young girls come into this community and making friends with kids in the church. And I'm so proud of Brittany. I'm so proud that many of the friends she has today, that their parents hate me. But Britney's maintained a friendship with these kids. Beautiful relationship she's had with these kids for... You know, and they're they're mommas now, and and they have kids, and and they they love Britney and she loves them, and they get together all the time. Man, their parents hate me still. They used to love us. Well, what'd you do pastor? I spanked their kids. No, I didn't. I insulted their wife. No. I didn't. I committed the unpardonable sin. No. I didn't. I just told them no. Familiarity breeds contempt. That's why a lot of pastors don't get to know the people, hang out with the people. Because in that friendship, there's a time where people are gonna wanna persuade and move and ask for something or do something, or they think they know better if he just do it this way. And then you tell them no, and man, they take their toys and they run away. And I got a lot of stories, I'm not gonna go into them, but it it breaks your heart. Kathy and I usually drive away on Sundays like, is anybody mad at us? Did anybody leave the church? Still today, we do that. We compare notes. Oh, well, so and so told us that so and so left the church because why? Where are they at now? No. They didn't say. They just don't like you. And say, well, get in line. It's a long line. You don't go in the ministry to make friends and influence people. Right? You're gonna make a lot of enemies. So Barnabas and Paul must have really broke their heart because they were tight. They were close. And so ask yourself, is it worth dividing over? Are they denying the deity of Christ? This is your list. This is a list of essentials. This is nonnegotiable. Yes. We will divide over. These are nonnegotiable. If somebody's denying the deity of Christ, we're gonna deny. We're gonna divide. We can still be friends, but we're we're not going to minister together. Are they preaching a different Jesus? We're gonna divide if they're preaching a different Jesus. Let them be anathema, Paul says, the church of Galatia. Have they denied the inspiration, the infallibility of the bible? We're gonna divide if they are. If they start running around going, I believe, I believe, I believe women should be ordained, and they can't prove it with the bible, sorry. Your opinion means nothing. We're gonna divide. And so if I'm Walter Martin, I'm pastor Chuck. Walter Martin believed in a post trib rapture, Chuck a pre trib. They could agree to disagree but still be friends. That's a beautiful thing. But you never saw Walter Martin come to Calvary Costa Mesa and preach from Chuck's pulpit. He was not gonna allow his flock to be indoctrinated with what he believed to be heretical doctrine. And Walter Martin was absolutely brilliant, especially with apologetics, that of the cults and all. Chuck would have his books in the bookstore, kingdom of the cults and that sort of thing in his area of expertise, but, had to divide over doctrine. Does it mean you lose your salvation? No. We just disagree. We agree to disagree. I got people here that believe in a post trib rapture. They still love me. They still attend. Some of you aren't sure. You believe in the panthery. It all pan out. That's okay. We can we can agree to disagree. We can still love one another. There's a lot we still agree on. Do they deny the second coming of Christ? Do they deny the place of Israel? Are they were replacement theology? Do they deny prophecy? Do they deny the institution of marriage? Are they redefining what marriage is? Do they deny the finished work of the atonement, the blood of Jesus cleansing a man from sin? Is salvation by grace through faith alone or do you got to add something? You got to be baptized? Do you got to face Mecca? What what is it? What do you gotta do? You gotta be a good person? Creation, evolution, flat earth, psychology, gender, sexuality, all these things to divide us. Where do we stand? What are the essentials and what are what we would call the peripheral issues? Am I to be tolerant of Buddhism, Confuciusism, Islamism, Mormonism, Catholicism, and every other ism in the name of ecumenicalism? No. I'm gonna divide. I must divide. I cannot be part of a one church effort that always lead to heaven. I can't be inclusive. I have to be exclusive. Jesus is the only way. Period. Why do you say that, pastor? Because he raised himself from the dead. Every other ism or guru is dead. He's a dead man. Jesus is the God man. That's the gospel. That's the difference. So we're intolerant intolerant of heretical teaching. We have to stand firm. Ask yourself, is it worth dividing over the peripheral issues? Things like what color should the carpet be, pastor? Well, I think I think I think in a building, they have a phrase. If you wanna get rid of your pastor, start a building project. Everybody and their brother going crazy in the building project, you know, of I think, I think, I think. And boy, they get mad at the pastor's wife because she probably gets to pick the colors and, oh, she's got no style. She doesn't know. Do they have a mosh pit? Do they have Awanas? Do they play rock and roll music? Is the pastor's wife your friend? Is the pastor doing things your way or not? Is he a hireling, or is he a pastor? And so are these issues worth dividing over? Really? Have you been told no? Is it selfish ambition? He says verse two, I beseech you, Daisen, I beseech think thee that they'd be of the same mind. You girls work it out in the Lord. Be of the same mind in the Lord. Be like minded. Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. Esteem others better than yourselves. You know? And so resolve your differences. Be of the same mind of the Lord. Submit yourselves to the lordship of Jesus. Esteem others better than yourselves. The church of Corinth in first Corinthians six, they were suing each other. They were taking each other to court. How are you gonna resolve this? Go to court and let the courts decide your differences? Sometimes you have to do that in the world we live today. But as much as lies within you, seek peace with every man. And so Paul said, you know what? Why don't you take wrong? Why don't you be the big man? Why don't you be the one that forgives and ask... And and apologize to him. I'm not gonna apologize. I'm right. Well, why don't you take wrong? Why don't you humble yourself and take wrong? Diffuse the battle between the McCoys and the Hatfields. Diffuse it. Sometimes you... I mean, I think it's a great way to resolve conflicts. Tell them you're sorry. How many of you like the conflict to last a week at home? Two weeks. I'm gonna win this battle. She's gonna submit. Really? You wanna go down that that path? A power struggle in churches? The power of who's in charge? Who's in charge in the home. Husbands, I encourage you, just go apologize. It may not be what you said, it's how you said it. You know? Admit you're a jerk. Admit you're a jackass, but you're her jackass. You know? Just tell me you're sorry. Humble yourselves. Why would you wanna divide? Why would you wanna insist upon division? What a scandal that is in your home when the kids are watching. What a scandal it is in the community when they hear of people dividing. Over what? Over what? Why is it so hard to love one another? Why don't you rather take wrong, he says? Nothing vital is at stake. Be lowly minded. Don't divide over minor issues. Chill. Love one another. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he'll lift you up. God resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble. I don't wanna be so incredibly prideful that we can't resolve it. Now there is a passage in Luke chapter 17 verses one through three where there are times like with Matthew 18 where we go and we confront a person. And then if they don't listen, you know, if they're in sin and then we bring a witness, we bring a second person. And then we bring it before the church leadership, but they're they're having an adulterous affair with somebody. They're messing around. And all you want is under the radar. You just want them to stop. You don't wanna broadcast it or everyone knows, But they're persistent. They are stubborn. They won't stop. And then you've got people in your church that over and over again, they're insulting. They're being rude and unloving and unkind, and they're saying things to you and your wife and your kids that you have confronted them about it. Maybe in your own family people, and they're projecting upon you their own sin. They're projecting upon you their angst against God, and they're they're being aggressive. And you can forgive them from your heart, but Luke seventeen one through three adds this. If they repent, forgive them. What's that mean? I've already, in Matthew 18, forgiven them from my heart. I'm not gonna be given over to the tormentors and stew and have bitterness concerning this person. I love them. And if any man be overtaken of fault, you are a spirit to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, lest you also be tempted. I know that pride can blind me, so I'm gonna pray for my daughter. I'm gonna pray for her husband. I'm gonna pray for this person in the church, this relative or whoever, somebody in the church. But I'm not gonna restore fellowship with them till God awakens them to get them to stop doing what they're doing. If they repent, forgive them, which means I can restore fellowship with them. I can't go out and have dinner with them and spend time with them and do things like I used to because no, you don't get it. You keep... And as long as... And we keep wanting me loving and go the extra mile and turn the other cheek, but it's got to a point where you're a manipulator. We're incorrigible. You're not listening. And it's destructive. The tongue is a mighty fire. You know? And so if we try appeasement as Neville Chamberlain did with Hitler, they become twice the enemy of hell. I've tried appeasement. Oh, take wrong. Appease them. Okay. Well, after you do that a few times, you realize, you know what? This person doesn't get it. They're not listening to the Holy Spirit. Appeasement's enablement. They need a good lesson. So you take in first Corinthians five, you let the Lord spank them a bit. Hebrews 12, you let the Lord spank them. Wake them up. Get them back in line. To the assembly, resist division. To the accused, resolve your differences. Thirdly and finally, to his assistant, remind the distracted. Verse three. And I entreat thee also true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel. So you die some thinking labored with Paul when he was there plant this church. He's saying to Epaphroditus, you know, speak to these guys. Help them to resolve their differences. This is just a huge distraction. Let's get back to the work. Think of how much work we can get done. Think of how much progress we can get if the enemy doesn't deceive us by dividing us and distracting us. With Clement also and with the other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life. So he says Epaphroditus, my yoke fellow, my partner in plowing and pioneering this work. Remind the saints to not be distracted. I believe distraction is the key element in the world today. We're being distracted from the keeping the main thing the main thing. Jesus is coming again. Our objective is to win souls, to win people to Christ, to teach the gospel, to preach the word of God, to teach the word of God, to make disciples, to steal our minds and get us ready mentally, spiritually for suffering, to equip the saints, get ready for battle. The Pollyanna days are over. This is gonna get ugly. Get them ready, Rick. Get them ready. And then to minister one another as the norms break down, the normal old world breaks down. And we in the power of the Holy Spirit, we're able to love. We're able to endure. We're able to keep the main thing the main thing. We all participate in getting the gospel out. We all will share in the rewards. The men, the women, the children, all of us will be able to say, are not you my joy and crown of rejoicing? I think of my friend Glenn that invited me to church when I was 20 years old. He's gonna be able to stand there that day and say, aren't not you my crown of rejoicing? When I invited you to church and you heard the gospel for the first time and got saved that night, Rick? I'll say, yeah, Glenn. Thank you so much. Thank you so much that you reached out to me, invited me to go to church that night. You tricked me. You said it was a concert, but but thank you so much. One man sows another waters and God brings the increase. Rejoice not, Jesus said, not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven in the lamb's book of life. Keep the main thing the main thing. Stay the course. Don't be distracted. Our names are in the book of life. Are not you my joy and crown of rejoicing? Is your name in the book of life? Is it? Do you know that you know that you know that you belong, that you're his? If not, we'd say Houston. We have a big, big problem here. Father, come before you and Lord, we just pray that you would help us to love, Lord. Why are we commanded to love, Lord? We understand, Lord. Because it doesn't come natural. You have to command us to do it. We have to volitionally think about it and do it. It's not always an emotion. It's not always comes easy for us. But Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit, you put that love in our hearts, and we act by faith in doing what you've called us, instructed us, and taught us to do. And Lord, we're just blown away how we're set free when we choose to love and not hate. How the chemicals in our belly dissipates. We don't have the acid in our throat. We don't have the sleepless nights. We we don't have that stewing of bitterness. But Lord, there's peace. There's joy. There's blessing. Lord, I remember when my dad got saved and Lord, he was so tormented with the divorce. But after he got saved, he prayed for my mom. My dad was set free from that anger, that hatred. And Lord, we just thank you for the work of your Holy Spirit in teaching us to love. None of us arrived. Some of us are more loving than others. Some of us, Lord, are just dumbest stumps. But, Lord, I thank you that you can take a stump and you can make it grow. You can cause a graft. You can you can cause it to to have new shoots that spurt out, Lord. Fruit of the spirit is love. Lord, we wanna bear much fruit, much love for your kingdom and glory. So give us wisdom, lead and guide our steps, help us to not fall in the traps of the wicked one, the deception, the traps, the tricks, the ways that he tries to get us to hate and to divide, be distracted, and to be neutralized, ineffective in these last days in the winning of souls. Lord, give us open doors that no man can shut. And, I thank you. I appreciate. I thank you so much for each and every person here this morning, those who couldn't be here, those that Kathy and I have the privilege of fellowshipping with. And Lord, I pray that we together one day would be rejoicing in your presence, that crown of rejoicing watching what you did as we work together as a body of believers here in Bremerton in serving you, Lord. And Lord, we do it for you to be glorified. We do it for your kingdom and your glory that you'd be well pleased. And while your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed as you continue to pray, is there anyone here this morning? Your name's not written on the Lamb's Book of Life. You're not a believer. You don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, but you want to. The Holy Spirit's tugging on your heart. And the Holy Spirit's showing you the cross of Calvary, the finished work of Jesus. Showing you that Jesus died for your sins, that he paid for your sins, but you have not appropriated that free gift. You have a confidence in yourself that you're a good person, but there's none righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. And whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. What must I do to be saved? Believe, Paul told the Philippian jailer. Believe. Do you believe? You believe there's one God, do well. The demons also believe and tremble. What's it mean to believe, to trust, to depend upon the finished work of Jesus Christ, to be born again, to enter into relationship with him whereby he comes into your heart and life. He reveals himself to you even now. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up. We wanna pray with you. Father, thank you for this little flock. Thank you for being the chief shepherd, the good shepherd, the great shepherd over the sheep. And thank you, Lord, that we collectively, Lord, can follow you, that we hear your voice. You know us, and we follow you, Lord. Help us ever more to not engage, not be neutralized, not be bogged down with the distractions that the enemy's devising against us, Lord, in the church world today. Help us be set free from all the rancor, all the hate, all the evil. And to be led by your Holy Spirit, speaking the truth in love. 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.
