• Raul Ries, 1 Corinthians 15:50-58

• Reading (Pastor Dale)
• • We often fail because we are not watching faithfully for the beginnings of evil.
  • If we are praying for temptation to not overtake us, it will be difficult for the enemy to catch us off guard.
• Saturday’s paper
• • Channel 40 – exposed abusing 50 million dollars
• Doctrinal study
• • You need to know theology
  • How can you teach if you have not studied theology?
  • You need to understand different views so that you can make it clear when you teach
• v50
• • There is a generation that is not going to die
  • Harpadzo
  • • Rapture, snatching away
  • Rapture passages
  • • John 14:1-3
    • • Coming of the Lord and rapture of the church
    • Php 3:20-21
    • 1Thess 4
    • Heb 10:36
    • 1 Jn 3
  • Eschatology is one of the doctrines that people really have a problem with
  • Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God
  • • You can’t enter heaven in this body, you have to die or your body has to be transformed
  • All thru New Testament
  • • Narrow path, very few find it
    • Not everyone who says Lord Lord enters the kingdom of God
  • "millions in the church would be left behind if Jesus came back today. I really believe that."
  • • Think of all the compromise we have going on today
    • If you really believe He is coming, then why are you not living in holiness?
  • Pastor Chuck, even with his cancer still shows up to the office every day and teaches 4 times on Sunday
  • • Important to have that love and passion for Christ or you will burn out
    • Hireling vs Servant of God
• v51
• • Sleep – Die
  • Metatouta – Changed – transformation
  • Imagine what it will be like for people who know you when you are gone
  • • Imagine the emptiness and disappointment
    • Those who are left behind
  • Mystery – Something that has been revealed
• v52
• • The moment you die you are in the presence of the Lord
• v53
• • This corruptible – the body
• v54
• • Death is overcome, victory has taken place Because of Jesus Christ
  • The rapture has not happened yet because God is not willing that any should perish
  • Does Ezekiel 38-39 happen before or after the rapture?
  • • The church may see the battle of gog and magog
    • "I personally believe that Ezekiel 38-39 will happen right before the rapture of the church."
    • If they Lord came today, imagine the anxiety of those in the church who were not taken
    • • So much compromise!!!
• v56
• • The law condemns sinners
• v57
• • Jesus gives us the victory over sin & death!
• v58
• • If you are serving Christ you are not wasting time.
  • If you are going to be in ministry, you need to be spiritual
  • • Prayer life
    • Bible study time
    • Loving and sensitive to meet people’s spiritual needs

Pastor Dale Goddard, What is your ambition this morning?

• Conference Yesterday
• • Good changes at Calvary Chapel
  • • Knowledge has increased greatly
    • God stands by His Word
  • Bad changes too
  • I try to get away from green rooms
  • • Sometimes it becomes about who is there instead of the Lord
  • The body of Christ is often first concerned about who will be there.
  • • If God’s Word stands alone, then go!
    • It doesn’t matter who is there, or who is sharing, as long as the Word is there.
    • Eliteness, superiority
    • • Misled ambition
      • Ambition can be good, but not always
  • Example of Romain, pointing out pastors who were gathered together and not available to the people.
  • • Just think what would happen if those older pastors allowed the younger pastors to glean from them.
• What is your ambition this morning?
• • What do you want to accomplish?
  • Why do you want to accomplish it?
  • Where do you want to be?
  • This is a sin that can subtly ensnare you.
• Example
• • Gathered all the servants, gave them titles, deacon and elder
  • • Everyone loved it, thought it was great.
  • Next day, people used their new titles to demand others to obey them.
  • • They wanted badges with their names…
• If you have elders in your church, they know they are, because they know the Word.
• Unapproachable ministers
• • The way they dress changes
  • Air of superiority
  • They started serving in humility
  • It is What they have become as a result of their ambition.
  • God never intended that anyone be unapproachable
  • • If you want to be the greatest, be the servant of all
• You need to take time to read the Bible and be reminded that you are nothing.
• Philippians 3
• v1
• • Same thing again and again, because we don’t get it
  • What are you doing purposely to keep your people safe?
  • • When you spend 45 minutes telling jokes, what will keep them safe?
    • What is your concern for the people you teach?
    • You have to teach them to keep them safe!
• Yesterday’s conference
• • Some got standing ovations….they are the ones who entertained.
  • • If you look for that standing ovation – misled ambition.
  • More jokes than content and weight
  • Principles and truth are here to stay
  • Fools eat up the entertaining messages/speakers
  • Some of the greatest expositors pastor churches of 50, 60 and 70
  • Sad to say…saw no prayer in the green room.
• We get a lot of slack about not letting high schoolers have a separate service on Sunday
• • Norman Geislure
  • • 70% of high schoolers who do not sit in the main sanctuary, do not keep going to church after high school. Of the 70% who leave, 20% will come back.
    • If high schoolers sit in the main sanctuary, 70% will still leave, but 50% will come back
• v2-3
• • No confidence in the flesh
  • • Don’t try to be somebody you are not.
    • When you let God use you the way you are, that is a sign you are not confident in the flesh.
• v4-7
• • These I have counted loss
  • • What the world counts as good, I count as nothing at all.
• v8
• • Paul’s goal: the knowledge of Jesus Christ
  • • Right ambition!
• v9-10
• • Correction Ambition: That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering…
  • • To be with the Father
  • That I May Know Him
  • You can pick out someone who knows the Lord in ministry
  • • You can pick them out by this: they are approachable
• Ways To Know Him
• • Know Him In History
  • • Don’t just say you know Jesus
    • 50 people got saved!
    • • I’m worried that you think it is all real
      • Maybe 1 out of 50 truly received Christ
      • Many are called, few are chosen
    • History of Christ is the gospel
    • Know Him from Genesis – Revelation
  • Know Him As He Is Today
  • • Know He is alive and well
    • • Same yesterday, today and forever
    • You have to know Him today to approach God
    • You can’t get people to heaven by having them attend your classes
    • • They need to know Jesus
    • People do not feel like they are saved because they do not know the Jesus of today
  • Know Him In A Familiar Way
  • • Do I know the Christ of Ephesians and Galatians?
    • • Christ in us
      • Christ with us
    • Are you familiar with Christ that way?
    • Get the stickers off your car, unless you are willing to live with Christ in you and with you
    • If you do not, you will not depend on Him
    • People act differently at church, because they do not know Christ in them and with them
  • How is it possible for me to know Jesus?
  • • Frustrating to see leaders and people live as though Christ is a name, or picture, or someone in the past
    • Writers today do not go deep
    • • Our ministers and pastors are relying on their peers instead of what God wants to give them
• Know Him because He is alive
• • Bodily, John 20
  • • More doubting Thomases today than ever before
  • Victoriously, Revelation
  • • He exists because He overcame death
  • Active
  • • Do you see Him every day?
    • See Him working in others? In correction? In His grace?

• Pastor Dale Goddard
• Raul – exhorted pastors regarding revival
• You say revive us, but you stand before Him as an unholy sacrifice
• How are we giving to God today?
• Not our money, but ourselves.
• Do we prepare the sacrifice, or do we show up unprepared?
• Only one thing you can give God that He doesn’t already own…yourself
• And He won’t force you.
• There are people in your ministry that have openly disregarded holiness, if you don’t approach them, then you are part of the problem.
• How are we going to keep the house of the Lord clean and holy?!
• 2 Peter
• Not many apostles known well…Peter is one of the most well known…most noted for the things he did wrong.
• Peter was like us
• At times he was bold
• At times he was afraid
• At times did the wrong thing
• At times he knew the Bible
• At times he knew Christ more intimately than anyone
• At times he was faithless
• Nobody loved the Lord more than Peter did
• Worst position to be in, to know Christ, yet be unable to give Christ what He asks for…all of you.
• Peter is writing this, near death
• There must be growth in your life
• Most beautiful thing in the world – new life
• Ugliest thing in the world – death
• The end comes…end of your life, end of your ministry, etc
• Only way to get through is to know the whole story
• How do I get my people ready for my death?
• Teach them about the return of Jesus
• Warn them about scoffers & false teachers
• Teach them to grow
• To not sit and have it go in one ear and out the other
• Nothing can stop you when you grow
• Trees destroy concrete
• Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God
• Jonathan Edwards taught this message
• People were sobbing with conviction
• When we teach our people to grow
• Lives are changed, walls are broken, spiritual strongholds are demolished
• How important is spiritual growth to you?
• If it is not important, you will fall.
• If you are born of the Spirit you have heard God’s voice.
• 2 Peter 1:1-4
• All that you HAVE on the day you die belongs to someone else.
• All that you ARE on the day you die is yours forever.
• Are you known for many things, or many virtues?
• Virtuous woman is measured by what she does, not what she has.
• God has so many blessings He wants to give you.
• I’d rather have faith in love everlasting, than faith that I’ll be able to pay my rent.
• Your ministry may be full…but what are the people really worth?
• Have you tickled their ears, or convicted their conscience?
• Have you contributed to their growth?
• Pastor Raul doesn’t just hand someone a dollar, but holds their hand and says Can I pray for you. Now they have something that lasts and changes.
• We all want to be partakers of the divine nature
• That is, more like Christ
• When we fail to grow, we become so stupid.
• One day of unaddressed sin begins the journey of destruction.
• We have to be broken before God!
• 2nd day of unaddressed sin, becomes easier.
• 3rd time, we become numb.
• We fail to grow in this.
• Escaped the corruption
• You are being chased down!
• You are fleeing from something
• The man who doesn’t know it, is destined for failure.
• If you find no harm in watching things you shouldn’t.
• Or be familiar with things you shouldn’t.
• You can now play with fire and it doesn’t burn you…
• 2 Peter 1:5-
• Giving all diligence, ADD
• Message of growth, not standing still
• Necessity of growth
• We subtract when we don’t do things.
• How have you added today to your spirituality?
• Peter knows what he is talking about
• Not one apostle has a more dramatic change than Peter
• Change cannot come from something purchased
• Change can only happen when empowered with supernatural power
• Virtue
• Think on these things
• Knowledge
• Two words for knowledge.
• Gnosis
• Epignosis
• Full knowledge, growing knowledge, continual knowledge
• Don’t ever think you know it all
• New birth is most beautiful… When knowledge is birthed it is beautiful.
• New Christian, want to know all of God, thirsty for more of Him.
• Are you content with the drop of knowledge you had in the beginning?
• He has so much more for you! And it will keep you from sin

Today was a blessed day at Calvary Chapel South Bay for the annual leadership conference! They finished off the conference with Pastor Chuck sharing a very encouraging message. My notes are below.

If you would like to see my notes from the other sessions, you can always find them here: https://www.evernote.com/pub/pastorjerrys/takingnotes

• Chuck Smith – Habakkuk
• • God has a ministry for each of us.
  • • There are so many opportunities.
  • Habakkuk 1
  • • Have you ever had the problem, where it seems like God is not responding when you call out to Him?
    • • It is a trying challenge
    • Prophet was concerned as the nation was going down
    • • Became a violent society
      • Legal system corrupted
      • Enforcement of the law was broken
    • Habakkuk’s complaint, why do you let me see these things?
    • • I’d rather be ignorant than to see them and not see you doing anything about it
    • God says, if I told you what I am doing, you would not believe it (v5)
    • • Habakkuk questions, why would you use a worse nation than us to being judgment?
  • Habakkuk 2
  • • You are not going to understand God’s plan, but the just shall live by faith
    • It is going to get worse, you are going to have to trust God through it
    • • The end result is going to be good
  • Habakkuk 3
  • • The prophet expresses his victory of faith
    • • I’m terrified, I don’t understand, but keep doing Your work
      • I may complain, but don’t listen to me
    • Our problems arise because our reasoning is in conflict with our faith
    • • Our reasoning is flawed because we don’t have all the facts
      • Jacob – concluded Joseph was killed because he saw his coat with blood…grieved for years over his death…but he did not know all the facts
      • We often make mistakes in judgment because we don’t have the facts
      • • Don’t draw conclusions until you have the whole story
      • In our reasoning we often leave God out of the equation
      • • God is working behind the scenes, even though you cannot see what He is doing
        • It takes real faith to say, God I don’t know why this is happening to me, but I believe you are working
    • The victory and triumph of faith
    • • v17, cannot get more desperate than that
      • v18, yet I will rejoice in the Lord
      • • Rejoice – ahlaz – to jump up and down
        • Joy – I will spin around
        • Real faith jumps for joy at the promises of God
        • • Even in the darkest situations
      • The prophet is now including God in the equation, so he can rejoice even in the same situation
      • • God in the equation makes all the difference in the world
        • The Lord has resources that you know nothing about
        • We usually try to figure it out, and then direct God how to do it
        • • We panic when God doesn’t follow our directions
        • Not for me to figure out how He can do it, but just trust that He will do it
      • We can’t always rejoice in our situations
      • • Many times our situations call for mourning
        • But we rejoice in the Lord, not our situations
        • The outlook may be bleak, but the uplook is glorious!!
        • • He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can think!!!
      • If you look up you will discover that He is still on the throne

This week we began our journey through the Bible In 3 Years. Already it has been an exciting week as many people have engaged and participated.

As I have been answering the questions that are coming in I found myself figuring out and trying to communicate different levels confidence or belief in the subjects at hand. Some ideas are speculation while others are essential doctrines.

Speculation can be fun and interesting, but those ideas do not hold the weight of other truths. So I put together a Sound Doctrine Scale to easily communicate this when I am answering questions.

You can sign up to receive the questions and answers by e-mail at this link…
The Bible In 3 Years List

The Bible In 3 Years: www.cclivingwater.com/3