Simple Faith

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, coming to you from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we bring you Pastor Bill's weekly prophecy update. He'll be taking a look at current events and he's going to share how they relate to end times prophecy we read in the Bible. Obviously, there's a lot going on in the world, so let's get right to it. Here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Henry: Hello and welcome to Simple Faith Radio. What a blessing it is to be here with you this week as we always take the weekend—Friday, Saturday, Sunday—the program and just talk mainly about things that are happening in the world today and within the church today in light of living in the last days. I firmly believe that as we see Israel having become a nation once again, just as God told us over and over and over and over again in the Old Testament and into the New, that He would bring them back to the land. That is the people of Israel.

They don't need to take DNA tests, Tucker Carlson. These are the people of God. It doesn't mean they're saved. Matter of fact, unless they've repented of their sins, believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and have been born again, they are not saved. But they are still God's chosen people and He's not finished working with them. Many places throughout the word of God tell us this, no more specific, by the way, than in Romans chapter 11. That says what's happening today, even as we see anti-Semitism continuing to raise in the church.

Today we could talk about the new Ayatollah that's been appointed there in Iran as the war continues there in the Middle East. We could talk about the deception. I was watching a thing just yesterday at one of the Christian news agencies and it was showing all the basically—I call it propaganda—right now against ICE and how these stories are coming out in CBS News or CNN News or these other news agencies. They're flat out lying and twisting what's happening with ICE and happening on the streets.

The interesting thing is you watch the story and what they say exactly, then you go watch the event. That's the neat part about today is we don't have to trust what people say. We can go and look and see. Let's watch the event ourselves and we see that this 16-year-old girl—this is one example—who basically on the news was saying, "16-year-old girl says she was threatened by ICE," just an innocent little girl not doing anything.

Then it shows the video and this girl's yelling and screaming and cursing and then starts to get to the point where she's starting to physically come towards them and they say, "Look, back off or you're going to get pepper sprayed." That actually was a nice thing to say instead of just pepper spraying. But the news twists it around and they continue to do this. It's so wicked.

We could talk about that. We could talk about the rising anti-Semitism even within the church, which we've talked about a lot, but they continue to grow. There's continuing to be new things that happen every day. But my heart today was there was a few things that I feel the Lord's putting on my heart today to share with you and that's: where are you with your church? Where are you with your home church? Are you plugged in? And are you serving and using the gifts?

It's so funny people at our fellowship because I'll talk about how we need to be reading the word of God. We need to be seeking to obey the word of God as best we can by the grace of God. We're still going to fail every day. We need to be serving. We need to be tithing. We need to be fasting and do all the things that Jesus has told us to do throughout His word. We're going to fail at them, but that's still our goal. That's still what we shoot for: the holiness, to be holy as He who has called us is holy. That's just Christianity 101.

A lot of people when they hear that, they hear basically, "You have to do these things to be saved." No, you do these things because we are saved. This is the outworking of our salvation. This is God working in and through us for His good pleasure. And His good pleasure is going to want to be to seek obedience to God the Father because that's what Jesus came and He did.

My point is this. I was having a conversation with a fellow the other day and it was right as we literally had to drive away. We have another appointment and so I couldn't really address it. We've known this fellow for—not really known him-known him—but been an acquaintance for a couple years. He does some work on some of our vehicles. As I'm leaving, he knows I'm a pastor and he's like, "Yeah, I'm going snow skiing this weekend and that's my church." He kind of looks at me like, "That's my church." I just kind of looked sideways at him and I didn't have a chance to reply. He starts walking away and I have to go.

Look, guys and gals, I know a lot of people say that. And a lot of people maybe have been hurt. I know that he was hurt at his church. So I always try to be very slow to speak in those kind of situations. I know we can all come up with quick retorts and sadly that's what a lot of the internet is teaching us today too. A lot of your social media is just to come up with a quick little snippet instead of stepping back and praying and saying, "Lord, what would be the best thing? I know this guy's been hurt and how can I minister?"

Because here's the thing: the body of Christ needs him. If he truly is born again of the Spirit of God, the body of Christ needs him. And if you're a Christian and you've been hurt by a church or maybe you've sinned and you just fell away or you've gotten into—I know a lot of people that during COVID decided, "Hey, I don't need to go to church anymore. I'll just watch online." That's not Christianity. Be so very careful.

Going to the mountains to snow ski, can you behold the glory of God? Of course you can. I ride a motorcycle. I love to ride a motorcycle and so I'll go on rides and we go up by a lake and I'll bring my laptop and my Bible and I'll study for Sundays. I love being out in the outdoors. I used to love to surf. I used to love to snow ski and things like that until I tweaked my knee and my back and can't wait for the new body.

But my point is those things aren't church. You can behold the beauty of God. It's revealed to us. We read in Romans chapter 1 and other places that God's grandeur is revealed to us. But as Hebrews chapter 1 clearly states, the main way that He's been revealed to us in these last days is through His Son, Jesus Christ.

A lot of people, whether you've been hurt, whether you've gotten into a routine of sinfulness and not going to church, maybe you've moved and it's hard to find a new church, or maybe the church is too far. I don't know. But again, I'm not talking to shut-ins, people who can't get out. I'm not talking to people in prison right now, which I know some of you listening are those things. You can't do those things.

Try to find fellowship in your prison. I know there's fellowships in prisons. Try to find fellowship even as a shut-in as you can. Let a pastor know by the way, "Hey, I'm watching your studies every Sunday and I feel like I'm part of your church." Email them, call them, let them know.

But here's the thing: most of the rest of us, that might be 5% of the people that I'm talking to, if even that. The rest of us, maybe you've gotten into a bad routine. Again, maybe you've been hurt, maybe you hurt somebody, maybe it's sin, maybe it's other things, or maybe it's even fear. Look, guys and gals, that's not the spirit God has given us.

We need to remember in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24, it says this: "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and to good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." So let's break that down real quick. "Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works." Part of being in the body of Christ is to stir each other up.

We come together on Sundays and Wednesday nights, maybe a men's breakfast on a Saturday morning—we do that once a month—or the sewing ministry or other ministries that people have. So many neat ministries: teens ministry, young adult ministries, women's ministries. I just love it that we go there and we should be going there to disciple one another and to be discipled by others.

I think we've forgotten about Christianity being discipleship, the basics of discipleship. When we go to church, we should be able to sit under a pastor who is discipling us. We take notes. Be note-takers at church because you're a student under that pastor. You're a disciple under that pastor. You follow them as they follow Christ. Notice, you don't follow Christ through them. You follow Christ as they follow Christ. In other words, they're an example to you.

Paul writes that. He said basically, "I'm an example. If I'm following Christ, follow me. If I'm not, don't." And so again, not that your pastor has your relationship with God for you. That's totally wrong too. That's the other side of this whole thing. But know that you have your relationship with God. You're on fire for Jesus Christ and you come as a student.

I still go. I'm 63 years old. I go to pastors' conferences. I go to other men's things and I sit there and I have my notes open and I'm writing my notes with my Bible open. I always take notes because it helps me pay attention and it helps remind me that I'm not some old guy that's now so much in the faith that I have it all down. No, I go there humbly and I humble myself. I'm a student right now and I come to learn. Help me to grow in my walk with Jesus Christ.

So even when we go to church, we should go to church first as disciples of Christ and also to stir one another up. Who can I stir up in their faith? How can I get somebody excited about Jesus today here at church? Remember, church, yes, we are the church. Paul also told Timothy, he instructed them when you come together as the church to a building basically, that is a different thing too.

That's what the writer of Hebrews here is talking about. "Let us consider when we come together how to stir each other up to love and to good works." Hey, how can I pray for you? Hey, how's your walk with Jesus going? Oh, you're kind of down today. Let me pray for you. Do you want to get together, have lunch, and we can go over God's word and what it says? So again, not just about football or baseball or how's the job going or how are the kids. Those are all cool things to talk about, but let's talk about Jesus first and foremost.

But he goes on to say, "not neglecting the meeting together, as is the habit of some." Maybe that's you. Maybe you started out in COVID. I know a lot of pastors that started out in COVID and they were closed. I remember five weeks as a church and then we reopened even though we weren't supposed to because we knew something weird was going on because all of a sudden they're saying, "Yeah, the pot stores can stay open, the liquor stores can stay open, Costco can stay open, but not churches." Okay, something's way off here.

A lot of pastors I noticed got used to being closed. They're closed for a year, two years, some of them up in our area. People got used to staying home. That was the habit. That's the habit that they came into. Look, guys and gals, there came maybe a little time for us to stay home and see what's really happening because I think we were lied to in the midst of most of that. But again, we don't have that spirit of fear.

So whatever your habit has become of staying home, again, maybe you've moved to a new area, whatever the habit is, don't neglect the meeting together. We're to meet together as the body of Christ. Come together because you have gifts. We're to be those who come to church and not just to be encouraged, which a lot of us are. We need encouragement these days. But also to encourage one another.

The Lord's been doing some neat things in my life. I had a hard time in this part, but man, in this part, oh, the Lord's just so good. He's been showing me this in His word and as I was fasting last week, He kind of helped me overcome this and it's just been such a neat thing. To be those who are excited and encouraging one another in the faith.

Notice he says here at the end of this little portion here in Hebrews chapter 10, "and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." Now I can tell you I've taught this in church, I've taught this over the years, I've read through it so many times and to be honest I kind of always ignored that last part, "as you see the Day drawing near." It wasn't until COVID hit and all this other weird stuff and all the deceit that I realized oh, man, we look and we see the Day's drawing near. We see Israel, we see the church falling away, we see all these other things happening around us.

When we look around and we see this world falling apart, lawlessness increasing just like never before. It's so funny I read these statistics. "Oh, it's incredible. All these murders are going down, this is going down, that's going down." Now part of it could be because they're getting rid of a lot of the criminal illegal immigrants here and that's a whole another story. But I mean people who, yes, they're here illegally, so they're already criminals, but those who have also broken other laws.

A lot of those are being taken up by ICE, and a lot of people freely left. But I still don't believe the stats, I'll be honest with you, because even like we live here outside of Portland, Oregon. We're on the Washington side, but we're a suburb still of Portland. We've over the years noticed that the DA there in Portland, they don't enforce the laws like they're supposed to.

So all of a sudden what does that do? A lot of the police officers aren't enforcing a lot of the laws anymore because of other things. And I don't blame a lot of the police officers. I do blame the DA. I think they should be arrested for ignoring their oath to the Constitution, the federal and the state. Anyway, all of a sudden what does that mean? Well, the crime stats are going to go down. Crime hasn't gone down. Matter of fact, crime has gone up, but the stats go down. And so they've learned this and so it's pretty wicked but again, it's a lot of deception.

As we're living in these days, we see the Day drawing near. Let's be those who need to be part of a fellowship. I need to be not just out on the golf course, not just in my backyard or up on the ski slopes or in the surfing saying, "This is my church." No, that's not your church. It might be a great place for you and the Lord as you're maybe praying, but church is the body of Christ.

And we're to come together, not neglecting that. Why? Well, I'd say the main reason why is because as we come together, we need to remember 1 Corinthians really talks about this as you get into chapters 12, 13, 14, and 15 even, just that we are the body of Christ. And the Bible is so clear that each one of us has been given gifts.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 11, it says, "But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills." The Holy Spirit has given you and I gifts. Now, I know guys—I was talking to a guy the other day—he was a pastor and for years he was a men's pastor. He started a church plant and didn't really go too well, so he went back to his church. But he just wasn't treated very well by the lead pastor and different things and so he told me he's church hopping and he likes it because there's no real pressure on him basically.

I talked to another fellow the other day who was a worship leader and he's just happy that he's not really having to lead worship anymore because he got kind of burned out and he's just kind of playing guitar or doing drums. I've heard other people still say that, "My pastor burned me out. He just kind of used me and didn't really pour into me." I'll ask them, "Well, what did your pastor talk to you about your family or about how did he pray with you with your walk?" And then he's like, "Well, what are you talking about?"

Some of these worship leaders, they'll go from church to church. And I'm talking really good musicians, really gifted musicians. And they won't use their gifts anymore because they'll go to this church and the pastor will ask them to lead worship. And we're talking big churches. I know guys and they'll be at this church for a year, but then after a year or two when they get kind of old news, the pastor kicks them out.

I was talking to one fellow and he worked at all these big huge churches: Promise Keepers back in the late 90s and 2000s and other places. But these big churches would take him in, he'd be there for two or three years and never minister to him, never seek to disciple him. It was really sad. But again, it's a common thread that I see. I know guys that come to our church, they don't want to lead worship. They've been leading worship for years, but they don't want to lead because they've been burned out.

Now here's the sad part. They have these gifts that God has given to them and they don't want to use them. They've been hurt and I totally get that. I've been there, honestly. So we have pastors that aren't teaching the word of God. We have worship leaders that aren't leading worship. What's your gift? If you're attending church, are you using your gifts? Because we need you to help stir us up as well.

We do that by using the gifts. I love how the Bible talks about that we're the body of Christ and it uses the example: we're not all big toes, eyeballs, or ears. But have you ever tried to run if you have a broken toe? You can't run with a broken toe. Even your little pinky, you might be able to jog a little bit, but your toes are so important to be able to walk and to be able to run. And yet if you don't have one of those toes, it messes up the whole thing.

You might say, "Gosh, I don't have any big gifts. I'm not a big worship leader, I'm not even a teacher." Well, maybe you have the gift of encouragement. Maybe you're like Barnabas and you're just a son of encouragement. You like to encourage people. Maybe your gift is joy, or hospitality. All these different gifts. Maybe God has gifted you in making money. All these different things that God can use for His glory.

Don't just think, "Well, I'm just a little toe and nobody cares about me." No, without you we're not at 100%. If you're an elbow, we all have gifts. And if you've been neglecting coming together as a body, can I encourage you to find a good Bible teaching church? I believe in expositional teaching. That means they're teaching through the Bible every week—either a chapter or verse by verse—they're going through the word of God year by year.

Find a church that's doing that. But also find a church that is full of love. We've had people say, "Oh, we need a holier church," and they'll find a holier church and oh yeah, they're holy all right, but they also don't have any love. It's very cold. Be careful of that. You can be holy and you can be loving at the same time. Find a church, get plugged in. If you have to drive an hour each way, that's nothing compared to what they do in certain parts of the world where they'll walk three or four hours just for a few hours of fellowship and then walk back home.

We need to be those willing, especially in these days. Don't neglect meeting together. And when you do, use your gifts! Don't just sit there and take it all in. Don't just be a spectator because there's no such thing in Christianity. Use the gifts that God has given you. If you don't know how, go talk to your pastor. Pray with him. Seek the Lord. Look through His word and ask other people around you who are Christian, "What gifts do you see?" Then go get involved in one of the ministries at church.

If you don't know, I would say start where you can. Start by sweeping floors and vacuuming and setting chairs up. Anybody can do that, yet most people don't. Start by helping out in the kids' ministry. Start by being an usher. These are simple things, but most people don't do them in the church today. And we need you. We need everybody. The church, it's all hands on deck right now with the way the world is because the world needs Jesus. And we come together to be strengthened, to be stirred up, and then we go out and be the body of Christ. We be the light. We be the salt.

Hey, time goes quick. I pray that you were blessed today and challenged a little bit. I know I always like to remind you that you've been prayed for. May the Lord bless you and keep you, make His face shine upon you and just have a great rest of the week or this coming week in Jesus Christ. We'll see you here, there, or in the air. God bless.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you Pastor Bill's weekend prophecy update. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today. If you'd like to hear today's message again, go to oneplace.com and search for Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry.

We also have a large number of Pastor Bill's Sunday and Wednesday messages archived at simplefaith.org. That's our website. Just go there and click the media tab and you'll find a huge archive of Pastor Bill's past messages. And if you'd like to contact us, just click the contact tab at our website, again it's simplefaith.org.

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Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have three services on Sunday morning at 8:00, 9:45, and 11:30. We also have a great time of studying God's word on Wednesday night at 7:00. For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks for joining us today. Be sure to join us next time here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington.