Vision – Pt. 4

Ron Weinland

January 29, 2011

Today is a continuation of the sermon series entitled Vision with today being Part 4.  As usual, we need to go back and review a little of the end of the sermon from last Sabbath; and we do this on a regular basis in sermon series mainly because it gives you a week to spiritually digest what is given, and that’s important.  As you digest those things, just like with any kind of food, it’s a spiritual thing, by the time a week is up and you digested some of those things being given we can go back and review a little bit of what was covered and you’re actually able to drink in more, or partake more of that which God gives spiritually.  And so it’s a building process and it’s an exciting process we go through; and each time, too, a little bit more can be added when we do have a review to help us understand things in a deeper and more powerful way.  So it’s an awesome process as God works with us.

Let’s go back to Matthew 24 for a quick review here of some things and then we’ll continue on.  In the sermon last Sabbath we read in Matthew 24, I’ll just mention verse 36 here - But of that day and hour no man knows/no one knows, is what it should be translated as; no, not the angels in heaven, but My Father only. And again, as I read this verse and think about it, I think about that which people throw back at different times – that’s the scripture they come to when they hear, “Oh, you’re a prophet huh?  ...and it’s going to be May 27, 2012.  Well, no man knows the day or the hour.”  That’s what they come back with.  They don’t understand.  You can’t even begin to teach them what that’s about!  The best you can do is try to help them to understand in a physical way, a carnal way, a human way, that some basic scriptures that God gave which is a part of this as well if you want to talk about the actual time, is that God’s going to reveal it to His prophets, things that He does on the earth, before they happen (of such magnitude).  And that’s about the best you can do, and they’re not going to accept that anyway unless their minds are being opened or drawn or whatever it is.

But this here is a spiritual matter, and it isn’t about that; it isn’t about the actual time!  I hope we see that real clear at this point in time now as we’ve been going through this series, to understand it’s far deeper than that, it’s a spiritual thing in every way and the meaning that’s contained here is really quite awesome and it’s a great warning to us as well because that’s what Jesus Christ gave to the disciples to be carried on for the next 2,000 years for the Church.  It’s a warning; it’s an admonition, it’s an encouragement to do the right thing, to make sure we’re properly focused on the things we need to be focused upon.

And so again, the meaning of this, as we covered, is not about something of a physical day and a physical place or a physical time or so forth of Jesus Christ’s actual, literal time of return, or day of return and where He’s returning to.  And as we covered, the key to understanding this is in the expression used in the book of Revelation about Christ and the Kingdom of God because it’s about the Kingdom of God coming as a thief in the night, of Jesus Christ coming as a thief in the night.  And that’s the warning given back in Revelation.  So let’s take a look at that again.

We are going to take a look at the one in Revelation 3 in a moment, but Revelation 16:15 – again, just a quick review of this.  He said, Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and this is the admonition.  It’s about our spiritual well being, it’s about how we are dressed spiritually.  And it says, and they see his shame. So it’s about a spiritual condition and that which can be taken away from us if we’re not living as we should be and if we’re not watching, being alert and spiritually on guard.  And if we’re not doing the things we’re supposed to be doing then indeed, for us, for an individual in Gods Church (which is what it’s about), you can have taken from you what was given to you.

I’ve seen this over and over and over again in people’s lives since I’ve been in God’s Church; for whatever reasons when people begin to become weak and cut off from God and the flow of God’s spirit through sin, through neglect, through whatever it is, through just laziness or whatever it is in life, it doesn’t even have to be an outward sin in the sense of something that’s done as far as that which is blatant.  It just sometimes can be a result of just not applying oneself and living the way we should be living and kind of coasting and taking it easy.  We can’t do that in God’s Church!  This is a fight!  This has always been a fight!  You’ve got to fight for this way of life; and part of what it’s talking about – you have ‘to take the Kingdom of God by force’.  It’s a battle!  It’s not a casual walk or stroll, it’s a battle.  You’ve got to fight your own nature, you’ve got to fight power that’s in this world and pulls and so forth that are out there in order to live God’s way of life – because it’s not God’s world, yet.  We’re getting really close to that but it’s not God’s world yet.

And so after this particular verse here we then read about Sardis that reveals much more about all this; and in many ways is a key to understanding what is meant by all that Christ said in Matthew 24 and Mark 13.  So let’s read that again here, Revelation 3:1 - And unto the angel of the Church in Sardis write; and so if we know the history and understand the history of the seven eras of God’s Church through time in the past 2,000 years, we know that this is one of the latter eras before Philadelphia, before Mr. Armstrong was called to raise up the Church again in his time.  And so in this particular period of time we understand because of what was happening after Thyatira, after a beginning of time when religion began to spread more in the sense of not just being one primary organization in Europe anymore, but it began to spread to others as Luther pounded his theses on a church at one point in time there, the little thing he’d written up and some of the other things that groups that began to pop up here and there.  History began to change – things about what was known  as ‘Christian’ or this way of life (can’t say this way of life because it wasn’t taught by them), but things began to change in the world around us of what is called ‘Christianity’ even though the world doesn’t know what it is.

Again, this affected God’s Church.  It was always small, always scattered in different parts of Europe and so forth, and the battles they went through; but the time you get to Sardis and these things begin to take place and this freedom of so called ‘Christianity’ began to spread into different groups besides the Catholic church (it was the only one as a whole), things began to change and take a great toll upon God’s people and they began to let down, very powerfully so, and began to lose the truths that God had given to them.

And so it says, These things says He who has the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know your works, they weren’t noted for the work they were doing.  Works have to do with how you live your life, with how you live according to what God has given to you; because what has been given to you, if you don’t do what you’re supposed to do, if you don’t stay sharp spiritually, it can be taken from you. There are a lot of people in Sardis that Jesus Christ came as a thief in the night for them.  It’s not about the actual day of His coming; it’s about what happened to them spiritually.  And so He says, I know your works; because God has given us all work to do.  When He calls us, when we have our minds opened, we have a job to do and we can be a part of God’s work or we can let down and not yield ourselves to the power of God’s spirit working in us – because that’s what it’s all about.  God’s spirit working in us is about a change that can take place in our being, in our lives, in our mind, and we have to yield ourselves to that... and it takes work!

I know your works, you have a name that you live, and yet are dead. And so we’ve already talked about that. Be watchful, that same admonition...Be watchful, be on guard, be spiritually alert!  Don’t let it happen to you!  ...and strengthen the things which remain, you can say this for any period of time, whatever God has given you at any moment in time – strengthen them! Don’t let them become weak and watered down!  Hold onto them!  Understand the treasure that’s been given to you!  ...or like a thief, your treasure will be taken away.  If you don’t treasure what God has given to you and hold onto it with all of your being you can lose it, it can be gone, it can be taken from you.  And that’s what this is all about.  And Sardis is a perfect example of the warning given in Matthew 24, it truly is.

Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, in this case for Sardis anyway, that are ready to die: for I have not found your works perfect before God. And we have to look at our works.  What work are we doing?  Do we understand the work that God has given us to do?  Personally and as a Church; and our part in it all.

Remember therefore how you have received and heard, something we’re always to understand and grasp.  That’s why I have marvelled so often when the apostasy began to come, before it came and as it was there, and even later on in seeing some of the ones who were scattered and began to talk of Mr. Armstrong in terms of, “I learned great things from him.  He was a great teacher.”  But not acknowledging anymore that he was God’s apostle!  ...and that the ONLY REASON that they had ANY KNOWLEDGE and understanding of this way of life is because of what God did in and through him.  Where did you hear it?  How does God work?  You learned it through him, that’s where you learned it.  That’s not to worship the individual, it’s to understand how God works, how God teaches us, and yet so many in the ministry.... Well, look at the masses; that’s what they came to, not grasping anymore how they learned what they learned, that they wouldn’t be able to know anything about the Sabbath or the Holy Days or anything else save that God gave them these things through Mr. Armstrong, through the era of Philadelphia, through the work that was done in Philadelphia.

Remember therefore how you have received and heard, that’s why I encourage and admonish people, with all the truths past the 21 – those things are supposed to be important to us so we’ll never leave God’s Church, so that we’ll never become disillusioned or begin to doubt – and to understand the TREASURES that have been given to us!  It is awesome when you go back and look at what God has given to us!  It’s as awesome as what happened between Elijah and Elisha and the double-fold of God’s spirit that was poured out for a purpose; to continue to reveal what God is doing and where He’s working.  Incredible!  To give us encouragement and help – boldness!

Remember therefore how you received and heard, and hold fast, hold fast to what God has given to you, and repent. Because what God gives to us has to do with changes we have to make and with more understanding, with more knowledge, with more new truth, you know what generally confronts us?  We have to make some changes in our life which means, most often, repentance!

If you therefore shall not watch, be spiritually on guard, be spiritually alert, I will come on you as a thief, in other words, what you have, what you think you have is going to be taken from you.  That’s why I marvel that anyone in the last forty plus years that I’ve been in God’s Church...that anyone could come to a point in time where they think they can leave and it’s between them and God or that the truth now is someplace else, or whatever.  It blows the mind!  And yet they can’t help it because it’s a spiritual matter.  They can’t see anymore.  They become weak and can’t see.

So He says, I will come on you as a thief, and you... it’s all said here, what this is all about.  This is the key to it all, of understanding it – and this is said to Sardis a long time ago...and you shall not know what hour I will come unto you. They’re all dead.  Everyone who ever lived during Sardis is dead... dead, dead, dead, dead, dead.  They’re not looking for the return of Jesus Christ, they’re dead. They’re dust!  This is a spiritual matter and I hope that’s truly powerfully clear to us.

Verse 4 - You have a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white: for they are worthy. He who overcomes, in other words, conquers, overcomes – it’s a battle!  That’s what the word ‘overcome’ means.  ‘Overcomes’ - it’s a word used, it’s a term used in warfare - to conquer (the Greek word).  He who conquers/ he who overcomes, because it’s a battle, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out their name out of the book of life, but I will confess their name before My Father, and before His angels.  Whosoever has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the Churches.  Because all this is spiritual!

Let’s return now to Matthew 24.  Matthew 24:40 - Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.  Why?  What is this about in context of what we’re discussing?  Of what we’ve just read back in Sardis and those verses there?  Well, to understand these two verses, which have different lessons and applications that can be gleaned from them... because we’ve talked about different things in times past:  the primary teaching from Christ concerns what is to be gleaned from these workers, described as both in the field working to bring in the harvest and those who are helping, or working, to turn the harvest grain into food or nourishment for others.  It’s about work!  They’re working!  They’re workers, and the example is one of harvest and people working.  All the examples that are used – Pentecost, the Feast of Firstfruits - HARVEST, WORK that God is doing, bringing in the first harvest, the first great spring harvest!  That’s what Pentecost is all about!  The 144,000!  It’s ALL ABOUT HARVEST and the firstfruits of God! And now we live in a unique time because now we’re going from a spring harvest and the end of that process and that time into another harvest in time that God is working with that’ll go through the next thousand years and into the last hundred years – the great fall harvest – the Feast of Tabernacles period!

That’s what God talks about over and over again in scripture.  Jesus Christ talked about it over and over again, about the great harvest and our being a part of it; being in it and also having work to do when we’re in it.  We’re a part of God’s work – much work to be done!

So the example is one of harvest and people working because each of us is given a job to do.  From the moment of our calling we have choices to make and work to do.  First we start on self, we seek to conquer and overcome.  And then as time goes on we’re able to begin to even contribute more to the Body.  As we grow, we’re able to contribute more to the Body in every way – in our prayers, in our fellowship and so forth.  We become an important part of something that God is building, and it’s all needed.  Just like the fellowship – sometimes we don’t grasp the importance ...I know we do more and more, and people are grasping that more and more, especially all the new people are understanding that in a far greater way since the Feast of Tabernacles because they’ve experienced that in a very powerful way during those eight days.  And now it becomes far more important, and people understand far more meaningfully then what it’s all about and the importance then of people fellowshipping with one another.  There’s a power in that as there is a power in prayer or in fasting and so forth.  And so it’s all about a job and a work to be done and things that we do as God’s Church wherever God leads us and guides us and directs us.  We’re all a part of it.

That’s why I love how Mr. Armstrong would send out that letter to people who were a part of the Body and people who weren’t a part of the Body – and he called everyone ‘co-workers’.  Anyone that helped in any fashion or form –we’re all co-workers together.  There were a lot of people, thousands upon thousands who never took what they had received because they weren’t being called to it (God has to do that), but only came so far to a point where they’re convicted enough to help support what was being done; but they were still helping out, a part of God’s purpose and a part of God’s plan so that more could be done in the Body, in the Body that God had called and was working with in a very powerful way.  And all those people who helped, they’re going to be richly blessed in a resurrection.  They’ve already got a head start over most of the world.  Just whatever knowledge they gleaned, to whatever point they came to – they already have much, they truly do.

So again, how we apply ourselves to the task at hand, the work we do, is the means by which we’re judged as to whether we are truly doing the job given to us.

I want to go back and look a little more deeply right now at some of the verses we mentioned last Sabbath, that Johnny Harrell mentioned in his sermon; but I want to look at more of these verses now because this is directly connected to what we’re talking about back in 1 Corinthians 3.  Let’s pick up a few more of the verses in context here because it’s very powerful here.  Because this is what it’s all about.

1 Corinthians 3:9 - For we are labourers together, co-workers, with God: with God – Amazing!  God calls us to do a work.  He’s doing a work; He wants to share that with us.  He calls us so that a work can begin within each and every one of us, and then as we receive it... it reminds me of the scriptures that talk about grace.  If you understand what grace is, we’re not just on the receiving end; as we grow and we change and we respond to God’s spirit in our life in time that same grace will flow out of us because of God’s spirit to benefit others around us in family, in community – whether they understand it or not – and especially those whom God continues to call into the Church.  Grace, the ability to forgive, the ability to have patience and mercy upon others, those things that we receive from God that are a part of God’s grace, the same way that God has worked with us, and we’re able to begin then to work with others in the same way, in a godly manner, to love them, to care for them.

For we are labourers together with God; you are God's husbandry... Interesting word; you are God’s cultivation; it’s what it means, or field.  Different scriptures should pop out of this, examples, parables that Jesus Christ gave.  We are God’s husbandry, we are His cultivation.  He’s working in us and then an amazing thing begins to happen in time; we are able to begin to help others as a part of that, we contribute, co-workers together with God!  How awesome is that?  The world doesn’t understand those things.  ...you are God's building. Taking it a step farther - God’s building, what He’s building, what He’s constructing.

According to the grace, you need to think about that...  According to the grace of God which is given unto Me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds thereon. But let every person take heed how they build upon it. Every person is to be careful, to do it God’s way. For no other foundation can any person lay than what is laid, which is Jesus Christ. That’s where it all begins, and then we’re built upon that and the Church becomes greater and greater; God’s plan and God’s purpose, what God is working on this earth becomes greater and greater.

Verse 12 - Now if any man build upon this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, so it uses two different kinds of materials here, those that continue to endure, they can go through a fire...and that which can’t go through a fire, that which is burned up – the last three; wood, hay and stubble is not the way to build. Everyone's work shall be made manifest.  So who is it talked about?  The world?  No, no, no, it’s talking about those whom God calls, it’s talking about each and every one of us and how we respond to God and how much we treasure what God has given to us and how much we put into it.  Everyone’s work/every person’s work will be made manifest: it’s not hard to see.  I look back; I don’t have to look back very far.

Those of us who’ve been around a long time, we don’t have to look back very far and we see this in a profound way, what was made manifest; great lessons that are going to be carried on in the Millennium and in the Great White Throne that are going to be spoken of in the era that followed Philadelphia, the period of Laodicea, and what people did who had God’s spirit within them – every one of us that let down.  And so it’ll be made manifest; in other words will become revealed or clearly seen. ...for the day shall declare it, in time it becomes obvious.  You don’t know what hour!  If you let down...what a dangerous thing!  If we begin to coast...what a dangerous thing!  And of all times, right now!  Maybe because we’re so close we think it’s just kind of downhill the rest of the way.  Nope!  Not for me.  I’m still climbing.  It’s hard, it’s a battle and it doesn’t let up for a purpose and a reason until we’re there.

...for the day will declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; fire that’s used as a trial, to test, things that we go through in life, the trials of life, the difficulties of life.  And it can come to a point in time, if we’re not watchful, if we’re not close to God, we can’t go through them successfully any longer with God’s favour, with God’s help, growing, conquering and overcoming.  We can go by the wayside and lose what we ‘think’ we still have.

As a whole, most people who’ve ever left, they haven’t come to a point in time were they really believe they’re leaving God’s Church.  They don’t really believe that they have lost what was given to them.  They still think they’re ‘rich and increased with goods’.  Isn’t that an amazing thing spiritually in people’s lives?

...for it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every person’s work, of what sort it is.  And so that’s what trials are about – the fire.  It’s the fiery trial that’s there.  When we have different difficulties in life and hardships in life that come along, and how we respond to them, whatever it might be, shows where we are.

Verse 14 - If any person’s work abide, which that person has built upon, that person shall receive a reward. What an incredible blessing!  God has so blessed us, truly has, and so you want to work until you can’t work any longer.  You want to apply yourself, you want to draw closer to God, you want to repent.  Repentance is a part of that work.  You want to change, you want to examine self, all the things that are involved with what God is doing in the Church, with the Church.  And so if what we are working at continues on, then God says we’ll receive a reward.  But that’s not the motivation for doing it – but it’s good to know.  It shouldn’t be our motivation to get out of it because that’s not what it’s about; because his way of life is about give.

Verse 15 - If any persons work shall be burned, that person shall suffer loss: if what they have done is burned up then when it comes along, when different things happen and nothing is left....  And it goes on to say but that person may still be saved; expressed it differently in different translations and so forth, but this is what its saying; but that person may still be saved.  We look back and see what has taken place.  We’ve come to understand things we never understood before about how God is working with us, that God can awaken someone out of a spiritual stupor and sleep in His time, whether it be now as they’re still alive, or die and do it later on.  It’s the same thing.  And so we have that witness in all of our lives, of those who were baptized before the apostasy, because we all fell asleep and God woke us up.  And so we’re all witness of the reality of that truth.  Death is nothing to God, so whether a person’s awakened spiritually now or dies and is awakened spiritually later on, we are the evidence of the power of Almighty God to be able to do those things – otherwise we wouldn’t even be here, if we couldn’t be awakened spiritually.  It’s encouraging to realize.

And so that’s what it’s talking about here; but that person may still be saved; yet so as by fire.  There are still things to go through in life and to learn from – maybe another hundred years of life.  Still a lot of trial and hardship but in a much better world, much easier, but still having to conquer this.  There is going to be some weeping and gnashing of teeth it says.  How excited would you be to know you lived in Philadelphia, or Laodicea (let’s say), maybe both, in that period of time, and all of a sudden one day you wake up – kind of like a nightmare (if anyone’s ever had a nightmare like that and they’re not fully clothed and they wonder...) and that’s what it’s going to be like.  It’s going to be like a little bit of a nightmare and people are standing there all together before God’s Family that are manifest to them.  And it’s going to be known real quick-like they were dead and now they’re alive again – this is a resurrection, this is the Great White Throne – and to think at that moment in time of that stark reality and they’re going to have a little bit of a history lesson right quick like as to what happened, what they did and what transpired, what took place, what they refused, what they wouldn’t accept – and all of a sudden... going to be some weeping and gnashing of teeth.  I’d be kicking myself royally to think what I gave up, what my stubbornness, my pride caused.  It’s what it’s talking about.

...yet so as by fire. And so there are still things to conquer and overcome and so they’re given more time in order to live, in order to go through and grow and still have that opportunity.

Know you not that you are the temple of God, that God’s spirit dwells in you? “You are the Temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you!”  That’s what it asks!  If any person defiles the temple of God, in other words, you’re cut off from the flow of God’s spirit – because that’s the reason Jesus Christ died, so that God the Father and Jesus Christ could dwell in us - and if we defile this temple, which we do day by day by day. Thank God for repentance, which is a part of the new covenant – because without it none of us would be here - and so we can repent of our sins.  And it’s a part of our life; it’s a part of the work you have to do in fighting self.  And when you see sin you repent of it.  It means we then strive to change, we work to change, we work to change!  If any man defiles the temple of God, that person shall God destroy; we either repent of doing that, of being cut off from the holy spirit...because what cuts us off from the holy spirit?  Sin, sin, sin, sin, sin!  See, that’s why I’m talking about repentance, because that’s what cuts us off from that.  So if we don’t repent then the alternative is not a pretty picture.  ...that person shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.  Powerful words stated here in warnings over and over and over again about work and what we have to do – that there’s a job in front of us to yield ourselves to.

Let’s turn over to Mark 13.  It’s what’s covered in Matthew 24, but this should have a little deeper meaning for us as we read through some of these verses now in Mark 13 and continue on after this.

Mark 13:33 - Take heed to yourselves, watch and pray: so it all goes together.  Stay alert spiritually, stay on guard – that’s mingled with prayer in your life.  You can’t do it without doing both.  ...for you do not know when the time is. What time?  It’s exactly what we’ve been talking about.  For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, the workers, servants; to every person/to everyone their work, or his/her work, ever how you want to say it.  I’m pointing these things out over and over again because my Bible says over and over again, ‘his, his, his, his, him, him, him, him, him’.  Just trying to make it clear that that’s not what the verses say in the Greek language.  It’s about men AND women; it’s about everyone whom God calls.  I may miss these once in a while.

...but to everyone their work, and commanded the porter to watch.  We have a job to do. Watch therefore: for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: so it’s not about the time of the literal return of Jesus Christ.  We know when it is!  We know the exact timing!  And it isn’t that hard and difficult to know that even if we didn’t know the exact day, to know that certain things have to take place within a period of time, when Jesus Christ returns and what happens in a 24 hour day, and that when it’s all over with His feet are going to stand upon the Mount of Olives.  It’s not real difficult to understand what has to take place then within a 24 hour single period of time, a day, and what time He has to return for these things to take place before that day, right at the moment, before that day begins and the great resurrection takes place; because 24 hours have to follow (if you follow what I’m saying).  It’s not about the midnight, or before the sun rises and the cock is crowing, or in the morning when the sun is already risen.  It’s not about that.  It is for us spiritually.  You don’t know when.  You have to stay alert all the time.  You have to fight this battle all the time.  If you want this way of life you have to fight against self all the time.  You have to continually repent when you see sin and strive to change and live differently before God.

Verse 26 - Lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping. It’s a spiritual state.  And look what’s happened to the Church - the whole Church fell asleep; the whole Church was spewed out of God’s mouth at one point in time.   And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

So once again, the title of the sermon series is ‘Vision’.  Vision!  And it’s taken from Proverbs 29:18 - Where there is no vision, the people perish: there are things that we have to keep focused upon.  And it goes on to say, but he who keeps the law, happy is he. So again, watching is a spiritual matter as it has to do with our spiritual relationship with God and whether we are yielding ourselves to Him and His Son living, dwelling in us – and that includes our keeping the laws of God, God’s way of life, striving to make the changes when we realize we’re not in harmony and unity with it.  It has to do with being at one with all the truths that God gives to us.  It’s not just a matter of the 10 Commandments.  It has to do with all the truths that God gives to us; that we’re in unity and harmony with what He gives.  Awesomely important!  I want to read that from the last sermon because to have vision we need to understand this is one great package spiritually for us in our lives of how we live it.

I want to read what I’d mentioned in the first sermon when we covered Proverbs 29 the first time about keeping the law, that section there.  Cutting in here....

...then tie this in with the word used here for ‘law’ [in Proverbs 29] it is for law but includes the teaching and instruction that God has given in the written law as how mankind is to live and what we’re to obey; and it is used in the law given to the priesthood in their duties (in other words the meaning of it and how it’s used in the Old Testament), and it includes the usage, especially here ‘of the body of prophetic teachings’ including those having to do with the Messianic age and it’s coming to this earth.

So  keeping what God gives to us is not just a matter of keeping, in the sense of what we do and live in our relationship with one another, it also has to do with keeping what God has given to us.  And that’s very important when you understand vision then, the ability to understand looking back.  I marvel when I look back at everything we can see that was fulfilled in the Church starting with the 1st Seal and the Seals that followed.  Awesome!  And the sharper your ability to see those things is (of what God gave), and you keep those close to you and remind yourself from time to time about them and all the things that are transpiring right now that are taking place right now and you have a vision of those things, it sharpens your vision going forward and gives you greater boldness and confidence about what’s taking place on this earth... and you WON’T leave God’s Church!   ... If you have that kind of vision.  But we’ve had people since the Feast that have left.  Blows my mind!  And yet every year I say it, every year, especially around the Feast of Tabernacles because that’s what I think about – Who will be here at the next Feast of Tabernacles?  Who (more importantly), will not be here?  The hope and desire is that everyone will be able to return if we’re blessed to have the observance of another one in the way that we did last year.

Going on in what was said there...

Faith, obedience to God, is not just about the law in the form of the 10 Commandments, but of those things that concern prophecy given by God and whether we ‘keep’ [observe, watch, guard] and live according to those prophecies.

They affect your life; decisions and choices we make.  We know that, we understand that; but if someone quits doing that....  Sometimes people deceive themselves into thinking, well, they’re just going to continue to observe the Sabbath.  I don’t know how you do that if you’re not plugged in anymore.  How do you continue to observe the Sabbath if you’re not being instructed every Sabbath in the same way you were before?  Amazing what can happen to the human mind.

So again, important for us to have vision of prophetic matters that have been fulfilled, as I just mentioned here, because they’ll give you strength, they’ll give you confidence, they’ll give you boldness, it’ll strengthen your faith about where you’re going and what’s taking place.  It’ll stir you up; it’ll give you help in the times that are ahead.  We’re not through this by any measure.

I thought it’d be good at this point to read some things here, thinking about some of the Trumpets, how that things began with the 1st Trumpet, then the Thunders that are out there as well.  And I think of even the 1st Trumpet that started and how things have continued on from that time.  If you can understand what’s happening in the world in an economic way it’s an awesome thing that’s taking place.

In one sermon here we looked at the 3rd Thunder and have in passing mentioned some others, but I want to pause here a little and cover some things mentioned in ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’.  I’m going to be reading from chapter 4 concerning the Thunders, again, and in a later sermon we’re going to come back and discuss some of the preceding things here.  I want to pick this up on the bottom of page 89....

God will reveal who His two witnesses are regardless of whether people choose to believe them or not! God will increasingly give more proof of His spokesman as prophecies unfold exactly as they are recorded in this book. When the Seventh Seal is opened, the first four trumpets of that seal will announce the final demise of the United States and her closest allies.

Now, sometimes I think about how people read, because I have heard different ones ask questions or I’ve seen things being written in, and if we’re not careful we can read things into what was written....  And I understand that happens.  I know that happens.  And we have to be careful how we read, just as we do in this book here [Bible], just as we have learned so much in the book of Revelation and other places in prophecy; you’ve got to be careful not to read into something that’s being stated.  You’ve got to wait, and if there’s something we don’t understand it’ll come in time if you have proven other things to yourself.  But interesting even in how this is phrased – ‘when the Seventh Seal is opened’ – someone can take that as meaning, as they continue to read this, that all four Trumpets are going to take place immediately and they don’t, they follow each other.  And how long that period of time is is in God’s hands.

When the Seventh Seal is opened, the first four trumpets of that seal will announce the final demise of the United States and her closest allies.

Not right away...and thank God it’s taken this long.  Hasn’t been easy in some cases because of the very thing I’m talking about here.  We have to be careful we don’t read into what is being said.

The opening of this seal will be the beginning of the final three and one-half years of great worldwide tribulation.

Great worldwide upheaval, trouble that builds and brews.  You know, we have it pretty nice in this country, but that doesn’t mean things aren’t happening around the world.  And things continue to take place where people are going through horrible things in life.  It’s not pleasant in many parts of the world.  When you can go to the grocery store, when you can drive your car, when you can do the things that you do day by day, it doesn’t mean the whole world is living like we are; and they’re not.  There’s been a lot of upheaval in the world, especially because of where we are in time, and it’s growing – powerfully so – because of where we are in time.  Not that it hasn’t happened in times past.  There’s been upheaval in the world throughout history – 6,000 years of it.  This is a different time though.

And again, being careful how you read something into it, we had the concept at one time that (I’m guilty of it, I think everybody is that goes back in time to Philadelphia – especially if you lived in that period of time, or the beginning of Laodicea), we used the term ‘great tribulation’ in thinking and believing it’s going to last for 3½ years from the get go.  That horrifying things would happen to us immediately.  Didn’t turn out that way, did it?  Thank God.  That bothers some people!  Some people are bothered by that!  Some people have left God’s Church because of that!  Why?  What is it that’s in the mind?  What is it that you think you see, or think that is wrong?  Those who’ve done those things have to answer those themselves.

So again: Great worldwide upheaval, trouble that builds - that’s what it’s about – that builds and brews until greater devastation does strike, because that’s what’s coming.  Going on....

Before we cover those events, which are the subject of another chapter, we need to look more closely at the events that precede the last seal, events which are pronounced by Seven Thunders during the time of the Sixth Seal.

And so I’ve heard comments, or maybe it’s something I’ve read before that have come in at times. Every once in a while I scan some of the stuff that comes through.  But in other words, this is where it begins, during the 6th Seal; doesn’t mean they’re fulfilled there. These things continue on.  These things, the Thunders, continue on all the way to the end.  They don’t stop.  They started at a moment in time, at a particular moment in time (actually we’ll get to that in a moment in what’s written here), but they continue on through time.  But it’s not something that happens all at once and it’s not something that happens just during the 6th Seal, they’ve continued on.  They’ll continue to go on to the very end – especially if we grasp #6 and #7 – actually all three, because 5-6-7 are all primarily going to happen toward the end.  The primary work that people would mock and say, “Well, do this, or do that to prove who you are...”  That’s what they did to Christ.  “Do this or do that!  Prove who You are!  You say You’re the Messiah, You say You’re the Son of God?  Then perform...”  And that’s not how God works.  He’s not going to do something to satisfy... and they’re not going to believe.  How’s that going to cause them to believe?  Has it ever helped people to believe in times past?

When Elijah did what he did – did everybody all of a sudden repent?  When some four hundred priests were butchered, if you will, put to death?  It’s not a pretty sight to be cut apart, to be run through by a sword.  When the sacrifice was lapped up you’d think that would cause people to worship God in a massive way, for people to repent.  It didn’t happen and that’s not how God works.  Incredible!  That’s why I’ve come to understand in a very powerful way that the majority of what I’m going to be doing is toward the end – late into the end.  That’s why I think about going through (and blessed in this past season here), to go through so many of the things about Christ, and about when you come to understand what is written in the scriptures about Him and how much was done in the last two weeks let alone the last three weeks.  It’s when the majority of everything was done that’s written about.

...we need to look more closely at the events that precede the last seal, events which are pronounced by Seven Thunders during the time of the Sixth Seal.

So again, understanding this is their beginning.  Going on....

Thunder perfectly describes what is happening before the final end-time storm of destruction strikes this earth.

Goes with it, talking about a storm that’s coming; and going on it says....

The final storm will engulf the whole earth for three and one-half years, but as that storm approaches,

In other words, as the time of its unleashing approaches, because it’s been building for some time.  And when we talk about that we’re talking about the rest of the Trumpets that take place.

...the rumbling of this thunder will be heard with increasing intensity.

So it’s something that just continues to grow and grow and grow and you can measure much about what’s coming in the storm that’s behind it by the Thunders and by their intensity and how much louder they continue to get.  So it’s about a brewing storm, it’s not about a storm that started on a particular day.

These Seven Thunders parallel another prophetic analogy that describes this time of the Sixth Seal.

In other words from the beginning when they first began to be revealed.

This prophetic period was described earlier as a pregnant woman in labor pain. This analogy is magnified in the revelation of the Seven Thunders.

Again, which continues until the storm is unleashed and continues right through the storm to the end.  Thunder doesn’t stop when the storm starts, when the storm finally unleashes its power, it just continues right on through.  That’s why I say these Thunders continue right up to the very last day!

The Seven Thunders will be declared in the remainder of this chapter. Those thunders have never been announced before now. Everything else that John wrote, concerning the Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets and the Seven Last Plagues, was declared by an angel. The Seven Thunders did not come from angels. John heard the sound of Seven Thunders. It concerned a message about an end-time prophet of God. The specifics of the Seven Thunders were left for this end-time in order to be declared—to be pronounced—by God’s end-time prophet, the spokesperson of the two end-time witnesses. More about this will be explained in the Sixth Thunder.

A worldwide storm is brewing, and the warning...

Even back then.

A worldwide storm is brewing, and the warning of that approaching storm is contained in seven distinctive types of thunder. Each thunder will be described, but you need to understand that the thundering is like the pregnant woman in labor pain. All Seven Thunders will increase in intensity as this great end-time storm approaches, but one type of thunder will be more pronounced than another from one great labor pain to another. Each type of thunder will continue to rumble, but at certain times one will be much louder than all the others.

Think just of the last few weeks!  They get closer and closer; and when they start overlapping each other that tells you how close the storm is.

Each time that one of the Seven Thunders is much louder (far more pronounced) than all the others is a time that fulfills the prophetic type of a woman in labor pain.

The Seven Thunders have much to do with how God will reveal His two witnesses. These thunders serve as a prelude to the final tribulation and the greater manifestation of the two witnesses.

The revelation of the Seven Thunders has everything to do with the revelation of God’s end-time witness about man and God’s revelation of His two witnesses to man! Sadly, most will choose to ignore what they hear.

So we come to the First Thunder – this is the bottom of page 91...

The First Thunder

September 11, 2001 was a day that thundered so loudly that the very mention of it is recognized all over this world. Mention that day anywhere on earth and people know what happened. However, people do not yet recognize the real meaning behind why this day is so vastly important.

What happened in New York, Washington D.C. and a field in Pennsylvania is not what is most important about this day. What happened on a Biblical plane is of far greater significance!

This date became etched in the minds of people throughout the world, and so did another word. That day began to put the name al-Qaeda into the minds of all who had 9/11 written in their memory.

The greater reality for this day is its Biblical significance. The events of this day are prophetic, and the prophetic symbolism of these events is the very thing that will lead to the opening of the Seventh Seal of Revelation and a full blown World War III.

That’s what it’s about – that’s the storm, that’s the powerful storm.  When that strikes in a very powerful way there’s certainly going to be a far greater impact when #2, #3 and #4 Trumpets blast because this is where it all leads, but not immediately, not until the 5th Trumpet. We understand that.

Terrorism and war are not new to mankind. This has been the way of man for thousands of years, but this terrorism is part of end-time prophecy; and this is what makes it different from all other acts of war.

#1: The First Thunder is the beginning terror of war for the end-time. This is war that is prophetic for the end-time.

Not that war, not WWIII, but what leads into it.  #2 Trumpet and #3 Trumpet and #4 Trumpet do not lead into what follows – into WWIII!  It makes it easier for some to step into the vacuum, but that isn’t what leads to and causes WWIII.  What is happening right now in the Middle East... those are the things that are leading into WWIII.  What’s happening to the world economically, globally – that’s what’s leading into WWIII.  People only go so long before they start to take action.

That’s why I think about China and what China’s doing.  We have to be deaf, dumb and blind if we don’t understand what’s taking place with China!  They’re already talking on the news.... I am dumbfounded sometimes when I hear things and yet people are blind!  They’re already talking about it isn’t too long up the road, if time were to go on (this is how the people in the world are talking), they realize China is the number one economy of the world, they know that India is number two; and then it’s not too long after that... I can’t remember all four countries but there are four places on the earth basically, that are going to be bigger, more productive. And you think, “How is that possible?  China?!  Give me a break!  Ahead of the United States?!”  And that’s the problem, we have such an ego, so much haughtiness and pride.  We think we can’t go down the tubes.

Saw something this morning on the news, been watching some things recently here that remind me of Great Britain many, many years ago when they began to lose the word ‘Great’.  They were at one time... Ephraim at one time was a very powerful force on the earth, a world leader.  Then after WWII the United States became that power and that leader.  Today does it escape us when we hear?  It’s Thunder!  Awesome! Powerful what’s taking place!  And they’re talking about the Yuan and the power of it and we are so haughty here that we think it can’t happen.  More and more companies are going to go over there!  They’re going to do anything they can to get China’s business because man is greedy!  He’s greedy!

Just read about a mega-city they’re getting ready to build in China.  Incredible!  40 million people!  They’re getting ready to make a certain part of China now this model of things they’re going to have to do in China and other areas because of the masses of people; and they’re talking about all their plans and all the rail systems and everything they’re going to do to improve...and they’ll do it in time!  But we look down our nose at them as a country and think – “Pshew... look at the poverty over there, look how people live... it can never happen!”  You go back 10-15 years and people would never believe it is what it is today.  Truly.

India?  “India could never be prosperous!”  Amazing how man thinks.  That’s why India won’t become too prosperous...it’s going to be really attractive looking to China.

Thunders brethren; I tell you it’s just astounding if we just have a little bit of an ability to hear and to watch and to observe and to think about where we are and what’s taking place and have the ability to see through all this.  And yet sometimes I fear, I worry about some people’s lives in the Church because it’s very easy to think, “Well, we’re getting closer and we can begin to coast.”  And we get caught up in our own physical lives and the problems and some of the difficulties and some of the struggles and some of the things that take place and just trying to make it another year and a half and less now and getting to that point in time and begin to let the weightier things pass us by, and our hearing begins to be a little dull.  We hear all this news and it happens so much anymore we just think that’s the way the world. We get to the point if you’re not careful... it’s like the world’s thinking this is just the way it’s always been and it’s not.

Talking about terrorism, the 1st Thunder here – I’ll read it again....

#1: The First Thunder is the beginning terror of war for the end-time. This is war that is prophetic for the end-time.

In other words its terrorism that mounts until world war breaks out.

All Seven Thunders contain things that have occurred on the earth in one way or another ever since man’s beginning. Terrorism is not new. Wars are not new.

That’s why too many people, they scoff at things when they read things like this, because it’s the way the world’s always been; and they don’t understand.  Can’t you hear?  Can’t you hear how close these things are getting now and happening and overlapping...getting close to where they’re overlapping each other now?

But what is happening now, in these Seven Thunders, is new because it is part of end-time prophecy.

In other words, the terror of war, things which began like the war in Iraq, or in Afghanistan if you will, just as a result of 9/11 alone, and other skirmishes and wars and so forth that have taken place in other parts of the world.

All these things will lead directly into the final three and one-half years of great physical tribulation on all the earth, with ever increasing intensity.

They continue right on into that period of time.  We’re deep into it now...and the rest follows.  I just wanted to read some articles here today as well, as a part of this, because just reading about the 1st Thunder here.  We ought to be dumbfounded by things that are happening right now.  Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia – incredible – Lebanon... all around the Middle East, all around Israel. Problems in Algeria, potential problems in places like that as well – one neighbour to another all the way around the map there that continues on.  Incredible what’s taking place; and some of them starting to overlap?  It’s not just individual spots.  Powerful, it’s some powerful Thunder if you will.

Here’s an article....

The Day of Rage: Thousands clash with police as protests boil over on streets of Egypt and Lebanon[1]

By DAVID WILLIAMS

Last updated at 10:12 AM on 26th January 2011

[jumps forward in article to begin....]

Nearly half of Egypt's 80 million people live under or just above the poverty line set by the United Nations at 2 dollars a day.

Incredible!  80 million people!  Heard a thing this morning here talking about how over 70% is under 4 dollars a day.  So you put this group in with the others and it just shows the big difference of what’s taking place over there even in people’s lives.  It goes on to say....

[jumps forward in article....]

Soon after the removal on January 14 of Tunisia's president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, all eyes focused on Egypt...

[jumps forward in article....]

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, a prime minster backed by pro-Iranian Hezbollah was appointed sparking angry street protests and fears the move would plunge the country into a new crisis.

So again, just grows and grows.  Another one here the following day, Thursday....

Protests against Egyptian president spread[2]

By Yasmine Saleh and Sherine El Madany

CAIRO | Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:28pm EST

(Reuters) - Web activists called for mass protests across Egypt on Friday to end President Hosni Mubarak's three-decade rule after protesters clashed with security forces late into the night in the eastern city of Suez.

Emboldened by this month's revolt in Tunisia that toppled its long-serving leader, Egyptians have staged mass protests since Tuesday....

And on and on it goes talking about some of the things there.  Sometimes I just marvel at some of these reporters....

"Egypt's Muslims and Christians will go out to fight against corruption....”

Like they’re arm in arm out there.  I can just tell you right now, they’re not arm in arm, and some of the things covered before talking about religious wars.  It’s religion that’s bringing all these things about.  Its religion even in the differences within the Muslim world, Sunni and Shiite that are fighting and doing the things they’re doing and fighting amongst themselves. Lebanon is a good example of that.  Different things are happening in different countries but they’re starting to overlap each other now for different reasons, just like what we saw on the dead animals and so forth.  A lot of different reasons out there and probably definitely were, couldn’t have all been the same thing – it wasn’t all cold weather.

[jumps forward in article....]

As in many other countries across the Middle East, Egyptians are frustrated over surging prices...

See, when you don’t have much money it affects your life!  And people react to that!  A lot of wars have started because people can’t feed themselves and their families.  That’s why commodities, food right now, is such a big thing in what’s happening in the world and the reserves that are going down because we don’t have the reserves anymore and what continues to happen with the weather cycles.  Everything adds to, builds upon this and just gets more powerful as we go along.  It’s just coming to a crescendo; it really is, very fast.  Powerful what’s taking place!  It goes on to say....

...unemployment and an authoritarian government that tolerates little dissent.

Many of them are young. Two thirds of Egypt's 80 million people are below the age of 30, and many of them have no jobs. About 40 percent of Egyptians live on less than a $2 a day.

Whether it be 50% or 40% it’s horrible.

Government officials have warned youths against letting the Muslim Brotherhood....

That which inspired things in al-Qaeda and its leader.  It’s where he got a lot of his inspiration – from them.  Think these things don’t affect people and how they think in the world and it doesn’t have anything to do with religion?!  ...and religious beliefs?  It’s a clash of religions, it truly is!  That’s what’s bringing this world to the problems it’s going to have to address.

Government officials have warned youths against letting the Muslim Brotherhood opposition group and others exploit the protest for "hidden agendas."

Some of these things just blow your mind!  Another one here, Thursday....

Egyptians brace for Friday protests as internet, messaging disrupted[3]

Posted by Keith Savage|Posted on 27-01-2011

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) — Hours ahead of what are expected to be massive displays of anti-government ferment across the world's most populous Arab nation, the internet went dark in parts of Egypt early Friday, and text messaging appeared to be blocked. The Muslim Brotherhood has called for its followers to demonstrate after weekly Muslim prayers on Friday....

Their holy day, Friday.  Isn’t that amazing?  Amazing how the Sabbath got missed by a lot of people in the world.  It’s bordered by two days, Friday and Sunday.

....Muslim prayers on Friday, the first time in the current round of unrest that the largest opposition bloc has told supporters to take to the streets.

And so it just grows and grows, just becomes greater and greater.  Another article here then today....

Tunisia to Egypt, an Arab upheaval[4]

Indrani Bagchi, TNN, Jan 29, 2011, 01.05am IST

And don’t misunderstand Arab upheaval with Muslim upheaval.  All Muslims are not Arab and that’s why I need to say it.  There are a lot of Muslims in the world, and so when it talks about the ‘largest Arab nation’ talking about Egypt, some people get confused and think that’s the largest Muslim nation.  That’s not what it’s saying here at all.

The Arab street is on fire, how far will it spread? As the Tunisian contagion catches on and violent protests sweep through Egypt and Yemen, authoritarian regimes in the Arab world are facing unexpected challenges that could rearrange the political landscape in this part of the world.

Yeah, that’s exactly what’s taking place because everything’s building up to what has to come to pass; and a lot of what has to come to pass is what happens in the Middle East.  As a matter of fact, that’s kind of the focal point of it all.  God uses that and tells us that this is a part of being able to see what takes place when it comes to pass or when it starts. What are people concerned about right now?  The Suez Canal being kept opened and oil being able to pass through; and if ships have to go another 6,000 miles and the price of oil....  And what does this mean for poor people?  What does this mean for Egyptians?  What does this mean for people in Tunisia and Lebanon and Yemen and all these other countries around there?  We’re so blind, so blind in this world.  I hear government leaders and different people talk on TV and I’m just dumfounded that they’re so blind!  And it’s because of God’s spirit that we see what we see, but you’d think by just certain things that are taking place that people would be able to see a lot sharper than what they are.  Going on with the same article...

[jumps forward in article....]

The real difference will be made by the armies, which provide legitimacy to these regimes. In Tunisia, the refusal of an army general to back Ben Ali and fire on protesters proved to be the turning point. In Egypt, too, the world is waiting to see what the Egyptian army will do.

Egypt's army is the 10th largest in the world, almost half a million strong, and one of the biggest beneficiaries (along with the Pakistan army) of US military aid.   Since 1952, all Egyptian presidents have come from the military. So, even though Mubarak has not been sighted since the protests began, all eyes are actually on the generals.

Amazing what takes place and how people are looking at this right now.

The protests initially started as economic grievances — against food prices, inflation, unemployment. [...food prices? ...inflation? ...unemployment.] But they quickly morphed into an outpouring against poor governance, corruption and lack of democracy. [Still have the roots in the other.] In many ways, the change did not actually start from Tunisia. Some analysts point to the referendum in Sudan as the point when Arab Africa realized that people's power actually works.

How dumb are people? How blind?  The generals are still in charge.  It doesn’t matter what the people do.  They might be able to topple a government, but they’re not the ones.... just like I was listening to some people on the TV this morning in Egypt talking and saying that they have the power to put in a democracy, they have the power to put into power who’s going to lead.  No they don’t!  Yes, a president may fall, a leader may fall, but they’re not the ones that are going to decide by a vote who’s going to be put in.  They’re not that free and they never will be in this age.  The generals decide.

Tunisia was economically stable, according to the World Bank. The demand was for democracy, representation and an end to endemic corruption.

Goes on talking about Yemen, goes on talking about the contagion spreading and going into Syria, Saudi Arabia, different areas that it can go into, Libya, different speculation of things that can happen. Here’s another article....

Egyptian civil strife sends oil prices to $100 on Suez Canal fears[5]

Jan. 28 2011 - 2:04 pm| Agustino Fontevecchia – MORAL HAZARD

People are so fickle.

Investors have their eyes on Egypt as civil unrest in the North African country has progressively escalated into a full blown crisis with international repercussions.  Beyond the obvious and inexcusable human cost, the protests against Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year reign have hit the sovereign debt and equity markets, and are working their way through the oil and gold markets.

Oil, oil, oil... wonder if any wars have ever started over oil?  Hmm... Wonder why the Germans went down into Africa in WWII. Hmm, amazing!  Hasn’t changed much has it?  Going on in the same article....

[jumps forward in article....]

The situation could have ripple effects worldwide if the Suez Canal becomes jeopardized or even shut down.  According to Canaccord Genuity, “this may be impactful as approximately 1.8 million bb/d of oil was transported through the Suez Canal in 2009. A closure of the canal would result in an extra 6,000 miles of travel for any oil being transported out of the region, an additional cost which could drive up oil prices.”

...food prices, everything else.  Going on....

International oil prices are already racing towards the $100 a barrel mark.

And so they’re just punishing themselves.  It’s a ‘catch-22’ in the world.  Anything that people do today, it just get’s worse and worse.  It goes on to talk about how the global benchmark for Brent crude... says they hit their highest level since late 2008 at $99.63.  It’s amazing how we just keep going back to 2008.  2008 isn’t over with yet – gives people a sense of false security and we’re going right back to that and worse the next time before it’s over with.

Another article here....

Islamists advancing on Russian territory[6]

Airport attack could be opening shot in war over central Asia

Posted: January 28, 2011            12:50 am Eastern                   WorldNetDaily

Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND.

You think this isn’t about religion and the way people think?  All these things are causing people to take sides more and more and more and it’s just accelerating.

Reports out of Russia appear to be confirming that the suicide bomber in Monday's attack at Domodedovo airport, which killed 35 and injured nearly 200, may have been a convert to Islam on jihad, according to a Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Authorities haven't revealed all details of the attacker, but analysts now are raising concerns that the explosion may have been an opening shot by al-Qaida in a war over central Asian territory, including parts of Russia, it wants as its own.

They want to take out their piece of the pie.

Militants in the northern part of Afghanistan and central Asia appear to be trying to convince Russia that they should be in control of its predominantly Islamic southern tier provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetica, Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria.

Analysts even wonder if the goal is for those regions to become "separate" from Russia.

Such discussions go against the official Kremlin position, which has been infusing the region with investments while increasing Russian military action against the Islamist militants.

Thought I’d just go through a little bit of it.  It’s amazing, and that’s just a few days; Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, as a whole, except for what started in Tunisia a little ahead of time of all that.  I wanted to follow up on a few more things to just show some of the things we’ve talked about in this particular series here.

Here’s another article:

Southwest dry spell will continue for now.[7]

By Gina Cherundolo, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer     Jan 26, 2011; 2:10 PM ET

[jumps forward in article....]

Los Angeles has recorded about 0.6 of an inch so far this month, and no rain has been recorded since Jan. 11.  Likewise, San Francisco has recorded 18 percent of their normal rainfall this month.

[jumps down in article....]

This is a stark contrast to December, when the pattern brought record rainfall to the West Coast. Downtown Los Angeles had more than 5 times their normal rainfall when 10.26 inches of rain fell last month, and 2.8 inches on Dec. 19 alone.

From one extreme to the other.  It’s exactly what I read.  Talking about another Thunder....

Despite the lack of rain, many cities are still boasting above-normal rainfall amounts this season.

Amazing!  Here’s from London, from the Telegraph....

Water company warns customers to prepare for drought[8]

A water company has warned its customers to prepare for a summer drought after recording the driest year since 1933.

By Richard Savill, and Andy Bloxham 4:17PM GMT 28 Jan 2011

Forecasters are warning that a number of regions risk water shortages next year because reserves have not been replenished over the winter.  Despite the snow in December, reservoirs in parts of the South West are only two thirds full when they would normally be virtually at capacity at this time of year.  Bristol Water said conditions in its area were even worse than those that preceded the great drought of 1976, and had not been drier for more than 75 years.

And I don’t know how many of you saw this about a week ago talking about 10,000 cattle/buffalo die in Vietnam.  It just goes on and on. Amazing!  Thunders! Things just continue to happen.  Don’t let yourself think you’re going to coast through all this to the end.  You’ve got to stay alert; you’ve got to keep up with what’s taking place in the world around you.

Let’s go back to Matthew 24:40 - Then two shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.  Two grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.  So this brings us to another aspect of this that concerns these two verses that we need to look at.  We’ve addressed how everyone has a job, a work to do, which is a part of all this, that these are workers and that’s a part of God’s work and whether we’re a part of it or not, whether we’re contributing and being a part of it every day of our life.  This additional aspect has to do with a term that we’re familiar with, about being called and chosen.

Turn over to Matthew 22.  Called and chosen; because you see, the problem is that some in this particular case here of these workers – some are taken and some aren’t. And it’s all about, if you will, prophetically what takes place in God’s Church, those who come through what God has given to them, that they do a work and others who cease to do it and don’t come through it.  Matthew 22:1 - And Jesus answered and spoke unto them again by parables, and said, The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, who made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them who were bidden, these two words are the same here, ‘call’ and ‘bidden’.  It’s a word in the Greek that indeed means  ‘to call’ or ‘a calling’ or ‘to be called’ or ‘to be invited’.  ...to call them who were invited to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them who were invited/bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings have been killed, and all things have been made ready: come to the marriage. So it does it again, this time after preparing this great feast for them.

But they made light of it, and went their own ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise: in other words, back to their own personal business.  And of course, we can go back to and look at things in Judaism and so forth and things that have happened through time and how certain ones have received God and haven’t received God; but the same thing has happened in God’s Church.  Through time there are people who’ve gone by the wayside, people who haven’t held to what God gave them.

Verse 6 - And the rest of them took his servants, and mistreated them spitefully, and killed them. And when the king heard what had happened, he was filled with anger: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they who were invited were not worthy.

And so it goes on: Verse 9 – therefore go out into the highways, and as many as you shall find, invite to the marriage. So again, it’s a parable; tells them to invite, again, to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together as many as they could find; in other words, who were willing to come, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.  Whether you go back and look at things.... because parables can apply in many different situations and circumstances and you can think about what happened through time, how different ones have been treated through time before the coming of Christ and at the time of Christ and so forth – and frankly since that time as well.

But even within the Church, of things that have happened from time to time and what has happened to some of God’s people and how God looks upon those things and what He calls it and how people treat each other. Sometimes we don’t think things are as severe as they really are.  The first reaction to something like this is to think this is about all the things that happened in the Old Testament time and it’s not about what happened in the Church.  Don’t be so quick!

I think of things that have happened in God’s Church.  I think of things that happened in the apostasy and I think of what God said in prophetic messages and so forth about those who are murderers, those who mistreat, those who have done what they have done to God’s people, to one another of God’s people, and how that if you hate your brother you’re a murderer.  If we have the ability to love someone else, God’s given us the ability to love within the Body of Christ, the Church of God – that’s why it talks about in Matthew 24 ‘the love of many waxed cold’.  If God has given us the ability to love each other and we fail to do it....   That’s why I love the book of 1st John – it’s powerful!  It says if you fail to love, if you don’t love someone that you have the capacity and ability to love, you know what you’re supposed to do, how to do it because God has shown you....  He’s shown you by breaking down, if you will, sermons, giving examples of things, and we look at those things and we don’t change our behaviour and how we treat people and how we think toward people and what comes out of our mouth toward people, toward one another in God’s Church... says you’re a murderer.  That’s what God says!  Blood is upon you!  Your attitude is one of taking life!

Powerful, powerful scriptures.  God doesn’t pull any punches.  And so those things, very powerfully fit into this example as well.  We must live this way of life, seek to live it every day of our life.  This is our life!  Every choice, every decision, everything we do... and so much of that too, again, has to do with how we think about and how we treat each other.  That’s why we have sermons about those things on a regular basis. That’s why it goes on to say what it says.

So we have to be very careful that we’re not just doing our own thing – because the example here is that different ones didn’t follow through to go to the wedding feast and they pulled back and went their own ways, it says, one to his farm, one to his merchandise:  in other words they went back to their own personal routine, their own personal business became more important than God’s work and God’s business.

Verse 6 - And the rest of them took his servants, and mistreated them spitefully, and killed them.  Exactly the example I just gave!  “The love of many waxed cold.”  How do we treat each other?  You can’t get past this in God’s Church in things we hear and things we’re instructed in from time to time because it’s about relationships.  It’s how we think, how we treat, how we talk to each other.  And the rest of them took his servants, and mistreated them spitefully, and killed them.  ...if we understand what that means to kill someone; because see, people think, “I would never kill anyone!  I would never take anyone’s life!”  God says something different.  He shows a spiritual part of it, what it’s all about, and sometimes we just don’t understand the capacity of a human being.

But when the king heard what happened he was filled with anger and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city.  Then he said to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they who were invited were not worthy.  Then he told them to go out in the highways and invite them to the marriage, and so those servants went out in the highways and gathered together as many as they could find, both bad and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests.  And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a person there who did not have on a wedding garment: And he said to him, Friend, Why did you come in here not having on a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Sometimes if we’re not careful we think we’re living this way of life; and we have to be careful that indeed we’re dressed in white, that we’re doing what we need to be doing, that we’re living this way of life.  And so this person, something happened in their life (if you will), that brought them to the point where they were asked, “Where is your wedding garment?”  And he was speechless.  In other words, you can’t just come as you are.  We understand that.  That’s why I hate that Protestant expression –‘just come as you are.’  It’s a huge lie!  You come before God, you’ve got to change!  Even in how you present yourself.

Thinking about this the other day and how we strive to do the best we can when we’re called.  We strive to wear the best we have, and then as time goes on we try to improve upon that because we’re coming before God’s presence and it’s a matter of honouring God, it’s a matter of respect and honour to God and to those whom God has called.  And so we strive to do the best we can; let alone what we do spiritually in our lives.  So you can’t come as you are, as you please.  It has to be done God’s way, so we strive to live that way of life; and that’s a beautiful thing when we strive to do things God’s way.

Then the king said to the servants, Tie him up both hands and feet, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And this has happened over and over and over and over again by the thousands in God’s Church!  Thousands!  It’s what happened with the apostasy, that’s what’s happened since the apostasy and on it goes.  And so, just because people were in the church, or attending Sabbath services and going to the Feast of Tabernacles in Mr. Armstrong’s day – especially in the latter part of his day – because that’s when he came back the strongest and the most powerful that he ever was.  And all the truth that had been gleaned in 50 years was brought together in ‘Mystery of the Ages’ and taught in a very powerful way.  Just by going through the motions didn’t mean people were in God’s Church.  On the contrary, in looking back in retrospect, we understand the words of Mr. Armstrong when he asked, “Do 10% of you even get it?”  That was a horrible time to go through – horrible to live through; because that’s what led to the apostasy – because we were becoming weak in God’s Church; weaker and weaker and weaker.

It goes on to say, For many are called, from that earlier word meaning ‘to be invited’; but few are chosen. That’s an awesome thing. Many have been sent out in the fields, many have been sent to do the grinding...but few when it’s all said and done have been chosen.  And to be chosen by God is in an individual’s hands, your own hands.  It isn’t because... well, sometimes it is because, but because God has a plan, but He works those things out as to different things that happen in people’s lives at times – but as a whole, at whatever point that is before He decides and makes that determination, before that happens there are choices to be made in your life.  Always, always, always.  And so to be one of those who are chosen, one of those who are ‘taken’ by God, received of God – it’s by the choices you make day in and day out – because a lot of people have been called through time.  I have lived through this as a minister.  I have visited tons and tons and tons of people through time who never even made it – that were invited to come, or were at the point of being invited to come and were being called by God and their minds were opened up that wouldn’t take the next step - they couldn’t, something held them back... let alone seeing hundreds, thousands that we knew of, of people who were called and can’t be a part of all this.  Few...few out of 90 some thousand people that were baptized.  By the time you get up to 1994, in that period of time, those that were baptized at that point in time amounting into 90,000 plus; not very many out of all that number, few indeed.

So again, to be chosen is in our hands, if you will, as to how you respond to God and seek to do the things the way He instructs them to be done, to do and follow through with the admonitions that we’re covering in this particular series here about vision, about watching, about being on guard and all that’s involved in that.  Because it’s big; it’s our life and how we respond to God.

Let’s add to that another scripture here; Revelation 17; because again, to be chosen is so much in our hands, it truly is.  When God has called us He’s opened up the door for us.  He has given us incredible treasure.  It’s up to us with what we do with it.  That’s why it can be taken from us like a thief in the night.  What you have can be taken quickly from you.  You can lose it all!  That’s why everyone who makes a decision, whenever they’ve made it, to leave God’s Church, that’s what they’ve thrown away.  Incredible that can happen, and yet it’s happened over and over again.

And so how we respond to the calling determines whether or not we end up, when it’s all said and done, being chosen.  Revelation 17:11 – starting out here it says... (we’re breaking into a prophecy here) – And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and so it’s talking about the one that’s over all seven in time because it’s talking about the seven revivals of the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire; and yet it’s talking about this eighth who is really a part of all seven – Satan; and is of the seven, and goes into perdition. Interesting what it’s saying here because with what we’ve gone through this past Feast we have a better understanding of some of these things because it goes together with an entire story that we understand in a very powerful way.  The word ‘into’, it’s kind of interesting noticing both words here, ‘into’ and ‘destruction’ here.  ‘Into’ has this literal meaning in the Greek – ‘indicating the point reached or entered of place, time, purpose, result.’  Which is that of ‘perdition’ in the Greek meaning ‘to destruction, to perish’.  And so here we’re at a point in time where there have been seven, but there’s the eighth, and his time has come now one  more time in the 7th, to bring something to destruction as far as the world is concerned, as far as the end of an age and bringing everything to a climax and to an end and what he does in the final revival of the Holy Roman Empire; but also prophetically it’s about him too because it’s his last of what he’s going to be able to accomplish.  He’s going to be let loose for a little season, but this is his ‘Waterloo’ battle if you will because he isn’t able to do what he sets out to do when he’s brought back after the 1,000 years.  He isn’t able to fulfill what he wants to do.

So again, it’s about Satan’s final work of destruction in the final point of time for that revival of the seventh part of the Holy Roman Empire.  It’s also prophetic for where it leads Satan – to his own time of final destruction.

Verse 12 - And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.  Now, we’re going to another point here, but it’s good to get the context of some of this too and be dumbfounded by this – how short lived in one respect this gathering together is.  The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet; it’s right there in the forefront.  Right now we don’t know which ten they are but we know they’re going to be European, the last revival here of the Holy Roman Empire; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast; That’s not a long time, even prophetically, whatever that period is, is it?

These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast; that beast power.  Incredible what takes place here because that’s why it talks about iron and clay – it’s not real strong.  It’s there, it’s together, but it’s like what has been mentioned in times past – because of what they do in that one hour, that once you start it you can’t turn back.  That’s why even some prophecies there it talks about what happens between the religious power that comes to be at that time.  They don’t like each other!  It comes to a point in time where there are some deep, deep feelings there between some of the political powers and some of the religious power that takes place there at that time, because of what they’ve gotten themselves into and what they’ve started. But it’s already started... you can’t turn back the clock once you start doing what you do. Amazing what’s going to take place here at the end.  Iron and clay.  It’s not like the previous kingdoms before or their different parts of even the Roman Empire before; and yet it has far more power than the Roman Empire ever had at their fingertip.

These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall conquer them/overcome them: and all the way up to the end when they finally even turn against what happens at the end.  ...for He is the Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they who are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful. See, it’s another key to all this, to understand about being called and about being chosen, that you have to be faithful.  It’s amazing how often that word pops up about being faithful to what God gives you.  Because either we’re faithful to what God has given us or we’re not.  Either we hold fast to what God has given to us or not; and we shouldn’t deceive ourselves.  And yet, the human mind seeks to deceive itself so often, to justify itself.

This is one big thing when it comes to any kind of counselling or any kind of thing that happens in people’s lives; whenever we start to give a reason why, “Yes, but....” and we want to justify why we did the wrong that we did.  There is never a justification for wrong!  There’s never a justification for the wrong we do!  I hope we understand that!  And yet human nature does that. I hope we see that in human nature, I hope we see that in ourselves as human nature and we hate it, because whenever something starts to come out of your mouth, “Yes, but....” and you’re trying to explain why you did something wrong...  if you did something wrong, it’s wrong and it’s to be repented of!  There’s no justification!  Somebody else didn’t make you do it!

That’s why whenever I’ve counselled two people who are at conflict with each other (and I’ve done a lot over the years), whenever I’ve counselled two people who are butting heads – it doesn’t matter who the two people are – it’s amazing to me how often in human reasoning that the other person is responsible for making the other person to respond the way they did.  Nobody makes us respond wrong in life, nobody makes us say bad things; nobody makes us do bad things.... “Yes, but if they hadn’t of said what they....”  You had a choice to make as to how you responded to it.  If you respond improperly to people, something’s wrong in your mind!  Whether they’re right or wrong is immaterial!  That’s an awesome thing to understand.  Human relations, the 10 Commandments: relationship with God and relationships with one another.  It’s an awesome and a powerful thing to understand.  It is the heart and core, the life’s blood of what this is all about of life.

...called; that’s God’s job!  No one can come to this way of life unless God calls you.  God the Father has to call and open up your mind.  And once you’re given to Christ, because that’s what He does, once that takes place and you go under the water – especially at that point in time and all the sins are gone and an impregnation takes place – that is Gods promise to YOU, that’s His guarantee to YOU that you have eternal life in His Family.  That’s what He’s saying!  “My promise to you, My covenant with you is you are My begotten child, son.  You are My begotten son and you will be born.”  It’s not a matter of sex – it’s a term.  “...and you will be born into My Family.”  That’s where it leads.  As far as God is concerned it’s absolute.  It’s a promise!  Our human nature gets in the way; we are the stumbling block.  We’re the one... we’re the only one that can interfere with that.  Our choice!  The choices we make, how we respond to God and to God’s spirit in our life.

...called; and the way we become chosen, the way we’re able to come through all this is by the extra word that’s added here; being faithful, being faithful to what God has given to us.  And you can’t work that up.  Even that has to come from God!  You can’t work it up.  It’s something that has to come from God; being able to be faithful!  And so we have to cry out to God, continually, to dwell in us, to live in us, and anything that interferes with that we have to repent of because that has to do with sin and the cutting off of the spirit.  Because God’s desire is to always, always, always, always, into eternity dwell in you.  Incredible!  Awesome!

So to be faithful is a word that continually crops up in such examples and parables that we’ve been reading through the instruction that Jesus Christ gives and the importance of maintaining vision, of being watchful and on guard spiritually.  Faithful!

Going back to Matthew 24:40 - Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two grinding at the mill; one shall be taken, and the other left. No guarantees, it’s by your choices as to who comes through it and who doesn’t, who works and who doesn’t work, who’s really applying themselves and who isn’t.  Just being there doesn’t ensure it.

Then continuing - Watch therefore: for you do not know in what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, he would have been on guard.  Goes without saying!  Simple, isn’t it?  So if we understand we can lose what we have, if we understand that the treasure we have can be stolen, can be taken away by our wrong choices and wrong decisions (because that’s what it’s about), because we have to be spiritually on guard.  ...he would have watched; and that’s up to us and whether or not we’re faithful to do so; and we have to cry out to God to help us to do this.  You have to cry out to God to help you day by day to be alert spiritually, to not let down, to correct anything in your life, to ask God to chasten you, to give you help, to guide you, to correct you, to help you to correct your course if you begin to go off course or do something wrong.

I think of David when he said in essence to help him, to save him from the presumptuous sin even in life, because there are things we can’t see that God has to show us and help us in fighting.  But when He shows us it is then up to us.

...and would have watched; and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also need to be ready: see, it’s all the time, it’s a state of mind.  We were talking this morning about a time when we visited over in Israel and talking about how it was unique at that time because bombings were taking place and people weren’t coming in, because this was during Passover season; and this is when a lot of Jewish people come into Israel.  It was a time when people come in out of Traditional Christianity also because its Easter season and they weren’t there at this time as well.  So we were there at a unique time when there weren’t that many people around and people were fearful to go there.  Talking about the security and where you see young men and women in shopping malls carrying machine guns and rifles.  It’s a way of life for them, to be on guard, to be alert.  You drive through different areas and you’d see in the valley military vehicles, on a hill, military vehicles.  Over and over again where you went in different areas – on guard!  They strive to do physically what we have to do spiritually because we grasp the danger, that we desire to be on guard, spiritually in our lives.  And that means in a constant state of readiness.

Therefore you also need to be ready, to be watching so that nothing’s taken from you like the thief in the night, so that you’re alert...and most of all to self and how you’re living your life.  ...for in such an hour, when He’s coming.  When is He coming?  It’s not about the date!  ...for in such an hour as you think not, when your guard is down, that’s when you’re the most vulnerable.  That’s why I like the scripture that says, “He who thinks he stand take heed lest he fall.”  That’s what’s right behind it, a fall, where you think it just can’t happen to you.  All these things have happened in God’s Church; hundreds, hundreds, thousands of times in the lives of people when people begin to let down spiritually, or to doubt, to doubt where we are in time, to read things into a book that aren’t there because we think this is the only way it can be stating something or saying something.  I learned a long time ago it’s not how it works.  Prophecy doesn’t work that way.  It’s by staying alert spiritually that our vision is sharpened, that we have the ability to see behind of what’s happened and be strengthened by it, things of prophecy that have been fulfilled and accomplished and to see what’s happening now.

And so again, therefore you also need to be ready, for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes. It’s what the warning was about.  It’s not about the day, it’s not about the literal hour – it’s about us.  Whenever any of God’s people have lived in the last 2,000 years in the seven eras of God’s Church and now this past, that era of time still applies in everyone’s life.

Verse 45 - Who then is a faithful and wise servant, faithful and wise; whom his Lord has made ruler over His household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He comes shall find so doing.  It’s a constant state of readiness, being alert, being on guard, understanding our own human nature, understanding the need to repent day by day by day, to understand your weaknesses, to understand where you’re weak and where you have to cry out to God to help you to be strong to be able to fight the things you need to fight and to wage what you need to wage in your war, whatever that is so that you can conquer, so that you can overcome to the end.

I’m getting close to the end of my battle.  Some of you’ve just started.  Thank God you’re about to enter a better world though.  Thank God you get to be the pioneers of it.  Awesome what God’s placed before you – truly is.

Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He comes shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That He shall make him ruler over all His goods. Everything belongs to God and He wants to give us everything, share it.

Verse 48: in the midst of all this a warning concerning what happens as a person becomes weary of watching.  People become weary; you’ve got to be careful.  It can be a dangerous thing.  You can become weary of watching, of being on guard, of fighting the fight, of wanting to coast, of wanting to take it easy, of wanting to escape!  Have you ever felt that way?  I do a lot!  But I understand the danger of such thinking.  You don’t escape, you don’t run away, you can’t go out and fish for trout somewhere in the mountains and think it’s all going to just be easy until the time passes you by.  Doesn’t work that way!  You’ve got a battle to fight all the way to the end.  It’s about an attitude and a frame of mind, truly is, and we have to be careful that it’s not one that’s an unhealthy one that’s being warned of here.

Verse 48 – and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, so there is that servant who is a faithful and wise servant.  The alternative to that God says is to be an evil servant.  Sad to say there’ve been thousands!  But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delays His coming; in other words we get to a point, someone gets to a point where they think things are not happening as they believed they should.

And shall begin to...whatever it is, whatever it is in the mind that causes the reaction that follows, whatever it is in how we think that leads to what follows – that’s the danger of not being watchful and alert.  And shall begin to strike, to strike out at, which means ‘to beat, to wound’ (that’s what the word means in the Greek), others: his fellow servants, what is it about?  It’s about the Church!  It’s about how we think about each other!  It’s how we talk to each other!  It’s what we say; it’s how we live toward each other!

I remember some of the sermons that came out even before the Feast – and generally they do come out a couple of times here now before the Feast period of time – and God gave me strength and power to warn, to instruct, to encourage people to make certain that we’re living right toward each other within the Body.  And to show that it is the most insane, most unheard of thing to think that anyone in God’s Church could be upset with someone else in God’s Church!  It blows the mind to think that that can exist!  Such can’t exist and be right with God.  And yet in times past in different areas, even when I was going through some of those sermons I would hear from different areas all over the world, things popping up here and there of people who were at odds with each other!  Arguing or fighting over crazy things; couldn’t work differences out, and held grudges and it astounds the mind!  Because that’s the exact opposite of what this way of life is all about.  It’s being cut off totally from God’s spirit when those things happen.

But people who go through that, they think they’re okay with God because it’s the other person that’s got the problem.  It blows the mind, truly does!

...And shall begin to strike, because, see, this is what happens.  When you let down spiritually it’s easy to take it out on others, it’s easy to strike out at others, it’s easy to let this go and let actions go and things happen that should not happen in God’s Church.

...and to eat and drink with the drunken; not physically. See, we tend to think physically; and if it happens physically then you’re really in bad shape anyway.  So this is spiritual, okay?  What does that mean?  To eat and drink with the drunken? Who are the drunken spiritually?  People that become intoxicated with that which is false, with that which is not true, with that which cuts and divides, that which is whatever that’s out there that people latch onto sometimes.  That’s why it’s so dangerous to stray very far away from the trunk of the tree.  Do you know where the trunk of the tree is for God’s Church today?  The website, the truths that are there.  And when people stray out from that and go out just a little bit more... “Well, this’ll be okay because...”  Oh really?  Amazing how the human mind thinks!  And if we’re not careful we can eat and drink of that which God says we shouldn’t eat and drink of.

The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he is not looking for Him, and in an hour when he is not aware.  All this about what Jesus Christ said, No man knows the day or the hour He’s coming.  It’s spiritual.  And so when I think about those questions that are asked... they’re done in ignorance because the world has no concept.  They don’t understand and I understand that.  You can’t reason with them on this plane at all.  You couldn’t begin to talk about that.  You couldn’t begin to give such an answer.  “Oh, this is all spiritual?!”  It’s like Christ talking to Nicodemus; “Nicodemus, I can’t give this to you.  To enter into the Kingdom of God you’ve got to be born again.”  Hmmm, how does that happen when you’re already full grown?  And all he could think of was something physical, to come out of mom’s womb again?  Dumb!  You can’t give to people what you can’t give them.  It’s spiritual.

And shall cut him asunder, interesting what’s being said here.  ‘To cut’, the word, and the word, ‘asunder’, the same here.  It’s very poorly translated.  It’s a word that simply means ‘to separate’.  So it’s talking about here; And shall separate him/her/that individual/that person and appoint them their portion with the hypocrites: because that’s what it becomes if we don’t live what we’re supposed to live.  And that’s what’s happened to thousands and thousands...and I would have been right there as well if God didn’t have a purpose for a remnant at the end, truly.

...there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  What a horrible thing that at one day in time, one day in time to look back after a thousand years have gone by and think, “I gave up the Kingdom of God, to be a part of 144,000.”  Incredible!

This has been a sermon series on the subject of vision and all that’s involved with that and those things that go along with the Old Testament and New Testament.  Without vision the people perish.  Ask God for it, ask God for help to attain it, to have it, to always have it, to not let go of it.

~~~end

1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1350459/Egypt-Lebanon-protests-Thousands-clash-police-streets.html#ixzz1CaOKmRS1

2. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/27/us-egypt-protest-idUSTRE70O3UW20110127?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FworldNews+(News+%2F+US+%2F+International)

3. http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/27/egypt.protests/index.html

4. Read more: Tunisia to Egypt, an Arab upheaval - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Tunisia-to-Egypt-an-Arab-upheaval/articleshow/7382198.cms#ixzz1CaXoUcUs

5. http://blogs.forbes.com/afontevecchia/2011/01/28/egyptian-civil-strife-sends-oil-close-to-100-on-suez-canal-fears/

6. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=256405

7. http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/44982/southwest-dry-spell-will-conti.asp

8. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8288936/Water-company-warns-customers-to-prepare-for-drought.html

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