A Fast With Judgment – Pt. 2

Ron Weinland

April 9, 2011

This Sabbath is Part 2 of the sermon entitled A Fast With Judgment.  As was brought out in the first part of the sermon last Sabbath, the following day which was this past Sunday, April 3, the world, specifically Israel, passed into a ‘Time’ of judgment. Whether it be the physical scattered nations of Israel or even the church that was scattered, the Israel of God; referred to in scripture both physical and spiritual in that respect.  But again, the world passed into a ‘Time’ of judgment, a ‘Time’ for the execution of judgment upon Israel.

It’s a period that covers 40 weeks, and that shouldn’t go by us in any fashion or form, the importance of that, what it means; as God began to teach us a long time ago after the apostasy, the importance of that period of ‘Time’, of 40 weeks, 280 days, and a time of God’s judgment.  We’re going back and looking at various sermons of what brought us up to this point in time. It will be a little bit of a shortened version of some of that, but it’s important that we strive to get an overview of how God leads us, because it’s incredibly inspiring, it truly is.  And as I was giving that sermon last Sabbath, before I gave it and after I gave it, my feeling was that I understand that I’m probably getting far more out of it than a lot of you because of the process whereby God works with me and leads and guides and directs me, so when I go back and see what He’s done it magnifies it that much more.  But God desires that all of us be able to grasp that, to grasp by going back and reviewing those things of how He’s leading us and what He’s given to us at very specific times.

I find it immensely inspiring and I guess my concern was that you might not find it as inspiring. Because when you live through something and because of the unique way that God had worked with me over the years, I can’t tell you how inspiring this is. And even the more I go into it now, and the farther we go here, and especially into next Sabbath’s sermon as well, it becomes more and more inspiring.  Just like the 280 days I mentioned, the 40 weeks of judgment, that which was given to us in the beginning to understand what happened to Mr. Tkach, the man of sin. To understand those things that were given to us so long ago – look at how much that’s been built upon because of where God has led us in this end-time, because it’s very much about judgment.  And so because of that process God is showing us more and more just how important that period of time is because it’s all about judgment on the world at the end of an age; and that’s awesome when you understand over and over again this is being drilled into us, even in concerning the ‘Time, Times and a Half-a-Time’.

It’s awesome, it really is, and incredibly inspiring when you look back and you realize where we’ve come and you grasp where we’re going and God gives to us an understanding that we do this walking in faith, and how important all that is. It’s immensely inspiring and exciting and it should give you more strength and more courage because of what lies ahead...and not to forget how we got to where we are now and to realize that not everything happens in....  Sometimes we can think about, “Well, what’s going to happen next, or how’s it going to happen, and when it’s going to happen...” - but wait on God!

Things will happen, they will happen powerfully, they will happen mightily – that is in God’s hands.  And some of this will be covered in the sermon as we go along here.  But again, a great reminder that there is still a powerful and incredible spiritual war that God allows to be waged in a spirit realm that is sometimes hard for us to comprehend because God has all power and He can stop anything and He can control and do anything He wants at any time; but He allows various things to exist, to be, so that we can learn from it, so that the angelic realm... they’re still learning, speaking of those that are faithful to God and have been faithful through time.  And so there’s still that moulding and fashioning that God does in our lives and we learn from it, they learn from it, and it’s a powerful, powerful thing.

God could have taken care of Satan a long time ago, but it’s a part of His plan to allow these things to continue on, to allow for there to be wars.  Just like the Israelites when they went into the Promised Land – could have obliterated everything in their path, but they were a part of something, they were a part of what had to take place.  Just as I mentioned; as soon as they went into the Promised Land.... As I mentioned about the ‘staff’, the ‘rod’ that Moses held up in that battle that was taking place, and went on for a long period of time there – so much so that Moses was weakened and He had to have help from his own brother and from another individual there – both of them helping to hold up that rod. And when it was held up they prevailed.  Lessons that come from that!  Things that helped Moses at that time to learn!  Things that helped different ones that God was working with, to be moved by, to learn from at that time; things we can read about and be inspired by – the power of God that He’s given to us to share in.  Incredible things that God does in our lives to mould and to fashion us.

So, as a reminder, it was announced last Sabbath that there will be a unique Passover observed this year and I’m looking forward to giving that sermon next Sabbath about that Passover, where we are in time, what it means to us spiritually, how important this is.   You go back and you read about the first great Passover that was observed in Egypt and it’s awesome!  We need to understand that we’re going to be observing a Passover that’s just as awesome and even more so because of where we are in time, because of what He’s doing in His Church and what He’s going to do in the world.  It is a powerful, powerful thing!  Beginning to understand more of what God spoke of when He said, talking about looking back in time, that there is an exodus coming that is far greater, that will be spoken of in far greater ways than the exodus of old.  Important; both awesomely important, but the one ahead of us is far more important, far more meaningful in the plan of God and what God is doing.

This is going to be a one of a kind observance, just as the Israelites had a one of a kind observance when they were being prepare to leave Egypt.  Their observance was very physical; this one is very spiritual as we’re going to fast on that day from sundown to sundown on Passover.  And it needs to be repeated that the only exception is for those who are baptized as you will be partaking of the bread and wine in that period of time at the Passover Service; but what I did not say that I want to add today, again as a reminder here that I know how people feel sometimes and understanding this is an important Passover, yes – but again a reminder here that people who have health problems – you need to be careful.  You should not fast unless approved by a doctor.  If you have serious health problems and so forth that isn’t the purpose of it, that isn’t God’s desire.  It is not the Day of Atonement – even then we still have these same rulings within God’s Church.

God’s purpose is one that is spiritual; it’s not a physical thing.  And so if there’s any possibility that fasting could further jeopardize your health or sicken you to the point that it’s going to jeopardize your ability to glean from the first High Day, be careful, be wise, maybe shorten the period of time.  You have to judge yourself. Sometimes we have this guilty conscience that we feel like we’re not doing our part. Yes, you are.  You pray and you pray accordingly; and there are some things that some of us just can’t do in the same way in a physical plane.

The greater purpose of our observance will be given in that particular sermon next Sabbath from New Zealand just before Passover observance begins the following day at sundown.  Everyone should listen to next Sabbath’s sermon on that day.  I hope that message has gotten out to everyone; because sometimes in Europe, just like you do over here in Australia sometimes and New Zealand sometimes, you’re a little bit behind, because obviously by the time the sermon’s given in the States you’re past the Sabbath over here, obviously, and it is the same way with Europe and so forth.  Even when we’re here the same thing is over there in Europe, that sometimes they still wait because of unique situations and so forth.

In the sermon given last Sabbath, in Part 1 of this two part series, we began to review some of the sermons that led us into this final end-time; and we’re going to look at some of the same ones I mentioned last Sabbath in a bit more of a shortened form today.  But again, we need to grasp this great overview, we truly do.  It’s a very powerful thing that God wants us to see and understand, how He’s been leading us.  It’s very inspiring if we can truly grasp this picture in a very powerful way.  So again, I’m going to go back and review some of this quickly and then we’ll go on into the rest of the sermon, this final part of this sermon series.

The first sermon that we reviewed was entitled ‘1260 Day’s’ and the reason in doing so is because that was the day before everything began.  That was the final Sabbath just as we were getting ready to launch into a specific period of time that God had given to us, and this one here was given on December 13, 2008.  The following day the final end-time was to begin and momentous events in the sense of God leading us into the end of an age, of what is going to transpire, how it was going to transpire, why God wanted it to be exactly as it was.  There were things we didn’t grasp and understand but we followed God and He led us step by step by step, and that’s an awesome thing.

As was mentioned in the sermon that was given from Jerusalem, it is the location from where our job began and where it will end. In reviewing that sermon we’re reminded of a statement made at that time, so I want to go back and just get the crux of some of this, the most important sections of some of these to put it all together in a better way.  It was stated...

...there are going to be many surprises ahead of us; things that cannot yet be given.

Just as on next Sabbath; I’m going to give some things that cannot yet be given even farther.  We follow by faith and so we can only go so far as to what is given; but God will give us a little bit more to grasp that there are things to happen that aren’t going to happen exactly as we thought they might.  And so, we follow God.  And so all the lessons we’ve learned in the past two years we need to apply more in the ‘Time and a Half-a-Time’ that’s ahead of us, we truly do. It’s so important to grasp this.  So again...

...there are going to be many surprises ahead of us; things that cannot yet be given but will be given in their proper time.

It’s God’s time.  It’s a matter of faith and leaving things in God’s hands, following Him as He leads and guides and directs us in a perfect way.  Then I went on to say at that point in time...

...I say surprises because amidst of (all) the evil that will befall this earth due to man’s inhumanity to man, and the evil (that) Satan and the demons will do, there will be many good things that God will do with (for) those whom He is calling into this (a new) Millennial age of (for) His Church; ...and even deliverance within the scattered nations of Israel that may be (far) greater...

I am really dumbfounded by that statement.  See, it means so much more to me because of what God gave and because I know the sequence of events that came about, because I did not know at that time the sermons that were coming!  Just like next Sabbath; I know that sermon – I don’t even know what’s going to be given during the Days of Unleavened Bread yet.  I have no idea what the Sabbath is in the midst of the Days of Unleavened Bread or any sermons beyond that.  I know what the sermon on Pentecost will be about; it’ll be about Pentecost.  I know that the sermons on the Days of Unleavened Bread will be about the Days of Unleavened Bread.  I know that much, but I don’t know where they’re going to go or what we’re going to cover yet, because that’s how God leads us.  That’s how He’s working with us.  And so things are given in a timely fashion, they truly are, just as this sermon and just as next Sabbath’s sermon are given in a timely fashion.  And so again, incredible to understand where the comment was made....

... and even deliverance within the scattered nations of Israel that may be (far) greater...

Because as we went into those fasts that followed that was the desire!  That if there is any way, “Holy Father, if there is any way... if MORE in the scattered body... whatever it takes...!” Now I didn’t understand it...  God works with our minds to lead us and guide us to come into unity with Him. It was already God’s plan!  It was already God’s plan; things about mercy that we didn’t understand.  It was already His plan, but He has to lead us and bring our minds, our thinking, into unity with Him so that we’re in agreement with Him, that we’re excited about what HE is doing!  That’s AWESOME when you see that!  It truly is awesome when you see that unfolding!  And that’s what’s taking place.  And so, when I go back over something like this and I see a statement like this, I can’t tell you how encouraging, how moving, how inspiring it is to read something like this.  It’s dumbfounding, it truly is!

Little did I know when that statement was made that that is exactly what God’s purpose was, that was His plan – that more potentially be saved in the scattered nations of Israel and in the Church that was scattered.  Incredible! Inspiring!  And so exactly what followed and exactly what we’re covering right now, and what would happen in the next two years, is the very thing that God has used to make that possible.  It is the way that God has done it that makes the potential.  Even the sermons we have gone into, that we delved into if you will, concerning what happened with Egypt and the sequence of events of the various plagues, catastrophic events that followed there and how they happened, the timing and so forth has helped us to better understand why things are being pushed up more and more into a period of time and why man can only respond to that.

Because if man is given too much time then pride enters in again. Just like what we’ve experienced in the stock market and the economy and everything else that’s happened; there’s that initial shock and then it’s gone and all of a sudden people see a way out.  They’re not moved that something awesome is happening in the world.  We’ve seen an incredible downturn in a desire to know or have answers (if you will), for the books as an example.  You can tell where the world is by what’s happening there.  You can tell the spirit that’s in the world by what’s happening there because there’s coming a time that’s going to make what happened in 2008 and 2009, the early parts of that seem so puny and so small when this world begins to be terrified.  It’s not terrified yet.  Certain places have been terrified at times, but not in a massive scale around the world.  That’s why things have to happen over and over again so powerfully so and close together; otherwise there can be a hardness of heart that enters in and pride that can be lifted up to where people rely on themselves and they won’t be afraid, they won’t be turning to God and seeking out answers to their questions, or there won’t be any questions to be asked as far as they’re concerned - they see a way out. Awesome!

Going on here talking about that particular sermon and some of the flow of things that took place there...  To this point in time we were given what we believed was the final truth, the 50th Truth.  When those sermons began to be given we truly thought that was it.  I was deeply convicted because of what 50 meant and what had taken place here.  I was deeply convicted at that point in time that this was it; 50 truths.  What an awesome thing!  And to understand what had been given to us, the last great thing we needed to really grasp and comprehend about the return of Jesus Christ – What could be greater?  And God has given us awesome things since that time; seven more that followed in time.  Incredible!  In the near future other truths would follow, because of what God gave the Church.

As I mentioned, while in Jerusalem at that particular time there, Laura and I began our job that following day.  I made the comment here about the importance of something that took place there, that she was ordained to the office of a prophet on that Sabbath before the job began.  Incredible thing, because that led into other things because I hadn’t really focused upon it.  I knew it, I understood it; she hadn’t been ordained before because I wasn’t to that point in time yet to understand the necessity of that, but we knew she had the job.  We thought she had it back in February and then God let us to know, “No, this is when it begins and there is importance in being ordained here.”  And that began to open up the doors.  God began to lead us into understanding of other things.

I want to read what I mentioned in the sermon concerning an addition to the topics section of the Church website.  These are awesome things because you go through one door and it opens up another and God just continues to lead us if we continue to follow and it just becomes greater and greater!

Woman as Elders

Even in how this was written it was leading us in a particular direction.

Based on the practice of the New Testament Church and the teachings of the apostle Paul, the Church of God-PKG has not ordained women as elders (ministers) in the past (1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:12). However, one woman has been chosen by God to be a prophet in this end-time, as well as one of His two witnesses as explained in the topic, "Witnesses - 2."

When it comes to government in God’s Church...

This was just an initial thing.  I didn’t know where this was leading.  I didn’t grasp where this was leading yet, but it led to truth #52 which states...

52 (2) God is restoring knowledge concerning the rightful place of women

in the family.

That’s where that led.  It started with that.  That’s how God was working to reveal things, to begin to see things about the structure within the Church, to begin to see things and why and where it all began; that these concepts, these ideas toward women exist in the world and why things have happened in cultures the way they have, that are so wrong, throughout time.  The rest of this section here on truth #52...

This involves the start of the greater removal of the curse laid upon woman from the beginning which was the result of sin.

Now, I want to add something here at this point.  I know that God gave us that truth and the beginning of it begins in the Church of God.  That’s where it begins.  It begins through revelation of truth as we come to understand this subject in a deeper way, as we’ve gone into it in sermons that God has given. We have come to see certain things, but this still exists in a very powerful way – even within the Church.  Slowly but surely as we grow and as we digest what God has given to us people are making changes, but the changes in many cases are slow because of the kind of world we live in.  Because Satan’s still out there, the demonic world is still out there, and they’re still oppressing and they want that curse to stay there.  They hate family!  They hate God’s plan!  They hate you!  They hate your creation!  ...the fact that you exist.  So he does everything to mess everything up in the entire structure of family and relationship between men and women and how people think and what they do.  He’s done an incredible job with the human nature that we have as human beings, selfishness and pride and all the other things we have. He knows what buttons to push.  He knows what to do and how to do it.  He’s a master of it!  He’s far greater than any of us are in his perverted ability.

That’s why I repeat so often the scripture in 1st John, ‘because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world’.  That’s your hope!  That’s your strength! That’s your life! That’s your power!  And when we’re cut off from the flow of God’s spirit, when there is sin and we begin to have that flow cut off in our lives, we are open targets.  We are no power against him; only God and Jesus Christ in us give us that power to stand firm and to be able to do what we need to do.  And even then, obviously, we find ourselves day by day having to repent of sin, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be, that’s what’s been given to us as a part of a new testament, a new covenant.

So again here, tough, tough things to learn, because first of all Satan’s still around.  That’s the battle.  He doesn’t want that freedom to exist, even in the Church of God obviously, even though the knowledge has been given there.  So there has been change in people’s lives to varying degrees, there has been some growth, but there needs to be so much more.  And more is coming in little over a year; and what you can accomplish in your relationship between yourself and God and your thinking and the battles you are willing to enter into in that length of time as well as you continue to grow spiritually.  But it’s something that doesn’t just change overnight.  This world has to be changed; it has to be let out of Egypt first for this to even begin to change more powerfully within the Church of God.

And then came the 53rd truth.

53 (3) The ordination of women in the Church.

Incredible!  Even when #52 was given #53 was not obvious.  There were just certain things that God leads us in step by step by step as He reveals truth to us.  And then this one came about.

With the revelation of the 52nd Truth, God is continuing to reveal the rightful role of women with the 53rd truth by showing that God has and will continue to work with and through women to help prepare the path for the return of Jesus Christ and to fulfill a breaking of bonds [like shackles] for all humanity.

It’s a part of removing of the curse and as people begin to understand that and how God’s power and His authority works in life, that has changed something that’s existed for a long time that God allowed because of the world and because of not revealing this until this time, that there was a structure even within family that God has shown has changed.  Because it’s about the authority that God gives that is spiritual.  It isn’t something that can exist just physically – it has to exist because it’s spiritual in nature, if you understand, that has to come from God.  It’s the order of things that God has given that come through the flow of His holy spirit; and that’s an awesome thing to grasp, to comprehend.

Going on from that sermon we went on to review two more sermons that followed in the last two Sabbaths of December 2008, and obviously the first one beginning at the first Sabbath that was given in the new period of time.  They were entitled ‘God’s Witness is Ending’ part 1 and 2.  For us to come to more deeply understand why God had given even a title to a book the way He had, ‘2008 – God’s Final Witness’, the importance of that and why that title existed and so forth.  God helped us to understand what He was doing in a greater way, of what ended a period of 6,000 years of warning toward mankind, to mankind, and witnessing to mankind, or a witness of mankind and so forth.  This helped us to understand far more fully why God inspired the writing of the book, exactly why that title and exactly the way it was given.

It was brought out in that sermon series that due to the revelation of the 50th truth we still had much to learn and since things did not happen earlier in that year, in February of 2008, some had another battle here which seemed to some as one of ‘losing face’ if you will.  In other words, when you believe something in the way that you do, to the point you do, as in February 2008, and because of that and some sharing that...because we had this sense of urgency (which is always good), it’s just that it was not all accurate obviously, about a timing of events and so forth.  And the concept we’d always had in God’s Church was that when things began they were going to begin with an incredible crescendo, power unleashed on this earth; the ‘great tribulation’.  And so this is that concept in our minds as so many things have been that God leads us and teaches us and helps us to unlearn things that are not fully correct.

And so again here, I say some ‘losing face’ because when you tell relatives, maybe not at that point in time with the best spirit, not necessarily with a humble spirit fully.  People came to understand that about themselves.  And so we had to come to learn that it’s not a matter of our being right or our being lifted up.  It’s about the truth, it’s about God, it’s about His power working in people’s lives to move, to change, to motivate, and if we are humbled more by what we go through so be it.  I’m constantly reminded of what it says about two witnesses – clothed in sackcloth – this is a spirit, an attitude that we’re all to have.  It is a spirit of fasting; it is a spirit of humility.  That’s why I am in awe of how God has worked with us through periods of fasting as He has that followed quickly here and that has led us back around again now to that same period of time where we left off, doing some of the same things but now with greater understanding and greater purpose and now timing that is so important in God’s plan.

I’m going to read some of what was stated in that series.

This has not been a period of time to prove to others...

Friends, relatives, unbelieving husbands, wives or children, co-workers and so forth.

This has not been a period of time to prove to others that we are right, although many have fallen into this snare because of pride.

And so we’ve refined our minds, our lives, our character.  God blesses us to go through various things, trials, hardships sometimes, to refine something there, and pride is a difficult thing to see.  We all have it.  We all have pride.  But the more we grow the more it should go by the wayside.  This season of the year is very much about pride.  This season of the year, when you talk about Pharaoh and about Egypt; this season of the year when you talk about sin, sin is very much about pride.

As it was stated in that sermon...

This has been a time of witness, of a final witness.  Many have gone before us and they’ve always been mocked and hated.

And so what follows a period of time like that? Oh, it even adds to the ability to grow in humility, because now, because of those things that we (in some cases) did, or what we believed, that sometimes what has followed then because of how people respond to that – “See!  I knew you were wrong!  It just goes to prove it; you’re all wet, you’re all wrong.  It didn’t happen!  He’s not a prophet!  What kind of church is this?  What do you believe?  Why do you believe this?  Why are you so easily able to be moved from one thing to another and change times?!”  But you know the truth and it becomes about the truth and your conviction before God, why you do the things you do.  And then when God gives something and reveals something it’s clear to you; a truth about the return of Jesus Christ, a truth that adds so much more to the meaning of Pentecost than what we grasped before...and we even came to understand things that are announced, like the Trumpet being blown, the return of Jesus Christ that has to do with Trumpets, yes, but the timing of the return being Pentecost?!  How awesome is it that we understand now that which we didn’t grasp before?

And so you have that, but you can’t give it to anyone; and so you learn what it’s like to be mocked, you learn what it’s like to be made fun of, to be ridiculed; that it’s not a personal thing.  It’s not about you!  It’s not about me!  It’s about God, it’s about salvation, it’s about the end of an age, it’s about a transition of one period of time into another.  It’s about those things that God is doing and being in unity and oneness with Him.

Pride gets in the way and sometimes it smarts a little bit, but we learn lessons from that, we grow in that.  We have grown a lot in the past two years!  God’s Church has grown a lot in the past two years on a spiritual plane.  Humility… what kind of a price do you pay, would you give to be able to grow in greater humility in your relationship?  Because it’s through humility that God can give you more, that God can work with you more.  The more that pride is gotten rid of and the more that God is first and we’re in unity with God, and we wait on God, and we see God in the picture, the more that God blesses us.  So that’s exciting!

I’m dumbfounded by the opportunity that so many of you who are young have.  There has never been a time in God’s Church...and you have to be careful in this thing of pride, that you don’t take it to yourself, that you don’t somehow begin to feel that this is because of your ability to see and understand or learn things.  No, no, no, God just gives it and He’s given things in an accelerated way, in a way that God’s Church has never experienced in time to the same degree.  Incredible!

The disciples, the apostles in the beginning, didn’t have at the beginning access to so much, to the power of God’s spirit, to see, to grasp what you’re able to grasp.  Does that make us better than them?  No, on the contrary, we’re just awesomely blessed because of where we are in time, because of God’s purpose and what He’s revealing to the Church in time.  That’s why I marvel sometimes how much more on a spiritual plane.... and it gives us the ability to grow more, and we grow faster; but it takes time still to grow in the things of experience.  But even that’s accelerated more than what it was when I first came into the Church because things are happening in an accelerated way, and sometimes they put you to the test in a big way.  Just like what we’ve gone through, it’s put you to the test over and over again.  You’ve been tried over and over again, and how you respond to that – that’s what counts; and when it’s done in humility and the more humility is there, God can give you more and more and more.

We’re getting ready to have a quantum leap in things that are going to make this time look puny, as soon as Jesus Christ is here and 144,000 are here.  We’re going to make a quantum leap so that the whole world at that time is going to be able to learn more quickly than what you did, and that’s a biggie!  That’s awesome, truly is, as God’s spirit is poured out so powerfully on the earth at that time.  So we live in incredible times!  It’s dumbfounding!

To me there is no better time in all of human history to live than right now.  How blessed are you?   ...and how blessed are you to have been called at this point in time, to have these opportunities now in the most exciting times of all history, of what God is doing in the world – this is it!  It wasn’t when the children of Israel left Egypt, it wasn’t in the garden when Adam and Eve were created; it wasn’t then!  It wasn’t when the world was flooded and Noah built an ark and his sons and... it wasn’t then!  It wasn’t when King David did all that he did and God gave to him and with Israel being the kind of nation it was at that time, a very physical nation, but it wasn’t then!  It wasn’t even the time when Jesus Christ first came, which was incredibly powerful and awesome for this earth.  It’s His second coming; we’ve been blessed to live His first coming – Passover – but to live in the same period of time, to experience that, to be witness of that at a time when He comes back as a roaring powerful lion, not as a lamb; to see the transition on this earth because of that?  ....to be a part of it ourselves?  We. Do. Not. Grasp...because we live it.  It’s hard for us to grasp what God has given to us, what His plan is in our lives.

I know what I am, I know who I am, and I marvel and I’m dumbfounded and brought to greater humility because of that.  Because I can’t grasp what God has given to me; I understand that.  I can’t understand the great magnitude of it, because I know myself; I know what I am, I know who I am, I know my human nature.  And indeed that’s the only way it could be in order to do the job; and that’s the way it must be with us.  We must deeply see ourselves and understand the magnitude of what God has given to us and be in awe of God!

That’s why reviewing something like this is so important.  That’s why going over some of this stuff is so important, to grasp how God has led us in just a short time.  It’s powerful! It’s very powerful!  And so again, it was brought out in that sermon that we shouldn’t marvel that we are hated and mocked.  It’s been this way for 6,000 years, but you’ve had a big taste of it in a short time.  You’ve had a big taste of it early on, very powerfully so.

So, the question was asked:

Does it bother you what the world says? ...does it erode your faith in what is true?

Because in times past that’s been a battle.  It can put you to the test, but it brings you back around constantly to all the truths, all that you know and see that you know is by the power of God’s spirit in your life.

Does it cause you to doubt?  Have you had to battle with pride and doubt?

This sermon series was preparing us for a wait of over two years.  We went through some of the things back then to be able to go through this period of two years.  Hasn’t your desire, hasn’t your spirit been, “I want to get on with this!!”  ...and indeed we do.  We want to get on with it, but thank God it’s happened exactly as it has and we’ve been able to continue to move forward and continue to grow over a span of time. Two years is a long time in what we’ve gone through, it really is.  It’s a long time in the scheme of things, and we’ve done it in a matter of faith, which is so important to understand.

And so we were being prepared for, understanding something about God’s mercy that we did not yet know to the degree that God wanted us to understand and grasp it – and something that’s going to be used in time to teach the world.  Things that happened when you go back and you read about the Exodus, you read the different stories; we learn from that!  The world is being prepared to learn from what we have been going through, what we’re going to go through; and the world, in time, in the next 1,100 years, is going to focus mightily on this time.  You live it and it doesn’t seem maybe to be that big of a thing to you, because we don’t grasp the magnitude of what God’s doing at this time sometime in us/ through us in sharing with us...but it’s bigger than what you can grasp.

I’ll just tell you, it’s far bigger than what you can grasp in your mind, and that’s good, because sometimes if people really grasp and comprehended it, sometimes that causes a battle of pride to exist and the battle that has to take place there.  So God moulds and fashions us, He works with us in a very great and awesome, awesome way.

Going on; mentioned at that time....

We have entered the time of the final 3½ years; we have entered it by faith.

That’s what was said back then, indeed.  We entered it by faith.  And going on...

We’ve entered this period of time as a matter of faith.  (We’ve gone through everything we’ve gone through as a matter of faith; we truly have) and only when the 2nd Trumpet blows will faith begin to change (a little...)

Walking forward by faith, by what you believe is not a matter of what you see.  It’s not a matter because certain things have been accomplished and fulfilled and done that you’re able to, especially in end-time events; things are going to change mightily when that happens, even for the world to help bring them along.

Let’s turn over to Hebrews 11, a chapter that discusses the subject of faith.  We’ll come back to this later on, not in this sermon, but we’ll continue on from here to build upon this.  It’s an awesome thing, it really is, this thing of faith.

Hebrews 11: 1 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for... Our hope, what we believe - it’s coming to pass - all that we look forward to, the time we believe that we’re in, the hope that we have of the return of Jesus Christ coming back to this earth to reign in a power way.  That’s a powerful hope in our lives!  And we have a great confidence; we’ve grown in that through time.  And God gave us greater confidence when He revealed to us that it’d be on Pentecost and not on Trumpets, because that has a lot more meaning into it when you understand the 144,000 are to return at that time.  It’s a completion of a story about the firstfruits of God; that they should come back on the very day that pictures them!  Awesome!  It has greater meaning; and because of that we have greater confidence and boldness in what God has given us to believe.

So God is continually building that within us.  He gives us that.  He gives us the ability to believe and to see and to live by it.  We have to make choices along the way, but following God and desiring God’s spirit...we made that choice as a whole. We made it at baptism and God will continue to provide the way, the road for us to go down that road if we just continue to walk forward; to repent day by day, to cry out to Him for help to grasp, to see, to fight the battles.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That’s why when the Second Trumpet blast takes place (and we’ll hear a little bit more next Sabbath, even about the First Trumpet); but even in that as things happen in a very powerful way in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Canada in time, Western Europe in time, and we witness various things that we have believed for a long time; when those things take place it puts a different perspective on things.  It’s not the same thing anymore.  It’s something that you’re living through and you have great zeal and desire, and because we’re going to be so busy in some of the things we’re going to be done, but it’s not the same as what you’ve been doing for the past two years and beyond...but especially the past two years.

For by it the elders obtained a good report. It’s a beautiful thing in God’s eyes; that He gives us of His spirit. He gives us the ability to see things, to believe things.  He’s given us these truths that we’re talking about here; an ordination that took place, and then in time an ability to understand.  How beautiful is it to understand that women who have been oppressed for 6,000 years, by men and by themselves because they’ve yielded themselves to that process and they kind of expect it in society even.  What kind of a sick, sick thing is that that’s happened in the world?  6,000 years of this garbage!  I am excited that the minds of people, men and women, are going to be freed more and more as we go forward.  There are a lot of sick, sick things that have happened through time in how people think and how people have been treated – just in that one area alone!

I think of people who cover their faces and they have to look out of these little slits and they somehow think this is what is right!  And their husbands and other men think this is what is right, to be imprisoned like that, to be perverted like that!  It’s perversion!  It’s perversion, just call it what it is.  Sick that people should be so imprisoned in life to expect that that’s how life is supposed to be, that that’s where happiness and abundance of life is?  No it isn’t!  And I’m looking forward to the day to find out if that didn’t start in the days of Abraham, Sarah and her handmaiden.  It’s going to be interesting to see, because it sure makes a lot of sense, what she would have done.  Jealousy, envy, and then people beginning to think this is what is expected of them, this is how they live, this is what is right, this is a righteous thing to do, and it goes into religion then.  It’s going to be interesting to see.

So, I don’t know how excited you are about this freedom, because you see, in God’s Church I’ve done a lot of counselling through time since being a minister, in marriages, and the greatest problem of all has been this very thing.  The root, the heart, and the core.  The greatest battle and problem of all has been this bondage that started back in the garden so long ago that has affected the ability to have happiness (even with God’s spirit), that has hampered, that has hurt people in their lives.  ...and the ability to be free of that?  How awesome is that?

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, and we grow in that.  We grow!  I have become (I don’t know how to even describe it); I’ve always been in awe of the universe.  I’ve always been in awe of understanding what God created out there.  And the more in awe you are of some of those things – it’s helped to be a teacher in a very powerful way about what God is....  He talks about it in scripture, which we’re going to get to in time here (maybe next Sabbath); but when we talk about a creation in the New Testament there, in the writings of Paul it sometimes says ‘creature’, but it’s the word for ‘creation’ and what it’s referring to is the creation that God has of mankind, and His purpose in mankind to become a part of His Family.  It’s that creation and what’s taking place.  And the more we grow, and the more that God has given us to see, the more in awe I’ve become in time, because of grasping things about the complexity, the vastness, the power, the awesomeness of the universe that’s out there.  We can’t even begin to comprehend things that are in there, and the power of God to bring them into being.

And then to understand with that that none of that resisted God, but even to do it is something we can’t even begin to grasp.  And then you come to understand all...all human life that has ever existed, God works with before you’re born and as you come into life, (there is a power and an awe), some things that God leaves in human life to time and chance, but as things come to being and as life continues on God begins to work with in a plan.  Most of it is for the last 100 years, but He still works with human life to mould and fashion things in His Family, that will come to have the potential of being in His Family in time.  And through the midst of all that then, in the first 6,000 years, very specifically and very powerfully He involves Himself in working with those whom He calls and has called.  First the 144,000, and now another body and another group that’s being prepared to continue on into a new age to be the foundation of the Church that continues on into a new age.

God works meticulously in our lives!  We all have a place.  If God can construct a building of 144,000 and every one of that 144,000 fits very specifically into that structure, is God able to do that with a million? ...with a billion?  ...with twenty billion? Does God have that power?  Did God have the power to put billions and billions of stars, of planets, of galaxies out there? We so limit God sometimes.  We cannot comprehend that power, that might that goes into eternity and how we will always be learning – always learning, never dull!

Thought when I got out of high school I’d learned everything I needed to learn.  “I’m free!”  Didn’t know how much more there was to go!  ...and excited that there is!  How boring, how dull it would be if the ability to continue to grow in those things ended.

Powerful what is said here in Hebrews.  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. And so we see that in the physical world around us in a physical universe and we come to learn from that in a greater way, what God is doing in our lives and what God’s plan and purpose is as we grow, as God blesses us to grow in character, as God blessed us in the last two years.  There are qualities of character, that only because of what we’ve gone through and experienced, things that God has moulded and fashioned within us, young and old alike, all have grown that have yielded themselves to that process, in varying degrees as we go forward, powerfully so because of these things.

Going on here; In that sermon series God revealed to us the importance of some of the expression and the destruction concerning the green trees and the grass.  The statement was made:

The First Trumpet is all about the beginning of judgment for the final end-time and it is about where it will lead.

In time that’s going to mean more to you.  Next Sabbath that’ll mean even more to you.  God just continues to give us more and more.

The next sermon to follow was on the first Sabbath of January 3, 2009 and it was entitled ‘Fasting for Humility’ – it was a two part series.  We’d fasted on that Sabbath.  I’d forgotten all about that as I mentioned last week.  We had this fast on January 3rd before we had the two-day fast at the end of the month.  In that sermon it was stated:

We have more fully learned not to trust in ourselves in judging how God leads us.

That’s a powerful thing, truly is.  We should not have preconceived ideas, because when they don’t work out the way we think in our mind, and sometimes speculation is not good, sometimes it’s not healthy.  That has gotten the Church into a lot of trouble in times past, ‘the GREAT Tribulation’; didn’t turn out to be great at the beginning, but its great tribulation nevertheless.  But we have to be careful how we read into things and how we do things sometimes.  We learn from that process, we truly do.

We have learned more fully not to be offended in God’s way of directing our steps.

That’s a powerful lesson!  Are we offended?  Sometimes people have gone through these things; we’re offended.  Here a truth comes along.... “Oh yeah, 50th Truth... you’re changing time!”  I didn’t have much to do with it, but anyway, the things that people do sometimes in their minds, in their thinking and it’s like we’re offended.  We can be offended that something wasn’t the way we thought it was going to be and God reveals something greater and more meaningful and greater truth to us, fuller truth...we’re always going in that direction.

As Mr. Armstrong did all his life, God was leading him out of darkness into the light, but you don’t get there overnight and you don’t get rid of everything in the darkness.  Just like NONE OF US IN GOD’S CHURCH have gotten rid of this thing about the beginning of the curse being fully removed, instantaneously overnight the first time you heard the sermon.  It’s a process!  ...and the more you grow the more you’re going to come more into the light and be freed of those things that have held your mind in captivity, and Egypt.  And so, Mr. Armstrong’s life was one of coming out of Egypt!  And I marvel at the things that God gave and I marvel at the awesomeness of understanding that there’s no trinity, that that huge church that did all that she did and all of her harlots that followed, that have upheld this idea that the holy spirit is a separate person, a separate being from God and yet still the same, and they use these terms that don’t make sense because ‘it’s all a mystery after time’.  How free were we made in God’s Church that we understood that the holy spirit is not a person?  That was awesome!  We were freed from the things of the Catholic church about a trinity.

It was a beginning of freedom, but we weren’t all the way there.  All the way through Philadelphia they never came to the point in time where they understood complete freedom from the trinity – that Jesus Christ had a beginning; that He didn’t live for eternity.  Still teaching a part of the trinity, but God didn’t give that so that it could be known as being false.  Is that Mr. Armstrong’s fault? Was it not God’s Church in Philadelphia?  Did it take anything away from him being an apostle?  NO!  Not in any fashion or form; on the contrary, it enhanced it, if you understand, because he followed God and God gave him what God wanted to give him when it was God’s time to do so and Mr. Armstrong followed it faithfully.  Incredible!

That doesn’t change.  And it hasn’t changed with us!  We don’t have ‘all’ knowledge.  We’re not ‘pure’; we’re not ‘perfect’ by any measure!  And there are going to be more things, as I mentioned earlier in the sermon here; not everything’s going to happen the way we thought they might and there’s still going to be surprises ahead of us.  Still going to be a lot of surprises in the period of a ‘Time and Half-a-Time’ that’s ahead of us.  We’re going to learn things that we don’t understand now and we walk by faith.  And God is preparing us to be able to go into this period of time and do it faithfully because of what we’ve already experienced that has strengthened us.

God knows how to lead His people out of Egypt; we follow.  As we faithfully follow we’re able to leave.

And so it’s a process for us spiritually in the things we are able to learn and grow in.  An incredible process indeed!

And so we talked about how we have learned more fully not to be offended in God’s way of directing our steps, of leading us, just as we talked about a change in the Feast observance for 2008.  We were talking about that the other day here.  Incredible what we have learned that’s prepared us for things even in the future and given us greater understanding because of how we observe the Feasts, that we learn things about what it meant to tabernacle, what was more meaningful and what is more spiritual in the things we’ve understood, and how to better observe the Feast of Tabernacles, and all the things that God has given to us; and not to be embarrassed due to pride.  “Oh, you’re only keeping four days of the Feast?”  Relatives and stuff that are scattered out here and people mocked and made fun of.  And then how do you answer that?  Are you offended by that then or do you feel that you have to justify?  And so we’ve gone through different things...and just to have the truth, that’s all we have to have.  “No, we’re keeping the full eight days as always, nothing’s changed.  God says keep eight days of the Feast and so we keep eight days of the Feast.”  You can’t give this to anyone.  You go forward in faith and in time God will bring others to it, then you can share it with them.  That’s the exciting thing about fellowship, that’s what it means.  God brings us into fellowship, He brings us into unity and oneness, He brings us into the ability to have fellowship with people of the same mind.  You can’t give this to anyone!  You can’t give growth to anyone.  There are things you just have to give time and God’s spirit and God’s power in time and our responding to it and we grow through time.

Going on with what it said in this sermon here...

Not to be embarrassed due to pride because of the way God leads us...

I then talked about the timing of the revelation of the 50th Truth.

God has been humbling us so (that) we can more clearly (greater) see the need to follow Him in greater conviction of unity and oneness.

That’s what it’s about; being at one with God.  The more we get rid of self, the more we get rid of pride, the more we come into unity with God, that’s what it’s about – being at one with God more.  That means God the Father and Jesus Christ are dwelling more fully within us, that Word, that mind that we have that is of God becomes more a part of us; greater unity and oneness.  Awesome!  So I mentioned then....

So today we are fasting, we are seeking to humble ourselves before God and seek more fully His forgiveness...

We always do that.  It’s what it’s always about first and foremost.

...which means we accept more fully the depth of our sins and our guilt for how we (each of us individually) have let down.

And we tend to do that as human beings from time to time and we have to be on-guard about those things.  Then on the second Sabbath, January 2009, the second part of ‘Fasting For Humility’ was given, and continuing on here.

As we were fasting last Sabbath I announced another fast for the weekend of January 31.  At the beginning of the sermon today I want to again give guidelines for that fast.

So again, it was announced about it being a two-day fast and so forth.  Never a time in God’s Church that such a thing has been done, that we’ve done such a thing!  A very moving thing that God gave to us, very powerful.  Little did we know where it was going and what the meaning of it would be and why God was doing it this way.

We began the sermon [speaking of part 1, the previous Sabbath] by focusing on how all fasting should be done in humility before God and for the purpose of seeking greater humility through the process of repenting and personal self-examination.

And that is so important!  Again, the witnesses clothed in sackcloth; that’s about humility, not just for us, for the Church, a desire for humility.  And fasting focuses more upon that.  That is the picture of fasting!  It’s about a relationship with God and it’s about humility and self-examination on a continuing basis and a desire to be at one with God, a desire to get rid of sin, and a desire to get rid of pride which is where sin comes from.  Then we began to focus on that sermon... It was stated...

Then we began to focus on the upcoming fast where we’re going to fast for humility, but not just for ourselves....

Something new that God was giving us to see, to focus upon.

...but for the humility, the humbling of others.  Our desire as God’s people should be that we want the Thunders and the Trumpets to be so perfectly timed and spaced....

I’m dumbfounded by that statement!  That’s exactly what God was leading us in, to show us that they need to be very perfectly timed and spaced in such a way as to have a greater power and impact to save, and to save more, potentially!  Because if it started back then we wouldn’t have the same results.  There would not be the same result in human life.  We are so thick-headed as human beings, so stubborn; and so God was leading us in all this and we didn’t even know it.  And we weren’t even there yet, we were just being prepared for where we are now.  Back then we were being prepared for where we are now!  How awesome is that?  So let me read it again.

Our desire as God’s people should be that we want the Thunders and the Trumpets to be so perfectly timed and spaced so as to give the greatest possible potential for others to be humbled....

That was before we even entered into that two-day fast.  We were already focusing upon this.  And I think of some of the sermons that have been given now to help us to learn this in an even greater way, about your prayers and what that means that you’re in oneness and unity with God Almighty, in humility; that it’s His way, that His way is right and why that’s so important, because there’s no other way for people to be humbled in this way, in this fashion, for the potential for far more to be saved.

...to give the greatest possible potential for others to be humbled so that they can come to repentance and salvation at this time of life.

We talked about larger numbers of people.  We talked about, at that point in time, ‘let’s begin by reviewing’ and so we went through several things in Joel and I think it’d be good just to look at some of those verses again.  Joel 1; it’d be good to look at some of these in Joel because they’re pertinent today as they were pertinent then. This is what people are to do, this is God’s plea to mankind but mankind doesn’t do it – so who does it?  Those who are led by God’s spirit, the Church.  We’re doing it because that is what God has brought us to, to be of one mind with Him so we can hear what He says.  Because Israel couldn’t hear it, the world can’t hear it... but some of God’s people can hear it; and so He leads us in these things.

Joel 1:14 - Sanctify a fast and call a solemn assembly... Joel is all about the end-time, the final end-time, this period that we’re in.  That’s what the book of Joel is about.  Sanctify a fast and call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Eternal your God, Incredible!  They’re the only ones who can hear.  They’re the only ones who can fast in a right spirit before God.  They’re the only ones who’ll respond to a fast in a right way before God; the world can’t, the scattered church can’t and isn’t.

Sanctify a fast and call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Eternal your God; it’s not about a physical thing, it’s not about a physical temple, it’s not about something back in the Old Testament at all.  It’s about now; and cry unto the Eternal. Alas for the day! For the day of the Eternal is at hand: Who knows that?  You know it!  God’s people know it.  We understand that; God’s judgment has come.  The world doesn’t believe it yet but they’re going to begin to be made believers.

Alas for the day!  For the day of the Eternal is at hand and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.  It’s coming!  It’s righteous, it’s just, it’s so needed for God’s Kingdom to come.  It can’t come in any other way.  And so we’re coming into greater unity with that, we’re coming to understand the need to pray about such matters, as we’ll talk about next Sabbath.

So it was mentioned here (let’s back up a little and see the context); and so it was shown that the context again is the end-time, the destruction prophesied to come, and it really shows and reveals in essence what the scattered church should be doing.  It really shows what the ministry should have been doing all this time, but isn’t able to.  And so we respond to God, God has led us to that point in time so we could, because you’re given the ability to hear that which God has given to you, and then we respond.  And so the question was asked in that sermon:

Do you agree with God and His righteous judgment for this world?

That was asked two years ago; and we might have thought at that point in time, “Yes I do!”  But I’m going to tell you, you didn’t: not to the degree that God desires of you, not to the degree that God has led you.  Because just as all these things we’re talking about, God has led us and continues to lead us to coming into unity and oneness with Him, with His mind, with His Word. That’s what it’s about, being at one with Him so that our prayers reflect that agreement and oneness with Him.  That’s why we’ve even focused more about the kinds of prayers we truly should have in our life at this time now two years later and where God’s getting ready to lead us now, because now it’s come, its here.  We weren’t ready two years ago like we are today.  We might have thought we were, we might have wanted it – spiritually we weren’t there yet.  There was more we had to learn, and we’ll understand more what that means in time as well.  And so it was asked:

Do you grasp the importance of humility before God?  Do you grasp the power to be blessed through humility of spirit?

Something we grow in.

When I think of this subject I think of those who are going to be saved through all this and why and how they will be saved, because they have come to humble themselves before God.

And so we’ve come to learn, even more so, in a magnified way over the past several weeks what it takes to bring people to humility, because only then will they listen, only then do they have a potential to be saved as far as the world in a massive way is concerned, as far as the scattered nations and the rest of the world is concerned.

And so it was covered further in the book of Joel that people will come through the devastation and horrifying times that are ahead because of those things that come upon them to humble them; and so we went to Joel 2.  It’s because of the things that come upon them that they come to being humbled before God, fearful for the first time in their lives before God, desiring deliverance from God.

Joel 2:30 - And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and fearful day of the Eternal come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Eternal shall be delivered: What a beautiful thing!  When people can be brought to humility and then pray to God, look to God in a genuine spirit, not knowing all the truth but beginning to see and beginning to believe certain things they hear and understanding these indeed are not times ever seen on this earth.  People have experienced wars and they’ve experienced devastation in different places, just like what happened in Japan, but in the massive way like this, over and over and over again far greater than what happened in the land of Egypt – it’s through that process that this can begin to happen and will begin to happen.

...shall call on the name of the Eternal shall be delivered: it’s a beautiful promise  ...for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, showing what people are being led to - the Church!  Finally!  Finally the world being able to be brought to the Church; ...for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance as the Eternal has said, and in the remnant whom the Eternal shall call. Even very specific about other things that have happened in the past and what’s yet to take place for some who are God’s and have been cut off, as we are part of that same remnant.

Then on the following two Sabbaths before the weekend of the two-day fast we covered the story of Esther, as we mentioned last Sabbath.  We began to focus upon the importance and magnitude of the kind of fast that we were getting ready to enter into, and still didn’t grasp it to its fullest by any measure.  Actually it’s come to mean a lot more to me looking back and realizing what we were led to.  And even though we’ve talked about the greatness of what we were experiencing at that time and how that we couldn’t fully grasp nor see it, but that it was something that God was going to use in a very powerful way to teach great and mighty lessons in the future.  Just as the story of Esther is so moving and inspiring to see how God worked meticulously in the lives of people to bring about an incredible fulfillment and end to it all that is so inspiring; what you’re living, what God is doing in your lives now is far more meaningful and far more inspiring because of where it’s leading the world.

And then the two-day fast arrived and on the Sabbath of January 31, 2009 the sermon was given entitled ‘A Great Fast’.  I want to read some of what was said here talking about this, talking about the previous Sabbath, talking about a two-day fast.  So stated here....

What is the purpose of our prayers, petitions and fasting before God?  It is in like manner as Elijah prayed that God would bring many more to receive a special calling from Him... that many more be brought to repentance and acceptance of the truth through the timing, repetition and power from unleashing far mightier Thunders... and as well the Trumpets that are before us.... and all these now ready to be delivered in great awe and might.

See, back then I thought it was ‘now’ that God was leading us into this fast to realize, but now we’re there and now we’ve come to some additional fasts again to continue on exactly where we were at that point in time because God has revealed how He was going to accomplish ‘that far many more’ are going to be able to be brought to repentance through the mercy that God has given over the past couple of years.  And these things still have to come, but it’s a matter of God’s mercy that they come with great power and fast repetition, not spread out over a long period.  That’s merciful that God has done what He’s done and taught the world at the same time, because they’ll come to understand that in time.  We’ll come back to some of this later on.

The statement was made:

Think about those Thunders and pray about them...

We’ve had two years to pray about them.  How earnestly did we pray?  How much at one with God were we in it?  Why did we pray about some of them? Because sometimes it reveals how we think, and sometimes there’s still some selfishness, sometimes some pride involved that we have to come to understand; and to do it fully for the right reasons, to do it because it’s in unity and oneness with the mind of God is a totally different matter.  And that’s where God is bringing us, has brought us, to that point in time where we can do that in a better way, because it’s never about ourselves.  It’s never about our comfort or how others look upon us.  It’s about what is best for others and a willingness to sacrifice for them, whatever that means.

And so I marvel; after this period of time these things were not discussed in the manner that they’ve been discussed in the last couple of months here.  We have really focused in a very powerful way, picking up from where we left off.  It’s like we did that and that was the time and we went into other things that God revealed and now God has blessed us to really dig into some of these things, to see some of these things and some of the series and just the title of sermons, if you look at the last several series we’ve gone through.  It’s incredible!  Because this is where we left off.

Then it was stated....

...this is where we find ourselves right now in prophecy; we are now responding to God’s purpose and will by entering this fast, faithfully and spiritually so, for it is through all this that the work of the two witnesses will have even greater power to help bring many more to repentance and acceptance of the truth.

Isn’t that a right and a good desire?  A desire to see more brought through all this, more than what God said we’re deserving of in this world?  More than what Israel or the world is deserving of; and yet certain things have to come to pass and transpire as they must, indeed, but to know that more, because of how God has led His Church, can be brought through this.  To magnify...because what it does is it magnifies the Church and it magnifies God, just as He did with Israel through Moses in Egypt.

...But all through a mighty process of being humbled before their God.

You should think about the previous sermon series we’ve gone through and how that that has picked up from the things we covered at this point in time.  So we don’t need to go back through all those in the sermon here, you can do that on your own, and go back and think about those things, pray about those things, thank God for how He’s led you and worked with you and moulded and fashioned you. We could go through more sermons but these alone are awesomely powerful because they bring us full circle after two years to a point in time that the Thunders have resumed in greater power.  They’ve continued on, but not like they have now from resuming where they left off, from what God is doing and what is picking up in momentum.

Just the economic impact!  I am dumbfounded!  The economic impact that the world is a little slow of catching onto; what has happened to Japan.  China that just passed them as far as an economy in the world so that China now has the world’s second largest economy and Japan is now third.  It’s been destroyed.  In essence, effectively for now it doesn’t have power, it truly doesn’t.  Their ability to manufacture, their ability to sell, just car manufacturers alone has taken a horrible beating.  They themselves are now understanding because of the negative consequences that come out of this, the fear that sometimes people have and they’re going to have something made in the steering wheel that’s radioactive.  You know how people think and so they’re going to be afraid to buy.  They already are!  And they understand it’s going to take a long time – 10-20 years to dispel things in people’s minds so that their manufacturing and economy can begin to move forward again.  They have been beaten horribly in one fell swoop and they haven’t experienced anything yet... because China doesn’t love them.  China and the feelings they have go back to a time of some things that have not been forgotten, and Japan is going to suffer mightily, far more than what they have, at the hands of their neighbour.  Things are going to get ugly in this world, they truly are.  And I feel for them.  I know you do too.  I feel for the hurt and pain and suffering people are going to go through, but it’s so much better that people live in a new age, in a new world, in a second life in God’s time.  It truly is!

You say, “Well, why can’t they all just live into a new age?”  It doesn’t work that way!  The world will not come to repentance save these things happen in a massive way!  Would be wonderful if somehow the whole world would just repent and turn to God, that all of Japan and China and Russia would just repent and turn to God, that the Islamic world would just repent and turn to God – BUT IT WON’T HAPPEN THAT WAY – it can only happen through the Thunders and Trumpets becoming far more powerful and God doing what He does on the last day that humbles the world.  And sadly, pathetically so, that means the destruction of billions of lives.  There. Is. No. Other. Way.  And hopefully that is so clear in your mind!

In order to have a Millennial age and a world that can enter into the Church of God, to accomplish great and mighty things during a thousand years, these things must come to pass, just as it was right and perfectly so that there was a flood that destroyed the earth, save for a family.  Timing, timeliness, purpose, was awesome indeed.  If it had happened in a different way... thankfully it didn’t.

God knows in ways we can’t begin to.... we see just a little bit.  We see such a small amount.  God knows perfectly how to create a Family that will live into eternity, and sadly in this life we just have to go through a lot to get there, because of the preciousness of what God offers us and has made possible for us to have in a human mind.  It’s beyond words, it truly is.  We should just be absolutely dumbfounded and in awe of what God does and how He does it.  And that’s a part of the process of growth that we have.  And being able to pray more fervently for the things we’re praying about that reveals a oneness and a unity with God that must be there, of those prayers that must come up before God’s throne and be sweet smelling to Him, that He can work with and answer, that He’s brought us to.

We’re now picking up from the time of those two periods of fasting on January of 2009 and now moving forward into the time of God’s judgment that must be executed that is to follow, no longer with mercy and time being extended.  That doesn’t mean that everything happens on a single day or that mighty things happen on a single day, because it’s over a period of 40 weeks.  I don’t know how it’s going to come about fully and it may be toward the end of 40 weeks. Through two years you’ve been prepared to walk by faith in those things, of how ever God chooses to do it, because it’s still about the purpose of these fasts to accomplish the greatest potential to save. And God knows what He’s doing – we follow!  Just like through the Red Sea, it’s our choice to follow in faith.

We began our fasting in January 2009 to humble ourselves and to seek God’s blessing in humbling ourselves so that they might be saved, prayerfully in larger numbers, in the world, with people in the world being particularly brought to humility and repentance.

Beginning over two years ago God has been revealing the importance of mercy being shown in judgment.   We’re to learn from that.  You’re to learn from that in your life and how you work with people and how you work with one another, how you work in your family, how you work with people in the world around you; that it’s done first of all, when it’s a matter of judgment, that it be done in mercy.  And that means there’s a certain way we think about people and treat people, it truly does!  It’s the patience, it’s the kindness, it’s the love...and those things that if there is any way to reach and to help we do those things first in life.  And within the Church that is powerfully meaningful because that’s exactly how it works in God’s Church, that’s how we respond, that’s how God works with us – in incredible mercy!  And then we come to repentance as we see certain things and God wipes it all away and we don’t have to enter into a time of judgment being executed in our lives.  On the contrary, we’re forgiven and it’s put behind us and we grow through that process.

And so it even becomes more important, especially as we approach this Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, that we grasp the importance of relationships in the environment God has taught us to learn that; and that’s within the Church, the environment of the Church in our dealings with one another, how we think toward each other... how we think toward each other... and how much mercy, righteously so, we’re willing to give.  Think of how much God gives you.  How much do you give to others?  How much?  How much are you willing to give to others to grow, to be moulded and fashioned by God’s spirit, to give time to conquer and to overcome.  Those things are most important upfront when it comes to things of judgment, they truly are.

In time judgment with execution comes if we don’t respond, but as a whole within God’s Church we respond.  We just grow in different points of time, have different things to overcome.  We have different things to deal with in our life, we’re at different stages, and the Church is filled with people that range from being brand new to people who’ve been around for a long time, baptized in the 1950’s, that far back, in God’s Church today.

So again, beginning over two years ago God has been revealing the importance of mercy being shown in judgment and now He is revealing the importance of judgment being executed.  Both are a matter of God’s mercy.  Think about that.  Mercy being given through time, but also the execution of judgment is a matter of God’s mercy, if you understand.  It’s a matter of God’s love if you understand it.  And so that’s why this sermon series has been entitled ‘A Fast With Judgment’; very much about mercy, but the necessity for being executed, and understanding that.

So we entered into previous fasting the same as we have now, to humble ourselves before God - that’s always first and foremost - along with hope and prayer that people in this world, and those in the church that was scattered, be humbled so that they can be blessed.  What an incredible thing to realize what people have to go through in order to be blessed; and even the execution of judgment so that people can be blessed, because until that comes they cannot be blessed and loved by God.  They cannot come into a relationship with God.  It’s a matter of mercy and blessing from God, just comes in a tough way for human beings.

So we understand as we look back now on two years, they’ve not been humbled by mercy in time or patience that has been extended to them.  God already knew that, but no one can ever say, as some in interviews have said and insinuated things about God, that God’s not merciful.  On the contrary, exceedingly patient, mighty in mercy!  And so again, our prayers and our fasting and what they’re about – very powerful.

Since people are incapable of responding...they’re incapable of responding.  The church that was scattered is incapable of responding, just as you were if you were called out of that until God began to have a purpose and draw you and do whatever it took in your life to bring you to humility as He brought me to humility and the special calling that God gives.  But when God begins to do it on a larger scale, in a more massive way – just like the apostasy happened quickly in a massive way, God has a purpose of having things happen in a way that can reach and help more people at a single time, those who will respond and we know the vast majority won’t.  But what an awesome thing for those who will.

And so again, since people are incapable of responding to God’s mercy and patience we are now seeking more earnestly that judgment be executed because that’s where we are and that’s what God is doing and we’re going to be at one with God.  That’s why we’re focusing on these things in sermons and our prayers and so forth.  So as this too is a matter of mercy, an extension of mercy; not that of giving more time for people to listen and repent, because they’re not going to do so in more time; but now the execution of judgment so that people can be humbled and finally come to repentance and truly turn to God in order to fully become able to be blessed by God.

Let’s turn over to Isaiah 2.  We went through this in a recent sermon, but I hope today by going back and visiting this again that it means more to you now than it did then, because of what God has been giving to us.  Because the timing of Isaiah 1 and Isaiah 2 are leading up to and is about the time we’re in right now, about a transition in time from 6,000 years to a Millennial reign of the Kingdom of God on this earth.  And so in Isaiah 2:3 we read - And many people shall go and say, Come... because of all the things that are happening in this world at this end-time that take place and things that people have already experienced of the ways of God all the way through this period at different stages for different people, Come along with us and let us go up to the Mountain of the Eternal, to the House of the God of Jacob and He will teach us of His ways; How blessed are people to come to this kind of view and attitude of mind?  To go through what they have to go through in order to come to this...what kind of mercy and love.  It’s awesome, because this is a matter of free choice and God brings people to a time where they make this choice and now they desire it and want it because of what they have experienced and what they’ve come to see, what man is capable of and what man has done to himself in the world, and that man can’t govern himself.  When he comes to agree and acknowledge that alone, what an awesome thing!

...to the House of the God of Jacob and He will teach us of His ways, a desire that people have to learn!  Just like you when you were first called, the desire to learn!  How awesome is that?  I don’t care what you went through to get to that point!  When I was called I had to go through some tough things, I truly did.  I had to be knocked down several times, again and again and again, short of death (because if that happens you have to wait a thousand years  ), to humble me, to bring me to a point where I was so distraught with human life, with how this world is, with how people think, with how people treat each other that I was willing to listen to God, finally, and wanting to.  And so God works with us all in different ways, but we have to be worked with in this way, in this manner in time to whatever that is that God does, but in a massive way that He’s going to do in the world to come to a point in time where people want to learn.  What an awesome blessing!

And so it’s difficult sometimes for people to grasp that what happens in the Thunders and Trumpets turn into what is needed to bring people to this kind of mindset; and if it’s not now, the ability in the last hundred years.  Mercy and the love of God to give us life – it’s in His power.

...and we will walk in His paths: a mindset that has come to this point in time where that’s what they want.  I think back to my life and when I came to that point.  That’s what I wanted, the choice was clear.  When God pours out His spirit, when you’ve finally been humbled to a point where you see yourself and you see life and you see life around you and you realize this is not what I want – because He helps you to see that there is that which is from Him, and then you want it.

...for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Eternal from Jerusalem.  So again, I can’t help but think of the kind of mercy that God shows mankind, to bring mankind to this ability to be blessed, finally, in a massive way on the earth.  It hasn’t been easy.  It’s pretty tough.  It’s an incredible thing that God has done through time within the environment of the Church, to bring individuals to repentance, to bring us to an attitude of wanting to learn; and we saw what happened through time, what human beings will do even with that – thinking about the Church at the end of Philadelphia and on into Laodicea.  So again, thinking about the mercy of God.

Verse 4 – For He shall judge/execute judgment among the nations, that’s how this has happened.  That’s how it comes about – because He did it, because He had a plan to save mankind, many now, but many more later.  Death means nothing to God!  It does to us and sometimes we let that be too much of our focus in life.  Death is a part of life but it’s not the end!  Sometimes how we treat things, even once we learn the truth, we’re not thinking right yet.  It’s a matter of coming into unity with God and seeing things by the Word of God, by the truth of God and being in agreement with it and seeing the mercy and the love and the awesomeness of it.

So in other words, again, all this is the only way for mankind to be blessed, for God to execute judgment by God doing this in a very powerful way at the end of 6,000 years in order to bring His Kingdom; and it can’t come in any other way!  I don’t know if people ever had those thoughts, “Why can’t it come in some other way?”  It can’t!  It just can’t because of the way we are.  I’d be so awesome if we could grasp more fully the sermons of the Feast, and especially the sermons that have to do with what God has given to us in the mind, what God gave to spirit beings and why we’re different and why we’re created this way and what we have to go through in order to become a part of God’s Family.  The more that we can digest some of that knowledge and insight and grow in it the more in awe we’ll be of God and see this and understand this, truly.

...and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, how blessed!  Ever since I’ve talked about war and how people glamorize it... whether it be in toys, games, video games, movies, make the killing of human beings look glamorous, something to be desired so that when little boys grow up, and girls now a days, they want to go off to war, because it’s glamorous!  There’s nothing glamorous about it!  It’s perverted, it’s sick, it’s ugly for human beings to think that way!  And yet I thought that way. I didn’t want to kill a few; I wanted to kill a lot.  I thought it was noble, I thought it was right.  I wanted to do it in a big way!  Then I came to see how sick that was.  For people to be brought to this point, to beat their swords into ploughshares, spears into pruning hooks: where this is their mindset, that they see and understand finally the ugliness of war.

You look at Libya; you look at some of these nations over there, the Ivory Coast.  You look at some of these places over there and all these different weapons they have that have come from Russia and China and the United States and from France and from Germany because people are greedy, and so they get their weapons in there and they use people too.  “Oh, we didn’t do that.”  But they know and they help support individuals to make sure they’re able to get weapons in there and make lots of money doing it.  They love that!  They’re still able to move their weapons and try to get it to people they think are the best for their side.  Sick!  Look at the confusion and the ugliness and the destruction; and look who gets hurt!  Look at the people who are killed through all this; families, children, women that are abused in the way that they are by sick people!  It’s a sick, sick world, it truly is!  And yet we make it glamorous and we try to make it sound like, “Oh, if you let the government go debunked; if you don’t give the billions of dollars then our military’s not going to get their pay.”  It’s like, “You’re unpatriotic!  You’re un-American!”  That’s how people think!

This is so steeped in the minds of people.  That’s more important and so you just give more money to kill more people, to destroy, and we think it’s noble.  There’s nothing noble about it!  That’s why we’re not a part of any country, in essence, except God’s.  We’re ambassadors for God’s Kingdom.  We have to live in different countries and we strive to live as good citizens according to God’s laws; and when you do that they still find fault.  Anyway... another story!  Sick world we live in!  Truly is!

So it goes on to say here ...neither shall they learn war anymore. How blessed is that?  Bring on the Thunders!  Bring on the Trumpets!  ...so that man will come to a time where he so hates it and doesn’t want it to be taught anymore.  To where they’re going to make sure that children aren’t given weapons and games, little miniature things to play with that mould and fashion your mind.  They affected my mind as I grew up; they did.  They’ll not learn war...you learn war!  You learn to murder!  You learn to kill!

O house of Jacob, come along and let us walk in the light of the Eternal.  So this is what is merciful for mankind, truly, rather than being fully destroyed.  See, that’s the alternative.  If we received what we deserved, it is to be fully destroyed just like in the flood, but man doesn’t understand that.  Its like, “God’s not merciful to wipe out all the human race.  We don’t deserve that!”  Oh yes we do!  And so God goes above and beyond to love, to show His love, to show His mercy.  Incredible!  To bring man to a point in time where he will come to see His love and His greatness.

Verse 10 - Enter into the rock and hide yourself in the dust, for fear of the Eternal and for the glory of His majesty. That is a blessing!  That’s a blessing for the mind to come to this; to where people would have such fear!  Because when they don’t fear, they do whatever they want and they will murder and they’ll kill and they’ll destroy and they’ll steal and they’ll lie and they’ll take billions from others and millions from others and they don’t care about anybody else but themselves.  That’s the way the world is.

The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, how blessed to go through Trumpets and Thunders and everything else to come to this point in time; for the lofty looks of man, for pride to finally come to humility?  ...shall be humbled and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, Again, when I read through this I think of what kind of mercy, what kind of patience, what kind of love to bring man to such a mind to be blessed?

...and the Eternal alone shall be exalted; Yes, God will be, His people will be, His servants will be, His Church will be – that’s the way He’s always worked.  Those who are at one with Him, growing in being at one with Him.  ...in that day. For the day of the Eternal of hosts shall be upon everyone who is proud and lofty,  finally, after 6,000 years, the world able to be saved, brought to salvation in a massive way.  Still choices, all the things about human nature, but the world will be so much different than the world it has been for the last 6,000 years.  It’s night and day! ...and everyone who is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: every time in your life that you have been brought low you have been awesomely blessed!  Every time of humility that I’ve ever gone through I’ve had to learn more about humility, to be humbled, I’ve been awesomely blessed; but I haven’t gotten there without some hard times to go through, without some deep soul-searching things in life to go through from the beginning and all through my growth.  And it’s the same way with you.  How blessed are we to go through such things?

So again, I hope we’re seeing more of a picture here of why we’re to pray as we are and the things we’re to pray about and the way we are, with earnestness, with conviction, with love, with mercy, because we have more of the mind of God, because we’ve come to the point in time where we indeed see these things as merciful, as a matter of God’s love, as a matter of God’s patience, and that must be done.

Someone who lets their children run rampant in life and never be taught and never be corrected does not love their children.  God loves us with love that we can’t even begin to comprehend and what’s happening in our lives is far more important than those things.  That’s a process; if we respond to it we’ll do right in the first place.

Verse 17 - And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Eternal alone shall be exalted in that day. And He shall utterly destroy the idols...and everything that lifts itself up against God, or that’s lifted up before God. And they shall go into the holes in the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Eternal, and for the glory of His majesty, when He rises up, that’s where we are in time, to shake the earth terribly. Meaning ‘to cause the earth to tremble’, to be terrified before Him.  That’s what man has to be brought to because it’s just not there and as a whole never has been.

That’s why I marvel when I think back about Noah and I think about the children; and they didn’t have this.  After what they experienced and they didn’t have this?!  Fear toward God?  That they would fear going against Him; that they would fear to turn against Him?  The mind of human beings... what an incredible thing!

So I hope we have learned in a very great way, again here, the meaning of this sermon ‘A Fast With Judgment’ and why we did what we did last week and what we’re getting prepared to do on Passover as we’re going to learn about next Sabbath in an intensified way here and more magnification and to grasp what God has given to us to understand things about His judgment.  Because if you go back to Isaiah and read about what a fast is all about, it’s powerful, and it’s about humility, and it’s about a desire to be freed from Egypt, and it’s about a desire and a mind that we have toward others in mercy and love and patience, indeed.

~~~end

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