Sacrifice – Pt. 3

Ron Weinland

Last Day of Unleavened Bread

April 25, 2011

I want to mention something here that I didn’t mention on the First Day, which I know that we’re all accustomed to, but again for those who are new that may not know that or be aware of that as much as some of the others.

Deuteronomy 16:16 – A reminder here of that which God gives as a command of something we’re to learn from; and has a great deal of meaning even more so when we grasp and comprehend some of the things we’re going through in this particular series.  But again, it’s something that God tells us to do three seasons in the year. And in the earlier verses it talks about, from the very beginning, to observe... verse 1 – Observe the month of Abib, the beginning of months, the first of months in God’s calendar, and keep the Passover unto the Eternal your God: for in the month of Abib the Eternal your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night.  And so we understand the spiritual implication, the spiritual meaning of that for us.  It is a ‘night’ for the world, in that respect, that is in slavery, those analogies we’ve talked about already about Pharaoh and Satan, about Egypt and sin and the blessing that God is calling us out of that particular thing ourselves but  getting ready to do that for the entire world.

Going through all of this all the way down to verse 16 it finally talks about; Three seasons, as it says in the Old King James ‘three times’; In three seasons in a year everyone is to appear before the Eternal; and of course, back then it had to do with the males and those who were commanded to come forth and do the things that they were to go through. Today it’s everyone who is a member of the Body of Christ.  We’re to have a holy convocation, we’re to come before God every weekly Sabbath, every annual Sabbath, and as a part of that He goes through and mentions here the three seasons; in the Feast of Unleavened Bread period and in the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost – the Feast of Firstfruits in other words, that period of time, and in the Feast of Tabernacles season, which includes all the High Days at that particular time.  So again, we understand what that means when it’s talking about three seasons of the year and it says we’re to come before the Eternal, and that which is in context here is about bringing an offering before God.

There is a great deal of meaning of something we do on a physical plane to reflect something that truly has far more meaning, just like in this series of what we’re going through here today.  So again here, a reminder to everyone about offerings. Different areas have different ways of doing this; in the States I know in different areas they have a different process here, but everyone in your own area.  I don’t need to go through and explain all those, but everyone in your own area should know what that process is and if you don’t then ask an elder.  And if you don’t have a process of collecting those things, then again, send them into the area you’re in, to the place where you send tithes on a regular basis and certainly that again, something that God tells us to do and it’s our response to Him, in this period of time a matter of thanksgiving and gratitude to God.

Back into this current sermon series we’re in during these Days of Unleavened Bread.  On this day, the seventh day, the final day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread we’re continuing in the sermon series entitled Sacrifice, with today being Part 3.  We last ended on the weekly Sabbath by covering the words to the song, ‘In Thy Loving Kindness Lord’, and those words are very meaningful indeed, I think even more so obviously to those of us who sang them over and over year by year in the past, they’re just a part of our being.  We can hear these songs on here as they’re played before services and we know the words to them, they’re just in us, they’re a part of us.  A great deal of meaning contained in them, and especially in this one here having to do with this season of the year and that particular song we sing on Passover: incredible meaning.  They are meaningful to us and we reviewed some of that last Sabbath.

But in this series we began by focusing on sacrifice, the sacrifice of God our Father and a continuation and a progression then of that which was in Jesus Christ, a willingness, a desire on His part to fulfill the things that God had given to Him.  And certainly we learn from those things, our willingness, our desire to live by what God has given to us in this age, a time of being still in the ‘night’ because God’s Kingdom hasn’t come to this world yet, and so there are only a few throughout the world who have such a blessing of this way of life that we’re able to live.  And again, that desire that Jesus Christ had then – an awesome example to us – His desire to fulfill the Passover and His absolute oneness and unity with God in everything He did.

We’ve come to a deeper appreciation; I definitely have in a very powerful way, and I think everyone else has... a deeper appreciation, a thankfulness of the depth of the kind of love that God has given to us long before we were ever put on this earth – a plan and a purpose He has, the sacrificing He’s done from the very beginning of time; things that aren’t easy, things that don’t come easy, and a willingness to sacrifice for a far greater purpose.

Then we came down to the point in time where we’re talking about now the begotten Family of God and the importance of learning about sacrifice as it applies to our life, something we’re to live, rejecting this carnal spirit, this carnal mind we have, this selfish life we have in that because we see something of far greater value.  And so it’s not just a willingness but a desire to get rid of it, a deep desire to get rid of that which is within us that keeps us from being able to drink in more of God’s way of life, or hinders that.

Today we’re going to begin by going back to that Psalm that we looked at, not in the song itself, or the hymn if you will, we’re actually going back to Psalm 51 where that hymn is taken from, ‘In Thy Loving Kindness Lord’.  We’re going to look at some of the highlights in the respect as an overview here right quick like, to pick out those things that are so very meaningful, that are stated a little bit differently than the hymn is, and focus upon some things that are said here that we can learn more from it.

Psalm 51:1 - Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness: God’s love.  And certainly King David had that relationship with God, understood things about God, was drawn to God recognizing a love that God has for us, and we’re ever growing in that just as we are this season of the year, coming to a deeper appreciation and understanding of God’s love, understanding that love requires sacrifice, truly does, in God’s plan.

...according unto the multitude of Your tender mercies; we’re to learn from this, ‘tender mercies’.  A tenderness that we should have toward one another.  We’re to learn about the qualities and the ways of God, the mind of God, the being of God, in how we’re to be toward one another in the Body of Christ, because this is where we’re moulded and fashioned.  God gives us an opportunity, an arena of life in fellowship with others, and that’s what’s so important about the Passover period, the Days of Unleavened Bread, and even as He just talked about... given guidance and direction by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 as he gets into those things and goes into the very Passover service itself – and all of it zeroing in on fellowship.

I don’t like the word in the New Testament there that’s used, but he uses the word ‘communion’.  It’s a word that means ‘fellowship’; that which we have together of something we’re able to experience with each other, of God’s spirit being in one another and that which we’re to drink in and grow closer together in a bond that is beyond physical family on this earth – it’s spiritual.

And that’s why in some of the things we have gone through (and had discussion here while we were here), of why it was so difficult for those of us who were a part of a fellowship, came to an apostasy, and all those relationships torn away from us.  It’s a difficult thing when you go through that on a physical plane in family or whatever it is; but it’s even more so when it’s on a spiritual plane!   Because there’s a bond there, a binding together that goes beyond that which is even physical.  And so it was like having your heart ripped out over and over and over again on a very high plane, if you will, and we were blessed in one respect in the sense of what we went through because it was hard and God moulded and fashioned us in that, and so what we would see as horrible and a tragedy – it was, for those individuals, for all of us except that God had mercy on some to bring us back.  But you know what?  God did it!

God spewed the Church out of His mouth!  God separated us from Him to learn greater lessons; lessons that are going to be taught throughout the millennium.  He was willing to do that in a sacrificing manner.  Knowing what it was going to lead to He allowed the Church from the time of Mr. Armstrong to continue on and for something horrible to happen.  He said it would happen.  He talked about a man of sin, but all for a greater purpose!  And so we suffered for a far greater purpose!  I wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world!  And I know that those individuals have opportunity yet in the future.

I look forward to the time when many of them are going to come back at this age still and live on into a new age; but the vast majority have to die and then live again farther into the future here in The Great White Throne when they’re resurrected and brought back to life; and all a part of God’s plan.  Painful at times; painful!  But what an awesome thing to understand what it means to be willing to forfeit one thing for something of far greater value!

And so again here, this spirit, this mind – ‘tender mercies’ – of the way we should treat each other in the Body starting with two who are in the Body, if it’s husband and wife.  Because ever since I’ve been in God’s Church, from the very beginning of time in 1969...it took me about 6 months before I finally got my big shock – everybody’s not perfect.  I came into God’s Church thinking that once you come into God’s Church like that and being around people, I just felt that I knew my sins and what I was called out of and I was brought into a large congregation.  I was called into a congregation that had 600 people down in Wichita, Kansas.  I moved down there to get away from a college town I was in because I knew I couldn’t change as long as I stayed there, and there was no Church there, so I moved down to Wichita which was farther away, several hours away, lived down there about six months in that particular area working so I could get away from the lifestyle I lived before so it wouldn’t be a pull on me, so I could become grounded in God’s way of life.

And through that process there I truly thought... because my experience was at that time, because being in a larger city than what I grew up in (I grew up in one of about a hundred people), moved to one of many thousands, and having a congregation of 600 people I just honestly felt/thought (quite naively so), that everybody was void of sin, that they’d basically repented and there was no sin in their life... and maybe on a small scale, yes, of things you have to battle, but nothing giant, nothing like an outburst from somebody toward somebody else.  And my first lesson was the first time I was invited to a home with several other people in the Church (and I don’t know at what point it was, it wasn’t after 6 months, but it was in that period of time, a couple of months going to services), and there were many people coming over to the home of a family there.  And the family that we went to their home, the husband and wife – they got into a spat in front of everybody!  Blew my mind at the moment!  I thought, “How could this be?  How could this be in God’s Church that two people, a husband and wife, given God’s spirit... How could they have this outburst in front of others, not even trying to take it aside privately, not even trying to hide it in any fashion or form and work it out on their own, but just letting it blurt out in front of everybody?!”  Arguing in front of everybody!  Blew my mind!  ...for a little while.  But I learned from that; I began to realize, “Oh, we have a long way to go, don’t we?” The reality struck me!

But you know what?  It never should have happened!  Hopefully they repented; I don’t know if they did or not... hopefully they repented. Hopefully they never did it again!  Why would two people who have God’s spirit get to that level of dispute and the emotion that goes along with that, the bitterness sometimes, the anger that goes with it, whatever else is involved, jealousies... whatever hits us as human beings!  Why would two people IN GOD’S CHURCH TREAT each other that way??  Blows my mind that there could be hatred shown to a mate who has God’s spirit let alone another brother in God’s Church, or sister in God’s Church.  Those things shouldn’t be ever among us!  ...and yet they’re there constantly in God’s Church.  And if we were a larger congregation there’d be a lot more of it; there is just a lot more opportunity for human nature to come out and for conflict to come about because people hear something that someone else says and someone hasn’t matured or grown to a point of controlling themselves and whatever, and so things are blurted around or said about somebody else and sometimes things....  anyway, I don’t even want to go there.

Problems, problems, problems... things that should never happen, that people would have dispute and be upset with each other to where they can’t talk to each other in Sabbath services even!  I don’t know if that’s happened here. I hope not. But I know it’s happened in many places and probably has where people have a hard time then going up to someone and talking to them about anything out of love and forgiveness!  ...an attitude and spirit of forgiveness no matter what they did to you; a desire to see them come through it, to see them conquer and overcome whatever they did wrong, to be willing to back away to give them the time to fight it and deal with it – tender mercies.  How merciful are we to one another? How merciful is a husband to a wife?  ...a wife to a husband? ...parents to a child? ...child to a parent?   ...who are in God’s Church, who are impregnated with God’s spirit.  How merciful are we then when we take that beyond that to one another within the Body – merciful, tender mercy!  God is that way towards us. David knew it; he was a man after God’s own heart.

...after the multitude of Your tender mercies blot out my transgressions.  ‘Blot out my transgressions’ – please.  He’s repenting!  He doesn’t want to do that ever again...if you know the history of that Psalm, where it came from.  “I don’t ever want that to be in my life again.”  When you get a chance, go back and look at what it says about that Psalm, when it happened, what took place. Go back and read the story if you have to in the Old Testament.

David was pouring himself out to God.  He felt horrible about what he did, but he knew something about God, that God had tender mercy.  Does everyone else in the Church know that about you?  That you’re filled with tender mercy because you’re taking on, growing in those qualities and characteristics that come from God Almighty?

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, David was willing to accept the truth...it was his iniquity, my iniquity.  Whenever there is difficulty with others within the Body, so often there are things that can always be done better, there are always things that we need to be focused upon.  It’s so easy when people get into disputes or disagreements...  they see something wrong in someone else, they find fault in someone else, they look down upon someone else.  That’s just the way we are, it’s human nature; and yet that’s the very things we have to conquer and overcome to live God’s way of life in the Body of Christ, in the Church of God, and so again here, one of the hardest things sometimes for human beings to do is to accept personal responsibility for their wrong and to focus upon that and ask God, “Father, help me to see where I’m wrong in this.”  ...not to be able to see so clearly... it’s just so easy for us to see wrong in others, but how we treat them then after we see that or do that... you know, we all have sins, we all have weaknesses, we all have problems in life and sometimes we become more aware of that in one another in different situations as people grow and conquer and overcome, or when they slip and fall because of certain traits in human nature or certain things you grew up with, or whatever it might be.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  See, the focus should always be upon ourselves to change, to grow, to conquer, to overcome.

For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. That’s the way it should be: my sin is ever before me.  And my sin is... and your sin is too, if you can see it; the thinking, the mind that you have that you have to fight, and you know that.

Verse 6 - Behold, You desire truth, isn’t that amazing?  It’s prophetic!  David was a prophet!  He was inspired to write things in a prophetic manner, things that had to do with the future, things that had to do with the Church in the future, things that had to do with the very Messiah in the future that would be fulfilled in His life...and here he’s showing something here of what we’re going through in this particular series here.  This is what God desires!  Truth!  What did we just read this last Sabbath?  ...what God said that was fulfilled in Christ, to what Christ said? ‘He came to do away with the first that He could establish the second; to do Your will, O God.’  To do God’s will!  And then it went on to talk about what God was going to do to be able to...so that we could do His will.  He was going to write His law, the truth, in our hearts and minds.  Powerful what that’s saying!

...You desire truth in the inward parts: it’s in the deepest part of our being, in our mind.  That’s what God looks for, the truth.  He wants to write it there!  ...and we have to yield ourselves to that process so that this mind can change from selfishness to a mind that is giving, filled with agape, filled with the mind and thinking and the truth, the Word of God.  ...and in the hidden You shall make me to know wisdom.  And we went through and we’ve talked about this before, what wisdom is, what the Word is, what Logos is, talking about the same things!  That which comes from God, the source is God Almighty; true wisdom comes from God Almighty and he says, you will make me to know it.

Verse 10 – Create!  Create in me a clean heart, that has to do with our mind, the way we think!  Create in me a clean heart, void of sin, to grow in that wisdom, to grow in Your mind, in unity and oneness with You, to grow in the truth.  The truth isn’t a matter of knowledge!  The truth isn’t a matter of everything that’s written on the website!  The truth is what we live!  That’s what God looks for so that we know what to live!  It’s there so we know how to live.  It has to do with our actions and how we think toward each other.  So David’s saying here, Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew, ‘make new’ – that’s what this means in the Hebrew, ‘make new’, something that has to change up here in the mind.  “I don’t want what’s up here, I want that which is new that You said I can have in this process we’re going through, to fight for it!”  ...and make new a right, and the word here meaning ‘an established, a steadfast’ spirit within me. One that lives God’s way, steadfastly so, established in a right mind in right thinking.  That’s what we desire so that we don’t cause people hurt, so that we don’t cause people what’s been happening for 6,000 years – sorrow and misery and unhappiness.  Because whenever people become jealous, whenever people become angry, whatever causes that toward someone else and they blurt things out and they say things and the pain it’s caused...the selfishness that’s contained in that...that’s where everything that’s bad comes from!   It comes from our selfish desires, our wrong desires!

Incredible what’s being said here, incredible when we’re able to see what’s being said and God gives us the ability through the power of His spirit to see and desire. This is what I want. This is what we want!

Verse 16 - For You do not desire sacrifice; it isn’t about physical sacrifice.  It isn’t about the sacrificial system!  He said, or else that’s what I would give You: “I would do that if that’s what it took!”  But he knew it was beyond that.  Why?  Because of God’s spirit!  God revealed to him that it’s far more meaningful than that, far more important than that, it’s not something we just physically give.  That’s why I mentioned earlier here about an offering on every High Day that we give to God in God’s Church – that’s very physical!  It really isn’t spiritual in nature, it’s very physical, but it reveals something to us about where we are in how we do it, what’s in the mind as we do it.  It’s about a desire toward God, it’s about gratitude toward God; and yet sometimes people don’t understand that.

I once knew of an elder in God’s Church who didn’t understand that, didn’t give Holy Day offerings.  I said, “Why?  What’s wrong with you?”  That’s my thought, kind of expressed that in certain terms to help him try to understand, reasoning with them; “...this giant big screen TV up here...all this audio equipment in here...expensive stuff and you can’t give a dollar to God?  Half a dollar to God?  ...in obedience to what God says to do on the High Days?”  Astounding!  So he couldn’t even begin to grow spiritually because he wouldn’t do the smallest thing physically...the smallest thing physically.  God doesn’t need our money, that’s not what it’s about at all.  Everything belongs to God if we understand it.

For you do not desire sacrifice; or else I’d give it, I’d give You that, and You do not delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God, or in other words, that God looks to and desires, are a broken spirit: self; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Verse 18 - Do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion: prophetic.  Beautiful...Do good unto Your good pleasure unto Zion: what’s God’s good pleasure unto Zion?  To write the truth in our hearts and minds, to change the way we think, to help us so that we can have a mind that can be moulded and fashioned and become something different than what started out in the very beginning that had to be given in a spirit realm; and then once that spirit realm, those that chose to do the wrong thing can never be changed...and so something different in order to become part of the God Family, on a far greater plane, had to take place in order for that creation to take place in the mind.  Incredibly awesome what God is doing, that creation of His Family.  And so he says, Do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion; because that’s what it’s about.

...and build up the walls of Jerusalem.  Then shall You be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness; it’s what’s in the heart and what’s in the mind and the change that takes place in the mind, and with that indeed God is well pleased, when we respond, when we yield to Him, when we repent.  Every time we repent you are acknowledging that you are wrong and that God is right!  And that’s being reinforced in your mind and you keep fighting that battle – even if it’s the same sin that just keeps popping up and the same weakness that keeps popping up and you keep repenting and saying, “God, I don’t want this!  Cleanse my mind!  Help me to get rid of this!” ...and you’re acknowledging that God is right and you are wrong.  It’s when people quit fighting that fight and quit fighting that battle that they can’t grow in character anymore and the mind of God, because that’s how the mind changes, that’s a part of the process of the mind changing!

Then shall You be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, doing what is right.  Because when we do right, when you live right, when you yield to God, you have at some point or still are, fighting selfish human nature to do it, because to live God’s way, to respond and yield to God’s spirit is not normal human nature.  On the contrary, it’s God’s nature in us, it’s God’s mind in us and the impregnation of God’s holy spirit that enables us to do that; and so in doing that you have to fight, or resist, or refuse, or have grown to the point where it has been already refused because you’ve been convicted of it that you’re never going to do that again!  Some things pop back up and some things you have to fight again.  But your willingness to fight it... it’s a sacrifice of righteousness!  That’s what this is about; the sacrifices of righteousness, God is well pleased.  For us to live what is right before God, the truth before God, means there’s been sacrifice on our part and God loves that.  It’s a matter of yielding, it’s a matter of humility, it’s a matter of all those things we were just reading about here, a broken and a contrite spirit that doesn’t insist on its own way.

When people have arguments they’re insisting on their own way!  When a mate has an argument they’re insisting on their own way!  When we have an argument with someone else in God’s Church we want it our way!  We want them to live our way!  And that’s just WRONG to expect everybody to live our way!  Incredible!  Instead, we must repent and strive to live God’s way toward each other.  Because you see, Passover is very much...Jesus Christ died so that He could have a body... a spiritual body called the Body of Christ, the Church of God.  That’s what Paul talks about in Corinthians.  He died so that we could have that; and to have that means that He and His Father must dwell in us, must live in us to give us that until we have come to a point where we can be born then into His Family.  It’s a beautiful thing!  It is awesome that Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are all about this.

Then shall You be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings: what do you think that’s talking about?  Do you think it’s talking about that now we finally come to a point in time and we have these sacrifices of righteousness, now that we’ve grown to that point let’s go out and put up an altar and slit a throat of some animal and clean it and throw it on the altar and then God’s going to be pleased?  It’s not about anything physical, it’s not about something that’s going to be done in the future in the Millennium and in The Great White Throne; that all of a sudden now God’s going to be pleased with offering up animals again. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no....no.  Spiritual!  It’s spiritual!  ...with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; that which we have chosen to do in order to be and to live sacrifices of righteousness before God, when we come to that point that we’re living that and we’re doing that then God is pleased with what we have offered up before Him and the sacrifices we have made and the willingness to put ourselves on the fire – trials, hardships, tests!  That’s what it’s about!  Our willingness to suffer for someone else, our willingness to go through something that may not be pleasant or enjoyable, to put ourselves in the fire, a willingness to go through whatever God gives to us to help us to mature more, to grow more.  And so we’re willing to go through more fire, trial, whatever thing tests us, but striving to do it the way God wants it done, striving to do it in righteousness, which means according to His law by the power of His spirit.

You can’t do it on your own, you can’t work it up on your own; it’s a matter of being close to God and growing and crying out for God’s spirit to do it right.  And we’re talking about relationships – especially when it comes to the Church of God, the Body of Christ in this season of the year.  So it’s a matter of something chosen on our part that God is pleased with.  Free choice!  To choose what is right; choice.  Choice that we’ve been given; free choice to offer from the fire of sacrifice, if you will, to God.

...and then they will have, as it should be... sometimes when some things are translated and especially in the old English (some things are even used differently today than what they were in the old English), and this is talking about what God is doing, what God is doing in our life and a response we’re to have.  And so it’s not something that ‘shall’, in this respect, it’s then they will have offered bullocks upon Your altar.  That’s what it’s talking about here.  In other words, what’s more important?  It’s what we do, it’s what we offer up by free choice in sacrifice before God, of self and selfishness and because we see something far greater.  We get to the point where we not only want to put it on the fire and go through whatever we’ve got to go through to change, we want it, we desire to do so because we hate our carnal human nature, we loathe it.

So again, ‘to forfeit, to give up one thing for another thing considered of greater value...’ indeed!

Let’s go over to John 13. Let’s go back again to that final night of Jesus Christ’s physical life on earth, on that Passover night when He gave some of the greatest and most important of all instructions to His disciples.  Beautiful to review these things no matter how many times we’ve looked at them.  I don’t care how many times I’ve gone through these, I love it.  John 14, all the things that Jesus Christ said in John 15, some of the most exciting, most meaningful, most inspiring things ever given to man.  And what I’m dumbfounded by, as much as I feel I understand and know about it, God still blesses me to grow in more – more and more and more.  You think, how much more is there in these verses?  And there’s just more and more and more – incredible - that we grow in and build upon.

John 13:34 – I give unto you a new commandment, and so, again, this was in the early part of that evening there after He’d washed their feet and gone through the ceremony of instituting the new symbols and so forth; That you love one another; So He’s giving an example here of a kind of love.  This word here is not showing what that love is yet, but it’s a word that’s used to show by definition and context here what kind of love it is, and this is what He’s doing.  And so He’s saying here, you are to love one another AS I have loved you, powerful!  Powerful! ...and that you also love one another.  So again here, John 13 – very powerful!

And going on in verse 35 -  He becomes even more specific in what He describes here and what He says here...By this... By this shall all know that you are My disciples, if you have love one to another. Powerful scriptures here in what is being told to us.  And so this is a very thing that reflects, that tells the world in time when they’re called, when their minds are opened up, “This is My Church,” to reflect Jesus Christ.  That’s what He’s saying.  They’re going to see that Jesus Christ is in it, that God the Father is in it, it’s God’s Church, the Church of God, and this is how they think toward each other, this is how they work, this is what they’re fighting to conquer and overcome and this is how they’re striving to live toward one another and to receive each other and to care for each other; to truly love one another.  And what’s being described here is very powerful because it’s based upon sacrifice.  What He’s telling them, He knows what He’s getting ready to do.  It’s the Passover night and He knows what He’s getting ready to do and He wants them to receive something that later on they’re going to begin to see and to understand and to appreciate and grow in in a very powerful way once the holy spirit comes to them and once they begin to grow; and they’re going to grow in this in their life until they’ve accomplished what is to be accomplished.

So again, that’s based on sacrifice because He said, AS I have loved you; a willingness to sacrifice for them.  Not just for them...just like He said back in John 10, “I have other sheep in this fold that are going to be a part of this fold.”  In other words there are going to be others later on.  And so He’s talking about this process here that goes through time.

Let’s go over to Ephesians 4, and we’re going to back up a little bit in context here, but this is where it really makes it very clear exactly what’s being said here, and because Paul was inspired to write and to drive that point home even more so.  Let’s back up here and notice part of the context as we go into this.

Ephesians 4:29 - Let no corrupt; the word here based on what is rotten.  That’s where it comes from, something that’s rotten, worthless, has no value in it, corrupt, worthless, rotten communication proceed out of your mouth, now sometimes there are those... it’s a good word for that, to have this meaning of that which is worthless.  And so we’re to be careful that there’s just not some kind of rotten communication that comes out of our mouth.  Because something that rotting doesn’t smell good, it’s definitely not a sweet smelling savour before God, and so God wants us to have that which is a sweet smelling savour that’s offered up before Him – not something that’s rotten and that comes out of our mouth!

Let no rotten communication, worthless communication proceed out of your mouth; and we’re ever having to look at our lives before this standard that God gives to us in life and repenting and striving to change and doing things better the way God wants them to; because God hears you!  God hears everything that comes out of your mind, let alone your mouth!  God knows everything in your mind.  Someone asked me the other day if Satan is able to do that.  No, Satan can’t.  He can hear the words if he were there – he just broadcasts.  But God Almighty...He knows the mind, it’s the spirit because it’s something that God has given up here, and especially with that spirit essence of His together with it, begotten of His spirit, and that’s where the communication takes place back and forth before God, and He hears it all.  Hears it all – of everyone!  Everyone!  Things we can’t begin to comprehend.

I have difficulty sometimes keeping focused on one conversation let alone two or three or four going on around.  Somebody says something somewhere else and you try to listen... and that’s what we have to do.  I definitely can’t multi-task – God can, in ways we can’t even begin to comprehend.  We can’t understand that, we can’t comprehend that kind of mind and power.

So, Let no corrupt, rotten communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good; what is ‘good’?  That which comes from God.  There’s nothing good but that which comes from God, because God shows us what is good and it’s measured by that standard then, of what God says is right and wrong.  And so the definition of that which is good is that which comes from God.

...but that which is good, and it goes on to say, to the use of edifying, to building up.  What builds up?  It might be communication that has to build up in order to deal with situations that are not right, if it’s within the Church sometimes... within the ministry there are certain things which are discussed, that have to be gone into that aren’t pleasant.  And they should feel that way, “This is not pleasant.” That is used in essence then to help deal with a matter in order to build up.  And we have to be able to separate all that.  ...but that which is good to the use of edifying, to building up.  And so that’s what conversation should be like; that which encourages, inspires.

I love the things of fellowship where we learn from each other; where we just share, even if it’s just about a physical day.  We’re just able to share and get to know each other and talk about different things and then at times something may come up, maybe at times after a sermon, someone will have gone through something and we share something with someone else of what we’ve gone through.  That’s why I love hearing different kinds of stories about how people are drawn into God’s Church.  You know why?  Because it shows God’s spirit doing it; it’s what God has done to us to bring us into the Church.  So some of the stories to me are awesomely inspiring because I see God!  That’s what I hear when I hear those stories!  It’s not something that we have experienced that we did – on the contrary, we were able to do it because of what God gave us the ability to do and they’re inspiring because we see the many different ways that God works with us and how He brings us along, how He opens up our mind and so forth.  And so we’re talking about things that edify, that build up – especially when you think of the Church and God’s way of life.

...to the use of edifying, that it may minister/serve grace to the hearers. And so God wants us to have that kind of conversation with each other that is able to minister grace to the hearers.  And you know what grace is?  It’s about the mind of God, the way God treats us, the way God has treated us, the mercy, the grace, the mercy, the patience, that’s summed up in the word agape – love.  The patience we have, the mercy we have, the inspiration we’re able to partake of and be a part of, especially those things there that encourage, the inspiration of things that happen in our lives as God works with us and the conquering that people have done.  I like those conversations, I truly do, when we’re able to travel from one area to another and we see how people have grown.

See, I see you in this area here and I see how you’ve grown and the battles you have fought to get to where you are and I’m moved by that, because again, I see God’s spirit in it, and that builds me up, they lift me up, they give me focus!  When I go from area to area to area... God has blessed me and my wife in being able to go from area to area to area all over the world, and I know it benefits the congregations, but it benefits us because it’s helped me to keep more focused, more deeply focused on what God is doing; and I see that growth and that inspires me!  Isn’t that an amazing thing how God’s spirit works?  That’s what we’re talking about here; and so we see these kinds of things as people conquer and fight certain battles and I hear of some of the stories, the things you’ve had to battle and fight in order to keep focused.  Those are the good things to hear and to talk about – what you fought and what you battle, how you’ve overcome – maybe what some of your battle still is!  And my hope and desire is that you conquer and overcome it!  Not to tear you down, not to find fault, but on the contrary, to see what you’re battling in so I can pray about it, so we can pray about it with one another...if you’re able to share that with someone.  You’re not to just go out and blab everything, but sometimes there are certain things you share in life and share with those that you’ve developed a bond, a relationship in a unique way, a more meaningful way, and those things you grow in.  I was going to say, “I hope you understand.”  But I know you do to the degree God’s spirit is in you.  We hear to the degree that we’re able to hear, and we all hear in varying levels because of where we are and what we’ve come through and how we’re growing.

So again, that it may minister/serve grace to the hearers, and grieve not the holy spirit of God; don’t make it harder on God to do His job.  We all need to learn from that – every one of us.  What can we do to not grieve the holy spirit of God?  ...not to get in the way but to love each other more, to exercise love toward each other more, to pray about those things more.

...whereby you are sealed until the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and sometimes people say, “I don’t have any bitterness.”  Don’t be so quick.  There are things that happen in life that cause us, that stir us, to go back into the deeper part of our being that’s locked up here in this head, to understand things about motive.  Why we do what we do.  And if we’re able to do that, which we are by the power of God’s spirit within us, we are brought to see things in us that we didn’t know were there.  We come to a point where we begin to grasp and see things about motive inside of us, because everything that comes out of us that’s wrong comes from a motive in our being, in our mind, hidden in our mind.  And so some things can happen that bring certain things to the surface, that force you to go back and say, “Where did this come from?  ...this judgement?  ...this thinking?”  And as we all do this we’re all able to grow then as we respond to God, to come to grasp things about our motive. What is that motive?  Is it bitterness?  Indignation?

The next word, wrath, indignation, especially when it comes to considering someone unworthy?  Because that’s what this word comes from.  To think about someone as being unworthy?  How could any of us think of someone in God’s Church who has been impregnated with God’s spirit, and talking down on them in a sense that they’re unworthy because of some sin or something they’ve done or something they continue to repeat in their life, and so we treat  them as though they’re unworthy?  WHO ARE WE TO JUDGE WHO’S WORTHY?  GOD IS THE ONE WHO MAKES US WORTHY, doesn’t He?!  So we learn from that, don’t we?  Incredibly so!  GOD is the judge, He gives the judgement through His Son to us and we’re to respond and understand what? I’m being judged.  Each one of us individually is being judged before God.  Incredible what it’s saying here.  ‘Indignation’ – unworthy.  Sometimes if we’re not careful we can talk about one another, look upon one another, treat a mate, treat a sister, treat a brother – sometimes just physically of those who are spiritual and been impregnated with God’s spirit let alone one another as brethren within the Church and feel that we have certain freedom to do so.  And the reality is oh no we do not!  There are things that are just flat sin before God and so we have to be careful that we don’t look down upon someone else in God’s Church that belongs to God.  We all belong to God!

...and anger, sometimes people don’t understand the anger that’s inside of them and what they’re dealing with.  It’s a hard thing.  And why?  Where does it come from?

...and clamour, word for ‘an outcry’, like an outcry in what someone else has done, like, “How could they do that?!”  Well, because they have human nature like you do.  We all have human nature.  I can understand that!  I understand how people do things.  I know how I do things that aren’t good, because of the human nature that’s in me.  It’s not a big surprise.  I wish it wasn’t there but you know what?  I couldn’t become a part of the God Family if it wasn’t there, because there wouldn’t be this process that God said could happen in my mind by the power of His holy spirit to make something new, in a new creation, if I wasn’t!  And so we yield ourselves to the process.

...and outcry, and evil speaking, slander.  We don’t generally think about when we speak, that we might be slandering or spreading things or doing something that God just doesn’t want in His presence.  ...be put away from you, so God says, “Put it away!”  And you know what? We’re in a period of time that God says put away that which is leavened, put away the sin; get it out of here, get it out of your house, get it out of your home, don’t eat it!  You’re supposed to be eating that which is unleavened. And that’s what we want.  So He says, put it away with all malice, with all evil: all these things are evil!  He says, “Just put it away!  That which is evil – get rid of it! Seek to get rid of it, learn from these Days of Unleavened Bread!”

And be kind... so how do you do that?  You change, you learn; and so much of it sometimes as human beings, it’s in our mouth and what comes out, what we let come out.  Sometimes it’d be good to just [muffles speaking with his mouth closed] to hold it, don’t let it come out! [Hold hand over mouth]  It’s up here in your head, you better stop it up here in the brain, in the mind, don’t let it come out the vocal cord and then you sin.  Deal with the sin while it’s in the mind and ask God for help to change, to repent, so that nobody else gets hurt by it, because as soon as it comes out here [mouth] somebody’s going to get hurt!  And so He says, be kind one to another, kind, ‘kind one to another’.  That’s what God wants from us.

...tender-hearted, tender mercies, like that which comes from God to us.  I’ve learned the things that I have learned because of how God has treated me, of how God has loved me.  I know...I know!  I have lived long enough in God’s Church to know how patient God has been with me.  I have lived in God’s Church long enough to know how merciful God’s been to me, truly, because I know me.  The longer you’re in God’s Church the more you get to see yourself and that selfish part, that human nature part you really come to loathe.  I loathe my human nature, I truly do.  I can’t wait...don’t have to much longer either, I’m excited about that part because I don’t have to fight that anymore, because I’ll have a different mind, because the mind that will have gone through the process it needs to go through in order to change totally, to be given the power, the mind, the life (in other words), that will give what I have chosen for so long, what I have wanted for so long, what I have fought for for so long because I see this that’s inside of me and that I’ve learned to loathe and hate.  Because I’ve chosen God; chosen God and God’s way of life and I don’t want this, I don’t want what this world has, I don’t want the sorrow, the hurt, the pain, the suffering that’s out there.  Thank God He’s getting rid of it!  Thank God He was willing to sacrifice peace for a very long period of time in order to give us peace, Jerusalem, in time.  It’s an awesome thing!

...and be kind one to another, tender-hearted, not hard-hearted.  Sometimes we can be so hard!  Sometimes we can be so hard on one another – hard, cruel – because we’re hard, without tender-mercies.  We need to have a tenderness about us indeed that is like God.  God’s tender with us!  Could have rubbed me out many times over and over and over again – didn’t do it, had patience even when I used lightly the sacrifice of Christ, took it lightly, because that’s what we do when we sin, we take it too lightly and we don’t value and are not thankful enough as we should be for what He did for us.  And I loathe that about myself, that I’ve done those things over and over, because every time I sin that’s what I’ve done.  I pray to God for forgiveness and I know He forgives me, but I hate that kind of a mind, I hate that kind of spirit, I hate that kind of thing that can be in us that’s so evil.  And yet we have to have this and it’s by the choices that something is created up here that is so awesomely unique that God gives us.

...be kind one to another, tender-hearted, not condemning, not hard-hearted – because that’s what hard-heartedness is, it’s condemning, it’s a condemning spirit, it’s a judging spirit by our standard not God’s.  God’s standard is tender mercy in judgement.  That’s why in scriptures that we probably won’t get to in this today, when it talks about mercy, far rather have mercy than sacrifice.  Jesus Christ gave those examples to His disciples, talked about those things.

...forgiving one another, that’s a spirit, that’s a mind.  It doesn’t just mean that when somebody’s done something directly to you that you have that kind of spirit toward them in realizing you have no right to hold anything against them whatsoever anyway because that’s sin.  If you hold anything against anyone... only God Almighty through Jesus Christ has the power to forgive, to hold anything – gives us a judgement; and then when we repent, you know what?  It’s forgiven, it’s gone!  That’s how it works. But as far as human beings – we’re not God.  We don’t sit there in judgement of one another; we’re not judges, in that respect.

Now, there are judgements we have to enter into at times and there are certainly judgements within the ministry and sometimes within the Church that people have to enter into; but how we respond to that, what we do as a result of that and how we treat one another, that’s where we’re tried and tested, indeed.

And so again here, this attitude of mind of a forgiving spirit, because if you’re able to put things away and be patient and you have that kind of a spirit and mind toward each other, then you’re willing to give people time to change.  Some things may have to be dealt with.  You may need to go to your brother alone because God says to do that.  There are certain things that have to be resolved, but otherwise when somebody does something or something takes place, and it doesn’t always have to be directly against you, but you have to have that kind of a mind.

See, our mind, our desire, should be to want to see every person come through this.  I hate it when people make the wrong decisions and turn bitter or become a teacher; they’ve become deceived into thinking that somehow they have some great truth now that the Church doesn’t have, and so haughty in it that they’ve got to send an email to the Church... “Make sure Mr. Weinland gets to read this because he’ll know when he reads this... he’ll see, he’ll understand what’s been given to me, as a babe, because he talks about there are prophecies that talk about certain things in Joel and so forth that’s going to be given...”  And you think, “How can a mind become so deceived into thinking that’s how God’s spirit works?”

See, I know that if God wants me to see something He’ll let me see it, He really will; He’s going to let me see it in a big way.  I’ll learn from God what He wants me to see.  If there’s some truth that comes along, I know how it’s going to come to me. If there’s any truth that comes along I know how it’ll come to me and it will not come from any human being.  You say, “Well, Mr. Armstrong didn’t work like that.”  [Sucks in breath sharply.] I know how God’s working with me and I have to wait on God, because to do something else is wrong for me to do.  Some understand that, some don’t.

So how do we treat each other, how do we think about some of these things?  How do we look upon each other, or do we have that kind of a mind that’s willing to give, forgive, and when we see somebody do something wrong over and over again do we forgive it in that respect, in the sense of having that desire to want to see them come through and bury it... and bury it because that’s what we want to do in the Family?  We don’t want each other’s sins exposed.

See, my hope and desire is, when I see someone sin, or I know of someone sinning, my hope and desire is, which I believe to be true as a whole, because that’s the way all of us are if we’re led by God’s spirit and I believe that we are, that’s why we’re here Sabbath by Sabbath, that what the individual has done at some point there is to go before God and say, “Father forgive me, I don’t know why I said that, I don’t know why I did that; and I do, I pray that you forgive me and help me to overcome it.”  And that we understand that and that we know that’s what they’ve done and we treat each other accordingly; because if we hold something and don’t forgive, and don’t put it aside, then we’re doing something that not even God’s doing – still holding it against someone.  Incredible!

... even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.

Ephesians 5:1 – Therefore be followers; the word means ‘to be imitators’; in the sense of ‘following the example of’.  That’s what we’re to follow.  There’s an example here that is being set that God wants us to strive to learn from, to do the same; that’s what we’re being told.  Therefore be followers of God, to follow that example, to follow the examples of Christ, of what He did when He was reviled – He didn’t revile back.  He didn’t get in that same attitude of spirit and mind that they had toward Him.  On the contrary, He said, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”  If we could just do that over and over again to each other in the Body of Christ, and toward the world, because they don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t know what they’re saying.

...as dear children; and walk in love/agape, God’s love, God’s way, God’s truth; and if we’re walking in that truth then we’re going to do things He says to do it in these previous scriptures we’ve all gone through there already, we’ll strive to live that way in everything we do, in how we talk about or think about one another within the Body.

...and walk in love AS Christ...and so He said earlier, ‘love one another AS I have loved you.’  And so He says, and walk in agape AS Christ has loved us and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour, because that’s what God looks to.  He set an example for us and that’s what we’re to strive to live by then in following that example that God has given to us and we’re able to follow that example of Christ then, we strive to follow it; that we understand the need to sacrifice things that we want to hold onto that aren’t right.  That’s what we do, we try to hold onto certain things that we think we can do, or think we’re justified in doing; but God said, “No, put away from you with all evil.”  And so whatever it is in our life that’s wrong we’re just to get rid of it with all the rest of the evil, all the rest of the leavening.  And so that’s what we’re to strive to do. It’s a beautiful picture, it really is – awesome!

But fornication... and so people can read right through this and say, “Well, I’m not fornicating, this doesn’t apply to me.”  So we read real fast through these next verses because, I mean, none of it applies to us.  ...and yet sometimes people have done these things.  But again here, it’s an immorality; it’s a way of thinking and a way of living.  It can affect people in many ways, not just that which is sexual; but so often that’s a big battle in human beings. It’s a big battle in this world today – men and women; more in men because of the way we’re created and because of certain things that God created us to have within us.  And so people have things that they battle and that they fight and hopefully they’re battling and fighting.  And we do in God’s Church because God will bring us to that or He’ll get rid of us.  That’s what John 15 is about; either we’re doing what we should be doing or it’s going to get pruned and not be productive, maybe totally cut away from the vine.

Battles, battles, battles, and that one is a biggie!  I thought about giving a sermon on that and I just don’t feel like I can!  It’s just a tough, tough subject.  I feel like it’s just something we’re going to have to probably address as soon as we get into God’s Kingdom, to help give education to people about a sexual morality that the world needs desperately, but at this point in time there are other things that God is having us focus upon because of the need of where we are and to keep us focused and so forth. And maybe it’s coming – I don’t know!  But it’s a toughie!

When you want to talk about women being freed – this is a biggie!  This is a biggie because there’s one thing as far as human nature and the world has been concerned, but you know what most of it really stems from?  Sex, sex, sex, sex – the differences in how we’re created, the difference in how we’re made, and then the difference of how people treat each other and the things that take place and the things in how things are cheapened and how people cheapen each other and how the world has cheapened everything that God made to be right and good and beautiful.  And so we just live in a sick world!  And I’d say that every one of you has had a battle one way or another, at different times, and maybe all the time in some of these things before God, because this is a heart and core of some things of motivation that chemically has been given to you that affects the mind.  And so you have to deal with it because it does affect you.

Now, God made you that way for something beautiful and perfect, but human beings.... whew!  Today you drive down a highway with billboards or you open up a magazine... I don’t care if it’s Sports Illustrated!  You can’t even have a sports magazine without at least once a year where they have to advertise people clad in skimpy swimsuits...  and so do you think people in the Church have battles here?  If you’re honest with yourself you know you do!

A free internet out there today?  It’s so easy....so easy!  I am sick of this world!  It’s one thing if somebody stumbles or has a weakness and they go and purchase something in a store called ‘Playboy’, or whatever else is out there, different kinds of things, or maybe that one issue of ‘Sports Illustrated’ cause I just...(I don’t know how anybody would deceive themselves in that one), “I want to see the latest fashion.” You know, the mind can do crazy things!  But today I feel so sorry for young people because they’re bombarded with it; they’re bombarded with it in their cartoons!  Kids!  Children!  Minds being moulded and fashioned to lust, to misuse, to be distorted in how they think toward... especially boys toward girls, men toward women.  And so it has never been made so easy to mankind as it is today!  And the perversion that’s out here is so rampant.  We were talking about that last night.  Wayne and I were walking along talking about a part of that and in the sense of what’s out there today and how fast it’s coming...   And I thought about how awesome it is in the Church we’ve never had a time where we could receive so much so quickly. But you know what?  What’s paralleling that is the world has never had a time when it could receive so much that’s evil and grow in that so quickly as today!

There’s never been a time like this where the acceleration of evil has been so great!  Today it’s awesomely great in the sense of evil that’s being thrown out there at this world!  And Satan knows how to use it; and boy has he done a number.

So we battle, but any kind of immorality, of things that you have to fight for what is right, to fight against your nature, to fight against the selfishness of human nature, ‘the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life’.

...and all uncleanness; or ‘all impurity’ is what this word means here.

...or covetousness; in other words desiring more – something more; it doesn’t matter what it is, something more than what we have.  We’re not satisfied and we want something more, generally for the wrong reasons, in our life: desiring more, a wrong desire that’s not healthy for us, that’s not good for us.  Doesn’t mean that having more is wrong in life, but a wrong appetite for that which is....  and sometimes it’s because we want something better than someone else, or we’re jealous of what someone else has!  Sometimes it’s a matter of what we think is position in God’s Church!  We want more; we think... “I should have that!”  ...or we’re waiting for the time when we’re finally recognized so we will have that and that’s not what God has moulded and fashioned within us to receive, because there’s something else that’s glorious and wonderful He’s moulding and fashioning within us.  But sometimes as human beings we don’t see that.

I’ve been filled with that and seen that in God’s Church over and over again.  People who’ve been deacons who just can’t wait... (we used to have an ordination to what we called deacons, who served in a physical mean to help the Church, to carry out things that the ministry didn’t have the time and so forth to deal with, and so there were physical responsibilities and so forth given and it wasn’t a spiritual position in that respect in the Church; and yet there were people who wanted to be deacons or deaconesses)...to be seen to be recognized!  “I’m a deacon!”  And then the deacon wasn’t happy after a while because, “I should be ordained an elder.  I can do a better job than that guy.”  This happens!  It’s happened over and over again; the history has been repeated over and over again – desiring something that God isn’t giving for a purpose because of something else He’s doing.  And so we have these battles as human beings. Some may think they’d like to have this job.  There have been people that felt that way.  You don’t know what you want.

...desiring more...let it not be named once among you as becoming of saints; Neither filthiness, shameful, sordid.  It’s talking about speech here because this is the context here.  Neither filthiness nor foolish talking, in talking, in speech, filthy talking, shameful or sordid is what it is.  It can have to do with that which is... but anything that’s shameful, that’s sordid, that we shouldn’t have in conversation, nor foolish talking, not jesting, jabbing, ridiculing, disrespecting, showing great disrespect.  We have to be careful how far we go in some of those things sometimes, but usually there’s a greater motive why people go farther than what they should.  There’s one thing to enjoy one another in life and do certain things, but sometimes it’s done and it can become a little malicious, or it can become a little more jabbing in a way that isn’t good, so we have to be careful in those things.

...which are not convenient, in other words that are not proper or fitting, that’s what’s being said here;

...but rather the giving of thanks.  It’s looking for the good; it’s that attitude of mind, giving of thanks.  You know the next time that someone upset you or that you feel in need of saying something about someone to someone else, think about taking that person and praying to God about them and thanking God about that which is positive and right and good that He’s doing in their life, that you see in their life.  Do that: that’s a sacrifice, the kind of sacrifice that God wants; to fight against your carnal human nature to do the wrong thing, and to do the other, of going before God on your knees and seeing that which is good and right and positive in one another within the Body and asking God to help you to correct that thinking and that mind.  The giving of thanks – that’s what God desires – thanks for what He’s doing.  It’s a beautiful thing!  That’s why I really can’t express to you the awesomeness of being able to go, as a whole, from area to area within generally a period of six months, and seeing what God is doing.  Because that’s what it’s about - it’s a beautiful thing – and giving God thanks for what He’s doing in one another.  And so the next time maybe we feel something wrong toward one another, go in on your knees and say, “God, help me to think right toward this individual, to be thankful to You for what You’re doing in their life, that You’ve given them the impregnation of Your holy spirit as You have given me, which I don’t deserve - what I have - but You’ve blessed me, You’ve been kind to me.  Help me to be kind to others.”

Verse 17 - Wherefore do not be unwise, understanding where wisdom comes from and don’t be unwise, don’t resist, don’t refuse God and God’s spirit and God’s wisdom and God’s law and God’s mercy and God’s law in how we treat one another, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.  He came to do away with the first so that He could establish the second, the doing of God’s will, and He did it so that we could do God’s will, so that we can grow in the ability to do God’s will.

And do not be drunk with wine wherein is excess; but be filled with the spirit. In other words it’s just using an analogy here that you can have too much alcohol, but you can’t have too much of God’s spirit; there’s no such thing.

Speaking to yourselves, and this can also just as easily be translated as ‘speaking to’ or ‘speaking of’ literally, one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.  That doesn’t mean we go around like the Protestant world and say, “Oh, isn’t it great to give your heart to the lord.”  That kind of stuff... or that we have to be ‘singing’ to each other.  That’s not what it’s talking about.  It’s talking about a spirit and a mind and an attitude of how we think.  It’s a poetic way of expressing that, if you will.

...singing and making melody in your heart, because of what we see, the good, the right in and of what God is doing, giving thanks always, because... What do we give thanks for?  It’s about God, it’s about what God is doing and Jesus Christ is doing and we focus upon that and we rejoice in those things.  And that’s what makes that ‘melody in our hearts’, the gratitude.

You  know, when I came in here today and I saw different ones of you out here, I thought, “How blessed!  How blessed to be able to be here, to experience this, to see that fellowship, to see the growth that’s taking place in people’s lives and through the struggles you go through day by day.”  My heart goes out to that!  You know why?  Because I know that’s where God’s heart is!  His desire is towards you and if we can learn from that, from God, and follow that example, then it lifts us up, it strengthens us and we receive encouragement and inspiration from it...and get rid of this negative garbage, I want to call it what it is!!!  One of these days I’m going to slip and say it and probably offend some people – that great big word that starts with a ‘C’ and it has to do with feces.  Get rid of it!  That’s what God says, “Put it away!”  That’s what leavening is like, it’s like that, it’s like something really smelly and yucky like when you clean a babies butt... that’s what it is and it needs to be that stinking to us.

I have a thing on my computer here where I show people sometimes, it’s something taken off of one of these ‘Funniest Home Video’s’ things; and it’s these fathers trying to change a diaper and they gag and they can barely breathe and they’re about to throw up and you can kind of feel for them if you had that kind of a tolerance toward that kind of thing.  That’s the way we ought to feel about sin!  It just makes you sick to be around it... you just want to... [holds hand over mouth and makes retching sound}], you’re about ready to puke, throw up!

And we need to puke on ourselves sometimes!  I have, before I was called, because I lived wrong...in a schoolhouse on a bench in the boys locker room where we changed for our sports activities.  Lying down on the bench because I was out of it and just vomited all over myself; didn’t even know what I was doing until I woke up.  I was sickened by it – not enough to quit – but I was sickened by it.  I remember distinctly!  It’s a repulsive thing!  It’s repulsive, stinks!  Can we see sin that way?  ...that it stinks before God?  It is not a sweet smelling savour!  Every time we say something or do something wrong toward each other it’s just like a bunch of vomit, or that feces... just a bunch of gas!  It’s repulsive; you don’t want to be around it!  God doesn’t want to smell all that from us!  So can we think that way and ask God to help us think that way about sin and about how we treat each other when it’s not the way Christ said to do it?  To love one another ‘AS I have loved you.’  It was said on Passover.  This is where it begins.

He’s given us the ability to be forgiven so we can continue on in this, to grow, to conquer and overcome and get rid of, put away from us all the evil!  That’s what these days are about.

Giving thanks always for all things; what things is it talking about?  Well, we can thank God for physical things and so forth but that isn’t the big picture.  That isn’t the big picture of what God is doing!  God’s not out here just working on physical things in the world.  He gave it to us to take care of, the physical world as a whole, as human beings.  But us, that’s where He’s focused, that’s what He’s concerned about, and those He’s getting ready to call into the millions.  That’s where God’s focused.  That’s where God’s working and that’s where our minds are to be – to thank God for those things.  Those are the kinds of things we’re to thank God for, especially within the Church for one another and for what God’s doing in people’s lives.

Giving thanks always for all things unto God – that God’s doing, that has to do with God; that has to do with God’s work that we’re blessed to be a part of, thanking God...and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Again, ‘to forfeit, to give up one thing for another thing considered to be of far greater value.’  We need to grow in that!  We need to grow in that so we have this vision of what is far greater in importance that God wants us to have in fellowship, in our thinking toward each other, in how we treat each other, and that always goes back to how we think about each other...and to GET RID OF THE rest that stinks, that’s just a rotten, filthy stench before God.

John 15 – again, that night... so powerful, so awesome what He said.  And if we’re not careful we read through it too quickly.  We’ve heard it Passover to Passover and we’ve heard it in different sermons, but don’t go through it too quickly – drink it in – seek to glean more from it because there’s so much here, so much to build upon.

John 15:1 - I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman/vine dresser.  And Jesus Christ is giving the example – He is the vine and if we’re going to produce fruit we need to be connected to the vine! Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; It’s like a grape vine; there’s a way to take care of them, there’s a way to make sure that they produce the maximum amount, to have the best yield, to have the best fruit, and there’s work to be done in order to accomplish that.  And so He says here, every branch in Me that doesn’t bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, and so there are things that have to be cut off of us in essence here, cut out of our lives; and that’s what the Days of Unleavened Bread are like.  We need to look at the things that need to be cut out of our lives and ask God for forgiveness and seek to repent so we can do things in a better way and the way He wants us to, especially now at this stage of where we are in the Church before His Kingdom comes.

And those of you who have that head start – you are the examples, you’re going to be the ones that are going to help in a great way, of people seeing you and how you’ve lived your life and what you’re doing in your life and how you treat others and how you think and how you think toward them and how you treat them and on and on it goes.  And the more you can grow in that the better you’re going to be able to help people.  Do you think in the future people are going to say, “You were one of those?  I’ve got to hear!  I’ve got to hear your story!”  They’re going to hold onto you as they’re coming out of the things that they have gone through, and even before all that happens they’re going to cling to you, God says, they’re going to want to know from you what you did, what you experienced, what you saw, what you learned.  They’re going to want to know from you!  You have no idea what you’re getting ready to go through!  You truly have NO IDEA the MAGNITUDE of what God has called you to!  It’s FAR greater than what you can comprehend; just tell you that very clearly.  We just can’t grasp the awesomeness of the opportunity to give and serve and help in awesome ways in the future here, the opportunities that God has ahead of you.  And so much of what you’re going to be able to give and do then depends upon how we respond in the time we have remaining, how much change you’re able to make between now and then, to throw yourselves into change more and more, to seek to conquer and overcome the weaknesses and the faults so you can better help people, so that God can use you more...because you truly, truly have no idea of the magnitude of your calling, even for right now what God is doing in your life, for the immediate future!

The disciples had no idea the magnitude of the calling they had when they began to follow Christ.  They had NO IDEA what was awaiting them in the short period of time they had to learn, to be taught certain things.  You have been given more!  You’ve got a giant head start!  You know why?  They didn’t have the impregnation of God’s spirit to start with, they had to wait until after their Passover died and Pentecost came.  THEN all that began to flood back into them and they surged forward in a powerful way.  What’s been given to you because of where you are in time; just because of where we are in time and what God is going to do is dumbfounding beyond your comprehension, truly is.

...He purges it so that it may bring forth more fruit.  So we go through things, we have things cut away in our lives that aren’t healthy for us, that are not good for us, so that we can produce more fruit.  And that’s a part of this process in our lives as we yield ourselves to God, a desire to get rid of the things that hurt the production of fruit.  That’s what it’s about.  There are just certain things that’ll hurt the production of fruit - a healthy vine or a healthy plant or a healthy part that’s connected to the vine - so it has to be pruned and trimmed.  And so there are things in our lives that have to be gotten rid of because it hurts the production of the fruit.  That’s what we want to get rid of.  We want to get rid of everything that hurts the production of fruit in our lives.  We want to be able to serve God as much as we can. And the more we get rid of self, truly, the more that God can use us.  It’s just the way it works.  The more self you get rid of the more God can use you, the more spirit, the more power that He’ll make available to you.

Now you are cleaned through the word which I have spoken unto you; incredible this process of what we understand.  Abide in Me; and this word is used in so many different ways here even in the book of John.  Sometimes it’s translated ‘to continue, to continue in, to remain in, to abide in, to dwell in’ – all those English words that go back to the same Greek word.  Abide/Dwell/Live in Me – same word – Live in Me – that’s used sometimes, Continue in Me/Remain in Me and I in you.  Abide/dwell in Me and I in you.  We really have a difficult time even with God’s spirit of understanding the awesomeness of that – that God dwells in human life?  That God... there’s that measure of God through the power of His spirit that’s in us?  That we’re blessed to partake of, that we’re blessed to have with us?

Abide in Me and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in Me; so what does that teach us?  You don’t want to be cut off from the flow of the holy spirit!  You don’t want to be cut off from the flow of God and Jesus Christ dwelling in/abiding in you.  You want them to continue in you as you seek to continue in them on a continuing basis, remaining there, never getting cut off.  But sin cuts us off, that’s why we have to repent speedily.  ...no more can you, except you abide in Me.

I am the vine and you are the branches: he who abides in Me and I in him the same brings forth much fruit.  Beautiful picture here!  In other words, the more you get rid of sin, the more you conquer and overcome sin, the more you keep fighting against sin and you have God dwelling in you the more fruit that can be produced in your life, the more fruit that can be in your life, the more that God can do in your life.  The more we seek to get rid of pride and haughtiness and come before God with a sacrifice of a broken and a contrite spirit then the more that God can work with us.  That’s what God works with in a very powerful way!

...the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  Wish to God many years ago, if it’d been possible (but it wasn’t because of what God was going to allow), but what an awesome thing if the Church could have understood this through the seventies when we began to go through shakings in the Church in different areas and different ministers would go off on a different course and do different things and then the congregations would follow and people would be dispersed because they’d begin to be fed that stuff, the same exact way that Satan began to work with those angelic beings, because they were off doing a certain part here and they were able to be communicating with him... the same thing happened in God’s Church!  A minister would be around and he would start spreading around, just a little bit at a time, and after a while poison their minds and then he could bring on something different.  Amazing what took place!  And those things started happening in the seventies.  What an awesome thing here if people could have deeply, spiritually understood what it means to be cut off because of sin. So many people have come and gone who thought they could bring something else along, or had something else to give that wasn’t from God.  They deceived themselves into thinking it was from God.

If a person/anyone does not abide in Me they are cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them in the fire and they are burn.   That’s the ultimate.  People don’t want that to happen.  We also understand this thing of going asleep – a dangerous state to be in... dangerous state to be in for every one of us, because some of us have experienced that.  Those of you who are new, you don’t want to experience that.

If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, if those words... that’s what it means, because it has to do with the spirit.  It is spirit, the Word of God, that’s what makes the word of God come alive.  That’s what He says...My words, they’re spirit, the words are spirit, they’re life: when God’s spirit is in it that’s what gives the word of God life and meaning in your thinking in your mind, that you can see things that others can’t.  And we’re blessed to grow in that.  And so He says, If you abide in Me and My words abide/dwell in you; the Word of God, the truth of God – the more you have of that and the more you’re deeply rooted in that – what an awesome blessing!  ...you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.  It’s not what you want that you ask for, in the sense of your desires of life, “I’d like to win the lottery.”  It’s not that, it’s about that which is a part of God’s purpose, like that thing of being thankful for all things.  What do you mean be thankful [for all things]?  The focus is about God.  The focus is about God’s work – always – and what God is doing and what we’re blessed to be a part of in the Church of God.  And so is this focus about the Church, what God is doing.

And so again here, ask what you will according... Do you know what God’s will is?  That you produce much fruit, that you be filled with His holy spirit – that’s what it’s about, a crying out for God’s spirit, a crying out to never be cut off, a crying out because you repent, because you realize how dangerous that is because you want them to dwell in you and you want to produce fruit and you cry out about these things.  Then what God is saying, what Jesus Christ is saying is you can pray about those things and God will give it to you absolutely, because that’s according to God’s will, that’s what God’s will is all about.

Herein is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; shows the power of God’s spirit at work.  When we visit from area to area every so often then, that’s what we see; we see the production of fruit.  I see God!  I see what God is doing because you can’t do it of and by yourself – God does it as we yield ourselves to God.  It’s the miracle of what God is doing in the Church in the creation that’s His and the glory is God’s, truly!  We don’t take it upon ourselves, we thank God for what He is doing because we’re able to be a Family, we’re able to be a Body with a unique relationship and fellowship because of that which He makes possible.  Herein is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit: don’t we want to glorify God?  Then we want to bear much fruit!  ...and so shall you be My disciples.

As the Father has loved Me, I hope this means more to us now reading it.  I hope we come to understand something deeper about God’s love and what He has gone through for so, so long – just the sacrifice of peace alone – that’s what He did when He created the angelic beings.  He knew what would take place in time; that it would mean the destruction of peace - it would be the creation of war, sorrow, unhappiness, slander, blasphemy, all the things that make life harder and more sorrowful.  ...that eventually led to the very destruction of part of the physical creation that later led to the first two human beings being led away from God and the truth, so much so that the way to the Tree of Life then had to be taken away from mankind, that mankind couldn’t have it.  But God knew what they were going to do – but again, He’s a parent, He loves His Family in ways that we can’t grasp and comprehend.

And so, As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you: ‘love one another AS I have loved you’.  And we’re told that it was sacrifice; that’s the kind of love that it is.  How much are we willing to sacrifice to love each other in the Body of Christ?  That’s what is focal; that’s what it’s all about.  It’s so easy to talk about truth or to know what we know and to have a lot of knowledge, but it’s what you live that counts.  It’s what we live day by day that truly counts and has meaning and purpose.

As the Father has loved Me, sacrificing, so I’ve loved you, sacrificing, continue, abide in/dwell in/live in/remain in My love.  How do we do that?  Sacrifice.  Sacrificing, sacrificing, sacrificing – to dwell in, to remain in, to live in, and this word becomes explicit then, it’s ‘agape’ – because He says that’s My love.  My love is God’s love – it comes from God.

‘If you keep My commandments...’

‘I’m going to write them on your heart, your mind, your being,’ God says.

Jesus Christ says, ‘I take away the first that I can establish the second, to do Your will,’ and God goes on to show, it makes it very clear what that means, so that His ways, His mind, His law, which is a result of His commandments, His only way of life is written in us ‘to do His will’.

If you keep My commandments – do God’s will, live God’s will, you shall abide in My love/agape: even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His agape. He reflected everything that is from God Almighty, from God the Father; and God wants us to reflect more and more of that in our lives toward one another, truly.

These things have I spoken unto you that My joy might abide/remain, as it is here, remain/abide /continue/live in/dwell in you, because the more we live this way of life the more joy there is, the more fullness there is, the excitement of Family, God’s Family, because we see God in it.  We don’t see the weaknesses of human beings!  We don’t see their faults!  We don’t see their sins over and over and over again in life... okay?  We’ve got to get RID of that and FORGIVE those things in one another and love each other!  Do we understand that?  How much God hates sin and hates that we aren’t unified in a stronger way?  ...that He wants us to be more at one with each other in every way, to love each other, to sacrifice in order to have that love, that we see God, that we want to see God so that we can have that joy?  Joy!  We should have joy in one another brethren.

And I’ll just tell you, there’s a lot of repenting that needs to take place in the Church of God.  God is blessing us to come to a higher plane spiritually in the Church of God.  We have been blessed with so much over the past few years!  At the Feast of Tabernacles we were given more than you can even BEGIN to grasp, that we’ve just touched upon a little bit – that I continue to grow in and that prayerfully you’re continuing to grow in as well, all on different levels and planes here obviously as time goes along because of what we’re able to receive from God, where we are in time and what we have.  But I’ll just tell you, you’ve just barely sipped of what was given to you at the Feast of Tabernacles, truly!  We’ve just cracked the door open just a teeny, teeny bit in all the knowledge and information that was flooded out at the Feast of Tabernacles.

And today, there is so much here that God wants us to receive.  He is giving us so much more!  That’s the point!   I thought when the 50th Truth came along...  I was convicted, because that was at that moment in time where it was what we referred to as ‘the present truth’.  I was convicted this is it!  This is the jubilee!  This is it!  This is a time of great rejoicing!  Little did I know that God would give us seven more in the time to follow, through this period of time that we’re in, of the last 3½ year’s total.  Little did I know that during that period of time God would give us so much more!  And I’ll tell you what, the closer we get the more God is giving us.  This is an awesome time!  God is giving us a great deal at this Feast of Unleavened Bread because you don’t get another one like this in this age.  You don’t get another Passover like the one we had!  You don’t get another one like that where we’re all able to meet together in safety and peace and so forth; and that’s why God is giving us so much more at this time, to see something that is the height of it all.

I have thanked God several times, and I mean this with all my being, to just be able to share the knowledge, to be given that and then to share it with God’s people, about Him sacrificing like He has.  I can’t tell you what that means to me personally, that God revealed that, because it endears me more to God the Father than anything else ever has to this point in time.  It’s a matter of a growth thing, it’s a matter of a bonding there that has strengthened that even more so about my Father, our Father, your Father.  This is a personal thing as we grow.  I’m moved by that, deeply moved by that, and I hope you’re moved.  And I know we are.  I’ve heard some of you talk about it, I’ve heard some of you mention some of those things to understand what... to understand that about God the Father, of something He’s never given to the Church before. He hasn’t shown us that part of Him, but He’s sharing it with us now.  How awesome is that? And He’s given so much more?  It’s because of where we are and because of what we’re getting close to and His Son’s about ready to come and be here on this earth now.  This is a great Feast!  That’s why this was an incredible Passover, a time to share with God in a fellowship through fasting that has never, ever taken place in history...and we are blessed to partake of it.  And we don’t grasp the magnitude of what took place but we see it a little bit.  There’s much more there, truly is.

And this Feast of Unleavened Bread – how awesome we’ve been blessed – incredibly blessed – to partake of what we’re partaking of because of a sacrificing love and that which God wants us to understand: we need to sacrifice more.  We need to repent more and sacrifice more for each other, to love each other more.  And we know now even more so how to do that and there’s certain things that must be gotten rid of, that just must be gotten rid of.

Sometimes because of things of Worldwide and things that have happened in people’s lives in different areas, there are situations in life, and some people that know each other so well – sometimes it’s hard to put away and to forget, to forgive, to not put someone in a certain pigeon hole, that this is the way they’re always going to be.

I had a minister I was under that said, “A leopard doesn’t change its spots.”  It’s like so and so is just never going to change.  He can’t change his spots, he’s just that way all the time and he’s always going to be that way, or she’s always going to be that way.”  And I think, “You are a minister of God?!  Where’s God’s spirit?!  That’s what this is all about!  We CAN change!  ...and you’re a minister of God and you’re telling people this stupidity? ...that a leopard can’t change its spots?”

It’s amazing, it really is – we can change and that’s what we want for each other.  I don’t want to see people suffer.  Whenever I see people suffer I understand, you’re hurting, you’re suffering and you’re taking it out on others because of that suffering or because of your past, or whatever it is, and I look forward to the time you can come to be freed of it.  And I know how you’re going to become freed of it.  It’s because you’re going to be able to repent, you’re going to be able to see some things in yourself.  God’s going to use these things at a moment in time that one day in this particular area of your life something’s going to click and you’re going to be able to say, “Oh man, that’s what I’m doing!  I see myself!” and you repent and you start changing.  And that’s what we rejoice in, ‘that your joy might be full’.

My joy as a minister is seeing the change in people’s lives!  My joy is to hear about those changes!  I do hear about some problems and difficulties, but I don’t want a diet of that in my life!  But where you change and where you grow and what you’ve conquered and what you’ve overcome and where you are now and what you put behind you... that’s where my joy comes from!  That’s where Jesus Christ said His joy comes from... that’s what He’s talking about here!  The joy that we have as we see each other grow and conquer and overcome, because your life is becoming better when you become more at one with God.  The more you become at one with God the more the Family is at one with God!  The more I conquer and overcome the more the Family is at one with God.  It’s a beautiful thing!  I rejoice in that.  We should rejoice in that; to speak on those things, to focus on those things in each other’s lives.

Verse 11 – These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain/abide/continue/live in/dwell in you.  All those words in the English language that mean the same thing when it comes to this Greek word.  It’s a beautiful thing, it’s a beautiful expression because it can be translated so many different ways and all of them be fitting and proper and contain just a little bit different information to drive the point home in every one of us.

...that My joy, His joy:  What gives Him joy?  It’s the unity and the oneness and the growth of the Body, a sweet smelling savour that comes up before God because it requires sacrifice on our part, meaning to sacrifice our sick, perverted, disgusting human nature!  And too bad that has to be called a sacrifice, but it is because you know what?  We want to hold onto it!  “It’s the way I like to be. It’s the way I like to think.”  And God says don’t think that way, don’t be that way.  You know why people don’t get rid of certain sins?  You know why people don’t get rid of certain habits?

I used to tell this a long time ago to some who like to puff on the weed – [sucking inhaling sound of someone smoking] – I said, because you love it.  “Oh no, I don’t love it!”  Yes you do! You love it, and when you quit loving it you’re going to love something else more.  For one thing, free lungs, better health.  And others around you are going to love it more too because they’re not going to be intoxicated with that garbage. Nowadays they have a law in a lot of places where you have to go outside to smoke...and man, you go outside and before you can even get in the building they pollute the air around you because of their disgusting selfish habit – ruin it for others.  And I’m just talking about something very puny physically that human beings have a tough time with.  How about the spiritual things?  How about the things of greater importance that we have a tough time with?  The reason we do the things that are wrong is because we’re getting something out of it.  What is the motive?  We’re getting something out of it and something’s wrong in our thinking to get something out of what’s wrong in relationships with God’s people!  What do we get out of it?

When a husband talks to a wife in a certain way or a wife talks to a husband, or somebody else in the Body of Christ talks to somebody in the Body in a wrong way... What are we getting out of it?  What are we getting out of it when we do it wrong?  That’s what you’ve got to answer before God because you’re getting something out of it that you like in your perverted little mind.  Because it’s wrong!  Sin is perverted, sin is wrong, and God wants you to see what it is.  What is it you’re getting out of it?  What is your motive?  And when you begin to see the motive then you can repent of it and say, “God, forgive me! I didn’t know I was doing that! I didn’t know that’s what my thinking is stirred from!”  Powerful!  And God will help you.  You know why?  So that your joy can be full, and so that His joy can be full, made fuller, better.  That’s what it’s about – growing in the Body of Christ – peace, joy, happiness, blessings, thanksgiving.

Awesome scriptures, beautiful things that Jesus Christ taught... and you know what?  He taught the most important… He saved the best for last, because He knew what His dying would mean – the Body of Christ, a new Body where God would begin to work and build and grow. Zion.  Zion, the Family of God!  Incredible!

These things I have spoken unto you, before I die as your Passover (He didn’t tell them that), but that’s what was getting ready to happen; and so He saved the best for last, the most meaningful, the most inspiring, the most awesome of knowledge and insight and understanding that could ever be given to mankind.  These words, these chapters are the most important in this Bible.  They are the most important in this Bible because it’s about why He died and what He’s revealing, and He made it very clear what it was all about: so that God Almighty and His Son Jesus Christ could dwell in your mind, your being, because there is no other way that God can dwell in the mind, in the being to change, to transform this mind to a time that it can be born into a body that is spirit for eternity – and then always being at one with God and God always dwelling in you and you dwelling in God into life everlasting.  Awesome, awesome, awesome beyond what we can fully comprehend, truly.

These things I have spoken unto you, that My joy might remain/abide/dwell in/live in/continue in you and that your joy might be full.  Because this is how we receive full joy and excitement and meaning in life.  This is My commandment, That you love one another AS I have loved you. There’s no other way it happens, that comes about, that we can live this, save that we understand this matter about sacrifice.

Greater love, that’s why He says what He does; Greater love/agape has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  So how much are we willing to lay down, truly, for one another?  How much are we willing to give up for each other?  What is it we want to hold onto that we can continue to hold things against each other, or do things against each other and not be of tender mercy toward each other the way God is toward us?  We have to ask those questions.

Greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.  You are My friends if you do what I command you. Beautiful scriptures.

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