Family is Built by Sharing

Ron Weinland

January 19, 2012

Well, I was a little busy when everyone was coming in today because I decided I'd go through some news articles today.  So, "Hello," since I didn't get to say that to most of you. 

First of all here I thought I'd follow up on an announcement I made last week.  Last week I mentioned some things about 2nd tithe, this week here I want to follow up with a question I've been asked about 1st tithe, and maybe for especially some who are new to go through some basic principles here about tithes, 1st tithe, and a question that was specifically asked here recently.  The question had to do with taking off mileage back and forth from work, so I want to get to that in a moment.

But just to start out as a basic principle here, just wanted to remind everyone, especially those who are new, that anyone on government assistance, welfare, social security, things of that type, retirement income, pensions and the like, there is no requirement for tithing for you in any of those things. You shouldn't feel any obligation whatsoever; there is no requirement of any kind for giving of tithes in that, it is not required. Another thing, that if you are a full-time student, which I mentioned in times past, you and you alone, this has to do with your work, not someone else's as a mate or something, but if you are a full-time student, and full-time generally has in most cases in semester type of divisions, has to do with 15 hours, 14-15, in through there, that qualifies most times as a full-time student, then you are exempt from tithing even if you have some part-time work and so forth. That's been a standard for the Church through time, it was for Ambassador College and so forth.

Anyway, just to answer another question, sometimes when people do their tithes they don't realize that whatever is allowed by taxation to take off the top, obviously, the Church does the same thing. That's a pretty good guideline, but we do things as well that they don't, such as mileage or cost of traveling back and forth in the sense of transportation. Most people don't figure that in because it isn't a big factor. If you're going back and forth from your work most people don't take the time to figure a lot of those things in. But for some people, especially the lower income or something like that, the struggles you have with your finances, and if that's a struggle then that's perfectly fine to take off the top, it's an expense, it's not an increase, it's a cost of doing work, and so anything that you have as a cost for working, that's perfectly fine, take those things off the top.

Some people have incredibly large expenses in that area, of travelling to and from work. Sometimes it's a part of their business, obviously, and then that's tax deductable anyway, but even if not, those things you can take off. So there has been a little bit of a misunderstanding in some of that recently mainly because a comment was made mainly about most people in situations there because of a short distance don't worry about whatever it might be per day, as one person mentioned they had maybe a $0.20 (20 cents) a day and it didn't matter, cost, type of thing, or to affect tithe by that much or whatever it was there.

Again, those kinds of expenses, absolutely; anything that has to do with work take it off the top, that's not increase. Anything like cashier's cheques or anything like that, if there is a cost involved, whatever that cost is even sending that in, because some people are on very tight budgets.  A lot of people don't consider some of those things but if that's a cost factor, by all means, take that off.

This next comment is for my son who edits these, please leave the rest of the content now as with the sermon, even though it's not a part of the sermon I do want to keep this in the system, of what I'm going to cover today here on some of the news articles and comments that are going to be made about them, so I do want this to remain as a part of what might be there if someone went to the actual sermon that we're going to have a little bit later here. I don't want to take too much time away from the sermon but these things are timely and I do want to make comment about them. I think it's interesting here, makes a bit of a comparison here sometimes of how people think and the things of how God looks upon things to teach and to show something fully different, but I think this is worthy of commenting on because of how it reflects some of the spirit and attitude in the country today. In some ways I thought about not discussing this but I am just going to make a comment about it and most will understand exactly what some of this means.

Here is something that came out, that was brought out by a group called, 'The Media Research Centre', and they spoke of a cover (it's a media watchdog type, conservative watchdog type of a publication for media if you will), but anyway, they spoke of - this didn't come off very well but I have a picture here that's coming out on 'Newsweek Online' - but this individual made comment about how that, "Conservatives have long joked that the national press corps see Barack Obama as the second coming of Jesus Christ. Today, Newsweek – at least what’s left of it, an online product for tablets and e-readers – made it official."

In their particular article here it says, "Newsweek: Obama is the Second Coming."

You know, that's sad when people begin to make those kinds of comparisons because it's not a smart thing to do by anyone in society, anyone in the world, and you would think that individuals would jump on top of something like that and say, "Please!"  I think of Mr. Armstrong when people started to applaud for him. He said, "Don't do it, it's not right!" And there are those who should make comments about such things, because this has been going on for a long time and sadly it reflects a bit of where we are in the world today.

So again, I think of when people made comment about the Titanic, that it was unsinkable, that type of thing. It's that type of spirit and that kind of attitude. And we are at that phase as far as the world is concerned, where we recognize, because of what's going to take place, that this world, this country and all of Israel needs to come to a point of being able to be humbled, and we're going to have to go through a lot for that to take place.

I think it's interesting sometimes what we cover in sermons, how those things actually come out in the news media then if you've been watching certain things, things being discussed and so forth even about - just like things we've been talking about - things having to do with internet, it's affect on people, on and on it goes, things are being discussed right now, it's really incredible. I hope all of you are not at a point, because on occasion here I get reports in from different parts of the world and throughout the United States and Canada, and I think of one today that I read where an elder was commenting about certain things taking place in their area and an individual in one part there, that they were rather concerned with, that they see the pulling back and pulling back since the last few months; in other words, letting down.  This is not a time to let down, this is a time that the Thunders are very, very powerful, and sometimes because you hear something for so long you can become insensitive to it or yourself become lethargic to it, and if you're listening to the media in this country the tendency is you're going to begin to become a little lethargic, you're going to be lulled to sleep, because what is there is not reality, it's not the truth of what's happening in the world, and you need to keep on your toes spiritually, we all do, and to realize that there are things out here that you need to be in tune to, just like some of the news that's going on in the world, things that are happening still in Syria and the country of Syria and the nations surrounding it. Nations throughout different parts of the world, northern Africa, the Middle East there, on up into parts of Europe and Asia there, the world is so at a point of being on the edge country after country after country. I think of an article here recently about all the ships that Russia has in the Mediterranean now off the coast of Syria, and in the beginning, again, I think I mentioned this last Sabbath, but talking about how it's for being able to take out citizens if the need arises, to take out Russian people who are in Syria, to be able to evacuate. That's obviously not what it's about anymore.

And then things between Pakistan and India.  I don't know if you're watching some of these but you know, even Pakistan itself, I have an article here that just came out on the 15th here. It's from Der Spiegel and it says, "Pakistan trouble tumbles into chaos." Where else do you read these things? You've got to go searching for these things or you have to have people out there that are looking for some of these articles. And I didn't see that in the media over here, I haven't seen that.  I have seen some things about the tensions as far as between India and Pakistan, but again, you have to be on your toes to catch it because it's a quick blurb, or it's just a thing at the bottom of the screen. Most of the time about the only news you get here in the United States is if you watch the thing at the bottom of the screen and maybe pick up on something and then follow-up on it.

But again, things that are happening in Pakistan right now, like the Supreme Court, I guess it is... let me just read this, "A self-proclaimed revolutionary is attracting mass protests, while the highest court has ordered the prime minister's arrest and the military waits in the wings." So the article goes through and this German publication talks about how the military is kind of on the side there and seeing if the opening is there again to come in as they had before in times past. But I think of all the nuclear weapons that they have and how volatile that part of the world is and how much, again, they're on the border with Afghanistan and some of the troubles there with Taliban and the Taliban in the northern Pakistan area as well. The world is in absolute chaos!

Here is an article I want to follow-up with here today, that I want to make comment about. It was sent from an elder up in the New York, Pennsylvania area (thank you John), but it's a publication called, 'Europe 2020' and it's part of a ... I've read part of their background and so forth in the past when he sent some other articles that are really... they have their finger on top of everything over there, they really do, in a very strong way the things they report on, but it has to do with different ones that have this desire and planning and so forth, ideas about Europe coming together, what's going to take place and so forth, their desires, and they're watching certain world events seeing that they're being lifted up more and more in the sense, in the respect of what's going to happen with Europe when it's all said and done.

But again, it's an organization and a fairly strong one it looks like here, but they really hit the nail on the head so many times here and I want to read some of this to you because I think it's so worthwhile, but the headline on this one here is 'The United States, March - June 2013', and it's entitled here, the rest behind it, 'Unplugging the world's sick man: last impact phase of the global systemic crisis'.  It says...

United States, March-June 2013 – Unplugging the world’s sick man: last impact phase of the global systemic crisis[1] [sic]

GEAB N°71 (January 16, 2013)

Until now the course of the crisis has been accurately described according to the five phases identified by our team from May 2006 (GEAB n°5) and completed in February 2009 (GEAB n°32): release, acceleration, impact, decanting and global geopolitical dislocation, the last two stages developing simultaneously. In the last issues and in particular the GEAB n°70 (December 2012), we commented extensively on the ongoing processes of the two last phases, a decantation from which the world-after painfully emerges on the rubble of world geopolitical dislocation.

In other words, they fully see and expect the United States to collapse, the dollar to collapse. This is a part of their framework and a part of what they believe over this period of time and what's going to bring it about and so forth. They're talking about the world after because they realize it's going to be a horrible impact upon the world. We understand that, even as far as war is concerned and so forth, which is really not discussed here in that phase. Most of this has to do with the economy of the world. It goes on to say:

But we had underestimated the decanting period’s duration which we have gone through for more than four years...

Interesting.  You know, I've wondered about... you wonder about some of these things, what is taking place, how this is taking place, and amazing here what they're saying.

...a period during which all the crisis’ players have worked to a common goal, to gain time...

What they're showing here is that the rest of the world is trying to gain some time here after what happened in 2008, or what came to a head in 2008, and so it says here it's to gain time.

...the United States, whilst making every effort to prevent the appearance of alternative solutions to the dollar, in spite of the catastrophic situation of all its systemic fundamentals, to prevent its creditors from abandoning it (discrediting other currencies including the Yen from now on, tenacity against the attempts to disconnect oil from the dollar, etc…)...

And just like attempts and comments that come out at times about China and what they're doing and the fact that China is starting to horde more gold and bring in more gold. And every time things like this are discussed it's to put them down, it's to... anyway, that's a common tactic that's being used in order to raise us up. Isn't that human nature? ...what people do oftentimes as far as relationships and how people see themselves in order to keep themselves high, they keep others lower, or try to. And then it goes on to say here, reading this again:

...to prevent its creditors from abandoning it ... the rest of the world, in setting up skilful strategies consisting of maintaining its assistance towards the United States to avoid a sudden collapse from which it would be the first to suffer, and at the same time constructing alternative and of decoupling solutions.

So they realize there is something coming here and they've got to be able to decouple quickly - they're talking about their economy and how they're tied into the dollar, into the system. Bad case, isn't it, scenarios here.

At the end of this long period of the system’s apparent “anaesthesia”, we consider it necessary to add a sixth phase to our description of the crisis: the last impact phase which will occur in 2013.

The United States certainly believed that the rest of the world would have an interest in keeping its economy on artificial respiratory assistance ad infinitum but it is likely that they don’t believe it any more today.

I want to make a comment about some of this here, they're talking again about this long period of time and how we're addressing some of this as a country, understanding that in the midst of all this different countries in the world are deciding their relationship and what to do and how to go about it, how to 'decouple' as it talks about here.

As regards the rest of the world, the final chapters of the US crisis (major political crisis, decisional paralysis, near miss of the fiscal cliff, perspective of a payment default in March, and always the incapacity to implement the least structural solution) convinced it of the imminence of a collapse, and all the players are on the look-out for the least sign of a swing to extricate themselves, conscious that by doing so they will precipitate the final collapse.

So when there is such a delicate balance in the world, what they're saying here is that if someone tries to pull out at a certain point in time or tried to disconnect themselves that it'll cause, that they themselves...so they have to position their timing... That's what they're saying, they have to position their timing. They believe, they see this is happening, possibly from March on through June as a period of time when someone is going to have to do this or that the ball... but the thing is, when one begins to do it then they all begin to do it, so that's what's being discussed here, what the world is like right now and the situation it's in, and yet the world, especially in this country, is totally blind to what's happening around them, and yet there are leaders in the world who think like this, especially in Europe and China and Russia and Brazil, and on and on it goes. They're not stupid, they understand there is something taking place here and things have to change. And so they're addressing...but what they haven't taken - what I was going to say a moment ago - what none of them are taking into consideration in all this as what's being described here is something that happens to accelerate this process. So the point being here, the stage is set, has been set for some time but especially now starting toward the end of the year and the beginning of this year, the stage is fully set for things to happen quickly, but the timing is in God's hands, whether it be March or April or next week or whenever, this is what we're looking at. We've been through this in part before but we can see the stage set in such a way we have never seen before.

Our team considers that in the context of the extreme tensions - both domestic political and world financial tensions - induced by the next raising of the US debt ceiling in March 2013, the signs will not be lacking to cause the disappearance of US treasury bonds’ last purchasers, a disappearance which the Fed will no longer be able to compensate for, resulting in an increase in interest rates which will propel American indebtedness to astronomical levels, leaving no hope of ever being repaid to creditors who will prefer to throw in the towel and let the dollar collapse… a collapse of the dollar which will de facto correspond to the first genuine solution, painful certainly but real, for US indebtedness.

It’s for this reason also that our team anticipates that 2013, the first year of the World-Afterwards, will see a setting up of this “purifying” of US and world accounts.

So what they're saying in essence here is as has happened in history in times past when there is a major swing the whole world changes. There are things that have to reset. It's like a... well, the word is not coming to me, but a total resetting of everything having to do with a worldwide economy, or any kind of economy, but with it comes major collapse and then a birth of something else. They just don't know now that there is a birth coming, that God's going to have to step in and intervene and Jesus Christ is going to have to set the Kingdom of God. We're at that time.  It's not going to be left to man to continue on. If God were not sending His Son at this time, if Jesus Christ was not coming at this time, then the world would indeed have something take place that would upset everything as far as a complete shift and change - far more massive than what happened when Great Britain no longer was in the lead with the pound, although that was a strong shift when the dollar began to take over at that time. This one here is far more major because we're talking about a way the world is tied in like it never has been before because of technology and etc...etc... It's a global economy, one part crumbles and the whole thing is upside down and something else has to emerge, someone else has to emerge - China, that's what they have in their mind - Europe, that's what they have in their mind - Russia, different ones know what's happening in the world and they're preparing for it.

All the players are tending towards this step whose consequences are very difficult to predict but which is also an unavoidable solution to the crisis taking into account the United States structural incapacity to set up genuine debt-reduction strategies.

So the world, in essence, they're saying they see a spirit, an attitude, a way of thinking in this country that cannot solve it's own problems any longer, and with the whole world so tied in together with it, that the world really can't tolerate it any longer, something  has to change and that change is what they see taking place.

Received a bunch of articles at the very end of December here, beginning of January having to do with Britain and Europe and the tie-in together there and some talking about even (one article, I wish I had the title to it now), but it was like the United States is trying to encourage Britain, "Don't leave the European Union because it's going to be a catastrophe," basically, "for us," is what they're saying.  You think, "Oh, I'm sure they're going to listen to that one because..."

Here is another one; this comes out from over there where it says, "Britain must embrace Europe or get left behind, CBI warns."  So again here, on and on these articles go, but what was interesting during the same period of time is that Europe is fully set now, it's in the planning, it's in the mind already to have two systems within the European Union and that is to have some who are loosely tied together, that don't have to be as tied in together as they are today, even as Great Britain is, even though they are not too tied in, but even far looser association with the primary core who are fully involved. Anyway, it's unique what they're preparing for.  They're making it possible that they can still be a part and other nations can as well but there is going to be this core group, which we know to be ten, that's going to emerge out of this.

Another article here. This is from 'Zero Hedge'.  It says, "It begins..." this is on the 14th, this article came out.  "It Begins: Bundesbank To Commence Repatriating Gold from the New York Fed".  Incredible articles! This just came out. I don't have any... have you seen some of this?  Some of you have?  Yes? No? Okay, I want to read part of this on this article then I'll go to another one.

It Begins: Bundesbank To Commence Repatriating Gold From New York Fed[2]

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/14/2013 20:32 -0500

In what could be a watershed moment for the price, provenance, and future of physical gold, not to mention the "stability" of the entire monetary regime based on rock solid, undisputed "faith and credit" in paper money, German Handelsblatt reports in an exclusive that the long suffering German gold, all official 3,396 tons of it, is about to be moved. Specifically, it is about to be partially moved out of the New York Fed, where the majority, or 45% of it is currently stored, as well as the entirety of the 11% of German gold held with the Banque de France, and repatriated back home to Buba in Frankfurt, (to Germany in Frankfurt) where just 31% of it is held as of this moment.

In other words, they only have 31% of their gold actually in Germany; the rest of it they moved out during the cold war to prevent anything from happening and for credit purposes and trading in different currencies and things you have to do to have something happen fast, so they put it in different areas of the world, of primarily, obviously, New York and London and France. He goes on to say here....

And while it is one thing for a "crazy, lunatic" dictator such as Hugo Chavez to pull his gold out of the Bank of England...

Because it doesn't have much of an impact on anyone.

....it is something entirely different, and far less dismissible, when the bank with the second most official gold reserves in the world proceeds to formally pull some of its gold from the bank with the most.

In brief: this is a momentous development, one which may signify that the regime of mutual assured and very much telegraphed - because if the central banks don't have faith in one another, why should anyone else? - trust in central banks by other central banks is ending.

A little bit later in the article it goes on to say.... this is interesting because it goes back to November and they're quoting here something that was said by Germany's Andreas Dubret...

...below is the speech ...Andreas Dobret delivered to none other than NY Fed's Bill Dudley in early November: "Please let me also comment on the bizarre public discussion we are currently facing in Germany on the safety of our gold deposits outside Germany – a discussion which is driven by irrational fears.

So he's trying to assure the Fed that everything is fine and what you hear coming out of Germany isn't right. He goes on to say....

In this context, I wish to warn against voluntarily adding fuel to the general sense of uncertainty among the German public in times like these by conducting a “phantom debate” on the safety of our gold reserves.

The arguments raised are not really convincing. And I am glad that this is common sense for most Germans. Following the statement by the President of the Federal Court of Auditors in Germany, the discussion is now likely to come to an end – and it should do so before it causes harm to the excellent relationship between the Bundesbank and the US Fed.

He went on to say...

Throughout these sixty years,(since the gold has been in New York), we have never encountered the slightest problem, let alone had any doubts concerning the credibility of the Fed ..... I am also grateful for your uncomplicated cooperation in so many matters. The Bundesbank will remain the Fed’s trusted partner in future, and we will continue to take advantage of the Fed’s services by storing some of our currency reserves as gold in New York.

And he went on to say here, 'Zero Hedge' is saying...

Incidentally, what Zero Hedge did provide after this article, was factual evidence that the Buba's [Germany's] very much "trusted partner" had been skimming it on physical gold deliveries on at least one occasion...

Then it goes on to explain some of this. I'm speeding along here. So he's saying, this is what was said back in November, so what's happened in the meantime?

So we wonder: what changed in the three months between November and now, that has caused such a dramatic about face at the Bundesbank, and that in light of all of the above, will make is explicitly very unambiguous that the act of gold repatriation, assuming of course that Handelsblatt did not mischaracterize what is happening and misreport the facts, means the "excellent relationship" between the Fed and Buba, not to mention Banque de France which will shortly hold precisely zero German gold, has just collapsed. [sic]

Also, if the Bundesbank is first, who is next?

So it's showing here a beginning, a disconnect. That's why I read that other part earlier, there is a disconnect taking place, countries are trying to decide...because they see something coming and if you know how... Some things you read between the lines on and some of them, I believe, fully understand there is a war coming. They realize that once something starts it's going to be massive, because nothing like this, especially of this major proportion has ever happened in this respect worldwide, and to go on without a war is kind of unimaginable really, so they're planning and preparing.

Two days later 'The Telegraph' comes out with the same report here.  That's in London.  It says:

Bundesbank to pull Gold from New York and Paris in a watershed moment[3]

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

15 Jan 2013

It goes on to say here....

Germany's Bundesbank is to repatriate gold reserves held abroad to tighten control and combat currency crisis' in the future, pulling a chunk of its holdings from New York and all of its bullion from Paris.

The move marks an extraodinary breakdown in trust between leading central banks...[sic]

Even there, central banks of the world, it's talking about they're not trusting each other anymore so they have to take care of themselves.

...and has set off ferment among gold enthusiasts, with some comparing it with France’s withdrawal of gold from the US under President Charles de Gaulle as the Bretton Woods currency system crumbled in the late 1960s.

Handelsblatt said the Bundesbank will announce on Wednesday (Jan. 16) that it intends to relocate the gold to vaults in Frankfurt, said by insiders to include parts of the old archive library. Germany has 3,396 tons of gold worth roughly £115bn, the world’s second-largest holding after the US. Most of the reserves were stored abroad for safety during the Cold War.

The bank holds an estimated 45pc of its gold at the US Federal Reserve in New York, and 11pc at the Banque de France, lower than originally thought.

So it says the same thing here.

A report by Germany’s budget watchdog in October revealed that the bank halved its holding in London a decade ago, a period when the Bank of England was selling part of Britain’s gold at the bottom of the market to buy euros.

....

The Bundesbank says there is little reason to keep gold in Paris now that Germany is reunified and at peace. The bank will retain some reserves in London and New York for trading and liquidity purposes.

It doesn't say how much that sum is.

The latest shift in strategy follows criticism by the German Court of Auditors, who said in a confidential report...

It's amazing all the things said confidential....

...who said in a confidential report that the gold held abroad had "never been verified physically"...

Wouldn't it be something if all the gold isn't where they say it is...I wonder what that would cause...

...and was not under proper control. A growing chorus of lawmakers in the Bundestag has demanded a return of all Germany’s gold in case the financial crisis escalates.

....When France did this years ago it sent panic amongst the US financial leadership. History will look back on this salvo as being the beginning of the end of the US dollar as the reserve currency of choice," he said.

And then China.  I'm going to take time to reads some of these because, again, this is all part of an entire picture here that we need to be aware of and realize where this world is right now and how everything is really set in place.

China's space activity is raising US Satellite security concerns[4]

Mon Jan 14, 2013

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is concerned about China's expanding ability to disrupt the most sensitive U.S. military and intelligence satellites, as Beijing pursues its expanded ambitions in space, according to multiple sources in the U.S. government and outside space experts.

A classified (another one here) U.S. intelligence assessment completed late last year analyzed China's increasing activities in space and mapped out the growing vulnerability of U.S. satellites that provide secure military communications, warn about enemy missile launches and provide precise targeting coordinates, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Another article here:

China mysteriously quadruples rice imports, continues to stockpile commodities[5]

09 Jan 2013

By News Editor

Yesterday, it was reported that China – not currently suffering from any food shortages – is amassing rice stockpiles. This past year, the country mysteriously imported four times the rice over 2011 purchases:

You have to understand here, there are things already in motion.  When it talks about a year and a month and a day to do what they're going to do, it's already been in motion for some time now, several months obviously.

United Nations agricultural experts are reporting confusion, after figures show that China imported 2.6 million tons of rice in 2012, substantially more than a four-fold increase over the 575,000 tons imported in 2011. The confusion stems from the fact that there is no obvious reason for vastly increased imports, since there has been no rice shortage in China.....Perhaps it’s related to China’s aggressive military buildup and war preparations in the Pacific and in central Asia.

They fail to mention the U.S..

Yesterday’s revelation follows reports over the past several years of the Chinese amassing commodities in warehouses throughout the nation.

Crazy articles, really.  Another one here entitled:

War preparation indicator: Beijing hardens subways for nuclear, gas attacks[6]

By Bill Gertz

January 11, 2013

It's just amazing what even some of these things are even called, some of the titles of things here.

China recently upgraded its subway system in Beijing and revealed that it's mass transit was hardened to withstand nuclear blasts or chemical gas attacks in a future war, state-run media reported last month.

Why do you think a nation would be doing something like that?  I don't know if some of you saw it on TV recently, but they showed how they're able, they have underground systems, they've made them larger where - they even showed this themselves, showing it to their own people and then it's out everywhere - where they're actually moving missiles underground. They showed the system that they have of being able to move large missiles underground, nuclear missiles underground, and we're talking about several thousand miles of tunnels throughout parts of China, especially in the large city areas. Incredible! This is similar to that. It says...

The disclosure of the military aspects of the underground rail system followed completion and opening of a new subway line in the Chinese capital Dec. 30, along with the extension of several other lines. The subway upgrade is part of an effort to ease gridlocked traffic in the city of 20 million people.

According to Chinese civil defense officials quoted Dec. 5 in the Global Times, a newspaper published by the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, the subway can “withstand a nuclear or poison gas attack.”

A U.S. official said the disclosure of the subway’s capabilities to withstand attack is unusual since it highlights Beijing’s strategic nuclear modernization program, something normally kept secret from state-controlled media. The strategic nuclear buildup includes the expansion of offensive nuclear forces, missile defenses, and anti-satellite arms.

And then it goes on talking about these submarines they have with nuclear weapon capability now and so forth, and Russia is doing the same thing it goes on to say, increasing theirs.

Again, as I mentioned in previous sermons and leading up to this period of time here, that there is a spirit in the world, primarily in this country here and in Ephraim and Manasseh throughout, that is very lethargic, very similar to the spirit that was a matter of Laodicea that brought the Church to a point in time where we had an apostasy. There are parallels, spiritual and physical throughout the Bible, throughout things having to do with prophecy especially, and the reality is we're living in a time that is similar to what took place to the Church during Laodicea, something similar that's taking place within Israel, primarily Ephraim and Manasseh, that is the same sort of spirit of lethargy, of complacency, of haughtiness and pride that brings those things about, that come before a collapse. And so it's not by coincidence those things are here, and we need to be alert to that because that can spill over into your life. If it's in a nation of people it can be in your life, and candidly, it is in some people's lives, that's why God has been inspiring it to be said, to be stirred up, to be moved, to don't let yourself be lulled to sleep at any time.

That's why I respect so highly what God gave and a part of his character anyway, speaking of Mr. Armstrong, of that sense of urgency at all times. We have to have that! You have to have a sense of urgency, but how much more now than in his time, or if you were at that time as well throughout Philadelphia or into Laodicea, which we lost.

Anyway, an admonition, this is not the time to let up, but some are letting up and some are letting down and some are going back into the world and this is not a time to allow those things to happen. This is the time that's defining you. How many times has that been said since we entered into this 'day'? This is the 'day' that's defining you and this is not a 'day' to let up, to let down.

Now, the sermon.

In this past sermon series, or what was a past sermon series now, we have focused upon the importance of work in order to strengthen family. It was stated in some of those sermons that a very basic principle of human life and family structure is one of sharing, with the way of work being the backbone of this structure. Though work is the backbone of the structure of family, sharing is the basic means through which family is built.

So rather than continuing on with another part in the sermon series entitled 'Strengthening Family', which we had Part 3 last week, we are going to continue today with a new title that reflects the direction we're going here at this time, that we began taking anyway, and we began to turn to that toward the end of the sermon, it was about sharing and hence the title of the sermon today, Family is Built by Sharing.

The aim of discussing the importance of work being the backbone of the structure of family is for the purpose of sharing being the primary means by which family is built, developed, and constructed. It takes work, it takes planning. There are things you have to do. But again, it's the sharing, which is the reward and the blessing of it all and the thing that makes it a reality, the kind of Family that God is building and the kind of Family that He teaches us that we are to strive to have once we come into the Church, because then we begin to learn what Family is, we begin to grasp some of the things that God is doing and what He's preparing and then He tells us and shows us by that the importance then of our families and what we're to be doing in our life...even if the family is one, whether you're married and have children or not or whether you're a child in a family, or whatever, and in essence as being a part of God's Church you're a family of one, meaning you have to do your part.  And that's the purpose of saying that.  You have to do your part in order to experience what family is about, and in many cases learn what family should not be like.  So some cases you're all being trained for different things, you're all going through different experiences. We don't go through the same thing, we go through many different experiences. There are many situations to help out during the Millennium and Great White Throne, and so we're being blessed, we are blessed to experience many different things within the Body in order to serve and help more in the future. So God molds and fashions these things into us through experience and it comes in no other way. You can't get it by knowledge!

It's like the ministers I've talked about in times past who went through Ambassador College and went out right away and didn't have children and then gave sermons on childrearing, or marriage when they weren't even married.  And you knew something was missing because it was a matter of knowledge and repetition of certain things but no depth in the sense of that which is spiritual that comes as a result of experience. And so don't underestimate the things you're able to learn in life, like I've mentioned concerning work and being on the job and things that are learned there that God will teach you. If you're not there God can't teach you, but if you're there and you're striving to do it God's way God will teach you and you will learn and you will be inspired and God will show you, maybe later on, maybe you won't even know it until later on, and you'll be able to look back and say, "Now I know why I experienced those things.  I know what God was doing." If you leave your life in God's hands God will mold you. Don't work against God! God does the molding and fashioning!

I may read some things next Sabbath my wife has talked to me about. She was up late last night reading through some things, an article of Mr. Armstrong's, and being reminded of certain things, and awesome the thing that are there that we're reminded of at times, of how God molds and fashions, and if we'll just yield ourselves to that process He's going to accomplish what His will is in your life. Why did He call you? I don't know! Why did He call me? Well, some things I can look back now and understand, but sometimes we don't know right away do we? Later on we learn, we're able to look back and say, "Now I see what He was doing." We learn as we go along and the farther along we've gone the more we're able to learn and look back. But it's an awesome thing, all you have to do is yield yourself to the process, but we tend by nature to fight against God, to resist God, but if we yield ourselves to the process there are incredible... God is the Creator! He creates His Family just as He does the universe that's out there, the galaxies that exist. He molded and fashioned them and we're far more important than those, far more important because we're the focus of why that's there in the first place, to be in God's Family! So as we yield ourselves to that process God's developing something in you, God's working with you for a purpose, He's molding and fashioning things in your being that you can learn through the experience in no other way. So God will mold and fashion you.

And so again, we learn about family, we learn about the importance of family, we experience many different things about family, but we're to strive to do the best we can in the situations we are in in our lives, whatever they are, and God will teach us if we'll yield ourselves and cry out to Him and ask for help, to be molded and fashioned, to be pliable, if you will, not to resist Him, and to ask for help in that, to learn what we can.

So again, I want to repeat this:  The aim of discussing the importance of work being the backbone of the structure of family is for the purpose of sharing being the primary means by which family is built, developed, constructed.

I want to look at some of the highlights of some of those last few sections of scripture we covered last Sabbath on the subject of sharing here. Let's notice just as a reminder here, 2 Peter 1:4 - Whereby is given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: what about? Of those things God has planned and worked to accomplish to give to us, to share with us by being a part or becoming a part of His Family. It's about Family, it's about His Family. And so ...exceedingly great and precious promises; valuable; that by these, by these promises that God has made, by that which He says will come to pass if we yield ourselves to the process, that by these you might be 'partakers', again, that word that means 'a sharer' in the Greek language, 'a sharer', because God's desire is to share.  The most valuable thing... I think of funerals, whenever I've given funerals this is the primary thing that hits me in a magnified way when it comes to a time of someone's death and the basic...I should say the major part of what is said at a funeral has to do with this reality that it's not basically anything else in life that matters as much, especially at a time like that when you see it, as the sharing you did together. It's what bound you together, what made that relationship. It's those times spent together that you can't have anymore, you're not going to be able to experience that and share that. It's about sharing, and death magnifies that to the human life if we can understand that, to what God is doing in our lives, and so it helps to magnify the importance of the time we have, of how we use it, especially when it comes to what we're able to share together. And we grow in that. We don't have control of that fully in our lives, in our minds, but we can appreciate it more and more and grow in it more and more through time as we mature, and cherish it more, indeed, exceedingly great and precious promises, having to do with sharing; that by these you might be sharers of/in His divine nature, in His Family, because that's what it's about. It's what makes true Family, it has to do with the way it's lived, and what is valued and treasured the most is that which is right and good and proper in the sharing.

Now, there is sharing that is wrong in life and that causes the hurt and pain and the bad memories and the regrets and etc...etc... But the right things, the good things, the memorable things that we cherish and hold onto. And so people tend to focus on different parts of that; they may hold onto the good part or there are some people who go on in life and they just remember the bad, the ugly, or whatever it is in life, and sometimes understandably so, sometimes not. But again here, something else that God shows us that we can have in His Family, that by these you might be partakers/sharers in His divine nature

having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And so again, showing here what has to take place, that there is a process here because of the human mind and because of the way we are, 'lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life', that it's a matter of escaping that, it's a matter of being freed from that, it's a matter of God delivering us from that that we're able to have more of this.

And so it is for us in this series we've been going through and the things we've been discussing about technology and how it makes people captive to something that should be controlled rather than being captive to it, and we don't learn the control and how to use things properly, instead it controls us, we become prisoners to various things that are out there. That's the way the world is today and it permeates within the Church of God as well because we're a part of this world, we're not out of it yet.

So anyway, there are things that we recognize that we must get away from, we must be freed from in order to receive and share in what God wants us... and so we have those experiences in our lives as well that we cherish.

1 John 1. So again, just a reminder of that word and how it's used and what God's purpose is and about His Family.

1 John 1:3 - That which we have seen and heard we declare unto you, that you also may have 'fellowship' with us: and as was mentioned last Sabbath, this is from that word up there 'partakers', it comes from that which means 'a sharer'. So fellowship has to do with, the word it comes from, it implies that, it reveals that, it magnifies that, that the fellowship we're able to have is one of sharing, that that's the important part of fellowship. It's the time we spend together and how we spend it together and what is learned from it that counts, that has meaning to it, that builds and binds, that's cherished, that's enjoyable, that is indeed precious in life, if you will.

That which we have seen and heard we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. A unique fellowship that can only be experienced through God's own power, through the power of the holy spirit, something that God has to give and reveal to us. And as He does that we learn about the steps that get us there, we learn about our own human life and human families and what God intended or desires life be like even in the human family, and the more we can capture and hold onto things that God gives the better that life and experience will be.

Verse 6 - If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, so as was brought out last Sabbath there is sharing that is forbidden, there is sharing we should not have, we can share too much with other things, we can misuse technology and share our time doing something that takes away from family and values of family rather than adding to it and building to it. And so this is all the context of things we've been discussing; it's how it's used, it's the time and whether it truly is a matter of sharing. So it's not wrong to share in other things - some things are wrong - but it's a matter of time and so forth that we have to learn how to manage and control and plan and so forth.

If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, so in this case here it's sharing with something that is forbidden, it says, we lie, and are not doing the truth: and those things have to be repented of. And so every one of us, there are things in our lives we have to repent of in time or through time because of not doing the truth, of not living what God says we should be doing, when we find we're not walking as we should be.

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship, the only way to have a relationship with God, or to continue in a relationship with God is to walk in the light. And so when there is sin it has to be repented of so we can continue to walk in the light so that God will be in us and we're in God.  But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship, sharing, one with another, and the blood of His Son Jesus Christ is cleansing us from all sin. So it's a process we live through as we yield ourselves to it but we have to be repenting, we have to be loathing and learning to loath and hate the things of this world, the things that imprison, the things that are a matter of sin, the things that are not acceptable before God and striving to hold onto and embrace the things that God gives us that are good and right.

The last area of scripture here quickly that was mentioned last Sabbath...Ephesians 3:9 - And to make all men see, it says 'men' here but it's everyone, and to make all see what is the fellowship, again, the same word here coming from 'sharer', what we're able to share in, of the mystery, it's something unique to us, to those whom God has called that others can't experience - your relatives who are not a part of the Church, who don't have God's spirit dwelling in them, friends, neighbors, people at work, that's why it's a mystery - because of something you can see. Just like when God first opened your mind to see the Sabbath, to see the Holy Days, to see the plan, to see Him, to see His Son, to see those things spiritually on a spiritual plane is something that God gives that gives us a unique sharing with God that no one else can share in, that's why it's a mystery, no one else can share in this unless God gives it.  And sadly out here sometimes people can begin to lose what they have been given, which we see that into the thousands because of what's taken place in the Church that's scattered, but again here, don't let it happen to you!

Some, it's going to happen, it's happening out here and I just... I guess I just... it's a pain inside, it hurts, but I know it's the way it's always been and it will be - I can't grasp it fully but I believe it - that it'll happen to some all the way to the time of Christ's return. And you say, "How is that possible?" How is it possible that people can see things happening in the world in such a powerful way and not be able to hold onto this way of life. It can happen! So, I hate to see people let up. I'm encouraged by and excited by... especially I think of all the different comments that come in at different times here, by talking to someone on the telephone or by someone else who talked on the telephone and shares it with me, or by email and so forth, about different people and how they're responding out here.  It's a beautiful thing, changes that people make and are making concerning the sermon series. I think there have probably been more things come along that have shown a quicker change in some things people are addressing right now through this series of sermons than most types of sermons in times past. So this to me is exciting and encouraging!

But along with that I cringe inside when I realize there are some who are letting up and letting down and I think, "Of all times! Of all times, and after everything that God's giving to us, why would you let that be a part of your life?"

And to make all see, everyone, what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world has been hidden in God. It's in God. It's hidden in God because He's the only one who can show it and reveal it and give it to us. ...who created all things by/through Jesus Christ, in other words, to build upon, to make, what He's doing. It's His Family, that's what the creation is about, it's about His Family.  Even as you get into Romans and some places there, that's the word 'creature' or 'creation', that's what it's talking about, it's talking about what God is doing in changing us, that's the focus of everything that exists anyway, and it's all done and built upon and through Jesus Christ.

Verse 17 - That Christ may dwell in your hearts, in other words, the inner part of your being, because it's something we receive in the mind in the sense of God's spirit, but it's something that changes our focus and our thinking and affects the inner part of our being and how we feel and think about things and how we judge things and in our relationships with others, our ability to share. That's what it's about. It's about something that's so deep inside of us it talks about, 'in the heart', which is in our inner being, in the mind. ...by faith; it's just something that God gives to us and we make the choice to believe it, to hold onto it and to fight for it; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, God gives us the ability to begin to develop something that others in the world don't have access to. That which comes from God, God's love, is unique to experience and we don't have it all the time. We can't have it all the time because we're human, because we're selfishly motivated and generally our first response of things is always physical. And so again, there are battles and there are growth and so forth, but our desire is to be rooted in, grounded in, to begin learning these things, which has to do with the truth - because God's love is in His truth, it's in His law, it's in His way of life - many different ways of saying the same thing.

Verse 18 - that we may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is such breadth, length, depth, and height of such love. That's what it's talking about here, the way of God, the mind of God, the being of God, the way of life that we're blessed to share. And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, in other words, there are things you have to experience, again, there are things of life that we can only learn by the experience, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God, again, showing God's desire to share with us absolute fullness of Him. And we realize that we're not going to have that to its intended place until we're actually in the Family, a part of the Family, and then that fullness will be completely there, but we start experiencing it more and more as we go through life.

Verse 20 - Now unto Him who is able to exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, so if we yield our self to it it's a power that works in us, a power of sharing and learning how to respond to that, learning how to respond to what God is sharing with us of His being, of His way of life, of His mind, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. So again here, very powerful what we touched upon last Sabbath here about some of those things, and again, the focus here for family is about sharing, and we're to learn from that, we're to learn about God through the things of what He is doing and how He's doing it, just like we talked about work and our focus upon that. To look at what God is doing we can learn a lot about God! What is God like? What does God do? And to learn what He's intended for us and how we are blessed in life in how we put ourselves into or throw ourselves into things of life and to plan and build and so forth in life. Things just don't happen, they have to be thought out, planned, meditated upon. That's why I think of the words in the Bible that talk about meditation, has to do with thinking about God and on God's way of life and how that applies to our lives and how we can change things in our life. They're not going to happen unless we think upon them. It's just another way of saying to think upon those things, to look at what God says and how it applies to our life. If we don't do that...you know, we might think about other people's lives, how they can change their life, "Well, (so and so) sure needed that sermon today!" then we miss the entire boat and we don't realize, no, that applies to me!  What can (I) glean out of this? So you have to think about it. And what else...? And that's sharing with God because it's something spiritual in nature. And what else does He give to us? Prayer, an ability to share with Him, to think about those things as we have discussed or as we think about various things and then we're able to discuss those things with God and how it fits into His plan and what He's doing in our life and what we desire, and on and on it goes.

So let's continue on now with more of how God is using this principle of sharing to build His Family and how we're to learn from this and seek to apply this even more fully in our own lives by building family.

Ephesians 2:4 - But God, who is rich in mercy; Now you know, what should we see from this? We tend to read right over things so often in life, but we really need to be looking to God, to Jesus Christ for that way of life, and what are they like, what do they do? Then we should want to do the same thing! "I want to be that way! I want to be like that; I want to embrace that mind, that way of life, that thinking, because that's the richness of life." And right away here it says, But God, who is rich in mercy; how rich are we in mercy? You know, that's what we need to look at in our own life. These are things that we should think about ourselves, "This is what God is like; does He want us to be like that?" Absolutely! I've learned more about mercy in the last 3½ - 4 years than at any other time in my life put together, in probably the last year or last year and a half, more than my entire life before that in the Church of God going back to 1969 when I first came in. So we can grow in these things. We think sometimes we understand and see certain things and some of these things maybe we're even known to have certain characteristics or things that might...you know, someone were to say, "You have this..." Anyway, and you might think, "I have this, this, and this, as far as good qualities that I'm working toward or God has blessed me with." But trust me, it's nothing compared to what you're going to grow in later on! That's my point! In other words there is so much more in a particular subject here to grow in that much more. If you think you're a merciful person or you have mercy in your mind right now, trust me, it's nothing compared to what you're going to learn through time, of what God is like and what God desires that we are like and what God's Family is like. These things we grow in and they become more a part of our ability and our mind in the matters of judgment and how we think, especially about one another. And you know what, God is concerned about how we're going to think about one another in His Family. That's why we have all these things of how to live now in the family He gives to us, so we can see that there are certain things that we do that are wrong, there are things that are right, that bring about right fruit, "And that's what I want! I don't want the things that bring about the wrong fruit, and neither does God," because you know what, He's not going to allow that into His Family in the first place. So this is our arena of life for learning these things.

But God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, before anything... that's the point, before anything was ever created there is this plan and mind that God had for His Family, of what He knew it had to be like, what it would be like, and everything that's happened over whether it be billions of years - we have no idea if you want to talk about time - that He's worked to bring it to this point in time. Awesome!

Verse 5 - Even when we were dead in sins, in other words, God has a plan to bring us out of this, because everyone at one point or another - except for only one that's lived on this earth, Jesus Christ - everyone else has lived within this, being dead in their sins, in other words, an enemy to God. That's how Paul talks about it in Romans. You read through Romans 7 and Romans 8 and in through there and different places, it talks about being an 'enemy with God', 'the carnal mind is enmity with God'. It means 'an enemy to God' because it's against everything about God. Do people embrace you about your way of life? Do people love the Sabbath? You can talk about the 10 Commandments, you think, "Does that include the Sabbath?" "Sure!  Sunday!" They don't know what it is. Just tell them, "Oh no, no, no, that's the seventh day, it's the Sabbath." Oh, they just love you for that don't they? The carnal mind hates God! It does! It wants God its own way! It wants something that it can look to in a different way that makes them feel good about themselves, not about a way of life where we really have to change, or you really have to change from being a liar and a cheat and an adulterer, and on and on it goes, and the lust you have in your heart and in your mind, that you have to actually change from those things because you can't stay that way to be a part of God's Family. So the carnal mind fights against God! That's the way we are as human beings! Amazing!

Even when we were dead in sins has quickened us together with/in Christ, (by grace are you saved;) What an awesome thing to understand! Not the grace as the world thinks about it, because that's just a feely, touchy, feel-good type of thing, that protestant type of thing when they talk about grace, to make you feel good about what you do and how you do it and what you can do and what you can achieve and it's not about obedience to God!

And has raised us up together, together, it's about sharing, together, things we're able to do together, what we do together, the time we spend together, how we do it together. And has raised us up together and has made us to sit, to sit together in heavenly, in Christ Jesus: in other words, in those things that are promised from God who is in heaven, of all that is there with Him to give to us when the time comes and all that is to be given to us now in the Church and so forth. That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are you saved through faith; so it's a process that God has given to us, how God treats us and works with us, how do we treat and work with others. You know, the more we're able to receive from God and the things we receive from God are the very things we should be yielding to, that we value more and more so that we can do the same toward others. That puts it in a nutshell in a sense of what God's spirit is doing in our life. When you come to grasp things that God's doing in your life, how He's worked with you, that you realize and you learn how to judge things of how to work with others and deal with the realities of life. And that's something you'll always grow in or we are to grow in and become more mature in.

For by grace are you saved through faith, it's through the belief that God gives to us of His way of life and the process that's there of everything that we choose to live by, that we want to live by that God reveals to us, and understanding how we receive it and how we're able to share it with others.

...and that not of yourselves: it comes from God; it is the gift of God: and not only that, it's not only just the gift of God to us but we learn and grow in understanding it's through sacrifice to us. God sacrificed to give us what He is and we must learn, we have to learn. Some of the greatest in maturing and learning we can ever have in our life is to come to understand that in human life especially you have to sacrifice to really give to others without expecting anything back, because that's God's kind of love. He doesn't expect anything back. He does receive back but that's a way of the matter of God and God's spirit and He receives back so many more fold over, but that's a different way than what man gets and receives because man's way is the way in order to get something back, in order to receive something. But there is a way of give that gives back anyway because of how it works. It's a spiritual thing that comes from God, originates from God. It's a powerful thing that we're blessed to share in, and again here, to realize it comes through sacrifice. First of all to sacrifice self, our own desires, our own wishes, our own...what we want in a particular matter, instead our enjoyment and fullness comes more from seeing others receive and be blessed and have whatever - which other scriptures we're going to read today if we get to them, talk about.

Not of works, lest any man should boast. Again, with God's way of life it's not about how well we're able to do things, because it's not a matter of pride. There is no place for pride in this way of life, it's fully understanding that everything comes from God and we're blessed to share in it.

Verse 10 - For we are His workmanship, 'created', the word means 'to build and to make' in Christ Jesus, that's how we're being made as a part of God's Family, created as a part of God's Family. It's an ongoing creation, it truly is. It's an ongoing creation as much as the universe has been the work of God and the things He's done through time we are an ongoing part of God's creation, His handiwork, His workmanship that He's doing in our lives right now as we yield to Him, which is far greater than the things that are created out there. It's incredible! For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus  unto good works, to live a way of life, God's way of life, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. It's His way, Jerusalem, the way of peace, the way that produces peace, the way that the family is the most... enjoys life to its greatest. And you know what? When  you live God's way of life perfectly, because you have that mind (speaking of the God Family) then what you're able to share in becomes far richer, far more. We do not grasp the magnitude of that, we really don't! We are able to receive it in bits and pieces in a physical life, in a physical relationship we have in the Church, especially, that's where we learn it, or in family within the Church if we're so blessed.

Going on in scriptures. So again, all about sharing God's way. You can't speak of God's Family without thinking of the concept, the truth, the reality of the importance of, the purpose of sharing. That's what makes the Family. The fact that God's going to dwell in us through time always-always-always, there is no greater mind and spirit of sharing than that, that's what it is.

Philippians 1:27 - an admonition here where it says, Only let your conversation, that's a word that means 'conduct' literally in the Greek language, it means 'conduct' and generally a lot of the conduct as human beings, that's why it's oftentimes translated like this, 'conversation', because things come out of our mouth that reflect our conduct. But again here, it's primarily about 'conduct' and literally in the Greek language, 'how to live as a citizen'; that's what it means, how to live as a citizen. And so God's showing us as part of the Family how we're to live as a part of His Family.

Only  let your conduct be as it becomes, or in other words, of a worthy manner, of a way of life of the gospel of Christ: in other words in that manner, in a worthy manner. ...that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, now, we can read right over things and not even think about sometimes our own families, our own family life. But you know what, the more we have this within family the richer family can be, and if you can't share that with others then you learn from that as well, that there are things you yearn to, that you can share with the Family of the Church that you can't share in your own family, but you long to and you look to the time when that will be possible or that they will be able to do that. Because for some it's going to mean a change in your life, but you look forward to the time they're going to be able to experience those things, to stand fast in one spirit! What a beautiful thing when there is one spirit, one mind, when there is absolute agreement in how things are done, but especially when it comes to God's Family, because in Family within the Church or any other family it has to be what's based upon what the God Family is all about in the first place and what He's building, because that's where it's heading and it has to be reflective of that.

...that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, one mind, agreement! What a horrible thing when families aren't in agreement, when they can't be in agreement about things and there's division and battles, and that's where arguments come from, because people aren't in agreement and they want their way, and it's not a matter of sacrificing for someone else. And then sometimes you have to come to a point of standing firm about something because you realize you can't sacrifice wrong principles and things of error either, so you have to judge those things constantly for what is best for the family, God's way, because it has to be first and foremost in agreement with what God is doing. So you're caught in that sometimes of having to make decisions but you have to make them according to sound mind, first of all being in agreement and oneness with God and then going on from there.

...one spirit with one mind, striving together, in other words, it doesn't just happen! Especially if we understand human life and the way we are as human beings, things don't just happen, you've got to work to make them happen, and then if the objective, if the understanding is and the fullness of it is in the sharing then it becomes richer or can become richer in meaning.

...with one mind, striving together, in other words, as it means here, struggling together. Things aren't always pleasant, things aren't always easily, and it's not just a matter of work sometimes, it's a matter of struggle, because so often you're fighting against your own attitude and your own spirit that is carnal in nature, that is base in nature, and so there is a war there going on, and if you're not fighting that war then the other member of the family, what can they do? So there has to be that... that's why it's talking about the importance here of doing it together...one spirit, one mind, and if people aren't and somebody else is doing something different that is not in agreement with God that's a frustrating thing, it makes it harder to receive what God wants us to receive out of life. So, struggling together; it means every party has to work. So some of you understand that in a very big way in life when you realize that no one else in your family may be called and you're the only one who is called and you realize you're not going to have the kind of family life that you're able to experience, that we're talking about today until their minds are opened up, then they can begin to yield to that process in their life and they can begin to experience it and share it with you. But until then what do you see? That which is totally carnal in life and you can't expect something different from that because they don't have the ability, because of the mystery, because it hasn't been given to them yet. And so you're able to deal with that, hopefully you're able to deal with that, on a different plane, of being forgiving and patient, even though that can be a struggle, especially when everything else is against you and upside down coming at you. So you're challenged to do it God's way, but you learn to cherish it more, you can learn to cherish it more God's way obviously through that process, because you long for that in their lives. And that ought to put a prod on you to make sure you're doing it for their sakes as well so they can see what it's supposed to be like so when they're called, when their mind is opened up they can say, "Man, I see it now and I feel so bad for how I talked to you, for how I treated you..." and on and on it goes, "And I saw you live a right example. I saw you stand up to what was right, and now I understand why you were doing that," and the respect that's there and the love that's there will be magnified many times over.

...one spirit, one mind together...for the faith of the gospel; the faith, the belief of, what we live for, what we believe in, the good news of the Kingdom of God, God's Family. That's what it's all about, the Family of God.

And in nothing terrified by your adversaries; in other words, anything that opposes or works against you, which is to them an evident proof of destruction, but to you of salvation, and that of God. So again, it's a matter of what we just talked about here and our life being in God's hands, and unless someone is able to share in that with you you may yearn to share it but you can't yet. Some are incapable, and if they don't have access to God's spirit they're incapable of sharing with you things that you understand and see.

For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake; that's what we're talking about, so you have to live, you are charged to live, your challenge is to live and your arena for growth is to live by this, to live by the truth, to stand firm in God's way of life regardless of what others do, and to fully expect that they can't accept it. There are people out here who have different situations in life and an example, if one is called you can't expect another to hold onto this and you're going to be betrayed, you're going to have things happen to you because they don't understand, they are going to resist and fight against you as a whole, that's what you should expect from the world, it's the way of the world. Now, if they don't then you're blessed. If they're able to deal with you in a different plane then you're very blessed. But as a whole that should be kind of an expectation because if you expect something better from them or more from them that's not a totally fair judgment either. So, to be hurt, to experience hurt, you're going to have those things in your life, because you see something that should be lived in a certain way, that should be done in a certain way and it's not there for them - and please understand it will not be there as a whole, cannot be there as a whole until they are called. So get on with your life!

There are some people who pull back, because that's pulling them back, and have wrong feelings and expectations of others and are hurt by others. Understand there is going to be hurt in life, yes, but get on with your life to embrace this way of life and in time by your hopefully setting an example it will be a help to them in the future.

For unto you it's given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him but also to suffer for His sake; in other words, in this life we're going to suffer for what we strive to do right before God in working out our part in the building of the Family. We're a part; God has called each one of us to be a part in His Family.

...having the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me. In other words, we share in conflict and struggle together, it's a part of life. And in the Church we share in struggle and conflict together, that's a part of the sharing in the good and the bad. And that's the way of life, but in the context of the Church we see it in light of the truth and a relationship of God and Jesus Christ and with one another.  It's unique, beautiful, awesome!

Philippians 2:1 - If there be therefore any consolation/comfort/encouragement in Christ, if any comfort/exhortation of love, if any fellowship/sharer, from the word 'share' here, goes back to that; if any sharer of the spirit/fellowship of the spirit, we're very blessed to share with God, a relationship with God and in God's Church and with one another and God's way of life, if any bowels and mercies, this is like saying if these things mean anything to you, these things it just discussed here, talking about the consolation, comfort, encouragement, exhortation of love, fellowship, sharer. If any of these things mean anything to you fulfill my joy, that's what he's saying, fulfill my joy, that's what God desires for us, a joy that we're able to share in together because of doing it together, because of what we go through together. Fulfill my joy that you be like-minded, having the same love, and isn't that the way a family should be, really, to work toward these things? That's where the joy of life comes from, when you're able to share in things that because of the like-mindedness, because of the goals that are seen, because of what you're pursuing and some of the frustrations of life come from when you're not able to do that, especially when others are not called. And the frustration is even greater if everyone is to be in the Church and someone is not yielding to that process or supposed to be in the Church. We should all be yielding to Christ's spirit living within us. But that's where the joy and the rejoicing and the reward for this way of life comes from, when you're able to share it, when you're of the same mind and have the same goals and you work toward those things without resistance, without confrontation, without division, without... on and on it goes.

Fulfill my joy that you may be like-minded, having the same love, being of 'one accord'; interesting, this word here, where it comes from.  It's a word that in essence means 'heartily united', like bringing the heart and the feeling and the depth of it of being united. That's what this 'one accord' is. It's like something that comes from deep within that you desire and work toward, and we should desire that in the fellowship, with God's way of life, with God and Jesus Christ, but also with one another in the Body and even within our families to the degree we can.

That's why it goes on to say here and gives the contrast - and we need to think about families then, not just God's Family, this should be definitely in God's Family, that we share within the Church, but how much more just in family because that's where we're able to exercise these things. This is where the exercising of it begins in a more powerful way.

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; if it be about self or what one somebody else wants, what one person wants and doesn't care about the rest of the family... And please, sometimes people think I'm talking about them or that I know a story about them. I'm thinking about the world and things that I've known of in the world, and I think about people I've heard of in times past, of someone who - a husband or whatever - he likes his recreation, he goes out and buys his guns or he goes out and buys all of his fishing equipment and his boat, and he's not concerned about things for the family, but what he wants and what he desires to have he might try to work the family into it, "Oh," talking to his three year old, "When you're 18-19, we'll maybe go out hunting together with all the new guns I have here." I'm just kidding, "and this boat we have, you'll be able to go skiing someday in the future." And then when they get there it never happens. The point being is things are done by a wrong motivation and it's about self, vainglory, it's not a matter of consideration of the entire family, or the other person in the family, and yet that should always be our thinking - the other person in the family, the other in the family, especially husbands towards wives - that's a part of the process of loving your wives, because that's not normal of human nature, it's the reverse of that.

Anyway, let nothing be done through strife, and I'm just speaking of the things that that's the way of the world, that's the way it is, period. Let nothing be done through strife, in other words, in God's Family nothing should be done through strife, but if we can see a physical family even that should teach us even more so why God doesn't want it in His Family, He doesn't want it in the Church. Something to be done as a matter of strife, you want your way and you're going to fight for it! And it's not a matter of something that would be good for the entire Body or out of care and concern for the rest of the Body, it's just about self, in other words, in a family where people argue and fight over various things. There is no enjoyment out of strife, conflict, if something is done by one person's vainglory, in other words, one person just wants their way.

...but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. In other words that's the sacrifice of the human mind, to realize that's the better way, that's the way of giving and you're going to have more enjoyment from that, by seeing others receive whatever it might be of life or whatever their ideas or something they want. I've given this example many times, it's like you're at a corner (and not that I'm advocating going out to get fast food), but let's say there is a Burger King on one corner, a McDonald's, and a Jack-in-the-box, and Wendy's on another corner, and everybody in the vehicle has a different desire. It's time to eat, it's noon and we're on a trip and so where are we going to catch something quick to eat so we can keep going and everybody wants something different. There are many different ways of resolving that but just because you want a certain thing and you're going to do it no matter what and the rest of the family is going to enjoy it, "We're going to eat here." In other words, there are different ways of resolving and working out some things. Maybe everybody else wants to go to another place but you really wanted the part across the street. Well, you give up what you want, what you esteem for yourself, what you would rather have for theirs because.... The reality of what I'm saying is you're going to be more rewarded, blessed, you're going to enjoy it more if you just give to them because you see them fulfilled and receiving what they desire to have.

That's kind of a bit of the mindset here of what it's talking about, where the enjoyment comes from, if it's good. There are some things that aren't good for people to have. There are some things that enable people to do the wrong things. So again, that matter of judging.

Look not everyone to his own things, every person to his own thing, in other words, what it is you want, what it is you desire, but think about others, what they might desire, what they might want to include as a part of planning. Sometimes when it comes to family planning, you know the concept in the world is, especially in the so called 'Christian' world, the man is 'the head of the home' type of thing.  It's like whatever he wants! Some nations, some cultures are like that. We know better than that. We have two plaques upstairs that reveal the truth about the matter, but there is a concept in some cultures and some peoples in the world and within a so called traditional Christianity that whatever daddy wants daddy can have, we want daddy to be happy, we want to give way to whatever the husband wants, that's the way it should be after all, that's what it's all about isn't it. And you think... what does that plaque say?  "If Daddy ain't happy who cares, if Mommy ain't happy..." I got it backwards.  "If momma ain't happy, nobody's happy. If daddy ain't happy, who cares!" That's the truth! That's what we should live by... and men, that's a smart thing to learn. But you understand what I'm saying, of the way some cultures are; some cultures are very much that way where the man is it. Some entire peoples of different countries and so forth, that's the way it is, the woman is secondary, the family, children are definitely behind that, and if they're a girl they're even worse. That's the way of the world, it's sick out there, it really is! And that's something that Satan has promoted and magnified because the reality is that isn't the truth, that isn't the way it should be! I've given sermons on that before, but so much to learn and it's about how to share, but learning to do what God says His way within the Church and we should learn that within the family. That's the way it should be but we may not be able to implement it in a family because it really all depends upon everyone being in the Church, husband and wife in particular when we talk about such a subject.

So again, God reveals one of His greatest attributes and desires for family comes from this understanding of sharing, sharing life, sharing plans, goals. That's why God shares these things with us. That's why He gives us the Holy Days, because He wants us to have a vision, an ability to grasp and comprehend what it is He is doing to bring about His Family because He wants to share that with us. And from God, it is the only way, His way is the only way to have happiness, and so it's a matter of coming into harmony and unity and oneness with that, that's why these instructions are given. But we learn it in physical live. We learn it in the environment of the Church, in our relationship with one another in fellowship, and then if we're so blessed we can learn it within Family - and we can learn it in family, even if just one is called. You can learn it as I've mentioned many of times, much of my training has been what not to do, what shouldn't be done as a matter of God's Church. So you can learn it in that environment too in family, "This is not the way God intended it to be. I don't want to be that way, I'm not going to be that way with God's help!" and so forth.

So again, the thing about planning and sharing of goals, sharing experiences together, sharing time together which is needed to build a right and a true functioning family God's way - so this attribute of sharing, but it has to be done God's way.

The question comes up, "What has technology done to minimize or even eliminate such experiences of sharing?" Those are things that each of you have to look at in your own life. Where is it in life that you're not sharing as much as you should be, or could be, and not just separating ourselves because we come home tired and there is no communication. We have to learn how to do those things, we have to learn how to share. That's why fellowship is such an important thing in the Church and that's why it's spoken of that way because in family it's important. So things don't just happen! Planning, determining course of life, where you're going, what you're doing, there are things you have to do that have to be open and talked about, shared, otherwise you know what happens so often, it's one person's way.  It may be the wife's way, in some cases the world is today - in most cases it's the way the husband says it's going to be. Where is the sharing? Where is the excitement of what you're building together?  ...unless the other person just happens to be excited about what you chose to do, but what if they had some other idea in there or something else they'd like to accomplish or achieve or plan ahead for, and to discuss those things back and forth, and then make decisions about in family. It should be a way of life, of things you do together and learn from that, about God's way of life.

This is a time to think about some of these things. How are you being robbed of certain things in your life that God wants you to have in your life? I think of so often here - it's not wrong to have several TV's in a home, often multiple computers, telephones, today what we have here, video games, iPods, kindle readers, etc...etc...etc... and all kinds of other items that can get us to where we're not spending time together, we're spending time somewhere else and sharing else, something else, surfing in the world, surfing the internet, texting others, constant life of music and doing other things on the side on our own and totally shut off from the rest of the world, totally shut off from family. It can't be that way, there has to be a way to regulate and control and plan those things in our life - usage - that doesn't hurt family and the building of family.

Hebrews 13, let's turn over there. We need to learn more how to share. Fellowship is about sharing, it's about time spent together, time spent together with God, with Jesus Christ, with fellowship in the Church. Those things are to be learned and practiced and lived within families, that framework, those things that are there that build and give us greater understanding of what God is doing. And the less we do them the less we grasp and comprehend what God is doing, because it's spiritual.

Hebrews 13:12 - Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So again, this concept, this thing here about suffering and about giving. This is the ultimate of love, to sacrifice in order to give to others. But again, going on here, Therefore let us go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach/His disgrace. And we do in the world, that's a part of something we learn, and sometimes in families, people learn that. You have got to do what is right before God regardless of what anyone else does, and especially if they're not called, you have to grasp and comprehend they can't deal with that anyway.

I think as we live in our family, regardless of whether we're the only one in the Church or not, we live the Sabbath, the Holy Days, and other matters that make us a part of God's Family, it's something we live. That's what it's talking about here, a part of what we live and a way of life we live, and sometimes it's a matter because of the fact that we stand firm in it and live it that we share together what He shared. And you know, there are things you come to grasp. In times past I'd read through certain scriptures thinking I understood certain things that different ones went through, until I've gone through certain things, and then I realize that I really didn't grasp that to the depth I do now. We can have knowledge about certain things but until you go through certain things in life there are things we can't know until you have lived it, until it's tried your life, and then you begin to understand things that even come alive more. And that's how we grow in God's way of life, it's a part of a process.

For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. God has shared with us what He's doing, what He's building. I think of things we do in our lives that can teach us things about how we plan and so forth. But again, we choose, we make choices, we want to share in what God is giving and we hold onto that.

By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. Notice what it said about this now as it goes on showing here what kind of sacrifice; But to do good and to communicate, again, this word to fellowship, that's what this word is here, 'to communicate' is the word here for 'fellowship'.  It's about sharing but it's about in fellowship, and this is about a relationship with God and with Jesus Christ and with one another in the Body, but also in our own families, in our own life we need to learn the principles here, to do good, to do good toward one another, to do right, to live what is right. What else should there be? That should be the way it is but it isn't that way all the time because... and the ability, to the degree we enjoy family, we experience family, especially when both are in the Body, to that degree that we're more united and happier in life and more fulfilled in life is to the degree we live these things, how we live it toward each other, and so it is with God and with Jesus Christ. To live His way of life, but to do good and to communicate, to fellowship in sharing, do not forget: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. So God desires to have a fellowship, a relationship with us, that we live a certain way of life and then that we are able to have that in fellowship with one another, a right way of life. We should want that in physical families as well, that we do the same thing, because that's where the fullness and the richness comes from of life. And so again, this is just an admonition that's given to us, of something we're to follow, and it comes with sacrifice, it brings in the subject to sacrifice and what Jesus Christ did - meaning you have to fight against your own nature.

Let's turn over to Amos 3. We're going to conclude here with some focus that's a little unique in itself. You know, scriptures teach many things directly to us that we can learn from, but so often there is much to learn indirectly as well, often of things we don't even consider or things we don't even think about and we just tend to read right over, and this is a good example of that, of what we're going to go through here. So sometimes there is direct instruction about something and we're thinking so much about that direct instruction we don't think about what is spoken of in context that's indirect that we should learn from or can learn from as well.

So let's consider some unique scriptures here that contain indirect instruction, if you will, and guidance in the subject matter that we're covering here about 'family is built upon sharing'.

Amos 3:1 - Hear this word that the Eternal has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, so He's working with a family, a nation of itself that He calls a family, a family that He's working with and desires to have a relationship with here, and we know how that went. ...which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying, Only you have I known, you were a part of this family. I think of the Church when He calls us individually out of the world, we are the ones that have that relationship, the rest of the world doesn't have that yet, and so He's telling them, only you have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

Then this principle: Can two walk together, and this word in Hebrew means, 'in union, united'. Can two walk in union/united, except they be agreed? So we tend to read this in the context of a relationship of something that God teaches us about Him and about our relationship with Him and the importance to walk in His way of life, but you know, the same principle is true and can be learned and should be learned in family life as well. So it's indirect in the sense of what it's teaching because the principle is there of what God is like, of what God desires of us in a relationship with us and what He's teaching us, Can two...how often, and especially in times past, we know this! Maybe we haven't spoken of this, verses like this of recent time as much, but through time in God's Church this has been quoted often: Can two walk together except they be agreed?  Can two walk in union/united? And so it is in a family! You know what God says? We're to be one! When you're married together with a husband and a wife, they're to be one, and there is so much taught there about God and God's desire for His Family and the unity and oneness of mind and that doesn't just happen. There are things you have to plan and think about and discuss in order to strive to be of that oneness.

And so it says, Can two walk together, in other words, in union/united except they be agreed? And this word in Hebrew means 'to meet together'. Interesting word! 'To meet together', 'to gather or assemble even as by appointment'. Now, sadly in the world it's almost like you have to make an appointment now a days in some cases perhaps to meet together. Hopefully it's not that way! But God has set up appointments for us to meet together, you know, the appointed times. We have the Sabbath, the Holy Days and so forth that are literally called that, but it's for the purpose of bringing us together in unity and oneness. But the principle that is a matter of God and God's way is something we have to grasp and comprehend that it's to be lived now as well, as much as possible within life, in family, and especially if both are in the Body! And so there, if you will, the need, the purpose is even greater that it be fulfilled, to be lived. But it doesn't just happen, you have to think about those things and except they be agreed, in other words, unless you come together, unless you actually make it happen. In other words you've got to sit down, just like we do before God, we come before God on the Sabbath and the Holy Days and we sit down, an appointment that God gave... and we have to do that in families as well, husbands and wives, there is time you need to spend together, as it were by appointment to make it - in other words you've got to make it happen. "Tonight, let's talk about it, or this weekend, or on Sunday let's discuss this...or maybe Sabbath morning let's discuss some of this." And if it involves more, or has to do with more and more in-depth maybe in another time in the week, maybe on a Sunday or some evening, whatever. But the point is it doesn't happen unless you make it happen! In order for something to happen, except can two walk together. Can two be in union or united except they do this? That's the point! It's not going to just happen, so you've got to come together, you've got to 'assemble' as it were, come together in agreement just like the Hebrew word means, in order to discuss, in order to plan, in order to.... so, awesome what is taught here, truly is.

Psalm 133:1 - another one we're very familiar with - Behold, how 'good', Hebrew word like saying, 'how fulfilling, how rewarding', that's exactly what it means here! Sometimes when words are translated it latches onto a single word when it really has more in the meaning. So, Behold, how 'good', how fulfilling, how rewarding, and how 'pleasant', this Hebrew word is like saying, 'how pleasurable, how beautiful,' and even uses the word in Hebrew 'sweet', How sweet!  Have you ever heard that expression? 'How sweet it is!' Some people just say, "Sweet!" I think of one individual that uses that expression sometimes, evangelist that lives up north.  I can hear him saying it, "Sweet!" It endears me to that expression because of how it's said and how it's used. But that's what it's talking about here.

So an expression here, How fulfilling, how rewarding, and how pleasant, how sweet it is for brethren to dwell together, now, unique here what's happened in these verses. We read this, ...how brethren dwell together in unity. Good. But the words are the same, two words; it's like using it twice but in addition of a little bit of a twist here too, but they are the same word, 'together' and 'unity' are the same word.  They mean 'in union or united'.  So it's like saying, How sweet, how good it is, how enjoyable, how fulfilling it is when brethren dwell together/when brethren dwell united together in unity! In other words, it's like a double emphasis on being united. That's exactly what it is. It's like a double emphasis, How good it is when you're united in unity, in the mind of  unity and oneness, you're united in the need for that and you work toward that, and how beautiful that is when people do that, when they apply themselves accordingly.

So again, it's a powerful expression here that's used in the Hebrew language, an expression, scripture that Mr. Armstrong so often quoted at the Feast of Tabernacles. I don't know if there was ever a Feast of Tabernacles he didn't quote this when he spoke, because it rings in my mind when he spoke of this so often.

So again, it's for brethren to dwell united in unity, being united in how you work together, how you plan together, how you share together. I've given the example oftentimes how simple it is when you already have certain things that are just a way of life with you, and this is a concept of something that can be, should be multiplied many times over. I've given the example of just like plants around the house; we don't plant anything unless we're both united in unity. If one of us says, "I don't like that tree." "I don't like that kind of bush." "I don't care for that color." ...the other doesn't want it!  We're united in that!  Why would you want anything that the other isn't in agreement with? Now, that's a principle that should be lived in everything you do in life, as a whole! Even with clothing, why would I want to wear something that she doesn't like, or why would she want to wear something I don't care for? And so we look to each other. And if you do that in everything you do as a whole in life, you try to incorporate that, how much richer is that in life? And that's the fullness, that's the way it should be! But that's a concept that seems rarer in life and rarer in today's world, and yet it should be, it's a simple thing to live, it's a simple concept, and it really is an awesomely enjoyable one. Because why would you want to do anything different? Why would you want your own way? Why would you want to do something that the other person doesn't. I just don't get it! Because every time a person would see something or go by it you'd think, "I never liked that then and I sure don't like it now. I'm sure peeved off that they even did it." And yet some people will go ahead and do it, sometimes just to peeve the other one off, "I'm going to get my way! I'm going to have what I want!" type of thing. You think, "Why would you want to do that? I don't get it!"  I understand it - carnal selfish human nature - but I think, "Why would anyone want to do it?"

And so it is with God! And He shows us His way and we embrace it, we see how beautiful it is, we see...that's what God's working within us, to embrace it, to want it. And we don't want anything different because that's where all the fullness is, and so He shows those principles to us that we can live in our families. And this is just one, that if you multiply it it's an awesome thing to experience and live, but in everything you do in life! It's like, "What are we going to have to eat?" I don't know, maybe it's the husband that does the meals some places now a days, if they like - people like doing that - or share in it together. I'm not one that likes to share in cooking. If it was up to me we'd probably wouldn't eat too well ever or have anything that's nutritional. So I'm thankful, but I know there are couples that like to share in that - that's a great thing if you want to. Sometimes it's the husband that enjoys doing it and the wife, if she likes that, that's great! Whatever works out for your family that you share in! There is no one way of doing things! There are many different ways as long as you are in agreement with each other, as long as you are in unity and oneness in that, that's what's beautiful. And I was going to say something about the cooking.... Oh yeah, what if it comes up that you're going to have something - even in there, you know what, what if it was like, "I'm going to give this to you tonight," or "We're going to do this together tonight," something you just hate to eat. Why would you want to do that? Why would you want to feed someone something that they can't stand? "Tonight we're having liver." "Oh goody, goody, goody..." you might not like liver! So it's just like that, why would you want to feed somebody something, give somebody something that they don't like if you're a husband doing it for a wife or you're a wife doing it for a husband or you're doing it together and you're trying to decide, you're having this war over what you're going to have. Where would the enjoyment of that be? But if you do it in agreement, "No, I don't want that.  What else should we have?" and you come to an agreement. That's beautiful! That's what life should be like. Man, I think that'd be simple! But it just isn't, you know! Amazing!

There is a psalm I want to turn to, Psalm 55, because it's about a relationship, and sometimes because the right kind of sharing isn't there this just drives the point home about some things of sharing, that there are some things that can be so hurtful in life. And I've worked with so many things, even within the Church sometimes, that people have things that hurt in their life, and you think, "There should not be hurt in our lives." But sometimes there is and sometimes it comes as a result of this kind of thing that happens in life, but it all goes back to whether, and to the degree we hold onto what God has for us as a way of life, as a way of living. And I'm going to read this first how it comes out of the hymnal, okay, because I've referred to this many of times, and then we'll read certain parts of it.

Now, each person has to decide that in family. There are times in your life you're going to be tested in that, that you're going to do, no matter what anybody else does, your own mate, your own children, your own parents, you're going to do, you're going to stand for what you know is right. And you have to be tested in these things, people have to be tested in these things and we have in God's Church through time, indeed, in a very powerful way.

But As For Me, I'll Call On God

Psalm 55

Dwight Armstrong

'Twas not a foe who did deride, for that I could endure;

In other words, it's talking about a separation of fellowship here, of fellowship, a relationship that goes by the wayside, that you're not able to have anymore that at one time you cherished and that you're able to share in things. And so it shows the hurt and the pain of suffering when you're not able to have something that you cherish, and sometimes in life, just like for some of you, you're the only one in the Body, in a family, in the Church in other words, and there are things that are hurtful, that hurt you to the core of your being sometimes. I get emails like that once in a while from some things when people are so hurt by things, but they realize they can't have it yet, but it causes you to have a greater yearning and a yearning and a desire for God's way of life, which is a good thing. Because sometimes we can experience something bad like that in order...

Just like this world right now, we're so sick from the top to the bottom, of the way this world is, we yearn for... I see God's Church yearning for and wanting the return of Christ and God's Kingdom set up in a way that I have never seen it in God's Church ever before, because God is letting us experience that, like I mentioned last Sabbath, in a magnified way. And so it is here, it shows the value, the importance of sharing and the treasure of that when it's done right.

'Twas not a foe who did deride...(for that I could endure)

Someone who battled against that tore down, because then you could endure something like that when it happens.

No hater thus who rose in pride, else would I hide secure.

In other words, if someone who hated you was after you or just wanted you... you could hide from them, not even have to be around them or whatever. It says...else I could hide secure.

But thou it was, my friend and guide; we did as equals meet;

We walked to God's house side by side, and counsel blended sweet.

Awesome! Counsel blended sweet, had the same goals, the same purpose, we spoke of the same things, desired the same things, had the same plans, worked toward the same things. That's where the fellowship was, that's where the unity came from, the beauty of it, and that's why it hurts when it's not there.

His speech more smooth than butter was,

Spoke it. It was being spoken of and we were in the same mind...

...yet in his heart was war;

Didn't know what was happening, the words that came out, especially as time went along. Sometimes I marvel, I've seen it happen so many times and personally, especially as a minister and things even speaking to ministers and with ministers and they speak this way of life and they're in agreement with you and they speak it back, and you think we're all in the same page and you find out a few months later you have a giant knife stuck in your back and being twisted around and around and around, and you think, you didn't realize what was in their heart. And then certain things come out and you realize, "Now I see some things I didn't realize..." But man, it's painful! The apostasy was so painful because this happened to us across the board, people who lived through that. It was incredibly painful, but it also helped us value true fellowship more so and true fellowship only comes when you're of the mind of God, when you're seeking the mind of God. That's where true fellowship and the fullness of it comes from, in all fellowship in the Church and all fellowship in a family, true fellowship, to the degree God's in it.

His speech more smooth than butter was, yet in his heart was war;

More soft than oil his words appear, yet sharp as drawn swords were they.

But Lord Thou will in judgment sit and bring them down to woe;

And in the deep and darksome pit, in ruin lay them low.

So you realize there comes a time when people are going to go through some very hard things to have the ability to awaken to what is true and right. It's going to be difficult and hard because they placed themselves under God's judgment and God will deal with them in His mercy, in His time, but powerfully so in order to bring humility.

Death shall them seize, and to the tomb, alive they shall go down;

For wickedness is in their home; among them abound their sins.

But as for me, I'll call on God; the Lord will safety give;

He'll hear me when I cry aloud, at morning, noon and night.

Beautiful psalm in one respect because it brings out so much emotion, but it helps you to recognize the value in a greater way of what true fellowship is all about, the value of sharing and of everyone continuing in that sharing together.

I was going to read some of the Hebrew meaning of some of the words - we have more than we can go through but I'm going to stop there today.  That get's the point across that we should treasure and cherish, very powerfully so, fellowship that we're able to have together and I'll just give you one other scripture you can write down.

1 Corinthians 3:8-14 - It goes through there and talks about how we build upon what God has given to us, but it brings out this concept of work, again, that sharing doesn't just happen, sharing in God's way of life doesn't just happen. There are things you have to plan and think about and meditate upon and then communicate to one another just as much as we do to God.

So we focus very much so upon those things in a relationship with God but we need to break those down too and realize this is where they begin, they begin in a fellowship in the Church and they begin in fellowship in our own physical families, so let's strive to do those things, to recognize that it's through sharing that indeed God is building a Family and that we're to build families.

~~~end

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