Attitudes – Pt. 2

Wayne Matthews

July 20, 2013

Welcome to another Sabbath, it's great to be here. We'll continue the sermon series 'Attitudes', so the title of this sermon is Attitudes – Part 2.

In Part 1 of this sermon series we looked at the attitude of "It's not fair!" which is an attitude of self-pity "Poor me." We looked at how God had allowed Satan to attack Job. Satan had tried to provoke Job into blaming God. Satan tried to get Job to complain, basically, and blame God for what had happened to his possessions and the death of his ten children. Job's attitude was revealed in Job 1:21, if you want to just quickly turn there and we'll just review that.

Job 1:21 - And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there; the LORD gives, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. So Job, at this point, has the right attitude. He had the understanding and the right thinking that everything came from God. He acknowledged that His wealth didn't just happen but that God was in charge and that God had given him the wealth and his children. He accepted that God was in charge and in control of everything. Job had to handle the grief of losing his ten children and most of his servants; he did not say, "Well, it's not fair!" and turn and blame God.

Verse 22 - In all this, in the death and destruction, Job did not sin, nor charged God with wrong. He did not blame God as Satan said that he would.

We also then looked at how David planned the death of Uriah the Hittite so that he could marry Bathsheba. We then saw how God sent Nathan the prophet to relay a story to David for the purpose of exposing David's sin, his wrong motive, his attitude. We then saw David's attitude of repentance and acceptance towards the death of his firstborn son. David did not blame God for the death of his son.

And we'll pick that up in 2 Samuel 12:22 - And he said, While the child was alive I fasted and wept: so David was pleading with God at this point of time and had fasted and was crying out to God about his child being sick, For I said, Who can tell whether the LORD will be gracious/show mercy to me, that the child may live?

Verse 23 - But now he is dead, so he said, "I accept God's decision about what has happened, why should I fast?" So there is no point now because God has made a decision and now David is saying, "I accept that decision." Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him but he shall not return to me. So this attitude is very important. This is a very important spiritual attitude that we need to have, which is accepting God's decision about things in our life and in the Church. And I ask the question: Will we accept God's decision in the way He leads us today? And it's worth thinking and contemplating that.

Then we started to look at how God allowed Satan to attack Job's health. Satan's intent is still the same, and that is to attack Job so that Job would curse God and blame God.

So the purpose of the continuation of this sermon: Today we're going to continue to look at a number of different attitudes revealed in God's word. We are doing this for the purpose of adjusting our thinking, our attitudes, to bring them into check. And we went into the topic of death, death of a family member and how we view it from our own personal situation, and we take it personally because the child or the husband or the wife belongs to us in our own thinking – where God says clearly everything, all children, anyone that is associated with us or to us, is and does belong to God, and therefore we need to watch our attitude with it because we don't want to go into depression about a death of somebody, a child or a family member, because what is that deep depression really? It goes back to the very beginning, if we're not careful it can turn into self-pity, "I lost something..." We don't grieve about other people's children or children in Africa or elsewhere. So we need to be careful and to bring our thinking into check just like David had said.

Then we covered a statement: What we are or become is based on attitudes we have chosen or choose. So the way one person grieves is not the same as another person grieves. People in the world grieve a particular way. Now the only way that they can truly grieve is from the natural carnal mind, they don't have God's spirit. So they don't understand a resurrection, they don't understand a second life, therefore they will look at death totally differently – totally differently than a member of the Body of Christ with God's spirit, can see and understand what is happening and that God is in charge of everything. So if a member of the Body of Christ, for example, a Church member dies, we shouldn't go into depression about it, we should handle it differently because the way that God has laid it out is God is in charge, God has a plan for all mankind. He will resurrect them, and to be resurrected in the hundred years is an enormous blessing because all the trash of this world will not exist and it's going to be much easier for that person than living in this current cesspool, it really is. So that is a different way of thinking. Now we have that way of thinking, God has changed our thinking to His, the way He sees it. We agree with God that that is the best option and that God in His mercy will give them that opportunity and it's going to be easier for them.

The attitudes we choose make up what we are. As we choose God's attitudes, God's thinking, we then develop a new way of thinking about everything. We look at, for example, death differently, we look at the way a killer, a murderer, should be handled. The world doesn't, they handle it differently. They think they're showing mercy but they're not. But we know the best thing, the greatest mercy would be, that if they were put to sleep, they were killed, put to death and they were resurrected in the hundred years where they've got a great opportunity to develop God's mind. So  you can see how we think differently – and we think differently because of God's spirit, because that's what God is doing, He is changing our thinking over our lifetime.

Then we started to look at Job 38 and how God was questioning Job, and we'll pick it up in Job 38:1. Now remember that Job at this point had made a lot of statements, and I'm not going to go through all that story, and his friends had turned up and were saying things to Job and he was not accepting any of those statements, he was hanging on to his own integrity – in other words, he saw himself as right.

Job 38:1 - Then the LORD answered/responded Job out of the whirlwind, the tempest of the storm and said, Who is this that darkens counsel/advice by words/speech without knowledge, without discernment and understanding? In other words, "Why do you confuse the issue, Job? Why do you talk without knowing what you're talking about?" So here is somebody that thinks they have knowledge and they've lifted themselves up and they're right in their own eyes, but here is God now going to correct Job in his thinking, adjust his thinking by revealing to Job God's great power and that Job has lifted himself up when really he knows nothing. He actually knows nothing at all. He might think he does, but anything he may know has been given to him by God anyway. All knowledge comes from God.

Verse 3 – Now, prepare yourself like a man, in other words, get ready, stand up out of the ash heap; I God, will question you, I'll inquire you, of you, and you shall answer Me. You'll give back your knowledge about what you think you know.

And we continued through there with those scriptures and we left off in verse 15. And we're going to pick it up now in verse 16 - Have you, Job, entered in the deep springs of the sea? "Job, have you gone under the sea? Have you been right down deep? ...or have you walked in the search of the depths? In other words, "Have you gotten to the bottom of things? ...explored the bottom caves of the ocean?" You know, the deepest points about 27,000 feet, so God's saying, well, He knows what's down there, He created it, "Job, do you know what's down there? Have you walked through those caves? ...those labyrinth of caves? Have you been down there?" And of course, you can understand Job here now going, "Ummm... I thought I knew some things and I thought I was speaking wisdom, but in actual fact I don't know much at all."

Verse 17 – God speaks figuratively here in many examples - Have the gates of death been revealed/uncovered to you? So, "Do you know how to control death? Do you know how to control life and death?" ...or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Cause death and then given life again, "Have you resurrected anyone? Do you know the first thing about death?" That's what really the question is, "Do you know anything about life and death, Job? Do you have one clue with regarding the death of people and the dark mysteries about death? Can you cause death? Can you resurrect somebody? Do you give life to people?"

Verse 18 - Have you comprehended the breadth/wide expanse of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. "Do you have any idea how large the earth is?" Now remember, we do know the size of the earth now, but Job at that time didn't. He didn't know about the size of the earth, so God's now asking a question to challenge his thinking. "Speak up if you know the beginning of this answer," and of course Job wouldn't have known this, it wasn't revealed to him at that time.

Verse 19 - Where is the way/the journey to the dwelling of light? The sun. ...and darkness, where is its place? In other words, "Where does it go at sundown? Do you know where the light comes from and where the darkness lives?" We have a lot more knowledge today so this question really is just challenging Job's thinking.

Verse 20 - That you may, or take it to its journey, that you may know the paths of its home? In other words, "Do you know how to change the angles of the sun? So when it comes up, can you change the angles of it as it goes across? Can you rotate it? Can you move it?" In other words, control the seasons. "Can you take it by the hand and lead it home so it doesn't get lost?" And you can understand Job now, he's really starting to understand he doesn't know anything. He actually doesn't understand all this. God created it, He understands every aspect of it.

Verse 21 - Do you know it, because you were born then? "Do you know what you're talking about because you were created at the same time? Were you around when the sun was born and created? Were you there so that's why you know so much?" ...or because the number of your days is great? You're so old, that you've been around so long? And of course, we don't know Job's age but we can take that on our own selves, you know, what do we know and why do we know it? Well, we only know it because of our age, because we've been exposed to knowledge. So we can also look at it: How do we know spiritual knowledge? Now the greatest thing that we have to be careful of is that we don't think that we have spiritual knowledge because of ourselves. It was only God in His great mercy that called us out of this world and gave us spiritual sight. So all the glory goes to God, we take no credit to ourselves for spiritual knowledge.

Verse 22 - Have you entered the treasury/storehouse of the snow? ...or have you seen the treasury of hail? There's another question: "Where does the hail come from? Have you travelled where the snow is made? Have you seen the stockpile of hail? Have you seen all that?" Job would have to answer...well, in his mind he'd be going, "No, I don't know anything about that."

Verse 23 - Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? Now, we know that God, on the last great day, i.e. the last day, of the 7th Trump when it's blown, we know that God is going to use hail to destroy. So God is saying, "Well, do you know that I've reserved all this? ...that I can create it and I can use it?" Another way of putting it, "Can you produce and control snow and hail that God uses to punish?" And the answer would be, "No, I have no control over that."

Verse 24 - By what way is the light diffused or divided or portioned or distributed, or the east wind scattered over the earth? "Can you find the way where the lightning is launched?" So do you know where... And now when the lighting, when two clouds... we know today that when two cold air/hot air fronts clash, clouds, that lightning is produced. But how do we know it's direction? How do you control the direction of the lightning, where it's going to stop, what it's going to strike? Course, we can't. God's in control of His creation, God controls the weather.

Verse 25 - Who has divided a channel/water trench for the overflowing water; in other words, when a flood comes, or a path/distance of the thunder bolt? Who does that? How can you control where it rains and where it doesn't rain and where the lightning bolt is going to strike, when it strikes a tree or doesn't strike a tree? "Can you chart the route of a thunderstorm? What direction?" Now, we know in today's society, we have people called 'storm chasers', and they've got all this scientific equipment in their cars and they get caught in the middle of a storm because they don't know which way the tornado is going to go. They've got a rough idea and most of the time they're so excited and pumped, because they have no idea really, they have no control over where that thunderstorm is going to go, where it's going to start exactly, when it's going to finish and what damage it's going to do. They don't know it's path!

Verse 26 - To cause it to rain on the land where there is none, so, "Can you make rain on the desert? Can you do that?" ...a wilderness in which there is no man, "Can you cause it to rain there?" ...to satisfy the desolate waste, or rain in a desert area, and cause to spring forth the growth of a tender grass? So, "Can you cause the drenching rains on a desert so that the plants will all come up for a short period of time?" Has the rain a father? ...or who has begotten the drops of dew? ...or the night mist. "Who produces the rain?" From whose womb comes the ice? ...and the frost of heaven; who gives it birth? So, "Do think all this has a father? Are you the father of all this? Who creates it all?" The waters harden like a stone, in other words, become ice, and the surface of the deep is frozen. "You don't imagine for a minute the marvelous things that happen in weather just happen, do you Job? Do you think it just happens or do you think it's made and controlled?"

Then God goes on and asks about the planets: verse 31 - Can you bind the cluster of Pleiades, a constellation of seven stars? So, "Can you get them, can you put them up there and hold them there? Did you create those?" ...or loose the bands of Orion, the constellation? Can you bring Mazzaroth into its season? ...or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs? It's talking about the planets. "Can you control those? Can you bring them on the seasons?" Because there are certain times you can see them and certain times you can't. Do you know the ordinance of heavens? ...can you set their domain over the earth? "Job, can you control the planets? Can you control them and set them up and create patterns? Can you do that? Can you have the planets affect the earth like the moon affects the earth? Can you control any of that?" Can you lift your voice to the clouds, that an abundance of water may cover you? "Can you give direction to the clouds? Can you command it to rain?" Now, we're going to go through this because God  goes to a lot of length, and He goes through all these things for a purpose, and it's written for a purpose – to bring a mind into thinking, to realize that God is Almighty and that we are nothing! Compared to God we know nothing! And to come to understand that we only know what we know because God's revealed it to us, to mankind, and that's why we know it. Other than that, we wouldn't know anything.

It was interesting, there was a TV program the other day and my granddaughter was watching it and it was about a rain dance, and the cartoon characters danced around to try to cause it to rain. And my granddaughter who is 5 going on 6 turned around and says, "That doesn't work, does it Poppa?"  And that's a six year old, knows that a rain dance is a worthless exercise of man's thinking.  ...and out of the mouths of babes. You know, how stupid is it to go out there and dance around and yell out to try to make it rain! It's just absolute stupidity. Man has no control over the weather, God does. Mankind tries to seed clouds to make it rain, and all these different things, but God is in control of seasons, He created them, He knows, and God says He uses the weather as a form of punishment. We know in the Millennium that He talks about that He won't give rain in certain places to people who will not come up and keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Because God's in control of the weather, and even my granddaughter at six years old, knows that rain dances are just stupid, it doesn't work.

Verse 35 - Can you send out lightning that may go, and you say, Here we are? In other words, "Can you control a lightning strike? Can you actually make it strike where it strikes? Can you control it so that it strikes in a particular place?"

Verse 36 - Who has put wisdom/thinking in the mind? So the spirit of man, who's put that in? "Why does a man think, or a woman think, a human think, versus an animal? Who worked that out? Who puts it in all the time?" When a baby is born with the spirit of man, who puts it in? ...or who has given understanding/discernment of heart? "Can you make a person think, Job? Can you place a spirit of man into somebody? Can you create human intellect? Can you choose which human is given more or less wisdom? Can you control any of that?"

Verse 37 - Who can number/count the clouds/the fine dust by wisdom, by skill? "Can you count dust particles?" ...or who can pour out the bottles of heaven, in other words, cause rain when the dust hardens in clumps, can you do that so that certain dust when it rains forms into a cluster? When it dries up can you control that, and the clouds cling together?

So now God draws attention to the creation of animals and animals natures, because Job is now being challenged in his thinking, that he thought he knew a fair bit, and he was holding to his integrity that he did. So God now has moved on from those planets and the earth and the rain, and now He moves into the animal kingdom, because all the animal kingdom is different, and anyone who has animals knows that each animal has it's own individual character. So sheep, all sheep are not the same, they all have different attributes and characters within that sheep family. But within the animal kingdom, they're all different, and it's quite interesting what God goes on and says about animals and how He created them and how He controls their nature, because He put it in them.

Verse 39 - Can you hunt/provide the prey for the lion? ...or satisfy the appetite of young lions, can you provide for them when they crouch in their dens, or lurk in their lairs to lie in wait? Who provides food for the raven when its young ones cry out to God and wander about for lack of food? So, who does all that?

Job 39:1 – Do you not know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young? So now we're having...when the goats, do you know what time it is? So, "What day is it that the goat is going to give birth?" Can you mark the time when the deer gives birth? In other words, "Can you establish this, Job? Can you actually establish it exactly?" Can you number the months/lunar cycle that they are fulfilled? ...or do you know the time when they bear young? So, "When is it going to happen? Do you know the exact time?" They, the goats, bow down, they bring forth their young, they deliver their offspring. Their young ones are healthy, they grow strong with grain; they depart and do not return to them. So in other words, there is a law in place. God has established a law and it will follow a pattern.

Now, where we live at the moment there are certain birds that actually come at certain seasons and they fly as far back to Russia! Would you believe? From Russia! But that's their cycle and they know the way. God's saying He created all that. Isn't that incredible? God is Almighty, and yet we have scientists and people spending millions of dollars trying to work out how a homing pigeon can find home.  God created it! God knows exactly because He created it. And you know, one bird is born and it knows the way! Isn't that incredible? It knows the way! It's a law that God has built into each individual animal. The point is that God created the animals with their own characteristic and their own traits.

Verse 5 - Who set the wild donkey free? ...or the self-willed stubborn animal, is what it's really talking about. "Who put this self-willed stubborn animal? Who did it?" Who make the donkey stubborn? Why is it stubborn compared to a horse? Who loosed the bonds of the...the wild ass, is another word, whose home I have made in the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. He scorns, it's talking about the ass, He scorns or laughs at the noise of the city, he does not heed, he is stubborn, he doesn't heed the shouts of the drive. So you can say to the ass, "GO!" ...and it just stands there! He doesn't care! So who did that, who built that into the donkey? The range of the mountains is his pasture and he searches after every green thing. So he's driven to eat. He will just wander and eat and eat and eat.

Verse 9 - Will the wild ox be willing/consent and serve you? "Will the ass come and just automatically serve you?" Will he bed in your manger? Will the wild buffalo descend, come down from the mountains, and volunteer to spend the night in your barn? No, it won't!  You're going to have to go out there and capture it and you're going to have to train it, you're going to have to try and control it. And you know how hard that is? It's very difficult because they are built in, from God it's built in them, a stubborn – like a rebellious nature. They'll do what they want to do when they do it.

Now, I don't know if you've ever ridden an ass or a mule, and you can kick it, you can do lots of things and it just stands there; it ain't going anywhere unless it wants to go somewhere! Now, there's horses like that as well, and I'm sure some of you have ridden horses that have 'got their own mind'. You can do whatever you want but they're just not moving.

Verse 10 - Can you bind the wild oxen in the farrow or the ridge, with ropes, behind you? Or, "Will he plow the valleys behind you?" In other words, "Will the ass just automatically do this? Will it just come out there and hitch itself up and do it?" No, it won't.

Verse 11 - Will you trust him, because of his strength, and because his strength is great? ...or will you leave your labor to him? So what it's really saying is, "Well, are you just going to trust the ass, that it's going to get up in the morning, and the buffalo, and they're going to hitch up and they're going to go out and plow the field in the right direction and then they're going to come home to the barn at night?" No, you're going to have to go out there and do something about it. You can't trust him because God made him of the nature that he ain't going to be doing anything  ...without encouragement!  Will you trust him to bring home your grain and gather it into the threshing floor? "You can't depend on this animal," is what God is saying.

The point is, that God is making to Job, He, God, can be trusted to provide for us, but you can't trust on anyone else, but you can rely on God that He'll be our provider. He said, He promised that He'll provide for us.

Verse 13 – The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are her wings and pinions like a kindly storks? The ostrich flaps around, it is beautiful, but guess what, it's useless! That's what God's saying, "It's useless, it can't fly! So who created that? Who created it so the ostrich can't fly?" God did. For she leaves her eggs on the ground and warms them in the dust. So she lays her eggs on hard ground, then she leaves them in the dirt exposed to the weather. She forgets that a foot may crush them or a wild beast may break them. So this ostrich has no care about her egg. Why is that? Why doesn't the ostrich care about that egg? Because God made her that way.

Verse 16 - She treats her young harshly as though they were not hers: her labor is in vain, without concern; so the ostrich has this mindset it's not really concerned about the young, Because God deprived her of wisdom and did not endow here with understanding. So that's why, because God did it, but Job has no control over that.

Verse 18 - When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and it's rider. The ostrich doesn't care, it has no fear of these things, it just runs around. And you can have a horse and it's rider running around but the ostrich doesn't care, it just runs around. I don't know whether you've ever seen an ostrich in the wild, it just runs around.

Verse 19 - Have you given the horse the strength? Have you clothed the neck with thunder? So in other words what it's saying is, God's saying, "Well, have you given this horse strength?" And you see a beautiful stallion, and it is very strong, "Have you given it it's beautiful mane?" Can you frighten him with a locust? Why is this horse not scared? ...who's majestic snort strikes terrible. So when a horse is in a battle it rises up and is fearless. He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength: he gallops into the clash of arms. So he paws the ground, he eagerly waits to go into the fray, into battle...and even men are scared, humans are scared to go into battle but a horse isn't.

Verse 22 - He laughs at danger, fearless, doesn't shy away from the sword.

Verse 23 - The quivers rattle against him, the glittering spear and javelin. So the banging and the clattering of that doesn't bother him, doesn't faze him.

Verse 24 - He devours the distance with fierceness and rage: nor does he come to a halt because of the trumpet that has sounded. The horse, really, quivers with excitement and it is desiring to get into the battle. It will gallop straight into the battle.

Verse 25 – At the blast of the trumpet he says, Aha; he smells the battle from afar, the thunder of captains, and shouting. So at the sound of a trumpet he neighs mightily smelling the excitement of the battle a long way off, charging like a roaring thunder and the cry of war, he races forward. So "Why is the horse not scared of battle when humans are?" You know, the history of mankind is that through the ages, generally for mankind to go into battle he normally got himself intoxicated or hyped himself up into a high level of excitement, a challenging, often smoking drugs, because they knew you can't be fearful. Because if you let a moment of doubt, when you're charging into battle, one moment of doubt come into your mind that there is a possibility you're going to die, there is a strong possibility you're going to turn around and head out. It's generally the comradery of men and it's the excitement of the battle – and the horse, of course, is born that way, God created him that way, that he will charge ahead; even if the rider is a bit hesitant the horse is going to go straight ahead.

We'll drop to Job 40:1 - Moreover the LORD answered Job and said, Shall the one who contends  or debates with the Almighty correct Him? Because this is what it's really about: Here is Job – is Job lifting himself up so much that he's going to tell God that He's wrong? He who rebukes or corrects God, let him answer. Really, Job is now starting to see himself in the light of the way God is. God is Almighty, Job isn't anything, he was created.

Verse 3 - Then Job answered the LORD, and said, Behold, I am vile, or of little account - so Job is starting to see himself now - What shall I answer You? "What can I say?" I lay my hands over my mouth. Job started to see himself compared to God, and that's what we need to do, brethren. We need to see ourselves in the way God sees us. Now, how does God see us? God sees us as begotten sons, potential Elohim. That's the way God sees us. God doesn't see us as minute little cockroaches running around, God created us for a purpose. God is enjoying the creation in the sense that He sees an outcome. He created man for the purpose of entering Elohim. So God doesn't see us as minute nothings, God sees us as potential Family, Elohim. That's the way God views us. But if we are to lift ourselves up, God will have to humble us to bring us down to understand that we are nothing of and by ourselves, and it's only by God's great mercy and love that we are anything and that we can be anything.

Verse 5 - Once I have spoken, but I will not answer: yes, twice, but I will proceed no further. So he's going to say, "I'm not going to say anything else, I am just going to listen."

We'll drop down to Job 42:1. Then God continues to work with Job asking Job questions and Job comes to this conclusion in Job 42:1... because the only way you can change an attitude is to have new knowledge, otherwise we will retain the attitude or opinion we have because we think we're right. So the only way you can change an attitude or the spirit, the spirit we have which is an attitude, is we have to be told something different, otherwise we'll hold on to our own integrity just like Job was.

Job 42:1 - Then Job answered the LORD and said, I know that You can do anything, or that you can do everything, in other words, acknowledging God is Almighty. God is Almighty! ...and that no purpose/no thoughts can be withheld from You. Job, another way of saying it, "I'm convinced You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can set their plans apart from You." What really is happening here is Job is starting to see that God is Almighty and that he is nothing.

If you'd like to hold your place there and turn to Ecclesiastes 3:14. This is what Solomon had learned and has made a statement. Ecclesiastes 3:14 – I know that whatsoever God 'does', and that is 'decides to fashion', it shall be forever/everlasting: nothing can be put to it, in other words, nothing can be added to it by anybody. God's plan is set and is perfect, we can't add to or take from God's plan, and nothing or anything taken from it, diminished: and God does it, God decides to fashion it... Why?...that men should fear before Him, stand in awe, fear with reverence. What God plans will happen exactly as He planned it. Can't change it. We can't change it. Nobody can change God's plan. And God has a plan that is precise and exact and we're living an aspect of God's plan and we have just been through a period that was precisely planned for God's Church and we have lived through that. What a blessing! For the last 6,000 years there is many that have never had that opportunity to know God or know God's plan, they've just lived their life as physical human beings, as what Solomon said, as Mr. Harrell went through, that what profit is it when you labor all your life and you get to 90 and you die and you leave your inheritance to your grandchildren or your children and guess what?  They all fight over it, they divide it all up, most of them just waste it, some don't. But that cycle has been going on for 6,000 years and they haven't known God and God's great plan. They don't know the purpose of life. But being called into the Church we know God, we know God's plan and we know God's purpose for us at this particular time, which is to enter Elohim.

Verse 15 - That which is, or now and is past, has already been; that which is today was planned by God. It's been a long time; that was planned a long time ago so it's exactly as God planned it. It was planned beforehand.  and that which is to be in the future has already been; Why has it already been? Because it's been planned out, it's exact. The exact timing of Satan's removal, the exact timing of Jesus Christ's return has been planned and it will be exactly as God planned it. There is no deviation from God's plan, it's been planned and determined by God. Verse 15 continuing...and God requires an account of what is to follow; so it is planned and it will happen exactly. God's planned it, it will happen, nothing can change it. No one has the power to change what God has planned. God has planned 144,000, there is not going to be 144,006 because some man's decided that's what he wants to do. No, there is going to be 144,000 just as God planned.

Verse 16 – Moreover, I saw under the sun, on the earth, in the place of judgment, justice or the court system, wickedness was there; so what he's looked at and says, "Well, I've considered and all I've seen is wickedness. I've considered this." ...and in the place of righteousness or justice, iniquity/wrong was there. So this is man's systems. "I took another good look at what's going on around me and every place where there should be justice and judgment there is corruption." If you've ever had any dealings with man's system you'd understand this – true? You have to go through it to understand it. If you've ever been through the justice system.

I remember a long time back we had opportunity that I had to file particular tax returns and the accountant at that point in time didn't file those tax returns. I was under the understanding that those tax returns would be filed and I'd closed all the business down and everything like that. Well, five years later, of course, I get a summons to appear in court for failing to lodge tax returns for five years, even though they are zero. So in the process of time and much distress – we were in the Church, new in the Church – we had to face the legal system of mankind and the taxation system. Well, it ended up in court, it ended up the accountant was disbarred, and of course, they fined him in disbarring him and we were awarded some costs and we didn't have to pay court costs. Well, then of course the legal system kicks in and guess what -  - people don't pay. So the only way back then, was to get any justice, was to go back to the bailiff and he would go out and try to issue a summons to get payment. Well, that went on for a long period of time because there is no justice in this system. There's not. It's not designed to be just, to be fair and right in the way God designed things. Justice is slow, God's way of justice is swift; brought to account, swift outcome.

So man's system is corrupt. And here Solomon is saying what he could see: verse 17 – And I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: and there is a time there for every purpose/every desire and for every work. Well, God will judge the righteous and the wicked; both are going to be judged. There is a right time for everything. Every deed will be brought into account. There is no getting around anything in life. People live life as if they can get away with it. God knows everything. God understands human thinking, He created it, and everything will be brought into account. We cannot hide our attitudes from God, is another way to put it. So whatever attitude we have towards others or about situations, it can't be hidden. If we were to judge ourselves, our attitudes, we would not be judged by God.

Now, in the world they cannot judge themselves, they cannot discern their own thinking. But we've been called into God's Church for that very purpose, which is to discern our thinking, and we bring it into check. "Is it right, is it in tune with God's? Is this the right attitude to have?" Now, I know about situations with regards to driving and lots of other examples in life, that we can form wrong attitudes very quickly towards other people, and we have to bring those attitudes in check. It's not that we don't have those bad attitudes, because we do, we have them, it's part of our nature, and when it gets the better of us we develop wrong attitudes towards people we so called, 'love'. We do, that's just who we are, and it can happen quickly and before you know it we realize that was the wrong attitude, "I'm displaying a wrong attitude, I'm not loving, I'm failing to love therefore I need to correct that attitude or that spirit that is coming from me."

Going back to Job 42. So the process of life is about bringing our thoughts into judgment.

Job 42:3 – You, God, asked, Who is this that hides or conceals counsel or advice without knowledge, in other words, in ignorance? Therefore I have uttered/declared what I did not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. So Job is now realizing that he knows nothing compared to the Almighty God.

Verse 4 – Listen, please, and let me speak; You, God, said, l will question you and you shall answer Me. Let me speak and let me give answers. You can give answers.

Verse 5 – I have heard You by the hearing of the ear – Now, when we hear that it's reports from others. Now, before we were called we had heard of God through the hearing of ears – true? We'd heard it, we'd heard of God. Did we know God? We didn't have a clue. We had no idea, none, zero, zilch! Any understanding we had is polluted from false religion, and it takes a lifetime to come to the understanding that in reality we thought we might have known of God...we might have known of Him, but we did not know God and His righteousness. Job is saying, I've heard of You by the hearing of the ears – reports from others. Now, we hear reports from others through false religion. ...but now my eye sees You. How can we see God? Only by the power of God's spirit. God can only reveal Himself to us through the power of His spirit. In other words, we've been called, we are in a state of repentance, we've been baptized and we have received God's spirit through the laying of hands, now we can see God and therefore we start to understand God's righteous attributes, we understand God's plan to various degrees, and God continues to reveal Himself, His love and mercy to us, on a progressive basis. Truth is revealed progressively and we grow in that.

So Job is saying, "Now my eye sees You." Job's eyes were opened on a spiritual level. He stated he himself was nothing but God was Almighty. He sees God to a degree, a limited degree. Now that God has called us from this world's religions, religious confusion, we can begin to see spiritually, spiritual matters, we can see God. We see God's purpose – we know God's purpose in our life – which is to create Elohim. His plan for salvation; the only way we can be saved is through the Church, that's why the Church was created by God. Jesus Christ established the Church so that we could be fed, so that God can create Elohim. So we see His plan of salvation, His righteous character, because the only way is by the power of God's spirit and we've been given that opportunity.

Verse 6 - Therefore I abhor/despise/reject/loathe myself, and now Job is starting to realize he loathes himself for raising himself up with his opinions and his thoughts, he really does. He is despicable in his own eyes before God. ...and repent, he's really sorry for the things that he's thought and said, in dust and ashes. Another way of saying it, "I'm sorry for lifting myself up in my pride. Please forgive me, because I thought I knew something – I knew nothing compared to God!"

Brethren, because we have been called we have come to see that we exist because of God's great mercy. We are in the Church, the Body of Christ, because of God's great mercy and love for us. We, of and by ourselves, are nothing! So that's what Job came to see.

If we have views, opinions, attitudes that are not in unity with God's thinking, we are using our base selfish nature. Without God's spirit we are nothing but selfish. It's a difficult concept to fully grasp but that's the way... we set out to please ourselves.

Romans 12:1 – and Mr. Harrell covered this in a sermon not long ago, but we're just going to go back over it because it outlines much. Romans 12:1 - I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, because it is by God's mercy, that you present/yield your bodies a living sacrifice, now, when we started this sermon series before this one, we were looking at sacrificing ourselves. Now, that is about a giving attitude. So we're willing to deny our self what we want to benefit somebody else. So it's like a giving attitude. There is a scripture that says, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive,' but as you go longer in God's Church and God's spirit convicts you, we begin to understand that it's easier to give than it is to receive. And if you analyze that and say, "Well, why is it that it's easier to give?" Because if you've got something to give it's quite easy, there is not a lot of pain involved because you're giving, because why? Because if it's not given from God's spirit it's sin because we're giving for the wrong motive, we're giving because we're getting something back – people's view of us or opinions or self-gratification.

Why is it hard to receive when somebody gives you something? Because we, by nature, are independent, self-reliant by nature. So if somebody gives us something we tend to refuse it, reject it, say, "Oh, no, no, no, I don't want it." It's harder to receive. Why? Pride, because of this self-reliance you see, we're independent. Pride will say, "Oh no, I don't want to receive it." It's harder! And it's a lesson that we learn over time in the Church, that there is a time to give and there is a time to receive, all to the glory of God. Thank God for that. Whatever God provides, we've got to watch our attitude towards giving and receiving.

So here it's saying that ...you present/yield your bodies as a living sacrifice, in other words, a giving attitude. We're to put our selfish desires down. ...holy, separate, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. That's what we're being called into the Church to do, to deny the self. An ongoing process. The moment we stop examining ourselves, checking our attitudes, and denying the self, we have spiritual problems, because we've got to work on it, we've got to work on it over time; and there are good days and there are bad days.  That's just normal, that's just a part of being in the Church, there are good and bad days. Just like David had, good days and bad days -  - because attitudes get in the way and we don't sacrifice ourselves, we don't deny ourselves. But then we see it, we repent and we strive to deny our self for the benefit of others.

Verse 2 - And do not be conformed/patterned/fashioned to this world: so we're not to be patterned after the way of the world. What's the way of the world? The way of get, acquiring for self. You don't deny yourself, surely. In the world you don't. And if you do deny yourself in the world you're getting something. There was a program the other day about someone was saying in a world system that they were entering a fast, and then you find out they're drinking all day - uh, sorry? Because, see, that's human thinking about fasting; fasting is denying yourself food, but not drink - where God says fasting is deny yourself food and drink. Just a different way of thinking. But to them, they're fasting.

So we're not to be conformed or fashion ourselves after the world, the way of get; we're to deny ourselves. ...but be 'transformed', and that word 'transformed' is 'metamorphoo', which is 'to change into another form'. So we've got this carnal mind, we're to change our way of thinking, by the power of God's spirit, into another form, another way of thinking, the way we think towards others. How? ...by the renewing or complete change, for the better, of our mind/of your mind, so we're to change the way we think, and we can't do it without God's spirit; it's not possible...not possible. ...that you may 'prove', and that word 'prove' is 'to test by living it' what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. So, don't conform to this way of the world, don't get involved in its system, it's way of get, the way of doing things, but transform the way we think. So we will put ourselves down to benefit others – including our enemy! Now that's the hardest.

Now, when it says, 'When He was reviled, He reviled not,' Christ did it with the mind of God, but when we're reviled it is a difficult, difficult thing because we tend to want to defend ourselves and to revile back, because that's our natural carnal mind. When somebody puts us down or says something ill towards us, our tendency is to desire to get even. That's what we want to do. But Christ said when He was reviled He didn't revile back, He didn't accuse them or go against them. And that, of course, is a way of thinking – depends how you think about it.

If we have the thinking that they don't know any better, you bring it into perspective, and their opinion of us is what? Who cares! We should care about what God thinks of us, therefore when someone reviles against us or attacks us we shouldn't try to defend ourselves. What's the point? It shouldn't bother us if we have the right mindset. We shouldn't justify ourselves because we don't need to, God's justified us. You see the difference in the way we think, the change that has to take place?

So we're to prove God's way by living it, what is that good and acceptable, perfect will of God. Don't conform, but transform our way of thinking. Our focus needs to be towards the needs of others. And that's a simple way of putting it; it's the way of give. We should look how we can benefit others in all situations – work, church, everywhere – that's our focus, how can we benefit others. And when we're confronted with various situations we should look towards others, what is best for them, as long as it is Godly. Buying a smoke or a packet of cigarettes is not the best thing for them. It's to deny them. That's showing love – is to deny them the pack of cigarettes. Another way of thinking.

When Christ was on the earth He revealed the spiritual intent of God's holy righteous law. He explained that our thinking needed to change, and this is the way it was. We are to choose and develop attitudes that are motivated by the spirit, to live the spirit of the law...and we'll look at Matthew 5.

Matthew 5:17 – Do not think/suppose as a custom, that I came or have come to 'destroy', and that word 'destroy' is 'dissolve, get rid of, or throw down' the law, the commandments of God, or the prophets: and a prophet is one moved by the spirit of God. I did not come to destroy or dissolve or throw it away, but to 'fulfill', and that word is, 'to render perfect, complete as to fill to the top so that nothing shall be wanting to its full measure, make greater, filled to the brim'. So what it's really saying is that Jesus Christ came to live the perfect intent of the law. So, Jesus Christ fulfilled it in the sense He lived it. While prior to this, without God's spirit, nobody could keep God's law in its spiritual intent. They could keep aspects of the law on a physical level – not killing, not stealing, they're physical - but the intent, the motivation, the heart, Jesus Christ lived it to its fullest. So He came to magnify the law, to show it's real intent, why the law was made. The law of God was given for the Church, God's Church, but it requires God's spirit to live it...and that's what we understand, and therefore we have the power to live the spiritual intent of the law. And that's why we've got to continually discipline ourselves, because there are times when attitudes well up that are not the right intent of the law, it's against God's law, and Christ is saying, well, He came to fill it up, to reveal it, to show how it should be lived, to have the right attitude. When reviled, He reviled not – that's an attitude. Christ lived the law to it's perfect spiritual intent.

Verse 18 - For assuredly I say to you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till it is fulfilled, has come to pass. God's law is more than just words, it is about an intent, it's about a spirit, it's about an attitude. God's law is to be alive and working within us because it's a way of life, it's a way of thinking, it's the way we think towards others and towards God.

Verse 19 - Whoever therefore then 'breaks', or 'unloosens, to destroy, break, or do away with or to change'; so it's about a tense that is past. So anybody that changes God's law, because they don't understand it because it's about a spiritual intent, yet one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, in word or action or by the way they live, shall be called/so named as least by/in the Kingdom of heaven: but whoever does and teaches them, by the way they live these laws, shall be called/so named great by the Kingdom of heaven, by God. So we're not to trivialize God's law.

Now, we know that mankind doesn't understand God's law, they've done away with the 4th Commandment, God's Sabbath. It's done away as far as they're concerned, they can't live it. We live the Sabbath by the way we conduct  ourselves, we don't work and we do not take on work on a physical level but also in the mind. We discipline ourselves so that we don't spend all day on the Sabbath, Friday night sunset to Saturday night sunset, thinking about what we're going to do tomorrow for work. We don't earn a living on the Sabbath through our mind. Because there are a lot of people that keep a physical Sabbath, rest, do not work physically, but they break the spiritual intent of the Sabbath by thinking physically. So I know a lot of people in times past that are connected to certain Jewish communities that do keep a Sabbath on a physical level, but the reality is that Christ came to reveal they actually break the Sabbath because of their thinking, because it's in the inner man, it's the spirit, it's the attitude, it's the way we think. Just having time off for a 24 hour period is not keeping the Sabbath holy, separate, because it's about the intent, the law in the mind, the way we think.

So we're not to trivialize God's law in any way. The smallest thing of God's law has not changed. And when that talks about a 'jot' or a 'tittle', it's the smallest little comma has not been taken away from God's law.

God's law shows us the way of obedience. It's because life is either about obedience or disobedience, it's black and white. We're either obeying God in the spiritual intent or we're not. Pretty straight forward – one way or the other. There is no grey area or middle ground area.

Verse 20 - For I, Christ, say to you, For unless your righteousness, which is your intent, exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees... now the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was a physical appearance which was self-righteousness, selfish, an outward show that reflected that they were spiritual. Have you ever seen that? Outward shows. You might ask and say, "Well, why does a catholic priest wear a collar back to front with a bit of white showing?" Demonstrates something, that shows you an outward sign. Well, the Pharisees did the same. The Pharisees had an outward sign, so they would pray in the synagogue where everyone could see them – and God says, well, that intent, that attitude, it's wrong. When you pray, you're to go into your private place and you're to pray; people shouldn't know you're praying. That's what God's saying. So you can see that attitude. One attitude is, "Look at me, I'm righteous! You just don't know how righteous I really am!" Another attitude is, "I'm going to go and do what God says and I'm going to go in private and I'm going to pray." Nobody knows you're praying except you and God. So they had this outward show.

...you will by no means enter the Kingdom of heaven. So if you've got this attitude, if we have this attitude of self-righteousness, of outward show, of trying to get praises from men, we cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven, it's impossible.

There are only two ways of life to be lived. To have God's spirit living and dwelling in us, which makes us righteous – that's one. Or to not have God's spirit and therefore be self-righteous, carnal, and selfish. Black and white – obedience/disobedience.

Often you see TV programs where people turn around and say, and have said to me, "Oh, that person is very spiritual.... that person is spiritual." You hear it, "They dress spiritually," or, "They're spiritually minded." They can be doing anything, they might meditate for 2-3 hours and someone will turn around and say, "Oh, that person is just so spiritual," because they don't understand what spiritual is. So you might have heard this statement, that this person is spiritual. Often...  I know there was this monk that was rolling to Mecca or something, like, they said, "He's so spiritual,". He fed the monkeys all day in the temple – he was a Buddhist – "He's just so spiritual, he's dedicated his life to that temple and the monkeys." He's not spiritual, but the world thinks he's spiritual. Different way of thinking.

The truth is a human can only be spiritual if God's spirit dwells in them. It's as simple as that! God is spirit, God gives spiritual knowledge, spiritual wisdom, His mind – wisdom is God's mind, God's thinking – so we can only be spiritual when we think like God and we can only think like God if God's spirit dwells in us. Spiritual is then measured by the way we live, the way we think towards others, motivated by God's spirit. So that's when we're spiritual. It's about having God's spirit dwelling in us. If we want to do spiritual works it's about God living and dwelling in us to the benefit of others. That's what's spiritual. Spiritual is reflected by and in our Godly attitudes we live towards others. So we live love towards others.

James 4:1 – James is addressing the Church and it covers the different attitudes we can have. These attitudes exist in the world but they also can exist in God's Church in the spiritual intent of a matter. James 4:1 – Where do wars or battles and fights, and that word 'fights' is 'persons at variance, disputes, strife, or contention'. So, where do these battles, where does this contention come from among you? This is talking about the Church! So why are there brethren in the Church in disagreement with each other? Where is that coming from? Do they not come from/out of your desires for pleasure, your lusts that war in your members/in your thinking? So this attitude of contention is one of being argumentative. So the moment we begin to argue about a point – often irrelevant - we think we know and the other person's wrong and we start to debate or argue, where is that spirit coming from? Where is that attitude come from, is the question? Where is it? It's coming from the desire to be right! It's coming because we want to justify ourselves in our own eyes. We want people to believe us. So that's where it's coming from. It's coming from a desire within ourselves that we want to be right, we want to be heard.

So when you have a discussion with somebody and you find one person raises their voice, what is their motive of raising their voice? We can see it in the world. Why is somebody now speaking louder than they did before? It's because of pride, they're trying to dominate, they're trying to have their opinion over yours. So what normally happens in the world is the other person starts to speak loudly as well because they want you to hear their opinion, and then the other person then raises their voice and before you know it two people are shouting. So when two people in a marriage are shouting at each other, what's it saying? It's a battle of the minds, it's about dominance! "My opinion is right!" "My opinion's right!" "My opinion is right!!" "MY OPINION's RIGHT!!" Because that's what they're...they're battling and warring, there is contention! What's the spirit of that? Pride. It's pride that's driving it. "I'm right only you don't know it! And until you stay quieter I'll raise up to convince you that I'm right!" So arguing, if we get into an argument or debate and raise our voice we need to stop and check our attitudes; what's motivating me raising my voice?

Verse 2 - You 'lust', and that is desire for what is forbidden, and do not have: you murder and covet, and cannot obtain: So what do you mean, 'you murder'? We don't kill each other in the Church. Well, if we transfer through communication or thought any words that condemn or fail to love somebody we murder them. That's what God says because it's spiritual intent. It's not a physical act of going out and killing something, it's because of the thought.

Now, if you look at Cain and Abel, when Cain killed Abel, where did that start? Where did murder start? In the mind, motivated by envy; didn't like what was happening. He raised himself up in his thinking. It didn't just all of a sudden happen, it was a process of thinking. So this is where it starts with us. We have to be very careful that we don't start a process in our minds of murder, which is speaking evil of others, failing to love, or condemning words of somebody.

...and covet, and envy and cannot obtain, you fight and war, yet you do not have because you ask amiss. Because we leave God out of the picture. We ask amiss because we should be turning to God to give us the right attitude, the right spirit – His mind. So now we've taken it on ourselves we're going to judge what's right and wrong, we're going to condemn another man's servant, we raise ourselves up.

Verse 3 - You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, or you ask wrongly, that you may spend it on your pleasures. So we ask for the wrong reasons – selfish motives is what's happening here.

Verse 4 - Adulterers and adulteresses; what do you mean? We've just been called a murderer – James is calling members of the Body murderers? Now he's saying we're adulterer's and adulteresses, in other words we're committing adultery! Now, of course, when you look at it, people just look on a physical level. This is not, this is talking about a spiritual level. To be an adulterer or an adulteress means we've been unfaithful. When I'm unfaithful to God, I'm an adulterer. When I'm unfaithful to somebody else, I'm actually the spirit of adultery, I'm betraying a trust. So to be unfaithful is to engage in a wrong relationship. God has been left out of our thoughts.

Do you not know that friendship with the world, or a relationship with the world, is enmity with God? ...or is hostile to God. So if we engage in relationships away from God and we engage in things of the world, a relationship with the world, we have to be very careful how far we go, to make sure we're not committing adultery on a spiritual level – because it's in the mind. We abandon God, leave God out, we become unfaithful to God, we're no longer believe God or trust in God or have God involved in our life and we become self-reliant and start to have relationships with things we shouldn't. We commit adultery, because our relationship is with God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy, or opposing, an enemy of God. That's what it says. So if we're going to take on the world we will end up being an enemy of God. You can't have it both ways. You're either going to be faithful to God and in a relationship with God and obey God in obedience, submit our will to God, sacrifice the self – because that's what we know by the power of God's spirit – or we're not. Black and white.

We know from Romans 8 that the carnal mind is selfishly motivated. So there is only two ways of life – obedience to God that leads to righteousness or disobedience to God which is sin and leads to death. There is no grey area, it's black and white.

Verse 5 – Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, The spirit, the human spirit, which dwells in you, the carnal way of thinking, the selfish thinking, yearns jealously, that word there is really, 'desires an advantage'. Our natural mind desires an advantage over others. So verse five is really saying, is we by nature desire praise and recognition from others. That's just what we are, that's who we are. We desire people to praise us, to build us up, to give us credibility.

I was thinking before about why the peer pressures of the youth in particular, why there is peer pressure. Because they want to be accepted. They want to be accepted in the group, they don't want to be odd or left out of that group, so therefore if somebody's got a particular style or a particular type of boot, you'll find that the group moves – because of this pressure. Why? Because this carnal mind yearns jealously, it desires praise and recognition from others, it wants to be accepted. The natural carnal mind wants to be accepted by others.

We, by nature, are concerned with what others think of us. That's just the way we are! Now, once you're called and come into God's Church over a process of time you come out of that and we begin to see that we do not care about what others think, and the amount of what we care is reduced. Now, it depends on your relationship. If you're in a bigger family that is hostile to you because of now God calling you, you tend to care for it a little bit, you try to keep the peace, but in the end you desire that you want to have a relationship with God, you want to put God first, and therefore what they think of you doesn't matter. But that's something we all have to go through to different degrees. We do not care what other people think about us.

Now, people have made strange things of us, but we accept that. We think differently, we acknowledge we think differently. We know they can't understand, they can't understand God's law, they can't understand the spirit of the law, they can't understand that we're disciplining our attitudes, they can't understand that we think we're selfish!  They can't understand that! We're a crazy people to them! Well, that's a badge of honor! That's a badge of honor that we should wear on behalf of God, because God is creating Elohim in us and we accept what God is doing, we desire what God is doing. "God, change my thinking! Change my attitude! I want to be like You! I don't want anything to do with the carnal natural mind – nothing - the sooner You get rid of it the better!"

So by nature we are concerned with what others think of us. We crave, lust for, long for, pursue praise and acceptance from others. That's our natural state...that is our natural state. So the moment we feel we're trying to draw back to the world and to be accepted by them that should be a warning bell. We don't want to be accepted by the world! We don't want to be accepted by the world, because we don't want what they've got! We've fled that, we're away from it, we don't want it, we don't want to be conformed to the world. And really, it's talking about 'the pride of life', "Look at me!" So people form into small groups, into various gangs, whatever, because people conform to images because they want acceptance.

What are initiations? When people go to university and all that they say you've got to be initiated. Well, what's that really? That's about acceptance. This is the natural mind craving an acceptance, otherwise you're going to be on the outer and this group won't accept you and you want to be accepted, you want to be like them...so that's what people do, they go through these initiations, even against their will really, because underneath they still want to be accepted even though they've got to go through this particular initiation. Football teams, it's everywhere you go. It's about being accepted.

Pride is a false image that we have of ourselves. That's what pride really is. Pride is a false image we have of ourselves. We desire to lift ourselves up in the eyes or thinking of others. And that's life, that's the natural carnal mind.

I remember many of meetings that I used to go to in various organizations and you can always tell who was so called 'the most important person in the room'. Now, the most important person in the room generally in business was the one who had the most money.  And they had the most money and you generally knew they had the most money and it was communicated by other groups that, "Did you know that 'such and such'..." Because what it's really doing is about, well, the natural mind says, "I need to get to know that person. I need to introduce myself to that person." Why? Why do you need to introduce yourself to that person? Why do you need to get to know that person? Because there might be something in it for me.  Deep down...deep, deep down in the natural carnal mind it's trying to get something from somebody else! But in the world, can't be seen. Yet for us in the Church it should be obvious. And people gravitate to people. It's somebody with wealth? People gravitate to them. I always thought if you ever inherited a lot of money I wouldn't tell anybody!  Because all the friends that you thought you didn't have, you've now got them!  They're all your friends! Why is that? Why is it when somebody sometimes wins Lotto and they have all this money, and all of a sudden they get thousands of letters and that. What's that all about? Well, because someone is trying to get something from you, that's what it's really all about. People have gravitated to where they can acquire something.

One of the attitudes of the Pharisees was, "I'm not like them! ...I'm not like them." What's that about? "I'm not like them?" Well, that's vanity, that's pride, that's selfish righteousness. Remember, they would say, "I do 'this'. I do 'that'. I fast twice a week. I give offerings. I do 'that'. I pray...and I'm not like them. There's all that other lot down there, what they're doing, because they don't do any of that. I'm closer to God. I know God, they don't, because can't you see, I do all these things!" But God's not saying that's what's required. We're not to have the attitude of the Pharisees, self-righteousness, we are to rely on God.

Verse 6 - But He gives more grace, favor, mercy and help. Therefore He says/God says, God 'resists', and that word is really, 'battle or battle against' the proud, so God has to work against the proud because they're lifting themselves up. How can God give something He wants to give to someone who's proud, who already has it all in their mind? You can't. God cannot work with them because they are unteachable. Now a proud person is someone who cannot be taught. There has been examples with the grandchildren where you might go to explain something to them and you'll say, "Oh, 'such and such', 'such and such', did you know," and they say, "Oh, I already know that." And the first thing that hits you is well, cause you want to sort them out, but you realize it's just pride. It's just pride. Why is it they have to turn and say, "Well, I already knew that." In other words, "You can't teach me anything." They're only eight and they're like that. That's an attitude that we need to be careful. We must remain teachable.

To stay in God's Church we must be teachable. What is the Church? Education system. God teaching us, pouring out His spirit, teaching us that we're wrong, that He's right, but we must remain teachable. The moment we become unteachable God says He resists us, because He can't give us more. He wants to give us more but we're unteachable, we think we know it.

...but gives grace, mercy, and favor to the humble, those of low degree, those that are cast down. To be humble is to have God's spirit and see our true worth, our true spiritual worth. Now, we should see our true spiritual worth. God says we are worth a lot with His spirit because He can create Elohim in us. But if we are unteachable and we're proud God will have to humble us to help us to see spiritually, to teach us, to bring us down so that we might turn around and say, "Ah, God, You're Almighty and I know nothing!" That's what Job was. Job thought he knew some things. In the end he said, "Ooops, I don't know anything, God you are Almighty! My pride is a stench!" My pride is a stench before God, when we lift ourselves up.

To be humble is to know what our base nature is. So, someone that is humble, if we are humble, we will accept that we're selfish, that is the beginning. If we see our nature...now, we can't control it, we try, but we are selfish, our actions are selfish. We don't sacrifice ourselves anywhere near what we should, so if we accept that we can go to God in humility. "God, I acknowledge that You created me this way and that's the way I am, I am selfish! My motivations are pride driven, my intents are not always good. My attitudes are not always right!" That is humility....that is humility. Humility is the beginning of repentance; that's why God humbles people, humbles us so that He can work with us, so that He can give us more.

We know and understand that our natural mind is selfish – the way we were created. To be humble is to be repentant and accepting of this truth. That's why the world can't be humble in their state. Now, you've heard the saying, "That person is spiritual," but have you also heard, "That person is so humble!" I sort of get agitated when that happens, you know, because somebody's done something...and they might have saved somebody and they come up and say, "Oh no, I'm not a hero." And they say, "Oh, that person is so humble!" And I'm sitting...Oh, I twitch, because they're not humble at all! The natural carnal mind is not humble! It's impossible! Only with God's spirit can we be humble, because it's God that gives us humility. It's a gift of God, humility, to be repentant, to acknowledge what we really are, selfish and pride-filled.

We are to be humble, which is to be 'teachable like a child'. Now, children today I think are much more advanced and their humility is less and less. But when you deal with a one and two year old at that level, there is a teachability, there is a respect, an awe to a parent or a grandparent, that the parent knows what they're talking about, that they're teachable. And then when they become unteachable, generally early 9-10-12, going to teens nowadays; an unteachable person is the most difficult thing to deal with. And if you have God's spirit it can actually be very difficult to watch, because it's there's an agony in it. Because when somebody is actually unteachable you agonize for them because there is a fall coming. We know it, we're in God's Church, we know pride comes before a fall. Being unteachable is just simply being proud, there is a fall coming. We, by nature, want to stop them falling, but there is nothing we can do in God's Church to help them to not fall. The best thing often is for them to fall, to realize like Job, "Wow, I don't know anything – best I be teachable. I best listen."

Verse 7 – Therefore submit, and that is yield to be in subjection to God. ...therefore, submit to God. Let's yield our spirit to God, let's go to Him and yield ourselves to God. Resist, or to set one's self against, to stand, to resist or oppose the devil, so we're to set, we're to set ourselves against Satan, and he will flee away from you. So we're to battle any temptations or any wrong thoughts. We are to cry out to God to strengthen us. We're to come to see spiritually that a temptation is simply a motivation by Satan that he attacked Job...to affect our attitude, to have the wrong attitude, to be selfish, to fulfill the desire of the flesh.

Now, we all know when we're being tempted – or we should. And what you find over time is that the temptation comes, early in the Church, you'll start to think a certain way and you don't pick it up straight away, you don't see the temptation, you don't see the forming of a bad attitude or a wrong way of thinking towards somebody. And at the end of it you then see it, but it could be too late, you may have already formed an opinion. The longer you're in God's Church you're more sensitive to what an attack is, or sensitive to an attitude that you're forming and you know straight away that you shouldn't be thinking this way, it's wrong. Jump on it straight away, turn to God, cry out, "God, this thought process is wrong, I don't want to have it," and start to think of something positive. And it is possible, through the power of God's spirit, to overcome it.

Verse 8 - Draw 'near', and that word is 'join to' God, through prayer and fasting, through repentance, and He will draw near to you, He will join to you through the power of His holy spirit. Cleanse your hands, flee sin, you sinners; and purify your hearts, purify your thinking, your intent, your attitudes, the way we think towards others, you double-minded. Now, we acknowledge we have a double mind. We have a carnal mind and we have God's spirit, so we're both.

Verse 9 – Lament and mourn and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Take this seriously! One thing about God's Church is, this is a serious matter; it's a matter of life and death....it's a matter of life and death.

Verse 10 - Humble yourselves in the sight/before God, and He will lift you up, He will strengthen us spiritually. We are to turn to God and ask God to help us to correct our thinking. Correction is a way of life for anyone called into a relationship with God. Now, that is also another point or another attitude we should have. We need to continually accept correction. Correction is a way of life for God's Church. Now, if we refuse correction we will die, spiritually, because we accept our natural carnal mind is wrong, God is right, God is teaching us, correcting us, is correcting our minds, therefore we accept that, therefore we must be teachable, have to be teachable.

The day we resist correction from God is the day we are on dangerous spiritual ground. The only way we can grow spiritually is to accept that we need correction. So this is an attitude. So when somebody corrects us, the first thing is we will put up defense barriers, we don't accept it. As soon as you put up the defence barrier, as soon as I put up a defense barrier it should be a big warning to us that we've got a wrong attitude, we've got a wrong motive here. So the best way is to pull it down and turn straight to God and God will help us through it.

If we do not see the need for correction we are obviously right in our own eyes. God is right, we are wrong. That's the way we were created, with a mind that is selfish. Conversion is about changing the way we think.

Verse 11 – Do not speak evil, or speak against one another, brethren. So we are not to pull down or to think evil towards others. He who speaks evil or speaks against a brother, and judges/against or condemns, call to question, is another way to put it, to judge. So when we judge we're speaking against. We've made a decision, we're now condemning, we call into question, his brother, that's one another, speaks evil, is against the law, which God created for our good, and judges, and is against the law itself; so we lift ourselves up over God, we call into question God's judgment, we call God into question. We question God!  ...but if you judge/condemn/call into question the law, if you do that, raise ourselves up, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. We're no longer doing it, being humble, submitting ourselves, saying we're wrong, we're now lifting ourselves up in pride saying, "God, I think Your judgments are wrong!"

Verse 12 - There is one lawgiver, there is only one lawgiver, who is God, who created everything. God is the one who passes judgment, He's the only one who can pass judgment, who is able to save and to destroy: so the decision about what happens in a person's life, the judgment that God does and the implementation of a penalty is up to God. ...who are you to judge another? Who are we to lift ourselves up over that person, over God; who are we to call into question God's judgment? What are we really saying when we speak against another member of the Body? What are we really saying? It's an attitude we've formed.

Well, brethren, I'll just finish off now; verse 13, covers another wrong attitude - Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit. So now this is natural mind thinking, life is going to go on, my life is not going to be in any way changed, I'm going to continue to plan all of this... but leave God out of the picture. That's what it's really about. God is no longer first in their life. So this is not about God's will, this is about what I'm going to do. This is not about what God...so that's why the term is, 'God-willing'. We intend tomorrow to go to such and such a city, to spend a year there, we're going to buy and sell and we're going to try to earn a living, this is make a profit, God-willing, because we don't know what tomorrow brings.

Verse 14 – Where as you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It's a good question: What is your life really? Well it's in God's hands. It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. It's temporary. Our life is temporary. That's the right attitude to have, to understand our life is temporary. We involve God in every aspect of our life.

Verse 15 - Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, or God-willing, we shall live, and we shall do this and that. We keep it simple. It depends on God. What's God's plan and purpose in our life? Maybe God has a plan to take our life tomorrow, for our benefit and for the benefit of others...maybe...we don't know.

Verse 16 -But now you boast, because of pride, in your arrogance; this empty, braggart talk; all such boasting is evil. It's sin because it is self-reliant and motivated by pride. In other words, this is what I'm going to do without involving God in our life. It's an attitude we can form if we're not careful, leaving God out of our decisions, out of our decision making process.

So with that, we will close the sermon of 'Attitudes – Part 2'.

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