Take Action!

Ron Weinland

September 3, 2016

I think everything is set here. I just like to make sure because we have a new sound system today that I feel is going to work better because they helped me program it in the place where I picked it up, and they set everything up for me and they did it on the computer. It's a program so that the program actually controls the device here that the sound goes through. So I could even walk around without being strapped down or anything. I hate that kind of stuff. But anyway, hopefully this goes through really well today.

Again, it's really good to be here in San Jose area, Milpitas, specifically. And really good to see so many coming in from so far because California is a long state. Arizona, as well, all the way over to Utah. And I think I got every place, didn't I? Where? What did I say? Utah? I said Utah. Nevada. Where did I get Utah? Scratch Utah. It's Nevada. Yeah, I skipped too much there.

Okay, I wanted to mention today here, which I've already mention to this group here, but I've been purposely in most areas trying to wear what I'm wearing right now for a purpose. And that is to help people feel a little more comfortable with the fact that you don't always have to wear a tie and a suit when the weather is hot outside. Right now it's not as hot as it's supposed to be later on, I believe, so it will get to that point. But a lot of times when you go in and out of a building, or you're doing some of the things we do in travel, a lot of people have to travel so far, and when it's really hot outside, to wear a suit and a tie, to wear a tie that long it's so restricting. And that isn't God's purpose for us, to have to go through that. We don't want to let down standards either, so, again, we have to use balance in these things. But I just want people to feel comfortable in those situations, to realize that there's a proper place for this as long as we strive not to, again, let down the standard, to maintain quality the best we can with what we're able to afford, just like we do in anything else in life.

So again, wherever the weather is like 75°, especially when it gets into the 80's and above, it gets so miserable. And it may be air conditioning in the building, it may be air conditioning in the room, but that doesn't mean you're getting in and out of it and getting here; those things are the things that sometimes wear on people. It's the stress. It's everything else that goes along with it. So again, I look forward to the Millennium when I know things are going to change when it comes to what we wear. And it was never intended for mankind to have something so tight around your neck to where it squeezes off the blood to your brain, so that when you're listening to a sermon being given that it makes it more difficult. Thankfully we're getting closer and closer to that. But there's a way to maintain honor to God, glorifying God and honoring God in how we do things in an area of quality. That's why I think of Mr. Armstrong so often when I think about quality. He talked about those things, things that God has given to us, and, awesome!

Oh, and the main reason I am wearing some – what do you call these, sandals? Flip flops. They're not just... They're nice flip flops. Normally that would be a very difficult thing for me to do, but it wasn't when I tried to put on my shoe after I stubbed my little toe on a corner piece of furniture. And it's swollen up. It's black and blue. It's dark red. It's several colours and it hurts. So I just wanted to put that in there just so everybody knows and so everyone else listening today can feel sorry for me. Might say, "You deserved it, you fool!"

Again, it's really good to be back in the area seeing people. I am encouraged by the fact that people have held strong, that you continue to fight. That's what this way of life is all about. It's about holding fast and continuing to push forward, press forward. And it isn't easy. It wasn't meant to be easy. And so, again, awesome to see people responding and yielding to God's spirit in their lives. That gives us encouragement and strength.

I wanted to mention, too, here, for all the different areas meeting in various cities and so forth, especially where the traffic is bad, Trumpets and Atonement are both pre-recorded sermons. Johnny has one. Wayne has the other. They're both pre-recorded so that they'll be on the system like we had last week, and what we'll have this next week, another pre-recorded sermon you'll be hearing. But that way you can set the time for something other than a time when traffic is going to be bad by the time you're out of services. I think we're starting at 11:00 when we're down in Dallas. We're going to be down in Dallas one of those weekends, Trumpets weekend. So on that particular occasion we're going to have services on Trumpets at 11:00 in the morning. I suggest a lot of other areas do that as well. So need to talk that amongst yourselves, of what you're going to do.

So, anyway, with that we'll continue on with the sermon today. In the last sermon series entitled, Own Your Choices, it's hopefully clear that before strong and meaningful change that needs to be made in our lives can actually take place we, indeed, need to begin admitting to ourselves where we're wrong in how we're living our life, where we can improve, and where we can draw closer to God. Our goal, our desire should indeed to always be fighting to become more at-one with God, in unity and harmony with God Almighty. And that means we have to address the greatest battle in our life is self. It's selfishness. It's a constant battle. We have it all the time. It doesn't just disappear when you come into the Church. It doesn't disappear after 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 40 years. It's still there. We'll still have it till the day we're changed or the day we die. It's just a part of what we are as physical human beings and that is the primary battle that we have in our lives, truly. And so we ever need to be looking at those things, because especially now God is having us focus upon the need to become more refined, to focus upon this time we have in front of us to work on that refining process. And that has a lot to do, then, with what we're doing ourselves, looking in the mirror in our own life.

So we need to be able to admit we are responsible for every single choice in life that we make, primarily in every wrong choice, wrong response, wrong words, wrong actions, wrong thinking, etcetera, etcetera... So once a person has come to where they can admit that such behavior in life is wrong, then what? That's what this sermon is about today. It's about the next step. Because that's just a beginning, looking at ourselves in the mirror and seeing what needs to be changed, coming face to face with it.

This is what this sermon will address. This sermon is entitled, Take Action! Do something about it! Address it! Make the change! And that requires taking action in  your life.

So again, this sermon is addressing some of the same old problems in life that all must address when they come into God's Church. Let's go ahead and turn over to Proverbs 16. We'll begin there today. We're addressing some things again here. We're just doing so at a time when God is moving the Church to more clearly see and deal with change that needs to take place in individual lives, because either people are in the court and they're repenting of the things they're doing while in the court and need to come into the temple fully, completely, not keeping one leg out or whatever it might be at the doorway, but getting inside the temple and living this way of life with all of their being and making the changes that need to be made. Because anyone keeping a foot out in the court is not going to be allowed to continue on this. That's a warning that we all need to grasp and comprehend! It isn't enough just to be totally out in the court – if you have a foot out in the court and the rest of your body is inside the temple you need to pull it inside. You need to get inside the temple, in the Body of Christ, in the life of God – God in you and you in God, to dwell in God on a continual basis, very powerfully so.

And we need to address these things in our lives because God's bringing... I am dumbfounded, candidly, I really am. I'm not, too, because I've seen how God has worked for such a long period of time now in people's lives. But in this period of time it's inspiring in one degree and yet it's frustrating in another, to see the power of God to bring things to life in people's lives and bring them out in the open, of things that need to change! There are things that just have to change! And we can't live a lie! God is not going to allow us to live a lie. God hates lies and lying. And to be out in the court and be of a pretense like... That's what the world has done for so, so long now when it comes to God or belief in God. They go through the motions of religion, this desire to feel good about self and to placate or whatever, or to go to, once a week, for an hour and somehow feel a little bit better about themselves or do something during the week, or whatever it might be to feel a little bit better about themselves, and yet go right back out and live the same old kind of life without change! That's not so in God's Church! We have to change! We have to become something different than what we are.

And so God is doing that in the Church right now in a very powerful way...very powerful way. And something else that I'm seeing, that I want to share with you today, that is taking place. Those who come to a point where they're not addressing those things in their life, more of what Paul talked about when he talked, spoke of individuals being separated from the body and disfellowshipped, he said they're turned over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. I'm seeing that in ways that it's scary. If people could really "see" what happens when you're given an opportunity like this at the end-time, and what God holds us to in that respect, as to our response, things that are happening in people's minds I only experienced at one other time in such a massive way, and that was during the Apostasy when I saw people change from one day to another... one day to another, to where I didn't know who they were because they'd given themselves over to power.

It's greater than us. When you cut yourself off from God you can give yourself over to a demonic world, to where you give them control, you can give them influence into your mind. And that should scare the tar out of people if they just really understood that power that's out there, when God no longer gives you any kind of protection whatsoever, but on the contrary, allows you to experience something to learn a great lesson in life, and for others, hopefully, to learn from it as well – what it means that you don't want to lose control and power over your mind, and the influences that are out there, because they are very powerful beings. And when God takes His protection away, when He's given you as much as He has, then it should scare us. It should scare us. It truly should sober us. To be afraid of what it means to disobey God at this point in life, to continue living a lie, if we're living a lie.

If individuals are not correcting certain things that come out of their mouth, if people can't help but cuss and swear! That should never be in God's Church! But I'm constantly hearing things from different areas and things that have happened in people's lives and individuals acknowledging some of those things in their life. How can anyone curse and swear and use "f" words like bombs on a continual basis and say ugly things to one another in relationships? It can't be in God's Church that people can talk like that! Okay? I get worked up about that because it shouldn't be, and yet it exists! And God is cleaning up the Church because we're going to be a clean Church for Jesus Christ to return to. And so He's giving us an opportunity to draw closer to Him, to be filled with more of His mind, which is a mind of love, which is a mind of incredible blessings and peace in relationships. And the reality is we just can't be hurting people by loose lips, you know, by a loose tongue! We're to be in control of it in God's Church.

There is absolutely no reason on earth for anyone to use curse words! To carry God's name and use curse words and swear? Shouldn't be! Nor is there any reason for people to become harsh toward one another and ugly toward one another, and cutting toward one another in God's Church. That's just not God's spirit! It's a different spirit. It's a different spirit and it's not God Almighty's.

And so these are things we have to acknowledge in our life. How do we treat one another? How do we talk to one another? How do we act on the job? How do we talk to people on the job? Whatever it might be? Those are the things we need to bring into control, because these are such, really, to me, these are little things. These are like the little things of the Sabbath. Who would dream of coming into God's Church and working on God's Sabbath? It's just something that's so foreign to the mind! You change right away! You just don't do it! Or working on a Holy Day? You just don't do it! You don't go out and do any kind of work on a Holy Day like that. You know, you don't go out and paint your house on a Holy Day, or on the Sabbath. Those are the things that are so contrary to our mind. As soon as we come into God's Church that's over! That's no longer a part of our life, if you understand what I'm saying.

And the same thing is true with cursing and swearing and using certain kinds of words that shouldn't... especially if it has to do with God or Jesus Christ, or even euphemisms. Why would we want to do something that dishonors God Almighty or Jesus Christ? Things that sometimes people get in habits of saying. And for certain, then, there are other things as well, we just, we shouldn't speak. We need to clean up our mouths, truly, clean up the tongue and what goes across it.

And these are small things. And yet they're being done out here. That's living a lie! That's lying! That's being out in the courtyard because it's pretense of being a part when really, we're not being a part. We might come in but we go right back out. We try to come into the temple but we go right back out in the court and we walk around the court then saying things we shouldn't say, acting in ways we shouldn't act. That has to come to a stop. Because God is cleaning up the Church, powerfully so! Powerfully so!

So again, there are those in the Church who are now more fully coming to see that there are areas in their life where honest and stronger ownership needs to be taken for wrong choices. We're being awakened to that reality. So, again, taking action against any patterns of wrong choices being made in ones life can be strengthened and motivated with a greater sense of conviction and urgency IF one can more fully embrace what God says about our real nature. And that's what we have to acknowledge. Even though we hear sermons like this on a continual basis, as a whole, still something we need to look at.

Proverbs 16:25—There is a way that seems right to a man or a woman, it's not a matter of man or woman, but the end thereof, are the ways of death. Do we grasp that's the way we are as human beings? We all have opinions about things and we generally tend to think that we're right. That's a very dangerous thing. We have to be very careful in that area of judgment, to think that we're always right about things and that others are wrong. Because that's really what's there, isn't it? "I'm right. You're wrong." That's how we think. That's just natural. That's such a mind of pride and haughtiness it stinks. But that's the way we are. And the reality is our human nature does stink. So we need to bring things like this into greater control and realize what we're like. Because if we don't realize what we're like as human beings, as God shows that to us, then how can we change? How can we make changes in those things if we don't grasp this is what we are by nature. And so the more we can really grasp that and see that, that there is a way that seems right to us, that God places a judgment upon us if we stay in that kind of state – it's death – because it's sin.

"The end thereof are the ways..." It's a matter of sin that leads to death, not eternal life, not into God's Family, not God dwelling in us. So we have to repent of those kinds of things and seek to change those kinds of things and be ever so careful about our judgments. Probably give a sermon on that before too long, maybe, about judgment and how we judge. That's why I love the things that are said... I go back in time. I think about questions used to come up in Spokesman's Club and Graduate Club. People who've been around a long time know what those are when we used to have 20-30 people in a club. And those who had gone through a Spokesman's Club and had given twelve speeches successfully and graduated they could go on to a Graduate Club where things oftentimes got more deeply involved in a matter of scripture and understanding on a spiritual plane and things that are spoken in speeches and the like and discussion that we might have and topics that were discussed. And this matter of judgment sometimes would come up. And I think of the one that would come up, that sticks in my mind, is the matter of about what Christ had to say where it says in one location he doesn't judge any man. In another it says when he judges his judgment is just, it's righteous, because it's not his; it's God's. He does judge. We all judge. We have to judge. We have to learn how to judge. But not from self, see. That's why he said he judges from himself no man, no one, but when he does judge his judgment is just, it's righteous because it's from God. And that's what we have to... It's a matter of being in unity and agreement with God because we're able to discern something as a matter from God.

It's like the Sabbath. If someone breaks the Sabbath, that's not a hard thing to judge, because the judgment is from God. We're not to work on the Sabbath! That's simple! And that's what it's talking about. There are things in life that we need to make certain of; is it from God? Is it something that God has stated? Is it something that God has made clear to us, that this is His will in our lives of how we should live? And if it's something that's contrary to that and not according to that, then we're able to judge matters in our own lives and in others. And that's the goal. That's the desire, to be of a mind that is in unity with God. God's the authority, not us! It's not a matter of what we think is right or wrong, it's a matter of what God says is right or wrong. See?

It's why I've mentioned to the ministry so often about don't insert yourself into certain things in people's lives. If there is sin then we have a responsibility and a duty, but otherwise, there are many choices that people make, and sometimes you know that people are going to... haven't made, maybe, a wise choice in a matter and they're going to learn from that. But is it sin? So often it's not a matter of sin, it's just a matter of maybe not the wisest choice. Sometimes it's very unwise. But that's the way we are as human beings.

And God doesn't stop us from doing that, does He? Isn't that amazing? He doesn't even stop us from sinning, but He definitely doesn't stop us... But He will deal with that in our lives. But He doesn't stop us from making foolish decisions. We learn from that. That's how we grow. "That's pretty dumb; dumb thing I did." It's like me running across the room there, and instead of slowing down, hitting the edge of the furniture and messing up my little toe. You can learn things from that. One of the big things you learn, for me, is the Church of God, when someone – when someone... I don't care how small we are, if a part of the Body doesn't do what it should, if it causes hurt in the Body, that's where the mind goes. "Look at what you're doing?!" So I feel this one little... The rest of the body, I don't even feel right now; it's that little piece down there, when it's not working right, you know, when I walk around and especially if I were wearing a shoe right now that's where my mind would be the whole time. Sometimes it's my knee, which, by the way, next week I get operated on. After all this time who wants to pray... I didn't pray that way, that hoped for the fact that it be a meniscus and that it's torn or something, because then I knew that they could go in there and fix that part, which it was.

What a blessing, brethren, we can go through what we can in the Body and become stronger. And that's why the body is being cleansed, because if one part of the body, and that's why it talks about that.  The eye, it's better to lose one eye than the whole body should be cast into gehenna fire. It's better to lose an arm than the whole body should be cast into gehenna fire. And you know what that's...? That's all about the Body, the Church, that it's better than for sin to multiply in a body to hurt more in the body. It's better to make a separation in a part of the body than that the whole Body... It's like a cancer that can go through the body. It can spread so fast. That's why those examples are in scripture. So we need to all, as a body, seek to become closer to God, seek to be more at-one with God.

So if one has a truly deep conviction about this particular verse, about the way we tend to be as human beings, and so many other verses as well that tell us about our normal responses and thinking in life, because, you see, we can't have normal responses that are a matter of our human nature. They need to be responses that we're in control of because of God's spirit.

So if we're able to have that kind of conviction, of what we're really like, then one can really start focusing upon their greater need for help, help from God. Because, you see, you can't make these choices or changes, I should say, on your own. It requires God's help. You can't change your human nature by yourself. You can't do it. There are certain things you can do in life, but on a spiritual plane, the things that have a spiritual impact in our life, you can't change. Not in here, not in the mind. That comes from a transforming in the mind that's spiritual that requires the spirit of God to help us to make change in the way we think. That's why I love the word "repent" in the Greek language; it literally means "to think differently." That's what God's desire is for us, to help us to think differently. Not to continue responding to situations in life like we do as human beings, but to try to get a hold of those things. That doesn't mean you're not going to slip and make mistakes and fall and say something or do something and fall back into the old trap of the same old human nature – because you will! But what should you do then? Repent quickly, and say, "God, Holy Father, I need help. I don't want to repeat this kind of conduct. I want to bring this mind into subjection to You and Your way. And the only way I can do that is with Your continual spirit dwelling in me! Help me! Strengthen me!" It's a matter of crying out to God.

What are your prayers like? You see weaknesses and so forth in your life? Then take action! The greatest action you can take is on your knees before God Almighty and say, and acknowledging to Him, "I. Need. Help. I need Your help. I don't want to be like this. I want this to change in my life. I want to be right toward others. I want to speak right toward others. I don't want to think wrong toward others. I want to be the way You tell us we need to be so that we can have real peace and happiness and joy and fullness in our lives, in our relationships." Because that's what this way of life is all about when it comes down to it. It's about family. It's about relationships.

So again, the truth is you cannot change such behavior solely by your own efforts. Not if you want to change, or if you want the change to be the result of, again, that transition in your very thinking.

Let's turn over to Jeremiah 17. Again, we're familiar with these scriptures. But God's letting us see just a little bit more in a different context and timeliness especially because of where we are and what He's doing in the Church right now.

Jeremiah 17:9—The heart is deceitful... So, yes, the Hebrew word does mean "deceitful" here, but even more than that it's a word meaning "polluted." Polluted, the heart is polluted. The human heart is polluted! That's what God has called us to and begins a process within us to make change, to help us to see what we're like as human beings. And so it's a matter of wanting to get rid of the pollution, the things that have polluted our thinking, polluted the way we are as human beings. That's what selfishness does.

So, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Again, that's not the best translation. The Hebrew here really means, "weak," "sick," and better yet, the word, "incurable." It's incurable. "The heart is deceitful, polluted, and incurable," of and by ourselves. That's what He's telling us. You can't change it. But what an incredible blessing that God has called us so that we can change, so that it can have a change take place. And it goes on to say, Who can know it? So again, this matter of how we are – we can't even know what's in us, what's in our thinking. We don't even see ourselves clearly unless God's spirit helps us to see it. That's an awesome thing to understand. There are certain things we cannot see about ourselves unless God shows it.

My wife and I were having a discussion today coming down here about something we had read and talking about this individual is not able yet to see certain things in themselves. But in time they will. When it's God's time, He'll show them. He'll help them to come to see it, their motivation behind some of the things that they're doing.

So there are things in motivation oftentimes we just can't see, of why we do the things we do, until God helps us to see it. What an awesome thing! We just can't see it. God can see it. There are so often, so many people in the Church, certain choices they make, I know where they're going, I know what they're going to experience. But I don't try to intervene in that. You know why? Because God doesn't intervene in that. It's not God's way to stop everyone in every situation in life where you're making a choice, or you're making a decision that's going to lead to some tough lessons up the line. So God's given us that freedom to make choices. And if it's not a matter... Now, if it's a matter of sin and hurting others, that's a different matter. But if it's a matter of just a choice and you realize they're going to do some suffering, they're going to go through some suffering here and they're going to have some spiritual troubles because of it, some spiritual battles because of it, don't prevent those things. God doesn't. That's how we learn. God can use those to help us to learn from them. And He does, because He loves us, and because He knows how to work with us whom He has created, and He gives us more understanding of those things the more we grow because it enables us to help others more... enables us to help others more.

So, it goes on to say in verse 10 then, I, the Eternal, search the heart. God knows what's inside of us. He knows why we make the kinds of decisions we do and the kinds of choices we do and where we're at, what stage we're at in our growth in life. I, the Eternal, search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. And so we learn, we grow, and He allows us to experience bad things by wrong choices. And especially in the Church. If we can't learn from that, when those things happen to us, because His spirit is available to us to show us some of those things, then He also allows us to suffer on a spiritual plane where there is punishment, where there are things that happen, because if we choose right things and because it's in unity with God, we'll be blessed. And the reality is when we make the wrong choices, and especially if it tends toward sin and it becomes sin in our life, then we're going to suffer and we reap curses. That means things that aren't going to be happy or fulfilling, things that are going to cause pain and suffering in us and probably in others as well, because of what we've done.

Verse 11, it goes on to say, As the partridge sits, or as the word is, "to gathers" and does not hatch; so he who gets riches. This is kind of a toughie here because there are so many things written about this, about what a partridge is like and what they do. They actually will take over other nests. They'll actually lay eggs sometimes in other nests, and they'll let some other bird, sometimes, even supposedly to a point of hatching their own eggs. But sometimes they'll even sit on and lay their eggs in another bird’s nest. So this gets a little confusing as to... and it even varies as to the type of partridge it is. So, again, they all have different characteristics and so forth, but the point being is here whether they do it themselves. And even the word here, "hatch" is "to beget." And so there seems to be different meaning as to what kind of partridge it's talking about because of this. So they gathered, or they're sitting on another nest where they maybe have laid their eggs, but they also hatch others that they didn't actually lay themselves. Does that sound right? They didn't put the eggs there. They came from another bird.

And so the analogy here, then, so is he who gets riches, and not by right, in other words, by some other way. It's not the way it's meant to be. So again, and this thing here about, "so is he who gets riches," it's not always just a matter of physical wealth, but gets what one considers, you know, in their own thinking. Because sometimes people think that they're becoming wealthy by something that they might attain to or acquire or thinking they feel rich and increased with goods, of things that they shouldn't feel rich about. See? Because we get lifted up as human beings. We think our way is right. So there's a lot of that in here, too, as human beings are concerned, the pride that goes with decisions that are oftentimes made.

So again, "and not by right," in other words, it doesn't agree with God. It's not in harmony with God. It's not the way it should be acquired, the way God says, whether it be physical wealth or spiritual wealth. Because if it's truly spiritual, it does come from God and only God, and if it's truly of the spirit. But sometimes people get raised up by things they think they know, or things that they understand, whether it be... whatever in scripture or a way of life. Even, we've had some of that we've experienced over the last few months, where there are certain individuals who have gone off on different tangents and raised up other things that didn't come from God's Church – ideas and beliefs to them that they think are spiritual – that they're spirit all right, but they're not of God's spirit. And that should scare the tar out of people when they start doing things like that. So it's not by right. They've acquired it the wrong way. And that's what God is showing here.

We need to be in unity and harmony with everything that God gives to us. That's why I preach so often about the 57 truths and the need to be at-one with those things, the ability to be inspired by those things, to grasp what God has given to us. It's incredible! There has never been a time... And that's hard for us to grasp!

Some of us in the Church who came out of Worldwide, who came through Philadelphia or part of Philadelphia and all the way through Laodicea, some of these things we understand in a way because of experiencing them, but others who have come along newer, especially since, like, 2006, 2007, 2008 and on, you haven't had to go through some of these kinds of changes about what we knew and what we... You've just been able to receive them right up front, the truths. Those of you who came in after 2005, as an example, you never had to overcome and conquer, except from what you learned in a Protestant world, which you probably didn't put too much weight on anyway, about a trinity, but when you came along and all of a sudden you hear only God Almighty, the Eternal Self-Existing God has eternally existed, has existed through time. Jesus Christ didn't exist through time; he had a beginning. And that isn't so hard for many of you who are new, because it's a simple thing to see and say, "Yeah! It's so clear." The scriptures are clear for you. But those of us who go back farther, we had to make a transition and had to correct the error that existed in our thinking and in our minds. So much truth that we've been given that we can begin to take for granted if we're not careful.

And so, and get riches, and not by right, in other words, it's not because it's in agreement with God, not by right judgment because it has come, it has come from God. ...shall leave them in the midst of his days, and his end shall be a fool. You know, if we don't stay close to God and desire to ever draw closer to Him, that's where we go, we go in the way, it's a fool, foolish to depart from God. And you know what? The vast majority of people who have ever been called, that's exactly the way they've gone. The vast majority of people for the past 2,000 years, who've been called, have gone this way, have left behind a calling because they lifted up something else that was more important to them. They were "rich and increased with goods," of some kind of whatever it might be, even if it's something in the world that they wanted and just left because they wanted something other than what God said they should have. Incredible to me how these things have happened.

Verse 12—A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. Think where we can be. How could we ask for more? To be in the hands of the Great Almighty God who created the vastness of everything we know exists? To be in His hands? Why would we want anything else? How could we not see how awesomely blessed we are with what we have? We're blessed above all peoples on the earth, and even through time. We've even received more than anyone through time. We have been given much more than the apostles ever had before us, even from Mr. Armstrong, the apostle before! We have much more than what he had at that time. Because God continues to build and give more because of where we are, because His Kingdom is about to come so He's giving more to the Church so the Church will be and have what it needs at that time to help a world to latch on to and grow quickly and be able to meet what has come to this earth – Jesus Christ, who is now on this earth over the Church here on the earth with 144,000, and people able to see things in a powerful plane that... How incredible!

A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O Eternal, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed. I can't help when I read something like this to think about the scriptures that talk about there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And I think of all the people through time, and especially over the past 2,000 years who when they're resurrected, to see what they gave up, to see that they had an opportunity, what the kind of opportunity they had before them and they turned their back on it because of something else that they chose.

O Eternal, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed, and who depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Eternal, the fountain of living waters. Heal me; that should be your desire because our minds are polluted as physical human beings. It's incurable without God's help. He is the source of the power to heal our thinking.

So what is your prayer life like? How much do you cry out to God? Do you cry out to God? I'm not talking about for a long periods of time, but are you doing it daily? And when you do it daily, do you go before God with deep feeling inside because you believe it, "I need help!" I do as God's apostle in the end-time, at this point in my life even! I have to go before God on a daily basis and say, "Father, strengthen me with the power of Your spirit! Help me to continue to fight against me, against my nature, against what's still inside of me that I want out." Because I don't want anything to do with selfishness. I don't want anything to do with it. But it's still there because I'm a physical human being. And so I have to fight against it. So who...? Is anyone better than that at this point in life in the sense of their growth and where they are spiritually? Are we beyond that? Don't we need help too? Sometimes we don't reflect that in our lives! If we're not doing that, you don't believe it! See? If you don't do that on a daily basis, WHAT do you believe? (I don't mean to be... I'm not just talking to you. I'm talking to the entire Church, okay?)

If we aren't praying on a daily basis, "God in Heaven, Father, strengthen me. Fill me with Your spirit. Help me to fight against this," then what on earth are we doing? What do we really believe? Do we really believe that God Almighty is the only one who can heal us and change this mind inside of us? I do! I do with all my being! And we better as well. And so if we're doing that then we're going to fight that fight, aren't we? We're going to fight that battle because we believe it! And so this is like looking into a mirror and saying, "Do I really believe it? How deeply do I believe it?" Because if you aren't doing this on a daily basis, you don't believe it! You're not convicted of it yet. You think you're better! Somehow you're better or you don't need God to that degree, or you don't really "see" yourself for what you are and you don't really "see" what needs to be changed in your life! Brethren, we can't afford that kind of thing right now in us. We really can't! We need to be stirred up in spirit more.

We are drawing closer and closer and closer to some of the most incredible things to take place on this earth. When you actually arrive to those points in time you're going to be dumbfounded. We might know certain things, but you don't know it yet, because when it happens, when certain things happen, all the way up to the coming of Jesus Christ – when that happens in the atmosphere above the earth, you talk about this world going to be scared – they're going to be scare spitless. You can't comprehend the kind of fear that's going to be in human beings.

Saw part of a goofy movie the other day. I like sci-fi. You see these gigantic, you know, you see... I don't even like Independence Day, and I think they had, what's that, the second one? Maybe it's called #2. I don't know what it's called. Anyway, you see something that massive in the atmosphere, or you see something above the earth and you know the Chinese didn't put it up there. You know the North Koreans didn't put it up there. And you know the United States didn't put it up there. You know it came from someplace else. What's going to go through your mind? Something you can't comprehend. Something you can't measure. And things are happening on...

What do you think people are going to do? These things aren't so far out when you see how people actually respond to something like that in a goofy movie! Scared spitless! And you know what? They should be! Because that's the only thing that's going to help bring change and repentance, when they're hearing, "This is from the Great God of the universe who put you here. This is His Son coming back and he's coming back with great power, and he's going to take control of this earth and none of you, none of your governments are going to be able to govern yourselves any longer! You're not going to have the authority and power that you had for so long. It's going to be stripped from you! And God Almighty is going to reign. Jesus Christ is going to rule this earth!"

And think about the politics today. Look at politics! You know what the major problem is today? No one wants to give up their power! They don't want to give up the power they think they have so they're not going to back certain ones that they might normally back in certain parties because they don't want to lose their power and their influence that think they have. That's what it's about! It's about wealth and power that people think they have. They don't want to give it up! You think the world's going to give up easily at the end here? Those who don't, they're going to be destroyed. God says He's going to destroy those who are destroying the earth. He means what He says and He's going to do it. Powerful! So during that 50-days and people see something up there that they can't comprehend? And things are happening down here on earth that they know is coming from up there? So they'll either think it's something trying to invade and take over, which they'll look at it kind of that way anyway even if it's God. Others will come to understand or believe this is God; this is from God.

And you know this and you believe this, but you haven't experienced it yet. When you experience that last 50-days you have no idea, yet, what it's going to do for you if you continue to hold fast, if you continue to hold fast to God's way of life and continue to fight like you are, whenever it occurs.

Heal me (verse 14), O Eternal and I shall be healed. When God heals, when God intervenes – again, what hands could we desire more than to be in the hands of the Great God? To be in His care? To cry out to Him every day and say, "Father, strengthen me. Heal me. Fill me with Your spirit. I don't want to be myself. I want to be in agreement with You, in unity fully with You and be led by Your spirit in my thinking, in my actions, and what I do." That has to come from God. We don't have that ability to work it up in ourselves as human beings. The source of the power is God because it's spiritual in nature.

So again, beautiful verse here. Take action. Cry out to God. Either we believe this with all of our being, with all of our life, or we don't. And the proof is in the pudding. What are we doing day by day? Because I know that not with a few, but with many, you aren't praying this every day. I know that. You're not praying every day, "Father, Father, Father, strengthen me in Your spirit. Heal me. Help me to conquer and overcome this, what's inside of me, that I might be in greater unity and oneness with You, that I might honor You more with my life in what I say and what I think and what I do because the power comes from You, the mind comes from You. It's your spirit. I need it." And if you understand and believe with all your being you need it, you'll ask for it every day. And you know what? That's God's will. He wants to give you that power! But we have to believe that. That's the crux, the foundation of, in many ways, of everything to do with our healing and our change. So again, have to take action. We have to put into practice what we really believe, or are being led to believe, what God is showing us.

So again, I love this verse, "Heal me, O Eternal, and I shall be healed." There's a confidence there, a boldness: "I know I will be healed. I know I'm going to continue to go through a healing process." Save me and I shall be saved. For You are my praise! In other words, "You are the one whom I praise and honor and seek to glorify. Father, I love You. I want You. I have chosen You from the beginning." How awesome is that? And God desires to see that in our life. And so that's how change comes about. Now that we've focused upon those things, being responsible for our choices in life, our wrong choices, because that's what we're talking about, you know, realizing that we and we alone make the choices we do and reap the results one way or the other, a desire to look to God to strengthen us.

Let's go back a few verses and notice what was stated before the point was made in Jeremiah 17:9 about "the heart is deceitful," or as it is, "polluted above all things, and weak, sick, incurable. Who can know it?"

Let's back up to verse 5—Thus says the Eternal... So this is leading up to why He said those things, why those things are recorded. Cursed is the man who trusts in man. And so the reality is, you see, to put it in a nutshell, if we're not crying out every day for God's spirit to live and dwell within us, you know what you're doing? You're trusting in yourself. Proof is in the pudding. That's what you're doing. That's what it reflects. Your actions reflect what you believe. And if your actions change and you're taking the right kind of action in your life and you're crying out to God then it shows what you're growing in and what you're being led to see and understand and believe. And God will bless you in that because God wants to pour out more of His spirit upon you in your life. He truly does.

So, "Cursed!" That means because of sin, because of, if we trust in ourselves and our own abilities and we don't really grasp the need we have for God, then we're trusting in ourselves and our choices and how we see things. And you know what? Sin is in that. Sin is in that. We are going to be sinning. We're going to be doing things we shouldn't be doing. Cursed is the man who trust in man, and makes flesh his arm, his strength, in other words, making self or our own abilities, and whose heart departs from the Eternal. This is talking to the Church. This is not talking to the world. This is only talking to those who have an opportunity to have a relationship with God, who have the ability to receive of God's spirit into their life to make change in their life. Because the world has never been called. Israel was never called to change on a spiritual plane. They were called to obey. They didn't do a good job of that because of their nature, because they were missing something, what the Church has been given, God's spirit. And so we have the blessing of God's spirit. And so again here, going on, and so it shows here those who depart from the Eternal. So we can depart from God by not doing the things we need to do because we're relying on ourselves and not on God. So if we become weaker in our prayer life and we're not crying out to God as often and asking for His spirit, then we become weaker and we've been departing from God and doing our own thing and relying on ourselves, our own ability and kind of walking around out in the courtyard putting on a show.

Verse 6—For he shall be like one destitute in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places of the wilderness. You know, if we trust in ourselves, that's what's going to happen. Basically saying we're going to become barren. We're not going to have the strength we need when it comes time for the need. We're going to be like someone who dwells in, lives in a parched place in the wilderness, in a desert if you will, in a salt land and not inhabited. It's not enough that the fact that it's not growing anything, but now it has salt in it as well. It's not just in a desert but it's filled with salt. And that's even going against you even more spiritually, on a spiritual plane. That's what it's showing here. Not going to grow anything. If you had a chance of having some water there, it's not going to grow because there's so much salt, because you've gone so far beyond what you should. So incredible correction here.

Blessed is the man that trusts in the Eternal, and those who look to God for His spirit, they're trusting in God. They're not trusting in themselves. Such an individual knows they can't trust in themselves. Blessed is the man that trusts in the Eternal, and whose hope is the Eternal. Is that our hope? It needs to be, and sometimes we need to be reminded of that. God is our hope. He is our strength. We can't rely on ourselves. For he shall be a tree planted by the waters. You know, if God is your hope and you're crying out to God, you're looking to God for strength, you know He's your source, you know He's the one who will heal you, you know He's the one who saves you, then you'll be like one planted by the waters that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes. In other words, trial, heat, fire can come and you're going to thrive. You're going to thrive through it. It might not be fun. Who wants to be out when it's...? You know, heard someone talk about somewhere over in the Middle East the other day, 130°, and this is saying, "Hey, if it gets that hot, fine. You don't have to worry because you're planted... Your roots are deep in the water. You're being fed with water and you're out here. It might not be... It might not feel good, but you're going to go through it. You're going to go through it exceedingly well." What an awesome thing! That's what it's saying here, when God's there. So you'll be like a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when the heat comes, in other words, it's not going to show in your leaves, in your life. You're going to thrive in it, candidly, because you're going to continue to grow. ...but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be fearful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. What an awesome thing! A physical example to show us something spiritually in our lives, that we can continue to produce fruit in the hardest of times and trials. Awesome!

Let's turn over to Psalms 6. Indeed, our attitude should be one that is focused upon our need for God to heal us. That's what this is all about. We need His continual intervention in our lives. Do we believe that? His continual! That's like saying His continuing life, His spirit continuing in our life all the time. That's why we cry out every day for that help. So we need His continual intervention, help, and power to change us, in other words, that He's working in us.

So again here, Psalm 6—O Eternal, (verse 1), do not rebuke me in Your anger, neither chasten me in Your hot displeasure, because we receive chastening from God. He loves us. He wants us to be blessed. He wants us to receive more of His spirit and His life in us. And so He chastens us as a loving Father in a very powerful way, but all for our good. And the only thing that's going to hurt in that process is self, human nature, self, because that's what has to change. So if we're willing to sacrifice and give it up, it's not going to hurt. It's going to feel good because of what we'll receive from God Almighty.

...do not rebuke me in Your anger, neither chasten me in Your hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me. So we have to cry out to God on a regular basis to have mercy upon us. We want his mercy. We love His mercy. I think of that often. Prayers so often mixed with that, "Thank you, Father, for being so merciful to me... to me." We all need to think that way, to see that, to understand that He's merciful to us, patient with us, incredibly patient. Awesome! When you see that God works with you in that way then you actually draw closer to God in loving Him because you see those, you know those things are real in your life.

So have mercy upon me, O Eternal, for I am weak. Without God we're nothing! We're worse than weak! But if we can really see that then we're going to be crying out to God. If we really believe that with all of our being we will be crying out to God that He live in us day by day, that He continue to dwell in us and reveal to us what has to be changed. O Eternal, heal me. "Heal me," for my bones are vexed. And they should be, because... I think of what it says about Lot. In essence, his bones were vexed day by day as he saw what was going on. Do we hate what we see in the world? Do we hate what we see bombarded toward our minds and toward our thinking that tends to cause problems with our human nature and battles there? Because it does, the kind of world we live in. So we have to constantly fight.

Let's turn over to Isaiah 57 now. We're going to go through some verses in Isaiah that I know I've covered in the past, but that's been quite a long time ago, so I know you haven't heard it in the last four years, pretty much, okay? I'm pretty confident of that. And where it was the last time I mentioned Isaiah 57, I'm not really sure, but it's time to review these. And I am dumbfounded sometimes when I go back over certain areas. They're inspiring to me. Certain areas of scripture even have more meaning to them. And I think of these areas especially, because, be real candid with you, the Church of God has not known these verses in the way that we have, to the same degree that we have. And that's awesome to understand. And each time we go through these God gives a little bit more. I think of Mr. Armstrong going through and talking about the two trees. People say, "Oh, he's going to go through the two trees again?!" Click. Turn him off. And every time God was building upon something that we didn't have from before, a little bit more, a little bit more. And that's a precious and a powerful thing to ever learn, that God just gives a little bit more each time because it's a building process. And the more we yield to that the more we grow and the more fruit we can produce in our lives.

Isaiah 57:10—You are wearied in the greatness of your way... I am dumbfounded sometimes how that scripture is written in a way, in a lot of these prophecies where it speaks of Israel. And we tend to read it oftentimes as being that physical Israel that came out of Egypt, stubborn, hard-headed, and this is directed toward them. And so we tend to, if we're not careful, not to look at it in any other way. We look at it physically as though it was talking to them, when in reality it's talking about the Israel of God on a spiritual plane, because they couldn't understand these things, but we can. And it's written for us! It's written for the Church! It's written for those who have been called of God who have access to His spirit. And this is who is being addressed. And this, really, I hope will come out even more so as we go through these verses.

You are wearied in the greatness of your way. I have seen this so often in God's Church – before the Apostasy, long before the Apostasy, and then just before that it just got worse and worse, and then afterward how it just continued on in the scattered groups that were out there. You are wearied in the greatness of your way; Yet you have not said, There is no hope. I think of all the scattered groups. They're not at that point in any fashion or form, to saying "There is no hope." On the contrary, they're so convicted and convinced in one respect that they're doing the right thing, that this is, that they're right and everybody else is wrong. Otherwise, they'd join together with the others or they'd get together with someone else. The mind is so powerfully deceptive sometimes, it truly is.

And so people, we can be raised up in the greatness of our way. That's what leads everyone out of God's Church, when they get to this point, "You have become great in your mind." I can't help but think of one being that did that in the beginning to set the example for all to follow. He got lifted up in his own mind, in the greatness of his way. And everyone who has followed that course, who has ever been called, goes right back out, goes right back out of the Church into the world. Incredible! And you know what? It's been the vast majority. "Many are called, few," in essence, "have been chosen," are able to continue to go forward, are able to continue to be worked with. Incredible! And yet that's been the history of the Church for the last 2,000 years.

You are wearied in the greatness of your way, and you have not said... See, that's what happens. And that's what's so dangerous about not praying on a daily basis and saying, "Father, I need and want Your spirit to continue to dwell in me, to live in me and me in You, and to fight against things in my life that I know are wrong."

You are wearied in the greatness of your way; and you have not said, There is no hope. You have found the life of/in your hand. So sometimes we don't even grasp what's taking place, unwittingly so, by not praying like that, and not realizing because we're not doing that that we really don't believe and we're really not as convicted as we should be of our need to be healed, of our need for God's help to daily be in us, that what we're saying and doing is the opposite. We're relying on ourselves. That's what we're saying and we don't even grasp that sometimes.

You have found the life in your hand, in other words, looking to self for strength, not looking to God. God wants us to look to Him because it's not in us. And omission, well, it's the same thing as relying on self, just omitting it because there's a lack of conviction there of where it comes from and what our depth of belief is in: "I need help!" ...therefore, you have not been grieved. And so people, when we do this, we're not grieved, otherwise, we'd change. It doesn't bother us. It doesn't shock us. It doesn't sober us back into a reality; otherwise, we'd make a change!

Verse 11—And of whom have you been afraid, or feared, and yet we should be afraid and fear not to look to God and cry out to God to dwell in us. We should be afraid of omitting those things in our life, of not applying them to our life, and getting into a habit where really what we're reflecting is that we do think we're doing pretty good and we don't have to do it. We're trusting in self. That's what we are reflecting. The human mind, incredible to think that way, and yet it does.

Of whom have you been afraid, or feared, that you have lied and have not remembered Me. See, if we don't live what God says we need to live, we're liars. That's what we are. We're lying to God! "I can do it on my own." No, you can't. You're a liar! You can't do that! That's not what you've been taught. You have to have God's help! You need God's strength; therefore, we're lying by not doing what we should be doing. That's a spiritual thing! See? Awesome! "...and have not remembered Me." See? So, tomorrow, will we remember God? The next day, do we remember God? Now, we might think certain things, but to the point where we pray and cry out to God because we know and believe how much we need Him, "Father, I need help! Help me to see the errors I commit. Help me to see the things I do wrong, that I say wrong, that I think wrong, that I need to change." And then as soon as you see those things, because you need God's help to be on guard, on top of those things, and when they happen then you're going to feel ugly. You're going to feel bad about it and you're going to be able to repent quickly and say, "Father, forgive me. How stupid sometimes..." You know? We do some of the dumbest things sometimes as human beings.

You have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Because if we did "lay it to heart," then we'd do something about it. We would take the kind of action we need to take that reflects, "I believe. I need God every day. I know that I need His help to be healed of this mind that... and I need help with..." Have not I held my peace even of old and you did not fear Me? Sometimes God just, basically saying here, "Let you go your way. And is it because I haven't intervened to do something, to shake you? I have." But, especially in the Church, God does. But do we hear? Do we listen? Those are our choices. Whether we hear and to what degree we hear has... again, it goes back to some of our prayer life. To what we're able to receive on a Sabbath? It goes back to our prayer life. It's going to vary throughout the Church as to how much people are able to receive on a spiritual plane each Sabbath, by how much and what they're praying to God about, that they want fed, that they need help that Sabbath. They want to have their minds open, to be inspired, moved, and motivated to change in growth by what they hear, to be stirred up in spirit.

And so, verse 12—And I will declare your righteousness and your works, and they shall not profit you. So again, we're going to pay. We're going to reap one way or the other. That's what God is showing, just like we previously read here. One way or the other. And hopefully, it's the right way because we're doing the right things, that we reap the good, the fruit.

Verse 13—When you cry, let your companies deliver you. It's kind of a, like a poke here, you know, saying, "Okay. You have all this strength," "your companies," it's like a military, an army, "let your companies deliver you." "You're so strong, you don't need God? You don't remember Me? Whatever it is you're trusting in, see if they can get you out of this one. You're going off and doing 'this,' you're doing 'that.'" But by that time, so often it's too late anyway, when people start turning away from God. But we all have opportunity to respond, to change, to turn things, to become stronger in spirit right now. And we need to strive to do that. God's giving us an opportunity, a blessing in the Church to become stronger and to fight against some of the things that we've been kind of letting go idle since 2012, candidly.

When you cry, let your companies deliver you. But the wind shall carry them all away, vanity shall take them. But he who puts his trust in Me... That's what it's about! His trust! Where is your trust? See, because the reality is, I'm just going to give you some simple examples again, if every day, if a day goes and you haven't prayed to God and say, "Father, strengthen me in Your spirit; fill me with Your spirit," then you haven't put your trust in Him. You put your trust in self. That's what you're saying spiritually to God. And we can't afford to do that. We cannot afford to do that. Our trust must be in God! So that's what is being addressed here. But he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land, and shall inherit My holy mountain. This is only to God's Church. Only to those in God's Church, can we have opportunity to continue to grow and to change and be able to be changed, when it's all said and done, to be in God's holy mountain, if you will, on a spiritual plane, Elohim.

And shall say, Cast you up! Cast you up! Prepare the way; take up the stumbling block out of the way of My people. Beautiful! I love these verses! It's like building a highway. "Cast you up," it's like digging out a ditch and putting the dirt up higher, like they do on old farm roads. You know, they have to dig out a ditch and bring that dirt there and bring it up higher so that you have a highway or a road, a gravel road, if need be, to travel on top of. And then the water and everything else will always be to the side, but you have this other area packed down to show the way. It's what you can drive upon. It's what you know the way. It makes the way easier, then, for others behind you, others to come along and go the same way then. That's what God is saying, that we have a part in this to help build up, to help build the way for God's way of life for others. It's about service. It's about change. The more we change then we're going to be able to help others to change. That's what God's called us to. The more we're able to change and yield our self to God, the more He can use us. Some now, but a whole lot more later on to help others. Into the Millennium? Oh, some of you have no comprehension of what awaits you, the opportunities to serve in the Millennium. You're going to be dumbfounded if you continue to fight the fight and yield to God – powerfully so.

So again, it's a matter of taking the stumbling block out of the way, God says, of My people. I think of the Millennium when all are going to have the opportunity there to be His people, because they're all going to have opportunity to be baptized, those who are adults, to make that choice. They're going to have ability to see things on a scale that has never been given to this earth, that the earth has never had, because the earth hasn't been humbled to a point like this that's going to take place. God has never worked with the world – never been His intent to give the whole world the opportunity to become part of the Church. Wasn't the time. Instead, it was a time for man to live his own ways, to have his own governments, his own religions, his own economies, everything else to show you can't do it. "You can't do it on your own. You can't do it your way. The only way that works is Mine." That's what God is telling mankind.

Verse 15—For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, something we can't grasp. He's the only one, the only Self-Existing God, Eternally Self-Existing God Almighty. For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. And so God... Isn't that a beautiful thing? God says, "I will dwell with." I think of scriptures in the New Testament that talk about the same word that's used, but it's translated so many different ways, but they all mean the same thing and they all have... They should be there, "to continue in," "to dwell in," "to abide in," "to live in," all the ways it's translated into English that all mean... that should be there as the part of the definition when it says, "to abide in," "to dwell in God and God in us." Awesome! And so it's showing here, it's talking here about the One Eternal God who says, "I will dwell also with him that's of a contrite and humble spirit." God can't work with a mind filled with pride and relies on self. That's what's being said. That's why these previous verse are so important here. If we don't remember God, our need for God, that we're relying on self, "let our companies deliver us," let our own strength deliver us, then we're going to fall flat on our face and be the fools that we've already read about in scripture here. But if we know we need God and we're relying upon Him that's what He's showing us here. That's a humble... We have to humble ourselves! It's a matter of humility to cry out to God and say, "Father, I know I need Your help and I want it! I want Your spirit to dwell in me! I want You to show me things that need to be changed in my life." That takes humility. That takes a matter of humbling ourselves because we believe it. We have no room for pride. We know we don't have it in ourselves. We need God and we want Him. That's what He's saying.

So God says He will dwell with those who are of a humble and a contrite spirit. Humble spirit, willing to change, wanting to change, wanting to become something... to revive, a word that means "to restore," "to make whole," "to heal," if you will. That's what it's talking about! "To make alive," "to make whole," that's what the word means in Hebrew. ...to revive the spirit of the humble. You know when we humble ourselves before God, then God gives the power to lift us up and to strengthen us the right way in Him. ...and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. The heart that we can't know, that needs healing, like we read earlier, that is incurable. God will make it cured. He will cure it. He will heal it. He will make it whole. He will revive it. He will make it alive.

For I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry. I don't like this word, and it's nearly not the right word that's used. I really kind of loathe it! Because it makes God Almighty, the Great God of the universe, look like He gets angry and does things out of anger. And that's a human trait that sucks! That's basically what that is! And it's a wrong depiction of the Great God who's filled with nothing but love, outgoing love, sacrificing love to His creation. It just shows in His creation His mind toward that creation which is a matter, "I will not always be executing wrath." That's what it's talking about. Or "correction." God won't have to always do that. Because God does have to do that to human beings to this point in time, for our good, to execute judgment because that's just. Otherwise, people can't learn! "To execute wrath," or, if you will, "correction." That's what it's about.

It's like what's getting ready to happen at the end of this age – young and old are going to die! Children are going to die! You know, this kills me, sometimes, when I hear about... and it's horrible in war, people go bomb some places: "Innocent civilians got killed." I'm sorry! If it's war it's war! What do you thinks going to happen? Do you think you're only going to go in and kill the people carrying a gun? You think they're the only ones? If you're going to call it war, it's war! Now, I'm not saying it's just, because I know it's not. That's not my point.

The point is if we can grasp and comprehend when God said to go in and destroy every man, woman, and child, we don't grasp that as human beings! Because that was righteous from God Almighty when He said to do that for a purpose. You know what? He'll resurrect them in a far better world. Those children didn't have a chance! Look at what they've grown up to be... well, you don't have... you don't know. But I know, you can know spiritually exactly what they grew up to be. They're so deep, their minds have been so polluted. You know the longer you live as a human being the more your mind has a potential to become more greatly polluted, you know, corrupted, like God says. Corrupted! And so when you're resurrected the more you have to fight against to get out of your rotten mind, your rotten thinking, and really hurts one's ability to make a right choice for God Almighty when He gives it.

Babies, little children resurrected in the Great White Throne, quantum leaps ahead of, minds that are not polluted, minds that have not been hurt with selfish human life all around them. To have the opportunity to see and know God, to grow up in a world where all they know is about God? Where all they know is the truth, as a whole, that's been shown to them? Incredible what awaits them! And opportunities they will have in the God Family, to be a part of the God Family. The more that people have become corrupt, living selfish ways, there are just, frankly, a lot of people who are not even going to have an opportunity to be resurrected in the Great White Throne because they've already been judged. They've committed the unpardonable sin because their minds have become so corrupted they will not repent.

That's an awesome thing that God revealed to the Church. There are minds out there who have become so corrupt in life, people have done such things that are so atrocious, their minds are so perverted, they've done such heinous things. But we, in times past, have had this kind of a Protestant mindset, because God hadn't shown it to us yet, and that's understandable, that, "Oh, everybody is going to have opportunity to be in the Great White Throne and everybody's going to have a chance to become a part of Elohim. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful...." Sorry, hope you understand what I'm saying. It's not so wonderful because it's not true. That's Protestant in attitude and mind. Truly is. You know, it isn't all of a sudden it's all over with and everyone is in the God Family. Oh, no! Just like all the spirit beings out there that aren't going to be able to continue in life, when Satan comes to his Waterloo, finally. That's the day I'm going to rejoice. I'm going to rejoice when he's no longer around to hurt mankind and I'm going to rejoice when he comes to his end. He's done so much hurt, and pain, suffering throughout the angelic realm, so much to turn against God in the way he did. Looking forward to the time his life ends. Because he will never change. Hope we understand those things.

And so it is with human beings who have gone so far. They cannot be healed because they don't want to be healed. They don't want... just like those angelic beings who chose Satan's way and their minds are set. If you don't want it, you don't want it. God can place it before you, but if you don't want it God doesn't force it down your throat and make all of a sudden everyone accept it like we're living in some kind of Shangri-La, you know, and everything's... It's real because it's real, because of choices that people have made, because they want it and because then they've come to a point in time where they can receive it. What an incredible thing to understand!

That's why I don't have to worry about different people throughout history who have done such atrocious things. For me to be deceived, so deceived, to think that somehow in the Great White throne they're going to repent of their incredible prejudices and hatred toward certain people's of life and so much so that they, candidly, they hate God. They hate God's ways. They will not embrace God's way. Never will! Don't want it! Just as much as Satan when he made his choice. Didn't want God's way. And there are human beings. I hope we understand that. There are a lot of human beings who don't want God's way. There are going to be human beings who are babies that are resurrected during the Great White Throne, as hard as it might be able to be believed, who will not choose God. Chew on that one. Just because you're resurrected during the Great White Throne does not ensure you're going to choose God and be in the God Family when it's all said and done. The reality is not all will. We all have choice and God does not force a choice to His way of life. But those who are resurrected at that time have far greater ease and ability to conquer and overcome self, and that's what's beautiful about it all – awesomely, awesomely beautiful.

So again, I will not contend forever, neither will I always be executing wrath/correction upon mankind; for the spirit should fail before Me, and the souls, the lives that I have made. Awesome!

Verse 17—For the iniquity of his covetousness was I displeased. That's what it's all about. It's when we don't live what we should live, when we go a different direction and do something else. ...and struck/chastened/corrected him. I hid Myself, notice this, uniquely how it's stated here. The word in Hebrew means, "'withdrew or concealed' Myself." I hid Myself/withdrew or concealed and was displeased, and he went on frowardly, or the word is "backsliding," or "turning away from," in the way of his heart. Now, this is not for the world. This is for the Church. This is for people who are called, who have opportunity for God's way of life. And sadly, many have turned from God, backsliding. So we can look in our lives and realize backsliding happens, doesn't it? Backsliding happens. If we're not continually able to be on guard, to be watchful and always growing, then we're backsliding. And over the last three years we've learned that. Sometimes we can backslide, some have let up some and become what God has warned about in this era of Laodicea. Some people have been awakened to that to see how dangerous that spirit was. What a blessing to learn that in a few short years before it became deeply engrained like it began to happen back in 1978 in the Church of God! Because God allowed that, then, to continue on, so that by the time we got to 1988 it was full blown going hog wild, the spirit of Laodicea. '98? Well, now we're talking about going through the Apostasy. And look what happened then after that. Incredible!

I have seen his ways, beautiful verse, and will heal him. That's what God calls us to, to be healed – the ways of mankind, the ways of our human nature. I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I love that verse there too, because who are the mourners? What's this about? We have to lament what we are like, what our nature... You have to be able to look at self at times and mourn, hate what you see and cry out to God, "Father, forgive me. Have mercy upon me. How stupid!" But we do it, our human nature. "Help me to change." Sometimes to the point where it brings tears to our eyes – mourners – and the rest of the mourners as well, to do the same thing. Beautiful. Because when you can do that then there's hope for change. We see what we are. We want help. We don't want to stay that way. We cry out to God. That's a good thing, not a bad thing. That's why it's stated the way it is. Only when we can come to that point in our lives at different stages of our life are we able to continue to grow, and conquer, and fight, and overcome.

Verse 19—I create the fruit of the lips. You know, what is right and just and good, it all comes from God. It doesn't come from us. It comes from God. ...peace, peace to him that is afar off, and to him that is near, says the Eternal, and I will heal him. So those of us now who have the opportunity, and those later on, that are afar off, on into the Millennium and the Great White Throne, whether this was stated back at the beginning of the Church, whenever time is, that's what it's about. We have that opportunity now and God says He will heal us. Well, He's only healing those whom He calls and those who have access to His holy spirit. And this is to the Church, this isn't to Israel, physical people, this is to the Church.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea. That's what God calls sin. That's what God calls those who turn their back on Him. This is what God calls those who turn a different way – all those who have been put out. I think of the ministry right in 2012, wicked, wicked ways. To go against everything you've been given to that point in time? 57 Truths? How hideous is that?! And so God calls wickedness what it is, it's sin. But the wicked are like the troubled sea, and it cannot rest, just troubled and they don't understand where their trouble comes from. They don't understand where their unrest comes from. It's by their choices, their wrong choices. And when you start making them, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.  There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked. You don't want to go that route. You don't want to follow that course. You want to fight against it. And by not keeping God constantly in your prayer, every day seeking His help, this is where it'll go. This is what the fruit can be. Don't let it be!

The next chapter goes on and tells us how God will accomplish this in those who will humble themselves. "I will dwell with the humble," in essence, He said, "and the contrite ones." Okay? He will dwell in them. His spirit will dwell in us if we are of that spirit and that kind of a mind once we've been called and have opportunity. And so, again here, this next chapter goes on and tells, again, how this is accomplished, and those who will humble themselves and really turn to God for His help rather than looking to self and relying upon self because it's one or the other. So it's looking at how God will go about this process of healing us. Because the previous chapter was about how He heals.

But before we do that, let's go on and skip that chapter through to the next one, okay, because it brings it back on course again, Chapter 59. So let's just jump ahead one more chapter and then we'll come back to the chapter that tells how God does all this.

Isaiah 59:1—Behold, the Eternal's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. What have we been talking about? Our trust in God, that He's the one who saves us. He's the one who heals us. Neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. We want God's help. Sometimes people get into trouble, they have certain things happen in their life and they cry out to God, and nothing. There's no answer. But your iniquities have caused the separation between you and your God. Sin. It's sin. It's omission. It's not doing what we should be doing. If we're not looking to God on a regular basis He lets us learn what it's like to trust in ourselves. And we'll fall flat on our... And then we cry out for help. Depending on the situation, sometimes God just doesn't intervene. He doesn't answer until we've addressed the sin, until we have addressed the sin, and seek the forgiveness and the change of mind in thinking that we need. But your iniquities have caused a separation between you and your God, and your sins have concealed His face from you, that He will not hear. See? We only have ourselves to blame for our own wrong thinking and our wrong choices. And once we begin to take ownership of those we begin to repent, we begin to cry out to God (if we see the big picture), because we want healing.

He says, so again here, Because of your sins He has concealed His face from you, that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Now, this is what we have to come to see. We have to come to see things by God's judgment, by God's mind, not by the way we see things as human beings. I remember this happening to me in probably the biggest leap forward I made, or was able to make spiritually on that plane, to understand what God had to say about "blood" and "murder" and so forth, is when the Apostasy came. Because I came to understand and see it more on a spiritual plane of what God is saying in so many scriptures, when He condemned the ministry in the way He did and He said, "Blood is on your hands. Death is on your hands because of what you have done to others." It's spiritual. God is far more concerned about that in our lives and that we grasp what is spiritual in these things than we are... That's why I love things in 1 John when it discusses things about if we fail to love someone in the way God says we're to love them, you know what God calls it? Not only hatred. He says it's murder: "And you know that no murderer can receive eternal life." That's what it talks about in 1 John. Awesome! Because God gets right to the point when it's that which is spiritual. And so we have to see things to the degree that they really are. So to say wrong things, to speak wrong things to others, to hurt others, it's murder. It's blood. And God does not take that lightly. And so this is what's being addressed. So we really have to see what we do in our lives that can be seen by God on this kind of level, on this kind of a plane. And the more we see that the more we'll hate it. Because, you know, you have to hate evil to not want it a part of your life. You have to hate something... you have to come to hate it so much. The more you can come to loathe it, the more you can flee from it, the more you can get away from it. But that takes time and it takes God's spirit. It takes God to do, help you in those battles in those things in your life. And so it is, especially when it comes to things like this in relationships.

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Now, most of us in God's Church, just to be candid with you, will read a verse like this and see when God talks about Israel, to Israel, "Oh, it's about Israel, those Israelites! Man!" But it's about us, because God is talking on a spiritual plane. "For your hands are defiled with blood." If we speak wrong to someone else our hands are defiled with blood. That's what God says. He wants us to see that on a spiritual plane. "And your fingers with iniquity." Point the finger at somebody else? Find fault with somebody else? "You're responsible. You did 'this.' You caused 'that'!" Have to be careful. ...and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness. Any of us guilty of that? Absolutely! Absolutely! And far too often in our lives in ways that we just don't grasp it. And that's what God wants us to see.

Now, backing up here, Isaiah 58. Because God shows us then how we can be healed and the process through which we are able to be healed in a very powerful way. Isaiah 58—Cry aloud, spare not! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! And show My people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. We are that house. This is spiritual. This is to spiritual Israel. This is not to physical, carnal Israel. This was not for them. What's stated here, and you know what's more profound than that, this is for us. This is more for us than any other time in human history. And I hope I can remember to tell you why in a little bit. Hope it comes back to me. If not, chew on it, then maybe ask me some other time.

Yet they seek Me daily and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness. Well, that's what we want, isn't it? But you know, if we let up, if we start to pull back, that's backsliding. That's turning away from God. And we can't afford to do that. That's not being alert and watchful and on guard like we need to be. That's why I think of the ten virgins, the example that was given there. So often in the Church, it talked about five wise and five foolish, and everybody wanted to be a part of the wise. "Oh, we're the wise ones. We're the wise ones. I know some foolish ones out there, but..." And it's kind of like today, certain ones want to keep the name "Philadelphia" because they're Philadelphians. They're not those lousy, sick Laodiceans. It's like looking down upon them, you know? Because there's still that attitude out there. Some that can't have fellowship with the rest of the Church unless they're part of that Church because, "They're all Laodiceans. We're better than them." Amazing! Sick! Sick! Perverted!

Yet they seek Me daily and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness. So we have to be careful, walking around in the courtyard but not really being in the temple. That's what this is about. It's spiritual. ...and that was not forsaking the ordinance of their God. In other words, acting like that. You know, we can actually get to a point where we think that! If we're not careful. We actually think that we go to Sabbath services, we go to the Holy Days, we're tithing, we're doing these things, and we're not forsaking the ordinance of our God, but we're in the Church and we're able to continue on like this...and yet we can get so ugly to others sometimes and we can say some despicable, hateful things and we can curse at them and swear at them.

Like came out this past week, me dealing with someone. In marriage. It's sick, brethren. How can two people married in God's Church show such hatred toward each other? And they're listening today. Shame, shame, shame on you! And shame on others that are doing exactly the same thing, because they're not alone and I know it. Okay? I know it. Not because I know of anything specifically in your life, I know because God has told me right here, right now today, very powerfully so. Okay? In my spirit and my mind. I know how God works, and God is letting me know they're not the lone rangers. It's happening in other marriages as well. So it has to be cleaned up. There is NO EXCUSE in God's Church for a husband and a wife to say evil things toward each other, to curse at each other, to say a curse word or to say something ugly and cutting to them! If you'll do it to the one who is closest to you in life you will say it to anyone in God's Church! You will say it to me as God's apostle! And you think, "Oh, I wouldn't say that." Yes, you would! Your spirit, in time, if you'll do it there there's coming the time that you would curse me because you would curse God. And you don't even see that. Because you do it to your mate you are cursing God. You're speaking the same way to God Almighty, because they're God's children. If you're saying it to someone else with God's spirit, you're saying it to God Almighty. And sometimes we don't get it spiritually, how God takes it.

So that's why we're crying aloud and sparing not and raising up the voice like a trumpet, because God wants us to address these things in our life and to change those things that are wrong in the Church. Because He's not going to allow you to be in the Millennium if you don't change. I know that right now, too, that's from God. I know it. Okay? It's from God Almighty to all of us – that we had better be living right. If you want what God is offering to you, to be in the Millennium, to live into that period of time, you have to fight against yourself. You have to cry out to God for help to live what is right, because this is not a free cakewalk, or a free ride into the Millennium. It is not owed to anyone. And candidly, because we've been given more, there's much more required of us. See?

If someone is living that way of life toward others right now, it's far easier that neighbors out here and people out here outside in your community right now are going to be called and have opportunity to live into the Millennium than you because they're going to have opportunities that will be taken away from you. Please understand that, how serious this is. Okay? This is where we are in time.

But if you're doing those things and crying out to God, God will deliver you with great power. Because what you're being offered on the other side of this... Do we not "see" and understand what God is offering us? Because it's the fact that we get to live into a new age, and because of what we've gone through and what we'll receive because of that, do you understand what you're going to receive? We have to have a humble spirit because people are going to look to you. "Oh, you were in the Church?" You don't know the mileage, you don't know how far that's going to go in your life, the favor you're going to have from others just because they're going to know you were in the Church of God. "You helped put out that book? You were a part of that message? Wow!" They're going to be dumbfounded! They really... You can't comprehend how dumbfounded people are going to be, to meet, to actually meet someone. I mean, we're pretty small – 1 in 14,000,000. How many are going to have the opportunity to come across you in the first place in the Millennium? And those who do? You have no idea. You have no idea. Latch a hold of it. Because God's offering you some of the greatest things that have ever been offered to any human beings to date. Truly.

Verse 3—Why have we fasted, say they, and You do not see? So sometimes we can get ourselves in pickles, as human beings, and we can fast about it, and yet we haven't been living what we should have been living. And so this is what the point is of all this. And not only that, but sometimes when we do fast we can get into really wrong habits. We can pray and really be in the wrong habits of how we're living our prayer life because of something we're not living and believing like we should, like we've already talked about in the beginning of the sermon.

And so it says, Why have we afflicted our soul, and You do not acknowledge it? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure. That means you seek your own satisfaction, you seek your own way, you're seeking your own will. You want something and so you're seeking to get your way. God says that's not the reason for a fast. He's going to show what the reason for the fast is, but He says this isn't the right one. That's not the reason... Sometimes we pray to get our own way. We want God's solution. But, you know what? Generally, a lot of times, we want it our way. What an amazing thing. We already have the end figured out, what we want, and that may not be what's right for us, when we're asking for something and desiring something in our life.

Anyway, Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure and exact, a word that means... This is awesome what it's saying. It means "to oppress." You oppress because of your motivation, because of what's in you. You want your way, maybe in a situation with someone else in life and you're trying to get your own way because you see yourself as right. It's a word that means "to oppress," or "seek to impose your own will." And a lot of times that's a matter of control. We don't realize sometimes how we try to control others. We try to control their lives because we want a certain response or we think they should be doing certain things. People do it in families, if they're not careful, toward mates, if they're not careful, toward others around them, if they're not careful. So, "you oppress by all your labors," is what it's saying, "by your work." This is what you're working toward. And that's not the way God says to do it.

Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and smite with the fist of wickedness; you shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. So it's not getting God on our side, because we're so right, you know, getting our will and walking around out in the courtyard and thinking we're right and God's on our side and that gives us even more push forward because we're so right. That's an incredible thing, when we get so right that we know God's on our side too. So right that we'll tell an apostle something different than what is true for the Church! Anyway, blows my mind, but it happens.

Verse 5. So a giant contrast is being made here of a way that we live as human beings so often, and as a way we need to strive to live to draw closer to God, to recognize our need to God, to trust in God. He says, it says here in verse 5—Is that the kind of fast that I have chosen? A day for someone to afflict their soul? Is that what it's all about? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, you know, to go through the motions, to walk around the court like we're in the Church but not really doing what we're supposed to be doing, and to spread sackcloth and ashes... Is it just going through the motions religiously and we spread out the sackcloth and we put on this pretense as show? That isn't what it's about. It's what we live every day! Says, Will that be a fast that's acceptable unto the Eternal? Or any kind of service toward God, any kind of relationship with God? That's not what it's about.

Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bands of wickedness. We want to draw closer to God? Then what's our part in "the bands of wickedness?" That's what He's saying here. ...to undo the heavy burdens. Are you responsible for any heavy burden being placed on someone else by your trying to control their life, by your whatever it might be? Is this what's taking place? ...and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Isn't that what this way of life...? Isn't that what the Church is about? That we strive to get rid of the things that keep people in bondage? That we fight against self and the things that we do that keep us in bondage? And we sometimes let that spill over into other people's lives because we're so right and they better be doing what we think and so we try to control some of their actions in life. That's not what this is about. It's about getting rid of the things that create bondage, hardship, pain, and suffering in life, in ours, because of wrong thinking's, and in those around us. We can't have a right affect upon people and be a right example and a right light unless we're first seeking to make this change in self. That's what it's about.

And that's what this is being shown in one of the most important things that we can do and apply to our lives in a spiritual plane that's physical, but spiritual in what it can produce – fasting. But it's true about prayer. It's true about what we do day by day, and so forth, how we live our lives. It's about a way of life, what we're living. But fasting is the focus here because that's to drive the point home for us spiritually.

Is it not to deal bread to the hungry, spiritually, to help be, to want to change so that we can help, so we can be an example to others to help others? To be behind this thing that's getting ready to take place, to deal our bread, what we've been given so that others can benefit in this as well? Because this is getting ready to be opened up to more in the world around us. We were given that opportunity in a great way back in 2006 and 07', and '08, and '09 especially as we began to do what we did in what we saw at that time, and because of what was written. And others, a lot of you are the fruit of that. You are here because of that, because others sacrificed and did what they did so that you would have opportunity to receive a part of that. Awesome! And those of you who had opportunity to do that? Do you "see" what you were able to share in? To be a part of? In other, that others that were able to have, that you're going to be able to see so many together at the Feast of Tabernacles and rejoicing before God in such a powerful way? If it weren't that and we were back in 2008, we wouldn't have as much to rejoice about, or to rejoice with. Awesome! And that's nothing compared to what's coming. That's nothing!

So, Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out of your house? This means a lot to me because I look forward to the time that 63,000 will have opportunity to come back. Not all will. Not all will choose it. But that many are going to be offered it. Maybe only a thousand will receive it. You understand that, what God's saying? That's who it's going to be offered to. But I also think about how many were offered to become a part of the remnant and didn't do it, didn't choose it. Same is going to be true with the 63,000. That doesn't mean that all 63,000... Because it's their choice. It's spiritual.

When you see the naked, that you cover him... Is that our desire when we see people in certain things of sin and out of really genuine love, not because we're judging and wanting to get at them, but because we see something that they're hurting themselves by and that out of love we may go to them as a brother alone in a right way – to have the guts to do that because you love someone enough to do it. ...and that you do not hide yourself from your own flesh?

So again, brings me to a point here as I end this sermon here today, that I wanted to get this far. We're going to have a fast, Church wide fast. Okay? So that we can receive these things in a greater plane and a desire before God to humble ourselves before God, to trust in Him more, to seek to draw closer to Him, to clean up our lives more, to yield ourselves more to Him, and to do what this Isaiah, this section of Isaiah is talking about.

Now, the reason I mention this earlier, this is quite profound to me. We have not known these verses in times past in the Church. We have not understood fully what Isaiah 58 was all about. And those who still have fasts out here in some of the scattered groups oftentimes fast to get something that is not right with God. I can give some examples, and I already have in times past, and there's no need to go through that because that understanding wasn't there because the focus hasn't been on self like it's supposed to be, that it's about us and about the need we have for change.

This is written more for us than any other time in God's Church. Awesome! Awesome if you understand that. And the reason you can know that is because it's never been known to the degree that it's known today, that we understand what is written here. Why? Because God wants us to see it. He wants us to respond to it. He's given us opportunities in times past to see some of this, but I see this in a more powerful way than ever before, right now, for us as a Church.

So again, for everyone in the U.S. and Canada next Sabbath would be a good time to do this. If, however, you have other plans already set for next Sabbath, don't worry about it. Just do it the Sabbath after that. And we're choosing a Sabbath because that can... it has its own uniqueness. Again, it's something that hasn't been understood in the Church in times past in the same way. Unique. Awesome.

But it needs to be done, soon. And if you can't do it on those two Sabbaths, you have other things planned, that's between you and God. And certainly during the week it's fine to do that, but I really encourage you to do it on a Sabbath day – either next Sabbath or the Sabbath after that – to strive to accomplish it.

And for those in all other areas of the world, once you hear this sermon, then you can set aside one of the next two Sabbaths. Because it's not going to be the same as ours over here. So it's when you hear this sermon that you then choose one of the next two Sabbath's for your fast before God. And the reason for that is because you should not just do this and start spreading it around the world. So, please, no one start telling others we're having a fast next week in the United States, and that others start fasting without knowing what it is that we've just gone through in this sermon! That's why I'm stating this at this point in time. It's only after you've heard what you've heard to this point, that you should set aside a fast. And so if you heard from a friend – and I say that a little sarcastically – that we're having a fast here in the United States, then you need to fast again after you've heard this sermon. Okay? Just making it clear. So that'll help you to grow in greater wisdom.

Anyway, this is for baptized members only. Okay? If others want to, that's their business, but no pressure, no stress, no need, in that respect. This is for those who have God's spirit dwelling in them to humble themselves before God, to look at these verses in a way that the mirror is on us, each one of us as we fast and enter in to that particular fast.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1