Made Ready For Our Passover, Pt. 2

Ron Weinland

March 24, 2018

Last week we began a new series entitled Made Ready For Our Passover, and today is Part 2.

Part of what was stated at the beginning needs to be repeated here again today so we can get back on track as far as the flow and the context of what was being said, and when I referenced the previous series entitled God’s Kingdom Is Closing In I made a statement that we are all being made ready more than ever for that Kingdom that’s to reign on this earth and this season of the year has so very much to do with that because we are closing in on final events to become fulfilled in this end-time so that God’s Kingdom can finally be fully established.

So again here, just repeating some of the things stated last Sabbath. So the messages given during this season of the year are more important than ever to God’s Church. Therefore, as we are being made ready for our Passover, and now in this season of the year, this should mean more to us than ever. This wasn’t stated last week but as some will have already taken the Passover when they hear this particular sermon and this is still geared toward that period of time, because those in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, they’re going to hear this sermon after the Passover, obviously, next week. So for all of them, again, this will have great meaning to it. They can still reflect on these things and understand and learn from what’s being stated and fed into the period of time that they’re actually observing, which will be right in the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

So we’re going to pick up right from where we left off in Part 1 here. No need to go back and repeat some of these things, we’re just going to go right into this in 1 Corinthians 10. That’s where we left off. We’ve been going through some of those things that Paul wrote to the Corinthians there in 1st Corinthians 10. You know, there’s so much of Corinthians when you go through it that its context and the season of the year that Paul was focusing upon was the Passover season, the days of Unleavened Bread. Some of the things he addressed in Chapter 5 and so forth have to do with that period of time. So it’s very much on his mind. That’s why we’re going through some of this, because it has to do with this particular time of year.

So in 1st Corinthians 10, again, those things that Paul was writing about concerned how we’re to partake of the Passover and what it’s all about. So it’s all in context of all that. So much of it it’s about how we need to be ready for it, that we need to be of a certain mind and a certain mindset and certain kind of thinking. Much of that focus that we’ve been going through has been about a unique fellowship made possible for us with God and His Son Jesus Christ. We need to think of it in that context because Paul speaks about those things, a fellowship that we’re able to have with the Body of Christ, and to understand the Body of Christ, what it means, more than just his physical body of what he suffered and went through. We’re to understand that deeply indeed as our Passover, but the reason he did it is important as well. It’s to give us that fellowship, so we can be forgiven of sin so we can have a relationship with God and with Jesus Christ and the Body of Christ, the Church.

We ought to be able to understand that better now than ever before because of things we’ve been going through since 2012 talking about the cleansing of the temple and some of the things taking place that’s still going on.

We’re being made ready for our Passover indeed, not just for this Passover season right now as we’re looking to that, but to what’s coming because the Church is at a unique time period. It isn’t like it was during the last 2,000 years, as I mentioned last Sabbath, where there are people who grew up in the Church or people who were called into the Church and then died in the Church, whether they be in whatever resurrection, that’s in God’s hands. But now is different. We have people that are going to live on into a new age and if they’re in the Church more is required now than in times past.

People could have died in times past and be resurrected in the Great White Throne, and that was something in God’s judgment, depending on how they lived, and if they weren’t living in the temple like they should be and they were out in the courtyard, which happened a lot in the last 2, 000 years: this isn’t new to God’s Church, it happened a lot. There are a lot of people who just because they were in the church or came to Sabbath services or attended Sabbath services it doesn’t mean that they were in the temple. God judges those things. So now those who come through this are going to be in the temple. If they’re baptized they’re very much going to be in the temple, because if they’re out in the courtyard, or farther out than that, God’s cleaning it up. It will be cleaned up. It will be cleansed. We need to understand that. I’m not just blowing air up here, you know. Things are going to happen, uniquely so at this time.

So picking it up here in 1 Corinthians 10:24—Let no one seek his own... This is about (basically the context here, if it’s understood) he’s talking about our own selfish interests in relationships because this is about relationships. There is so much to learn about relationships and how we’re to live life toward others. That’s the basis of God’s way of life! God’s family is about how we live life toward one another, how we live within that family, how we think about one another. So it is in the Body of Christ. That’s where we learn, in the Church of God. How do we think toward one another? So we’re tested in that.

Almost every week I hear of conflict. I hear of conflict where bam, bam, bam, heads are pounding together because people are warring with each another. I think of what it says in James. He talks about, “Because you’re at war with one another, that’s why there are problems.” So sometimes we can be at war with others, not at peace. You have to work for peace. Peace doesn’t just happen. It doesn’t happen in family. It doesn’t happen in marriage. It doesn’t happen with family. It doesn’t happen within the Church. It doesn’t just happen. Everything requires work, especially for us because you have to apply yourself to live God’s way of life, because we’re not spirit.

You have to work toward being of a spiritual mind. You have to cry out to God. You have to recognize the need, first of all, and that means we have to see ourselves for what we are and how lacking we are, and then, therefore, we will, if we understand, cry out to God for help day by day, “I need help. I need Your spirit. I need the flow of Your spirit in me. I want to dwell in You and Your Son and I want You to be in me. I need, I want Your holy spirit,” because without it we’re on our own. We’re just going to strictly be selfish. We’re not going to work toward peace.

So when there’s a disagreement, a conflict of any kind in life, which is going to automatically happen because you’re a human being, your first response isn’t automatically what God says. You have to think about certain things that pop up. Now, sometimes they are, depending on what you’re thinking in that day, how you’re living in that day, what your prayer life was like, how your thinking toward God’s way of life; but sometimes there are things that pop up at work or wherever it might be. It can pop up on the highway. It can pop up anywhere at any time. Then there are attitudes and things you have to battle then with how you think and how you respond to the thinking that comes into your mind because of people around you.

And so it is, and you have to think about those things. So our nature isn’t one that automatically thinks about and is concerned about the wellbeing of others above our own. That’s what he’s addressing here. “Let no one seek his own,” in other words, that we’re striving to always to put ourselves first. We want our way and if we don’t get our way and the way we want something, and the way we think someone should have spoken to us, should have looked at us maybe, or whatever, and we respond wrong then because we don’t like it, we don’t like what someone said to us?

I’ve heard some things already the past week. People have said some wrong things to each other. They’ve reacted in an improper way toward each other in the Body of Christ. Think, why? Why? What could you have done differently? Why are you thinking the way you are toward another person? Why are you responding in the way that you are that isn’t right before God?

You know, we’re getting ready to take the Passover and conflict, drama, whatever it is, people are raising their voice at each other, people being in an attitude toward each other, whatever it might be, and not a right attitude but a wrong attitude. And you think, why? Why? Why hold on to it? Why hold on to the bad feelings toward someone? Do we not realize when we go before God and pray to God (if we do) that first of all we better make sure that we’re forgiven of our sins? And if we’re thinking wrong towards someone else and judging them improperly and thinking harshly toward them we’re sinning already, and if we’re not repenting of that and letting that go, which is sometimes people call “forgiveness,” we’re sinning. We have no right to hold on to anything. God Almighty is the one who had the right to forgive sin! So if someone has really sinned against us how should we pray about it, if they’ve really done something wrong? Sometimes it’s not a matter of they did something wrong. Sometimes it’s just a misunderstanding or we took it the wrong way. So many things are that way. What is your mindset?

Well, to have peace you’ve got to work toward it. Peace doesn’t just happen. You’ve got to work toward it. What do you apply in order to have peace? Sometimes it’s just going up and apologizing, “I’m sorry. I was wrong.” To have peace sometimes you need to be able to say that. Now the other person who is expecting an apology thinks, “First, before I’m going to think right toward you...” We don’t think this out like that, but that’s what happens: “Before I think right toward you I demand an apology, or you’re just on one of my lists...and it’s a pretty long list actually.” That’s not the way to live. It’s not the way to think toward others. What right do we have to hold on? It just blows my mind sometimes of the right, we think, a prerogative we think we have that’s God’s! When in actuality we should be praying for someone else. When in actuality we should be doing our part to try to reconcile and humble ourselves, whatever that takes, “to strive to live peaceably,” I believe it was Paul who stated, “as much as lie within you.”

Sometimes you can only do your part and if the other person doesn’t reciprocate then that’s all you can do, if you’ve really done it right. But that should be our motive and our desire. And that’s what Paul is addressing here. Before we take the Passover, and frankly, every day of our life. It just happens to be that we focus on this more at Passover season because that’s why Jesus Christ had a spear run up into his internals and he spilled out his blood to the earth and he died. He was beaten beforehand to a point where people couldn’t even recognize him, who he was, the flesh was ripped off his body, off his head, off his face, off his back, off his stomach, off his legs with the kind of beating he took so that we could have what we have. So we are to reflect on those things more at this time of year, obviously, and then to think about our relationships and think about what was paid so that we could make peace, so that we could have peace and our responsibility in doing so.

If we’re not willing to do our responsibility, we’re playing games. We’re not in the temple. We want our way. We’re out in the courtyard. We can do it our way. We don’t have to do it God’s way! We don’t have to make peace with a brother! We don’t have to do our part! That’s what we’re telling God. “I don’t care that you were beaten like you were! I don’t care that you had that spear rammed up in your internals and your blood spilled out because they’re going to say they’re sorry to me! They’re doing to apologize to me! I don’t like what they said; I don’t like the way they said it!” Well, big flippin deal! Get a life! You’re in the wrong place! You don’t belong in God’s Church if you can’t resolve that simple little thing and humble yourself! Foot washing? What’s it going to mean to you? I hope we understand what I’m saying.

We need to measure things for what God wants us to see them as and we have to recognize that it starts in here. We are so selfish by nature! We want our way. We’re more concerned with that than we are with God’s way, which is outgoing, which is peace, which is giving, which is forgiving, which is giving up, which is not holding on to certain things in life. Amazing! So let’s not, as it says here, Let no one seek their own, in other words, selfish interests in relationships, but every one another’s. One translation says “wealth.” Wonder where they got that one. It’s not the right translation, but “well being,” as one part says. That’s a part of it if we understand someone else. In other words, not what’s best for us. That’s a part of entering into Christ’s sufferings sometimes to have peace, swallowing our own pride, being willing to say, “I’m sorry,” even if the other person doesn’t say it back. And maybe they really don’t have to. Maybe they really don’t need to. Maybe they never will. How do you handle that? Leave it in God’s hands. Leave it in God’s hands because you may be misjudging certain things and God judges each one according to what they see, what they grasp, what they understand themselves. So if we grasp and understand something and we ignore it and don’t respond the way we’re supposed to, wow.

So again, when it comes to relationships it’s about how we think toward one another and what we want out of a relationship. Sometimes we want, or even more so, we may not just want something out of a relationship we expect people or others to think or act toward us in a certain way. We have expectations that are unfilled sometimes and if we live our life expecting someone or others to respond in a different way toward us, we’ll judge them. We may desire that. We may long for certain things. But to expect it? Because if you expect something then oftentimes we judge accordingly and then we don’t really have the peace and we don’t work toward it the way we need to.

So again, we have to be so careful of how we deal with one another and understand it’s about what we give. Even if you always have to sacrifice, so be it. If you have to be the one who is always sacrificing, so be it! That’s what God’s called us to, to be a sacrifice, to sacrifice our own interests above others in order to give and hopefully and prayerfully others learn from that in time or respond to that in time. If they don’t then God will judge accordingly, but our hope and desire for other is that everyone within the Body responds properly as time goes along.

So the farther we go down here, let’s notice verse 32 (jumping down a little farther). It says, Don’t give offense. Again, over and over again as you go through these chapters, so much of what he has to say, sometimes it’s specific problems having to do with the church at Corinth that were unique to them. Here is an early time within the Church coming out of paganism, coming out of some horrible practices and what they did, and a lot of this wrong thinking in sex and so forth and things that happened in the temples and things of that nature and teaching them about God’s way of life. So he was working with gentiles here in the church of Corinth that was a toughie because of what they were coming out of. We’re not coming out of anything like that, as a whole, but we still have problems in our lives, big problems of things that need to change, of things we need to address, and we’re ever working on those things.  So maybe in a more refined way, but still sometimes even just very physical still in our thinking.

So he said here in verse 32—Don’t give offence. In other words, don’t do what will offend. We should be careful of things we say. Some people just blurt stupid things out sometimes and sometimes if that happens someone says something stupid and they don’t think about what they said, don’t take it personal. Maybe it hurt you and they don’t know how you’re thinking. They don’t know why you might be having a difficulty with something they say. Maybe they do it often towards you, or whatever, because they don’t know what you’re thinking, they don’t know what you’re coming out of, and they don’t know what it is you’re dealing with. Sometimes you don’t even know. That’s the way we are! Sometimes we don’t know what we’re dealing with yet. That’s the way we are.

Anyone who has ever been in God’s Church is still learning at some level of something in their past they’re still coming out of, of something that has to be refined, of something that’s so deeply embedded in us we haven’t seen it yet. If you were able to see everything you would be a very miserable person. Thankfully God doesn’t work with us that way, just open up our mind to see everything in us. We’d be so abhorred! So He lets us see at different levels and we grow to a certain place and then we go on. It’s a matter of being refined and learning and that’s what growth is all about.

Don’t give offence, strive not to, strive to be on guard about how you say things to others, neither to the Jews, nor to the gentiles, nor to the Church of God. So even in the world be careful of how you talk, how you speak to others. Be thoughtful, be thinking about other people and why they might be the way they are and what they’re coming out of. Sometimes people can just say hurtful things. It just happens without thinking. That’s always going to be there. That doesn’t mean they mean to hurt you, it’s just they didn’t think about what they were saying, that you might be sensitive in a certain area. They may not know you’re sensitive in a certain area about some things, to where you might take offense. The key to that one is in understanding you never have a right to take offense. I’ve given sermons on that. You never have a right to take offense at others, if you really, really understand. Yet we do it as human beings, but we have to fight against that because it’s just wrong. It’s wrong thinking to take offense at something someone else says.

…even as I please, as he says here, in other words, seeking to be pleasing to all (or all) in all things. In other words, we should strive to be a good example. We should strive to live well with others. In whatever environment we are in if you’re living God’s way of life and thinking about God’s way of life then you will do this, what Paul says, “Even as I please,” or “seek to be pleasing,” as it is here. We don’t want to be offensive. We don’t want to be obnoxious. We don’t want to stand out in a wrong way. We want to stand firm as to what we believe and what we live, but we don’t try to make a show of it or flaunt it in front of others or put others down because they don’t do the same thing, whatever that might be.

It might be something as simple as food on a table. People can be very offensive about that at times, you know, to others around that others might hear. Maybe an unconverted mate is there, you know, of someone who just happened maybe to visit for the first time or whatever it might be, or someone who doesn’t really see this way yet and yet they’re together at a meal or something, or maybe it’s a waiter or a waitress and you’re asking about certain things in the food. Sometimes people in God’s Church can be very offensive towards others about this. “Well, we don’t do that because of our religious beliefs! Take that!” “Well, you made your stand didn’t you? Wow! You are religious! I’m impressed.” No, they don’t think that. They think, “Well, you are obnoxious! You are obnoxious! I wish I didn’t have your table. I don’t need your tips. Probably don’t tip anyway! It’s probably against your religion!” Sorry.

Why should anyone ever say that in public? Why should anyone say something that’s offensive? Because that’s offensive. It’s offensive to me if someone does it in the Church of God and I’m sitting at a table with them and they say it in public to others. I think, “Oh, please don’t do that.” There’s no sense to do that. They don’t understand. Don’t you understand yet? They don’t understand. Live what you believe and live it quietly to yourself! You don’t have to beat a big drum! “Look at me!! Look at me, what I believe!! I’m religious.” It’s like these people walk around pious. I hate those kinds of pictures, people and they have these pious poses. I wish I could remember that, what I saw in some picture that someone had. Oh, I don’t know if I should say too much, but it was someone doing doing a special investigation right now and the picture they had of this guy was one of the most pious looks, like he is a judge and he is righteous. He is god-like, because of this pose they had of him, this picture they took. They did it for a reason. Anyway, the world we live in.

So we have to be careful. We don’t want to be offensive. We don’t want to hurt others. We don’t want to be obnoxious about what we believe. Live it to yourself. Live God’s way righteously so, but not as a show.

Again here, going on, Don’t give offense to anyone, as it says here, to the Jews, to the gentiles, nor to the Church of God: even as I please, seek to be pleasing, as it is by context here, all in all things, not seeking my own profit, in other words, my own benefit, my own interest because if that’s what we’re only doing when we are with others wherever it might be, in public, on the job, in the Church, if we’re just looking out for ourselves and how we’re treated and how people talk to us and what we expect of them, we’re missing the mark, we’re missing the boat. You live this way of life toward others because you love this way of life and you want to live it and you want to be a good example and you want to live it right and you don’t want to offend anyone. Whether it be in the Church or in the world we don’t want to be offensive. So if you’re thinking that way toward others about others then you’re going to respond in a certain way, whatever it might be.

Maybe you’re in an elevator. Are you going to let someone else out first? Because I see this wherever we travel; you can see certain things about people right way, what they’re like. Some will shoot towards the doors. They don’t care who’s there. They don’t care if anybody’s older or someone that has a cane or a walker, or whatever it might be, or if it’s a woman or whatever it might be, a man and how he treats her and how he thinks toward her. And, you know, it’s just a common courtesy that you step back, and some just charge for the door. Or open a door for someone else? People don’t care about things like that anymore, as a whole. Now, some people do and it’s refreshing when you see it.

I’m talking about little things. But see, little things tell a lot about people, how we think. It’s how you think about other people around you and if you’re just wrapped up in yourself you don’t think about others. These people who do things like that? They don’t think about other people around them. You know what? The world revolves around them. Don’t you understand, the world revolves around them and you should step back and let them do what they want to do because that’s what they’re on earth for? Don’t be that kind of a person. Do we understand it’s how you think? It’s how you think in every situation you’re in in life. Wherever it might be, give, give in, give to someone else, think about others, think about their interests or their best interests, what’s best for them. If everybody lived that way? Wow!

It reminds me of the Feast of Tabernacles where we had to have people out who told people how to park their cars because you don’t know how to park your car, so we had people, and sometimes that’s needed if you have several thousand people coming in and here’s an area you can fill up first, but it’s like when you’re leaving then you really don’t know how to leave either because some people just don’t give in to others, they don’t let someone else go. That’s just common courtesy. You come up, you let a car go, and then it’s your turn to go. Sometimes there are some that start going and they just keep going. They don’t care about anybody else. “Let me out of here!” It reveals a lot of things about the mind here. Then we had some, as small as we got, they still wanted to have people parking cars in a hotel where we met in Toledo. It’s like we’ve got to have people out there showing people where to park where they come in at the holy day. We’ve got to do things like we did in the past because people don’t know how to do those kinds of things. I’m sorry, the things we’ve been through. Selfish human nature wanting our way, not understanding, not growing, not seeking growth.

...not seeking my own benefit (interest), but that of many, that they may be saved. It means you want to be a right example. You look forward to the time, there might be people that you’ve been around a lot in your community, that one day they’re going to have their mind opened up and they’re going to remember you. If you come through this on the other end and you’re in God’s Kingdom, or in that being governed by God’s Kingdom, or you’re in it even, and people know you, there are certain things that are going to happen in their mind. They’re going to remember the good, the right, the positive things of why you did the things that you did and they’re going to come to understand it and respect it and honor it. It’s going to mean a lot to them. In some cases it’s going to encourage them mightily.

1st Corinthians 12; let’s jump ahead here. 1 Corinthians 12:12— For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. So when we partake of the Passover and we read through a part of Corinthians, as we will, and we talk about some of the things and the reason why we do of things we need to grasp even about the Body of Christ, this is a part of what it’s talking about. It’s remembering the physical body, what he did so that we can have a spiritual one. That’s why we’re able to have a spiritual one, because of what he did in his physical one. They’re all tied together and you can’t separate them. He did those things so we could have this, so we could have the Church, the Body of Christ, and then how we treat one another is really, if we can grasp it on a spiritual plane, it’s how we truly think toward God. It really is, because whether we want to do it His way or our way reveals how we think toward God because it’s His family. You’re His family. We’re His family and we need to be able to see one another in that light. And you know what? We have a lot of differences in the Body. To me that’s a beautiful thing. There are a lot of differences because then you have to think about those differences because there are some things that you wouldn’t do the same way. That’s fine! We’re all different and there are many ways to do things the right way. Sometimes we see things done the wrong way and how we deal with that, again, reveals what’s in our mind and how we think toward the Body of Christ. Sometimes concerning responsibilities, sometimes concerning wisdom and judgment and realizing we’re all growing at different rates in life and some things aren’t a major thing and you have to give one another time to grow in various areas. We’re not perfect, none of us. We’re seeking to grow in that; that’s what we want. That’s why we continue to fight the fight that we do.

...and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one spirit, one spirit, we’re all baptized into one body. So when we partake of the Passover this needs to be in our mind – one body. What a beautiful thing. The Church, the Church of God, the Body of Christ that we’re able to experience and be a part of it.

For by one spirit we’re all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or gentiles. See, they had problems toward each other and Paul was explaining this. Jew toward gentile, a lot of feelings there of what they’re being called out of. We have a lot of different backgrounds wherever we are in God’s Church, of things people are being called out of. Sometimes because of the way you grew up or whatever it might be, you have certain kind of thinking toward different people. Sometimes you have to fight yourself because you have to learn that your thinking hasn’t been what it needed to be in some areas.

As I’ve mentioned over the past many years, things that men have had to go through, of understanding sometimes their minds aren’t right toward women in all things and vice versa because it’s a two-way street as well.

…whether we are Jews or gentiles, so there are differences, sometimes big differences, and how we deal with those? Well, being in one Body as to whether we see each other in the same Body, that’s what’s important. …whether we are bond or free, and here again, whether we’re a man or a woman. Big differences! How do we think toward one another? How do we really think toward one another? …and have been all made to drink into one spirit. See, it’s a beautiful thing.

Talking before services here, what an awesome thing to think about a new age when people are taught the same values, the same belief; one truth, one religion on this earth, not the massive confusion we have today. All the things we get to start working with, to change. I think of the movement of drugs on this earth right now. Ah, that’s a big one. It’s going to change so many things. It’s going to change society. It’s going to change cities. It’s going to help change cities! It’s going to help change communities. It’s going to help change prison systems, and on and on it goes, and how people think, and how people live when those things are stopped. Then how we work with people coming out of that it’s going to be beautiful the things we can do.

Well, we should see the Church of God like that now let alone in the future, because it’s the same Church that’s continuing on and how we think toward others, what we want toward one another, we want to see each other succeed. We should want to see each other succeed. It blows my mind when I hear people in conflict with each other! Why? Why?! Do we not understand what we’ve been called to, to share in the same thing in the Body of Christ?

…and have all been made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. Thank God! I look forward to the time it becomes much, much greater, into the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions. What an awesome time that’s ahead of us.

If the foot were to say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear were to say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? It seems like this would be a simple thing, but it hasn’t been in God’s Church. If the whole body was an eye, where would the hearing be? See, we need to respect each other. It’s not a matter of where we are in the Body, it’s that we’re in the Body. We’re God’s family. We’re the children of God and we should value one another accordingly in how we think toward each other and that we want the best for each other of God’s way of life.

If the whole was for hearing, how would there be smelling? But now has God set every one members in the body as it has pleased Him. God does the calling. He calls us into the Church. We learn. We grow. As He talks about there are things that happen within the Body and we learn from that. I think of what we have gone through concerning the ministry. It’s been a powerful teaching tool, and to realize that isn’t the important thing. The important thing is that we’re in the Body and we use whatever we have at any moment in time to the best we can, and if we don’t use that particular part or don’t have that particular part, we do other things. We strive to live a right way of life toward each other no matter what we do in the Body because there are a lot of people who failed in this, a lot of people who have failed in this because they wanted something different.

I remember this area one time when we first got started, a battle over who was going to be in charge of the cookies. That’s something to get upset about: who brings the cookies, who’s in charge of the cookies. What does it matter? Sometimes we let things go to our head that are meaningless, that have no meaning. To me some of the best of times is like what we have here, you know, people just bring whatever they want to at any moment in time. Anyway, a lot of people have stumbled and tripped over these things, a lot of people. A lot of people in PKG have stumbled and tripped in these things and are no longer a part of the Body, just in what Paul is talking about right here, because they weren’t happy with where they were or what was being done or how it was being done or whatever it might be in the Body and how they thought about the Body then and how they judged others in the Body, how they looked down upon others in the Body. Incredible!

Verse 21 again, And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you: nor can the hand to the feet, I have no need of you. The reality is God just telling us we need each other, we really do as a Body. He’s called us into the Body. We want all parts of the Body to be healthy. We want all parts of the Body to succeed. We want all parts of the Body to grow spiritually. That’s our desire for one another, to see one another grow, to see one another conquer and overcome because then you’re blessed. Then you’re blessed and the Body is blessed.

Verse 22—No, but much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, or weaker, as it says here, are necessary, indispensible. You know, someone who is new, you can’t expect them to know and be where someone is who has had twenty years in the Church, thirty years in the Church. Those who are at that stage really don’t. I don’t believe they do, but sometimes I’ve seen those things happen in times past where younger ones are treated in a certain way, not according to where they are or what they have at that moment in time because sometimes people have greater expectations of them. Did you forget where you were when you first called, the first year or two, or three or four or five, how long it took you to get to a certain point to see and understand certain things on a spiritual plane? It takes time. We don’t conquer everything overnight. We’re ever growing. We’re ever fighting our carnal nature.

…and those members of the body, which we think (suppose, account) to be less honorable (base), upon these we bestow more abundant honor, value them more fully. We need each other. It’s God’s Body, in the sense of the Church, the Body of Christ, the Church of God. He has done the calling and He’s called us all for a purpose and that purpose is to succeed. That purpose is to come through what we’ve been coming through. And you know what? We can learn from each other. That’s what life is like. We can learn from each other. We come to value the learning we can have through those relationships that God gives us. Ever learning.  …so that our uncomely parts, as it says here, have more abundant comeliness, in other words, external beauty or decorum.

Verse 24—Because our comely parts have no need: and God has tempered together, in other words, combined the parts, put together the body, having given more abundant honor to that which lacked. In other words, God’s in charge. God’s in charge of the Body. God takes care of the Body. God will nurture and nourish the Body if we just respond to it and do our part as we need to, and if there is conflict there are certain things that we need to do in a certain way and to understand always that how you treat others is really how you treat God because you all, we all, belong to the Body of Christ, the Church of God. …so that there should be no schism in the body. We should have no schisms in the Body, divisions in the Body, you know, times when there’s this abrasiveness that goes on in the Body.

Why? Why is it that there’s conflict at times and this abrasion and schisms? We’re becoming far more refined, but they still pop up from time to time. They still pop up their ugly, ugly head. I’ll tell you what, when they do pop up I’m a little floored after all that’s been said in the last year especially. But it still goes on because we’re at different places of growth and development and we’re coming out of various things and we haven’t, in all cases, been yielding ourselves fully as we should. I hope and pray that others will that are going through some of these things, but I also see a lot of danger signs because I’ve watched it over and over again, because I don’t try to intervene in every situation because God doesn’t grab a hold of every one of us and force us to stop doing what we’re doing. Primarily, my primary job is right here, by what’s spoken, and if we have the ears to hear that’s up to us. That’s the primary thing that God has given us within the Church.

So I have in times past talked to various ones about various things and that’s a matter of being led by God’s spirit. It’s also a matter of judgment and so forth as to what’s done and what isn’t done, but as a whole it’s right here. Yet I see things that are going on today that I know and understand that if some don’t change their course they’re not going to be there, not even a year from now.

Think about where we’re going to be one year from now. If indeed everything goes according to what we presently believe and what we presently see with what God has given to us, we will be deep into it already. War will have already started. Nuclear war. Fear for your own life, for provision for your own life; we’ll already be there in ways you cannot comprehend. If we comprehend properly then our reliance is on God and understanding that God will take care of us. We’re in God’s hands. There are going to be things you have no power to deliver in any fashion or form. God has to do it. So it’s a reliance on God. We do what we can, but when you can’t you look to God to deliver, whatever that might be. This world can change so quickly.

There is a reason why some things take place the way they do. There is a reason why a cabinet is being shaken up the way it is right now and certain specific people are being placed where they are because they have a certain mindset. There is still certain thinking toward places like North Korea and China and that hasn’t been altered. Those nations understand that. Those nations will go so far as to what they take and when they take it and how they take it. But please understand, there are certain things that year and a month and a day has already gone by. See? There are already certain things that are already planned. If all those things be the case there are certain ones who have already made certain decisions “this is a go.” This world is headed toward a war. This world is headed toward a nuclear war. It doesn’t matter when it starts, it’s going to start. We’re on the door of it, if you will, as far as the world is concerned. We’re on the doorstep as far as what we’re watching out here. You’re watching things being shuffled into place. This world is crazy right now, it really is.

Now, if you only see things on certain networks you’re not going to understand what’s happening in the world, but if you do a little digging and you look for world news you’ll see there are some things going on out here, people thinking in a certain way. It’s scary! There are some people out here starting to get a little scared, a little worried. Now, one day they’re going to get so scared and so worried that the DOW is going to go down so fast and that’s it. Here we have all this money. We want other nations to buy our debt at a time when some are getting rid of it. They’ve already started. Some have already started the process of unloading it. We think they’re going to buy it up? We’ve got some crazy things going on out here. That’s how the world churns, at least to this point in time. But that’s changing.

There’s a reason why China has the amount of gold that it does. There’s a reason why Russia has now bypassed China in the amount of gold it has. And where is the U.S. in all this? Way, way, way, way behind because that kind of thinking, it’s what happens afterwards that they’re thinking about. That’s why they’re doing some of the things they’re doing. What happens afterward, after the dust has settled? You’ve got to understand where we are in this world and what’s going on.

Things that are taking place in nations in Europe right now? It’s in turmoil. You talk about clay and iron, man, there are people wondering how it’s holding together. They really are. There are people wondering how can this hold together much longer? And yet out of the midst of that weakness will come ten who are strong and they’re going to act.

We have no idea what’s happening with Russia and China. This world is so blind. It’s more blind than what we were approaching the Apostasy. And I was blind! The world is much more blind right now as far as what’s coming. They have no idea.

So we should be shaken to the core of our being, of a desire to be made ready for our Passover. This year, yes, for Passover season, but you know, that’s to live in us all the while every day of our life until we get there. The focus right now is upon him returning. He’s coming and we need to be ready as a Church.

So he goes on to say, verse 28—And God has set some, in other words the word really is here, not “some,” but “indeed.” It’s what its saying. For God has set indeed those in the Church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, and after that miracles, in other words, power, strength, great works because of God’s spirit that lives within the Church, of what He does in people’s lives, the change, the transformation that’s taking place in the entirety of the Body, if you will, and other things as well. …then gifts of healings (means of healing), helps, governments, diversities of tongues and so forth. In other words, it’s a Body that functions. Those things are needed and God takes care of those things. He is the one who is over the Church. Jesus Christ is over the Church under God the Father and if we yield our self to that process things will function in the way they need to.

I marvel right now because of where we are with different languages being put out there, things, blessings we’ve been given to be able to do something as small as we are with the ability that God has given to certain languages and peoples of this earth, to be able to have what they’re going to receive as it continues to be put on out there, and advertising that’s being picked up in different languages. There are times I feel we’re not moving fast enough so I’ve told Jeremy about a deadline we’re shooting for of things to be fully in place before Pentecost. I think about the world and when it comes time we’re going to dump everything into it, and yet we don’t really have to, but we’re sharing in it, we’re a part of it, what God is going to do, and that’s how it functions. God’s given us that for a purpose and for a reason.

And sometimes I truly think, “Is it going to hold off until we get this readied?” But I know it is because it’s all about that. It’s what it’s about, the timing of everything that’s involved here. I’m still hoping and praying we’re able to have a Feast of Tabernacles together.

So it says, Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in different languages? Do all interpret? He was dealing with some unique things, but it’s basically about power struggles that existed back then. I’ve seen that in the Church ever since I’ve been in the Church. Thankfully we’ve gone, I feel like, way past that now and I’ve seen a maturity in the Church and a level with the Church because, candidly, God’s gotten rid of a lot of that and now we’re a stronger Body, we’re a stronger Church, we’re becoming far more refined. I’m excited by that, but I still worry about the little, the small amount that’s still playing out in the courtyard and I hope and pray they can get their act together soon. I hope they can do it before Passover or through the Days of Unleavened Bread because time, time is not on our side in those things.

It goes on to say, But covet earnestly (desire deeply) the best gifts: and yet I show you a more excellent way. See, sometimes people can get caught up in who’s in charge of the cookies, and really be caught up in it to where it causes abrasion in the Church. Why get upset over something like that with someone else in God’s Church? Or look down upon them because they may be doing it and I’m not doing it anymore, or I want to do it and they really shouldn’t be doing it? Whatever it might be, something so small and yet it can cause abrasion. Yet we’ve seen those kinds of things. Anyone who’s been around for any length of time we’ve seen things where there has been that which is abrasive within the Church, of people getting upset over things of that nature. It doesn’t even take that. It can be anything and everything, but that’s been a powerful tool for revealing some of those things.

Over time God has used that in a very powerful way throughout Worldwide and the time I was in Worldwide in 1969 on, to reveal certain things about human nature and about people and how they think toward each other, jealousies, envying, fighting, abrasiveness that should never have been in the Church. They weren’t, in that respect, “in the Church” when those things were happening. They had put themselves out. They were out in the courtyard horsing around doing things they shouldn’t.

We all must be in the temple before Christ comes. That’s the way it’s going to be in this Church. We’re all going to be in the temple. There is not going to be anyone in the courtyard when Jesus Christ returns. That’s a promise. God has that power. So what is the more excellent way? It’s not about who has this or who doesn’t have that, or how long someone’s been in the Church. I’ve seen people use this over others in the Church. “Well, I’ve been in the Church for so many years and I understand God and God’s will better than what you do.” I’ve known of people in not too distant past who’ve had arguments about some of that, how long they’ve been in God’s Church. “And because I’ve been in longer I understand certain things better than you do.” Sick human nature. So what’s more important? 1 Corinthians 13. We all should know that. Simple. It should just ring in our minds. That’s the more excellent way. It’s how we think toward each other. It’s how we live toward each other.

1 Corinthians 13:1—Although I speak with the tongues (languages) of men and of angels, it’s not “speaking in tongues,” it’s about languages. That’s what the word means, “different languages,” and here it’s saying even if you could communicate on a spiritual plane in a spirit realm, if you had that ability. That would go to a person’s head in many cases. That’d go to a lot of people’s heads if not careful. Big deal. It comes from God and if there’s a purpose in it then so be it. But if there isn’t? It’s about God. It’s about Jesus Christ. It’s about His plan and purpose. …and if I don’t have charity, basically what does it mean if you don’t have God’s love, agape, I will become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal, just a lot of noise. It doesn’t mean anything.

And although I have the gift of prophecy, you know, inspired speaking about God’s truth, about God’s way of life, prophetically if need be, but this has to do with just knowing God’s way of life and being able to speak about it to others, primarily within the Body. You know, God gives us that ability. If we understand and agree with things of the 57 Truths and we’re able to talk about that and share those things and a sermon is given or something and we talk about it amongst ourselves and think, “Boy, I didn’t see that before. And that’s amazing what that part of the verse says,” and we grow in a certain area and we share that, we’re able to communicate those things with one another, what an awesome thing. Some are able to see more than others in certain things. It doesn’t make them better; maybe they’re at a certain point of being transformed. Thank God for that!

So it says here, even though I have all ability at this, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, everything in this book, could repeat it word for word, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and I don’t have charity, I am nothing. Agape, if we don’t have God’s love. That’s what so much of what God’s been giving here in the last several months, if we aren’t living this, if we aren’t in the temple—because that’s what it’s about. If we’re in the temple then this is what we’re living. We’re living this kind of mind, this kind of thinking toward others, or at least we’re striving to and we’re striving to have peace with one another, we’re striving to think right toward one another, we’re striving to esteem each other and not look down on anyone in the Body in any fashion or form, but being thankful for them. That’s a unique kind of thinking because it’s of God. It requires God’s spirit.

And although I bestow all my goods and feed the poor, and although I give my body to be burned… In other words, it doesn’t matter what your sacrifice, how far you go in sacrificing, if we don’t have agape it doesn’t mean anything. You know, we can do various things in our lives and what does it mean if it isn’t about the Body? What does it mean if it isn’t about fulfilling whatever God has given us in life, to do it in a right way, to be a right example? It’s not about ourselves. It’s not about banging the drum. It’s about just living this way toward each other and thanking God for the opportunity of being able to partake of this, thanking God. As we approach the Passover just thank God you’re able to be a part of this Body. How precious is that to you?

I think of, again, the woman out in Lubbock who when we went into her house to visit and she talked about the honor it was to her to have us in her house and I thought, “No, you don’t understand, it’s an honor to be here.” I mean that with all my being. See, that we have that mindset toward each other, that we esteem each other, that we love each other, that we recognize the value of each other. We belong to God. We’re God’s people and we should be moved by that, being in the presence of God, God’s spirit in one another. This is our arena of experiencing God, it really is. On the Sabbath and things that God feeds us with, and then one another if we’re so blessed to have fellowship with one another, to share in things of life, that we’re in this together.

In other words, the last thing that should ever happen is the butting of heads. That should be so foreign to us. It should never be around. It shouldn’t exist and yet it pops its ugly head every once in a while. We’re to learn from that and realize this is not good; this is exceedingly bad. Again, it doesn’t profit a bit if we don’t have God’s love dwelling in us.

1 Corinthians 11. So thus far we’ve been focusing on why Paul was covering these things in the first place and that it has everything to do with what we’ve covered in chapter 10, part of 12 and 13, especially 13 there we just read. All this is, again, partaking of the Passover. That’s the context. This is very much what was on Paul’s mind as he was talking to them. He was wanting them to be prepared for partaking of the Passover in a right attitude and a right spirit. That’s covered later, the latter part of, I should say here, of Chapter 11.

1 Corinthians 11:23, things that we read on Passover night. For I have received of the Lord that which also I have delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. He was betrayed by Judas. He knew it was going to happen. He knew what was going to take place. He knew that Satan had entered into him. He knew it! He knew what was going to happen that night. What’s amazing is he knew the exact timing. He knew this was it. He knew that he had to die on a specific day of the week because he had something to fulfill – not just the Passover but something else, and the timing had to be perfect on a very specific day. It’s the next sermon series and you probably know where I’m going.

So it says here when he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. So they’d already had the last physical Passover that was ever to be observed for any of God’s people, required of God’s people (Old Testament), and now he was instituting that which would be a matter of a new covenant and something we’re able to be a part of as far as the Church is concerned, as God calls people into the Church and the things that would transpire and take place as a result of why Jesus Christ was going through what he was in the first place, why we’re able to have the Body of Christ and so forth.

…and when he had given thanks he broke it, just like we do. Every Passover we break it. ...and said, Take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. So we think about it as we put that in our mouth and partake of a small piece of unleavened bread, unleavened, no sin. He had no sin. He had no sin in his life. We’re reminded of those things and yet he went through everything he did so we can have what we do who are filled with sin, continually battling sin. But he did it so we could have a means of being forgiven of it, so we could have a relationship with God the Father, Jesus Christ, and one another in the Body of Christ, to understand the value then more deeply of the Body of Christ and one another and the sacrifice that was made so that we could have this with one another.

And after the same manner also he took the cup, after he had finished dinner, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. You are to do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. So we think of those things he suffered through physically before he had that spear rammed up into his internals and blood came out and he died. So we think of all that. We’re to remember all those things and be so thankful. What? That we have this, the Body of Christ that we’re able to be a part of, that he gave us the ability to be called into the Church, the Body of Christ. He did those things so that we could have this fellowship that we are to treasure and be thankful for and be humbled by. That’s why we’re to wash one another’s feet, to have an attitude of humility toward each other, that we love each other, that we want the best for each other, that we don’t want schisms in the Body, we don’t want abrasiveness in the Body, we don’t want hard feelings in the Body. Those things should never exist.

Shame on anyone who hurts someone else! Shame on anyone who speaks badly to someone else! Shame on anyone who had conflict with anyone in the Body! Shame! Shame! Shame! It’s a shameful thing, but thank God we can be forgiven of it if we’ll repent and move forward and make things right, seek to make things right. Seek peace, pursue peace. That’s what God tells us to do. It doesn’t just happen; you have to pursue it. So often it has to do with this here first, what we think and how we think toward others, if we’re going to have right peace towards others.

So he says, you’re to do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. Verse 26—For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you are showing the Lord’s death until he comes. I think wow! Wow! I think where we are and how much more that should mean to us now than ever before and realize that coming is soon and this Body needs to be ready.

Wherefore whoever shall eat this bread, or drink this cup of the Lord, in an unworthy manner, that’s what the words mean, “an unworthy manner,” because it’s the manner by which we’re judged and how we think toward one another and how we see one another, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. What a horrible thing! That means unforgiven of sin.

So if there is conflict, schism, anything, even within the Body of one toward another, wow. It is so important that we partake of the bread and the wine in a right spirit, having prepared for it, having thought about it well in advance, asking God this week to help us in any wrong thinking we might have toward anyone, whether it be in the Church or out is immaterial. We need to make sure that we’re thinking right toward others, forgiving, not holding grudges, not holding things against others.

But let a man examine himself. Now, this is actually a Greek word that means “to prove.” They kind of flip-flopped some of the meaning of the words in some of this. This one here literally means to prove himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

I thought it’d be good here just to look at this word, how it’s used in another place here. You can hold your place here. But 2 Corinthians 13. It’s the same word stated, as we read this. 2 Corinthians 13:5—Examine, and this word does mean “examine” here. Examine yourself. This word means “to take account of yourself.” This is very much about preparing for Passover. We’re to take a look at ourselves very closely so. That’s what we should be doing before we partake of the Passover this year. Candidly, that’s what we should be doing throughout all of our time on this earth, really. As long as we’re in this Body we should be examining ourselves on a regular basis, but even much more so at this period of time because this is the time that God uses to teach us the importance of doing this kind of thing on a regular basis because it has to do with the way we think on a continual basis. So we focus on certain things like this even more so once a year for great purpose, so that hopefully it becomes more instilled within our thinking, so it actually becomes, hopefully and prayerfully, more a part of us and how we do think on a regular basis.

So examine yourself, take account of your life, of what you’re doing, whether you are in the faith. Do we believe? How deeply do we believe all that God has given to us? Do we believe deeply all 57 Truths? Do we love them? Have we come to a point where we love what God has been giving to us so that we can see and understand what we have? Even for those who are scattered, to realize that if it weren’t for what God has given me the opportunity of there go I. We’re no better! It’s just that God has a purpose for why He’s called us and then we’re to respond to it just like He did when we were first called.

Why me? Why over someone else? Well, that isn’t ours to question. God just did, so we’re thankful for it and thankful for the timing now, and strive to respond accordingly. Make the most of it. Fight for it! Don’t let it go by the wayside. Don’t misuse it. Don’t have a lack of value of it. Value it deeply!

Because I’ll tell you what, there are so many more who have lacked the value, who have spurned it, who have let it go by the wayside and who won’t be, won’t be living on into a new age, who will be, in most cases obviously throughout time and even up to even this time, in the Great White Throne, final hundred years.

So we’re to examine ourselves, take account of our own lives whether we are really in the faith, in other words. That’s like saying in the temple or out of the temple. “Am I fooling myself? Am I messing around out in the courtyard?” You know whether you are or not. You know whether or not there are sins you are not fighting like you should fight. You know whether there is sin that just goes on regularly in your life and you’re ignoring certain things.

That’s why I use the example of tithing sometimes. There are still some out here not tithing. I think, “How can you not pay a proper tithe?” A tithe means ten, 10%. Five doesn’t get it. Three doesn’t get it. Seven doesn’t get it. Nine and a half doesn’t even get it. It means ten. So that’s the way we think toward God. If we can’t think right toward God we don’t have a chance to think right toward one another. We’re just fooling ourselves! We’re in this for what we can enjoy in life and this is kind of our fellowship now and our whatever it is, because that’s what happens sometimes. People get to know each other in this Body and that’s their community, but God doesn’t let us keep this community unless it’s being lived right. It has to be done in His spirit. It has to be done inside the temple. That’s what He lets us know. “You want to be a part of this community? You have to live a certain way of life. You have to be obedient. So sometimes people don’t learn that.

So as a whole people know. They might try to fool themselves, but are you fighting your number one, two, and three? Day by day are you crying out to God for help to fight those weaknesses in your being that you have to keep on top of day by day because it’s a daily thing? Do you see it as a daily thing? Do you see the battles of what’s pulling for you? And especially in this world out here right now, there are beings out here that know. They know what your weaknesses are. They know what to broadcast toward you and they do it. They do it! You can’t let them win. You can’t let them have their way. You’ve got to fight. You can’t on your own. You have got to have God’s help, God’s spirit to do that kind of a fight. You’ve got to cry out to God for help to stay in the fight. This isn’t over until it’s over. It’ll be over if you give up and just give in. Some are doing that, some few. I don’t want to see anybody do that, but I’ve said that last year and the year before that and the year before that and the year before that and every year before the Feast of Tabernacles. I tend to use that period of time in looking back at different ones and all the ones who have gone by the wayside. We get smaller and smaller because God is not, as a whole, not calling new ones in, though there are some that are beginning to have their eyes opened right now and that’ll increase as we go forward here.

Do you not know your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you except you are reprobates? It means “unapproved or rejected.” That’s the point. It’s just saying it in another way. Don’t we know, haven’t we proven to our self that we’re in the temple? And if not, we’re rejected because we’re out in the courtyard. If we’re in the courtyard we are rejected, we are cut off from the flow of God’s spirit. The flow of God’s spirit exists only in the temple. That’s where we have to dwell! But I trust that you shall know, the word means “to perceive or come to know” that you are not unapproved or rejected. That’s what God wants. He wants us to be confident of that, to know that we know we’re fighting.

I’m fighting! I cry out to God I need help. I know that! Every one of us should know that. There’s not a one of us who don’t need help everyday and cry out to God for His holy spirit so that we can think right, talk right, be right toward Him and toward all life. So we have to cry out to God for help. You have a battle on your hands and that battle is you, first and foremost. Our biggest battle is right in front of us as we look in a mirror.  You’re really ugly inside. That’s what I see myself as. Human nature is ugly. It really stinks. I loathe it with all my being. Selfishness is ugly. We tend to be selfish first and foremost in life. So to think differently, to be of a different mindset requires work. It requires effort; it requires crying out to God for help, and then as those things come along to reject them, to say no. Sometimes you just have to cry out for more help to continue to say no.

Then going back here to 1 Corinthians 11. I gave the use of both words here where it says “examine yourselves, whether you’re in the faith.” Prove. This one here was the one I was going to. This is the one that’s different here. Indeed to prove, in other words, by putting one’s self to the test according to God’s word. That’s how you prove yourself. So God wants us to take account by proving ourselves. That’s what we’re to do. We take account of ourselves indeed. It’s something you can look at. It’s something you can be realistic about and go before God with. Are we in agreement with God’s word or are we having some conflicts with different ones? Have we had something where we should have done more? Should we say, “I’m wrong. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry,” whatever it might be in life. It doesn’t matter where it is. It doesn’t have to be just in the Church; it can be in the world too because we have to live this way in the world and we have to practice the same things towards others in the world around us.

Sometimes you just shock somebody if you tell them, “I’m sorry, I was wrong about that, what I said to you.” Sometimes people will use that as a weakness, but if they really get to know you they’ll understand that it’s not a weakness, it’s the way you think. That’s the way you live. When I say they can take it as a weakness they may take advantage of you because they see you in a certain light and they don’t understand, no, you’re far from that. You stand firm in what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it, but if something was said wrong you’re sorry and you’re not going to repeat that one. Sometimes you’ll shock the tar out of them too and they realize, “Wow! I respect that. I wish more people were like that.” Whatever. Set an example.

So going back to 1 Corinthians 11:29— For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. Incredible! “Not discerning the Lord’s body,” why he suffered like he did, why we took, are going to partake of or have already partaken of the bread and then the wine, what all that means. It’s about the Body. This is where we’re judged. This is our primary area of where God works with us. This is our arena to learn and to grow in. Truly is, in a very powerful way, how we think toward all of God’s people.

So again, he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. It’s not just a physical thing, it’s a spiritual thing. So there can be physical things that happen to us in life, but especially spiritual. I’ll tell you what, if we’re out in the courtyard, we’ll fall asleep to the point of being cut off from the vine. That’s what happens if we’re not careful.

Verse 31—For if we would judge ourselves, that’s what God wants us to do in our lives. That’s how you prove yourselves and you examine yourselves. You take an accounting of your life by proving, are we really judging ourselves properly before God and examining, looking at those things we’ve done wrong, and then working to repent of them and change them and make them right? If we would judge ourselves we would not be judged. Because, see, it can come down to the point where finally something happens – as an example, someone is told, “You know, you’re cut off from fellowship. You’ve cut yourself already off. You’re suspended for a time to hopefully get this together in your mind and your thinking,” or “You’re cut off because you’ve already cut yourself off and this is just a formality,” to shake someone up, to help them to see reality and hopefully begin to repent and begin to work, if they really want this, for this way of life. Most don’t. Thankfully we’ve had some who have and that’s an exciting thing, when people are able to respond and make changes and be sobered in the Body, in the temple.

So again, he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. Spiritually. You know, people just get weaker and weaker, sicker and sicker if we’re not doing what we should be doing, if we’re out in the courtyard. That’s what happens. You can’t do that. You’ve got to break away from it. You’ve got to ask God for help to break away from it. And if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged. So whether it happens within the Church or it happens because we’re not doing our part, God’ll take care of it. God’ll take care of the things that are wrong. That’s why I know that not all things are going to come to the surface that I’m going to see as a pastor, but I know God will take care of it because what’s in the Body, God knows, and what isn’t in the Body God knows.

But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord… So sometimes people can grasp that and understand they are cut off, sometimes they can’t. When they can and they respond properly that’s a good thing. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. God didn’t call us to fail. He called us to succeed. He called us to succeed. Jesus Christ died, spilled his blood to the earth so we could succeed in His way of life, but that’s the only way we can succeed if we grasp and understand that.

Though we know them I think it’d be good to turn over to John 15, things about the temple, whether we’re in the temple or not. They’re simple things; simple, simple, simple things but not simple with human nature – impossible with human nature.

John 15. We’ll be going through this on Passover night. Those of you who have already seen this or already had this on Passover night, here it is again.

John 15:8—In this manner my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. That’s why God called us. He wants us to be fruitful. He wants us to grow. He wants us to overcome carnal human nature. He wants us to see things, to understand His way of life and hold on to it and fight for it with all of our being. Then shall you be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Sometimes it’s hard for us to grasp God’s love because we tend to think as human beings. We tend to equate things on a physical plane of fathers and mothers, or whatever it might be, and family and so forth, and you can’t do that with God. You can’t think that way with God. Those things you have to get out of your mind totally and completely because there is no comparison in those things.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Sacrifice. That’s why I love those sermons that God has given to understand all that He has sacrificed through time. From the first time He created the angelic realm He was sacrificing. He knew what was going to happen, but willing to do so for a greater purpose because there’s no other way to create Elohim except to do what He did with the angelic realm, except for there to be a being like Satan that would choose on his own what he chose. Then mankind and all the sacrificing God has done through time to watch His family suffer on this earth, to watch people, to watch every one He’s ever called suffer.

Have you ever seen your children suffer? How do you feel when they suffer? And you stand back? You intervene at certain times, but as a whole there are certain suffering they must go through and there is certain suffering that is necessary in life. Yet you do so because that’s how they’re able to be transformed and changed. So you step back and you look for the decisions and choices they make, but have incredible love toward them, so much so to let them do those things, to let them whatever it might be, and then to work with them and to try to intervene at different times.

But God, being the perfect, perfect parent that He is to work with human beings, gives us every opportunity, every chance, everything in our favor to be able to make the changes. It’s just up to us and the choices we make. We’re still going to suffer. We’re still going to go through more. It’s just the way it is. It’s about sacrifice and we learn through that process. What an incredible thing to understand! Yet God has sacrificed all along the way in all this. Think that’s easy? Think it’s been easy standing back and letting different people do the things they do on this earth, different ones that have done the things they have to God’s people? Think it was easy when He saw His own Son beaten the way he is and He stood back? “Father, Father, why have You forsaken me?” That His own Son would ask Him that? It was written more for us. He understood why. He understood why it had to be that way, why He had to pull back and let him go through everything he had to experience.

He had to experience the pain, the suffering of the beating he went through, the agony of that, the point of being nailed up there like he was, his hands above his head, and feet nailed to that pole like they were, and to be there suffering, weak, and finally a spear rammed into his side. He talked about the angels he could have had at any time, but he didn’t call upon them because he knew, he understood, because it wasn’t God’s purpose that that should happen. There are times Jesus Christ talked about how he could have called thousands to his aid and God would have granted it, but he did God’s will, he didn’t do his own. It’s incredible to understand that, what was being said there. Another story. It was all for us…all for us.

So he says, as again my Father has loved me so I have loved you; continue in my love. Agape. That’s a choice. It’s not automatic. It doesn’t come naturally. It isn’t naturally in any one of us. It’s only there as a result of a relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, crying out to God the Father for help day by day, that you want to think a certain way toward others, that you want to act a certain way toward others. It doesn’t just happen. Bringing peace, creating peace does not just happen. It’s a result of how we think and live. It may not give peace to others, but we can have the right peace with God. That’s what’s important.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you: continue in, abide in, live in, dwell in –  all those that are the same. They’re all the same word, all these words here that we’re reading about. They just have different words here that are translated into English. Continue in, it means “to abide in; dwell in; live in; continue in; remain in.” That’s how they’re translated, but they’re all the same word and they all mean the same thing because they all apply. …continue in my love. Remain in, abide in, live in, dwell in. Not out here in the courtyard, not ignoring what we know we should be doing. How can anyone leave something unresolved with anyone in God’s Church? It blows my mind! The reality is you can’t and be in God’s Church and be in the temple, be in the Body and have God’s spirit dwell in you. You cut yourself off quickly when you do those things. The last two years we’ve had too many examples of those things happening. They’re getting less and less, but they’re still happening and they need to stop! They need to stop quickly, abruptly so!

If you keep my commandments… Obey the way of life, the truth that God has given to us, live it. If you keep my commandments you shall abide in my love, you shall dwell in, continue in, remain in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love, because it comes from God the Father through Jesus Christ to us. How we treat one another has to do with the Passover. How we think about one another has everything to do about the Passover, examining ourselves and proving our own selves whether we’re in the temple or not. There is the evidence. That’s the evidence. That’s how we’re judged.

Verse 11—I have spoken these things to you so that my joy might remain, continue in, live in, and dwell in, abide in you. There’s a fullness of life when we’re thinking right. You’ll enjoy life more, fuller. We only hurt ourselves by the point that we don’t apply these things, every one of us. Every one of us! The more we can apply these things in how we think and live toward others the more full this becomes. …and that your joy might be full, and with that joy I might add there’s a thankfulness; there’s a gratitude. You can’t have this kind of joy without being grateful and thankful to know how you’re able to live what you’re able to live, why you’re able to have what you have. God has given you everything you have – everything you have. How blessed are we to share in life with what God has given us?

Then he goes on to say in verse 12—This is my commandment, “This is my commandment.” …that you love one another. See, I love it how it states this by John. You go back and read some other things that John wrote and he uses this and it dumbfounds people. “A new commandment? An old commandment? What do you mean this old commandment?” Yet we’re always to love one another. We’re to love. We’re to love. That’s what God says how we’re to live toward others, but he said something different here, if we really grasp it. He added more here. This is what makes it new. This is what makes it meaningful. This is what makes it come alive and real — as I have loved you! A willingness to lay down your lives for one another, not hold a grudge! That’s the extreme opposite! Of being upset with someone, of holding a grudge against someone, of becoming offended because they said something to “me” in a certain way that “I” didn’t like. Boo-hoo. I’m sorry, that’s shameful. How can we do that in the Church of God? Yet it’s been in the Church of God ever since I’ve been in the Church because we’re human beings, but right now it needs to be far less and becoming less and less and to where it just doesn’t exist. What an awesome thing! It’s going to come to that point where it doesn’t exist. Beautiful!

So we’re to love one another, but it takes sacrifice on your part. That’s where real peace comes from. That’s where God’s love comes from. It comes because you are sacrificing. You’re the one that’s sacrificing. We expect others to respond in a certain way and to be sacrificing toward us, and them saying their sorry, or whatever it might be, or doing something in a different manner, or saying something in a certain way or acting in a certain way, but you can’t expect it of others. You’ve got to expect it from self because that’s the only thing you have control of working with – of how you think and how you live toward God. That’s what God expects and that’s how God judges us.

So do we not have enough love for someone else to hope that they’re able to come to a point where they’re able to, if they’re wrong, to be able to be forgiven of God, to get their act together too, and if they haven’t done wrong that “I” am able to come to the point where “I” can fully see where “I’ve” done fully wrong, or whatever it might be, but not to hold anything against anyone else and give someone the benefit of the doubt in those things and to realize, hope, and pray that we’re all a part of the Body. Who wants anyone to be outside the Body? What is worth it?

This is my commandment, That you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man, a woman, whoever, whomever, lay down their life for their friends. It means you have to sacrifice. Is everyone our friend in the Body, in the Church? Better be. You better be. You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. So again here, what an incredible thing.

So we’re to be ready to take this year’s Passover. For some who are going to hear this next week, you’ve already taken it, but you need to continue thinking this way more so now than ever before, understanding you’re being made ready for our Passover’s coming. This Church, God’s Church, is being cleansed. It’s being refined. We will be cleansed before Christ’s coming.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1