Trust in God, Pt. 3

Ron Weinland

June 30, 2018

Today is Part 3 of the series entitled Trust in God.

As it was mentioned in Part 2 there is a great deal said about the subject about trust in the scriptures, especially in the Psalms, as we talked about, and it’s about keeping our eyes on God for guidance, direction, soundness of mind, because as human beings we are really messed up (we really are) because we’re selfishly motivated, and we see that in the world today magnified many times over because this world is just getting more and more messed up all the time. Our society, politics, government, things are upside down and getting worse and worse and there seems to be so little soundness of mind.

There are people out there today protesting things that you think, in a physical, carnal world, where are their minds? I mean, it’s just insanity or the closest thing I can think of to what borders on insanity. Where is the soundness of mind?

But for us God blesses us of a process that takes place in our minds and we begin to change, we begin to grow and learn better soundness of mind, if you will, and so we keep our eyes on God—that’s the desire—for guidance, for direction, for soundness of mind, for correction, for help, for strength, and so forth. It’s about going to God and indeed seeking God’s guidance first in our lives. It’s getting into that routine, that habit, that thinking where God indeed is first in our thinking, and trying to make certain that we are combating and fighting against this, against self and selfishness.

Again, it’s about seeking God’s guidance first in living right, in making right choices in life, in making right decisions and that’s about trust, it truly is. Though sometimes I think if we consider this subject we feel that we do trust in God. But the reality is there are a lot of things in our lives that happen from day to day that reveal that we’re lacking in some of those areas from time to time, obviously, and there are little things that pop up that reveal that. That’s what this series has been about in large part although we’ve talked about other things as well that fit into this area of trust and looking to God and keeping our eyes focused and trying to keep on guard too, that there is a being out there that wants to come at us in different directions and he’s tried everything that he can.

Throughout the time I’ve been in the Church I feel like there just aren’t any surprises. His ways, his way of functioning, his means and that which he uses, he’s tried all of them in the Church since I’ve been in the Church, and sometimes he’s very successful at what he does because we’re very carnal as human beings. We’re very selfish and if we let down or if we begin to coast, if we begin to become as the last era was noted as being, lethargic, lukewarm, then those things can creep into our lives much more quickly before we even realize it and then we’re trapped and people are led astray.

So coming to more fully place our trust in God is a process of spiritual growth with a clear, maturing soundness of mind and better balance in how we live. The level of our true trust in God can have great impact, again, on family life (it does), family life, relationships, health, protection, finances, safety, ability to discern and hold on to the truth that God gives us, His word, and so forth.

So as was mentioned toward the end of Part 2 there are many things that God has given to His Church to establish as it (the Church), deals with different conditions, trends, and customs in the world around it. That, too, is very much a matter of trust and faith on the part of every member of the Body of Christ. It is the exercise of such trust that actually helps one to grow in greater soundness of mind. I’m going to say that again: It is the exercise of such trust that actually helps one to grow in greater soundness of mind and to have better balance in life. It’s a matter of grasping more fully how God leads His Church in this in all matters of truth.

That’s an awesome thing to grasp and understand and to trust in and to recognize our lives are in God’s hands. There has only been one period of time in large part that some of these things haven’t had a process of flowing in the right way and that was during a large part of Laodicea after Mr. Armstrong died, because God’s Church didn’t have an apostle. We don’t know if there were apostles even in the period of time after the early apostles on. Definitely God used evangelists and so forth and different ones through time, and may have as well, but there was a declining of the truth in the world and the ability to hold on to the truth in the world after the apostles died, and then we came up to the period of Sardis. So there are many things we have yet to learn. But doubtful in that respect that they were around or that they were provided for the Church.

That’s why all through time up to the time of Mr. Armstrong is a matter of holding on to what God gave to the apostles and to understand how important it was to hold fast to those things that God gave to His Church, to His people. Then as Mr. Armstrong came along, as the Philadelphia era of God’s Church came along and truth began to be restored once again to the Church because it had been lost over that period of time slowly but surely, things began to change in an awesome way and God began to reveal a lot to us about how we’re to live life, what balance is, and yet we had a long period of time in many thing we were just very unbalanced even in that. That takes time.

It’s taken a lot of time to go through the period of Philadelphia, and then we had the period of Laodicea that followed, and thankfully because God is preparing a people for the return of His Son it’s awesome what we’re experiencing, that God is revealing more of those things to us in a clearer and more sound way, if you will, about how to live life, how to get rid of the things that are unbalanced and unsound in our lives, the things that can creep in and catch you off guard so quickly.

So, there are many things that God has given His Church the responsibility to establish and this is referenced in different ways in scripture. One area speaks of the power of binding and loosening. I marvel at that one. That one’s scary because you better be in absolute unity and oneness with God keeping your eyes on God as to how to administer, how to lead and guide and direct, and to seek to make certain that everything is a matter of God’s will, otherwise it’s not a small thing. That carries an awesome responsibility with it.

So that even carries over into things about, and actually in the context of some of some of those things, about whether someone is able to be baptized, whether someone is suspended, disfellowshipped. God makes it very clear whatever is bound on earth is bound in heaven. It’s a matter of seeking God, a matter of seeking to be at one with God. It’s a matter of doing things God’s way. He teaches us those things.

God doesn’t want to do everything for us. He wants us to learn. He wants us to grow. He wants us to learn how to judge, how to judge righteous judgment. He wants us to get rid of some of that attitude that we heard about in the sermon last week, “Well, that’s just not fair!” Because people tend to look inward and judge things in a way that is not good and not sound and not balanced and not according to God’s word and God’s purpose and God’s mind. So we’re ever learning how to do that in a better way.

So again, there are many things that God has given His Church responsibility to establish and this is referenced in different ways in scripture. Again, one area speaks of binding and loosening, but we’re going to look at a place here in Proverbs that speaks about this as well.

Proverbs 1:7—The fear of the Eternal is the beginning. It literally means “the principle part,” the beginning. Now, “The fear of the Eternal,” just looking at this alone, it doesn’t mean you’re afraid of God. It doesn’t mean like sometimes we think about the word fear itself and how it’s taken in the world or how people think about fear. It’s about awe, respect. It’s about a fear to turn away from God’s word, to understand what it’s like that God isn’t in our life. It’s the fear and respect of His word, if you will, the fear to depart from His word. That’s what we should fear and this is really the context of so many things you read in scripture. The world doesn’t grasp a lot of that, and frankly even through time some haven’t understood that, especially a carnal, physical nation of Israel because they were very physical and God had to deal with them on a physical plane because they weren’t called, they weren’t given of His holy spirit to understand things on a spiritual plane whatsoever.

That’s why I wonder if Moses had hair. I cannot comprehend that, what he did, how he did what he accomplished. But when you live in those times God gives what is needed for those times and He gave him the help that he needed.

The fear of the Eternal is the principle part, the beginning of knowledge. That’s where the ability to learn about God’s way of life and God’s word and to begin to have the knowledge, the truth of God in our minds is so awesome. And then, just like the law, God’s law – look at the 10 Commandments— to have knowledge of those things and then to realize it’s a fearful thing to go against God. It’s a fearful thing to do things different from what God said that we should live life, how we should live life. So that’s where the fear comes in that we should have, a fear to stray away from the love, the kindness, the mercy that God pours out upon us as human beings, especially when we understand that as a part of the Church.

...but fools despise wisdom and instruction. As time goes along we actually learn the importance of being corrected. We welcome it. If we’re in error we want to know it. If we’re doing things that are wrong we have a desire toward God that those things be exposed to us so that we can repent, because if there are things that we can’t see they’re hurting us. If there are things that we’re doing that are wrong against God’s way the best thing is God will bring those things to the surface no matter what we have to go through. And oftentimes that’s by trial and the example of gold being heated up and the dross rising to the surface. Then and only then can we see certain things as to how we really are, and we learn to welcome that. We learn to desire that because we want to be more at one with God, we want to be more in unity and harmony with God and we understand that life becomes better and better and better the more refined our lives become in the sense of becoming more at one in agreement with God’s word and God’s way of life and living that way. Life is richer and better then.

...but fools... I mean, we’re foolish; we’re absolutely stupid to not want guidance in the sense of correction and admonishment in our life, if we don’t want to have any trials in life that would prevent us from being able to see certain things in ourselves that we need to see in order to grow! So oftentimes in life throughout the experience of life in God’s Church we have things happen to us that hurt! They’re not pleasant to go through! Sometimes they try us. I mean, they try us in great ways because it brings things to the surface in here, it brings things out in the open in here that you finally have to deal with.

It’s like what happened to the Church in the Apostasy. There should have been certain questions that one would naturally ask rather than just becoming so disillusioned and a third of the church just leaving everything to do with anything about God, becoming almost atheistic, if you will. “I’ve lived this for many years; believe this is God’s Church. This is God’s Church! Then how can this be happening?” We learn from that; we can learn from that in an awesome way.

So, anyway, it’s a marvel what we live through in life and what it takes sometimes to bring things to the surface so that we can begin to address certain things about our nature, about the way we think. Because, candidly, the way we think as human beings is just wrong. It sucks! It really does! It’s selfish. It’s evil. It’s based on evil. It really is. Sometimes in God’s Church it takes people a long time to come to that point in time where they realize, “My human nature is evil. Of and by itself it really is, because it’s selfish.” There is a being that started all this. That’s why God made us the way He did. He made us carnal, physical human beings so that we could learn and come to a point in time, whenever God begins to work with us, to reveal to us human nature is not right, and we have to choose (when God gives us the opportunity), “I want a different nature. I want the kind of mind, the kind of love that God has that is outgoing, that is genuine and true all the time – not just when it’s easy for me, not when it’s just natural. Because if it’s natural for me there is some selfishness involved.” If it’s natural it’s not from God, because what comes from God is totally giving without anything being received in return in any fashion or form. That’s a lot said on a spiritual plane.

My son, hear the instruction of your father. This isn’t about physical things in life, though it begins in there. God is using something throughout the Proverbs, and so much is given throughout scripture of things that happen on a physical plane, that reveal something that He wants us to understand more deeply on a spiritual plane. It’s about God. So it’s not specifically about physical fathers.

“Hear the instruction of your father.” Now, a child should. A child should grow up doing that, learning to receive the instruction of their father, but this isn’t a book for children. Parents can learn from this and teach their children and strive to teach them proper and right and they learn that, if it’s proper and right, as we strive to change and grow, it’s from God. So we strive to follow that way in how we administer His way of life in our family.

But this is far more than that. This is very much to the Church. It’s very much to those whom God calls in time. “Hear the instruction of your Father.” That doesn’t mean we just hear the sound. And how do we hear it? Well, we can hear it in part from this, but we can’t understand this without this, without what God gives to His people through sermons, through writings and so forth. That’s how we learn and that’s how we grow. God puts power in that. He puts power into our minds and the ability to hear it, to receive it, and that’s an awesome thing. That’s why it’s so important that we pray about those things that we hear before we come to Sabbath services or before we go to the Feast of Tabernacles or to other holy days and so forth, because we want to receive what God has prepared for us.

...and do not forsake the law of your mother. This is on a spiritual plane about the Church of God! This is exactly what this is about. It’s about the Church of God. God has given power in His Church to lead and guide and direct His people. It’s always, as a whole, been that way, and even when it wasn’t doing exceedingly well for a period of time there were certain expectations and certain living that people were required to live by for a time to try and to test them. That’s another sermon in itself. But that was in a period of time from the early 90’s on up to ’94, finally.

So, “do not forsake the law of your mother.” We have a responsibility to listen, to seek to be in unity and harmony as God’s family. Scriptures make that very clear, very plain. We are to desire with all of our being to be in unity and harmony and oneness and to have that within the Body. That’s why certain kinds of decisions from time to time have to be made somewhere, and God has made clear where that somewhere is. The church is responsible for that.

Again, Forsake not the law, the guidance the direction, the administration, whatever, of your mother, for they shall be an ornament of grace upon your head... An ornament as a wreath upon the head, like, almost like a crown, if you will (that’s what it’s talking about here), of grace that you wear. It’s something that enhances your life, your mind, your thinking, your peace of mind, your soundness of mind.

Let’s go on to Chapter 3. ...and chains about your neck. So, again, it’s something that you will wear with life that is exhibited in how you think, in how others and what others see and what you’re able to see and understand in your relationship with your God.

Proverbs 3:1—My son, forget not my law; but let your heart keep my commandments. So it’s not just a matter of doing something of what God says this is how to live, this is what we’re to do out of constraint. It’s like tithing or giving an offering to God or whatever. God doesn’t want it if the heart isn’t right. It’d be just as well that we don’t do it at all as we hold back or we give begrudgingly as God shows. If that’s in our thinking in any fashion or form, “Well, I could use this for rent or for over here, because...” blah, blah, blah, whatever the reasons are... That’s not what God wants. He wants it because it’s out of the heart, because this is our joy, this is our fullness of life, this gives us part. God lets us share in what He’s doing, whatever that might be.

I think of co-workers who used to be (what they were classified as co-workers) who never came to Sabbath services, who never came into God’s Church, and yet thousands upon thousands of co-workers around the world gave to the Worldwide Church of God because there was something they heard there, there was something that they saw in part but couldn’t fully grasp, and so they gave to support that. And they were blessed. They were blessed because of things like that because it came out of their heart. So, you know, God gives blessings to people though they are not in His Church. There is blessings and favor that God gives to people in this world at different times by His choosing, but first and foremost it’s about His Church and about those whom He has called.

But again here, it has to be from here because this is what we want, we see something special and it moves us.

...for length of days, and years of life, and peace, shall they add to you. Awesome! It makes life better. The more that God is a part of one’s life, truly the richer life becomes, the more fulfilling life becomes, the more meaningful life becomes. I think of the focus we are blessed to have as His people, how blessed we are to see the things we see, to know the things that we know;  and candidly, we really don’t grasp how much He’s given to us. We really don’t. I hope as we approach the Feast of Tabernacles and go through the Feast of Tabernacles that that is something we’ll grow in more and more, to truly grasp more deeply how much God has given to us. Awesome! It really is.

“Length of days.” Be a strength of life because the more we’re at peace with God, the more we have the peace of God in our minds because of how we’re living our lives and, you know, that doesn’t mean that life always goes easy for you. You know, the judgments that we make, the things we judge, if God’s in the forefront, if God’s in the picture continually and we’re striving and you make certain choices and decisions, then you’re at peace with God. We don’t have to be at peace with this world. You’ll never have peace in this world. There’s always going to be chaos and confusion and drama, drama, drama, drama in this world, but that doesn’t have to affect our minds and our being. So we make choices and judgments and the more in unity that we are with God in those things the more at peace we really are.

That’s even a matter of health. That’s even a matter that strengthens you in health. There are things in this world that can wreck your health. There is thinking that can wreck your health. There are things that can make you hurt inside. There are things that can make things not work as well inside in your digestive system, in your sleep at night, and all other kinds of things that people in this world go through, the anxieties because of the not knowing and not having that peace. We are blessed. Our lives are in God’s hands regardless of what happens.

I think about what I made comment about here earlier. A year ago I knew things were pretty bad and when I went downtown to Good Sam’s hospital. I, candidly, was at a point in time where I realized this may well be it, because if they can’t open this up it’s over for now. I’m not as concerned about this as I am others, what that would mean for people in the Church, for my own family, and so forth. Nobody wants to see people have to go through suffering of those kinds of things in life. But it is a reality of life. It happens and it’s going to continue to happen...

That’s why there are so many lessons to be learned from that throughout life. That’s why in the Millennium people aren’t going to live for a thousand years. You know, there’s been that concept in times past. “Well, people are just going to live and then ever how long that might be, and then one day when they’re matured they’re just going to be resurrected into the God Family,” whether it be fifty years into the Millennium or a hundred years. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But we had those concepts.

The reality is no, it won’t be until a thousand years are over. What makes us more special or what makes them more special than those who have lived through 6,000 years and those who haven’t been resurrected yet, you know? Abel, he’s one, the longest, 5,000, whatever, 800 years, whatever it was. I can’t remember the time there, period. I don’t know if it even says. I’d have to go back and check. See, we don’t know everything in the Bible. You have to go back and look. So ever how long that’s been, it’s been a long time. He doesn’t know it.

Those who die throughout the Millennium when they die they won’t know it. But those who do know it, that miss them, because it’s a separation. You’re close to an individual, you’re close to a mother or father or a child and they die, and that’ll happen in the Millennium. It’ll happen in the Millennium. God’s not going to protect everyone from death. There’s one period of time only that God protects people from death and that is only during the final hundred years. Awesome to understand that.

...for length of days and years of life, and peace, because that’s what it’s about. It’s about this mind and the peace that God gives to this mind, of how we can live life knowing that relationship that is there with God Almighty.

Do not let mercy and truth forsake you. Don’t let mercy and truth forsake you. Don’t let them leave your grasp. Don’t let them escape your grasp. God says hold on to them, in essence, with all of your being. Mercy is an incredible ingredient in life. I think of that. I think of that often, about mercy and how we treat one another and how we think toward one another, because if we really get the big picture of what God is doing in “my” life, if I can see that and I understand who I am, if I can clearly see my nature that I loathe and am disgusted with, if we hate that nature, a selfish nature, because that’s Satan’s nature. He’s the one, the first one who had it, this inward desire toward self and protecting self and giving this air of something different that’s not true. On and on it goes, this horrible vacuum in life, you know, like a black hole that just sucks everything in. That’s the way we are as human beings. We don’t think ourselves that way and we don’t tend to think ourselves as being that way, that that kind of nature is evil, but it is evil because it’s not of God. What is selfish, that’s just not good. If it’s not good it’s not from God.

If we can grasp how merciful God has been (each one of us to say) me, if we really see that with all of our being and are growing in that more and more and more, how merciful God is to me, if that doesn’t have an effect to affect change something is deeply wrong inside of us and God will work with that to change that. He’ll have things happen in our life, allow things to happen in our life without intervention, will allow certain things to take place that bring that dross to the surface (sometimes again and again and again) until we finally work to get rid of it, address it, face it, and ask God for help to be rid of it and learn to be merciful to others.

If we receive of God’s mercy and understand how great that is how can we be less toward others? That’s what should happen in the mind. I would rather err on the side of mercy (I truly would), than not to have mercy at all, not to have mercy involved.

...and truth.  ...don’t let mercy and truth forsake you. Because mercy, when you live that more and more in your life in all of your relationships, because that’s really the unpinning of a lot of things having to do with how we think toward others, how we think about others, and especially in the Body, in the Church, and truth, those two things are exceedingly powerful in life. Because mercy, in many ways, is the process between grasping more deeply God’s love and our own selfish, human, philia love. It really is. So it’s very much about God’s love and His truth, which is very much about His love. Because everything about the truth of God – I marvel at this when I think about it, and especially in prayer, and I think about all the truth that God has given to us, all the things we see and understand and I marvel and I think, “How awesome! That’s God.” That’s why I know I love God, by His truth. Why? That’s the Word. It’s what reflects His mind. It is the revelatory thought of God. It reveals who God is. The more we see of His truth, the more we understand it, the more we grasp His instruction and guidance and direction in our life the more we see of God. That’s why I think about those things and tell the Church about loving His truth. Because if there are things in His truth that we don’t love there is something about God we don’t love, there is something we’re still resisting and holding on to in our own selfish, human life. That’s the last thing we want to do when you talk about truth that God gives to us.

Fasten them about your neck; write them upon the table of your heart. Beautiful expression here. You have a hold of them. You wear them with honor. You’re thankful to be a part. That’s what that means. You want it to be seen. You want it to be there, wherever you are. That’s your mind, that’s the way you live, and in your heart because it’s genuine and true and it comes from deep inside of who you are.

Then so shall you find favour and good understanding, or the word is “good success” in the sight of God and man. If you have the favor of God in your life, if God is working with you molding and fashioning, if you know that your life is in God’s hands where else would you want it to be? I mean, really, where else would you want it to be? I marvel. Do you marvel at that, at what God’s molding and fashioning in your mind? He knows where in the Body that He’s preparing us because every one of us is called to a purpose, every one of us is called to a design, to fit into a structure that God is building. God doesn’t build anything bad. God builds things more beautiful than we can comprehend, more glorious than we can comprehend. And to know how rich that life will be, to desire that, to look forward to that, what more could we want as a human being? And to be at peace with that, to surrender our lives to God? It’s a hard thing for human beings to do but what else would we want to do if we really see it in these terms that we’re talking about.

Trust in the Eternal with all your heart! Trust in God! What is it day by day in how we live, is that trust there? Do we look to Him first? Do we judge matters first by that, by that measure, by that standard? Because there is no better thing we can do. “Trust in the Eternal with all your heart.” Is God first? Is God in the forefront?

...and do not lean upon your own understanding. Because, see, that’s the conflict. That’s the battle. We oftentimes don’t understand how much we lean upon, being content with, our own understanding, our own way of seeing and doing things. Oh, and have I seen resistance in God’s Church since I’ve been in it, of resistance in different areas – with doctrines, with truths, with changes. Makeup. You think something so puny and small and unimportant when it’s all said and done; who gives a flip? Whatever! What does it mean when it’s all said and done? How important is that to your existence whether you do or whether you don’t? But it was important to men and women!

There are many who left God’s Church over something so dumb and unimportant, got upset, rebelled against God’s apostle, rebelled against the authority of the Church. “Hold to the law of your mother.” Oh, no, not only did they not do that, but they spoke badly. Kind of like in politics today and some who just get to a point where they hate certain ones, “Cause everything that’s happening in the world is their fault!” Anyway, I’m sorry. I mean, people have gone nuts. They really have! I mean, just a little bit of soundness? Give me a break!

There’s a spirit world out there and it is so incredibly active right now in people. It’s scary. If you see it for what it is, it’s some scary stuff going on out there because that’s where it’s coming from. See, I’ve seen this before and so have some of you, before the Apostasy and after the Apostasy. It’s a spirit and there’s power in it. It’s unleashing itself very powerfully, destroying from within.

I’ll tell you what, you talk about some things changing from the first book, or the second book to the third? We’re seeing some incredible things. There are some things that I don’t fully grasp and understand yet and God hasn’t revealed them yet, but even about Ephraim they’re scary.I don’t know how many of you have seen some article, but right now they’re in agreement, Great Britain with a few others, several other European nations right now in a common defense. Even though they’ve had the little Brexit exit exit, whatever it is, you know that hadn’t really fully materialized yet; they’re going to be a part of that. Doesn’t say they have to be a part of it. And could something like that happen with Ephraim, Great Britain? Things have changed a lot. That nation has changed a lot. In many ways there’s not a lot of Ephraim there anymore anyway. See, if you’ve ever visited London and different places you realize what the problems are in Europe right now. It’s about mixing many different peoples, primarily religions, that are tearing places apart. There truly is. It’s going to be the cause of the next uprising that takes place in the world. That’s what it’s coming down to.

So whatever that timing is, whatever takes place, the troubles in Europe right now, the things they’re forced to address are because of what they have allowed to take place, what this nation wants, or some people in this nation want to happen. “Just open up the borders. Everybody should have a piece of this. I mean, isn’t that what we want to do with our tax money?” Soundness? Law? If a society can’t live by laws, if they don’t establish and have certain laws for a purpose? And you think what on earth? What’s going to happen? Well, we’re seeing that take place in front of our eyes. That’s why this time around is so different. God’s allowing certain things to take place and it’s going to be interesting to see how it all pans out. Truly is. Scary. Because mankind just won’t listen no matter what.

Even though God shows His mercy and gives people time the end result, sadly, is going to be the same, and it could be far worse. God shows His mercy and what does man do? He becomes worse. God gives more time; He even says that. What does mankind do? “And I didn’t intervene and I gave you more time. You just became worse and worse.” That’s why the faster it happens, the quicker it happens, the more powerfully it happens the more blessed in the long run this whole world really is. Thank God it isn’t going to be for 3½ years. Nothing would survive. It really wouldn’t. It couldn’t.

So, “don’t lean to your own understanding.” And the reason the contrast is given there? Because that’s what we tend to do. That’s our natural human nature. It’s the way I see it. That’s why when it comes to relationships sometimes we see someone doing something and, “Well, that’s not the right way to do it.” Well, now, wait a minute. Is there sin involved there or is it just a different way of doing it? It may not be your way. Is it a different way of doing it and is there freedom in that? Absolutely. Should they be criticized and condemned for making a different choice, of doing something differently? No! What value is there in that? What good is there in that?

There are many different ways of doing things. There are many different ways of getting from point A to point B. If you want to take the long way because you like the scenery, then so be it. Sometimes you think the fast way might be better and you find out, hey, it’s all jumbled up. Anyway, the point being is that there are so many ways of doing things in life and we tend to be critical of others by our own human nature because we judge quickly, because it’s just not the way “I” would do it.

It could be in food. Well, that’s not the way I’d make that. Okay, fine, don’t eat it if you don’t like it, but don’t condemn it, don’t criticize, don’t get on somebody else because they didn’t do it your way, you know, because sometimes life gets that petty. People, human nature can get that petty about things.

In all your ways acknowledge Him; look to God first. Strive to judge righteous judgment. Strive to judge things in a right way. Grab hold of soundness of mind and balance because it comes from God. God shows us how to have it. He shows us how we’re to think, and if we’ll think that way and work that way we’ll be able to see things and grasp things that we otherwise can’t. That’s beautiful, it really is, and it gives incredible peace up here.

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Again, incredible thing. We want help. We need help. Now, that doesn’t mean He’s going to tell us everywhere to turn in life and every decision we should make, but we should want to make sure that within the framework of those things that they’re not in disagreement with something about God and His way and instruction about how to live. Then if it’s not then we have much freedom to do many things, we really do. But to acknowledge Him, to make sure that God’s a part it’s not to live life in a superstitious kind of way that we don’t do certain things unless we have “a sign,” or whatever it might be. God wants us to learn how to make decisions in life. So we make decisions that are lawful, within the law and strive to do things in a good way, to honor God, and He’ll bless us, He’s there with us.

Do not be not wise in your own eyes. Now, if we could all do that relationships themselves would be much better. They really would because we can’t help it as a whole. We tend to be wise in our own eyes. Everyone has an opinion. Look at the world around you. And you know what? Everybody is right in their own eyes. They don’t think they’re wrong. Who goes around thinking they’re wrong about choices and decisions they make as a whole. “Oh, I’m wrong in every choice I make. I can’t make a right decision. I can’t make a right choice. Woe is me. I’ll go ask my neighbor what I should do.” Anyway and you know what your neighbor would tell you, what you should do, because he’s right. That’s just the way we are as human beings. We value our judgments way too much.

Conflicts come because we’re right in our own eyes and the other person’s the one that’s wrong. They’re the ones that need to change. They’re the ones that need an attitude or mind adjustment or something, but not “me.”

Fear the Eternal, and depart from evil. Depart from that kind of thinking, about relying on ourselves or thinking we know, we understand what others should do and how they should do it.

So again, this can be about small things and big things. It can be about matters like, as far as the Church and the Church making judgment about things, because in large part that’s a part of the context of what I’ve been talking about here, about listening to the law of our Father, listening to the commandments and the guidance of our Father, as it said here. How did it state that? “Hear the instruction of your father and forsake not the law of your mother.” In other words, hold on to it, the guidance and direction that’s given because that will give us guidance, balance, and soundness of mind if we live by it.

Again, as I said, this can be in small things and big things in life. It can be matters like clothing styles. We make decisions. We make choices, and sometimes our nature fights against it. No tie - that’s been a toughie for some in God’s Church. It has been a toughie (including me), for some in God’s Church, if you’ve done it since 1969. Some of you have probably done it since 1969 and longer. It’s in your mind this is what you do every Sabbath. So to have something come along that says, no, now, you know, there are other ways you can do this, and especially when it’s hot outside, nasty outside – though it be cool in here it’s in the 90’s outside today. I think better this way. I think this is going to be more of a style, open, you know. What an insane thing to have something around your neck! And not only that, when it’s there you tighten it up! I mean, that’s just stupid! But we do it because it’s society, it’s the world, and there’s this balance we try to find, and this moderation, what’s moderate. So even that we’re addressing actually within the Church as times goes along. There are things that change as time goes along. Then there are other areas you battle with. We don’t want to let down certain standards either, so you’re always seeking this balance and what is honoring God.

Well, you know what? It comes from the heart. That reveals to us in essence what God really supports. It really does. It’s like a binding and loosening so that we’re in unity and oneness, so there’s not divisiveness that someone thinks they’re more righteous because they’re going to continue to wear a tie until the day they die! That’s fine. That’s a choice. But don’t look down upon anyone else who doesn’t. A “right in my own eyes?” What did it say? “Do not be wise in your own eyes.” Because that’s what we tend to do as human beings so we have to be careful. There are certain things that are hard to change.

So things change with time in God’s Church. Clothing has changed a lot throughout time and if you go back to the time of Joshua the Christ it’s changed a lot. We don’t dress like that anymore. Kind of wish we did at times. In many ways it’d be a lot more comfortable and not the kind of tight in style shoes that we have to wear today type of thing, you know. I would far rather not have socks on and have sandals. That’s what I’ll enjoy wearing. It’s more comfortable by far and it’s cheaper too.

But we get caught up in these things and so there is balance that’s given as to how we do. So things of dress, whether it be for men or women, you know, we talk about these things. Sometimes they’re addressed in the church. Recently someone had to address something in another area toward someone and telling them that’s too short for a dress; we don’t allow that in God’s Church. That’s how we learn.

We learn, if we have any desire or thinking to honor God, to think about God in any fashion or form, that there are certain things that honor God and there are certain things that dishonor, or even as a matter of the Church in order to have unity in the Church, so when we come together at the Feast of Tabernacles we are very much in harmony with one another as to how we think, not thinking our way is better than someone else’s and so we go out of bounds in that and we wear things that aren’t good in the sense of that unity and harmony that’s given by instruction in the Church in order that we have a certain kind of dress before God.

So we’re tried in these things. Do we hear what’s being given? Do we hold on to what’s being given and learn from that and realize that there are times that we adjust our thinking because of the very time we live in?

So we’ve gone through a lot of things in the Church through time. I think about that one of makeup and how goofy that was, and yet thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people left God’s Church over that subject. Thousands! I would dare to say, including all the elders of the Church, probably hundreds in the ministry who rebelled against God on that subject alone during that time period – some on both sides, both sides of the issue in how they judged others – and that became sin in their life – and began to find fault with the one who had to make those choices and decisions for the sake of unity and oneness within the Church.

How does it say that in Ephesians? Let me turn over there right quick like. Hold your place there. We may be going to have another portion of this sermon that I wasn’t expecting. That’s always good. Because number four is already done, but it may last longer than I thought. I think it’s Chapter 4 here. Let’s see if I can find my place.

Ephesians 4:3—The way we should be...endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. It’s a powerful verse if we understand what’s being said. It’s about how we’re to live our lives in the Body of Christ, in the Church of God. There is that desire to be in unity. We must be in unity. For if we have factions, if we have division that’s against God’s way. So the unity that God gives us comes in a certain way to the Body and we learn from that and we make choice is to be in harmony, to be in unity with that, to honor and glorify God, and indeed to have better relationships within the body and not to cause others difficulty and battle or whatever it might be and judgmental attitudes that come across and things that are sometimes spoken then that should not be spoken because of the lack of unity.

“Endeavoring.” It’s about working hard. You have to work at that, “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit,” of a spirit that God gives to us within the Body in our lives. It’s not just a matter about specific laws of the Sabbath and the holy days and whether it be the 10 Commandments. There’s much more contained in that in the sense of unity and oneness of being in agreement. It’s the little things so often that really try us, and candidly, reveal sometimes that we really don’t grasp the big things. Because we tend to think, well, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, but then we don’t realize spiritually we may be massacring 1 and 2 in some of those things and putting up idols and raising up things above God that we shouldn’t be doing on a spiritual plane. But we don’t tend to think that way. We tend to think physically.

“Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.” That’s the desire. God desires that His people are at peace. We have peace because we’re unified. We’re unified with Him, with His government, with His Church, with one another. Awesome! Jerusalem. That’s what God’s desire is for Elohim. That’s why they’re going to have that as a name in that respect, as a part. Jerusalem. Peace. Talking about Salem. Something that God gave up a long, long time ago in order to create Elohim. Awesome to understand those things.

So it can be about clothing styles, length of dresses, other things about dresses, you know, whether the cleavage comes down like society does and what they do. We can learn from those things, of why those kinds of decisions and choices are made. You can learn from those things if you stop to think about why, what’s the purpose, what is it that’s behind it all, what is the thinking?

Swimwear. You resurrect most people through time and they see this era, this time period, and you’d probably have to resurrect them again because they’d probably just die right on the spot. “Let me go back to sleep!” What’s permissible to wear and what is not. So even like a tie. There are certain things that are permissible.

I think of the format of Sabbath services. That’s changed a lot through time. And you know what? It was resisted all along the way and God used that in many ways to bring attitudes to the surface so that different people could be dealt with who were not at one, who had a wrong mind, who had a wrong spirit. I think of the first time we began to address music. Wow! Some just about had a coronary over that one. Well, some left.

Then Sermonettes. Gasp! And it was all about me. “Just because you want to be heard all the time, and who are we?” “I have things to give to the Church!” I remember one individual who had gone to Ambassador College and he had a haughty, haughty, haughty, haughty spirit, and I gave him some sermonettes to give. It didn’t get rid of the haughty spirit and I started to address some of the things, who is going to speak at the Feast of Tabernacles. He came up to me, basically, and I don’t remember exactly how he did it but it was bad! It’s like, “Who are you to say that I shouldn’t speak at the Feast of Tabernacles?” And I thought, “Well, let me see...” Do you want the straight answer? That I’m the head of the Church right now on earth under Joshua Christ? I didn’t tell him that way because he didn’t get that anyway, or he wouldn’t have asked such a stupid question. He had such important things to give to the Church. He needed to be heard. And who was I to restrict him from being able to speak?

It wasn’t about him, it was about a change that was being made in the Church out of necessity. Anyway, the decision was made regardless of the reasons behind it. Then there is a choice to make. Do we support it? And you know what? There were a lot of people who didn’t like that. They didn’t like that one at all and they talked about it, blah, blah, blah, “Did you hear what he’s doing?” blah, blah, blah, “He didn’t have that right.” I think, “Well, go start another church.” That’s what they did. “Go somewhere else. Preach somewhere else. Go speak wherever you want to speak.”

I think of one guy one time because of addressing the thing about the 144,000 and talking about how that this is through 6,000 years and that certain ones were not going to be a part. He had to go find a group where they still believed that so he could be a part of that at least because he didn’t like the thought that he wasn’t going to be a part of the 144,000. Well, anyway.

Things try us and test us. Are we in unity with God? Do we know who we are? Do we believe who we are? Do we see God’s Church clearly? I’m excited because for the majority of the Church, absolutely, people see this very powerfully so and have the attitude of spirit no matter what happens we have learned very powerfully so, that regardless of what happens we continue to go forward because it’s about a way of life first and foremost. It’s about what we live day by day. It’s about a relationship with God, and whatever God chooses to do for whatever reasons, so be it! Who are we to decide that He can’t alter anything for a purpose? That doesn’t mean change law or change specific things that are prophetic – because that’s something I’ve learned very powerfully so; God can fulfill prophecy, but He can do it His way not our way. Sometimes we can get a certain thing in our mind and think, “Well, that can’t change.” Like we have to go through great tribulation for 3½ years. Think, thank God we don’t have to. But anyway, we learn as we go along, yes, there are certain things that God reveals to us that we are in error about. Other things?

Just like what’s happening in Europe. I don’t know what’s going to happen with the UK. If they end up being a part of 10 that means things have changed. Is it possible? Yeah, it’s possible. See, Reuben has been a part of the revival of the Roman Empire (spiritually) and they’re basically Reuben, so definitely it could be and other Israelite nations have been a part. Okay? So it can happen again that others can be a part of it. We’ve so degenerated as a people, as a society in our thinking toward God in the first place. So decadent, so evil. This world is really evil now. Sometimes when you live in it you just think that’s the norm. Be careful because that’s kind of what they thought before the flood came. “That’s just the way it is. It’s the norm.” They don’t know anything different. They don’t know what it was like a hundred years or a thousand years before or what it would be like later.

So, people don’t understand because what you live in at the time is your norm. That’s why people think that the Millennium is going to be just hunky dory, peachy keen for the thousand years. No, there is going to be human nature involved for a thousand years. And you know what? Human nature is a tough cookie to crack even if the whole world only has one Church, even if the whole world only has one real, powerful government on earth, human nature is still human nature and people are going to get into arguments, people are going to get into spats, people are going to do things because of selfish, carnal, human nature, people are going to steal, people are going to rob, people are going to kill.

You think that isn’t going to happen in the Millennium? Just because human beings are human beings. Now, it won’t be like the lawlessness we see today in the world, but those things will happen because human nature is human nature and it’s sick. So if we can deal with human nature in this age it is going to be a whole lot easier during the thousand years, easier to address things.

So, then there are things like the use of electronic devices at services, or even before or after services, you know, the use of social media and things like Facebook. Then sometimes it’s like a deer in the headlights. “Is he taking that away?” And people still do it. It still happens from time to time. I don’t put up with that one iota, will not put up with it one iota. It’s absolute rebellion. Anyone who allows it or allows it of their children? Rebellion. Okay? That’s all it is. There is unity and oneness because it’s been said this way from up here. That’s what we support as God’s people, see?

So something that still comes up from time to time, as it did a week or two ago in an area, it’s to be dealt with, be talked about. They may be hearing today. I’m sorry but I’m not, too. You have the audacity, the gall to do something that I spoke up here that should not be done – you shouldn’t be coming! You should not be in God’s presence, in the presence of God’s people. Who do you think you are? You want to start crying about it right now? I hope you do because then you might be able to have something to be worked with, okay? But if you don’t care and you just buckle up and you just tense yourself up much more and hate me or get mad at me, you’re done. You’re done. You just hurt yourself. I want what’s best for you. What’s best for God’s people is unity and harmony and oneness. Is that such a hard thing to ask?

So if it’s said up here, if God inspires certain things to be given to His Church, what are we doing if we say no? What are we doing if we’re not supporting it, parents? What are we doing if we’re not backing it up?  I can tell you what you’re doing. You’re cutting yourself off from the flow of God’s spirit because it’s a spirit of rebellion. You don’t have those choices to make on your own or they are exactly what they are – “Don’t be wise in your own eyes.” Because that’s a choice that you’re making to be wise in your own eyes and not to receive the guidance, the knowledge, the wisdom, the soundness of mind that comes from God and why we are to do certain things. If for nothing else, and for everything else, the sake of unity and oneness within the Church. It’s a beautiful thing.

God’s desire is to have that in His Family and it’s going to be there. Choices. Choices. Choices. And what can’t be worked with in this age can be worked with in another age, thankfully, as a whole. There is going to be some weeping and gnashing of teeth when certain individuals, sometimes young and old alike, are resurrected in a time and they realize what they did: “How stupid I was that I didn’t listen, that I resisted, that I found fault, that I wanted to do my own thing. And look what it brought me; now I get to live for a hundred years.” That, to me, is not a picnic, see. I don’t care what kind of a world it’s in being in this is not a picnic because in the hundred years you know what they have to conquer and overcome? All the unbalanced life that made them who they were when they died. The older they are the more set they are in what they were and who they were. How long have you been fighting against your nature to change it?

In that world, yes, it’s going to be so much easier to fight that fight, to have the history of everything that’s gone before, to see it more clearly, but you still have to fight it and it’s still going to crop up, the way you think, the way you think about others, the way you think towards others. “Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life,” that doesn’t go away. It’s going to be there in the hundred years. That’s what people have to fight just as you have to fight today your nature. And some of them, they’ve got some battles on their hands. Awesome!

So I marvel. Electronic devices at services, after, before, whatever, the use of social media. I’m amazed how some of these things come out in the open and when they put things out there, young people especially, they don’t realize what they’re doing and they don’t realize the power of misuse of those things that are out there in the world today. There may come a day when you’re thankful you were never out there on some of that.

So, as mentioned also in Part 2 this can have to do with decisions made about the observance of birthdays, the wearing of hearts we talked about, wedding rings, the observance of holidays that have no religious connection and so forth. On and on we go of things that have had to be addressed by the Church and then as to whether or not we’re all in unity and harmony with it. Things to do with healing and so forth. So again, this can involve decisions made in matters of balance and various kinds of games that people play, what they do.

Then there are things given like direction given concerning things like chewing tobacco, smoking. God’s Church gives direction in some of those. You can’t find it in here. “Don’t smoke a Camel.” One of the stupid jokes one time; smoking was in the Bible because someone “lit off a camel,” one of the women it talks about in scripture. That’s bad, I know.

So we make decisions that aren’t in here for the sake of the Church. What is love? You can learn from that. You can’t do it inside now, thankfully it’s outside, but you know what? When I walk through an area and I want to walk into a building and they’re standing around the door (because they can’t come inside), so you get this like these swords in the air you’re coming through. It’s like this, “You’re Welcome. Come in. Come into our establishment,” and they blow on you as you walk in. To me it’s sickening. I can’t stand it.

So some people in God’s Church rather than conquering the smoking thing they’ll turn to chewing, you know, put it, this snuff and whatever that fits in the lip. I’ve known people that get lip cancer because of it. Knew a man back where I grew up, horrible distortion of the mouth and what took place. Couldn’t conquer it. It’s like people who smoke and they have an operation and they inhale in the tracheal opening because they have a hole there so they can get it in there. You think…? The human mind.

So decisions are made about chewing tobacco, smoking, use of marijuana. Well, why would you mention that one? Well, because there have been some cases where I’ve said, yes, go ahead, as God’s minister. Probably blow some people’s minds! “You got some people out here smoking marijuana?!” If it truly is something medical. If there really is, they’ve tried so many other things that hurt the body, that hurt the mind, there have been independent decisions made. Don’t do it unless you’ve talked and counselled. But, yes, I’ve told a few individuals go ahead. If you can find other ways of receiving it without the smoke, because that’s dangerous to your lungs, you’re going to pay a penalty or it’s going to hurt your lungs in that respect, but nevertheless, if there are things you can deal with in your body, in your mind and you’ve found no other way. I think there are too many things out here today I think that point in a particular direction that there are people who have received some help from that.

I don’t want to go into various kinds of things that some have had to battle in the Church because of certain things they’ve gone through and tried many other things. Sometimes that which the medical profession has offered is worse and exceedingly harmful, and so again, there’s balance. So we strive to deal with each situation in a unique way because we live in a world, in an age, in a time when things aren’t all normal and things aren’t really easy sometimes to make a judgment about. So when you’re in doubt ask the Church.

So I didn’t do that to blow anyone’s mind, just to tell you that there is balance in how you deal with certain things in life, okay? There’s a reality, which I believe with all my being, that some have been helped mightily because of some of that, because of what they’ve had to experience in their life in the past.

The number of drinks that a person can have. Oh, boy, talk about judging others. “Did you see they had more than two that day?” And the reality is you know we have to be careful how we judge. Two is given as a guideline, to strive to be an example in those things. Some things are measured by how long you’re at a function. You know, if you’re four hours at a place and you have two early on, you know, if you have two drinks in an evening, you’re out eating somewhere you’d better make sure you don’t go out and get in the car within the hour. You’re over the limit. If you got pulled over, as a whole, you’re over the limit. Okay? Stupid to do it. So it takes about an hour, from what I understand, for a drink to dissipate in the system, to work through the system. Again, you have to use wisdom, soundness of mind, and listen to what God gives.

So there are different things that people have battles with. Some people have battles with alcohol. I’ve know of individuals who could take a couple sips and they’re out of it! They can’t do it. There’s something chemically in their system that it’s like they had four drinks. I don’t understand that, how that can happen, but it happens. There are some who could have four that for them it’s not even having one. I don’t think that’s a good thing necessarily, by any measure, but anyway, the point being is we try to find a balance in something where we have a unity within the Body so we don’t have these things of judgment and harshness.

Then sometimes because people have a certain proclivity in a certain area then they judge others who might have one drink or two drinks. “Why is it every time we go out to drink you have to have a drink?” Well, what would someone say? Why would you have a glass of wine? Why would you have a beer? Well, let’s see. I like the steak and, well, I like the salmon, and you know what, I kind of like the wine that goes with it. I guess that’s why. There’s nothing wrong with that, but sometimes because of people’s past or whatever it might be they judge it.

I’ve known of individuals who have condemned someone because something had over 5% alcohol content. Well, wine has 12 to 14, different levels, I think, but 12 generally. There are some beers, you know, the kind I like, that have 9, 9½ as a whole. It’s just a better beer. What can I say? From the nation of Belgium, and now The Netherlands. I’ll tell you what; they’re catching up fast, maybe even passing some in Belgium.

But the point being we shouldn’t judge each other in these things, but it’s still happening to this day in God’s Church, that sometimes people judge each other and judge each other harshly in some of these matters. And you have to be careful. Why judge? You know what we should always just worry about? Judge self. Judge self. Don’t judge anyone else. Now, you do have a responsibility if you see sin. That’s another matter. But be careful of what you consider to be sin, see, make sure that its sin.

Anyway, going on. So there are so many things that happen that have to do with trusting in God, as to whether or not we really hear and listen to what’s given from up here. I’m going to go back to something simple. This here alone, how long has it been now since I’ve addressed things about the old tie and what you can wear and kind of some guidelines to go by so that we can have more balance in it? There have still been battles to this time for some people.

Now, I think more and more, because the question just came up a couple weeks ago. I think, I’ve been on the camera how many times like this now—doesn’t that speak pretty loud?— without a tie. Doesn’t that say you can do so in a Sabbath service? Doesn’t that make it really clear if God’s minister, God’s apostle can do it, will do it? Yeah, I think it speaks volumes. To still have battles with some of that, it shouldn’t be. Because if we “hear” we’re going to have balance, we’re going to have better soundness of mind. We’re going to come to understand why certain changes are made at different times along the way, why things are administered in the way they are, why we don’t have music in services now, why we only have one prayer at the beginning of services now. All these changes that have been made through time, every one of them has put people to the test in God’s Church.

Over many of these decisions that I’ve talked about here today people have left the Church over because it becomes the excuse they have (other things have been going on anyway, but you just don’t know about it) that finally they come to a certain point where that becomes the one they stand on. “Look what he’s done now! Brother! I’m out of here.” That’s what happens. Try and testing us, things that try and test us.

Again, Proverbs 3:7—Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Eternal and depart from evil. We want to get away from sin. But we want to get away from things that aren’t sound and balanced that can tend toward sin if we’re not careful, because judging in a wrong way and not being in unity together in the Body of Christ is sin. That is sin, it really is. If we speak against things that are said, if we work against things that are said – cell phone before services, cell phone afterward, you know, out here (texting/surfing/calling), you can’t get off it. “How are you doing, Joe? Yeah, just got out...” Sorry. I can’t help myself sometimes.

The point being we’re prisoners sometimes to things (electronics) anymore. You can’t get away from them. I love it when I’m away from it. I loved it when I was away from it here working on the sermons because don’t bother me. I’m away. I’m working on Feast sermons. It’s my focus. It’s peaceful. It’s really nice. Anyway, sometimes we don’t realize what we do in life and how much things can control us, we don’t control them. Sad. We need to be in control.

It will be health, just like the word for medicine, to your navel, marrow to your bones. You know, just not being wise in our own eyes, not thinking we have the answers to everything, but realizing, “I need to look to God. I need to trust in what God gives to me and to understand, to seek understanding.” Even in decisions that are made to seek understanding. I think of times when thought about different decisions and things that Mr. Armstrong did, striving to understand why, how, what’s the process. That can lead you to so much understanding and peace of mind.

Honor the Eternal with your substance, and with the firstfruits of all your increase. So shall your barns be filled with plenty, and your presses shall burst out with new wine. Beautiful verse. So what do people sometimes expect from God? What do we look to? What do we want? And we don’t realize how incredibly blessed we are in the first place in a nation like what we live here, especially even more so. But what do we count the greatest of blessings of all? The calling, the opening of the mind, the things you’re capable of seeing that others in the world around you do not see nor understand. Sometimes we don’t put the right kind of price on that, the right kind of value upon that that we should. Because you talk about being blessed, we are so exceedingly blessed it’s hard for us to grasp it, it truly is, just because of what God has given to us. No matter what happens to you in your physical life, no matter what happens, I don’t care what it is, what anyone through any period of time has ever gone through that’s been called by God, who’s been sealed. Some have gone through some really tough things, some really bad things in life. All of them were blessed like this, “Your barns will be filled with plenty and your presses shall burst out with new wine.” Awesome if we really understand what God is showing us and telling us. There are physical blessings in life we receive if we just grasp it, but that’s not what it’s fully about.

My son, despise not the chastening of the Eternal; neither be weary of His correction. I’ve known of so many people who have become disgruntled and left God’s Church through time who have come to the point in time where they just make comments like, “You know, I’m tired of every week I go to hear how bad I am.” Well? Because you talk about sin, you talk about breaking of law, you talk about various things, and you know, if you’re not in unity with those things in the first place you’re going to have a battle. You may get tired of hearing it. But if you welcome it, of things you see and come to understand, “Yeah, man, I need to change. I need to fight that more. I need to change that more in my life. This is a weakness I have that I need to focus upon and pray to God about and fast about and seek God’s intervention in my life more to battle it more successfully, more fully.”

Well, that’s what our life is about. Our life is about being called to correction, to change. Everything about us has to be changed as time goes along, and we won’t have time to change it all. You can’t change everything about yourself, but what a miracle that God’s actually changing this, transforming it. Awesome! ...neither be weary of His correction.

Proverbs 6:20—It says, My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of your mother. Bind them continually upon your heart and tie them about your neck. When you go, it shall lead you; when you sleep, it shall keep you. Beautiful in what God’s describing here, the mind, the blessings. When you make decisions and choices and you’ve included God in it, you’ve prayed to God about what you’re doing and you ask Him to help you in it, to bless you in it. Because He wants you to make decisions so you make decisions that aren’t contrary to His way and you ask Him to be with you and bless you in it. That’s awesome! And God does. He will help us. He will intervene for us. He does awesome things in our lives that sometimes we just don’t grasp it and see it as we need to and that goes back to the series we’ve interrupted as well, the one of thankfulness, of being able to zero in on things and really grasp how much that there is before us that we have.

...and when you sleep, it shall keep you. Trust? Absolutely. ...and when you awaken, it shall talk to you. What does that mean? God’s way should speak to us. God speaks to us (like the song), by His great power we’re led. It says a lot. God speaks to us. So we have received of His way of life. We have the opportunity of prayer. We can talk to Him. We can pray to Him any time of day, anything that comes along, we can be silent in our thought and prayer to God. God hears us. He knows everything that’s in the mind and He hears you. You don’t have to say it verbally. It can be right in the mind.

For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light. So whatever is given to us it’s given for purpose, for reason, by design. Things that are given within the Church, within the Body, it always comes down to for purpose, design, things we can learn from in it; things we can learn from, sometimes about ourselves, adjustments and changes that are not written in stone. Who said that there is to be a prayer before services and after services? Who said there is to be music before services, in the middle of services, and at the end of services? Who said this has to be this way in order to honor and worship God? And if we really grasp it then and you go back in time you’ll understand it’s changed a lot through time. Do you think someone was playing the piano when Paul visited some place and went into a house? Because they met in houses, they didn’t meet in hotel rooms like this. They didn’t have facilities like this. They had small groups that got together in different areas at different times, sometimes larger groups, as a whole, but most of the time small groups and people got together. Someone wasn’t up there playing the piano. Someone, as a whole, didn’t come up to give an opening prayer. Someone didn’t come up to give a closing prayer. There wasn’t someone at the door being the greeter, you see, and all the kinds of things that sometimes we think we can’t live without. There wasn’t someone outside telling people where they had to park their horse or buggy or whatever it might be or donkey, and on and on it goes. So we adjust to change and sometimes it helps us just to measure this to see where we are, whether we’re really trusting in God. There are so many ways to worship and honor God. There’s not just one and it all comes from inside here in the first place. That’s what He looks at, what comes out of us. It’s our thinking.

It’s like it talks about when it talks about singing and psalms. It’s this mind and how we respond to God and things we even hear in sermons and how that lifts us up and there’s a spiritual kind of thinking sometimes that just excites us. I’m excited every time God reveals something that we haven’t seen before. I think of different things at times here... I was working, I guess, on this next part, and something about some verses that I’d... As many times as you go through certain things and all of a sudden you see something and you realize, man, this is a lousy translation because they don’t understand God’s spirit. They don’t understand God’s purpose. They don’t understand what God is doing and what He’s been revealing and the bigger picture of things. This is what its saying.

To me that is so inspiring because the more God reveals, I tell you, those are the things that inspire me the most, when you see things in God’s word. I don’t care how long we’ve been around. There is just more and more and more in these pages. It’s packed with things we don’t yet see, packed with things we haven’t yet understood. Every time God opens up another area it’s awesome and it causes a kind of rejoicing and excitement in the mind, in the heart toward God.

For if the commandment is a lamp and the law is light, and this one here, who gets tired of being corrected, of hearing how bad they are, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Isn’t that awesome? It’s a beautiful verse to remember. “Reproofs of instruction are a way of life.” It is with us from the moment we’re called. If we respond to God correctly, to understand why Joshua the Christ had to die for us, we begin to focus upon sin, we begin to see things and we learn that one later on, but we know that throughout our life we’re going to come to see more and more the depth of selfishness in our human nature and how much that is against God and against God’s way of life. That’s what we want to battle and combat and fight against with all of our being, with all of our might, crying to God for help and strength to do so.

...to keep you from the evil woman. So it uses something physical here to teach something on a spiritual plane. “To keep you from the evil woman.” So Proverbs talks about things of seduction, things of those things that human beings are very weak in when it comes to lust, when it comes to the pulls of carnal mind and the flesh. That’s why we live in such a sick world today, that those things are available to young children. As soon as you give an iPad, a computer to a child, a phone that has internet access, they have access to it. There was a judge that said that recently. There was someone out there that made the comment talking about as soon as they have those things then you’ve given permission to your child to see pornography. That’s what you’ve done. As soon as you give them that you’ve given them permission to have access to pornography.

There are plenty of people in God’s Church who have battles with pornography because it’s out there and it’s so easy and it’s such a pull to the carnal, human mind because that’s the way we are, especially more so men than I believe women. But women do too, okay? It exists in God’s Church. I wasn’t born yesterday, okay? It’s just there and today it’s more abundant because of the devices we have. Horrible! Things that have to be changed as soon as the Millennium begins. If there is going to be Internet I can guarantee there are going to be certain things that will never be there ever again. Okay?

God uses these things for a purpose and speaks in pretty plain language at times when you go through various kinds of scripture that talk about things like this. Okay? He speaks of some of these things and talks about seduction and talks about the harlot or whatever. I think of today how people degrade their lives so much so and their minds so much so, because when it’s in your mind, when you allow it into your mind you’ve degraded your thinking. You have – what’s the word that was used before the flood, that we talked about? – corrupted your thinking. That’s what Satan did. Corrupted your thinking, corrupted your mind. There’s a corruption there and you have to fight against those things. You have to cry out to God for help to fight against such things if you’re drawn to such things.

Again here, it says ...to keep from the evil woman, whatever that might be, but more on a spiritual plane too. Anything that’s false out here because there are all kinds of beliefs out here that are so wrong, so bad, so out of kilter with what is true and right. So many in the scattered Body and so many at times that people latch on to something and read something and begin to think that there maybe be something there in that area or whatever. I hope and pray nothing like that ever happens in the Body again in short time we have.

...to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery or the smoothness of a strange tongue. Now, this is what we’re to pick up and understand more deeply from this, that anything that comes at us, I don’t care what it is, things that we’ve talked about in this sermon series, sometimes they can come across having a sound of intellectualism. I mean, you can read it, you can read anything on the Internet today. It’s like, be careful of what you latch on to that you think is true. Be careful. Because this is a problem in the Church, okay? That people listen to one side of something and they begin to think that this side is right and this side is wrong. Be careful of your judgments, of what you latch on to. It goes through every facet of life and how we live.

Even when it comes to things about health. You can read one thing that can sound so sound and so sharp, and something the exact opposite that sounds good. So what do you choose? What do you believe? Look to God. Trust in God. Ask for God to help to lead and guide and direct you in various things you do and how you do them, and above all, to always trust in God regardless of the choice and decisions you make if there is freedom to make those choices. But don’t get to a point in time when making certain choices you try to get others to do it. I don’t care whether it has to do with foods you eat, with things you believe medically, with things that you think are good and right that everybody else in the Church should be doing. “You should be on this diet and not that diet and this diet is better because...” Even things like that that people get all twitter pated about sometimes. And no, you make your own choice for yourself and basically keep your own knowledge then to yourself, too, please. Anyway, I’m sorry.

But I’ll read what I need to read and I have to make my own choices and decisions. Now, if sometimes people do share it, but be careful, because sometimes people can get to where they push their ideas and beliefs on to someone else. You have to be careful that you don’t do those kinds of things, that your way is right, that “What I read here is right and this is what you should be doing, and this is what you should be eating, and this is what you shouldn’t eat, and this is the vitamin you should take.” “No, you shouldn’t take vitamins at all!” Oh, I’m worn out just thinking about it. I’m sorry.

I hope you understand what I’m saying. Trust in God. Make your own choices, your own decisions, because ultimately you’re the one held accountable and responsible for your life, whatever you choose, and as long as there is no sin then you have choices. You have choices to make in all those things. It doesn’t mean that one’s right and one’s wrong. It could be harmful. But anyway, you have to make those choices and we learn from that, don’t we? You know what a lot of times what people learn if they’re really receptive to it? They learn greater balance, greater soundness of mind. Sometimes even by making wrong choices and wrong decisions. In time God helps to reveal those things to us to help sharpen this, to help us to learn from it.

The strange woman, the smoothness, things come to us sometimes and that’s why it uses this smoothness, the smoothness of tongue, the flattery, the smoothness of a strange tongue is what it’s about. The word isn’t even about a woman here; it’s that which something is different. We hear it and if we’re not careful we can be drawn into it like Scalar Waves or Scalar Energy. Be careful. There are all kinds of things out here in this world that can have a sense and soundness in the beginning of something then it can lead us off in a different direction, a wrong direction.

Anyway, besides this matter that the Church has now addressed concerning anything to do with the association of things like Scalar Waves, Scalar Energy, the use of pyramid devices, pendants, rocks or crystals, or anything that supposedly gives protection around someone, or the belief in chemtrails left by jets, or any other kind of conspiracy theories. There are so many out here in the world. There is a being who is behind a lot of different things that take place but some of these things? You just trust in God and look to God.

Now, there is also another matter that’s popped up in the Church recently, and I’m going to probably end with this one here. But I do want to go through it and mention it because it’s something that’s kind of sweeping through Protestant churches right now and I know that it’s swept through in some areas of churches that are scattered out here because that’s what happens, even has been a part in God’s Church and been addressed. But I’m going to read this, make sure I don’t forget anything.

In some ways this matter that I’m going to talk about is an old issue that was really addressed by the apostle, Paul, at one time with the Church at Corinth. It’s a matter that concerns meat. It has to do with halal meat. That’s again, even as I’ve said, sweeping some Protestant churches and crossed over into others as well. I just want to read this about halal meat, what it is. You’ve heard of kosher meat. This is another side from Muslim world, halal meat. “The word is Arabic for permissible.” So they have their laws, dietary laws just like the Jews have certain dietary laws, and even though those vary from group to group to group. “Halal food is that which adheres to Islamic law. The Islamic form of slaughtering animals or poultry involves killing through a cut to the jugular vein, carotid artery and windpipe.” Candidly some people think that’s just too cruel.

Anyway, it’s like killing chickens to eat. There are a lot of different ways to do that. Some people take the neck out and put in on a block and go kind of somewhere in there to get rid of the head and drain the blood because draining the blood is something Biblical, okay? You drain the blood out of the chicken. And chickens, though, you kind of throw them behind you because they flop around. A lot of people don’t know that. They just get it out of the grocery and they don’t realize. “Oh, that’s so cruel!” Well, then don’t eat it. Anyway. But God shows us these things are fine to eat. There are certain things He said they’re good. Other things He said don’t eat. So we go by that.

And then there are other ways. I remember growing up some used a broomstick. You’d put it under a broomstick and throw it behind you. Anyway. The blood drains out. Another way, take it and ring it. I haven’t seen that one before. But anyway, there are different ways of doing it. But basically it boils down to the blood being drained. Animals are animals. A chicken is a chicken.

Anyway, I want to go on and read this. “Animals must be alive and healthy at the time of slaughter.” Well, for them I know that isn’t totally true, having been in Egypt and seeing a particular time period where they were slaughtering various kinds of animals, and told by some that basically a part of their enjoyment is to give to others who don’t have. So they would give them of the lame and some of the other kinds of animals. “Animals must be alive and healthy at the time of slaughter and all blood is drained from the carcass,” which is correct and right. That’s biblical. Where did they get that? Well, Abraham understood laws about how to dress and clean animals. You get rid of the blood.

“During the process a Muslim will recite the dedication known as tasmiya or shahada. The UK food standards agency figures from 2011 suggest 84% of cattle, 81% of sheep, and 88% of chicken slaughtered for halal meat were stunned before they died.” So this is an issue for some in some countries, whether they’re stunned before they died rather than cutting them this way. So to stun them to put them to death slaughterhouses and a lot of places in the States they have a type of a thing that’s like on an air gun or whatever and this thing comes out and it shoots down. It’s a part of like a piston into the head and kills them. That’s how it’s done or used to be done. I think it’s still done that way. Then they start cutting them, draining the blood and so forth.

Anyway, people get all, especially when it comes to religion, they start getting all upset about some of these things and some people are making an issue out of this because they’re Muslim. It’s because of the religion. It’s not about what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, in that respect, it’s the disagreement they have with them. So, basically, don’t buy their meat. You shouldn’t eat that meat. Well, I have no problem with it because they drain the blood.

If you’ve ever seen a slaughterhouse, ever go into a slaughterhouse, ever see how things are slaughtered you probably hope that they follow some kind of cleanly laws. You probably wouldn’t eat a whole lot if you knew a lot of things.

I’m just going to throw this out there. I’m sorry I’m taking up time with this but hot dogs. I have sometimes just a hard time with hot dogs because I know some of the things that are done. So the more, the better they are, the better the process is and they follow more strict standards, let me tell you, that’s good. If they’re real, real, real cheap, you may want to worry.

So they were stunned before they died. There is debate about elements of halal such as whether stunning is allowed. “Supermarkets selling halal products say they stun all animals before they are slaughtered. Tesco says the only difference,” and it must be some chain in the UK, “only difference between the halal meat it sells and other meat is that it was blessed as it was killed.”

So, you know, that’s part of what Paul addressed about things being offered up to their idols. And if it bothers your conscience to eat something that’s brought down to the shambles or to the market place that was slaughtered in a particular area and it bothers you that it was brought down here and it’s sold in the market place and you go to the market place to get your meat, if it bothers your conscience, don’t eat it, if you’re concerned because there are some idols involved and they went through this ceremony and that somehow that affected the meat. But meat is meat and if it had the blood drained out and had the blood drained out there’s nothing wrong with it. And basically, that’s what Paul was talking about. But if it bothers you don’t do it and don’t judge your brother if it bothers them or if he does eat. Okay?

So Paul basically addressed some of this. They drain the blood. How it’s killed, whether it’s stunned or has something shot into the head or whether it’s shot, what difference does it make? You still go through the same process. People go out and kill a deer, they take it, they hang it up as quickly as possible to drain the blood. Everyone I’ve ever known they understand you drain the blood out of the carcass. That’s what you do.

I’m sorry I’m going to make a big deal out of this stuff here, but people do and people in some of the scattered areas or especially Protestant churches now, it’s kind of a thing that’s sweeping different parts of the country.

“Stunning of livestock has been mandatory in the EU since 1979.” So again, it’s about killing the animal quickly so they don’t suffer because in their minds it’s like if you do it this way they’re going to suffer. They die quickly. But we tend to think as human beings that there are better ways.

It’s like the chickens. You going to ring it or you’re going to take the axe or you’re going to take the broom handle? Which ones more humane? They all three happen very quickly and the chicken is dead. And before long it’s in a pot. Anyway, I’m sorry. But the point being a chicken is a chicken and the meat is the meat. There will probably be nobody eat meat for next week.

So stunning livestock has been mandatory in the EU by their laws because to them, I believe by what I’m reading here, that they think this is what you have to do. So any religious group that comes in and does it some other way, we don’t like that because that’s not humane. That’s part of the uproar.

“...although member states can grant exemptions for religious slaughter.” So some do allow it for religious slaughter. So basically the Jews are still being allowed to do it their way although some have given in to other ways of doing it, that they’re a little more flexible.

“Some countries, including Denmark, have opted to ban non-stunning slaughter altogether.” See, so Denmark, they want it done humanely. “We’re going to ban any kind of just slicing of the throat. You have to stun to kill.” “The UK government says it has no intention of banning religious slaughter.” So they’re trying to keep peace with Judaism, those of Judaism, but especially the Muslim world because they have a lot of them there in the UK now. The last time I was in Hyde Park, walking through there, I don’t think I saw an Englishman there. I saw a lot of black outfits and a lot of things between the eyes and it was kind of like being in Cairo. Anyway, the world is changing so fast and it’s causing so many problems because people can’t get along with each other. Christianity can’t get along with other beliefs. They can’t live side by side without judging them harshly and vice versa.

So I’ll try to finish this quickly here if that’s possible. Kosher foods. So that was all about halal meat. So to be troubled within the Church? It has happened but shouldn’t take place. We shouldn’t be troubled by such things. They’re killed, the blood is drained. That’s what God requires. It doesn’t matter whether it’s halal or kosher or by your slaughterhouse – yet you probably don’t want to even go visit. You may become a vegetarian for life.

But “Kosher foods complies with Jewish dietary law ([known as] kashrut), again governing what can and cannot be eaten by those practising the faith.  There are similarities in the method of slaughter in that both require use of a surgically sharp knife and specially-trained slaughterers. Jewish law strictly forbids the use of stunning and meats are not blessed in the same way.” So when they do it they’re going to do it their way or it can’t be kosher, see. They have to slice the throat and drain the blood instantly.

So again, why should we be troubled by things like that? You go down to the market, you buy what you buy whether it’s the halal, the kosher, or whatever. I think of meat packers in Chicago. I’ve heard some bad things. Anyway, I don’t mean to pick on them.

“Jewish law strictly forbids the use of stunning of meats and are not blessed in the same way. Unlike the halal, kashrut does not require God's name to be said before every slaughter after an initial blessing.” We don’t care in God’s Church what people say. It’s like what Paul addressed concerning even offering up to idols and things that were slaughtered and then brought down, as they said, to the market places where the meat was sold. He addressed those things in scripture showing that there’s nothing wrong. Meat’s meat; good to be eaten. There is nothing wrong with it. God created it.

Some use those scriptures in the wrong way to say, “See, God created meat good to be eaten,” you know, “you pray about it and it’s all taken care of; it’s all clean. It’s okay to eat pork.” Yet that’s not what it says.

I’m going to stop there. I have to. We’re already 4:27. But again, it’s a matter of trusting in God and what God gives to us even in something like this, to let us know this is something that’s been addressed before. It was addressed by Paul in what you might call the most adverse kind of situation, something offered up to idols. Paul said a chicken is a chicken, you know, a piece of beef is a piece of beef. What somebody might have said around it or over it or about it in prayer to their god makes no difference to us. It has no bearing upon us. We buy it at a market; its meat. We buy it to eat, to have a great BBQ or whatever.

With that we’ll have Part 4 next Sabbath.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1