A Mind of Thankfulness, Pt. 3

Ronald Weinland

September 15, 2018

In order to address the season of Pentecost, when we were approaching that period of time, we had to interrupt a series entitled A Mind of Thankfulness. After Pentecost season we went back to that series with Part 2, but again, it had to be interrupted so we could cover the series Trust in God. Today we’re once again returning to that series entitled A Mind of Thankfulness, and this will be Part 3.

What I am in awe of, and I know some people do and some people have noticed those things, but sometimes it becomes quite obvious if you’re watching just a little bit the order of sermons or the kinds of sermons and how God builds and molds and fashions us. I always find that awesomely exciting because it is a matter of God’s spirit as He leads and guides and directs the Church and the ministry in the Church to give what is needed – not in how we think it’s needed but in what God gives in specific times. This particular series to me is awesome in the sense of seeing at what points they were spaced and understanding this is something we need to return to on a regular basis, a mind of thankfulness, the way we think, how we think toward God, how we think toward others, because that’s something we can ever grow in more and more. There is another series coming shortly that’s going to be tied into this as well, and probably directly after the Feast. But awesome!

I think of Mr. Armstrong, what he said about a puzzle and things He’s given us to see as His people. There are pieces in the puzzle and the more that God puts in there the better we can see, the better vision we have, if you will, or ability to grasp and comprehend a picture of what it is that He wants us to see at any moment in time.

So to me sermons are like that in a big way as well, not just truth that God gives us at times but also the process of growth and the ability to see, as we should be able to see more the more we grow. To me this is incredible when you can see these things on a spiritual plane, of what God gives, of how He gives them, when He gives them, what’s being said, and how they tie in together. Because just like this season, all summer long, now through the Feast, and after the Feast there are things that tie in together beautifully so as far as God’s purpose and God’s plan for us and what we need to focus upon. That is incredibly inspiring.

I think of the sermon we heard last week that Wayne gave and I think about how that ties in with certain things, that some are going to think or maybe thought or had the thoughts come through their mind that he had listened to some of the things being said in sermons. Yet that was done a long time ago, finished a long time ago. Yet you think of the timing of it and things that were stated in there that have to do with a timing you can’t know unless God just gives it, inspires it to be said at a certain moment in time.

This series addresses a mind, a spirit of ingratitude and unthankfulness. This kind of mindset or spirit has been growing worse and worse with the continuing growth of technology, as was mentioned earlier in this series. So I’m going to repeat a few things that were stated early on in the series, both one and two, and then continue on from there.

Again, that has had a tremendous impact on how people think when it comes to things like this. Really what it is is turning inward. Turning inward is turning more selfish. Turning inward as people are doing more and more in society and the world around us, and even within the Church if we give way to some of that kind of thing, there is going to be less a spirit or mind of thankfulness toward God, toward others. We turn inward. We don’t think about others.

Just like I made in the announcements, we don’t think about others. We turn inward more. We become more selfish, more self-centered.

Where were we? We saw someone going along with this selfie stick, walking down the street and posing. And you think, how long did you practice that? What is your mind like that you’ve got to have these poses out there. This gal was all by herself and was just walking along a street, nobody else around. It was out in Portland, Oregon area. I’m just glad she didn’t try to cross a street and some truck coming along, you know, right in the front of the grille or something, you know. People are doing crazy things out here. But this is a matter of turning inward and consumed with self.

I’m sorry, but I don’t get that one, so consumed with self that you’ve got to get it out there on Facebook, “Look where I am. Look what I’m doing. Look at my poses!” Well, anyway, I’m sorry, but some of the looks that they give it’s like they’re in some kind of advertisement. That’s where they get a lot of this stuff that’s in magazines and how you’re supposed to look. People try to copy that look then and you think, no, that’s the last thing on earth you ever want to be copying if you want to have a mind that’s halfway balanced, otherwise you’re going to turn kookoo, bonkers, and walk down a street doing all this twitching and turning, and I mean the whole body is in a pose; and even as you’re walking, stooping over! I mean, this gal was going to town! Much more and I’d have been absolutely convinced she’s on drugs, she’s high, but she wasn’t. She’s high on herself. You think, how can a mind get that far in life away from soundness?

I hope you get from that that this has a tremendous impact on us in the Church. It’s had a tremendous impact, it’s having a tremendous impact on society, of people turning inward and not thinking about others. People can’t even function with others, converse with others! It gets so bad that the modern way to date now is both people take your cell phone and text each other! Just going a little bit farther there, but anyway, some people have done that just for fun, I think. Anyway. They can’t talk to each other and can say things easier in a text rather than face to face. They can converse on levels, and sometimes on ones they shouldn’t be conversing about anyway. But people are in a different world. They’re in cyberspace. Wherever they are.

That has an impact on you. This society, the technology has an impact on you. If you’re not careful you become more a slave to your phone, your cell phone. It used to be that if someone would ring you up then back then you would talk a little bit maybe on the telephone. You might have other people on the line with you because there were party lines. I remember those days. That’s a long time ago. You had to be kind of careful of what you said, especially if you’re talking about your neighbor because your neighbor is probably listening in. That happened a lot.

Then you finally got to a point where people might be able to start having answering machines because you don’t want to miss anything. Now, today, you have to have a cell phone with you. Well, a lot of people do. I don’t carry one. I have one and the only time I carry it is when my wife and I might be separated in some place when we’re travelling for a short period, and so we can catch each other, maybe even in the airport itself and we can get a hold of each other. Otherwise, I don’t want one! Okay? But we have to have one, so she carries it.

But, seriously, we have, people have, and it’s like you’ve got to be able to be open to communication any moment and any time. Just like today, pulling out in the road and you know basically when someone is texting or doing something on a phone and even pulling into the subdivision last night someone was sitting there texting and people were behind him and they started honking finally because the light’s green and they want to get out on the road because that’s a short light.

So this is going on all the time where people are texting and talking on the phone. It’s in the highest levels of government! (Anyway, I’m sorry.) People are prisoners of some of this stuff, you know, and they can’t get away from it; it rules their life.

But with this we become more ungrateful because when we’re turning inward there is less gratitude and thankfulness. There really is. It has a direct correlation in life and how we’re living.

Again I want to mention here a quote that was from Part 1. Well, I want to read this statement I made: “Because of mankind’s selfish nature,” as a result of things that are happening even more and more in technology, but just because of this nature we have anyway, that’s the way we are. We’re selfish by nature and technology. Well, let me read this: “Because of mankind’s selfish nature technology is simply fueling that spirit and mind of ingratitude.” That’s exactly what’s taking place all around us.

To me there were a couple of quotes that we had in that original part of the beginning part of the series here that are awesome. “It has been stated that the sin of ingratitude is more serious than the sin of revenge. With revenge one returns evil for evil, but with ingratitude one returns evil for good.”

Now, if you really grasp that on a spiritual plane that really is awesome, what’s being said there, what’s being stated, when we really grasp what good is, when we really grasp what evil is, when we really grasp selfish human nature, when we really begin to grasp more deeply what ingratitude is and what it takes to have a spirit and a mind of thankfulness.

To really grasp the importance of such a quote in the context of what we’re covering in this series is to begin to truly see more clearly how God only pours out upon us, upon mankind, that which is good. It’s the way God has always dealt with mankind, only that which is good or good for us. Even when the flood came—because of what was to follow later in life, for life, for the sake of life and for the sake of helping mankind come to a point that they wouldn’t corrupt the mind any more than they were to that point in time. He put a stop to it and gave a potential that in another time many of those are going to have the opportunity to have their minds healed. Others went too far to where they can’t because the mind can become so corrupt, so corrupted that it can’t be turned no matter what. That’s a horrible thing to happen to human beings, but that’s what happens when you give man free moral agency and you fill the earth with billions of people.

So again, to really grasp the importance of such a quote in the context of what we’re covering in this series is to begin to truly see more clearly how God only pours out upon mankind that which is good, and especially when He calls us, when He calls people, when He calls us and begins to work with us. Talk about being blessed. It’s hard for us to even grasp how blessed we really are. We begin to, if we’re not careful, to take it for granted, to not grasp it.

I think of the Millennium and what it’s going to be like when Joshua the Christ is here and 144,000; and those who are born during that time period, that’s going to be their norm. For those who come through what they have to come through to enter into that world and to realize what had to happen in the world and how blessed we are that that government came, that the truth came, that the Church is established, but when people grow up in that and they’re born into that and they only have one Church, they only have one government, and that’s their norm, it’s a little different from those who are going to be a lot more thankful that that government did come in their time and save them and gave them opportunity to begin learning truth on a worldwide scale. That’s awesome!

So sometimes we live in a reality that we don’t grasp because of God’s calling. The longer we’re living in that life in the Church, in the Body, candidly, the easier it is to begin to take certain things for granted and familiarity in time can breed contempt because of selfish human nature.

So we need to clearly see that with human selfishness we easily respond – this is just the way we are – just with selfish human nature alone we easily respond in life, which is basically the norm, with selfishness. We respond with ingratitude, unthankfulness toward God for the good shown, given, if you will, to us by Him. When that happens, it is evil. It is evil to reflect ingratitude, unthankfulness toward God. It is evil not to think upon those things that would change that kind of mindset. It is evil. It really is because our minds should always be set upon the Great God of this universe and what He has given us. That is why, that is how we’re able to love Him more and more, because we see clearly what He’s done in our lives and we never forget it. We never forget our calling. We never forget how God has had mercy upon us and blessed us so richly. We never forget it. Because when we do, whenever that happens, people have begun to turn inward and begun to turn far more selfish and begun to allow things into their life that reflect ingratitude, unthankfulness. Because sometimes it’s not just a matter of thinking about it because of the selfish human nature that’s there.

Human nature sucks! I hope you’re seeing that more and more in your life. It really does! It just stinks! I hate it with all my being, I really do. I’m talking about what I see in myself as a human being. I am so thankful one day I’ll be in a spirit body and no longer in this piece of trash, you know, a human physical body that is filled with selfishness because that’s the way that God created us for a purpose, to learn to hate this, to learn to loathe that kind of mind because it’s the opposite of give. It’s the opposite of give. You’ve got to want give. You’ve got to fight for it. You’ve got to cry out for it because it’s just not in you.

Giving God’s way, the way of good, is not in us except for God’s spirit, except for the mind of God. That’s the only way we have access to it and that transformation that God is doing in this thick thing, the mind, and then when it’s set what a beautiful thing. But that’s something we grow in in time. And still, as long as we’re in this body we’re still going to have to fight the fight, but after a time that’s your mind, you’re set to fight it. That’s our aim. That’s our goal. That’s our desire in this life as long as we’re physical.

So again, when that happens, when we’re unthankful, ungrateful toward the good that God shows us or has shown us, is showing to us, when that happens, it is evil; it is to return evil for good. That’s why I love that quote. It is to return evil for good. That’s just sick, it really is.

So in Part 1 we ended with covering some verses in Ephesians 5 and I want to pick up a couple of those verses that need to be repeated here and then we’ll continue on from here, or from there, if you will.

Ephesians 5:8—For we were once in darkness... The whole world is in darkness. They don’t know it. Protestant world would say, “No, we’re not. We’re in the light.” They don’t understand they’re in deep darkness when it comes to God, when it comes to what is true, as much as anyone else. In some cases, they are worse because those things are going to be tough to unlearn. They are or to humble one’s self enough to where one will accept what is genuine and what is really true.

For you were once in darkness but now are you light in the Lord. What an incredible thing to see what we see, to have light in our life, to be able to see something that God has given to us and to have that light that the world doesn’t have. We are so exceedingly blessed and there are so few of us. Always have been so few. Even that is hard for us to measure then because we can begin to take it for granted. We’re not very many on this earth. How blessed are you? How thankful are you? The more you understand how blessed you are the more thankful you’ll become, the more grateful you will be to your God, the more you’ll love Him and His Son. That’s just a part of growing.

So it says, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light. If we have the light, if we are so blessed to have been given so much then we should walk in it! In other words, that should be reflected in the way we walk, in the way we live our daily life. Anything else, well, needs to be changed, needs to be repented of, needs to be fought against.

...(for the fruit of the spirit) God’s spirit. The fruit, something we are able to have in our life as a result of God’s spirit living in us. If we yield ourselves to it God’s spirit produces fruit. It can’t help it. If it’s not there fruit won’t be produced. So God’s spirit has to be there to produce fruit. But where His spirit is it’s absolute fruit will be produced because it’s like any of the law of God, it’s the way God works, it’s the way God’s spirit works, it’s the way the mind of God works, it’s God’s purpose then in one’s life. It will produce fruit. What an awesome blessing.

...(for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness..) And what is good? That means if we have that kind of thing working in our mind, in our life, then there is going to be a lot of gratitude and thankfulness toward Almighty God. Truly is. Less selfishness. (...the spirit in all goodness and righteousness...) Right living. Walking in the light. That’s what walking in the light is, it’s right living, living right before God. (...and truth). Truth.

Verse 17, dropping down, Therefore, do not be unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Simple things. I think of John 14. It talks about praying; talks about asking God for various things and there is a promise you’ll receive it. It’ll be given. So whatever you pray—Christ talked about that—but it’s about those things that are a part of God’s will for you. It’s not about what we want. It’s not about, “I want to win the lottery. I want ‘this.’ I want ‘that,” in life. It’s not about that, that you pray about those kinds of things. It’s about understanding what the will of God is for your life. And what is it? That you produce fruit, that your mind be transformed.

Regardless of what you go through in this life you don’t take this or anything else with you. Whatever you store up, whatever you’ve saved up. You don’t take anything but what’s in the mind, what’s grown, what’s matured to a point in time where God can put it in a different body. That’s what it’s all about! It’s not about this right now and what we have. What we have right now we’re to live a certain way, obviously. But you don’t take anything with you. Not a thing! God just gives you more, far more.

Therefore, do not be unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is; and do not be drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the spirit. An analogy is given here. It’s not warning here about drinking too much, though we understand that. It’s giving an analogy here of something that you can’t have too much of. You can’t have too much of God’s spirit. You can of physical spirits, you know, beer, wine, alcohol. You can have too much of that and you can become drunk. But the point being made here, it’s not about the physical spirits, it’s about God’s spirit, that you can’t have too much of that. You can grow in it. You can receive more from God.

Going on, verse 19—speaking...or expressing from deep within. That’s what it this word is about. It’s about something that is deep inside of us. It’s not even a matter of words. Some of these are kind of poor in how they are able to translate them because some words don’t mean the same in certain languages so you have to use more of an explanation. Sometimes just by putting a simple word in here it doesn’t get the thought across as to what the original languages does or can or did.

So, it says “speaking to yourselves.” It’s not about talking to yourself. It’s about something else. It’s about something that comes deep from within your own self in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. In other words, it’s an attitude of mind. It’s a way of thinking. It’s about how you feel deep inside of your being, your life, how you think toward God, how you think about this way of life He’s given to you and your reaction to it because it makes your life richer and that’s what fills your mind, your life, with fullness, joy, if you will, purpose, peace – peace that comes from God.

...singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. So it doesn’t mean you have to go and sing the hymns, although sometimes I do, especially if I get something going through my mind. I don’t know, if you’re in a restaurant or something. My wife and I did the other day. I don’t know where it was. I think we finally figured out we had this same song going through our mind and so we figured we heard it someplace. It’s a catchy tune and I didn’t want it there so in my mind I started singing one of the hymns. And you know, after a while things disappear that you don’t want to be there. It wasn’t that it was a bad song, it’s just I couldn’t get rid of it. There are certain songs that are so catchy.

So this isn’t what it’s talking about, although you can do that, you know, when you’re thankful for certain things sometimes. Just like yesterday, I couldn’t help it, the song about Babylon came to my mind, the song, By the Waters of Babylon. It was about the world and where we are in time and what God is giving to us and “there we wept, sat down and hung our harps in the willow tree.” Anyway, going on. That’s not the right word, but anyway.

But that one came to my mind and I started thinking about certain things that God has given to us and that’s what it’s talking about. It’s talking about this, the mind and how you’re thinking about certain things and whether God’s way of life strengthens you and lifts you up and fills you with purpose and direction that’s beautiful. It really is, where you have a greater appreciation and thankfulness for what God is giving to us and what He’s saving us from. Just like that song, this babble that’s out here. There’s so much out there and He’s saving us from it.

So again here, a mind, a way of thinking, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. In other words it’s how we think toward God. God comes into our mind. You know, if we go through a day and God doesn’t come into our mind, something about the truth of God, something about something He’s given us, what we have around us in this world, whatever, then we need to take stock of those things and pray about it and ask God to help us so that that will be more a part of our mindset and that this world doesn’t swallow us up.

Verse 20—Giving thanks always! See, this isn’t just a thought that just is thrown out there. This is something that follows what was just said. This is how you’re able to have that in your heart and in your mind and for it to come out of you. Giving thanks always for all things. So it’s a way of thinking. This should be in our prayers, a thing of gratitude, a thing of thanking God.

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Joshua the Christ. And when do you do that? When you pray. When you’re praying, of all times, these things should be flooding into our minds even more so, the mercy, the grace, the kindness, the favor, the goodness of God that He’s given to us in everything that we have physical and spiritual in life. Everything that we have! For everything that’s here belongs to God. Awesome!

We’re going to cover verses in Psalm 95 because they go hand in hand here. They fit perfectly together with a portion of one sermon that’s going to be given at the Feast so I want to go into some of this here in part.

Psalm 95:1. All these things tie together. God does the building. God does the constructing. Everything fits perfectly together. What He gives us Sabbath by Sabbath, holy day to holy day fits perfectly together in how He’s transforming us and working with us and molding and fashioning us, what He want us to focus upon, what we need to see.

O come, let us sing... It doesn’t have to even be in song; it’s what’s in the mind. It’s how we think toward God. Just as the word means even in Hebrew, it can be a declaration or a verbal expression of real joy. When do we do that toward God? When we pray. It doesn’t even have to be verbal in the sense of saying it out loud. It’s in your mind as you pray toward God. If you move your lips and you talk, fine, but ever how you pray toward God. It’s going to be up here.

O come, let us sing unto the Eternal. Let us make a joyful noise, especially at this time of year because we’re commanded to; even more so because we’re supposed to focus on this more now in this time of the year than we do at other times, but this is the way we should be. We should take that with us. We should learn from that process and make a joyful noise. It’s about our lives, that we’re filled with a fullness of life and a joy because of what God’s given to us. That’s toward God!

...unto the Eternal. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving. We should never come before God without it. No prayer should ever go up before God without thanksgiving! No prayer! Every prayer should be filled with thanksgiving! Somewhere there should be thanksgiving in it, gratitude toward God. If we miss that part in our prayer just ask God for help to change it because it should always, always, always be somewhere within our prayer.

...and make a joyful noise. As we’re praying to God it’s a sound, it’s a mindset; it’s a thinking toward God. Because when you’re thanking God, when you’re thinking about those things what’s inside? Joy, a fullness of life. There’s a gratitude and a fullness that lifts you up.

I can be walking in our subdivision and looking at various things that are there, praying to God and thanking Him for various things that we have – that frankly I can even be out there walking, I know, because of what I’ve gone through. I’m thankful that the Church hasn’t had to go through that, that my family hasn’t had to go through something that could have ended here this past summer, because God’s in charge and if God wants something else to happen and to be given it’s going to happen. So I’m thankful I’m still around, see.

And then everything else that’s around, the beauty, the things of God’s creation that He shares with us, everything that’s out there, everything, whether it be the sky or the clouds or the different formations or the sun that’s setting or the sun that’s rising or the flowers or the trees and the variety of everything that’s there – it’s from God and those are things we’re to think about! He’s provided everything we have. It’s beautiful. And you know what? When you think that way you can’t help but be filled with joy and happiness.

It takes away all the pressure and the stress of this life, of those things that we experience around us on a constant basis, especially when you get in your car. Just like driving here today. Man, I got stressed out for a few miles because traffic was backed up. They moved two lanes over down by Florence area there and we had to squeeze into two lanes and you’re not sure which lane to take. You’re not sure if you should take that exit but that exit’s backed up two miles (maybe a mile), and you know that they’re all waiting at the light and that’s why it’s backing up more and more and more, because they’re all waiting at the same light and it’s going to take a long time. So do you take that detour or do you just kind of stay over here and try to pick one of the lanes. I just picked the wrong one. Anyway, toward the end I got the right lane, which was the very far left, and usually that’s the one that messes up. If I take it, it’s going to go slower.

But you know, we have a lot of stress in physical life around us. You do on your jobs. If you’re mixing with this world, if you have to work around people who don’t have God’s spirit you’re going to experience this world. It’s just the way it is. When you drive down the highway you’re going to experience this world. That’s just the way it is. No matter what it is, even technology. I don’t want to get into it.

For the Eternal is a great God... What an awesome thing to think upon, a Great God. I think about this so often when I think different things about God, and I think about different times when they didn’t realize, they didn’t know, and yet there are a few indications throughout scripture of things when, you know, when God knows, when Christ talked about, knows when there’s a bird that falls to the ground. Now, you have to think about, now if God knows about everything like that in this great earth, this world around us, and the number of hairs on your head, what kind of a mind is that? What kind of a being is our God? What are His limits?

We understand by looking at the universe and how great it is and that God put it all there – not in one day, not in one moment, not in one second – over a long, long period of time with an angelic realm that He created to do those things, to be a part of it, whatever that was, ever how it was involved we don’t fully understand. God’s in control of it all, made it all, controls it all, sustains it all, and His eyes are here. His eyes are here!

More upon you, those of you listening today, than elsewhere because He’s called you something special. He hasn’t called the rest of the world yet. He’s working to bring them to that time, whether it be the Great White Throne or into the millennial period. But His eyes are upon those with whom He’s working day by day by day constantly, with the mind, to mold and fashion if we’ll respond. If we’ll respond, if we want it and cry out for it. It’s what His will is.

In His hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is His also. By His strength He put it all there and sustains it. The sea is His, and He made it. And His hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Eternal our maker. Those are good things to think upon from time to time in our prayers, to think about God, to think about what He’s given to us, to think about all we’re able to drink in of that’s in physical life let alone the spiritual life that He’s given to us to experience.

O come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Eternal our maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture; especially us, if we understand. He feeds us. His pasture. He feeds us. He nourishes us. We have everything we need. We have everything He gives us Sabbath by Sabbath, whenever it is, whatever He gives, whether it be through written form that comes out to us or whether it be that which is on holy days, God’s molding and fashioning our minds. He’s feeding us those things so we can be transformed, become something else, a creation that He’s working on.

That’s an awesome thing to understand, that there are things that can be done out here in the universe far more quickly than transforming us because nothing out there resists Him. Nothing out there resists His power. But we do. We take years and years and decades, as it is so often then in our life, for this to be transformed, because this is the greatest creation of all, each one of us to be in His family. That’s the purpose the creation exists. To understand those things is awesome. To understand those things is beautiful, it truly is.

...and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today if you will hear His voice. To grasp and understand how God works with us. To grasp and understand what He’s telling us and has been telling us for the last two years. To understand what He’s going to tell us at the Feast of Tabernacles this year. If we will hear His voice – more than ever before this needs to be understood and received into our life. Truly does. Today. Talk about time running out, we’re there. We’re either there or we’re not there spiritually, if you understand what I’m saying. But we’re there at that time as well.

This is an exceedingly important time for God’s Church and for God’s people, it truly is. Things are being measured. The end of measuring has come. The end of measuring has come upon God’s Church. That time is right now and it’s right now through this Feast of Tabernacles. I understand that. I know that because of what God’s giving. I hope we can take it to heart and hear it, all of us.

Because as I said last Sabbath there may be a fourth, a third – hopefully not more – who aren’t hearing diddly squat, who aren’t listening one iota to what’s being said, who aren’t changing, who aren’t listening. To listen means you want to change, you want to hear what God’s saying, you want to get your life right, you want to change the things that need to be changed! I can’t do it for anybody and neither can you. Each one has to do it themselves because they want it, because they believe it, and because they want to receive what God’s offering to them. To understand, to understand that there are times that come in our life where time is no longer; you can’t go on!

Just like I told those two elders that I’ve talked about, up in Toledo, Ohio, that time, that “I’m resigning and the Church needs to know where you stand. I’m telling you what I expect of you and yet I know that Mr. Tkach would tell you something totally opposite and he expects you to stand for what he’s teaching. You can’t stand in the middle. You can’t be on the fence post right now, you know.”

I wish everyone could hear. That’s why it blows my mind and I didn’t even fully understand it when God began to reveal and to tell the Church that these things are going to happen all the way up to the timing that Joshua the Christ comes. I think, after seeing a nuclear war you mean you can still totally lose out? In God’s Church today, that someone could still lose out, not be allowed to live on into a new age? Because God has that power!

If you don’t understand what God did when they came across out of wandering for forty years and came across the Jordan river, when God separated the water again and all those of a certain age died. Hundreds of thousands of people we’re talking about that came to a certain point and every one of them of that age were not allowed to go in to a new land. You think God has the power and the might? We better know He does! Especially with a little group? This is no task. Do we limit God’s power? Do we believe what He tells us?

“Today if you can hear His voice.” That just about sends chills up my spine.

Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, the contention, because that’s what happened to a physical people. Can that happen to a spiritual one? Well, yes and no. Because the reality is we come to a certain point, if we’re not careful, where we’re not spiritual any longer. We’ve cut ourselves off from the flow of God’s spirit. We’re doing it on our own. We’re relying on our self or we’ve deceived ourselves into thinking we can live a certain way or do certain things and God’s spirit’s gone. We don’t have access.

We know certain things that we know because we’ve heard them so long and we’re still able to have some of that and we hear it week by week, but is it in us or is it not? Because that happens a lot, a lot more than I would ever want to see it, but it happens. It’s been that way ever since I’ve been in God’s Church because that’s the way of human beings. We have choices to make. Sometimes we just don’t make good choices because this wins out, self wins out. Selfishness wins out, because that’s what we are, and we give in. We want what we want instead of wanting what God offers us. For that you’ve got to fight and you’ve got to sacrifice. You’ve got to sacrifice self over and over and over again, day by day by day by day.

Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, or the contention as the word is, and the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers tested Me, proved Me, and saw My work. They saw all kinds of things. They came across a sea on dry land. Well, they didn’t go in the water, but it was all around them on both sides, destroyed the Egyptians and the Egyptian army, pharaoh himself. You’d think by the time you got to the other side and you saw something like this, “I believe. I believe in the power of God and the power of God to save.” But, oh no, it doesn’t take too long, and murmuring and complaining because self wasn’t being taken care of the way self wanted to be pampered and taken care of.

Now, that’s easier to understand than it is with someone with God’s spirit. If we have God’s spirit we have access. They didn’t have God’s spirit in them. They were just carnal human beings and that’s what they proved for forty years; they were just carnal, selfish human beings without God’s spirit because without God’s spirit you can’t live this way of life. They couldn’t obey the law that God gave to them at Mount Sinai. They couldn’t live it. They could live it to a point. They could have because it was commanded, because they had to be there every Sabbath, every holy day. They found out quickly you can’t go out and get manna because it doesn’t work on that day. You might as well stay in the tent, you fool.

But did that change anything in them? No, they just got into a routine of doing certain physical things in a certain way, but it was nothing of God’s spirit in that. But we have access to it. That’s why the Apostasy is the greatest lesson of all time for human beings to ever learn. Throughout the Millennium and the Great White Throne that’ll be the story to be told because that is the height of it all, of how far people can go away from God when they have access to God and His holy spirit. That’s what human beings can do, turn against God. The spirit world did, a third of it, and so can those impregnated with God’s spirit turn away from it.

Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people who do err in their heart... Now, was God surprised by that? This is written for us. This is written for us to learn from. God knew exactly what they would do long before He took them out because He had a plan. He had a plan for all the holy days and what they picture. Pentecost, the wave loaves, things that they did on the holy days... But it wasn’t for them. It wasn’t about them being a part of the wave loaves. Not at all. God had a plan. He knew exactly what they were going to do when they went out there.

See, the forty year thing, that wasn’t something that just happened and they went out and did what they did, and therefore, God did what He did and so they stayed out there for forty years. No, it was always going to be forty years no matter what because God knew what they were going to do. Sometimes we’re so short-sighted as human beings, so narrow minded, and we limit God.

...they do always err in their heart... See, that’s the problem with human beings, we err in our heart, in the way we think. It’s about what’s in the mind. ...and they have not known My ways. Why? Because they’re selfish and don’t have God’s spirit.

Now, how bad is it when we do have access to God’s spirit and we do this? How much worse is that? See, because as I was mentioning earlier, those who began to cut themselves off from God’s spirit, that’s how. Because they don’t know. Those of you who are at that point right now, I know that I’m talking to some right now who don’t hear diddly squat today because you can’t. You just can’t hear anymore! Why? Because you’ve cut yourself of from God’s spirit. Maybe recently, maybe a year ago, maybe two years ago, maybe three years ago, I don’t know, and you’re just going through the motions! Is this in you? Do you cry out to God with all of your being? Do you see your mind as being transformed and being changed?

If we’re cut off from God’s spirit you become deceived, and a nuclear war isn’t going to change that because you’ll still be deceived. You’ll be so weak at that point unless God awakens you out of a spiritual sleep. The Apostasy taught us that. We all fell asleep. Laodicea fell asleep and had to be separated totally from God. We all had to repent and acknowledge that we were lukewarm. Only God then can wake someone up out of a spiritual sleep because we can’t! So some today can’t hear, period, because God has to wake you up and you’re going to hear some words and I feel for you, but I can’t wake you up. Only God can.

If I thought that I might be in that position I’d cry out to God, “Father, please wake me up! Please help me to see what I’ve done.” Because you ought to have enough to know that things aren’t right, something needs to change. You’ve got to fight for this way of life every day of your life.

They do always err in their heart and they have not known My ways. Basically, unthankful. You know what happens? Because we can become unthankful for what God has given. That’s what happened and what was constantly happening to them. Thankful to be brought through the Red Sea? No. By the time they got to the other side they even started thinking back about what it was like to be out there with those flesh pots and stirring up the stuff for the whole community to come in and have a little bit of what the Egyptians might have given to them to live off of and “I remember the good ole days when we could go out and work like mad from sun up to sun down and at least we had the meat there. We had water. Right now we don’t have any water. Where is this Great God that brought us through the Red Sea and we don’t have water!”

You know, people start blaming God. When I hear someone blame God for something I just think, boy, oh, boy, judgment can be on you just like that. Judgment can be on you just like that, that you won’t even be a part of the 144,000 if that’s what you were called to participate in because of something as stupid as that. See? That’s how quick things can change in a judgment from God Almighty if we do something like that toward God when we have access to His holy spirit. Because that’s happened, okay? It can happen just like that, a judgment made because of certain decisions and choices people make.

That’s why we’re going through some of these things. I don’t even want to get into some of that. I’ll say it. That’s exactly why we’re going through some of the things we’re going through right now. Because everything hinges on this. This is a different time. God didn’t execute the judgment the world was worthy of. Instead He showed mercy and grace. And how has mankind used it? Exactly how God knew he would, but we have to learn it and the world has to learn it as well. It’s still not going to change and who’s going to listen? Nobody!

I can put every bit of money we have in the bank right now out there and flood the Internet – which we’re going to keep pushing – because at some point there will be some whose minds will be opened up, but only because God’s drawn them, only because God has humbled them. Otherwise nobody listens, no one cares, talking about the world, not if we’re in the Church and we have that mindset.

So yes, in 2012 we came up to a period of time that before that, between 2008 and 2012 we had some, including ministers, who had that kind of an attitude toward God Almighty and they were judged instantly, “You will not be a part of what you were called to become.” God can work with others. “Let no man take your crown?” Boy, those words mean a lot.

Because, you see, if someone turns against God after everything they’ve been given and had opportunity for, and they turn their back on it, truths that the Church has never known in time, understanding of some things the Church has never been given in time, and now because of where we are in time God has given more? That women should be ordained, as an example, and some can’t accept that? “And who are you to say that?” They forget everything that they have learned up to that point in time is for one reason because God gave it to them. I didn’t. God did.

“Today if you can hear His voice.” Some came to a point where they didn’t and basically said to God, “No way! I don’t believe that.” Choice. God said, “No way. No way. You’re not going to be a part of that government. No way.” That’s exactly what happened. So others are being worked with, being given an opportunity – still being worked with. We know it’s going to be that way for a little while. I’m getting into Feast sermons. It’s hard to stay out of them.

So don’t harden your heart. Don’t let that happen. Don’t turn away from God. Don’t ever come to a point in time where you’re not thankful and grateful for everything that God has given to you. Because, see, that makes the difference. That mind makes the difference, a mind of thankfulness and gratitude because it’s about love toward God. You know, the more you understand what God has given, the more merciful you understand God has been to you, the more you understand how much God loves you, the more you really see that, man, you can’t help but be thankful. It’s our choice to be thankful, to be grateful in how we respond to God then. Awesome!

God said, Unto whom I swore in My wrath they should not enter into My rest. Whew, powerful. Powerful, powerful. This wasn’t about the Israelites coming through the Red Sea and going into the promised land. This is about the Church.

There was one more quote that was given in this series. You know what; we may have another one after the Feast here on thankfulness. I wasn’t planning on that but maybe someone else is. Anyway.  One more quote that was given in this series that needs to be repeated before we continue. Awesome, what it says here too, to understand it spiritually. See, to understand something like this physically and to grasp certain things – which people can do, and they can appreciate certain things on a physical plane, man, how much more on a spiritual one? “There are three enemies to personal peace,” three enemies to peace basically but its personal to each one of us as to whether or not we have peace in our life. “...regret over yesterday’s mistakes...” You know, if you understand forgiveness, if you understand what God offers us and that once we repent we move forward. You can’t live in the past, and yet oftentimes, like Johnny’s example, there is this bag of rocks we’re dragging behind us. The less rocks you have the more peace you have because it’s a matter of a relationship with God and things being in God’s hands and accepting the truth that God has given to us to live by.

Another one, “...anxiety over tomorrow’s problems.” Drama, drama, drama, drama, drama; that’s what it is. We don’t have control of tomorrow. Basically, we don’t have control of other people and what they’re doing tomorrow. That’s where the problems come in. We tend to want to be in control even of other people’s lives and what they should be doing and how they should be living. So we get this anxiety over tomorrow’s problems. That’s why I hate drama because that’s what this is about. There is only so much you can do in life. I could give a series on that little portion right there, anxiety over. I actually already have, haven’t I? Just kidding.

“...and ingratitude for today’s blessings.” If we are really looking to God and thankful to God there will be a peace inside of us that can only be there because God gives it, because of His way of life, because of how we’re responding to Him and we’re filled with thankfulness and gratitude toward God in all things in our life.

Let’s turn over to Ecclesiastes 5. It’d be difficult to give such a sermon series as this without considering some of the things stated here in Ecclesiastes. We could go through a whole lot more but we’re just going to look at one little portion here.

Ecclesiastes 5:18—Behold, here is what I have seen: it is good and fitting for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he works under the sun all the days of his life... To have plenty, to not have to worry. That’s basically what it’s talking about here. To understand what labor, what work can do for one’s self, for one’s life, how God has made it so that human beings can work to be productive, to provide for one’s self and one’s family and to not have worry or concern.

Does that mean you never have worries or concerns or problems with certain things of finances? No. But to understand how blessed you are for what you do have and to be content therewith is another matter because usually it goes back to wanting more or getting into problems because we have done more to get more. That’s just a part of life sometimes, and especially because of how credit is so easy to get and maxing out credit cards and things that we tend to do as human beings and we live from one paycheck exactly to the next. Anyway, it’s a trap.

...and the labor which he works under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him. God has given us such things. He’s given us this ability and the things of how we respond even physically to that, how we think just on a physical plane without God. ...for it is his portion. It’s what God has given us in human life. The more that people can understand this on a physical plane the more they’re blessed in the sense of understanding, in the sense of being at peace themselves. How much more on a spiritual plane?

Verse 19—Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor... Because these things don’t guarantee happiness. These things do not guarantee peace. That’s the point. ...this is the gift of God. If we understand what it’s like in this physical life to be able to, if we have that, the ability to work, the ability to produce, the ability to have families, the ability to have whatever it is that we have received to this point in time in a physical life, how awesome is that?

We are so blessed in the western world we sometimes don’t even begin to grasp how blessed we are. There are people in other nations that would trade places with anybody up here as a whole...as a whole, except maybe for some who are homeless. Because that’s how many in the world are living in many cases. I think of some cities. I think of some in South America, reports have come out about thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands who have no homes. Young kids trying to stay alive, scavenging to stay alive, doing whatever it takes to stay alive day by day, day by day in conditions that none of us can even begin to grasp because we’ve never lived it. To see it it would be hard to grasp and comprehend what they’re experiencing. I could say so much more, but won’t.

We are to always remember to think upon God’s blessings to us and never forget them – physical and spiritual – with whatever we have in life to be so thankful, to be so grateful, to be so thankful that we’re not in some of those other places in some of those other conditions in the world where people have nothing in comparison. Where were you born? What are you blessed to experience and to have in physical life? See, we can begin to take all that for granted and to be so hit with advertising out here and different things that are around us that we expect more or want more and can’t be content with where we are in life, not have that peace of mind.

1 Thessalonians 5:15—See that none render evil for evil unto anyone. Thinking about what we just said, how much worse to render evil for good because if we respond to God with ingratitude, again, I think of how sick that is, rendering evil for good. See that none render evil for evil unto anyone; but ever follow that which is good, in how you live and how you think and how you treat others, both among yourselves, and to all.

Rejoice evermore. How do you do that, “rejoice evermore?” Is that something you work up and you make yourself be happy? “I’m going to be happy today.” Or is it because of how you think that you’re going to be happy that day, fulfilled, able to rejoice in life around you? It’s how you think. So much of that is simply about a mindset of whether there is gratitude and thankfulness there or not. Because if there is not we’re just selfish, we’re just living in selfishness only, as a whole. That’s what the world is doing. We get caught up in that sometimes and we just live selfishly.

Verse 16—Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. That doesn’t mean all day long while you’re awake. It means you have a habit of prayer; you do it day by day. You cry out to God. You pray to God. You don’t give up in fighting this fight and fighting your carnal human nature. That’s just one example.

In everything give thanks. That’s a lot! Have you ever found yourself in a prayer and that’s all you can do, is just thank God for everything? Because if you start thinking about different things you can’t quit. You just have to end the prayer at some point, see, so you do. ...for this is the will of God... What? That we be thankful, that we be filled with a mind of gratitude, of thankfulness first and foremost to Him, to God, because that’s where it all is, everything. That’s where it all comes from. The more we can do that then, well, the more we can learn it in other phases of life too toward other people, toward what others do, the good they do toward us.

...for this is the will of God in Christ Joshua concerning you. So what’s revealed here is something that takes place through Christ because it requires that life to live within us, to think this way, to be this way, to be able to accomplish these things.

Quench not the spirit. That’s part of what I cried out about earlier. Don’t let yourself get cut off from God’s spirit. Don’t dwell in sin. Don’t turn inward. Don’t turn selfish. Think about these things, especially at this time of year, of everything you have, of everything you’ve been blessed to receive from God and the opportunities that God’s giving you. Especially in this season of the year above all others, because if we can learn that then we can take that with us from the Feast.

Quench not the spirit. Do not despise prophesying, in other words, inspired interpretation, preaching.

Prove all things. How do you do that, prove all things? This one’s a bit of a pet peeve in the past because people used to read this in the Church and think, “Prove all things. That’s where you get out your Strong’s Concordance. I can go in here and prove everything that’s in here. I can prove it to myself.” It’s good to learn what you can learn out of here, but if you start turning inward and thinking you’re the authority for what you prove in this book you’re nuttier than a fruitcake and don’t belong in God’s Church. God’s gotten rid of a lot of that. Well, pretty much all of it. Because that’s the attitude of mind that sometimes went along with some and they began to think that they could get out their Strong’s Concordance and they could prove everything in here themselves and study.

And studying? Those things are good. Reading is good, but in the context of what God has already given you, not something new, not some new understanding. People come up with these ideas, “Oh, I see something that we’ve never seen before,” type of thing, and the Church was filled with that. People get up and give sermonettes and that was their chance. That was their chance to tell something that nobody had ever heard before. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced that but I experienced it far too much in the Church. Sadly, sometimes that would work over into sermons then as well. It goes to the head. People say things they shouldn’t say.

That’s not how you prove all things. That’s not what it’s talking about. It’s not about an admonition from God Almighty that you’ve got to get out your Strong’s Concordance, because what about those poor fools that never had one in the previous 1800-900 whatever it was years? Or they didn’t even have a printed Bible. Didn’t exist for a long, long time. People didn’t have Bibles. They couldn’t go in here and prove things to themselves. They only learned by what they heard in the ear, by what God gave to them by something that someone taught them Sabbath by Sabbath or whatever. That’s the only way they learned. They didn’t have to go out and prove something, “Well, he’s not right because that doesn’t agree with this verse here or that verse back there.” So that has nothing to do with that.

I’m sorry I’m getting a little worked out over this because I just think of the past and think of how people can begin to think that way. It’s about how you live, that you prove God’s way. It’s like taking the oxen out and you buy them for the first time and you’re excited as a farmer and you’ve had to do a lot of these things by digging and planting and now you have oxen to tear up the soil and you are so excited. Now, today it’s a brand new tractor that will set you back a little bit, but anyway, put you deep in debt. The cost of these things! Combines, tractors. But people are excited when they get them. When they can get a new one and try something different that can produce far more for them, do far more for them and they have the ability and capacity to take care of some of those things they’re excited.

Well, that’s what we should be about God’s way of life. It’s about proving what He reveals to us. We go out and put it to practice. We want to hear what God tells us and so we have this eagerness to want to change or to see something maybe new that God has shown us or better understanding about something that we haven’t seen before and so we want to make the change in our life. It’s about making change; it’s about yielding to what God gives to us, to want to live it, to want to hear.

“Today if you hear His voice.” Some can hear who have suspicion that they might be walking around asleep. They might have some kind of suspicion that they’re out here in a courtyard. Then go and bow down before God, truly, and cry out for mercy and cry out for help to be awakened again because you want this way of life. And maybe some who were worked with to be a part of that first resurrection will still have opportunity to live into a new age in physical life, let alone those who that’s all they were called to, was to live on into a new age in physical life. It’s when you were offered a whole lot more, and some are being tried and tested in those things. I’m just going to tell you – some who have been around for a long time, even there. To be able to live on into that new age, what an awesome blessing. But it may be God will grant that because already He’s said, “Not a part of My government. Not now.” So be thankful for what God does give and the mercy of God upon us all.

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. That sums up so much of what I’ve already said. Hold fast. Hold on to with all your being. Hold on to the trunk of the tree. Hold on to the truths God has given to you. Hold on to this way of life. Hold on with all of your being.

Verse 22—Abstain from all appearance of evil. Not even to participate in it, but get away from any appearance that someone might misunderstand, misinterpret. And the very God of peace, that’s where it comes from. It comes from God, peace, a mind of peace, of being at one with God, content where we are. Because a lot of peace has to do with content in the truth in the way of God. My life is in His hands. Some just haven’t fully placed their lives there yet. You’ve got to make that choice and decision. It’s supposed to be made at baptism, but, see, that was just a beginning of something that tells us what we’re to do in the future and throughout the rest of our physical life with God’s spirit. But our lives belong to God. They’re not our own to do whatever we please.

And the God of peace sanctify you wholly; set you apart. It’s God who can do that, who has the power to do that. ...and I pray God your whole spirit and life and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Joshua the Christ. Those rings cry out louder today than any other times I’ve been in God’s Church because we’re there. The time is upon us.

I don’t think I finished a complete thought about those two elders up there. You know, time comes to us and there is no more time. It came to them that day. The next day judgment came to them and they were separated fully for good from God because they made the wrong choices.

Sometimes time just runs out because we come to a point in time. All they could see was, “Well, you talked strong to us.” They didn’t say it that way, but it was like, “You were hard on us.” “Mr. Weinland, he was hard on us in what he had to say. He pushed us.” Oh, here is one way, here is another, what are you going to do? “You’re pushing us. I’ve got to make that decision now?” That’s not what came into their minds; they just didn’t like what they heard. Sometimes people just don’t like what they hear and they don’t receive it.

Time... Time has run out and this is a time to cry out to God as never before, that we be able to see clearly ourselves and that we’re not deceiving ourselves. And if we’re asleep? You know, you think that one would be able to grasp a little bit that “I might be sluggish or sleepy here.” But one, it’s hard, but you should be able to measure what you’re living day by day by what you’ve heard and if it’s not measuring up to that then...?

Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it. It’s a matter of yielding totally to God. We can’t make these changes. We’ve got to cry out for God to help us, to deliver us. God is faithful. The problem is is we are not as human beings. But we have to make choices. Are we going to be? Are we going to strive to be more than ever before in our life?

Philippians 4:4—Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. The primary way you can do that, again, is by knowing what to be thankful for. What are we thankful for? What is our list? What can we go through? What can we think about when we’re praying to God, to be thankful for? What is it we have that He’s given to us that He hasn’t given to anyone else? Start praying that prayer you’re going to be up all night, if you really see it. I’m not telling you to do that, I’m just saying there are a lot of prayers out here that we can have toward God for a long period of time and we’re never going to be able to catch it all. Okay? We’re without excuse to not be praying to God in thankfulness and gratitude every time we pray. There’s got to be something in there, there have to be things in there. It’s a way of thinking, a mind of thankfulness.

Rejoice. Then we will rejoice more and more and more. Let your moderation be known unto all people. The Lord is at hand. So there’s a way of life to be lived. There’s a balance and a soundness. We just went through that series. Balance, soundness of mind, where does that come from? God does it. It comes from God. So we have to cry out to Him to have that. God is there. He is faithful. He is at hand. Look to Him.

Don’t be over anxious over anything; remember that part we looked at here, those who are worrying about tomorrow’s problems, over anxious about things, drama, drama, drama, drama. I hate drama. I can’t even get that message across strong enough to anyone, how much I hate drama. Probably the one who knows it the most is sitting back there in the corner. She knows I hate drama because she hears me say it.

Verse 6— Don’t be over anxious about anything; but in everything by prayer and supplication... Every time, as long as we’re awake, there are things to be thankful for. What are you going to pick? What are you going to tell God, say to God? You can’t go through the whole day; if you’re up for twelve hours, you’d be up for twelve hours thanking God. So you can’t do that. But what you do thank God for you need to see those things, certain things, a summation, you know, wrapping it up, in a sense, condensing certain facets and thanking God.

But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. What prayer can there be without it? ...let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, over and over again, “and the peace of God.” It’s the mind you have as a result of thinking a certain way. That’s what He’s showing.

See, we live in a world right now where there is so much drama that sometimes people, peace has escaped. It’s gone. Because drama takes that away. Thankfulness can change that.

...and the peace of God which passes all understanding... Why? Because this ability to know and understand those things are spiritual in nature. They come from God. Only God can give that kind of a mind, that kind of mind toward God. My life is in His hands. It’s His to use ever how He wants to. I just want to make certain, strive to make certain that where I’ve messed up (want to say other words), where I do that in thinking, action, whatever it might be, that I’m able to repent and do it quickly, move forward to have peace, to be thankful that we’re able to be forgiven of our sins. Because that’s what selfishness does, and learn to be thankful, more thankful.

Which passes all understanding, and keep your hearts and minds through Christ Joshua. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest... You know what are the things we can think about? Because here are things to be thankful for. Those are the things of life that should fill our lives, enrich our lives, cause us a reaction, a response of being filled with happiness, joy, a rejoicing in God. Not just rejoicing in a false way over something, but it’s something because God’s in the picture because we see God and God’s purpose in our lives and it all fits together.

So, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely... Now, in this world we don’t tend to think that way because of the way society is and because of what we see around us and we’re bombarded by just the opposite all the time. Turn on a TV you’re going to be bombarded with the exact opposite of all this. But that should create something within us as well, a longing and a deeper longing and that kind of mind that Lot had, who vexed his righteous soul day by day because of what he was seeing around him and he wanted a different world, wanted a different place for his family to be in.

...whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report. We tend to thrive on drama, the bad report. What do we look for? What do we look at in other people’s lives and especially within the Church? ...if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Again, that’s a mind of thankfulness toward God.

Those things, which you have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do. That’s pretty powerful what he just said. ...and the God of peace shall be with you. If you’ll do it. If you’ll receive it. Today if you will hear His voice? He says here, “the God of peace will be with you.” That’s what its saying.

I debate whether to go into this last one here. This may be rather fast, but I think it’s important and I do want to wrap it up. I think it’s to be wrapped up today, okay? We’re going to move forward so hold on.

1 Chronicles 28. There is a story in 1 Chronicles 28 that’s about the physical temple that David wanted to build and had to pass it along to his son, and so that’s what’s being covered here. Although it’s about a physical temple it has parallels to a spiritual temple that God and His Son are building. This story is one that should benefit us mightily on a spiritual plane if we can see some of the things that are there. I’ll point out some of those things. I may not be able to hit everything here, but you can go back and think about it on your own as well in prayer.

This story begins by David telling Solomon about this house for God and the pattern or the design of it and the things that were to be a part of the temple and things that Solomon was to himself follow then. This is what he told Solomon.

1 Chronicles 28:19—All this, the Eternal made me understand in writing, all this by His hand upon me. Awesome! Everything he’d just given to Solomon about the design, about the pattern of things to follow that were to be a part of the temple and David is telling his son, he said God just gave this to me up here. In writing, when it was time to write it was there. The design of it, how it was to be, it was there. That’s what he’s telling him. He saying, as I sketched these things out, as I wrote these things down this is how it came to me. God gave them to me and here they are; here is the pattern. How can you know the pattern of the temple unless God gives it to you, of those things of how certain things are to be, of something being made of this kind of majesty and this kind of greatness? So he’s making it clear to his son God gave it.

...by His hand upon me, and all the works of this pattern (this design). And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage... This is specifically about the building of the temple “because it’s not going to be an easy task for you to supervise, to be over,” and do it. In other words, “And build it.” “Be strong and of good courage,” in other words, “God’s going to give you what you need.” That’s what this is about. He is encouraging him with words to receive from God what God has laid out for his father to give to his son. Do not be afraid nor become discouraged. In other words, why? Because of the building. This is a massive project! This is a big thing for them to do! This is huge, a huge undertaking, something of this magnitude, and he’s letting his son know this. “Don’t become discouraged as you’re doing it.” “Don’t be afraid by certain things that are going to happen. Because things are going to come at you.”

If anybody has been in construction and they know how it works? Remember, these were carnal physical human beings he was working with. They were not in the Church of God. And even then, if they all were, you’re going to have some problems working with human beings building this thing. I hope we understand that, okay? Anyone that’s worked around construction knows that coordinating everything, working with everything: “It’s going to be a task, this, but don’t become discouraged. Don’t be afraid of this, of what comes your way from different ones, because it’s going to happen.”

See, we read the nice story of what was built. We don’t know all the stories of things that didn’t run perfectly all along the way all the time, because they don’t. Yet they had a right heart, an awesome heart in what they were doing and people got to be a part of this. They came toward it. But still, things happen in life because of how great it is.

Don’t be afraid nor discouraged; for the Eternal God, even my God, will be with you; He will not fail You. That’s powerful! I think about what about us being in the temple. God won’t fail us! We have everything! We have everything we need to do exactly why God called us. If He called us to be a part of a government soon, it’s all there for us. All we have to do is hear His voice, respond to what He tells us, live it! If He’s called us to live on into the Millennium, to be the first of a people that make up the Church, He’s there. He makes it possible. We can’t do it, but He can.

He will not fail you, nor abandon... He won’t leave us. Problem is we can leave Him. Some I’ve talked to today are leaving Him. When you cut off the flow of God’s spirit by what you want to do that’s contrary to God, by being antichrist, candidly, because you’re working against the purpose of Christ’s death in your life so you can be forgiven of sin, so that you can grow spiritually and so that you can have access to God’s spirit, so that God’s spirit can dwell in you, so that Joshua the Christ and God Almighty can dwell in you, wow! So we abandon God. He doesn’t abandon us ever. He’ll cut us off but that’s because of what we did not what He did. It’s what we do.

...until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the Eternal. That’s pretty powerful what was said there too, “until.” Because, you see, Solomon changed. But the house was going to be built.

And the courses, or the divisions, if you will, of the priests and the Levites, in other words, they’re here with you as well. God is here and the division that’s already established, what is there to help accomplish this, it’s already structured, it’s already together. Look at what you do have to work with. Don’t become discouraged by how great this is, by how big this is. It can be done, will be done.

…the priests and the Levites are there for all the service, or the work and labor, as it’s talking about here, of the house of God: and also with you for all manner of workmanship every willing skilful man, people that are going to give of themselves, that want to be a part of this, who want to be involved, for any manner of labor or work: and also the princes and all the people will be fully at your commandment. You’re the king. You’re going to be the king. You’re going to have this to fulfill and to accomplish and they’re there at your command. Now, he’s young. He doesn’t have experience yet. It’s interesting what’s said later on here.

1 Chronicles 29:1—Furthermore, David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God has chosen... God did that. He’s making it clear here it’s not what I’ve done, it’s what God has done. He’s the one who’s been chosen to continue on.

I think about God calling us. He’s chosen to call each one of us. Sometimes we don’t understand how great that is. How humbling should that be? Of all people why us? Why me? Why you? And there is no answer except be thankful to God that it is you, that it is me, whatever, whoever you are, because there are so many others that God could have drawn, could have called, could have chosen to call, if you will, but didn’t. He’s given us those opportunities.

So he said here, whom God alone has chosen, is yet young and tender. Interesting how/what he’s saying here and what it is telling as far as how it’s written. Just the word “tender” here means “soft,” but it’s how it’s used. Words, it’s hard to grasp this, to catch it all: “soft spoken,” it comes from that word that means that. In other words, “inexperienced,” because of how others may talk to him or how others may be around him and may not grasp. If you’re the king and you start out and you don’t have the experience of how to deal with various things sometimes you can be naive, sometimes you can be railroaded, sometimes people can sway you in the wrong way or whatever by saying nice sweet things in your ears and whatever, and they have a totally different intention. You’re naive or inexperienced and this is a part of what it’s talking about. So your response may not be what it should be.

So, is yet young and tender, not yet assertive. To do what he needed to do he was going to have to grow in that. And he did. He became more assertive. Something needs to be done a certain way for a specific purpose and they’re going to be relying on you to be that way and God will give you that help. He’s telling the people this. ...and the work is great: and the palace... It’s like a lavish building, a lavish place that is being built, the temple. It’s about the temple, but it’s not the word for the temple. It’s talking about the lavishness of what is being constructed here; nothing like it! Awesome in greatness, beauty, wealth.

...for the palace is not for man, but for the Eternal God. Do we grasp what we are? This is what we’re called for. This is what we’re here for. Not being done by man but being done by God for God, for God’s temple and what He’s creating within us if we yield to the process of things we can’t grasp nor comprehend, candidly, and what He’s going to put in this mind and give us the ability of later on. We don’t have a smidgen of it. You know, when you talk about, when you think about something in the womb of a mother that’s growing, it’s nothing compared to what happens when it comes out, finally breathes, begins to live, begins to do various things in the world, whatever, and that growth pattern that takes place and the things that are there for it. Totally different from when it’s just a little whatever, you know, you can’t even see the shape of it. If we can understand those things on a spiritual plane, we can’t grasp what it’s going to be like to be in God’s Kingdom. To be of spirit composition? We’ve never experienced that but it’s so many worlds away, if you will, in thinking from what we are now. But awesome what we are now and it’s about God and about His temple and it’s about being a part of His family. In other words, being a part of Elohim and what that really means, and how incredible that is that we really don’t grasp very well because we’re so limited in this physical brain that we have and the capacity we have in this brain. It has limits, big limits.

What we do see on a spiritual plane is solely because of what God has given to us to see. What we see it’s like what it says, “through a glass darkly.” It’s like it’s tinted over so deeply it’s hard to see. Have you ever been looking and a car comes up beside you and you look over there and they have tinted windows just like you do? You can’t even tell there’s anybody in there but you see a vehicle. So this is an example of what we think about when it talks about seeing through a glass darkly. It’s like it’s hard to see through it. It’s hard to see what’s on the other side. But we see little bits. Awesome!

Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God. That’s what David said. That’s what God is crying out about to us to do right now. Are we really doing it with all of our might? When we hear the announcements we hear are we really doing it “with all my might?” That I shouldn’t have to ask people, “Did you hear the announcement three weeks ago to send in your money if you want to be a part of a meal? So why do I have to keep asking you? Have you signed up yet for the Feast of Tabernacles? You haven’t even done that! Do you really want to be at the Feast of Tabernacles?” And maybe it’s because you really don’t want to be there or not planning on being there! Huh, because there is that out there too. It blows my mind. Truly it does.

So, “Am I working with all my might for the house of my God? Because that’s what I’ve been called to, to become a part, to be a part of Elohim.” If we really grasped that we’re going to fight for it and we’re not going to care about what we go through in this physical life, of how hard it might be at different times. Well, I didn’t know it was going to be this hard, this difficult. Well, to battle ourselves you have to fight because it wants to pull you back, each one of us, our carnal selfish human nature. So we have to fight. Do we want it with all of our being? Do we recognize what we have, what we’ve been offered? Then fight for it!

As a minister I shouldn’t have to get up then and ask but once: “Today if you will hear His voice.” See, that’s what reflects where we are! That’s what reflects where we are on a spiritual plane, whether we hear! Are we going to be one of those that still comes to the Feast and pull our chair out in the aisle because we want to see better or we want to have more space from other people? If you need more space from other people and you have a problem, then tell us and we’ll try to get you a place, if it’s something that’s really a battle in your life. But otherwise, keep it where it is! Think about everybody else! Think about the people that have to come in here and straighten this stuff up. Think about the people who have to go back again and again and again and say, “Aren’t you coming? Aren’t you going to be at that meal?” Because we did that. God’s ministry did that. We had different ones send out requests over and over again because people wouldn’t respond to the first or second or third email. Had my daughter doing that in some cases, sending out emails to different places. “Are you going to the Feast? What is your plan? We need this for registration. We need for planning.” People wouldn’t respond. There are some who still haven’t responded to this day! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get into this. But I think, “Don’t you see your heart isn’t in it? Your heart isn’t in it. Do you get it? Are you asleep?” Because a bunch of you are, see.

So with all my might, for the house of my God, am I fighting for it? Am I throwing myself into it? Do I really want it or do I just want to kind of walk around out in the courtyard and if I make it to the meal and I’m fed or whatever and if I’m comfortable here by sitting someplace else and not cooperating with a body, with the Church, that’s fine? These are little things, they’re not big things. No, they’re not. It reflects exactly what is up here in your mind. That’s what it does. That’s why these things have come out this year more than ever before.

Incredible that I should have to make the announcements I made before services today. There are many of those I shouldn’t have to make. I shouldn’t have to make an announcement about colognes and perfumes. Because every year someone does it. What did you say? Hmmm, they didn’t hear. I wonder what else they’re not hearing. Because, you see, it’s the little things that make up who we are. It’s not the big things. It’s not the nuclear war that’s going to be there that all of a sudden you say, “Now I’m serious. Now it happened! Now I’m going to get on the ball!” Well, too late, you fiddled, you know, whatever. I hope we’re hearing what I’m saying because these are the things that reflect where we are and who we are. I know who you are in many cases. It’s because of those accounts. You should only have to be asked once, and if you have to be asked you shouldn’t have had to have been asked anyway.

Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of God, the gold for things made of gold, the silver... I think of the things where it talks about, “How do we build?” Yet it goes on here and talks about because these of the kinds of things and there is so much involved in the construction here.

Verse 3—Furthermore, because I have set my affection, my delight, my pleasure to the house of my God... Is that where we are spiritually? Is that where we have set our pleasure, our joy, our fullness? Because if the Church is first, which God is first, and so the Church to us is first and how we live within the environs of the Church, that’s first in our minds. So how we think toward everybody else in the Body, that’s the Church, that’s toward God, that’s the building. It says so much!

I have of mine own proper good, going on here, gold and the silver, that I have given to the house of my God... What do we sacrifice? Because it takes sacrifice. I’ve said that earlier. This way of life requires sacrifice and it’s about this. ...over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house, even... then it goes on to talk how much here.

Then it goes on toward the end of verse 5 here where it says, And who then is willing to consecrate, to fully give or to dedicate his service this day unto the Eternal? Anybody out there? Who is willing? Who is doing it? Whose mind is this to do this, to fully dedicate, consecrate, if you will, as it talks about here in this word, but it means to fully give or to dedicate. It’s not giving a little bit. It’s not giving partial. It’s not giving something to where I’ll do it on the Sabbath and I’ll send in some tithes and I’ll go through these things and do those. But where is the mind? Is it there?

Verse 6—Then the chief of the fathers and princes of the tribes of Israel, and the captains of the thousands and hundreds, with the rulers of the king’s work, offered willingly, and gave for the service, the word, the labor of the house of God of gold, and it tells how much here. It goes on.

Verse 8—And they with whom precious stones were found gave them to the treasure of the house of the Eternal.

Verse 9, that’s the one I wanted. Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly. That says volumes on a spiritual plane. It does. It says volumes on a spiritual plane because this is how you can rejoice – when you have given. You know your life belongs to God. God is first. Not your husband. Not your wife. Not your children. Not your parents. Not your grandparents. Not your grandchildren. Not something else and because of that then you make certain decisions and choices of compromise. No, God is first! No compromise. God has given everyone choices to make. It should be clear all the time God is first, God’s Church is first because that’s what it means to have God first. The holy days are first.

Are you staying behind and can’t be at the Feast of Tabernacles because of some of those things I just said? Because that has already interfered with some people’s lives. They’ve already acknowledged it. You can’t stand up for the truth? You can’t stand up for God’s way of life? You’re not going to do what God commanded you to do? Instead you’re going to compromise with something else? That, candidly, blows my mind in a big way. See, you’re sleeping. I’ll just say it what it is. You’re asleep and don’t even know it.

We’re going to take our time to finish this. This may be one of the longest sermons I’ve given for a while. We’re going to continue on so hold on, take a drink, if you need to, go to the bathroom. You’re going to miss something if you do.

Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly... When you have that mind toward God then you can really rejoice in what He’s given you, the strength, the courage, the boldness of life, the power of His spirit, the mind He will give you as a result of that that you experience because He floods your mind with truth, with understanding, with insight, with inspiration? Otherwise you don’t get that. It’s withheld.

...because with perfect heart, in other words, a genuine heart of gratitude that they gave to the work of God. You are the work of God. Only you can make the choice as to what you give to it. It’s in your hands, nobody else’s, the choices you make. We all have the freedom to make choices.

And David the king also rejoiced with great joy. Therefore, David blessed... Now, how do you bless God? God can bless. This is a word about basically a mindset here of thanking God, of praying to God. It’s thanking God. Therefore, David thanked the Eternal before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed are You, in other words, “You are thanked.” We are thanking you, Eternal God of Israel. That’s what he was doing verbally then before them, see, and not giving God something that is above and beyond God’s giving. David makes that clear in what He says a little bit later here.

So it says, so you are thanked, Eternal God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. O Eternal, Yours is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth; Yours is the kingdom, O Eternal, and You are exalted as head above all. Now, if we could think that way all the time and truly believe that and feel that with all of our being God will always be first. God will always be first. Both riches and honor come to You, and You reign over all; for us, God does, He reigns over all. But for us in the Church it’s a choice. He doesn’t control us. He gives us choices of whether or not He does reign over us. ...and in Your hand in power and might; and in your hand is to make great, and to give strength unto all. God wants to give us so much, He truly does. He longs to give us more of His holy spirit. He truly does. Only we can restrict the amount that we’re able to receive.

Now, therefore, O God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name. A lot said there. Because of the building, because of the construction, because we’re blessed to be a part of it, because we want it with all of our being and our mind is a desire to sacrifice whatever it takes of self.

But who am I, and what of my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this matter? Who are we? Who are we? Well, we’re God’s people all because of God, otherwise we’re lost with the world and in darkness. But we’re in the light. What an awesome thing.

For all things come of You, and of Your own have we given to You. “It’s Yours. Everything is Yours anyway. We’re just responding finally with a mind that gets a little bit of that.”

For we are strangers before You, and visitors, as were all of our fathers: our days on earth are as a shadow, in other words, they’re but for a moment. In other words, the whole point is, we’re just here for a little while. In the scheme of things it doesn’t last long. What do you want to sell it for? What are you willing to do to not latch on to what God offers in His temple? Because that’s what this is about. We’re here for a little while. So how long can we hold on to something we shouldn’t be holding on to? How much do we want something that’s different? Or do we want God’s way only with all of our being, with all of our soul, with all of our might?

...and there is none who continues. When it’s over it’s over.

O Eternal our God... You know, comparing this life with what’s ahead of us. But we’re consumed with this here and now because that’s the way we are as physical human beings.

O Eternal our God, all this store that we have prepared to build You a house for Your holy name is from Your hand, and is all Your own. “We’re able to give it and put it here to build this because it’s Yours and we can use this now only because of You, to give to You. But You gave it to us.” So who are we, what are we? We’re blessed. We’re just exceedingly blessed. How thankful are we to be a part of something so incredible?

Verse 17— I know also, my God, that You try the heart... That’s what He’s doing. He does it with all of us whenever He calls us, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things. What a thing to be at such peace that you know your mind. I belong to God. What’s going to separate me? What? If it’s all God’s to use ever how God pleases, because whatever He’s building, man, that’s what I want. He knows. What hands can you be in? What life could you have better? But, anyway, that’s the but – us sometimes, the big one.

And now I have seen Your people with joy, who are present here, to offer willingly unto You. What a blessing to see that in one another, to see each other, to see people as they grow and as they mature and yield themselves to God.

Verse 18—O Eternal God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination, or the purpose and the intent of the thoughts of the heart of Your people, and prepare their heart unto You. That’s the desire because that’s God’s desire to us. In what’s being said here today, “Today if you will hear His voice,” that’s what He’s saying. Prepare your heart. Prepare your mind. Be prepared. PKG more than ever before.

...and give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep Your commandments, Your testimonies, and Your statutes, and do all the things, and do build the palace, for the which I have prepared. You have to do a lot of preparing. We’re blessed to carry that name right now. We are so blessed to carry that name at the end of an age because that time is upon us; it’s in front of us. Whenever it is, it’s in front of us.

And are we doing that? Are we preparing? Are we a part of the “P” in the “KG”? Preparing for that which might be in the first resurrection or that which lives on into a new age? That means we’re working. That means our lives belong to God. That means we want it. We’re striving for it with all of our being, that this is everything, that this is it. This is everything! Everything else is puny in comparison so why do we put it in the way?

Verse 20—And David said to all the congregation, Now bless, or thank (that’s what they were to do), thank the Eternal your God. And all the congregation thanked the Eternal God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads. That’s what they were doing, see. That word “bless” there gives a wrong thinking and a wrong thought. But it’s about thanking God. ...and bowed down their heads and worshipped the Eternal, and the king. So to worship and bless, to kneel before is to show honor. But in gratitude.

That’s what this is. It’s a show of the kind of gratitude and thankfulness they had for what they were being given at that time. It was awesome to them. On a physical plane it was awesome to them. How much more should it be on a spiritual one?

Table of Contents

Chapter 1