To Build For God, Pt. 2

Ronald Weinland

February 15, 2020

This will be the continuation of the current series To Build For God, and this is Part 2.

We began this series by going back to read a little more concerning what Solomon said during the dedication of the temple and I want to begin today by doing that again. I’ll just read it to you; you don’t need to turn there.

But it’s in 2 Chronicles 6:7-9 and Solomon is saying, My father, David, had it in mind (in his heart) to build a house, meaning just a dwelling place for the name of the Eternal, the God of Israel. But the Eternal said to my father David, In that it was in your heart (in your mind) to build a house unto Me, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but the son who shall be born of you shall build the house (dwelling place) unto My name.

Again, a little bit later it was asked in Part 1, “What kind of a house,” temple, if you will, or dwelling place, “is in your heart, your mind to build to God, to build for God?” Because we’re a part of that construction – though a small part – because our part is a specific place we’re going to be placed when that time comes, and we don’t know what that is. But God knows. God is the one who has called us to fulfill certain things within the process, the organization of what He does and we have to yield ourselves to that process and desire greatly to be a part of that.

So we’re not building the entire temple, but we have an impact upon a part of it, which is yielding to the part we are to fulfill, to be a part of. We can also have an impact by example and other things as well, with others who are in fellowship with us or that we have fellowship with. Those things become exceedingly important then because there are people who have hurt that process and worked against God’s purpose and what He was doing. So we don’t want to be doing that. So to build for God has a lot involved in it and what it means and what we need to understand.

Let’s pick up in Colossians 2, a few verses that were covered at the end there of Part 1. There is a need to cover a little bit of that again and then just continue on from where we left off.

Colossians 2:10—And you are complete in him. I love that all these things, they have so much meaning to them. You can give a whole sermon on a certain phrase like that and expound upon it. The reality is, is we’re incomplete if we’re not in Christ, if we’re not in God, if they’re not dwelling in us and we’re not dwelling in them. It’s just common sense here, soundness of mind spiritually of how we need to live our lives. We don’t want to be incomplete, we want to be complete, not part way but complete in him who is the head of all principality and power. In whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. Again, beautiful the way these things are expressed because it’s not something built by mankind, it’s something done by God. It’s something constructed by, created by God Almighty and His Son.

So that part of that process then, it says, in putting off the body the sins of the flesh through the circumcision of Christ. There is that which is happening in our lives, the circumcision of the heart, of the mind that God is blessing us with so that the mind can become something different than what it was before we were called. We go through this process of the circumcision of the mind and the way we think.

That’s what God wants us to grasp, to comprehend, but it’s through, it begins with, or a big part of that process is putting off the body the sins of our lives. That’s a constant thing. It doesn’t end. It never stops. Once you’re called, once you’re baptized, once you receive the impregnation of God’s holy spirit that process has to be a focus. We have to be alert to that. We have to be on guard to that and not to allow certain things to exist in our lives and to be deceitful in any fashion or form against God, toward God. We have to be open, honest, genuine, genuinely seeking to get rid of all sin. That’s a battle.

...buried with him in baptism. So it begins with baptism. Everything of our past, what an awesome thing you don’t have to carry anything of your past, although you will. You can’t help it. Nevertheless, it’s been forgiven, the things you did wrong. But the things we do wrong are the things that screw up the mind. They hurt the mind. They do things to the spirit that God has given us in man that has to be changed because it works to make things unsound, improper, not right, unbalanced, unhealthy spiritually.

God calls us, works with us to heal the mind, so we go through a lifelong process of that. That’s why I’m so thankful God revealed that to us, that it’s a lifelong process; it doesn’t happen in two years, five years and on. It takes a long time, whatever that might be, until God can say, “Now I know you.” We have to go through a lot of trying, a lot of testing.

...buried with him in baptism. So again, we’re forgiven of it, but whatever molded and fashioned you as a young person until the age you were called, whatever age that is, but even if you were called early on, 19, 20, 21, in through there, whatever that time is when you’re baptized, you still have things in you that aren’t sound. You have things in you that make take a long time to come to see.

Frankly, sometimes by even growing up in the Church a person, it can take a while to come to grasp those things on a deeper spiritual plane because you don’t have to look at some things in your life in the same manner as someone who has been fully in the world and been called out of the world. There can be a unique battle there in itself.

So whether you’ve grown up within the Church or partially within the Church or just called totally out of the world you have things to conquer and overcome, and who you are, a great deal of that was made as you were growing up. It’s just things that are molded in the mind. And candidly, those are going to be your battles, as a whole, through life.

...buried with him in baptism, wherein you are also risen with him through the faith. So we’re buried, but we’re risen through this process of God giving us the ability to believe what is true, which begins before baptism because that brings us to that conviction at that point, but then you continue to grow and He will give more and more understanding and insight of His mind, of His thinking, and then as He does that we have to make choices. That’s what that means.

Just given the ability to believe does not mean we’re there. Just because the mind has been opened up and God gives understanding in it doesn’t mean we’re there. That’s the time when we have to make choices. Just like we did at baptism, that’s a choice, yea or nay, do we need God in our life or not? Do we want God in our life or not? Do we rely on ourselves or do we want God in our life? Because we can’t rely on ourselves!

We come to that point where we realize, “I can’t do this.” It’s impossible to do something spiritual on a spiritual plane unless God’s dwelling in us. We come to that conviction and we want baptism. Then God gives us more knowledge and insight. Every time He does you have to make choices. You have to make choices all along the way. Any time, especially when something new is given where God gives more truth, progressive truth, in that respect, to reveal more, we have to make choices, and if a person is doing something in their life that isn’t healthy spiritually, oftentimes, because they haven’t been genuine to God those things, those trials can become a stumbling block.

Because I have seen hundreds of people go down that route. Things don’t happen overnight. Let’s put it that way. There is something going on in one’s life if they come to a point of making a decision to do something, like refusal of receiving the new truth that God gives. If that happens, there’s something else that was going on long before that, where a person was letting down spiritually, where a person was doing something else that was working against God’s spirit, where they perhaps, in that respect, obviously, had been beginning to be cut off, quenching God’s spirit, beginning to be cut off from the flow of God’s spirit and they’re not able to deal with that then because they’re not of a sound mind spiritually.

God takes us through that process, but it’s all a process. Choices, choices, choices, choices until we’re there, until God knows what your choices will be when He gives you something. “Now I know you. I know what you’ll do regardless of what comes your way.” The conviction is there. Not full righteousness by any measure in your life because we can never have that. We’re accounted as righteous because we live by faith. We choose to live by what God has given us to believe. That’s the choice.

God gives us the ability to believe. We make the choice to live by it. That’s what faith is – the living by what God has given us to believe. It’s a beautiful thing.

...buried with him in baptism, wherein you also are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God. Beautiful! It’s like this circumcision not made with hands, and yet this word specifically means “the operative power,” if you will. In this case the operative power of God spiritually to do something in our lives on a spiritual plane that can’t be done any other way. It can’t be done by reason, by discussion, by human intellect. It’s something that God has to give us help with in the mind. Without that, we can’t see, we can’t know. God gives us those things in our life. It’s something that God does.

...through faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead.  And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive. So there is that which is in our life, in our lives that has to be gotten rid of. It starts with baptism. But it doesn’t end there. Like we just talked about, you’re always going to have sin in your life. You’re always going to have pride. You’re always going to have lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes that you’ve got to battle and deal with. Every one of you has that battle! Anyone that denies “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life,” well, what bell can you ring to wake that up? Get as close as you can because I’m going to hit the bell hard, you know. That’s what we have to think. That’s what we are!

We need God’s help continually on a continuing basis. That’s a process then that becomes more and more refined in our life as we grow, but it’s still a process in us.

He has made us alive together with him, having forgiven us all trespasses. Over and over again it’s talking about this process, the blessing of being able to be forgiven of our trespasses. That’s why we should ever be so incredibly thankful to God on a regular basis, just for that alone, to know God is willing to forgive those things that I’ve gone before Him and asked for forgiveness of doing because I hate self, I hate the carnal, human self that’s in us. I hate this mind that thinks against God. That’s what we have to be and we loathe that.

The more God blesses us to see our human nature what an awesome blessing! Because then we know and know that we know this sucks. This isn’t what I want. Who wants to carry this with them into more time?

That’s why I marvel when I think about people who lived for hundreds of years. Thankfully, they didn’t know what we know to this day. Of course, those who did, knew more; God worked with a few during that period of time. But it would be so difficult to know what we know today, to be back then and have to live for hundreds of years in that environment, in that life? It’s sick enough as it is. But it came to a point where God said, “I have to destroy everything. The mind of human beings has become so vile, so evil!”

We have that same thing today, the exact same thing today speeded up because of technology. They had to live hundreds of years to get to that point. We don’t have to. We just have technology. You know, looking at a screen, that’s all you have to do is do something like that and everybody knows what you’re talking about. Somebody is glued to it and you wonder. It kills me when I see those things. It’s like...?! They’re mesmerized. They’re walking through a shopping mall, walking through a grocery store, walking down the street, walking across the street. It’s like zombies! Crazy world!

So again here, has made us alive. Thankfully, there’s a life we’re blessed to have living in us. It’s not talking about physical life. There’s a life that’s in us that isn’t in the world. What an incredible thing to understand that we have a life working in us that’s so far beyond what people have in the world, a life that is God’s – that mind, that access that we have in our thinking to be at one with God, things that we’re able to see.

I see those things and then I realize I am so thankful we’re getting closer. I’m so thankful that this can be stopped. I’m so thankful that we’re going to begin to be able to deal with these things of technology that mankind doesn’t know how to use because of our nature, our selfish nature. That’s where it begins, the whole world having the opportunity of being drawn into the Church so they can be taught the right use of things.

...blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us... The Protestant world sees, “See! The law is done away. It wasn’t good for us.” The 10 Commandments, “You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.” How isn’t that good for us? How is that against us?

But that’s what they say, because what they’re really saying is “Sunday.” It’s what they believe. It’s their idols (if that’s what they have), their statues (if that’s what they have), and the things that they worship, and the way that they worship, and the way that they pray, and on and on it goes. It doesn’t agree with scripture – those things were against us. But the others? “Yeah, not to kill! That just should be common sense, shouldn’t it? It’s not God’s law, it’s just the way we should live life.” Well, you should live life keeping the Sabbath, too. But anyway.

It’s amazing how the human mind can deal with things. They can’t help it. It’s just because of thinking physically with physical intellect.

So it’s talking in these terms, the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. What’s against us? The death penalty. Now, that’s against you. If you find something because of something that’s written, a law that says if you don’t live by it you’re going to die, well, that’s pretty strong. So we learn that. God shows us. He helps us to understand there are things because of what is written it says, “Hey, you’re going to die if you don’t live right, if you’re not forgiven of the sins.”

...which was contrary to us. Yeah, death is contrary to us. It ends it. It brings everything to a screeching halt. ...and took it out of the way, nailing it to the pole. So Christ took it out of the way. What he took out of the way was now there was the ability to be forgiven of sin! He didn’t take the law out of the way. It’s amazing how the Protestant world thinks.

It’s amazing how a third of God’s church thought after the Apostasy! “Oh, yeah, took that old harsh law out of the way.” When this happened in God’s Church a third of the Church began to have something dawn in their mind. It wasn’t God’s spirit but something dawned in their mind. “Oh, yeah, these handwriting of ordinances are against us, these commandments. You can worship God on any day. The Protestants are right! Every day you should worship God. But we’re going to go on Sunday, but you can worship Him on any day. But our fruit, our works, we’re going to go on Sunday.” They don’t say it that way but that’s what they do.

“And the holy days? You don’t have to keep them. We’re going to keep doing it as a tradition in God’s church because so many have done it for so long and they like going to the Feast of Tabernacles. Who doesn’t like getting off for a week? You may not want to go that whole time. You can maybe go for half that time, that’s fine. If you want to keep Christmas and have a tree in your house, what’s wrong with that?” What’s wrong with that!?

But to think a third of the Church went, boomeranged in the mind. Something happened in the mind that one day they thought one way, and literally for some, some of the ministers I talked to, literally changed in one day. That’s why we talked about this thing, the science fiction show, you know, “Who are they? The body-snatchers. Something happened. They’re not the same person.” You can’t even have the same conversation.

That’s an awesome thing, isn’t it? The fellowship we’re able to have of God’s Church, with God’s people anywhere you go in the world, because we believe the same thing you can have a unique fellowship and talk about things that are common amongst us in the sense of what we hear in a sermon, things we believe. That’s an awesome unity.

But to think a mind can change? There were things being done wrong before that but there comes a time when God says, “No more of My spirit.” If that’s not there and something that powerful with a spirit influence comes along, which it had because it makes it clear that Satan was the one behind it, you have no power. You have no power against it. If you have made yourself open to that kind of thing over a long period of time, and when something that influential with that kind of power comes along that’s being pushed by others around you... what happens? People change. People have a four hour conversation with someone at headquarters and all of a sudden the next day I don’t know them.

So we know each other in the Body, but one day the mind can change when God isn’t there. Awesome, to understand that. Scary. That’s why it says to be fearful, fearful of God, fearful of losing God, fearful of what it means to stray from God, from God’s spirit, fearful to do things that we shouldn’t be doing, fearful to sin. If those things aren’t in us then we don’t grasp what can happen to us, how quickly everything we have can be taken away.

“Oh, let’s put up a Christmas tree this year.” “Let’s boil some eggs. Let the children color them like everybody else. That’s going to be so fun. We can join in with some other groups, too. This is going to be a lot of fun.” Sadly. Sad. It’s amazing what can happen.

…the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, that was contrary to us, and took it out of the way nailing it to the pole. So again, it’s the matter of forgiveness of sin that we have to have in our lives on a continuing basis.

Although there are a couple of verses that may not seem to apply to what we have covered to this point here, at this point, they do, and that’s on down in verse 16. I wanted to add this to it because it’s important to understand this. It’s interesting how the Protestant world and how that third of the Church began to interpret this as soon as their minds boomeranged back to what they were before, if that’s what they came out of.

Colossians 2:16—Let no one, therefore, judge you in meat, in drink, or in respect of a holy day... “Oh, no one should judge us by what we believe, you know, so no one is to judge us keeping Sunday.” “How did you get that out of that? Christmas, how did you get that out of there? Hmm. Holy day? No, you have holiday, spelled with an “i.” There is nothing holy in it just close in spelling, but it’s fake because you added an “i.” Sorry. So they call it a holiday, properly so. Just a letter here and there.

Like in Joshua’s name, just a letter here and there to totally change the focus of everything so they can steer you in a different direction. It’s crazy what’s happened in the world and what has happened in God’s Church through time.

It’s to us! No one is to judge us in respect to the meat we eat and don’t eat, clean and unclean foods. Who gives a flip what they think? You have to do what you do because of your mind toward God and what you’re building for God. You’re building something for God, your part of what God has given you to do, and so those things won’t bother you.

We don’t have to go to extremes in that because sometimes it’s hard to find the balance. “Waitress! Over here! Could you please go back and see what this was cooked in? Could you please go back and ask the chef what this was cooked in because if it has pork in it I can’t eat it.” There! No, you don’t do that. There are things you do in the world that is a matter of faith, belief, trust in God, that you don’t have to go to extremes on. It isn’t going to kill you.

Clean and unclean foods are not a spiritual thing, they’re a physical thing. It becomes spiritual if you disregard what God says and you do what you want to do anyway. “Oh, I’m going to keep eating bacon! I don’t care if it comes from a pig or what! That turkey stuff? Pffft!” So, anyway, the point is it’s the attitude and the mind toward God whether it becomes sin, becomes something that is of a spiritual plane. It’s a physical law; it’s not a spiritual law. It only becomes spiritual if your attitude is wrong toward the physical, that you’re going to do what you want to do no matter what God says.

So we strive not to do it where we have the power. You go to a restaurant, you don’t have the power. We’re not to go to extremes to make ourselves look and be worse than what we already are seen and portrayed. God doesn’t expect that of us. Okay?

So does that mean you shouldn’t ask a relative or something like that when you go over to eat? No, that’s different. You have some power over that. But you go into a place of business, you don’t have the same power so you have to do things wisely the best you can.

But sometimes we have, we go to extremes. What I’m trying to show here is we have to learn balance in God’s Church. There is balance of things we do and don’t do. It takes time to grow in that. But there were times when we were just too physical about things like that.

I remember a first time I went in the ministry and went out west, and the minister was kind of joking with some of the people in the audience about how that, well, this minister was talking to some of the people and counselling with them or whatever it might be in a visit, that I would be going around checking the cabinets to see if there was sugar in the cabinets, white sugar. (Because there is not supposed to be any white sugar.) There are people who took him seriously because there are some ministers that were like that.

There were some ministers that basically taught that you need to eat this brown granular type stuff because it’s so much better for you. The white stuff, it’s had things done to it. Well, you know, sugar is pretty much sugar and the color doesn’t change it a whole lot. Just because it’s brown doesn’t make it a whole lot better. But anyway, that’s kind of how the mind went and a ton of other things.

Physical things aren’t spiritual. They’re not spiritual. It’s what we do with them that becomes spiritual, sometimes unbalanced spiritual. But we’ve come a long, long way, we truly have in God’s Church, from those times. Because that’s how we start out, we start out very physical.

The beginning of the Church in 31 AD was very physical. It took them time. When God began to show truths, like the truth is going to the gentiles, oh, man, that was tough on a bunch of them, Peter in particular. This attitude in thinking that they were unclean and not understanding because things are seen physically. They’re gentiles. No, we’re all going to become a part of Israel. But you know what? It took decades for them to come to understand that. We’re all going to become Israelites spiritually because it’s about a spiritual thing not a physical people.

Let no one, therefore, judge you in meat, in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or in a new moon. There is a way that we count time. There is a way that we understand certain things. You know, talking about the Feast of Trumpets and keeping of time and understanding those things that start on a particular month as far as God’s calendar is concerned.

...or of the Sabbath or Sabbaths. So again, we want to honor God. Our heart, our mind is to please God. Our desire is to build for God and so other people and what they think, pfft, who cares. Who cares! They’re going to think a certain way about you anyway so you just do what you need to do in order to love God and honor God.

...which are a shadow of things to come. So what is Christmas a shadow of? What’s Easter a shadow of? What’s Sunday a shadow of? Well, they’re a shadow of something, but it isn’t good. They cast a shadow. But the things of a shadow of something to come are about what the seven days, the seven day week pictures, God’s plan and the holy days, each one of them. You want to start with Unleavened Bread and all the way through to the Last Great Day, they picture those things that we need to have in our life that show God’s plan and purpose for our existence. Beautiful thing.

But then it ends here. Don’t let them judge you in these things, don’t let others in the world judge you in these things because they have no part with God, but let the Body of Christ. The Church of God. So God gives us an organization, a means by which the Church is to be taught, to be worked with, to be led, to be guided, to be directed, and sometimes corrected to the point of being suspended or disfellowshipped. Those things happen and it’s for the sake of the Body.

The matter of judgement of many things has always been a matter that goes through the Church, in that respect, when certain things aren’t able to be determined or whatever within a body, and it’s all a matter of learning how to judge God’s law, God’s ways in how they pertain to our lives. That’s something we have to grow in, ever grow in.

Anyway, I wanted to add that to this because it’s important to understand what is being said here. Our lives are not separated from the Church. On the contrary, our lives are very much about the Church. This is where the fellowship is. This is the fellowship that God has brought us into.

I remember an individual that had different conversation, made different comments at different times in God’s Church, in the ministry after the Apostasy, and this was a bit of a contention in his life, that family came before the Church. And basically, I would come back around in different ways the Church is first. Why? Because God is first. The Church is right there in the mix of all that.

So indeed, this is a great priority in our life, in our fellowship and so forth, and so to have a life separate from the Church, to not participate, to be a part of the Church in whatever the Church might be doing – that doesn’t mean in everything we do but because there are things that happen in our lives and our families and so forth – but to put the other first constantly was wrong. But he couldn’t see that. That’s why he isn’t with us to this day.

So anyway, we learn as we grow and there is a process in that and there are priorities in our life. We just have to understand the importance of what God has called us to be a part of. This is our life. This is our family. This is our family first. If people understand that, this is my family first, then other things will fit into place. And you know what, whether it be in a marriage or in a family, in other words, between children and parents or other relatives or whatever, whether they like it or not they’re going to come to understand this if we hold firm to what we know and believe. They know what we’re going to do and they need to know what we’re going to do. They need to know, “This is my family, too, and it comes first.”

Whether it has to be said that way or not you have to be cautious. But to get the point across there are many ways of doing that to where they will come to understand that is true and that’s good. That’s not bad because God is first in our life. Otherwise, there will always be contention and uneasiness and a testing, constantly testing, testing a person to see what they’re going to do, and if it needs to be explained further what the means to a person then so be it. You have to determine those things between you and God. But I’ve seen so much in times past where these things have been battles and problems.

So we’ve been focusing on how the process of building the dwelling place for God, the temple, is accomplished. It begins with the work of God. God is over all of the work. He’s given all that work, in that respect, as well then, if we understand it, to Christ, to His Son, through the Church. Okay? That’s the order. God the Father, Christ Joshua, the Church. That’s the order. Then us. Choices. Choices, choices, choices as we go through the process.

So some of this process concerning what God and Christ are building was covered in Part 4 of the last series called The Greatest of Civilization, and we read part of Romans 11. We’re going back there today and we’ll pick up from the end of what we covered there about both gentile and Israelite being able to be grafted into (if you remember the story), being able to be grafted back into the olive plant, the olive tree, and being grafted back into, as Paul was talking about to the Romans there, true Israel. That’s the context of it, the true Israel of God.

So we’re going to pick it up again, catch a little of the context and then continue on. There’s a lot said here.

Romans 11:23—And they, referring to Israel, also, if they do not continue in unbelief shall be grafted in. Well, how is that possible? Now, the word here is “disobedience” in scripture, in the Greek language. So it’s not a matter of what you believe and don’t believe, in one respect, so it can involve what you believe, okay, but it’s about how they’re living their lives.

Just the fact that this word is used throughout what Paul is saying here wasn’t a smart thing, it wasn’t a good thing, because it hides things and puts things in a way that aren’t true. Because the reality is until someone is called they don’t have the ability to believe anyway. Gentile or Israelite, doesn’t matter, no one has the ability to believe what is true until God gives us the ability and puts it in our mind through whatever means that is. Something we hear, something we read, whatever it might be, but God is the one who has to make things click on a spiritual plane.

So again here, And they, referring to Israel, also, if they do not continue in disobedience shall be grafted in. Well, when’s that going to happen? When are they going to come to a point in time where they won’t disobey? Well, it’s similar to the thing about belief. It’s when God does give them the ability to believe indeed, and then they can begin making choices. But until that time they’re not going to be able to be grafted into the true Israel of God, into the true tree, the true olive plant that is being discussed here.

...for God is able to graft them in again, into spiritual Israel. Some of these words, again, they were never in it. But it’s using here, Paul is using a contrast here about a tree and being broken off, but it’s not all spiritual. It’s showing what God is constructing, what God is building and it’s all about a spiritual tree and it is about a spiritual Israel, but it takes time to get to that point, and once Christ came we were at that point and then once it started going to the gentiles, the truth, then we were at this point and the necessity to explain these things in these terms was helpful as far as the Romans were concerned.

For if you were cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these who are of the natural be grafted into their own olive tree? So in other words here, there is that which is wild. There is that which is true, if you will, and God is showing here, in essence, that if something happened and it wasn’t a part, candidly, whether it be gentile or Israelite is immaterial, but anyway, it’s using the example here and showing here that there is that which God is grafting us into, in a sense, if you want to look at it in the terms of a tree, bringing us to be a part of to where we can produce fruit. Until we’re grafted into it we can’t have spiritual fruit in our life. We’re not a part of spiritual Israel until that time.

For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery. In other words, it’s the mystery of God, it’s that which is hidden from mankind because of disobedience until God opens the mind to give us the ability to believe, and then we have to start making choices; we start seeing. It’s no longer a mystery once we start living it.

...unless you should become wise in your own conceits. You don’t want to use human intellect because that’ll get you absolutely nowhere. It has to come from God. ...for in part blindness happened to Israel, until the fullness of the gentiles should come in.

So again here, awesome process here of what Paul is explaining here. There is a time for the gentiles; there’s a time for Israel as well. But that’s bringing us into a spiritual relationship with God for both Israel and gentile, as we went through before in Romans talking about this.

But now we get down to a point where it talks about this. It’s interesting and exciting. So that all Israel shall be saved. I used to wonder about part of that until God gave us deeper understanding and coming to a part. All Israel will be saved. What does that mean? All who are part of Israel are saved. Not physical Israelites, all are going to be saved. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about those who become a part of spiritual Israel and continue as spiritual Israel, all of them will be saved. Because that’s where it is, spiritual Israel, and so all of them will be saved. All of Zion will be saved. All who are a part of the Body of Christ that continue in the Body of Christ until death will be saved if they’re living faithfully before God, obviously, and have that spirit and that life working in them.

All Israel shall be saved. As it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall take away ungodliness from Jacob. So there is this process that has to take place. How? Through the forgiveness of sin. We’ve already gone through that in Colossians. We have to be forgiven. We have to continually go before God and seek repentance, meaning we want to get rid of the sin.

So, so much of our work is doing that. What are your sins? Where are your battles? Another way of talking about the 1, 2, 3’s and so forth in our life that we have got to continue to fight, to work upon, to conquer, to have those things become more refined in the sense that they happen less and less in our life. Though they’re a part of our nature and our being because of who we are, because of how we grew up, because of what’s in our mind, we’re all different, but that’s what has to change until we’re of the mind of God. That’s a growing thing. That’s a transformation. But we’ll never be there until we’re totally changed because you have to be out of this body to have that. You have to be in a new body.

There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall take away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is My covenant with them (unto them), when I shall take away their sins. So drives it home. It’s all about sin and until God opens our minds and brings us to the point of an ability to obey, because of what He’s given us to believe, and what’s that? Faith. He gives us the ability to believe, we make the choice to live by it, and that becomes faith. That’s what living faith is all about.

Verse 30—And as you were once disobedient... It has nothing to do, within that respect, belief. They couldn’t believe either because it wasn’t given to them. But it’s showing here that you just lived in disobedience. You had sin in your life. That’s what Paul is driving home here.

For you were once disobedient – living in sin, in other words. We didn’t know any better. That’s just the way of life we had. We weren’t trying to obey God. We weren’t striving to obey God.

...yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience. What does that mean? It shows that God has a plan. The whole purpose of Israel being called was to show they can’t live God’s way of life physically. You can’t do it on a physical plane. You can be given the law, but you can’t do it. You can never have it become a part of your heart and mind. You can’t have it written inside the spirit of your being, the spirit essence in the mind. Only God’s spirit can do that. That’s what it’s showing here. God had a plan. It wasn’t for Israel to be saved at that point. It wasn’t for Israelites to be called into a spiritual relationship with God. They only had a physical one. A few had that spiritual relationship, but very few, handful.

So again here, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience. Because if they’d been able to obey where are you, gentiles? If you could do it on your own...? Anyway.

Thus even at this present time these have been disobedient. Even to this day, in other words, it’s saying Israel’s remained disobedient. They can’t live by the law. ...that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. It’s beautiful if you understand what it’s talking about here.

...that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. So on two facets here: One, because it’s a part of God’s plan that mercy in time when He gives it can be extended to all, but in God’s time and in God’s calling, and so because of mercy shown to you they’re going to be blessed because of this because they too can be given that same kind of mercy to where they can have a spiritual relationship with God.

So if we can receive that as gentiles most assuredly those who were worked with earlier are going to be given that. That’s the whole point of what Paul is talking about here in large part. Not only that but also as to how you live your life so that when different ones are called, whether they be gentile or Israel, if we understand, that it’s through this process of how we live our lives toward them that when someone comes into the family they are family and we treat them accordingly. We think that way toward them; we want them to succeed. We want to be merciful to them in the same manner that God’s been merciful to “me,” to each of us.

That’s how God works. He gives us His holy spirit so that we will live differently and to be on the receiving end (that’s why I’ve given sermons about that in times past), to be on the receiving end, to receive of God’s mercy, of His love, of His patience, of His kindness and so forth, who are we if we don’t extend the exact same thing to others, if we don’t extend that love, that mind that God gives to us in how we think about and care for others, that kind of love?

That isn’t out of us. It comes from God, so we have to pray about it at times because the reality is sometimes we have great differences in our thinking toward other people because they do things differently than we do. They’re not like us. “They don’t do things the way I want them to.”

You know, sometimes that’s the way we think. We judge people in that way because they should do “this” or they should do “that,” not knowing how God might be working with them. Because they’re not you! They’re different. They have a different mind. They have a different background.

That’s how our lives work. God works with us accordingly. We have to learn how to live that toward others, this matter of “vive la différence.” Thank God we’re different! Thank God we’re not all alike.

You think you could take yourself over and over again if you saw yourself everywhere else and know exactly how you think and how you are? You probably wouldn’t be too kind to yourself because you would know every thought, everything that they do, and it’d be like you’d want to smack them upside the head they’re so obnoxious. I’m sorry. If that really existed that’s what we would come to.

For God has committed all... Not about “them.” That’s not even in the words there. God has committed all in disobedience.  That’s the sum of it all. The reality is no one can obey God. Israelite, gentile, it doesn’t matter; they’re all committed to the same thing. We’re all created with the same carnality.

That’s what He committed us to. He created us that way, to live in that kind of life, “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life.” It doesn’t matter, it’s there, everybody. Nobody is better than anybody else. No nationality. No race. No one! We’re all of one family physically and more so spiritually if we could just get the point. We’re together on this earth.

Look how people treat each other. It is sick. It really is sick. All the prejudice, the hate, the lying, ugh. We should be able to understand more and more as we grow what it says about Lot, “He vexed his righteous soul day by day” by what he saw people doing because it hurts. It hurts to see what people are doing to each other, how people are living life. This isn’t the right world. I long for a different one, the one whose builder and maker is God because that’s the only hope and answer we truly have before us. Thank God He’s shown us that that’s exactly the way it is.

For God has committed all in disobedience that He might have mercy upon all. That’s a part of His plan. He has to show mercy to all, and until He starts showing that you don’t have a chance. You’re a slave in this world. You’re in bondage in this world spiritually until God begins to open your mind and draw you and call you into a relationship with Him, when He starts giving you His mercy and His love and forgiveness through His Son. Awesome!

The scriptures continue on in Romans 12:1. Man put the chapters in here, divided it up for ease of finding things and so forth, but the subject matter continues straight forward.

He went on to say then, Therefore, I implore you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Now, that’s how you work to build in this process of building something that’s right for God. You have to do that to yield yourself to this process. That has to be in your heart and mind to want to do this in order to have something built within you that’s done by God’s spirit. But you have to exercise that power. You have to exercise that work. God doesn’t make you do it. God doesn’t force you to do it. It’s by free choice.

We have to make those choices along the way and as we make those things then we grow spiritually. It says it’s done through living sacrifices, not something where you bring up a bull and someone else brings up a sheep and you think, “See that bull I brought up?” That’s how people were! “I brought a dozen bulls this year.” Well, whoop-tee-doo! Judging. That’s the way mankind is. You can’t help it. That’s just the way we are.

Something spiritual is totally different. Not to be seen, either. It’s not by others taking recognition of it, it’s just the way to live. It’s not to get something out of it. To try to get something out of it, which is what they did, to self, defeats the purpose of everything. A living sacrifice, it’s a sacrifice of time, money, effort, whatever it might be. Something you may not really want to do but you go ahead and do it because it’s good for someone else, not just for you, not because you might like it, because this is something you would naturally like to do or want to do.

So you have to weigh those things out and decide what it is that you want to sacrifice in and not sacrifice in, because you don’t have to sacrifice in everything, but there are things you have to sacrifice in for the sake of someone else, for the sake of others. We learn through that process.

What are we willing to give up? You have to do that in your own life as far as sin is concerned. Are you willing to give it up? Are you willing to sacrifice it? Are you willing to see it offered? Say, “God, I don’t want this anymore. I don’t want this anymore. I don’t want it in me.”

So “you’re alive” means you’re alive with God’s spirit, and so to sacrifice various things in our lives that work against God, that’s a good thing. That’s what you have to do throughout your life. You can’t hold on to everything that can hurt you, that can lead you astray. On the contrary, you want to get rid of it. Those things that can hurt you, those things that can keep you away from God, those things, whatever it is that could hurt spiritually. Well, they can be sacrificed with God’s help.

...holy. Beautiful, because it says God has to be in it. There is no living sacrifice without God being in it. So God overall does the construction in all of us, and His Son, but each one of us has to yield to that process, has to be a part of that process. You’ve got to want it. That’s why I’ve talked about this many times. You’ve really got to want this way of life. That means we can’t be lying and deceitful to God.

...holy. Because God’s in it. You pray to God. You ask God for help. You ask God for the help to do things that you can’t do because you can’t do this kind of sacrificing. You can’t do it on your own. You have to have God’s help to be a living sacrifice, to give things up, as it were, to be burnt up.

...acceptable unto God. What’s acceptable unto God? Well, that should be our heart and mind. Things that aren’t acceptable, that should be pretty clear in our lives. What do you want to do with that? Get rid of it. Fight against it. Ask God for help.

...which is your reasonable service. Can we do anything less? It’s just reasonable. Service – serving. You want to know how to serve? This is what it’s about. It’s about service. It’s about how we live our lives. It’s about how we think before God. What’s in our heart? What’s in our mind? Is it really toward God or are we still kind of holding on to different things where we just kind of try to please ourselves? What are we trying to please? Who are we trying to please? Who are we really serving in those kinds of situations in our life where we really need to have some sacrifice involved? Because that’s what it boils down to so often, it truly does.

Is it to God? Is that in our heart and mind? Or are we God? Because that’s the battle. Self. Are we lifting ourselves up? That’s what idolatry is. Our ways, our ideas. If there are things we won’t sacrifice and give up because they’re wrong before God, because they’re not in agreement with God, we’re playing a dangerous game. We truly are.

...which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world. Don’t try to be like this world. Don’t try to please this world. You can’t! If that’s your goal, is to be seen the same... Now, you don’t want to be obnoxious either so there’s a balance in there, like I talked about the “Waitress!” There’s a balance in there and we’ve got to seek that balance so that we’re not obnoxious but that we have soundness of mind and balance in how we relate and understand things that God has given to us.

It reminds me a little bit here of a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago with someone and we were talking about various things that so often we measure physically. One individual brought up something that so often comes to my mind when I think of these things. I think of the lack of balance we had in the Church when it came to doctors. Because of one evangelist we’ve had people so screwed up in the Church that they’re afraid to take an aspirin. That’s the way it used to be. Couldn’t take something that man has learned how to deal with. It’s not the best yet, but you know what? I finally came down to a certain area in my life where I realized, okay, ten years and my arteries were getting clogged up already because I didn’t like statins. I had heard too much bad about them and I knew too many people whose muscles, and the heart is a muscle, therefore, I don’t like that garbage, so I got to a point, and I did have a bit of a trouble, problem allergy wise to some of them in the beginning, but I didn’t try to start out smaller.

But the last time around I said, “Okay, life or death? How quickly do I want the death to come?” So there is a particular type I started on slower. But it has nothing to do with anything that’s wrong. It has nothing to do with things in our mind where we, some were taught that you’re lacking faith in God because you ask for healing and you lack that faith to be healed and you trust in a doctor.

Well, the reality is, if they hadn’t of cut me open, “I’m in your (the doctor’s) hands partially, but I ask God because you’re in His hands. But, you know, that’s where my life is right now.” You think, God has given us things to grasp.

That’s why we talked about technology. God has given us so much to understand that’s good for mankind.

When a new age comes, you know what, there are some I know that still have in their minds God’s going to heal everything. You’re never going to have sickness. You’re never going to have cholesterol. Bull! Bull, bull, bull, bull. Now, maybe that last hundred years there’ll be some things because there are going to be some drastic things different in the human body and in life, but not during that thousand years.

God has given us things to learn how to use, to grow to right use. That’s where the struggle is sometimes, learning the right use and the growth in that and what it does to the human mind and life in general and how things are done. We’re going to see some awesome things.

But the 144,000 aren’t going to be going around all the time anointing people who are sick. It doesn’t say, “Call on the 144,000.” Sorry, but the reality is there are things sometimes we think are going to be different that we’re not balanced and sound in.

The world has problems in the future. Mankind will have problems in the future. People are going to get sick. People are going to have accidents. They’re going to get killed in wrecks. Do you think God’s going to just start stopping all car wrecks or do you think mankind’s going to be motivated more to make everything safer? We learn from that. God’s not going to take all the learning away from us.

In some ways in times past we’ve been very naive because we have this thought of a utopia. It’s not that way, it’s life. Some have felt no one would ever die during the thousand years. Yes, we will. We learn from that. You think God’s going to take that away so that young people don’t learn from that? That wouldn’t be smart. That wouldn’t be good. Because the reality is you have to learn that deeply embedded in your mind that without God life doesn’t go on. If you were able to live for the next thousand years there’s an ability to trust in self way too much. Do you really need God?

But if you still get sick, you know what? I’m going to look to God because that shows where our mind is. Is it toward God? Even during the Millennium are you going to call for the elders of the Church? Well, does that mean in every case God’s going to heal you? We’re going to see a lot more of those kinds of things in time, but there are going to be times when God still says no. You know why? Because we can learn from that. We can learn through that process.

Does it mean then when someone is not healed of something, “Oh, my faith wasn’t strong enough; I have to work harder at this”? You can’t work hard at faith in the sense, doing it physically. It’s not something you make up physically. It’s a spiritual thing. There is just reality of times that God says, no, not this time.

He could have intervened every time for this. He didn’t. He could have intervened every time in your life every time whenever you got sick. He hasn’t. It’s never been that way in God’s Church. Never, from 31 AD on! The reason we can know a lot about that is because everybody is dead that was in our past that’s not here anymore. We’re not all in the same congregation or Cincinnati would be a lot bigger.

So it’s amazing the things we have to learn on a spiritual plane of what God’s purpose is for various things that He does. It’s all beautiful when we understand it. The reality is God doesn’t do everything for us. That’s so good! We have to learn then for the things that really count we have to cry out to God.

Everybody in the Millennium is going to have to pray to God to ask for help to live spiritually, to be able to see things. God will give according to what people put into it, just like us. It’s the work you put into it as to what you’re going to receive out of it. You have to work. You have to respond, you know, to what God says. You have to pray. You have to fast. Those are spiritual things and tools in your hands. And if you don’t use the tools, it’s like clawing with your fingers. You’re not going to get very far. You have other tools you can use spiritually. I hope you understand what I’m saying. I know you do as a whole.

...living sacrifices, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Don’t be conformed to this world. How did I get so far from that? So going back 360 degrees, back to this point here, don’t worry about what the world thinks. Don’t be consumed with trying to blend in with the world. Don’t be obnoxious either.

Dress, we do it in moderation. We don’t go to extremes, as a whole. If something is okay and fine, fine. You want to wear loud socks? That’s as loud as I can get. Well, these don’t have much color today. That’s fine. It’s something in the world and some things are kind of fun to do sometimes. There is nothing wrong with that.

But when it comes to certain other things there are some things you have to use wisdom in it, of some things that might not be good. If a dress, dresses begin to be popular and they come all the way down to the belly button, wait a minute, because that’s not a good thing. If you don’t understand why it’s not a good thing then there are things you need to learn. There are things that can’t be given to a person.

You know, some of those kinds of things I’ve learned a long, long time ago, about different kinds of things that are in the world, sometimes we can’t understand certain things about thinking that’s right and wrong until we ourselves practice it and do it and learn how to do that. The more we learn how to do that than the more balanced we become and we can begin to see things we couldn’t see before. Then if we can use that physical example to channel out into different areas then it begins to magnify more and more spiritually within the Church.

So, you know, to have tubes running through here and out through the eyebrows and steel things in there, and about 5 or 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 through here, and the thing that’s really popular today is your whole body from about your wrist and up your arm, to have it all different kinds of things that you’re designing and building and creating these pictures of and trying to blend them altogether. If you put somebody’s name in a lot of people go back and they have to put something else in there because that changed, that relationship changed so I got to change that. It’s just a messed-up world.

We learn balance, soundness of mind, things that are fine, what moderation means and what right and wrong is. Some things are okay and some things just aren’t, physical things we talk about. Often, we just need God’s help in that. And you know where we learn that? In the Church, it’s taught in the Church from the top down. That’s how God works. Those, if a person wants to learn, they’ll be taught. So we learn soundness of mind. We learn balance. It’s something that takes time.

…don’t be conformed to this world but be you transformed. So again, it’s awesome scriptures here. ...by the renewing of your mind. I love this word here, too, because it’s not “that you may prove” but toward proving what is good. In other words, there are things in our life that have to do with a transforming of how we think and it has to be working toward proving by exercising, by living what God gives to us so we can prove, yeah, that’s right. I can see the balance.

Just like what I was talking about. There are some things we can’t see until we live it. You can’t grasp the Sabbath until you start living it. You can’t understand the purpose and the means and the importance of tithing in our lives and how God works in our lives in a relationship with Him until we’re actually doing it. Then it just becomes a part of our life because that’s our life, that’s the way we think. Whether it be holy days, Sabbath’s, and every other law of God.

...that you, again here, renewing in your mind... transformed by the renewing of your mind toward proving what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That’s how we learn those things.

So again, this kind of change is a major role each of us has to choose to participate in in our lives and it’s a part of our building. It’s a part of our yielding our self to the building. So this needs to be changed in order to fit into place. To the effort we put into it determines whether we will or whether we won’t and to what degree.

Verse 3—For I say, through the grace given unto me, to everyone that is among you, not to think more highly than you ought to think. Why does it say that? Because it’s making it clear here that we have to understand that this transformation of the mind, this ability to learn to think differently, it requires God. Yes, we have to work, but it’s not about the works themselves apart from God and not realizing that God is the one who is over all the work and that we can’t do that work without being able to have God’s spirit in it, doing it spiritually. You can’t do it on your own. It’s making it clear here don’t rely on yourself in these things.

...but to think soberly. Soberly! To understand just what I’ve talked about, that we can’t do it without God. “Without Me you can do nothing.” That’s what we’re told. “Absolutely nothing.”

...according as God has dealt to every one the measure of faith. So it’s a matter of something that has to be done in humility. It’s something that has to be done in a spirit of meekness, a willingness to learn, to want to learn from God. That before we ever come to services we pray to God to be able to receive what He gives us on that Sabbath, to pray for the inspiration of what’s going to be given to us on that Sabbath because—just like we do the Feast, like we talk about before the Feast—because that makes a big difference in a person’s life.

Our desire to pray about what God’s going to give to us and that we be of a mind and a spirit and being forgiven of sin to the point we’re crying out to God, “I want to grow! I want to learn!” and we ask Him for the help to be able to receive here what He’s given to us.

As it says here, according as God has dealt to everyone the measure of faith. What does that mean? Well, again, it’s about a relationship with God. As to what is measured out to us in large part depends upon our desire to receive it into our life.

So again, the building, the spiritual dwelling of God is created first and foremost by God who has given this authority for this building process, the means. Everything that’s needed God has placed it there. It’s all there.

I’m thinking about some other sermons that are going to follow this up and Christ breaks them down in some parables that are beautiful, really, when you understand it in the context of what is being said here. They have great depth and meaning of things that God wanted us to understand. Not just to receive as some nice story, some nice platitude or whatever it might be, but it’s something that has great meaning in it and something we can learn from.

So again, who has given great authority for this building process, this continuing creation, He gave it to His Son, Christ Joshua. But again, each of us is called; we have our direct part in the work we have to do and it takes work, and if we’re lazy, we’ve got a problem! If we’re slothful, we’ve got a problem! If we’re lukewarm or lethargic, we’ve got a problem

If we’re that way physically, you know what, we’ve got a problem! Because you know what? What we have physically so often translates into what we do spiritually because we’re carnal, physical human beings. So we have to be careful.

So we actually have to work upon sometimes physical things that work against our nature in the sense of having God’s spirit and striving to live spiritually before God. So there are things that we need to fight and battle even physically in our life because those are the kinds of things that can hold us back spiritually. I hope everyone understands.

Because there are people out there that need to learn how to work better. We all can learn how to do that. But we live in a world and society that because of technology that sometimes we haven’t learned how to work. Sometimes because of families, because of things in this world, in this age, because of the need for both now, basically, to work, which is basically the way of survival in this whole world today, the society has changed so much there is that need. Those who don’t have to, what an awesome thing. But as a whole, especially in the beginning, people so often have to do that to do well.

The reality is if we have a battle in that particular area that hurts us on a physical plane for physical development and growth, the same thing can carry over into your spiritual life if you’re not careful. Because we don’t know how to do something, see?

That’s one thing I’m very thankful to my dad for, that I learned how to work at a very young age, learned to appreciate work. That just became kind of the way it was. When you start at 8 years old in the summer time being out in the field for 8-10-12 hours in a day you begin to learn, you know, “This isn’t so bad.” But as a child, as you grow and you get in your teens life, it becomes bad because you don’t want to be out there like that! So anyway, we learn.

But, you know, if someone is taught how to work just on a physical plane that’s a good thing because the reality is in this world today it doesn’t happen a lot. That’s why in many ways I love what a farming community, that kind of life, ranching or whatever it might be, agrarian society, because you have to learn how to do those things on a physical plane. In today’s world, living in cities and so forth, it really is more difficult and more challenging to parents to teach those traits and things to children at a young age (whether they like it or not), you know, to learn how to work.

If that becomes a part of your thinking and you begin to appreciate the product of what you see when you’re done – because that’s the goal – in time, you know what? You have a child make a bed, they learn how to make the bed. They learn that it’s made all the time, in time, it can grow in their mind to where when it’s not made it doesn’t look right. It doesn’t feel good. You know what? You learn what it means to have work. You’re kind of motivated then, as a whole (maybe not everyone is), but as a whole to do that because you like what is there.

That’s the way it is in so many things in life. That’s the way it is spiritually for us. The more we learn to do certain things, apply certain things in our life, and we see the benefit in our life spiritually, the more we want to do it. We see the benefit. We receive of the benefit. It’s a good thing, a beautiful thing.

Colossians 2. I’m going to return to a verse here again that we looked at in Part 1. I want to go back to this just to read this one verse.

Colossians 2:6—As you, therefore, have received Christ Joshua the Lord, so walk in him... What a mouthful. We can hear it and go in one ear and out the other or we can live it. To live it takes work. It takes building. It’s a part of a building process to be in him. You have to practice certain things on a physical plane because setting aside a time, allocating time to do something in your life it takes forethought, it takes thinking.

Prayer doesn’t just magically happen. You have to think about it. Fasting, whenever we do, you have to think about it and then you have to do it. Because it doesn’t just come naturally. You have to work at it. So there’s a physical aspect of that. If we’re not willing to put in the physical aspect of it with the spiritual we’re not going to grow and learn in the way we could otherwise.

All these things are connected. We’re physical, we have physical work. Even within the Church, within the Body, of sacrifice and so forth that we have to do that has spiritual benefit, that has spiritual ramifications with it as well, or qualities with it as well. Those are all a part of a process. But we’re a part of it. We have to do it.

God doesn’t do it for us, as we were talking about it earlier when I made my big 360. God doesn’t do these things for us. We have to do it. He doesn’t make us do it. He doesn’t do everything for us.

That’s why I marvel about that thing of healing. It’s like it’s owed to us and it’s a matter of how strong you are, how great your faith is, what can you stand and not stand in pain. I always remember that guy in west Texas asking me, “Is it okay if I’ve got to go into the dentist, I’ve got to have this thing done, and is it okay to have novocaine.” I just told him, “It’s either that or bite the bullet. It is! Take the novocaine or you’re going to wish you were biting on a bullet or something because it’s going to hurt like mad!” I didn’t tell him that, but you’re going to be quite stupid if you don’t take what he has to offer you. If you want to suffer through that and “be strong in faith”? Is that what faith is about? Pfft, give me a break! But that’s where we were back in the 70’s, back in the early 80’s, even on. That’s not what’s spiritual.

As you have, therefore, received Christ Joshua, the Lord, so walk in him. It’s a choice. ...rooted and built up in him. If we want that, if we love God, if we love God’s way of life, if that’s what’s in our heart and we’re thinking in right ways of what we’re building to God, for God, that we’re wanting to yield to that process, we want to be a part of it, then there are things we’re going to do. We’re built up in him. Cry out for that! Ask God for that. Apply yourself. Have spiritual sacrifice in your life. On and on it goes.

...rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith. Awesome verse there, what it’s saying. To become “established in the faith.” What does that mean? To be stable. To be stabilized. To be rooted in, if you will, as it talked about earlier, “rooted and built up,” it’s a part of the building process, “in him.” This matter of faith, again, established in what God has given to believe, us to believe, and we choose to live by it. Beautiful thing.

“Established in the faith.” “Secured in the faith.”  In other words, it’s like holding on with all your being. You’re secured. It’s like having a rock and drilling holes in it and screwing screws into it, putting rope around it and tying it around yourself to hold on to the rock, whatever you’ve got to do, whatever it takes. “Secured; firmly set in place,” is what the word means and what God has given us to believe.

...as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. “As you have been taught.” So we receive it from where? Through the Church. We don’t have this special relationship apart from the Church with God.

You know, I’ve marveled over the years, over the decades, candidly, of how people thought that they had this kind of special relationship with God to see and understand various things that were different from what the Church was given. Man, that’s dangerous. But it was done over and over and over again where there were things that were believed and tried to be taught to others that had nothing to do with what was true, with what God was giving us through the Church.

...abounding in it with thanksgiving. So again, this thing of thanksgiving that’s always, as we talked about last week, always has to be there. Do you think about thanking God for what you have physically and spiritually in your life? Are your prayers consistently filled with thanking God for the things that you’ve been receiving, for the part you’re able to play, for the fact that you’ve been called? I mean, where do you stop thanking God? But sometimes we just omit it in our life and yet it should be very much a part of our life.

And you know what it reflects? What’s in the mind. How do we really think toward God? Do we really grasp how much we need God? Are we praying and motivated by various things in our life because we understand that? Because that’s what affects this mind here in our thinking then because if we really grasped that in magnitude we’re going to be thankful. You can’t help it. They go together.