The Greatest Means, Pt. 1

Ronald Weinland

March 14, 2020

Last week we addressed the importance of wisely planning ahead for the effects of certain Thunders that are growing louder and for the potential devastation that can come at any time concerning the first four Trumpets. We don’t know when that’s going to be. Certainly, things are ramped up a little bit right now and certain prophetic things as well are taking place that I hope we understand.

We need to be sobered and focused spiritually by what we see that’s drawing closer and closer all the time. Again, ours is always being a matter of being prepared, being ready. Candidly, since I have been in the Church our life has been like that, except now it’s more intense, if you will, because we see things getting a lot closer. We see things happening prophetically and in a profound way and that certainly puts that in a better perspective than ever before.

We’ve been incredibly blessed to be given the ability to hear what God has given His Church in this end-time. We know what’s coming and we’re preparing for it. We’ve been preparing for it physically and spiritually. We need to be doing both. In this context we know we’re soon to be observing the Passover, as I mentioned in the prayer, and Unleavened Bread that’s coming upon us.

At this point in time, maybe even this year (because we don’t know, as I mentioned), it may be the last Passover and Unleavened Bread we observe in this age before Christ is here. That would be an awesome thing, a wonderful thing, but again, we have to continue to look forward and when it happens, we’ll know it. Everybody will know it in the Church.

So as a Church, since we should indeed be more sobered than ever concerning how close to Christ’s coming we are, we need to focus even more on the greatest means that God has given us whereby we can truly be prepared above and beyond everything else for all that’s before us, for all that’s coming. Hence, that’s the reason for the title of the sermon today, which is The Greatest Means, Part 1.

There is an area of scripture we’re going to go back to and look at again this week that we looked at last week in the other series, but we didn’t have time to go into some particular verses in that. So we’re still going to go back a little bit and look at some and then continue on and cover those verses today in this particular sermon. We’ll focus on that shortly but first I want to go back to Isaiah 30.

I hope we see things that are taking place out there. I couldn’t help but think today about what it basically means. It’s not a literal thing, but it’s by spirit, it’s by attitude that people go hide in the rocks and in the cliffs and different areas to get away from everything, to get away from everyone.

We got here to Orlando and things have been happening pretty fast. First night, they closed down, talked about closing down Disney World and Disney Land and Universal City Studios and the theme park, SeaWorld. Things are closing down right and left. Things are closing down in different parts of the world that are just kind of mind boggling. If you happen to be in those areas that would be quite sobering.

So again, we are more prepared for those kinds of things taking place. We need to be wise about how we handle those things as well. I’ll talk about more of that in the particular sermon here today. But again, there are prophetic things taking place in just that matter there alone of how people hide, of how they’re fearful.

People are fearful over something that I, candidly, don’t fear one iota. Of course we know our relationship with God and our life is in His hands. To travel anywhere, I don’t really have a problem with that. I want to be wise. I don’t want to be stupid. But for traveling and so forth, being in crowds, if that were to happen, I’m not really that concerned. Even if I got it, I’m not concerned.

So having said that we still have to be wise and not foolish. God wants us to be wise, not foolish. Our lives are in His hands. We know those things. We have a calm and a peace because of that that the world doesn’t have. That’s a part of what was said here in Isaiah.

Isaiah 30:15—For thus says the Lord Eternal, the Holy One of Israel: By returning, or in other words, if you’d turn to repentance to God (that’s what the subject matter is), and rest you can be saved. So God is saying that “If you will look to Me...” Basically, just like the last book hit it so hard, if you will listen, God will listen. If we’ll just listen to God, if we’ll look to God, there are blessings in life that He’ll give us.

If our spirit is right, our attitude is right – it doesn’t mean we even know all the truth yet as people are drawn out of this world and things that are going to take place—and God is showing that if you’ll do that this is how you’re saved, this is how you can be saved from whatever is around you. It doesn’t matter what it is, whether it has to do with your own life, physical to spiritual in time, or whether it be a matter of the kind of dangers and stuff that are around us in the world.

In quietness... Having calm in life. People today aren’t calm. They’re going nuts! They really are! They’re unbalanced. They’re fearful in an unbalanced way because even the deaths that are taking place, more people are killed in every state, by far, every day, every week, than what’s taking place in this. Why don’t we put more effort on that, you know, more safety on cars, and why aren’t people out here afraid to drive? Your chances of getting killed in a car wreck out here are far, far greater than getting killed by coronavirus right now. They really are. That’s just the way it is.

But the world is fearful. The world is not thinking soundly. Candidly, it’s almost to the point right now where there’s a spirit at work there. Because to have this kind of, if you will, a kind of mass hysteria in some ways—because it’s all round the world. It’s getting worse and worse—and because of that the thinking isn’t sound.

So you think there is more to this than meets the eye. I’ve heard people taking about that on TV, trying to figure out what it might be, what is this that’s causing this compared to other times when other kinds of things that have happened that have come along. We know there’s a power that works out there and God could allow that power to exercise more.

He loves people to be fearful. There is a being that loves people to be fearful in this world, and if that’s given to him more and more it’s going to become more fearful as time goes along.

We don’t have to be that way at all. We don’t have to be that way one iota. I hope you have that kind of spirit, that kind of mind, that kind of relationship with God that there is no fear. Again, you have to be wise. We’re not to be stupid. But I’d do that if there was a flu outbreak in an area, you know. I don’t want to catch the flu.

Everybody has to make their choices every year whether they get the shots. I’ve never gotten a shot. I’ve known too many people, and that’s my choice. It doesn’t have to be your choice. If you go out and get them, that’s your choice. Everybody has to make their own choices and decisions. So just because I say something I might do doesn’t mean the whole Church has to do that. Okay? There are people who probably should because of their system. But my system, I’m not too concerned about it. Okay?

So I got pneumonia shots last couple of years because I have kind of a weakness in our family line in the lungs. After talking to the doc for a while, “Okay, jab me.” So he gave me one a year ago and then I went back in last year, again, a year later (I guess two years ago), and he wanted to give me one and I said, “You already gave me a pneumonia shot. You only have to have it once, I thought.” He said, “Yes, but the other one covered 19 different types of pneumonia. This one covers 20 some.” I didn’t know there were that many out there! So I said, “Okay, bring it on.” So everybody has to make their choices of what they do and don’t do.

And we still have people in the Church, though, that because, “You got a shot! You got that poison in your system?” Yeah, my choice and I’m very comfortable with it in my relationship before God. So sometimes its like, “Where is your faith?” Everybody has to make their own choices. Every individual in everything you do you’re judged by what you believe in your mind, how you think in your mind. If in your mind you’re sinning, don’t do it. But you know, Paul talked about that. Where we are in our growth and stuff, again, that’s in God’s hands. God judges those things. You just have to be truthful to God.

So again, going on. So having calm in life ...and your strength can be/should be in confidence. That’s what it’s saying literally. That’s what it’s saying. These aren’t translated very well but in Hebrew that’s what it’s talking about. “And your strength can be/should be in confidence.” That word has to do with “the sense,” as I mentioned last week, “of confidence in being secure.” So do we feel secure at a time like this? I do.

Now, in some of our travels, listening to them, because there is such fear out there, I think now, really, do I want to get caught in some place that’s a thousand two hundred miles, a thousand five hundred miles away from home and have to drive a Hertz vehicle all the way back to Cincinnati to get home because they start closing up all the restaurants and the hotels? They’re doing that in some places in the world.

Spain just announced they’re closing all hotels, all restaurants, all bars (which is probably really a good thing), and all educational facilities. That’s quite a change. Because it’s so bad over there. Our daughter-in-law and Jeremy were telling us about how an area in northern Spain where her family is from, it’s like the city is so bad, their hospitals are so bad, so many of the doctors have this they’re trying to get doctors to come in from other areas. Because they have it. You think, wow, what a horrible thing. But that’s a natural place for things to take off if people start coming in and they’re sick.

Even there, people don’t have soundness. There is so much lack of soundness and balance in human thinking it sometimes just boggles my mind – how dumb we can be. So the first thing you want to do if you really think you have something really bad like that and that people are kind of uptight about anyway, is you want to go to the emergency center as soon as you can and walk through the doors. And what happens then? Well, if you really have it you’ve caused that hospital a huge nightmarish problem if they’re not ready for you to walk through the doors. How smart do we have to be to figure that one out? You know, call ahead! “What am I supposed to do?” If you don’t want this to spread, “I don’t want a doctor to get this who can maybe help a whole lot of other people, or some nurses to get this,” like is happening in hospitals all over the place.

How dumb can we be? But we are as human beings. Especially now a days the world is not smart in those areas. God gives us soundness of mind. What a blessing.

You watch TV anymore, there is not a whole lot of soundness in mind. There are people out here just so wacky, so out in left field they’re playing in the wrong game. They don’t know how to play... I’m sorry, thinking of left field and baseball and they’re all out there and you think, “Well, what if you hit it down first base? Everybody is out in left field!” I’m sorry. Anyway, crazy, crazy world.

We live in those times and we can see it. God has given us that soundness of mind. What a blessing to have a sound mind, to have balance.

...and in confidence, a sense of being secure. But you refused. It’s the way the world is.

Verse 16—But you said, No, for we will flee upon horses. I’ve loved this expression because it’s like it’s exactly what’s happened this past week even more so. It’s like, “We’re going to get through this!” That’s the expression that’s used here. There are expressions used in the Bible that were used in times of old that we don’t use today.

It’s things that are out of use, like “lock, stock, and barrel.” A lot of people don’t even know where those things come from. It comes from an old, you know, you flint lock. They’re expressions that were from the navy. They’re expressions that had to do with military. A lot of, tons of expressions, “sideburns,” comes from shooting one of those and the way the powder hit you on the side. All these kinds of things that we use in society. We don’t use so much anymore. But you know, a lot of things that come from early automotive industry that are out there, expressions.

So there are expressions in the Bible that are used that sometimes people look at and sometimes they try to take them literally because they try and understand. “What does this mean physically?” There are some prophecies we’re going to come to in a little bit that talk about some of that and it’s like, no, it’s not literal, it’s to learn from, that there is an expression being used there that was used then that was understood biblically by people of the time. Anyway, hope that makes sense.

Same thing here, some of these expressions: “Riding on a swift horse.” So it’s just like you’re in a battle and you’re going to get away. “I’m going to get away because there are some coming at me and I’m going to get out of this pretty easily.”

All I’ve heard this week is “We’re the greatest nation on earth. We’re going to whip this! We’re going to do this better than anybody else.” I think, no, you’re not. There is a nation over in Europe that doesn’t think like we do and they’re so far ahead of us it makes us look stupid as far as how we’re dealing with coronavirus. But who’s lifting them up and trying to follow that pattern? Nobody. Who wants to give the Germans credit for what they’re doing? Assyrians. Interesting. It’s because of their nature and how they deal with certain kinds of problems is why it’s being handled as well as it is. We’ll get to that a little bit later.

But I find it awesome to see characteristics of things come out in people’s lives and nations and how people deal with each other. But you think of the haughtiness at a time where there are people who are fearful, and it’s like, okay. Anyway, watch and learn.

Therefore, it says, we will ride upon, not just upon horses to escape but upon swift ones, you know. It’s like we’re going to be able to do this quickly. Then something happens. I love another example in prophecy and I didn’t look it up for today, but it’s like you go into one situation and you escape from it and you pull back and what you back into is far worse than what you got out of. You move over here into another area, you get out of that and you back into something else. It’s like everything you’re starting to move from you’re going to get something worse going to catch you. Awesome!

We’re going to see that take place. That’s what’s going to come next. Something is going to take place as time goes along here; whether it’s quickly, we don’t know, but it’s going to be fulfilled. People are going to escape from one thing and another one is going to pop up that’s going to catch them off guard and they’re not going to be able to deal with it. Maybe a mutation of it. Maybe something that’s far, far worse that is deadly. But at least the ability to know how to deal with some of this is going to give a little bit of an advantage for a time, a short time.

...Therefore, what pursues you will be swift! God is saying that your attitude may be you’re going to be able to escape, but the reality is there is going to be something pursuing you that’s going to overtake you. That’s the point of the verses here. “You are going to be overtaken.”

One thousand will flee at the rebuke or the threat of one. That’s what the word means; it’s about a threat, one threat, because of one threat. ...at the rebuke of five you will flee. Incredible! It means all will flee. That’s how it’s being used here. It’s showing this dynamic of something that happens slowly, a little bit, and then a little bit later it’s multiplied many times over and all flee. So I love the rest of it here.

I’m going to read some things in the news. I’ll just take the time here to do that now before we go on.

First of all for the Church – only because I heard the president today, otherwise, I’d be going to Texas and to Spokane, my wife and I. But because of what he said today, they asked him specifically, “Should we be travelling? Should people be travelling?” Now, others have said this but this is the first time I’ve heard him say that if you don’t need to don’t do it. I don’t need to. I can, but we don’t need to, we don’t have to. It’s not an exceedingly important thing. I can do it from the house.

So we’re not going to Dallas and we’re not going to Spokane. We’re not going to have Sabbath services anywhere until after the days of Unleavened Bread. Okay? Passover will be in your own homes, not with groups even. There is no sense. We’re going to strive to do, to be in unity and harmony with what we’ve been asked to do, okay? That’s the spirit we need to have. That’s the spirit and attitude. When a leader asks you to do something like that, that’s what we should strive to do to cooperate with it. Not because we’re fearful of it at all, candidly. It’s because it’s a matter of support. To do otherwise isn’t a good thing, not a smart thing to do.

So anyway, just wanted to make that announcement, again, just so that everybody understands. You will have to download your own Passover service. It will be on the internet. Might even be there now, I don’t know, from last year because it’s going to be the same one. Very little changes in that ceremony from year to year. Sometimes we do a new one but I did a new one for last year for most areas except for the States where we did a live one. Pretty sure we did. In Cincinnati, anyway. I don’t know if it was on YouTube. I forgot!

It will be on there so everyone can download it ahead of time and just follow through like you normally would with a large group; just do it yourself at home. If you’re by yourself, you can’t wash somebody else’s feet and someone else can’t wash yours, so there you go. There may be a reason for why God is having us do it that way, I don’t know. But God’s in charge and if He wanted us to do it in a different manner He would inspire us, He would bless us to be able to see that. And yet I believe this is what He is showing and revealing to us.

So again, even in your own communities you need to be wise. A lot of this sermon is about that. It’s about what we even talked about last week. You need to be wise in what you do and how you do it. So no sense to take, there is no point in taking chances, especially people who fit in certain categories. I told myself I don’t fit in that category. 70; I’ve had a bunch of heart attacks, but I don’t feel like I fit in that category. Another matter. I know where my life is and I’m not concerned one iota. If it goes, it goes, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

So that announcement. So after the days of Unleavened Bread, I don’t know, we’re going to wait and see. We’re going to see what happens. Who knows; things may have begun by then. I don’t know. Things may begin shortly afterwards. I don’t know. Maybe we’re supposed to stay home for a great reason. I don’t know. We are to stay home for great reason – because we’ve been told to.

So we’re going to cancel all halls. Anybody that has a hall out there, go ahead and cancel it for that period of time. They will understand because we’re trying to abide by not meeting in groups even though they’re not that large compared. But they don’t even want small ones, as a whole, the way things are going.

Then I was watching on TV there about different places closing down restaurants. Even the hotel we’re staying at it’s like 18 stories high, two huge sections to it, and they’ve closed the restaurants down, sent the chefs home. Think, well, that’s just a wonderful thing. What happens if every place else starts closing down restaurants, which some are talking about doing? So that may come next.

Who wants to be in a grocery store now a days. Again, people are panicking. It’s gone crazy. Around the world, this is happening all over the world. Europe, places are stripped clean, you know, especially certain things you really want to get a hold of. People are hoarding toilet paper and fighting over it.

Even here, I told people I was going to (this was before I wrote up an announcement beforehand, until I decided this morning after hearing President Trump speak) I thought that, well, in the Church we’re going to say no hugs, no European type kisses on each side of the head, not even elbow bumping, no shaking of hands. Stand back a little bit. Because you don’t know. There may be someone in the Church right now who’s carrying and doesn’t even know it. But because you’re healthy enough or because your immune system is strong enough it’s not going to affect you in the same manner. But you can still be a carrier. People don’t know. There are a lot of people who don’t know so they don’t even know the numbers out there, in that respect.

They know it when people go into hospitals and do crazy things like that or whatever and get tested. That’s been a fiasco. Isn’t that amazing how long it’s taking us? And you know what’s been the problem? Government. FDA, primarily. FDA! Our government is so bureaucratic. To get things through it’s a nightmare.

I was dumbfounded yesterday when I was listening to President Trump speak about some of the things that they were letting doctors do and hospitals do, because I didn’t know they had these tons of restrictions of things they couldn’t do! They’re giving them freedom to do things without this bureaucracy over them so they can get some of these things taken care of.

Those are the things that have been holding us up. That’s what’s been holding the proper testing and getting this thing, things approved so it can be manufactured. You think, “Ought to call the Germans.”

Anyway, I just want to go through some articles because this just continues on and on. Matter of fact, the individual, that most probably know who it is that sends me some of these, a lot of these news articles—some others send me some as well—but sends a run down every week, as a whole. This last week there was so much out there it had to be in two different sections. It’s just news article after news article of crazy things going on and things that are happening in the world.

But I don’t know how many of you watch the stock market. You talk about a roller coaster, up and down, it is exactly—exactly!—like what happened in 2008 and in that period of time where it went way up and way down and way up and there are people who made a lot of money in the in between. But the vast majority of people in the country don’t.

But there are people out there who have the ability to do that and they make a lot of money when that happens, tons of money when it goes up and when it comes down. And candidly, there are some who have a hand in kind of helping that at times. They know and they watch and when it’s happening, like, “We’re all on board. Let’s buy. Let’s sell.” You look at the percentages and you look at how much people are able to multiply their money it’s sickening. Sick world! It really is.

Anyway, “Market Massacre: Oil Crashes 30%, Dow Down 1000...”[1] Well, it’s been down a thousand. It was down two thousand. Then of course, Friday it comes back up and, “We are going to get through this,” and it’s still way down. But anyway. This isn’t over by a long shot. That example of that one thing that was mentioned last week, “The Coronovirus isn’t the cause, it’s the catalyst” because our system isn’t screwed up, it’s bad. It’s in bad shape. Has been for a long time, but it’s not being addressed until it’s too late. Anyway, I’m not going to read all that.

This was Monday: “European Stocks Crash Most 'Since Lehman,'” If you remember that, when was that? Hmmm? So it says, “Enter Bear Market.”[2]

“Pentagon Deploys Troops To California Border To Block Surge Of Possibly Infected Migrants.”[3] It’s amazing how they’re talking about using the military more and more. It’s almost like some of these sci-fi movies you see out there. When I heard about New Rochelle, New York, at first we thought sounded like it was going to be military preventing...and it didn’t. It’s not exactly like that but you think, this is kind of strange and this is happening more and more. Different countries over in Europe and things they’re doing, its mind boggling what’s going on.

Anyway, “Italy suspends MORTGAGE payments; business dying as panicked residents’ horde food.”[4]

“Russia Passes Bill Allowing Putin To Stay In Power Past 2024.”[5] So he can be in there now and for a little longer, obviously.

“Lagarde Warns European Economy Faces '2008-Style Crisis' Without 'Coordinated' Government Action.'” Blah, blah, blah, blah...

“WHO declares Coronavirus a global pandemic?”[6]

“SHOCK ESCALATION Fears as 15 coronavirus patients ‘die in a matter of hours’ in US – after showing NO symptoms.”[7] So people really panic on something like that, something that can stay in the air for up to three hours they’re finding now, without dying. Literally, somebody coughs it can stay in the air, you can walk by and breathe it in. I don’t know how they prove these things, but they’ve already found that out, that it can be in the air for three hours. It can stay on a surface for longer depending on where it is and so forth. Crazy.

Another article: “France, Germany...Hopeless Europe?”[8] This is an article about how the European states lack, still lack unity in their action and this is blocking a number of major projects. So it’s going on and explaining some of these things.

It gives an example here where it says, “It is only because President Emmanuel Macron came to the Munich Security Conference in February that the German Bundestag approved a meagre… €77 million to launch the first phase of a Joint European fighter due for 2040.” So their point being as they go through the article here, is saying look at how slow things are moving. Now just barely doing something like that for way up the road and we cannot survive that long, is basically the spinoff of all this. Europe isn’t going to be able to stay together if everything is moving this slowly.

Anyway, that’s basically what it says a little bit later. It says, “At this snail pace, with these baby steps, how can we still have hopes in Europe?” But it says, “There is hope. But this hope will only come with some kind of a revolution. A revolution in politics first, where we need to depart from the announcement mantra that prevails in so many member states, and that is backfiring with a rising crowd of frustrated voters. A revolution in the methodology where the French will need to learn that Berlin is not Germany, and where the Germans and the EU need to realise that if they don’t act faster and bolder, we may have seen the peak and soon the decline of democracy.” That’s the way they’re looking at some of these things.

You think, we know already what’s going to happen. We know there is going to be a spark. I love how it says in Daniel—how could God have said it any better?—iron mixed with clay. Awesome! It has strength, but it’s incredibly weak. It’s like how can this prevail? And obviously, it won’t. But it just shows how frail it really is. But we know, God’s shown us what’s going to happen. I mean, that’s incredible. We have a peace of mind, a knowledge and understanding of seeing why news events are the way they are and how people are talking over there. But we know what’s going to happen. They have to be this way until something sets a spark and they unite. Short; just for a little bit.

But once they do something of the magnitude they do, it’s too late to back out. They’re committed. Once you push a button and a mass of nuclear weapons are unleashed it’s too late to take it back. They’re not in agreement leading up to it and then for a little bit they are and they do something like that because of a spirit and because of a spirit power and a spirit being out there that’s behind it all at that point in time that God lets have full reign at that time over attitudes and spirit that exist already, and they come to conclusions they shouldn’t. Anyway, they’re going to do it. Then as soon as it’s over with they go right back to the same thing. Incredible, what’s coming.

I don’t want to go through all this.

Another one from Europe: “Germans and Americans ‘worlds apart’ on security issues, new study finds.”[9] It just goes through different statistics here and shows how some over there are closer aligned with China than they are with the United States at this point in thinking and thinking they’re allies. And it’s even amazing how American’s think about China. There is a certain percentage here—I can’t remember what the percentage was; I did mark it there—but there are people in the United States that believe China is one of our main allies. I don’t know what people are smoking. Something out there. All these states that keep changing their laws and they’re smoking more of it!

“Eastern Europeans want more EU funds for military mobility.”[10] Again, we know what that’s all about and so there is a reason for all that, reason for why these things are happening.

Oh, this was a sad one: “Coronavirus Hits Music Biz: Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Madonna, Pearl Jam Cancel Shows.”[11] All of you who bought tickets, sorry.

“Russia Says It Can Weather $25 Oil For Up To 10 Years”[12] So take that! I thought it was kind of interesting at the end of this financial article, it’s kind of interesting what it says. It says, “Incidentally,” the Russian attitude toward how they’re dealing with this, “Incidentally, this may explain why over the past two years, Putin has been busy dumping US Treasury and hoarding gold: he was saving liquidity for a rainy day, and as millions of shale workers are about to find out today, it's pouring.”

Crazy what’s happening with oil. Can you believe it, down to $30 a barrel? Insane! People are going nuts out there, they really are.

I’m not going to go through all these. You’ve been listening to a lot of things. You’ve been hearing it. “Nasdaq Futures Limit-Down, Crude Crashes After Trump Announces EU Travel Ban.”[13] It’s his fault. It’s amazing how so many things are his fault. It’s amazing. Iran is blaming the US, because of the embargo, for the coronavirus. There are going to be people there that believe some of that.

“Dow's 10% loss most since 1987 market crash.”[14] So I think it’s kind of interesting that some are going back even farther. Most things compare with 2008 but now going all the way back to 1987. Again, I’m not going to read all the article, but it’s amazing what’s out there.

“'Hugely disruptive': Coronavirus torpedoes global shipping.”[15] “Tanker charter rates have torpedoed more than 80 percent as the coronavirus outbreak continues to slam the brakes on large economies, costing the shipping sector hundreds of millions in lost business, an industry official told Reuters news agency.” Now, that’s been a problem for a long time even when we had some good trade. But it’s not being reported in the world how bad shipping has been for a time. They’ve been down. They’ve been hurting. Now with this?

Another one: “Truckers, dockworkers suffer as coronavirus chokes L.A., Long Beach ports cargo.”[16] Empty berths, they’re saying, ships that would normally be there packed and out in the harbor waiting, no. Crazy things going on.

It says, "The Market Is Broken" - Why Nobody Is Trading Any More.”[17] “On the first day of this week, which would soon mutate into the worst week for capital markets since the 2008 financial crisis, we warned that markets are about to go full tilt for the simple reason that ‘there is no liquidity.’” See, Russia, they have some liquidity we don’t even have. Incredible! “...something we first highlighted at the start of the month when we pointed out "Two More Problems For The Bulls: Market Liquidity And Short Interest Are At All Time Lows.”[18]

You know, how much lower can they lower the interest rate before just start giving it away. “We’ll pay you.” I’m sorry.

“Why our constant focus on liquidity? Because as Goldman explained on Thursday, ‘liquidity and volatility are interconnected, creating a self-reinforcing loop, and as a result liquidity conditions have been an important contributor to the velocity of recent S&P 500 moves.’”

It says a little farther in the article: “...what we saw in recent days has been borderline biblical...” More than they know. Amazing. They don’t quote the verse, but say it’s in the Bible. Anyway, fear.

Oh, this one was talking about—I got this separated from part of the other one— but talking about the docks and so forth in different regions and the cargo containers that are not coming in, the ships that are not coming in. This just compounded the issue that much more. It says, “In the Los Angeles region, the pain is already acute. Seroka pointed out that 1 in 9 Southern California jobs are tied to the ports...”16 Can you believe that? Southern California, one in nine jobs are tied to the ports, “including people who work on the docks, drive trucks, and move boxes in warehouses.” They said, “That’s a million jobs.” Incredible, people that are getting slammed.

Do I need to keep going on this? No. But all you have to do is watch the news and you see things right in front of your face in a scale that we’ve never seen to this degree, candidly. So quite incredible what’s taking place.

I’ll stop there except one more article: “Coronavirus: Why does Germany have so few COVID-19 deaths?”[19] So I just have some certain things here. It says, “On Friday, the number of people in Germany infected with COVID-19 grew to 3,059. Six of them have died so far.” Incredible. “That is roughly two people for every thousand cases.” Extremely low. Two for every thousand cases that are actually there. “In China, it's roughly 39 deaths per 1,000 people infected,” probably a lot more than that because we don’t get too much good information out of them. So probably double that at least. “...in Italy it's 71,” per one thousand, “in Iran 45,” per one thousand, “and in Spain it's 28” per thousand.

“...President of the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin said, ‘From the beginning, we have very systematically...’” Can you imagine the Germans being very systematic about something? That’s why. “‘We have very systematically called upon our doctors to test people.’” So basically, that’s the answer.

Did you hear what Angela Merkel told everyone in Germany? She says “Just expect it’s going to happen. 60-70% of you are going to get infected.” Live with it. Hmmm. Kind of like the flu. That’s how they’re looking at it.

Interesting, a lot of the western world is panicking like mad and the Assyrians aren’t. I wonder how that would fit biblically into things. Because, you see, the point is that God says primarily first and foremost it’s about the scattered nations of Israel and their fear and the way they have been. They don’t fear the same way. There are reasons for that.

I thought I’d just go down a quick list here. I found this interesting, “...death rate per 1,000 infected: Italy - 71, Iran - 45, China – 39, Spain – 28, U.S. – 22, France – 21, South Korea – 9, Germany – 2.” That’s a long way from 71. Isn’t that incredible? Absolutely incredible to me.

Anyway, back to what it says here in Isaiah 30:18. I love how God says this in verse 18. Isaiah 30:18—Therefore, the Eternal will wait, until He may be gracious unto you. So there are things that God works with to bring mankind to a certain place and He’s very patient in that, has been for 6,000 years because He has a plan and a purpose. He has a plan and a purpose of judgment, of things that are happening in the end of the age here to bring nations and people to a specific place. It’s all about preparing for a new kingdom. It’s about preparing for His Son’s return and 144,000, the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth, His Kingdom on earth.

So, God is waiting, in that respect, as He works with those things to bring it to pass in a very specific manner. Basically, it’s showing that God will exercise that for mankind in order to save, in order to bring mankind to a change. I love that because it’s understanding where we are in time and something that God has looked forward to for so, so long.

Like we do for the week, the Sabbath. We look forward to the Sabbath. It’s a great time. You go through a tough time in the week and you look forward to that one day, to have opportunity to hear what God gives us, to be moved, to be motivated, inspired by what God reveals to us and shows us and helps us to be moved by and the opportunity most of the time for fellowship. It’s an important time. It’s a high part of our life. Then the holy days, all those kinds of things, and it’s an attitude and spirit then that we have, you know, of looking forward to that.

Well, think how much more God has looked forward to a time when He can bring truth to the entire world, where we don’t have this kind of absolute insanity of religions in the world where people are deceived everywhere you look, where they don’t have understanding of why they exist, they don’t have understanding of God and they’ve been lied to over the centuries, over the millennia because of a great being that’s out there with great power and because of our nature of succumbing to that kind of mind and ignoring the one we should listen to. But that’s our nature – a nature that resists God, a nature that’s enmity with God, resists God, fights against God. Incredible how we are as human beings.

Therefore, the Eternal will wait until He may be gracious unto you; and therefore, He will be exalted. What an incredible time when He can be because of people knowing the truth, when people becoming excited about what is true, about God’s plan and God’s purpose and why they exist. I mean, what kind of peace does that give us to understand why we exist, to understand a second death and a second life? Both are good. Both are good. A second life is awesome, that mankind can be granted. A second death is good, too, just as it is for what’s going to happen to Satan and the demonic world.

Because those who do not want God, so be it. Clean up the world. Clean up the world; have one God Family that comes through all this because of choices people make because that’s what they want. Those who fight against it, that’s your choice.

Just like today in God’s Church, there are still people who still fight against God with all the knowledge and truth they’ve been given. To me, that’s exceedingly scary, that people won’t stand up for, hold fast to what they know to be true, to be faithful, first and foremost, to God and everything that takes place.

So we still have people. I hate doing it as part of my job, of disfellowshipping someone or trying to help someone becoming shaken by saying that they’re suspended for a month or two or whatever; to be suspended from fellowship with hopes and desire that maybe that will shock someone into a reality. That’s been a good thing over the past two or three years, to see that there are people responding to that. That’s a good thing because that’s a choice.

But if people choose not to respond, you think, what a horrible thing! But it helps me to understand “like the sand of the sea,” those who are going to be in the Great White Throne. They’re going to know the truth. Not only that, they’re going to be able to see the God Family because they manifest themselves on the earth. What an incredible thing!

But to not choose God’s way of life, to not choose, to not want to make choices against what is true and what is right? What an incredible thing! So human nature still fights against God even in God’s Church. Blows my mind.

It says, For the Eternal is a God of judgment. He desires to have mercy. He’s a God of judgment. He desires to give to those who will go through judgment. “Judgment now,” as the scripture talks about, “is upon the house of God.” We understand that as soon as we come into God’s Church that the world isn’t being judged.

Now, the world will come to a time of judgment. That’s where we are right now, at the end of 6,000 years that God foretold would take place, that He must execute judgment upon the world because of mankind’s choices over the past 6,000 years in order to usher in a new age.

But when we’re in the Church and we’re given God’s spirit judgment begins with us right then and there in the sense of how we’re living our lives, whether we’re making choices, “I want this,” or whether as it has been for the last 2,000 years, the majority have refused God after their minds have been opened up to the truth, after being baptized and receiving of the holy spirit.

The vast majority of people, “many have been called and few have been chosen.” That’s the reality. Few have come through that because of their choices. They’re chosen because of their choices and their response to God. They were chosen from the beginning to have opportunity to learn the truth, to receive the impregnation of God’s spirit, to change their lives with His favor, His help, and because of making the right choices they have the opportunity of becoming chosen to be a part of God’s family. Choices, choices, choices.

I have a hard time comprehending not embracing that with all of your being.

I do want to make something clear that I’d mentioned last week when I said something to the effect of in a process of making those choices (and I was referring to tithing). Because I think some could misunderstand what was said, as a comment came in later, that some might be maybe thinking that it’s not right to go out and buy a car. Because they made a comment, “You would rather be focused upon buying a car or building a house or buying a house or building a family.”

That wasn’t talking about that those things you shouldn’t be doing. On the contrary! Whatever you continue to go forward with in life, that’s a wonderful thing; God can be a great part of that in your life. You should want Him to be a part of that in building a family and growing in a family. Whatever it is you do, that you have a desire, you have a need (if you’re growing in a family), you have need… Fine! Strive to do it wise and God’s way. All those kinds of things. You want it, you are able to afford a car and you can improve your lot in life? Fine!

But not if tithing is the factor and you say, “I’m not tithing to God. I’m not saving back tithes.” Like something happened the other day. I know, probably, knowing experience of certain things that there is going to be someone who asks for 2nd tithe, that themselves are not saving 2nd tithe. And do you think God’s ministry in God’s Church is going to give you help to go to a Feast of Tabernacles if you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing? See?

That’s why I say the second death is a good thing. And if you don’t change that spirit and that attitude you do not belong with the glory and the honor that God gives to His people. Does that make sense? Does that sound fair and just and right? Because that’s the way it is. Any other kind of thinking – where is the thinking?

You’re lying to yourself. You’re lying to God, and I am so tired of that lying; I truly am, because I have to deal with it. I am dealing with it. I have for a long, long time and I’ll continue to do so. This kind of stupidity and garbage and foolishness does not belong in God’s Church.

So, if someone steals from God —and in order to build a family, in order to buy a house, in order to buy a car—your sins are so great upon your head and you’re digging such a hole for yourself, and you’re bringing such curses upon your life, you’re not in God’s Church! That’s what I was talking about.

So I want to make that really clear to everyone. To do those things is great if you’re doing it God’s way. But if you’re doing it against God you’re not going to come through it. You’re not going to win. God has that kind of power.

How much simpler can that be? To not stand up for what is right? You don’t have the ability to stand up to your mate? To your employer? To your child? To your parent? To whomever? To say, “This is what I’m doing. This is my life. I want you in it, but this is first.”

If somebody doesn’t know that, you’ve got a problem on your hands, if they don’t know how you think. It doesn’t mean you’ve got to broadcast it and beat a drum, but everybody should know where we are.

That’s why I always marveled in God’s Church, especially when it was so large before the Apostasy, how there were people like magnets and people could kind of sense other people who are of the same mindset as them by a question asked here, a deceitful question asked here to see somebody’s response, and then to see what they’re open to. Because if you’re open to garbage, to gossip, as it were, about Mr. Armstrong, as an example, or about what Mr. Armstrong is doing or how he’s doing it. If you just say a little thing about something, “Well, I don’t know if he should be building that house for God right now. It just seems like this might not be a good time for us financially,” and somebody jumps on the bandwagon with that and it’s like two magnets. Now they’re in camaraderie with each other and then they start sharing their really deep feelings and disgust toward God’s apostle and their disapproval of God’s apostle and what God was doing.

Because that’s what happened. It’s just like people are like magnets – they know when someone is thinking the same way they are and they gravitate to each other. Then all of a sudden what do you have? Rebellion and chaos.

So it’s wise just to stand for God. Put your life in God’s hand. Do things the way God says to do it if you love God, if you want what He’s offering. I think where we are now, by the things that are happening in the world, you know what? There are people out here starting to get shaken up a little bit. There are people who are related to people in the Church or people have known people in the Church that all of a sudden are calling and talking about things about what’s taking place in the world. They’re seeing things. “It’s a little unnerving; store shelves, and look how people are responding to this, and so many are talking about it it’s kind of scary stuff.”

It can be. You listen to all this out here after a while it’s like, “Am I okay? Am I thinking right?” It’s like, “Should I be more concerned.” I think, no. God’s hands.

It’s like the flu. It might be a few times more—and we don’t really even know that fully—deadly. Maybe three or four times. Some are claiming a whole lot more and it’s not from what they even have statistics so far. If you’re in Germany you’re in really good shape, so might be a place to live for a while, I don’t know. I’m kidding. How good is your German? Okay, I’ll stop. Just. Kidding.

Let’s turn over to Joel 1. Do we see how blessed we are? I think of how close we could be. I’m very sobered. I’ll just be real candid with you. I’m very sobered because I realize, especially if some of the prophecies we’re talking about, if these are the ones that are taking place right now in the sense that you run from one terror and another one is waiting for it, to cause a whole lot more to become far more fearful right behind it, and then another one behind that that’s far, far greater, then we may be right there. We’ll see what transpires. So we watch; we wait.

The reality is if those things are there we may not have a Feast of Tabernacles like we were planning on. We will have a Feast of Tabernacles. But what an awesome thing if Christ and 144,000 would be here by that time. So we have to wait and see. Impossible? Not at all. So we wait and we watch. But I’m sobered and if I’m sobered by these things there’s grounds and there’s reasons for it because of things that are coming to pass, things that are happening and things that can happen very rapidly, because like we talked about two Feasts ago, the world stage has been set for some time now. It’s set. Now because of everything that’s taking place there are prophetic things that are happening that are sobering. They should be sobering to all of us, stir us even more so as to the potential of where we might be.

Could be a long way off, we don’t know. Could be next month. Could be next week. You don’t know. You really don’t know when things are going to break loose in the world, but they’re coming. So this is a time to hold fast. This is a time to draw closer to God. This is a time to be sobered spiritually in every way, and that’s a good thing. That’s an awesome thing. To do that we have to be of a humble spirit. It’s an attitude of mind that we can grow in because when we try to work things out in our own way—again, we’re to be wise and do what we can do—but to understand our lives are in God’s hands.

You can save up, you can have one whole room full of food and if you’re relying on yourself that isn’t what’s going to help you. Because you know what? Someone might break into it and take it away on the first day. So it’s a matter of looking to God. To use wisdom in the things we plan for and how we do it, but to know everything we do is a matter of something that is in God’s hands and we look to God. What other place would you want it?

Joel 1:1. I’ve gone through these verses at different times in the past and they’ve never come alive as much as they are now. They’ve been alive in the sense of prophetically knowing what’s coming and seeing things that are down the road, but to know where we are in time and know things that are happening in the world, these are powerful.

Verse 1—The word of the Eternal that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, you elders, and listen all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? It’s talking about things that when they begin to happen, when they begin to take place, and the more intense they become that are about the end of this age, it’s like saying like they did of old time when they didn’t have TV and radio and printing and so forth and people told stories in the sense of passing down things from generation to generation. You learned things in that manner. It’s using that example here to say, “Everyone gather together and listen to this story, because you’ve never heard anything like this. You’ve never heard anything like this at all ever.”

It goes on then in that context. Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it, then let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. In other words, this is something that people are going to be able to tell that’s greater than anything that’s ever taken place. You think about what’s coming and it is. They will do that. It’ll be common knowledge what’s happened from one generation to another generation, what parents will be able to tell children.

I think of people who live on even from the Church on into a new age, the things they’re going to be able to pass along their family lines, let alone to others. Incredible things! “You were part of God’s Church? Awesome!”

Verse 4—What the cutting locust left, the swarming (flying) locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten; what the hopping locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. Awake, you drunkards, and weep. So it’s going through here and showing similarly what I mentioned earlier, of other prophecies, of one that talks about you escape one thing and you flee to something and you find yourself in something worse. You’re able to flee from that to another one and that’s worse. It’s just multiplying like that.

The same thing is kind of true in a similar sort of manner of what it’s saying here. One thing happens and another thing comes along and takes more away. What was left behind with that another thing comes along and it causes even greater devastation and it just, it’s so rapid in its accumulation and what takes place.

So it says, Wail, all you drinkers of wine... So is this telling people you shouldn’t drink wine? It’s not even about wine, okay? It’s about a spirit, it’s about an attitude, it’s about the way people tend to be as human beings. It’s about how we, this example of being intoxicated. The world is intoxicated with itself. The world is intoxicated in what it’s doing. We’re inward looking. This is what intoxicates us with life in a spiritual way. God uses that example.

It says, “Wail, all you drinkers of wine,” what you’re drinking in. What is it you’re wrapped up in? What consumes your life? Well, for many it’s the dollar, “How do I get more?” If you can’t do it the legal way then you do it the illegal way. So people are doing all kinds of things and the sick things in this world. It’s a sick, sick world.

I think of drugs and the trafficking of drugs and the trafficking of people and I think, “Give me a break! You want to worry about coronavirus and that’s something you could stop? Girls? Boys? You could stop it and you’re not doing it? You could pump billions into that and you’re not doing it? You hypocrites, lying! That’s the way I feel about it because that’s the way it is.

How do you think God looks at things like that, the hypocrisy, the lying that people do? Why can we ignore one thing and then focus on something else that we get all fearful about? Incredible! Sick, sick, sick!

Wail you drinkers... So here’s a good reason now showing you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, because it’s been cut off from your mouth. Now what are you going to do? That’s what God is saying. You like to drink wine? This is what you’re drinking in and now it’s all gone, it’s all been destroyed, all these hoppers came along, everything on the vine? There is nothing there in the fields. What are you going to drink? So it’s kind of a mockery, making a mockery or mocking those who rely on things that they shouldn’t. God is making it very clear things you rely upon in this world; it’s going to be cut off from your mouth.

What’s happening out here right now, I’ll tell you what, great pride comes before a fall. I think of all times in human history...well, not human history, national history of this country. It’s very prophetically poetic because God reveals very powerfully so what the great fault is of Manasseh, being one of incredible pride. That pride is magnified right now more than I’ve ever seen it as far as a nation is concerned. That pride that’s so great and so mighty when things get cut off. So, you have such pride in your economy and everything that’s taken place and look at the stock market, how high it is, and yet it’s about to die.

It can happen any time. If it’s not meant to, it won’t, but that’s how close we are even there. Like we read the one article about liquidity and so forth, there are things that just don’t happen as far as economic laws are concerned and things you do. What you have as a backup, if it’s not there, where does it come from? Just going to print up a few more bills and somehow think everybody in the world is going to buy it? You suppose they come to a point in time where they say, “I not only don’t want to buy it, I don’t want them, they’re worthless.” Well, when it comes time it’ll happen.

So we have something like a virus come along and now all of a sudden shipping, trucking, restaurants... Because it’s already happening. It’s happening right here in Orlando. I would say there are thousands of people right now affected by what’s just happened here over the weekend. Thousands! This area here is very much focused upon tourism. That’s pretty much, after this weekend, it’s not going to be around too much. How do you think that’s going to affect companies and businesses and all kinds of places? This is just one of many throughout the country. Airlines and everything else that begins to happen?

Because, you see, I already had some plans done and taken care of and I’m cancelling those as soon as can. People aren’t going to be staying in certain hotels, not going to be staying, flying, and you look at all the industry out here. When is that going to smack us? When is that going to smack us between the eyes? Because it is, and that’s what this is talking about.

“...you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, because it has been cut off from your mouth.” You are so lifted up and now it’s going to be taken away. There’s a point where we’re going to crash big time, truly.

For a nation has come up against My land that is strong and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a fierce lion. So again, physical analogies to show something that there’s going to be that effect that’s going to be so strong upon a people that they can’t withstand it because it’s so much greater.

Verse 8—Lament like a virgin clothed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth. In other words, just got married, husband’s been killed, lament like that, mourn like that because what’s coming upon you is far greater. This world doesn’t know fear. This country doesn’t know fear. What’s happening right now, it’s puny. It really is puny. It’s small potatoes. What’s coming is so much worse. It’s sad they can’t see it.

Can we feel that? Can we be moved by that? Because I know what’s coming and it’s going to be hard enough on God’s people who know the truth, who know exactly what’s going to happen when it happens, and you’re going to suffer.

None of us escape this. You think it’s going to be a cake walk because our God is the Great God of this universe? No, it’s going to be hard. What’s it going to be like when you don’t have electricity? What’s it going to be like when you can’t go get gas at the gas pumps? What’s it going to be like when you can’t go to work? What’s it going to be like when you run out of food? What’s it going to be like when radiation covers different parts of this country? What do you do? Well, we strive to be wise. We strive to do the best we can, but we look to our Great God to deliver us. That is your only hope. It is your strength.

To intervene – does that mean you’re not going to have something happen to you? Does that mean you’re not going to have some suffering? You’re naive if you think that’s the case. That’s a part of our life. To think otherwise would be to think in a distorted manner, like we’re going to go to “a place of safety” because we don’t have to suffer like everyone else. We’re going to go to a place called Petra, or we’re going to be whisked away because we’re special and because God isn’t going to allow us to suffer. So if you belong to this particular group and you’re flying a jumbo jet you’re going to be safe. Now, the rest of those poor few people on there, they’re going to crash and burn, but you’re going to be saved.

God isn’t like that. God doesn’t do it that way. He isn’t going to do it that way at the end of an age. We’re going to have things we’re going to go through. You’re going to know what it’s like when water is not running out of your faucet. You’re going to know what it’s like when there is nothing in your refrigerator because there is nothing there to keep it cold anyway. You’re going to know what that’s like.

We’re experiencing just a teeny, teeny smidgeon right now, something so small that, okay, if they want us to stay home and they don’t want us to travel, I’m not going to travel. If they want to try to nip this thing in the bud, let’s see how far that goes. Let’s see how they’re able to do. Maybe they will and maybe they won’t, but we’re going to cooperate because it’s what we should do because we’re citizens of a nation and it tells us on the website what we’re to do. We’re supportive of that. Whether we believe it’s going to solve anything, we know what the end of the story is.

So do we feel it? Do you hurt for people, for what’s about to come upon them? People you meet? I think of different ones just this week we’ve talked to in different situations, and like at a restaurant or whatever it might be. You talk to someone and you see what they’re experiencing in their life and they’re just starting to experience a little bit of fear right now and what it’s going to mean, be like now to be without work, and is the government really, really going to pay everyone? Are the companies that receive help really going to be able to pay everyone their salaries if they get laid off?

Because if they’re not sick, should they be paid? If they’re just a part of the tourist industry and they get laid off does that mean they all get paid or just the ones who are sick? Maybe the ones who get sick are going to be better off? That’s the way it is.

So we’re experiencing just a little smidgeon of what it’s going to be like to be at home, to listen to sermons on the internet and to realize you can’t be together for quite a while. You can’t be together on Passover. You can’t be together on the holy days and hope and pray that if time is going to go on that we’ll be able to be together on Pentecost. If God has other plans so be it, but we’re going to be ready.

So hopefully, as we think about these things and we understand what the truth is and we’re thankful to God because we know how blessed we are, because of the peace of mind He’s given us. We know it’s going to be difficult, but we know that God is there on our side to help us, to deliver us, to work with us. That comes down then how do you feel about others? Can we really lament? Can we really be of a spirit and a mind to humble ourselves and look forward to get through all this and yet knowing incredible destruction is coming, but of a right attitude and desire? You think God wants to see the world suffer like it’s going to? We don’t, but we know it must. We know it must go through it.

So how do you handle that? Well, a lot of that is in a spirit of meekness, a spirit of humility, of really understanding how blessed you really are. You can’t pray that everyone is delivered because, you know, that’s not according to God’s will. But where you can have an effect you may pray accordingly. God may or may not intervene in certain cases, in certain situations, but your desire, what’s in your heart hurts because you know what’s going to happen to others. You know what they have to go through to get where we’re going. I hope that makes sense.

Verse 14—Sanctify a fast, call (proclaim) a sacred assembly. In other words, to assemble, an assembly. It means just like for the Sabbath or the holy days; we’re commanded to assemble. Now, some have taken that in times past as a physical thing: you’re commanded to go to the Feast. That isn’t what that’s about. To get that out of people’s minds sometimes is a hard thing to do.

If you have to, you can be by yourself in some area and observe the Sabbath and assemble with God’s people on the Sabbath in spirit and in truth. Because it’s with God Almighty and His Son Joshua and with others that you know spread throughout the world—not a lot—who are doing the same thing. That you have a unique fellowship with God and you’re assembled before God to receive. Because the most important part of a Sabbath and a holy day is that time we assemble before God and hear what we hear.

So we’re going to be doing that on our own for the next several weeks and we’re going to do it for the 1st day of Unleavened Bread and the 7th day of Unleavened Bread. We’re going to be assembled before God because God commands us to. He didn’t command you to be in a specific location! He’ll take care of that!

We still have people in God’s Church who still are holding on to the old past of what was taught in that area. That’s not what those verses are about. It’s about a relationship before God and a command to assemble before God in humility of spirit and mind because you love your God, because you’re obeying God and you know what that means spiritually.

It’s not a physical thing even though physical things are involved in it. You’ve got to do certain physical things. For the next several weeks the physical thing is you stay home. When you’re allowed to, when it can be, you hopefully will be back together. Maybe as soon as it’s over, the first Sabbath, and maybe not, maybe not until it’s all over. We don’t know.

Sanctify a fast, call (proclaim) a sacred assembly. Why is it sacred? Why is it holy? Is it because of the location you’re in? No. It’s because of that which is spiritual in your mind and your relationship to God Almighty and others who are doing the same thing spiritually.

Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land in the house of the Eternal your God, and cry out to the Eternal. Do we do that physically? No! It’s a spiritual thing. We know where that house is. It’s us. All of us are going to do the same thing.

Alas for the day! For the day of the Eternal is at hand. It’s near. That’s what it’s saying. I’m sobered by that because it’s never been nearer. I’ve gone through Joel in times past and it’s always been a sobering book to me anyway because of all that it says. We’re just going through part of it here today. But it’s a very sobering book in all that it says and there’s never been a time where I have believed, been able to see that this could be very quick. We’ve never been quite at that juncture. We’ve hoped, but to see things in the world that are happening around us? To be sobered by that? To realize this could be so near.

It only takes one nation to do one stupid thing that they’re going to do at some point and it starts the whole thing. Right now, because of all that’s happening in the world and because of the hatred toward this country that is growing and growing and growing it’s easier to see how certain nations around the world are going to do the kind of things they are, when some come to grasp, when some see everything they’re working for as far as the economy is concerned...? We live in a global economy. You can’t do something by yourself anymore. That part of the thinking doesn’t fit.

So it’s kind of like closing the borders and saying, okay, we’re going to take care of ourselves. That can sound good and it can maybe be good and prosperous for a time. But the reality is we live in a global world and people have relatives and they have business and they have things all over the world. You can’t do that today because at some point it’s going to bite you in the rear end big time. That’s where we are.

We can’t close ourselves off from the world and think we’re going to be prosperous and the rest of the world has to suffer for us to have that prosperity. We’re past that. That changes attitudes and feelings – attitudes about pushing buttons. I can tell you right now that’s already being planned. It’s already being planned.

Alas for the day! For the day of the Eternal is at hand. It will come as destruction from the Almighty. So God’s bringing it to that point, to a certain point, allowing things to take place, working with things to bring them to a certain point, speeding up the process, holding it back in certain places until one moment in time. That’s when the 143,999th is finished and there is one more to go. (Did I count that right? Yeah.) One more to go. When that day happens and they’re sealed, it starts.

Is not food cut off before our eyes and joy and gladness from the house of our God? So do we grasp maybe at a time like this a little more soberly, with a little more humility that we may be cast into a time at some point where all we hear is what we can get on the internet and that we can’t come together anymore? Is that coming? Absolutely. Is there a point in time where that can’t happen either and that won’t happen, that you can’t even hear anything from Sabbath to Sabbath except perhaps if you happen to have something that’s pre-recorded and you still have some juice to be able to use whatever thing you have that’s already downloaded and you can hear something of the past? But new things? No.

It’s coming. That’s what this is talking about.

Is not food cut off before our eyes? So it’s going to be physical and spiritual. It’s going to be physical in the world and it’s even going to be spiritual for the Church. It’s going to have an effect in people’s lives. But there will be a soberness about it. There’ll be a relationship with God that will be strong because of our knowing where we are and what’s taking place. We know why it’s happening.

...and joy and gladness from the house of our God? So again, when these things really happen this is going to happen. There are not going to be times where you’re to get together to laugh, to spend time in fellowship to do things like in the past. It’s a sober time. It’s a gut wrenching time. It’s a horrifying time. It really is.

So where is the joy going to be? To go out to eat someplace? To go do something? To be in fellowship in a home? To have a group together? Things aren’t going to be the same and that’s what God is telling us.

Joel 2:1—Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Well, God’s blessed us at different times to do that, to sound an alarm, to try to help people to realize that we’re closing in. As we’ve gone on God has shown us more and more.

That’s why I love this book right now, because God has brought it together for us to where there are things we understand the process and what we’re going through and the why’s and even the timing of so much of it. To me, it’s a humbling thing, it’s an awesome thing. We understand why we’ve gone through the kinds of things we have in a way that we never have. God has brought all that together for us.

As it says, “Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain!” So another one is being blown now, in that respect, as far as spiritually for the Church. Do we really want this? Do we want it with all of our being? Is it the most important thing in our lives? If it is you’ll fight for it. If not, you’re going to keep lying. You may be so weak you can’t help but lie from now on. Your course is already set if that’s the case. I mourn for them as well.

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the Eternal is coming, coming fast, for it is near. That’s what the Hebrew word means, It’s at hand. A day of darkness and of gloominess... We can’t comprehend that.

We can’t comprehend that kind of a time when even temperatures are going to be affected in places in regions, maybe, hopefully, that doesn’t last long. But the more that’s used and the more that goes up in the atmosphere, the more the sun gets cut off the colder the temperatures are, the more it plunges the temperatures. Even that is going to be a factor in many places. It’s scary in itself that will kill millions.

...a day of clouds and thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains. So it’s like being in a mountainous region and you know they’re there but you can’t see them because of the kind of fog that can come in and cover them. But you know they’re there.

A people, great and strong, there has never been the like... It hits this country first. There’s never been a nation like this. God said it will be the greatest single nation the world has ever known, and it is. He fulfilled His promise concerning Manasseh, to Joseph, to Jacob, to Isaac, to Abraham going all the way back. ...there has never been the like and neither shall there be any more after it even from generation to generation. In other words, this is it. That’s what’s being spoken of.

A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns; The land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness. That’s hard to grasp and comprehend. It’s like the book cover. What’s there? Destruction. There is going to be destruction on such a magnitude that we really can’t comprehend it. We believe it, but if you were to see it, it would be hard to internalize, it really would.

Yes, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses and as horsemen; and so shall they run. So people think, “Look like horses? What does that mean?” It’s the same thing we talked about earlier, this one I was referring to here. It’s not what it’s talking about. It’s talking about what this represents.

You know, a massive army on foot is one thing, but a massive army at that time on horseback was another thing. If you have chariots and you have horsemen they’re far more powerful than just an army that’s on the ground. That’s the example it’s giving here. It’s very powerful. It’s the most powerful that you have at that point in time. Today in this age it’s going to be the most powerful that mankind has as far as the military is concerned and we know what that is. It’s just like an army charging on horseback that moves so swiftly in battle. This is going to be a swift thing, thank God. Thank God it isn’t for 3½ years. We couldn’t survive. Mankind couldn’t survive it by that time unless God intervenes to stop it and all the things that are going to take place.

It is like the noise of chariots and the tops of mountain will they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble. I don’t know if you’ve ever been close to a fire that’s moving along—I have—and the sound and the roar and the fear that comes from seeing something coming toward your town. I witnessed that; sections of land on fire at the same time coming toward a town. Incredible. Powerful. Bigger than what you are. Bigger than what the town is. It didn’t make it, but it was coming.

I don’t know if you know what six sections of land is but a section is a mile by a mile. Six sections is six miles wide and one mile deep. That’s the way it was coming. You see that and a whole sky lit up. So people who live around those kind of things, that are in fires out in California and different places like that, Australia, things that people have seen, they’re horrifying things when you see them and how fast the can spread and the noise that’s there, the power that’s there. That’s the example it’s giving here, such power that makes you feel so small, so little, especially if you’re caught in it.

So again, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, and a vast people/army, if you will, set in battle array.

Verse 11—The Eternal shall utter His voice before His army. So God has an army coming, too. So not only is the world going to experience something on a massive scale that nothing has been like it nor ever will be again, God sends His army, Christ and the 144,000, who are going to put down and destroy those who are destroying the earth. They’re going to be given a lot of power. They have a lot of power, power that the world has never experienced before. Those who are in the God Family, those who have great power far, far greater than the angelic realm was ever given, and they only have to use a small portion of power to do what they’re going to accomplish.

For he is strong who executes His word. For the day of the Eternal is great. So a day, a month—so sometimes we in God’s Church in times past—a year, what is that time? Well, it’s about a time. It’s God’s time and whatever He wants it to be is what it’ll be. If it’s 50 days, it’s 50 days. If it’s 30 days, it’s 30 days. Longer than one day, yes, with what takes place as far as the things that take place on this earth. But when His army comes, there is a great day there when everything is put down.

...it is exceedingly terrifying and who can endure it? Now, therefore, the Eternal also says, Turn to Me with all your heart. I think of series of sermons and sermons that God gives us from time to time. It’s like one building block upon another. I’ve always loved that, to see, because you can look back and you can see what God is doing, leading us and teaching us. Similar thing here today as we’ve gone through various things and you realize this is what God’s brought us to now with all the different things we’ve addressed.

I think about building a house unto God and what’s in our heart to build unto God? What’s in us? How do we really think? We’re being judged by our response to that. Some haven’t responded to that, therefore, they’re not a part of this anymore. Some are lying still and they’re not a part of this. They know they’re liars. Why they keep coming, I don’t know. But it’s always been that way. God will take care of that. If I don’t, God will.

So I wait for God to bring things to the surface and when certain things are brought there then I will address it. So if you’re lying to God and doing things that you know are wrong? That’s why I use tithing so often, because that’s always been with us ever since I’ve been in God’s Church. I’ve always known of people who cheat God, who rob God. It’s hard to grasp that. Always known that.

Then there are others who have other battles and other things they have to address. Might be alcohol. Might be the misuse of alcohol. You’ve got to get a hold of those things. What’s more important? To bow down before a bottle? “Oh, sacred booze...booze!” It’s a battle. It doesn’t mean it’s easy. You’re caught up in it, yes. Started somewhere, but it’s to stop somewhere, too. God will give that kind of help.

Trolling the internet? Typing in certain words. Whew... People playing games, perversion of mind, perverting the mind? Why play those kinds of games? But some are still doing it. I know that people in God’s Church are doing it. You can’t do it, okay? Nobody gets by with sin.

This is a time more than any other to get your life in oneness and unity with God. This is a time more than ever to truly digest what was said about building a house unto God, that it be in our heart, that we love God more than booze, more than the misuse of carnal thinking that has to do with distorted sex outside of what God says is right and just and pure before Him. Because it’s a great pull of mankind and mankind must learn to be in control of all those things that go through the mind. And if you allow your mind to go in certain places...?

You know, to go into a bar if you’re an alcoholic just isn’t a smart thing to do. That should be self-explanatory. To turn the wheel, “Nobody will see me. I’ll go over here to this place that hopefully I don’t bump into anybody that’ll notice me, and go get my bottle because I crave the bottle. Life is so hard.” Well, choices, choices, choices.

I mention these things because I know they exist in God’s Church because I know human nature and I know the proclivity of human beings, and I know, because God has given it to me, that this exists in God’s Church as much as robbing from God in tithes. Is one worse than the other? Is sin sin? Is sin against God justified and right or is it to be repented of and that means to change?

Repent – change the thinking. That’s what it’s about. And be converted, turn to God. That’s what was told at the beginning to the Church by Peter, “Repent, be baptized, be converted, turn to God.” Shouldn’t your heart, your desire be to please God in what you’re building?

So what are we allowing in this mind? “I don’t know. I can’t think straight because I’ve had too much to drink.” Sad. Pathetic. Pathetic! Pa-the-tic! Isn’t God first in our life yet? Where is God? Do we really love God? What are we willing to sacrifice for God? Because we’re called to a life of sacrifice, to sacrifice our own wants, our own lusts, our own greed. We’re to sacrifice those things before God because that’s the right thing for the right purpose. That’s what we’re supposed to do. How could we be anything else?

Now, therefore, the Eternal also says, Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, means sorrow, and lamenting. With things we’re going to go through and especially when we go through them even to practice that even more so at that point in time. But even beforehand. Can we see it? Do we see it? Because of what’s happening right now do we see it? Do we grasp what’s taking place right in front of us? People in fear. Unsound, unbalanced, unnatural fear.

If they were really honest, if they were really truthful, if they could really grasp it they’d be far more afraid to go out and climb up into the car and put the key in—well, you don’t even have to put the key in anymore hardly; you just push a button—and take off. “I don’t know if I should do this or not. I can’t move!”

My point being is that should be more fearful than worrying about shaking hands with somebody. But we’re going to practice it, we’re going to do it because that’s what we’re told to do right now and we don’t know, so hey, it’d be like being stupid and going out here on the freeway and driving, “I’m not afraid to die in a car,” and going 150mph down the freeway between cars that are going 50 and 60. I hope you understand my point.

Verse 13—And rend your heart. You know, God’s more concerned about what’s in our heart. That’s what it’s about, what’s inside of us. How do we think? Why do we think the way we do? So it’s as in something like the word “heartrending.” Do we grasp what that means for us individually? It means to tear down, if you will, the heart. What does that mean? Well, look at it. Think about it. “Rend your heart” – what does it mean to tear it down? ...and not your garments. It’s a spiritual thing. And turn unto the Eternal your God.

So where is it we haven’t turned to God? Are we turning to God in everything in our life or are there certain things we’re kind of holding back here that belongs to “me,” that’s “mine,” that “I’m” not going to give up, that “I’m” going to keep doing that “I” know is wrong? And unwittingly so, by doing it people cut themselves off from the spirit of God and don’t have help. Can’t even see straight. Can’t think right. Can’t be balanced. Those are the kinds of things to really repent about. If you want to talk about lamenting and crying, that’s should bring you to tears. That really should.

For He is gracious and merciful. That’s God. Gracious. He wants to give us grace. He wants to pour mercy out upon us. He’s called us for that purpose. ...slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He...says “repents.” It’s not repentance. He relents; in the sense of it’s not something He wants to do, but God does have to execute judgment. There comes a time when God will be patient and merciful.

I think of some that God has had us work with, that had me work with and talk to and visit with, and talk to them about certain things and given them the opportunity to get certain things straight and then sometimes certain chastisement and chastening and then if there is a response then that’s good and everything is behind. But if people go back into those things or do those things again, you know, there just comes a time when it’s saying it’s time to go. It’s time to part ways. And we’re there; get on board or get off. If you want it, it’s there. God wants us. He wants us to choose right, but He’s not going to make us by any measure.

So God doesn’t want to bring this. He doesn’t want to bring the kind of evil that’s coming, bringing of harm. One translation gets it, says, “eager not to punish.” God doesn’t want to see people suffer, especially people who have been called to receive His spirit, His life, His love, His mercy, His kindness, forgiveness of sins, and on and on it goes. God wants us far more than what we would want for anyone to live right, to choose right, to be blessed, to not have to suffer because of dumb, stupid mistakes or foolishness or just giving in to human nature that just flat ignores God.

Who knows if He will return and relent, in other words, not punish, not execute judgment, and leave a blessing behind Him, for, in other words, in order for one to give a meat offering and a drink offering into the Eternal your God? To bless you so that you’re able to do that again. In other words, something that God will receive.

Because candidly, when there is sin involved, God doesn’t receive you, period. He doesn’t receive anything from you. No sacrifice is a true sacrifice, it’s a lie. Everything is tarnished. If there is sin and not repented of everything that’s given to God is an absolute lie and God does not accept it. It’s not accepted at all. It’s not a sacrifice that God recognizes. That’s just the quick of it.

So as this day of the Eternal draws near we are admonished to fast. In this case, we’re going to do so as a Church. It’s been some time since we’ve done it. A lot of questions of times come in about fasting. We’re going to do it on a particular weekend, the weekend of April 3 through the 5th. So you pick your time within that range, but that’s the time that we’re showing the Church for people to do it.

Some have asked about different times to start, when to stop. It’s not like Atonement, when the sun sets that’s when you have to start and you can end it then when it sets again. The time you set aside is in your control and in your hands. There are times that you find it convenient, profitable even to go into a Sabbath, perhaps on a Friday sometime, maybe in the morning after breakfast, to start a fast and break it the next morning after you’ve passed a period of 24 hours. So again, it doesn’t matter.

Someone asked here recently about, “Is it okay to fast on the Sabbath?” That shouldn’t be your primary time of fasting, understanding that we have called fasts in the Church on the Sabbath. Sometimes people have had ideas about, well, it’s supposed to be a feast day and so you shouldn’t fast. Well, we’ve gone through that a long time ago, that no, not on the high days. We haven’t done that on high days that I know of. But on a weekly Sabbath or something like that, a part of it or all of it, if it’s called for especially by the Church, then we do it. But again, what’s better than a spiritual, if you will, spiritual meal in a fast? Because that’s what it is. It’s drawing closer to God. That’s what it’s all about, a feast spiritually.

So again, when you choose to do so is your business. It’s between you and your God. Balance in some of those things, but that’s when we’re going to do it as a Church. So you pick your own time, your own 24 hour period. Again, I shouldn’t have to go through all the things again – if you’re elderly, if you have diabetes, if you have different things wrong with you, you can’t do it. There are certain medications you have to have because they’ve been prescribed to you and you know that it affects your heart, your heart rate, whatever it might be, be some of you who shouldn’t be without them, a little bit of water to get it down. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy on the spiritual part of a fast even at that. Unless there is something you have to have as food or food at certain times.

I shouldn’t have to go through those things. It’s a spirit and an attitude. It’s about setting aside time, especially if you can’t do certain things to be more involved in turning to God on that particular day than on any other day, as a whole, during the week or the month, whatever it might be.

So again, it’s a Church fast.

Joel 2:21—Fear not, O land; but be glad and rejoice, for the Eternal will do great things! Awesome verse, if we understand what is being said here. Because that’s what it’s about. We just live at a time in history where God is going to bring everything to a head. Everything about judgment that’s going to come upon mankind after 6,000 years, we happen to live in that age. And I, candidly, wouldn’t have wanted to live in any other age. I’m so thankful to be in this age no matter what we go through. Again here, it’s a matter of spirit and attitude toward God.

Verse 32—It shall come to pass that whoever calls upon the name of the Eternal shall be delivered. Isn’t that amazing? Escape, be saved. For us in the Church we understand what that means. For some in the world, even there it has to do with more of a physical thing. But for us it’s very much about something to do with salvation and a matter of looking to God and understanding the importance of humbling ourselves before God.

So I hope we put this in the context of everything I’ve talked about today, about not sinning before God, of wanting to conquer sin, of overcoming every sin in our life, to be right, to be sound, to be cleansed, especially as we’re approaching Passover period and days of Unleavened Bread, to start thinking about those things now. This is a good time to do that, to humble ourselves before God and to be honest with ourselves about what we’re sinning in and the kind of thinking that’s not right in our minds and ask God to cleanse our thinking, to help us, to change us, to help us to be in unity and oneness with Him.

For in Mount Zion—who is this about?—and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance... It’s the way it’s been for a long, long time. That’s where God gives deliverance, and if we have opportunity to be a part of that, we can have it, we can receive of it. God’s made it possible for us. It’s right in front of us. ...as the Eternal has said, and in the remnant whom the Eternal shall call. It may have a whole lot more meaning for us. It has a great meaning, hopefully.

So we’ll follow up, that Part 2 next Sabbath, when you’re in your homes.

[1] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/market-massacre-oil-crashes-30-dow-down-1000-points-vix-explodes-es-craters

[2] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/european-stocks-crash-most-lehman-enter-bear-market

[3] https://www.zerohedge.com/health/pentagon-deploys-troops-california-border-block-surge-possibly-infected-migrants

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[5] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/russia-passes-bill-allowing-putin-to-stay-in-power-past-2024_n_5e68acfdc5b68d61645d61fe

[6] https://globalnews.ca/news/6660863/who-coronavirus-pandemic/

[7] https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11147867/coronavirus-patients-die-hours-no-symptoms/

[8] https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/opinion/france-germany-hopeless-europe/

[9] https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/germans-and-americans-worlds-apart-on-security-issues-new-study-finds/

[10] https://www.euractiv.com/section/defence-and-security/news/eastern-europeans-want-more-eu-funds-for-military-mobility/

[11] https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/coronavirus-music-madonna-miley-cyrus_n_5e675142c5b6670e72fdfc9d?ri18n=true

[12] https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/russia-says-it-can-weather-25-oil-10-years

[13] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stocks-bond-yields-are-crashing-after-trump-announces-eu-travel-ban

[14] https://abcnews.go.com/Business/futures-trading-temporarily-halted-prevent-free-fall-dow/story?id=69554569

[15] https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/disruptive-coronavirus-torpedoes-global-shipping-200226150548601.html

[16] https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-03-07/la-fi-coronavirus-ports-california-economy

[17] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/market-broken-why-nobody-trading-any-more

[18] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/two-more-problems-bulls-market-liquidity-and-short-interest-are-all-time-lows

[19] https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/13/coronavirus-why-does-germany-have-so-few-covid-19-deaths